What do you do to manufacture beds?
Well I don't know if this is like cheating. But I usually cap my population at 50 at first then increase it when I feel ready.
It's not cheating, it's good dorf management. I've been capped at 75 for a while now...
Well, I've had a few trees grow back in the recent dorf year, but still, it hasn't been anything like it used to be. Regrowth is now taking longer than it needs to be, and yes, I'm having to develop dorfy ways of firing up the kilns and furnaces... I'm down to the third level of caverns, and I'm looking forward to getting to the magma. It is an incredibly deep dig, and there have been setbacks: The only "live" caverns, the uppermost ones, are now inhabited by a mosquito-type Forgotten Beast. I plan to put in a new set of living quarters, including dining and bedrooms, when I hit the magma, then it's working out how to get the magma umpteen billion miles up to near the surface, or moving all my furnace operations to the bottom. I've got no idea how it will be done. FUN.
I haven't had a challenge like this since, yes, as someone said, when trees were one-log-per-tree. Well, unless you count my Fun With Aquifers games...
I guess I started playing too early, (.20d) and got used to treating wood more gingerly as a resource-- something to hoard until you REALLY needed it. back then, you couldnt make stone pots, and had to choose between metal barrels or wooden ones. Wooden ones were easier to make at the initial outset, and having enough wood to make both beds and barrels for a rapidly growing fortress was a challenge in and of itself, but I digress--- I just learned to be miserly with wood, and to only use it as needed, and to always seek alternatives.
Yep, I remember that time. {shudder} I don't remember having people to share my views and ideas with back then though. This is much more enjoyable!
People to commiserate with!
It's hard to trade for metals because if you only want steel, you can only get 4 steel bars. (And 4 iron and 4 pig iron and 8 coal, plus rocks (including ore), and whatever other iron/pig iron/steel trinkets you can find. Which is a pain in the butt.)
Yeah, I buy anvils. Lots and lots of anvils....