I decided to try pushing the limits of the quantum stockpile on my next fortress. Here are my results.
The stockpile trick, in case you don't know, is to place your only dump activity zone in one tile, and put a stockpile square under that. Usually I have a stone stockpile, which means anything I dump does to the dump zone but when I unforbid it the dwarves automatically haul off the non-stone items to their respective stockpiles throughout my fortress. This time, I made the quantum stockpile accept all items except rottable ones. This way, nothing would be re-stocked from the quantum stockpile.
First, I quickly realized it involves more micromanagement. I decided to cheat a little and make a booze stockpile and a food stockpile, and next to my farm I put a seed stockpile allowing zero barrels. This made my life a lot easier. (I set my food stockpiles to Take From the quantum stockpile, just so it would move them away and into the food stockpiles).
Second, I noticed that workshops had nowhere to put their produce. I just periodically rounded on all the workshops with T and dumped all their items. Masterwork furniture didn't get dumped, instead I would immediately go build it somewhere.
Third, because my single stockpile square was 6 tiles from my depot, I could send everything there really fast and bring things in really fast as well. Of note was that items left in the depot after trading were not brought back in unless I marked them for dumping, but they were ejected and left zero distance from it. Which meant when I traded next I didn't have to haul the same goods back out.
(I sold off all my non-masterwork furniture as time went on, since it was just sitting on the depot ready to go anyway)
Fourth, dwarves did not do the entrance dance, because they had nowhere to put things. Only if I marked objects outside for dumping did they try to bring them in. Theoretically I'd need to watch out for slain traders dropping food/booze/seeds, because I do have those stockpiles, but it hasn't happened yet. My traders on this fort enter within one screen of my fort entrance and the invaders tend to enter from much farther away (lucky me).
Fifth, when I chop wood I need to dump it to get dwarves to go get it. Again, this works for me because I don't get dwarves entrance-dancing for lumber. But you might get a little irritated by it.
Sixth, my production went through the roof. I realized that my dwarves who were grabbing materials were always running to my quantum stockpile, and when a hauler cloud cleared out a workshop they didn't have to go very far at all to drop it off.
Seven. You need to Designate->Claim your stockpile frequently.
Eight. I never run out of food or booze stockpile space. If I don't have enough room in the food stockpile for example, the haulers dump plump helmets and prepared meals into the quantum stockpile and then have nowhere to move it to. But they're still in a Food stockpile. The dwarves don't appear to dump food into barrels, though when it gets moved into the food stockpile they of course do put them into barrels. This might cause degradation because the exposed food is stepped on a lot. I haven't paid attention to that.
But if it bothers you, just dump a bunch of your full barrels from your food stockpile. They'll be tossed in the quantum stockpile, leaving space for new food to be put into the food stockpile. Dwarves come and put down a barrel in the empty space in the food stockpile, fill it with food, and get another barrel. The next time you Designate->Claim on the quantum stockpile, the food barrels you moved into it become available again.
My conclusion: It's a cheap way to get around the game rules. And it involves more micromanagement of your workshops. But it allows you to loot selectively, trade easily, and it quashes the entrance dance. It also gives a significant productivity boost.
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My current fort has 14 or so skilled workers who have all hauling turned off, and they are the only ones who get beds in the communal bedroom. All the other dwarven haulers have Plant Gathering, Fishing, Architecture (roads), and Woodcutting turned on. They bring in all the dangerous-to-get items and if some die, it's okay because I haven't worked their skills to legendary. Occasionally one will get a mood and become a legendary crafter or something, and I bring him in and give him a bed.
Unfortunately, you need to keep dumping things to keep these outside dwarves busy, or they just stand around making friends. But my population stays down because goblins are starting to attack now and I tend to lose a couple haulers every time. But these haulers, because of their multiple skills, tend to be fairly strong and agile. They also all carry axes because they have Woodcutting turned on.
I back this up with traps. I don't have a military, but I do have a few separate squads standing around in locked rooms dying of thirst. Too many dwarves? Nah, I needed the skulls anyway.