Dwarves obsessed with walking on train tracks

[ekidhardt]

I don't get----the dwarves are INSISTENT upon walking on train tracks. Even when I set it the lowest priority and the highest priority paralell to the train tracks--still they walk on the tracks.

They take huge routes that are much longer, just so they can walk on the tracks.

Any ideas why?

[Johan 2.0]

If they need to cross the tracks anyway or there is no other route, they will have to cross over eventually. I would recommend placing a ramp over or have the minecart track underneath their main pathing routes.

Even the lowest pathing setting has a value associated with it and if its equivalent value just to walk straight through it rather than path the 1000 tile value path around it then they'll take the shorter route generally.

[ekidhardt]

Hmm!

Well, the thing is--they're not crossing the track--they're running the entire length of it.

So I have this track that basically was an experiment--it just runs in a straight line through the overland. No matter what is put around it--they will walk on the tracks. This happened inside my base too--I was creating a track to dump bodies (etc), and the track went outside.

I saw that the dwarves were all using the track, so I built an empty path right beside it, then restricted the path, AND gave high usage to the space to left of the track--and still, they will ONLY walk along the track, even when there is a clear path beside it AND the track is a longer route.

The only way to get them to stop walking on the tracks is to remove them.

Any ideas?

[nrusselluk]

these are different to the dwarfs pushing minecarts? just checking.

[Thom293]

If you ever lived near a semi active train track, you would know that their lure is irresistible. Kids and Dwarfs can't stay off of them.

[ekidhardt]

Thom--haha, yeah I grew up on traintracks, for sure I argee.

Nruss---nope, it's an empty track, no route (etc) on it.

[Johan 2.0]

This is peculiar and I think would require deeper insight into a whole bunch of specifics in your fort (maybe the savefile). Jobs deemed important can cause dwarves to completely ignore traffic designations.

[ekidhardt]

Yeah, it seems very bizarre to me too. I'm just going to block their access/remove all routing priorities and see if that changes anything. Thanks for the help!

[ekidhardt]

returning to this: I figured it out!

I think part of the fun with DF is that weird @$%% happens all the time, and there's a logical explanation for 99% of it--it's a bit like UFO exploration.

So this is what happened:

In the high and low traffic areas advanced options, there is a slider which shows 'step weight' (whatever that means). Apparently some time in the past (I vaguely remember), I edited these values, but didn't recall the default values.

I went back and checked the values, since I know I messed with it a bit, and it still looked logical to me and made sense that the 'high weight' would = more traffic.

It's not until I started a new game that I saw the default values, and I see that the LOWER number = more traffic.

So, in fact what I was doing was giving NO value to the high traffic areas, and giving maximum value to the lowest trafficked areas, and that was causing everyone to take the longest routes possible.

Why the train tracks then?

Because the default train track logic tells them to 'don't step on this if you don't need to'--and because I had reversed the logic, I changed it to 'always step on this even if you don't need to'. haha

In summary, I crippled and maimed dozens of my dwarves by forcing them to walk the train tracks while other dwarves jettisoned empty carts into their kneecaps.

[Johan 2.0]

Originally posted by ekidhardt:

returning to this: I figured it out!
In summary, I educated crippled and maimed dozens of my medical dwarves by ensuring sufficient patients forcing them to walk the train tracks while other dwarves attempted to get a sick day. jettisoned empty carts into their kneecaps.

Its all about perspective!

[Skizmo]

This is why I love Dorf Fort, it's like solving a intricate puzzle box that when opened shoots out a lil firework that explodes and reads 🎆CONGRATS, YOU'RE AN IDIOT!🎆 in glorious ascii sparkles.

[Haethei]

Originally posted by ekidhardt:

returning to this: I figured it out!

I think part of the fun with DF is that weird @$%% happens all the time, and there's a logical explanation for 99% of it--it's a bit like UFO exploration.

So this is what happened:

In the high and low traffic areas advanced options, there is a slider which shows 'step weight' (whatever that means). Apparently some time in the past (I vaguely remember), I edited these values, but didn't recall the default values.

I went back and checked the values, since I know I messed with it a bit, and it still looked logical to me and made sense that the 'high weight' would = more traffic.

It's not until I started a new game that I saw the default values, and I see that the LOWER number = more traffic.

So, in fact what I was doing was giving NO value to the high traffic areas, and giving maximum value to the lowest trafficked areas, and that was causing everyone to take the longest routes possible.

Why the train tracks then?

Because the default train track logic tells them to 'don't step on this if you don't need to'--and because I had reversed the logic, I changed it to 'always step on this even if you don't need to'. haha

In summary, I crippled and maimed dozens of my dwarves by forcing them to walk the train tracks while other dwarves jettisoned empty carts into their kneecaps.

It do be like that. Modding (or just messing with the advanced settings) is hella fun but you are blessed with these amusing problems eventually because it's really easy to mistake how the information works, such as confusing "high" and "low" weight