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[Brent Not Broken]

Here are the starting seven dwarves I've been bringing along to my last few fortresses. I'm trying to figure out the best set of superdwarvenly competent individuals to bring along, in order to get the fortress started off swiftly and end up with dwarves with desirable skills. Here's what I've come up with so far.

- Four Proficient Masons/Proficient Engravers. These dwarves begin mining immediately, and become all-purpose dwarven construction workers.

Tried making these Mechanics instead of Engravers, and letting them learn engraving from scratch, and didn't much how long everything took to get results. Experimented briefly with training them as building designers as well (to let them build pretty much everything on their own, without help), but it took prohibitively long to train them up high enough to build quality stuff. Strange moods on these dwarves are a total waste, but that's all right.

- One Novice Weaponsmith/Novice Axedwarf/Competent Shield User/Proficient Armor User. This dwarf spends some time as a woodcutter early on, building up respectable stats and fueling dwarven industry. Early on, she doubles as security, since she gains no unhappy thoughts from being drafted/undrafted and carries an axe all the time. Later, she functions as Sheriff and leads the military.

Combat skills are chosen based on what seems to be the most trouble to improve through sparring. Novice Weaponsmith skill is there just to catch fey moods.

- One Novice Appraiser/Novice Judge of Intent/Competent Stonecrafter/Proficient Brewer. This dwarf occupies all the starting noble jobs, and works as a trader even after eventually getting replaced as mayor. Early on, this dwarf makes stone goods for trading; later, he functions as the expert brewmaster for the fortress.

I'm not totally happy with this dwarf, and am looking for ways to improve the skillset here.

- One Proficient Armorsmith/Novice Siege Engineer/Skilled Building Designer. A dwarven scientist and all-around expert, this dwarf quickly gets to work at various carpentry, mechanics, furnace operating, and other assorted jobs. This dwarf gets trained towards being a multi-legendary dwarf, in the long run. He's meant to get an Armorsmithing fey mood, so I keep an eye on his skills and stop him from training any moodable skills higher than Armorsmithing.

Not totally happy with this dwarf, either. Skills swap around based on what resources are available on the map. When I get lucky with an Armorsmithing fey mood early on, this dwarf is a lot of fun and gets to train a lot of skills very high. When it takes a long time to end up with a legendary Armorsmith, this dwarf is stuck at low skill levels for most of the interesting skills.


So... who do you bring?

[PTTG??]

I get a miner, a woodcutter, a noble, a crafter (wood/stone/bone/gem/leather), a food prep guy (cooking, milling fishcleaning, butchery...), a forgemaster, and a fisher-herbalist.

Lets me stock up on food for the first immigrants.

[Deathworks]

Hello!

I have no real fixed setup, but instead a few guidelines:

All skills are learned only as novice level.
All dwarves use all their 10 slots (I dump the anvil to get enough points).
Each dwarf is either a novice woodcutter or a novice miner, for a ratio of 3 of one and 4 of the other.
One dwarf is chosen for leader by me and given some social skills as well.
One dwarf is selected for future trader and given novice judge of intention and novice appraisal.
One dwarf is selected for bookkeeper and given novice record keeping.

Note that these noble positions sometimes are put in sets on one dwarf rather than on several dwarves.

Other than that, I try to have all the civilian skills be existent with at least one dwarf, handing out skills based on personality. I do not hand out ambush and animal dissection, though, as I consider hunting as unnecessary and dangerous.

Well, these are my guidelines, the details will vary based on the dwarves I get.

Deathworks

[magic dwarf]

You don't need a building designer.  That skill doesn't do anything.

[Deathworks]

Hello!

You don't need a building designer.  That skill doesn't do anything.

As far as I know, building designer is the skill behind architecture, which is used for the trade depot, for instance, as well as for bridges, I think.

Deathworks

[Fossaman]

And pumps, waterwheels, windmills, supports, and furnaces. The chance to get happy thoughts whenever a dwarf walks by a particular structure seems worth it to me. 'Admired a fine trade depot recently.' This is a skill that takes tons of micromanaging to level in fortress mode, too, so it's worthwhile to get it at the start screen.

[Org]

Usually i start with a miner/carpenter, miner/mason, miner/fisherdwarf, fisherdwarf/mechanic, cook/brewer/grower, woodcutter/axedwarf, and a grower/woodcutter.

[Hyndis]

I use a similar setup.


4 "builders" --  mining, engraving, mechanics, architecture
1 craftsdorf -- masonry, carpentry, glass making, bone carving, wood carving, weaving, clothier, leatherworking, stone crafting, crossbow making
1 "laborer" -- farming, butchery, tanning, furnace operating, plant gathering, milling, cooking, brewing, plant processing
1 "uber-dorf --  weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, blacksmithing, metalcrafting, appraising


The metalworker is the leader, and he learns the various clerk duties on the fly. As he's a noble, he should be protected from the hammerer, should the hammerer get loose. He's also the most valuable dorf, so any XP gains in metalworking will stick around for a very long time and be concentrated into a single dorf.

