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[Mechanixm]

Hello all.

I've been working on some intermediate level guides and have been posting them over on the Dwarf Fortress Subreddit

The guides follow a simple process to follow and include both detailed text and short videos (gifs) showing what the text instructions say to do.

I wanted to share them here in the hopes that some of you, and Dwarfers in the future, might find them useful.

Here are the topics I've currently covered:

• Mechanixm's Guide to Better Stockpiling: Part 1 - Intro to Quantum Stockpiling
• Mechanixm's Guide to Better Stockpiling: Part 2 - The Five Primary Stockpiles
• Reclaiming Items From Inside Bins, Barrels, Bags, and Cages: A Guide by Mechanixm
• The DFHack Workflow GUI Plugin: A Guide by Mechanixm
• Mechanixm's Archery Training Primer
• Mechanixm's Patrol Route and Burrow Defense Guide
• Levers and Pressure Plates: A Guide by Mechanixm
• Building Bridges and Atom Smashers: A Guide by Mechanixm
• Mechanixm's Guide to Better Stockpiling: Part 3 - Useful Custom Stockpiles
• Stripping and Pitting Caged Enemies: A Guide by Mechanixm

A full list of the Guides can be found on my personal subreddit: http://mechguides.reddit.com

I'm also in the process of working with the DFWiki mods to get some of these added to the DF Wiki via user submission.

I'm planning on doing several more guides and am currently taking Guide Requests.

If anyone has any questions or comments, please let me know.

Thanks,

-Mech

[SlyStalker]

One on magma would be really nice.

[Mechanixm]

In what regards?  How to pump it?

[SlyStalker]

Pumping, forges and recreating Boatmurdered.

[Falconbridge]

oh oh! please do one one military equipment/uniform... i cann't get my dwarves to wear all of it reliably unless i set them to replace clothing and set specific pieces of armor to each of them, which gets tidious.

[taptap]

A comment on your introductory quantum stockpile guide. I would put less emphasis on a common sense thing like putting wheelbarrows in stone stockpiles vs. not putting wheelbarrows in wood stockpiles, everyone learned this from normal stockpiles, but focus more on the "principles". In particular the point that by distinguishing input/output stockpiles (with instant emptying of input) you can link input to take and output to give to the same workshop making workflow in convoluted industries e.g. metallurgy w/ all the giving (to make alloy or steel ...) and taking (from melting / smelting / alloy making ...) from smelters much easier. Once this is properly understood, many new ideas appear by itself.

Guides I or someone else may appreciate:

Color coding and the required stone sorting to do it properly
Charm school guide (how do I make my dwarf increase their social skills, be merry and marry) - for current version
Minecart systems (with moving parts)
Logical systems in easy applications
Medical school - how to do hospital and train your medical staff
Simple safety - a few easy things that may save your fortress

[Nikow]

How to pierce aquifer without stone? without tousends cancelations
How to make automaticly regulated contamination pool (with presure plates and 3 lvl water)
How to make autorectracting bridge? (easy with presure plates)
How to catch forgoten beast and trap avoiding creatures? (artifical made cave-in, from scratch)
How to make underground farm in stone layer? (watering, chaneling down 3 layers of stone without accidents)

[Mechanixm]

Levers and Pressure Plates: A Guide by Mechanixm has been posted.

[Mechanixm]

Pumping, forges and recreating Boatmurdered.

I am planning on doing a guide showing the ins and outs of screw pumps and how to create reservoirs.  Creating more complex stuff will be the will of the Urist who learns a functional foundation from me.

[Mechanixm]

oh oh! please do one one military equipment/uniform... i cann't get my dwarves to wear all of it reliably unless i set them to replace clothing and set specific pieces of armor to each of them, which gets tidious.

Sadly...you've pretty much figured it out.  As long as you keep making more and more armor and weapons, the dwarves will go and replace what they are wearing with the better stuff you've newly created.  So, be aware of that.

Also, i find that it helps to at least state what kind of metal your dwarves are supposed to wear.  That causes fewer uniform changes de/re-equips in my experience.

[Mechanixm]

A comment on your introductory quantum stockpile guide. I would put less emphasis on a common sense thing like putting wheelbarrows in stone stockpiles vs. not putting wheelbarrows in wood stockpiles, everyone learned this from normal stockpiles, but focus more on the "principles". In particular the point that by distinguishing input/output stockpiles (with instant emptying of input) you can link input to take and output to give to the same workshop making workflow in convoluted industries e.g. metallurgy w/ all the giving (to make alloy or steel ...) and taking (from melting / smelting / alloy making ...) from smelters much easier. Once this is properly understood, many new ideas appear by itself.

