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[Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum]

I believe the domesticated birds dig up the bugs, it just doesn't tell you they are scratching around in fortress mode.
I'm fairly sure you can do the same thing yourself in adventure mode. You used to be able to, anyways.

[Gwolfski]

Isn't it because birds have great onserver skill and they see vermin your dwarves cant see? Like if you 'look carefully' in adv mode

[Loci]

Is the "dwarves bringing water to a moody dwarf" something that's been observed, or just a speculation? If they do, that's unexpectedly heartwarming.

Dwarves are supposed to "give water" to any overly-thirsty dwarf. Whether or not they actually do is dependent on how many other jobs are competing for their attention. Still, it usually gets done in the current version (unlike in prior versions where imprisonment/hospitalization were often deadly).

I've noticed that in this latest version of the game (this is my second "serious" game, the first was in 40.24), my livestock now seem to generate vermin?! Initially I thought there were just more vermin than usual on the site, but after realizing that the worms and thrips inside always appeared around my mason's pet chicken, I noticed that the outdoor vermin also appear around my poultry.

Are my observations correct? I just spent about ten minutes doing google searches, but I can't find anything relevant. The wiki's vermin articles are quite bare bones.

As a chicken lover, unless the intended implication "the birds notice bugs that the dwarves can't see, and then eat them", I feel vaguely offended. Either way, it's something I'm a little concerned about, since until now, I was planning on letting the birds free-range in the dining hall. I'd feel bad if someone saw a bug and got put off their lunch.

Some animals (including chickens) have the [ROOT_AROUND] token which causes them to "dig up" (spawn) vermin in the surrounding tiles. This is mainly for flavor/visual interest, and as a hand-wavy explanation why these creatures don't need to be fed.

[kiwiphoenix]

Hello, Rachiebird! Welcome to the forums! 
Sounds like you're making quite good progress indeed, for having been at it for such a short time.

Some animals (including chickens) have the [ROOT_AROUND] token which causes them to "dig up" (spawn) vermin in the surrounding tiles. This is mainly for flavor/visual interest, and as a hand-wavy explanation why these creatures don't need to be fed.

I believe the domesticated birds dig up the bugs, it just doesn't tell you they are scratching around in fortress mode.
I'm fairly sure you can do the same thing yourself in adventure mode. You used to be able to, anyways.

Yep, you can actually make like a chicken and root up vermin, yourself, in Adventure Mode.
In past versions, one could use a simple reaction to make them edible, as an emergency food source; this has lost purpose somewhat now that you can harvest infinite fruits and berries off of any suitable plants.

- If somebody in your fortress dies and you have an elf citizen, can the elf eat the body?

Cannibalism is a bit of a vague and inconsistent topic in terms of DF mechanics, but sapient creatures haven't been butcherable in Fort Mode since before 2012. Even if they were, that elf is a citizen of your Dwarven civilisation and bound by Dwarven ethics - under which cannibalism is considered an unthinkable crime.

Lately, I've been pushing my boundaries a little, trying to wrap my head around mechanics, complicated industries, even the source code/modding (although that last one hasn't gone anywhere).

May I ask what sort of things you were trying your hand at? If you need help with anything, feel free to drop by the modding forum, somebody will be able to point you in the right direction. DF is remarkably flexible and surprisingly intuitive to tweak once you get the hang of it.

[Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum]

Cannibalism is a bit of a vague and inconsistent topic in terms of DF mechanics, but sapient creatures haven't been butcherable in Fort Mode since before 2012. Even if they were, that elf is a citizen of your Dwarven civilisation and bound by Dwarven ethics - under which cannibalism is considered an unthinkable crime.

In addition to this, even if it was just an elf visitor (and so kept elven ethics), elves only eat people they kill in combat. They never butcher sapients, which is required to eat in fortress and adventure mode. (but not legends)

[ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_KILL:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_OTHER:UNTHINKABLE]

[rachiebird]

Some animals (including chickens) have the [ROOT_AROUND] token which causes them to "dig up" (spawn) vermin in the surrounding tiles. This is mainly for flavor/visual interest, and as a hand-wavy explanation why these creatures don't need to be fed.

That's actually kind of cute too. I'm glad the game wasn't trying to imply that my chickens were dirty. Would it be possible to remove that effect by going into the raws and deleting the tag? I don't really have any experience with such things though.

I keep all my tame non grazers in a single underground pen (you'd never think of it, but tigers, boas and chicken work perfectly well together), with the exception of vermin hunters, which are pastured to patrol food stockpiles. Guard dogs, are of course set up at guard checkpoints, rather than pastured with the rest. And, as an additional exception, cats that adopt owners are immediately rewarded with gelding (if male) or pasturing inside a small room together with other offenders (if female).

That sounds like it's a very efficient and tidy way to do things, haha. I'm a little bit jealous, but unfortunately I'm too much of a softie when it comes to animals (especially birds). I just have a big above-ground pasture, and then I let the cats, dogs, and non-grazing pets roam around wherever they want. I know I got a migrant who loves ducks, so I'm gonna see if I can play matchmaker at some point. I'm not 100% sure that dwarves get extra happiness from adopting their favored animals, but I don't really care. Watching poultry run around after their owners is one of the most adorable things I've seen in a while.

