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[Bihlbo]

One problem I have when playing is that I tend to focus on a few "pet projects" and neglect the growing migrant population, putting too few of them to use. I had a few ideas on how to solve this problem:

1. Eventually it's not that hard to have each dwarf specialized in only one skill, and have one (or a small number) of dwarves who are the only ones performing that skill. Because really, you probably don't need more than one thresher, and that one dwarf probably doesn't need to do much else once he has 190 neighbors.

2. Dwarves will socialize without anything else to do, which could have positive results (babies everywhere!). So, multiple skills being performed by one dwarf is not ideal for all dwarves.

3. If I start with a checklist of "professions" I want assigned to a single dwarf, prioritized so that I'm filling the list from top to bottom (generally), it will be hard to not make proper use of each and every dwarf.


So, do any of you use something like this? If you were to make a list, what would it look like? Any other thoughts?

[tommy521]

I set my population cap to 50 so I can have at least one person in everything useful, some extras and a few military dwarves. Once I get everyone figured out an in their place, I let a few more migrants in and work on a project of some kind. Unless I'm doing a project from the start, in which case I try to get as many people in masonry or woodcutting or whatever else would be preferred on that occasion.

[krenshala]

I have my cap at 32, and currently have 45 dwarves. I would have had 48, but one was an idiot (dodged into teh well and drown while sparring), one wasn't very smart (decided to poke a passing panda with a training spear and got taught a vicious lesson), and one just had bad luck dropping a section of flooring a z-level (cave-in dust caused him to asphyxiate just as they got him to the hospital).  My point?  You will get migrants if you have less dwarves than the population cap, even if you are only one dwarf short, so adjust your pop-cap accordingly.

[King DZA]

I have 205 dwarves, and quite honestly, I still don't feel I have enough to get things done in a timely pace.

There's always so much stuff to be crafted, constructed, hauled, smelted, harvested, cleaned, or killed, that I can barely remember a time in this fort that I had more than 20 idlers. even the children are busy helping with the farms.

Also, after I have a dwarf reach an acceptably high level in a skill, I turn off that skill for all dwarves that are not highly skilled in it as well, with the expception of things like masonry, farming, and a few others. I don't need no novice butchers slowing down production when I have a few perfectly good legendary ones around.

[Aachen]

In general, I work around the immigrants who show up at a fort. I mostly work from memory; any important but sporadic skill will only be enabled on a few dwarves. Masonry is a go-to skill when I have nothing else to occupy one of 'em. Other jobs, especially in the farming cluster, tend to be widely-allowed. High on this list would be butchery, tanning, threshing, milling, spinning, shearing, brewing, wood burning and the various soap-related skills. Skill generally only affects completion speed for these jobs, and they're the sort that I want done when I queue the task. I use custom professions to note particular skills that have been superseded by high-job-volume professions a particular dwarf has.

[Bihlbo]

By prioritized I mean the higher the item in the list, the sooner I will assign that to a dwarf. By checklist I mean that as dwarves are assigned, that item gets marked as set so I can move on to the next profession assignment.
So here's the prioritized checklist I've made so far:

Miner
Wood-cutter
Farmer
Broker/Leader
Cook
Mason
Fisher
---(this is usually my starting build, with all other needed skills turned on but not trained up)---
Brewer
Mechanic
Carpenter
Stonecrafter
Diagnostician/Chief Med. Dwarf
Stabby/Military Commander
Thresher (plant proc)
Stone Detailer
Miller
Weaver
Dyer
Clothesmaker
Axedwarf
Butcher/Tanner
Hunter

Lots more to go, since the list needs to be about 250 entries.

[Aachen]

So, you mean that a skilled woodcutter or fisher is higher in priority than a skilled mechanic or carpenter? I guess I don't really understand what affects the priority of a given job. The discussion, I assume, will mostly be centered on reasoning behind the priority assessment. To be fair, I haven't ran a fort that had a significant fish industry in quite some time, so perhaps the skill allocation is useful. Still, I'd always prefer a skilled carpenter to a skilled lumberjack on arrival at a site. Not hard to train the latter, nor does the level change the end product.

As far as my initial post, I mean that I prioritize different skills based on the factors present at a particular site. In fact, there is (as I mentioned) a lot of give-and-take. I will often prioritize development of an industry based on the skills available from newly-arrived immigrants, rather than arbitrarily impose a hierarchy on them. And the checklist typically stays in my head; I've never been in the habit of using the "notes" document I created the handful of times I bothered to create it.

[Aspgren]

When playing a serious game and not building forts for the purpose of !!science!! I never have this problem.

Know why? It's because all migrants are viewed in detail and those that have no real place in the society are simply told to do carpentry, masonry, hauling and stone detailing.

 This way I always have DOZENS of untrained hands working on my projects. If I decide I want a tower erected there will immediately be dwarves swarming all over the construction site! The foundation will be up in no time at all!
 If I dig for gems or metals or just stone there will be haulers waiting for every single rock that's picked from the wall! and around the stone stockpile 10+ masonry workshops will be churning out stone blocks 24/7.

 The legions of mindless hauler/builder-drones are the very essence of the fortress!

[Doughnut189]

I have a bunch of core-profession dwarves (things needed to keep a fortress running and alive, not counting defense industry) and then some specialized dwarves, depending on what the map holds.

I remove the population cap and then try to set up a migrant control system ASAP. This usually means a big pit that migrants are dropped into and then drowned.
(Free clothes!)

[evileeyore]

So, you mean that a skilled woodcutter or fisher is higher in priority than a skilled mechanic or carpenter? I guess I don't really understand what affects the priority of a given job. The discussion, I assume, will mostly be centered on reasoning behind the priority assessment. To be fair, I haven't ran a fort that had a significant fish industry in quite some time, so perhaps the skill allocation is useful. Still, I'd always prefer a skilled carpenter to a skilled lumberjack on arrival at a site. Not hard to train the latter, nor does the level change the end product.

This.

Woodcutting, Mining, Fishing, Plant Gathering etc are all very easily trainable, you can achieve high levels (even Legendary) within a season or two tops on those.

What I start with:

Everyone gets 1 Swimming
Leader:  1 in most Social/Leadership skills
Doctor: a spread in the Medical skills
2 Hunters: Marksdwarf, Wrestler, Hammerdwarf 1, Ambusher 2
Everyone else: Axedwarf, Shield, Wrestling 1


When I get there I then prioritze based on what is available.  Generally I split the dwarfs into three groups, Miners, Woodcutters, and Farmers.

Miners dig, Woodcutters cut wood, Farmers gather plants.  Once the first few rooms are dug out, a few workshops get built (Carpentry, Masonry, Craftsdwarf, Brewery, Kitchen, etc) to get the basics going.  At this point the starting 7 and any migrants get even further specialized.

And the checklist typically stays in my head; I've never been in the habit of using the "notes" document I created the handful of times I bothered to create it.

Whereas I do keep to a strictly controlled list of how many Dwarfs I need doing what and only the jobs I need tend to get filled.  Though I will put skilled migrants to work in their fields of expertise, unless their skils are far poorer than those already doing the job and there are no positions open.

[Crozarius]

I start with 2 Proficient Miners and nobody else has skills.

Basically, I use Dwarf Therapist to put EVERYONE who migrates into the fort as 'Peasant' who handle the smoothing, cleaning, hauling, wood cutting etc. So basically I end up with one person in each crafting profession, and an army of peasants to handle the hauling etc. If they have nothing to do for some reason, I tell them to fish or something that they can do for hours on end.