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[BunnyMind]

I'm sure everyone's seen this at one point or another; Urist McHuuurrr walks halfway across the map to drink from the carp infested brook rather than using the peaceful little pool that you designated as a water source even with "zone-only drinking" enabled.

I remember reading that dwarves favor running water over stagnant water, and then of course they prefer wells over both. Well, it would seem that dwarves will readily disobey drinking zone orders in order to get water which they consider better. Designating a pond when there's a river on the map, for instance, will cause them to ignore the pond and go straight to the river, though if you designate a specific spot on the river they will obey. Next up if you have a well on the map and you try to designate that same river, they will always go for the well instead.

Of course this is purely conjecture on my part and still gives no explanation as to why the dwarves need to walk halfway across the map to drink from the specific spot of the river where all the carp are hanging out.

Now granted, this is not a particularly game-breaking problem, as wells are always going to be the way to go once you have one, but it does contribute to the difficulty curve problem that this game has of often being mercilessly difficult in the beginning and smooth sailing after the first year or so.

[Footkerchief]

Interesting theory.  It does fit with these previous reports about zone drinking:

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=6585.0
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=19853.0

[Rvlion]

In my previous fortress I had build a well on top of a small murky pool and it was ignored as well, but I havent been able to determine what the reason for this was.
Could be the well was outside without a roof or outside period.
My dwarfs on mass ignored my "well" and "designated drink zone" and all went to the Sturgeon and Sea Lamprey infested river.
I lost 7 dwarfs before I even noticed that they ignored the well since I was checking on other stuff that was happening in the fortress.

[Wizjany]

I also had this problem, but i found that making a water source zone and a separate fishing zone and then turning on both zone only drinking and zone only fishing would keep dwarves fishing only from the fishing zone and drinking only from the water source zone (or from drink barrels).

[BunnyMind]

In my previous fortress I had build a well on top of a small murky pool and it was ignored as well, but I havent been able to determine what the reason for this was.
Could be the well was outside without a roof or outside period.
My dwarfs on mass ignored my "well" and "designated drink zone" and all went to the Sturgeon and Sea Lamprey infested river.
I lost 7 dwarfs before I even noticed that they ignored the well since I was checking on other stuff that was happening in the fortress.

Come to think of it, I've never actually attempted to construct a well over a stagnant water source. It's likely that they ignored the well over a stagnant pool for the same reasons they ignore the stagnant pool itself.
I know for a fact, however, that the reason they ignored your well was not because it was outside, as all my fortresses are primarily above ground with wells that simply sit out in the open.

[Michael]

At a guess, I'd say it's on purpose.   Basically, having your dwarves go play with the carp, or walk through goblin ambushes to a distant source, is your punishment for both running out of alcohol and failing to build a well.  Apparently Toady has decided to prevent smartass players from attempting to evade this with activity zones.

And it makes logical sense.  Would you drink muddy water, while knowing where to find clean water, just because some busybody guardian didn't want to have to defend you?

Activity zones still have a point in that some places that are equally good from the dwarves' perspective are better than others from the player's.

[Jwguy]

I have also had these problems when starting on river maps. I, fortunately, usually had magma, as well, and proceeded to use it to make dams along the river. That kept the carp only where I wanted them. ^^