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[Dwarfaholic]

So, I've read a the first pages of the forums, read the manual (a few times) and tried it for myself, but still:
I can't understand anything of this game!

I managed to cut some lumber and designated a stockpile for it, yet it remains empty. And I need that wood for beds.

Even if I had beds, I can't build an indoors place for it. All I can do is mine, and it destroys the rock.

I tried gathering food, and I assigned my only cook to prepare it, but he doesn't do anything. Do I need some sort of fireplace? (He's a novice cook)

And about that, I assigned some tasks, but nobody does them, even if they have the professions. I also assigned some farming plots, but my farmer doesn't do anything.

In fact, the only thing I've managed to do is build some dirt road. And the dwarves don't use it anyways.

Could anybody help me with these problems?

[Sean Mirrsen]

An indoors place is anywhere with a roof. If you dig into a mountainside, you will have rock above you - that will suffice.

Make sure it's really a wood stockpile you designate, not some garbage dump area. Hotkey sequence is "p","w".

The cook needs a kitchen, and cookable items. Some plants are cookable, some are not. You can do better with brewing (most of the plants can be brewed), and then cooking the brew. Make sure Cooking and/or Brewing are selected as labors for the dwarf in question. "v" to choose a dwarf on screen, then "p", "l", and select the labors.

Similarly, a farmer needs the "Farming (fields)" labor enabled.

If you cannot get anything to work at all, record a movie of your attempts (";" menu) and upload it somewhere so we can help.

[Sappho]

I can try to help you.  This game can be difficult to learn at first, but it is worth it once you get the hang of it!

You do not need to make a stockpile for everything in order to use it.  Stockpiles are simply for convenience, to move things where you want them.  The only thing that really needs stockpiles is food and drink, because it will rot if it is not in a stockpile, and refuse (bones and corpses and shells), because they will rot away eventually and if they are near the dwarves when they do, the dwarves will become unhappy from the smell (which appears as purple miasma).  For wood, it is okay to leave it where it is, unless you want to have it all nearby.

As I don't know what is causing your problem, I will go through things step by step, and you can let me know if there is anything you don't understand.  To cut down a tree, you press [d] to open the designate menu, then [t] to select cut down trees, then find a tree and click on it if there is only one tree you wish to cut down, or, if you want to clear an entire area of trees, you can move the cursor with the arrow keys to one corner of the area and press [enter], then move the cursor to the opposite corner and press [enter] again.  This will designate every tree in that box to be cut down.  Designated trees (and plants, and rock) will have a brown box over them.

When the woodcutter (who must have the woodcutting option turned on in their job menu: press [v] to view the dwarf, then [p] then [l] to view their labors, then use the - and + keys to move through the list and hit [enter] to select the job) is ready to cut down a tree, the tree will start flashing.  Once it is cut down, it will be replaced with a brown _ which is a log.

To put these logs in a stockpile, press [p] then [w] to select wood, then select an area for the stockpile the same way you designated trees.  Dwarves need the wood hauling labor to move the wood to the stockpiles.  This can be activated in the labor menu just like woodcutting, and is on by default when you start out.  If you wait a while and none of the dwarves start moving it around, make sure you have at least one dwarf idle - the idle display is in the lower-right-hand corner of the screen.  If there are idle dwarves, make sure the game is not paused - the game is paused and unpaused with the [space] button.

If my descriptions aren't clear enough, you should have a look at the wiki if you haven't already.  The Your First Fortress page has a good tutorial for starting out.  This might be easier for you to follow than my long-winded descriptions.

[Dwarfaholic]

Thanks. This was erally helpful.
BTW, my fortress site doesn't have any wildlife or fishes, despite having several lakes. Also, my civilisation is listed as the only one. Does the civilisation list only show nearby peoples, or does this really mean the only sentient beings on the planet are my six dwarves?

Okay, am gonna try it a little now. I'll tell you later how it went. Also, the tutorial was pretty good. Thanks.

Btw, is there any way I can train dwarves new skills, for example, teach a miner how to farm?

[ November 16, 2007: Message edited by: Dwarfaholic ]

[Thallone]

the civilizations means civs that your Fortress has come into contact with. as goblin raider and caravans begin to show up, there will be entries in the civ screen

[DragonHealer]

Any dwarf can do any job as long as they have the tools and are set to that type of labor. They will improve their skill as long as they make use of it.

For example if you want your miner to switch to farming then hit 'v', select the dwarf, hit 'p' to go his preferences, then 'l' to see the list of labors he is assigned to. Hit enter over Mining, then scroll down to Farming(Fields) in the list with the + and - buttons and hit enter to enable it. Your miner will soon drop his pick and go work on any farm plots you have.

[Sean Mirrsen]

No wildlife is rather common for a starting fort. And lucky, if you don't hunt. No fish in the units screen just means there are no LARGE fish that can eat your dwarves, as opposed to small fish that your dwarves catch and eat themselves.