Dwarf Fortress Succession Game

It considers the 5z8 site to be an 18+ area, and I've never bothered to unlock this because it never affects any websites I actually use (whatever the content), and yet has usefully added another protection against malware/bandwidth-guzzling embedding from elsewhere, at times. I might personally make myself a DFFD account, for when I'm due to pass it on again. Always meant to get one.

Kubuk Adasututh - Is an out-and-out miner, and I shall nickname her "Digger" (I usually do, with primary miners). There are very few other skills of note, which is generally how I like my miners. A bit of combat prowess wouldn't go amiss, but I try to play so that it's not something put to the test too often.

Reg Imeshgoden - Novice in carpentry and bow-making (I'll probably get him skilled up in the former, quite quickly, at least). Not much else to the character. The nickname "Saw" will suffice. By a narrow margin, is also my second most likely miner (by preferences alone, particularly liking picks), and when I get started properly I will need a second miner (*checks* ...yes, the standard two picks, as well as two axes... good) to establish the ground properly. Reg, by the way, is the only male in this, the zeroth migration wave. But his personality isn't particularly well suited to matrimony, although his dream is to raise a family, so... maybe. I never encourage these things, but I rarely discourage them anyway (during any time that my dwarves are idle enough to actually socialise). Kubuk "Digger" Adasututh has the same feeling. I'm not planning on forcing them to work the same, dark tunnel, any time soon (I'll probably use burrows to define at least two separate areas that need digging, without either getting in each other's way), but who knows what might happen in the future.

Next, Kib Rogothurist - The best lumberjack I have, which is most important right at the start, but with a wash of other skills (both in and out of the 'farming' cohort), there's the possibility of cooking and brewing duties, and is by far the best option for tending any farm plots, at this stage. I usually try to make the farmer and the cook two different individuals (and woodcutting is ideally a third!), but I'll work with what I have, here. Nickname... I might consider "Cutter" or "Cooker", but it amuses me to go for "Cookiecutter". If, at some point, I can get her to a good proficiency fighting with an axe, it'll be appropriate, but I'm not sure I want to militarise here (but future migrant waves might change my mind, in that regard). I'm not sure if I'll ever get you creating "a great work of art", as your psyche would like... would a legendary roast count?

Ah, Rigoth Fotthorzuntir, we meet at last... - It looks like (although Novice at the moment, in them all) your skills with gems and the crafting of wood/stone/bone. And you, at least, are well placed to create such a "great work of art" as you seem to desire. I foresee you as spending most of your time making trade trinkets, at least in preparation for the first caravan. (Memo to self, remember to prepare that depot!) I shall call you "Crafty" (I've rarely had such an all-rounder, before, so it's not a portfolio I've ever had to name whenever I've taken advantage of nicknames). Oh, and you also look like you might rival the other architect (see below), so I'll make sure you do some of that as well.

Rigoth Ishlumzuglar - Engraving, Masonry, Mechanic and Building Designer (all still Novice, but with related aptitudes). I'll probably put up some walled enclosures. They were going to be temporarily wooden, but if I can quickly get some stone blocks to build with then it'll let me use the wood (or preserve a backup supply of trees) more wisely. And there'll be drawbridges needing building. Even if I don't get around to making them lever-operated (which may also be your task). I was going to call you "Rock", but as only "Saw" (Reg) is male, let's try "Petra".

...No animal skills, of note. Only "Crafty" has (the mere inkling of) medical skills, but I should hopefully be able to wait until a future immigrant wave (with someone useful arriving, hopefully) before looking to satisfy any needs for these skillsets. The agrarian farming set is served only by "Cookiecutter", as is catering. Dairy production looks like it'll have to wait.

Meat (and related) production? Mosus Tholetur, front and centre! - As well as some fish-cleaning skill (maybe later), there's a smidgen of skill (i.e. Novice) in Butchering, Tanning and Leatherworking. I won't immediately slaughter my animals (two female dogs, two female cats (not my favourite animal, but at least they're not a mating pair) and two horses (one of each) that will have brought my wagon here), but it might form a future role, even if she first of all starts running around putting things in stockpiles and other odd jobs, before we have enough of the relevant production-line to start with this segment of industry (save for the bone carving, which is already covered by "Crafty"). Nickname? For the moment, I shall go with "Slaughter", as a coverall term.

There's not much representation in the metal-based industry skills (Furnace Operating is one of Cookiecutter's tendencies, who might be persuaded to go into arms and armour if I can't get someone better in a future wave).

