DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / What happens next?
« on: May 28, 2008, 02:33:00 am »I have food, booze and fairly ready access to water. I have a tower built upon the exit from my fortress and have quarrels but not crossbows to shoot from the tower at potential invaders. In lieu of actual soldiers, however, I have plenty of wardogs and stone-drop traps in place to keep any potential menaces at bay.
All this to say, things are going fairly well, but I'm not quite sure what to do next. When I don't have an obvious goal in sight, I tend to lose interest and so my fortress has been put on the back burner the last few days. So I'm looking for a bit of insight or advice on what to do next so that I can get to work, if for no other reason than that I could hurry up and lose.
I have a few ideas for what to do next, but no idea on how to go about making them happen. For instance, I'd like to start some sort of production that would let me make finer clothes for my peasants, but I don't know how to get the seeds I'd need to start a cloth-plant farm.
I probably have around 30 dwarves now and I no longer feel I can successfully micromanage them effectively. Can someone point me to an article on dwarf wiki about effectively managing larger fortresses?
I know I need metals and coal so that I can start getting an armorsmith smithing, but I'm not sure about the best way to go about that? Just dig down and start tunneling? How do I avoid tunnel collapse? Is there a good rule to know when a room is too large? Do I have to worry about stacking multiple unsupported rooms on top of each other? ie. hallow out 2 30x30 rooms on top of each other would make them more prone to collapse? Is there a good pattern to use to find minerals/ores while digging?
What are some standard goals to strive for after achieving the basic food/housing goals?