40d:Activity zone

Activity zones are areas in which dwarves are instructed to perform specific tasks, such as fishing, dumping objects, or collecting water. While activity zones are necessary for the performance of certain tasks, such as collecting sand, they can also be used to help to keep dwarves out of danger and greatly increase the efficiency of some of their hauling behavior.

Activity zones can be placed in any revealed tile, including in open space (over the chasm or a river, for instance), or on top of a building or stockpile. (If any tile is impassable or unreachable, however, that portion of the zone will go unused.) They are placed in the same manner as stockpiles, by designating a rectangular area using Enter from within the Zones menu (i).

The location of a zone is only visible while in the Zones menu, and any object lying on the ground will hide the presence of a zone tile. Buildings, stockpiles, constructions, and even rock walls will not obscure zone tiles, even though they may sometimes make them inaccessible.

Once an activity zone is created, tasks can be assigned to it by hovering over it with the cursor while in the Zones menu. When hovering over the activity zone, you may tap a to enable or disable the zone. Disabling a zone will not cancel any existing job that involves that zone, but no further jobs related to it will be created while it is disabled.

Water Source

Shortcut w

Water source zones are areas in which dwarves will look for water to fill buckets, waterskins, or to drink. If there is no water source zone, dwarves may attempt to get water a great distance away from the fortress.

To place a water source, trace a zone which surrounds a pool, river, or channel full of water. Each ground tile within the zone that is adjacent to the water is considered a water source tile. Thus, if you want to place a single-tile zone to be used as a water source, place the zone onto a ground tile adjacent to the water, not onto the open space above the water.

Fishing

Shortcut f

Fishing zones are areas in which dwarves will attempt to fish.

To place a fishing zone, trace a zone which contains both water and ground tiles near an ocean, pool, brook, stream, river, or lake. Fishing may also be done at artificially-created ponds. As with a water source, each ground tile that is adjacent to the natural water source is considered a fishing zone: drawing a single tile of fishing zone on top of the water will accomplish nothing.

If you do not designate fishing zone(s), any dwarves with the fishing labor enabled will still go off to in any fish-bearing body of water, although they may choose to fish in an area very distant from the fortress, which may also expose them to dangerous wildlife.

Garbage Dump

Shortcut g

Garbage dump zones are areas in which dwarves will throw items* designated by using k then d for single items at a time, or d then b then d to designate a larger area to be dumped. Garbage dumps are not the same as refuse stockpiles, where rotting items and animal corpses go. On the other hand, dumping items does use the refuse hauling job and are subject to refuse orders (o: Set Orders and Options -> r: Refuse Orders). Most notably, dwarves will not dump items that are outside unless you allow them to (o->r->o).

To place a garbage dump, trace a zone on either a relatively empty plot of land or adjacent to a cliff face or hole. If a garbage zone is designated beside a cliff or hole (both natural or dwarf made) garbage will be thrown off/in the z-space. Each ground tile within that zone is considered a garbage dump tile; thus, if you want to place a single-tile zone, place the zone onto a ground tile (optionally adjacent to a cliff or pit), not onto an open space. Items dumped into a chasm or magma (provided they are not magma safe) will disappear permanently. Otherwise, any number of dumped items will fit even in a 1x1 square^{v0.28.181.40d}; this can be used as a stone management exploit.

Once items are dumped they are automatically marked as "forbidden". If you wish to use dumped items, you need to reclaim them. Press k to view the item and f to toggle forbid status. You may also use the reclaim designation to reclaim simultaneously all of the items dumped by using d then b then c and tracing the designation over top of the objects.

* dwarves will actually destroy cave spider silk webs instead of hauling it.

Pit/Pond

See Pit for other uses.

Shortcut p

Pit zones are areas that dwarves can be instructed to fill with specific creatures. The zone will only ever be used if you specify an animal manually to be dumped into the pit.

Pond zones are areas that dwarves can be told to fill with water, using buckets. If the zone is active, the dwarves will continue attempting to fill the pond until the it reaches a 7/7 state; however, it is likely that a large pond will not be totally filled due to the movement of individual 7s and 6s within the pond causing the Fill Pond jobs to be removed before they can be fulfilled.

To place a pit/pond zone, trace a zone directly over top of open space you wish to use as a pit or pond. Unlike most of the other activity zones, the ground tiles are not used to determine the zone: a single-tile pit/pond zone is placed on top of the open space, not on the ground tile adjacent to it.

After defining the zone, hover over the zone then use P to open a menu which allows you to toggle whether it is a pit or pond with the key f. You may also specify animals you would like to throw into the pit or pond by selecting them with + and - and hitting Enter; a + symbol denotes those animals which have been selected.

If you wish to fill a large pond faster, you may place multiple pond zones side by side, one for each tile of the pond accessible from the shore. Each individual zone will generate its own Fill Pond job. Likewise, you may define multiple pit zones side by side, and may thus toss several animals into the same pit simultaneously by specifying different animals for each pit zone.

Sand Collection

Shortcut s

Sand collection zones are areas in which dwarves will search for sand when ordered to gather it. Sand is used for glassmaking. Unlike water source and fishing zones, dwarves won't find sand by themselves if you don't define a sand collection zone. To collect sand, build a glass furnace and queue up "collect sand" tasks at the building or using the manager screen. Sand can only be collected from biomes that are sand, yellow sand, white sand, black sand, or red sand. Sandy clay, sandy loam, and the like are not sufficient. It's worth noting that having a stockpile on the space containing sand apparently does not stop a dwarf from gathering sand, even if there are items on it.

Meeting Area

Shortcut m

Meeting area zones are areas in which dwarves and animals will congregate, similar to meeting hall rooms in the previous version. Additionally, immigrants will collect here until their "migrant" status wears off. It is a good idea to have at least one Meeting Hall: it allows you to make off-duty dwarves and animals gather in an area where they are not vulnerable, such as within the fortress. Also, if you don't have a Meeting Hall zone, migrants which arrive will wait at the edge of the map until "migrant" wears off. A big meeting hall filled with idle dwarves quickly increases the social skills of idlers which may give them attribute boosts. It makes idle dwarves a little less idle, and makes selecting a replacement broker (if old one dies) easier. Be warned that having dwarves socialize will result in them becoming friends. This is often considered negative due to the extreme happiness penalties implicit in having a friend die, and can make your fortress much more vulnerable to tantrum spirals.