Dwarf Fortress Bug Tracker - Dwarf Fortress
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IDProjectCategoryView StatusDate SubmittedLast Update
0009252Dwarf FortressDwarf Mode -- Idle Behaviorpublic2015-12-06 06:052017-11-22 15:33
Reportermaqertas 
Assigned ToToady One 
PrioritynormalSeveritymajorReproducibilityhave not tried
StatusresolvedResolutionfixed 
PlatformOSWindowsOS Version7
Product Version0.42.02 
Target VersionFixed in Version0.44.01 
Summary0009252: Dwarves get stuck in trees
DescriptionA few of dwarves have climbed trees and stay there forever. While this doesn't affect game performance, it results in their deaths. They start hunting for small creatures and eventually dehydrate completely.
Forcing them to station doesn't work. While trying to restrict them by burrows, they managed to die so this is still untested. Cutting the trees is unchecked as well.
Steps To ReproduceSavegame: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=11389 [^]

To see one of those dwarves load the game and look for "Inod Kuletsanus"
Additional InformationSummary:

1) creatures stuck in trees won't climb back down
2) creatures still climb trees for no apparent reason (0006586)
3) dwarves / thieving creatures steal stepladders from dwarves in trees
TagsNo tags attached.
Relationships
has duplicate 0009204resolved Dwarfu Migrant dwarf stuck in top of tree 
has duplicate 0009914resolved Loci Gathering fruit "bug" 
has duplicate 0009538resolved Loci Dwarves in trees? 
has duplicate 0009526resolved Loci My dwarf stuc 
has duplicate 0009351resolved Loci Dwarfs die up in trees 
has duplicate 0007959resolved Loci Miner climb on tree for unknown reason and refuse to do his mining job 
related to 0009230new  Floating Carpenter 
related to 0009061new  Sharing squares with animals makes dwarves climb trees 
related to 0006898new  Dwarf fell asleep in a tree 
related to 0006586needs feedback Footkerchief Carpenter climbs multi-block trees to die 
related to 0009342new  Animals stuck in trees on embark 
related to 0008640new  Animals get stuck up trees 
related to 0010376confirmed Loci Gatherers get stuck on top of their stepladders and die from dehydration. 
related to 0011284acknowledged Loci Dwarves getting stuck in trees 
Attached Files
Issue History
Date ModifiedUsernameFieldChange
2015-12-06 06:05maqertasNew Issue
2015-12-06 07:53TalvienoNote Added: 0033499
2015-12-06 14:51DwarfuRelationship addedhas duplicate 0009204
2015-12-06 14:52DwarfuRelationship addedparent of 0009230
2015-12-06 14:54DwarfuAssigned To => Dwarfu
2015-12-06 14:54DwarfuStatusnew => acknowledged
2015-12-07 09:16maqertasNote Added: 0033579
2015-12-07 20:11BenLubarIssue Monitored: BenLubar
2015-12-09 22:12Paranoid AlaskanNote Added: 0033710
2015-12-12 08:22greycatNote Added: 0033805
2015-12-13 18:31xordaeNote Added: 0033861
2015-12-15 13:14weaselboy246Note Added: 0033940
2015-12-18 00:15KillzemallgodNote Added: 0034006
2015-12-18 00:26RobsoieNote Added: 0034007
2015-12-18 00:27RobsoieNote Edited: 0034007bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0034007#r13699
2015-12-18 00:27RobsoieNote Edited: 0034007bug_revision_view_page.php?bugnote_id=0034007#r13700
2015-12-18 01:36DetrosNote Added: 0034009
2015-12-20 22:56MusaabNote Added: 0034096
2015-12-23 09:16NolanSyKinsleyNote Added: 0034163
2015-12-23 12:28maqertasNote Added: 0034169
2015-12-23 13:49TalvienoIssue Monitored: Talvieno
2015-12-26 12:56RobsoieNote Added: 0034203
2015-12-26 17:13braiamIssue Monitored: braiam
2015-12-27 00:13MusaabNote Added: 0034211
2015-12-27 00:13MusaabIssue Monitored: Musaab
2015-12-27 02:57DetrosNote Added: 0034212
2015-12-27 09:18HuntthetrollIssue Monitored: Huntthetroll
2015-12-28 08:58RobsoieNote Added: 0034236
2015-12-28 09:22TalvienoNote Added: 0034237
2015-12-28 13:16DetrosNote Added: 0034242
2016-01-31 04:42Shonai_DwellerNote Added: 0034575
2016-02-21 20:27FelbloodNote Added: 0034714
2016-02-21 20:28FelbloodIssue Monitored: Felblood
2016-02-27 03:48xominxacNote Added: 0034762
2016-04-21 05:31MusaabNote Added: 0035026
2016-05-31 12:53mdottererIssue Monitored: mdotterer
2016-07-03 00:37VikingPingvinNote Added: 0035550
2016-07-12 23:23LociRelationship addedhas duplicate 0009914
2016-07-12 23:29LociSticky IssueNo => Yes
2016-07-12 23:33LociRelationship addedhas duplicate 0009538
2016-07-12 23:33LociRelationship addedhas duplicate 0009526
2016-07-12 23:34LociRelationship addedhas duplicate 0009351
2016-07-12 23:35LociRelationship addedrelated to 0009061
2016-07-12 23:38LociRelationship addedhas duplicate 0007959
2016-07-12 23:39LociRelationship addedrelated to 0006898
2016-07-12 23:41LociRelationship addedrelated to 0006586
2016-07-12 23:51LociAdditional Information Updatedbug_revision_view_page.php?rev_id=14360#r14360
2016-07-12 23:54LociAdditional Information Updatedbug_revision_view_page.php?rev_id=14361#r14361
2016-07-12 23:59LociRelationship addedrelated to 0009342
2016-07-13 00:01LociRelationship addedrelated to 0008640
2016-07-24 04:46maqertasIssue Monitored: maqertas
2016-08-14 02:40L0j1kNote Added: 0035789
2017-01-07 15:02ecb1Note Added: 0036135
2017-02-15 21:09SquirrelloidNote Added: 0036275
2017-05-10 21:31FakerFangirlNote Added: 0036516
2017-05-12 17:16alexchandelNote Added: 0036529
2017-05-23 17:39TenSwordsNote Added: 0036566
2017-11-12 11:50alexchandelNote Added: 0036865
2017-11-13 01:40PatrikLundellNote Added: 0036866
2017-11-20 13:57Toady OneRelationship replacedrelated to 0009230
2017-11-20 13:59Toady OneNote Added: 0036899
2017-11-20 13:59Toady OneStatusacknowledged => resolved
2017-11-20 13:59Toady OneFixed in Version => Next Version
2017-11-20 13:59Toady OneResolutionopen => fixed
2017-11-20 13:59Toady OneAssigned ToDwarfu => Toady One
2017-11-22 15:33DwarfuSticky IssueYes => No
2017-11-25 10:18MusaabIssue End Monitor: Musaab
2017-12-10 07:40LociRelationship addedrelated to 0010376
2018-01-12 08:56maqertasIssue End Monitor: maqertas
2020-02-01 09:46TalvienoIssue End Monitor: Talvieno
2020-02-02 18:31LociRelationship addedrelated to 0011284

