Dwarf Fortress III: Instant Fun : Just Add Magma

[factotum]

Just started trying this game out, and after several false starts I appear to have a reasonable fortress up and running with 25 or so occupants. However, one of them has gone into a strange mood and commandeered the craftdwarves' shop--he keeps saying he wants stone blocks and body parts. Thing is, there are bauxite, limonite and mudstone blocks aplenty in the stores right next door, and stray cat and dog body parts in the refuse pile outside, but he still isn't moving. Is that normal? Is there some specific type of stone block and animal part I have to find for him?

[Rollory]

Sometimes also they'll say stone blocks when they mean metal bars, you may need to set up a smelter and make a bar or two of copper or something. For body parts, butcher a kitten or a mule, he'll probably find whatever he wants in there.

[Rockphed]

He probably wants either horn or bones. To get horn, butcher a horse and let him grab the hooves. For bones, butcher anything at all.

Also, when they are screaming for stuff, they list EVERYTHING they want, even the stuff they already have. To see what he already has, use [t] to examine the contents of the building. He is probably using everything with TSK by it in blue.

[factotum]

The entire content of the building is one mudstone (not in use), and the dog and cat remains are from butchery so include plenty of bones. You think he might be after horn rather than bone? Oh, and there are iron bars in the stores as well!

[The Orange Zergling]

I'm pretty sure that "body parts" now encompasses shells as well, which you can get from turtles and (I think?) cave lobsters. I think the only way to get those are either to trade for them or to fish for them and both of those are rather unreliable methods.

[factotum]

I think that's part of my issue, though. Is he asking for something specific when he asks for these things? For instance, "stone blocks"--does it have to be a specific type of stone?

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Trading for turtles or cave lobster gets you the edible post butchered kind. If you want the shell, you gotta catch it yourself. So just dig an underwater cistern (doesn't matter what it is connected to). Wait for the water to stop flowing and then fish it. You'll get nothing but turtles.

[factotum]

I didn't think you had enough control over your dwarves to specify that a Fisherdwarf fishes one place in preference to another?

[Breltar]

I didn't think you had enough control over your dwarves to specify that a Fisherdwarf fishes one place in preference to another?

You can set these things called zones, there is a letter assigned to it on your menu, I believe it is i button. You place the zone and then hit the letter that corresponds to make it a fishing zone then hit enter. Your fisher dwarves will try to fish there first.

If I have a fortress next to a brook/river/stream then I usually dig a tunnel to connect a room in my fort to the water feature under the water line, then channel into the floor of the room to make a sort of underground fishing area. This keeps my fisher dwarves from being outside if a siege happens, but also lets me still fish that brook. I put a floodgate in with a lever just to be on the safe side as well, though I have never encountered any swimming enemies.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

This keeps my fisher dwarves from being outside if a siege happens, but also lets me still fish that brook. I put a floodgate in with a lever just to be on the safe side as well, though I have never encountered any swimming enemies.

Just wait till your first BUILDINGDESTROYER:2 shows up. He'll come in and take out your floodgate. Fortifications are your friend. I stick them on the intakes of all my plumbing.

[Breltar]

Just wait till your first BUILDINGDESTROYER:2 shows up. He'll come in and take out your floodgate. Fortifications are your friend. I stick them on the intakes of all my plumbing.

Well I usually build my fishing room connected to the mine entrance, which is a series of interior drawbridges that allows me to block the mines from being connected to my fortress in case I tap into a natural cavern and some rampaging gribblies come up at my fort from below. So unless the destroyer can swim, fly and destroy raised drawbridges I am safe .

If he can do that, I'm screwed anyway.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Can raised bridges be destroyed by building destroyers? What about bridges that are one level above a ramp?

[AgentPaper]

Hm, now there's an interesting defense idea. What if you had the entrance to your fortress, a raisable drawbridge, be constructed in a pit that can then be flooded with water or magma? Or better yet, both, so that if you come across something that can fly, swim, is magma-proof AND a BUILDINGDESTROYER:2, you can flood the pit with obsidian and seal yourself in until you can deal with it. Or just leave the seal, who needs caravans anyways?

[Breltar]

Or just leave the seal, who needs caravans anyways?

If you want a real challenge, shut yourself in a mountain with the pop count set to max of 10, allow yourself the first year to gather what you need from the surface, then wall yourself into the mountain.

Make sure you set the init so that your dwarves can have babies and see how long they survive and populate the underground.

I once set a fort up to be fairly self sufficient and let it run all weekend while I was busy doing other things. I would come check to make sure the alerts didn't stop it and the population had doubled from baby making.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Surviving while sealed off is easy. All you need is mud and seeds. A mist generator will pretty much guarantee that your dwarves will never get unhappy. You will only have to worry about failed moods and old age.

[factotum]

Damned strange moods are beginning to annoy me now. Couldn't get the first one what he wanted so I just built a wall around his workshop and let him go berserk and die. Not only does this mean I have a lovely miasma-generating corpse in the middle of my craft room that no-one seems inclined to move, I got a second guy going strange mood within about five minutes of knocking the wall down...and he DEFINITELY wants shells!

Seriously thinking of giving up. Building the fortress and watching the dwarves live in it is fun, but these strange moods are irritating and pointless IMHO.

