Awemedinite FTW.

First fortresses are not happy things.
So far, everything is going okay. I have one sad story, however.
A while back, I tried to set up an underground well. I didn't quite realize how accurate the water pressure in this game was - I simply channeled out a path underground for a nearby river to flow into the fortress's well room. Luckily for me, the room had doors. When it flooded with water, I was a bit disappointed. Evan so, I just set the doors to stay tightly shut and didn't think about it again.
However, today, I noticed that my dwarves were starting to go in and out of the room, letting more and more water out every time. It was only 1/7 water that would come out, but fearing for the worst (as I have learned is usually best in this game), I decided to deal with the problem.
My best miner, Tulon Oddomok, was sent down to collapse a piece of ground into the underground channel and block the water flow. Realizing that this was going to be a dangerous operation, I took a moment to think. Was this really worth it? After many seconds of consideration, I decided that Tulon could probably make it out anyway, and if not, at least the flood would be blocked off. I had made plenty of ways out, so I figured all would be well.
Apparently Tulon was a bit too dense to step back into the ramp and instead leaped forward into the hole she had just dug, plummeting into the water. To make matters worse, the collapsed dirt was washed away, making the entire plan fruitless anyway. I was hoping that Tulon would survive long enough to make it up the nearest ramp and out of the water-filled tunnel, but only a few tiles from salvation, Tulon drowned. While Tulon's death was an unpleasant one, she had, in fact, fulfilled her purpose: her dead body had become lodged in the small channel and blocked the water off.
...Now I get to find another miner.

Set someone who's nice and tough to the labour, and pray like god you brought another pick.
I love how much imagination this game sparks. Reminds me of my days playing ragnarok.

Oh, so you played it too? Good times, those were.


And TLB, why didn't you simply build a wall in front of the well room's door? You wouldn't have needed to waste that miner. Also, note that your solution is only a temporary one, as bodies tend to rot and disappear when seasons change. And to block water pressure, just build non-orthogonal tunnels. Water will slowly ooze through the tunnels, instead of flooding them.

okay so. DF stuff. I can't remember if I posted it all.


My first Time playing DF. I didn't have a blacksmith, but I had an anvil. I didn't know how to build yet cause I was a noob... Kobolds stole my anvil.

My second time playing through....





My third time I did much better, I successfully built my great hall, and made it a 24 by 50 room with supports, statues engraved floors and walls, and stone chairs and tables.

My Groups name was Ducimducim ErithErithErith Erith (workedworks: the laborious laborious labors of laboring)
and my fort was called
"Rigothrigoth limarlimarlimarlimar limar" or "Craftscrafted the wealthy wealthy wealth-wealth of wealths"

I had more than 50 dwarfs, and a 45x45, 3 floor stockpile of non food non sand non furniture non ammo non bars non weapons finished goods.

I was a cheap bastard... Build trade depot. Wait for elves. disassemble trade depot. all 50+ dwarfs begin hauling to stockpile. I called it my elf stockpile. I did that for like 3 years.

I had food stores in the +1000 food +1000 drink before I got migrants, and by the end of the 2nd year I had a pile of finished glass goods.



Unfortunately I set up dwarfs to be military, gave them a baracks, gave them weapons, gave them targets to shoot at, gave them bows, arrows, and weapon racks and all that.... and all they do is walk around in the 'great hall' and sit in chairs, and never spar.





I seriously can't figure it out.... I have some craptastic storys if anyone wants to hear though, like my magic duplicating axe glitch. or my 'ice harvest' incident. or Urist Mcdorf and his fights with inanimate objects. oh yeah, and my solution to the 'corners first or inside corners' problem. OH! Or my inverted tower.

Hell yes, until you got lost in some random cave and ran out of food and got stabbed by something that made you hallucinate and fell down some chasm
I might dig it out some time.

Ontopic, I'm trying to make a 5x5 (3x3 floorspace) tower fortress at the moment. I get the sinking feeling I'm going to run out of wood very soon though, so I'll have to get a good mine going.

Orcs seem to fly around when hammerdwarfs are involved in a fight.

Do dwarves eat barrels? I'm finding myself chronicly short on barrels, even though I have a carpentor's workshop set to pump them out 24/7. I can't enlist additional workshops because I am also perpetually short on lumber. I'm trying to rectify the lumber situation now, but the point still remains. Do Dwarves eat barrels?

They stuff everything into barrels. Even things you don't want in barrels. If you're short on storage for drink or food, make stockpiles that refuse everything but one or the other and set the barrel limit max and the barrel limit for all other food stockpiles much lower, even 0. Already placed barrels will stay but new ones won't be stockpiled.

