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[jaybee]

so my dwarves are starving to death, even though I have a few horses set to be "ready for slaughter", not to mention endless dead things in my 'u' list and a trapper who does quite a bit of hunting. Whenever a dwarf tries to butcher something in my butcher shop, it says he can't find any meat. I'm playing v 0.23, is it just a bug in this version that you can't do anything with meat or is there a special trick to being able to use it?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Other than the obvious question of "why are you using an old version", I can ask you "are the animals in question pets?", "do you have autobutcher turned on" and "is your butchery and those animals reachable?" Other than that, check to find the nearest piece of unrotten dead meat. If it's in a river somewhere or locked away, then every dwarf will try to pick it up, fail, and cancel the task. Check above/below as well. If you find it, forbid it, then try again.

[jaybee]

I'm playing the old one because someone told me that the new one is so complex that I should start with the old one for learning purposes. Is that a bad plan?  

The animals that I've set for butchering are not pets. They're definitely reachable, they're just wandering around the fortress all the time. Likewise, the butchery is next to other workshops that are in frequent use, so it is reachable. (Well, I also know it's reachable because when I schedule butcher tasks, I eventually get a message saying so-and-so tried but couldn't find anything to butcher, despite my fortress seemingly having wall to wall meat.)

What is "autobutcher" and how do I turn it on?

Is there a systematic way to go about finding "the nearest piece of unrotten dead meat"? Or do I just need to press 'k' and wander all over the world with the cursor?

[jaybee]

I've now actually gone and drowned three horses and am watching dwarves walk right over the horse bodies as they "hunt for vermin". This is maddening...

[Karlito]

autobutcher (as well as autoslaughter) should already be on. These are options that automatically que up the respective job when it is needed.

Its important to note that there is a difference between "butcher" and "slaughter".  Butcher refers to corpses.  Slaughter refers to living animals that you "mark for slaughter".

Your dwarves are "hunting for vermin" because they are starving.  They will continue hunting for vermin until they find one and eat it or starve to death.

[Misterstone]

If you have edible corpses lying around outside the fortress, you should make sure that your refuse orders are set so they clean up refuse outside the fortress.  Sometimes a hunter gets interrupted when bringng back a kill, and the corpse gets left outside, or whatever...

Also, a quick and cheap way to make sure that the dead animal gets butchered right away is to put a stockpile right under the dead animal.  In case you didn't know this already, a dead body needs to be in a refuse stockpile to be butchered.  Of course, a recently slaughtered critter should be butchered right away, but if the process is interrupted then maybe the body will sit in the butcher shop until someone throws it into the refuse pile.

[Eiba]

quote:Originally posted by jaybee:
<STRONG>I'm playing the old one because someone told me that the new one is so complex that I should start with the old one for learning purposes. Is that a bad plan? </STRONG>

Yes. The new version is only more complicated if you're used to all the quirks the old version. For what it's worth, it's almost impossible to do poorly enough to starve in the new version.

[Tahin]

quote:Originally posted by Eiba:
<STRONG>

Yes. The new version is only more complicated if you're used to all the quirks the old version. For what it's worth, it's almost impossible to do poorly enough to starve in the new version.</STRONG>

That's because you can farm pretty much anywhere, anytime.

[RubberDuckofDoom]

Basically, it's more complicated because we're all spoiled looking for cave rivers and magma vents and stuff and not knowing how to survive if we can't find every last bit of feature.

Here's the best way to survive- generate a world and find a mountain tile on the region area that also contains a forest biome or anything else with a shitload of trees, other vegetation, and shrubs and so forth.

Bring a Proficient Herbalist/Proficient Grower, and a Proficient Grower/Competant Brewer/Cook. Now, gather the shrubs. Use the plants you get to brew to get seeds. Plant the seeds in the forest biome (not the mountain, or it won't grow AFAIK) and harvest the plants you get. Brew said plants, and cook the excess alcohol into food.

It's almost impossible to starve if you have a good still operation going.

Also, make sure the place you go to has some kind of soil. Even clay loam works. Burrow a layer into the ground or find a hill and make an indoor farm plot (if it's outdoor they won't grow) for your plump helmets. That's for extra alcohol and alcohol biscuits.

If you really want to get complicated, Quarry Bushes->Leaves->Flour->Cooked Flour make for a ton of food too, although it won't produce alcohol.

Also, make sure you bring about 40 alcohol and 40 meat (this is about 160 points at 2/item.) in the initial journey. It's cheaper to grow your own plump helmets than bring them (1 point and a few months underground vs 4 points), but you'll need something inexpensive to keep your dwarves fed until you get your alcohol biscuit farms going.

That should give you long enough to set up an operation before you have to farm. I think Dwarves eat and drink more in this version, because I've noticed my food stocks going down more often, but it also appears I'm getting more from farming than I did before. Outside crops are really convenient too, and you don't even need irrigation if you choose a good map.

[ November 26, 2007: Message edited by: RubberDuckofDoom ]

[Angela Christine]

Once they start hunting for vermin, they won't stop until they find some.  Even if you butcher a thousand horses and buy out an entire caravan of food, the ones already looking for vermin won't stop to eat.

My advice is to make sure everyone, or at least everyone not already looking for vermin, has the butchery job on.  Then build 2 or three more butcher shops (it doesn't matter where, but fairly close to your existing butcher shop and corpse stockpiles is best).  That will give you the best chance of someone successfully butchering one of the horses or corpses.

[mineditall]

pets in cages are butcherable?

your dwarves will eat lizards and roaches to survive for awhile but the ones quick enough to rummage real food will eat several times before resuming normal work