Dwarf Fortress

[Shiroikage]

MIIIIIIGRAAAAAAANTS

[greatandfoolish]

have you ever played a scenario where you got migrants from the very first season change? it sucks playing through a years worth before seeing any other dwarfs

[Shiroikage]

About the first 2 waves of migrants are the only welcome waves for me usually.
I don't usually see any until Summer->Fall, but if I get any from Spring->Summer it's usually 2-4.

[Shiroikage]

and they are usually soapmakers, lye makers, potash makers, or peasants

[greatandfoolish]

i make my peasants get naked and wrestle in the barracks

[Shiroikage]

Peasants usually become administrators or get drafted into the militia in my games.

[Shiroikage]

first 100% useless migrant becomes bookkeeper, 2nd becomes manager, 3rd becomes arsenal dwarf

of course by the time you need an arsenal dwarf, you have a lot more than 3 useless migrants

[#686578]

It's like you and I are playing two different games (maybe because we are? idk). I played the same game for a few hours and never had any problems that I could see. The only problems I had was I always felt like everything was cluttered, but if I could get over that I wouldnt have any problems at all. That and actually finding things for people to do. Those useless peasants and stuff I just dont know what to do with and they dont seem to do anything and I cant seem to make them do anything so I have idlers, but I guess that's only as big a problem as I make it out to be just as the clutter is.

And I cant figure out how to do the whole trading thing, but then I wouldnt be able to profit from it if I knew how to anyway because I dont really have any goal.

[#686578]

P.s. Miss you Lin, havent seen you on in a while.

[greatandfoolish]

when you start a fortress do you plan it out carefully or just play

i like to start with two miners a hunter a logger an herbalist a farmer and a fisher

[#686578]

Is there a way to choose what you start with? I always just went to create game and then it would start generating the world and I picked a timeline and that was that.

[#686578]

I plan my actual fort very carefully. I start out with most of my resources and shops up top while I have my miners digging. It usually ends up being a bit of time before I can move my operations downward but that's because I'm planning very carefully what goes where how far it is from somewhere else so that they shouldnt have to travel far.

Dig into a mountain side for primary entrance into the dorf fort for easy defense (though I've never been attacked by anything) then hollow that out enough for a trade depot (even though I dont know how to use it), then I start digging down to the next level and start carefully planning from there. Usually start with barracks/bedrooms, then a food storage closely near a kitchen + still which is right by the dining room/meeting hall. The food storage room will actually be far away from my initial central staircase because I have stairs going from my food storage to the surface that has a walled farm far away from any hills. I do a similar strategy for wood cutting and the lumber storage + those other workshops.

I honestly just dont know the role of a lot of workshops and stuff so I'm constantly like "well wtf do I do now?" I plan out things very carefully with scalability in mind so I guess I'm constantly just doing shit for the hell of it. I'm always self sufficient, never low on supplies, and sometimes I just let the dorfs all go idle because I want to see what they'll do on their own.

[Shiroikage]

when you start a fortress do you plan it out carefully or just play

i like to start with two miners a hunter a logger an herbalist a farmer and a fisher

I change up my starting build a bit each time I play and adapt it to the map. For example, I gave some people some military skills and took a couple of copper weapons along and threw away pig tails/spawn and other seeds when I did a haunted biome so that we would be able to respond to the undead more quickly and effectively. I also took 4 war dogs which was a waste of points because they were all immediately killed by a skeletal alligator.

I usually start with two miners, a trader/expedition leader (judge of intent, negotiator, appraiser, etc.), a herbalist/grower, a grower/brewer/cook, a mason/mechanic, and a woodcutter/carpenter/axedwarf. I bias the herbalist more towards growing because I generally have a very strong growing operation going (3 farmers or so) and skilled growers are a huge multiplier on the produce that gets made. I change skills up somewhat and when I do a volcano map, I'm going to probably bias it towards metal use. If I feel like it, I will tailor everyone's professions based on what their profiles are. In normal maps, I use the woodcutter or miners to defend against the odd goblin because they both carry weapons but I do not train militia until I have dedicated soldiers because of the current bugs with the military system.

I now take no animals along. I hate animals and I'll get them with migrants anyways. Generally I take ale, beer, and rum because you'll get wine from brewing plump helmets. If I'm on a map that isn't a clusterfuck, I will take some pig tail seeds for sure so that I can get cloth, and will take some of the other seeds so that I will be able to make other alcohol and foods. Dimple cups are useless for anything besides making dye. I do not usually bring bags or cloth along because I can manufacture it easily enough as long as I have pig tails. I also bring along a couple units of fuel to prime the smelters as soon as I hit bituminous coal or lignite. This skips having to give someone the wood burning labour and then building a wood furnace to make charcoal. Spare points usually go to propping up skills or bringing along a greater variety of food to keep dwarves happy.

[Shiroikage]

Maybe someday I will post pictures of one of my forts if anyone cares about how I plan them even though I'm not very good at the game.

[Shiroikage]

Is there a way to choose what you start with? I always just went to create game and then it would start generating the world and I picked a timeline and that was that.

You can set worldgen parameters.

[Shiroikage]

I don't usually bother with a dorm because I can get bedrooms up very quickly with two dedicated miners.

[Shiroikage]

Barracks are completely fucked in 0.31.03 (not sure about .04) so those aren't even a consideration until I'm ready for a military.

[Shiroikage]

It's like you and I are playing two different games (maybe because we are? idk). I played the same game for a few hours and never had any problems that I could see. The only problems I had was I always felt like everything was cluttered, but if I could get over that I wouldnt have any problems at all. That and actually finding things for people to do. Those useless peasants and stuff I just dont know what to do with and they dont seem to do anything and I cant seem to make them do anything so I have idlers, but I guess that's only as big a problem as I make it out to be just as the clutter is.

And I cant figure out how to do the whole trading thing, but then I wouldnt be able to profit from it if I knew how to anyway because I dont really have any goal.

You need to designate a broker to trade. When caravans show up at your depot, you go set which goods you want moved to the depot at the depot and then request that the trader goes to the depot. Dwarves show up in autumn, Elves show up in spring, humans show up in summer, and I have never ever seen a goblin caravan although it is apparently possible.

[Shiroikage]

It's like you and I are playing two different games (maybe because we are? idk). I played the same game for a few hours and never had any problems that I could see. The only problems I had was I always felt like everything was cluttered, but if I could get over that I wouldnt have any problems at all. That and actually finding things for people to do. Those useless peasants and stuff I just dont know what to do with and they dont seem to do anything and I cant seem to make them do anything so I have idlers, but I guess that's only as big a problem as I make it out to be just as the clutter is.

And I cant figure out how to do the whole trading thing, but then I wouldnt be able to profit from it if I knew how to anyway because I dont really have any goal.

Labours can be set using by viewing units, but for everything besides mining and carpentry (which are bugged in dwarf therapist because for it to be properly triggered by therapist, the dwarf must already be holding an axe or a pick) I use dwarf therapist.

[#686578]

Maybe I'm generating the world on easy mode or something then