https://dwarffortresswiki.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=99.43.136.249&feedformat=atomDwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T14:04:58ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.35.11https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Metalsmith%27s_forge&diff=256786Metalsmith's forge2021-02-20T04:27:07Z<p>99.43.136.249: added 'see also' link to Metal Industry page</p>
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<div>{{Quality|Exceptional|20:00, 21 December 2020 (UTC)}}<br />
{{Workshop|name=Metalsmith's forge|key=f<br />
|job=<br />
* [[Weaponsmith|Weaponsmithing]]<br />
* [[Armorsmith|Armoring]]<br />
* [[Blacksmith|Blacksmithing]]<br />
* [[Metal crafter|Metalcrafting]]<br />
* [[Trapper]]<br />
* [[Mechanic]]<br />
|construction=<br />
* [[Fire-safe]] [[building material]] (non-[[economic]])<br />
* [[Fire-safe]] [[anvil]]<br />
|construction_job=<br />
* [[Weaponsmith|Weaponsmithing]]<br />
* [[Armorsmith|Armoring]]<br />
* [[Blacksmith|Blacksmithing]]<br />
* [[Metal crafter|Metalcrafting]]<br />
|use=<br />
* [[Coke]] or [[Charcoal]] ([[Fuel]])<br />
* [[Metal]] [[bar]]s<br />
|production=<br />
*[[Armor]]<br />
*[[Weapon]]<br />
*[[Chain]]<br />
*[[Crafts]] - X3 from one metal bar.<br />
*[[Furniture]]<br />
*[[Mechanism]]s<br />
}}{{av}}<br />
<br />
[[File:blacksmith_dwarf.jpg|thumb|222px|right|The lack of height helps him focus.]]The '''metalsmith's forge''' is a [[workshop]] used by [[dwarf|dwarves]] to turn [[metal|metal bars]] into useful objects such as [[weapon|weapons]], [[armor]], [[furniture]], [[Currency|coins]], [[ammunition]] for [[siege]] equipment and [[crossbow|crossbows]], [[trap component]]s, and other [[finished goods]]. Depending on the generated world, musical [[instrument]] components may or may not be built here. To build a forge, you must have [[fire-safe]] materials and an [[anvil]]. Every use of the forge, except for [[Decoration|stud]]ding, consumes one unit of [[fuel]] ([[coke]] or [[charcoal]]).<br />
<br />
Note that the anvil used to build a metalsmith's forge ''does'' need to be fire-safe—normally anvils can only be made from fire-safe materials, but [[strange mood]]s can create artifact anvils out of metals like [[tin]], which are entirely unusable.<br />
<br />
==Workshop labors and skills==<br />
All metallic end products are created at a metalsmith's forge, using four of the five [[Metal industry|metalsmithing]] skills (the exception being [[smelting]]):<br />
* [[Weaponsmith]]s can create [[weapon]]s, [[trap]] components, [[bolt]]s, and [[ballista arrowhead]]s<br />
* [[Armorsmith]]s create [[armor]]<br />
* [[Metal crafter]]s create [[chain]]s and "Other Objects" ([[craft]]s, [[Currency|coins]], [[goblet]]s), musical [[instrument]] components, as well as performing [[Decoration|stud]]ding<br />
* [[Blacksmith]]s create [[anvil]]s, [[block]]s, and all [[furniture]] except chains<br />
* [[Trapping|Trappers]] create animal traps.<br />
* [[Mechanic|Mechanics]] create mechanisms.<br />
<br />
==Cost of Items==<br />
The cost of a [[weapon]] or piece of [[armor]] in metal [[bar]]s can be calculated by using material size/3 and rounding down, with no item costing less than one metal bar. The exception to this is some types of finished goods, which are created in different multiples from a single metal bar, depending on the skill of the [[Metal crafter]]. The table on the [[Melt item]] page lists the cost of common items and their yields when melted.<br />
<br />
==Size{{version|0.42.01}}==<br />
To create differently sized armor for non-dwarf residents, request it to be made from the workshop as usual. Afterwards, go back to the main workshop menu and look at the {{k|d}}etails of the issued job. {{k|f}}ilter for the race you want to make the item for and press {{k|enter}} twice.<br />
==See also==<br />
*[[Magma forge]]<br />
*[[Metal industry]]<br />
<br />
{{Workshops}}</div>99.43.136.249https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Shearer&diff=256785Shearer2021-02-20T04:02:07Z<p>99.43.136.249: added more context to the mention of troll shearing</p>
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<div>{{Quality|Superior|12:08, 18 May 2015 (UTC)}}<br />
{{Skill<br />
| color = 6:0<br />
| skill = Shearer<br />
| profession = [[Farmer]]<br />
| job name = [[Shearing]]<br />
| tasks =<br />
* {{k|s}} Shear Creature<br />
| workshop = <br />
* [[Farmer's workshop]]}}<br />
{{av}}<br />
<br />
'''Shearer''' is the [[skill]] associated with the shearing [[labor]]. Shearers shear the [[wool]] from creatures in a [[farmer's workshop]]. There are only three animals that can be sheared by dwarves: [[sheep]], [[llama]]s, and [[alpaca]]s. [[Troll]]s can also be sheared, but only by their [[goblin]] masters. Therefore, the only way to acquire troll fur is to steal it from a goblin site during a raid. [[Shearable]] animals have {{tt|[YARN]}} token under {{token|SELECT_MATERIAL|c|HAIR}} section of their RAWs. Wool can be spun into [[yarn]], which in turn can be used to make [[cloth]] at a [[loom]].<br />
<br />
Shearer is the only skill that doesn't appear to train any [[attribute]]s. This may be an oversight.<br />
<br />
==See Also==<br />
* [[Textile industry]]<br />
<br />
{{skills}}</div>99.43.136.249https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Stockpile&diff=256776Stockpile2021-02-20T01:10:47Z<p>99.43.136.249: Linked a reference to dfhack commands to the appropriate docs page for those seeking further info (me)</p>
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<div>{{Quality|Exceptional|20:29, 24 July 2014 (UTC)}}<br />
{{av}}<br />
<br />
{{For/see|exploits related to stockpiling|[[Quantum stockpile]]}}<br />
<br />
'''Stockpiles''' are where [[dwarf|dwarves]] store items of various types, usually in a safer, closer or more convenient place for the consumers. Dwarves with the corresponding "[[hauling]]" job on will seek out items that aren't already on a stockpile that accepts them and carry them to an appropriate stockpile, if available. It's important to place your stockpiles carefully to minimize the amount of time spent carrying items back-and-forth. Items in a stockpile may be stored in [[container]]s such as [[bag|bags]], [[barrel|barrels]] or [[bin|bins]] (see [[Using bins and barrels]]). Seed bags, flour bags, and dye bags can go inside barrels. Empty bags, however, cannot be stacked.<br />
[[Image:StockpilesMenu2010.png|right]]<br />
== Allocating stockpiles == <br />
<br />
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. (Alternatively, it is possible to use the mouse at this stage to select individual tiles) 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 [[wall]], a [[workshop]], or an already existing stockpile, a stockpile will be created but they will not be part of it. <br />
<br />
When creating a stockpile, any movable items (e.g. loose [[stone]], unbuilt [[furniture]], etc.) currently occupying the designated tiles will automatically be considered part of the stockpile, even if the stockpile settings disallow those particular items. These items also mark the tile as "full", so no new items will be stored in that tile until all the original items in the tile are moved. To handle unwanted items, you can specify that the stockpile "gives" to a workshop or stockpile that will accept those items, or use a [[dump]] command to have them carried off to a garbage [[zone]]. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Stockpiles cannot be expanded once created; you must delete the pile and create a new one. [[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]] provides three stockpile-related [https://docs.dfhack.org/en/stable/docs/Plugins.html#stockpiles commands], which can make moving and resizing stockpiles much less tedious.<br />
<br />
=== Stockpile Designation Size Limits ===<br />
Stockpile allocation (and removal) is limited in size: each edge of the designation area is limited to a maximum of 31 tiles. The limit is per-edge, so for example a stockpile that is only two tiles wide is still limited to a length of 31 (2x31 total size.) The largest possible stockpile is therefore a square of 961 tiles (31*31). DF will not allow a larger area to be selected.<br />
<br />
Note that this size limitation applies not only to creating stockpiles, but also to removing them. Technically speaking, the 31-tile-per-edge limitation is on the stockpile designation operation, not on the stockpiles themselves per se. This means that you also cannot remove stockpiles with {{K|x}} in areas greater than 31 long or wide - DF will limit the operation to an area of 31x31 tiles, at most.<br />
<br />
== Using stockpiles ==<br />
<br />
Once a stockpile has been allocated, by default 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. You can disable automatic stockpiling by setting the stockpile to "take from links only" using {{k|q}} {{k|a}}. Tiles, within a stockpile, containing only forbidden items are considered available space, and can accumulate another item without exploiting [[Quantum_stockpile#Quantum_stockpiles|quantum stockpiling]].<br />
<br />
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 (this also prevents the crafter from dragging material across the entire map when a new job order is issued). Whenever a crafter picks up material from the stockpile, your hauling dwarves will automatically fetch more material to refill the stockpile. This speeds up a queue of jobs, as other dwarves perform the time-consuming distant haul whilst the crafter concentrates on actually making items.<br />
<br />
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 [[gem]]s, your [[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 [[clutter]]ed and suffer production slowdowns if you let ridiculous numbers of items pile up in them, so it's important to occasionally clear out workshops if they get cluttered. This can be done either by having a stockpile available so that haulers will remove the items, by [[DF2012:Exploit#Quantum_stockpiles|quantum stockpiling]] the accumulation, or by removing and rebuilding the workshop, which will empty its contents onto the ground.<br />
<br />
== Take from a stockpile/workshop ==<br />
<br />
Another feature of stockpiles allows you to tell dwarves to transfer items from one stockpile to another. 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'''.<br />
<br />
Each stockpile can take from any number of other stockpiles. 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.<br />
<br />
Stockpiles may also take from a workshop, using the same interface ({{k|q}}-{{k|t}}, then select a workshop instead of a second stockpile). In this setup, any items produced inside the workshop (visible with {{k|t}}) become eligible to move to the stockpile. Be aware that any items produced in the workshop that ''aren't'' accepted by the linked stockpile will not be moved anywhere at all. They will sit inside the workshop until a linked stockpile accepts them.<br />
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Enough micromanagement will allow for effective and (relatively) streamlined supply chains. Here are some examples:<br />
<br />
*Speeding up [[wood cutting|lumber harvesting]], [[carpentry]], ''and'' [[ash]] and [[charcoal]] production by putting several wood stockpiles near the various [[Chop_down_trees|tree-felling areas]], then one large "primary" stockpile near the [[carpenter's workshop]] that takes from those small ones, and then finally, a small stockpile near the [[wood furnace]] that takes from the primary one.<br />
*A smallish [[plant]] stockpile near your farms, disallowing barrels, will allow harvesters to spend very little time stockpiling the crops they just picked. A larger stockpile near the [[still]] (this one possibly allowing barrels), taking from the smaller stockpile, lets your general purpose haulers do most of the grunt work of getting plants in place for the brewer. The larger stockpile should be set to "take from links only", so the harvesters do not waste their time.<br />
*A [[clothier's shop]] produces high-quality new [[clothing]]. There is currently no way to stockpile ''only'' new clothing, as opposed to [[wear|worn]] clothing, except for the fact that the new clothing is sitting in its workshop. A stockpile can be set to take from the clothier's shop (and to "take from links only"), so that it only gets new clothing produced in that workshop. If another stockpile with "take from anywhere" and no links is created, that one will accept all the worn clothing - it will never take from the linked clothier's shop. This worn-clothing stockpile may be placed near the [[trade depot]], if you plan to sell the used clothing, or near the [[magma|garbage disposal]], if you do not.<br />
<br />
== Give to a stockpile/workshop ==<br />
Conversely, the {{k|g}} key allows a pile to give [[item]]s to another pile, or to a workshop. When giving to a stockpile, an equal and opposite "take from stockpile" is created in the other direction (and vice versa). Deleting one of these inter-stockpile links also deletes the other link.<br />
<br />
Specifying that a workshop or furnace will only get its materials from a certain stockpile provides a way to make sure everything that workshop produces is of a specific material. For example, setting a granite stockpile to give to a mason's workshop ensures that the workshop will only use granite as its material. This is also extremely important when the workshop's input materials are heavy (e.g. [[stone]]s); linking a nearby stone stockpile to the workshop prevents the mason from hauling an enormous rock from hundreds of tiles away.<br />
<br />
This option is quite powerful, but should be used '''very''' carefully as the linked workshop will now ''only'' take from the stockpiles set to give to that workshop. Make sure that the workshop gets ''all'' of the materials needed for its jobs there if you use this feature. For example, if you link your ore stockpile to a non-magma [[smelter]], but don't also link a stockpile that includes a [[fuel]] source, then the dwarves will be unable to smelt ores at that smelter due to a lack of fuel. If you set a fuel stockpile to give that smelter, it will still be unable to [[melt]] down items marked for melting, because it only takes from the ore and fuel stockpiles. Another common mistake is setting a plant stockpile to give to a [[still]], but forgetting to also link a [[furniture]] stockpile to the still so that it has access to [[barrel]]s.<br />
<br />
==Max bin/barrel ==<br />
The ''max bin'' and ''max barrel'' settings control the number of barrels and bins that are used for organisation of items inside the stockpile. It can be useful to disallow bins and barrels from some stockpiles, for example stockpiles used to store seeds or for [[Exploit#Quantum stockpiles|quantum stockpiles]], by reducing this setting to 0. <br />
<br />
Increasing these numbers is not usually needed - they are set to the number of tiles in the stockpile when it is created, which is the maximum number of bins or barrels the stockpile can hold anyway. Which of bins or barrels is turned on is determined by the item type selected when the stockpile is designated - food stockpiles allow barrels, for example, and bar stockpiles allow bins. However, these settings are not updated if the types of items allowed in the stockpile are changed. If you change the types of items allowed in the stockpile, it may also be useful to change the number of bins and barrels that are allowed in it to allow your dwarves to store those items more efficiently.<br />
<br />
== Max wheelbarrow ==<br />
Another feature of the stockpile system, ''max wheelbarrow'' allows the player to control the number of [[wheelbarrow]]s assigned to the stockpile. It can be set to 0, 1, 2, or 3.<br />
<br />
If set to 0 (which is the default for all stockpiles other than stone stockpiles), the stockpile will generate a separate hauling job for each item that needs to be placed in it -- potentially one job per tile in the stockpile, simultaneously.<br />
<br />
If set to non-0, then that number of wheelbarrows will be brought to the stockpile. Once a stockpile has wheelbarrows assigned and moved to it, the number of wheelbarrows will act as a limit on the number of simultaneous hauling jobs for moving items to that stockpile. Each hauling job will be performed using a wheelbarrow, rather than by hand.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, wheelbarrows are currently rather buggy, and may actually reduce the efficiency of your stockpiles; see [[Wheelbarrow]] for more information.<br />
