Zone priorities

[jbox1]

Going off of my last zone restriction post, zone priorities allow the player to define priorities to zone, similar to with the work tab. Priorities would allow the player to have pawns prioritise working in certain areas (a chef cooking and cleaning the kitchen before cleaning anywhere else). Priorities can be assigned for each zone, including an additional zone representing everywhere else. Priorities would have the normal 1-4 values, as well as "disabled" and "strict disabled". Disabled areas will never be tasked, but colonists will still path through them. Strict disabled areas however can absolutely never be pathed through, restricting dangerous areas from use at all costs. If multiple zones with different priorities overlap, the lowest priority (including disabled and strict disabled) take precedence, except for the "everywhere else" zone. This is because a strict disabled zone likely has been assigned as such with good reason.

[Limdood]

I can't say I support zone priorities as you've suggested.  We already have work priorities, which are the sole determining factor of which jobs pawns do.  It's one of the reasons the game works - if something goes wrong, the rules are generally simple enough to pinpoint WHY it went wrong, and can almost always be tracked back to dumb luck (in the case of combat) or player error (whoops i forgot to restrict the animals, or whoops i still had smelt steel slag chunks on with no radius, or whoops all my pawns have patient set to a higher priority than firefighting). 

Adding a new layer of priorities would SERIOUSLY complicate both how the game assigns tasks to the pawns (which, admittedly, would be handled by the game after being programmed), and how that information is transmitted to the player.  It would require players to know exactly how work task priorities and zone type priorities interact in each situation, and constantly monitor a whole new priority system as well as the interaction between the new and old system.  Essentially you'd be multiplying the complexity and capacity for error in assigning work zones and priorities by 3 or more, and the complaints and difficulty that some people already have with the work priority system would skyrocket.

I definitely support the ability to select multiple "allowed" zones for each pawn from your previous suggestion, and I even like the "banned zone" idea of "absolutely do not walk through here under any circumstances unless drafted" - but IMO zone priorities would complicate a system that the game relies on being very straightforward.