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[NJW2000]

If they nick stuff, putting it on cage traps might work. Dumping items in 1 block high tunnels is also a good strategy, if you fill them with cage traps or have a fast raising bridge.

[jhxmt]

Unfortunately they seem to be the non-nicking kind of bird.  Oh well, possibly just trading for already-captured ones (if the humans/elves already have any) might be an easier way to go.

[NJW2000]

Just wondering, guys, what kind of FPS do you usually run DF on? WHat is the cutoff point for playing?

[jhxmt]

My fortresses usually die of my own boredom and desire to try something new before the FPS really becomes an issue.  I did struggle on with a very low-FPS fort once (down to about 10-15 FPS for business-as-usual stuff), but that was purely because it was my first attempt playing around with livestock breeding when that became a thing.

Turns out several hundred critters all getting busy really knocks your FPS down a notch. 

Unrelated: is is expected behaviour that two dwarves can simultaneously make ash and make charcoal at the same wood furnace?  I thought they (and all workshops) were exclusive used by one dwarf at a time?  I mean, I'm not complaining - parallel processing and all that - but struck me as odd.

[Rogue Yun]

Is there any (reliable) way to capture flying wild creatures for training purposes?  My current embark seems to have swarms of ravens everywhere, and I wouldn't mind having my own trained murder flying around.    Capturing them seems unlikely, though.

I tend to catch birds at random in normal cage traps. Just put a lot of them outside and you should be able to catch a few.

Just wondering, guys, what kind of FPS do you usually run DF on? WHat is the cutoff point for playing?

My forts usually suffer FPS death when it drops below 4-6. I set my default FPS between 40-80, it depends on how patient I'm feeling at the time and it allows for my slow thinking. I've seen people play the game at 200-400 FPS, and I've even heard of people that keep playing at 4 FPS. Here is my take on it.

Setting the game slower allows you to micro manage more things within a shorter space of game time and trains your patience for the inevitable FPS drop. Setting the FPS higher allows you to do more in a shorter space of real time but can leave you vulnerable in the game (It's easier to make mistakes). I have respect for both.

Unrelated: is is expected behaviour that two dwarves can simultaneously make ash and make charcoal at the same wood furnace?  I thought they (and all workshops) were exclusive used by one dwarf at a time?  I mean, I'm not complaining - parallel processing and all that - but struck me as odd.

Sounds like a bug to me.

[NJW2000]

Will my FPS rise again when my populace is not so busy running round the caverns? And will slaughtering animals and prisoners more animals help?

[Rogue Yun]

FPS is pretty intense stuff. I know I did a ton of reading on it when I was playing on my older and slower computer. The general KISS rule of thumb applies. Sealing off the caverns/outside/unused areas and destroying/forbidding/properly organizing items can do wonders for FPS. The goal is to clean up pathfinding as much as possible. Making point "A" a direct path to point "B" and try to limit alternate routes, columns, paths, exits, etc. From what I understand, it would be fine if every tile were passable, where every tile was an up/down stair, but that is generally not the case with fort design.

The best way I know of to deal with low FPS is to kill off a large portion of your population to prevent them from running worthless pathfinding calculations. Pasturing pets, livestock, and burrowing helpless cheesemakers under an atom smasher is a quick fix, but you can do some other more tedious things. I'm tempted to create a thread all about low fps fort designs and see what people come up with. I'm sure there are some ingenious designs out there that are beyond my comprehension.

Also.. avoid playing with liquids as much as possible >.>. *Sigh*

FPS is always a sad topic for me as it is like reading a list of things you "can't do" when dwarf fortress is all about removing limitations. My biggest recommendation is don't let FPS govern what you can and can't do. Just do stuff and try to be as patient as possible when the FPS begins to drop. It can be frustrating at times... but so can moody dwarves... the end products are worth it.

If FPS is still an issue, you can try the Modest Accelerated Mod. I switch between using it and vanilla.

