I'm relatively new to DF, I've worked out the controls but haven't made it through the first winter yet.
Does anyone have a list or so of what skills and supplies you should start with? Thanks in advance
Also, in the Z menu for Kitchen, is blue or red disabled?
Hmm, everyone likes a slightly different embark, and it depends on where you are embarking.
The wiki has a section, but I'll just list a generic thing that I use for a standard sort of fort, which is probably awful, as I'm hardly a vet.
Right, so 7 dwarfs and a load of embark points.
I generally just bring the skills up to competent on my dwarves, they'll upgrade over time, so I just want it passably fast.
2 miners.
1 brewer / farmer
1 cook / farmer (might want to swap the farming for fishing and fish cleaning if you want)
1 woodcutter / carpenter (wood stuff)
1 mason / mechanic (for doors, chairs, traps and the like)
1 stonecrafter / appraiser (makes goods to sell, I often make him proficient in it)
Right, now onto the spare points. I've lately chosen to take a load of (6-8) female dogs, and 2 male dogs with me, so that I have a source of leather, bones and meat that often has 3-4 puppies. Easy to keep, and can also be trained into war animals. Not to mention cheap.
Now, you'll want a load of alcohol - probably 80-100 or so. Take all 4 types.
You want at least 5 of every seed.
For food, take a few different meats (the 2 value ones) and make sure to bring either [b]cave lobster[/b] or [b]turtles[/b] for the shells, which may be needed in a strange mood. I tend to take 50 or so food in total, maybe more. (Butchering dogs can easily give a tonne of meat after a year or so)
For tools, you'll want 2 copper picks and a copper axe. If you don't think you'll be fighting, you can swap the copper axe for any training axe, which can still chop wood.
Now, make sure to get rid of the default bags and crutches and the like - the pig tail cloth stuff is really expensive - take cave spider silk ropes, bags and the like instead, or leather bags.
Also, consider taking a load of wood - it only costs 3 embark points, so if you're in a low wood area, bring a load of wood instead. A bucket costs 10 embark points, a log costs 3. Bring a carpenter and 3 logs, and you have 3 buckets for cheaper than one.
Of course, this can be taken with nearly anything - why take an axe when you can take the stuff to make one for cheaper, but time is of the essence early on.
Also, the stone [b]pots[/b] that you can make at the craftsdwarfs workshop are the same as barrels. You can use them to save wood.
[url]http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Embark[/url]
Also, consider taking an iron anvil. You need an anvil to smelt and to make an anvil, so if you don't take one with you, you have to hope that the first few caravans have one for you to trade for.
Oh, and red is disabled.
[QUOTE=Terminutter;32798433]Embark tips[/QUOTE]
Thanks a lot, I'll use this as a base to develop my own preferences when I'm less green and actually flooded my fortress a few times... with lava!
Oh yeah, a quick warning if you do the 8 female dogs and 2 male dogs. You [i]will[/i] want to control the population. I'd say that you want no more than 10 dogs capable of giving birth at once, or you'll drown in an army of the cute, useful, delicious dogs.
I tend to spend any leftover points on as much wood as possible, espeically in an area that's got sparse or less trees.
Is it strange that I slept deep in a cave and woke up on top of the mountain the next morning?
[QUOTE=Dacheet;32798248]Will that conflict with LNP?[/QUOTE]I don't think it should, since LNP just adds utilities and graphics packs.
Install only the objects folder then. Don't install the art+init because it will overwrite LNP
[editline]15th October 2011[/editline]
read the instructions in the op
Are there any mods that spice up adventure mode gameplay? Like adding a shitload of new weapons or new civilizations that are fun to explore or new creatures that are hard as shit.
Actually, what I'm asking is what are the good mods that add such.
There's Genesis mod that adds a few things, and Fortress Defence off the top of my head.
I think that there's a Kobold Fortress mod, too, but I've not actually tried any of them, I might have to do that now, even though I've wasted 5 hours on DF already today.
how come when i embark on a site that says flux stone i never get flux stone?
[QUOTE=TheServer;32799325]how come when i embark on a site that says flux stone i never get flux stone?[/QUOTE]
Dig deeper
Or it might be at a very small area of the site like the corner of the map, if two biomes meet
How come my soldiers get ripped to shit when I send them at goblins? Is there some trick to training them that I am missing?
A tiny bit of training, the most basic weapon or even leather armour makes a massive difference compared to unarmed or unarmoured dwarves.
If you're on a volcano, I find that it's quite easy to make bone and leather, with an obsidian short sword really quickly. Chuck in a wood shield, and it should kick enough ass to kill a few things.
Leather/bone armor is only useful against bites and scratches and such. Any weapon, even copper ones, will easily punch through it so it is completely useless against goblins.
It is recommended you outfit your military with atleast iron armor.
