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Author Topic: Help with job assignment  (Read 692 times)

Inconspicuous

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Help with job assignment
« on: April 26, 2017, 03:04:01 pm »

So, I'm having fun so far, and I am beginning to build my fortress in the caverns. I have one problem though: Jobs. I have no idea who to assign what, how many workers I need for each, and what I should do about my military situation (The current squad consists of a bunch of elderly ladies and two teenagers, completely untrained).

So, I need to know how many people I need for each of these jobs to get them done well:
Mining
Carpentry/woodworking
Masonry/stone working
Fishing
Farming/Plant processing/Brewing/Cooking
Woodcutting
Anything else I need that I didn't think of.

(TL;DR: How many dwarfs should I assign to the basic necessary industries so I can get them taken care of and work on other more complex industries?)
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StagnantSoul

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2017, 04:15:32 pm »

What I generally do when my fort gets larger:

1 cook, 1 dyer and weaver, one clothesmaker, a potter if available, one of each craft (bone, stone, metal), one mason, one carpenter, a jeweler doing both steps of the process, three growers, one weapon smith, one armour smith, three smelters, brewing, butchery, and tanning turned on for everyone, a few hunters, five woodcutters, the rest miners.

Basically in the major usage things that I need a lot of like a mason to put out tables and a carpenter for chairs and such, and crafts, I let someone get specialized in that and only that, all menial labours turned off for them, while lesser labours like smelting and growing will be handed out in trios, and everything without skill levels to everyone.
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Dunamisdeos

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2017, 06:33:16 pm »

Truthfully? It depends on how much of each of those things you intend to do.

I usually end up with

3-4 miners
1-2 carpenters/woodcutters
Lots and lots of masons. I usually run 9 mason shops. so... 20-30 masons? I build things.
I don't fish. Your map can run out of fish.
Everyone who isn't in the military or has a specialized job (weaponsmith, etc) is a farmer.
4 dedicated brewers.
I usually just chuck a couple farmers into the role of clothesmaking/weaving and churn out a few hundred outfits every few years.
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Thisfox

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2017, 07:31:02 pm »

Early on, I have two to three miners. Later I might (if I'm doing a really diggy fort) get a few more trained up, or keep it at three.

I keep a gemcutter and a jeweller, with seperate jobs. I keep a dyer/weaver (or two, if I'm in spider country, for web retrieval) and a clothier, and give both of those professions plant gathering as an optional extra, for when they're not busy dying, weaving, spiderweb gathering or making clothes.

I make sure I have at least double the number of tanners to butchers/animal dissectors. This is because of a history of dorfs not tanning the hides. We NEED those hides dammit! I also have a leatherworker, who again has plant gathering or somat similar for when he's not making clothes.

I keep at least two woodworkers and at least two masons, and regulate what they make. It pays off to have one of the masons not a miner.

If anydorf arrives with the fishing ability turned on, I just turn it back off again. This is not a third party software thing: I'm playing vanilla, but I just check out his abilities and turn off the ones I don't need. Fisherdorfs usually get pressed into the military, or taught to gather plants (plants produce booze, fish don't). I still leave their ability to clean and cut up fish turned on, but it annoys me when they fill the fort with fish I don't need, whilst getting hit by explosive trees, eaten by angry bears, trapped on the other side of the creek, falling through the ice and robbed by keamen. Better they go do something more productive.

It all depends on what you want done, how much you want it done, and how often, so everyones answer will be different.
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StagnantSoul

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2017, 09:04:32 pm »

It all depends on what you want done, how much you want it done, and how often, so everyones answer will be different.

That is quite true, I looked at the both of your answers and was wondering what the hell through the most of it, though my forts are often pseudo-caste systems with labours determining rank and how close they work to the Molten Father/lava sea. I doubt you guys micro your dwarves as highly.
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Inconspicuous

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2017, 09:20:16 pm »

Okay. Does anyone know any good starting embark scenarios? And is it worth downgrading to 43.03 to use DT? What will I miss out on from 43.05?
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StagnantSoul

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #6 on: April 26, 2017, 09:28:16 pm »

Okay. Does anyone know any good starting embark scenarios? And is it worth downgrading to 43.03 to use DT? What will I miss out on from 43.05?

There's a version of DT that works with the new version.
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Snafu

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #7 on: April 26, 2017, 09:37:23 pm »

So, I need to know how many people I need for each of these jobs to get them done well:
Mining
Carpentry/woodworking
Masonry/stone working
Fishing
Farming/Plant processing/Brewing/Cooking
Woodcutting
Anything else I need that I didn't think of.
Where your priorities lie depend upon your current embark. If you've landed in an area with no trees, a woodcutter won't do you much good; likewise fishers with no water. However..

Miners, carpenters & masons train up pretty quickly doing their basic jobs, so from embark time they'll be a little slower to get your fortress dug out & basically equipped, but they'll work up to the fancy beds etc eventually. Likewise cooking/brewing/farming skills tend to train up pretty quickly & don't have a debuff to low skill, although low-skill farmers won't produce/gather as much crop(s) for the seeds they sow

Fishers will do almost nothing but fish. Assign a /separate/ cleaner to each fisher (& remember to build a fishery near the fishing area) or 2 if you want not to buried in rotting fish, & don't rely on your fishers doing /anything/ other than fishing (including hauling, building, fish or other cleaning etc). Wiki links recommend 1 cleaner per 4 fishers for max efficiency, but 1:1 or 2:1 seems to work better IMO

Mechanic & architect should be enabled on everyone unless you're trying to build something special; having the job done quickly almost always outweighs the good thoughts of having the job done well, especially if you're short on dwarf-power! Mechanics gain good thoughts from producing masterwork mechanisms or traction benches, but they have little advantage once constructed.. Butchery/tanning likewise

Speaking of which, are you talking about an embark (7 dwarves) or an established fort? Having more ppl to order around can be a pain, but it's mostly useful..

