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[synkell]

Hey all , infrequent poster here. Trying my hand at a megaproject(simple one) consisting of a main tower surrounded by 4 others and a curtain wall. However , theres a slight problem of stones , too few and too slow to get to the surface.

How do you guys get stone up there? I have no magma too.

[Tevish Szat]

1) Build a Mason's workshop down near where you're getting stones.  In fact, build more than one.
2) In each, queue Rock Blocks/R to turn all your loose stone into blocks
3) Optional: Quantum stockpile blocks with a minecart piler near the surface
4) Build your megaproject from blocks.  You get smooth constructions, four times as many building items as with the raw stone (each stone makes 4 blocks), and they haul WAY faster

[Triaxx2]

I prefer to build the Mason's workshops at the top and ship the boulders with the mine cart. It takes longer to load and fill the cart with blocks down below, than with boulders. 5 boulders or 20 blocks fit in the cart. Plus having the masons on the top means you're moving the material less with each step. If you're building up multiple stairs, you can set up surface tracks from the masons to deliver blocks closer.

[krenshala]

Another trick is to turn off rock hauling on your masons so they only carry the item directly related to their task (e.g., the boulder they are turning into blocks, or the block they are turning into a wall/floor/stairs/etc).  Then have a bunch of peasant haulers that move items to/between conveniently placed stockpiles (mines to stone pile near masons workshop, blocks from masons workshop to construction site, etc).  Your haulers move stuff to where the masons can use it quickly this way.

[Dangerous Beans]

Another trick is to turn off rock hauling on your masons so they only carry the item directly related to their task (e.g., the boulder they are turning into blocks, or the block they are turning into a wall/floor/stairs/etc).  Then have a bunch of peasant haulers that move items to/between conveniently placed stockpiles (mines to stone pile near masons workshop, blocks from masons workshop to construction site, etc).  Your haulers move stuff to where the masons can use it quickly this way.

Alternative option, since blocks have no quality level, is lots of mason workshops and enabling mason/stone hauler on all the serfs.
Also, because the fools dwarves take the bin to the item to fill it up, it is often faster to have the dwarves move the blocks to a no bin stockpile (stockpile 1) next to the main stockpile (stockpile 2), and then have stockpile 2 take only from stockpile 1. That way you avoid a dwarf hauling a bin across the map to put one block in it. you could also set stockpile 1 to only take from the workshops, and then have a minecart link to a quantum stockpile at the building site.
Great, now i want to build a large above ground fort that has a bunch of towers connected by subways, all built out of stoneware blocks in soil layers  .

[Itnetlolor]

[QUARRY] -> (Stock Pre-Sort (Preferably multiple stone collectors with 3 wheelbarrows each, multiplying collection rates (3x 5x5 general stone works well)) => (Mason Stockpile of desired material (Other Stone elsewhere; desired collected from trio; other is a quantum storage that can be distributed elsewhere in a similar fashion to past steps (ores work well this way))) => [Masonry]x3 (Block production) -> (Designated construction zones).

Depending on production rates, a minecart quantum stockpiler may be wise to have on hand. Preferably if you have 3+ miners, and enough masons to compensate. Similar can be said about woodworkers, although you will have to apply crop-rotation to keep a steady rate of trees. Also sort the wood out if you want consistency. DFHack's plants utility can come handy as well for specifying what plant to harvest.

Make all producers dedicated to only those tasks (best if miners are separate from masons; same with woodsmen and carpenters), and make sure to have at least 10 dedicated haulers (your most worthless guys) to use for building (expendable if accidents occur), and at least an architect or few in case you're going to be making plenty of scaffolding bridges and such to keep up with rates, as well as to keep pace with the construction effort so one poor sap isn't doing all the hauling pre-work for the main builder to make the (temporary) bridge.

[synkell]

Ok thanks all ! Now to start sorting through the 3 z-levels of granite.

[Flanderbland]

I'll add a related question here, if you don't mind.

I'm facing similar issues, I've got large-scale construction ongoing (replacing all visible clay walls and floors in my fortress' top 3 z-levels with stone, need a lot of stone). The "use blocks instead"-tip will be most helpful, but another problem I'm facing is that, between construction and regular stone-furniture making, I'm pretty much running out of stone. And I do not know why.

I have 5 miners, chopping away heartily, leaving LOADS of stone behind. And I have ~130 dwarves with stone-hauling enabled, lots of wheelbarrows, you name it. But they just won't collect the stones? They are listed as 'No job', idling away, with maybe one or two of them going, occasionally, to haul a stone. All this while the stockpiles are nearing empty.

Is there some way I can "force" them to go pick the bloody stones? This also affects my metal industry, since they won't gather coal-producing rocks.

But if I on the other hand go out and chop some trees, then ALL of them zerg out and collect. I just can't make any sense of this...

