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[dwarfhoplite]

I think using garbage zones as stockpiles is cheating so i build stone stockpiles no matter if it's useful or not

[UristMcHuman]

OK. Thanks for the help! I just designated my 3x3 mason/mechanic shops next to a three-tile hallway between them (2 tiles for a door on either end the centre one for the Quantum Stockpile).

[C0NNULL]

Currently on the Itza, I have a few stockpiles of just gabbro or rock salt surrounded by mason workshops. I never did use a burrow for them, but that might be helpful for me in the future. I only have those two stones and some hematite, and the hematite is stored quite a bit away. I am getting the blocks I need with no fuss. The stockpiles are far enough away that even if there was only one stone in the furthest corner, the mason will still want his gabbro over the rock salt which is just too far away.

Also, there is a garbage dump for stones near another two mason shops far away, (always in a state of "claimed".) Unless I care what is made, I use the manager to make things. In the case of the blocks I need for the Itza, I just set the individual block-shops to repeat block-making. If, during that time, the manager uses one of the block-shops for a door, whatever. (Granted, I need a LOT of blocks, so a door here and there is of no notice. You wouldn't notice 100 doors in 20,000 rock salt blocks, either. Not with 10 rock salt block-shops and 2 gabbro block-shops.)

I think. Though I have done this in a few forts and gotten the colo(u)rs I wanted I cannot be sure that I so do not mind the failures that I have forgotten them because I got what I wanted in the end. (That was a long way to say YMMV if I do say so myself. Sorry.)

Magma.

[dr_random]

They tend to use the nearest rock in x and y term, but do not acount for z, so instead of taking the rock 5 squares away, they will take the one 2 squares away, but 35 z level below, in the middle of my exploratory-mining labyrinth.

Indeed? I wondered why they would sometimes refuse to grab the nearest stone and vanish down the stairs. This could be the reason. I didn't explore this further thinking they'd grab the nearest stone at the time they went on the job because they seemed to turn on the nearby piles eventually. Is this behaviour confirmed?

[Doomchild-]

if i remember correct (it's been a long time since i used this method) you can use the stone list in the Z screen to set what they can be used for (wiki page) so even if hematite makes it into your stone stockpile, if you havent authorised it's use the masons wont use it for blocks/furniture/constructions/crafts, only for their specific special purpose.
i remember there used to be (or still is) a bug with obsidian where i wouldn't show up in this list, so it's use could not be changed and it could only be used for it's special purpose as obsidian swords. your masons and stonecrafters would ignore it (Urist mcMason cancels 'make rock door': no non-economic stone) and it wouldn't how up as a material when making constructions.
so making seperate stockpiles for normal stones and ores only serves a purpose when it is to create a smoother flow of materials. keeping them seperate out of fear of your mason turning your valuable ores into tables is not neccesary unless you specifically authorised the use of that ore for porposes other than melting it into metal bars.
moods, on the other hand, ignore these settings and if they require rough stones they will grab the nearest one, regardless of settings, so keep an eye on your candy rocks when your craftdwarves start acting weird. unless you want them to ofcourse

[hjd_uk]

Its very useful if you need items make of Magma safe materials - you can create a stockpile of specific rocks and place them next to the workshop - clear away or forbid rocks around the workshop that are not magma safe. They will grab the nearest rock to make the generic 'rock' thing with and take it from the magma-safe stockpile.
Ofc it would help if you could explicitly declare the rock type as with metals.

[Doomchild-]

Ofc it would help if you could explicitly declare the rock type as with metals.

you can, by setting all non-magma safe rock types as reserved, they will never be used for anything and all things made of stone will be magma safe, without any need to micro-manage or manually forbidding rocks.

[hjd_uk]

Stock piles allow you to quickly designate tiles of allowed/forbidden objects to swap between desired rock types. But yes, the economic stone page lets you preserve your flux stone etc.

[dr_random]

Ofc it would help if you could explicitly declare the rock type as with metals.

you can, by setting all non-magma safe rock types as reserved, they will never be used for anything and all things made of stone will be magma safe, without any need to micro-manage or manually forbidding rocks.

