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[Sphalerite]

You can't dump thieves that way.  You can reclaim and dump their belongings, but you can't dump the goblins themselves, other than by Pitting them.

If you really want to put them in a sealed room somewhere, build the cages as buildings, build a lever somewhere, link the lever to the cages, seal the room, and then pull the lever.  The cages will deconstruct and release the prisoners.

[smips63]

I just wanted to strip them and let them out one at a time to be killed by my militia(which was waiting for it). Guess I'll just go with the level technique then...I think there should be an easier way to let them out though! 

[monk12]

I understand that making squads of 4 dwarves will make them train faster, but how do you guys usually attack goblins during a seige?

Do you let them sit or do you target kill goblins one by one? It feels like I'm using more strength than I need on a goblin when I do this ... I don't know how to evenly distribute damage

Ideally, station them around a corner and wait for the goblins to come to them. The dorfs will attack at their own discretion anyway- the key is to make sure you hit them in a group instead of one at a time.

[Farmerbob]

3) Declare a garbage pile in the middle of a stockpile.  When the stockpile is full, remove the stockpile designation and immediately designate everything there as dump items.  Dwarves come and stack everything into one pile.  Re-designate stockpile & let it build again. Let items stay dumped until the caravans come, then undump them and tell the dwarves to take them to the traders.

What's the advantage in removing/replacing that stockpile?  I use a method quite similar to this, except I do not remove the stockpile, and each time after designating the dump, I undump and unforbid the center garbage tile itself.

If you don't undump that center tile, each time you mark a dumping, everything that was already in the garbage dump gets dumped again - a quick task as the item is simply picked up and immediately dropped again - but if you have 1000s+ of items on that spot it can still eat a lot of dwarf days.  When you unforbid the items, the dwarves leave them alone - because they are already on a stockpile tile that is set to accept their item type.

Once dumped, items are marked as forbidden, so at some point you'd need an unforbid if you mean to haul them off or otherwise interact with them again.

Been a while since I did this.  My method may well be either badly represented above, or I might have been doing it very IN-efficiently, or both

[Farmerbob]

1) When I was trying to trade with my first caravan (I REALLY relied on food from trade because my fortress was a mining colony with 6 miners and 1 woodcutter at the very beginning) and when I had selected all of the options that I needed, they said that I couldn't truly have them. What the buck happened? I kept trying, but they eventually got impatient and left.

2) On my last mining fortress, I tried making a really deep Spartan pit under a drawbridge. Before I knew it, they had all started to die of thirst. Do any of you have any tips regarding channels? I'm probably building it ALL wrong.

Elves don't like anthing made from wood.

Other than that, I personally always offer 2x what the trader's goods are worth.  The first caravan or two might be restrictive in what I can buy that way, but after you get a master crafter making light tradegoods to trade, and especially if you get a master gemcutter / gemsetter involved after that on stone goods, it gets really easy to buy everything you want on every caravan that comes in.

[smeeprocket]

I have the problem with traders refusing equal or higher goods sometimes. Not elves specifically. They say something like "With your goods as they are, I can't see you getting all those items." Usually I am trading clothing I looted from sieges, which is actually worth a decent amount combined.

Sometimes I can work around it, but there's no clear guide as to what bothers the trader. I might try upping the total value I offer them over what their items are worth, but I'm not entirely sure that will work.

[Putnam]

I have the problem with traders refusing equal or higher goods sometimes. Not elves specifically. They say something like "With your goods as they are, I can't see you getting all those items." Usually I am trading clothing I looted from sieges, which is actually worth a decent amount combined.

Sometimes I can work around it, but there's no clear guide as to what bothers the trader. I might try upping the total value I offer them over what their items are worth, but I'm not entirely sure that will work.

You are offering too little items for them. They're valued fine, but you want too much from them for too little from you.

Just dump a few boulders or worthless stone crafts on them and they won't complain as much.

[HammerHand]

What you want to check is "Trader Proft" versus the value of selected goods.  Both are on the trader's side of the screen.  These are merchants, remember?  They don't want an even trade - or even close to one.  They want a profit.

They're generally ecstatic with the trading if they're making twice the worth of what you're taking.  Sometimes, that's pretty much the value I have to shoot for before they'll make the deal.  I doubt they'll take anything less than 25% over the traded value.

But maybe I just have a lousy broker.

If you don't have enough stone crafts, mugs, toys, and instruments lying around (mugs build wealth super-fast since each order makes 3 of them), you can always trade food.  Prepared meals, especially the lavish ones (roasts), especially from really good cooks, sell for obscene amounts of dwarfbucks.  See also cloth trade, because a well-dyed, well-made, well-decorated, well-gem-encrusted pig tail sock with a well-dyed, well-sewn image on it will also fetch a thoroughly ridiculous price.  Make it out of cave spider silk to really seal the deal.

Metal industry too hard?  Try textiles.  With a strong textile industry, you can afford anything, even that masterwork steel armor the caravan keeps bringing you whether you asked for it or not.

You could also encrust bolts with gems.  That's outlandishly expensive, too.

[Sus]

Say, regarding wars with other civs: is it possibly for a war to actually end so the civ becomes non-hostile again?

