Dwarf fortress

[tribble]

Edit: I just found a dead cat in my quern. I guess someone was trying to make cat bread.

LOL. sigged.

EDIT: yeah! I made it through the winter! now I'm ready for some migrants. hope I get a farmer, i've eaten all the turtles in the swamps.

[Player_Zero]

Dwarves are stupid.

I instruct my dwarf to build a channel to channel the magma to my forge. It is a straight line. He digs a channel in front of him then behind him, then digs beneath his feet in order to drown himself in magma.

[TheSummoner]

Yeah... they are stupid as hell...

I never bring any animals at embark... cats and dogs are the only ones you can get from the start that are even half-way useful, and I generally get more of either than I need through migrants...

Although, I have a Giant Eagle and a Giant Desert Scorpion (not yet tamed) by the third year... and also am not subject to ambushes apparently despite having only 22 dwarves and no defences... apparently my eagle and the caravan guards will have to protect me... I'm tempted to believe the eagle could handle them alone though... and once my dungeon master arrives and I tame my scorpion, I'll be set.

[Arachu]

Yaagh, I know what you mean...

They always pick the one conceivable course of action to get themselves trapped (or someone else, quite often). For example, one dwarf is removing tiles; the next is removing the tile under the first. The only workaround I know is micromanagement (minor inconvenience, but if you're working on something it's insufferable)

[Destro_Yersul]

After about a year of constant smoothing, most of your engravers will be legendary, so it shouldn't take too long.

You underestimate the sheer scale of this labyrinth

[TheSummoner]

Just make sure not to let a single one engrave unless hes legendary... and make sure all of em are legendary so you don't have just one guy doing it all...

[Arachu]

Gah! Why didn't I think of a labryinth!? I'm so obsessed with mythology-and I didn't think of it! AH!

Incidentally, I know what I'll do for my next pet project

[Justyn]

You underestimate the sheer scale of this labyrinth

Well, by I doubt it would take much longer than 10 years. And I think you underestimate how quickly legendary dwarves work; it's like something out of Exalted.

[TheSummoner]

Ideas that would make DF an even better game:

Goblins being able to scale walls (perhaps having to construct a siege ladder out of the evil wood type next to the wall they want to scale)

Goblins being able to cross channels (perhaps having to construct bridges over them)

High level Goblin thieves being able to not only bypass, but also disarm traps. Some would be sent in before an attack to attempt to disarm your mechanical defences. They have a chance to fail, reduced at higher skill... failure results in instant detection.

Mounted dwarves... riding on war bears. (or Eagles!!!)

Add your own!

[Greep]

Well, by I doubt it would take much longer than 10 years. And I think you underestimate how quickly legendary dwarves work; it's like something out of Exalted.

Yeah it's insane. A Legendary engraver smooths over 25 times faster than a novice. I used to start with a single engraver on embark, and he'd have the entire fortress engraved so he had to engrave the exploratory mining.

Ideas that would make DF an even better game:

Goblins being able to scale walls (perhaps having to construct a siege ladder out of the evil wood type next to the wall they want to scale)

Goblins being able to cross channels (perhaps having to construct bridges over them)

High level Goblin thieves being able to not only bypass, but also disarm traps. Some would be sent in before an attack to attempt to disarm your mechanical defences. They have a chance to fail, reduced at higher skill... failure results in instant detection.

Mounted dwarves... riding on war bears. (or Eagles!!!)

Add your own!

Well that'd be awesome, but I can't wait for the army arc (it's next! whoo!) that'll allow US to siege THEM.

[Lord Herman]

LOL. sigged.

Yay, I got sigged!

Taken out of context, that's a very disturbing quote, though...

[Jimorian]

Yay, I got sigged!

Taken out of context, that's a very disturbing quote, though...

Just in general, I think Dwarf Fortress threads are the richest source of awesome out-of-context lines on the internet.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Okay I'm restarting my fort. I embarked where there were only humans, elves, and kobolds (and of course my own dwarven civ). So after a few years and a baron, I got kind bored.

Next fort looks promising. I have a sedimentary level, a magma pipe, and sand. I should be pretty much set to tackle any mandate as long as I can trade for plenty of metals that I won't find ores of.

Also a question for you guys. Does tanned leather rot? I know the raw hides will rot pretty quickly, but what about after I tan them?

[Justyn]

Okay I'm restarting my fort. I embarked where there were only humans, elves, and kobolds (and of course my own dwarven civ). So after a few years and a baron, I got kind bored.

Next fort looks promising. I have a sedimentary level, a magma pipe, and sand. I should be pretty much set to tackle any mandate as long as I can trade for plenty of metals that I won't find ores of.

Also a question for you guys. Does tanned leather rot? I know the raw hides will rot pretty quickly, but what about after I tan them?

No, leather does not rot.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Edit: Nevermind. I had trapped the dwarves with statues on accident. Thats why they were just sitting there and not drinking.

[Player_Zero]

Okay, I have a fed mooded dwarf who is a novice glassmaker, clothier and leatherworker as his highest skills. I have a clothier's shop, a leatherworks and a magma glass furnace, but he won't claim a shop. Quoi?

