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[GhostDwemer]

There are so many ways to make things run more smoothly with micromanagement in this game, I'm wondering how much other players actually do? Because I can think of a lot of stuff, but I'm too lazy to do much of it. First off, I guess, does anyone NOT run Dwarf Therapist? Why not?

Okay, so what is micromanagement? The simplest example would be queuing up production runs, you can do coal, iron ore, coal, pig iron, coal, steel; or, you could just queue up coal on repeat, iron ore on repeat, and when you get enough stocked, start making steel. The first gets you usable steel faster, but takes more work. Another example is constantly switching your dwarfs' assigned labors, have everyone haul, then smooth, then haul, then put all your non-miners on mining to make less rock digging out some new rooms. Stockpile micromanagement is another whole category, like making tons of small stockpiles stocking only certain items or quality levels vs. making a few big generic stockpiles. I don't have the patience for much of that, but I do make quality level stockpiles for finished goods and furniture, and I use custom stockpiles for most things. I bet my steel industry would run better if I put a flux stockpile, carbon stockpile, ore stockpile, and bar stockpile by each smelter. Instead, I usually dig a big open room above the smelters, with stairs leading up from each of them into the storage space, where I have one big pile. Of course, the military is ripe for micromanagement, do you give squads training gear, change stuff up to cross train, set individual equipment priorities on individual soldiers? I do a bit more of that kind of micro myself. I like to train my soldiers without weapons for a while, then give them a specific weapon, then add in crossbow practice. The other kinds of micromanagement I can think of include burrows (I have an alert main burrow, a trading burrow, and a leader's burrow), individual happiness management (nobles get stuff they like), and skill power leveling (by lots of little trades, digging in dirt, and otherwise enabling certain dwarfs to do certain tasks very quickly or more often than normal.)

Any thoughts? What micromanagement do you do?

[ext0l]

(almost) None. I don't bother with dwarf therapist at all. For military, I just assign each dwarf a weapon and some armor and send them into the danger room. Why bother with training soldiers in more than one weapon anyways? The only times I'll micromanage is if there's a ghost that won't go away.

[Zrk2]

No DT. I use the manager for large production orders and customize what dorf may use what workshop, to ensure quality crap. That is it.

[Sysice]

I've downloaded DT, but I don't use it very often. I'll only micromanage during critical moments; if I'm in the middle of a losing battle or invaders are killing people in the fort, I'll pause every second or so to change orders. Other than that, I usually just let it run and designate things when I need to. I'll often set up a series of orders in each smelter so that they don't depend on each other, so unless I completely run out I only have to designate things once in the life of the smelter. It's efficient, too.

[FuzzyZergling]

I don't use Therapist, but I'd say that I do a good amount of micromanagement in most things.
I'd say that I spend about half my time with the game paused, updating work orders, enabling/disabling jobs, or changing stockpiles.

[Psieye]

Before DT I had a complex system of nicknames to keep me updated on what labours each dwarf has. I still prefer that at times so I can quickly find my legendary miners/artisans and see what they're up to. My main use for DT is assigning Drone job templates to my non-important dwarves: my haulers have 30 labours enabled. For things like booze or threshing, they go and do the job en-masse across 9 stills or 4 farmer's workshops. They'll also go do smelting from 15 magma smelters at once - the stockpile room above them has a separate pile for each ingredient but I won't make individual piles for each smelter. Too much hauling jobs would be generated.

Yes, I do like micromanagement - I try to take dwarf personality into account when designating jobs, especially for the starting 7. Decorations are where I really don't hold back on micro for when I want a specific item(s) to be done with a set of materials - I won't care exactly what the decorations are though. Aside from having decided long ago whether my decorators will be traditionalists or not.

[ISGC]

I don't use DT
I find that if I do as little micromanagement as possible, I will have a better time trying to defend the fort or fix a problem because things are so messy.
Some things need micromanagement, such as dwarf labors (I have nomenclature for their professional name that indicates what is active), but other than that, I don't do much
I guess the Fun in the game comes from being unprepared for a situation.

[Comp112]

I can put it simply. DT has a dedicated monitor when I play DF.

I should make a custom job, my haulers tend to be masons/engravers. Just because I like everything being smoothed and engraved. My current fort has at least fifteen engravers.