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« on: April 04, 2013, 01:49:21 am »
note: I do not cover how to generate a world here.
not: I was sloppy with the case when writing this, and may not have fixed all such errors.. most shortcut keys are case-sensitive. most need to be lowercase.
Group 1: the all-important navigation keys.
1. ESC: The safest key to press of them all.
2. Arrow keys, +/-: Some menus are navigated by arrow keys. some menus are navigated with +/-. some menus, annoyingly, require both. the map is navigated with arrow keys.
3. <, >: up and down a z-level, respectively.
4. Space: pause.
5. enter: ...self-explanatory. I hope.
group 2: look commands and variations. most look commands open up additional menus.
1. k: loo(k): standard look command, use +/- and enter to get more info.
2. v: (V)iew a creature. Opens additional commands for creatures under your control. press z and enter for even more detail. see group4 for more.
3. q: (Q)uery a building. opens up additional options to que up the creation of goods in an existing building. opens up destroy/suspend/unsuspend options.
4. t: Things in a building. Displays the contents of a structure, along with the materials used to make the building in the first place. Opens up destroy/suspend/unsuspend options.
5. z. stock(Z). take a look at the fort's overall supply status.
6. n (Nobles): check up on the status of the "most important" dwarves.
7. m: (m)illitary
group 3: getting your dwarves to actually DO stuff. the following is merely a list of the most urgent tasks.
1. Digging:
(d)esignate, (d)ig, enter, enter. You can create a rectangle for your dwarves to dig out. or you can mouse-paint, but I prefer rectangles.
Designate, c(h)annel: digs a downward ramp. ramps cannot be used as switchbacks.
designate, Up(/)down sta(i)rcase. Using seperate up and down staircases will cause you problems if you don't position them exactly.
d, (s)mooth: d, (e)ngrave: technically, this is not urgent, but a single, dedicated engraver will do wonders for your fort in the long run.
2. Important buildings: feeding dwarves.
(b)uildings, farm (p)lot: must be Queried after construction. requires soil or mud to build. Resize with h, k, m(n?), u. make a 5x5, even though 3x3 is enough. Grow plump helmets or strawberries at first.
Buildings, (w)orkshops, Stil(l): turns plants into drink and seeds.
B, W, kitchen(z)-WARNING: destroys seeds. keep your eye on the kitchen tab of stok(z) when ordering up a lavish meal.
3. Important buildings: essential comforts.
B, W, (c)arpenter's shop: only way to make beds. requires wood....
d, (t)rees to chop wood.
B, w, (m)asons shop. query it to make doors, tables, and chairs.
now to place the funiture:
(b)uild: (d)oor, (b)ed, (t)able, (c)hair.
NOTE: these often need to be quereid after being built before your dwarves will use them correctly.
4. essential comforts: expanded.
beds, tables, chairs, and doors, after they are placed, generally need to be Queried to get the most out of them.
(b)eds,
On being (q)ueried, need to be turned into a (r)oom. use + to increase the size, and thus the quality, before hitting enter. A dwarf will then come along and claim it as a bedroom, and receive one of the biggest happiness boosts in-game if it's a high-quality room. However, if you're short on wood, then after hitting r, turn it into a dormitory so that any dwarf can use it, along with other beds nearby.
Price of neglecting: dwarves will take naps in the worst possible place if you neglect this, and UristMcDrenchedSleeper will throw a tantrum at the worst possible moment.
Massive, overlapping rooms, coupled with a single engraver, are the fastest way to a happy fortress.
(c)hairs, also known as thrones.
chairs turn into office/throne (r)ooms. Most, but not all, nobles need an office. you do not need an office for every single dwarf.
(t)ables: here's where things get...weird.
you'll want to turn some table-chair pairs into dining (r)ooms explicitly, but you'll want to leave other table-chair pairs outside of the dining room designation.
dining hall designations must not overlap: if they do, dwarves will perceive them as part of a single dining room, and so will only let one dwarf use it at a time.
it gets worse: some dwarves refuse to use a designated dining room, and only use un-designated table-chair pairs, or only un-designated chairs. leave some of those scattered around the fort; at least you can minimize complaints about "lack of chairs".
I recommend at least one really good dining hall every 20-25 dwarves.
(d)oors: doors can be locked. They are not a perfect defense, but even things that can smash doors will be slowed down if there are enough doors in their way, and lock-pickers are generally small and more likely to run than fight.
(phew!)
5. Other important stuff, that just happens to not be "urgent".
b, w, c(r)aftshop.
Query it up, add a task, go under rocks, and hit "large pot". then, set the task to repeat.
brewing needs this. These will help prevent food spoilage. And unlike barrels, you can give these to elves if you manage to do the almost-impossible and wind up with too many empty pots.
b, w, mechanics [(t)echnology] shop. mechanisms are used in everything from traps, to dwarfputers, to emergency-lockdown levers. to top it all off, they are worth twice as much as doors/tables/chairs of the same quality, so chalk mechanisms are sometimes worth making just to sell.
b, trade (D)epot: capital D. NOTE: you may need to enable the architecture labor on a dwarf: (v)iew, (l)abor, navigate to other, finally toggle architecture.
If you do not get it fully set up before the first caravan actually arrives, you can still trade with them, but the wagons, with their obscene capacity, will go away.
b, w...then build one of everything...just in case a dwarf wants one for a mood.
cages: build them at a carpenters workshop out of wood, or metal at a metalshop if you're short on wood but have metal to spare. usefull for cage traps, or for animal controll.
Stock(p)iles (from the main menu): your first stockpiles should be: 1. a refuse pile, located outside. 2. a food stockpile. 3. transition from a single food stockpile to four food stockpiles, accepting prepared meals, OR drink, OR seeds, OR everything else, but only one of those categories per stockpile.
do NOT try to stockpile every stone in the fort
zones, zon(i)ng: includes dumps, animal pens....
