actually in the designate menu, you can designate large areas of items to be flagged for dumping.
d - b - d for dump
d - b - D for removing dump
In this way you can create quantum stock piles which contain any number of stones on one square. Just create a 1 square dump. d - b - d a bunch of stones for dumping. then reclaim those items (also in the designate d - b menu but I forget what the final hotkey is).
Oh but do be careful about designating large areas, since any buildings caught in the area will also be flagged. So if you ever dismantle a forge that got flagged, for example, your haulers would haul the anvil to the dump.
Arbit
2782
The Bird Flu -
If you’re looking for iron ore you can also try for igneous extrusive layers. They show up as dark gray on the embark menu. Be sure that it is dark gray rather than light gray because light gray is igneous intrusive and that generally has crap for metals. It case you don’t know, igneous extrusive means the stone was formed from cooling lava, so look around volcanoes. You can change the world gen parameters to increase volcanism if you’re having trouble finding volcanoes.
That’s how I’ve set myself up with easily accessible magma and iron in the past, but it has been a while since I’ve played.
Why is it a quantum stock pile? Aren’t all stock piles quantized just by the fact that you can only have multiples of 1 item(s) in a dump (and thus one quanta is 1 item)?
Quantum as in subspace. You can fit an infinite number of items into a single tile.
Designate is definitely the way to go for dumping. I typically make my dumps 1x3, because that lets up to three dwarves dump simultaneously. While they will definitely all dump in the first tile if they can, if the dump is slightly wider they get in each other’s way less. It’s a good idea to enclose the pit and put a double-door on it, because if you’re dumping unwanted body parts in there (which I do), it’s going to generate miasma.
If I’m making tortured physics analogies, the dumps are singularities that can fit anything. Except that the event horizon is kind of permeable, since if you go in and unmark something the dwarves will climb down into the pit and get it.
Marcin
2786
I understand designating for dumping, but I don’t understand the quantum stockpile. Are you saying that if I designate but only have a 1x1 stockpile*, the dwarves will carry it there anyway?
And if you don’t designate they will obey the fact that a 1x1 stockpile should only have 1 item?
That seems a bit … cheaty, if indeed the case :P
- or does this need to be some sort of pit they can drop stuff onto? If so, how does this work? Do you designate the empty space over the pit as the stockpile?
Dumps are different from stockpiles.
You have to mark them with z, since they’re Zones. And yes, they must be a pit, and there must be a flat walkable space next to pit. The pit doesn’t need to be sheer, it’s perfectly legal to have a 1-space wide pit that has ramps in it, just so long as there’s an open space you’ve channeled out. You designate the zone over the open space, not the flat spots where the dwarves will stand and chuck things in.
Dumps can hold an infinite number of items in every tile. And yes, it’s kind of cheaty if you’re using it for anything but disposing of things you never, ever want again. Some players will mark dumps over magma, in which case most items dumped truly be gone forever, but it’s not required. As I mentioned, I often set up a drawbridge smasher in the pit to permanently destroy things I dump in it.
Actually, it doesn’t need to be a pit at all. Just create a zone on the bare ground and it will work.
You do have to tag it as garbage though.
Another way to do this is to build a catapult and leave it with a continuous order to fire into a wall. The rocks will pile up against the wall with no limits, though they’ll be in a line of tiles instead of all in the same one, since your catapult won’t be perfectly accurate. This has the disadvantage that you can’t flag specific rocks to be used as ammo, but it has the advantage of training up siege operators so they’re skilled when you need them. Personally I never found siege engines very useful, but they are pretty fun.
Arbit
2790
My way of dealing with stone clutter was to build a workshop inside the room to be cleared to ensure the crafter grabs the right stones and to cut down on transit time. I’d also make a craft stockpile next door so crafts will be put into bins. Once you’re done, dismantle the workshop and remove the craft stockpile and the dwarfs will carry the crafts away in bins. This has the side effect of giving you badass crafters and an enormous volume of crafts so you can buy those $20,000 engraved steel studded steel bolts the traders bring. Just be sure the workshop is not cluttered when you dismantle it, otherwise a supernova of crafts will explode all over the ground.
My backup plan was to just not give a shit unless the stone was blocking a door or something.
My biggest problem is beds not being claimed unless I micro assign every single one. On the wiki, and in Calistas legendary tutorial, its claimed that my Dorfs should grab them once they are placed (if there isn’t already a suitable spot for them to sleep). Am i bugged or featured?
BTW, apologies for jumping nose first into the end of a nearly 100 page thread.
Dwarves will sleep in unassigned beds, but they need a bedroom of their own to stay happy.
So no matter what, i will have to manually assign each of the dwarves their own bedroom? Thats brutal :) my current fort is only about 90, but thats a lot of micro.
Arbit
2794
You still have to use the bed to define the room as a bedroom. Once you’ve done that, a dwarf will eventually claim it as their own.
Having to interrupt a project to carve out bedrooms and define them for a 20+ immigrant wave is one of the most annoying things about this game.
Then I must be experiencing a bug in my version (got a PPC mac so im back using a version from 4 months ago) because no matter how long I wait after defining a room as a ‘bedroom’ no D’s will ever claim it.
This is the single main reason I stopped playing.
Arbit
2797
If you can relax your OCD, dwarfs will be content in a big ol’ barracks as long as there enough masterwork engravings/statues/knicknacks around for them to look at. My last fort (back when the last big update came out) was like this but I chickened out on learning the new military system.
Has he fixed up the military so it’s not so buggy now? I’ve been thinking about getting back into it.
There was a bug at one point where dwarves would sleep in any nearby bedroom, whether someone else owned it or not. This resulted in dwarves not claiming bedrooms, since they have to sleep in a defined, unclaimed bedroom to claim it for themselves. I believe that’s on the “fixed” list, but I don’t know in what version.
Absolutely, the military scheduling system is ‘fixed’ but it is pretty impenetrable without a thorough wiki reading on alert levels and the scheduling therein. After you take the 20 mins to get everybody scheduled and training, it runs great with everyone grabbing the appropriate gear and training, defending, patrolling. Make sure you make backpacks and flasks otherwise things will get fun. Also, when scheduling the minimum dwarves required for a task should be set lower then the number in your squad, that way some of the dwarves can take a break/not lose mind.
Arbit
2800
The new military system is insane. So unintuitive! And I love how he finally implemented wooden training weapons while simultaneously removing the extreme lethality of sparring i.e. the reason people were baying for easily equippable practice weapons in the first place.
I think I might hate this patch. Every cool gameplay improvement come with two annoying micromanagement requirements. I actually have to make soap now? What the fuck.
