So, I was wondering what starting skills and resources people usually choose. Lately I've been taking no picks and no axes, instead taking coal, iron ore, flux and some bauxite and making my tools on site as a challenge. Often I take a goodly supply of sand for the free bags.
Mason 5 / Architect 5
Carpenter 5
Hunter (various)
Weaponsmith 5
Armorsmith 5
Blacksmith 5 / Metal Crafter 5
Leader / Doctor
How many dwarves is too many for you? I usually set my pop cap at 80 to avoid slowing things down. Bill apparently prefers a quantity over quality approach, judging by his posts.
In other news, I was thinking of putting together a care package for the Toady One and Three Toe. A check for sure, and maybe some fudge or cookies or peanut brittle? Do you think it would be weird to receive candy from a fan?
I think that sounds like a good idea! Just remember that Toady is lactose intolerant (shouldn't be a problem for anything that could survive shipping).
ReplyDeleteAs for starting kits, I usually go for the standard (easy?) 2 miners, 1 lumberdwarf, 1 mason, 1 doctor/bureaucrat, 1 cook, and 1 brewer/grower, with one axe, and all sorts of food. Then I head out for a calm, non-evil environment with access to decent resources.
Then I get distracted, get frustrated at whatever the SNAFU was (inelegant design, unnoticed turmoil and violence amongst the livestock, missed combat, etc.), then abandon the fort to do it again and do it "right". Stupid perfectionism...
I should add that I do take two picks, and I swap out the pig-tail thread/rope/cloth/bags for cave spider silk at half the price...
ReplyDeleteOne of the virtues of doing steel picks and axes from scratch is the huge value multiplier. You're likely to get 12-15000 Zorkmids in value, which gives you a leg up on getting immigrants (who are attracted to steel).
ReplyDeleteI haven't really played enough to have a set build (the succession fortress is only maybe the 8th I've started, and only the 4th I've played past the first year), so I am still trying different things each time. I am getting a lot of mileage having two miners and two farmers, but I know I am far from optimal on fitting the necessary crafting skills into the other three dwarves. One big flaw in the setup I used for the succession game: giving the two miners the only Masonry and Carpentry skills. That really slowed me down.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried embarking on a site that lacked soil or had an aquifer. My current solo fortress has gotten kind of dull (230+ dwarves, magma forges, just found adamantine for the first time, and I am pretty sure I will get the Capital on the next immigrant wave). Despite having over 10,000,000 zm in created wealth, I am seeing disappointingly few invaders.
I just generated a new embark site that I haven't unpaused yet, in a Terrifying environment (max savagery + max evil), and I plan on editing the population cap down to 80 so it wont get bogged down so badly. I am hoping that waves of undead sasquatch will come beating down my doors. Fortunately, it looks like this site is even richer than the last one: just visible on the surface, there is wood, soil, flux, three different iron ores (limonite, magnetite and hematite), coal (both lignite and bituminous), gypsum, and sapphires. I'm also going to skip the danger room this time, see if I can get some more !!Fun!! happening.