Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.  (Read 1276 times)

Zackanian

  • Bay Watcher
  • Busy Smoothing out a area i'll never look at again
    • View Profile
Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« on: August 10, 2020, 03:42:08 am »

I think i got one Legendary cheesemaker and a couple of weapon skills but other than that... as it says in the title. I'm a couple dwarfs below hundred and every single migrant i have gotten have been either Animal-caretakers and Herbalists. Thinking back on it i might have gotten a legendary bone carver and a decent metal-crafter early on but now i get entire waves of nothing but dwarf that are only good for hauling. Is this normal?
Logged

Shonai_Dweller

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2020, 05:33:33 am »

Profession means "highest skill". Any dwarf can do any job and will level up as soon as you set them to do so.
Logged

Starver

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2020, 08:11:22 am »

I don't know if it's current (I just deal with these things, these days, without analysing) but it certainly used to be an impression that migrants turned up with more skills you don't use (and need) than the ones you would appreciate.

This is perhaps more down to observation of perverseness. For me, I de-job from Hunting skills any with hunting-type strings to their metaphorical bow (though gladly set them up for ranged-unit bootcamp, having brought their own weapon)  and Fish-related skills any who arrive with such hooks on their metaphorical rod... the forum meme tends more to the uselessness of cheesemakers, who I actually don't mind but don't seem to personally get many of at all.  Virtually nobody has complained about too many Armoursmiths, I think.

So maybe it's not the game loading the dice according to perceived gaps in your workforce, and just a given distribution of choices popping out certain combinations more noticably when it doesn't suit you. I'm sure someone's done save-scumming reruns of migrant waves on a single game with the fort set up for agriculture-heavy value production, say (compare 'allelles' present to try to discern frequency of expression) then repeat with a crafts-heavy one, a metallurgic one, etc.


With your set-up: The Leg. Cheesemaker I'd set up the production pipeline for, if I hadn't already, but would probably be Hauling while I got the arrangements sorted out (amongst other needs, might take a game-year, even). Ditto with a bonecarver (I do less butchery than I could, which has a knock-on effect). The weapon (wielding?) skills get bootcamp 'invitations'/allocations, depending on what other usefulnesses they arrive with. I have basically stopped any Animal Caretaking (as per Hunters, assigned to a lesser possessed profession or Hauler if there's no obvious one - unlike Hunters, not archery-bootcamped).  Herbalists I can always use. If only to strip-Gather the ground that I'm about to channel ditches into or construct walls upon (if possible... not as high priority as is the felling of trees on the same footprint and slightly beyond) and I never begrudge picked-plantstuff space in my stockpiles.

Metalcrafters are a funny one. I'd rather various <foo>smiths create things from the metal I've bought or smelted, but I'd probably set one up to consume bars just being made to use up random ores and not really/actually weapons-grade and/or armour-grade in my Grand Plan, nor such an alloy's precursor.  Otherwise, I'd probably let them take shifts at the smelters.
Logged

Shonai_Dweller

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2020, 08:45:45 am »

When you play without Therapist and such, you realize that the game still works as intended and pretty much sends you the all the dwarves with the skills you need. Most of the time, you still need a bit of tweaking depending on your fortress design. Of course, if you're playing with a really low pop count you'll end up having to manage the labors you need.

That some dwarves are gaining herbalist and animal caretaker skill points in abundance during worldgen these days is irrelevant.
Logged

anewaname

  • Bay Watcher
  • The mattock... My choice for problem solving.
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #4 on: August 10, 2020, 10:52:22 am »

... Thinking back on it i might have gotten a legendary bone carver and a decent metal-crafter early on but now i get entire waves of nothing but dwarf that are only good for hauling. Is this normal?
Yeah, this is normal. By the time I have 40 dwarfs, my opinion of new migrants has degraded from "more dwarfs! I needed these farmer and craft skills and these others will help with hauling and smelting" to "all new migrants are no-skill free-loaders! They will take new clothing intended for the dwarfs with worn clothing, they will want bedrooms, and I will need to review each dwarf to see if they can handle the military".
Logged
Quote from: dragdeler
There is something to be said about, if the stakes are as high, maybe reconsider your certitudes. One has to be aggressively allistic to feel entitled to be able to trust. But it won't happen to me, my bit doesn't count etc etc... Just saying, after my recent experiences I couldn't trust the public if I wanted to. People got their risk assessment neurons rotten and replaced with game theory. Folks walk around like fat turkeys taunting the world to slaughter them.

KevinM

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2020, 12:25:38 pm »

Yeah.  It's normal and all depends on your world's history and culture / civilization.  There are some threads that have better detail.

TLDR:  If you don't like it, destroy the world and start a new one.

I had a world that did that nothing but animal caretaking and plant gathering. I just assumed they had a catastrophic setback and were overland nomads, since I don't think they were extinct (I recall getting the merchants).

A new world after that had migrations of a variety of skills.
Logged

Zackanian

  • Bay Watcher
  • Busy Smoothing out a area i'll never look at again
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2020, 05:51:09 am »

Thank you for the speedy response, even if my own has become slightly tardy. It's good to know that nothing game breaking is happening, even if it is a bit annoying. I suppose it does make it easier to spot the new arrivals if nothing else.
Logged

Leonidas

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2020, 08:16:45 am »

If you want higher-quality migrants, start your second fort in the same world and civ as your first fort. Many of your migrants will be the dwarves whose skilled you improved in the first fort.
« Last Edit: August 12, 2020, 08:19:11 am by Leonidas »
Logged

delphonso

  • Bay Watcher
  • menaces with spikes of pine
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #8 on: August 12, 2020, 08:18:16 am »

Herbalists and animal-caretakers...?

Sounds like...elves.

Maximum Spin

  • Bay Watcher
  • [OPPOSED_TO_LIFE] [GOES_TO_ELEVEN]
    • View Profile
Re: Migrants are all Animal-caretaker and Herbalists.
« Reply #9 on: August 12, 2020, 01:19:47 pm »

I know I'm not contributing anything useful to this thread, and I apologise, but I feel compelled to say that every time I see it in the "last post" section on the far right of the main forum page, no matter how many times I actually check the title, I expect it to say (since it cuts off halfway through the word) "Migrants are all Animals".

Which would have been much more interesting if you ask me.
Logged