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[Alidus]

Best to start planning your military already since you'll need some special rooms for them anyway (at least a barracks).

You should place the barracks away from any wells, natural hazards, pits or moats and otherwise inaccessible places because the dwarves will be sparring there and dwarves don't look before dodging. Not good to have them fall down a pit or something.

Another helpful thing to do if you still have a large area undug that is soil (clay, loam, sand, whatever) is to dig out a huge room into it (like 20x20 at least or even bigger) and then break through into a cavern, and seal off your large room. You can also seal off the cavern after you open it if you aren't ready for the stuff that might come out of it. Eventually you will have an underground 'tree' farm in your large room, with tower-caps and soforth, as well as moss and subterranean plants that can be harvested. You'll want this room closed off and not have anyone walking around in it until it is done growing or you are ready to harvest it, because too much traffic will kill the saplings before they can grow. Just forget about it for a while and eventually you will have an underground forest that you can still use in the event that you must close your fort due to a siege.

You can do this on stone too, but it is easier on soil. If you do it on stone you'll have to muddy it with water first which takes more work.

[zoutzakje]

thanks guys. Got a simple military up and running now. Finally got the hang of how it works a bit. Spring arrived and 8 new migrants with it, bringing my total population to 26. some of them had decent military skills so I put them in a squad and started their training. So far I also got my entire main entrance covered with traps, so that should keep enemies at bay at least for now.
fort is running decently without to much help from me, so i figured it's time to build every single workshop and see what they're for. That way I know what buildings I need and when for my second fort, which I should get up and running a lot faster than this one. I don't think enemy attacks can kill me right now, but I'm more worried about dwarfs getting mad and destroying the entire fort lol. some of them already have quite a few unhappy thoughts.
some are silly though. Dwarves complaining about not sleeping in a room, while I got enough finished rooms to house my whole population.

[TomiTapio]

so i figured it's time to build every single workshop and see what they're for. That way I know what buildings I need and when for my second fort, which I should get up and running a lot faster than this one. I don't think enemy attacks can kill me right now, but I'm more worried about dwarfs getting mad and destroying the entire fort lol.

And once you've had ten Vanilla forts, upgrade your DF experience to the Masterwork mod or the Genesis mod. More invaders, more Fun, different castes of dwarves, more workshops, more ores, minerals and metals, different weapon/armor/bleeding/pain balance, new discoveries in adventurer mode...

[Trif]

some are silly though. Dwarves complaining about not sleeping in a room, while I got enough finished rooms to house my whole population.

Did you declare your rooms as bedrooms with (q) on a bed? If not, the dwarfs will sleep in the beds, but not accept them as their personal bedrooms. You don't have to assign the bedrooms to the dwarfs, if the rooms are declared the dwarfs pick their own rooms.

Against unhappiness, it helps to put some statues up. This is very important for the military, it's a bit difficult to keep those guys happy, and you wouldn't want an armored and armed dwarf to tantrum.
You should build all your furniture in the highest available quality (especially in public rooms), and it helps to smooth and engrave the walls and floors. Admiring good quality makes dwarfs happy.

[zoutzakje]

allright, so I decided to randomly try some stuff out. Building some workshops, figuring out how to trade, etc. It had been 2 years and not a single enemy attack, which means my settings probably really are to easy. I was having some trouble with production in general though. I will really have to assign the right jobs to dwarfs right from the start. Otherwise it gets to messy when loads of migrants arrive. So I figured I'd cause a tantrum spiral
first my population bumped up to 52, after that I decided to order my military to attack everything that walks on a large part of my main floor. Needless to say, the dwarves started slaughtering eachother massively very quick. first the elven traders got killed, then the rest of my dwarves. they were rampaging through my entire fort lol. When my population had decreased to 15, I decided it was a good time to abandon the fort.
First I'll be trying adventure mode, then reclaim the fortress and after that I will create a new world with tougher settings to build my second fort.
I still have a lot to learn, but I think I got the hang of most of the basics so far. At least I won't have to pause the game so much in my next fort. I now know what to do and what to look for.

Thanks a lot for the help and advice guys. I'll be sure to ask some more if I have trouble with some of the more difficult stuff.

also, I suppose there is a difference between blue £ and cyan £? blue £ is cobaltite. I wanted to try to dig into hell first as a way to kill my population, but sending the military to attack inside my fort seemed easier.

[Wayward Device]

*Rousing round of applause from the community*

Zoutzakje, you have experienced your first official fun. I salute you! I thinks it bodes well for your membership of this community that not only did you get to this point so quickly, but instigated it yourself as well. MrWiggles has already succinctly expressed my views on the matter, but here it is again, in case you missed it:

One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us! One of Us!

   

Note on invaders not showing up: The arrival of goblin thieves (and after, ambushes and sieges) is heavily dependent on wealth, be it imported, exported or whatever. Basically, making high value stuff or trading it makes bad things come to your fort. As an associated phenomena, this is why you don't (usually) want to dig into the Super Fun Blue Metal Pillar (Tm) straight away, just having some raw adamantine mined in the first year (due to its crazy value (iirc, 200xgold)) can be bad. A sixty goblin siege in a 22 dwarf fort can be vey !!Fun!!.

