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For the food stockpile you have to disable prepared food. it doesn't have it's own entry in the list but if you go into the food section you will see on the bottom right that hitting u enabled/disables prepared food.

For the walls the 'columns' are just 'end' wall sections. they have no practical difference to the other walls. They're showing up presumably because of the fortifications. You must have built or carved the fortifications somehow and if this is not what you intended then just remove the fortifications and build a wall.

If you still have 7 dwarves it's probably a bit early to do anything military. Just focus on carving out more space and preparing trade goods. Once you get the first immigration wave then you can start worrying about having some military.

[Quietust]

2) When I was trading goods, the trader said something along the lines of "With things as they are, I can't fathom you ending up with these goods" when I offered the trade the first two times. When I offered the trade the third time, he accepted. What does this message actually mean?

Traders insist on a certain profit margin, and they'll complain if you try to shortchange them. As your broker performs trades, (s)he'll eventually learn to judge their trading mood ("willing to trade", "ecstatic about the trading", etc.) and by making them happier, you'll be able to get away with them getting less profit from it. Don't worry about losing too many dwarfbucks during trade, since later on you'll end up with so much wealth that you'll probably be giving it away just to free up your stockpile space.

[Albedo]

1) I'm trying to build a tower-area above the main fort, but the wall is split between columns and fortifications, and walls and fortifications. Any idea why it's doing this/how to fix it?

The good news is that at least two of those circles are not pillars, they're the end of your wall.  The "+" signs are floors.  (Use <k> to examine and determine exactly what they are - Supports (aka columns/pillars) and lone walls look the same.)

As for the rest, you're being sloppy with your designations, which can be easy to do.  Somehow you hit a mix of <b, C, F> for fortifications, and <b, C, f> for the floors.  (And possibly <b, S> for a support/column.)

To remove a Construction, you have to <d>esignate it for removal - <d, n>.  This will probably take longer than it took to build, and any dwarf might decide to come fill the task - no labour controls it.

 Once it's gone, be more careful w/ your Construction designations - <b, C, _ >.  Once you place one type of construction, you are still in the construction menu, but must re-select which sub-type - <w> for more walls, <F> for fortifications vs <f> for floors, and so on. 

You can also put a "line" of up to 10 of the same designation at once by using the u, k, m, h keys to change the dimensions of the designation before you place it - I'm guessing you designated each of these tiles separately.  (a single line of Fortifications would be approp, methinks - liberal use of the < u > key before placement.)

(If you are 100% sure it was all designated at the same time, then it's a bug.)

2) When I was trading goods, the trader said something along the lines of "With things as they are, I can't fathom you ending up with these goods" when I offered the trade the first two times. When I offered the trade the third time, he accepted. What does this message actually mean?

I don't believe he accepted the same trade - if he made a counter offer, he changed the items you were offering, adding (considerably!) to them.  But what that particular message means is that you are nowhere near an acceptable offer.

You need to offer a value of about 2:1 at first for trades.  You were probably offering, not quite at a loss for him (which he ignores with a "are you joking?" sort of response), but close to it.

3) What should I try and focus on next? I was reading up on the Dwarven economy but that seems really far away. I still only have my original 7 dwarves. How long before I have to worry about military?

I'd suggest "created wealth", to help immigration.  CW is found on the z-menu, in the left hand column.  The more CW, the more migrants - once they arrive, you can select some for your military.  (I like to produce steel armour, which is both valuable and necessary for the military.  Statues/mechanisms of valuable ores work too, as do prepared meals. Lots of options.)

EDIT: Also, I just found out my dwarves are storing cooked food in my seed stockpile. The only thing allowed in the pile is seeds, but they're doing it anyway(fustrating because there are plenty of open spaces in the food stockpile)...

<q, s> for customizing the stockpile - there is a switch in the lower right for Prepared Food, < u > - turn that off.

[Mechanical Yeti]

Albedo's post (above mine) is good. Just to add a few things:

1. By looking at your picture, it seems that you have floors at two sections of your wall. Floors cannot have other constructions built upon them. If you want to build another wall or fortification there, you will have to deconstruct the floor.

However, that also looks like it could be the top of a wall from one z-level down. Sadly, the tops of walls and floors look exactly the same. If that is the top of a wall, then no worries! The game will let you build on it.

