Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Beast Tamer]

I always give my Military Dwarves numbers.

For example: my Militia Commander will be called One-One, his second in command will be One-Two, then One-Three up till I hit One-Ten. The first number always designates the squad they're in while the second is their position within the squad. If a particular Military Dwarf distinguishes themselves in some way I will fix Ace on the end of their name, there can be only one Ace per squad. If one of my military dies I draft a suitable replacement and, until they hit Great with their weaponskill, they are called Recruit. If a child is born with suitable stats and disposition for the military they automatically lose their name and become a Cadet.

[MrsStick]

There are some great ideas in here. One question - how do you rename your dwarves?

[VerdantSF]

Keystrokes in-game: u v y n
In therapist: right click and edit the name

[ShadowHammer]

I just let my dwarves keep whatever labors they have enabled on migration, with a few exceptions. Firstly, I only let skilled masons, metalworkers and engravers do those jobs, and secondly, I disable all hunting and fishing, finally, I enable weapon smithing on everyone and put bolts on repeat on a dabbling only forge, for mood manipulation. If I find that a job isn't going quickly enough, i just look through the dining rooms and enable that job on a random unskilled dwarf.
For military, I draft almost everyone who has military skills into squads of two, except the skilled masons, metalworkers, and engravers. The archers are put in squads of three, because I usually set them up patrolling the walls.

[ShadowHammer]

Keystrokes in-game: u v y n

u? u doesn't have anything to do with renaming, as far as I know. With vanilla keybindings it's (v) (arrow keys to select dwarf) (z) (y) (n).

Sorry about double post.

[VerdantSF]

While it isn't necessary, using the unit list makes things a lot simpler when renaming dwarves manually in-game.  You're able to go one-by-one, and can see your progress at a glance.  Using only "v" and the arrow keys requires a lot of bouncing around on the map.  When I went through and named 100+ dwarves, "u" ensured that I didn't miss any.

[BoredVirulence]

I create a caste system that involved Peasants, Professionals, Apprentices, Useless Professionals, and Military.

Everyone starts as a Peasant, which include all non-specialized tasks. The definition of a peasant changes as dwarves specialize.
Once I have a few dwarves reach competent in a skill, they become an apprentice, with only their specialized labor and a few miscellaneous labors, such as hauling, cleaning, and architecture. When I have enough to be happy (usually only 2-3) I disable that labor from all peasants.
Once they reach great they become a professional and only do their specialized labor. If I need more of a single labor, I conscript more apprentices. Typically I don't need to train more, as its typically inevitable that someone will migrate with enough skill for the classification.

It works fine. It keeps it organized enough. I know who's expendable and who isn't. The only time I deviate is when I give certain labors a caste of their own, such as brewers, cooks, metalsmiths, hammer dwarves, etc. Its only obnoxious in the beginning, because you have to redefine peasant as labors specialize.

[ShadowHammer]

While it isn't necessary, using the unit list makes things a lot simpler when renaming dwarves manually in-game.  You're able to go one-by-one, and can see your progress at a glance.  Using only "v" and the arrow keys requires a lot of bouncing around on the map.  When I went through and named 100+ dwarves, "u" ensured that I didn't miss any.

Oooohhhh that makes sense now my bad.

[someone12345]

I try to keep my dwarves doing whatever jobs they have skills for. I sometimes enable labors that do not produce products with qualities for everyone(tanner, furnace operator), so they get done faster. All of my military have regular jobs. Peasants and kids are trained in a useful skill. Everyone except the miners and smiths haul.

[TheDarkStar]

I usually start out with specific roles at the beginning and enough of what I can't get quickly to last until the first migrants come/the caravans come.

For migrants:
 
1. Screen for vampires (if yes -> separate and send to wherever I need an immortal worker)
2. Check for good military skills (if yes -> military and disable all other jobs besides basic things like hauling)
3. Check for skilled metalworkers/miners/other specific craftsmen (like strand extractor) (if yes -> all labors off except the specific ones)
4. Check for things like fishing (if yes -> disable)
5. Check for different sets of skills:
     5a. Woodworking skills? Enable all of them.
     5b. Hunting skills? Enable all of them (depending on the fort)
     5c. Metalworking skills? Set to only furnace operating
     5d. Farming skills? Enable all except cooking/brewing if there is already someone else who is very good at them.
     5e. Jeweler/Craftsman/Fishing skills? Assign a random job set.
     5f. Nothing useful (cheesemaker, peasant, etc)? Either send to the military, use as a noble, or use as a test subject.
6. Unless they are skilled in a specific thing, all jobs are enabled in a specific category. Categories: Crafting, Woodworking, Hunting, Farming, Engineering, Being a Doctor.
7. Enable all stoneworking skills unless they are one of the people in steps 1-3.

My forts usually have about 15 legendary workers and another 50-150 builders, haulers, farmers, and random craftspeople. I always make dormitories for everyone except nobles, but I make sure to have a really nice dining room. I also try to keep people relatively happy. However, I don't have a problem with removing dozens of useless dwarves if the fortress population gets too high. If the name is not flashing, they are expendable.

[VerdantSF]

I wish we could fully rename our dwarves and that a family would have a clan name that was maintained between familial groups.

