Feature Request - Focus Build

[skunkmonkey]

I propose a force build area action. This would allow the user to click and drag a rectangle, and the colonist would then build everything within that rectangle before they decide to go off and do something less important.

Colonists have ADHD in this game. They start one project then move on to something else. If you force them to build something they will only build 1 tiny piece of the wall (or whatever) and then go off to meditate or something, and then the "forced" priority is forgotten.

Shift-Clicking is incredibly time consuming and frustrating. This would be a massive quality of life improvement.

[adobo]

Or just put construction as their highest priority. If you have psycasters, put their meditation focus target down or set their schedule to Work.

You know, use the tools the game has.

[skunkmonkey]

Construction as highest priority doesn't solve the problem either, though I find myself frequently resorting to this as a poor substitute. What is really needed is a way to prioritize within a category (ie: I've marked a bunch of mines, but I want you to work on this mine first)
Right now all we have are ghetto workarounds. I have been waiting for this feature since beta first came out. I assumed it was always planned for 1.0, so I patiently waited, but when it never came I was left mind boggled. How has this oversight been allowed to continue for so long? It's a huge quality of life issue

[Jigain]

Zone them to only that area. You're asking for a vanilla feature. :)

[adobo]

have you tried not actually put new mine orders that you don't want? They can't mine an area you don't want to mine yet by not letting them have access to those mines.

if you want them to build walls first before all the furniture, you can put down the walls and let them finish the walls first.

[Astasia]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Zone them to only that area. You're asking for a vanilla feature. :)

Literally. And it works just like proposed. Click and drag an area box, assign them that area, the colonist will only work in that rectangle. Done.

[ichifish]

Originally posted by Astasia:

Originally posted by Jigain:

Zone them to only that area. You're asking for a vanilla feature. :)

Literally. And it works just like proposed. Click and drag an area box, assign them that area, the colonist will only work in that rectangle. Done.

Zoning in can require a significant amount of management from the player. You have to create a new zone that includes access to the building materials (and maybe you’re at 10 zones already), decide which pawns you want to do the work, check whether it’s a good time to zone them in there (they might be a night owl, eating, resting, loving, puking, on the other side of the map, etc.), then remember to zone them out of there when they finish, get tired, get hungry, etc. It’s especially irksome for big / distant jobs like monuments or when the building materials aren’t consistently available.

I’m not too bothered by them dropping jobs, but I agree with the OP that being able to prioritize certain jobs by selecting them would be helpful, like a generic “imperative” button that applies to anyone scheduled to that task, or a tab that lists bills that you can reorder. In effect I want to tell them “as soon as x resource is available, do y, but until then do anything else on the list.”

This would also be helpful to prevent resources from being used up on less imperative jobs that are farther up the queue.

[Astasia]

I mean you either have something you want done now as an emergency and none of those things really matter, you assign them to the work area and schedule them for work and they get it done regardless of their mood or whatever else they are doing. Or you manage your task assignments better. You shouldn't really have build orders active all over the map if you just want one thing done right now. You create orders as needed to keep your colonists working efficiently.

You can also just use the forbid tool to pause other build orders, which is the inverse of what is being asked for and potentially even easier to do than an area assignment. Having yet another method of doing the exact same thing just seems highly redundant even if it's a couple clicks faster.

[LIMP BISQUICK]

I forbid the blueprints I don't want them to focus on. You can either double click the buildings to autoselect or simply drag the forbid command. I don't think I would ever use zones for this, maybe If I have whole base planned out in blueprints? Not against such features being added but you're most likely just gonna have to play with how it currently works.

[ichifish]

Originally posted by Astasia:

I mean you either have something you want done now as an emergency and none of those things really matter, you assign them to the work area and schedule them for work and they get it done regardless of their mood or whatever else they are doing. Or you manage your task assignments better. You shouldn't really have build orders active all over the map if you just want one thing done right now. You create orders as needed to keep your colonists working efficiently.

You can also just use the forbid tool to pause other build orders, which is the inverse of what is being asked for and potentially even easier to do than an area assignment. Having yet another method of doing the exact same thing just seems highly redundant even if it's a couple clicks faster.

