Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

Using bins and barrels

2017-05-05T14:54:09Z

Altaree: Copied the bin bugs to help people having issues

{{Quality|Exceptional|17:16, 3 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}
Ordinarily, each item or stack (e.g. ≡Dwarven Ale Stew [12]≡) of items occupies one space of [[stockpile]] room. You can consolidate stockpile space by making [[bin]]s, [[barrel]]s and [[large pot|pots]] that can hold many items at once. Barrels and pots store [[food]] and [[alcohol]]; bins can store many types of smaller items, such as [[finished goods]], [[metal]] [[bar]]s, [[ammo]], and [[gem]]s. Building a steady supply of [[container]]s helps reduce the space you need for storage.

==Food Storage==

Food can be stored in [[barrel]]s and [[large pot|pots]]. Each barrel can hold up to 30 total units of food; each large pot can hold up to 60 total units. Each unit in a stack counts towards the total storage.

Foods will only be stored together if they're from the same category. For example, dwarves will never mix plants and meat in the same barrel.

One thing to note about storing [[seed]]s is that [[bag]]s are required to put seeds in. These bags will then be placed inside the barrel or pot. Otherwise, the dwarves will end up with one seed per tile. Furthermore, as seeds will rot outside of a stockpile, you may find that your fortress is not getting seeds from the plants you're consuming when the food stockpile is full. Get your textile industry started early; you may want to avoid milling plants until it ramps up. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=79168.msg2055095#msg2055095]

==Drink Storage==

[[Alcohol]] must be [[brewer|brewed]] into either a barrel or pot. Each container can hold a single stack of 30 or less alcohol. Larger batches should be split across multiple containers automatically.

There appears to be no way to empty a barrel or pot containing alcohol, short of forcing your dwarves to drink the rest.

==Goods Storage==

Most non-food items can be stored in [[bin]]s; the quantity allowed depends upon the items stored. Each bin can store up to 5 [[bar]]s or [[block]]s, while 30 or more small [[craft]]s may fit into a single bin. This might have changed in newer versions of the game.

==Managing stockpiles directly==

It is possible to set whether bins can be used in a stockpile with {{k|q}} → {{k|C}}/{{k|V}}. For barrels, {{k|E}} and {{k|R}} are used instead of C and V. By default, bins are used for Bar/[[Block]], ammo, gems, finished goods, [[cloth]] and [[leather]] stockpiles, and barrels are used for food stockpiles. Also by default, the stockpiles that use barrels or bins to store other items will permit a barrel or bin on each of their spaces. You can override this by specifying the maximum number of barrels and bins that an individual stockpile is allowed to utilize, using {{k|q}} → {{k|c}}/{{k|v}} and {{k|e}}/{{k|r}} to decrease and increase the limits.

==Reserving containers for other tasks==

"Reserved Barrels/Bins" is a global setting that reserves a certain number of barrels or bins, preventing them from being claimed by a stockpile until they are filled by a Workshop that requires their use. This feature is most often used to ensure that a fortress has ample empty barrels for the production of alcohol, although empty barrels are also necessary for other jobs. You can change this setting in the stockpile menu {{k|p}}. If there are 5 reserved barrels, no stockpile will claim an empty barrel until you have at least 6 lying around. In this way you can ensure that jobs like making alcohol always have free barrels available.

In the case of barrels necessary for producing alcohol and [[dwarven syrup]], they do not have to be located on a [[furniture]] stockpile. This is because the "Store Item in <container>" task only looks at furniture stockpiles for available containers. Normal production tasks behave as mentioned earlier, they will just grab the nearest barrel. You can exert some limited control over this by setting a number of reserved barrels; however, you cannot set where these barrels will be.

Though it is possible to reserve bins, there is no advantage in doing so, as no workshop tasks require empty bins.

==Bin/Barrel Reassignment==

If you have a limited number of barrels and pots (possibly due to a lumber and stone shortage because you're playing in a [[Fun]] place like the tundra) and your food stockpile is using too many barrels and you need some for booze, or if for some reason the opposite is true, you can force the dwarves through a series of steps to have the barrels switch from one stockpile to another. Assume you have too much barrelled food and you need barrels for booze. First, designate a small [[Activity_zone#Garbage_Dump|garbage dump]] zone nearby. Then set the maximum barrel limit on the food stockpile way down--possibly to zero. Don't worry, the existing barrels won't be dumped as a result. Now view a barrel and then once inside, view each individual food item and set it to {{k|d}} for dump (but do not dump the barrel itself). The dwarves will take the food from the barrel and throw it into the garbage zone, and once the barrel is empty they will immediately move it to a furniture stockpile because the food stockpile barrel limit is exceeded already. Now you have a free barrel with which to [[brewing|brew]]. You can reclaim the food from the garbage dump now, and the dwarves will do what they can to store it. Be warned that this might end up being on the floor in the stockpile which could attract flies. Remember to set the barrel limit on the food stockpile back up to some reasonable level if you get your hands on some new barrels.

A faster way to dump the contents of a barrel or bin is to use designations. {{k|d|b|d}}, then select the barrels or bins you wish to dump. The container and all of its contents will be dumped separately. Then simply {{k|d|b|c}} to reclaim the items once they are in the dump.

This trick does not work on [[artifact]]s as these cannot be dumped. To remove artifacts from a bin, move the bin to your [[depot]]. As artifacts can also not be traded, your dwarves will remove them from the bin prior to moving the bin to the depot.

==Barrel and bin material==
Heavy barrels and bins slow down hauling, so it is wise to make them from light materials when possible. Even the heaviest types of [[wood]] are lighter than any metal (excluding [[adamantine]]) - the wood of [[feather tree]]s is the best of all. As an alternative, you can place small "feeder" [[stockpile]]s that disallow barrels/bins and link them to larger storage stockpiles nearby to greatly reduce the distance traveled while carrying a heavy container.

[[Metal]] barrels are supposedly better for food stockpiles because they resist [[vermin]]; unfortunately there is no good way to convince your dwarves to allocate metal barrels for food storage aside from using them exclusively.

The material of the container also determines whether the container is [[fire-safe]] and [[magma-safe]].

== Bugs ==

* Hauling jobs block access to all the items in the destination containers until the hauling is complete. This often results in cancellation spam and work delays.{{bug|9004}} One workaround is creating a "feeder stockpile" with containers disabled.

* [[Ammunition]] stored in bins may not appear available to marksdwarves, eventually causing them to head to battle without bolts. Disabling bins in ammo [[stockpile]]s is recommended.{{bug|2706}}
* Items in bins are sometimes not found for tasks.{{bug|8755}}

==See also==
* [[Storage]]

{{Farming FAQ}}
{{Category|Stockpiles}}

DF2014 Talk:Bin

2017-05-05T14:51:00Z

Altaree: Fix formatting

Quick script to empty bins when they are causing issues. From [https://gist.github.com/stonetoad/11129025 StoneToad]
<nowiki>
-- Empty a bin onto the floor

print('Finding selected item...')
a = dfhack.gui.getSelectedItem()
print('Found ', dfhack.items.getDescription(a,0))

if not a then dfhack.printerr("No item selected!")
end

loc = a.pos
-- dfhack.items.moveToGround(a,loc)

for _,k in pairs(dfhack.items.getContainedItems(a)) do
print (' ', dfhack.items.getDescription(k,0))
r = dfhack.items.moveToGround(k,loc)
end

print('Done.')</nowiki>
--[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] ([[User talk:Altaree|talk]]) 14:46, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

DF2014 Talk:Bin

2017-05-05T14:46:23Z

Altaree: Add script for emptying bins.

Quick script to empty bins when they are causing issues. From [https://gist.github.com/stonetoad/11129025]
<nowiki>-- Empty a bin onto the floor

print('Finding selected item...')
a = dfhack.gui.getSelectedItem()
print('Found ', dfhack.items.getDescription(a,0))

if not a then dfhack.printerr("No item selected!")
end

loc = a.pos
-- dfhack.items.moveToGround(a,loc)

for _,k in pairs(dfhack.items.getContainedItems(a)) do
print (' ', dfhack.items.getDescription(k,0))
r = dfhack.items.moveToGround(k,loc)
end

print('Done.')</nowiki>
--[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] ([[User talk:Altaree|talk]]) 14:46, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

DF2014 Talk:Temple

2017-04-14T17:12:09Z

Altaree: question about dance floor size

The article states:
Currently there are no known incentives to make dedicated temples for a particular deity.

It's most likely that there is no incentive whatsoever, and that specifying deities is a placehold for the eventual guild and sect additions to the game. However, we should investigate whether praying in a space dedicated to a dwarf's prefered deity has a bigger effect on mood than praying in a shared space. --[[User:Calite|Calite]] ([[User talk:Calite|talk]]) 04:13, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

==Dance Floor Size?==
The Article states:
Temples also require a certain amount of empty floor space (called dance floor)

How do you determine a good dance floor size?
[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] ([[User talk:Altaree|talk]]) 17:12, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Meat industry

2017-04-03T17:11:22Z

Altaree: /* Breeding */

{{Quality|Exceptional|18:37, 30 December 2014 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

This article is a quick guide to running a '''meat and related goods industry'''. If you decide to base your economy on such then keep in mind that the amount available depends on the breeding rate of your tame animals (how long the offspring takes to be born and mature), the spawning of wild animals, and/or the amount of meat and leather that traders bring.

Note that the meat industry involves many materials which can [[rot]] and so requires slightly more micromanagement than other [[industry|industries]].

'''Summary''': Obtain some animals; kill and [[butcher]] them to obtain [[bone]]s, (organ-)[[meat]], [[fat]], [[skull]]/[[horn]]s and [[skin|raw hide]]s; the meat can be used immediately but the hide needs to be [[tanner|tanned]] into [[leather]] and the fat needs to be processed into [[tallow]]; finally [[cook]] the tallow into a meal (or make [[soap]] with it), and craft the bones, skull, horns and leather into an end product.

== Acquisition ==
The basic units of the meat industry are its [[Animal|animals]], and there are a number of methods to acquire said animals (note that the related [[fishing industry]] is its own matter).

===Embark===
You can buy animals on [[embark]], and doing so even allows you to choose from male and female animals. Since you need only one male to breed, an example way to kick-start your meat industry is to embark with one bull and 3 cows. Note, though, that with the exception of cats, dogs and poultry, buying animals on embark is extremely expensive. You also get two random [[Domestic animal|draft animal]]s on embark for each wagon (usually one wagon with two draft animals). These can be butchered when needed, or be kept in the hopes that [[Trade#Liaisons|traders]] or [[Immigration|immigrants]] will supply matching animals for breeding. This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to buy one: If you happen to have a female, chances are that sooner rather than later it will meet a companion among the traders' many pack animals; see [[#Breeding|breeding]], below.

=== Trading ===
As with most industry goods, you can purchase both animals and processed [[meat]] and [[leather]] from [[caravan]]s, allowing you to vary your dwarves' diet without having to establish a meat industry proper. Note however that trading will never give you [[hair]], [[horn]]s, [[skull]]s, or [[bone]]s in general. If you want to keep your [[leatherworker]]s constantly occupied, buying up caravans' (often vast) collections of leather is cheap way to get your fort [[clothing|clothed]] quickly.

It might be necessary that you request every type of leather at low priority in order to ensure the merchant comes back with a large quantity next year (they usually bring excessive amounts even if you don't). You can only buy leather from [[human]] and [[dwarf|dwarven]] caravans. [[Elf|Elven]] caravans are interesting in that they often bring a small number of tame caged animals with them, which may be useful as [[pet]]s (such as [[silvery gibbon]]s) or for defense purposes (such as [[grizzly bear]]s).

=== Hunting ===
In all but the most inhospitable of places, there will be some <s>running food</s> wildlife frolicking in the biome. An [[ambusher]] armed with a [[crossbow]] and a [[quiver]] full of [[bolts]] can and will attack these animals, cautiously approaching them ("ambushing", their speed and chances of not being noticed being dependent on their skill) before opening fire at their quarry with crossbow bolts. Hunting is a very outdoorsy activity, and will take your hunters well past where you can establish reasonable defenses; in addition hunters will occasionally do stupid things that will get them maimed, such as hunting [[lion]]s, or worse still, killed in grisly ways, such as attacking [[elephant]] families.

Upon a successful kill the dwarf will return the kill, carrying the [[corpse]] back to the nearest [[butcher's shop]] to be torn apart, or the nearest refuse stockpile if no shop has been built yet. Hunters are rather single-minded; when hunting, they will ignore other animals besides their quarry, even if others are more easily attacked or less dangerous to do so against. Although multiple kills happen, hunters generally only return their quarry, or quit when they run out of bolts. To avoid wasting perfectly edible corpses, you need to change your [[standing orders]] ({{k|o}}) to Gather refuse from outside, although this will enable much more than ambusher kill returning.

Hunting makes an erratic but, when done by a skilled ambusher, very worthy meat source. It takes the bother of pasturing animals away, but comes at the trade off of defensibility. Many players on mature fortresses are simply too concerned with enemy sieges and the like to send dwarves out too far, and will thus disable hunting jobs on their dwarves.

=== Military ===
You can order your soldiers out to kill wild animals by selecting their squads or the soldiers individually (for a basic outline of such actions, see [[attack]]). This takes some management, but is particularly useful if a large herd appears and you want to get them all before they emigrate to less blood-soaked pastures; be prepared to process them all, however, as you do not want your potential foodstuffs to rot away if your butcheries are overloaded. Soldiers will not kill or butcher [[Domestic animal|domestic]] or [[tame]] animals. Take note that soldiers will attack animals regardless of the target you've given them, as they will attack the nearest non-friendly creature in sight when told to move somewhere or kill a target.

Your soldiers must generally be very [[Attribute#Agility|agile]] to catch up with a running animal before it leaves the edge of the map, and attacking with melee always carries the risk of getting your soldiers maimed or killed, so as you might expect military hunting is mainly for the crossbow dwarves.

Hunting undead or aggressive animals are much more fun. Unlike the regular animals where agility is required to catch them, these animals will happily come to you. Crossbow bolts and piercing weapons are next to useless in this case, but hunting undead can be a valuable source of meat and bones in an evil biome if you manage to mangle the corpse such that it cannot reanimate. It's also wise to do so as a preemptive measure if you plan to do anything outdoors (before actual hunters, or civilians, come in contact with them). One should take extra caution when doing so though, because even minor zombies like ravens have been known to shatter bone through adamantine and steel.

=== Trapping ===
It is also possible to catch animals through judicious use of [[cage trap]]s. Building cage traps where animals will walk will ensure that some of them will be caught; dwarves with the [[hauling#animal_hauling|Animal Hauling]] labor can then haul the occupied [[cage]]s away and [[mechanic]]s will reload the traps with fresh cages.

Cage traps should be built where animals will walk, not where they are when you decide to trap them. Any dwarves sent out to create and arm traps in the animals' midst will scare them away or (worse) trigger their aggression.

To successfully trap large animals you need to build choke points into your map. The destruction of ramps to create sheer cliffs is the easiest way to force them to go down a particular route; with the construction of walls, ponds, channels, and so forth, you can force them to walk right through your cage traps. Such obstacles and traps will also work against invading forces, as shown in the article on [[Trap_design#Trapping_efficiently|trap architecture]].

Leave a small gap one or two tiles wide (depending on how many of the critters you want to trap) and build your cage traps there. If the animals haven't moved off or been scared off by the time you're done, and they're docile enough to not attack once they see your dwarves, use military orders to send a dwarf (or several) around behind the animals and herd them toward the choke point.

Note that when using channels and ponds together to create a choke point, connecting the channel all the way up to the pond's edge will end up draining the pond. If this is undesirable for your fort's water supply plans, be sure to leave a tile between the edge of the pond and the edge of the channel, and build a cage trap or wall instead.

Note also that cage traps cannot be built within a certain number of tiles of the map edge, so when planning your funnels and choke points, be sure to leave four or five tiles as a buffer zone.

=== Breeding ===
Many animals in Dwarf Fortress are capable of [[breeding]] if a male and female are in close proximity. You can elect to bring breeding pairs at [[embark]], or purchase them from traders at a later date. Some [[immigrant]]s will bring [[pet]]s or stray animals with them, potentially forming or completing breeding pairs. Remember that you only ever need one commitment-capable male: the only non-butchering product male animals produce, besides reproduction, is [[wool]], and only a few of them. For this reason having a large proportion of females to males is a good idea. However, due to a [[Breeding#Bugs|bug]], male animals who aren't "willing to commit to marriage" will not breed, so it's best to keep some spare males around. As an aside, the lucky bulls love that arrangement.

Using [[cage trap|cage traps]] judiciously (or taking advantage of the animals [[elf|elves]] trade) can sometimes snag you a breeding pair of wild animals. These can be used to establish crazy schemes, like [[alligator]] farms and [[giant eagle]] [[egg production|hatcheries]]. Tame something unusual and start something crazy if you get lucky enough! Many creatures can be tamed, but it can take a long time for exotic animals and they will slowly revert to wild state if left unattended; a skilled [[animal trainer]] is a real blessing in this regard.

There is currently a per type population cap, observed to be around 50, past which animals will not get pregnant; existing pregnancies will mature to term, and once some adults are slaughtered, the population can begin moving up again. There is also a population cap on the percentage of child animals, which can have a significant impact on [[elephant|slow-maturing species]].

When two animals breed, their genetic traits combine just like in real life. This means that you can selective butcher weaker animals to create a stronger herd. Extra points for splitting your alpaca herds into one bred for meat and one bred for hair!

=== Breeding wild animals ===
Most animals that are neither intelligent nor egg-layers will eventually give birth if a male and female are able to touch. Some intelligent creatures can also do this if they don't require marriage to have children (i.e. troglodytes, blind cave ogres). Wild animals require neither food nor water (in the case of intelligent humanoids).

This can be exploited and has an advantage for several reasons. Animals that are still wild will be butchered regardless of how or why they died; stray animals will only provide meat when slaughtered. This makes penning and breeding of non-tame animals attractive for short-lived species that die often such as rats of any kind, mole dogs, and giant insects. Grazers can also be adequately bred this way if you're only using them for meat; wild draltha, elephants, and giant pandas survive perfectly fine penned underground in pits. Untameable animals can only be bred this way; this includes unicorns, intelligent creatures that don't require marriage (blind cave ogres, troglodytes, possibly merpersons), and other fun beasts that cannot be tamed such as demons.

Methods for how do this this vary, but chaining is a practical approach. Trapping the offspring is then easy because the adults cannot walk onto the cage traps due to the chains, and the infants will invariably wander; hollowed out mine-shafts that you haven't bothered to fill out make excellent dungeons. Be wary of chaining different creature castes together though. Most neutral creatures are fine with each other, but some of them freak out and get scared; most reactions will provoke a fight and subsequent death of the inmates before children can be received. Chaining up building destroyers can result in potentially unwanted fun as the children proceed to destroy the restraints, freeing their parents, and causing a possible insurrection if they manage to further destroy other restraints in the dungeon and free creatures neutral to them (but hostile to dwarves). Building destroyers can't destroy anything when chained, but should ideally be pitted into pens controlled by bridges (or at least chained with extra cage traps around; and disposable chains). Remember, all creatures can destroy restraints when tantruming, which sometimes occurs with some more disagreeable inmates that happen to be intelligent. Also, cages must be placed one square away from restraints because chained wild animals still trigger cage traps for some reason.

Trapavoid creatures such as demons are harder to breed. Usually, a sealed off passage from hell would result in demons breeding on the other side on their own anyway. The offspring do not leave the map and will make quick work of your fps until you decide to farm them. Remember to build artifact furniture adorned with copious amounts of spike traps on repeaters. Demons tear through doors and hatches like tissue paper so simple patterns of two spikes in front of two doors would not work. Demons can be a valuable source of shells in embarks where you would otherwise have none. Never again would you need to worry about dwarves going insane due to the lack of shells from failed moods once you have a demon farm up and running.

