Editing 40d:Stone management

{{Quality|Exceptional|10:56, 18 May 2015 (UTC)}}

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[[Mine]] for long enough and you'll find yourself surrounded with various [[stone]]s and [[ore]]s. How do you get rid of them?

# Make a [[zone]] of 1x1 or 1x2 tiles, preferably either near the stones you want to get rid of or your stone-needy [[workshop]]s, and mark it as a garbage dump.  

# Press {{k|k}} and find a stone. Press {{k|d}}, and the stone will be marked for dumping.  Alternatively, use the stocks menu (faster for mass dumping, but requires some [[bookkeeper]] labor first). You can also use {{k|d}},{{k|b}},{{k|d}} to designate mass items for dumping. You could also use a [[Macros_and_Keymaps#Designation_Dump|dumping macro]] to designate large amounts of stones at once. However, macros do not discriminate between stones and other items, so it is best to use them right after you dig out a new area. Be careful when you mark areas containing cave spider silk for dumping, as dwarves will actually come along and ''destroy'' the webs!

** Every dumped stone will be marked as "[[Forbidden]]", and will not be used in stone production. Use the stocks menu to globally un-forbid types of stone, or use the designation 'Reclaim Items' ({{k|d}}-{{k|b}}-{{k|c}}) to reclaim the entire pile. ''(If you want to only use specific stones, you must press {{k|k}}, find the pile, and press {{k|f}} on every stone you want on the list, using {{k|+}}/{{k|-}} to navigate through the list. [[Macros_and_Keymaps|Macros]] may come in handy when employing this method.)''

Instead of [[smoothing]] rock to turn cavern floors into smooth floors, you can build a rough block floor on top of a cavern floor, a process known as 'paving'. Unlike smoothing, this uses up a stone. Since digging out a tile produces at most one stone, and it takes a stone to pave the resulting floor, it is possible to guarantee you will never have a surplus of stone as a resulting of digging alone. Building stone floors requires the [[mason|masonry]] skill, but takes very little time. Idle dwarves with the masonry labor enabled can pave a large area in very little time, even if they have no masonry experience at all. It is best to start by paving floors where there are no stones, since dwarves are easily confused and will suspend construction of a floor with a stone on it if they can't find a place to move the stone first.

Designate all your hallways as stone stockpiles.  Since stone is a raw material, it has no quality score and will not be affected by the [[wear]] sometimes caused by excessive traffic.  If you're playing on a level with [[flux]] ([[limestone]], [[calcite]], [[dolomite]], [[chalk]], or [[marble]]) or [[obsidian]], you could set up custom stockpiles for those higher-value stones in the hallway near your [[masonry]].  This will make it easier for your mason to build high-value [[door]]s and [[table]]s.  This method works even better if all the stone stockpiles that ''aren't'' near the mason are also custom stockpiles set to allow everything ''but'' the aforementioned valuable stones.  Then whenever a valuable stone is dug up, it will either go to a stockpile near your masonry or sit there until a spot becomes free.

If you wish to get rid of the stone permanently, create a magma channel through your fort and mark the edge as a garbage pit.  Any stone disposed of will be chucked into the magma, melt (except [[Bauxite]], but in a fortress with magma you'll probably want to save it for [[magma-safe]] mechanisms), and be gone from your fortress forever.  Of course, the disadvantage is that for anything else you mark as garbage (except for other items that aren't magma-safe) will also be lost forever. Another technique to remove stone is to build a stone stockpile in a channeled room. You will want to dig stairs down there to stock the stockpile. You then dig a tunnel to the magma source and flood the room. Not only will it melt the stone but you could then build forges, smelters and what have you in the room above it.

Build a [[catapult]] (or three), and assign dwarves to keep firing stones into walls, or at [[camel]]s.  This destroys the stone and also trains the dwarves in [[Siege operator|siege operating]].

You can dig a [[channel]], and make a [[zone]] over an adjacent tile. Mark it as a garbage dump, and dwarves will dump stones flagged for dumping down the channel. The stones will end up in the bottom tile.

Use your [[mason]]s to the fullest by creating doors, hatch covers, chairs, tables, coffers, cabinets, and statues. This builds up your mason's skill, and the furniture gives your dwarves good [[thought]]s.

Skilled [[Craftsdwarf|Craftsdwarves]] can produce large quantities of rock crafts very quickly. This trades the problem of tons of stone to the much easier problem of tons of crafts. As long as you have bins, managing a stockpile of finished goods is easy. Crafts can be sold to foreign [[trade]]rs, who have plenty of room for a lot of goods.  

You can also use stones (or blocks) to build large structures above ground, and floors over areas such as sand, silt, or loam.  The [[construction]] interface might be slow, but not only do you use up the stone from your excavations, but you can also create usable indoor space without having to mine any additional stone.  

Building [[trap]]s can use up stone as well. [[Mechanism]]s are also made of stone, and a stone-fall trap requires one mechanism and one stone.

The easiest way to avoid stone clutter is not to produce it in the first place. Use unskilled miners for initial fortress excavation to reduce the amount of useless stone they create, and don't dig out more than necessary. Produce lots of [[barrel]]s and [[bin]]s to cut down on your need for stockpile space.

Building in [[soil]], rather than stone, avoids the problem of stone altogether. Soil walls and floors cannot be smoothed, which makes it a bad choice for bedrooms and dining halls.  

Build a large [[stockpile]] for stone away from your fortress. Dwarves will carry stones out to the stockpile, and they will no longer clutter up your fortress. The stockpile needs to be placed somewhere without stones, because only one stone will be placed per tile, and will result in long hauling trips.

A word of warning: The maximum number of artifacts your fortress will produce is based on the lowest of two numbers: mined out rock, and items produced. If you use this method to mine out a huge area, make sure you're prepared for the artifacts which could skyrocket your wealth very early, leading to [[siege]]s, [[noble]]s, huge [[immigrant]] waves, and [[fun]].

Many players find the fortress more enjoyable to look at if it looks nice and uniform. Random stones lying about are clutter which block the view of a tile (including any [[water]] or [[magma]] in it) and prevent stockpiles from being filled.  Create smooth clear floor for a leaner, fitter, happier fortress.

If there are a large number of a certain type of item, selecting it on the [[stocks]] screen will cause it to pause for a while as it processes them all, making it a pain to move past it to another category (although using 'page down' can skip over it).  Stones are the most common offender in this way, and the stone category's proximity to some of the most useful other ones - namely [[bar]]s - can cause a great deal of annoyance.  Reducing the number of stones in existence (including those used for building) will reduce this lag.