Replica and P(ony)SI, thanks for updating the caste guide.
It could use the info that these castes have special properties:
* MUSICIAN (Needs a Note and not Composition to perform Music, making the process much more efficient. Increased buffs to listeners, from *1.02 to *1.10 in some attributes for a week. Can also play Vinyl's, Octavia's or Lyra's music, with the appropriate artiffacts, which give *1.20 boost for a week.) Castes: EARTH_FMUS, EARTH_MMUS, UNICORN_FMUS, UNICORN_MMUS
* COMEDIAN (Needs a Note and not Composition to perform Comedy, making the process much more efficient. Increased buffs to listeners, from *1.02 to *1.10 in some attributes for a week.) Castes: EARTH_F56, EARTH_M56, UNICORN_F56, UNICORN_M56
* LEADER (Needs a Note and not Composition to perform Speech, making the process much more efficient. Increased buffs to listeners, from *1.02 to *1.10 in some attributes for a week.) Castes: EARTH_F55, EARTH_M55, UNICORN_F55, UNICORN_M55, EARTH_FMAS, EARTH_MMAS, UNICORN_FMAS, UNICORN_MMAS, EARTH_FCAP, EARTH_MCAP, UNICORN_FCAP, UNICORN_MCAP
These "inspiration" bonuses don't stack with each other and only one can be active at any moment, but building a theater in the barracks and in some high-traffic area should be worth it for any overseer with some spare paper. If your noble is a leader, it is also climatic to have him perform occasional speeches. Of course you have to use workshop profiles for this.
> > The soldiers caught up in each other's skills a bit, but didn't progress much otherwise. Their highest skills are at about 6 and they barely have any shield user.
> Default training in DF isn’t as effective as it should be. I personally prefer equipping my ponies with training weapons and pitting them against captured creatures, or using a danger room in emergencies.
I know, I'm just trying to find a good training method. Some people manage to get legendaries after a year of training. Well, I don't.
One thing you could do to counteract this is increasing learning rates of Dodge and Armour User for all ponies and even more for security castes.
> > So far I haven't been able to trade rough gems with a caravan, except glass.
> Hmm…I haven’t commenced my own tests yet, but I may just give rock farming yields another boost.
If rough gems can't be bought from caravans (I think it is so, but am still testing this), then you could also consider:
* Removing [PRODUCT:50:1:SMALLGEM:NONE:GET_MATERIAL_FROM_REAGENT:A:NONE] from Arcane Gemcrafting starion to prevent a loop.
* Adding the reaction to uncut small gems to Arcane Gemcrafting Station, so we can use gems from the caravan. If you don't like the idea, uncutting large gems would work too, but would be more expensive and less efficient.
I need a lot of stones for furniture, blocks and other things, so I'm stingy with spending it on rock grinding.
Since silk is needed for advanced scrolls and arcane research and even after opening the caverns it is quite scarce, would you consider modding in Silk Roses from Loosing is Magic?
Another chunk of an update:
After clearing an 80x80 square from trees, low and medium quality salvage, and making bronze maybe 3 or 5 times (9-15 scrap ore), I'm left with 20 scrap ore. Converted to bronze this is about 80 bars (and some things take up to 3 bars to make), but when my biofuel refinery is up and running, this will barely be enough for a few steel weapons. I may have to resort to smelting Galena into bronze to save on scrap after all. Still this is only my first half-year. In 0.88 I had 500+ scrap ore after 5+ years of collecting it, so maybe time and clearing all the surface will give me more.
I guess trees are sparser here than the last map. Maybe 4 times sparser. Deforestation of the whole 4x4 embark seems possible within the first two years, while normally I can't do that at all.
I modded the permit on hood to be 28. This allows for a security / combat helmet, and a head wrapping, but not a Power armour helmet. You want to make this at least 20 to allow for most helmets to fit under hoods.
11th February
Servitor is the Expedition Leader for some reason and the Liaison follows him around. There is so much to do, that they can't find any time to talk.
Dodger and Dolphin are Sparring. The current military skills are:
Sunny 4 Axe, 3 Dodge, 5 Fighter, 5 Armour User, 3 Shield User, 0 Crutch Walker
Dodger 2 Axe, 5 Dodge, 4 Fighter, 1 Armour User, 2 Shield User, 3 Crutch Walker
Dolphin 6 Axe, 2 Dodge, 4 Fighter, 2 Armour User, 2 Shield User, Not Invalid.
I don't even know how to check this, but I think that Security Barding and normal horseshoes leave some part of the legs exposed. A lot of military ponies get nasty cuts on their hooves.
26th February
A raider thief comes along. The security is told to deal with him. They are wearing their helmets now. He managed to escape. Oh well, at least nopony got hurt. It pays off to have cats as an early warning system.
28th February
Another thief and some Radhogs. No big deal.
1st March.
A rather uneventful year has passed. The current military skills are:
Sunny 4 Axe, 4 Dodge, 5 Fighter, 5 Armour User, 3 Shield User, 1 Crutch Walker
Dodger 2 Axe, 5 Dodge, 4 Fighter, 2 Armour User, 2 Shield User, 3 Crutch Walker
Dolphin 6 Axe, 2 Dodge, 4 Fighter, 3 Armour User, 2 Shield User, Not Invalid.
I guess this training method doesn't work that well. Next time I'll try (1 Axe, 5 Dodge, 4 Teacher) plus (1 Axe, 5 Armour User, 4 Teacher).
18th March
27 migrants arrive, bringing us to target population of 40. Two of them are foals and most of them aren't good at anything useful. Only a few of those ponies are quite skilled. There are also some potential soldiers, including gunners.
Heh, got myself a Red Eye clone. "His natural charisma allows him to convince others easily." and a burnt away Cutie Mark.
It will be a while before I sort these guys out and re-organize the army. Unfortunately the teacher squad hasn't progressed much and isn't ready for their intended role. This also means relieving Servitor from enough duties so he finally speaks to the liaison and I can try to order rough gems, which was one of the purposes of this Stable. The other was testing a method to train military.
On the plus side I have 3 sheriffs (Star and Sabers CM, View range 40), a gunner and 2 unopened packs of pellets, so I'll get some ranged support at last.