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[BoltsFogs]

How do I make a dwarf do a task specifically instead of having to constantly go to the job list and click remove job and pray he gets to work on his assigned task?

This is my first time playing dwarf fortress and it's pretty fun! But I have a situation, a comedic but deadly one.

It all started in the beginning of our first summer here in Olinozsit, and presently it still is the summer. We had just found the underground river thanks in part to our tag team miners. And so we immediately begin excavating a farm so we can finally put our loafing farmer dwarf to work. As we build the channels, our fisherdwarf, having heard the news ran excitedly to the underground river to fish, due to the fact that the outside river contained no fish. As my dwarf was busy putting in the final channel that would flood the room, the fisherdwarf plops herself down between the wall and my miner and begins fishing. Well a few swings of his axe and FWOOSH! Water spills through. My miner dwarf struggles a bit to escape the sudden current and is successful! However my fisherdwarf is stranded now. I also notice my miner dwarf is trapped too, however he simply broke through the wall and ran to safety. I issue my mason to begin construction on a floodgate and 'lo and behold, nap time! Every dwarf decides to head to their bunks, except for poor Udibast, our fisherdwarf who was forced to sleep on the muddy ground after fishing up two fish.

Cue to some time later, the river floods, sweeping poor Udibast away, and just as she seems lost to Poseidon, luck was with her as the river receded and deposited her back on land...on the opposite side of the river. So now the picture is this...

Udibast is stranded on the opposite side, fishing away her fears while the other dwarves just now rouse from nap time. I look for the bridge manual and much to my dismay, it requires an architect, which I have none of. I am now drafting my stone crafter to become our architect and we are currently mounting a rescue attempt via a hastily built bridge.

[qwip]

If you are attempting to force a dwarf to perform a specific task, you can star by removing the possibility they'll work on any other tasks. So if you want that Dwarf to focus on architecture, turn off all other labor except architecture for that dwarf. then once the architecture portion of the bridge building is complete, enable the "masonry" labor again.

If the mason runs off to build doors or blocks instead of build the bridge, you could continue to be a [j]obs menu jockey, removing the dwarf from each job until the mason picks the job you want, or, if you're earlier enough in your fortress, just cancel all the jobs in the Mason's workshop and the mason will probably only work on your bridge.

Well, that's the way I have handled it in the past...

[BoltsFogs]

Good news and bad news. They made the bridge and rescued our fisherdwarf, but now another problem has risen. Starvation. Our food supplies have run out and I sent my two miners out hunting. I ordered a fishery to be built but everyone seems to prefer to stay hungry in their respective rooms. HOWEVER! Luck is with me as BoltsFogs ambushed and wrestled a gorilla to death and is now dragging it back to camp. My other miner turned hunter is running up and down like a loon, oblivious to the gorillas he just passed

[Valarauka]

OK, just so you're aware: You need a fishery to process your raw fish into cookable stuff, and you need a kitchen to be able to cook fished and hunted animals into edible food.
Make sure you have a food stockpile to keep the raw stuff on so it doesn't rot.

You can also build a butcher's shop and slaughter your initial horses if food is a problem. Then cook the meat (prepare easy meal) in the kitchen, and render the fat (also from the kitchen) and cook the resulting tallow too. That, combined with whatever you get from fishing and hunting should easily last you until your farms become productive.

[Solara]

I'm guessing you don't have any dwarves that are good at plant gathering, but it's something to keep in mind for future fortresses. One proficient herbalist can pretty much single-handedly keep an entire fortress fed until the second year or so when the migrants start pouring in.

[BoltsFogs]

Thanks for all your help guys. I made a second fortress and after several delays I managed to get my farm up and running! Unfortunately as we pulled the lever to initiate the flood, the flood initiated itself...throughout the whole world, ending everything except the fishery and the bedrooms in a watery grave, where only two dwarves survived.

Right now I'm on my third fort, I got my farm up and running by mid spring with no Noah flood this time, hah.

[Chthon]

LOL, yeah, that usually happens the first few times you try.  Good that you got it on the second go though!

[Seshat]

Actually, dwarves will eat raw (but processed) meat and fish - and some other raw foods.

You need to use a butcher or fishery on the meat and fish, but you can save kitchen effort by turning off cooking on the meat and fish in the kitchen menu.

You also don't need to cook plump helmets, and some other gathered or farmed plants.

You DO need to cook tallow, and any plant seeds you want to use for food.