Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

v0.34:Children

2012-10-01T16:39:21Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Labor */

{{quality|Fine|20:06, 26 December 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}
Most creatures, including [[Dwarves]], start out as infants, then after a certain number of years become children, and then finally become adults. For [[Dwarves]], childhood starts after reaching one year of age, and continues until they are twelve years old.

In fortress mode, some migrant dwarves are married and may bring children. Children who immigrate to your [[fortress]] might be any age from two to twelve. You can determine the age of any child by viewing their thoughts screen, which will give you the child's exact age as well as their date of birth. You can see this information regardless if the child was born in your fortress or came to it as a migrant with its parents.

"Resident" female dwarves may also give birth to children. This can be stopped or reduced by editing the BABY_CHILD_CAP setting in the [[d_init.txt]] file. Dwarves even can have miscarriages (if they become Dehydrated, Starving, or are subjected to certain types of physical trauma), which causes an unhappy thought for the mother but not for the father. Talking to a child causes a good thought. Children are known to start parties, being idle much of the time.

Much of [[goblin]] society is centered around [[snatcher|stealing the children]] of other races. The appropriate response to a baby-snatcher appearing on the map is the judicious use of a [[war hammer]].

==Babies==
Babies do not have to be born in [[bed]]s, but are born wherever the mother happens to be. The birth will interrupt the mother's current action (even sleep). The game will pause and announce the arrival of the baby. The mother will cancel whatever task she was in the middle of to seek her infant, and then will immediately resume whatever task she was doing before the child was born.

Dwarven mothers can also give birth to twins or triplets. Babies are looked after by their mother, who will continue working while carrying the baby.

Babies usually share a tile with their mother. If the mother is [[sleep]]ing, hospitalized, or imprisoned, however, the baby will be free to roam as it pleases. An emancipated baby acts in a similar manner to a [[insane|raving mad]] adult, wandering freely over the map without any sense of self-preservation. It will be fed and watered{{verify}} as requested (rather like a semi-mobile injured dwarf), and as long as it's not within reach of a hostile creature, then no harm will be done to it. "Job cancellation spam" can be generated as the baby is seen by the game to be "insane" (example: "Urist McBabyname, Dwarven baby, cancels Clean Self: Too Insane"), but once it reaches childhood (at 12 months), that will stop, and they shall go about their business like any other dwarven child.

The gender of a baby is determined upon birth. [[Cheating#Savescumming|Reloading a save]] might get a baby of the other gender.

After giving birth it is possible for the mother to become pregnant again immediately, and give birth to another child nine months later.

A dwarven baby is born without a [[beard]]. If it happens to be male, the beard will immediately begin growing.

==Labor==
In [[fortress mode]], children cannot be assigned any labor, but they will perform a few simple tasks on their own:

* Socializing, like starting [[party|parties]].
* Removing [[construction]]s (such as [[wall]]s, [[floor]]s, [[ramp]]s).
* Eating, drinking, and sleeping as necessary.
* [[Farming|Harvesting]] [[crops]], if the 'All dwarves harvest' order is on. This will also increase their [[grower]] skill. Naturally, almost all children will grow up with at least proficient in growing. They will also store the harvested food in a stockpile, fetching a barrel if needed.
* When they want to, storing their items. Yelling at them to clean their room has no effect.
* <s>Filling designated [[pond|ponds]]</s>.{{verify}}
* Children can enter [[strange mood]]s.

Children may not be assigned to the [[noble|nobility]]. However, they ''can'' be assigned bedrooms.

If no tasks are available, they will gladly loiter in meeting areas, like [[dining room]]s for example, for the duration of their youth. The game will create an announcement when children reach adulthood and can be assigned any labor. This announcement will not pause and/or center the screen.

==Dwarven parenthood==

In the eighth DFTalk, it was mentioned that as an oversight in programming, children's parents can become so preoccupied with finding their children that they can die of thirst.

v0.31:Stockpile

2011-11-06T09:38:39Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* {{L|refuse stockpile|Refuse}} */ corrected misinformation on Outdoor vs. Light tiles and miasma

{{quality|Exceptional|21:03, 7 January 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Stockpiles''' are where {{L|dwarf|dwarves}} will store items of various types, usually in a safer, closer or more convenient place for the consumers. Dwarves with the corresponding "{{L|hauling}}" job on will seek out items that aren't already on a stockpile that accepts them and carry them to the appropriate stockpile. It's important to place your stockpiles carefully to minimize the amount of time spent carrying items to and from them. Items in a stockpile may be stored in {{L|bag|bags}}, {{L|barrel|barrels}} or {{L|bin|bins}} (see {{L|Using bins and barrels}}). Seed bags can go inside barrels.

== Allocating stockpiles ==

To allocate an area as a stockpile, use the {{key|p}} menu. The right-hand menu pane will list all the stockpile categories, and the appropriate key to press to begin allocating that type. Allocating an area works exactly the same as designating an area. Press {{k|Enter}} to specify the first corner of the stockpile, use the primary movement keys to move the cursor to the opposite corner, and press {{k|Enter}} again. This will create a stockpile of the chosen type that occupies the area between the two corners specified. If the chosen area has parts that cannot be made into a stockpile, like a {{L|wall}}, a {{L|workshop}}, or an already existing stockpile, a stockpile will be created but they will not be part of it.

Removing a stockpile works exactly the same, but choose {{key|x}}: Remove Designation. This will un-designate the specified area. It is possible to create a single stockpile with a shape other than a rectangle by using the Remove Designation tool to remove only part of the stockpile.

Stockpiles cannot be expanded once created; you must delete the pile and create a new one.

== Using stockpiles ==

Once a stockpile has been allocated, dwarves will automatically move items to the stockpile when they are available, and as long as the stockpile has available space. Note that the dwarves will place the item into the empty spot that is nearest to the item, ''not counting any obstructions''{{verify}}. Additional behavior also includes the fact that dwarves will stockpile the ''newest'' item first, which may not necessarily be the nearest item to the stockpile.

When dwarves need an item for a particular task, they will head to the nearest (again, not counting any obstructions that may lie in the way) item of the correct type, regardless of whether it is in a stockpile or not. Apart from some exceptions, items do not have to be stockpiled at all. Players are generally advised to avoid stone stockpiles, because stone {{L|hauling}} jobs take an extreme amount of time for unskilled dwarves, due to the weight hauled.

One method to ensure a workshop has raw material on hand is to place a small stockpile next to the workshop. This will speed up production as the crafter in question only has to take a few steps to obtain the material. It also has a useful side-effect, in that as soon as the crafter picks up the piece of material, the stockpile will issue a new task to fetch another piece of that material. Because that crafter is busy, that hauling job will be taken by another {{L|dwarf}}. This speeds up a queue of jobs, as other dwarves perform the time-consuming distant haul whilst the crafter actually makes the items.

It's not necessary to place stockpiles for all types of objects. If no storage is available for a certain item type, dwarves will seek out items wherever they might lie as mentioned earlier. This can be advantageous -- if you don't have a stockpile for {{L|gem|gems}}, your {{L|jeweler}} will go pick up fresh gems without waiting for them to be carried to a pile first. However, this also means your jeweler has to spend a lot of time fetching the gems. If you have enough haulers available, it's generally more advantageous to designate stockpiles than not. Also remember that your workshops will get {{L|clutter|cluttered}} and suffer production slowdowns if you let items pile up in them, so it's important to regularly clear out workshops when they get cluttered. This can be done either by having a stockpile available so that haulers will remove the items or by removing and rebuilding the workshop, which will empty its contents onto the ground.

== Take from a stockpile ==

Another feature of stockpiles, currently in a limited form, allows you to tell dwarves to fill one stockpile not only with unstockpiled items, but also those located on another stockpile that accepts those items. To specify such a flow, use the {{k|q}} menu, and highlight the ''destination'' stockpile. Press {{k|t}}, and, using the cursor, highlight another stockpile and press {{k|Enter}}. Your chosen stockpile will now list the stockpile it will take from. This will cause items in the second stockpile to be hauled to the first stockpile. To stop the first stockpile from taking items from the second, use the {{K|q}} menu on the first one, highlight the unneeded stockpile in the list using {{K|+}} and {{K|-}} and press {{K|d}}'''elete Selected'''.

Each stockpile can take from any number of other stockpiles, but can only have one stockpile taking from it in turn. This limit applies even if the two stockpiles you want it to feed into don't share a single material that can be stored in both of them. Additionally, you can't make two stockpiles feed into each other, although larger loops (e.g. 3 stockpiles that feed into each other in a circle) are allowed.

However, despite these limitations, enough micromanagement will allow for effective and (relatively) streamlined supply chains. For example, you can speed up {{L|wood cutting|lumber harvesting}}, {{L|carpentry}}, ''and'' {{L|ash}} and {{L|charcoal}} production by putting several wood stockpiles near the various {{L|Chop_down_trees|tree-felling areas}}, then one large "primary" stockpile near the {{L|carpenter's workshop}} that takes from those small ones, and then finally, a small stockpile near the {{L|wood furnace}} that takes from the primary one.

== Stockpile categories ==

==={{L|Ammo}}===
This stockpile contains ammo for all forms of ammunition-requiring weaponry (except siege engines). It can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 100 units of ammo.

==={{L|Animal}}===
{{L|Creature|Animals}} stored in {{L|cage|cages}} that are not affixed to a location will be stored in these stockpiles. {{L|Animal trap|Traps}} used for capturing wild animals and empty {{L|cage|cages}} are also stored here.

==={{L|Armor}}===
Armor of all types is stored here. This kind of stockpile can use bins to consolidate up to 10 items. There is no preference for specific body parts. All types of armor can be stored in {{L|bin|bins}}.

==={{L|Bar}}/{{L|Block}}===
Bars of smelted {{L|metal}} and blocks of cut stone and {{L|glass}} are kept here after being processed by the {{L|smelter}}, {{L|mason's workshop|mason's workshops}}, and {{L|glass furnace|glass furnaces}}, before being used for other purposes. Weirdly, {{L|ash|ashes}}, {{L|potash}}, {{L|soap}}, {{L|charcoal}}, and {{L|coke}} from the {{L|wood furnace}}, {{L|ashery}}, {{L|alchemist's laboratory}} and smelter will also be stored here. Like with all stockpiles, this can be changed to allow for specific blocks and bars to be stored with custom settings. {{L|Bin|Bins}} can be used to consolidate up to 10 bars and blocks.

==={{L|Cloth}}===
Woven cloth and {{L|thread}} from the {{L|loom}} is stored here. {{L|Bin|Bins}} can be used to consolidate up to 10 items.

==={{L|Currency|Coins}}===
Minted coins are kept here. Bins can be used to consolidate up to 3000 coins, which is equivalent to six new coins stacks.

==={{L|Corpse | Corpses}}===
Dead dwarves and {{L|pet|pets}} that have no burial location will be placed here. If placed indoors, decaying bodies will generate {{L|miasma}}, but {{L|bone|bones}} will not be removed at the end of the season. Rotting {{L|pet|pets}} or {{L|friend|friends}} gives dwarves unhappy {{L|thought|thoughts}} unless they are given a proper burial in a {{L|Coffin|burial receptacle}}.

==={{L|Finished goods|Finished Goods}}===
Finished goods created by the {{L|craftsdwarf's workshop}}, as well as the {{L|clothier's shop}} and the {{L|leather works}}, are placed here before being used in trade or other uses. This type of stockpile can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 25 items.

=== {{L|Food}} ===

As one would assume based on the name, food is stored here. Unexpectedly, {{L|lye}}, {{L|giant desert scorpion}} venom, bags of {{L|dye}}, and {{L|Fire snake|liquid fire}} are as well. Raw {{L|fish}} is brought here before being processed by {{L|fishery}} and turned into edible {{L|meat}}. Drinks are always stored in {{L|barrel|barrels}}. Seeds can be stored in {{L|bag|bags}}, whereas other food items can be stored in {{L|barrel|barrels}} (up to 10 items per barrel, but note that
the stack +Cow meat roast [8]+ would count as eight items.)

Note that {{L|prepared meal|prepared meals}} in stacks larger than ten (☼Dwarven Beer Roast [200]☼ is possible) will not fit in a barrel, but will not rot once placed in a food stockpile, and still only take up one space. To free up barrels, you may decide to have separate prepared food stockpiles that do not accept barrels. If you cook larger meals, this shouldn't be a problem.

Food stockpiles should in most cases be specified as things like {{L|seed}} stockpiles or meat stockpiles or unprepared fish stockpiles; there are simply too many things that go in them.

==={{L|Furniture}} Storage===
Completed items from the {{L|carpenter's workshop}}, mason's workshop, and {{L|mechanic's workshop}} will be stored here, along with furniture created from other shops, until placed or used in another building. Bags filled with {{L|sand}} can also be stored in furniture stockpiles.

Since this is a very broad category, it may be useful to create stockpiles for a specific type of item (like barrels, bags, bins, mechanisms) via the stockpile settings.

==={{L|Gem}}===
This stockpile stores gems and raw {{L|glass}}, both cut and uncut, before being used in a construction. It can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 10 gems.

==={{L|Leather}}===
Leather, which is produced at a {{L|Tanner's shop}}, will be kept here. Like most stockpiles, it can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 10 items.

==={{L|refuse stockpile|Refuse}}===
Since dwarves hate rot because of the {{L|miasma}} it spreads when in an enclosed place like a {{L|cave}}, any garbage item that can rot will be stored in a refuse stockpile. Also, any XXdamaged itemsXX will be moved to the refuse stockpile. Many players prefer to place this stockpile outside their cavern, usually a small distance from the entrance, as rottable items on tiles that are {{DFtext|Outside |3:1}}{{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} do not generate miasma.

If placed on a {{DFtext|Subterranean|0:1}} tile, decaying items will generate miasma, which will spread through your fortress and generate a small unhappy thought in any dwarf passing through it. For this reason it is sensible to build {{L|door|doors}} (preferably several, separated by a few tiles to create an airlock) to all of your indoor refuse stockpiles. Miasma won't spread through a closed door, so only dwarves with business in the room will be bothered by the rot.

An alternative to this is to dig {{L|channel|channels}} down from the surface, creating an area of tiles considered to be {{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}}, yet still located within your fortress. You can place your refuse stockpile here, and whilst it will be in your fort, rotten items on those tiles will not generate miasma. If you choose to cover them with walls or floors for security and/or aesthetic reasons, it will convert them to {{DFtext|Inside|6:0}}, but they will remain {{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} tiles, which again do not generate miasma in rotten items. (For even more creative methods to restrict the spread of foul rotting stench, see the {{L|miasma}} page.)

{{L|Bone}}s, {{L|skull}}s, and {{L|shell}}s are also stored here, whether they be from defeated enemies or raw food processing. If left in an area with high {{L|vermin}} levels, these will randomly disappear. Refuse stockpiles can be restricted to store only {{L|bone}}s, {{L|skull}}s, {{L|shell}}s, teeth, and horns/hooves.

Note that a refuse stockpile is not the same as a {{L|Activity_zone#Garbage_Dump|garbage dump}}. A garbage dump is only for things manually marked to be dumped. Additionally, refuse types specifically marked as '''Dwarves Dump '''''refuse type'' in {{k|o}}-{{k|r}} will be hauled to the garbage dump instead of the refuse stockpile.

Also note that if you allow bins to be used on your refuse pile, damaged clothing will be stored in it, allowing for more efficient use of your pile.

==={{L|Stone}}===
Rough stone will be stored here, as well as {{L|ore}}. Given the extreme abundance of stone, it is very likely for this stockpile to fill up quickly, making stone stockpiles largely ineffective for {{L|Stone_management|dealing with excess stone}}. Probably the best use of stone stockpiles is to make sure that workshops and smelters, catapults, and impending construction projects have their materials close at hand. Be aware that these things can use up a lot of stone very quickly, leading to your dwarves scurrying around the fortress trying to keep up. To avoid stone hauling when you don't want it, you can slow down or stop the nearby usage, allowing the stockpile to fill back up (and thus no longer need more stone), or you can set the dwarves to ignore minerals in {{key|o}}rders and options.

==={{L|Weapon|Weapons}}===
Weapons of all types are stored here by default, including the weapons that dwarves do not use, picks, and trap components. {{L|Bin|Bins}} can be used to consolidate up to 10 weapons of any type.

==={{L|Wood}}===
Chopped trees are brought to the wood stockpile before being used by the carpenter's, woodburner's or siege workshop. Because wood takes a long time to haul and tends to travel a long way, the stockpile should be rather close to a fortress entrance (which does not necessarily mean on the upper z-levels - moving down one z-level is only one tile), unless you have an {{L|Tower-cap|underground tree farm}}. It is a good idea to position this stockpile close to your carpenter's workshop (or the other way round) since he is likely to be the main "customer".

=== Custom stockpiles ===

With custom stockpiles you can change which types of materials, goods, etc, can be stored in that pile. Any types of things can be mixed, so you could have a stockpile that will hold raw {{L|turtle}}, {{L|mechanism|mechanisms}} and all stone types apart from {{L|onyx}} if you wanted, or only high-quality steel crossbow bolts (Ammo), all quivers (a Finished Good), and metal Crossbows (a Weapon) - the combinations are endless, and can be finely tuned. Highlighting a stockpile with {{key|q}}, then pressing {{key|s}} will allow you to adjust the stockpile settings or in the {{key|p}} menu you can press {{key|t}} to adjust a custom stockpiles settings before placing it with {{key|c}}. Note that many sub-menus consist of several pages ( the 'other' menu of stone e.g. consists of several pages while 'metal {{L|ore|ores}}' and 'economic' consist of only one ).

Note that using {{key|q}} also allows you to adjust the number of bins or barrels that a stockpile will use. By default, if the item can be stored, it will try to fill the entire stockpile with that type of container. This can be troublesome, especially early in the game when you don't have nearly enough to go around.

== Stockpile Settings ==
The '''Stockpile Settings''' screen is weird to use. In the first column are the major categories. In the second column there may or may not be subcategories. In the third you will see the individual items. The second and third columns are only visible when a category is enabled and selected.

You navigate this screen with {{key|+}} and {{key|-}}, and left and right on the arrow keys. {{key|e}} and {{key|d}} are used to enable and disable the categories. {{key|a}} and {{key|b}} are used to allow or disallow all the subcategories. {{key|p}} and {{key|f}} will permit or forbid individual subcategories. These six keys work no matter which column you have selected, though the last 4 will not always be available. {{key|Enter}} will toggle individual item types.

Be careful when selecting 'block all' on the subcategories as it can make your stockpiles useless. For example, if you block all the furniture subcategories and then re-enable beds under types, the stockpile won't actually accept anything because it still registers all materials as forbidden. The correct way would be to 'forbid types' and then re-enable beds.

== Notes ==
Some categories will have a special extra type of item(s) that can be toggled with {{key|u}} and sometimes {{key|j}}.

{| border="1" cellpadding="4"
|+
! Categories
! Item type
|-
| Animals
| Empty cages and Empty animal traps
|-
| Food
| Prepared food
|-
| Furniture
| Sand bag
|-
| Weapons
| usable and unusable
|-
| Armor
| usable and unusable
|}

If you disable an item or items that are already sitting in a stockpile then they become loose items and your dwarves will move them to a more suitable stockpile should one exist.

== Uses for Custom Stockpiles ==

A custom stockpile is most useful for food, furniture, and bar/block stockpiles, to prevent your lye and venom sitting next to the {{L|kitchen|kitchens}}, your {{L|floodgate|floodgates}} and mechanisms near the {{L|room|rooms}} that need {{L|statue|statues}} and doors, your stone blocks next to the forges, and your metal bars by the farms.

One use for this is to have an outdoor stockpile next to your gate that will accept all refuse except bones, shells, skins and skulls, and then an indoor pile near your craftsdwarf's workshop that will '''only''' accept these things. If you have set the option for dwarves to gather refuse from outside, the bones will be brought in once all the meat has rotted off of any carcasses outside. This means added risk to your dwarves if they try to gather refuse that is far from your gate, and additional hauling.

Another effective use of custom stockpiles is Elven trading. Make a stockpile just for elf-safe trade goods: most categories where it's relevant have a 'materials' option.

A highly efficient method is to have wood burning furnaces feeding into a '{{L|charcoal}} only' bar/blocks stockpile, which in turn is near the smelting furnaces and forges. Bonus points if you also place a small wood stockpile near the wood furnaces.

Other good uses:
* Planter's stock: {{L|seed|seeds}} and {{L|potash}}. (If your {{L|ashery}} is nearby, include ashes and lye.
* Smelter stock: {{L|ore|ores}} and {{L|flux}}.
* Sandpile: {{L|sand}} bags.
* Clothes Plus: a cloth stockpile that also includes {{L|dye|dyes}}. (Dyes normally count as food.)
* Food Plus: a food stockpile that includes barrels. This spares your dwarves from carrying empty barrels to and from the furniture stores.
* Skins: a refuse stockpile limited to {{L|skin|skins}}, a bit like the bone & shell stockpile above. Place near the tannery.
* Brewer's stock: {{L|List of crops|brewable plants}}.
* Refreshment stand: Since dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, having several small food stockpiles that only accept {{L|Alcohol|drinks}} scattered strategically through your fort can minimize [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoko smoko breaks]. The usefulness of this kind of stockpile is often disputed as dwarves go to the fullest barrel first, so if you can't keep your stockpile constantly filled with new full barrels of alcohol your masons might decide to run all the way over to the alcohol stockpile you have setup for your brewers or your metalsmiths. If you can keep each stockpile constantly being filled with fresh supplies of full barrels of alcohol then this can increase productivity greatly. A simple way of doing this is by keeping a brewery near each separate alcohol stockpile, or locking dwarves in so that local stockpile is the only one they can {{L|path}} to.
* Artifact materials: The massive value and effectiveness of {{L|artifact|artifacts}} means the materials used in them can have drastic effects, sometimes even into the ''{{L|Value|millions}}''. Having special stockpiles for high-value metals, stones, gems, and other such materials will make it that much easier to ensure that you will get the most out of each {{L|strange mood}}. (However, even with materials-specific stockpiles, it can take a fair amount of micromanagement to get a moody dwarf to use a specific material.)
* Artifact storage: Artifacts add a great deal to the created wealth of the fortress and the loss of an artifact can result in a very bad {{L|thought}} for the creator. Keep valuable artifacts safe from {{L|thief|thieves}} in a special stockpile.
* Ingredients: Store things that are cookable but not edible, like milk and quarry bush leaves, near kitchens. For that matter, store both fat and tallow near kitchens for efficient rendering.
* Mason's Stone: Since a mason's workshop doesn't let you pick what type of stone to use, use customized stone stockpiles to provide some of that control. On maps with mass {{L|flux}} stone, a small stockpile for flux stone near masons' workshops can boost the values of stone furniture in general.

==Bugs==
* Currently{{version|0.31.25}} there is no stockpile category for finished goods made of gems {{Bug|4430}}
*Any 'metal' in second column have stones, oozes, jewels in third column. Very unexpectedly.
[[Category:Stockpiles]]
[[Category:Items]]

v0.31:Stockpile

2011-10-23T15:14:00Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* {{L|refuse stockpile|Refuse}} */

{{quality|Exceptional|21:03, 7 January 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Stockpiles''' are where {{L|dwarf|dwarves}} will store items of various types, usually in a safer, closer or more convenient place for the consumers. Dwarves with the corresponding "{{L|hauling}}" job on will seek out items that aren't already on a stockpile that accepts them and carry them to the appropriate stockpile. It's important to place your stockpiles carefully to minimize the amount of time spent carrying items to and from them. Items in a stockpile may be stored in {{L|bag|bags}}, {{L|barrel|barrels}} or {{L|bin|bins}} (see {{L|Using bins and barrels}}). Seed bags can go inside barrels.

== Allocating stockpiles ==

To allocate an area as a stockpile, use the {{key|p}} menu. The right-hand menu pane will list all the stockpile categories, and the appropriate key to press to begin allocating that type. Allocating an area works exactly the same as designating an area. Press {{k|Enter}} to specify the first corner of the stockpile, use the primary movement keys to move the cursor to the opposite corner, and press {{k|Enter}} again. This will create a stockpile of the chosen type that occupies the area between the two corners specified. If the chosen area has parts that cannot be made into a stockpile, like a {{L|wall}}, a {{L|workshop}}, or an already existing stockpile, a stockpile will be created but they will not be part of it.

