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[Jaevko]

What the title says.   I have my dining room designated as a meeting hall, so shouldn't the little buggers be going there when they are "no job"?  I know I can probably fix the problem with burrows, but I have not yet learned/implemented burrows and would rather not do so until I figure this out (in other words, I could probably fix it with burrows, but burrows do not tell me the WHY of the issue, and it is important for me, as a newb, to learn why).

Also, are meeting halls (created from dining room table) different from meeting zones? (created with no furniture/building from under the zones menu)  I could not get a clear answer to this question from the wiki.  If so, is that my problem?

[0cu]

Meeting halls can give your fellow dorfs good thoughts for dining in a nice room, meeting zones don't.

[Jaevko]

Meeting halls can give your fellow dorfs good thoughts for dining in a nice room, meeting zones don't.

Thanks for the quick reply! So if that's the only difference, then that's not my problem.  So the issue remains:

Why are dorfs with "no job" going outside?  Shouldn't they (safely) go to the meeting hall, not wander outside looking for fun?

[0cu]

It sometimes happens to me also. I don't know why they're doing this. Maybe take a look at them with (v) and look at their current jobs? Otherwise, take a look at your standing orders (o) and make sure they don't gather refuse from outside. I have always lost dwarves to ambushes until I started using burrows. Consider them, they're pretty handy and not hard to set up.

[Jaevko]

Thanks for the reply; if it's a normal thing then I'll just switch to burrows ASAP.

It would be nice if I could figure it out though.  When I look at them with (v) they are engaged in "no job" though, so they are definitely are not gathering refuse or anything. (that would say "adding to stockpile" or something along those lines)

[Trif]

Are they perhaps standing around the wagon? The wagon is an automatic meeting zone, so if you don't deconstruct it, dwarfs will choose that as a place to relax.

[XXSockXX]

Are they perhaps standing around the wagon? The wagon is an automatic meeting zone, so if you don't deconstruct it, dwarfs will choose that as a place to relax.

Also if you deconstruct the wagon or remove a meeting zone, it takes a while before they realize that this is no longer a meeting zone.
Idle dwarfs will not hang out in meeting zones exclusively, sometimes they will stand where their last job was, like constructing a wall or pick up an item. If you assign them rooms they will prefer to hang out there if not in a meeting zone.

[Jaevko]

Thanks for the replies! Might have a solution, but I'm still a bit doubtful:

Are they perhaps standing around the wagon? The wagon is an automatic meeting zone, so if you don't deconstruct it, dwarfs will choose that as a place to relax.

Also if you deconstruct the wagon or remove a meeting zone, it takes a while before they realize that this is no longer a meeting zone.

Nope, not it :/ Wagon's been gone for a very long while (I have almost 100 dwarves!)

Idle dwarfs will not hang out in meeting zones exclusively, sometimes they will stand where their last job was, like constructing a wall or pick up an item. If you assign them rooms they will prefer to hang out there if not in a meeting zone.

That could be it...a lot of them were haulers hauling lumber inside before (but not, I think, right before) they became idle.  Still though...it's been a little while since then and there are A LOT of dwarves outside.  And zero on the woodpile (where they were bringing the lumber to). So unfortunately that's probably not the problem/solution.  I shouldn't rule it out completely, but the evidence seems to indicate that the issue is caused by something else.

Thanks for your help all! Any other ideas on what it could be?

[Mad Jackal]

Were any of your dwarves military ?  I thought I read about military dwarves who are de-activated, returning to the place they were last ordered to in commands, when they were idle, as civilians. If any of this sentence makes sense. ...

just throwing that out there.

[Jaevko]

Were any of your dwarves military ?  I thought I read about military dwarves who are de-activated, returning to the place they were last ordered to in commands, when they were idle, as civilians. If any of this sentence makes sense. ...

just throwing that out there.

Thanks for the tip! But no, unfortunately, not that.  Haven't messed with military yet, it's the next thing I learn. Haha I've survived with luck and drawbridges until now.

I unpaused and kept playing, and the problem seems to have mostly fixed itself...  Perhaps it was XXSockXX's "last job" suggestion combined with my earlier wood-cutting?  I wish there were a way to know for sure...

Thanks for the help everyone!  I'll post back here if the problem comes back and is inconsistent with the "last job" theory.

[XXSockXX]

Do all your dwarves have individual rooms? It seems this behaviour mostly stops after they have rooms, they will idle there when not in a meeting area. I noticed a few masons hanging out at construction sites after finishing walls, but it seems to be rare after they have rooms. I have also seen this in off duty military and sometimes in active military taking a short trip to the last place they were stationed or ordered to kill things, which is why I guess it has to do with the last job performed.

[Jaevko]

Do all your dwarves have individual rooms? It seems this behaviour mostly stops after they have rooms, they will idle there when not in a meeting area. I noticed a few masons hanging out at construction sites after finishing walls, but it seems to be rare after they have rooms. I have also seen this in off duty military and sometimes in active military taking a short trip to the last place they were stationed or ordered to kill things, which is why I guess it has to do with the last job performed.

No, only some have individual rooms; that's probably it, thanks for the help!

[Eneverforgets]

Sometimes if you build a scupture garden they'll hang out there instead of random places.  I notice migrants that mill about outside sometimes.

[Finn]

Did you donate to Toady?  Dwarves will behave randomly until Today gives you the donation key.  Also, you will have trouble getting marksdwarves units to practice.



 

[Finn]

Okay, I was just kidding above.

You are correct that the dwarves should be in the meeting hall.  I would double check that the dining room actually is designated as a meeting hall, as it's something that easy to toggle off by mistake.  If it is a hall, then make sure that the idle dwarves can actually path to the hall.  You can check this by disabling the masonry job from all dwarves except an idle one and then create a masonry task in the dining hall.  If the dwarf does not move there immediately then there is something wrong in the path.