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[paladin225]

I have a four wide tunnel into a mountain starting at ground level that goes straight to a trade depot, no ramps or anything and no traps. Drawbridge is down.  Yet, I get a message saying trade caravan wagons have bypassed my inaccessible site.  Miners left a lot of stones in the tunnel but I'm assuming thats not a problem.

I did notice that where the tunnel enters the mountain there was some upward slopes (but no actual walls) on either side of the tunnel that effectively cut the tunnel's entrance width down to two squares.  Could this be blocking the caravan wagons?  I'm assuming trees don't block them.

Is there actually a reason to get the caravan wagons to come?  Do you get a bigger selection of goods to buy?

Thanks for the help!

edit:  playing version 34.11

[PatrikLundell]

There is probably some obstacle(s) in the trade depot path.
Shift-d will show you the wagon accessible path from your trade depot in green, so follow the green path until it ends, which is where you have your problem.
The display works over multiple Z levels, so if the path goes up or down you may need to shift your view accordingly.
I've always ensured ramps the wagons need to go up or down are three tiles wide, but ramps the wagons just cross (sideways) are not a problem, I think.

Trees are DEFINITELY a problem, as they block wagons, and the buggers regrow, so in a heavily forested region you probably should cut the trees down and then make a paved road to ensure no trees grow up there to block the path. Trees block everything moving on the ground, by the way, so a line of trees will block access as well as a wall would. If you run your fortress long enough you'll probably suffer from path blocked by growing trees.

Also, boulders block the path. They can be dealt with by designating their tiles for smoothing (an Engraver job). Alternatively, you can build a floor over the boulder tiles (a paved road will not crush boulders, however).

[Sirbug]

Trees might be to blame. Press D to see wagon-passable areas and see where it ends.

[Zuglarkun]

Press [D] to check exactly where the blockage is. I suspect it is the 2 square tunnel width you mentioned. Caravan wagons need a 3 tile width to travel.

Caravan wagons bring more stuff as compared to just the merchants with their pack animals. There is a weight limit to the number of goods a trade delegation can bring, and wagons increase that limit substantially. Also, that weight limit applies to how much the caravan can carry away from your fortress. So, if you have TONS of heavy rock and metal stuff to trade, caravans can carry it all away in one trip, whereas merchants might not.

Edit: ninjaed. Also trees do block the path, so you might want to check those as well.

[paladin225]

Forgot about shift + D, that helps a lot.  Looks like the green path ends at those upward slopes so I guess they need to be removed.  It is a heavily forested map and I have trees right at the tunnel entrance, so they have to go too.

The trade wagons will always spawn on the side of the map that gives them the best route into your fort right?

[PatrikLundell]

No. I THINK the caravan will spawn on the edge close to where your embark wagon were.
I've had a fortress where I embarked on one side of a stream but place the trade depot entrance on the other side of it. 2/3 of the edge was able to reach the depot, but the caravan nevertheless spawned on the side where the wagon had been, and since I'd made a single tile wide bridge over the stream the wagons failed to path to the depot, and thus "skipped my 'inaccessible' site".
I've also had trade liaisons spawn locked in between two trees and a magma moat (I'd dug a moat 1 tile from the edge on that embark), so I had to send a woodcutter to get the bugger out.

It could be that caravans could be induced to spawn in a desired location by insuring NO path exists to the trade depot from anywhere else, i.e. it couldn't be reached by the animal haulers either from anywhere else, but I haven't investigated that.

Concerning the upwards slopes: either you get rid of the slopes if the wagons and intended to path perpendicular to it, or, if the wagons are actually intended to change level, you either add a third ramp by building one, or shear the two that are there away and dig three ramps one tile further into the bank (you probably don't even need to shear the ramps away, since they'll probably go away on their own if you dig further in, but check with shift-d to see what remains to be done).
Also, make sure you check for further obstacles once the first one has been dealt with.

[Quietust]

No. I THINK the caravan will spawn on the edge close to where your embark wagon were.
I've had a fortress where I embarked on one side of a stream but place the trade depot entrance on the other side of it. 2/3 of the edge was able to reach the depot, but the caravan nevertheless spawned on the side where the wagon had been, and since I'd made a single tile wide bridge over the stream the wagons failed to path to the depot, and thus "skipped my 'inaccessible' site".
I've also had trade liaisons spawn locked in between two trees and a magma moat (I'd dug a moat 1 tile from the edge on that embark), so I had to send a woodcutter to get the bugger out.

It could be that caravans could be induced to spawn in a desired location by insuring NO path exists to the trade depot from anywhere else, i.e. it couldn't be reached by the animal haulers either from anywhere else, but I haven't investigated that.

Caravans can be restricted to show up in a specific spot on the map edge, but under some circumstances they will insist on showing up on one particular side of the map. The current theory is that this is caused by rivers (i.e. the caravan can't cross the river outside your embark region, so it always shows up on one side), which may well have been the case with your above-mentioned fortress.