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[Internet Kraken]

I seem to be having a problem with farming. No matter what I do, my farmer won't plant crops. I made sure he had the necessary seeds and a proper farming plot, but he refuses to plant the seeds in them. Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

Did you irrigate the plots before setting them up?

Have you hit 'q' and set the seeds to be planted each season in the plot itself?

I haven't tried underground tiles yet because all of my irrigation projects have been spectacular failures. However, I do know that above ground farming isn't working for me. I tell the dwarves which seeds to plant, but they never do it. If I turn off everything aside from farming, my farmer just defaults to "No job".  This is probably an error on my part, but I can't figure out what it is. In the previous version I was able to farm easily, but now I can't.

Make sure your "farmer" has the labor "Farming (Fields)" enabled...
Make sure this farmer has a path to the seeds and to the farm...
Make sure the farm tiles aren't already all planted with something...
Be patient and wait for the next season for your farmer to start planting stuff...
Seriously, I don't know, I've never had a problem with farming...

Well thanks for the advice, but I think I found the problem. It appears to be similar to this;

It should be noted that with UG farming, every tile under the plot has to be muddied, even the soil tiles. If you don't, the farm will say you can plant, but the farmer will never plant a single seed.

My above ground farm crossed over one tile that I couldn't plant on. I believe this is why my farmer never planted anything. I built a new field that didn't cross any invalid tiles and it worked successfully.

I do have another small question though. How does one go about opening a cage with a tame animal inside of it?

[Lancensis]

You can either build a lever, attach it to the cage (you'll have to place the cage as a building first) and then pull the lever, or assign the animal to a pit. Or butcher it.

[Nafghan]

I have a problem with my butchery. It is creating miasma and I don't know why. My food stockpile isn't full and neither is my refuse pile so what could be the problem?

[Flaede]

I have a problem with my butchery. It is creating miasma and I don't know why. My food stockpile isn't full and neither is my refuse pile so what could be the problem?

Haulers having a party somewhere? some bit of rot accidentally forbidden? It all being outside and default "Ignore Outside Refuse" order is on?

[Osmosis Jones]

Miasma doesn't occur outside. The most likely explanation is one of the butchery waste products (such as nerve tissue) is rotting before it can get hauled. Alternatively, do you have a tannery set up? If not, your butcher will produce raw hides, but noone will do anything with them, leading to rotten raw hide and miasma.

Either way, a good general rule is to either build your butcher and tanner outside, or underground in sealed rooms.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Internet Kraken: There is a major difference between large animals (cats, dogs, giant tigers, elephants, mules,...) and small animals (turtles, squirrels, fluffy wamblers...).

The methods mentioned by Lancensis are basically the only means of getting small animals out of a cage (except for butchering, which does not work on small animals, it seems).

If you mean large animals, that is animals that are listed as units in your 'u'nit screen, you only need to 'b'uild the cage ('j', I think). Once the cage is built, simply 'q'uery it and select 'a'ssign. You should see a list of all cageable animals in your fortress, the first one being the animal in this cage, marked with a green '+' in front of it and the cage symbol in white brackets behind it. Unselect the animal, and an idle dwarf will come and "release large creature", allowing it to roam free.

Deathworks

[culwin]

The methods mentioned by Lancensis are basically the only means of getting small animals out of a cage (except for butchering, which does not work on small animals, it seems).

You should also be able to "tame small animal" at the kennel, and then either some dwarf will come along and eat it, or you can make it a pet

[Nafghan]

Yeah I didn't have a tannery set up. Its all good now, thanks for that.

[Proteus]

1) Is there any way to create another fort in a world where I've already embarked?  Or do I have to generate a new world each time?
2) How can I see the world map after I've already embarked?

1) Well, if you abandon your current fort you can create another one, by embarking with another party. There is no way to have 2+ forts active at the same time, however.
2) Directly after generating the world you have the option to export a map (as well as other informations) of said world (with the map appearing as .bmp in your dwarf fortress folder). If you havenīt done this beforehand  AFAIK there is no other way to view the world map without abandoning your fortress first.

[JujuBubu]

Hidiho,

now that animals are milkable are there any qualities to the products ?
the amount of milk a highly skilled milker produces or the quality of the produced cheese ?

[Atlar]

Are floodgates destroyable by building destroyers and therefore could I use them as indestructible doors?

[Metroid]

Are floodgates destroyable by building destroyers and therefore could I use them as indestructible doors?

They can be destroyed.
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Floodgates

[Atlar]

I've read through the article and can't find anything about a floodgates reaction against a building destroyer monster, but thanks anyways.

[jerank]

Are there any monsters (Forgotten Beasts, Titans, etc), that can't be killed by falling terrain? Such as surviving a trap designed to drop a few Z-levels worth of mountain on their heads?

[Lord Shonus]

Pretty sure that's a no.