Dwarf Fortress > DF Dwarf Mode Discussion

Rapid wealth acquisition

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Derakon:
This is something that occurred to me while reading a thread on attracting sieges. What's the fastest way to accumulate wealth? For example:

 * Dwarven syrup roasts require a skilled grower and a skilled cook. They also require a growing season, so if you need wealth immediately they're a poor choice (however, once you've started a large farm plot going, you can get lots of sweet pods -- up to 200 stacks -- three seasons out of four). Maximum value for one syrup roast involves four stacks of 11 sweet pods each for a stack size of 220, giving a value per stack of 184800, if I did my math right. Also instant diabetes for any dwarf consuming the stuff, but that's a minor detail. Here, the advantage is that each item produced has a huge quality, and there's relatively little hauling involved. But you need to make certain that hauling happens pronto -- losing a hundred thousand dwarfbucks to rot would be painful.
 * Making mug crafts turns one rock into three craft goods worth up to 120 * material modifier each. For obsidian, this could make 1040 wealth for each rock. You need a skilled stonecrafter for this, and lots of haulers to keep his workshop clear. Here, the advantage is that you get three items per job, and the items can be compactly stored.
 * Mechanisms have a higher base value that most other items; a no-quality mechanism made from junk rock is worth 60. A masterpiece obsidian mechanism is thus worth 2160 (36 times the base value). This is faster than stonecrafts and requires fewer hauling jobs, but you can only store one mechanism per tile and they're heavy, making them somewhat poor trade goods.

And so on. Other major industries for trade: weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, anvilsmithing, clothmaking, decorating goods (to convert imported stuff into fortress-made stuff). Setting up a captive breeding program for rare and valuable creatures? What's the most valuable breedable creature (in material terms), anyway?

If you're going to dedicate your entire fortress to the task of producing wealth, what's the best way? Which jobs are worth pursuing, and which should be ignored? How many dwarves should be dedicated haulers? How does this change if your goal is the most wealth in one month? In three? In a year?

Lord_Shadow:
I find smoothing, then engraving you entire fortress adds massive wealth to your fortress and only takes about a year, if you have 2 or 3 engravers (if you start with smoothing they will most likely be legendary by the time they start smoothing).

Martin:
Cooking. GCS harvesting, if you are so endowed, and straight-out tapping the HFS.

Quality matter for most of those things. If your map permits it, I will note that fire snake extraction is very easy to start (flasks, traps, some meat) and turns out items valued at 520-600 a pop and requires no skills.  It's not sustainable since you'll empty the map at some point but for an early economy, it's a pretty good one.

Long term sustainable it's cooking. Just can't be beat.

Albedo:
Steel Plate mail is worth 3000 x quality. That's 1000/bar (x quality!), and that's pretty good if you have the ingredients.

High-value ore statues are counted twice - once for the statue, and again when you place it as furniture - with platinum/aluminum, that's another 2k x quality.

Probably doesn't compare to a milk/milk/milk/milk roast, but it's how I do it. Can usually get about 1/4 M by 1st caravan, couple/few by 2nd, and I know I'm not trying.

FlexibleDogma:
Does encrusting ammo still work?  That is, when you decorate ammo each bit gets the full value modifier?  It's cheating, but if you're just doing it to bring in the sieges I can't imagine who would complain. :P

Metal value * 25 (bolts) * quality + (10 * decoration value * quality)*251  ... + (10 * decoration value * quality)*25n = tons

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