My first human colony is established. Some observations:
You don't need heaps of boulders as the tips suggest if you start anywhere with peat, clay or fire clay. By that I mean the rock splitter makes blocks from those too, and they are, unlike wood planks, fireproof. (Peat really shouldn't be, but...) Not sure this is intended, but there it is. For purely aesthetic reasons, I don't plan to build a city out of peat, but it's great for that first mud wall, a farmhouse, and some livestock pens.
Also, humans may prefer the topside, but remember how DF defines that. You can still use the power of dig to get going, though not to the same degree as the real digging races. I dug out two levels of basement for my first house. For this first one I am flooring over the bottom and putting down furniture as I go. The -1 level will be a dining/great room, I think. Then some workshops on ground level. Doing it this way saves walls, at least. I could have carved out bedrooms on the bottom, but my OCD kicked in and I thought, "what if I want to take out the walls later? Those won't be considered outside."
It's just 9x9 interior, which I think won't be a standard. Looking at the guilds, I think 11x13 or so will be a better fit. That way a fully developed guild can fit on a floor with some room for stairwells.
Not into the new buildings yet beyond the splitters. But I did notice only arrows in the craftsman's. Based on what I read I was expecting bolts. I thought crossbows were going to be the human starting ranged weapon. I think the manual says that.
I also got bloomberry seeds on embark, but can't grow them. Since they are a bit pricey (4 each) that was a disappointment. I wonder if they are kobold only, or if it's just a biome difference from the homeland.
The new combined manual is nice.
An aside on the manual: Orc section could use mention of how to make pulleys and what exactly it takes to build each of the three ships. The entry on the shop just says what the components are, not how many you need. Makes troubleshooting stockpile links hard because it's hard to tell if it's bad linkage or it just takes more components than you have. Since raiding in pretty central for orcs it's a bit frustrating.
I think I am going to like humans. If I can keep the gators away.
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