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[Chevaleresse]

I'd like to see a change to how dwarves handle channeling. Right now they pick whatever square they damn well please and inevitably channel to cause cave-ins, even going so far as to channel tiles they are standing on, to the point of it seeming like all of these cave-ins are intentional. I just want to see dwarves:


1. working from the center to the edge of a channel designation
2. working on the channel on the highest z-level first

[Deboche]

Isn't this planned? Maybe you could designate the direction of mining or which tiles come before which.

Or maybe it would memorize which tile your cursor went over first and you would move it in the order you want it mined, then use macros for big areas. Like this:

O 1st tile then cursor moves down

O
|
|
|  And so on
||
||
-|

Then to the side and up

[The Riddled Basement]

I would love smarter dwarves channeling, at the moment they seem to have a fair share of suicidal tendencies.

[nanomage]

What if their tendency to follow well-known (to players) safe practices while mining and channelling depended on their mining skill, discipline skill, spatial sence and intelligence, and (weakly and inversely) on creativity and riskiness?

[IndigoFenix]

The simplest way of doing this, I think, would be to try pathing from each position around a designated channeling spot to a known 'safe' area (say, the meeting area), calculating the path as if the channeling had already been done.  If there is no path available, that is, if they would cut off their only escape route by channeling a spot while standing on a particular side, they will prefer not to stand there.  This could also be used for construction, to avoid the age-old problem of dwarves walling themselves in.  The current trick of designating/suspending a construction could be reserved for when you would actually want a dwarf to trap themselves for whatever reason.

[Loci]

The current trick of designating/suspending a construction

That doesn't work... and hasn't for years.

[Putnam]

It worked in 0.34.11 and was I'm pretty sure it still does now.

[GavJ]

At some point you definitely need to calculate paths, but I doubt you need to do so with every fresh dig (unless the player changed the designation). There's almost certainly some clever shortcut where you can cache summary type data from the pathing and work from that as you go more quickly. Can't think of it right this minute, though.

[Loci]

It worked in 0.34.11 and was I'm pretty sure it still does now.

No it didn't, and no it doesn't. Try it if you don't believe me.

[King Mir]

Walls were recently fixed to disallow constructing them from the tile stood in. Channels should be the same way.

[Bumber]

Walls were recently fixed to disallow constructing them from the tile stood in. Channels should be the same way.

I'm pretty sure they have been since the same update. Dwarves won't channel the tile under another dwarf, either. This won't stop them from removing a supporting tile, unfortunately.

I would assume they'll still channel the tile beneath themselves if it wouldn't cause a drop, but I haven't tested.

[nanomage]

they can channel the tile they're standing on, I observed this when there was no other tile to stand on (that is, if digging a 1-tile wide chute), or if it only causes 1z-level drop, which is presumably harmless.

[Bumber]

they can channel the tile they're standing on, I observed this when there was no other tile to stand on (that is, if digging a 1-tile wide chute), or if it only causes 1z-level drop, which is presumably harmless.

I walled in a miner and tried to get him to channel out the tile he was standing on in order to access the floor below (to build some up-stairs I had accidentally removed while clearing out an aquifer.) No dice. Nobody would take the job. I couldn't even get him down there via cave-in because he got sent flying back up. Ended up having to use a minecart.

[nanomage]

they can channel the tile they're standing on, I observed this when there was no other tile to stand on (that is, if digging a 1-tile wide chute), or if it only causes 1z-level drop, which is presumably harmless.

I walled in a miner and tried to get him to channel out the tile he was standing on in order to access the floor below (to build some upstairs.) No dice. Nobody would take the job. I couldn't even get him down there via cave-in because he got sent flying back up. Ended up having to use a minecart.

THat's realy surprising for me. I used to love those drop chutes going all the way fromthe surface to the SMR and never had any problems digging them (except miners encountering a cavern sometimes). I'll miss them

[Bumber]

THat's realy surprising for me. I used to love those drop chutes going all the way fromthe surface to the SMR and never had any problems digging them (except miners encountering a cavern sometimes). I'll miss them

Well, I still haven't tested channeling with solid tiles beneath them, but they definitely won't channel a floor tile over a mined-out tile while standing on it. (Incidentally it was inaccessible, but I doubt that matters.)

Edit: Can't reproduce. It seems the behavior was either a bug related to the "stand too far away" bug or my dwarf was just being an idiot. I'm pretty sure dwarves still won't channel under other dwarves.