Print

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

[MycoRunner]

My miners are strong and sturdy. They chew threw solid stone vivaciously. They are always ecstatic. But like all of their kind, they are fond of drink and food.

When I begin to explore the depths of the earth, searching for magma and precious metals, they often decide to go back to the food stockpile to eat, or more often to drink. This won’t do.

How do I equip a waterskin or flask for them? If I give them a backpack will they carry food? I know that the military can be instructed to carry rations. It would be really helpful if I could do the same for the miners, who are often very deep in the earth.
I’ve even thought of making a base station with a couple of beds for them deep in the tunnels, closer to where they work.

Any thoughts, suggestions?

[Zidane]

I normally have a central staircase, but I always put a small stockpile & beds midway down.

[candylord]

yeah, I would recommend you just have a little cubby house for your miners
I've done the same thing with my magma industry
I pretty much at all times have about 40 urists of drink and 40 urists of prepared meals, 10 beds, and 10 chair/table combos (overkill? Yes) down there
don't think those guys have left that z level for a couple years

[Tupimus]

Assign miners to a squad that is always inactive, assign them flasks and backpacks and be happy? Also works nicely as an emergency defence.

[MycoRunner]

Great, thanks for the advice. I'll try both ways.

For the military option, and I don't want to get too deep into that disaster, do they need to equip the flasks the same way they'd equip armor, or are they always equipped?

[cyks]

When you make a squad it will ask you to choose between leather and metal armor.

For flasks and backpacks, you will need to order those functions via squads menu and deeper within the military menu.

I recommend carving a miner's retreat first, and then order rations if needed.

You might also consider adding extra miners.

[MycoRunner]

I have no idea why I'd never thought of just training up a few more miners. They level up fast when they have to carve out entire rooms. Good advice all, time to implement it.

[Psieye]

Bonus points: assign your miners to a burrow (NOT with an alert) which spans all teh rock you want to dig out as well as their personal stockpile of food/drink (and personal proxy bedrooms). This does add micromanagement though, so only do it if you really want to make sure they never leave their mining zone.

[Hyndis]

I just use more miners. I make them be general purpose miners/masons/engravers/medics/engineers. But not haulers. They don't haul anything. Around 15 of them is plenty for even a large fortress. They dig, build, engrave, tend to my traps, and during their idle time tend to the injured. There are always enough of them that digging goes very quickly even for huge areas.