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[ApatheticExcuse]

Alright, I'm not exactly new to DF, but haven't really played since the last incarnation of the 40d versions. Most of the stuff I'm familiar with is still there, and the rest seems easy enough to figure out (besides minecart, which have been fun thus far), but I'm not sure what to do with all these people crowding my inn and constantly asking to join the settlement.

I have so far allowed the mercenaries to join as I figure more fodder can't be bad, but I seem to have 20 or so unemployed musicians around at any given time asking for patronage. Right now, I've just been drowning them all on their way out so that I can sell their crap, but I'm thinking they might have some other purpose I'm missing. So, two questions:

1. Do they do anything besides lounge around and distract my dwarves from working? If so, is there any reason to have more than say one or two around?

2. I noticed they require rooms. Will they eat my food, drink my drinks, and throw tantrums if I just pile them all into one slummy dormitory?

The other question I have is in regards to the "new" military system. Looks like a vast improvement over the old one, but my crossbow squads are constantly spamming me with "equipment mismatch" messages. I can't seem to find the problem - I have them set to wear a pretty standard chainmail setup, use their choice of crossbows, and have allocated wood/bone bolts for practice and metal for combat. All I've produced so far is the armour I've specified for them, wood crossbows, and the above mentioned bolts. They don't seem to have any problem finding all that stuff, but for whatever reason, something is not matching for them and I can't figure out what it is. Anyone have any guesses?

[PatrikLundell]

1. While residents they won't do anything but socialize (or socialize and reserach), plus pray. However, if you accept them as citizens (the second petition) they'll be your citizens fully, which means you can assign labors to them. The disadvantage with mercs is that they'll never petition a second time (for citizenship) so they will never be good for anything than meat shields. In addition, they can't lead a squad (a citizen is needed for that, such as e.g. a naturalized goblin dancer...). Because of this, I only accept performers and scholars (with the exception of spouses of residents, for a potential full multi racial fortress).

2. They'll eat and drink (not sure about goblins when you're not having a resident poisoning crew (a.k.a. bartenders/performers)). They're subject to the same needs as everyone else, so poorer quarters presumably are worse for happiness. However, poisoning crews are far more effective when it comes to creating lethal "non lethal" bar brawls than shoddy rooms.

I give the X-bows a pass. They're far too bugged for me to bother with, so someone else will have to answer that. I know regular militia occasionally generate mismatch messages, but not at spamming volumes (and I don't know what causes it).

[Loci]

my crossbow squads are constantly spamming me with "equipment mismatch" messages. I can't seem to find the problem

"Equipment mismatch" means your dwarf's assigned equipment was changed while he was en route to collect the previously-assigned equipment. While it sounds dire, it's really just an annoying "diagnostic" message. "Mismatches" are particularly prevalent with marksdwarves since they are assigned multiple bolts (more if you use bone or recycle ammo), and when the ammo is stored in bins the dwarves "block" each other. An example:

Dwarf One begins a pickup equipment job targeting the best bolts in bin A. Dwarves 2-8 settle for less desirable bolts from bins B-H respectively, and begin their own pickup equipment job. After Dwarf One grabs his bolts from the bin, the remaining bolts in bin A are made available, causing Dwarf Two to switch to bolts in bin A (with an "equipment mismatch" error), Dwarf Three to switch to bolts in bin B (with another error), Dwarf Four to switch to bolts in bin C (error), etc. all down the line. Then, if the best bolts are still in bin A after Dwarf Two grabs his the whole cycle repeats.

The solution, then, is either to ignore the irrelevant "equipment mismatch" errors, or stop storing your ammo in bins (or, preferably, both).

[milo christiansen]

Or stop using bins. Bins are a buggy mess, and always have been. Personally I use a minecart quantum stockpile (actually, four of them) and never make bins for anything and no barrels except for booze.

Well, I will sometimes make 5-6 bins for holding trade goods...

[Fleeting Frames]

Regarding 2, to my knowledge the only penalty from overlapping with 1 or more rooms is *0,25 to quality, though if you just put beds in and make 1 of them dormitory they won't have their own great bedroom.

Furthermore, tantrums in general have been changed from "spontaneous temper tantrum" to "breaking from prolonged (years, even) stress". Having their family die doesn't break a dwarf, but walking by the dead family every day could.

[ApatheticExcuse]

Thanks for the info guys. So, if I'm reading this all right:

A) It's good to accept bards and similar because they will eventually become useful and I should really focus on drowning the mercenaries instead.

