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[Verjigorm]

On the inefficiency:  Well, yeah, compared to wooden log construction, it's a lot of steps.   However, wooden logs have to been turned into smooth blocks if I wanna reduce the risk of climbers( i know, I could always build an overhang), which takes it from haul logs to site, to haul logs to stockpile, haul logs to carpenters workshop, make blocks, haul to building site.  Which is still less steps than haul wood to stockpile, haul to burner, make charcoal, haul coal to stockpile or kiln, haul clay to kiln, make brick, haul to building site.   So, that's a thing.

HOWEVER.   I need to have wood burners anyway, because I haven't found ze magma, and I'm not ready to make a magma pump yet.   The time spent making bricks has given me several proficient and skilled wood burners, which means my "make 20 charcoal" work orders take about 4-5 minutes to pump out charchoal.   I've got hundreds of refined coke bars, so I'm happy with that.   

Also, since each step involves a different labor, I've found it easier to segregate the labors to skilled dorfs, unlike block manufacture via stone.   So I have skilled Wood Burners making charcoal, skilled Potters making bricks, and skilled Masons building the constructions.   Wheras I would have to set up profiles to manage what dorfs are allowed to make wood blocks, and then get upset when my legendary carpenter takes a break from making blocks to go install them.   

It's working fairly well, with a minimal ammount of cancellation spam.   And it keeps my workforce occupied, rather than idling.   So, I'm happy with it. 

As far as "TurrentS".   I don't know what a "turrent" is, but I don't think it's what I'm discussing.   A Turret, in this context, is a "little" tower projecting from a corner.  You ever seen castles where a wall or tower has a smaller tower on a corner?   That's a turret.   It's a defesive position for marksdorfs to take up, so they can shoot through the fortifications.  In my case, I'm building little 3x3 mini-towers on the edges of the main keep. 

[PatrikLundell]

As of the later versions, building work is now an unskilled work (like destruction), so you can just disable that on your carpenter and mason.

"Turrent" is a misspelling, the "n" shouldn't have been there. Since the term generally is applied to artillery, I assumed you were planning on using ballistae or catapults, but you clarified that.

[Verjigorm]

Is that the case for 40.19?  I can't work without dorf Therapist...

[Verjigorm]

Man, I really like having a skilled cadre of wood burners.   They crank out coal like crazy, which has supported a generous steel industry.   I've made steel furniture for my mayor, so he will shut his trap abut his quarters being inferior.   I need to get back on making mail shirts, so I can outfit more troops.  I currently have two squads of training on year long training loops(I'll probably switch them to 6 month training, 6 months patroling), equipped with steel armor and melee weapons(3 spears, 3 swords, 1 axe, 1 warhammer), but I'm working on drafting 12 marksdwarves and setting up an archery range in the main tower, which I plan to put above an ammo stockpile, and remove the floors on the archery range behind the target so that they bolts should fall through and be preserved.  I'll probably switch to all copper bolts as I've seen the effectiveness of them, and I have no problems setting up metal production.   

Those wood burners really do it.   Since they've been burning the wood to fuel the ceramics industry, they're all pretty darn good.  I've got plenty of trees available, so I see no real end in sight to my coal supplies.  I will probably switch my tower building to stone, as I've found some non chalk layers.   OR maybe just use the chalk, there's lots of it.   That's probably a bad call:   I'm making steel in large batches, so flux is in high demand.      IF I start making blocks out of it, then I might make hiccups in my steel production, and that would be bad. 

Honestly, I could probably just do glass too, I'm sure there's a sandy layer I can use to get sand(if I had more bags...).  But that's more innovation than I'm willing to go for at this time.   I am siegable population now, so I expect some Goblins to come a calling shortly.   Since the entire tower is finished, I think I should be ok.  I'm probably jsut going to seal the outgate and let my marks dwarves snipe from the forfticifactions.   unfortunately, most of my military are melee dwarves.   But whatever.  You go to war with the army you have and all that.   

A Cyclops did show up!    The human caravan guards promptly butchered it with their pikes and copper whips.   Those copper whips are seriously sick, I rememberl osing all armored dwarves to globlin lashers.   

I am delibertly avoiding traps this time.   I've use cage traps, weapon traps and stone traps on winding, long corridors to defeat inaders before, and I feel like it's easier than using the military.   But I wanna use the military!

