40d:Reclaim fortress mode

To reclaim a fortress you can hit R on the fortress location choice screen. This will let you return to a previously lost or abandoned fortress.

If you prepare for the journey the Skills screen is different from standard Fortress Mode, showing your list of dwarves on the left and the list of skills on the right. The Skill list shows the total number of dwarves with that skill, not the skill level of the selected dwarf. The skills of the selected dwarf are shown highlighted in green. Each of your starting dwarves is allowed one military skill and one domestic skill, and if you do not like the randomly generated one (highlighted in green) for the selected dwarf, you can move the selector right and pick a new skill with Enter. The equipment screen is the same as standard Fortress mode.

Upon arrival, you will see the items you left behind have been randomly flung about, buildings will be either destroyed or unclaimed, and all objects will be aged according to how long the place has been abandoned, so food will be rotten or gone and dead bodies will be rotting or bones. All objects will also be forbidden. Forbidden is a good thing, at least if you're reclaiming a fortress that was conquered by beasties or invaders, as it keeps your dwarves from rushing off on hauling jobs to the middle of enemy infested nowhere.

Your dwarves start in military mode. You will have to clear out the any invaders to make use of the fort, and then reclaim the items and buildings in the safe sections. Once you've got a usable section of the fortress, you can start releasing your dwarves from military duty m so that they can start getting back to regular fortress life. Also note that your dwarves will want to reclaim, stockpile, sort and entomb all the bones of the previous inhabitants, so a happy fortress may require a lot of coffins, depending upon how far along the fortress was when it failed.

Remaining living dwarves

If you abandoned your fortress before all your dwarves died, you may see some of the previous occupants wandering around. Currently, that's exactly what they'll continue to do - wander aimlessly. If they die, they will go to your graveyard stockpile, but your dwarves don't care if they're entombed or left to rot.^[Verify] Mostly they just get in your way, but a few of them may be useful. They will not use your workshops, but fisherdwarves will fish, endlessly flinging their catch onto the ground for others to pick up.