Let’s put it bluntly: current stockpile filters are inadequate/inappropriate.
Why?
The primary reason being: they seems to be put together hastily using the entity categories as groups etc.
Why is that bad? because stockpiles should be categorized by USE, not entity taxonomy.
e.g. “plant” category consists of fiber and herbs, without a way to properly separate them and allocate dedicated supply (so it is possible that one type which is more abundant will eventually use up all storage). Also, the location they are used may also be different. Putting stockpiles at each location and end up having the “wrong” type of plant resources will be a common problem.
Suggestions (mutually exclusive)
redo all stockpile groupings so that they are based on use. not taxonomy. The designer for this probably has to know gaming habits of all players to provide a good middle case that will serve most people.
simply put all existing possibilities into one big UI. (e.g. use some external script to parse all entity json and collect their categories etc and generate the stockpile ui automatically with each build, instead of having to manually maintaining it) to allow finest possible control as a workaround. Groups can still be there for those who doesn’t want fine-grain control (which can potentially be auto-parsed as well).
add in-game customizable filter using some expression language (predicate for storage candidates) instead of a simplistic tag/category method. (most flexible, but also most complex to implement, process and to use. most unlikely I think.)
One thing they could do is allow the manufacturer classes have their own stockpile zone (or be able to designate zones into theirs) that auto filters what they would use, along with having the generalized one we already have. The manufacturer zone could have a priority over the general stockpile and the general stockpile could act like a overflow.
best if the filters and priority are independent, so that players can combine their use in all possible ways, covering what you described.
I would suggest that we choose option (2) with super-fine-grain controllable filter as a base. Then orthogonally, allow stockpiles to have a simple priority so that those which higher priority are stocked first.
Then optionally, on top of that, possibly have convenience predefined filter sets that sets the fine-grained filters to what is usually used by some craft. (i.e. one button/check box that will set a series of other checkboxes for fine-grained control, without having to set them one by one, and yet allow the player to fine-tune as he/she wishes afterwards).
I agree with OP. The current system does not give you the kind of control you’d whant if you really want to streamline production.
For example: the “plants” filter is too broad, would be nice if you could separate medicinal plants and the fabric plants.
Also: allow players to use stockpiles as “feeders”, so a stockpile would be set to give resources to another stockpile, thus allowing the player to setup central stockpiles, who in turn give to other stockpiles as needed. For example: a main wood stockpile somewhere central in town, and then smaller stockpiles at the carpenters shop, the blacksmith, and so on. Perfect for players who wants to house every type of production in different buildings.
I second the oppinion that more / better stockpile / chest filters are needed.
It can be a royal pain, getting the right items stored in the right locations to shorten transporation traffic and improve overall goods transfer efficiency throughout the settlement.
I would strongly suggest taking a page from Gnomoria’s stockpile filtering system:
Keep the current groupings as they are, but convert them into a checkbox / treeview 'ish style layout, where we can individually under each grouping select a specific item to go into a specific stockpile or other container.
As OP has already pointed out, it would be better and less annoying having things filtered by their use, however not everyone has the same play-style. Allowing per item filtering would allow any player to pick his/her preferred filtering of goods going through the settlement.