OK, so explain how you would manage this:

Your eight-pawn colony took a quest to build a massive (4500ish resources) monument in exchange for an equally massive reward. You don't have enough blocks on hand and you can't wait until you have them all to start construction; you have to build as much as you can while you can before you inevitably get sidetracked. You also have lots of other stuff to build around your year-three base (using different resources) so as to not keep other pawns idle, and the monument is far enough away that you don't want to be walking back and forth any more than necessary. Your two constructors, one a night owl, have minor secondary jobs (mediation and milking), but otherwise can construct full time. You want them to:

1. Build the monument whenever there are blocks available

2. Build the other stuff when that's not possible

There's enough time to do both things, and there's plenty of need to have both things done simultaneously. I know because I just went through it. I also know that neither forbiding nor zoning were anywhere near adequate tools because in the end both of those required constant monitoring for almost an entire in-game quadrum. A simple "this building has priority" would have removed that entirely.

[Astasia]

I wouldn't get sidetracked and I would assign my builders bite-sized tasks around the base so that when they finished those projects there would be a decent amount of materials available to work on the monument. I certainly wouldn't have my builders running off with 20 stone every time it was cut just to work on the monument, that's a waste of time and what would be happening if you could "prioritize" that project. They'd work a little bit on a some wall or floor tile around your base, see there is a trivial amount of material used by the monument now available and run off to go deal with that.

[Jigain]

Originally posted by ichifish:

Originally posted by Astasia:

I mean you either have something you want done now as an emergency and none of those things really matter, you assign them to the work area and schedule them for work and they get it done regardless of their mood or whatever else they are doing. Or you manage your task assignments better. You shouldn't really have build orders active all over the map if you just want one thing done right now. You create orders as needed to keep your colonists working efficiently.

You can also just use the forbid tool to pause other build orders, which is the inverse of what is being asked for and potentially even easier to do than an area assignment. Having yet another method of doing the exact same thing just seems highly redundant even if it's a couple clicks faster.

OK, so explain how you would manage this:

Your eight-pawn colony took a quest to build a massive (4500ish resources) monument in exchange for an equally massive reward. You don't have enough blocks on hand and you can't wait until you have them all to start construction; you have to build as much as you can while you can before you inevitably get sidetracked. You also have lots of other stuff to build around your year-three base (using different resources) so as to not keep other pawns idle, and the monument is far enough away that you don't want to be walking back and forth any more than necessary. Your two constructors, one a night owl, have minor secondary jobs (mediation and milking), but otherwise can construct full time. You want them to:

1. Build the monument whenever there are blocks available

2. Build the other stuff when that's not possible

There's enough time to do both things, and there's plenty of need to have both things done simultaneously. I know because I just went through it. I also know that neither forbiding nor zoning were anywhere near adequate tools because in the end both of those required constant monitoring for almost an entire in-game quadrum. A simple "this building has priority" would have removed that entirely.

You're going about it the wrong way. You're significantly delaying the construction of the monument by having pawns run to it with tiny amounts of stone as soon as it becomes available. Your priorities should be to build your regular stuff until you have enough materials to finish the monument, and only then focus on the monument. Both forbidding and zoning works a treat for both of these steps. For step one, when you don't have enough materials, you forbid the blueprints for the monument. For step two, when you have enough for the monument, you unforbid the monument and zone your builders to it (and your stockpile of course). Easy as pi.

[ichifish]

Originally posted by Jigain:

Originally posted by ichifish:

OK, so explain how you would manage this:

Your eight-pawn colony took a quest to build a massive (4500ish resources) monument in exchange for an equally massive reward. You don't have enough blocks on hand and you can't wait until you have them all to start construction; you have to build as much as you can while you can before you inevitably get sidetracked. You also have lots of other stuff to build around your year-three base (using different resources) so as to not keep other pawns idle, and the monument is far enough away that you don't want to be walking back and forth any more than necessary. Your two constructors, one a night owl, have minor secondary jobs (mediation and milking), but otherwise can construct full time. You want them to:

1. Build the monument whenever there are blocks available

2. Build the other stuff when that's not possible

There's enough time to do both things, and there's plenty of need to have both things done simultaneously. I know because I just went through it. I also know that neither forbiding nor zoning were anywhere near adequate tools because in the end both of those required constant monitoring for almost an entire in-game quadrum. A simple "this building has priority" would have removed that entirely.

