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[AQuebman]

So I was curious what other players use for stockpiles and which ones they setup to allow bins or not allow bins along with which ones they setup to use Wheelbarrows.  I will start off by saying im a casual player so i'm not nearly as experienced as many of you on these forums.

The only stockpiles ive setup are some of the basic ones like wood or Stone which my stone stockpile I setup to use 3 wheelbarrows that the dwarves seem to busy to ever go fill lol.  In relation to some of the workshops though the stockpiles can get a bit confusing on what I should include and whether ill have issues with bins/barrels.  Like with seed stockpiles for brewing/farming should I turn off bins and only allow bins/barrels for the food/booze stockpile? 

What about for butchering..I assume Refuse is just for crap that is never needed and should be outside but I always get a little confused on how to split up certain corpses or even certain parts.  The cook may want the meat but what parts do craftsman want or heck are there pieces that are useless I should include in my refuse pile.

 I have gone wiki reading so I have that knowledge but deciding how to setup good usable stockpiles gets rather confusing so I thought hearing what other players use and setup might be helpful not only for myself but for some of the other players who are relatively new to this crazy dwarfy experience. 

In the mean time im going to go back to hauling crap while zombie goblins throw a party on the edge of my fortress, apparently siege has a different meaning to them then it does to me lol.

[Jorn Stones]

Food stockpiles.. I use a total of 8.

pile one: seeds only (potentially can be split into two piles for underground and above farming), with 100 seeds per bag, barrels aren't necessary at all, and actually make it lead to less job cancel spams. In init. files individual seeds are set to 500 with a total cap of 10000 for me, which means the seed stockpile is rather large for me with barrels off, but that's no issue, i need the seeds to run my industries!

pile two: fiber plants and dye plants, dedicated in the clothing industry to avoid mixups with the food industry, allows me to 'allocate' power to a specific industry without having to forbid items.

pile 3: unprocessed/unmilled food and plants.

pile 4: processed/milled food

pile 5: boooooze (plant drinks only)

pile 6: prepared meals only (also mainly used for export being that they can be worth as much as 20.000 a barrel

pile 7: milk stockpile, accepts only barrels of milks at a milking station within my animal pens. This comes together with a refuse stockpile accepting only animal hair/yarn (last option only), and a furniture stockpile accepting only buckets. result: milker grabs bucket, milks animal, hauler comes, gets bucket, empties it in milk barrel, placed it on milk stockpile, when enough milk is accumulated, its churned into cheese. Shearing/yarn spinning as well.

pile 8: Dye pile, contains just barrels with dye for the clothing industry

Refuse piles:

Craft refuse (bones, ivory, horns, shells, etc) stuff that can be used for crafting and doesnt generate miasma.

slaughter pile: outside stockpile, accepts only corpses, vermin, and body parts. Butcher nearby, Tanner usualy as well.

Tanner pile: everything off except 'raw hide'

yarn pile, next to the pen farm, accepts only animal hair, so wool, in order for spinning there.

Metal piles:

1 stone pile, accepts only ore and flux, 3 wheelbarrows

2: bar pile, accepts only coal/charcoal

3: bar pile: accepts only metal bars

4: furniture pile, set to accept only metal furniture and no other materials, 3 wheelbarrows assigned due to gold statues and other metal furniture weighing a shitton, also set to give to a furniture pile that accepts only masterwork/artifacts

5: individual piles for armor/weapons/ammo, all metal materials only, set to give to other seperate (armory) stockpiles that accept only masterwork/artifacts. this way every now and then you can just have all the rubbish junk molten done with one drag and click.

6 finished goods pile, same principles as above.



Masons pile: accepts only stone, economic rock/ore/clay disabled, 3 wheelbarrows


now these are the majority of piles I use, of course I also have a lot more for all the other industries. With seperating it like this, its a lot easier to see how much you have left of something, such as seeing that your booze pile is almost empty, or that you are nearly out of coal.
Some other tricks on hauling I use: Disable stone hauling on miners, disable wood hauling on woodcutters, and food hauling on farmers. The result is that miners keep mining, wood cutters keep cutting, and farmers keep harvesting plants instead of running for the barrel every time they pick a crop.

