Dwarf Fortress Wiki. DF2012:Trading. Trading in Dwarf Fortress first occurs in the first autumn after establishing your fortress, with the arrival of the Dwarven caravan.
Trading is a good way to acquire resources that are not available or are rare in the local area. It also allows for more freedom in selecting starting gear or purchase of additional skills for the expedition party, because items can always be obtained through trade later. Trader is the term used at your trade depot to refer to your fortress representative when dealing with merchants in a visiting caravan (r - "Trader requested at Depot"). As a profession, the term applies to visiting merchants and dwarves whose highest skill is Appraiser. [Leave feedback] [edit] Trade Depot Main article: Trade depot Building a trade depot is a pre-requisite for trade with caravans that arrive at your fortress.
DF2012:Military. The military is one of the most important aspects of a successful fortress.
Even with many traps, drawbridges and other defenses, your military will still need to fend off goblin sieges, megabeasts, titans, and fiendish underground beasties. Using a combination of squad orders and scheduling, you can set up an elaborate offensive, defensive, or balanced military structure for your well-equipped soldiers to follow. Turning your dwarves from useless migrants into bloodthirsty killing machines never hurts (unless you're the enemy). The military system is rather extensive and complex, and there is a lot of documentation. Here is a list of key documents categorized by expertise level: Beginner: Attack is a very simple "How to attack a target" guide. The rest of this guide contains an overview of military features (with links to associated sections of other documents).
[Leave feedback] [edit] Quick Reference From the main menu: The military screen is accessible through the m key. DF2012:Stone. DF2012:The Non-Dwarf's Guide to Rock. Wondering what that new kind of rock your dwarves just struck is good for?
Possibly nothing, but when you're just getting started it can be tough to tell the trash from the treasure. The following table summarizes the types of stone and ore found in Dwarf Fortress; it does not include gems. The Uses column lists any special uses or properties of this particular stone type; if no uses are listed, you can always use the stone for general construction and crafting. Note that many "low-value" materials are still very useful in a Dwarf Fortress. "Colors" are useful for color coding or creative aesthetic uses. For more detailed and expanded information, see the Stone, Ore, Metals & Alloys, Veins & Clusters, and Smelting pages, or the article on any particular stone, metal or ore. During the game, you can press z and then navigate to "stone".
(Some materials are worth an additional comment; these are numbered, with footnotes below the table.) (* Each stone is one of 16 colors in the game. DF2012:Ore. DF2012:Metal. Metal is a material extracted from ore at a smelter, turning the ore into bars of pure metal.
(One special metal becomes wafers instead of bars.) It is sometimes combined with other materials to form an alloy metal, which is also measured by the bar. An alloy usually improves on the properties of its components to give more uses or increased value. The metal bars resulting from smelting are used to make items such as weapons, armor, furniture, and crafts at a forge. Smelting pure ores into the corresponding bars raises the base value from that of stone (3) to that of bars (5). DF2012:Gem. Small clusters of rough gems can be found almost anywhere while mining.
After they have been mined by a miner and cut by a gem cutter, a gem setter can use them to encrust furniture, crafts, and ammunition. In addition, raw rock crystals are required to make crystal glass goods. Cut gems can also be used to create windows and are often required as a source material for legendary artifacts. Gem encrusted weapons and armor can be found in game, but cannot be made in fortress mode. Stones, including the various types of clay, can also be cut into gems. The majority of these gems can be brought by and requested from the dwarven caravan, in both cut and rough form. DF2012:Item quality. For information on Room quality, see Room.
For article quality ratings, see DF:Quality. For the Masterwork Mod, see the Masterwork Mod wiki. [Leave feedback] [edit] Quality grades All crafted items (e.g. furniture, armor, clothes and prepared meals but not drinks) have quality levels. If the quality of their craftsdwarfship is above standard, the item name is bracketed by characters that show it (see table below). Raw materials used for crafting items (e.g. stones, blocks, bars, thread, dye, food) have no quality levels. Decorations have quality levels, too. [Leave feedback] [edit] Quality levels in stockpile settings Stockpiles can be set to accept only goods of certain quality levels.
[Leave feedback] [edit] Core Quality Core quality means the quality of the craftsdwarfship of the item.