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[wlmartin]

The traffic management part of the pathfinding is very interesting to me.

The reason is that I like having 2 entrances to my fort.
One for the trade depot
One for everything else

That way I can mine traps on the external entry to the main door whilst leave the trade depot one free and just mining internally for that one.
I always used to have it at my front door but then due to trade caravans hating to make their way past traps, i came up with this idea.

It is great, if I can get the traffic management right.
As otherwise, my dorfs use either entrance and it doesn't let me be effective when i want to LOCK the caravan in when they arrive to avoid thieves... as when i do, i have a stream of haulers and if i get the timing wrong, broken bodies!

The only way to solve this is make the internal corridor to the Depot high traffic and the space around the external part of the depot door restricted traffic. I then have to do this on all slops above to avoid them skirting past my zoning of traffic. It works sometimes, sometimes it fails or just looks silly when they go out of their way to still find a way in.

Its not impossible to make work, just clunky.

So i wonder, is there a way (or should there be a way) to have a forbidden traffic zone instead of just difficult.
That way I just zone the 3 spots at the back door and my dwarves will never be able to go through that spot (just as if it was blocking terrain) and would HAVE to find a way through the pathing i want.

Just seems like this is missing from the options and wondered why... or if there is a wayaround?

[quarague]

I think you could use a burrow but burrows are only positive so it would be a major pain to set up. Set a burrow that contains everything indoors and outdoors with the exception of the few tiles dwarfs are not supposed to use. Confine everyone to that burrow. Then everyone will have to path around the forbidden corridor.

[Reelya]

You could have your entrances connected but with the trade depot as a loop off the main hallway. That way, it's never the quickest way to get anywhere.

Code: [Select]

###################################
#                                 #
#             Depot Area          #
#                                 #
#   ###########################   #
#+++###########################+++#

<-Outside   Trap Area    Base->

###################################

# = wall
+++ = "airlock" raising bridge
It doesn't have to be quite like this, this is simplified,but by ensuring the depot route is longer dwarves will never path through there unless they're hauling to the depot. Use raising bridges as airlocks. That way you can ensure dwarves can only path into the area at all when a caravan is arriving.

[wlmartin]

Burrow is out since i want the guys to only rush to depot duty during a caravan visit

I agree that making the trip between making my internal corridor to the depot the shortest possible route that they will use that.
However that encourages another problem - what about the ones that arent doing depot duty and want to come in and out, since the fastest route is to go through the depot, I have the same problem.


With this setup I really feel that the only way to handle it is by traffic zoning.
Just wish it was simpler

[Reelya]

Take a look at my diagram of a dual entrance/exit system. You only need to ensure the depot path is *marginally* longer and they will never go through there unless loading. You should have a kink in your trap tunnel though or dwarves tend to get shot at by goblin crossbows. Just make sure the depot path is a bit longer than the route through the traps.

You can have a small patch of really high traffic cost at the "outside" end of the depot tunnel to discourage the pathing algorithm from searching there as well.

[wlmartin]

Yeah that works thanks


Just really wish there was a no-entry sign I can put up, would make my life so much easier

[Aranador]

Isnt the correct answer always "Magma" ?

[Chevaleresse]

A way to get water to flow through the area at 5/7 depth would work.

You could also adjust the pathing costs in the init options. You could set the restricted pathing cost to something much higher, like 100, though this would drop your fps a bit whenever a caravan showed up.

[wlmartin]

A way to get water to flow through the area at 5/7 depth would work.

You could also adjust the pathing costs in the init options. You could set the restricted pathing cost to something much higher, like 100, though this would drop your fps a bit whenever a caravan showed up.

Ah... the lovely init settings, didn't think there would be one for pathing, any idea where to point me?
I think that is a great idea because if i set it to something crazy like 10,000 right at the entrance 1x3 to the depot, that should create a forbidden spot for my guys pretty much

I wouldn't worry about FPS, I don't know if it is because I have a good PC but i never see FPS problems. I think the worst I have seen is like 95 FPS, and thats with like 200 dwarves on screen. I can't relate to the complaints about FPS as i never see them

[Reelya]

Why not just block off the depot path when not in use? Stick 3x1 raising bridges at each end controlled via levers in a control room. this, combined with making that path just a little shorter than the main entrance.

traffic designations aren't really necessary, though you can put some high-cost traffic zone on the outside end - that will stop dwarves trying to path through that end when entering the base, thus saving some FPS, but caravans don't follow your traffic designations so they will ignore it.

[Bumber]

You could also adjust the pathing costs in the init options. You could set the restricted pathing cost to something much higher, like 100, though this would drop your fps a bit whenever a caravan showed up.

Isn't it also adjustable from the restriction menu inside DF?

[wlmartin]

You could also adjust the pathing costs in the init options. You could set the restricted pathing cost to something much higher, like 100, though this would drop your fps a bit whenever a caravan showed up.

Isn't it also adjustable from the restriction menu inside DF?

1. The only options in game are the preset 1,2,5,25
2. I tried changing the init, seems to have stuck but the in-game GUI still says 1,2,5,25 - is this intended?