Notes
(0033499)
Talvieno   
2015-12-06 07:53   
Can confirm; had this happen in my own fort. Cutting the trees IS a solution - however, it seems Toady disabled some of the climbing code at some point. Dwarves only climb when what they're doing is directly related to combat now - either chasing something or fleeing from something. I'm guessing that's how the dwarves got stuck in their trees in the first place.
(0033579)
maqertas   
2015-12-07 09:16   
Also, it seems to happen with guests as well.
(0033710)
Paranoid Alaskan   
2015-12-09 22:12   
Can confirm this as well, but he did it in a cavern and I couldn't get him down because my wood cutters will not go down there to cut trees. It may be another bug, I'm still currently trying to fix it without admin help.
(0033805)
greycat   
2015-12-12 08:22   
It happened to a visiting Bard for me, in 0009301. I misunderstood what was happening because I didn't know the Bard was up there. I was able to construct a 2-Z-level staircase to get her down.
(0033861)
xordae   
2015-12-13 18:31   
I have half a dozen dwarves stuck in various trees. I believe this happened because a gander ended up in a tree and they were trying to all find a path above ground trying to recover it. Either that, or they were just being skittish with wildlife.
(0033940)
weaselboy246   
2015-12-15 13:14   
I resolved this issue in my fort by removing stepladders from all my stockpiles. I noticed a dwarf steal a stepladder from a dwarf currently in a tree and he was stuck after that.
(0034006)
Killzemallgod   
2015-12-18 00:15   
Blind cave ogres are still climbing so it might just be dwarfs.
(0034007)
Robsoie   
2015-12-18 00:26   
(edited on: 2015-12-18 00:27)
It's not only related to trees, on my forts i saw animals, enemies and even dwarves climbing for a reason or another (combat often) on top of
-tree
-wall
-roof

and then they -never- gets back down and will spend the remnant of their life there, only way is to make a ramp/ladder/whatever in order for the stuck creature to be able to get back to ground zone.