[QUOTE=Orkel;32800419]Leather/bone armor is only useful against bites and scratches and such. Any weapon, even copper ones, will easily punch through it so it is completely useless against goblins.
It is recommended you outfit your military with atleast iron armor.[/QUOTE]
You'd think bone would be able to deflect at least copper occasionally.
My soldiers ussually have iron, or steel, and silver battle hammers. This is known to be the strongest weapon to the wiki.
[QUOTE=StealthArcher;32800496]You'd think bone would be able to deflect at least copper occasionally.[/QUOTE]
Nope, not atm.. leather/bone armor is unbelievably underpowered and I seriously hope Toady does something with it.
Although, I [I]do[/I] use it, but only on my Fortress Guards, because they're usually the ones to handle underground critters that come up and leather armor is usually sufficient to deflect the bites of random underground monster X instead of bothering my actual military with those matters.
Ambushers tried to attack my fortress, since it was only one group of 7ish, I brought my marksdwarves upon my wall, they killed one of my bee keeps then dared approach my walls, suddenly dozens of bolts slaughtered the goblins. Mission success.
Also, what does your balance fix fix, Orkel?
[QUOTE=Hans-Gunther 3.;32798259]I'm relatively new to DF, I've worked out the controls but haven't made it through the first winter yet.
Does anyone have a list or so of what skills and supplies you should start with? Thanks in advance[/QUOTE]
I'm sure as hell not a pro, but my two cents (and everything term said is valid as well!):
There are no "needed" skills in general; if you really wanted to it's entirely possible to drop mining and live aboveground in wood huts, although it sure as hell isn't dwarfy. Assuming you go 5/5 (that is 5 points in two skills per dorf), the skills you'll generally be relying on are:
Mining to dig your fort
Woodcutting for logs
Carpenter for beds and bins (barrels are possible but not strictly recommended anymore)
Farmer to grow delicious foods
Cook to cook things
Brewer to make alcohol
Mason to make a shitton of stuff like doors, coffins, cabinets, etc etc
Trader (more on him in a bit)
Other skills a lot of people bring are Mechanics and Stonecrafting. Having a dedicated Mechanic from the start is only really required if you want to make a bajillion traps (which isn't all that bad of an idea), otherwise you can just get any other dorf to pop out a couple for drawbridges and stuff. Stonecrafters are for making goods; you generally won't be needing them until autumn but it helps to have a stockpile to buy out the caravans. Don't make them until you have bin production going though.
The trader is generally a dwarf with skill points split evenly between Record Keeper, Appraisal, Organizer and Judge of Intent. Whenever there's no caravan, set up an office and make him the bookkeeper to get max precision on records. When a caravan comes by, make him the trader. When records are maxed and there's no caravan, get him to haul shit around or something.
You have 7 dwarves, so a total of 14 skills with 5/5ing (12 counting trader). Taking all of the above skills results in 2 remaining groups of 5 points. From here, it's up to you, although most people opt to have two miners, both of which double as military dwarves, and drop one of the other skills. You could also leave the miner's alternate skills blank to free up room for more items.
Finally, keep in mind that you'll be getting more dwarves soon, and cramming all the skills into seven starters is only a temporary thing. If you start with either an Engraver or a Farmer, however, don't replace them. A maxed-out engraver should be the only dorf allowed to engrave walls, and should be the onlyone smoothing until he hits legendary, after which other dorfs can smooth to save time. As for farming, a legendary Farmer is absolutely vital. The higher the farmer's skill is, the more plants he harvests from a single tile. The bigger the tile harvest, the more plants in a stack. The bigger the stack of plants, the bigger the stack of alcohol, and the more alcohol you can fit in a barrel. Less barrels used means more wood for your carpenter to use for other thing. Legendary Farmers are GODSENDS. One starting Farmer, set as the only dwarf able to harvest, can carry a fortress for a long fucking while, although if you get another Farmer with good skills don't be afraid to make them a farming team, since two legendary farmers is pretty much gg in the plant department.
My general dorf lineup:
Miner (stays miner)
Miner (stays miner)
Woodcutter/Carpenter (until I get another of either skill, in which case divided workload)
Cook/Brewer (until I get another of either)
Farmer (stays farmer, one master farmer is infinitely better than 2-400 shitty farmers)
Mason (my masons always mason 24/7 so i dont bother giving them a second skill)
Trader
Now, onto items.
Items are simpler to manage than dwarves, imo. The very first thing to do is go down the Checklist Of Things Dwarves Must Always Bring (COTDMAB)!
~~~THE CHECKLIST~~~
-One copper pickaxe for every miner.
-One wooden training axe for every woodcutter. You can also replace this with a proper axe if you have points to burn.
-One anvil. You can make more later. This is absolutely vital!
-The materials to build a well: one stone block of any type, one rope, one bucket.
-Between two and four ropes for guard dogs. Assuming your fort has a single 3-tile-wide entrance, two ropes is enough for the hounds to sniff anything and anyone that tries to get through.
