Print

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

[Lemunde]

I think most of us realize goblinite (metal objects dropped by goblins during a failed assault) can be a good source of metal bars if said goblinite is melted at a smelter. Unfortunately goblins also tend to drop a lot of other stuff that we generally prefer not to have cluttering up our stockpiles. This presents a problem if you try to mass-claim all of the goblinite. Well I've found a good solution to separate all of the metal from the rest of the trash. I'm sure many of you have probably already figured a way around this but after four years of playing DF I didn't discover this until recently. So this is for those who haven't.

So you have your hallway of traps or whatever and it's filled with goblin corpses and everything they had on them when they died. The hard way (the way I've been doing it) is to scroll through each individual pile looking for metal items which tend to blend in with everything else and unforbid them individually. But there's a much easier way.

Your dwarves should already be removing the corpses. When they're done make sure your dwarves are clear of the area before you try this just in case any metal they're wearing gets caught in the process. This will also work fine for any goblinite that's been accumulating there for years.

Step 1: Mass select the area for melting (d->b->m). Do not unforbid any of the items yet.

Step 2: Go into your stocks screen (z->stocks). Scroll down to weapons. Press 'tab' to view each item individually. You'll need to have a bookkeeper with an office set to about medium precision for this to work.
 
Step 3: All of the goblinite that you'll want to recover will be marked with both a yellow F and a reddish M. Nothing else will be marked this way. Scroll through the list and unforbid them by pressing 'f' on each one.

Step 4: Repeat step 3 for ammunition, armor, legwear, footwear, handwear, headwear and shields/bucklers. The goblins I've encountered only tend to carry weapons, shields and helmets so you may not have to do this for all the categories.

Step 5: You're done! Your dwarves should start clearing out the area of all metal goblinite and placing it in appropriate stockpiles. Since it's all already marked to be melted all you have left to do is place a repeating order to melt objects at a smelter.

Note: Mass selecting objects to be melted may also include your traps. This generally isn't a problem unless the traps are deconstructed so it may be a good idea to mass remove the melt designation from your traps once all the metal goblinite is removed.

What you do with the rest of the goblinite is up to you. Personally I have no problem leaving them in the traps. You could also setup a custom stockpile for troll fur or other goblin materials nearby. Or you can just mass dump what's left. Both methods take quite a while depending on how much is there.

[Cellmonk]

Your solution is simple and elegant, and I would try it if I hadn't already used my own simpler yet less elegant solution, which is to mod all clothes out of the game.

However, I did not know of the tab menu until now, and THAT will come to use. It somewhat irks me that, In all my searching, I've never come across a list of hidden features, like macros, the fact that you can mass-designate things for smelting, etc. maybe I should start a thread for that, because I hear of another feature every time I get on B12 that I've never heard of before, and desperately needed.

On a side note, the {-troll fur mitten-} filled hallway can be quickly cleared with a certain fluid which I can't recall the name of, but Necro probably can.

PS: have you ever come across any goblinite that had any quality at all? As far as I've seen, they all are base quality, and no -troll fur mittens- exist...

[Loud Whispers]

That or magma. Plus, I've always assumed anyone who knows how to mass forbid/etc would know how to sort out their rubbish. Never remembered the horrible trial that is noob-hood in DF.

[Lemunde]

Not quality, no, but I have seen quite a few that are decorated. Just saw some orangutan leather armor with a diamond stitched into it. Apparently it's the symbol for the goblin civ it came from.

The stocks screen is probably one of the last screens people learn about. Up until now all I've really used it for is to see how many metal bars and gems I have. Only just now have I gotten around to taking a closer look at it. It can be quite useful once you learn all the ins and outs about it.

[Fredd]

as for Lemundes post, you can realize now the use of a bookeeper with skills

[King DZA]

Hm, this could be very helpful. It could mean that I no longer have to enter a trance of repetitive unforbiding and melting to sort through it all. Although, I must say, I have gotten pretty damn good at it. +++fm++++fm++++fm+++....

[PhantomXD]

The stocks screen is probably one of the last screens people learn about.

For me it was the j>m>q manager screen ... that can save some math and time. At lest until I find the next missing link to an effective fortress.

[BackgroundGuy]

What I do after a siege
d -> b -> d over the entire battlefield
d -> b -> m over the same area
d -> b -> c "                       "
Now your dwarves should recover any metal objects, and dump any nonmetal objects.  This works as intended when combined with a;
atom smasher
magma dump
volcano
hell-tearing abyss

[Mitchewawa]

Here's another effective method which I use:

1. Change all of your finished good stockpiles to not include armour, headwear, leggings, gloves or hats.
2. Mass mark all clutter for reclaim and melt.
3. Your dwarfs will take all the metal stuff to your armour and weapon stockpiles, awaiting melting.
4. Your useless shit like troll-loincloths will remain on the ground. Dwarfs won't pick them up as they have no stockpile that accepts them. Mass mark all the remaining shit for dump.
5. Your metals will be taken away for melting, the other stuff will be dumped into the ocean/volcano/repeater atomsmasher

[Cellmonk]

What I do after a siege
d -> b -> d over the entire battlefield
d -> b -> m over the same area
d -> b -> c "                       "
Now your dwarves should recover any metal objects, and dump any nonmetal objects.  This works as intended when combined with a;
atom smasher
magma dump
volcano
hell-tearing abyss

I applaud your logistical prowess my friend. This thread is unearthing a lot of useful means of handling massive loads of goblinite without too much micro. I must say this one is the best I've seen so far for a magmaless fort. But I recommend waiting for your dwarrows to clear out the dropped armor of your fallen first, so that your masterwork steel helmets and axes don't get melted down too. For this its a good idea to not set items dropped by your troops to forbidden in the orders menu.