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[Rabid-GNN]

im pretty new to DF (only played for 3 days) and my broker/mayor broke into a fey mood
his requests were bones, metal bars and tanned hides
the mayor took some bones from a dead boar and got some bars from the traders (THANK GOD HE CAME)
but he is asking for hides
i made some dwarves make the hides (slaughtered a couple of dogs sadly, but i haven't gelded any of them so ill get them back) but they keep turning it into fucking leather and prevent me from giving it to the broker. I tried buying some hides from the trader but he didnt have any, just leather (i didnt request it last year)
3 of my dwarves already died from possession but this dwarf actually has importance because the dwarf was one of the original seven and came with extremely valuable skills (mostly just appraisal but thats important for a broker)

im not sure if mods can do a thing but since its normal to apply this to other games I'll provide the info: I only have DFHack and a tile modifier (phoebus)

[PatrikLundell]

When your moody dorf wants tanned hides that actually means leather, so that's as it should be. However, if he doesn't grab them, and you haven't forbidden them, he actually wants more of something else.  Since you slaughtered to get hides, you also acquired bones in the process, so I'd say he wants more bars. I think a mood can use up to 3 bars, although I'm not certain.
You can check what's he already collected by using 't' on the workshop he's claimed. The collected items should be shown together with TSK (i.e. involved in a task).
I'd double and triple check that he doesn't want anything else as well. Cloth, in particular, is annoying, because there are three different kinds (silk, plant, and wool), but only one of the moods specify the one required, so you have to guess.

And IF you lose him, it's not that important, since most skills are easily trained, and there is no point in making good deals, since the greater the profit they make, the more stuff they bring the next time.

If the caravan is still there, you can just use anyone to trade for more bars (if there are any left) by changing the "only broker can trade" into "anyone can trade", haul something to the depot (prepared meals are worth a lot and are easy to haul) to trade for more bars.

[xpi0t0s]

And if you're really stuck, then dfhack's "showmood" will give you lots more information (for educational purposes, of course).

[Rabid-GNN]

i didnt fix the situation but the broker went into a beserker rage and i sent my 3 squads to kill him
he died within 3 seconds
2 squads of wrestlers and marksdwarves (i don't have the metal to make swords :I)

[PatrikLundell]

Bah! Metal on the embark makes it too easy. Rely on goblinite! (But I confess I DO use a lot of glass). In a pinch you can make "stone swords" from obsidian and wood.

[Niddhoger]

i didnt fix the situation but the broker went into a beserker rage and i sent my 3 squads to kill him
he died within 3 seconds
2 squads of wrestlers and marksdwarves (i don't have the metal to make swords :I)

This is... problematic.  Ordering your dorfs to kill each other creates loyalty cascades which can lead to more tantrums in the future.  The best way to handle un-fulfilled strange moods is to lock that dorf into his workshop.  Once he goes insane, he'll eventually dehydrate.  Unlock the door/bury him/reclaim that workshop.  This is why I build walls around all my moodable workshops and install doors. 

Another reason why he went insane could be that he wanted a SPECIFIC type of animal leather.  Did he have a preference for any other specific animals skins? Most preferences are ignored if you haven't produced at least one of them yet, but I'm not sure if they'll actually demand draaltha leather over cat leather.  Metals and glass work this way, but cloth follows different rules.  A preference for rope reed really just means "will only take plant-based cloth" in a strange mood. 

[PatrikLundell]

Are you sure preferences work this way, Niddhoger?
I'm not certain myself, but my understanding was that for specific materials (such as e.g. copper) they'd take that if it's available, but any metal bars will do in a pinch (and I think they'll take candy if they can). However, I believe your description is correct for e.g. green glass, so if you've produced any at any time, it can be mooded for, and presumably the same goes for clear and crystal glass as well, but in the glass case the moods are specific as to which kind of glass they want, while for metal it's a generic category.

[Loci]

Another reason why he went insane could be that he wanted a SPECIFIC type of animal leather.

AFAIK, dwarves will not demand specific types of leather.

 

I'm not certain myself, but my understanding was that for specific materials (such as e.g. copper) they'd take that if it's available, but any metal bars will do in a pinch (and I think they'll take candy if they can).

Nope. Metal will be chosen by preference, *if* you have smelted any bars of that metal. A dwarf with a preference for copper will demand adamantine wafers (if any are available/unforbidden), copper bars (if any have been smelted), or any metal bars in exactly that order. Once the selection is made (prior to the pause dialogue), the dwarf will go insane rather than substitute another type of metal (even adamantine!).

