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[Schmaven]

A dwarven caravan arrived, but 1 wagon got scuttled in the entry tunnel somehow.  I didn't see it happen, but one of the merchants "didn't feel anything after seeing a wagon die." and there is a pile of forbidden stuff not too far from her.  There was an announcement that the merchants have arrived and are unloading their goods, but only 1 wagon is there.  The rest of the merchants / wagons stopped moving.  There depot says there are no merchants trading right now.  May have to deconstruct the depot to get them to leave.

A 3 tile wide entry tunnel goes through a light aquifer, and so there is occasionally 3/7 water on some tiles.  I suspect this caused 1 of the wagons to swerve into the wall and turn into a pile of forbidden trade goods. 

A previous year, the same sort of thing happened to the human caravan.  Only it was a different tunnel, crowded with dwarves, and I assumed it was due to too many dwarves in the way.  But that tunnel also went through a light aquifer.  Now that there's a second data point, the common variable seems to be the presence of occasionally 3/7 water.  Both happened at the bottom of the ramps.  There are grates after a 1 tile flat spot at the bottom of the ramp, the same spacing for both tunnels.  I don't think moving the grates closer would help, since I spotted 3/7 on 1 of the ramp tiles as well. 

If I didn't already carve a lot of the fort around the path, I would try widening the trade route; so I'm going to have the dug out ramp tunnel replaced with a constructed one to keep it dry.

[BlueTrillium]

I don't know if water affects it or not, it may. But I just popped in here to say that in my second fort I had similar happenings but *without* a waterfall or aquifer involved. It did however include a bridge crossing a water-filled moat. The wagons never got wet or fell in, but on several occasions I'd check on their unloading progress or whatever and -bam- half the wagons are dead for no discernible reason. No enemy nearby, not even wildlife (that I know of). I'd been assuming it was some kind of heavy traffic thing (I have quite a few dogs pastured near there, and it's also the only way in and out of that particular fortress), but I don't know.

I'll add that when that happened, I too could not trade with that caravan any more. Eventually they packed up on their own and left, though -- I did not need to deconstruct the trade depot (though I suppose that would get them to leave earlier if you wanted them to). I think the advantage of letting them leave on their own though, is that while they still lose whatever was on those wagons and/or may not be able to take all their goods back with them, they can at least take back whatever will fit on their remaining wagons/packbeasts so the caravan is not a -total- loss. If you deconstruct the trade depot, then everything in the depot is a loss for the caravan (who will bring that news back to their parent civilization...)

[Salmeuk]

SWDS (Sudden Wagon Death Syndrome) is a growing issue with no discernible cause. when will the authorities take action?

[muldrake]

If I didn't already carve a lot of the fort around the path, I would try widening the trade route; so I'm going to have the dug out ramp tunnel replaced with a constructed one to keep it dry.

If you're really attached to that path, try smoothing the aquifer tiles if they're stone (if they are sand or clay or loam or silt you are kind of hosed).  If you still absolutely must have that particular path, try having a pump flushing it out all the time.

[A_Curious_Cat]

If I didn't already carve a lot of the fort around the path, I would try widening the trade route; so I'm going to have the dug out ramp tunnel replaced with a constructed one to keep it dry.

If you're really attached to that path, try smoothing the aquifer tiles if they're stone (if they are sand or clay or loam or silt you are kind of hosed).  If you still absolutely must have that particular path, try having a pump flushing it out all the time.

You can build walls in the case of those other things you mentioned.  Also, does anyone know if mining out an aquifer tile prevents it from raining down onto the tile below?

[BlueTrillium]

I think you have to actually channel out the aquifer tile (so the aquifer 'floor' is gone as well) in order to stop it from dripping onto the floor below. Then you can build your own wall and/or floor on the floor above and it will no longer drip.

[muldrake]

That depends if you dig into the very top of the aquifer (so the water is coming only from the sides) or you dig in at a lower level, where the water is coming from above.  The thread title is correct though.  Avoid having caravans coming through unpredictable levels of water.

[Schmaven]

What I did was dig out every tile of the ramp, and every adjacent tile, even those above, and replaced it all with stone block constructions.  It's completely dry now, and a couple caravans made it in successfully.  Despite the water success, 2 other caravans claimed to arrive, but not even a single merchant appeared on the map.  Announcements of them getting ready to go were generated after a while, and I could bring things to the depot to trade, but no trade button was available.  Ghost caravans...  I suspect the area on the surface from which they can get to the tunnel might need to be bigger. 

[muldrake]

What I did was dig out every tile of the ramp, and every adjacent tile, even those above, and replaced it all with stone block constructions.  It's completely dry now, and a couple caravans made it in successfully.  Despite the water success, 2 other caravans claimed to arrive, but not even a single merchant appeared on the map.  Announcements of them getting ready to go were generated after a while, and I could bring things to the depot to trade, but no trade button was available.  Ghost caravans...  I suspect the area on the surface from which they can get to the tunnel might need to be bigger.

They might be coming in from a direction where their entry is blocked by something on the map.  I'd check for any trees or boulders blocking paths.  If you find anything that might be blocking, cut it down or do smooth stone on it (for stationary non-moving boulders).  I think it's related to the siege bug where you'll get an announcement and they never actually show up, although I think that is sometimes that they were on their way somewhere else and just crossed over a corner of your embark, nearly immediately leaving.

I'm not sure if there are caravans moving around in the world trading between civilizations not your own.

[eerr]

If I didn't already carve a lot of the fort around the path, I would try widening the trade route; so I'm going to have the dug out ramp tunnel replaced with a constructed one to keep it dry.

If you're really attached to that path, try smoothing the aquifer tiles if they're stone (if they are sand or clay or loam or silt you are kind of hosed).  If you still absolutely must have that particular path, try having a pump flushing it out all the time.

You can build walls in the case of those other things you mentioned.  Also, does anyone know if mining out an aquifer tile prevents it from raining down onto the tile below?

Yes, mining out the tile stops it from leaking to the tile below, even if it has 7/7 water in it.
You don't need to channel fully.
( tested in version 50. )