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[Violet]

Heyo, I'm a tad new here (by that I mean I just got accepted in about 2 minutes ago. I've made my first two fortresses with the help of a graphics pack and the resident Quick Start guide on the wiki (Both of which are still up and running, although the second one is in a state of constant flux job-wise) and I've got a few questions regarding various expectations for forts, and a bit about how pathing works

Of course, I'll probably update this post until I run out of questions, so stay tuned for more of my idiocy!~ ;^_^

Firstly, With the death of my Farmer and Mason, both miners, the fort is in a worse state of "Getting nothing done" than ever, due to the low dwarf-count, which, before the deaths was only 7, the starting number. My dwarves were spread pretty thin with jobs as it was, and with this, i barely get anything done with only 5 dwarves running the fort is this normal until the first wave of migrants? (Speaking of which, when do they come? ;owo)

Secondly, I haven't had any attackers, but right now there are two entrances to my fort, both guarded by drawbridges, one is a 1/2 tile short-medium long entrance filled with rock traps and a ballista staring down the corridor and the second is a 3 block wide, much longer entrance with a trade outpost to accomodate the traders, if any attackers do come, will they ever try and take the unguarded corridor? Or will they always go for the shorter path?

Thirdly, Is there anyway to build walls? I can't seem to figure out how to if I want to say, wall off a flooded part of the fort, or possibly wall off the entrance to the resident fire-breathing 16-legged tarantula with diamond skin.

That's all for now, but I'll probably have more questions later.
 

[NullForceOmega]

Your post is a little broad, so I'm just going to tackle the issues I can help with.  Re.: Pathing (invaders): A hostile force will attempt to find the shortest path to your (nearest) meeting areas starting from the point they entered the map from, so if they enter from the opposite side of the map from the trapped entrance, they will advance towards the other.  Re.: Constructions (build walls etc.):  build menu, constructions menu, then the appropriate key for the construction you wish to build (tip: cut boulders into blocks, they are lighter to move, faster to construct and harder for invaders to climb over, you also get 4 blocks for each boulder).

[origamiscienceguy]

Migrants always come in the summer and fall. After that though, dpending on how dangerous and/or wealthy your fort is, none or a bajillion migrants may come.

[PatrikLundell]

The first 7 are usually working hard to get the basics going, and you need to decide on what to do and in what order. In my experience this means micro management in the form of enabling and disabling jobs (both on the dwarves themselves and on workshops with repeat jobs).

If you have a black tower nearby I think they can come at any time, whereas goblins start to attack once you get 80 dwarves, unless you modify the appropriate file before world generation. Kobolds can arrive fairly early, and wildlife can appear at any time (keas steal stuff, rhesus monkeys can be fairly dangerous, especially if you're clueless about how to fight them [the spare axe has to be assigned to someone who is assigned as militia], etc).

The first two migrant waves arrive in summer and autumn. Given the amount of building you've done, more that 6 months should have passed, which means you should have received the summer wave. After that they generally arrive in all seasons except winter (I had a winter wave when a siege blocked the autumn one). The number of arrivals is supposed to depend on the wealth of the fortress, but I don't bother to try to influence that: I do what I think needs doing to secure the fortress, and let the waves take care of themselves.

Two entrances is good. That way you can close one, get the invaders running towards the second one, catch a few of them before the drawbridge is closed, open the other one, catch a few...  You need to do very basic cleaning in between the waves, i.e. reload cage traps (my main weapon), or unjam jammed traps, reload stone drop traps, before the next wave is let in. Civilian alerts are a must to get the buggers to get inside, stay inside, and then clean up the mess only when safe (done by modifying the civilian alert burrow).

Unguarded entrances are bad. There are sneakers (e.g. kobolds). Also, enemies may appear on the trade corridor side of the map. The method I use to secure the trade corridor is to force the the wagons to follow a meandering path to avoid rows of cage traps:
Start with your 3 tile wide corridor. On one side, broaden the corridor to six tile [adding 3 to that side] for 6 tiles. Leave a 1 tile wall, and then another 7 tile niche. At the opposite side, do the same thing, but offset the niches such that the 1 tile niche gap on the first side aligns with the center of niche on the other side. Add a row of 3 traps as an extension of the 1 tile niche gap. Repeat until you reach the depot. The result should be a row of traps every 4 tiles in the center (straight) path of the corridor, and a wagon friendly path that's 3 tiles wide that goes back and forth to pass the traps (checking depot access will show if there is a path).

Building: Logs are easy to build a courtyard with (should be decked over, as many enemies can climb with ease). You then have somewhere to have your grazers, as well as outdoor farm plots (yes, they work even of there is a roof overhead).