This is annoying a lot because there are time in which it is impacting the game performance, as i sometime noticed the game going slightly faster once i got a dwarf back to ground from a wall he was stuck over.
And if you're unlucky and that specific dwarf is getting a mood, the game performance become horrible
(0034009)
Detros   
2015-12-18 01:36   
Yes, 0008698, "Dwarf entering a strange mood when isolated (e.g. on a stepladder) causes severe lag" sound to be quite severe.
(0034096)
Musaab   
2015-12-20 22:56   
This is one of the most important bugs in my opinion.
(0034163)
NolanSyKinsley   
2015-12-23 09:16   
I have had a few strange incidences of dwarves gathering fruit from trees and someone storing their stepladder in a stockpile, resulting in them being stuck in the tree. Preemptively I have built stairs and a platform out to the top of every tree in the gathering area so they can get down when this happens.

On a previous map I also had dwarves and elven merchants/guards get stuck in a tree when going after a vulture. They seemed to use a downward slop on a hill next to the tree to get onto it, but then did not see it as a valid path off of it.
(0034169)
maqertas   
2015-12-23 12:28   
It's also pretty common when hunters that are out of ammo start to withdraw, randomly climbing things around them.
(0034203)
Robsoie   
2015-12-26 12:56   
In my cavern i had a Forgotten Beast that arrived.
After seting up my military down there to defend my fort, i noticed that the monster wasn't coming to my non-closed doors.

I was wondering why so i looked at where it was and it appeared the Forgotten Beast was stuck on top of a giant mushroom near the map border.

To see if it was really stuck and so it was the same bug as other creatures stuck on walls, trees and roof, i moved a squad near the mushroom base.
The Forgotten Beast never managed to come down.
Fortunately i had enough good marksdwarves to kill it from down there.

This is a really bad bug.
(0034211)
Musaab   
2015-12-27 00:13   
I hate this bug the most. I had an Undead Siege. After the siege, they all left except for one stuck in a tree. I couldn't cut the tree down because they would get scared, and I couldn't kill him from below because of his position, even my marksdwarves couldn't hit him. Then I just get hit over and over again with messages of dwarves getting horrified/terrified and running away.

Please focus on this bug.
(0034212)
Detros   
2015-12-27 02:57   
If you can't get close enough, build a ballista 50ish tiles away. Either on enemy level or on tree trunk one.
(0034236)
Robsoie   
2015-12-28 08:58   
From my tests, it looks like the AI is able to climb (up and down) -only- when it switch to "combat mode".

An AI switch to what i call the "combat mode" when it is entering a fight, trying to attack an enemy or fleeing from an enemy.

When the AI is in combat mode, it is suddenly able to climb walls, trees and whatever else in in the path it is taking.

But when the AI is not in combat mode, or will switch off from combat mode (threat is killed or ceased to run after) , the AI suddenly lose all its climbing ability.

And that's the serious problem we're facing there : when the AI switch off from "combat mode" when it is already on a tree/wall/roof/, it will be stuck there until it dies, as it seems once he climb and lost the climbing ability, it will never regain it for some reason.

It make alternatively sieges less of a threat than they should, because as long as an invading AI do not see its target (because your guys are obviously behind your walls), that AI will not switch to "combat mode" and so will never try to climb your walls to attack.
(0034237)
Talvieno   
2015-12-28 09:22   
Robsoie, I think this is exactly what is happening, yes. I've noticed the same thing. Dwarves don't climb unless they're either A. hopelessly trapped in a pit, or B. in combat mode.
(0034242)
Detros   
2015-12-28 13:16   
@"it will never regain it for some reason"
Robsoie, do you mean your tests also show dwarves who get stuck on tree and then get unstuck can't then ever get stuck again because even when s/he switches to "combat mode" s/he doesn't get ability to climb? Or do you just mean they won't get that ability once they get stuck in that tree so are unable to unstuck themselves?
(0034575)
Shonai_Dweller   
2016-01-31 04:42   
I don't have a save to prove it, but this season I've had to rescue a dwarf from a tree twice (different dwarf but same tree amusingly enough) and I'm pretty sure it was because they were trying to re-pasture an escaped gosling which was in the tree with them (both times). This is interesting because in 40.x if a gosling flew into a tree (as they often did) you'd be spammed by 'Urist cancels pasture gosling, can't find path' messages.