[joeclark77]

Maybe the stone is too far?  Or there's no stockpile to put it in?
One thing that might work is to set up a 1-tile garbage dump near your mason's shop and then (d)-(b)-(d)ump the stone.  That might induce the dwarves to pick it up and haul it to the dump.  Then you (d)-(b)-re(c)laim the stones on that one tile, and they will be hauled to any available stockpile spaces.

[vjek]

Other options are glass or clay constructions, given they are each infinite supply, provided they're on the map.

[Triaxx2]

I'm kind of partial to glass, but without magma, it's going to be a major league pain.

Are the wheel barrows enabled in your stockpiles? One stockpile has a limit of three wheelbarrows, so only three dwarves will haul to it, one for each barrow. So make multiple small 3x9 stockpiles, then let those give to larger ones, until the last is being loaded directly into the mine carts, or masons workshops.

Or turn wheelbarrows off completely. The dwarves will haul manually. It'll be slower, but the brute force approach should do the trick.

[Tevish Szat]

I'll add a related question here, if you don't mind.

I'm facing similar issues, I've got large-scale construction ongoing (replacing all visible clay walls and floors in my fortress' top 3 z-levels with stone, need a lot of stone). The "use blocks instead"-tip will be most helpful, but another problem I'm facing is that, between construction and regular stone-furniture making, I'm pretty much running out of stone. And I do not know why.

I have 5 miners, chopping away heartily, leaving LOADS of stone behind. And I have ~130 dwarves with stone-hauling enabled, lots of wheelbarrows, you name it. But they just won't collect the stones? They are listed as 'No job', idling away, with maybe one or two of them going, occasionally, to haul a stone. All this while the stockpiles are nearing empty.

Is there some way I can "force" them to go pick the bloody stones? This also affects my metal industry, since they won't gather coal-producing rocks.

But if I on the other hand go out and chop some trees, then ALL of them zerg out and collect. I just can't make any sense of this...

How large are your stone stockpiles?  Wheelbarrows eat a stockpile space, so if the stockpile's size isn't larger than the number of wheelbarrows assigned to it, you won't pile anything.  And if you have ANY wheelbarrows, that's the maximum number of hauling jobs to a particular stockpile. (So if you have a 5x5 Stone stockpile with 3 wheelbarrows, at most 3 dwarves will haul stone to that stockpile at one time.)

I'd suggest building a minecart-based quantum-stockpiler for stone: you get infinite stockpile (as long as it functions), and it's really easy to set up in a stone layer.

Spoiler: The Minecart Quantum Stockpiler (click to show/hide)

Step 1: Create a stockpile -- in this case, stone (perhaps just your masonry stone, leaving out ores and economic rock).   Make it big enough to hold the reserve for loading the minecart: I like 5x5, but 3x3 would probably do, at least for stone.  Not important for stone, but it should take no barrels or bins.  This is the input stockpile.
Step 2: Carve track.  One end of the track should be adjacent to your input stockpile.  Track needs to be at least 2 tiles long, I prefer 3 or more.
Step 3: Make stockpile next to the 'far' end of the track.  It should be 1x1 and accept everything the input stockpile does.   No barrels or bins again. This is the Quantum Stockpile
Step 4: Build a track stop on the track tile adjacent to the Quantum Stockpile, set to dump on arrival in the direction of the quantum stockpile
Step 5: Create a route.  Put the route's first stop at the non-track-stop end of the track and the second stop at the track-stop end.  Define the first stop to "Guide (track direction) immediately when full of desired goods".  For stone, that's all you need, since minecarts only take 5 stones.  If you try this with Blocks or other small items, a "Guide in 14/28 days always" term is useful so a half loaded minecart with tons of stuff doesn't just sit there when you pause producing.  Give it a stockpile link to the input stockpile (put the cursor over the input stockpile then  order a link) and set its desired goods to be everything your two stockpiles accept.  Define the second stop to "Guide (Track direction) immediately always."  It needs nothing else.  Assign a minecart to the route.

What happens now is that items will be brought to the input stockpile.  If the minecart has room, it will then be thrown in the minecart.  When the minecart is full, it gets pushed along the track and when it hits the track stop, its contents dump into the quantum stockpile, then it is immediatley pushed back to the input end.  Since the items are on an appropriate stockpile, they just sit there.  If this is your only stockpile of its kind (or the input pile takes from all the others), it WILL stack every single item of the chosen type on your quantum stockpile tile.

Spoiler: Visual 5x6 example (click to show/hide)

Legend:
I = Input Pile
Q = Quantum pile
S = Constructed track stop on top of carved track, set to highest friction, dumping north on arrival.  Defined in hauling route with "Guide south immediately always"
P = Carved Track, defined in hauling route with a link to I, Desired Items: all items I takes, and "Guide north immediately when full of desired items"
T = Carved Track

Code: [Select]

IIIIIQ
IIIIIS
IIIIIT
IIIIIT
IIIIIP
How it looks in Game:

Code: [Select]

======
=====≡
=====║
=====║
=====╨
With items on the stockpile spaces sometimes (input will usually be at least mostly empty) and a minecart at one of the two ends of the track, usually the south end.

