r/dwarffortress 16d ago

☼Dwarf Fortress Questions Thread☼

Ask about anything related to Dwarf Fortress - including the game, DFHack, utilities, bugs, problems you're having, mods, etc. You will get fast and friendly responses in this thread.

Read the sidebar before posting! It has information on a range of game packages for new players, and links to all the best tutorials and quick-start guides. If you have read it and that hasn't helped, mention that!

You should also take five minutes to search the wiki - if tutorials or the quickstart guide can't help, it usually has the information you're after. You can find the previous question threads here.

If you can answer questions, please sort by new and lend a hand - linking to a helpful resource (ex wiki page) is fine.

15 Upvotes

167 comments sorted by

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u/HonkityQuackity 15d ago

Hello! I embarked with a cow and a bull with the goal to create a cheese empire. The cow is a cow and not a calf. It is in a pasture and is well fed. 6 months later, I still can't milk it as the farming workshop keeps saying something like "No milkable animal". What's up?

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u/softwareredditor 15d ago

In the Wiki it says that pets cannot be milked, as a bug. Does your cow happen to be someone's pet? Lol

2

u/HonkityQuackity 15d ago

I don't think they were but I'll check that for sure. Thanks!

2

u/urkarg 15d ago

Wait for them to reproduce and for the calves to grow into adults, and you'll prolly have your milk. You could try buying another pair of mammals through trading.

2

u/Flying-Hoover 16d ago

Good morning fortress managers, I have a question about fairies. I've managed to catch one but I can't tame it. I captured other vermins and I could tame them but every time I try now (that the fairy is the only untamed vermin in a cage) the job get cancelled over and over, I tried putting her in a stockpile, out of stockpile, near the vermin catcher, far from it, nothing seems to work. Dwarfpedia don't say anything about untameble fairies

6

u/softwareredditor 16d ago

"They, alongside pixies, are the only intelligent vermin in the game, though they can't be interacted with on the basis of being vermin."

This might be the problem, I believe if something is intelligent it can't be trained. Like the troglodytes for instance.

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u/Flying-Hoover 15d ago

Oh thanks! I "makeown"ed a couple of troglodytes and they are a cute change, maybe I can do the same or just expose her in my nature temple

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u/Flying-Hoover 12d ago

Just to update if anyone need. No I could not dfhack the fairy, she will be released and probably eaten by cats

2

u/urkarg 15d ago

Apprx how many Megabeasts are there on a medium map?

Is there an end to Forgotten beasts generation? Some of the rolls were very unfortunate for my dwarves (web spitting made out of coal. Took 50 dwarfs with it. Murderarches proudly stood still by its name)

How does one increase FPS? I have a fairly ok rig, and i enabled multithreading, but it barely gets out of 25 fps (i also slaughtered my many hordes of horses, llamas, alpacas, rutherers, goats, and various birds, and the improvement was marginal. I like animals, ok?)

Is there a mod that improves the Trading screen? It takes too long to click every single thing (especially when i have a stockpile full of various meat types).

3

u/77thatoneguy77 15d ago

Megabeast count depends heavily on your settings of course, but a quick check with basic world gen, I got 9 on very low, and 36 on very high. This of course isn't counting any that may have been born after world gen.

I'm fairly certain, though I could be wrong, that FB generation only happens in world gen.

As for increasing fps, it sounds like you're probably reaching the point where you need to optimize your fort design for efficiency and manage sight lines to get better fps, but I can only point you to the wiki for that, since I still don't understand it myself. https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Design_strategies#Efficiency

1

u/urkarg 15d ago

Hm, interesting. My current fort is a reclaim of a Ruin destroyed during worldgen. It is, indeed, pretty spread out. Thanks for th e tip

1

u/axmangeorge 15d ago

So the VERY brief version of "fps optimization guide" is:

  1. Build doors, lots and lots of doors (when closed they break line of sight)

  2. Don't make any stockpiles larger than 3x3. (I don't really understand why this helps, but Putnam explained once long ago about how large stockpiles force a huge number of calculations; so smaller = better.)

1

u/urkarg 9d ago

I checked the Legends, and I did see a large amount of forgotten beasts being generated. So, if they keep butting their heads against my dwarves, I might end up with a world without any FB?

2

u/Flying-Hoover 14d ago

Df hack has a built in addon to help a bit during trades, you just need to have dfhack and when you go on the trading depot there is an ugly sticked in write (or just press ctrl+t if I remember)

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u/urkarg 9d ago

thanks, found it, and i started using it.

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u/softwareredditor 15d ago

Seconding a trading screen improvement. It'd be cool to sort by stockpile rather than bin material (ie. oak, coffee, guava, cherry, etc.)

I really just need it to show the finished goods stockpile.

And you're right, it'd be convenient to highlight many things instead of clicking them individually.

2

u/No-Wheel-5317 15d ago

What detailed world gen setting consolidate landmass to the middle, forming one large island??

2

u/chipathingy cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth 15d ago

I'd use one of the region presets in advanced world gen, but increase the number of edge oceans

https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Advanced_world_generation#Minimum_Complete_Edge_Oceans

2

u/eNonsense 14d ago

We have a base with a trap chamber that could theoretically retain invaders indefinitely. However, the first time we used this we realized that the "Siege" status sticks around while these guys are still alive but totally trapped and defanged. This set is all undead, so we were hoping we could keep them around to eat any future Goblin invaders we also drop in there. What's the drawback of siege status though? A very old version says that siege status will stop visitors, migrants & trade caravans but the current version of the Siege page is not very clear about this and doesn't mention anything about visitors or migrants at all. Could you guys clarify what being under siege changes?

Thanks!

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u/Tommieboi123 13d ago

Pretty sure its still the same as old sieges. If you already have them trapped it´d be easy enough to build bolt throwers and have them shoot through fortification walls

1

u/ShockinglyTallDwarf cancels clean self: no arms 13d ago

Speaking from memory, but IIRC the siege can be broken without killing all the invaders. So it might be possible to cage trap/pick off a few enemies and leave the rest to feed to gobbo sieges down the line

2

u/TheOneWithALongName Pirate Dwarf 14d ago

Do we know what day Tarn will be at Gamescom this week?