-Between two and six buckets, not counting the well bucket. Buckets have several uses. Six is only really needed if you're planning on making an artificial pond or something.
-Six to twenty-one plump helmet spawn.
-Six to eleven of every other seed type.
-Twenty-one of every type of alcohol EXCEPT wine. Wine is made from plump helmets, so you'll have asstons of it before long.
-A total of forty-one objects of meat, divided into sets of either 11 or 21. Any type will do.
-Twenty-one plump helmets.
-At least one female and one male adult dog. Two or three males is best. Lock the bitch in the cellar and assign two males to guard duty with the ropes.
-One or two male cats. Males won't breed, which is good, and they'll keep the fort pest-free which is vital at times.
-At least two of as many of the following as you can afford: thread, plant cloth, silk cloth, yarn cloth, green glass, clear glass, crystal glass, leather, cheap cut gems, cheap raw gems, turtles/oysters/mussels, cheap metal bars. Having at least one of each will insure you against 96% of strange moods, which can be a lifesaver until you can begin producing them on your own, and two is for good measure.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After adding all of the above, you should still have a handful of points left over. There are various things to spend it on, including:
-Two to eight units of coke to kick-start the metal industry.
-More dogs.
-Wood for convenience.
-More meat, plants, seeds or alcohol.
-Proper weapons for your Miners later on.
-Lava-proof stones for mechanisms and whatnot.
However, quite possibly the biggest, most incredibly useful thing you can bring is turkeys. Four to six female turkeys and one male turkey will, and I shit you not, literally flood your fortress with food. Make a nest box (stonecrafting) for every turkey and stick them in a room and make sure the door is open. Dwarves will run in whenever they lay eggs and carry them to the kitchen. Have your cook do nothing but cook the eggs, and not only will he level up without wasting plant seeds, but you will be fucking drowning in delicious egg roasts and shit. If you lock the turkeys up so that nobody can get to them, the eggs will hatch into babby turkeys which will grow up and lay more eggs (females) or be butchered (males, but leave one!). You can literally have an entire fortress running on eggs and booze. The only problem is that there's so much fucking food that it's almost easy mode. To give you an idea how good this is: in my last fortress I embarked with 8 turkeys, left six of them to hatch babies and harvested two for egg meals. By the second autumn I had 87 turkeys in my fortress, so much food that my three woodcutters and two carpenters couldn't make enough barrels, and I actually had to abandon fortress because the turkeys were clogging my cpu with gravy and eggs. Turkeys. Fucking amazing.
[QUOTE=Irtimid;32801891][img]http://tallcorporation.co.cc/projects/DF/FB/Corud.PNG[/img][/QUOTE]
Destroyer of worlds right here, folks.
Man, this always happens to me. I'll frequently get an urge to play DF again, but my 20+ year save feels too foreign to me, and I don't want to start a new game because I feel like the next update is "imminent" even if it turns out to be a month or more away.
This is where adventure mode comes in, I suppose! I never did avenge my badass sidekick's death by dragonfire. He killed over two dozen goblins, elves and a few ogres, but alas his copper carving knife couldn't save him from a fiery death.
[QUOTE=Dacheet;32801579]Also, what does your balance fix fix, Orkel?[/QUOTE]
Somewhat fixes brokenly unbalanced weapons like arrows/bolts, and whips + some others
Splits brains into two parts, outer+inner, toughens up skulls. This causes punches to not kill on headshots all the time but blunt weapons still work, and it's better trust me
Some other minor changes that I don't remember (but they're all good changes :v:)
Olin Asgim, Mechanic, cancels Store Owned Item: Item inaccessible?
He's just standing in my dining area, trying to repeat this action over and over again. How do I fix this?
I'm going to jump back into DF after six months, hoping it goes well. I would post the screenshot of my embark, but I am not familiar with posting images and I dont know if it will pagestretch, so here: [url]http://i.imgur.com/FD4yi.png[/url]
[QUOTE=Dacheet;32803064]Olin Asgim, Mechanic, cancels Store Owned Item: Item inaccessible?
He's just standing in my dining area, trying to repeat this action over and over again. How do I fix this?[/QUOTE]
Do you have him in a burrow currently?
[editline]15th October 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=lordoflard;32803080]I'm going to jump back into DF after six months, hoping it goes well. I would post the screenshot of my embark, but I am not familiar with posting images and I dont know if it will pagestretch, so here: [url]http://i.imgur.com/FD4yi.png[/url][/QUOTE]
A scorching untamed swamp. Nice.
[QUOTE=StealthArcher;32804424]Do you have him in a burrow currently?
[/QUOTE]
I don't even know what that is, nor do I have them
[QUOTE=Dacheet;32804452]I don't even know what that is, nor do I have them[/QUOTE]
Do you know how to check his owned items? There is a list of them.
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