Merging Construction and Repair work types - should I do it?

[Apophis]

I would like to see the options Shinzy showed, especially with the manual priorities.

Usually I have more people on repairing than on constructing, as repairing should be done quickly to bring my defences back in shape. If they are not split up, I would have to micromanage their priorities every time I take a hit. So I wouldn't like losing the option.

Options like that could also be done for growing/planting, cooking/butchering, healing/operating/treating deseases, so it would allow for training a cook or a doctor.

[skullywag]

Something needs to be done to the overview screen. Im not sure what and i understand the want to noy have like DFS but its only gonna get worse. I say bite the bullet and come up with a better UI than a checkbox only grid.

[NoImageAvailable]

-snip-

This just gives me flashbacks of playing X games, just endless menus nested within menus within menus... considering that series was notorious for its hilariously bad UI I sincerely hope Rimworld doesn't go down that route.

[Darkhymn]

-snip-

This just gives me flashbacks of playing X games, just endless menus nested within menus within menus... considering that series was notorious for its hilariously bad UI I sincerely hope Rimworld doesn't go down that route.

I sincerely doubt RimWorld will ever reach the level of complexity and micromanagement that the X games prior to X:R had.

[huyderman]

I'm leaning towards merging them as well, I can't really remember having any colonists that are just one or the other. That said, an "advanced" mode or something for those who enjoy micromanaging might be nice.

[b0rsuk]

I'm leaning towards merging them as well, I can't really remember having any colonists that are just one or the other. That said, an "advanced" mode or something for those who enjoy micromanaging might be nice.

It's quite the opposite - more sophisticated automation lets you to do away with micromanaging.

I think Crafting category could be split into more stuff. Things currently falling into crafting:
- smithing
- tailoring
- stonecutting
- smelting
- machining

Smithing and tailoring is creating new items for colonists to use. Stonecutting is making construction materials, just like smelting and machining. How about this split:
Crafting: smithing+tailoring
Processing/Recycling: stonecutting+smelting+machining

There are other similarities.
Smithing and tailoring benefit from skill level, and train Crafting skill. They often make things for sale. Smithing and tailoring is mostly sitting at the table and using tools.
Stonecutting, smelting, machining don't increase Crafting skill (in alpha9), and I think they don't benefit from it. These actions tend to involve a lot of fetching materials and hauling produce to a stockpile.

[Daemoneyes]

I'm leaning towards merging them as well, I can't really remember having any colonists that are just one or the other. That said, an "advanced" mode or something for those who enjoy micromanaging might be nice.

It's quite the opposite - more sophisticated automation lets you to do away with micromanaging.

I think Crafting category could be split into more stuff. Things currently falling into crafting:
- smithing
- tailoring
- stonecutting
- smelting
- machining

Smithing and tailoring is creating new items for colonists to use. Stonecutting is making construction materials, just like smelting and machining. How about this split:
Crafting: smithing+tailoring
Processing/Recycling: stonecutting+smelting+machining

There are other similarities.
Smithing and tailoring benefit from skill level, and train Crafting skill. They often make things for sale. Smithing and tailoring is mostly sitting at the table and using tools.
Stonecutting, smelting, machining don't increase Crafting skill (in alpha9), and I think they don't benefit from it. These actions tend to involve a lot of fetching materials and hauling produce to a stockpile.

this a thousand times

[Benny the Icepick]

I'm intrigued by the calls to split out or diversify more activities.  It seems to me that if Tynan goes that route, he should transpose the Overview tab, with colonists on the columns and activities on the rows (that would also allow an incorporation of the EdB Interface, with each colonist represented graphically).

This would allow the activities to be grouped and clustered.  You could have Expand/Collapse buttons on functions like "Crafting" or "Agriculture" or "Emergency" or "Facilities," with subgroups like those described above.  Changing settings at the top level (with the groups collapsed) would change the priorities for all activities within the group.

It could turn into a nightmare as the game gets more complex, but would allow for some real fine tuning and automation.

[Arsonik]

Are people really feeling overwhelmed by the overview screen? Just turn off manual priorities if it is such a chore. Why take away functionality for those of us who are not lazy? No offense mean't to anyone here but if this is giving you a headache got forbid you ever have to work with Excel or a Spreadsheet of any kind in your lifetime..... The very first thing I do in a game is set manual priorities for my starting three with game paused. Every single colonist I get is specialized by priority levels. This seems to be the most productive way to manage my colonists I have found. Please don't remove this fine level control.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. As soon as the alpha is published merging these two activities I can practically guarantee someone would re-split them in a mod. Unless of course it is hard-coded in such a way that it can't be modded. Then I would be a little ticked.

[RemingtonRyder]

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. As soon as the alpha is published merging these two activities I can practically guarantee someone would re-split them in a mod. Unless of course it is hard-coded in such a way that it can't be modded. Then I would be a little ticked.

Wastelander added a new work type with his Mending mod, so adding back a removed work type should be possible.

[Kegereneku]

I vote, I see the result are 50-50.