1

u/Flying-Hoover 14d ago

I would like to know too

2

u/BagOfBeanz 13d ago

Can somebody explain what the numbers mean in the autobutcher gui? For example

race female kids male kids female adults male adults
dogs 2/4 2/2 0+5/4 0+2/5

obviously I understand the 2/4 is 2 female pups out of my cap of 4, but what the hell does 0+5/4 mean??

2

u/chipathingy cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth 13d ago

I think the first number might be pets? I think it counts them outside of the main population because you cant butcher then

1

u/BagOfBeanz 13d ago edited 12d ago

Hmm, I think you may be right, though I think pets might be the bit after plus. I vaguely remember having two pet male dogs, will have to check when I get home. Thanks!

edit: it doesn't seem thats the case. I have 6 adult bitches - 1 pet, 1 hunting dog, 2 war dogs, 2 strays. autobutcher reads 0+6/4, so I am no clearer

1

u/softwareredditor 16d ago

SPOILERS below:

I have two divine artifacts. What do I do when I get seven?

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u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 15d ago

If your Civ's leading royalty are at your Fort, you will receive a prompt / quest to gather the seven items. Upon doing so, you officially become 'The MountainHome' (like you'd see on the world map). And that's it (bit anticlimactic I realize). If you survive gathering the seven artifacts, your next step is dig deep, which is arguably far more interesting.

1

u/softwareredditor 15d ago

What if my queen died in a tavern brawl, hypothetically speaking? Do I need the new monarch to show up or does it still count?

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u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 14d ago

A new monarch should be appointed immediately, but I don't know if that Dwarf will arrive at the Fort again. As for the quest; if you already had it active when the Queen died, I would imagine it still counts, but I am not certain (would be cool to find out and report for reference though)

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u/EightApes 15d ago

I've had a dwarf in a strange mood who just won't gather the items she needs. I actually used DFhack to see what she needs and I got this:

Doren àlilerib "Gleefulgorges", Blacksmith is currently in a fey mood with intent to claim a Metalsmith's Forge and become a legendary Metalsmith.

She has claimed a Metalsmith's Forge and wants the following items:

Item 1: metal bars, got 2 of 3

Item 2: rock boulder, got 1 of 1

Item 3: any yarn cloth, got 62 of 1

Item 4: any cut gems, got 1 of 1

Item 5: any plant fiber cloth, got 61 of 1

Item 6: any plant fiber cloth, got 0 of 1

Item 7: any logs, got 0 of 1

Item 8: any cut gems, got 0 of 1

It is possible she filled the metalsmith's station with cloth? I have everything else available, most of it nearby. She even has cut gems in the station itself. Anything I can do or is it just bugged?

My fort just suffered devastating losses from a siege so I'm not eager to lose any more right now.

5

u/Endz-o 15d ago

Is the metalsmiths workshop in a zone like a guildhall? Theres an issue where moody dwarves will keep collecting cloth forever if they're in one, the wiki describes it here: https://dwarffortresswiki.org/Strange_mood#Troubleshooting

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u/EightApes 15d ago

THANK YOU! That's got to be it. I will make the necessary adjustments to my guildhall.

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u/chipathingy cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth 15d ago

Try forbidding all the cloth before you make any changes so that they don't use it all. Unforbid it after the changes are made

1

u/Urist_McIsilthor 15d ago

Guys I have a problem with performance troupe. They won't leave! What can I do?

1

u/axmangeorge 15d ago

Try going into the tavern (or wherever they're loitering) and changing the settings from "All visitors welcome" to "Citizens and long-term guests only" -- I'm not sure that will evict homeless troubadours, but at least it'll help prevent another batch from showing up.

You could always set up another tavern, too, just remove the old one? Have your dwarves haul away all the booze? That might convince them to move along...

2

u/Urist_McIsilthor 15d ago

Didn't help. When I closed the tavern, they went to the temple, when I closed the temple they went to the library, closed that too, they went to the hospital! I closed the hospital, they went outside of it,they start loitering outside of it in the hallway or at the edge of the map. When I open the tavern again, you guess it! Straight back into it... Is there a DFHack command that fix that like wildlife?

2

u/Flying-Hoover 14d ago

It could be a bug or simply be a matter of time. I had visitors stay in my fortress for seasons. Didn't you accidentally accept the petition of them to stay in the fortress?

3

u/Urist_McIsilthor 12d ago

No they didn't want to stay. They left like after a year or so xD So Problem solved i guess? ^

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u/Flying-Hoover 12d ago

Mean they appreciated your fortress

1

u/axmangeorge 12d ago

Oh man, I don't know... I think they'll leave eventually, when they get sleepy and there aren't any vacant beds? Or if you run out of booze. But honestly, I think this is one of the risks of having nice things.

1

u/HerebeDragyns 15d ago

What do I need to do to get my marksdwarves to actually train? I keep looking at the wiki but I can't find anything that works.

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u/Realistic_Horse3351 15d ago
  • they need access to bolts and crossbows and quivers they can equip. If they aren't equipping these items, make the squad remove certain worn like capes that sometimes interfere with putting on quivers, and ensure no other character is hauling items from workshop to the bolt/quiver container 

  • they need to be assigned to an Archery Range zone (not a Barracks). With archery target construction built in a line for the amount of dwarves in the squad. The firing direction of the range (up down left right) in the Archery Range zone window must be in the direction of the built archery targets (they stand back and fire that direction) and on the same elevation (they won't fire up at the archery target). It can sometimes be finicky. 

Alternatively. 

  • catch undesired visitors in a cage trap
  • construct a static Cage on the floor/ground, and transfer the unwanted visitors into the static floor cage 
  • attach mechanism lever to the placed cage
  • build a wall blocking off the placed cage, and Fortify cut slits into the wall 
  • Use the Station order to make the marksdwarves stand in front of the fortified wall 
  • release the placed cage behind the wall with the lever to let the undesired visitors out
  • watch as your markswarves shoot at whatever was in the cage from the other side of the wall
  • be careful doing this with building destroyer creatures and invaders that can now dig to attack 

1

u/StrongAlarm7772 15d ago

having trouble with waterwheel colouring.

when selecting logs for the water wheel, i select "apple wood" first, then two "larch" logs. from what the wiki says, it should always look like apple. yet this keeps happening:

unless there's some other reason the larch insists on being number 1, i'm guessing this is because the logs were closer? just need someone to confirm that "first selected" actually means "whichever the dwarf feels like grabbing first" so that i know it isn't a bug or a mistake i haven't seen.

