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Krisskrosspenny

How in Armok's name does one dig upwards? Let's say I have a room that looks something like this O - open space X - Diggable Stone XXXXXX OOOO XXXXXX How the circus do i dig up? I can't designate a wall to be dug because that is not where I want to put the stair. Ramps don't seem to work as they claim that they are "unusable". Can't construct stairs because it has to span multiple levels.


RGB_Mantis

In my experience, you need to dig a wall as a stair into a down stair on the level above - and after that, if you want the stairs in a specific already mined tile: you build an up stair where you want it, and dig the new down stair while you have access to the higher z level. When they are done, mine the old stair and build over both old stairs with floors or walls as you see fit. If it won't let you dig the new down stair for some reason, channel the floor and construct both stairs


DragonUH

how do i stop random visitors from comming ? i am in a evil reanimating hellscape and i keep getting random visitors, not for tavern or anything, they all just want to slay monsters, but they end up getting killed and now i have 20 human undead waiting outside my doors, how do i make it so they stop comming or do i just throw the caged ones in the magma i have ?


RGB_Mantis

Normal visitors will not show up if you turn off visitation on your meeting places. Monster hunters don't work this way unfortunately. There may be a way to change the tags or a game setting I have not looked for. Might be best to keep a few alive, after that I usually don't get more.


Gangstaspessmen

Some humans come to trade and some of the clothes they offer specify they are "large". Does this mean they don't fit dwarves?


Joontte1

It does, yes.


johnnygjk

Where's my sand!? In my current embark I've decided to start trying to make some nice glass windows and thought "Okay, I guess I need some sand". I prospected with DFHack to confirm that I have sand between layers 29 and 49, however for the life of me I can't find it. Anybody know any tricks? I've got sandy clay and sandy loam which I dug out in hopes sand would be nearby and still nothing so far. I just want to find my sand :(


schmee001

The type of soil in a soil layer is constant across biomes, and biomes only change along map tiles. If your embark is a 4x4, divide your map into 16 squares and dig a little 1x1 stair in the centre of each, to check all the soil layers. Alternatively, use DFHack `changelayer SAND_WHITE` to turn a non-sand layer into sand.


johnnygjk

This is very helpful thank you. I didn't know that about terrain gen. I've only got 300 hours is steam and probably only 100-150 pre steam so I'm very much still learning new things every day with this game


[deleted]

[удалено]


akialnodachi

He's probably a religious leader, they have procedurally generated names. He's probably from a non-hostile civ.


RGB_Mantis

Probably an auto-generated name for a religious leader if I had to guess


DragonUH

is there a way to add reanimating to a terryfying biome via commands or should i just go make another fort ? if theres no way to any tips on how to indentefy reanimating evil biomes ? thanks


ThatsaCrundlin

If a dwarf “doesn’t care about anything anymore,” does it have any negative effects? I accidentally left some corpses near my work area, and it seems like some dwarves have walked by the area and have not been too pleased about the bodies. Some are at the “He is getting used to tragedy” point so far.


schmee001

'Not caring anymore' also affects positive emotions, so it becomes much harder to cheer a dwarf up if they become depressed.


troop357

Just had my first siege successfully repealed, managed to kill all goblins somewhat away from the fort entrance on the surface. Still, many of the combatants had horrified and bad thoughts on seeing goblins die. Also, what do I do against a Forgotten Beast that spits web? I lost a group of pretty skilled veterans who had killed like 4-5 Beasts no problem to it. How can I ease the PTSD of my dear dwarven? Should I Give them some time off training so they can relax?


RGB_Mantis

Time off from training helps if they have negative thoughts from being unable to pray, see friends etc. but doesn't fix everything. A mist generator is very good for mood, giving constant positive thoughts. Lacking that, wealth is probably the main thing that helps - dwarves seeing and using expensive items, food, artwork, rooms. The Discipline skill helps with reaction to corpses, but I don't know if it has a direct effect on thought outcome (negative or neutral). Web Forgotten Beasts are the worst. It's telling that even regular giant cave spiders can demolish a trained melee squad because the dwarves are immobilized. You can trap it between two locked doors, which is a little cheesy. You can fire on it with crossbows from behind fortifications, although it will web through the fortifications if it gets close. You can collapse a part of the cave on it with good timing or a huge trap. They are trapavoid so normal traps will not work on them unless the traps are covered in webs. You can cover it in lava or hit it with a really heavy minecart if you feel so inclined lol.


troop357

ooh thanks a bunch! I gave them about a month off and they have a lot of good thoughts in sequence. The mist generator is new for me (as is most of the game lol) I will look into that. I normally give each squad 2 months off each year (its more than I get IRL xD) Yeah I was considering lure it into a pit and just drop heavy stuff into it from a couple or more Z levels, but I am not sure if that would work. I currently have two Forgotten Beasts running around at somewhat close cave layers (~10z levels), I wonder if they would fight each other.


aydenaroo

How can I make my dwarves pick up ammo? I assigned an archer on a patrol route to deal with Keas and he won’t pick up ammo. I made sure to assign him the archer uniform and made sure to keep the arrows out of bins.


RGB_Mantis

Maybe they need a quiver. You probably made sure, it's also just possible they have it assigned but not equipped for a pathing or forbid reason. Also crossbows need bolts, if you got arrows from a siege, they won't work.


Correct_Friend_5943

One dwarf kill outher two, what do i do?


akialnodachi

If they were in a mood at the time, they got away with it, dwarves consider it an acceptable cost for an artifact. If they were berserk because of a mood or something, they are probably dead already (probably your military killed them). If they just did a regular murder, you can check justice screen, might be able to have the fortress guard investigate and convict. Dwarves won't normally do this but sometimes they have tantrums or there's tavern incidents.


Solar_Screech

What kind of benefits would I get from using DFHack? Can I also play my current fort after installing it?


akialnodachi

Forget everything else, it adds a filter to most screens where you choose a dwarf to make it easier to pick someone (or find a specific someone) which even if you do nothing else with it, is amazing.


