v0.31:Stonegears/Examining items

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Listing items

There are multiple ways of listing items:

1. If the item is simply laying on the ground, use k to enter "look" mode, the user arrow keys to move the cursor over the item you wish to examine.
2. If the item is held/worn by a dwarf or other creature, use v-i to look at the creature's inventory.
3. If the item is inside of a workshop, trade depot, wagon or other building you can look inside the building with t. The first few lines, which contain a [B] on the right hand side, are the items the building is made from.
4. If the item you wish to examine is an installed piece of furniture like a bed, then use t to examine it, since an installed piece of furniture is considered to be a building made from the furniture item.
5. To list and examine items by item category, use the stocks screen.

For everything but the stocks screen, if there's multiple items you can change which one is selected via - and +. When you have an item selected, you can press Enter to examine it in more detail.

Item modifier symbols

There are certain symbols that will bracket an item to indicate that it's different than normal.

• Bracketing with -, +, *, ≡ or ☼ indicates that the item is of higher than normal quality.
  • For many items quality merely increases the item's value.
  • For cooked food it increases the amount of happiness a dwarf gains from eating it if one of the ingredients is among the dwarf's list of preferred foods.
  • For mechanisms used in weapon traps it controls the how well the weapons strike.
  • For weapons and armor their effectiveness is increased, up to double for masterful/masterwork (☼) quality.
  • If a masterwork (☼) item is destroyed or stolen the creator of the item will get an unhappy thought.
• Bracketing with « » indicates that the item is decorated. A decoration and the item it decorates can have separate quality levels, like a *«+steel battle axe+»*.
• Bracketing with ( ) indicates that the item was not produced by your dwarves. This includes all items you start the game with, all items immigrants bring with them, and all items belonging to traders and invaders. You can make an item count as being produced by your dwarves either by transforming it into something else (like turning a log into a bed) or by decorating it.
• Bracketing with { } indicates that the item is forbidden.
• Bracketing with x, X, or XX indicates that the item is partially worn out. This applies mainly to clothing that's wearing out, food that's going rotten, and buildings that are being attacked by building destroyers.
• Bracketing with ‼ indicates that the item is on fire.

Item stacks

Often identical items will be grouped together in a pile called a stack, where the number of items in the stack is indicated by a number inside of square brackets. For example, plump helmets [5] it a stack of five plump helmet. Item stacks like this have several advantages:

• An item stack acts as a single item for the purposes of a dwarf hauling it from one place to another, which saves time since the dwarf won't have to make a round trip of each individual item.
• An item stack acts as a single item for the purposes of storing it directly on the ground in a stockpile, saving space. It doesn't make any difference if the items are consolidated in containers, though.
• Many jobs which process items act on a whole stack at once, and process the whole stack in the same amount of time it takes to process a single item, no matter how large the stack, thus saving time.

Note that individual items which seem identical can't be merged into stacks, nor can two stacks of seemingly identical items be merged into a a single stack. Also, there's no way to manually split an item stack into smaller stacks or into individual items.

Container names

The names of containers can change based on what they do (or don't) contain and where they are. An empty barrel made from cedar will be called cedar barrel. If it is filled with dwarven rum then it will be called dwarven rum Barrel (cedar). If a container is placed in a stockpile then its stockpile number will be appended inside of < >, like dwarven rum Barrel (cedar) <#1>.

Forbidding items

When examining an item in detail, or having it selected in a list, you can use f to (un)forbid it. You can also d-b-f to designate an area in which all items are forbidden, and d-b-c to unforbid (reclaim) all items in an area.

• If an item lying on the ground (or in a container on the ground) is forbidden then dwarves will completely ignore it. This can be used to reserve certain raw materials for future use, or to prevent your dwarves from gathering raw materials in a section of the fortress which you're about to wall off. You can mass-forbid all but one type of raw material from the stocks screen in order to force a craftsdwarf to use the unforbidden raw material.
• If the material a building is made from is forbidden, then your dwarves won't use it (this includes workshops and installed pieces of furniture). If you mass forbid raw material from the stocks screen then you might accidentally forbid the raw material some of your buildings are made from, unintentionally keeping your dwarves from using them.
• If an item your dwarf is wearing or wielding is forbidden then the dwarf will continue to use the item as if you'd done nothing. If the dwarf later drop the item for an unrelated reason then your dwarves will start ignoring it.

Dumping items

When examining an item in detail, or having it selected in a list, you can use d to (un)mark it for dumping it. You can also d-b-d to designate an area in which all items are marked for dumping, and d-b-D to to remove the dumping order from all items in an area.

An item marked for dumping will have a D next to its name, and will be taken by a dwarf with the Refuse Hauling labor enabled to the nearest garbage dump activity zone, at which point the D will be removed and it will be marked as forbidden. You cannot dump items which are owned by a dwarf. Note that if you want to dump items which are outdoors you have to change the standing orders setting (o-r-o).

If you mark for dumping a non-owned item which is held or worn by a dwarf, then another dwarf with the Refuse Hauling labor will come along, rip the item away from the first dwarf, and dump the item in a garbage dump. This can be useful if there's a bug where a dwarf refuses to relinquish an item.

Note that if an item is marked for dumping and forbidden that your dwarves will ignore the dumping order, since being forbidden takes precedence over dumping

Detailed examination

When an item is selected from an item list, pressing Enter will examine it in more detail.

Weight

Weight is indicated in the upper left-hand corner, in units of Γ, informally known as an "urist", which is identical to a kilogram (2.2 pounds). For a container with items inside of it, the displayed weight is the total weight of the container plus all of its contents.

The effects that weight has on the game:

• The more weight a dwarf is carrying, the slower s/he moves, but there is no limit to the amount of weight a dwarf can carry. For instance, a single dwarf can carry an entire whale corpse, though s/he will move at a snail's pace.
• Blunt weapons like maces and hammers do more damage the heavier they are.
• The caravans which trade with your fortress have a weight limit to how much they can carry, so if the items you trade to them are heavy you might have to offer to buy some of their heavier goods to lighten their load.
• Heavier stones do more damage in stone fall traps.

Owner

If an item is owned by a particular dwarf this will be listed on the left, under the weight. An owned item cannot be dumped.

Value

If you've appointed a broker who is at least a novice at the appraisal skill, then an item's value will be listed in the upper right-hand corner, in units of ☼, informally known as "dwarf bucks". For a container with items inside of it, the displayed value is the total value of the container plus all of its contents.

The effects value has on the game:

• The value of installed furniture and other buildings in a room increases its quality level, which can help to meet the requirements of some nobles, plus the usage of bedrooms and dining rooms will generate a happier thought the higher the room's quality level.
• If a dwarf passed next to or over an installed piece of furniture then s/he might admire it, giving a happy thought. The thought it happier the greater the value of the furniture.
• The total value of all of the items created at your fortress which remain in in your fortress (plus the value of all the architecture in your fortress) is your fortress' created wealth (items which were created in your fortress but are no longer present don't count). Created wealth is the primary means of attracting more immigrants, a certain amount is required to gain a baron, and certain amounts can trigger ambushes if the INVADERS option is set to YES.
• The more valuable the items you have to offer for trade, the more you can buy off of caravans.

Description

Using v will give a plain-English description of the item.

Contents

If the item is a container with other items in it, they will be listed down the left-hand side of the screen under Contents:. You can use - and + to scroll among the contents, and press Enter to get a detailed view of the selected item. Note that d to dump, f to forbid or v to get a description will work on the container rather than the contents until you use Enter to view a particular contained item. Forbidding a container will not prevent dwarves from using its contents.