Removing a stockpile works exactly the same, but choose {{key|x}}: Remove Designation. This will un-designate the specified area. It is possible to create a single stockpile with a shape other than a rectangle by using the Remove Designation tool to remove only part of the stockpile.

Stockpiles cannot be expanded once created; you must delete the pile and create a new one.

== Using stockpiles ==

Once a stockpile has been allocated, dwarves will automatically move items to the stockpile when they are available, and as long as the stockpile has available space. Note that the dwarves will place the item into the empty spot that is nearest to the item, ''not counting any obstructions''{{verify}}. Additional behavior also includes the fact that dwarves will stockpile the ''newest'' item first, which may not necessarily be the nearest item to the stockpile.

When dwarves need an item for a particular task, they will head to the nearest (again, not counting any obstructions that may lie in the way) item of the correct type, regardless of whether it is in a stockpile or not. Apart from some exceptions, items do not have to be stockpiled at all. Players are generally advised to avoid stone stockpiles, because stone {{L|hauling}} jobs take an extreme amount of time for unskilled dwarves, due to the weight hauled.

One method to ensure a workshop has raw material on hand is to place a small stockpile next to the workshop. This will speed up production as the crafter in question only has to take a few steps to obtain the material. It also has a useful side-effect, in that as soon as the crafter picks up the piece of material, the stockpile will issue a new task to fetch another piece of that material. Because that crafter is busy, that hauling job will be taken by another {{L|dwarf}}. This speeds up a queue of jobs, as other dwarves perform the time-consuming distant haul whilst the crafter actually makes the items.

It's not necessary to place stockpiles for all types of objects. If no storage is available for a certain item type, dwarves will seek out items wherever they might lie as mentioned earlier. This can be advantageous -- if you don't have a stockpile for {{L|gem|gems}}, your {{L|jeweler}} will go pick up fresh gems without waiting for them to be carried to a pile first. However, this also means your jeweler has to spend a lot of time fetching the gems. If you have enough haulers available, it's generally more advantageous to designate stockpiles than not. Also remember that your workshops will get {{L|clutter|cluttered}} and suffer production slowdowns if you let items pile up in them, so it's important to regularly clear out workshops when they get cluttered. This can be done either by having a stockpile available so that haulers will remove the items or by removing and rebuilding the workshop, which will empty its contents onto the ground.

== Take from a stockpile ==

Another feature of stockpiles, currently in a limited form, allows you to tell dwarves to fill one stockpile not only with unstockpiled items, but also those located on another stockpile that accepts those items. To specify such a flow, use the {{k|q}} menu, and highlight the ''destination'' stockpile. Press {{k|t}}, and, using the cursor, highlight another stockpile and press {{k|Enter}}. Your chosen stockpile will now list the stockpile it will take from. This will cause items in the second stockpile to be hauled to the first stockpile. To stop the first stockpile from taking items from the second, use the {{K|q}} menu on the first one, highlight the unneeded stockpile in the list using {{K|+}} and {{K|-}} and press {{K|d}}'''elete Selected'''.

Each stockpile can take from any number of other stockpiles, but can only have one stockpile taking from it in turn. This limit applies even if the two stockpiles you want it to feed into don't share a single material that can be stored in both of them. Additionally, you can't make two stockpiles feed into each other, although larger loops (e.g. 3 stockpiles that feed into each other in a circle) are allowed.

However, despite these limitations, enough micromanagement will allow for effective and (relatively) streamlined supply chains. For example, you can speed up {{L|wood cutting|lumber harvesting}}, {{L|carpentry}}, ''and'' {{L|ash}} and {{L|charcoal}} production by putting several wood stockpiles near the various {{L|Chop_down_trees|tree-felling areas}}, then one large "primary" stockpile near the {{L|carpenter's workshop}} that takes from those small ones, and then finally, a small stockpile near the {{L|wood furnace}} that takes from the primary one.

== Stockpile categories ==

==={{L|Ammo}}===
This stockpile contains ammo for all forms of ammunition-requiring weaponry (except siege engines). It can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 100 units of ammo.

==={{L|Animal}}===
{{L|Creature|Animals}} stored in {{L|cage|cages}} that are not affixed to a location will be stored in these stockpiles. {{L|Animal trap|Traps}} used for capturing wild animals and empty {{L|cage|cages}} are also stored here.

==={{L|Armor}}===
Armor of all types is stored here. This kind of stockpile can use bins to consolidate up to 10 items. There is no preference for specific body parts. All types of armor can be stored in {{L|bin|bins}}.

==={{L|Bar}}/{{L|Block}}===
Bars of smelted {{L|metal}} and blocks of cut stone and {{L|glass}} are kept here after being processed by the {{L|smelter}}, {{L|mason's workshop|mason's workshops}}, and {{L|glass furnace|glass furnaces}}, before being used for other purposes. Weirdly, {{L|ash|ashes}}, {{L|potash}}, {{L|soap}}, {{L|charcoal}}, and {{L|coke}} from the {{L|wood furnace}}, {{L|ashery}}, {{L|alchemist's laboratory}} and smelter will also be stored here. Like with all stockpiles, this can be changed to allow for specific blocks and bars to be stored with custom settings. {{L|Bin|Bins}} can be used to consolidate up to 10 bars and blocks.

==={{L|Cloth}}===
Woven cloth and {{L|thread}} from the {{L|loom}} is stored here. {{L|Bin|Bins}} can be used to consolidate up to 10 items.

==={{L|Currency|Coins}}===
Minted coins are kept here. Bins can be used to consolidate up to 3000 coins, which is equivalent to six new coins stacks.

==={{L|Corpse | Corpses}}===
Dead dwarves and {{L|pet|pets}} that have no burial location will be placed here. If placed indoors, decaying bodies will generate {{L|miasma}}, but {{L|bone|bones}} will not be removed at the end of the season. Rotting {{L|pet|pets}} or {{L|friend|friends}} gives dwarves unhappy {{L|thought|thoughts}} unless they are given a proper burial in a {{L|Coffin|burial receptacle}}.

==={{L|Finished goods|Finished Goods}}===
Finished goods created by the {{L|craftsdwarf's workshop}}, as well as the {{L|clothier's shop}} and the {{L|leather works}}, are placed here before being used in trade or other uses. This type of stockpile can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 25 items.

=== {{L|Food}} ===

As one would assume based on the name, food is stored here. Unexpectedly, {{L|lye}}, {{L|giant desert scorpion}} venom, bags of {{L|dye}}, and {{L|Fire snake|liquid fire}} are as well. Raw {{L|fish}} is brought here before being processed by {{L|fishery}} and turned into edible {{L|meat}}. Drinks are always stored in {{L|barrel|barrels}}. Seeds can be stored in {{L|bag|bags}}, whereas other food items can be stored in {{L|barrel|barrels}} (up to 10 items per barrel, but note that
the stack +Cow meat roast [8]+ would count as eight items.)

Note that {{L|prepared meal|prepared meals}} in stacks larger than ten (☼Dwarven Beer Roast [200]☼ is possible) will not fit in a barrel, but will not rot once placed in a food stockpile, and still only take up one space. To free up barrels, you may decide to have separate prepared food stockpiles that do not accept barrels. If you cook larger meals, this shouldn't be a problem.

Food stockpiles should in most cases be specified as things like {{L|seed}} stockpiles or meat stockpiles or unprepared fish stockpiles; there are simply too many things that go in them.

==={{L|Furniture}} Storage===
Completed items from the {{L|carpenter's workshop}}, mason's workshop, and {{L|mechanic's workshop}} will be stored here, along with furniture created from other shops, until placed or used in another building. Bags filled with {{L|sand}} can also be stored in furniture stockpiles.

Since this is a very broad category, it may be useful to create stockpiles for a specific type of item (like barrels, bags, bins, mechanisms) via the stockpile settings.

==={{L|Gem}}===
This stockpile stores gems and raw {{L|glass}}, both cut and uncut, before being used in a construction. It can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 10 gems.

==={{L|Leather}}===
Leather, which is produced at a {{L|Tanner's shop}}, will be kept here. Like most stockpiles, it can use {{L|bin|bins}} to consolidate up to 10 items.

==={{L|refuse stockpile|Refuse}}===
Since dwarves hate rot because of the {{L|miasma}} it spreads when in an enclosed place like a {{L|cave}}, any garbage item that can rot will be stored in a refuse stockpile. Also, any XXdamaged itemsXX will be moved to the refuse stockpile. Many players prefer to place this stockpile outside their cavern, usually a small distance from the entrance, as rottable items on tiles that are {{DFtext|Outside |3:1}}{{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} do not generate miasma.

If placed on an {{DFtext|Inside|6:0}} tile, decaying items will generate miasma, which will spread through your fortress and generate a small unhappy thought in any dwarf passing through it. For this reason it is sensible to build {{L|door|doors}} (preferably several, separated by a few tiles to create an airlock), to all of your indoor refuse stockpiles - the miasma won't spread through a closed door so only dwarves with business in the room will be bothered by the rot.

An alternative to this is to dig {{L|channel|channels}} down from the surface, creating an area of tiles considered to be {{DFtext|Outside|3:1}} yet still located within your fortress. You can place your refuse stockpile here, and whilst it will be in your fort, even if you subsequently cover it with walls or floors, rotten items on those tiles will not generate miasma. (For more methods to restrict the spread of foul rotting stench, see the {{L|miasma}} page.)

{{L|Bone}}s, {{L|skull}}s, and {{L|shell}}s are also stored here, whether they be from defeated enemies or raw food processing. If left in an area with high {{L|vermin}} levels, these will randomly disappear. Refuse stockpiles can be restricted to store only {{L|bone}}s, {{L|skull}}s, {{L|shell}}s, teeth, and horns/hooves.

Note that a refuse stockpile is not the same as a {{L|Activity_zone#Garbage_Dump|garbage dump}}. A garbage dump is only for things manually marked to be dumped. Additionally, refuse types specifically marked as '''Dwarves Dump '''''refuse type'' in {{k|o}}-{{k|r}} will be hauled to the garbage dump instead of the refuse stockpile.

Also note that if you allow bins to be used on your refuse pile, damaged clothing will be stored in it, allowing for more efficient use of your pile.

==={{L|Stone}}===
Rough stone will be stored here, as well as {{L|ore}}. Given the extreme abundance of stone, it is very likely for this stockpile to fill up quickly, making stone stockpiles largely ineffective for {{L|Stone_management|dealing with excess stone}}. Probably the best use of stone stockpiles is to make sure that workshops and smelters, catapults, and impending construction projects have their materials close at hand. Be aware that these things can use up a lot of stone very quickly, leading to your dwarves scurrying around the fortress trying to keep up. To avoid stone hauling when you don't want it, you can slow down or stop the nearby usage, allowing the stockpile to fill back up (and thus no longer need more stone), or you can set the dwarves to ignore minerals in {{key|o}}rders and options.

==={{L|Weapon|Weapons}}===
Weapons of all types are stored here by default, including the weapons that dwarves do not use, picks, and trap components. {{L|Bin|Bins}} can be used to consolidate up to 10 weapons of any type.

==={{L|Wood}}===
Chopped trees are brought to the wood stockpile before being used by the carpenter's, woodburner's or siege workshop. Because wood takes a long time to haul and tends to travel a long way, the stockpile should be rather close to a fortress entrance (which does not necessarily mean on the upper z-levels - moving down one z-level is only one tile), unless you have an {{L|Tower-cap|underground tree farm}}. It is a good idea to position this stockpile close to your carpenter's workshop (or the other way round) since he is likely to be the main "customer".

=== Custom stockpiles ===

With custom stockpiles you can change which types of materials, goods, etc, can be stored in that pile. Any types of things can be mixed, so you could have a stockpile that will hold raw {{L|turtle}}, {{L|mechanism|mechanisms}} and all stone types apart from {{L|onyx}} if you wanted, or only high-quality steel crossbow bolts (Ammo), all quivers (a Finished Good), and metal Crossbows (a Weapon) - the combinations are endless, and can be finely tuned. Highlighting a stockpile with {{key|q}}, then pressing {{key|s}} will allow you to adjust the stockpile settings or in the {{key|p}} menu you can press {{key|t}} to adjust a custom stockpiles settings before placing it with {{key|c}}. Note that many sub-menus consist of several pages ( the 'other' menu of stone e.g. consists of several pages while 'metal {{L|ore|ores}}' and 'economic' consist of only one ).

Note that using {{key|q}} also allows you to adjust the number of bins or barrels that a stockpile will use. By default, if the item can be stored, it will try to fill the entire stockpile with that type of container. This can be troublesome, especially early in the game when you don't have nearly enough to go around.

== Stockpile Settings ==
The '''Stockpile Settings''' screen is weird to use. In the first column are the major categories. In the second column there may or may not be subcategories. In the third you will see the individual items. The second and third columns are only visible when a category is enabled and selected.

You navigate this screen with {{key|+}} and {{key|-}}, and left and right on the arrow keys. {{key|e}} and {{key|d}} are used to enable and disable the categories. {{key|a}} and {{key|b}} are used to allow or disallow all the subcategories. {{key|p}} and {{key|f}} will permit or forbid individual subcategories. These six keys work no matter which column you have selected, though the last 4 will not always be available. {{key|Enter}} will toggle individual item types.

Be careful when selecting 'block all' on the subcategories as it can make your stockpiles useless. For example, if you block all the furniture subcategories and then re-enable beds under types, the stockpile won't actually accept anything because it still registers all materials as forbidden. The correct way would be to 'forbid types' and then re-enable beds.

== Notes ==
Some categories will have a special extra type of item(s) that can be toggled with {{key|u}} and sometimes {{key|j}}.

{| border="1" cellpadding="4"
|+
! Categories
! Item type
|-
| Animals
| Empty cages and Empty animal traps
|-
| Food
| Prepared food
|-
| Furniture
| Sand bag
|-
| Weapons
| usable and unusable
|-
| Armor
| usable and unusable
|}

If you disable an item or items that are already sitting in a stockpile then they become loose items and your dwarves will move them to a more suitable stockpile should one exist.

== Uses for Custom Stockpiles ==

A custom stockpile is most useful for food, furniture, and bar/block stockpiles, to prevent your lye and venom sitting next to the {{L|kitchen|kitchens}}, your {{L|floodgate|floodgates}} and mechanisms near the {{L|room|rooms}} that need {{L|statue|statues}} and doors, your stone blocks next to the forges, and your metal bars by the farms.

One use for this is to have an outdoor stockpile next to your gate that will accept all refuse except bones, shells, skins and skulls, and then an indoor pile near your craftsdwarf's workshop that will '''only''' accept these things. If you have set the option for dwarves to gather refuse from outside, the bones will be brought in once all the meat has rotted off of any carcasses outside. This means added risk to your dwarves if they try to gather refuse that is far from your gate, and additional hauling.

Another effective use of custom stockpiles is Elven trading. Make a stockpile just for elf-safe trade goods: most categories where it's relevant have a 'materials' option.

A highly efficient method is to have wood burning furnaces feeding into a '{{L|charcoal}} only' bar/blocks stockpile, which in turn is near the smelting furnaces and forges. Bonus points if you also place a small wood stockpile near the wood furnaces.

Other good uses:
* Planter's stock: {{L|seed|seeds}} and {{L|potash}}. (If your {{L|ashery}} is nearby, include ashes and lye.
* Smelter stock: {{L|ore|ores}} and {{L|flux}}.
* Sandpile: {{L|sand}} bags.
* Clothes Plus: a cloth stockpile that also includes {{L|dye|dyes}}. (Dyes normally count as food.)
* Food Plus: a food stockpile that includes barrels. This spares your dwarves from carrying empty barrels to and from the furniture stores.
* Skins: a refuse stockpile limited to {{L|skin|skins}}, a bit like the bone & shell stockpile above. Place near the tannery.
* Brewer's stock: {{L|List of crops|brewable plants}}.
* Refreshment stand: Since dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, having several small food stockpiles that only accept {{L|Alcohol|drinks}} scattered strategically through your fort can minimize [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoko smoko breaks]. The usefulness of this kind of stockpile is often disputed as dwarves go to the fullest barrel first, so if you can't keep your stockpile constantly filled with new full barrels of alcohol your masons might decide to run all the way over to the alcohol stockpile you have setup for your brewers or your metalsmiths. If you can keep each stockpile constantly being filled with fresh supplies of full barrels of alcohol then this can increase productivity greatly. A simple way of doing this is by keeping a brewery near each separate alcohol stockpile, or locking dwarves in so that local stockpile is the only one they can {{L|path}} to.
* Artifact materials: The massive value and effectiveness of {{L|artifact|artifacts}} means the materials used in them can have drastic effects, sometimes even into the ''{{L|Value|millions}}''. Having special stockpiles for high-value metals, stones, gems, and other such materials will make it that much easier to ensure that you will get the most out of each {{L|strange mood}}. (However, even with materials-specific stockpiles, it can take a fair amount of micromanagement to get a moody dwarf to use a specific material.)
* Artifact storage: Artifacts add a great deal to the created wealth of the fortress and the loss of an artifact can result in a very bad {{L|thought}} for the creator. Keep valuable artifacts safe from {{L|thief|thieves}} in a special stockpile.
* Ingredients: Store things that are cookable but not edible, like milk and quarry bush leaves, near kitchens. For that matter, store both fat and tallow near kitchens for efficient rendering.
* Mason's Stone: Since a mason's workshop doesn't let you pick what type of stone to use, use customized stone stockpiles to provide some of that control. On maps with mass {{L|flux}} stone, a small stockpile for flux stone near masons' workshops can boost the values of stone furniture in general.

==Bugs==
* Currently{{version|0.31.25}} there is no stockpile category for finished goods made of gems {{Bug|4430}}
*Any 'metal' in second column have stones, oozes, jewels in third column. Very unexpectedly.
[[Category:Stockpiles]]
[[Category:Items]]

v0.31:Crutch

2011-10-22T20:26:58Z

Hanibal Barcalounger:

{{quality|Fine|03:06, 18 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Crutches are used by {{l|dwarf|dwarves}} to move around when injuries have limited their mobility. However, dwarves who have lost the use of their legs due to spinal nerve injuries will not acquire and use crutches; only broken/amputated legs/feet will trigger hospital staff to assign crutches as part of treatment.

In adventure mode crutches can be used to walk when one or both legs are disabled. If an uninjured adventurer carries a crutch in their hand the movement penalty of using a crutch will be applied. Once a crutch has been equipped, it will continue to be used until it is dropped from one's hands - {{L|thrower|throwing}} the crutch will not properly clear the "{{L|crutch-walker|crutch-walking}}" status, nor will placing the crutch into a container (or subsequently dropping or throwing the crutch from said container); in order to stop crutch-walking, the crutch must be re-equipped and then dropped.

Crutches are made out of one {{l|wood}} log at the {{l|carpenter's workshop}} or one {{L|metal}} bar at a {{L|forge}}. Crutches are stored in a Finished Goods stockpile, and will be placed in bins when there is space available.

{{Category|Healthcare}}

v0.31:Crutch

2011-10-21T11:59:13Z

Hanibal Barcalounger:

{{quality|Fine|03:06, 18 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Crutches are used by {{l|dwarf|dwarves}} to move around with broken or missing legs or feet. They're made out of one {{l|wood}} log at the {{l|carpenter's workshop}} or one {{L|metal}} bar at a {{L|forge}}. In adventure mode crutches can be used to walk when one or both legs are disabled. If an uninjured adventurer carries a crutch in their hand the movement penalty of using a crutch will be applied. Once a crutch has been equipped, it will continue to be used until it is dropped from one's hands - {{L|thrower|throwing}} the crutch will not properly clear the "{{L|crutch-walker|crutch-walking}}" status, nor will placing the crutch into a container (or subsequently dropping or throwing the crutch from said container); in order to stop crutch-walking, the crutch must be re-equipped and then dropped.

Crutches are stored in a Finished Goods stockpile, and may be placed in bins when there is space available.
{{Category|Healthcare}}

v0.31:Building destroyer

2011-10-13T12:08:19Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Destroying from underneath */

{{quality|Fine|18:02, 18 October 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Creatures with the [BUILDINGDESTROYER:#] [[token]] will actively seek out various {{L|furniture|furnishings}}, {{L|workshop}}s and other {{L|building}}s and topple or destroy them. They come in two varieties, the first being annoying, and the second dangerous. Buildings made from raw materials will be toppled, leaving the materials on the ground, while buildings made from furniture will be destroyed, not leaving behind any items.

Creatures with this tag are gifted with an incredible ability to sense exactly where your buildings are. Underground creatures such as the {{L|Blind cave ogre}} or {{L|Voracious cave crawler}} will charge your fort immediately after spawning at the edge of the map. Plan your {{L|defense guide|defenses}} accordingly. Building destroyers still prefer to attack creatures, and if a valid creature target for their aggression is or becomes visible to them, they will abandon building destruction in favor of classic creature destruction.

The time it takes for a building destroyer to destroy a building depends on the {{L|quality}} of the the building. {{L|Artifact}} quality furniture can never be damaged or destroyed, but some kinds of artifact furniture will be deconstructed by a building destroyer, given enough time: for instance, artifact statues will eventually be deconstructed; artifact hatch covers never will.

Building destroyers will destroy {{L|door}}s, {{L|floodgate}}s, {{L|hatch}} covers, vertical {{L|bars}}, horizontal bars, {{L|chest}}s, {{L|cabinet}}s, {{L|bed}}s, {{L|chair}}s, {{L|table}}s, {{L|coffin}}s, {{L|armor stand}}s, {{L|weapon rack}}s, floor or wall {{L|grate}}s, {{L|statue}}s, and {{L|workshop}}s. They will not path to or destroy {{L|lever}}s, {{L|support}}s, {{L|restraint}}s, {{L|bridge}}s, or {{L|construction}}s such as walls. While they can destroy most furniture and buildings from a lower {{L|z-level}} when a valid path exists to that furniture, they cannot destroy hatches or grates from below. Building destroyers will path to and destroy even opened (or stuck open) doors, hatches, floodgates, or vertical bars. They will cause damage to any attached mechanisms during building destruction, sometimes leading to the unlinking of furniture to a lever before the furniture in question is fully destroyed.

==Destroying from underneath==

Building destroyers cannot destroy buildings unless their path to the building passes through the building's z-level. This means that building destroyers cannot destroy, for instance, a forbidden hatch above them (note that non-forbidden, i.e. passable, hatches are vulnerable!), or a magma forge from the magma underneath it.

Building destroyers can destroy buildings from the z-level below while standing on a ramp or stairs that leads up to the building's z-level.

==Annoying Variety==
When the value is '''1''', the creature will go after wooden {{L|hatch}}es, wooden {{L|door}}s, {{L|support}}s, {{L|statue}}s, {{L|window}}s and {{L|archery target}}s only. They can't destroy homes during world gen as (semi)megabeasts.

'''[BUILDINGDESTROYER:1] creatures:'''
*{{L|Cave crocodile}}
*{{L|Giant cave spider}}
*{{L|Giant desert scorpion}}
*{{L|Giant olm}}
*{{L|Giant toad}}
*all {{L|Undead}} (if the creature was a level 2 building destroyer in life, it will be reduced to 1 in undeath)

==Dangerous Variety==
When the value is '''2''' the creature will actively seek out {{L|building}}s and destroy them. They can also destroy buildings during world-gen with this tag. Megabeasts rely on this token for their pathing when attacking your fort. {{L|Construction}}s (walls, staircase, floors, etc.) are still safe, since they're processed the same way natural terrain is for most situations.

The simplest way to keep building destroyer 2's from targets is with walls or channels. The outside of a raised {{L|bridge|drawbridge}} will act like a constructed wall, blocking building destroyer 2's without that danger of being destroyed. {{Verify}}

Tame animals still carry their building destroyer tokens.

'''[BUILDINGDESTROYER:2] creatures:'''
*{{L|Amethyst man}}
*{{L|Blind cave ogre}}
*{{L|Bronze colossus}}
*{{L|Cave dragon}}
*{{L|Cyclops}}
*{{L|Dragon}}
*{{L|Ettin}}
*{{L|Fire man}}
*{{L|Gabbro man}}
*{{L|Giant}}
*{{L|Hydra}}
*{{L|Iron man}}
*{{L|Magma man}}
*{{L|Minotaur}}
*{{L|Mud man}}
*{{L|Ogre}}
*{{L|Sasquatch}}
*{{L|Troll}}
*{{L|Voracious cave crawler}}
*{{L|Yeti}}
*All {{L|forgotten beast}}s, {{L|titan}}s, and {{L|demon}}s

See the {{L|Modding guide}} for more information on creature tokens.