<br />
[[Minecart]]s can also be used for efficient hauling, although they require a much greater infrastructure investment.<br />
<br />
== Will take from anywhere ==<br />
A stockpile that will take from anywhere does not restrict the source of its goods. Stockpiles with "take from links only" enabled will only accept goods from their assigned [[workshop]]s and linked stockpiles. You can use {{k|q}} {{k|a}} to toggle this setting on a stockpile. <br />
<br />
Setting your [[seed]] stockpiles to "take from links only" will prevent your haulers from carrying your vital seeds back and forth across the map to pick up each new seed in the [[dining room]]. When your stockpiled seeds run low you can temporarily toggle to "anywhere" to collect the loose seeds in bulk.<br />
<br />
== Stockpile categories ==<br />
<br />
===[[Ammo]]===<br />
This stockpile contains ammo for all forms of ammunition-requiring weaponry (except [[siege engine]]s). It can use [[bin]]s to consolidate stacks.<br />
<br />
===[[Animal]]===<br />
[[Creature|Animals]] stored in [[cage|cages]] that are not affixed to a location will be stored in these stockpiles. [[Animal trap|Traps]] used for capturing wild animals and empty [[cage|cages]] are also stored here.<br />
<br />
This type of stockpile cannot use bins or barrels.<br />
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===[[Armor]]===<br />
Armor of all types is stored here. There is no preference for specific body parts, but usable/unusable armor may be specified. All types of armor can be stored in [[bin]]s.<br />
<br />
Note that if refuse is enabled on the stockpile, armor and clothing will [[wear]] at an accelerated rate.<br />
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===[[Bar]]/[[Block]]===<br />
Bars of smelted [[metal]] and blocks of cut stone and [[glass]] are kept here after being processed by the [[smelter]], [[mason's workshop|mason's workshops]], and [[glass furnace|glass furnaces]], before being used for other purposes. Weirdly, [[ash|ashes]], [[potash]], [[soap]], [[charcoal]], and [[coke]] from the [[wood furnace]], [[ashery]], [[soap maker's workshop]] and [[smelter]] will also be stored here. As with all stockpiles, this can be changed to allow for specific blocks and bars to be stored with custom settings. [[Bin]]s can be used to consolidate up to 10 bars/blocks.<br />
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===[[Cloth]]===<br />
Woven cloth and [[thread]] are stored here (plant fiber, animal hair, and silk). [[Bin]]s can be used to consolidate items.<br />
<br />
===[[Currency|Coins]]===<br />
Minted coins are kept here, several thousand of them fitting into a single bin.<br />
<br />
===[[Corpse|Corpses]]===<br />
Dead dwarves and [[pet|pets]] that have no burial location will be placed here. If placed indoors, decaying bodies will generate [[miasma]], but [[bone]]s will not be removed at the end of the season. Rotting [[pet]]s or [[friend]]s give dwarves unhappy [[thought]]s unless they are given a proper burial in a [[Coffin|burial receptacle]].<br />
<br />
Corpse stockpiles are now also used to dispose of the bodies of ANY sentient being (goblins, trolls, etc.).<br />
<br />
===[[Finished goods|Finished Goods]]===<br />
Finished goods created by the [[craftsdwarf's workshop]], as well as the [[clothier's shop]] and the [[leather works]], are placed here before being used in trade or other uses. This type of stockpile can use [[bin|bins]] to consolidate items, over a hundred objects can fit into a bin.<br />
<br />
Since this stockpile can also contain supplies that the player might not want to trade away ([[splint]]s, [[crutch]]es, [[rope]]s, [[waterskin]]s...), it is wise to make separate custom stockpiles for these goods.<br />
<br />
Note that if refuse is enabled on the stockpile, clothes and armor will [[wear]] at an accelerated rate.<br />
<br />
=== [[Food]] ===<br />
As one would assume based on the name, food is stored here, in addition to a wide variety of inedible plant and animal products -- [[seed]]s, [[lye]], [[giant desert scorpion]] venom, bags of [[dye]], and [[liquid fire]], to name a few. Raw [[Creature#Aquatic|fish]] is brought here, before being processed by a [[fishery]] and turned into edible [[meat]]. Drinks are always stored in [[barrel]]s or [[large pot]]s. Seeds are stored in [[bag]]s (which may in turn be stored in barrels/pots); other food items can be stored in barrels or pots.<br />
<br />
Barrels and pots can hold, at most, 60 [[prepared meal]]s. Stacks larger than that (☼Dwarven Beer Roast [200]☼ is possible) will not fit in a barrel, but will still only take up one tile of stockpile 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.<br />
<br />
Food will never [[wear|spoil]] while in a stockpile, although it may attract and be eaten by [[vermin]]. Food stockpiles should, in most cases, be restricted to desired types (e.g. [[seed]] stockpiles or meat stockpiles or unprepared fish stockpiles); there are simply too many things that go in them.<br />
<br />
Fat and tallow go in the same list and are listed by animal, meaning that manual separation of fat and tallow takes a ''long'' time. Because fat will only ever enter your fortress at a butcher's shop, it is possible to link a general fat/tallow stockpile to the butchers' and have it take only from links. It may be necessary to link the butchers' to the stockpile you want the other butchery products to end up in. If you are playing with [[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]], you can use the search function to show only fat or tallow- the permit and forbid keys toggle only those visible in the list.<br />
<br />
===[[Furniture]] Storage===<br />
Completed items from the [[carpenter's workshop]], [[mason's workshop]], and [[mechanic's workshop]] will be stored here, along with furniture created from other shops, until placed or used in another building. Bags filled with [[sand]] can also be stored in furniture stockpiles, and in fact will appear in any furniture stockpile unless expressly forbidden, regardless of materials permitted.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Furniture cannot be stored in barrels or bins.<br />
<br />
===[[Gem]]===<br />
This stockpile stores gems and raw [[glass]], both cut and uncut, along with [[gizzard stone]]s. It can use [[bin]]s to consolidate gems.<br />
<br />
===[[Leather]]===<br />
Leather, which is produced at a [[tanner's shop]], will be kept here. Like most stockpiles, it can use [[bin]]s to consolidate items.<br />
<br />
===[[Refuse]]===<br />
Since dwarves hate rot, because of the [[miasma]] it spreads when in an enclosed place like a [[cave]], any garbage item that can rot will be stored in a refuse stockpile. Also, any [[wear|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.<br />
<br />
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 [[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. <br />
<br />
An alternative to this is to dig [[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 although 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 [[miasma]] page.)<br />
<br />
[[Bone]]s, [[skull]]s, and [[shell]]s are also stored here, whether from defeated enemies or raw food processing - if left in an area with high [[vermin]] levels, these will randomly disappear. Refuse stockpiles can be restricted to store only [[bone]]s, [[skull]]s, [[shell]]s, teeth, and horns/hooves.<br />
<br />
Note that a refuse stockpile is not the same as a [[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.<br />
<br />
Note that all armor and clothing stored in a refuse stockpile will suffer [[wear]] at an accelerated rate. This is a "feature" intended to dispose of unwanted armor.{{bug|5711}}<br />
<br />
Be careful on evil biomes, since some can reanimate dead creatures and body parts. If your fort is located on a map where part is evil and part is not, it is best to put your refuse stockpile on the part that is not evil.<br />
<br />
The corpses of sentient beings (goblins, trolls, etc.) are no longer stored in refuse stockpiles, [[Stockpile#Corpses|but in a corpse stockpile instead]]. If your dwarves aren't cleaning up bodies, this is probably why.<br />
<br />
===[[Sheets]]===<br />
This stockpile stores sheets, including paper and parchment. Like most stockpiles, it can use bins to consolidate items.<br />
<br />
===[[Stone]]===<br />
Rough stone will be stored here, as well as [[ore]]. These stockpiles cannot use bins or barrels, but the use of [[wheelbarrow]]s is strongly advised.<br />
<br />
[[Stone management]] is a complex topic; in the simplest terms, most stones are extremely heavy, so you want to minimize the distance they are [[hauling|hauled]] by hand (e.g. from the stone [[stockpile]] to the [[mason's workshop]] or [[smelter]]) by putting such stockpiles very close to the workshops that they feed.<br />
<br />
===[[Weapon|Weapons]]===<br />
Weapons of all types are stored here by default, including picks, trap components, and weapons too large for dwarves to use. [[Bin]]s can be used to consolidate weapons of any type.<br />
<br />
===[[Wood]]===<br />
Chopped trees are brought to the wood stockpile before being used by carpenter's workshop, a wood furnace 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 [[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". Wood stockpiles will also accept "grown" wood logs that elves bring.<br />
<br />
This type of stockpile cannot use bins or barrels.<br />
<br />
===Additional Options===<br />
The options are "Allow Plant/Animal" (organic goods) and "Allow Non-Plant/Animal (non-organic goods). Unlike all the other categories, the Additional Options settings apply to all other active categories. A stockpile that allows neither organic nor non-organic goods will never receive any items. Disabling "Additional Options" is a common cause of stockpile problems, and these options generally aren't useful anyway.<br />
<br />
=== Custom stockpiles ===<br />
<br />
With custom stockpiles, you can change which types of materials, goods, etc., can be stored in that stockpile. Any type of things can be mixed, so you could have a stockpile that will hold raw [[turtle]], [[mechanism|mechanisms]] and all stone types apart from [[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 [[ore|ores]]' and 'economic' consist of only one ).<br />
<br />
Note that any custom stockpile that accepts any type of [[refuse]] will cause automatic [[wear|degradation]] to all [[clothing]] and [[armor]] stored in that stockpile. It is highly advisable to store your [[shell]]s and [[bone]]s in a separate stockpile.<br />
<br />
== Stockpile Settings ==<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br>{{key|Enter}} will toggle individual item types.<br />
<br />
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 and all quality levels as forbidden. The correct way would be to 'forbid types' and then re-enable beds.<br />
<br />
=== Core Quality ===<br />
<br />
Core quality means the quality of the ''craftsdwarfship of the item''. A masterfully crafted armor (made from qualityless metal bars) has masterful core quality. A finely-crafted dress (made from an exceptional pig tail fiber cloth) has fine core quality (because the craftsdwarfship ''of the item'' is fine).<br />
<br />
=== Total Quality ===<br />
<br />
Total quality means the highest between the craftsdwarfship of the item and the craftsdwarfship of its components (or decorations). The finely-crafted dress from our previous example has a fine core quality, but its total quality is exceptional because its component — a pig tail fiber cloth — is of exceptional quality. Likewise, a superior quality steel gauntlet, masterfully studded with copper is of masterful total quality (and superior core quality).<br />
<br />
A more complex example: A rope reed fiber sock is superiorly decorated with pond turtle shell. Is masterfully crafted from a rope reed fiber cloth which was finely dyed with redroot dye. Core quality: masterful, Total quality: masterful. (Remember, for total quality, the best of either the item's quality, the quality of its components, or the quality of its decorations is chosen.)<br />
<br />
See also [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=96501.msg2765710 Crafting Skills, Quality and Statistics research].<br />
<br />
=== Notes ===<br />
Some categories will have a special extra type of item(s) that can be toggled with {{key|u}} and sometimes {{key|j}}.<br />
<br />
{| border="1" cellpadding="4"<br />
|+ <br />
! Categories<br />
! Item type<br />
|-<br />
| Animals <br />
| Empty cages and Empty animal traps<br />
|-<br />
| Food <br />
| Prepared food<br />
|-<br />
| Weapons <br />
| Usable and unusable<br />
|-<br />
| Armor <br />
| Usable and unusable<br />
|}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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. All existing stockpiles (and zones) are listed under {{key|R}}ooms.<br />
<br />
== Custom Stockpile Uses ==<br />
<br />
A custom stockpile is most useful for food, furniture, and bar/block stockpiles, to prevent your lye and venom sitting next to the [[kitchen|kitchens]], your [[floodgate|floodgates]] and mechanisms near the [[room|rooms]] that need [[statue|statues]] and doors, your stone blocks next to the forges, and your metal bars by the farms.<br />
<br />
When setting up a custom stockpile to hold more than one type of raw material, it is often best to set up multiple custom stockpiles, one for each type. Otherwise your stockpile will invariably fill up with the lesser-used items, rendering your custom stockpile nearly useless.<br />
<br />
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 one or more indoor pile(s) 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.<br />
<br />
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. Note, however, that items with [[wood]]en [[decoration]]s will '''not''' be excluded. Similarly, [[noble]]s who frequently [[mandate]] restricted trading can have their preferred goods stored separately, far away from the [[trade depot]].<br />
<br />
A highly efficient method is to have wood burning furnaces feeding into a '[[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.<br />
<br />
Other good uses:<br />
* Planter's stock: [[seed|seeds]] and [[potash]]. If your [[ashery]] is nearby, include ashes and lye. <br />
* Smelter stock: [[ore|ores]], [[flux]] and, unless you're using [[Magma smelter]], [[coal]].<br />
* Sandpile: [[sand]] bags.<br />
* Dyer's stock: a food stockpile that only includes [[dye|dyes]]. <br />
* Food Plus: a food stockpile that includes barrels. This spares your dwarves from carrying empty barrels to and from the furniture stores.<br />
* Skins: a refuse stockpile limited to [[skin|skins]], a bit like the bone & shell stockpile above. Place near the tannery. <br />
* Brewer's stock: [[List of crops|brewable plants]].<br />
* Miller's stock: [[List of crops|millable plants]]. (An empty [[bag]] stockpile will also speed up milling.) <br />
* Refreshment stand: Since dwarves drink twice as often as they eat, having several small food stockpiles that only accept [[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 [[burrow]]ing dwarves so that local stockpile is the only one they can [[path]] to.<br />
* Artifact materials: The massive value and effectiveness of [[artifact|artifacts]] means the materials used in them can have drastic effects, sometimes even into the ''[[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 [[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.)<br />
* Artifact storage: Artifacts add a great deal to the created wealth of the fortress. Keep valuable artifacts safe in a special "treasure" stockpile.<br />
* Ingredients: Store things that are cookable but not edible, like milk and quarry bush leaves, near [[kitchen]]s. Also, more [[rot|volatile]] foods (such as [[meat]]) can be stored closer to your kitchen to encourage your cooks to use them quickly.<br />
* Mason's Stone: Linking a single- or limited-type stone stockpile to a mason's workshop allows you to specify exactly which [[stone]] your masons will use, providing consistent output (and increased [[value]] if using [[economic stone]]). Additionally, if your mason has a [[preference]] for a particular stone, you can increase output [[quality]] by having him work with that stone.<br />
* Finished goods stockpiles near a Trade Depot that includes crafts that you want to sell, but excludes ordinary clothing, backpacks, waterskins, splints and crutches that you want your dwarves to use.<br />
<br />
