Would screenshots be appreciated at this point? The construction is largely complete on one part. I basically have the entrance gates at the lower stop like 90% done (just need to take them through a cycle so the water memory cells are operational.) There are some bizarre pathing issues, and the opening and closing of my water hatches was causing lag from pathfinding recalculations earlier, so idk. Hopefully all will be resolved soon enough.
@FortunaDraken
Heh, glad I gave you a chuckle.
@Larix
Dwarven space program: It is terrifying. And it was also inevitable.
I keep one "gate" open at all times (no plates or anything; it's just a hallway through to the walking connection, which is a valid path), but it's set to restricted traffic, so the dwarves will choose a gate if there's an open one. In theory. That, coupled with the very simple route plan, should hopefully keep it workable without further workarounds. (I actually haven't built that middle section I was planning on, so it's just one area near the magma sea and then the near-surface as the two stations.)
Job interruption for craftsdwarves can be minimized by using workshop profiles, so some other dwarf doesn't grab the workshop when it becomes temporarily inaccessible to Urist, only to be cancelled when Urist 2 also goes through the process, to hopefully be picked up by the (now arrived) Urist 1 and not some other Urist 3, etc., etc.
The big problem, which I occasionally forget, is dwarves trying to haul something manually from station to destination (like a mason bringing a stone to his workshop); they'll drop it when they become trapped, littering the floor with job items. I'll have to organize the fort via stockpile links and my hauling minecarts to avoid that.
I had considered the sleeping/on break issue; I've made 5x5 lounges inside each gate that I'll furnish with statues and beds. It won't be ideal, since the dwarves won't socialize with anyone (unless I make some kind of timer to automatically free them) if they try to use the subway system while on break. (Enters gate -> gate locks -> does not take "ride cart" job because Urist is "On Break" -> Urist stays put in the locked gate until he goes off break, at which point he'll ride the cart and probably get some food.) But then again, some people will probably see that as an efficiency/sanity/ease-of-maintenence benefit (minus the part where it clogs that subway gate until he moves his butt. Hence why I built four gates [plus the fifth, open one] and think it might not be enough.)
Hm, that idling idea is also a good one, though. You'd just have to...idk, account for sleeping, eating, drinking, and on break somehow. I think I'll just have meeting zones in both locations, and hope the dwarves choose the closest one (not a subway ride away.)
And yeah, I planned to use this to centralize eating and drinking (industry as well, really); my drink and food stockpile is in the barely-subsurface fort, while all my heavy industry (and some noble quarters, and this new construction project) are down in the deep fort or near it. I currently keep a small manually-hauled food stockpile down in the deep fort for emergencies. I set up a minecart hauling super-ish highway (it's all guided carts), but I've never used it for food, and I plan to keep it that way.
@Bumber
If you mean at the exit stop, then yeah, that's a pretty good idea. I could trap them in that one (hehe), force them to take the job of pushing the minecart, which rolls over a pressure plate and releases them. That would be pretty great! But it will still require trapping, basic logic, etc., which was more complicated than I was hoping for; but there doesn't seem to be a solution which doesn't involve that.
I haven't figured out how I'm going to do it yet. (I was thinking automatic via fluid pushing or bumping by another cart, triggered by the civilian leaving, to reduce jobs that the dwarf has to take, but this could also work.)