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[bucket]

So I usually start a fortress with a small hole in the ground that will later house my military. In there is usually a large stockpile for all the items I embarked with, just so I can get it all indoors (and away from buzzards and so on). But naturally, I eventually need to haul everything into my main fortress properly organized. This wouldn't be so much of an undertaking if dwarves didn't seem to get bored of hauling after a month or two. Stuff just lies around, rotting and serving no useful purpose.

I wondered if it wasn't caused by stones taking up space in the stockpiles. I got an idea: since I always have a Mason churning out blocks, I figure I'll create a dump zone right next to his workshop. I will dump every stone in an area I want to put a stockpile (or anywhere else important, really). Of course, I'll occasionally reclaim these stones so the blockmaster can use them.

This seemed like a great idea, except once I designate a whole square, EVERYBODY DROPS EVERYTHING and gets on it. It doesn't matter if I'm critically low on food/booze or in the middle of a giant badger siege, suddenly dumping rocks becomes Priority One. So I have to deal with one extreme or the other. I could try disabling hauling jobs for every dwarf except for what's relevant to his/her job, but that still leaves Masons and Stonecrafters. I'd never get anything built that way.

How do you people combat this problem?

[blizzerd]

burrows

[Sphalerite]

You can disable hauling on your critical-job dwarves.  My cheif medical dwarf doesn't do anything but medical duties, and I often disable hauling on other dwarves when I have a job they specifically need to do.

[Darkmere]

Note that dumping itself uses the refuse hauling labor.

[Spitfire]

A mason will carry stones to his workshop without needing to have "stone hauling" enabled.

So it is a common strategy to divide ones dwarves into workers and haulers. If you want to have dwarves that work in workshops and also haul when there is nothing better to do, one often discovers that they will haul even though they have something better to do... This could be solved with job priorities, which are pretty high up in the Eternal Suggestion Voting.

[jjdorf]

Soil layers.  I put my major stockpiles in soil layers so everything in the wagon gets brought inside.  take the wagon apart and the surface is nice and clean.

After that, most of my stockpiles are small enough due to being input stockpiles for workshops.  The stone in a 3 by 3 area is far easier to haul away than the stone in a 10 by 10 area.

And of course, as others have stated, disabling hauling on critical dwarves is a good idea.  My medical dwarves never haul, nor do they recover wounded or give patients or prisoners water.  My miners never haul, and early on, my wood cutter and mason have hauling labors disabled also.  Let's them focus on getting real work done.

But soil layers are your friends, no stone to combat in your stockpiles.

[ferok]

It can also be helpful to have a few different kinds of haulers.

Hauls All.
Hauls All but refuse.
Hauls only refuse and corpses.
Hauls only food.

I typically set only food to types that have "part time" professions, like weavers and leatherworkers - dwarves that I want at the ready but I can hardly keep busy.  This helps ensure that food hauling gets a little extra attention.

I like to set 1-2 refuse and corpses dwarves near my entrance in a burrow to clean up all the corpses left over by sieges and also for stripping prisoners (which is usually also near my entrance).

All but refuse guys make sure the stuff that needs to get done, gets done.  Furniture moving, food hauling, corpse clean-up - you name it; without worrying about the 5000 rocks I have ordered to be tossed.

And the do-it all guys do it all, obviously.

[bucket]

Soil layers.  I put my major stockpiles in soil layers so everything in the wagon gets brought inside.  take the wagon apart and the surface is nice and clean.

That part I can handle. It's when I start micromanaging items and things need to be moved from one stockpile to another that dwarves seem to lose any motivation.

[jjdorf]

Soil layers.  I put my major stockpiles in soil layers so everything in the wagon gets brought inside.  take the wagon apart and the surface is nice and clean.

That part I can handle. It's when I start micromanaging items and things need to be moved from one stockpile to another that dwarves seem to lose any motivation.

Stockpiles do need to be free of stone, also.  Unless it's a stone stockpile.  So stockpiles in rock layers need to have the stones dumped before you can expect the stockpile to fill up with what you want.  I usually do see the last couple items in a stockpile that I'm emptying take a bit longer, but I chalk that up to hauler interruption via sleep, breaks, eating, and drinking.

If I'm moving the contents of a perishable stockpile from one spot to another, I make the new stockpile, then set it to take from the old one.  Check back every now and then to see if it is empty and only delete the old one once it is close.  I never have any real stockpiling issues though.

[Hyndis]

Just have dedicated medical dwarves who do nothing except for health care jobs. No hauling. Only health care.