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[AncientEnemy]

I can barely manage the first 7 properly and as soon as I start getting migrants all bets are off. I'll have like 10-20 idlers, which is weird because I usually have un-done hauling jobs sitting all over the place.

- is there some way to get animals to stay in a specific area? they just hang out in the meeting rooms or swarm around a particular dwarf. I've got one dwarf with a team of 5 puppies that follow him everywhere.

- any quick way of looking through my dwarfs and professions? if i want to find any particular dwarf I just end up having to hit U -> C -> look at list, U -> scroll to next dwarf -> C -> look at list (repeat repeat repeat)

- do kitchens/other workshops not get hauled out if they're active? my kitchen is constantly getting to the red/purple CLT, even though there's mounds of dwarfs that could be taking stuff to my empty stockpile, it seems I have to stop everything cooking to get it uncluttered

- is there any way to prioritize a particular building/task? oftentimes I'll have a caravan arrive and I have to go to my leader/broker and turn off virtually every labor before he'll get there, I've nearly missed caravans due to this (wont stop working, turn off what he's doing, he picks a new job, turn that off, he decides it's time to go on break, then sleep)
+ or get a dwarf to do his current job in an organized fashion? usually this is mining. he'll get a room all mined out except for one tile blocking the middle, then decide that other room three floors down needs some mining before he'll finish this one

- how do i look at my dwarf's happiness/status, i've seen a number of things that say such and such gives a dwarf a happy or unhappy thought, but the nearest thing i can find is a long description of each dwarf's personality.

really any tips for keeping up with so many new dwarfs


** My Unlimited Well **

I was looking at the wiki about wells and the difficulty therein, but the one I designed seems to be a very simple, permanently (and automatically) renewable one. it's run fine for about a year but maybe there's something i'm missing and it's a deathtrap waiting to happen.

Z:0

Code: [Select]

#####
__S##
_W_##
___##
S= stairs W= Well _= floor #= wall

Z:-1

Code: [Select]

#####
#LS#####
#P_DB~~~
########
L = Lever P= Pressure plate D= Door B= Bars ~= Hall/channel to river

basically (before connecting it to the river) I build the door, link the lever to it, open the door, get rid of the lever, then build a pressure plate that activates from 0-2 water directly below the well, and link it to the open door. (then finish the connection to the river) when the water in the well is 3 or above the door shuts, and if it falls below that it opens briefly and lets some more water in.

thoughts?

[Hawklaser]

1. Assign the migrants jobs, and set workshops to make something non stop. Stone blocks, and rock crafts are good things to make. As for hauling, are your stockpiles full?

2. Use ropes and chains to force an animal to stay in an area, or stuff them in a built cage. As to the ones following a dwarf, they are either the dwarfs pets, or the pet's offspring.

3. No quick way in vanilla, but might want to look at some of the mods out there, they might have something.

4. As to why they are not cleaning out the workshops, is there a way for them to get from the workshop to the stockpile? And how far away is the stockpile? Having close stockpiles will clean up workshops much faster.

5. Nope, best thing to do to keep your trader open for caravans, have him set to handle jobs that have a bit of waiting involved, so they are free most of the time. Best way to control mining, is small designations.

6. To look at dwarf happiness, do it just like you would to look at their inventory, but from the preferences screen, hit z to bring up a full screen window, then hit enter. Will also tell you their likes and dislikes, and a bit about the dwarf.

7. The well, as long as it works, its fine, just make sure to have a way out from the water incase a dwarf falls in.

[Frelock]

Well, though the organization of dwarves is left as an exercise to the reader, here are some answers to your other questions.

1. If you (q) a door, it will give you an option to make the door tightly closed.  This will prevent pets from going through that door, while still allowing dwarves to do so.  You can also dig out a tiny hole in the ground, give it a doorway that pets can't pass through, zone it as a pit, and dump your animals in there.  Heaven help you if a dwarf wants to open that door after a few years of breeding.  Finally, the easiest method is to get a cage, and cram all your animals into there.  It also prevents wanton breeding.  Urist Barker: Help control the pet population, have your pets caged or butchered.

