Work and Restrictions

[CombatleaderZ]

I was thinking that maybe the work and restrictions tab would become one.  Instead of it being two separate ones, you would be able to fill in their schedule when you want them to work on something.  So if you have a miner, have him work for three hours, then do some crafting etc.  It might mean that you have to spend more time making a schedule for them, but if you for example want someone to do research before being a grower, and you decrease the priority of grower, but also want them to be a warden, it would get in the way of each other.  I hope you can understand what I mean. 

[Britnoth]

I think I understand.

You want an individual work priority list split up for every hour.

So 30 colonists. 24 hours a day. 20 types of work. 14,400 individual entries. Ummm...

[Fluffy (l2032)]

I can see the idea being useful, but the UI would be a mess, and the underlying system would need to be completely overhauled...

[CombatleaderZ]

So 30 colonists. 24 hours a day. 20 types of work. 14,400 individual entries. Ummm...

Well, you don't start off with 30 colonists but with 3, and most of the day they would be sleeping.  It wouldn't be 14400 of them that you would have to adjust in one go. 

And the tab for this could have a ledger at the bottom what you could click on, then add it into the time table.  It would probably cost a lot of programming.  At least I would think so, even though I haven't programmed before. 

[Britnoth]

You are not supposed to remain at just 3 colonists. 20 or 30 colonists is not unreasonable. Hell I once reached 14 colonists in just 60 days one game... and that was Cassandra; not even Randy!

Most of the day sleeping? With a good bed they should be sleeping 7 hours a day. so that is 14 hours of work checks. But it is not hard coded that everyone sleeps at the same time, or even that one colonists always sleeps at the same time for the same length from day to day. Try setting people to 'anything' for all 24 hours and see what I mean.

So you would need to be able to set work priorities for throughout the day and night. I stand by my 14,400 minimum estimate. 

[CombatleaderZ]

I never said you would stay at 3 colonists, but I understand your point, I just thought it would be nice if it was combined, but that's my opinion. 

[Toggle]

So an interesting idea, but it would require the extra coding because it couldn't replace the current system effectively, and then it probably wouldn't be worth the coding and maintence of having it up when it's only an option.

[CombatleaderZ]

Maybe have it as an extra option.  In the settings it could be something you switch on or off.  So that if you want have the old system, you just change it back, or if you want this one, you change it. 

[Toggle]

That's... literally what I just said and then said why it's a bad idea. It can't replace the current system effectively due to the work required, and Tynan has stated, he is not adding toggles. Adding a whole new secondary work system to toggle between, he has to do bug maintenance and code in the 2nd one and then make sure both work every time he updates. He won't do it.

[TLHeart]

Maybe have it as an extra option.  In the settings it could be something you switch on or off.  So that if you want have the old system, you just change it back, or if you want this one, you change it.

Tynan has stated before he will not implement toggle switches to change things like you want. Just not worth the program time, the coding overhead. He will not spend time trying to satisfy everyone, and end up with a game loaded with switches, that nobody wants to set up and play.

edit, dang zombie just a hair quicker than me.

[REMworlder]

It's an interesting idea, but I'm sure there's a more elegant way to implement it.

[tmo97]

I see what you're getting at, but if you simplify the equation, you'll see that what we actually need is AI with common sense regarding certain actions. I mean, do I first need to train my brain to understand a huge ton of micromanagement windows containing schedules and priorities before I can tell them it's a stupid idea to harvest everything in one go and leave it out at night in the rain? I understand a fair bit of the game is micromanagement, but this is going too far. I know you won't mind - some people just don't want a game to be just numbers and letters.

[Fluffy (l2032)]

Common sense is hard to nail down in an AI, especially one that doesn't have a dedicated supercomputer and machine learning algorithms backing it up. Pawn AI needs to be simple enough that it can be run for dozens of pawns simultaneously, which necessarily requires some simplifications.

That being said, I'm sure there's some room for improvement, so lets make a start. How would you have the harvesting job work? Try make it really specific, what actions should be done when, and under which circumstances. If I thinks it's doable, I'll make a modded jobdriver function and we can test it out.

[tmo97]

For starters, let's have a check that, when there's 500 potatoes lying on the field, all the growers and cutters decide to start hauling instead.

[Britnoth]

For starters, let's have a check that, when there's 500 potatoes lying on the field, all the growers and cutters decide to start hauling instead.

Then do that. No one is stopping you changing your colonists work priorities to haul above something else.

Imagine how frustrating the game would be if pawns just decided what work to do by themselves, totally ignoring their settings.