23a:Dwarven economy

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This article is about an older version of DF.

Once you have a bookkeeper and a manager, your fortress will transform from an anarcho-communistic society to an approximation of a capitalist society.

How does it affect you, as a fortress manager?

Interface changes[edit]

  • In each dwarf's status screen (v-p-z), an account figure appears, showing how much money each dwarf possesses. From time to time, the dwarves will claim coins and store them either in their rooms or a container they own.
  • A new menu, "Prices", becomes available via the Overall Status menu (z). This menu shows what changes your various nobles have made to the price of various goods.
  • A new building, the shop, becomes available from the building (q) menu.

Economy changes[edit]

  • Dwarves start earning salaries according to what jobs they perform. How much each job will earn can be seen on the "wages" page of the manager screen (u-m-w or j-m-w). They use this money to pay their rent and to buy trinkets for themselves from shops. Their happiness will increase every time they make a new acquisition.
    • As a result of this, many of your potential trade goods will end up sitting in the coffers of your citizens. Once the Baron arrives, the Tax collector will begin collecting taxes from your dwarves.
    • Standard soldiers (including Recruits) earn about 500☼ per season (paid in 20☼ increments), and Elite soldiers earn around 1000☼ (in 40☼ increments), regardless of whether or not they participate in any combat. This includes the Fortress Guard and Royal Guard.
  • Bedrooms start charging rent according to their quality. Exceptions are barracks and Noble/Legendary assigned bedrooms. It also becomes impossible to assign bedrooms to non-Noble/Legendary dwarves.
  • Most nobles begin adjusting the prices of goods semi-randomly according to their own personal preferences. Initial prices of all goods are set by the bookkeeper.
  • The Bookkeeper starts constantly mandating the production of coins. Unlike other mandates, ignoring them will not lead to any punishment, only an unhappy thought (and the same mandate being immediately reissued). For keeping the bookkeeper happy, it is sufficient to meet one of those mandates from time to time. If the Bookkeeper gets other happiness boosts (admiring fine items, owning a particularly nice room), you are advised to ignore every mandate for coins.
    • It is actually possible to fulfill those coin mandates by minting lots and lots of coins. That most likely will require a near-constant operation of a magma smelter and magma forge for minting exclusively. The exact amount is 1 coin of each type for each 10☼ in accounts throughout your fortress, so if you have 100 dwarves with accounts of 1000☼ each (a total of 1,000,000☼), then your bookkeeper will insist that you mint at least 100,000 coins (200 stacks) in each material. Even if you only mint copper, silver, and gold coins, this would be enough to cover 210% of your dwarves' debts; once the dungeon master arrives and the mandates expand to cover electrum and platinum, your vaults would expand to cover 510% of all debts.
    • Dwarves claim coins similarly to how food tasked to eat is claimed. Large stacks automatically split, changing a stack of 500 coins owned by no one into one stack of 498 coins owned by no one and one stack of 2 coins owned by Urist Borushdumat. If a dwarf has quarters and no other pending job, he will take the job "Store Owned Item" and bring his coins to his room. However, ownership of a dwarf's coins will end due to a declining account balance, which happens at least seasonally when rent is paid. Therefore, it is critical to keep item hauling up to date when the economy starts. Otherwise, magma forges will rapidly become cluttered with small stacks of once-owned coins that were never picked up.
    • It's possible to avoid some of the trouble of loose coin stacks in your forge if you manage to keep ahead of demand. Mint as many gold/silver/copper coins as possible ahead of the bookkeeper's arrival; any coin stacks you have lying around when he comes will get split up but if you have enough to fulfill the bookkeeper's demands you should be able to continue minting without your stacks getting split right away. Once the Dungeon master arrives, you'll still have to worry about the platinum/electrum coins getting split up however. You should also be sure to designate coin stockpiles before the arrival of the bookkeeper so any splitting occurs outside the forges.