==Bugs==
* Building destroyers can destroy buildings even if there's one tile of empty space between them and the building. {{Bug|4585}} In fact, they cannot destroy immediately adjacent buildings, although that's only relevant when releasing them from cages.

v0.31:Kitchen

2011-10-12T10:22:03Z

Hanibal Barcalounger:

{{quality|Exceptional|22:33, 23 October 2010 (UTC)}}{{Workshop
|name=Kitchen
|key=z
|construction_job=
*{{L|Cooking}}
|construction=
1 of
*{{L|Block}}
*{{L|Stone}}
*{{L|Wood}}
|job=
*{{L|Cooking}}
|use=
* {{L|Alcohol}}
* {{L|Cheese}}
* {{L|Dwarven sugar}}
* {{L|Dwarven syrup}}
* {{L|Egg}}
* {{L|Fat}}
* {{L|Fish}}
* {{L|Flour}}
* {{L|Food}}
* {{L|Honey}}
* {{L|Meat}}
* {{L|Milk}}
* {{L|Plants}}
* {{L|Prepared organs}}
* {{L|Seeds}}
* {{L|Tallow}}
|production =
*{{L|Food|Prepared meals}}
*{{L|Tallow}}
}}{{av}}

A kitchen is operated by a dwarf with the {{L|Cook|cooking}} {{L|labor}} enabled. It is used to cook meals and render fat from {{L|Butcher's shop|butchered}} animals into {{L|tallow}}. Cooking meals will drastically increase the food's value and the meals will {{L|rot}} more slowly, but any {{L|seed}}s from raw crops are lost.

If you cook 15 {{L|plump helmet|plump helmets}} worth 60, and your cook creates a masterpiece, you will receive 15 meals worth 2640.

==Types of meals==
There are three different types of food to be cooked:
*'''Easy meal''' will use two ingredients and will result in '''biscuits'''.
*'''Fine meal''' uses three ingredients and will result in '''stew'''.
*'''Lavish meal''' uses four ingredients and will result in '''roasts'''.

Better meals result in larger stacks of food, but require more hauling, take longer to produce and provide slower experience gains for your cook. Also, with a greater variety of materials in the prepared meal, there is a higher probability a dwarf will get something he {{L|Preferences|likes}}, giving the eater a happy {{L|thought}}.

==Using Liquid Ingredients==
At least one stack going into a prepared meal must be a solid item. If you have only {{L|Alcohol|booze}}, {{L|milk}}, and {{L|Dwarven syrup|syrup}}, your cooking jobs will get cancelled. However, a single {{L|plump helmet}} can be cooked with ten dwarven wine, ten dwarven milk, and ten dwarven syrup to make 31 +Plump Helmet Roast+ without issue.

==What to cook==
You may want to adjust what your dwarves are allowed to cook. For example, your dwarves may happily cook away all the seeds you need for planting, a good way to create {{L|fun}} in the early stages of the fortress. To suppress the cooking of certain items (such as booze, seeds or tallow) go to the status screen ({{k|z}} key) and then go to ''kitchen''. Every cookable and/or brewable item in your fortress will be listed. Once you allow or forbid the cooking or brewing of some kind of product, it will be used accordingly.

==Storage==
Individual types of prepared meals are not listed in the middle column or right column of the stockpile menu for the Food category. The switch for for allowing or banning prepared meals in a stockpile is displayed underneath the right column and toggled by pressing the {{k|u}} key.

The size of a prepared food stack varies, and with the proper inputs and skill, your kitchen will create a stack that is too big to fit into a barrel. If you want to designate a stockpile as the destination for your kitchen's output, be sure that the number of barrels allowed in the stockpile is lower than the number of squares in the stockpile. That way there will be a few non-barrel squares for your haulers to deposit overly large stacks of prepared meals.

{{Workshops}}
{{Category|Food}}

v0.31:Military F.A.Q.

2011-10-11T02:41:27Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: removed link to video tutorial as it only covered making crossbows, not practicing with them

{{quality|Exceptional|22:05, 6 August 2010 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

This is a list of '''Frequently Asked Questions''' related to the '''{{l|military}}'''. You may also want to read '''{{l|squads}}''', '''{{l|scheduling}}''' and '''{{l|equipment}}'''.

A note to keep in mind: As 0.31.03 is still far from being all cleaned up and tidy, many of these questions are for now answered with "this is a bug, sorry" or a quick workaround. We will have to make do until the next bugfix.

===My dwarves won't do anything but stand around!===

By default newly-created squads are assigned the 'Inactive' alert. You will need to create new alert levels or create new scheduling within alert levels (see {{l|Scheduling}}) to get them to do what you want. Note that 'Inactive' and 'Active/Training' are '''''not''''' the only two options available - they are simply the two default alerts and rather useless without creating more alerts and scheduling.

'''NOTE:''' If you are simply trying to get your military to train, you need to create a [[barracks]] and assign the squad to train there: press t while viewing your barracks with q, to set that squad to train.

A handy check list for when you've no more hair to pull out.

'''1. You need a commander for the squad'''

In the {{k|m}}ilitary Screen, listed on the left will be the option Militia Commander for your first squad. {{k|c}}reate a squad based on that position and set its basic equipment uniform. Place the Dwarf you want to lead in position 1 and fill the remaining positions as you want.

'''Note:''' If you later go to the {{k|n}}obles screen, the first squad's leader will be listed as ''Militia Commander'' while subsequent squad leaders will be listed as ''Militia Captains''. Also note that if a squad leader dies, you need to replace him or her.

'''2. The squad needs orders'''

By setting up a {{k|s}}chedule, the squad will know what it should be doing each month of game time without direct input from you. Training (10 maximum) all year round is a good way to begin and should already be down as default.

'''Note:''' You can give very intricate operating orders for training, patrolling, etc, but they are not needed initially and may cause confusion getting your <s>morons</s> dwarves to activate for the first time.

'''3. The squad needs a barracks'''

Assuming you already have a barracks-marked room, {{k|q}}uery-ing the barracks-denoting piece of furniture (bed, armor stand, or weapons rack) will list all of your squads. Then, select the squad you want from the list.
(z) flags the area for sleeping
(t) flags the area for training
(i) and (q) flags the area for dumping their equipment all over the place. This is only important if your squads ever go inactive and have been ordered to switch to civilian gear only.

'''Note:''' Each option turned on will be marked with a single multicolored letter. Make sure that at least the Cyan T is showing to the right of the squad's listing, designating the area is used for the their training. You will probably have more than one bed, armor stand, or weapon rack in the barracks, so will have to find the one room-defining object by moving the cursor around. Remember to only have one piece of furniture define the space, don't have overlapping room definitions.

'''4. The squad needs to be activated'''

In the {{k|s}}quad screen, Your first squad will be selected with (a), whereupon the (t) option will toggle the squad between its inactive state and its active/<scheduling> state.

'''Note:''' The squad starts off inactive and, when activated, should now show '''''Active/Training''''' if their schedule was left as the default train all year.

'''5. Hope for the best!'''

Un-pausing the game, you should be receiving the drafted Dwarves' Professions changing to their military versions almost immediately.

'''Note:''' When troubleshooting, a schedule of training (10 maximum) all year round saves a lot of heartache when trying to get the system running for the first time.

===Alerts? Schedules? What am I looking at here?===

A schedule is what a dwarf/squad will do when a particular alert is active; once alerts are made and scheduling is performed within these alerts, you can simply change a squad's alert based on the scenario and they will follow out highly specified and complicated programming. For example, if you make two alerts named 'Caravan Guard' for protecting incoming traders and 'Bloody Kobolds' for attacking thieves, we can change Squad A's scheduling in 'Caravan Guard' to {{l|Scheduling#Routes|patrol your trade route}} and change their scheduling in 'Bloody Kobolds' to {{l|Scheduling#Defend Burrows|defend a pre-defined burrows}} around your entrance. When a caravan shows up, you can change Squad A to be under the 'Caravan Guard' alert (either {{k|a}} in the military screen or {{k|t}} to cycle through when in the {{k|s}}quad screen with a squad selected) and they will begin running up and down your route as the traders make their way through. When you get the 'Protect the hoard from thieving scum!' message, you can change their alert to 'Bloody Kobolds' and Squad A will charge off to defend the entrance.

Different squads can be given different alerts at once, but these squads can also be given different scheduling within the ''same'' alert - for example, you could make Squad B's scheduling in the 'Caravan Guard' alert to defend a burrows around your trade depot, then assign both A and B to 'Caravan Guard' when the traders appear and have one squad walk them in and the other keep the depot clear.

As schedules are broken up by month, you can make very complicated schedules in which dwarves train two months, take one off, then patrol your map for a season then take a shift defending the entrance, while having a second squad do something completely different, and change their scheduling instantly by applying a different alert. For ease, orders can be copied and pasted in the scheduling menu. Once you get the hang of the system it becomes extremely versatile. See {{l|Scheduling}} for more information.

===I can't seem to apply orders to my schedule===

When you finish with the Give Orders menu and hit {{k|shift}}+{{k|tab}} to save your changes, you may notice that your changes have not been saved. This is because your order does not have a defined location. '''Station''' orders need a station to be assigned to, '''patrol route''' orders need a route to follow, and '''defend burrows''' orders need a burrows to defend. When giving or editing orders, you must select the specific area from a list on the left pane.

Keep in mind that the left and right panes in the Give Orders menu can both be highlighted even if one is empty - if your pane doesn't seem to be highlighted, hit the left or right key to properly select it.

===My dwarves won't wear the uniform I made!===

The uniforms tab within the menu screen is not for assigning uniforms to your dwarves, it is for making uniform templates that can later be applied. Open the {{k|e}}equipment tab then the {{k|U}}niform sub-tab and you will be able to apply your uniform to either a single dwarf at once with {{k|enter}} or a squad at once with {{k|shift}}+{{k|enter}}. Your uniforms should appear in the rightmost pane.

===How do I make my dwarves kill things?===

If your soldiers are stationed, defending a barracks, or patrolling a route, they are ''defending''. To make them go on the ''offense'', you need to open the {{k|s}}quads screen, select a squad using {{k|a}}/{{k|b}}/{{k|c}}/etc. as listed and hit {{k|k}} to 'Attack.' Then you pick your targets: either hit {{k|l}} to choose from a list of possible targets, {{k|r}} to select all targets within a rectangle, or simply move the cursor to what you want to attack and press {{k|enter}}. Your dwarves should now have the 'Kill _____' duty and charge after your target(s). To select multiple squads at once just hold {{k|shift}} while selecting, or hit {{k|p}} while selecting to select specific dwarves.

SOME ENEMIES CANNOT BE KILL-ORDERED. Or more specifically, some enemies like {{L|hydra}}s, {{L|minotaur|minotaurs}}, or {{L|forgotten beast}}s ''can'' be targeted for slaughter, but the dwarves won't actually carry it out. The only way around this is to order a squad to {{k|m}}ove to the location of the enemy instead. (It seems like a squad of any kind of monster is immune, more likely than not, and the same kind may be vulnerable to a kill order one time and resistant the next.)

Just watch out for the next question below...

===I can't get my dwarves to STOP killing things!===

When a targetable creature is noticed by your military, be it the target of a kill order or simply close enough to be noticed by stationed/patrolling dwarves, your dwarves will engage it and will not give up or run away (or even drop the chase if it's slow) until either it or the target is dead. The only way to stop them is to cancel all their military orders, returning them to civilian status and causing them to run away instead.

If a squad is trying to {{K|s}}->{{K|k}} kill a target, but that target has escaped the map, or is no longer reachable, then Cancel Orders for the squad. {{K|s}} squad {{K|a}} select a given squad exclusively, cancel {{K|o}} order.

===My dwarves won't go off-duty! They're starving themselves!===

Your '''order criteria''' is too high - order criteria is the number of dwarves in a squad required to follow out an order. By default a new order's criteria is set to 10 dwarves, or the entire squad; this means that you've told your dwarves that this order is of the absolute highest importance and that the entire squad needs to be on duty at all times. By changing this to two or three dwarves less than the number of dwarves in your squad (go to {{k|s}}chedule from the {{k|m}}ilitary screen and press {{k|Tab}}, then {{k|e}}dit the number of dwarves with {{k|+}} and {{k|-}}), some of your dwarves will be able to relax and take some me-time to grab supplies while the others follow your orders out.

===I keep activating my dwarves but they still have their civilian positions!===

If a squad is off-duty it may be dressed in its civilian clothes and thus listed as civilians (e.g. a swordsdwarf may revert to 'carpenter'). There also seems to be a discrepancy between which orders are 'civilian' orders and which are 'military' orders. The Inactive/training alert switches dwarves to civilian labors and self-training in their spare time, while the Active/Training alert keeps dwarves in the barracks all the time. Unhappy thoughts from long duty do not occur on the active alert as long as they spend every other three months or so actively training instead of actively defending a chokepoint {{verify}}.

===I can't seem to get my marksdwarves to practice firing at all!===

There are several steps to getting marksdwarves to practice at {{L|archery target}}s.

1. Check that your prospective marksdwarves are equipped appropriately with the {{k|v}}-{{k|i}} keys.

2. Build an archery target. To create a target, open the {{k|b}}uild menu and select {{k|A}}rchery target. It uses one stone, log, bar or block and requires the architecture skill to finish.

3. Use the {{k|q}} menu to designate the archery target as a {{L|room}}. Dwarves must stand at least two panels from the archery target.

4. Make sure that the shooting direction set for the target allows dwarves to use it. The {{k|w}}{{k|a}}{{k|s}} and {{k|d}} keys are used to designate shooting direction.

5. Assuming you have military squads, you should see their names on the target's information panel. Scroll to the appropriate archer squad/squad containing archers using the {{K|+}} and {{k|-}} keys.

6. Now the target must be set as available for training. Press {{k|t}} once you have selected the appropriate squad. Multiple squads must be selected separately in this way to allow them all to practice at the archery range.

7. Check your ammunition supplies! Press {{k|m}} then {{k|f}} to view the ammunition screen. Scroll to the marksdwarf squad and add new ammunition. Ammunition may be further customized by material using the {{k|M}} key.

8. This ammunition must then be designated for combat, training, or both using the {{k|C}} and {{k|T}} keys. It is recommended to create TWO separate ammunition piles, one for combat and one for training. This will ensure dwarves always save some ammunition for fighting instead of using it all while training. It is further recommended to save metal bolts for fighting, and wood and bone bolts for training.

9. Make sure they have a barracks to train at also! When the squad is set to active/train, they will want to do more than target practice. Without a training barracks assigned to the squad, they will sit around doing nothing being unable to follow orders.

===My marksdwarves are sparring with their crossbows as a melee weapon!===

You may have forgotten to assign them ammunition. In the military screen, open the ammunition tab ({{k|f}}) and then assign the squad your preferred ammunition. Remember to assign seperate piles for training and fighting, or the squad will use all the bolts training and not have any left for killing enemies.

It is also possible that marksdwarves in DF2010 will not fire crossbows without a quiver; in the old version marksdwarves would carry a stack of bolts in their hand, but this does not seem to be the case anymore. Create some {{L|quiver}}s and try again.

===My hunter/marksdwarf ran out of bolts and won't pick up more!===

This seems to be a bug as well (yes, there are many) (this is most likely fixed in 0.31.12 version or later {{verify}} ).

A workaround for this is to give your marksdwarf a '''{{l|Squads#Selecting_Squads.2FSoldiers|move order}}''' and then cancelling it; your dwarf should snap back to reality and grab more bolts. Annoying, but should be a temporary problem.

If your troops still refuse to pick up ammo, it may be because that ammo has been assigned to a different squad or to the hunting labor (even if none of your civilians have that labor). Check the Ammunition screen; if it shows stacks of ammo assigned to hunters, remove or reduce the amount of ammo assigned to hunters, and your troops should pick it up again.

A related bug is that a hunter/marksdwarf might get stuck in a loop of picking up and dropping equipment (bows, bolts etc), even if he usually trains at the range normally and/or there are animals to go hunt. Try removing his equipment on the military screen, watch him drop it, and then re-assign it. Make sure you have two piles of ammo listed for combat and training. Disabling the Hunting labour also seems to snap them out of this loop so that they will go and train instead. This problem may also be related to traffic designations - try removing any restrictive paths which might block access to needed equipment.

----

''If you have further questions, please ask them on the discussion page here or on another relevant talk page. Frequently asked or standard questions will be added to the FAQ as necessary.''

{{Military v0.31}}

v0.31 Talk:Embark

2011-10-01T01:57:12Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Choosing a civilization */

==Discussion==

Never embark without elves or goblins. Elves bring superawesome animals ( I made a giant forest spider which is like the giant cave spider just in a forest and the elves brought me three of them in the second year) and various plants like whip vine and sunberries. And goblins, well, they make Fun.--[[User:Niggy|Niggy]] 19:37, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
: I'll second that. You gotta have hostiles, unless you want a peaceful farming town or a megaproject on an island. --[[User:TomiTapio|TomiTapio]] 22:39, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

I've had an Idea that I want to add to the embark strategies, and I'm wondering if I should add it.

Cheap Eggs and meat

Embark with a large number of female birds and a single nest box, or the materials to build one). Then allow each bird to lay their eggs and which will then be claimed by dwarves. After all the eggs have been harvested you can then butcher all of the hens for additional meat, and bones. Note: You will have to cook the eggs for them to be edible, but this is still an easy way to get quick food.
-[[User:blorx1|blorx1]]
9 July 2011

== Layers on Embark Screen ==
Looks like you can no longer see the specific layers of soil and stone on embark. In .31.19 you just get a general description of what sort of geology is at the site. "Clay," "soil," "flux stone," and "metals" along with some description of how deep and how abundant they are is what I've seen. [[User:Octorok|Octorok]] 22:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

==Less soil doesn't mean more stone and minerals.==
Whoever added this is wrong. The number of z-levels before you reach the magma sea is highly variable. You could have three soil layers and still have 100 z-levels before you hit bottom. Or you could have no soil and only 40 z-levels. The amount and type of minerals available is much more a function of the types of layers, not the number. For instance, a million layers of basalt won't get you any iron, but a few layers of limestone will get you a ton. I'm removing this, sorry whoever added it. [[User:GhostDwemer|GhostDwemer]]

:That was me, and I meant the variety of different stone layers, not the total number of z-levels they span. Does it so there can be a greater variety of layers than shown? [[User:Khym Chanur|Khym Chanur]] 00:45, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
:: Absolutely. The embark screen only shows the first eight layers. There can be more below.– [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:GhostDwemer|GhostDwemer]]

==Play Now, Fisherdwarf==
I just did a "Play Now!", and my Fisherdwarf does NOT have any social skills (just Novice Fisherdwarf), but he was still assigned as the Expedition Leader and I can assign labors just fine. Also, it's highly likely that the listed Dabbling skills were learned immediately '''after''' embarking, while said dwarf was talking to the others. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 17:36, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

:Yeah, that part about the Dabbling skills is true, since as soon as you embark, your dwarves are doing nothing, which means they start to chat about (presumably) the weather, and their favorite kind of rock. Since you need 1 experience for Dabbling in a skill, they immediately get social skills. --[[User:Drakon136|Drakon136]] 03:34, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

==Play Now, worldgen titles?==
It's suggested that the initial 7 dwarves can come from worldgen. Some actual proof of this claim (e.g. savegame) would be nice. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 17:40, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

==Verification==
* could not replicate the "double fish crash" – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:LemonFrosted|LemonFrosted]]

"Fish are double-listed in the embark items screen. If you choose both fish the game will crash.Verify"

:This is false; I've embarked with two separate barrels of cave lobsters twice now. I'm deleting this from the article. --[[User:Zombiejustice|Zombiejustice]] 18:07, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

::Ya that's BS.--[[User:Mrdudeguy|Mrdudeguy]] 18:22, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

::Hmm, I added that because it was on the "Known bugs" page. I'll go remove it from that then, as it seems this is false.– [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:Garanis|Garanis]]

== No trade ==

Some of the civilizations in my embark screen have a "no trade" tag. What does it mean? --[[Special:Contributions/151.49.233.194|151.49.233.194]] 13:50, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

* they won't send any caravan --[[Special:Contributions/94.217.127.76|94.217.127.76]] 14:01, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

==make up your mind..==
* "'''Don't Really Need That''' - unless you have tailored your embark for metal production quick and early, '''''an anvil is unnecessary''''' and the 100 points you get from refunding it can be better spent on skills or additional foodstuffs"
* "'''Yes, I Do Need That''' - '''''never leave without an anvil''''', since nothing guarantees the first caravan will even have one for sale.
which one is it...? do, or don't?--[[User:DJ Devil|DJ Devil]] 14:00, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

:Doesn't matter, as they are different strategies. For me, an anvil is not a necessity. I've embarked plenty (mostly due to bugs!) and it seems like the items the first caravan brings are always the same, and include a steel and iron anvil. The first traders in 40d seemed to bring a lot more random stuff. Anybody?--[[User:Kwieland|Kwieland]] 20:42, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

::I've had several maps where no dwarven caravan EVER showed up (thus no anvil to buy)! I don't know if this is intended or why it happens, but it does happen from time to time.[[User:FleshForge|FleshForge]] 20:51, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
:::I think the dwarven caravan not appearing is because your parent civilization died during worldgen. --[[User:DeMatt|DeMatt]] 14:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

::Several days ago (playing 0.31.18) my first dwarven caravan didn't bring any anvil. It's not so unusual.--[[User:WwWraith|WwWraith]] 22:59, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

==Size of embark squares==
Not sure if this is noted anywhere on the wiki, but I think it might be useful to know that a single square on embark equates to a 48 by 48 square in fortress mode. Useful if you need to know a minimum size embark for that megaproject you're cooking up. [[User:Jjdorf|Jjdorf]] 22:33, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
: So the minimum embark of 2x2 is sized 96x96. --[[User:TomiTapio|TomiTapio]] 22:39, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

== "Bone carving is next to worthless"? ==

I'm curious why Proteus feels bone carving is "next to worthless". Did he simply mean worthless as an embark skill, given that you'll quickly level it up? Or does he not churn out thousands upon thousands of dwarfbucks worth of bone/horn crafts to trade to the elves, and hundreds of bone bolts for hunters/military, like I do? --[[User:Greycat|Greycat]] 12:55, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
: Wood, stone and metal are easier to come by than bones. Bone bolts are probably as bad as the wooden ones. --[[User:TomiTapio|TomiTapio]] 22:39, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
:: I wouldn't say it's harder to get bone, a single hunter killing large critters produces way more bone than even 2-3 crafters can use up.--[[User:FleshForge|FleshForge]] 20:29, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
:::Bone carvers are tremendous. When carvers are ordered to make bones, they make five for each bone in the stack, one job at a time. A single draltha can yield hundreds of training bolts! Anyone who thinks bone carving is next to worthless is missing out. Bone bolts are fully capable of killing goblins, too. [[User:JohnnyMadhouse|JohnnyMadhouse]] 21:20, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

== Embark with trolls ==

After downloading the most recent version of DF (0.31.12) I generated a new world and embarked on a site found with the tool.
While i was examining my "dwarves", preparing for the embark, i noticed in the description that they were "huge humanoid monster with coarse fur, large tusks and horns"...
Confused, I confirmed the embark nonetheless, but after striking the earth my "dwarves" were represented by the letter T, their description was the one usually given to trolls, and it seems like I could butcher them...
It seems like i embarked with seven trolls instead of Dwarves! I assume it is a bug, right? --[[Special:Contributions/151.49.255.40|151.49.255.40]] 13:20, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

== Armor user ==
Is there any advantage in leveling armor user before embarking? – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:91.10.249.49|91.10.249.49]]
:The dwarf in question can use armor (as in, "not shields") better. Since you'd have to buy a bunch of armor to protect said dwarf... I think Shield User and Dodger are both better skills - the one requires only a shield, while the other needs no gear. Or you could go for more offense and add Fighter skill to your chosen melee weapon skill. --[[User:DeMatt|DeMatt]] 14:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

== .19 update ==
can someone update this for the new finder?

