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[FruitBird]

Choosing your civilization (race) in Masterwork Dwarf Fortress

Set the races that you want to populate your world by checking the "Active" column in the GUI.

Set the races that you want to be playable in fortress or adventure mode by checking the "Fort" or "Adv" column respectively in the in GUI.  You can set more than one Fort mode playable race, meaning that you can play more than one races' fortresses in the same world.

Create a world.  (More tips on generating worlds for MDF can be found elsewhere.  One important point is that if you enabled a lot of races, you have to have a big enough world with enough neutral biomes and enough civilization slots to accomodate everyone)

When you're ready to choose your embark location, hit TAB until you're on the Neighbors screen.



The race at the top is that of your parent civ (in this screenshot, it's the orcs).  All the other races are listed in order of proximity to the embark site, but the top one is always yours. 

If you want to change race, hit TAB until you're on the list of civilizations and pick a new civ.  Sometimes the names give it away: if you're the Craggy Anvils you might be from a dwarf civ; while if you're the Bloody Twilights you might be an orc civ.  Anyway, you can TAB back to the Neighbors screen again to check before finalizing your embark.

I did as you said and it still embarked me as kobolds. Screw kobolds, I wanted dorvs. Any help from other masterwork players? It's my first time.

[taldarus]

Super busy, wrote this up...for fun (Writing helps me unwind). Played a warlock game. Will clean it up tomorrow at work (Did it during my breaks today). Too tired to find out where is the best place to post it... Hopefully it will help:

Warlocks 101:
Warlocks are immortal. There is no need to hurry. Take your time.
It is far easier to survive as the warlocks than as dwarves. Water and Meat are easy to come by. Everything is highly replaceable.

Embark location:
EVIL BIOME - Super easy mode. The biome itself kills most invaders. You still need to worry about titans, megabeasts, etc. But you almost don't need a military here. (I think thats the case, got too bored in an evil biome)
UNTAMED WILD - Tons of animals to kill, good for industry. I like to go here and try to wrack up 50+ animal kills in the first year. That translates to a ton of zombies and skeletons.
Aquifers - I love em, easy source of secure and safe water.
Cavern - I love em, learn how to ID caverns' on the map. A cavern on a start is vital to a good tree/crop industry (with no farming).
FREEZING - Also a very solid starting position, minus the animals aspect. The cold SEEMS to reduce those pesky vermin, unfortunately it also reduces the wildlife considerably.
BURNING - If it's too hot, your prisoners will probably die before you reach the site. Ghouls wont survive the heat. Skeletons won't care. Warlocks can survive, but expect a fort to only have 1-3 warlocks.
RIVERS - Doing a river map right now, and it's proving to be more annoying than helpful. Rivers alter the flow of animal life too much. End result is a good layout is much harder to accomplish.

Embark recommendations:
2 anvils is a must. (No alternate)
No food (maybe a few stacks of six?)
Alcohol only if no available water sources. (I will bring 4+ sets of 6 barrels)
Seeds for alcohol production (no water available, never used this myself).
1-2 pickaxes, but its skip-able (about 4-6 stones will do, but thats easily a couple of prisoners. Of course, you will need to make tools.)
20+ prisoners, these are the fuel for your empire. You get two free ones! (If your careful, you can ALMOST reach 30)
0-1 animated ironbone ..?. ('Light' security for an early fort. An ironbone spear and axe both tag teamed a titan, and then a second titan. After the second titan I lost the axe. It didn't die, just couldn't find it. Migrants will often bring these useful tools.)

NOTE: I use leather for everything. I can't get rid of the leather fast enough. You just build up huge piles of the stuff. so expect to wear a lot of leather. hopefully it's not black...

