Editing 40d:Quickstart guide

The game will begin paused (don't unpause yet), centered on the [[meeting hall]] where all 7 of your starting [[dwarves]] are currently relaxing. The screen is divided into three sections. On the left is the active window, this is where you will see dwarves move around and where you issue orders. In the middle is the menu window. On the right is the fort view which gives you an overall view of the level (it's effectively a zoomed-out version of the active window).

On the top left you will notice a lot of small dots and a blue haze. This is empty space. Although Dwarf Fortress may appear to be a 2D game, it is in fact 3D. You are currently looking at a top-down perspective of one [[z-level]]. If you were to move the active window down one level the empty space would become ground and the ground would become unexplored underground space. You can move the screen up and down by pressing {{k|<}} and {{k|>}} respectively (don't forget to hold on {{k|Shift}}!).

*'''Sue''' is a [[miner]]. Because mining is an important task I've disabled all her other labors so all she will do is mine - if you don't have any mining work designated for her to do she will return to the meeting hall.

*'''Jane''' is a [[woodworker]]. She carries a [[battle axe]] she uses to chop down [[tree]]s and can then carve them into usable products at the [[carpenter's workshop]]. She also has a few skill points in [[Axedwarf]], just in case you need to draft her into the [[military]].

*'''Daniel''' is a stoneworker. She has several skill points in [[mason]]ry so she can carve rock thrones, tables, doors and other such things. She also has a few skill points in [[mechanic]]s so she can build rock [[mechanism]]s, which are required to create [[trap]]s and some [[machine]]s.

*'''Rachel''' is a craftdwarf. She has plenty of points in [[stone crafter|stone crafting]] so she can make trade goods before the Autumn [[caravan]] arrives. She also has a few points in [[bone carving]] so could make bone or shell armour from any creatures you kill.

*'''Juliet''' is a [[fisherdwarf]]. He will spend most of his time at ponds or creeks catching [[fish]]/[[turtle]] and leaving them on the shore to [[rot]].

*'''Olon''' is a [[farmer]]. He can plant [[seed]]s at the farm and [[brew]] the mature plants into [[alcohol]] or [[cook]] them into [[food]].

*1 [[cat]], which will hunt [[vermin]] for you.

*2 [[dog]]s, which will hang around in the meeting hall most of the time. They will attack [[invader|intruders]] if they get close, or can be [[kennel|trained]], or [[assign animal|leashed up]] to guard the entrance.

*A [[horse]] and a [[mule]]. If you purchase a male horse from a trade caravan then you could start breeding horses for [[meat]], large stacks of [[bone]] (good for making practice crossbow [[bolt]]s), and [[leather]]; however mules will not breed (nor do they in real life).

Most of your supplies are still in the [[wagon (embark)|wagon]]. You have:

*An [[anvil]].

*A few [[seed]]s.

That's enough introductions, time to get the game going. Once you unpause you will notice the dwarves scatter. Before saving the game I created a food [[stockpile]] in the pantry, most of the dwarves have gone to haul the food from the wagon to inside. Whereas Juliet is going to fish, and the miners will begin mining.

I've already created a stockpile next to the craft shop for the finished goods to be put in. There is one flaw at the moment though - each good takes up an entire tile! What we want to do is create some wooden [[bin]]s to store the items in, this has the added advantage that when the merchants arrive you only need to haul a few bins to the depot to trade the contents, instead of hauling each item individually.

Sometimes it isn't enough to place furniture to make it usable, but you also need to define a room from it. Bedrooms, tombs, meeting halls, and plenty more have to be created this way. In our fortress our [[dining room]] has plenty of tables and chairs for eating, but isn't actually a dining room yet.

If you used the {{k|>}} to explore the [[z-level]] below the main fort you may have discovered this little room just below the pantry (figure 17).

You will see a list of 4 different crops. At the moment we only have seeds for [[plump helmet]]s and [[sweet pod]]s. So choose which you want to plant in each farm. '''But!''' note that there are 4 different [[season]]s. The current menu is only displaying spring so press {{k|b}} {{k|c}} {{k|d}} to get to summer, autumn and winter respectively and choose which crop to plant in each season.

Now let's create a [[stairs|staircase]] to access the next level up. First designate an up-stair on the current level (figure 22): press {{k|u}}, then {{K|Enter}} twice.

We want to build a [[fishery]] nearby to fix this problem. First open the <tt>Site a {{k|b}}uilding</tt> menu and you will see a list of all possible buildings (figure 25A). Scroll down until you reach {{k|w}}orkshops, select that and you will get a sub-menu of all the workshops (figure 25B).

But this isn't enough. For one of your dwarves to actually construct the workshop ''they need to have the labor enabled that relates to that building'' ... and at the moment no one has [[fish cleaner]] nor [[fish dissector]] enabled. You need to select another dwarf and change his labors to include [[fish cleaner|fish cleaning]], as explained [[#Setting job preferences|above]]. Preferably not Juliet (since the Fishing task takes precedence over almost all other tasks) nor any other dwarf that is busy with important tasks.

Once the fishery is complete you will need to set the task <tt>{{k|p}}rocess raw fish</tt> at the workshop, and set it to repeat. Pretty soon you'll be churning out a good supply of meat to feed your fort. Also, since Juliet is catching [[turtle]] you will also get a nice little supply of [[shell]]s that Rachel can then craft into goods.

Well, that's most of the basics covered. Next up I suggest you dig out an area near the pantry and build a [[still]] and a [[kitchen]] so you can begin brewing alcohol and cooking food (although plenty of food can be eaten raw). When the trade caravan arrives you will want to consult the [[trading]] page to learn how to trade with them.  

I hope you have fun exploring the area, building some proper defences to hold off [[invader]]s, and dealing with an expanding [[population]] and the greater problems that they bring.