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[stickman_kenobi]

I have a couple of questions, the first one is about Power.
How do I properly use a waterwheel and after that how do I attach things to it (eg. pump)
2nd question: My Dwarf soldiers have been training rather slowly how long does it normally take for a soldier to level up in a particular thing in real time (eg. dodgeing, fighting, Brutally murdering) and how would I be able to increase the speed of leveling up?

[Garath]

i'm not too great with water wheels, but i do know you need horizontal axis (N/S or E/W), vertical axis and gearboxes. As soon as an axis touches a pump and everything is operating it starts working. Link a lever to a gearbox first so you can turn the damn thing off!

for training, its been suggested that 2 soldiers training at the same time is ideal, since they wont waste too much time on demonstrations but go straight to sparring

[stickman_kenobi]

Do I start with a gearbox or axis touching the waterwheel? Does it work the same for windmills?

[Garath]

my advice is axis, but it can be either. if a gearbox touches the wheel and you disable it, the wheel disassembles
windmills are vertical and need a gearbox anyway to transfer the motion to horizontal, so i dont see a problem putting it directly on te gearbox, but again, if you disable the gearbox, the windmill disassembles

[stickman_kenobi]

can waterwheels be used on the top of brooks? mine isn't working for some reason. It says it is inactive, if that helps.

[rhesusmacabre]

I think you need to channel through the surface of the brook first.

I know, just go with it.

[MonkeyHead]

FYI - DF uses mechanical power transfer, not electrical....

[jeffreyac]

One thing I got from the wikki - you rmap will have either high wind, low wind, or no wind (causing your windmills to produce 40, 20, or 0 units of power each respectively) and there's no way to know what you have until you build a windmill. So, if you have everything right check the output before you build a ton to make sure you have wind.

I THINK the windmill will say 'active - 0 power' if you have no wind, and not say inactive, so I don't think this is what you're seeing - but I'm not real familiar with the practicalities of windmills either, so not completely sure.

[stickman_kenobi]

FYI - DF uses mechanical power transfer, not electrical....

Why thank you for your Insight.
I know this and I used electrics as a base for Dwarf Fortress "Power".
I am sorry that my use of this word has inconvenienced you.

[stickman_kenobi]

Thanks everyone, everything is working.
However...
any other ideas on training faster for soldiers?

[Delta Foxtrot]

First of all, keep in mind that military skills are a bit slower to train up than most civilian skills.

It seems to be pretty common information that having your soldiers in squads of 3 with a minimum of 2 active (and having the squad uniformly armed) throughout the year results in second fastest unexploity skill gain. Real combat gives even better gain than sparring and some people use unarmed goblins (acquired with cage traps) as fairly safe practice dummies. Some people prolong this form of combat (and thus increase the XP gained) by equipping their squads with wooden training weapons.

Danger rooms are considered an exploit by some, but they should provide an even faster skill gain than regular sparring.

This topic may provide additional information on how to better train your military, though I consider that to be fairly advanced and not at all required to gain legendary military dwarves (not to mention it's still very much work-in-progress).

[Nan]

To get a good military quickly:
1) Embark with soldiers. These should be in proficient in a weapon skill, and have a defensive skill (shield user or dodger are solid choices). For reasons I don't fully understand, having high weapon skill dramatically speeds up training, also bear this in mind when recruiting immigrants - weapon skill is valuable so don't make them learn a new type of weapon.
2) Ensure all soldiers have a civilian skill at least novice, due to the bug where each month military dwarves without a civilian skill get an unhappy thought about being relieved from duty. Woodchopping is a good choice if there's nothing more productive to do, pump operating is another solid choice.
3) Create a uniform consisting of a weapon, helmet, cloak and shield at a bare minimum. Bring supplies on embark to produce these (may as well forge steel weapons and helmets from ore+fluxstone, it's a great investment), you might also want to bring bronze-making supplies for additional armor.
4) Produce waterskins or flasks to reduce drink-breaks.
5) Ensure each soldier has his or her own bed next to the barracks and give them a dedicated food stockpile in the barracks.
6) Put soldiers in squads of 2 or 3 and don't give them any time off. They need the training.

By eliminating all distractions from training you'll have legendary military dwarves within a year or two. Even doing everything right, the exact rate of training varies quite a bit, some dwarves seem just plain more enthusiastic than others.

[stickman_kenobi]

okay, got some more questions:
1. what is coke?
2. how does a DF economy work/ how do you make one?
3. what do clothes  require, beside a clothiers workshop, to be made?
4. How I make soomething a restricted traffic way?

[Delta Foxtrot]

okay, got some more questions:
1. what is coke?
2. how does a DF economy work/ how do you make one?
3. what do clothes  require, beside a clothiers workshop, to be made?
4. How I make soomething a restricted traffic way?

1. Coke, coal, charcoal, fuel. All functionally identical, whether you get them from bituminous coal/lignite or from burning wood. They're used to power non-magma forges and are an ingredient of steel. Each forging/smelting task uses one unit of coal, while making steel requires two or four units of coal, depending whether you use magma smelters or not.

2. The economy doesn't work in this version of DF, so it's turned off by default. You used to get Dwarven economy in tandem with your baron.

3. Wool/silk/plant fiber -> thread -> cloth -> clothing. Dying is optional. Basically it doesn't require anything more than buying some rope reed cloth from the elves and have your clothier turn it into clothing at clothiers workshop. Making it yourself from the ground up will require many more dwarves and labours and workshops. Making it yourself with a legendary workforce results in higher grade clothing than you'd get if you just bought the cloth from the elves.

4. d - o - r

[proxn_punkd]

3. what do clothes  require, beside a clothiers workshop, to be made?

3. Wool/silk/plant fiber -> thread -> cloth -> clothing. Dying is optional. Basically it doesn't require anything more than buying some rope reed cloth from the elves and have your clothier turn it into clothing at clothiers workshop. Making it yourself from the ground up will require many more dwarves and labours and workshops. Making it yourself with a legendary workforce results in higher grade clothing than you'd get if you just bought the cloth from the elves.

Doing it from the ground up and including dyeing can result in masterwork masterfully-dyed dresses of masterfully-woven pig tail fiber cloth, easily worth a thousand dorfbucks a pop. And then you can decorate them further with master/master/masterwork cloth images, or masterfully inlaid gems, or... basically it can get to the point where you can buy everything you want off the elves for a dress or two.