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[Poindexterity]

I've never understood why people are in such a hurry to build bedrooms, dining hall, etc. That is a Year 2 project in my forts.

I've never understood why so many people embark with carpenters and masons, skills which take about 2.5 seconds to get til level 5 and for which the actual skill levels offer little tangible benefit until very high levels. But they do it anyway, and every single tutorial on the whole damn internet recommends it.

i stopped doing that after the first few embarks.

[simonthedwarf]

I've never understood why people are in such a hurry to build bedrooms, dining hall, etc. That is a Year 2 project in my forts.

I've never understood why so many people embark with carpenters and masons, skills which take about 2.5 seconds to get til level 5 and for which the actual skill levels offer little tangible benefit until very high levels. But they do it anyway, and every single tutorial on the whole damn internet recommends it.

its simple, while masonry is easy to train later (and you will probably use them en masse) its really boring to sit around waiting for masons to do simple stuff when theres mining to be done, beds to be constructed. plus it drains out the stone faster for those of who do not cheat but actually remove or use up the annoying dirty ocd-opposing stone

2.5s for level 5 is pretty exagerrated, it does take more than this to leve lup mason from dabbling to 5

i mean what are you guys even doing the 1st year if bedrooms and dining tables are year 2 projects

small animal dissecting? shiat dont even work on most vermin

[kaijyuu]

I dig out bedrooms/etc first thing, 'cause where the hell else am I going to get stone for starting projects? Plus if I do it while my miners are still novices, I don't get as much crap stone.


Digging to the magma sea, starting up metalworking, military arming, etc, THAT is year 2 stuff.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

i mean what are you guys even doing the 1st year if bedrooms and dining tables are year 2 projects

Can't speak for anybody else, but personally, I often do very similar to BigFatStupidHead was asking about in the OP: I start with as many dedicated military dwarves as I can, and I start them training as soon as I can.  That leaves me a miner/cheesemaker/brewer/planter/stonecrafter/weaver/mechanic/butcher/tanner/leatherworker.

When the first migration wave comes, I dedicate one to bookkeeping, one to stonecrafting (for the first caravan, nice to be able to buy stuff), one to farming, and one to brewing, pretty much in that order (although sometimes I need a mason and a pump operator if there's an aquifer).

I make do with one or two beds in the hallway and two tables until the next wave.

[KodKod]

i mean what are you guys even doing the 1st year if bedrooms and dining tables are year 2 projects

Making cheese. That's my top priority.

[Garath]

Student increases the learning of ANY skill? Are you joking?

no, I was asking

[MenacesWithSpikes]

i mean what are you guys even doing the 1st year if bedrooms and dining tables are year 2 projects

Stockpiles for just about everything.  I don't usually bother with individual bedrooms during the first year, though I'll probably dig out a dormitory.

[kardwill]

-diagnosis
-wound dressing
-suturing
-surgery
-setting bones
-dodger
-shield user
-swordsdwarf
-armor user
-fighter

Let these six morons learn their jobs as the need arises. I'll keep them alive.
(And those skills are a bitch to train, esp. the medical ones...)

[Werdna]

I've never understood why so many people embark with carpenters and masons, skills which take about 2.5 seconds to get til level 5 and for which the actual skill levels offer little tangible benefit until very high levels. But they do it anyway, and every single tutorial on the whole damn internet recommends it.

*shrug*  A mason constructs all your first tables, chairs, doors, statues, etc.  Bring a proficient mason on your embark, make these typical things, and those *quality* items will be a huge source of happy thoughts by the end of year 1.  By the time you've got a good chunk of the fort carved out and are starting to fill it with furniture, he's now cranking out masterworks.  Dwarves can't walk five urists without passing a dozen masonry products, a good mason is a virtual fountain of happy-thoughts.

Same thing with bringing a cook.  They level fast, so why not start at Proficient and have a leg up on Legendary?  From Day 1 my guys are eating quality meals, and he'll be pumping out masterwork meals on a regular basis that much sooner.

