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Messages - Saladman

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DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / my dwarfs like bad weapons

« on: July 23, 2013, 05:34:23 am »

Current version, LNP. No military skills on my pioneers, figuring I'll bootstrap a military with immigrants. First two waves of immigrants, I get a macedwarf and two swordsdwarfs. I humor them, I'm starting with small squads anyway. Two squads of two it is. They spar; progress is satisfactory. Third immigrant wave I get... seven more macedwarfs and two more swordsdwarfs.

So, a few questions. The wiki says immigrant skills are weighted towards those you use a lot and those you have none of. Was this weighted by those first immigrants having the skill at all, or by my training them up more, or is it random, or does my home civ have a preference for swords and maces?

Also, what now? I've got dwarfs at level 9 in fighting and [weapon], with the incoming warriors at competent/3. Should I stick it out with swords and maces, or have the new guys figure out axes and hammers from scratch?

Finally, at what point do you switch from squads of 2-3 to seeding larger squads with drill instructors? Fighting and [weapon] are going up as I said, but armor, shield and dodge are coming up slower, and Teacher slower still, so I'm guessing that point is yet to come. But its also not clear to me Teacher's going very high at all at this rate.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: a dwarven rain barrel

« on: February 04, 2012, 09:40:46 pm »

I take the OP's point to be that "in a hot location" you do just want to dig and fill a cistern immediately. Constructed floors, pressure plates and purifying by running through pumps are all good to know about but also kind of miss the point if they slow you down in the slightest. You can breach it yourself and pump it into a constructed cistern later.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: First siege!

« on: January 30, 2012, 02:41:53 am »

Or, if you really want to fight it out, line a corridor out with weapon traps but just use hammers and training spears, and have your military waiting after that. The goblins should get softened up a little by the time they reach your military.

Or to be safe, use cage traps, and pit the goblins into an arena after disarming them. That's a good way to get combat experience safely, especially if you're willing to mess with training weapons so they don't go down quick.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Fun with waterfalls

« on: January 29, 2012, 12:17:23 pm »

I've been playing DF for a while now, and I've handled water before in irrigation, artificial cisterns and wells. But I only recently got around to making a real, honest-to-Armok waterfall.

My current fort's entrance is a 3 tile wide bridge over a small river, then a road between two towers and into the fort proper. So a waterfall at the entrance seemed like an easy way to start. I built a pump stack in each tower and floor grates just behind the bridge.

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Underneath the grates and walls I channeled a path back to the natural river on both sides, but left a solid base for the drawbridge. The pump stacks expel water from 3 z levels up over the two outer grates.

So far so good, I thought. But it didn't occur to me to de-pressurize the output. The first time I turned a pump stack on, I got a 2-tile fan of solid water at the output z-level, and briefly standing blocks of 6/7 and 7/7 water down at ground level. And it moved some spare stone blocks in the roadway several tiles, which was impressive.

At this point I felt I was so close, the quickest fix would be a protective rail along the bridge to keep my dwarfs from being washed away. I went with fortifications rather than a solid wall so the water could drain away. I knew in a general way about creatures being pushed through fortifications, but I imagined that applied more to full submersion.

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After re-learning bridges don't support constructions, and you have to build in one block at a time for support, I was ready to go. (I lost a decent mason, too. I don't know how a cave-in down to water injures a dwarf left back at the top - maybe he tried to catch it when it fell?) I turned on both stacks and ordered all my military squads to move outdoors for their first annual shower, sun exposure and happy mist thought.

It should have been a warning to me that there was so much standing water at ground level the dwarfs couldn't path out past it. But I was so very close! I shut one pump stack off and waited, and the dwarfs tentatively, one by one, ventured outside. All was going well, and I was sitting there letting it run, proud of myself, until I noticed I was a few dwarfs short. One z-level down... one hauler and three weaponlords, hanging out in the river. Not yet drowned, just "unable to follow orders." Unfortunately they did drown before miners could reach to dig ramps. Normally I hate losing skilled dwarfs, but at this point I was just laughing.

Fortunately I have room in the towers to de-pressurize, I just have to de-construct and shift the pump stacks back. And I actually like the power-hose effect for defense if I can time it right, so I'll try using floodgates for the diagonal block so I can keep the option.

All that said, I have questions. First, can dwarfs be forced down through floor grates or only out through fortifications? I'm hoping fortifications only, but I didn't actually see it happen, and they were some ways away by the time I looked, so I can't tell from that. More generally, what does a good waterfall layout look like? (My dining room's next after I get this re-done, for instance.)

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: How do you keep your soldiers happy?

« on: September 07, 2011, 08:23:59 pm »

I understand "satisfied at work" to only come from working with a material or item that's in their likes list. So it requires some micro-management to maximize. Furniture shouldn't be one time only but it is a matter of placing it somewhere they can see it - masterwork statues and expensive traps directly in their path to the barracks is one solution.

Legendary or near bedrooms alone have been sufficient for me so far, even when they're on continuous duty, though I suspect I'm slowing down their training slightly. I also haven't tested it against a full blown tantrum spiral, so everything mentioned before is probably worth doing also to be sure.

It just occurred to me to wonder about integrating a butcher's shop right into or on the open edge of a designated barracks, so recruits would get to watch all your livestock being slaughtered, then the butcher's could feed back into the normal kitchen and tanning industry on the other side. As a way to toughen them up prior to the real losses of battle. I'd have to change my layout to do it, but that's just dwarfy enough I think it's worth the constructed walls to do it. A stopgap would be move orders to the butcher's when you have animals queued for slaughter.

DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: Building a Dungeon

« on: September 07, 2011, 04:39:27 pm »

There was an awesome idea on the community forum for a succession game where instead of handing off their fort each player would abandon at the end and each new player would start a new embark, with the idea of building a whole world full of forts to explore. I think the poster's idea was to minimize fatal traps to make it playable. Unfortunately I didn't bookmark it, and I can't find the post at first glance, so I'm not sure if it ever got off the ground.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Attachment

« on: September 07, 2011, 04:23:16 pm »

My dwarfs do seem to like to keep their attached weapons. In the worst case, removing my dwarfs from the military entirely, giving them time to un-equip, then re-enrolling them with a new uniform has worked. I haven't had to try it on as many dwarfs as you may have to, and I also don't know if I'm missing a less drastic solution - possibly no uniform while on civilian duty is enough, I just haven't tried it thoroughly.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Padding under armour?

« on: September 01, 2011, 09:28:03 pm »

I limit myself to not doubling up on any one item like 2 mail shirts or 6 cloaks, which does open up space to equip leather "padding" (clothing) in addition to metal armor. I haven't done any real testing, but the wiki claims there's no absolute difference between armor and clothing except materials and sometimes coverage. Note that not all clothing is created equal, so it's worth it to check the wiki to see what has the best coverage. Robes especially seem oddly good if you're not doubling up on cloaks.

So one uniform I've used is metal chain shirt, breastplate, helm, greaves, gauntlets, and high boots, with leather shirt, robe, trousers, skirt, cloak, cap and hood. I picture them something like knights with tabards on in that get up (except shorter, greasier and dwarfier).

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Bedrooms!

« on: August 31, 2011, 06:18:56 pm »

I was going to say I haven't seen that, but actually I think I did only when one of my forts was starting. I think that the dwarfs were kept occupied with moving starting goods indoors, mining, clearcutting and other ongoing tasks and just didn't have any downtime.

I'd check that they have access, but if you've got a lot of jobs and no idlers you may just have dutiful, hard-working dwarfs.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: armor priority

« on: August 31, 2011, 06:13:43 pm »

Helmets, you say? Hmmm. *Urist McHeadinjury strokes beard thoughtfully*

Well, that's why I asked. I think I'll try 10 each steel helms and steel chain shirts + bronze greaves and bronze breastplates, and save the iron for more (eventual) steel. As I say, I'm mostly getting away with copper so far anyway, so I'll just keep that for gauntlets and boots. Thanks for the answers.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: How many weapons to legendary smithing?

« on: August 30, 2011, 09:01:14 pm »

Wiki says 600.

1800 xp needed at 30 xp per job completed.

Which means you're almost better off hoping for a strange mood, unless you've got magma forges and ample ore going, and just melt down the rejects.

Something I didn't figure out, I had to see it on the boards, is you can try to set your dwarfs up for particular moods. If they don't have any moodable skill they normally default to bonecarving but even dabbling after completing a single job is enough to channel their efforts. So when you get immigrants without moodable skills (I have to wiki it) you can turn on, say weaponsmithing if that's what you're after, queu up some bolts until they do a job, turn it off and wait. It's not reliable but it beats the heck out of a fifth legendary bone crafter when it happens.

Also be aware that a dwarfs likes affect item quality, which I always kind of knew but didn't realize just how much it helped. It really does, so check your starting dwarfs carefully, and look over immigrants also, to see if they have any relevant favorite items or materials.

DF Gameplay Questions / armor priority

« on: August 30, 2011, 08:47:29 pm »

Background: I've got a reasonably successful military going - I can take down most regular sieges now before they hit my traps. But I'm on an embark with only copper, plus goblinite and trade requests. I've got steel blades and silver hammers handled already, but my dwarfs are still in copper armor. Which is working out oddly okay so far but I do get the feeling they're taking hits they wouldn't otherwise in better armor.

So- given 45 dwarfs in squads of various sizes (some of whom can be left in the cold), what's my best use for about 20 bars each of steel, iron and bronze? I was thinking of 20 steel chain shirts, iron helms and bronze greaves, keeping the rest copper, but I'm wondering if that ranking is right or not.

Also, am I better off with a few elites in full steel plate? Am I underestimating leather armor instead of a breastplate?

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Can dwarven children die from training spear traps?

« on: August 28, 2011, 04:57:44 pm »

Quote from: GreatWyrmGold on August 28, 2011, 03:28:30 pm

Zip. Zero. None. Even other dwarves need to converse extensively with one another before they can guess the gender of another dwarf.

Which makes flirting a delicate dance indeed. No wonder my dwarfs so rarely marry.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Help about organizing a defense

« on: August 28, 2011, 01:37:39 pm »

A military takes a little while to get trained up, so if you want to keep this fort more than you want immediate Fun, you may want to start with traps now even while you start a few small squads training. Cage traps are probably the easiest early defense, and you can use the prisoners for your military to practice on. Weapon traps with multiple iron serrated discs will shred opponents. Stone fall traps are easy to put up but not the strongest stand-alone option. Even for softening up enemies before they get to my military I prefer weapon traps with hammers in them over stone-falls once I have the industry.

Lastly, the drawbridge is good advice. Especially if you haven't settled on a theme for defense yet, a way to seal yourself in if you get something that outmatches you is a very good idea.

DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Dedicated Hospital staff?

« on: August 28, 2011, 01:13:15 pm »

I've never had a patient starve or go without water if my hospital staff had no other duties. As soon as I have idle dwarfs I disable hauling on medical dwarfs. Other, crafty skills it's better to turn on only when needed than to leave on and try to remember to turn off when you have an injury. So I don't bother with burrows and it all seems to work out.

I am curious now if dwarfs spend more time in, say, statue gardens or cage display rooms that belong to them. I haven't really tested it so far, but that would be another way to keep them in the vicinity if so.