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[semm11]

Hi, I'm pretty new to the game and I have a question or two about embark profiles

1) Is there any way to save the custom profession titles along with the profile?  Its hard to remember what skills the Dwarves each have otherwise

2) How important is it for the dwarves to have attributes in line with their skills?  Every time I make a new set of 7 dwarves, the one with the right attributes to be a good broker, for instance, might not be the same # on the list.

3)  whats with the errors when loading a profile?  What causes it not to save all my equipment or skills?

Thanks in advance!

[i2amroy]

1)Not that I know of.
2)In general for most professions:
skill level > attributes > preferences
The few exceptions are with legendary military and the like, where attributes determine the maximum cap on how powerful the dwarves can become (of course a legendary well equipped military dwarf can still wipe the floor with most enemies, so the point is probably moot).
3)The errors occur when a civilization doesn't have access to the requested items. For example not all civilizations might have access to iron, or to a particular stone or plant that you requested. this will cause those errors to appear when the embark profile requests those items.

[Xinael]

1) You might find it easier to keep track of if you use Dwarf Therapist. I find it's relatively easy to keep track of what people's trained skills are at least to begin with - simply because you don't have many dwarves and they don't have many skills - but later on when you have more dwarves, and for tracking skills that you enabled without any training, I find that Therapist is the best solution. Now that it shows happiness and job status as well I find I use it just as much if not more than the units screen.

[gestahl]

2) Most ppl take a gen. admin dwarf. As long as you don't pick one that will make crazy demands later, all is well.
3) Fish will generally cause an error as well, telling you the civ doesn't have pond turtles/etc when they do (i think it's if you pick female ones)

[xcorps]

2) Most ppl take a gen. admin dwarf. As long as you don't pick one that will make crazy demands later, all is well.
3) Fish will generally cause an error as well, telling you the civ doesn't have pond turtles/etc when they do (i think it's if you pick female ones)

How can you tell if he will make crazy demands?

[i2amroy]

If he has a preference for something that is difficult to make/acquire (such as lay pewter) or something that you depend on for trading (such as goblets) then you might want to reconsider him as a leader. Dwarves that have useful/easy to find preferences (such as shields, or copper) generally make better leaders in that they are less of a pain in dealing with.

[jimboo]

Embarking is not really any big deal, since it turns out that preferences and attributes don’t have much effect on skilling up (I’m sure they will in some future release but as yet, they don’t).  Pick your nicest dwarf to be Leader and along with the standard qualities, load him up as Pacifier and Consoler; goes a long way to mitigating tantrums. 

Picking a Noble – that’s a big deal.  One of your migrants will fit the bill if one of your first seven doesn’t.  My Duchess is a sweet young thing who likes copper and hatch covers, no biggie.  Picking a noble who likes adamantine or such is asking for Fun.  My biggest pain is the dwarves keep re-electing a mayor who likes large gems … but then, ignoring him when he’s peeved is no biggie, either.  He gets over it in a month or so when he remembers the nice quarters he's living in.

[Sutremaine]

If he has a preference for something that is difficult to make/acquire (such as lay pewter)

Dwarves don't make material-based requests any more. Demands, yes, but nobody gets punished for ignoring those.

[Hurkyl]

Embarking is not really any big deal, since it turns out that preferences and attributes don’t have much effect on skilling up (I’m sure they will in some future release but as yet, they don’t).

But in the short term, the preference means many more exceptional quality items among your very first items (e.g. your first 7 beds, your initial dining room, your first set of metal armor). Whether that actually matters is another question.

[jimboo]

But in the short term, the preference means many more exceptional quality items among your very first items (e.g. your first 7 beds, your initial dining room, your first set of metal armor). Whether that actually matters is another question.

Preferences?  Not so much, really.  Use the initial points to make your starting seven Proficient in the needed skills (Grower, Carpenter, Mechanic, your choice).  They'll start off making good quality goods whether they are "creative" or not and will still skill up by the experience.  That's the part that will likely change in some future release.  I look for an agile Grower and a patient Herbalist (2nd set of skills, for the first year when there's no chance of an ambush), a helpful Leader and a quasi-smart bookkeeper (usually the Leader) but the others, it doesn't seem to much matter.  I used to spend a lot of time picking embark skills based on preferences and attributes such and then read in one of the Talks where it doesn't yet make much difference.  A dwarf is HAPPIER when working with materials he likes, but there are many ways to keep dorfs ectastically happy.  My Grower and Carpenter are typically the only ones who make Legendary before some migrant comes along with better skills, anyhow.

[Hurkyl]

Preferences?  Not so much, really.  Use the initial points to make your starting seven Proficient in the needed skills (Grower, Carpenter, Mechanic, your choice).  They'll start off making good quality goods whether they are "creative" or not and will still skill up by the experience.  That's the part that will likely change in some future release.  I look for an agile Grower and a patient Herbalist (2nd set of skills, for the first year when there's no chance of an ambush), a helpful Leader and a quasi-smart bookkeeper (usually the Leader) but the others, it doesn't seem to much matter.  I used to spend a lot of time picking embark skills based on preferences and attributes such and then read in one of the Talks where it doesn't yet make much difference.  A dwarf is HAPPIER when working with materials he likes, but there are many ways to keep dorfs ectastically happy.  My Grower and Carpenter are typically the only ones who make Legendary before some migrant comes along with better skills, anyhow.

The last science I recall reading on the topic, preferences had a very noticeable effect at lower skill levels (e.g. proficient) but not so much when near legendary.

From experience, if I embarked with a proficient weaponsmith/armorer with a preference for war hammers and made equipment for 7 dwarves, I think I would expect to see 6-7 exceptional war hammers, but the armor to be a more balanced mix between finely-crafted, superior, and exceptional. (but then, this is just anecdotal, of course)

[jimboo]

You could be right.  I ran the tests once on a Glassmaker as he skilled up from starting Proficient (because, nobody else had) but I can’t seem to find the data just now, I’m scheduled to be offline or airport WiFi for a couple of days and anyhow, it likely wasn’t detailed enough for statistical validity.  I emphasize Mechanics because ToadyOne confirmed the quality of the mechanism determines how fast/effective a cage trap is so my guy works 24/7 and starts off with mostly superior and exceptional; I know others have run those numbers but I can’t find ‘em at the moment with an SMF keyword search.  Armorsmiths – I’ve never paid much attention so you could well be right.  I use my starting Armorsmith and Weaponsmith to get everyone outfitted and then train every peasant who comes by in metalsmithing, clothing or weaving hoping to influence the mood.  I still get a lot of craftdwarves … meanwhile, my starting Weaponsmith gets pretty good after making serrated discs for trading and all those silver bolts and enough crossbows to have several masterworks.