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[amade]

Quite often, when I get a job cancel message from a gatherer I go look in the orchard and sure enough, someone's stuck in a tree because a cat followed it up the stepladder and somehow blocks the dwarf from getting down. And it's not just cats, I've even had elephants climbing up stepladders when they're not being used by any gatherers at all! Of course, any animal that climbs up it can't figure out how to get down.

Perhaps we can reduce the incidences of dwarves/animals getting stuck in trees if it's made so that only sentients can use it? I'm not sure how stepladders actually work (like built stairs? ramps? why exactly do creatures get stuck when the stepladder wasn't even taken away from under them?)

Note: I've practically eliminated instances of "stepladder theft" by making sure no stockpiles that store stepladders have "take from anywhere" enabled, as well as making enough stepladders to ensure no one needs to steal one when they need it. I also made the whole orchard zone a stepladder/plant stockpile!

[jecowa]

I wonder if you can carve a staircase into the trunk of a tree without killing it.

[A_Curious_Cat]

I wonder if you can carve a staircase into the trunk of a tree without killing it.

Can’t you just chop the tree down?

[xzaxza]

I wonder if you can carve a staircase into the trunk of a tree without killing it.

Can’t you just chop the tree down?

Seems bit like an overkill if it's a productive fruit tree

[anewaname]

@amade
That bug with the stepladders may not go away soon, but you can mitigate the problem of "other units used the stepladder and are now stuck in the tree".

Trees:
If the base of the tree is at z=0, and the lowest branches are at z=1, most fruit trees develop into a specific pattern like this:
ABBBBBA
BBBBBBB      A = empty tile
BBBBBBB      B = Twigs towards the outside and Branches towards the inside
BBBBBBB
BBBBBBB
BBBBBBB
ABBBBBA
So you can give access to most creatures to exit the tree by building a wall under each A tile (so the top of the wall forms a floor in the A tile) and build a ramp adjacent to the wall (so the ramp is not directly under any of the B tiles). I stopped using vertical stairs for this in df50, but they work too.

Because it takes a long time for trees to develop, you might have reason to build closer to one side of the tree, but be warned that twig and branches may grow over the wall/ramp and block that access point.

Consider that young trees might grow up and over the wall and ramp tiles, blocking use of them. You can stop that by building flooring maybe 2 tiles adjacent to the wall and ramp.

[A_Curious_Cat]

I wonder if you can carve a staircase into the trunk of a tree without killing it.

Can’t you just chop the tree down?

Seems bit like an overkill if it's a productive fruit tree

You should cut down the tree when a dwarf gets stuck in it.  It increases patriotism.  I actually found out that a particular dwarf was from Switzerland when I chopped down the tree he was in and he started waving the Swiss flag (although Toady One did have the colors switched around on that.  I probably should file a bug report…)!

[aSpatula66]

I think it would make more sense to limit stepladder usage to creatures that are capable of climbing rather than specifically sapient creatures.

[0x517A5D]

OP wants to keep cats from using stepladders. 

Cats are very, very good at climbing:

Code: [Select]

[CREATURE:CAT]
[...]
[STANCE_CLIMBER][NATURAL_SKILL:CLIMBING:15]
[...]
So that won't work.