My Dwarves stopped working - "No Job"

[Watermelon Cat]

My first real attempt at a fortress has pretty much ground to a halt. We've had some casualties from the local wildlife, and associated causes, but things are mostly intact.

Unfortunately, most of my dwarves have just stopped working. They let someone die of dehydration in the hospital, and at first I thought I had set something up wrong until I saw them give water to someone else later on.

Shortly after the medical malpractice incident, I noticed that no mining or tree cutting was being done and started following dwarves around as they went about their business, which seems to mostly consist of "no job" where they stand around in the meeting hall or their rooms, eat, sleep, and not much else.

I haven't really changed much between when things were working and when when they stopped.

*I did try assigning more dwarves to wood cutting and mining, but it didn't change anything.
*not much (none I can observe) work is happening at workshops either.
*Only a couple of the dwarves are really unhappy, so I don't think they are all having some sort of mental break.
*The children seem to be working normally, it is just the adults standing around.
*Some jobs are still getting done, like harvesting crops. They won't work at the still though, so I am starting to get a big imbalance between food and drink.

I am probably missing something fundamental, and I was hoping someone might have a suggestion or two of what might have caused everyone to just stop working and sit in a "no job" status.

[Tanaka Khan]

Only a minor thing but make sure you have enough picks and axes for mining and wood cutting.

[durundallives]

Did you build an office for the manager? I noticed after around pop 20 my work orders stopped being executed - moment I built the office the manager started approving orders and things cleared up

[Philtre]

Did you make a burrow? If so, try suspending the burrow, or just deleting it.

[Widdershins]

Honestly, even us veteran's are dealing with this. We think that it's a bug. *Usually* deleting all meeting zones and hospital zones fixes it, but then its not really playable.

I think that the devs were just made aware of this bug's existence the day of the last patch release. It's been sneaky. And it really is mucking things up. I expect that they will be patching it as soon as they get back from the holidays, but for now it does really suck.

[Watermelon Cat]

Originally posted by Tanaka Khan:

Only a minor thing but make sure you have enough picks and axes for mining and wood cutting.

Yep, I have picks. They are just sitting around in the meeting hall for some reason. Dwarves are wandering around with axes also. Do they wear out or anything? I don't see anything obvious in the description if I click on them. I am not sure why no one will pick them up.

Originally posted by Philtre:

Did you make a burrow? If so, try suspending the burrow, or just deleting it.

I haven't created a burrow as of yet.

Originally posted by durundallives:

Did you build an office for the manager? I noticed after around pop 20 my work orders stopped being executed - moment I built the office the manager started approving orders and things cleared up

I did not have an office for my manager originally. I tried making one out of a bedroom, and gave it some time, but it didn't seem to change anything. Does it need to have specific items? My manager's noble and administrator screen says he needs a study, which I don't see in the zone options.

If it does need specific items I may have some trouble because I can't seem to get anyone to make anything.

I also tried making someone else the manager, but it didn't seem to change anything unfortunately.

[kheftel]

An office/study requires a chair, and then you can make it a zone.

[Widdershins]

Its a bug. It snuck under the radar. The devs were made aware of it right before the holidays. They'll probably squash it right when they get back.

The whole labor system was overhauled for this release, so its not surprising that this kind of thing appeared, but it still sucks.

[Watermelon Cat]

Originally posted by Sliptide:

Its a bug. It snuck under the radar. The devs were made aware of it right before the holidays. They'll probably squash it right when they get back.

The whole labor system was overhauled for this release, so its not surprising that this kind of thing appeared, but it still sucks.

Thanks!

I thought I was doing something wrong. I guess I'll just be patient and revisit after the next patch.

