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So at the time of writing this I am currently already on my 7th or 8th Fortress. Each one thus far, perhaps traditionally, has ended in some horrible fashion, usually with my Dwarfs starving slowly or going insane. Now in good measure, I have learned things. I now know that dwarfs Can't Cross a chasm on thier own without a bridge. Or, if you try and sell your axes to score points for more food, they Won't cut down Trees. perhaps my best lesson is that what Looks like a pool of water in a cave WILL Indeed flood abd drown your dwarfs if you dig into it.

But all that aside there are a few things I still cannot do properly. Now to be fair I have discovered the DF wiki which has helped immensely. Buy one thing eludes me... I can never seem to get enough food. Oh sure I read up on farming, which claims to be able to provide all the food you never need. But after gathering seeds an suxch, building farm plots, I never seem to be able to have plots actually bare food.

So I go to the Plebles and masses for help before once again my latest's attempt ends horribly

Ok, here's my opinion on your situation.

Yes, you most definitely need farming. The plump helmets are most definitely the way to go. I can't remember if you can still cook the alcohol in to food, but that was always my favorite way to do things. However! If you don't mind the processor strain, camels, cows and horses supplement your food VERY nicely. I had a similar problem in the fortress I'm doing right now. My dwarves were starving (though I'll get to the reason why in a second) so what I did was pretty much set have the animals to be slaughtered. It makes for good emergency food, as well as costing you nothing once you get a mating pair of animals. The processor strain and clutter is about the only downside, but there are worse things to do either.

Now, the addendum to plump helmets: make sure you regulate the use of them for alcohol. Brewing tower caps into wine (it's wine right?) leaves the seeds, but cooking them doesn't. So they make a good source for dwarven liquor, but you'll need the raw mushrooms for eatin'. Alternating is a good way to go, or just get tons of quarry bushes since they produce a ridiculous amount of food for their space/seeding.

I hope I answered that to your satisfaction

-Aaron, is ok at Dwarf Fortress

Quarry Bushes give the most food per unit, but IIRC have a longer processing chain (so more haulage). Plump Helmets are easiest but less space efficient.

Also, don't be afraid to fiddle with people's jobs come harvest time. Getting all hands to the fields to get the harvest in before it goes manky is definitely a good idea.

Efficiently planning your food storage is a good idea as well, the food chain has quite a lot of haulage tasks involved, so make sure they happen efficiently, log jams in getting food from field to stores and stores to kitchens increases the chance of it going rotten and everyone starving in winter.

So, your farmers plant, and then not enough comes up? Just plant more I guess. If the problem is that the fields are unplanted, then obviously you need to make sure whatever dwaves have the grower skill 1)have grower labor turned on and 2)aren't spending all their time hauling stone or gathering seeds (grower/herbalist being typical) instead of planting.

well at this point, im not sure "Anything" is coming up. I have my grows as herbalists also, but for the most part I plant a farm plot after they've done a good deal of plant harvesting.

Lets say I make a farm plot, 5x5, a menu pops up with the following.
A menu of the plants available, lets say:
Prickle Berries
Hide root
Wild strawberries

z: Fallow f:Fertilize
Ft: 0/8 s: Seas Fert (N)
a: Spring b: Summer
c: Autumn d: Winter

So... First I'd select something,. or, say Prickle Berries, It would be highlighted, then I'd move down and if it were spring, I'd hhit spring. then space to exit out...then...nothing happens... Am i missing something? Do I need to make fertilizer for it to work?

No need for fertilizer, and from memory you're doing it right. Are the plants in red? How late is it in the season? (also, try planting for next season. It might make the game's job seeking behave.)

You have it backwards, though I suppose you could say the user interface is backwards. You need to select the season, and then the plant. So when 'spring' is highlighted, you're seeing what's going to be planted in spring, and if you hit b to select 'summer,' you'll see what will be planted in summer. Obviously you want neither of those to be fallow. Also, I wouldn't necessarily start with above-ground farming, as you'll have few seeds. Get an underground farm going, with seeds you brought from the starting menu (plump helmet spawn, rock nuts, etc.). Keep in mind that cooking a plant does not produce a seed, while eating it raw, processing it, or brewing it will produce seeds.

well!

I finally have a stablized Fortress at last... Sure it only came about when I reclaimed an abadoned one with a small army of well armed dwarfs, but I seem to be doing ok! I still have a few questions...

One, is there any way tto reclaim the vast fields of stones and raw materials left from the last group? And two, is there a way to take large screenshots? Now that i have a reasonable fortress, id like to show it off

Crossroads Inc. wrote: One, is there any way tto reclaim the vast fields of stones and raw materials left from the last group?

I believe you go to Mass Dump (it's under the designations I think) and turn everything off of forbidden...though I don't know if everything is forbidden to start.

And two, is there a way to take large screenshots? Now that i have a reasonable fortress, id like to show it off

Escape -> Export image. It'll take a picture of the whole layer. Be careful if you have a very vertical fortress...

-Aaron, can't get the image exporter to work

Well there we go! the image was compressed, and im working on a bigger one to show off, but im rather proud of my Little fortress. Its nice and neat.. And ill have to start a new one soon... Why For? Well, when I said I finally had a good runnier fortress? All of the smaller pools of water suddenly dried up in summer, and now that it is winter everyone's dying of thirst

Looks like it was a good layout. I'd take some pictures of mine, but...issues -.-

As for water, you should either brew yourself some alcohol instead, or dig a reserve for the water in the pools to drain in to so it won't dry up.

-Aaron, jonesing for some Dwarf Fortress

So... I Think i discovered a rather nice exploit recently

Take your 7 dwarfs,
Make 4 of them just Mason/Stonecrafters
Make 3 of them Carpenter/Woodcrafters
Give all of them one point of Minning and one point of woodcutting.

Dig the fortress, furnish it, stock it, set it up. Then, well your intial supplys run out... Abadon it, then Reclaim it with a small army.

Bamo! Ready made fully furnished fortress for you to claim!

I never understand how some people can avoid those massive plains of rocks that I tend to dig to find gems and ore.

Zablorg wrote:I never understand how some people can avoid those massive plains of rocks that I tend to dig to find gems and ore.

Mostly I suspect they're just not moving the stone to a stockpile. Stockpiling stone en mass is one of the most inefficient things you can do to a fortress, it generates masses and masses of high priority haulage tasks.

I'd only stockpile stone if you want to collect a particular type of stone for stonecrafting.

I was more referring to the fact that from most images I've seen of fortresses there's really no indication that they actively seek goodies, but they just carve their way through the earth as is convenient for them.

Vendetta wrote:

Zablorg wrote:I never understand how some people can avoid those massive plains of rocks that I tend to dig to find gems and ore.

Mostly I suspect they're just not moving the stone to a stockpile. Stockpiling stone en mass is one of the most inefficient things you can do to a fortress, it generates masses and masses of high priority haulage tasks.

I'd only stockpile stone if you want to collect a particular type of stone for stonecrafting.

this brings up a goofd question... can i tell my dwarfs "Plerase just stockpile ore and NOT stones" ?

Crossroads Inc. wrote: this brings up a goofd question... can i tell my dwarfs "Plerase just stockpile ore and NOT stones" ?

Yeah, create a stockpile and set it to only accept certain items (Building properties once you've defined it). You should be able to get fairly granular with what they'll actually store.

hmmm, im in the "custom stockpile" settings but I don't see anything i could mark as "ore" or "minerals" it just gives me tyhe standard options

EDIT: never mind, found it