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v0.31:Using bins and barrels
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Ordinarily, each item or stack (e.g. ≡Dwarven Ale Stew [59]≡) of items occupies one space of Template:L room. You can consolidate stockpile space by building Template:Ls and Template:Ls that can hold many items at once. Barrels store and preserve Template:L and Template:L; bins can store many types of smaller items, such as Template:L, Template:L Template:Ls, Template:L, or Template:Ls. Building a steady supply of Template:Ls helps reduce the space you need for storage.
Food Storage
One thing to note about storing seeds is that Template:Ls are required to put seeds in. These bags will then be placed inside the barrel. Otherwise, the dwarves'll end up with one seed per tile - quite inefficient![1]
Managing stockpiles directly
It is possible to set whether bins can be used in a stockpile with q → C/V. For barrels, E and R are used instead of C and V. By default, bins are used for Bar/Template:L, ammo, gems, finished goods, Template:L and Template:L stockpiles, and barrels are used for food stockpiles. Also by default, the stockpiles that use barrels or bins to store other items will permit a barrel or bin on each of their spaces; such a stockpile will claim an empty container whenever it doesn't already have one. You can override this by specifying the maximum number of barrels and bins that an individual stockpile is allowed to utilize. To access this stockpile feature, use the q menu and move to the stockpile in question.
Reserving containers for other tasks
"Reserved Barrels/Bins" is a global setting that reserves a certain number of barrels or bins, preventing them from being claimed by a stockpile until they are filled by a Workshop that requires their use. This feature is most often used to ensure that a fortress has ample empty barrels for the production of alcohol, although empty barrels are also necessary for other jobs. You can change this setting in the stockpile menu p. If there are 5 reserved barrels, no stockpile will claim an empty barrel until you have at least 6 lying around. In this way you can ensure that jobs like making alcohol always have free barrels available.
In the case of barrels necessary for producing alcohol and Template:L, they do not have to be located on a Template:L stockpile. This is because the "Store Item in <container>" task only looks at furniture stockpiles for available containers. Normal production tasks behave as mentioned earlier, they will just grab the nearest barrel. You can exert some limited control over this by setting a number of reserved barrels; however, you cannot set where these barrels will be.
Storing prepared meals without barrels
Fortresses often produce much more food than the population consumes. Template:L can combine four food stacks into one meal stack, which can easily include many (40+) individual meals. Since a stack with more than ten items will fill a barrel completely, the barrel doesn't save any space and is unavailable for booze. A solution for this is to make food stockpiles which take prepared meals only and set them to use no barrels at all q E . (With the proper labors and workshops) the dwarves will take food out of barrels, cook it into roasts, and store them in stockpiles without barrels, freeing up the barrels for other uses. e.g. [2]
![[2]](http://i.imgur.com/CVM29.jpg){kind=link}
Barrel and bin material
Heavy barrels and bins slow down hauling, so it is wise to make them from light materials if possible - Template:L wood barrels and bins instead of lavish Template:L ones.