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[slink]

I had a 7x7 clay stockpile with the center cut out for the kiln.  I set the kiln to making pots on repeat.  With three wheelbarrows the stockpile was kept full, carrying clay from the soil layer to just above the magma.

[The_Countess]

My frustration is that while clay is effectively limitless it's still a pain to haul it from the collection site, to the stockpile, to the kilns

I solved this in Mazemerchants by putting the four kilns on either side of the clay stockpile, which was immediately adjacent to the five-tile fire-clay collection point.  When the stockpile filled, they kept gathering, and quantum stockpiling the stuff in the collection zone. *shrug*

That doesn't work so well if you use magma kilns.

so build normal kiln's next to the clay deposits, that are only there to generate clay. then minecart the results to the magma kiln's.

[slink]

My frustration is that while clay is effectively limitless it's still a pain to haul it from the collection site, to the stockpile, to the kilns

I solved this in Mazemerchants by putting the four kilns on either side of the clay stockpile, which was immediately adjacent to the five-tile fire-clay collection point.  When the stockpile filled, they kept gathering, and quantum stockpiling the stuff in the collection zone. *shrug*

That doesn't work so well if you use magma kilns.

so build normal kiln's next to the clay deposits, that are only there to generate clay. then minecart the results to the magma kiln's.

You don't need a kiln next to the clay deposit.  They will continue to dig the clay in the clay digging zone, and then leave it in a quantum pile if they can't move it anywhere, regardless of where the kiln is that is demanding the clay.

[ivanthe8th]

Just make sure that the dwarf collecting clay has the ability to path his way to the clay-collecting kiln. I once tried to wall off all of these "collect-only" kilns and my dwarves refused to work until I unblocked the path.

[Sutremaine]

You'll also need to fill the screen with jobs if you're using the manager to ask for clayworking jobs, otherwise production orders will end up at the collection kilns.

Should any space on those screens get freed up somehow, you could set up a warning system by having the only path to the collection kilns be a pressure plate in front of an opening hatch. Any dwarf trying to use a collection kiln will be halted and will drop their job item, generating a cancellation message. If you know the order in which manager jobs are assigned to kilns (I think it's something to do with build order, but I've never experimented), it would be possible to reorder the kilns as a failsafe measure in case of the player not noticing the slowed pace of work or the cancellation messages.

The above applies far less if you don't make huge amounts of pottery, as you can take the fuel / time hit if your potters go wandering off to the collection kilns to work.