What do you set your priorities at?

[Gunhaver]

I'm curious about those of you who set priorities less than 5. Where and when do you find it helpful to do so? I always keep priority as the default 5 and work up. The problem is I keep maxing my priority inadvertently by changing priorities based on the colony needs. Generally priorities only move upwards. I ask this  b/c I've always wished the default priority in game was 2 or 3. It's irritating to have to micro manage what gets placed at a lower priority constantly so storage doesn't get thrown off or I find certain tasks just will never get done b/c I'm not going to remember to adjust the priority of dig to 4 or after restarting the game.

 

Maybe your good efficient ideas will inspire me to spend time lowering certain tasks.

[Promethien]

Haven't had an issue. Do you use the dupe job priorities as well? For instance you don't have set ranching or farming priority numbers if you tell your specialized dupes to do the jobs with an up arrow. This even gives them priority to do the job over the unskilled dupes. Like this I can make sure important stuff gets done first without having to micro the number priority on absolutely everything.

I do something similar with my dig + build dupe. He has digging and building on up arrow so while everybody else is busy doing supply runs or harvesting he still toils away at my current build project.

[LucidFugue]

I use job priority 2-4 for anything I want done "instead of idling" or "whenever you have a moment". 

Usually this is in combination with allowing/denying access through specific doors so that my skilled dupes will take on projects outside the main base while my housekeeper dupes will take on easier stuff inside the base. I outlined it in my thread last week: 

 

Low priority is also good for the "nice to have" aspects of a build. So I might lay down buildings, dig jobs, wiring/plumbing/ventilation and necessary tiles to get the basics of a room going, and then layer the remaining tiles and doors to make a proper room out of it as a priority 4. 

When my artist gets masterwork and I start spamming statues and canvases I'll usually put those at a lower priority as well so my entire operation isn't halted for a day or two while everybody assembled enough granite to keep my artist busy for the next week. 

[KittenIsAGeek]

I use priorities all around the spectrum.  Anything "normal" stays at five.  Stuff I want done fast gets a higher priority.  Stuff that isn't important but needs to get done gets lower.  For example, I'll usually set sweeping jobs at 4 or 3.  Some storage bins will be set to 2 (such as the sand bin near a sieve) and some will be set to six (like for polluted dirt early in my base when I'm still using outhouses).  In older bases I'll build a room with hamster wheels set to priority 1 that supplements my base power any time dupes would go idle.

Another good place for priorities is when using shipping buildings.  A sweeper will pull from a low priority and send to a high.  

[QuQuasar]

Early game: 1 for blueprints, 5 for most things, 6 for farms, 7 for cooking and hygiene concerns, 8 for life support and 9 for non-critical emergencies.

Late game:

[ruhrohraggy]

I use the dupe priorities tab and keep most of my jobs at 5. If it's something I want to emphasize, I'll stick it at 6, but that's rather rare.

If it's something I need to pay attention to for a short time or something I want all dupes to work on at once, then I'll prio 9 it. Stuff like sketchy digging/building where I know a dupe is gonna try to drown itself, or hauling steel to the top of space for bunkers.

Also use the 99 88 77 66 55 priority for deconstructing horizontal ladder scaffolds or flooring...

For vertical ladders :

9

9

9

8

8

8

etc...

[metallichydra]

top priority is only priority.

[KittenIsAGeek]

15 minutes ago, metallichydra said:

top priority is only priority.

I do love a yellow screen.  I kinda miss the red alert, though...

[DarkMoge]

5 goes for most things.
2-4 goes for postponing projects... For example, when I am in the middle of constructing a contraption, but a more important matter arises, I change the priority from 5 to less in the middle of work.
1 for straight up blueprints.
During construction, 6 and 7 are used to give some sort of order in which I want things to be build/dug. Outside of construction. 7 is used for things that needs to be done periodically (for example: delivering fuel to coal generator). Farming varies from disable auto harvest to 5-6, depending on food supplies.6 is also used for moving resources around: placing a storage compactor next to mealwood farm and putting it with priority 6 to be filled with dirt than when its full, taking away that priority.

