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Author Topic: Help keeping dwraves employed  (Read 1089 times)

Byakugan01

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Help keeping dwraves employed
« on: April 04, 2011, 05:14:00 pm »

My main problem these days is keeping as many of my dwarves busy as I can. Not even fifty (maybe less than 35) dwarves and I often have anywhere from 11-20 idling at any given time. With the current fort, I'm going to try to work around it, but can I get some tips on how to set up industry properly? In order, I generally have 1 carpenter, 2 or so masons, smelters/wood furnaces depending on the map in given ammounts (my latest fort has 8 smelters, but I can't keep them all going-one is for pig iron, another two are for iron, one goes to steel, and the remaining four process liginite). I used to be much better at this, but god am I rusty. I typically have a one-stall gem industry, but my cloth industry is non-existent. I also have four or five rock craft shops going, the current fort also has a second carpenter. And about how soon should I start putting up a hospital? It hasn't seemed all that important so far...well, Ms. Legendary crafter miltia captain decided to bring her baby to the danger room, so I almost had to. Which reminds me, Dear Urist...

 Basically, what I want is tips on how to preoprely set up industries, things I might have forgotten since I last played. Or perhaps more appropiately, when is a good time to set up a hospital, and how to raise skills "humanely". Heh, right.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2011, 05:44:12 pm by Byakugan01 »
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From Mr. Welch's 1350 things he is not allowed to do in a RPG:
148. There is no Gnomish Deathgrip, and even if there was, it wouldn't involve tongs.
171. My character's dying words are not allowed to be "Hastur, Hastur, Hastur"
218. No matter my alignment, organizing halfling pit fights is a violation.
231. I am not allowed to do anything that would make a Sith Lord cry.
240. Any character with more than three skills specializing in chainsaw is vetoed.

Dantrithor

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2011, 05:57:24 pm »

I tend to have the following:

Food:

2 Brewers
2-3 Cookers
1 dedicated butcher
1 Tanner (just so the leather is not lost)
2-4 Farmers (trained from the beginning so they get to legendary, only farmers harvest)

Wood:

1-5 woodcutters (depending on map availability of wood)
1-3 carpenters (depending on availability of random minerals to substitute wooden stuff for metal stuff, more dwarvenly)

Stone:

10-40 miners (I use this to also cross-train them for military use later)

5-15 masons (1xdoor+1xcabinet+1xchest+1xtable+1xchair per dorf room is a lot of work for a single mason. You can also keep them building rock blocks to reduce the amount of stuff littering your fort)

0-3 Stonecrafters (0 if I have gold ore in the map, or even silver. 3 If I don't.)

Metal:

1 Weaponsmith
1 Armosmith
1 Blacksmith
1 Metalcrafter (Legendary+5 Gold stuff!)
10-30 Furnace Operators (6x Iron ores, 3x Pig iron, 2x Steel, 20x Coal, few smelting Gold for crafts/noble's rooms and random low value metals to build bins and barrels out of them.)

Jewels:
1-3 cutters
1 encruster (legendary+5 encrusted legendary+5 gold craft!!!)

Haulers:

Everyone else not in the military.


I think your limiting factor is the amount of miners you have. The more miners you got, the more rocks/minerals you'll get, and the more dwarfs you'll be able to put in the associated industries.

Also if you rely on constructions (walls, fortifications, floors) for towers, defence, or whatever, consider having a squad of masons dedicated -only- to that (My current fort has 76 dedicated builders). That'll speed up building by a lot.
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Byakugan01

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2011, 06:19:53 pm »

Whoa, that's alot of miners. Generally, I just use the two I start out with, then add more as they immigrate. Considering the sheer SPEED with which legendary miners mine, I actually never considered getting more than that before.
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From Mr. Welch's 1350 things he is not allowed to do in a RPG:
148. There is no Gnomish Deathgrip, and even if there was, it wouldn't involve tongs.
171. My character's dying words are not allowed to be "Hastur, Hastur, Hastur"
218. No matter my alignment, organizing halfling pit fights is a violation.
231. I am not allowed to do anything that would make a Sith Lord cry.
240. Any character with more than three skills specializing in chainsaw is vetoed.

