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Author Topic: Disappearing sand.  (Read 768 times)

Haruspex_Pariah

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Disappearing sand.
« on: February 17, 2011, 05:12:56 am »

I designated a 30-tile area as a sand collection zone when starting my fort. A year later, it's all covered in grass and there's no sand left in it. There is some sand left on the map (roughly a tenth of what it was initially), but it is kind of troublesome that sand can be "eaten" by grass.
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Uristocrat

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Re: Disappearing sand.
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2011, 05:15:28 am »

If you get dwarves to walk over the top of it, the grass will wear off (and you should get sand again).  Honestly, though, I've never had that trouble.  I guess all my sand zones are underground, so grass doesn't seem to grow there.
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You could have berries on the rocks and the dwarves would say it was "berry gneiss."
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Girlinhat

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Re: Disappearing sand.
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2011, 05:25:20 am »

Sand isn't eaten by grass.  This implies that it's destroyed.  Rather, it's covered up.  You can trample it easily enough, or build something on top of it, like a farm plot, which when de-constructed causes sand to be left behind.  Dirt roads are VERY useful for clearing grass away from a sand or clay site, as they clear away a region and make it "furrowed" but wears off eventually.  Re-roading should be an issue though, as it takes half a second and anyone may do it.

BigD145

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Re: Disappearing sand.
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2011, 10:39:46 am »

With 31.19 you can just make it pasture land and let grazers eat it.
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MarcAFK

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Re: Disappearing sand.
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2011, 10:41:39 am »

magma burns grass.
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They're nearly as bad as badgers. Build a couple of anti-buzzard SAM sites marksdwarf towers and your fortress will look like Baghdad in 2003 from all the aerial bolt spam. You waste a lot of ammo and everything is covered in unslightly exploded buzzard bits and broken bolts.

Haruspex_Pariah

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Re: Disappearing sand.
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2011, 10:43:05 am »

I've decided to go with the road paving method (I prefer the grazers to be outdoors). I'm not actually using glass yet but I like to plan in advance.
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slink

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Re: Disappearing sand.
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2011, 02:11:22 pm »

1.  You can build a sand collection area on a stockpile area. 

2.  In times past, people supressed growth of plants on an area by defining it as a stockpile.

If both of these still hold true, you should be able to define your sand collecting area on a small stockpile that holds nothing, or for that matter on a larger one that holds the bags.  Ditto for clay, except that it doesn't need bags.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Disappearing sand.
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2011, 04:54:41 pm »

Actually, in .19 my dorfs will harvest clay from grass.  I dug out a large area, defined it as a clay zone, and then it grassed over.  My dwarves don't care and stand on the grass harvesting clay.