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Total Members Voted: 249

[Starver]

Use the "r" for Reports, key to check combat messages?  Otherwise the "a" for announcements and scroll back to look for magenta-coloured death-messages?  If there's nothing relevant on either of those, it must have been a long time ago and I'm not sure how to find out.  (I think even a starved creature leaves a "deceased" body info of "lost its upper/lower part of the body", or whatever it is again...)

[Dave1004]

Well, I tried that Starver, but nothing came up. Ah, well, it's no problem...

Questions

1. Why do you always seem to start with two animals, seemingly Yaks? They're never enabled on my departure screen, I've triple checked all three embarks.

2. How do I start out with 30 silver and iron bolts? I chose 60 copper at the start, but I additionally got silver and iron? Is it because of my hunters?

3. I chose two Copper Crossbows at the start, yet I got an extra Steel and Copper crossbow. Why?

4. Additionally, is this a good startup?

Miner
Miner/Trader
Lumberjack/Woodworker
Farmer/Bew/Cook
Hunter
Hunter
Doctor

5. How do you build beds if you don't have any darn mountains nearby? I tried a walled in space, but it doesn't work? Even with floors! My Dwarves are sleepy!

Also, I thought people were freaking out about badger people and giant badger boar. Why? My two hunters have killed six giant badgers so far, and only one has a bruised shoulder. Three badger men and a badger woman were harrassing my Yaks, and my Hunters quickly demolished them...Luck? (They're both highly skilled archers/crossbowmen)

[jaxy15]

If I'm not mistaken, hunters start out with a crossbow and bolts.

[Dave1004]

Oh, one more. How do I delete old regions? I have 8, and I wanna make another one, but I have too many already...*sigh*

Sorry x.x

[jaxy15]

Go to the data folder, then go to saves, and then you can delete worlds.

[AdeleneDawner]

Well, I tried that Starver, but nothing came up. Ah, well, it's no problem...

Questions

1. Why do you always seem to start with two animals, seemingly Yaks? They're never enabled on my departure screen, I've triple checked all three embarks.

You always get two free wagon-puller animals on each embark, to pull your wagon. Yaks seem to be the most common, but you can also wind up with horses, mules, and possibly donkeys. It's basically luck of the draw as far as I can tell, which ones you'll get.

2. How do I start out with 30 silver and iron bolts? I chose 60 copper at the start, but I additionally got silver and iron? Is it because of my hunters?

3. I chose two Copper Crossbows at the start, yet I got an extra Steel and Copper crossbow. Why?

Hunters come with a starter set of bolts, quiver, and armor, for free.

4. Additionally, is this a good startup?

If it works for you, it's a good startup. That said, you might want a butcher/tanner to go with the hunters.

My current starting linueup is miner/mason, miner/stonecrafter, miner/mechanic, woodcutter/carpenter, herbalist/grower, brewer/cook, and trader/bookkeeper (judge of intent/negotiator/organizer/appraiser). I rarely hunt, though if I were to start somewhere with no trees and no ability to keep livestock, I would - one of my most successful forts was a hunting-based one in .12 with about 8 hunters and a *lot* of wild mammoths. (Using the Flora and Fauna mod.)

5. How do you build beds if you don't have any darn mountains nearby? I tried a walled in space, but it doesn't work? Even with floors! My Dwarves are sleepy!

Dig down, and then dig out rooms underground. Digging down is a good idea in general - a lot of your dwarves' time is taken up walking from one place to another, and it takes them as long to go down one level of stairs as it does to move one square north/south/east/west - if you have a choice of putting a stockpile 10 squares down the hall from your workshop, or digging stairs right outside the door of the shop and putting the stockpile underneath, the second one is going to get your goods made quicker, since your crafter will spend less time walking and more time crafting.

I should take some screenshots of the layout I'm playing with. I basically have one central staircase that goes down however many levels, and then 4 workshops with a stockpile for each workshop on most of the levels. It seems to be quite efficient, though it does have its downsides. (If a poisonous monster ever gets in a fort with this layout, it's basically doomed.)

Oh, one more. How do I delete old regions? I have 8, and I wanna make another one, but I have too many already...*sigh*

There's no automatic way to do this. The save folders are in /data/save, though, and deleting them manually works fine so long as DF isn't running at the time.

