Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MythagoWoods]

For all the time of my playing of Dwarf Fortress I've never tried ever putting my Trade Depot in a way where caravans could not easily reach it but now that in my current fort I've started the entire fort right below the 2nd cavern layer... well that's 70 z-levels of hauling when the traders come.  I was thinking on how it would be possible to either A. Get good up to the top to the depot quickly using minecarts, of which I have absolutely no experience with, or B. how to build the depot at a level below the ground where the distance wouldn't be so great.  I've tried channeling into the mountain and even with no obstructions getting "Cannot reach depot" errors, I've tried channeling and leaving a few spots to give wagons some mobility to the same effect.  Let's face it... when it comes to trying to be clever, I fail miserably so I hope I can get some help in this matter.

[ChuckWeiss]

This sounds like a stupid question, but judging by the shear amount of noobish questions popping up lately I feel I must ask: are all of your hallways at least 3 wide? nothing built in the way? no intervening traps? are you using ramps and not stairs?

A quantum stockpile of some kind near the depot could also work.

[Deathworks]

Dear MythagoWoods!

Without seeing your implementation, it is a bit difficult to guess at what the problem is. However, I want to point out the following general rules, which you probably know, but which you may have neglected in some way in your design:

1. The path needs to be 3x3 tiles at every step. This includes the surface area where trees or boulders may have a negative effect.

2. Traps block trading paths in this version, I think. So, have you put traps too closely to the path somewhere?

3. Wagons need ramps to change z-levels. I haven't checked it, but I wouldn't be surprised if you also need at least 1 or maybe even 3 even floor tiles between each set of ramps.

Anyhow, another very important thing I want to remind you of is:

4. If you check accessibility of the Depot (via 'D', I think), the game will path green away from the depot until the impassible spot. This should usually allow you to notice what is causing the problem, as you simply have to follow the green until it stops and see what's there within that area that might be problematic.

I hope this helps,

Yours,
Deathworks

[Aviator CJ]

With regards to Deathworks' third point, there is no problem with having no level floor between consecutive ramps - if you feel so inclined (no pun intended), you could have a ramp that goes down all 70 levels without leveling off until the bottom.

[MythagoWoods]

With regards to Deathworks' third point, there is no problem with having no level floor between consecutive ramps - if you feel so inclined (no pun intended), you could have a ramp that goes down all 70 levels without leveling off until the bottom.

I'll see if I can do this, I've tried something like that earlier and found myself failing miserably because I'm bad at design.

[eharper256]

With regards to Deathworks' third point, there is no problem with having no level floor between consecutive ramps - if you feel so inclined (no pun intended), you could have a ramp that goes down all 70 levels without leveling off until the bottom.

Good job that caravans have a fixed speed. With the loads they carry, accelerating down 70 Z levels of ramps would be hilarious for them.

[Aviator CJ]

Good lord, I hadn't thought of that. It would make an interesting weapon against the clowns, don't ya think?   

[Sutremaine]

Press D to show the areas of the map accessible to the depot. Note that the pathing starts from the depot location and floods outwards. The net result is the same -- you look for where the green line ends between the depot and the wagon entry point and then fix whatever's causing the blockage -- but you need to work from the depot to the map edge and not the other way around.