40d Talk:How do I construct a wall from a particular direction

This doesnt work. They ignore the restricted designation. --Heliopios 00:43, 25 December 2007 (EST)

I just tested this. It does work, for me at least. Prevents my retarded dorfs from walling themselves in with the lovely magma flow that's coming in at a good speed. --Corbine 05:34, 25 December 2007 (EST)

They rewall from the east when the west side is fully accessible and pathable but is 'restricted' via traffic designations? I have some doubts. It is definitely worth testing with lone pillars in the field.--Another 07:25, 25 December 2007 (EST)

Perfectly worked for me. Now I can wall my open chambers instead of placing a door in the open space. It is worth nothing though that I successfuly tested it in mostly closed space. I think the point of this method is to have a wall with only one piece missing, then restricting one side of the wall should lead the masson to "prefer" the side of the wall which is not restricted to build the last wall piece. --Eagle of Fire 19:34, 27 December 2007 (EST)

More research needed

This has definitely worked for me before, but it's not 100%. I just tested it out in the open, and the dwarf totally ignored my designation. I'll keep testing.

1. What about placing a construction on the undesired tile, then suspending it? Does that work? --Jackard 13:43, 26 December 2007 (EST)

2. There's always the babysitter method: watch the dwarf build, if he ends up on the wrong side quickly suspend construction so he leaves, then turn it back on. --Jackard 13:43, 26 December 2007 (EST)

Perhaps setting every square but the desired one would help. We don't know how prioritized the default behavior is. When I try to stop blood from spreading (in previous versions) I would designate that square and a bunch in the area too, because I found they would still go through the square. --Gotthard 18:45, 27 December 2007 (EST)

If I understand well what Toady explained in a thread on the forums, all what restricting does is that if the pathing of a dwarf goes thru a restrited tile, the pathing algorith will (try to) recalculate a better route X amount of time. You can see (and change) it in the init file:

Change these numbers to set the default weights for traffic designations. If you make the last numbers too large, pathfinding might lag.

The format is (PATH_COST:<high>:<normal>:<low>:<restricted>).

[PATH_COST:1:2:5:25]

This mean that when you restrict a square, if the pathing algorithm happen to plot a way into it, it will recalculate up to 25 times (by default) to try to find a better route. If it fails, it will keep the same route and the dwarf will walk thru the restricted space.

I think people mix up the terms "restricted" and "forbiden", when in fact it's in no way coded to act like a barrier for dwarves but more as a way to "nudge" dwarves gently in better area(s). --Eagle of Fire 19:42, 27 December 2007 (EST)

Yup. Personally, I thought the pathfinding cost made that a little obvious. --Jackard 22:36, 27 December 2007 (EST)

Clarification: "recalculate" is not a proper word here. Path is always calculated only once and all <restricted> do is making the dwarves think that the length of the path to their destination across a restricted tile is by 11.5 <normal> or 24 <high> tiles longer that it would be without <restricted> designation. Personally I try to avoid <restricted> as it does not completely prevent dwarves from anything and designate <high> in my main halls/roads fooling my dwarves into believe that the path along those is 2 times shorter then alternatives across my stockpiles/workshops/sleeping blocks. Designating large areas as <restricted> can supposedly cause some FPS drop due to constant calculating of very long routes.--Another 05:45, 28 December 2007 (EST)

The designation method does not work in any useful sense of the word. I've removed the section. Cheepicus 06:34, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Problems with hermit games

I think it's worth noting that for some reason none of these methods work when you only have one dwarf. Does anyone know some alternative ways? --Xonara 23:14, 26 January 2009 (EST)

Admittedly, I haven't tried a hermit game, but i see no reason why designating a wall and suspending it shouldn't cause the dwarf to still prefer other squares. It certainly does in regular fortresses.--Squirrelloid 01:08, 27 January 2009 (EST)

I've found a way to get around this but it's kind of a pain. Just use tile edit and check the "has liquid" box in Tweak and your dorf won't build from there. --Xonara 21:09, 27 January 2009 (EST)