(>__<)
I guess it won't help Tynan

Edit : (after reading the thread)
Myself I voted yes because I have no problem with it and work with only a dozen of colonist, plus if I have to rebuild while thing are still damaged I usually give a direct order.
But it could bother players with many colonists and installation, and now I think I should have voted no.

Do we really need as few task as possible ? Myself I do not change Colonists orders very often (it's the whole idea) and if I do it isn't hard to do. As long as the task are distinct enough it should be enough (but I guess it's the whole question)

[Shinzy]

I vote, I see the result are 50-50.

(>__<)
I guess it won't help Tynan

Quick! tip the scales to way or another! lest we risk Tynan going all hamlet
you all know where that leads!

well, all of you who have read your shakespeare!
I certainly haven't so I have been lectured about all that holding skull thing

[Boboid]

It's interesting to me that people are so divided, it's mostly not about the construction/repair debate it's mostly about the " Do you want a more complex interface " argument.


For me personally coming from Gnomoria it's really nice to have a colony management game where I can just sit down and play a new game without spending an hour setting up all of the professions required to play even 3 minutes of Gnomoria.

It's a combination of game difficulty, complexity, and interface complexity but it all adds up to a game that I don't have to keep footnotes to play.
For me Gnomoria for all its complexity has become very formulaic, I know exactly which professions I need to create, exactly what their priorities are, exactly when I need to create new professions ect.

As far as I'm concerned both games have sufficiently complex interfaces given the level of control and optimization required to play them.
Gnomoria has a zillion speciality jobs that you *really* need competent gnomes performing so it pays off significantly to specialise, and the game allows you to do so very accurately.
Rimworld has only a handful of true speciality jobs ( Mostly Crafting/Art honestly ) and -for the most part- allows you to prioritize accordingly, crafting is a bit of a mess at the moment but a player assigned bench priority system would probably fix that, maybe in addition to the skill lock system that's been modded in.

[SSS]

It wouldn't make a big impact on me if they were merged, but I'm leaning toward leaving them separate. Repairing is much more important than building when you have valuable already-constructed buildings at stake. Since I use manual priorities, swapping the two temporarily isn't a problem. Also, as others mentioned, repairing is a good way to increase the construction skills of a colonist with little skill points in that area, as well as a good job for slow colonists.

Although it's kinda nice keeping them separate as well, I think plant cutting and growing would be better off merged, if anything were to be merged. There are only rare points at which I wish to emphasize cutting over growing, and while during those times the distinction is useful, it tends to happen before I have a massive farm- and even if I do, by then I tend to have enough colonists to keep it from becoming a problem if I temp boost everyone's growing priority.

I would actually like to see crafting split (as someone before me mentioned) into crafting and processing. Crafting could be smithing and tailoring, and processing could be stonecutting, smelting, and machining. There's a big difference between processing raw goods and producing advanced goods, and I definitely want to keep my high-crafting colonists working on smithing or tailoring most of the time.

Allowing cleaners to water plants, and allowing them to haul objects within the home zone would be nice as well, since that's all part of making the colony look nice. (Hunters and constructors already get around the "can't haul" trait while constructing or hunting, so I don't see why that couldn't be allowed here as well.)

[Vexare]

It's interesting to me that people are so divided, it's mostly not about the construction/repair debate it's mostly about the " Do you want a more complex interface " argument.


For me personally coming from Gnomoria it's really nice to have a colony management game where I can just sit down and play a new game without spending an hour setting up all of the professions required to play even 3 minutes of Gnomoria.

It's a combination of game difficulty, complexity, and interface complexity but it all adds up to a game that I don't have to keep footnotes to play.
For me Gnomoria for all its complexity has become very formulaic, I know exactly which professions I need to create, exactly what their priorities are, exactly when I need to create new professions ect.

As far as I'm concerned both games have sufficiently complex interfaces given the level of control and optimization required to play them.
Gnomoria has a zillion speciality jobs that you *really* need competent gnomes performing so it pays off significantly to specialise, and the game allows you to do so very accurately.
Rimworld has only a handful of true speciality jobs ( Mostly Crafting/Art honestly ) and -for the most part- allows you to prioritize accordingly, crafting is a bit of a mess at the moment but a player assigned bench priority system would probably fix that, maybe in addition to the skill lock system that's been modded in.

Nice reflection / perspective from Gnomoria. I just started playing it and wow... they said it was Dwarf Fortress "Lite" so apparently I am a very lite-ended gamer in the micromanagement department. This brings up a very good question to Tynan though ... and it might help him decide whether or not to leave many of these jobs separate and thus more micromanagement potential, or to merge them and streamline things a bit:

Are you going for a Gnomoria or big brother DF game overall? If so, keep them separated and allow the player many layers of complex management. Ignore the comments from those who say it makes things too 'tedious' because obviously they (like me) have no idea just how tedious a game can actually make management for you. RimWorld is very easy compared to the true micromanaging games. I had no idea until I thought I'd casually pick up Gnomoria as a way to train myself to handle something like Dwarf Fortress. Obviously I was wrong. DF wasn't meant for mere human brains on my level.