Bay 12 Games Forum

First, the basics:
- Every dwarf needs their own bedroom (dormitories don't cut it)
- Make some rock mugs or metal goblets (they get annoyed drinking out of the barrel)
- If you have a BUNCH of outside plant gathering, hauling or hunting, a lot of them hate getting rained on -- the sun's too bright, it makes them puke etc.

Got those bases covered? Then we move on to two extremely helpful things, one easy and one hard:

1. Temples - at the very least, a single "no deity specified" temple can go a long way in staving off depression.

2. Mist generator (or waterfall) - this is the closest thing I've ever seen to dwarven antidepressants. Those filthy little bastards LOVE them some mist! Here's a guide:
https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Mist

In the olden days (v. 47.xx), I used to dig a channel from a brook or river into my fort, let it plummet beside (or right through the middle of) the main staircase, then a couple levels below that, dig a drainage tunnel to the edge of the map. For some reason, water + fortifications + edge of map = infinite drainage. I'm NOT sure that'll work in v. 50.xx -- I've seen people use entire cavern levels for drainage...

Couple other things:

3. Once you have that main non-denominational temple, you're VERY likely going to need temples for each specific deity your crew prays to.

4. Do you have a tavern? If YES, do you have performers in the tavern? A dancer, singer and musician + instrument = lots of good thoughts. I've never used bartenders in my taverns, though -- read too many horror stories of death by alcohol poisoning (apparently, possible even for dwarfs!)

5. MAYBE your dwarfs are overworked? I picked up this tip from Kruggsmash -- once a year, for like 4-5 weeks, turn off ALL labors and restrict everyone to the bedrooms/meeting areas/tavern/dining room levels. It forces them to take it easy, socialize, pray, just generally chillax.

Accidentally started a fort as the *other* playable race... The proud outpost Padtrumpet numbers among its citizens banshees, ghouls, a wraith and a maw thrall child which might be tamed wildlife? Dwarf Therapist isn't sure. I'm a little concerned about properly outfitting my morphologically diverse populace.

ALSO it's SUPER FUN to see so many ores and have absolutely no idea what they're good for... there's a real sense of discovery and wonder here. WELL DONE!

Ezar Sokan, "The Solider of Phrases"... A Wombat bone Battle Axe. Wombat bone. Worth 28,080 at least, but right into the vault with that and I see no reason for it to ever come back out.

For a good time, assign this legendary weapon to your hammerer.

Okay, so the whole rotgut/narcolepsy thing turned out to be a problem after all... I lost about a dozen citizens who passed out in the main entrance and fell onto weapon traps. Lesson learned!

I just witnessed an absolutely epic battle with a wyvern. Managed to get nearly everyone safely underground, closed the gates, and watched in awe as two full squads of experienced crossbow dwarves hit it with about 700 rocktip, bone, and copper bolts. Nearly every shot "glanced away" though they knocked off two of its toe-claws. So I deployed my Plan B: two captured deamon invaders and five large horses, all sprung from cages simultaneously. The first deamon stepped into a weapon trap and disembowelled himself. The second deamon managed to land two or three solid hits before the wyvern ripped it apart. Unfortunately, the crossbow squaddies massacred the large horses before they could do much more than panic.

Well, now the wyvern's at least slightly injured, surely some of the crossbow bolts will surely strike home? Like Bard's Black Arrow taking down Smaug, right? Well, another 250 or so bolts smacked into the wyvern -- only now instead of "glanced away" they're "fracturing the skin." (Meanwhile the manager's down in the metalworks screaming at the weaponsmiths, "Steel bolts! Lots, thousands, right now!")

The wyvern laid waste to our alpaca pens and survived the hundreds of "fracturing the skin," sort of like papercuts I guess? Eventually I gave up and sent in the Wrecking Crew, battle-hardened weaponsmasters one and all. They finally, FINALLY slew it after four pages of grievous wounds, dodging among the whizzing -large horse bone bolt-s. None of

We butchered it, preserved the hide. It must look like a sieve.

In my last fort v47.05d and also this one v47.05e, my dwarves keep falling down unconscious for no apparent reason. Then they get right back up, apparently none the worse for the experience. Like narcolepsy...

In the first fort I thought it was because my mist-generating waterfall was a smidge too powerful and was knocking them off the stairs. After much adjustment, nope, dwarves kept briefly going unconscious.

In the current fort, there's nothing environmental that seems to be causing it.

So, are they just drinking too much and passing out? Or possibly something else?

(Note: this occurred in the Old Genesis mod -- I suspect it's relevant to vanilla as well.)

tl;dr: *ANY* caravan unit left on map might block all future caravans from its home civ.

New fort, second home civ caravan visit coincided with a greenskin raid sent the merchants and guards into a panic. After we dealt with the raid, the merchants were stuck -- some at the depot, some just standing out in the countryside beside paralyzed beasts of burden, slowly going insane. They wouldn't leave.

Eventually I gave up and used dfhack fix/stuck-merchants and they left. For 6 years, they never came back. Home civ still existed, could see them on world map. I used the "one unarmed squad diplomat + raid + demand one time tribute" trick to get all surrounding civs to start sending me trade caravans, so I wasn't completely cut off.

Those 6 years? No migrants either! I'm like 8 years into a fort with a population less than 30 and a handful of kids. I used dfhack fix/population-cap -- nothing.

I used dfhack force caravan http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=171488.0 -- didn't work.

Finally, after about 10 in-game years where my SOLE source of citizens was itinerant bards, I realized there was a pack animal still stuck on the map. I thought about dispatching it with squads but feared that might turn us hostile to my home civ, so dfhack exterminate killed it.

Few months later? Dwarf caravan, and the single biggest migrant wave I've ever seen.

Uploaded my current Ironhand-OldGneissesis world, Reh Gion Thi Riteen, with ten forts played. Enjoy.

Yeah, about that -- there's a swarm of trembling, multi-amputee, PTSD-raddled refugee-migrants dragging themselves through the mud to hammer on the gates and wail for succor...

(What in Armok's name did you do to Depcrip SMIT Trancehammers?)