After years of not playing DF, I decided to pick it up again and give the adventurer mode another try. I love it, but usually become lost or don't know how to do all the fun stuff.
I usually start playing as a peasant/human/outside since I like to equip myself and train up skills and stats.
So, on to the questions:
1. Buying/selling things - shops in cities seem fairly useless to me. Most of my equipment comes from the piles of
free stuff in hamlets, mead halls, fortresses, etc. The shops that sell useful things (armor, weapons,
backpacks(!!) ) seem to be rare and stock only few items. And then there's the issue of currency ... I think there's a town in my recent adventure that does not have an official currency. All of the merchants show "not trading in currency", and I cannot ask for a price (range is "0-0") when trying to sell something.
Is there something I am missing when it comes to shops and trading? I'd really like the gratification that comes from being able to afford shiny new equipment after selling the spoils of the latest round of wrestling bears and alligators to death.
2. I find it hard to figure out what exactly is going on. Example: In my recent adventure, there's a group of goblins (indicated by a star on the overview map) staying in a hamlet. They don't appear to be aggressive, even though I get dumped from travel mode with the "You feel uneasy ..." message. What are these goblins? Raiders, bandits? The citizens of the hamlet don't seem to mention them.
Are there any better ways of finding out what exactly is going on, and what the moving asterisks on the world map are (some are individuals that will attack me, some just move about or even seem to flee from me)?
3. Is there a good list of what things there are to do in adventure mode, and how to do them, and possibly what experience levels are required? (I ran into a bunch of what appeared to be goblin bandits, most of which I could defeat easily enough, but their captain (blinking 'g' instead of regular 'g') was able to kill me quickly.
4. Is cooking implemented, or do I have to eat the meat I gained from hunting raw?
5. Is there any way to fix worn items?