== Management ==
=== Pastures ===
Tame animals with the [GRAZER:<value>] token (most herbivores) need to constantly munch on grass to survive, and as such require a [[pasture]] containing [[grass]], [[cave moss]], or [[floor fungus]] to graze upon, or they will starve to death.

Pastures are simple enough to build (unless you've embarked someplace where it [[evil weather|rains]] [[fun]]). Designate a grassy area as a pasture [[activity zone]] ({{k|i}}-{{k|n}}), set ({{k|N}}) the animals to be released onto the pasture, and your dwarves will haul the designated animals to it if they have the animal hauling labor enabled. Once in the pasture, the animals will munch on all the grass they need, as long as there is enough of it.

Pastures can be easily depleted if the herd of animals on it is large enough; in addition, having too many animals on a pasture at once will lead to fights, which can seriously maim and injure your livestock. Since an above-ground pasture requires a significant plot of land, it is a major security concern - having enough grazing land for your animals while also keeping them protected from invading goblins is an important concern. A solution is to use the fact that livestock can graze on [[floor fungus]] and the like as easily as on regular old grass, and wall off a pasture inside of a [[cavern]] layer or set them loose in your underground [[tree farm]].

Animals that don't require a constant stream of plant matter, like poultry, can be put in any pasture (or cage). The basis of [[egg production]] is a pasture with [[nest box]]es in it.

=== Pens ===
A strategy to improve your framerate is to [[restraint|restrain]] most of your livestock near your [[butcher's shop]], as a large number of free-roaming animals will reduce your game speed. Additionally it reduces the amount of time it takes butchers to track down and retrieve animals they are to slaughter.

Animals on [[restraint|restraints]] still can [[path]] (1 tile in any direction from the chain/rope), and that can hurt your [[Maximizing framerate|framerate]]. When placed in "holding pens" consisting of closed 1x1 rooms, the animals have nowhere to go and so [[path|pathing]] is not a problem. Creating and managing such rooms can be difficult, however. [[Activity zone#Pit/Pond|Pits]] and [[Pasture]]s can be adapted for this purpose.

To move animals in and out of pens, doors are the best choice, with floodgates and (raising) bridges as alternatives. To get the framerate benefit, doors should be "forbidden" but "pet-passable", since non-pet-passable state of doors is not taken into account during calculation of paths. Cold, hard reality stops pets at tightly closed doors, but they continue to calculate paths through them while bumping their heads into the door. Pets in cages help framerate the most, followed closely by restraints, since the search space bottoms out after only 2 moves (corner to corner). Pens with blocked access are also very effective, as pathing will stop as soon as the space of the pit is exhausted, so it's like a restraint with a slightly longer leash. Moving of animals in and out of such pens requires player intervention, via unlocking doors or issuing "pull lever" orders to open floodgates or bridges. It would be quite extreme, but such a collection of 1x1 pits could be an effective way of stopping pathfinding while retaining breeding. One could even use bars instead of floodgates, and have a really proper zoo/cage.

All that being said, the framerate impact of large numbers of tame animals is notable but not crippling - a fort can have 200 animals moving about more or less freely without being brought to its knees. While caging particularly fecund non-grazers makes sense to reduce unit clutter, extreme measures are not really called for to preserve framerate.

A common strategy is to cage all your young until matured because they do not give the same amount of bones, meat, and fat as adults. Some tamed wild species take more than 1 year to mature, unlike most domestic animals; this makes it excusable to butcher, for instance, elephant calves right away, as they take ten years to mature.

Furthermore:
* Cages can hold an unlimited number of animals, so you only need one.
* Caged animals do not path, and therefore, do not consume a lot of processor speed.
* Distinguishing between breeding animals and butcherable livestock is easier when clearly separated.
* Caged cats cannot adopt owners (thus decreasing the chances of a [[catsplosion]]).
* You can define a [[zoo]] from a cage, increasing overall fortress wealth, dwarven happiness, and so on.

=== Internal pastures ===
The livestock of a large meat industry requires a lot of pasture space that might not be safe on the surface. Creating an underground pasture is more secure and relatively simple after discovering the [[cavern]]s. [[Floor fungus]] and other such underground "grass" will begin to grow anywhere there is [[soil]] or [[mud]]. You can take advantage of this by digging out a large room in a soil layer and waiting for floor fungus to grow. Limit dwarven traffic in your pasture levels to prevent plant trampling, and then wait a bit for the floor fungi and cave moss to grow dense enough to support your livestock. Forbidden doors and hatches or a restricted area [[traffic]] designation can be helpful for this. Once ready, make a new pasture and move the livestock underground.

You can also create pastures in stone layers, but the area will need to be cleared of all excess stone and [[irrigation|irrigated]] to create mud, enabling plant growth. The easiest way to do this is to dig out a level of rock and then either redirect some river flow or drain some small lakes to provide the necessary water. Once every tile of stone floor has been muddied, drain the water and wait for the underground vegetation to grow.

== Processing ==
=== Slaughtering and butchering ===
Animals can be marked for slaughter in the [[Status#Animal Status Screen|animal status screen]]. Animals marked for slaughter will queue a "Slaughter animal" task at a [[butcher's shop]], be dragged there by a dwarf with the [[butcher]] labor and put down.

Once an animal has been killed it must then be butchered before the corpse rots. This happens instantly in the case of slaughtering. The corpses provided by hunters take some time to pry apart and in a fort with very few available workers, corpses can rot before anybody finds the time to process them. An animal corpse or body part is available if it is inside the butcher's shop or within a certain distance of the shop. Butcher's shops will only scan a limited amount of area (about 20 tiles in every direction) for butcherable corpses. If the corpse is too far away, the workshop will not task it. Putting a refuse pile accepting corpses and body parts close to the butcher's shop is therefore required to make sure "collateral" kills of hunters and the military are processed. The skill of the butcher only affects the time taken for the butcher animal task, not the amount produced, nor the quality.

Once butchered, the animal will yield one skull (though [[hydra|hydras]] produce more than one), and may also produce a raw hide, a number of (prepared)(organ-)meat pieces, and/or bones. Animal size and chance determines the exact yield. Very small animals, such as [[cavy|cavies]] or [[weasel]]s will produce only a skull when slaughtered. If a hunter kills such an animal, it will not be butchered, and you will not even get the skull. Depending on the animal type, the butchered animal may also yield [[horn|horns]], [[hoof|hoofs]], [[fat]], and/or [[cartilage]].

Butchering of hunted or otherwise killed (not slaughtered) animals will produce a proportionate amount of meat, bones and skin for every butchered item, as long as the body part is big enough (otherwise, the butchers will simply ignore it). An animal chopped into several pieces by the military can thus give several hides of leather, while slaughtering a tame animal will only produce one. It will not grant more meat, fat, or bones, however.

Meat and fat goes to your food stockpile. Bones, horns, hoofs, hair, cartilage and raw hides go to the refuse stockpile. Cartilage has no use and should be disposed of, but you would be well put to create custom stockpiles for hides next to your tanner's shop (see [[#Tanning|''Tanning'' below]]), for bones/horns/hoofs next to your craftsdwarves workshop (see [[#Bone carving|''Bone carving'' below]]), and changing the settings on your main refuse pile to not accept bones, horns/hoofs and hides. Hair can be spun into low-value thread at the [[farmer's workshop]].

If it takes too long for the butchered parts to be hauled into the stockpile, the food will rot and miasma will spread. To prevent this, it is advisable to build the butcher's workshop outside of the fortress, near refuse piles (you may want it inside the walls though). The fresh air prevents miasma spreading. Miasma doesn't spread through diagonal openings, so a clever architect might isolate the smell in a 3x3 room with the shop.

If the animal is butchered just before it rots, the products of the animal MAY not rot. It is unknown whether the time of rotting for butchering products is based on the time of death of the animal or the time of production of the butchering returns.{{verify}}

==== Overdrive ====
In some instances - most notably, after [[rhesus macaque]] or [[mandrill]] invasions, or killing some other large herd with your soldiers - you may find yourself with more bodies and [[severed body part|severed body parts]] than you can process. In this case it is a good idea to set up some temporary extra butcher and tanners' shops (and butcher and tanner workers) to process them all before they rot. Butchers are more important because these workshops have a tendency to get [[clutter|cluttered]] quickly. Setting up a new workshop takes but a moment, so one might even construct a whole chamber of them and suspend the butchering job in all the cluttered shops.

== Animal products ==
The [[value]] of an animal product is multiplied by the species' [[multiply value]]; items from common domestic animals like [[cow]]s and [[horse]]s have a multiplier of 1x, which pales in comparison with those made from more exotic wild animals (usually between 2x and 4x, although some, like [[elephant]]s, hit 5x); the distinction for the highest value multiplier goes to the [[dragon]] and the [[roc]], whose meat is worth 15 times that of an ordinary cow's. An animal's value multiplier can be found in the creature raw files.

===Meat===
The primary output of the meat industry is the titular [[meat]]. Meat comes in two flavors: meat proper, that is the muscle tissue removed from the animal, and [[prepared organs]] like prepared brain, tripe, sweetbread, and so on. Both can be either eaten raw or [[cooking|cooked]] into a meal.

===Fat===
Butchering an animal also produces some number of units of [[fat]], which must be processed into [[tallow]] at the kitchen. Tallow is very useful for a fort as ingredient in the making of [[soap]]. Soap plays an important role in staving off [[infection]]s when performing operations and cleaning wounds in your [[Healthcare|hospital]], as well as increasing happiness from dwarves being able to clean themselves; it's recommended to stock your hospitals and baths with at least some bars of it. See [[soap]] on the exact details of processing.

Tallow can also be cooked. However, tallow is a minimum-value food item and thus will not result in particularly valuable meals. It is much more useful as a soap input. If your meat industry is small, you may be better off disabling the cooking of tallow in the kitchen [[status]] screen. With a large meat industry, you'll produce large amounts of tallow, and cooking it makes sense in this case, since your need for soap (which also consumes otherwise valuable [[wood]]) is limited.

===Bones===
Butchering an animal produces a number of [[bone]]s. Craftsdwarves with [[bone carving]] enabled can turn these into bone [[craft]]s or bone [[bolt]]s, bone [[decoration]]s or a few [[armor|wearable items]] (bone helms and the like) at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]]. [[Bowyer]]s can use them to make bone [[crossbow]]s at a [[bowyer's workshop]]. These various products can be traded, used to equip your [[marksdwarf|marksdwarves]], and used for practice, respectively (bone bolts are better than wooden ones, but inferior to metal bolts, and thus should not be used extensively militarily).

===Skull===
[[Skull]]s can only be used to make [[totem]]s at a craftdwarf's workshop, for [[trading]]. Virtually all animals produce a single skull when they die; the only exception is the [[hydra]], which produces seven. Totems do not fall under any category in the "Move trade goods to depot" screen, so you need to {{k|s}}earch for them. Usually however they will be in a [[finished goods]] [[bin]], so just transport the bins to the depot.

===Hooves and horns===
Animals with hooves and/or horns will produce generic "[[horn]]" once butchered. These can be used to create horn trade goods or decorate items at a craftsdwarf's workshop.

===Raw hides===
Butchering produces a [[skin|raw hide]], or scales or chitin (currently unusable), depending on the animal. Raw hides can be [[tanner|tanned]] at a [[tanner's shop]] and made into usable [[leather]], an input into the leather industry. It's quite difficult to have a meat industry large enough to keep a leather industry fully occupied, and caravans arrive with tons of it for cheap anyway, so your meat industry will be at best a supplement in that regard. As with the butcher's shop, the tanner's shop will queue a "tan raw hide" job automatically; the tanner's skill has no effect on quantity nor quality of the leather produced, and the task is time-sensitive because of rot.

It is quite sensible to have a single dwarf as both the butcher and tanner, as you will never need to begin tanning until you finish butchering. You could also make this same dwarf your leatherworker. However, there is no outstanding reason to do this. It may be advisable (or not) to simply ensure that there are ''no'' stockpiles that will accept Fresh Raw Hides and to have the tanner's shops in the immediate area of the butcher's shop - if fresh raw hides can be stored in any refuse stockpile, they will instantly be designated for hauling and cannot be tanned until they have been stored. Ensuring that raw hides will not be stockpiled means that they will be available for tanning fresh off the former owner.

===Hair===
Some animals drop [[hair]] when butchered, which can be [[spinner|spun]] into [[thread]] at a [[farmer's workshop]]. However, animal hair thread cannot be used to make [[cloth]], which means that the only use of hair thread is for [[suturing]] in [[hospital]]s. Hair thread can be [[dye]]d.

===Cartilage and nervous tissue===
[[Cartilage]] and [[nervous tissue]] are both butchering byproducts with no current uses, and should be dumped as garbage once stripped of their former owner. Nervous tissue will rot and may generate miasma.

===Ivory/Teeth===
[[Ivory]] is used to make trade goods or decorations at a craftsdwarf's workshop. Besides the obvious elephant tusks and so forth, sufficiently large teeth, e.g. of large felines, can be used for the same purpose.

==Secondary products==
You don't necessarily have to slaughter your animals to get something useful out of them, as specific creatures can also produce some products while alive.

===Eggs===
Tame female egg-laying animals will produce [[egg]]s at intervals, which in turn can be used to feed your fortress on a more interim basis than butchering. [[Egg production]] is a viable way to keep a fortress fed, and in areas where setting up a farm will be difficult, starting out with some poultry can be essential to survival. Animals that can lay eggs are [[poultry]] (easily acquired), reptiles like [[alligator]]s (only if you're particularly [[elf]]ish), and some more exotic animals like [[dragon]]s and [[giant eagle]]s (only if you're very lucky). Female egg-laying animals will claim a nest box, and lay a clutch of [[egg]]s. These can be allowed to hatch into young animals (to replace the ones sent to the butcher), or collected into [[food]] stockpiles and [[cook]]ed into [[prepared meal|meals]] at a [[kitchen]].

=== Milk ===
You can also [[milking|milk]] tame female mammals such as horses, cows, and so forth at the [[farmers workshop]] with an empty [[bucket]] and a dwarf with the milking labor enabled. The resulting [[milk]] can be used as a cooking ingredient or turned into high-value edible [[cheese]] at the farmers workshop by a dwarf with cheesemaking enabled (it cannot, however, be eaten raw).

Many animals can be milked in Dwarf Fortress that would not normally be, for example [[pig|pigs]].

===Wool===
[[Wool]] can be produced by [[shearing]] one of three animals: [[llama]]s, [[alpaca]]s, and [[sheep]] (also [[troll]]s, but only goblins can do so). It can be woven into wool [[thread]] and then wool [[cloth]]; for a full discussion on the uses of wool, see the [[textile industry]].

==Automation==
Manually managing your meat industry can become quite tedious, especially since the game has a tendency to not provide crucial information (age, gender, etc.).

'''''DFHack: the content in this section requires the use of [[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]]'''''

The utility [[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]] can greatly assist, in several ways:

[[File:DFHack-autobutcherUI.png|thumb|right|400px|The DFHack autobutcher interface]]

* '''Autobutcher - automatic, configurable butchering:''' DFHack provides an <tt>autobutcher</tt> command and UI screen, which can automatically (and semi-intelligently) maintain a breeding population and provide a steady stream of butchering returns.
** Autobutcher monitors the animals in a fort on a per-species basis. The user can configure the maximum number of male and female children and adults to keep of each species - the default is to keep 5 each of female children and adults, and 1 male child and adult (a total of 12 per species.)
** Whenever there are more animals than the rules specify, the excess will be automatically marked Ready for Slaughter.
** The user can edit the configuration for any individual species, for example to keep more than 5 female Chickens for egg laying purposes, or fewer Cats to avoid a [[DF2014:Catsplosion|Catsplosion]]. Monitoring can also be disabled on a per-species basis.
** Pets and work animals (Hunting/War) will never be slaughtered.
** Other options include: editing the default limits that apply to new species'; choose to cancel an automatically given butchering order; choosing to butcher an entire species in one go.
** With DFHack installed and its default config enabled, you can access the Autobutcher UI by opening the [[Status#Animal Status Screen|animal status screen]] and then pressing hotkey {{K|Shift-B}}.
** For more information, see: [https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack#autobutcher autobutcher in the DFHack documentation]
* '''Autonestbox - automatically assigned nest boxes:''' DFHack provides a utility called <tt>autonestbox</tt>, which once started runs automatically and periodically in the background. Each time it runs, it looks for unpastured, non-grazing egg-laying females and unoccupied nestboxes. It will then assign the former to the latter.
** Once started, Autonestbox runs by default once per 6000 ticks, which is 60 seconds when playing at 100 FPS.
** The user only needs to construct and place nestboxes and then to place a Pen/Pasture zone for each nestbox. Autonestbox will then automatically assign birds to these. It will also inform the user, via a log message, if there are not enough nestbox zones available for the current number of egg laying birds.
** DFHack users can start Autonestbox by adding <tt>autonestbox start</tt> to a DFHack init file, or by typing this command from the console (then applies to current session only.)
** Users of the [[Utility:Lazy_Newb_Pack|PyLNP-based]] [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=126076 Windows Starter Pack] can enable Autonestbox by toggling <tt>Other Automation Plugins</tt> on the DFHack tab in PyLNP.
** For more information, see: [https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack#autonestbox autonestbox in the DFHack documentation]
* '''Better pasture management:''' DFHack enhances the Activity Zone->Set Pen/Pasture Information UI. [[File:DFHack-PastureFilteringUI.png|thumb|right|200px|DFHack Pasture filtering example]]
** When adding animals to a Pasture, you can filter the animals:
*** By text search
*** Male/Female
*** Caged/Not Caged
*** Currently Pastured/Not Pastured
*** Grazing/Not Grazing
** This allows for quicker, easier and more sophisticated pasturing of animals - for example ensuring breeding pairs are together, ensuring grazing animals have grass (and not wasting it on non-grazing), and so on.
* '''<tt>zone</tt> - advanced pasture/cage management:''' For even more sophisticated pasturing, DFHack provides a command-line tool <tt>zone</tt>, which allows very advanced allocation of animals/species to specified pastures and cages.
** There is unfortunately no in-game UI for this as yet, but for users willing to use the console and/or add hotkeys through the DFHack init file, there are some very sophisticated features available.
** Commands can be assigned to a hotkey (either via DFHack console or by editing the DFHack init file(s)), which can give easy, immediate benefits:
*** Assign <tt>zone set</tt> to a DFHack hotkey: then when your cursor is over a Pasture Zone, press the hotkey to set this zone as your current default for future <tt>zone assign</tt> commands.
*** Assign <tt>zone assign</tt> to a DFHack hotkey: then select an animal in-game and press this hotkey to assign this animal to your defined default Pasture.
*** If you always want to have all your animals in a single pasture, assign <tt>zone assign all own</tt> to a hotkey: any time you get new animals, press this hotkey to ensure all animals are assigned to your Pasture.
** Some examples of more advanced command-line usages of <tt>zone</tt>:
*** <tt>zone assign all own ALPACA minage 3 maxage 10</tt>
**** Assign all Alpacas between the ages of 3 and 10 to the selected Pasture Zone.
*** <tt>zone assign all own caged grazer nick grazing</tt>
**** Assign all caged animals in stockpiles (eg just purchased from merchants) that are grazers to the current Pasture, and give them all the nickname ''grazing'' (for easy identification/filtering later.)
*** <tt>zone assign count 5 own female milkable</tt>
**** Assign up to 5 female, milkable animals to the selected Pasture.
** For full details, and more examples, see: [https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack#zone zone in the DFHack documentation]

== Summary ==
''Worker type / Labor''

*[[Ambusher]] / [[Hunting]]
** A [[crossbow]] or other [[weapon]]
** [[Bolt|Bolts]], [[quiver]]
** Leather [[armor]]
** [[Cross-training|Stats buffing]]
** [[Archery target|Archery practice]]

*[[Soldier|Soldiers]]/[[Military]]
**[[Soldier|Soldiers]]
**Some form of [[armor]]
**Any [[weapon]]

*[[Cage trap]]ping
** [[Mechanic]]
** [[Mechanic's workshop]]
** [[Mechanisms]]
** [[Cage|Cages]]

*Breeding
** [[Animals]]
** [[Cage|Cages]]
** [[Restraint|Restraints]]

*Processing
** [[Butcher]] / Butchery
*** [[Butcher's shop]]
** [[Tanner]] / Tanning
*** [[Tanner's shop]]
** [[Leatherworker]] / Leatherworking
*** [[Leather works]]
** [[Bone carver]] / Bone carving
*** [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]]
** [[Cook]] / Cooking
*** [[Kitchen]]
*** [[Barrel]]s

==See also==
*[[Leather]]
*[[Industry]]

{{Workshops FAQ}}
{{Category|Guides}}
{{Category|Industry}}
{{Industry}}
[[ru:DF2012:Meat industry]]

Meat industry

2017-04-03T17:08:24Z

Altaree: /* Breeding */ Add note about genetics and breeding animals.