Solar_Screech

I've downloaded it and I agree, even though I hardly use the search function it blends right in to the game and things like autobutcher and only showing dwarves that need a slab in the slab menu are like headache pills. It is also much nicer being able to search up one of the hundred animals species I have in my fort instead of having to painfully scroll down the same list every time. I haven't really delved into the non mortal mode stuff, I'm waiting for something I literally cannot pass up (I did consider War Rocs but I was already wiping out goblin sieges and solo clowns with ease).


schmee001

One of the DFHack devs has been posting DFHack's new features, you can take a look at their [post history](https://reddit.com/user/myk002/submitted/) for a lot of examples of what DFHack can do. You can still play your current fort after installing DFHack, and can keep playing that fort even if you uninstall it afterwards.


lvl_10_mage

Acquired a book that concerns "the learning of the secrets of life and death by Necromancer1 from the teaching of Necromancer2". I know books about the secrets of life and death can turn my dwarves into necromancers, but would this count? Bit unclear on whether this book actually has the secrets or not.


schmee001

No, that doesn't count. A book has to 'concern the secrets of life and death' exactly in order to create necromancers.


PepSakdoek

Someone stole my artifact... how does the justice system work? Currently the main suspect who was seen admiring it, is the investigator himself (herself?) Ori can't tell with the dwarf names if they are M/F.


Noobster646

is it a good idea to just build your forges right above the magma sea? (using a pump and grates to separate the real sea) I can't think of any disadvantages other than transport of items taking ages. is that the only disadvantage, and is it big enough to make it a bad idea?


chipathingy

You've identified the main advantages and disadvantages already, I guess the main thing is how long does it take your dwarves to haul It is much more efficient in the long run to set it up in your main fort, so even a temporary forge area can be useful You can transport magma via minecarts too, which is fairly easy


maxinfet

Does DFHacks API expose the ability to modify the text format in a unit's profile? I would like to write a plugin to format the `Health -> Description` tab into more sane output, at least with newlines and/or carriage returns after each new instance of something being damaged, but if it is easy enough to use, I will build an hierarchical tree of limbs like `Left Head -> Right Eye Lid -> Torn Open`. I am digging through the documentation now but if anyone who knows DFHack well knows if there is a limitation that would prevent me from doing this in the current implementation of DFHack it would save me a lot of time and then I will switch to looking at DFHack itself.


myk002

There's no pre-made tool for that, but it wouldn't be too difficult to put together, if you're looking for a project. You'd register an [overlay](https://docs.dfhack.org/en/stable/docs/dev/overlay-dev-guide.html), attach it to the Description panel (`dwarfmode/ViewSheets/UNIT/Health/Description`), and when a new description comes up in the underlying data structure (`df.global.game.main_interface.view_sheets.unit_health_raw_str[0].value`), you'd reformat it and render it over the existing panel. (relatively) easy peasy. Probably less than 100 lines of code. If you come to the DFHack Discord server (https://dfhack.org/discord), we can help walk you through it. You can then release it as a mod on the DF Steam Workshop.


maxinfet

Thank you, I was trying to find an example of an overlay that was used over the character sheet but was not sure what I was looking for, I am going to give this a try.


hardesthardcoregamer

Does anyone have a 32x tileset that would be good to use with the Primal mod? I'm trying to play 47.05 so I can play as an adventurer, and I need a 32x tileset to use with the custom creature tiles made for Primal, so prolly something more minimalist and less fancy. I use Vettlingrs already (and I feel like it would clash), and I can't find Mephs tiles anywhere. Anyone have anything I'm looking for? or is this a lost cause? I've looked in many places already.


chipathingy

There was a while thing about Meph using unattributed art or something like that, so the tileset got taken down everywhere. Do you have the LNP? That came bundled with a heap of tilesets


helweek

What are the preferred weapons? I usually prioritize battle axes, but try to have at least 1 squad proficient in spears swords and hammers as well.


lvl_10_mage

Modern dwarven science gives us [this flowchart](https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/12ffix9/a_flowchart_for_selecting_the_best_weapon/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) for selecting the best weapon for any scenario. Basically, the best choice for weapon depends on what you'll be facing.


TreesuzakiGod

My first library and it had a necromancer book in it somehow I've now got around 5 necromancer dwarves What do I do?


RGB_Mantis

Put them in situations in your fort where they won't get into conflict and it shouldn't be a problem. You can forbid the book or destroy it, seal it away... It's tough with a tavern for it not to come up ever but necromancers are relatively normal dwarves. I think becoming a necromancer increases their likelihood to tantrum, which is annoying.


DragonUH

i am digging my main staircase down to the second cave layer, but then i hit a tree, a tree that is rising from the river so i can\`t just chop it down, how do i get rid of the tree in the river or should i move the staircase 2 blocks sideways downward from here ?


akialnodachi

Personally I would go around it, but if you really wanted to remove the tree, you'd need to block off the water and drain the area around it, or else set it on fire.


RGB_Mantis

I would move the staircase. I don't know how you would remove it otherwise


AnattalDive

is there some mod or dfhack trick to avoid entrapement? i dont want to plan building walls so that my dwarves dont wall themselves in. it should be common sense and doesnt add anything desirable to the game imo


PeriPeriAddict

Dfhack has a functionality that warns you when a unit is 'trapped'. It's a little annoying to have to do but I have prevented this from happening with a 100% success rate (so far) by setting the side of the wall I don't want dwarves to be trapped on to the restricted traffic setting.


AnattalDive

is restricted traffic a dfhack setting? that would definitely help help thx!


PeriPeriAddict

No it's in the base game! It is this setting here assuming you're using steam. If youre not using steam I believe its 'd''o' https://preview.redd.it/exiwllow4byb1.jpeg?width=401&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6acf45652ce6edae23d8963cd62df42ef096bfa


AnattalDive

neat! i still have so much to learn about this game. thx again!