Later on when there are migrants, I stick them into the craftsdorf and laborer castes, usually two laborers per craftsdorf. The original four builders keep the monopoly on mining, mechanics, and engraving so they become highly skilled. And only the dungeon master is allowed to also practice the metalworking skills, again focusing XP into as few dorfs as possible for those valuable skills. The original metalworker stops all hauling tasks and turns basically into another dungeon master once there are sufficient other dorfs that he can specialize more.

[Hawkfrost]

1) Miner/Mason/Engraver

2) Miner/Mason/Mechanic

3) Woodcutter/Carpenter/Building Designer

4) Farmer/Cook/Brewer

5) Farmer/Butchering-type jobs

6) Everything Crafter

7) Hunter/Trapper/Tanner/Leatherworker



Works fairly well.
If I am going somewhere dangerous I change the hunter for a military dwarf.

[Rysith]

And pumps, waterwheels, windmills, supports, and furnaces. The chance to get happy thoughts whenever a dwarf walks by a particular structure seems worth it to me. 'Admired a fine trade depot recently.' This is a skill that takes tons of micromanaging to level in fortress mode, too, so it's worthwhile to get it at the start screen.

I believe that building designer skills only influences the time it takes to build a building, not the quality of it. Quality is based on value of materials, so building your bridges out of obsidian blocks will give more happy thoughts than building it out of rough microcline. At least, that's the way it seems to me: I build my buildings out of blocks, and my dwarves ahve happy thoughts, even though I have no trained building designers.

to the OP: Where is your planter? I nearly always bring a proficient planter along to deal with food early on (though I also use a mod that significantly increases plant grow times), and I think that the engravers/miners is really a waste: Even in savage evil areas three miners has always been enough for me, and I deal with engraving by keeping a bunch of migrants on smoothing duty until three or four of them break proficient, then disabling it for the rest of them.

The mason/mechanic have also always replaced my stonecrafter for getting trade goods the first year. My current starting layout:

2x miner (one cook, one mason)
1x mason/something else (depends on the location)
1x carpenter/axedwarf/armor user/wrestler (gets woodcutting enabled on-site)
1x armorsmith/leatherworker/novice something (sometimes appraiser)
1x planter/brewer
1x mechanic/something else

Unless one of them has something really unpleasant in their likes, I won't bother choosing a leader beyond giving the mason, mechanic, or carpenter a point in appraiser. The extra slots can be used for weaponsmithing, a third miner, a second guard, or whatever other skills you want at the very beginning.

[magic dwarf]

gem cutting/weaponsmith
engraver/armorer
cook/brewer
mason/mining
woodcutting/carpentry
appraiser/organizer
marksman/armor user

all proficient.

[Romeofalling]

My current load-out, inspired by finding a nice thickly-forested, heavily populated space of Black Sand with a magma pipe in it, and then discovering that the randomly-chosen name for the group was The Infamous Cat-Sacks.

Clearly, I've been playing for far too long.
[edit] The Dwarves

1. The Guy With The Bright Idea

    * Novice Miner
    * Novice Judge of Intent
    * Novice Appraisal
    * Competent Consoler
    * Skilled Pacifier

Since the top couple of layers are sand, anyway, he'll have plenty of time to level up in his actual trade skill. Ideally, he ought to be proficient in Persuader, but then I thought to myself, "No, that's going too far."

2. Cat-Into-Sack Stuffer

    * Novice Butcher
    * Novice Tanner
    * Proficient Leatherworker
    * Competent Mechanics

Hey, he can't kill cats all the time. He also spends a lot of time devising cruel torture implements and death traps. Uh.....why do we want him along, again? Oh yeah, he's the whole reason we're The Infamous Cat-Sacks.

3. Three Words: Cat Bone Armor

    * Proficient Bone Carver
    * Skilled Stonecrafter
    * Novice Record Keeper

Need I say any more?

4. Not The Weaponsmith You Were Looking For

    * Proficient Bowyer
    * Average Glassmaker
    * Average Cook
    * Novice Organizer

If we didn't have magma somewhere on the map, I'd probably trade a point of Bowyer for Furnace Op. He's an essential part of my plans for an army of cat-bone clad marksdwarves armed with cat bone crossbows, shooting cat bone bolts at our enemies! He also makes a pretty nice cat meat biscuit.

5. Outdoor Dwarf

    * Novice Wood Cutter
    * Proficient Carpenter
    * Novice Herbalism
    * Novice Hunter
    * Novice Axe
    * Novice Armor

He still thinks we're just going camping for the weekend. Don't tell him!

6. Farmer

    * Proficient Grower
    * Competent Brewer
    * Novice Miller
    * Novice Thresher

Because you can't make beer out of cats. Yet.

