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[Hurkyl]

The last few times I've experimented with evil embarks, I've run into a problem.

I quickly dig out a room under the wagon, set up stockpiles to move my supplies underground, then create a burrow to move my dwarves underground, usually with the intention of walling off the stairway to the outside.

However, my dwarves never want to respect the burrow. They'd rather idle outside until they have a fatal encounter with the weather or the wandering dead. I've tried deconstructing the wagon and placing a meeting area underground, but that doesn't help. The only way I've found to actually get them underground is to either find enough jobs to keep them busy underground simultaneously, or draft them all (except the guy who builds the way) into a squad and station them.

Clearly, my knowledge of burrows is lacking. I know that dwarves can leave the burrow in the process of executing a job whose parts are all within the burrow. Is it really true that idling dwarves simply don't respect burrows? How to keep them inside, then, without physically walling them off? What other reasons are there that a dwarf will leave an assigned burrow?

[AndreaReina]

In the military page you can create a civilian alert that restricts all civilians to the burrow.

[thiosk]

I think what andrea is hinting at here is that you must actually assign dwarves to the burrow.  The alert system allows you to put all dwarves in a specific burrow to which they do or do not belong.  The burrow system requires one to specifically add the dwarves to the burrow before they respect it.

[Hurkyl]

I do add the citizens to the burrow. This is triple checked by the fact they cancel jobs outside of the burrow (e.g. moving things from the out-of-burrow wagon to in-burrow stockpile).

I believe I have also tried the alert method, but I do not recall for sure. Do you believe that assigning citizens to a burrow by alert functions differently than assigning them normally?

[thiosk]

I have not extensively used burrows beyond the alert system.  However, an alert burrow is simply a standard burrow that everyone goes in based on alert status.

I was quite annoyed to see my brave citizens, usually legendary something or others, go run for the map edge as soon as the alert goes up.  After being burrowed for a while, I tend to see everything normal.  Since alert burrows are the same thing as regular, I wonder if this isn't what you are seeing.

Once I establish a dining hall, I only seldomly see dwarves houtside.  What kind of meeting area are you establishing?

[Hurkyl]

Once I establish a dining hall, I only seldomly see dwarves houtside.  What kind of meeting area are you establishing?

A zoned meeting area, rather than a building. I assume they worked the same?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Alerts are different from normal burrow assignments in that A. civilians are forced to march there ASAP and B. they apply to animals.

[thiosk]

Try establishing a meeting hall from the dining room menu.

[greycat]

Alerts are different from normal burrow assignments in that A. civilians are forced to march there ASAP and B. they apply to animals.

^^ This.  This is very important to understand.

There are two completely different ways to use a burrow.  The first way is to assign dwarves to a burrow, one at a time.  Dwarves that are assigned in this way are not restricted to the burrow.  They just can't use any items or workshops, or perform any jobs, outside of the burrow.  They can still leave it at will, and they will generally wander all over the goblin-lovin' map when they're idle.  I never use burrows this way, though there are some legitimate uses for it.

The second way to use a burrow is the Civilian Alert, in the military alerts screen.  When you order all civilians into a burrow, they actually move to the burrow and will stay in it even when idle.

[GreatWyrmGold]

For me, dwarves at least have a tendency to stay in burrows even without alerts.

[guitarxe]

For me, dwarves at least have a tendency to stay in burrows even without alerts.

If there is no meeting area available anywhere, then dwarves will (eventually) wonder into their burrow zone and prefer to stay there. If there's any meeting area (either through zones, or through dining hall, etc), then dwarves will tend to idle there instead.

[GreatWyrmGold]

For me, dwarves at least have a tendency to stay in burrows even without alerts.

If there is no meeting area available anywhere, then dwarves will (eventually) wonder into their burrow zone and prefer to stay there. If there's any meeting area (either through zones, or through dining hall, etc), then dwarves will tend to idle there instead.

Really? Huh. Maybe you should put meeting areas in those burrows.