Bay 12 Games Forum

My exported wealth is at around 320k. My imported wealth at around 209k. That figures seem about right to me, still not a single visitor so far. But maybe there are many different issues causing that. Or I just need to to be a little more patient. Who knows.

Any new expierences about how to to attract visitors so far? Or is it just luck?

I got a fortress running for something over three years now and had not a single visitor either.

The trading caravans of human, elves and dwarves appear just fine regularly and leave with profit. The goblins are probably dead, there was no invasion so far. Also there is no hint about them in the Civilization/World Info, while there are multiple entries shown for Dwarves, Elves and Human. (Correction: Goblins are very likely alive as indicated by a human diplomat.) But I had a wereshrew incident early on. And two or three times a forgotten beast appeared. Oh, and the elves started mocking recently, because I felled too many trees.

My fort was appointed to barony and has a wealth of about 2m. Currently there are 109 dwarves.

There exists a tavern since the very beginning altough I moved it to a bigger room later on. The data is:

Boxes/Bags: 36
Goblets: 20
Instruments: 3 (to be increased soon)
Rented Rooms (Total): 0 (12) - The rooms are equipped with the same stuff as the regular rooms for my dwarves (smoothed, engraved, a bed, door, chest and cabinet). Another twelve are prepared, but not assigned yet.
Dance Floor 12x18
1 Tavern Keeper and 4 Performers are assigned. My dwarves get happy thoughts from watching performances regularly.
80 Thrones and Tables

The tavern is also defined as Dining Hall. Can this be a problem? Also the wiki says something about a booze stockpile within the tavern, but only related to tavern keepers and has a verify token added. Can this be an issue regarding attracting visitors as well, when there is none directly within the tavern?

Screenshot of Tavern (the dwarves inside some of the unassigned beds are own dwarves too lazy to walk to the bedroom floor).


I do also have a library, currently filled with following:

Bookcases: 29
Written Objects: 35 (mainly imported or copies) - But also a few written from the dwarves themselves.
Boxes/Bags: 9
Writing Material: 32
Tables: 40
Chairs: 40
Scholars: 10
Scribes: 4

Finally I freshly set up a Temple assigned to no specific deity. It is currently lacking any instruments and performers. But it has a dance floor of 27x23. Dwarves started praying there.

All three locations are set to All Visitors Welcome.

I am grateful for any tipps.

Yeah, searching will definitely help. Or at least when all those things are sorted either alphabetically or some other logical way in that stockpile menu. Just take Finished Goods/Type for example. Somewhere in the middle of the first page there is Armor, Footwear, Headwear, Handwear. Then there is pack of other random entries and at the beginning of the next page there is legwear. Why is it seperated? And it's even worse when you are looking for specific entries in the folders for animals, leather, wood, gems, Other Stone, ...

@Halnoth: Many thx for your comprehensive response.

Now I set up a new skill grid in Dwarf Therapist and added those 18 academic skills plus the other 5 (Writer, Wordsmith, etc.) for a quick overview. Good to know. :-)

So to sum up, I have to assign the most skilled dwarfs related to the 18 academic skills to the library as scholars and hope for the best?

What does it mean when a dwarf has some pretty good academic skills (like Level 10), but 0 in writing, wordsmith, student, speaker, and teacher. Will he be unable to neither write books nor to teach others? Or will he learn how to teach and write on the fly?

Does it make sense to assign good teachers/writers/wordsmiths/etc. to the library without a single academic skill? And what about dwarfs with neither academic nor teaching/writing/student/etc. skills at all?

Thx for writing your experience down in this topic. But I fear, I have some more questions. Maybe you can help me out.

1) Which are those fourteen academic skills, you mentioned? Are those related to the skills mentionend here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Skill ? So when I have got a legendary mechanic and assign him as scholar, he is more likely to write high quality Engineering Scrolls and Quires? At the embark screen I can see Critical Thinker, Logician, Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist, Geographer, Optics Engineer, Fluid Engineer. Probably those are 8 of the 12. Do they effect anything else beside the quality of their writings?

2) How the topics mentioned here are related to the skills? http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Topic  Are they chosen randomly? Or is this another package of various skills additonal to the 12 a.m. academic skills? And the higher those are, the more likely they write a book about a specific topic?

3) Where can I see the relevant academic and topic skills in Dwarf Therapist? I can find Student/Teacher in the Social Tab and different values for those in the Military Tab. Am I missing something or aren't they implemented yet?

4) Do you assign Scholars and Scribes to the library as "Full-Time-Job"? Or do they have other jobs assigned as well like Mechanics, Carpenter, etc.?

I am pretty confused regarding setting up stockpiles for the new materials used in the paper industry. Some items like Paper and Parchment are clear, others like slurry aren't stored at all and stick within the quern forever and some are connected to I don't really know which item in the stockpile menu. Maybe some of you can help me clear the confusion.

So when I want to set up stockpiles for each of those materials, what are the correct settings?

Paper => Sheet / Paper   
Parchment => Sheet / Parchment
book => Finished Goods / Codices   

slurry => no menu, bugged (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=9378)
         
unclear:
         
scrolls written
scrolls empty
scroll rollers
book binding
bookcase
quire written
quire empty

Thx a lot for your lengthy reply and clarifying the status of the project. One time addicted to Dwarf Fortress, always addicted to Dwarf Fortress I guess. 

All the best to you and your family. Take your time to sort things out. :-)

Many thx for your lenghty answers. As always very interesting. :-)

I was curious, with the new groups like bands and similar how big of a problem will loyalty cascades be? If my fortress is invaded by someone who is in a band with one of my dwarves, will i have to deal with my dwarf once i have killed off the invaders?

When someone, let's say an elf, is in a band of your dwarves, how is this elf able to invade your fort? Isn't he supposed to be already in your tavern and play all day long? But I guess interesting will be to see, how this said elf is reacting, when his whole family is besieging you, because you tried to sell them some wooden chairs. Will he stay loyal to his band and attack his own family or the opposite way round? Or does that elf try to stay neutral and doesn't do anything at all?