Since starting my current fortress, I've been treading water the whole time. Each facet of needs and infrastructure take time and dedicated attention on pause, and time to play out. You can multi-task these items, but that can get messy, and it's sorta taxing depending on what you're doing. This would all be manageable, and even fun(classic definition), except that despite my skill at the game so far, the care, and the foresight I try to use, I feel that I'm taking on water faster than I can bail it out of the boat. Or more accurately, I'm gaining migrants and babies faster than I can accommodate them + pre-existing needs.
Meanwhile, I check the wiki for some infos, and come across an interesting entry: Sheriff. Hey, look at that, it's possible to have a simple law-enforcement mechanism for the early game. Neat. But assigning someone that role, let alone addressing justice and order at all, went immediately by the wayside as I focused on more critical needs, like gaining access to safe water, basic fortification, industry establishment, and keeping nobles happy. Fast forward a day's play, and there's no sheriff on my nobles screen; below Baron is the Captain of the Guard.
I describe this because I think it's emblematic of something unfortunate, where the "early-game" phase flashes away quite quickly. Instead of a steady progression, where I have an opportunity to sit back for a couple minutes and just let the dwarves run their business before getting the next wave of migrants and chaos, I go from 7 dwarves to 250 before I feel I can deal with a siege, let alone
their clothing needs. I feel like I'm missing out on an entire phase of the game.
I want to know if this is just a 'problem' with how I run a fortress(too perfectionistic, perhaps? Create too much wealth?), or if others are having this experience?
Next time around, I'm gonna look for ways of extending the early game... Thoughts on courting that goal would also be welcome.