8 is used for things I want duplicant to do regulary as the first thing when they wake up... For example, singing lullaby to eggs in incubators.
9 is used when duplicants are about to trap themselves. !! is used for same purpose, but during break times.

[ONIfreak]

1,2,3 - reserved for conveyors

4- non important (mostly sweeping random areas or giving job to newbies in base)

5 - doors, plants (after planted), machinery does not need dupe operation.

6 - 1 tile vacuum building more important sweeping - preparing areas for future projects. And microbe musher

7 - plants, 

8 - coal generators ( unless its stays in furure project area), current builds, current sweeping, grill and gas range, deodorizers etc

9 - emergencies

!! - serious stuff

[Lutzkhie]

divide them those who are farmers/ranchers/medic and builders/diggers that way you can maximize ranch/farm which are very essential

[FantasticMoose]

Most stuff stays at 5, there are exceptions however.

Ladders in large constructions and dig operations get a 6, or even a 7 if there's a big chance of trapping dupes without the ladders.
Standard inbase storage gets a 3 while out of base storage gets a 4.
Specific storages like coal for generator or dirt for farms get a 5 and polluted dirt/rotpiles/slime gets a 6.

Idlewheels at 1 on the wrong side of the transformer station and and outhouses at 9 while they are up.

!! is only used for checking geysers and trying to save suicidal dupes.

[Gunhaver]

Thanks everyone; these are some really good ideas and I'm starting to use a few of them. My brain just wasn't wired to figure it out on my own. BTW the 99...88..77.. deal is golden!

[TLW]

On 8/25/2019 at 10:53 PM, ruhrohraggy said:

Also use the 99 88 77 66 55 priority for deconstructing horizontal ladder scaffolds or flooring...

Warning: this will go badly sometimes.

Consider the following case:

Dupe removes the 9-priority next to the 8-priority:

9_88776655

Dupe A picks up the other 9-priority task from far away.

Dupe B finishes up some other task relatively close, and picks up the 8-priority task. And gets there first.

...and then you have a ladder left.

 

I tend to build ladders every third tile vertically, and then destroy an entire row at a time. Costs more dupe time, but costs less of my time.

 

The current dupe priority system (not to be confused with the 1-9 priority) is effectively worthless for me as-is. (Note: for me. I am aware some people find it useful.)

There is nothing between "do this to the exclusion of all else" and "do everything". If the dupe priority was, say, +3 per step, it would be fine. (So a dupe with ^ priority to sweeping would treat a p3 sweep command as p6.) But as is, a dupe will treat a p1 sweep over a p9 dig... which means for me I'd prefer to keep everything at normal (with proximity enabled... because it's hilariously misnamed.) and ignore the dupe priority system altogether.

 

As for the 1-9 priority? P2 for a dupe gym capable of holding all of my dupes, P1 for anything I don't want done (why oh why does disabling a dupe-operated building require that a dupe walk over and stand there...). P3 for general storage, P4 for most things. P6 for life support or anything else critical.

 

One funny thing about the priority system is that because new tasks are created at P5, the system is not agnostic to changing priorities. Having all tasks at P4 is not the same as having all tasks at P6 - because in the former case if you e.g. build a painting the dupes will paint it right away, whereas in the latter case the dupes will not paint until last.

 

I see a lot of players try to have separate dupes for hauling and e.g. construction. In a saner system, this would make sense. But for ONI this is almost never better, except for the early game before you have all your dupes have decent hauling.

 

[Skrivener]

<5 for conveyors, or I don't want it to get done, or more often I somehow set builds on 4 by accident and haven't yet realized no one is building them.

5 by default.

6 for more urgent build or sweep, aka I'm impatient.
Edit: I forgot I also use this for floor building when I'm digging underneath. Especially early on I dig the top three tiles of a 4 tile height level at priority 5 and building the ceiling tiles at priority 6, this means most of the time they are dug and built before the terrain beneath them is dug out, reducing the number of falling sand piles and such to clean up afterward.

7 or 8 for food things.
Edit: I also use 6-8 for ranching delivery points.

8 for power.

Mostly it's about dupe priorities, the subpriorities are mostly for supply and store overlaps (or operate) to make sure the food is stored before dirt is swept, etc.