2. Not in the vanilla game.  You could use another utility, like Dwarf Foreman, which will help you organize your dwarves by profession.  Even that, however, may not be what you're looking for.

3. Yes.  I'm quite often annoyed by the fact that haulers will stand in the middle square of a workshop in order to get goods, while the dwarf who's actually working has to lie down, thereby slowing his progress.  The kitchen often gets cluttered because the cook works with so many individual items.  You can create stacks of well over 50 meals, which very quickly clutters up the place.

4. No, there's no way to prioritize any job, save suspending all other jobs and hope that a dwarf gets around to it.  My suggestion on the broker, turn off all his labors when the caravan arrives.  He'll still haul goods to the depot, but that shouldn't be too big of an issue (since he'll go right where you want him).

5. The screen with the personality is exactly where to look.  In that screen, the first paragraph is the ecstatic/tantruming (there are no other emotions) paragraph.  The second, if I recall correctly, is the likes/dislikes, then comes the associations (is a member of... is married to...)  Finally comes the personality.  Wait a while until a dwarf has had time to become happy or sad.  Then you can see what made them happy or sad.

6.  Big problem with your well - you need 4/7 water for a well to be active.  Currently the max you're going to get is 3 (since the door opens for 0-2).  Also, remember that water sloshes around, so you might have a rouge area of 3/7 water, causing the door to close, but then it moves on, leaving only 2/7 water, causing it to open.  Then the 3/7 comes back and you can see where that goes.  Have any of your dwarves actually used said well?  You can check with the (q) option to see if it's active.

[AncientEnemy]

7. The well, as long as it works, its fine, just make sure to have a way out from the water incase a dwarf falls in.

that's what the stairs are for...?

6.  Big problem with your well - you need 4/7 water for a well to be active.  Currently the max you're going to get is 3 (since the door opens for 0-2).

huh, the wiki says 3/7 for a well. either way the thing functions just as well with the plate set 0-3, i just chose the bare minimum to prevent momentary overflow up the stairs when the door is open.

Also, remember that water sloshes around, so you might have a rouge area of 3/7 water, causing the door to close, but then it moves on, leaving only 2/7 water, causing it to open.  Then the 3/7 comes back and you can see where that goes.

wat? I know the water sloshes around, but every time the door opens for a second the whole well room gets filled to 5-6 before the door shuts (by design, that's why the plate has an extra space between it and the door)

Have any of your dwarves actually used said well?  You can check with the (q) option to see if it's active.

like i said, it's been working for over a year, I'm concerned about the safety not it's ability to function. for example, one article talks about wood parts in a pump wearing out quickly if that pump is used for magma, while the 'wear' article doesn't mention machines wearing whatsoever. i'm wondering if the door/mechanisms could wear out over time, or if the pressure could eventually stick it open, or anything like that

[Untelligent]

Dwarf Manager is a great utility for keeping track of your dwarves and labors, and managing said labors.

[Frelock]

Really, wells only need 3/7?  Huh, must have changed since I last experimented.  And I guess my big problem was I always tried to have a really large cistern, making the water sloshing an actual problem that had to be taken into consideration.

As to the safety issue, there *should* be no issues.  Nothing wears out.  The only, excessively unlikely problem that could possibly in a million years occur would be some dwarf falling in, and their clothes jamming the door open.  But that shouldn't ever happen.  Not to mention the water pressure would (hopefully) push the clothes right out of the way, allowing the door to close.  In any case, you always have your emergency fail-safes.  You do have emergency fail-safes, right?

If you're looking for the most safety-conscious way to make a well, just put wall tiles around the well itself, save for a single door.  Then if there's a flood, forbid the door and forget about that area.

[AncientEnemy]

You do have emergency fail-safes, right?

yeah, there's a floodgate with a manual switch. i wanted to use a floodgate for the well itself but the delay is annoying. i suppose this could be considered an exploit, since the delay is probably intentional. but then again, there's no reason a dwarf who can build a floodgate couldn't build one that opened just a little bit quickly instead of all the way slowly.

as for the clothes, i think ill just put bars on both sides of the door in the next one.