I don't think the shortage is a problem anymore, but I'm still wondering WHERE THE EFF THEY GO.

I set barrels for food stock piles. I set every stockpile for specific foods. I only have 2 foods. stockpile A: plump helmet. Stockpile 2: whatever drink is made from plump helmet.

I only use bags for 2 things. plumphelmet spawn, and sand

I only use Bins for 1 thing: Bars of stone.

I don't mess with making metal, which means I can sell my anvil for more potash, spawn, skill points, tools, and weapons.

I never bring drinks, I just make... what was it, dwarven ale? with plump helmet. I always overstock

It takes 2 5x5 plots of plump helmet set to seasonal fertilize, to support 7 dorfs indefinitely, your supplies will hover at around 100.

I make 8 5x5 plots on seasonal fert, and over-stock on drinks because drinks never spoil and apparently arent affected by vermin. it is also a valuable export.



And for another nifty trick, start in a heavily forested area, that has sand. wood + sand + various labors = glass. Glass + gem cutting = gems, a cheap resource + a valueless one + some time = absurd value. The only thing you can do to make more money without much more effort is soap, but that requires rendering fat, AND making a different kind of glass, AND making lye.... Way to much work.


if you know this game enough to use mechanisms. build a totally enclosed fort, with only ONE entrance, which is blocked by a magma-proof floodgate, that opens from the inside. then all you need is to import fat, and export soap. sand and wood are practically free, especially if you can use aquifers to get that weird under-ground tree consistantly. if you do that, you won't be able to 'lose' unless you missmanage your food production, something destroys your MAGMA-PROOF FLOODGATE, or something flat out destroys the map. I suppose if enough cats are on the surface though... it could happen.


In a side note, I finally figured out a reasonably easy way to destroy aquifers without flooding my fort! for the longest time I thought I'd need it to be higher than *some* point of the surface, or have a bottomless pit, but NO! i figured it out! if you can get the water to be 1/7, it turns into mud. if you can mine out an appropriate number of spaces, you can disintegrate a theoretically infinite amount of water. it doesn't even matter if there's stuff in the 'flooded' area.



I know, to DF Vets, none of this is new to you i think, but to anyone who hasn't played for like a year, this is good stuff, aint it?




Now I have a question.

Is it wrong that I give all my dorfs 5x5 smooth'd stone bedrooms, and my nobles/sheriff/bossy-guys 7x7 engraved stone rooms with engraved floors and a 5x5 office, even if they don't need it? I never liked giving people 2-3 space rooms, they always look like prison cells.

I tend to give my dwarves 6 space rooms (door, bed, furniture). It keeps them nicely happy and gives the masons something to do with all that stone.

@big bedrooms
Nothing wrong with that. A little bit expensive I suppose, but hey it keeps them happy. I have my original 6 dwarves (one died) in fully engraved rooms with tons of high-value items. I think they like my planning.

My lower working class dwarves get 3x1 tile rooms, bed, coffer, and cabinet. Engraved of course. Dining hall and statue rooms are intentionally tiny so my dwarves actually talk to each other.

oh, you give them coffers and cabinets, how luxurious! I never give them anything other than a high quality room, and a bed, unless they [REQUIRE] it or [MANDATE] it... I ignore [DEMAND]

also I'm not sure, do the coffer and cabinet actually do anything, or is it just an object that makes them feel better for having it?


Also I feel like a total noob, I only JUST got DwarfTherapist because of this thread and OMG! I am an idiot, I was setting labors one task at a time with 40+ dorfs. (yes I'm intentionally spelling it dorf)



Now I have another question.... I made 12 archery targets, set them all up in a row, set each one to be an archery range independent of eachother. I have 1000 arrows, 12 crossbows, and a small pile of military in a squad, all equipped with said crossbows. I set a point for them to stand around at, about 5 spaces from the targets AND arrows.... Active duty, they stand around. when I set them to off duty. ONE OF THEM fired all of 3 arrows into a target, and then walked away. other than that I've NEVER gotten them to shoot at the targets to get levels.

Is there some kind of magical trick to getting them to train? I got rid of there weapons and gave them a big baracks to spar in and they don't do that either. what's going on here?


Also I don't consider making smoothed or engraved rooms to be 'expensive' since I don't take any objects to do it, (unless there's a tile of sand or something, then I have to make a bar and make a really nice tile). I always do this because it gets all my dorfs EXPs, those delicious exps.

Maybe they're putting the barrels into other barrels.