Bay 12 Games Forum

Hi,

The last time I played this game, the map was still two-dimensional. Probably so much has changed that I'd need to re-learn things from scratch. Before I even start to put much effort into this, I'd like to know about the the issues that eventually made me stop playing last time.

* Will ammo still degenerate into many stacks of one item, or have the dwarves learned to repack them?

* Related: What if you have many similar items in one location, like seeds in the brewery? Still one hauling task per item?

* What has become of the used clothes that noone would move, eventually cluttering the whole fortress?

* I remember having fiendish troubles with overproduction. Keeping track of stocks, switching production on and off as needed became a micromanagment hell. Any improvements in that respect?

"Engraved on the wall is an exceptionally designed image of a demon by Zan Etäggeshud. The demon looks confused."

Good forbid that DF ever gets graphics. No actual picture could entertain me as much as this description.

Will, my most complicated won't score very high in this thread, so I'll skip the discription. Suffice it to say that when my Metalsmith turned into a Legendary Furnace Operator, I wasn't exactly overwhelmed.

On a side note: the very first artifact in our fortress (before we even had a dining room) depicted a demon. The demon was screaming.

Now, the most disturbing thing that ever happened in our fortress were a few kobold thieves, and that didm't happen until much later. Among the plethora of travelling dwarves and talking humans, the demon sticks out like a sore thumb. What happened?

I only ever experienced one siege, so you should take this cum grano salis. But here's what I learned:

Channeling invaders through ballista fire is a good idea. Narrow channels alongside the road work a treat; you should make it so that the channels are usually dry, though.

The invaders won't even move if there's no way to get into your fortress. They will only linger around wherever they entered the map. You have to fight and win to eventually lift  the siege.

In order to get them to where you want them, you have to lure them: keep the doors unlocked and the bridges down. Only hole up when the invaders are where you want them -- it's a good idea to have the lever(s) in a central place (like the dining room) where people will get at them at short notice.

There were no trolls or ogres or other building destroyers among "my" invaders. If there were, they might have made for the locked doors anyway.

It appears that although it's possible to shoot through fortifications, your dwarves cannot see the other side. Artillery spotting dogs chained outside have been mentioned as remedy.

By. the way, in my opinion floodgates are not difficult to understand. It's only a problem insofar as this happens at a stage of the game where you're still trying to figure out the interface and how workshops work and whatnot, so the bit about floodgates on top of it may lead to information overload.

But then again, herbalism isn't all that easy and straightforward, either. Fishing could be easy, but in my experience, it again requires some interface twiddling to get the fish actually processed. Dwarves rather catch more fish than to prepare the one at hand, I learned that the hard way.

Ah, an engineer. That's not my way though: although I start with a general plan in mind, I will willingly adapt it depending on what I find in the mountain. Symmetry is irrelevant.

So there's not much advice I can offer; if you want to force the mountain into the shape you imgaing, that's your thing.

However, I suggest that you have the forges and  glass furnace in the middle, and the smelters & kiln at the flanks. That's because evil magma monsters will hurl their firebolts at the closest target; I can easily part with a furnace op, but skilled smiths are hard to come by.

Just to get this straight: when it comes to cave ins, the first tile where you could build traps is also the first tile that needs support?

Somehow, somewhere, there was not enough foodstuff. The cook cancelled his repeat job.

When I first became aware of the problem, there was still some plump helmet left; also lots of raw fish.

Two dwarfs gutting fish; a total of ten dwarfes having cooking, milling, etc betwen them. A few more kitchens have been built, but it was too late. Endless amount of flour, sugar, leaves in stock. On kitchen was enough to provide for them for years, actually I had to turn it of from time to time.

But now three kitchens are not enough to catch up.