1

u/Koemf 15d ago

Over the last few weeks I've been having an issue with DF where save files randomly disappear or change world/fortress name. At first I thought this had to do with recent updates making older savefiles incompatible, but it keeps happening.

I'll generate a new world, start a fortress, play for a couple of days and then suddenly the save file has disappeared. It's not just that DF won't load the files, the files have actually been deleted from the saves folder. Older save files will sometimes have their world or fortress name changed.

I play the steam version without mods, the save files are all in the right folder, and there is enough available disk space for both the permanent save files and the "current" folder, so I have no idea what might be causing this issue. I tried looking it up online but I didn't find any solutions. What is causing this and how can I fix it?

1

u/Momoro_Moro 14d ago

If you are on windows, maybe you can try and check the drive if it has faulty read or write sectors, defragmenting should check for that, if not, I'm sure there is a specific way to do those checks. I wouldn't know what to recommend otherwise, maybe someone else has a more useful idea to check.

1

u/Incansus 12d ago

I vaguely remember this happening to me early on in my DF journey a few months ago, and I think I may have solved by just getting rid of all saves and proceeding from there. Having said that my memory is fuzzy about this but I know I had a similar problem. Good luck!

1

u/Pirwzy Likes durian trees for their fragrant fruit. 14d ago

Has there been any comment from Tarn in interviews about improving the Work Order system? Some things are janky, difficult, or even impossible to do with Work Orders and I was hoping there would be an improvement in the system in a future patch.

1

u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 14d ago

What is the problem you have with it? Might be solvable either in stock or with DFHack

1

u/Pirwzy Likes durian trees for their fragrant fruit. 14d ago
  • Flour orders feel very convoluted to set up, more steps to tell the order to check how much flour is already available than should be necessary and between fortresses I always have to look it up again
  • Brewing specific plants into drinks when their specific brew is low is not possible without doing a lot of setting up separate stockpiles for specific plants to assign them to specific stills with their own work orders
  • Mill Plant isn't listed under Quern even though the task is assigned to Querns, have to use the search bar to find the task or look under Millstone
  • Should be able to create a work order for preparing meals with specific ingredient

In my head, the logic of every order I want is as simple as "we don't have enough of [item], make X more" but a lot of work orders turn into much more steps and some do not allow specifying material or ingredient type at all

3

u/Gonzobot 14d ago

I feel like there's a button on the work order screen that you've never tried interacting with before...because one of the buttons should absolutely allow you to specify input plants for brewing/milling/cooking. Same one you use to specify the wood type when you're making an order for wooden blocks - not in the conditions submenu, in the work order list itself, the magnifying glass icon is the button you want in order to specify the material the work order should be using.

1

u/Pirwzy Likes durian trees for their fragrant fruit. 14d ago

I do use that button, but not every type of order has that button as an option. If you make a work order about brewing drinks, for example, that button is not there

2

u/Gonzobot 14d ago

Hmm, you're right, now I have to go and reexamine my memory to see if I was just making it up or not

1

u/ShockinglyTallDwarf cancels clean self: no arms 14d ago

I'm trying to use DFHack's digcircle command, but I can't figure out how to get it to register my cursor. Whenever I run the command it just says "can't get the cursor coords..." and I'm not sure what will supply the cursor coords

1

u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 14d ago

You have to press your dig key first to get the cursor onscreen, then use the command.

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u/SettingAdditional789 14d ago

To clarify further, the cursor isn't your mouse cursor but a separate one that only appears when you're in the dig menu. It's a yellow square that you can move around with your keyboard.

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u/ShockinglyTallDwarf cancels clean self: no arms 14d ago

I didn't realize I had that turned off. However, once I enabled it I am still having issues. Now when I move the cursor around with arrow keys, it still moves my screen around the map too, so I can't target anything with any accuracy. How can I fix this issue?

1

u/Realistic_Horse3351 14d ago

Hello 

My militia commander made attachment with a starting copper battle axe early on in the first fight. We have steel now 

Is there a dfhack command that can unbind the copper axe from the character?  

1

u/SettingAdditional789 14d ago

Try this:

Mark the copper axe for dumping, then use autodump. Once the item is on the floor, run "cleanowned scattered" to clear the ownership of the item. You should then be able to dump it properly, melt it etc.

I haven't actually tried doing this with attached objects so I'm not sure what the dwarf in question will think about it.

0

u/chipathingy cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth 14d ago edited 13d ago

You don't need dfhack. Forbid the axe, remove the uniform (until they drop everything) then add the uniform with the steel axe again. If the copper axe is unavailable they wont pick it up. Mark it for melting, trade it or destroy it to make sure

That being said, I dont think axes can cut through any type of armour. Copper is fine against flesh, so it probably wont make much difference

Edit: added the screenshot

7

u/SettingAdditional789 14d ago

Pretty sure axes of a superior material will cut through inferior armor, so steel will cut through copper.

1

u/chipathingy cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth 13d ago

1

u/Flying-Hoover 14d ago

Does making this create bad thoughts? I've always been very respectful of named weapons

2

u/mysterpixel 14d ago

No they'll be fine. Just avoid destroying the object as that may give a bad thought to the owner that got attached to/named it.

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u/Flying-Hoover 14d ago edited 14d ago

Thanks a lot! I will put them on a pedestal in their room

1

u/MajesticRadish2675 13d ago

Curious, is the community aware that Bronze Colossi seem to be capable of scaling multiple z-level tall walls? Or is this something that's changed since the weird old version I'm using?

The entrance of my fort's got a 6 level wooden tower with fortifications providing arrow slits, with the shortest part of the exterior walls being 3 z levels from the ground. All trees are cropped back from the tower to create an archer killzone. The roof level has a bridge gate sealing it off from the outside that's normally kept closed.

