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[utunnels]

I received this message many times:

"Iden Kodorlogem, Metalsmith cancels Make pig iron Bars: Needs iron bars."

But I have iron bars in my stockpile and smelter. So what's up anyway?

[Asehujiko]

1. The bars may not be accesible.
2. The bars may be tasked for something else.

[utunnels]

Hmm, someone else is making pig iron bars now while that blacksmith is sleeping.

Quite strange, maybe a dwarf was carring iron bars to stockpiles when the smith planned to smelt it.

[utunnels]

lol, I planned to make steel bars. But it said "need pig iron".
Hmm, maybe the same problem happened. The pig iron is in the smelter now, not in stockpile.

[Eagle of Fire]

The way it works, any dwaft can get tasked to carry an object in the fort. If the dwarf is at the other side of the fort, there is a good chance that said dwarf will stop in the middle of his trike to eat/drink/sleep. Then another hauler take his place, and repeat the process until someone actually get there and take the bars to your depot. However, all the time it needs for the hauler to get said bars, the bars themselves are tasked and can't be used by someone else... Such as your smith or smelter.

That's the main problem with forts built before the river. The trike is so long, you pretty much need to build bedrooms next to the lava to make sure some haulers are there at least when they wake up... And you're boned if you have the economy started up because you can only assing legendary dwarves to beds then.

Of course, if you have so many legendary dwarves that you don't know what to do with them (happened to me last game I played), then you could set them to hauler duty and assign them a bed near the magma.  

[utunnels]

Yeah, I've built a bed rom, a well and stockpiles next to the lava.

But I found some dwarves ignore food and water near the gate and travel all the way to the lava to eat/drink.   :p

----edit-----
There are many wells near the gate, but they tend to use the well deeply inside the cave.

[ August 09, 2007: Message edited by: utunnels ]

[Eagle of Fire]

I am pretty sure that's because they get their food/water/drinks from the closest source. What's the difference if they go to your dining hall at the magma instead of the river anyways? As long as both are well stocked with drinks and food, if they are really only aiming for the closest source then it's a gain/gain situation as long as the subject in this thread is concerned.  

[utunnels]

Well, my miner tried to drink near the magma when he/she was loading catapult at the fortress gate. But there's a well just 3 tiles behind the catapult, and another 2 wells a bit longer, none of them was used by other dwarves.

[Eagle of Fire]

Hummm... I have no idea. You are sure that he wasn't going to fetch something, then stopped in the middle of his task to drink in the dining room next to the magma?

[Angus the goblin killer.]

I would suggest removing metal bar stockpiles, that way it is stored in the smelter and can be used very easly.

To be honest, the only stockpiles you ever need are food, coins, wood (if you live very deep inside the mountain) and maybe a furniture if you want to encrust it. All the other stockpiles are clunky and innificent and slow down your fortress's economy.

And rember if you want to see what is being held inside a workshop (to check what bars and such you have) press {t} and it should list items in a room. Then it's normal way to view items if you want to.

[utunnels]

Hm, that sounds a good idea. I will try to remve the piles and see.

[Name Lips]

Having no stockpiles can get dangerous if your workshops get cluttered. After a certain volume of objects remain in the workshop, they get a (CLT) message when you Q over them. This means they're cluttered, and making further items will take twice as long.

It gets worse - if somehow they get even more cluttered, each additional "level" of cluttering increases the time it takes to build things again, up to 10 times longer than usual if you have enough stuff there.

I don't know about you, but after the Manager shows up I just like to queue up 30 beds, 30 cabinets, 30 coffers, 30 doors, and just go off and worry about other things for a while. I'll come back and set up my bedrooms when they're done. But if I don't have a furniture stockpile, my workshops will be so cluttered they'll NEVER finish their jobs.

[Angus the goblin killer.]

I guess it's down to prefernce though, since I hate stockpiles because you get that annoying thing where they have to cancel a job for some reason to do something like drink and then some annoying dwarf decides to stockpile the goods there using and so when the dwarf comes back he has to retrive the goods again.
Also, when a bed is finshed I automaticly place it, so, like I said I guess its the way you play the game.