Someone else tried a personal question thread, but was recommended to spread questions into new threads rather than updating the existing one. Thus, I think you should follow through with this thread with follow on posts for the current set of questions (that may very well expand), but create new ones for new batches.

Finally, I don't think there are any fire breathing 16 legged tarantulas with diamond skin. I think they would have 8 legs and be made of diamond throughout (but I may be wrong).

[Thisfox]

Extreme micromanagement of your remaining dorfs to do only the most essential jobs is all you can do right now. You will get a larger population, if you can survive this current lack of dorfpower. Trap your entrance, make a few good lockable doors, and hunker down inside as much as possible. Make a few panic rooms, equipped with beds, tables, chairs, food and booze/freshwater, so that you can rescue at least some of your dorfs if you get seriously attacked. Try not to take too many risks.

Make sure you make some good trade goods to sell to the caravan, for two reasons: The first is that having caravan stuff is always useful (booze and food and weapons oh my!) but also because wealth attracts migrants, who will come help you build up your fort.

[Bearskie]

Wait what - nobody bothered to answer the most obvious question?  Eh, might as well.

To build walls: b-C-w

Very useful, walls.  Use them wisely.

Edit: Woops. Someone did mention it already. Now i look dumb -.-

As a new player though, I recommend you just rob any non-dwarf trade caravan that comes to your fort (in trade screen- select all goods and seize).  Helps to keep your fort alive until you get the spare labour needed to kickstart your trade industries.

[PatrikLundell]

I disagree with Bearskie's recommendation of seizing the caravan's stuff, partially because I think it might lower the immigration rate.
I've never had any problem with food except serious over production, but booze tends to plummet dangerously during the first winter (since the dorfs eat the plump helmets raw, starving the still). Your micro management should take care of the farm as well, since running the dorfs at 100% efficiency will case them not to harvest.
Turtling and cowardice are golden, and I'd concentrate on getting defenses, basic industries, and basic comfort up, in that order. I think the last one attracts immigrants in the form of fortress wealth.
I buy very little from caravans, and often don't trade anything at all from the first one (reducing immigration rates), but the things I buy are plaster, since I very rarely have the raw material for that on my embark, and the over ground crops brought to yield seeds for above ground farming.
Given your small crew, I'd micromanage herbalism harvesting (carefully selecting each thing to pick). Again, my main purpose it to provide seeds for over ground farming after the stuff has been processed by the still (which I generally start up when my first or second migration wave arrives).
Cooking can generally wait longer, typically until winter or spring.

[Bearskie]

I believe that immigration is affected by the value of your fortress as reported by the dwarven caravan, which is unseizable anyway (unless you decide to build a merchant trap, or deconstruct the trade depot). Even so, as long as the caravan exits safely from the map, shouldn't fortress wealth should be reported properly, seize or no seize?

Seconded in regards to herbalism though, plant gathering got a real buff with multi-item hauling; and for a new fort it's very simple to get started.

[BuGGaTon]

I believe it's the diplomat, not the traders, which report news, data on trained animals, wealth and traps to the mountainhomes.

[vjmdhzgr]

The first 7 are usually working hard to get the basics going, and you need to decide on what to do and in what order. In my experience this means micro management in the form of enabling and disabling jobs (both on the dwarves themselves and on workshops with repeat jobs).

If you have a black tower nearby I think they can come at any time, whereas goblins start to attack once you get 80 dwarves, unless you modify the appropriate file before world generation. Kobolds can arrive fairly early, and wildlife can appear at any time (keas steal stuff, rhesus monkeys can be fairly dangerous, especially if you're clueless about how to fight them [the spare axe has to be assigned to someone who is assigned as militia], etc).

The first two migrant waves arrive in summer and autumn. Given the amount of building you've done, more that 6 months should have passed, which means you should have received the summer wave. After that they generally arrive in all seasons except winter (I had a winter wave when a siege blocked the autumn one). The number of arrivals is supposed to depend on the wealth of the fortress, but I don't bother to try to influence that: I do what I think needs doing to secure the fortress, and let the waves take care of themselves.

Two entrances is good. That way you can close one, get the invaders running towards the second one, catch a few of them before the drawbridge is closed, open the other one, catch a few...  You need to do very basic cleaning in between the waves, i.e. reload cage traps (my main weapon), or unjam jammed traps, reload stone drop traps, before the next wave is let in. Civilian alerts are a must to get the buggers to get inside, stay inside, and then clean up the mess only when safe (done by modifying the civilian alert burrow).