[CometStrike]

I've a question about my military.
I´ve designed a custom Uniform which includes various pieces of my newly produced, shiny steel armor, a wooden shield and an axe.
I´ve created a squad a while ago to start training and during the production process I´ve assigned the uniform to this squad. Now my problem is that they ignore the newly produced armor and do not don it. I´ve tried reassigning th uniform to them, to no avail. More specifically, they don´t don the high boots, gauntlets, helms and greaves. They do wear shoes, mittens, caps+hoods and steel leggins.
Which of these parts are mutually exclusive? Which is the best combination of armor items and how do I force them to don them (just change the uniform accordingly and reassign that?)?

[Loci]

More specifically, they don´t don the high boots, gauntlets, helms and greaves. They do wear shoes, mittens, caps+hoods and steel leggins.

Boots conflict with shoes, gauntlets conflict with mittens+gloves, helms conflict with caps, and greaves conflict with leggings. Most of those conflicts are caused by clothing, which generally shouldn't be assigned in a uniform. If you toggle your dwarves to "replace clothing" they will remove their caps, shoes, etc. and pick up their armor instead. You can toggle them back to "over clothing" after they are equipped and they'll pick up whatever clothing does not conflict with their uniform.

[Rogue Yun]

I'm a little late to the show... but I might as well post what I have written.

I would make sure you have [r]eplace clothing instead of over clothing.

The wiki has a ton of useful information on uniforms.

My uniforms look something like this, though I know it isn't the best combination, it is the one I generally use for role playing sake.

(Armor)
tunic
mail shirts
breastplates
cloaks
(Legs)
trousers
leggings (or greaves but I have been told that they aren't necessary with chainmail)
(Helm)
helms
hoods
(Gloves)
gauntlets
mittens
(Boots)
socks
high boots (or low boots)
(Shield)
wooden or silver shield (more than one can be equiped, something like 5, but I think that is a bit of an exploit...)
(Weapon)
Your choice.

I am pretty sure order is important. Things like mittens should go before gauntlets and socks before high boots, though I am not too sure, the order I have above seems to work well for me, so I leave it alone.

*edit* Modified uniform example based on information written below.

[Loci]

Unless you are assigning specific items, items which come in pairs should only be included once. That is, if you assign "steel gauntlets" your dwarves will pick a pair; if you assign a specific steel gauntlet then you need to assign a specific one for the other hand as well.

Assigning clothing in a uniform isn't very helpful, but does cause problems. As the clothing wears, the uniformed dwarves won't automatically replace it, leaving them to experience steadily-worsening thoughts from tattered clothing. If you toggle them back to "over clothing" after they are equipped, they'll pick up clothing just like a civilian (and replace it automatically when it wears).

Also, mittens are a "cover" layer, so they should go over gauntlets--if this uniform works it implies order is not actually important.

[Rogue Yun]

Interesting, my dwarves seem to change out their clothes frequently, grabbing the better stuff over time. I never had the problem with unhappy thoughts or tattered uniforms... but I imagine that if I had a fort last a while eventually their masterwork clothes would wear out. I'll keep that in mind for the future.

[CometStrike]

Thanks for the help, I´ll look into the civilian clothing issue.

On another note: I´ve done some explatory mining on one level, which turned out to be the topmost z-layer of the upper cavern. Now when I come back there I see more and more webs from GCS all over the place. It only occurs on this particular level, I´ve never seen a GCS in the units screen (which I check regularly) and I´m very sure that there is no path from the caverns into my fort (except through forbidden floor hatches sealing off the staircase that breached the caverns).
Where do those spider webs come from?
I have to admit that earlier in that game I cheated one GCS web into place in my fort via DFHack, when a very important dwarf was hit by a mood and required silk which I didn´t have.

[Rogue Yun]

Are you sure it is Giant Cave Spider webs and not just the regular Cave Spider?

[Wimopy]

Is there any (reliable) way to capture flying wild creatures for training purposes?  My current embark seems to have swarms of ravens everywhere, and I wouldn't mind having my own trained murder flying around.    Capturing them seems unlikely, though.

Cage traps catch them, so long as they enter the tile it's on. You could try making a tunnel-like structure with some bait in the middle and cage traps at the entrances. Anything that forces them on the ground might be effective. If you have a web-shooting something, then having it web them would force them down. A similar solution would be having a few crossbowmen who need training shoot at them. These would probably making it more messy than effective though.

I typically place cage traps in a few random places outside the fort. Just make sure to stop them from being reset during a siege.