Ideas-Drafting?

Started by IdeaBoy, October 07, 2013, 07:36:23 PM

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GC13

Minor quibble: the Military tab would go on the right. That spot on the left is for stuff specific to one character.

All in all though, that's the kind of screen I'd like to see.

British


Spike

Quote from: Hypolite on October 12, 2013, 02:41:49 PM
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
This is the problem of not being able to play the game, and only watching videos.   :P  You can only see what the person who played did, and will miss things.  For example, I have never seen the "Soldiers need break" notice, and only caught that you could use the red icon on the info screen to draft/undraft recently.  I would say that I have less qualms about it at this point.

Quote from: SpaceEatingTrex on October 12, 2013, 04:17:00 PM
First step is to add a "Military'' or "Soldiers" tab to the interface:

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.

I do like the idea of some kind of Military Overview screen, where you can see everyone's combat stats, equipped weapons, and have the ability to change equipment or draft them, all in one easy spot.

British

Quote from: Spike on October 12, 2013, 07:32:12 PM
For example, I have never seen the "Soldiers need break" notice, and only caught that you could use the red icon on the info screen to draft/undraft recently.
You can check this video (from Blitzkriegsler), and if you wait until 13:00 or so, you'll notice the "Soldier needs break" text, thanks to Blitz missing the fact that the colonist was still drafted ::) ;)

Spike

Ah... it's way off in the top right, where minor notices are.  I don't think I've ever really looked at that corner in any video...  Considering the importance of it, that should be big glaring mid-screen message, or a dropping envelope.

British

Once you know it's here, I suppose you won't forget that easily.
It also provides informations when you hover above the messages, like the names of the colonists that are having a mental breakdown, starving, or whatever...

Spike

Quote from: SpaceEatingTrex on October 12, 2013, 04:17:00 PM
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:

Instead of that, how about another tab on the Overview screen, where you could view weapon skills, assign equipment, and draft some or all?  Something like this:

SpaceEatingTrex

Quote from: Spike on October 13, 2013, 03:49:23 PM
*a much better mock-up*

Looks good Spike! I do think the Overview screen is a better location (all I know of the interface is from watching LPs).

However, I do think there needs to be a militia system or a "Draft Equipped" button or similar. From what I've seen, there are a number of times players will want to draft multiple colonists. Letting them do so with one click instead of many seems like a worthwhile optimization.

British

Quote from: SpaceEatingTrex on October 13, 2013, 05:21:14 PM
From what I've seen, there are a number of times players will want to draft multiple colonists. Letting them do so with one click instead of many seems like a worthwhile optimization.
Since there's a hotkey for the drafting, maybe you can already select multiple colonists and hit the hotkey (or click the corresponding button).
Any tester to confirm or infirm that ?

GC13

Yeah, you can select and draft multiple colonists at once. However, some colonists don't like to fight so unless you can memorize who those are you're going to have to either needlessly expose them to fire or spend a lot of time going through your colonists seeing who can actually fight back.

Spike

#40
Right.  That's why I got to thinking about something like this.  On one tab, you can see skills (and maybe it would be better to show the number, that was a copy/paste job), who has equipment, and what equipment is unassigned.  You check everyone you want to draft (first column), click the "Draft" button, and they're all drafted.

Another thought to expand on the Overview window would be to add a "Prisoner" tab, so you could check the treatment options for everyone.

EDIT:  Like this.

starlight

Quote from: AspenShadow on October 07, 2013, 08:02:51 PM
Personally I like drafting pretty much the way it is, it's not hard to remember to turn them off so they can eat and sleep again after all and it stops people having colonists solely dedicated to soldiering/patrolling the base for the opportunity to kill a squirrel that strayed too close.
Fires get put out pretty sharpish even if someone isn't on the watch for them and raiders are polite enough to give you advanced warning in the current Alpha version lol

In Dwarf Fortress, you can have your militia train to improve their skills.
This would be good to implement otherwise people will start to prolong fights just to get their colonists trained up  in fighting skills.

Once you have that, then you will need a mechanism for colonist militia to eat / drink.
The DF solution is for them to have backpacks.
You might want to have a toggle for them to not eat / sleep / drink for when you are being attacked.

miah999

Interesting... if Tynan institutes a an actual military some of these mechanics could work.

I'd add that a true military should be based on Research, you can't make an actual army until you research things like:

Military Tactics, allows you to have permanently drafted soldiers that will eat and sleep, on a military time table.

Ruck Sacks, allow soldiers to carry food with them.

Etc...

Side note, right now you can improve a colonist shooting skill by shooting squirrels.


British

Quote from: starlight on October 17, 2013, 09:49:49 AM
In Dwarf Fortress, you can have your militia train to improve their skills.
This would be good to implement otherwise people will start to prolong fights just to get their colonists trained up  in fighting skills.
That shouldn't be a problem in RimWorld, as for the time being Tynan doesn't plan to have the skills' experience evolve drastically.
Yes, you do gain experience in a skill by using it, but the learning curve is slow, and the difference between one skill point and the next is minimal.
The idea behind this was, if I remember correctly, to counter the usual "train until you cap your skill(s)" issue.

AspenShadow

Quote from: miah999 on October 17, 2013, 10:05:38 AM
Interesting... if Tynan institutes a an actual military some of these mechanics could work.

I'd add that a true military should be based on Research, you can't make an actual army until you research things like:

Military Tactics, allows you to have permanently drafted soldiers that will eat and sleep, on a military time table.

Ruck Sacks, allow soldiers to carry food with them.

Etc...

Side note, right now you can improve a colonist shooting skill by shooting squirrels.

:'( :'( :'(  I'm noticing a pattern of animal sadism in this forum.

Also I believe Tynan has previously stated he's not keen on the concept of a dedicated military, because while the raids and combat is a fairly big part of Rimworld, he primarily envisioned it as a colony builder/survival game that would produce amusing and varied stories.
On a side-note, we could use some scripted events that add more emotional investment to individual colonists. If you can't love or hate or pick favourites among your little guys than the story suffers for it imo.