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[Sowelu]

That sounds like "famous last words", to me.

Elephants are DIFFICULT to deal with, and once they've tasted blood, they're kind of hard to stop.  Strategies you might want to consider include lining your road with channels on the far side of the river--at least that might keep the elephants off the traders a little bit.  Think outside the box a bit.  Just do prepare to get trampled messily, and if you can help it, don't let a dwarf who's being chased by an elephant get anywhere near the fort!

[Freddybear]

It's a little risky, but in my limited experience three or four Competent marksdwarfs on patrol can generally keep even Elephants away from the road area. Set the marksdwarfs to "harass animals" and "remain close to station", and keep a close eye on them. The idea is to make the E's move away, not to chase them or try to kill them. If you *do* get a kill, you'll want to patrol around it while your haulers approach to carry it back for butchering. Be prepared to use up quite a few stacks of bolts in the course of getting your road built.

Oh, and by the way, keep your marksdwarfs in separate one-dwarf squads, and don't let one guy patrol alone. Stand him down if his backups are off drinking or sleeping. A singleton patrolling the road in Elephant country is too easy to stomp.

Now if only caravan guards weren't suicidal maniacs...

[Wiles]

Thanks for the advice.

I had a trapperdwarf arrive in my last immigration. I didn't pay attention to him for a while until I got the message that he became more skilled. So I went to find him in the wilderness with two dead elephant corpses near him! Maybe he is the answer to my elephant problem. Which leads me to my next question, why aren't my dwarves hauling in the fresh kills? I checked to make sure dwarves gather animals is on, and while I don't have a skilled butcher, I turned it on for some of my peasants in their labor menu.

When I had my dwarves engrave the dining area, a lot of the engraving were of dead dwarves and elephants killing dwarves.  

[Klokjammer]

The elephants need to be in your refuse piles to butcher.  just use the stockpile menu (p) to make a one-tile refuse pile on the elephant corpse.  But remember to un-designate the tile when they haul it off.

The hunting algorithm is bugged for the current version, the trapper will attempt to carry his kill back, but will drop it and forget about it if he gets distracted, hungry, thirsty, or sleepy.  You might be better off drafting him into your marksdwarf corps.

[ October 26, 2007: Message edited by: Klokjammer ]

[BurnedToast]

Elephants are terrible for hunting because they weigh so much, they almost never get dragged back into the fort, then to the butcher shop before they rot.

also note that when he runs out of bolts, unless there are some VERY close (like, within 5 squares or so) he will charge the animal with his crossbow as a melee weapon. Unless he is in high quality steel plate, the elephant will trample him right quick.

[Grek]

The best way to hunt is the have the army do it. A squad with *obsidian short swords* or crossbows should be able to take down an elephant.

[Wiles]

My road was finally built, I had my marksdwarf squadron take on the elephant herd. 1 dead dwarf and 2 injured, 5 dead elephants. I thought it was great that my dwarves rushed out and picked up their wounded comrade.

I have a couple more questions.

- I have a dwarf who is storing food in his bedroom and letting it rot. Miasma is spreading throughout the bedroom complex. What is the best way to deal with this dirty dwarf? I could kick him out of the room, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

- Is there any way I can find what a dwarf in a few mood wants? I had one demanding rocks and rough gems, I dug a lot of different types of rocks and gems out, but he still wasn't satisfied.

[Klokjammer]

The first one sounds like a bug, or a dwarf with problems.

The second one, check that dwarf's preferences (v->p->z->enter) and see what it likes, it would most likely involve those specific materials.

Edit: sometimes rough gems can mean raw glass.

[ October 27, 2007: Message edited by: Klokjammer ]

[Solara]

quote:<STRONG>I have a dwarf who is storing food in his bedroom and letting it rot. Miasma is spreading throughout the bedroom complex. What is the best way to deal with this dirty dwarf? I could kick him out of the room, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
</STRONG>

What kind of food is it? I think if a dwarf has a preference for, say plump helmets or something, they'll sometimes put it in their room just because they like it. I had a dwarf that was hoarding shoes once for that same reason, but rottable items are obviously more of a problem...

[ October 27, 2007: Message edited by: Solara ]

[Wiles]

He has plump helmet biscuits in there right now, there aren't any edible items on his likes list. I think he's just a slob    

I'm having a hard time smelting bars. There must be something simple that I'm missing. I have coal, and hematite. How do I make iron? I thought maybe making coal bars first would help, but my dwarves won't even go in the smelter.

Also I have two injured resting dwarves that aren't resting, they keep getting progressively tired. Is there anything I can do for them (they are on beds)?

[ October 27, 2007: Message edited by: Wiles ]

[ October 27, 2007: Message edited by: Wiles ]

[gloogorshkin]

You can't use straight coal to smelt something, you need to turn the coal into coke in the smelter first.  To do that you will need a fuel source, and to get the first one you need to build a wood furnace and make some charcoal.  This uses up one piece of wood, but it's the only time you need to use charcoal; after this you can just use coke to make more coke (you get two units of coke for each unit of coal that you smelt).

[Wiles]

I have another question  

How do I move a caged creature into another cage? I had a goblin trapped in a cage , but I wanted to move him into one I built. So I assigned the goblin to the cage a dwarf went and let the goblin out of the old one and it killed my mayor! My nobles haven't been very lucky. My manager was swept away when the cave river overflowed.

One more question, I have magma-furnaces and forges, but they are a fair trek from the main fortress and the dwarves rarely do any work I tell them to there. What can I do to make them work there regularly? I built a well, but that didn't really seem to make a difference.

[Freddybear]

To "safely" move a creature from cage B to cage A, build B next to A; then go to the "q-a" assign menu on cage A and select the creature you want moved.

The trick is knowing which creature on the list is the one you want. I believe that the list of creatures shows up in the same order on both cages, so if you look at the list on cage B it should show which is the current occupant, and you can then go to cage A and select the creature in the same position in the list.

[Wiles]

It was funny when I let him out. I thought he was such a well behaved little goblin following my dwarf to the new cage. When another dwarf turned and ran I realized he wasn't following, he was chasing!    

[ October 28, 2007: Message edited by: Wiles ]

[Solara]

quote:Originally posted by Wiles:
<STRONG>
One more question, I have magma-furnaces and forges, but they are a fair trek from the main fortress and the dwarves rarely do any work I tell them to there. What can I do to make them work there regularly? I built a well, but that didn't really seem to make a difference.</STRONG>

Dwarves won't drink from a well if there's booze available - to keep them from trekking all the way to the main dining room try putting small food and drink stockpiles near the forges and even building the metalsmiths their own dining room and bedrooms nearby.

That should help a little, but I'm curious about where is your main fortress is? If it's on the west side of the river, you're always going to have trouble with this, that's one of the reasons most people build between the river and the chasm. You put the food industry east of the river and the metal industry east of the chasm, with everything else inbetween and it cuts down on walking and hauling time immensely.