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[MrInfernal]

I say novice because Ive played for a few days and I get how everything works and can successfully set up a fort where I want, but they never seem to last very long because Im still a poor manager. So as Ive played I have a few questions Id want to ask more seasoned dwarf fort players.

First, are animals supposed to be so rare? Im running 40.05 and even in savage biomes, I always start with 1-2 giant animals that leave in a few minutes and rarely do I ever have animals lounging about so I cant possibly see how hunting would work. The most Ive ever had was a spontaneous attack by alligators that killed everyone right at embark, and a herd of reindeer that hung around for 20 minutes while I was experimenting how to pierce the aquifer. And for some reason, in every fort I either have a barn owl (mostly barn owl), a peregrine falcon, or 9 ravens/buzzards that permanently just sit in the same spot in the sky and do nothing. Maybe this is my machine but its been like it on 2 (albeit not powerful) computers so i dunno.

Secondly, is there any assured way I can get tonnes of iron on embark? Twice Ive happened upon huuuge quantities of it but both times I got my miners killed and abandoned(first time cave in from poor aquifer technique, second time was pathing bug fixed in .06 and wonky stairway). I know you look for "Shallow metalS" but are there biomes in particular that do or do not have lots of it?

Third, is there any way I can ensure a lot of goblin harassment early? The only conflict Ive ever gotten was a necro siege that I gave up on because I was outnumbered 3:2 with only copper weapons and no military (which I still cant use, but Ill figure it out once I get some proper weapons I guess). Otherwise I would very much enjoy some fighting, which would go with wanting a lot of iron.

And lastly, bedrooms or dormitories?

Thank you and sorry for the essay, but help would be appreciated!

[Dwimenor]

First, are animals supposed to be so rare? Im running 40.05 and even in savage biomes, I always start with 1-2 giant animals that leave in a few minutes and rarely do I ever have animals lounging about so I cant possibly see how hunting would work. The most Ive ever had was a spontaneous attack by alligators that killed everyone right at embark, and a herd of reindeer that hung around for 20 minutes while I was experimenting how to pierce the aquifer. And for some reason, in every fort I either have a barn owl (mostly barn owl), a peregrine falcon, or 9 ravens/buzzards that permanently just sit in the same spot in the sky and do nothing. Maybe this is my machine but its been like it on 2 (albeit not powerful) computers so i dunno.

Most animals will usually try to keep distance from your dwarves, so if you don't pay special attention to what is happening on the whole map you will miss them. Set up cage trap all around the map, animal stockpile in your fort and observe how your dwarves carry fauna to your fortress. And die a lot due to uncaptured animals and/or ambushers.
If you have problems with Ravens sitting in one place just send there a squad of marksdwarves.

Secondly, is there any assured way I can get tonnes of iron on embark? Twice Ive happened upon huuuge quantities of it but both times I got my miners killed and abandoned(first time cave in from poor aquifer technique, second time was pathing bug fixed in .06 and wonky stairway). I know you look for "Shallow metalS" but are there biomes in particular that do or do not have lots of it?

Search for flux stone on embark screen. That can point you to areas with sedimentary layers, which are the most iron-rich. Or generate world with metals set to maximum. It's hard to mine 20 squares straight and not to hit some kind of metal.

Third, is there any way I can ensure a lot of goblin harassment early? The only conflict Ive ever gotten was a necro siege that I gave up on because I was outnumbered 3:2 with only copper weapons and no military (which I still cant use, but Ill figure it out once I get some proper weapons I guess). Otherwise I would very much enjoy some fighting, which would go with wanting a lot of iron.

While looking for embark location use <tab> key to switch between display modes. One of them will show you which civilizations are in your neighborhood. That don't guarantee early goblin ambushes (sieges happen only if you reach 80 dwarf population mark). Ale wealth attracts goblins. In previous game version incoming caravans also had high chance to bring some extra goblinite, but I don't know if it's still on.

And lastly, bedrooms or dormitories?

Depending on your play-style. I prefer bedrooms, even if beds are all I can afford right now. As game progress, I add stone furniture (marble/obsidian if possible) and later replace everything with metal ones.

[Deboche]

There's a bug where flying creatures get stuck and prevent more animals from coming in. You can use notepad++ to remove the [flyer] tag from all your .txt files and it'll go back to normal.

There's another bug where invasions by goblins and possibly other civs don't happen.

As for the iron, the only advice I can think of is to make a world with frequent metals. Other than that, when sieges are fixed, you can melt enemies' armor and weapons.

