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Trick #1: Forge-your-own bismuth bronze
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Any other sneaky tips and tricks to abuse your embark screen as much as possible?
Pre-EmbarkI tried this myself once, and for some reason, my first wagon was totally indestructible. It simply would NOT be broken down into logs.
Bring tons of crap
Don't unload anything
Abandon
Re-embark
You now have everything that was in your previous caravan(s).
I'm a fan of the double or even triple or quadruple embark. 7 masons (or metalcrafters, or miners, or skill for whatever I want to build) a small ammount of food/drink then rest for raw meterials (blocks, etc). Make sure none of them die, or bury/memorialize them if they do...or it's ghosts for future embarks that you can't do anything about.I was talking with someone today who mentioned he was going to try embarking, leaving all the materials he brings with him there, and now that historical figures come back to subsequent forts, embark with dwarves that have good/useful skills built up so that, on reclaim, they'll come back as migrants, instead of 15 animal caretakers and their 45 children.
If you played earlier versions, you knew that having at least novice appraisal was absolutely necessary to see the prices in a trade depot. Not anymore. Drop it like it's hot.I don't get it, you still can't see prices if broker is not appraiser, and while single bargain is enough to fix that, I haven't seen high level traders in a while. Grower, appraiser and some military skills are the only ones I always take at the embark.
Most of these tricks were used by experienced players but I doubt they make embark easier.True...it'll take a little time. But the advantages of decking out your military dwarves with a lot of bars' worth of *equipment* by halfway through the first month shouldn't be understated. Unless you're overrun from the moment your wagon lands, you should have time to produce your stuff...and in a marginally-terrible case, you could bring one pick and dig a little hidey-hole to work in peace (haul bars and wood, build a hatch).
And they definitely keep occupied a couple of dwarfs that could do more important things if you embark in hostile environment.
I don't get it, you still can't see prices if broker is not appraiser, and while single bargain is enough to fix that, I haven't seen high level traders in a while. Grower, appraiser and some military skills are the only ones I always take at the embark.Huh, I can still see prices without any appraiser at all. Weird. I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that was the case...I'll double check tomorrow.
If you embark with a woodcutter for fuel, then you can bring Bismunthinite, Copper Nuggets, and Cassiterite, which costs 1, 4 (two copper needed), and 2 respectively, for a total material value of 7.That sounded neat so I tested out those values. And while they may have material values of x1, x2 and x2, stones themselves have a base value of 3 (compared to 5 for bars). A bismuthinite stone costs 3, malachite costs 6 (I couldn't get native copper for some reason), and cassiterite costs 6. That's 3+6+6+6 or 21 for the stone, and 3+3+3+3 (ore->bars) +3 (bars->bismuth bronze) or 15 for the fuel, for a total of 36 dwarfbucks. Compared to 43 dwarfbucks for the bar form that IS a savings of seven dwarfbucks per four bars, but it'll take more fiddly micromanagement: You need to burn five fuel and smelt four bars pronto, so you can forge that axe and start getting more fuel. It's going to eat up an awful lot of time too, since you will need to keep your wood burner and smelter on the job for 4x longer. I could see it being worthwhile in some cases if you can spare four dwarves; burn, smelt, chop, and haul logs... With the values so close, I'm not sure it's really worth it most of the time, especially if you need to start your woodcutter off with skill points you'd otherwise spend elsewhere.
I'm a fan of the double or even triple or quadruple embark. 7 masons (or metalcrafters, or miners, or skill for whatever I want to build) a small ammount of food/drink then rest for raw meterials (blocks, etc). Make sure none of them die, or bury/memorialize them if they do...or it's ghosts for future embarks that you can't do anything about.I was talking with someone today who mentioned he was going to try embarking, leaving all the materials he brings with him there, and now that historical figures come back to subsequent forts, embark with dwarves that have good/useful skills built up so that, on reclaim, they'll come back as migrants, instead of 15 animal caretakers and their 45 children.
