User talk:Squirrelloid/Optimizing Skills

Efficiency

This seemed wrong:

"Each use of a starting point in a skill for a dwarf is more valuable than the last such point. Going from Novice -> Normal is worth 600xp. From Normal to Competent is 700xp. And so on. Thus, you'll get the most xp/point spent if you only take proficient skills."

Going from no-level to Novice costs 5 points. So the xp/point ratio is 600/5 which is 120. From Novice to <no-label> costs 6 points. So the xp/point ratio is 700/6, which is about 117. The ratio only continues to go down from there. Gairabad 21:48, 14 December 2008 (EST)

Ah, I'm talking about efficiency in a different way. Basically, the limiting resource here is not cash (you get a ridiculous amount of it to start), the limiting resource is skill picks, of which you have 10 per dwarf and can use no more than 5 per skill. The return on each skill pick increases the more picks you invest in a given skill. So you get 500xp for the first pick, 600 for the second pick, and so on. XP is much harder to acquire than 'cash' value, especially for hard to train skills.

Also, going from nothing to novice is 500xp, so that's a 500/5 = 100. Novice to No Lable is 600 xp, which is also 600/6 = 100. Looks like the price per xp is constant.

--Squirrelloid 22:22, 14 December 2008 (EST)

Table

Kwieland is awesome, and unfortunately this is a terrible time for me to review the table. I might try go through it quickly, but expect I'll get to it sometime next week. --Squirrelloid 22:32, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'm new to DF (and wiki's in general) but I enjoy playing when I can. I meant to add something to the * section, where * could mean "Easy IF you have access to large amounts of wood". Otherwise, a carpenter could be really hard to level. In fact, now that I think about it, they don't level very fast in carpenter.
For the section under "Mood based skills", why not start with your comment on the Starting_builds discussion page? I have to admit, though, I just started a fortress with "mood" based skills and it was a very tough start. I haven't finished the second year, but it is starting to go faster. One thing to keep in mind is the fact that starting with a (not mood based) proficient craftsdwarf allows you to get a lot more income quickly so that you can get more dwarfs faster. Whereas, if you get a proficient armorsmith (mood based), you don't really generate (At least I didn't) any wealth using the skill right away. So, there is a tradeoff.--Kwieland 21:13, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Better late than never...

I use my mechanic in that capacity. Sure, its a little harder to trade mechanisms because they weigh more, but those mechanisms also fill useful roles so you can cull the crappy mechanisms making stonefall traps or whatnot and don't *have* to trade them away. And you can generally trade for random bars/blocks/cages the dwarf (or human) merchants bring to free up weight capacity in the merchant caravan. Doesn't hurt to have another plan for elven merchants, since they have basically no weight capacity, but that plan usually involves magma, right? --Squirrelloid 06:51, 30 October 2009 (UTC)