Finish task schedule.

[Astrologic]

We have downtime, bathtime, work, and bedtime.  What we really need is a "Finish task" schedule block, where dupes will finish their current task, but not acquire any new tasks during that time. (perhaps only downtime tasks can be acquired?)

This would prevent dupes from dropping items/critters/liquids.  
Often, my dupes will pick up some material to deliver, downtime will strike for that dupe, and they'll just drop whatever they're carrying.  It's annoying especially if they are trying to move a wrangled critter.  I'd like to have a few blocks where they'll finish delivering what they have and either wait for their downtime, or start their downtime.  If they still haven't finished their task by the time the schedule moves to downtime, only then should they drop what they're doing.

This would be especially helpful in preventing dupes from taking up tasks that they simply don't have time to get done.  If you've got a refinery in the oil biome, and it takes 3 schedule blocks just to get down there, you really don't want a dupe to start making their way when they're only 2 blocks away from downtime.

However, if you gave that operator dupe 5 blocks of "finish task" schedule, they'd only make their way to the oil biome if they've already started, giving you assured operating time on the refinery, and not wasting the dupe's time.  They'll stop refining when they hit downtime, and all will be well.

[Astrologic]

I thought I'd post this to highlight some of the stupidity that just.. really needs to not happen.

So, near space I have some jetsuit docks with some atmosuit docks nearby.  My intention was that the dupes would hang up their atmosuits, and grab a jetsuit.
Worked well enough, but the atmosuit dock flooded and some of the suit orders got messed up.  So, to remedy the situation, I undocked all atmosuits near the jetsuits, and pressed "deliver" to the atmosuit docks leading to the outside of the main colony.  Somehow, one of the suits was never delivered.  I put the atmosuit dock on yellow alert and waited... and waited.. nothing!

I thought perhaps the suit melted or something, so I crafted another one.  Then, just earlier, I discovered THIS:  (see attached photo).

Some idiot dupe while inside the transit tube decided that it was okay to take downtime while carrying the atmosuit through the transit tube, dropped the thing inside a vacuum chamber between two insulated walls.  

This is why we need a finish task schedule!  If they don't even have time to make it back via transit tube, they have no business starting the delivery in the first place!

What can I even do to prevent this?

 

-Edit- You can see it isn't the first time it's happened either.  I guess it's happened quite a lot, based on how many items are inside those chambers, which WERE empty.

[Tobruk]

On 4/9/2020 at 9:50 PM, Astrologic said:

It's annoying especially if they are trying to move a wrangled critter.

That's why I always put my breeder rooms adjacent to the stables, so even if a dupe picks a critter up and drops it afterwards, it's either still in the breeder or already in the stable.

100% agree with you on the finish task schedule, although this might mean the cycle would have to be divided into more slots that last shorter periods of time.