At the beginning you'll have too many jobs for not enough ppl; at the end you'll have too many ppl for not enough jobs (unless they all die due to. well, almost anything you can imagine)
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StagnantSoul

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #8 on: April 26, 2017, 09:40:36 pm »

So, I need to know how many people I need for each of these jobs to get them done well:
Mining
Carpentry/woodworking
Masonry/stone working
Fishing
Farming/Plant processing/Brewing/Cooking
Woodcutting
Anything else I need that I didn't think of.
Where your priorities lie depend upon your current embark. If you've landed in an area with no trees, a woodcutter won't do you much good; likewise fishers with no water. However..

Miners, carpenters & masons train up pretty quickly doing their basic jobs, so from embark time they'll be a little slower to get your fortress dug out & basically equipped, but they'll work up to the fancy beds etc eventually. Likewise cooking/brewing/farming skills tend to train up pretty quickly & don't have a debuff to low skill, although low-skill farmers won't produce/gather as much crop(s) for the seeds they sow

Fishers will do almost nothing but fish. Assign a /separate/ cleaner to each fisher (& remember to build a fishery near the fishing area) or 2 if you want not to buried in rotting fish, & don't rely on your fishers doing /anything/ other than fishing (including hauling, building, fish or other cleaning etc). Wiki links recommend 1 cleaner per 4 fishers for max efficiency, but 1:1 or 2:1 seems to work better IMO

Mechanic & architect should be enabled on everyone unless you're trying to build something special; having the job done quickly almost always outweighs the good thoughts of having the job done well, especially if you're short on dwarf-power! Mechanics gain good thoughts from producing masterwork mechanisms or traction benches, but they have little advantage once constructed.. Butchery/tanning likewise

Speaking of which, are you talking about an embark (7 dwarves) or an established fort? Having more ppl to order around can be a pain, but it's mostly useful..

At the beginning you'll have too many jobs for not enough ppl; at the end you'll have too many ppl for not enough jobs (unless they all die due to. well, almost anything you can imagine)

Actually the quality of a mechanism effects weapon traps.
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Quote from: Eric Blank
Places to jibber madly at each other, got it
Quote from: NJW2000
If any of them are made of fire, throw stuff, run, and think non-flammable thoughts.

Thisfox

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #9 on: April 26, 2017, 10:52:19 pm »

Okay. Does anyone know any good starting embark scenarios? And is it worth downgrading to 43.03 to use DT? What will I miss out on from 43.05?
There's a version of DT that works with the new version.

I've never seen the attraction of using the extra software. I love my DF being vanilla. The only thing I desperately want is the ability to tell dorfs to clean the same way I tell them to dig, dammit.
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vanatteveldt

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #10 on: April 26, 2017, 11:10:44 pm »

Okay. Does anyone know any good starting embark scenarios? And is it worth downgrading to 43.03 to use DT? What will I miss out on from 43.05?

There's a version of DT that works with the new version.

I switched from DT to the built-in dfhack manipulator and I think it works just fine. There's a couple features I miss (assigning to military squads from the jobs screen, some custom filtering) but it beats having to run separate applications IMHO.
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Inconspicuous

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #11 on: April 27, 2017, 09:18:33 am »

Well, a slightly developed fort, after the first two default waves of migrants.
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Ggobs

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #12 on: April 27, 2017, 12:10:33 pm »

For the embarking party I have two miners, 1 farmer/cooker/brewer/plant gatherer, 1 mason/stone crafter, 1 woodcutter/carpenter, 1 jeweler/clother/leather worker/butcher/tanner, 1 misc. After that I use DT to mass-assign any idle dwarves to jobs that I want done that aren't getting done. BY a pop of 40 most are getting recruited into the military.
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azrael4h

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Re: Help with job assignment
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2017, 09:01:26 pm »

I always start with 3 miners, 1 solider-dwarf, and 3 masons, with the masons also generally having other needed skills. By the time I get settled in terms of labor, I have 8 masons, 10 miners, and 2 of everything else at least, though a lot of jobs are handled by off-duty military as after a point I just conscript all adults, Halldistance, at time of retirement, had 140 standard military, and 10 in the Guard. All civilians are placed in squads as well, mostly reserve squads that train one month a year. That gives me more control over them during emergencies. Also I can have them wear armor full time, which may slow them down alot, but doesn't wear out like clothing. Better for fps I think.

I always turn off hunting and fishing labors. Food is easy to come by as it is, and I can just import fish and turtles if I really want to. Again, going by Halldistance's standards, I had 6k in drink steady and 8k in prepared meals, plus thousands of units of plants and eggs basically waiting for a pot to be cooked or brewed into. 200+ Dwarves and around 40 freeloadersvisitors. No fishing or hunting done, just an annual culling of adult dogs and occasionally male birds. I had resorted to giving the elves a quarter million dwarfbucks in food every spring to clear out stock. IMO dwarves could stand to eat more, though that may hurt early forts far more. Then again, between cheap plants and a good herbalist, not much excuse for running out of food. 
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