I was thinking about this again and thought of another way to track clans.  After renaming my dwarves to have surnames, several families have emerged with similar names, like Channeltree, Channelelder, and Channelflashes.  That's Clan Channel right there, with an easy way to both track the overall clan and the separate branches.

[Linkxsc]

I've never had much trouble with organizing. First 7 do everything till I get a couple migrant waves. Then I start putting anyone with military skill (and often some without) into training squads. And like someone else said, start having people dump lots of copper into bolts for strange moods. Only have 1 weapon/armorsmith of any skill, unless i get a mooded legendary one.


A newer fort that I've been playing though, I've been doing as a "human town" style. Theres still an underground but currently all 30 of my dorfs live above ground in 3 story wooden houses (forest biome). All the houses are sized such that they could fit maybe 6 dorfs comfordably. Mainly, the houses that there are, each house a pair of crafters or w/e, in most cases they're married. The ground floor has 2 workshops. And the basement is storage usually relating to their job.  Then in the center of town theres a large communal feasting hall, food storage basement, and the second floor is a large dorm for new migrants who haven't found a place in the world yet.
Dedicated haulers still live in houses with their spouses, however their workshop is removed and theres just more storage space.

Really this fort kinda sucks because of all the micromanaging. But I'm up to 58 dorfs (7 children, not counting them) so far. 22 Skilled people; 2 Cooks, 2 Brewers, 2 Threshers/clothesmaker/spinner/milker (all 6 of them also cover farming needs) 2 miners, 4 cutters, 1 glasser, 1 weaponsmith, 1 armorsmith, 1 beekeeper (figured why not. His roof is covered in hives) 2 dedicated woodburners. 1 Bookkeeper/manager/trader, 1 Carpenter/stonemason
and 2 "crafters" primarily wood. Also misc other tasks are mixed in with the above. 1 of the cooks has buchering, 1 of the brewers covers tanning, and things like that.   Then I've got 6 fulltime haulers, who also have carpentry checked but can't work at the carpenters shop (this is so they can place all the wooden walls and such that I need)   The other 30 are militia/haulers. 20 of them are crossbows,(4 squads) and 10 are melees (2 squads of 5, each squad is 1 sword, 1 axe, 1 spear, 1 hammer, and 1 pick).


Really this fort sucks, so much extra work. And when someone dies, I can't wait to see how intense the tantrum spiral gets, because currently all but 10 of the dorfs are married, and the kids are all from different families, but if I keep playing like this, they'll all end up intermarried, and more migrants, and it'll get CRAZY. But thats all part of the fun.

[VerdantSF]

A newer fort that I've been playing though, I've been doing as a "human town" style. Theres still an underground but currently all 30 of my dorfs live above ground in 3 story wooden houses (forest biome). All the houses are sized such that they could fit maybe 6 dorfs comfordably.

Sounds cool!  I've got a quite a few carpenters and woodcrafters.  I might make a few houses like this outside of the main fortress, since they spend most of their time aboveground anyway. It would give me something to do with the large forest protected by the city walls.

[Linkxsc]

Playing just now, I'm currently engaged in epic combat between both melee squads and 10 of my archers, and 3 elefants. Apparently, the new wave of migrants brought an overzealous hunter with them, who ran right off to work before i could dump his job, and he pulled aggro (damn hunters). Now my mostly untrained troops are locked in a deadly struggle between them and the trunked ones,  I've come to the conclusion that the game really needs the ability to send a person to pick up injured soldiers and bring them to a hospital. Cause noone has good armor yet, 6 of the melees have been mauled into submission. But luckily the bows have managed to injure the legs on 2 of the elefants and the 3rd is unconcious from pain. And my people at home have been rushing to build a pair of ballista and projectiles for them at the north end of town to try and finish off teh elefants, since the bows are out of bolts.  lots of FUN happened here today

[AWellTrainedFerret]

Aside from nobles and medical staff, my forts are 100% military.
Everyone's name is simply what their job is (in the case of unskilled haulers, their name is "Grunt")
I'll have 1 squad each of Axes, Hammers, Swords, and Spears, and 4 squads of Marksdorfs all outfitted in my best weapons and armor on full time duty.
All the crafters are then thrown in secondary squads with second rate gear and set to only be active every other month. It's a pain in the ass to set up, but I always train 2 legendaries in each trade craft (4 in the case of armorer and weaponsmith because they are far too important to lose) and have them in separate squads so that one is always off duty.
Then the Grunts...well they're thrown in meatshield sqauds and they use whatever spare weapons and armor I have leftover (the survivors may get promoted to the main military squads IF they survive and IF I lose a real soldier), scheduled to only train 2 months out of the year.
That just leaves the Nobles who do absolutely nothing but pull levers, and the medical staff who do absolutely nothing except wait for FUN.
And finally, to ensure that the military rule of my fort is absolute and to make it known that there is never to be any lollygagging; everyone is burrowed separately with no meeting hall and they each have a personal gym (an unpowered screw pump that pumps nothing set to manual). This way, even when off duty, not training, and have no current job; they will still be doing something. Idlers will not be tolerated.