[ELdEudaas]

I read that 'gathering plants' has way too much priority. If you have some, delete them. I personally resolved the issue deleting a squad. Mining and woodcutting cant be done by the same dwarf apparently and i'm guessing is the same for hunting. The common denominator i find is in the jobs that needs a specific tools. The hospital has something wonky too. No matter who gets assigned no one would do diagnostics much less doctoring (all different dwarf)

[Holyvision]

Originally posted by Sliptide:

Its a bug. It snuck under the radar. The devs were made aware of it right before the holidays. They'll probably squash it right when they get back.

The whole labor system was overhauled for this release, so its not surprising that this kind of thing appeared, but it still sucks.

Said same thing in another thread where you said this, just saying it here also...

You keep posting this, could you link to the report in their https://dwarffortress.mantishub.io/my_view_page.php Mantis hub or Discord? Trying to find the official discussion on the bug.

I've seen several reports on this in Mantis but most are closed after the player(s) found their designations or etc were being done in blueprints/etc?

I really have yet to see a report on Mantis or Discord where the person wasn't in Blueprint mode or had something triggered. Maybe I just cannot find the master report that isn't "closed"

[Widdershins]

I really have yet to see a report on Mantis or Discord where the person wasn't in Blueprint mode or had something triggered. Maybe I just cannot find the master report that isn't "closed"

Putnam was in Blind's stream chat, and I told him directly. He is now working with Tarn on the game, as a second programmer. He said the day that the latest patch came out that he was just hearing about it then, and said that was a bad sign.

My guess is, they really didn't know about the bug before the holidays.

The workaround to the bug is to delete all hospitals and meeting zones, and the dwarves will "unlock," but that doesn't always work. The "no job" issue seems to occur after combats.

Haven't seen any Mantis forum posting on it which is really concerning. Blind is having issues with it. I am and so are lots of others. I will be making a report but they have to be validated on Mantis.

I'll make a post about this here on the steam forums for visibility. I already posted to the kitfox discord. I'll do the mantis as well. I am amazed more people aren't talking about this; tons of people in Blind's stream chat are dealing with it.

[Widdershins]

Its more like, the devs were legitimately unaware of this bug, and so the Mantis post hasn;t been opened. Those posts have to be validated and are culled for duplicates. Since its the holidays, no one is at the helm I would guess.

[Widdershins]

Originally posted by Holyvision:

Originally posted by Sliptide:

Its a bug. It snuck under the radar. The devs were made aware of it right before the holidays. They'll probably squash it right when they get back.

The whole labor system was overhauled for this release, so its not surprising that this kind of thing appeared, but it still sucks.

Said same thing in another thread where you said this, just saying it here also...

You keep posting this, could you link to the report in their https://dwarffortress.mantishub.io/my_view_page.php Mantis hub or Discord? Trying to find the official discussion on the bug.

I've seen several reports on this in Mantis but most are closed after the player(s) found their designations or etc were being done in blueprints/etc?

I really have yet to see a report on Mantis or Discord where the person wasn't in Blueprint mode or had something triggered. Maybe I just cannot find the master report that isn't "closed"

Look Up "no job" in the bug reports section of the kitfox discord. Apparently they are migrating the bug report forums, but they are archiving and taking note of the bug reports. So... this particular issue has NO bug report number.

[WaKKO151]

This bug is killing the game for me. Its only a matter of time before forts just stop functioning. I have 200 hours on the steam version of the game since its release and every single fort has died to this bug. Its just a bug. Fix it.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Incidentally, I just came across this while laying floors down at the bottom of a pit that leads to the second cavern layer (which has a flying FB made of iron in it that I don't want getting out for obvious reasons). Any dorf that completed a construction order more than halfway across the pit would get stuck in "no job". They'd sleep in place despite having a bedroom, but would path back into the fort for food/drink only to come back to their new "home".

At first, I thought it was a pathing issue and put them in a squad (a tedious affair with 220-odd dorfs, then manually moved them out of the pit and back into the fort. However, upon removing them from the squad or cancelling the order, they'd just sit in place where they were left.

I'll try the zone removal mentioned above at a later time, but I've my doubts it will help.

Edit: Removing zones did not, in fact, have any effect.