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Author Topic: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in  (Read 1413 times)

Jackrabbit

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Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« on: November 21, 2008, 09:49:35 pm »

I have an area I need to wall of. The dwarf comes along and walls himself inside, everytime, without fail. I have a basic fix, which is building a door on the other side and forbidding it but really, why does he do that? Needs to be adressed
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Magua

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Re: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2008, 09:58:27 pm »

It's not everytime -- dwarves have a preference for how to approach a square, so they'll always approach it from (I believe) the west, working their way counter clockwise until they get to northwest. 

Also, as an intermediate fix, dwarves can deconstruct in 8 directions, but will only build walls in 4.  If you're rescuing a stuck dwarf, deconstruct a wall so that he moves out diagonally, and then you can rebuild it and know that he won't just wall himself in.  Alternatively, simply leave a diagonal path open to be walled in last.

(Yes, it's highly annoying.)
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Also, you can manufacture vomit at a smelter.  Subsequently removing the smelter spews vomit over a surprising area.

flabort

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Re: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2008, 10:16:11 pm »

in my experience:
W, E, N, S, NW, NE, SW, SE.

west over east.
north over south.
west-east over north-south.
straight over diagonal.

they always do that in my fortresses.
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The Cyan Menace

Went away for a while, came back, went away for a while, and back for now.

Jackrabbit

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Re: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2008, 10:18:23 pm »

It was pretty awesome though when my peasant boxed himself in next to lava and was pulled in by imps.
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Draco18s

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Re: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2008, 11:16:18 pm »

in my experience:
W, E, N, S, NW, NE, SW, SE.

west over east.
north over south.
west-east over north-south.
straight over diagonal.

they always do that in my fortresses.

Hey now, I came up with that.  It's on the wiki.
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Random832

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Re: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2008, 12:29:27 am »

in my experience:
W, E, N, S, NW, NE, SW, SE.

west over east.
north over south.
west-east over north-south.
straight over diagonal.

they always do that in my fortresses.

Hey now, I came up with that.  It's on the wiki.

Where? I don't see it linked from any of the pages about wall construction
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Draco18s

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Re: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« Reply #6 on: November 22, 2008, 12:18:19 pm »

Why, on the task it was first discovered with.

Mining
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flabort

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Re: Stopping dwarves boxing themselves in
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2008, 01:01:01 pm »

sorry, i didn't notice the wiki page, i usually only use it to check which tags i can use.
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The Cyan Menace

Went away for a while, came back, went away for a while, and back for now.