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[Ripian]

Hi, I have a little question but for some reason I guess there is no such thing as (mining order in game).... still i have hope

The thing is that I have a line of floor, and i would like to mine it out. To mine every tile dorf need to mine it in specific order to not leave inaccessible tiles.

Here is the situation:





I need that miner mined 1 by 1 tile in this direction


In such order so he won't get stuck


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
A bit about experiments: it seems that sometimes miner automatically mines in order that I need, but sometimes he means it by order(see in image) "1" "3"  and he gets stuck on "2" tile. I can technically mine floor by marking 1 tile at a time, but this does require a lot of mine time and it annoys me. For this scenario I could make stairs 1 Z level below, but this situation is common for me, so building stairs is not an answer for me all the time and i need more universal approach.

[PatrikLundell]

The in game method is to use dig designation order 'd' and then +/- to increase/decrease the priority value (1 is highest, 7 is lowest, and that's the complete range). There are two caveats I know of:
1. It only works with a single miner. with multiple miners you can have miner number 2 select position number 2 to be mined, but before he gets there miner 1 has taken care of 1 AND 3.
2. There is a bug where the miner can dig out the lower priority tile rather than move and dig out the tile he stood on. I think it happens only when the miner stands on the highest priority tile when the designations are made and that bug is fairly rare, but saving before a risky operation allows to to recover from that save.

Thus, using dig priorities you can designate 7 tiles at each go. Better than one at a time, but that's about it.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

You can designate several tiles at once using the priority mechanic (try pressing - or + in the dig screen). Your last picture with the drawing is exactly what you'd need to do.

Edit: ninja.

[Ripian]

The in game method is to use dig designation order 'd' and then +/- to increase/decrease the priority value (1 is highest, 7 is lowest, and that's the complete range). There are two caveats I know of:
1. It only works with a single miner. with multiple miners you can have miner number 2 select position number 2 to be mined, but before he gets there miner 1 has taken care of 1 AND 3.
2. There is a bug where the miner can dig out the lower priority tile rather than move and dig out the tile he stood on. I think it happens only when the miner stands on the highest priority tile when the designations are made and that bug is fairly rare, but saving before a risky operation allows to to recover from that save.

Thus, using dig priorities you can designate 7 tiles at each go. Better than one at a time, but that's about it.

I decided to use classic setup(no dwarf therapist for better management). At all time I have like 7 miners, and I really don't want to keep tract who should be miner and who not then I want to dig 1 line, because this situation with mining floor in 1 line is common for me(I like to make hole with minimum amount of stairs ).

[Ripian]

You can designate several tiles at once using the priority mechanic (try pressing - or + in the dig screen). Your last picture with the drawing is exactly what you'd need to do.

Edit: ninja.

Well maybe..... I mean I have like 7 miners and some of them may decide to "help" mine floor, and this will leave to problem of floor tiles without access. Another problem is that I constantly have a "less important areas to mine" for miners to mine later. So practically I have always reserved 7-5 priorities, and I left with 1-4 priorities so 5 tiles at the time is not enough for me... What If I going to have 100 floor tiles that I need to destroy(common in my gameplay), also I reserve priority "1" for extra case mining so I actually can use only 2-4 priorities . 

I mean it should be a constant problem for "perfectionists in design" like me, so i thought that game may have some ways to solve this problem.

[Starver]

Hard to tell with the graphics pack (might be significantly different from default graphics, if what I think is being asked is being asked) but by "mine out a floor without becoming accessible" you mean channelling it away?

If so, then you've started it wrong, I think. You've mined (designate to dig) horizontally on this layer and (at least) the layer below, and are now removing by channelling (designate as channel) the floor left between. If you'd instead been able to ignore this level (or dig it out, if you want, but not necessary) then designate ramps on the untouched level below then they could have been serviced (as soon as accessible, but from any accessible spot without prejudice) it would open up 'this' level if still needed whilst removing this unwanted floor.

Then when that sublayer of ramps is completely dug, designate the untouched layer below for ramps (if desired) and that level gets opened up and removes the prior ramp-layer (and its flooring) in the process, just as safely.

(There are ways to mess this up, but only by getting impatient and overconfident and trying to do more than one new layer each time. Or punching into any voids. But this looks close enough to the surface to not to hit anything like that.)

As it is, how I think you're currently situated, prioritised digging/micromanagement is the way to go. If you give priority 1,3,5,7 to one (retreating) floor-removal and 2,4,6 to the opposing one, two miners would 'claim' two different orderly retreats back to the safe access point.

Or just designate each safe channelling as it becomes safe (miners may commute away and then back, slowing things down).

Or use a civ burrow over another area (or levelk(s) needing clearing) to send all but one active miner off to dig elsewhere and keep this single miner working on this level's retreat by a civ burrow here solely for them.

Or variations/combinations. I know what I'd do in (what I think is) your situation, but explaining it in a single post isn't always easy, as you can see.


If I'm wrong about the channel-the-floor-away thing, this may not be any help at all. Or it may help in the future.

[Loci]

In general, problems like this are player-created. It is much easier to plan your excavations to avoid such tedious cleanup than it is to optimize the cleanup.

I'm guessing that you used these tiles as a "walkway" to channel the pit to the north. Instead, you could have channeled the pit (and walkway) layer-by-layer, which requires no precise job ordering. Or you could have used the central tiles as a "walkway" to channel the edges, then caved-in the center to clear the entire space, again without precise job ordering. But by the time you've reached this point you're pretty committed to slow, tedious designation of tiles in proper order.

