Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

DF2014:Dreams

2019-12-29T19:02:12Z

CentAtMoney: Created redirect to dream redirect.

#REDIRECT [[DF2014:Dream]]

DF2014:Dream

2019-12-29T18:59:44Z

CentAtMoney: Created redirect to goals on personality traits page.

#REDIRECT [[DF2014:Personality_trait#Goals]]

Cat's eye

2019-12-23T19:58:21Z

CentAtMoney: Changed descriptor from valuable gems to semi-precious gems for consistency with gem page.

{{quality|fine}}{{gemlookup/0|wiki=cymophane}}{{av}}

'''Cat's eyes''' are semi-precious [[gem]]s found within [[granite]], [[schist]] and [[marble]].

[[File:Cat's Eye super cropped III.jpg|thumb|center|300px|Cat's eye cabochon.]]

{{gamedata}}
{{gems}}

Material

2019-12-22T23:46:03Z

CentAtMoney: Added link to value page.

{{av}}{{Quality|Fine|23:45, 4 February 2013 (UTC)}}{{catbox|DF2014:Materials}}
:''For information on the physical properties of materials, see [[Material science]].

'''Materials''' are the wide array of base resources from which objects can be created. Different materials have different base properties, including [[Value#Material_multipliers|value multipliers]] which can significantly affect the [[value]] of the item - a [[gold]] [[throne]] is worth more than an identical-quality [[lead]] one, for example.

Not every end-product can be made of all materials, and similar materials may have very different properties. For instance, [[obsidian]] is the only [[stone]] that can be used to make stone-based [[weapon|weapons]], only [[magma-safe]] stones will not melt when immersed in [[magma]], and [[fire imp]] [[leather]] will not burn. While nearly all metals can be made into furniture and crafts, only a select few can normally be made into [[weapon|weapons]] and [[armor]]. These metals are generally called weapon-grade metals. This alone doesn't necessarily give these materials a higher base value, but it may make them worth more to you and your fortress in a practical sense.

Some dwarves have [[preference|preferences]] for one material over another - they receive a happy [[thought]] when working with the material, tend to produce higher-[[quality]] results, and perceive items (or rooms) made of that material as higher [[quality]], which can also give them more happy [[thought|thoughts]]:

{{DFtext|Unib Rulushlikot likes rhyolite, silver, amber opal, persimmon wood and giant emu leather.|2:1}}

General groups of materials include, but are not limited to,

:* [[Stone]]
:* [[Wood]]
:* [[Metal]]
:* [[Glass]]
:* [[Leather]]
:* [[Cloth]]
:* [[Bone]]
:* [[Shell]]
:* [[Gem]]
:* [[Wax]]

Certain materials tend to be geared toward making certain items. While stone, wood, metal, and glass can be made into similar furniture, there are some items which are normally restricted to certain materials. For example, [[bed|beds]] can only be made out of wood, and [[bin|bins]] and [[bucket|buckets]] cannot be made out of stone. Cloth and leather can both be made into clothing, but leather can also be used to make [[armor]]. Gems are largely for [[decoration|encrusting]] finished items made from other materials. Of over two dozen different [[metal|metals]] and [[alloy|alloys]], only a handful are usable to make [[weapon|weapons]].

In all cases, each group of material is divided into many possible sub-types of material; there are, for instance, 11 pure [[metal|metals]], another 14 [[alloy|alloys]], scores of different types of [[stone]] and well over 100 different types of [[gem]]. It is best to look up each individual category or particular material to become familiar with its value, and what it can and cannot be used for.

'''See Also:'''
:* [[The Non-Dwarf's Guide to Rock]]
:* [[Value#Material multipliers|Value/Material Multipliers]]

{{Template:DF2014 materials}}
{{Category|Materials|*}}
[[ru:Material]]

Design strategies

2019-12-22T23:39:08Z

CentAtMoney: /* Efficiency */ Added some page links.

{{Quality|Exceptional|13:23, 18 July 2014 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

There are many factors to consider when designing your fort.
* '''Security:''' Every fort needs some basic security measures. Otherwise you won't survive the first [[elephant]] attack, much less a full-blown [[Siege|goblin siege]].
* '''Efficiency:''' Whether hauling rocks, making a booze run, or just checking the contents of a cabinet, dwarves do a lot of walking. A good fortress layout -- especially the proper placement of workshops and stockpiles -- can significantly reduce the time your dwarves spend walking.
* '''Aesthetics:''' Hey, everybody wants a fortress that looks good.

In addition to the considerations above, it's also important to remember that long-term design strategies can easily be disrupted by the discovery of underground terrain features. Don't plan ''too'' far ahead, as you might need to adapt to unforeseen obstacles.

Also, there are several [[Main:Blueprint Library|design idioms]] of common usage like [[pump stack]]s.

==Security==
Everyone will have their own preferences regarding fortress defense and how to deal with undead, wildlife, hostiles and goblin invaders. Regardless of specifics, it's important to have a plan for dealing with the several different types of inevitable attacks. A few security tips are given below.

The single most important thing to remember is that in an emergency, your dwarves will be too panicked to react to orders. Prepare for every type of threat (both military and engineering, in the form of floods or other Fun) ''before'' it finds you, or it will be too late.

===Walls===
Walls are, by far and away, the single most powerful tool you have to combat enemies. Walls are currently invincible against any known force but the mighty dwarven [[pick]]. Putting a wall between your vulnerable and valuable civilians (and the others, too, why not?) and the things trying to kill them is the highest priority you have.

Building walls can take time and micromanagement, but building a maze (and stuffing it with traps) is a good way to slow invaders down, especially if you get forewarning from scouts. The longer invaders take to reach you, the more time you have to get your militia in place. However, since the advent of [[climb]]ing, keep in mind that just having 1-z-level walls are not enough. Place [[fortifications]] at the tops to stop climbers.

Digging ditches/moats, then removing the ramps can also be useful as a faster method of creating impassable terrain for non-fliers, which have the added advantage of allowing marksdwarves to shoot over them. Easier still is just using the "natural walls" of a hill, and removing all the ramps on one side or the other of the hill while building walls between the gaps. Climbing, however, makes this not enough for all circumstances. Either carve or build unclimbable [[fortifications]], or else dig another z-level down, and then dig two tiles under the rim of your platform to create an overhang that is impossible to climb.

Excavating fortresses by digging them out naturally creates walls, and makes for easy defenses, since it is far easier to designate for digging than to build a wall. Enclosed caves are also proof against flying monsters. At first, you might simply dig into a wall and put up a door, but consider making a large, extended underground tunnel, or preferably several tunnels, all of which can be locked down, and then walling over your initial entrance so that you can force enemies to approach your fort on your terms, and at a time and place of your choosing. If defenses in one tunnel don't work, lock it down, and leave a different one open, so that they have to run back through your killzone to try approaching a different one.

===Lockdown===
Have a way to lock down your fortress. In the event of an attack by hostiles you can't handle, you need a way to lock them out. This can buy you some time while your dwarves prepare their defenses.

For small forts, this could be as simple as placing [[door]]s at all the entrances to your fort. Doors can be locked instantly in an emergency. Don't rely on doors alone for security, though, as you'll eventually encounter enemies that can [[Building destroyer|break down doors]] and [[Thief|pick locks]].

Doors are important even within your fortress. [[Tantrum]]ing dwarves are the bane of every established fort. Having a way to segregate your dwarves so that they don't run into a dwarf on a rampage can save whole forts, much less individual lives. Doors can also stop flooding, and act as bulkheads that isolate breaches if you accidentally flood your fort. Having secondary hallways to route around problem areas is also a sound strategy for making doubly sure your fortress can survive a breach of defenses. If everything in your fort must travel through a single hallway or central staircase, anything that reaches that point can almost be guaranteed to kill your fort.

For more security, place [[Bridge|drawbridges]] at all the entrances. You don't need a moat; the bridge itself is sufficient since it functions as a wall when raised. Just be sure to connect it to a [[lever]] that your dwarves can access quickly ''and safely'' in an emergency. Unfortunately, even drawbridges can be rendered inoperable in rare circumstances....

Finally, don't forget about attackers from above and below!
Flying attackers might use skylights to bypass your doors and drawbridges. [[Farming|Farms]], even "aboveground" farms, can be placed underground with exploits, but some of the best [[tree]]s grow aboveground. Use drawbridges on even the walled-in exits to the surface in case of [[giant kea]]s or [[roc]]s.

Swimming beasts might crawl up through your [[well]]. It is best to use water from sources that are completely walled off from the outside world, like a [[reservoir]] fed by an [[aquifer]]. You can also use a [[screw pump]] pulling through a floor [[grate]] to prevent hostiles (and [[building destroyer]]s) from swimming into your fortress. (The same holds doubly true for magma cisterns.)

Creating multiple entrances that can be locked down can force an invasion to stop in its tracks, reverse course, and march all the way around the map to get access to your fort. Repeatedly yanking the drawbridge up, forcing them to go back to a different entrance, and letting that drawbridge back down while pulling up the one the assault was going for then can keep an invasion in limbo for a very long time, giving sleeping or drinking milita dwarves a chance to get their act together, or to let a repeater spike [[trap]] murder everything on the 12th pass.

===Scouts===
Ambushes and thieves can sneak up on your fortress. A party of goblin archers might sneak past your main gate before being spotted, or a kobold could make off with your masterpiece crafts when nobody is looking. The way to avoid these unfortunate events is to use scouts / lookouts.

For small forts, effective scouting could be as simple as [[Restraint|tying]] a [[Dog|war dog]] (or even a donkey) up near the entrance of your fort. In the event of an ambush the animal will spot the attackers (shortly before dying). If your scouts are far enough from your main gate then you ought to have enough warning to lock down the fort, activate the militia, etc.

For more established forts, placing any sort of non-eating domestic animal in a 1-tile pasture on top of a grate that allows it to look downwards, or behind windows from a single z-level above the hallways protects your stalwart watch-geese so that you don't have to keep sending out more replacement dogs. Save the good war animals for a "Doberman Bomb" (cage linked to a release lever) that unleashes dozens of animals on invaders at once, rather than letting the invaders murder your dogs one at a time.

===Caravan security===
Is your trade depot going to be inside or outside your main line of defenses? This is another factor to consider when designing your fort. Although you don't have to protect the traders, their [[civilization]]s might hold your fortress responsible for any casualties.

Consider that merchants may go [[insane]] if kept in place, or if they get affected with a [[syndrome]], so it is possibly best to have a means of segregating the rest of your fort from the trade depot, like a drawbridge-wall. At the same time, you need to load goods into and out of the depot quickly, so it should be near major stockpiles and where your haulers usually spend their time.

A [[caravan]] needs a 3-tile-wide entrance (preferably a [[road]] where you aren't placing traps to prevent a [[tree]] from growing in the path) so they tend to complicate defenses. Consider using a retractable drawbridge to allow/disallow certain entrance and exit routes from your fort. An "elevated highway" exit from your fortress that is only accessible after throwing a switch leaves an exit that allows merchants to leave in safety if a siege happens while they are trading, but entrance paths need to be kept clear, regardless. [[Siege]]s and [[ambush]]es only start from map edges that can path to your dining hall, while a caravan starts from areas that path to a valid trade depot. If you use drawbridges to cut off access to your fort from the trade depot until after the caravan passes (and you raise) a drawbridge that cuts off outsider access to the trade depot, and you then let down a drawbridge to an elevated walkway that normally grants access to nothing, you can generally ensure no [[ambush]] will follow your trading partners in. (Although the degree of engineering may force you to wait several years...)

===Traps===
[[Trap]]s are a great way to protect your fort from small groups of attackers. When designing your fort, think about where you want to place traps. Choke points at major entrances (including entrances to the [[caverns]]) make good trap locations. However, be warned that some enemies are immune to traps....

Spikes/spear traps set to levers you order dwarves to repeatedly pull or attach to a repeater are capable of hurting creatures that can avoid traps, but require great stretches of killzone to operate effectively.

Deliberately-induced cave-ins, such as by linking a pillar to a lever, and dropping an otherwise unsupported wall, creates deadly [[dust]] that can knock even trap-immune creatures unconscious, which renders them vulnerable to ordinary traps. Cage a titanic beast, and put it in your zoo for the kids to marvel at!

Advanced dwarven techniques include methods of flooding and draining killzones with dangerous fluids like [[water]] or [[magma]], or both to [[obsidian]]-cast the problem, which is guaranteed to kill any physical threat in existence. Other methods include controlled fires (often caused by controlled magma release). These, however, are potentially very [[Fun]] tools, so be sure you understand what you are dealing with before you set yourself to it. (Or just make it a learning experience when you mess up an early fort. Hey, Fun IS fun, after all!)

===Staging area===
Many players like to design their forts with a militia staging area at the main entrance. Usually this includes placing [[fortification]]s (possibly in archer towers), ammunition stockpiles, and cover for your melee dwarves to protect them from approaching archers.

If you want to rely on marksdwarves, consider fortress entrance designs that favor their method of attack. Make the only entrance a snaking series of bridges that force invaders to zig-zag in front of your marksdwarves. If that doesn't provide enough time to kill them all, stack several floors of snaking bridges, and let your marksdwarves simply climb a couple stairs to get to the next killzone between rounds. If you rely heavily on marksdwarves, remember that sieges can also contain elite archers that fire through fortifications. Prepare a 1-tile-wide drawbridge "shutter" that can block sight in front of the fortifications to protect vulnerable marksdwarves or allow for recovery of the wounded if you want to try out-shooting an elite archer.

Some players also like to place a [[Barracks|training barracks]] near the entrance to the fort so that the militia can quickly respond to attackers. Putting it outside is even better as it also prevents cave adaption on your soldiers which can give you an edge in a siege, as more serious cases of cave adaption severely cut the speed of the affected dwarf. If you don't let your military dwarves outside that often, let them fight in the shade; Make your staging area underground, and just wait for the siege to roll into your staging area, instead.

Staging areas can also come with some extra help - a cage filled with every random potentially dangerous creature you don't need pastured can, when released, provide a massive (and potentially hilarious) distraction. Even a barrage of 40 kittens can bog down invaders enough that a lone swordsdwarf can fight enemies one-by-one.

==Efficiency==

Although many actions in the game take time, and skill levels significantly reduce the time the actual crafting of items or resource gathering takes, by and large, the OVERWHELMING majority of wasted productivity comes from dwarves having to march great distances to reach a raw material for their crafting needs. Even worse, if they get thirsty while hunting down that stray boulder at the bottom floor of the mines, they'll go all the way back up for their drink, and have to take the trek back down again, later. As such, efficiency is all about shortening the trips your craftsdwarves must take as much as possible.

Proper placement of [[stockpile]]s is key. Almost every workshop job needs raw materials. Is your [[still]] near some empty barrels and plants? Does your mason have easy access to stone? A smelter must have quick access to both ore and fuel.

As a general rule of thumb, each workshop should have at least a 3x3 stockpile area associated with it. Some workshops will need more if multiple raw ingredients are needed. [[Workshop design]] is a science in of itself but one efficient arrangement is to place output stockpiles directly above or below your workshops and connect them with stairs. Another common design is to carve out a 5x5 room and place the 3x3 workshop in the center, leaving 16 surrounding tiles for input storage.

When utilizing a large storage stockpile, for food or wood for example, the optimal approach is to place a small stockpile next to the workshop and have the small stockpile [[Stockpile#Take_from_a_stockpile/workshop|take]] from the large stockpile.

