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[krenshala]

A 3x3 farm can feed a fortress of 250+ dwarves once you have a decently skilled farmer working it. Making a 10x10 farm is complete overkill, especially if you are planning to grow more than one type of crop at a time.

Myself, I do a number of 1x2, 1x3 or 1x4 farms (usually 6 to 9) and have each one making a different crop so I have a wide variety available for use.  Most plants when eaten raw will leave a seed behind, as does brewing or plant processing (depending on the plant).  Cooking the plant cooks the seeds, so you end up losing those.

[Theifofdreams]

When dealing with farm plots, I usually throw around afew 4x5s (anywhere from 2 up to 6, depending on my fortress plant supply) and dedicate an extra plot just for plump helmets, so I always have plentiful amounts for booze and as emergency rations in case, for whatever reason, the cook goes AWOL or is KIA.
I do like "outdoor" plots, as well, since the variety given is nice.
Overall, the time spent working to get covered up above ground plots, and getting several smaller plots up and running, is negligible compared to the amount of time, effort, and value, that gets lost with massive plots like that.
I haven't needed larger plots yet, and usually don't mind the crops lost with the season change since I get plenty spare already.

[Starver]

Overall, the time spent working to get covered up above ground plots, [...]

I tend to make my "aboveground" farmlands by designated a ramping area on Z-1, then de-ramping all the edges (if not immediately bordered by roof-retaining side-corridors) and any stray central bits, to put the farm plot on this now pristine surface.  This is mostly to deals with awkward boulders in the surface soil layer that disrupt the field-plan significantly, but I also have immediate access to roof it over (by bridge(s) or floors, according to my aesthetic desire) should I want to, without having to construct ground-level retaining walls and upward access as well.

It does eat into sometimes precious belowground soil areas (for underground farms or my usually extensive grazer-pastures), and I also use this trick to make a butchery area (miasma-proof, in the event of overly slow movement of produce).  On the whole, I can't complain about the balance, though.

[OMGTANGERINES]

Also, one of my babies died of thirst in the middle of the main dining hall.  Do they normally do that?

And this is why I play DF.

[murlocdummy]

When dealing with farm plots, I usually throw around afew 4x5s (anywhere from 2 up to 6, depending on my fortress plant supply) and dedicate an extra plot just for plump helmets, so I always have plentiful amounts for booze and as emergency rations in case, for whatever reason, the cook goes AWOL or is KIA.
I do like "outdoor" plots, as well, since the variety given is nice.
Overall, the time spent working to get covered up above ground plots, and getting several smaller plots up and running, is negligible compared to the amount of time, effort, and value, that gets lost with massive plots like that.
I haven't needed larger plots yet, and usually don't mind the crops lost with the season change since I get plenty spare already.

Wow, that makes my farming system sound like a blatant waste of time and energy!  I've got anywhere between 3-9 farmers working on my farms at any one time, planting and harvesting on 4-7 10x10 plots.  I built several breweries next to the farms and have at least 2 of them on repeat brewing at any given time.  My main issue is still fielding a military, though.  I can handle goblin ambushes since they seem to like falling into traps, but the goblin siege is something that I just have to wait out.

BTW, I ended up quitting the game that got besieged with the jabberer.  I apparently made far too many mistakes.  The siegers left, a dragon decided to appear, and did nothing more than sit around at the edge of the map, and one remaining goblin sitting on top of a tree was terrorizing my units, who could do nothing as the goblin waved his bow and empty quiver around menacingly.  Upon leaving, I had a baroness along with about 5 different people as various nobles, about 85 remaining dwarves, a stockpile of about 170 drink, about 450 plants, a main stockpile of totally useless tables, coffers, and other knickknacks that was nearing 95% capacity of about 35x60 and another wood stockpile nearing about 50% capacity or so at about 60x10.
I had no real military to speak of, as I said earlier, since I didn't know that crossbowmen needed quivers in order to shoot arrows.

I ended up restarting the game from an earlier savepoint, where I still had my 7 original dwarves.  I still haven't found metal, though.  I hear that I can acquire equipment from captured goblins by dumping their cages in a corner, then reclaiming them.  Then I can apparently assign them to a restraint and have my guys hammer  them to death with their crossbows.

