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[Muddy Mudstone]

I'm having a bit of trouble with this:

When a dwarf wants to store a plant in a barrel he takes the barrel to the plant. This means he is carrying a full barrel of plants, and other dwarfs cancel their jobs because they can't access the plants already in it.

When he wants to store seeds in a bag which is in a barrel, the procedure is this:

1. Walk across the fortress to get the seed bag.
2. Walk back across the fortress to take the bag to the seeds, stopping my planters planting the seeds that are already in it.
3. Put the seeds in the bag and leave it there.
4. Walk back across the fortress again to get the entire barrel.
5. Carry it to the bag. Put the bag in the barrel.
6. Walk back across the fortress again to take the barrel back to where it came from.

Is this because of something I'm doing wrong? Can I make the dwarfs just take the objects to the containers instead, somehow? If not, is there a workaround to prevent the job cancellations?

[Warlemming]

Yeah this has been a problem for a while now. Haven't found a workaround myself (although I haven't really looked), although some of the more dwarfy players may have found a solution.

[weenog]

This is just a screwy bit with the recent hauling updates.  It will most likely be smoothed out in a later update.  In the meantime, you can reduce dwarves haulblocking other dwarves by disallowing containers in stockpiles with high turnover.  You can also try using a catcher stockpile that will take from anywhere, and another stockpile that only takes from the catcher, and only gives to the workshop that needs the goods.

[Muddy Mudstone]

I guess the idea is that the catcher stockpile has no containers, but the one that only takes from the catcher does have containers, and it's positioned right beside the catcher so that the haulblocking is over quickly - is that the plan?

[weenog]

The idea is that when dwarves run off to retrieve something, they grab a container from the catcher stockpile for that job, not the stockpile that's feeding the farm or whatever workshop is involved.  That way farmers and crafters don't often have the problem of somebody running off with a container holding the item they wanted to use.

[McHaggis]

Sometimes the barrel or bin hauler will get stuck, running in a little circle with the barrel or bin.  It's irritating when you want the stuck guy to hurry up and harvest the plump helmets or pick up the goblinite, but it's also kind of funny too.

I like to call it the barrel or bin dance, respectively.

[Muddy Mudstone]

The idea is that when dwarves run off to retrieve something, they grab a container from the catcher stockpile for that job, not the stockpile that's feeding the farm or whatever workshop is involved.

OK. I can't picture how they move items from the catcher stockpile to the other. I mean, I fear they would take the barrel from the other stockpile to the catcher in order to put things in it, which would cause the same problem I already have, but if the things are already in a barrel on the catcher, maybe they do something else.

Maybe they still do it the stupid way, but the catcher stockpile is adjacent to the one it feeds, minimising the hauling time between them, like I first thought?

[weenog]

A hauler will come along, grab an item from the catcher stockpile, move it into the feeder stockpile, and go on about his business.  Having the two stockpiles near each other does help with hauling time.  I usually just mark out the same big stockpiles I used to, X out a small section of the big stockpile, place another stockpile with the same parameters in the empty space, then use the big stockpile as the catcher and the small one as the feeder.

[Rafal99]

Set barrels to 0 in your seeds stockpile.

Put empty bags stockpile near your seeds stockpile.

[Morpha]

[khearn]

My trade broker is also a miner. I had a caravan arrive so I requested he come to the depot. I checked a little while later and saw he was digging, so I went to Dwarf Therapist and turned off mining for him. I checked a while later and he was carrying an item to a stockpile (despite having all hauling labors turned off). I checked again a little while later and he was still carrying an item to a stockpile. And again a while later. So I finally looked to see what he was doing and found him halfway down to my magma forges at the magma sea, carrying a weapon bin. I followed him and he went down to where I had designated some digging for a storage area and grabbed a pickaxe that was laying there, put it in the bin, and started back up.

I think what happened is that he was digging down there at the bottom of the fort when I turned of mining, so he dropped his pick, then climbed all the way up to the top of the fort to grab the bin from the weapon stockpile, then carried the bin all the way down to the axe, then carried them all the way back up.

If I'd known he was going to do all of that, I would have just let him finish digging. It would have been much faster.

[Rafal99]

The best way to get your broker to the depot is to make a small burrow with the depot in it and assign him to this burrow.

Works better than disabling labors because even with disabled labors dwarves may get distracted by some tasks, such as animal pasturing, or storing their equipment like your broker did.

[chris_strain]

Set barrels to 0 in your seeds stockpile.

This works wonders. Seeds will get stored in bags, assuming you have some, allowing the pile size to stay small and since a bag only holds 20 seeds, after a harvest or two you will have multiple bags of seeds per plant so each grower can grab his own instead of crying cause the other guy won't share. 

[Broseph Stalin]

The problem I've been having is with cloth. Apparently one bin can hold my entire fortresses cloth and the entire bin is taken to pick up each thread and each piece of cloth. I have to shut down cloth production to make clothes. I haven't found a better work around since a giant cloth stockpile is inefficient and if there's even one cloth bin on the map every piece of thread and cloth will be stuffed in there instead of being left in a stockpile. 

[Finn]

a bag only holds 20 seeds

Someone has modified your bags, sir.