There are a few other things to consider for basic fortress efficiency:
* Major hallways should be at least two tiles wide, preferably three tiles. Otherwise your dwarves will be constantly running into each other causing productivity and possible [[Maximizing_framerate#Fortress_Design|framerate]] to be slowed.
* To reduce the amount of time that your dwarves spend walking, common areas should be placed near the center of your fort. Dwarves drink frequently. It's a good idea to store your booze in a centralized location, and to designate a [[meeting hall]] in a similarly centralized place.
* An efficient fortress must make good use of all three dimensions. A dwarf climbs or descends one [[z-level]] in the same time it takes to move one step horizontally. For example, when you need to build more bedrooms it can be a lot more efficient to dig down one level than to place the new rooms 20 tiles farther from the center of your fortress.
* Moving one step diagonally takes about 1.4 times as long as moving one step orthogonally. This matches the real world, where Pythagoras tells us that it should take √2 (about 1.414) times as long. You can optimize floor plans for [[pathfinding]] by adopting more circular shapes into your design.
* Similarly, since vertical Z-movement is cheap, the more spherical your fortress is in shape, the less walking there is, overall. Placing workshops side-by-side on a single floor means each additional workshop requires a dwarf move at least 3 more tiles (and if there is a wall or space, 4 or 5 tiles) to reach their destination, and they will be frequently running back and forth between stockpile and workshop. Vertical stacking means a dwarf only moves 1 tile.
* With [[burrow]]s, it is possible to keep some dwarves working in a specific area, so that they never try to take a task half-way across the map, or haul items a long distance through high-volume corridors. For example, you might keep your furnace operators and your weaponsmiths hard at work in their smelters and forges by designating a burrow for them. Make sure you understand burrows before attempting this - if there is no source of food or drink in the burrows a dwarf is restricted to, you may run into some [[tantrum|problems]]. (This means possibly making additional dining rooms just for these dwarves.) Also make sure the dwarves' quarters (or at least a dormitory) are inside the burrow.
* A more advanced technique is to segregate your fortress by raw material, and have separate "wings" or "nodes" of the fortress for different types of material. All woodworking workshops, for example, are connected to a vertical shaft dug down from a stockpile near the front gate that takes in lumber from outside, where craftsdwarves only need to travel 3 tiles horizontally to the stairs, 1-4 z-levels up the stairs, and a tile to the side to reach their lumber supply. Since most industry takes only one general type of raw material (wood, stone, metal/ore, gem, food, cloth,) you can easily segregate by raw material. Put "finished product" stockpiles on a separate floor, as well.
* Place your residential sectors (housing, food, and drink) as close to the workplace as possible. Dwarves waste most of their non-working time just walking to the drink supply. Make that as short as possible. Don't be afraid to make secondary alcohol stockpiles, and you can actually put residences for craftsdwarves right under the stack of workshops. Legendary dining halls are tougher to make in droves, but not so tough you can't do it with an established fort.
* [[Block]]s can substitute for raw rock for construction purposes, but are much lighter. If you are digging in a depth of 100z and need many rocks for building structures at the surface, you should set up a rock storage and a mason´s workshop at 100z to permanently make blocks, and use the blocks for the construction. This is a full-time job for one mason, but the speed of the construction dwarves is increased a lot.

==Aesthetics==
Aesthetics are completely subjective, of course, but it's still something you may want to consider when designing your fort.
* Symmetry is often the ''easiest'' path to visual appeal, but it may be hard to balance with function. Asymmetry can look great but requires more skill to look graceful.
* Conform to either mostly organic shapes or mostly inorganic shapes. A mixture ''probably'' won't look very good.
* Try digging passages out of [[stone]] rather than [[soil]]. Although digging in stone is slower and messier, stone can eventually be smoothed and engraved, and yields a usable material. Soil, on the other hand, is ugly and much less dwarfy (although being excessive and paving stone over everything is arguably ''more'' dwarfy).
* Use stockpile settings to consistently build your furniture and blocks from a single type of material. Bedrooms tend to look nicer when the furniture is uniform.
* Alternatively, if you like lots of [[color]] and [[Style_project|variety]], you can use the stockpile and workshop settings to make sure your dwarves use lots of different materials.
* [[Ramp]]s are generally more aesthetically pleasing than the extremely narrow switchback [[stairs]], but carry a much larger cost in efficiency and ease of construction.

== Further Reading ==
For an in-depth examination of topics relating to fortress layout, these pages focus on specific aspects, mostly with an eye to improving survivability. Some of these are not directly related to architecture but are useful nonetheless.
* [[Defense guide]]
* [[Security design]]
* [[Trap design]]
* [[Military design]]
* [[Stockpile design]]
* [[Workshop design]]
* [[Bedroom design]]
* [[Megaproject]]
* [[Stupid dwarf trick]]
* [[Style project]]

{{Category|Design}}
{{Category|Guides}}
[[ru:Design strategies]]

Design strategies

2019-12-22T23:20:12Z

CentAtMoney: /* Further Reading */ Added style project page link.

{{Quality|Exceptional|13:23, 18 July 2014 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

There are many factors to consider when designing your fort.
* '''Security:''' Every fort needs some basic security measures. Otherwise you won't survive the first [[elephant]] attack, much less a full-blown [[Siege|goblin siege]].
* '''Efficiency:''' Whether hauling rocks, making a booze run, or just checking the contents of a cabinet, dwarves do a lot of walking. A good fortress layout -- especially the proper placement of workshops and stockpiles -- can significantly reduce the time your dwarves spend walking.
* '''Aesthetics:''' Hey, everybody wants a fortress that looks good.

In addition to the considerations above, it's also important to remember that long-term design strategies can easily be disrupted by the discovery of underground terrain features. Don't plan ''too'' far ahead, as you might need to adapt to unforeseen obstacles.

Also, there are several [[Main:Blueprint Library|design idioms]] of common usage like [[pump stack]]s.

==Security==
Everyone will have their own preferences regarding fortress defense and how to deal with undead, wildlife, hostiles and goblin invaders. Regardless of specifics, it's important to have a plan for dealing with the several different types of inevitable attacks. A few security tips are given below.

The single most important thing to remember is that in an emergency, your dwarves will be too panicked to react to orders. Prepare for every type of threat (both military and engineering, in the form of floods or other Fun) ''before'' it finds you, or it will be too late.

===Walls===
Walls are, by far and away, the single most powerful tool you have to combat enemies. Walls are currently invincible against any known force but the mighty dwarven [[pick]]. Putting a wall between your vulnerable and valuable civilians (and the others, too, why not?) and the things trying to kill them is the highest priority you have.

Building walls can take time and micromanagement, but building a maze (and stuffing it with traps) is a good way to slow invaders down, especially if you get forewarning from scouts. The longer invaders take to reach you, the more time you have to get your militia in place. However, since the advent of [[climb]]ing, keep in mind that just having 1-z-level walls are not enough. Place [[fortifications]] at the tops to stop climbers.

Digging ditches/moats, then removing the ramps can also be useful as a faster method of creating impassable terrain for non-fliers, which have the added advantage of allowing marksdwarves to shoot over them. Easier still is just using the "natural walls" of a hill, and removing all the ramps on one side or the other of the hill while building walls between the gaps. Climbing, however, makes this not enough for all circumstances. Either carve or build unclimbable [[fortifications]], or else dig another z-level down, and then dig two tiles under the rim of your platform to create an overhang that is impossible to climb.

Excavating fortresses by digging them out naturally creates walls, and makes for easy defenses, since it is far easier to designate for digging than to build a wall. Enclosed caves are also proof against flying monsters. At first, you might simply dig into a wall and put up a door, but consider making a large, extended underground tunnel, or preferably several tunnels, all of which can be locked down, and then walling over your initial entrance so that you can force enemies to approach your fort on your terms, and at a time and place of your choosing. If defenses in one tunnel don't work, lock it down, and leave a different one open, so that they have to run back through your killzone to try approaching a different one.

===Lockdown===
Have a way to lock down your fortress. In the event of an attack by hostiles you can't handle, you need a way to lock them out. This can buy you some time while your dwarves prepare their defenses.

For small forts, this could be as simple as placing [[door]]s at all the entrances to your fort. Doors can be locked instantly in an emergency. Don't rely on doors alone for security, though, as you'll eventually encounter enemies that can [[Building destroyer|break down doors]] and [[Thief|pick locks]].

Doors are important even within your fortress. [[Tantrum]]ing dwarves are the bane of every established fort. Having a way to segregate your dwarves so that they don't run into a dwarf on a rampage can save whole forts, much less individual lives. Doors can also stop flooding, and act as bulkheads that isolate breaches if you accidentally flood your fort. Having secondary hallways to route around problem areas is also a sound strategy for making doubly sure your fortress can survive a breach of defenses. If everything in your fort must travel through a single hallway or central staircase, anything that reaches that point can almost be guaranteed to kill your fort.

For more security, place [[Bridge|drawbridges]] at all the entrances. You don't need a moat; the bridge itself is sufficient since it functions as a wall when raised. Just be sure to connect it to a [[lever]] that your dwarves can access quickly ''and safely'' in an emergency. Unfortunately, even drawbridges can be rendered inoperable in rare circumstances....

Finally, don't forget about attackers from above and below!
Flying attackers might use skylights to bypass your doors and drawbridges. [[Farming|Farms]], even "aboveground" farms, can be placed underground with exploits, but some of the best [[tree]]s grow aboveground. Use drawbridges on even the walled-in exits to the surface in case of [[giant kea]]s or [[roc]]s.

Swimming beasts might crawl up through your [[well]]. It is best to use water from sources that are completely walled off from the outside world, like a [[reservoir]] fed by an [[aquifer]]. You can also use a [[screw pump]] pulling through a floor [[grate]] to prevent hostiles (and [[building destroyer]]s) from swimming into your fortress. (The same holds doubly true for magma cisterns.)

Creating multiple entrances that can be locked down can force an invasion to stop in its tracks, reverse course, and march all the way around the map to get access to your fort. Repeatedly yanking the drawbridge up, forcing them to go back to a different entrance, and letting that drawbridge back down while pulling up the one the assault was going for then can keep an invasion in limbo for a very long time, giving sleeping or drinking milita dwarves a chance to get their act together, or to let a repeater spike [[trap]] murder everything on the 12th pass.

===Scouts===
Ambushes and thieves can sneak up on your fortress. A party of goblin archers might sneak past your main gate before being spotted, or a kobold could make off with your masterpiece crafts when nobody is looking. The way to avoid these unfortunate events is to use scouts / lookouts.

For small forts, effective scouting could be as simple as [[Restraint|tying]] a [[Dog|war dog]] (or even a donkey) up near the entrance of your fort. In the event of an ambush the animal will spot the attackers (shortly before dying). If your scouts are far enough from your main gate then you ought to have enough warning to lock down the fort, activate the militia, etc.

For more established forts, placing any sort of non-eating domestic animal in a 1-tile pasture on top of a grate that allows it to look downwards, or behind windows from a single z-level above the hallways protects your stalwart watch-geese so that you don't have to keep sending out more replacement dogs. Save the good war animals for a "Doberman Bomb" (cage linked to a release lever) that unleashes dozens of animals on invaders at once, rather than letting the invaders murder your dogs one at a time.

===Caravan security===
Is your trade depot going to be inside or outside your main line of defenses? This is another factor to consider when designing your fort. Although you don't have to protect the traders, their [[civilization]]s might hold your fortress responsible for any casualties.

Consider that merchants may go [[insane]] if kept in place, or if they get affected with a [[syndrome]], so it is possibly best to have a means of segregating the rest of your fort from the trade depot, like a drawbridge-wall. At the same time, you need to load goods into and out of the depot quickly, so it should be near major stockpiles and where your haulers usually spend their time.

A [[caravan]] needs a 3-tile-wide entrance (preferably a [[road]] where you aren't placing traps to prevent a [[tree]] from growing in the path) so they tend to complicate defenses. Consider using a retractable drawbridge to allow/disallow certain entrance and exit routes from your fort. An "elevated highway" exit from your fortress that is only accessible after throwing a switch leaves an exit that allows merchants to leave in safety if a siege happens while they are trading, but entrance paths need to be kept clear, regardless. [[Siege]]s and [[ambush]]es only start from map edges that can path to your dining hall, while a caravan starts from areas that path to a valid trade depot. If you use drawbridges to cut off access to your fort from the trade depot until after the caravan passes (and you raise) a drawbridge that cuts off outsider access to the trade depot, and you then let down a drawbridge to an elevated walkway that normally grants access to nothing, you can generally ensure no [[ambush]] will follow your trading partners in. (Although the degree of engineering may force you to wait several years...)

===Traps===
[[Trap]]s are a great way to protect your fort from small groups of attackers. When designing your fort, think about where you want to place traps. Choke points at major entrances (including entrances to the [[caverns]]) make good trap locations. However, be warned that some enemies are immune to traps....

Spikes/spear traps set to levers you order dwarves to repeatedly pull or attach to a repeater are capable of hurting creatures that can avoid traps, but require great stretches of killzone to operate effectively.

Deliberately-induced cave-ins, such as by linking a pillar to a lever, and dropping an otherwise unsupported wall, creates deadly [[dust]] that can knock even trap-immune creatures unconscious, which renders them vulnerable to ordinary traps. Cage a titanic beast, and put it in your zoo for the kids to marvel at!

Advanced dwarven techniques include methods of flooding and draining killzones with dangerous fluids like [[water]] or [[magma]], or both to [[obsidian]]-cast the problem, which is guaranteed to kill any physical threat in existence. Other methods include controlled fires (often caused by controlled magma release). These, however, are potentially very [[Fun]] tools, so be sure you understand what you are dealing with before you set yourself to it. (Or just make it a learning experience when you mess up an early fort. Hey, Fun IS fun, after all!)

===Staging area===
Many players like to design their forts with a militia staging area at the main entrance. Usually this includes placing [[fortification]]s (possibly in archer towers), ammunition stockpiles, and cover for your melee dwarves to protect them from approaching archers.

If you want to rely on marksdwarves, consider fortress entrance designs that favor their method of attack. Make the only entrance a snaking series of bridges that force invaders to zig-zag in front of your marksdwarves. If that doesn't provide enough time to kill them all, stack several floors of snaking bridges, and let your marksdwarves simply climb a couple stairs to get to the next killzone between rounds. If you rely heavily on marksdwarves, remember that sieges can also contain elite archers that fire through fortifications. Prepare a 1-tile-wide drawbridge "shutter" that can block sight in front of the fortifications to protect vulnerable marksdwarves or allow for recovery of the wounded if you want to try out-shooting an elite archer.

Some players also like to place a [[Barracks|training barracks]] near the entrance to the fort so that the militia can quickly respond to attackers. Putting it outside is even better as it also prevents cave adaption on your soldiers which can give you an edge in a siege, as more serious cases of cave adaption severely cut the speed of the affected dwarf. If you don't let your military dwarves outside that often, let them fight in the shade; Make your staging area underground, and just wait for the siege to roll into your staging area, instead.

Staging areas can also come with some extra help - a cage filled with every random potentially dangerous creature you don't need pastured can, when released, provide a massive (and potentially hilarious) distraction. Even a barrage of 40 kittens can bog down invaders enough that a lone swordsdwarf can fight enemies one-by-one.

==Efficiency==

Although many actions in the game take time, and skill levels significantly reduce the time the actual crafting of items or resource gathering takes, by and large, the OVERWHELMING majority of wasted productivity comes from dwarves having to march great distances to reach a raw material for their crafting needs. Even worse, if they get thirsty while hunting down that stray boulder at the bottom floor of the mines, they'll go all the way back up for their drink, and have to take the trek back down again, later. As such, efficiency is all about shortening the trips your craftsdwarves must take as much as possible.

Proper placement of [[stockpile]]s is key. Almost every workshop job needs raw materials. Is your [[still]] near some empty barrels and plants? Does your mason have easy access to stone? A smelter must have quick access to both ore and fuel.

As a general rule of thumb, each workshop should have at least a 3x3 stockpile area associated with it. Some workshops will need more if multiple raw ingredients are needed. An efficient arrangement is to place output stockpiles directly above or below your workshops and connect them with stairs. If you can spare the space, you can carve out a 5x5 room and place the 3x3 workshop in the center, leaving 16 surrounding tiles for input storage.

When utilizing a large storage stockpile, for food or wood for example, the optimal approach is to place a small stockpile next to the workshop and have the small stockpile "take" from the large stockpile.

