Anyone play Dwarf Fortress?

[LostTemplar]

Win in DF is a state of the fort, when it seems ideal for the player, not like surviving for 30 (or 300) years or conquering the hell.

Btw I like small, minimalist, military only forts (when you produce a bare minimum, ideally only furniture, coffins and slabs, anything else is traded from caravans with raw goblinite used as currency).

[buzzkill]

I have enough dwarves now that I'm thinking about specializing, reducing the number of jack of all trades and limiting skilled dwarves to just one or two jobs (in addition to routine jobs like mining and hauling).

My mason has achieved a (100) skill in masonry. It seems that everything he produces now is a masterwork. Is this normal?

Is there a Dwarf Therapist type tool to manage my military squad(s)? Since I've had my first encounter with hostiles, I've found that military is every bit as confusing, maybe more so, as the managing the labor force. The fact that these groups overlap doesn't help any.

[T-Mick]

In a way, that tool is already in the game, as the military schedule. You'd best read the wiki to figure than one out. I'm not sure, but therapist may have a military manager already built in, too.

Also, you might want to forbid hauling and mining for your skilled workers. Hauling doesn't have a skill level associated with it, so you'd best make your peasants and cheesemakers do it. Lord knows the legendary mason charged with building the emergency keep-the-trolls-and-goblins-out wall will decide that moving those socks is more important right now. Or maybe that's what therapist is for...

[LostTemplar]

My mason has achieved a (100) skill in masonry. It seems that everything he produces now is a masterwork. Is this normal?

Skills are limited at 20 without mods, so you are using some mods, I assume it is normal then.

[buzzkill]

Skills are limited at 20 without mods, so you are using some mods, I assume it is normal then.

Don't know too much about it. 100 is the Dwarf Therapist rating, on a scale of 1-100 (I think). Maybe that's different form DF's internal number. No mods that I know of except for the tileset.

Anyhow, concerning the military. Individual choice, weapon? I assume that means that Urist McSuicidey will choose a weapon of his liking? I've been wrong with my assumptions before. Right now I'm forgoing self determination and giving each militia member a crossbow and a spear (and a shield). Those are the only real weapon I currently have, having not discovered metals or produced and leather yet. I figure half a dozen poorly equipped, unskilled dwarves should still be able to kill a lone kobold. The last one got away, but I was quite pleased with the effort my little men put in chasing it to the edge of the screen.

I also have no clue how to interact with trade caravans. I've assigned a broker, but have I've zero dwarves with the appraisal skill, so my broker lacks that. The first carven came and something occurred, I'm not sure what. The second caravan came and went without any trade occurring. I've got loads of useless cut gems and some top notch masonry. I need to trade.

Outdoor farming... says I need mud? I take it that means I need to do some irrigation, but it scares the hell out of me.

Fishing... All the water I see is "stagnant water". I assume that's no good for fishing. What do the numbers mean? All water was "7", now mostly "7"and some "6". I've come to realize that I started well above ground level, atop a mountain or something. Maybe that's part of the problem.

[Derakon]

Build a depot, and remember to make certain it's accessible by the edge of the map (there's a command to check caravan accessibility). Ideally you want a 3-tile-wide path that uses ramps instead of stairs, so that the traders can bring wagons; otherwise, they'll show up with pack animals instead, which can't carry as much stuff.

Then you haul your valuable goods to the depot, send your trader there, and exchange goods.

[LostTemplar]

Don't know too much about it. 100 is the Dwarf Therapist rating, on a scale of 1-100 (I think). Maybe that's different form DF's internal number. No mods that I know of except for the tileset.

Anyway best possible dwarf can produce

☼ Masterful ☼ 29.1%
≡ Exceptional ≡ 63.4%
* Superior * 4.5%
+ Finely-crafted + 1.3%
- Well-crafted - 1.1%
Standard 0.3%

Never 100% masterwork. It also takes more then 1000 jobs to acquire such skill.

[Mondkalb]

Any farming only needs soil ground; if you don't have soil you have to make some muddy ground by covering rock floor with 1/7 water an let it evaporate.

Usually you will have soil ground outside. Try to place a farming plot and make it a bit larger with the umkh keys. Some spots may be not farmable due to rocks or such, but on any green X you see in you plot designation your dwarfs will bie able to plant.

Fishing in pools is some sort of game of chance. Fish, turtles, mussels and such are some sort of vermin which may or may not appear in ponds. You will get a lot of messages about nothing to catch in the southern swamps or so, but eventually you should get lucky. Remember that you will need a fishery to process any fish or crustacea.

