Ideas-Drafting?

[Hypolite]

Actually, there is a notice when a colonist has been drafted for a while. It's about sleep deprivation and starvation, which are strong motivation to free said colonist from military duties.

[British]

It's about sleep deprivation and starvation (...)

Or it's simply about obedience:

YOU DON'T MOVE UNTIL I SAY SO !!!

[AspenShadow]

Seeing as the main reason for this command isn't to designate them as a solider but to take personal and complete control of their actions, I don't think them disobeying based on morale would work out. Certainly with automated tasked colonists which is already being implemented I think, but not with the button you rely on to save your butt from raiders. It would just annoy people.

While I really like the idea of patrol routes; don't know why maybe it just calls to the military-school-type in me, I can't get behind it unless it can do something a colonist wandering the home zone or a drafted soldier can't?

[Hypolite]

My ideas why RimWorld doesn't need patrols:
- There's no fog of war, so no surprises a patrol could foil
- Fire is automatically taken care of by any colonist
- Colonists fight back when attacked by mad wildlife, and only muffalo are a serious threat to a single colonist
- You can choose not to arrest mentally broke down colonists
- Colonists in general have better uses (haul, clean, etc...) while not drafted/soldiers

[enystrom8734]

Or you can simply have your colonist disobay when their "moral" is not high enough, for example when they are missing sleeping time or feeding.

My ideas why RimWorld doesn't need patrols:
- There's no fog of war, so no surprises a patrol could foil
- Fire is automatically taken care of by any colonist
- Colonists fight back when attacked by mad wildlife, and only muffalo are a serious threat to a single colonist
- You can choose not to arrest mentally broke down colonists
- Colonists in general have better uses (haul, clean, etc...) while not drafted/soldiers

I do like the current way drafting works. It is the COs responsibility to tell them what to do...

However what Zeiph suggest is a great idea. What if you leave them drafted for too long? They could either ignore a direct order or undraft themselves. If they undraft themsevles, you can't draft them again for x amount of time period.

This I would enjoy. Colonist standing in rain for long time drafted? Big up yours and bye bye soldier duty. Let me relax and do NOTHING while my friends get beat up. Could end up in some really interesting stories...

[IdeaBoy]

Then their should be an option for fog of war for the patrols to be effective and flood lights and cameras and all that surveillance stuff and there would be no warning of raiders or wild animals on the map.

[Spike]

True.  However, Tynan commented on that over in the Uncertainty Veil (Fog of War) thread.  Basically, it would take him a lot of work to implement in a workable manner.

[SpaceEatingTrex]

So here's one thought for Tynan.  At the very least, a visually distinctive notice for the player that a colonist is drafted.

I like Spike's idea of making the Draft button more visible when a colonist is drafted, though the specific implementation should fit well with the visual themes of the game.

While I was watching an LP, I noticed the player had to look for which colonists had guns and draft them individually. I think being able to choose soldiers in advance and draft them all at once might be useful functionality. Here's a mock-up (thanks for the image Spike!):



Elsewhere in the interface the player would have a "Draft all Militia" button. Then players could get all the soldiers they want with one click.

For people who are already playing the pre-Alpha, does this seem like something you would use?

[GC13]

It would be amazingly useful, and I've already suggested something functionally similar: the ability to draft and select all colonists with weapons.

Next up would be a screen that displays all of my colonists' shooting skills and what gun they had, but I can wait for that one. ^_^

[Spike]

It would be amazingly useful, and I've already suggested something functionally similar: the ability to draft and select all colonists with weapons.

Next up would be a screen that displays all of my colonists' shooting skills and what gun they had, but I can wait for that one. ^_^

I tossed the idea up in the Cheapest Ideas thread, but...
* Modify the Overview window so that it also shows what weapon the colonist is equipped with. (mouseover shows skill)

Actually, it seems like the Overview window might also be a place with a Draft toggle.  Checkboxes, Draft/Undraft All button, Draft/Undraft Selected button.

[GC13]

The weapon on the Overview screen wouldn't help me much (unless you could draft from it). I just want to make sure my best fighters have my best weapons, and it's too hard for me to remember who I've already checked so a single screen would make my job so much easier.

[British]

So here's one thought for Tynan.  At the very least, a visually distinctive notice for the player that a colonist is drafted.

Thinking back about this... there *is* a quick way to find out a colonist is drafted by clicking on him (no need to go through the "Work" menu):


If this icon is red like this, that colonist is drafted.
You can (could ?) even click on this button instead, or, even better, use the shortcut.

[Spike]

So here's one thought for Tynan.  At the very least, a visually distinctive notice for the player that a colonist is drafted.

Thinking back about this... there *is* a quick way to find out a colonist is drafted by clicking on him (no need to go through the "Work" menu):


If this icon is red like this, that colonist is drafted.
You can (could ?) even click on this button instead, or, even better, use the shortcut.

Yeah, I actually did see that in some of the recent videos from either Christonian or Blitzkriegsler.  When I first saw that part of the interface on the early videos, I thought it was a melee weapon equipment slot, since the ranged weapon slot was next to it.  I still think that kind of functionality (and weapon equipping) from the Overview list might be nice, if it'd be possible.

[Hypolite]

There are actually many ways to recognize drafted colonists:
- Their name is underlined
- They don't move at all (idle colonists will walk randomly)
- The red icon in their info screen when selected
- The "Soldiers need break" notice which center the map over the drafted colonists

[SpaceEatingTrex]

Here's an idea that seems relatively easy to implement and should give players a user-friendly interface for soldiers.

First step is to add a "Military'' or "Soldiers" tab to the interface:



This tab would open a menu that would allow players to draft multiple colonists and change equipment. Here's a mock-up:



This displays each Colonist and their combat relevant stats (right now Shooting and Hand-To-Hand). The Militia checkbox would just be a simple boolean flag that lets players draft core soldiers with the "Draft Militia" button. GC13 had mentioning wanting to make sure the best soldiers are equipped with the best weapons, so if we can give the players the ability to assign a new weapon on this screen (a "this colonist" go equip "this weapon" function) that would be great.

Does this seem like something that would be helpful to use?