Bay 12 Games Forum

The bat men civilization in cavern layer one has claimed another fb kill. The thing had deadly spittle and managed to infect a few bat men before it went down. I was eager to see some random syndrome action, but all they got was a little fever and becoming winded. They all made a full recovery. This also probably means that I will have to let them live unless i want to risk getting their infected pus all over my soldiers.

Unless you're a peasant you can get at least one companion at a fortress (look at their description and go for the incredibly muscular guys). That should be enough to absorb the damage from the first bandit camp. Every completed quests increases your reputation to allow one more companion (up to a max of 19). Once you have a few companions, bandit camps will be easy except for the leader sometimes. Also try training your skills on the local wildlife. You can try to get a quest for a named animal at the beginning (these are rare so you might have to ask many people first).
Night creatures are tough if you just started out. Consider leaving these quests until you have some companions/equipment/skills.

Wouldn't justice ropes not work? I read on the wiki that only metal chains can be used for justice.
I guess making a room from a restraint that's not used by justice is the equivalent of making a room from a cage (ie it's a zoo). The dwarfs are waiting for you to bring in the exotic animals.

I don't get this problem all the time. Sometimes dwarfs will take the ammo just fine (even from a bin). But sometimes they won't. Sometimes the invisible arsenal dwarf also does crap like assigning forbidden bolts to squads or hunters. I then have to unforbid all bolts laying around the map to get them used up so the dwarfs will resume training.
The best way to avoid this bug is to not use ammo stockpiles. You can also make your ammo stockpile not use bins by (q)uerying it and pressing shift-c (you might have to dump the ammo in the currently used bins to empty the bins tho).

As all clothing it lacks certain tags in the raws. Basically it's not rigid so it shouldn't do anything against blunt attacks. One robe will make the wearer pretty much invincible to edge type attacks. Some edge type attacks (most common being bolts and arrows) are however converted into blunt attacks when not piercing the armor (possibly losing force in the process). Also keep in mind that they suffer from wear like normal clothes, and in an unmodded game take 5 pieces of cloth (=5 strands) to make.

For starters try a 1 soil layer aquifer that has at least 2 dry soil layers above. All you need for the cave in method is enough stone to make 3 mechanisms (lever+linking support). Or try a 1 layer aquifer (unless its conglomerate) in a freezing biome (the higher up and the colder the easier). Only try more than one layer once your confident you can beat one layer aquifers. You will want to apply advanced digging tricks pumps and cave ins in the most efficient combination.
Soon aquifers will become your friends providing easy access to muddied ground for farms water for a well and drainage if you want to dam a river or empty the ocean.

Yeah robes cover down to the feet, cloaks only to the upper legs, both cover all the way up. You can even use both since robes are over layer and cloaks cover they shouldn't even interfere. Some civilizations don't have robes tho, and if you're unlucky you won't be able to make dresses either (the only other cover all clothing). I decked my last adventurer out in multiple coverings of blue metal clothing which turned otherwise deadly/incapacitating bolt hits into mere bruises. The only things that could hurt her were blunt attacks and wrestling moves (facestabs too prolly).

Protip: Forgotten beast bones have value 1. Try dragon bones instead.

This thread is hilarious btw, maybe because none of these OCDs apply to me. I've even stopped tinkering with mood materials after getting too many blue metal maces and hammers. The moody dwarfs are still fucking with me tho, the last possessed weaponsmith made me dig for bismuth so he could make a bismuth hammer.
Thinking about it again actually i have one: Every dwarf must have his own 3x3 room which has to be engraved, veins and gems are left in no matter how valuable. The room should in the end have at least a cabinet, but mainly so i don't have to look at the soldiers and kids clothing.