Fishing can be done by Sarvesh Iklistdatan, but while I'll keep an eye on the food stocks brought on-site (at least until I start to grow/slaughter anything right here), right now I'm not keen on having Sarvesh sit fishing all day (although she has already started... I hate that, and will now go to (o)ptions, (W)orkshop orders, and turn auto (f)ishery off, as I will with auto (w)eb collecting and the (l)ooming of thread... the rest can stay as is). Unfortunately, Servesh has no other skills, but I'll definitely need a stockpiler and construction-maker in the early days, so as soon as the fishing concludes I'll look forward to her input into such sideline industries. (There's a hint of a possible medical career, but mostly the aptitude for various skills looks pretty negative. You shall remain nicknameless for the time being.)

Nobody has much proficiency in the ceramic skills (not sure if there's any local clay, anyway, yet)

I've specifically asked for bars of Iron, Steel and Pig Iron (only one level of priority buffing) this may raise their price a little but not so much as to cause problems should we need to buy them next year (whilst at the same time making them available to buy, which could be important), and it can't hurt if we're actually able to sell. (No ores found, yet. Usually by autumn I've been deep-digging, but it seems I've not had the manpower to allow this.) Also I've nudged the requirements for each of the seeds (may not need the seeds, but useful for getting bags) and sand (ditto). Steel Anvils, ditto (left iron anvils alone). Ewe and Ram requirements indicated (something sheerable wouldn't go amiss, and sheep are easiest; hopefully we'll get a pair). Add some Dwarven Rum (the one drink of the basic four that I rarely get around to making myself), although food and drink in general should be easy enough to pick up.

I'm tempted to ask for clay, having no obvious on-map sources, but (apart from Fire Clay), the business of using for anything other than aesthetic purposes seems too much trouble for me, at the moment, given that we'd have to buy it all in, not just scrape it up off the ground, somewhere.

I shall trust to the caravan coming along with the usual odds and bods, anyway, including thread and cloth and leather. But I usually make a habit of specifically requesting one kind of leather, to potentially make it my trademark material insofar as various armour items that the military will equip itself in. Feel free to ignore it (for the standard-price mish-mash of other leathers, that we shall have), but I've plumped for rhinoceros leather (I thought, maybe, that Elephant would be available, given how long this one's been fighting my dog, but rhino is the nearest... Nearly decided to choose coyote, as not so kitsch as jaguar or vulture, nor so weirdly different as swan or giant earthworm. Not that there's much practical difference between any of them.

(Which reminds me, hurry up Autumn Immigrants so I can start considering the military solutions, before I have to probably seal up and deal with whatever happens in winter. Only a handful of months, and I'm behind my planned schedule for the precusors, like finding ore for the metal industry!)

Arising from the above requests, Rhino leather is marked as 128%; Iron bars 110%, Steel 118% (a snap!), Pig Iron 123% (too much, given they need processing!). Seeds range from 113% to 139% (managable). Steel anvils 110% (buy then melt, perhaps?). Ewe is 117%, Ram at 111%. 115% up-pricing for Rum. Sand is 117% (plain sand, that is, coloured sands are 100% and will still be sent).

Ordering from best to worst:
203% - Handwear
178% - Plants
173% - Large Gems
160% - Rings
157% - Armour
150% - Yarn Earrings
142% - Toys
135% - Cheese
128% - Maces
124% - Backpacks
116% - Drinks

This might dictate the 'nonessential' work that takes place over the next 12 months.

I think if we don't stint on the leather gauntlet production line, looks like we can sell the unwanted low-quality surplus easily enough at a good markup. Secondarily, there's leather armout, but not so advantageous apart from the need to diversify. I'm not sure it's worth splurging out on Backpacks (not leather ones, anyway), for the relative conversions. But let's see how much leather we can get, first.

The farm system should be properly up and running by year-end, such that surplus plants could be possible if there's otherwise no great demand. Not so sure about Cheese production. I tend to plough cheese into the creation of meals, personally, and it's not like we're currently producing milk. Drink production, on the other hand, probably isn't worth selling on, unless really in surplus. (Apart from anything else, it means giving barrels away!)

I already have gem-cutting facilities built. A bit of familiarisation with low-value ones could be good start, then target the rest, in the hope of getting some good-quality Large Gems out of the process.

Roughly 1/7th of the current "Rock Crafts" output is rings. I shall hold these back, this year, just don't sell them to the elves and humans, and there should be a trade bonus next autumn! In the meantime, I'll switch Craftsdwarf production to Rock Toys to get the (lesser, but more reliable) uplift to the entire output. (I'm not planning on making Yarn Earrings, but if yarn does happen, before the next twelve months are out, then why not..?)

If the metal industry starts up quickly enough, I'll try to give a smattering of the dwarves a taster for weaponsmithing Maces, perhaps, after other commitments are fulfilled. Helps with possible future mood-crafting, if nothing else, and there should be a good deal when we exchange spare maces for weapons we want. (Or anything else, for that matter.)

