Community, tell me your usability stories!

[Tynan]

Let's keep on topic please. Thanks.

[Splinterbee]

In the most recent update I've noticed when people are hungry they won't get food unless you force them too. When I run out of food and have wild plants for them to cut they ignore them and die unless I force them to cut the plants. Wish they were smart Enough to get food when there hungry in any way Even if it's not lying around 

[bluntfeather]

I don't know if it's been addressed but on day 118 or so I seem stuck at about 8 colonists. I had two prisoners with full loyalty+happiness for a long time with chats and food and the recruitment options enabled. After that didn't yield anything the beatings started and then they were at full fear+loyalty and that didn't work out either. So execution it is! Pretty funny that the colonists just go up and death touch the captive. An elaborate executions mod anyone? Also I know there is a limit to the number of colonists but I think I saw a picture w/ like 80 or so, and I definitely don't have that many.

The other thing I imagine has been brought up is the sometimes odd pathfinding where a colonist will take a longer route than necessary. One clear instance was when I was ordering a path through a mountain a ways away, which already had a path created going in but this one was a shortcut into the mountain as it was closer to the base. The colonists would sometimes go through the other older and longer path instead of the shorter one. If I recall right, they didn't pick anything up they were just taking a longer route.

[Monkfish]

I read here somewhere that corpses also count towards the total pawn count, so if you've got a shitload of graves full of bodies, that's likely the reason you couldn't recruit more.

I've also noticed odd pathfinding issues. Not sure what the cause would be, but it's a bit frustrating sometimes to see a colonist off for a leisurely stroll around your compound when there's a far faster route available.

[OnyxShadow]

Expanding on the pathfinding: one of the most noticeable instances of this is when I assign mining a line between two areas. Colonists will mine one segment of one side, walk around to the other side and mine a single tile, walk back around and do another single tile, and so on. Hopefully that helps identify the underlying cause.

[OpposingForces]

First usability issue i've noticed is the lack of feedback and/or transparency when it comes to why things are or aren't working. such as why isn't my wall getting built? after fiddling with priorities for awhile i figure out that i haven't got enough stone bricks. why isn't anybody making stone bricks? oh, there's not any stone debris close enough for what's set in the bill.
Second issue i've noticed is the lack of info for weapons. the only place to get detailed stats for the weapons is in the info tab in the coms station when a weapon / slave trader comes through. it'd be nice to have an info tab above it's basic info pane in the bottom left corner.

[Skaven252]

It would be useful to make the survival meals stackable, so that colonists could haul more than one them at a time, and they wouldn't occupy so much space in the stockpiles. Since they're packaged, it makes sense that they'd be stackable (as opposed to cooked meals).

I currently have a pile of survival meals on the opposite corner of the map, left behind by raiders I managed to defeat. None of my colonists have the skill to cook fine meals, so they prefer walking across the map to eat the survival meals and end up "urgently hungry" by the time they get there. I've tried to get them to haul meals back to the colony as they go eat, but that's a bit micro-managey.

No, I don't have the heart to forbid the survival meals since it still makes the colonists happier than simple meals.

[Halinder]

A major issue I had regarding cooking and something to do with a mod (ignoring that since it's not part of core gameplay however) is that you must build worktables with space for colonists to stand. The game is good at preventing this by not allowing you to build with walls covering those spaces to stand on, but somehow a rock chunk got in the way and no one wanted to cook. Anyone else have this issue?

[Shinzy]

A major issue I had regarding cooking and something to do with a mod (ignoring that since it's not part of core gameplay however) is that you must build worktables with space for colonists to stand. The game is good at preventing this by not allowing you to build with walls covering those spaces to stand on, but somehow a rock chunk got in the way and no one wanted to cook. Anyone else have this issue?