Don't know if that helps hunt down the root cause of the bug but thought I should post it anyway as it's a non-combat situation.

Gosling in question left with the Dwarf (both times) when I built them a stairway.
(0034714)
Felblood   
2016-02-21 20:27   
My current 42.06 fort has lost dwarves to two primary threats. Berserk Were-panthers and cherry trees.

Some of the tree fatalities seem to be related to dwarves fleeing from the weres, however the majority seem to stop only if I disable all fruit gathering zones.

The fruit gathering fatalities seem to have come in 3 flavors.

1. Dwarves starving becasue their stepladder was stolen by another dwarf. (These need TSK marker or something to keep dwarves from trying to share)

2. Dwarves starving because their stepladder was stolen by an animal. (Understandable, but would be nice to get some kind of warning.)

3. Dwarves who have a perfectly good stepladder, but refuse to leave the bloody tree. (probably interrupted their job script and forgot how to climb)

I'm not sure if this has/needs a separate bug, but setting the gather zones to Ignore Fruit in Trees, has not apparent impact on dwarf behavior. Only disabling all fruit gather zones entirely seems to stop them from using stepladders, which makes orchard farming forts nonviable, unless you burn all the stepladders.

Chopping the trees seems to recover the dwarf, back to normal behavior. However he may be seriously hurt by the fall, at least some of the time. Some dwarfs came out just fine, but I lost my founder brew-master this way. Plus, depending on the embark, that might mean sacrificing too many fruit trees.
(0034762)
xominxac   
2016-02-27 03:48   
Twice in my current 42.05 fort, dwarves climbed trees to train animals but never came down.I only noticed the first one when his corpse was discovered and was then able to save the second one by building a staircase up to him. Underneath the trees was an animal training zone and it looks like since it was somewhat crowded the dwarves climbed into the trees to train the animals. There used to be a plant gathering zone there beforehand but I disabled gathering from trees and then removed the zone and replaced it with an animal training zone.
(0035026)
Musaab   
2016-04-21 05:31   
Will this issue be worked on, or is this going to be one of those issues that gets resolved whenever release 81.06 comes out?
(0035550)
VikingPingvin   
2016-07-03 00:37   
42.06 Stepladder stealing is still a thing. While funny as hell...it doesn't provide that kind of 'Fun'.
(0035789)
L0j1k   
2016-08-14 02:40   
Awesome! Expedition leader and legendary miner missing for a week. Spent an hour not having Fun and scouring the map for his corpse. Finally found him up a tree. 43.05 Linux.
(0036135)
ecb1   
2017-01-07 15:02   
A papermaker who would have been idle unless hauling something ended up stuck in a tree. The labor listed for the papermaker is "hunting small creature". The 0.43.05 save with stuck papermaker is at http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=12644 [^] .
(0036275)
Squirrelloid   
2017-02-15 21:09   
If your expedition leader is gathering fruit in trees and the liaison interrupts him, both your plant gatherer and the liaison will get stuck there, even with the stepladder right below.
(0036516)
FakerFangirl   
2017-05-10 21:31   
Thanks weaselboy246. But I think they charge at flying creatures or climb the trees to chase flying creatures. @NolanSyKinsley That's what I do :P
(0036529)
alexchandel   
2017-05-12 17:16   
My favorite dwarf just succumbed to this bug…
(0036566)
TenSwords   
2017-05-23 17:39   
Just to add to this, recently when I had a dwarf give birth on a stepladder, her and her baby were stuck in the tree near my possessed dwarf stuck in the tree next to them. The mother eventually got down but failed to get her baby along with her. The baby eventually died of thirst and the moody dwarf went insane. I'd provide a save, but I've already retired the fortress.
(0036865)
alexchandel   
2017-11-12 11:50   
I currently have 4 separate dwarves that keep climbing the exact same tree, trying to starve themselves. Because this is a bug, I've teleported them down a dozen times, but they go right back. Will this ever be fixed? It's been two years now.
(0036866)
PatrikLundell   
2017-11-13 01:40   
If you would have followed the development progress reports you would have seen that the latest one (unless there's a new one today) mentioned this bug as one of two that was promised to be fixed with the next release, so yes, it will be fixed fairly soon.
(0036899)
Toady One   
2017-11-20 13:59   
I found an issue with the existing timer that was supposed to handle this, and another problem that made them crawl back up. It worked in the saves I checked, so I'll go with fixed for now!