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[MoridinUK]

I need help...

I need advice on a general strategy...

I have a lot of dwarfs and more keep coming and I can not keep them busy...
I'f tried using dwarfthearpist to control these crazy dudes but it is no use, and this is what I need advice on most..

Should I try to get dwarfs to do only what they are good at, some of them are good at nothing (so they haul I get that) but do I pick some to train up (incase the old ones die) or jsu tleaving them hauling all their life and wait for skilled migrants or children?

Secondly, should I set them to do all the jobs in their profession or just what they are good at or that plus an extra to train them up?

Thirdly should I train them to do what I want or develop the industries they are good at so they can work there!

Also how can I ensure the guys I want to train up only user the less valuable materials?

A lot I know, but my imagination loves this game but my brain is yelling at it that there is too much to learn and I really should go and finish (haha) Skyrim...

[NecroRebel]

The answer to all of your questions except the last one is "yes."

More specifically, there's no penalty for letting dwarves waste their lives as unskilled laborers, so often it's easier to just maintain one or two skilled dwarves for each profession to do what you want and just let everybody else haul. In fact, you don't even have to wait for skilled migrants; when I need somebody of a profession, I just pick somebody who either has a skill in that profession, or if no such person exists, I just pick somebody who has no skills I actually care about and let them train. If a somebody dies, I start training a replacement then; most items aren't so high-priority that an unskilled dwarf can't do them for a while. Only metalworking is an exception, and those guys are kept safe.

It's generally better to have specialists than generalists IMO. There are some labor sets that naturally group - I tend to have furnace operators also burn wood, weaponsmiths do armorsmithing, blacksmiths do metalcrafting, and bonecarvers do leatherworking, for instance - but having, say, a farmer/brewer/cook/miller/thresher/butcher/tanner is inefficient, especially since you probably have more than enough dwarves to have one or more of each of those.

It's usually easier to develop dwarves for the industries you want than to develop industries for the dwarves' skills.

For less-limited resources, I don't usually bother forcing people to skill up using lesser materials. That may be because the least-skilled worker of a given labor in my forts tend to be the most-skilled, though. Metals are basically the only exception, but it's easy to limit your unskilled metalworkers to use less-valuable metals since you define what metal they use. If you really want to do this, though, you could use burrows to keep less-skilled dwarves away from high-value stockpiles.

[MoridinUK]

Thanks for the advice.. so I should just have a few of each labour... two perhaps or maybe one or two for each workshop?

Then haul and diggers for the rest!

OK...  That I can go for...

[Fishbulb]

Once my forts get up and running, I don't like having just one of anything, because every time I let that happen I end up needing soap made right now while my high master lye maker (or whatever) has gone on break.

That said, I get antsy when I have too many of any one role as well. Two skilled lye makers? Great, good. Five of them? Sorry, guys, it's time for you to enter the dwarven reeducation program. You're wood burners now. Go burn wood.

[proxn_punkd]

It's okay to be overwhelmed. Play a little at a time. Dabble in things. Ask questions as they become relevant. Don't fret about disasters too much-- losing is fun!

[Sutremaine]

Thanks for the advice.. so I should just have a few of each labour... two perhaps or maybe one or two for each workshop?

It also depends on your playstyle. I tend to do different jobs in sequence and not all at once, so having several millers / threshers / tanners / butchers means I can keep them all busy while not sending the haulers all over the fort tending to widely-spaced industries. I do try to have a skilled tanner and butcher and a reserved workshop for them, since they're much faster than the flunkies, but this usually happens over time as one dwarf's skill pulls away from the others.

I wouldn't have a problem with five active lye makers as long as there were only enough workshops for two of them. As for the other three, well, hauling and masonry / carpentry is turned on for pretty much everybody since most of those jobs can be cancelled.

But don't worry too much about that. If you want something doing and need more dwarves, go into DT and find someone with not much skill in things you're using. The great thing about DT is no matter how sloppy you get with job assignments, it's just as easy to take the jobs away as it was to add them. With the in-game interface, not so much.

[Mushroo]

Welcome to Dwarf Fortress!

One detail I will add, there is a text file called \data\init\init.d where you can set your maximum fortress population cap. If you are feeling overwhelmed then you can start a fortress with a smaller population.

A really important point about dwarf labor: some tasks are "quality" meaning higher skill = higher value, and other tasks are not quality. For example Wood Burner and Furnace Operator do not affect the quality of the Steel Helm, only the Armorer determines its value. So as a general rule of thumb I recommend having Fewer Skilled Dwarfs for the Quality tasks.