1-2 butchers (you will eventually want 5-10)
1 tanner (again, you will want more)
1 mason (to get blocks, coffins, slabs)
1 craftsdwarf (produce hourglasses, if you want to micromanage them you can. I just mine the **** out of the world)
1 soul syphon (I preserve every soul I can, but I know many prefer to devour souls to make a super soldier)
+ graveyards (I use these to farm souls in spare time. Graveyards, run non-stop, can fully upgrade a skeleton a month, and it doesn't impede other production lines [2 graveyards, 8 workers = nonstop = 7 souls a month?)
+ ethereal gates (More are needed for larger projects)
++ Necromancer shrine (produce zombies and skeletons primarily)
     zombies (50+ is an easy number to reach, 20 if you want to focus on buildings and skeletons)
     skeletons (10 isn't a bad number, without pylons they are still pretty slow miners. A simple fix, is to keep a few 1x1 meeting areas near the mining)
+ bone forge (cheap everything, pickaxes, axes, swords, hammers, armor etc)

Storage:
Food storage is vital. I moved out of the blazing hot/cold biomes recently. I had forgotten how hazardous the environment can be to your food stores.

--Additional--
Throne Room - If you are in a 'peaceful' corner of the world, this is probably a vital staple for the evil overlord. Going to go somewhere peaceful for my next fort. I want to take this through it's paces. (failed to do so, peaceful is too boring)

Gem Cutter/Jewelers - I love these. I can't remember which one does it, but one can turn regular stone into stone-gems. (The other makes large gems- also useful) Run that reaction a LOT (with a graveyard) and you will have a level 20 weaponsmith and armorer in no time.
NOTE: IMO a masterwork bone armor set is nothing to sneeze at. (and SUPER cheap too)

Emissary- Untested

Hoardmaster- Can only turn 'useful' items into less useful souls. Bad exchange rate IMO

Demonic Attorney - Turn souls into useful things. I haven't used this, but I am going to see what kind of economy/military I can get using graveyards combined with this. I believe you will be able to field a strong force from these, before the end of year one. Vermin hunter is definitely useful in more temperate biomes.

(-) Morgue - You may want this for medical purposes, but I find that reanimation/resurrection is far more viable in the long run. Don't think I have ever used a doctor, and I did try. It's just not worth it. (still trying to use a doctor on some of my forts)

--Units--
Zombies - Super cheap work force. excel at nothing; but they are born at their peak potential, so losing a dozen zombies doesn't even vaguely upset the fort. (I have heard talk of needing to bury them, but I think my butchers did that job. No ghosts in almost four years (version 6.2) No idea how many died, 6-12 is my estimate)
Cost - 1 corpse = 2-5 zombies (Guess is that it depends on the number of body parts. (Execution Chamber might give more?)
Pro - A group of 5 zombies can probably drag down the average animal. Even if you loose a couple you still probably gained in numbers.
+No toxins/poisons/etc vulnerability (Webs are a ***** though)
+Don't learn (Expendable)
+Surprisingly tough
+May be recycleable? (20 dead zombies gives enough body parts to rebuild 15?)
Cons -
-Don't learn (Useless in late game, except for hauling)
-I can't remember other cons, they are there. But Pro's list is way stronger

Skeletons- Your end game population. Skeletons are most useful in the workforce or as archers (bone arrows are never in short supply). Skeletons are rather tough AND fragile. Think of them as actually like glass in the real world. Pit two of them against two enemies: One explodes without warning, the other takes fifty hits before killing the enemy. I suspect it has a lot to do with damage type: hammers are deadly, swords/arrows/spears are useless. I have successfully fielded forces of just skeletons, but expect casualties.
Cost - 1 corpse = 0-1 skeleton
Pro-
+ CAN LEARN
+ Tireless (zombies as well, but zombies are so numerous, there are always a couple dozen lounging around with nothing to do) (Skeletons on the other hand, can be master craftsman and never stop producing for YEARS. How many suits of armor can they churn out in a month? Too MANY! You will need a massive industry to keep them busy...
+ Powerful Fighters (Most animals can't hurt them?)
Cons -
- Vulnerable to random forms of attack
- SLOW without a warlock/pylon nearby

