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[MehMuffin]

I can't remember if there is an intermediate stage of growth, but you should see plots as little wavy signs (Like water, but browner) when they are ready for planting but nothing is planted, brown equal signs when there is something planted, and eventually little plump helmets that look done, but cannot be harvested for a little while.  If you have equals signs, the plump helmets were planted.

[Farmerbob]

Does any advantage exist for a chain compared to a pen zone? Seems mile the latter is superior in anyway? In older version sometime animals moved from their pen zone, not so anymore, so basically this is like chaining, except you don't need a rope and can revoke (and thus free) the animal from a distance, which is quite handy.

If you are running a dog, cat, or bird meat factory, chains are handy.  They allow you to chain up a couple young animals of each sex, so you can safely butcher everything else without worrying about whoopsing and killing off your breeding stock.

[Garath]

Hi everyone, I have another question - let me just say thanks in advance for the awesome community that responds to desperate pleas like mine. You guys really are awesome, and I would have given up on the game long ago if it weren't for the quick responses on these forums.

you should know, many people here will give you perfectly good advice that should be followed and will still destroy your fort completely. And we all still remember how hard it was to get a grip on the game. I was at fort 3 before I lasted a year, 6 before I managed to keep off ambushes. The first siege was not a pleasant surprise. I've managed to kill my own forts more times by accident than the goblins have done me for.

[Farmerbob]

Hi everyone, I have another question - let me just say thanks in advance for the awesome community that responds to desperate pleas like mine. You guys really are awesome, and I would have given up on the game long ago if it weren't for the quick responses on these forums.

My first problem is that I can't get my farms to work. I have 3 dwarves set to farm, and they appear to have plowed most of my plots. I have also made certain that plump helmets are set to be planted in all seasons. But for some reason no planting is occurring, and I received the following message:

"Deruk Onulablel, Fish Cleaner cancels Plant Seeds: Needs plump helmet spawn."

I have plump helmet seeds in my stockpile, and I haven't used any yet as I'm just starting out. Does anyone know how to fix this?


EDIT: Just found a video tutorial; apparently if a plot is hoed that means stuff has been planted. My next question would be how do I tell if those hoed plots are actually producing anything? Will I see plants start to grow?

There are a couple harvests per season.  You should see plump helmet plants sitting on the fields when they ripen, unless you have so many slacker dwarves that they almost instantly harvest crops.

You can set options (o) so that only farmers harvest, but if you do that, make sure your farmers have few other things to do other than farm.

You also need to plant underground plants on underground tiles - if it's ever been exposed to sun, it's no longer technically underground by DF standards.  This does mean you can collapse an area, put a roof over it to seal the hole, and grow surface crops rather than underground crops.  Say, rope weed 4 seasons per year rather then pig tails for only 2...

[ClawlessVictory]

The rock throne will be built slowly, and be of poor quality, but it will be built.

What impact does a poorly made rock throne or other item have on gameplay?

[Nil Eyeglazed]

The rock throne will be built slowly, and be of poor quality, but it will be built.

What impact does a poorly made rock throne or other item have on gameplay?

It will have low room value, so dwarves won't be as happy.  (Quality affects different objects in different ways though.)

[DifferentFrogs]

I can't remember if there is an intermediate stage of growth, but you should see plots as little wavy signs (Like water, but browner) when they are ready for planting but nothing is planted, brown equal signs when there is something planted, and eventually little plump helmets that look done, but cannot be harvested for a little while.  If you have equals signs, the plump helmets were planted.

I discovered it was actually working all along; the trouble is, my dwarves are so industrious that once a plump helmet was grown they immediately put it straight in the stockpile so I never saw it happening!

I do have equals signs, so stuff is definitely growing. Thanks for the help 

[DifferentFrogs]

you should know, many people here will give you perfectly good advice that should be followed and will still destroy your fort completely. And we all still remember how hard it was to get a grip on the game. I was at fort 3 before I lasted a year, 6 before I managed to keep off ambushes. The first siege was not a pleasant surprise. I've managed to kill my own forts more times by accident than the goblins have done me for.

I don't doubt it! From all the stories I've heard, a fort can be running like clockwork one day, and the next day goblins invades and everyone goes completely bonkers.

So far though, my fort is all rainbows and sunshine - not a single negative encounter so far. I'm sure that will change...

[NTJedi]

You can decorate your items at a forge, craftdwarfs shop, jeweler, or clothier depending on whether you want it to be decorated in metal, bone, jewels, or cloth, respectively. You can decorate multiple times per category, but not multiple times per material (so you can encrust something with a diamond and a ruby, but not 2 rubies, for example.) AFAIK cloth embroidery only works on cloth items like bags and clothing.

EDIT: NINJA!

Thanks Sphalerite and monk12!!   

[vorpal+5]

After a good night of sleep, I'm still stuck with my Dwarven military problem (post  #637), let me rephrase then. When I don't order my military to station or kill, they go training in the barrack, which is good, but in doing so, they revert to their former job if any (cheesemaker etc.) and their icon change to a civilian icon (although they keep their equipment, which is good!).

I would like my military to rest and take leisure at time, but keeping their military profession and icon...

[zooeyglass]

After a good night of sleep, I'm still stuck with my Dwarven military problem (post  #637), let me rephrase then. When I don't order my military to station or kill, they go training in the barrack, which is good, but in doing so, they revert to their former job if any (cheesemaker etc.) and their icon change to a civilian icon (although they keep their equipment, which is good!).

I would like my military to rest and take leisure at time, but keeping their military profession and icon...

this sounds like a scheduling thing. In the 's'quads menu, are your squads set to active or inactive? It is 'a', I believe. If they are inactive, they are off duty, so they may choose to train, or they may doing any other tasks they feel like. They will revert to civilian status. (If you have set them to stay armoured when civilian, they will keep their kit. If not, they will dump all their armour & weapons.)
If, on the other hand, they are active in the squads menu, they will follow the schedule you have set for them under the 'm'ilitary menu (be that training, patrolling, or being off duty).

You can still give an inactive squad a station or kill order: it pulls them out of civilian status and forces them to move. As soon as you cancel the order, they will revert to being inactive.

[JLT]

After a good night of sleep, I'm still stuck with my Dwarven military problem (post  #637), let me rephrase then. When I don't order my military to station or kill, they go training in the barrack, which is good, but in doing so, they revert to their former job if any (cheesemaker etc.) and their icon change to a civilian icon (although they keep their equipment, which is good!).

I would like my military to rest and take leisure at time, but keeping their military profession and icon...

They'll only keep their military profession and icon when inactive if it's their highest skill (even if the other skill isn't enabled as labor). They should have their military icon when active/training and training is scheduled. Are you sure they're actually training on schedule or are they just doing individual combat drill? To have them training, you need to set them to active/training (s>choose squad>t). To change the schedule you press s>choose squad>s and edit the order with e.

[vorpal+5]

That was it, thanks the both of you, this is much appreciated to help people decipher the Dwarven Drilling Manual!

[greycat]

I do have equals signs, so stuff is definitely growing. Thanks for the help 

You can also use 't' to inspect the plots and see what's planted in each tile.  For example, one week after a season change, you might have a plot that's got some leftover plump helmet spawn planted in the previous season, and some rock nuts planted in the current season.

[GoldenShadow]

I lost my entire supply of cave wheat. I planted it at the end of the fall season. It switched to winter before any of them grew and the seeds all disapeared.