==Bugs==<br />
* Stockpile options don't work for cloth {{Bug|4380|workaround=http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=122782.0}}.<br />
* Marksdwarves may refuse to use ammo stored in bins.{{Bug|2706}}<br />
* [[Hauling]] blocks access to items stored in [[container]]s; consider creating container-less "feeder" stockpiles linked to your storage stockpiles.<br />
* [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=92241.msg3276117#msg3276117 Research] has suggested that stockpiles are a significant cause of [[Maximizing framerate|lag]]; see [[Exploit#Quantum_stockpiles|Quantum Stockpiles]] for designs that minimize stockpile tiles. <br />
* Disabling "Additional Options" in the stockpile menu is a common source of stockpile problems.<br />
<br />
==Troubleshooting==<br />
Getting dwarves to haul items to a stockpile is a frequent source of frustration. Here are some things to check:<br />
<br />
* Do you have idle dwarves?<br />
** Do the idle dwarves have the appropriate hauling labors enabled?<br />
** Are the idle dwarves constantly taking and cancelling other jobs? <br />
* Do you have a stockpile that wants this item?<br />
** Is there an empty spot in the stockpile?<br />
*** Note that hidden items and wheelbarrows tie up stockpile tiles.<br />
** Can the idle dwarves path to the stockpile and the item?<br />
** Is the stockpile set to accept from anywhere, not just links?<br />
** Check both the item's type and its material, in stockpiles that can filter materials.<br />
** Check that the armor/weapon stockpile setting is "usable" and/or "unusable" as appropriate.<br />
** Check that "Additional Options" are set correctly to allow the desired items.<br />
* Is the item unforbidden?<br />
* Is the item accessible (no civilian alert, burrows, etc.)?<br />
* Is the item not owned by any dwarf?<br />
* Is the item not tasked for a job?<br />
* Is the item not assigned for use in any buildings/constructions?<br />
* Check your standing orders (o), and make sure this kind of item can be gathered.<br />
** For refuse, make sure dwarves are allowed to gather refuse that is "outside" (o r).<br />
* Does the stockpile have wheelbarrows assigned? If so, are they all in use?<br />
* If the item normally goes in a container, do you have suitable unused containers?<br />
* Is the item claimed by a location (hospital, tavern, library, temple)?<br />
<br />
<br />
{{Category|Stockpiles|*}}<br />
{{Category|Items}}<br />
[[ru:Stockpile]]</div>99.43.136.249https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Defense_guide&diff=256589Defense guide2021-02-07T06:01:09Z<p>99.43.136.249: /* Water sources */ - relabeled cistern to reservoir and linked it</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Quality|Masterwork|12:08, 21 July 2015 (UTC)}}<br />
{{av}}<br />
<br />
<!-- THIS ARTICLE IS GENERAL THEORY, "THINGS TO CONSIDER". <br />
THERE IS NOT ROOM FOR DETAILS OR SPECIFIC SUGGESTIONS.<br />
Specifics should be put into related articles.--><br />
<!-- Editors & Contributors''' - Please see the discussion page before posting. --><br />
<br />
:''This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. The '''defense guide''' is a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defense. For tips on laying out your architecture to protect your military, see '''[[security design]]'''. For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan (but might be adapted or plugged into one), see '''[[trap design]]'''. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see '''[[military design]]'''.<br />
<br />
<br />
In ''Dwarf Fortress'', you will often find yourself beset by hostile creatures looking to murder your dwarves or take their treasures. Protecting your fortress from intruders is a challenging task and a broad, complex topic. A wide variety of [[creature]]s can threaten your dwarves, and there is no one approach or philosophy that perfectly addresses every possibility. Fortress layout, military organization and training, traps and more, all contribute to the overall "defense" and survivability of your fortress and the dwarves that live and work both within there and in the world around it, and likewise no one article can include every last detail. This guide will pull from many other articles, but will prefer to refer to those rather than re-post information that is already found (and better placed) there.<br />
<br />
There are three important things to consider when planning the defenses for your fortress. First, you must protect the fortress itself - the buildings, the hallways, the dwarves within it. But second, protecting the dwarves outside and topside as they go about their work is also important. These two goals can often be rather divergent, as your dwarves may need to wander the open countryside to collect herbs, cut trees, hunt, fish, and while outside the bounds of your fortress they can find themselves quite vulnerable.<br><br />
Lastly, there is game style - you want the game to be "fun" for you, and with some strategies it's quite possible to defend yourself into complete boredom, or just go down a road that is not attractive style-wise. While this article cannot tell you how to have fun, it will comment on this when appropriate, and you should keep it in mind as well.<br />
<br />
'''Note''' - There is not room in this article to expand adequately on every sub-topic - ''please'' see specific articles for a ''complete'' discussion as desired.<br />
<br />
==General guidelines==<br />
<br />
While admitting that "Rules are made to be broken", there are some general recommendations that have a proven value in defending a fortress:<br />
<br />
* '''Minimize fortress entrances:''' Have a strong and clear distinction between inside and outside. This usually corresponds to underground and surface, but not always - you can have a complete medieval-style castle complex on the surface. But each point of entry should be hardened against attack. Don't make more entrances than really necessary. If there is a useless or redundant opening, seal it off, one way or another. (Some creatures can destroy [[door]]s if they can reach them, but [[bridge|drawbridges]] are safe.)<br />
<br />
* '''Concentric circles:''' Think redundancy - one wall may not be enough. With the existence of door-destroying and bow-wielding attackers, double or multiple hard barriers between the inside and the outside are essential to fend off the worst assaults, and if they get inside one barrier it's nice to have another behind that. Sometimes captives will escape their [[cage]]s ''inside'' your fortress. The choke points between the circles are where you build traps and lockable doors, and station troops.<br />
<br />
* '''Assume the worst:''' Build up your defenses ''before'' the enemy shows up - like right now! Plan on being [[siege]]d by scores of [[goblin]] archers, door-breaking [[troll]]s, invisible [[kobold]] master thieves, dive-bombing [[giant eagle]]s, flame-breathing [[fire imp]]s, angry [[elephant]]s, and a [[bronze colossus]] - ''all at once''. Hopefully, you will never have to face that kind of threat, but being ready for anything is the best bet, and, more realistically, when things go wrong (and with dwarves, they will, just believe it) you will have a buffer of defense to fall back on.<br />
<br />
==Threats==<br />
Danger comes in a variety of forms in ''Dwarf Fortress''. Understanding the diverse threats is the first step to keeping your dwarves alive.<br />
<br />
:*'''Wild animals'''<br />
::Creatures vary in threat and habits. Some [[animal]]s are quite dangerous, but most are easily excluded by the humble [[door]] or [[Hatch cover|hatch]], even if it's not [[forbidden]]. Some few are able to destroy doors and hatches, statues and other [[building]]s, and some are thieves (see below), or will eat your food (such as [[Grizzly_bear|bear]]s). A lone animal, even a clear predator, will usually flee from a stronger force, but some [[undead]] and evil creatures can be blindly aggressive. Combat is random, and any animal can kill any dwarf - and vice versa.<br />
<br />
::Wild animals can appear from the topside, but also from the [[cavern]]s that you may accidentally open up while mining (in fact, the worst ones are often from below). In evil or savage [[surroundings]], the creatures can be both much tougher and more aggressive.<br />
<br />
:*'''Thieves & child snatchers'''<br />
::Many creatures are "thieves" in the general sense, and offer their own potential headaches - a [[raccoon]] or small tribe of [[rhesus macaque]] or [[mandrill]] monkeys can enter an unsecured area unannounced, grabbing items of value and running, and it doesn't matter how many you kill if one or three make off with some prized possessions. But a creature with a listed ( {{k|u}} ) [[profession]] of [[Thief]] has a few additional nasty surprises, namely being invisible until spotted by your dwarves or [[domestic animal]]s, being able to bypass locked or forbidden doors, being armed with a real weapon, and some imperfect ability to avoid triggering traps (though some seem better at it than others). [[Kobold]]s and [[goblin]]s are individually more dangerous than animals, but when spotted there's a special message, either "'''Protect the hoard!'''" or "'''Protect the children!'''", as appropriate.<br />
<br />
:*'''Ambushes'''<br />
::An [[ambush]] is a small number of enemies (less than ten) that are invisible until spotted, but are easier to spot than thieves. The alert message is "'''An ambush! Curse them!'''" They skulk around the outside of your fortress, unseen until they strike, looking for wandering dwarves or caravans entering or leaving. They will often flee off the map if challenged.<br />
<br />
:*'''Siege'''<br />
::A [[siege]] is a large number of armed and organized attackers that are announced as soon as they appear on the map. The alert message varies by race - the most common being a goblin siege announcement: "A vile force of darkness has arrived!". While siegers are on the map, the word "SIEGE" appears in the top corners of the screen. Siegers are organized into a number of squads, each squad having a different weapon choice. Some sieges bring dangerous creatures to aid the armed attackers. If you are at [[war]] with a civilization, expect annual sieges at least.<br />
<br />
:*'''Enemy archers'''<br />
::Attackers with bows or [[crossbow]]s are worth separate mention as they are much, ''much'' more threatening than those with melee weapons. Out-shooting them with your marksdwarves is risky, as is charging them with inexperienced melee fighters. Well-trained, well-armored melee dwarves or special techniques are recommended to shield your dwarves from the deadly rain of arrows.<br />
<br />
:*'''Building destroyers'''<br />
::Some creatures have the [[Creature token|BUILDINGDESTROYER tag]] in their [[Raw file]]. This gives them the fearful capacity of tearing apart your doors and workshops. Constructions built with the {{k|b}} + {{k|C}} keys are safe, and so are [[bridge]]s.<br />
<br />
:*'''Flying animals'''<br />
::Currently, tame flying animals cannot fly{{bug|4776}}. Thus, the only flying creatures will be either wild animals (e.g. mundane birds, [[roc]]s, some [[titan]]s) or affiliated with a different (usually hostile) civilization (e.g. some [[animal people]], certain [[exotic mount]]s).<br />
<br />
::Melee units sit there and do nothing against flying enemies, slowly losing their teeth from attacks from usually weak fliers like buzzards. Therefore you need to make sure you have flak. Often the case is that the ranged weapons disable the enemy such that they can't fly and the melee units finish them off. This is especially the case with flying Forgotten Beasts.<br />
<br />
:*'''Werebeasts'''<br />
::A [[werebeast]] is a humanoid cursed by a deity to transform into a savage animal form every full moon. When in animal form, they are stealthy (invisible until spotted) and extremely strong, and they avoid traps and can destroy buildings. If a dwarf is bitten by a werebeast in animal form, he may be infected.<br />
<br />
:*'''Vampires'''<br />
::A [[vampire]] is a humanoid cursed by a deity to become a bloodthirsty undead horror. They will disguise themselves as an ordinary dwarf (or other person), with a false name, history, list of relationships, etc. Their immortality gives them plenty of opportunity to practice skills (particularly social ones), so they will often be elected to a position like mayor. Once inside your fortress, they will drink the blood of sleeping dwarves, which is usually fatal. They have enhanced speed, strength, stamina, and pain resistance in combat, and do not need food, water, booze or air (thus cannot be drowned).<br />
<br />
:*'''Megabeasts'''<br />
::A [[megabeast]] is a particularly powerful and dangerous creature, such as a [[dragon]] or [[hydra]]. Megabeasts appear alone, with an alert message that mentions the beast by name. They often have unique characteristics which present unusual challenges, but are universally dangerous.<br />
<br />
:*'''Titans and Forgotten Beasts'''<br />
::[[Titan]]s and [[forgotten beast]]s are similar to megabeasts in terms of size and strength, but are procedurally generated from random creature parts and may have procedurally generated special attacks (such as fire breath or web shooting) as well. Titans and forgotten beasts appear alone, with an alert message that mentions the creature by name. The two are very similar; titans attack from outdoors and forgotten beasts attack through underground caverns, but otherwise they present the same challenge. A titan from a benign biome will not attack your fort.<br />
<br />
:*'''War'''<br />
::Before hitting that {{k|e}} and embarking, {{k|tab}} to civilizations on the pre-embark screen, and see if you are at [[war]] with anyone. If so, things can get hot fast, with more and larger ambushes and sieges, and sooner. This is unusual, but a nasty surprise if you didn't check.<br />
<br />
==Elements of a defense==<br />
<br />
''Dwarf Fortress'' is very open-ended, and any number of defensive, engineering, fortification and military principles that have worked in reality will work in DF. Combine different elements into the defense you want.<br />
<br />
A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moat moat] with a drawbridge is perhaps the simplest defense known to dwarvenkind, and not a bad start. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications Fortifications article on Wikipedia] is also a good source of inspiration. But simply shutting the outside world out and allowing invaders to mill about outside your moat is not always a desirable solution. Enemies will still prevent [[caravan]]s and [[migrant]]s from arriving, will kill [[liaison]]s, and prevent any desired outdoor activities. They may also cause lag by their relentless pathing. In addition, ''Dwarf Fortress'' players often find it enjoyable to perpetrate mass slaughter of invaders rather than helplessly glare at them from inside their caves.<br />
<br />
For this, you will need a more complicated defense than a passive ditch and walls. One common method of defense is to build a walled structure above the entrance to your fortress, stationing Marksdwarves on the second floor overlooking the drawbridge-entrance. Another is to engineer a very long but narrow entrance, at the end of which are [[ballista]]e waiting to unload at unfortunate monsters in the field of fire. The variations are infinite.<br />
<br />
===Physical layout===<br />
These are the [[wall]]s, [[floor]], [[fortification]]s and so on that create the [[archery tower|towers]] and perimeters of your fortress, acting as physical barriers for your dwarves and against threats. However, they always work in conjunction with the other elements. Creative use of layouts can achieve some quite satisfying results.<br />
<br />
For reference, arrow fire is usually about 20 tiles, though stray shots can travel further, and firing from higher elevations actually ''reduces'' the range about 1:1.<br />
<br />
=====Terrain=====<br />
:The lay of the land can be your friend, but the way of the dwarf is to shape the land as needed. Removing [[Ramp|slopes]] can create safe, private terraces and valley walls that prevent all access. Chasms and [[river]]s (not brooks!) create hard barriers, but an open chasm or magma vent can be a source of dangerous creatures. Small hills can serve as vantage points for [[archer]]s (yours or theirs!), but if carved with stairs leading up from within, they can be quick strategic strongpoints. Narrow valleys can become chokepoints for entrances, where your [[marksdwarf]]s can overlook any who come and go. Augmented by [[construction]]s below, the terrain becomes your first option for defense.<br />
