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[InfernoZeus]

I just started playing DF and it's been great fun so far. It's amazing that it's mostly the work of one guy. Anyway, I've got a quick question.

Does anyone know how the Miner's work out which square they're going to mine out next? They seem to do it in a very round-a-bout way, and spend more time walking back and forth between tiles than actually mining. Is there anything I can do to help avoid that? TIA

[GaxkangtheUnbound]

I just started playing DF and it's been great fun so far. It's amazing that it's mostly the work of one guy. Anyway, I've got a quick question.

Does anyone know how the Miner's work out which square they're going to mine out next? They seem to do it in a very round-a-bout way, and spend more time walking back and forth between tiles than actually mining. Is there anything I can do to help avoid that? TIA

They seem to mine left to right, going down.
Then again, I think they are just crazy.

[TheyTarget]

They tend to take the tile they think is the most top left, in little squares. But they can only see squares that are accessible. So they kind of cut out weird patterns. Go to the surface and channel out a giant square. You'll quickly see what I'm talking about. Theres ways to capitalize on this probably.

[Sphalerite]

In addition to the leftmost/topmost tile choice, immediately after a dwarf has just mined a tile he will check if any adjacent tile is designated for digging, and if so will dig that tile next.  This is why when mining a large area dwarves will often carve random twisting paths through the area to be mined instead of mining the entire path left to right.  I don't know if there is a pattern to which adjacent tile they pick or if it is random.

[SenorPez]

Is there anything I can do to help avoid that? TIA

Burrows. I force my miners to finish one room before moving to something else.

[InfernoZeus]

Is there anything I can do to help avoid that? TIA

Burrows. I force my miners to finish one room before moving to something else.

Thanks, I'll try that. So far I've avoided Burrows, but they seem to pop up everywhere  I think it might be time to learn how they work..

[Altaree]

Designate big rooms in parallel lines like
+-----------------
|
+-----------------
|
+-----------------
|
+-----------------
|
+-----------------

They will follow the line to the end.  Once they are done, designate the remaining lines of walls, the dwarves will again mine these one line at a time.  Works great for large rooms.

[deoxy]

In 40d, it worked like this:

1) decide on square to dig:
   A) if a designated square is adjacent to the one you just finished, choose that one (random is several to choose from)
   B) else, top most "block" with a designated square ("blocks" are large areas... smaller than embark squares, I think, but still quite large)
   C) choose farthest left designated square in block - if several in the same column, choose top-most square
   D) I don't know how that works by z-levels, but they seem to prefer lowest z-level first in many cases

2) after choosing square to dig, dig it from an adjacent square, with this order of preference:
   A) left
   B) right
   C) up
   D) down
   E) up-left
   F) up-right
   G) down-left
   H) down-right
   I) from a different z-level (by ramp)

It doesn't matter if the miner is ALREADY adjacent to the square he is supposed to dig, if he can reach the square to the LEFT of the dig-square, he will go there to dig it, NO MATTER HOW FAR IT IS.  Yeah, it's really annoying sometimes.  Notice that the second choice (#2, above) does NOT take into account how far any of those squares are from current location.

As best I can tell, that's the preference order for pretty much everything (which is why it's so easy for masons to build themselves into a wall).

As also mentioned above, you can use these rules to get them to do what you want (or at least pretty close) - designate 1-square dig-paths, they will follow them (until they come to a corner, dig diagonal first, then get the one in the corner, and go "start over" with step 1, above - note that step 1 ALSO doesn't take distance from current location into account).

[shibdib]

In 40d, it worked like this:

1) decide on square to dig:
   A) if a designated square is adjacent to the one you just finished, choose that one (random is several to choose from)
   B) else, top most "block" with a designated square ("blocks" are large areas... smaller than embark squares, I think, but still quite large)
   C) choose farthest left designated square in block - if several in the same column, choose top-most square
   D) I don't know how that works by z-levels, but they seem to prefer lowest z-level first in many cases

2) after choosing square to dig, dig it from an adjacent square, with this order of preference:
   A) left
   B) right
   C) up
   D) down
   E) up-left
   F) up-right
   G) down-left
   H) down-right
   I) from a different z-level (by ramp)

It doesn't matter if the miner is ALREADY adjacent to the square he is supposed to dig, if he can reach the square to the LEFT of the dig-square, he will go there to dig it, NO MATTER HOW FAR IT IS.  Yeah, it's really annoying sometimes.  Notice that the second choice (#2, above) does NOT take into account how far any of those squares are from current location.

As best I can tell, that's the preference order for pretty much everything (which is why it's so easy for masons to build themselves into a wall).

As also mentioned above, you can use these rules to get them to do what you want (or at least pretty close) - designate 1-square dig-paths, they will follow them (until they come to a corner, dig diagonal first, then get the one in the corner, and go "start over" with step 1, above - note that step 1 ALSO doesn't take distance from current location into account).

This for most unnecessary complicated FAIL of the day..

U guys do realize that any time of actual ingame unpaused saved by these crazy ideas just mean u wasted a crapload of time planning and implementing them

[Smew]

U guys do realize that any time of actual ingame unpaused saved by these crazy ideas just mean u wasted a crapload of time planning and implementing them

Behold, 50% of the fun of dwarf fortress, with only 10% of the english!

[shibdib]

U guys do realize that any time of actual ingame unpaused saved by these crazy ideas just mean u wasted a crapload of time planning and implementing them

Behold, 50% of the fun of dwarf fortress, with only 10% of the english!

im all for crazy ideas, not so much on the grammar/spelling nazi'ism tho.... but some things described in this thread are absurd

[Christes]

Absurd?  Yes.  But also true.  And of course:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

U guys do realize that any time of actual ingame unpaused saved by these crazy ideas just mean u wasted a crapload of time planning and implementing them