No wood and rocks to be found?

[Skywalker]

Well, loose rocks in the landscape, but you can't do anything with those to start building a workshop.
You need wood or rocks to build anything anyway.
After the 2nd underground level it was water everywhere with the staircase construction.
A caravan I missed and possibly rocks or wood logs could have been bought to keep eating and drinking and have a place to sleep to survive longer for the dwarves to try to set up forestry (how to set up?)
Possibly stones also for crafts to make for incoming caravans ( 1 per season ) could provide needed resources
Could no longer keep the fort running and the dwarves did not survive,

[The Trashman]

Yeah, sounds like you had an aquifer. It's good to avoid them if you're not sure how to deal with them

As a tip, you can deconstruct the wagon you start with to get some logs, I think it gives 3

[yung runescape]

Digging through an aquifer is not as bad as it seems, you just have to go level by level and carve out the surrounding walls of the stairs you build. Once mined out, build walls to prevent water from spilling in. It's a bit tedious but once you're past it you're golden.

Afterwards, if you need wood, work your way down to the caves at lower levels, there is a high chance of there being mushroom trees for you to get your hands on

[Skywalker]

Yes, I should have tried to get one floor down with a wall construction
Had also scrapped the wagon for the stuff
Had another stone layer been found, then I can build again
Plants enough for drinks and food via a farmplot , though I'm still sure how an easy prepaired meal is going to be made from just plumphelmets.

[The Trashman]

Originally posted by John Skywalker:

Yes, I should have tried to get one floor down with a wall construction
Had also scrapped the wagon for the stuff
Had another stone layer been found, then I can build again
Plants enough for drinks and food via a farmplot , though I'm still sure how an easy prepaired meal is going to be made from just plumphelmets.

Is there any wildlife you can hunt? Any bodies of water you can fish in?

You can also smooth stone aquifer walls to stop them leaking

[Skywalker]

Also don't remember which area the embark was in
In any case, barren with only some rocks and no water
Hunting and fishing can certainly be the contributors to food.

Smoothing the walls is a good idea
Water from the aquifer, you can't do anything else with that?
If it collects you can drink from it, only dwarves like strong drink and just drink water, do they?
Can remember when there was plenty of strong drink available, yet a dwarf child died of dehydration
Could be that the children don't drink liquor anymore and then if there is no plain water they dry out?

[The Trashman]

Originally posted by John Skywalker:

Also don't remember which area the embark was in
In any case, barren with only some rocks and no water
Hunting and fishing can certainly be the contributors to food.

Smoothing the walls is a good idea
Water from the aquifer, you can't do anything else with that?
If it collects you can drink from it, only dwarves like strong drink and just drink water, do they?
Can remember when there was plenty of strong drink available, yet a dwarf child died of dehydration
Could be that the children don't drink liquor anymore and then if there is no plain water they dry out?

Children should still drink, not sure why they might have died like that.

You can use water from the aquifers for a few things. Filling a cistern with a well on it is good, as injured dwarves get water only. You can use it to make waterfalls to make your dwarves happy. You can use it to fill tanks for traps, like drowning traps or traps to wash enemies away with a flood. Stone floor with water on it gets muddy, so you can use it for irrigation

[Glitterhoof]

Dwarfs that are recuperating in the hospital drinks only water, not booze. Other than that, generally every dwarf including babies prefer booze. So you should have a water source just in case, but it is no substitute for the alcohol industry.

As for the aquifer issue, if your embark is on a border between different biomes, they might have the aquifer at different levels, and you might be able to dig under it. But if you have a soil aquifer and no trees, your only options might be to drain it with cave-ins or waiting for a trade caravan to buy building materials.

[Rargoth]

Originally posted by The Trashman:

Originally posted by John Skywalker:

You can also smooth stone aquifer walls to stop them leaking

10 yr of sporadic gamplay of df and i didn't know this ahah

[Poop King]

I try look for zones without aquifers and a river instead, but they are very rare to find.

[Skywalker]

It is also challenging to end up in an embark environment, where it becomes survival at first.
Have also always gone for a safe embark and that's good to make some more fort constructions and get familiar with concepts to make an elaborate fort

Also find this challenging to get into an embark environment, where it's not so obvious with food production
Have now read a lot of facts what to do and how it should be on this thread. ..super

[Skywalker]

<As for the aquifer issue, if your embark is on a border between different biomes, they might have the aquifer at different levels, and you might be able to dig under it>
I examined the boundaries of the area in all directions with stairs down and aquifer layers everywhere
But now I know better thanks to forum members to use the aquifer to my advantage anyway.

[Erei]

You always have stone in an embark. And almost always wood, but not always on the surface.
Dig down to rocks for stone. If you don't have trees outside, I'd suggest bringing a fair bit of wood during the embark process (prepare carefully). Then dig to the cavern. One of the cavern layer will most likely have trees. Be aware that caverns are more dangerous than the above ground, but with some work you can carve a safe area surrounded by walls. One of the great thing about cavern, they come naturally with their own "roof" :D

For aquifer you have 2 kind : light and heavy. Heavy is a real pain. There are ways to dig through it, but it's a pain. Light are fairly easy. Dig through and either smooth or repalce them by walls (might not be possible to smooth if they are dirt).

[The Trashman]

Originally posted by Rargoth:

10 yr of sporadic gamplay of df and i didn't know this ahah

Same, except pretty heavy gameplay lol. Only found out a day or two ago when someone mentioned it on a steam thread

[Skywalker]

< I'd suggest bringing a fair bit of wood during the embark process (prepare carefully).>
You can also adjust the embark wagon stock. but the dwarves obviously want to carry a balanced wagon stock.
Actually, you then need to know in advance which area you want to go to and adjust the embark wagon accordingly
Are there any embark profiles for this to load into dwarf fortress ?

[Erei]

You can save and load your own profile. You can see what kind of embark you have if you don't pick a random/tutorial one.
Most people pick an area for a "theme" for their fortress and have a rough idea of what they'll need. If you see your embark have a biome (or several) with no trees, bring wood. It's cheap anyway.
If you go in a glacier, bring rocks AND wood. That kind of stuff.