For a while now I've been wondering why dwarves refuse to gather sand in my current fortress. I ran a search on the forum and found two others reporting a similar case in
this thread.
I'll quote parts of it here.
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Ok, I've made a zone, it says sand collection (9), it is active, and it is reachable. I order the sand collection at the glass furnace, but I get the message that "sand collection cancelled: needs valid, active sand collection zone."I've tried several zones on several levels, all sand floors. I've tried zoning outdoors as well. I have bags free too, but if that was the issue, then I should've gotten a message more like "no bags", shouldn't I
I'm in a human town btw. Maybe that interferes with the sand collection in some way? I'll try collecting some ways outside the town. Shot in the dark but oh well..
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Sorry for the revive, exact same problem. Human town, both underground and overground sand collection zones but neither get recognized. Has anyone found a solution to this in the intervening time?
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I have exactly the same problem described by two others in this post - lots of sand around, sand collection zone set up properly, but collect sand orders are always cancelled with "need valid, active sand collection zone".AND I, too, share a map with a human town, as with both others. I don't know about you, but I see a certain pattern here.
Edit: Actually, this makes me think if there's a bigger problem with zones when the fortress is in a human town (possibly other civilizations as well), as throughout this fortress I've been wondering why dwarves ignore garbage dumps and dump orders - not a single item has been hauled to a dump during the four years my current fortress has been operational, and trust me, quite a few have been marked for dumping.
Ponds and meeting areas seem to work, though.
I can supply a save of this if need be.