OT: Dwarf Fortress

[PhilD]

Watch out if your farming the underground river. I got a nice farm all up and running, only to have my farmers killed by a frogman invasion. Probably an idea to manufacture a few weapons first, or at least give novice wrestling skills to your starting group

I've not seem Frogmen, only Lizardmen (who come in rather large groups) and once a Cave Crocodile. Since I haven't tried looking into the combat thing, each attack results in some severe wounding, and worse (my wounded apparently never heal, and I had no burial grounds, so any dwarf corpses were left to rot in the fortress for more bad feelings). I've read that monsters sometimes crawl out of wells, but I have yet to see them (attacks all seem to come from the river).

I tried farming with floodgates and channels, as it should be safer, but I must be doing something wrong, because after the first cycle of flooding and farming, when I flood again I cannot build a new farm plot. And I didn't see this with farming naturally flooded areas - which are probably more prone to river creature invasion.

2) You can't trade raw gems. I guess you have to process them somehow (I don't have a jeweler yet)

Hey, when my first caravan arrived I had no trading post. Completely missed them; but then I survived to see a few more.

It's about the same time as any other season maybe 30 minutes? I think 2 'days' is the norm for a season.

Is there even a way to see what season it is? Sometimes I miss the messages that tells of the turning of the season, and then I'm lost...

You can slaughter the horses & mules, since they're completely useless. Another method if you have a large breeding population of dogs & cats is to cull a few of those for food. I made it through winter largely on cat meat, and still had a growing cat population at the end!

How do you slaughter animals? I mean, a butcher's shop doesn't seem to do it... I've got mules and horses wandering around in my fortress, because I don't know what to do with them.

Also, is there a way to train cats and dogs for some fighting? I leave them entirely alone, and they all seem to adopt some dwarf or other at some point, but I don't exactly use them too wisely... (I hope they at least help keep some vermin away)

Definitely an addictive game. I woke up last night when I couldn't sleep, looked up someting on the net, and ended up playing for 1-2 more hours...