Unguarded entrances are bad. There are sneakers (e.g. kobolds). Also, enemies may appear on the trade corridor side of the map. The method I use to secure the trade corridor is to force the the wagons to follow a meandering path to avoid rows of cage traps:
Start with your 3 tile wide corridor. On one side, broaden the corridor to six tile [adding 3 to that side] for 6 tiles. Leave a 1 tile wall, and then another 7 tile niche. At the opposite side, do the same thing, but offset the niches such that the 1 tile niche gap on the first side aligns with the center of niche on the other side. Add a row of 3 traps as an extension of the 1 tile niche gap. Repeat until you reach the depot. The result should be a row of traps every 4 tiles in the center (straight) path of the corridor, and a wagon friendly path that's 3 tiles wide that goes back and forth to pass the traps (checking depot access will show if there is a path).

Building: Logs are easy to build a courtyard with (should be decked over, as many enemies can climb with ease). You then have somewhere to have your grazers, as well as outdoor farm plots (yes, they work even of there is a roof overhead).

Someone else tried a personal question thread, but was recommended to spread questions into new threads rather than updating the existing one. Thus, I think you should follow through with this thread with follow on posts for the current set of questions (that may very well expand), but create new ones for new batches.

Finally, I don't think there are any fire breathing 16 legged tarantulas with diamond skin. I think they would have 8 legs and be made of diamond throughout (but I may be wrong).

Some quite significant corrections: goblins start attacking you when you have either 50 dwarves, 25,000 urists in produced value, or have exported 2,500 urists. They only start sending SIEGES once you have 80 dwarves. Another thing is that migrants come during any season it just depends on how well your fort is doing. If you have a produced value of 100, you've exported nothing and half your dwarves died recently you're probably not getting any migrants. Then just some things I have to say unrelated to the post above me. In your next forts I wouldn't bother making defenses so early on. You haven't even recieved your first migrant wave yet and you're already trying to make ballistas? It's way too early for that. That's also probably why your jobs are spread so thin. Early on I normally just have four dwarves working. A miner mining out the fortress, a carpenter in a temporary carpenter's workshop near the fortress entrance, a woodcutter cutting trees, and an herbalist gathering plants. I just let my mason, brewer, and whatever else I have maybe a weaponsmith wait until their workshops are dug out to do anything. As for when you want to start working on defenses, I'd recommend just drafting a few of your third migrant wave into the military, setting up a barracks for them and start their training. A squad of just two skilled military dwarves with good equipment is enough to handle any attacks you'll get for several years, though it's best you have more than just two in case something bad happens.

[Eldin00]

goblins start attacking you when you have either 50 dwarves, 25,000 urists in produced value, or have exported 2,500 urists. They only start sending SIEGES once you have 80 dwarves.

While this statement would appear to be true from examining the raws, since in the current version goblin ambushes are exceedingly rare and babysnatchers appear to be non-existent, the vast majority of fortresses will never encounter a goblin before they hit the siege threshold.

[PatrikLundell]

My play style probably differs from that of vjmdhzgr (everyone has their one), but my standard start is:

All embark points are spent on goods, in particular animals. Thus, all dorfs are untrained. They learn fast enough anyway.

2 miners. Initially only one mines, as I start with a single tile corridor. When it's time to build rooms I engage the second one, and from then on miners rarely are given any other tasks.

I disable all hauling, building, and destruction from fully dedicated dwarves (which differs over time), but start with miner and wood cutter.

1 Carpenter. Frequently also given the woodcutter task, and usually architect as well.
1 Mason. Also architect.
1 Mechanic. Also architect.
1 Farmer.
1 Stone/Wood/Bone crafter (the last skill is usually not used). Frequently architect as well.

Someone who isn't miner or woodcutter gets the task of "militia", i.e. appointed to a one dwarf squad and equipped with the spare axe. If wildlife needs to be whacked, this dorf will have to be sent out (rhesus monkeys need to be taken care of, since they cause a lot of trouble).

At the start I set everyone except the miner and woodcutter on herb gathering to a food stockpile in front of the entrance to be. I tend to cut out the outlines of the courtyard and trade depot in the stockpile to reduce the risk of stuff getting in the way of the building. This is basically overlaid with a pasture/meeting area to get the animals in a reasonable place.

As soon as there are some logs, I shift some dorfs to build the courtyard, something like 10 * 10, with a 3 tile opening. The first year I put my trade depot here (built during the third month of summer), and move it in time for the next caravan (usually only the dorfs and gobbos are left on my maps, so I only get dorf caravans, usually). The area is decked over and i often build a guard dog box on top, with a grate to get the dog supervise all comings and goings.

