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[madjoe5]

I just got my new fortress to autumn and had a decent amount of wealth, and a successful trade with the dwarf caravan and now I was waiting for my new migrants. Much to my dismay, I got 9 migrants, normally not bad for me, but once I saw what they were I was debating throwing them all in magma starting a new fortress. I got a fish dissector (theres only a small pond, no other water source to be found), a metal crafter, a gem setter, 2 peasants (helpful I guess), a cook (which I already had), a siege operator (i mean really), a butcher and a stonecrafter (both of which I could use).

At this point, I constantly have 4-6 idlers and it makes me really angry seeing so many people just sitting there. The only thing that I can do now is wait for more migrant and use a bunch of these extra screw-ups for my military.

As a new player, I was wondering what things I could do to keep production up and I am open to stories of your migrant annoyances.

[Neruz]

Migrants are never not useful; train them up to do something useful.

If you've got lots of rock and want to get rid of it, make some Mason's workshops that your 'good' Masons can't use and set them to repeat stone blocks; the blocks will be stored in bins, cleaning everything up nicely and making it easier to atom smash\dump down the chasm.

Send them out to fish, turtles are always handy.

Deactivate your good miners and give the migrants some picks, set them to strip-mine an area of dirt. They'll be talented miners in no time and you'll soon have a 30 strong force of near-ledgendary miners capable of stripping an entire z level of a 6 x 7 map out in about 10 minutes (tee hee).

Turn on Mason for them, don't let them into the Mason's workshop (again, using workshop profiles like before) and lay down some walls and other constructions to be built.


And, if all else fails, stick them in a squad and get them wrestling. A good solid army is always a useful thing to have.

[blue emu]

When I get useless Migrants, I go into their Labor Preferences (p)(l) and enable a job that will train them up quickly, just to get them a couple of stat boosts. Herbalist works, or Mason (if I'm building a castle or a wall). Once they get a bit of Strength, Agility or Toughness from levelling in their new career, I put them into the Army... wrestling for a while to gain a few levels (and more stat boosts), then specialize them in a melee weapon or a crossbow.

[madjoe5]

Basically what Im doing so far is training them in some near-necessary things (like making someone a tanner to complement the craftsdwarf w/ leatherworking, etc). Other than that, I havent really found a military at 15 population to be necessary, since my woodcutter and maybe a miner could fend off some macaques or kobolds.

[Neruz]

If you're in a calm area, probably not, but you're better off having them training up to be useful than standing around not. You probably will get sieged eventually.

[alway]

And if all else fails, you can make a meeting zone under the place where, coincidentally, your drawbridge happens to fall.

[Beanchubbs]

No migrant is a useless migrant. If you have a lot of idlers and plenty of stone, turn masonry on all of, them change the profile of your shops so only the good masons can use it, and either build a gigantor fortress and/or a megaproject.

[madjoe5]

No migrant is a useless migrant. If you have a lot of idlers and plenty of stone, turn masonry on all of, them change the profile of your shops so only the good masons can use it, and either build a gigantor fortress and/or a megaproject.

Im still new, so this doesnt seem like something i should/can do, but I definatly will in the future

[Untelligent]

Hell, I don't even bother training them. I just figure out what jobs I need done that aren't being done enough, switch on masonry/mining/whatever, and let them do their thing.

I don't give a crap about the quality of my stuff, I always have enough to buy what I need from the caravans anyway.

[Derakon]

Honestly, even the "skilled" migrants are just two levels above peasants anyway; you can make up that skill difference in a very short period of time for most jobs, and typically the ones where you can't are ones where quality doesn't matter (trapper, animal trainer, etc.). I barely pay attention to what skills my migrants have because inside of a season they'll be better at something else anyway, unless I just have them hauling.

Speaking of which, migrants remain useful to me up into the 50s regardless of what their skillsets are because I keep needing more haulers to keep my skilled dwarves' workshops clear and my stockpiles filled.

[Martin]

I don't give a crap about the quality of my stuff, I always have enough to buy what I need from the caravans anyway.

Ah, see, in a finished fortress I don't want anything below exceptional quality. That gives a pretty powerful motivation to skill everyone up in something.

[Stormrage]

try this:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=40079.0

[twwolfe]

I set them all to masons, then have them build giant towers into the sky. the problem with this is than since half my people are useless, i have to constantly keep building and mining for stone, whick means eventually, my entire region will be propped up by supports since i mined out everything

[buzz killington]

The only problem with "skilled" migrants is if they are of a useless skill they might bitch about the lack of work.  Its pretty easy to train them up a couple of levels in an easy skill like planting or masonry before turning them into semi-employed haulers.