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[Forumsdwarf]

So the right answer to the starting question would seem to depend at least somewhat on the terrain you start in.

So far I've always built where there's lots of wood, but I haven't paid much attention to the lithosphere, so I've never assumed there would be coal or magma or iron.  This led me to wood as the one resource I knew I could count on, and my starting build was tailored around that accordingly.

Giving up the anvil would dovetail with that starting philosophy: if your assumption is that mining is an unknown so then would be the utility of an anvil.

[Fedor]

My basic system for choosing skills is "cover the basics; get a jump start on the extras".  Site resources, what I want to accomplish, and the preferences of individual dwarves causes my setup to change every game.  However, my choices tend to go something like:

1 leader with between 5 and 7 social skill boosts, always including novice appraiser (other skills depend on personality).  The leader normally is also a carpenter, because I find that the combination keeps one dwarf nicely busy for about the first two or three years unless I'm constructing buildings out of wood.  This dwarf also does a fair bit of hauling early on.

2 dwarves handling food and drink.  Each will also be maxxed out on a hard-to-learn trade skill.  They build up a stock of vittles early and focus increasingly on their craft as time passes.

2 dwarves that both mine and defend the fortress.  They're the solid core of my early military.  Because of their great stats, they can be decked out in heavy wargear quite early on.  I never choose nervous dwarves for this mission - they have to be able to handle stress.

1 Mason (he's often also the Mechanic).  If a dwarf likes a rock common at the new site, he tends to get this job.

1 Extra dwarf.  Skills vary greatly, but are always chosen with an eye out for both personal preferences and possible strange moods.  1 skill will be maxxed, any others will either not be strange mood skills or be given only 1 point.

[axus]

I mix it up between games, here's what I went for last time

Mayor/Trader/Bonecrafter
Miner/Mechanic
Mason/Stonecrafter
Carpenter/Woodcutter
Brewer/Grower
Cook/Grower

Sometimes I'll bring 6 picks and 1 axe, even though only one guy has mining skills.  Usually just 1 pick 1 axe.  I tend to bring an anvil, but sometimes I like bringing more animals and wood.

[Whiskey Bob]

Mine is typically
2 Miners - I do a lot of excavation, and even two legendary miners is sometimes too slow for my tastes.  I give them military skills as well so I have a handful of super-soldiers readily available.
2 Growers - One has Brewer, the other Cook.  Ridiculous amounts of food on pretty much any map.  
1 Weaponsmith w/ handful of other smith skills - Hard and pricey skill to raise, and it helps my early weapon trap creation.
1 Carpenter/woodworker - Nothing to really say about this one, never had a game where one wasn't needed.
1 Mason/Mechanic/Architect - For walls, traps and doors.  Spends most of his time making walls, so I usually end up turning a peasant into a mechanic if one doesn't arrive with the first immigrant wave.

[Dasqoot]

I never give my starting dwarves any skills. They gain them so fast anyways and usually at least 4 or 5 of my starting dwarves get killed by some horrible chasm monster in the first few months.

Occasionally, I'll make 2 dwarves into ambushers for the armor and weapons which seem to be cheaper than buying them at embark (bolts and leather armor are ridiculous). I  usually nix one battle axe leaving me with 500 points to spend on seeds and animals.

I'm also using the botany and zoo mods in this fort, so i really wanted enough points to get the 16 or so types of crops (6 seeds each) and breeding pigs, goats, sheep, geese, chickens, dogs, cats and cows. Now if only they'd stay in their fenced off pens and wander around. They just sit at the locked door with question marks over their heads =(.

quote:RogerN: Armorsmith and Siege Engineer tend to be very expensive and/or time consuming to train, so I like to get a head start. I frequently include a maxed Weaponsmith also, but I tend to put a higher priority on high quality armor.

I definitely recommend starting with two appraisers. If your only appraiser gets killed then it's quite obnoxious to train another one, so it's good to have a backup. Besides, it only costs 5 points to bring another novice.  

Those are actually really good ideas. In my last fort my armorsmith/weaponsmith were at competent or no name by the time I had completely mined out the adamantium, which sucked. I had forgotten that you could train appraisal at the start too, that would be very helpful, I usually get to 1053 or so before I can see the value of anything.

[ January 19, 2008: Message edited by: Dasqoot ]

[Wood Gnome]

1 novice woodcutter (duties: chop wood, architecture, sometimes woodworker)
1 novice mason (duties: mason, mechanic, stonecrafter, bonecrafter, architecture)
1-3 novice planter/herbalist (i decided this was really overkill)
2-4 peasants that i assign as miners
one of the miners gets novice negotiator, judge of intent, appraiser and record keeper.