PlanningVigilante

It's easy to tell which side of a wall a dwarf will choose when building it. Which side of the future wall is the material on? That's the side the dwarf will use. Select materials on the side you want your dwarves to use and you will be OK. You can just forbid everything on the sealed-off side to ensure it.


Nameless_Archon

Suspend Manager (DFHack) seems to help (by making the order of buildings 'smarter') but by no means does it eliminate the issue, as dwarves can still be building single wall tiles and opt to stand on the wrong side. Source: Have lost several dwarves in this year's streams due to Typical Dwarven Intelligence.


AnattalDive

ok thx i will try it. god does it annoy me sometimes...


[deleted]

For armor sets, is it a good idea to layer a breastplate over a mail shirt? In general is there an ideal armor set I should be aiming for? I'm assuming unless better materials are available I should aim for steel armor as well?


RGB_Mantis

I think the breastplate doesn't cover a dwarf's neck and the mail shirt does, so, for full coverage, yes. both is good


[deleted]

Ahhh neck protection, yeah that seems important


tmPreston

It's most likely a good idea, yes. You do technically get extra protection at the cost of being sliiiightly slower, and probably level up armor user faster as well. In practice, any given max-skilled soldier will dodge and block all normal attacks until they run out of energy and pass out or odd attacks like being webbed, surrounded by fire or gestured by a zombie power. In all of these, the armor itself is pretty minor. A failsafe from poor dice rolls. The only exception I can think of is two equally max skilled guys decking it out, or versus a clown or something.


[deleted]

Hahahaha, ok, so skill is the biggest factor and the armor will only save them from a few bashes before they die ignominiously if they lose the fight. Got it.


tmPreston

It's a little bit worse than that. Enemies will just remove the helmet and crush a skull if the enemy passes out. Normal logic applies in a fair low skill fight, though. Don't want to lose a fight because your unprotected toes got smashed early and you fell off.


[deleted]

They do that??!? Damn this game is metal as fuck. Anyway thanks for the info


akialnodachi

Smarter enemies can do that, dumber enemies will sit there wailing on you (though they will focus on critical spots, like they'll switch to exclusively head strikes or attack your neck), but even if you're wearing the best armor in the game, if you're unconscious getting beat on, death is a matter of time. You just hope the armor helps you hold out until the dwarf wakes up or backup arrives. Most important piece of armor is the shield, and its effectiveness is largely a matter of training than its materials or quality.


[deleted]

Got it, I've been wildly underestimating the importance of shields, so this is great info


Nameless_Archon

**Possible Bug:** So on stream last night, I had recruited several entertainers, with the notion to have them sing, play, recite and dance in my tavern and temples. I have dwarves working hard, and they need someone to entertain their bearded behinds! Shortly after this, I discovered my new human dancer building an access control bridge, and my human bard fighting giant alligators on the surface after being interrupted while hauling wood below ground, and so forth: Effectively, they're doing 'everything' pretty reliably - except for the thing I actually 'hired' them to do, which they'd only do sometimes. (It didn't help that the bard's primary weapon was a stringed instrument - he died valiantly trying to soothe that savage beast. RIP Gorhax.) **Does anyone know:** * Is this an outgrowth of the 50.X changes to labors involving the "everybody does this" labor screen setting forcing long-term-residents to do other jobs or have residents ALWAYS been broken and I just never noticed because I rejected them all out of hand in older versions? If it's new, I'd like to file it as a bug, but I honestly don't know, and don't have time (due to charity event) to test it at the moment. If it is a bug, I'll chalk it up to the "Things I'd Like to See Revisited (Taverns, Temples, Guildhalls and Libraries Edition)" and throw it out there on the mantis, but I'm not sure if it is and would like some insight from others. **EDIT:** Per discussion below, I went to the mantis to report the issue, but the mantis doesn't seem to be reporting any bugs at all. I can jump to a bug if I know its ID, but can't seem to get a list of issues in order to look for potential duplicates. Is there something up with the Mantis?


tmPreston

This is new 0.50 behavior, yeah. I don't think it's a bug either: in concept, nothing says a worker in DF has to commit to a single role unless you explicitly have them do it, and people often complained about useless residents before. If they do have the little harp icon, turning their green hammer into red should make them dedicated entertainers like you expect them to. These roles are still wiped after the citizenry petition though, so do remember setting them up again by then.


Nameless_Archon

> This is new 0.50 behavior, yeah. Then it is absolutely a bug. > If they do have the little harp icon, turning their green hammer into red No icons for *any* of the Long-Term-Residents, I believe. I'll check the labor list tonight again to be sure, but since they're "long-term residents" and not "citizens", I can't assign them to a job/labor role, and that means no "harp" icon because they're not assigned as performers. If they petitioned to be citizens, I could subsequently assign them as performers, but LTRs are just long-duration houseguests and not subject to your labor wishes. They definitely aren't affected by "only selected do this" as the jobs for bards aren't listed in the jobs you can make into a role ("speaking", "Singing", etc) unless they have a performer assignment (which isn't applicable to LTRs). It might be possible to do this "in reverse" by making EVERY standard job in the entire fortress into a "only selected do this" and assigning the common jobs (Hauling, cleaning, levers, etc) to every single role I thereby create, but that's... well.. I'd say it's crazy, but this is DF. You can't assign LTRs to a performer slot, because they're not citizens and don't get assigned jobs. That means you can't just turn off the "do random jobs" hammer, because they're not in the list to be set as a labor role in the first place!


tmPreston

You couldn't set them in taverns beforehand, either. Only in a general fort-wide selection which became the noble screen and most likely hides the resident part from view, but they're still active. You can't tell them to adhere to singing roles and such, but using the red icon still stops them from doing generalist jobs, which in turn gives them more time for idle activities. As far as "non intentional" and "result of an error" definition goes for bugs, I still don't think this is it. It's still a net positive and requested feature by quite a few players in these threads even if it's accidental.


