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Stripping bodies is currently a manual process, but cremation is automated. As I said here, if you're not seeing cremation happen, you don't have enough colonists set to crafting, OR those colonists have too many tasks checked on their priorities list that are a higher priority than crafting.

I like micromanagement in games like this, so I'm fine with the idea of specifying specific colonists to do specific jobs. Zones sound like an interesting way to handle this, though if used in excess could be confusing. I'll suggest an idea from another indie game called Banished where the player has the ability to drag out a selection box that bumps everything that selection box touches to the top of the queue (actually it bumps it up one step every time you drag, but I wish it just went to the top of the queue). In your case, you could drag over the cremation object so your crafters would prioritize its staffing over other crafting tables. Same with hauling, drag over the objects you want hauled first, and they go to the top of the list. You can even order the tasks somewhat with this method by dragging the priority box over objects in reverse order. Nice and simple with the player being in control without adding a lot more interface.

I've been trying to watch hauling priorities as they are now. Is it proximity of the colonist at the time they decide to start hauling or the order in which the player designated objects for hauling? If it's proximity, this priority drag system would have to override that.

You can control to a certain extent the ordering now with the use of the forbidden designation and how much you select to haul (for slag and rocks). The use-case that's annoying is if you have a good amount of objects set for hauling and a battle takes place or some other event. Removing forbidden from the bodies doesn't necessarily mean they'll be hauled before the previously selected objects. This forces the player to cancel those hauling jobs, which IMHO, should never be necessary. That's where a priority drag tool comes in handy.

[Opening the Bills/Storage settings through double click]

Few ideas coming from me being lazy =P

I wouldn't call it laziness, but efficiency. A more intuitive interface leads to more player efficiency and concentrating on the game.

Opening the Bills/Storage settings through double click
This mainly because I still keep trying to do this after days worth of playing
and it never works =P
I find myself trying to double click the storage zones and cook stoves multiple times before I realize I have to go click on that button on the down left corner =P
I don't know why I keep doing that

Clicking the button doesn't really bother me, though I wish it were bigger since it's the only one. I'd agree with this, but clicking multiple times is also a way to select multiple objects in the same space. This could lead to some problems.

Growing zones showing all the options for different plants to grow
as you place the zone down!
This is just me with planting the flowers one by one
so it would be lovely to be able to pick what you want to grow as you put the thing down
rather than having to click the zone again and then selecting what you want to grow

Your use-case is probably one that hadn't been considered since larger fields were probably what was envisioned. I'm indifferent on this one since I only make fields. Not sure how the current interface would support choosing that ahead of time.

Auto-pause during alerts
I think this was suggested already but it was from last year or so
so I thought I'd just write it down with all the others =P
Anyhow! an option for the game to automatically pause
when you get red / yellow / blue alert messages
you could ofcourse choose individually which alerts get paused
you don't really need the game to pause on yellow and blue ones but
options are nice!

it's just when you're playing on max speed and get that immediate attack and only notice it when the pirate band waltzes across your screen
and at that point it's really really late to start ordering people to take defensive positions =P

Agree that options are nice. I'd personally prefer the game to just go down to regular speed, since I'd fine the pausing annoying. Hence options keep everyone happy. Your full-game speed scenario with a message that you're under attack is quite valid, and something should be done eventually.

Rewiring objects!

Don't you just hate it how your lamp links itself on that single door that isn't connected to the power grid?
=P
so I'd like you to be able to either reconnect where the object draws power from
or have a tool to remove the internal wiring from walls / doors if you want
and ofcourse place them back in
OR just have the object search for other power sources to link to automatically if it can't get power from the current one

I'd say this is coming in the near future with a switch power grid type button on applicable objects. Mantis Artifact ID 15 was recently updated.

Prioritizing fields
so you can prioritize your mr james the cropmaster to plant the potatoes first before going water the flowers and put down trees

This would be nice. Although we a few experienced planters, they'll power through everything in short time anyway.

Conditional Bills
Like 'hunt until X amount of meat in stockpile' (note not corpses but meat)
or 'Make X amount of meals only if the stockpile goes under X'
and like 'harvest until storage zone is full'

More options are definitely necessary in this area, but the current system is rather robust. By biggest issue is meals. I want to tell the cook to always have 8 meals of any type available, further specifying the priority of meal types which are really based upon cook skill and ingredient availability. You can achieve the priority aspect right now, but the meal count is specific to the meal type. Without micromanaging the bills, you'll wind up with 8 of each meal when I really just want 8 total.

