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[sebs]

The default DF social structure is a communist utopia

This is why we need dwarven economy

[bumblepuppy]

If you want your dwarves to have children, they need to have time to socialise with, court, and marry their fellow dwarves.

[Particleman]

If you want your dwarves to have children

Great Armok, WHY? They're worse than immigrants!

[Hans Lemurson]

Oh come on, it's not like it's any trouble feeding them?  The agricultural output of a single tile is enough to feed a dwarf for a lifetime!  The creation of crafts as a means of waste disposal alone is enough to buy everything you need from a caravan.

The creation of wealth in Dwarf Fortress is very easy.

[Psieye]

Mod your children so they can start doing work at the age of 3 instead of 12.

[Tsarwash]

Some 'important' jobs are very low priority such as cleaning and giving water and food. So unless you have people idle occasionally, these jobs will never get done. I really don't mind idler dwarves, because I find that if you overload them with orders, really important shit gets 'forgotten' about. For instance, it means that kittens get slaughtered before they can grow up and have a meaningful relationship with mrs kitten.

[EddyP]

You can use excess idlers in lots of ways. There are some skills in which skill is not necessary, but quantity is, such as furnace operating and fishing. Put some of them in the military, and maybe dig out a soil layer and start hauling all the stone blighting your hallways in.

[Biopass]

In a large fort, I usually have 20 to 50 (depending on fort size) idlers with masonry on (or carpentry if I'm playing humans). They can complete megaprojects insanely fast (I built a 15 z-level chalk pyramid on my desert fort in less than a month). In their spare time, they socialize. If you micromanage things and use burrows, you're unlikely to have deaths and subsequent tantrum spirals.

[Particleman]

You can use excess idlers in lots of ways. There are some skills in which skill is not necessary, but quantity is, such as furnace operating and fishing. Put some of them in the military, and maybe dig out a soil layer and start hauling all the stone blighting your hallways in.

Fishing skill matters. A novice fisherdwarf will get one or sometimes two fish, but a legendary will almost always bring in five.

[Tupimus]

Anyone who isn't a dedicated soldier or artisan is an interchangeable Drone in my forts. That means they have 30 labours enabled for jobs where skill only affects speed, not quality. I then build 10 stills, 15 magma smelters, 9 farmer's workshops... you get the idea.

This, except that I split up farming from other misc labours. I make only few farmers and have them plant/brew/etc constantly; they become skilled quickly and then churn out rediculous quantities of food and booze.

Planting is an art, reserved for the skilled few. Threshing (at farmer's workshops) is not.

Alcohol has a hidden quality, y'know. You can observe it from their thoughts, something in the lines of "Fine/don'treallyremember/truly decadent drink lately".

[Deathworks]

Hi!

I agree that idlers are an important resource. When something unexpected happens (and it will, after all, this is Dwarf Fortress, not My Little Pony Paradise Island), you may need a dwarf to pull that lever NOW!! or to help your best champion get to the hospital after he got hit in the leg by a lucky arrow.

There is no guarantee that a dwarf who has been doing something will do whatever you want them to do next. But with idlers, you can test things faster and are more likely to succeed.

And keeping dwarves happy is not too big a problem. Different crops, buying some exotic and diverse food from the caravans, maybe producing some clothes once in a while, and they will be quite happy.

Deathworks

[Tupimus]

Clothes? This is Dwarf Fortress, not Elf Village!