[Theifofdreams]

I rarely actually get a military up and running.
Funny that. Just locking up the mountain halls and opening the back door for trade is usually enough. It certainly presents me with more of a challenge then actually having marksdwarves. at least, in some ways.

[murlocdummy]

I rarely actually get a military up and running.
Funny that. Just locking up the mountain halls and opening the back door for trade is usually enough. It certainly presents me with more of a challenge then actually having marksdwarves. at least, in some ways.

Well, that's pretty much what I've done right now.  I've created an airlock to safely allow caravans to enter a depot that I've specifically located next to a staircase leading to my main storage room.

My main concern right now is the growing army of caged goblins that are filling up in my stockpile.  Was my previous assumption about how to disarm them correct?  Or are they going to end up escaping and killing a whole shitton of my dwarves when I try to restrain them?

EDIT:

I managed to successfully disarm the enemies.  Apparently when you set a cage as garbage, it sets the entire contents of the cage as garbage, and when you reclaim the items, it only reclaims the animal and cage and not the items of said cage.  Once your dwarves set the cage down, the items still inside of the cage are still designated as garbage, and so your dwarves will then take the items and dump them in the garbage zone.

The only worry I have now is that when I take the caged enemies to a restraint, they'll escape and start harassing my units.

[krenshala]

Pretty much correct on removing goblin gear.  Unforbid their stuff, then dump anything you don't want them to keep.

Also, in case you haven't done so, be sure to give your crossbow dorfs shields.  They are able to use crossbow and shield, no problem.

You mentioned no (weapon grade) metals -- when you are selecting an embark site it lists what type of metals are available.  Try to find one with surface metals and deep metals.  When the embark lists surface (or deep) metal (no S), it means just that ... one type of metal.  (I'm not sure if "deep metal" means nothing but adamantine or not, however.)

[murlocdummy]

Good news!  I just found a cavern with some Tetrahedrite in it.  I'll seal off the cavern, then mine the floor it sits on.

From all of the goblins I've captured, I've amassed a rather large arsenal of copper and bronze items, and I've decided to put every single person in my fort into Inactive squadrons to have them equip the armor in my fort.  One question:  how do I unequip armors?  Am I going to have to go to a particular squad and simply remove everything from them manually, or do they go ahead and unequip things themselves in favor of the best item that they're allowed to use?

In my last goblin ambush, I sent two squads after 1 goblin.  1 guy died and nearly everyone else was significantly injured.  Looking at the combat reports, it seems that they were still using leather armor despite all the stockpiled metal armors that I appropriated from previous ambushes.

I'm also having some trouble getting my dwarves to store the goblin clothes in bins.  Is there any way I can see what's in a particular bin sitting in my stockpile? 

I also want to name my squadrons.  Is that possible?

[Loud Whispers]

A 3x3 farm can feed a fortress of 250+ dwarves once you have a decently skilled farmer working it. Making a 10x10 farm is complete overkill, especially if you are planning to grow more than one type of crop at a time.

Myself, I do a number of 1x2, 1x3 or 1x4 farms (usually 6 to 9) and have each one making a different crop so I have a wide variety available for use.  Most plants when eaten raw will leave a seed behind, as does brewing or plant processing (depending on the plant).  Cooking the plant cooks the seeds, so you end up losing those.

But you need a variant of crops too, and if you have access to above ground, and below, you already have access to a BANK of crops. I usually have anywhere from (the equivalent) of 4-8 10x10 plots.

This means I have an extreme variation of food, and more importantly, BOOZE!!!!

Not to mention, I've organised my farms in such a way, that I have plenty of rope reed and pig tails to spin into cloth crafts (unlimited trade goods ftw), and all of my food crops are never grown more than one season in a row (to avoid getting barrels and bins comepletely exhausted with food), and during the winter, no crops are grown at all, allowing my booze production rate to catch up with my army of Farmer serfs.
This means I have 2000-3000 food crops, and 3000-1500 different alcohols (during winter), and my barrels and pots are never fully exhausted.