When the miner hits some rock I build my first drawbridge to plug the entrance into the ground (unless I went straight down, in which case it will appear when I go horizontal). The second drawbridge is put at the end of the entrance corridor, and the third one plugs the courtyard (eventually).

I start with digging out a farm area (and let the farmer actually perform his craft) and follow that up with a workshop area. Then workshops can be built, in particular a central quantum stockpile.
If the fauna appears to be of the thieving kind I try to set up a temporary stockpile in the entrance corridor to try to save some things. This stockpile can later be changed to take from links only and link to the QS, to slowly drain it. Initially I feed the workshop QS only "important" stuff, i.e. excluding food (which never goes there), as well as wood and stone.

A few early cage traps are produced and placed in the entrance corridor to catch local intrusive wildlife (kea's are especially annoying).

Since I bring a fair number of birds on embark, the next section is kitchen, butcher, tanner, and indoor pen, and the birds are then allocated to that pen instead, and I also move the meeting area designation here from the top one, which helps the critters to move by themselves.

Next comes an initial food stockpile (specialized piles should already be designated in the farming area for underground seeds, brewables, and threshables). As food stockpiles are set up, the corresponding items are removed from the temporary outdoor one, and the outdoor pile is changed to take from links only and give to the other piles to slowly be drained.

Time to add a dining hall, which I want to start out as about 11*11, to be expanded to 4 times that (it will double as the command center, so here is where the levers go). A table is put in the corner (which will become the center of the full room), and dining/meeting hall is constructed. The meeting area function is then removed from the fowl pen. The drawbridges are actually useless until I've built the levers here and connected them, but I've never been attacked this early. The emergency measure would be to just plug the entrance tunnel with a wall.

Now it's time to give the dorfs some rooms and beds. Usually I just manage to supply my starting 7 when the first migrants arrive.

Then I shift the miners to cut the real trade depot tunnel, as I want it nice and long. Somewhere in the process I also expand the courtyard with a fairly short trade depot approach (see previous post), decked over and with a dog guard house on top (if I'd deployed a dog already he's moved), an additional drawbridge, and 1 -3 cage trap arrays.

All of this will have to be adapted and adjusted to topography, geology, wildlife, and starting team special strengths, and, of course, be totally changed to suit the chosen play style.

[Violet]

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone for all the help they've given me so far (Seriously, 12 replies, at least half of which have been paragraphs long, you guys are awesome.)

It seems right now my main problem is trying to get too much done before the migrant waves come in, in my current fort, I have a shortish-fairly trapped entrance hallway with a ballista at the end, a rudimentary dining room with 3 tables and chairs, a well, a mediumish size farm, a very rudimentary barracks (Which hardly matters considering my only militia are currently dead), a small grave-area, more meager quarters than my dwarves need, most of the workshops, and a cubic ton of storage. (Not to mention the un-tested drowning chamber at my trade outpost, which will quickly become a tested drowning chamber with the next Elven caravan that comes through) Although, it just became Summer as I finished the drowning chamber. I'd love to upload the save, or give a few screenshots of my current fort so that everyone has an idea of what I'm doing but I don't as of writing have access to the computer on which the fort is stored.

Sadly I don't have much of any good idea on how herbalism and training animals works, so I've mostly stayed away from those particular industries, instead opting for creating and encrusting ludicrous amounts of stone goods for trade.

(Also, it's a shame that there are no 16-legged fire-breathing tarantula's with diamond skin. Woulda made a lovely addition to my soon-to-be dungeon [only used for dropping attackers in and the odd elven prisoner])

[GhostDwemer]

I almost never focus on defense until the first winter, unless I am embarking in a dangerous spot. First priority: get a space dug out in dirt, start farms. Then build basic workshops: mason, carpenter, mechanic, crafts, jeweler, kitchen, still, butcher, tanner, fishery, all in the soil levels. Then some cage traps in the entryway. Next, exploratory digging to find the first cavern and maybe some metal. On finding metal, I set up a smelter and a forge in the dug-out vein of ore. Only then do I make the first bedrooms and start pumping out furniture. Finally, a trade depot, and start cranking out some spiked wooden balls for trade, they are absurdly valuable.

[vjmdhzgr]

Herbalism is probably the simplest form of food production. Just enable the plant gathering labor on a dwarf, then press d then p then go to a corner of the map on the lowest aboveground level and press enter, then the opposite corner of the map on the highest aboveground level and press enter again. That dwarf will then gather all the plants that were on the map at the time you did that. It'll start out slow if the dwarf isn't skilled, but so does everything and like everything it gets really fast and easy. The problem is that it requires wide open spaces which aren't always available and farming can be set up more permanently, but for early on herbalism is the best way of getting food.