Bay 12 Games Forum

@Footkerchief
Oh, okay, I can wait for it to be implemented.   I don't have to worry about it.  I did a crt-find on the voting page, looked briefly on the forum, but I didn't see anything.  Sorry for re-posting a topic.


((@alfie275:  I like the spore method of impregnating females.  It seems to me to be a little realistic.  I mean, what intact male is going to stick to his pasture when there's a female a couple of squares over in another pasture?  Maybe if there were locked doors or gates in the way, or even a distance calculation, that would deter them.))

((@kaenneth:  Females provide the milk that gets crafted into cheese, so I'd rather not kill them.  ^.^)

First off, sorry to all the boys reading this who think "youch"

Second off, I don't know if this has been suggested, planned, or otherwise posted.  I have to admit I haven't read all suggested material.

I propose some kind of system that allows the dwarves to castrate their (male) animals.  Let me start by saying that I'm not concerned about the smaller animals like cats and dogs and I'm not saying have this applicable to all animals (birds, reptiles).  I'm concerned about the larger farm stock.  I like keeping a bunch of female farm stock (ewes, alpacas, llamas, donkeys, horses, et cetera) for their wool and milk, as well as for their meat.  I find once you introduce a male into the fort all my females breed with said (lucky) male and give birth, which means I have a lot of young stock.  Once one of those male young stock grows up, he breeds with the females again and I get even more young stock.  I've been having to resort to killing off my young male stock before they grow up in order to control the population of my stock.  A castration feature would be incredibly helpful in that I can raise my male stock, get them nice and fat, then butcher them for their tasty meats, without worrying that they will impregnate all my females.

Castration of farm stock is a wide spread occurrence in our world and I think the dwarves are smart enough to figure out "hey if you cut off the male's wingding then he can't mate with the females" (after all dwarves make babies too).  It's a fairly simple procedure involving a sharp knife and a little knowledge of anatomy.  I don't propose this for female stock since that gets to be a little more surgical (although I am open to the idea). 

This procedure can be done by professions already in the game (animal caretaker, animal trainer) using buildings already in the game (kennels).  It can give a token to the animal that designates them as sterile (genderless perhaps, or a third gender value), which can also be used for mules (or is already used for mules, I'm not sure how mules work in game).  It should be able to be done with young stock and adult stock.  There may be a size limit (they can't castrate a cavy boar, but they can a yak bull) and/or an animal type restriction (mammals are castratable but not birds (since they don't have the very obvious wingding for the dwarves to see)).

I use nicknames to distinguish gender and migration wave number, so I generally give my warrior dwarves a code for their squad (typically "warrior1" "warrior2") as their profession name.  It's a little bit more work, but I can plan out my squads a little bit better.  As for assigning weapons and armor.  I make a couple sets of uniforms, one for iron and one for steel, and have each military dwarf equip the same thing.  I give each dwarf both a crossbow and a choice melee weapon and let them choose what to use in combat.  For training, I place a weapon rack and armor stand in a corner of the fort and designate it as a training barracks.

A military therapist program (or add-on for dwarf therapist) might be interesting idea, I would most definitely use it probably.  But it doesn't exist, so you gotta just do the best you can with what you have ^.^

Quick question:  I got 3 dwarf traders that are sitting at the very edge of my map (2 in the south, 1 in the north) doing absolutely nothing.  I assume they are part of my yearly trade caravan, but alas they ain't budging a square.  Trade Depot is accessible, trees are chopped, stones smoothed over.  Trade Depot also says that "there are no merchants trading right now".  What do I do to fix them?  And if I can't, will another caravan come the following year?  And are they really members of the caravan I'm expecting or goblins in disguise?

In addition, I don't know if this caused them to dig their feets in the soil or if it happened post trader zonking out, but a flock of keas (annoying birds that steal your stuff) came and stole their stuff.  Now some of their goods are sitting in the middle of the map, but neither them nor my own adorable dwarves are interested in picking it up (dump, claim, leave alone all have no effect).  There is a clear path to and from the goods.

Yeah, there's the problem.  Well that explains why all of a sudden I fail at dwarf fortress.  Then the question becomes how do I trigger the message and "breach" the magma.  I'm looking at a very large (naturally made) pool of it and am building in the chasm over it. 

Magma Smelter/Forge problem -- my site looks like:

F  F F F F
W F O F F
W F F F F
W F F F F
W W W W

Where W = Constructed wall
          F = Constructed floor
          O = Open space to level below (which is 7/7 magma)

I'm trying to build the smelter over the bold.

I'm getting the error: "Smelter placement blocked"

Magma smelter/forge problem -- Yes it does say site blocked.

Vermin problem -- De-assigning doesn't work, haven't really tried assigning to pasture, give me a few minutes.