Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Major SNAFU]

Hi all,

I think I am getting the hang of many of the basics - but I am really struggling with farming.

I am just ready to stat mucking about with water channeling, etc  underground - but I have dug a new minifortress away from the main one because I expect problems.

But I can't get even above ground farms working.

I designate a farm, I have been harvesting plants for some time and brewing from them - but I still have no seeds available.  I believe that I am successfully brewing from the plants.

In a realted questions, Even though I have additional swathes of land designated for harvesting plants no dwarf is doing it even though they are not busy doing anything else.

Most other things seem to be working in a rudimentary fashion.

I am using 40d at the moment.

As a side note:  I find it interesting that all of the tutorials so far seem to gloss over the moving/getting water underground to set up your first farm. 

I don't know why I am struggling with this so much.  From the tutorials, etc. it seem like this should be a no-brainer, but it is the one thing really holding me back.

I think I understand the requirements at this point, I just don't yet understand how to accomplish them.

As a side note, are their recommendations for what skills the first 7 dwarves should have.  Each one having only one skill seems not quite what is needed.

Thanks,

SNAFU

[Tsuko]

For 40d farming i don't think you even need water, just soil and the correct seeds (i.e: above ground vs underground seeds).

In the latest version if you do underground farming you will need a muddy floor, which u can get through watering your floor. (i like to use the small muddy water pools)
Beware about watering your smoothed floor because the dwarves will treat the mud as dirt and will attempt to CLEAN it which makes farming impossible.
Gotta be rough floor.

7 starting dwarves.. depend on climate you embark onto but a max skilled MINER, MASON, GROWER, COOKER, BREWER, A little of everything dwarf, and a LEADER DWARF (with social/trading skills)
I also like to bring with me lots of alchohol and meat to get lots of drinks and barrels/food.

[Dave Mongoose]

I designate a farm, I have been harvesting plants for some time and brewing from them - but I still have no seeds available.  I believe that I am successfully brewing from the plants.

What kind of plants? Brewing should give you back seeds, but not all plants can be brewed.

By 'harvesting plants', you mean the fields have been planted and crops have grown? Are you checking the stocks page to see if you are really out of seeds? When setting up your fields, make sure to set the plants for each season so that your farmers keep replanting.

In a realted questions, Even though I have additional swathes of land designated for harvesting plants no dwarf is doing it even though they are not busy doing anything else.

Here you mean 'Gather plants' in the [d]esignate menu? Make sure you have a herbalist: a dwarf with 'gather plants' enabled - dwarves will only do jobs that are enabled in their labor settings (press 'v' to view units, move the cursor to the dwarf you want to work as your herbalist, press 'p' for preferences, then press 'l' for labor and scroll through the list and press enter to turn a job on/off).

As Tsuko mentioned: in 40d you can grow plants on soil or sand without watering it first - look for walls that are brown, red or yellow and have a /// pattern, or areas of floor that are green (grass) or that are yellow, white, gray or red with '~' symbols on.

[Major SNAFU]

Thanks.

I have not been able to create an underground farm in 40d as it says I need soil or mud.

I must not yet have the correct above ground seeds, but I am doing everything I can (could find in the wiki) about trying to get some.

I very much fear that this first fortress is going down due to lack of food.

Also, I don't have a "leader dwarf"  I used the example from captduck.  I did add a few additional skills, but not trading.

Ah well.

[Major SNAFU]

I designate a farm, I have been harvesting plants for some time and brewing from them - but I still have no seeds available.  I believe that I am successfully brewing from the plants.

What kind of plants? Brewing should give you back seeds, but not all plants can be brewed.

By 'harvesting plants', you mean the fields have been planted and crops have grown? Are you checking the stocks page to see if you are really out of seeds? When setting up your fields, make sure to set the plants for each season so that your farmers keep replanting.

I mean the gather plants.  There is nothing to harvest because I have not successfully planted a farm.  When I try to plant a farm, the dialog does not show any seeds as available.  I do have a dwarf with the herbalist skill, but I didn't enable him - that may be the problem.  But then what has the brewer been brewing with if none of the plants were gathered?

In a realted questions, Even though I have additional swathes of land designated for harvesting plants no dwarf is doing it even though they are not busy doing anything else.

Here you mean 'Gather plants' in the [d]esignate menu? Make sure you have a herbalist: a dwarf with 'gather plants' enabled - dwarves will only do jobs that are enabled in their labor settings (press 'v' to view units, move the cursor to the dwarf you want to work as your herbalist, press 'p' for preferences, then press 'l' for labor and scroll through the list and press enter to turn a job on/off).

As Tsuko mentioned: in 40d you can grow plants on soil or sand without watering it first - look for walls that are brown, red or yellow and have a /// pattern, or areas of floor that are green (grass) or that are yellow, white, gray or red with '~' symbols on.

I will dive back in and see if I can make headway.  These little tips may just get me going.

Thanks

SNAFU

[Marconius]

Dwarves consider sand soil... also clay... yeah...

Generally in 40d, you can just dig a layer underground and plant plump helmets and stuff there.

Make sure some of your Dwarves have Farming (Fields) enabled, that should be the labor for planting seeds. All dwarves should gather the harvest, until you changed that in orders, so no need to bother with that (otherwise I think it's Plant Gathering).

Oh, and in 40d, you don't need to muddy soil. You can plant on sand right away, which is handy!

[Major SNAFU]

Thanks fpr all the help.  I have farms up and running in 40d now.

It was a close thing.  I ran out of food for a while, but things are shaping up now.