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[TherionChilde]

I finally switched from v0.31.25 to 0.34.11 and am having significant difficulty keeping farms/stills/workshops running consistently due to the item hauling bug wherein haulers carry container to crops/seeds/etc. instead of carrying said item to containers.  How has everyone else dealt with this problem?  I have disabled barrels/bins in stockpiles supplying the worst affected workshops, but this has been only a partial fix, and in the case of seeds for fields, (as seeds are bagged and I can find no way to disable bags in stockpiles) has been of virtually no help at all.

Any assistance would be appreciated; if this has been answered elsewhere and I couldn't find it, apologies for the forum clutter.

[Stormfeather]

Well, for the seeds issue, keeping barrels out of the stockpile they're in at least helps, since you still have seeds stored in bags, but don't get the bags then stored in barrels which then get hauled out to... well, yeah.

The best I can figure for that issue is to make a large seed stockpile, and try to get enough extra seeds for each crop that they're in multiple bags, so that chances are at least *one* will be available for planting whenever a farmer wants one.

But yeah, other than that, I tend to forbid bins from my stockpiles, and make them larger. I think some people have done another workaround where you have one stockpile that collects the items, then another that takes from that, and only one of them accepts bins and bags, but I honestly forget the details. It was too much bother for me, so I just went with my route. :p

[CaptainArchmage]

There's an option for this in the d_init.txt file, hope this helps:

Alter these options to control how aggressively your dwarves place objects in a container with like items (rather than an empty container).  The default options are very aggressive.  STORE_DIST_ITEM_DECREASE controls the cap on objects it will consider -- for each object it finds in a container, one tile is removed from its apparent distance to the dwarf, up to this cap.  The others control how many tiles are removed for each combination type for any match at all.  For instance, if ITEM_DECREASE is set to 20, and SEED_COMBINE is set to 100, a dwarf carrying seeds will see a seed bag with 15 seeds as 115 tiles closer than it actually is (and thus pass up any empties within that distance), whereas a seed bag with 30 seeds would be treated as 120 tiles closer (because it hits the ITEM_DECREASE cap).  Values from 2 to 1000 are permitted.  Before these init options, the behavior was roughly ITEM_DECREASE 2, SEED_COMBINE 2 and the rest at 1000.

[toomanysecrets]

If you are playing 34.xx you will unfortunately need workaround(s) for the various container issues.  First off, do NOT allow barrels in your seed stockpile.  Secondly, with heavy items that end up in bins (blocks, armor etc) you probably want to make a "receiving" pile that takes from anywhere and allows no bins.  Then, nearby make a pile that takes from your "receiving" pile and takes from links only and allows bins.  This prevents Urist McWeakAndFlimsy from picking up a bin, hauling it all the way outside for hours on end just to pick up one copper mail shirt a goblin dropped.  Similar workaround for plant stockpiles will cut down on spam and cancelled brew/cook jobs.

This applies to plants unfortunately. Make a stockpile close to your farm plots (touching if possible) that takes plants from anywhere and takes NO barrels. Then have other plant stockpiles that take from links only and take from the first pile.

[Hyndis]

You can abuse mine carts and quantum stockpiles to get around this entirely.


Create two stockpiles. One is just a 1x1 stockpile, with a track stop that dumps the mine cart onto that 1x1 stockpile.

The other stockpile is your feeder stockpile. Make this one around 5x5 or so. That will get you a total of 25 hauling jobs to fill that stockpile. The stockpile will then be loaded into the cart, and the cart will empty into the 1x1 quantum stockpile.

Do not allow either stockpile to use bins. Bins seem to cause weirdness with mine carts. Ensure that both stockpiles have identical permissions in order to avoid an infinite hauling loop.

[TherionChilde]

Thanks to all for the helpful responses...  I will begin experimenting with different methods and see what's most effective...

[Sutremaine]

I don't bother with barrelling anything but fat. Everything that can be stored outside barrels is (and was even before the hauling update), partly to keep an eye on stocks and partly because plants, meat, and everything else that can be cooked or brewed is processed accordingly as soon as it hits the food stockpile.

Seeds are almost impossible to stop the spam for, but if you have alternate sources of food and brewables then you can cut down on the cancellation messages by cutting down on the amount of farming.

[TherionChilde]

Is there any way to alter the cap at which seeds stop dropping?

