1641

Seems he may have come down with a case of the swine flu.

1642

Can dwarves catch the flu and spread the sickness?

1643

Okay, the biggest problem I’m having: how do I find jobs for everyone once the first wave of immigrants hits? Although, this ended rather hilariously in one game, when my hunter was killed everyone standing around got slaughtered one by one trying to collect the body. But yeah, as it stands, the first year is going great, and then all of a sudden I have 20 dwarves standing around and partying. Lazy assholes.

1644

You specialize. You probably had those initial dwarves doing 2-3 jobs each, make them do 1. You can also make a plan on how you want your fortress to develop, and hand new dwarves tasks as they develop. You can always use more masons and miners. You can also start developing your supply chains. If you’re not making purple shirts yet you don’t have a fully fleshed out economy.

Also? Maggot milking, do it.

1645

You can also keep extra dwarves busy by putting them into a permanent squad and starting them training. Once I hit a spot where I can comfortably provide all the resources I need I tend to put all the new immigrants into the military.

1646

I forgot to mention, there is ONE other alternative available to you. Kill them, kill every last strange dwarf that wanders in. Treat them better than you do the elves though, cave ins or magma would probably be appropriate.

Unless they’re haulers that is, in that case put them in the basement and redirect your sewage system down there… =P

1647

If I remember correctly, he said he wants to make magma available on virtually any map. You’ll just have to be willing to dig to it.

1648

It’s been a while since, but I seem to remember setting a LOT of dwarves to engraving tasks. The downside is that it raises the economy rating a bit faster than I’d like, but it also makes the colony happier because everybody likes ornately carved walls. Otherwise, the new guys basically got stuck with the crappy jobs like fish-cleaning and hauling refuse.

The “lucky” ones got drafted into the militia, which is to say, giving a bunch of 'em crossbows and having them shoot at archery targets in the barracks/guardhouse.

I actually don’t know a lot about how to purposely kill off dwarves–is there a favorite trick people use? Lock 'em in a “too big” room and knock out the support column? I’ve been meaning to try a hermit run.

  • Alan
1649

Yeah, that’s one thing the pop cap and baby settings can’t help with. Draft them, station them in a room, forbid the door. No muss, no fuss.

1650

Engraving tasks is a good idea. It just seems like I’ve got enough tables, chairs, beds, etc by the time the immigants arrive. I can usually get a meat industry going (hunter/butchertanner/leatherworker), but that’s only four dwarves, and then four or so for the military still leaves 10 or so lazing about between gem workers and stupid things like potash making (is that like majoring in philosophy for dwarves?). I never thought about cloth, I guess I should start planting those pig tail seeds earlier. And I never start my metal industry early enough, but it’s so hard with the starting seven…

1651

Farming, dude. A big underground farm and a big overground farm. And that makes more jobs for cooks, brewers, farming workshop processors, barrel makers…

1652

I usually designate most of my immigrants to growers, herbalists, and whatever other jobs I happen to need at the moment. Sometimes I enable 3 jobs on incoming dwarves, and they eventually level up in one skill and stick to it on their own.

Herbalism is absolutely essential, and you can get a lot of booze out of it! Remember to “d p” designate plants for gathering.

Also, you can never have too many brewers or crafts dwarves, if you set up enough workshops. Remember that craftsdwarves can crank out cheap short swords and bolts, if you have the proper resources.

As for killing off immigrants… Meh. If your economy can’t sustain the newcomers, they tend to die off on their own… There’s a fair amount of attrition if you choose a tough enough area! Of course, one dwarf going mad from hunger can make all the difference in your population.

1653

I tend to have one of the smoothest/engraved stone fortresses after the first year when I need to have immigrants actually do something before I have the rest of the work rooms and flow of the fortress built out. Farming and hauling come next. And then all of those dyers, potash makers and other such not as useful at the beginning of a fortress go on to become incredible conscripts into my military.

1654

I picked up a good tip from the wiki or DF forums (can’t remember):

Make a bunch of mason’s shops and only allow low skill dwarfs to use them so as not to distract your real masons. Put “carve stone blocks” on repeat and enable the masonry skill on all your idlers. This will clean up all the stone laying around and give you a massive supply of stone blocks (which can be stored maybe 5 at a time in bins). Then, build a MEGAPROJECT using your blocks and your newly minted masons.

I’m also a big fan of just sticking them in the military. There’s no need to equip them or anything - training injuries from wrestling are minimal and naked legendary wrestlers will kick the shit out of chainmail clad goblins.

1655

I keep waffling about starting up a new fortress to play, and waiting for the new version which has seemed so close for so long.

1656

Me too, but I’ve decided to just dive right in, with the expectation that my fortress is almost certainly doomed to fail before the update comes out. Also, I need a couple more “practice” fortresses to sort out z-plane issues.

  • Alan
1657

Arbit, I don’t think blockmaking improves your dwarves’ masonry skill, but I could be mistaken.

1658

Hmm, now that you mention it I think you’re right about that. It DOES keep them busy, so mission accomplished and all that.

I thought that it gave them a tiny amount of experience, but looking at the wiki it appears that any masonry experience they accrued was from building something that required the architecture skill (something I tend to enable on all my builders as well).

1659

At least you can use the blocks to make a road if you’re so inclined. I tend to make my roads mostly underground, though.

1660

I like to make giant bridges that stretch from mountain peak to mountain peak. Or a gigantic pyramid, surrounded by a wall with fortifications on top. Or… stuff like that.