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Author Topic: [solved] Furnace operators not using materials from nearby stockpiles  (Read 378 times)

OneUp

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[solved] Furnace operators not using materials from nearby stockpiles
« on: October 27, 2010, 09:50:14 pm »
I have several new smelters I just created, with several stockpiles around them to hold needed items: one for bitu. coal/lignite, one for coke, one for iron ores, and one for metal bars. My obedient dwarves happily filled up the stockpiles with the various items, and some other dwarves started using the smelters to create coke and iron bars. However, even though the stockpiles are <25 squares away, they insist on traveling >100 squares and down 2 floors to the original excavation source of the limonite/magnetite.

As a test, if I change the economic stone settings and try to build a wall nearby, the limonite and magnetite indeed show as being available and very close. As a second test, if I forbid the stockpile and perform the first test again, the distance shoots up to what I would expect (although from that test I discovered that I even have some extra excavated limonite on that level that the furnace operators won't use either: distance farther than stockpile, but shorter than source they're using). I am very new to this game, so what am I missing?

tl;dr Nearby stockpile, not forbidden, dwarves prefer to take materials from much farther location.
« Last Edit: October 27, 2010, 11:24:17 pm by OneUp »
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kaijyuu

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Re: Furnace operators not using materials from nearby stockpiles
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2010, 09:58:46 pm »
They select materials that are absolutely closest, IE, through walls, ceilings, the like.

If a stone is 2 z level below a forge, the dwarf will go pick it up over a stone that's 5 squares away on the same z level.
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Quote from: Chesterton
For, in order that men should resist injustice, something more is necessary than that they should think injustice unpleasant. They must think injustice absurd; above all, they must think it startling. They must retain the violence of a virgin astonishment. When the pessimist looks at any infamy, it is to him, after all, only a repetition of the infamy of existence. But the optimist sees injustice as something discordant and unexpected, and it stings him into action.

OneUp

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Re: Furnace operators not using materials from nearby stockpiles
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2010, 10:02:55 pm »
I see. I suspected that might be the case, but was misled when the distance was correct when testing with a wall. Is the best way to fix this just to build stairs down to it then?
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kaijyuu

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Re: Furnace operators not using materials from nearby stockpiles
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2010, 10:03:55 pm »
Or not worry about it, yeah.
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Quote from: Chesterton
For, in order that men should resist injustice, something more is necessary than that they should think injustice unpleasant. They must think injustice absurd; above all, they must think it startling. They must retain the violence of a virgin astonishment. When the pessimist looks at any infamy, it is to him, after all, only a repetition of the infamy of existence. But the optimist sees injustice as something discordant and unexpected, and it stings him into action.

OneUp

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Re: Furnace operators not using materials from nearby stockpiles
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2010, 10:07:51 pm »
Well it takes considerably longer for my dwarf to go all the way over to where the stairs are, go down, then go back to the directly underneath spot, pick up the ore, come back to the stairs, go up, and come back to the original spot.

Thanks for the help as I try to figure out this wonderfully complex game.
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