Bay 12 Games Forum

Dear Urist McSurgeon

I know you still think that meme is funny, but that is no excuse for not removing the *silver arrow* from that Speardwarf's upper leg before sending him back on duty.  (true story and only injury from the entire siege)

Yrs
Not-amused Overseer 

Remove the part where you are asking the devs for follow-mode and this is an awesome abstract of a really great research paper!

Hunter with 175 kills to name
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Cancels return kill; interrupted by rabbit
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Legendary Axedwarf off duty
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Cancels store item in bin, interrupted by rabbit
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50 Steel High Boots in stock
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Can't figure out how to put on left boot
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Wearing full steel except for left boot
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Gets stabbed in left foot
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Unused bucket with muddy water in it
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Can't figure out how to empty it, hospitalized dwarf dies of thirst

To: Dastot Zaledkeskal, Dutchess,

You are a Legendary Weaponsmith.  Once in a while you ask that we make some high boots, which our military appreciates, so thanks for that.  You occasionally feel like banning exports of things we don't have or wouldn't want to get rid of anyway, like those high boots we just made.  You happily haul stuff and clean up the fort.  You are also not averse to dragging an armed, armored goblin to chuck it down the pit into the barracks for "military training exercises."

Please report to your luxuriously-appointed bedroom, complete with masterwork, gold furniture and enjoy your continued existence as the most laid-back, easygoing noble I have ever had in my multitude of forts.  (And I've done my best to ensure that there are no oysters in your room, as you apparently detest them.)

I also notice you are an "Expert Comedian."  That explains a lot.

Yrs
Bemused Overseer

1) Assign them all to a burrow under an atom smasher.  Pull the lever.

2) Draft all their parents into the military.  Watch the kids follow their parents into the danger room you built for them.  See how long they last.

3) Pit them with some wild animals.  Make book on survivors.

4) Burrow them outside and use them as Ambush alerts.

5) Burrow them on top of a retracting bridge with a 2-3 z-level drop below.  Use them to train your medical staff.

6) Burrow them all in a room together.  Lock the door.  Watch them starve/dehydrate to death and start to rot, making the others miserable before they, too, starve/dehydrate to death.

7) Burrow them in a room and lock them in.  Fill it with Magma.

In any of these cases, enjoy the !!FUN!! tantrum spiral that's bound to ensue as four dozen sets of parents throw tantrums, get melancholy or go berserk from the tragedy of having all their kids killed simultaneously.  (Especially since, as kids, all they do is socialize and tend to gather large numbers of friends.)

Submit this to !!Science!! Magazine.  It's brilliant.

Simple and stupid question.  What skills are required to make bolts:

Bone Bolts:  Bonecrafting (?)

Wooden Bolts: Woodcrafting (?)

Metal Bolts: ?

edit: I'll add this to the wiki.

Simple answer: not really and probably not.

The micromanagement is sort of "part of" the game.  In that your dorfs are so monumentally stupid that the best you can do is nudge the whole dwarven society in general to do your jobs and hope to Armok that one of them decides to do it before he dies a miserable and painful death. 

The first couple of years are the toughest when you are getting your industries up and running and digging out your fort.  After that it does get considerably easier as your industries and resources will (hopefully) be running smoothly and well-stocked, and you will be spending more time playing with the military and experiencing !!FUN!! visitors.

Something that I suspect you have not done, and that you definitely need to do, is set up a manager.  Go to the (n)obles screen and assign someone to be the manager.  Then build him a little office with a chair and a table and assign them to him.  You will now have access to the job manager screen (j)-(m)-(q) where you can easily assign new jobs to be done and a dwarf with appropriate skills will (eventually) get around to it without having to micromanage every single action.

Also, try Dwarf Therapist.  I don't use it personally because I enjoy a lot of the micromanagement, but I suspect it will also dramatically reduce the amount of work required for you to manage your dorfs' job skills and such.