Bay 12 Games Forum

I had a titan come to my fort recently and after killing it with my military, I decided to butcher it for its meat. I got a stack of 88 meat that weighs around 167 kilos (assuming the in-game weight unit is a kilo which I think it is), but my dwarves just leave it on the floor of their food stockpiles. Like, the meat is IN the stockpile, but not in a barrel where it wouldn't rot. I have tried everything: I set the barrels for each stockpile to the max, I made 20 new barrels and 20 new rock pots each, I forbid and reclaimed, I dumped and then reclaimed, they just leave it on the floor. Is the stack too big to put in a barrel? Is there any way I can split it if it is (I have dfhack and I'm willing to use it if i need to)? I really do not want all this tarantula titan meat to rot in my stockpile!

(Incidentally this is also happening with a stack of 37 water buffalo meat)

I am constantly beset by my dwarves' unfulfilled needs to make stuff, because I obviously do not want low-skilled dwarves taking up workshops and work orders making low-quality junk. 0.50's labor system DOES slightly ameliorate this, but I don't think it's quite there--you're still having low-skill dwarves suck up valuable workshops and making crap.

So, I think guilds should hold classes for non-members, or classroom zones should exist that are linked to a guild. During a class, a guild member teaches any random dwarves that show up a bit about their skill, giving those dwarves experience in those skills. Dwarves, when on break/not doing a job, can choose to go to a class fitting their personality--for instance, a dwarf that likes rocks may visit a stoneworking class--or just because they wanna learn something new, such as a master engraver checking out a cooking class for fun,. The desire to go to a class may even be inspired by something that happened to the dwarf--for instance, our engracer may have wanted to learn cooking because they ate an incredible meal, while their own engraving inspired another dwarf to attend an engraving class. Classrooms can also have workshops attached where dwarves can make stuff in-class which also satisfies their "practicing a craft" need and gives them something personal they can keep with sentimental value.

Classrooms could also be used to very quickly train a set of dwarves in a skill much faster than just letting them do the job in question--dwarves could be assigned to a classroom and teacher, where they learn the skill without taking up your normal set of workshops (yes I know you could make a buncha new workshops somewhere else and assign them to the workshop, but I think this whole suggested setup is a lot more sensible and charming than just doing that. Plus, if you NEED a completely utilitarian justification, you wouldn't have to micromanage workshop assignments, burrows, and other related crap if you can simply assign a classroom and have dwarves come and go as they please or when you command them to). And, of course, children could be assigned to classes--perhaps even implementing an entire education system, where once your fort is large enough an entire public schooling system can be implemented. Nearby hillocks and other sites could also send their kids to your schools as visitors, which could help your civilization maintain a large pool of highly skilled workers (presumably this would also work hand-in-hand with other features that encourage caring about your civ besides trading caravans).

One of the trickier parts of DF is making sure you fulfill your dwarves' needs, since they all have a ton and there's no way to know what they want without individually checking them.

I propose that there be a noble that dwarves can talk to, and their complaints are relayed to. "Urist is feeling depressed because he doesn't get to fight" and all that. Not something incredibly artificial and gamey, you'd have to make sure this noble is actually available. All of this could be in a little menu and then you'd know who would be a good recruit since they wanna fight, or who should go pick some berries because they like wandering, or who should get put to work creating stuff since they wanna be creative and learn a craft.

As it is, it's very difficult to keep track of these needs without making a ridiculously huge spreadsheet and obsessively checking your dwarves over and over, which when you have fifty other things to worry about can be an absolute pain--and not in the way where it's an intentionally abrasive bit of challenge to overcome, more just "I dunno what these dickheads want" thing.

I haven't played DF in like six years.

One of the reasons I liked DF was because it ran fine on even terrible laptops thanks to being pseudo-turnbased (I was never good enough to reach FPS death anyway) and the entirely keyboard-based interface obviated the inherent limitations of touchpads compared to mice. DF was a game I could play in bed, in between classes, wherever.

Well, finally the legendary Steam release dropped. No ASCII so I waited for Classic. And now I'm here, with a new laptop that absolutely blows the old one out of the water aaaaaaaaaannd the interface is now almost exclusively done with the mouse. Oof. I don't know what to think. Yes, the old UI was bizarre as hell, but this new one seems to replace "slightly arcane until you know it" into "agonizingly elaborated and finicky mouse-clicking" which honestly, I'm not sure is much better. Not getting into the weird omissions. I'm asking: do any of you play on a laptop without a mouse? How are you liking the interface?