[Rabid-GNN]

haha thanks for the info; as i remember he didnt ask for a specific, only a tanned hide
welp anyways he died but my millitia commander became possessed and only needed cloth (THANK GOD)
he made a silk spider cloth that im planning on reserving for him
if he doesnt die to a forgotten beast that i just found literally 30 seconds before i started typing (once again im sending the entire 3 squads to fuck him UP)
NEVERMIND THE FORGOTTEN BEAST KILLED EVERYONE BEFORE I COULD EVEN GIVE THE ORDERS

they're dead
they're all dead

http://imgur.com/2oYTgZA
it HAD to be webs didnt it

[PatrikLundell]

I meant to say what Loci said, but poor wording caused it to turn out wrong (good to have people who can actually provide correct descriptions). His comment about selection before the pause is significant, though, because that means you cannot protect e.g. your precious steel bars from being used in a steel scepter or some such waste, by forbidding them when the pause occurs.

Getting distracted from DF by typing can be hazardous to your dorfs' health, but discovery of an FB should auto pause, unless you have changed the announcement info, giving you plenty of time to give orders (after which everyone is killed before the orders are carried out anyway...).
I usually deal with FBs the opposite way, i.e. RUN AWAAAY!!!!, close the drawbridges, build FB killing device baited with juicy door, open the outer drawbridge, wait for the bugger to get eliminated (and deal with other caverns in the mean time).
And webs are a lot nicer than fire, which sets everything on fire and causes a general mess.

[Rabid-GNN]

Getting distracted from DF by typing can be hazardous to your dorfs' health, but discovery of an FB should auto pause, unless you have changed the announcement info, giving you plenty of time to give orders (after which everyone is killed before the orders are carried out anyway...).
I usually deal with FBs the opposite way, i.e. RUN AWAAAY!!!!, close the drawbridges, build FB killing device baited with juicy door, open the outer drawbridge, wait for the bugger to get eliminated (and deal with other caverns in the mean time).
And webs are a lot nicer than fire, which sets everything on fire and causes a general mess.

even so, im not experienced as any of you and i couldn't build a trap against that thing (not to mention it also killed my miners so i couldnt attempt to collapse any of my stairs

[PatrikLundell]

Getting trashed by FBs is part of the DF learning curve...

There are two broad strategies for FB handling:
- Brute force. Have a large number of militia that's sent en masse to eliminate threats. Replace losses with immigration.
- Turtling. Hide behind closed drawbridges at the slightest sign of trouble.

Most people lie between these two extreme approaches, of course. I'm quite close to the second one, though, so I build airlocking entrances to the caverns (a corridor with a drawbridge in each end). I have cage traps in the airlock (won't do anything against FBs, though). Only when those basic defenses are built do I send a miner to remove the last tile of rock to reach the cavern (obviously, I need to know where the cavern is, so the very first step is probing mining, i.e. vertical staircases mined out until I hit a cavern. At that time I cancel the remaining digging (below the cavern) and order the building of an Up staircase i the staircase [thus blocking access downwards/from below] close to the point there the cavern was breached (I often select a place where the mining left a rock, to make the plugging of the breach as quick as possible).
I explore/map a cavern with my "militia" (i.e. the one out of the starting seven to whom I gave the second axe) using station orders, and I do that only when the current batch of cavern critters are benign. At any hint of trouble I withdraw and close the outer drawbridge and wait for safer times for further activity. When a cavern has been mapped, I start to seal it by bricking up the open accesses to the side, typically with drawbridges in them to selectively let critters in. Again, that bricking is done during "safe" periods, and I withdraw the workforce using civilian alert burrows. My latest edge bricking strategy is to (normally) leave a single tile space on the edge, and thus build the wall one tile out from the edge (to allow new critters to spawn in the gap). If the opening is higher than one Z level, I build ramps up to the top of the wall, a floor over the drawbridge, and a wall flush with the edge. If the height is higher than two I build staircases on the bottommost wall segment to reach the top.
The reasons for this strategy are twofold: a single tile space won't be blocked by trees, and I've had trouble in the past with critters climbing the wall (on the outside) and then just sit there in a big cluster, refusing to move an be replaced by new critters.
Once the entrances to a caverns have been secured, the cavern is fully secured and can be used without restrictions. At this time I extend the drawbridges in the walls with access tunnels and a second drawbridge to create airlocks, an place cage traps in the airlock (this allows me to let desirable critters in to get caught in the traps, for instance Giant Cave Spiders (GCS) for future silk farming) A door serves as bait for building destroyers.
When an FB appears, I typically build a number of Menacing Spike traps between the cage traps and the door in the appropriate airlock (typically 10 green glass menacing spikes in each trap) and hook those up to a mine cart repeater. When the building of the trap is done, the repeater is started and the outer drawbridge is lowered. I then sit and wait for the FB to go to destroy the door, and as soon as it enters the airlock I close the outer drawbridge so it's contained even if the trap fails to kill it. Usually, though, the FB is killed while it's trying to destroy the door. If the FB is not killed, you can either keep it locked up and open up a new entrance, or continue on to build a cave-in trap to deal with it.

