Bay 12 Games Forum

Honestly, I can see certain advantages to an unskilled start, mainly if you're starting in a hostile environment. Starting somewhere there are little or no trees would allow you to bring a hundred or more with at the start, similar with stone if needed. In a very hostile environment, such a build would also allow you to quickly throw up a sizable wall around your wagon, and/or use those points to bring armor and weapons to defend yourself.

And since everyone else seems to be doing it, might as well talk about my usual build. I make my dwarves fairly varied, with two having skill in Carpentry, two to four Miners, one Woodcutter, and the rest in other skills I deem critical to long term survival. I typically don't bring any starting skills above adequate, but each dwarf can usually do two or three jobs, four or five for the non-miners. Brewer, Cook, Clothier, anything else that seems useful at the time. I also usually bring a few dozen logs of wood, since the surface is an evil place to be shunned; the Woodcutter is for emergencies. Another trick I practice, which has given me a couple issues since the hauling update, is "every dwarf a Mason, every dwarf a Grower". Mainly this allows me to get crops sown fast, as I prefer setting up very large farm fields, and to make any mass construction job get done quickly.
Also helps to have fourty dwarves smoothing that big dining hall.

My main goal with my embark dwarves though, is simply to (barring FUN) have everything I need to keep a fort going for a long time, regardless of how useful or other any migrants are.

Personally, now that I understand what the book's trying to accomplish, I support it. It's not there to replace the wiki in any way, it's there to help new players; it's the tutorial that DF lacks.
I'm tempted to pull the DF book/game cd trick on a friend of mine, though I noticed one important thing missing from the book description on the website.
What version is the book current to? Given as it's going to be periodically updated, it seems important to me. While the basic information will no doubt remain useful (enough), a single version change can alter large amounts of gameplay (the recent hauling update, for example). I can make a guess how current it is based on minecarts mentioned in the contents, but it's still something you should consider for future versions.

You think stuff like your harvest/brew problem is bad? Think about planting time, with more then one grower. Ten dwarves get "plant seeds" orders, and only the first one to the seed barrel can do anything besides spam job cancelled.
No matter how interesting minecarts are, this new stockpile behavior is why I'm not updating until something is done about it. Even a simple toggle option would do, whether or not a stockpile allows bins/barrels to be taken to the item. Naturally, I make this comment with no idea what effects it would have on the programming behind the hauling, but still.
In other words, my "work around" for this problem is to keep playing version 0.34.07.

I think caves will have drinkable water, but I'm not sure. Basically a saltwater biome means all water will need to be filtered via screwpump to be made drinkable. An important subnote of this is that the reservoir will need to be made of constructed materials. Any water touching natural walls or floor will turn the entire thing saltwater.

As to the volcano, I've never had problems with them, though I've heard of things like fire imps. Generally, so long as you don't leave your fort open to it, and practice safe magma forge design, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Just remember to use magma safe materials for any floodgates and attached mechanisms, if you build any.

Windmill power is a single vertical axel from the middle bottom of the mill. No sideways power without mechanisms and more axels.

P.S. You could've just asked this in your other thread, you were already asking about a magma pumpstack.

T'was way back when I was still learning the finer points in play, I had just started a new fortress. It was a river canyon, with a fair number of trees I recall. I forget why, but I wanted my enterance to be down towards the river, so I told my miners to start digging, and my woodcutter to start chopping.
Moments later, the alligator had killed two miners, and chased the third into the tunnel he was digging.
With four dwarves, one axe between them, and an alligator sitting on my picks... abandon seemed a good choice.

A good way of avoiding casualties on the surface is to treat the entire surface as a hostile zone. Keep your doors locked, never go out without guards posted, and only go out when you need wood. Hunting and fishing generally don't bring in enough to be worth it, so I'd suggest turning off those labors. Keep a drawbridge in front of your door, so you can seal your fort against building destroyers as well.
Personally, I prefer go for wood when a merchant caravan comes in. It lets me use the merchant guards to watch my enterance, so I can send my militia to guard the workers.

As to avoiding tantrum spirals, marksdwarves; ideally behind fortifications. Something I learned about a year ago, is that even a "victory" can turn messy if you lose too many dwarves. I had a decent battle against a titan, and had a goblin seige show up at the same time. Took losses, but it was the tantrum spiral that actually killed the fort.
In addition, it's possible to make a metal-free marksdwarves army. Bone and wood bolts are less effective then metal bolts, but it's still an option. Keep in mind, however, that using metal bolts for training is a waste of materials. Hunters and rangers also bring crossbows and ammo for them, in addition to usually having some skill as a marksdwarf. Look to them for building a competent crossbow squad quickly. It'll also keep them useful, if you go with my recommendation about turning off hunting/fishing.