I prefer beds since dormitories give dwarves bad thoughts. You can also smooth it to make your dwarves very happy, add a cabinet so they'll keep it tidy and it's a good way to increase fortress value.

[Gigmaster]

Dwimenor is correct - iron is most abundant in sedimentary layers. In previous versions, we had a utility called DFHack that allowed us to analyze and change the in-game memory; it included a 'prospecting' script which allowed you to, in world view, look at all the metal veins available in a selected embark. DFHack is, sadly, not available yet in 40.xx, so looking for flux stone will be your best bet to find iron.

If your site does not have iron, but you're still invested in it for one reason or another, don't worry! You can trade for iron/steel materials and equipment, which will allow you to make a functional military. You can also harvest your seasonal goblinite with wooden/bone crossbows and silver/copper/bronze bolts, then melt it down to make iron.

As for beds, I found the best way to handle them early on is to make a bunch of 1x1 bedrooms. Simply turn the beds into bedrooms, shrink down the 'bedroom' size to one tile, then let your dwarves claim their... 'bedrooms.' They won't get negative thoughts from sleeping in a dormitory, and they'll enjoy having their own bed.

[MrInfernal]

This is all useful stuff!

And I believe flyers getting stuck is the problem

Im on mac so instead of notepad Im using textwrangler, any idea how I would go about removing the tag?

[dexxy]

You can remove flier tags with these simple unix commands, ran from a terminal:

cd $RAWDIR
sed -i 's/\[FLIER\]/(FLIER)/g' creature_*

replace $RAWDIR with the name of the directory which contains the raws, so df-40.06/raw/objects, and then start a new world.

or to modify an existing save, $RAWDIR would be df-40.06/data/save/regionX/raw/objects, where regionX is the save you want to modify.

To get more iron, ask the outpost liaison to bring you metal bars: iron bars, pig iron bars, steel bars; stone: limonite, hematite, magnetite, and any other iron ores you see.

[dexxy]

If you want to use "textwrangler" to change the tags, you would need to:

* go to the appropriate directory, either the main raw/objects directory or the one for the save game you want to modify

* open all the creature_* files with textwrangler. for each file, use "find & replace" to change [FLIER] to (FLIER) 

* how to use find & replace on textwrangler: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/87599/textwrangler-how-to-do-a-find-then-replace-how-to-specify-what-text-to-find-an

However just getting rid of the flier tags doesn't fix all problems. You probably still won't get invaded. Just the flying creatures will now be walking on the ground so they are easier to kill.

[MrInfernal]

Well in that case, I guess its off to version 0.3 for me 

[Deboche]

it's been fixed apparently so the next release should be fine

[dexxy]

Take advantage of the peace! Build your walls, farms, armies. Get everybody ready for the new version. Then your fully built fort can get attacked in the next version.

[Snukkems]

And lastly, bedrooms or dormitories?

I use both, a dormitory for the excess dwarven population to sleep in as a I constantly construct apartment floors.  Usually 3x3 rooms, occasionally I mix it up. I try to do patterns through my fortress, but that's more personal flair than needed, a 1x1 bedroom will give you what you need but it's ugly  (used to use those beds unassigned as overflow in refugee warrens, only those who proved themselves were assigned a bed.  Got annoyingly complex around 150 dwarves in) 

[Nasty]

I use 5x5 rooms with 15 beds around the outside and a gap for the door. Still assign each dwarf a bed and assigned the whole room. It divides out the material value a bit but with engraved walls will still give dwarves the "slept in a fantastic bedroom" thought. The benefit is if you get a vampire, he won't be able to feast on dwarves without being caught because nobody sleeps alone. Also its a very simple matter to tunnel out and house hundreds if it's in large blocks of fifteen.

Make sure your bedrooms are more than eight tiles from the surface so woodcutting doesn't disturb their sleep. Try and do your nearby mining and smoothing in as few hits as possible to minimise the noise disturbance.

[Snukkems]

I use 5x5 rooms with 15 beds around the outside and a gap for the door. Still assign each dwarf a bed and assigned the whole room. It divides out the material value a bit but with engraved walls will still give dwarves the "slept in a fantastic bedroom" thought. The benefit is if you get a vampire, he won't be able to feast on dwarves without being caught because nobody sleeps alone. Also its a very simple matter to tunnel out and house hundreds if it's in large blocks of fifteen.

Make sure your bedrooms are more than eight tiles from the surface so woodcutting doesn't disturb their sleep. Try and do your nearby mining and smoothing in as few hits as possible to minimise the noise disturbance.

I used to do this one too, and it's a great system. Specially for vampires, but I dislike the aesthetics of it personally.