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[Pyrite]

This seems like it would be simple, but it involves alteration to patching logic so it might be more complex.

A vile force of darkness encroaches on the fortress. Goblins stream in from every direction, looking for warm blood to spill. An alert is sounded to call all dwarves behind the fortress defenses, but it will be too late for some. Still, herbalists and fisherdwarves do their very best to escape into safety, and some make it inside. The stragglers are quickly caught and surrounded, their messy deaths serving to buy a little more time for those ahead of them.

An herbalist arrives at the outer defenses, just a few tiles from the killing field of a courtyard where marksdwarves sit behind fortifications to pepper the enemy with bolts. Goblins are hot on her heels, and one manages to run alongside her and attack! A tense moment as she dodges aside and runs...

...back away from the fortress and toward the goblin army, where she's surrounded and torn limb from limb. This is a tragic story, and we've all seen it's like.

But I think this could be avoidable.

Basically, I want to be able to designate a zone like you can designate a meeting hall, but instead of being a place for dwarves to hang out in when they aren't working, it's a place for them to flee to when they are in danger.

Essentially when a dwarf is attacked and choses to flee, they should attempt to path toward the refuge zone. They might get cut off again, and certainly won't be guaranteed to make it, but it vastly increases their chances of getting away from an attacker and luring them into the waiting hammers of your military.

[Deboche]

I doubt the way they currently run from danger is meant to stay the way it is.

In any case, is there a reason for the refuge zone to be different than the burrow that's activated by the alarm?

[Pyrite]

It might make lathing simpler and more predictable. I could easily see it as a burrow option alternatively.

[LordUbik]

Actually, this is exactly what a Civilian Alert burrow does. Simple to set up and even simpler to use. I don't understand why would we need the thing you suggest.

Don't take this as a critique,  your idea could be good, but i would need more to follow it.

[Deboche]

We also have to consider that maybe the civilian alert as it exists and works now might not be necessarily to make dwarves run for their lives. There will be hill dwarves, spies, refugees and all sorts of things to warn us that an enemy army is coming.

It might still be useful for ambushes when your fortress is still small but when you start to have hill dwarves, a surprise siege where goblins just teleport to your front door isn't very realistic.

[Gargomaxthalus]

You should already be able to get this effect by setting up bunkers around the map and including them in the alert burrow. Forbid the hatch once some Dwarves get in and they are safe from all but building destroyers. This of course assumes that the little fucktards will path to the closest portion of the burrow. Adding a trapped corridor, a sturdy flood flood gate to the design along with a lever should give a nice extra bit of security.

[Pyrite]

This of course assumes that the little fucktards will path to the closest portion of the burrow.

This is the problem. When running from imminent danger, dwarves do not prioritize running toward safety over running into worse danger.

[Sutremaine]

I think the problem could be solved by adding an extra option to a burrow. Currently, dwarves will head towards the burrow if a civilian alert is called, but if they have to dodge and run they'll do it in a random direction.

A 'get there now!' option could limit dwarves' movements. If they're pathing towards the burrow, they can only dodge in the direction they're going (or 45 degrees either way if 'straight ahead' isn't an option). Once they dodge and start running in fear, they should get back and stick to the path they were originally following.

I think the current setup is something like "Urist cancels Path to Tile: Interrupted by Goblin Maceman", so dwarves would need to have a way of remembering what they were doing instead of dropping their current task and instantly erasing it from their memory.