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Author Topic: Finding Open Spaces  (Read 594 times)

ragincajun

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Finding Open Spaces
« on: May 25, 2016, 01:50:43 pm »

Is there an easy way to find open spaces?  Sometimes I can see dug out spots by going up one z-level and it shows blue (I do use LNP with DF Hack if that matters).  But I'm in a heavily forested area and just can't see the holes left from chopping trees down.
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2016, 03:13:02 pm »

Cutting away trees before digging through the dirt around them is the only viable suggestion i have for you in response to your questioon.

I can sympathise with you, its a big pain to deal with in my own forts when i have to watch my miners every move and calculate where the trunk of a root system lies and then intercept, just to get my surface level infrastructure set up. If memory serves, it's been flagged up as a bug on Mantis (the bugtracking site DF and toady uses) so at some point it might get look at, revised and hopefully fixed (or left as it is depending on the aye or nay of what toady says)
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2016, 02:34:00 am »

The best advice is to stay away from the first soil layer as much as possible. Existing saplings on top of your underground farm can mature into trees even without any space for roots, so you need to take care with your wood chopping at all times.
You can also be alert to green patches in your underground areas, as that may be an indication of a hole above. There is, however, a bug that causes generic grass to occasionally appear underground without a breach.
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Goatmaan

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2016, 09:54:51 am »

Do you have multi z view on? If so set it to 2. Zoom to surface, holes will appear.

 Goatmaan
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ragincajun

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2016, 11:59:42 am »

Do you have multi z view on? If so set it to 2. Zoom to surface, holes will appear.

 Goatmaan
They showed up blue but only after I cleared all the wood away.
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ManaUser

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2016, 10:22:53 am »

You could try turning varied ground off. It looks nice, but open space does stand out a little better with only one tile used for solid ground.
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Goatmaan

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2016, 05:59:06 pm »

When you "cleared all the wood away" do you mean logs or trees? I would (ha) think logs would fall down the hole.
It was a long time ago this happened to me, so maybe I'm not remembering right.

Alternate solution: designate a paved road make it however big you want, move it around the surface, holes will give a red X. Remember the spot, escape out, and floor that spot.
Works because you can't pave over holes. ( ie, murky pools).

  Goatmaan
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #7 on: May 28, 2016, 03:13:44 am »

As Goatmaan said, finding one or more logs in your underground soil farm is a clear warning sign that there's probably a hole above, but it's not guaranteed that logs will fall through, so that can be used as a backup only.
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Daris

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Re: Finding Open Spaces
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2016, 09:02:19 am »

Designating a huge section of ground for channeling also works.  You can't channel a hole so the holes will show up as non-designated spaces.
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