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[CyberianK]

Hello everybody,

first I want to congratulate the Developer and the awesome community for this experience that is DF. I just turned my attention to it now I can't get how I missed it all these years, this is the game I dreamed of since I played http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Adventure on an obsolete 8086 in my fathers office in 1989.
Since the wiki has such good quality (quick remarks: patch version control and tutorial and humor are just exceptional) I could adapt quite quickly. I had some trouble with stairways and control issues but now I get it even though I am confident all my Dwarfs will forever rest in a hole soon.

One thing I don't like though is my pastures. I am in a heavily forested area. For aesthetic reasons I want the pastures to be only grass (). I can remove the scrub and even get some nice plant food for it that is no problem. But when I remove the trees 50% of the ground is covered in logs. Now that is not so bad as I need thousands of them to make into ash and coal. But I don't want them lying there. And I don't want to garbagedump them either. In my first try I did a 25x15 stockpile on top of my fortress (dug into a mountain so on top of it) but that was just too much hauling so it severly impacted my economy.

One way am thinking of trying it now is have a giant stockpile below the tree area with staircases disconnected from my main dungeons. Is there something like a "train" later that I can build that can ferry the wood quickly nearer to my base, better than wheelbarrows? Any problems with this or what would be your way of handling this?

Thanks for feedback and thx to whoever did Therapist and that Starter Bundle

[Badger Storm]

I have no experience with them, but you might want to try minecarts.  They even have tracks, just like trains!  Alternatively, you might make all your cheesemakers, fish cleaners, etc. into "haulers", giving them only hauling labors, and turn off the hauling on dwarves who actually make stuff.

[CyberianK]

yep the minecarts seem to be exactly what I need, thanks
seems to be very complex though it seems there will be some injuries till I get it right

[Magistrum]

Surely there will be injuries, just try to keep it to a minimum, minecarts are infamous for causing more transit accidents than drunk drivers(You can see the relationship.)


You are rather new to the game, but I'll propose this anyway... You can pump water after felling all the trees to make a current that pushes the logs to somewhere else. This counts as a Stupid Dwarf Trick. It's a considerable amount of work for very little benefit, but that's the meaning of dwarf fortress.

[Headless]

... You can pump water after felling all the trees to make a current that pushes the logs to somewhere else. This counts as a Stupid Dwarf Trick. It's a considerable amount of work for very little benefit, but that's the meaning of dwarf fortress.

Really? I dropped some trees into the river three years ago and they are still sitting exactly where they fell.

[PatrikLundell]

It requires some significant current to move them, but add a screw pump or two and they're moving around all over the place.

Mine cart safety:
1. You can guide mine carts along the tracks. That's supposed to be safe (never tried it).
2. Enclose your tracks in walls, mark them as Restricted Area, and add mine cart activated pressure plates that opens doors blocking the entrances to the tracks to stop cats, diplomats, and depressed dorfs looking to meet the manager/mayor/king from getting run over [well, the cats weren't looking for meetings, but the others were]. You can use somewhat cheaty impulse ramps to get the carts to move by themselves with only a starting push from a dorf.

[Aslandus]

I will say this: minecarts have a lot more capacity than wheelbarrows, but they are dangerous even when guided (though it's a lot simpler than building power and propulsion rails). You have to make a route for minecarts between where you want to wood moved from and to, and if you want it done fast build a track between them, though you could just have them haul the cart if you use particularly light materials.

The routes themselves and complications of the tracks can be difficult, but if you use the wiki you should be able to get it down... eventually...

[PatrikLundell]

Another thing: your esthetics will probably be offended, because trees grow back at a high rate in highly forested areas. I suspect you'd get trees eventually even if you removed the soil down to the rock, and then muddied the rock (by getting water on it, but probably not from rain) so stuff can grow there. Haven't tried that, though.

[Chaosegg]

Good point Patrik; I'll add that Rain and Drainage would make sense to impact vegetation, i.e. tree re-growth.
I'm not sure if it does, in fact, make trees grow back faster,
but I do remember reading you're more likely to find more dense vegetation in areas with more rain and more drainage.
When I want to make sure I have a good amount of wood,
I personally usually set Rain and Drainage to high so I have some heavily tree-infested forested
biome in my embark site.

[CyberianK]

Another thing: your esthetics will probably be offended, because trees grow back at a high rate in highly forested areas.

That is OK I just don't like those logs and stones lying around all over the place

Minecarts are lots of fun and work nice so far. Next I will try a switch that dumps half the stone in one place and the other in a second place. Because I have two locations where stone i commonly used. Should work with a pressureplate though that changes the direction after the cart has passed. That way they would be equally distributed to the two piles.

Thanks for all the feedback here so far. Next I will try a continous cart in a pit. My dream would to also put a giant hamster in the cart, riding it through the goblins but that does not work, right?

[Aslandus]

Thanks for all the feedback here so far. Next I will try a continous cart in a pit. My dream would to also put a giant hamster in the cart, riding it through the goblins but that does not work, right?

Well, you could do it, but it won't accomplish much, the cart might knock a few goblins senseless, but giant hamsters aren't very dangerous...

[Nikow]

If i understand you good, just use 'd'esignations, set 'b'uilding/item properies and then 'h'ide logs. It will be looking like there are not there, but your dorfs can hault them later (if They will be needed), right? :)

Minecarts are safe as long as guide and without traveling by z-levels. Dorfs are stupid, and when They are traveling more than 40-50 tiles with They minecarts, They like to "forgoting" about it and leaving it. When They will leave it on ramp... You know, They are not smartest ones, They will be crushed without chance to dodge (because They are looking in other direction, like booze). But on one z-level, guided, minecarts did not made any harm to my dorfs so far.

EDIT: changed [] to '' around shortcuts, becasue [] are used for formating.