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[Ragnar Gullfaxi]

It is about my 3rd of 4th attempt to break into the Dwarf Fortress.. and I finally feel like I am making some headway. The Lazy Newb pack helped quite a bit and various tutorials on Youtube really have helped.

I've managed to survive a winter and feel like I have a good grasp of most of the basics.

I haven't yet delved into the metalsmithing aspects of the game yet, which I plan to do next. I also have a strong urge to create some kind of water based trap system for use in sieges and ... unwanted caravans. 

So yes, back to my topic title, if you could give me (and any other relatively new fortress administrator) one piece of advice, what would it be.

Some tips on the metalworking side of things would really be appreciated too!

[Snaake]

Not necessarily for you, but for new players in general: You can always wall yourself in to be safe from attackers, but it will probably be boring eventually.

[Matoro]

It's extremely hard to give only one piece of advice, but I can try. Probably the most important advice would be "read wiki - all of it. When you start metalsmithing, read wiki pages that handle weaponsmithing. When you build water-based traps, read articles trap design and water pressure". Wiki has been extremely important for my own learning, and I think I wouldn't get grasp of the game without the wiki.

Other tips:

You can't ever have too much doors. Especially when playing with water. Floods can be stopped with single door.

Build a large dining room, smooth&engrave it and make it meeting hall. It will give dwarves massive happy thoughts.

It's actually very easy to just dig down into magma and build directly magma forges instead of coal-using ones. Dig directly down. When you hit cavern, build hatch covers so nothing will fly from the caverns to your fort. Keep digging. Make sure to close any holes to caverns.

When moving stone, use wheelbarrows (they can be made of wood). Make several stone stockpiles, set them to accept only ores and set them to use max ampunt of wheelbarrows (3). This will speed hauling a lot.

Always have a backup plan. What if a goblins ambushed your woodcutters now? Always have a backup plan. Military is good to build early, even if it's just few dwarves. There's a plenty of military guides to get them train effectively.

Do you use DFHack and its military tweaks? I don't remember if LNP activates them by default. You probably have dfhack.init-example in your Dwarf Fortress -folder. Open it with notepad and rename it to "dfhack.init" to get those DFHack bugfixes activated automatically. Very helpful.

[WanderingKid]

Watch Captain Duck's tutorial videos before you get yourself underway.  It will save you more time and headaches than any other resource, including the wiki.  Why more than the wiki?  Because until you know what you're looking for or that you even want to do it, you don't know where you want to go in the wiki.

[Sutremaine]

Secure one entrance to your fortress before making another.

(Don't dig numerous holes in the ground if those holes allow pathing to your dwarves. Don't rush headlong for the magma without putting a wall or floor between you and each cavern you find. If you allow dwarves to wander around the caverns chopping wood and collecting plants or webs, the location of your entrances extends to the appropriate point on each map edge. Plan accordingly.)

[Zanthra]

My number 1 tip would be don't rush.  Things don't need to be done quickly in Dwarf Fortress.  Keep your dwarves fed with an oversized Plump Helmet Farm, keep them happy with an engraved dining room, and keep them safe with constructed walls at the entrance.  Everything else you do in Dwarf Fortress is for fun, not necessity .

[edgefigaro]

Build more traps.

[Gavakis]

Make a military early on with equpiment.
Don't forget that metal industry.

[Thormgrim]

Stop playing now and you may not lose your free time and imagination to this black hole of a game...

[edgefigaro]

Stop playing now and you may not lose your free time and imagination to this black hole of a game...

This

[WanderingKid]

Stop playing now and you may not lose your free time and imagination to this black hole of a game...

Heh, was discussing picking up new games the other night with a friend, as in I really don't need any more until I finish the ones I've got (and read off a list of 7/8 games I'd still hadn't finished, like AC3).  I was discussing that Dwarf Fortress would pretty much cover any spare time I had until something significant came out, he didn't know what it was.

Trying to describe DF to someone who'd never even heard about it was... well, it was ADD, really, but at one point he said "ASCII Graphics?  Really?  Why would you want to play it at all?" "Because until you've watched a dwarf bite the head off a hydra while he bleeds to death and you cask of amontillado him in the cavern so he doesn't infect the entire fort with skin removing dust, you haven't really played a good simulator."

Annnnndddd... a moment of silence.  That was priceless. 

Now where DID the last 12 hours go?!

[coldmonkey]

Learn from your mistakes. Alternatively: Keep a liquor bottle nearby in case you have to forget.

[Button]

My piece of advice? Be relaxed about making mistakes. Which is really just a reformulation of "Losing Is Fun."

Trying to describe DF to someone who'd never even heard about it was... well, it was ADD, really, but at one point he said "ASCII Graphics?  Really?  Why would you want to play it at all?" "Because until you've watched a dwarf bite the head off a hydra while he bleeds to death and you cask of amontillado him in the cavern so he doesn't infect the entire fort with skin removing dust, you haven't really played a good simulator."

I had a similar moment with a friend who is really into his games being pretty. It was already a settled agree-to-disagree that he would never play Dwarf Fortress, because sprites and ASCII. Then one day we were talking about something completely unrelated and mermaids came up. Naturally, I joked about farming them for their valuable bones. He laughed, and was like, "There should totally be a game you can do that in!"

...

He's still not convinced he'll enjoy it, but trying out DF is now on his to-do list.

[wierd]

Never underestimate the potential of multiple crappy weapons inside cage traps, especially for early fortress development.

Also, a turkey in a spotter's nest does wonders for catching snatchers and kobolds.

Kobolds are NOT immune to bridges squashing them out of existence.

[OREOSOME]

Protip: Give up any hopes of better graphics. It's just. Not. Happening.