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Author Topic: Loose Stone Management tricks  (Read 1052 times)

Torrenal

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Loose Stone Management tricks
« on: August 01, 2014, 07:51:30 pm »

This may be mundane stuff, there may be better ways, but the former is kinda neat and the latter is dead simple... and neither occurred to me in my first weeks of play. 


About two years into my latest fortress, I'd finally decided to organize my stone that was strewn all over the fortress.
I setup a couple stockpiles to quickly get it handled, and now looking after it later as I start a fresh mining project and dwarves swarm in with wheelbarrows to pick up the stone almost as it drops from the wall... I'm kind of impressed.

Start with 9 stone stockpiles in a 3x3 grid.
Give each 3 wheelbarrows.
Have the outer 8 stockpiles feed to the center stockpile
Have the center accept only from links.
Undesignate the center square of the center stockpile, as well as one space adjacent to that center block.
Put your quantom stockpile in those two freed up spaces.
Make lots of wheelbarrows - this monstrosity uses 27.

It will freely occupy up to 27 dwarves, with wheelbarrows, for the simple purpose of clearing loose stone.  Leave it in place after, and dwarves will quickly clean up after even major mining efforts.
----
Clearing a small space of stone ..

If you've just dug out a room you plan to immediately make inaccessible (for example, if you are making a cistern...), but want to loot/clear the stone first, designate two stone stockpiles.
One in the area you want cleaned out, and one just outside, where the dwarves can drop the stone.  Set both to only accept stone from links, and feed the stockpile with the loose stone into the receiving stockpile.  Remove wheelbarrows (dwarves don't need to haul far).

//Torrenal
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damnit,urist,youhadonejob

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Re: Loose Stone Management tricks
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2014, 08:05:03 pm »

i rather just keep my lazy dwarfs busy with mass dumping
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Mimodo

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Re: Loose Stone Management tricks
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2014, 10:31:37 pm »

i rather just keep my lazy dwarfs busy with mass dumping

The best way to prevent parties and idleness... Mass inefficiency
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Sadrice

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Re: Loose Stone Management tricks
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2014, 11:38:10 pm »

This design seems a touch excessive, but you may produce more stone than me.  I do a single 3x3 feeding into an adjacent 2 tile cart track that dumps into a quantum stockpile, with masons, mechanics and craftsdwarf shops clustered around it.  I often set up a second pile and workshop system for colored stones (olivine etc) for when I want a specific color of mechanisms or blocks, and a third for higher value stone for expensive furniture.  Just 3 dwarves with wheelbarrows quickly clears a lot of stone, and while they sometimes lag a bit behind larger excavation projects, it's a rare fort in which I'm digging large areas constantly, so they catch up pretty quickly.

I could see wanting to increase the number of feeder stockpiles (and therefore wheelbarrows) in larger forts or if you do a lot of large scale mining, but 24 wheelbarrows actively gathering mined stone seems like quite a lot.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2014, 11:39:46 pm by Sadrice »
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Baffler

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Re: Loose Stone Management tricks
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2014, 12:51:16 am »

I used to quantum stockpile it behind a door, but that seems a little cheaty to me now, so I usually just shunt it out into the hallways instead of the rooms until space opens up in the stockpiles. If I have a lot of stone, I'll throw out the furniture that isn't masterwork and replace it until it is. That usually solves the problem.
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Repseki

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Re: Loose Stone Management tricks
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2014, 04:25:46 am »

I used to quantum stockpile it behind a door, but that seems a little cheaty to me now, so I usually just shunt it out into the hallways instead of the rooms until space opens up in the stockpiles. If I have a lot of stone, I'll throw out the furniture that isn't masterwork and replace it until it is. That usually solves the problem.

That's usually how I deal with any significant excess of stone as well, start replacing all the lower quality furniture and throw it in the smasher.
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Dorf and Dumb

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Re: Loose Stone Management tricks
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2014, 12:25:14 pm »

I think the easiest thing is just: wherever you have some stone of a certain type, designate a custom stockpile all over it.  Un-designate holes in the middle to build whatever workshops are most appropriate (mechanisms from magma-safe, furniture or swords from obsidian, blocks from pretty-colored stuff, whatever).  That way you're piling up useful stuff instead of raw stone.
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flameaway

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Re: Loose Stone Management tricks
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2014, 03:42:03 pm »

I rarely move boulders too far.   I tend to build mason shops close to my miners and let them make lighter stuff to move. 

Also, wheelbarrows tend to slow down a large quantum stockpile setup.  A stockpile with wheelbarrows calls at most three dwarves to collect stuff. No wheelbarrows mean more dwarves out collecting stone for your catchall stockpile  (Barrels 'n bins mess things up as well.)

Set up some mining carts and you end up with just a couple of dwarves carrying all the product away in one set of trips.

Another time saver is to just channel drop a whole bunch of z's right where you want the rock to end up.  Then build a few shops that use stone and start making doors or blocks or whatever.
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