Bay 12 Games Forum

I noticed that the 'Discipline' skill was added recently. What does it do? My soldiers are nearly Legendary in it, but does that help them in any way? It seems to me like it makes them spar during training and do their individual combat drill when not in training more. When they just started out they almost never sparred, but now that they are almost Legendary, sparring is all they do. If I'm right about how the skill makes them spar more, does anyone know how to boost it faster?

Using DwarfTherapist, the EXP gains that dwarves receive were observed. Apparently the material nor the quality of the completed item contributes to the EXP gain in any way at all. All these EXP gains are flat bonuses, regardless of any other circumstances. All items were made three times to make sure.

1. Forge Iron Spear: 60 EXP
2. Forge Copper Spear: 60 EXP
3. Forge Iron Helm: 60 EXP
4. Forge Iron Bolts: 60 EXP
5. Forge Copper Bolts: 60 EXP
6. Make Bed: 60 EXP
7. Make Barrel: 60 EXP
8. Make Door: 60 EXP

Not all items were tested, but it's safe to say that they all have the same yield. By simple mathematics, for a completely unskilled dwarf, it would take:

9 items (total) to reach Novice level
19 items (total) to reach Adequate level
30 items (total) to reach Competent level
44 items (total) to reach Skilled level
59 items (total) to reach Proficient level
...
300 items (total) to reach Legendary

The fact that all items give the same EXP means that the most cost efficient way to level up your dwarves is to keep pumping out the cheapest items (spears and flasks for metalsmith/s for example).
I hope someone out there benefits from this.

Major Vucar Rimtarshadmal was summoned by the Board of Generals, a collection of the highest-ranking commanders in the whole of the Imperial Dwarven Army.

"The enemies of our dwarven empire are both numerous and terrifying," began the commander-in-chief, "and it has come to our attention that we must establish an outpost further south for our military to protect the mainland from attacks being mounted from that direction. Major Vucar Rimtarshadmal, you are hereby tasked with establishing this much-needed outpost at once. Take four of your finest soldiers and the necessary supplies and be ready to embark by the 1st of Limestone. Your journey will take six months to be exact, arriving on 1st of Granite at your destination."

"Sire, with only five dwarves, including myself, it will be hard work to set up the outpost. Is it possible for me to take more dwarves?" Vucar pleaded. He knew it was protocol to embark with at least seven dwarves.

The generals exchanged looks and there were nods all round. The commander-in-chief spoke again, "We suppose you could take two completely useless and expendable peasants to aid you... yes, that is what you shall do. Assemble your troopers and the two peasants and be ready to embark by the 1st of Limestone. Good luck. You are dismissed."

Greetings, and welcome to my part-playthrough part-story! It is my first go at something like this, but I hope that you will enjoy it. I will post on a regular basis about how the fortress is going in a sort of story/narrative form. I don't think I'm very good at DF in general at the moment, so if you see something I should improve on, please post here! Also post here if you have a suggestion for the fortress, e.g. "Build a lava pit!" or "Build a massive vault with gold and shiny stuff inside!" etc. etc.

On embark, I will take five dwarves with military skills (Feb and the four our soldiers) as well as the two skill-less peasants. Basically, this fortress will be a military outpost, and every dwarf must be in the army (excluding those two peasants). Also, no personal bedrooms for the grunts. Private quarters only for officers and high-ranking troopers. Feel free to suggest some more restrictions/rules.

EDIT: You may notice some... erm... references to some other, non-DF stuff a little later.

+++ 1st Granite, 253 +++

After a grueling trek, the group have finally arrived at their destination. The two peasants were quite cold, as they were not fore-warned of the 'slight chill' here.



Vucar was very glad to have brought a load of logs with them, as he could see that the vegetation was indeed very sparse. He also congratulated himself on making it all the way here. Once he got over himself, Vucar immediately ordered the construction of Danglebanners to begin. He wanted all the supplies inside as quickly as possible, so they would not freeze up. More importantly, though, a place to sleep must be quickly cleared out if they were to survive until the autumn caravan that the generals promised would come with supplies and other goods. They would most like charge exorbitant prices, but what could he do about it? He set aside these thoughts for later, and put his back into working for the glory of the Empire.

Thanks for the replies!

@Flare - I like the wooden bolts/arena idea. I supppose it wouldn't really be an exploit, because it's not a glitch... And with the archery targets, I just set them up as a room, define the shooting direction and tell both squads that they can train there. They do actually go there occasionally, but not enough for some major skill increases, I'd say.

@Larix - Both of my squads are correctly attired, have proper ammunition (wooden for training, metal for combat; this part works) and now have the hunting labour disabled. When I said that I cross-trained them in the hammer skill, I meant that I gave them hammers for a little while, until they gained some skill in it, then replaced the hammers with crossbows, so they only have a crossbow as a weapon, not both a crossbow and a hammer. And about your tip about putting them on 'Inactive', I did that (and turned off all labours), but only a couple dorfs practised, and only occasionally. The rest were described as lazy in their dwarf description.

@Victor6 - I tried danger rooms, and they were too exploity for me personally. I do also have every single thing I need for my Marksdwarves (ammo, quivers, crossbows).

I was actually quite excited when a titan appeared, so that I could train up my guys, but it was felled by a (un)lucky shot to the head.  On the other hand, it was about to enter my fortress, so maybe it was a lucky shot.

Although entertainment of Amberfortune's warriors are rather... low priority, the captured goblins should be caged up and released in Amberfortune's very own colosseum, where they (and other captured prisoners) will be pitted against wild animals and beasts, to be torn apart savagely.

This fort is awesome! Posting to watch.