Print

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

[Leelas]

So, I started a new fortress using the quick start, and predictably, it looks like I have loads and loads of fun in my imminent future. My dwarfs can probably sustain themselves for now, but nobody has any trading-related abilities.

Anyway, I got my first wave of migrants, and much to my dismay, it seems as if they're all just as underskilled as my starting dwarves. Every single one of them has only one skill (I tried switching the various skill sets on and off to make sure of this, and yes, this is indeed the case).

Is this normal? I've got a wonderful coastal embark, and managed to breach my first aquifer, so I want this fort to work out.

[Findulidas]

Normal that migrants are almost always useless? Yes.

Make wooden spiked balls for trading. They are overpriced as hell.

[Arcvasti]

Starting skills don't matter that much. Especially for the first two waves, I don't treat any of my migrants differently. I just give them new labours and they skill up pretty quickly, assuming I don't have a billion redundant dwarves doing the same task. Also, the migration system, after the first caravan, will be tuned to give you dwarves with skills you lack. Which sounds neat, but, in practice, leads to my average fort getting flooded in useless fisherdwarves, since I eschew the industry. If you're using the quickstart, which I recall being more balanced towards fishing, then your ranks should fill out by second Spring. Honestly, skills are usually raised fairly easily unless they require rare inputs[Smithing is the worst for this]. Plus, moods always give usefulish trading skills if they're not a possession.

As for trade goods? Mechanisms are usually best, as they are high value and can be made out of stone, which is both plentiful and more valuable then wood. Having a stonecrafter with make stone crafts/pots on repeat usually skills up stonecrafters fairly quickly.

[Tacomagic]

I've always considered the term "migrant" synonymous with "mook."

I consider them a warm body that I can mold to whatever I need them to be.  If they already have some skill in that direction, good, but if all I have to work with is a peasant, well... they'll become a legendary something-or-other just the same.

[Mushroo]

Skill of the player trumps skill of the dwarfs.

Once you understand the mechanics of Strange Moods, you can easily (with a little bit of luck) influence your fortress to produce Legendary workers in your choice of moodable skills.

[Boothby]

Unless they come in as highly skilled weaponsmiths or something, or have some skill I lack but don't usually start with , like clothier, I take their starting skills as suggestions to be ignored. "Oh, you like making lye?...Here's a crossbow, get to practicing.'

Wooden wheelbarrows are both useful and ridiculously overpriced. Make them, use them, then sell them and make some more.

[Thisfox]

I definitely only take migrant skills as suggestions. If they did like making lye, I'd probably stick them in woodburning, and add in a few soapmaking training things for the first one, then if more lye/soapmakers turned up, get them to do more wood burning and a bit of military.

Any cheesemakers who turn up, I teach 'em to milk. Any milkers who turn up, I teach 'em to make cheese. Nothing more annoying than a dwarf who milks heaps of milk and leaves it to rot because he doesn't have a friend who will cheesemake, and it's not like there's anything useful to do with milk if you don't cheese it. Same goes for shearers and spinners, for that matter.

Make shields as well as wheelbarrows. They stack really well (just stick some wooden-shield-only bins near your Depot) they're no good for elves, but humans and dwarf merchants will pay top dollar for good ones, and as an extra added bonus, your carpenters get REALLY good at carpenting (I think that's not a word) and you can then use them to make beds, tables and chairs which make happy thoughts when they're not pumping out hundreds of shields a season. Wheelbarrows suck as each one has to be carried to the Depot individually: Shields are great for putting in bins and get carried all at once, and they can sell for incredible amounts of money.

I'm told the same can be said for crutches, but I make sure all my crutches are made of heavy metals, so that they can be used as bludgeoning weapons if and when necessary. If there is even one wooden crutch in the fort, the medic will assign it and only it to the limping footless soldier.... But in theory those two would be bin-able and easy to get to the merchants on time.

[Linkxsc]

Honestly, so many people hate on the beekeepers and the soap makers. But it does stand that some of the jobs can be counted as "secondary" you dont need lots of lye, or soap, but ordering a few bars made a year for your hospital can save you quite a bit of trouble. Beekeeping is a fulltime job for 1 dwarf ever, and many embarks dont have honeybees anyways (would be nice if you could import some). And as for engravers... I usually only ever let 1 get really skilled in it, then when they start getting older, I'll start training a new 1 to replace them. Usually the first 2 coded waves end up doing mandatory stuff in my fort. More wood, more herbalists, more haulers. Usually by the 3rd wave, I can have my fort good and started and I can start considering the skills of the migrants. Anyone with weapon or armor smithing is sent to work, and then usually the rest of that and the 4th wve end up all being recruits for my military.
Ofcourse this is assuming a regular, non-challenge embark. If we start talking singlepickchallenge... yeah it gets a bit different.

But a lot can be said for those max skill carpenters churning out shields/etc, they can buy out caravans. So can good chefs with lavish meals (helps when the caravan brings lots of food to turn into more meals too.
A real good mason too. As your fort matures, if you go around the place and start replacing all the furniture built early on when your dorfs were unskilled. I've had a dining hall in a fort go from decent to legendary by replacing a single table in it. (it wasn't even masterwork either) Few well placed masterwork statues, and a nice dining room, and all the bad thoughts just seem to go away.