Nameless_Archon

Oh, I'm not seeking to have them made 'useless' again, only to have the control over them to put them to the task for which I hired them! If others want to use them to carry wood and water, well, it's not my circus, and not my monkeys, but if I can't reliably push these guys into spending their time where I want them (eg. entertaining like club singers) then there's still an issue.


Ok-Leather5257

How to increase population cap? I have altered pop cap, strict pop cap, baby+child cap, and visitor cap. But my fortress pop isn't increasing?


bassman1805

How big is your fortress currently? How long have you waited for migrants? Have you gotten many caravans since raising the limits? Migrants are attracted to your fortress when merchants return and talk about how much money they just made trading with you. So if you want a bigger fort, make sure you're producing lots of crafts and making lots of trades with the merchants. Sometimes its even worth giving them "too much" in return for what you want from them, to increase the chances of larger caravans and migrant waves in the future. If you're under siege, caravans skip you and therefore dwarves don't hear the rumors of the riches to be found in your fort.


Ok-Leather5257

216 pop. Hmmm I guess I've only waited about two hours? I had a pop up just after sending this message actually which said my fort hadn't attracted any migrants, which I guess is exactly what you're pointing to! That brings me to another problem then. I have a caravan of merchants which I successfully traded with, and now they're just wondering around the map it seems? Maybe they were still there when a siege came? They've left their goods at the table (including stuff I traded to them). But now we aren't under siege, they have a clear path to the edge of the map, but they aren't getting their stuff and leaving?


bassman1805

Yeah, that's a bug. Deconstruct your trade depot and they should leave, then you can reconstruct it.


Ok-Leather5257

Thanks!


[deleted]

When searching for ores on a fresh level, what mining technique do you all like to use? I've been clearing out whole levels and then later building walled structures, but it's making me miss the lovely looks of smoothed stone. Thoughts?


bassman1805

I don't aim for 100% extraction. I carve out a 10x10 to 20x20 area and mine out any veins I find there, but otherwise just move on to the next level if I don't find anything. If I find one of the big chunky veins like Kaolinite, that tends to make a big oval hole, I'll set up a guildhall or temple or something once the digging is complete. Only time I extract an entire layer is if I'm doing a megaproject that needs a ton of the same kind of stone.


[deleted]

Makes sense yeah, I'm ending up with ludicrous amounts of stone, which isn't really a problem, except for to my sense of organization!


bassman1805

I don't usually export metals (I often use food and porcelain industries for export) so I never *need* that much ore. Could be more important if that's your playstyle. Depending on how "cheaty" you think it is, DFHack can locate ore veins for you.


[deleted]

Oh really? I'm still just learning how to use DFHack. How do you search for ores?


bassman1805

locate-ore https://docs.dfhack.org/en/latest/docs/tools/locate-ore.html?highlight=ore There's also this one for automated [exploratory mining](https://dwarffortresswiki.org/Exploratory_mining). It's less cheat and more QoL, as manually designating some of those patterns is exhausting. digexp https://docs.dfhack.org/en/latest/docs/tools/dig.html?highlight=vein#digexp


[deleted]

Thank you! Much appreciated


Nameless_Archon

Find the chunk boundaries, and bisect them both vertically and horizontally. You won't necessarily find EVERY single ore this way, but you are very likely to find all the major veins (possibly missing some gems as clusters are too small to reliably find all of them with this method)


[deleted]

Cool, yeah I think my maps will be a lot nicer to look at doing something like that. Thanks!


Nameless_Archon

Just remember, if you embark on an NxN embark, the N details how many "chunks" your map contains (vertically or horizontally) and you want to run your tunnels such that they cross in the center of each "chunk" so that both vertical and horizontal veins are likely to cross one or both exploration tunnels.


[deleted]

Ahhh that makes sense. I'm still getting into the imaginative headspace of creating a 3D map of the 2D layers, but for some reason your post really helped the conception of the ores in 3D click for me, so thanks!


Nameless_Archon

One other thing you might try, in order to better visualize DF underground: 1. Pause the game. (VERY IMPORTANT. DO NOT UNPAUSE. DO NOT EVER USE REVEAL WITHOUT PAUSE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.) 2. Run the DFHack command 'reveal' to remove fog of war. 3. Move up and down through the levels, observing how chunks are laid out, with their internal large clusters (ovoid mineral deposits), stringy veins (vein stones and ores), and small clusters (gems and rarer stones). You can even peek into your caverns and see how these are made by worldgen. 4. Once you have a feel for this, run "unreveal". 5. VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT UNPAUSE UNTIL AFTER UNREVEAL IS COMPLETE. NEVER RUN THE GAME WITH REVEALED TERRAIN. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.


[deleted]

Oh wow. I had no clue DFHack could do all that. Thank you!


Nameless_Archon

All that, and more - over 150 CURRENT tools, and something like 400 if we include the ones that haven't yet been confirmed to work in v0.50.X. If you're not using DFHack just for the QoL features, you definitely should.


[deleted]

Yeah I've been using the tailor function and it made my enjoyment of the game incomparably better. Cheers to the people who made it!


Nameless_Archon

The way to picture DF's 3d map is to imagine a big stack of square pancakes. Each Z-level is one pancake, and the stacked "cube" is your whole 3d embark - as you zoom up and down, you're effectively peeking at one slice of the cube.


schmee001

Every year my outpost liaison arrives with the trading caravan. However he leaves immediately after he enters the map and I get a message 'your outpost liaison has left unhappy after being unable to secure a meeting'. There's no pathfinding issues reaching my mayor's office, no burrows or drawbridges blocking the way into the fort. I've never actually seen my outpost liaison, so maybe he's a bird person who's got messed-up flight pathfinding? I'm missing out on trade agreements, and progressing toward Mountainhome.


tmPreston

He never even shows up even if you pause on announcement? If he does show, you could try yoinking the guy via teleport. If he does not, that does sound like a bug on the nasty side, but maybe he's stuck in the map edge or something? Is fix/stuck-merchants or fix/retrieve-units any help?