[GavJ]

I make 3 different maxxed out miners, at least, for embark.  By far the most important skill, since at that point in the fort, everybody else tends to sit on their ass waiting for stuff to get hollowed out for them to work with otherwise.

Masonry is the only other skill i must have a maxxed out dwarf in, for early furniture, doors, mechanisms, quick defensive bridge building, blah blah, all done as rapidly as possible to keep others busy.

Most other things you can probably do without / learn on the job without much problem posed to the fort, IMO.

[Mushroo]

i mean what are you guys even doing the 1st year if bedrooms and dining tables are year 2 projects

Year 1 most of my wood goes to charcoal/ash, and most of my stone goes to rock pots (or mugs if that's going to be my trade good, which it usually isn't). Stonecrafter is much more valuable in Year 1 than mason, IMHO.

My Year 1 goals are usually:
1. stockpile lots of food/drink
2. get an early start on the military (hunters and wrestlers)
3. decide what my trade good(s) are going to be (often randomly determined by arrival of highly-skilled migrants)

After the traders have come and gone, that first winter, then I start designing the permanent fortress and digging out meeting halls, dining rooms, stockpiles, bedrooms, etc.

[Naryar]

So this is now a "what skills do you bring on embark" thread ?

OK, so...

1 Proficient Miner/Proficient Mechanic
1 Novice Miner/Proficient Mason/Competent Stonecrafter/*another random skill, possibly engraver*
1 Proficient Grower/Competent Cook/Adequate Brewer
1 Proficient Weaponsmith, with other metalworking skills
1 Novice Miner, Judge of Intent, Appraiser, Pacifier, Negociator, Competent Engraver and sometimes novice jeweler
1 Proficient Carpenter (good beds), maybe woodcutter, maybe other skills like bone carver or something
1 Proficient Animal Trainer (now that animal training level matters), Novice Butcher/Tanner/Competent Leatherworker

[Brotato]

(The kissing avatar weirds me out...... I dislike all forms of Publicly displayed affection...)

Please. I'm not the kind of Christian who screams gay hatred.  But it's just too much.  I wouldn't want to see a heterosexual couple kissing as an avatar either.

[Noodz]

@op: Just turn on all farmer class jobs. You will need to bend over backwards to make him skilled in some of them, but by the time you got it, jack will be an awesome jack of all trades that can only do mediocre things.

@the the derailed thread: i am slowly but surely convincing myself that you are better off starting with 7 no skill peasants with loads of supplies and a throng of dogs for breeding purposes. But i still have a few favorites:
*Mechanic: can easily substitute stone crafts for the first caravan. Also, if you are trap happy like i am, you can start stockpiling on those MW mechanisms early on
*Grower: they can take a while to get to legendary, and i love legendary growers because they make huge stacks
*Armorsmith/weaponsmith: not really necessary since you can train them (especially weaponsmith mass producing trap components/bolts), but it's another skill where i like to have a shortcut. Also, disable any job which increases moodable skills to get an early shot at an artifact weapon/armor

Some odd choices of mine:
*Brewer: not necessary, but deep down i like to think that even the most repulsive dwarven mudhole can make booze that makes the best human drinks taste like moose urine
*Potter: VERY circumstancial. Most embarks don't need one, but if you embark on a volcano with fire clay you can spam early wealth at absurd levels. And i can only imagine what you can do with kaolinite, magma and a legendary potter. Bear in mind i REFUSE to make ANY kind of rock pot, so a potter is a wood saver for me
*Pacifier/consoler: from time to time i embark with a socialite and make him do only social stuff. A player-mandated noble if you will o_O

Why i dont buy the following skills
Miners: i prefer embarks on soil layers, and i like making huge fungus pastures/forests and early breaching of caverns. With all that soil digging, i can train miners pretty fast.
Masons: just isolate a dwarf and make him build rock blocks for a year. I like surplus rock blocks

[Mushroo]

I forgot to add that the immigrant algorithm is weighted toward skills you DON'T have, so if you do not embark with a carpenter or mason, there is a good chance you'll get one in the first migrant wave that is better (High Master etc) than you could have embarked with...