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Author Topic: Design Question - Burrows  (Read 616 times)

dleave

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Design Question - Burrows
« on: December 05, 2013, 07:47:04 pm »

New hour, new question  ;D

So say I wanted to divide my fortress up into 6 different fortresses basically, using burrows, to cut down on some of the relationships hopefully and just generally be more organized:

1)  What would each burrow need?  Everything?  Like it's own well and hospital?  Or would just workshops, piles, dining, and rooms be enough?

2)  If the latter option isn't enough, the wiki says you can put dwarfs in multiple burrows: Could you make a burrow with just a hospital, well, other central stuff like that, and then add all your dwarfs to that burrow + their home/work burrow, and make it work like that?
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Garath

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2013, 07:56:39 pm »

That would probably work. You could also make the seperate burrows all include that area. Burrows can overlap without muc problems. And with the relatively new minecarts, it's very easy to shuttle cargo from one of your sub-sections to another, so each section doesn't have to 'do everything', but things can be spread out a bit more. It was possible before (and has been done), but minecarts make it easier. While producing food and booze is probably good to have everyone do some, making armor, weapons, clothing possibly, that kind of stuff, can be done at some centralized point. Having only one spot produce booze and growing stuff is probably going to be micromanagement nightmare to keep everyone else supplied, but still possible.

So yeah, it just depends how much effort you want to go through. Note though that if you make one well, extras arn't that much extra trouble. Every dwarf is a qualified surgeon, no patient ever dies during surgery. Skill just speeds the whole process up, so you don't need a centralized hospital if you don't want to.
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dleave

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2013, 08:21:43 pm »

Great, thanks much.
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WanderingKid

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2013, 02:55:53 am »

One note:

Burrows can cause a monster volume of cancellation spam if the traffic can actually path to the jobs in other 'cells'.  It also doesn't enforce where dwarves can go, it only enforces where they can take jobs.

You'll want physical controls on their pathing as well as burrows to assist with where they try to do things.

dleave

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2013, 03:16:20 pm »

One note:

Burrows can cause a monster volume of cancellation spam if the traffic can actually path to the jobs in other 'cells'.  It also doesn't enforce where dwarves can go, it only enforces where they can take jobs.

You'll want physical controls on their pathing as well as burrows to assist with where they try to do things.

Very good to know, thanks.
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Garath

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2013, 03:39:24 pm »

ie, if a rock is outside the burrow but reachable, you'll get loads of messages of people taking the job to move it, then realizing it's outside the burrow and canceling.
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Quote from: Urist Imiknorris
Jam a door with its corpse and let all the goblins in. Hey, nobody said it had to be a weapon against your enemies.
Quote from: Frogwarrior
And then everyone melted.

dleave

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2013, 03:56:10 pm »

Could this be solved without paths, but instead by just making sure every little workshop and pile is specialized?  I.E. This takes from that, that gives to this, etc, etc.  And maybe leaving a centralized pleb unit without burrows, to handle all the hauling?

Also, are there any recommended posts or guides or whatever, that get into pathing in greater detail than the wiki?
« Last Edit: December 06, 2013, 04:03:15 pm by dleave »
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Kaos

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2013, 08:52:04 pm »

That's the big detail about burrows, they limit where dwarves can take jobs from, i.e. a stone stockpile inside the burrow will allow dwarves to take stone hauling jobs that originate from that stockpile, problems ensue when the stone item they choose to place in the stockpile is outside the burrow (like in your newly dug mines), or maybe the wheelbarrow to be used in that stockpile happens to be outside the burrow (like just produced in your carpenter workshop), and so on.

I guess you could have a closed-system burrow, for example a carpenter workshop that takes from a logs stockpile and gives to a furniture stockpile all within the burrow, the furniture SP takes only from the carpenter WS, not sure if it giving to another SP or WS outside the burrow produces cancellation spam, the problem would be the logs SP, it should only give to the carpenter WS, but if it takes from anywhere you'll get cancellation spam, unless you use a minecart airlock but you'll have to make sure the burrowed dwarves can't fiscally path to the logs outside the burrow and let the airlock handle it.

Other option would be to use a simple minecart quantum stockpile, outside the burrow a feeder stockpile takes from anywhere and gives to a minecart set to autodump, the tile where the minecart autodumps on should be inside the burrow and this QSP should take from nowhere and give to your WS inside the burrow, you could potentially do the same with a finished products FSP taking from the workshop and giving to another minecart that dumps the finished items from inside the burrow to a QSP outside the burrow.
« Last Edit: December 06, 2013, 09:02:13 pm by Kaos »
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WanderingKid

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2013, 09:28:38 pm »

Regarding burrows, I would recommend using them in the following way, and only the following.  Otherwise it becomes messy.

1: Civilian Burrow
This is for civilian alerts.  It covers EVERYWHERE inside the fort that's 'safe' once you seal the doors.  From Magma Forges to the wastepile on the top floor of the tower, it's one contiguous burrow.

2: Military positions
AKA: East Wall Parapits, West Wall Defense, etc.

This is so you can easily send troops to guard an area during a siege approach.  It's particularly useful for marksdwarves.

That's it.  Otherwise burrows cause a LOT more trouble than they're worth.

Garath

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2013, 05:36:05 am »

closed systems, while still being able to move stuff around, is easier now with minecarts. You just have to make sure you get a place where the minecart can pass, but dorfs can't. If they can't path to the problem stone/whatever they won't try to pick it.
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Quote from: Urist Imiknorris
Jam a door with its corpse and let all the goblins in. Hey, nobody said it had to be a weapon against your enemies.
Quote from: Frogwarrior
And then everyone melted.

dleave

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Re: Design Question - Burrows
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2013, 01:13:44 pm »

Good stuff, thanks all.

I would still be interested in a good post/guide on pathing if anyone can point me in the direction of something.
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