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[JimmyBobJr]

I just want to personally congratulate the DF forums. This here post starter posts a few basic questions that can honestly be answered with a google search or on the wiki, and instead of berrating the poor guy, we all knuckle down and try to help.

I have never seen this sort of community anywhere else ever.

I love this place.

[Findulidas]

Cutting down trees unnecessarily instead of using an alternative, pissing off the elves in the process, isn't considered dwarven now?

Anyone who wants to be some Armok-forsaken peace-mongerer is free to do so, but I will be flaunting my wooden barrels in front of the elves right before I cut off their fingers, just to add insult to murder.

Bins, cages, beds, training weps, charcoal, crutches and splints also the odd spiked ball for money and machine component. Even if barrels contain more stuff than pots the wood should be used for the other stuff mainly (some barrels might be needed on some workshops reactions though).

[kaijyuu]

Wood is only good for beds and throwing at elves.


If you want barrels and bins, well... what else are you going to do with all that friggin' native gold and tetrahedrite? Let it sit there unmined?

[Findulidas]

If you want barrels and bins, well... what else are you going to do with all that friggin' native gold and tetrahedrite? Let it sit there unmined?

Crafts and spiked balls (have you seen the value on these!?), statues if its for making dwarves happy. Also making them any of them usually takes wood as well.

[caddybear]

Rock pots, because wood involves going outside.

[kaijyuu]

Also making them any of them usually takes wood as well.

Ahem.

I think I am justified in posting this.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

MAAAAAGMAAAAAA1111!111!1!!!

[Findulidas]

Ahem.

I think I am justified in posting this.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

MAAAAAGMAAAAAA1111!111!1!!!

Yeah, well you need to get down there and get it up first or build the fort down there instead, but true once you get magma you dont need it for metals except steel. Still once you got magma you want more bins than ever.

[masquerine]

Keep in mind that while the goblin party will stop once the leader has been caged they will still react if something moves near them, like a kitten. Baiting them can force them into the traps. The good thing about kitten baiting is that if there is a path to the surface and they are not in a pasture, the kitten will freely roam looking for vermin to kill. This leaves you with a dwarf-free method of baiting.

It can also be a problem if your map is evil. That little adventuring kitten could wander out and become a zombie or something. I tend to keep them locked in the food stockpile room with a few no-pet doors, only to release some to bait when needed. Otherwise when kittens are born they'll high-tail it to the surface.

[GoldenShadow]

I got away with a minimal number of barrels.

Have 3 main food stockpiles.
1. Raw plant/ingredients
2. Booze only
3.Forbid all except prepared food. Set Barrel number to zero here.

If you stay on top of the raw ingredient stockpile and cook everything into large stacks. They don't even fit in barrels anyway. Turn off cooking for crap in single stacks, such as tallow. If you end up with too much clogging up your ingredients stockpile, don't be afraid to dump that crap into the magma pit if you can't use it for anything else. I go through the stockpile screens for food and dump everything stacked 4 or less. Grow farms with fertilizer with legendary growers. Grow quarry bushes, sweet pods, cavewheat, pigtails. End up with 1,000 prepared meals that will fit on a 10x10 stockpile.

You want the brewers to use large stacks of brewable plants. cavewheat[7] will make a barrel with 35 beer.
It is very efficient on:
a. space
b. barrel usage
c. hauling jobs

I create the entire years supply on alcohol and food in a month from the ingredients grown by two 4x4 farms on fertilizer. And this still leaves me with too many ingredients in the 1st stockpile.

Two 4x4 farms will feed and booze a Fort of 120 dwarfs

[Mushroo]

Agree 1000% with GoldenShadow's strategy, works like a dream for me.

The other tip I'll add is to trade small stack/low value agricultural products to the elves. Get rid of all your tallow, hide root seeds, and prickle berry [2] stacks through trade. Not only are they fairly worthless but they take up valuable space/barrels/pots/bags.

In fact if you do not have a highly-skilled planter, then it is actually more efficient to not farm and rather brew purchased plant stacks (which always come in 5's) supplemented with plenty of meat, eggs, fish, etc. for food.

[GavJ]

If you want barrels and bins, well... what else are you going to do with all that friggin' native gold and tetrahedrite? Let it sit there unmined?

Crafts and spiked balls (have you seen the value on these!?), statues if its for making dwarves happy. Also making them any of them usually takes wood as well.

I don't know if spiked balls count as edged weapons, but make sure to compare their value to serrated discs and axe blades.  "Edged" weapon components are worth twice as much as the [already insanely valuable] non-edged ones.

And statues are not as good for making dwarves happy as levers or gear assemblies built in their rooms (mechanisms = 30x multiplier, statues only 25x).  Weapon traps are even better, since you get to use a 30x multiplier mechanism AND an aforementioned super valuable serrated disc or whatever, all of which counts to room value in one square.  Masterwork hematite mechanism + a couple of masterwork serrated discs with decorations (adding up to the same three base stones as a statue) can be worth almost as much as some artifact furniture.

Also gold statues weigh like 13000 pounds or something and make your dwarves move about 1/10 as fast as they normally do, so I hope the forge isn't far from the bedrooms!

ALSO gold statues use metalcrafting, which likely hasn't been trained up much.  weapon traps use weaponsmithing and mechanics, which your dwarves should already be much more skilled at due to just defending your fort.

[Loud Whispers]

I don't know if spiked balls count as edged weapons

They're blunt. Silver wrecking balls ftw.

[GavJ]

I don't know if spiked balls count as edged weapons

They're blunt. Silver wrecking balls ftw.

Right okay, so if you're selling them, then you should make serrated discs instead.  if you're using them for traps, then go for a variety, of course (or if you know exactly what's going into your traps, customize!)

[SRD]

I thought spiked balls count as pierce and blunt at the same time.

[Loud Whispers]

I thought spiked balls count as pierce and blunt at the same time.

Nope, blunt. They have an adequately small contact area though