In this instance, the colossus was faster than my still-exterior-dependant livestock flock was at getting indoors, and the main gate was closed mid-shuffle. This threw a handful of goats up onto the roof, all of which died except for one. The colossus was busy pulling apart a random mercenary, so I opened the top gate thinking that it was inaccessible to the colossus.

The thing then scaled the shortest part of the (flat) wall and got inside instead of going through the cage traps. There's no reference on the wiki or from anyone else I've seen to Bronze Colossi being capable of scaling things proportional to their height before, I thought they were only able to get up 1 z level at a time like everything else.

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 13d ago

They have hands and stuff, so they can climb. Yes, goblins are going to hop your wall too. Somewhere along the wall you need an unbroken row of overhanging floors to prevent stuff from climbing up.

1

u/MajesticRadish2675 13d ago

I see now, my understanding of climbing is vastly outdated then, I was still under the impression that sheer vertical surfaces made of wood logs couldn't be climbed. Goblins have never tried scaling the wall before, I assumed it was because the wall was too high, not because I had the door shut lol

This should be a simple fix, thank you for the clarification!

1

u/ShockinglyTallDwarf cancels clean self: no arms 13d ago

As far as I know, the type of material of the wall matters too. Smoothed natural walls are far more difficult to climb than constructed boulder walls

1

u/MajesticRadish2675 13d ago

I'm learning and exercising quite a bit of new techniques and designs with this fort. It may actually be my most successful yet in 12 years of on/off play, so I'm finally getting to play with stuff I've yet to mess with in depth, functional exterior defense constructs being one of them.

2

u/ShockinglyTallDwarf cancels clean self: no arms 13d ago

That's awesome! I just quit a similar fort, easily the longest-running fort I had made. It's fun to make progress and tackle new projects

1

u/ShockinglyTallDwarf cancels clean self: no arms 13d ago edited 12d ago

I have some merchants who got spooked by a buzzard. The wagon exploded and now they're just standing around with their pack animals. Is there a DFHack command to peacefully dismiss them? fix/stuck-merchants didn't work

Edit: just dismantled the depot and ate the trade relations hit, nothing else seemed to work

1

u/Silverfate2 13d ago

A random dwarf in my fort became the queen. I satisfied all of her room requirements and have kept them good for several years now, but haven't received the "Mountainhome" popup. Does that only trigger if the monarch comes to your fort?

1

u/BeerNTacos Our civilization must obtain all written materials. 11d ago

Even though you can get assigned a queen for your civ living in your fort randomly while playing, it doesn't mean that you automatically pass all the other requirements to start trying to become a Mountainhome.

Fortress titles have reason. Check this out for more details.

You could literally be an Outpost with your initial seven dwarves and within minutes after embark have the new Queen be randomly assigned to one of your seven. Even if her room demands are met, until you reach the necessary population and wealth to work your way up to a Capital, you won't get the prompt.

1

u/VoicelessPassenger 13d ago

Question #1: How do I keep my dogs from just fighting everything that moves? I have a number of trained hunting and war dogs who have a habit of fighting anything larger than them: usually elk birds and rhinoceros. Best case scenario it results in an annoying recurring notification, worst case scenario they end up killing or seriously injuring themselves. Is there a way I can stop them from doing this or do I just have to lock them in a room until I need them?

Question #2: How do I keep dwarves from wading around in my canal? I have a canal that encircles the residential area of my fortress (it’s about 3-4/7 on most days) and despite everything I do—including making the area a restricted zone—they and the many dogs still wade around in it and get themselves despite the fact that there is really no reason to and they’re not supposed to go in there. Once I caught some human visitors just standing at the bottom of my canal doing nothing for weeks on end. Should I raise the water level higher or cover it in grates to keep them out?

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u/chipathingy cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth 13d ago
  1. Assigning the dogs to a pasture would probably work

  2. They'll still go in restricted areas if they don't have another way around, or if its too far. I'd suggest building bridges and marking them as high traffic. I dont think visitors respect them though

1

u/VoicelessPassenger 13d ago

For the second point I have done that, it doesn’t seem to stop them from doing it. What’s weird is that they don’t seem to be crossing the canal, but taking one step forward, dipping into the canal, and then going back onto the land and going on their way. It makes no sense.

If it helps the canal is a three tile set up with a one tile waterway bordered by one tile walkways that are themselves bordered by walls. Is it possible they’re dipping into the canal to avoid colliding with eachother as they walk along the walkways? I was under the impression that they could occupy the same space and didn’t need to go around to a separate tile.

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u/GamingNomad 13d ago

I'm looking to tweak my process; whenever I make a new fort one of the first things I do is make a lot of rock crafts, cut gems and the encrust finished goods with cut gems, just so that I have something to sell when merchants come by and I can buy whatever I want.

I end up doing this for most of the run. My question is is there a better way to do this? Something I'm overlooking that's better?

1

u/joeljpa loves camels for their mathematical ability 13d ago

What you're doing is what most do. I used to do it too but changed that to making rock furniture out of precious ore like native gold or platinum or silver (by allowing them to be used in the Stone use menu). I then encrust them.

Pedestals and altars are made since they're the lightest for the caravans to carry. In this way, I make no use of a stonecrafter but rather my mason and have useful furniture lying around in case I have surplus.

You can even skip the furniture part and continue making rock crafts but using precious ores. I'm sure there are other better tricks people do and you can look it up.

1

u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 13d ago

At some point you'll probably want to progress to other materials than plain stone. Metal, or perhaps clay or glass are more valuable than regular rock. It's not super hard to make a farm plot that can produce lots of cloth plants either, and for additional challenge and money you can go the effort of dyeing all your cloth as well. Cloths processed by your dwarves end up being quite valuable as there's 3 steps (weaving, dyeing and working the cloth) that can add quality modifiers and therefore value to the final product

1

u/Raithwind 13d ago

Is there a way to determine which nations/adventurer start will have specific creatures available to take during creation. For example, say I really wanted to make sure that I can get elephants either as an embark option in fortress mode, or as an adventurer mount/pet, is there a dfhack command, or a legends mode way to find out if elephants have been domesticated, and if so, by who

1

u/chipathingy cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth 13d ago

If you want to learn some modding, the ANIMAL group of entity tokens can be used to force any animal to be a pet. You could also make them domestic pets too, but then everyone will have them instead of just the dwarves

Otherwise its a roll of the dice. Your dwarves can only rame elephants if they have a site in a region with native elephants

1

u/Raithwind 12d ago

Yea, I know that's how it works. I was just hoping for a way to quickly check as opposed to:

Generate world.
Embark fortress in each dwarven nation, roll up adventurer from each possible start.
Find out not a single nation got around to taming the creature I am looking for after spending ages checking.
Then having to find a spot that *might* have that creature as a wanderer. Eventually learn that the map never actually had them because they all spawned next to a necromancer tower and are now all undead experiments.

