Hi all
Just started playing this game in the last few days and watched loads of "lets play" vids so have most of the basics learnt OK. However there are some things i am struggling with and hope you can help.
Here goes..... (sorry its a bit lengthy)
1) FOOD - Farms
I only have 12 Dwarfs in current game and have 1 (competent dwarf) allocated to farming on two 4x4 farm plots both growing Plump Hemets. However my food supply is still going down. Any strategy tips for best use of Farms in the first year?
Do you supplement food with hunting and fishing and killing livestock.
My rule of thumb is 1 dedicated farmer every 25 tiles of farm for plump helmets and around 1 tile of farm per total dwarves ( Legendary farmers can support up to 3 dwarves per tile, though ). Pretty much first year is for plump helmet, year-around. Maybe check to see if you've had it set to plant each season?
I usually have hunting and livestocks, though I don't really need them per se, it's just out of habit of leaving hunters to do their things and wanting home-made leathers and bone
2) FOOD - Butchery
I have a butcher but there is no option to slaughter a live animal for meat - how do i kill say one of the animals that comes with the wagon so i can butcher it for meat (and skins??).
You can order them killed either through v-ing over them and selecting them to be butchered. Or alternatively you could use the z screen and the animal part to butcher them. It only works for tame animals, pets can't be butchered, and tame animals that dies can't be butchered either, unless they've been zombified and killed again
3) FOOD - Water
In my current game there are no rivers just a few small lakes on the top level. I was going to tunnel and create a room 2 levels below but how do i tunnel "up" to let the water flow down intio my reservoir? I assume that then i can place a well above the reservoir (i.e. the level just below the surface lake? Is this all going to work or are there better ways of achieving a water supply.
Will the surface lakes refill with water from rainfall?
Is it possible to place water in barrells so that i san store water instead of using a well?
Ramp can be used to dig 'up'. Murky pools will refill with rain, you can't make your own, sadly. And you can't barrel water up, though you can use minecarts to move water ( I have no experience in this area, just aware that it works ).
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Pressure I suggest reviewing this to make sure you don't accidentally flood yourself!
Well above any source of water will draw from it.
Using cavern water would be better option, if there're source of water from borders, however murky pool is acceptable for drinking and washing. And most likely somewhat safer if you walls it off for those purpose too
4) FOOD - Seeds
Related to 1 above i am also running low on seeds - are "Plump Helmet Spawn" counted a s seeds? Do i get more just by eating them (uncooked) and brewing them? Whats the best way to keep up a steady supply of seeds?
Spawns are seeds! And yes, you get more of them through either eating it raw, brewing it, or processing it in farmer's workshop. Cooking destroys seeds, though. Best way to keep up steady supply is to use plants that can be processed or brewed, so you can constantly work on them. However there are limit of 200 seeds!
5) FOOD - Keeping animals
I read that you can zone a pasture outside. Will the creatures hanging around the meeting room then go outside to eat or do i have to do something to make them use the pasture?
Is it possible to keep animals underground?
You need to assign the animals to pastures. I suggest using separate pastures for each grazing animals because they tend to crowd into a corner if they're all put into one and fight each other. And yes it is possible to pasture underground, after breaching cavern that have plant life in there!
Grazers aren't smart enough to move themselves to a pasture on their own, currently.
6) BOULDERS
How do you get rid of these (outside) as i think it is the reason the caravan passed me by - i don't seem to be able to mine them.
Smooth them, or build a paved road/floor over them. I suggest building a paved road to the map edge the caravan usually shows up at, it'll keep the tree out of the way too! And is valuable on their own too
7) COOKING/BREWING PERMISSIONS
There is a screen somewhere with cooking and brewing permissions - i don't really understand what this is doing - is it safe just to leave it on the default settings?
It pretty much let you tell cook and brewer what they can brew and cook. Or what NOT to brew and cook! I suggest at least disabling other seeds and booze from being cooked, so they don't fetch and turn them into meals! Default let booze and seeds that you didn't bring with you to be cooked. Brewing you can pretty much leave alone since you can do it on demand.
Thats it for now though am pretty sure i will have more questions as the game progresses 
many thanks
doc
Glad you're enjoying the game, I hope I've answered most of your immediate needs well
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Topic: A few questions from a new player (Read 909 times)