Suggestion For XS 11: Functions on subdivision level

[TeaMike]

With XS's advanced built for group operations and all the hard work spent for mapping parameters my suggestion for the next mayor XS upgrade is to make functions available on subdivision level:

unit/view

• start 4 weeks holiday
• put on holiday and 0 all supplies
• upgrade equipment to required +.05
• change name to (rollover field)
• change size to (1 level larger)

sales page

• price settings

production page

• price settings
• after clicking "send to warehouse" auto-enter quantity of excess stock into the field "move" and execute "recount" button

supplies page

• set order to 0, 1x, 2x
• calculate expected quality (script gets tech, quality modifier and animal quality on load)
• get cheapest supply
• set a contract from all suppliers with 0 quantity

all pages

• display "notes" link and notes content

laboratories

• study next level: if available, start studying stage 1 of the next higher level of the same tech currently studied in this lab (else do nothing)

As usual i will add more ideas when available, don't be offended or disturbed by my seemingly endless stream of suggestions ;)

[XiozZe]

In XS12, all functions will move to subdivision level. These functions are planned:

unit/view:

• start 4 weeks holiday
• upgrade equipment to required +.05

sales page

• price settings

supplies page

• set order to 0, 1x
• get cheapest supply (warehouse only)

laboratories

• study next level: if available, start studying stage 1 of the next higher level of the same tech currently studied in this lab (else do nothing)

[TeaMike]

i assume you mean "copied to subdivision level" so its possible to execute them in bulk as well as from the subdivision itself

[XiozZe]

Nope, you can only execute them in bulk, but only edited them from the subdivision itself (at the moment). Check XS12.

[TeaMike]

"check XS 12": installed it. Theres only one button though, how do i test it? Selecting a subdivision doesn't make it yellow and i am really scared to click a botton of which i dunno what its gonna do

[XiozZe]

There is a drop-down box at the top of sale, supply and main pages. There you can decide what you let the Maintenance do. The default of every option is "do nothing", so it will do not do anything you haven't decided yourself.

For example, if I want to set the price of my bread to CTIE + Profit tax, I go to the sale page of my bakery and pick the "Profit Tax" option. Then, I fire the maintenance function, and it will set the price using the formula for the Profit Tax function (as well as doing all the other things you want it to do).

If I want to do the same tomorrow with the same settings, I can just press the maintenance button again tomorrow without fiddling with all the options, as it will save all your options made in the local storage of your browser.

[TeaMike]

This here my suggestion was not intended to require additional visits of the subdivision to make things happen; it was simply the idea to add buttons on subdivision level for the functions available in bulk, because they are already scripted and because they come in handy, i thought its an easy addition but i would definitely label it a low priority if not.

Well the usability for this certainly depends on the individual way each person tends his business, i cannot claim that MY way is THE way but i am certainly a power user of XS 10.5 and do not want to be left without it. XS 10.5 is really great and i don't see need to change things beyond bug fixes and adding / fixing a few extra functions, users would be more than happy already.

Wth this new style, what if i DO NOT want to do the same thing tomorrow, but only once? I'd need to re-visit all subdivisions because i have no clue, looking from the subdivision page, which subdivisions actually have a setting, and which do not, so it seems like a lot of extra work.

Here’s how i use XS 10.5: daily:

• full service on hospitals, auto-repair, restaurants
• price empty stock in stores and gas stations

weekly: improve repair , using it for factories and laboratories only (because different equipment quality installed; i mostly fix the other equipment with the virto-management tab because XS is very slow for repairing,

occasionally:

• zero supply, required supply (when i have to much stock of a product in the warehouse i may switch off the production supply, make an entry in "notes" to re-enable it on a certain date). However it applies to very selected subdivisions so am more oftenly using another script to "set supply to 0, 1x, 2x" directly on the supply page). But it could be that i stop production in 10-50 microprocessor factories for 3 days, then i will use XS)
• Supply 2x1: using this 1-2 times a rl-year on all factories to clean out excess supply
• supply 2x1: using it seldom (few times per month) after a production line with many same type factories broke, to remove excess stock. in that case i will use this function for a few days on SELECTED subdivisions until fixed (also in this case i will repair equipment of those deleted subdivisions before fixing supply). If its just about a few subdivisions, or such of not the same type, i will use *1x, 2x, zero supply” function directly on supply window with another script (and tacking this selected subdivisions via “notes” script.
• CTIE-price for production, prime cost for warehouses: using this once every few weeks or month only -to my company: only using it after seeing up new factory
• holiday on/off: mostly using together with zero supply due to overstock
• subdivision name changer: using after creation of new (multiple) subdivisions (once a month) or when i rename subdivisions for better organisation (every half year)
• delete subdivision: using it every few month

I am not using the other functions at all, but all the Extensions are very helpful.

[XiozZe]

First and foremost: XS12 is not based on your suggestion here, although I can understand why you think so. XS12 is inspired by my own old Virtoscript, one I made before I even started to work on XioScript. The Virtoscript pretty much does the same as XS12, but then without the options (I didn't had any preference to switch tactics sometimes). One hit = One day of work. Because tiring jobs are not fun jobs.

Let's say you have set your hospitals, auto-repair and restaurants on full service and stores and gas stations on price empty stock. This means you only have to press the button once a day to do all that. But why not add the repair of all equipment of all subdivisions to that daily task list as well? Repairing every day would hurt for just one click right? You say the fix for the other equipment is relatively slow, and although I have to admit it is quite CPU heavy (not server heavy), after pressing the button you can just check other things like your stats or your messages or the forum.

So why would you want to do something only once? It seems that you occasionally use the zero and required supply buttons to get rid of excess supply. Now you can select them all and zero the supply to give them some breathing room. With XS12 you would have to visit every factory to disable the supply, and then revisit them later to activate the required function again. At least, that's what you think, as if you pick the 3x stock option, the maintenance will check your stock every day to make sure that there is always 3 times as much goods in stock as is need. No excess of goods at all.

If you are talking about your warehouse I need a bit more information about your set-up, but for me: I have two types of warehouses: own-goods-only and world market warehouses. All factories are connected to the own-goods-only warehouses, both for supply as well as sale. The world market warehouses connects the own-goods-only warehouse with the world market: it buys missing goods and sells the surplus. (With Virtoscript: all automatic, even the supply contracts with the world market were automatic!) This way, I never have too many or too few goods in my warehouse. I will make the functions needed to make this happen, but if you need more you can always post a suggestion.

Doing CTIE-functions and prime cost-function every day wouldn't harm, so what's left is that once a month or once a half year name changer and subdivision deleter where you might want to have 10.5 still around for.

It is true however, that you will have a heck lot of work to choose an option for every single subdivision of your >1000 subdivisions. But, this should be a once in a lifetime.

Other things that XS12 wouldn't be the best choice for?

[XiozZe]

The XioOverview should be able to take over your company's macro management problems (in contrast to the subdivision). Open a new issue if you have suggestion / bugs relating to the XioOverview.