Print

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

[mickel]

A lot of people have complained about the stone clutter, and a lot of alternatives to handling it have been put forward. I thought I'd add my suggestion to the heap:

Differentiate between mine and dig.

They would essentially do the same thing - designate an area and a dwarf with a pickaxe removes the material there. The difference is in how it's done.

With digging, the dwarf simply removes the material, leaving behind bits of material that are small enough to be abstracted away by the game, which is what I presume happens already in those cases when nothing is left behind from digging.

With mining, the dwarf proceeds more carefully, working to ensure that the excavated material is still useful for further processing. That is, essentially the same thing they do with digging now.

There's nothing to say digging would be faster than mining, it's all a matter of taste really.

Since the game already knows the difference between economic and noneconomic rock and ore, and there already is code in place to cancel a dig under certain circumstances, it'd be quite possible to cancel a dig job when the dwarf reaches something you'd probably like to mine instead.

This could be put into the interface in a lot of ways, perhaps a separate designation, perhaps a toggle after you select digging, perhaps something in the options, whichever feels best. I personally like the idea of a toggle.

[Sithlordz]

This sounds like a useful idea. Having your pond filled with stone that your stupid dwarves want to get at could be a major pain in the bottom, but if you hit an ore vein your dig designation should be removed.

[DragonHealer]

Or have an option in the Orders menu to automatically change dig designations to mine when new ore is discovered.
I like the idea, it is similar to mine, though I would prefer if digging still had a small chance to leave stones behind depending on the type of mineral. But really, all I want is to be able to take the miners skill out of the equation when digging. Bloody annoying that legendaries fill newly excavated areas with truckloads of stones.

[axus]

I think we should have to deal with all the stone we mine out, if not the dirt.  We need faster ways of moving it, like a minecart system.  Plenty of suggestions on how to handle that, the easiest would be construction designations that used an ingot of metal for every 5 tiles of rail.

[Stij]

I think minecarts are a planned new feature. Would help with hauling a LOT.

[DrMorbly]

I also think we should have to deal with all the material we mine out.  I also think we should have to deal with dirt and sand.  Bucket chains to dumping out material onto a giant talus slope over the edge of a cliff or tower anyone?

I think it'd be fun to see piles of rock and dirt turn into something called "scree" or "fill" when enough is piled in one place.  Slopes could form off the sides and then the next layer of material is dropped on the next z-level up.  It would provide a more realistic and convenient way of removing stone.  If you want it back, you could mine it out and get all your stones back.

Furthermore, adding a designation to "dump stone" would make things even easier.

[ November 16, 2007: Message edited by: DrMorbly ]

[Sean Mirrsen]

I figured a toggle under options "Miners leave stone intact / Miners dispose of non-eco stone / Miners dispose of all stone" would work great. Dealing with stone and soil should really be part of the game, but until multihauling / workhorses/mules / wheelbarrows are in, all the clutter left from efficient mining seriously clogs up the fort. Two miners mine faster than five masons make blocks. Btw, I suppose a better way to dispose of stone is making instruments, since a lot more fit in a bin, and they are frequently dumped to traders.

For piling stones, I guess eventually items will get more physical, but it's really far away.

For multidumping, I think there should be a shortcut from the stocks menu. Including contracted mode, such as "dump all rock salt", or "dump all copper picks" orders.