User:Maunder/DeMatts edits

New Player Questions

Open Questions and Problems

• How can I release a (tame) creature from a cage? i've followed wiki instructions but have not yet managed it. first: you can't use 'q' to operate a cage that is in a stockpile, because 'q' controls the stockpile options instead. second: i "built" the cage in question on an open floor, selected the specific cage with the animal in it. then 'q' on that cage lists assigned animals -- but the menu doesn't seem to function the way others do, and "deselecting" the given dog as per the wiki instructions doesn't seem to let him out.
  • It doesn't automatically pop open the cage. A dwarf has to come along and let the animal out.
• It's also confusing and disconcerting that after toggling the "assignment" of an animal, your only option to leave the dialog is then "Escape - Cancel".
  • Chalk the "Escape - Cancel" bit up to poor interface design.
• retrieving shot bolts or enemy items. Either my hunter or military units fired bolts at something. Several are scattered around. How do I encourage them to retrieve them for reuse?
  • They are forbidden you can reclaim them by hitting d-b-c and designating them. However you shouldn't do this with bolts. Each single arrow/bolt lying around counts as a stack of arrows/bolts. Military dwarfs and hunters carry only one stack (or maybe two?), so if you unforbid them they might end up carrying only one bolt and will have to return to get more ammo after firing it.
• On a related note, one squad managed to kill a Goblin Thief earlier, and, following orders, brought the mutilated corpse back to the refuse pile. But they left his goods, including a silver dagger. I didn't even realize it until I got a message about a raccoon stealing a silk shirt. How can I set orders to pick up these items as well?
  • By default, these are automatically forbidden - ammo, as soon as it's fired; enemy possessions, when they drop them. To use them, un-forbid them. If you don't want these auto-forbidden, orders screen -> auto-Forbidding. Keep in mind that this means your civilians will grab stuff - even if it means they're running through the enemy attack.
• How can I collect and use the bodies of vermin and other defeated creatures? I've tried "Butcher a dead animal" and other tasks many times, only to be told "none available". What am I doing wrong? Yes, I have refuse stockpiles so the bodies are brought nearer the butcher shop. Not all are the "vermin" category, I think.
  • Vermin are useless. Non-vermin non-thinking animals can in theory be butchered; I've had less than good luck doing so. Hunted animals get butchered fine, but randomly dead things don't.
• I have multiple traps with caught live vermin, like two-legged lizards, and a (tame) cockroach. What do I do with them? Can't I make food or leather out of the lizard?
• Part of this is my confusion about what is "animal" and what is "vermin". There's no real cue to let you know what you're dealing with. In my mind, now, is the idea: "vermin" == useless. "animal" == butcherable, in theory. But when I saw barrels of butterfly ichor and the like available from the trade caravan, it made me think I can do something with those "vermin"...
  • Nope. Vermin are too small for anything but pets or a meal for a starving dwarf. Vermin can be identified by the fact that they don't appear on your units screen, and when wild they don't continuously appear - they pop up, wander a bit, then disappear, all in the middle of the map. The "barrels of butterfly ichor" and such are just the randomizer not knowing vermin are useless.
• In a similar vein, I have not had much luck with Trapping, Fishing, and Hunting. I can't seem to get these working successfully. The wiki needs guide to making these industries successful -- the tools, skills, workshops necessary, layout of piles and workshops, zone placement, etc.
  • If you're worried about OPTIMIZING these industries... don't. If you can't get ANYTHING out of it (your hunters don't hunt, your fisherdwarves don't fish), read on.
  • Fishing: You need a shore - land, bordering water, where the water is one level down from the land. Turn on the Fishing labor, watch the dwarf while away his time pulling raw fish out of the water. Note that these are not fish visible on the units screen.
  • Trapping: There are three types of trapping: passive small, active small, and passive large.
    • Passive small catches vermin. Create an Animal Trap at a workshop, choose to build the animal trap, then query it and assign some bait. Eventually a vermin will grab the bait, and a dwarf will pick up the trap with the vermin and store it.
    • Active small catches vermin. Create an Animal Trap, and have a built kennel. query the kennel, then add the task of "capturing a live land animal". A dwarf with the Trapping labor will grab the trap, and wander around until he finds a vermin to stuff in it.
    • Passive large catches large animals, goblins, unconscious dwarves, etc. etc. Create a mechanism and a cage. build a Trap of type cage at your chosen point. A dwarf with the Mechanic labor will grab the mechanism and install it, then add the cage to the assembly. Now wait for something to wander onto it.
  • Hunting: All you need is a crossbow and a quiver for each hunter, plus a bunch of bolts. Turn on the Hunting labor on a dwarf, watch him grab his gear and take off. He'll find a likely animal, try to sneak up on it, riddle it with bolts, then drag the corpse back to the butcher's, which will automatically try to chop up the corpse.
• how can I get the military units to wear the best armor? the military equipping menus are really opaque. i understand the idea of creating uniforms and assigning them, but really, early on, i don't have that kind of supply. i just want one of the best fighters to have the few steel items that i got from trading. I can't create and assign a "steel" uniform, because I don't have all those items. in a related problem, meanwhile, a "recruit" has grabbed a hammer, and the somewhat skilled hammerdwarf has none. The best pick is in the hands of a Novice miner. The battle axes were grabbed by military guys, and I need them available to the woodcutters. Argh! Getting a dwarf to drop an item and reassigning is such a mess! I'm not even sure how I managed it once, but it took over half a year of game time.
  • Each dwarf will, in turn, grab the best available equipment they can find. Note the "in turn" part. Squad 1, position 1, will grab first. Then squad 1, position 2. Then squad 1, position 3. My advice? Just churn out lots of good equipment; then EVERYBODY can have good equipment.
• Part of the problem with the military equipment dialogue is similar to that with assigning squads. In the right column is a list of all items of a given category (or when assigning squads, dwarves), including those you've already assigned to another (or including dwarves already assigned to another squad). It's good that you can see all items, so you can take an item from someone who shouldn't have it and give it to someone better suited. But you have no indication that item is already in use by another dwarf. This results in confusion as you assign that nice bear leather armor to dwarf 2, only to realize later that dwarf 1 no longer has any armor. This dialog needs some indicator telling you it's already assigned to someone (or perhaps just in use by someone, although that's less useful, it would be easier to implement). Maybe a letter "A" means item has been assigned to another dwarf, or else another dwarf has "become attached" to the item, otherwise a letter "U" means being used by someone but wasn't necessarily assigned to them.
  • No comment. The auto-assign works reasonably well, once you've got a decent pool of equipment to draw from.
• Any way to do something similar with non-military dwarves... ?
  • There is no way to assign equipment to civilians. They grab what they need.