[Sutremaine]

5. How do you build beds if you don't have any darn mountains nearby? I tried a walled in space, but it doesn't work? Even with floors! My Dwarves are sleepy!

You need something above their heads. A bridge will work, and so will a constructed floor on the level above. You can press the > and < keys to look at different levels of the map, and for your dwarves to move between these levels you need either ramps or stairs. I don't know what tileset you're using, but stairs need to be built or dug in two parts. You need a down stair on the upper level and, directly below it, an up stair on the lower level. Ramps need to have a wall to sit next to, but are built or dug in one step.

[AdeleneDawner]

I should take some screenshots of the layout I'm playing with. I basically have one central staircase that goes down however many levels, and then 4 workshops with a stockpile for each workshop on most of the levels. It seems to be quite efficient, though it does have its downsides. (If a poisonous monster ever gets in a fort with this layout, it's basically doomed.)

Here goes nothing:

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Periods are floors, pound signs are walls, Xes are up/down stairs, each large room is a 11x21 rectangle (two shift-arrow units by one shift-arrow unit) with the bits that would overlap its neighbors removed. This is the basic layout I use for workshops in a primarily-vertical fortress - I'm likely to have between 5 and 10 floors with this pattern, at least. I like to group workshops that use each others' outputs - I might have a farmer's workshop set to shear things in one quadrant, a loom in another, a dyers' shop in another, and a clothier in the last, for example, and set the stockpiles to take finished clothing, thread, milled dye, and cloth respectively. (I like to pair a workshop with the material it takes, but the shearing station doesn't take from a pile, so the finished goods can go there, no problem. In other cases I send the finished goods to stockpiles on another level.) I use the rooms in the corners for booze, but you might be able to get away with putting your crafters' bedrooms there - I haven't tested it, but I hear that workshops don't actually make noise that disturbs dwarves' sleep. If all the walls are left in as marked, the whole ring around the stairs can be fitted with doors, which is useful for keeping miasma contained and berserk dwarves from rampaging through your fortress, though I don't usually bother with that. There are a few possible ways to make bedrooms with this layout, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader - my preferred bedroom layout involves 3 z-levels and includes a dining room, and might be a bit much for a newbie to figure out.

[Dave1004]

Hmm. Adelene, thanks for telling me that! I had been trying to make an Up/Down staircase on the ground, but I couldn't - Hence some confusion. I figured out that just doing "down" works, because, obviously there's no going "up" on a plain...I'm such an idiot!

I'll work on copying that layout, now that I have boosted knowledge. It will take a bit to get going, but it should work. I'm glad that I can delete saves now, and I wish I knew hunters started out with stuff free...I could have saved a good 20-40 start-up points by deselecting some useless objects, but oh well...

The reason that I generally start out with a hunter, is because it's basically a fighting unit AND a worker unit, rolled into one. Brings in meat and kills gobbos, so it's kinda two elves with one rocket. They've saved my life a few times now, whatwith badgers and all. They just roam around, killing everything

And, one last thing...Should I be worried about making rooms for ALL my dwarves? Or, can I just give them a 1x1 room (a bed lol) to save on space? I don't have much building room on ground level, and below that is a lot of water and unexplored terrain. Or, can I just do dormitories...?

Hmm...

[Uristocrat]

Any help for a stupid noob would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you. Thank you!

There's a lot to learn.  I spent a LONG time reading the wiki before I played, but once you learn each piece of it, it gets easier.

First, you generate a world.  Then you look for a decent site with good resources (lots of metal, flux, trees, water source, hopefully some vegetation).

Then you embark.  Pick out the skills you actually plan to use (mining, carpentry, masonry, mechanics, etc.) and a good supply of food + booze.

Then you dig out a reasonably defensible fortress.  I make elaborate plans.  You should worry about making a temporary workshop or two and putting a door on the entrance (which can be locked if you go to it via q) and making a few traps, probably stonefall and digging out somewhere to live.  Then get food stockpiles set up so they take all the stuff out of the wagon, build a trading depot near the stockpiles, and finally dig out some space for workshops, living quarters, dining rooms, etc.

I recommend trying to set up ALL the types of workshops as a learning experience.  You can tell any dwarf to do any labor, even if they don't know anything.  And actually doing it will help you set up the industries.