Looking over your picture again, it seems that you have down ramps on either side of the floors/top of walls. This will prevent you from building anything there. Dwarves only build Constructions from the north, south, east, or west. They don't build them diagonally. Your dwarves won't be able to reach those areas as it currently stands.

(A note on ramps: When a dwarf stands on the ramp, he is standing on the z-level the up-ramp is located. The down-ramp icon only serves to show that there is an up-ramp on the z-level below. Confusing, I know)


On an unrelated note, you have many ramps inside your walls leading to the level above. If you want to keep those, make sure that you have defenses on the next level as well. Otherwise, your wall is next to useless. Defenses can be difficult to figure out, and we'll be glad to answer any questions on that as well.


4. Press 'q' to bring up the "Buliding tasks/preferences" menu. Put the cursor over the seed stockpile, and press 's'. This brings up the settings menu for that stockpile (which is rather confusing). Either up/down arrows or +/- scroll up and down. 'e/d' enables or disables catagories. Use right/left arrows to scroll over to the subcatagories. 'p/f' permits or forbids subcatagories. You can use the right/left arrows again to scroll over to specific items, and press enter to toggle whether those items are allowed.

For you seed stockpile you will want to enable food, and forbid every sub-catagory except for seeds.

[zooeyglass]

For you seed stockpile you will want to enable food, and forbid every sub-catagory except for seeds.

remembering, as already noted, to also hit 'u' so that prepared meals on the bottom right is not highlighted. otherwise you'll be having a seed&prepared meal stockpile, rather than a seed only stockpile.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

Alright, well I got the seed thing fixed. Weird that prepared food has it's own entire option...

I also got my first migrants. I didn't expect there to be so many. My population jumped from 7 to 32 literally overnight. I had a lot of trouble finding jobs for most of them, and a few are still sitting around the dining room because they have nothing else to do.

Three of the dwarves were fishermen, which helped boost my food supply, but I'm having a problem with them throwing fish on the stockpile which leads to massive miasma. Should I just disable them from fishing and have them do something else?

Right now I'm trying to get some metal production going(I found quite a bit of both copper and iron ores earlier, but didn't have any spare labor) but charcoal production seems a bit slow. Any way to speed it up?

Also, I did recruit 6 of the migrants into my military(one hunter became a marksdwarf - the other 5 are now wrestlers). I split them up into two swads, so I can have one standing down/practicing and one guarding the entrance from thieves. However, it seems the only way to do this is manually is through the military screen, which is tedious and annoying. Is there any way to make them switch automatically?

[Scarpa]

I also got my first migrants. I didn't expect there to be so many. My population jumped from 7 to 32 literally overnight. I had a lot of trouble finding jobs for most of them, and a few are still sitting around the dining room because they have nothing else to do.

Three of the dwarves were fishermen, which helped boost my food supply, but I'm having a problem with them throwing fish on the stockpile which leads to massive miasma. Should I just disable them from fishing and have them do something else?

I wouldn't worry too much about having jobs for everyone. The "worst" thing that happens from too many idlers is probably parties, and that can be alleviated by not having meeting halls and using meeting activity zones instead. A lot of idlers also means they'll make friends with each other and get better social skills. This isn't inherently bad either but can contribute to a tantrum spiral late game when everyone is friends with everyone else and no one can handle a few deaths anymore.

As you get better at the game and start up different industries and/or megaprojects you'll figure out what to do with people. One thing that will help with the miasma is to have a group of people dedicated just to hauling. At least 10% of your fort if you want things done quickly and you don't have other massive dumping needs.

Also for the fish issue, make sure you have a fishery and at least one dwarf dedicated to processing the raw fish that get caught. Dwarfs don't eat raw fish so it will just sit in the stockpile until it rots if unprocessed.

Right now I'm trying to get some metal production going(I found quite a bit of both copper and iron ores earlier, but didn't have any spare labor) but charcoal production seems a bit slow. Any way to speed it up?

Embark where there's magma. I can't stand metalworking without magma personally. Otherwise you can look for coal or lignite veins. Coal is better as it produces a net of 2 coke bars per coal. Both can be found in sedimentary layers and I find digging under ponds is often a good way to find it.

Also, I did recruit 6 of the migrants into my military(one hunter became a marksdwarf - the other 5 are now wrestlers). I split them up into two swads, so I can have one standing down/practicing and one guarding the entrance from thieves. However, it seems the only way to do this is manually is through the military screen, which is tedious and annoying. Is there any way to make them switch automatically?