Trading is a bit tricky, best watch some youtube videos and read the wiki article.
The appraiser skill is not vital for trading (in fact, any dwarf can trade), but you will only see prices if the trading dwarf has any appraiser skill. You can do some simple exchanges (i. e. trade a simple crafted toy or such with a tree log) to let the dwarf get some experience. He will finally get the appraiser skill, I'm not sure though how long it takes. You might have to wait for another caravan to see it.
The traders will expect some considerable profit or they won't trade and might even leave feeling insulted.

[bio_hazard]

Fishing... All the water I see is "stagnant water". I assume that's no good for fishing. What do the numbers mean? All water was "7", now mostly "7"and some "6". I've come to realize that I started well above ground level, atop a mountain or something. Maybe that's part of the problem.

The numbers are the depth of the liquid (out of 7). If I remember right dwarves will wade through 3 but get knocked off their feet at 4. I'm a noob and haven't played for maybe 2 releases but I remember it wasn't too bad to tunnel or channel into small pond for irrigation. Say you have a 4 tile pond filled to 7/7. If you breach the pond you just need ~24 tiles of new territory for the water to go to get a 1/7 layer, at which point it evaporates into mud. If you've pre-dug, even if your miner gets swooshed away by the water, he won't be over his head for very long since the water will spread out quickly.

The occilation between 6 and 7 is simulating the water actually sloshing around in the basin

[buzzkill]

Never 100% masterwork. It also takes more then 1000 jobs to acquire such skill.

OK. He's 100% suitable to be a mason. DT analyzes suitability for every role for you (don't know if DF does this). He is actually a she, and she is a Level 18 Mason, Legendary +3. She went a little crazy some time ago and produced an artifact (grate cover, geez). Perhaps that along with my endless list of tasks (if I could figure a way to make beds out of stone I would) gave her a leg up on the competition because she is by far my most skilled dwarf, and that includes the miners.

[LostTemplar]

Oh, well, making artifact adds experience worth "legendary" sill to what it were before so it seems right. Beds sadly can be only made from wood. Most other furniture can be also glass, metal or stone.

Good way to use skilled mason will be to make stone mugs for sale.

[buzzkill]

My latest dilemma. I've built a hive box in a workshop and then issued a 'building' command to place it out side in proximity to a honeybee hive. I went off to do other things and when I remembered about it and went back to look for it, it wasn't there (and neither was the beehive). It's still around somewhere, because it shows hive (1) in the 'building' sub-menu. How can I find it.

Also, I've got more stone than I know what to do with. Should I just keep building stockpiles for it? Seems like a catch-22.

Also, how deep do I need to go before I get some type of metal bearing ore, or at the very least a hard stone that will hold an edge.

FYI, I do look up tons of stuff on the wiki while I play. At the end of the day, if I still have lingering questions I ask them here. It's just easier. Learning this game is a bit too much like work. Thanks for all the help.

[T-Mick]

Well, obviously, you need to have bees. If you have no bees, you can't keep bees. Also, you'll need to make a bee hive. You can make them out of metal or stone, and I thing also glass and clay. Then, you'll need a dwarf with beekeeping enabled. This is the most likely problem.

Good luck.

[Mondkalb]

If the hive has been built it would show up in the (R)ooms menu. (Probabliy at the end of the list) Type R, navigate to the hive and press t to zoom to where it has been built.

Beekeeping is somewhat bugged. Sometimes beekeepers try to acquire a hive from an abandoned wild hive and get stuck in the process until the empty hive is destroyed.
Generally it is recommended to activate the labor only on one dwarf.

[LostTemplar]

1) Bees are awesome. It is hardest way in DF to get food and drink, so if you can feed at least some dwarves with mead and royal jelly you are the best.
1a) Oh, and don't forget to sell that masterwork wax crafts in exchange for native gold and platinum, untill all your map is covered with masterfully designed gold roads and platinum bridges. Fortress is not good without millions wealth in architecture.

2) Stone stockpiles suck a lot, remove all of them except a very small one near mason's shop (assign 3 weelbarrows to it). Ignore extra stones or use paving, e.g. build stone floor in recently mined out areas.

3) As for metal ores, you dont need any except goblinite. Kill goblins, melt thier weapon/armor. Also order exotic ores from dwarven caravan (e.g. tin and bismuth, I like bismuth bronze weapons).

If you find good ore nice, but don't count on it. You will find something when mining, but it is big chance, that your map has no iron (or any metal you really want) at all.

Beekeeping is somewhat bugged. Sometimes beekeepers try to acquire a hive from an abandoned wild hive and get stuck in the process until the empty hive is destroyed.
Generally it is recommended to activate the labor only on one dwarf.

I have a lot of beekeeping, it is nice, wild hives are bugged but it have a workaround, at first activate beekeeping for one dwarf, collect wild hives, when add more beekeepers, while artificial hives are running well (I have about 1/4 of hives with harvest disabled), dwarves never ever go for a wild hives anymore. The only tricky thing is to use jelly for cooking.