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[Heliopios]

So I'm finally starting to play Fortress mode (I've only been playing adventurer) and I really cant seem to do anything without failing within a few hour's play.

So could any of you people provide me with reasonable builds and how to get good starting equipment? ( No, not the Dwarfipedia guides)

[nil]

maxed out plant gatherer, maxed out brewer, maxed out cook, miner (probably but not necessarily maxed out), mason (ditto), and an maxed out armorsmith/weaponsmith.  give the smith a backup skill, like mechanic or building designer.  the seventh is up to taste; any combination of novice woodcutter, novice carpender, ambusher (which will give a free crossbow and set of leather armor), maxed out glassdwarf or maxed out jeweler is reasonable.  If you don't give the seventh dwarf carpendry, give it to the brewer (brewers who make their own barrels never stop working).  Take a few seeds (you can always get more by gathering inside the mountain), some meat (at least one of every cheap kind), some alcohol (about twenty to thirty units, with n5+1 of each type), two dogs, one pick and one axe.

this build is only newbie-worthy on maps that are good or neutral with heavy vegetation, so make sure you pick one--avoid anything that sounds bad, like sinister or terrifying.

when you get there, disable all but one or two hauling tasks for each dwarf, and give none to the miner and the gatherer.  [d]esignate some plants to be gathered and a food stockpile to put them in.  build a still and a kitchen.  I had enough to feed my dwarves just by cooking the seeds of the outdoor plants I gathered, but many people like to cook the alcohol (all this is done through the workshops and the z menu).  Following this you will have plunty of food and booze and enough time to build your fort as deep as you like.

Also, what is causing your forts to fail?  External violence, internal strife, or simple starvation?  I assumed you were having problems with your food supply, but if it is something else you might want to try something completely different than the above.

[Heliopios]

It's usually just inner self destruction, an accidentally caused collapse of a roof on a food stockpile ( which just recently happened, causing me to die a slow and horrible death), legendary dwarves dying, animals raping me, and, which just happened recently, a rat jumped out of ambush on a bridge, causing a dwarf to fall into an abyss, and he had something for a dwarf in a trance, a metalsmith I think, and he freaked out and went apeshit on everyone, he ended up killing everyone buy the legendary miner which was basically the same stats (mighty, unbelievably agile, superdwarvenly tough) but he had a pick and ripped his guts out.

So then the miner died after passing out from pain, I'm pretty sure he had an eye gouged, both legs broken, ripped off nose. Then he was ambushed and killed by a giant rat that ate him whilst he was unconcious.

[puke]

wow.  i dont think there is anything that ANY kind of build can do to prevent that.

make your bridges wider so its harder to fall off (make it so its wider than the enterance to the bridge, so dwarfs are forced to walk in the center) and make them out of smaller bridges all joined together, so tantrums do less damage?

if build examples are really what you want, heres my standard:

no skilled dwarfs of any kind, what so eveer.  at all.  none.

two picks.  one axe.  20-30 of every kind of seed available.  40-60 of a cheap meat or turtle.  40-60 of some kind of alcohol, or a mix.  rest of the points on dogs and cats, as desired.  give each dwarf a custom job once you reach the site.

its important to have redundant dwarfs so that it does not cripple you when one or two (dozzen) die.

sometimes you can avoid chain reactions by drafting dwarfs and ordering them away from wherever the trouble is.  other times you can isolate trouble by locking doors.

[OverrideB1]

Like puke, I take only unskilled Dwarves, 1 axe and 1 pick. I use the Alchohol/Food mods so I generally load up on lots of booze (n5+1) and at least 6 of every type of seed and then load down the rest with a cage (cheapest I can get) and as much cheap meat as I can afford. This means you get the maximum number of barrels and wagons at start up, for reasons that will become clear.

Designate a miner and have him start digging into the cliff-face. I usually get creative over the entrance and it usually contains a designated barracks area. Meanwhile, designate a mason and have him start churning out rock blocks for your road/bridges.

Turn 1 dwarf into a fisher/fish cleaner, designate a stockpile and build a fishery nearby. Another dwarf becomes a "druid", gathering plants and dumping them into a stockpile near a still.

The last dwarf gets turned into a brewer/carpenter and a workshop near a woodpile (which is near the still) means that there's plenty of throughput of booze.

I try and keep a ratio of 2 peasants to 5 "workers" -- turning off all but the necessary haulage tasks for the workers (i.e. mason hauls stone but nothing else) -- but I do tag one of the peasants as a craftdwarf, making stone mugs (a 3 to 1 return) so I've got something to traade with the caravan come autumn. I'll usually churn out 10 rocks worth (30 mugs) -- that's usually enough to buy up pretty much all of the merchants' stocks: thus ensuring a healthy influx of migrants for the following year.

One of the first things I do is get all the pack animals dragged off to the cage -- mules get butchered by one of the peasants to provide meat during the 1st winter, horses are kept for breeding (foals go straight into the slaughter/cook system).

