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[dhoovr]

So I noticed that basicly everyone who goes to my prison dies of starvation. I have 40 cells each 2x2 cell has a chain, a bed, and floor bars with running water underneath. The only problem is my 120 idle dwarves wont feed them. So I tried putting a food stockpile on the extra space. After messing around with the "take from" system and trying (but failing) to get it so I didn't have to give them barrels I got food in the cells. However now a bunch of the dwarves go to the cells for food (even though its raw plants and I provide lavish meals in the legendary dinning room) and they eat it in the ghetto prison cafeteria. I dont mind them eating in the cafeteria (it's not like the prisoners are going to utilize it) but I'd prefer they dont get all their food from the cells. Ive tried making the cells restricted to traffic but they don't seem to care. I've run into this problem before when I was trying to get private food stockpiles for the nobles. Anyone have any ideas?

[Mister Always]

1. Make a 1x1 food stockpile in every cell.

2. Dump some food onto that stockpile.

3. When a prisoner is put into the cell, lock the cell door and unforbid the food.

4. Profit.

[dhoovr]

I would prefer a system the requires less on my part. If anything ill just let them starve rather then lock all the cells and monitor their time. I think I might mess around with pressure plates to know when the cell is occupied. This would have been easier if I had considered this before constructing the prison.

[Girlinhat]

Dwarves eat based on 1: food distance, and THEN 2: table distance.  When a dwarf becomes hungry, they go to the closest food item and claim it, then proceed to the closest chair and table.  You can encourage your furnace workers to eat something by putting a food pile by the furnace, so when they're working and become hungry, they seek the closest food (the pile) and take that to a table.  Similarly, you can discourage eating from the prison by making it far away, OR with traffic designations.  If the entire prison is restricted, dwarves will be entirely less likely to path to the food in the prison.

[JDF117]

1. Make a 1x1 food stockpile in every cell.

2. Dump some food onto that stockpile.

3. When a prisoner is put into the cell, lock the cell door and unforbid the food.

4. ??.??.??

5. Profit.

Fixed.

Seriously though, what he said.

[dhoovr]

So the restriction thing worked mostly. I locked down the two cell blocks closest to the cafeteria (since im never going to have more then 20 prisoner) and made the path to the other father away cell blocks inconvienent and winding. There's a couple straggalers whom I think are pathing as the crow flies from the dinning room two levels below but that's ok so long as there isn't too much traffic.

[ASCIt]

You could try burrows: make it so that no dwarves outside the guard are allowed in the prison in the first place.

[Girlinhat]

Learn how to use traffic designations.  Instead of making a winding path, just put some restricted traffic instead, and dwarves treat it as 12.5x more expensive to walk through.

[dhoovr]

You could try burrows: make it so that no dwarves outside the guard are allowed in the prison in the first place.

Can I restrict from a burrow? I know I can restrict to a burrow -- though whenever I turned off the alert the dwarves still wouldn't leave the burrow; I probly wasn't doing somthing right. I've created a burrow on my prision, any way I can keep civilians from entering my burrow, or do I have to define everywhere but my prision as my burrow? If I don't allow the civilians in they wont fill the stockpiles, and I think that the guards wont either because that's a civilian job.

[dhoovr]

Learn how to use traffic designations.  Instead of making a winding path, just put some restricted traffic instead, and dwarves treat it as 12.5x more expensive to walk through.

Yeah I made the whole prision the max restriction: 100. However if their destination is within the restriction it doesn't matter. The winding path was just kindof a bonus to maximize the restrictions. Really the only thing that works is the distance. I should have made a Guantanamo/Alcatraz instead of Toluca prison.

[Sphalerite]

Traffic restrictions only affect pathfinding.  They do not affect how far away an item is considered when a dwarf is deciding which piece of food to eat.  Likewise, making the path to the jail long and winding won't help, since items are chosen according to straight-line distance, not pathing distance.

[Girlinhat]

If Sphalerite is right (and let's be honest here) then food grabbing may work the same as observed with workshops.  If a dwarf is in a workshop, and has microcline 2 tiles away, and microcline 30 tiles away but directly below, they would rather run off.  It seems that some pathing ignores Z levels, and only the X/Y distance matters.  In that case, putting your prison on the "opposite side" from your main area would work.

Additionally, chains do not seem to restrict Z movement (or was that fixed?) so you can chain a prisoner on one level with a staircase beside them, and if that staircase leads to the dining hall they'll freely move about that 3x3 column and utilize the dining hall.  Don't depend on this, as it'll be fixed eventually, if it's not already.

[Sphalerite]

Additionally, chains do not seem to restrict Z movement (or was that fixed?) so you can chain a prisoner on one level with a staircase beside them, and if that staircase leads to the dining hall they'll freely move about that 3x3 column and utilize the dining hall.  Don't depend on this, as it'll be fixed eventually, if it's not already.

I last tested this in 31.21.  Chains didn't restrict movement on the Z-axis at all.  I haven't tested it in 31.25, but I doubt it's been fixed yet.

[Girlinhat]

I think Toady would have reported that in the bugfixes if it were.  "Finally caused creatures to respect chains" or such.  Regardless, the idea is still valid to put a high priority food stockpile at the bottom of a stairwell, and then put the prison blocks around the stairs.  They should self service food, though don't be surprised if they become friends.  They also won't respect the cells, so your prison won't be very prison-y.