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[Cataclysm]

Hi! After reading so much about this game I've decided I just had to try it myself. So I read the Getting Started articles in the wiki, and after a few false starts (including one where i didn't have wood to forge axes because I didn't bring to chop down because I thought "what are the odds I'll be attacked and forgot they're used for other things >_<) I got a non-starving, productive fortress. Kinda.

The thing is, trying to get my dwarves  to do their jobs is like trying to herd kittens. Who have ADHD. In a yarn factory. With the sole exception of my miners, about half the dwarves who are supposed to be oding something are slacking off. I did check, nothing is forbidden, I just can't give them task prioritization because I lack a "manager" despite my expedition leaver being a competent organizer.

One more problem that plagues me is horrible food production. I have both underground and above ground farm plots and plenty of seeds, the problem is my farming fwarves hardly do anything with them and at most seed 4-5 tiles out of the available dozens. This kind of farmers' slacking actually killed one of my earlier forts where I just couldn't get my farmers to actually SEED and GROW the crops i designated.

Could someone please help me before my stalwart fort of Clashwhips starves to death or succumbs to two and a half sickly-looking goblins because everyone is too busy slacking off to produce weapons?

[Vertibird]

first of all, underground farms need muddied soil. Period.
Bear in mind, that if you have one square of mud, plants will grow only on that square, even if designated farmplace is huge.
Second- above-ground plants need to be on natural soil. Muddied above-ground stone won't work.

Third- your farmers need farming(fields) works enabled.
Fourth- you must have food stockpile to store your plants, or they will just wither.

Fifth - you must designate planted crops for each season of the year. It is in the farm menu.
And of course your farmers need to be active and not "on break" or in fight, or running scared.

[Lytha]

Lack of a manager:

Press "n" for nobles. Tell the game that your expedition leader is the new manager. From then on, you can use the task manager (j-m or u-m) to appoint jobs to your dwarves instead of messing around with each workshop individually

He'll then want a little office (offices are made by declaring a room from a chair: "q" over the chair, then "r" to make a room, then resize then "a" for assigning it to your manager), but he'll also perform his work manager duties without one, at least until you have 20 dwarves. Then he'll really need an office for the paperwork.

[Cataclysm]

Hmmm, I think my problem could be that the actual muddied tiles are very few. i used the bucket irrigation gallery method and there are probably huge holes in my fields. I'm trying to build a mass-irrigation device using the nearby stream, but that brings me to my next problem: none of my damned dwarves are going ANYWHERE need the wood furnace to make charcoal, which I need in order to power my smelter!

And I haven't forbidden anything apart from gathering minerals (otherwise everyone's sole occupation is hauling rock. Eugh.) so i see no reason for blatantly ignoring my furnaces

[Vertibird]

to build furnaces you must have dorf with architecture labor enabled.
He will design furnace and then a dorf with corresponding labor will build it.
If you build furnace out of stone, it must be mason. If you build out of metal bars, it must be dorf with any metalsmithing labor.

To make charcoal you must have logs and a dorf with wood burner labor.

[Cataclysm]

Lack of a manager:

Press "n" for nobles. Tell the game that your expedition leader is the new manager. From then on, you can use the task manager (j-m or u-m) to appoint jobs to your dwarves instead of messing around with each workshop individually

He'll then want a little office (offices are made by declaring a room from a chair: "q" over the chair, then "r" to make a room, then resize then "a" for assigning it to your manager), but he'll also perform his work manager duties without one, at least until you have 20 dwarves. Then he'll really need an office for the paperwork.

Wow, you have no idea how much you helped me! My expedition leader has the skills to be a record keeper, a manager, the works, but so far he's apparently done nothing but drink up my ale! Thank you so much, now I can get my lazy dwarves to actually do stuff

[Vertibird]

bear in mind, that manager allows only to queue jobs in job list, which is j->m menu, and allows to select, which dorfs can access different workshops. He does not motivate dorf into doing things. He just automates process of giving orders to workshops.

[mipe9]

Also, do you have the labours enabled for the dwarfs?

For example, if none of your dwarfs got stonecrafting as starting skill, don't expect them to go and do stone toys just like that. You need to press v (view unit), go near the dwarf, then press p and then l. You should be in a list with all the possible labours, like mining, woodworking, stoneworking etc. Some have submenus inside them, like inside woodworking there is "Carpentry" "Crossbow-making" and "Woodcutting". Just go to the thing you want enabled and press enter. Ta-dah! Now your dwarfs *should* do what you ordered them to.

[Cataclysm]

Also, do you have the labours enabled for the dwarfs?

For example, if none of your dwarfs got stonecrafting as starting skill, don't expect them to go and do stone toys just like that. You need to press v (view unit), go near the dwarf, then press p and then l. You should be in a list with all the possible labours, like mining, woodworking, stoneworking etc. Some have submenus inside them, like inside woodworking there is "Carpentry" "Crossbow-making" and "Woodcutting". Just go to the thing you want enabled and press enter. Ta-dah! Now your dwarfs *should* do what you ordered them to.

Hmmm, that seems to be the problem as well. i just assumed all my dwarves had all labors enabled, but upon closer inspection it seems that none of them had wood burning enabled, rendering my work orders moot >_< Thanks

[Lytha]

I would strongly suggest that you get Dwarf Therapist to manage the working orders of your dwarves. Instead of messing around with "v-p-l-scrollscrolscroll", Dwarf Therapist allows you to simply see on the first glance which labours the little buggers have enabled and to assign them new ones with two mouseclicks.

[Cataclysm]

I would strongly suggest that you get Dwarf Therapist to manage the working orders of your dwarves. Instead of messing around with "v-p-l-scrollscrolscroll", Dwarf Therapist allows you to simply see on the first glance which labours the little buggers have enabled and to assign them new ones with two mouseclicks.

I got both the latest DF and the latest DT and for some reason Dwarf Therapist tells me it doesn't know how talk to my version of DF O_o

[Lytha]

Yes, you need to add a file into it's folders, so that DT can find the current version of DF. Please search the Dwarf Therapist thread for "31.12", and you should find a download link to that file.

Or rather... here you go:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=39229.msg1431356;topicseen#msg1431356

[greycat]

first of all, underground farms need muddied soil. Period.

Muddied stone OR soil will work for underground plots.

Second- above-ground plants need to be on natural soil. Muddied above-ground stone won't work.

That's correct.  I would also add that mud doesn't matter -- all they need is soil that's been exposed to the sun.

[Ratbert_CP]

Second- above-ground plants need to be on natural soil. Muddied above-ground stone won't work.

That's correct.  I would also add that mud doesn't matter -- all they need is soil that's been exposed to the sun.

In fact, if you expose a soil layer to the sun via a skylight (channel out the roof of a plot), you get an "above-ground" plot!  It can be an easy way to protect your farms from non-flying enemies.

[Cataclysm]

Yes, you need to add a file into it's folders, so that DT can find the current version of DF. Please search the Dwarf Therapist thread for "31.12", and you should find a download link to that file.

Or rather... here you go:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=39229.msg1431356;topicseen#msg1431356

That worked, thanks!