== Function overlap: Starting Builds ==
The entire prepare carefully section is a duplication in function, if not form, of [[Starting Build]]. I'm going to rationally disperse the information between the two and do the relevant merging. --[[User:Squirrelloid|Squirrelloid]] 09:30, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

== "You can start your fortress with just 118☼ worth of items" ==

''You can start your fortress with just 124 118☼ worth of items (iron anvil - 100☼, 3 copper nuggets for 2 picks and an axe - 18☼; logs can be gathered from deconstructing the wagon - 0☼).''

I just tried this, but there was no fire-safe stone to make the forge. Unless I'm missing something, this should be corrected. --[[Special:Contributions/189.34.50.57|189.34.50.57]] 00:49, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

:My understanding, though I've never tried it, is that you use the ash from burned wood to construct the forge. --[[User:Jwest23|Jwest23]] 04:05, 20 May 2011 (UTC)
In my opinion this struggling for "you can start with less or lesser items" is a stupid thing. First of all, you can start with no items at all and still create a functional fortress. You'd just use the logs of the wagon to create at last one training axe (or more) and chop down trees to create everything of wood until you can buy picks from a caravan or everything needed to create them. The second point is, it is not necessary. You have enough points to give all your dwarves maximum skills and will still be able to by what you need. And last, but not least: The oly reason not to start with nothing at all is to be independent from caravans. But, you will not need two picks, because one is enough to find ore you can use to produce more...--[[User:Kami|Kami]] 08:47, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

== Choosing a civilization ==

The article currently says, ''"There is just ONE BIG RULE: ... Your home civilization will need more than one dwarven place on the map."''

But there's no explanation of how to determine the size of the available civs. I don't see any relevant information on the articles for [[Civilization]] or [[Location]], either. Can someone who knows more about this flesh it out, please? --[[User:Hanibal Barcalounger|Hanibal Barcalounger]] 01:56, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

v0.31 Talk:Embark

2011-10-01T01:56:36Z

Hanibal Barcalounger:

==Discussion==

Never embark without elves or goblins. Elves bring superawesome animals ( I made a giant forest spider which is like the giant cave spider just in a forest and the elves brought me three of them in the second year) and various plants like whip vine and sunberries. And goblins, well, they make Fun.--[[User:Niggy|Niggy]] 19:37, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
: I'll second that. You gotta have hostiles, unless you want a peaceful farming town or a megaproject on an island. --[[User:TomiTapio|TomiTapio]] 22:39, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

I've had an Idea that I want to add to the embark strategies, and I'm wondering if I should add it.

Cheap Eggs and meat

Embark with a large number of female birds and a single nest box, or the materials to build one). Then allow each bird to lay their eggs and which will then be claimed by dwarves. After all the eggs have been harvested you can then butcher all of the hens for additional meat, and bones. Note: You will have to cook the eggs for them to be edible, but this is still an easy way to get quick food.
-[[User:blorx1|blorx1]]
9 July 2011

== Layers on Embark Screen ==
Looks like you can no longer see the specific layers of soil and stone on embark. In .31.19 you just get a general description of what sort of geology is at the site. "Clay," "soil," "flux stone," and "metals" along with some description of how deep and how abundant they are is what I've seen. [[User:Octorok|Octorok]] 22:08, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

==Less soil doesn't mean more stone and minerals.==
Whoever added this is wrong. The number of z-levels before you reach the magma sea is highly variable. You could have three soil layers and still have 100 z-levels before you hit bottom. Or you could have no soil and only 40 z-levels. The amount and type of minerals available is much more a function of the types of layers, not the number. For instance, a million layers of basalt won't get you any iron, but a few layers of limestone will get you a ton. I'm removing this, sorry whoever added it. [[User:GhostDwemer|GhostDwemer]]

:That was me, and I meant the variety of different stone layers, not the total number of z-levels they span. Does it so there can be a greater variety of layers than shown? [[User:Khym Chanur|Khym Chanur]] 00:45, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
:: Absolutely. The embark screen only shows the first eight layers. There can be more below.– [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:GhostDwemer|GhostDwemer]]

==Play Now, Fisherdwarf==
I just did a "Play Now!", and my Fisherdwarf does NOT have any social skills (just Novice Fisherdwarf), but he was still assigned as the Expedition Leader and I can assign labors just fine. Also, it's highly likely that the listed Dabbling skills were learned immediately '''after''' embarking, while said dwarf was talking to the others. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 17:36, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

:Yeah, that part about the Dabbling skills is true, since as soon as you embark, your dwarves are doing nothing, which means they start to chat about (presumably) the weather, and their favorite kind of rock. Since you need 1 experience for Dabbling in a skill, they immediately get social skills. --[[User:Drakon136|Drakon136]] 03:34, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

==Play Now, worldgen titles?==
It's suggested that the initial 7 dwarves can come from worldgen. Some actual proof of this claim (e.g. savegame) would be nice. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 17:40, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

==Verification==
* could not replicate the "double fish crash" – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:LemonFrosted|LemonFrosted]]

"Fish are double-listed in the embark items screen. If you choose both fish the game will crash.Verify"

:This is false; I've embarked with two separate barrels of cave lobsters twice now. I'm deleting this from the article. --[[User:Zombiejustice|Zombiejustice]] 18:07, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

::Ya that's BS.--[[User:Mrdudeguy|Mrdudeguy]] 18:22, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

::Hmm, I added that because it was on the "Known bugs" page. I'll go remove it from that then, as it seems this is false.– [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:Garanis|Garanis]]

== No trade ==

Some of the civilizations in my embark screen have a "no trade" tag. What does it mean? --[[Special:Contributions/151.49.233.194|151.49.233.194]] 13:50, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

* they won't send any caravan --[[Special:Contributions/94.217.127.76|94.217.127.76]] 14:01, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

==make up your mind..==
* "'''Don't Really Need That''' - unless you have tailored your embark for metal production quick and early, '''''an anvil is unnecessary''''' and the 100 points you get from refunding it can be better spent on skills or additional foodstuffs"
* "'''Yes, I Do Need That''' - '''''never leave without an anvil''''', since nothing guarantees the first caravan will even have one for sale.
which one is it...? do, or don't?--[[User:DJ Devil|DJ Devil]] 14:00, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

:Doesn't matter, as they are different strategies. For me, an anvil is not a necessity. I've embarked plenty (mostly due to bugs!) and it seems like the items the first caravan brings are always the same, and include a steel and iron anvil. The first traders in 40d seemed to bring a lot more random stuff. Anybody?--[[User:Kwieland|Kwieland]] 20:42, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

::I've had several maps where no dwarven caravan EVER showed up (thus no anvil to buy)! I don't know if this is intended or why it happens, but it does happen from time to time.[[User:FleshForge|FleshForge]] 20:51, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
:::I think the dwarven caravan not appearing is because your parent civilization died during worldgen. --[[User:DeMatt|DeMatt]] 14:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

::Several days ago (playing 0.31.18) my first dwarven caravan didn't bring any anvil. It's not so unusual.--[[User:WwWraith|WwWraith]] 22:59, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

==Size of embark squares==
Not sure if this is noted anywhere on the wiki, but I think it might be useful to know that a single square on embark equates to a 48 by 48 square in fortress mode. Useful if you need to know a minimum size embark for that megaproject you're cooking up. [[User:Jjdorf|Jjdorf]] 22:33, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
: So the minimum embark of 2x2 is sized 96x96. --[[User:TomiTapio|TomiTapio]] 22:39, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

== "Bone carving is next to worthless"? ==

I'm curious why Proteus feels bone carving is "next to worthless". Did he simply mean worthless as an embark skill, given that you'll quickly level it up? Or does he not churn out thousands upon thousands of dwarfbucks worth of bone/horn crafts to trade to the elves, and hundreds of bone bolts for hunters/military, like I do? --[[User:Greycat|Greycat]] 12:55, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
: Wood, stone and metal are easier to come by than bones. Bone bolts are probably as bad as the wooden ones. --[[User:TomiTapio|TomiTapio]] 22:39, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
:: I wouldn't say it's harder to get bone, a single hunter killing large critters produces way more bone than even 2-3 crafters can use up.--[[User:FleshForge|FleshForge]] 20:29, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
:::Bone carvers are tremendous. When carvers are ordered to make bones, they make five for each bone in the stack, one job at a time. A single draltha can yield hundreds of training bolts! Anyone who thinks bone carving is next to worthless is missing out. Bone bolts are fully capable of killing goblins, too. [[User:JohnnyMadhouse|JohnnyMadhouse]] 21:20, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

== Embark with trolls ==

After downloading the most recent version of DF (0.31.12) I generated a new world and embarked on a site found with the tool.
While i was examining my "dwarves", preparing for the embark, i noticed in the description that they were "huge humanoid monster with coarse fur, large tusks and horns"...
Confused, I confirmed the embark nonetheless, but after striking the earth my "dwarves" were represented by the letter T, their description was the one usually given to trolls, and it seems like I could butcher them...
It seems like i embarked with seven trolls instead of Dwarves! I assume it is a bug, right? --[[Special:Contributions/151.49.255.40|151.49.255.40]] 13:20, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

== Armor user ==
Is there any advantage in leveling armor user before embarking? – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:91.10.249.49|91.10.249.49]]
:The dwarf in question can use armor (as in, "not shields") better. Since you'd have to buy a bunch of armor to protect said dwarf... I think Shield User and Dodger are both better skills - the one requires only a shield, while the other needs no gear. Or you could go for more offense and add Fighter skill to your chosen melee weapon skill. --[[User:DeMatt|DeMatt]] 14:30, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

== .19 update ==
can someone update this for the new finder?

== Function overlap: Starting Builds ==
The entire prepare carefully section is a duplication in function, if not form, of [[Starting Build]]. I'm going to rationally disperse the information between the two and do the relevant merging. --[[User:Squirrelloid|Squirrelloid]] 09:30, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

== "You can start your fortress with just 118☼ worth of items" ==

''You can start your fortress with just 124 118☼ worth of items (iron anvil - 100☼, 3 copper nuggets for 2 picks and an axe - 18☼; logs can be gathered from deconstructing the wagon - 0☼).''

I just tried this, but there was no fire-safe stone to make the forge. Unless I'm missing something, this should be corrected. --[[Special:Contributions/189.34.50.57|189.34.50.57]] 00:49, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

:My understanding, though I've never tried it, is that you use the ash from burned wood to construct the forge. --[[User:Jwest23|Jwest23]] 04:05, 20 May 2011 (UTC)
In my opinion this struggling for "you can start with less or lesser items" is a stupid thing. First of all, you can start with no items at all and still create a functional fortress. You'd just use the logs of the wagon to create at last one training axe (or more) and chop down trees to create everything of wood until you can buy picks from a caravan or everything needed to create them. The second point is, it is not necessary. You have enough points to give all your dwarves maximum skills and will still be able to by what you need. And last, but not least: The oly reason not to start with nothing at all is to be independent from caravans. But, you will not need two picks, because one is enough to find ore you can use to produce more...--[[User:Kami|Kami]] 08:47, 20 May 2011 (UTC)

== Choosing a civilization ==

The article currently says, ''"There is just ONE BIG RULE: ... Your home civilization will need more than one dwarven place on the map.''

But there's no explanation of how to determine the size of the available civs. I don't see any relevant information on the articles for [[Civilization]] or [[Location]], either. Can someone who knows more about this flesh it out, please? --[[User:Hanibal Barcalounger|Hanibal Barcalounger]] 01:56, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

40d:Cross-training

2010-01-21T05:54:58Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Charm School (social skills) */

'''Cross-training''' is training your military dwarf candidates in civilian disciplines (or vice versa), and offers multiple benefits. First and most importantly, it gives you several extra [[attribute]] increases. Toughness, especially, is extremely important for military dwarves; it allows them to take more wounds before passing out from pain, and to recover from wounds faster. Second, it provides a ready pool of recruits in case your military takes a beating at one point or another, and/or allows civilians a better-than-normal chance to defend themselves. Third, it ensures that your [[soldier]]s have some domestic skills so they will not receive [[thoughts|unhappy thoughts]] from being de-activated from the [[military]] in the event you need to downsize, or just need some extra labor short-term. Finally, most reserves programs provide chronic idlers with some work to do, which can be essential for unskilled workers like peasants to break out of their poverty (and therefore, unhappiness) cycle once the [[dwarven economy]] kicks in.

There is nothing saying you have to use only one of these ideas; they are all various approaches toward addressing these areas.

==Cross-training (starting a reserves program)==
The biggest thing to remember with a reserves program is that if you're going to go, you go all the way. Don't institute something "just for a little while" and come up with a handful of novice reservists; they will not get significant stat increases and you'll only waste time. Time is not something you have a heck of a lot of in a reserves program, typically. Remember that after you draft them, most dwarves are going to need about a year of sparring or training before they're ready for heavy combat. You might not have that much time if you are getting sieges regularly.

===Different Programs:===
====Gym ([[pump operator]])====
[[Image:Pump_farm.png|thumb|right|71px|No pain, no gain.]]
The Gym is the most basic sort of reserves program; it merely consists of building a bunch of [[screw pump]]s connected to nothing in a room that's close to [[food]], [[beds]], and [[drink]]. After the pumps are built, order them to be pumped manually, then turn on [[Pump operator|pump operating]] for your reservists.

[[Toughness]] influences how tired your dwarves get. Tougher dwarves can operate a pump longer before getting tired, meaning they will gain skill more quickly than non-tough dwarves. Once dwarves hit Unbelievably Tough, they can operate pumps non-stop. 
'''Pros:'''
*Easy to set up; 4 pumps in the gym will keep at least 8-10 reservists busy around the clock.
*Extra pumps can be added to expand operations very easily.
*Requires no continuous oversight on your part.
*Somewhat fast training; legendary in under a year (if other responsibilities like hauling are minimized).
*Very safe; gyms can be placed anywhere in the comfort of your fortress with no issues. 
*If you're really clever, you might be able to arrange your pumps so they power one or more indoor [[waterfall]]s. To get the full benefit of this approach, you would probably have to design your fortress around the waterfalls. Remember not to dig under their feeding tubes!
'''Cons:'''
*Tons of cancel job spam. Every time a reservist exhausts himself and goes to satisfy his basic needs, you'll see "Urist McScrewpumper cancels Operate Pump: Exhausted."
*If you have any pumps around that actually DO need to be operated every so often (refilling your [[well]], for example), it could be a serious pain to juggle the useless gym pumps and the ones that are actually useful.

====Artillery proving ground ([[siege operator]])====
Mass-produce some catapults, line them up near a quarry, and fire away. Works well to dispose of stone from a gulag (see below). 
'''Pros:'''
*Trains a skill that's reasonably useful, and provides a place to put all the sub-par siege engine components your [[siege engineer]] will doubtlessly create if you're going for superior-quality engines.
*Harasses the wildlife, which is always fun. 
'''Cons:'''
*Very slow to train (2+ years for legendary).
*Fairly space-consuming to set up a well-designed and usable proving ground.
*Can be dangerous depending on the biome (especially when [[elephant]]s are present. If they get winged by a stray boulder, you can bet they're going to be coming straight at you).
*[[Siege operator]]s are civilians, and will run in fear when an enemy approaches them.

====Internship ([[bookkeeper]])====
Turn on highest precision bookkeeping and rotate the appointed noble in and out the second he becomes a legendary bookkeeper. 
'''Pros:'''
*Requires no extra infrastructure at all.
*You need a bookkeeper anyway!
*Totally safe; a bookkeeper spends basically all his discretionary time snug in his office.
*Trains outrageously fast; if the office is very close to [[food]], [[beds]], and [[drink]], a bookkeeper can be legendary or close to it in a mere season. 
'''Cons:'''
*Only employs one dwarf at a time; not useful when you have 15-25 candidates for the reserves.
*No announcement when the current intern reaches Legendary status means you can lose time on rotation easily.
*Legendary bookkeepers might leave their successor without work, losing work and experience.

====Internship MkII ([[manager]])====
Much like bookkeeping, assign a new dwarf to manager, queue several hundred jobs, and rotate a replacement in as soon as he becomes legendary. For bonus points, queue jobs which need to be repeated anyway, like "Prepare Raw Fish" or "Mill Plants", or jobs for which there is no workshop, like "Make Wooden Bow" or "Make Soap". 
'''Pros:'''
*Requires no extra infrastructure at all.
*You need a manager anyway!
*Mostly safe; a manager spends basically all his discretionary time snug in his office, or doing his other assigned jobs.
*Trains fairly quickly; with enough jobs, especially ones which need to be repeated anyway, you can get legendary inside two seasons. 
'''Cons:'''
*Only employs one dwarf at a time; not useful when you have 15-25 candidates for the reserves.
*No announcement when the current intern reaches Legendary status means you can lose time on rotation easily.
*Trains more slowly than bookkeeper, requiring roughly 60 lots of 30 jobs to reach legendary, and 40 more to Legendary+5.
====Gulag ([[miner]])====
The gulag is basically a strip mine that is located far away from your main fortress (so you don't have to worry about accidentally screwing up your own building plans; if you are careful in planning, it may be placed closer to your fortress). Take a big square and start leveling it; it's really no more complicated than that. Since [[pick]]s can actually be used as weapons, it's worthwhile to give the reservists who will be working in the gulag picks made out of [[iron]], or, if you are really living large, [[steel]]. Note that you will have to turn your usual mining corps (the civilian miners who are already experienced with mining) off for this setup to work properly. 
'''Pros:'''
*Soldiers enter the military with an emergency weapon in their hand already; this can be critical in the case of [[speardwarf|speardwarves]], who have a habit of losing their weapons in an enemy, or [[marksdwarf|marksdwarves]], who are forced to use the [[hammerdwarf]] skill in melee, which they may not even have.
*Toting a pick for close-quarters support might make a legendary [[marksdwarf]] more useful, since the pathetic bludgeon damage of his [[wood]] and [[bone]] [[crossbows]] are less important.
*Can be quite useful for producing stones you might not have access to normally, or uncovering veins of precious metals.
*Levels quite fast in sand.
*Relatively little oversight from you.
*An overland hike to the gulag will fight [[cave adaptation]] in your military candidates. 
'''Cons:'''
*Juggling your real miners and your reservists when there's real work to be done on the fort can be a chore.
*Hard to keep dwarves in the gulag for too long; they'll inevitably get hungry, thirsty, and tired and start hiking back to the fortress proper.
*Can be dangerous, depending on the biome.
*Does require some amount of oversight from you, especially when your reservists start getting better at mining and run out of work more quickly.
*Low-skill miners may discover---and then partially destroy---valuable gem or mineral deposits.

====Renovation ([[stone detailing]])====
Another convenient way to buff up your dwarves, assigning your reservists to mass [[stone detailing]] duty increases your fortress' architectural wealth and makes the place look nicer. While they may clutter the halls somewhat, it doesn't require any special allocation of [[food]], [[beds]] or [[drink]]. Just turn on [[stone detailing]] for your reservists and mark up as much of the fortress as you like for renovation. 
'''Pros:'''
*Even easier to set up; just assign your dwarves and an area and you're good to go.
*Increases your fortress' value and general happiness.
*Requires no continuous oversight on your part.
*Very safe, if you only assign areas inside the fortress. 
'''Cons:'''
*Wealth overflow may bring too many [[immigrants]].
*Serious conflict with [[engraving]] assignments; trying to engrave with poorly trained engravers wastes a lot of wealth that essentially comes from nothing. To avoid this, have periods when you only designate stone smoothing, followed by periods where you only designate engraving.
*Careless designation of smoothing areas may have your dwarves trying to smooth walls too close to [[magma]] or a [[river]].

====Sweatshop ([[mason]])====
Make one or more [[mason's workshop]]s in an area with a bunch of junk stone you don't care about, or that you're actively looking to clear. Change the workshop settings to allow only your reservists to use it, then tell the workshop to churn out crafts, junk furniture, stone blocks, and trade goods that you can trade en-masse. Alternatively, forbid your reservists from working in your real mason's workshops, order lots of stone constructions built, and pray that your real masons stay too occupied with the workshops to intrude. Works well in conjunction with a gulag. Alternate ideas for sweatshops include a [[mechanic's workshop]] or a [[magma glass furnace]] to train [[mechanic]] and [[glassmaker]] respectively. ''Note: Do NOT try this with the [[carpenter]] skill, or any other resource you don't have in near-limitless abundance. Sweatshops will consume huge amounts of their associated resources, and if you run out mid-way you have probably wasted your time. This includes [[coke]] or [[charcoal]] used in the normal (non-magma) [[glass furnace]].'' 
'''Pros:'''
*Quantitatively turns a profit. The inferior trade goods can be dumped on the next caravan for more useful commodities like bags, seeds, and logs. Logs are especially useful, since you'll inevitably stamp out lots of bins to support the trade good output.
*Mass-producing blocks makes your constructions higher value.
*Unlike many other training programs, Sweatshops train a skill that is very useful. 
'''Cons:'''
*Slow to level.
*Hard to keep the reservists on task, since they'll need to do plenty of hauling to keep their workshop from becoming chokingly cluttered.
*Can be a logistical nightmare; making bins and organizing hauling for the finished goods can be insane if you're working from a gulag.
*Can be dangerous depending on the biome and location of your sweatshops.
*Note also that stone blocks cannot be made into furniture or stone crafts. This may or may not be an issue depending on where you're putting your gulag.

====Dwarf Powered Mill ([[grower]],[[cook]],[[miller]])====
Start off by creating a surplus of [[longland grass]], [[cave wheat]], and/or [[whip vine]] and some bags. Create multiple [[quern]] all close to the food stockpile which contains the millable plants. Next to this area make a [[kitchen]] assigned to an experienced cook. Enable milling for the dwarves you wish to cross-train and order the cook to make lavish meals. As long as your growers provide a steady supply of millable plants and your cook can empty out bags quick enough, the milling jobs will continue. 
'''Pros:'''
*Produces a lot of wealth as flour is a high value ingredient
*Produces high amounts of food
*Sustains the training of non cross-training dwarves such as the cook and growers 
'''Cons:'''
*Requires a surplus of millable plants to ensure continuous milling, thus you may need to increase the number of plots/growers
*If you don't have enough bags and your cook decides to go on break you may end up having job cancellations for the millers
*Dedicated haulers will be required to keep all workshops clutter free

====Clear Cutting====
As long as wood hauling is turned off, dwarves will move from one tree to the next without stopping to bring the wood back. On a heavily forested map, this means that dedicated wood cutters can skill up very quickly. 
Of course, this training strategy isn't going endear you with the elves. 

'''Pros:'''
*Works quickly
*Trees regrow
*Provides useful lumber to carpenters, charcoal makers, etc
*Can cause problems with elves
'''Cons:'''
*<s>Can cause problems with elves</s>
*Map dependent
*Unless care is taken to only designate a small area for cutting, trainees and haulers can be spread out across the map while, making them vulnerable to creatures and ambushes. (OTOH, if done with more than a few dwarves at a time, a small squad of axew-wielding [[military|recruit]]s is not completely defenseless, and military can be stationed as support.)

====Charm School ([[social skills]])====
(Note: Inspired by [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=47533.0 milaga's Real Wagon experiment], details of this technique are still being investigated.)
Sure, dwarves get stronger, tougher, and more agile from flinging rocks, carving rocks, smoothing rocks, and taking inventory of rocks or assigning tasks regarding rocks. But since the current version{{version|0.28.181.40d}} weights every skill equally in terms of producing attribute increases, dwarves gain attributes from just standing around and chatting, too!

Take advantage of this by setting up a small space with food, booze, and a few beds/chairs/tables, stashing your new immigrants in it, and locking the door for a few seasons. (Be sure to turn off all of their labors and designate it as a meeting place.) With no labors enabled and nothing to do, they'll chat and party and quickly buff up their comedian, flatterer, conversationalist, &c. skills, which in turn will produce quick attribute boosts.