I STILL have difficulty remembering what these stones are. As such I'd proptly answer "Diorite" and "Bauxite" and "Iron". Olivine maybe also and glass is supposed.
Do you know how long it took to learn the metallic ores? I set out half a dozen embark attempts to look for magnetite because I had no concept of the other ores. How surprised I was that tetrahydrastuff also contains copper?
Alloys giving me the creeps? I never smelt bronze in this game by plan, cause I fail to name the ingredients.

A nice stockpile of stone I know of works all right for the kind of mildly ignorant player I represent.

[khearn]

Diorite's not magma safe. See http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Magma_safe

In my current fort, I set up two 3x4 stockpiles just above the masons/mechanics. On only accepts the magma safe stones listed on that page, one only accepts the non safe ones. Neither accepts ores nor flux. Not too far away I have a couple of bigger stockpiles of each type, with the small stockpiles set to take from the big ones. I just have to do a d-b-f to forbid the small stockpile for the stone I don't want and d-b-c to claim the other, and I can be sure to get the type of items I want. When my legendary mason starts cranking out doors he only has to step up the stairs to get the next stone, so he works very quickly. By the time he has gone through the 12 stones that are close at hand, a dozen haulers are in action bringing more from the staging stockpile, so he doesn't run out (unless all the haulers are busy bringing stuff to/from the depot or hauling in goblinite from the latest siege). And then another dozen make the trip down to the depths to being up more to there. And the only time I need to remember which stones are magma safe is when I build something and have to select which door/floodgate/mechanism to use.

I use garbage zones for clearing out newly dug rooms, but I don't see much need for them as stockpiles. When you dig a room that has some orthoclase (magma safe), some granite (not magma safe), and some native gold, it's a pain to try to send each to a different garbage zone. I send them all to the same nearby zone, and then reclaim them all later. When one of my staging stockpiles needs more of a certain type of stone, the haulers will do the sorting for me.

Then again, I don't usually care at all about colors. That would make things a little more complicated. But not all that much, just a few more stockpiles, one per color.

[Nameless Archon]

If boulders would fit into bins, then I'd use that, but as it stands they simply consume too much floorspace for any other realistic option.

Personally, I'd prefer a more in-depth stones menu that would allow me to reserve say, orthoclase for mechanisms, coffers and stonecrafts, but not for tables, chairs or doors. However, I note that such a change would be on Toady, and I doubt such quality of life changes are very high on the list at the moment, given the Caravan Arc and the current focus on adventurer mode.

I'm not a big fan of quantum stockpiles, mainly because I don't want the hassle of trying to manage them in conjunction with the butcher's dump zone in a cylindrical design. I could, however, tolerate a modification that allowed me to bin raw stones on a stockpile, thereby creating stockpiles that were smaller in size but larger in capacity than current stone stockpiles, while still remaining "realistic" and not requiring me to worry about miasma-producing items ending up in the mason's pile.

As someone who isn't at all familiar with what is within the bounds of mods: Is it actually possible to mod raw stones to occupy bins? Are there any known downsides of attempting to do so (like having a maximum of one stone per bin, or stones simply being too large to use bins even if modded to permit it)?

[valayane]

quantum stockpiles??
dude, u really want ur framerate to kill u
hauling rocks is the last thing u should do, hide it if u dont like looking at it

[dr_random]

Diorite's not magma safe. See http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Magma_safe

See? That's what I mean. I have saved the wiki-page for reference locally. I wish there was more information in the game itself.

[krenshala]

Myself, I use a 3x5 room for each workshop, so each has a 2x3 stockpile to pull from.  I used to use quantum stockpiling, but its easier to just have idlers fill the six spots per workshop when something has been used.

[Tanelorn]

I find it very useful to have a custom stockpile for masons next to my megaprojects for several reasons:
- they can be set to accept only certain stones (e.g. particular color, for those of us with OCD)
- masons will only neeed to walk a few tiles to get the stones (haulers do most of the leg work), so construction projects go really fast
- if the stockpile is near the building site, the type of stones of interest will be right at the top of the stones list (don't have to go through pages of stone types to find the right one)
- if haulers are in short supply (e.g. needed for depot), just disable stone hauling in the menu, and they won't refill the stockpile. Mason will have to do the walking instead.