I mean, it's all too easy to tick off humans and especially elves if their caravans get killed, your Mayor decides to get a mood durig a diplomat's visit, the <<*cobaltite scepter*>> you offered to the elves was encrusted with clear glass, etc. Does this mean that they stay hostile forever?

[Tiruin]

Say, regarding wars with other civs: is it possibly for a war to actually end so the civ becomes non-hostile again?

I mean, it's all too easy to tick off humans and especially elves if their caravans get killed, your Mayor decides to get a mood durig a diplomat's visit, the <<*cobaltite scepter*>> you offered to the elves was encrusted with clear glass, etc. Does this mean that they stay hostile forever?

As far as I know, only the Human diplomat comes and offers peace if you are at war with them. Wars with the other races (Elf and Human) occur during World gen.

Killing their Caravans don't end up in war, unlike before, it just sends the message "We've lost profit here, do not send extra goods next year" back to the civilization.

And Elves hate wooden products traded to them, not sure how you were able to trade an artifact though. Impossible, in my view.

[Imp]

I mean, it's all too easy to tick off humans and especially elves if their caravans get killed, your Mayor decides to get a mood durig a diplomat's visit, the <<*cobaltite scepter*>> you offered to the elves was encrusted with clear glass, etc. Does this mean that they stay hostile forever?

And Elves hate wooden products traded to them, not sure how you were able to trade an artifact though. Impossible, in my view.

Not so sure <<*cobaltite scepter*>>  indicates an artifact, mine tend to look like Basenatrid or something, regardless of how fancy their decorations might be.

I don't know about standard DF, but if you are playing certain mods it definately is possible to both start and end wars during fortress mode.  In a Legends of Forlorn Realms mod game I was unable to prevent the death of a human diplomat who walked into a projectile-using ambush.  War was declared, and there were two years where summer brought human sieges instead of human caravans.  The third year a new liaison appeared (two days ahead of a human caravan) and determinedly sought entrance into my fortress.  I let him in and he accosted my mayor to demand peace (I forget the exact wording used at the time).  I don't believe I was given an option to refuse that peace with words - though I surely could have slain that diplomat if I'd not wanted peace.

[Tiruin]

The third year a new liaison appeared (two days ahead of a human caravan) and determinedly sought entrance into my fortress.  I let him in and he accosted my mayor to demand peace (I forget the exact wording used at the time).  I don't believe I was given an option to refuse that peace with words - though I surely could have slain that diplomat if I'd not wanted peace.

You can choose to agree to peace, or continue with war (refusing peace) 

[Yaotzin]

This game is evil :<

Everything was nice and peaceful, just one or two small goblin attacks, then nothing for ages. I got sloppy and forgot to keep improving my defences.

Then 3 squads of goblins, 1 squad of trolls, and a squad of humans attacks me at once. Trapped the trolls but just too many goblins

Anywho, question is, why did humans attack me? I checked at the time, we're at peace. I've been trading with them each time, nothing happened.

[Tiruin]

"Snatchers! Curse them!"
_{Or something along those lines...}

This game is evil :<

Everything was nice and peaceful, just one or two small goblin attacks, then nothing for ages. I got sloppy and forgot to keep improving my defences.

Then 3 squads of goblins, 1 squad of trolls, and a squad of humans attacks me at once. Trapped the trolls but just too many goblins

Anywho, question is, why did humans attack me? I checked at the time, we're at peace. I've been trading with them each time, nothing happened.

You have now seen the powers of Goblin thievery. They can steal babies, children specifically of any race, being the sneaky snatchers they are. In time, if you let world gen pass, those children will grow up as part of the Goblin civilization.

In short, you are facing brainwashed recruits destined for glory. Those humans are part of the Goblin civ, and maybe a former member of their original civ. Check the Legends for your world to be sure.

[Imp]

This game is evil :<

Everything was nice and peaceful, just one or two small goblin attacks, then nothing for ages. I got sloppy and forgot to keep improving my defences.

Then 3 squads of goblins, 1 squad of trolls, and a squad of humans attacks me at once. Trapped the trolls but just too many goblins

Anywho, question is, why did humans attack me?

Once upon a time there were a few dozen human communities where the fecund humans frolicked together and, well, made more humans.

Along came a spider who.... that is, goblin snatchers came one day, with their sacks and sneaking, and stole some of the babes away.  Since that worked so well for these goblins, they continued to do so - likely up to the very day you started your embark.

These displaced childer grew up surrounded by goblins and others that the goblins had stolen, and much like wee infant ants raided from their nest by slaver ants (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW096j8aJWQ&feature=related), these infants grew to serve their new masters, as if they were that other species themselves.

It's very unusual (in my experience) to find an entire squad of just humans arriving with the goblins, but quite common to find one or a few humans among the goblin squads, sometimes even as leaders.  Mayhap you lucked out and got a rare human-only goblin squad.

If you are still not at war with the human civilization, even after defeating those humans (thought it sounds like you may not have won, alas this has no fairytale ending, does it?) then that would help confirm that you faced 'pinkskins' among the 'greenskins'