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[Silenoz]

So I'm having some trouble with caravans.

On one fort, I had only one caravan accessible entrance, a long walled highway with two drawbridges (for locking in sieges to be sure no one escapes). Just after I finished putting in the second bridge, a Caravan came and bypassed my site, even though the bridges were down.

I used shift + D to check wagon access only to find that the ENTIRE MAP, all the way to the edges, had been marked as inaccessible, with the sole exception of the interior of my fortress.  Could this have been related to my bridging project? Is there a known issue I'm missing that caused this? 

Also, on a more recent fort, I am getting 2 goblin ambushes per caravan, and because the caravans come from different locations they are frequently dead before my military can show up to bail them out. How long can this go on before humans get pissed off and decide to retaliate? Is there any way to track diplomacy?

[Albedo]

The caravans will keep coming - the almighty dwarfbuck will keep their interest, no matter how many die.

To find the problem with your TD, track out from the TD toward the edge.  When the green path ends, there's your problem.  I'll bet on a bad ramp, or a tunnel that is not wide enough somehow - 3x3 minimum at every step.

[Stargrasper]

First and foremost, wagons need a three-wide area to move.  Make sure the entire path from the depot to the edge of the map is at least three-wide.

You've lost caravans to goblins?  Seriously?  In my early days, before I knew much about military, I used to let caravan guards kill enemies for me.  I've never actually seen a caravan guard die by any means that I didn't intentionally cause.  Anyway, humans do get annoyed, but you're probably in the clear for a few loses so long as the liaison doesn't die.  If HE dies, expect them to siege you.

I don't believe you can directly track diplomacy at this time.  You can, however, provide their caravans with huge profit margins and gifts to the ruler of the kingdom.

[Silenoz]

To find the problem with your TD, track out from the TD toward the edge.  When the green path ends, there's your problem.  I'll bet on a bad ramp, or a tunnel that is not wide enough somehow - 3x3 minimum at every step.

Ah, thanks! I was under the impression depot access was being traced from the borders inwards rather than the depot outwards, which is stupid. 

You've lost caravans to goblins?  Seriously?  In my early days, before I knew much about military, I used to let caravan guards kill enemies for me.  I've never actually seen a caravan guard die by any means that I didn't intentionally cause.  Anyway, humans do get annoyed, but you're probably in the clear for a few loses so long as the liaison doesn't die.  If HE dies, expect them to siege you.

Cool. The liaison usually comes ahead of the wagons and is a bit faster, and makes it to the fort before the wagons are ambushed. Yeah, I am losing guards all over the place, the last time a wagon came 3 dwarf guards and 1 human were dead before the wagons retreated. I think the ambush was 5 goblin axemen. Maybe I just have wimpy guards.

[Albedo]

I was under the impression depot access was being traced from the borders inwards rather than the depot outwards, which is stupid. 

The only "stupid" would be in making any assumptions about DF after playing a while, no matter how reasonable or intuitive - DF is, as a rule, non-intuitive whenever possible.

All good. 

[Quatch]

I frequently get things blocked by a loose stone (one from worldgen, not from mining) on the surface (just assign that spot to be smoothed, and the stone will go), or by a tree growing (saplings spawn at random and grow into trees, blocking wagons), chop them down, and build a road to prevent trees growing back.

[Albedo]

I frequently get things blocked by a loose stone...

A "boulder", as listed in the game.  "Stones" are things that miners carve out.  Just to be clear, "stones" don't block movement of caravans.

[buzz killington]

Goblins butchered many a elf caravan at my fort, and neither ever stopped coming