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[Manic Typist]

Hello all. I am, as the thread title suggests, completely new to these boards and this game.

I actually heard about this game repeatedly on a certain website, so I decided to check it out.

My curiosity is very much piqued, but I've encountered a problem. I cannot get my dwarves to do ANYTHING. I can't get them to mine, I can't get them to chop down trees, gather plants, or even dismantle the wagon. I've looked in the DF Wikia, checked out YouTube videos, and as far as I know I'm doing the right thing ( [d], [d] again, mark out a space to mine by hitting enter and then hitting enter again after I've highlighted the area I want, etc).

Yet I always have 7 idlers when I unpause the game, and the only thing that I see move are a nearby horse and a cow (or was it a pig?).

For reference, I downloaded the LazyNewb pack and used the LazyNewb built default party since I wanted to get right to playing instead of trying to figure stuff out. You know, learn by trial and error. Well, I can't even seem to get that right.

I've tried looking to see if they have the right equipment, but I honestly can't figure out HOW to do that. I can see their clothing, but nowhere can I pull up a list of any ITEMS that are in the wagon or otherwise might have accompanied the caravan.

Help?

P.S.- Sorry to all those who just lost several hours on TvTropes. Someone did it to me so I'm spreading the love/misery.

[kotekzot]

That seems rather strange. You do know mining (d d) is only possible horizontally (a miner needs to be able to stand on a square on the same z-level as the square to be mined)? I suppose that's not the problem if you can't chop down trees, either. Are your designations highlighted in brown? You can also "paint" designations with the left mouse button.

[krenshala]

Just in case you didn't already know ... 

When you set up designations for stuff to be dug out, the miners need to have Mining enabled, and they have to be able to stand in a tile directly adjacent to at least one of the designated tiles.

[Manic Typist]

As far as I know I have Mining enabled. But please, tell me how to do that so I can make SURE.

Regarding height- I thought I had that taken care of because I've tried at several places. One is at the "top" of an upward slope. I didn't think that was a problem, but just in case I picked another spot that I thought had no slope at all.

Any word on how I determine whether or not I in fact have any picks, axes, etc?

Thanks so far!

[krenshala]

The easy way, press [v] then select the guy that is supposed to be mining.  Press [ i ] to view his inventory.  With default setups he should have a copper pick.  Then press [p] for his profession, and "Mining" should be in white (non-selected tasks will be grey).

[edit]
If mining is not selected he won't have the pick.  If there is a pick in the wagon, selecting Mining is all that is needed to have him pick it up.

[KhazâdAimênu]

BTW, to see what's still in the wagon, press [t], and place the cursor over the wagon.

[Number4]

Luckily I came here from tvtropes, as most of the resident dwarven population I'd guess. The easiest way to dig is from the side of a cliff at the beginning

SSSSSS^.....,.,.
DDDDDDR...,..,.,
DDDDDDR.,,..,...
DDDDDDR,.,.,...
SSSSSS^...,..,.

A cliff, at the left side...at the right side simple grass. ^ are upward ramps, R ramps to remove (remove upward ramps) S soil, D soil designated for mining. Your miner should start digging. Easiest way to check for labor is to launch Dwarf Therapist, there you can check and toggle labors of every dwarf.

[xeivous]

Since you're new, I'd like to remind you that you will become more sociopathic as you play. You should know this from reading tv-tropes tho...

[Spotswood]

When I started I watched CaptnDucks Lets Play Dwarf Fortress vids on YouTube. Was quite elightening I stopped watching after I got the basics to avoid spoilers.

Dont let it beat you, once you get the hang of it its all !!FUN!!

[Seriyu]

Incidentally, if you don't have dwarf therapist, get it. It's in the modding section and it makes managing dwarves so, so, so much easier. There are some minor bugs with it but still perfectly usable for most stuff.

[o_O[WTFace]]

What did you embark with?  To mine all you need is a pick and someone with the mining labor activated and a path to the squares to be mined.  The play now embark comes with those, but if you "prepared for the journey carefully" you might not have brought a pick or something. 

[Darkmere]

TVTropes ruins your life, you know.

I admire your do-it-yourself gumption, but I recommend at least reading some documentation on the interface. The mentioned tutorials are a great starting place, once you get the UI down you can move on to tantrum spirals and ambush deaths and all the other great things at your own pace.

[Manic Typist]

Well. First, thank you all for your responses (except for you, Spambot! Bad Spambot!).

After, uh, discovering that "Abandon fortress" is not just a creative way of saying "Quit game" and it in fact.....causes you to abandon your fortress and delete your save file.... I started over.

This time, the dwarves are mining and chopping wood, though I have two guys who still seem to want to sit idle. I enabled Mining on them, yet they don't seem to want to find picks and get to work.


So, definite progress. I will download the Dwarf Therapist as my next step I suppose.

Also, can anyone recommend a tileset? The one that the Newbpack comes with seems a bit dull, and I've seem some images that look much nicer.


Cheers!

[ext0l]

Make sure you have enough picks.
Also 'abandon fortress' doesn't delete the save file, it just ends the game for that fortress. In the future, you can reclaim the fortress ([R] on embark selection screen) to retry.

[Anathema]

This time, the dwarves are mining and chopping wood, though I have two guys who still seem to want to sit idle. I enabled Mining on them, yet they don't seem to want to find picks and get to work.

It's probably a shortage of mining picks; the 'play now' gives you two picks and two woodcutting axes if I remember right. In the beginning if I have extra idlers, I usually assign them to plant gathering (you'll probably need a food stockpile for them to store all the berries they collect, you'll also need to designate an area to gather plants with d-p). Plants are easily accessible on the surface of almost any embark, it takes no special equipment, and more food (most of which can be brewed into alcohol) never hurts.

When you get to the point of customizing your embark skills/items, try bringing copper bars. Instead of 2 picks + 2 axes, for the same price you can get 1 pick, 1 axe, and 8 or so copper bars. Mine for some stone, use it to make a wood burner/metalsmith's forge, chop down some trees and burn them into charcoal, then smelt your copper into more picks/axes and soon you have everyone striking away at the earth without spending any extra.

You don't actually need to embark with a pick and axe at all, there's a cute trick involving deconstructing your wagon for wood and using the bars themselves to make the wood burner/forge.. but that's a little tricky, and slows you down anyway. Just remember to always bring an anvil - you can't make an anvil without an anvil. This raises certain philosophical quandaries regarding the creation of the first anvil..

Also, can anyone recommend a tileset? The one that the Newbpack comes with seems a bit dull, and I've seem some images that look much nicer.

The Newbpack actually comes with all three of the more popular tilesets, I believe it has some sort of gui for swapping between them.