Guides I or someone else may appreciate:

Color coding and the required stone sorting to do it properly
Charm school guide (how do I make my dwarf increase their social skills, be merry and marry) - for current version
Minecart systems (with moving parts)
Logical systems in easy applications
Medical school - how to do hospital and train your medical staff
Simple safety - a few easy things that may save your fortress

Part 3 of my Stockpiling Guide will go in to more detail about the give and take relationships between stockpiles to further streamline flow.  In there I will cover taking from the Primary Materials stockpiles industry specific materials to further reduce walk time and time between jobs.

Also, I think i'm at 14998 of 15000 available characters for that guide...so there's not much room for editing. 

Color coding rocks...sheesh.  Obsidian or go home Urist... 

You don't need a guide on how to increase social skills.  just have a single place where all your idlers can hang out...and have lots of idlers.

Minecarts...ummm...I probably won't do this unless someone comes up with some simple examples they'd like to see.  With QSPs, using minecarts and tracks are a bit of a novelty.  However, in my just posted Levers and Pressure Plates: A Guide by Mechanixm, the last pressure plate example covers a minecart triggereing a pressure plate.

Building a Hospital is too simple to be a guide.  The only way to train your medical staff is to have injuries.  So, go fight stuff or drop your dwarves off a bridge somehow.  You can probably figure out how to hook up a pressure plate to a bridge and then have a dwarf go and pull a lever on the other side of the bridge by checking out the afore mentioned lever guide.

Simple Safety?  I'm planning on doing a Bridge and Atom Smasher Guide.  And, in the Screw Pump guide, i'm going to show how to create a re-fillable 3/7 water tiles for your dwarves to walk through.  what else is there?

[Mechanixm]

How to pierce aquifer without stone? without tousends cancelations

Use Wood to build everything.  It's the same process.  There's no way, that I'm aware of, to not get cancellations.  You can, howerver, turn cancellations off under o-x.

How to make automaticly regulated contamination pool (with presure plates and 3 lvl water)

This I will probably do in the Screw Pump guide.

How to make autorectracting bridge? (easy with presure plates)

Go check out the Pressure Plate guide.  It's not difficult.
Levers and Pressure Plates

How to catch forgoten beast and trap avoiding creatures? (artifical made cave-in, from scratch)

use Pressure Plates hooked up to supports that cause a cave in.  The difficult part is figuring out how to get the FB in to the area where your pressure plates are without it first destroying your Support.

How to make underground farm in stone layer? (watering, chaneling down 3 layers of stone without accidents)

This is really easy.  All you have to do is flood an area and then Drain it.  I'll cover those basics in the Screw Pump Guide.

[taptap]

How to make automaticly regulated contamination pool (with presure plates and 3 lvl water)

What do people have with 3/7 water? My dwarves stopped pathing through the ditch once it contained exactly 3/7 water - to the point they drank from the ditch instead of going through it to the booze stockpile. They are fine with 2/7 or mixed 2/7-3/7 ditches.

Similarly Mech's comment regarding social skills doesn't sound as if it is from current gameplay (after the emotions update) - I have dwarves in the 9th year still dabbling in all the socialising only skills (like conversation, pacifier, consoler) - regardless of whether they were military or had a lot of sparetime. No one talks anymore.

[Mechanixm]

How to make automaticly regulated contamination pool (with presure plates and 3 lvl water)

What do people have with 3/7 water? My dwarves stopped pathing through the ditch once it contained exactly 3/7 water - to the point they drank from the ditch instead of going through it to the booze stockpile. They are fine with 2/7 or mixed 2/7-3/7 ditches.

Similarly Mech's comment regarding social skills doesn't sound as if it is from current gameplay (after the emotions update) - I have dwarves in the 9th year still dabbling in all the socialising only skills (like conversation, pacifier, consoler) - regardless of whether they were military or had a lot of sparetime. No one talks anymore.

You might be right about the new emotion stuff that comes with 40.15.  I haven't played past 40.14 yet, due to all the guides I've been writing.

For the record, I'm fine with mixed 2/7 and 3/7 ditches. 

[lethosor]

The emotion rewrite was introduced in 0.40.14, actually.
Also, are you still interested in putting up guides on the wiki? I can help convert them to Mediawiki syntax from Markdown if necessary (or I can look at possibilities for on-wiki conversion).