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[evictedSaint]

Dwarves take FOREVER to obey a burrow order, and more than once I've found dwarves who have entered their burrow, but then later just fucking ignored the order and started walking about.  Am I missing something? 

[vanatteveldt]

AFAIK, there are two types of burrows:

1) regular burrows, where you assign a dwarf through the burro(w) screen. These burrows only prevent the dwarf from taking a job outside that burrow. So, if a job needs to be done he will move into the burrow, but until that time he can freely move around. Sleeping etc is also a job, so he will most likely stay within the burrow later, but if he is idle i'm not sure what he will do. This is useful for job management, i.e. make sure that a miner mines out a specific part first.

2) civilian alert burrows, where you call all dwarfs into the burrow from the (m)ilitary (a)lert screen. These burrows are absolute, i.e. dwarfs should start moving towards it immediately and stay in the burrow until you cancel the alert. This is useful if you are under attack and want your civilians safe.

[flameaway]

Burrows are a bit counter-intuitive at first. And, you have to use the military screens to use them.   Which means that often a player will push back dealing with burrows while dealing with the rest of the cliff-like learning curve associated with DF.

I also think that setting up burrows the way that Toady has allows for a lot of flexibility on the part of the player.  This flexibility comes at the price of ease of use.

The more you go for point and click solutions to problems the less challenging and more tedious a game becomes.

[A_S00]

2) civilian alert burrows, where you call all dwarfs into the burrow from the (m)ilitary (a)lert screen. These burrows are absolute, i.e. dwarfs should start moving towards it immediately and stay in the burrow until you cancel the alert. This is useful if you are under attack and want your civilians safe.

Even these aren't really absolute.  Rather than really staying in a burrow, dwarves restricted via the alerts screen will just cancel what they're doing a few steps after they leave the allowed area.  Often, they'll just start the job that took them outside again as soon as they're back in the allowed burrow.

For instance, I have a danger room set up in my barracks, and my civilians are restricted from entering the area via the alerts screen.  Unfortunately, if my military dwarves ever discard worn clothing or bring a drink into the barracks, my civilians are perfectly happy to walk into the danger room (trying to store a XsockX in a stockpile or get a drink themselves), go "oh crap this is a restricted area," leave, then turn around and try again.  Leads to both job cancellation spam and injuries from spikes.

tl;dr burrows really do suck.

[Gentlefish]

Dwarves stay restriced to a burrow they're assigned to. If they can sleep and eat and drink in it. I'm sure that they will stay in the burrow then leave to drink and eat, because I figured that out while trying to kill some for a hermit challenge.

Now, I don't know if meeting areas mess with it, or if they'll pick up food from outside if there's some inside.

Dwarven Science time?

[TheDarkStar]

If you are trying to kill excess dwarves, assign them to a burrow where every tile has a weapon trap on it. When they fall asleep, they will trigger them and be torn to bits/get their brain bashed it/impaled (depending on what weapons are on it).

[mirrizin]

I find them to be about the only effective way to avoid civilian massacre during goblin raids and sieges, and for this they work remarkably well.

Elsewise, haven't bothered yet.

[callisto8413]

I use them during an alert.  Great for getting citizens to move their butts inside and getting military squads outside and into positions.  I just have to make sure the levers for drawbridges are within the burrow so they can be triggered during the alert.  Works great for that.  For organizing labor and workshops and stockpiles and making things more effective...yeah, no.  Like minecarts.  Some people seem to be able to use them in such a way that they turn out to be useful.  But my forts kind of grow organically, like Rome, and trying to plan out burrows and tracks....no, that's not going to happen.

[Veylon]

There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how burrows work. Dwarves aren't confined to burrows; they simply aren't allowed to take jobs outside of them. They can pass through any amount of forbidden ground provided they are on their way to doing something that is inside the allowable area.

[A_S00]

There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how burrows work. Dwarves aren't confined to burrows; they simply aren't allowed to take jobs outside of them. They can pass through any amount of forbidden ground provided they are on their way to doing something that is inside the allowable area.

This is how assigning them to burrows works.  Restricting them via the alerts screen is supposed to confine them, but doesn't, quite.

[WanderingKid]

It'd be just frickin' lovely though if dwarves wouldn't even look outside their burrow for jobs though.  The volume of 'restricted area' spam I get when I assign my deep dwarves to the magma forge level is inane.

[A_S00]

It'd be just frickin' lovely though if dwarves wouldn't even look outside their burrow for jobs though.  The volume of 'restricted area' spam I get when I assign my deep dwarves to the magma forge level is inane.

Do yours walk outside their burrow by a few steps, cancel with a "restricted area" message, go back to their burrow, then turn right back around and try to do the same restricted job again?  That's what mine are doing .