<br />
:Do note that as of version 0.40.24 invaders can now climb walls and, in some cases, swim rivers or moats. This limits somewhat the usefulness of natural defences, but with care they can be augmented by [[construction]]s and still provide important first-line defences.<br />
<br />
:Some players take quite a while before their first unpause, using that time to look around and think about the terrain, planning their fortress entrance and envisioning basic defenses.<br />
<br />
=====Walls=====<br />
:Constructing walls around your entrance is the simplest start, and an essential part of fortress defense, but a wall alone is not a complete defense. Currently, no creature can knock down a wall but they can climb on 1 z high walls. Not only does it keep enemies out, your archers can stand on top of the wall and fire down. Keep in mind that this makes them vulnerable to enemy fire. To help protect against that, build [[fortification]]s.<br />
<br />
:Also, keep in mind that flying enemies (such as swarms of birds) can fly over a wall, so you might want to build a ceiling to seal off particularly important areas.<br />
<br />
=====Fortifications=====<br />
:[[Fortification]]s are the marksdwarf's friend. They do not allow passage, but allow hand-held missile weapons to pass through, and are often placed on top of walls for tactical advantage. Projectiles have a chance of being blocked, based on the firer's skill and distance to the fortification. There's no chance of the missile being blocked if the firer is adjacent to the fortification, with increasing chances as any distance increases. Keep your marksdwarves close and keep enemies away - if an enemy archer can walk up to your fortifications, now they're adjacent too, and the fortifications will have zero effect. Build fortified firing platforms above ground level and put a nice wide moat between the wall and the enemy. Fortifications have no effect on [[siege engine]]s.<br />
<br />
:Like Fortifications, Vertical [[Bars]] and Wall [[Grate]] will also allow projectiles to fire through them while impeding units' movement, but these constructions provide no defense - the missile fire works both ways equally. Unlike Fortifications, Bars and Grates may be connected to a [[Lever]], and opened or closed remotely - thus, they are good for forming a portcullis.<br />
<br />
:: Consider a wall of fortifications, then further away from your fort a wall of Bars. Your marksmen are always adjacent to the Fortifications however the enemies can only ever get as a close as the bar wall. While the wall doesn't offer any extra protection it does stop the enemy at the fortification problem. Also can be achieved by a ditch in front of the fortification.<br />
<br />
:Now that dwarfs can climb 1z walls, it is possible for dwarfs hiding behind fortifications to dodge ''over'' said fortifications when they come under enemy fire, even if that enemy fire is coming from the far side of the fortification. If you happen to have lava moat on the far side of your fortifications, this can lead to unforeseen Fun.<br />
<br />
=====Doors (& Hatches)=====<br />
:[[Door]]s are the simplest way to keep an enemy out. (A [[floor hatch]] in this sense is just a [[Z-level|Z-axis]] door, and in most ways works the same.) Most creatures will be stopped by any door or hatch, though some others can smash them. With a little tinkering, doors can be made 3 tiles wide or more, but this remains mostly for aesthetics without much practical use, as [[caravan|wagons]] will still not be able to pass them. You can [[forbid]] doors to keep (most) hostile humanoids and creatures out, and your dwarves in. <br />
<br />
:Additionally doors can specifically be closed only against animals, to keep beloved [[pet]]s from wandering into enemy fire (they may pile up at the door and use the chance to slip out with a dwarf). <br />
<br />
:Forbidding all doors and entrances breaks the pathfinding of enemies, making them lurk at the map border where they entered, which can be quite inconvenient in the case of an invisible ambush that then rushes at your fort in just the moment your civilian dwarves move out to, say, cut trees.<br />
<br />
=====Floodgates=====<br />
:[[Floodgate]]s, alone or in a line, may be used as removable walls since they need no support and disappear when "opened" remotely, although using a wide drawbridge will be much more economical in terms of materials and [[mechanism]]s. (Be aware that [[building destroyer]]s can batter down closed floodgates, and ''any object'' can prevent a floodgate from closing again, even a single, stray crossbow bolt or [[monarch butterfly]] remains.)<br />
<br />
:A floodgate can be used just like a door, with two differences: A floodgate can be placed anywhere, unlike a door, which needs to be adjacent to a wall. A floodgate is closed by default, and can only be opened with a lever. Be careful not to trap your dwarves.<br />
<br />
=====[[Moat]]s=====<br />
:Channeling a ditch is a fast and effective defense. Creating an effective moat requires several steps, including designating ramp removal. The moat doesn't have to be filled with water or magma. A dry moat is actually a better defense than a water-filled moat, because many creatures can swim across a water-filled moat. If you want to build an access/escape route for your moat, consider where it leads - the enemy might use that too. <br />
<br />
:Keep in mind that moats filled with water will freeze periodically in Temperate climates. This can work against you, letting the enemy cross it with ease and waltz right up to your defenses, but they can also work in your favor if the enemy happens to be swimming or treading on it as it freezes or thaws, respectively. A compromise would be if the moat and wall combination had at least five z-levels (preferably block walls) to climb above the water level; then the enemy would still have to climb. <br />
<br />
:A moat cuts off access for your dwarves as well, so a [[bridge]], one that raises or retracts, is usually included in the design. But a moat with a non-retractable bridge is still potentially useful; it keeps enemy archers away from your fortifications and it channels enemies into a narrow and potentially trap-ridden path.<br />
<br />
=====[[Bridge|Bridges]]=====<br />
:Bridges come in three forms - a permanent construction ''(e.g. a [[floor]] constructed over a void)'', a retractable bridge, and a drawbridge. The latter two types have a maximum size of 10x10 (including one solid "anchor" line of tiles at the base), and require linking to a lever before they are raised, lowered, or retracted. Until they are linked and moved, bridges will act as mere floor tiles.<br />
<br />
:A raising or retracting bridge over a deep trench is a simple and ''nearly'' air-tight defense - only flying creatures can pass over it. The raised bridge also blocks arrow fire for anything behind it. [[Channel]]s may be dug to form ditches or moats; be aware of what might exist or be planned for the next [[z-level]] down. For defensive purposes they do not need to be filled with anything - as in the middle ages, a dry ditch is more than enough to prevent ground units from approaching (though of course, projectiles may be launched over it with impunity). With a retracting [[bridge]] over the moat, any units or items on top of the bridge will be dropped into the moat (and, if the moat is filled with water, drown unless they can swim out; if it is filled with magma, they burn to death.)<br />
<br />
:Bridges can throw creatures if they are caught standing on them when the bridge is raised or retracted. They are tossed some distance in a random direction, possibly injuring them upon their landing. Creatures underneath a drawbridge when it is lowered are [[Dwarven Atom Smasher|utterly annihilated]], making bridges a potential weapon.<br />
<br />
:A drawbridge functions as a wall when it is in the "raised" position, sealing the passage one z-level it raises against. However, this doesn't work with retracting bridges. A raising drawbridge functions as big remote control door, sealing an entrance when it is "up". Consider this when choosing the direction a drawbridge will raise. As for its value as a door, an actual [[door]] activates automatically and immediately and is more suitable for smaller-scale one-tile passageways, whereas for your drawbridge "door", you will have to manually assign level pulling jobs to open and close it.<br />
<br />
:There are three important things to remember:<br />
:# Always build the bridge to raise towards the ''inside'' (so that it completes your wall).<br />
:# The [[lever]] has to be pulled by a civilian or off-duty militiadwarf, not a full-time soldier.<br />
:# Water can freeze solid in cold weather, therefore the moat your bridge crosses over becomes solid terrain.<br />
<br />
:Also, some rare creatures can cross fluids, even magma. Nothing but flying creatures can get out of a channel.<br />
<br />
====Remote control====<br />
:*'''Barriers'''<br />
::If you link a [[lever]] to a door, hatch cover or floodgate, it becomes impossible for your dwarves to open and close it normally. Pulling the lever is the only way to open it. This keeps your dwarves locked in as well as keeping enemies out. (It's unknown if [[thief|thieves]] can bypass a closed door once it's linked to a lever or pressure plate.) There is often a frustrating delay between ordering a lever pulled and when a dwarf pulls it, and another shorter one between pulling the lever and the barrier responding.<br />
<br />
::Any item or creature in an open barrier at the moment it tries to close will not only prevent that barrier from closing, but that "close" signal will be lost. Any lever will have to be pulled twice more - to reset to "open", and then to (try to) close again. This is not the case with drawbridges, which crush anything and everything below them when they close.<br />
<br />
:*'''Automated barriers & traps'''<br />
::You can automate a barrier or trap by using a [[pressure plate]] instead of a lever, but there are complications there. Unless the 'Citizen' setting is set, only "enemies" or wild creatures will trigger a pressure plate; your dwarves and tame animals can walk on it all day long. If the 'Citizen' setting is set, dwarves, diplomats, traders, and tame animals can also activate the pressure plate. No device, trap or barrier, can be constructed in a tile where a pressure plate is - that is the only constructed object that can be there. But with creativity, this can still be a powerful addition to your fortress defense.<br />
<br />
===Traps===<br />
:''Full article: [[Trap design]]<br />
<br />
Walls, bridges and fortifications provide barriers that stop intruders. However, the easiest way to ''kill'' intruders is to use [[trap]]s. A line of traps can wipe out an entire ambush, and inflict significant damage on a siege. However, be aware that a design using vast numbers of traps has the potential to take some of the [[fun]] and challenge out of the game - use accordingly. Also, some creatures avoid traps (kobolds, forgotten beasts) and will simply walk right over them with impunity, unless they fall unconscious or get webbed while on one.<br />
<br />
===Defensive Engineering===<br />
There are several types of [[trap]]s that a [[mechanic]] can place in a single tile and that target a single creature, but there are larger, more complex traps that only you can design, using [[lever]]s, [[pressure plate]]s or other constructions. The limiting factor is your own imagination. Some examples of the more common designs include:<br />
<br />
====The drowning chamber====<br />
Take reservoir filled with water, and put a retracting bridge over it. When enemies are on the bridge, retract it -- they will fall (or be flung) into the water and drown. Variant one: use magma instead of water. Variant two: trap the enemies in a room and then flood it.<br />
<br />
If you allow a way to remove the water temporarily, you can even retrieve their [[:goblinite|belongings]] for your own use.<br />
<br />
====The dodge-em trap====<br />
One of the disadvantages of the weapon trap is that skilled or lucky enemies can dodge the pointy bits. The dodge-em trap uses the targets' dodging ability against them. Create a narrow, elevated walkway with empty space on the sides. Place weapon traps on the walkway. The goal of the weapon traps is not to kill the enemy, but rather, to make the enemy ''dodge'' -- typically into the open space on one side of the walkway. [[Gravity]] takes over at that point, and the deceleration trauma at the end of the trip has the final say. The higher the walkway is, and the more dense the floor material at the landing site, the more damage the enemies will take upon impact.<br />
<br />
Using lots of low-power weapons (such as training spears or spiked wooden balls) in the traps can increase the chances of forcing a dodge, rather than impaling the enemy ''in situ'' and [[Trap#Weapon_Trap|jamming]] the trap.<br />
<br />
Don't let your dwarves engage the enemy in melee on the walkway. Your dwarves will dodge and fall.... Firing crossbow bolts at enemies on the walkway from behind fortifications is fine, though.<br />
<br />
===Military===<br />
:''Full article: [[Military]]<br />
<br />
A [[training|trained]], [[weapon|armed]], and [[armor]]ed [[military]] is the only way to bring the fight to the enemy. Building defenses to keep them safe is easy - keeping your military ready and in position is the tricky part. <br />
<br />
A sufficiently large military can be used as a reactive force to rescue ambushed dwarves and safeguard the passage of caravans through unknown dangers, or even to sally out and meet a sieging force ''mano a mano''. The disadvantages are many -- soldiers must physically move to the conflict zone which may be many screens away from the nearest entrance to your fortress, by which point dwarven lives may have already been lost. Training is slow and erratic unless carefully micromanaged (or unless a [[danger room]] is employed). On-duty dwarves will not retreat under any circumstances, and ''hold your position'' is way beyond their tactical ability, so battles may quickly spill out of your control. Therefore, keeping a lot of dwarves in a squad will increase your odds of survival when someone picks a fight with a pack of [[undead|zombie]] [[troglodyte]]s. Dwarves are also failure-prone -- even when not injured, they need time off for sleeping, eating and drinking.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, a military force gives you options not available any other way. See [[military design]] for various possibilities.<br />
<br />
===Early warning===<br />
Some threats (sieges, titans, ...) are announced upon arrival, but others are sneaky. Thus, it's helpful to detect the more subtle threats before they start gutting everyone in your library.<br />
<br />
Some animals (see below) make excellent, albeit expendable, sentries. In the case of building destroyers, you can set up statues, doors, and other furniture. These may serve not only as alerts, giving you a notification when a statue is toppled, but also as lures or delays. While the enemy is distracted by all the pretty doors, you have time to get your military into position.<br />
<br />
===Animals===<br />
Any animal (or dwarf) can act as a sentry - if a hidden enemy comes close to them, that enemy may be revealed (depending on the sentry's [[Observer]] skill). If that happens, an [[announcement]] is generated and the game is paused. Most animals aren't strong enough to take more than one armored goblin warrior, and enemies with bows are even worse. The real purpose of guard animals is to spot thieves. Anything will do here, even a kitten will do the job, and some players prefer not to risk a useful animal. You can also use this as opportunity to [[pasture]] some unwanted pets in strategic locations.<br />
<br />
Guard animals are a good second line of defense in open entrances after your traps. A wardog can usually tear a thief apart, and will (briefly) delay goblin warriors while you respond. Also, the death of any animal will be [[announcement|announced]] (but the game will not pause), alerting you to the threat if you were not already aware of it. (Note - Some [[tame]]d animals will not fight goblins!)''<br />
<br />
