Bay 12 Games Forum

Does it ever rain there? That should clean it up.

Of course, if this is a desert it might not get much rain. But you've got a brook, so you should be able to create some flooding which should help wash it away.

    Keith

Its a dual biome desert/plains in a hot environment. The desert has never seen any rain yet. The plains have seen rain two or three times in the 16 years that have passed so far.

Other than the rain, this was just about the perfect embark spot though. Plenty of iron/platinum with flux stone, the plains had full dense grass (for my grazers before I moved them underground), a regular migration of rhino's for my hunters which gives plenty of food, and the lack of trees over my fortress (the first few layers found only in the desert) prevented any collapsing fun.

I think you underestimate how much vomit there is!



95% of that is vomit (some of the green squares on the second image are olives, but only a few).

It will never be cleaned up. My fortress floor is now and forever vomit.

Personally I find the best way to start is to make a 3x10 long entrance into whatever rock formation you have, then make a triple staircase going down. Fill this entrence with cage traps. Now you are pretty much siedge protected for the first 2 years and you don't have to worry about your military while you get everything else in order.

At this point, make yourself a few crafting rooms (including plenty of stills!), a farm, a dining room, and some bedrooms. This should take you 1-2 years as you learn to get it down.

Everything else can wait until you have a successful fortress using just those things. Once those are well established and your farm/still are producing more food/booze than you use, then you can worry about a military or hospital, or pets or whatever have you.

I would just change the job cancellation orders to 'none'. It still announces when a job is suspended so everything important is noted.

0. First up what kind of weapons are you using? Silver is the best* material that can be used for blunt weapons (maces, hammers) however it is the *worst* material you can use for edged weapons (swords, axes). If you have silver swords or axes melt them down and give your dwarves some proper iron (or even better- steel) weaponry.

2. Press v>g and hover over a dwarf. This will list the dwarves skills which include military skills. Look at the levels, so if you have someone who is a "Proficient speardwarf, Adequate shield user, Adept fighter. etc." then he is moderately trained and good to fight your ambush. If the skills are all novice then obviously this guy is a fresh recruit and should be treated with care. If they are all Legendary then this dwarf (properly clad in armor) might be able to take an entire goblin squad by himself/herself. 

*Best normally obtainable without hacking and/or moods.

I am currently recovering my fortress after a siege nearly wiped it out, and slowly rebuilding my military. I was checking in on the progress and I noticed that all the dwarves seem to be missing some pieces of their armor and all of them seem to not be wearing any helmets at all. I checked the armor stockpile and there are plenty of all missing types of armor. In the equipment screen I have them set to wear armor made of specific material (so have them wear steel helmets and iron breastplates and so on) to ensure they have the best quality I can give them.

Why are they not equipping the available armor?

Just curious: How many dwarves do you have and how much food/drink do you tend to stockpile? I myself am running around 220 dwarves and I try to maintain at least 5000 of each (though I have like 10,000 food for no good reason).