You'd be surprised where loose rock chunks can be found at!
the rock chunk fairies keep dropping their loads at most inconvenient places =P
Anyway your colonists can't stand on the same tile with rock chunks
the boulders act like sand when there's any sort of mining and building happening

so if you built your house around the oven one of your constructors really helpfully hauled the stone on the way of the oven (maybe he got little too fed up eating potatoes every day)

also I've had tree grew in front of my mortar once =P have been tiling the floor under after that 

and one of my colonists got denied access to his bed after senor Saguero Cactus found really really nice spot to chill right in front of the door to his apartment

[UrbanBourbon]

- I believe my biggest annoyance still is that you can't order multiple colonists to attack the same target, not conveniently anyway. You have to issue the attack order one colonist at a time.

- I would like to know if anyone in my colony is unarmed. Possibly mark it in the name list in Overview?

- Speaking of which, getting that list in alphabetical order would be nice. Unsorted name list is a problem in large colonies. Various sorting methods would be cool, too.

[Shinzy]

- I believe my biggest annoyance still is that you can't order multiple colonists to attack the same target, not conveniently anyway. You have to issue the attack order one colonist at a time.

- I would like to know if anyone in my colony is unarmed. Possibly mark it in the name list in Overview?

- Speaking of which, getting that list in alphabetical order would be nice. Unsorted name list is a problem in large colonies. Various sorting methods would be cool, too.

You can order your colonists to attack same target
draft / select all / right click on target -> red X appears and they start shooting
or did you mean with the mortars? cause that's annoying =P

and I have to agree with you on the other two, my hunters keep starting to hunt muffalos with their fists after being incapacitated and lost their weapon which results them into getting the colonist needs help pop up =P
and there they are lying incapacitated half way across the map.
also caused some inconveniences at beginning of battles when I notice I have several unarmed people drafted and all ready to go

[Bog]

I had a minor one the other day. I had a colonist who was building a wall defend a valley that lead to the edge of the map. I left the wall with a 1 wide hole in it.

Suddenly I had 1 idle colonist, and a bug report popped up that had to do with a person not able to do jobs. I clicked on the idle colonist notification, and it send me to the colonist on the other side of the wall, and she was just standing there.

I drafted her, make her walk 2 steps and drafted her. She sent idle again and the bug report popped up again. I checked her job overview, and she had plenty of things activated. For example, she had plant cutting activated and there were oaks on the screen marked for cutting.

I kept trying a few different things for a little while, then found the problem. A new oak tree had started growing in the 1 wide gap in the wall closing off the little valley, and there were no available jobs for the colonist in the ~150 tile outdoor cell she was in.

It was an easy fix in game, I just marked the oak with the "Cut Plants" order and she happily went and chopped it down. I thought it might be good to figure out a way for the game to say to people that a colonist is "stuck" when they can't get to any of the available jobs.

[Sakata]

snip
I kept trying a few different things for a little while, then found the problem. A new oak tree had started growing in the 1 wide gap in the wall closing off the little valley, and there were no available jobs for the colonist in the ~150 tile outdoor cell she was in.

It was an easy fix in game, I just marked the oak with the "Cut Plants" order and she happily went and chopped it down. I thought it might be good to figure out a way for the game to say to people that a colonist is "stuck" when they can't get to any of the available jobs.

If the AI is blocked from 'home' zone, perhaps if there are small things like this in the way a bit of autonomy should be in order.  If I was walled in by a bush and was hungry, I'd cut the bush down and go eat.

[BetaSpectre]

The entire Socially Improper thing didn't make any sense to me for a while.
Also I hate it when a colonist decides to only haul 6 berries instead of 75 of them to a hopper.

[Rahjital]

Fortunately the 'socially improper' thing has now been renamed in the unreleased version, so that problem will be gone once the next alpha is released.

Hauling a few items instead of many is often a problem, especially since the colonists drop their load if you order them to prioritise to haul another, even if they could easily hold both..

Stockpiles that get frequently taken from, like food in a kitchen, often have a lot of colonists doing pointless hauling (eg a cook takes 5 potatoes from his stockpile, a colonists goes to resupply it, soon the cook is finished and takes another 5 potatoes and the colonist goes there again, etc.) A "Resupply when under x% full" option would be very helpful there.