Init. setting: I greatly reduced the hauling distances for bins and barrels, its at something like 100+ squares right now which is just ridiculous. What this means is that if an item is laying outside your fort at 120 squares distance from a bin full of stuff but with room for more, a dwarf will run to the damned bin, take it all the way to the one single item, and then haul that superheavy bin back, wasting 5 minutes over one single item. Making it so that they dont walk further then, lets say, 25 squares, they will haul the individual item to the pile, and then sooner or later someone will put it in a bin at the pile, saving a lot of time really.


Depending on how large your fortress is, how humongous your industry is, and what you like to trade away etc, you could do anything with stockpiles as you'd like. My fort has 250 dwarves, they produce so much that without the stockpiles everything becomes unmanageable but if you only have like 50 dwarves, you dont need all those dedicated stockpiles, since your fort will be a lot smaller too.

[AQuebman]

Yeah my piles as of right now are more a combination that ive stuck beneath the respective workshops a z level down.  Once that use similar items ive connected so the farms and the booze stockpiles are just one big stockpile to hold them both.  I may take some of your ideas though because I like splitting things out its just sometimes difficult to figure out what should go with what or what certain workshops may need. 

The milk hair/yarn one is one i never though of just because ive never really gotten my clothing/tailoring industries up before so thats a good one to know.

[Zuglarkun]

I don't ever use pots or barrels for food. Especially seeds, cause of the annoying announcements thing.

The only stockpiles I ever use wheelbarrows on are those that contain heavy items like stone, statues, anvils that will take forever for haulers to haul around. Wheelbarrows really speed up hauling in these cases.

Other kinds of stockpiles which I might apply usage of wheelbarrows are the kind that you want to store your items in bins (because there is usually a whole lot of them) but don't want haulers to take the bin off the stockpile to gather scattered items. Stuff like cloth, leather, weapons, armor, clothing, cut gems. Anything that you are likely to accumulate but not likely to trade away. I usually use feeder stockpiles for these (a 1x[length of main stockpile] stockpile directly next to the main stockpile that is set to "take from anywhere", and set to give to the main stockpile. As for the main stockpile, I set it to "take from links only")



For refuse, you can refer above to my setup and adopt it if you find it useful. I just create stockpiles for those refuse materials that are useful. I keep bones, skulls, hair/wool, shells and hooves/horn if I'm inclined to mass renovate my rooms with spiffy high value furniture. (The square of beds in the bottom right hand corner) And the rest, I leave in the butchers and mass dump them out periodically. Otherwise I rarely create refuse stockpiles, as dwarves will scoot over to the butchers to pick up what they need if you don't create a stockpile for the butchering byproducts.

Though usually I tend to use wheelbarrows for these only when I need massive dwarfpower for other tasks like megaprojects, as wheelbarrows will limit the hauling jobs to the amount of wheelbarrows in the stockpile. So you can have some hauling going on in the background while you focus your attention on your megaproject. That's probably why the OP has problems getting dwarves to haul for those stockpiles as only a max of 3 haul jobs are generated, assuming you are using 3 wheelbarrows for that stockpile.

The feeder stockpile thing is immensely useful for having some variety in cooking ingredients instead of tallow tallow and tallow roast. Just setup some 1x2 or 1x1 stockpiles adjacent to your kitchens that take from different ingredient stockpiles in your food stockpile area, you set it more than 1x1 to have some buffer room for food haulers if mass producing prepared meals.



As you might tell from the screenshots, I'm rather OCD about my stockpiles and usually allocate a great amount of dug out area for industries. But its really useful to tell what you have or don't have at a glance.

Been messing around with a "buffet cellar" concept for my dining halls. Since dwarves drink directly from the barrel/pot at the stockpiles, I've been kind enough to move prepared meals and drinks to a cellar area directly beneath the dining hall so that they need ever only make one trip if they are so inclined.

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[Ai Shizuka]

cut

I use a very similar setup. I like my working areas to be nicely organized and easy to check with a quick glance.
The no-bins no-masterworks stockpile for metal weapons and armor is especially useful for mass-melting.

I also use different stockpiles for masterwork and non-masterwork stone furniture, for encrusting purposes and to replace everything non-masterwork in my dining hall and bedrooms as the fort matures.

[greycat]

I make a 3x8 seed stockpile in the middle of my farms, no barrels.  No seeds are stored anywhere else.

