Bay 12 Games Forum

1) Some items needs some time to change open/close state.
2) Levers are sending a signal to "open"/"close" a floodgate (more here), not to "switch state".
3) Try linking that lever with that floodgate again. If you can't find that floodgate in linking menu, that lever is already linked to it - you can check the connection this way.

Maybe a drawing or a screenshot of what are you trying to manage would help, too.

But even when I don't link the take pile to any other pile, it's still ignored except to add items that couldn't possibly have come from those workshops. So the problem remains.

Upload it to http://dffd.bay12games.com/ then.

Resolved, for some reason, with the farmers workshop you need both items set from a dedicated stockpile.

Thanks Aristion, although not having a dedicated stockpile meant it didn't work.

AFAIK all workshops work like that: once you link one stockpile to workshop it secretly switches to "takes only from links". So if you link, say, specialized stockpile with crude metal weapons to a smelter, it won't smelt without you first linking also stockpile with some fuel.

So why haven't those siege arrows appear in battle log? Was that because wooden ones were so weak? Or was that FB in some special position where it was unaffected by those arrows?

Autumn 1008
Just five days in autumn and there is another strange mood: Oddom the Fisherworker. She is our main Weaponsmith but her skill in smithing hasn't surpassed old knowledge of fisherworking yet (max skill level of novice)... but she goes directly for our forge and asks for a log, a stone and a metal bar. In hope for a legendary weapon I order smelting of steel axe and steel crossbow, two items immigrants brought recently in. To that, Oddom adds cheery wood log, fine ... and silty clay. I try to stop her by forbiding that clay but she still begins the construction... In the meantime dwarven caraven arrives.

Well, I should have probably rather give her that clay:

And our "wealth made" counter jumped a bit. I hope it won't cause too much attention from envying neighbourghs.

Our expedition leader finally finds time to conduct a meeting with Zefon Vodcatten (nobles in military are unable to do meetings, known bug http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=778), that guy who claims to be our "outpost liaison". He tells us something named Pinescopper was conquered by somebody called The Icy Droplets. After few more questions we found out Pinescopper was a dwarven fortres. It was located far to the east of us and governed by The Trustworthy Mechanisms. In last spring 1008 The Icy Droplets, group of elves, sieged this fort, conquered it and established new government The Trustworthy Mothers. Interesting names.

Traders also rought news about curious dark clouds gathering to the north they have seen on their way to our fort. If that means there are necromancers nearby good idea we moved most of those corpse piles inside. They used to be just next to our entrance staircase, now they are stored in midlevel of our left tower.

Zefon then shows us a list of offered items and asks what we would like them to bring next time. They do not seem to have a male polar bear or a female rhinoceros on the menu so we ask for more cheese again. Let's see how many trips with tons of cheese here and back will they need to realise we are just pulling their legs. I guess they are trying to rebuild Pinescopper elsewhere because after our cheese order they ask mostly for blocks, clothes and prepared meals. Nah, we ourselves are planning to start new forts so we need all that. See you next year and bring a lot of cheese with you *nudge**nudge**wink**wink**smile*.

Seven more migrants arrive. Mystery of why-none-wants-to-haul-those-stones is solved when I find the stockpile I was hoping them to bring those stone to is set only to Economic stones and not Other ones. =.=

With the last boulders hauled out of shooting range (and after checking that last date of transformation was 14 days ago) I order building of caged human next to that restraint there. Oddom "Bellhelps" Rithusen, the creator of our last artifact, picks the cage, hauls it around the corner ... and gives birth to a boy (which causes her to stop working on that cage, of course). So we are now, after just like a year after rereclaim, a "successful" fort and thus strong enough to be able to try to colonise new lands. But we should keep training and fortifying a bit for first.

One of speardwarves is elected a mayor. I find out one of our hammerdwarves is "very weak" so I order building of gym-pump for him. Miners find tetrahedrite vein. We can now have copper for days... with bits of silver. But we can't keep using wooden logs as fuel for furnaces for too long. If we want to start smelting all this ore we need other fuel. Either we somewhere manage to find coal ... or we will need to go down to fetch some magma.

P.S.: After I have finished autumn and wrote this log I retired the fort to visit Legends and find where that Pinescopper is so I can complete this log. I have found I can visualise where different dwarven civilizations are located in embark screen. Pinescopper lays at the southernmost tip of Tower of Sockets area, far to the east of us. One big facepalm. I was wondeing why there was just 9 dwarves in save from ptb_ptb and now I am at 50. I have thought they were just killed in the meantime when xe adventured. Well, the problem is my current group is from Tower of Sockets (~Urdimsesh). Not The Bulbous Tool (~Gubellor). So that "you are a dying civilization, get more births than deaths to success" idea got lost when I abandoned Syrupgrasping and then rereclaimed it again to fix that bug with noble screen... @_@

P.P.S.: I have tried asking at Q&A but so far no response. 

:/

P.P.P.S: That wealth created can jump up for 1M if you use that artifact trap component in a trap (and removing gets wealth back down) - it gets counted in three separate categories instead of just one that way

Okay, I'm really confused by all the comments here. Everybody is acting like not having a numpad is no big deal. Now, keep in mind, I haven't played DF since about 2013.

My concern is not about missing the +, -, *, /, etc. keys. I don't care about that at all.

It used to be the case that some menus had to be navigated using WASD, some menus had to be navigated using arrow keys, and some menus had to be navigated using 2468 on the numpad.

Is that not the case anymore? From what I recall back in 2013, having a keyboard with a numpad was basically required because certain menus in the game basically required that you have it in order to navigate the menu. Did this get changed?

IIRC I use +/- (list of objects), arrow keys (horizontal and vertical movement, other lists of objects), umkh (construction placement), wasd (archery target orientation) and page up/down (jump to previous/next page in lists with arrow keys movement), </> (up/down in 3D) and 1/3/7/9 (diagonal movement) for various movements. And that's all in "main keyboard" area, even without any key changes. No numpad needed though with numpad and key changes it may be easier to navigate various lists and issue orders to game.

But you know: this is DF. We are not really here for great graphics or easy-to-use user interfaces.

Thinking of which, that could be a useful way to keep dwarfs out of minecart routes - just set up a pair of statues, one on each end of the interdicted track.

Would using two statues (or other similar walk-blocking drive-allowing object) on each end instead of one be safer? As units can dodge to tile with statue, they could then get out of it on the other side... Would minecart then need more speed to be able to get through this double statue?

This is probably a stupid question, but if you build a horizontal axle across a carved track, will the minecart pass through it, or smash it to pieces? Less stupid question: if the latter, would the impact harm any riders?

One can imagine in some mod the rider does need to duck or xe gets hit by that axle and falls out while the minecart continues on. One could train Dodger and Observation skills this way.