[Bob69Joe]

I don't see a problem if he means channeling out a line down that corridor. Channeling creates a ramp and there will be at least one at the beginning of the designation.

[Starver]

If I'm reading the tileset correctly (I may not be), there's already no down-ramps everywhere else OP seems to have "mined" (channeled) away.

If they haven't just been unduly conscientious immediately before the screenshot, that's signs that they've been removing the layer(s) below to give either one Z of drop onto non-ramp (pregdug horizontally drift-mined) or more than one Z onto ramp-or-not (howeverso cleared).

I also interpret the blue-shade as sky-open drop (any rock floor above has been removed, but I'm guessing some of it was always clear, it looks like OP is 'rationalising' a surface promontory to have clear vertical sides) and the •-centered shades as having roof above them (still to clear, though on that level there may be access from the 'roof' of the mass of rock they're currently digging around, so no access problems yet). The grass we see is possibly original surface 'grass' growing, or another layer of soil exposed and let grow verdant (but will ultimately be channeled away). There's the odd tile of rock in there.


I speculate that the whole raw block of rock is perhaps intended to be divorced from the hills it juts from. If it is like that, it's sort of like I might do. Perhaps take the isolated top and making that a fortified site, with fields and/or depot (and a drawbridge across the chasm to allow wagon access) with internal access up through the block (and the various rooms that will be carved out within, maybe some strategic Fortifications for windows to allow bowsquads to overlook key bits of the outside) or else just a turtling structure.

Not quite a megaproject, but civil engineering towards reshaping the landscape and definitely putting one's stamp on the area.


I agree with Loci that inexperience (or perhaps changes in mind, along the way) have made this a player-created problem to overcome. Starting differently would have obviated this issue. But it's not insurmountable, and a learning experience that might help next time.


Perhaps, myself, I would consider taking this situation in hand (had I put myself in it by changing my mind) by building 10x1 bridges out along the sides, giving a spare architect something to do for a while, channel out all the adjacent floor but that supporting this bridge, dismantle bridge, remove its final support-floor do the same with next bridge back. A different commitment to the micromanage "nibbling away" method that might suit me. But the risks of collapse by getting that wrong means I'd hesitate to recommend it to someone struggling with the nibbling method.

[Ripian]

Yep guys your guesses are right, underneath this Z level I have another line of floor to mine(same problem ). After some considerations  I understood that this is indeed my player-created problem. I should have indeed mined this out using method:   mine channel->go 1 Z level belov->mine ramps(created from channeling)->mine new channel->go 1 Z level below-> mine ramp->end job.   Instead I have made someting like this: mine rock tile->go 1 Z level below->mine rock tile-> go 1 Z level up-> mine channel(and here I have problem of of this line mining.....) ->......


Ok thanks guys, I will just mine it by hand this time, and next time will do "channel->remove ramp" method before creating this problem.

[Miles_Umbrae]

If you're going to strip-mine Z-level after Z-level then you don't need to remove the ramps prior to channelling a layer.
They will be removed automatically and without danger when that square is dug.
Removing ramps is only needed when you reach the bottom layer of your project.

[Starver]

And then (assuming multiple layers) only for aesthetic reasons. A ramp up against a higher wall has no climb-enabling behaviour.

(Talking of climb-enabling, leaving a 'skirt' of floor around a multi-high cliffside might mitigate climbers as they try to negotiate the overhang. Though leaving a two-tile overhang would be more sure, I think. But gaps (or remains of stairwell accesses?) might be used to help scale up the side and then onto the skirting floor, for a determined climber. Rare as that might still be, compared with flying pests that would ignore all that anyway. All part of the process.)

[Ripian]

BTW, will I get rocks from doing this kind of mining? From my knowledge you only get rocks after mining rock tiles. So by mining channels and ramps(at the end layer) I will get no rocks?

[Starver]

Cell 'volume' mining gives (chance of) rocks. That includes normal horizontal Digging, cHanneling a full bottom cell into a possible ramp (also maybe opening up the full upper cell into what is visually a down-ramp) and creating a Ramp on a lower cell (which opens up the upper cell, if it isn't already, along with removing the floor/celeing between). I think you get 100% chance of recovering raw gems, for a tile that is marked as containing them, but the general rocks (and ores?) are a proportional chance. The Wiki should have the latest on that.

Anyway,  if you've Dug two layers out by volume (maybe/maybe not gotten stone/ore/gem from them), the cHanneling of the floor between the two Z-levels does not give more rock. You got what you were going to get already. (The building of a floor over a gap does take material, which is retrieved when deconstructed, but that's separate.)

(Ditto, going to a ramp or up-stair (dug in rock, as up or up/down-combo), where you had already liberated rock if it rolled the right dice, and Designating it Removed will not produce more rock. Though if you Constructed a ramp/stairway with material then Designating its deconstruction or otherwise causing it to deconstruct recovers that added material in the process.)


And perhaps try not to think of "mining" as anything other than the whole gamut of possible miner operations. By specifically referencing channeling (usually from above, down through a floor), ramping (usually on the lower, but also changing the tile directly above) and 'normal' digging (within the same Z-level, disturbing neither floor nor ceiling to that level) you align with the 'designations' you are using and make your actions clear. Mining sounds like the latter, but in this example you're mainly referring to the first of these. Except where you aren't.

[Saiko Kila]

And then (assuming multiple layers) only for aesthetic reasons. A ramp up against a higher wall has no climb-enabling behaviour.

Depends on purpose. I create such artificial caverns for horticulture, specifically tree plantation, and need to remove the ramps to allow trees to grow in their place. Also ramps block building of some things, like workshops, or siege engines (which I use for stone removal in bigger projects).