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[Pyro93735]

I've been attempting to mine/channel out a 8x2 chunk out of 43 consecutive z-levels as part of an entrance trap (bit of a fall, heh heh), and I've noticed that the mining process is somewhat erratic. Instead of mining out any single level, the miner would run up and down different levels, mining out a tile here or a tile there and then running to a new one. To venture a guess as why this is the case, is job selection done primarily by line distance from job to job without factoring in move distance? I could see how it would happen how if a dwarf is not immediately touching any job on his current z-level, but directly above or below him there's another job, that the dwarf would then run up the stairs to complete that task since the line distance to the task would be 1 instead of 2 to another task on the same z-level. Fixing this would most likely also fix the issue with dwarves pulling stone from different levels into workshops - I know I've set up a workshop before with stockpiles of stone directly outside of the workshop, and then watched the crafters run way far out of their way to grab a stone directly underneath or above the workshop.

[ December 16, 2007: Message edited by: Pyro93735 ]

[Draco18s]

Z-level distance is currently unfactored into job selection tasks (such as which rock to grab and turn into a chair).

From the way I've observed mining (single z-level), it seems to be that the next tile to dig will 99.99% of the time be adjacent to the tile that was just dug out (exceptions are several miners where two finish at the same time, in which case it still holds true, just less specific: i.e. a dwarf may head over to his friend, or they may switch places).  The rest of the time it seems as if they randomly chose any tile to dig.

I suspect that somehow Z levels are accounted for in this 'nearby' tile selection meathod based on what you're seeing.

BTW, are you Channeling every level, or just Mining it?  If you just mine it you have to go back and channel.

[Chthon]

quote:BTW, are you Channeling every level, or just Mining it?  If you just mine it you have to go back and channel.[/QB]

Not true, you could always just channel out the top and build your pit from there.  That way, the first thing to fall will knock the rest out for you  

[Pyro93735]

I'm channeling out a 8x2 section, but in the interest of less micromanagement I'm mining out a 8x4 section with the extra two layers letting the dwarves mine out the furthest channel without me fearing them stranding themselves or each other (Two miners are working on this project).

I don't know, I have definitely seen dwarves in workshops run to a different z-level to grab rocks if it is directly underneath the workshop. I'll have a workshop, and then there will be a 3x3 space free of rock below and above it.