Dwarf fortress

[Player_Zero]

Any way to make stone items from a specific type of stone? Or will they just pick the nearest stone to them to make things from? I have a mix of Bauxite and Chalk doors in my fortress and I dont like the colour miss-match lol

Bauxite and chalk? Ouch. Bauxite being used for magma control and chalk being a flux stone I hate to see them used in such a way.

[Suicide Junkie]

But this is Dorf Fortress, and solutions to problems that end up creating problems that are worse than the problems that they were made to fix is par for the course!

How about a floodgate in the back of the room and a sewer systems under the hallway with grates to let the water out once the items are flushed?

That would certainly be living in style.

[Justyn]

How about a floodgate in the back of the room and a sewer systems under the hallway with grates to let the water out once the items are flushed?

That would certainly be living in style.

There would still be puddles of lava left. Something tells me you don't want to step into one of those.

[lordsigmund]

Bauxite and chalk? Ouch. Bauxite being used for magma control and chalk being a flux stone I hate to see them used in such a way.

Lol, they were the only stone I could find, managed to come across a bit of copper ore later, but that game died when all my dwarves starved. Didn't have any growable soil underground and didn't get my irrigated field up and running in time. My first hint was when all my dwarves stopped doing what they were doing to hunt for vermin lol.

Started a new one and finally, I'm at a stable state. I decided to start in a forest not a mountain for a change, built into the side of a valley near a few murky pools which I drained into a well room and found some loam near the water to plant my plump helmets.

Toying about with military now, get 3 champion dwarves out of my population of 15, no goblins yet, just a couple of kobold thieves making off with the couple of logs/stones i have still outside my fortress.

Unfortunately, I have never found lava yet, never found an iron ore, on this map I have native copper and aluminium, so I have a source of metal, but I'd like to get some iron.

On the bright side, the main stone my current place is is obsidian lol, so plenty of obsidian swords for my military.

[Artanis]

Anyone know how to clear up the clothing that gets all over the floor of the barracks when wrestlers spar? It belongs to the dwarves so you apparently can't dump it and they don't seem to want to pick it back up.

The only ways to get rid of it is to do something like flood the barracks with magma, flush it out with water, have the barracks be under an atom-smasher, etc. Even that, though, won't get rid of the stuff your dwarves toss down on their own (which happens a lot at the forges when they go to pick up new gear).

Just mass-hide the stuff and call it a day.

Bauxite and chalk? Ouch. Bauxite being used for magma control and chalk being a flux stone I hate to see them used in such a way.

As long as you don't go too overboard with bauxite, using a little here and there won't hurt too much. There's an awful lot in even one deposit of the stuff, after all. And besides, he said it had been used for doors, so it's already been turned into magma-proof pseudo-floodgates

As for chalk, it's a layer stone. If you've got chalk in your fort's area, odds are you've got a good dozen map tiles or more with almost nothing but the stuff for several z-levels. You aren't going to run out of the stuff unless you do something like dig out two or three entire z-levels' worth of stone and then flood them with magma. In the meantime, its x2 value multiplier makes it really useful for pretty much anything you want (and its white color is purty, too!).



Edit: Addendum

Unfortunately, I have never found lava yet, never found an iron ore, on this map I have native copper and aluminium, so I have a source of metal, but I'd like to get some iron.

On the bright side, the main stone my current place is is obsidian lol, so plenty of obsidian swords for my military.

Sedementary layers like chalk are good places to find iron because they can have magnetite, which is in giant deposits like bauxite is. Some exploratory mining will probably turn up a patch or two.

Obsidian generally means there's magma around somewhere, though it may be hidden (and thus you have to search for it) or outside of your embark area (and thus completely unavailable).

[lordsigmund]

Ok, fortress number 3 is looking fairly stable, I have a 2 level housing complex for 66 dwarves, a plump helmet farm/2 level food store and still making enough food and drink for my dwarves. A large legendary dining hall with obsidian (my mountain is made of obsidian lol, no magma obsidian factory needed for me) and aluminium statues keeping my dwarves happy, next to a meeting room with a well. All around my trading post on the first level down.

Under that I have a barracks with my 10 legendary wrestler champions now sparring with silver swords, and their wepons/armour store next door. And under that I have my workshops, a selection of 12 of them, some duplicated, making everything I need, with stockpiles underneath that.

Unfortunately I have an overabundance of stone. It's so bad that I have 4 20x40 stockpiles on the lower levels of my fortress dedicated to non-metal alloy stone (the metal alloy goes in a 10x10 next to my smelter). Even these havent been enough and I have had to make a similar sized one outside the front entrance to my fortress (I have a trapped tunnel leading into my valley side with a ramp down to my trading post).

WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THESE DAMN ROCKS! My stocks estimate I have upwards of 5000 of the things.

