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[smeeprocket]

incidentally, if you are using 40.16 or lower, you can use dfhack and dwarf therapist and you definitely should. They will make managing your fort a lot easier.

[Magnumcannon]

I usually go for
2 miners (One of them has record keeper/appraiser/organizer, so he can be both bookkeeper, broker and the manager)
1 carpenter/mason/mechanic/architect
1 stonecrafter/metalcrafter/woodcrafter
1 farmer/brewer
1 blacksmith/armorsmith/weaponsmith/furnace operator/wood burner
1 woodcutter (After he chops down enough trees, like, 400 logs avaliable, i make him a farmer)

I disable hauling for the two miners (I don't want the constantly hauling the heavy rocks they mine),  the carpenter/mason (This is very important, because he is going to be making beds, tables, chairs thrones and coffers), the farmers (He needs to focus on farming). You may want to disable hauling to all of them later and, as i said before, create special dwarfs who haul all day. There's going to be the general purpose hauler, who hauls everything, and the furniture hauler, who hauls beds, doors, tables, thrones.

Talking about food, you may want some fisherdwarfs or hunters, i really don't use them, but that's just me, most people use them and, as i've heard, they're a reliable source of food. If you have a river near your fortress, send your fishermen there! Of course, you don't want the river to be too far, because if some hostile creature(s) attacks your fortress, your fishermen will be the first to suffer! Seriously, the Cyclops, Ettins, Minotaurs and Werebulls will murder them, so be careful! Fishermen use their beards to fish and beards can't protect them, but hunters use crossbow, which might come in handy on an attack. Make sure the wildlife around your fortress provides a good source of food. You said you embarked on half of a mountain. I think there are yaks there, which is awesome, yaks are a excellent source of meat.

You might want to slaughter your two caravan animals (They're going to be yaks, mules, camels), which might produce a decent amount of food for your first 7 dorfs.

Farming, you said you have 2-3 farmers, huh? Farming is the most reliable (In my humble opinion) source of food. I have, currently, one thousand-something plump helmet on my fortress, which is result of having a lot of farmers. Farming is also extremly useful to make drinks. Your dwarfs are little alcoholic bearded creatures and they need alcohol to go through the working day, even the kids! I heavily recommend setting your stills as fast as shit (Seriously). A sober dwarf is a unhappy dwarf, they're going to be less productive and less happy.

Also, after a while, they're going to start complaining about drinking the same booze all day. They want more than just dwarven wine! Brew pig tail, cave wheat and sweet pod! Give them ale, beer and rum! I set my farm to make plump helmets one season, and them pig tails/cave wheat/sweet pod on other, with some plump helmets too. This way, there is going to be a wide variety of booze to your dwarfs enjoy.

And, about trading. It's really helpful at the beginning, but, after a while, you might just want to throw those tree-hugging hippies down to the magma! As Smeeprocket said, you can sell trap components, which people often consider an exploit. If you don't want that, just sell some metal crafts. I sell silver ones, as they're worth a decent amount of Dorfbucks and they can afford some seeds, cloths (Later), food and, of course, BOOZE!!

[sumusiko]

how do you get so many plump seeds? I always have only 4-5 at max and can barely use them to farm due to being so scarce.

I have a gatherer getting plants outside 24/7 and still.

[smeeprocket]

if you cook the plump helmets, the seeds go away. If you brew them, you get to keep the seeds. I think, or maybe it's the reverse :?.

This is not true for other plants, you get to keep the seeds for those unless you crush them into paste.

[Magnumcannon]

how do you get so many plump seeds? I always have only 4-5 at max and can barely use them to farm due to being so scarce.

I have a gatherer getting plants outside 24/7 and still.

Result of 2 years of intense planting in Whirlpages  . Do a check on your farm plots using "t". Your seeds may have already been planted. How many did you bring? Also, do you have any brewer? I highly recommend to have so, specially if you didn't bring a lot of drinks at the embark. If you don't have any, i recommend assigning one.

[smeeprocket]

also if your seeds are stored in barrels, when one dwarf goes to plant they will take the whole barrel and you'll get cancel spam from other dwarves that can't get at the seeds.

Set up a seed stockpile that is barrel and binless near your farm. They will store them in bags, which isn't perfect, but preferable.

[taptap]

1- What's the objective? Conquer the world? Just survive?
2- Should I read the whole tutorial that is stickied even though I might forget about the commands later on? Also should I use the save world they also suggest in order to learn or you recommend me to learn on my own?
3- Which game type to play?
4- Should I make big worlds or are medium generally preferred?

1. None.
2. Keep the wiki at hand and look up things as you play.
3. Fortress mode is far more of a game right now.
4. Big or medium is the wrong question. I only play pocket worlds these days.

Biggest tip for new players: Turn down the population cap in the init file. Much less overwhelming to play then.

[SpiralDimentia]

Pull the sword.

[Metalax]

A typical starting seven

Appraiser 3 Judge of Intent 3 Negotiator 1 Persuader 1 Consoler 1 Discipline 1
 - Expedition leader and Broker. Gets assigned mining labour following embark as it will skill up very quickly digging out the initial farm rooms and temporary storage in the dirt layers.

