Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 [2] 3

Author Topic: Dwarves' Starting Skills  (Read 3048 times)

Skanky

  • Bay Watcher
  • I'm building a wagon!
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #15 on: June 22, 2008, 07:46:00 pm »

I tend to avoid dual-skilling my starting dwarves as they generally specialise in one thing only, so the other skill never gets used.

The exception to this is the farmer / brewer. Their farmer skill has an effect on how much food actually grows from the seeds planted so higher is better at the start when seeds and food are scarce. Brewing is harder to train and makes all dwarves happy, so my farmer gets this skill too. Later when other farmers arrive or I start training some peasants to be farmers, this initial guy becomes the brewer full-time.
Logged
"Quickly now, the goblins are more devious these days." - Captain Mayday

Lord Dullard

  • Bay Watcher
  • Indubitably.
    • View Profile
    • Cult: Awakening of the Old Ones
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #16 on: June 22, 2008, 09:53:38 pm »

Yeah, I used the same startup for a long time until I finally began to realize it wasn't quite optimal. Here's what I generally end up using, assuming the map I'm embarking on has trees and sand:

Miner/Leader - Leftover 2 points usually go into a weapon skill or wrestling.
Miner/Metalsmith/Glassmaker
Weaponsmith/Armorsmith
Carpenter/Woodcutter
Mason/Building Designer/Mechanic
Brewer/Grower/Furnace Operator
Cook/Grower/Woodburner

I modify it depending on specific circumstances, but that's basically what I tend to start with.
Logged

MaxVance

  • Bay Watcher
  • Legendary Internet User
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #17 on: June 22, 2008, 10:18:15 pm »

I always take these five dwarves:

5 Miner/1 each in the various manager/broker skills
5 Miner/5 Mason
5 Grower/5 Herbalist
5 Brewer/5 Cook
5 Mechanic/5 Building Designer
The last two vary on where I am going. I will almost always bring a 4 Weaponsmith/4 Armorsmith/2 Furnace Operator, unless there is either no magma or not many trees. If there are lots of trees, I will take a 4 Woodcutter/4 Carpenter/2 Wood Burner. If I am embarking to a savage area, I will bring a 4 Axedwarf (or Hammerdwarf if said area is also evil)/4 Shield User/2 Armor User to protect the other six dwarves. To pay for all these skills I drop the two axes, instead opting to dig for any ore and smith an axe there. After picking out a wide variety of the cheap foods and 5 of every seed, I will bring 2 war dogs and 2 cats. If I still have points left over, I usually spend the rest on coal.
Logged

Eater of Vermin

  • Bay Watcher
  • [VERMIN_EATER]
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #18 on: June 23, 2008, 12:49:41 am »

For a while there I experimented with different starting builds and discovered the best for my "style" is the anvil-less build from the wiki or minor variations thereof. 

But I'm also a lazy sod and don't reckon the differences in game play are really worth the hassles of creating the build in the first place... so I usually just "Play now."   

(Now if there was some way I could modify the default starting build permanently...   ::))
Logged
Dances with Kobolds

(Mamba in the Magma...  one, two, char-char-char!)

Athmos

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #19 on: June 23, 2008, 07:12:12 am »

I usually grab a proficient armorsmith, weaponsmith, and cook. even if the smiths don't use theirs skills much at first, those are the hardest usefull skills to train for me (specially armorsmith). i don't use much skills in mining, just use lots of picks, everyone may go legendary miner in less than a year. I never embark with an anvil.
Logged

Flame11235

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #20 on: June 23, 2008, 10:47:31 am »

Training armorsmiths isn't that hard. Just make a million bronze helmets or something.
Logged

Soadreqm

  • Bay Watcher
  • I'm okay with this. I'm okay with a lot of things.
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #21 on: June 23, 2008, 11:25:57 am »

I always Play Now. Unskilled dwarves are skilled enough for me not to care.
Logged

zagibu

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #22 on: June 23, 2008, 11:49:14 am »

Why does everyone dump the anvil? I find it not too hard to bring along everything I need AND an anvil on top. Sometimes I can even bring a pair of dogs, when I don't go to proficient in all skills.
Logged
99 barrels of beer in the pile
99 barrels of beer!
If some dwarves know the way to the pile
0 barrels of beer in the pile!

Jualin

  • Bay Watcher
  • What's that sound?
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #23 on: June 23, 2008, 12:02:58 pm »

I've recently realized that I mostly spent the first 1-2 years carving my fledgling fortress out of rock. Before, I had the following build:

1 dwarf with Proficient Mining, Growing, Competent Cooking.
1 dwarf with Proficient Mining, Growing, Competent Brewing.
1 dwarf with Proficient Mining, Growing, Novice Butchering, Novice Tanning, Novice Leatherworking.
1 dwarf with Competent Woodcutter, Competent Carpenter, Novice Herbalist, Novice Ambusher, Axedwarf.
1 dwarf with Novice Weaponsmith, Novice Armorsmith, Novice Metalsmith, Novice Furnace Operator, Novice Wood Burner, Novice Stone Crafting, Novice Bone Carving.
1 dwarf with  Competent Architecture, Competent Mechanic, Novice Judge of Intent, Novice Appraiser, Novice Organizer, Novice Record Keeper.
1 dwarf with Proficient Masonry.

And now I use:

5 dwarves with Proficient Mining, Mason, Novice Architecture, Novice Mechanic, Novice Stone Detailing.
2 dwarves with Competent Grower, Competent Brewer, Competent Cook.
Logged

Slappy Moose

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #24 on: June 23, 2008, 01:23:12 pm »

I've noticed that I end up making a very specifically designed team of dwarves (i start with 50) but I always embark on a shitty environment, and have to redo fucking everyone.

