List of desired features/changes

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

While I know that a fair bit of this can probably be chalked up to the early-ish stage of development that the game is in, there's a good bit that seems missing or off, mechanics- or contentwise, by comparison to the (relatively few) other titles in the genre, so I thought I'd compile a condensed list based on observation. If anyone wants to add to it, feel free.

• Additional professions: Not the biggest concern at present, but there's certainly room for adding miscellaneous professions such as carvers, engravers, jewelers, and the like. Likewise, adding missing perks for certain professions such as the tailor would be nice.
  
  
• Leveling system: At present, some professions level exceedingly slowly (e.g. miners gain 10-15xp per block mined, making high levels impractical to reach) while others level extremely quickly (e.g. fishers gain tens of thousands of xp per day for sitting around).
  
  
• Additional props: Again, not a big concern, but things such as statues, sacks, and cages would be nice.
  
  
• Animal behavior and taming: My biggest gripe about wild animals right now is that they almost always either enter the map and either just sit in the same spot on the edge of the map until they leave or will enter the map and will only move along the edge of the map until they leave. This makes taming livestock utterly impossible in most cases, as the wild animal(s) will immediately leave the map if one tries to tame them while they are on the edge of the map. In addition, wild animals ignore elevation changes, making it impossible to catch them if they flee towards uneven ground. There're other minor issues with tamed animals such as chickens requiring a male/female pair for each, but those are inconsequential by comparison.
  
  
• Additional gear: As it stands, most professions lack tools, steel weapons aside from the axe and shields at all tiers except iron are non-existent, and bones seem to lack any use (when they have many applications, from use as primitive needles and hooks to acting as a tensor in composite bows)).
  
  
• Gear consistency: As it stands, rutile, steel, and iron tools have higher damage than the entire iron weapon lineup due to their high damage bonus.
  
  
• Mechanisms: Levers, switches, gears, pipes, and pulleys - and the things they connect to - would be a welcome addition.
  
  
• Expanded traders: At present, there appears to be a single trader with a rather limited selection of goods. Since there's an emphasis on multiple races, it'd be nice to have a selection of possible traders with a wider array of goods, especially considering how easy it currently is to rack up coins with no real means to spend them. Furthermore, when the market/trading post is added, it sure would be swell if we got the ability to request certain goods or types of goods from future trader visits as in DF.
  
  
• Magma - Self-explanatory
  
  
• More efficient task handling: Currently, settlers with build or planting tasks will pick up only enough resources for a single object or a single seed, regardless of whether they have the carry skill to carry the materials for multiple jobs. Likewise, settlers that are currently tasked with carrying something to a stockpile will often pick up a single item if more of that item is nearby, but not on the same or an adjacent square. Correcting these behaviors would go a long way towards ending certain task bottlenecks.
  
  
• UX options: It would be really nice if we could get enable/disable toggles for the red/blue altitude haze for jobs and change/disable the grid for jobs, as well. There's probably other desirable options, but those are the things I take issue with.
  
  
• Pathfinding: Currently, settlers will happily take the most time consuming path to a distant location and also ignore stairs or ladders if they are given the chance. Moreover, there's no way to designate desired paths. Either a "don't go here" tool similar to War for the Overworld's or a (possibly upgradeable) road prop similar to that in Rise to Ruin would be viable alternatives if the pathfinding logic cannot be improved for some reason. Roads would be nice either way.
  
  
• Liquid handling: While it's nice that water follows channels and falls according to gravity, it currently duplicates infinitely, making nice looking underground cisterns/pools/ponds an unholy task which demands a blood sacrifice or the flooding of every Z-level below the initial water source, if the appropriate blood sacrifice is not made.

[Planewalker]

Larger maps would be my number one wish.


Also, not sure if it's an oversight:

I can't build a campfire because i don't have coal.
And i can't make coal because i don't have a campfire... XD

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Originally posted by Planewalker:

snip

Coal can be gained from dirt and various rock types.

[Planewalker]

Originally posted by Commisar Jon ♥♥♥♥♥♥:

Coal can be gained from dirt and various rock types.

Yea i figured it out; just found the closed loop at bit humorous. =)

[Sleipnir]

Thank you for writing up this suggestion list! I know this must have taken some time to write and the fact that you are interested enough in the game to spend time providing a detailed spec really is appreciated. Soooo many of these issues/suggestions are addressed in the next update and I'm stoked for you to see them, even though I'm the world's slowest developer and the wait is long.

Thanks again!

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

I've seen as much when I can be bothered to peek at the discord.

Moreover, there's no shame in being slow. Even at my most motivated, I spend more time organizing and commenting my code than actually Working™.