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[castun]

OK, trying to muddy indoor tiles for farming, and I've done this before with no problem, so I'm not sure why I'm having this issue right now.

The issue seems to be the 'Fill pond' job not getting assigned to dwarves.  The jobs show up in my job list as inactive, even though I've got dwarves standing around with no job, with hauling jobs enabled.  The buckets are just sitting in the stockpile, not being used either.

I've dug out a room above the farm area, with a walkway around it and designated several pond fill areas over the edges of the walkway, including parts of the walkway itself.

Any ideas what's going on?

[Dutchling]

.19 doesn't need soil to be muddied so download the new version!

[Uristocrat]

Make sure the pond zone is marked as "active".

Also, make sure you have a water source zone somewhere, also marked as active.  I'm not sure if zone-only drinking is affected by that, but it's still a good idea to tell them where to get water from.

[Girlinhat]

You don't need an active water source zone for pond filling, although if you're trying to fill an odd area dwarves may refill their buckets from the same water they're trying to fill, which is hilarious and frustrating until you force water sources and they go to the other thing.  Make sure you've got buckets and idle dwarves?  Make sure that your pond zone has one square that's marked "Empty Space" because dwarves only pour water down, they don't pour onto the same level as they're on.

[castun]

You don't need an active water source zone for pond filling, although if you're trying to fill an odd area dwarves may refill their buckets from the same water they're trying to fill, which is hilarious and frustrating until you force water sources and they go to the other thing.  Make sure you've got buckets and idle dwarves?  Make sure that your pond zone has one square that's marked "Empty Space" because dwarves only pour water down, they don't pour onto the same level as they're on.

Make sure the pond zone is marked as "active".

Also, make sure you have a water source zone somewhere, also marked as active.  I'm not sure if zone-only drinking is affected by that, but it's still a good idea to tell them where to get water from.

Yes, I've done all this as well.  All pond fill zones are active, are all set to ponds vs. pits, all include the empty space above the room below, have an active water source zone.  Got empty buckets just sitting there and idle dwarves.  And like I said, the pond fill jobs show up in the jobs list, but they're just not being assigned.  I'm not getting any kind of error announcements either.

[Nekudotayim]

You could try to set an high traffic path from your water source to the ponds. Maybe the pathfinder algorithm gets stuck or something.

[Emily Murkpaddled]

I've had similar, intermittent, (non-replicatable, typically :/ ) problems with this as well ... the only common trend seems to be that the ponds they refuse to fill are those where the zones I want them to fill it from are 'outside.' You mention in the OP you have a few pond zones set to active, with various combinations of tiles chosen ... for science's sake, I would get rid of all those except one that you're sure should be functional, and if it still fails, get rid of it and try making pond zones elsewhere on the map to see if any work, anywhere. A "workaround" that I've had good luck with in the past was simply channeling out an additional z-level to the pond and having them fill it from a walkway on the previously-bottom level ... @_@ but hey, if it works, right?

[castun]

Yes, the water source they should be filling from is an outdoor pond or brook they can use.

Well, I may end up abandoning if I can't get it working, Still in the first year before winter, but my food stocks got raided by a flock of buzzards before I could get it all inside, so I've got barely any food left and only a few small animals.

The interesting thing is that my current save is right before I put in the pond fill zones for the indoor farm, so I've savescummed several times trying to fix it, but even though I redo it each time it still does the same thing : nothing.

[Nekudotayim]

On another note, make sure your water source zone has one rectangle on the water, which has to be 4/7 at minimum and one rectangle next to the water, which your dorfs have to get access to.

My water source was also outside and it worked well, but they didn't manage to fill it up fast enough, so I digged a channel from the lake to my ponds.

[castun]

I think I may have figured it out, but it's kind of odd because I think I've done it exactly the same way before with no problem.

My farm room was 5x8, and the room above was also 5x8 but with a 1 tile floor walkway all the way around.  They absolutely REFUSED to fill it until I tried and made the room above bigger and channeled the opening so that the OPENING was the same size as the room below, 5x8, and the room above was now 7x10 with a walkway around.

[Girlinhat]

Perhaps it has something to do with the upper-left rule?  That being, any job that can be done from the left, or from the north, is prefered.

[castun]

Not sure.  I even tried it with a single large fill zone the size of the entire room above, including the walkway, and it didn't work until I made the top room larger.

[Marthnn]

Maybe filling a pond can only occur from the top of a wall? Like the rules for ramps, stating it needs a wall with a free space on its top to be usable?

That looks easy to test... On to it.

Edit : Nope. Tested with 2 similar holes, one dug all around the shaft and the other only partially. Both got water properly.

[TurkeyXIII]

Maybe filling a pond can only occur from the top of a wall? Like the rules for ramps, stating it needs a wall with a free space on its top to be usable?

That looks easy to test... On to it.

Edit : Nope. Tested with 2 similar holes, one dug all around the shaft and the other only partially. Both got water properly.

Nah, I've pond-filled from bridges before.

I reckon your dwarves can't path to it for some reason as per girlinhat's theory.

[castun]

Nah, I've pond-filled from bridges before.

I reckon your dwarves can't path to it for some reason as per girlinhat's theory.

Possibly.  I think the only thing I actually did different this time was using an up & down ramp instead of up & down stairs, in the extra square I dug out adjacent to the 2 rooms.  I know it functioned for mining at least, though, because they were still able to start digging out the room above, after the bottom room was already dug out.  I already re-saved though after fixing the issue, so no way to test it by trying to put in stairs instead, not without digging out similar rooms again, anyway.