Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TheZoobler]

Hey, I just started playing the game about a day ago and have been following the Quickstart guide for Fortress mode on the wiki. Just about completed the guide, haven't made a forge or set up a medical dwarf yet.

My problem is that I've had 4 of my 45 dwarves die of dehydration, despite the fact that I have over 250 units of plump helmet booze (brewed and stored in barrels) and have a few above-ground pools designated as water sources. It continues to happen and I am not sure why.

I've also dug out a little cavern on the 3rd lower interior level of my fort, channeled it, and turned it into a 10x10ish pond: several overlapping pond zones in fact, so that multiple dwarves are hauling buckets at once. However the water appears to keep evaporating (I am in a temperate climate). I figured I could store water in the pond for winter, when all the other water freezes over. I have not yet designated this pond as a water source.

I saw other people on the forums requesting savefiles to help diagnose problems, so I will attach mine as soon as I figure out how. Lol. EDIT: Yep completely unsure of how to attach my save file/folder to a post lol.

NOOB WARNING : Since I'm a total beginner-
-I have a piteously small 4 dwarf military
-My building organization is probably totally inefficient
-My stairway goes straight down for about 7 levels and three of those levels contain large caverns which the stairway is exposed to: I built walls in an attempt to keep cavern creatures out of the fort, but it hasn't worked so far.
-I have done virtually no managing of my various dwarves and their labor menus. Need to get around to that.

So yeah, expect to see a complete and total mess of noob mistakes, but, I would prefer to hear about the water problem before anything else :>.

[Adequate Swimmer]

They will only drink stale water if they have no other choice, and can get sick from it.

[TheZoobler]

That doesn't explain why they keep dying of dehydration with plenty of water and booze around lol.

[Thorik]

I bet you have misplaced ramp or staircase and they can't reach the stockpile.  That's what it always is.

[wagawaga]

I bet you have misplaced ramp or staircase and they can't reach the stockpile.  That's what it always is.

This. Try getting anything done near or around the stockpile - designate a wall for digging, make anything in a workshop near it, anything that would make a dwarf walk in/through the stockpile. If nobody ever does anything, it's definitely an access problem.
Ramps are a bit strange if you've never dealt with them before, I suggest you stick with staircases for now.
Heck, I still stick with staircases anyway.
The only big disadvantage of stairs over ramps are how they don't let wagons through, and other minor stuff.

[greycat]

I bet you have misplaced ramp or staircase and they can't reach the stockpile.  That's what it always is.

Or the dwarf built a workshop with the dark green tiles blocking the exit, trapping himself inside.

[ManaUser]

Agree. The problem is almost certainly not with drinkables as such, but that dwarves are getting stuck some way or other. If you spot any dwarves with the thirst icon (flashing blue downwards arrow), check if they're stuck somehow or otherwise cut off from access to drinks. If in doubt, dig another escape route.

[AutomataKittay]

250 units of booze aren't much, around 25 barrels with 10 units each. I aims for at least ten time as much booze as there are dwarves, or more, since each of them can only drink from one barrel at once. Unless they have waterskin, that is.

As for your dehydration problem, have you used the designation that removes ramps and up stair lately? You could've accidentally stripped some of the mined ones off. You can check by seeing if the body ever get hauled off. If it does, then something else's very wrong, since even burrowed or stationed dwarves will run out of their burrow to stay alive on drink and foods.

If you did accidentally used the designation, you can get around it, sorta, by building constructed stairs and ramps with constructed walls, can't mine through those, only deconstruct.

[Cool Guy]

However the water appears to keep evaporating (I am in a temperate climate).

Something most people forget is that temperate means that a place has a generally wide range of weather, not too extreme either way but you'll still get some freezing in the winter and evaporating in the summer. I myself normally embark in a warm climate unless I'm looking for a challenge. It's normally not hot enough for evaporation but it is always warmer than freezing.