-Ah. He claimed a normal glass furnace when I built it... That's odd though.

"I must have raw green glass"

Sonnuva... No sand!

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Yeah I've had that happen to me before. They will want the normal version of the workshop despite you having the magma version.

[Arachu]

Started work on the roof of the chapel of death. At this point, it's designed to be able to walk out onto until I'm done with it (and its access, if any).

Also, I finally made sense of the trade menu. Good for Arachu.

[TheSummoner]

My dwarves survived the first ambush, despite being horribly unprepared for it...

The first wave was a couple of swordsmen and wrestlers... they went down without problem to the caravan guards. The second wave caused me trouble... wrestlers and bowmen. Luckily my dwarves suffered no permanant damage (a few broken bones, but those will heal). The Humans were a little less lucky, but managed to drive the goblins off without dieing... many escaped, but I got lucky...

Needless to say everything else is going on hold until I get walled in with some defences.

[Arachu]

Hee hee... I love those dumbass kobold thieves... They're such good wrestling practice when they don't get away

Huh... Maybe, just maybe, I'll survive a goblin ambush or two to show for it...

Er, that is until they bring the... Trolls...

:paranoid glance:


EDIT: "Thief! Protect the horde from skulking filth!"

*Checks kobold's inventory; finds nothing*

"Well, okay, I suppose I can let this one-"

(short grey lines glint across the screen)



I may be... Overtraining my archers a tad...

I like it

[Arachu]

Wow. I'm experiencing a dogsplosion

Guess that's why I made all of those cages


EDIT:

... One of my dwarves just gave birth in the town square...

[Justyn]

Wow. I'm experiencing a dogsplosion

Guess that's why I made all of those cages

You know that there is no upper limit on how many things can fit in the same cage, right? You can just stuff them all into the same cage to save space and cages.

[Arachu]

You know that there is no upper limit on how many things can fit in the same cage, right? You can just stuff them all into the same cage to save space and cages.

...

Er, I knew that...

[The_JJ]

Alright everyone, it's help a (relative) newbie time!

Sooo... I think I hit a pretty good starting spot. Running water, massive gold vien on the surface, that whole gig. Apperently the migrants agreed, for I recieve my first immigrants evar, after several failed fortesses, in my first season. Just after a miner died if starvation. Because he was an idiot and dug himself into the farm plot and starved.

Anyway, migrants came in, nice mix of people... and now the caravan showed up.

I need advice on:

Farming! I'd like to stay underground for this, so yeah. Advice on how to get irrigation working?
Metal working! Got the anvil from the start and a blacksmith with the migrants, so that's nice, but I've hit zero ores. Do I trade with the caravans or forget it?
Crafting in general! I got stuff, I got workshops and stockpiles, and advice on what to make/how to maximizes profits or whatever?
Trading! The caravan showed up, and I got some stuff to trade (craft goods and gold nuggets.) but the weight ratios are killing me, soo... yeah.
Exclamation points!

[Zeful]

Farming! I'd like to stay underground for this, so yeah. Advice on how to get irrigation working?

Look for the thing on reservoir irrigation.
Though you may want some small five plot farms to get yourself some tradeable booze or whatnot.

[TheSummoner]

MMmkay... For irrigation, you need to understand how pumps work... check the wiki, it explains it better than I could.

As for crafting goods, stone crafts are good early trading items They're lightweight and the elves will take them. Mechanisms are good too, but weigh more for the value and the elves wont be able to carry as many (still alot lighter than metal though) Once goblins start attacking you, their useless items will fetch you plenty of money, but don't sell the metal ones because...

You can melt them down and reuse the metal. Goblins are a good source of Iron and Steel. Even if you can't find any from mining, Goblins will provide you with plenty. Still, it never hurts to request the stuff from caravans... I sure do. Also, you're going to need fuel for your furnaces... From what you've said, it seems you're on a mountain map. There might be magma, but even if there isn't, you'll still need conventional coal to make steel... In the mountains, you likely don't have very many trees (if any) so request wood to burn into charcoal to fuel your furnaces.

And, as always, use the wiki.

[Greep]

Eh, I never irrigate, I just use soil/sand.

As for trading do NOT sell gold nuggets. With one nugget you can vastly increase it's value by smelting it and making it into something. Do that with a whole vein...

Also, buy metal bars from caravans if you're selling too many heavy things, as bars are cheap and weigh a ton.

Lastly, since you're a newby, read up on "clutter" in the wiki as you may not even realise why your workers start slowing down to molasses.

[The_JJ]

Yep, ya'll can ignore that. Wasn't planning on so many migrants so yay for mass starvation.

But... I have food in the barrels, but everyone's off chasing down vermin.

[TheSummoner]

Losing is fun!

[Destro_Yersul]

That almost happened to me early in my current fort's life. I forgot to set the farms to plant again when the season changed, and so a little way into mining and planning I realized that I had run out of food. Queue the panicked setting of every dwarf I had to fishing and hoping I managed to catch and process something before they started hunting rats. I didn't, but they managed to get it up and running shortly after that point, so starvation was narrowly averted.