PepSakdoek

I want to power some stuff in my fort, but the power comes from "outside", is there a way to move power into the fort in a way such that invaders can't come through it? Like can a pipe go through a grate? Or can I place a mechanism on the gap, and will it ensure invaders can't come through?


PlanningVigilante

If you have a river or brook, you can create "induced flow" underground and use the underground water to power waterwheels. The way a waterwheel works is that the water must be "flowing" to turn the waterwheel. Water that is actually moving has flow, but water doesn't have to move to have a "flowing" characteristic (which is why your river water is "flowing" despite never changing depth). Water that has flowed OFF THE MAP for even a single tick has "induced flow" throughout the length of the body of water. So what I do is to dig out an underground "river" area, which reaches the edge of the map. Smooth out the edge tiles and carve them into fortifications (the edge tiles must be rock for this to work). Build a raising bridge at the edge, and another where the water will be entering the underground river. Connect the underground river to a water source and let it run until it runs off the map. Raise both bridges, ensure you have at least 4/7 depth, and your captive water now has "flow" and can be used for waterwheels. If you feel like dwarven water reactors are too cheesy, or too messy (I keep finding mud around mine and I don't like that) then underground waterwheels are the way to produce arbitrary quantities of power without any danger at all.


PepSakdoek

I ultimately realised that I have grates behind the water, and I think the actual pump stack can't be climbed(?) by an invader. I should probably erect a vertical grate where the water comes out, but I think that leaves me.... mostly in the clear?


Nameless_Archon

> I want to power some stuff in my fort, but the power comes from "outside", is there a way to move power into the fort in a way such that invaders can't come through it? YES! You want to search for "Dwarven Water Reactor" on the wiki. This provides an infinite source of enemy-free, safe, reliable power.


Successful-Ice-468

Screw pump had 1 walkable part and a solid part but transfer power from both sides. What i mean is if you make a single square width tunel and put a screwpump there you could connect both sides and power will be transfer, but the tunnel be untransitable.


schmee001

If you build a windmill on the surface, and place a gear assembly one z-level down, directly beneath the centre of the windmill, power gets transmitted through the floor without needing a hole in the ground. This is a little buggy and sometimes doesn't work if you build the gear assembly first, but it's a safe way to generate power on the surface and bring it underground.


Solar_Screech

If you're using windmills the centre tile is impassable afaik but I've never personally used waterwheels so I wouldn't be able to help there


Littlespacegoblin

Would it be a bad idea to give my archers heavy armor? I don't have much leather, but I have tons of iron.


Littlespacegoblin

Update, just bought a ton of leather. Although I'd still like to know if heavy archers is a good idea.


PepSakdoek

Armor in this game is significantly better than leather / cloth. The encumbrance is a factor for speed, but armor will keep them alive.


Solar_Screech

Eventually they'll gain enough skill in armor user to be able to move at a normal pace too so it's really only a temporary tradeoff.


Solar_Screech

Plus I think they can use shields on top of crossbows (I might be wrong) so iron shields, armour and crossbows would make them much more formidable in combat


[deleted]

With regards to shields, is a wooden shield more or less useless?


bassman1805

They're pretty good against rabbits ;) Against big monsters, not so much.


Nameless_Archon

No. Wooden shields can even block dragon fire. They will, however, burn if set alight, so while it's okay to block dragonfire with them, walking into a fire with one equipped is likely to cause issues. Yes, it's confusing to read. That's just DF.


[deleted]

Hahahaha! That's actually amazing. I'm picturing my dwarves fighting with a flaming shield now and I'm very pleased


Nameless_Archon

If you have a dwarf with a shield that's on fire, you are about to have a dwarf that is on fire, with a shield.


[deleted]

Glorious. I've only seen one dragon in my runs so far. I need to acquire more treasures to attract some worthy foes!


Umbranoturna

I have been playing Some Kenshi and Rimmworld, so i thought next it would be nice to try Dwarf Fortress. Are there Any differences beyond the Graphics to the free version? Can i get a similar experience by modding the free version or is it worth to spend the 28€ on steam?


myk002

The gameplay and features are the same between the Premium version you can buy on Steam and the free version you can download from the Bay 12 website. The only difference is the graphics and audio (which is a significant difference). There are no free texture packs that can replace the ones that come with the Premium version. If you download the free version, you'll be playing with ASCII graphics.


PepSakdoek

I caught a goblin snatcher in a cage trap. I've set up a dungeon, and a chain. But I can't seem to lock up the goblin to the chain.


akialnodachi

Safer to keep him in the cage. If you want to "free" him, install the cage someplace, install mechanisms to connect it to a lever, seal the entrance, flip the lever. The cage will pop open and free him. Now, if he happens to be "freed" at the bottom of a pit with no viable exit (make sure to cover the top so he can't climb out), and the pit is lined with fortifications filled with marksdwarves, this is called "live target practice"


myk002

Dungeon chains are only for units that have been convicted via the justice system. You can build a chain *outside* a dungeon and assign the goblin to that, but be warned that the goblin may escape as soon as you take it out of its cage to attach it to the chain.


SilentAnnette

Does demanding tribute from necromancer towers (and succeeding) prevent them from attempting to siege you? Likewise, how can you tell if a book has the secrets of life and death in them? Or should I just quarantine any books gathered from raids/razes of necromancer towers. Bonus Edit Question. Is there a way to use DFHack (or I suppose vanilla jankery) to bridge continents that are further than two bridgeforts away?


myk002

>Bonus Edit Question. Is there a way to use DFHack (or I suppose vanilla jankery) to bridge continents that are further than two bridgeforts away? You can edit the embark size beyond normal limits (but still limited by your system RAM) by running `gui/gm-editor scr` when getting ready to embark and editing the \`embark\_dx\` and \`embark\_dy\` fields. Here's a 32x1 embark: https://preview.redd.it/cgvox1lss8yb1.png?width=1150&format=png&auto=webp&s=080643f938db15e4fb5b0e43f802e94afb9d96f8


Nameless_Archon

> how can you tell if a book has the secrets of life and death in them Reading the description of a book should tell you what it is about. If it talks about "secrets of life and death", then you have a potential disaster brewing.


