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[Puck]

Regarding pits: well, a channel I can dig.  But how about a fifty-foot deep pit?  The only way I can figure is this:
....

Imho the best way to dig pits is as follows:
The area of the pit gets designated as down stairs on the top level. the bottom level as up stairs, everything in between as up/down stairs.

wait til its finished.

then channel away the top level (in one go).

wait til its done. repeat above step. (because theres a new top level now  )

Oh of course, once you reached the bottom level, it doesnt get channeled but "remove ramps/up stairs"'ed.

Yes, every z level requires you to issue orders, BUT its completely dwarf-proof. Only micromanagment is waiting til they have finished the whole z level. if you do it like that, there shouldnt be any casualties/dwarves caught on single tiles. If there are any, its due to operator error

In the end everybody that was digging would be caught in the bottom of the pit, hence access shaft.

And thats how you dig those biiiiig holes.

[Mr. Svinlesha]

Thanks for all the advice on how to dig big holes.  To bad I already had enough time to frikkin channel the thing out, square by frikkin square, before you all answered.

 

Anyway, puck, one last question about your bridge set-up (thanks for the suggestion, by the way.  I've got it almost completed.): do I need to link a lever to bridges to reset them, or do they re-extend by themselves after retracting?

[Puck]

if you didnt tamper with the "resets" option of the plates, they come back automatically.

[Footkerchief]

I had this problem to and I was definitely not designating an area as a pond. My main guess is that a dwarf is taking a bucket that has some water in it that is left over after they have given an injured person something to drink. The dwarf then says, "Oh, this is a drink, it goes in the drink stockpile," but water won't go in barrels, so they just go and dump it into a stack of [8] water in the corner.

I'd thought he meant they were putting it there, like, as water (i.e. getting it muddy / getting level 1 water on it, not it being like a stack of water as if it's a drink

What tile does "water as a drink" use, anyway?

The same one that's used for sand, I think.

[Time Kitten]

I had this problem to and I was definitely not designating an area as a pond. My main guess is that a dwarf is taking a bucket that has some water in it that is left over after they have given an injured person something to drink. The dwarf then says, "Oh, this is a drink, it goes in the drink stockpile," but water won't go in barrels, so they just go and dump it into a stack of [8] water in the corner.

I'd thought he meant they were putting it there, like, as water (i.e. getting it muddy / getting level 1 water on it, not it being like a stack of water as if it's a drink

What tile does "water as a drink" use, anyway?

The same one that's used for sand, I think.

Is booze without a barrel the same?

[(name here)]

It could also be that they're pathing to wounded through the stockpile and getting interrupted a lot there.

[Mr. Svinlesha]

Well, hello out there ya'll.  Zzzup?

Things are going fairly well at my fortress.  We're early into the winter of our second year.  Got ambushed by a squad of axe-goblins, they caught Zaneg Dodoklamush, Cilab Urvaddakas, and Alath Mengish out in the open and slew them, curse their green hides!  But then they (the goblins) took a stroll into my hallway of death and fell into the pits, which worked like a charm.  (Thanks again puck!)

I've also lost a couple of dwarves to pikes and long-nosed gar.  Anyone have any suggestions about how I might defend my dorfs against these fiendish fish?

[Magua]

Drain the river.  That'll show 'em.

[Puck]

I'm happy to see something I came up with working.

You should see my atom smashing setup and the (also patented) livestock-alternator 
(1x3 room, locked with a door pets cant pass, chain in the middle for the livestock, and a pressure plate on both sides. thing has 3 states: off OR activate 1 OR activate 2)
Will post when completed, i try to conceive an automated waste/rock disposal system, because I dislike dumping and quantum storage.

Problems so far are dead dwarves, and much much worse: job cancellations and micromanagment. But I'm getting there.

Problem is... got a new graphics card, now i need to play something pretty (and as it seems, these days, therefore stupid)

edit:
about the fish: draining the river might be a bit hard to pull off if youre new to the game,
it's easy if you have a winter and water freezing. but tbh after the first water freeze, I seldomly ever see fish again, anyway...