Stockpiles: The stockpile immediately around the main entry-stairway is an "everything except what I've designated as elsewhere" stockpile. The SE corner tile is designated as a refuse zone and contains items 'dumped' from elsewhere (note the setting of "Work (o)rder, (r)efuse, Dwarves gather refuse from (o)utside", which is non-default, and you might want to turn it back off whenever you want to to prevent hauliers being so easily ambushed - I already did that)

Other stockpiles tend to be either rather specific (e.g. of one particular kind of stone, with directions to give to a particular workshop that will only use that stone) or of a group of materials that I needed to be stored, even when the 'everything' stockpile was jammed full of the unexpectedly large amount of logs I ended up getting.

The Z-1 "entryway" stockpiles are eight equally-large stockpiles for each of the seven "rock crafts" and "rock toys" in the eighth. That's the "trade goods" area. That's for easy organisation (especially once the wooden bins I ordered to be made are actually created) rather than having mixed-goods bins with things you might want to sell along with what you might not want to sell.

The Z-3 stockpiles are a combination of temporary workshop-supplies (mudstone stockpile for the mason, willow wood for the carpenter, phyllite stockpile to supply the crafts workshop and saltpeter stockpile for the (non-Magma-Safe) mechanism workshop), food and drink ones and 'hurry up and get this stuff out of the wagon' ones, including one such on Z-4. Everything specified in these should be absent from the 'everything' stockpile on the surface, but E&OE.

There's stockpiles specifically for seeds/plants underneath the farming areas. With room for expansion (stockpiles and farm-type workshops).

Then there are two stockpiles for only Gabbro at Z-46 at the Magma-Safe Workshops (Hotkey F6), respectively supplying the Mason's and Mechanic's workshops there. There are already some Gabbro mechanisms (for use in magma-control), but I never got around to the Gabbro floodgates (likewise); and because I hadn't yet found the magma I hadn't laid down my usual plans to actually tap it.

Digging: Note that the miners belong to various of the Burrows I've defined. (All burrows contain places with food and the dining room, even though neither belong to the actual "Dining" burrow, which covers the intended full size of the ultimate dig-out.. By dint of them belonging to the 'Protorooms' burrow, they also have access to all the intended-to-be-termporary bedrooms.)

I've left a number of digging designations as 'marker' designations, around the place, which should indicate the direction I was going, but of course is not intended to constrain whoever is taking over from modifying/abandoning such plans. Be careful not to cause cave-ins, by going against the natural order of things.

Building: Right now, a number of walls/floors(-mostly-as-ceilings) are laid down, or in progress. There's also some floors set up (at ground level, around ditch-enclosed areas, as temporary supports to corner-walls, which I wasted time with because I forgot to support the walls by corners (building from the outside) before digging away more of the moat. There's two such floors currently being removed around the paddock, with one more that you can "(d)esignate, remove co(n)struction" momentarily.

You should be able to see what I've done for the "Entry" enclosure. One edge-wall is currently a ramp (of a different material from the Mudstone Blocks that I've made everything else of). That's for access to the top, to 'floor over' as a roof to keep out any flying hostiles that might arrive. Once the roof is complete, the plan was to deconstruct the ramp and replace it with a wall.

For the 'turrets' (at the eight compass points), the plan was to dig up into the turret, set a staircase up to Z+1 (Up-down at Z=0, atop the dug-up-down already designated, Down at Z+1), floor to the existing wall-tops, build walls atop those walls (except for one square, temporarily a ramp), a floor across the Z+2 'roof' (then do the ramp-becomes-wall thing, as above), then carve the Z+1 walls into Fortifications for viewing/sniping purposes.

As previously discussed, one of the Z+0 walls could be deconstructed at will, a floor put in its place and a raising drawbridge extended across the 'moat', with various tactical uses. (See below about the lever room.)

Farming: I have Cave Wheat, Dimple Cups and Plump Helmets (subterranean farms... progress was slowed by some 'wild' Sweet Pods growing in the way of the next intended field-to-be-placed). Methodically, I'd been intending to place (and use, as required) fields by the following plan of 1x5 fields. By sequence A..X around the centre (the stairwell, here a "."). A current organisational quirk of mine.

FFFFFGHIJKL
EEEEEGHIJKL
DDDDDGHIJKL
CCCCCGHIJKL
BBBBBGHIJKL
AAAAA.MMMMM
XWVUTSNNNNN
XWVUTSOOOOO
XWVUTSPPPPP
XWVUTSQQQQQ
XWVUTSRRRRR

The overground farms have had seven fields laid down, one still 'awaiting the farmer', with Rice, Rope Reed, Passion Fruit, Prickle Berries and Strawberry allocated to the first five (for seeds I found I could use). You could continue with this as you find you have additional seeds available that I didn't get myself.