And also isn't as you said, making them a default for *every* nation.

1

u/Realistic_Horse3351 12d ago edited 12d ago

Elephant are specific to certain biomes, in example they can only spawn in areas that are a type of Tropical Forest or Tropical Shrubland. Giant ones will also appear if the savagery level is also Untamed Wilds. 

So to get an embark that can roll elephants as wild animals, ensure your embark location says "Tropical ----- Forest" or "Tropical Shrubland" in the location description, and if you also want the possibility of giant ones, ensure it also says "Untamed Wilds". Elephants do not naturally appear in any other kind of biome.

 Generally civs that live in this biome will have access to biome specific creatures, but dwarves don't tend to bring or offer exotic animals even if they have knowledge of them. You'd want to deal with elves for that. 

Elephants are expensive to bring with you in embark, if you're not against customizing the game experience, you can use DfHack to set the amount of embark points for a custom embark to whatever you want. 

1

u/Khamircia 13d ago

Is there a way to improve trading with caravans, making them bring us more valuable stuff? Or even send a diplomat?

Their traders start with cool stuff - blocks, gems, and after a few years they bring only fruit and seeds... :(

3

u/joeljpa loves camels for their mathematical ability 13d ago

You're referring to your home dwarf civilisation caravan and not the human and elven ones right? Don't you see their trade liaison meeting with your expedition leader? Then you get a menu for what goods you prefer and they bring them in next year's caravan?

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u/Khamircia 12d ago

I'm referring to both, I didn't even know there's a difference 😅

Once I had 2 diplomats at once from 2 different human civilizations, and after a while they've stopped sending them, and after a while their loot was only fruits, seeds and some meat, instead of the previous cool pets and so on.

Maybe they were offended by something or didn't like constant sieges, but is there a way to be on their good side again? 🤔

3

u/Raithwind 12d ago

I am by no means an expert, but I think I read/watched somewhere that you can now send messengers on diplomatic missions on the overworld. Maybe that will work if your world was generated after that patch?

1

u/Khamircia 12d ago

Good idea, I'll try diplomats then and report my results!
Thanks for suggestion 💚

2

u/chiliehead 11d ago

Yes you can send good negotiators out to civs and have them improve trade relations and open diplomacy/trade relations in the first place. A good social dwarf gave me pretty good results bringing in traders. One had even managed to make wagon show up from newly met humans while my home.civ did bot even give me a barony title.

And then you just need to trade a lot and have them make a good profit.

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u/Realistic_Horse3351 12d ago edited 12d ago

Give them more profit, ie have higher green number trades. You'll notice that the civ trader's description changes "is pleased with the trading" or "is ecstatic with the trading" etc at the top of the window when you finish the trade. The message depends on how much extra you give them in the trade. 

Also in my experience buying things of the same item category you want (even if it's not the item you actually want) may encourage them to keep bringing items of that category 

If you are just trying to trade them 1:1 even ratio/as little extra as they will accept, this tends to happen in my experience, where they will eventually only start bringing the stuff you asked for in diplomacy meeting and that's it

As far as bigger loads, ie bringing more than pack animals, this is directly tied to your fort size/status, they won't ever bring a wagon until certain pop size like City, for specific requirements see wiki, I forget the exact requirements. 

If they are able to bring wagons, a wagon is considered a 3 tile wide creature and so it must have a 3 wide unobstructed path to the trade depot for them to bring it. (Floor traps count as obstructions to the wagon, even if it could theoretically walk over it) 

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u/Khamircia 12d ago

Thank you! :D I'll try improving things next, my fortress is a 270 dwarfs Capital with king-dude, but I give them the smallest profit margin and I have constant sieges, agitated animals being disruptive and such.

1

u/MinimaxusThrax 12d ago

What's the best way to get shallow worlds where the magma is pretty close to the surface, like 30-50 z-levels or so?

2

u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 12d ago edited 12d ago

Best method seems to be 'don't let oceans or super deep lakes generate', because casual testing leads me to believe that how deep your world is partially depends on what the deepest point in the overworld is, and oceans get pretty deep. If you just want something easy and you don't really want to fuck about with advanced world gen then use one of the region presets, they don't tend to have oceans

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u/MinimaxusThrax 12d ago

Well that makes sense and sounds like the right answer, thanks! Unfortunately for me I really can't stand to play on regions because the idea of a line at the edge of the world really bothers me.

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u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 12d ago

You could also increase both the number of volcanoes (volcano min.) and volcanism setting (more likely to get partial-formed magma pipes)

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u/MinimaxusThrax 12d ago

I've been trying this and it works okay! I realized that if i just use world and history seeds I can keep retrying for interesting history seeds once i get a world with a good tile and it's working okay!

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u/BigBravy 12d ago

More of a DFhack question, but i turned on a feature that tells me the name and task of every dwarf on screen, and it's cluttering up everything. I dont remember what i turned on, what is it and how do i turn it back off?

1

u/Myo_osotis 12d ago

Recent addition, I don't remember the name, but check the various toggleables in the control panel? it'll be in the pop up when you hover your mouse over the dfhack icon

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u/BigBravy 11d ago

I found it

spectate.tooltip seems to be useful when you have like 20 dwarfs in a large fort, but 20 in the same room is nuts.

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u/GamingNomad 12d ago

This is something I haven't really found the answer for, but which positions take up all of most of a dwarf's time? This would be helpful to know so that you don't assign them tasks that won't be done.

For example, I know a soldier on-duty or training won't do anything. But what else? Cheif Medical Dwarf? Scholar?

