Number of units selector in unit selection dialog

What would you like to see in Freeciv? Do you have a good idea what should be improved or how?
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ILoveLilyAllen
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Jul 30, 2014 5:50 pm

Number of units selector in unit selection dialog

Post by ILoveLilyAllen »

Greetings

I often have "muster points" for units, meaning I will move all nearby idle units onto the same tile and "Sentry" them until required. These muster points may contain many dozens of units.

Currently I usually move all my units first, then return to the muster points. Typically from a muster point I will need 8 engineers loaded onto a transport, 12 sent to flatten a mountain, and so forth. Therefore I "ready" all the engineers on one of those tiles; slide one sideways and sentry it then repeat until I have the required number; sentry the remaining units at the muster point; ready the new pile; select all units (which is now the required number); then finally I can move them en masse.

What would be "nice to have" would be a selection box within the dialog where I could specify the required number of units, then I could simply open the unit selection dialog and for example select just the 8 to move to the coastal city for transportation :)
Jim-11
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Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2013 1:28 pm

Re: Number of units selector in unit selection dialog

Post by Jim-11 »

A number of units selector would be useful for me too. When there is nothing useful for workers to do, I stack and sentry them in one place. Then the inevitable pollution outbreaks require me to send several workers to clean each polluted site. Now I must double click each worker that I want to awaken from sentry, and then move each to the pollution task. I would welcome a selector that enabled me to choose how many units to both awaken and send to the needed spot.
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Arbogast
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Location: France

Re: Number of units selector in unit selection dialog

Post by Arbogast »

My two bits: Idle workers are useless. My personal experience is to dissolve them into more useful units -engineers, military units- I found that instead of upgrading any units -very expensive option-, it's better to use out-dated units as cash by dissolve them. Same thing with improvements. There. Thank you.
After all, it takes two engineers to clean pollution in one turn instead so many more turns for workers.
cazfi
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Re: Number of units selector in unit selection dialog

Post by cazfi »

Arbogast wrote:upgrading any units -very expensive option-, it's better to use out-dated units as cash by dissolve them. Same thing with improvements. There. Thank you.
After all, it takes two engineers to clean pollution in one turn instead so many more turns for workers.
Build Leonardo. Research Explosives early enough that all Workers get updated before it gets obsolete. Obsolete military units, if not too far obsolete, are often still useful as cannon fodder (if you don't want to wait Leonardo to upgrade them).
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Arbogast
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Location: France

Re: Number of units selector in unit selection dialog

Post by Arbogast »

Thanks Cazfi! The Leonardo Wonder seems obvious, as also the Great Library, among others.
The thing is that you never get enough of anything. (Web playing is different.)
At the beginning, you never have enough settlers or workers. And then later on, you never have enough granaries or temples. Still later you don't have enough caravels and explorers. And So on...
I opted for for boosting Science/Luxury/Tax from the Cities tag: Boost the needed thing by turning citizens into ExtraReasearch/ExtraGold/ExtraProduction, that is the reason of using obsolete units as cash by dissolving them. That way, I find myself with a large amount of cash in the early stages of the game, buying whatever and keeping a high score in the Nations tab.
Am I making sense?
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