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[Keldane]

Welcome to Dwarf Fortress, randyshipp!

Have you picked up the utility Dwarf Therapist? It is incredibly useful for keeping track of which dwarves have which labors enabled, and adjusting as necessary. Once you have a fort active in the game, just open Dwarf Therapist alongside.

My best guess is that either you don't have a dwarf with Fish Cleaning or Fish Dissection enabled, or that the one with those skills is your Expedition Leader, who as you mentioned, is currently indisposed. If you don't want to use Dwarf Therapist, you should be able to enable the labors by viewing a dwarf (v key, then move the cursor near a dwarf), then pressing p -> l to bring up their labor menu and enabling it under the Fishing/Related menu. (I apologize if my explanations are oversimplified - I don't quite remember how much the tutorials would have given you at that point.)

About helping your Expedition Leader - Dwarves who are in strange moods will, as you know, eventually go insane if they can't get the materials they require. They won't go insane, however, if they're in the process of gathering materials. There's a bug, whereby a dwarf who is assigned to a burrow that includes the main material they need for their artifact but doesn't include the workshop they've claimed will endlessly run back and forth from the workshop to the stockpile, claiming all the resources from the burrow one at a time. If you want to keep your expedition leader alive, and have enough stone, you can make use of this to give yourself time to get some wool and silk cloth.

Burrows are a bit of a challenge at first glance, so I'll give a quick explanation. Pressing the w key brings up the burrow menu. Initially, you won't have any, but the option to press a to create one should appear on the right. Once created, the burrow won't have any designated tiles, and will just show up as "Burrow 1". Pressing enter will allow you to designate the burrow in the same way you designate tiles for excavation. In this case, select a space that is some distance away from the workshop, and is over an empty floor - I'd recommend a 3 by 3 area. You can also press n to name the burrow at this time if you so choose, and it's not really necessary. Once the area is designated, press escape to go back a step, then press c to bring up a list of citizens you can assign to the burrow. Highlighting your expedition leader and pressing enter will cause his name to change from white to green. With your expedition leader now assigned, you can press escape twice to leave the burrow menu.

The next step is to define a stone stockpile where you designated the burrow. Press the p key, then the s key to set it to stone, and designate as normal, on the same 3 by 3 area as before. After this is done, you may want to press the q key, highlight the stockpile, then press the s key to bring up the settings so that you can make sure that the only stone that will be brought there isn't bituminous coal, lignite, or metal ores - things that can be in short supply, and are more valuable when used for making coke or smelting/forging metal.

Finally, this last step may or may not be necessary - forcing your expedition leader to start gathering items again. Press the t key, then highlight the workshop he's claimed. You should see a list of items - probably only two - that are contained within. One has a B in square brackets next to it, and is the item the workshop is made out of. The other is likely to have a blue TSK next to it, indicating it's been claimed for use in the job the workshop is currently being used for. Highlighting this second item, then pressing f to forbid it and escape to return to gameplay, should cause your expedition leader to run off in search of a new stone. If you've done the above, and there's stone ready in the burrow, he should run there, claim one, take it to the workshop, and then - because the stone is no longer in his "assigned work area", go back to get another that he's "allowed" to work with. The stones already in the workshop will remain marked for the task.

By making the dwarf run back and forth from the stockpile to the workshop, you delay his insanity. He's gathering items, so he won't go crazy, giving you as much time as you need (provided you keep feeding him stone) to get some cloth for him to finish the job with. When you have the cloth available, remove the dwarf from the burrow, and he should go claim the last of what he needs, then begin work once he gets back to the workshop with it.

There is a side effect to be aware of here. Every additional item your dwarf grabs will expand the description of the final product and provide a bonus to its final value. This is how the infamous artifact Planepacked was created, and may result in your artifact referring to itself. This is part of why I suggested making sure the burrow was some distance away from the workshop - the more time your dwarf spends traveling, the fewer stones he will have claimed by the time he begins work, and thus the lower the likelihood of your artifact having an astronomical value that attracts enemies before you're ready.

Hopefully I haven't taken too long in writing this, and haven't bungled the explanation. Good luck.

[randyshipp]

Well, I barely managed to get the Trade Depot built AFTER the caravan arrived!  And, while my dwarves were in the process of moving some goods to the Trade Depot in the hopes of trading for some cave spider silk cloth...my possessed dwarf went insane.

Is there anything that can be done at this point?

[Newbunkle]

You could build a coffin.

[BurnCruise]

Yep. Coffin.


By the way, if you have a hospital with cloth in it, they will not take that. You can take it out of the hospital and theyll use it, but not if someone takes it back before he has a chance to grab it. Lost a dwarf to that.