41x each type of booze
20-40x plump helmet spawn
10-30x rock nuts
10-30x pig tail seeds
10-20x cave wheat seeds
10-20x sweet pod seeds
2-4 copper picks
1 battle axe
4 dogs
4 horses
4 cattle

i spend the rest of the points on turtles so i can get bones and shells every time they eat.  then i turn off cooking for turtles and booze and brewing for pig tails, so i can make bags of it all.

i found that the farmers produced so much food that i was drowning in it, so i've started using just one farmer and if anyone gets bored i set them to farming or gathering or brewing.

i'm currently trying a project where i'll flood a floor beneath the brook, close off the floodgate, open a floor hatch, flood the floor beneath that, and so on until i reach the bottom floor that i've mined, and see if i can sustain some tower cap farms and breed fish/turtles (although i haven't figured out how to fish them).  i'm still digging with the four miners, and i'm waiting for winter to dig out a place for the floodgates.  the map i've started has a brook, magma tube and an elf settlement at its edge just to see how annoyed they'll get with me on their doorstep.  i needed a change of pace  

[Scorpios]

quote:Originally posted by Lazy_Perfectionist:
<STRONG>My previous build had maybe only one point in herbalism, enough to tell him what job to do without me having to go into preferences</STRONG>

You most definitely live up to the "Lazy" part of your name.

quote:Originally posted by Hussell:
<STRONG>You can't make wild species extinct, as far as I know. More always show up.</STRONG>

I've never played a fort long enough to make it happen, but this issue comes up constantly in the forum. consensus is that it's not only possibly, but incredibly easy to make a species permanently extinct.
A species can also go temporarily extinct but will respawn after awhile, however that's something different.

As for the anvil and making your own axes/picks, I think that depends entirely on experience. At first I dropped the anvil in favor of lots of food and booze. Last fort I made I took it and considered making my own equipment when I realized I didn't have enough experience to understand how. I don't feel like wasting my first month trying to figure out how to make a pick.

Fedor is the first one to mention personality. How much does personality actually factor in? Is it mostly just flavor text?
I always try to gear my dwarves towards how their personality leans. Someone who sounds good socially ends up a leader. Doesn't do more work than necessary? Then that dwarf won't be my Farmer of Craftsdwarf (Carpenter/Mason).

As for this thread, Hussell's 0th level suggestions have given me something to think about (About which to think?) as well as his Fisherdwarf/Woodcutter combo. Forumsdwarf's suggestion about drafting from well-statted dwarves is an interesting consideration too. I know I'll definitely be changing my Woodcutter to a new combination next fort and, once I get more experienced I will do the same with the others.

[Scorpios]

quote:Originally posted by Wood Gnome:
<STRONG>4 dogs
4 horses
4 cattle</STRONG>

Just as a note, camels are more productive than cattle. They produce one more bone and one more meat. Camels, cattle and muskoxen all produce one more fat than horses. Cattle and muskoxen are equally efficient in production. So if you can, replace the cattle with camels. If not, between cattle and muskoxen, it kind all depends on whether or not the caravans bring either (For breeding). They're essentially the same.
Horses ahve the added benefit of breeding like rabbits due to caravans.

tl;dr - Get camels over cattle.

[Wood Gnome]

ah, blush.  i tweaked horses and cattle to provide more meat and less fat (just because the idea of eating fat disgusts me).  i stay away from cats because they only scatter dead bats and rats from one end of the fortress to the other and i can't keep up with the miasmas.

[Scorpios]

quote:Originally posted by Wood Gnome:
<STRONG>ah, blush.  i tweaked horses and cattle to provide more meat and less fat (just because the idea of eating fat disgusts me).  i stay away from cats because they only scatter dead bats and rats from one end of the fortress to the other and i can't keep up with the miasmas.</STRONG>

o i c

I don't care for cats either. Vermin mean trade goods, pets and emergency food supplies.

[Fedor]

quote:Originally posted by Scorpios:
<STRONG>Fedor is the first one to mention personality. How much does personality actually factor in? Is it mostly just flavor text?</STRONG>

If a dwarf likes working with something interesting (like steel) or making something interesting (like ballista parts), then he will produce better quality items using that input or when making that object type.

No, I don't know the math behind this.  My own experience is that a favorable preference seems to boost effective skill level by about two at novice level, but less as skill rises.  YMMV.

[Scorpios]

quote:Originally posted by Fedor:
<STRONG>If a dwarf likes working with something interesting (like steel) or making something interesting (like ballista parts), then he will produce better quality items using that input or when making that object type.

No, I don't know the math behind this.  My own experience is that a favorable preference seems to boost effective skill level by about two at novice level, but less as skill rises.  YMMV.</STRONG>

o rly?

If a dwarf said they liked Armor Stands, for example, I just put an Armor Stand in their room to generate happy thoughts. Does that actually do anything?
This new understanding of preferences helps a great deal. Now to find a dwarf that likes beds and tower cap.