I perfer to put a dog on a restraint just outside my entrance so I get an early warning on ambushes. Then when I get the pause+announcement I just activate all my military. If they've been stationed appropriately ahead of time you don't need to do anything else, they'll run out to their stations and fight. A drawbridge linked to a lever in your dining room is a good fast reponse method too to seal things up while you sort out your military assignments. But overall you're right, it is tedious and annoying and that's something currently being worked on for the next release. Being completely re-written actually IIRC.

[Mechanical Yeti]

For you seed stockpile you will want to enable food, and forbid every sub-catagory except for seeds.

remembering, as already noted, to also hit 'u' so that prepared meals on the bottom right is not highlighted. otherwise you'll be having a seed&prepared meal stockpile, rather than a seed only stockpile.

Yes, I forgot to add that.


If you don't have magma on your map, than you'll either need lots of wood, or the veins Scarpa mentioned. Since you're still learning, it might not be that big a deal now. But when you make another fortress, you can use the finder (press 'f' when choosing a location) to locate magma.

And Toady is currently making huge changes to the military system. It should drastically reduce the micromanagement of your squads.

[Albedo]

Otherwise you can look for coal or lignite veins. Coal is better as it produces a net of 2 coke bars per coal. Both can be found in sedimentary layers and I find digging under ponds is often a good way to find it.

Actually, lignite without magma is no better than wood, unless you're just interested in making work.

Let's say you start with 1 wood and 1 lignite.  You turn the wood into charcoal and use that to turn the lignite into 2 fuel.  Which is exactly the same as if you'd had 2 wood to start with and turned them both into charcoal, no diff.

[Mechanical Yeti]

Well what's the point of that? Lignite seems rather useless.

As a side note, the human caravan is a great source of wood.

[Albedo]

Actually, lignite without magma is no better than wood...

If you have the magma, it produces 2 fuel in one job. Not as good as bituminous coal (which produces 3), but hardly "useless".

I also got my first migrants... Three of the dwarves were fishermen... but I'm having a problem with them throwing fish on the stockpile which leads to massive miasma.

The fish need to be processed. Rather than have 3 fishermen producing fish that then rot, make 2 of them fish cleaners, or one a fish cleaner and one a food hauler.  This is how DF works - you have to train up what you don't have, you don't just give them the jobs they are good at and ignore what you need.

Right now I'm trying to get some metal production going... but charcoal production seems a bit slow. Any way to speed it up?

Yeah - build another Wood Furnace and train a Wood Burner.  This is exactly parallel to your above question - if you don't have X, then train X, it's that simple.

[Mechanical Yeti]

I suppose if you were using both magma and fuel in your metalworking, than it would have a purpose.

[meanjeans]

Otherwise you can look for coal or lignite veins. Coal is better as it produces a net of 2 coke bars per coal. Both can be found in sedimentary layers and I find digging under ponds is often a good way to find it.

Actually, lignite without magma is no better than wood, unless you're just interested in making work.

Let's say you start with 1 wood and 1 lignite.  You turn the wood into charcoal and use that to turn the lignite into 2 fuel.  Which is exactly the same as if you'd had 2 wood to start with and turned them both into charcoal, no diff.

I don't get why this is uesless, even w/o magma. You still end up with 2 fuel from 1 wood. Saves you a bit from A) walling off a huge forest, B) making a tower cap farm, or C) sending your hapless lumberdwarves out of safety to chop. Mining is safer than chopping.

mj

[Albedo]

I don't get why this is uesless

No one said it was useless, I said it was no better than burning wood, as a response to the recommendation to use lignite.  2 tasks = 2 fuel, either way (or 4 if you include mining/cutting).

Your point about mining vs woodcutting is a good one for some maps and some game styles.  Magma is still far superior.

[dieinafire]

new question!

i tried searching the forums, but even the old post didn't help.

i've never tried digging up from a level. never. so how do i do it? i dug out a room, but made sure to (d)esignate a (u)pward stairway on each side of the room before they dug it out. i thought i could then (d)esignate a (i)up/down above it, but it's not working. tries a (d)ownward as well. nope.

so, how do i dig up from upward stairs? pic related, it's the room.