Mason 4 Building Designer 5 Discipline 1
 - Skip straight past most of the crappy quality furniture lets you get a high quality dining room up and running early. Bring along a flux stone, cut it into blocks and use them to build your trade depot, this dwarfs skill gives a good chance that your dwarves will get "admired a fine depot" thoughts. Enable mechanics if you want to start building traps/machines prior to the first migrant wave.

Grower 5 Herbalist 4 Discipline 1
 - Can usually provide sufficient food by himself to keep a fort of up to 50 dwarves running, assuming that hauling is disabled for him(food hauling may be left on until the first batch of migrants arrive). Sent to make a single piece of armour or weaponry once the forge is up and running so as to have a useful mood-able skill.

Diagnostician 5 Bone doctor 1 Surgeon 1 Suturer 1 Wound dresser 1 Discipline 1
 - Chief Medical Dwarf. Usually gets assigned as initial bookkeeper and secondary miner. Again, gets sent to make a single piece of armour or weaponry once the forge is up and running so as to have a useful mood-able skill.

Carpenter 5 Brewer 4 Discipline 1
 - As brewing usually only takes a short while to make a large quantity, it can easily be alternated with your barrel making. May be sent out to chop down a few trees initially before an early migrant gets assigned as lumberjack.

Cook 5 Stone crafter 4 Discipline 1
 - Again cooking tends to be done in batches, so intervening time can be spent making goods for trade. Swap out craft skill if you are planning on something other than stone for the basis of your trade goods.

Weaponsmith 4 Armorsmith 3 Furnace operator 2 Discipline 1
 - Switch balance of skill around to taste. I prefer some furnace operator to speed initial smelting, but it can be excluded.

All dwarves have Discipline 1 to minimise their fleeing in panic at the first sight of a slightly irritable animal, or dismembered goblin.

I tend to follow the, bring raw materials, make tools on site, school of thought. So I usually bring a bunch of Bituminous Coal or Lignite and Copper nuggets or Malachite along with some wood and stone. Initial workshops can be set up while the tools are being made and jobs such as cooking all your meat into meals, gathering nearby fruit and plants, erecting a trade depot and so on can be done without them.

[sumusiko]

Got 45 dwarfs now but having a really hard time keeping up with the brewing, I don't have enough plants even though I have 2-3 dwarfs gathering plants all the time...

[Metalax]

Got 45 dwarfs now but having a really hard time keeping up with the brewing, I don't have enough plants even though I have 2-3 dwarfs gathering plants all the time...

Set up an underground farm plot, at least 5x5, although 10x5 is reasonable and have a Grower plant Plump Helmet's throughout the year. Have a second Grower/Herbalist planting/gathering other plants to provide for your variety needs. Once you have that number of dwarves, set some to chopping lumber, then making ash, then potash to fertilize your farm plots. Use a 5x7(or any size with total tiles = 4n-1) farm plot if you are fertilizing.

You are keeping a supply of prepared meals on hand, so your dwarves don't eat the raw plants, yes?

[sumusiko]

Got 45 dwarfs now but having a really hard time keeping up with the brewing, I don't have enough plants even though I have 2-3 dwarfs gathering plants all the time...

Set up an underground farm plot, at least 5x5, although 10x5 is reasonable and have a Grower plant Plump Helmet's throughout the year. Have a second Grower/Herbalist planting/gathering other plants to provide for your variety needs. Once you have that number of dwarves, set some to chopping lumber, then making ash, then potash to fertilize your farm plots. Use a 5x7(or any size with total tiles = 4n-1) farm plot if you are fertilizing.

You are keeping a supply of prepared meals on hand, so your dwarves don't eat the raw plants, yes?

Yea I am however I have people gathering all day long and it keeps saying that I'm out of plump seeds all the time :l

[Metalax]

You are not cooking the Plump Helmets or the seeds at all are you? That and having your seeds be the closest food to the gathering point(particularly vertically, Dwarves will frequently walk straight through a prepared meal stockpile if the seed/plant pile was on a layer directly above/beneath them when they decided to get food.) are the only real way of loosing seeds. It really shouldn't take long for you to be hitting the soft cap on Plump Helmet seeds if they aren't being lost somewhere(soft cap here including those planted in the ground waiting to sprout).

[Codyo]

make sure you only have your farmers harvesting plants, so they will gain experience and a higher grower skill will increase your food output

you can do this in the ''o''rders menu

[wuphonsreach]

Top reasons planting jobs get cancelled:

- You cooked the seeds (or the plant part that contains the seed) or used the plant part in some reaction that does not result in seeds.

- Your seeds are off on a tour of the fortress due to their bag being in a barrel with all of the other seed bags and Urist McSlowWalker is dragging the barrel to the dining room to collect a single seed.

Never allow barrels on seed stockpiles.  Always have (2) seed stockpiles for a particular seed type(s).  The first stockpile is take from anywhere, the second stockpile is "take only from links". 

Assuming both stockpiles are near each other and near the farm plots, you will have minimal job cancellations due to the seed bag being on the far side of the fortress.  With (2) stockpiles you'll always have (2+) seed bags for a particular seed type and hopefully at least one of them will be inactive and near the farm plot.