[Scarpa]

Nice first start, but instead of an induced spiral dig down as far you can and let your fort die to external forces.

For your next few attempts setup whole industries, that will naturally help increase wealth and give you more to learn. Food, crafting, metal works are my rough ones but obviously each of those categories has a ton of depth.

[zoutzakje]

hehe thanks guys
so far I've been having a lot of fun with this game. Once again proves that a game doesn't need good graphics to be good or addictive. I'm definitely going to work hard to become good at DF. In my free time only of course, unfortunately i do have a real life that needs attention too

[fluff79]

hi everyone

i thought rather than start a new newbie thread id tag along to this one 

ive been playing DF on an of for a week now and thought id briefly share my experience with you and ask couple questions

So i was open minded about this game because i played a game called Angband when i was younger and loved it to bits.  An all ASCII graphics dungeon crawl for those of you that dont know and is potentially closest to DF's adventurer mode (though i havent tried this yet).

So anyway first night i struggled insanely learning how to do the simplest things and then decided using the wiki
e to get me started was a good idea.  made up a world and chose an area relatively safe, tree-y etc etc.  got into it a bit then realised the availability of the LazyNewb pack which came with interested me because it had some mods to change the graphics in the game and dwarf therapist (which i use now!).  As i downloaded it with dwarf fortress, i figured id generate a new world and start again.

This time i was a bit more open minded as to my starting position but for some reason couldnt find a suitable starting location using the find.  I relaxed a load of the constraints (im sure thats why ive had so much fun so far  ) and picked somewhere a bit jungley/rocky i thought it was temperate (but might be colder as everything freezes over in winter), perhaps relatively safe (that might have been one of the conditions i relaxed  ) or not but unfortunately no river.

Anyway here is some of the fun ive had so far (this is from memory but should be 99% ok).

1.  Heart attack when i saw a lower case red 'd' circling some of my dwarfs in a corridor (Angband reference - little red 'd's are not baby red dragons!)  After i checked it really was a pet dog of one of my recent migrants i relaxed and allowed my miners to keep digging...

2.  No natural water anywhere, all the pools started frozen over, not many animals wondering around so was instantly stressed about food and water (or beer).  Fortunately i survived to my first spring and everything melted.  *phew*

3.  Lets try to make some underground muddy farmland.  Carefully dug out my channels and a hall way near a largish pool of stagnant water... and dug through.... WHOOSH!! Slightly underestimated the amount of water, quickly put a door in place and dug out the room a bit more, then channeled.  A near miss i think. Still all my dwarfs in tact.  Walled up the now empty pond in the (vain) hope it would refill in future seasons.  It didnt.  Well at least i now have a lot of muddy ground i grow plump helmets on.   Ugh bored of plump helmets.

4.  My first invader!  A kobold thief.  Fumbled through making a squad of an architect, presser, stone detailer and chamberpot emptier and i think one of them had a crossbow and some bolts.  Fortunately all he had to do was shoot straight and got him.  Boom my dwarves are invincible!  2 minutes later another kobold thief... that one got away (i think) (but without anything?).

5.  My poor donkey starved to death.  What i have to set my animals to pasture? OK then.  Donkey to the garbage pile with you.  *brushes off hands* For good, right?

6.  So the next season i hear all my dwarfs screaming and cancelling their jobs outside, left right and centre.  What's going on?  Would you believe... an undead donkey?!  OK so this time i meticulously set up a squad of my best fighters (just by skills, i dont know how to set them to train yet - next job of mine) and send them out...  What a fight!  Unfortunately the rotting donkey took chunks out of my dwarfs.  Donkey dead a second time, into the garbage pile.

7.  One of my dwarfs died - i think it had something to do with not being able to feed him water when he contracted donkeyrot on the arm.  So he went to the garbage pile.

8.  Not long later screams again.... Whats going on?  Donkey the 3rd AND my dead dwarf hanging loose outside my fortress.  OK... so whats going on...  i built my fortress somewhere where the fog raises all the dead bodies? That isnt fair!  The squad goes out nervously then spots a "human necromancer trader".  Aha, at least its not the weather conditions.  I think on that day he was certainly a necromancer and not a trader.  Dwarfs pile in several die just taking down the undead dwarf, i make them retreat.  All pile in to the meeting room for some beer and expect the worse.... they wait... and wait... and wait... and peek outside... and all is calm.

9.  The tantrums started.  Donkey nightmares.  Lost loved ones.  One went berserk and was killed, but not before he severely injured another.  Another went delirious stumbling around... down to 4 dwarfs.  Desperately wondering what i can do to turn it around...

10.  Another kobold thief.  Fortunately he walks into my miner near the entrance and he mined his brains out.  I then noticed some kind of undead beasty wondering around (I guess a remnant from event 8?) so in a blaze of glory, fuelled by the bloodlust of the kobold victory i send the dwarfs out to fight and they win!  If they're all going to die and have tantrums they may as well kill some things on the way...