There are a few other things to consider for basic fortress efficiency:
* Major hallways should be at least two tiles wide, preferably three tiles. Otherwise your dwarves will be constantly running into each other and productivity will be slowed.
* To reduce the amount of time that your dwarves spend walking, common areas should be placed near the center of your fort. Dwarves drink frequently. It's a good idea to store your booze in a centralized location, and to designate a [[meeting hall]] in a similarly centralized place.
* An efficient fortress must make good use of all three dimensions. A dwarf climbs or descends one [[z-level]] in the same time it takes to move one step horizontally. For example, when you need to build more bedrooms it can be a lot more efficient to dig down one level than to place the new rooms 20 tiles farther from the center of your fortress.
* Moving one step diagonally takes about 1.4 times as long as moving one step orthogonally. This matches the real world, where Pythagoras tells us that it should take √2 (about 1.414) times as long. You can optimize floor plans for pathfinding by adopting more circular shapes into your design.
* Similarly, since vertical Z-movement is cheap, the more spherical your fortress is in shape, the less walking there is, overall. Placing workshops side-by-side on a single floor means each additional workshop requires a dwarf move at least 3 more tiles (and if there is a wall or space, 4 or 5 tiles) to reach their destination, and they will be frequently running back and forth between stockpile and workshop. Vertical stacking means a dwarf only moves 1 tile.
* With [[burrow]]s, it is possible to keep some dwarves working in a specific area, so that they never try to take a task half-way across the map, or haul items a long distance through high-volume corridors. For example, you might keep your furnace operators and your weaponsmiths hard at work in their smelters and forges by designating a burrow for them. Make sure you understand burrows before attempting this - if there is no source of food or drink in the burrows a dwarf is restricted to, you may run into some [[tantrum|problems]]. (This means possibly making additional dining rooms just for these dwarves.) Also make sure the dwarves' quarters (or at least a dormitory) are inside the burrow.
* A more advanced technique is to segregate your fortress by raw material, and have separate "wings" or "nodes" of the fortress for different types of material. All woodworking workshops, for example, are connected to a vertical shaft dug down from a stockpile near the front gate that takes in lumber from outside, where craftsdwarves only need to travel 3 tiles horizontally to the stairs, 1-4 z-levels up the stairs, and a tile to the side to reach their lumber supply. Since most industry takes only one general type of raw material (wood, stone, metal/ore, gem, food, cloth,) you can easily segregate by raw material. Put "finished product" stockpiles on a separate floor, as well.
* Place your residential sectors (housing, food, and drink) as close to the workplace as possible. Dwarves waste most of their non-working time just walking to the drink supply. Make that as short as possible. Don't be afraid to make secondary alcohol stockpiles, and you can actually put residences for craftsdwarves right under the stack of workshops. Legendary dining halls are tougher to make in droves, but not so tough you can't do it with an established fort.
* [[Block]]s can substitute for raw rock for construction purposes, but are much lighter. If you are digging in a depth of 100z and need many rocks for building structures at the surface, you should set up a rock storage and a mason´s workshop at 100z to permanently make blocks, and use the blocks for the construction. This is a full-time job for one mason, but the speed of the construction dwarves is increased a lot.

==Aesthetics==
Aesthetics are completely subjective, of course, but it's still something you may want to consider when designing your fort.
* Symmetry is often the ''easiest'' path to visual appeal, but it may be hard to balance with function. Asymmetry can look great but requires more skill to look graceful.
* Conform to either mostly organic shapes or mostly inorganic shapes. A mixture ''probably'' won't look very good.
* Try digging passages out of [[stone]] rather than [[soil]]. Although digging in stone is slower and messier, stone can eventually be smoothed and engraved, and yields a usable material. Soil, on the other hand, is ugly and much less dwarfy (although being excessive and paving stone over everything is arguably ''more'' dwarfy).
* Use stockpile settings to consistently build your furniture and blocks from a single type of material. Bedrooms tend to look nicer when the furniture is uniform.
* Alternatively, if you like lots of [[color]] and [[Style_project|variety]], you can use the stockpile and workshop settings to make sure your dwarves use lots of different materials.
* [[Ramp]]s are generally more aesthetically pleasing than the extremely narrow switchback [[stairs]], but carry a much larger cost in efficiency and ease of construction.

== Further Reading ==
For an in-depth examination of topics relating to fortress layout, these pages focus on specific aspects, mostly with an eye to improving survivability. Some of these are not directly related to architecture but are useful nonetheless.
* [[Defense guide]]
* [[Security design]]
* [[Trap design]]
* [[Military design]]
* [[Stockpile design]]
* [[Workshop design]]
* [[Bedroom design]]
* [[Megaproject]]
* [[Stupid dwarf trick]]
* [[Style project]]

{{Category|Design}}
{{Category|Guides}}
[[ru:Design strategies]]

Design strategies

2019-12-22T23:19:13Z

CentAtMoney: /* Aesthetics */ Added links to related pages and deleted redundant point about choosing what material to build your blocks out of.

{{Quality|Exceptional|13:23, 18 July 2014 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

There are many factors to consider when designing your fort.
* '''Security:''' Every fort needs some basic security measures. Otherwise you won't survive the first [[elephant]] attack, much less a full-blown [[Siege|goblin siege]].
* '''Efficiency:''' Whether hauling rocks, making a booze run, or just checking the contents of a cabinet, dwarves do a lot of walking. A good fortress layout -- especially the proper placement of workshops and stockpiles -- can significantly reduce the time your dwarves spend walking.
* '''Aesthetics:''' Hey, everybody wants a fortress that looks good.

In addition to the considerations above, it's also important to remember that long-term design strategies can easily be disrupted by the discovery of underground terrain features. Don't plan ''too'' far ahead, as you might need to adapt to unforeseen obstacles.

Also, there are several [[Main:Blueprint Library|design idioms]] of common usage like [[pump stack]]s.

==Security==
Everyone will have their own preferences regarding fortress defense and how to deal with undead, wildlife, hostiles and goblin invaders. Regardless of specifics, it's important to have a plan for dealing with the several different types of inevitable attacks. A few security tips are given below.

The single most important thing to remember is that in an emergency, your dwarves will be too panicked to react to orders. Prepare for every type of threat (both military and engineering, in the form of floods or other Fun) ''before'' it finds you, or it will be too late.

===Walls===
Walls are, by far and away, the single most powerful tool you have to combat enemies. Walls are currently invincible against any known force but the mighty dwarven [[pick]]. Putting a wall between your vulnerable and valuable civilians (and the others, too, why not?) and the things trying to kill them is the highest priority you have.

Building walls can take time and micromanagement, but building a maze (and stuffing it with traps) is a good way to slow invaders down, especially if you get forewarning from scouts. The longer invaders take to reach you, the more time you have to get your militia in place. However, since the advent of [[climb]]ing, keep in mind that just having 1-z-level walls are not enough. Place [[fortifications]] at the tops to stop climbers.

Digging ditches/moats, then removing the ramps can also be useful as a faster method of creating impassable terrain for non-fliers, which have the added advantage of allowing marksdwarves to shoot over them. Easier still is just using the "natural walls" of a hill, and removing all the ramps on one side or the other of the hill while building walls between the gaps. Climbing, however, makes this not enough for all circumstances. Either carve or build unclimbable [[fortifications]], or else dig another z-level down, and then dig two tiles under the rim of your platform to create an overhang that is impossible to climb.

Excavating fortresses by digging them out naturally creates walls, and makes for easy defenses, since it is far easier to designate for digging than to build a wall. Enclosed caves are also proof against flying monsters. At first, you might simply dig into a wall and put up a door, but consider making a large, extended underground tunnel, or preferably several tunnels, all of which can be locked down, and then walling over your initial entrance so that you can force enemies to approach your fort on your terms, and at a time and place of your choosing. If defenses in one tunnel don't work, lock it down, and leave a different one open, so that they have to run back through your killzone to try approaching a different one.

===Lockdown===
Have a way to lock down your fortress. In the event of an attack by hostiles you can't handle, you need a way to lock them out. This can buy you some time while your dwarves prepare their defenses.

For small forts, this could be as simple as placing [[door]]s at all the entrances to your fort. Doors can be locked instantly in an emergency. Don't rely on doors alone for security, though, as you'll eventually encounter enemies that can [[Building destroyer|break down doors]] and [[Thief|pick locks]].

Doors are important even within your fortress. [[Tantrum]]ing dwarves are the bane of every established fort. Having a way to segregate your dwarves so that they don't run into a dwarf on a rampage can save whole forts, much less individual lives. Doors can also stop flooding, and act as bulkheads that isolate breaches if you accidentally flood your fort. Having secondary hallways to route around problem areas is also a sound strategy for making doubly sure your fortress can survive a breach of defenses. If everything in your fort must travel through a single hallway or central staircase, anything that reaches that point can almost be guaranteed to kill your fort.

For more security, place [[Bridge|drawbridges]] at all the entrances. You don't need a moat; the bridge itself is sufficient since it functions as a wall when raised. Just be sure to connect it to a [[lever]] that your dwarves can access quickly ''and safely'' in an emergency. Unfortunately, even drawbridges can be rendered inoperable in rare circumstances....

Finally, don't forget about attackers from above and below!
Flying attackers might use skylights to bypass your doors and drawbridges. [[Farming|Farms]], even "aboveground" farms, can be placed underground with exploits, but some of the best [[tree]]s grow aboveground. Use drawbridges on even the walled-in exits to the surface in case of [[giant kea]]s or [[roc]]s.

Swimming beasts might crawl up through your [[well]]. It is best to use water from sources that are completely walled off from the outside world, like a [[reservoir]] fed by an [[aquifer]]. You can also use a [[screw pump]] pulling through a floor [[grate]] to prevent hostiles (and [[building destroyer]]s) from swimming into your fortress. (The same holds doubly true for magma cisterns.)

Creating multiple entrances that can be locked down can force an invasion to stop in its tracks, reverse course, and march all the way around the map to get access to your fort. Repeatedly yanking the drawbridge up, forcing them to go back to a different entrance, and letting that drawbridge back down while pulling up the one the assault was going for then can keep an invasion in limbo for a very long time, giving sleeping or drinking milita dwarves a chance to get their act together, or to let a repeater spike [[trap]] murder everything on the 12th pass.

===Scouts===
Ambushes and thieves can sneak up on your fortress. A party of goblin archers might sneak past your main gate before being spotted, or a kobold could make off with your masterpiece crafts when nobody is looking. The way to avoid these unfortunate events is to use scouts / lookouts.

For small forts, effective scouting could be as simple as [[Restraint|tying]] a [[Dog|war dog]] (or even a donkey) up near the entrance of your fort. In the event of an ambush the animal will spot the attackers (shortly before dying). If your scouts are far enough from your main gate then you ought to have enough warning to lock down the fort, activate the militia, etc.

For more established forts, placing any sort of non-eating domestic animal in a 1-tile pasture on top of a grate that allows it to look downwards, or behind windows from a single z-level above the hallways protects your stalwart watch-geese so that you don't have to keep sending out more replacement dogs. Save the good war animals for a "Doberman Bomb" (cage linked to a release lever) that unleashes dozens of animals on invaders at once, rather than letting the invaders murder your dogs one at a time.

===Caravan security===
Is your trade depot going to be inside or outside your main line of defenses? This is another factor to consider when designing your fort. Although you don't have to protect the traders, their [[civilization]]s might hold your fortress responsible for any casualties.

Consider that merchants may go [[insane]] if kept in place, or if they get affected with a [[syndrome]], so it is possibly best to have a means of segregating the rest of your fort from the trade depot, like a drawbridge-wall. At the same time, you need to load goods into and out of the depot quickly, so it should be near major stockpiles and where your haulers usually spend their time.

A [[caravan]] needs a 3-tile-wide entrance (preferably a [[road]] where you aren't placing traps to prevent a [[tree]] from growing in the path) so they tend to complicate defenses. Consider using a retractable drawbridge to allow/disallow certain entrance and exit routes from your fort. An "elevated highway" exit from your fortress that is only accessible after throwing a switch leaves an exit that allows merchants to leave in safety if a siege happens while they are trading, but entrance paths need to be kept clear, regardless. [[Siege]]s and [[ambush]]es only start from map edges that can path to your dining hall, while a caravan starts from areas that path to a valid trade depot. If you use drawbridges to cut off access to your fort from the trade depot until after the caravan passes (and you raise) a drawbridge that cuts off outsider access to the trade depot, and you then let down a drawbridge to an elevated walkway that normally grants access to nothing, you can generally ensure no [[ambush]] will follow your trading partners in. (Although the degree of engineering may force you to wait several years...)

===Traps===
[[Trap]]s are a great way to protect your fort from small groups of attackers. When designing your fort, think about where you want to place traps. Choke points at major entrances (including entrances to the [[caverns]]) make good trap locations. However, be warned that some enemies are immune to traps....

Spikes/spear traps set to levers you order dwarves to repeatedly pull or attach to a repeater are capable of hurting creatures that can avoid traps, but require great stretches of killzone to operate effectively.

Deliberately-induced cave-ins, such as by linking a pillar to a lever, and dropping an otherwise unsupported wall, creates deadly [[dust]] that can knock even trap-immune creatures unconscious, which renders them vulnerable to ordinary traps. Cage a titanic beast, and put it in your zoo for the kids to marvel at!

Advanced dwarven techniques include methods of flooding and draining killzones with dangerous fluids like [[water]] or [[magma]], or both to [[obsidian]]-cast the problem, which is guaranteed to kill any physical threat in existence. Other methods include controlled fires (often caused by controlled magma release). These, however, are potentially very [[Fun]] tools, so be sure you understand what you are dealing with before you set yourself to it. (Or just make it a learning experience when you mess up an early fort. Hey, Fun IS fun, after all!)

===Staging area===
Many players like to design their forts with a militia staging area at the main entrance. Usually this includes placing [[fortification]]s (possibly in archer towers), ammunition stockpiles, and cover for your melee dwarves to protect them from approaching archers.

If you want to rely on marksdwarves, consider fortress entrance designs that favor their method of attack. Make the only entrance a snaking series of bridges that force invaders to zig-zag in front of your marksdwarves. If that doesn't provide enough time to kill them all, stack several floors of snaking bridges, and let your marksdwarves simply climb a couple stairs to get to the next killzone between rounds. If you rely heavily on marksdwarves, remember that sieges can also contain elite archers that fire through fortifications. Prepare a 1-tile-wide drawbridge "shutter" that can block sight in front of the fortifications to protect vulnerable marksdwarves or allow for recovery of the wounded if you want to try out-shooting an elite archer.

Some players also like to place a [[Barracks|training barracks]] near the entrance to the fort so that the militia can quickly respond to attackers. Putting it outside is even better as it also prevents cave adaption on your soldiers which can give you an edge in a siege, as more serious cases of cave adaption severely cut the speed of the affected dwarf. If you don't let your military dwarves outside that often, let them fight in the shade; Make your staging area underground, and just wait for the siege to roll into your staging area, instead.

Staging areas can also come with some extra help - a cage filled with every random potentially dangerous creature you don't need pastured can, when released, provide a massive (and potentially hilarious) distraction. Even a barrage of 40 kittens can bog down invaders enough that a lone swordsdwarf can fight enemies one-by-one.

==Efficiency==

Although many actions in the game take time, and skill levels significantly reduce the time the actual crafting of items or resource gathering takes, by and large, the OVERWHELMING majority of wasted productivity comes from dwarves having to march great distances to reach a raw material for their crafting needs. Even worse, if they get thirsty while hunting down that stray boulder at the bottom floor of the mines, they'll go all the way back up for their drink, and have to take the trek back down again, later. As such, efficiency is all about shortening the trips your craftsdwarves must take as much as possible.

Proper placement of [[stockpile]]s is key. Almost every workshop job needs raw materials. Is your [[still]] near some empty barrels and plants? Does your mason have easy access to stone? A smelter must have quick access to both ore and fuel.

As a general rule of thumb, each workshop should have at least a 3x3 stockpile area associated with it. Some workshops will need more if multiple raw ingredients are needed. An efficient arrangement is to place output stockpiles directly above or below your workshops and connect them with stairs. If you can spare the space, you can carve out a 5x5 room and place the 3x3 workshop in the center, leaving 16 surrounding tiles for input storage.