Ironbone/Bloodsteel/Dreadnaught Skeletons - I have had several bloodsteel, and I think one dreadnaught. Honestly, I don't think that it's worth it to progress down to bloodsteel, much less dreadnaught. Ironbone are pretty easy to achieve, and they are incredibly tough. IF you have problems with durability, give it armor, much cheaper.
Cost analysis
10 ironbone (10 bones + 10 ash, cheap)
10 bloodsteel (10 barrels of blood, a bit harder, due to having to actually get barrels made, 10 bones, 10 ash)
10 dread (10 souls, 10 blood, 10 bones, 10 ash)
vs
10 ironbone (10 bones, 10 ash)
5-10 bloodsteel, but for armor and weapons (you can do dreadnaught as well)
5-10 leather (padding against hammers?)
10 souls devoured (Max toughness, VERY OP on something made of metal, maybe improve speed?)
Pros
+Unkillable (virtually)
Cons
-Slow? (I usually have a LOT of pylons out by the time I bother upgrading to ironbone)
Even as I write this, I am thinking I will test regular skeletons wearing leather armor. Leather may negate the weakness of the skeleton and be cheaper than upgrading to ironbone.

Soul Wisp (Never used em)

Pain Elemental (Never used em, but sound FUN)

Black Monolith - I have used these on several forts. I know many people swear by them. Making complicated mechanical devices to 'reveal' them to the surrounding corpses. It's a LOT of work to set them up properly. I usually only create zombie teeth and the like. Probably very bad for FPS. If you want to reanimate the dead, I think the necro altar is a better choice, or MAYBE the circle. Either affords an equal amount of control, fairly cheap, and almost no complexity. Create a fortified bunker around a circle, send in a warlock and BAM. Create a altar, and spend the 3 souls and reanimate EVERYTHING on the map. Super secure, super simple, a little pricey, incredibly powerful. My guess is monolith lovers all used to capture necromancers while playing dwarves, and so they are already familiar with the method. Using a monolith always gets complicated, but seldom helps.

Pylons - read the manual. Use em on grates (vertical LOS, got it from forum, credit goes to.?.) and fortify them if its a combat area. On a 3x3 map, you will need ABOUT 9 pylons to cover an empty z-level. Mostly, put em in the center of your 'tower/pit'

Overlord - The overlord is OP, and with devoured souls in his tummy, nearly unkillable... Not much more needs to be said about him. Make sure he has a weapon. People seem to use him to hunt down animals, I prefer a different strategy.

---Strategy---
Minefield (v6.20) - My current favorite strategy I have dubbed the minefield. Just set up tons of stonefall/cage traps across the map, depending on resources. Have your zombies be your mechanics. Interestingly, zombies will chase living creatures they encounter. Also make sure the zombies are the only ones to gather things from outside the fort. (only zombies haul?) End result is that zombies will be wandering around the map, searching for body parts, traps to maintain, or living creatures they encounter. I usually have 20-30 zombies wandering around the surface. Tend to find lots of victims to eat.

Maze (Dorf) - Mazes have their use, especially when thoroughly trapped. However, you will find that it only serves to get in your way. If you build a maze, think winding tunnel. You WILL have more soldiers (erm zombies) than the attacker has. All-in-All a poor choice of design for you.

Multi-Arena (v6.20) - Build a 'tower' with four separate grids. Think of a paper windmill and you will be close, with the tower at the center. It is easy to enter, but hard to leave. Tested this out, and it worked wonderfully. Almost every animal to enter the map was forced to enter the trap area. Once they entered none where able to leave...alive... Current map, restricts a large scale application. I am planning on making three smaller trapping fields outside the main base. Hopefully, it will keep the zombies pathing across everything, and harvesting the animal life.

---Fort Design--- [Merge with strategy]
Carnage is your friend. A dwarf design is only going to slow you down. You want to quickly and easily access your traps/killing field to ensure your industry runs smoothly. My most efficient fort, churned out STACKS of dreadnaught bars; and had one entrance, eleven tiles wide.

E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc
E R R R R R R R R R R U N Y -> etc

E- Entrance, R - Refuse pit, U - butcher, N - Tanner, Y - Soul Syphon

This design 'processed' hundreds of invaders and animals a year. Only slowing down if the bloodshed diminished (which I didn't let happen). I suffered HUGE casualties, but I reanimated them and kept the violence going.

Again, its easy to forget this, YOU!...ARE!...A!...NECROMANCER! Dead soldiers isn't a tragedy, it's inconvenient.