Power shown with the resources
seeing the power generation up there with the other resources
would help with the planning alot, cause I can't really do the math
I have very slow mind for that =P
ofcourse you can pretty much see it from clicking the batteries
but still. Having it visible at all times is preferred, atleast for me

I'm a firm believer that the user interface of games like this should show all the pertinent data before being placed. Nothing should surprise you once the object is built. I'd also like to see some additional information exposed as well. For instance, the royal bed is better, but how specifically? The relevant stats should be visibile to the player so they can weigh the resource cost with the advantages.

Roof zone
I always have the need to create rooves (?) for sunlamps and other outdoor electrical gadgets
but currently you have to create entire room to get the roof spawn

so I'd like a zone to spawn roof if there's adequate support for it
like just build 4 corners
ofcourse you'd have to do something about it so you can't just drop endless amounts of roofs on raiders =P
but I still have the constant need for making the rain shelters for whatever reason
and it's not really ideal of building huge room and then deconstructing all the walls after

Agreed. Only thing you can do right now is make this area in question part of a much large room. You'll probably need some sections of all to act as supports.

If you want the bodies quickly removed, and want to avoid setting manual priorities for all your colonists, you need to ensure those able to craft have no other higher priority jobs popping up. If you're right clicking and forcing certain colonists to do a single job, and then they go off and do something else, that's a telltale sign that there's other higher priority tasks.

You'll need to either stop those other tasks, or uncheck some of these higher priority tasks for the colonists you want to craft. This way they won't be distracted by anything else. Selecting the colonists in question will identify what they're intending to go off and do, further helping you to uncheck the correct priorities.

Your second issue has been addressed. There are explicit options for friendly and foe.

0.5.492 rev33723

I was conflicted, but I stopped short of calling this a bug and placing in Mantis; I'm treating it more like a feature request for now (feel free to move around as necessary).

Along the lines of some recent threads (one and two) it can a bit cumbersome to keep non-drafted colonists out of harms way during battles. I noticed yesterday that metal from a destroyed enemy mortar draws out hauling colonists who walk unarmed directly into the enemy siege camp trying to retrieve the metal. This obviously leads to some problems. The player must notice this situation and mark the metal accordingly.

Requesting small change to have any object like this in the enemy camp default to forbidden. The player can then choose to remove the forbidden designation once the coast is clear.

Note that setting the enemy mortar to forbidden before being destroyed had no effect.

Certainly agree that this screen needs some additional features to properly manage a larger colony. This is especially so in crisis situations when you need access to certain colonists with certain skill sets.

I'll also link my related thread for additional enhancement ideas. Essentially it would be nice to save/load certain configurations of priorities and even have some occur automatically such as emergency situations.

Agreed. I put some of my ideas down in this thread which originally mentioned the concept.

I haven't tried, but at a minimum you'd probably need the clothes brought into the cell. This could be accomplished with a high priority stockpile just for clothes in the cell. Then it's just a question of whether you can right click on clothes with the prisoner selected. Give it a try, and let us know!

Regardless, if they stay sane for the first day or so of captivity, they should have enough social "convinced by warden" to easily overcome any smaller mood hits like being naked. In fact, this mechanic seems rather overpowered at the moment (look at my screenshot above). The warden could shoot the prisoner every other visit, and they'd still be happy.  All you can do at the beginning is ensure their accommodations are nice with plenty of space and light, and consider cooking some better meals so they are served to the prisoner in question. You'll need to bridge the mood gap until the social bonuses come in.

Once they join the colony they can celebrate clothes once more, or until Tynan implements this functionality for prisoners.

What is everyone's thoughts on buying slaves for the colony? I was personally surprised that a newly bought slave from a slave trader becomes an immediate member of the colony. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to enter the colony as a prisoner first? The player can choose to take care of them and convert them like any other prisoner, and I'd assume their conversion difficulty would be relatively low. In addition they can arrive in restraints to the orbital trade beacon like other traded merchandise (that sounds so wrong) instead of just appearing in the colony like they've always been there.

I suppose you could argue that they're happy and ready to work since you just saved them from being aboard a slave ship, but there does seem like there should still be some transition into the colony.

When selecting the prisoner ensure the "try to recruit" is checked. Also, and I believe most importantly, ensure that the prisoner is setup to receive some conversation from the warden by selecting appropriately on the same screen. The prisoner's mood will soon be the highest in the colony from the constant "convinced by warden" modifiers. These modifiers even persist for a while after the prisoner is successfully recruited. Not sure if that's a bug (click to enlarge).