When utilizing a large storage stockpile, for food or wood for example, the optimal approach is to place a small stockpile next to the workshop and have the small stockpile "take" from the large stockpile.

There are a few other things to consider for basic fortress efficiency:
* Major hallways should be at least two tiles wide, preferably three tiles. Otherwise your dwarves will be constantly running into each other and productivity will be slowed.
* To reduce the amount of time that your dwarves spend walking, common areas should be placed near the center of your fort. Dwarves drink frequently. It's a good idea to store your booze in a centralized location, and to designate a [[meeting hall]] in a similarly centralized place.
* An efficient fortress must make good use of all three dimensions. A dwarf climbs or descends one [[z-level]] in the same time it takes to move one step horizontally. For example, when you need to build more bedrooms it can be a lot more efficient to dig down one level than to place the new rooms 20 tiles farther from the center of your fortress.
* Moving one step diagonally takes about 1.4 times as long as moving one step orthogonally. This matches the real world, where Pythagoras tells us that it should take √2 (about 1.414) times as long. You can optimize floor plans for pathfinding by adopting more circular shapes into your design.
* Similarly, since vertical Z-movement is cheap, the more spherical your fortress is in shape, the less walking there is, overall. Placing workshops side-by-side on a single floor means each additional workshop requires a dwarf move at least 3 more tiles (and if there is a wall or space, 4 or 5 tiles) to reach their destination, and they will be frequently running back and forth between stockpile and workshop. Vertical stacking means a dwarf only moves 1 tile.
* With [[burrow]]s, it is possible to keep some dwarves working in a specific area, so that they never try to take a task half-way across the map, or haul items a long distance through high-volume corridors. For example, you might keep your furnace operators and your weaponsmiths hard at work in their smelters and forges by designating a burrow for them. Make sure you understand burrows before attempting this - if there is no source of food or drink in the burrows a dwarf is restricted to, you may run into some [[tantrum|problems]]. (This means possibly making additional dining rooms just for these dwarves.) Also make sure the dwarves' quarters (or at least a dormitory) are inside the burrow.
* A more advanced technique is to segregate your fortress by raw material, and have separate "wings" or "nodes" of the fortress for different types of material. All woodworking workshops, for example, are connected to a vertical shaft dug down from a stockpile near the front gate that takes in lumber from outside, where craftsdwarves only need to travel 3 tiles horizontally to the stairs, 1-4 z-levels up the stairs, and a tile to the side to reach their lumber supply. Since most industry takes only one general type of raw material (wood, stone, metal/ore, gem, food, cloth,) you can easily segregate by raw material. Put "finished product" stockpiles on a separate floor, as well.
* Place your residential sectors (housing, food, and drink) as close to the workplace as possible. Dwarves waste most of their non-working time just walking to the drink supply. Make that as short as possible. Don't be afraid to make secondary alcohol stockpiles, and you can actually put residences for craftsdwarves right under the stack of workshops. Legendary dining halls are tougher to make in droves, but not so tough you can't do it with an established fort.
* [[Block]]s can substitute for raw rock for construction purposes, but are much lighter. If you are digging in a depth of 100z and need many rocks for building structures at the surface, you should set up a rock storage and a mason´s workshop at 100z to permanently make blocks, and use the blocks for the construction. This is a full-time job for one mason, but the speed of the construction dwarves is increased a lot.

==Aesthetics==
Aesthetics are completely subjective, of course, but it's still something you may want to consider when designing your fort.
* Symmetry is often the ''easiest'' path to visual appeal, but it may be hard to balance with function. Asymmetry can look great but requires more skill to look graceful.
* Conform to either mostly organic shapes or mostly inorganic shapes. A mixture ''probably'' won't look very good.
* Try digging passages out of [[stone]] rather than [[soil]]. Although digging in stone is slower and messier, stone can eventually be smoothed and engraved, and yields a usable material. Soil, on the other hand, is ugly and much less dwarfy (although being excessive and paving stone over everything is arguably ''more'' dwarfy).
* Use stockpile settings to consistently build your furniture and blocks from a single type of material. Bedrooms tend to look nicer when the furniture is uniform.
* Alternatively, if you like lots of [[color]] and [[Style_project|variety]], you can use the stockpile and workshop settings to make sure your dwarves use lots of different materials.
* [[Ramp]]s are generally more aesthetically pleasing than the extremely narrow switchback [[stairs]], but carry a much larger cost in efficiency and ease of construction.

== Further Reading ==
For an in-depth examination of topics relating to fortress layout, these pages focus on specific aspects, mostly with an eye to improving survivability. Some of these are not directly related to architecture but are useful nonetheless.
* [[Defense guide]]
* [[Security design]]
* [[Trap design]]
* [[Military design]]
* [[Stockpile design]]
* [[Workshop design]]
* [[Bedroom design]]
* [[Megaproject]]
* [[Stupid dwarf trick]]

{{Category|Design}}
{{Category|Guides}}
[[ru:Design strategies]]

Sample Starting Builds

2019-12-22T22:46:38Z

CentAtMoney: /* Minmax build */ Changed the justification for bringing bituminous coal to include lignite.

{{av}}

{{Main|Starting build}}

This is a collection of '''starting builds''' (or embark setups) which individual players find useful and generally worth trying.

These can be found in [[embark_profiles.txt]]. Each one begins with a [PROFILE] tag. To use a raw starting build, just copy the text and paste it at the end of the file.

== ''Dwarf Fortress'' Starter Pack ==

The ''Dwarf Fortress'' Starter Pack includes a large number of basic embark profiles, including scenarios adapted from the Masterwork mod. If you don't want to download the whole pack, you can also find many of the profiles at http://pastebin.com/buqxbNqj

== Nagidal's Allrounder ==

Recommended for newbies who want to play a ''defensive'' embark on sites with ''mild conditions'' (warm or temperate [[climate]], easy access to drinking [[water]], [[tree]]s and [[stone]]).

=== Dwarves ===

According to the dwarves' [[attributes]] you assign:

* 2 Proficient [[Miner]]s (high [[Attributes#Endurance|endurance]], high [[Attributes#Willpower|willpower]], good [[Attributes#Kinesthetic_Sense|kinesthetic sense]])
* 1 Proficient [[Mason]] (good [[Attributes#Creativity|creativity]], good endurance)
* 1 Proficient [[Mechanic]] (good [[Attributes#Analytical_Ability|analytical ability]])
* 1 Proficient [[Grower]] (good [[Attributes#Agility|agility]])
* 1 Proficient [[Wood cutter]]
* 1 Proficient [[Carpenter]]

Make one of five non-miners at least an adequate [[Appraiser]] (the one with good [[Attributes#Memory|memory]] or [[Attributes#Intuition|intuition]]).

=== Items ===

Keep all the standard stuff, sell some [[splint]]s, [[crutch]]es and [[quiver]]s to buy a couple of [[cat]]s and a dog or two. (The cats will eat the [[vermin]] trying to eat your food supplies.) You can also sell one of the battle axes or the anvil to buy even more stock or some more [[drink]]s and [[food]] if you wish.

Some dwarven [[civilization]]s start with a [[steel]] [[anvil]], rather than an [[iron]] one, which will reduce the amount of points you can use for the dwarves' skills and items. In this case, sell the anvil and rely on [[merchant]]s bringing you one.

=== First year roadmap ===

We deliberately didn't take any [[cook]]s or [[brewer]]s. You can pick both from one of the first [[Immigration|migration waves]]. Also, we don't have any [[military]] to start with. The idea is that our mechanic and carpenter will build us many wooden cage [[trap]]s which will easily deal with the first [[ambush]]es, maybe even the first [[siege]]. Any useless migrants of the later waves will become our military.

Your aims for the first year are: farming, traps, trade, healthcare (ordered by importance)

==== Farming ====
Start [[farming]] as soon as possible. Try to harvest the spring crop of your first year. Be careful not to produce too much food. Be sure to have some [[barrel]]s or [[large pot]]s reserved for drinks rather than stuffed with [[plump helmet]]s. Thirty tiles of farm plots are more than enough to start with. If you really want to farm more, try [[pig tail]]s and get the [[textile industry]] up and running once you have more dwarves.

==== Traps ====
Build a [[mechanic's workshop]] soon and let him churn out about 2–3 dozens of [[mechanism]]s. Your carpenter should produce roughly as much wooden cages before autumn. When you build traps, build them in a one tile wide meandring corridor—preferably outdoors. There should be no way around this corridor for the enemies. Use raising [[bridge]]s to direct the flow of all enemies heading for your fort's entrance through this trap corridor. Lower the bridges to allow your dwarves fast access to the fort's entrance bypassing the trap corridor. You should have at least ten traps up and ready by autumn. To deal with a [[siege]] in the later years without fighting you better have 40 of these traps ready.

==== Trade ====
Make one of your first immigrants a [[Stone crafter|stone crafter]] and let him make stone crafts 24/7. You will need them as [[trade]] goods. Textile industry is also a good starter. If your farms produce enough pig tails, go for it and ship some fine socks to your mountain homes.

==== Healthcare ====
Before you start thinking of having some military, build a [[well]] and a [[hospital]].

== ELLIOTTCABLE's Twerking Band ==
{{User:ELLIOTTCABLE/Starting_build}}

== Specialized builds ==
These builds are good for increasing efficiency, certain starting positions, or for starting [[megaprojects]] with minimal planning.

=== All Miners ===
:[[DF2014:Embark profile repository#All miners|Download All Miners Embark Profile]]
Each dwarf also has some other vital skill as well.
Remember, you can make adjustments to this before you embark, if you feel inclined to. I added a few animals here, which you can change before embarking.

'''Challenges'''
While 7 miners are useful for building a fort quickly, it definitely isn't a good idea for every fortress. This profile doesn't include any crafting labors, which are usually helpful as an initial source of income. Brewing is '''highly''' recommended, unless you have a source of fresh water.

===Make your own weapons and tools===
{{Main|Make your own weapons}}

By eliminating the [[battle axe]]s, [[pick]]s, and other metal equipment from the starting build, and replacing them with the raw goods to [[make your own weapons]] on the spot, many points are saved. To illustrate, a [[steel]] battle axe is around 300 or 500 points; quite an expense. Iron is more affordable but still up there. But the only advantage a steel battle axe or pick has over a silver or copper one is in combat effectiveness, not wood chopping or mining. Bring a [[copper]] [[ore]] and some fuel, and that 300-point axe gets replaced with 16 points of raw ingredients.

It is possible to take this strategy to the logical extreme and to bring only raw materials, this is known as a full minmax build, see below for that variation.

===Minmax build===
:[[DF2014:Embark profile repository#Minmax|Download Minmax Embark Profile]]

Taking the [[make your own weapons]] strategy to its logical extreme of removing picks and all the fancy things that are included in the default embark, the build below brings along one copper and one tin ore (enough for 8 bronze tools), some magma-safe rock to build a forge and furnaces (remember - no mining before you have a pick!), and some [[plump helmet]]s for immediate [[brewing]] and [[seed]]s+[[drink]]s.

Now, what for all those saved points? One possibility is to bring along a few pieces of [[iron]] ore to equip a basic guard just in case, or some cheaper [[tin]] to at least ensure [[bronze]] production at some point. But perhaps the best use of points is to buy a SHITLOAD OF COAL. [[Bituminous coal]] and [[lignite]] are only 3 points each at embark, as they are a basic "economic stone" rather than an ore. By bringing along some 90 or so coal, not only will there be enough for early production, squad equipping, and buying out the first two years of caravans with metal goods, but with some care literally hundreds of [[coke]] will be ready by the time the first [[magma forge]] is set up. That means mass steel production without any reliance on lucky sedimentary layers.

The dwarves' skills in this build are an afterthought, following the template of Miner/Mayor/Proficient Armorsmith, Miner/Doctor/Proficient Weaponsmith, Carpenter/Cutter, Grower/Cook, Grower/Brewer, Furnace operator/Proficient Metalcrafter, and Mason. One neat trick: there is novice training in [[armorsmith]] on both growers, so that if they avoid doing any job but their planting/cooking, and ever go [[strange mood#Fey|fey]], that's a guaranteed [[legendary]] armorsmith. It happens more than you might think.

The profile is not completely optimized. The bags can be replaced with thread. The 16 turtles are brought along so there's something to eat between brewing all the helmets and reaping the first harvest, but 7 turtles would probably do just fine.

Upon embarking, immediately use some bauxite to build a [[wood furnace]], [[smelter]], and [[forge]]. Burn a piece of wood to charcoal, then use the charcoal to process a few units of coal. Smith an axe and two picks, build a brewery and brew all the plump helmets. Plant seeds, and then one can proceed as with the normal embark, with some 80-100 coal in the wagon.

Warning: there is a good chance that your starting civilization has neither coal nor lignite. In that case, restart the embark and try another civilization; an entire world of coalless dwarfs is rare. Also, the added burrowing/starting time may prove fatal on inhospitable maps.

===Dwarves for a safer start===
This build adds some military and medical skills into the mix, so they are not defenseless. The seven dwarfs are able to do all important work and you can set up two squads. When new dwarfs arrive, remove hauling task (wood!) from your starting dwarfs (and all new important (crafting) dwarfs, so they do not run into ambushes, useless dwarfs can get fishing, to scout the outside.

At the beginning, you can give the starting dwarfs all important labors like butcher, cook, brewing, plant processing, ... until you got a better dwarf for those jobs.

Building a pen near your entrance with walls and a door (only passable for dwarfs) for your sheep (stone blocks help a lot), and a pen in your entrance for your dogs to take care of thieves. Make the entrance passable for caravans (3 tiles).

Dwarves:
# Grower 5 / Leather Crafting 5 / Wood Cutting 0 (till miners are ready for inside growing)
# Weapons Smith 5 / Armor Smith 5 (this dwarf is very important)
# Mechanics 5 / Buildings Design 5 (for traps, with 5-10 spears, stones, ...)
# Diagnose 5 / Surgery Setting Bones, Suturing, Dressing Wounds all 1 (your medical dwarf, has one free skill point)
# Mason 5 / Carpenter 5
# Mining 1 / Armor Use 5 / Dodging 4 (give him an axe and a squad and a leather armor, trouser and shield)
# Mining 1 / Armor Use 5 / Dodging 4 (give him a spear and a squad and a leather armor, trouser and shield)

Items:
* copper axe,
* copper picks 2,
* seeds (all 6+)
* drinks (all 21+)
* meat and fish (cheap one with 1 stacks for free barrels)
* iron anvil
* leather (cheap, 20-40)

Animals:
* 3 dogs (2 female, 1 male)
* 3-6 sheep (2-5 female, 1 male)

{{Category|Guides}}

Maximizing framerate

2019-12-17T02:03:54Z

CentAtMoney: /* Fortress Design */ Added note about bug 8698.

{{Quality|Exceptional|12:48, 18 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

[[File:Frames_Per_Second_Meter.png|300px|thumb|bottom|A picture of ''Dwarf Fortress'' with frames per second displayed.]]

[[Frames per second|Framerate]] is used in ''Dwarf Fortress'' to measure the speed at which the game is running. It is measured in "frames per second", or FPS for short. To check your FPS in-game, simply change [FPS:NO] to [FPS:YES] in [[init.txt]], and your FPS will be displayed on the top row of the screen. The first number is the current frame rate, while the number in parentheses is the current graphical frame refresh rate.

==Increasing your framerate==
In general, the more stuff the game has to keep track of, the slower the game will run. So, reducing the amount of stuff that's active keeps your game running fast. The lists below separate ways to improve FPS into two categories: things that don't change the game in any fundamental way, and things that do.

