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[Zerris]

As topic says I'm a new player and have been over the last week or so been trying to start myself a nice little fortress. However I keep running into problems that require I completely restart again... and again and again..

Either its the entire map is all sand... or there aren't enough Z levels to actually do anything.. Or it's impossible to get the most resources in a relatively benign and calm area. Or the damned dwarves take too long to dig out the room plans I want and thieves steal all their supplies.

Any help would be greatly appreciated on finding a good world as well as a damn good starting location for a total newbie. Mostly what I've been looking fore is a place with one good sheer cliff face with a river either inside or outside. And a magma pipe without having the volcano crater on my damned map spewing ash over everything.

[Hawkfrost]

Greetings!

I like to choose a mountain with a brook and a forest on one side.
That way you have plenty of stone, wood, and metal, and you won't run out of water.

I like to have two miners so that it goes faster, and you can bring more supplies if you ditch the anvil or, as I prefer, the plump helmets and the second axe.

First thing you should dig out is an entrance passage, first hall, and food stockpile.
Food will start going bad under the burning light of the sun.


Hope this helps.

[beorn080]

Every single location is workable in some way. Get your food supplies indoors behind a door. Start small when digging. While it may seem odd to have dwarves sleeping in your planned entrance hall, its out of the rain and indoors. 15 z levels is more then enough for most projects.

I've never seen a volcano spewing ash over things. Am I missing something?

[SolarShado]

For your first fort, just about any non-evil/etc. area will do. Unless you're in a desert, you should have enough pools scatered around the map for water. If you don't have a cliff, you can just dig straight down and later build a wall around your entrance. I've heard recomendations to avoid flowing water and maga 'till you get the hang of making forst that can actually survive.

[woose1]

Look for trees next to mountains, heavy broadleaf forests are best.

NEVER embark near a river, but ALWAYS embark near a brook.

[Marlowe]

I'm not really understanding the problem here. How do you not have enough z-levels? How is having an all-sand map a problem? And why is it vital to have a calm or benign area?

[SolarShado]

I mentioned avoiding evil areas because (s)he's new. I don't get the z-level problem either... or the sand problem.

[Zerris]

Sand seems to have this nasty habit of filling in on itself.. I watched a dwarf for an hour mine out the same exact spot again and again.

As for the volcano.. I happened to have one open up at one point on a map.. damn thing erupted while I was still clearing out the sand to get to the solid rock of the mountain next door. Lost the dogs.. the cats.. all the food.. and a good bit of the supplies on that one.

As for calm and benign. Well the less likely I have to worry about elephants flattening my dwarves the easier it would be.

As for the advice thanks.. I'll keep you guys informed of how my next attempt works out.

[SolarShado]

Sand seems to have this nasty habit of filling in on itself.. I watched a dwarf for an hour mine out the same exact spot again and again.

lolwut? When did Toady add this? /smart-ass>

This sounds like a bug to me, a big one.

[Marlowe]

Sand seems to have this nasty habit of filling in on itself.. I watched a dwarf for an hour mine out the same exact spot again and again.

lolwut? When did Toady add this? /smart-ass>

This sounds like a bug to me, a big one.

Agree. This should not be happening. As for calm/benign.....any non-evil area is probably going to be safe enough. Even a lot of evil areas are horribly unchallenging. Elephants only occur in tropical biomes anyway and are no longer as aggressive as they were "Boatmurdered" era. I prefer high-savagery areas where I have a lot of wildlife to exploit. Even better, a mixed high-savagery/undead area, because the undead don't run out and give you unlimited military experience once you have a good army going.

I don't understand the "volcano erupting" business, because that too, shouldn't be happening.

[Hawkfrost]

Sand seems to have this nasty habit of filling in on itself.. I watched a dwarf for an hour mine out the same exact spot again and again.

As for the volcano.. I happened to have one open up at one point on a map.. damn thing erupted while I was still clearing out the sand to get to the solid rock of the mountain next door. Lost the dogs.. the cats.. all the food.. and a good bit of the supplies on that one.

As for calm and benign. Well the less likely I have to worry about elephants flattening my dwarves the easier it would be.

As for the advice thanks.. I'll keep you guys informed of how my next attempt works out.

Volcanoes don't erupt as far as I know.
Are you sure it wasn't just the imps?

And that sand thing is bizzare.

[Inari]

Sand shouldn't do that.  Sand is a good thing because it enables glassmaking.

I've never heard of a volcano errupting, is there someing I'm missing?  Did you tunnel into it?

I also don't understand about the lack of rock.  Even on a totally flat area, you'll have 15 levels below ground... that's HEAPS of rock.

Neutral calm is good, since it reduces the stuff that will attack you, that's what I, a newbie myself, am playing on currently.  Temperate is also good, since you don't have to worry about freezing or pools drying out.  Brooks are good, and better than rivers, since you don't have to worry about carp (and you can walk on them).  Lots of trees is good.

If you edit the init file to show features so that you can find the magma, the light red patches are (I think) magma that doesn't reach the surface (or at least that's been my experience so far).  This avoids fire men attacking you from the get go. 

Avoid aquifers. 

I'm currently playing on a 5x5 area spanning a warm calm neutral mountain biome with limestone and granite, and a warm calm neutral temperate scrubland biome with white sand, andesite and gabbro, with a brook and a magma pool.  It took  some looking to find.  If this sounds like what you're looking for, let me know and I'll upload the world to the DFFD.

[Inari]

Oh PS: don't start too close to any Dark Fortresses, as this will increase the frequency of ambushes and sieges.  (Or is this a myth?_

[Marlowe]

I don't think that starting close to goblins increases siege likelihood. If it did, half the forum would be starting next door to them.

The "Imps" thing: Fire imps, who live in volcanoes, have a fire breath attack that they use on things that get too near. This doesn't happen all the time because the imps are often swanning about beneath the surface, but if it does, this can cause a grass fire that can consume everything before being stopped by rock outcrops, ditches, or water. This may be what you thought was an eruption. It doesn't have to be a dwarf that starts it. Random wildlife will set it off too.

The sand thing is bizarre.

[Zerris]

Hmm I think there was a message about the damned fire imps when the volcano went off.