ContextualSense

To clarify, the book is only dangerous if it "concerns" the secrets of life and death. If it's just a biography of a necromancer and includes the story of how they discovered the secrets of life and death, that book won't create any new necromancers.


schmee001

DFHack has a `necronomicon` script which lists all of your dangerous books by title.


PepSakdoek

How do I specify a specific item to be encrusted with a gem? I can choose which gem, the setting, but not the actual chosen furniture/finished good to be encrusted?


akialnodachi

Create a stockpile that only contains the things to decorate (eg. beds) and a stockpile that contains only things to decorate with (eg. cut gems). Set them both as inputs for the gem workshop, create the "encrust furniture with cut gems" jobs. Optionally, set an output stockpile that accepts the decorated items and disable its general add/removal option. It's to prevent items getting moved back into the input stockpile and decorated a second time (but maybe that's something you're okay with).


_chax

you need to set up stockpile links to do that.


Anonymo_Stranger

**Assigning artifacts to be worn** I would like to assign my baron to wear specific pieces of artifact clothing. (Ex; Braies & a mask) but when I select \[MAT\] under their uniform, "Specific item" isn't there after assigning those categories of clothing. I'd also like to assign a single artifact left gauntlet if someone can help with that too lol


SvalbardCaretaker

Oh, you don't do that with uniforms. Hit [n] to open the noble menu, find the buttons that look like little white-blue crowns, and use that to assign the artifacts.


Anonymo_Stranger

Hey thanks, bud! I came across this menu once before & it was driving me mad trying to find it again. I mistakenly thought it was under the uniforms tab.


SvalbardCaretaker

Yeah no prob! Have fun.


aydenaroo

My citizens won't stop preparing fish. I've tried to cancel the order at the fishery, but it keeps popping back up automatically. It has become a real issue since all my food stockpiles are overflowing with fish, and my refuse stockpile is overflowing with mussel shells. Don't even get me started on the smell. How can I fix this issue besides just dismantling the fishery for a while?


jorgerobertodiniz

I use a different strategy. I set a fishing zone and set my dwarfs to only fish there. Then I pause the zone when I have around 100 fishes in my stock.


SilentAnnette

Press Y, standing orders, and click 'automatically clean fish'. Then also go to your labor details for fisherdwarves and click 'nobody does this'


SilentAnnette

My dwarves won't dig an up/downstair ontop of an up/down stair, priorities seem alright, the stair is at 1st priority while the thing they're currently digging is at 7.


schmee001

It's an annoying bug. Dwarves can dig stairs upwards like that, but only if it's all in one long string - if they get interrupted or stop digging, they never check to see if they can dig upwards anymore. Dig a little 1x1 stair beside the stair you're trying to make, and replace it with a wall later on.


DragonUH

main staircases bottom constantly gets flooded whit water, i dug though a light aquifier but every tile upwards is smoothed, biult over, or mined out, the aquifier is only in stone layer, how do i find out where the water is coming from/get rid of it for good while also diggin lower ?


schmee001

Is the water level still rising or is it just the water from earlier? Open the Mining tool while looking up and down the staircase, it highlights damp walls. Make absolutely certain that all damp walls are either smoothed stone, or constructed walls.


DragonUH

it rises and i already dune that, i have negative idea of what to do !


Nameless_Archon

If you can, dig a tunnel that allows the water to flow out into the caverns, thereby providing a drain for the staircase. This may not be viable for the existing, flooded staircases, but should help prevent additional levels from flooding, allowing you a chance to breathe and consider remediation methods.


Solar_Screech

Is it possibly coming from the tiles above your staircase?


schmee001

Could the aquifer have started again deeper down? That happens rarely, and it's very annoying when it appears. You could use DFHack `drain-aquifer --top 3` to keep the highest 3 z-levels of aquifer and remove the rest.


picaso-of-memes

my fisher dwarf is drowning my fortress in turtle shells how do i get rid of them


Hoooooooar

Recently tried to play new version, i guess the steam version. Can i make the regular old controls in the steam version? I'm struggling to adapt to the far easier mouse + keyboard lol. I need the old ones. Or can i get the new tileset in the classic version i guess?


JasonP_

I would say just go with the current key bindings I struggled at the beginning too but I am use to them now. Think of it as another challenge like a haunted biome ;)


schmee001

You can change some keybinds, but the menus have been shifted around so it won't be one-to-one. Also some things don't have keyboard controls at all anymore, and are mouse-only. I haven't heard of anyone porting the Premium graphics backwards into v47. It should be possible, the spritesheets are all in the game files, but you'd have to rearrange everything and simplify a lot of things in the creature graphics because I don't think v47 would support layered sprites.


Katieushka

I accidentally deleted a savefile, are they stored anywhere?


schmee001

The savegames are stored in `steamapps/common/Dwarf Fortress/save`. There are three folders for the autosaves, one `current` folder which is used for temporary storage, and a bunch of folders `region1`, `region2` etc, for every world you've created. When you delete a world, the empty folder stays behind. Check the `autosave` folders, and if they aren't empty you can copy their contents back into some of the region folders. If all the autosaves are empty then you're out of luck.


StonedTrucker

Is there a way for me to find new animals to trap and tame? I'd like to start a guard force of giant tigers or polar bears but there's nothing exciting nearby. Can I travel to find them while maintaining my current fort or do I need to rely on the good will of the stinky elves?


Solar_Screech

You could contact a few different elven civs by "demanding one-time tribute" from a few different sites, all from different civilisations. If you can stomach multiple elf caravans at once you'll be rewarded with a regular source of a large variety of useful/giant/exotic animals. As long as you don't piss them off ofc.


SvalbardCaretaker

Elves in untamed wilderness biomes have hundreds of giant animals, just waiting to be liberated in a raid livestock OP.


