ZFR: It is what I was afraid of... again no simple way of doing things. Instead of a simple on/off switch on the training room (and other rooms) you have to pick creatures out one by one and lock it. Want to pause creatures from training just a few minutes till next payday is over? Pick them one by one, lock the room, then you have to unlock the room and again pick them and put them back in the room (those that don't default to training).
You can't pick creatures by level (in case for example you want crature(s) of level 8+ to attack or only creatures of level 4 and below to train), you can't pick creatures by happiness level, you have to pick one by one till you find you're holding the right one. AND YOU CAN'T EVEN PAUSE OR SLOW DOWN THE GAME TO GIVE ORDERS WHILE IT'S SLOWED DOWN.
I'm really trying to like this game, but things like this really bug me. I *love* Bullfrog and its games; like this game's sense of humour but I just can't enjoy this one because of all the minor annoyances.
-I've never had much issue with most of the default choices that creatures choose, since most rooms don't cost you anything after being placed. Some creatures need to be relocated to different lairs (a one time thing per creature, usually), and locking the training and scavenger rooms fixes those two problems. You could dig out space for a training room, with a lair and hatchery attached, then drop the creatures you want to train in that mini space. You should get a notice about creatures being unable to reach your treasure room, so you can know to go pull them out and let them collect their wages. After that, you'll probably hear something about "some of your creatures are unable to reach their lairs", and you can look for creatures that are standing in a hallway near the treasure room, looking like idiots. If the extra lair + hatchery don't have to go through the training room to connect to the rest of your dungeon, then you can just leave the training room locked when you're finished training and let the creatures roam on their own. Cycle creatures in and out of the mini-lair into other lairs to designate who can train.
-Lock the training room first, then start plucking out creatures. That way critters don't start wandering back in while you're trying to evacuate it.
-If there are creatures who default to training that you want not to train, then give them some other job. They'll perform that job (if their AI allows it, ex. warlocks don't manufacture). You'll want a massive workshop to make money anyway, so put those extra bodies to use! The Horned Reaper is the only creature that will just decide to quit working mid-job, everyone else will either keep at it (barring payday and food trips) or refuse to start working in the room in the first place.
-If nothing else, sprinkle some guard posts around to keep creatures busy; each guard post tile has space for one creature, and no one is adverse to manning a guard post. Just keep in mind that creatures don't remember WHICH guard post they are assigned to, when they take a food/pay break. They'll go back to
A guard post, but not necessarily the one you originally placed them at. I don't consider this lack of memory a huge issue simply because if I need creatures to defend an area, I'll grab them and drop them straight into that area on demand. Keep in mind that orcs default to guard posts, so they'll fill up guard post rooms (though I think they like training better, and will do that first if possible).
-You can pick up the highest level creatures of a type by clicking on the creature's icon in the minion tab, though you can't select the order of minions you pick up if they are of the same level. So if you have two level 9 orcs, three level 6 orcs, and then level 1 orcs, then clicking on the orc face will grab the level 9's first (order unknown, though it might be set?), then the level 6's, then the level 1's. Alternatively, grab minions based on their current job (an easy way to pluck a few creature(s) out of combat, like flies or hell hounds that have wandered into enemy territory).
