Just wondering if people try to get everything operating or if theres some workshops/industries they never bother building/developing?
Will a fey dwarf ever ask for flour?
Cave spider web is easy to come by if your weaver's shop is next to a large nile-farm; plant fiber is good if you don't want to brew the plant for drinks instead.
Personally I use ropereed cloth which the elves bring mostly.
What I never bother building is the crossbow workshop, you can make a wooden or a bone crossbow, while by the tyme I'm considering archers I'd already have hit iron (and steel)
I also prefer diversity. After all, the dwarves have all their preferences and so on, so having various things available raises the chances of happy thoughts that keep them productive.
And I agree about the bowyer. It is a said thing, but its usefulness is rather limited making it really a big question whether to build it or not.
Deathworks
Personally, I like to build the mill because then I can dye clothes. Again, this is my hope of causing happy thought for my dwarves.
You are not even fishing besides not doing trade? Wow, that's a different approach indeed O.o .
quote:
I also never build a mill, and have taken to not fishing or building a fishery. Since I also don't like nobles making mandates I limit trade to not get the broker. If I have things I can trade that won't increase my exported goods then I will trade the caravan for fish stuff to keep my dwarves happy.
I usually go without a mill as well, seeing as I don't typically dye cloth. When you are making 100+ units of clothing a year, any attempt to dye even a small amount of it is inadequate.
But no fishing? Abundant easy to get food that also supplies bones and shells = nice.
And although I don't like nobles either, I mean who does like the little bastards, you can always give nobles "special" rooms with indoor plumbing to deal with them if (when) their demands get ridiculous.
"Bookkeeper demands 5/5 Star Sapphire items"
Pull Lever.
[ August 03, 2007: Message edited by: Darkchampion ]
quote:
Originally posted by Haedrian:
<STRONG>Everything has its good or bad points.Cave spider web is easy to come by if your weaver's shop is next to a large nile-farm; plant fiber is good if you don't want to brew the plant for drinks instead.
Personally I use ropereed cloth which the elves bring mostly.
What I never bother building is the crossbow workshop, you can make a wooden or a bone crossbow, while by the tyme I'm considering archers I'd already have hit iron (and steel)</STRONG>
This is interesting.
As I nearly always now start with a bowyer and have him crank out 3 or 4 bows during the starting year or two after he has made the 1st set of beds a few barrels and few bins. If I manage to get lots of bone I'll build them out of that, but the majority of the time I go ahead and make them with wood and carve the bones into bolts at a craft dwarf shop.
That way I have arms for my dwarves when attacked in the early years.
I have farmers who I cross train into marksdwarves over that first winter. they are not planting, so I draft them, they pick up the crossbows and then when told to stand down spend all winter training up thier skill firing at archery targets.
Besides that, having a few crossbows around has dramatically increased my immigration of marksdwarves who bring thier own iron crossbows, bolts and even armor sometimes. I like having military show up before I can get my metal industry started. More protection from the creatures found when digging deeper. creatures
I seem to avoid the glass making workshops. Maybe its because i've never gotten past year 4 or so in any fortress. But other than a few failed attempts at the kiln to collect sand I've given up. If I ever get any-one to make bags I've started using them to process the quarry bushes...
The ashery is infrequent for me too. But I am planning a fortress soon that will try to concentrate on fertilizing the farms. Just to see what that is like.
Why? Because dwarfs in odd moods want the damnedest things. I once had a Carpenter blinking his ! at me for half a season before I realized he didn't want a carpenter's workshop, he wanted a bowyer's workshop. :roll: Usually the bowyer's shop just sits empty, but what the heck? It only takes 1 stone and 9 spaces, which is a small price to pay if you think of it as insurance. Once you have all the bed, bins and barrels you need, or you simply run out of wood and are waiting for more trees to grow, the carpenters are just lazing around anyway. Having one making bone crossbows as a trade good doesn't hurt anything.
Other shops that don't get much use:
*The engineering workshop -- I'm not that keen on siege engines, and I've never seen this workshop used in a strange mood, but occasionally I get a noble with a fetish for catapult parts.
*The mill -- I only run it in the winter, when the farmers aren't busy anyway. I keep a stockpile for appropriate plants nearby. Mainly this is to use up the dimple cups my herbalists bring in, otherwise you can get hundreds of those things. A little sugar and flour is good too though. Some dwarfs have a preference for sugar or flour, and eating their favorite foods makes them happy.
*The dyer's shop -- Another shop that only runs in winter, to use up the dimple dye made by the mill. Dimple dye isn't all that valuable to sell, and if you sell it you lose the bags it was stored in too. Besides, if I'm not going to have nudist dwarfs, I might as well give them some pretensions of fashion.
The ashery -- Almost completely useless. A 13*13-1 farm area easily produces enough food for hundreds of dwarfs without fertilizer, so there is no reason to fertilizer, especially if you have to waste wood to do it. Soap is even less useful than fertilizer. I only use this for making small amounts potash for pearl ash, so I can make a couple lumps of raw crystal glass and clear glass (for moods) and to have on hand in case some noble wants fancy glass items.
Alchemist's workshop -- Since the alchemist's workshop seems to be the single most useless workshop in all creation, I don't build it until after I have magma glassworks and magma kilns up and running. I don't need soap. I don't need the Alchemist noble. Really I only build this one for the sake of completeness.
Edit: scratch that, cause arrows are too hard to come by. Bolts are easy enough, crank em out at a fort, come back as an adventurer.
[ August 04, 2007: Message edited by: herrbdog ]
quote:
Originally posted by herrbdog:
<STRONG>Edit: scratch that, cause arrows are too hard to come by. Bolts are easy enough, crank em out at a fort, come back as an adventurer.</STRONG>
Try taking out a kobold fortress, I had some with 3 ELITE bowmen in it...
Make sure you take a lot of 'friends' with you and be sure to use sneak... or you die very quickly.
I mean really, those AI fortresses are next to useless in adv mode, why would you go back there anyway? Same with the blasted treehuggers. Burn them all I say. Humans and [insert custom civ here] FTW!
BTW most of this info is taken from stuff I read off the forums, but I remember having seen artifacts in old fortresses in adv mode, so I know they can be there. Shame it was a bed and a chest.
Edit: stupid little copy paste mistake corrected.
[ August 12, 2007: Message edited by: Greiger ]