I have no issue with dimmer "night lights," but it doesn't address the other power hungry items around the base that are sitting on all night, every night (and even during the day not being used). At the moment, it doesn't seem like sleeping colonists even care about the lighting situation, so I only put lights in bedrooms for my own aesthetic reasons right now. Other than the mood hit a colonist experiences from the door to the bed, there's no point at the moment. Even then being "in darkness" is a -3 hit.

For the non-light items, I'd say a simple solution would be for them to only be "on" when they're in use. That certainly makes sense, and would yield large savings. You don't leave the stove on all day when you're not cooking. For lights, perhaps they only turn on when they would have an effect on someone, simulating a motion sensor.

Now that mortars & sieges have made an appearance in Alpha-5, what about forward observers to go with them? A search yielded only this result, but it's a very old thread in the context of air support, so I figured a new thread was best.

The whole idea of indirect fire (even in modern warfare) is to hit a target you don't have direct line of sight on. But how do you know where to shoot? The answer is usually a forward observer that:

• Reports the position of the target.
• Reports the hit locations relative to the target from a few initial shots.
• Reports when the initial shots have bracketed the target (a hit behind and in front for example).
• Recommends all mortars "fire for effect," which means they all fire at the same time to the same place. The accuracy is greatly improved because a few mortar rounds have been spend adjusting the exact firing angle and solution (calculated trial and error).
  
• Continues to provide feedback to the crews on the outcome of their shots.

Seems like the current accuracy of the mortar makes sense without a forward observer, and probably doesn't need to change. The player's colony and the attackers have a relative idea of where one another is, and start lobbing shells randomly. But what if a colonist can be turned into a forward observer to greatly improve accuracy against a specific area? This would open up a new layer of strategy, and be another reason to send out some recon colonists.

I would think drafting a colonist as a FO would enable them to designate a target within their FO sight radius. As long as they're present, mortar rounds should become increasingly accurate over time. While the "fire for effect" would be neat, it wouldn't be necessary for the initial implementation (or at all).

I suppose the enemy could do the same, but then again, I'm not sure they need to be much more accurate. The players' bases are usually large enough that most shots will hit something.

I posted this elsewhere on the tester forums. Thoughts?

A quick fix may be for a roof to block incoming projectiles at the expense of damaging the walls supporting that section of roof. When the damage piles up, and if left unchecked, the roof falls creating more damage and leaving the area open to traditional attack (the projectiles can come through directly). The basic components are already there since roofs are aware when their support is removed. Same system really, just reversing the relationship and having the roof, when hit, damaging its supports. This can apply to both man-made and natural supports, with mineral rocks becoming damaged the same way (as if they were mined perhaps). At least in the short-term, this allows roofs to still remain transparent to the player.

I was going to start a new thread, but this is very related.

Very small request: Add a few headings for the classes of weapons for the equipment racks, along with an overall "weapons" top-level heading (just like the stockpile zone). With this small feature, the player can quickly select/deselect groups of similar weapons or all weapons with one click.

The first equipment rack I usually build I only want guns (EDIT: meant to say pistols here) placed on it, with the intent of any excess going to another stockpile (of lesser priority) for eventual selling. When setting this rack up, however, I have to manually deselect all the other types of weapons. Lots of clicking when it would be better to simply deselect "weapons" at the top-level heading and have all weapons be deselected. From there I'd just select what I want. Plus, we have this feature already with all other items on the other stockpiles for weapons.

I also agree with Evul's suggestion that it would be nice to change equipment racks together as groups. This would be essential if equipment racks become the only way to hold weapons. Not sure if that's the intent, but it would certainly make equipment racks have a definitive use.

I came here to suggest exactly the same thing, so I thought it best to bump this thread rather than create a new one.

Before searching, I was planning to hit the suggestions forum with a concept for circuit breakers. Same singular power lines, but essentially having a circuit panel item and the ability to designate electrical devices to be in groups that can be turned off together. When an event takes place that requires power to be conserved, it would be nice to hit a few switches to set the electrical connections up accordingly. As was said, manually going around turning devices and lights off in a large base can be quite tedious.

I see some much better ideas in this thread, however, with power conservation being an automated process either by colonists having power conservation awareness turning devices off or automated to even the colonists with sensors etc. It only makes sense that colonists in a strange place would have powered devices active only when needed. You certainly wouldn't leave the cook stove, slag refinery and all lights on all night draining away on those batteries.

-Colonist who are incapable of violence seem to have no trouble manning a mortar and blowing raiders to smithereens from across the map. "But the explosion makes them splat, not me." XD

Judging by past precedence (Mantis Artifact IDs 356 and 769), I'd say this would be considered a bug. I haven't reproduced this myself so I'll hold off on writing it up for now.