Most enemies will go after your animals just as blindly as they attack your dwarves. An expendable chained animal can bait enemies into dangerous passages, even into places unconnected to your fortress. Such an animal chained out on the far side of the map can alert you to ambushes that start there before they threaten your local dwarves.<br />
<br />
[[Restraint|Restrain]] animals in narrow corridors (width 1 or 2), or in matched pairs against the walls of 3-wide corridors, preferably in places where enemy archers can't easily fire at them.<br />
<br />
Or, if you feel like being <strike>evil</strike> resourceful, you could attempt to get a dragon (good luck), and watch as goblins run towards it and get burned to ashes. (Be careful not to ignite your dwarves!)<br />
<br />
===Siege engines===<br />
:''Full article: [[Siege engine]]<br />
<br />
Siege engines take some planning to use effectively, and have a range of about 100 tiles compared to a crossbow's 20 or so. Both catapults and ballistae can be very deadly, but both have their drawbacks -- they take time to reload and can only hit targets at the same z-level, and they are woefully inaccurate in the hands of unskilled operators or when loaded with low-quality bolts. Furthermore, they're manned by civilians, who will abandon their posts should the enemy get too close.<br />
<br />
==Considerations==<br />
Now you know what you might face, and what cards you have in your hand. To that we add complications, things that make defense so much [[fun]]...<br />
<br />
===Surface jobs===<br />
There are many times when dwarfs want to work on the surface. [[Wood cutting]], [[Herbalist|gathering plants]], [[hunting]], [[fishing]], [[mining]] exposed [[vein]]s or [[gem]]s, building defenses or other structures, [[grower|growing]] above-ground [[crop]]s, [[Health care|helping wounded comrades]] or recovering dropped items are only the most likely. Often they are alone and vulnerable to [[creature|wild beasts]] or [[ambush]]es.<br />
<br />
[[Burrow]]s are one option to handle civilian eagerness, but only [[squads|soldiers]] can currently be broken up by burrow - civilians are all grouped into the same category, so when you try to restrict civilians to one burrow to stop them from going outside, you should make sure they can still access the whole of your fort (especially if it's still expanding). You can try to wall in huge areas of the map, possibly with drawbridge gates that can open for caravans, but the larger the area, the vaster the project, the further your dwarves will be from existing defenses, and the more time they will spend working above ground. <br />
<br />
Making smaller enclosures in key areas with underground tunnels leading to them can be an easier first step. Likewise, tunneling to the inside of an exposed vein of ore keeps your miners sealed from the outside until you are prepared to mine the last tiles, possibly after placing doors or walls just inside that tunnel. Having military stationed or patrolling nearby is another option.<br />
<br />
* '''Burrows.''' Making effective use of the burrow system, it's very easy to set a safe place designated as an emergency burrow and restrict civilians to it. Setting that alert state when there are enemies about causes your dwarves to immediately run to the emergency burrow and stay there until the alert is turned off.<br />
<br />
* '''Lock the front doors.''' It takes a truly airtight fortress to keep the entrance open while there are still enemies outside. If there's even one exit, your dwarves will use it. Try testing this while it's safe: Raise the bridges, just like you would in a siege, and designate some trees for cutting. If there's a way out, your woodcutters will find it.<br />
<br />
* '''Forbid dropped equipment and corpses.''' Mark every item on the battlefield as [[forbidden]]. This includes any items dropped by dead merchants or scuttled wagons. You can have this done automatically for dwarf and enemy corpses and inventories in the '''orders''' {{key|o}} menu at the '''forbid options''' {{key|F}}.<br />
<br />
* '''Delete stockpiles and turn off tombs.''' As a preemptive measure, you can easily delete your Graveyard [[stockpile]]s. Dwarves don't haul things if there's no stockpile to place them in. Turning off or removing [[coffin]]s stops burials as well. <br />
<br />
* '''Keep them busy.''' Make a bunch of busy-work for your dwarves, just to keep them underground. It's not perfect but it helps. Time to re-organize your stockpiles.<br />
<br />
===Water sources===<br />
Access to [[water]] can be vital. Wounded dwarves need water, so if there's not an underground water source you'll lose valuable soldiers to thirst. Try to have a [[well]] or [[reservoir]] your dwarves can use safely. Remember to keep an extra [[bucket]] or two available.<br />
<br />
Some water sources are good locations for [[fishing]], providing food during longer sieges.<br />
<br />
===Civilians trapped outdoors===<br />
Anything that blocks intruders will also block your dwarves. This can cause the problem of dwarves being trapped outside with the enemy, and the enemy ''will'' find them. Having more than one entrance can be useful here, but each requires adequate defenses - the weakest link and all that. If you make these entrances accessible by drawbridge only, with a (short) moat outside that, and keep the drawbridge up most of the time, having lots of entrances shouldn't be too much of a problem.<br />
<br />
===Trade depot & caravans===<br />
Factoring in 3-tile wide access to the [[trade depot]] adds a layer of complexity. Letting merchants in while keeping enemies out requires a careful balance. The merchants can reveal ambushes and thieves like any other creature, and their arrival is frequently accompanied by an ambush or a [[siege]]. If the merchants run into an enemy squad, they can be slaughtered before reaching your doors, and that hurts your reputation (as well as possibly causing your civilian dwarfs to want to go running out and collect their dropped items). Consider sending heavily armored escorts when expecting a caravan (usually the middle of the third month of each season, except winter). Unless it's an elven caravan, it will have some guards escorting it, and you can take advantage of the distraction to attack an enemy from both sides, but keep in mind that if the merchants themselves are under attack, they will flee.<br />
<br />
You will possibly want to build the depot inside your walls/defenses with retractable-/draw-[[bridge]]s, so you can seal an enemy out while you conduct your trading. Keeping the Depot at the center of the map also lets your dwarfs drag things to it faster, and leaves it to the caravan to do the hauling.<br />
<br />
A common trade depot design involves ''two'' separately sealable paths: one from the outside to the depot, and the other from the depot to the inside of the fortress. This "airlock" design helps keep your inner fortress safe even if the trade depot becomes compromised.<br />
<br />
The Depot Access command ({{k|D}}) shows three-tile-wide paths a caravan's wagons can take. Caravans ''still appear where those paths meet the edge of the map'', even if they have no wagons (elves don't use them). By choosing a brook bed recessed into the ground, or building floors to block travel around the edge of the map, it is possible to keep a caravan path only a few squares wide at the edge of the board, which is completely separate from all other visitors to the map. In this way you can leave the path to your Depot open all the time with virtually no risk from sieges and random creatures unless they enter one of those few squares.<br />
<br />
===Branching corridors===<br />
Enemies will take the most direct path to your fortress, (even if it's not very direct at all). You can use this to your advantage. Have two paths to the fortress: a long, twisting, three-wide road, and a shorter, one tile wide, trap-filled passage. Attackers will usually prefer the short and deadly path. This makes a good line of fire for a ballista, too.<br />
<br />
Alternately, you can have a primary, convenient, direct 3-wide path to your fortress open most of the time, with a convoluted detour that is forced (by drawbridges) only during sieges, lined with traps and overseen by marksdwarves. The possibilities are infinite.<br />
<br />
===Levers===<br />
Be careful where you place the [[lever]]s controlling your various entrances, traps and other defenses. Or any lever at all, for that matter. Make sure they are either central or close to locations of idle dwarfs, or both - near a [[Activity zone|meeting area]] or bedrooms of [[nobles]] is often a good plan. Make sure that the entire path to each lever is [[underground]] or your dwarves might be unable to reach them if told to stay in certain warrens (test this during peacetime!) Try putting all your defense-related levers in a single room, perhaps down a staircase from your meeting area, and put a door (or hatch) on the entrance(s). Then you can lock your lever-puller inside to ensure rapid response time. <br />
<br />
Another solution to the problem of rapid response time is to make your lever room double as a [[Screw pump|pump]] room. Pumping is a good way to build up your dwarves' [[attribute]]s regardless of whether the pump is doing work or not. If you want a dedicated lever operator or three, turn off all their labors except pumping, and set the pumps up so that they can be operated exclusively by your dedicated lever operators. Rotate these positions every so often so the attribute gain will be distributed among multiple dwarves.<br />
<br />
For the truly ambitious, the lever room could be spread over multiple levels, and the pumps could work together to power one or more artificial [[waterfall]]s. (Waterfalls work well in this case because their operation is not fortress-critical, and your dwarves like the mist they produce.)<br />
<br />
Use [[Note]]s to label each lever and attached device and trap clearly - if you come back to a game after a week and can't remember your levers, they are useless (or, worse, <s>dangerous</s> [[Fun]]!) Color code your levers with different color [[mechanism]]s if that works for you.<br />
<br />
==General Suggestions==<br />
<br />
===First concerns===<br />
<br />
====Pre-embark decisions====<br />
Defense starts before the game does, at embark when you're choosing your location, your dwarves' starting skill mixes, and your starting equipment and supplies. If you expect trouble (an evil biome, perhaps), then it can be crucial to bring at least one axe. Picks make decent weapons. A supply of wood means you don't have to chop trees for a while, and similarly a few simple stone (a few [[bauxite]] can't hurt) allows you to make immediate workshops even before your miner has swung her pick. While an untrained dwarf can usually wrestle most small and medium beasts, one unarmored (semi-)military dwarf with an axe or crossbow can be a big edge against most early threats.<br />
<br />
For most starts, unless your embark location is very close to the mouth of an open [[volcano]] or you are starting in an [[evil]] biome, there should be no serious immediate threats. Unless you are at [[war]] with a civilization (visible on the pre-embark screen), sieges and ambushes don't start until you've created some wealth, the first winter at the earliest. So wild animals are your only concern, predators that might prey on lone dwarfs and thieving animals that will target your valuables.<br />
<br />
====Striking the earth====<br />
First, look around. At the terrain, at the animals present. Scan the {{k|u}} menu before un-pausing the game at the start, and regularly. More animals will enter the map, constantly and without warning, so keep an eye on visitors.<br />
<br />
One of your first priorities is to get things underground or otherwise secure, to prevent rot but also to prevent theft. Carving out a channel/moat, or removing the slopes to a hill, or building a wall, or a combination of those will work fine, but better if you don't have an unwanted entrance to wall up later. Soil is very fast to dig out, and just as strong against enemies, but may not be desirable for a later, mature fortress. Balance convenience against your long-range plans and visible threats. <br />
<br />
Consider and plan the entrance to your fortress - perhaps a ramp leading down, or a tunnel into the side of a hill or cliff. A long, narrow entrance (a valley and/or tunnel) allows you to control it, with archers, with traps, with a siege engine at the end. It gives you time to prepare your military. However, it also means that your dwarves will have to walk that entire distance every time they enter and leave your fortress, and be that much further from help should they need it. Entrances vary from a few tiles to many dozens. Start with something smaller for now, but plan on how to develop the entrance you want later.<br />
<br />
An L-bend, or several, or drops in z-level may provide better security, or a firing platform for siege engines and/or archers. Many complex traps involve several levels beneath the entrance (for drainage of liquids or other diabolical purposes.) Using some of the principles above, it might look something like this...<br />
<br />
####################<br />
(a)? (-trap ...#<br />
? area-) . .# (A's/SE)<br />
################...#<br />
# #<br />
#D D#<br />
# # <br />
<Inner Fortress> <sub>(Not to Scale)</sub><br />
<br />
(a) = bait animal, on [[restraint]]<br />
# = tunnel walls, above-ground walls, valley walls with slopes removed, and/or channels<br />
? = ramp up, drawbridge, moat, defensive structures, or combination of all<br />
traps = mechanic's traps and/or complex death traps, as you wish.<br />
...<br />
. . = area open to sky, to prevent "dwarves staying inside" from archers outside entrance<br />
...<br />
D = wardog on [[restraint]]<br />
(A's/SE) = future site for archers and/or [[siege engine]]s (planning ahead)<br />
<br />
The above might be longer or shorter, partially or entirely above or below ground, or have more turns. The "inner fortress" might only be a Trade Depot, with another similar entryway behind that. Instead of the turn, it might drop a level and dive below the sight of the Siege Engines. Since the first caravan won't arrive for at least 6 months, you can dig a 1-tile wide tunnel for now, or a staircase, and then dig out to another location for a more formal entrance. This is only a very rough, very simple example of combining possibilities.<br />
<br />
====It's mine!====<br />
Consider how you will secure your valuables, your entrance, and any land you want to claim as "dwarf only" - by channeling, removing the slopes from nearby hills, maybe walls? At first, consider including at least enough above-ground terrain for any [[farm plot]]s and [[Activity zone|meeting area]]s. This could perhaps be as small as a 5x5 walled enclosure, or be multiple compounds, but some players aim at claiming (most of) the entire map. Any barrier limits your dwarfs, but keeps enemies out until you have your fortress up and running at a basic level and are prepared to respond properly. Due to thieves' ability to get past locked doors, and a caravan needing a path that's 3-wide, you won't be able to create a hard "gate" that you can open and shut until you have a [[mechanic's workshop]] and some [[mechanism]]s for levers, to link to a [[drawbridge]].<br />
<br />
====Inside vs. outside====<br />
Not "above ground" vs "subterranean", but the border where the inside of your fortress starts, what you claim as "yours" vs "out there". Some fortresses just have one main gate, some try to own the entire map. Some have an "airlock", a middle ground (remembering multiple, layered defenses!) where a Trade Depot is kept, that visitors can access and is protected, but then a deeper, even more secure inner fortress - think of a castle courtyard - inside the walls but not yet inside the castle itself. A safe zone for friends, still unfriendly for enemies but taking extra precautions against full intrusion.<br />
<br />
This can be above ground or deep underground, a direct line or a maze of z-levels - that's all up to you, how much work you think "security" is worth. Hey, it's not like ''you'' have to do the heavy lifting.<br />
<br />
That line of defense - any line - can be passive (walls and barriers and traps only) or active, with military, either on permanent duty or with stations to report to when activated. Use remote controlled bridges to create movable walls and closed gates or open hidden moats to reroute visitors, enemies and/or your dwarves depending on the situation, so there is no one "configuration", but several different options all side by side.<br />