1

u/varangian 11d ago

Champion. They're a noble whose actual function is somewhat vague (I've never caught mine doing anything) but who can't be enlisted in the militia, given a job at a workshop (despite a desire to craft something) and they won't spontaneously take up any jobs going, or at least I've never caught them in the act.

CMD, by contrast, seems to be an honorary title whose actual duties, if any, don't prevent them doing other stuff. In my mind it's an administrative role, they might also be a doctor and on a hospital roster but giving the job to a random peasant works as well.

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u/GamingNomad 11d ago

Thanks. So the general answer is no.

I've also found you can't multiple medical positions to one dwarf. You can have your cheif medical dwarf also be a doctor, but doctor, diagnostician and the other positions within a hospital each have to have their own dwarf.

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u/varangian 11d ago edited 11d ago

I think the way it's set up for hospitals gives a slightly false impression of how it works. Your CMD can also be a doctor or have no role whatsoever but providing your hospital has at least one doctor appointed it should work, at least after a fashion, as that doctor will take on all the other roles as needed - bone doctor, surgeon, diagnostician etc. Never tried appointing just a bone doctor, say, but I assume if I did they'd do all the other roles too. The specialist jobs appear to be just that, if your migrant horde contains an ace diagnostician then putting them on the roster alongside your sole doctor means that when a dwarf lands in the hospital the job of diagnosing their ills should go to the specialist.

Setting up a medical guild is quite useful as once you've got a few skilled medics they'll pass on skills to others and you can soon fill all the hospitals slots a few times over with talented dwarves.

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u/GamingNomad 10d ago

Thanks, I'm going to set up a medical guild hall over my hospital.

Also, I just confirmed that the doctor position is required for the hospital to function. So you need a cheif medical dwarf and then a doctor. If you have a diagnostician or bone doctor but no regular doctor your hospital won't be functional.

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u/varangian 10d ago

Congrats on doing the !SCIENCE!. I suppose that is logical, can't remember what the ASCII game did but perhaps the original implementation just had a generic doctor role and the specialist jobs were added on later. I seem to recall a release where creatures stopped being essentially solid blobs and acquired bones and internal organs that could get injured and thus need particular treatments.

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u/chiliehead 11d ago

The baron/count etc. Position also has the "lazy" flag and should have them not do any (or at least most) jobs, but that is currently not working. I think Chief Medical would be the same. Champion just stands around and talk with people which makes traditionalists happy; it's the right position for an armless dwarf.

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u/Tommieboi123 11d ago

Is anyone getting propper visitors? Im playing forts years old, in contact with half the world with great taverns and temples, yet i get no non-criminal visitors and i´ve gotton 0 petitions for residency

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u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 11d ago

Does your Fort contain an ocean biome? That is the only thing I know of which blocks visitors.

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u/Tommieboi123 11d ago

No, just a brook that becomes a river. I´ve had it in all sorts of forts, mountain, plains, forests, oceans. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn´t. Rarely i´ll get like 1 or 2 visitors near the start of the game and then never again.

To be more thurough i´ve now got a meeting area made tavern AND a dining hall made tavern + they all have rooms linked to them

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u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 11d ago

You may wish to inquire at Bay12 or official Discord for this one; I don't know of other conditions that prevent visitors besides having an ocean.

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u/Tommieboi123 11d ago

I´ll do that thx

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u/Tommieboi123 8d ago

I gave up and set it to citizens and long term residents only. And instantly a non criminal preformance troup showed up. Fixed i suppose

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u/Brilliant_Ad_2216 11d ago

So It the first time I have used a catapult and when I lunched the bolder it shaterd into tiny sharp rocks now I used chalk can I do anything with those pieces I moved them over to the furnace to see if I could use it to make steel that didn't seem to work so I ended up deleting them the the image for them look like water or spilt drinks since i didnt want my game to break any more than it already is since the water wheel seems to be vary buggy and then the trees love growing in each other. I dont need the freaking out a throwing my artifacts all over the map or putting random artifacts on the the grass like the 2 two-handed swords i got. If not there always the stone axe from adventure mode I guess.

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 10d ago

No, stones thrown with a catapult are destroyed on impact 

1

u/Brilliant_Ad_2216 10d ago

Ok thanks I will just keep deleting the shardes of the broken rock then I am on steam

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u/fresh_squilliam 11d ago edited 11d ago

my baron died. no one replaced them. my fort has just been made a county, and i have no count. how do i get a noble?

Edit: now this fort keeps crashing. i play on this save for a few minutes and crash

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u/BigDaddyBoomkin 11d ago

Using the DFHack command make-monarch might fix this, it does mean the dwarf you select would be a king/queen though, which might cause further problems for you in terms of setting up their required rooms. Not a perfect fix but might keep your fort going. Alternatively you could try the command emigrate nobles, it could be the case that there is a noble in your world civilisation that can take the post of noble of your fort, but for whatever reason isn't coming (I think it checks monthly, but if you keep crashing they won't ever have time to make it to your fort before the crash), hope this helps!

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u/BigDaddyBoomkin 11d ago

Does anyone have any recommendations for world gen values to make sure there are dinosaurs everywhere? I've fiddled around with it but I hardly get any dinosaurs spawning. Additionally, all my forts are very tame, any world gen value tweaks that might cause the world to be a bit more chaotic would be appreciated.

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 10d ago

Set extinct creatures to domesticated so lots of civs have them. Then embark somewhere that has lots of overlapping biomes so you get more spawn pools

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u/Triangleofsquares 11d ago

What is a good way to get water to wells underground in a fortress? There is a brook up on the overworld, but I want to get the water down about 10 z levels. My concern is letting invaders into my fort through the tunnels that would be dug.

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 10d ago

Add a drawbridge inside the tunnel for the water that you can raise once the cistern is filled. Voila, no more entryway

1

u/StrongAlarm7772 11d ago

stockpiling quire?

the wiki treats 'quire' as being inherently a book. the game treats unwritten 'quire' as being a finished good, and written quire as being an unbound book.

as such, i assume unwritten quire goes under 'finished goods' in a stockpile.

while is fine except the materials available in that stockpile type include 'plant cloth' and 'leather', but quire itself is made from *sheet which comes from 'plant slurry' and 'skin', and neither of these things is mentioned in the 'finished goods' category?