{{Quality|Exceptional|18:37, 30 December 2014 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

This article is a quick guide to running a '''meat and related goods industry'''. If you decide to base your economy on such then keep in mind that the amount available depends on the breeding rate of your tame animals (how long the offspring takes to be born and mature), the spawning of wild animals, and/or the amount of meat and leather that traders bring.

Note that the meat industry involves many materials which can [[rot]] and so requires slightly more micromanagement than other [[industry|industries]].

'''Summary''': Obtain some animals; kill and [[butcher]] them to obtain [[bone]]s, (organ-)[[meat]], [[fat]], [[skull]]/[[horn]]s and [[skin|raw hide]]s; the meat can be used immediately but the hide needs to be [[tanner|tanned]] into [[leather]] and the fat needs to be processed into [[tallow]]; finally [[cook]] the tallow into a meal (or make [[soap]] with it), and craft the bones, skull, horns and leather into an end product.

== Acquisition ==
The basic units of the meat industry are its [[Animal|animals]], and there are a number of methods to acquire said animals (note that the related [[fishing industry]] is its own matter).

===Embark===
You can buy animals on [[embark]], and doing so even allows you to choose from male and female animals. Since you need only one male to breed, an example way to kick-start your meat industry is to embark with one bull and 3 cows. Note, though, that with the exception of cats, dogs and poultry, buying animals on embark is extremely expensive. You also get two random [[Domestic animal|draft animal]]s on embark for each wagon (usually one wagon with two draft animals). These can be butchered when needed, or be kept in the hopes that [[Trade#Liaisons|traders]] or [[Immigration|immigrants]] will supply matching animals for breeding. This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to buy one: If you happen to have a female, chances are that sooner rather than later it will meet a companion among the traders' many pack animals; see [[#Breeding|breeding]], below.

=== Trading ===
As with most industry goods, you can purchase both animals and processed [[meat]] and [[leather]] from [[caravan]]s, allowing you to vary your dwarves' diet without having to establish a meat industry proper. Note however that trading will never give you [[hair]], [[horn]]s, [[skull]]s, or [[bone]]s in general. If you want to keep your [[leatherworker]]s constantly occupied, buying up caravans' (often vast) collections of leather is cheap way to get your fort [[clothing|clothed]] quickly.

It might be necessary that you request every type of leather at low priority in order to ensure the merchant comes back with a large quantity next year (they usually bring excessive amounts even if you don't). You can only buy leather from [[human]] and [[dwarf|dwarven]] caravans. [[Elf|Elven]] caravans are interesting in that they often bring a small number of tame caged animals with them, which may be useful as [[pet]]s (such as [[silvery gibbon]]s) or for defense purposes (such as [[grizzly bear]]s).

=== Hunting ===
In all but the most inhospitable of places, there will be some <s>running food</s> wildlife frolicking in the biome. An [[ambusher]] armed with a [[crossbow]] and a [[quiver]] full of [[bolts]] can and will attack these animals, cautiously approaching them ("ambushing", their speed and chances of not being noticed being dependent on their skill) before opening fire at their quarry with crossbow bolts. Hunting is a very outdoorsy activity, and will take your hunters well past where you can establish reasonable defenses; in addition hunters will occasionally do stupid things that will get them maimed, such as hunting [[lion]]s, or worse still, killed in grisly ways, such as attacking [[elephant]] families.

Upon a successful kill the dwarf will return the kill, carrying the [[corpse]] back to the nearest [[butcher's shop]] to be torn apart, or the nearest refuse stockpile if no shop has been built yet. Hunters are rather single-minded; when hunting, they will ignore other animals besides their quarry, even if others are more easily attacked or less dangerous to do so against. Although multiple kills happen, hunters generally only return their quarry, or quit when they run out of bolts. To avoid wasting perfectly edible corpses, you need to change your [[standing orders]] ({{k|o}}) to Gather refuse from outside, although this will enable much more than ambusher kill returning.

Hunting makes an erratic but, when done by a skilled ambusher, very worthy meat source. It takes the bother of pasturing animals away, but comes at the trade off of defensibility. Many players on mature fortresses are simply too concerned with enemy sieges and the like to send dwarves out too far, and will thus disable hunting jobs on their dwarves.

=== Military ===
You can order your soldiers out to kill wild animals by selecting their squads or the soldiers individually (for a basic outline of such actions, see [[attack]]). This takes some management, but is particularly useful if a large herd appears and you want to get them all before they emigrate to less blood-soaked pastures; be prepared to process them all, however, as you do not want your potential foodstuffs to rot away if your butcheries are overloaded. Soldiers will not kill or butcher [[Domestic animal|domestic]] or [[tame]] animals. Take note that soldiers will attack animals regardless of the target you've given them, as they will attack the nearest non-friendly creature in sight when told to move somewhere or kill a target.

Your soldiers must generally be very [[Attribute#Agility|agile]] to catch up with a running animal before it leaves the edge of the map, and attacking with melee always carries the risk of getting your soldiers maimed or killed, so as you might expect military hunting is mainly for the crossbow dwarves.

Hunting undead or aggressive animals are much more fun. Unlike the regular animals where agility is required to catch them, these animals will happily come to you. Crossbow bolts and piercing weapons are next to useless in this case, but hunting undead can be a valuable source of meat and bones in an evil biome if you manage to mangle the corpse such that it cannot reanimate. It's also wise to do so as a preemptive measure if you plan to do anything outdoors (before actual hunters, or civilians, come in contact with them). One should take extra caution when doing so though, because even minor zombies like ravens have been known to shatter bone through adamantine and steel.

=== Trapping ===
It is also possible to catch animals through judicious use of [[cage trap]]s. Building cage traps where animals will walk will ensure that some of them will be caught; dwarves with the [[hauling#animal_hauling|Animal Hauling]] labor can then haul the occupied [[cage]]s away and [[mechanic]]s will reload the traps with fresh cages.

Cage traps should be built where animals will walk, not where they are when you decide to trap them. Any dwarves sent out to create and arm traps in the animals' midst will scare them away or (worse) trigger their aggression.

To successfully trap large animals you need to build choke points into your map. The destruction of ramps to create sheer cliffs is the easiest way to force them to go down a particular route; with the construction of walls, ponds, channels, and so forth, you can force them to walk right through your cage traps. Such obstacles and traps will also work against invading forces, as shown in the article on [[Trap_design#Trapping_efficiently|trap architecture]].

Leave a small gap one or two tiles wide (depending on how many of the critters you want to trap) and build your cage traps there. If the animals haven't moved off or been scared off by the time you're done, and they're docile enough to not attack once they see your dwarves, use military orders to send a dwarf (or several) around behind the animals and herd them toward the choke point.

Note that when using channels and ponds together to create a choke point, connecting the channel all the way up to the pond's edge will end up draining the pond. If this is undesirable for your fort's water supply plans, be sure to leave a tile between the edge of the pond and the edge of the channel, and build a cage trap or wall instead.

Note also that cage traps cannot be built within a certain number of tiles of the map edge, so when planning your funnels and choke points, be sure to leave four or five tiles as a buffer zone.

=== Breeding ===
Many animals in Dwarf Fortress are capable of [[breeding]] if a male and female are in close proximity. You can elect to bring breeding pairs at [[embark]], or purchase them from traders at a later date. Some [[immigrant]]s will bring [[pet]]s or stray animals with them, potentially forming or completing breeding pairs. Remember that you only ever need one commitment-capable male: the only non-butchering product male animals produce, besides reproduction, is [[wool]], and only a few of them. For this reason having a large proportion of females to males is a good idea. However, due to a [[Breeding#Bugs|bug]], male animals who aren't "willing to commit to marriage" will not breed, so it's best to keep some spare males around. As an aside, the lucky bulls love that arrangement.

Using [[cage trap|cage traps]] judiciously (or taking advantage of the animals [[elf|elves]] trade) can sometimes snag you a breeding pair of wild animals. These can be used to establish crazy schemes, like [[alligator]] farms and [[giant eagle]] [[egg production|hatcheries]]. Tame something unusual and start something crazy if you get lucky enough! Many creatures can be tamed, but it can take a long time for exotic animals and they will slowly revert to wild state if left unattended; a skilled [[animal trainer]] is a real blessing in this regard.

There is currently a per type population cap, observed to be around 50, past which animals will not get pregnant; existing pregnancies will mature to term, and once some adults are slaughtered, the population can begin moving up again. There is also a population cap on the percentage of child animals, which can have a significant impact on [[elephant|slow-maturing species]].

When two animals breed, their genetic traits combine just like in real life. This means that you can selective butcher weaker animals to create a stronger herd. Extra points for splitting your alpaca herds into one bred for meat and one bread for hair!

=== Breeding wild animals ===
Most animals that are neither intelligent nor egg-layers will eventually give birth if a male and female are able to touch. Some intelligent creatures can also do this if they don't require marriage to have children (i.e. troglodytes, blind cave ogres). Wild animals require neither food nor water (in the case of intelligent humanoids).

This can be exploited and has an advantage for several reasons. Animals that are still wild will be butchered regardless of how or why they died; stray animals will only provide meat when slaughtered. This makes penning and breeding of non-tame animals attractive for short-lived species that die often such as rats of any kind, mole dogs, and giant insects. Grazers can also be adequately bred this way if you're only using them for meat; wild draltha, elephants, and giant pandas survive perfectly fine penned underground in pits. Untameable animals can only be bred this way; this includes unicorns, intelligent creatures that don't require marriage (blind cave ogres, troglodytes, possibly merpersons), and other fun beasts that cannot be tamed such as demons.

Methods for how do this this vary, but chaining is a practical approach. Trapping the offspring is then easy because the adults cannot walk onto the cage traps due to the chains, and the infants will invariably wander; hollowed out mine-shafts that you haven't bothered to fill out make excellent dungeons. Be wary of chaining different creature castes together though. Most neutral creatures are fine with each other, but some of them freak out and get scared; most reactions will provoke a fight and subsequent death of the inmates before children can be received. Chaining up building destroyers can result in potentially unwanted fun as the children proceed to destroy the restraints, freeing their parents, and causing a possible insurrection if they manage to further destroy other restraints in the dungeon and free creatures neutral to them (but hostile to dwarves). Building destroyers can't destroy anything when chained, but should ideally be pitted into pens controlled by bridges (or at least chained with extra cage traps around; and disposable chains). Remember, all creatures can destroy restraints when tantruming, which sometimes occurs with some more disagreeable inmates that happen to be intelligent. Also, cages must be placed one square away from restraints because chained wild animals still trigger cage traps for some reason.

Trapavoid creatures such as demons are harder to breed. Usually, a sealed off passage from hell would result in demons breeding on the other side on their own anyway. The offspring do not leave the map and will make quick work of your fps until you decide to farm them. Remember to build artifact furniture adorned with copious amounts of spike traps on repeaters. Demons tear through doors and hatches like tissue paper so simple patterns of two spikes in front of two doors would not work. Demons can be a valuable source of shells in embarks where you would otherwise have none. Never again would you need to worry about dwarves going insane due to the lack of shells from failed moods once you have a demon farm up and running.

== Management ==
=== Pastures ===
Tame animals with the [GRAZER:<value>] token (most herbivores) need to constantly munch on grass to survive, and as such require a [[pasture]] containing [[grass]], [[cave moss]], or [[floor fungus]] to graze upon, or they will starve to death.

Pastures are simple enough to build (unless you've embarked someplace where it [[evil weather|rains]] [[fun]]). Designate a grassy area as a pasture [[activity zone]] ({{k|i}}-{{k|n}}), set ({{k|N}}) the animals to be released onto the pasture, and your dwarves will haul the designated animals to it if they have the animal hauling labor enabled. Once in the pasture, the animals will munch on all the grass they need, as long as there is enough of it.

Pastures can be easily depleted if the herd of animals on it is large enough; in addition, having too many animals on a pasture at once will lead to fights, which can seriously maim and injure your livestock. Since an above-ground pasture requires a significant plot of land, it is a major security concern - having enough grazing land for your animals while also keeping them protected from invading goblins is an important concern. A solution is to use the fact that livestock can graze on [[floor fungus]] and the like as easily as on regular old grass, and wall off a pasture inside of a [[cavern]] layer or set them loose in your underground [[tree farm]].

Animals that don't require a constant stream of plant matter, like poultry, can be put in any pasture (or cage). The basis of [[egg production]] is a pasture with [[nest box]]es in it.

=== Pens ===
A strategy to improve your framerate is to [[restraint|restrain]] most of your livestock near your [[butcher's shop]], as a large number of free-roaming animals will reduce your game speed. Additionally it reduces the amount of time it takes butchers to track down and retrieve animals they are to slaughter.

Animals on [[restraint|restraints]] still can [[path]] (1 tile in any direction from the chain/rope), and that can hurt your [[Maximizing framerate|framerate]]. When placed in "holding pens" consisting of closed 1x1 rooms, the animals have nowhere to go and so [[path|pathing]] is not a problem. Creating and managing such rooms can be difficult, however. [[Activity zone#Pit/Pond|Pits]] and [[Pasture]]s can be adapted for this purpose.

To move animals in and out of pens, doors are the best choice, with floodgates and (raising) bridges as alternatives. To get the framerate benefit, doors should be "forbidden" but "pet-passable", since non-pet-passable state of doors is not taken into account during calculation of paths. Cold, hard reality stops pets at tightly closed doors, but they continue to calculate paths through them while bumping their heads into the door. Pets in cages help framerate the most, followed closely by restraints, since the search space bottoms out after only 2 moves (corner to corner). Pens with blocked access are also very effective, as pathing will stop as soon as the space of the pit is exhausted, so it's like a restraint with a slightly longer leash. Moving of animals in and out of such pens requires player intervention, via unlocking doors or issuing "pull lever" orders to open floodgates or bridges. It would be quite extreme, but such a collection of 1x1 pits could be an effective way of stopping pathfinding while retaining breeding. One could even use bars instead of floodgates, and have a really proper zoo/cage.

All that being said, the framerate impact of large numbers of tame animals is notable but not crippling - a fort can have 200 animals moving about more or less freely without being brought to its knees. While caging particularly fecund non-grazers makes sense to reduce unit clutter, extreme measures are not really called for to preserve framerate.

A common strategy is to cage all your young until matured because they do not give the same amount of bones, meat, and fat as adults. Some tamed wild species take more than 1 year to mature, unlike most domestic animals; this makes it excusable to butcher, for instance, elephant calves right away, as they take ten years to mature.

Furthermore:
* Cages can hold an unlimited number of animals, so you only need one.
* Caged animals do not path, and therefore, do not consume a lot of processor speed.
* Distinguishing between breeding animals and butcherable livestock is easier when clearly separated.
* Caged cats cannot adopt owners (thus decreasing the chances of a [[catsplosion]]).
* You can define a [[zoo]] from a cage, increasing overall fortress wealth, dwarven happiness, and so on.

=== Internal pastures ===
The livestock of a large meat industry requires a lot of pasture space that might not be safe on the surface. Creating an underground pasture is more secure and relatively simple after discovering the [[cavern]]s. [[Floor fungus]] and other such underground "grass" will begin to grow anywhere there is [[soil]] or [[mud]]. You can take advantage of this by digging out a large room in a soil layer and waiting for floor fungus to grow. Limit dwarven traffic in your pasture levels to prevent plant trampling, and then wait a bit for the floor fungi and cave moss to grow dense enough to support your livestock. Forbidden doors and hatches or a restricted area [[traffic]] designation can be helpful for this. Once ready, make a new pasture and move the livestock underground.

You can also create pastures in stone layers, but the area will need to be cleared of all excess stone and [[irrigation|irrigated]] to create mud, enabling plant growth. The easiest way to do this is to dig out a level of rock and then either redirect some river flow or drain some small lakes to provide the necessary water. Once every tile of stone floor has been muddied, drain the water and wait for the underground vegetation to grow.

== Processing ==
=== Slaughtering and butchering ===
Animals can be marked for slaughter in the [[Status#Animal Status Screen|animal status screen]]. Animals marked for slaughter will queue a "Slaughter animal" task at a [[butcher's shop]], be dragged there by a dwarf with the [[butcher]] labor and put down.

Once an animal has been killed it must then be butchered before the corpse rots. This happens instantly in the case of slaughtering. The corpses provided by hunters take some time to pry apart and in a fort with very few available workers, corpses can rot before anybody finds the time to process them. An animal corpse or body part is available if it is inside the butcher's shop or within a certain distance of the shop. Butcher's shops will only scan a limited amount of area (about 20 tiles in every direction) for butcherable corpses. If the corpse is too far away, the workshop will not task it. Putting a refuse pile accepting corpses and body parts close to the butcher's shop is therefore required to make sure "collateral" kills of hunters and the military are processed. The skill of the butcher only affects the time taken for the butcher animal task, not the amount produced, nor the quality.

Once butchered, the animal will yield one skull (though [[hydra|hydras]] produce more than one), and may also produce a raw hide, a number of (prepared)(organ-)meat pieces, and/or bones. Animal size and chance determines the exact yield. Very small animals, such as [[cavy|cavies]] or [[weasel]]s will produce only a skull when slaughtered. If a hunter kills such an animal, it will not be butchered, and you will not even get the skull. Depending on the animal type, the butchered animal may also yield [[horn|horns]], [[hoof|hoofs]], [[fat]], and/or [[cartilage]].

Butchering of hunted or otherwise killed (not slaughtered) animals will produce a proportionate amount of meat, bones and skin for every butchered item, as long as the body part is big enough (otherwise, the butchers will simply ignore it). An animal chopped into several pieces by the military can thus give several hides of leather, while slaughtering a tame animal will only produce one. It will not grant more meat, fat, or bones, however.

Meat and fat goes to your food stockpile. Bones, horns, hoofs, hair, cartilage and raw hides go to the refuse stockpile. Cartilage has no use and should be disposed of, but you would be well put to create custom stockpiles for hides next to your tanner's shop (see [[#Tanning|''Tanning'' below]]), for bones/horns/hoofs next to your craftsdwarves workshop (see [[#Bone carving|''Bone carving'' below]]), and changing the settings on your main refuse pile to not accept bones, horns/hoofs and hides. Hair can be spun into low-value thread at the [[farmer's workshop]].

If it takes too long for the butchered parts to be hauled into the stockpile, the food will rot and miasma will spread. To prevent this, it is advisable to build the butcher's workshop outside of the fortress, near refuse piles (you may want it inside the walls though). The fresh air prevents miasma spreading. Miasma doesn't spread through diagonal openings, so a clever architect might isolate the smell in a 3x3 room with the shop.

