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Author Topic: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.  (Read 3603 times)

aoxoa

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Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« on: August 18, 2012, 06:09:26 am »

Ok im not the best ever DF player out there, and yes I love my craftsdwarf making stonecrafts every time.. However I have found out with even a small stone stockpile that it causes my dwarves to be so slow at everything. Stockpile has such a high priority that every idle dwarf just carries it.

Why? I want an option to for preferences. Not only do my dwarves even with wheelbarrows fill it way too slow for the current amount of stone I need, but Hey look a stockpile of stone is right next to you mason/craftsdwarf... But oh wait you to go to the furthest ends to grab your own stone. That stockpile right next to you isn't good enough.

Yes I do like Progress, and find the *Much* slower carry rate is good, it just slows down a starter fortress way too much. Even a small stone stockpile, 6 or so at most just makes every single dwarf slow as a sloth. Trust me I love this game, but still, changing the speed of heavier items just made every fortress with a stone stockpile 50% slower at least.

That is why not only do I never put stone stockpiles at all now, but once I first trade, I changed my craftsdwarf to something better. Yes im QQing, im sorry for that but at the moment moving stone is way too involved compared to profit. I can get way more worth from trading other stuff. Those Masons and etc go get your stones, at a slow rate hahah.

I do not at all want anything changed. I am just wondering what you guys think about this. I used to just have a stone craftsdwarf nonstop making rock crafts, which would be transported to a stockpile with bins. But with the stone hauling speed its so slow. (actually previously I would just make glass serrated blades, the big ones, forget their name but they traded for heaps, good that it was nerfed if thats the word)
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Bigheaded

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2012, 06:15:33 am »

I don't have a problem with it.

I make sure all dwarves i want to have doing something else, to ignore all hauling.
semi useful dwarves, turn stone hauling off
"hauler" dwarves whom have some labors enabled which i rarely use or are covered by a lot of dwares can do so when they arn't doing anything.

Certainly i wouldnt have a stone stockpile within the first ~year unless i intend to build a wall around my fort in stone. After that i have enough dwarves to be hauling it to make stonecrafters/wall makers/whatever else i use stone for, to work faster so they don't lug stones.



The main problem with stone stockpiles, is that they use the most recently mined stone (verify? :P ), this is usually the furthest away piece of stone possible, so they run absolutely miles there and back passing like 100 other stones.
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Dear Urist McStockpileDrone
I just found a barrel which contained a wheelbarrow. Inside the wheelbarrow was another barrel. I don't even understand how that is possible.

aoxoa

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2012, 06:38:10 am »

This in the past has worked out great. But currently any stonehauling dwarves will be so slow that congestion and every single dwarf that has stonehauling will be so useless and slow that every other job they can do will never happen.

They seem to want to haul stone at such a slow rate instead of any other profession they do. It just makes sense to me to not only never have stone stockpiles, which not only get slowly filled even with wheelbarrows, but the dwarves near them totally love to not only ignore the stockpile, but go grab the furthest stone it seems anyway (Despite there is stone stockpiled 1-2 squares away!?).

My current fort is going so great, with no stone stockpile every single dwarf is doing what I want. I have huge amounts of native silver, and my burner just burns. I just started and since im so bored of just mining straight down to magma, and channeling it for free wood (Plus its my first migrant wave) its going good.

I hate to say it, but stockpiles (Only one I have is food stockpile near my farms) just at the moment cause so much congestion(Stone Stockpile, not food). Unfortuantly atm im on my slow comp, hence why starting a new game. But my other fort, with 135 dwarves which can easily 100 FPS 200+ dwarves is just so annoying with stockpiles.

I swear stockpiles are the worst thing ever, they are great of course... But every single dwarf would rather go put a piece of stone slowly at something, or other, instead of their own job. Of course I take hauling off, but they still manage to do everything but what their told too. I even P the workshops etc so only THEY can use it. But alas. There is always something dumbass stopping them from for-filling their role. lol Its all good, the main problem is solved, by NOT building stone stockpiles. The rest of this is jsut them being plain annoying and lazy.

EDITED Some errors.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2012, 06:41:32 am by aoxoa »
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aoxoa

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2012, 06:50:32 am »

The main problem with stone stockpiles, is that they use the most recently mined stone (verify? :P ), this is usually the furthest away piece of stone possible, so they run absolutely miles there and back passing like 100 other stones.

Ok that may be why that 50% of the time, instead of grabbing the stone 1-2 blocks away, nope they go run off to the furthest reaches of the map to grab something, and slowly, (EVER SO SLOWLY), bring it back hahah!.

This is why I virtually slap my rock users whenever I see them run off and later on (Way too later) bring a piece of stone back to use.
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redsector

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2012, 07:52:45 am »

but the dwarves near them totally love to not only ignore the stockpile, but go grab the furthest stone it seems anyway (Despite there is stone stockpiled 1-2 squares away!?).

Calculations of distance to an object required for a crafting job ignores z-levels and actual walking distance involved. If there's a stone stockpile 5 tiles away from your mason's workshop, but there's also loose stone on the z-level below, directly under the workshop, your craftsdwarf will get his stone from below, since that's only 1 tile away, technically. The fact that he has to walk 200 tiles to the nearest staircase first doesn't matter.

Also, your dwarf will grab those materials that are nearest to him at the time the job is assigned to him, not nearest to the workshop. Which means that if your workshop is in the east of your fortress and Urist McCrafter is hanging out in a meeting hall somewhere in the western part when he decides that he's now going to craft that stone table you ordered, he will most certainly carry a chunk of stone from somewhere in the west across the whole fortress.

