40d Talk:Activity zone

Undumpable: belongings of dead dwarves

Has anyone else noticed that when a dwarf dies and leaves behind all his items on the floor of your fortress, you can designate them for dumping but the dwarves never come and dump them? Is there any way to get rid of these? I also noticed dwarves never seem to dump damaged items (items that have an x in their name). ----Hyperbox 04:29, 21 August 2008 (EST)

I don't think dwarves will dump items with ownership flags, so that's why your dwarves never seem to dump damaged items. I think they need to replace them first. In the case of death, though, my experience has been that the items get de-owned on death and the other dwarves come strip the body. If you do orders & choose Forbid, there are some settings about whether items are forbidden upon death, but I think they default to mostly-permissive, so unless your settings got changed that shouldn't be affecting you, either. --Sev 03:41, 27 August 2008 (EDT)

I'm thinking that the dwarven economy might throw another yet wrench into this system. Since my economy started, my dwarves have refused to dump any clothing items, including narrow clothing. I'm wondering whether it's because dwarves won't dump anything they might be able to sell. Bless their capitalist little hearts, but it's extremely frustrating. --Ookpik 21:42, 13 September 2008 (EDT)

I have had no trouble dumping narrow clothing after the economy kicks in -- as long as the clothing isn't already in a shop. Once they've hauled it to the shop, it behaves as if it were "owned". --Sev 19:55, 12 December 2008 (EST)

I just want to confirm that items, particularly worn out socks and shoes, can't be dumped. So if your dwarf decides he wants a new pair and leaves his old shoes or socks lying on the ground, you are screwed.--Jpwrunyan 10:59, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

You can, however, hide them via k-h or d-b-h. They still exist, but at least you won't have to look at them.
—0x517A5D 04:07, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Proposed move

should this page be moved to the singluar title "Activity zone" ? (unsigned/unknown GarrieIrons 07:59, 4 July 2008 (EDT))

Force drinking location

Any advice how to get dwarves really drink where I want them? I have one space water supply zone at the end of channel so the zone is above the floodgate) and then I have another 12 space zone around a little pond.. still all the dwarves run all the way to the brook for drink. (..yea yea, I know, I need booze. sorry for beeing slow) --Shiona

under the orders menu, along with the only farmers harvest and refuse type orders, there is an option for zones, under that submenu you can say 'prefer to drink/fish at zone' 'only drink/fish at zone' which might be what you need. Also make sure you are setting the zones to a type and not just designating them. --Shades 05:27, 6 November 2007 (EST)

I've got the same problem. I've zoned a large water source over my brook and I've set zone only drinking under my options, yet my dwarves still go up or down river, sometimes great distances, to drink. It's a really big problem since I'm in a really savage biome. I've tried de- and rezoning the water source and switching on and off the zone permissions. Bug? Or are my dwarves just stupider than most? --RampagingFrodo 01:49 EDT, 23 Jan 2009

Vertigo when filling ponds?

This is not really related to zones, but I have a pond my dwarves are filling, which is three levels deep. They seem to be suffering from extreme vertigo; they keep filling a bucket, dumping it in, and then staggering away stunned and nauseous. There's vomit all over my pond now. - Clockwork 19:20, 18 November 2007 (EST)

That sounds like cave adjustment to me. When's the last time they've been outside before that problem arose? If dwarves spend too long underground, they'll get accustomed to it, to the point that being hit by sunlight again will give them the exact symptoms you just described. The pond has nothing to do with it, aside from the fact that they're outside while filling it. --Hesitris 22:42, 18 November 2007 (EST)

Inappropriate building?

I have designated a pond inside my fort in an attempt to get some floors muddy for farming. However, I keep getting the message: so and so cancels Fill Pond: Inappropriate building. Any hints as to what I am doing wrong? - Ehertlein 07:03, 18 August 2008 (EDT)

IIRC Dwarves will only pour water into a pit; ie. an empty space. If you want to make a floor muddy, you need to mark a pond on the z-level above it. --Raumkraut 14:41, 18 August 2008 (EDT)

Garbage dump

The following sentence is self contradicting. "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." It needs correcting, one way or the other. --Aykavil 04:49, 17 July 2008 (EDT)

Wiki style question

while reading articles in this wiki, i sometimes see keyboard keys described as being "pushed" (for example, under Construction in Well), sometimes as being "used" (link) and sometimes just Shortcut w (for example, Dump). can i use any of these in articles that i wish to add to the wiki? -Anachron

There is a lack of consistency. Fix it all! or adopt the (non)standard that already exists... the real answer is see the rules. If it's not covered and you think it should be.... work out where it should go!GarrieIrons 07:59, 4 July 2008 (EDT)

Animal pits

Is this how I am meant to keep all my herd animals in the same place (I'd prefer not to cage them, I don't know why...)? Are they gonna get hurt when I drop them down a z-level?GarrieIrons 07:59, 4 July 2008 (EDT)

Now I think I have an issue that...

I have a passage leading to a channel. The channel and one floor tile before it are my pit zones.

Below that is a room with a s-bend corridor with several doors marked "Passable" (ie not passable to pets).

It seems that my dwarves want to drop an animal into the pit. Then go downstairs, pick it up, and do it again.

