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[laxori666]

I've noticed that whenever I go to build a weapon trap, I'll have an essentially random number of weapons to choose from. I have way too much wealth in terms of prepared intestine & brain roast barrels, so I'll basically buy whatever copper/bronze/iron weapons traders stop by with. I have a lot of random weapons, essentially. I also have many various giant serrated disks etc. Sometimes, when I go to build a weapon trap, I'll have 10-20 of these to choose from, but other times, only 2 or 3, and sometimes it'll say no item is available. Note that among all these times I hadn't actually used any of the components, so I figure I should have the same availability each time...

What might be causing this? A bug? Or i'm missing something about inventory management?

[Loud Whispers]

Are you pressing 'x'?

[EvilBob22]

It could be a pathing issue, they may not be able to get to the weapons from where the traps are being built.

[i2amroy]

Are you currently producing them? Dwarves could be picking up the weapon/trap component bins to go pick up any new ones that you produced, meaning that whatever ones they are carrying are considered "inaccessible".

[laxori666]

Are you pressing 'x'?

You mean expanding to pick particular ones vs. general ones? No, it's not that

[laxori666]

It could be a pathing issue, they may not be able to get to the weapons from where the traps are being built.

I thought it might be this, but I tried placing the trap right in the core of my work areas and it still had too few components than there should have been.

[laxori666]

Are you currently producing them? Dwarves could be picking up the weapon/trap component bins to go pick up any new ones that you produced, meaning that whatever ones they are carrying are considered "inaccessible".

Hmm I'm not currently producing them, but it might be this. I created a weapon/trap components stockpile so I could see everything all in one place, but it remains empty, even when all the component options are available, so I actually have no idea where the components are physically located... is there any way to set a high priority to dwarves to fill up a stockpile? I'm not sure why they haven't been putting things in it, maybe I have another stockpile somewhere that is hoarding them...

[moki]

I also noticed this and I strongly suspect it's linked to the behaviour of containers.
When your weaponsmith makes a trap component, a dwarf will pick up a weapon bin (possibly containing other weapons/trap components) from the stockpile, takes it to the forge, collects the new trap component and then takes it back to the stockpile. While the bin is being carried, it is marked as tasked for an order (collecting the new trap component) and can therefore not be used by any other order (like building a trap).
It's the same "bug" like the very common "Urist McFarmer cancels plant seeds: No plump helmet spawn", though there are tons of seeds. Once the dwarves bring the weapon bin (or seed barrel) back to the stockpile, it's contents "reappear" and are ready to use.

For seeds, the common workaround is to disallow barrels from the seed stockpile... so I guess, having a stockpile only for the trap components you want to use and having bins disabled for it would be a solution. Of course, it'll take up some room, but at least you can use all components all the time. You could also remove all trap component stockpiles, so dwarves don't collect them, but then the trap builders would need to run to the forges for each component, which would probably slow down building even more.

[salttotart]

If you have another general Weapons stockpile sitting around, you may have forgotten to turn off Trap Components. Thats typically have happens to me when my dorfs aren't putting things where I expect them.

[slothen]

when selecting building components, unavailable items will not be listed.  An item may be unavailable if it is forbidden, inaccessible, or assigned to any task

[EBannion]

Dwarves now pick up bins to carry it to go pick up one item, instead of carrying the item to the bin in the stockpile, and when they pick up the bin, any item in it is inaccessible until they put the bin back down.

I had a similar confusion when my smelter told me he couldn't make any candy wafers, though stocks showed I had 45 threads.

Then I noticed that every time the extractor finished a thread a mook would pick the bin with all of the other threads in it and carry it to pick up the thread.

Stupid dwarves.

Now I see this was already said in here. Well, oops.

[i2amroy]

For seeds, the common workaround is to disallow barrels from the seed stockpile... so I guess, having a stockpile only for the trap components you want to use and having bins disabled for it would be a solution. Of course, it'll take up some room, but at least you can use all components all the time. You could also remove all trap component stockpiles, so dwarves don't collect them, but then the trap builders would need to run to the forges for each component, which would probably slow down building even more.

There is an easier and more efficient method to solve the "bug" for both seeds and other stockpiles that you want to disable this on, which involved a dual stockpile.
1)Two stockpiles, stockpile A and stockpile B
2)Stockpile A is your "actual" stockpile. It is set to take only from links and is set to take from stockpile B (and your barrel or bin stockpile, depending on which one you need). Stockpile A has bins/barrels enabled.
3)Stockpile B is a small stockpile (3-5 tiles). It is set to take from anywhere and gives to stockpile A. Stockpile B has bins/barrels disabled.

The end result is that your dwarves should carry individual items to stockpile B, at which point they take a few steps over, grab a bin/barrel, and move the item from stockpile B to stockpile A. Because the distance they carry the bin/barrel is much shorter, the chance of you being affected by the bug is minuscule.

[laxori666]

There is an easier and more efficient method to solve the "bug" for both seeds and other stockpiles that you want to disable this on, which involved a dual stockpile.
1)Two stockpiles, stockpile A and stockpile B
2)Stockpile A is your "actual" stockpile. It is set to take only from links and is set to take from stockpile B (and your barrel or bin stockpile, depending on which one you need). Stockpile A has bins/barrels enabled.
3)Stockpile B is a small stockpile (3-5 tiles). It is set to take from anywhere and gives to stockpile A. Stockpile B has bins/barrels disabled.

The end result is that your dwarves should carry individual items to stockpile B, at which point they take a few steps over, grab a bin/barrel, and move the item from stockpile B to stockpile A. Because the distance they carry the bin/barrel is much shorter, the chance of you being affected by the bug is minuscule.

Ooh that's not a bad idea at all! I'll have to keep this in mind, thanks.