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[b4ux1t3]

Well, after years of people telling me that I should play this game, I have finally jumped on the bandwagon. I think I'm doing pretty well, all things considered. The game may not seem easy to most, but I find it mostly intuitive and fairly easy to manage.

I am following the quickstart guide located on magma wiki, and everything was going very smoothly! That is, until I hit a snare. I have progressed to the "Bedrooms section, but I am a little stuck.

Earlier, the author mentions that I should build a throne and a table for the manager/bookkeeper. When I attempted to do so, the game gave me the error message, "[Stoneworker] has cancelled construction on table/throne. He needs access to more non-economic hard rock." I didn't panic, and I went with the back-up plan listed in the guide, to have a woodworker build the two items. Unfortunately, only one of the items (The throne) is available. And if that weren't bad enough, I can't even get him to work on it!

So, I guess I would like help in two parts:

1. How do I know what non-economic hard rock is? Where could I find it? If I have it, how do I make it available?

2. Why won't my woodworker go build his damned throne?! I'm fairly certain I have wood, though it appears that it has not been transferred to the new stockpile I made in his workshop.




One other thing I noticed, when I hit Shift+D, I noticed that it says my Depot has no wagon access. Is that bad, and how can I fix it?

If you need clarification on anything, or want me to post pictures, please don't hesitate to ask.


EDIT: I did notice just now that there is a board for discussing gameplay. I'll leave this here, though, until I'm told that it can't be here. :x I'll copy-paste it over if I am told such a thing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read the rules for this forum to make sure I'm not breaking them.

[Conrad]

1. Dig. You'll most likely hit non-economic stone. Economic stone are things reserved for certain tasks (most ores, flux stone).

2. He might be on break, he might not have carpentry enabled. Check your units screen (hit u) and see what he's up to. If he has 'No job', something is in the way of him finishing. You can cut down some trees to get more wood (d -> t -> highlight the area)

Don't worry about the wagon thing. Wagons are broken and you might not even have a Trade Depot yet.

[b4ux1t3]

Sounds good. I'll keep digging. I do have a "garbage" pile full of rocks from when I dug out the work areas and bedrooms. I'll check to see if it's somehow forbidden, if that's possible. And in the mean time, I'll start digging out some tunnels to make it look more fortress-y. I totally forgot to check their jobs. :x

[Conrad]

By garbage, do you mean you've been dumping them? Dumped items are forbidden after dump. If you've been stockpiling them, that's different.

Just to save you hours of time: There's a mass-designation tool if you go through d-> b. This allows you to highlight and forbid/dump/hide items on mass instead of designating them one by one.

[b4ux1t3]

I figured it out right before I read your last post! The guide told me that I would have to un-forbid the garbage dump to use the stone there. Now, the stoneworker is on his way to build the throne and table!

Thanks for all your help! I'm glad I wasn't lied to when I was told that the DF community was very nice and helpful.

[Oliolli]

Just one little point here, in DF there are no "stupid newbie"s. Only beginners and "people, who have managed to reach the state of not-beginnerness that a fort of theirs has died FPS death".

[gomwon]

Stone thrones and wooden chairs function the same.

And for thrones, you need to dig down to the stone.

[Ieb]

And in case you really like some dwarf, with enough micromanagement and enabling some "special" stones, like minerals, to be usable in economic work, you can give them an entire room full of furniture made of native silver/gold/whatever-they-like. All that and more in the Stones tab behind the 'z' key list!

[Quatch]

Welcome, welcome. I wish the friends I pestered to play would get around to trying

Have a look over at the DF gameplay questions subforum, its full of beginners getting help, and as you progress past the tutorial you are using, it will likely head off other sticky parts.

[Conrad]

How rude of me... I guess that's what I get for trying to answer questions at 4 in the morning!

I should have said welcome to the community! If you need to know how to do something, don't be afraid to ask around here!

Just one little point here, in DF there are no "stupid newbie"s. Only beginners and "people, who have managed to reach the state of not-beginnerness that a fort of theirs has died FPS death".

We all lose. Some just lose later.

[b4ux1t3]

All my dwarves died of thirst.

Apparently,the river froze up in the winter.

[Conrad]

Try looking for a warm environment with a river/stream/brook next time and be sure to build a well. That will help while you get the hang of farming and brewing.

[Ieb]

A herbalist can be helpful too at the start. Later on they're better off being a farmer.

[Laurin]

A dwarf should never die from thirst. (Though I have to admit that in my first fortress that might have happened too, before I figured out how to make booze and how to bring with enough for the first year on embark.)
Dwarfs only drink water in times of destitution or when they are ill.

Make sure you have around 80 or so barrels of booze (different sorts preferred).
Early on you should look around for a suitable location for farming inside - a small pool on the surface can be use to water a six times as big farming area one level below.
Set up a small farming plot (8 to 10 tiles will do for the first years) and plant plump helmets every season (you should bring with you around fifty or so on embark). Built a still and let your craftsdwarf make lots of barrels from rock at a craftsdwarf workshop. Brew booze at your still. Booze can also be made from some plants you can gather from outside (d-p). Requires a dwarf with the plant gathering labor enabled.

[Thorus]

Since version 31.19 you don't need to irrigate underground soil anymore - just underground rock.

A little correction:

Built a still and let your craftsdwarf make lots of rock pots at a craftsdwarf workshop.