'''Pros:'''
*works on any map
*easy to set up
*trains many dwarves at once
*requires almost zero player oversight
*easily scales to any size of immigrant wave
*requires no resources the dwarves would not already be consuming (food, beds, &c)
*levels quickly: initial tests show 14-15 attribute gains per dwarf by the end of 7 months
*very safe
*no conflict with existing workshops or skills, unlike gulag or sweatshop

'''Cons:'''
*dwarves gain no professional skills during this time
*produces no trade goods or useful items for the fortress
*produces many romances and tight-knit friendships, which [[Tantrum#Tantrum Spiral|put you at risk]] of suddenly having lots of [[losing#General Unhappiness|Fun]]
*inter-dwarf personality conflicts can produce early misery and tantrums. This can be prevented with quality furniture and food, and the risk is eliminated once friendships and relationships are formed and producing happy thoughts.
*unless the entrance and path from the exterior are carefully set up, you will probably have to draft new dwarves and station them in the charm school to move them there; this will produce an unhappy thought that can exacerbate the early period of tension

====National self-defense training====
This is the counter-part to the above - this trains civilians in basic wrestling. All your civilians - or at least, most of them. Any time a dwarf is activated into the military, and they do not have at least Novice level in some combat skill, they get a bad thought. Give every civilian dwarf one or two weeks off when they first [[migrant|immigrate]] and train them up to [[experience|Novice]] in [[wrestling]] - that's all they need. Then, if they ever get caught where they don't want to be (maybe they bump into a thief coming around a corner, or a flying critter jumps them, or you need to urgently order them out of the path of a magma flood, or send them to the [[control room]] - anything), not only can you activate them with no bad thoughts, but every dwarf has a better chance at not-dying - which can only be a good thing.

===Overview===
*The charm school can cross-train many dwarves in less a year, but produces no useful items, trade wealth, or professional skills. The method is also still being refined and potential pitfalls may still be uncovered.
*The gym also trains large amounts of dwarves, though it is relatively slow compared to other methods.
*Artillery training can give you some siege operators, which will be useful if you have ballistae.
*The internship is very fast, but only trains up one dwarf at a time. Your stocks could also lag behind if you are unlucky.
*The gulag requires planning, and your dwarves in the fortress proper may run all the way to the gulag to grab a stone for some crafts, a chair, etc. It does, however, train your dwarves in mining quickly, which is always a useful skill.
*Renovation is hands-free, but may bloat your fortress wealth too quickly.
*The sweatshop creates a large amount of goods, which can be traded away to keep traders happy. It also increases your wealth by quite a lot, which can be good or bad depending upon your situation. The goods are also difficult to manage.

Note that the gym, artillery training, and internship don't take away [[strange mood]] potential (you can give those dwarves dabbling in anything you want and that's how they'll get theirs), while the gulag, renovation, and sweatshop do.

----

=Army corps of engineers=
Your actual soldiers are obviously only one facet to your military preparation. [[defense|Defensive]] structures like [[fortification]]s, [[moat]]s, and above-ground bunkers need civilian support, and they need to be constructed - and sometimes that's as dangerous as military service itself. In the best of times it should be done quickly and efficiently, because faster means less time vulnerable to a possible [[ambush]] or dangerous [[creature|predator]]. In emergencies, having a trained, reliable workforce, with enough manpower to tackle any job at any time and can accomplish those projects quickly can be a fortress saver.

The incredible amount of effort required to complete full defensive preparations on many maps (even building a single-floor above ground bunker can take multiple seasons of full-time effort) means that the military can benefit greatly from having a corps of dwarves who are dedicated and trained to support the development full time.

Organizing a Corps of Engineers requires extra effort and planning on your part, but pays off big later on. Corps engineers become incredibly useful and will produce superior, happiness-inducing structures and items even after their chief issues are done. Also, since their highest [[strange mood]] eligible skill tends to be [[masonry]], it improves your chances of getting a legendary [[mason]], which is always a treat.

===Organizing===
The bread and butter skill of the engineer corps are [[masonry]] along with [[mechanics]], and some [[architecture]] thrown in for some trainees (but not necessarily all, see below). Candidates really don't need any prior skills, but if you can recruit some [[immigrant]]s that come with one of these skills already, so much the better. The long term result is a crew that can build anything anywhere, but not until after some training, so you should not use any dwarves who will be needed elsewhere soon. Assign [[potash maker]]s, [[soaper]]s, and the like instead. Miners that have run out of digging work and are suddenly idle (and already have [[attribute]]s for faster hauling of building stones) are also good candidates. You may wish to swap [[masonry]] with [[carpentry]] if you are doing a challenge where your structures are chiefly made out of wood, or conceivably even a [[metalcrafting]] skill, but the gist of it is the same.

Since these dwarves may be performing a lot of construction outside, one variation includes designating them all with the [[woodcutting]] [[labour]], so they will all carry [[axe]]s full time. When wood needs to be cut, one tight area is designated at a time, and they all respond - this encourages mutual support. Other outdoor activities likewise become safer with a number of armed dwarves responding together, and faster with practice, so [[plant gathering]] may be another skill to add to the mix. Assigning war[[dog]]s to these outdoor-engineers is another good plan. (Whether or not to then train them as (reservist) axedwarves is up to you - see [[Cross_training#Cross-training_(starting_a_reserves_program)|cross-training]], at the first half of this article.)

A suitable number of engineer corps members depends on personal preference and the expected scope of your projects, but you want them to support each other, so perhaps a half-dozen or more for an average fortress, or maybe ~10% total. This might seem like a lot when you have the [[fortress guard]] demanding 10%, the [[royal guard]] demanding another 5%, plus what dwarves you have committed to reserves programs or in the regular army, but your goal is a reliable building crew, large enough so they will not all be "[[on break]]" at once. Remember also that engineer corps members are civilians (with [[attribute]]s) and can be temporarily re-assigned to urgent hauling duty when the need arises, so they are not lost to other support tasks.

After you've decided who you want in the engineer corps, it's suggested that you give them a [[Profession#Custom_profession_labels|custom profession]], to distinguish them in your {{k|u}}nits menu. They behave so much like normal civilians that it's hard to keep track of them if you don't. Don't use "[[Engineer]]", because that is an existing (and different) profession. Some suggestions for custom ranks are "Reserves," "Multi", "Corps Engineer", "CE", or some other profession or abbreviation that makes sense to you.

===Training masons===
Once your main fortress has [[what should I build first|the basics]] and things are relatively settled, build some [[mason's workshop]]s for the corps to work out of. Build as many as you have corps engineer members, to make sure that everyone is guaranteed to have work, and do it in areas that are dense with mined stones, preferably in low-traffic areas (but be careful about [[noise]]). A good place to start is anywhere you want to clear of (useless) stone, or any [[economic stone]] you want to turn into building [[block|material]] - that's what they'll be producing, and a lot of it.

After the corps' workshops are set up, we'll need to change the workshop profiles to make sure the regular masons don't use them. You can do this one of two ways. First, {{k|q}}uery the workshop, and choose {{k|P}}rofile to see who is allowed to work there. Then, either:
:*Lower the max skill threshhold to "Proficient" (or your choice). This lets different trainees swap workshops.
:*Or, enable each of the engineer corps' members individually. Tedious, but only needs to be done once, and very effective. This allows you more control over individual engineers over an extended period.
:* Or both.

Then, set the corps' workshops to produce stone [[block]]s, and put that on {{k|r}}epeat. Keep it there. This is going to be the corps' only job for it's few seasons, to train up masonry.

====(Why are we building blocks, again?)====
A couple of reasons. 
:* 1) Blocks have no quality modifier. That means that your dabbling mason engineer corps members are producing blocks every bit as good as your legendary masons.
:* 2) Blocks can be used in building constructions. What was the Corps' first job? Building, of course!
:* 3) Blocks make higher-value constructions than normal stone. Constructions made out of stone will become "Rough (rock) (construction)", while block constructions will eliminate the rough modifier and contribute more to the fortress's wealth.
:* 4) Blocks can be collected into bins (which is not true of raw stones), reducing stone clutter. This is important for moving them to handy on-site stockpiles.
:* 5) Blocks make it easier to budget stone for constructions, so you can see if you're running low on material or using more than you expected.

If you stop at no-label, you will have added 37 blocks/trainee to your stocks: 17 to Novice, and another 20 to No-Label. ''(See [[Experience]] for more info.)''

(If you're training carpenters, you can either mass-produce barrels and bins (you always seem to need more), or, if you are planning wooden constructions, wooden blocks.)

=== Apprentice Mechanics ===
Mechanic skill is important to place [[lever]]s and link them with existing devices, for traps or bridges, or whatever. It also allows them to reload [[trap]]s, and/or clear any that may have jammed, relieving your primary Mechanic of this burden. The importance of this skill depends on the extent of your use of levers and traps in your fortress design.

After you're satisfied with the skill level of your trainees (no-tag is a good place to be), move on to training [[mechanic]]s. Shut down the [[mason's workshop]]s and build [[mechanic's workshop]]s where there is more ([[economic stone|non-economic]]!) stone. Start churning out (no-/low-quality) mechanisms - again, 17 each will give Novice level, another 20 each will give No-Label. After you've got a decent handful, you may decide to build experience by building levers and linking them all a door. Don't go too overboard with training mechanics. Again, no-label is a good place to be, ample - you're just speeding things along a bit. Mechanics are not usually used enough to warrant going all out.

===Architect(s)===
Architecture is useful because dwarves trained in it will increase the quality of the structures they design, and so seeing them will cause happy thoughts. Factor in how easy it is to train up and it's a no-brainer. Of course, feel free to stop this at any time to attend to more urgent matters.

After you're done with mechanics, switch to [[architecture]] on some of your trainees. Only a few [[construction]]s and workshops need architecture, and only one architect can work on any designated structure at a time, regardless the size, so you don't (necessarily) need them all to have it. If you have one, they will train up as they build - if you have a lot, they will share the tasks and not achieve higher levels unless you stop and specifically give them more dedicated training.

The easiest way to train any number of architects is to turn off their [[masonry]] labor* and designate a bunch of supports (you will eventually need 17/trainee, just to start). Use the any nearby stone or blocks that is not needed elsewhere - designate one support over one stone if you can, to reduce hauling time. After they've been designed (and now "need masonry"), ''un''-designate them ({{k|q}}, {{k|x}}. If you want to actually build them, then keep masonry on, and that would train both architecture and masonry, giving you more net experience.

''(* Other dwarves with masonry may respond to build the designed supports, and faster than you'd expect, the little masonic ninjas. If this is a concern, lock your trainees in a room with the stone and let 'em design in peace.)''

===The payoff===
After the training starts taking hold, you will have a cadre of proficient building designers, proficient masons, skilled mechanics, and (optionally, see below) proficient siege operators or axe-dwarves. This can happen in as little as 3 years of training. You can (and should!) continue to train them until they are legendary in all of these, but that is very long term. In the shorter, 3 year term, you have a rock-solid foundation to react to any construction demand with speed, efficiency, and awesome quality.

===Non-professionals===
Remember that every dwarf in this crew will have masonry and mechanic labor designated (and possibly carpenter, etc) - for your primary mason's and mechanic's workshops, go into those workshop Profiles and only allow your primary, best-skilled dwarves to respond to work orders there, either by name or skill level, or both. If you forget to do this, you'll have your trainees jumping in and producing your furniture at lower [[quality]].

===Role in your military===

Especially if you opt for the wood-cutter approach and they are armed 24/7 with axes, a brief (or not so brief) [[sparring]] session will make them extremely dangerous if ambushed, and create a reserve force to support your full-time military. Just be careful to train no military skill near [[Soldier#Heroes_and_Champions|Great]] level, as this will remove them permanently from the civilian workforce! Not even close - remember that combat gives experience quickly. Somewhere between Proficient and Professional should be ample for reserves. This is true for axe or [[wrestler]], both of which can be handy for combatants.

You can also, at your discretion, enable the [[siege operating]] labor to train the engineer corps in the use of artillery. This is mainly to give them an actual military use, and since cross-training them like this reduces the military's overall impact on your society. If you've got enough dwarves to make a separate artillery corps, go right ahead.

{{Military FAQ}}

[[Category:Military| ]]
[[Category:Fortress defense]]

40d:Cross-training

2010-01-21T05:54:06Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Cross-training (starting a reserves program) */ Created 'Charm School' section

'''Cross-training''' is training your military dwarf candidates in civilian disciplines (or vice versa), and offers multiple benefits. First and most importantly, it gives you several extra [[attribute]] increases. Toughness, especially, is extremely important for military dwarves; it allows them to take more wounds before passing out from pain, and to recover from wounds faster. Second, it provides a ready pool of recruits in case your military takes a beating at one point or another, and/or allows civilians a better-than-normal chance to defend themselves. Third, it ensures that your [[soldier]]s have some domestic skills so they will not receive [[thoughts|unhappy thoughts]] from being de-activated from the [[military]] in the event you need to downsize, or just need some extra labor short-term. Finally, most reserves programs provide chronic idlers with some work to do, which can be essential for unskilled workers like peasants to break out of their poverty (and therefore, unhappiness) cycle once the [[dwarven economy]] kicks in.

There is nothing saying you have to use only one of these ideas; they are all various approaches toward addressing these areas.

==Cross-training (starting a reserves program)==
The biggest thing to remember with a reserves program is that if you're going to go, you go all the way. Don't institute something "just for a little while" and come up with a handful of novice reservists; they will not get significant stat increases and you'll only waste time. Time is not something you have a heck of a lot of in a reserves program, typically. Remember that after you draft them, most dwarves are going to need about a year of sparring or training before they're ready for heavy combat. You might not have that much time if you are getting sieges regularly.

===Different Programs:===
====Gym ([[pump operator]])====
[[Image:Pump_farm.png|thumb|right|71px|No pain, no gain.]]
The Gym is the most basic sort of reserves program; it merely consists of building a bunch of [[screw pump]]s connected to nothing in a room that's close to [[food]], [[beds]], and [[drink]]. After the pumps are built, order them to be pumped manually, then turn on [[Pump operator|pump operating]] for your reservists.

[[Toughness]] influences how tired your dwarves get. Tougher dwarves can operate a pump longer before getting tired, meaning they will gain skill more quickly than non-tough dwarves. Once dwarves hit Unbelievably Tough, they can operate pumps non-stop. 
'''Pros:'''
*Easy to set up; 4 pumps in the gym will keep at least 8-10 reservists busy around the clock.
*Extra pumps can be added to expand operations very easily.
*Requires no continuous oversight on your part.
*Somewhat fast training; legendary in under a year (if other responsibilities like hauling are minimized).
*Very safe; gyms can be placed anywhere in the comfort of your fortress with no issues. 
*If you're really clever, you might be able to arrange your pumps so they power one or more indoor [[waterfall]]s. To get the full benefit of this approach, you would probably have to design your fortress around the waterfalls. Remember not to dig under their feeding tubes!
'''Cons:'''
*Tons of cancel job spam. Every time a reservist exhausts himself and goes to satisfy his basic needs, you'll see "Urist McScrewpumper cancels Operate Pump: Exhausted."
*If you have any pumps around that actually DO need to be operated every so often (refilling your [[well]], for example), it could be a serious pain to juggle the useless gym pumps and the ones that are actually useful.

====Artillery proving ground ([[siege operator]])====
Mass-produce some catapults, line them up near a quarry, and fire away. Works well to dispose of stone from a gulag (see below). 
'''Pros:'''
*Trains a skill that's reasonably useful, and provides a place to put all the sub-par siege engine components your [[siege engineer]] will doubtlessly create if you're going for superior-quality engines.
*Harasses the wildlife, which is always fun. 
'''Cons:'''
*Very slow to train (2+ years for legendary).
*Fairly space-consuming to set up a well-designed and usable proving ground.
*Can be dangerous depending on the biome (especially when [[elephant]]s are present. If they get winged by a stray boulder, you can bet they're going to be coming straight at you).
*[[Siege operator]]s are civilians, and will run in fear when an enemy approaches them.

====Internship ([[bookkeeper]])====
Turn on highest precision bookkeeping and rotate the appointed noble in and out the second he becomes a legendary bookkeeper. 
'''Pros:'''
*Requires no extra infrastructure at all.
*You need a bookkeeper anyway!
*Totally safe; a bookkeeper spends basically all his discretionary time snug in his office.
*Trains outrageously fast; if the office is very close to [[food]], [[beds]], and [[drink]], a bookkeeper can be legendary or close to it in a mere season. 
'''Cons:'''
*Only employs one dwarf at a time; not useful when you have 15-25 candidates for the reserves.
*No announcement when the current intern reaches Legendary status means you can lose time on rotation easily.
*Legendary bookkeepers might leave their successor without work, losing work and experience.

====Internship MkII ([[manager]])====
Much like bookkeeping, assign a new dwarf to manager, queue several hundred jobs, and rotate a replacement in as soon as he becomes legendary. For bonus points, queue jobs which need to be repeated anyway, like "Prepare Raw Fish" or "Mill Plants", or jobs for which there is no workshop, like "Make Wooden Bow" or "Make Soap". 
'''Pros:'''
*Requires no extra infrastructure at all.
*You need a manager anyway!
*Mostly safe; a manager spends basically all his discretionary time snug in his office, or doing his other assigned jobs.
*Trains fairly quickly; with enough jobs, especially ones which need to be repeated anyway, you can get legendary inside two seasons. 
'''Cons:'''
*Only employs one dwarf at a time; not useful when you have 15-25 candidates for the reserves.
*No announcement when the current intern reaches Legendary status means you can lose time on rotation easily.
*Trains more slowly than bookkeeper, requiring roughly 60 lots of 30 jobs to reach legendary, and 40 more to Legendary+5.
====Gulag ([[miner]])====
The gulag is basically a strip mine that is located far away from your main fortress (so you don't have to worry about accidentally screwing up your own building plans; if you are careful in planning, it may be placed closer to your fortress). Take a big square and start leveling it; it's really no more complicated than that. Since [[pick]]s can actually be used as weapons, it's worthwhile to give the reservists who will be working in the gulag picks made out of [[iron]], or, if you are really living large, [[steel]]. Note that you will have to turn your usual mining corps (the civilian miners who are already experienced with mining) off for this setup to work properly. 
'''Pros:'''
*Soldiers enter the military with an emergency weapon in their hand already; this can be critical in the case of [[speardwarf|speardwarves]], who have a habit of losing their weapons in an enemy, or [[marksdwarf|marksdwarves]], who are forced to use the [[hammerdwarf]] skill in melee, which they may not even have.
*Toting a pick for close-quarters support might make a legendary [[marksdwarf]] more useful, since the pathetic bludgeon damage of his [[wood]] and [[bone]] [[crossbows]] are less important.
*Can be quite useful for producing stones you might not have access to normally, or uncovering veins of precious metals.
*Levels quite fast in sand.
*Relatively little oversight from you.
*An overland hike to the gulag will fight [[cave adaptation]] in your military candidates. 
'''Cons:'''
*Juggling your real miners and your reservists when there's real work to be done on the fort can be a chore.
*Hard to keep dwarves in the gulag for too long; they'll inevitably get hungry, thirsty, and tired and start hiking back to the fortress proper.
*Can be dangerous, depending on the biome.
*Does require some amount of oversight from you, especially when your reservists start getting better at mining and run out of work more quickly.
*Low-skill miners may discover---and then partially destroy---valuable gem or mineral deposits.

====Renovation ([[stone detailing]])====
Another convenient way to buff up your dwarves, assigning your reservists to mass [[stone detailing]] duty increases your fortress' architectural wealth and makes the place look nicer. While they may clutter the halls somewhat, it doesn't require any special allocation of [[food]], [[beds]] or [[drink]]. Just turn on [[stone detailing]] for your reservists and mark up as much of the fortress as you like for renovation. 
'''Pros:'''
*Even easier to set up; just assign your dwarves and an area and you're good to go.
*Increases your fortress' value and general happiness.
*Requires no continuous oversight on your part.
*Very safe, if you only assign areas inside the fortress. 
'''Cons:'''
*Wealth overflow may bring too many [[immigrants]].
*Serious conflict with [[engraving]] assignments; trying to engrave with poorly trained engravers wastes a lot of wealth that essentially comes from nothing. To avoid this, have periods when you only designate stone smoothing, followed by periods where you only designate engraving.
*Careless designation of smoothing areas may have your dwarves trying to smooth walls too close to [[magma]] or a [[river]].

====Sweatshop ([[mason]])====
Make one or more [[mason's workshop]]s in an area with a bunch of junk stone you don't care about, or that you're actively looking to clear. Change the workshop settings to allow only your reservists to use it, then tell the workshop to churn out crafts, junk furniture, stone blocks, and trade goods that you can trade en-masse. Alternatively, forbid your reservists from working in your real mason's workshops, order lots of stone constructions built, and pray that your real masons stay too occupied with the workshops to intrude. Works well in conjunction with a gulag. Alternate ideas for sweatshops include a [[mechanic's workshop]] or a [[magma glass furnace]] to train [[mechanic]] and [[glassmaker]] respectively. ''Note: Do NOT try this with the [[carpenter]] skill, or any other resource you don't have in near-limitless abundance. Sweatshops will consume huge amounts of their associated resources, and if you run out mid-way you have probably wasted your time. This includes [[coke]] or [[charcoal]] used in the normal (non-magma) [[glass furnace]].'' 
'''Pros:'''
*Quantitatively turns a profit. The inferior trade goods can be dumped on the next caravan for more useful commodities like bags, seeds, and logs. Logs are especially useful, since you'll inevitably stamp out lots of bins to support the trade good output.
*Mass-producing blocks makes your constructions higher value.
*Unlike many other training programs, Sweatshops train a skill that is very useful. 
'''Cons:'''
*Slow to level.
*Hard to keep the reservists on task, since they'll need to do plenty of hauling to keep their workshop from becoming chokingly cluttered.
*Can be a logistical nightmare; making bins and organizing hauling for the finished goods can be insane if you're working from a gulag.
*Can be dangerous depending on the biome and location of your sweatshops.
*Note also that stone blocks cannot be made into furniture or stone crafts. This may or may not be an issue depending on where you're putting your gulag.

====Dwarf Powered Mill ([[grower]],[[cook]],[[miller]])====
Start off by creating a surplus of [[longland grass]], [[cave wheat]], and/or [[whip vine]] and some bags. Create multiple [[quern]] all close to the food stockpile which contains the millable plants. Next to this area make a [[kitchen]] assigned to an experienced cook. Enable milling for the dwarves you wish to cross-train and order the cook to make lavish meals. As long as your growers provide a steady supply of millable plants and your cook can empty out bags quick enough, the milling jobs will continue. 
'''Pros:'''
*Produces a lot of wealth as flour is a high value ingredient
*Produces high amounts of food
*Sustains the training of non cross-training dwarves such as the cook and growers 
'''Cons:'''
*Requires a surplus of millable plants to ensure continuous milling, thus you may need to increase the number of plots/growers
*If you don't have enough bags and your cook decides to go on break you may end up having job cancellations for the millers
*Dedicated haulers will be required to keep all workshops clutter free

====Clear Cutting====
As long as wood hauling is turned off, dwarves will move from one tree to the next without stopping to bring the wood back. On a heavily forested map, this means that dedicated wood cutters can skill up very quickly. 
Of course, this training strategy isn't going endear you with the elves. 

'''Pros:'''
*Works quickly
*Trees regrow
*Provides useful lumber to carpenters, charcoal makers, etc
*Can cause problems with elves
'''Cons:'''
*<s>Can cause problems with elves</s>
*Map dependent
*Unless care is taken to only designate a small area for cutting, trainees and haulers can be spread out across the map while, making them vulnerable to creatures and ambushes. (OTOH, if done with more than a few dwarves at a time, a small squad of axew-wielding [[military|recruit]]s is not completely defenseless, and military can be stationed as support.)

====Charm School ([[social skills]])====
(Note: Inspired by [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=47533.0 milaga's Real Wagon experiment], details of this technique are still being investigated.)
Sure, dwarves get stronger, tougher, and more agile from hauling rocks, flinging rocks, carving rocks, smoothing rocks, and taking inventory of rocks or assigning tasks regarding rocks. But since the current version{{version|0.28.181.40d}} weights every skill equally in terms of producing attribute increases, dwarves gain attributes from just standing around and chatting, too!

Take advantage of this by setting up a small space with food, booze, and a few beds/chairs/tables, stashing your new immigrants in it, and locking the door for a few seasons. (Be sure to turn off all of their labors and designate it as a meeting place.) With no labors enabled and nothing to do, they'll chat and party and quickly buff up their comedian, flatterer, conversationalist, &c. skills, which in turn will produce quick attribute boosts.

