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[Ki11aGhost]

I've got some big migrant waves recently, mainly populated by dwarves who excel at not excelling at anything. My fortress is running smoothly as it stands. No problems are coming up with production or import/export. My military is decently sized, training in danger rooms. Are there any jobs I can give to these newcomers that will keep them from becoming social gods lazing about in the meeting area? Don't want to have to deal with a second tantrum spiral in this particular fortress.

Right now I'm concentrating my miners on gathering large amounts of stone, forcing everybody to haul it up to the garbage dump near my workshops. Should I stick with this, but remove hauling and cleaning from the rest of my specialized dwarves? Then I have a bunch of nothings contributing by hauling, leaving the specialized dwarves to their specialties? Or can they better be used for other purposes?

My military as it stands are 4 squads of 5 each, plus the Guard (3) which I'm leaving untrained.

[Charlylimph]

Make them all Masons and build a castle or make them all mechanics and build a gazillion trap. Warrning with the last one you might get a bunch of artifact mechanisms.

[misko27]

I would beware of making too many of one profession: Firstly migrant waves try to compensate for profession currently lacking in your fort, so getting rid of soapmakers breeds more soap makers. Also, at a certain point the game decides you are doing something weird megaproject and starts sending you more masons, instead of trying to compensate for the ones you have.

[SkyRender]

 You could always make a Moebius Stockpile (ie. a stockpile is set to take its wares from a second stockpile, which is set to take its wares from the first stockpile) in a burrow only they have access to, and have them permanently set to hauling duties.  Two birds, one stone: their skills won't change (so you won't get a fort made of cheese makers), and they won't be chatting it up forever and ever either.

[fricy]

Train their physical skills to have some uber-haulers and potential recruits in case of a 'mishap'.
I'm not sure if the pump operator is the way to go in this version, but I seem to remember that it helps with strength and agility.

[KingBacon]

You know if enough cheesemakers and fishers die you will stop getting cheesemakers and fishmongers.

You'll stop getting migrants. Put the guys to work building mass tombs, then find reasons to fill said tombs.

[vanatteveldt]

Instead of the moebius stockpile, why not create a paradise garden for them with a drop chute or airlock for supplies as the only connection to the main world? They can chat up all they want to since they will only be friends with each other and shouldn't die anyway, and if they do, any tantrum will be contained.

Any whenever you need a volunteer to explore a cavern or mine away a wall next to the magma sea, you know where to find them!

[from the wiki page on assassins: The tales of the fida'is' training collected from anti-Ismaili historians and orientalists writers were confounded and compiled in Marco Polo's account, in which he described a "secret garden of paradise". After being drugged, the Ismaili devotees were said be taken to a paradise-like garden filled with attractive young maidens and beautiful plants in which these fida'is would awaken. Here, they were told by an "old" man that they were witnessing their place in Paradise and that should they wish to return to this garden permanently, they must serve the Nizari cause]

[Aslandus]

You'll stop getting migrants. Put the guys to work building mass tombs, then find reasons to fill said tombs.

The mass tombs is a good idea, but you don't need to look for reasons to fill the tombs, they will find you

[TripJack]

form a smoothing & engraving brigade

rough, undecorated surfaces are an affront to Armok

[Sutremaine]

What caused the last tantrum spiral? See if you can put them to work helping to prevent another one.

[TheDarkStar]

Use them to remove the root cause of tantrum spirals by making them rest on weapon traps. If you don't have excess dwarves to sit there and socialize, you can't have tantrum spirals!

[Ki11aGhost]

form a smoothing & engraving brigade

rough, undecorated surfaces are an affront to Armok

I've already got a legendary engraver and a half. Most of my floors are smoothed out, being engraved soon.

What caused the last tantrum spiral? See if you can put them to work helping to prevent another one.

It was some oversight that cause brew production to stop, and a handful of dwarfs died of dehydration before I could reopen the stills. Luckily I got them buried in time, and assigned the sad ones new rooms, so only a few tantrums/insanities took place.

Use them to remove the root cause of tantrum spirals by making them rest on weapon traps. If you don't have excess dwarves to sit there and socialize, you can't have tantrum spirals!

I cannot put to waste the mountainhome's finest Cheese Makers, Beekeepers, and Potash Makers! To think where my castle would be without bountiful stocks of Cheese, Honey, and Potash!

I like the mason idea, I'm going to make a bunch of masons and mechanics and start pimping out the aboveground.

[Urist McVoyager]

I mod the game to live as humans, and build aboveground towns, so the masons and carpenters thing is the way I usually go.

Right now I've got a village of eight homes with a wall around it, and fifty citizens. I had to build a meeting hall to get the idlers inside the walls and damn was that fast.

[Simca]

I would beware of making too many of one profession: Firstly migrant waves try to compensate for profession currently lacking in your fort, so getting rid of soapmakers breeds more soap makers. Also, at a certain point the game decides you are doing something weird megaproject and starts sending you more masons, instead of trying to compensate for the ones you have.

I think it looks at it early in the game and then -keeps sending- based on that early game evaluation. Very early on I needed a doctor to help 2-3 dwarves recover from being stupid during an aquifer cave-in. I made my expedition leader a doctor and an emergency hospital over my stockpile and he fixed them up. After that, I've gotten 2-4 doctors every single migrant wave. It's really getting slightly ridiculous:

[Laserhead]

I've got a few things I do with "useless" dwarfs. First I enable everything like brewing, wood burning, threshing, smelting, and strand extraction for which there is no quality difference. Then build a bunch of each workshop (I've got like 12 strand extracting workshops) so if I need a lot of anything in a hurry I can just throw a bunch of beards at it. Second I build in the meeting hall or high traffic areas a simple mist generator consisting of two manually operated screw pumps one atop the other with walls on one side and a channel with a grate over it on the other. This give happy thoughts, cleans things, and gradually turns all the useless guys red for easy identification. Third when I've got a lot of red guys roaming around I make them marksdwarfs. Crossbows are my favorite weapons and mature forts of mine are usually at least one third crossbowdwarfs.