Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Melissia wrote:Eventually leading to the aformentioned thermonuclear catsplosion?

"Catsplosion" refers to when the number of cats grows exponentially to the point where your processor can't handle all of their pathing, so your FPS drops to unplayable levels.

"Thermonuclear catsplosion" refers to when you mod the game to give the cats a body temperature well above their ignition and boiling temperatures, causing them to immediately explode in flames, blood, and body parts. Sadly, you can't edit a game in progress to do this. You can only do it in WorldGen.

Heh, I figured that, but it's stilll amusing.

Yeah, after the traders come I make sure to hit the animals screen of the summary and set up all the ones I bought for butchering. I also weed out all the kittens and most of the puppies.

I now have three female cats (formerly kittens). I guess if I get immigrants I'll see if they bring any toms and butcher them if they do.

Tyyr wrote: I also weed out all the kittens and most of the puppies.

:(

Tyyr wrote:I also weed out all the kittens and most of the puppies.

I never butcher puppies. I tend to go through dogs rather quickly (leaving them chained outside to act as sentries isn't good for their survival rate). And, even if I do have way more dogs than I need, I let the puppies grow up. Adult dogs provide much more meat and bones than puppies.

Mmm, puppy liver.

I'm now starting to reclaim an old fortress of mine now that I'm getting the hang of the game Wish me luck?

I've got about 30 war dogs right now and they will make a good 30 puppies or more every year if don't do something about it. I am sort of a trap scummer so all my war dogs do is eat snatchers and thieves. I've got over 200 dwarves right now and my framerate is starting to dive so I don't want any more little things running around than I absolutely have to have.

And Kittens.... why the hell didn't I think of just bringing two female cats and kill the toms... DUH.

Well technically taking toms are safer, because if a migrant worker brings a molly in to an area full of toms, only one cat gets pregnant, while if you have an area full of mollys and they bring in a tom, well... the entire population can become pregnant.

But I chose females because all my dwarves initially were females (I always check descriptions to try to find out who's best to put what skills on), so it seemed fitting.

One or the other, the whole unisex thing is a big DUH for me.

I just realized that cooking plump helmets and other plants makes them lose their seeds/spawn.

No wonder I kept running out... I need to stop cooking plump helmets.

Yes, you do, sometimes.

Go to your summary screen (z) and use the arrow keys to get to the kitchen screen. Scroll up (plump helmets are usually towards the end of the list. When you start the whole sale slaughter of every animal that enters your embark the first part of the list with the meat can get long) to get to the plump helmets. Once they're highlighted hit c to switch cooking to red. Now you'll only brew them into dwarven wine and save the seeds. Note however, the game doesn't store more than 200 seeds of a certain kind. You can buy more than that but once you hit 200 seeds the game stops collecting them after brewing or eating.

One thing to note is you usually wind up with a lot of plump helmets so you can wind up preferentially brewing all of them. This gives you a ton of dwarven wine. The downside is you can get the, "Is tired of drinking the same thing all the time," unhappy thought. So I play with the plump helmets. Anytime my dwarven wine stocks start to really outnumber everything else I'll turn off brewing of plump helmets and turn on cooking. When I get down to only about 150 to 200 plump helmets left I'll turn cooking back off and brewing back on. Just be careful and keep an eye on your seed, food, and booze stocks and juggle accordingly.

A diversity of booze is a good idea so don't neglect planting other brewable plants including surface plants.

I finally managed a SAFE break in to the first level of caverns.

I also walld it off while I trained a militia out of the latest wave of useless immigrants (including a lye maker, a potash maker, a glazer, and a wax worker). Hopefully there's no building destroyers waiting for me to open up that wall.

Breaking open the caverns usually isn't so bad, so long as you immediately pause the game, cancel further digging, and send a mason to wall it up ASAP.

And it lets you get your tree farms going.

I know -.- a tower cap just grew in the middle of a hallway.

Thankfully my hallways are three wide.

Lay down floors. (b -> C -> f) That'll prevent any unwanted cave stuff growing in your traffic lanes.

And get rid of my immense stockpiles of jet, hrm.

Exactly. Pick whatever useless rock you've got a feth-ton of that makes the color floor you want and pave the bitch over.

I can't seem to get hunting and butchering to work... there's lots of angry badgers outside of my home that keep interrupting tree cutting, fishing, and plant gathering. Are they just not edible creatures?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
.....aaand now I'm being interrupted by a troll who is about seven z-levels down and unable to actually do anything.

Guess I'll give my militia commander an order to stand there and shoot the poor troll until it dies, seeing as it can't attack back with the z-level difference.

Hmmm... this game looks interesting, though I am having to get one of the graphics packs as I have no idea what the hell all the text symbols are about

Forgot to mention this but doing things like floors is a great way to build some experience in your lowbie masons. Like smoothing everything is great practice for newbie engravers.

Badgers are edible. To hunt you have to have a crossbow or bow, bolts or arrows, and have the appropriate labors activated. That said low level hunters are really crappy, tend to waste most of their bolts, and in general don't return anything worth hunting for. I get more meat from butchering migrant animals than I hunt up.

Silver, look for the Lazy Newb Pack on the forums. It'll have everything you need.

Tyyr wrote:Silver, look for the Lazy Newb Pack on the forums. It'll have everything you need.

I was seeing if I could just play the game straight off, but my brain now hurts

*Downloading the LNP now*

Though I do like games where I can dig out mines...

The LNP still defaults to ASCII graphics, but it includes a couple of the more popular tile sets as well and the ability to quickly and easily switch between them.

Tyyr wrote:The LNP still defaults to ASCII graphics, but it includes a couple of the more popular tile sets as well and the ability to quickly and easily switch between them.

I'd installed one of the graphics packs myself, but figure all the other stuff that is in the LNP will probably be handy

Anyway, I am going to bed as I have managed to dig a cave following the quick start guide

I hate the Rhesus Macaque....

Toady does love his monkeys.

Best solution I've seen is wardogs chained right outside your entrance, or right in it, up to you.

b -> v then bring up the rope/chain with q and assign a dog to it.

I solved my problem with a steel warhammer, myself.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
My bowyer got into a fey mood and asked for logs and silk.

I have logs. But I do not have silk. However! I was about to go into the underworld anyway. So I might end up getting some soon. Course I might also let a troll into my fort.

Either way it should be fun.

How do I clear rocks/ore and gems and things that my digger chaps have left in the middle of the floor?

SilverMK2 wrote:How do I clear rocks/ore and gems and things that my digger chaps have left in the middle of the floor?

They left them in the middle of the floor because there is no place to put them. Designate a stockpile (and build some bins) and someone with the "stone hauling" enabled will come by to pick them up.

Or, you could designate them as trash and someone will haul them to your refuse stockpile.