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[j.brigante]

I had this extremely well-planned fortress going on - defensive structures before the river, some temporary quarters before the chasm, and almost everything else between the chasm and the magma river. Workshops near the dining hall which had direct access to my kitchens/stills/food stockpiles (and with a big booze/prepared food stockpile in the middle of the tables), and quarters all around. At least one dedicated, experienced brewer and cook working full-time (not even "health care" and "cleaning" turned on) while novices took care of the other kitchens and stills, and food haulers kept things from becoming cluttered. But alas, this fortress, like the one before, was to face starvation problems, and this time it wasn't my fault.

It seems to me that the first problem was that, having placed my farms near the river, everyone would drop the harvested plants in the middle of the hall when hauling everything to the big food stockpile in the heart of the fortress, because they ALWAYS decided midway that they should do something else. An entire crop withered this way. I could (and can, and will) build new farms after the chasm in my next fortress, but still, how annoying - and it won't solve the greatest food-related problem with post-chasm fortresses, which is that buying food becomes useless - apparently all that meat bought at premium price from the human caravan will always rot, unless one transforms the entire main hall of the fortress in a series of food stockpiles with the "take from" option, hopefully, making the haulers bring it all the way to the kitchen. Now, that wouldn't be a problem if the human caravan brought food in barrels - I really wouldn't like to lose 100+ pieces of meat this way again.

Anyway, I got so annoyed that I opened the pits and watched every single stupid dwarf burn. But hey, at least I got to see my top wrestler, not yet elite, strangle a demon to death - and become elite in the process. Alas, he was torn apart seconds later when trying to take on two demons at once.

EDIT: I forgot to add that, after a point, my cook started to hunt for ingredients fortress-wide instead of taking what was right next to him. Maybe because I had a seed stockpile near the farms, and had allowed cooking plump helmet spawns?

[ January 21, 2007: Message edited by: j.brigante ]

[Slartibartfast]

Huh, my food rots for completely different reasons - I have so much food that I just can't keep up with the demand for barrels to put it all in (which also means I can't brew any of it - no barrels to brew into >_< ).

How about you try having a huge bunch of barrels near the food stockpile that is near the farms, then the dwarves will (hopefuly) stuff the food into those barrels. Later you will tell them to move the barrels to the other stockpile (since IIRC food in a barrel doesn't wither/rot).
I didn't try it myself - but its worth a shot.

[j.brigante]

I just found out that the best solution is to have the farms and the kitchen/stockpiles all next to each other, and not obscenely far from the trade depot if one wants to buy mountains of food.

another discovery is that a no-plump-helmets policy helps, too: no more stupid dwarves scrambling for seeds all over the fortress. sticking to booze and syrup keeps food from being mismanaged, and "forces" everyone to go for the prepared meals - happiness-boosting, high-quality meals, no less. at least until the economy starts, when I'll assing a novice cook to cheap biscuit production.

[slMagnvox]

Good plan, your original crisis was kinda sounding like a flawed design to me also.  I have had great success with my farms emptying into a large, plants only stockpile bordered by two stills.  On the other side of the stills is a large empty barrel stockpile.  If you've dug a big enough cavern, you can set the plant stockpile to 0 barrels and just brew as much as you can.  Don't make farm plots any bigger than you need and you can easily store the harvest, brew it down and then harvest again.

The products of kitchens/stills are much easier to transport than all the raw materials, so keep the production near the farms and let the products get hauled to where they will be consumed.  Custom stockpiles are our friends.

[aeroue]

Cant you just build your trading post inside the fortress?

[Aquillion]

You can, but if you make the trail to the trading post too long, it'll take traders too long to reach it.

[Zanfib]

Use the 'P' menue to reserve barrels. Will not be used to store food, but can still be used by brewers.

[Gaulgath]

Strange... I have never had this problem. I just put my food stockpiles relatively close to the farms and I'm all set.

[j.brigante]

Yeah, stockpiles right near the farms made it a non-issue... except for meat bought from the caravans, which always rots. But everything else was just bad design from my part, now things have been going so well that I have food stockpiles enough to feed 150+ dwarves for years, and a bunch of experienced growers (including one legendary) who produce more food than I'll ever need. Four growers working on six 5x5 farm plots, I believe, and it has been much more than enough. (and with House Ber pushing farming wages up - specially when nearing spring - they're millionaires, without ever doing anything else but planting and harvesting).