Bay 12 Games Forum

My experience with trying to muddy floors for farming indicates the dump zone has to be above the floor level of the target, so you either need to channel down or build a staircase to get up.

To get mud, yes.

Have they been breached elsewhere on the world by a different fort?

Catch-and-release. Cage traps, then walled enclosures to discourage pathing anywhere BUT off the map.

Alternately, breed the buggers in captivity but without taming them, THEN capture with cage traps and export them that way.

I have never seen sparring with "real" weapons cause injury.  Dwarves always just tap each other with their weapons while sparring.  The only sparring injuries I've heard of are caused by wrestling throws -- a dwarf goes flying, hits a wall head-first, and the wall wins.

Back in 40d, you had to train them to legendary wrestler first so they'd be able to dodge worth a damn, before assigning them to be an axedorf/hammerdorf/swordsdorf/speardorf. Otherwise they would literally lop each other's limbs off in training due to inexperience.

Pasturing has definitely been rebalanced, but I've suffered skill rust from DF2012. However, OP hasn't played since 40d, which was when I forged most of my DF skill.
It's also where I learned never to hook an entire map's water supply together, because it murders FPS.

This is why I make critical entrances NOT dependent on a single door.

Ahh, bauxite! I remember when it was the only magma-safe stone. Didn't that go away in 31.XX?

Magma-safe is now a property of melting point. So now MANY rocks are magma-safe!
However, the diversity and amount of ore means that you'll probably be using steel for most magma-safe things. Especially minecarts.

Minecarts are a thing now. Automated hauling. And it can be almost fully automated, with rollers pushing carts around. Or workers pushing them, or guiding them.
Wheelbarrows can be assigned to stockpiles so the new, heavier stones don't slow hauling way down.
Stones are heavier, and you only get one from every so many blocks mined out. Of anything. That's no longer dependent on mining skill, so skill only controls SPEED of mining. This, along with the weight and slowness, means you'll want to turn them into blocks. And to lay off the stonecrafting in favour of light, renewable bones, because stone is rare.

My preferred system is to have the stone hauled by wheelbarrow to a stockpile surrounding a mason's workshop, which then takes it for crafting. You can also have a minecart fed from a similar stockpile (fed by wheelbarrows) to quantum stockpile rocks.
WITHOUT DUMPING THEM.
This is incredibly powerful. You can haul ores around in minecarts, and quantum-pile them at the smelters. You can quantum-pile the bars near the forges.

For forging and smelting, you've got the Magma Sea. Way down deep below the caverns, there's a sea of magma. This is incredibly useful. You can pump it up (or minecart it up) for defenses and Fun. Or you can build the forges and smelters on it, and minecart the ores down there to it.
Or just drop them down a big shaft, but that's lethal to anything underneath because falling objects cause actual damage now.

The military is HARD now. You need to run through the menus to even get them to don armour and train, let alone fight when you tell them. There's no setting up a barracks and leaving them for a year or two to gain experience before giving them weapons to train with. You've also got training weapons to prevent the classic issue of limb loss while sparring without experience. They're made of wood, and do hardly any damage.

Obsidian casting is now USEFUL. Stones are heavy, and scarcer than before. So, you need a renewable source. Magma is infinite, and water can be infinite with a brook, so you can get dwarfy. Cast obsidian in situ, or in a farm to be mined out. Haul it out with wheelbarrows and minecarts. Craft/block it. And it's still valuable!

Butchery gives LOTS of materials now. Slaughtered animals virtually explode into a pile of meat, organs, bones, and tissues. Most of which can be eaten. However, this is balanced by grazing. Either set up surface pastures or pop open the caverns and dig out soil/muddy floors underground for fungus-soils to grow for fodder. An animal needs plenty of space, though, or they fight. And then starve to death. The bigger the animal, the more space and fodder they need.
Related to that, you can now shear and milk creatures for wool and milk. This can be processed into cloth and cheese respectively. No more futzing about with maggots! Llama cheese roasts for everyone! Llama wool socks!
And yes, llamas. The elves bring them. They're good for milk, they can be sheared, there's plenty of meat on them, and they're actually pretty vicious. Camels are another good choice, but with less shearing.

Quote from: Xazo-Tak on December 22, 2015, 02:58:49 am

And will this encourage Elven caravans to bring their rare and special goods? I've noticed some things made of unique materials in Elven caravans (Liquid darkness, rotting fabric), that have incredibly high values. Only thing in their caravans I'm interested in.

Do note what you buy also influences what they bring in the future. If you keep buying their cloth, after a while that's the majority of their wares.

It's subtle, but it does happen. Helps if you order stuff from them, but even unprompted I've had humans roll up with more and more food, and dorf caravans roll up with more and more raw materials.