• path finding. the weavers are nuts, trying to "collect webs". they choose a web which might be fairly close geometrically, but is really far through the stairs, hallways and caves that they need to get there, meanwhile running past and sometimes getting caught in and stomping existing webs on the way there. How do I keep the weavers near my entrance to the caves, where they can be safer (and take less time)?
  • Wall off the rest. Use grates or bars so the cave spiders can pass.

• gem cutting. when adding a task, the list shows which types of gems you have still uncut. but there's no way to know how many of each type. if you queue up 5 times "Cut Wood Opal", but you only have 2 uncut wood opals, you get job cancellations. to avoid having jobs cancelled, just queue one cut task of each available type. But then you have to do this repeatedly to get all your gems cut. If you have two uncut wood opals, why not have the task entry grey out the cut task if you've already got two queued? I should just try using repeat on all tasks...
  • Because then the game would need to keep track of ALL your workshops whenever you tried to queue up stuff in ONE workshop. Try using the Job Manager (j -> m, needs a Manager who can work) instead.

• using magma. what balance of various magma workshops/furnaces are needed? which are needed near each other? any pointers?
  • Whatever you feel like using.

• Why can I not construct upward stairs on a constructed floor? How does one build a tower, if this is not possible? I also could not construct a ramp, or even a wall!
  • Only one construction can occupy a square. Note that dwarves can walk on top of constructed walls, and can construct a stair from the adjacent level. Stairs, in fact, need to be directly above/below one another - a stair-up doesn't let a dwarf pass unless there's a stair-down on the next level above it. So build a nice column of up/down stairs (which go both up and down), and work from there.