I make a 2x3 plant stockpile near the farms, no barrels.  It feeds a 1x1 quantum plant stockpile, no barrels.  This the starting point for plant distribution to all other plant stockpiles.  I make a brewable-plant stockpile around the still, a pig tail/rope reed (plus maybe cotton, hemp, etc. now) stockpile around the farmer's workshop that feeds the textile industry, and a quarry bush stockpile by the farmer's workshop that bags quarry bush leaves.  (If I get to the point where I feel like doing flour/dye, then there'll be a quernable plant stockpile by the quern, for that stuff.)

I put a food stockpile (allow barrels), which only allows milk, around the farmer's workshop where I do the milking.  When I get a bunch of milk barrels, I turn it all into cheese.  I put a meat/fat stockpile (allow barrels) around the butcher & tanner workshops, which are always next to each other.  The kitchen is close to the meat/fat stockpile.  My final food stockpile will be "everything not covered yet, except lye, because you should never EVER stockpile lye", and will be somewhere near the kitchen.  Its purpose is to hold ingredients to be cooked (cheese, fish, non-brewable plants, flour, etc.).

I  make 6x6 food/booze stockpiles (with barrels) down by the dining room.  Sometimes a pure-booze stockpile, and then a pure-prepared-meals stockpile, and repeating when one fills up.  Sometimes I just let booze and prepared meals coexist.  Very early in the fortress, one of these may also be my "miscellaneous food ingredients" stockpile, but eventually they'll be finished products (prepared meals and booze) only.

I put a leather stockpile (with bins) around the leather workshop, which is typically not too far from the butcher/tanner.

I make a few tiles of thread stockpile by the loom, no bins, just to get thread moved from the trade depot or from the shearing workshop.  You can skip that if you don't care about weavers hauling.  I make a cloth stockpile (with bins) around the clothier's workshop, because I tend to store a lot of cloth (but very few threads -- I allow auto-looming).  The bins in the cloth stockpile cause a lot of job cancellations, but I live with it.

I make a 2x2 stockpile (no bins) which feeds a quantum 1x1 stockpile (no bins) for weapons, for ammo, and for armor.  This is especially important for ammo, because you don't want to store ammo in bins (due to a long-standing bug).  For armor and weapons, the weight of a bin full of metal implements of death is so great that you do not want them dragging bins of weapons around the fortress.  If you don't quantum your weapons, the you need to double-stockpile them (small no-bin stockpile feeding a larger bin-using stockpile, the latter taking from links only).  In any case, my weapons, ammo and armor are all stored close to the barracks.

I make a stone stockpile around each mason's shop.  Each of these stone stockpiles takes 2 wheelbarrows and only accepts a single type of stone.  Thus, each mason's shop deals with a specific, unique type of stone.  I make a stone stockpile around the mechanic's shop, also with 2 wheelbarrows, but I don't specify a single type of stone for that.  Same for the craft shop that does stone -- any kind will do.  I also put my jeweler's shop on the stone level, and it gets a bin-using gem stockpile around it.  I don't do much with gems in vanilla, so usually they just sit there.

I make a 2x2 stone stockpile (with 2 wheelbarrows) feeding a 1x1 quantum stone stockpile (no wheelbarrows) by the smelter.  These take metal ores, flux and coal stones.  Next to that, I make a 2x2 bar stockpile (no bins) feeding a 1x1 quantum bar stockpile (no bins), which gives to the (magma) smelter and to the (magma) forge.  These take all metal bars, and coal bars.  Having it give back to the smelter is important, so you can make steel, bronze, etc.

I put a wood stockpile around the carpenter's shop, and another around the wood furnace, and a third around the craft shop that does wood.  I haven't been using wheelbarrows in wood stockpiles, because it was never necessary in 0.34... but in 0.40, your weaker dwarves haul wood very slowly, so I may change my mind on that.  Or maybe just be more selective with who can haul stuff.  Haven't quite worked that out yet.

I also don't have a firm system for finished goods yet.  It's really, really complex due to all the different types, values, weights, materials....  In some fortresses I have used a quantum stockpile for clothing produced by the clothier's shop (only), with a clothing-refuse-destruction stockpile for any loose clothing.  In others I have simply made separate stockpiles for each of the 5 types of clothing ("armor" = upper body, legwear, head, hands, feet) so I can see which one I'm running out of and need to make more of.  I haven't come up with a scheme I'm happy with yet.