When you factor in fuel, below, each bismuth bronze bar costs a little less than 11 embark points.
the 45 children that are good for nothing.I'm a fan of the double or even triple or quadruple embark. 7 masons (or metalcrafters, or miners, or skill for whatever I want to build) a small ammount of food/drink then rest for raw meterials (blocks, etc). Make sure none of them die, or bury/memorialize them if they do...or it's ghosts for future embarks that you can't do anything about.I was talking with someone today who mentioned he was going to try embarking, leaving all the materials he brings with him there, and now that historical figures come back to subsequent forts, embark with dwarves that have good/useful skills built up so that, on reclaim, they'll come back as migrants, instead of 15 animal caretakers and their 45 children.
Whats wrong with 15 packmules?
Trick #1: Forge-your-own bismuth bronzePersonally, I prefer just making all my dwarves (except my miners) woodcutters and giving them wooden training axes (made from the wood of the dismantled caravan and from chopped-down trees, so completely free). Five starting dwarves plus any migrants in the first few waves will make VERY quick work of any tree-felling that needs doing, and (even if you bring wood along) at a MUCH cheaper cost than making metal axes, regardless of what metal that is. Later on those training axes can be replaced by metal axes so my dwarves have something semi-useful to protect themselves with if they get caught by a goblin ambush or something, but initially the wood axe will do so why waste the metal? Would be a different story if embarking in an evil biome where survival is an issue from the very start, but for areas that aren't immediately filled with things that want to kill you (where you'd have the time to forge weapons and armour), I don't see much point in wasting embark points on metal for woodcutters' axes.
- Don't bring ANY metal tools except an anvil.
- Bring N tin, N bismuth, and 2N copper bars. You're going to be making a lot of bismuth bronze in a hurry. Those all cost 10 each, while one bar of bronze costs 25. Four assorted bars + 1 fuel = four bismuth bronze, what a steal! When you factor in fuel, below, each bismuth bronze bar costs a little less than 11 embark points.
- Bring a ton of wood. You'll use it as your sole fuel source early on and you want to start burning it ASAP. A cost of 3 and a little time gives you charcoal, much cheaper than the 10 that fuel normally costs.
- Burn five logs, and you have 4 bismuth bronze and the fuel to make your initial 2 picks + 2 axes for the low low price of 55 dwarfbucks in total. Pretty good considering that a single pick is normally, like...44 embark points. If you brought a proficient weaponsmith, they are probably *tools*, which makes a massive difference if your workers get jumped by anything.
- I can usually spare enough points to make, oh, 28 bars. Two picks for miners, two axes for woodcutters, and eight bars each for a squad of three military dwarves: That's a pretty damn good start! Right from the very beginning, they each get a *quality* weapon, shield, breastplate, and greaves. You can cover the rest with leather if you want.
Trick #3: Leather and wood goodsWhich brings us onto this...by the time you've cleared the forest and goblins start coming, you should have had enough time to dig out a little underground forest which would be goblin-free, thus no need to station military outside to cover suicidal woodcutters because they can chop down trees from the safety of within the depths of their own fortress.
- Seriously guys. Bring that wood. The less time you spend chopping it down, the more time you spend building your early fortress. Also, you'll be wishing you brought more wood when your wilderness gets mostly depleted and you have to station your military outside to cover your woodcutters from goblin attacks.
Trick #2: Cheap boozeNope. Alcohol doesn't have quality modifiers (that's another common misconception because dwarves have a thought about how they 'had a fine drink lately' or whatever the wording is) and they don't care where it came from. Each dwarf has a preference for one type of booze, and drinking this will give the dwarf a happy thought. If a booze they don't have a preference for is the only thing they've got, they won't get a happy thought from drinking it (even if it's made by a legendary brewer) and then after having it a certain number of times in a row (I forget exactly, but it's around five times) they start getting an unhappy thought about having to drink the same old booze.
I think I heard that dwarves prefer homemade booze, too.
I don't get it, you still can't see prices if broker is not appraiser, and while single bargain is enough to fix that, I haven't seen high level traders in a while. Grower, appraiser and some military skills are the only ones I always take at the embark.Novice appraisal is all you need to see the prices and any dwarf will get that when they initiate trading at the depot once the first caravan comes along. You don't need a high appraisal level for any reason, and do you have much need to see item value before the first caravan arrives? It may be nice to have but it's not really essential.
