Dupe based priority modifiers

[boggers]

So I started playing Rimworld after seeing it mentioned a lot on these forums, both games have good systems of priority management, but a combination could be even better.

For those who haven't played Rimworld, the job priority board is very similar, except that rather than the priority being allocated to the job itself, each character has their own priority per job type, this makes things run more smoothly than ONI in general - builders build and diggers dig, but also makes it trickier to say "everyone get on this right now" without extensive micromanagement, which is something that ONI does well by having priority assigned to the job itself.

To get the best of both systems, you could keep ONIs job based priorities but extend the simple toggle for each dupe/job pair to allow individual dupe preferences for each job type with a simple +/- modifier.

It would only need a few levels to be very effective, say -2 to +2. eg, if you set Mi Ma to +2 on sweep, assuming storage is on priority 5, she will not get involved in any other jobs below priority 7, but she will still drop that broom for a priority 9 dig, eg rescuing a suffocating dupe. Likewise, making build jobs at standard 5 priority would mean only the best builders will turn up for it, because they have build +2, so they see it as 7, meanwhile your other dupes might have +1 or +2 to cooking, or delivery, or whatever their primary tasks are.

 

[AmishWarMachine]

Definitely like the idea of tagging a specific job as a dupe's individual priority. +1 might be a sufficient adjustment. +2 might be a little to much of a kick. Would be interesting to see how each plays out, for sure.

 

Would help greatly with keeping specific dupes on specific jobs, while also allowing for other dupes to complete those jobs if necessary. The binary do/don't do is handy at times, but a point of frustration at others.

 

I would limit it to 1-2 jobs, though. More than that, and you'd just create another managerial nightmare.

[Masterpintsman]

+-2 range sounds fine to me, this would allow to set a 5 job priority list for every duplicant, without actually enforcing to do it at all (as letting all sit at zero would result in behaviour of the curent system.

Graphical depiction could be 1-2 up/down arrows like the ones being used in the information window for stress and such, to keep the job window free of numbers.

To make the duplicants effective they should be able to steal jobs from each other in case one could execute something quicker (factoring in travel time), this could be bound to research/gear in the form of a communication system (radio headset).