Cannibalism is a bit of a vague and inconsistent topic in terms of DF mechanics, but sapient creatures haven't been butcherable in Fort Mode since before 2012. Even if they were, that elf is a citizen of your Dwarven civilisation and bound by Dwarven ethics - under which cannibalism is considered an unthinkable crime.

In addition to this, even if it was just an elf visitor (and so kept elven ethics), elves only eat people they kill in combat. They never butcher sapients, which is required to eat in fortress and adventure mode. (but not legends)

[ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_KILL:ACCEPTABLE]
[ETHIC:EAT_SAPIENT_OTHER:UNTHINKABLE]

Thanks! That's good to know, even if it's not relevant to my game just yet. I haven't even touched on combat or butchery at all, so the mechanics are a little foreign to me. It's more like "this was a thought that weighed on my mind even when I hadn't actually started playing, and all my DF knowledge came from what I heard from my friend". But when I tried asking him about it the other day, his response was something like "I dunno. Why don't you stick a dead dwarf in a room with an elf and test it?" Unfortunately, I was a little short on both of those things, so I had to rely on you guys instead.

Lately, I've been pushing my boundaries a little, trying to wrap my head around mechanics, complicated industries, even the source code/modding (although that last one hasn't gone anywhere).

May I ask what sort of things you were trying your hand at? If you need help with anything, feel free to drop by the modding forum, somebody will be able to point you in the right direction. DF is remarkably flexible and surprisingly intuitive to tweak once you get the hang of it.

Oh man, I feel a little bit bad mentioning it like that then. Right now, I haven't actually gone beyond "reading about stuff other people are doing, then looking my own game documents while going 'Huh'". It's definitely something I'm interested in though, especially since my general impression has been that DF is really good for modding. But I feel like it might also be good to wait til I have a good grasp on the stuff that's already in the game, haha.

Although on a vaguely related note, is there way to issue a blanket ban on a particular labor, so even new arrivals will already have it turned off? I have a reoccurring problem where migrants will come, and the relevant ones will start hunting (or fishing, which is also annoying) before I can notice they're there, let alone disable their labors. Suddenly all the emus I wanted to catch live are either dead or running away, and since I have no interest in starting a meat industry, the poor things just end up rotting in the refuse pile. It's really sad.

[ragincajun]

• Firstly and most importantly, one of my dwarves has gone into a mood and is demanding metal bars. I do not have metal bars. I do not have metal ore, I do not have an anvil. What I do have is a lot of sentimentality and the willingness to do anything it takes to save them. I have the things in the Lazy Newb Pack, but I'd also be okay if I had to download a different program. What I need is either a way to cancel the mood without harming the dwarf, or a way to make metal bars/the stuff I need to make them appear in or around my fortress.

With moods, they will have the potential to demand anything that is possible to produce at your fortress.  So if you have sand...they could want glass.  If you have any ores (gold, silver, copper, etc) they could want metal bars.  With metal bars you need a smelter and then a fuel source (either magma or coal (bitumenous coal/lignite).  Alternatively you can burn wood to make charcoal at a wood furnace.  That's the worst options, then coal then magma (which uses itself as a fuel and alleviates the need for other fuel sources (ie coal or wood).

• Lower priority, there are pebble tiles scattered around in the dirt outside my fortress. They interfere with my garden plot arrangements, so if I can, I'd like to make them plantable. I tried designating them as ponds, but nobody fell for it. I might be doing the designations wrong though. I don't have much experience with "creating" places for plots.

Farm plots are done with then <p> then adjusting the size.  Remember, certain seeds can only be planted inside (underground) while others are "outside" seeds.  If you have boulders use the <d> to smooth stone and that will grind them down flat.  Not sure honestly if that will make it "plantable" however.  Farm plots do need a soil based square so if it's rock it won't be plantable unless you flood it.  You can't designate the top level (I don't think)...you'd have to actually channel that to a lower level and then actually have a pit (hole) to designate as a pond to fill it with water.
>

• And least importantly, the idle thoughts that keep me awake at night:
  - If you dig out all the roots under a tree, does it fall over? My friend told me it won't, and I trust him, but I also want a second opinion.
  Pretty sure that's accurate as I clear roots all the time.  Just be wary when you cut the trees that they are not leaving a hole/opening into the fortress.  You can cover these openings with a floor or a grate (I prefer floors).  I THINK that if you clear the roots first...and then cut the trees that the tree, when felled will not leave a hole into the fortress; but that if you cut the tree first it leaves the roots and then when you clear the roots it will leave the hole.  Either way, always double check when you fell trees for any portals into your fortress.
  - The wiki says cats hunt vermin, but does that include stuff like snails and worms that most RL cats wouldn't touch?
  No clue. 
  - If somebody in your fortress dies and you have an elf citizen, can the elf eat the body?

I don't think sentient beings can be cannibals but haven't dealt with that at all
[/list]

[Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum]

I don't think there is a way to do blanket labours in the base game. I think you just need to check each migrant wave and disable their jobs then. Is your game set to pause when a migrant wave arrives?
I would recommend you do that, if it isn't. That way you won't miss their arrival, and so you can turn off the labours in time.