Yes, you can use stone pots for booze.
the 45 children that are good for nothing.I'm a fan of the double or even triple or quadruple embark. 7 masons (or metalcrafters, or miners, or skill for whatever I want to build) a small ammount of food/drink then rest for raw meterials (blocks, etc). Make sure none of them die, or bury/memorialize them if they do...or it's ghosts for future embarks that you can't do anything about.I was talking with someone today who mentioned he was going to try embarking, leaving all the materials he brings with him there, and now that historical figures come back to subsequent forts, embark with dwarves that have good/useful skills built up so that, on reclaim, they'll come back as migrants, instead of 15 animal caretakers and their 45 children.
Whats wrong with 15 packmules?
dwarves with ambusher as highest skill come full geared for hunting and early skirmish (they had a full leather set on df2010, never checked recently) this was known for a long time
I don't think you can see them without a broker with appraisal skill, but i've found after only one trade, your broker's skill goes to adequate, so just do an insignificant trade, like some rock for a log or something silly as your first trade, and then (in theory, this is how it worked for me anyway) after exiting the screen and getting the stuff you actually want to trade to the depot, when you trade again you should be able to see the values!I don't get it, you still can't see prices if broker is not appraiser, and while single bargain is enough to fix that, I haven't seen high level traders in a while. Grower, appraiser and some military skills are the only ones I always take at the embark.Huh, I can still see prices without any appraiser at all. Weird. I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that was the case...I'll double check tomorrow.
Mod the world to give you 10,000 embark points.
*cough*
[...]Similarly, it's pretty painful to see only steel anvils at embark. Why spend 300pts when you can get iron anvils for a third of that price?
Stating the obvious, the embark screen shows the availiable trade goods according to your chosen civ. I will abandon and re-embark with a different civ if I dont like the availiable trade goods. I dont need black diamonds, but I feel cheated if I wont be getting lignite or bituminous coal from my mother civilization.
Pre-EmbarkI tried this myself once, and for some reason, my first wagon was totally indestructible. It simply would NOT be broken down into logs.
Bring tons of crap
Don't unload anything
Abandon
Re-embark
You now have everything that was in your previous caravan(s).
Also, I've heard that if you do the Double-Embark exploit, you can't bring any booze in your 1st-year load (it'll completely evaporate or something).
the 45 children that are good for nothing.I'm a fan of the double or even triple or quadruple embark. 7 masons (or metalcrafters, or miners, or skill for whatever I want to build) a small ammount of food/drink then rest for raw meterials (blocks, etc). Make sure none of them die, or bury/memorialize them if they do...or it's ghosts for future embarks that you can't do anything about.I was talking with someone today who mentioned he was going to try embarking, leaving all the materials he brings with him there, and now that historical figures come back to subsequent forts, embark with dwarves that have good/useful skills built up so that, on reclaim, they'll come back as migrants, instead of 15 animal caretakers and their 45 children.
Whats wrong with 15 packmules?
45 live subjects to test !!DWARVEN SCIENCE!! on!
For those who didn't understand the reason for bismuth bronze, I don't either.It's largely important only if you expect combat early on (which can be a very real possibility depending on your embark). The difference between copper and bronze is largely irrelevant for tools, as a (copper pick) is every bit as effective as a *steel pick*, but when it comes to weapons & armor, why settle for copper when all you need for bronze is to burn 1 extra unit of wood per 4 bars of metal?
Trick #1: Forge-your-own bismuth bronzeI must disagree
- Bring a ton of wood. You'll use it as your sole fuel source early on and you want to start burning it ASAP. A cost of 3 and a little time gives you charcoal, much cheaper than the 10 that fuel normally costs.
You are aware that the thread had long since expired?
You are aware that the thread had long since expired?it is always better to revive threads corresponding to a question then having 100 thread all speaking of the same thing, and then when someone will search the forums (there are few i know but should be encouraged) people can find more information and less clutter.
Except for the fact that the first 3 pages of the thread are outdated.You are aware that the thread had long since expired?it is always better to revive threads corresponding to a question then having 100 thread all speaking of the same thing, and then when someone will search the forums (there are few i know but should be encouraged) people can find more information and less clutter.