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[Tiruin]

Tiny question I got when browsing the wiki

Crossbows vs Warhammers

They have a tiny difference yet both use the hammer skill in melee, the benefit of crossbows is that they can shoot tiny spears at the enemy, warhammers can ignore armor (or so I am told)

So here comes the question. I want a military that uses blunt weapons, should I arm them with warhammers ONLY or with crossbows ONLY (Going for a specified squad and ignore cross levelling about the hammer skill), and do crossbows of the same material (like copper) work nearly just as well as warhammers made of copper?

[Kay12]

I think the armor bypassing is not a property of the warhammer but blunt weapons in general (crossbows included) - but I think warhammers pack more punch than the bows. Especially if you consider that you can make warhammers out of denser materials than you can make crossbows of. Choosing between the two depends a bit on your fortress design - marksdwarves work well with traps that force enemies to stay contained while getting shot at.

I usually have only one squad of marksdwarves, lead by my captain of the guard. They have as light crossbows as possible, to make sure they won't give too bad beatings to my dwarves.

EDIT: Citing from the Wiki... "Cross-training your marksdwarves so that they can hold their own in a melee is advisable. Choosing a better material will, of course, result in a more damaging butt-stroke - but crossbows make a poor melee weapon anyway."

So I'd assume you'd better train hammerdwarves if you want to have melee defenders (which I think everyone should have, unless protected by insane traps).

[smokingwreckage]

Quick question: I dug out some starting rooms in soil and immediately got underground flora moving in. What does that mean? Is there a cave or cavern open to the surface?

[Farmerbob]

Quick question: I dug out some starting rooms in soil and immediately got underground flora moving in. What does that mean? Is there a cave or cavern open to the surface?

Yes.  I believe it's still possible to generate the old mountain caves which start out exposed to the surface.  You might also have a bugged cavern level, but if that's the case, you can probably find it by looking around a bit. If you see neither, then you might have a combination of a volcano and a collapse of a wall between the magma sea and one of your cavern levels.  It's also possible that you have a simple bug where underground stuff is enabled for some weird reason

[theothersteve7]

Been playing a while, got quite a few questions.

I was planning to make a waterfall across the entrance to Booze Tower, the home of the only alcohol stockpile and therefore a reliable location for dwarves to visit regularly.  Unfortunately my region freezes in the winter and for part of Spring.

1.  Will water falling directly onto floor grates be enough to generate Super Happy Mist?
2.  Inside / Above Ground will still freeze in winter, correct?
3.  Can I count on dwarves with cleaning enabled to keep that area clean?
4.  What kinds of soil will grass regrow on?
5.  Do I need to regularly clear out shrubs and trees from a grazing area?
6.  I was really nice to the elves because I wanted them to bring me toys.  Whoops... so much cloth.  How badly do I need to mistreat them in order for them to bring me good things again?  This is annoying since there's so much time between caravans, and I see so many goblins that caravans frequently skip me.
7.  Are there caps on animal populations?  I stopped suddenly at around 50 dogs.  Other animals are still breeding.  That's not a complaint.
8.  What would be the best way to make flying war animals patrol around a map?
9.  Do !!lignite floor grates!! eventually burn away?
10.  I have a bit of a Dark Gnome problem.  How fast does Gnomeblight set in?  Can I just dump it at the entrance and expect them to be properly disabled ~30 steps later?
11.  How much soap is enough soap?
12.  What's the best way to gather iron/tin/steel/bronze?
13.  Does leather armor wear?  How about leather cloaks/hoods/etc?
14.  Do I need to queue two mitten jobs and two boot jobs per armored dwarf?

Thanks!  You don't have to get all of these, I will do the necessary !!science!! if I don't get responses.

[Sphalerite]

1.  Will water falling directly onto floor grates be enough to generate Super Happy Mist?

In my experience, falling water creates mist.  Grates are irrelevant - they don't cause the water to make any more mist than it already does.