Good news!  I just found a cavern with some Tetrahedrite in it.  I'll seal off the cavern, then mine the floor it sits on.

From all of the goblins I've captured, I've amassed a rather large arsenal of copper and bronze items, and I've decided to put every single person in my fort into Inactive squadrons to have them equip the armor in my fort.  One question:  how do I unequip armors?  Am I going to have to go to a particular squad and simply remove everything from them manually, or do they go ahead and unequip things themselves in favor of the best item that they're allowed to use?

In my last goblin ambush, I sent two squads after 1 goblin.  1 guy died and nearly everyone else was significantly injured.  Looking at the combat reports, it seems that they were still using leather armor despite all the stockpiled metal armors that I appropriated from previous ambushes.

I'm also having some trouble getting my dwarves to store the goblin clothes in bins.  Is there any way I can see what's in a particular bin sitting in my stockpile? 

I also want to name my squadrons.  Is that possible?

You can't name your squadrons , also, to view your stockpile settings, go to view building jobs/tasks by pressing [q], and select settings when highlighted over a stockpile.

And removing the selected equipment of a dwarf is easy, just remove it from it's equipment selection, though dwarves will try to upgrade their weapons + armour to the one closest matching the one on their equip screen when possible.

Except when they get attached to a weapon, in which case you'll have to forbid, and atom smash it.
Also, copper isn't that good, if you can find better ores (namesakely iron), try to equip your dwarves with that.

[murlocdummy]

You can't name your squadrons , also, to view your stockpile settings, go to view building jobs/tasks by pressing [q], and select settings when highlighted over a stockpile.

And removing the selected equipment of a dwarf is easy, just remove it from it's equipment selection, though dwarves will try to upgrade their weapons + armour to the one closest matching the one on their equip screen when possible.

Except when they get attached to a weapon, in which case you'll have to forbid, and atom smash it.
Also, copper isn't that good, if you can find better ores (namesakely iron), try to equip your dwarves with that.

My main issue right now is figuring out what's in each particular container, not what the dwarves are set to put in said contaniers.  Then again, I suppose that what I really want to know is how to make my dwarves put clothes into bins.  I read that clothes are Finished Goods and will automatically be put into bins, but more than half of my central stockpile is made up of hundreds upon hundreds of individual pieces of goblin clothing.  I also have only about a dozen or so cloth bins that I bought from merchants, but I'm in the process of making more out of wood.

My industry right now is based almost completely around stonecrafting, since the stuff is absolutely everywhere.  I'm regularly getting messages indicating Urist McCraftdwarf has made a masterpiece.  I'm buying up absolutely everything of value whenever caravans arrive at the fort.

I've also just realized how to rename dwarves.  Since there's no dwarf list search function, renaming dwarves will be absolutely vital to keeping track of and organizing them.

EDIT:

I just figured out how to look at the contents of bins in stockpiles.  You press k and select the individual bin, then press Enter to view. 

Again, I marvel at how the interface is absolutely convoluted and seemingly intentionally difficult to use.

[Starver]

You can't name your squadrons

What I've done, in the past, is create (but leave unmanneddwarfed) a whole lot of units, and then if I can find (say) five in a row that look like they refer to ranged combat, I delete all the ones within the range across which these nice ones are spread that don't look like that.  Then I'd look for names that work for melee troops in the remainder.  Rinse and repeat.  (Or decide that the ranged ones can wait, because there are some nice names for hand-to-hand units.)

Regardless of that, if I get something like "The vicious knives", I might keep it around for a hypothetical sharp-mêlée squad even if I was about to make a hammer-squad, etc.

Other than that, no, there's no deliberate naming.  But you can make things work for you regardless, if you've got patience and a little foresight.


As to containers, I'd rather like it if a "Finished Goods Bin" could be called a "Figurine Bin" if it only has Figurines in it.  (Something that my set-up might well generate.)  Bags of seeds (that you can trade for) tend to be so specific.