[wuphonsreach]

You can abuse mine carts and quantum stockpiles to get around this entirely.


Create two stockpiles. One is just a 1x1 stockpile, with a track stop that dumps the mine cart onto that 1x1 stockpile.

The other stockpile is your feeder stockpile. Make this one around 5x5 or so. That will get you a total of 25 hauling jobs to fill that stockpile. The stockpile will then be loaded into the cart, and the cart will empty into the 1x1 quantum stockpile.

Do not allow either stockpile to use bins. Bins seem to cause weirdness with mine carts. Ensure that both stockpiles have identical permissions in order to avoid an infinite hauling loop.

Yeah, my latest fort is heavily into quantum stockpiles and minecarts.  I have (10) quantum stockpile routes already.  I have a 5x5 stockpile that accepts all plants and a minecart track which dumps it all into a 1x1 quantum stockpile.  Out of that quantum stockpile, they feed the plants off to other feeder stockpiles (usually 3x3) for specific purposes (thread making, milling, brewing, dyes) which have their own quantum stockpiles next to the workshop that processes the results.

Or the carpenter's shop who has a simple 3x3 wood stockpile quantum'd into a 1x1 pile which now holds 200+ logs.

I don't barrel fat.  Fat should be pulled out of the butcher's workshop into a Food/Fat stockpile that only takes from links and immediately fed to the kitchen to be rendered.  The "tallow" stockpile is then another Food/Fat stockpile that only takes from links and which then gets loaded into a minecart for transport & quantum dumping.

[Hyndis]

The only thing I don't quantum stockpile are my food stockpiles (I limit the size of plant stockpiles to force excess plants to rot in the fields) and my goblinite stockpiles.

Clothing is also not quantum stockpiled. Its stored in regular bins, but the clothing stockpile is also a refuse stockpile, so clothing just rots away quietly within the bins.

Everything else is quantum stockpiled, including refuse, wood, and yes even furniture. Its amazing how much space you can save and how many steps you can save for each job by quantum stockpiling everything.

[Blucher]

I still get it, but keeping my plant stockpile far away from hungry vegetarian dwarves has helped some.  (Cuts down on haulers picking up seeds left at a table.)  Also helpful is having one dwarf be my sole farmer and brewer, so both jobs aren't going on simultaneously.  One legendary farmer can keep a fort of 100 or so in booze easily if he doesn't spend too much time slacking off.

[Hyndis]

You could try isolating farmers from the rest of the fortress, including even putting you vampires to work as farmers. Vampires do not need to eat, sleep, or drink so they will always be working.

In order to safely get the plants to your fortress and then the seeds back to the vampires you would need to rig up a mine cart route. One route for plants to dump them onto a food stockpile in your fort, the other route to give seeds back to the vampires.

You may also need to give the vampires new clothes from time to time so they don't do insane. Perhaps in addition to giving seeds back to them, you could also give all of your old and dirty laundry to them, along with a refuse stockpile in the vampire zone. They can pick out new clothes to wear, and then toss the remainder into the refuse stockpile where it will rot away.

Then bundle in furniture along with food, so they will return the now empty bins back to the fortress for general usage.

While you will have items falling 1z level while doing this, there shouldn't be that big of a risk of injury. How much damage can a plump helmet do when falling 1z level?

[Sutremaine]

You may also need to give the vampires new clothes from time to time so they don't do insane.

Clothes aren't necessary, armour covers nudity and doesn't rot. Three pieces of leather will get you armour, leggings, and boots, and that's enough.

While you will have items falling 1z level while doing this, there shouldn't be that big of a risk of injury. How much damage can a plump helmet do when falling 1z level?

Lethal damage.

[greycat]

Create two stockpiles. One is just a 1x1 stockpile, with a track stop that dumps the mine cart onto that 1x1 stockpile.

The other stockpile is your feeder stockpile. Make this one around 5x5 or so. That will get you a total of 25 hauling jobs to fill that stockpile. The stockpile will then be loaded into the cart, and the cart will empty into the 1x1 quantum stockpile.

That's pretty nifty!  I had been avoiding the whole minecart/track thing, but this was enough to get me to invest the time and effort to try to figure it all out.

I have added an example on the wiki.  I probably didn't set it up optimally, but it works.