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[Glass Hand]

While constructing a wall, I noticed that two sections of the wall were taking forever.  The two masons would stand adjacent to the two sections, working, but the job would never get completed.  The job was not suspended, it said "nearly done."  It was on open ground with no access problems, and no items on the ground to interfere.  Suspending and un-suspending the walls, or canceling the construction and replacing them, did nothing.  Reloading the game also did nothing.  I can build other constructions there - I built floors in those areas, then removed them - but I'm still unable to build walls in those two tiles.

The only mods I've made to the game are giving the humans the "civ controllable" and "trances" tags to play as them and give them access to strange moods.

[Exponent]

Sounds like a bug I had a while back, in 38c.  It errorneously thinks that there's still some objects in those tiles.  A floor won't take up space, so it can be built, but I bet if you try a fortification, it will have the same problem as the wall.  Alternatively, building a door will cause it to default to the open position, since it can't close.

I don't think we ever determined the actual cause, though I remember speculation about the destruction of a trade depot in that general area.  I did fix the problem, however, by building raising bridges over the tiles causing problems, and then raising/lowering them; basically, I atom-smashed the phantom objects.  The bridges didn't always work, though, so I sometimes had to rebuild them in a different shape, location, or direction.  But I eventually got all the tiles usable again.

[Sharp]

It was on open ground with no access problems, and no items on the ground to interfere. 

Care to draw a quick illustration? I know there is problem on corner tiles as dwarves can't buid diagonally (not walls anyway). What happens when you reload does it still say nearly done on the constructions the next time? Is it there on the job list?

[Glass Hand]

Care to draw a quick illustration? I know there is problem on corner tiles as dwarves can't buid diagonally (not walls anyway). What happens when you reload does it still say nearly done on the constructions the next time? Is it there on the job list?

There's not much to illustrate - it's a straight north-south wall on the surface level, in the middle of a stretch of flat land.  Even when I deconstruct the other wall parts so the two tiles are accessible from every direction, the problem remains the same.

Reloading doesn't change anything, and I haven't checked the job list.

I'm going to upgrade to the next version and try the drawbridge technique and report on what happens.

[Hyndis]

I've had this bug as well, including as far back as 38c, however I cannot reproduce this bug, and it does seem quite rare if somewhat aggravating.

Could this perhaps be related to items being "stuck" on reclaim mode?

[Glass Hand]

I just upgraded to the newest version, but the problem persisted.  I constructed a raising bridge over the two tiles, lowered it (twice, just to be sure), but the problem is still there.

Here is an illustration.  The two masons at the two unfinished sections of wall continue to stand there working until eventually they have to leave for food or water.



I don't think it has to do with specific items, on reclaim mode or otherwise, because I've tried constructing the walls with a variety of different materials with no success.

[Exponent]

What happens if you cancel the walls, and then build doors in those tiles instead?  If the doors default to an open state, then it at least more or less confirms that something is occupying the tile.  If that it indeed the case, then if I were you, I would persist in attempting to atom-smash the phantom items.  Like I said above, I wasn't always successful, and had to change up the shape, size, and orientation of my bridge to get it to work.  Some tiles were fixed after one try, and some tiles took multiple tries.  But I finally got rid of the problem and could continue building my very important defensive walls.

Here is a thread where this problem was previously discussed.

[Glass Hand]

Alright, I read that thread and I believe my problem is identical.  Doors in those spots default to "open," and furthermore, the spots are places where I used to have a trade depot.  Unfortunately, my attempt to destroy the "phantom objects" with a drawbridge failed.  I'll try it from some other angles.  Thanks for the link and your help.

[Glass Hand]

I can't get the bridge trick to work.  I've built multiple bridges from multiple different directions and dropped them several times.  I've deconstructed them in different positions and altered their widths and heights.  If there is a phantom object there I'm reasonably certain it can't be destroyed by a bridge.  It would have to be a hovering object too, because channeling under the tile and building a wall over the pit does nothing.

I'm just going to abandon and move on.  I guess in the future I have to be very careful where I put a trade depot, because they apparently corrupt the tiles they're on and can make further construction impossible.

Edit: Though interestingly, using a bridge in that area to crush people crashes the game.

[Tormy]

Yeah this is definitely sounds like a bug. You should upload your save to somewhere.

[Raumkraut]

Just had this happen in my latest fortress. A couple of unwallable squares at the site of the original incarnation of my trade depot.
I tried the atom-smasher method, from two different directions, to no avail. Eventually I decided that I'd just build the wall I wanted a couple of squares south of where I originally planned it, so I designated for removal the whole wall area that had already been built.

I then decided to attempt to rebuild the bits of wall which were blocked, in order to provide a save exhibiting the bug. Image my suprise when there were no longer any unwallable spaces! The only thing I can think could have affected it is that I marked the blocked area for deconstruction (d->n) along with the rest of the wall.
Solution? Fluke? Can anyone confirm?