<br />
====Mechanic's traps====<br />
Traps are a good friend for the starting player. We're talking the simple traps that a mechanic places - complex death traps are up to you. Stone traps are a good start - they're easy, effective against all but the biggest creatures, and ammo is plentiful if you're mining in stone. When goblins show, they can number less than a dozen to start, but grow over time. Start with a row in an early chokepoint, maybe your entry hall or outside it, make that one row into a few, and go from there. But lead your target - count on the next attack being larger than the last.<br />
<br />
If you want to breed monkeys for skin, bone and meat, or amuse yourself with live goblins, a row or five of cage traps at the very entrance of your fort would be a good start. Leave room for this when you place your stone traps - killing the monkeys first won't allow live monkeys to be caged. (You still get the meat & etc. from those corpses, just not breeding stock.)<br />
<br />
As your dwarfs create weapons, or you trade for them, or (later) as you [[goblinite|gather]] those of your fallen enemies, [[Trap#Weapon_Trap|weapon traps]] will become attractive. There is no hard rule or formula for all this - be creative.<br />
<br />
====Complex traps====<br />
Between levers, pressure plates, water and magma, much [[fun]] can be had. But this article won't deal with any specifics. (See [[Trap design]] for those.) We will say - plan ahead. Think about what you might want to do, and leave ample room for it, in all 3 dimensions.<br />
<br />
====Military====<br />
To start, you will probably have few if any full-time military standing guard over your dwarfs - there is just too much to do at first, and serious threats are (hopefully) several seasons away. If you are going to make weapons and armor, have stockpiles near where your draftees work and rest, perhaps near an entrance/exit, but not so close that it might get over-run before your dwarfs can equip. Eventually you might have perhaps a quarter (or more or less) of your dwarfs as full-time military, and they'll need a barracks where they will sleep and practice, archery ranges if that's their weapon of choice, and quick, safe routes to their battle stations or patrol areas. When to begin a full-time military presence is personal choice and influenced by your game situation, but plan on eventually having them live and practice near where they will be fighting as much as possible. See [[Military design]] for a more complete discussion on planning and deploying military and militia.<br />
<br />
==Different philosophies==<br />
There are many, ''many'' ways to play DF. Some players play hard and tight, and some fast and loose. Some take no risks and protect every last dwarf and cat, and others happily leave a highway of dwarf and animal bodies for the next immigration wave to follow. Some live for the slaughter of ASCII goblins, and others for the mega-project. No one "defense" will serve everyone's tastes. Don't forget that you can reclaim lost forts, so don't feel all is lost if your fort falls.<br />
<br />
===Losing is fun===<br />
There is no final "win" in ''Dwarf Fortress'', no end point or Easter egg that says "Congratulations!" - it just keeps going, until, inevitably and unavoidably, you will lose. That's part of the game. So it's all about how you play until then, and finding your type of fun in that process. <br />
<br />
==="Fun" vs. security===<br />
It's not hard to create an acre of traps that, realistically, simply no threats can survive. If you want to pursue a megaproject (that is not a defensive trap) in peace and security, this may be a good plan. However, if you look forward to the military end of things, then you want to allow, or at least be able to invite combat at your choosing. Inexperienced players are recommended to use the hall-of-traps entryway, at least to start. Many experienced players challenge themselves by limiting their use of simple traps, or other voluntary handicaps. It's all about what you think is [[fun]]. To prevent ambushes and sieges altogether, <code>[INVADERS:NO]</code> can be set in [[d_init.txt]].<br />
<br />
===Turtling===<br />
The fewer surface jobs your dwarves have to run, the less exposed they will be to potential harm. There are a number of ways to reduce surface exposure while keeping your fortress well-stocked:<br />
* Hunting requires chasing animals across the map, almost invariably far from home. For maximum safety, you're better off disabling your hunters.<br />
* Woodcutting requires trees to chop down, and trees grow on the surface. Once you discover the [[cavern]]s, you can build [[Tree farming|tree farm]]s underground to solve your wood needs.<br />
* Grazing livestock require grassy pastures. Again, once you discover the caverns, you can likewise establish pastures underground, on well-grown underground floor.<br />
* Giving water to the wounded requires fresh water. Internalize your water supply with a [[well]].<br />
* [[Caravan]]s need to get in while ambushers and siegers need to stay out. Using the fact that wagons need a three-tile-wide path to your trade depot, you can place strategic constructions around the map to force them to always take one easily-defended route.<br />
<br />
==See also==<br />
:*[[Siege engine]]<br />
<br />
{{Military}}<br />
<br />
{{Category|Guides}}<br />
{{Category|Fortress defense}}<br />
{{Category|Design}}<br />
[[ru:Defense guide]]</div>99.43.136.249https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Design_strategies&diff=256465Design strategies2021-01-29T07:47:10Z<p>99.43.136.249: updating broken links from previous edit</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Quality|Exceptional|13:23, 18 July 2014 (UTC)}}<br />
{{av}}<br />
<br />
There are at least three basic factors to consider when designing your fort.<br />
* '''Security:''' Every fort needs some basic [[Security design|security]] measures. Otherwise you won't survive the first [[elephant]] attack, much less a full-blown [[Siege|goblin siege]].<br />
* '''Efficiency:''' Whether hauling rocks, making a booze run, or just checking the contents of a cabinet, dwarves do a lot of walking. A good fortress layout -- especially the proper placement of workshops and stockpiles -- can significantly reduce the time your dwarves spend walking.<br />
* '''Aesthetics:''' Hey, everybody wants a fortress that looks good.<br />
<br />
In addition to the considerations above, it's also important to remember that long-term design strategies can easily be disrupted by the discovery of underground terrain features. Don't plan ''too'' far ahead, as you might need to adapt to unforeseen obstacles.<br />
<br />
Also, there are several [[Main:Blueprint Library|design idioms]] of common usage like [[pump stack]]s.<br />
<br />
==Security==<br />
Everyone will have their own preferences regarding fortress defense and how to deal with undead, wildlife, hostiles and goblin invaders. Regardless of specifics, it's important to have a plan for dealing with the several different types of inevitable attacks. A few security tips are given below.<br />
<br />
The single most important thing to remember is that in an emergency, your dwarves will be too panicked to react to orders. Prepare for every type of threat (both military and engineering, in the form of floods or other [[Fun]]) ''before'' it finds you, or it will be too late. <br />
<br />
===Walls===<br />
[[Wall]]s are, by far and away, the single most powerful tool you have to combat enemies. Walls are currently invincible against any known force but the mighty dwarven [[pick]]. Putting a wall between your vulnerable and valuable civilians (and the others, too, why not?) and the things trying to kill them is the highest priority you have. <br />
<br />
Building walls can take time and micromanagement, but building a maze (and stuffing it with traps) is a good way to slow invaders down, especially if you get forewarning from scouts. The longer invaders take to reach you, the more time you have to get your militia in place. However, since the advent of [[climb]]ing, keep in mind that just having 1-z-level walls are not enough. Place [[fortifications]] at the tops to stop climbers.<br />
<br />
Digging ditches/[[moat]]s, then removing the ramps can also be useful as a faster method of creating impassable terrain for non-fliers, which have the added advantage of allowing [[Crossbowman|marksdwarves]] to shoot over them. Easier still is just using the "natural walls" of a hill, and removing all the ramps on one side or the other of the hill while building walls between the gaps. Climbing, however, makes this not enough for all circumstances. Either carve or build unclimbable [[fortifications]], or else dig another z-level down, and then dig two tiles under the rim of your platform to create an overhang that is impossible to climb. <br />
<br />
Excavating fortresses by digging them out naturally creates walls, and makes for easy defenses, since it is far easier to designate for digging than to build a wall. Enclosed caves are also proof against flying monsters. At first, you might simply dig into a wall and put up a door, but consider making a large, extended underground tunnel, or preferably several tunnels, all of which can be locked down, and then walling over your initial entrance so that you can force enemies to approach your fort on your terms, and at a time and place of your choosing. If defenses in one tunnel don't work, lock it down, and leave a different one open, so that they have to run back through your killzone to try approaching a different one.<br />
<br />
===Lockdown===<br />
Have a way to lock down your fortress. In the event of an attack by hostiles you can't handle, you need a way to lock them out. This can buy you some time while your dwarves prepare their defenses.<br />
<br />
For small forts, this could be as simple as placing [[door]]s at all the entrances to your fort. Doors can be locked instantly in an emergency. Don't rely on doors alone for security, though, as you'll eventually encounter enemies that can [[Building destroyer|break down doors]] and [[Thief|pick locks]].<br />
<br />
Doors are important even within your fortress. [[Tantrum]]ing dwarves are the bane of every established fort. Having a way to segregate your dwarves so that they don't run into a dwarf on a rampage can save whole forts, much less individual lives. Doors can also stop flooding, and act as bulkheads that isolate breaches if you accidentally flood your fort. Having secondary hallways to route around problem areas is also a sound strategy for making doubly sure your fortress can survive a breach of defenses. If everything in your fort must travel through a single hallway or central staircase, anything that reaches that point can almost be guaranteed to kill your fort.<br />
<br />
For more security, place [[Bridge|drawbridges]] at all the entrances. You don't need a moat; the bridge itself is sufficient since it functions as a wall when raised. Just be sure to connect it to a [[lever]] that your dwarves can access quickly ''and safely'' in an emergency. Unfortunately, even drawbridges can be rendered inoperable in rare circumstances....<br />
<br />
To have a dwarf ready to pull a lever in case of an ambush it's best to place them near the meeting hall. You can also make dedicated leverdwarves by turning off all their labors and assigning the levers to them. [[Vampires]] and [[necromancer]]s are very good for this job, as they do not require sleep, however their [[mood]] may be a problem because they will not drink anything. To avoid this, make sure you have a tavern keeper to give them alcohol.<br />
<br />
<br />
Finally, don't forget about attackers from above and below! <br />
Flying attackers might use skylights to bypass your doors and drawbridges. [[Farming|Farms]], even "aboveground" farms, can be placed underground with exploits, but some of the best [[tree]]s grow aboveground. Use drawbridges on even the walled-in exits to the surface in case of [[giant kea]]s or [[roc]]s. <br />
<br />
Swimming beasts might crawl up through your [[well]]. It is best to use water from sources that are completely walled off from the outside world, like a [[reservoir]] fed by an [[aquifer]]. You can also use a [[screw pump]] pulling through a floor [[grate]] to prevent hostiles (and [[building destroyer]]s) from swimming into your fortress. (The same holds doubly true for magma cisterns.)<br />
<br />
Creating multiple entrances that can be locked down can force an invasion to stop in its tracks, reverse course, and march all the way around the map to get access to your fort. Repeatedly yanking the drawbridge up, forcing them to go back to a different entrance, and letting that drawbridge back down while pulling up the one the assault was going for then can keep an invasion in limbo for a very long time, giving sleeping or drinking milita dwarves a chance to get their act together, or to let a repeater spike [[trap]] murder everything on the 12th pass.<br />
<br />
===Scouts===<br />
Ambushes and thieves can sneak up on your fortress. A party of goblin archers might sneak past your main gate before being spotted, or a kobold could make off with your masterpiece crafts when nobody is looking. The way to avoid these unfortunate events is to use scouts / lookouts.<br />
<br />
For small forts, effective scouting could be as simple as [[Restraint|tying]] a [[Dog|war dog]] (or even a donkey) up near the entrance of your fort. In the event of an ambush the animal will spot the attackers (shortly before dying). If your scouts are far enough from your main gate then you ought to have enough warning to lock down the fort, activate the militia, etc.<br />
<br />
For more established forts, placing any sort of non-eating domestic animal in a 1-tile pasture on top of a grate that allows it to look downwards, or behind windows from a single z-level above the hallways protects your stalwart watch-geese so that you don't have to keep sending out more replacement dogs. Save the good war animals for a "Doberman Bomb" (cage linked to a release lever) that unleashes dozens of animals on invaders at once, rather than letting the invaders murder your dogs one at a time.<br />
<br />
===Caravan security===<br />
Is your trade depot going to be inside or outside your main line of defenses? This is another factor to consider when designing your fort. Although you don't have to protect the traders, their [[civilization]]s might hold your fortress responsible for any casualties.<br />
<br />
Consider that merchants may go [[insane]] if kept in place, or if they get affected with a [[syndrome]], so it is possibly best to have a means of segregating the rest of your fort from the trade depot, like a drawbridge-wall. At the same time, you need to load goods into and out of the depot quickly, so it should be near major stockpiles and where your haulers usually spend their time.<br />
<br />
A [[caravan]] needs a 3-tile-wide entrance (preferably a [[road]] where you aren't placing traps to prevent a [[tree]] from growing in the path) so they tend to complicate defenses. Consider using a retractable drawbridge to allow/disallow certain entrance and exit routes from your fort. An "elevated highway" exit from your fortress that is only accessible after throwing a switch leaves an exit that allows merchants to leave in safety if a siege happens while they are trading, but entrance paths need to be kept clear, regardless. [[Siege]]s and [[ambush]]es only start from map edges that can path to your dining hall, while a caravan starts from areas that path to a valid trade depot. If you use drawbridges to cut off access to your fort from the trade depot until after the caravan passes (and you raise) a drawbridge that cuts off outsider access to the trade depot, and you then let down a drawbridge to an elevated walkway that normally grants access to nothing, you can generally ensure no [[ambush]] will follow your trading partners in. (Although the degree of engineering may force you to wait several years...)<br />
<br />
===Traps===<br />
[[Trap]]s are a great way to protect your fort from small groups of attackers. When designing your fort, think about where you want to place traps. Choke points at major entrances (including entrances to the [[caverns]]) make good trap locations. However, be warned that some enemies are immune to traps....<br />
<br />
Spikes/spear traps set to levers you order dwarves to repeatedly pull or attach to a repeater are capable of hurting creatures that can avoid traps, but require great stretches of killzone to operate effectively. <br />
