suggestion Priority Level 0 / Planning tool

[Shaymes]

a Priority Level 0 with clones never do the jo will be nice becouse it can be used as planing mode

[CrutchPunk]

1 hour ago, Shaymes said:

a Priority Level 0 with clones never do the jo will be nice becouse it can be used as planing mode

Oh, good! Someone made an actual post with this idea. I (also) thought a priority 0 addition would be perfect for a planning stage. Much easier than having to add a whole new planning mechanic.

[Shaymes]

i love that the game have an Priority  mode just missing a planing mode, technical it will be -1 becouse i thing lvl 0 will be idle state but if it works im happy with it

[haschischtasche]

I think an actual planning mode is a better idea because if you plan by setting up orders with a low priority the game will still allocate your ressources for what you plan, and then subsequently prevent you from setting up orders if you "run out" of ressources. (Obviously you don't run out, but the game acts like you do because it allocated ressources to stuff you set up orders for.)

[CrutchPunk]

3 hours ago, haschischtasche said:

I think an actual planning mode is a better idea because if you plan by setting up orders with a low priority the game will still allocate your resources for what you plan, and then subsequently prevent you from setting up orders if you "run out" of resources. (Obviously you don't run out, but the game acts like you do because it allocated resources to stuff you set up orders for.)

This is why Priority 0 would not be an actual priority for building. It would essentially act as if there was no priority assigned (and subsequently, no resources allocated), but will allow you to place the white outline of the items to plan your layout.

Basically, it WOULD be a building tool, grouped in along with them. The priority would be what changes how the game would react to items placed. I feel like this would be a lot easier than having to build an entirely new/separate menu strictly for planning. Planning IS PART OF building, after all.

[Shaymes]

i say that too, if its  allocate your ressourcs you know that you can build what your planed

[haschischtasche]

5 hours ago, ScreenNameMissing said:

This is why Priority 0 would not be an actual priority for building. It would essentially act as if there was no priority assigned (and subsequently, no resources allocated), but will allow you to place the white outline of the items to plan your layout.

Basically, it WOULD be a building tool, grouped in along with them. The priority would be what changes how the game would react to items placed. I feel like this would be a lot easier than having to build an entirely new/separate menu strictly for planning. Planning IS PART OF building, after all.

What you are describing is essentially a dedicated planning mode that you just call priority 0 instead of planning mode for some reason. It's just confusing semantics and adds the inconsistency of allocating resources when the priority is above 0 but not allocating it when it's 0.
Besides you are already adding new functionality because currently there is no way to choose the priority while you setup build commands; instead you setup build commands and prioritize them afterwards. So you either already add an entirely seperate menu for planning with that idea or you do the extremely confusing thing of letting people choose priority 0 after setting up a build command, which means ressources will be allocated when setting up the command and then un-allocated when you set it to priority 0.
To be totally clear here, when I say ressources are allocated I'm not talking about dupes carrying materials to building plans you setup, I'm talking about the game acting as if the ressources that would be used if a dupe brought materials to a building plan were already gone (which it does).

[Shaymes]

but a planing mode with or without  allocate your ressources will be usefull

[Masterpintsman]

On 2.3.2017 at 1:04 PM, haschischtasche said:

...  currently there is no way to choose the priority while you setup build commands ...

Which completely sucks from an usability standpoint and should be changed to:

When you have a build cursor the 1-9 keys should select the priority, left click places (/marks for sweep/mop/deconstruct/whatever), right-click clears the cursor and reverts the 1-9 back to the default function of selecting the building categories.This could even be done by replacing the tabs in the lower-left corner with a priority selector (instead of hiding it small-ish in the bottom-right corner).

Given this 0 (zero) could be a priority to place stuff without allocation (and material availablility checks) which can later be pasted up with the priority tool to a 'real' priority level, the check for material availability should be done then and buildings without material should stay at zero.

I would suggest to draw zero priority / planning mode (whatever you name it) in a different color, as this mechanic would work as kind-of planning blueprint (without scheduled implementaion) I would suggest using that color (blue, if one shade is available that cleanly distinguishes from oxygen).

[Shaymes]

as more i think about it i prefer to  allocate your ressources in planing mode, so i know if im done with planing its possible to build.

an opinion of a Dev at this point will be nice

 

[Storm Engineer]

+1 for planning mode!

Right now I plan with Priority 1, but every now and then someone runs out of tasks and starts to dig out the Prio 1 parts earlier than I want.

And I think planning should NOT allocate mats! Moreover, it should allow you to plan even objects that you do not have the research for yet. That's the whole point of planning, that you can think ahead, independently of what you are capable of at that moment.