Apart from my rocks issue, I'm suffering for a severe case of "so now what?". I have a population of 72, most of which just move things, 10 military, 3 miners, 3 masons, 3 engravers, 4 planters, 1 brewer, 3 fisherdwarves, a metalcrafter/armorer and a couple of woodchoppers/carpenters are all that i really use. Plus, apart from building stuff to kit out more bedrooms from the never ending supply of immigrants, I really don't know what to do now :(

[Artanis]

Ah, two of the classic problems. Welcome to Dwarf Fortress


For the rocks, don't bother stockpiling them unless you have a specific use in mind (smelting, building, catapult ammo, etc.). You can use catapults to clear them out a bit, or you can dump them in magma, a chasm, or under a Dwarven Atom-Smasher. You can also use them towards the next solution...

What to do when you run out of things to do? Well, with only 66 Dwarves, things are going to get a bit more interesting in a bit with more immigration and nobles arriving. Once you take care of that though, I have one word for you: Megaprojects. You can build some truly ridiculous things in DF if you have the imagination and patience for it. A giant statue made of steel, a fortress that sits in the sky, a shrine to Armok topped with a fountain of magma...if you can imagine it, you can build it

[lordsigmund]

Yeah, I've been looking at some of the fortresses on the map archive and theyre so much nicer than mine lol, I just have things shoved in where I needed them, with a load of mining passages and stone piles everywhere. If I started again, I'd really need to plan a layout out. Atom smasher looks interesting, I haven't used bridges yet so not quite sure how they work.

1 question though.

How do I keep track of what all my dwarves should be set to? If I need something doing and its not being done, I grab a random dwarf and turn off all jobs except the needed one, then forget who it was lol and never turn anything back on.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Man, did I just get lucky. My last fortress had so many jems I forgot about food, but this one is perfect! I got a waterfall (which is awesome). I got more Flux than you really need! I got gems too! Man is this fortress gonna be awesome.

[Greep]

Man, did I just get lucky. My last fortress had so many jems I forgot about food, but this one is perfect! I got a waterfall (which is awesome). I got more Flux than you really need! I got gems too! Man is this fortress gonna be awesome.

Don't worry, you'll get an ambush before your first immgration or something. Dwarf fortress never fails to disappoint :)

[Bouregard]

Don't worry, you'll get an ambush before your first immgration or something. Dwarf fortress never fails to disappoint :)

My bets are on no lava, but an early siege is alwas funny for the trantrumspiral...

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Gone a year without immigrants, but so far everything's going fine. Don't quite have my defences up and running yet, so hopefully I get that done before the siege arrives. No caravans yet either...

[Suicide Junkie]

My next project is going to be some sort of sealable entrance.

Not to keep enemies out, but to keep all my precious iron from running away when the siege breaks up.

I'm thinking a reservoir of magma inside a double wall around the fortress, and some murder holes with magma pumps up above.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Having a problem diverting my stream to make a well. Ok, no, I diverted my stream fine, but it won't let me use any of my rope. It says I must have chain. I don't have any chain! Luckily I haven't actually built my well-space yet, only built a test upstream from my fortress.

I have 2 entrances to my fortress. The first one is smack-dab in the center of the map. It has a tower (in progress) and a wall (going to build a walkway along the wall) surrounding my outdoor farm, which refuses to be built, my refuse pile, and my staircase, my original entrance. The second entrance is 2 z-levels down, and is at the end of a long passage emerging into a cliff. I am currently layering traps here, and, though the cliff-face is a while from my main body of fortress, I plan to eventually grow in that direction, eventually having towers sticking out of the cliff-face. I still only have my original 7 dwarves, but I did get some merchants, so all's good. I need to get a draw-bridge set up. I have lots of pools, I can make a 5-story drop into a pool of water for the enemy to deal with, after I alternate between flinging whoever is on my bridge at my waiting soldiers and dropping the dwarven atom-smasher.

[lordsigmund]

Yeah, I was annoyed at how complicated it was to build a well. Mason workshop for the stone block, wood furnace to make charcoal for the smelter to make a metal bar and for the blacksmith's forge to make it into a metal chain, then a carpenter's workshop to make a wooden bucket and a mechanic's shop to make a mechanism and FINALLY you can make the well. For my latest fortress I decided to remove the annoying step of hunting for a source of metal ore for the chain and embarked with 1 copper bar.

[Destro_Yersul]

I've always been able to use rope for my wells...

[Justyn]

And you can always use a metal bar in place of a block, and you can make a bucket out of metal. And you can embark with charcoal... I think. Aside from the mechanism thing, you can have a well made entirely of metal. And if you have adamantine, you can even make the mechanisms out of metal.

[Destro_Yersul]

if you use a metal ore to make the mechanism, I suppose you could count that.

[Lord Herman]

Would that mean you can make a magma well?

[Connor Darkdart]

Well, yes, but this would just result in less water and more dwarves dying by burning rather than drowning.. The engravers would love that.

Also, set myself by a river because it looked like I had enough space and ended up crammed right next to the river praying to god it didn't flood before I was setup. Then guess what. Antmen. I actually had to wiki them, but they took out what little axe and wrestling defenses I had (Which was 3 normal Axemen with iron battle axes) and went on to slaughter my singular cat. Balls. I ended up Abandoning the fortress because it was a bad location and the antmen and lack of cat made it worse.

