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[khearn]

What about with traders?  I always offer them more value than what I'm asking for and they always get fed up and don't trade with me...

I usually offer about 50% more than I'm getting and they are happy with that. Often ecstatic. Considering how easy it is to produce high value stuff, this isn't hard to do. A dozen turkeys on nest boxes and one decent cook and you can buy everything you might want. Or a dozen order of gold crafts. or a few large, serrated discs of whatever metal you have lying about.

[white_darkness]

I normally shoot for about a 2k profit for the traders.  They rarely complain if ever.

[jonsnow]

is it possible to have grazers live off cave moss?

[white_darkness]

Yes.  Underground pastures are a common way to keep your stock o' sheep away from sieges.

[Monk321654]

is it possible to have grazers live off cave moss?

They'll live off anything classified as floor growing stuff.
Mountain Avens?
Yep.
Floor Fungus?
You bet.
Tentacle Grass?
Sure.

[i2amroy]

I normally shoot for about a 2k profit for the traders.  They rarely complain if ever.

You can give them closer profit margins after several years of taking home large profits. After several years of letting traders leave with several thousand dwarfbucks in profit I pulled off a 25,000 dwarfbuck trade with the traders only taking about 800 in profit and they didn't even bother to make a counter-offer and just accepted the deal.

[jonsnow]

OKAY so I gave up on the haunted areas, too hard to do anything and I like having animals

So I've been trying frozen wastelands.  Everything goes well except for aqueducts!  They are a nightmare.  I have no idea how to deal with them.  I dig down, and dig around constantly building stairs down to check for water.  Okay.  So the whole area is full of water, and I don't want to end up having my guys have to walk a mile to get where they need to go. 

So then I get this bright idea.  It's freezing outside.  I'll channel my way down to the aqueduct and turn it into ICE!   Then I'll mine through it.  Start my base that way.  Welp.  Little did I know that when you dig into a non frozen area, there's enough time for the miner to go into the water before it freezes, thus freezing and killing them.  Lost all my miners.  Didn't build a farm yet.  Everyone's going stark raving mad and chasing bunnies.

Tips for Aqueducts?

[peri609667]

OKAY so I gave up on the haunted areas, too hard to do anything and I like having animals

So I've been trying frozen wastelands.  Everything goes well except for aqueducts!  They are a nightmare.  I have no idea how to deal with them.  I dig down, and dig around constantly building stairs down to check for water.  Okay.  So the whole area is full of water, and I don't want to end up having my guys have to walk a mile to get where they need to go. 

So then I get this bright idea.  It's freezing outside.  I'll channel my way down to the aqueduct and turn it into ICE!   Then I'll mine through it.  Start my base that way.  Welp.  Little did I know that when you dig into a non frozen area, there's enough time for the miner to go into the water before it freezes, thus freezing and killing them.  Lost all my miners.  Didn't build a farm yet.  Everyone's going stark raving mad and chasing bunnies.

Tips for Aqueducts?

Aqueducts? Why are you having so much trouble moving water around through your own plumbing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct

Did you mean Aquifer perchance? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquifer

[jonsnow]

lol yes aquifer sorry had a brain fart   Probably because I've been watching the Rome TV series by HBO lately

[peri609667]

lol yes aquifer sorry had a brain fart   Probably because I've been watching the Rome TV series by HBO lately

Ok, well as you've probably figured out by now an Aquifer is a layer of water trapped between layers of soil and rock. As you've also probably figured out by now, they're a great source of FUN for new players. My personal recommendation for dealing with Aquifers at your skill level is to avoid them, for now. When picking an embark site just change the Aquifer option to "no" and it will automatically exclude areas with them. Practice the other game mechanics in these areas first. When you're satisfied that you can reliably create a fortress that can survive on its own for at least a few years, embark in an area with Aquifers. By this point you'll likely have the knowledge needed to pass through.

Keep in mind that Aquifers are booth a boon and a bane. They're useful because they provide a permanent underground source of water, which allows you to keep a functional disease free hospital without forcing your medical staff to sprint out to the goblin ambush serene riverbed. It also keeps your dwarves "alive" if you run out of booze for the same reason (don't ever let that happen though, it's bad news bears). The downside to Aquifers is that they're a permanent underground source of water, which means that one improperly placed designation and your entire fortress will be getting an impromptu swimming lesson, survival of the fittest style. Keeping this in mind you should try and get past the Aquifer so that you aren't stuck on the first few z levels forever, but also leave it intact so that you can make use of it when you need it.

[LumberingOaf]

If you really want to breach that aquifer, the ice method is entirely valid with just a slight tweak. The full method for using ice to break through is available at: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Aquifer but in short, dig up/down stairs into everything before you channel it, it'll stop your dwarves dying.

[Alidus]

I highly recommend a manufactured waterfall somewhere that your dwarfs all have to pass by it at some point. You can build one easily with a pumpstack and windmill, having it perpetually move a 1 square artificial pond.

Along with a dining hall, a dorm, and maybe a statue garden, this will keep the majority of your dwarfs ecstatic - they won't even need individual rooms except for nobles. If they get too cranky you can smack them under a bridge and nobody will care - or will get over it really fast anyway.

[Dwarfler]

The best advice I can give you as a beginning player is to keep it simple with your first few forts.  Once you have a handle on how to manage a relatively easy setup, then you can start messing around with more difficult things like aquifers and haunted biomes.  Pick a non-evil embark site with no aquifer, plenty of wood and at least some metals.  Use the site finder if you have to.  Set up the basic industries you *need* first, then start adding on the extras one by one.  If you find yourself getting overwhelmed by 50+ dwarves, edit the init files to limit your population to 30 or 40.  As others have mentioned, use the job manager feature to simplify task oversight.  Use decorative furnishings to keep your fort beautiful and room values high, this will create happy thoughts to counter the negative things that happen to your dwarves.  If managing animals is a problem for you, then don't bother with them until you're more confident in your mastery of the game.  Dwarf Fortress is almost unimaginably complex - simplify it, get a handle on the basics, then add complexity as you go, at your own pace.  You'll be breaching aquifers and making waterfalls in no time.

[Garath]

^
might try easier embarks untill you got your fort building skills honed

[Leonon]

Here's a good guide on how to breach aquifers using pumps and constructed walls. You'll need at least 1 screw pump. Your wagon deconstructs into 3 wood of which you'll need 2 for the pipe and corkscrew. You can also bring more wood on embark, it's pretty cheap. You can probably make the walls and the block for the pump out of mined ice.