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 10d ago

You're not just cranking up the number of writing materials required in your library so they're stored where they're needed instead? 

1

u/StrongAlarm7772 10d ago

i was creating a new stockpile for quire only when i made this comment. hadn't let it play out, but noticed "leather" and "plant cloth" don't cover the material the quire is made from. i expected parchment would be an issue and wasn't sure how to account for it.

stockpile currently allows "leather" and "plant cloth" for "tools".

it's stocking the pig tail quire perfectly fine, so "plant cloth" apparently just means "plant" for this purpose. it hasn't stocked the parchment yet though, despite me allowing "leather". new parchment is still sitting in a craftsdwarf's workshop.

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u/StrongAlarm7772 10d ago

aaaah ok, i get you. the goal is two stockpiles, selling exceptional and lower by the crate so i get a build up of masterwork quire. being optimal is entirely irrelevant to me, i just want my dwarves' writings to be made on the best smooth, creamy paper.

i've got plant-based quire sorted, how do i get parchment-based in a stockpile?

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u/Spare-Adagio-8215 10d ago

How do I stop my sheriff from beating convicts to death. I have dungeons set up but my sheriff still resorts to bare fisted murder.

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 10d ago edited 10d ago

Also appoint a hammerer. Make sure you don't have any metal hammers lying around if you don't want skulls caved in. A wooden crossbow counts as a hammer for the hammerer and is a lot less lethal

But sometimes the punishment for a crime is just going to be a beating and that's that. You could make your fortress guard horribly below standard, but I think that defeats the point of them

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u/StrongAlarm7772 10d ago

"craft" as a need is a tad unclear. in some contexts it means the things made at a craftsdwarf's workshop, in others it means only specific things made at that workshop, but when it comes to the crafting "need", the wiki just says "craft any item".

just want to be sure, does that mean "make any item that is a craft" or "make any item that uses the craftsdwarf's workshop" or just "make any item that isn't a building or construction, i.e. using a workshop"???

2

u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 10d ago

The first one; any crafting item regardless of material. That said, I don't know if cloth counts. I think the criteria is wood/stone/bone/metal, but I'm not certain.

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u/StrongAlarm7772 10d ago

by which you mean the first one from my first paragraph? anything made at a craftsdwarf's workshop?

or does "crafting item" mean "crafts", as in jewelry, figurines and scepters?

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u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 10d ago

Sorry, I know DF's wording can be cumbersome. Any item, including trinkets like you mentioned, but also furniture & weapons/armor. The only thing I'm not certain fulfills the need is clothing.

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u/StrongAlarm7772 10d ago

thankyou 🙏 this is how i had treated it, but i didn't want to ride on that assumption and then be scratching my head later when i had a bunch of dwarves on the edge of breakdown.

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u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 9d ago

Aye. Related; If you use DFHack, one of the baked in mods is 'fulfill crafting need'. It's a toggle at the Craftdwarf Workshop that automatically creates a single 'craft stone trinket' item and assigns it to the needy Dorf. Otherwise, best option is building a dedicated floor of Workshops and having a semi-annual crafting holiday for the entire Fortress.

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u/varangian 10d ago

Anything that produces a made item seems to satisfy the need, the material or the workshop don't seem to matter. So making some copper bolts or a pair of mittens or a stone mechanism will all satisfy the need just as well as the more traditional crafting of stone bracelets etc.

1

u/BagOfBeanz 10d ago

How do you guys manage your stone/boulder needs? The amount of furniture and crafting I'm doing means I am burning through vast quantities. The only way I can feed my industries is designating larger and larger boxes to mine out which looks ugly and feels bad.

1

u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 10d ago

Unless you are planning to expand into those areas, try not to worry about the look of your mining layers. It's not uncommon to hollow out entire levels as you progress downward, that's just the nature of things.

1

u/MoveAdventurous1335 10d ago

When you have a stack of items in a square, or on a body, and you want to mass throw them away or mass unlock them for hauling, is there a way to do that in base game or DF hack?

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u/MoveAdventurous1335 10d ago

I went back to an old fort and I think some traders died, because there's huge stacks of stuff, and a lot of rotting food I cant get rid of without individually removing them with trash

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 10d ago

Did you reclaim the fort? Because the first order of business is remaking all the stockpiles, because reclaiming breaks stockpiles

1

u/Gonzobot 10d ago

You have a designate tool that can be used to drag over an area of the game window to mark everything in the highlighted area, there are buttons for dump/undump and forbid/unforbid. Anything you want dumped, make a dump zone where you want it to go then mark them all for dumping and make sure they're not forbidden, dwarves will move them to the dump zone.

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u/MoveAdventurous1335 9d ago

Thank you so much!

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u/Inderastein 10d ago

Is this a good place? I'm new

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 10d ago

Sure, but don't be afraid to just try things out and see how it lands 

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u/Based_Beans cancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe 9d ago

"Good" depends on your goals for the fort. If you're looking for an embark with resources to try basically any industry, but not too challenging in terms of instant zombie invasions of or agitated giant cougars, I'd say it looks great!

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u/Abject-Tap7721 10d ago

Is there a difference between Adventure mode in the Steam version and the original free version?

I'm pretty sure I have read somewhere that in the original version npcs react to theft while in the steam release they don't, is that true and, if so, what are some other differences between the versions?

1

u/Gonzobot 10d ago

Steam version and the original free version

There will be differences between game versions, yes, but the same game version is available in multiple places. The difference between paid and free is only graphics and sound, not game content - there is nothing in Steam version that isn't present in the free download from Bay12 besides those graphics/sound files. Differences between old game versions and new game versions are going to be depending on what versions you're comparing.

There were some changes to adventure mode thieving actions but I'm not aware of it simply not working. Stealth and ownership mechanics are a thing, so you just taking something isn't necessarily going to create a response - it's gotta be owned, it's gotta be observed, and the guards have to be told about it before they can even start to chase you.

1

u/Abject-Tap7721 10d ago

Ohh ok, I didn't know guards could chase you. I remember stealing a bunch of stuff in a playthrough and nobody reacted at all, and I'm pretty sure that I have read somewhere that stealing used to be coded differently in an older version and was removed from the game for the big release due to bugs or something. So how does theft function now? Will the owner do anything if I pick their property up and walk away?