<br />
Deliberately-induced [[Cave-in|cave-ins]], such as by linking a [[support|pillar]] to a lever, and dropping an otherwise unsupported wall, creates deadly dust that can knock even trap-immune creatures unconscious, which renders them vulnerable to ordinary traps. Cage a titanic beast, and put it in your zoo for the kids to marvel at!<br />
<br />
Advanced dwarven techniques include methods of flooding and draining killzones with dangerous fluids like [[water]] or [[magma]], or both to [[obsidian]]-cast the problem, which is guaranteed to kill any physical threat in existence. Other methods include controlled fires (often caused by controlled magma release). These, however, are potentially very [[Fun]] tools, so be sure you understand what you are dealing with before you set yourself to it. (Or just make it a learning experience when you mess up an early fort. Hey, Fun IS fun, after all!)<br />
<br />
===Staging area===<br />
Many players like to design their forts with a militia staging area at the main entrance. Usually this includes placing [[fortification]]s (possibly in archer towers), ammunition stockpiles, and cover for your melee dwarves to protect them from approaching archers.<br />
<br />
If you want to rely on marksdwarves, consider fortress entrance designs that favor their method of attack. Make the only entrance a snaking series of bridges that force invaders to zig-zag in front of your marksdwarves. If that doesn't provide enough time to kill them all, stack several floors of snaking bridges, and let your marksdwarves simply climb a couple stairs to get to the next killzone between rounds. If you rely heavily on marksdwarves, remember that sieges can also contain elite archers that fire through fortifications. Prepare a 1-tile-wide drawbridge "shutter" that can block sight in front of the fortifications to protect vulnerable marksdwarves or allow for recovery of the wounded if you want to try out-shooting an elite archer. <br />
<br />
Some players also like to place a [[Barracks|training barracks]] near the entrance to the fort so that the militia can quickly respond to attackers. Putting it outside is even better as it also prevents cave adaption on your soldiers which can give you an edge in a siege, as more serious cases of cave adaption severely cut the speed of the affected dwarf. If you don't let your military dwarves outside that often, let them fight in the shade; Make your staging area underground, and just wait for the siege to roll into your staging area, instead.<br />
<br />
Staging areas can also come with some extra help - a cage filled with every random potentially dangerous creature you don't need pastured can, when released, provide a massive (and potentially hilarious) distraction. Even a barrage of 40 kittens can bog down invaders enough that a lone swordsdwarf can fight enemies one-by-one.<br />
<br />
==Efficiency==<br />
<br />
Although many actions in the game take time, and skill levels significantly reduce the time the actual crafting of items or resource gathering takes, by and large, the OVERWHELMING majority of wasted productivity comes from dwarves having to march great distances to reach a raw material for their crafting needs. Even worse, if they get thirsty while hunting down that stray boulder at the bottom floor of the mines, they'll go all the way back up for their drink, and have to take the trek back down again, later. As such, efficiency is all about shortening the trips your craftsdwarves must take as much as possible. <br />
<br />
Proper placement of [[stockpile]]s is key. Almost every workshop job needs raw materials. Is your [[still]] near some empty barrels and plants? Does your mason have easy access to stone? A smelter must have quick access to both ore and fuel.<br />
<br />
As a general rule of thumb, each workshop should have at least a 3x3 stockpile area associated with it. Some workshops will need more if multiple raw ingredients are needed. [[Workshop design]] is a science in of itself but one efficient arrangement is to place output stockpiles directly above or below your workshops and connect them with stairs. Another common design is to carve out a 5x5 room and place the 3x3 workshop in the center, leaving 16 surrounding tiles for input storage.<br />
<br />
When utilizing a large storage stockpile, for food or wood for example, the optimal approach is to place a small stockpile next to the workshop and have the small stockpile [[Stockpile#Take_from_a_stockpile/workshop|take]] from the large stockpile.<br />
<br />
There are a few other things to consider for basic fortress efficiency:<br />
* Major hallways should be at least two tiles wide, preferably three tiles. Otherwise your dwarves will be constantly running into each other causing productivity and possible [[Maximizing_framerate#Fortress_Design|framerate]] to be slowed.<br />
* To reduce the amount of time that your dwarves spend walking, common areas should be placed near the center of your fort. Dwarves drink frequently. It's a good idea to store your booze in a centralized location, and to designate a [[meeting hall]] in a similarly centralized place.<br />
* An efficient fortress must make good use of all three dimensions. A dwarf climbs or descends one [[z-level]] in the same time it takes to move one step horizontally. For example, when you need to build more bedrooms it can be a lot more efficient to dig down one level than to place the new rooms 20 tiles farther from the center of your fortress. <br />
* Moving one step diagonally takes about 1.4 times as long as moving one step orthogonally. This matches the real world, where Pythagoras tells us that it should take √2 (about 1.414) times as long. You can optimize floor plans for [[pathfinding]] by adopting more circular shapes into your design.<br />
* Similarly, since vertical Z-movement is cheap, the more spherical your fortress is in shape, the less walking there is, overall. Placing workshops side-by-side on a single floor means each additional workshop requires a dwarf move at least 3 more tiles (and if there is a wall or space, 4 or 5 tiles) to reach their destination, and they will be frequently running back and forth between stockpile and workshop. Vertical stacking means a dwarf only moves 1 tile. <br />
* With [[burrow]]s, it is possible to keep some dwarves working in a specific area, so that they never try to take a task half-way across the map, or haul items a long distance through high-volume corridors. For example, you might keep your furnace operators and your weaponsmiths hard at work in their smelters and forges by designating a burrow for them. Make sure you understand burrows before attempting this - if there is no source of food or drink in the burrows a dwarf is restricted to, you may run into some [[tantrum|problems]]. (This means possibly making additional dining rooms just for these dwarves.) Also make sure the dwarves' quarters (or at least a dormitory) are inside the burrow.<br />
* A more advanced technique is to segregate your fortress by raw material, and have separate "wings" or "nodes" of the fortress for different types of material. All woodworking workshops, for example, are connected to a vertical shaft dug down from a stockpile near the front gate that takes in lumber from outside, where craftsdwarves only need to travel 3 tiles horizontally to the stairs, 1-4 z-levels up the stairs, and a tile to the side to reach their lumber supply. Since most industry takes only one general type of raw material (wood, stone, metal/ore, gem, food, cloth,) you can easily segregate by raw material. Put "finished product" stockpiles on a separate floor, as well. <br />
* Place your residential sectors (housing, food, and drink) as close to the workplace as possible. Dwarves waste most of their non-working time just walking to the drink supply. Make that as short as possible. Don't be afraid to make secondary alcohol stockpiles, and you can actually put residences for craftsdwarves right under the stack of workshops. Legendary dining halls are tougher to make in droves, but not so tough you can't do it with an established fort.<br />
* [[Block]]s can substitute for raw rock for construction purposes, but are much lighter. If you are digging in a depth of 100z and need many rocks for building structures at the surface, you should set up a rock storage and a mason´s workshop at 100z to permanently make blocks, and use the blocks for the construction. This is a full-time job for one mason, but the speed of the construction dwarves is increased a lot.<br />
<br />
==Aesthetics==<br />
Aesthetics are completely subjective, of course, but it's still something you may want to consider when designing your fort.<br />
* Symmetry is often the ''easiest'' path to visual appeal, but it may be hard to balance with function. Asymmetry can look great but requires more skill to look graceful.<br />
* Conform to either mostly organic shapes or mostly inorganic shapes. A mixture ''probably'' won't look very good.<br />
* Try digging passages out of [[stone]] rather than [[soil]]. Although digging in stone is slower and messier, stone can eventually be smoothed and engraved, and yields a usable material. Soil, on the other hand, is ugly and much less dwarfy (although being excessive and paving stone over everything is arguably ''more'' dwarfy).<br />
* Use stockpile settings to consistently build your furniture and blocks from a single type of material. Bedrooms tend to look nicer when the furniture is uniform.<br />
* Alternatively, if you like lots of [[color]] and [[Style_project|variety]], you can use the stockpile and workshop settings to make sure your dwarves use lots of different materials.<br />
* [[Ramp]]s are generally more aesthetically pleasing than the extremely narrow switchback [[stairs]], but carry a much larger cost in efficiency and ease of construction.<br />
<br />
== Further Reading ==<br />
For an in-depth examination of topics relating to fortress layout, these pages focus on specific aspects, mostly with an eye to improving survivability. Some of these are not directly related to architecture but are useful nonetheless.<br />
* [[Defense guide]]<br />
* [[Security design]]<br />
* [[Trap design]]<br />
* [[Military design]]<br />
* [[Stockpile design]]<br />
* [[Workshop design]]<br />
* [[Bedroom design]]<br />
* [[Megaproject]]<br />
* [[Stupid dwarf trick]]<br />
* [[Style project]]<br />
<br />
{{Category|Design}}<br />
{{Category|Guides}}<br />
[[ru:Design strategies]]</div>99.43.136.249https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php?title=Design_strategies&diff=256464Design strategies2021-01-29T07:42:50Z<p>99.43.136.249: linked some existing items</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Quality|Exceptional|13:23, 18 July 2014 (UTC)}}<br />
{{av}}<br />
<br />
There are at least three basic factors to consider when designing your fort.<br />
* '''Security:''' Every fort needs some basic [[Security design|security]] measures. Otherwise you won't survive the first [[elephant]] attack, much less a full-blown [[Siege|goblin siege]].<br />
* '''Efficiency:''' Whether hauling rocks, making a booze run, or just checking the contents of a cabinet, dwarves do a lot of walking. A good fortress layout -- especially the proper placement of workshops and stockpiles -- can significantly reduce the time your dwarves spend walking.<br />
* '''Aesthetics:''' Hey, everybody wants a fortress that looks good.<br />
<br />
In addition to the considerations above, it's also important to remember that long-term design strategies can easily be disrupted by the discovery of underground terrain features. Don't plan ''too'' far ahead, as you might need to adapt to unforeseen obstacles.<br />
<br />
Also, there are several [[Main:Blueprint Library|design idioms]] of common usage like [[pump stack]]s.<br />
<br />
==Security==<br />
Everyone will have their own preferences regarding fortress defense and how to deal with undead, wildlife, hostiles and goblin invaders. Regardless of specifics, it's important to have a plan for dealing with the several different types of inevitable attacks. A few security tips are given below.<br />
<br />
The single most important thing to remember is that in an emergency, your dwarves will be too panicked to react to orders. Prepare for every type of threat (both military and engineering, in the form of floods or other [[Fun]]) ''before'' it finds you, or it will be too late. <br />
<br />
===Walls===<br />
[[Wall]]s are, by far and away, the single most powerful tool you have to combat enemies. Walls are currently invincible against any known force but the mighty dwarven [[pick]]. Putting a wall between your vulnerable and valuable civilians (and the others, too, why not?) and the things trying to kill them is the highest priority you have. <br />
<br />
Building walls can take time and micromanagement, but building a maze (and stuffing it with traps) is a good way to slow invaders down, especially if you get forewarning from scouts. The longer invaders take to reach you, the more time you have to get your militia in place. However, since the advent of [[climb]]ing, keep in mind that just having 1-z-level walls are not enough. Place [[fortifications]] at the tops to stop climbers.<br />
<br />
Digging ditches/[[moat]]s, then removing the ramps can also be useful as a faster method of creating impassable terrain for non-fliers, which have the added advantage of allowing [[marksdwarves]] to shoot over them. Easier still is just using the "natural walls" of a hill, and removing all the ramps on one side or the other of the hill while building walls between the gaps. Climbing, however, makes this not enough for all circumstances. Either carve or build unclimbable [[fortifications]], or else dig another z-level down, and then dig two tiles under the rim of your platform to create an overhang that is impossible to climb. <br />
<br />
Excavating fortresses by digging them out naturally creates walls, and makes for easy defenses, since it is far easier to designate for digging than to build a wall. Enclosed caves are also proof against flying monsters. At first, you might simply dig into a wall and put up a door, but consider making a large, extended underground tunnel, or preferably several tunnels, all of which can be locked down, and then walling over your initial entrance so that you can force enemies to approach your fort on your terms, and at a time and place of your choosing. If defenses in one tunnel don't work, lock it down, and leave a different one open, so that they have to run back through your killzone to try approaching a different one.<br />
<br />
===Lockdown===<br />
Have a way to lock down your fortress. In the event of an attack by hostiles you can't handle, you need a way to lock them out. This can buy you some time while your dwarves prepare their defenses.<br />
<br />
For small forts, this could be as simple as placing [[door]]s at all the entrances to your fort. Doors can be locked instantly in an emergency. Don't rely on doors alone for security, though, as you'll eventually encounter enemies that can [[Building destroyer|break down doors]] and [[Thief|pick locks]].<br />
<br />
Doors are important even within your fortress. [[Tantrum]]ing dwarves are the bane of every established fort. Having a way to segregate your dwarves so that they don't run into a dwarf on a rampage can save whole forts, much less individual lives. Doors can also stop flooding, and act as bulkheads that isolate breaches if you accidentally flood your fort. Having secondary hallways to route around problem areas is also a sound strategy for making doubly sure your fortress can survive a breach of defenses. If everything in your fort must travel through a single hallway or central staircase, anything that reaches that point can almost be guaranteed to kill your fort.<br />
<br />
For more security, place [[Bridge|drawbridges]] at all the entrances. You don't need a moat; the bridge itself is sufficient since it functions as a wall when raised. Just be sure to connect it to a [[lever]] that your dwarves can access quickly ''and safely'' in an emergency. Unfortunately, even drawbridges can be rendered inoperable in rare circumstances....<br />
<br />