'''Pros:'''
*works on any map
*easy to set up
*trains many dwarves at once
*requires almost zero player oversight
*easily scales to any size of immigrant wave
*requires no resources the dwarves would not already be consuming (food, beds, &c)
*levels quickly: initial tests show 14-15 attribute gains per dwarf by the end of 7 months
*very safe
*no conflict with existing workshops or skills, unlike gulag or sweatshop

'''Cons:'''
*dwarves gain no professional skills during this time
*produces no trade goods or useful items for the fortress
*produces many romances and tight-knit friendships, which [[Tantrum#Tantrum Spiral|put you at risk]] of suddenly having lots of [[losing#General Unhappiness|Fun]]
*inter-dwarf personality conflicts can produce early misery and tantrums. This can be prevented with quality furniture and food, and the risk is eliminated once friendships and relationships are formed and producing happy thoughts.
*unless the entrance and path from the exterior are carefully set up, you will probably have to draft new dwarves and station them in the charm school to move them there; this will produce an unhappy thought that can exacerbate the early period of tension

====National self-defense training====
This is the counter-part to the above - this trains civilians in basic wrestling. All your civilians - or at least, most of them. Any time a dwarf is activated into the military, and they do not have at least Novice level in some combat skill, they get a bad thought. Give every civilian dwarf one or two weeks off when they first [[migrant|immigrate]] and train them up to [[experience|Novice]] in [[wrestling]] - that's all they need. Then, if they ever get caught where they don't want to be (maybe they bump into a thief coming around a corner, or a flying critter jumps them, or you need to urgently order them out of the path of a magma flood, or send them to the [[control room]] - anything), not only can you activate them with no bad thoughts, but every dwarf has a better chance at not-dying - which can only be a good thing.

===Overview===
*The charm school can cross-train many dwarves in less a year, but produces no useful items, trade wealth, or professional skills. The method is also still being refined and potential pitfalls may still be uncovered.
*The gym also trains large amounts of dwarves, though it is relatively slow compared to other methods.
*Artillery training can give you some siege operators, which will be useful if you have ballistae.
*The internship is very fast, but only trains up one dwarf at a time. Your stocks could also lag behind if you are unlucky.
*The gulag requires planning, and your dwarves in the fortress proper may run all the way to the gulag to grab a stone for some crafts, a chair, etc. It does, however, train your dwarves in mining quickly, which is always a useful skill.
*Renovation is hands-free, but may bloat your fortress wealth too quickly.
*The sweatshop creates a large amount of goods, which can be traded away to keep traders happy. It also increases your wealth by quite a lot, which can be good or bad depending upon your situation. The goods are also difficult to manage.

Note that the gym, artillery training, and internship don't take away [[strange mood]] potential (you can give those dwarves dabbling in anything you want and that's how they'll get theirs), while the gulag, renovation, and sweatshop do.

----

=Army corps of engineers=
Your actual soldiers are obviously only one facet to your military preparation. [[defense|Defensive]] structures like [[fortification]]s, [[moat]]s, and above-ground bunkers need civilian support, and they need to be constructed - and sometimes that's as dangerous as military service itself. In the best of times it should be done quickly and efficiently, because faster means less time vulnerable to a possible [[ambush]] or dangerous [[creature|predator]]. In emergencies, having a trained, reliable workforce, with enough manpower to tackle any job at any time and can accomplish those projects quickly can be a fortress saver.

The incredible amount of effort required to complete full defensive preparations on many maps (even building a single-floor above ground bunker can take multiple seasons of full-time effort) means that the military can benefit greatly from having a corps of dwarves who are dedicated and trained to support the development full time.

Organizing a Corps of Engineers requires extra effort and planning on your part, but pays off big later on. Corps engineers become incredibly useful and will produce superior, happiness-inducing structures and items even after their chief issues are done. Also, since their highest [[strange mood]] eligible skill tends to be [[masonry]], it improves your chances of getting a legendary [[mason]], which is always a treat.

===Organizing===
The bread and butter skill of the engineer corps are [[masonry]] along with [[mechanics]], and some [[architecture]] thrown in for some trainees (but not necessarily all, see below). Candidates really don't need any prior skills, but if you can recruit some [[immigrant]]s that come with one of these skills already, so much the better. The long term result is a crew that can build anything anywhere, but not until after some training, so you should not use any dwarves who will be needed elsewhere soon. Assign [[potash maker]]s, [[soaper]]s, and the like instead. Miners that have run out of digging work and are suddenly idle (and already have [[attribute]]s for faster hauling of building stones) are also good candidates. You may wish to swap [[masonry]] with [[carpentry]] if you are doing a challenge where your structures are chiefly made out of wood, or conceivably even a [[metalcrafting]] skill, but the gist of it is the same.

Since these dwarves may be performing a lot of construction outside, one variation includes designating them all with the [[woodcutting]] [[labour]], so they will all carry [[axe]]s full time. When wood needs to be cut, one tight area is designated at a time, and they all respond - this encourages mutual support. Other outdoor activities likewise become safer with a number of armed dwarves responding together, and faster with practice, so [[plant gathering]] may be another skill to add to the mix. Assigning war[[dog]]s to these outdoor-engineers is another good plan. (Whether or not to then train them as (reservist) axedwarves is up to you - see [[Cross_training#Cross-training_(starting_a_reserves_program)|cross-training]], at the first half of this article.)

A suitable number of engineer corps members depends on personal preference and the expected scope of your projects, but you want them to support each other, so perhaps a half-dozen or more for an average fortress, or maybe ~10% total. This might seem like a lot when you have the [[fortress guard]] demanding 10%, the [[royal guard]] demanding another 5%, plus what dwarves you have committed to reserves programs or in the regular army, but your goal is a reliable building crew, large enough so they will not all be "[[on break]]" at once. Remember also that engineer corps members are civilians (with [[attribute]]s) and can be temporarily re-assigned to urgent hauling duty when the need arises, so they are not lost to other support tasks.

After you've decided who you want in the engineer corps, it's suggested that you give them a [[Profession#Custom_profession_labels|custom profession]], to distinguish them in your {{k|u}}nits menu. They behave so much like normal civilians that it's hard to keep track of them if you don't. Don't use "[[Engineer]]", because that is an existing (and different) profession. Some suggestions for custom ranks are "Reserves," "Multi", "Corps Engineer", "CE", or some other profession or abbreviation that makes sense to you.

===Training masons===
Once your main fortress has [[what should I build first|the basics]] and things are relatively settled, build some [[mason's workshop]]s for the corps to work out of. Build as many as you have corps engineer members, to make sure that everyone is guaranteed to have work, and do it in areas that are dense with mined stones, preferably in low-traffic areas (but be careful about [[noise]]). A good place to start is anywhere you want to clear of (useless) stone, or any [[economic stone]] you want to turn into building [[block|material]] - that's what they'll be producing, and a lot of it.

After the corps' workshops are set up, we'll need to change the workshop profiles to make sure the regular masons don't use them. You can do this one of two ways. First, {{k|q}}uery the workshop, and choose {{k|P}}rofile to see who is allowed to work there. Then, either:
:*Lower the max skill threshhold to "Proficient" (or your choice). This lets different trainees swap workshops.
:*Or, enable each of the engineer corps' members individually. Tedious, but only needs to be done once, and very effective. This allows you more control over individual engineers over an extended period.
:* Or both.

Then, set the corps' workshops to produce stone [[block]]s, and put that on {{k|r}}epeat. Keep it there. This is going to be the corps' only job for it's few seasons, to train up masonry.

====(Why are we building blocks, again?)====
A couple of reasons. 
:* 1) Blocks have no quality modifier. That means that your dabbling mason engineer corps members are producing blocks every bit as good as your legendary masons.
:* 2) Blocks can be used in building constructions. What was the Corps' first job? Building, of course!
:* 3) Blocks make higher-value constructions than normal stone. Constructions made out of stone will become "Rough (rock) (construction)", while block constructions will eliminate the rough modifier and contribute more to the fortress's wealth.
:* 4) Blocks can be collected into bins (which is not true of raw stones), reducing stone clutter. This is important for moving them to handy on-site stockpiles.
:* 5) Blocks make it easier to budget stone for constructions, so you can see if you're running low on material or using more than you expected.

If you stop at no-label, you will have added 37 blocks/trainee to your stocks: 17 to Novice, and another 20 to No-Label. ''(See [[Experience]] for more info.)''

(If you're training carpenters, you can either mass-produce barrels and bins (you always seem to need more), or, if you are planning wooden constructions, wooden blocks.)

=== Apprentice Mechanics ===
Mechanic skill is important to place [[lever]]s and link them with existing devices, for traps or bridges, or whatever. It also allows them to reload [[trap]]s, and/or clear any that may have jammed, relieving your primary Mechanic of this burden. The importance of this skill depends on the extent of your use of levers and traps in your fortress design.

After you're satisfied with the skill level of your trainees (no-tag is a good place to be), move on to training [[mechanic]]s. Shut down the [[mason's workshop]]s and build [[mechanic's workshop]]s where there is more ([[economic stone|non-economic]]!) stone. Start churning out (no-/low-quality) mechanisms - again, 17 each will give Novice level, another 20 each will give No-Label. After you've got a decent handful, you may decide to build experience by building levers and linking them all a door. Don't go too overboard with training mechanics. Again, no-label is a good place to be, ample - you're just speeding things along a bit. Mechanics are not usually used enough to warrant going all out.

===Architect(s)===
Architecture is useful because dwarves trained in it will increase the quality of the structures they design, and so seeing them will cause happy thoughts. Factor in how easy it is to train up and it's a no-brainer. Of course, feel free to stop this at any time to attend to more urgent matters.

After you're done with mechanics, switch to [[architecture]] on some of your trainees. Only a few [[construction]]s and workshops need architecture, and only one architect can work on any designated structure at a time, regardless the size, so you don't (necessarily) need them all to have it. If you have one, they will train up as they build - if you have a lot, they will share the tasks and not achieve higher levels unless you stop and specifically give them more dedicated training.

The easiest way to train any number of architects is to turn off their [[masonry]] labor* and designate a bunch of supports (you will eventually need 17/trainee, just to start). Use the any nearby stone or blocks that is not needed elsewhere - designate one support over one stone if you can, to reduce hauling time. After they've been designed (and now "need masonry"), ''un''-designate them ({{k|q}}, {{k|x}}. If you want to actually build them, then keep masonry on, and that would train both architecture and masonry, giving you more net experience.

''(* Other dwarves with masonry may respond to build the designed supports, and faster than you'd expect, the little masonic ninjas. If this is a concern, lock your trainees in a room with the stone and let 'em design in peace.)''

===The payoff===
After the training starts taking hold, you will have a cadre of proficient building designers, proficient masons, skilled mechanics, and (optionally, see below) proficient siege operators or axe-dwarves. This can happen in as little as 3 years of training. You can (and should!) continue to train them until they are legendary in all of these, but that is very long term. In the shorter, 3 year term, you have a rock-solid foundation to react to any construction demand with speed, efficiency, and awesome quality.

===Non-professionals===
Remember that every dwarf in this crew will have masonry and mechanic labor designated (and possibly carpenter, etc) - for your primary mason's and mechanic's workshops, go into those workshop Profiles and only allow your primary, best-skilled dwarves to respond to work orders there, either by name or skill level, or both. If you forget to do this, you'll have your trainees jumping in and producing your furniture at lower [[quality]].

===Role in your military===

Especially if you opt for the wood-cutter approach and they are armed 24/7 with axes, a brief (or not so brief) [[sparring]] session will make them extremely dangerous if ambushed, and create a reserve force to support your full-time military. Just be careful to train no military skill near [[Soldier#Heroes_and_Champions|Great]] level, as this will remove them permanently from the civilian workforce! Not even close - remember that combat gives experience quickly. Somewhere between Proficient and Professional should be ample for reserves. This is true for axe or [[wrestler]], both of which can be handy for combatants.

You can also, at your discretion, enable the [[siege operating]] labor to train the engineer corps in the use of artillery. This is mainly to give them an actual military use, and since cross-training them like this reduces the military's overall impact on your society. If you've got enough dwarves to make a separate artillery corps, go right ahead.

{{Military FAQ}}

[[Category:Military| ]]
[[Category:Fortress defense]]

40d:Tantrum

2010-01-21T05:45:17Z

Hanibal Barcalounger:

A '''tantrum''' describes the actions of a dwarf who momentarily goes out of control, throwing things, breaking things, punching nearby dwarfs, and generally causing trouble. In unlucky cases, this can cause the loss of valued items, or the injury or death of bystanders. [[Justice]] will often fall upon a dwarf who has caused damage to body or property.

Dwarves will tantrum if they are at the "very unhappy" level of happiness or worse. This can be due to a long series of substandard food, drink, shelter, and general living conditions, or a sudden and acute change brought on by the death of a [[friend]], [[spouse|family]] member, or favourite [[pet]], the loss of a [[masterpiece]] (especially if the dwarf has only made a few), or other extreme, negative experience. Viewing a dwarf's [[profile]] ( {{k|v}}, {{k|p}}, {{k|z}}, {{k|Enter}} ), their [[thoughts]] will usually spell out their grievances in the form of good/bad thoughts.

A [[leader]] can often talk a dwarf down from the ledge with a [[meeting]]. If an unhappy dwarf is seeking a meeting (which is always with the leader), it's recommended to temporarily turn off all [[labor]] designations on the leader until the meeting is concluded.

==Tantrum Spiral==
A tantrum from one dwarf can often trigger tantrums in others - this is known as a '''tantrum chain''', or, especially if it grows out of control and threatens the fortress as a whole, a '''tantrum spiral'''. If any dwarf throws a tantrum that cannot be explained by a personal loss, '''it should be taken as a warning.''' When this happens, it often signifies that the ''other'' dwarves are unhappy--and if they aren't already, they probably/possibly will be soon.

In more mature fortresses, tantrums have been known to have particularly nasty results. In [[Boatmurdered|extreme cases]], a chain of tantrums can bring a fortress to its metaphorical knees. Chains don't occur particularly often, but when they do, they are extraordinarily hard to stop.

They generally play out something like this:

:Dwarf A throws a tantrum, and punches Dwarf B.
:A recovers happily, but B throws a tantrum and smashes the butcher's workshop to bits.
:The butcher, C, tantrums and destroys the table of the closest noble, D.
:D tantrums, starting fights with three other dwarves--A, C, and E.
:All of ''them'' tantrum, and C is taken into custody.
:E gets busy and smacks B. Meanwhile, C is killed by the hammerdwarf, accidentally or otherwise.
:C's friends, F, G, H, I, J, ''and K,'' all tantrum and do other nasty things.
:Everybody eventually tantrums and the fortress production grinds to a halt.
:Everybody starves, throws themselves into a volcano, or otherwise dies.

:* [[What's the easiest way to check dwarves happiness|Ways to check a dwarf's happiness]]

Beware that it is very much possible for a tantruming dwarf to destroy the [[bridge]] he is standing on, potentially causing him to [[Swimmer#Drowning|drown]], [[Magma|burn up]], or fall into a [[chasm]].

[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Thoughts]]

40d:Statue

2010-01-17T01:32:10Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Statues versus mechanisms */

Statues are [[buildings]] which can be built from the {{k|b}}uild menu under {{k|s}}tatue. They can be made using one [[stone]] at the [[mason's workshop]], one bag of [[sand]] at a [[glass furnace]], or three bars of [[metal]] of the same type at a [[metalsmith's forge]] (via the [[Blacksmith|blacksmithing]] [[labor]]).

Statues have a [[item value|base value]] of 25, compared to 10 for all other types of furniture. This makes them a good choice for raising the value of [[room]] — to create a legendary dining room, for instance, or to meet [[noble]]s' requirements for rooms of a certain value. The final value of a statue can vary greatly depending on its [[quality]] and [[material]]; a no-quality regular stone statue is worth only 25☼, whereas a masterpiece platinum statue is worth 12,000☼.

You can create a [[sculpture garden]] from a statue's {{k|q}}uery menu. Dwarves will spend time at a statue garden appreciating the statues (which generates a happy [[thought]]) and may even organize parties there. For the purposes of building appreciation, it is the quality of the statue, not its overall value, that is important: a masterpiece stone statue will generate a happier thought than a base-quality platinum one.{{verify}}

Be careful when placing statues, because dwarves cannot move through the same square they occupy. (This will also prevent dwarves from [[smoothing]] or engraving the floor underneath a statue.) A poorly placed statue can potentially seal off parts of your fortress.

==Ore-based statues==
It is more efficient, as far as [[value]] and time spent are concerned, to make statues from ore rather than to smelt 3 ores into 3 bars to make a metal statue. [[Silver]], [[gold]], [[platinum]], and [[aluminum]] statues, especially, should be made from raw [[ore]] instead of from smelted [[bar]]s (for instance, native gold instead of gold bars). Ore is treated as a type of [[stone]], and making a statue out of it only requires one unit of ore at a [[mason's workshop]], versus three bars at a [[metalsmith's forge]] plus [[fuel]]. A statue made from ore still has the same value as one made from metal bars, and it is easier to get a high-skill [[mason]] than a high-skill [[blacksmith]], further increasing the reasoning for ore-based statues. Other ores may seem to be not a good choice if the resulting alloy is [[Metal#List of metals|considerably more valuable]] than the base metals, but the 3:1 difference in materials consumed would not even be balanced by skill between the crafters (which at most could create a 2:1 quality value difference).

However, a dwarf's good [[thought]]s do not come from value, but from perceived [[quality]] of items they enounter, and that quality can be affected by their [[preference]]s. Stone and metal [[preference]]s are separate, and listed in that order (ore first, metal second). It's possible for a dwarf to have a fondness for native aluminum ore but be unimpressed by that metal, and likewise a dwarf who prefers the metal won't be extra-satisfied by a statue carved from the ore. So, if a dwarf's [[preference]]s are for a metal rather than an ore, or a mandate calls for it, and that's your goal, there is no substitute.

By default, ore is reserved for use for [[smelting]]. To lift this restriction, press {{k|z}}, then go to "stone" and enable (make green) whichever ore(s) you wish to use. To get your mason to use the ore, it must be the nearest type of stone to the mason's workshop. This technique can also be used to make high-value ore-based stone [[craft]]s at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]].

==Statues versus mechanisms==
As an alternative to building statues to increase a room's value, you can use [[mechanism]]-based structures such as [[gear assemblies]] and [[lever]]s, which have a base value of 30, versus 25 for statues. An additional advantage is that these structures, unlike statues, do not block the passage of dwarves. And levers are useful for, you know, controlling stuff. Be careful exactly what you control, though. You wouldn't want to go to the trouble of boosting up the value of the Duke's room just for him to be mesmerized by his diamond-encrusted masterwork lever, pull it, and blunder into some sort of [[unfortunate accident]], now would you?

To build high-quality levers and gear assemblies, you will need to make high-quality mechanisms, which requires a [[mechanic]] instead of a [[mason]]. By using the techniques detailed in ore-based statues, above, you can make very high-value mechanisms out of ore. (Unfortunately, this technique cannot be used to make [[magma-safe]] mechanisms from the ore of a magma-safe metal, as ores have a different melting point than bars.)

{{buildings}}
[[Category:Furniture]]

40d:Meat industry

2010-01-09T18:28:25Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Cage traps */

This article is a quick guide to running a '''meat and related goods industry'''. If you decide to base your economy off such then keep in mind that the amount available depends on the breeding rate of your tame animals (how long the offspring takes to be born and mature), the spawning of wild animals, and/or the amount of meat and leather that traders bring.

Note that the meat industry involves many materials which can [[rot]] and so requires slightly more micromanagement than other [[industry|industries]].

'''Summary''': Obtain some animals; kill and butcher them to obtain bones, meat, fat, skulls and raw hides; the meat can be used immediately but the hide needs to be tanned into leather and the fat needs to be processed into tallow; finally cook the tallow into a meal, and craft the bones, skull and leather into an end product.

== Acquiring Animals and their products ==
There are several sources for obtaining [[animal]]s, outlined below. Alternatively you can skip that business and just [[trade]] directly for [[leather]] and [[meat]]. You'll miss out on [[fat]] (negligible), and [[bone]]s though.

===Embark===
You can buy animals on embark. With the exception of cats and dogs, buying animals on embark is extremely expensive, therefore this may not be a smart move. You also get 2 random [[draft animal]]s for free that drag your wagon, though these are rarely a breeding pair. These can be butchered when needed, or be kept in the hopes that [[Trade#Liaisons|traders]] will supply matching animals for breeding.

=== Trading ===
''Requires: A [[trading depot]], a [[Outpost broker|trader]], a [[merchant]], and some [[Finished goods|tradeable goods]]''

You can purchase animals, meat and leather from a merchant. Animals can either be kept for breeding (see [[#Breeding|''Breeding'' below]]) or butchered immediately (see [[#Butchering|''Butchering'' below]]). Elves may bring more exotic animals which are additionally interesting for defense purposes.

If you wish to import leather in sufficient quantity to keep your [[leather worker]]s occupied year-round, then you should request leather to be imported from the trading [[liaison]]s. It might be necessary that you request every type of leather at low priority in order to ensure the merchant comes back with a large quantity next year (they usually bring excessive amounts even if you don't). You can only buy leather from [[human]] and [[dwarven]] caravans.

=== Hunting ===
''Requires: A [[hunter]] and huntable [[Creatures|wildlife]]'' 
''Recommended: A [[dog]] (or three), leather [[armor]], and a [[weapon]] - preferably a [[crossbow]], [[quiver]], and [[bolts]]''

It should be noted that hunters will ignore some wildlife, e.g. [[zombie]] [[groundhog]]s. Depending on where you settled your [[fortress]], your [[biome]] may have no wildlife at all.

After equipping him or herself, a dwarven hunter will make a beeline towards the nearest wild animal and attempt to kill it, regardless of whether it is one amongst a large pack of hostile creatures{{verify}}. Upon killing the beast the dwarf will carry the [[corpse]] directly to the nearest [[butcher's shop]], the closest [[refuse]] [[stockpile]] if none is available, or the nearest meeting area if no stockpile exists. Once he has deposited the corpse, it will be ready for butchering (see [[#Butchering|''Butchering'' below]]).

If the hunter kills other animals on his return journey while defending himself then those animals will not be carried indoors. To avoid wasting them you need to change your general {{k|o}}rders to <tt>Gather refuse from outside</tt> (note that selecting this option may have undesirable side-effects).

=== Soldiers ===
''Requires: Any number of [[soldiers]] and huntable [[Creatures|wildlife]]'' 

If so desired, you can order your active soldiers out to kill wild animals by enabling them to "harass dangerous wild animals" in the [[military]] screen. This takes some small management, but is particularly useful if a large herd appears and you want to get them all before they emigrate to less blood-soaked pastures; be prepared to process them all, however (see below). Soldiers will not kill or butcher [[Domestic animal|domestic]] or [[tame]] animals.

=== Cage traps ===
''Requires: [[Cage]]s, [[mechanism]]s, and a [[mechanic]]''

It is also possible to catch animals through judicious use of [[cage trap]]s. This, of course, involves building cage traps where animals will walk. Once they are trapped the caged animal (or [[invader]]) will be delivered to an animal stockpile and the trap will be reset with a fresh cage.

Cage traps should be built where animals ''will'' walk, not where they are when you decide to trap them. Any dwarves sent out to create and arm traps in the animals' midst will scare them away or trigger their aggression. To successfully trap large animals, form a choke point some distance away from them: build walls, dig [[channel]]s, eliminate ramps to create sheer cliffs, use ponds, &c. to create a continuous barrier to movement.

Leave a small gap one or two tiles wide (depending on how many of the critters you want to trap) and build your cage traps there. If the animals haven't moved off or been scared off by the time you're done, and they're docile enough to not attack once they see your dwarves, use military orders to send a dwarf (or several) around behind the animals and herd them toward the choke point.

Note that when using channels and ponds together to create a choke point, connecting the channel all the way up to the pond's edge will end up draining the pond. If this is undesirable for your fort's water supply plans, be sure to leave a tile between the edge of the pond and the edge of the channel, and build a cage trap or wall instead.

Note also that cage traps cannot be built within a certain number of tiles of the map edge, so when planning your funnels and choke points, be sure to leave four or five tiles as a buffer zone.

=== Breeding ===
''Requires: One or more adult females and one adult male of each species and time'' 
''Recommended: [[Cage]]s and/or [[restraint]]s''

If a male and a female of the same species exist on your map then sooner or later (and probably sooner) the male will impregnate the female. No contact between a male and female is needed - pregnacy can ''and will'' occur regardless of distance, physical obstacles such as walls or locked doors, number of each gender (beyond the first), and even ownership. ''(This is often referred to as "breeding by spores".)'' Even a male in a herd of wild animals outside the fortress walls can impregnate a female locked deep in a lowest level. A female can get pregnant again immediately after giving birth. The only thing that has been reported to prevent pregnancy is caging, but females that are already pregnant can give birth while caged.