My next for will probably be a communist one everyone does every job.

There will be categories of workers, though. Food workers (farmers and cooks) crafters and miners, wood cutters and industrial workers (masons etc), and then metal workers and engineers.

I always have so much extra material that I don't care about quality, and I'm just sick of having to re-assign jobs on every embark.
Logged
Zaneg Thazor: Armok Reincarnate Story http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=19291.msg196691#msg196691

[Healthcare Update Thread] Personally, I can't wait for doctors to get possessed and start surgically attaching axes to champion soldier's arms.

RPharazon

  • Bay Watcher
  • [SEVERONBREAKS]
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #25 on: June 23, 2008, 02:09:41 pm »

Standard cookie-cutter build:

5 Miner/2 Appraisal/2 Judge of Intent/1 Mason
5 Miner/5 Mason
5 Carpenter/2 Wood-cutter/2 Furnace Operator/1 Wood Burner
5 Architect/5 Mechanic
5 Grower/5 Brewer
5 Grower/Whatever specific skills I need according to embark location.

It works well enough.
Logged
Quote
<Zaratustra> DF -is- a complex version of the sims
<Zaratustra> except instead of purchasing new sofas
<Zaratustra> you die

Derakon

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #26 on: June 23, 2008, 02:17:29 pm »

When possible, you want to have dwarves be Proficient in two skills. The reason for this is that that gets them the most starting experience, which in turn determines their starting stats. You want as much Agility as possible because it makes a huge difference in the dwarf's speed. Toughness is also handy for letting them work longer between sleep cycles.

These days, this is what I bring:
Miner / Stonecrafter
Miner / Trader / Mechanic
Mason / Leatherworker (and bring leather; the starting armor that results is very helpful for dealing with year-1 sieges)
Armorsmith / Weaponsmith (cross-trains in mining when he arrives, since I don't bring the anvil with me)
Farmer / Brewer
Glassmaker / Cook
Gemcutter / Gemsetter (I like gems)

The last two obviously don't make sense without access to glass, but I've been playing a lot of tree-less deserts lately. Basically I carve out the starting areas, then set the stonecrafter to make goods, the glassmaker to make terraria and raw glass, the jeweler to decorate things, the mason to make armor for a few ad-hoc soldiers, and the mechanic to use the terraria for fort defense. Obviously dwarves wear a lot of hats at the start, though, and I often end up e.g. with one learning to use a loom to make more bags partway through - without reliable access to wood, quarry bushes make a significant part of my dwarves' diet, which requires more bags.
Logged
Jetblade - an open-source Metroid/Castlevania game with procedurally-generated levels

Mephansteras

  • Bay Watcher
  • Forger of Civilizations
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #27 on: June 23, 2008, 03:33:15 pm »

My standard skill-set:

1 Leader (social and trade skills): Ends up being a jack of all trades for the first year or two, then settles in to just being manager and broker
1 Miner: Dedicated - usually has NO other jobs on until all required areas are mined out. Even then, he usually ends up just mining ore and gems
1 Mason: Miner, mason, and Stonecrafter
1 Woodworker: Carpentry and Woodcutting, gets woodworking and boyer jobs, but doesn't start with any skills in them
1 Smith: All 4 types of metal working. I start with coal, tetrahedrite, a platinum ore and an anvil. This dwarf basically kicks off my economy.
1 Farmer: Planter, Cook, and Brewer
1 Fisher: Only starting skills are fishing and swimming, but ends up doing fish cleaning, butchery, and tanning as well.

Obviously, these roles can change a bit depending on the map. But usually only the woodworker or fisher will change, if they won't have work to do on the map. Since I usually have a brook and trees, this loadout works pretty well.
Logged
Civilization Forge Mod v2.80: Adding in new races, equipment, animals, plants, metals, etc. Now with Alchemy and Libraries! Variety to spice up DF! (For DF 0.34.10)
Come play Mafia with us!
"Let us maintain our chill composure." - Toady One

DJ

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #28 on: June 23, 2008, 04:52:53 pm »

I go with two miners, a woodcutter/carpenter, a mason/building designer, a stonecrafter, a grower/brewer/cook and a mechanic/appraiser/record keeper/organizer/negotiator/pacifier. I realize this is a far cry from an optimal build, but I just don't want to bother with switching my playing style.
Logged
Urist, President has immigrated to your fortress!
Urist, President mandates the Dwarven Bill of Rights.

Cue magma.
Ah, the Magma Carta...

Asch

  • Escaped Lunatic
    • View Profile
Re: Dwarves' Starting Skills
« Reply #29 on: June 23, 2008, 06:06:47 pm »

1 miner (5pts) --
1 woodcutter(2)/appraiser(3)/negotiator(2)/liar(2)/axedwarf(1) - future record keeper
1 carpenter(3)/mechanic(3)/wood burner(2)/furnace operator(2)
1 metalsmith(4)/metalcrafter(4)/engraver(2)
1 weaponsmith(4)/armorsmith(4)/furnace operator(2)
1 mason(5)/building designer(3)/bone carver(2)
1 grower(4)/brewer(3)/cook(3)

sometimes i merge smithing skills to one dwarf and make also a hunter w/ butcher/tanner.
must said that i usually pretty fast come to all sorts of smithing.
Logged
Pages: 1 [2] 3