Bay 12 Games Forum

First off, I've made a couple fortresses so far, most abandoned due to unorganization (I didn't know about dumping stones to make room for stockpiles  ). 

Most stockpiles will work just fine with the rocks left in place; one exception is wood. If the stone bothers you esthetically, you can hide it using the keys d > b > h.

I'm another who very seldom engraves floors. Although I'll often smooth all the floors first, and then go back later to do the walls. I just like the way it looks, and I want to be sure I'm done chopping out more space.

"Every site has everything" is an exaggeration. You can get a site without sand or flux-stone.

The "no trees" thing is some sort of bug; I had it happen recently with a site I re-created a couple of times. (From scratch; not abandoning the settlement and resettling.) If you copy off the word data, re-gen and go back to the site, the trees should be there.

I can't stand leaving anything up on the surface in the wagon, no matter how benign the locale, or if its stuff like coal that no one steals. Get it all underground, with dogs guarding the entrance!

You don't need to abandon the site. Hit ESC, choose "Export Local Image", and then Enter. This will save off a copy of the world-gen data on your hard-drive under the main DF directory. (Note that it'll just happen, and you won't get any confirmation notice. Also it saves off a pic of the fort.) You then copy and paste that data into data/init/world_gen.txt. Be sure and change the line [TITLE:WHATEVER]  to something appropriate. You then Design New World With Parameters.

Remember that the more heavy stuff you buy from the traders, the more they can take away.

You have to mess around with the files that come with the game, but you can increase the carrying capacity of animals. The problem then, evidently, is that the traders brings tons more stuff and take forever to unload.

Wagons are currently broken.

There's plant-cloth and silk-cloth; a moody dwarf might demand either.