storage system overhaul wishlist MK.II

[BaloneyOs]

So back in March I posted a list of features that I believe would help the game immensely. Fast forward three months with the release almost here, some of these still feel as relevant as ever so I'll do my best to refine the list.

 

The conveyor dropoff was implemented so that was a nice move. The following points IMO are still worthwhile issues.

 

1. No-sweep zone and auto-sweep zone (drag selection style)

No-sweep zone would be areas where dupes are never allowed to pick up items. Conversely the auto-sweep zone will always have assigned sweep errands. IMO this is a much better solution than just a "sweep only" checkbox on compactors. There also needs to be a distinction of some sort of job distinction for sweep errands between dupes and auto-sweepers.

 

2. Minimum sweep quantity

I've already complained about dupes delivering micrograms of stuff like puft poo, space iron, and critter feed. Having these deliveries happen often enough feels like it more or less decimates your workforce. Goes hand in hand with first point in the argument of completely wasted labor.

 

3. Critter sensor to function outside of a room

Once again, I don't see why there's a requirement for it to be in a room. 128 tile room size limit is kinda questionable anyway for certain rooms but that's another can of worms.

 

4. Ranching station grooming filter

Filter what gets groomed based on subspecies and whether they are tame. Aside from opening up more methods of ranching while also preventing the accidental taming of free range wild shine bugs and the like. Imagine if on release there are good options for mixing wild and tame critters of different species in one ranch but your dupe is just like herp derp I'm going to call a shine bug from across the map.

 

5. More compactor filters

Ones I can think of in particular are material temperature and delivery range.

 

6. Prioritize completion of sweep jobs over shift changes

So this is more of a gray area but the option would be quite nice. Currently dupes will drop whatever they are carrying the instant their work shift ends, which is great for having a more controlled downtime at the cost of creating more work due to dropped items. This also makes some item delivery routes dangerous mid game when your facilities are still developing but you don't want to, say, deliver some ice over your future polluted water offgassing source. In this example, skimming fresh water off the top of polluted water would be an absolute nightmare of an operation.

On the other hand, if dupes were forced to finish their sweep job every time before changing shifts, it makes "morning" productivity more uncertain since dupes will generally made up for lost downtime by staying awake longer and therefore sleeping in. This should only matter to time sensitive jobs though, and effects will vary depending on playstyle.

 

Probably still missing a bunch of important stuff but ehh these would be more than enough to improve the game considerably.

[mathmanican]

30 minutes ago, BaloneyOs said:

6. Prioritize completion of sweep jobs over shift changes

I would love to see the dupes stop dropping things. 

30 minutes ago, BaloneyOs said:

skimming fresh water off the top of polluted water would be an absolute nightmare of an operation.

FYI. Mesh tiles make this really fast. Been there. 

[Sasza22]

1 hour ago, BaloneyOs said:

3. Critter sensor to function outside of a room

Should it have a range or be tied to the room (however large it is)?

[BaloneyOs]

5 hours ago, Sasza22 said:

Should it have a range or be tied to the room (however large it is)?

Probably tied to room since It's still the most basic way of organizing stuff. The problem IIRC was that it didn't operate in any room larger than 128 tiles or whatever the upper limit was. That restriction felt arbitrary considering one of the overlays counts the number of critters for you regardless of room size.

Speaking of which, I'm also not sure why critter dropoff is capped at 20 or at all. It makes it impossible to auto-wrangle into rooms already containing 20 or more.

[DemainaNyx]

On 6/23/2019 at 12:55 AM, BaloneyOs said:

Probably tied to room since It's still the most basic way of organizing stuff. The problem IIRC was that it didn't operate in any room larger than 128 tiles or whatever the upper limit was. That restriction felt arbitrary considering one of the overlays counts the number of critters for you regardless of room size.

Speaking of which, I'm also not sure why critter dropoff is capped at 20 or at all. It makes it impossible to auto-wrangle into rooms already containing 20 or more.

Yes to that last point.  It's rather annoying that I have to surround a critter drop off with doors to endlessly drop off critters to an area.  Like, there are dreckos getting entombed in my building project, can't I just set a generic wild drecko drop off without it needing to be built very specifically to function properly.  I get that that one drop off can see every critter in the entire map because it's one big 4000+ tile room, but come on.

 

Along with storage systems though, I would personally like to either add a conveyor rail filter or a conveyor rail element sensor so that we can sort what is on a rail without needing a loader, receptacle, and sweeper at every break point. 

I get that I probably am not playing the way the game was intended, but it's so nice being able to load a pipe with 2 (or more) kinds of gas and just filter out the one you need when you get to it's stop.  Have a Nat Gas Generator to back up your space base power supply and need oxygen for dupes?  Feed a pipe with oxygen and Nat Gas and just siphon off the Nat Gas when it gets to the generator.  Boom, saves me running 2 pipes unless I really need a full pipes worth of gas. 

Can't do that with conveyors though so you either need to plan out everything perfectly so you can limit how far the rails need to run (like having your shine bug ranch, pincha pepper farm, and fertilizer plant near your drecko ranches to run phosphorite) or you need to make a generic dumping ground and ship everything from there, which has it's own set of problems.  A way to filter on the rails or to use a receptacle to filter what it accepts would be so useful.