Which tasks do I automate (and how do I do it)

[JakeandCake]

This game is incredible and also incredibly complicated. I wish I knew how to automate tasks and which ones I should automate.

[JakeandCake]

Like I really want to like the game but it feels like you need college classes to understand it sometimes

[amade]

Pick a short-term goal and work on that. Don't worry about doing everything at once, especially for your first (few) fortresses. Maybe you want to get to grips with automating food and drink production first. Figure out the workflow[dwarffortresswiki.org], plan the layout of your farm plots, stockpiles, and workshops for efficiency, learn to use work orders[dwarffortresswiki.org] and leave it to run by itself. Then look at the problems that crop up, refine it (perhaps in a future fortress if it's already too messed up), and try implementing new stuff to improve production and efficiency.

The things you learn along the way will help you with other future challenges/goals.

[Verdano]

What amade said + you need a Manager with an Office for that. Furthermore the Mod DF Hack adds a ton of QoL Stuff like auto butchering and auto tree cutting when logs are running low. It just has to be installed on the same drive as the game. Read the tutorial tho you can accidentally enable some sort of god mode^^ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2346660/DFHack__Dwarf_Fortress_Modding_Engine/

PS: Of course it's up to you :)

[. -.-. .-.. .. .--. ... .]

Originally posted by Verdano:

What amade said + you need a Manager with an Office for that. Furthermore the Mod DF Hack adds a ton of QoL Stuff like auto butchering and auto tree cutting when logs are running low. It just has to be installed on the same drive as the game. Read the tutorial tho you can accidentally enable some sort of god mode^^ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2346660/DFHack__Dwarf_Fortress_Modding_Engine/

PS: Of course it's up to you :)

Thanks for the Link, had searched for it in the Workshop and not found it. Didnt think of looking for it in the Store.

Originally posted by Tupac Teaches Typing:

Like I really want to like the game but it feels like you need college classes to understand it sometimes

Like Amad said, just learn by doing. My first fortress i had tried everything clean and cut and nice and had still many dwarves not very happy. I did not know Clothing and how to deal with it, even when with food and drink i was pretty good. I did not really focus on a defense too and I became an unwilling war Party, eventhough i defended my fortress, but still it was not a good look. Also i had my children haul around the corpses, making things even worse.
I retired the fortress and started new with the focus of fixing the problems. Learning how to set up Weapon and Armor Industry and Clothing Industry. Getting grips on Temples and even build a huge Library with now around 600 Books in it, but even there i have Problems, because still the children carried corpses around for example.

So i made now a third Fortress with a strong Defense, the children are allowed to be children and so and with now around 150 Dwarves, i only have one unhappy Dwarf, who is the Mayor. I didnt understand the mandates of him, now i learned what they are and how important he is for the fortress in general, so in my next fortress i will be able to make him more happy and get a grip on him.

So just play the game and try to figure out why the dwarves, that are unhappy, are unhappy and learn how to deal with it, you won't be able to learn everything in one go.

In my Review i wrote "I now have 50 hours in the Game and i honestly just have questions".

Just make sure that you have fun. There is not really a wrong way to play this game.

[AC137]

Work orders.

They're the absolute minimum when it comes to minimizing manual input for resource management. Theoretically, automation just using linking of stockpiles and workshops using clutter is possible, but that's just impressively complicated (note for future projects...). After all, less time spent clicking around workshops' menus - more time spent on discovery of the game and making extravagant plans.

So first, you assign a manager in the nobles menu, and assign an office to him - any table and chair combo will do, even if it's a dirt pit. This enables the system altogether. Now, you can set work orders from the common menu or from the workshops themselves - I recommend the workshops approach, stops you from getting overwhelmed in the beginning too. These order specific quantities of items to be made in a single batch, or repeating under certain conditions - that's what you're after when it comes to automation.

For example, you can set "brew drink from plant" if there are more than 10 unrotten fermentable plants in your stockpiles. Combine that with a farm plot for plump helmets year round and a work order set for making barrels if there are fewer than 10 empty food storage items, and you've got yourself an automated chain for producing drink for as long as the farm works (and you have wood for barrels).

That's just one example of such a supply chain, obviously, but I can only say that with enough work orders set for fewer than X items/more than X items you can eventually set your settlement up to work almost idependently; DFHack fills in the gaps by allowing automated woodcutting, milking/shearing etc... until something inevitably goes wrong.

And I know the community really loves its trial and error approach (preferably with more of the latter) but the wiki is really an amazing resource - industry flowcharts in particular may help you grasp the supply chains quickly. Less time spent digging through jank to get supplies = more time weaponizing jank for use against elves, am I right?

[Floyd Stash]

start fort, make one of each to prevent insanity by strange moods
then i breach a cave, wall of a safety zone, then start setting up the farm to make fort survivable on its own.
from there its just do little things as they come. no need to rush once your walled in and self sufficient.