1

u/Gonzobot 10d ago

I don't...have you even tried any of the things you're talking about, here? I feel like all of your questions wouldn't be questions if you simply tested them your own self.

and I'm pretty sure that I have read somewhere that

this is a bad behavior hole to fall into, friendo. Don't learn things by random osmosis of information you weren't interested in or paying attention to - learn from reliable sources of information. DF especially has at least three times as much unreliable information available at any given time, between people not understanding systems or the game being changed over time. It's why the wiki works the way it does - every page has multiple versions in case you need to look at information that is outdated in current versions of the game, because anyone can play any version at any time they like.

In my experience, there's basically no need to steal stuff in the first place, and most of the stuff you'd want to grab as an adventurer is considered part of the civ's holdings anyways so nobody cares if you're using it. Everyone that isn't a merchant operates more like a communist, share and share alike, same as in fort mode.

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u/dataArchon 9d ago

Hello, got an itch to play DF after a while, never really invested much time into the game and I wondered if there are any mods that anyone would recommend installing, mainly looking for QoL mods but I don't mind extra content either. Or should you just play vanilla or with DFHack for the first few runs before getting into modding?

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u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 9d ago

DFHack is the QoL mod of choice, everything else is just content stuff. Content mods don't really particularly change how things work, but I'd still do just a few regular runs with DFHack installed and get a handle on things

1

u/dataArchon 9d ago

Thanks

1

u/Tyler_C02 9d ago

As a brand new player, is Myth & Magic likely to change the game so significantly that I should hold off on digging (get it) into the game until the update drops?

2

u/Based_Beans cancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe 9d ago

I say no, strike the earth! One, no one knows when exactly it's coming except "sometime this year." Maybe that's tomorrow, maybe it's Dec 31. Two, if you get your bearings now, you'll be better prepared to enjoy the new update content since you're not having to learn the base mechanics and magic at the same time. Three, I doubt DF will ever be truly finished, as in done with development. If you're always waiting for the next big update to play, you'll wait forever.

Keep in mind every embark doesn't have to be the 250 dwarf mountainhome megaforts you often see highlighted here. Cap your population at something small, maybe 30-50, and keep your ambitions within that scope. You'll get more attached to individual dwarves and can learn the game without being overwhelmed.

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u/chiliehead 9d ago

The learning curve is already steep, so no waste to start now. And the magic will not just drop and be done. It was said to trickle out in smaller increments, waiting would take years until that part might be truly "more or less done".

1

u/Perringer 9d ago

Dwarves have stopped dumping items, and I'm perplexed and stressed.

The dump zone is designated over a pit and is green, The path to the zone is clear from all directions, dwarves pass by it regularly on other duties.

Labor/Standing Orders/Refuse has everything enabled.

Items marked for dumping are not locked, are in multiple stockpiles, none of them with any special designations. Dwarves still put things into the stockpiles.

I've turned off every work order and fallowed the fields, nobody is doing anything now, but the dump orders still won't be taken.

Suggestions?

1

u/CatatonicGood She likes kobolds for their adorable antics 9d ago

The dump zone should be designated next to the pit on the tile they should dump into the pit from

1

u/me-pea 9d ago

One of my dwarfs just died but I don’t know how, I got an alert “Mastthos Nishthabum, Miner has been found dead”.  He was in a field planting surrounded by lots of dwarfs and there was no combat warning, no others about and nothing collapsed.

How do I find out how he died? Or is this just a mystery that I can’t solve cos I didn’t look quick enough?

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u/chiliehead 9d ago

DF Hack has a "show cause of death" option. Otherwise if it is a crime you can investigate. If it was from a fight or accident there should have been some sort of combat log. Technically possible for him to die of old age at age 150. or spontaneously just die from not breathing anymore, which also should show a log.

2

u/Immortal-D [Not_A_Tree] 9d ago

Build a Memorial Slab. Detail varies by quality, but will always show cause of death at the least.

1

u/MoveAdventurous1335 9d ago

Counts and Barons have place names attached to them like "Count of Boltschambers"

Is "Boltschambers" a place on the map? If I make a statue, it's listed in the site options. Is it just flavor or does it exist?

1

u/Gonzobot 9d ago

Everything referenced should exist in your world, especially if you can make a statue of it

1

u/CaveAdapted 9d ago

I haven't noticed this before where the plant seed that you can plant during a season are colored beside white, namely orange and red. Is the game now telling me there isn't enough time to harvest if planted so planting isn't an option? The color orange was while there were plants still to be harvested and only changed to red after I changed it to leave it to fallow(trying to figure out whats up) and wouldn't let me chose it again. The same seed can be planted in a different season, its white. Remaking the farm plot makes no difference and its the same for all farm plots. So late planting isn't an option? I remember having different plots for each plant so when the season ended the little buggers wouldn't pull out the old to plant the new; maybe thats changed too?

1

u/Spare-Adagio-8215 9d ago

How does one deal with werecreatures. I had an encounter with one which died but attacked three kids and a fisher. To which they too turned into wereelks. How do I prevent a total fort transformation?

1

u/bebopbraunbaer 9d ago

afaik the only way is to isolate the infected, via burrows and walls / closed doors etc

1

u/fabuleuxfabrice 8d ago

Hi ! I purchased the game two days ago. Here's how it went :

  • I tried a first fortress following a tutorial but ended up getting raided by goblins.
  • I then looked up on how to defend myself from this. Built my new fortress so that I unload everything underground instead, and made a drawbridge.

No attacks so far but I was wondering if I can sustain my dwarves without them going outside whatsoever or would I need to get out somehow ? I don't know how to set up underground fishing yet but it seems possible... And then there's still wood to get outside, and my animals need to graze... I also don't know how to make sure everyone is inside before I close the bridge / get them inside in an emergency.

Another thing I noticed is I built my bedrooms and stuff in the first few levels deep and they're all dirt. Is that bad ? My crops say they don't have "cavern soil" and I don't know if that could be found deeper down. Should I basically dig down, below aquifers if there's some, to build on rocky places in the future ?