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[schlake]

I'm currently trying to build a floor on a 4x4 embark.  And, being slightly crazy, I want the entire floor to be made of one material.

It would be nice if after entering b-C that whatever material I just used to build the last thing stayed at the top of the list regardess of how far away it is.  It would also be nice if I could 's'elect based on a string for the material I want.

It would also be really nice if I could tell a workshop (directly) to make granite blocks and only granite blocks.  This floor is huge!

[NW_Kohaku]

A) DFHack has a plugin that makes your last-used building material be the first choice in the list of materials for that type of construction.

B) Create a new stockpile that only accepts the type of stone you want to build from, and have a mason's workshop that is set aside just for creating that stone's blocks.  Set the stockpile to give to that workshop. 

To make things easier, I would suggest using carts/hauling to make the single-stone stockpile take from your main stone (or all your stone) stockpiles via hauling menu, where minecarts are used to ferry from stockpile to stockpile and quantum stockpile the specified stone one tile away from your masonry workshop.

[schlake]

A) DFHack has a plugin that makes your last-used building material be the first choice in the list of materials for that type of construction.

B) Create a new stockpile that only accepts the type of stone you want to build from, and have a mason's workshop that is set aside just for creating that stone's blocks.  Set the stockpile to give to that workshop. 

To make things easier, I would suggest using carts/hauling to make the single-stone stockpile take from your main stone (or all your stone) stockpiles via hauling menu, where minecarts are used to ferry from stockpile to stockpile and quantum stockpile the specified stone one tile away from your masonry workshop.

I don't use DFHack though.  I just play Dwarf Fortress straight out of the tarball, the way Urist intended.  Well, I do turn off aquifers, but no tilesets!  Tilesets are a sign of weakness.  I tried Therapist twice, but gave up on it.

As for the stockpile idea, it doesn't seem to work right for me.  I either end up with dwarves running out of the stockpile to grab whatever rocks they want, or I get piles of cancellation spam about rocks.

[NW_Kohaku]

I don't use DFHack though.  I just play Dwarf Fortress straight out of the tarball, the way Urist intended.  Well, I do turn off aquifers, but no tilesets!  Tilesets are a sign of weakness.  I tried Therapist twice, but gave up on it.

As for the stockpile idea, it doesn't seem to work right for me.  I either end up with dwarves running out of the stockpile to grab whatever rocks they want, or I get piles of cancellation spam about rocks.

DFHack exists to compensate for the lack of features that Toady either hasn't gotten around to, or isn't willing to make.  Toady isn't known for reacting to suggestions very quickly.  If there's a solution to something that you can achieve with modding or DFHack, you're better off just using it.  (No point suggesting crops that aren't broken, it will get fixed eventually, and there's mods that make them work...)

Anyway, I'd need to know more about what trouble you are having with your stockpiles, but basically, you should review the give to/take from functions, as it's rather fiddly, and the interface has no method of giving you any help on why something is wrong. 

In general, just make sure that you have only one stockpile set to "give" to a workshop, that workshop has the proper settings, it has "take from anywhere" and none of the other stockpiles accept the stone you want, or else you have take from stockpiles on stockpiles that are accepting those stones.  You will probably want carts to haul stone from one stockpile to another due to speed issues.

[Airgeoff]

Why do we seem to believe that Toady intends us to not use df hack or any of the other 3rd party apps that have been made that he has given his blessing to?  You only have to use the functionality you want to so you can safely ignore any of the other very useful features if you want to.

[Bumber]

Why do we seem to believe that Toady intends us to not use df hack or any of the other 3rd party apps that have been made that he has given his blessing to?

More like begrudgingly accepts the existence of.

[Lubricus]

Either way it should be possible to enjoy the game without third party programs and hacks. It's also tedious for me to always chose the right building material wen i build walls and floors, and the list only grows the longer i play. I have to scroll by things like dog soap and so on before i find the mudstone blocks i want.

