Toady has made a mistake by not allowing workshops to choose the materials they use. I'd like to make a smooth stone road to the edge of the map, but that would mean having to make a billion stone blocks if I want the colors to match. Especially if you are using a rare stone, for example I am making stone walls out of microline because I wanted a teal fortress. I'm loving my fortress though, nearing the end of year two and my outer wall is almost complete, and all industries except glassmaking and bonecrafting are already in full run downstairs.

It is really, really frustrating when a dwarf will travel hundreds of squares to dig out a single channel block.. then travel all the way back to store an item at the depot. Toady needs to reset some priorities ... Sleeping while a caravan is here is just bad. I'd advice turning off hauling on your miners until you really don't need them anymore.

It is really, really frustrating when a dwarf will travel hundreds of squares to dig out a single channel block.. then travel all the way back to store an item at the depot. Toady needs to reset some priorities ... Sleeping while a caravan is here is just bad. I'd advice turning off hauling on your miners until you really don't need them anymore. "Bring Item to Depot" is its own special task now. My miners have all other hauling turned off. As for the specific materials... I wanted a microline central wall area inside my dining room, so i built that specifically rather then leaving the area blank.. Roads can work the same way, its just VERY time consuming to build using specific materials. if you want microline blocks.. pile up microline in a special pile next to the workshop.. they will use them first.

Here is my fortress "Craftsponder" at the start of its 3rd year. This is actually the second level down. The top level (initial Z) is forest with a river running through; only things on that level are a refuse pile and the trade depot. First level down is in nice, farmable earth, so there is a bit of a farm and a seed storage room. Workshops: kitchen, still, crafts, carpenter, mason, mechanic, wood furnace, smelter (the last two just built, so they haven't been used yet). Tons of limestone, though I found a bunch of magnetite in the south this past winter, so I'm prepping to melt that down when the dwarves awake. I can't remember at the moment what that green is... but it's a copper ore, so I'll be smelting that as well. Had a few kobolds attack, which were dealt with easily. Macaques have come through twice stealing stuff off the trade depot. Dang, they're fast. I'm putting up a circle of cage traps around the trade depot in the hopes that will stop the thieves... though hopefully I won't trap any merchants. Spoiler: show spoiler hide spoiler EDIT: I really need to dig out some stuff down one more level... Part of the reason for the extended length (though maybe that's no biggie) is that I'm digging around lake bottoms directly above.

Toady needs to reset some priorities ... Sleeping while a caravan is here is just bad. The first caravan I got, every single dwarf was either asleep or eating for two thirds of the trading window. Dwarven culture seriously needs to invent the pasty, so they can eat on the job like the old Cornish tin miners:

Toady needs to reset some priorities ... Sleeping while a caravan is here is just bad. The first caravan I got, every single dwarf was either asleep or eating for two thirds of the trading window. Dwarven culture seriously needs to invent the pasty, so they can eat on the job like the old Cornish tin miners: Dwarven miners snack on rocks. I also got the most useless immigration ever. 3 dyers, 5 milkers and 2 peasants. I mean, seriously?

Yeah some of those milkers and fish dissectors really don't understand why a dwarven outpost in the middle of dangerous territory doesn't need their expertise. "Oh you know how to make soap do you? Sit the hell down and get polishing the floor!"

Yeah some of those milkers and fish dissectors really don't understand why a dwarven outpost in the middle of dangerous territory doesn't need their expertise. "Oh you know how to make soap do you? Sit the hell down and get polishing the floor!" Exactly what I do too. About 1/5 of them get turned into soldiers. "You're not a peasant no more bucky, welcome to boot camp!"

So I started a fort in an area with an aquifer and a volcano and what I thought to do was pump some lava into an enclosed channel with wooden pumps to get some stone. I have learned things. Wooden pumps will pump magma. Once the channel fills up the pump will catch itself on fire as a way to shut it off. Magma causes fire. (Who knew?) Grass is flammable. Fire can jump over channels. Wooden walls are immune to fire. hopefully next time I'll be able to pull this off and get some easy stone, but live and learn. Or die in a fire and learn.