To have a dwarf ready to pull a lever in case of an ambush it's best to place them near the meeting hall. You can also make dedicated leverdwarves by turning off all their labors and assigning the levers to them. [[Vampires]] and [[necromancer]]s are very good for this job, as they do not require sleep, however their [[mood]] may be a problem because they will not drink anything. To avoid this, make sure you have a tavern keeper to give them alcohol.<br />
<br />
<br />
Finally, don't forget about attackers from above and below! <br />
Flying attackers might use skylights to bypass your doors and drawbridges. [[Farming|Farms]], even "aboveground" farms, can be placed underground with exploits, but some of the best [[tree]]s grow aboveground. Use drawbridges on even the walled-in exits to the surface in case of [[giant kea]]s or [[roc]]s. <br />
<br />
Swimming beasts might crawl up through your [[well]]. It is best to use water from sources that are completely walled off from the outside world, like a [[reservoir]] fed by an [[aquifer]]. You can also use a [[screw pump]] pulling through a floor [[grate]] to prevent hostiles (and [[building destroyer]]s) from swimming into your fortress. (The same holds doubly true for magma cisterns.)<br />
<br />
Creating multiple entrances that can be locked down can force an invasion to stop in its tracks, reverse course, and march all the way around the map to get access to your fort. Repeatedly yanking the drawbridge up, forcing them to go back to a different entrance, and letting that drawbridge back down while pulling up the one the assault was going for then can keep an invasion in limbo for a very long time, giving sleeping or drinking milita dwarves a chance to get their act together, or to let a repeater spike [[trap]] murder everything on the 12th pass.<br />
<br />
===Scouts===<br />
Ambushes and thieves can sneak up on your fortress. A party of goblin archers might sneak past your main gate before being spotted, or a kobold could make off with your masterpiece crafts when nobody is looking. The way to avoid these unfortunate events is to use scouts / lookouts.<br />
<br />
For small forts, effective scouting could be as simple as [[Restraint|tying]] a [[Dog|war dog]] (or even a donkey) up near the entrance of your fort. In the event of an ambush the animal will spot the attackers (shortly before dying). If your scouts are far enough from your main gate then you ought to have enough warning to lock down the fort, activate the militia, etc.<br />
<br />
For more established forts, placing any sort of non-eating domestic animal in a 1-tile pasture on top of a grate that allows it to look downwards, or behind windows from a single z-level above the hallways protects your stalwart watch-geese so that you don't have to keep sending out more replacement dogs. Save the good war animals for a "Doberman Bomb" (cage linked to a release lever) that unleashes dozens of animals on invaders at once, rather than letting the invaders murder your dogs one at a time.<br />
<br />
===Caravan security===<br />
Is your trade depot going to be inside or outside your main line of defenses? This is another factor to consider when designing your fort. Although you don't have to protect the traders, their [[civilization]]s might hold your fortress responsible for any casualties.<br />
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Consider that merchants may go [[insane]] if kept in place, or if they get affected with a [[syndrome]], so it is possibly best to have a means of segregating the rest of your fort from the trade depot, like a drawbridge-wall. At the same time, you need to load goods into and out of the depot quickly, so it should be near major stockpiles and where your haulers usually spend their time.<br />
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A [[caravan]] needs a 3-tile-wide entrance (preferably a [[road]] where you aren't placing traps to prevent a [[tree]] from growing in the path) so they tend to complicate defenses. Consider using a retractable drawbridge to allow/disallow certain entrance and exit routes from your fort. An "elevated highway" exit from your fortress that is only accessible after throwing a switch leaves an exit that allows merchants to leave in safety if a siege happens while they are trading, but entrance paths need to be kept clear, regardless. [[Siege]]s and [[ambush]]es only start from map edges that can path to your dining hall, while a caravan starts from areas that path to a valid trade depot. If you use drawbridges to cut off access to your fort from the trade depot until after the caravan passes (and you raise) a drawbridge that cuts off outsider access to the trade depot, and you then let down a drawbridge to an elevated walkway that normally grants access to nothing, you can generally ensure no [[ambush]] will follow your trading partners in. (Although the degree of engineering may force you to wait several years...)<br />
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===Traps===<br />
[[Trap]]s are a great way to protect your fort from small groups of attackers. When designing your fort, think about where you want to place traps. Choke points at major entrances (including entrances to the [[caverns]]) make good trap locations. However, be warned that some enemies are immune to traps....<br />
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Spikes/spear traps set to levers you order dwarves to repeatedly pull or attach to a repeater are capable of hurting creatures that can avoid traps, but require great stretches of killzone to operate effectively. <br />
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Deliberately-induced cave-ins, such as by linking a [[pillar]] to a lever, and dropping an otherwise unsupported wall, creates deadly [[dust]] that can knock even trap-immune creatures unconscious, which renders them vulnerable to ordinary traps. Cage a titanic beast, and put it in your zoo for the kids to marvel at!<br />
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Advanced dwarven techniques include methods of flooding and draining killzones with dangerous fluids like [[water]] or [[magma]], or both to [[obsidian]]-cast the problem, which is guaranteed to kill any physical threat in existence. Other methods include controlled fires (often caused by controlled magma release). These, however, are potentially very [[Fun]] tools, so be sure you understand what you are dealing with before you set yourself to it. (Or just make it a learning experience when you mess up an early fort. Hey, Fun IS fun, after all!)<br />
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===Staging area===<br />
Many players like to design their forts with a militia staging area at the main entrance. Usually this includes placing [[fortification]]s (possibly in archer towers), ammunition stockpiles, and cover for your melee dwarves to protect them from approaching archers.<br />
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If you want to rely on marksdwarves, consider fortress entrance designs that favor their method of attack. Make the only entrance a snaking series of bridges that force invaders to zig-zag in front of your marksdwarves. If that doesn't provide enough time to kill them all, stack several floors of snaking bridges, and let your marksdwarves simply climb a couple stairs to get to the next killzone between rounds. If you rely heavily on marksdwarves, remember that sieges can also contain elite archers that fire through fortifications. Prepare a 1-tile-wide drawbridge "shutter" that can block sight in front of the fortifications to protect vulnerable marksdwarves or allow for recovery of the wounded if you want to try out-shooting an elite archer. <br />
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Some players also like to place a [[Barracks|training barracks]] near the entrance to the fort so that the militia can quickly respond to attackers. Putting it outside is even better as it also prevents cave adaption on your soldiers which can give you an edge in a siege, as more serious cases of cave adaption severely cut the speed of the affected dwarf. If you don't let your military dwarves outside that often, let them fight in the shade; Make your staging area underground, and just wait for the siege to roll into your staging area, instead.<br />
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Staging areas can also come with some extra help - a cage filled with every random potentially dangerous creature you don't need pastured can, when released, provide a massive (and potentially hilarious) distraction. Even a barrage of 40 kittens can bog down invaders enough that a lone swordsdwarf can fight enemies one-by-one.<br />
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==Efficiency==<br />
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Although many actions in the game take time, and skill levels significantly reduce the time the actual crafting of items or resource gathering takes, by and large, the OVERWHELMING majority of wasted productivity comes from dwarves having to march great distances to reach a raw material for their crafting needs. Even worse, if they get thirsty while hunting down that stray boulder at the bottom floor of the mines, they'll go all the way back up for their drink, and have to take the trek back down again, later. As such, efficiency is all about shortening the trips your craftsdwarves must take as much as possible. <br />
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Proper placement of [[stockpile]]s is key. Almost every workshop job needs raw materials. Is your [[still]] near some empty barrels and plants? Does your mason have easy access to stone? A smelter must have quick access to both ore and fuel.<br />
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As a general rule of thumb, each workshop should have at least a 3x3 stockpile area associated with it. Some workshops will need more if multiple raw ingredients are needed. [[Workshop design]] is a science in of itself but one efficient arrangement is to place output stockpiles directly above or below your workshops and connect them with stairs. Another common design is to carve out a 5x5 room and place the 3x3 workshop in the center, leaving 16 surrounding tiles for input storage.<br />
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When utilizing a large storage stockpile, for food or wood for example, the optimal approach is to place a small stockpile next to the workshop and have the small stockpile [[Stockpile#Take_from_a_stockpile/workshop|take]] from the large stockpile.<br />
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There are a few other things to consider for basic fortress efficiency:<br />
* Major hallways should be at least two tiles wide, preferably three tiles. Otherwise your dwarves will be constantly running into each other causing productivity and possible [[Maximizing_framerate#Fortress_Design|framerate]] to be slowed.<br />
* To reduce the amount of time that your dwarves spend walking, common areas should be placed near the center of your fort. Dwarves drink frequently. It's a good idea to store your booze in a centralized location, and to designate a [[meeting hall]] in a similarly centralized place.<br />
* An efficient fortress must make good use of all three dimensions. A dwarf climbs or descends one [[z-level]] in the same time it takes to move one step horizontally. For example, when you need to build more bedrooms it can be a lot more efficient to dig down one level than to place the new rooms 20 tiles farther from the center of your fortress. <br />
* Moving one step diagonally takes about 1.4 times as long as moving one step orthogonally. This matches the real world, where Pythagoras tells us that it should take √2 (about 1.414) times as long. You can optimize floor plans for [[pathfinding]] by adopting more circular shapes into your design.<br />
* Similarly, since vertical Z-movement is cheap, the more spherical your fortress is in shape, the less walking there is, overall. Placing workshops side-by-side on a single floor means each additional workshop requires a dwarf move at least 3 more tiles (and if there is a wall or space, 4 or 5 tiles) to reach their destination, and they will be frequently running back and forth between stockpile and workshop. Vertical stacking means a dwarf only moves 1 tile. <br />
* With [[burrow]]s, it is possible to keep some dwarves working in a specific area, so that they never try to take a task half-way across the map, or haul items a long distance through high-volume corridors. For example, you might keep your furnace operators and your weaponsmiths hard at work in their smelters and forges by designating a burrow for them. Make sure you understand burrows before attempting this - if there is no source of food or drink in the burrows a dwarf is restricted to, you may run into some [[tantrum|problems]]. (This means possibly making additional dining rooms just for these dwarves.) Also make sure the dwarves' quarters (or at least a dormitory) are inside the burrow.<br />
* A more advanced technique is to segregate your fortress by raw material, and have separate "wings" or "nodes" of the fortress for different types of material. All woodworking workshops, for example, are connected to a vertical shaft dug down from a stockpile near the front gate that takes in lumber from outside, where craftsdwarves only need to travel 3 tiles horizontally to the stairs, 1-4 z-levels up the stairs, and a tile to the side to reach their lumber supply. Since most industry takes only one general type of raw material (wood, stone, metal/ore, gem, food, cloth,) you can easily segregate by raw material. Put "finished product" stockpiles on a separate floor, as well. <br />
* Place your residential sectors (housing, food, and drink) as close to the workplace as possible. Dwarves waste most of their non-working time just walking to the drink supply. Make that as short as possible. Don't be afraid to make secondary alcohol stockpiles, and you can actually put residences for craftsdwarves right under the stack of workshops. Legendary dining halls are tougher to make in droves, but not so tough you can't do it with an established fort.<br />
* [[Block]]s can substitute for raw rock for construction purposes, but are much lighter. If you are digging in a depth of 100z and need many rocks for building structures at the surface, you should set up a rock storage and a mason´s workshop at 100z to permanently make blocks, and use the blocks for the construction. This is a full-time job for one mason, but the speed of the construction dwarves is increased a lot.<br />
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==Aesthetics==<br />
Aesthetics are completely subjective, of course, but it's still something you may want to consider when designing your fort.<br />
* Symmetry is often the ''easiest'' path to visual appeal, but it may be hard to balance with function. Asymmetry can look great but requires more skill to look graceful.<br />
* Conform to either mostly organic shapes or mostly inorganic shapes. A mixture ''probably'' won't look very good.<br />
* Try digging passages out of [[stone]] rather than [[soil]]. Although digging in stone is slower and messier, stone can eventually be smoothed and engraved, and yields a usable material. Soil, on the other hand, is ugly and much less dwarfy (although being excessive and paving stone over everything is arguably ''more'' dwarfy).<br />
* Use stockpile settings to consistently build your furniture and blocks from a single type of material. Bedrooms tend to look nicer when the furniture is uniform.<br />
* Alternatively, if you like lots of [[color]] and [[Style_project|variety]], you can use the stockpile and workshop settings to make sure your dwarves use lots of different materials.<br />
* [[Ramp]]s are generally more aesthetically pleasing than the extremely narrow switchback [[stairs]], but carry a much larger cost in efficiency and ease of construction.<br />
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== Further Reading ==<br />
For an in-depth examination of topics relating to fortress layout, these pages focus on specific aspects, mostly with an eye to improving survivability. Some of these are not directly related to architecture but are useful nonetheless.<br />
* [[Defense guide]]<br />
* [[Security design]]<br />
* [[Trap design]]<br />
* [[Military design]]<br />
* [[Stockpile design]]<br />
* [[Workshop design]]<br />
* [[Bedroom design]]<br />
* [[Megaproject]]<br />
* [[Stupid dwarf trick]]<br />
* [[Style project]]<br />
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{{Category|Design}}<br />
{{Category|Guides}}<br />
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