40d Talk:Workshop

proposed content

Maybe something about what the workshops actually do? --Mizipzor 13:39, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

move Workshops to Workshop

Should this page's title be singluar, in keeping with the rules on the community portal?--BahamutZERO 15:31, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

Probably, if we choose to keep it. However, I'm thinking that this page should really just be a redirect to Category:Workshops. But not until we make sure that all the content here is also in the individual workshop pages. --Peristarkawan 15:35, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

Too bad we can't get the hotkeys in the Category--Vaevictus 15:57, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

Do we need them? There's a perfectly good list of workshops with their hotkeys in the game itself. --Peristarkawan 16:04, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

We could add the shortcut key to that little template thingy on the right. --Mizipzor 21:25, 4 November 2007 (EST)

Either A: We will put many of the workshop descriptions on this page and have those workshop names redirect here, or B: We will delete this page and have any info on this page on the workshop pages.
The old wiki had two sections as an introduction to workshops for newbies, a very brief list of the workshops and what they did, and a list of the workshop walls created by each workshop. Since the two sections would belong in a newbie tutorial page, and the descriptions of the workshops would belong in the workshop pages, workshop needs a {{del}}. --Savok 22:47, 4 November 2007 (EST)

We should make one page for each workshop, add them to category:workshops and {{del}} this page. --Mizipzor 08:12, 6 November 2007 (EST)

Ive made siege workshop and marked that section of the article with strikout. When all sections are marked like this, the page is ready to be made into a redirect to category:workshops. --Mizipzor 05:27, 7 November 2007 (EST)

Material/objects for building workshops

Should it really be labelled "Materials needed to build" - in all cases except the fishery there they are actually objects. Perhaps a 'can be built out of' and 'objects required to build'? --Matryx 05:41, 5 November 2007 (EST)

Someone has detailed that 'still' is short for 'distillery'. This is partially incorrect as a still is actually a completely different word and has a different meaning. A distillery is a an entire establishment (industrial plant and works for example) for distilling things (particularly alcohol) - whereas a still is an apparatus (usually heating/vapour cooling) which would be used inside a distillery to produce alcohol. --Matryx 06:50, 6 November 2007 (EST)

Production Image

Cheese is missing, as is anything to do with pre-thread silk. Additionally, the chain after thread is inconsistent with the rest of the diagram. --Edward 03:22, 29 May 2008 (EDT)

I updated the image to include silk, cheese is already included in food, although it's not quite clear. I am just afraid that naming individual food items is going to create a huge mess. Not sure what you mean that the chain after thread is inconsistent Aeolist 05:47, 22 June 2008 (EDT)

Workshop Design

Does it strike anyone else as odd that we have a Bedroom Design page that's a few thousand words and 18 images strong, but not so much as a sentence on workshop design? We should add an extra section to this page discussing that. If it gets too large, it can be moved to its own page, but for the moment keeping things consolidated is probably best.

The rest of this post will be a first draft for the section. Please keep comments and discussion in indented (use : at the beginning of your post) lines just below this comment, and out of the drafted article. --ThunderClaw 10:28, 10 October 2008 (EDT)

In regards to kitchens/butcher shops, whenever possible, I use the "miasma won't go through diagonals" trick instead of doors. Otherwise, you wind up with doors that get stuck open due to pets, items, etc. It gets even worse if your item hauling falls behind and you have to deconstruct a workshop to get its contents to be stockpiled (important if you have spoilable items) and hauled off (Dump and/or funneling stockpiles), resulting in the 4x4 explosion of stacked items. Depending on your point of view, exploting the diagonals may constitute a cheat and it does create a (fairly minimal) space impact adding that off-true wall. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see this article. Getting my workshops running efficiently is one of my biggest bugaboos so far. -Fuzzy 13:08, 10 October 2008 (EDT)

For miasma in butcher's shops, I usually use a vent and place the butcher's shop in the vent area. Each butchering operation leaves behind a bunch of chunks that stunk up my shops far too frequently. With kitchens, miasma is only an occasional problem, so I would go for the doors as well, if the kitchen is emitting miasma its probably too late to salvage the contents. -CptFastbreak 20:20, 10 October 2008 (CET)