[Wolfius]

Don't forget to use custom job names, especially once the numbers build. Dwarf names are neat, but they can tend to blurr together.

I generally just use Mason 1,2,etc, and go through each freshly arrived immigrant wave, assigning them jobs, and renaming any extra 'surplus' while resetting their labours to that of a peasant until I need them for more than hauling(and dedicated haulers are important).

[greggbert]

Here’s how I manage mine and it works pretty well:

1)    Every dwarf gets a custom profession name with My in front of it

MyMiner
MyMiner
MyMason
MyCarpenter
MyXbow
MyXbow
MyMechanic
MyCook
MyBrewer
MyHauler
MyHauler
MyHauler
MyHauler
MyHauler

2)   Most dwarves get all the hauling tasks in addition to their primary task.  These are called Hybrid Dwarves.  My mechanic is a hybrid, so are my crafters.
3)   Some dwarves I don’t have a job for so they become Haulers
4)   Some dwarves such as my Masons, Miners, Brewer, Gatherer, Woodburner, and Woodcutter are “Exclusive Dwarves” and get the hauling tasks turned off because I want to be alerted when they are idle.
5)   Every time migrants come, I go through and make sure I rename all their professions so they all have a “My” prefix.  If I don’t have a position for them, they become MyHauler
6)   When my haulers are idle (and there are a lot of them), I always give them a  project that will take them some time to do.  In my games I can ALWAYS find something that will occupy all of them for a few minutes. 

Hauler Tasks:
*  Collect a bunch of chopped wood into a wood stockpile right outside the fortress entrance.  Once they are done I remove the stockpile and give them another task.
*  Clear all stones out of room and dump them into the trash compacter.
*  Move an entire stockpile from one area of the fortress to another
*  Collect newly mined ore.  (Like wood gathering, I prefer not to stockpile ore as it is being mined.  I would rather do it all at once by creating a large stockpile, and then removing it when my haulers have brought everyting.)
*  Furnish X bedrooms
*  Split a general stockpile into multiple specific stockpiles, ie:  Weapons, Armor, Furntiure
*  Loot x goblin corpses outside
*  Bring goods to depot

7)   Each time I give the haulers a task they all get busy on it.  Then I immediately check the idlers.  If I did everything right the only idle dwarves should be my Exclusive guys who need more things to do, such as Masons or Wood Burners, or Engravers.  Then I give them enough orders to keep them working for a few minutes but not too long until my idlers reach zero.  Then I wait until my haulers become idle again.
   This cycle helps me keep organized and focused on the task at hand.  The worst thing you can do is give any dwarf a task so big they don’t start to become idle for a long time.  This prevents a situation where you can’t bring goods to your depot because your haulers will be dumping rock for the next 30 minutes.  It also tends to group your haulers together so they are not all over the map when you get attacked.
9)   From the ranks of pure haulers, I draft my military.  Once I have a full suit of armor for each dwarf I draft two to five dwarves, make them plate-wearing wrestlers who are off duty.  When they get to the level of GREAT WRESTLER or above, then I switch them to their main weapon and let them spar or target shoot with that.  Once they become better than GREAT at their new weapon, then I swap their practice weapon, set them to ON DUTY and station them permanently.
10)   I always use the manager to give orders to my exclusive dwarfs.  The only two dwarfs who work on REPEAT TASK mode are my Iron Armor Melter and my Gem Cutter.  Everyone else gets their orders from the manager or from piecemeal designations.

[kcwong]

I started a similar topic a while ago, and you might want to read the replies there: Link

[Mephansteras]

I have a somewhat time intensive but satisfying way of dealing with the issue.

For each immigrant wave I go through and look at each immigrant. They are all given names that are both fantasy appropriate and themed for their jobs. Miners get names like Deepdelver, Oreseeker, and so on. Masons/Engravers/Stonecarvers get names like Gabbro, Marbleeyes, Stonebeard, etc. Wood related dwarves get names like Oakenbeard or Willow. Fishers get water themed names, smiths get forge and metal themed names, and so on. Soldiers are named according to their weapon type. Darkblade (swordsdwarf), Starforce (mace dwarf), Bloodspike (Speardwarf), and so on.

