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Author Topic: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?  (Read 1273 times)

Grimmrog

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How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« on: November 08, 2016, 04:54:43 am »



I had 3 casualties now due to this. Most of the time it happens to my fisherdwarfs when during winter everything freezes except a few parts.
Then they go and fish there, and as soon as the rest of th ice melts they go and drown (even if the sides of the river have ramps they should be able to get to to climb out.
I do have a designated zone for fishing but they don't care about this at all when it's frozen and simply go fishing elsewhere.

Is there any way how I can prevent this, without having to apply burrows or some constant micromanagement? Because in the end it could also happen to other dwarfs simply crossing the river at the moment the ice melts.
One guy of a caravan even shared the same fate. And it may explain the fate of how one of my traders went "missing" he probably accessed a area he otherwise couldn't have reached and then was caged in there when the water melted.
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LordUbik

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #1 on: November 08, 2016, 05:54:45 am »

You can specify a Fishing Zone. Your fisherdwarves will then go exactly in the spot you specified to do their job, avoiding to go above the melting ice. To be extra-sure, you can set all you ice as very high cost to move on, so your dwarves in general will be less inclined to step on it.
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Grimmrog

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2016, 06:05:02 am »

You can specify a Fishing Zone. Your fisherdwarves will then go exactly in the spot you specified to do their job, avoiding to go above the melting ice. To be extra-sure, you can set all you ice as very high cost to move on, so your dwarves in general will be less inclined to step on it.

but this seems to not work when the fishing zone is frozen, my fisherdwarf (or at elats one of them) went soemwhere else wher eit wasn't frozen (part of the river that got pumped water form the aquifier) So they did go fishing outside the fishing zone.
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PatrikLundell

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2016, 06:53:35 am »

I believe you have to go into 'o'ptions-activity 'z'one orders-prefer zone 'f'ishing and toggle it to zone-only fishing.
You also have to set up movement restrictions to keep the morons to use bridges and make a lot of bridges to stop them from taking shortcuts anyway.
Freezing/melting is such a hassle that I don't embark in locations that suffer from freezing/melting.
(In addition to that, I don't fish, as my fortresses suffer from serious food over production anyway).
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Grimmrog

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2016, 08:16:24 am »

I believe you have to go into 'o'ptions-activity 'z'one orders-prefer zone 'f'ishing and toggle it to zone-only fishing.
You also have to set up movement restrictions to keep the morons to use bridges and make a lot of bridges to stop them from taking shortcuts anyway.
Freezing/melting is such a hassle that I don't embark in locations that suffer from freezing/melting.
(In addition to that, I don't fish, as my fortresses suffer from serious food over production anyway).

Ok I'll try that later.

well I have chosen a warm zone, however it seems to freeze occosionally for a short time.
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taptap

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2016, 08:26:07 am »

I see two options:

1) Fish through grates from solid ground / floor.

2) Train your dwarves in swimming.

Mostali

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2016, 08:52:38 am »

I zone any water/ice near where my dwarves will be pathing as restricted.  I don't use fisherdwarves though, so I'm not sure how that would interact with their jobs.  You may still be able to use it to get them to walk around water/ice to get to their job.
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Werdna

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #7 on: November 08, 2016, 11:46:35 am »

I zone any water/ice near where my dwarves will be pathing as restricted.  I don't use fisherdwarves though, so I'm not sure how that would interact with their jobs.  You may still be able to use it to get them to walk around water/ice to get to their job.

This!   Paint all of your water with 'restricted' traffic (d->o->r) and the dwarves will mostly avoid walking over it when it freezes.  Put a few bridges over the water to give them a legitimate path across (make sure the bridge is painted with Normal traffic or better).
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Grimmrog

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #8 on: November 08, 2016, 02:10:43 pm »

I believe you have to go into 'o'ptions-activity 'z'one orders-prefer zone 'f'ishing and toggle it to zone-only fishing.
You also have to set up movement restrictions to keep the morons to use bridges and make a lot of bridges to stop them from taking shortcuts anyway.
Freezing/melting is such a hassle that I don't embark in locations that suffer from freezing/melting.
(In addition to that, I don't fish, as my fortresses suffer from serious food over production anyway).

ok, thx that helped the default seems to be prefer Zone fishing. I hope thsi helps preventing bad things togetehr with walling soem parts, I try to avoud spammign the map with forbidden movement areas. At leats until they proof to still die then it may be a necessarity.
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Skorpion

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2016, 03:37:26 pm »

Three simple solutions:
1. Don't fish on frozen ponds.
Disable the zone (and labours in dorf therapist) for winter.

2. Pave over the pond apart from the fishing zone.
Masonry is a wonderful thing. The fish don't care about seeing the sky, and dwarves can't fall through a stone floor. And while you're at it, why have a vulnerable exposed walk out to the pond? Masonry up a walkway to get there.

3. Put magma beneath the pond. Never freeze again.
Magma a level underneath water means the water's warmed all the time.
Magma. The cause of, and solution to, most of your fort's problems.
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The *large serrated steel disk* strikes the Raven in the head, tearing apart the muscle, shattering the skull, and tearing apart the brain!
A tendon in the skull has been torn!
The Raven has been knocked unconcious!

Elves do it in trees. Humans do it in wooden structures. Dwarves? Dwarves do it underground. With magma.

Garrie

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #10 on: December 26, 2016, 07:42:38 pm »



I had 3 casualties now due to this. Most of the time it happens to my fisherdwarfs when during winter everything freezes except a few parts.

This is funny, because my problem is at the opposite end of the season: dwarfs happily drudging through a brook then BAM! they don't exist any more and the brook is a contiguous block of ice.

I've also had this problem trying to retrieve water from above a magma-filled tunnel in a frozen environment, when the magma... stopped flowing (tunnel reached 7/7) leading to the water re-freezing.
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Is there any way to remove mud outdoors?
Yea, use dirt roads to clear off the mud.
Garrie.

taptap

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2016, 05:43:49 am »

3. Put magma beneath the pond. Never freeze again.
Magma a level underneath water means the water's warmed all the time.
Magma. The cause of, and solution to, most of your fort's problems.

Before any further dwarves die to this. This is how it should be, but this is not how magma behaves in game. When you put magma on a level underneath ice it melts, but a full pool of magma will not prevent refreezing (tested this in a permafrozen ocean but doubt it is different for seasonal freezing). Afaik this is due to the melt calculations only being triggered when magma moves.

@grimmrog: Constructed bridges or tunnels and pathing priorities (restricted for water tiles and high for bridges) should do the trick.

Garrie

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #12 on: December 27, 2016, 08:09:26 pm »

a full pool of magma will not prevent refreezing
Correct - you'd need to be pumping it, or letting it drain to "somewhere" (off map?) and refill.
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Is there any way to remove mud outdoors?
Yea, use dirt roads to clear off the mud.
Garrie.

Fleeting Frames

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Re: How do I prevent my dwarfs from dying at the end of winter?
« Reply #13 on: December 28, 2016, 11:45:28 am »

If you have it partially full with waving magma, you'll get occasional complete freezes and then have the magma wave (if you have like 1 5/7 and rest 4/7) swipe the ice quickly away from above. Fun to watch.