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[Rainseeker]

Now I know that many of us are excited about the new changes that are coming, but one that I'm having trouble seeing the use for is burrows.  I understand what the command does in theory, but what do you guys think you'll be using it for?  I'd like to hear a lot of different creative ideas, if you have them!   

[smjjames]

I'm not sure how they would work though. They sound like they would work in principle like zones do.

Seems like they may actually minimize some of the micromanaging in DF.

[Kav]

If I understand the concept correctly they would increase micromanagement and drastically increase efficiency. Imagine a 2 hauler dwarfs and 2 basic job categories.

Job-1
Move threshed thread to the thread stockpile, and cloth to the cloth stockpile

Job-2
Move stone to the stone stockpile, and crafts to the finished goods stockpile.

What if the farms and farmers workshops producing the thread are very far away from the quarry and craftsdwarf shop? The haulers would spend most of their lives walking back and forth between between the two logical work sites since both jobs include 'item hauling' job type.

Now what if you could limit a group of haulers to a "Burrow" that encompassed the farm/workshop/loom/clothier and another to include the quarry and any stone workshops? Massive efficiency increase. So much so that you now need less dwarfs hauling and they will often be standing around idle.

[Albedo]

Keeping dwarfs who specialize in one "industry" in that area of your fortress.

For instance - if you have "food industry" workers, then you make one burrow with only them - and they don't go off and dump stone from mines, but only toss dead rats.  Contrary, your "metal industry" dwarfs won't go across the map when cut gems need moving, but will store the arms/armour that are finished.

I think the details have to wait until observational studies have been done on the exact behaviour, and some of the subtleties will not be predictable (as w/ all of DF).  Once we have it in hand, there will most likely be many threads discussing new theories, strategies, ploys, disappointments and discoveries.

[AtomicPaperclip]

Mostly to make dwarves stop taking jobs from across the map when there's someone perfectly capable of pulling the "all defenses activate" lever right next to it.

[smjjames]

Well, I suppouse you would have to increase micromanagement to get more efficiency, and efficiency is something we could definetly use. Especially with hauling jobs.

[Rainseeker]

So basically what we're thinking is that burrows would be used to make jobs more efficient, but they would be able to go outside of them if there isn't food/booze or bedding inside the burrow.  Would danger cause them to run out of a burrow sometimes?  Is there any evidence from Toady for this?

[Albedo]

You're asking about the weather report for this weekend the year after next. We just don't know.

[Scarpa]

Toady has stated there's numerous reasons why they will leave their burrow.

From the June 17th dev log entry:

Just the basic burrow mechanic is powerful enough that it is pretty exploitable, so there will be several ways in which dwarves either move beyond their burrows or are affected adversely by heavy restrictions, but I'll leave those for you to find. These effects should all make sense and not be all that restrictive on play, especially if you are respectful to your critters (for instance, having your soap makers all stand in a 3x3 corner in the main hall until they starve to death shouldn't proceed as planned for very long).

[Teach]

This is gonna be a great feature. The pesky commoners will never dine with my veteran champions again nor will they loiter in their gold encrusted, gem studded halls.

[redacted123]

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[Scarpa]

It's really more authoritarian fascism than capitalism.

[filiusenox]

...This is a joke! do not come to my house and kill me.

Whats the differnce between them?

[smjjames]

Toady did mention something about castes. Not sure if he meant something like the caste system of Hindus or it's a looser term.

[Slappy Moose]

My idea is to make a "bunker style" fortress. I'll have a bunch of seperate mini-forts, each with towers going above ground and small tunnels going between them. Each will have a small farm, dining hall, and barracks. I'll have a few dwarves in each (maybe like 10 or 20), and they will all cycle between patrolling, training, working, and then something else. Each bunker will have it's own separate industries, and should be completely self-sufficient.

Also, I imagine being able to make genuine "bomb shelters" and "forward bases" would be much easier now. For instance: have you main fort in the center of the map, then have squads of 4 marksdwarves stationed in various tiny forts around the map. Each fort would have a lookout tower that can be fired from, a small barracks, a weapon/armour/ammo stockpile, a tiny farm, a kitchen, and a brewery. Basically, a very very tiny military fort. Each dwarf would switch off being on lookout, farming/cooking/etc, another season of lookout, and practicing archery. When an enemy is spotted, they would all go on alert and start shooting. Small tunnels to the main fort could provide an emergency escape route, medical services, and bolts.