If the animal is butchered just before it rots, the products of the animal MAY not rot. It is unknown whether the time of rotting for butchering products is based on the time of death of the animal or the time of production of the butchering returns.{{verify}}

==== Overdrive ====
In some instances - most notably, after [[rhesus macaque]] or [[mandrill]] invasions, or killing some other large herd with your soldiers - you may find yourself with more bodies and [[severed body part|severed body parts]] than you can process. In this case it is a good idea to set up some temporary extra butcher and tanners' shops (and butcher and tanner workers) to process them all before they rot. Butchers are more important because these workshops have a tendency to get [[clutter|cluttered]] quickly. Setting up a new workshop takes but a moment, so one might even construct a whole chamber of them and suspend the butchering job in all the cluttered shops.

== Animal products ==
The [[value]] of an animal product is multiplied by the species' [[multiply value]]; items from common domestic animals like [[cow]]s and [[horse]]s have a multiplier of 1x, which pales in comparison with those made from more exotic wild animals (usually between 2x and 4x, although some, like [[elephant]]s, hit 5x); the distinction for the highest value multiplier goes to the [[dragon]] and the [[roc]], whose meat is worth 15 times that of an ordinary cow's. An animal's value multiplier can be found in the creature raw files.

===Meat===
The primary output of the meat industry is the titular [[meat]]. Meat comes in two flavors: meat proper, that is the muscle tissue removed from the animal, and [[prepared organs]] like prepared brain, tripe, sweetbread, and so on. Both can be either eaten raw or [[cooking|cooked]] into a meal.

===Fat===
Butchering an animal also produces some number of units of [[fat]], which must be processed into [[tallow]] at the kitchen. Tallow is very useful for a fort as ingredient in the making of [[soap]]. Soap plays an important role in staving off [[infection]]s when performing operations and cleaning wounds in your [[Healthcare|hospital]], as well as increasing happiness from dwarves being able to clean themselves; it's recommended to stock your hospitals and baths with at least some bars of it. See [[soap]] on the exact details of processing.

Tallow can also be cooked. However, tallow is a minimum-value food item and thus will not result in particularly valuable meals. It is much more useful as a soap input. If your meat industry is small, you may be better off disabling the cooking of tallow in the kitchen [[status]] screen. With a large meat industry, you'll produce large amounts of tallow, and cooking it makes sense in this case, since your need for soap (which also consumes otherwise valuable [[wood]]) is limited.

===Bones===
Butchering an animal produces a number of [[bone]]s. Craftsdwarves with [[bone carving]] enabled can turn these into bone [[craft]]s or bone [[bolt]]s, bone [[decoration]]s or a few [[armor|wearable items]] (bone helms and the like) at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]]. [[Bowyer]]s can use them to make bone [[crossbow]]s at a [[bowyer's workshop]]. These various products can be traded, used to equip your [[marksdwarf|marksdwarves]], and used for practice, respectively (bone bolts are better than wooden ones, but inferior to metal bolts, and thus should not be used extensively militarily).

===Skull===
[[Skull]]s can only be used to make [[totem]]s at a craftdwarf's workshop, for [[trading]]. Virtually all animals produce a single skull when they die; the only exception is the [[hydra]], which produces seven. Totems do not fall under any category in the "Move trade goods to depot" screen, so you need to {{k|s}}earch for them. Usually however they will be in a [[finished goods]] [[bin]], so just transport the bins to the depot.

===Hooves and horns===
Animals with hooves and/or horns will produce generic "[[horn]]" once butchered. These can be used to create horn trade goods or decorate items at a craftsdwarf's workshop.

===Raw hides===
Butchering produces a [[skin|raw hide]], or scales or chitin (currently unusable), depending on the animal. Raw hides can be [[tanner|tanned]] at a [[tanner's shop]] and made into usable [[leather]], an input into the leather industry. It's quite difficult to have a meat industry large enough to keep a leather industry fully occupied, and caravans arrive with tons of it for cheap anyway, so your meat industry will be at best a supplement in that regard. As with the butcher's shop, the tanner's shop will queue a "tan raw hide" job automatically; the tanner's skill has no effect on quantity nor quality of the leather produced, and the task is time-sensitive because of rot.

It is quite sensible to have a single dwarf as both the butcher and tanner, as you will never need to begin tanning until you finish butchering. You could also make this same dwarf your leatherworker. However, there is no outstanding reason to do this. It may be advisable (or not) to simply ensure that there are ''no'' stockpiles that will accept Fresh Raw Hides and to have the tanner's shops in the immediate area of the butcher's shop - if fresh raw hides can be stored in any refuse stockpile, they will instantly be designated for hauling and cannot be tanned until they have been stored. Ensuring that raw hides will not be stockpiled means that they will be available for tanning fresh off the former owner.

===Hair===
Some animals drop [[hair]] when butchered, which can be [[spinner|spun]] into [[thread]] at a [[farmer's workshop]]. However, animal hair thread cannot be used to make [[cloth]], which means that the only use of hair thread is for [[suturing]] in [[hospital]]s. Hair thread can be [[dye]]d.

===Cartilage and nervous tissue===
[[Cartilage]] and [[nervous tissue]] are both butchering byproducts with no current uses, and should be dumped as garbage once stripped of their former owner. Nervous tissue will rot and may generate miasma.

===Ivory/Teeth===
[[Ivory]] is used to make trade goods or decorations at a craftsdwarf's workshop. Besides the obvious elephant tusks and so forth, sufficiently large teeth, e.g. of large felines, can be used for the same purpose.

==Secondary products==
You don't necessarily have to slaughter your animals to get something useful out of them, as specific creatures can also produce some products while alive.

===Eggs===
Tame female egg-laying animals will produce [[egg]]s at intervals, which in turn can be used to feed your fortress on a more interim basis than butchering. [[Egg production]] is a viable way to keep a fortress fed, and in areas where setting up a farm will be difficult, starting out with some poultry can be essential to survival. Animals that can lay eggs are [[poultry]] (easily acquired), reptiles like [[alligator]]s (only if you're particularly [[elf]]ish), and some more exotic animals like [[dragon]]s and [[giant eagle]]s (only if you're very lucky). Female egg-laying animals will claim a nest box, and lay a clutch of [[egg]]s. These can be allowed to hatch into young animals (to replace the ones sent to the butcher), or collected into [[food]] stockpiles and [[cook]]ed into [[prepared meal|meals]] at a [[kitchen]].

=== Milk ===
You can also [[milking|milk]] tame female mammals such as horses, cows, and so forth at the [[farmers workshop]] with an empty [[bucket]] and a dwarf with the milking labor enabled. The resulting [[milk]] can be used as a cooking ingredient or turned into high-value edible [[cheese]] at the farmers workshop by a dwarf with cheesemaking enabled (it cannot, however, be eaten raw).

Many animals can be milked in Dwarf Fortress that would not normally be, for example [[pig|pigs]].

===Wool===
[[Wool]] can be produced by [[shearing]] one of three animals: [[llama]]s, [[alpaca]]s, and [[sheep]] (also [[troll]]s, but only goblins can do so). It can be woven into wool [[thread]] and then wool [[cloth]]; for a full discussion on the uses of wool, see the [[textile industry]].

==Automation==
Manually managing your meat industry can become quite tedious, especially since the game has a tendency to not provide crucial information (age, gender, etc.).

'''''DFHack: the content in this section requires the use of [[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]]'''''

The utility [[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]] can greatly assist, in several ways:

[[File:DFHack-autobutcherUI.png|thumb|right|400px|The DFHack autobutcher interface]]

* '''Autobutcher - automatic, configurable butchering:''' DFHack provides an <tt>autobutcher</tt> command and UI screen, which can automatically (and semi-intelligently) maintain a breeding population and provide a steady stream of butchering returns.
** Autobutcher monitors the animals in a fort on a per-species basis. The user can configure the maximum number of male and female children and adults to keep of each species - the default is to keep 5 each of female children and adults, and 1 male child and adult (a total of 12 per species.)
** Whenever there are more animals than the rules specify, the excess will be automatically marked Ready for Slaughter.
** The user can edit the configuration for any individual species, for example to keep more than 5 female Chickens for egg laying purposes, or fewer Cats to avoid a [[DF2014:Catsplosion|Catsplosion]]. Monitoring can also be disabled on a per-species basis.
** Pets and work animals (Hunting/War) will never be slaughtered.
** Other options include: editing the default limits that apply to new species'; choose to cancel an automatically given butchering order; choosing to butcher an entire species in one go.
** With DFHack installed and its default config enabled, you can access the Autobutcher UI by opening the [[Status#Animal Status Screen|animal status screen]] and then pressing hotkey {{K|Shift-B}}.
** For more information, see: [https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack#autobutcher autobutcher in the DFHack documentation]
* '''Autonestbox - automatically assigned nest boxes:''' DFHack provides a utility called <tt>autonestbox</tt>, which once started runs automatically and periodically in the background. Each time it runs, it looks for unpastured, non-grazing egg-laying females and unoccupied nestboxes. It will then assign the former to the latter.
** Once started, Autonestbox runs by default once per 6000 ticks, which is 60 seconds when playing at 100 FPS.
** The user only needs to construct and place nestboxes and then to place a Pen/Pasture zone for each nestbox. Autonestbox will then automatically assign birds to these. It will also inform the user, via a log message, if there are not enough nestbox zones available for the current number of egg laying birds.
** DFHack users can start Autonestbox by adding <tt>autonestbox start</tt> to a DFHack init file, or by typing this command from the console (then applies to current session only.)
** Users of the [[Utility:Lazy_Newb_Pack|PyLNP-based]] [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=126076 Windows Starter Pack] can enable Autonestbox by toggling <tt>Other Automation Plugins</tt> on the DFHack tab in PyLNP.
** For more information, see: [https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack#autonestbox autonestbox in the DFHack documentation]
* '''Better pasture management:''' DFHack enhances the Activity Zone->Set Pen/Pasture Information UI. [[File:DFHack-PastureFilteringUI.png|thumb|right|200px|DFHack Pasture filtering example]]
** When adding animals to a Pasture, you can filter the animals:
*** By text search
*** Male/Female
*** Caged/Not Caged
*** Currently Pastured/Not Pastured
*** Grazing/Not Grazing
** This allows for quicker, easier and more sophisticated pasturing of animals - for example ensuring breeding pairs are together, ensuring grazing animals have grass (and not wasting it on non-grazing), and so on.
* '''<tt>zone</tt> - advanced pasture/cage management:''' For even more sophisticated pasturing, DFHack provides a command-line tool <tt>zone</tt>, which allows very advanced allocation of animals/species to specified pastures and cages.
** There is unfortunately no in-game UI for this as yet, but for users willing to use the console and/or add hotkeys through the DFHack init file, there are some very sophisticated features available.
** Commands can be assigned to a hotkey (either via DFHack console or by editing the DFHack init file(s)), which can give easy, immediate benefits:
*** Assign <tt>zone set</tt> to a DFHack hotkey: then when your cursor is over a Pasture Zone, press the hotkey to set this zone as your current default for future <tt>zone assign</tt> commands.
*** Assign <tt>zone assign</tt> to a DFHack hotkey: then select an animal in-game and press this hotkey to assign this animal to your defined default Pasture.
*** If you always want to have all your animals in a single pasture, assign <tt>zone assign all own</tt> to a hotkey: any time you get new animals, press this hotkey to ensure all animals are assigned to your Pasture.
** Some examples of more advanced command-line usages of <tt>zone</tt>:
*** <tt>zone assign all own ALPACA minage 3 maxage 10</tt>
**** Assign all Alpacas between the ages of 3 and 10 to the selected Pasture Zone.
*** <tt>zone assign all own caged grazer nick grazing</tt>
**** Assign all caged animals in stockpiles (eg just purchased from merchants) that are grazers to the current Pasture, and give them all the nickname ''grazing'' (for easy identification/filtering later.)
*** <tt>zone assign count 5 own female milkable</tt>
**** Assign up to 5 female, milkable animals to the selected Pasture.
** For full details, and more examples, see: [https://github.com/DFHack/dfhack#zone zone in the DFHack documentation]

== Summary ==
''Worker type / Labor''

*[[Ambusher]] / [[Hunting]]
** A [[crossbow]] or other [[weapon]]
** [[Bolt|Bolts]], [[quiver]]
** Leather [[armor]]
** [[Cross-training|Stats buffing]]
** [[Archery target|Archery practice]]

*[[Soldier|Soldiers]]/[[Military]]
**[[Soldier|Soldiers]]
**Some form of [[armor]]
**Any [[weapon]]

*[[Cage trap]]ping
** [[Mechanic]]
** [[Mechanic's workshop]]
** [[Mechanisms]]
** [[Cage|Cages]]

*Breeding
** [[Animals]]
** [[Cage|Cages]]
** [[Restraint|Restraints]]

*Processing
** [[Butcher]] / Butchery
*** [[Butcher's shop]]
** [[Tanner]] / Tanning
*** [[Tanner's shop]]
** [[Leatherworker]] / Leatherworking
*** [[Leather works]]
** [[Bone carver]] / Bone carving
*** [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]]
** [[Cook]] / Cooking
*** [[Kitchen]]
*** [[Barrel]]s

==See also==
*[[Leather]]
*[[Industry]]

{{Workshops FAQ}}
{{Category|Guides}}
{{Category|Industry}}
{{Industry}}
[[ru:DF2012:Meat industry]]

Scheduling

2017-03-30T16:56:23Z

Altaree: /* Routes */ Add a tip about marksdwarves.

{{Quality|Fine}}{{av}}

No matter how much you micromanage your '''[[military]]''', your '''[[squads]]''' won't be able to get stronger or protect you from ambushes without proper scheduling practices. With practice, you'll be able to set your '''[[soldier]]s''' to follow a complicated annual training regimen, patrol major trade routes, defend important areas, or any combination of these... all with the flick of a few keys.

For quick reference: from the main menu the '''military''' screen is accessible through the {{k|m}} key, the '''points/routes/notes''' screen is accessible through the {{k|N}} key, the '''burrows''' screen is accessible through the {{k|w}} key, and the '''squads''' screen is accessible through the {{k|s}} key. The military screen and all its tabs are mouse-compatible, and can be navigated through mouse clicks rather than strictly keys (when in windowed mode).

==Passive Defense==

The '''alert level''' and '''scheduling''' system is a feature that is both incredibly versatile... and, initially, completely impenetrable. Once you learn the system, though, you will find that you barely need to manage your military at all. Effectively, a schedule is programming for a squad to follow within an alert, broken up by month, and alerts can be quickly and easily swapped in order to apply different schedules of your choosing to different squads of your choosing.

It is possible to give your squads different monthly schedules, create different alert levels which will cause squads to follow out new user-programmed instructions depending on circumstance, give direct orders to attack one or more specific targets or move to a specific location, or follow patrol routes and stations with greater accuracy. The entire system (including alert names) is completely configurable, and in time you will find yourself using complicated scheduling to rotate squads between training and defending/patrolling specified areas over the course of a year without any user input, or to start defending the fort entrance or trader route with a few easy key presses.

There is a clear discrepancy between ''active'' orders and ''passive'' orders — the former is used for taking the fight to the enemy, the latter is programming that a dwarf will follow to the letter and acts more as a defense method. The ''squads'' menu is predominantly used for active commands, and the ''alert'' and ''scheduling'' menus are used for passive commands. This article will focus on the '''passive''' commands you can leave your squads to follow.

For more information on '''active''' commands, see '''[[Squads]]'''.

===Alert Levels===

The '''alert level''' is a fundamental concept of passive military management. In each alert level, you can program instructions for your military and/or civilian dwarves to follow. The game contains two alert levels by default — 'Inactive' and 'Active/Train'. In 'Inactive', all squads are assigned no orders. In 'Active/Train', all squads are supposed to be assigned to train the entire year. By default, your squads will all be set to 'Inactive' — in this state, they will tend to spend most of their idle time in the barracks doing individual combat drills, or in the case of some dwarves only perform civilian work. You will need to make more alerts if you want them to do anything more complicated than this.

Your entire fortress is always set to exactly one ''[[civilian alert]] level''. This restricts where civilians, any non-military dwarf in the entire fort, may go. To define the restriction area, you must first create a [[burrow]] encompassing the area you want to restrict your civilians to. Then, go to the alert screen ({{k|a}} in the {{k|m}}ilitary screen), {{k|c}}reate a new alert level (you can {{k|N}}ame it something like 'Danger'), highlight it in the left pane, then press enter on the correct burrow in the rightmost pane. Multiple burrows may be selected. Note that the civilian alert burrow restriction replaces the 'Dwarves may/may not go outside' order in the older versions. By default, the civilian alert level is set to 'Inactive' and no burrow restrictions apply. If you intend on having your Dwarves stay inside at any time, for any reason, you will need to create a civilian alert burrow; see [[Civilian alert]] for a step by step walk-through.

Individual squads can be set to a certain alert by highlighting the appropriate alert level, then selecting the correct squad in the central pane and pressing {{k|enter}}. You can also select a squad's alert level by pressing {{k|s}} to open the squads menu, {{k|a}}/{{k|b}}/{{k|c}}/etc to select a squad, and {{k|t}} to scroll through alerts. You can change the currently active civilian alert level by pressing {{k|enter}} while the correct alert level is highlighted. Squads and civilians can only be set to one alert level at a time, so selecting one alert level for a group removes them from the former alert.

To deactivate an alert without selecting a new one, simply press {{k|enter}} on the alert for the relevant group again.

The main reason you want to use civilian alerts is to enforce [[burrow]] restrictions, i.e. making sure that your civilian dwarves do not wander outside in the middle of a siege. It can also be used to switch the areas where dwarves live and work around at will, if you are so inclined.

Note that triggering an alert with burrow restrictions seems to override the burrows normally assigned to dwarves, so if you used burrows to contain dwarves with different [[vampire|dietary requirements]], you might have some casualties.

===Schedules===

[[File:Quickstart-military-schedule.png|thumb|right|300px|The '''Squad Schedules''' screen.]]
Each squad can be given multiple '''schedules''' to follow for an entire year, broken up by month. Each squad has a separate schedule for each alert level; it can be swapped between these schedules with the procedure outlined in the previous section. Without scheduling, alert levels would do nothing; without alert levels scheduling would be horribly inefficient; the two functions co-exist and rely on each other. The scheduling screen can be accessed by pressing {{k|s}} in the {{k|m}}ilitary screen.

On the main scheduling page you will see a list of months on the left side and a list of all of the squads in your fortress along the top edge. Scheduling is done separately for each alert level; to switch between alert levels use the secondary page up/down keys (by default {{k|/}} and {{k|*}}). You can use the secondary up/down keys (by default {{k|+}} and {{k|-}}) to scroll through the squads at the top if you have more than will fit on one screen. Use the up/down arrow keys to navigate the month list, and the left/right arrow keys to navigate between squads. The orders in the currently selected cell are displayed in blue towards the bottom of the screen.

When you've highlighted a cell, press {{k|tab}} to switch focus to this '''order list'''. From here, you can press {{k|e}} to edit the standing orders or {{k|o}} to give a new one. Both will open to the Give Orders screen. Pressing {{k|o}} will scroll through and change the order type. This cycles between 'Train', 'Defend Burrow', 'Patrol Route', and 'Station'. To use any of the orders other than Train, you will first need to set up the appropriate [[burrow]], route, or station. When you cycle to the order you want, highlight the burrow, route, or station you want the order to go to (in the left pane) and press {{k|enter}}. It should now be highlighted in green.

Orders have a soldier-based '''order criteria''' that lists how many soldiers in the squad will follow the order at once. Using the secondary up/down keys you can choose how many soldiers must be in a squad the order applies; by default this number is ten. You can also select specific positions within the squad in the right pane to set those positions as 'preferred' - the order will try pick these dwarves to follow the orders if there are multiple off-duty dwarves to choose from. When you are done, press {{k|shift}}+{{k|enter}} to save the order and return to the schedule screen. If desired, multiple order criteria can be set for each month.