Some [[immigrant]]s will bring [[pet]]s that might form or complete breeding pairs.

One strategy includes [[restrain]]ing most/all your livestock near your [[butcher's shop]], as a large number of free-roaming animals will reduce your game speed. Additionally it reduces the amount of time it takes butchers to track down and retrieve animals they are to slaughter.

For the same reasons as above, a common strategy is to cage all your young until matured because they do not give the same amount of bones, meat, and fat as adults. (Keep in mind, though, that some tamed wild species take more than 1 year to mature, unlike most domestic animals. For example, it may be excusable to butcher an elephant calf right away for 10 meat and bones, rather than wait 10 years for 16 of each.)

Furthermore:
* Cages can hold an unlimited number of animals, so you only need one.
* Caged animals do not path, and therefore, do not consume a lot of processor speed.
* Distinguishing between breeding animals and butcherable livestock is easier when clearly separated.
* Caged cats cannot adopt owners (thus decreasing the chances of a [[catsplosion]]).
* You can define a [[zoo]] from a cage, increasing overall fortress wealth, dwarven happiness, etc..

Using [[cage trap]]s judiciously (or taking advantage of the animals [[elves]] trade) can sometimes snag you a breeding pair of a wild animal. Tame something unusual and start something crazy, like an [[alligator]] farm!

Do note that once a certain number of animals of a particular type are present in your fortress (currently observed to be around 50), that type of animal will cease to become pregnant (existing pregnancies will produce young, but they will not become pregnant again); once enough adults are slaughtered, more will begin to be born.

====Pens====
Animals on [[restraint]]s still can [[path]] (1 tile in any direction from the chain/rope), and that can hurt your [[Maximizing framerate|framerate]]. By making a series of 1x1 rooms with doors set to "non-pet-passable", and restraining the animals there, the animals have nowhere to go and so [[path]]ing is not a problem. The door keeps them from wandering, the restraint is necessary to get them into the room in the first place. (See [[Restraint]] for proper removal technique.)

[[Activity zone#Pit/Pond|Pit]]s can also be adapted for this purpose, without the restraint and with multiple animals.

== Butchering ==
''Requires: A [[butcher's shop]], a [[butcher]], and either a stray tamed [[animal]] marked for slaughter or one killed by a hunter or soldier''

Note: While you can't butcher [[pet]]s, their offspring will be at your disposal without restriction.

Once an animal has been killed you only have a limited amount of time to butcher the corpse before it rots. If your butcher is distracted by other tasks this is quite impossible.

By default a [[butcher's shop]] will automatically queue <tt>Butcher animal</tt> whenever an animal corpse is available, or <tt>Slaughter animal</tt> for stray animals marked for slaughter. An animal is available if it is taken to the butcher's shop or in a refuse stockpile. An animal is not available if it is merely lying around. Once butchered the animal will yield one skull (even [[hydra]]s), one raw hide and a number of meat pieces, bones, and chunks - the amount depending on the animal type. The skill of the butcher only affects the time taken for <tt>Butcher animal</tt> task (<tt>Slaughter animal</tt> occurs in the blink of an eye), not the amount produced nor the quality.

Meat and fat goes to your food stockpile. Bones, chunks and raw hides go to the refuse stockpile. Chunks have no use and should be left to rot to nothingness, but you would be well put to create custom stockpiles for hides next to your tanner's shop (see [[#Tanning|''Tanning'' below]]), for bones next to your craftdwarves workshop (see [[#Bone carving|''Bone carving'' below]]), and changing the settings on your main refuse pile to not accept bones and hides.

If the animal is butchered just before it rots, the products of the animal MAY not rot. It is unknown whether the time of rotting for butchering products is based on the time of death of the animal or the time of production of the butchering returns.{{verify}}

=== Overdrive ===

In some instances - most notably, after [[rhesus macaque]] invasions, or killing some other large herd with your soldiers - you may find yourself with more bodies and [[severed body part]]s than you can process. In this case it is a good idea to set up some temporary extra butcher and tanners' shops (and butchers and tanners) to process them all before they rot. Butchers are more important because their workshops have a tendency to get cluttered really quick.

== Using the animal products==
Animal products can support several industries within the fortress: they provide meat and fat for cooking, leather for bags, clothing and armor, and bones for [[ammunition]], trade goods and in desperate circumstances armor. The [[value]] of an animal product is multiplied by the animal's modvalue, so items made from common animals are less valuable than items made from rare animals like a [[giant cave spider]] or a [[dragon]]. An animal's modvalue can be found in the creature raw files.

===Bones and Skulls===
''Requires: [[Bone carver]], [[craftdwarf's workshop]], and some [[bone]]s or [[skull]]s''

Butchering an animal produces quite a few bones and a skull. By setting up a craftdwarf workshop near your abbatoir you can turn these into useful products, such as bone bolts for your [[archer]]s to practice with.

The only useful thing to do with a skull is turn it into a [[totem]] for [[trading]]. Note that totems do not fall under any category in the "Move trade goods to depot" screen, so you need to {{k|s}}earch for them. Usually however they will be in a finished goods bin and not show up at all, so just transport the bins to the depot.

===Meat and fat===
''Requires: a [[cook]], a [[kitchen]], and some [[meat]] or [[fat]]''

[[Fat]] can be rendered into [[tallow]] at a [[kitchen]], and then used as an ingredient in meals; if you feel particularly enterprising and have wood on your map, you can instead make the tallow into [[soap]] for constructions or trade. Meat can be eaten raw, or used as an ingredient.

=== Skins/Leather ===
''Requires: a [[tanner]], a [[tanner's shop]], and [[raw hide]]''

As with the butcher's shop, the tanner's shop will queue <tt>Tan raw hide</tt> automatically (by default), the tanner's skill has no affect on quantity nor quality of the leather produced, and the task is time-sensitive because of rot.

It is quite sensible to have a single dwarf as both the butcher and tanner, as you will never need to begin tanning until you finish butchering. You could also make this same dwarf your leatherworker. It may be advisable (or not) to simply ensure that there are ''no'' stockpiles that will accept Fresh Raw Hides and to have the tanner's shops in the immediate area of the butcher's shop-if fresh raw hides can be stored in any refuse stockpile, they will instantly be designated for hauling and cannot be tanned until they have been stored. Ensuring that raw hides will not be stockpiled means that they will be available for tanning fresh off the former owner.

Once a hide has been tanned, it will be stored in a leather stockpile.

=== Leatherworking ===
''Requires: A [[leather works]], a [[leatherworker]], and a [[tanned hide]]''

Once you have tanned hides, whether created yourself or bought from a merchant, you can use them to produce leather goods at the [[leather works]].

== Summary ==
''Worker type / Labor''

*[[Ambusher]] / [[Hunting]]
** A [[crossbow]] or other [[weapon]]
** [[Bolts]], [[quiver]]
** Leather [[armor]]
** [[Cross-training|Stats buffing]]
** [[Archery target|Archery practice]]

*[[Soldiers]]/[[Military]]
**[[Soldiers]]
**Some form of [[armor]]
**Any [[weapon]]

*[[Cage trap]]ping
** [[Mechanic]]
** [[Mechanic's workshop]]
** [[Mechanisms]]
** [[Cage]]s

*Breeding
** [[Animals]]
** [[Cages]]
** [[Restraint]]s

*Processing
** [[Butcher]] / Butchery
*** [[Butcher's shop]]
** [[Tanner]] / Tanning
*** [[Tanner's shop]]
** [[Leatherworker]] / Leatherworking
*** [[Leather works]]
** [[Bone carver]] / Bone carving
*** [[Craftdwarf's workshop]]
** [[Cook]] / Cooking
*** [[Kitchen]]
*** [[Barrel]]s

==See also==
*[[Leather]]
*[[Industry]]

{{Workshops FAQ}}
[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Materials]]
[[Category:Industry]]

40d:Meat industry

2010-01-09T18:26:48Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Cage traps */

This article is a quick guide to running a '''meat and related goods industry'''. If you decide to base your economy off such then keep in mind that the amount available depends on the breeding rate of your tame animals (how long the offspring takes to be born and mature), the spawning of wild animals, and/or the amount of meat and leather that traders bring.

Note that the meat industry involves many materials which can [[rot]] and so requires slightly more micromanagement than other [[industry|industries]].

'''Summary''': Obtain some animals; kill and butcher them to obtain bones, meat, fat, skulls and raw hides; the meat can be used immediately but the hide needs to be tanned into leather and the fat needs to be processed into tallow; finally cook the tallow into a meal, and craft the bones, skull and leather into an end product.

== Acquiring Animals and their products ==
There are several sources for obtaining [[animal]]s, outlined below. Alternatively you can skip that business and just [[trade]] directly for [[leather]] and [[meat]]. You'll miss out on [[fat]] (negligible), and [[bone]]s though.

===Embark===
You can buy animals on embark. With the exception of cats and dogs, buying animals on embark is extremely expensive, therefore this may not be a smart move. You also get 2 random [[draft animal]]s for free that drag your wagon, though these are rarely a breeding pair. These can be butchered when needed, or be kept in the hopes that [[Trade#Liaisons|traders]] will supply matching animals for breeding.

=== Trading ===
''Requires: A [[trading depot]], a [[Outpost broker|trader]], a [[merchant]], and some [[Finished goods|tradeable goods]]''

You can purchase animals, meat and leather from a merchant. Animals can either be kept for breeding (see [[#Breeding|''Breeding'' below]]) or butchered immediately (see [[#Butchering|''Butchering'' below]]). Elves may bring more exotic animals which are additionally interesting for defense purposes.

If you wish to import leather in sufficient quantity to keep your [[leather worker]]s occupied year-round, then you should request leather to be imported from the trading [[liaison]]s. It might be necessary that you request every type of leather at low priority in order to ensure the merchant comes back with a large quantity next year (they usually bring excessive amounts even if you don't). You can only buy leather from [[human]] and [[dwarven]] caravans.

=== Hunting ===
''Requires: A [[hunter]] and huntable [[Creatures|wildlife]]'' 
''Recommended: A [[dog]] (or three), leather [[armor]], and a [[weapon]] - preferably a [[crossbow]], [[quiver]], and [[bolts]]''

It should be noted that hunters will ignore some wildlife, e.g. [[zombie]] [[groundhog]]s. Depending on where you settled your [[fortress]], your [[biome]] may have no wildlife at all.

After equipping him or herself, a dwarven hunter will make a beeline towards the nearest wild animal and attempt to kill it, regardless of whether it is one amongst a large pack of hostile creatures{{verify}}. Upon killing the beast the dwarf will carry the [[corpse]] directly to the nearest [[butcher's shop]], the closest [[refuse]] [[stockpile]] if none is available, or the nearest meeting area if no stockpile exists. Once he has deposited the corpse, it will be ready for butchering (see [[#Butchering|''Butchering'' below]]).

If the hunter kills other animals on his return journey while defending himself then those animals will not be carried indoors. To avoid wasting them you need to change your general {{k|o}}rders to <tt>Gather refuse from outside</tt> (note that selecting this option may have undesirable side-effects).

=== Soldiers ===
''Requires: Any number of [[soldiers]] and huntable [[Creatures|wildlife]]'' 

If so desired, you can order your active soldiers out to kill wild animals by enabling them to "harass dangerous wild animals" in the [[military]] screen. This takes some small management, but is particularly useful if a large herd appears and you want to get them all before they emigrate to less blood-soaked pastures; be prepared to process them all, however (see below). Soldiers will not kill or butcher [[Domestic animal|domestic]] or [[tame]] animals.

=== Cage traps ===
''Requires: [[Cage]]s, [[mechanism]]s, and a [[mechanic]]''

It is also possible to catch animals through judicious use of [[cage trap]]s. This, of course, involves building cage traps where animals will walk. Once they are trapped the caged animal (or [[invader]]) will be delivered to an animal stockpile and the trap will be reset with a fresh cage.

Note that cage traps should be built where animals ''will'' walk, not where they are when you decide to trap them. Any dwarves sent out to create and arm traps in the animals' midst will scare them away or trigger their aggression. To successfully trap large animals, form a choke point some distance away from them: build walls, dig [[channel]]s, eliminate ramps to create sheer cliffs, use ponds, &c. to create a continuous barrier to movement.

Leave a small gap one or two tiles wide (depending on how many of the critters you want to trap) and build your cage traps there. If the animals haven't moved off or been scared off by the time you're done, and they're docile enough to not attack once they see your dwarves, use military orders to send a dwarf (or several) around behind the animals and herd them toward the choke point.

Note that when using channels and ponds together to create a choke point, connecting the channel all the way up to the pond's edge will end up draining the pond. If this is undesirable for your fort's water supply plans, be sure to leave a tile between the edge of the pond and the edge of the channel, and build a cage trap or wall instead.

Note also that cage traps cannot be built within a certain number of tiles of the map edge, so when planning your funnels and choke points, be sure to leave four or five tiles as a buffer zone.

=== Breeding ===
''Requires: One or more adult females and one adult male of each species and time'' 
''Recommended: [[Cage]]s and/or [[restraint]]s''

If a male and a female of the same species exist on your map then sooner or later (and probably sooner) the male will impregnate the female. No contact between a male and female is needed - pregnacy can ''and will'' occur regardless of distance, physical obstacles such as walls or locked doors, number of each gender (beyond the first), and even ownership. ''(This is often referred to as "breeding by spores".)'' Even a male in a herd of wild animals outside the fortress walls can impregnate a female locked deep in a lowest level. A female can get pregnant again immediately after giving birth. The only thing that has been reported to prevent pregnancy is caging, but females that are already pregnant can give birth while caged.

Some [[immigrant]]s will bring [[pet]]s that might form or complete breeding pairs.

One strategy includes [[restrain]]ing most/all your livestock near your [[butcher's shop]], as a large number of free-roaming animals will reduce your game speed. Additionally it reduces the amount of time it takes butchers to track down and retrieve animals they are to slaughter.

For the same reasons as above, a common strategy is to cage all your young until matured because they do not give the same amount of bones, meat, and fat as adults. (Keep in mind, though, that some tamed wild species take more than 1 year to mature, unlike most domestic animals. For example, it may be excusable to butcher an elephant calf right away for 10 meat and bones, rather than wait 10 years for 16 of each.)

Furthermore:
* Cages can hold an unlimited number of animals, so you only need one.
* Caged animals do not path, and therefore, do not consume a lot of processor speed.
* Distinguishing between breeding animals and butcherable livestock is easier when clearly separated.
* Caged cats cannot adopt owners (thus decreasing the chances of a [[catsplosion]]).
* You can define a [[zoo]] from a cage, increasing overall fortress wealth, dwarven happiness, etc..

Using [[cage trap]]s judiciously (or taking advantage of the animals [[elves]] trade) can sometimes snag you a breeding pair of a wild animal. Tame something unusual and start something crazy, like an [[alligator]] farm!

Do note that once a certain number of animals of a particular type are present in your fortress (currently observed to be around 50), that type of animal will cease to become pregnant (existing pregnancies will produce young, but they will not become pregnant again); once enough adults are slaughtered, more will begin to be born.

====Pens====
Animals on [[restraint]]s still can [[path]] (1 tile in any direction from the chain/rope), and that can hurt your [[Maximizing framerate|framerate]]. By making a series of 1x1 rooms with doors set to "non-pet-passable", and restraining the animals there, the animals have nowhere to go and so [[path]]ing is not a problem. The door keeps them from wandering, the restraint is necessary to get them into the room in the first place. (See [[Restraint]] for proper removal technique.)

[[Activity zone#Pit/Pond|Pit]]s can also be adapted for this purpose, without the restraint and with multiple animals.

== Butchering ==
''Requires: A [[butcher's shop]], a [[butcher]], and either a stray tamed [[animal]] marked for slaughter or one killed by a hunter or soldier''

Note: While you can't butcher [[pet]]s, their offspring will be at your disposal without restriction.

Once an animal has been killed you only have a limited amount of time to butcher the corpse before it rots. If your butcher is distracted by other tasks this is quite impossible.

By default a [[butcher's shop]] will automatically queue <tt>Butcher animal</tt> whenever an animal corpse is available, or <tt>Slaughter animal</tt> for stray animals marked for slaughter. An animal is available if it is taken to the butcher's shop or in a refuse stockpile. An animal is not available if it is merely lying around. Once butchered the animal will yield one skull (even [[hydra]]s), one raw hide and a number of meat pieces, bones, and chunks - the amount depending on the animal type. The skill of the butcher only affects the time taken for <tt>Butcher animal</tt> task (<tt>Slaughter animal</tt> occurs in the blink of an eye), not the amount produced nor the quality.

Meat and fat goes to your food stockpile. Bones, chunks and raw hides go to the refuse stockpile. Chunks have no use and should be left to rot to nothingness, but you would be well put to create custom stockpiles for hides next to your tanner's shop (see [[#Tanning|''Tanning'' below]]), for bones next to your craftdwarves workshop (see [[#Bone carving|''Bone carving'' below]]), and changing the settings on your main refuse pile to not accept bones and hides.

If the animal is butchered just before it rots, the products of the animal MAY not rot. It is unknown whether the time of rotting for butchering products is based on the time of death of the animal or the time of production of the butchering returns.{{verify}}

=== Overdrive ===

In some instances - most notably, after [[rhesus macaque]] invasions, or killing some other large herd with your soldiers - you may find yourself with more bodies and [[severed body part]]s than you can process. In this case it is a good idea to set up some temporary extra butcher and tanners' shops (and butchers and tanners) to process them all before they rot. Butchers are more important because their workshops have a tendency to get cluttered really quick.

== Using the animal products==
Animal products can support several industries within the fortress: they provide meat and fat for cooking, leather for bags, clothing and armor, and bones for [[ammunition]], trade goods and in desperate circumstances armor. The [[value]] of an animal product is multiplied by the animal's modvalue, so items made from common animals are less valuable than items made from rare animals like a [[giant cave spider]] or a [[dragon]]. An animal's modvalue can be found in the creature raw files.

===Bones and Skulls===
''Requires: [[Bone carver]], [[craftdwarf's workshop]], and some [[bone]]s or [[skull]]s''

Butchering an animal produces quite a few bones and a skull. By setting up a craftdwarf workshop near your abbatoir you can turn these into useful products, such as bone bolts for your [[archer]]s to practice with.

The only useful thing to do with a skull is turn it into a [[totem]] for [[trading]]. Note that totems do not fall under any category in the "Move trade goods to depot" screen, so you need to {{k|s}}earch for them. Usually however they will be in a finished goods bin and not show up at all, so just transport the bins to the depot.

===Meat and fat===
''Requires: a [[cook]], a [[kitchen]], and some [[meat]] or [[fat]]''

[[Fat]] can be rendered into [[tallow]] at a [[kitchen]], and then used as an ingredient in meals; if you feel particularly enterprising and have wood on your map, you can instead make the tallow into [[soap]] for constructions or trade. Meat can be eaten raw, or used as an ingredient.

=== Skins/Leather ===
''Requires: a [[tanner]], a [[tanner's shop]], and [[raw hide]]''

As with the butcher's shop, the tanner's shop will queue <tt>Tan raw hide</tt> automatically (by default), the tanner's skill has no affect on quantity nor quality of the leather produced, and the task is time-sensitive because of rot.

It is quite sensible to have a single dwarf as both the butcher and tanner, as you will never need to begin tanning until you finish butchering. You could also make this same dwarf your leatherworker. It may be advisable (or not) to simply ensure that there are ''no'' stockpiles that will accept Fresh Raw Hides and to have the tanner's shops in the immediate area of the butcher's shop-if fresh raw hides can be stored in any refuse stockpile, they will instantly be designated for hauling and cannot be tanned until they have been stored. Ensuring that raw hides will not be stockpiled means that they will be available for tanning fresh off the former owner.

Once a hide has been tanned, it will be stored in a leather stockpile.

=== Leatherworking ===
''Requires: A [[leather works]], a [[leatherworker]], and a [[tanned hide]]''

Once you have tanned hides, whether created yourself or bought from a merchant, you can use them to produce leather goods at the [[leather works]].

== Summary ==
''Worker type / Labor''

*[[Ambusher]] / [[Hunting]]
** A [[crossbow]] or other [[weapon]]
** [[Bolts]], [[quiver]]
** Leather [[armor]]
** [[Cross-training|Stats buffing]]
** [[Archery target|Archery practice]]

*[[Soldiers]]/[[Military]]
**[[Soldiers]]
**Some form of [[armor]]
**Any [[weapon]]

*[[Cage trap]]ping
** [[Mechanic]]
** [[Mechanic's workshop]]
** [[Mechanisms]]
** [[Cage]]s

*Breeding
** [[Animals]]
** [[Cages]]
** [[Restraint]]s

*Processing
** [[Butcher]] / Butchery
*** [[Butcher's shop]]
** [[Tanner]] / Tanning
*** [[Tanner's shop]]
** [[Leatherworker]] / Leatherworking
*** [[Leather works]]
** [[Bone carver]] / Bone carving
*** [[Craftdwarf's workshop]]
** [[Cook]] / Cooking
*** [[Kitchen]]
*** [[Barrel]]s

==See also==
*[[Leather]]
*[[Industry]]

{{Workshops FAQ}}
[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Materials]]
[[Category:Industry]]

40d:Meat industry

2010-01-09T18:26:15Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Cage traps */ added more detail on trapping large animals

This article is a quick guide to running a '''meat and related goods industry'''. If you decide to base your economy off such then keep in mind that the amount available depends on the breeding rate of your tame animals (how long the offspring takes to be born and mature), the spawning of wild animals, and/or the amount of meat and leather that traders bring.

Note that the meat industry involves many materials which can [[rot]] and so requires slightly more micromanagement than other [[industry|industries]].

'''Summary''': Obtain some animals; kill and butcher them to obtain bones, meat, fat, skulls and raw hides; the meat can be used immediately but the hide needs to be tanned into leather and the fat needs to be processed into tallow; finally cook the tallow into a meal, and craft the bones, skull and leather into an end product.

== Acquiring Animals and their products ==
There are several sources for obtaining [[animal]]s, outlined below. Alternatively you can skip that business and just [[trade]] directly for [[leather]] and [[meat]]. You'll miss out on [[fat]] (negligible), and [[bone]]s though.

===Embark===
You can buy animals on embark. With the exception of cats and dogs, buying animals on embark is extremely expensive, therefore this may not be a smart move. You also get 2 random [[draft animal]]s for free that drag your wagon, though these are rarely a breeding pair. These can be butchered when needed, or be kept in the hopes that [[Trade#Liaisons|traders]] will supply matching animals for breeding.

=== Trading ===
''Requires: A [[trading depot]], a [[Outpost broker|trader]], a [[merchant]], and some [[Finished goods|tradeable goods]]''

You can purchase animals, meat and leather from a merchant. Animals can either be kept for breeding (see [[#Breeding|''Breeding'' below]]) or butchered immediately (see [[#Butchering|''Butchering'' below]]). Elves may bring more exotic animals which are additionally interesting for defense purposes.

If you wish to import leather in sufficient quantity to keep your [[leather worker]]s occupied year-round, then you should request leather to be imported from the trading [[liaison]]s. It might be necessary that you request every type of leather at low priority in order to ensure the merchant comes back with a large quantity next year (they usually bring excessive amounts even if you don't). You can only buy leather from [[human]] and [[dwarven]] caravans.

=== Hunting ===
''Requires: A [[hunter]] and huntable [[Creatures|wildlife]]'' 
''Recommended: A [[dog]] (or three), leather [[armor]], and a [[weapon]] - preferably a [[crossbow]], [[quiver]], and [[bolts]]''

It should be noted that hunters will ignore some wildlife, e.g. [[zombie]] [[groundhog]]s. Depending on where you settled your [[fortress]], your [[biome]] may have no wildlife at all.

After equipping him or herself, a dwarven hunter will make a beeline towards the nearest wild animal and attempt to kill it, regardless of whether it is one amongst a large pack of hostile creatures{{verify}}. Upon killing the beast the dwarf will carry the [[corpse]] directly to the nearest [[butcher's shop]], the closest [[refuse]] [[stockpile]] if none is available, or the nearest meeting area if no stockpile exists. Once he has deposited the corpse, it will be ready for butchering (see [[#Butchering|''Butchering'' below]]).

