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[Toffle]

Basically I'm fairly new to the game.  I've watched a few streams, youtube tutorial guides and read some forums.  The wiki has been helpful as well.  I usually get a step further with each new fort.

My last disaster was losing 3 miners (2 of which were my best miners and original dudes) to lava.  I was poking around semi-molten rock trying to find the actual magma.  When the message popped up saying that I discovered it, my dwarfs were on fire already and died.

Main question:
1) Is there a safer way to find lava?

Other noob questions:
2) Can I put all animal types into the same pasture?  I had trouble with this.  Do turkeys not like dogs?
3) What are items I should get from the traders?  I was buying random weapons and armor.  Is there something that you always try to buy?
4) Why is this game so addictive?

Thanks for any help.

[NecroRebel]

1. Dig down, then dig around until you get a warm stone warning. STOP. Go to the level above where you found the warm stone (from the same mineshaft you used to go down) and dig towards where you found the warm stone again. If you find warm stone on that level, too, repeat the process. Otherwise, dig straight down with staircases slightly inside the last place you found warm stone. If you did it right, you should come onto the magma from above, where it won't flood over your miners.

2. You can put all animal types in one pasture, but if animals are too crowded, they'll fight. This is true even if they're all the same type. Basically, if an animal is adjacent to another creature for too long, they'll attack each other a couple times. Try to have ~4 tiles of pasture for each creature. Note that most grazers need significantly more than this to keep themselves fed.

3. Things that are hard to produce on your own, or that you don't need so much of to make founding an industry worthwhile. I usually go for lye, gypsum plaster, and leather when it's available, as those fit those criteria. I also use traders to supplement my metal production, and usually buy meat from them because meat industries take a fair amount of micromanagement. An established fort doesn't really need the traders for anything.

4. What makes you think it's addictive? It's not like Toady added some memetic effect to the game that makes susceptible individuals become obsessed with it.

[Garath]

I've had a too small room of turkey poults go berserk. They even knocked the teeth out of the guy comming to take them to a nice friendly cage. However, if I asign an animal a 1x1 space for itself it's totally ok with it. unless it needs to grze ofc.

I don't get lye, since it's a bit bugged when you get it from traders, but I always try to get wood, since cutting that down is labor intensive. From the dwarven caravan I usually buy silk. Weapons and armor I only buy to melt down, since my own smiths will usually produce better quality. Later on, I buy anything that looks good to melt down, anything I might need, even cheese! Please! I have this great heap of trade goods and I only get three traders a year? I thought you'd tell your friends to visit next season, bastard! Gimme more caravans!

Usually by the end of year three, I'll get a little bit desperate about keeping the fort clean and fps up.

[quarague]

on 3) I usually buy most of the animals the traders bring and tell the liaison they should bring more. You need at least two of the same kind to start a growing population so I usually end up with a big zoo of various random creatures.

[Tolisk]

3: depends on the trader, i buy all the bronze and such i can from humans, i take all the anvils and quivers from dwarfs, and i killed the elfs.

[Flying Dice]

Never kill or insult the elves. They bring you your exotic warbeasts. A breeding pair of grizzly bears outweighs any satisfaction you get from cutting them down.

[Tolisk]

Too bad, i kill them anyways and take the exotic beast from them.

[Garath]

This forum is divided between those that see elves as a useful garbage dump and those who dislike them for being arrogant.

[Loud Whispers]

Too bad, i kill them anyways and take the exotic beast from them.

And then you no longer get any in the future :I

[Garath]

the more profit they get the more stuff they send, its like one of them reinforcing circles. I'm happy I can dump some thrash and get some weird animals, they are happy with my thrash and being more weird animals. win/win

[Tolisk]

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! PRAISE ARMOK!