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[Centigrade]

Hello friends.

I have a prosperous fortress which has several thousand drinks, several thousand prepared meals, and several hundred raw food; yet, some of my dwarfs are hunting small vermin for food, and a few have died of dehydration or starvation. One of the recently deceased was inside his room, and so I presume he had an injury and couldn't drink alcohol; but, others are in my crafting hall, slowly wandering around in search of vermin and dying of either dehydration or starvation. I have no idea why they don't just walk upstairs to the legendary dining room and have a masterwork meal.

At the bottom of this post is a link to a backup save from the first of spring in year 11, the sixth year of my fortress. I am currently playing a save that is a few months ahead, during which about a dozen dwarfs randomly die of thirst during spring and then more start to die in summer. Hopefully by downloading this save and taking a look around, you can see it happen and figure out why so that I can fix whatever is causing it to happen.

Here is a log of things I have checked.

First, no one is confined to a burrow. The only two burrows that exist in this fortress are one for an archery tower (on z+1), and one for the dining hall and food/drink stockpiles (on z-9). Those burrows are each tied to alerts, so that all the civilians run to the dining hall and the military run up to the archery tower during an ambush or siege.

Second, there appears to be a clear path to the food and drink. Although there are some floor hatches down the central shaft in a few points, none of them are forbidden. I am even watching other dwarfs go up and down the stairs to pick up and deliver materials and finished goods to and from the crafting area. For reference, the magma-powered crafting hall is on z-32.

Third, none of the alcohol or food is forbidden, nor is any of it marked to be dumped. I couldn't imagine how that might have come to be but I figured it wouldn't hurt to double-check it.

And with that I am stumped. I invite whomever reads this to download the region folder and take a look for me.

Thanks in advance!

Download

e: Fixed the Download url.

[Blue_Dwarf]

There's no save at the bottom of this post.

[slothen]

i would double check the pathing again.  This kind of thing is almost always shenanigans with constructions, up/down stairs, or ramps.

[proxn_punkd]

Do any of the food items in the stockpiles have names associated with them?

If so, it probably means there's a uniform conflict with someone in your military, and they're hogging the food so no one else can have it. Uniform conflicts are caused by a dwarf being active military while having mining, woodcutting, or hunting labors active. Either disable the guilty labors, or remove them from the military, then use DF Hack's "cleanowned" option to make the food they've hoarded available again.

^my most frequent cause of unexplained starvation.

- - -

In addition, I agree that you need to double-check pathing. Remember that ramps have to be supported by a wall on the far side, or they'll be unusable.

[Button]

When this happens to me it's always because a dwarven bathtub has been filled to 4 or more.

[thegoatgod_pan]

Everything sounds good except: "First, no one is confined to a burrow. The only two burrows that exist in this fortress are one for an archery tower (on z+1), and one for the dining hall and food/drink stockpiles (on z-9). Those burrows are each tied to alerts, so that all the civilians run to the dining hall and the military run up to the archery tower during an ambush or siege."

I don't think there is a way, besides giving a movement order, or ordering them to patrol or defend the burrow, to make the military run up to the archery tower just because it is a burrow. Burrows usually only apply to civilians. If you give sweeping burrow commands with the normal alert menu, you might be assigning your dwarves to odd destinations. Were the starving dwarves civilians or military?

Maybe paste the save? It would be easier to look at it first hand.

[Lav]

I fixed the download link, due to the typo it did not appear in the OP's post (but it's still there and can be accessed by quoting the message).

Download

Anyway, I checked the central shaft and it seems to be fine. So unless some soldiers claiming all the food for themselves as proxn_punkd supposed, I have no ideas to offer.

A question though - where do the dwarves die? Do they die in the magmaworks area, or in some other area around the fort?

[davomacdave]

Looking at the save.  Maybe I am wrong, but it looks like there is no connection on the way to the Magma furnaces.  I guess zLevel 22, there are four hatches, but I see that they are over "red sand Cavern Floor" tiles.  So, anyone under that level have no path back up.   I dont know how this was done.  Dig some downward stairways.  Again, I could be wrong.

[Centigrade]

If so, it probably means there's a uniform conflict with someone in your military, and they're hogging the food so no one else can have it. Uniform conflicts are caused by a dwarf being active military while having mining, woodcutting, or hunting labors active. Either disable the guilty labors, or remove them from the military, then use DF Hack's "cleanowned" option to make the food they've hoarded available again.

None of this was the issue.

In addition, I agree that you need to double-check pathing. Remember that ramps have to be supported by a wall on the far side, or they'll be unusable.

I have no ramps. The only vertical pathing is a central 2x2 up/down staircase that other dwarfs are happy to use.

[Centigrade]

I fixed the download link, due to the typo it did not appear in the OP's post (but it's still there and can be accessed by quoting the message).

Download

Anyway, I checked the central shaft and it seems to be fine. So unless some soldiers claiming all the food for themselves as proxn_punkd supposed, I have no ideas to offer.

A question though - where do the dwarves die? Do they die in the magmaworks area, or in some other area around the fort?

They die in the magmaworks area. I realize the game is procedurally generated so the outcomes won't be quite the same for each run-through of the save, but in the playthrough I am on that's in mid-autumn right now dwarfs were dying in the magmaworks area. A group of about a dozen were loitering around the magma glass furnaces, flashing blue and brown thirst/hunger arrows for months and interrupting their jobs to hunt small vermin for food. What was very curious for me was the fact that some of these dwarfs should not have been down there, unless they were item hauling: people dying included an engraver, a carpenter, and other jobs that had nothing to do with glassmaking. I have no idea why those guys were lingering down there.

In the game I am playing now the deaths have stopped, after all the people who seemed to be mysteriously stuck downstairs died, but I am going to load up the backup save I linked and see if running the cleanowned keeps the problem from happening.

[davomacdave]

To add to my first comment.  In that save file, on level 22, there is a mass-deconstruction order on the walls and staircase 2x2 shaft.  It gets deconstructed to "red sand Cavern floor".  Which severs the link to the magmaworks level.

[Centigrade]

To add to my first comment.  In that save file, on level 22, there is a mass-deconstruction order on the walls and staircase 2x2 shaft.  It gets deconstructed to "red sand Cavern floor".  Which severs the link to the magmaworks level.

... Huh. That explains it! Thanks.