11.  Migrants appear after this last slog of almost 2 years!  About 40 of em... more than i know what to do with, werhoo!!  I send them to work.  All should go well from now on right?

12.  Attack of the (muharhar!) WERE TURTLE!!!  squeaky bum time for the dwarfs.  I notice a wolf has been torn to pieces on the edge of the map, but cant see the turtleybeast.  My dwarfs run out to find it... nothing seems to happen.  Perhaps it is rolling somewhere around on its shell oh well.  Fun averted.

13.  A funny mood... so one of my dwarfs decides to take over a workshop and gibber away for an eternity.  A bit of wood and a bone i think he used and made a pretty crown.  No idea who has it or where it is but good for him and now i have an awesome wood crafter   the first nice thing to happen yet.

14.  Farming seems to be working now... stone crafting working now... but no metal mined yet.  So i dig down a bit.  But whats this?  My brewer has been chatting for ages - no beer left... plenty of plants... and what, my wood has run out noone is chopping my trees? what is going on?!  This is the challenge im wrestling with now and i dont have long until 50 dwarfs die of thirst :<

I think its because i only own 1 axe and the dwarf who has it is busy braiding his beard.  So im focusing him on woodcutting to see if that helps...
Then i might be able to make some barrels (for booze) and other things again.

But the number of barrels isnt the problem.  Its what they are full of!  Plump helmets, grizzly bear biscuits (id love to try one) and a gazillion stone masterpieces.  So my dwarfs are all on the verge of death because ALL the barrels are full of shaped rocks and mushrooms?! GAH!!!!  So im going to try and dump whats in them and hope they get reused for booze.  im tweaking the max barrels in the stock piles in the hop the dwarfs have enough sense to realise they need beer...

And i also have a dwarf in another funny mood, but he isnt saying what he wants and hes just sitting in the dining room... How do i know how to help him?!!

So if i can avoid mass dwarficide from a lack of beer and start chopping trees again id like to:
-  help the dwarf in a funny mood (dont want him to die)
-  train some military up
-  dig down and around to either find some natural water and metal
-  learn how to use and build traps

so what do you guys think?  id love to hear some of your stories too from when you started out 

[Melagius]

Did you guys really just spoil HFS for him?

[Kel]

Welcome fluff! Sounds like you've actually done quite successfully so far. If your moody dwarf is just standing around the meeting hall, it means that he's lacking the workshop he wants to claim. Check his skills to see what workshop he's going to be after (highest non-military skill, with a few exceptions.) If you want to train up some military then this page can be invaluable.

@Melagius: I think HFS got a little spoiled... (blame jaxy) but there's more than what got revealed, hint hint.

[fluff79]

Sorry Melagius was that at my post?

Thanks for the welcome!
Ive just been busy tweaking my barrels and hunting down the guy with my only axe.  The plot thickens.  He's in bed unconscious and dehydrated.  I think he must have got a wound in his arm somehow which started this off and i didnt notice :/
This explains why i have had a lot of "cannot give water " messages.  I think this must be because my dwarfs were trying to feed him water (or beer?) but there isnt any.  In fact i think i read it HAS to be water... in which case his outlook doesnt look good as i havent found a natural source of water yet :<

im going to dig down and around while i sort out my barrels but i guess it will be a lottery to find running clean water in time for him.

thanks for the link ill check it out once this beer problem sorts itself out one way or another.

ive sent a dump request on his axe to see if they can wrestle it from his unconscious hands.  wood wont chop itself and im not going to wait for the caravan (ive finally worked out how to trade and now i have some stone goods ready for them)

[Trif]

Turn off his woodcutting labor and turn it on at another dwarf, he should drop his axe and it will be free to use.

Dig further down, you'll find water there. Wounded dwarfs have to drink water or die. Make sure to have some buckets, too!

Stone crafts don't get stored in barrels, that's reserved for food and booze. To free up some barrels, you could prepare some lavish meals. This uses four raw components and clears a bit of barrel space for drinks.

[fluff79]

OK that sounds reasonable, ill remember that for next time.  I just checked up on the sleeping beauty and his axe is gone.  i found it in a nearby dump and set to claim, so hopefully someone will grab it and use it to chop some wood.

My chef dwarf has been working overtime on "easy" meals but as some of the plants are building up (unusual luxury) i have set him about making lavish meals.  i need to look that up as well to understand the deal with them.

By the way i now have a barrel of beer heading off - hopefully to my thirsty dwarfs.  Second barrel being worked on. i hope they get it in time.  Poor dwarfs.  i know how i feel when i havent had beer for a week, they must have gone without for a season!

Ill dig down then a bit - i guess the worse that can happen is i open my fortress up to nasties from below as well as above....!

[fluff79]

oh yes, i realise now that crafted goods go in bins.

i noticed not many of my seeds seem to be in bags.  Maybe i only managed to purhcase/make some recently.  i should keep an eye on that.  If my dwarfs make it.