B) Bins still don't work quite right and I especially shouldn't use them for ammo. I should learn about quantum stockpiling in minecarts instead or just use the old quantum stockpile system I already understand.

C) I'm much less likely to lose a fort to a tantrum spiral than I am to accidents, poor planning, or FPS death that I was in 40d.

Appreciate the help!

[Fleeting Frames]

Oh yeah. On A), you don't have to drown anybody. You can just unforbid what they're carrying in inventory and mark those things for dumping. Dwarves will come and strip them with no problems at all.

On C), emphasis on FPS death. World activation + fruit trees = low FPS.

[ApatheticExcuse]

I can't strip them of their bones though, can I? Reduce, reuse, recycle and all.

Besides clearcutting regularly, is there any way to turn off or deal with FPS killing trees? I haven't had much trouble with it yet (it seems like 64-bit capabilities have breathed life back into my laptop as I've got enough built that .40d would have been pretty slow by now), but I'm only at about 80 population. I'm completely unfamiliar with "world activation".

[Thuellai]

Mercenaries can still be useful as a full-time militia.  You only need one dwarf to manage a squad of nine mercenaries, and while they'll never be full citizens, even when inactive they'll cart their gear around - so you've got someone to handle berserk dwarves, friends from the caverns, and other such dangers without having to put precious dwarven lives at risk.

Since they're not useful when not training/doing military orders, you can keep them training full time without regrets.  Slap a peasant in to lead the squad and enjoy.

[Fleeting Frames]

It's somewhat more difficult to reuse their bones now though, sadly. You'll probably need reanimation for whatever you're thinking of.

You can just embark in areas where new trees won't grow. 0-3 rainfall areas (so, desert biomes) would work. And what you consider FPS death depends on you (mind, pathing bugs can always mess you up, though depending on version - whether it'd be cats trying to path through unforbidden pets-disallowed door, werebeast waiting for full moon or clown pack noticing they can fly to the great sky above the surface).

World activation just means that world goes on in the background, though in a different way than world-gen. Scales with history, population, world size. You can get a sense of it in how fast the two weeks till embark goes and how quickly the game is saved - large worlds will have it take a small while, while pocket ones go by in a blink.

Typically, it results in a lot of wars, or sometimes reclaims. You might get new sites built near your fortress, too, which is almost always unwelcome news.

[ApatheticExcuse]

World activation just means that world goes on in the background, though in a different way than world-gen. Scales with history, population, world size. You can get a sense of it in how fast the two weeks till embark goes and how quickly the game is saved - large worlds will have it take a small while, while pocket ones go by in a blink.

That's particularly good to know. As far as I recall, there were no real downsides to genning large worlds previously and I doubt I would have figured that out on my own.

I'm pretty used to 10 FPS and am in front of that by quite a bit right now. After I hit that point I'll have to gen up some smaller worlds and see how long they can run for.

[Halnoth]

Quantum stockpiles are easy.

Step 1: Set up a track stop (in the build menu where you find walls, floors) and set it to dump in the direction you are going to place your QSP. You can't change this later without deconstructing the track stop.

Step 2: Set up your input stockpile and QSP. Make sure they have the same settings and don't allow bins or barrels. The containers mess up the mine cart and if you don't have the same settings dwarves will haul items in a loop.

Step 3: Go into the hauling routes menu "h" and set up a new route on the track stop.

Step 4: Add a stop to the route and hit "v" to add a vehicle (minecart).

Step 5: Define your stop. Delete all the guide conditions that show up by default and then just add a take from stockpile link (your input stockpile).

Step 6: Hit enter on the new link and set what items the cart will accept (this should be the same as your input stockpile but it doesn't have to be if you are setting up several QPS from the same input).

Step 7: Done. Enjoy your infinite pile.

It really is a lot easier than it sounds. After the first couple you'll get the hang of it and it will be a breeze.

[Fleeting Frames]

If you do desire to use bins with minecarts, use "any items" instead of desired item as well as setting desired items to include bins can deal with few problems with lugging the cart around.

Using in a QSP seems to cause no stopping of function with any items/bins being in desired goods for me. I'd guess dwarves would haul all the things into bin first before putting it into minecart, though.

Others, like equipment mismatch of bins with ammo, will remain.

Note that you can't use a minecart to store seeds individually, only seed bags. Thus, if you're going bagless, will have to use other QSP methods.

Pots/Barrels, however, remain attached to the stockpile they were taken from when put into a minecart, resulting in infinite back and forth hauling jobs. Thus, no infinite booze stockpile next to the still.