[PatrikLundell]

PeridantExist's PyLNP pack is up to 0.40.24, and includes DT. However, some DFHack stuff is not working. The 0.40.23 version works as well.
0.40.19 doesn't contain the new work scheduling. I am having a fair bit of issues with the 0.40.23/24 versions losing jobs, though. The are displayed in the list, but never gets done, digging leaves random squares undug, etc.

Bolt recovery isn't really worth it, since fired bolts are destacked, and there is currently no way to get them bundled up again. It can be used as a metal expansion exploit, however, since melted single bolts yield very much more than the original bolts did.

[Verjigorm]

How important is the upgrade from .19 to 24?   I really just want to mess around with sieges and military, rather than do cool work orders.  I'm somewhat impressed with the way it all works on this version, compared to the last time I played, when trees were really, really bad.  Performance is kinda jerky at 80 dorfs and a bunch of animals, so I'm kinda torn on trying to add more to it.   Each versions seemed to get a little slower(though I can appreciate the depth, especialy with wood), so I'm leery of geting a slide show.

IS there any really effective way to mass mine an aquifer?   Most of my chalk is caught in the dang thing, so I can't use chalk for non essential flux tasks.   Which is a bummer, and it means all the chalk i can mine now needs to go to flux, not doors or cabinets.  OR tables.   Or thrones, for those tables.  Which is making my stone gathering take a different turn.   Then again, I guess I need copper for my bolts, because I have twelve wannabe markswarves doing drills with no bows.   

I set up a floor in the main keep to be the range:  24 archery targets, 12 along the north wall, 12 on the south, set to fire from the center out.  Once the ammo stockpile and bolts are done, it should be good to go.   Probably be need to recruit some more marksdwarves into the militia.

Speaking of militia, I call it that because I give them minimal equipment(leather cloaks, leather trousers, crossbows) and just have them shoot at stuff and train.  They are basically my archer dwarves, I guess?    I plan to station them on higher floors behind fortifications, and use my actual "Guard" to engage directly.   Military training seems to have a really, really strong effect on attribut gain, which seems like over-all good news:   not only do i get strong, tough, hard to tire dorfs, but they also have good social skills, I guess from all that barracks talk.   I don't know why, but that makes me think that cross training as military dorfs is a good idea for the majority of my population.  Get better haulers definitelys, but it'd gives me a wide, if shallwo pool of talent to draw on in the even my guard are slain.   

Speaking of the guard.    They're just outfitted in Mail shirts, high boots, gauntlets and helmets.  Against blunt weapons, my dorfs are dead, right?   Would greaves and breastplates reallys be worth it?  The guard squads are mostly profienct armor user, and getting stonger daily.   So the weight doesn't seem like a huge concern.   

[PatrikLundell]

Each version seems to sort of get better, although .23-24 also has added new bugs. I haven't noticed any performance differences, but haven't made any direct comparisons. If you're happy with .19 I think it's good enough.

Aquifer: I'm not 100% sure I understand what your problem is (mining with constant wet stone orders, or avoiding getting flooded). If you want to dry out a large aquifer area you should probably use the cave in method (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Aquifer).

Don't use your copper for training. Use wooden or bone bolts. However, the dorfs probably won't be able to switch to war bolts, so when they've trained sufficiently you probably will have to fiddle with them until they change to metal bolts. Don't put bolts in bins, since binned bolts at least used to be unreachable. Marksdwarves suffer from significant problems, including their suicidal charges when they run out of bolts.

Once you set militia to training they are effectively removed from your work force, even when off duty. The only way to get them back into the work force is to remove them from the militia, which causes them to shed their gear (it belongs to the militia position, not the dorfs).

Shields should be wielded by all militia. If you block or dodge the enemy won't hurt you.

Some answers and opinions, at least...

[mineforce]

So, in one embark I have saved, I'm right beside a Goblin fortress, so I was anticipating a siege or two.   But the Neighbors screen doesn't show Goblins as neighbors(it never does!?), and I noticed that my civilization is absolutely infested with Goblins in leadership ositions(my Liason is a Gobber, almost all the Barons/Baronesses) and I don't know what that means!

That kind of stuff just happens, and it's kinda realistic actually. But I recommend that you put the max age tag on goblins and elves if you wanna slow down political takeovers.

