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[XxHyde840xX]

So I started out last night generating a world with advanced parameters. I tinkered a bit with the embark points and maxed them. The equipment I chose with the points wasn't unreasonable, mostly I just gave the starting seven better quality picks and axes (bismuth bronze), better quality meat, as well as a bin or two of cloth, some gypsum plaster, a few extra mutts, a breeding pair of pigs, a few chickens and a rooster and a few other odds and ends. I was left over with around 5k embark points. The founding seven embarked to Bertogal (Earthstorm in the human tongue) and lo and behold what a site! Ore just below the surface, ponds, an amazing river and magma...on the surface. My immediate thought was to pasture the mutts, train them for war, start workshops and stockpiles, get the bedrooms and office dug for the seven, and begin food production. I began enlarging the base around the volcano, erecting walls, building a moat etc... Everything was going swimmingly until 54, let me spell that, FIFTY  FOUR migrants show up. I promptly saved and quit which led me to here. I was comfortable with the labor settings and space I had for twenty three dwarves. Most of the industries are set up, ive got a barracks almost done but what the hell do i do now? I've only been playing for a few months and I'm fairly sure I grasp the basics but what to do with Bertogal now and the immigrants on the horizon is beyond me. Here's the save if you wanna take a look at it and maybe you can help a poor tall creature, fond of drink and industry who's about to pull his neatly braided red and chestnut beard hairs out. Cheers!

Note: This is my first post so excuse if its in the wrong subforum.
Note: I'm playing DF version 34.11 using the LNP Advanced with the Phoebus tileset.
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=7869 Heres the save.

[WanderingKid]

The first migrant load is usually a 'okay, now what am I REALLY doing in this fort' kind of moment.  I can tell you what I usually do.

My opening moves are survival and defenses, so my founders revolve around that.  Farmer and Hunter make two.  Two miners, to get down into the earth faster, that's 4.  Carpenter for beds/tools/tables, Mason for walls, and Woodcutter to feed the carpenter round off the last 3.  That doesn't leave me a lot of mobility.  That first huge migrant wave becomes a lifesaver to fill in the gaps.

Typically, a few more migrants get tossed into masonry for walls.  One or two get thrown at crafting the thousand or so bones I've collected for the first trade caravan, and to start making a large collection of bone bolts.  A dedicated brewer (or 3) and cook (or 2) get tossed in the mix.  A few more join the farming legion and I get all crops going, including surface crops.  Next up is clothes.  Plant Processor for the rope reed/pigtails, Spinner/Weaver for threads, and 2 clothesmakers to start making replacements.  Leatherworker doesn't hurt to start training now either, because you'll need a decent amount of armor eventually for your marksdwarves unless you're fitting them in metal as well, but that's probably a long ways off.  Either way quivers are a must, and backpacks and waterskins are helpful.  A few more miners to start digging out the apartment complex, and a bowyer to start mass production of crossbows.

Anyone left with marksman capabilities gets thrown in the military as a marksdwarf (or perhaps hunter, depends on how populous the local environment is).  I usually have an emergency squad for the hunters to be pressed into military service on a moments notice.  The rest become haulers.  By the time that wave gets there usually there's a few metric tons of wood, stone, and food to be hauled.  Swap your haulers out of 'hauling' and into whatever jobs you may need as you go.  Milller for dyes?  Check, Urist McWhosthat gets pressed into service.  Also start watching for people who will be good in the hospital staff, you'll need them shortly...

... at 80 dwarves is when the sieges will start to come play.

[Bandreus]

When I first started out, I struggled a lot with the beefy migrant waves which usually come after the first hardcoded two as well.

My best tip would be: think about what is your plan for your fort, and how all of those dwarves might fit into it.

I used to get distracted by all the various jobs immigrants come equipped with, and then all of my forts usually derailed into a huge mess of a whole lot of different industries, none of which were thoroughly planned out. It was unmanageable.

As Wandering said, sieges will soon come, usually anticipated by snatchers and/or ambushes. This is a good time to prepare for that.

You should really try and focus on setting up your defenses (walls, moats, fortifiactions or what have you) while building a working military. So it's likely the majority of those migrants will end up being part of your military (spot good candidates in therapist) or related jobs (masons for building defenses, weaponsmiths/armorsmiths for producing equipment and ammo, leatherworking, etc.).

Building your medical staff shall be a very important objective as well.

All of the rest of your working force can be assigned to food/booze production and all other kinds of jobs required to building and maintaining a functional fort, including industries of your choice.

[KingBacon]

The problem I've always had with large migrant waves is they break rhythm as I have to drop whatever I'm doing and make sure accommodations are made for them (usually a dormitory/hospital ward) and assign new work orders.