With moods, they will have the potential to demand anything that is possible to produce at your fortress.  So if you have sand...they could want glass.

I'm fairly sure moods don't care about what you can get in your specific fortress. You can get a stone mood without finding rocks, for example. (I know that from experience.)
And they can want silk without webs, or shells without shelled animals.

Also, ragincajun, use (X) for buttons. The <X> messes up the formatting.

[kiwiphoenix]

Although on a vaguely related note, is there way to issue a blanket ban on a particular labor, so even new arrivals will already have it turned off? I have a reoccurring problem where migrants will come, and the relevant ones will start hunting (or fishing, which is also annoying) before I can notice they're there, let alone disable their labors. Suddenly all the emus I wanted to catch live are either dead or running away, and since I have no interest in starting a meat industry, the poor things just end up rotting in the refuse pile. It's really sad.

I don't think there is a way to do blanket labours in the base game. I think you just need to check each migrant wave and disable their jobs then. Is your game set to pause when a migrant wave arrives?
I would recommend you do that, if it isn't. That way you won't miss their arrival, and so you can turn off the labours in time.

You can try looking into DFHack, a wildly popular utility that several others have mentioned already.
Among many other things, it allows you to view and set the entire population's labours from a single menu - bring it up once after each migrant wave and you're golden.

Be warned, after using DFHack too much and for too long, it becomes fairly difficult to operate the Vanilla game on its own.

[Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum]

You can try looking into DFHack, a wildly popular utility that several others have mentioned already.
Among many other things, it allows you to view and set the entire population's labours from a single menu - bring it up once after each migrant wave and you're golden.

Be warned, after using DFHack too much and for too long, it becomes fairly difficult to operate the Vanilla game on its own.

I kind of prefer Dwarf Therapist for labours myself. Either works I suppose.

[kiwiphoenix]

I kind of prefer Dwarf Therapist for labours myself. Either works I suppose.

That's fair. Never used it, and so can't really speak on the matter.
DFHack had what I wanted, and does loads more besides, so I never really looked into anything else.

[rachiebird]

Although on a vaguely related note, is there way to issue a blanket ban on a particular labor, so even new arrivals will already have it turned off? I have a reoccurring problem where migrants will come, and the relevant ones will start hunting (or fishing, which is also annoying) before I can notice they're there, let alone disable their labors. Suddenly all the emus I wanted to catch live are either dead or running away, and since I have no interest in starting a meat industry, the poor things just end up rotting in the refuse pile. It's really sad.

I don't think there is a way to do blanket labours in the base game. I think you just need to check each migrant wave and disable their jobs then. Is your game set to pause when a migrant wave arrives?
I would recommend you do that, if it isn't. That way you won't miss their arrival, and so you can turn off the labours in time.

You can try looking into DFHack, a wildly popular utility that several others have mentioned already.
Among many other things, it allows you to view and set the entire population's labours from a single menu - bring it up once after each migrant wave and you're golden.

Be warned, after using DFHack too much and for too long, it becomes fairly difficult to operate the Vanilla game on its own.

Since I downloaded the game with LNP, I actually already have and am using DFHack.

I think this might be the big spring migrant wave I've heard about, and I'm not getting a notification because I thought it was over, and accidentally saved in the middle of it. It's also a little had to tell because there seems to be a serious problem with most of my text display. Notifications split in half, punctuation replaced with floor tiles, frequently, when I'm looking at a list, chunks of words will be missing...

The problem with checking migrants as they arrive is that you can't do anything with them till they're on your map, and they'll enter your map one at a time, very slowly. I more or less have to sit at the edge of the map, checking them as they enter, since Urist McSpeedyHunter can arrive, check in, and go off to do his self-imposed labor of emu slaughter while the better (literally and metaphorically, I'm really getting sick of this guy) part of the migrants aren't even visible.

[Cptn Kaladin Anrizlokum]

In Dwarf Therapist, it gives you the entire migrant wave as soon as one of them arrives on the map, which lets you disable labours on the entire wave instantly. It's quite handy if you don't want to watch the migrants show up.

[Mostali]

The problem with checking migrants as they arrive is that you can't do anything with them till they're on your map, and they'll enter your map one at a time, very slowly. I more or less have to sit at the edge of the map, checking them as they enter, since Urist McSpeedyHunter can arrive, check in, and go off to do his self-imposed labor of emu slaughter while the better (literally and metaphorically, I'm really getting sick of this guy) part of the migrants aren't even visible.

From the d_init file:
---
You can have your dwarves start/arrive without any labor types enabled here by setting this to NO.  You can also set it to SKILLS to make the labor list set by skill, or BY_UNIT_TYPE to have it done by overall unit type.

[SET_LABOR_LISTS:NO]
----

Even with this setting they will arrive with Hauler labors enabled, so even if I forget about them they still help get things done until I get around to giving them real jobs.

[PatrikLundell]

Dwarf Therapist (DT) also allows you to sort on migrant wave, so you get all dwarves in the latest wave grouped together, saving you the trouble trying to hunt for them.