You're going about it the wrong way. You're significantly delaying the construction of the monument by having pawns run to it with tiny amounts of stone as soon as it becomes available. Your priorities should be to build your regular stuff until you have enough materials to finish the monument, and only then focus on the monument. Both forbidding and zoning works a treat for both of these steps. For step one, when you don't have enough materials, you forbid the blueprints for the monument. For step two, when you have enough for the monument, you unforbid the monument and zone your builders to it (and your stockpile of course). Easy as pi.

The problem with this suggestion is, as I wrote above, not having the time to wait until all of the resources were available. In addition to being a huge building the monument had three grand steles, some regular ones, a dozen sarcophaguses, and an equal number of pillars. I needed chunks mined and cut (in a colony of eight on losing is fun in the desert). In the end I was still cutting blocks on the final day of construction, two days before the monument had to be completed.

In order to follow your plan I would have had to have non-miners mine and non-stonecutters cut, hauled with people instead of animals, taking them off their regular jobs, working less efficiently, and worsing moods while leaving other jobs undone. That's exactly how you set yourself up for a disaster.

[Kittenpox]

Originally posted by ichifish:

OK, so explain how you would manage this:

Your eight-pawn colony took a quest to build a massive (4500ish resources) monument in exchange for an equally massive reward. You don't have enough blocks on hand and you can't wait until you have them all to start construction; you have to build as much as you can while you can before you inevitably get sidetracked. You also have lots of other stuff to build around your year-three base (using different resources) so as to not keep other pawns idle, and the monument is far enough away that you don't want to be walking back and forth any more than necessary. Your two constructors, one a night owl, have minor secondary jobs (mediation and milking), but otherwise can construct full time. You want them to:

1. Build the monument whenever there are blocks available

2. Build the other stuff when that's not possible

There's enough time to do both things, and there's plenty of need to have both things done simultaneously. I know because I just went through it. I also know that neither forbiding nor zoning were anywhere near adequate tools because in the end both of those required constant monitoring for almost an entire in-game quadrum. A simple "this building has priority" would have removed that entirely.

I'll take a crack at it.

Work priorities. Numerical.
#1 = top-priority stuff. Firefighting, Doctoring, etc. You main cook gets this priority for their job, as does your main builder.
#2 = the main role(s) for a pawn. Consider dropping those down to priority3 temporarily, and reset them after the monument is done.
#3 = work they can do well, but are not intended to perform.
#4 = anything they're capable of doing that is not a specialised task. Plants, stonecutting, mining, hauling, etc.
#no = specialist jobs, such as Tailoring. Most pawns shouldn't be doing this job unless it's their role.

1) Your chef gets priority 1 on cooking, priority2 butchering. Set the work job to "Until X" and make sure there's 1-2 meals per pawn. (This isn't the time to make 500 PSMs.)
2) Your builder gets priority 1 on constructing.
3) You should have food in storage - but if not then your plants person gets p1 on plant cutting, or your hunter has that job + butchering as p1.
4) Your hauler gets that job as P1. Make a couple of Shelves (or a stockpile) near the construction site, set to the specific construction material, at critical priority, for them to deliver to.

5-8) You have four remaining pawns. At least one should have Stone Cutting at top priority, at least one should have Mining at top priority. Everyone else should have those two jobs at priority2 for the duration of this objective.

Build multiple stonecutting benches, ideally in a place nearby the monument. If there's a room nearby, that's perfect. Make shelves (or a stockpile) nearby, with Important priority for stone chunks for your hauler to bring materials to.
As for the other construction tasks, *cancel* them. Or at the very least, if they're in rooms then block access to the doors. You don't need to fill the contents of your research room or smithy or tailoring room until after this time-sensitive objective is done. Fancy plush carpeting can *absolutely* wait until this is over.
Your builders should be able to mine/stonecut when not actively using the nearby shelved materials to work on the monument, rather than getting distracted making double-beds (sleeping spots exist for a reason).

