Hearthlings won't mine the blocks above them

#1

Not exactly a bug I don’t think, but my Heathlings often won’t mine the block immediately above them, making mining in any sort of upward fashion, litterally impossible.

When using the mine a Tunnel option, or w.e its called, where it mines a 4x4x4 area, they clearly show they can mine that block above them.
But then when I’m trying to do specific mining, to make details like stairs, instead of massive 4x4x4 holes, they will not min that block above them, making it rather hard to do a lot of things I’d like to do.

(Side note, it also bothers me that we can’t place back stone/dirt/grass, like what if we want the area to look natural, and like, accidentally mined a spot or something…)

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#2

Yeah, mining upwards is not possible :frowning:
But … if there is a hole, you can dig “stairs” up


which is actually not needed anymore :frowning: since ladders do not need wood.

Dirt and grass are still not possible but you can use this mod


just for the aesthetics

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#3

No, Hearthlings are able to and do mine the block above them, its easiest with the 4x4x4 “Mine Tunnel” option.
They are also able to mine that block above them with the Mine Block option.
The issue Im bring up here is that in many situations, the wont mine that block through the Mine Block option, dispite 100% being possible.

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#4

I’ve discovered that if you want stairs, you have to plan out the space ahead of time and dig it out layer by layer so each stair is created. So, for five stairs, you want a one-layer deep trench three or four squares wide and five squares long. Then you want a trench in that area the same width, but four squares long, and so on. The stairs appear as you go down.

Since the hearthlings won’t dig upward, this means you have to dig from the top. Perhaps dig a shaft from the next available upper layer, then build a ladder from the base, and then have the hearthlings dig to the side of the ladder, clearing the space for the layer you want.

#5

No idea how the AI is programmed but certainly I’ve had lots of situations where despite taking only a 4 block out, and the hearthlings more than capable to reach that upper 4th block, they get all confused and stand there looking at it (or will bugger off doing to do other stuff). Ladders seem to be the only way I can convince them.

From experience the way the mining seems to be done linearly; for example the game tells the miners to mine block 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc… Now if block 3 is inaccessible the whole mining process just stops. You’d think they’d say “3 can’t be mined, but 4 and 5 can, I’ll do them”, but it certainly seems that one inaccessible block brings the whole thing to a grinding halt.