color code different order groups and display the last number it was before it updated so that way I can sort of guess which order goes to what thing I needed it for.
the idea is as you left click on each item, it will display the group the order is comprised of and the amount per the color group, if you then right click one of these, the main order is reduced by that number. what would make this really awesome is that for any single build it will have a unique color code so everything put in the queue can be traced back to that build.
this may be beyond modding ability, so I made it a suggestion thread.
right. the idea is to further merge items so that the list is not so long for those single craft items. the maintain item should definitely remain separate.
as far as crafting order goes, yeah I can see it being a problem when you craft 3 of an item while there are 5 more of that item requested in another build, but those first 3 were taken and installed into the wrong building so the order for that building would be pointless if you went from one set of building orders to another, rather than just ordering the items like vanilla does 1 item type at a time in the queue list. in other words, the order that the single item type is crafted in is not important. what is important is tracking if the building has need of that item in the queue anymore or not and updating it accordingly to ensure that the color group for each build is active in the queue while it is still requesting the item. now to do that means the items that have just been crafted need to be assigned to a build immediately. if there is an item available in storage then the crafter would need to subtract the number of unassigned items in storage and wait to see if they will be used or not, and if the number of items in storage is lower than the required number, then it will craft what is needed to fill the build order. assigning items that have just been crafted to a build makes sense for items that are not maintained, but causes problems for items you are building just for trade.
it may be simpler to introduce a new ui element that is specifically for choosing what you intend to do with the item you are crafting so that the path for the items is much more linear. this way you can choose whether the item will be used in a build, be maintained, go to storage, or be used in trade.
That’s assuming that the items to be crafted are there for a building, it’s entirely possible for the player to have added similar items to the crafting queue that’s for something else. Furthermore, the player may want their items to be crafted in a specific order for some reason, and having outside force disrupt this queue would also mess up their strategy and play style, which causes frustration on the player. I just can’t simply see this as not being unimportant.
When you say assigned to a build, do you mean that the crafted item will be reserved so that it cannot be used for anything but for that building? That’s something that has to be added, since the vanilla game (as far as I know) does not do this, it simply assigns the crafters to make the items that the build needs and just makes them, the items created will automatically be added to the build when the build requires them to be added, which prompts any of the hearthlings to place said item in the build.
For what you’re looking for is for the item to be placed in the build only if the build has reserved that item, this goes beyond just visualizing the items and changing the craft order queue. There needs to be new logic in the game that makes sure that not even the player can touch the item (whether to use or to sell) that was made for that one build, but then also remove that reservation on the item if the building has been prematurely cancelled/destroyed by the player before the item could be placed, in order to have the player be able to use it as usual.
As a design it’s a bit simpler and straightforward, not so much simpler in the implementation details. Since there must be a clear definition between what it would mean for the item to just go to storage vs is used for trading (for example). If there is no clear distinction when choosing between any of these, then it might be a cause of confusion for the player, so that’s also something to keep in mind.
I think you may have missed the concept that I am going for. Items that are not maintained would be grouped together under 1 icon, until all of that item is built. So yes in a way it could be disruptive if you intent to do 1 thing at a time. This is sort of the opposite approach, everything that is requesting the same item will get it at the same time, but only if the player queued up a lot of things at the same time. (ie all doors built at once before building all windows instead of swapping between windows and doors randomly queued up in the current system )In other words, its just an adjustment you would have to get used to. I mean the game does not handle building multiple things at once very well anyway.
The bonus of this would be that you could have a trade order grouped together with a build order, instead of having to manually move the order above the building orders like you would currently it would just do that order while its on that item. So if I place a trade order for doors, it groups it together under the same icon on the queue and does not require me to fiddle with the ui at all. (just set a priority for build orders or trade orders when crafting and the queue will do that section of the grouped orders under the same icon first)
I see your point tho, it could be optional and allow you to drag the icon from a grouped order onto the queue and make it a standalone order that you could then place before or after or do this before hand as another option when adding it to the queue.
Now of course you would still have to mess with the ui for very specific trade deals and single build orders but it will be much easier when the orders are grouped under 1 icon as the list won’t be as long. Modded games will still have longer lists, but this will help a ton.