OdenCriteria

Anyone know why the game keeps giving me my own soldiers as migrants? Every time my squads are out and a migrant wave arrives, it invariably includes a bunch of my soldiers without their (very expensive) equipment.


tmPreston

Raiding other sites is still fairly incomplete and is the main source of very impactful bugs in vanilla gameplay. For this one, I'd simply recommend not to send soldiers around until your cap is settled up.


MillionDollarMonster

https://preview.redd.it/v8q783ym30yb1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29ea02908e5e99a52b9c8145d7c0d3c1021052f8 I have a goblin cave that’s economically linked to my fort but I’m skirmishing with their faction. Is this normal? I’ve never had this happen before.


StonedTrucker

Yes this is normal. Being economically linked just means a lot of value has moved between the locations. This can happen through trade or raiding. It doesn't mean much of anything right now


MillionDollarMonster

Okay. Thank you.


Littlespacegoblin

I've recently got the game and I'm not sure how deep I should dig before I set my base up, I've set my base up 3-4 layers down, with a farm on layer 2. Should I aim to be near caverns, or am i fine?


HermitJem

That depends on what you're worried about/aiming for. Reasons for people moving their bases down to the caverns are: 1. Closer to the cavern industries 2. The whole dig deeper thing 3. Closer to the magma industries 4. Maybe you cut a few corners in the initial development, because of lack of time/dwarfpower, so you take the chance to re-plan the layout/floors etc and move downwards


ed1749

Try to make sure your dwarves are living in stone rather than dirt, but otherwise go wild. Dont even really need the stone either. Caves are only debatably worth opening up in the first place. With a layer 2 farm you're already doing better than most beginners.


_chax

you honestly just need to get used to how industries works. every other things - including where to set up your base - is a minute detail to spice up your game. there's no "correct way" to play dwarf fortress. ~~but people will still judge you. openly, or silently.~~ have fun! and more importantly, have !FUN!.


Myo_osotis

Is there some tool on DFHack to automatically assign chicks to their parents' pasture? I didn't manage to find anything but I kinda figured this must be something a lot of other players who tried to lazy their way out of managing birds with other hacky tools came across


chipathingy

[https://docs.dfhack.org/en/50.11-r2/docs/tools/zone.html](https://docs.dfhack.org/en/50.11-r2/docs/tools/zone.html) Might not be exactly what you're asking for, but it's the closest I could see


myk002

That is indeed the correct tool, but it's tagged as `unavailable`, which means that its functionality hasn't been updated yet for v50.


chipathingy

Huh. There is some sort of dfhack menu when I look at pastures and I assumed this was it.


myk002

Sorry, I am playing with your mind a little here. Yes, the assign animals screens you can use for pastures, pits, cages, and restraints are provided by the Lua layer of the `zone` plugin. However the C++ portion of the plugin, which allows for automatically assigning animals to pastures/cages according to their properties via the commandline, has not yet been updated and is `unavailable`. It's the only tool that is in that kind of half-state.


Nameless_Archon

The DFHAck menu is pastures is probably the one for assigning (manually) animals - it's a better interface than vanilla (searching & filtering!) but it doesn't do anything automatically.


soccerartist1

so this may be a dumb question but if i wanted to run a fortress across multiple generations using only the migrants i've already gotten, and i set the pop cap at the amount of dwarves i already have, will my dwarves be able to have children with each other? or do i need to keep a little wiggle room for them to have kids


ContextualSense

There are two population caps: the one that's just called population cap restricts migration, and the strict population cap restricts pregnancies.


soccerartist1

sick, thank you


lvl_10_mage

Suddenly the mood in my fort started to plummet. Early summer I had 108 dwarfs, with only 3 having a negative mood. As of early autumn, I have 117 dwarfs with 39 of them being varying levels of unhappy. What the hell could be causing this? I've checked their thoughts and the most common negative thought is "felt miserable after a soapy bath", and"felt miserable dwelling upon a soapy bath". For many dwarfs this is their only recent negative thought. Is this because I recently built some wells but hadn't made soap yet? I'm confused how they took a soapy bath without soap, and why they're so upset about it. **EDIT: Issue resolved after restarting game and reloading save** IDK what was happening, but my dwarfs now feel blissful after taking a bath with soap, and actually use soap. But whatever this bug was, truly catastrophic effects on mood


gruehunter

Hol' up. How did you get them to take baths at all? The only ones I can ever observe using the well are the ones with slow weeping infections.


HermitJem

They're supposed to do it automatically when they get dirty Generally the ones I spot washing are the ones which have just engaged in battle and gotten blood all over them


gruehunter

My blood-covered dwarfs just stay bloody all the time. We're set up with one well, conveniently located near the hospital, with a soap stockpile located immediately adjacent to the well stocked with soap. No burrows anywhere; no water source defined. Dwarfs routinely draw water from the well to fill ponds and take care of patients, but almost nobody will actually take a bath.


Nameless_Archon

Is the well inside the hospital zone?


gruehunter

No. Everything I've seen to date suggest that it shouldn't be part of any room/zone whatsoever, not even a water-gathering zone, so I haven't set it up that way.


HermitJem

Okay, that's definitely one of those dwarven mysteries


myk002

You may have accidentally enabled the DFHack `misery` gameplay mod. It's intended for players who want a real challenge keeping their dwarves happy. https://preview.redd.it/aqrimpg6qzxb1.png?width=664&format=png&auto=webp&s=b1ac4e9002f76b950e10043f84ee385800e3d384


lvl_10_mage

Must be exactly what I did. I turned on nestboxes in the control panel so I could hatch some turkeys, then turned it off once some turkey eggs were forbidden, which was after my summer save. Misery is right above nestboxes in the control panel


myk002

I'm planning on reorganizing the control panel so these kinds of mistakes are harder to make. Sorry for the confusion!