===Displaying the map===

Displaying a map tile takes a varying amount of work depending on what it is:

* Unrevealed tiles take almost no time at all - it just needs to look up what "random glyph" to display there
* Layer stone tiles need to take the biome number and layer number and look up the layer material, then look up the inorganic raw object to get the symbol/color
* Lava stone tiles need to take the biome number and look up some region information to determine what lava-stone to use, then continue as above
* Feature stone tiles (i.e. adamantine) need to look up the map feature located within the tile to figure out what it's made of, then continue as above
* Vein stone tiles need to do a linear lookup within a list specific to the 16x16x1 map block to see which vein they match and determine the material, then continue as above
* Grass tiles need to do a linear lookup within that same list to figure out what type of grass is present, then look up the plant raw object to get the symbol/color (and also account for animations)
* Shrubs and saplings need to search a separate list (not sure if it's the global list or a column-specific one) to find the plant in question and determine its symbol/color
* As of 0.40, trees need to do a linear search through a column-specific list (one list per 48x48 tile embark region block) to determine what growths are present in the tile and look up within the plant itself to get the symbol/color
* Constructed tiles need to do a binary search by X/Y/Z coordinates in a separate list to determine what material it uses, then look up that material for the symbol/color
* On top of all of that, it does a binary search by X/Y/Z coordinates in yet another list to determine whether or not an engraving is present (and, if there is, what tile to display)
* Other tile contents (units, buildings, items, vermin, etc.) get displayed
* After all of that is done, it then does yet another linear search (though the same list as with vein stones and grass) to see if the tile has a spatter on it (e.g. mud, blood, vomit, or leaves) and adjust the symbol/color accordingly

===Without Game Alterations===
Fortress design is specific ways of building and planning, game setting changes are changes mostly in the [[init.txt]] and [[D_init.txt]] files that don't actually change how the game plays out.

====World Generation====
* Larger worlds require more background processing to update. The larger the civilizations, the more events occur in the world and the more complex they are. Generating too-large civilized populations can result in a permanent, unavoidable FPS drop.
* Longer histories require more memory and storage space for [[historical figure]]s and events.
* Reducing the number of civilizations, sites, beasts, and setting world population cap can limit the resources spent updating the rest of the world.
* [[Caverns]] can be an FPS hog due to [[pathfinding]] and how complex they can be. Creatures will repeatedly try to path into your fort from a cavern. Sometimes even [[Trading#Caravans|trading caravans]] will try to path out of your fort underground.
** Adjusting the [[Advanced_world_generation#Cavern_Layer_Number|cavern layer number]] in [[advanced world generation]] parameters can reduce the number of [[cavern]] layers (default 3). However, this will restrict access to subterranean plants and creatures, and reduce the number of spawned [[forgotten beast]]s.
** Similarly, one could adjust [[Advanced_world_generation#Layer_Openness_Min.2FMax|Layer Openness]] and [[Advanced_world_generation#Layer_Passage_Density_Min.2FMax|Layer Passage Density]] in [[advanced world generation]] to turn caverns into wide, open expanses instead of complex mazes that have to be pathed through. However, there is some evidence that excessively open caverns cause performance issues as well.[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=104643.msg3096896#msg3096896]

====Fortress Design====
* Larger embark sites dramatically increase the amount of terrain which DF needs to keep track of and path through.
** Reducing the size of your embark site from the default 4x4 squares to 3×3 or even 2×2 will have an enormous impact on FPS.
** Keep in mind that a 2×2 embark is only 25% of the size of a 4×4 embark. However, in 3D it is still a large enough area for many fortresses in normal play.

* Multi-tile trees are a potential source of lag.
** Choosing an embark location that only grows trees on one or two squares can improve performance.

* Fewer items inside a fort means fewer items to be [[stockpile]]d, checked for [[wear]], and so on and so forth.
** The obvious solution is not to generate so many items in the first place. Don't build such large [[Farming|farm plot]]s and don't go overboard with multiple [[Workshop|workshops]] constantly queued or set on perpetual repeat.
** Checking for clothing [[wear]] and unhappy [[thoughts]] could still have some impact on FPS. (Research is needed.) Armor counts for missing clothing thoughts, so dwarves can wear armor instead of clothes or going naked. If nothing else, dumping excess/worn out clothing may help FPS on an old fortress.
** Use a [[Dwarven Atom Smasher]] to remove items, or donate them to [[Trading|passing caravans]] to be taken away.
** [[Exploit#Quantum_stockpiles|Quantum stockpiles]] can [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=92241.msg3276117#msg3276117 reportedly] improve game speed.
** The quantity of items in any particular stack doesn't affect framerate so much as the number of stacks in general, due to the resultant impact on [[hauling]], [[stockpiles]], [[pathfinding]] and other CPU-intensive tasks. The research done on the [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=92241.0 Undump Engine] and [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=109319.0 Micha's experimental fort] demonstrate very FPS efficient solutions, while avoiding traditional stockpiles and the use of [[barrel]]s and [[bin]]s.
** That said, [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=104643.msg3094753#msg3094753 total quantity of items does matter]. Quantity matters far more with objects that have quality, wear, or decorations than boulders, as they take up more memory. Even in quantum stockpiles, temperature checks, wear increments, and other issues lag the game, although it takes far larger item quantities (10,000+) to be seriously notable.
* Flowing [[water]] slows the game down.
** Don't build [[mist]] generators, [[Screw pump|pump stacks]], or other major water-moving projects. If you do build them, build a [[Lever|way to switch them off]].
** Don't embark on a [[river]] or [[ocean]]. Rivers aren't too bad in their natural state, because the game only needs to calculate at where the water enters and where the water leaves, more-or-less skipping the water in between. Then you start damming them and pumping water out, and it gets worse.
** [[Aquifer]]s don't impose load until you start digging around in them.
** [[Water wheel#Perpetual motion|Dwarven water reactors]] also slow down the game, often significantly.
** Wall off areas with changing water levels[http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=5986#c22870]. This prevents the game from needing to update pathfinding information whenever the water level changes and is safer anyway.
* Changes to the map's connections can cause brief lag spikes as the game's connections map needs updating.
** This is most notable with doors, drawbridges, or other objects linked to a [[repeater]]. An atom-smasher linked to a repeater, even disconnected from the rest of the fortress, can cause lag spikes every time it is raised or lowered. If you use an atom-smasher to eliminate garbage, make it operate only very infrequently through mechanics, or operate it manually by [[lever]].
* Proper use of [[traffic]] designations will help.
** Setting corridors to "high" traffic, and dead-end workshop rooms next to them to "low" traffic, means the pathfinder algorithm will search more quickly along the corridor, and waste less time searching in the rooms.
** Changing the normal traffic weight to 1 in d_init.txt will optimize the pathfinder at the cost of High traffic zones not making a difference ([http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=97763.msg2841109#msg2841109 source])
* Reducing the area which the pathfinder algorithm has to search lets the game run faster.
** The obvious solution is to not dig out quite so much of the ground.
** Some careful fort planning and design can cut down on pathfinding with shorter trips.
** Spreading your fortress out horizontally tends to mean travelling three or four tiles further down the hallway per every second workshop you build. Making workshops stack vertically upon multiple stairwells or ramps up or down from the stockpiles lets you cram workshops around the stairs or ramps just one further tile per set of four workshops.
** Giant stockpile areas are huge areas that cost pathfinding. Quantum stockpiling can prevent the need to excavate more space. That said, each item you produce [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=104643.msg3094753#msg3094753 takes up more memory and is considered in routine cycles like temperature]. Avoid producing more goods than you can actually use just because you "want to keep dwarves busy". If you are starting to run out of space to hold your goods, rather than dig out more space to stash it all, just stop producing goods.
** If fortress functions are spread far apart, consider multiple dining halls. A legendary dining hall isn't THAT hard to produce, and there are few reasons a magma forge operator has to cross 100 zs to the surface to get a drink before going back down.
** Crowded hallways force "dodging" which results in more pathfinds. Find ways to spread traffic out to avoid collisions. Don't rely upon a 1-tile hallway for access to areas dwarves travel to frequently, and possibly set up multiple paths that are "shortcuts" for dwarves rather than always having to travel through the same hallways to the same central staircase every single time.
** Dwarves have been found to prefer pathing across ramps to stairs or even horizontal travel if there is a change in z-level. Laying out your fortress with ramps rather than stairs can give an edge.
** Closing off unused areas with raised [[bridge]]s and locked [[door]]s can help.
** Open "quarry pits" are pathfinding traps. Seal them off from your fort with walls when you are done with them.
** Caverns are probably the worst offender for pathfinding in irrelevant areas. So keep any part you aren't occupying closed off.
** Don't designate large areas to be smoothed at once.{{bugl|5986}}
** Trapped dwarves, particularly trapped [[mood]]y dwarves cause significant lag at times. Free them of bondage or life to get on with your own.
** [[Location]]s without sufficient floor space invite frequent pathing. Make sure your locations are large enough for your population.
* Each animal needs to pathfind, too.
** Tame animals can be put into [[cage]]s, keeping them from having anywhere to go. Or you can butcher them.
** Avoid pet-impassable doors; animals will stand at the door and continuously path through it.{{bug|797}}
* [[DF2012:Contaminant|Contaminants]] can accumulate on the ground and on dwarves and creatures. Especially for old forts, this can impact FPS. There is a bug ({{bug|296}}) which makes contaminants continuously multiply and another ({{bug|3270}}) which prevents blood from ever disappearing.
** If the contaminants are outside, isolate the area and let [[DF2012:Weather|rain]] slowly wash it away. Pets can be kept out with a [[Activity_zone#Pen.2FPasture|pen/pasture]] or a [[Activity_zone#Pit.2FPond|pit]]. Similarly, setting the [[traffic]] designation to restricted and/or assigning [[Activity_zone|Activity Zones]] strategically may keep dwarves away.
** Add in some in-fortress means of cleaning dwarves and pets. The [[User:Uristocrat/Dwarven_Bathtub|Dwarven Bathtub]] is one example. And make sure you have the [[cleaning]] labor enabled. Details of these and other suggestions can be found on the [[cleaning]] page.
* Encountering [[HFS]] will dramatically reduce FPS AFTER you seal the breach ({{bug|1340}}). Either avoid doing so or use the work around posted in the bug report.
* Heavy construction, especially megaprojects, will cause increasingly severe input lag as the fortress grows. Forbid materials (especially stones, blocks, and bars) as much as possible to reduce the time the game needs to calculate the list of available materials to build constructions with.
* Training your military can cause lag, mostly due to sparring. Try to avoid training more than one or two squads at a time.
* There is a bug where a trapped dwarf with a [[strange mood]] will slow the game down tremendously. {{bug|8698}}
* When a team comes back from a raid/mission, a huge lag can appear suddenly (down to 5 fps). You can disband the squad and situation should come back to normal.
* Avoid using constructions. Flarechannel's average FPS was ridiculously low - this is one of the reasons why.
* Use as few engravings as possible.
* Keep your map clean of contaminants. The DFHack "clean map" command works well for this, though some may consider it cheaty.
* Minimize the number of living plants. This will not endear you to the Elves.
* Avoid looking at complicated areas.

====Game Settings====
* G_FPS is a setting in the [[init.txt]] file. It controls how often Dwarf Fortress redraws the screen. It also controls how often the game checks for keyboard or mouse input.
** Reducing G_FPS can speed up the rest of the game. The default choice of 50 works well, but many people reduce it down to 20 with no ill effect.
** Reducing G_FPS too far can make the game unresponsive and glitchy. Some people can cope with 5; most cannot.
* PRINT_MODE is another init setting. It controls the method Dwarf Fortress uses to draw the screen.
** More advanced methods allow DF to make more use of OpenGL features and therefore your graphics card. STANDARD and VBO are good starting points.
** More advanced methods may still have bugs. 2D is more likely to be reliable.
* Using creature graphics may reduce FPS. (Using a custom ASCII tileset should have no effect)
*PRIORITY represents how much importance the game is given when it makes a request of the CPU. From [[init.txt]]:
**"Change this to make the dwarfort.exe process have a different priority. From highest to lowest, the options are REALTIME, HIGH, ABOVE_NORMAL, NORMAL, BELOW_NORMAL and IDLE."
**While it's best to run DF with no other programs in the background if FPS is an issue, giving the priority a bump or two can help speed things up regardless.
*TEXTURE_PARAM controls how the graphics are displayed, specifically how the color value of each pixel is smoothed. It is LINEAR by default. Turning this off gives the CPU one less thing to do, though the improvement in performance is so far unquantified.
**From [[init.txt]]: "Change this to NEAREST if you want the texture values to use the nearest pixel without averaging. Change this to LINEAR if you want the texture values to be averaged over the adjacent pixels."

===With Game Alterations===
All changes in this area have some effect on the game itself, use at your own discretion.

====Game Settings====
* Consider running an older version of DF. While lacking features, 40d, v0.31, or v0.34 ''may'' run faster than 2014. *Disputed* (See [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=122441.0 this topic] for a debate over FPS on 2012 vs v0.31, game settings, and other FPS issues.)
* [[Temperature]] calculations place a significant load on the processor.
** Disabling them, using the settings in d_init.txt, will speed things up.
** Without temperature calculations, [[obsidian farming]] becomes unusable; as the tiles never cool down, dwarves refuse to step on the obsidian floor, preventing access for hauling dwarves.{{bug|6033}} You can re-enable temperature occasionally to allow tile temperatures to normalize. Alternatively, you can work around this issue by altering obsidian in the raws to give it [MAT_FIXED_TEMP:10000] (as [[nether-cap]] does normally), preventing it from being hot.
** Disabling temperature calculations will cause [[fire]] to become glitchy, including creatures who can create it ([[fire imp]]s, [[dragon]]s, [[forgotten beast]]s, etc). Dwarves set on fire with temperature disabled will burn perpetually until exposed to water, though they won't receive any damage. Tiles exposed to fire with temperature calculations disabled will become entirely impassable, which may lead to significant parts of your map being blocked away. If confronted by fire or fire-based creatures, it may be worth turning temperature back on until they're dealt with.
** Multiple users have reported an fps increase of 100% or better when disabling temperature calculations [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=86761.msg2352509#msg2352509].
* Disabling [[weather]] ''might'' speed things up as well.
** But then rain won't refill [[murky pool]]s, clean contaminants, kill dwarves, etc.
* Each dwarf needs to keep track of where they're going.
** Limit the number of dwarves by setting a [[immigration|population cap]].
* Invaders also need to pathfind.
** Turn off invasions using the option in [[D_init.txt]]. Or you can kill them all.
* The game also has to track what is happening in the caverns.
** You can disable cavern layers in [[advanced world generation]]. Without caverns you will have far fewer critters and threats pathfinding through winding passages. Unfortunately, you also lose underground [[plant]]s and [[tree]]s. Alternatively, you can reduce number of cavern layers to just one.
** If you don't mind losing large amounts of [[fun]], you can also disable generation of the [[magma sea]] and [[HFS|the bottom layer]].

====Mods and Utilities====
* Accumulations of [[contaminant]]s can decrease FPS and they are somewhat buggy. (See {{bug|296}} and {{bug|3270}}.)
** Sometimes contaminants are widespread or difficult to reach such that relying on the usual [[cleaning]] methods would be impractical or impossible. Or the player may lack the patience to deal with it that way. Some opt to use the "clean" and "spotclean" commands in the [[Utility:DFHack|DFhack]] utility to clear contaminants.

* Constantly-growing piles of cast-off clothes and checking for clothing [[wear]] and unhappy [[thoughts]] can impact FPS.
** One could [[Modding_guide|modify]] clothing to prevent [[wear]]. (This would require a [[DF2012:World_generation|world regen]].) This can be done by adding an [[DF2012:Armor_token|ARMORLEVEL:1]] token. Aside from a possible FPS gain, this has other benefits as well. This fix is part of the [[DF2012:List_of_mods#Modest_Mod|Modest Mod]] as an optional "Eternal Fashion module". It might also be found in other mods which are based around Modest Mod. (Search the [http://dffd.wimbli.com/ DFFD] for "Modest".) Also, [[DF2012:List_of_mods#Masterwork_Dwarf_Fortress_.28MDF.29|Masterwork Dwarf Fortress]] allows the creation of metal clothing.

* Some mods have been created specifically to improve performance. They often reduce and standardize materials (like leather and bone) and may reduce the types of clothing available to control item count (especially for invaders).
** [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=117954.0 Accelerated Dwarf Fortress] for v0.34.11
** [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=141715.0 Modest Accelerated Mash] for v0.40.x
** [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=148265.0 Modest Mod] for v0.42.x has the Accelerated module

==DFHack commands==
A list of [[Utility:DFHack|DFHack]] commands that can help with your framerate by fixing bugs and reducing items.