Truthfully, the way I usually deal with that stuff is to make sure the kitchens and butcheries are on the top floor, then channel a smokestack up to the surface to make the center hex of the workshop "outside", so I never thought of it too closely. Throw a quick wall around it to keep enemies out and you'll never even produce miasma. Anyway, I've yet to see a hauling breakdown with the decentralized idea I've been using for the last 6 fortresses, so I have trouble commenting on that. If you can, perhaps you might consider adding a note on their causes and effects in the key considerations? --ThunderClaw 14:25, 10 October 2008 (EDT)

Workshop Design

Since workshops are where much of your fortress's day to day work happens, it is important to plan them as carefully as you do your bedrooms. Workshop designs have a couple key considerations:

• Workshops should be as close as possible to the raw materials needed to do their job (usually via stockpiles).
• There should be room to put in duplicate workshops, to accomodate spikes in demand for things like beds and barrels (carpentry) or stone furniture (masons).
• Workshops should be lockable by forbidding doors. This is important for making sure specific bits of furniture get encrusted with gems (you don't want rubies on a mudstone table while you have a platinum statue around), specific items are made with specific materials (bauxite mechanisms for example), or even just locking a dwarf in a Fell strange mood away so he won't hurt a useful worker.
• The design should be expandable. There will ALWAYS be another specialty workshop you'd find useful, whether it be a single-task, lockable Jeweler, a Legendary-only Carpenter's Workshop for beds, a floor of Dabbling to Proficient-only Masonry workshops for a reserves program, the list goes on. Never assume you'll never need another workshop. You'll always find SOMETHING.
• The design should have good traffic throughput. Workshop complexes are pretty high-traffic areas, so you'll need to keep this in mind.

A couple things that may seem like big deals, but really aren't:

• Being close to where the finished good will go. You will definitely need to think of where your chairs, tables, prepared meals, and the like will go after they're done being made, but an average fortress has a lot of spare labor and untrained peasants that are qualified for little more than hauling finished goods. Don't be afraid of putting the prepared food and booze larder 100 steps away from the kitchen and still; just turn off food hauling on your cooks and let the peasants handle it.
• Setting up resource stockpiles somewhat near where the resource is produced. Again, the peasants will handle this.

Decentralized Workshop Complex

Designed for use with the decentralized living plan, this plan emphasizes fine-grained planning with many small, specific stockpiles and planned workshop quarters. It therefore requires some micro-management to get going. However, once you have it working, things work extremely smoothly and you should never have a significant delay in production again.

Total workshop loadout for 1 floor:

• Sixteen (16) 3x3 workshops
• Four (4) 4x3 workshops
• Two (2) 5x5 workshops

Maximum walk to stockpile on same wing: 18.

The light gray crosses are optional doors. They can be useful for sealing off a Kitchen or Butcher's Shop to keep miasma from annoying the neighbors. Beyond that, the blue field is the stairwell access (recommend separate up stairs and down stairs for safety reasons), and the gray fields are stockpiles.

4x3 workshops are useful for workshops with strange blocked square formations (the Bowyer's shop is an example). They can also be nice for setting up a tiny 1x2 or 1x3 stockpile for a specific workshop - with bins, this can be a significant reserve of material. Imagine a Clothier or Leatherworker with 3 full bins of cloth or leather right next to them.

The 5x5 workshops are useful for shops, kennels, and siege workshops. You can even put your trade depot in one of them if you've got a mind to. Maintaining proper security can be a nightmare in that situation (remember that trolls and others can break down doors and floodgates), but if you manage to get it done it can be a trader's dream come true. They can also be useful for making a specialty shop with a few stockpiles designed to accomplish only one thing (encrusting statues with gems, for example).

The 3x3 workshops are best organized into wings, where a pair of workshops share a similar function with the pair directly next to them. They share stockpile space better this way. When set up correctly, less than 10 dwarves will regularly use each stockpile room, so traffic is a non-issue. There tends to be a lot of dwarves in the halls, though, because peasant haulers visit the workshops frequently, hence the 3-wide corridors.

Finally, this design offers lots and lots of wall space for smoothing and engraving. Free wealth is good.