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[alexgoss]

The wiki says that other creatures/animals do not obey any traffic settings. My question is do military dwarves obey them during combat? If you have for example a four tile wide bridge, over a large drop, setting the middle two lanes as high traffic areas and the edges as restricted. Will military dwarves always move towards the middle, while enemies don't, and thus will my dwarves be less likely to take a dodge over the edge?

[FuzzyZergling]

That might work.
A good way to test it would be diging a bit, making two bridges, designating one bridge restricted, then setting a station order.

[nomad_delta]

I've just done some quick !!SCIENCE!! on this matter, and found some interesting results.  Here's what I put together for testing purposes:


A couple of trenches with a 3-tile wide pathway inbetween.  I set the center tile of the walkway as "High Traffic" and the outer tiles of the walkway as "Restricted Traffic" as you can see in the screenshot.

I then ordered my 10-dwarf militia squad to station themselves directly in the center, and they formed up around the point I specified -- with many of them standing on the "Restricted" tiles, like this:


Now at first glance that would indicate that the traffic restrictions aren't helpful, but watch what happens when I order the squad to move from a station on the left side of the trenches to the right side:


While they're in motion from one point to another they do pay attention to the traffic area settings.  Note that they will still step into the "Restricted" tiles occasionally as they're pathing, usually to walk around another dwarf who's slower than them and in the way, but it was a very noticeable difference from when I ran the same test with the traffic designations removed.

Hope that helps.

--nomad_delta

[Quietust]

This seems consistent with how traffic designations are known to behave - they affect only route, not destination. In other words, they don't affect where dwarves go, only how they get there.

[Montague]

Thank you for the science, nomad.

I conclude with your conclusions, Quietust. It only effects pathing, moving from point A to B, but not where a dwarf will physically stand.

Another idea, how about unconstructed walls? Say you have a 4 wide bridge, but have suspended job orders for walls on the edges. Its a trick used to keep dorfs from building from the wrong side of a tunnel, but would it keep dorfs from pathing over them or standing there on guard duty?

Maybe a combination of both?

[evileeyore]

Another idea, how about unconstructed walls?

Unlikely.  Unconstructed walls never stop my Dwarfs from running hither and fro, even when they could just as easily side step the wall.

[Montague]

Another idea, how about unconstructed walls?

Unlikely.  Unconstructed walls never stop my Dwarfs from running hither and fro, even when they could just as easily side step the wall.

I know they path just fine through them, but I wonder if an idling dwarf will avoid urm, idling on an unconstructed wall.

[Louist]

It sounds like a combination of the two would work decently! Placing suspended walls on the restricted tiles should result in dwarfs not intentionally pathing along the edges (because of traffic restrictions), and not intentionally loitering along the edge (because of the construction).

Of course, the little scamps often do things unintentionally...