So I started a fort in an area with an aquifer and a volcano and what I thought to do was pump some lava into an enclosed channel with wooden pumps to get some stone. I have learned things. Wooden pumps will pump magma. Once the channel fills up the pump will catch itself on fire as a way to shut it off. Magma causes fire. (Who knew?) Grass is flammable. Fire can jump over channels. Wooden walls are immune to fire. hopefully next time I'll be able to pull this off and get some easy stone, but live and learn. Or die in a fire and learn.

So apparently liaison guards don't require food. I had a human diplomat go crazy in my mayor's office about 1 year ago (his guards dispatched him for me, thanks guys), and just now I noticed they're still down there lurking around. The units screen says they're still friendly. Kind of nice, like having an automated sentry bot for security.

So apparently liaison guards don't require food. I had a human diplomat go crazy in my mayor's office about 1 year ago (his guards dispatched him for me, thanks guys), and just now I noticed they're still down there lurking around. The units screen says they're still friendly. Mine definitely needed food or water or something... After being stuck there for about a year, she died hungry, thirsting, naked, and babbling to herself in the middle of the dorm hallway. For some months after she died, my dwarves kept about their work, carefully stepping around the body and pretending like they didn't see it. After the first miasma cloud, I asked several dwarves to dump the body, but they each responded, "What body? There's no body here. Are you feeling ok?" After the third miasma cloud, I grabbed one of them and nearly shoved his face into the corpse. "THAT BODY!" I yelled, perhaps a bit too loudly. After a moment to examine chair production, I came back and found that the corpse was gone and the floor washed. Seems they understand me a bit better now.

Is there a way to have objects removed from a specific place? I'd like to have the stones in the dining room removed, but I'd rather not have my dwarves put all the stones they can find in a stockpile.

you have to hit 'k' to see what is in the tile, then hit 'd' to dump the item there. All items to be dumped are taken to any area you have designated as a garbage dump. I usually dig a shaft straight down on each level to a single spot on my lowest z level. Each floor has this area designated as a dump site... so everything just needs to make it to the hole on that level, and it all ends up down on a single tile on the lowest z level in case i want it again. its tedious to set up... but quick in the long run.

So apparently liaison guards don't require food. I had a human diplomat go crazy in my mayor's office about 1 year ago (his guards dispatched him for me, thanks guys), and just now I noticed they're still down there lurking around. The units screen says they're still friendly. Mine definitely needed food or water or something... After being stuck there for about a year, she died hungry, thirsting, naked, and babbling to herself in the middle of the dorm hallway. For some months after she died, my dwarves kept about their work, carefully stepping around the body and pretending like they didn't see it. After the first miasma cloud, I asked several dwarves to dump the body, but they each responded, "What body? There's no body here. Are you feeling ok?" My dwarfs never seemed to consider moving bodies particularly important. This led to a dwarf going mental because he had to both watch a close friend die and watch the slow decay of the corpse in the barracks. Turns out my fine dining room wasn't enough to cheer him up.

Someone on the DF forums posted a utility that can teleport liaisons up to ground level. Haven't tried it myself yet. http://angband.org/~erasmus/df/teleport20.zip Toady needs to reset some priorities ... Sleeping while a caravan is here is just bad. Is this a major problem? I almost always see my trade broker/leader/etc. dwarf go to sleep right when the caravan and liaison arrive, then take a leisurely breakfast plus a few drinks after waking up, plus maybe take the time to harvest a few plump helmets, but I've never missed the trade window because of it.

I recently completed the massive farm chamber, and threw the switch to drain the river into it. After tending to some other matters, I returned to see the floor of the chamber, still littered with rocks and without water. So I'm trying to figure out why there's no water, but my dorfs won't go inside. So I remove the door, thinking it's bugged. Queue mad frenzy to channel ahead of the surge of water, obscured by the stones on the floor. Dorfs are being swept down to the next Z-level, where they are left to drown for the good of the fortress. Eventually the flood is contained, and now there are giant farms for all. Time to reroll for magma.