[EDIT] OK, now I seriously have to say WTF? The dwarven trade caravan has arrived, so I go to transfer goods to the trade depot. What do I see in the list of items that can be transferred? TURTLE SHELL!!! So this is now the second time where I've apparently had all the required items for a strange mood and the moody dwarf has just let them lie.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

If you had shell that was pathable and not forbidden then he must have wanted something else. They will list their demands in order. So check to see what they have already using 't' to inspect the contents of the workshop. Remember, they can be picky about what kind of metal, raw glass vs rough gems, and silk vs plant cloth.

[Shpadoinkle]

You can disable artiifacts in init.txt

[Breltar]

You can disable artiifacts in init.txt

This. Makes the game so much better.

You can basically turn off/on whatever you want through the init and restrict your population if you want as well.

[factotum]

If you had shell that was pathable and not forbidden then he must have wanted something else.

He only listed shell and stone blocks, and he had nothing at all in the workshop. As I said earlier, I have stone blocks coming out of my ears because I have a mason constantly creating the things--it cleans up all that loose stone and makes the place look a lot tidier!

[Rollory]

This. Makes the game so much better.

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Foregoing legendary weaponsmiths and armorsmiths who churn out exceptional and masterpiece works every two seconds, and using slow crappy equipment instead, is BETTER? What kind of dwarf are you?

[Rollory]

He only listed shell and stone blocks, and he had nothing at all in the workshop. As I said earlier, I have stone blocks coming out of my ears because I have a mason constantly creating the things

Sometimes also they'll say stone blocks when they mean metal bars,

Have you tried this?

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Foregoing legendary weaponsmiths and armorsmiths who churn out exceptional and masterpiece works every two seconds, and using slow crappy equipment instead, is BETTER? What kind of dwarf are you?

Exactly. This is why I always have my migrants who lack a moodable skill make a single trap component or chain leggings. I get a fantastic moodable skill instead of a crap crafting skill. My mature forts tend to just sell tons of gem and glass crafts with a few bone crafting from my butcher's leftovers.

[factotum]

Have you tried this?

I had lots of iron bars as well. About the only thing I didn't have immediately available was a kitchen sink...

[Breltar]

Whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Foregoing legendary weaponsmiths and armorsmiths who churn out exceptional and masterpiece works every two seconds, and using slow crappy equipment instead, is BETTER? What kind of dwarf are you?

At the cost of dwarves and time spent doing things only to have progressed slowed/destroyed by a bug or by an item I can't obtain for them?

I can still get exceptional items, it just takes longer to build up and doesn't rely on a random chance.

Being this orderly is exceptionally dwarven.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I had lots of iron bars as well. About the only thing I didn't have immediately available was a kitchen sink...

Some dwarves are particular about what metal they use in their mood. If you have metal bars and they are still asking, check to see what kind of metal they have preference for. At least, they did in 40d. Haven't noticed any metal preference in 31.x moods. Then again, they may have had a steel preference and I forced them to use steel anyway

[Rollory]

At the cost of dwarves and time spent doing things only to have progressed slowed/destroyed by a bug or by an item I can't obtain for them?

Well the bug factor is hopefully temporary. I haven't had trouble getting items for moods since 2D days, but I haven't played 31 much yet (waiting for the military and combat to be less screwed up). And ever since my first good 3D fort got an iron spear as its first artifact, I've made a point of trying to reproduce the situation. Usually I have my making-things dwarves stack up on skills (carpentry, masonry, clothier, etc) and all the other dwarves (planter, thresher, animal training, miller, etc) get to make a copper axe or a copper helm or a bone crossbow, and then not craft anything else, just unskilled labor. Then when the mood rolls around, odds are I get something useful AND cool. And it happens over and over, because of the backlog of skill-initiated dwarves that haven't had a mood yet. In 40d at least I could pretty much guarantee I'd have tons of kickass stuff by mining out only iron ore for a long time (aside from a bit of copper here and there to do the skill initiations on new immigrants - always only as much as was needed, never left it lying around), so iron or steel would be the only things they could forge with.

A fort full of artifact weapons and armor is very dwarfy.

[TheSummoner]

I've started dabbling around with DF again... I've been trying to update a few of my mod races and in testing, I've noticed that certain creatures (including those I haven't touched) have odd titles...

"high simplicity" on a dwarf. "high quienscence" on a goblin. "first meditation" on a different goblin... Also, even titles that don't seem odd aren't capitalized "overlord" instead of "Overlord" on one of my mod races for instance. Does anyone know causes this or how to fix it?

Also, I have a few questions about the versions that have come out since I last played... Have sieges become any more interesting (any siege engines or more intelligent siegers or anything of that sort)? Is there now a way to make a race hostile without making them thieves or babysnatchers (without removing their ability to speak or whatever that method that makes them have no names is), or do I still need to give all of my mod races one type of theft or the other? Are there any critical changes I need to know about?

[Gaelbert]

I'm having my problem with farming again... I have an aboveground farm set up, 6x6 and I told my people to plant wild strawberries. It's been two or three seasons, my growers are idle, and still no progress.

[Breltar]

I'm having my problem with farming again... I have an aboveground farm set up, 6x6 and I told my people to plant wild strawberries. It's been two or three seasons, my growers are idle, and still no progress.

Do you have seeds?

What I will do is use my herbalist/plant gatherer folks and just grab any above ground natural bush I can, usually while my mason is making a floodgate for my underground farm and my miners are digging it out next to a pond or stream. This way my dwarves eat the strawberries etc, and my farmers have plenty to use to plant early one. At first your planters might not have much to go on, but after a while they will fill it up, just takes time.