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[vanatteveldt]

So I often designate a staircase from below, e.g. mine out an up/down staircase on z=0 and then designate another up/down staircase on z=1.

Normally this works fine, but sometimes they refuse to go up.

Case in point:

z=0:


z=1:



The staircases line up, the bottom staircase doesn't say anything strange (andesite up/down stairway), and digging down with the same stairway worked fine. There is a boulder on the stairway but I don't think that should matter.

I can of course just mine horizontally from the turkey coop, but I don't understand why this doesn't work while the same technique worked to carve out the turkey coop just fine..?

edit: You can see the miner idling in the dining hall, he has "no job" in the (u)nits menu, there are no burrow restrictions and he has a pick and just mined out the room below the storage area. I've waited a couple minutes and the miner picks up another digging job just fine while the z=1 room is waiting to be dug out.

[Laurin]

I had that too yesterday. It works if you dig an up stairs on level 0 and either a down or up/down stairs on level +1.

[fricy]

Try removing the stockpile from the tile of staircase and see if it helps. I had a weird case once where a stockpile blocked a staircase from being used. Could not reproduce it though...

[slothen]

if there was a stockpile covering the staircase you wouldn't be able to see the x.

If the staircase on level 0 is constructed (not dug) then the x you see now could be a designation and its still waiting to be built, if so, all is well, just check the construction isn't suspended.

If the staircase on level 0 is a dug-out staircase, then you must be sure the staircases line up (you said you've checked this).

Having just re-read your post, it sounds like you have other digging jobs elsewhere in the fortress.  The digging priority can sometimes be not what you expect, so they're probably just prioritizing those other jobs.

[vanatteveldt]

The z=0 staircase is dug, and the stairways line up.

There were no other mining jobs when the screenshot was taken. I created another job after this one was already idle to check if they could dig downstairs, which they could. After that, the miner went to "no job" again and I took the screenshot. After taking the screenshot, I designated another are and he started mining immediately.

[Lich180]

Did you check your burrows assignments? That could cause the issue of no jobs being given, with active designations

[vanatteveldt]

No burrows at all (the fortress just started), and no civilian alert.

Is the fact that there already is a stair up to that z-level relevant? That somehow it thinks it needs to path to the stair tile on z=1?