This system has two advantages. One, it keeps the Dwarf feel of the fortress while still letting me know what everyone does. Second, I can give males and females names that let me recognize the gender. Willow, for example, is always female while Oak is always male. Iron and gold are associated with males, Silver and gems with females. And so on.

As for jobs, many just go into the military. Especially those who like weapons or armor. Otherwise, I tend to keep them in the general group they started with (unless I need more masons for mega projects). Hauling is usually broken down into profession appropriate groups. Masons get stone and furniture, carpenters get wood and furniture, cooks get food, and so on. Most of my dwarves are fairly specialized (a few related jobs and appropriate hauling), but I usually have a few jacks of all trades around to pick up the slack if someone is off partying when work needs to be done.

It's not the MOST efficient system, but I very rarely have idlers. If I find I have too many of something, I give the least experienced dwarf masonry and have them help there. I always need more masons, since I do lots of large outdoor projects.

[Martin]

I have a somewhat less intensive way of managing my dwarves.

I break them down into 3 categories:

Laborers (miners, detailers while smoothing, wood cutters, masons when I need blocks)
Tradesmen (all other professions where skill results in better quality products)
Haulers

Nobody stays a laborer past legendary. Once they hit that point, I change their nickname to reflect what skill they are legendary in. Miners get 'Mi', Engravers 'En'. That way when I need to mine out some gems or engrave, I know who to ask.

I usually have 2-3 tradesmen working up to legendary. I don't bother with stone/wood/bone because those get fey moods so easily - but cooks, carpenters, etc. I keep this to a minimum because they usually create a zillion hauling jobs. Once I get a legendary carpenter, I'll stop cranking out bins and barrels and switch over and train someone else in a different trade. Not only do I limit this due to hauling, but just to keep track of things. I also won't have 6 dwarves all being masons because the work gets spread out and none level up to legendary. I might train 2 masons at a time if there's a lot of work to do, but never more than that. If I'm doing a large outdoor build, I'll turn on my legendary masons to help, but I'll limit the blockmaking to non-legendary masons in the building prefs.

Everyone else is a hauler. I prefer to have legendary dwarves move into hauler roles because they are much faster, but you do what you need in the beginning.

To keep track of what job everyone is training in, I put their profession name in parentheses. Mephansteras has a much more dwarfy naming system if you can swing it.

Basically, even with a 100 dwarves, I'll really only focus on a few activities at any one time. You don't need to make food 24/7 - have one grower working the farms, and one miller making flour (takes up less space) all the time, and then once every other year fire up the brewer and cook to top off the stockpiles. Have them haul the rest of the time. I do the same for making bins/barrels, making thread/dyeing/weaving, and so on. If I try and run them all at once, I end up making mistakes, overproducing, running out of leather and then losing a guy in a fey mood, etc.

[Hyndis]

As to the safety issue, there *should* be no issues.  Nothing wears out.  The only, excessively unlikely problem that could possibly in a million years occur would be some dwarf falling in, and their clothes jamming the door open.  But that shouldn't ever happen.  Not to mention the water pressure would (hopefully) push the clothes right out of the way, allowing the door to close.  In any case, you always have your emergency fail-safes.  You do have emergency fail-safes, right?

If you're looking for the most safety-conscious way to make a well, just put wall tiles around the well itself, save for a single door.  Then if there's a flood, forbid the door and forget about that area.

I have a layer of 3 doors, one directly after the other, as the escape route at the bottom of the well. Thus, if a dwarf does fall in, the only have to move one square to reach the door to escape. Then the subsequent doors are to prevent flooding. As the dwarf can only hold open a single door at a time, its impossible to flood the rest of the fort while escaping.

I also have an emergency shut off lever, which isolates the well cistern (which is relatively small) from the source of the water, making it simple to remove all the water from the cistern to recover anything that has fallen into it. You could attach another floodgate to another lever to open up the cistern into the escape route. Assuming the escape route is large enough and the cistern small enough, the water will be shallow enough such that it evaporates away harmlessly. The only downside is that you might have tower caps growing in the mud, but thats what paved roads are for.