Note that the text displayed on each cell (like 'Train') is a completely customized text; it does NOT reflect the actual orders in the cell! When you have a cell highlighted, you can press 'n' to edit the label. Don't be confused by the fact that when you edit the orders in a cell, the label does not change to reflect your changes. You need to update the cell text yourself to be consistent with the orders.

To eliminate some of the tedium in scheduling many months, you can copy-paste orders from one cell to another with the {{k|c}} and {{k|p}} keys. Press {{k|c}} in the cell you want to copy from, then go to the cells you want to paste to and press {{k|p}} in each one.

By pressing {{k|shift}}+{{k|tab}} in the scheduling screen, you can flip the display of the rows and columns in the main grid. This allows you to see more squads, but fewer months. This can be useful if you want to see all your squads at the cost of not seeing the entire year's schedule. This change is cosmetic only; the tools still work the same way.

'''Warning:''' Dwarves who are permanently on-duty with no downtime have been observed to begin to starve themselves keeping to the rigorous schedule, and thus grow unhappy. Do you really want to find out how much damage that practice spear can do? To allow some of your dwarves to go sleeping when they need, and also eat and drink (even from carried rations!), you '''''need''''' to lower the minimum number of dwarves of the squad that need to follow the current order at any time in the order criteria as listed above. You want the criteria to be at least one or two dwarves less than the current number of dwarves in your squad. This will change the limit for the current month only, so use the copy/paste feature to update every month. It should be emphasized that dwarves who are stationed or on patrol will not eat or drink from their backpacks and flasks. Backpacks and flasks are more to shorten break times than to eat in the field. If there are no opportunities for breaks, carried rations will not be utilized.

This does not apply to training orders -- dwarves will attend to their needs as necessary between sparring sessions or demonstrations.

===Orders===

:''If you were redirected here while looking for information on moving your squads to a certain point on command, you may be looking for the [[Squads#Selecting_Squads.2FSoldiers|squad movement]] section on the [[squads]] page. Multiple orders can be given to a squad by pressing the {{k|o}} key again; this can be useful if you want part of a squad on patrol duty and another part training, or part of a squad training, and the other half stood down.

The five types of scheduling orders are listed below:

====Inactive / no order====

When dwarves have an empty spot in their schedule, dwarves with good self-discipline will visit the barracks and train themselves in their spare time - if you see a dwarf doing "Individual training" when they're free, that's what's happening. Technically this is not an order applicable in the 'Give Orders' screen - it is a ''lack'' of an order.

====Training====

For your dwarves to train, a '''[[barracks]]''' must be designated. This can be done through using {{k|q}} to examine an appropriate building and assigning it as a barracks. Many storage objects are eligible to be designated as a barracks, along with [[bed]]s, [[armor stand]]s, and [[weapon rack]]s. There is a 'Position' option that allows you to assign specific beds/storage to specific dwarves. If dwarves aren't assigned anything in particular they'll just use whatever they feel like, as per normal.

When being viewed, barracks can be {{k|n}}amed, used for {{k|s}}leeping, {{k|t}}raining, or {{k|i}}ndiv eq. and {{k|s}}quad eq. You can choose if a squad trains in one place and sleeps in another, or in multiple, and so on. Multiple squads can overlap with one barracks. It is assumed that indiv. eq and squad eq refer to individual and squad equipment respectively, meaning that the dwarves will store their equipment in this barracks if given the option. The indiv. eq option will make dwarves store their personal belongings in the selected barracks, while the squad eq option will store equipment designated for that squad when it's not in use.

To get marksdwarves to train in any way other than bashing each other with their crossbows, they must have quivers and an archery range. Archers will not fire bolts without a quiver to store them in (i.e. they will not hold a single stack in their hand). The archery range is set up for the squad via building an archery target and listing it as a {{k|t}}raining area for that squad. Marksdwarves will want to train more than archery, so make sure they also have a barracks to train at (otherwise they may sit around unable to follow orders). If you are having trouble getting marksdwarves to train, see the appropriate section of the [[Military F.A.Q.]] for more information.

When dwarves are being ordered to train, squad members will set up training demonstrations for particular skills, or they will have dwarves spar. Any dwarves in the squad that don't qualify for these will default to individual training.

====Defend Burrows====

After a [[burrow]] has been created in the {{k|w}} menu, you can order your dwarves to defend it. If an enemy enters the burrow (and is not hiding) the assigned squads will be alerted and attack it. It is unknown if a soldier defending a burrow is limited to his line-of-sight or is simply aware that an enemy is present.

====Stations====

Stations are set in the {{k|N}}otes menu. Simply {{k|p}}lace a point where you want a squad to stand, give it a {{k|n}}ame if you want to be able to find it quickly, then open the scheduling menu and set your chosen squad to be Stationed and select the station you want.

====Routes====

Routes are made by combining stations. Once you have stations set along your desired route (at least two stations are necessary), hit {{k|r}}outes while in the {{k|N}}otes menu. {{k|a}}dd a route, {{k|n}}ame it something appropriate, then {{k|e}}dit its waypoints. You need to {{k|a}}dd the points in the same order you want the dwarves to follow. They'll loop back to the initial point when they reach the last one. Waypoints can no longer be made on the fly; only stations can be selected as waypoints.

Routes are very useful for Marksdwarves. They don't like to resupply their ammo when faced with an enemy. If you have a route with two waypoints in the firing platform, and two bracketing the ammo supply, the dwarves will be able to find their ammo when empty.

===Instructors and Demonstrations===

Members of a squad with relatively high experience in a [[combat skill]] will lead the group during a [[sparring|training]] session. This can be in the form of a demonstration. Instructors gain [[teacher|teaching]] experience, while students gain [[student]] and [[concentration]] experience. Higher levels of these skills make demonstrations more effective[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=85279.0 source]. Observing demonstrations (with typically non-existent teacher/student/concentration skills) is not as effective as practicing and sparring; to maximize sparring organize your dwarves into squads of three, with two required for any training activity.

===Individual Combat Drill===

Otherwise unoccupied soldiers often go to the barracks for individual combat drills regardless of the alert level of their squad, if the squad to which the dwarf is assigned has any Training barracks available. Dwarves assigned to an inactive squad will remain civilians. Off-duty soldiers tend to ignore all civilian labors if training is an option. If you want your "reserve" squad to actually do civilian work when not needed to defend the fort, it's preferable to disable their barracks assignment.

==Frequently Asked Questions==

''See [[Military F.A.Q.]]''

{{Military}}

v0.34:Minecart

2012-06-20T14:08:43Z

Altaree: Add a note about the wagon blocking bug

{{quality|Fine|22:04, 14 May 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}{{Buggy}}
A '''minecart''' is a [[tool]] used mostly for [[hauling]]. It is made of [[wood]] or [[metal]] at a [[carpenter's workshop]] or a [[metalsmith's forge]], respectively. Minecarts store up to five times as many items as [[wheelbarrow]]s and are quite faster than hauling dwarves, but have the disadvantage of requiring dedicated track network and a complex route setup. Minecart tracks also take up a lot of space, may be complicated to construct and can be very expensive to build, resource-wise.

Just like wheelbarrows, minecarts are considered [[item]]s and are stored in a [[furniture]] [[stockpile]]. Despite their five times greater capacity, they are only one third larger than wheelbarrows and are identical in base [[item value|value]] when made from the same [[material]] (the value may differ due to the [[item quality]]). As items, [[thief|thieves]] or even mischievous animals can steal minecarts, even when moving on a track. If a minecart is moving fast enough, or if it has a rider, thieves will be unable to steal the minecarts.

Although most of the utility of minecarts is in [[fortress mode]], an [[adventure mode|adventurer]] can also ride in a minecart. Adventurers can also pick up and relocate minecarts.

Since their introduction in version 0.34.08, a new [[hauling]] [[labor]] preference was added to all dwarves, called "Push/Haul Vehicles", turned on by default.

The invention of minecarts revolutionized the [[Computing|Science of Dwarfputing]]. 

== Track ==
Tracks can be built in two ways:
*A single-tile wide strip of natural stone can be designated to be [[Engraver|carved]] (with {{K|d}} {{k|T}}), which will create a straight two-way track. The creation of corners, crossings and T-junctions is as simple as designating another strip of track that overlaps an existant or newly-designated track. Engraved tracks are removed by [[smoothing]] the rock they're on, which results in a smooth floor which can be re-engraved if necessary, or by building a [[floor]] on top and subsequently removing it.
**The carving of natural ramps is a little more confusing: to carve a two-way track on a (natural) ramp, you must designate the ramp '''and one square beyond''' in the direction you want the track to go. Take into account that minecart ramps '''must''' have a solid block on the side opposite to the track, or it will be unusable (despite not being marked so in-game).

*Tracks can also be built as regular [[construction]]s (through {{K|b}} {{K|C}} {{K|T}}). This method is resource-expensive, since each track tile requires one stone, [[bar]] or [[block]] for construction, and time-consuming, since you can't designate strips larger than 10 tiles at a time, and corners, crossings, T-junctions and ramps have to be designated individually. However, it is the only way to build tracks above ground (barring the [[Obsidian farming|creation of obsidian]]), and the only way to create one-way tracks. Constructed tracks are designated for removal like any regular construction; be aware that removing track ramps built on top of natural ones will also remove the original ramp, leaving a flat floor.

Every track, when complete, will designate the tile with a low-priority [[traffic|traffic order]]. This reduces the odds of dwarves walking into a high-speed minecart; however, it should be noted that pets and livestock ignore traffic orders. Note that removing the track doesn't reset that tile back to normal traffic priority, so you may wish to manually clean up traffic designation afterward. Also note that bridges that are used as tracks don't have their traffic priority changed automatically (since they're just normal bridges), which could cause dwarves to pathfind normally through dangerous minecart entrances in your fort's walls if you're not careful.

As constructions or tile features, [[door]]s and other furniture can be built on tracks. A [[door]] or [[floodgate]] can be turned on or off by a [[lever]], effectively controlling the flow of automated minecarts. This may be dangerous, however. 

[[Bridge]]s can also act as tracks, but only if they're lowered or not retracted. This property can enable levers to turn tracks on and off. However, care should be taken to ensure that such bridges are never operated while a cart is on top of them, as the cart will be flung off the track. It's worth noting that it's often faster, and cheaper, to construct large bridges than long striates of constructed track. It's also worth noting that bridges do not automatically have a low pathfinding traffic priority assigned to them, however.

== Hauling route ==
The proper setting up of routes is essential for a working rail system. Routes, stops, departure conditions and stockpile links are managed from the {{k|h}}auling menu.

=== Route ===
New routes are created with the {{k|r}}oute key. Existing ones can be removed (without confirmation) with the {{k|x}} key, and also {{k|n}}icknamed. Before operating, the route must have at least one {{k|v}}ehicle assigned to it (this can be done with either the route or a stop selected).

=== Stop ===
Stops are designated by moving the cursor on top of the desired tile and pressing the {{k|s}} key afterwards. They can be removed with and nicknamed with the same hotkeys as routes. Stops can also be reordered with the {{k|p}}romote key. Without a definition, however, a stop is fairly useless: pressing the {{k|Enter}} key with a stop selected in the route menu opens its stop definition screen, from which departure conditions and stockpile links can be set up.

==== Stockpile links ====
By placing the cursor on top of a stockpile and using {{k|s}}, you can create stockpile links for a track stop. Links can also be redefined by selecting them, placing the cursor over a different stockpile, and pressing {{k|p}}.

==== Departure condition ====
Departure conditions involve setting conditions in which the minecart will leave on the route. Each condition includes:
# A departure mode (Guide, Ride or Push).
# A departure direction (NSEW).
# A timer, before which the departure condition cannot be met.
# Conditions on the amount of items in the cart.
Departure conditions are created with the {{k|n}} key. A new departure condition will read: "guide north immediately when empty of desired items". This condition can be changed between basic presets with {{k|c}}. "Advanced" mode ({{k|C}}) allows for more precise control over departure conditions: fine tuning the percentage from 0 to 100 in 25% steps ({{k|f}} and {{k|F}}), switching it being either the maximum or the minimum amount of items for the condition to be met ({{k|m}}), and whether the cart accepts all or only a specific set of items ({{k|l}}). Common to both screens are the departure mode ({{k|p}}, Push, Ride or Guide), {{k|d}}irection, and timer ({{k|t}} and {{k|T}}) options.

To have a cart only carry a specific set of items, the stop can be set to only carry "desired" items, opening the selection screen with the {{k|Enter}} key while having said stop condition selected, and toggling as desired, or it can simply be linked to a restricted stockpile and set to depart with any items.

== Physics ==


Minecart physics depend greatly on the departure mode set in the route stop conditions.

When set to "Push" or "Ride", minecarts will move according to the regular laws of momentum, gaining speed when going downhill, losing it due to friction when on a flat plane, and more quickly when going uphill. In these modes, minecarts will move along the track in a straight line until they either run off the tracks or encounter a turn. Behavior at T-intersections has not yet been conclusively determined{{verify}}. The cart's behavior also depends on the weight of its contents (including fluids and dwarves): heavily loaded carts are harder to accelerate and to stop, and gain more momentum when going downhill. In either case, dwarves can not push nor ride an unpowered cart up a ramp, bouncing back the direction it came. At best, this is a waste of time; at worst, it will give your cart-pushing dwarf a [[fun|fun surprise]]. To solve this, the player can either use Rollers (see below) or set the cart to be Guided.

When set to "Guide", minecarts seem to ignore all laws of physics. They:
*Ignore the weight of any and all items inside. Therefore:
**Move at the speed of the dwarf that is guiding them. It is thus recommended to pick the most [[attribute#Agility|agile]] of your dwarves for cart-guiding tasks.
*Ignore working rollers.
*Will ''not'' collide with other guided carts even when a full frontal collision would be expected.
*Will go up ramps like nobody's business.
This is therefore the recommended method of transport for simple non-powered rail systems, despite it diverting a dwarf from other, potentially more important tasks.

Some samples with behavior:

A <-> B A <-> C A <-> B
B╥ B╥ B╥
║ ║ ║
A╞══╝ A╞══╩══╡C A╞══╬╗
You can only go A->B ╚╝
Works when the cart Works
is in Guide mode.

In the second example above, if you attempt to "Push" from B to A or C, [[Fun|''the cart will go careening off of the tracks'']].

=== Skipping ===
If a minecart is moving fast enough, it can skip over [[water]] or [[magma]], making splashes of [[mist]] (or [[magma mist]]) as it attempts to move on them horizontally. This horizontal movement is independent of the minecart and its content's [[weight]].

=== Falling ===
When falling, a minecart appears to cause no damage upon collision with a creature, possibly to allow cart "stacking" across Z-levels. {{verify}}

=== Stacking ===
If a minecart lands on another minecart in exactly the perfect orientation and time, they may form a stack (effectively a pillar) of minecarts. This pillar, aside from the [[megaproject]]s uses possible, is also useful for [[trap design]] with minecarts as the weaponry.

The location of the upper minecarts, above what seems to be thin air, can be confusing. These minecarts generally need to be struck with another minecart to move out, or have their support removed. The latter option can be somewhat dangerous, however.

=== Danger ===
Minecarts are not without [[Fun|danger]]. Although designating a track automatically sets the [[traffic]] designation to low, dwarves ''may'' still walk on them, and [[creature]]s ignore traffic designations altogether. If an unlucky dwarf or creature fails to [[dodger|dodge]] a minecart, they can be injured. Most of this danger can be avoided by setting the minecart {{k|h}}auling commands to guide instead of push or ride, as dwarves guiding minecarts will ignore traffic restrictions, by [[pasture|pasturing]] domestic animals, and preventing the access of other creatures to the tracks.

Danger does not always involve living victims: careless route designation can also result in minecarts careening off tracks or colliding with each other. If this occurs, the [[item]]s may be scattered; this can cause even more hauling jobs than the minecart aimed to eliminate. Even <s>better</s> worse, scattered items, especially [[weapon]]s, can injure passing [[dwarf|dwarves]] or other [[creature]]s; in the words of Toady One the Great, "Accidental grapeshotting of the dining room should be possible now."

Of course, the danger of using minecarts means they can also be used as weapons by imaginative players.

== Automation ==

=== Track stop ===
Track stops are constructions that allow further automation of minecart systems via adjustable features such as breaking by friction and automatic dumping of contents. They can be built from logs, bars and blocks through {{K|b}} {{K|C}} {{K|S}}, and must be built on top of an existing piece of track; friction amount, dumping toggle and dumping direction must be set '''before''' construction, and these settings can be neither changed nor seen thereafter; however, track stops can be linked to [[pressure plate]]s or [[lever]]s to toggle friction upon activation. Take care not to set track stops at a loading site to dump their contents, or dwarves will never be able to fill the cart.

Track stops are not mandatory; in fact, their main use is in automated rail systems, to stop and hold extremely fast-moving minecarts or to dump contents mid-way without stopping. However, even in basic rail systems it can be useful to set a track stop to dump items: this saves time that dwarves would otherwise spend in removing items from the cart, time that is better spent driving the cart back to where it's needed.

Counter-intuitive to their construction method, track stops are considered [[building]]s and must be removed by {{k|q}} {{k|x}}.

=== Roller ===
A '''roller''' is a [[power]]ed [[machine component]] for the automated propulsion of minecarts. They are built with {{K|b}} {{K|M}} {{K|r}}, requiring a [[mechanic]], one or more [[mechanism]]s and a [[rope]]. Rollers are very useful to maintain a cart's momentum along long routes, to get them to climb Z-levels without dwarfpower involved, and to get them to reach speeds unattainable by guiding dwarves. These devices are variable-length, variable-direction, and variable-power, all traits that can be set at construction time; at the highest speed, a roller uses two units of power per tile it is long.

Rollers may apparently be placed directly on ramps to help pull carts up Z levels{{verify}}. Currently rollers can only be placed on ramps if it would result in it being connected to a preexisting power connection (gears, axles, or pumps).

Care must be taken in [[glacier]]s and other extremely cold [[biome]]s, since rollers can be rendered inoperable when exposed to freezing [[temperature]]s.

Because of their one-way nature, rollers are unsuitable for most two-way minecart tracks. However, a minecart set to be ''guided'' is not affected by rollers at all — this allows a one-way track to be used in both directions.

Rollers cannot be powered from above.

=== Switching ===
A rudimentary track switch can be constructed by building a T-junction as illustrated below.

B╥
║
RO
RO
A╞════R════╡C

The 'O's represent walls that keep the cart on the track during the switching process
The 'R's are a single 3 tile roller pushing from South to North on slow speed (slowest is too slow to get the minecart to change directions, and I have not yet experimented with higher speeds).
If the cart is pushed East from the stop at 'A' while the roller is activated, it will arrive at 'B'. If the roller is not running, it will arrive at 'C'.

== Troubleshooting ==

Because of the complexity of the system, all but the most careful and experienced minecart users will encounter issues. Most route issues can be diagnosed and fixed from the {{k|h}}auling menu.

'''Symptom:''' ! Set dir/connect track message appears to the right of one or more stops
 '''Possible Causes:'''
* The departure direction of the stop might be invalid. Edit the stop using {{k|Enter}} and press{{k|d}} until it is pointing in a valid direction.
* The track stop might not be built on top of a track. The track stop must be deconstructed to remedy this issue.
* Your track might not be built correctly. Make sure all connected tracks between destinations are not one-way tracks.
** This can be especially confusing with ramps. To carve a two-way track on a (natural) ramp, you must designate the ramp and one square beyond in the direction you want the track to go.
** Ramps '''must''' have a solid block on the side opposite to the track, or they will neither work nor be marked as "unusable". The solid block can be natural or constructed.
* The desired/kept items might not be configured correctly.

