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Author Topic: Dwarven migrants came..  (Read 596 times)

Zealord

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Dwarven migrants came..
« on: July 13, 2012, 02:27:05 pm »

My dwarf count jumped from 18 to 46 all of a sudden. What should I do with them? I was thinking about killing at least 20 of them or something. I can't manage that much dwarves, I recently only finished the housing for the previous migrants!
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guitarxe

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2012, 02:31:18 pm »

Don't build individual houses for dwarves until much much later. Assign a big room with tons of beds as a dormitory.

Use the excess dwarves as manual labour for digging or construction, or draft them into military.

If you want to kill them, make sure they have not socialized with any other dwarves in your fort, and do so one by one so no dwarf can see the death. Otherwise you will end up with a tantrum spiral.
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Zealord

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2012, 02:40:07 pm »

Is it okay to have a lot of idlers then?
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NedeN

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2012, 02:52:29 pm »

Yea sure its ok, but then theyre basically living for free. If theyre going to idle they might as well start smoothing and engraving stone to prevent future tantrum spirals. Atleast by default all dwarves harvest the farms.
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guitarxe

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2012, 03:17:49 pm »

It's not "ok" per se, since this means in inefficient fort, but that is part of the challenge.
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toomanysecrets

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2012, 03:21:45 pm »

You could kill 'em, for beginners burrowing them in a room with a door and them locking them in is easy, or a cave-in is easy too and kills effectively.
I like to put migrants to work. It may seem challenging to manage em all, but you can get things done fast since you've got a big workforce.  Like axe said you don't need 46 bedrooms for 46 dwarves.

Put some in the military even if you don't have gear for them. Make several of them furnace operators and set up a smelting operation. Make extra cooks, mason/carpenter trainees that make hatches or coffins or something til they get some skill. Get dwarf therapist if you have trouble managing them.
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Garath

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2012, 04:24:50 pm »

yes, it's ok to have some idlers. If you suddenly need more masons, just change some idlers to masons, change them back when work is finished, etc. They are absolutely vital for hauling stuff and increase efficiency unless there are too many of them. Disable hauling labors on miners, woodcutters, crafters etc and let the haulers do it. If it's quiet they'll idle, but they are there when you need em.

go and get dwarf therapist (I advice Splinterz) to manage larger numbers of dwarfs
« Last Edit: July 13, 2012, 04:34:18 pm by Garath »
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dwarfhoplite

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2012, 04:32:24 pm »

I have and idea. You could check their attributes and let only those live who have been blessed with good genes. Rest be sacrificed for the glory of Armok.
(note I jsut watched 300)
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Starver

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2012, 05:22:29 pm »

Personally, I value all migrants.  If they bring new and useful[1] skills, I set up the industry with which they serve.  If a precursor process is needed to give them work, then I use one of the newbies without a currently useful job (or an original settler currently idle, or the guy/gal themselves who can't do anything yet) to get that up and running.

If they bring a better skill than a current member, I'll consider deposing their predecessor (or doubling up, if the industry can stand that, as I might if they were just a bit below the current expert).

If they just don't have anything useful, and indeed some have nothing useful, well, I always need haulers.  (And this doesn't seem to be changing, with the new developments in that field, and that of the mining which means the 'spoil' doesn't accumulate so much.)  The big decision is often whether I make so many stone haulers, food haulers, etc, and how many I keep general.


Oh, abut if they have any military capability (even if only dodging), I'll recruit them.  Those with family ties into a militia-like unit, who are the last-gasp-we're-all-going-to-die-anyway force, and they're just on a 'refresher' regime, really.  The rest are on full-train if they've got no useful civvie skills, and part-and-part duties (scheduled for job-sharing, perhaps) if they've got a use outside of "full metal liaison to the goblin advanced guard".


Dwarf Therapist helps manage all of this (save the military units bit).  With it I can nickname and adjust immigrant (non-military) job-capabilities even before they arrive on-site, adjusting those that are already there, sorting by job capability, easily removing all hauling from anyone who has 'a proper job' and I usually disable something like corpse hauling or recover wounded as an additional to 'flag' whether I've dealt with them or not.  But I've been going without DT for a few forts, and I can do something similar (though more long-winded) just through scanning the units list and interrogating those with grouped skills, and (again) nicknaming with meaningful (to me!) epithets.


(Anyway, as well as hauling, I also tend to make a lot of rock blocks.  Always have done, and particular so now... This bubbles a few levels of Masonic skills into the otherwise unoccupied.  I'll often have at least one "non-block" mason's workshop (tied to a  particular stone-type pile) restricted to be run by my well-skilled guys, and several block-only workshops where the remainder practice the block-making arts...  But it's the construction industry that takes up my time.  As well as using the hauling masses[2], the constructing masses get very busy.  If I don't want the experts joining in, I burrow them to their workshops and food/drink/beds.  But then I'm a control freak!!!)


And I just don't like them dying.  Which is a character defect.  (Unlike the 'control freak!!!' bit which is... perfectly normal for a DF player, I'm told.)


You can do what you like, though!


[1] Frexample, I don't value hunters as much as a lot of people do (I have plenty of domestic herds that are breeding like made, usually).

[2] I might set a stockpile of the appropriate size near the building site, setting for no bins for exact quantities.  As the stockpile fills up I start defining the walls, thus reserving that stone, and then I can de-stockpile that tile, if that fits my need for quantity management strategy.
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Garath

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Re: Dwarven migrants came..
« Reply #9 on: July 13, 2012, 05:33:27 pm »

lots of people don't value hunters. They're good to put in a marksdwarf squad, but otherwise just goblin bait, slightly better than fisherdwarfs since they can shoot a few bolts before being killed.
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Quote from: Urist Imiknorris
Jam a door with its corpse and let all the goblins in. Hey, nobody said it had to be a weapon against your enemies.
Quote from: Frogwarrior
And then everyone melted.