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[Cosmonot]

So I just got my first fortress to the point where immigrants (not the metalsmith) arrive in my fortress, and suddenly I go from eight to twenty-nine dwarves. Urk.

Is this normal? I know immigration is ridiculous, but this is over triple my initial dwarves! How am I supposed to cope?

[Captain_Action]

Chop tress, make beds, drill wells, and plant food like crazy.

The migrant invasion is why I won't build a road until I have tons of room.

[Aquillion]

It helps to know that they're coming in advance...  you really need to have a carpenter on repeat-build beds, a stoneworker on repeat-build doors, and masons digging out as many rooms as possible, all with no other tasks on their jobs list whatsoever.  You can use a barracks, yes, but I recommend avoiding this...  Individual barebones rooms are easy to churn out once you get the hang of it and give fourfold the happiness gain, plus they let you make dwarves even happier by improving them and putting neat items in them.  All of this happiness will buy you a lot more leeway if other problems crop up, even with a food shortage.

Anyway, everyone else should focusing on reaching the river and setting up a huge farm right from the get-go.  Of course, a river entrance can be a little dangerous, but you can minimize this by arranging things so that the only part of your fortress touching the river is a channel, and by having several tightly-closed doors and traps between this area and the rest of your fortress.

There is no substitute for a farm.  None.  Fishing can keep you alive for a bit in an emergency, but try to avoid depending on it as much as possible; it's so inefficient compared to a farm that you're basically just throwing your time away...  not to mention the fact that fish need to be cleaned and rivers eventually run low on fish.

(I do recommend having a single fisherman and cleaner even later on, though, just to produce bones and shells for your craftsmen to practice on.)

Anyway, it's not to late to start on all these things now, especially if you put all your new dwarves on it, but you should hurry.

[ August 14, 2006: Message edited by: Aquillion ]

[Cosmonot]

Okay. I pretty much figured that my survival (short of timely monster attacks) was centered on welding dwarves to their workshops and mass-producing beds and doors and stuff, but the food thing frightens me because I haven't got it down just how much plump helmet a dwarf will eat each season. Also, I had started a road, but it only went about a screen away from the fortress, if that. After the mass immigration, I decided to finish the road. Oops.

[RPB]

Having a kitchen set up with a decent cook is a huge help for keeping everybody fed; cooked food counts for more meals than the ingredients that went into it (I think. I could be wrong).

[ August 14, 2006: Message edited by: RPB ]

[Cosmonot]

I've got one going. What's the difference between Easy/Fine/Lavish meals?

[RPB]

Actually I think I might be wrong about it making more food... it always seemed to make my food supply go up when I had the kitchen running, but I've been watching it and it's the same amount going in and out. Oh well. I think it just makes your dwarves happier to have good food (which helps too, but you're probably better off having them plant if it's the right time of the season).

[Cosmonot]

It's spring, fortunately. I have time to pump up my agricultural might and bury my dwarves in food. Interestingly, I don't seem to be able to plant all the kinds of seeds/spawn I have; I can only plant plump helmets and sweet pods in the late spring, although I have planted cave wheat and pig tails before. I'm guessing that I would need to begin overland farming to use my single wild strawberry seed.

[Beowulf]

I read you can only cook/brew (w/e)them.

[Toady One]

Yeah, that's right.  Outdoor plants can't be used in farming.  Easy/fine/lavish just refers to the number of food stacks that the dwarf will use to make the meal.  More is better in general, if you have the time for it, since it increases the mix of ingredients, and a dwarf will be more pleased with a meal if it has something they like in it.