Morning everyone.
I picked up this fine game via the "totally newbie tutorial" that was posted on afteractionreporter.com (linked from the Wiki). Atfer getting a few chapters in, I felt like I got a general feel for the game (farming, storage, woodcutting/plants, masons etc) I decided to jump in the deep end and create a world of my own, along with my own Dwarf Team, and examine the inevitably hilarity ensue (Dwarves set on fire, Dwarves being eaten...)
However, i've had a few problems, and was wondering if this fine community would be able to help:
1. I had three miners in one team, but only two were mining. I went to individually manage the third miner who was doing nothing, even setting him to "only mining" rather than anything else, yet he still stood there with "no job". I later found out the reason why he did nothing was that he had no pick to mine with. I'd bought 2 copper picks, recruited 3 miners...
2. The next team was fully equipped for mining with 3 copper picks. I embarked on a glorious expedition to an area, looked around, and not a mountain in site to dig into... (i wasn't sure if you could build stairs to a lower level "outside" of a fortress to go down to start digging). How do I see from the minimap before embarking which areas are mountains, and the level of these mountains? Is it the small triangles surrounded by up and down arrows?
3. The next expedition successfully found a level mountain to dig into! Success! Or so I thought. After massive amounts of planning of a gigantic fortress of epic proportions with a levelling for crafting/storage, a top level for barracks and trade depot, and bedrooms/meeting hall/general awesomeness on the third level, I couldn't find anywhere to plant my mushrooms. The tutorial map had an area where the first level could plant mushrooms on. How do I find out from the minimap before embarking that there will be an area where I can plant mushrooms? I had some amazing plan of flooding this dirt to make it muddy in order to plant on it (says the wiki) but the great flood conisted of a single square getting water on it and then the water running out -_-
4. How often do migrants arrive at the fortress and how do you go about attracting them? Is it the value of your fortress, the location, the rooms inside it?
5. How do you slow down/speed up the game speed, if there is an option available?
Advice for this newbie is most welcome, as this appears to be an awesome game but I can't play it if i get crippled by not being able to grow food inside away from evil animals/kobolds/humans stealing it.