[Verjigorm]

Each version seems to sort of get better, although .23-24 also has added new bugs. I haven't noticed any performance differences, but haven't made any direct comparisons. If you're happy with .19 I think it's good enough.

Aquifer: I'm not 100% sure I understand what your problem is (mining with constant wet stone orders, or avoiding getting flooded). If you want to dry out a large aquifer area you should probably use the cave in method (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Aquifer).

Don't use your copper for training. Use wooden or bone bolts. However, the dorfs probably won't be able to switch to war bolts, so when they've trained sufficiently you probably will have to fiddle with them until they change to metal bolts. Don't put bolts in bins, since binned bolts at least used to be unreachable. Marksdwarves suffer from significant problems, including their suicidal charges when they run out of bolts.

Once you set militia to training they are effectively removed from your work force, even when off duty. The only way to get them back into the work force is to remove them from the militia, which causes them to shed their gear (it belongs to the militia position, not the dorfs).

Shields should be wielded by all militia. If you block or dodge the enemy won't hurt you.

Some answers and opinions, at least...

Regarding the Aquifer:  my "problem" is that there's about four z-levels of chalk I want to mine, that's in the aquifer.   I want that chalk.   But I don't see how I can get to it without a massive, complicated engineering project.   I may just ignore the issue:  I think I've got enough chalk for flux.   

regarding copper bolts:  Why not?   I don't wanna bother with the switching bolts bug, and I have far more capability to smelt copper and make bolts from it than I do to make wood bolts.   I dunno, I'm torn on this.   

About militia:  Are you sure about the workforce?   When I had my last fort's soldiers set to pump operator while inactive, they DID pump.   

[PatrikLundell]

Aquifer: I think a large engineering project is what's required to secure significant parts of the aquifer, but if you've got enough already, that's obviously better.

Bolts: If you've got copper to spare, yes, metal bolts for both training and combat is better.

Militia: My experience is that militia off duty generally perform individual training, and any "regular" work appearances are few and far apart, and so cannot be relied upon.

[Verjigorm]

Well, the Long awaited goblin siege came.   Beat'em off, lost one marksdorf and have one casaulty who is really messed up.  Lessons?   

1)  Marksdorfs are stupid.   Nothing else to say.    I had my two marksdorf squads stationed on the upper level where the forfications are complete(but unroofed!), and thy did a little, then one of them climbed up to the top of the keep, and tried to "climb" down.  Really, he plummeted to his death in the middle of the goblins(he did take one out by landing on him!  Well, critically injured that gobber, atleast.   So... win column?).   I guess this means I will be roofing my keep so that these morons can't CLIMB down.   Idiots.
2)  Set up a hospital, with soap, before you get injuries.   Melbil survived getting BIT IN THE EYE by a goblin, but I suspect Melbil may die from infection(no soap was ready when he was cleaned), so, you know, not good.   
3)   Military training is REALLY good.   My dorfs went out there and raped some goblins.
4)   Squad orders are buggy.   I gave orders to kill goblins, and after the two melee squads murdered them, they all reverted back to civvies and tried to run away?   That's what got Melbil so hurt:  all his buddies left him, and the three or four injured gobbers just whaled on him.   

I think I'll be equipping my two melee squads with leggings and breastplates for the next wave.   Steel mail forks well, but a little extra protection won't be minded.

Speaking of extra protection, should I start assigning them multiple cloaks?   The cloaks seemed to get used quite often.     

[Verjigorm]

Melbil lives!   With a splint, some sutures and a crutch, he's waving his battle axe in sparring!   And doing ok.   We also dealt with a forgotten beast down in the caverns, as well as some troglodytes.   I've got an airlock for the caverns, but it's open most of the time:   the volume of passage keeps undected stuff out, and I've got the troops to handle a breach.  I think.   Steel and legendary fighters go far.   

housing is cramped, but that's to be expected, and I'm expanding constantly.   

Turns out the human caravan got destroyed, well, atleast the wagons I guess, by that Cyclops upthread.   I reclaimed the crap laying out there(well, the cloth.   Because I need it ).   Is this going to be a problem in the future with humans? 

[PatrikLundell]

Undetected stuff: Build a tunnel above your cavern entrance, channel a single tile hole, put in a floor grate, an animal impassable door, and a dog penned on the grate. That should detect everything.