'''Symptom:''' The status '''0% V''' always appears to the right of one stop.
 '''Possible Causes:'''
* The stop may not be set to take from a stockpile. Edit the Stop using {{k|Enter}} and make sure you see a message like "Take from Stockpile #1".
* The take conditions must correspond with the contents of the stockpile.
* The track stop may be set to dump. A track stop set to dump cannot be filled. You must either set the stop to a time-based departure or deconstruct the track stop and rebuild it without dumping.
* Make sure the minecart itself has not been designated to be dumped (such as when using mass-dump).

== Capacity ==
Minecarts have five times the capacity of wheelbarrows, which is an enormous amount. A single minecart can carry 2500 rolls of [[cloth]], for example, or even a hundred stone blocks. Unfortunately, loading 2500 [[stone|boulder]]s onto a minecart is not possible.

[[Water]] and [[magma]] can also be loaded into minecarts by submerging them to a depth of at least 6/7, and dumped by a constructed track stop. Loading fluids onto minecarts can be difficult because their weight can slow the minecart down greatly. Curiously, filling a minecart with magma does not injure a dwarf ''riding'' it.

The capacity in a minecart affects whether a [[pressure plate]] triggers or not, based on the pressure plate's setting.

== Bugs ==

*If you set up lots of routes and stops and then resize your screen, the list will scroll off-screen in the hauling menu. You can still navigate the list with keyboard commands, but cannot see the stop/route name. This will be fixed in the next release.
*A dwarf will drop its [[child|baby]], if it has one, when boarding a minecart set to be ridden.
*Tracks block wagon access to trade depots. [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=6040 Bug 0006040]
[[ru:Minecart]]

v0.31 Talk:Glass

2011-07-25T14:41:33Z

Altaree: /* Work around for Crystal Glass bug and a noble's demand */

===glass trap damage===
last version says glass weapon damage is 50%, is this still true in 2010? – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:Rembrandtq|Rembrandtq]]
:'''No''' - that's one of the major things that was completely changed. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 04:00, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

==schroedingers glass==
Hullo. I had a glitch with raw clear glass where the jeweller's workshop could not see or did not list the clear glass in bins in storage piles in the same room.
It currently has cut some of each colour glass but can no longer see the raw crystal or raw clear glass, just the raw green glass.
It is not forbidden, the bin is not forbidden and I have both locally made and imported raw clear and imported raw crystal. 31.16 on linux.
I tried to submit a bug on the mantis page but have forgotten my password and am waiting for a reminder. sorry. cheers [[User:Lucychili|Lucychili]]
===storage pile===
I deleted the storage pile and they moved the bins to the other side of the room and the person with a mood is now constructing. Yay =)) [[User:Lucychili|Lucychili]]

== Glass spiked balls are too effective ==

Glass spiked balls seems to deal blunt damage if unable to penetrate armor and hence are quite useful. Too useful in my case - I want enemies to fall while dodging, but they end up dying and jamming traps... – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:213.145.155.74|213.145.155.74]]
:I suspect this is actually because of the uninitialized MAX_EDGE value... glass ends up being "randomly really sharp", and it actually does punch through the armor. What do the combat messages say? --[[User:DeMatt|DeMatt]] 08:16, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
Actually i used 5 glass serrated disk + 5 glass spiked balls in each trap (for aesthetic). All serrated disk attacks were deflected by cloaks, but ball attacks of same trap fracture/cheap/shatter bones even through copper/iron armor. After detailed combat log analysis I noticed that there was no deflected ball attacks. Is it strange? Some attacks were blocked by his weapon, but none deflected by armor. I don't have any copper or steel ball traps no compare performance.

== Where are the raws? ==
I cannot find the raws for glass listed ANYWHERE in the game's files. Help? --[[User:HugoLuman|HugoLuman]] 03:54, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
:They don't actually exist as raws - the ones on this page are reconstructed based on values extracted directly from the game's code/memory. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 03:57, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
::Will adding these raws as a .txt enable modding of glass? Or will it result in a dual-listings crash? --[[User:HugoLuman|HugoLuman]] 05:24, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
:::Neither - the old glass materials would continue to exist unmodified as GLASS_GREEN:NONE, GLASS_CLEAR:NONE, and GLASS_CRYSTAL:NONE, and the new materials defined in your .txt file would exist as INORGANIC:GLASS_GREEN, INORGANIC:GLASS_CLEAR, and INORGANIC:GLASS_CRYSTAL, and nothing would actually make use of them unless you added a bunch of custom reactions. The raws are provided solely for reference. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 13:34, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
:::: I see. Thanks. Perhaps this will be remedied in future versions. --[[User:HugoLuman|HugoLuman]] 23:22, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

== Work around for Crystal Glass bug and a noble's demand ==
I have a couple of blank reactions in my reaction_smelter.txt file. I had a noble that wanted crystal glass items. I created this reaction and he was satisfied. Is it cheating when you fix a bug?

[REACTION:DUMMY4]
[NAME:Crystal Crafts]
[BUILDING:SMELTER:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:2:BOULDER:NONE:NONE:NONE][WORTHLESS_STONE_ONLY]
[PRODUCT:100:3:CRAFTS:NO_SUBTYPE:GLASS_CRYSTAL:NONE]
[FUEL]
[SKILL:SMELT]
--[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 14:41, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

v0.31 Talk:Glass

2011-07-25T14:40:42Z

Altaree:

===glass trap damage===
last version says glass weapon damage is 50%, is this still true in 2010? – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:Rembrandtq|Rembrandtq]]
:'''No''' - that's one of the major things that was completely changed. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 04:00, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

==schroedingers glass==
Hullo. I had a glitch with raw clear glass where the jeweller's workshop could not see or did not list the clear glass in bins in storage piles in the same room.
It currently has cut some of each colour glass but can no longer see the raw crystal or raw clear glass, just the raw green glass.
It is not forbidden, the bin is not forbidden and I have both locally made and imported raw clear and imported raw crystal. 31.16 on linux.
I tried to submit a bug on the mantis page but have forgotten my password and am waiting for a reminder. sorry. cheers [[User:Lucychili|Lucychili]]
===storage pile===
I deleted the storage pile and they moved the bins to the other side of the room and the person with a mood is now constructing. Yay =)) [[User:Lucychili|Lucychili]]

== Glass spiked balls are too effective ==

Glass spiked balls seems to deal blunt damage if unable to penetrate armor and hence are quite useful. Too useful in my case - I want enemies to fall while dodging, but they end up dying and jamming traps... – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:213.145.155.74|213.145.155.74]]
:I suspect this is actually because of the uninitialized MAX_EDGE value... glass ends up being "randomly really sharp", and it actually does punch through the armor. What do the combat messages say? --[[User:DeMatt|DeMatt]] 08:16, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
Actually i used 5 glass serrated disk + 5 glass spiked balls in each trap (for aesthetic). All serrated disk attacks were deflected by cloaks, but ball attacks of same trap fracture/cheap/shatter bones even through copper/iron armor. After detailed combat log analysis I noticed that there was no deflected ball attacks. Is it strange? Some attacks were blocked by his weapon, but none deflected by armor. I don't have any copper or steel ball traps no compare performance.

== Where are the raws? ==
I cannot find the raws for glass listed ANYWHERE in the game's files. Help? --[[User:HugoLuman|HugoLuman]] 03:54, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
:They don't actually exist as raws - the ones on this page are reconstructed based on values extracted directly from the game's code/memory. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 03:57, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
::Will adding these raws as a .txt enable modding of glass? Or will it result in a dual-listings crash? --[[User:HugoLuman|HugoLuman]] 05:24, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
:::Neither - the old glass materials would continue to exist unmodified as GLASS_GREEN:NONE, GLASS_CLEAR:NONE, and GLASS_CRYSTAL:NONE, and the new materials defined in your .txt file would exist as INORGANIC:GLASS_GREEN, INORGANIC:GLASS_CLEAR, and INORGANIC:GLASS_CRYSTAL, and nothing would actually make use of them unless you added a bunch of custom reactions. The raws are provided solely for reference. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 13:34, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
:::: I see. Thanks. Perhaps this will be remedied in future versions. --[[User:HugoLuman|HugoLuman]] 23:22, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

== Work around for Crystal Glass bug and a noble's demand ==
I have a couple of blank reactions in my reaction_smelter.txt file. I had a noble that wanted crystal glass items. I created this reaction and he was satisfied. Is it cheating when you fix a bug?
[REACTION:DUMMY4]
[NAME:Crystal Crafts]
[BUILDING:SMELTER:NONE]
[REAGENT:A:2:BOULDER:NONE:NONE:NONE][WORTHLESS_STONE_ONLY]
[PRODUCT:100:3:CRAFTS:NO_SUBTYPE:GLASS_CRYSTAL:NONE]
[FUEL]
[SKILL:SMELT]

User:Altaree

2010-08-02T20:01:00Z

Altaree:

I am working on my 4th fort right now. I enjoy long walks through dark mines, the hot glow of a magma workshop, butchering cats, and enabling the flooding of my entrance tunnel. And that one is done. Now onto dig deeper.

I have started using a couple of standard areas.

== Killing room ==
{{diagram|\
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓,,,,╬,,,▓
▓,,,,╬,,,▓
▓,,,,╬,,,▓
▓,.╥.╬,,,▓
▓▓▓╨▓▓▓+▓▓
}}
There is a pit covered by a retractable bridge above this. Raise the drawbridge, pit the bad guys into the left side, and then have your archers on the right side. Easy training!

== Outside Fort Design ==

Around my main entrance there is a wall creating an outdoor courtyard (kill zone). The entrance is: drawbridge over a moat, through two towers, over some traps, and into the mountain entrance. One level above the ground the two entrance towers are connected into an archer gallery. The fortifications up there only point into the courtyard, firing on the attackers backs. Right next to the killzone is an atom smasher in a garbage hole for the loin clothes and socks.

== Filling a pipe with water ==

{{diagram|\
▓▓▓▓▓*▓▓▓▓▓
▓▓▓.%%_.▓▓▓
____+_+____
}}
This is a picture from the side of the water in take.
1) the lower level is a channel with 2 lever operated doors/floodgates. The doors are to allow unpowered flow and are optional.
2) the middle channel has a pump pulling from the left and pushing to the right. This can be hand powered or have a gear attached on the top. There is one floor beyond the outflow of the pump. Make sure this is constructed floor to prevent mushroom trees.
3) Yup, that is a gear above the solid part of the pump. This allows you to pump without opening a hole into the side of the pump's channel. Build the pump and wall it in.

This design allows you to quickly move water down a pipe at a known pressure, allow normal flow in and out, and use either machine or dwarf power. I have also used this setup:
{{diagram|\
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
▓▓▓.%%_.▓▓▓
....▓*▓....
▓▓▓▓▓║▓▓▓▓▓
▓▓▓▓▓║▓▓▓▓▓
}}
It is powered from below!

v0.31 Talk:Burrow

2010-07-28T14:23:08Z

Altaree: /* Questions */

=Questions=
How do I restrict civilian dwarves to a specific burrow? --[[User:Markavian|Markavian]] 23:47, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

* Answer: When civilians are added to a burrow [w][c][enter] they are automatically restricted to the burrow's boundaries. --[[User:Markavian|Markavian]] 09:00, 5 April 2010 (UTC)
* Answer: You can also restrict civilians to a burrow with an alert state. An active alert specifying a burrow will direct all non-military dwarves to go to that burrow. [[User:Doctorzuber|Doctorzuber]] 15:24, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

If I add a dwarf to a burrow, will he starve when no food is available in that burrow? -Xeiki
* Answer: No. He will head outside the burrow to look for food or drink. [[Special:Contributions/216.110.94.227|216.110.94.227]] 17:50, 16 April 2010 (UTC)
*Nota Bene: He will not be choosy, though. If only water is available in his burrow, he will drink it, possibly impairing his work ability from lack of alchohol. Dwarves will also leave burrows to sleep. --[[User:Zombiejustice|Zombiejustice]] 19:33, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

How do I revert to the old military system?

*Answer: You play 40d. Sorry. (Just learn to adapt, the new one is actually pretty cool.) --[[User:Zombiejustice|Zombiejustice]] 19:33, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Will a dwarf remain injured, or will he path to a hospital if injured regardless of burrow location? [[Special:Contributions/97.103.188.15|97.103.188.15]] 01:11, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

How do I restrict only animals to a certain burrow? [[User:Richards|Richards]] 04:38, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

* Answer: Animals ignore burrow's, you can't restrict them. They do like meeting areas, cages, and chains though. Or just i -> Pit them into holding room with no exits. --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 14:23, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Will dwarves cross non burrow territory if two parts of the same burrow aren't connected?
If I make a travel burrow containing all the halls/main stair ways, a mason's burrow, and a stone stockpile burrow. Then assign the masons to all three. Will the dwarves take from one burrow, travel through another, and work in the third? (I need a dwarftherapist for burrows...) --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 14:23, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

=Pathfinding=
with burrows, and many other game features things often don't quite do what they're supposed to do. There are many open threads about pathfinding issues on the bug tracker right now, so far there doesn't seem to much in the way of clear answers as to what exactly is going on. One tactic that does seem to at least temporarily fix many pathing problems is to save, close the game completely, and reload your save. This is believed to be because of some sort of caching behavior. [[User:Doctorzuber|Doctorzuber]] 15:24, 6 April 2010 (UTC)
:Locking and unlocking a door also fixes pathing. Changing the map like this seems to force the connectivity map to recalculate. [[User:Vattic|Vattic]] 22:45, 7 April 2010 (UTC)
::The pathing problems were fixed in 0.31.03 [[User:Immibis|Immibis]] 07:52, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Does the pathfinding section belong in the Burrow page, or should it have its own? --[[User:HammerDave|HammerDave]] 16:39, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

v0.31 Talk:Advanced world generation

2010-04-15T13:10:04Z

Altaree: question about really bad grammar

This page needs some grammar checking. I don't have enough experience with the latest version to correct it though. Is there a tag or template I should add for this type of error? --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 13:10, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

v0.31 Talk:Screw pump

2010-04-13T15:38:49Z

Altaree: Created page with 'About the service area in the picture. You can use a door at the impassible part of the screw pump instead of using two doors. The dwarves can dig and move diagonally. --~~~~'

About the service area in the picture. You can use a door at the impassible part of the screw pump instead of using two doors. The dwarves can dig and move diagonally. --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 15:38, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

User:Altaree

2010-04-12T19:17:28Z

Altaree: added a target practice room design

v0.31 Talk:Activity zone

2010-04-09T14:12:52Z

Altaree: asking about flow-style activity zones

Dumping beds doesn't seem to work. The jobs are never generated in the que. The only thing I have successfully dumped is remains. You can mark things, but they won't be dumped. Could this be Toady's move against quantum dumping? I find it incredibly irritating to be unable to move my items to my elevator shaft and drop them down to the cavern! --[[User:The Architect|The Architect]] 03:42, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

==Flow-stylee activity zones?==
Does anyone know what this comment in the 0.31.02 changelog at [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=53505.0] means:
* fixed crash from doing a large flow-style activity zone

What is a flow-style activity zone?
--[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 14:12, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

v0.31:Window

2010-04-09T13:51:31Z

Altaree: sticking the av tag into a dead page

v0.31:Reservoir

2010-04-02T13:19:14Z

Altaree: Created page with '{{av}}'

Template talk:ArticleVersion

2010-04-02T13:18:42Z

Altaree:

Having one template that covers both old and new articles is, I think, a mistake. (I didn't know it was the same at first.) When it comes time to change the latest to "old", it will require that every one be checked - and there is no way to keep track of that.

Instead, having one "old info" template, and one "current info" template would allow users/Admin to go out and change all the "current info" articles to "old", and then proceed from there. The serve diff functions, they should not be the same.--[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 20:23, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
:You're absolutely right, of course. I'm not quite certain why I didn't think of splitting this into separate templates, but it clearly should be. There's also the matter of Emi's recent changes assuming the presence of a "DF2010" pseudonamespace which, at this moment, does not exist. --[[User:Quietust|Quietust]] 23:19, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
::Albedo, I'm getting the feeling that you don't understand how this template works. When it comes time to change the latest to "old" one line will have to be changed in this template's code, and then every single one will have changed to read "out of date". The entire premise of having one template that uses parser functions to determine what appears, is so that no one will ever have to go through every article to check the templates. You'll notice that [[40d:Milk]] shows up as out of date, but that [[DF2010:Milk]] shows up as current. This is because the template is looking for what namespace the page it appears on is in, and it appears differently depending on what namespace it is.

::Also, to Quietust, the 'fixes' you made to the template were actually to intentional errors. I wanted to avoid doing things that would have to be reversed later as much as possible, but still wanted to test. So to avoid having to ask Briess to temporarily add DF2010 as a namespace, I left the namespace check for current blank. As for the non-existent DF2010: I just wanted something to test with, I never meant to imply that the DF2010 namespace was the one people had agreed upon.

::If you need me to explain more, I'd be happy to. I'm also lurking around on IRC (newnet as Emi). [[User:Emi|Emi]] 00:17, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Why is this template not working? I never see links to the old 40d articles that still actually have content. It is very annoying. --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 13:14, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
:It's working fine for me. What page are you seeing this on? Remember, it only links to the 40d article if the 40d article exists with the exact same name. --[[User:Briess|Briess]] 13:16, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
::whoops, I'm wrong. A new DF2010 page must be created with an av template to allow me to see the link back to the 40d article on the redirect. ick. --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 13:18, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

v0.31:Fluid logic

2010-04-02T13:16:21Z

Altaree: Created page with '{{av}}'

Template talk:ArticleVersion

2010-04-02T13:14:47Z

Altaree: This template needs fixing (or something does)

40d Talk:Trap

2010-03-29T18:01:30Z

Altaree: add a note about how to deal with caged victims.