After you embark, basically the challenge is to build whatever cool fort you want while protecting yourself from monsters.  It's not hard to get some self-sustaining farms going and a trap zone big enough to protect you from everything.

After you get the basics down, then worry about setting up a hospital, military, burrows, etc.  There should be tutorials to help you with all of this.

[AdeleneDawner]

The reason that I generally start out with a hunter, is because it's basically a fighting unit AND a worker unit, rolled into one. Brings in meat and kills gobbos, so it's kinda two elves with one rocket. They've saved my life a few times now, whatwith badgers and all. They just roam around, killing everything

Like I said, if your startup team works for you, good. It all comes down to play style, really.

And, one last thing...Should I be worried about making rooms for ALL my dwarves? Or, can I just give them a 1x1 room (a bed lol) to save on space? I don't have much building room on ground level, and below that is a lot of water and unexplored terrain. Or, can I just do dormitories...?

Once you're used to digging down, space really shouldn't be a problem for most fortresses - if things are getting cramped, just dig down another level or two. Dormitories are fine, though, if that's what works for you for now - the main downsides of dormitories are that your dwarves will get a minor unhappy thought for not having their own room (which can be pretty easily compensated for by having a really nice dining room for them to eat in, with good food) and that they won't have any place to store their personal belongings, so you might see socks and things strewn around. That said, setting up bedrooms isn't really all that hard. They don't have to be big, or fancy - a 2x2 square or 1x4 niche with a bed, a cabinet, and a door is fine.

Here's an older, single-floor layout that I liked. It's not the most space-efficient or walking-efficient thing you can do, but it looks nice and provides 52 bedrooms per level. It's a modified version of a layout I found on the wiki. Each bedroom-niche is 1x4, which gives enough space for a door, a bed, a cabinet, and one other piece of furniture. I used to give my dwarves coffers in their rooms, but then I found out that civilians don't actually use them, and the thing that military uses them for is buggy. I'd go with a second cabinet or a statue, now, or just leave an empty space. Also keep in mind that you don't have to dig out the whole thing at once - I found it useful to just dig out the central 8 rooms for my starting dwarves (the spare makes a nice starting office for your bookkeeper) and then do the other wings as I had time.

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[Dave1004]

Hmm. Looks a bit odd, but it probably would work. I'm just so unused to digging down, I keep forgetting that I can >_>... My dwarves seem to be content, albeit being a bit silly. I've requested for nearly two months now an up/down staircase to be built, and to descend a few levels - It's all worked well before, but now they refuse to build it. They built the first ones. Ah, well, so much for those sapphires....

I have another problem. I tried making a danger room, 1x4 (like this, right?)
.=trap
D=Door
L=Lever

     L
 #####
D . . . . D
 #####

I made spear traps, 10 training spears in each, and set the leaver up (8 mechanisms, not including the one it took to make the lever). So, I try and turn the traps ON. I can't, all the lever says is "add new task". When I try to, it says something along the lines of it already being hooked up. Yet, I can't do anything.

Next problem, the Dwarves won't go in there. They just stand out on the outer walls, looking in. I even tried adding layers of walls to it, but no go...

Any suggestions?

Also, I'm starting to build that first diagram, it's going to take a while though. My dwarves seem to drink 30% of the time, sleep 30%, eat 15%, go on break 15% and work 10%. *sigh*

[jaxy15]

Have you tried selecting "Pull the lever" task yet?

[AdeleneDawner]

Hmm. Looks a bit odd, but it probably would work. I'm just so unused to digging down, I keep forgetting that I can >_>... My dwarves seem to be content, albeit being a bit silly. I've requested for nearly two months now an up/down staircase to be built, and to descend a few levels - It's all worked well before, but now they refuse to build it. They built the first ones. Ah, well, so much for those sapphires....

Did you order it to be built, with [b ][C], or dug, in the designation menu? If you ordered it to be built, what are your masons doing? If you ordered it to be built, and your masons aren't busy elsewhere, try 'q'-ing it; is it suspended? There might have been a stone in the way that another dwarf wanted for some other job, or maybe a cat decided to sit there at the wrong time, and the dwarf who tried to build it couldn't finish the job. In that case, it should be finished promptly once you've un-suspended it, unless you've ordered other construction built in the meantime, in which case you might want to cancel the order and re-do it to move it to the top of the list. (When it comes to constructions, dwarves like to do the most recently-ordered thing first, and work backwards.) If that's not the problem, or if you ordered it to be dug, check and make sure your dwarves can actually access the square in question. The 'k' tool is useful for that - it's fairly easy to accidentally order a stairway to be dug one square away from where it needs to be to line up with the stairway above or below, but loo'k' ing at one part of the stairway and then moving up or down a level should make it obvious if that's the problem.