2.  Inside / Above Ground will still freeze in winter, correct?

Correct.  Once a tile has become Light/Above Ground it will always be that way, and water will freeze there.

3.  Can I count on dwarves with cleaning enabled to keep that area clean?

Not reliably.  Cleaning seems to be a low-priority job.  They also seem to prefer cleaning smoothed or constructed floors inside near the meeting area more than anything else.

4.  What kinds of soil will grass regrow on?

Essentially any kind of soil, clay, loam, sand, as well as muddied stone.

5.  Do I need to regularly clear out shrubs and trees from a grazing area?

It's helpful to get the maximum grass.  One thing that helps is mining out the layer directly under the soil, since trees won't grow on unmuddied soil without a solid layer underneath them.

6.  I was really nice to the elves because I wanted them to bring me toys.  Whoops... so much cloth.  How badly do I need to mistreat them in order for them to bring me good things again?  This is annoying since there's so much time between caravans, and I see so many goblins that caravans frequently skip me.

Not sure, what the elves bring you and how much they like you seems to differ from world to world.  Try treating them slightly worse each year and see what the result is.

7.  Are there caps on animal populations?  I stopped suddenly at around 50 dogs.  Other animals are still breeding.  That's not a complaint.

Yes.  Once you have 50 of any one species no more pregnancies will occur of that species.  Pregnancies already in progress will proceed, and you can still buy those animals from caravans anyway.

8.  What would be the best way to make flying war animals patrol around a map?

I don't think this is possible.  The best you can do is assign the flying war animal to a dwarf and have the dwarf patrol the map on foot.

9.  Do !!lignite floor grates!! eventually burn away?

Yes, unless they're artifacts.  An !!artifact!! will burn forever, a non-artifact floor grate will eventually be destroyed.

10.  I have a bit of a Dark Gnome problem.  How fast does Gnomeblight set in?  Can I just dump it at the entrance and expect them to be properly disabled ~30 steps later?

I don't think gnomeblight actually works, but I haven't experimented with it.

11.  How much soap is enough soap?

Ten bars should be more than enough for most fortresses.

12.  What's the best way to gather iron/tin/steel/bronze?

Mining ore, if it's present on your site.  It usually won't be.  You can also buy it from caravans, or kill goblins and melt down their armor and weapons.

13.  Does leather armor wear?  How about leather cloaks/hoods/etc?

Leather armor doesn't wear.  Not sure about leather clothing other than armor.  Cloth clothing, of course, does.

14.  Do I need to queue two mitten jobs and two boot jobs per armored dwarf?

No, a single job produces a right and left mitten/boot/shoe.

[JLT]

1.  Will water falling directly onto floor grates be enough to generate Super Happy Mist?

- I believe so, but never tried it myself, only without floor grates. Water seems to produce happy mist as soon as it falls a z-level.

3.  Can I count on dwarves with cleaning enabled to keep that area clean?

- Make it a meeting area, those are cleaned more frequently.

4.  What kinds of soil will grass regrow on?

As long as it is soil, grass will regrow. Sand, clay etc. count as soil, too.

5.  Do I need to regularly clear out shrubs and trees from a grazing area?

Probably yes. Depends on the size of the grazing area and how fast your animals are grazing. With a grazing area big enough to constantly feed your animals, trees will eventually regrow. But that's a good thing, isn't it? I make the grazing areas restricted traffic zones just so I'll get the few extra trees.
I actually don't know whether animals also trample vegetation (they don't move around that much) like dwarfs do, maybe someone else can answer that?

11.  How much soap is enough soap?

There is no such thing as enough soap.

13.  Does leather armor wear?  How about leather cloaks/hoods/etc?

Everything that is not metal wears.

14.  Do I need to queue two mitten jobs and two boot jobs per armored dwarf?

No, they always seem to make a pair (at least from leather).

[Tiruin]

Been playing a while, got quite a few questions.

