Tutorial : Stone Organization aka How to make your mason use the right stone.
This is something that I feel may be useful to some new/learning players, so I thought I'll share this and also to see if there's any improvements that can be made.
Problem :
===============
1. You got stones everywhere. Stones piling in newly dug rooms and corridors. And stones of all kind. It seems that no matter how big a stone stockpile you make, it overflows too quickly. Besides, a room cleared of stones looks much nicer.
2. You want to make high quality obsidian furniture. But due to shortest absolute distance search used by Mason's workshop, you need to maintian a stockpile of the required stone nearest to your mason. But you will probably want a way to easily swap the "active" stone type easily without any long distance hauling.
The Solution?
===============
What I managed to came up with is a mixture use of stockpile take-orders, garbage zones and haulers. It is a system that potentially has the following benefits:
1. makes dumping stone somewhat easier (instead of hunting all over the place to dump stone, you always dump and re-claim stone in the same area)
2. makes it easier to switch "active" material for mason's Workshop.
The basic setup:
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with a sample 9x9 room size. feel free to adjust size yourself, also the level order can be reversed.
level z : Mason's Workshop (Or Mechanic's workshop if you want to)
code:
WWWWWWWWWWW
Wmmm......W
Wmmm......W
Wmmm......W
W...W+W...W
W...+X+...W
W...W+W...W
W.........W
W.........W
W.........W
WWWWWWWWWWW
W = wall
m = mason's workshop
+ = door
. = floor
X = up/down stairslevel z-1 : "Active" stone stockpile.
code:
WWWWWWWWWWW
Wsss......W
Wsss......W
Wsss......W
W...W+W...W
W...+X+...W
W...W+W...W
W.........W
W.........W
W.........W
WWWWWWWWWWW
s = "active" stone stockpile. (don't need to be too big. but if your mason work faster than you hauler, you should increase the size). Set this stockpile to reject all stone types for now.
level z-2 : "Reserve stone stockpiles"
This sample stores unlimited number of 4 stone types. You can use smaller or larger stockpiles depending on the stone type mix of your region. You can create more reserve stockpile levels below this one to store even more stone types.
code:
WWWWWWWWWWW
Wa11111b22W
W111111222W
W111111222W
Wc33W+W222W
W333+X+222W
W333W+W222W
W333d44444W
W333444444W
W333444444W
WWWWWWWWWWW
1 = stone stockpile 1. Set to only store a particular type of stone (or types of stone that you don't want to distinguish between). (Note that this is not a rectangle. It excludes the top left square)
2 = stone stockpile 2. similar to 1, but for another stone type.
3 = stone stockpile 3. similar to 1, but for another stone type.
4 = stone stockpile 4 similar to 1, but for another stone type.
a = 1 square zone acting as "stack", set to active + nothing for now. Not that this is NOT part of stone stockpile 1.
b = 1 square zone acting as "stack", set to active + nothing. Not that this is NOT part of stone stockpile 2.
c = 1 square zone acting as "stack", set to active + nothing. Not that this is NOT part of stone stockpile 3.
d = 1 square zone acting as "stack", set to active + nothing. Not that this is NOT part of stone stockpile 4.
For each reserve stockpile, set the "active" stockpile from the previous level to "take from" it. (recall that a stockpile can take from many other stockpiles but each stockpile can only be taken from one other stockpile). At the end of the day, the "active" stockpile should have a "take from" entry to all "reserve" stockpiles.
note: The "stack" square associated with each stockpile is where we will "stack" stones of that type when the reserve stockpile is overflowing.
The operation
===============
1. As you discover new stone types, set one of the reserve stockpiles to collect that stone type.
2. When a reserve stockpile is overflowing/full, change the zone type of the associated "stack" square to garbage (and make sure you have no other active garbage zones/normal dumping jobs going on!). Then just dump the stones in the associated stock pile (which should be easy since they are laid out in a nice grid). You can turn this on for the most abundant stone type in you latest digging operation.
3. Remember to turn "off" the "stack" square's garbage state when you no longer need it.
Check Point: so far, we have a way of collecting stones and laying them out in an organized fashion. Each "reserve" stone stockpile act as a ready source of the chosen stone type. If a stockpile is almost empty, just reclaim several stones from the associated "stack" square. If it is getting full, activate the associated "stack" square's garbage status and start dumping stones from the stock pile. There is no need to dump stones elsewhere as if there's empty space on the stockpile, the haulers will haul the stones to it eventually.
4. Now, to choose the active type of the stone for your mason's workshop, just set the "active" stockpile's accepted rock type(s) to one of the "reserve" stockpiles' rock type(s). As soon as you do, haulers should start filling the active stockpile. As long as active stockpile is not empty, your mason should only use the stones there (provided there are no closer source of stones elsewhere/above the workshop).
5. Changing the active type of stone is as easy as setting the accepted rock types to some other type. Give it some time to allow haulers move the now unneeded stones back to reserve stockpiles (remember to ensure there;s enough empty space for them!) and to move the now wanted stone types to the "active" stockpile. After that, you can resume operations in your mason's workshop.
==end of tutorial===
Hope this is useful to somebody.
Feel free to comment on/criticize any shortcomings.
regards
(edit: forgot to put in the code tags to make the plans use monospaced font)
[ November 29, 2007: Message edited by: sphr ]
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Topic: Tutorial : Stone Organization (Read 2266 times)