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[A Dwarven Smokeologist]

1. Anyway to assign wardogs to a champion? Tired of having to load up my recruits up with all the dogs I think they'll need before they die.

2. Can I stop my god damn dwarfs from suspending construction on things that I tell them to build? Walls, shops, floors, roads, etc. I'm tired of having them only build 20/30 pieces and I have to go back 30 minutes later once I think of it and turn unsuspend it. I don't know why do it and honestly if I find a dwarf quitting a job like that again I'm going to drown his lazy ass.

3. Is there a way to clean up sand? It makes the screen even more cluttered and hard for me to see what is going on. It's no biggie but honestly I'd like to turn the tiles off or even assign dwarfs to go sweep it up, I don't care just to get rid of it


Been playing for a few weeks now on and off and these are really the main things that have been bothering me. I did search for some of the answers but got a lot of posts from 2006 - 2007 and was hoping new information was available.

Cheers.

[Jude]

2. Can I stop my god damn dwarfs from suspending construction on things that I tell them to build? Walls, shops, floors, roads, etc. I'm tired of having them only build 20/30 pieces and I have to go back 30 minutes later once I think of it and turn unsuspend it. I don't know why do it and honestly if I find a dwarf quitting a job like that again I'm going to drown his lazy ass.

I find that a lot of the time, this happens because dwarves are retarded and build things in the wrong order - if by putting certain parts of a construction up first, they can make the other parts inaccessible, they WILL do so. This is particularly bad when you have corners to build on a multi-z-level construction, so I always have corners built before the rest of the wall is designated.

The second reason is "object blocking site." If an object is present on a tile, a dwarf cannot build there. Sometimes they will simply move the object to the next tile and go on with their business. Other times they will swear up and down that the object cannot be moved, and refuse to complete the construction. Which of these things happens, seems to be determined by nothing more rational than the phases of the moon and the blowing of a westerly wind. In the latter case, they will often also refuse to dump the item, no matter if a working garbage dump has been designated. Since you can't compel them to remove the offending object, the only way I've found around this - if the object can be used for construction - is to order something to be built close by using that material.

Other reasons for job suspension include "Shitting bricks on account of raccoon sighting" and more uncommonly "taken by mood" or "shat out baby while doing heavy physical labor."

[Jim Groovester]

1. No.

2. Jude provides a good explanation. Dwarves suspending construction jobs is quite possibly one of the most annoying things present in Dwarf Fortress, but until it's changed you'll just have to deal with it.

3. You can floor over the sand if it's bothering you that much, but there's no way to 'clean it up', so to speak. It's an inherent property of the tile itself.

[Derakon]

Dwarves give the "Item blocking site" cancellation reason when the item in the way is tasked for another job. For example, if you're trying to build walls using stone that's on the tiles where the walls are to be built, then it's very easy to build them in such an order that the stone you need to build the first wall is on the tile for the second wall. If the dwarves try to build the second wall first, they'll say "Whoops, item's in the way, can't build this". Then they go and build the first wall, and the second wall can be unsuspended.

I believe that the bulk-build commands will avoid this problem, but if you're placing walls one-by-one, it's an easy mistake to make.

Be careful assigning wardogs to soldiers. The dwarves will get bad thoughts when the dogs die, and the dogs themselves are not capable warriors. They're up to defending your fortress from thieves, babysnatchers, and fire imps, but that's about it unless they get really quite lucky.

Finally, you can make roads to cover your sand. They're more efficient stone-wise than paving (a 3x10 road uses 8 stone; a 3x10 floor uses 30).

[A Dwarven Smokeologist]

To be fair I don't really care about my dwarfs crying cause their dogs died and if I could I would serve them the meat afterwards.

Thanks for all the answers though it sounds like there is nothing I can do.

Last question though. I have two wells inside my fortress that some of my dwarfs use but others are intent on running half way across the map to the river. Is there any way I can tell them to stop drinking fish water and just use the wells?

[Malicus]

1. No, but I believe this will change in the next release.

2.  As for what Jude says, the main reason a dwarf would consider an item immovable is if it is already tasked for a job.  The most frequent situation is that it is tasked for building a nearby part of a wall or floor, if you tasked several tiles at once on top of building materials.  If you really want to avoid this, if you're building constructions on top of the materials that will be used for them, then build them one tile at a time, starting with the tiles that already contain that material, so you can easily choose to use the material that is RIGHT THERE.  This will prevent the cancellation situation I mentioned.  It's a bit painstaking to do this, though.

I believe that the bulk-build commands will avoid this problem, but if you're placing walls one-by-one, it's an easy mistake to make.

Other way around, actually, provide you take care when doing it individually.  But bulk WILL cause this problem, almost always.

3.  And as for what Jim Groovester says, yes, you can floor over the sand...  but why would you want to, really?  Once you get used to it being just another type of floor tile, it probably shouldn't bother you as much.  Also, if it's just "sand" or "(color) sand", then it can be used for making glass at a glass furnace.

Last question though. I have two wells inside my fortress that some of my dwarfs use but others are intent on running half way across the map to the river. Is there any way I can tell them to stop drinking fish water and just use the wells?

Dwarves do stupid things in relation to water.  The problem may be that TOO MANY are using the wells, so they go somewhere else.  They really ought not be drinking water unless they're wounded, though.  Make them more booze!

[Sphalerite]

Last question though. I have two wells inside my fortress that some of my dwarfs use but others are intent on running half way across the map to the river. Is there any way I can tell them to stop drinking fish water and just use the wells?

A dwarf will only use a well if it's not currently in use by another dwarf.  If both of your wells are in use and someone is thirsty, they won't wait till the wells are free.  They'll run to the river.  Your solution is to make more wells, or better yet brew more booze.

[darkflagrance]

Likely "in use" means tasked for drinking, so if the drinker is all the way across the fort when he gets thirsty, the well is reserved until he gets over there.

[Jim Groovester]

For your well problem, if your well is right above of a layer of water, it's easy enough to designate a water zone around the well, and dwarves should ignore your brook and drink from the water surrounding the well. Once a dwarf is finished with the well, another should immediately take his place, even if he was drinking from the nearby water instead.

This makes drinking take considerably less time than the marathon barrel chugging sessions dwarves spend half their time doing.

[KenboCalrissian]

Be careful assigning wardogs to soldiers. The dwarves will get bad thoughts when the dogs die, and the dogs themselves are not capable warriors. They're up to defending your fortress from thieves, babysnatchers, and fire imps, but that's about it unless they get really quite lucky.

In my experience, sometimes it has no effect at all.  Other times, the dwarf will go straight to unhappy, but it doesn't seem to last long.  Having a waterfall and lots of masterpiece engravings really helps for that.  I'm not sure if giving the dwarf a new war dog helps, honestly I haven't tried it as I usually give the dogs to whomever has the least. 

Every one of my recruits have at least one, some have six or more.  They really help in large numbers - after all, losing a lover in battle is a worse unhappy thought than losing a pet, so while there's still risk, I think it's less risk than not using them in battle at all.

[Albedo]

The trick is to not have (all) your soldiers at level 15 or above, so they can still do work. Have them train the wardogs - a few each or so.  The dogs then follow their trainer around, but are not "pets".  Same effect, no downside.