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[CidsOblivion]

I'm completely new to dwarf fortress, and I've been checking sites and whatnot to learn how to play. Several sites recommend taking away one steel axe so that you can upgrade your dwarfs more, but I'm on a laptop and for some reason the game does not recognize whenever I press the - or + key to change the amount of items. It works fine for my pc, but I much more prefer my laptop. I went into the key bindings option to change it to something else and I couldnt find the section to change. Can anyone help?

[Jhoosier]

Controls are kind of grouped by the mode you're using them in.  Adventure controls have 'adventure' in front.  I vaguely recall seeing 'embark' in the bindings, but that may just be for the world map part.  Can't say any more since I'm not home.

On your laptop, you may need to hold down a Fn key or something to make the +/- keys work if they're part of that funky numpad layout laptops have over where you'd rest your right hand.

[CidsOblivion]

I looked under key bindings for embark and could not find it, and the Fn key didn't make it recongnize it either. Thanks for trying anyway though.

[Stargrasper]

For some reason, I'm thinking you can't change key bindings unless you have 40d13...very possibly incorrect, but...

Anyway, I use a laptop for DF as well.  Ensure that the + and - keys that you're pressing are the number pad ones and not the keyboard ones.  Computers are weird and often enough, as far and they're concerned, the + on your keyboard and the + on your num pad are different keys.  Then use the Fn key to access those key options.

Let us know if that does anything for you.

[Scarpa]

It's secondary selector in keybindings. I use Alt-Up and Alt-Down (which show as Alt-8 and Alt-2 in the keybindings).

Or use your function keys to access the +/- keys on your keypad overlay.

[CidsOblivion]

Yay, i was able to find the secondary selector, and changed them so that it was the + and - keys on the keyboard, and it worked. Thanks for replying. Now i'm going to go devote my life to a game that will surly hurt my social liffe even more. Ehh, who needs it anyway?

[Stargrasper]

Yay, i was able to find the secondary selector, and changed them so that it was the + and - keys on the keyboard, and it worked. Thanks for replying. Now i'm going to go devote my life to a game that will surly hurt my social liffe even more. Ehh, who needs it anyway?

This game makes it acutely clear that socialization is a terrible thing for society as a whole.

[Slogo]

Anyway, I use a laptop for DF as well.  Ensure that the + and - keys that you're pressing are the number pad ones and not the keyboard ones.  Computers are weird and often enough, as far and they're concerned, the + on your keyboard and the + on your num pad are different keys.  Then use the Fn key to access those key options.

That's because they're not the same key.

When you push a key on the keyboard the keyboard sends a coded number to the computer. On most applications this key is then turned into the ascii character (in our case '+') which also corresponds to a specific #.

Dwarf fortress reads the keyboard codes rather than the corresponding ascii code. So it reads '+' as 187 and '+' (numpad) as 107 and both typically are turned into the ascii code '45' which is the '+' symbol. That's why the numpad and the normal keyboard behave different even if the key looks the same.

EDIT:
You aren't being anti-social you are preventing tantrum spirals.

[Stargrasper]

Which is exactly what I just said, only is significantly simpler terms.  Careful, there's enough programmers here, but enough non-programmers as well that assuming people will understand technical explanations is a long shot at best, especially on this particular board.  I simplify explainations for a reason...