Ideas to Improve Resource Movement and Trade Goods Managment

[grandad1982]

So I had a few ideas that would IMO improve how the flow of resources and how  trade goods move. I wondered what people thought of them and whether people had other ideas on the subject.

First off is my ideas for improving resource flow.

1. When a colonist is doing a job and they finish that job (growing, mining etc) they should load up on resources  from the job they just finshied as often they return to base empty handed.
2. There should be a rearrangeable hierarcy of goods to determine the preference for hauling them. I don't know if people played the first couple of Settlers games (this may have carried on after but I don't know) but they had a system where you could set the priority of goods transport, e.g. gold>wood>grain> could be changed to grain>gold>wood depending on what you needed most.

Now for some ideas for trade. Goods or stacks of goods, depending on how they are stored normaly, should have the option of being specifically desiganted as trade goods. These should then get hauled to a stockpile that has been specified as a trade stockpile (or better yet the beckon could automatically place a trade stockpile within its borders when placed). For example, In my freezer room I have excess potatoes that I want to sell so I click the stack and say that it is a trade item (T) a hauler will then come to take it to a trade stockpile (TS). This means I don't need to have priorties changed and have all of my goods hauled out of the freezer to the trade becon just to sell a few spuds!

If you want me to try and explain my ideas more clearly just ask! Also please share your ideas.

[Enjoyment]

O, playing RW I often catch myself on thought "the Settlers hauling priority system will fit perfectly here", but it's not the only solution, and Tynan could find his own, maybe much more elegant. We should hope.
And for the 1st idea - it was mentioned in almost every sugggestion/idea topic, but in fact it's not so easy. Cause miner and hauler is two different jobs. And when miner finish his current task he switches to another depending on his job-priority order, not on closest job.
So the solutin is rather not to switch finished worked to hauler, but to make some checks like:
Is pawn has empty hands -> is there a haulabe things near aside his current path-route -> is there a needed stockpile not far away of his destination point -> then grub those (F-word)ing 5 cloth to stockpile... As I can see it, not even imagine how easy/hard it can be done )

[JimmyAgnt007]

Could the finishing of a job trigger a max priority of hauling with the search range of a few squares.  But only trigger if the person isnt going to do more mining.  So they stop mining to go eat, triggers the hauling, they grab whats local, haul it back, then go eat.

[Enjoyment]

...and dies from starvation, hauling those 5 berries instead of eating...

[milon]

@Enjoyment, as of Alpha 9, eating is the highest priority over everything if the colonist is starving. 

I agree with the other posters.  Shouldn't be too hard to add an algorithm similar to this:

Trigger: When Current Job Completed
- If colonist going to walk more than 10 squares
- And if colonist has empty hands
- And if something within 5 squares needs to be hauled towards colonist's destination
Then: Haul it (all or part of the way)

[Enjoyment]

@milon, I read dev-log every day (most honestly about 20 times a day ), so i knew it. I just wanted to show, that hauling instead of eating is not really a good idea.
And I like yours part of the part of the way. Even if he (our hypotetical miner) couldn't make some haulers job entirely, he could make it easier at least.
UPD: But I don't really know, how compitable our theoretical triggers with game code)

[JimmyAgnt007]

I was suggesting that they haul on the way to get something to eat.  If they have to cross the map to get a meal then why not bring stuff with them.

[Enjoyment]

And that's exactly what i was suggestin'. At my 1st post here. I mean that check must work all the time, but not when some job is done... Every time the pawn able to haul make his route, and all checks comes to "yes" - he could haul something.

[JimmyAgnt007]

I agree, I was addressing your post about them starving instead of eating.  I think starving should automatically interrupt any task, even sleep.  I keep having to draft and dismiss people when they try to sleep while starving.  Also if they are starving and no food is available, they should auto harvest the nearest food source.

[milon]

But I don't really know, how compitable our theoretical triggers with game code

The trigger should be extremely compatible - I picture it as a "simple" code insert that comes right after deciding what the next job will be, but before exiting that block of code.

Actually creating and executing the hauling job would be harder.  You have to avoid too much recursion (or you consume too much memory and lag/crash the game). You have to avoid pawns getting stuck in add-on hauling circles and never getting the actual job done.  ("I can haul this part of the way.  Now I can go over here and grab this thing to take there.  But now I close to this other thing...")  Even deciding what constitutes a partial haul and where to drop the thing would be complicated.  Tynan could do it, but it may not be worth it (at least, for now) in terms of his time & energy, and it may not be worth it in terms of additional RAM/cycles used.

EDIT - Lol, yeah, Enjoyment basically said it in less words while I was typing the above. 

[Enjoyment]

Also if they are starving and no food is available, they should auto harvest the nearest food source.

I don't really know, was it added by Tynan or it's just my style of playing (I always use manual job priority and keep veg's farm closest to kitchen then fiber/decorative farm), but I already have this feature
And when my builder run out of wood he goes to closest market for "chop" tree, chops it and grab the wood to continue his work. Again, don't know why it is so...

[milon]

If you've properly set up colonist jobs and designated which trees to chop (or where to farm them), then yes, it can auto-run quite nicely. 

[Enjoyment]

And as for me, it's just for what manual job priority is done for )