[billybobfred]

This is how the infamous artifact Planepacked was created, and may result in your artifact referring to itself.

Technically, artifacts can have images of themselves even if they didn't get Planepacked. ("planepack" is now a verb btw)

Is there anything that can be done at this point?

Not a damn thing.

If he's melancholy or stark raving mad, he'll run around being emo/crazy, and eventually drop dead because he stopped eating.
If he's berserk, you're gonna want to sic your military on him right the hell now, because he's going to start breaking things. And people.

Either way, he's not going to be doing anything useful for the rest of his life, so you can just write him off now.

[Nameless Archon]

For example, I have a Fishery that I could swear has storage around it for uncleaned fish, but it sits idle...but z, Stocks says I have 70+ uncleaned fish.  No idea where the disconnect is.  Sigh.

If you have another stockpile with uncleaned fish permitted, they're already stockpiled, and won't be moved until you either disable uncleaned fish from the first pile, or use the "take from pile" option on the second pile to force it to take uncleaned fish from the first pile.

OK, but wouldn't the fish cleaner still grab them from wherever they're stored and take them to the Fishery?

OH! I misunderstood - I thought you meant the stockpile was idle (eg. not filling up). Yeah, if you have uncleaned fish, make sure you have fish cleaners, and that they can reach both fish and fishery.

[Keldane]

This is how the infamous artifact Planepacked was created, and may result in your artifact referring to itself.

Technically, artifacts can have images of themselves even if they didn't get Planepacked. ("planepack" is now a verb btw)

This is true. The likelihood of a self-referential artifact does increase in proportion to the number of decorations on the artifact, and thus the number of items used in its construction, though.

[SirAaronIII]

I got a chair with itself on it that only took one log, so it's more likely than you think. But still pretty unlikely.

[Minnakht]

Self-referential images aren't that rare. I'm quite new and I got one or...
Actually, that bismuth bronze armor stand not only referenced itself, it also was referenced by other artifacts.

[Niyazov]

1) Making rope reed thread/cloth:
- Designate an area for plants to be gathered with [d], [p] (and hope you gather some rope reed)

An easier way to get rope reed is to only designate shrubs growing next to murky pools, brooks, and river. Rope reed (and fisher berries) only grow next to water.

You can also get two units of animal thread (but not cloth) from butchering your two starting pack animals and spinning the hair into thread at a farmer's workshop. This is also a great way to keep a young fortress fed for a couple seasons without worrying about setting up food industries.

I'm always saddened to see new players who feel like they have to start with fisherdwarves to keep themselves fed. Fishing is (in my opinion) a terrible industry for a new fortress to get involved with because:

a) It's unreliable. "There is nothing to catch in the central swamps", anyone?
b) It's dangerous. Fisherdwarves hang out outside all the time and consequently tend to get torn apart by ambushers or drown in deep water after dodging attacks from submerged fish.
c) The opportunity cost is too high. You don't want to set aside two dwarves (one to fish and one to clean) just as your fortress is getting started. Livestock breed and grow to maturity without any labor on the part of dwarves; seeds just have to be put in the ground and grow by themselves until they're harvested (which any unskilled dwarf can do, including children.) Only fishing requires continuous effort.
d) It doesn't generate much in the way of useful byproducts, aside from the occasional shell (useful only for the occasional mood) and a few bones. Breeding livestock will give you at minimum bones, skulls, hides, and thread (and maybe also horns and hooves depending on the animal). As migrants trickle in, that can be expanded into milk, cheese, thread, and cloth.

[khearn]

b) It's dangerous. Fisher dwarves are often the first ones to encounter thieves/ambushes/raging badgers. And they don't tend to survive the encounter.
c) It doesn't work during the winter if your rivers/lakes freeze.

The only time I have fisherdwarves is if migrants arrive with the skill enabled. They make fine expendable sentries.

[Xorn]

Some more quick advice from another new player;

A) Build up a military as soon you can. Dig out a barracks, with about 5 beds in it. Create a squad using the military screen (m). Look to put ~15% of your population into the army, as it tends to speed up training and raise survivability (for me anyways). I prefer my dwarves using warhammers and spears for melee and crossbows for range, but it's really up to you.
Then assign the squad to the barracks, and select train (on both the military screen AND the barracks bed/armor stand/weapon stand).
You will also want to go to the Squads page (s) and go to orders. Select the first train option, go to edit (e) and make it so the minimum number of dwarves needed is just less than the number of dwarves in the squad. This will ensure they train all the time. Hit copy while hovering over that order you edited, and paste it over all the rest of the orders.