Yes the idea is that you would have to designate items for specific uses and if the building is cancelled you would then be notified and could at that point designate them for a different use, be it trade or storage- in which case it could be used for the next build.
I still think this is a better alternative to cluttered queue lists that I have to sort through. This would take me directly to the items in question and maybe highlight them in a different color or put a border on them in the place item ui.
Another downside of making all the “item A” at once, before moving on to item B and C is that you might get a big pile of item A before starting to convert them into a smaller pile of B and then just a few C. It would take up unnecessary storage space, memory and probably processing power.
I would suggest that instead of grouping a set of varying items by color, they can be added as a row in the queue, with the one to the left being crafted first.
In a case like @Drotten’s mod, if item B requires 2 A and you order 3 B, then the row could still show 2 A and 1 B but also have something at the end of the row saying “loop 3 times”.
I like the thought of items being designated for specific uses. It might be good for performance that they don’t have to be considered for other tasks. It might also give the possibility to move items to the right place before they are actually needed.
instead of looping I don’t see why you don’t just automatically order the list so that the dependencies are at the top and those that require other crafted items are below. yeah it temporarily uses more storage, but it would do that only to fill big orders. I don’t see having big orders constantly so I feel like that may be a bit of over-planning for an extreme use case
the idea is if you are going to make a smart game go big, so yeah I do think it would be great if it took all these things into consideration and optimized things ahead of time in terms of moving items to where they are needed or the closest stockpile that can hold those items where they are most used.
I suppose it could be another option to complete all parent crafting orders before continuing the queued list. so it would be linear until it reached an item that requires another crafted item, and then it would craft all the dependencies to craft the parent item, either way as long as crafting is at 100% I feel like the list is working better than it is currently.
the problem I have with this is that it would be more confusing trying to figure out where you are currently at within the crafting queue and how to represent this on screen when parent items and their dependencies at the same time, but hey if it can be done in a way thats not too confusing I’m for it.
I guess it could be a collapsible list under the parent item so if you looked at the queue you would at least immediately see that its working on something to do with the parent item, and then you can expand it to look into the required crafting orders further to see the specific time you are currently working on.
so I guess this comes down to how you organize the list.
pinned crafting orders
these would be pinned to the top of the list. so your favorite potion, the next item to upgrade your soldiers, gourmet food. these orders would always be done before normals orders. this would be true if you set them to be constantly filled as well. so then you can order your queue in this way:
queued in order of available resources, so that even if you have something queued at the top of the list, but the resources are not yet available to use. it may be better for your crafter to spend their time crafting something in the middle or bottom of the list than hauling the materials need for the item at the top of the list so that your crafter is not essentially demoted to doing hauling jobs like a worker. the exception would be for pinned items - the hearthlings would intentionally seek to finish pinned items as they are the top priority. however, if they have resources to finish anything within the pinned constant fill orders- even if its not at the top of that list, they will still craft what they can before doing any hauling to fill the pinned orders before moving down the list of priorities. I think this will be a much better use of the crafters time.
*crafting things with available resources would only happen for parent items if the parent item can be completed with the available resources, so that you do not end up with an excess of unfinished “parts” in your inventory…
*if a pinned order requires the same resource as a non-pinned order that resources will be set aside to be used as soon as the resources are available to complete a pinned order.
pinned constant fill orders as resources are available
a. basic item
b. parent item if it can be completed
i. dependencies
pinned one time crafting orders as resources are available if resources are not required in #1
a. basic item
b. parent item if it can be completed
i. dependencies
one time crafting orders as resources are available if resources are not required in #1 or #2
a. basic item
b. parent item if it can be completed
i. dependencies
constant fill orders as resources are available if resources are not required in #1 or #2 or #3
a. basic item
b. parent item if it can be completed
i. dependencies
and within those would be parent crafting items with a list of dependencies on each one.
with this it should be rare to find your crafters hauling items, and instead they should be crafting things constantly, or as soon as the items are available to use, while being supplied by workers.
#1 the idea is this is for food, clothing, potions, armor, weapons, tools #2 for current task such as building #3 for player aesthetics/decorating or rare trading #4 bulk trading