Hyndis

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2011, 06:53:32 pm »

I usually go with:

10 miners/masons/detailers
5 woodcutters/carpenters/bowyers
10 metalworkers
7 jewelers/medics/mechanics
10-15 craftsdwarves

Everyone else is a farmer. The farmer guys do all of the gruntwork and join the military.
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wuphonsreach

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #4 on: April 04, 2011, 07:19:29 pm »

Definite:

2 miners
2 wood cutters
1 hunter (3 is way too many due to ammo usage)
1 carpenter
1 stonecrafts
3 masons (5 is nice if you do above ground construction)
1 engraver (2 is nice, but not needed)
1 broker / manager / bookkeeper
1 butcher
3 farmers
1 brewer (2 once I hit 80 dwarves, 3 if I'm doing a lot of cooking)
1-2 tanners (who can also do things like leatherwork / tailor)
3 mechanics (5 is nice if you're heavy on traps)
1 armorsmith
1 weaponsmith
2 furnace (4-6 if you have magma and lots of ore)
2-3 cooks (1 does lavish meals on repeat, the others render fat)
5 dedicated haulers (items / food / stone)
1 bonecrafter (makes nothing except bone bolts, need 2 to supply 10 marks + 2 hunters)
1 Sr Doc (diagnosis)
1 Doc (fills in skills that the Sr Doc is missing and/or doubles up)
1 Nurse (does nothing except feed prisoners / wounded)

At 40 dwarves, I try and set 5 aside for marksdwarves.  At 60 dwarves, I get my 2nd squad of 5 marksdwarves up and the 3rd squad is a set of melee.  At 100 dwarves, my goal is 2 marks squads and 4 melee squads.  Other dwarves get assigned various tasks after that point, like glass making.

In cases where I only make 10 of something and then nothing again for a few months, that dwarf will have a second or third labor activated (bowyer / tailor).

Any male dwarves that don't have superior abilities get nicknamed as "Draft" and will eventually end up in a military squad.  Female dwarves without special talents get nicknamed as "Hauler" and end up hauling stone / items / refuse.

I'm a little behind on my current fort, 82 dwarves and only 59 have nicknames and assigned roles.
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Sutremaine

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2011, 07:59:23 pm »

my cloth industry is non-existent.
Cloth eats up a lot of dwarf labour, even more so now that woollen cloth is available. Pity you can't do much with the stuff except sell it, as I don't think a clothier can make non-wearing armour items.
Pottery and glassworking / glazing are other options. Unfortunately you can't make bins from stone or clay (...maybe by reaction?), but barrel-equivalents are always useful.

Medical skills are a pain in the butt, and the only way to train them is with injured dwarves. There are ways to injure dwarves (see the modding forum for a thread on that), but honestly I'd go ahead and make those skills non-rusting.
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I am trying to make chickens lay bees as eggs. So far it only produces a single "Tame Small Creature" when a hen lays bees.
Honestly at the time, I didn't see what could go wrong with crowding 80 military Dwarves into a small room with a necromancer for the purpose of making bacon.

Fredd

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2011, 01:26:17 am »

Just do not try my latest experiment in keeping dwarves busy. I assigned several into a basic training course. Assigned them a shield,cruddy piece of true armor, and had a militia commander with skills in shield, dodging,armor use, and organize skills. Left them on inactive schedule, with 3 months assigned to train. After 3 years they got so good, I had to take the ones not going into a full military squad off it, since the version I was using removed labors assigned when they reached a certain military skill level. Also a dwarf becoming adept at Miscl. object user worried me.
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Should you fail to comply, strict !!disciplinary actions!! will be taken. Also, we feel we should remind you that one of the "criminals" on your list is the chief medical dwarf. If he ends up too badly injured to do his job, you will be fired. Out of a magma cannon.
Sincerely,
The Administration

Reelyanoob

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2011, 07:33:41 am »

Whoa, that's alot of miners. Generally, I just use the two I start out with, then add more as they immigrate. Considering the sheer SPEED with which legendary miners mine, I actually never considered getting more than that before.
I guess it's all about what economic outcome you're after, he did say he has 76 masons after all, working on construction full-time. I've never considered running things like that before, but it's an interesting set-up.
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Dantrithor

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2011, 03:00:00 pm »

I guess it's all about what economic outcome you're after, he did say he has 76 masons after all, working on construction full-time. I've never considered running things like that before, but it's an interesting set-up.

At more than 5700 wall/floor squares per tower level, you either have a bunch of masons, or spend the next year building the stuff. But the 10-40 miners are there when I want a lot of minerals (I embark in locations with many minerals to improve my posibilities), and they fit well with the 10-30 smelters.
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GreatWyrmGold

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Re: Help keeping dwraves employed
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2011, 08:16:41 pm »

Create a workshop or two or more for some industries you need/could use more of. Set them to only be usable by those of less than, say, competent level. Fill it with busywork jobs set to repeat and/or suspended. Set your normal workshops to be usable only by those of at least, say, competent level. Watch as your stockpiles fill up with low-quality stuff and your skilless morons turn into productive, useful dwarves..
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