quote:
Originally posted by Artaud:
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1. I have two legendary miners, that no longer hold their picks, hence no longer mine. Yet there are five picks in the a stockpile that they refuse to pick up. I have assigned them with swords, yet told them to hold two weapons (a sword, and a pick), as I am making masterpiece Obsidian short swords. This as a measure to protect my great miners. Yet they will not fetch themselves their picks nor their swords. Any thoughts? </STRONG>
Miners (and carpenters) can't use a weapon and a pick at the same time. Don't worry too much though - picks (especially if you make steel ones) are decent weapons (base damage 70, sword is base 100 iirc) and miners will use them in self defense. Picks also run off mining skill, so there is no need to train them in sword use. With no armor, they won't last long vs tough enemies, but legendary miners can fight off alot of ratmen if they get ambushed.
quote:
Originally posted by Artaud:
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2. As a follow-up question, how do I make sure my dwarves pick up and makes use of a specific item? Such as a specific armor-piece or weapon?
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The only way, really, is to either chasm/melt/sell everything you don't want them wearing, then set armor/weapon preferences or make use of custom stockpiles, lock them in a room with the stuff you want them to wear, then set them to use it. It's a bit of a pain, really.
quote:
Originally posted by Artaud:
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3. I am constructing a great deal of barrels, yet never seem to be able to brew any of my plump helmets, as apparently not a single barrel is empty. How can I make sure one or more of my barrels get used uniqely for brewing?</STRONG>
press p to get the stockpile menu, then press / and * to adjust the amount of reserved barrels. reserved barrels will only be used for tasks like brewing and processing to barrel, not for storing food. I find 10 is a good number if you have a decent turnover rate on your barrels. be sure to make a barrel only stockpile near the brewery so you can tell at a glace how many empties you have (and it helps speed up brewing).
quote:
Originally posted by Artaud:
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4. A bunch of items seem to be piled around my fort, such as bolts from killed intruders, and shoes and mittens and so forth. How come nobody picks them up? I have finished goods piles, do I need separate piles for them to be hauled? </STRONG>
bolts go in ammo stockpiles, armor goes in armor stockpiles and weapons go in weapon stockpiles. Mittens and shoes and such are probibly from dwarves swapping clothes - they tend to just drop the old ones wherever. If you build them rooms, then add cabinets to the rooms eventually they will get the store owned item task and pick up all the junk and stuff it in a cabinet.
quote:
Originally posted by Artaud:
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5. How does the kitchen work? I mean, what actually happens when I decide to cook a meal? Do I turn some plump helmets into a dish that needs to be eaten quick before it goes bad? And what is this I read about cooking the brew goods, and multiplying your food outcome? Could someone be kind enough to write how just that is done step by step?</STRONG>
You can cook (almost) any food. just check the kitchen menu, turn cooking on for whatever you want turned into prepared meals, then make a cooking task. the only difference between the types is how many stacks of food are used.
Food will never go bad if it is in a food stockpile, or in a barrel. The advantage of cooking is that it combines multiple stacks and adds quality to it (so dwarves get more happy thoughts from eating it). If you have, say, 4 stacks of 16 elephant meat they will take up 4 slots in your stockpile. cook them into a roast and you get 1 stack of 64 elephant meat roast that takes up 1 slot.
Also, cooking adds each food to each meal - so say you have 1 dwarven syrup and it gets cooked with 3 stacks of elephant meat now you have 49 meals with syrup in them. eating preferred foods makes dwarves happier, so this is a good way to spread around small amounts of uncommon ingredients.
Some foods (like syrup and flour) can only be eaten after being cooked. Also, when you render fat into tallow, the tallow can be cooked into meals getting you more food per animal killed.
As for cooking beer.. meh, I consider it cheating and it's totally unnecessary but whatever. how it works is a plump helmet is 1 food, but brews into 5 drinks. a drink can be cooked like any other food, so brewing the plump helmet then cooking it gives you 5 food instead of 1. you can optionally cook the seeds (be careful not to cook them all) to make even more food.
quote:
Originally posted by Artaud:
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6. Is there such a thing as a prison? If so, how is it built by me and my dwarves? Even though I care for all of my minions, the ones that break my bridges need to be punished!</STRONG>
build either a restraint, or a cage, make a room out of it and set it to be used by justice. once you get the sheriff (he comes when you get 20 dwarves) he will lock up criminals instead of beating them (usually). Note that if you use a restraint, its a good idea to build a bed next to it so dwarves can sleep, otherwise if they get long sentiences they will go insane from lack of sleep before it's over.
also I know you didn't ask, but super bonus tip: build bridges out of lots of 1 tile bridges. it's ugly, and takes alot longer and wastes more bricks but then a tantruming dwarf won't drown anyone else and won't cut off part of your fort.
quote:
Originally posted by Artaud:
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Well, that's all, for now atleast. Greetings from Sweden, and excuse my English.
Thank you Toady, and 3Toe for this great game!/
Artaud</STRONG>
your english is fine, I had no idea you were not a native speaker till you said something :p
Author
Topic: The fifth year and its questions. (Read 1013 times)