Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Tibbz2]

Hey guys,

Ive been playing DF for a bit now (well, less playing, more losing. I mean FUN) and i have yet to really progress. (cause i suck)

I can do everything OK sometimes up to the point where the next stage is to set up the Metal Industry, which is basically at the top of the things to set up in a new fort, so then it can go on to become more fun and progress to things like military/trading/seiges ECT.

Anyway, how long/how many forts did it take you to be able to easily/efficiently set up the Metal Industry.

Im on about 10 failed forts and counting, not to get it up

[franti]

A few.
One thing that I figured out:
Rather than putting all bars in one stockpile, and all ores in another, make small hallway with rooms for ore/bars of each metal, and put a door in the hallway. That way, you can lock away the metals you don't want your moody weaponsmith grabbing.
Also, bins help. A lot.
And if you don't have a lot of coal, dig down to the magma sea and build your fort there.

[Hitty40]

Do you have a wood furnace? Usually if you don't find any kind of coal, you can chop down trees and have someone with the wood-burning labor go and make coal.

[Tibbz2]

Do you have a wood furnace? Usually if you don't find any kind of coal, you can chop down trees and have someone with the wood-burning labor go and make coal.

Yup, but everything goes so slow in my forts.

By the time ive dug out a few rooms its been a year, and then it takes ages to dump all the stone, by then most of my supplies are gone and everything f*cks up...

[FrisianDude]

Don't wait for all the stone to be dumped! Just leave it as it is; usually  Dwarfs will just shove it aside if they're trying to place furniture.

[Girlinhat]

Hide the stone if it bothers you "k-h" or "d-b-h" but dumping takes manpower.  And use those picks, you embark with 2 by default!

I can easily get an above-ground fort running within two seasons.  2 Woodcutters, everyone on carpentry, one farmer+herbalist.  Woodcutters clear the whole map, farmer builds an above-ground farm and gathers some local plants.  Carpenters use logs for a smallish wall, farmer plants strawberries, someone builds a door and barrels, and then booze is flowing.  It's not pretty, but the important thing is to get your feet under you as soon as you can, THEN you can dig expansive tunnels and great works.  Can't do anything if you're dead.

I rarely actually abuse the metal industry.  I abuse the hell out of textiles, but metal is non-renewable and I don't like that.  I do try and mood a blacksmith, and then produce masterwork gold statues.  Any non-masters get melted, and boring ones get sold.  The statue of my mayor surrounded by worms, that one goes in the dining hall!  Gold is usually imported via caravans as ore AND bars.

[inanity]

and then it takes ages to dump all the stone,

I think you gave yourself a clue...  ask yourself what is the advantage of dumping stone.

[Hitty40]

and then it takes ages to dump all the stone,

I think you gave yourself a clue...  ask yourself what is the advantage of dumping stone.

To clear space so your fortress looks cleaner.

[Grifen88]

Aesthetics?

To be honest dumping stones should only be done once you get your seasonal supply of migrants haulers and you already have a reasonably sized fort self-sustaining and defended.

[inanity]

I think you gave yourself a clue...  ask yourself what is the advantage of dumping stone.

To clear space so your fortress looks cleaner.

Okay, which equals very little advantage - dorfs do not get happy or sad thoughts from stone lying around, as far as I know.  But keep clearing stone if you think it's more important than having food for your dorfs to survive, or having metal for making weapons and armor.

[Tibbz2]

However people have said to me that leaving the stone around not only messes your fort, but blocks things from being made and stuff :S

Also i was told you have to make farms underground...

[Vehudur]

However people have said to me that leaving the stone around not only messes your fort, but blocks things from being made and stuff :S

Also i was told you have to make farms underground...

Clear stone from your farm plot and muddy the stone underneath, but nothing else much is required.

[Ross Vernal]

Any time I want to build anything where there's a rock, my dorfs WILL cancel it.

Beds, doors, statues, cages, traps. Doesn't matter. If there's a rock, the job WILL be canceled.

I just make a quantum rock pile near my forges and set all my ores to dump. It may take up a few minutes of dorfs hauling ore, but from the time it's completed on, my metal industry gets going quickly.

[Tibbz2]

Yes i know, and there is so much stone i cant do ANYTHING! 

Also i know you need to muddy the stone ect, but i was told you cant do farms above ground, but if you can, how?

[inanity]

Any time I want to build anything where there's a rock, my dorfs WILL

My dorfs will usually move the stones to make room for the construction.  I only have trouble if I try to build too much in a single room - job cancellations seem to happen only when (edit: all) surrounding tiles (edit: each) already have two or three stones in them.  I only really find it inconvenient when building my 4-tile bedrooms; some of the bedrooms get a cancellation on one of door, chest, cabinet or bed.  I don't worry about it too much - by the time it's a problem I am wondering what to do with all the migrants, so it's not a problem.