Once this is set up to Stone (and all other stone stockpiles removed), your haulers should dutifully gather every last loose stone they can physically reach and pile them for you.

[gchristopher]

I'd suggest building a minecart-based quantum-stockpiler for stone: you get infinite stockpile (as long as it functions), and it's really easy to set up in a stone layer.

Spoiler: The Minecart Quantum Stockpiler (click to show/hide)

Step 1: Create a stockpile -- in this case, stone (perhaps just your masonry stone, leaving out ores and economic rock).   Make it big enough to hold the reserve for loading the minecart: I like 5x5, but 3x3 would probably do, at least for stone.  Not important for stone, but it should take no barrels or bins.  This is the input stockpile.
Step 2: Carve track.  One end of the track should be adjacent to your input stockpile.  Track needs to be at least 2 tiles long, I prefer 3 or more.
Step 3: Make stockpile next to the 'far' end of the track.  It should be 1x1 and accept everything the input stockpile does.   No barrels or bins again. This is the Quantum Stockpile
Step 4: Build a track stop on the track tile adjacent to the Quantum Stockpile, set to dump on arrival in the direction of the quantum stockpile
Step 5: Create a route.  Put the route's first stop at the non-track-stop end of the track and the second stop at the track-stop end.  Define the first stop to "Guide (track direction) immediately when full of desired goods".  For stone, that's all you need, since minecarts only take 5 stones.  If you try this with Blocks or other small items, a "Guide in 14/28 days always" term is useful so a half loaded minecart with tons of stuff doesn't just sit there when you pause producing.  Give it a stockpile link to the input stockpile (put the cursor over the input stockpile then  order a link) and set its desired goods to be everything your two stockpiles accept.  Define the second stop to "Guide (Track direction) immediately always."  It needs nothing else.  Assign a minecart to the route.

What happens now is that items will be brought to the input stockpile.  If the minecart has room, it will then be thrown in the minecart.  When the minecart is full, it gets pushed along the track and when it hits the track stop, its contents dump into the quantum stockpile, then it is immediatley pushed back to the input end.  Since the items are on an appropriate stockpile, they just sit there.  If this is your only stockpile of its kind (or the input pile takes from all the others), it WILL stack every single item of the chosen type on your quantum stockpile tile.

Don't do Step 2: Carve track.

The minecart does not need to move. Just place it on a track stop and leave it there with no orders to move it. It will immediately dump any object placed in it into the quantum stockpile.

[Tevish Szat]

I'd suggest building a minecart-based quantum-stockpiler for stone: you get infinite stockpile (as long as it functions), and it's really easy to set up in a stone layer.

Spoiler: The Minecart Quantum Stockpiler (click to show/hide)

Step 1: Create a stockpile -- in this case, stone (perhaps just your masonry stone, leaving out ores and economic rock).   Make it big enough to hold the reserve for loading the minecart: I like 5x5, but 3x3 would probably do, at least for stone.  Not important for stone, but it should take no barrels or bins.  This is the input stockpile.
Step 2: Carve track.  One end of the track should be adjacent to your input stockpile.  Track needs to be at least 2 tiles long, I prefer 3 or more.
Step 3: Make stockpile next to the 'far' end of the track.  It should be 1x1 and accept everything the input stockpile does.   No barrels or bins again. This is the Quantum Stockpile
Step 4: Build a track stop on the track tile adjacent to the Quantum Stockpile, set to dump on arrival in the direction of the quantum stockpile
Step 5: Create a route.  Put the route's first stop at the non-track-stop end of the track and the second stop at the track-stop end.  Define the first stop to "Guide (track direction) immediately when full of desired goods".  For stone, that's all you need, since minecarts only take 5 stones.  If you try this with Blocks or other small items, a "Guide in 14/28 days always" term is useful so a half loaded minecart with tons of stuff doesn't just sit there when you pause producing.  Give it a stockpile link to the input stockpile (put the cursor over the input stockpile then  order a link) and set its desired goods to be everything your two stockpiles accept.  Define the second stop to "Guide (Track direction) immediately always."  It needs nothing else.  Assign a minecart to the route.

What happens now is that items will be brought to the input stockpile.  If the minecart has room, it will then be thrown in the minecart.  When the minecart is full, it gets pushed along the track and when it hits the track stop, its contents dump into the quantum stockpile, then it is immediatley pushed back to the input end.  Since the items are on an appropriate stockpile, they just sit there.  If this is your only stockpile of its kind (or the input pile takes from all the others), it WILL stack every single item of the chosen type on your quantum stockpile tile.

Don't do Step 2: Carve track.

The minecart does not need to move. Just place it on a track stop and leave it there with no orders to move it. It will immediately dump any object placed in it into the quantum stockpile.

Really?  That's rather fascinating.  I kind of like the image of moving carts, but that way does seem more efficient and eliminates the "half-loaded cart" problem.

[Triaxx2]

I've heard this behavior, but I've never noticed it.