Bay 12 Games Forum

Good luck in your search for flux materials; I've not had much luck in finding them. If you press "z" and view the Stone menu, you can confirm which types of stone can be used to create pig iron, among other things. You should be on the lookout for limestone, dolomite, chalk, marble and calcite, apparently.

Edit: The coin economy is something that you may be pressured into when your fortress is sufficiently developed, and a certain noble arrives. The "Prices" and "Currency" menus will become available on the status screen (press "z") at this point.

You don't need to worry about it too much until then, unless perhaps you want to mint some gold, silver and copper coins (the economy seems to require equal amounts of each of these three types of coin) in advance, but basically, once the economy starts, your dwarves will be required to begin paying rent on their bedrooms and paying for any belongings they wish to acquire. You will also be able to build shops for your dwarves to use. Your dwarves will be paid wages for any jobs they do around the fortress, and you are expected to get enough coins minted to fuel this economy. Once the economy has started, your Broker will be able to tell you how many coins you should have, so don't worry about having to make estimates for it.

I've heard that some people don't like it when stacks of coins get broken up into small amounts and are left strewn about the fortress, although this hasn't bothered me yet; I believe dwarves will store their coins in any chest/coffer/container they own. In any case, the economy can be disabled if you like, by editing your init.txt file in the data\init folder.

Before the economy starts, the only real use for coins is as another trade good to use in buying things from merchants, although it's usually not necessary for that. Anyway, coins can be pretty heavy; you'd probably do better just to have some experienced craftdwarves making decent trade goods instead.

Oh, and unfortunately, merchants are greedy. They don't like to give change, so I don't think they even bother to carry any with them.

[ December 14, 2007: Message edited by: Tayrin ]

1. Do you know if the thirsty dwarves had any injuries? If a dwarf has gotten badly injured (by an enemy, wild animal or angry dwarf, or from falling down a hole, etc.), he or she will be required to rest in bed, often for a long time, in order to recover. A badly injured dwarf will display a rapidly blinking red cross on a white background.

Dwarves resting in bed will be unable to fetch any food or drink for themselves, and other dwarves will need to fetch these things for the injured dwarf. I believe they need the "Health Care" labor enabled to do this. Food is simple enough to fetch, but the drinks must be water, not alcohol, and must be carried in a bucket. A bucket can be made from wood at a Carpenter's Workshop, or forged from metal at a Metalsmith's Forge.

Also, a dwarf who has lost his or her sanity (this can be as a result of being too miserable, or not getting what they want during a so-called "Strange Mood") will no longer make any attempt to eat, drink or sleep, so this is another possibility for them dying of thirst. A dwarf's general status screen (press "v", move to a dwarf, press "g"; or press "u", scroll to a dwarf, press "c" then "g") may inform you that the dwarf is "babbling" or "melancholy", for example, and this is a sign that dwarf is going to die. Even worse, if the dwarf is "berserk", you'd best kill them as soon as possible, before they lash out.

It might help to know what the different colors of flashing, downward-pointing arrows on dwarves mean, if you don't already know. I believe brown means hungry, blue means thirsty, white means drowsy and red means unhappy.

6. I believe building roads leading from your Trade Depot to the edges of your map can be useful in forested areas to stop trees from growing back. This can decrease the chances of trade caravans being blocked by trees from reaching your depot. You can always chop the trees down, but more trees may grow where you don't want them.

I'm not sure how a wagon's route to your fortress is decided, but I try to keep the roads as straight and direct as possible (but always three squares wide) to match them to the most efficient route. I think a dirt road erodes away over time, but other roads will stay in place.

Well, in any case, it may be worth mentioning that only six of the dwarves were outdoors when I gave the order; one dwarf was actually indoors (if the basement of a game-generated fortress is actually considered "indoors"), but was still unable to move.

Actually, I just checked, and the basement of the game-generated fortress is considered "inside", but not "subterranean"; and I seem to recall that the order to stay indoors requires a meeting area in a subterranean area--not just an "inside" area--to be effective in the new releases. Maybe that's why the order didn't work even though I designated a meeting area in the basement.

Using version 33c, I created a new world, then started a new fortress in close proximity to a goblin fortress. I had my dwarves haul their supplies into the basement of a nearby empty fortress, while one dwarf got into a wrestling match with a goblin child, and won.

Soon after, all seven of my dwarves just stopped doing anything. I can issue jobs, check the dwarves' lists of assigned professions and even tell the woodcutter to cut down a tree a few steps away from her, but no dwarf seems to be able to walk or switch out of "No Job" state.

I brought numerous war dogs along, and have barely begun playing this fortress. No dwarf has slept yet.

Edit: All of the dwarves are now thirsty, but are remaining stationary and idle despite having barrels of alcohol nearby.

Edit: They all died of thirst. None of them appeared to try to eat, drink or sleep. All of their war dogs also weren't moving at all. I'm not sure whether the local creatures were still moving.

[ November 26, 2007: Message edited by: Tayrin ]

[ November 26, 2007: Message edited by: Tayrin ]

I'm also grateful for the knowledge that came from this little investigation, as I'd been wondering for a while what conditions are needed for a soldier to use an artifact weapon. Now I know!