[Niddhoger]

I've been forced to eat a zinc sword once because of that.  I was on a metal-poor site that required me to melt down trader/goblinite fodder for all my metal needs.  So I'd buy and smelt down junk metal items to stockpile for later moods.  However, one weaponsmith also liked zinc... so when he mooded I forbade everything except for steel.  He sat there for weeks until I unforbid the zinc... and cried as he snatched it up.  It eventually went into a weapon trap for a noble's room.  Its like when choosing nobles... you have to be careful with their preferences.  If he doesn't like any items, but still loves a material you regularly export (say, gold) he can still cause you problems by banning your main source of $$$

Eh... the first cavern layer doesn't have anything really dangerous in it.  Even a GCS will fall to a a handful of dorfs (it typically webs one and tries to finish it off, leaving itself exposed to other attacks instead of webbing everyone first).  GCS don't actively hunt your dorfs either.  I do build an airlock as you do, but once I have a line of cage-traps up I leave it open.  I'll send herbalists, miners, web-collectors, and wood-cutters down there.  If I see something dangerous, I'll either withdraw and turtle up, or send in the military for some "live training."  What gets caught in the traps is semi-tamed (for animal trainer experience) and either butchered, used as more live training, or kept as an early defense.  A horde of "pastured" Draaltha, giant toads, gorlacks, cave crocs, etc at you front gate easily decimates early invaders. 

For dealing with FBs, I actually tend to capture them and make a menagerie out of them.  You can't trap them normally, but you can use a secondary set of airlocks to "corral" them where you want.  So off that main airlock is a secondary airlock that also leads into my fort.  I'll close the first airlock and leave the second entirely open.  When the FB wanders into it (probably baited witha  door or puppy), I'll close this airlock and seal him in.  Off this airlock, is at least another raised bridge used as a wall.  I'll then carve a tunnel leading from there to the room I actually want to keep the FB, and then open it up.  Thus, I can have FB's directly underneath my throne room to toss elves into

Fire-breathing ones can be turreted at the front of your base.  Build a room lined with fortifications and sealable with raised bridges.  Let it toss fireballs at approaching zombies and goblins.  When they get too close, you can raise hte bridges (fire FBs tend to be very fragile).  You can also "milk" a web-slinging FB like you would a GCS, but the silk has no value multiplier (same as normal spider silk), but it just seems so dorfy to capture this ancient monstrosity... then use it to make warm fuzzy socks >D 

Syndrome-spitting FB's can be used to coat your weapons.  Similar to GCS "milking" set ups, you just place a weapon stockpile (no bins) behind your bait animal/elf.  Then make sure your haulers/soldiers have gloves on when they go to pick up the weapons.  Behold! You know have swords that instantly cause goblins and hippies to vomit blood, praise Armok!

In general, you need to actually examine that FB and see its properties before just sending the militia in.  If it has a rock/metal hide you should be cautious.  Steel FB's do exist... Fire spitting and poison/web-spewing are also army-slayers.  If the FB is also made of fire (or steam/mist/ash), a single bolt can take it out.  But if it is sturdier and spews poison mist that causes unconsciousness/paralyzation (or just lights everyone on fire)? Sending in more dorfs just means building more coffins.  Btw, do you know what happens when a flaming dorf runs into your booze stockpile?  For these you have to use traps (spikes, drowning chambers, cave ins, etc)  I lured one into a ballistae corridor once to very satisfying results (I build mine 100+ tiles deep, so the FB was pincushioned long before it could get in range).  Or... as I said, make them pets with a series of airlocks

[PatrikLundell]

Gorlaks cannot be tamed as far as I know, and they're also lousy fighters, so when I happen to catch one in my traps i toss it into my invader incinerator (a pitting tile with magma in it), once I've gotten one constructed.
Captured animals are kept in cages for animal trainer training as well as fortress/civilization training knowledge gathering, but grazers are slaughtered after training (or they starve unless pastured).

As can be seen, though, there are various ways both to solve problems and to do dwarfy things to enjoy DF.

[Niddhoger]

hmmmm could have sworn I trained a gorlak... must have been something else.  So long as you have two animal trainers that don't have any other labors enabled, its perfectly safe to leave the wild animals "free range"  I mostly keep them out of the cages to avoid cleaning several seeds out of cages. As I said though, they can be -very- effective against early invaders.  I killed of 11 goblins from a first year invasion (back when they were buggy) with roughly the same number of critters.  I think I lost one of them.