7. Chief Architect

    * Proficient Mason
    * Proficient Architect

I figure this is somebody's kid brother. Maybe I'll call him Junior.
[edit] Their Stuff

    * 4 Copper Picks
    * 1 Steel Axe
    * 2 War Dogs
    * 1 pig tail rope (for the sentry cat)
    * 1 Lead cage (for the rest of the cats)
    * 41 units each of the 4 kinds of alcohol
    * 43 Seeds of Plump Helmet and Pig Tail
    * 29 Seeds of the others
    * 11 turtles still in their shell
    * 1 each of all the food we can get

Which should leave us enough for nearly 40 cats! If we end up with anything left over, we can spend it on cat leather, cat meat, or seeds.

[Romeofalling]

You don't need a building designer.  That skill doesn't do anything.

Building designer definitely affects the quality of buildings created using it.  High skill translates directly to wealth.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

We should make a compilation of good starting builds and write them all in this format:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

[PROFILE]
[TITLE:DEFAULT]
[SKILL:1:MINING:5]
[SKILL:1:MASONRY:5]
[SKILL:2:MECHANICS:5]
[SKILL:2:DESIGNBUILDING:5]
[SKILL:3:WOODCUTTING:5]
[SKILL:3:CARPENTRY:5]
[SKILL:4:MINING:5]
[SKILL:4:JUDGING_INTENT:2]
[SKILL:4:APPRAISAL:1]
[SKILL:4:ORGANIZATION:1]
[SKILL:4:RECORD_KEEPING:1]
[SKILL:5:MASONRY:5]
[SKILL:5:FORGE_ARMOR:5]
[SKILL:6:BREWING:3]
[SKILL:6:COOK:2]
[SKILL:6:PLANT:5]
[SKILL:7:PLANT:5]
[SKILL:7:HERBALISM:5]
[ITEM:2:WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_PICK:METAL:COPPER]
[ITEM:1:WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_AXE_BATTLE:METAL:STEEL]
[ITEM:46:DRINK:NONE:PLANT_ALCOHOL:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP]
[ITEM:46:DRINK:NONE:PLANT_ALCOHOL:GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE]
[ITEM:20:SEEDS:NONE:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:NONE]
[ITEM:5:SEEDS:NONE:GRASS_TAIL_PIG:NONE]
[ITEM:15:MEAT:NONE:DOG:NONE]
[ITEM:15:PLANT:NONE:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:HORSE:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:DONKEY:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:MULE:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:CAT:NONE]
[ITEM:1:FISH:NONE:FISH_PERCH:NONE]
[ITEM:1:FISH:NONE:FISH_MOLLY_SAILFIN:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:MARMOT_HOARY:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:RACCOON:NONE]
[ITEM:1:FISH:NONE:FISH_TROUT_RAINBOW:NONE]
[ITEM:1:FISH:NONE:FISH_CHAR:NONE]
[ITEM:100:FISH:NONE:TURTLE:NONE]
[ITEM:46:DRINK:NONE:PLANT_ALCOHOL:GRASS_TAIL_PIG]
[ITEM:46:DRINK:NONE:PLANT_ALCOHOL:POD_SWEET]
[ITEM:20:SEEDS:NONE:GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE:NONE]
[ITEM:10:SEEDS:NONE:POD_SWEET:NONE]
[ITEM:100:WOOD:NONE:WOOD:GIANT_SHROOM]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:DEER:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:FOX:NONE]
[ITEM:1:FISH:NONE:FISH_BULLHEAD_YELLOW:NONE]
[ITEM:1:FISH:NONE:FISH_BULLHEAD_BROWN:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:MACAQUE_RHESUS:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:GROUNDHOG:NONE]
[ITEM:1:MEAT:NONE:GOAT_MOUNTAIN:NONE]
[ITEM:50:STONE:NONE:STONE:COAL_BITUMINOUS]
[PET:3:DOG:STANDARD]

Then we can save them all in the init\embark_profiles.txt file and have a good range of embark profiles to choose when starting a fortress.

[beorn080]

If I am going to make siege weapons, I always start with a proficient siege engineer. It saves you around 130ish logs out of the 600 you need for an engineer to hit legendary. Thats a lot of beds, bins, and barrels.

Building designer is another that is useful at proficient. Build a high quality bridge in the middle of your meeting area and the dwarves are almost guaranteed to get decent thoughts from it. Easy way to ensure happiness before you get the dining room set up. Note that you can train your masons and your architects at the same time by building bridges all over the place. Just be careful getting rid of them because the dwarves may tantrum. Still a high quality bridge, trade depot, support, furnace, and a windmill equal 5 good thoughts for dwarves.

I tend to ignore masonry, mining, stone detailing, and other rock related skills. You accumulate so many rocks during the game that it isn't worthwhile buying them initially. Same with glassmaking.

Food, metalworking skills, and woodworking skills are the 3 biggies I focus on.