Bay 12 Games Forum

I would expect your export value being reported as being 0 (known bug, fixed in upcoming .06). This, in turn, causes the humans not to arrive. I worked around that by adding the "missing" standard criteria for elves to humans in entity_default.txt, [PROGRESS_TRIGGER_*]. The next summer they arrived. Note that you'll have to modify the version in the save, not the standard one. The current condition says the export has to be such and such large, while the missing ones says that the population has to be at least 20, and the third one says the value generated by the fortress has to be above some limit. Meeting any of these conditions will allow the caravan to arrive (you still have to be in range, of course, you they were pre embark).

Thanks, I will try that.

It's a good tip though about limonite--are they really that cheap at 12 points?  I thought the iron ores are around 25?

Which is why I usually just settle for malachite + cassiterite if it's available.  10 of each gives me 80 bronze bars, and around 10 for serrated disc first 2 caravan trading.  I don't usually rely on caravan after the first 2 trades--unless there is no iron/flux in my embark region.

Are there any tips if someone wants to pursue tavern / library / temple building game?

No, all iron ores cost 24 points and for the most part identical with the exception of one thing----limonite is lighter than the other two and easier to carry. The point of bringing iron ore is that on maps without iron, it will take the dwarven caravan 3 to 4 years to bringing 20 iron ore while you can bringing 20+ iron ore at embark easily. Remember, yeah bronze producing ores are cheaper and easier to carry, but at the end of the day they will stay at bronze. Iron ores will eventually turn into steel.

Embarking with a copper pick provides that early weapon just in case.  So it is much of a gamble to make a copper pick from raw ores. 

Serrated discs are ok for trading, but it will not trade steel.  Gather plants, disable select plants and booze from cooking, and you can make lavish meals that will trade for more.

It is pretty much for first and possibly second year trading. By third year, lavish meal should be the main export of the fort.

Quote from: FantasticDorf on January 28, 2016, 09:14:30 am

He must have been made of mean stuff to dive that deep without being dead, any idea what he was wearing? It might have slowed down the rate of how he burned (If you want to make more magmanauts for reference)

You might actually be able to survive for a short while IRL because of the Leidenfrost effect, assuming you can avoid the convection at the surface. The part I question is if you could even sink in liquid rock if you tried. That and the obvious not being able to see through it.

If you've fallen in magma in adv mode, you'd see that it actually takes quite a while to die even while not falling. The cause of death used to be blood loss before pulping was implemented. I don't know if you die any more quickly now.

You probably can't sink into magma without a lot of effort (you know, if you can actually survive the stuff), considering magma has a density more than twice of water and your body is about the same density as water.

Anyways, I love the training spear danger rooms and I don't build any forts without it. However, once a while I would accidentally draft a married female dwarf into the military. Babies and dangerous room doesn't mix well.

First year trading:

Wooden spike ball, as mentioned, are worth a lot, but your carpenter may be busy with other stuff in the first year, like making essential items for dwarves to settle in. Here is my approach:

1. Bring as many limonite ore as possible (they are worthless on maps with iron, but if the map doesn't have iron, you just brought a lot of iron bar for 6 points each)
2. Bring 4 flux stone
3. Bring a few bituminous coal (they are stupidly cheap)
3. Make a wood furnace and smelter in the spring while your miners dig out the initial rooms. Use do it now command to first make a char coal, then make coke twice (you now have 17 bars of coke), then make 2 pig iron bar and then 2 steel bar. You now have 4 steel bars and spring is just about over.
4. In the summer, after the miner dig out your workshops, make 4 steel large serrated disc or steel spike ball. They are worth the same thing.
5. By the time fall rolls around, trade the steel traps to caravan for pretty much anything you want. (four of them and however many mugs you can make should give you between 20000 to 30000 db worth of stuff to trade to the first caravan)
6. smelt two more limonite ore to get 8 bars of iron while your miners go look for flux stone.
7. Make as many steel disc as needed for the human and dwarf caravans in the next year. (The first elven caravan typically bring very little stuff and the mugs you made in the winter and miscellaneous prepared food should be sufficient)

In the embark screen, don't bring any stepladder or crutches, etc. Those can be made on site with very little effort.
The default bags cost 20 points each while there are plenty of bags available costing only 10 points each.
No need to bring any axes, just bring a single log. After you arrived, use the flux stone I mentioned to quickly make a carpenter's work shop and make a wooden train axe. The wooden axe will work just as well as metal ones.
Remember each dwarf only consume 2 food per season. No need to bring too much food unless you are embarking in a really weird place. (As a result, it is better to bring plump helmet seeds and a piece of 2 point meat instead of one plump helmet)
In the newer version, it is better to embark with some of the scholar skills since those are harder to train. Of course, you should also bring the standard 1 token medic dwarf with diagnosis.
I like to bring two cats just to get rid of vermin. You can pasture your cats at the food stockpile to better protect it.
For the rest of the points, bring as many iron ores as possible.

Edit: To be honest, if you want to min-max for material, it is better to do the wagon disassemble and pick forging route. However, bring some of the already made stuff save time, which is also plenty valuable. You will find your miner's time to be pretty valuable in the first year. Another example, you can make your wood burner travel quite a bit and burn a lot of wood for charcoal. Or you can bring a few pieces of bituminous coal and get 9 coke each time.

Dear Urists of Oiledcity,
Why the fuck did you not go up the stairs for a year?
I needed trees cut, everything was open, and there were designated woodcutters.
Why? Just why?
-Overseer

Two possible things (well, three actually)

1. All axes are occupied (unlikely)
2. The tree is designated at the trunk level instead of at the root. Remove the designation and designated it at the root.
3. Wood cutting has a really really low priority (lower than hauling), disable all labors of said wood cutting (including hauling). I like to have my wood cutter trained a bit as a axedwarf and endlessly do two things (cutting trees, just to spite the elves) and gather plants endlessly. (Gather plant has a really high priority, disable it when you want him to cut trees).

I was one of those who was finding stress horribly broken prior to DF 0.40.18.

It seems fine to me now, though. I still get buzzards, keas and were beast attacks and I'm not drowing in red arrows. I would even accept it being pushed back a little harder from now.

Dwarves with vulnerability to stress trait (viewable from dwarf therapist) seems to be particularly bad regarding to stress.

As for giant keas/buzzards, well, just have to build a completely roofed off fort, underground pasture and have military stationed in the front gate at all time, eventually you will kill enough of them that they won't show up anymore.