Anyway, you've worked out the "k" version.  When trading, you can also look inside them (from the trading screen), and also in the Z-Stocks screen.  (Or just go to the item you're interested in and try to locate one in a bin, but it'd be nice to have a quick back-to-ZStocks button, rather than having to go back in.  A bit like you can when you view a dwarf's 'z-screen' (i.e. relationships and thoughts and nickname) from the Units menu, but that you don't get when you do a jump to 'c'haracter, even though that also has the other useful screens (i.e. designation, inventory, proficiencies, wounds).)

The interface could be better, indeed, but it could be worse.  Biggest problem at the moment is perhaps that there are often several ways to get some information, but none of them is a panacea for every problem and you may not know of another.  This is one reason why Dwarf Therapist was such a good idea, and I was (at one point) going to get a Stockpile Therapist off the ground, but I seemed to have forgotten to do anything about that.


Yes, stonecrafts (and other stone things) are generally an easy make.  In a future version (possibly very soon), if you spam them with rock rings you may find they're going to paying on small-change for them, in the future.  But maybe, even then, you can resort to your glut of rock amulets, instead.

[murlocdummy]

You can't name your squadrons

What I've done, in the past, is create (but leave unmanneddwarfed) a whole lot of units, and then if I can find (say) five in a row that look like they refer to ranged combat, I delete all the ones within the range across which these nice ones are spread that don't look like that.  Then I'd look for names that work for melee troops in the remainder.  Rinse and repeat.  (Or decide that the ranged ones can wait, because there are some nice names for hand-to-hand units.)

Regardless of that, if I get something like "The vicious knives", I might keep it around for a hypothetical sharp-mêlée squad even if I was about to make a hammer-squad, etc.

Other than that, no, there's no deliberate naming.  But you can make things work for you regardless, if you've got patience and a little foresight.


As to containers, I'd rather like it if a "Finished Goods Bin" could be called a "Figurine Bin" if it only has Figurines in it.  (Something that my set-up might well generate.)  Bags of seeds (that you can trade for) tend to be so specific.

Anyway, you've worked out the "k" version.  When trading, you can also look inside them (from the trading screen), and also in the Z-Stocks screen.  (Or just go to the item you're interested in and try to locate one in a bin, but it'd be nice to have a quick back-to-ZStocks button, rather than having to go back in.  A bit like you can when you view a dwarf's 'z-screen' (i.e. relationships and thoughts and nickname) from the Units menu, but that you don't get when you do a jump to 'c'haracter, even though that also has the other useful screens (i.e. designation, inventory, proficiencies, wounds).)

The interface could be better, indeed, but it could be worse.  Biggest problem at the moment is perhaps that there are often several ways to get some information, but none of them is a panacea for every problem and you may not know of another.  This is one reason why Dwarf Therapist was such a good idea, and I was (at one point) going to get a Stockpile Therapist off the ground, but I seemed to have forgotten to do anything about that.


Yes, stonecrafts (and other stone things) are generally an easy make.  In a future version (possibly very soon), if you spam them with rock rings you may find they're going to paying on small-change for them, in the future.  But maybe, even then, you can resort to your glut of rock amulets, instead.

Since you can't tell your craftdwarves to construct specific craft items anyway, it's probably almost never going to be an issue, unless you end up crafting and selling half the stone in the whole map.  THEN the prices of stone items might drop significantly.

Despite the fact that this game's been in active development for years, I still wonder why the interface isn't at least standardized properly.  It's useful to have the somewhat arcane looking tooltips at the bottom of each menu that tell you (mostly) how to navigate it, but I can't fathom why Toady couldn't have made the menu navigation keys more consistent.  Unless I study the control scheme of each and every menu and commit it to memory, I'll always have to look at the bottom of each menu to determine if I have to use directional keys, ±, Pgup/down, /*, wasd, or some other totally arbitrary control scheme.

[murlocdummy]

Okay, so I decided to create a danger room.  I hear that you have to dig a pit, then stick the spear trap in said pit in order for it to work.  In other words, it has to be lower than the dwarves in order to attack them.

I'm having some issues with getting my civilians to equip armor.  I put them into squadrons and assigned them a uniform consisting of any and all available armor, and they don't seem to be equipping it.  Will I have to assign them a training schedule to get them to equip armor?

[proxn_punkd]

No, the spear traps have to be in the same squares the dwarves are for an effective danger room.