1) See if any of them have good weapons skills -> Conscript them or make them marksdorfs and put them in a burrow them overlooking strategic locations (Preferably with fortification.)

2) Do a mass dump of stone and forbid refuse hauling on important dorfs.

3) Create a communal bed room...

4) Mass dig/mason something defensive, kill all the trees, mass gather surface plants for seeds.

Next fort I'm planning on building a large breeding pit and throwing the useless dorfs in there with a well and plump helmets dumped via minecart. Then blood sacrifice to the plump helmet god... If it works with dogs...

[CR055H41RZ]

Make all the extras till the feilds and create adamantine crafts

[liam_tailor]

And don't mind all the idlers you'll have. 20 idling dwarves is fine as long as you'r steadily building your industries.
Take your time, remain calm. Until next big wave. Then you can freak out, kill your dwarves in a well planned series of accidents and start a new fort.

[CR055H41RZ]

Or instead force them all to dig for admantine or something

[Tevish Szat]

Immigration Processing

Step 1: Identify all new immigrants
Step 2: Check for useful skills
Step 3: Check for useful attributes
Step 4: Conscript military prospects.
Step 5: Set labors of the remainder

For step 5, I find it useful to have a "Slave"/"Grunt" job setup with Hauling and Masonry, profiling all Mason's workshops to require a minimum skill.  With the workshops fixed, grunts will happily stockpile items, grab refuse, and build constructions.  Once you have a large enough underclass to man your stockpile system, you can safely turn hauling off of all useful dwarves, ensuring their jobs get done faster.  Providing for the basic needs of more dwarves is also a good way to keep your industries expanding as you have to carve more rooms, make more clothes, farm more food, and so on.

I find that the military is ALWAYS hiring in your average fortress.  Career military dwarves won't socialize and make friends (at least, not much), so no one cares if they die -- and die they shall, when underskilled and underequipped conscript battalions are sent forth to do battle.  And some of the unskilled dwarves put on military service survive, gain skill and kills, and can join the ranks of the elite, to be equipped with iron, steel, or adamantine rather than whatever goblinite we've laid our hands on.

[Merendel]

I tend to nickname my dedicated dwarves with what they are intended to be doing.  AKA miner  Farmer Armorsmith and the like.   Nicknamed dwarves have most of their hauling disabled.   When a big migrant wave arives first thing I do is go into theripist and disable all their non hauling skills, I relaly dont like new hunters/fishers runin off on their own or some dabeling armorsmith takeing over for my master on the forge.   Then as I need to expand industrys I start drafting folks out of the hauler pool.   Military dwarves get drafted out of the hauler pool as well.   when drafting I'll take a quick look to see if any of the haulers has the apropreate skill, otherwise I'll just grab one thats convenient.  AKA Urist McFirstUristonthelist.

[Mushroo]

Dormitory, lots of plump helmets, brewing industry... no problem.

People on these forums get way too hung up on micromanaging their dwarves. You can let them sleep on the ground and eat mushrooms for the first year, they'll be just fine.

[Sergarr]

I nickname my trolls dwarfs by their name and a number. ex. "1-5" Urist McBlue, "2-7" Dagger McUrist and so on.

Childs don't get nicknames (exception for hunters).

[Bandreus]

Dormitory, lots of plump helmets, brewing industry... no problem.

People on these forums get way too hung up on micromanaging their dwarves. You can let them sleep on the ground and eat mushrooms for the first year, they'll be just fine.

I agree, and quite the 'oh my good Armok I need to make top class housing for all my new dorfs ASAP' syndrom is a quite natural outcome for almost every new player.

I don't like having my immigrants sleep on the ground though, a dormitory is more than enough and can be quickly built. The slackers will complain about the lack of a proper room, but they do just fine given all other basic needs (namely food/booze/cloths) are satisfied.

Also, I like to offer prepared meals to all of my dorfs. Even easy meals only go a long way with keeping your dorfs happier, and it only takes a cook or two to feed a pretty large fortress. You'll want a skilled cook in the end, regardless, so piling up that experience asap is a good investment, imho.

[WanderingKid]

Has anyone tried the dormatory bedding style but assigning each bed as a bedroom overlapping everyone else's?  Wondering what that would end up looking like on the happiness charts...

... next fort, bed science. 

[AutomataKittay]

Has anyone tried the dormatory bedding style but assigning each bed as a bedroom overlapping everyone else's?  Wondering what that would end up looking like on the happiness charts...

... next fort, bed science. 

Been there, done it, it works out okay and is pretty space-efficient. I think it makes dwarves that prefer to stay in bedrooms socialize too. Not really as nice as separate bedroom, but put enough fancy things in and they'll be happy anyway

[CR055H41RZ]

Immigration Processing

Spoiler (click to show/hide)