*{{DFtext|autodump|white}} Useful for mass dumping or destroying items. Use {{DFtext|help autodump|white}} for options.
*{{DFtext|cleanowned|white}} Confiscates and dumps garbage owned by dwarves. Use {{DFtext|help cleanowned|white}} for options. Can cause unhappy thoughts if no replacement clothing is available.
*{{DFtext|clean|white}} and {{DFtext|spotclean|white}} Removes contaminants from tiles/units/items or one tile. {{bug|296}}{{bug|1750}}{{bug|3270}} Use {{DFtext|help clean|white}} for options.
*{{DFtext|flows|white}} Counts map blocks with flowing liquids, which slow the game down.

*{{DFtext|tweak fast-heat|white}} Further improves temperature update performance.

*{{DFtext|fastdwarf|white}} Causes dwarves and other creatures to move and work faster or causes them to teleport. Run {{DFtext|fastdwarf help|white}} for more information.

==Mac OS X Specific==
Spotlight indexes files on your mac. Since DF constantly changes files, spotlight will keep indexing them using 60-70% of your CPU. Exclude DF in system preferences: spotlight's privacy settings (by dragging the save folder into the list or pressing the {{K|+}} button) and you can get a factor of two in FPS. This can easily provide benefits of over 30 FPS, even on multicore computers that do not need to worry about CPU. This is due to the fact that DF is not multi-threaded in any significant way.

Note that excluding the save folder from Spotlight means you can't use Spotlight or Finder to search through the raw files. If you need to for some reason, you can use "find" from the command line for this.

==GNU/Linux Specific==
Placing the whole df_linux directory in tmpfs using [https://github.com/graysky2/anything-sync-daemon Anything Sync Daemon] might improve FPS depending on your system.

If you run any indexing, exclude DF directory.

Installing libjemalloc using your distro's package manager and writing a bash script to preload it and run ''Dwarf Fortress'' may result in improved framerates:

<nowiki>#!/bin/sh
cd /path/to/df_linux
LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjemalloc.so.1" ./df</nowiki>

==Mac OS X or GNU/Linux Specific==
===Setting process niceness===
One thing that Unix-like systems feature is being able to control the priority of a process in relation to other processes running at the same time. This is its "niceness" value, with -20 being most favorable to the process. To set Dwarf Fortress's niceness, you can use the "renice" command as so:

<nowiki>sudo renice -n -20 -p $(pgrep Dwarf_Fortress)</nowiki>

This command should work in most distributions of GNU/Linux. For macOS (whose Dwarf Fortress binary uses Windows' naming convention for some reason), use:

<nowiki>sudo renice -n -20 -p $(pgrep dwarfort.exe)</nowiki>

==See also==
* [[System requirements]] - hardware changes affecting framerate

{{Category|Guides}}
[[ru:Maximizing framerate]]

Strange mood

2019-12-17T01:56:02Z

CentAtMoney: /* Bugs */ Added bug 8698.

{{Quality|Exceptional|00:23, 18 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

{{buggy|bugsection=Bugs}}
{{minorspoiler}}
Periodically, individual dwarves are struck with an idea for a [[legendary artifact]] and enter a '''strange mood'''. Dwarves which enter a strange mood will stop whatever they are doing and pursue the construction of this artifact to the exclusion of all else. They will not stop to eat, drink, sleep, or even run away from dangerous creatures. If they do not manage to begin construction of the artifact within a handful of months, they will go [[#Failure|insane]] and die soon afterward.

[[File:strange_mood_prev.png|thumb|250px|right|''Crudely drawn by Zippy'']]Note: All controllable civilizations with the {{token|STRANGE_MOODS}} token are able to enter strange moods, though, by default, the only civilization this applies to is dwarves.

==Overview==

=== In Fortress mode ===
# The conditions necessary for a strange mood to occur have been fully understood due to a disassembly of the game; see below for the exact mechanics.
# The game will pause, center on a dwarf, and announce that the dwarf has entered one of five different types of strange moods. The [[#Types of moods|types of moods]] are listed below. While in a mood, a dwarf will display a blinking exclamation point (see [[Status icon|status icons]]).
# For the duration of the mood, the dwarf will claim a workshop related to the skill that the mood affects (not all skills are eligible), kick out any dwarf who was using it, and render it otherwise unusable until the mood has ended. If a moody dwarf does not claim a workshop, it is because the appropriate workshop does not exist. (See [[#Skills and workshops|skills and workshops]] below to determine which workshop(s) might be required.) A moody dwarf will ''not'' be able to build a needed workshop; another dwarf with the appropriate [[labor]] designation must do so for them, if one is necessary. Furnaces are also counted as a workshop.
# After claiming a workshop, the dwarf will set about collecting the required materials for their artifact. If the dwarf remains idle inside the workshop, it's because they cannot find the right material. Reference the [[#Demands|demands]] section to determine what may be required. Important Note: They will only collect these materials in the order that they require them. In other words, you have to determine where they are on the list of required materials and then provide the next one before they will continue collecting other materials.
# Once all materials have been gathered, the game will once again pause and center, and the moody dwarf will begin construction. Upon completion, the dwarf will create a semi-random artifact related to the skill affected and gain [[legendary]] (or higher) status in that skill (unless the mood type is [[#Possessed|possessed]]). See the [[#Skills and workshops|skills and workshops]] for information on which skills can be gained, or the [[#Artifacts created|artifacts created]] section for more details on the artifacts themselves.

===In world generation===
Non-player dwarves may also be struck by strange moods during world generation, albeit they are treated more abstractly. These are a primary source of non-player artifacts that are scattered across the outside world when the game starts. They have the same properties and quality as any artifact your fortress could have produced, and may be stolen or pillaged just like any other non-player artifact.

== Types of moods ==
For each of the following types of moods, the first message is how the mood is [[Announcement|announced]]; the second message appears in the dwarf's profile when he or she is viewed with the {{K|v}} key. All moody dwarves will have "Strange Mood" listed as their active task and are "quite content", regardless of any recent [[thought]]s they may have had.

=== Fey ===
* {{Gametext|<dwarf> is taken by a fey mood!|7:1}}
: ''Has the aspect of one fey!''

This is the most basic strange mood. Fey dwarves will clearly state their demands when the workshop they are in is examined.
This is a secret Text and is not supposed to exist.

=== Secretive ===
* {{Gametext|<dwarf> withdraws from society...|7:0}}
: ''Peculiarly secretive...''

Secretive moods are the same as fey moods, except a secretive dwarf will sketch pictures of their required materials instead of clearly stating their demands if they cannot find what they need. Descriptions of all these [[#Demands|secretive requirements]] can be seen only by viewing the workshop that the moody dwarf has claimed, with {{k|q}}, and then only while the dwarf is waiting inside it. More than one "picture" is likely; these will cycle through the entire list automatically if any one is not available. (Since materials are gathered ''in order'', it's quite possible that only one of a long list is needed to allow the moody dwarf to continue on their project. If the dwarf has gathered some of the materials (seen as "tasked" when looking at the workshop with {{k|t}}), then the next in the list is what they are looking for.)

=== Possessed ===
* {{Gametext|<dwarf> has been possessed!|5:1}}
: ''Possessed by unknown forces!''

Possessed dwarves have cryptic material requests, and have the unfortunate distinction of not receiving any experience upon successful construction of an artifact. No controllable circumstances lead to a possessed mood instead of one of the more desirable fey or secretive moods, it is purely luck-based. Possessed dwarves will mutter the name of the artifact they are working on (which, under some circumstances, might end up being ''their own name'') once they have all the materials they need.

A possession is the only mood that does '''''not''''' result in a jump in [[experience]].

A possessed dwarf that "keeps muttering <name of the artifact>..." has already gathered everything they need.

=== Fell ===
* {{Gametext|<dwarf> looses a roaring laughter, fell and terrible!|5:0}}
: ''Has a horrible fell look!''

A dwarf that goes into a fell mood will try to take over a [[butcher's shop]] or a [[tanner's shop]]. If neither are available, any other workshop will be used instead. The dwarf will then ''murder'' the nearest dwarf, drag the corpse into the shop and make some sort of object out of dwarf [[leather]] or [[bone]]. The unfortunate dwarf is killed on the spot - no dragging to the workshop, just sneaking up behind them, killing them, and dragging their corpse to the workshop. Once the artifact is completed, the fell dwarf will become a legendary [[bone carver]] or [[leatherworker]]. Only unhappy dwarves may enter a fell mood.

Amusingly, it seems fell dwarves can murder [[ghost]]s as well. If they do, they will murder a living dwarf as well since ghosts obviously don't yield a corpse to butcher.{{bug|4681}}

Aside from the loss of a potentially important dwarf in the wrong place at the wrong time, there doesn't seem to be any downside to a fell mood. The end result is always an artifact and a legendary craftsdwarf. Since the only ingredient used (a dwarf) is available in abundance, a fell mood will only fail if the fell dwarf is completely isolated from other dwarves, or if the proper workshop does not exist.

If no one is around to witness the murder, whichever dwarf Urist McEmo decides to slaughter will be reported as missing some time after their death. If the murder is witnessed (or if the <s>idiot</s> dwarf in fell mood reports himself), the moody dwarf will be subject to dwarven [[justice]].

=== Macabre ===
* {{Gametext|<dwarf> begins to stalk and brood...|0:1}}
: ''Brooding darkly...''

Macabre moods are similar to fell moods, but the dwarf will not murder a fellow dwarf. A macabre dwarf may require [[bone]]s, [[skull]]s, or vermin [[remains]]; if you do not happen to have any, you will have to make some, e.g. by butchering an animal and/or allowing a [[cat]] to go hunting, or let the moody dwarf go [[insane]]. Like fell moods, only unhappy dwarves can enter macabre moods.

==Caveats==
* Shells are perhaps the most difficult-to-obtain material for a strange mood, though there are several {{catlink|Shell|creatures}} that produce shells. Some of these, such as [[armadillo]]s and [[common snapping turtle]]s, are butcherable. Vermin from [[fishing]] are the easiest and most renewable source of shells. [[Pond turtle]]s are common in many embarks in [[murky pool]]s, but usually only appear in small numbers, and can go extinct easily. A stream or river almost guarantees a functionally inexhaustible supply of [[mussel]]s. [[Nautilus]]es can also serve as sources of shells when cleaned at a fishery. Nevertheless, shells are rare and hard to acquire. Currently, the only way of trading for shells is to hope that the [[elven]] caravan brings some tamed shell-producing large creature. Traded [[cave lobster]]s and [[turtle]]s are ''processed'' fish (with the shells already removed). Tamed vermin with shells cannot be butchered for their shells, since the only way to get a vermin's shell is to [[Fish cleaning|clean]] it. Since all shelled non-vermin animals are [[exotic pet|exotic]], only elves will bring them. If you should be fortunate enough to acquire some breeding, shelled, butcherable animals, it's probably worth keeping a breeding pair around in case of future need. Only dwarves with a [[preference]] for shells will demand shells in a strange mood.
* All demands for cloth are for a specific generic type (plant, silk, or yarn). Clothiers and Weavers will demand [[adamantine]] cloth if any is available, otherwise the type will be the generic form of the dwarf's first cloth preference, or a randomly chosen variety if the dwarf has no preference (or if the cloth is for a decoration, not the primary material). Types of cloth your fortress has not produced are '''not''' excluded, so it's best to keep a few bolts of each type of cloth in reserve.
* Should the claimed workshop be a [[magma forge]] and lose power due to insufficient magma beneath it, the mood will fail immediately and the dwarf will go [[insanity|insane]]. Should the forge be in danger of losing power, you should forbid it before it is claimed and wait until it is powered up reliably. Once magma forges are built, at least some dwarves will no longer be satisfied with a regular forge.
* Similarly, if a workshop claimed by a dwarf is deconstructed, destroyed or [[Creature_token#BUILDING_DESTROYER|toppled]] the mood will immediately fail and the dwarf will go insane.
* The mood's primary material will only be mentioned ''once'' in the dwarf's requests, even if the dwarf wants more than one unit of it. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=75139.0]
* The item type of the artifact to be created is not decided until the instant the mood ''ends''. Saving (even after a dwarf has begun to gather materials) will allow you to reload and the result may be a different artifact (unless the moody dwarf's preferences force a particular item type). If you want to get an artifact platinum warhammer, make sure to have platinum nearby and/or block access to any other materials.
* You can restart the artifact creating process, even after the dwarf has gathered most of the components, by forbidding the claimed items (use {{k|t}} to view the contents of the workshop, select the undesired material, and press {{k|f}} to forbid it). If other items of that type are available, the dwarf will immediately switch to them.
* Requests for bones are actually requests for any kind of bone stacks, not individual bones. Slaughter a puppy. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=105002.0]

== Demands ==
Once a workshop is claimed, the dwarf will begin collecting materials. Each artifact will require 1-3 "base items" and up to 7 additional items for decorations. The dwarf may well need several items of one material! If the moody dwarf remains idle, then the necessary materials are not available. [[Forbid|Forbidden]] items must be reclaimed ({{K|d}} - {{K|b}} - {{K|c}}) before they may be used, but moody dwarves will ignore settings regarding [[economic stone]]. Press {{K|q}} and highlight the workshop to receive a series of clues about what the dwarf needs. Hints that stay active for longer than 2 seconds mean that multiple pieces of that material will be required; each single demand will be displayed for 2 seconds, so if it says "gems... shining" for 6 seconds, 3 gems are demanded. However, the mood's '''primary''' material will always be shown for only 2 seconds even if more than one is required. Materials will always be fetched ''in order'', so if at least one item has already been retrieved (the items will show up with "TSK" ("task") next to them when the workshop is viewed with the {{K|t}} context menu), it will usually be possible to tell what item is required next.

If you want your dwarves to construct their artifacts out of valuable materials instead of whatever useless thing happens to be close at hand, you can selectively forbid types of material through the stocks screen so that only the material you want them to use is available; though this might interfere with the normal crafting operations of your fortress, the disruption is generally short-lived (as long as you remember to unforbid them again afterwards!). You can even forbid something a moody dwarf is carrying (which may be necessary sometimes, since while they are not waiting in the workshop they will not tell you what they need); the dwarf will finish hauling it to the workshop, but then immediately go searching for another. This trick can mean the difference between a bauxite statue decorated with moss agates and a native platinum statue encrusted with diamonds. Be aware that this may not always work - see below for more information.

Burrows allow even better control over a moody dwarf's material usage. Simply by creating a burrow around the claimed workshop and another part over the desired material, a moody dwarf can be controlled without forbidding every single stone in the fortress. A moody dwarf will follow the burrow-definitions just like a regular worker, but be mindful that they will not leave the burrow to get materials that are outside of their assigned burrow. A problem can arise when bones from an outside refuse stockpile are needed by a moody dwarf that is assigned to a burrow.

The various demands are translated here:

:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;width:90%;"
|-
! Material
! Fey
! Secretive
! Possessed
|-
|
| <dwarf> screams "I must have <demand>!"
| <dwarf> sketches pictures of <demand>.
| <dwarf> mutters "<artifact> needs <demand>..."
|-
| [[Stone]]
| rock
| a quarry
| stone... rock
|-
| Stone/metal [[block]]s
| rock blocks
| square blocks
| blocks... bricks
|-
| [[Wood]]
| wood logs
| a forest
| tree... life
|-
| Metal [[bar]]
| metal bars
| shining bars of metal
| bars... metal
|-
| [[Gem]]s (cut)
| cut gems
| cut gems
| gems... shining
|-
| [[Gem]]s (raw)
| rough gems
| rough gems
| rough... color
|-
| Green [[glass]]
| raw green glass
| glass
| raw... green
|-
| Clear glass
| raw clear glass{{verify}}
| glass and burning wood
| raw... clear
|-
| Crystal glass
| raw crystal glass{{verify}}
| rough gems and glass
| raw... crystal
|-
| [[Bone]] [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=105002.0;topicseen stack] {{verify}}
| bones
| skeletons
| bones... yes
|-
| [[Shell]]{{verify}}
| shells
| shells
| a shell...
|-
| [[Leather]]
| tanned hides
| stacked leather
| leather... skin
|-
| [[Cloth]] (plant fiber)
| plant cloth
| stacked cloth
| cloth... thread
|-
| [[Cloth]] (silk)
| silk cloth
| stacked cloth
| cloth... thread
|-
| [[Cloth]] (yarn)
| yarn cloth
| stacked cloth
| cloth... thread
|-
| [[Skull]]{{verify}}
| body parts
| death
| a corpse
|}

Dwarves in macabre moods will list their demands in the same fashion as those in fey moods (though with them brooding "Yes. I need <item>." instead of screaming "I must have <item>!"). They may also say "Leave me. I need... things... certain things", in which case they want special items such as [[skull]]s or vermin [[remains]].

