Bay 12 Games Forum

I've always had FPS issues, so every fort I try new things so I can play longer before having to abandon.  In reading the forums, I came across a theory that due to the way items are created in DF in list-form, even when they are destroyed/consumed/traded, they still exist in memory and eventually everything becomes bogged down.  I *always* use stonecrafting to create trade fodder because it can be done as soon as you embark and it gets rid of unsightly (in my opinion) stone.  So I decided in my new fort that I wouldn't use stonecrafting.  In fact, why trade at all?  I had magnetite and flux stone.  The only thing I trade for is gypsum powder.  I've noticed that my FPS has stayed up around 100 indefinitely (I'm at least 15 years into my fortress, which is probably 4-5 years longer than any other fort I've ever had).  Here are the things I've done differently in this fortress:

• No Stone crafts
• Minimal Trading
• I use the manager for ALL crafting

I'm still creating lots of items just for general use in the fortress.  I would expect that I would have started experiencing FPS death by now, just from creating barrels and bins and arms and armor, etc.  If it were just a simple matter of number of items created, then it should be going downhill by now, but it isn't.  Could the exclusive use of the manager for jobs have anything to do with it?  I have no theories, just wanted to put this out there.

So how do I get to adamantine that is surrounded by magma, other than by tunneling down through it?  Magma casting?  Pump out ALL the magma?  What other options am I missing?

Is there a labor I need to designate to prevent animals from starving to death?  Am I relying too much on plump helmets for food, so there's nothing the animals will eat?  Is an animals diet specified in the raws?