[schlake]

Why do we seem to believe that Toady intends us to not use df hack or any of the other 3rd party apps that have been made that he has given his blessing to?  You only have to use the functionality you want to so you can safely ignore any of the other very useful features if you want to.

Because the only time DF crashes is when try making things in a metalsmiths workshop.  I can run DF for real-life days without anythng going wrong.  I even build above ground constructions amongst all the trees.  Everyone else appears to use DFHack, tilesets, and Therapist, and they tell me the game is unstable and crashes all the time.

[NW_Kohaku]

Because the only time DF crashes is when try making things in a metalsmiths workshop.  I can run DF for real-life days without anythng going wrong.  I even build above ground constructions amongst all the trees.  Everyone else appears to use DFHack, tilesets, and Therapist, and they tell me the game is unstable and crashes all the time.

I can guarantee tilesets don't cause crashes.  It's handled through the game natively, and there's nothing that causes crashes with them.  I've made my own custom tilesets since 40d, and never had that problem. 

(In fact, the "vanilla" tileset, curses, uses the exact same code...)

Anyway, DFHack definitely has some stability issues, although it's hard to pin down just which ones are responsible.  Still, I use it, since it tends to fix more bugs than it causes.

[Putnam]

Why do we seem to believe that Toady intends us to not use df hack or any of the other 3rd party apps that have been made that he has given his blessing to?

More like begrudgingly accepts the existence of.

He's explicitly said that their getting more people into the game is "good", so no, definitely not begrudging.

[Bumber]

Why do we seem to believe that Toady intends us to not use df hack or any of the other 3rd party apps that have been made that he has given his blessing to?

More like begrudgingly accepts the existence of.

He's explicitly said that their getting more people into the game is "good", so no, definitely not begrudging.

He's not thrilled about the reverse engineering and memory hacking.

[Airgeoff]

Ditto to tilesets - I've never had any problem.  As far as dfhack causing issues it seems to depend on which functions you use.  Just installing it and having it running alongside has caused no problems for me stability wise and still let's me use the functionality like keeping the same building material on top.  As far as enjoying the game, it being this easy and costless to fix this functionality issue, I would much rather Toady focus on other topics like improving content (as he really does anyway).

[Salmeuk]

If you are considering any large-scale construction projects I would suggest installing DFHack and getting used to some of the auto-material functionality. While I can build massive walls in Vanilla, certain plugins make it go a hell of a lot faster. Like 5x faster (serious estimate), since I'm not stuck scrolling for the material every time.

I do understand wanting to play DF the way it was programmed, but I've been swayed by a few key updates to the U.I. Namely auto-material and the u ---> l labor menu, which I've found much easier to use than therapist.

This is all especially true for trying to build consistently-colored constructions. Installing DFHack is as easy as downloading the files and dropping them into your DF install, and it lets you build massive constructions without succumbing to tendon pain.

[schlake]

I discovered last night that using the z menu and simply forbidding all the stones except the one I want really smoothed things out.

Then the reality that I was attempting to build a floor out of 40000 granite blocks hit me, and I chickened out.  I'm having the dwarves pull back up the thousands of floor tiles they already used, and I'll just let tower caps grow if I ever hit the caverns.  In a 200 by 200 cistern that is 7 z levels high I should have enough room for them.

[NW_Kohaku]

I discovered last night that using the z menu and simply forbidding all the stones except the one I want really smoothed things out.

Then the reality that I was attempting to build a floor out of 40000 granite blocks hit me, and I chickened out.  I'm having the dwarves pull back up the thousands of floor tiles they already used, and I'll just let tower caps grow if I ever hit the caverns.  In a 200 by 200 cistern that is 7 z levels high I should have enough room for them.

You can build roads if you don't want to build anything on top of them.  Saves blocks, and goes a lot faster, as well. 

Still, if you want to build and not have tower cap problems, it's easier to just not build in the caverns.   You can work the edges of the caverns to rearrange them all into ramps up into your carefully-sculpted gardens of stone just above the proper caverns you've had entirely walled off.