Personal rooms: One office (for the single noble) and a number of bedrooms (enough for everyone, especially with married couples/children sharing some quarters, but those locations were intended as temporary). The existing dining room is public, but the digging designations are on the cards to open out the space for a dining room, bedroom and tomb off of the existing Office. Burrow-assignation and other miner workloads allowing.

Military Training rooms: One exists, others are dug out, but still not actually in use. You could set up a danger room, in there. I never got around to putting in the target-practice ranges (below) that at some point the two currently-viable crossbowdwarves could have had a go in. I was going to get training done, in earnest, during the time I was cooped up during the Winter Siege, prior to getting live-fire opportunities at actual opponents, but that never really happened (see above); and so the urgency got lost along the way.

Pastures: Surface pastures (1x11 in size) for the grazers... two horses, a lamb and a calf... subterranean pastures (1x1, on bare rock) for non-grazing creatures (dogs, cats, gosling and, until I remember if rabbits are actually grazers in DF, or see signs of hunger, one rabbit). They're all there for protection against invaders, you can set them loose if you wish.

Water supply: Currently inactive (temporarily in use, but now dry whilst being expanded), there's a well set up above a cavern-supplied water-sump. There are two levers. One is attached to the floodgate holding back the cavern waters (open as you see fit), the other lever was intended for a second floodgate which was going to be an emergency drain and/or a way of supplying water to a secondary location (e.g. for obsidian creation). Explore the Well area (hotkey F5) to get a grip of where this was going. Currently digging, smoothing (unnecessary, I'll admit) and dumping the rock out of the cistern. Also some temporary floors above the gap where the water will be (replace with a whole array of wells, when you have the rope and buckets to spare!) are being deconstructed.

Anyway, there should be enough capacity in that cistern that when the floodgate is opened long enough (for the whole below-well area to be filled to a reasonable level) you can close the floodgate to keep out any nasty swimmers/contamination. Contamination of the cistern/suicidally-drowning dwarves need to be sorted out by getting the drain working (I'd put the lower floodgate in 'blind', fill the place up with that floodgate closed and then you can take your own time working out what's actually at the other side of the lower floodgate while the well(s) serve the necessary purpose).

Workshops: Mostly inhabitting that temporary 'sub-entrance' area. Except for a few farming-related ones beneath the fields. Some restricted to being supplied by specific stockpiles (as already described). Jeweller's is, itself, restricted to being serviced by just the main Jeweller dwarf, who I've been making practice the craft when not otherwise needing their labour elsewhere.

Lever Room: Central grouping of (yellow) levers operate the bridges away from the entryway. North lever is Entry-to-outside (north exit from compound), south lever is Depot-to-outside (south exit from there), flanked by the levers operating west/east drawbridges from the same area (I had plans for elevated routes out of there, otherwise they're basically the same). The middle lever operates the two drawbridges that link the Entry and Depot compounds (between walls and below a ceiling) so that Depot can be isolated from Entry (or vice-versa), even when (either Depot or Entry) is connected to the outside. Incidentally, I've put Cage Traps around the (non-Wagon) entrances. There are enough cages in the works to add in

I smoothed two spots at the eight compass-points of the room, intending one lever in each position to operate the Turret Drawbridges (as discussed), and the other lever to operate another 'airlock', at the level of this room (but directly below the turret) to provide safety, security and/or access, in whatever combination a situation might require. Whether you follow up on this, is another matter entirely. Maybe I will follow up on this, on my own privately continuation of the game (whilst, at the same time, desperately looking for that magma!), but otherwise I'm happy to hand it over to the whim of the following player. Perhaps when my turn comes round again, you'll have left me the opportunity to try it out 'officially'.

Exploration: There's an "explore!" burrow, which I've used to send miners down exploration mines. When they've not been needed to do other work. I've based my explorations shafts on stairwells (mostly just the central tile of a potential 3x3 stairwell, but occasionally made to steer around caverns), and when I've discovered a cavern (or purposefully dug into the top of one, to see more of the cavern than I already knew about) sealed it off to prevent the usual problems with everything from Jabberers to the more exotic 'Visitors' climbing into my fort. How/if you re-open access to caverns is up to you. I have my own preferred methods, but I'm not in control any more of course...

I have send down shafts at the points where I will have junctions (at the 'core' level). Often offset to either just miss a cavern (to try to find the other caverns/magma sea) or to deliberately try to hit the top of a cavern, near the edge of current visibility. The deepest exploration I've made hit semi-molten rock (its aim was actually to see more cavern, but it went through a non-open bit, at that cavern's depths, worse luck). You probably have your own tactics.