What with the newest update to DF and all, I figure I should try and get back into DF since I barely even got started before and there's a lot more resources available to help out with a lot of stuff I might not have understood before (or still don't understand). I picked up the Newbie pack to start up with, but decided to stick with the previous version until the bugs and other things get kinked out. I've managed to get some sort of grasp on Dwarf Therapist via the PDF tutorial that came with it, just feel like I could be doing more to control/automate idle dwarves in that regard. (V0.34.11)
After dealing with more trouble in my latest forts and feeling I could be a lot more efficient or get some advice, I finally decided to post in here, especially since I'm still confused at some of the systems.
Generally I tended to start off in any areas that were usually calm or wilderness just for safety, and made sure to have a river of some sort, along with Flux Stones, multiple shallow metals, multiple deep metals, soil, trees, clay or sand, etc. I never seem to be able to find any sort of Iron based metals though during some of my re-excursions in order to get back into DF. Generally I like to start with most of the default stuff with slight changes (training axe for chopping wood, picks, iron anvil, various seeds+some plump helmets, a few nest boxes, some coal, some meat, tons of dwarven drinks save for wine since I can brew that, logs, rocks. Livestock being the default cats, dogs, and some hens/geese.) As for Dwarves, that's kinda semi-default as well with a few changes of sorts based on a few things I read around on.. (ProMiner/BoneCarver, ProMiner/Teacher, ProMason/Mechanic, ProWoodCutter/Carpenter, ProBrewer/CompCook/NovTannerButcher, ProGrower/NovArchitectOrganizerRecordKeeper, ProGrower/NovArchitectIntentJudgeAppraiser/AdeqDiagnostician) The idea with that one miner is maybe having him a
Now, my main confusion is mainly with the Military and Hospital aspects, since I hadn't really used the Hospital system before (wasn't in yet), and Military being a lot different than what I remember from the little bit I did play (never really did patrols, dwarves seemed to train a lot faster, didn't use the calendar system). I'm just not sure how to wrap my head around these two things mainly even after scouring some tutorials and the wiki.
I've never really delved into the cavern system yet either, but I remember hearing that once you find and dig into one underground trees and various plants will start growing throughout the fort(thereby eliminating partial needs to go above ground to chop down trees).
I also have a lot of trouble keeping dwarves from being too idle in some regards or just being overwhelmed by migrants or just swarms of dwarven children migrants (despite changing those settings).
I really want to get my infrastructure in place first but that just ends up taking so long that I get swarmed by them before I can really get started on some things, or a merchant arrives early on before I have anything even worth trading for something I might need early on, combined with the worry that if I do start making valuable things I'll get overwhelmed by goblins or some sort of invaders before I even have a military established.
In case my area does not have Iron, what's the next closest metal that I could be making for my armies in terms of strength?
I can't really recall much else I wanted to ask or talk about off the top of my head, other than I remember reading that flying creatures can really interfere with others entering the zone, so is there something I should be doing to help remove/prevent that? (Haven't really been good at keeping bolts supplied or having good hunters/archers/marksdwarves of some sort, which really sucks when Keas suddenly decide to descend upon the trading caravan that just arrived.)
If I remember anything else I wanted to maybe ask, I'll probably post some more stuff later. Mainly asking all this before I get started on a brand new fort again.
Apologies for this giant wall of text.