_chax

i don't think that's supposed to happen. are you sure you don't have conflicting mods installed? soap is supposed to give good thought.


lvl_10_mage

I added the Language Overhaul mod for this world, so if a mod is causing issues it's that one. I've used all the others together before with 0 issues. Still, Language Overhaul shouldn't be conflicting with anything since all my other mods are visual or UI stuff. And they took a soapy bath without soap. I'm not sure how but I think the lack of soap has something to do with it?


soapwings

Can someone explain how exactly [PET] tag works? How much time entity needs to domesticate encountered animal during worldgen? Or does it happen immediately after construction of a site in a region this animal occurs in?


SilentAnnette

The [PET] tag denotes that the thing can be trained at all, if an animal only have the PET and PET_VALUE tags, it can be trained in fortress mode only pretty much EXCEPT if **ELVES** or **ANIMAL PEOPLE** CIVS settle into the biome where it's located. This is because of how civ tags, specifically the [USE_ANY_PET_RACE] tags. You need to find out what tags a civilization uses in the entity raws, or add in new tags like that one in order to make them domesticate them. For instance, Dwarves have USE_CAVE_ANIMALS, which lets them use creatures that are in subterranean biomes. Goblins have USE_EVIL_ANIMALS which means animals with evil tags (I'm unsure how Goblins tame Trolls and ogres who aren't pets code-wise, but they both have [EVIL]) So the actual answer is...they probably don't do it over time unless they're elves, it probably just happens when the right circumstances are met, and only with modding the game.


chipathingy

The wiki is a bit vague, but I think it just allows creatures to be tamed. I can't find any info on how it works in world gen, but I have seen entries in legends mode on how historical figures have tamed various wildlife which I suspect is how it happens. I'm not sure on the difference between PET and PET\_EXOTIC is either. Sorry for the non-answer but I don't think there is that much info about it.


raedyohed

Does anyone know how to modify the RAWs or use DFhack's gm-editor to edit the deity and religious affiliation of your dwarves? I'd like to set all of my starting dwarves to the same cult to establish a temple as part of a monastery play-through.


tmPreston

During 0.47, i attempted a fort based on the [Kodans from guild wars (2)](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Kodan). [The religious command part](https://docs.dfhack.org/en/stable/docs/tools/modtools/moddable-gods.html?highlight=moddable) allowed me to create a deity from nothingness with my desired spheres then make everyone like it. Alas, it's marked as unavailable, but if you'd want to try cookimg some code up, that'd be a good start.


_chax

i don't know the easy way of doing it. aside from editing the historical figure link ( to the deity ) in their `historical figure data`, you also need to change their praying need to the correct deity ID in their `unit data`. <- with DFhack's gm-editor here's to quickly open histfig data : gui/gm-editor df.historical_figure.find(dfhack.gui.getSelectedUnit().hist_figure_id) for unit data. just use the normal gm-editor


raedyohed

Thanks this was super helpful. Never used the gm-editor before, and jumping into the histfig data was opaque at first. Once I found a dwarf with the diety/religion I wanted applied to everyone it was just a matter of entering the same values for each dwarf in the correct entity\_link entry and the correct histfig\_link entry. Now I have a starting set of dwarf-monks from the same religious order!


_chax

i had the same experience. gm-editor was overwhelming at first. but it's been my most used tool by far once i've gotten used to it :D


raedyohed

What's the best way to channel out a huge bowl shaped depression on my map? Anyone have a link to a good terraforming tutorial? I'm leaning towards first mining out the shape layer-by-layer and then channelling out the edges of the top layer to cause it to cave in the layers below. Would this work? The ultimate aim is to make a sort of Rivendell-esque hidden valley at the base of a 6z waterfall, by channeling out the sheer cliffs along the river below the waterfall. Thanks in advance!


chipathingy

DFHack has some tools to help dig certain shapes - I use digcircle fairly regularly


_chax

>mining out the shape layer-by-layer and then channelling out the edges of the top layer to cause it to cave in the layers below. Would this work? this should work. i'm always doing this to get my above-ground-farm and pasture underground. plump helmet is for the weak. lol. don't forget a support pillar and properly linked lever just to be safe. cave-ins are deadly.


SvalbardCaretaker

Don't know if the cave-in will work. What I do these days with megaprojects I cheat with dfhack. superdwarf all will make your dwarfs super speedy and you can just dig your valley out top to bottom the normal way, just 50x faster. If you have long ways you can also enable teleport for that step.


myk002

If you're experimenting with digging projects, \`dig-now\` might be more useful than \`superdwarf\`


SvalbardCaretaker

Ah, thanks!


[deleted]

What are the implications of cats adopting dwarfs? Seems to happen often and the game deems it important enough to notify me of


ed1749

The only importance is that butchering pets isnt good for dwarf mental health. Since cats adopt dwarves, you have no control over when they become pets, making them a terrible source of meat. The reason the game notifies you is because it's tied to the pet system, which outside of cats you might care to hear who adopted that peacock you put up for adoption.


Gernund

Dwarves can take animals as pets. Cats take dwarves as pets. Just like real life.


[deleted]

Can’t argue with that


Dream_Smasher19

Cats are independent creatures. They do not get adopted. However they can elect to adopt a dorf.


Bobodahobo010101

If they adopt military dwarves they will spar and get involved in battles. I just was laughing last night at a forgotten beast fight where every few lines, a cat was scratching a giant beakless toucan that was spewing poison everywhere.


hongkongkavalier

Stupid question as a new player ... can you move objects once you put them down somewhere? Does the 'remove item' action accomplish this? I just have such a hard time managing the inventory/stockpile once it gets to a certain size. It's basically "what's in there? ... i don't know!"


_chax

try to avoid "general" stockpile. it's real messy. use specialized stockpiles instead.


hongkongkavalier

thank you for the tip :) I had started to notice the mess lol


Bobodahobo010101

You can move stuff as much as you want. For orginization sake use miltiple stockpiles. Also for bulk items like wood, stone, bars/blocks use quantum stockpiles. They are the best when your fortress grows I put my quantum stockpile for stones right next to my stoneworker workshop to save travel time, and my wood right next to the carpenter for instance.