Bay 12 Games Forum

@ Syrus - yes, but "a bashing weapon" isn't a shield's primary function.

So, if you want to maximize offense - sure, get a copper shield (heaviest) or a steel one (hardest metal, and not ~much~ lighter).  But if you want to optimize a shield for defense - lighter is better.

The only thing the shield material effects is it's weight, and weight only matters for how encumbered you are. So for shields the material with the lowest density wins.

While I agree with all your premises, your conclusion does not ~necessarily~ follow, depending on whether or not the game makes a distinction between "very light" items.

If "< 1 Γ" is the minimum weight in the eyes of the combat system, then a glumprong wood* shield that weighs  "< 1 Γ" is identical to a feathertree shield that weighs  "< 1 Γ", and it just doesn't matter.

(* One of the heaviest woods in the game)

And that is the question I'm asking (or one of them).

Leather and generic wood are (according to the wiki) equal, adamantine is just as good as feather wood (and vice versa).

I know, I read that (and actually I helped write some of the material it's based off of) - but I'm not seeing anything that supports that other than the same unsupported(?) premises your statements are based off of. And that's why I'm asking. Could be right, but could also be a big assumption and old wives' tale.  Be nice to know for certain, one way or the other. 

Copy that, thx!

(That raises a line of question and discussion, but OT - will start a new thread for that - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=151127.0)

So, high Armour/Shield for immediate military, more critical than Dodger or even the weapon-skill itself. Hmmm...


(Still waiting on how much faster Teacher 5 helps things along, whether a major difference or just a bit.)

Shields should never be made of anything but wood (featherwood and willow preferred)...

 had heard that wooden were the new "best".  But I was mildly surprised to find that shields could now also be made of leather - how do those rate in the mix? Between wood and metal?

Weapon skill at 5, teacher skill at 5, two dwarves, set to train, legendaries in 6-9 months.

And what's the approx timeline without Teacher?

So, there are at least 6 prime military skills that any "military" immigrant has and seem to help build a reliable military dwarf...

• X-Weapon (Axe, Hammer, Spear, whatever)
  
  • Dodge
  • Shield User
    
  • Armour User
  • Discipline
    
  • Observation
  ...and that doesn't include the misc. Fighter/Striker/Wrestler skills.
  
  But at Embark you only have 10 skill levels to choose, so which ones to take, and how much?
  
  I'm tempted to take the ones that are harder to train, maybe Dodge, Observation, Discipline, with a nod to the weapon itself, and hope for the best with the rest. Also I;d think emphasizing Dodge over Armour/Shield is better, since often militia doesn't have time to "gear up" when there's an emergency. But I just don't know.
  
  (If going X-Bow, I'd think 5 Levels of X-Bow, 5 of Dodge, and trust nothing gets within melee range - or no?)
  
  Any input, with reasoning (not guesswork - I can do that!) appreciated.

• 2 Magma Glass Furnace

The glass furnace is always making blocks.  Why?  Because I like green blocks, that's why.

I have to question whether one "Collect Sand" job order can keep up with the "full time" production of the other Glass Furnace. 

A one-shot mister would not take less work than a permanent mister, and possibly more.

You'd want either a (large) cistern that you'd fill and then ceremonially open for the festival, or just pumps that you'd turn on and then off when the mister has served its purpose. (Or a river tile w/ a drawbridge if you want to set it up deeper down.)

Fwiw, I have a small permanent mister at the entry to my hospital for sanitation and happy patients, and another at the entry to my dining hall/food stocks to (try to) guarantee that every dwarf gets it at least once every time they eat. I'd have a 3rd at the above-ground entry/exit to the fort itself, but the layout wasn't friendly to that end (didn't plan ahead, ahem).


Also, you have to be careful about wide-area misting, as you have to worry about drainage, and water will create "muddy" floor tiles - if they've been engraved, that's a bad thing, or can be.

. How do i have to proceed to make my dwarves build the next level without getting stuck or leaving holes?

There's also the priority designations, but I've not tested those out enough to comment with authority.

Do I have to build the wall tile furthest away, wait for it to be finished, then assign the next one and so on?

Well, you can't build a further one after you've built a closer one, that's a dealbreaker. So either you do that, or find a work-around for access. Outside scaffolds are one, interior floors another (so long as you build the "corners first"). Multiple stairs, one the middle of each wall, can let up to 8 workers hit the construction at once, 2 building each wall in toward the stairs while more workers build the stairs up to the next level(s). More stairs = even more workers for longer walls, with pairs of workers building in toward the middle stair location.

What happens if I build the whole top level with a single building command?

If you build a floor (or a permanent "skyway", a non-retracting "bridge" type floor), the game will take care of itself, since workers can only place where they have access, and floors don't block access.

The hardest is if you're going to build Fortifications around an outside corner - nothing to support that corner Fortification!  So you build a floor, then that fortification, then the Fortification diagonal to the floor to support that extreme corner Fort'n, then remove the floor.  This can be done first or last, but without that corner in place your defense has a diagonal weak spot to enemy archer fire.

+= roof flooring
t = temp floor
F - Fortification
< stair access (assumed somewhere, exact position doesn't matter)


++++F
++++     (top level roof, with supported Fortification next to corner location)
+<++

   t
++++F
++++     (w/ temporary floor in place)
+<++

   tF
++++F
++++     (corner Fortification in place)
+<++

    F
rrrrF
rrrr     (temporary floor removed, corner Fortification supported)
+<++
Repeat on every outside corner.

Yeah, very few hard rules, but some rules of thumb...

There are some workshops that can get "cluttered" - butcher shops are a classic. Mason shops rarely (w/ newer clutter math), but still not impossible, depending how (in)efficient your Haling is. Nice to be able to keep working while you designate a spare workshop for deconstruction, then simply rebuild it and have the items moved aside and be back in business.

Some shops are used for multiple diff tasks, as mentioned above - Farmers and Craftsdwarfs being primary, but the occasional Mason etc as well.

Also, quite often I'll have "training" shops for no-/low-skill Masons or etc. Keep makin' dem blocks, boyz! (These will often be dropped in the middle of a mined-out area, just for convenience.)  Also useful when mass-production is needed, such as for blocks, mechanisms, cages, trash trade goods (for example, stone mugs), etc.

For Glass and Pottery, you need maybe ~3 extra shops to have "Gather sand/clay" orders for every 1 active workshop producing products, to keep that in constant supply. (Note that these do NOT have to be "powered", so can be non-magma, np.)

For key workshops, I also like to have multiples in case of Strange Moods, so a dwarf claiming a shop will not bottleneck that production chain (and so I can lock the ones up front and force them to claim the one in the far back corner!).

And, depending on how much I'm micro-managing things like Levers for color and/or Beds by preferred wood, I'll drop a workshop immediately adjacent to that part of a stockpile while going for that goal just to shorten the hauling process for the craftsdwarf.