I generally don't use furniture stockpiles, unless I'm importing anvils to melt.  If I do that, then I'll make an anvil stockpile (with 2 or 3 wheelbarrows) down by a magma smelter.  I may sometimes make temporary furniture stockpiles for metal furniture near a noble's quarters, with wheelbarrows, in order to get the heavy metal furniture items up from the magma forge to a point near the noble's quarters.  Once the statues/tables/etc. have been moved that far by wheelbarrows, it takes less time to build them in the rooms.  When that's all done, I'll remove those furniture stockpiles.

The only other time I would have a permanent furniture stockpile (besides the melting anvils) is if I were doing gem encrusting.  Which I usually don't.

I never use a refuse stockpile, unless it is really a clothing stockpile with the refuse category enabled to cause disintegration.  If there's a goblin corpse or something like that, which I need to move, I will manually dump it.

[Loci]

I used to create fancy chains of stockpiles. Eventually, I realized I was expending my time just to save my dwarves time. Since dwarf labor is so very cheap, I reevaluated my strategy. Now I have a "plants" stockpile, a "cookable food" stockpile, a "drinks" stockpile, a "prepared meals" stockpile, and a "refuse" pile. That's it. All of my other workshops are built close together (and my fort is relatively small anyway). Cloth sits in the loom until my dyer pops next door to pick it up. Then it sits in the dyer's shop until the clothier next door needs it. Then the dwarves stop by the clothier's shop to pick up their new wardrobe. This avoids all the buggy and annoying hauling behavior, reduces the size of my fortress (no large areas needed for stockpiles), and prevents stockpile-associated lag. Sure, my masons spend more time lugging rocks around, but I still end up with more stone furniture than I know what to do with.

[RealFear]

Ha, what stockpiles to I use?
One  30x30+ stockpile area stores furniture, bars/blocks, finished goods, gems, leather and cloth.
One stockpile with weapons, armor, and ammo.
One food
One animal (sometimes i separate the empty cages from ones with prisoners/animals in them)
One corpse and refuse pile
Somtimes one wood stockpile.
I only use stone stockpiles when the boulders around my fortress start to get really annoying.

My logic? Its not like i'm the one who has to sift through all of my fortress' shit so I can build a god-damn door.

[Tevish Szat]

Initially...

Refuse Stockpile with no bins, barrels, or wheelbarrows
Food stockpile with barrels
Booze Stockpile with barrels
Stone stockpile -- quantum scheme with a 5x5 with three wheelbarrows feeding into a 1x1 quantum
Wood Stockpile -- as stone
"junk" stockpile -- contains everything else, allows bins

Eventually the stone stockpile might split if I want specific piles for trash stone, brightly colored stones (Great for mechanisms or decorating), Flux stone (by the forges), and the junk stockpile is fully separated, with the piles for small things (cloth, trade goods) getting bins.

[Meneth]

I used to have large stockpiles with bins and wheelbarrows. Then I got annoyed with (job item misplaced) bugs caused by bins, and the 3-per-pile wheelbarrow limit, so I learned about the minecart Quantum Stockpile and haven't looked back since.

Related: I buy cloth and leather from caravans, but I take care to NOT buy the bins they're stored in. A macro can be made to mark all the contents of a trading bin quickly.

[Merendel]

Like the previous poster I tend to quantum stockpile as well.   
Seeds are forbiden everywhere, the brewery and farmers workshops are in the middle of the farms and the seeds alowed to accumulate in the workshops to be freely avalible to the farmers as needed.

A quantum non-ore/non-flux stone stockpile is setup near the masons, mechanics, craftstwarf shops.  Smaller piles are created around the individual workshops drawing from the quantum.  As needed these are restricted to specific stone types.

Ores get quantumed near the smelters.   Depending on layout this may also be near the forges in which case metal bars and coal may share this pile.

The cloth, leather, and gem industries all get their own quantum pile near their workshops.  Carpenters/woodfurnaces share a wood stockpile

Everything else asside from food goes into a primary quantum stockpile that is centraly located.

For food its a prepared meals stockpile in the dining hall, a food to cook stockpile near the kitchens. a booze stockpile also near the dining hall.  Plants are generaly stored up near the farms for proccessing into booze, milling, or makeing thread.  they share a quantum pile with bags and pots for easy access for the dwarves working those shops.