0011186: Can't build a stairway on the below level while a boulder is blocking site - Dwarf Fortress Bug Tracker

ID	Project	Category	View Status	Date Submitted	Last Update

0011186	Dwarf Fortress	Dwarf Mode -- Jobs, Cancellation and Suspension	public	2019-11-30 15:23	2019-12-11 13:53

Reporter	inner	Assigned To
Priority	normal	Severity	minor	Reproducibility	have not tried
Status	new	Resolution	open
Product Version	0.44.12

Summary	0011186: Can't build a stairway on the below level while a boulder is blocking site
Description	This has happened multiple times, while i dig down an adamantine shaft I tend to carve an upward/downward stairway to the bottom, and this works just fine. Although if for some reason I can't use the stairway (for example there's some lava on it) I need to [b]uild another set of stairs (since I've already carved out everything for reaping adamantine, I can't carve anymore). What I do is carve a downward stairway on level z and build an upward stairway on the corresponding z-1 tile. This has always worked but while in an adamantine shaft, the constructing dwarf would haul the stone to the building, start the building, then when "almost done" the construction gets suspended with "can't find path". As of now I'm not able to dig down a shaft anymore because I've already carved out everything and for some reason there's lava that won't go away on the main stairway.
Steps To Reproduce	1. Build an up/down stairway down an adamantine shaft 2. Dig out the shaft levels so you can't carve stairways anymore 3. Make the main stairway unusable 4. Try to build another path down
Tags	No tags attached.

PatrikLundell 2019-12-01 02:02 reporter ~0039598	One reason to be unable to build is that the lower tile is blocked by an adamantine boulder. However, it's not possible to fault find your situation without a save (typically uploaded to the bugged saves section of http://dffd.bay12games.com). A save is the "regionX" folder of the game compressed to the .zip format.

inner 2019-12-01 07:33 reporter ~0039599	Hi Patrik, you are right, the problem is that there was an adamantine boulder below. This makes it difficult to build inside an adamantine shaft because adamantine is the only mineral and it has 100% chance of generating a boulder. Maybe it should be made such that if there's a boulder on the level below dwarfs can move it aside for building purposes. Thanks

PatrikLundell 2019-12-02 01:53 reporter ~0039600	You need to get a dorf down there to move it, and should have dug a stair in the previous step (too late now, of course). You can cheat a dorf down there by teleporting it with DFHack, or you can arrange a fall by e.g. have a dorf stand at the edge of a floor (with a burrow) and then have it remove the tile inside of it. There's a risk of injury, but a small fall usually doesn't result in serious injuries. You can't move something aside from above since you can't get down there before the stair has been built, so this is a catch 22 situation. Another solution is to pour magma and water into the hole to obsidianize it, after which you can dig out stairs. Thus, there are ways around it, but they're not obvious.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2019-11-30 15:23	inner	New Issue
2019-12-01 02:02	PatrikLundell	Note Added: 0039598
2019-12-01 07:33	inner	Note Added: 0039599
2019-12-02 01:53	PatrikLundell	Note Added: 0039600
2019-12-11 13:52	Loci	Relationship added	child of 0002075
2019-12-11 13:53	Loci	Summary	Can't build a stairway on the below level while inside an adamantine shaft => Can't build a stairway on the below level while a boulder is blocking site