I was planning to make a waterfall across the entrance to Booze Tower, the home of the only alcohol stockpile and therefore a reliable location for dwarves to visit regularly.  Unfortunately my region freezes in the winter and for part of Spring.

1.  Will water falling directly onto floor grates be enough to generate Super Happy Mist?
2.  Inside / Above Ground will still freeze in winter, correct?
3.  Can I count on dwarves with cleaning enabled to keep that area clean?
4.  What kinds of soil will grass regrow on?
5.  Do I need to regularly clear out shrubs and trees from a grazing area?
6.  I was really nice to the elves because I wanted them to bring me toys.  Whoops... so much cloth.  How badly do I need to mistreat them in order for them to bring me good things again?  This is annoying since there's so much time between caravans, and I see so many goblins that caravans frequently skip me.
7.  Are there caps on animal populations?  I stopped suddenly at around 50 dogs.  Other animals are still breeding.  That's not a complaint.
8.  What would be the best way to make flying war animals patrol around a map?
9.  Do !!lignite floor grates!! eventually burn away?
10.  I have a bit of a Dark Gnome problem.  How fast does Gnomeblight set in?  Can I just dump it at the entrance and expect them to be properly disabled ~30 steps later?
11.  How much soap is enough soap?
12.  What's the best way to gather iron/tin/steel/bronze?
13.  Does leather armor wear?  How about leather cloaks/hoods/etc?
14.  Do I need to queue two mitten jobs and two boot jobs per armored dwarf?

Thanks!  You don't have to get all of these, I will do the necessary !!science!! if I don't get responses.

