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[Poindexterity]

so i do the same thing everytime. I start a fort with a great idea in mind. I'll get it all set up and running well. everything is going swimmingly. Then, for one reason or another, i don't play for a few days, sometimes up to a week. Then, when i try to start playing that fort again, i can't remember WHERE anything is, WHAT anyone was doing, WHO is important to the fort, WHAT the hell I was trying to accomplish with some of this stuff, and WHY there is vomit/blood/kittens all over the place.

I'm totally on point while im playing every day, but after 4 or 5...
not so much.

I've tried laying out all my forts about the same, but even then, i can only come so close and i still lose track of things.

do you good folks have any tips for me?

[Hitty40]

I usually write down notes on stickypads.

[Lord Dullard]

You actually pay that much attention to your dwarves in the first place? Huh.

Seriously, when I reload a game after a while I just start doing whatever I feel like with whatever resources are available. Who cares if it's mentally contiguous with whatever I was doing a week ago?

[Kofthefens]

Hotkeys. They help you remember the important places. I also fully agree with what every one else said. Especially with a mega or miniproject, than plans are helpful

[acetech09]

I have a notepad full of stuff like that... I don't use paper sometimes if I have my laptop open next to my desktop but often I don't so I just use a notepad.

300-page college ruled, I've had it for a few years and am 3/4 through it, full of DF notes over the years.

[Eric Blank]

I never experience this problem myself, excluding minor things like remembering that I left the game paused after a goblin ambush, then proceed to unpause it and fail to notice the ambush again until FUN happens. I do have this problem with modding though. Always forget what it was I intended to do next.

Really, the best solution is to document everything with in-game notes or external drawings and notes.
A good technique I use to remember exactly who is important for what reason is name them or give custom profession names; soldier for soldiers and ranger for marksdwarves, along with a name from their first kill (Olm, Goblin, Berserker, Elk...) The starting seven I originally gave special names like Mini, Stoner/Stony, Woody/Willow, Silverman, etc. I gave up on that but still give them custom professions like Head/Elite Stoneworker, Food Supplier, Head Woodsman, Leader, etc. Legendary Sleeper is appropriate for anyone that makes an artifact bed.

If this is something you routinely struggle with in life, there are actually some memory training methods you can use. Start running google though, because, ironically, I can't remember any of them.

[warwizard]

The simple fix is to not step away from the fort for a few days, or if you have to, then just start a new fort.

  I had several forts on my hard drive that i'd not touched in months/years, to the point that one of them was from 40D. I realized that I'll never come back to them, delete!

  I play a fort daily for one to three weeks, but if interrupted for more than a couple of weeks, they are toast.

[Poindexterity]

I have a notepad full of stuff like that... I don't use paper sometimes if I have my laptop open next to my desktop but often I don't so I just use a notepad.

300-page college ruled, I've had it for a few years and am 3/4 through it, full of DF notes over the years.

i bet that'd make a good, if confusing read.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Legendary Sleeper is appropriate for anyone that makes an artifact bed.

I prefer "Sleeper Agent" myself.

[buckets]

You actually pay that much attention to your dwarves in the first place? Huh.

Seriously, when I reload a game after a while I just start doing whatever I feel like with whatever resources are available. Who cares if it's mentally contiguous with whatever I was doing a week ago?

I do this, it's a nice way to get back into the game after not playing for a few months.

[Sutremaine]

I take a look through the Unit list, the job list, the announcements, and the combat reports. My memory is the sort that's rubbish by itself but fairly good once something triggers one part of what I'm trying to remember, so if there's something important going on it should show up in at least one of those pages.

[Aachen]

In-game notes! Although I tend to rely on my memory, I have gone with "bulletin board" route in the past. That is, I'll choose a specific spot and put general notes clustered in its vicinity. Of course, if one is prone to forgetfulness, that might not help; forget where your note is, and it can get rather tricky to track it back down!

[King DZA]

I can usually remember the really big projects I'm working on, because they take several play sessions to complete. For the smaller things, I normally end up recalling them again after getting into the game for a bit, either because it was important and now something screwed up because it didn't get done, or because I have the same idea and realize I thought of it before.

Example:

"hm, that's a nice patch of protected land. I think I'll try using it for above ground farming soon."

*couple days later, been playing for an hour*

"Wow, I bet that spot would be really good for an above ground farm."

or:

"oh crap, an ambush! I'll just put the fortress on lockdo- *notices ramps allowing easy access over my wall* Oh yeah, I was gonna remove those..."

[Evile]

I am playing 3 different forts at once...usually with week-long pauses in between.

Main thing that keeps my memory is geography - i usually embark on a specific place intended for my current project, and i usually group my levers into action sets: 5 levers together for external lock-downs, 3 spike\related levers, 7+ energy generator levers etc. This usually is enough, hardest problem is to memorize what orders has to be made asap\in recent future - these take a while to figure out.

Also use pixelart\pixel text designations for future project areas. If I intend to make 15+z drop area in the middle of my embark i designate it for digging and leave it, it takes seconds to figure out why I have 3x10x15 designation present there later.

Another trick is to use scaled\quantitative structures - like bedroom units with 5\10\20 bedrooms. These are easy to count and asses how much free beds my current fort has atm by comparing with theRapist.

Food designations separated into: food\booze\seeds and tallow - same fast distinction on current status of fortress health.

Rest is details and irrelevant.

[Triaxx2]

Shift-N. That's the in game notation device and is utterly essential if you ever expect to remember what lever does what. (Don't count on it... )