I feel that I've completely lost my Dwarf Fortress juice
There was a period of time where I was, if I might say it, extremely good at Dwarf Fortress. There might have actually been two such periods in my life - once in my sophomore year of college, when I discovered DF for the first time, and then later in the year or so after DF came out on Steam with the graphical UI.
I think the best I've ever been at DF was when I mastered fluid pumping well enough to irrigate five or six fields in separate caverns so that they'd be covered with mud. This creates the best possible surface for farming. I certainly had a huge fortress at that point, with a king, and I also definitely had a magma metalworking facility, and a lot of Death Hallways for intruders from below. This was sometime within the last two years! It was barely any time ago!!
Now, however, I've completely lost my juice somehow. I return to DF a couple times a year every year, and the last few starts I've tried since Jan 1 have been pretty pathetic. One of my main problems is that I'll build a dungeon and then get too into investigating crimes. I'll ignore the rest of the fortress while I get my dungeon guy to beat the crap out of every nude undead dancer in my tavern, searching for the people who may have stolen my various artifacts. I think I'd do better if I simply never built a tavern and didn't have to deal with so many criminals visiting me.
Another problem I've had recently is too-ambitious cavern bases. I've had several maps over the last month where I'll pierce the caverns, immediately try to establish some kind of farming facility down there, and then slowly lose all my guys one by one to a giant olm. I simply have to stop doing this.
I think I can get my juice back if I focus on the fundamentals. I haven't built a misting apparatus in, like, a year. It's shameful. My dwarves deserve mist. I need to recapture my skill and give them basic amenities.
I'm doing this by embarking repeatedly without vampires or werebeasts. I don't care if it's cowardly - I need some breathing room. I need to recapture my ancient knowledge. I gotta build a pump facility.
I can't say it's good that I'm wasting so much time replaying old games much more incompetently than I've ever played them before, but it's what I'm doing!!