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[Icefire2314]

I have a very,very multi level fort with the farms very far up near the surface, but my kitchens(and dining room) at least 10-12 z levels below that. Manually transporting plump helmets is extremely inefficient, so I've set up a 4 stop Minecart route that dumps plump helmets at the kitchen, picks up their seeds, goes back up to the farms, deposits seeds, picks up plump helmets, etc..

The issue is that nobody wants to fill the minecarts with seeds (of any kind). I've already previously used minecarts on this fort with quantum stockpiling my rocks, so I think I have a handle on actually designating routes, but I can't figure out why nobody wants to fill the minecart. Any suggestions?

[anewaname]

Wouldn't the route also need to accept the bags that contain the seeds? Similar to how you need to include bins in a route if the source stockpile contains bins.

[PatrikLundell]

I think bag acceptance is automatic (which goes for sand bags as well). I just designate seed stockpiles (i.e. non barrel food ones that remove everything except the desired kinds of seeds). Seed bags are used for those stockpiles, but I don't think I've had a need for mine cart transport of seeds, so I probably haven't put them into mine carts.
Also, unlike bins, there is no top level stockpile option for bags.

[gchristopher]

I wonder if you're going to have to deal with interference from jobs to put seeds into bags, to put bags into barrels, and planting jobs. (Like, is a dwarf planter pinning seed bags in place while they walk down to grab one seed and take it back to a farm plot?)

I'd start by setting up a seed pile/kitchen/minecart/farm situation where they're all very close together and to wherever the dwarves are idling. Make sure there's no way a barrel allowed in any applicable stockpile; that automatically breaks any quantum setup. If it's all close together with idle workers, you can at least see for sure that no one is doing anything, and get quick responses to any changes you make in orders.

I've quantum stockpiled seed bags before, but the kitchens were close to the farms so I never had to deal with a multistop route.

[Fleeting Frames]

Yeah, seeds need to be in bags to be placed into minecarts for some reason. Can still stack individual seeds with water moving, but that is almost non-functional for transport.

[Icefire2314]

Yeah, seeds need to be in bags to be placed into minecarts for some reason. Can still stack individual seeds with water moving, but that is almost non-functional for transport.

All my seeds are in bags, which are in barrels. (bar a few, but that shouldn't stop the ones that are applicable from working.)

[PatrikLundell]

Yeah, seeds need to be in bags to be placed into minecarts for some reason. Can still stack individual seeds with water moving, but that is almost non-functional for transport.

All my seeds are in bags, which are in barrels. (bar a few, but that shouldn't stop the ones that are applicable from working.)

Barrels/pots do not play nice with mine carts. Barrels are allocated to stockpiles, and if you get booze barrels to be placed into mine carts dorfs will go and fetch the barrels from the destination to return them to the "owning" stockpile, resulting in an infinite loop. I wouldn't be surprised if non booze barrels completely refuse to be loaded into mine carts along the same logic that prevents bin stockpiles to give to non bin stockpiles.
Thus, try to block barrels from the seed stockpile and see if the seeds are loaded into your mine carts. And non barreled seed bags may very well refuse to be loaded into mine carts if getting them put into barrels takes precedence.

[anewaname]

It turns out that a single bag can hold over 600 seeds. The default d_init SEED_COMBINE setting is 1000, and 1000 tiles is a long distance. So, when the "store item in bag" job is created, it is always targeting the same bag, which is probably near your farm. There is no chance they will put seeds in that minecart, unless you run out of seeds and a new seed bag is designated near the kitchen area. But, because they are hauling seeds to a container, there will never be more than one dwarf hauling the seeds and the job may have him haul multiple seeds at once ("put item in <container>jobs involve hauling up to a full container of items at once).

If you make a one-tile stockpile with no barrel, placed adjacent to the farm, that permits only plump helmet spawn, and you modify the current seed stockpile to forbid plump helmet spawn, then dwarfs will take the seed bag out of the barrel and move it to the one-tile stockpile. Once the seed bag is there, it will stay there and you will never have more than one dwarf making runs to the kitchen to bring plump helmet spawn back to the bag.

[Icefire2314]

The issue is that I have seeds in bags, seeds by themselves, and seeds in bags in barrels, and nothing is being moved at all. Can seeds be put in minecarts?

[anewaname]

The issue is that I have seeds in bags, seeds by themselves, and seeds in bags in barrels, and nothing is being moved at all. Can seeds be put in minecarts?

Yes, but only if there is no bag with that type of seed and no other empty bags available.

The problem is that seeds behave differently than any other item. Most items will only be moved to a container if that container is already in a stockpile, but seeds will move to any empty bag, regardless of where it is. Check your 'j'obs menu for "store item in bag" jobs and for each, use 'j' again to see the job item list. You'll see those jobs are for putting seeds in existing seed bags.

Setting up that single-tile one-bag seed stockpile will work well, and better than having dwarfs use a seed bag in a barrel that is shared with other seed bags.

Edit: I suspect that you didn't get a clear response immediately because players have developed their own methods for handling seeds that does not include minecarts. I use single-tile one-seed-type stockpiles for farming and a 20-tile stockpile in a side room for seeds I don't care about.

[Icefire2314]

The issue is that I have seeds in bags, seeds by themselves, and seeds in bags in barrels, and nothing is being moved at all. Can seeds be put in minecarts?

Yes, but only if there is no bag with that type of seed and no other empty bags available.

The problem is that seeds behave differently than any other item. Most items will only be moved to a container if that container is already in a stockpile, but seeds will move to any empty bag, regardless of where it is. Check your 'j'obs menu for "store item in bag" jobs and for each, use 'j' again to see the job item list. You'll see those jobs are for putting seeds in existing seed bags.

Setting up that single-tile one-bag seed stockpile will work well, and better than having dwarfs use a seed bag in a barrel that is shared with other seed bags.

Edit: I suspect that you didn't get a clear response immediately because players have developed their own methods for handling seeds that does not include minecarts. I use single-tile one-seed-type stockpiles for farming and a 20-tile stockpile in a side room for seeds I don't care about.

Oh, so you mean that seeds won't get moved into the minecart because they are already "assigned" to go somewhere else? That's pretty straightforward. Is it then the same for the bags and the barrels? Cause I couldn't understand why the bags wouldn't get moved into the stockpile.

[anewaname]

Oh, so you mean that seeds won't get moved into the minecart because they are already "assigned" to go somewhere else? That's pretty straightforward. Is it then the same for the bags and the barrels? Cause I couldn't understand why the bags wouldn't get moved into the stockpile.

Yes, that is it, those seeds and bags are already assigned to the "put item in bag" job. It works the same for the other containers. I think the process tests first for a container that wants the items, then tests second for a stockpile that wants the items.