Bay 12 Games Forum

Hit ESC to bring up the main menu, there is an option for "Keybindings," go there. You can change most of the interface bindings there.
Be aware that some keys are bound to one or more other functions, so be sure that these don't conflict.

In material_template_default there is a "FLAME_TEMPLATE" which according to the comment is "for creatures that are 'made of fire'." The fixed temp of this material is 14000 - hot enough to melt the green glass.

I don't know if that's actually used, or why the body part would be only ~11000 U, but it's there.

Map of a Dwarf Fortress world I've been working with:

(not sure why it's a jpeg on Imgur, since it's a png on my computer?)

The mountains look kinda bad, but after a few hours I was sick of working on them. You can at least tell what they're supposed to be, I think.

Also that parameter seems to only affect 'smaller' sites -- hamlets, dark pits, hillocks, etc. Towns, Dark Fortresses, and large Forest Retreats apparently have no enforceable cap, and can have pops in the tens of thousands. Dwarven Fortresses seem (based on my observations) to have a soft cap of ~250 citizens (not counting animals and visitors); at least I've never seen them go much higher than that.

As for OP: the best lag-management comes from worldgen. Shorter history, smaller worlds, fewer civs, fewer cavern layers (which is also the only way to reduce Forgotten Beast numbers) - anything you can do to reduce the number of people doing things that the game has to take into account.
One thing you might try is making your worlds less savage, since animal people can only come from savage biomes. Fewer savage regions = fewer animal people = fewer animal people joining civs and buffing their pops. I haven't tried this, but it might help a little.
I believe that if you make goblins have to eat and drink, their populations will be smaller, which could make getting through dark forts less of a chore.

Just make sure you're swimming in warm waters, or during summer. Water freezes abruptly in DF, and if you're swimming when that happens you die instantly.

Other than that the only real risk is sheer boredom, since you can't fast travel over oceans.

So, I visit the fortress of Handlecharcoal, attempting to find the baron Lokum Snakeskeys who reportedly wants an artifact returned to him. As I descend the central stairway, though, I overhear some heated discussions going on below:



All the nobility of this Dwarven kingdom are apparently gathered in this one fortress, and they're all holding artifacts. And they all want each other's artifacts.
I couldn't tell how anyone responded to these demands, but a few steps later I encounter fleeing dwarves, all shouting "There's fighting! What's going on?"



Sure enough, the nobles are kicking, biting, clawing, and bashing each other over the head with their artifacts -- while the peasantry just stand around watching.





Even the general's in on it.
As with all good Dwarven tantrums, it ends in a combination of tragedy and treason:



That is the corpse of the former king, still holding his artifact copper spear (which apparently didn't help him much). Other deaths followed: barons and baronesses suffocating as their lungs were crushed from the brutal blows of their peers.
Seeing that I probably wouldn't find Baron Lokum, at least not alive, I just picked up a bunch of steel weapons and made off through the caverns.

---

Amusing as this may be, oughtn't it be classed as a bug? At least, I don't guess it's intended behavior to have every fortress visit result in a bloodbath over artifact claims...

A visiting lady macedwarf gave birth to a baby girl at my fort: she must've been pregnant when she arrived. Since she was just a visitor, not a citizen, the baby was listed as "Friendly" in my units screen, and neither the mother nor anyone else would pick her up. This, predictably, did not end well. The baby repeatedly fell down the central staircase until she landed at the bottom, still alive but badly broken up, and vomiting profusely. Endeavoring to keep the little one safe until she grew up, I followed her until she crawled into a room, then locked the door behind her. But it was too little too late, and she died of her wounds. And, since she wasn't a member of my civilization, my dwarves refused to bury her: her remains rotted on the floor until I designated a corpse stockpile just for her.

Dwarven child-care at its finest, folks.

Yeah, werebeasts can show up very early, so an early drawbridge-gate and military is important. Also they sneak into your fort, so you won't know they're there until they're spotted by a citizen or pet; you could chain dogs at intervals around the perimeter of your fort to avoid this.

Werebeasts won't come back to life once dead, so nothing to worry about there. Your main concern after a were attack is to identify potential infectees. Check the combat logs to see if the beast bit and broke the skin (i.e. "tore the skin/fat/muscle") of any of your dwarves: such dwarves will have been infected with the were-curse. Claw attacks and bites that don't break the skin don't transmit the curse. Quarantine any infected dwarves - this part is tricky, because dwarves are reluctant to follow orders, but with a combination of room assignment/turning off labors/burrows it can be done most times (children seem to ignore burrows though). You could probably also use squad station orders to do this. Keep in mind that werebeasts can break furniture, so locked doors won't keep them in; you'll need to use bridges or just wall them in.

I think wereforts are possible, but I've not made one before.