Bay 12 Games Forum

Look at your [j]obs list. Stockpiles should generate entries on that list if there are available items that match the stockpile's criteria. Then it's a separate process for the dwarves to decide which jobs to take. So don't look to whether the stockpile is getting filled. Look to whether it's generating jobs.

There are bugs with items dropped by adventurers into retired fortresses. They don't seem to affect simple items like bars of metal, only complex manufactured items like artifacts, armor, and weapons.

No guarantees with these bugs, but I would try:
1. Double-check to make sure that the book isn't forbidden. With books and other artifacts, it's not obvious when an object is forbidden.
2. Run this script while there aren't any merchants on the map. It scrubs the foreign and trader flags off every item in the fort.
3. Put the book onto a pedestal, then destroy the pedestal. If that doesn't work, put it on a pedestal and then remove it from the pedestal.

I find that it's much easier and safer to dig out a cistern with U/D staircases, then channel out the columns where the wells will go.

And instead of defending the well from the reservoir, try defending the reservoir from the river. Any time you tap into water or magma, put a blocking bridge at the natural source. That way, it's easy to drain all the pipes and reconfigure your system.

Farming can't be too difficult, or it'll scare off the noobs.

It would be nice, though, if the surface crops were seasonal and the underground crops were not. That little piece of nonsense hurts my brain every time.

+1

Kobolds as rag-pickers seems like a fun idea. They could pay in information, since kobolds sneaking around everywhere should pick up plenty of rumors. You could learn about criminal conspiracies against your fort, or gain accurate military information on enemy sites.

The kobolds could start as hostile. Then you could leave some garbage outside your fort for them to "steal". Once you've given them enough stuff, then they switch to peace with you and send caravans. If you don't send them enough stuff every year, then they'll revert to hostility and try to sneak in and steal the stuff they feel they deserve.

Don't we already have something close to this with slabs?

Export legends data. Load the data in Legends Viewer. Go to the Geography tab, and under that there's a Rivers tab with all the names.

Also, if you look at the world map in Legends Viewer, there's an option to load alternate maps. One of those alternate maps shows all the rivers, while another shows rainfall patterns. There may be other alternate maps about water; I haven't studied them all.

You fortress might be too restrictive in who is allowed to do which job. Of your seven starting dwarves, at least two should be miners. All should be architects. You can also make them all masons and mechanics to speed building projects, and then restrict your workshops so that only high-skill dwarves can make the valuable stuff.