I am confused!GarrieIrons 09:04, 4 July 2008 (EDT)

After a night of sleep

Alright. I now have an animal pit activity zone. Below it is a room with an S-bend corridor with three doors marked Passable (for dwarves only). There are "several" animals in the pit. My question: When I i on the zone, then P, does it show me the animals who have already been put in the pit or not? I would have thought it would be like a cage, showing all animals but putting a special character next to the ones already in the pit.GarrieIrons 21:01, 4 July 2008 (EDT)

Unfortunately there is no way to tell if an animal has been placed in a pit. So when you assign animals to a pit, it is a one-shot thing only - a dwarf will pit the animal, then there will be no indication that the animal is there the next time you look at the list. It would be nice if we could designate areas as pits, where the areas would act as 'stockpiles' or 'cages' that track which animals are in them.Pavlov 04:46, 30 July 2008 (EDT)

Deadly Animal Pits

I'm surprised I'm not seeing anyone talking about this, but when I saw that you could put animals in pits the first thing I thought about was filling it with snakes, lions, maybe a dragon or two, and having that be what the unlucky goblins who fall into when the get dropped down from your drawbridge trap. --DimensionWarped 20:31, 22 November 2008 (EST)

• Adding onto that... how about making ponds and filling them with your own fish to start some kind of fish pond or something? --DimensionWarped 20:32, 22 November 2008 (EST)

Yeah, that makes sense! I always thought that was what ponds were for, before I figured out you could do other things with them, too. I'd be careful with the dragon pits, though. Even tame ones are very indiscriminate when breathing fire on their foes. (Currently I'm using a race that I gave dragonfirebreath. First thing that happened when zombies attacked was they lit up the zombies, the wagon and all the supplies, and the clothes their friends were wearing. I changed the race's ignite point after that.) --Navian 20:38, 22 November 2008 (EST)

Nobles filling ponds

Anybody else notice that nobles fill ponds? They are useful for something after all! --Kwieland 02:12, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Odd pond filling techniques

Why is it when my little dudes try filling my pond, they leave the bucket at edge of my pond? Am I seeing this incorrectly, or when they fill a pond, they get water, bring it over to the pond, pour the water in, and leave the bucket. I don't understand how this fills the pond, or if you need multiple buckets, or if I'm doing something wrong. --ZombieRoboNinja 16:09, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

They dumped the water out of the bucket into the pond (assuming there was a channel to dump into) and then left the bucket for the next filler to use. It can be very difficult to fill any sizable space (>2x2) with buckets alone, due to evaporation. Your best bet is to have multiple pond zones (each one will generate a separate filling job,) 2 buckets per zone, and turning off any bucket accepting stockpiles, in addition to making sure the nearest water source isn't a long trip. --Edward 22:04, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I see. I figured if the dwarves didn't have anything better to do, they'd just keep the buckets with them and do the job over and over again. They drop the bucket when they're done? That's kinda ridiculous. Anyway, that's for the info. --ZombieRoboNinja 16:10, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Undumpable: Fallen dump-marked stone

I had a bunch of stone I marked for dumping via d-b-d. Then, before dwarfs could take it away, my miners channeled the ground out from under the stone, causing it all to fall to the level below. Now, no matter how I unmark/remark the stone, they refuse to dump any of the stone that fell while marked for dumping. I can mark off other areas of stone; a dozen dwarfs happily swarm the area and take it away. But any of the stone that fell a level while marked for dumping are completely ignored. Bug? --Mattmoss 23:33, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Note that the dwarfs have physical access to the stone. I didn't just dig a pit without stairs/ramps; there are no stairs/ramps, but I was digging out the stone and floor above my trade depot and main hall, so the dwarfs do have access to the area where the "untouchable" stone is. I tested to see if adding stairs suddenly made the stone accessible; it did not. --Mattmoss 03:17, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Figured it out; not a bug. Stupidly, I forgot my purpose in digging and channeling out the area was to make the room below OUTDOORS. And the default option is for dwarfs to not collect refuse from outdoors. As soon as I enabled that option, the dwarfs started dumping the stone. --Mattmoss 20:23, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Interrupted while adding to (goblin) pit

I want to dump all my gobbos into the same 2x2 pit. but my dwarves lead a gobbo over to it, see the gobbos already in there, and cancel the job... I'm suprised they don't let go of the gobbo they are leading in fright.

The down-side is, I now have dwarves wandering around holding onto goblins... which can't be a good thing can it?Garrie 04:05, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Proper area

For some odd reason, all of my pets run back and forth from their masters/parents to the meeting area (Any type) and then back. Repeat. Its very annoying because my Military dwarves that have war dogs assigned to them have the dogs running back and forth which cuts down on power, and eats up my CPU. I know that I can just not have a meeting area, but I want them to get happy thoughts from talking near my Adamantine statue! Does anybody know a way around this?--CrazyMcfobo 00:08, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

• Is your adamantine statue not declared as a statue garden? That counts as a meeting area and your dwarfs will congregate there. --Quietust 00:36, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

I disabled it because of all the traffic the pets made, but any area where the dwarfs gather (Except their bedrooms) the pets will also gather.--CrazyMcfobo 01:11, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Effect of temperature

While embarking in a tundra, I set my meeting zone inside my first storage area and it is noted as being "cold". Does this have any effect?Garrie 10:14, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Dumping Theives

when designating goblin theives to be dumped I find that they often escape... however this only happens if the dwarf 'transporting' them is weaker then the theif, or, if said dwarf has the 'strong' attribute (i'm not sure which). Just saing though... Haydosss, 27 March 2010

There are many variables when dumping a caught creature. You may want to bring this up on the Forums#DF_Gameplay_Questions.--Albedo 16:30, 28 March 2010 (UTC)