Solution to both problems: call up the stockpile's menu and set it to give to the workshop. This means that a dwarf working in that shop will only take materials from this particular stockpile. (you can further use this with multiple workshops/stockpiles to control which kind of stone is used for a certain kind of job, e. g. using only mudstone for crafts, granite for furniture, dolomite for building blocks and so on.)
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krenshala

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2012, 10:02:26 am »

It sounds like you guys need to add more wheelbarrows to your stone stockpiles.

Since the stockpiles have a limit of three barrows currently, the best solution to adding more is to make a number of small stockpiles instead of one big one (if you use one big one), and assign each at least two, if not three wheelbarrows.  The dwarves move much faster when hauling a stone with a barrow. A 2x3 or 3x3 stockpile with three barrows means they can keep up with all but the best crafters, assuming they don't have to travel too far to restock.
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Quote from: Haspen
Quote from: phoenixuk
Zepave Dawnhogs the Butterfly of Vales the Marsh Titan ... was taken out by a single novice axedwarf and his pet war kitten. Long Live Domas Etasastesh Adilloram, slayer of the snow butterfly!
Doesn't quite have the ring of heroics to it...
Mother: "...and after the evil snow butterfly was defeated, Domas and his kitten lived happily ever after!"
Kids: "Yaaaay!"

Laurin

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2012, 10:41:58 am »

I also used to make stoncrafts for export, just to get rid of all the stone. Since there isn't so much stone anymore, I only make so much crafts and add some food to the trading. I always have food in abundance and a good cook can make very worthy stacks of roasts.
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backora900

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2012, 11:15:20 am »

...
Why? I want an option to for preferences. Not only do my dwarves even with wheelbarrows fill it way too slow for the current amount of stone I need, but Hey look a stockpile of stone is right next to you mason/craftsdwarf... But oh wait you to go to the furthest ends to grab your own stone. That stockpile right next to you isn't good enough.
...
Then why don't you set order on your stockpile to give to that workshop? I should force dwarves to take rocks only from that stockpile and from nowhere else (not even from some second stone stockpile which overflows with rocks). You can also chose which kind of stone can be used in that workshop by selecting it in stockpile menu.
Make sure to set "give to" order (q-g on stockpile) for every workshop or a secondary stockpile which should take rocks from the primary stockpile.

And as for the slow-filling-stockpile part you can break one large stockpile into several smaller like krenshala suggested.

If you play a little with stockpile orders (take/give, take from links only...) you will find that hauling stone and wood is quite easy with the new hauling system. Problems come with stockpiles accepting barrels, bins and especially seed stockpiles. But it will probably be improved in the future.
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krenshala

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2012, 04:21:50 pm »

Actually, I've been having good luck with a small non-bin/barrel stockpile set to give to the main bin/barrel approved stockpile to avoid that mess.

For example, I like recovering spent but unbroken bolts from my hunters.  I have a 2x4 or 3x4 ammo stockpile that accepts bins and only accepts from links. Right next to it is a 1x4 ammo stockpile that accepts from anywhere, does not allow bins and is set to give to the main (ammo bin) stockpile.  Dwarves bring bolts, individual and stacks, to the 1x4, and periodically a dwarf will grab a bin from the 3x4 and clear th 1x4 of bolts in about 2 or 3 seconds realtime, and then replace the bin in the main stockpile.

This works equally well for seed stockpiles -- the farms take from the barrels, the haulers drop off next to the barrels and occasionally move it all to a barrel at once.  No more "can't plant: no seeds because urist McSlowAssHauler has the barrel". :D
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Quote from: Haspen
Quote from: phoenixuk
Zepave Dawnhogs the Butterfly of Vales the Marsh Titan ... was taken out by a single novice axedwarf and his pet war kitten. Long Live Domas Etasastesh Adilloram, slayer of the snow butterfly!
Doesn't quite have the ring of heroics to it...
Mother: "...and after the evil snow butterfly was defeated, Domas and his kitten lived happily ever after!"
Kids: "Yaaaay!"

Iosyn

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2012, 06:53:23 pm »

Yeah, stone stockpiles annoy me no end-- just quantum stockpile it and then reclaim it once you're done-- maybe set it as another stockpile set to give to your workshop.
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GreatWyrmGold

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #10 on: August 19, 2012, 07:16:04 pm »

Protip: Minecarts.
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wuphonsreach

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Re: Stone Stockpiles ruin forts.
« Reply #11 on: August 20, 2012, 06:55:01 pm »

Protip: Minecarts.

Yep, create a 3x3 stockpile, erase 2 tiles (middle and the edge next to the workshop).  Put a minecart stop in the middle tile that dumps to the tile next to the workshop.  Put a 2nd stone stockpile that only takes from links, has no wheelbarrows and which gives to the workshop in the tile that the minecart dumps into.  Then define a minecart route with 1 stop, no depart schedules, which takes from the source stockpile, and assign a minecart to it.

Code: [Select]
XXXWWW
X>YWWW
XXXWWW

X = source pile, take from anywhere, uses 3 wheelbarrows
> = track stop that dumps to the east
Y = quantum pile, takes only from links (but has no inbound links), gives to the workshop
W = workshop

Your fort will be clear of stone within a few seasons as it all gets nicely tucked away in the no-effort-required quantum stockpile by your Mason / Craftdwarf / Mechanic workshop.
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