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[Multiplicity]

Hey, guys. I'm a new player and been addicted to it since I started playing. Anyway, been learning the ropes, getting the basics, et cetera, and definitely takes time to learn things. Anyway, I have this one fort going that is adjacent to a river that splits two ways (so there is kind of a mini-lake that is connected by three legs). This "mini-lake" sits in a pit in a hill with one of the legs creating a 1 z-level waterfall. I thought that was cool, and looked like plenty of fishing to be had, so I thought nothing of it at first. So after a bit, I noticed a few dwarves go missing. Had no idea how or why. Well, found out these dumb dwarves would decide to happily jump into the river where this waterfall spot is and drown because they have no way to get out. Recently, I had a large migration wave, and well, dwarf after dwarf kept killing themselves in the same fashion, realizing it was all the fisher/hunter dudes mainly getting killed. So I thought I could put down a bridge and the dwarves would use the bridge instead. Nope, the dwarves grabbing the stones to make the bridge kept falling into the same spot  because they wanted to build the bridge from the wrong damn side. After a long sigh, I cancelled that and thought building a floor across would do nicely. Nope. Died in the same stupid fashion. So.... about almost ten dead dwarves later, I'm frustrated because of how stupid the dwarves are. I understand the difficulty of the game, but this goes beyond difficult; it makes no logical sense for them to kill themselves so stupidly. Edit: Oh yeah, just found out they were also killing themselves trying to recover items dropped by said dead dwarves. Sigh... just gets better and better (I forbid those items, after a couple more went to their watery graves).

Now, I disabled all surface-side professions because of this and I don't know how to solve this issue. Only options I can think of is ignore those two professions altogether, or build the floor in smaller chunks instead of all the way across to see if the dwarves don't do the same dumb thing. So, uh, advice anybody? Thanks.

[slink]

I believe you can use traffic areas to restrict the approach to the waterfall.  It is under d-o.  It might not be enough, but it is worth a try.

[GoldenShadow]

press d-b-o-r to make restricted traffic zones. Dwarfs will stay out of there unless their objective is in there, and they will take the path that leads them through the least amount of restricted tiles.

[Multiplicity]

Oh, duh! I should have thought of that. Then again, I never used the traffic area thing until now. Thanks guys.

[slink]

press d-b-o-r to make restricted traffic zones. Dwarfs will stay out of there unless their objective is in there, and they will take the path that leads them through the least amount of restricted tiles.

d-o-r

[Garath]

You can also use DFHack to remove the ramps. I think this little cheating is allowed untill dwarfs grow more brains. My previous solution was to build a wall along the river untill it got to a part that was continually 6/7 or 7/7.

[BigD145]

What dwarves don't understand is the power of flowing water. At the top of the falls there is usually a low spot of 2/7 of so water, which they will happily path through. The water is continually flowing and rising to 4/7 or more and sweeping dwarves over the edge. They don't have enough swim ability to attempt to find an exit and end up stuck in water over their heads with more hitting them from above. Commence drowning.

[Multiplicity]

You can also use DFHack to remove the ramps. I think this little cheating is allowed untill dwarfs grow more brains. My previous solution was to build a wall along the river untill it got to a part that was continually 6/7 or 7/7.

Yeah, I was thinking if there was a way to "cheat" around it. In this case, I think it'd be acceptable in lieu of stoopid dwarves lol. I managed to build a floor over it, though, by not placing the construction adjacent to the other side of the river, forcing the dwarves to build safely from the side they're supposed to. Hopefully, that nightmare is over haha.

[HiEv]

FYI - There is a bug report for this:
Bug #5158: Dwarves try to cross the edge of waterfalls because water is shallower there, get swept over

[Psieye]

This is why when I want to build a bridge over a river, the first thing I build is an upstairs. Dwarves may be stupid enough to go into flowing shallow water to construct but they certainly know they cannot levitate to build 'from the wrong side'.

Furthermore, dwarves have a preference to do things from the left rather than the right. I think it was then bottom rather than top but the suspended wall construction trick works to stop them from building things from the wrong tiles.

[Garath]

This is why when I want to build a bridge over a river, the first thing I build is an upstairs. Dwarves may be stupid enough to go into flowing shallow water to construct but they certainly know they cannot levitate to build 'from the wrong side'.

Furthermore, dwarves have a preference to do things from the left rather than the right. I think it was then bottom rather than top but the suspended wall construction trick works to stop them from building things from the wrong tiles.

the stairs up is.... facepalm for not thinking this earlier

[smeeprocket]

This is why when I want to build a bridge over a river, the first thing I build is an upstairs. Dwarves may be stupid enough to go into flowing shallow water to construct but they certainly know they cannot levitate to build 'from the wrong side'.

Furthermore, dwarves have a preference to do things from the left rather than the right. I think it was then bottom rather than top but the suspended wall construction trick works to stop them from building things from the wrong tiles.

Wow, that's a great idea.

[BigD145]

FYI - There is a bug report for this:
Bug #5158: Dwarves try to cross the edge of waterfalls because water is shallower there, get swept over

It's not a bug. It's a feature of pathing.

[robertheinrich]

Furthermore, dwarves have a preference to do things from the left rather than the right. I think it was then bottom rather than top

They prefer left over right and top over bottom. I´d need to check if they prefer left to top or the other way round.

But building elevated bridges is a great idea. Only that if you use stairs caravans won´t be able to pass them, so I´d use ramps for that instead. Hm, if that´s possible. Can you construct a ramp at a spot diagonally downwards? I guess first building a stair down then replacing it with a ramp should work though.

[Garath]

do you think it's logical to jump in the water at the top of a waterfall?

Yes? alright, a feature
No? pathfinding bug