B) Don't build too fast.
A slow build up will ensure you last longer. All sieges and other Fun things are based on both your population (not much you can do to limit this I am afraid) and wealth created in your fortress. Everything you do will increase the wealth, including mining out areas, and smoothing the walls. If you need something then build it, but don't build things just for the sake of it, unless you are confident in your military/defense.

C) My fun-filled defense.
I find a trap heavy defense is really boring. I used traps far away from my fortress entrance, spaced widely apart, to catch some wild animals. A siege and an Ettin later and most of the danger was still stopped.
So instead I build a ballista battery, supported with catapults, pointed down a ~70 length tile corridor. I use fortifications to stop the dwarves from walking in front of the ballista while firing.
The only drawbacks I have found are a) Training takes a long time and b) Ballista don't fire over friendlies like the catapult, so unless you hide your militia they can get skewered along with unwanted visitors.

and finally D) The Food/Booze industry
I always try my best to have a strong food inustry right from the off. I tend to bring two farmers just for this, and as many seeds as I have spare points for. I also choose embarks zones that have at least some soil (rather than little soil). This pretty much ensures that I have a layer of mostly dirt to work with.
I dig out a room that can fit 6 10*5 farm plots, and then assign one to be pure dimple cups, one to be pure plump helmets and the rest to be a half and half mix of the seasonal crops and either dimple cups or Plump helmets. It takes up space, but when things get going you won't even need animals or fishing (for ~100 dwarves anyway).
If possible I also build up an outside farming area, but 8 10*5 farm plots instead, and do my best to keep them all going all year round. It's difficult, due to the seeds appearing even when they can't be planted, but possible with tweaking.
With that many helmets and sweet pods coming in, I am able to pump out more booze and syrup then my dwarves could ever hope to make barrels for. I end up selling the syrup, as my cook never uses it all. (the syrup industry should be saved for when your defense is up, they are good wealth creaters)

[Newbunkle]

1) Making rope reed thread/cloth:
- Designate an area for plants to be gathered with [d], [p] (and hope you gather some rope reed)

An easier way to get rope reed is to only designate shrubs growing next to murky pools, brooks, and river. Rope reed (and fisher berries) only grow next to water.

You learn something new every day!

d) It doesn't generate much in the way of useful byproducts, aside from the occasional shell (useful only for the occasional mood) and a few bones. Breeding livestock will give you at minimum bones, skulls, hides, and thread (and maybe also horns and hooves depending on the animal). As migrants trickle in, that can be expanded into milk, cheese, thread, and cloth.

That gives me an idea for my next fort. Some kind of sea-themed embark where the dwarves wear shell armour, eat fish, and worship some kind of undersea god. It'll probably be doomed, but fun.

[randyshipp]

The ill-fated possessed dwarf finally died.  Prior to his demise, I dug out the first crypt in my fort, made a stone coffin, put a door on the little crypt, and assigned the guy to it.  At some point, while, I think, wandering around outside, he died.  I have no idea how to get his body (what's left of it...the description now says the top half is gone!) into his tomb.  Thoughts?

[krenshala]

The ill-fated possessed dwarf finally died.  Prior to his demise, I dug out the first crypt in my fort, made a stone coffin, put a door on the little crypt, and assigned the guy to it.  At some point, while, I think, wandering around outside, he died.  I have no idea how to get his body (what's left of it...the description now says the top half is gone!) into his tomb.  Thoughts?

Hit 'q', select teh coffin, and specify it as an available burial site.  the surviving dwarves should haul his body (and belongings) to the coffin and entomb him.  And all dead dwarves are missing their upper bodies.  Not sure why, just that it always appears that way.

Not so new myself, but this reminded me of a question I ran into recently ... are there more than three types of cloth?

I had a moody dwarf that wanted cloth, but I wasn't able to tell what type.  However, I had bought a bunch of cloth from a trader earlier in the year (was just over 18 game months into the fort at the time), and when I checked the stocks screen it listed rope-reed, pig-tail, yak-yarn and (iirc) sheep, giant cave spider silk and cave spider silk cloth.  I didn't have any weaving set up yet (had to build a clothier shop just for his mood), so I had to build a loom on the off chance I misread something, and saw cloth while looking at thread.  I burned through all the thread, saw it get hauled in the direction of my main stockpile (but also my hospital), but he never went to use any of it.  I had him locked in the room (a farm spot yet to be irrigated as it was dry stone) awaiting his inevitable death through insanity when .25 came out, so I just started a new world and moved on.

tl;dr -- i had all three types of cloth, and even if i didn't before i did after building the loom, but the moody idiot still didn't like my selection.  what was wrong?