== Cage traps clarification ==

I think I know the answer, but are ANY sort of cages suitable for trapping any kind of invading monster (except those that evade traps altogether, such as kobalds). The page mentions a glass trap catching a colossus, but will that also apply to a rickety wooden trap? I haven't produced any glass. --[[User:RustyMcloon|Rusty Mcloon]] 06:18, 29 May 2008 (EDT)
:Yes. I've had a bronze colossus trapped in an Ashen Cage before. I don't think creatures care what you trap them in.--[[User:Dadamh|Dadamh]] 14:59, 29 May 2008 (EDT)

== cage traps for food ==
Couldn't one generate a mild supplementary food source by putting cage traps out on the map at random? Or create rows of them to catch aggressive creatures that are chasing down a fleeing dwarf. The ability to place them on the surface has some interesting possibilities. [[User:Kefkakrazy|Kefkakrazy]] 04:45, 4 November 2007 (EST)

: You can really do this with any kind of trap now - I built a 1 tile wide stair/corridor up an exposed cliff face, and as I was concerned about goblins and the like I stonefall-trapped it. Ever since then some of the local wildlife has used it to get up and down the 5 z-level cliff, with predictable and hilarious results. The goats just die, but the marmots are hurled off the cliff face to splatter on the ground below. It's a nice easy meat/leather/fat source, as well as being entertaining "Dwarfy McDwarf cancels reload stone trap - interrupted by (flying) hoary marmot" [[User:Acama|Acama]] 19:48, 20 December 2007 (EST)

==berserk dwarves==
Will berserk dwarves set off pressure plates? Toady mentioned he was going to stop that from happening [[User:VengefulDonut|VengefulDonut]] 19:39, 4 November 2007 (EST)

On a possibly related note, pets CAN set off traps. Although in my experience the pet has to be falling unconscious to do so. [[User:Anonymousphrase|Anonymousphrase]] 22:43, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

[[image:Pet_setting_off_trap.png]]

It may also be the case that you can also get pets killed by a trap if they're in the square when a hostile sets off the trap. —[[User:Chaos|Chaos]] 12:42, 28 May 2008 (EDT)

==flooding a spiked pit==
Will flooding a spiked pit break or cancel the spike trap? I'd test this, but I don't have the channel dug in yet. --[[User:Xazak|Xazak]] 18:30, 5 November 2007 (EST)
:confirmed that flooding doesn't affect spear/spike traps. [[User:YayTheDwarves|YayTheDwarves]] 17:52, 6 January 2008 (EST)

I'm pretty sure the "corpse stuck in trap" chance is 50%, according to Toady either on IRC or some forgotten forum post a few months back. I really can't remember for sure. -[[User:EarthquakeDamage|EarthquakeDamage]] 02:31, 10 November 2007 (EST)
:Do spike traps stop functioning if a corpse gets stuck in them, or can you just retract and continue using as usual? [[User:Gairabad|Gairabad]] 13:11, 9 December 2008 (EST)

==cage traps/ fire imps==
I've secured the entries oy my magma furnaces with cage traps, but it seems that the fire imps just walk through.
Just as the Giant moles did. How so? --[[User:Doub|Doub]]
:supposedly there is a bug that causes any creatures on the map when it is generated to count as residents, and thus know where your traps are and not trigger them. I've never run into the problem myself, but I've never specifically tested for it so I can't really say for sure if it still exists (or ever did). --[[User:BurnedToast|BurnedToast]] 07:41, 6 January 2008 (EST)
:I had read about this and tried it out with a trapped coridoor next to my magma vent - an imp I tempted out walked right through 4 cage traps and 4 stonefall traps without triggering them. Seems like indigenous life is currently trap-immune. Most magma creatures can be dealt with by a few marksdwarves though, so you're only in serious trouble if you have a herd of skeletal hippos on your map on embark.--[[User:TangoThree|TangoThree]] 15:42, 19 January 2008 (EST)
::There's always the menacing spike + lever combo. And pits. [[User:Benitosimies|Benitosimies]] 16:08, 10 March 2008 (EDT)
::I've killed fire imps and magmamen with stone fall traps --[[User:Strangething|Strangething]] 01:20, 19 July 2008 (EDT)
:I've caught native fire imps in cage traps loaded with green glass terrariums. [[User:Rkyeun|Rkyeun]] 21:42, 4 August 2008 (EDT)

==Trolls and Cages==
I'm planning on making the only passage to my fortress filled with cage traps, but I'm not sure if dwarves going out and migrants and traders coming in will be affected by them. Does anyone know? Also, do trolls smash goblin cages? [[User:Patarak|Patarak]] 21:41, 23 January 2008 (EST)
:Only hostile units will trigger traps. Trolls only smash buildings and after a goblin is captured the cage is not built. So the answer to your second question is no. --[[User:Karlito|Karlito]] 21:45, 23 January 2008 (EST)
::Make sure to forbid the traps when the siege starts. Otherwise your dwarves will rush out to reload them and store all the cages. --[[User:Ikkonoishi|Ikkonoishi]] 22:53, 23 January 2008 (EST)

==Thieves and trap avoidance==
Is it possible that Kobold thieves/Goblin master thieves can also trigger traps? I think I killed one and caged another master thief in the past. Maybe the quality of the mechanism is important here? --[[User:Qwertyu|Qwertyu]] 13:24, 17 March 2008 (UTC+1)

:goblin thieves, both regular and master, have always triggered traps -[[User:Chariot|Chariot]] 14:18, 17 March 2008 (EDT)

::So why does the article then say "Sneaking enemies do not trigger traps"? Goblin master thieves seem very sneaky to me. --[[User:Qwertyu|Qwertyu]] 20:33 17 March 2008 (UTC+1)

:::once goblin thieves are revealed they are captured fine. even revealed kobolds dont trigger. -[[User:Chariot|Chariot]] 15:45, 17 March 2008 (EDT)
:::: At least "normal" goblin thieves are scewered fine without being detected, says my weapon trap --[[User:Koltom|Koltom]] 16:58, 17 March 2008 (EDT)
:::: I have to agree with Koltom, I got an "Ambush" event when a goblin (master) thief went into a cage trap, and had another one cut to pieces by a serrated disc, which I only noticed when suddenly all my dwarves rushed off to remove his clothes. --[[User:Qwertyu|Qwertyu]] 13:31 (UTC+1)
:::: Weapon traps apparently have a chance of friendly fire. At least, that's what the ghost of my Kitten(tame) told me... [[User:QMarx|QMarx]] 18:48, 13 April 2008 (EDT)
::::: I think traps have a chance to trigger against theives, not an absolute yes or no. Also, remember that a citizen going unconscious on a trap will trigger it. The reason animals do so is because they ignore traffic designations, of which I presume traps create an invisible 'no sleep' tile. I've tested locking a dwarf in a room where the entire floor space was covered with traps, they starved to death before sleeping on the traps. However, if a dwarf is knocked unconscious by fighting or a bridge, then they will still trigger traps. [[User:Sensei|Sensei: Last seen somewhere in the Basic Jungle of Terror]] 23:43, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

== Crossbow Trap? ==

How does a crossbow trap work? Does it have line of sight, like a Dwarf? – [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:Lordmick134|Lordmick134]]

Ranged weapons in weapon traps work much the same as melee weapons do, attacking the creature which triggered the trap. The only real difference in functionality seems to be that they require and use up appropriate ammunition, and (according to the article) do not get occasionally stuck and need cleaning like melee weapons in a weapon trap do. --[[User:Janus|Janus]] 21:31, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

How much ammo gets loaded into a crossbow trap? I have 10 individual bolts in one and a stack of 39 in another. [[User:HeWhoIsPale|HeWhoIsPale]] 09:48, 24 November 2008 (EST)

:I assume they load it with whatever stack is close at hand. They'd probably load it with a 1-er if you don't forbid used ammo.--[[User:Maximus|Maximus]] 12:07, 24 November 2008 (EST)

== Trapping cave dwellers ==

Has anyone sucessfully caged a cave dwelling megabeast? I have tried on two seperate maps to capture a minotaur and an ettin, both times the monster just run right through the cage traps. Perhaps creatures that are spawned on embark are bugged immune to traps?

as said above, some creatures that spawn on the map dont seem to be caught in traps. however, i successfully caught and with the dugeon master, tamed, a giant cave spider that was living in my chasm. I designated it as available for a pet. a legendary engraver adopted it, so i drafted him and am training him up now. hopefully the giant cave spider that now follows him everywhere will be happy to defend its owner against goblins. megabeasts that spawn and attack you can be caged, in fact, its the easiest way by far to deal with them. some, like dragons can then be tamed. im assuming your etin and minotaur fall under the aforementioned bug... try a later game version. --[[User:FruityBix|FruityBix]] 13:04, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

==Weapon Trap Jamming==
The page says crossbow weapon traps don't jam, but what about a trap with a crossbow and a melee weapon? Does the crossbow still fire if the trap jams? Or does a trap have to be pure crossbows to avoid jamming? --[[User:Strangething|Strangething]] 01:21, 19 July 2008 (EDT)

:Well, it jams in my experience as of 40d, I tried mixed trap, when something jams, the whole trap stops [[User:TettyNullus|TettyNullus]] 18:26, 30 November 2008 (EST)

== Trap betrayals? ==

Has anyone else been betrayed by their own traps? I had a dog and a crossbowman killed by weapons traps. Serrated iron disks ripped through their bodies like the bloody tusks of enraged elephants.

Correction. A dog, a crossbowman, and a miner. Will the slaughter never end?--[[User:Amenos42|Amenos42]] 12:08, 30 July 2008 (EDT)

I've noticed that traps tend to fire on people/animals with injuries. They've killed lots of 3 legged dogs for me, and a soldier that was dragging himself off the field.

: Traps will (also) trip for any and all unconscious individuals. That may be or be one of the reasons. [[User:Drawf irons|Drawf irons]] 20:53, 4 August 2008 (EDT)

::Does that include dead individuals? And is it possible to get my dead dog out of his cage? --[[User:Groveller|Groveller]] 01:32, 14 August 2008 (EDT)

:::Mark it for dumping? That's usually the solution as to how to get anything out of anywhere! --[[User:Raumkraut|Raumkraut]] 09:34, 16 August 2008 (EDT)

== Cage Trap Question ==

I recently received the message that there was a goblin snatcher in my fortress. It zoomed the page to one of the 3 cage traps. I took the game off pause and it gave me the same message again. Now I have two cave traps sprung, and when I press "k" and go over them, one says : "goblin cage (Larch)" and the other says "Goblin cage(nickel)". Does this mean I have successfully caught the scoundrels? Or are they still at large?

:If there is a flashing 'g' then yes, if no than It could be possibly a bug.[[User:Hoborobo|Hoborobo]] 08:25, 10 August 2008 (EDT)

:Goblin Cage(Material) is usually a good indication that you've caught them. In fact, the "____" cage (Material) is a name that's given when something occupies the cage, I believe, so it definitely means the Goblin is trapped inside, as otherwise it would simply be a "Larch Cage". [[User:Jwguy|Jwguy]] 06:15, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

== Stone Fall Update: Watch Out!! ==

This is as of release '''0.28.181.39f''': in the past hour I saw two of my own dwarves - both normal healthy members of society - get killed in two different stone fall traps I'd had set up. Clearly, the old rule that dwarves are immune to their own traps is no longer entirely accurate...unless there's a bug going on here? Has anyone else fallen prey to this occurrence? [[User:Grand marquis|Grand marquis]] 06:31, 16 August 2008 (EDT)

:See two sections up. :P Anything unconscious will trigger traps currently - did those dwarves fall asleep on the trap square maybe? I've changed the section on triggering traps, so it gives at least a little hint that backfiring is now possible! --[[User:Raumkraut|Raumkraut]] 09:33, 16 August 2008 (EDT)

== Room of Spiky Death ==
Alright, after a long, long time, I finally got myself a gross(144) of menacing green glass spikes. I'm planning to put them in airlock area of my castle, so that I can trap the goblins who have been annoying me and spike them to death. Each trap will use ten spikes, and there are 14 of them. There's an animal planted as bait, and once I raise both draw bridges, there's no way out. Can anyone tell me if there is something I should know before embarking on this death spree? -[[User:Cypress|Cypress]] 14:47, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

Yes. Be prepared for blood. lots and lots of blood. also, it will be awesome.--[[User:Jackrabbit|Jackrabbit]] 00:56, 15 September 2008 (EDT)

== Stop dwarves from automaticaly cleaning traps and getting killed. ==

its in the title. first big siege comes in, hits the first line of traps in my entry hall of death, and then half the fortress runs out en mass to clean them, getting killed by the goblins in front and the ballista bolts from behind. they also block my military from getting past. this is agonizing! children, peasants, legendary craftsdwarves and nobles all are susceptible. aaaaarrrrrrggh! --[[User:FruityBix|FruityBix]] 17:35 30 September 2008 UTC
:Lock the doors. --[[User:GreyMario|GreyMaria]] 22:49, 20 September 2008 (EDT)
:Forbid the traps, at least until the siege is over. --[[User:Smartmo|Smartmo]] 17:20, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
:Build the traps well outside (removing the roof and rebuilding with blocks still counts as "outside"), and forbid your dwarves to go out. [[User:Qwertyu|Qwertyu]] 12:17, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

I'm having a similar problem with this, they dont want to clean the traps anymore, oh no, they want to clean the damned splatters of blood off the walls after! luckily my fortress entrance is so convoluted that it takes a full day to traverse it, but It could become a problem in the future. [[User:Heliman|Heliman]] 11:16, 16 May 2009 (EST)

== Caged Creatures and Loot ==

''In this case remove the poor fellow using the goblin's inventory screen.''

I just caught my first goblin in my outer line of defenses! It wasn't even complete yet. *dances* Only, I can't seem to access the bugger's inventory screen. How get his goods off him without killing him? --[[User:RomeoFalling|RomeoFalling]] 04:12, 7 November 2008 (EST)
:Mark the bag (or whatever) he's holding for dumping via the stocks screen. [[User:HeWhoIsPale|HeWhoIsPale]] 09:29, 7 November 2008 (EST)

== weapon trap ==

anyone got a good combo for a weapon trap setup? I have magma so my last line of defense is a 3x3 grid of serrated green glass disk weapon traps- with ten each. It is generally a one-hit-kill, if they make it past my cage trap field. Anyway, share some good weapon combos here. Good meaning easily producible yet deadly, or really effective.--[[User:Destor|Destor]] 00:47, 5 December 2008 (EST)

: Bone crossbows trap, nuff said, all you need are some stones, and breeding pairs, and off ya go. Might be a bit high-maintance, but it never jams, and as long as you still have animals and stone around, you can make more of 'em, and fill 'em with just animals. -- [[User:TettyNullus|TettyNullus]] 01:46, 8 December 2008 (EST)

:I tend to do 2-3 of whatever weapon I've got on hand per trap. This is usually either glass weapons that I've been making to train a glassmaker or silver or copper weapons that I've been training a weaponsmith on. Weapon traps reset quickly between attacks, so a line of 2- or 3-weapon traps 3-4 deep is usually plenty. And why go through the trouble of reloading traps just to avoid an occasional jam? Save your bone bolts for training marksdwarves. IMO.--[[User:Maximus|Maximus]] 23:07, 8 December 2008 (EST)

::Metal tend to be in short supply in early fortresses, and those with lack of wood to burn through. Beside the jamlessness is just a bonus, nicely balanced by the difficulity of keeping it supplied. Breeding pairs of animals are cheap and counts as renewable resource, they provides food, leather and bone, as long as there're enough breeding pairs to keep going. Animal husbandery can be slightly complicated with a -lot- of animals but the benefit is you have armour, weapon and food resource no matter where you go ( And as long as there're enough of 'em to breed ). It's really more player preference and avaliable resources so YMMV! (Plus last I recall, the only weapons that can be made with bones are crossbows, at least in vanilla DF using dwarves, correct me if I'm wrong, since some maps don't have woods. And some don't have stones but at least you can arm your guys with bone and leather equipments) -- [[User:TettyNullus|TettyNullus]] 01:30, 10 December 2008 (EST) ed: forget to say that I've had sieges big enough to run through 5 deep of fully loaded glass disc traps, that'd be stopped almost completelly by fully loaded crossbow traps with even bone bolts, but maybe I've just been lucky.

== Dwarven Flame Belcher ==

I'm modding DF to support a flamethrower trap component, and I was wondering whether 'charcoal' is an acceptable ammunition. More specifically, I'm curious what the proper name for refined coal is.

[ITEM_TRAPCOMP:ITEM_TRAPCOMP_FLAMEBELCHER]
[NAME:flame belcher:flame belchers]
[ADJECTIVE:dwarven]
[DAMAGE:100:HEAT]
[WEIGHT:200]
[HITS:1]
[CRITBOOST:1]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:4]
[RANGED:CROSSBOW:CHARCOAL]
[METAL]

It's designated as a crossbow because I don' know if RANGED will work without a skill. And so crossbow users in adventure mode can have fun. --[[User:RaguCat|RaguCat]] 14:13, 11 December 2008 (EST)

:If you wanted to be really awesome, you'd have Naptha produceable at an alchemists, and use Naptha as fuel. I suppose you could have Naptha be made from coke and soap, although really you'd need some oil too... but adding oil to the game sounds complicated. --[[User:Squirrelloid|Squirrelloid]] 15:06, 11 December 2008 (EST)

::Do you mean napalm?--[[User:Mrdudeguy|Mrdudeguy]] 20:24, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

: Refined coal is [[coke]] in the game. Whiskey is a nice burny liquid your dwarves know how to make, but it's wasted on goblins. --[[User:Jellyfishgreen|Jellyfishgreen]] 19:29, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

== Spike Trap hit falling goblin ==

I had a spike trap surrounded by walls that I would drop gobbos on from 6 z-levels above; the idea was to stun them and then have a dwarf grind them to death. However, the first goblin I dropped died on impact (previous goblins did not) and got stuck in the spike trap. The trap wasn't being operated at the time. Has spike impact been added? --[[User:LucienSadi|LucienSadi]] 18:22, 22 December 2008 (EST)

== Friendlies ''completely'' immune to traps? ==

Unless I'm mistaken, except in a few cases, friendlies are immune to traps; if a friendly unit is on the same tile as a trap and an enemy triggers the trap only the enemy will get hurt. Right? --[[User:Xonara|Xonara]] 01:24, 4 January 2009 (EST)

Well it depends, if the trap in question is a spike trap, it will not discriminate between friend or foe, otherwise a trap shouldn't harm any conscious ally--[[User:Heliman|Heliman]] 2:12, May 17 2009 (EST)

== Traps + Caravans = very bad ==

Today, I had an elven caravan run into my weapon traps... they all died... this may be because they were wounded from goblin ambush but it is still kind of weird, is this a bug? or is it supposed to happen?

Correction: happened twice, first the elven, then a human caravan was ambushed and the same thing happened when they tried to flee to my fortress

:Friendly units can be caught in traps if they lose consciousness, which would usually be due to wounds. Although it could also happen if a dwarf with no bed happened to go to sleep on a trapped tile. --[[User:FunkyWaltDogg|FunkyWaltDogg]] 05:30, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
:: Um, isn't there a "panic" mode that will let any creatures trigger traps? Like kobold thieves can be caught by a trap after they ve been detected and run off? Maybe the same goes for chased traders. --[[User:Koltom|Koltom]] 23:53, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

== Caged Dwarfs not immortal ==

So the bit about trapping berserk ones instead of killing them needs to be updated out of existence. I fiddeled with a rewrite where in I tried to say it myself, but I'm not very good, so I didn't post it.

== Stonefall traps not being reloaded?==
I don't know what is going on, but in my game, some of the stonefall traps don't seem to get reloaded since they show a whole bunch of stone on top of it which blinks as it should when icons are on top of each other, however, I'm not sure if this is normal or not.--[[User:Smjjames|Smjjames]] 21:56, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
:Sure they reload them, just not with the same stone. Because dwarves are stupid like that. I just dump the excess stones once they get annoying enough. --[[User:Corona688|Corona688]] 23:47, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
:: Apparently so. Anyways, it was looking like the stones were actually blocking the traps from working right, so I cleared them anyway. Those goblin seiges are pretty skittish, once they take a few casualties from my traps, they run like chickens.--[[User:Smjjames|Smjjames]] 01:28, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
:: It seems that when dwarves are assigned a job to load a trap, they will pick up stone closest to their current location, not closest to trap. --[[User:Denspb|Denspb]] 18:16, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

== Cage trap bug ==

recently I caught about 15 goblins in a siege so I decided to drop them in my volcano to prove a point to the rest. Well I dropped them in and then I noticed that one of my cage traps was smoking and that there was everything that a goblin bowmen would where in it. So after a couple of minutes I had gotten a screw pump ready to try and get rid of the smoke when my game crashed then I tried it again and the exact same thing happened. Im pretty sure that this is a bug but I cant be sure.--[[User:Cerol The Elf Hunter|Cerol The Elf Hunter]] 00:32, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

== disposing of trapped hostiles ==

What is the safest/easiest way to empty cages? TIA [[User:GarrieIrons|Gar]][[User Talk:GarrieIrons|rie]] 06:31, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Build a drowning room that you can fill with a screw pump / floodgate connected to river, build the cages in there, link a lever to the cages, close and forbid the door of the drowning room, pull the lever.