1. When water falls, it generates mist no matter what or where until it hits solid ground/floor.
2. Any tile that says "LIGHT" and has water WILL freeze, so if you expose an underground tile, fill it with water and then put a roof or cover it under miles of dirt, it will still say Above ground and therefore, freeze.
3. Cleaning (as far as I know) is a very low priority thing, I guess that giving a dwarf no labors but cleaning would make him clean
4. Any soil that isn't rock, be it cavern or above ground.
5. Grazers will kill any shrubs/saplings when they trample over them to feed so they fix it for you, trees you have to cut but you could move your grazing area to somewhere that is clear and green.
6. By toys from Elves you mean wooden items right? Elves bring LOADS of cloth, get used to it . If by "mistreat" you mean insult them right in their face and start a nice war then go trade them a beautiful wooden item, they will enjoy it /sarcasm (if you play the 31.25+ patch as far as I know, the elves bring randomized items, mostly random exotic pets, cloth, wooden items, food, cloth, toys/bracelets and cloth. Toys are randomized. I do not understand what you meant by good)
7. N/A, wait for someone else to answer this .
8. Flying animals are free to move wherever they please if given open air. I do not know if when they are trained, they become bugged to not fly anymore. Animals that are trained will follow their trainer unless given a Pasture zone or petted. (I'm totally unsure here)
9. If you mean by "when it touches magma" then yes, if it isn't magmaproof. Lignite doesn't do self-combustion if left alone unless left alone for a long time without exposure to water, then it does self-combustion!
11. Soap is made as bars, 150 in value to be exact. You can never have enough soap IF you live in a place where it frequently gets muddy, bloody and generally syndrome-y. Also, you need soap if you're using military, nobody wants that tiny scratch on their third finger to get deathly infected right?
12. Either mine for it deeper down or find the veins, you could Melt your Goblins armor to get Iron/bronze. For steel you must have flux stone, refer to your miners for that. You could also trade for it in the dwarven caravans.
13. Wear over time, as far as I can see, no. Wear because of external factors like X!FIRE!X, yes.
14. Mits and Booties are made in pairs (1 job = a pair of mittens/boots depending on what you selected so you need only 1 job of mits and boots to arm a dwarf, although you CAN wear 2 pairs mittens on each other but only 1 pair of boots + socks, gauntlets and high/low metal boots work the same way)


~~~
Ahh looks like I've been beaten to it...

[Tiruin]

Now my question .

I CAUGHT a breeding pair of Giant Eagles!! (Traded for one)

But, they won't fly or breed as far as I see. Anything wrong with em? I still have nightmares as an adventurer when I look up in the sky only to see a giant cross-like silhouette bearing down on me...


And when you edit the raws, do you need to restart a world or is it fine to load a game (like making the Giant Eagle pet-able like the wiki said?)

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Now my question .

I CAUGHT a breeding pair of Giant Eagles!! (Traded for one)

But, they won't fly or breed as far as I see. Anything wrong with em? I still have nightmares as an adventurer when I look up in the sky only to see a giant cross-like silhouette bearing down on me...


And when you edit the raws, do you need to restart a world or is it fine to load a game (like making the Giant Eagle pet-able like the wiki said?)

They won't breed until you edit the raw file for your *savegame* -- the large mountain creature raw file -- and edit the giant eagle entry to change [PET_EXOTIC] to [PET]. Even then, it's a bit wonky. You'll also want to put their nest box behind a locked door (so dwarves don't steal the eggs and eat them).  They lay one to three eggs, and not all of them hatch even so -- I've only managed to hatch out one clutch (of three) with my current breeding pair, and then their kids have only laid eggs that haven't hatched in almost 2 years.

[TomiTapio]

2.  Inside / Above Ground will still freeze in winter, correct?
9.  Do !!lignite floor grates!! eventually burn away?

2. Probably not. I think building a wooden cabin around an outside pool will prevent freezing.
9. They should, but might take years, not sure. Tip: do not use dump command on coal coke lignite when one of your garbage-dump zones is for dump-into-magma.

About crossbows: If you'd like have built-in bayonets/daggers in your crossbows.. since the morons are unable to carry a dagger on their belts...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

[ITEM_WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_CROSSBOW]
[NAME:crossbow:crossbows]
[SIZE:400]
[SKILL:HAMMER]
[RANGED:CROSSBOW:BOLT]
[SHOOT_FORCE:2150]
[SHOOT_MAXVEL:380]
[TWO_HANDED:0]
[MINIMUM_SIZE:30000]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:3]
[ATTACK:EDGE:5:600:bayonet:bayonets:NO_SUB:900] --same as dagger but nerfed a little. Might be too elite for wood and bone crossbows.
[ATTACK:BLUNT:4000:4000:bash:bashes:NO_SUB:1350]


[theothersteve7]

Are both eagles tame?  If you caught one of them wild, and you haven't edited your raws, then the answer should be no.  You can change exotic animals to be non-exotic midgame without repercussions.

Comments on my questions:
4.  I found my problem was that I am on a mountain biome.  Grass apparently doesn't regrow on mountains.  That's fine; my new grazing area is off the mountain anyway.
6.  I meant tame grizzly bears and giant eagles.
14.  Okay, reason I asked is that my dwarves didn't wear matching pairs.  Glad to hear it.

[Sphalerite]

6.  I meant tame grizzly bears and giant eagles.

There's no guarantee that the elves will ever bring these.  In order to bring a tame animal the elves need to have access to a biome where that animal lives.  If they don't, they'll never bring it no matter how much you abuse them.

[beefsupreme]

6.  I meant tame grizzly bears and giant eagles.

Elves tend to settle in temperate biomes, which means you're more likely to get bears and no eagles than to get the reverse. If you save about halfway through the last month of spring, wait for the caravan to fully come onto the map, you can can see what they brought with u. Scroll down to the merchant (caged) animals, and those are the live goodies you can trade for. If you don't like what you see, ctrl+alt+delete, forcequit DF, reload and try again.

[RAKninja]

Are both eagles tame?  If you caught one of them wild, and you haven't edited your raws, then the answer should be no.  You can change exotic animals to be non-exotic midgame without repercussions.

if the female is tame, it should work if there is a male anywhere on the map.  spores and such.