If the hunter kills other animals on his return journey while defending himself then those animals will not be carried indoors. To avoid wasting them you need to change your general {{k|o}}rders to <tt>Gather refuse from outside</tt> (note that selecting this option may have undesirable side-effects).

=== Soldiers ===
''Requires: Any number of [[soldiers]] and huntable [[Creatures|wildlife]]'' 

If so desired, you can order your active soldiers out to kill wild animals by enabling them to "harass dangerous wild animals" in the [[military]] screen. This takes some small management, but is particularly useful if a large herd appears and you want to get them all before they emigrate to less blood-soaked pastures; be prepared to process them all, however (see below). Soldiers will not kill or butcher [[Domestic animal|domestic]] or [[tame]] animals.

=== Cage traps ===
''Requires: [[Cage]]s, [[mechanism]]s, and a [[mechanic]]''

It is also possible to catch animals through judicious use of [[cage trap]]s. This, of course, involves building cage traps where animals will walk. Once they are trapped the caged animal (or [[invader]]) will be delivered to an animal stockpile and the trap will be reset with a fresh cage.

Note that cage traps should be built where animals ''will'' walk, not where they are when you decide to trap them. Any dwarves sent out to create and arm traps in the animals' midst will scare them away or trigger their aggression. To successfully trap large animals, form a choke point some distance away from them: build walls, dig [[channels]], eliminate ramps to create sheer cliffs, use ponds, &c. to create a continuous barrier to movement.

Leave a small gap one or two tiles wide (depending on how many of the critters you want to trap) and build your cage traps there. If the animals haven't moved off or been scared off by the time you're done, and they're docile enough to not attack once they see your dwarves, use military orders to send a dwarf (or several) around behind the animals and herd them toward the choke point.

Note that when using channels and ponds together to create a choke point, connecting the channel all the way up to the pond's edge will end up draining the pond. If this is undesirable for your fort's water supply plans, be sure to leave a tile between the edge of the pond and the edge of the channel, and build a cage trap or wall instead.

Note also that cage traps cannot be built within a certain number of tiles of the map edge, so when planning your funnels and choke points, be sure to leave four or five tiles as a buffer zone.

=== Breeding ===
''Requires: One or more adult females and one adult male of each species and time'' 
''Recommended: [[Cage]]s and/or [[restraint]]s''

If a male and a female of the same species exist on your map then sooner or later (and probably sooner) the male will impregnate the female. No contact between a male and female is needed - pregnacy can ''and will'' occur regardless of distance, physical obstacles such as walls or locked doors, number of each gender (beyond the first), and even ownership. ''(This is often referred to as "breeding by spores".)'' Even a male in a herd of wild animals outside the fortress walls can impregnate a female locked deep in a lowest level. A female can get pregnant again immediately after giving birth. The only thing that has been reported to prevent pregnancy is caging, but females that are already pregnant can give birth while caged.

Some [[immigrant]]s will bring [[pet]]s that might form or complete breeding pairs.

One strategy includes [[restrain]]ing most/all your livestock near your [[butcher's shop]], as a large number of free-roaming animals will reduce your game speed. Additionally it reduces the amount of time it takes butchers to track down and retrieve animals they are to slaughter.

For the same reasons as above, a common strategy is to cage all your young until matured because they do not give the same amount of bones, meat, and fat as adults. (Keep in mind, though, that some tamed wild species take more than 1 year to mature, unlike most domestic animals. For example, it may be excusable to butcher an elephant calf right away for 10 meat and bones, rather than wait 10 years for 16 of each.)

Furthermore:
* Cages can hold an unlimited number of animals, so you only need one.
* Caged animals do not path, and therefore, do not consume a lot of processor speed.
* Distinguishing between breeding animals and butcherable livestock is easier when clearly separated.
* Caged cats cannot adopt owners (thus decreasing the chances of a [[catsplosion]]).
* You can define a [[zoo]] from a cage, increasing overall fortress wealth, dwarven happiness, etc..

Using [[cage trap]]s judiciously (or taking advantage of the animals [[elves]] trade) can sometimes snag you a breeding pair of a wild animal. Tame something unusual and start something crazy, like an [[alligator]] farm!

Do note that once a certain number of animals of a particular type are present in your fortress (currently observed to be around 50), that type of animal will cease to become pregnant (existing pregnancies will produce young, but they will not become pregnant again); once enough adults are slaughtered, more will begin to be born.

====Pens====
Animals on [[restraint]]s still can [[path]] (1 tile in any direction from the chain/rope), and that can hurt your [[Maximizing framerate|framerate]]. By making a series of 1x1 rooms with doors set to "non-pet-passable", and restraining the animals there, the animals have nowhere to go and so [[path]]ing is not a problem. The door keeps them from wandering, the restraint is necessary to get them into the room in the first place. (See [[Restraint]] for proper removal technique.)

[[Activity zone#Pit/Pond|Pit]]s can also be adapted for this purpose, without the restraint and with multiple animals.

== Butchering ==
''Requires: A [[butcher's shop]], a [[butcher]], and either a stray tamed [[animal]] marked for slaughter or one killed by a hunter or soldier''

Note: While you can't butcher [[pet]]s, their offspring will be at your disposal without restriction.

Once an animal has been killed you only have a limited amount of time to butcher the corpse before it rots. If your butcher is distracted by other tasks this is quite impossible.

By default a [[butcher's shop]] will automatically queue <tt>Butcher animal</tt> whenever an animal corpse is available, or <tt>Slaughter animal</tt> for stray animals marked for slaughter. An animal is available if it is taken to the butcher's shop or in a refuse stockpile. An animal is not available if it is merely lying around. Once butchered the animal will yield one skull (even [[hydra]]s), one raw hide and a number of meat pieces, bones, and chunks - the amount depending on the animal type. The skill of the butcher only affects the time taken for <tt>Butcher animal</tt> task (<tt>Slaughter animal</tt> occurs in the blink of an eye), not the amount produced nor the quality.

Meat and fat goes to your food stockpile. Bones, chunks and raw hides go to the refuse stockpile. Chunks have no use and should be left to rot to nothingness, but you would be well put to create custom stockpiles for hides next to your tanner's shop (see [[#Tanning|''Tanning'' below]]), for bones next to your craftdwarves workshop (see [[#Bone carving|''Bone carving'' below]]), and changing the settings on your main refuse pile to not accept bones and hides.

If the animal is butchered just before it rots, the products of the animal MAY not rot. It is unknown whether the time of rotting for butchering products is based on the time of death of the animal or the time of production of the butchering returns.{{verify}}

=== Overdrive ===

In some instances - most notably, after [[rhesus macaque]] invasions, or killing some other large herd with your soldiers - you may find yourself with more bodies and [[severed body part]]s than you can process. In this case it is a good idea to set up some temporary extra butcher and tanners' shops (and butchers and tanners) to process them all before they rot. Butchers are more important because their workshops have a tendency to get cluttered really quick.

== Using the animal products==
Animal products can support several industries within the fortress: they provide meat and fat for cooking, leather for bags, clothing and armor, and bones for [[ammunition]], trade goods and in desperate circumstances armor. The [[value]] of an animal product is multiplied by the animal's modvalue, so items made from common animals are less valuable than items made from rare animals like a [[giant cave spider]] or a [[dragon]]. An animal's modvalue can be found in the creature raw files.

===Bones and Skulls===
''Requires: [[Bone carver]], [[craftdwarf's workshop]], and some [[bone]]s or [[skull]]s''

Butchering an animal produces quite a few bones and a skull. By setting up a craftdwarf workshop near your abbatoir you can turn these into useful products, such as bone bolts for your [[archer]]s to practice with.

The only useful thing to do with a skull is turn it into a [[totem]] for [[trading]]. Note that totems do not fall under any category in the "Move trade goods to depot" screen, so you need to {{k|s}}earch for them. Usually however they will be in a finished goods bin and not show up at all, so just transport the bins to the depot.

===Meat and fat===
''Requires: a [[cook]], a [[kitchen]], and some [[meat]] or [[fat]]''

[[Fat]] can be rendered into [[tallow]] at a [[kitchen]], and then used as an ingredient in meals; if you feel particularly enterprising and have wood on your map, you can instead make the tallow into [[soap]] for constructions or trade. Meat can be eaten raw, or used as an ingredient.

=== Skins/Leather ===
''Requires: a [[tanner]], a [[tanner's shop]], and [[raw hide]]''

As with the butcher's shop, the tanner's shop will queue <tt>Tan raw hide</tt> automatically (by default), the tanner's skill has no affect on quantity nor quality of the leather produced, and the task is time-sensitive because of rot.

It is quite sensible to have a single dwarf as both the butcher and tanner, as you will never need to begin tanning until you finish butchering. You could also make this same dwarf your leatherworker. It may be advisable (or not) to simply ensure that there are ''no'' stockpiles that will accept Fresh Raw Hides and to have the tanner's shops in the immediate area of the butcher's shop-if fresh raw hides can be stored in any refuse stockpile, they will instantly be designated for hauling and cannot be tanned until they have been stored. Ensuring that raw hides will not be stockpiled means that they will be available for tanning fresh off the former owner.

Once a hide has been tanned, it will be stored in a leather stockpile.

=== Leatherworking ===
''Requires: A [[leather works]], a [[leatherworker]], and a [[tanned hide]]''

Once you have tanned hides, whether created yourself or bought from a merchant, you can use them to produce leather goods at the [[leather works]].

== Summary ==
''Worker type / Labor''

*[[Ambusher]] / [[Hunting]]
** A [[crossbow]] or other [[weapon]]
** [[Bolts]], [[quiver]]
** Leather [[armor]]
** [[Cross-training|Stats buffing]]
** [[Archery target|Archery practice]]

*[[Soldiers]]/[[Military]]
**[[Soldiers]]
**Some form of [[armor]]
**Any [[weapon]]

*[[Cage trap]]ping
** [[Mechanic]]
** [[Mechanic's workshop]]
** [[Mechanisms]]
** [[Cage]]s

*Breeding
** [[Animals]]
** [[Cages]]
** [[Restraint]]s

*Processing
** [[Butcher]] / Butchery
*** [[Butcher's shop]]
** [[Tanner]] / Tanning
*** [[Tanner's shop]]
** [[Leatherworker]] / Leatherworking
*** [[Leather works]]
** [[Bone carver]] / Bone carving
*** [[Craftdwarf's workshop]]
** [[Cook]] / Cooking
*** [[Kitchen]]
*** [[Barrel]]s

==See also==
*[[Leather]]
*[[Industry]]

{{Workshops FAQ}}
[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Materials]]
[[Category:Industry]]

40d:Crossbow

2010-01-09T18:14:34Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: /* Related information */ - added shield/buckler info

''(This article also covers '''bolts''' and '''quivers''' for completeness' sake.)''

'''Crossbows''' are the only ranged [[weapon]] that [[dwarves]] can carry. A dwarf will open fire at a range of about 20 tiles, but the bolts may travel further and hit something by accident. Crossbows can fire at targets on higher or lower [[z-level]]s; doing so hurts the range slightly, even when firing from higher to lower levels. There seems to be a "line of sight" rule, of about a 1:1 ratio (height difference to distance from edge of level) but the exact formula is not known.

A [[#Bolts|bolt]] does a fine job at [[piercing]] the internal organs of a [[creature]] while also doing some damage to outside parts. This is of limited use against creatures without organs, such as [[Magma man|magma men]] or [[undead]], but excellent against creatures with more "normal" internal anatomy. Occasionally a bolt will get stuck in a target; the only known use for this is that a [[wrestling]] dwarf may grab the bolt and twist it in the [[wound]].

==Crossbow usage==
Once you tell a dwarf to use a crossbow (either from the {{k|m}}ilitary/{{k|w}}eapons sub-menu, or by {{k|v}}iewing the dwarf and accessing the {{k|s}}oldiering sub-menu), he will pick it up if he has either the [[ambusher|hunting]] [[skill]] enabled or if he is in the [[military]]. He will then pick up a [[#Quiver|quiver]] and [[#Bolt|bolts]], preferring [[metal]] bolts if available. A dwarf can carry one stack of bolts in his hands, and one in his quiver.

When in range [[dwarves]] use crossbows to fire [[#Bolt|bolts]]. If they are engaged in melee they will use the crossbow as a club, using their [[hammerdwarf]] skill.

Dwarves often do not return to base and pick up more bolts if they run out if there are enemies nearby; instead, they will enter melee.

==Construction and quality==
Crossbows can be constructed from [[wood]], [[bone]] or [[metal]]. Wooden and bone crossbows are created at a [[bowyer's workshop]]; metal ones at a [[metalsmith's forge]] using the [[crossbow-making]] or [[weaponsmith|weaponsmithing]] skills, respectively.

The [[quality]] of a crossbow is added to the [[marksdwarf]]/[[ambusher]] and [[hammerdwarf]] skills. The [[material]] used in construction of a crossbow does not affect the damage done when firing, but does affect the damage done when it is used as a melee weapon.

==Related information==
===Off-Hand Items===
According to [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=47004.msg940332#msg940332 this forum discussion], marksdwarves are able to wield their crossbows one-handed, and so can use another item in their second hand. If they use a [[buckler]], they may carry it plus an extra set of bolts in the off hand; if they use a [[shield]], they still suffer no penalty to the crossbow usage but cannot carry the extra set of bolts.

===Bolt===
'''Bolts''' are used by crossbows and [[Weapon_trap#Weapon_Trap|crossbow traps]]. Making bolts from [[wood]] or [[metal]] gives a [[stack]] of 25 bolts, whilst making them from a stack of [[bone|bones]] gives a stack of {5 x number of bones}.

Metal bolts are created at the [[metalsmith's forge]] and require the [[weaponsmith]] labour enabled. Wood and bone bolts are created at the [[craftsdwarf's workshop]] and require [[woodcrafting]] and [[bone carving]] labours, respectively. Higher levels of [[skill]] will tend to produce higher [[quality]] bolts. The [[material]] and quality{{verify}} of the bolts (not the crossbow) affects the amount of [[Weapon#Material damage modifiers|damage]] done.

If you [[decorate]] a stack of bolts, the same decoration will be applied to every bolt in the stack simultaneously. In older versions this allowed to generate stacks of huge value - value of decoration was multiplied by amount of bolts in the stack. This has been fixed now and decorated bolts are no longer that valuable.

In [[adventure mode]], bolts can also be thrown for about the same results as firing them, except that it uses the [[thrower]] skill.

===Quiver===
A '''Quiver''' is an item used to store [[bolt]]s or [[arrow]]s. It is worn on the body, like a [[backpack]].

Quivers are made of [[leather]] at a [[leatherworks]]. Dwarves equipped with a crossbow will automatically wear quivers if they are available, and carry a stack of bolts in it. This allows a dwarf to carry one extra stack of bolts, typically [[bone]] or [[wood]] training bolts in the hand, and [[metal]] ones in the quiver.

Invaders, merchants, and migrants often have [[silk]] and [[cloth]] quivers, even though you can't make them yourself.

In adventure mode, a quiver can hold any number of arrows and bolts.

==See also==
*[[Marksdwarf]]
*[[Ambusher]]
*[[Archery target]]
*[[Bowyer]]
*[[Crossbow-making]]
*[[Bow]]
*[[Equipment and encumbrance]]

[[Category:Weapons]][[Category:Military]]

40d:Bridge

2010-01-08T16:38:13Z

Hanibal Barcalounger: added specifics on making drawbridges/retracting bridges.

A '''bridge''' is a building (not a construction) that spans multiple tiles allowing [[dwarves]] to go across [[water]], [[magma]], and other obstructions. Bridges are built from the {{k|b}}uild menu, under brid{{k|g}}e.

A bridge defaults to a single tile in size. You'll need to change the size to suit your needs with the {{k|k}},{{k|h}},{{k|u}}, and {{k|m}} keys; the bridge's dimensions can be set anywhere up to 10 tiles on a side (''including'' an anchoring tile at one end on solid ground or other constructions). A bridge will require both [[architecture]] and [[masonry]] (or [[carpentry]] or [[metalsmithing]] if [[wood]] or [[metal]] is used) to complete. The material required for a bridge is less than the material required for building an equivalent area of [[floor]] tiles (1 + area/4, rounded down), and when a bridge is deconstructed the materials are deposited on the ground next to where the bridge stood rather than falling down into the open space it spanned.

Unlike raising bridges, which require an area of solid ground, retractable bridges can be built using existing bridges as their sole means of support. However, the same cannot be said of other structures such as floors. The game will allow the structure to be placed, but as soon as it is built, a [[cave-in]] occurs and the unfortunate dwarf constructing it falls to his death ([http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_bugs.html bug 000436]).

Interestingly, building a bridge over a [[construction|constructed floor]] will allow dwarves to deconstruct the floor ''through'' the bridge without disrupting the path across said floor (especially if the floor is being used to bridge an area). Conveniently, the materials used to construct the floor will be left on top of the bridge, rather than being dropped down below it.

If a bridge is built outside over a [[channel]], anything under the bridge counts as inside for the purpose of preventing [[cave adaptation]] (but not for the "stay inside" [[standing orders|order]]), regardless of whether or not the bridge is actually covering the area.

== Drawbridges ==

To make a drawbridge, you must specify a direction for it to raise. You must make this specification before construction. During construction, when you use {{k|u}}{{k|m}}{{k|k}}{{k|h}} to change its size, use {{k|w}}{{k|a}}{{k|x}}{{k|d}} to specify a direction.

A drawbridge can be connected to a [[lever]] or [[pressure plate]]. When the lever is pulled, after a delay of 100 steps the bridge will raise in the direction specified at construction. The direction that a bridge raises can be slightly confusing: if a drawbridge raises to the left, then it forms a wall on the left side when raised. A drawbridge that raises requires a [[floor]] underneath the side towards which it will raise (on the tiles where the "[[wall]]" will form when raised); remember to take this into account when digging.

A drawbridge, when raised will crush anything standing on the tile that becomes a wall, and when lowered it will crush anything that is standing where the drawbridge exists when lowered. This has earned it the name ''[[Dwarven Atom Smasher|dwarven atom-smasher]]''. Some players may consider the crushing power of the drawbridge to be an [[exploit]] — the only units that survive the smash are those with a [SIZE] greater than 10 ([[megabeast]]s, [[demon]]s, [[caravan|wagon]]s, and several other large creatures) - rather than being crushed, they will cause the bridge to instantly deconstruct.

Any creature standing on a drawbridge when it raises will be flung a between 1 and 11{{verify}} units to the sides. This applies to all units{{verify}}, including flying [[creature]]s who happen to be on the same tile as part of the bridge at the time. The creatures will usually come out from the fling stunned but otherwise uninjured, and flying creatures may drop out of the sky.{{verify}} (To see what happens during a fling, view the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-507 Stone Fling] [http://mkv25.net/dfma/ DFMA] movie.)

Any item sitting on the drawbridge has a 1/4 chance of being flung. They can be flung anywhere from zero to 11 Z levels upward and up to 11 units in any other direction.

== Retracting bridges ==

To make a retracting bridge, you must designate it as such during construction with the {{k|s}} key. A retracting bridge can be connected to a [[lever]] or [[pressure plate]]. When the lever is pulled, after a delay of 100 steps the bridge will retract.

Any creature standing on a retracting bridge when it retracts or extends will be flung . This applies to all units{{verify}}, including flying [[creature]]s who happen to be on the same tile as part of the bridge at the time. The creatures will usually come out from the fling stunned but otherwise uninjured, and flying creatures may drop out of the sky.{{verify}} If a creature with a [SIZE] greater than 10 ([[megabeast]]s, [[demon]]s, [[caravan|wagon]]s, and several other large creatures) is standing on the bridge when you attempt to retract it, it will simply fail to operate.

Any item sitting on the retracting bridge has a 1/4 chance of being flung. They can be flung anywhere from zero to 3 Z levels upward and up to 3 units in to the sides.

[[Category:Constructions]]
[[Category:Buildings]]

40d:Clutter

2010-01-03T17:48:37Z

Hanibal Barcalounger:

[[Workshops]] will get '''cluttered''' when they become full of goods that are not [[hauling|haul]]ed away to [[stockpiles]]. A workshop that is cluttered will display <code>'''(CLT)'''</code> when viewed via the {{key|q}} or {{key|t}} menus. {{key|t}}, "View Items in Buildings," will show you what items are cluttering the workshop.

Dwarves working in cluttered workshops will work more slowly: even the lowest level of clutter <tt>'''(CLT)'''</tt> doubles the time a workshop task takes. Each successive level of clutter increases the multiplier by one, so tasks performed in a completely cluttered workshop will take ten times as long.

== Clutter levels ==

With larger items (e.g. [[beds]], [[stone]]s, [[table]]s), clutter starts appearing when 15 of those are inside a shop. Every 3 small items counts as one large item, so a craft-making workshop isn't cluttered until there are 45 crafts littering the floors, tables, and possibly walls and ceilings. [[Siege engine]] components and ammo are especially large; the [[siege workshop]] can get cluttered after producing just 3 ballista arrows.

{| style="margin: 0 auto; text-align: center; border-spacing: 4px"
|+ style="margin: 0 auto" | '''Levels of Clutter'''
|-
! style="color: #808080; background: #000" | <tt>(CLT)</tt>
| 15 Large Items
| : 2x slower
|-
! style="color: #c0c0c0; background: #000" | <tt>(CLT)</tt>
| 20 Large Items
| : 3x slower
|-
! style="color: #fff; background: #000" | <tt>(CLT)</tt>
| 25 Large Items
| : 4x slower
|-
! style="color: #ff0; background: #000" | <tt>(CLT)</tt>
| 30 Large Items
| : 5x slower
|-
! style="color: #800000; background: #000" | <tt>(CLT)</tt>
| 35 Large Items
| : 6x slower
|-
! style="color: #f00; background: #000" | <tt>(CLT)</tt>
| 40 Large Items
| : 7x slower
|-
! style="color: #f0f; background: #000" | <tt>(CLT)</tt>
| 45 Large Items
| : 8x slower
|-
! style="color: #f0f; background: #000" | <tt>*CLT*</tt>
| 50 Large Items
| : 9x slower
|-
! style="color: #f0f; background: #000" | <tt>☼CLT☼</tt>
| 55 Large Items
| : 10x slower
|}

== Occurence ==

Certain workshops are more prone to clutter than others. A highly-skilled dwarf with plenty of materials nearby can clutter a workshop rapidly, even if you have many haulers employed. The [[Butcher's shop|butcher's workshop]] can get cluttered even after butchering a single animal: butchering a horse produces 9 meat, 9 chunks, 9 bones, 5 fat, one skull, and one skin.

Similarly, a [[kitchen]] producing lavish meals using [[alcohol]], [[dwarven syrup]], or [[quarry bush]] leaves can produce a stack of 20 to 100+ prepared meals, which are large items. The kitchen will be cluttered even before the meals are produced: four stacks of quarry bush leaves[15] is already enough to clutter, causing meal production to take a very long time. An unpleasant consequence of kitchen clutter is that food which is not stored in a [[stockpile]] will [[rot]] sooner or later, causing [[miasma]] (and unhappy [[thought]]s in the chef if they were masterpieces).

== Remedy ==

To remedy clutter, be sure to have enough stockpile space of the appropriate kind (using [[bin]]s will increase stockpile efficiency), and employ enough dwarves with the appropriate [[hauling]] jobs (food/furniture/item/refuse/etc.) to get rid of the junk. The dwarf working at the workshop could also have the relevant hauling job enabled, pausing from time to time to move around goods. In case of inexperienced cooks, order only one or two meals at a time, and check clutter before issuing new orders. An alternate clutter control method is to build new workshops, optionally destroying the old ones (from the {{k|q}} or {{k|t}} menu).

== Benefits ==

There is one upside to clutter, depending on your viewpoint and playstyle. As a workshop's production is slowed, so is their consumption of raw materials and their output if there is little demand. If there is sudden spike of demand, workshop gets uncluttered easily and can work at full speed. Benefits of this is that tasks can be left in repeat more with no supervision and will not produce much unwanted extras or consume more resources than needed.

A [[still]], for example, can eventually get to the speed where dwarves consume booze at same speed as the cluttered workshops produce it.

[[Wood furnace]]s similarly will eventually be brought to a point where they produce fuel at same speed as other workshops consume it.

The advantage/drawback with this is that [[stockpile]]s may no longer be used (effectively, anyway), as the products are being drawn directly from the workshop.

{{Workshops}}
[[Category:Workshops]]