Related to the above behavior, moody dwarves demanding rock blocks will also accept blocks forged from metal bars.

*The first item demanded by the dwarf is based on the mood skill being used - stoneworkers (miners, engravers, masons, stone crafters, and mechanics) will demand boulders, woodworkers (carpenters, wood crafters, and bowyers) will demand logs, leatherworkers and tanners will demand leather, weavers and clothiers will demand cloth, metalworkers will demand metal bars, gem cutters/setters will demand rough gems, glassmakers will demand raw glass, and bone carvers will demand bones.
**Metalworkers will demand adamantine wafers if any are available (unforbidden). If not, they will demand a preferred metal '''if''' you have smelted any bars of it - fey moods will state this outright, while for secretive moods and possessions you will need to check the dwarf's [[preferences]] to see which metal they like. Otherwise, they will select any available metal(s).
**Weavers and clothiers will demand [[adamantine]] cloth if any is available (unforbidden). If not, they will demand a generic type of cloth (silk, plant fiber, or yarn) that matches a specific cloth preference (e.g. a dwarf that likes cave spider silk will require ''any'' type of silk cloth, and a dwarf who likes more than one type of cloth will demand whichever one appears first in their list). Dwarves without a cloth preference will demand a generic type at random.
**Glassmakers will demand their preferred type of glass ''if'' you've produced any of it (or if it's green glass); if they don't prefer any type of glass, they will randomly select one type of glass you've produced (though they will always assume you have created green glass). Note that acquiring raw glass from a caravan does '''not''' count as producing it.
**Dwarves in macabre moods will select either 1 vermin remains, 1 stack of bones, or 1-3 skulls.
**Bone carvers will demand shells if they like a type of shell; if not, they will demand bones.
**All preference-based material requests are decided the instant the mood begins - by the time the workshop is claimed, it is too late to change the dwarf's mind.
*The remaining "decoration" items are selected randomly from the following list: wood logs, metal bars, small gems, rock blocks, rough gems, boulders, bones, leather, plant/silk/yarn cloth, or raw glass (green/clear/crystal, based on what you've produced).
**Decoration items will never be the same type as the primary mood material.
**Certain mood professions will also explicitly avoid using certain items for decorations - most of these match up with the primary mood material, but miners, engravers, masons, and stone crafters will additionally avoid requesting rock blocks.
**If you have not produced any raw glass in your fortress, moody dwarves will never request it.
**Dwarves in macabre moods have a 50% chance to replace each decoration item with either remains or bones.
*Gem cutters and gem setters have a 50% chance of only gathering a single rough gem and nothing else - when they do this, they produce a "perfect gem" with a single decoration.

Once all materials have been gathered, viewing the workshop with {{K|q}} will display a special message depending on the type of mood:
* Fey - "<dwarf> works furiously!"
* Secretive - "<dwarf> works secretly..."
* Possessed - "<dwarf> keeps muttering <artifact>..."
* Macabre - "<dwarf> works, darkly brooding..."
* Fell - "<dwarf> works with menacing fury!"

== The mechanics of moods ==

=== Frequency===
When a fortress is started, an internal counter is set to 1000. Every 100 frames (12 times per day), this counter is decremented by 1, running down to zero in about 3 months. When the counter would ordinarily be decremented when it has already reached zero, there is a 1 in 500 chance that a strange mood will strike. This means that, once all conditions are met and the clock is ticking, while there is approximately a 2.4% chance of a strange mood per day, or a ~52% chance of at least one strange mood per month, there is no guarantee when a mood will strike - might be sooner, might be (almost) never.

=== Conditions ===
In order for a dwarf to be struck with a strange mood, three conditions must be met:
:* There is no currently active strange mood,
:* The maximum number of artifacts is not met,
:* There are at least 20 eligible dwarves ''(see below)'', including dwarves who have already created artifacts.

If all three of these conditions are true, the game may trigger a strange mood according to the frequency.

==== Maximum number of artifacts ====
The maximum number of artifacts in any one fortress is limited by the lower of:
* The number of items created divided by 100.1 Mined-out rock '''does''' count as an "item created", though it is not clear whether bolts or units of drink are counted individually.
* The number of revealed [[subterranean]] tiles divided by 2304 (this is an area equivalent to a 48x48 square). Once you discover and explore the [[cavern]]s and [[magma sea]], this limit becomes largely irrelevant, and using a [[utilities#DFHack|"reveal" utility]] will eliminate it altogether, though strip-mining an area entirely and exposing it to the surface will count ''against'' this.
:1 - actually the sum of all items by type '''and''' by type+subtype+material, divided by 200. Furthermore, destroying items does '''not''' decrement these counters, so casting and mining [[obsidian]] will count toward this.

==== Eligibility ====
The deciding factor for eligibility is a dwarf's actual [[profession]]. ''(Note that "[[Skill#Custom profession labels|custom professions]]" have no effect on this!)'' Thus, dwarves may enter strange moods regardless of what skills they have or don't have, so long as they are of an acceptable profession. Dwarves who have already created an artifact are not eligible to create another, and since every mood ends in either an artifact or death, every dwarf may enter at most one mood. Dwarves who have obtained one or more legendary skills without creating artifacts '''may''' enter strange moods and will simply become even ''more'' legendary.

Dwarves with a [[Soldier#Soldier professions|military profession]] other than "Recruit" '''cannot''' enter moods. Incidental military skills make no difference - eligibility (and weighting) depends purely on the actual ''[[profession]]'' as listed at the time, so soldiers '''can''' enter moods if they are ''off duty'' and thus in Civilian mode. Children may enter moods, but babies will not.

Any other profession is eligible to enter a mood, but not all have the same ''chance'' to enter a mood...

:''('''Note''' - Specifically, and to avoid previous misunderstandings, [[Strand extractor]], [[Clerk]]/[[Administrator]]/[[Trader]], [[Doctor]] (and related), [[Building designer|Architect]], [[Soldier#Recruits|Recruit]] and [[Child]] '''are''' moodable professions.)''

There are several additional factors which will prevent a dwarf from entering a mood:
* Being unable to pick up items ("cannot grasp")
* Being dragged by another unit (off to [[jail]])
* Dragging another unit (leading livestock to a [[cage]], [[chain]], [[pasture]], [[Activity zone#Pit/Pond|pit/pond zone]], or to the [[butcher's shop]] or [[farmer's workshop]].)

=== Chance ===
When determining who will have a strange mood, each eligible dwarf is put into a weighted lottery, where the chance of being selected is based on the dwarf's [[profession]]. Most professions receive 6 tickets, but some receive additional tickets to improve their odds.

{| class="wikitable" cellspacing="0" border="2" cellpadding="5"
|-
! Weighting
! Professions

|-
| 21 ||Armorer, Blacksmith, Bone Carver, Clothier, Craftsdwarf, Jeweler, Gem Cutter, Gem Setter, Glassmaker, Leatherworker, Metalcrafter, Metalsmith, Stonecrafter, Weaponsmith, Weaver, Woodcrafter
|-
| 11 ||Bowyer, Carpenter, Stoneworker, Mason, Woodworker
|-
| 6 ||Engraver, Mechanic, Miner, Tanner, & all other [[profession]]s (including Peasant).

|}

:'''''Example:''' What this means is: if you had 21 dwarves, made up of 20 eligible farmers, furnace operators, miners, woodcutters etc. (with 6 chances each) plus one Armorer (with 21 chances), that one Armorer would have a 21 in 141 chance (20 dwarves x 6 chances each = 120 + 21 chances more = 141 total) of the mood striking them. That's about 1 in 7, while the other 20 have a 6 in 141 chance each, or about 1 in 24. The odds are still against the armorer, but much better than for any other single dwarf.''

Note that not every profession is from a moodable skill. A Soaper, Architect, Furnace Operator or Strand Extractor can be taken by a mood, but that will not make those skills legendary, nor will they create an artifact bar of soap, building, bar of metal or wafer of adamantine.

=== Fuel ===

{{D for dwarf}}

Curiously, [[metalsmith]]s in strange moods do not seem to require any [[fuel]] to complete their [[metal]] [[artifact]]s. It is believed that they, consumed by artistic passion, fuel the forges with their own beards, vigorously fanning the flaming hairs while they feed the furnace more beard. Such a sacrifice is a dwarf's own beard, that only an artifact merits its removal. Only an artifact's completion can mollify its creator's shame; dwarves unable to complete this great pursuit go insane, not because of its failure, but because they cannot endure the inevitable humiliation.

Legend has it, that the world's first [[elf]] once attempted to forge the world's most powerful artifact, imbued with magic to control all dwarves. But, because he could not suffer to cut a tree for fuel, he was unable to do so. Faced with no alternative, he kidnapped each of the seven ancient dwarves by tempting them with [[booze]], an unfamiliar drink to the first dwarves. He then forcefully shaved them, and created [[charcoal]] from their beards.

Enraged by their loss, the dwarves set out to find the elf's home, based in the world's first tree. They startled the engrossed elf who fled with nothing but a handful of the tree's unborn children. After reclaiming the beard-charcoal, the dwarves set fire to this tree. Alight in flames hotter than the sun, the tree burnt in what is believed to have been the world's hottest fire -- a fire so hot, that the tree's roots melted the inside of the earth, creating a worldwide [[magma sea]]. The elf watched this fire, and swore revenge on the dwarves.

After realizing their beards could not be recovered from their charred state, the dwarves agreed to sprinkle the charcoal over the earth, as a gift and reminder to future dwarves. In doing so, they created the world's [[bituminous coal]] deposits. They then spent the next years searching for a way to create the drink they had been given. Discovering new drinks along their pursuit, the dwarves eventually perfected the hidden art of brewing booze and passed this emerging knowledge to coming generations.

=== Skills and workshops ===

{| class="wikitable sortable" cellpadding="4" style="border:1px solid black;border-collapse:collapse;text-align:left;float:right;margin:0 0 20px 30px;vertical-align:top;"
|-
! Highest skill
! Workshop required
|- style="background-color:palegreen"
| [[Armorsmith]]
| [[Metalsmith's forge]] (or [[Magma forge]])
|- style="background-color:palegreen"
| [[Bone carver]]
| [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:palegreen"
| [[Bowyer]]
| [[Bowyer's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Carpenter]]
| [[Carpenter's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:palegreen"
| [[Clothier]]
| [[Clothier's shop]]
|- style="background-color:lightgray"
| [[Engraver]]
| [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Gem cutter]]
| [[Jeweler's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Gem setter]]
| [[Jeweler's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Glassmaker]]
| [[Glass furnace]] (or [[Magma glass furnace]])
|- style="background-color:palegreen"
| [[Leatherworker]]
| [[Leather works]]
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Mason]]
| [[Mason's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:palegreen"
| [[Mechanic]]
| [[Mechanic's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Metal crafter]]
| [[Metalsmith's forge]] (or [[Magma forge]])
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Metalsmith]]
| [[Metalsmith's forge]] (or [[Magma forge]])
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Miner]]
| [[Mason's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:lightgray"
| [[Stone crafter]]
| [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Tanner]]
| [[Leather works]]
|- style="background-color:palegreen"
| [[Weaponsmith]]
| [[Metalsmith's forge]] (or [[Magma forge]])
|- style="background-color:wheat"
| [[Weaver]]
| [[Clothier's shop]]
|- style="background-color:lightgray"
| [[Wood crafter]]
| [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]]
|- style="background-color:lightgray"
| <none>
| [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]]
|}

A dwarf will claim a workshop according to their highest applicable skill, and upon completion of the artifact, gain 20,000 [[experience]] in that skill (excepting [[Strange mood#Possessed|possessed]] dwarves). This will give the dwarf a legendary-level [[skill]] (specifically, "legendary+1" or higher, depending on the dwarf's initial skill level). The table to the right describes all applicable skills and their potential workshop requirements - there are only 20 skills that determine the workshop and that can be affected by a mood (sometimes referred to as '''moodable''' skills.) If a dwarf does not possess at least one of the moodable skills listed to the right, they will take over a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]] and gain one of [[bone carver]], [[stone crafter]], or [[wood crafter]] skills, producing an artifact [[craft]].

When selecting the desired mood skill, only the level itself is checked, and if the highest level found is shared by multiple skills, then one will be selected randomly.

This fact can be utilized to maximize the possibility of getting a dwarf with the specific legendary skill you want: since ''non''-moodable skills are ignored, whenever possible make sure that each dwarf's highest ''moodable'' skill is one of those you want. Have all your peasants, [[farmer]]s, non-professional military and other dwarves without any moodable skills do a tiny bit of work in the skill(s) you most want; if a "[[experience|dabbling]]" skill is the highest moodable skill they have, that is the skill that will be used.

[[Scholar]]s may discuss mechanics as part of their work and gain a small amount of experience in it. This is the only skill that scholars discuss that is moodable.

[[Weaponsmith]], [[Armorsmith]], [[Bowyer]], [[Leatherworker]], [[Bone carver]], [[Clothier]], and [[Mechanic]] are the only skills that provide a uniquely beneficial item other than an extremely valuable trinket or piece of furniture. Note that artifact furniture is useful for increasing [[room value]].

=== Timing ===

A dwarf will go insane after exactly 50000 ticks (which, at 1200 ticks per day, works out to 41.66 days, or almost a month and a half) waiting for an item they demand. However:
*The insanity countdown is reset after every item they bring to the workshop
*It doesn't run while they are out getting something, working on their construction or on their way to claim a workshop. Only during time spent idling without either the required workshop or a required item do they spiral towards madness.
*Dwarves under strange moods do not feel hunger, thirst or drowsiness.

== Artifacts created ==
The type of artifact created depends on the type of mood, the dwarf's highest moodable skill, and the base material. Masons and miners will always create some kind of stone furniture; bone carvers, a bone or shell object (including furniture); carpenters, a piece of wooden furniture; engravers and stone crafters, a stone craft; metalworkers, metal crafts, weapons, or armor (depending on the type of metalworker); weavers and clothiers, an article of clothing; tanners and leatherworkers, a leather armor or object. If a dwarf has no moodable skills, they will randomly select stone crafting, wood crafting, or bone carving as their mood skill and produce their artifact accordingly. The precise type of craft created is usually somewhat random, but if a dwarf has a personality preference for a particular item type, such as gauntlets or floodgates or crowns, and that thing is an available choice given the dwarf's profession, they are guaranteed to create an object of that type (if multiple preferences match, one will be randomly selected).

The first object grabbed by the dwarf will be the base material; all other materials will be used as [[decoration]]s. If a dwarf grabs a piece of [[chalk]] and makes a statue, for instance, it will be a "chalk statue", but an artifact can potentially include bone, cloth, gems, leather, metal, shell, stone, and wood decorations all at once. In some cases, a moody dwarf will produce an item which normally cannot be made from that material, leading to such odd constructions as an [[obsidian]] [[bed]], [[ruby]] [[floodgate]], or turtle [[shell]] [[cage]], but the actual item types available for each mood type are still very much restricted (e.g. only a glassmaker or jeweler can make a [[window]], and a moody clothier cannot produce an article of clothing that could not normally be made from cloth).