Everyone should be focused on a task that keeps people alive (food production), gets raw materials happening (mining/stonecutting), or is busy doing the constructing. If someone stops to do research / smithing / etc, revisit their Work tab and adjust things accordingly - whether that means putting them on Hauling duty or adding an extra stonecutting table, so be it.

Alternately, consider that if you didn't have anywhere near such a large quantity of raw materials, that taking on this sort of quest was an unwise decision. (In the same way that accepting a mechanoid droppod-raid is a bad idea when you have 5 people armed with wooden clubs.) Sometimes we bite off more than we can chew, and it's okay to acknowledge that.

[Jigain]

Originally posted by ichifish:

Originally posted by Jigain:

You're going about it the wrong way. You're significantly delaying the construction of the monument by having pawns run to it with tiny amounts of stone as soon as it becomes available. Your priorities should be to build your regular stuff until you have enough materials to finish the monument, and only then focus on the monument. Both forbidding and zoning works a treat for both of these steps. For step one, when you don't have enough materials, you forbid the blueprints for the monument. For step two, when you have enough for the monument, you unforbid the monument and zone your builders to it (and your stockpile of course). Easy as pi.

The problem with this suggestion is, as I wrote above, not having the time to wait until all of the resources were available. In addition to being a huge building the monument had three grand steles, some regular ones, a dozen sarcophaguses, and an equal number of pillars. I needed chunks mined and cut (in a colony of eight on losing is fun in the desert). In the end I was still cutting blocks on the final day of construction, two days before the monument had to be completed.

In order to follow your plan I would have had to have non-miners mine and non-stonecutters cut, hauled with people instead of animals, taking them off their regular jobs, working less efficiently, and worsing moods while leaving other jobs undone. That's exactly how you set yourself up for a disaster.

As far as I know, all your stonecutters are non-stonecutters, as stonecutting isn't dependent on any stat beyond global work speed, consciousness, manipulation and sight. But that's splitting hairs.

You say the monument is "far enough away that you don't want to be walking back and forth any more than necessary", which is really the critical part of this. Because you're absolutely correct, the more you run back and forth with stuff, the longer it's going to take.

Since you didn't give any specifications on the distance, let's assume it takes 50 seconds to get to the monument building site from your main base. If you need 4500 blocks, and you deliver blocks as soon as they're cut (which gives you 20 blocks per chunk), that's 4500 / 20 = 225 times you need to run to it with materials, and 225 times you need to run to it to construct things. That's 225 + 225 = 450 times total, which takes 450 x 50 = 22500 seconds.

If instead you were to have all your blocks done beforehand, your pawns would carry 75 blocks per trip. That's 4500 / 75 = 60 trips with materials, and 60 trips to construct, or 60 + 60 = 120 times total, taking 120 x 50 = 6000 seconds.

6000 seconds, or 100 minutes, is significantly shorter than 22500 seconds, or 375 minutes. Your method of not "setting yourself up for disaster" takes almost four times as long using these numbers. Hopefully that illustrates why it's better to finish collecting the resources before starting the construction, and the available tools facilitate this perfectly. :)

Of course, this is not even touching on the fact that each hauler carrying blocks for one trip (225 times with your method, 60 times with mine) also spends 50 x 2 = 100 seconds PER TRIP not hauling stone chunks to your stonecutting tables, so you're welcome for that one too. :)

So as you can see, while you may think you don't have time to wait until you have all the resources, you're really shooting yourself in the foot and wasting much more time by not doing it.

[꧁<̴Iитєrnєт KIllєd Тнє TV Ѕтαr☆]

Hey OP, i had the same issue with my civs not wanting to farm the entire field but only one spot. There is a mod for that.

You can set them so they complete the task like hauling tons of things so you dont have to mess with normal workload.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=730936602
This is the mod for you! It does everything you want. Enjoy!