[Garath]

I usually have at least 2 specialists for each importants skill. Important to me is any skill that influences quality, speed is less important often. For example, good quality weapons are very important, but there is hardly any skill involved in butchering an animal. Some jobs you'll want done fast, like finishing a wall before the goblins arrive. In that case having many people with masonry enabled will do the job in minutes, and you can go to your masons workshops and tell it that only people with a high skill are allowed to work there. I think its more fun to figure out some things yourself, so i'll stop myself from rambling on and on with advice

[MoridinUK]

Again, Thanks all for the advice...

I seem to have a problem in that I have not found any rich deposits of metal ore!  So my stonecrafters are making loads of good stuff (as good as they can be) to be sold to caravans but my metal workers skills are.. well not so good (except I think he just built an artefact statue (which sadly I can't figure out how to place!) So I will reserve my one metal workshop to him.. with so little metal I want the stuff produced by him... (so far I've been lucky 2 out of 3 strange moods = artefacts, only one equalled a berserk bowyer!)

Sadly my legendary woodcutter turned out to be the perfect bookkeeper.. sigh...

Is there a list of the qualitative jobs, the ones that add value for skill?  And do all the others add quantity or merely a shorter production rate for skill?

Thanks for the help! The wiki can be a bit overwhelming... and sometimes the links try to download gz files and oddities like that.

Also I've been in this fort for a few years now and no one has ever attacked (this is going to change as I somehow upset the elves when they last visited... )

@Garath, yep figuring some out for yourself is fun, but sometimes.. it's crazy! This is a near vertical learning curve if not for you guys, the lazynewbguide and the wiki!  Even with all that it's still very very steep...

[rhesusmacabre]

Is there a list of the qualitative jobs, the ones that add value for skill?

Let me see:

bowyer
carpenter
engraver
mason
trapper
cook
armorsmith
metalcrafter
metalsmith
weaponsmith
gem setter
bone carver
clothier
glassmaker
leatherworker
potter
stonecrafter
wax worker
woodcrafter
mechanic
siege engineer
building designer

Not all jobs that use these skills are quality related:

'carpenter', 'mason' and 'mechanic' are used for building walls etc. and connecting levers, so it can be useful to have lots of dwarves with these skills but restrict the workshops to all but the most skilled.
edit: some constructions (wells, maybe others) use 'mason'/'carpenter'/'metalsmith' for their quality, also.

'engraver' is only quality related for engraving not smoothing.

'trapper' is quality related for making traps, but is also applied to their use.

And do all the others add quantity or merely a shorter production rate for skill?

I think 'grower' increases quantity. I'm not sure about all the others.

[Mushroo]

Grower skill determines the "stack size" of the harvested plants (for example "plump helmet [5]" is a stack of 5 plump helmets), which has a very valuable ripple effect. If your plants are in stacks of 5 on average instead of stacks of 1 (the difference between a legendary and dabbling grower) then your brewers, millers, threshers, cooks, etc. will be 500% more productive.

Regarding your shortage of metal: If you don't have metal on the map, then your best bet is to build a smelter workshop (or better yet a magma smelter) and melt metal objects from traders and invaders: weapons, armor, toys, cages, musical instruments, etc.  I always request a bunch of anvils because they melt down to a full bar.

[proxn_punkd]

Again, Thanks all for the advice...

I seem to have a problem in that I have not found any rich deposits of metal ore!

Since .31.19-ish, Toady's tooled down the amount of metal ore, but had a "mineral scarcity" option in worldgen. When you did worldgen, did you mess with mineral scarcity at all? I usually set it to "frequent" when I'm making worlds (and often STILL end up in an embark site with no iron!), I think the default is "uncommon" or something like that.

[Iton Ibrukrithzam]

Another thing that can be useful when trying to train secondary dwarves in a skill is to designate a Manager in the (n)obles menu.  Then make two workshops of the focal type(for example, two craftsdwarf's workshops).  Then enter the building menu(q) and you can a (P)rofile for them that allows only workers of a certain skill level to use that workshop.  Set one to accept lower-skilled workers only(say, Dabbling through Master) and the other to accept the best of the best(High Master through Legendary).  Now you can use the high skilled workshop for quality-level products and the other one can be used for products where quality is either not applied or not important(with our craftsdwarf's shops, the low-skilled one would be good for rock pots or bone bolts, where the high skill one would be for things you intend to trade or for decorating items). 

[Garath]

I'll give a list too of some skills that only influence the time needed for production

wood cutting
butchery
tanning
lye, soap and potash making (not entirely sure)
wood burning
furnace operator
milling
brewing
milking
shearing
all the fish things

mining improves speed and the chances of a stone or ore appearing, so if you have too many stones, you can let some unskilled laborers dig out some rooms where there are only stones, if you dont mind the extra time, while it is advisable to only let wel trained miners dig at gems and metal ores

[Sutremaine]

Lye, soap, and potash don't have quality levels.