My next design is going to be this:
A step pyramid (like the aztecs), but open. Each tier will have a variety of workshops to handle the influx of carnage. I will shape the surface world into a massive warren of tunnels, bunkers, trenches, traps, etc. Deep below the pyramid will be a second 'fort'. In this fort, there will be a heavily secured entrance that leads to where my warlocks live and work. I will have an expressway, that leads quickly to the inner fort, but in case something actually live long enough to get passed the slaughterhouse....meh, probably not worth 'fortifying' the necromancer fort. Just keep hordes of zombies in it...

[Meph]

And none of this works, because it relies on invaders and fresh corpses, but no one sieges you in 40.24. ^^

[taldarus]

This is all for old version. Just wrote it up because I was going to regardless. (If I didn't write out my thoughts after playing, it would keep me awake)

Comments for new version are in the warlock channel.

[Immortal-D]

I heartily approve of updated MW Wiki.  So how exactly does one go about updating it?  If this is to be a community project, should we be posting entries here for review?  Submit to Meph first?  I've never actually edited a wiki of any sort, dunno the process.

[smakemupagus]

You just update it.

[taldarus]

I would be willing to chip in. Every time I play a game, I end up writing an analysis of the experience in my head. Putting it on the internet won't change much. Not familiar with Wiki process though. We are talking about the dfwiki masterwork section?

EDIT: Just tested my suspicion. Chinese internet user here. It gets a bit 'odd' when trying to work on the wiki. Would take me many hours to 'fix' and isn't worth it. If someone wants to use my stuff, feel free to move it. (I can't even upload pictures onto forums...)

[Immortal-D]

I was looking over the Dwarf Workshops pages, and the Shops which are currently present appear to have solid information.  However, there are many many which apply to old MW, so I'm thinking that distinguishing between Reborn and 'Original' would be a good idea.  I'm not sure of the best way to do this, short of delisting old pages from the current edition.

Few things to note-

There are two pages for Tailor, both of which list 'Rigid' versions of armor, a modifier that doesn't exist in Reborn.  Need to have specific details about the difference between 'item armor' and 'item-plate armor', plus verify the comparison to metals.

Scriptorium- Using the Manager, I was able to determine that Ink is created from Ash and Glue is made from Hoof/Horn.  However, when I went digging through the reactions files, I was unable to figure out exactly which Workshop those reactions take place at.

Ore Processor- The page simply describes Pure Ore as being more efficient, without listing amount of bars created compared to raw Ore.

That's all I've got for now, haven't made it to new Furnaces yet.

[thistleknot]

Choosing your civilization (race) in Masterwork Dwarf Fortress

Set the races that you want to populate your world by checking the "Active" column in the GUI.

Set the races that you want to be playable in fortress or adventure mode by checking the "Fort" or "Adv" column respectively in the in GUI.  You can set more than one Fort mode playable race, meaning that you can play more than one races' fortresses in the same world.

Create a world.  (More tips on generating worlds for MDF can be found elsewhere.  One important point is that if you enabled a lot of races, you have to have a big enough world with enough neutral biomes and enough civilization slots to accomodate everyone)

When you're ready to choose your embark location, hit TAB until you're on the Neighbors screen.



The race at the top is that of your parent civ (in this screenshot, it's the orcs).  All the other races are listed in order of proximity to the embark site, but the top one is always yours. 

If you want to change race, hit TAB until you're on the list of civilizations and pick a new civ.  Sometimes the names give it away: if you're the Craggy Anvils you might be from a dwarf civ; while if you're the Bloody Twilights you might be an orc civ.  Anyway, you can TAB back to the Neighbors screen again to check before finalizing your embark.

I tried following these instructions. 

I had "dwarves" at the top of my civilization list, and goblins second (just two). 

On another screen I had just one civilization name. 

Embarked as kobolds...

[FruitBird]

I have the neighbour screen in front of me, but how do i switch civilizations? No matter where i move my site in the world, it's still just dwarves at the top. I want to try my hand at humans, has anyone else figured this out?

[Putnam]

You don't move your site until the top one changes, you change your civilization so that the top one changes, which you do in the screen right before