Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Maldevious]

Hello all. I've been playing DF since the Penny Arcade link was posted, and I just joined the forums. So I thought I'd pose a question and see what kind of answers I'd get.

I trained up an Armorsmith and Weaponsmith to legendary (+2, I believe) and made a bunch of masterful and exceptional steel armor and weapons for my military.

Now, they don't really have a whole lot to do, and it bugs me to see their hard earned (so many copper leggings and giant axe blades) go to waste. Any suggestions on how to put them to use?

[Haspen]

Make few steel things and then buy whole caravans with them?

Also, start producing weapons/armors for your military, even if you don't have it (yet).

[Kyronea]

Keep them busy, as Haspen suggested, with arms and armor for your future military. I highly recommend swords, shields, and plate mail, along with gauntlets and helms and boots. You can never have too big a military, so keeping them busy that way is the best way to go.

And if necessary, you can always use those giant axe blades in traps and such, and sell the copper leggings.

[Samyotix]

Melt all the copper and bronze armor. Equip your huge army in Masterwork Steel.

... I was working on that in my last fort, but got bored because I had not a single goblin invasion in eight years

[opsneakie]

If you're bored, or looking for more sources of iron, try modding goblins to have [liTTERSIZE: 10: 40] in the raws. The huge birth rates mean that they will come in large numbers, and often.

Start cranking out masterwork steel everything if you have the legendary dwarves to do it.

[Sir Iryn]

Does your army wear chain underneath their plate? If so, there's something. You could also gear out your hunters with quality armors.

[Grimlocke]

Make some masterwork pickaxes for your miners, make some masterwork spears for a militia army.

And if that is all done, make more soldiers!

[Maldevious]

Good suggestions... I do need to increase my army size, I only have 10 currently (more than adequate to handle any goblin sieges, but since when do Dwarfs stop at 'adequate?).

I also need to find some more iron ore. The map I'm on only has one vein (that I've found). Exploratory mines will be dug, and a massive army will be built.

[Lord Shonus]

Whatever weapon you don't use, make a ton of silver ones for export if you have the metal.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

You can also start training them up in metalcrafting. Then you can stud your masterwork steel plate with gold and black bronze bands to make it extremely valuable and send your fortress wealth skyrocketing.

[Maldevious]

Metalcrafting is an interesting idea... but how would I get them to stud specific items? I just see the 'stud with gold' option, and I'm not exactly sure how to choose what I'd like them to work on.

[Haspen]

Metalcrafting is an interesting idea... but how would I get them to stud specific items? I just see the 'stud with gold' option, and I'm not exactly sure how to choose what I'd like them to work on.

Well, just designate the stockpile that only accept that specific items as close as possible to the workshop and... just hope they will grab them for work.

[Lord Shonus]

I forbid the item I want studded as soon as it's made, then wait for everything else to be moved out of the forge, then make teh studding task and unforbid the item.

[Duuvian]

Melt all the copper and bronze armor. Equip your huge army in Masterwork Steel.

... I was working on that in my last fort, but got bored because I had not a single goblin invasion in eight years

I agree with this. Melt all the non masterwork steel down too, until you have enough masterwork plate and chain for your army. Then decorate them.

I'm doing this in my fort named Battlecity. I capped the population at 30 or so and am relying on children to get to sieges. By then the fortress wealth should trigger the biggest invasion ever and will be met with my fortress military in their amazingly over decorated equipment. That is, if I can ever get my framerate up from the damned underground waterfall.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

Metalcrafting is an interesting idea... but how would I get them to stud specific items? I just see the 'stud with gold' option, and I'm not exactly sure how to choose what I'd like them to work on.

Make a large stockpile of armor(I don't think you can decorate weapons, sadly) along with some charcoal/metal, and build a forge in that room. Lock a smith in there and tell him to crank the stuff out. He will decorate all the armor with the metal, but the types of decorations are random... so you might get something studded with steel and banded with black bronze, and another one with black bronze rings and an image of an elf in steel.