[numerobis]

I've also lost a couple of dwarves to pikes and long-nosed gar.  Anyone have any suggestions about how I might defend my dorfs against these fiendish fish?

Easiest, if tedious: 'd'esignate, 'o', 'r' and mark all the terrain near the rivers (within, say, two or three tiles).  Then your dwarves won't walk next to the river unless they really need to, which reduces the probability they'll corner a fish and make it angry and get sucked in, ne'er to be seen again.  What you're doing is telling the dwarves to prefer walking 12.5 normal tiles rather than one of those bright red tiles (you're not telling them never ever to walk on those red tiles, note, just telling them to avoid them if possible).

Also, make sure you have enough booze, and you have a well or three, so they're not tempted to go drink from the river.

Also, 'i' to designate a zone (mnemonic: "zone" is one of the few words that has no 'i' in it), and, once you designated the zone, 'f' to designate it as fishing.  Mark out some pond (more precisely, land immediately next to the pond) for fishing, and your fisherdwarves will go there instead of fishing small fish out of the river.

Catching the big fish is more work; see I3erent's thread on that ("EuReThRa" is the search term to find it).

[Mr. Svinlesha]

Puck:

Let me know when you work out the kinks.



benoit.hudson:

Good advice.  I've designated some areas as fresh water sources.  I need to re-designate them. 

Unfortunately, the gars and pikes are infesting a few of the neighborhood ponds.  I had no idea they were so dangerous: imagine my surprise when one of them ate my woodchopper after he had wandered to close to the shore to chop down a tree.

[Random832]

Unfortunately, the gars and pikes are infesting a few of the neighborhood ponds.  I had no idea they were so dangerous: imagine my surprise when one of them ate my woodchopper after he had wandered to close to the shore to chop down a tree.

Their attack itself isn't so dangerous anymore (it used to be, since they would quickly become legendary swimmers, with all the stats that implies), but the fact that they drag you into the water and the fact that natural bodies of water have sheer vertical walls.

Anywhere that dwarves may be working near water and hostile creatures, you should probably cut ramps into the riverbank.

[Puck]

Unfortunately, the gars and pikes are infesting a few of the neighborhood ponds.  I had no idea they were so dangerous: imagine my surprise when one of them ate my woodchopper after he had wandered to close to the shore to chop down a tree.

Their attack itself isn't so dangerous anymore (it used to be, since they would quickly become legendary swimmers, with all the stats that implies), but the fact that they drag you into the water and the fact that natural bodies of water have sheer vertical walls.

Anywhere that dwarves may be working near water and hostile creatures, you should probably cut ramps into the riverbank.

That sounds interesting, I never heard about that, and I'd really like to learn more about the ramp thing! If anybody has some experience with that, please do tell the details, the whys and hows and everything.

Somethign else, it's been a while, but iirc that has always worked for me unless there was a screwup somewhere... say, like no food or alcohol left and totally desperate dwarves... what I'm talking about is this:

I tend to channel some tiles inside my "courtyard" out and connect them to the river. If I have really dangerous fish on the map I add a little evaporation chamber and two floodgates, so I can get the watery tiles dry in a pinch, killing off the fish.

This is easy and quick to build, can be among the first things you do on the map, basically just so you have a "safe water source". Sure, a well would probably do better, but a well needs a chain (if you hadn't brought any) and either pressure managment or a map that doesnt freeze. either way, just a little waterfilled moat inside the walls is easier to pull off.

then I just designate the tiles around the water as water source and fishing area  and set the dwarves options to "zone drinking/fishing only".

Not totally dwarfproof, sometimes they do wander about to the dangerous river, but iirc, mostly it works, doesnt it? correct me if im wrong.

[Puck]

[me suk at forum usidge]

[HammerDave]

I had those random splashes of water too.  Turned out they were getting thirsty while carrying water to wounded.  They drop the bucket, which spills the water.