Someone on the DF forums posted a utility that can teleport liaisons up to ground level. Haven't tried it myself yet. http://angband.org/~erasmus/df/teleport20.zip Toady needs to reset some priorities ... Sleeping while a caravan is here is just bad. Is this a major problem? I almost always see my trade broker/leader/etc. dwarf go to sleep right when the caravan and liaison arrive, then take a leisurely breakfast plus a few drinks after waking up, plus maybe take the time to harvest a few plump helmets, but I've never missed the trade window because of it. Yes, it is a problem. My manager decides to do everything but meet with the caravan. and if I tell him to go trade, he should go now. harvest plants / bring item to depot / sleep / drink seem to override this. My miners travel a long way to dig my waterworks, and they get there and dig a single square... then leave to do something. Then they come back to dig some more. i would like to somehow have the dwarves give a higher priority to jobs right next to them, rather then move all around. A good miner can dig out squares in a 13x13, THEN get the plump helmet in the time it takes to dig some... get the food, then dig some more. Travel time is the kicker. Maybe if we were able to set dwarf priorities ... you can set your haulers to be masons.. but they prefer to haul unless those jobs are empty.. Or your primary engravers,etc can also haul if the jobs start backing up. it should require no more micromanagement then removing all hauling jobs from each dwarf.

Interesting... Just started a new fortress, as the old was too much in autopilot mode and... well... all seven starting Dwarves are female. I wonder what shall happen when, after a year without any male dwarves around, the first wave of new citizens arrive. Shall the men be captured and put to the sword by their amazonian overlords? Will they become slaves, forced to work in the deepest reaches of the mountain? Will there be parties?

My manager decides to do everything but meet with the caravan. and if I tell him to go trade, he should go now. harvest plants / bring item to depot / sleep / drink seem to override this. That's why you turn all the other options for the Broker off. Turn off all the hauling, planting and whatever other actions he's capable of doing. He'll still sleep, eat and drink though. Personally, I don't have a Dwarf with decent enough broker-skills, so I just set the Depot to all Anyone to Trade. That works well enough. Maybe if we were able to set dwarf priorities ... There is a window that has priorities on it. But I haven't used it at all, as I have no idea how that window works .

My manager decides to do everything but meet with the caravan. and if I tell him to go trade, he should go now. harvest plants / bring item to depot / sleep / drink seem to override this. That's why you turn all the other options for the Broker off. Turn off all the hauling, planting and whatever other actions he's capable of doing. He'll still sleep, eat and drink though. Personally, I don't have a Dwarf with decent enough broker-skills, so I just set the Depot to all Anyone to Trade. That works well enough. Maybe if we were able to set dwarf priorities ... There is a window that has priorities on it. But I haven't used it at all, as I have no idea how that window works . Everything *is* off.. "take item to depot" & "harvest plants" as well as the drink/eat/sleep get me. What priority screen are you looking at ?

My manager decides to do everything but meet with the caravan. and if I tell him to go trade, he should go now. harvest plants / bring item to depot / sleep / drink seem to override this. That's why you turn all the other options for the Broker off. Turn off all the hauling, planting and whatever other actions he's capable of doing. He'll still sleep, eat and drink though. As far as I can tell, harvesting is a global option in the (o)rders menu where either farmers are the only ones allowed to harvest plants, or else everyone is. So unless you set that to farmers-only, you can't make the broker stop harvesting. I think turning off his hauling tasks should stop him from bringing items to the depot. I've never noticed my broker doing it, and I think I only ever designate goods while he's standing in the depot. I don't think it's unfair that he wants to sleep, eat and drink before his meeting, though. I guess it would be pretty cool if they both brought their food to his office and made it a business meal. Or if I could make dwarf waiters. But sleeping? Who wants to haggle over prices and establish business relationships when they're not fully rested?

Is it possible to link up two windmills to increase available power? I'm trying to get a screw pump chain going, and one windmill isn't enough to power it. So I figured I would build another windmill nearby, and link it up to the gear assembly with horizontal axles. But it doesn't appear to be contributing to the system. Introduce crude graphic time! What I've got is this: The blue indicates pieces that the game thinks are "powered". The boxes are gear assemblies, the line connecting the gear assemblies is a horizontal axle. Windmill 1 is supplying power to the system (40 units, the system needs 52), which disappears underground to my screw pump. Windmill 2 is "active" but not doing anything. Can this work?

I think you need to drop the shaft from windmill 2 down, and connect it to the device. But i have really no idea

Doh, figured it out. Build order is important.. have to build the windmill, THEN make the gear assembly underneath it. I was kicking off both construction projects at the same time, and the gears always finished first.