Other ways are more risky, but can also be more fun ;)
--[[User:Syndic|Syndic]] 13:10, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

: create a room with a lockable door. Build the cages in that room. Connect the cages to a lever. Use the d-b-d key combo to dump the traps. Use 't' to look at all the cages and stop dumping the cage and mechanisms themselves. Wait for your dwarves to strips the prisoners naked. Lock some of your warriors in the room with the cage. Pull the lever. Free XP. Clean up and go again. --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 18:01, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

== Human ambushers trap-immune? ==

In 28.181.40d it seems that the humans that come with the goblin ambushes walk past my traps without setting them off, luckily they usually flee when their goblin friends follow them and are killed by the traps. Do humans have some sort of trap-evasion now too or (more likely) do human ambushers also benefit from that "not affected by traps their diplomats have seen" thing that human sieges get?
--[[User:Syndic|Syndic]] 07:37, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Update: seems like it really is caused by the human diplomats seeing the traps... another ambush, the human walked past all the traps just fine until he hit a weapon trap that I constructed after the last caravan already left. I'm now building special trap-filled, pet-baited corridors with doors in front so the filthy spies can't see them.--[[User:Syndic|Syndic]] 12:52, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, now an elf leading a goblin ambush walked past traps too... not sure what to make of this --[[User:Syndic|Syndic]] 14:57, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

== {forbidden} animal corpses ==

when elephants are getting killed by my weapon traps (which IMO are being a great way to train my forest gulag woodcutter/carpenter/mechanic Corps of Engineers) the corpse is {forbidden}. Which means perfectly good meat/skin going to waste.

Is there a way to make dead meat not be auto-forbidden?? Might be worth putting in there somewhere??
I've already got one friendly herd of elephants so don't need to cage-trap any more thanks!
[[User:GarrieIrons|Gar]][[User Talk:GarrieIrons|rie]] 10:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

:Try (O)rders (F)orbid to find the right menu. Most of us consider auto-forbidding corpses a feature - it stops foolhardy peasants from running into goblin attackers to loot the corpse of a recently slain one. --[[User:Squirrelloid|Squirrelloid]] 14:03, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

::Thanks, now I know how the feature works I will be able to toggle it on/off as needed.[[User:GarrieIrons|Gar]][[User Talk:GarrieIrons|rie]] 13:08, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

== Spike trap actually does work on falling dwarves ==
The Baron Consort had a bit of an... accident when someone mistakenly pulled the lever that activated the floor hatches in his room that dropped him on top of upright spikes which had no triggers at all. He was impaled on it. The fortress Channeltribes is <s>thrilled with</s> deeply saddened by our loss.
:Are you sure it was the spikes that killed him, and not just fall damage? --[[User:LaVacaMorada|LaVacaMorada]] 06:49, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

40d Talk:Tame

2010-03-25T13:19:03Z

Altaree: asking about taming

Do we know for sure that if an animal that kills a dwarf is tamed, it can still kill your dwarves?--[[User:Richards|Richards]] 14:42, 22 April 2008 (EDT)

:It's been confirmed in talk for cages and captured creatures. Any creature that has killed any civilized creature will start killing dwarves on release.--[[User:Dadamh|Dadamh]] 14:12, 29 May 2008 (EDT)

::Why exactly is that, doesn't tame mean "doesn't attack dwarves"? --[[User:AlexFili|AlexFili]] 06:32, 3 June 2008 (EDT)

:::It's tasted BLOOD! --[[User:Savok|Savok]] 08:21, 3 June 2008 (EDT)

::I have tamed a hydra that had killed several human siegers before deciding to wander into one of my cage traps. Upon release it behaved itself. So I don't think it's accurate to say that killing 'any civilized creature' will make a creature untameable. Seems it only applies to dwarves if it still applies at all. (39e) [[User:Pavlov|Pavlov]] 04:15, 28 July 2008 (EDT)

:::Would it be said that laying siege to a settlement is a civilised act? Perhaps "friendly" (merchants, etc.) would've been a more appropriate word than "civilized"? --[[User:Raumkraut|Raumkraut]] 07:53, 28 July 2008 (EDT)

I had cage-trapped a Dragon that arrived at my Fortress; it was caged before it had even seen any thing, so no killing. So I tamed and released it, upon which it made a beeline for my King and tried to set him on fire. It only managed to burn Dwarf Gap before the fortress guard took it out. So why couldn't I properly tame the dragon? [[User:HeWhoIsPale|HeWhoIsPale]] 09:23, 6 October 2008 (EDT)
:If it had a name it probably killed during worldgen. --[[User:Birthright|Birthright]] 21:54, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
::Birth, all megabeasts have names at worldgen regardless of whether or not they have killed anything. And chances are it had killed something in worldgen, or before getting to the fortress. Training megabeasts is *dumb* unless you savescum and check the legends then reload the fortress game to make sure it hasn't killed anyone. If it has, just sell it to the Elves. [[User:Shardok|Shardok]] 01:08, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

I just tamed a dragon which had killed (Human) merchants who were locked out of my fortress (siege and megabeast at once). It didn't kill any of my dwarves before i captured it. once tame it wandered around a bit inside, went to the well, and then threw itself into a volcano. :( - [[User:Iveskins|Iveskins]] nov 2009

Do tamed exotic animals, cave crocs for example, give birth to tame babies? --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 13:19, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

User:Altaree

2010-03-24T13:15:10Z

Altaree: Just need to have something here :)

I am working on my 4th fort right now. I enjoy long walks through dark mines, the hot glow of a magma workshop, butchering cats, and enabling the flooding of my entrance tunnel.

40d Talk:Utilities

2010-03-24T13:11:58Z

Altaree: Add a link to the latest branch for dwarf therapist.

__TOC__

=== Dwarf Fortress File Depot ===
Would be great to get the majority of these uploaded to the [http://dffd.wimbli.com/ Dwarf Fortress File Depot (DFFD)]. I'm having trouble with some of the currently linked hosting sites. I've just gotten Regional Prospector, so I'll see about getting that one up. Thanks guys! --[[User:SlMagnvox|SlMagnvox]] 14:33, 25 February 2008 (EST)

<hr>

=== Accent Removal ===
I added the accent removal utility here from [[Accent Removal]], since that's about to be deleted. However, none of Wikipedia's show-hide-box stuff works here (I assumed it would...), so it's a big glob of pre-formatted text in there that should be hidden. Could someone do it? [[User:Zardus|Zardus]] 00:51, 15 May 2008 (EDT)
:[[User:Jackard/Accent_Removal|Accent removal tutorial]] contains detailed instructions on the subject. I think, we could replace the whole thing on utility page with one link. [[User:Nophotoavailable|Nophotoavailable]] 20:58, 1 August 2008 (EDT)

=== AutoHotKey ===
Should autohotkey be added as a utility tool for dwarf fortress? I know a few forum users have used it to do repetitive tasks like room designations, maybe it could have its own page and a few dwarf fortress specific script?--[[User:Thehunterunseen|Thehunterunseen]] 20:43, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

:Ive been looking for a macro program that works within dwarf fortress and thats free. Havent found a good program thats the combination of both. What do you use? --[[User:Mizipzor|Mizipzor]] 20:51, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

::autohotkey [http://www.autohotkey.com/] is a program like that --[[User:Thehunterunseen|Thehunterunseen]] 21:13, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

:::That was the program I used. Wierd. For me, when I inputed "6" for moving one step right... it moved like 8 steps right or something. Couldnt figure out why. Any ideas? --[[User:Mizipzor|Mizipzor]] 22:57, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

::::I know that {{k|shift}} + {{k|→}} = 10×{{k|→}}. Could that have something to do with it? --[[User:Savok|Savok]] 23:17, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

:::::I use "Send {LeftArrow}{Enter}{Enter}", as a test to simply have the wall/floor im building to be placed one step to the right instead of where the cursor actually is. As previously said, however, it didnt work. --[[User:Mizipzor|Mizipzor]] 07:05, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

::::::That might be because the {LeftArrow} part isn't right. It's supposed to be just {Left}. I've downloaded the program myself and am not having any issues with it in DF.. I'm running XP, and use it in fullscreen mode, if that helps any. --[[User:Hesitris|Hesitris]] 18:53, 12 November 2007 (EST)

: So could some people who actually know some autohotkey scripts make an article and submit some? --[[User:Thehunterunseen|Thehunterunseen]] 13:37, 6 November 2007 (EST)

::I use it and more or less know how it works but as soon as I use it inside DF it bugs out completely and I have no idea why. --[[User:Mizipzor|Mizipzor]] 17:56, 6 November 2007 (EST)

:::I have a number of scripts that I use, but they randomly bug out for no apparent reason. They will work fine in notepad (ie, output everything exactly as I expect), but be only partially executing and then failing in DF. Again, sometimes they work fine. I could post them and how they work if someone wants. FYI, I am on Vista and that may be an issue. --[[User:Geofferic|Geofferic]] 02:39, 19 November 2007 (EST)

::::I'm not sure how CPU cycles and the buffer interact in Vista. Is your FPS low? Perhaps a key is dropping out of the buffer but DF isn't recognizing it due to lag? Or lag might be making the buffer overflow. It might depend on how autohotkey sends keystrokes, I don't know if it simulates a key press or directly input ssomething into the buffer. You could try a small sleep(50), or the equivalent, in autohotkey and see if that helps. Also, make sure it isn't losing focus for some reason due to background programs (although that would be strange) -Gotthard

:::::I think it's a lag issue in DF. I've yet to figure out exactly what is causing lag for me. I think it's pathing with too many dwarfs and too complex of a hallway system over too many Z levels. Also, I think playing very large maps causes me to lag, as well, but I think that's related to the pathing problem and all those other creatures trying to path. It definitely got better in this version, tho. I will hold off on trying to say definitively what's up with AuthoHotkey until after the next patch. --[[User:Geofferic|Geofferic]] 03:50, 21 November 2007 (EST)

::::::AHK does tend to do wierd stuff in DF, but most of it is predictable. A lot of wierd errors that make no sense can be fixed by explicitely telling the script to focus on the Dwarf Fortress window, as well as generous Sleep statements. I found while rewalling a 30x30 outline, sleep 100 worked fine for the first two sides but posted about half of the second two. Sleep 150 placed the second two somewhat erraticly. Sleep 200 got the second two just fine. --[[User:Knivesu|Knivesu]] 10:22, 23 December 2007 (EST)

:::::::Just tested, and the weird behavior of AHK does not happen in DF 38c, but does happen in 40d11 (I came back to DF after time away). I have tried altering my scripts in a ton of ways to get them working with 40d11, to no avail (Changing key delay, using sendplay or sendinput instead of send, etc). So, perhaps there is hope that it will magically work right again in a later release. [[User:Nephelim|Nephelim]] 00:06, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

=== Dwarf Foreman ===
Foreman is looking at the wrong address for the units... which is not a good sign, since I've seen it in the address it seems to be looking at. I've also seen it bounce around. Definitely not a good sign if the list location isn't static. Or we're just looking at the wrong one completely. --[[User:AzureLightning|AzureLightning]]

:It's pretty easy to find the addresses for this for new versions. Running the program in the directory with the new version gives you the check= value, and the others are moderately easy to suss. Also, I don't know exactly how it works or why it works, but from C->D->E start and pos were incremented 0x1000 each version, so laziness dictates trying that in future. [[User:Qalnor|Qalnor]] 16:37, 9 December 2007 (EST)

Is there any info on what the offsets (dwarfidpos, critter_start, profession_start) actually refer to? I'm capable enough with finding memory addresses, but exactly what profession_start is eludes me. Even dwarfidpos is a little unclear.

dwarfidpos = Address of Dwarf Race ID
critter_start = Start of Main Creature Vector
profession_start = Offset into Main Creature Vector the array of jobs.
[[User:Jifodus|Jifodus]] 00:41, 7 March 2008 (EST)

Does anyone know the values for v0.28.181.39f? --[[User:Aristoi|Aristoi]] 18:18, 10 August 2008 (EDT)

:Still no word on 39f? Perhaps we can get a little write-up on how to discover the appropriate values added to the foreman homepage. That way, when a new version of DF is released, any number of people could search for and contribute the new values, instead of depending on the few people who already know the process. --[[User:SWSaunders|SWSaunders]] 09:10, 12 August 2008 (ADT)

::Thanks Jerethi50, beat me to it. When I went to enter the values you already had! SWSaunders: What I did (having never done this before) was to download a memory viewer (HxD hexeditor) and then look at the old version vs the new version in memory. In the old version, I found the character at the dwarfidpos address and searched forward till I found that in the new file. For critter_start I went to the old process and found it there, then searched forward in the new process till I found the pattern match (it wasn't too far). The data was different but the pattern was the same. The profession offset hasn't changed so I left it as is. --[[User:Aristoi|Aristoi]] 11:13, 12 August 2008 (EDT)

:::That's exactly how I do it, except I have written a program that does it for me, since it saves time. I also tend to forget to post Dwarf Foreman's new config during updating. Usually I remember to update the tables at http://www.geocities.com/jifodus/tables/ini_jifodus/ and that has all the information you'd need (critter_start=[creature_data].base; profession_start=[creature_data].jobs); however, it seems I didn't update it this last go around. If you wander around my website, you should be able to find enough information posted there (provided you can understand it all) to learn how to update foreman for yourself. --[[User:Jifodus|Jifodus]] 22:22, 14 August 2008 (EDT)

::::Can someone that understands all this go through and get up to 40d13 information for what to put in the config file? Because I honestly have no idea where to start on this, but I really don't want to downgrade to an earlier one after seeing how much better 40d13 is running for me than the older versions were. [[User:Shardok|Shardok]] 20:30, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

To make Foreman compatible with previous versions of Dwarf Fortress, update the config file as shown below.

==== v0.27.168.33g ====
<pre>check=008c407c
critter_start=01427B50
dwarfidpos=01248AC8
profession_start=45c</pre>

==== v0.27.173.38a ====
<pre>
check=01E30A43
critter_start=01450E98
dwarfidpos=01271E10
profession_start=45c
</pre>

==== v0.27.176.38a ====
<pre>
check=023401d3
critter_start=01463378
dwarfidpos=01284188
profession_start=480
</pre>

==== v0.27.176.38b ====
<pre>
check=01e3dbcc
critter_start=01463570
dwarfidpos=01284188
profession_start=0470
</pre>

==== v0.27.176.38c ====
<pre>
check=01cf4654
critter_start=01464570
dwarfidpos=01285188
profession_start=0470
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.39a ====
<pre>
check=01aa9d3a
critter_start=015124f4
dwarfidpos=0131f1b8
profession_start=0474
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.39b ====
<pre>
check=01a16957
critter_start=015134f4
dwarfidpos=013201b8
profession_start=0474
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.39c ====
<pre>
check=01b89dbc
critter_start=01513514
dwarfidpos=013201d8
profession_start=0474
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.39d ====
<pre>
check=01b0747e
critter_start=0151f93c
dwarfidpos=0132c1e0
profession_start=0474
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.39e ====
<pre>
check=01b76baa
critter_start=0151f93c
dwarfidpos=0132c1e0
profession_start=0474
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.39f ====
<pre>
check=036276be
critter_start=01575dec
dwarfidpos=01382690
profession_start=0474
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40a ====
<pre>
check=03186cb3
critter_start=0158222c
dwarfidpos=0138e698
profession_start=0474
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40c ====
<pre>check=032e896f
critter_start=0158222c
dwarfidpos=0138e698
profession_start=0474</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d2 ====
<pre>
check=01807735
critter_start=014D1404
dwarfidpos=012DD2F8
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d3 ====
<pre>
check=0191B535
critter_start=014D341C
dwarfidpos=012DF310
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d4 ====
<pre>
check=0190599F
critter_start=014D341C
dwarfidpos=012DF310
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d5 ====
<pre>
check=019687A7
critter_start=014D5434
dwarfidpos=012E1328
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d6 ====
<pre>
check=018D14AA
critter_start=014EDE3C
dwarfidpos=012F9D30
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d7 ====
<pre>
check=01A78193
critter_start=014EDFCC
dwarfidpos=012F9EC0
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d8 ====
<pre>
check=01860A3C
critter_start=014EDFCC
dwarfidpos=012F9EC0
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==== v0.28.181.40d9 ====
<pre>
check=01318B82
critter_start=014EDFCC
dwarfidpos=012F9EC0
profession_start=00000544
</pre>

==Regional Prospector?==
I notice the Regional Prospector utility is no longer listed - what happened to it and did it get updated to the newest version? --[[User:Squirrelloid|Squirrelloid]] 05:20, 20 November 2008 (EST)
:The functionality is now provided on the embark screen, so the utility is obsolete. [[User:Random832|Random832]] 08:38, 20 November 2008 (EST)
::Except it really isn't. Yeah, I can have it search the world for a site for me, but it doesn't tell me where exactly those features are - so if I want to play with size or location a little bit I don't know if I'm losing anything. It also returns only one hit, which can make finding the type of site you want hard, especially as some variables (tree cover, relative elevation, diversity of alignment/biomes) can't be searched over making that first hit with an underground river and magma pipe (or whatever) not necessarily the one you want. --[[User:Squirrelloid|Squirrelloid]] 10:42, 20 November 2008 (EST)
:::Yes, it is. Regional Prospector would make the game show various features on the local embark map such as chasms, magma vents and magma pools. This is now supported natively by changing the "SHOW_EMBARK_???" variables in the init.txt file to "ALWAYS". Same functionality. The site finder feature which you're referring to is an additional feature, which indeed doesn't yet work perfectly. --[[User:Janus|Janus]] 11:06, 20 November 2008 (EST)

::::Similar variables have to be set during worldgen, although I believe they are set to "show" by default.--[[User:Maximus|Maximus]] 12:44, 20 November 2008 (EST)

: Say, does anyone know of a list that explains the symbols that Prospector uses? It took me forever to be certain that a red single tilde was a magma pool, while a red double-tilde (a.k.a. squiggly equal sign) was a magma ''pipe'', and there are still a couple symbols I'm not sure about...
:--[[User:Macdjord|Macdjord]] 13:12, 20 November 2008 (EST)
:: There used to be a map key in the '''RP''' section. [[http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php?title=Utilities&oldid=28602#Regional_Prospector history]]

== Lifevis?! ==

There's a realtime replacement for 3Dwarf out: [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=29314.0] (yes, i made the thread, but no i don't claim any credit for the util.) It should '''totally''' be added to the list! But where?
:Wow I just took a look at Lifevis, it's really something special! I guess it would come under "Movies, Screenshots, Map Files" best, although perhaps we need a whole new "3d utilities" section. Either way, it should definitely be included.

== Dwarf Foreman Vista ==

Whenever I try to run Dwarf Foreman in Vista I get a message saying "Couldn't connect to Dwarf Fortress, Is it Running?". Any ideas? I'm using 40d9 and have the latest updates to the config file.

:As is standard for most DF Utilities, you'll probably need to be running in Admin, or otherwise ensure that the program has access to edit memory locations of another program. Other than that, Sorry, no idea. --[[User:N9103|Edward]] 11:15, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

::Problem's probably "40d9", most of the utilities haven't been upgraded since "40d" --[[User:Solarshado|Solarshado]] 21:49, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

:Try this: rename the "Dwarf Fortress.exe" file to "dwarfort.exe". Also use put this text in a file named "config" in the Foreman directory:
<pre>check=01318B82
critter_start=014EDFCC
dwarfidpos=012F9EC0
profession_start=00000544</pre>
:That got Foreman working for me under XP. It is my understanding that there are issues for some Vista users (the Dwarf Fortress executable is being relocated away from its natural base address for some currently-unknown reason), so this may not work for you. Please post a reply especially if it does not work for you. —[[User:0x517A5D|0x517A5D]] 00:48, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

== Dwarf Therapist for the 40d* series ==
[http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=46841 40d* update branch] - from the forum post: <blockquote>
Note: Currently works on windows with all versions from 39a-40d, 40d2-40d19_2 and all linux versions from 40d2-40d19!
</blockquote> --[[User:Altaree|Altaree]] 13:11, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
=== Other ===

So, what happened to the utilities such as granite.exe and ore.exe? No mention of them anymore, or did just nobody bother remaking them for 40d? Honestly I still play the old '2D' version of the game without the z axis, so I like being able to find those utils. xD --[[User:Kittenykat|Kittenykat]] 21:37, 9 March 2010 (UTC)