Talk:Stockpile design

Things to consider for the article rewrite

Please move the comment to the talk page of the current version. The following things should be taken into account, when rewriting the stockpile design page for the current v53 version:

1. If seeds are stored in bags, then the seeds are brought to the bag. Furthermore a bag in a barrel will not be moved out of the barrel for a store item in bag job. Also a bag only needs to be empty for seeds to be stored in the bag (or already have seeds in the bag but have space for more), the bag does not need to be in a food/seeds stockpile, ie. a dwarf will happily move candlenuts (from elven merchants) into an empty bag currently sitting in a glass furnace. But bags outside of stockpiles only seem to be used, if no bag (for the seed type) has still space for more seeds of that type.

2. A barrel in a stockpile assigned to a different stockpile is still available for items to be taken out of the barrel (ie. items in that barrel can get a flag that they are tasked to be used to prepare a lavish meal). Ie. to prepare lavish meals a cook will happily take items from a barrel in a meat stockpile, which was emptied of all meat and then filled with fish (and the barrel was consequently assigned to a fish stockpile somewhere else). But the cook seems to ignore the barrel, when the barrel is about to be picked up (to be moved to another stockpile). It is unclear, whether the items inside the barrel are unavailable from the time a dwarf did pick up the job to move the barrel or not (in any case the items in the barrel seem to be available if the task to move a barrel was created but no one did so far pick up the job).

3. Items can be marked for tasks even if the barrel is already tasked to ie. be brought to the trade depot. Eg. dwarves can pick up prepared food from such a barrel, allthough it is currently unclear, whether the pick-up from a prepared food barrel is possible while the barrel is en-route to the trade depot or is possible after the barrel has reached the trade depot. (I only observed dwarves moving with a hauled prepared meal from the vicinity of the trade depot to a dining area, and the only way, that the prepared meal did not come from a barrel being brought to the trade depot or already in the trade depot, would be if the dwarf did a sightseeing tour after picking up a prepared meal from a prepared meal stockpile, which brought the dwarf to the current position, and not directly walking from a prepared meal stockpile to a dining area. Sadly I did so far not catch the dwarves at the moment they did pick up the prepared meal).

4. Multiple items for different tasks (ie. different cooks preparing lavish meals) in a barrel (or bin) can be marked as tasked at the same time. The case, where multiple dwarves would access a barrel at exactly the same tick, is open (ie. it is unknown, whether a job cancellation could then happen - I have job cancellation notifications disabled), but in all other cases no job cancellation does happen.

5. For the store items in barrel job the barrel only needs to be assigned to the stockpile (generating the task), the barrel does not need to be already in the stockpile. Also bins and barrels will only store (additional) items, if the barrel/bin is assigned to the stockpile (generating a task).

6. A stockpile A, ie. for crafts, which is set to take from everywhere, will take items from other stockpiles B (which accepts crafts) under the following conditions: a) the stockpile A still has an assigned bin, which is in stockpile A and has still space for more items, and b) the items in question in stockpile B are currently not in a bin and c) the items are allowed in both stockpile A and stockpile B. Stockpile A (set to take from everywhere/anywhere) will not take items from stockpile B, which are in a bin, unless the stockpile B is set to give to stockpile A. In general a stockpile will not take items from non-empty bins, which are currently not assigned to a stockpile. (It is currently unclear, if stockpile A set to take items from stockpile B will take items from bins, which are assigned to stockpile B, but where the bin is currently not in a tile belonging to stockpile B.)

7. Permanent linkage of stockpiles (which use bins or barrels for storage - with the exception of booze stockpile) is often detrimental to the hauling efficiency. As all non-empty bins and barrels from the source stockpile can potentially be reassigned (and then moved) to the target stockpile, even if the bin or barrel has only one item in it, provided the target stockpile has still an empty tile (and the bin/barrel limit would not be exceeded with the reassignment of a bin/barrel). In these cases it is not waited with the reassignment of a barrel/bin until it is full. Permanent linkage usually only makes sense, if nearly all bins/barrels in the target stockpile are full and thus only a few items will be moved from the source to the destination stockpile at a time. Eg. it is usually more efficient to only link a tanned hides stockpile near the tanner to a stockpile near the leatherworker (if separate stockpiles are used) for a short time and only, when the tanned hides stockpile near the tanner is full and the stockpile near the leatherworker has enough tiles left to take all bins, as in these cases the bins will be moved with their contents and not the individual items (allthough it can happen that items in bins will be marked for hauling in adddition to the bins, eg. because a bin in the target stockpile still has space, and thus such items might possibly be moved seperatly).

ps. I did wait about a day, before misusing an earlier talk page.91.49.255.139 21:00, 30 July 2026 (UTC)