Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Oddible]

Really embarrassed to be asking this but, I struck the earth in the middle of a field with Down stairs (designation not construction) and now I want to construct a second story above ground (I know, not very dwarfy of me, what with the shortness and the heights).  However, I cannot seem to do anything with these down stairs. 

I've tried to remove them via both methods (d-x, d-n) but it doesn't do a thing.  I've tried to merely construct Up stairs on top of them (b-C-u) as well as up/down stairs (b-C-x) to no avail. 

What am I doing wrong here?

[acetech09]

Really embarrassed to be asking this but, I struck the earth in the middle of a field with Down stairs (designation not construction) and now I want to construct a second story above ground (I know, not very dwarfy of me, what with the shortness and the heights).  However, I cannot seem to do anything with these down stairs. 

I've tried to remove them via both methods (d-x, d-n) but it doesn't do a thing.  I've tried to merely construct Up stairs on top of them (b-C-u) as well as up/down stairs (b-C-x) to no avail. 

What am I doing wrong here?

I'm pretty sure you have to channel out (d-h) down stairs then construct up/down stairs in its place.

[neblime]

build up or up/down stairs with b-C-u/x, no reason it shouldn't be working, make sure you have dwarves with masonry carpentry or metalcrafting (depending what the stairs are made of) and that those dwarves aren't already busy.
when you say "to no avail" what exactly is going wrong?

[Oddible]

build up or up/down stairs with b-C-u/x, no reason it shouldn't be working, make sure you have dwarves with masonry carpentry or metalcrafting (depending what the stairs are made of) and that those dwarves aren't already busy.
when you say "to no avail" what exactly is going wrong?

The problem isn't that I don't have dwarfs marked with masonry or even that they're busy, it isn't an occupation issue.  I literally cannot designate or give a build order on this spot with the down stairs already there, so there is no work to be done.

I ended up going the route recommended and channeled the stairway out then constructed a new one, unfortunately it seems that you can only build an up/down stairway from the top down so my mason was trapped underground, I had to dig a new stairway to get him out so he could build the stairs after I channeled the old ones out.

[neblime]

The problem isn't that I don't have dwarfs marked with masonry or even that they're busy, it isn't an occupation issue.  I literally cannot designate or give a build order on this spot with the down stairs already there, so there is no work to be done.
[/quote]
why cant you designate? what's the message?
blocked?

[Godlysockpuppet]

The problem isn't that I don't have dwarfs marked with masonry or even that they're busy, it isn't an occupation issue.  I literally cannot designate or give a build order on this spot with the down stairs already there, so there is no work to be done.

why cant you designate? what's the message?
blocked?
[/quote]
Of course you can't designate. An up/down stairs or an up stairs or even a ramp all need to be designated on a tile that hasen't been dug out yet. What you need to do click (b)uild (c)onstructions (?)up/down stairs and build it on the spit of the down stairs.

[Sutremaine]

unfortunately it seems that you can only build an up/down stairway from the top down so my mason was trapped underground

You can build up/down staircases from either the top or the bottom. What may have happened is that your mason underground was trying to build a staircase using a building material above ground, because when you select a building material the game looks only at where the building material is relative to the build site. It doesn't check for dwarves with Masonry enabled, or for any dwarves at all.

This, apart from construction speed, is why I enable Masonry (and Carpentry) on all dwarves and use profiles to control who uses the workshops.

[space lungs]

If you're able to construct eight sets of stairs surrounding this offending staircase, you'll get to enjoy the benefits of having a million stairs. It can help when you have a bunch of people trying to go up and down at the same time, plus when one set drops out for one flight it's less of a problem

[Aslandus]

If you're able to construct eight sets of stairs surrounding this offending staircase, you'll get to enjoy the benefits of having a million stairs. It can help when you have a bunch of people trying to go up and down at the same time, plus when one set drops out for one flight it's less of a problem

Yes, the solution to all stairs related problems is to build more stairs... also, you can build stairs from the construction menu (b-c) then up, down, or up/down stairs.... If you want to limit movement on your stairs, you can put hatches on top of them, which work like vertical doors as far as I can tell...