{| class="wikitable" cellpadding="4" style="border:1px solid black;border-collapse:collapse;text-align:left;"
|-
! Mood / Skill
! Artifact type
|-
| [[Armorsmith]]
| Each equipment item with [METAL] (mail shirt, breastplate, leggings, greaves, gauntlet, low boot, high boot, cap, helm, mask), any shield
|-
| [[Bone carver]] (bone)
| Each equipment item with [BARRED] (leggings, greaves, gauntlet, helm), any shield, instrument, toy, door, bed, chair, table, statue, coffer, bin, armor stand, weapon rack, cabinet, coffin, floodgate, hatch cover, grate, chain, cage, animal trap, figurine, amulet, scepter, crown, ring, earring, bracelet, any weapon, any trap component†
|-
| [[Bone carver]] (shell)
| Each equipment item with [SCALED] (leggings, gauntlet, helm), figurine, amulet, crown, ring, earring, bracelet, chain, cage, animal trap, instrument, toy
|-
| [[Bowyer]]
| Each ranged weapon (crossbow, bow, blowgun)
|-
| [[Carpenter]]
| Door, bed, chair, table, statue, chest, bin, armor stand, weapon rack, cabinet, coffin, floodgate, hatch cover, grate, cage, barrel, bucket, animal trap, splint, crutch
|-
| [[Clothier]]
| rowspan=2| Each equipment item with [SOFT] (dress, shirt, tunic, toga, vest, robe, coat, cloak, cape, trousers, loincloth, thong, short skirt, skirt, long skirt, braies, glove, mitten, sock, sandal, shoe, chausses, cap, hood, mask, turban, head veil, face veil, headscarf), bag, rope
|-
| [[Weaver]]
|-
| [[Engraver]]
| Figurine, amulet, scepter, crown, ring, earring, bracelet, goblet, instrument, toy
|-
| Fell Mood
| rowspan=3| Each equipment item with [LEATHER] (dress, shirt, tunic, toga, vest, robe, coat, cloak, cape, armor, trousers, loincloth, thong, short skirt, skirt, long skirt, braies, leggings, glove, mitten, sock, sandal, shoe, chausses, low boot, high boot, cap, hood, mask, turban, head veil, face veil, headscarf, helm), any shield, bag, backpack, quiver, instrument
|-
| [[Leatherworker]]
|-
| [[Tanner]]
|-
| [[Gem cutter]]
| rowspan=3| Perfect gem‡, door, bed, chair, table, statue, box, armor stand, weapon rack, cabinet, coffin, floodgate, hatch cover, grate, figurine, amulet, scepter, crown, ring, earring, bracelet, chain, flask, goblet, cage, barrel, bucket, animal trap, window, instrument, toy
|-
| [[Gem setter]]
|-
| [[Glassmaker]]
|-
| Macabre Mood (vermin remains)
| Amulet, bracelet, earring
|-
| [[Mason]]
| rowspan=2| Door, bed, chair, table, statue, quern, millstone, coffer, armor stand, weapon rack, cabinet, coffin, floodgate, hatch cover, grate
|-
| [[Miner]]
|-
| [[Mechanic]]
| Mechanism
|-
| [[Metal crafter]]
| Figurine, amulet, scepter, crown, ring, earring, bracelet, chain, flask, goblet, instrument, toy
|-
| [[Metalsmith]]
| Door, bed, chair, table, statue, coffer, armor stand, weapon rack, cabinet, anvil, coffin, floodgate, hatch cover, grate, cage, barrel, bucket, animal trap, pipe section†, splint, crutch
|-
| [[Stone crafter]]
| Figurine, amulet, scepter, crown, ring, earring, bracelet, goblet, instrument, toy
|-
| [[Weaponsmith]]
| Any weapon, any trap component†
|-
| [[Wood crafter]]
| Figurine, amulet, scepter, crown, ring, earring, bracelet, goblet, instrument, toy
|}
:† ''chance of selection for this entry is reduced by 90%''
:‡ ''this item may only be selected at the beginning of the mood (50% chance)''

If your dwarf does not have a preference for any possible items, the game will randomly select one from the list. Entries with "any" are treated as collective entries with a single chance and will randomly choose a subtype which your civilization is capable of making. This explains why bowyers and clothiers will regularly produce foreign artifacts, while weaponsmiths will not unless they have exotic preferences.

== Success ==
Once created, most [[artifact]]s will be available for use just like a normal item of its type. Artifact [[armor]] and [[weapon]]s gain extra bonuses in combat, while artifact clothing is immune to [[wear]]. Artifact mechanisms installed in weapon traps will improve attack rolls. Artifact furniture is useful for raising the value of a [[noble]]'s room. Artifact mechanisms, trap components, or weapons in [[weapon trap|weapon trap]]s can also boost a room's value considerably. Other artifacts that can be used in construction (such as [[barrel]]s, [[bucket]]s, and [[anvil]]s) may be used similarly. Artifact [[door]]s and [[hatch]]es are immune to [[building destroyer]]s, and artifact [[cage]]s can even hold gnawing vermin. All artifacts can be displayed in a [[display case]] or on a [[pedestal]], or [[trade]]d to a [[caravan]] for supplies.

Successfully creating an artifact grants a very strong happy [[thought]] (enough to make the creator totally ecstatic for several months) as well as granting the creator partial '''immunity to insanity''' - even if your fortress is left in a terrible state, any dwarf who has created an artifact is exempt from going [[insane]] due to prolonged unhappiness. The dwarf may also cry, found as a coating of dwarf tears on both their eyes.

== Failure ==
If you can't provide the desired workshop and all the required component materials within a couple of months, the dwarf will go [[insanity|insane]], which cancels the mood and the artifact. As if that's not bad enough, any dwarf who goes insane will soon die, one way or another.

A dwarf who is '''stark raving mad''', '''melancholy''', or '''catatonic''' is harmless to others (until they die and start a [[tantrum]] spiral), but a '''berserk''' dwarf will attack other dwarves and possibly pull levers at random. You may want to station a squad nearby or assign a few war dogs to the dwarf on the chance that they will lash out. If you build your workshops inside enclosed rooms with doors you can also lock the moody dwarf in the room until he or she starves. In extreme cases, building a wall around an open workshop is the best precaution.

==Bugs==
There are many bugs reported related to moody dwarves. As has been the case in 40d, most turned out to be (understandable) failures of the player to grasp the mechanics of artifact creation and demands. ([http://bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view_all_bug_page.php Bug tracker])
* If a dwarf dies due to failing to complete an artifact, a memorial made to the dwarf will read that the dwarf did create it, despite the failure, and will even list the name of the artifact that never came to be. {{bug|3640}}
* When producing an item that is normally made in pairs (gloves, boots, etc.), only a single artifact will be created.
* Attacking a dwarf who fails his mood with your milita may result in a loyalty cascade. {{bug|7107}}
* Dwarf entering a strange mood when isolated (e.g. on a stepladder) causes severe lag. {{bug|8698}}

== Troubleshooting ==

'''Problem''': Moody dwarf does not claim a workshop
:'''Solution''': Check for highest moodable skill and build the corresponding workshop. If no moodable skills, build a craftsdwarf's workshop. Once [[magma forge]]s have been built, some dwarves may demand to work at a magma forge. Note that [[forbid]]den workshops cannot be claimed. Verify if the dwarf is assigned to a burrow and/or if there is a civilian alert set to a burrow. If so, verify that the burrow allows access to the workshop being sought after.

'''Problem''': Moody dwarf waits in claimed workshop
:'''Solution''': Desired material is unavailable. Determine which material is requested next (materials are collected in the same order as shown in the dwarf's request list), and make some available, if possible. Note that dwarves with [[preference]]s may demand a specific type of material ([[brass]] bars or [[yarn]] cloth, for example). [[Forbid]]den and inaccessible materials cannot be collected, nor can material located outside the moody dwarf's [[burrow]].

'''Problem''': No dwarf has entered a mood for a long time
:'''Solution''': Strange moods require at least 20 dwarves; if you have that many you've probably hit one of the two caps. Exploring the caverns can increase the number of revealed tiles very quickly, while [[craft]]ing [[goblet]]s will quickly raise your item count; [[exploratory mining]] will count toward ''both'' caps, simultaneously revealing tiles and producing boulders, though slower than exploring or crafting. Exposing excavated terrain to the sky is counterproductive, as it will '''lower''' your artifact cap (since the cap only counts revealed ''subterranean'' tiles).

'''Problem''': Moody dwarf wants stacked cloth, but all types are available and he's not moving
:'''Solution''': Dwarves will not take items from active hospitals. If you have no cloth available outside of hospitals, try disabling or temporarily removing the hospital designation from their zones. They will then proceed to take new items, even if they don't go for the cloth right away.

{{Category|Dwarves}}
[[Ru:Strange mood]]

Immigration

2019-12-14T20:40:36Z

CentAtMoney: Added link to calendar page.

{{Quality|Exceptional|22:13, 16 November 2019 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

'''Immigration''' can occur at any time once per [[season]]. Smaller migrant waves of 2 to 10 arrive in early seasons, followed by a large wave in the low double digits in the second spring, one year after embark (the maximum wave size reported to date is [http://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/q580c/hole_shit 77] [https://archive.is/Wbp37/a5dc158a51bc238bc9441f06c10a3540eac8124c.png archive]). Each group of migrants will often include domestic animals, including both pets and stray livestock. Many also include [[child]]ren. Be prepared with adequate [[food]], [[alcohol|drink]], and [[bed]]s, among other things.

Migrants will often have skills that match your fortress' needs — migrants with skills your fortress uses a lot or skills that your fortress doesn't have at all are more likely to show up at your gates. Important skills (mining, food production, and basic crafting, according to Toady) are weighed more heavily than other skills.[http://www.bay12games.com/media/df_talk_12_transcript.html Source] {{dot}} [http://www.bay12games.com/media/Dwarf_Fortress_Talk_12.mp3 MP3]

Migration waves are generally a good thing — if you're prepared for them.

== Labor preferences ==

Each migrant can arrive with a wide collection of often unrelated skills, far greater than possible with one of the [[starting build|starting 7 dwarves]], and [[experience]] levels as high as Legendary.
Any and all skills might be represented, including obscure military skills (like [[blowgunner]]), high levels of one or more [[social skill]]s, [[crutch walker]], [[concentration]] and others. It's even possible to have dwarves with skills that may not be obtainable in fortress mode like [[tracker|tracking]].

Migrants may also arrive with equipment matching their skills. For example, a miner migrant may bring a [[pick]] with them. Migrants may arrive with all labors except [[hauling]], [[cleaning]], recovering wounded, and caring for wounded disabled, depending on the settings one has entered into [[d_init.txt]].

== Historical migrants ==

Some immigrants are [[historical figure]]s. These immigrants come to your fortress with skills representing their history, and may come to your fortress with wounds they have suffered during [[world generation]]. Immigrants may even be [[vampire]]s or [[werebeast]]s.

Currently, [[agent]]s (spies) from your own civilization will retain their assumed identities when they migrate to your fortress.{{bug|10490}} This results in immigrants with odd professions like [[peddler]], [[prophet]], and [[poet]] that 'override' their automatically-assigned professions. These immigrants are still loyal to your civilization (at least for now) and should behave normally aside from a few minor bugs (like changing names while on a [[mission]]{{bug|10928}}).

==Limiting/preventing immigration==
In v0.40.05 and above, the [[d_init.txt]] POPULATION_CAP setting immediately prevents further immigration once the desired number is achieved. There is also a STRICT_POPULATION_CAP setting, which prevents both immigration and babies when reached (although both can be violated by a few special cases, such as the arrival of a [[monarch]]). Keep in mind that your population must be at least 80 to get a king and 100 to obtain the current game features.

The number of migrants depends on the [[wealth|created wealth]] of your fortress and so is affected by your dwarves' activities. Note that if your fortress should ever become a mountainhome, you will receive an additional migration wave with the promotion, regardless of your population cap. The number of migrants is affected by how far below the population cap your fortress is. If your fortress is one dwarf short of the cap, you will receive a single migrant (if any). Also note that population cap will not remove dwarves from an existing fortress but will prevent new ones from immigrating or being born.

It is worth noting that you need a certain minimum population size before any of your dwarves will experience [[strange mood]]s. Additionally, POPULATION_CAP affects only migration, it has no effect on pregnancies. You will need to alter STRICT_POPULATION_CAP in order to limit births.

To reiterate, the population cap is a (mostly) hard limit on the number of dwarves in your fortress. If you want a fortress with 50 dwarves, simply set the POPULATION_CAP and STRICT_POPULATION_CAP to 50.

==Immigration mechanics==
The date on which immigrants appear in a season seems to be fixed at the start of that season, but the number of immigrants and their skills are determined when the migrant wave arrives.

There is never a migration in the first winter. There won't even be a {{DFtext|The fortress attracted no migrants this season|6:0:0}} message.

Migrant skill levels seem to depend on the size of the home civilization; a difference will be noticed if you picked a dwarven civilization that was not well established (few towns or none) compared to a well established one.

==Migrant wave sizes==
The first two migrant waves have a minimum size of 1, if a wave member has a relative in your group already, and a maximum size of 10. The size of these waves are unaffected by fortress wealth, danger, or even the extinction of their home civilization.{{Cite talk/this}}

The third migrant wave and on are influenced by the [[wealth|created wealth]] of the fortress, with more wealth attracting more immigrants (more research is needed to determine specifics). Specifically, they're influenced by the fortress wealth as reported by the last outgoing dwarven [[caravan]]. Wealth created after the caravan leaves has no influence until the next year's caravan leaves. If the caravan fails to make it out then the fortress' wealth is not reported. If the dwarven [[liason]] makes it out, but the caravan doesn't, the liaison does not report on fortress wealth.

Imported wealth, caravan sales figures, absolute caravan profit and caravan profit margin either have no effect on migration numbers, or only have an effect by applying a percent modification to the numbers driven by created wealth. If a fortress manages to [[trading|trade]] (not offer) away 100% of its created wealth, then no immigrants will come the next season. More research is needed to determine if the aforementioned statistics have any influence on migration numbers.

One factor which is known to affect migrant wave size is the total size of your fortress's {{k|u}}nits list (all 4 categories), which consists of dwarves, invaders, merchants, and animals which either died or currently live at your fortress. As this number increases, the maximum size of migrant waves will be reduced: starting at a local population of 1000, migrant wave sizes are limited to 10, and at subsequent levels of 1300, 1600, 1800, 2000, 2200, 2400, 2600, 2800, and 2900, the limit is decreased by 1, and once you reach a local population of 3000 you will cease to get migrants at all.

Kurik Amudnil created a DFHack script to prevent the latter from happening, by clearing (and storing, so that it can be restored as wanted) the dead units list of uninteresting creatures. It is available [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91166.msg4336893#msg4336893 here] and is also included in the [[Utility:Lazy_Newb_Pack|Lazy Newb Pack]].

==Adventure mode==
In certain locations in [[adventure mode]], you may come across a '''Migrating Group'''. One such location is near a recently [[abandon|abandoned]] [[fortress]]; choosing to travel to the group will allow you to talk to the members of your former fortress as they travel back to dwarven civilization.

==Fortress Failure Migration==
If a fortress is abandoned during [[unhappy]], [[insanity|stark raving mad]] times the citizens can migrate to your new fortress still stark raving mad (berserk possibly, further looking into required). Likewise, if your fortress happened to have any [[Husk|husks]] when it was abandoned, some of them may migrate to your new fortress.

==Bugs==
Also, some migrants will be incorrectly listed as babies or children, when they are not in the expected age range for those categories. This will automatically fix itself when they have their next birthday. Some baby migrants may have future birth dates. {{Bug|3945}}

If your fortress does not have a meeting hall, you might have a situation where a single migrant can't find the fort and just stands at the edge of the map, not moving at all. You may notice that, even if more migrants are part of the wave, they cannot enter the map (and do not show up on the units screen) until this migrant moves out of the square, as all migrants in a single wave must enter the map through this square.

{{Category|Dwarves}}
{{Category|World}}
[[ru:Immigration]]