On a different subject, is there anyway to buy another starting dwarf? I'd like to have a single dwarf dedicated to the military ways, but I can't really because 5 dwarves with craft skills and one with social skills + Appraisal and Bookeping is not enough to mantain a fortress. By the first season I tend to of just finished the important parts of my fortress (read: Worshop room, stockpile, farm) so I tend not to get any immigrants.

Im wondering , is a high skill miner faster than 2 medium skill miners (Medium skil being "Miner")?

[TheSummoner]

A few things on that...

Antmen are pathetic, but yeah... in swarms they can be a pain.

Cats aren't needed... for anything. Don't take one on the embark, just wait for immigrants to bring one.

My normal starting setup is...

1 Miner
1 Woodcutter
1 Carpenter/Woodcrafter/Crossbow Maker (guy who deals with wood)
1 Mason/Engraver/Stonecrafter (guy who deals with stone)
1 Planter (full time job. I set it to only planters harvest.)
1 Brewer/Social skills (Because the guy who provides the booze is most fit to lead!)
1 Extra. (In your case, a marksman would be best. Sometimes I make him an engineer though. I say marskman because thanks your guy who deals with wood, you can get him a weapon and ammo easily)

[Destro_Yersul]

I seem to have run into a bug where a windmill ceased to produce power entirely. Any new windmills hooked to it also failed to produce power. A windmill built off by itself worked. I'm not sure if this is a bug or that spot of ground is cursed or what, but it's really annoying.

[TheSummoner]

I think areas have a set wind speed that may or may not change and is impossible to detect without hooking it up to a windmill... meaning your zone isn't windy enough and you better get working on some water wheels =P

[Greep]

Well, yes, but this would just result in less water and more dwarves dying by burning rather than drowning.. The engravers would love that.

Also, set myself by a river because it looked like I had enough space and ended up crammed right next to the river praying to god it didn't flood before I was setup. Then guess what. Antmen. I actually had to wiki them, but they took out what little axe and wrestling defenses I had (Which was 3 normal Axemen with iron battle axes) and went on to slaughter my singular cat. Balls. I ended up Abandoning the fortress because it was a bad location and the antmen and lack of cat made it worse.

On a different subject, is there anyway to buy another starting dwarf? I'd like to have a single dwarf dedicated to the military ways, but I can't really because 5 dwarves with craft skills and one with social skills + Appraisal and Bookeping is not enough to mantain a fortress. By the first season I tend to of just finished the important parts of my fortress (read: Worshop room, stockpile, farm) so I tend not to get any immigrants.

Im wondering , is a high skill miner faster than 2 medium skill miners (Medium skil being "Miner")?

No, but you can sac the anvil and bring 30 war dogs, then sac them after 2 or 3 years when you have a decent military. That should stop pretty much any ambush. Also, I've found immigration is completely independent of wealth up until after the first winter, when you get a gauranteed immigration in spring. Sometimes you get lucky and get some in summer/autumn/winter, sometimes you don't.

[Mael]

I seem to have run into a bug where a windmill ceased to produce power entirely. Any new windmills hooked to it also failed to produce power. A windmill built off by itself worked. I'm not sure if this is a bug or that spot of ground is cursed or what, but it's really annoying.

It could be that you have a heavier load on it (in terms of things you are trying to drive), than you are actually providing in power. This will cause nothing to move.

[Suicide Junkie]

I'm wondering , is a high skill miner faster than 2 medium skill miners (Medium skil being "Miner")?

Perhaps, but you will be less likely to have all your miners sleeping if you have two.

Having a single high skill miner means getting more ore out of every tile you dig. ~80% instead of ~40%

[Greep]

Not only is 1 legendary miner faster than 2 proficient ones, if you have a starting miner mine soil for a season and then rock for another season, the faster experience gain will mean he mines more rock than if he mined rock for two seasons. Actually, these days, I just have everyone have 5 mining + 5 other and mine soil for a season. Agile dwarves get workshop duty, tough dwarves eventually become military.

[Berserk Monk]

Stupid question: is this a download for free type game you can get online, or do I need to pay moneys for it? And if it's the former, please post link to where I can get it. I kind of want to play and try it out. All my friends at college play it and they say "Dwarf Fortress. It's a fortress full of dwarves, not a dwarf full of fortresses."

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Finally got that immigration. My fortress of 7 dwarves just went to a fortress of 23-24 dwarves. And had a guy stuck on my walls for a short time, before I figured out what he did. Stupid idiot. Am now boosting my farming. I also have 3 dwarves alternating between fishing and processing fish. Finally found some ore, so I made my well. All's going well! Oh god, I wrote that without thinking...

[Greep]

Stupid question: is this a download for free type game you can get online, or do I need to pay moneys for it? And if it's the former, please post link to where I can get it. I kind of want to play and try it out. All my friends at college play it and they say "Dwarf Fortress. It's a fortress full of dwarves, not a dwarf full of fortresses."

Yeah it's free, but if you have friends that play it, don't learn it by yourself, learn it by watching one of them start a game. It's absurdly complicated. And while technically you can play without the internet, you really need the wiki open while you play at all times.