0000441: Assigning dwarves to the military is a huge PITA

Notes
(0000983) DoctorZuber (reporter) 2010-04-04 19:54	In the old system, drafting everyone into the military for a crisis took seconds, go to units menu, and start pressing a to activate everyone into the military. In this new system, it's taken me nearly an hour to get 40 of 90 dwarves into a military to deal with this crisis. and I've given up on drafting anybody else, they can go hide in the burrow and pray they don't die or something.

(0000984) ercdvs (reporter) 2010-04-04 19:57	suggestion.. not a bug

(0000996) RichardCorey (reporter) 2010-04-04 21:17	I like the new system. It needs some efficiency improvements -- like being able to tell what skills a dwarf has before drafting, or what other squads they belong to -- but other than that, it's incredibly easier to use. Plus, this isn't a bug.

(0001002) DoctorZuber (reporter) 2010-04-04 22:34 edited on: 2010-04-04 23:18	sorry, but no... while I recognize that there is the the potential for a lot of powerful features from this new system it's also a very flawed system as it is... 1. Dead dwarves need to be removed from existing squads. 2. The cursor needs to stay where it is when you select a dwarf. 3. there needs to be a clear way to see if a dwarf is already in a squad and what his profession is. (Color coding!) the process to form a squad in 40d. 1. (u)nits menu 2. up/down arrow to choose a soldier 3. (a)ctivate a soldier 4. Repeat 2 and 3 as necessary for any number of soldiers if desired, select a leader and group your soldiers 5. up/down select 6. enter to set leader 7. up/down to select anyone under his command 8. enter to select 9. repeat 3 and 4 as necessary to place anyone needed under your leaders command The process to form a squad now... 1. (m)ilitary 2. Up/down arrows to locate your first squad 3. (l)Create squad 4. select your uniform 5. up/down arrow to select your newly formed squad 6. right arrow twice to get to the abbreviate unit list 7. scroll with Up-down-*-/ to select a soldier 8. press enter 9. repeat 7 and 8 to form the squad, each time you must scroll from the beginning of the unit list. If more than 10 soldiers are desired... Repeat all steps above AND.... 10. return to all your squads and see how many of your soldiers are missing 11. repeat 7 and 8 until your squad is full again 12. repeat 10 on both squads again 13. continue repeating these steps until all squads are as full as desired. It's these last four steps that are a huge killer, if you only want or need one squad sure, fine, but if you need to form a large army to deal with a sudden threat you can be sitting here arguing with it for hours trying to actually get your army formed. And it's no good setting it all up long in advance either, since various random bits of misfortune will gradually reduce your army to nothing without ever even needing to make contact with any real enemy. Which leads you to the final insult... trying to prune out the dead soldiers... 14. (m)ilitary 15. up/down arrow to select squad members 2 to 10 16. enter 17. repeat 15 and 16 until only the leader remains. 18. remove the leader with 15 and 16 again 19. repeat 14 to 18 as necessary for all squads. 20. repeat steps 1 to 13 as necessary to reform your military from scratch The process to form a squad as things stand now is incredibly time consuming. And this is just to replicate the capabilities present in 40d. I'm not even going into the steps necessary to add some of the new capabilities present in this version. As insanely tedious as this note looks? it took only a fraction of the time it took to actually draft 40 dwarves into the military in an attempt to survive after my first squad was quickly massacred by a megabeast.

(0001017) Footkerchief (manager) 2010-04-05 00:01 edited on: 2010-04-05 00:02	When you're suggesting better ways of handling the interface, you're pretty much in Suggestions territory. I'll leave this open to avoid stifling discussion, but please do not continue to make reports of this nature. Also, Toady knows it's crap.

(0001039) Ashery (reporter) 2010-04-05 02:14	While there are flaws in the current system, most of what you were complaining can be bypassed by simply giving every military dwarf a custom title along the lines of "Captain1" or "Axedwarf3." This may add a bit of extra work, but I already screen all immigrants and give them custom titles relating to the work that they'd eventually take up. For example, back in 40d I'd assign all immigrants with an undesired moodable skill the title "H/M," that is a hauler to be recruited into the military.

(0001060) Brandon816 (reporter) 2010-04-05 06:15	Related forum thread here: http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=53010.0 [^]

(0001920) DoctorZuber (reporter) 2010-04-07 19:45	I do apologize for ranting about what is basically a feature request for a less poopy military interface. If you wish to close this go ahead. I know where the suggestions forum is now.

Issue History
Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2010-04-04 19:49	DoctorZuber	New Issue
2010-04-04 19:54	DoctorZuber	Note Added: 0000983
2010-04-04 19:57	ercdvs	Note Added: 0000984
2010-04-04 21:17	RichardCorey	Note Added: 0000996
2010-04-04 22:34	DoctorZuber	Note Added: 0001002
2010-04-04 22:35	DoctorZuber	Note Edited: 0001002	View Revisions
2010-04-04 22:36	DoctorZuber	Note Edited: 0001002	View Revisions
2010-04-04 22:36	DoctorZuber	Note Edited: 0001002	View Revisions
2010-04-04 22:37	DoctorZuber	Note Edited: 0001002	View Revisions
2010-04-04 22:38	DoctorZuber	Note Edited: 0001002	View Revisions
2010-04-04 22:40	DoctorZuber	Note Edited: 0001002	View Revisions
2010-04-04 23:18	DoctorZuber	Note Edited: 0001002	View Revisions
2010-04-05 00:01	Footkerchief	Note Added: 0001017
2010-04-05 00:02	Footkerchief	Note Edited: 0001017	View Revisions
2010-04-05 02:14	Ashery	Note Added: 0001039
2010-04-05 06:15	Brandon816	Note Added: 0001060
2010-04-07 19:45	DoctorZuber	Note Added: 0001920
2010-04-07 19:45	DoctorZuber	Tag Attached: CLOSE THIS
2010-04-08 01:35	Footkerchief	Status	new => resolved
2010-04-08 01:35	Footkerchief	Resolution	open => no change required
2010-04-08 01:35	Footkerchief	Assigned To	=> Footkerchief
2010-05-06 11:48	Footkerchief	Relationship added	has duplicate 0001785
2010-06-09 06:46	Toady One	Status	resolved => closed
2011-03-15 21:38	Logical2u	Tag Detached: CLOSE THIS