As the fortress expands, these workshops get moved inside.

[ April 04, 2007: Message edited by: OverrideB1 ]

[seizer]

My usual starting build is something like:

1 proficient wood cutter/plant gatherer/armorsmith/weaponsmith, check that he has "modest" material preferences.
1 proficient mason
1 proficient carpenter
1 proficient cook
1 proficient grower
1 proficient grower/thresher
1 proficient miner

14 meat (take as many different kinds as possible for free barrels)
7 booze (again, different kinds for free barrels)
1 pick
1 axe
4-5 of each seed

If you have problems handling insane dwarfs it might be a good idea to keep a military. I usually only have 60 or so civilian dwarfs, rest get drafted into the military as they arrive. Also, before you invest into a dwarf, always check his preferences. If you have the patience, it might also be a good idea not to dig too far. Strange mood dwarfs only demand materials that you have reached already.

[ktrey]

quote:Originally posted by seizer:
<STRONG> If you have the patience, it might also be a good idea not to dig too far. Strange mood dwarfs only demand materials that you have reached already.</STRONG>

I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. Many a metalsmith of mine has gone fey, clamed a forge and patiently waited for that specific ore  while I scrambled my miners and dug with fingers crossed. All he wanted was hematite, and as soon as I exposed a vein he leapt up and ran for it.

[MickEfinn]

quote: I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. Many a metalsmith of mine has gone fey, clamed a forge and patiently waited for that specific ore while I scrambled my miners and dug with fingers crossed. All he wanted was hematite, and as soon as I exposed a vein he leapt up and ran for it.

I think the useful (read Legendary Making) ones will demand what's available, but that seems to mean anything you could find (aka if somewhere up or down a single hematite is visible on the chasm, it's counted as 'found' and dwarves will demand it).

That's my theory anyway, and so far it's held for a dozen fortresses, and an umpteen pile of moods.

It's that, or it's a territorial thing, with how far you've dug setting certain requirements on...

I'm fairly certain Possessed dwarves demand anything they can, crazy buggers. They tend to make a beeline for their own preferences, and tend to be picky, and soon to be riddled by the crossbowyers.

[seizer]

quote:Originally posted by MickEfinn:
<STRONG>

I think the useful (read Legendary Making) ones will demand what's available, but that seems to mean anything you could find (aka if somewhere up or down a single hematite is visible on the chasm, it's counted as 'found' and dwarves will demand it).
</STRONG>

Yeah, that's what I meant. AFAIK dwarves will only demand materials found up to the next dungeon feature. So, if you've dug to the river, they can demand materials found between river and cliff face and between river and chasm. If you've dug to the chasm, they can also demand materials found between chasm and magma.

[Core Xii]

I shoot for the magma right away, just keep on tunneling until I reach it, only stopping for a farm so they don't starve in the winter. I dunno if building the fortress between the chasm and magma flow is a good idea, but I certainly don't want to split the fortress into one half with carpentry and another with smithing... Wood isn't needed for anything else than beds and potash anyway.

I'm relatively new to DF myself, but nontheless... My current starting build is 2 miners, a woodcutter/carpenter, a mason, a craftsdwarf/mechanic and 2 farmers. I take all the plants and seeds I can carry, because it seems that if I take a lot of meat instead, it tends to rot before I get my fortress up.

I don't take cats, they're not that useful. Better a vermin here, swarm of flies there than refuse everywhere and cats cluttering up when they breed exponentially.

Reading this thread, a cage might be a good idea. Need to think about that...

[Trae]

All of the dwarf skills I start with are base.  Just the name.

2 Miners
1 Woodcutter/Carpenter
1 Mason
1 Farmer
1 Fisherdwarf
1 Unskilled

That one unskilled one does some minor stuff around.  Fish cleaner, butcher, mechanic, what have you.

2 Picks
1 Axe
10+ of each alcoholic drink
30 of whatever meat it starts me with
20 Plump Helmets
20 Plump Helmet seeds
2 kittens

Or something of the like.  It can vary.

[Grek]

I go with something like this:

Pro Brewer\Nov Armoursmith
SKL Cook\Nov Weaponsmith
SKL Mason\SKL Building Designer\Nov Mechanic
Pro Miner
NOV Fisher\ Trapper
Pro Grower\Nov Woodcutter, Carpenter
COM Stone, Bone Crafter\SKL Fish cleaner

1 Pick
1 Axe
40 Plump Helmets
2 Dogs
11 Rum

Brewer brews all the plants into booze, leaving you seeds for planting. Mules are made into meat\bone. Fish is fished and traped. Hope the cook and brewer go Fey someday. 6 barrels, 7 beds, 1 Cage, 5 bug Traps, 1 Bucket are made in that order

[ April 04, 2007: Message edited by: Grek ]

[ April 04, 2007: Message edited by: Grek ]