I have another problem. I tried making a danger room, 1x4 (like this, right?)
.=trap
D=Door
L=Lever

     L
 #####
D . . . . D
 #####

I made spear traps, 10 training spears in each, and set the leaver up (8 mechanisms, not including the one it took to make the lever). So, I try and turn the traps ON. I can't, all the lever says is "add new task". When I try to, it says something along the lines of it already being hooked up. Yet, I can't do anything.

You need a 'Pull the Lever' task. 'q', 'a', 'P'. You'll want to set it to repeat, too, with 'r'.

Next problem, the Dwarves won't go in there. They just stand out on the outer walls, looking in. I even tried adding layers of walls to it, but no go...

Any suggestions?

Have you looked at burrows yet? The most reliable way to do it is to set up a burrow that just covers the inside of the danger room, and then change your squad's training order to 'defend burrow'. The burrow menu is under 'w', but between that menu and the squad schedule menu it's a bit complicated to set up. If you want to just use regular move orders, you'll need a bigger danger room - as you noticed, dwarves don't go *exactly* where you've told them to - they figure that a square or two away is good enough for most purposes.

Also, some things to check before you set your danger room running:

• All spears should be wooden training spears. Not metal, not glass, and not menacing wooden spikes. Anything but wooden training spears will hurt your dwarves, even if they're armored.
• The dwarves you're training should have armor covering every part of them. It doesn't have to be good armor - leather is fine - but any exposed flesh is likely to get wounded. If it's the head that's unarmored, your dwarves can wind up dead if you get unlucky.
• Your training room should be someplace where civilians won't go - ideally, civilians shouldn't even be nearby. Civilians who wander into a training room are likely to get hurt. Civilians' pets and children are likely to wander into the danger room if their parents/owners are working nearby, and will most likely wind up dead.
• Any pets belonging to the dwarves you're training, and any war animals that would usually follow them, should be pastured somewhere while they're in training. As with civilians' pets, these animals are likely to wind up dead if they go into a danger room. Doors being set to forbid pets from going in is not sufficient - animals can't open such doors themselves, but they will sit immediately outside them and bolt through as soon as a dwarf opens them.
• Any dwarves carrying babies should not be allowed to train in training rooms. Dead babies make a heck of a lot of miasma.

Also, I'm starting to build that first diagram, it's going to take a while though. My dwarves seem to drink 30% of the time, sleep 30%, eat 15%, go on break 15% and work 10%. *sigh*

Your fortress layout can have a lot to do with this. How far do your dwarves have to walk to get to the alcohol, or their beds, or the materials they need for their jobs?

[Dave1004]

Jaxy: The option isn't there...

Adelene:  I ordered it to be dug, in the "d" menu., and yes, it was suspended. I don't know how, since I ate all my cats. Meh, lol....I feel like an idiot. But, it they still won't build the second one, and it's not suspended. Yeah, as far as I can tell, they can reach it...Hmm. Thanks for the help, I'll just rebuild it, I guess.

So, I have to set the "pull lever" task at the same time as I hook it up to mechanisms? If so, that makes sense! Will try!

1. Yes, they're all training spears
2. I only had cloaks, leggings, weapon, mail and three shields (My dwarves ALWAYS grab three shields. Two in the right hand, one in the left >___>...My dorfs are mutants!)
3. Good idea, darnit. It was in the middle of my base...lol...xD
4. I had only set the doors to be pet-locked, but thanks for telling me about that! I'll put them with the puppy meat factory.
5. How else do I kill the babies? They're a waste! Maybe I can punt 'em...

My base is small, very compact. It looks cluttered, but everything's right. All smelters and smitheries are by ore and bar piles, and crafting and wood burning, etc are by wood piles...They don't have to walk far, it might take a dwarf five to ten seconds to go from food to bed. Nearly all materials are close at hand...Well, as they say, a picture is a thousand words...



Excuse the clutter, but it's all very compact. Below that is a trainings room, and some more dormitories