Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 12:06:15 am
PLAY STARTS ON PAGE 3
This is a brand-new succession game, looking for players!
That's right, you can sign up right now for a 2-year turn in this new 0.40.09 succession game, even now that the game's begun. However, we will only be accepting 2 more players (for a total of 12), and be vetting them somewhat to make sure they are reasonably competent.
The basics:
- This game will take place in a "Age of Heroes" world I genned (there are a number of Megabeasts left alive, and exactly 4 necromancers). The settings are Medium History, Savagery, Minerals, Beasts, # of Civs, and # of Sites; Small world size (for faster FPS), and a smallish embark area (I'm going to try and keep it no larger than 4x4, preferably 3x3 or 3x4, again for faster FPS).
- I genned the world in a fresh install of Dwarf Fortress 0.40.08 with nothing but Ironhand Graphics and Soundsense (release r43) installed. I don't *believe* Soundsense should affect the raws in any way- so you're free to play without it if you desire (not recommended- Soundsense makes Dwarf Fortress MUCH more playable). However I would respectfully request that all players use the latest version of Ironhand Graphics (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8747), even if it's not normally your favorite graphics set (if you play with one), so we can all work off some sort of common aesthetic.
- The turns will each be two years (not one) as I already mentioned. If a player has given at least one other player a turn in-between, he can return for additional turns later on, however. This should make the succession game something each player invests more deeply into (and is thus less likely to screw the fort), and also make it viable with a much smaller number of players than most succession games.
- Turns will be starting with the current list of players from the 0.40.07 thread (migrated here). Additional players will have their names added to the end of the list on a first-come, first-serve basis, including once the game has already been launched. New players will tend to bump players going in for a repeat turn off the list if they request a turn early enough.
- Each player should post a *detailed* summary of their turn (with as little or as much roleplay as desired- personally I'll be trying to cut to the meat of matters rather than doing excessive storytelling) as well as the save file at the end of their turn. Players will have 48 hours to claim their turn (by making a short placeholder post stating they've downloaded the file), and 72-120 hours to complete their turn (depending on how long it took them to download the file- 120 hours if they claimed it instantly after the last player). If this starts too appear to be too slow or too fast, this will be up for further adjustment- the turn lengths were originally 24/72 hours, and have already been extended twice.
- I have decided to model the administration of this thread off the Roman Republic. Myself and DoctorMcTaalik (who choose to help co-host this thread instead of his own succession game) will act as "consuls"- two individuals holding equal amounts of executive power (much like the Roman Consuls, we will sometimes alternate who is taking primary responsibility) with one or the other of us filling in as a temporary "Dictator" (a position holding *limited* executive power for set periods of time in the Roman Republic) in the event of the other's absence or lack of involvement from time to time (things will revert to having tow Consuls when the other returns). The rest of you guys will be like "Senators"- holding legislative power over some issues (such as the location of the Embark), and the capability to collaboratively decide any issue myself and DoctorMcTaalik are not in agreement on. Some of you may be given positions of increased responsibility if you prove yourselves (using Roman names, like "Censor" for a player given responsibility of monitoring that each player upload their saves on time, with power to skip a delinquent player; or "Aedile" for a player taking responsibility for keeping tabs of the state of fortress supplies, and making sure no player sends the fortress on a path towards starvation, or needlessly wastes materials...)
Lastly, until this succession fort officially starts, I will be wandering around the world in Adventure Mode, or spawning small outposts in Fortress Mode. Don't worry, I won't be causing any permanent harm to the world (I won't be trying to depose the rulers of any civs, for instance), mostly just wandering around and getting a sense of this world we're about to all play in.
IF, for any reason, this fort fails, this will not be the end of this world file. I expect the last player to upload his/her save file (if this is not provided, I will go from the last one available), and I will continue the world file, likely starting another succession fort in the same world soon after this one has had a little time to cool down... (I anticipate if the fort comes to an abrupt end, it will be due to violence and slaughter...)
Last, but not least, have fun! And let's TRY our VERY BEST to make sure this fort succeeds- I do NOT want another Failcannon or Boatmurdered here- my goal is to create the rare fortress, one that actually SURVIVES (I'll outline some strategies for that in my next posts).
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 12:09:31 am
Northstar1989 (Embark Turn Complete)
DoctorMcTaalik (Skipped/Dream)
InfiniteCastor (6 months- Complete)
Deus Asmoth (Complete)
Peregarrett (Skipped)
Edmus (Delayed)
Shadow Of Fate (Delayed, warned ahead of time)
Meme (Skipped)
Askarn (Complete)
Meme (Gave up turn)
Taupe (Complete)
DoctorMcTaalik (Delayed)
Edmus (Delayed)
Shadow of Fate (Delayed)
Northstar1989 (second turn - Complete)
InfiniteCastor (second turn, first full turn- skipped)
Deus Armoth (second turn - Complete)
Peregarrett (skipped)
Meme (skipped)
Edmus (second turn- Skipped)
DoctorMcTaalik (Complete, no logs)
Shadow of Fate (Skipped)
Bigheaded (Complete)
Subject to change- new players can bump older players going in for repeat turns, and players can give up their spot to other players to go later in the turn order.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 12:36:42 am
'Dathateyo' ("The Ageless World") is a 250-year worldgen on a Small map. The world, first of all, is in "The Age of Heroes"- meaning there are still SOME Megabeasts and other such powers (including Necromancers- of which there are 3 slabs and 4 practioners alive according to Legends) left alive, but only a fraction of those created at world-gen.
Dathateyo is a world with a fairly small amount of ocean, several discrete islands, and a substantial southern icecap- meaning a large variety of potential sites for a Fortress are available. There are only two mountain ranges in the world- a large one in the north, and an extremely small one (appearing on the Region map as only a single tile) in the south. The southern part of the main continent is also home to a LARGE population of Goblins- although the majority of the Goblin population actually ended up on a large island (9 region tiles) in the western Ocean.
Near the southern end of the northern mountain range is located two small pockets of unusual terrain- one small 'Terrifying' biome just beyond the southern foothills (where the land levels out) that takes up only a small portion of a single region tile (despite the Region tile showing purple on the map), and a much larger "Joyous Wilds" good-aligned biome along a brook the leads directly into the heart of the mountain range.
Further to the south lie the Dark Goblin Fortresses of Obngotutes and Strodnouspum directly along the southern edge of the southern mountain range... A brook runs just to the north of them along the very edge of the mountains (such that it runs along the divider between the mountains and forests to the south), and several interesting potential Fortress sites can be found here despite the extreme proximity to Goblins.
Further to the south, the forests give way to cold and temperate swamps, and then to barren tundra. Well to the west of the southern mountain range, on one of the most extremely southernly (and deeply Freezing) portions of the tundra can be found a very tall solitary volcano- "The South Rage"- with EXTREMELY steep slopes ascending to it out of the otherwise flat tundra terrain.
On the other hand, quite a ways due east of the southern mountain range can be found a strangely-empty peninsula (remember that civs will only attack or trade over up to 30 tiles in 0.40.08- this location is close enough to the Goblins to suffer attacks, but too far from the remaining Elves or Humans to receive any extra trade caravans). Lush and fertile forests dominate this terrain, which is mainly composed of Untamed Wilds, but also plays host a large pocket of Joyous Wilds (good-aligned terrain) along the eastern and southern coasts of the penninsula.
The oceans also hold two interesting locales:
First, to the south-southeast of the empty penninsula can be found a substantial island (11 tiles on the Region view) that contains a wooded Cold "Temperated Shrubland" in its northern region, as well as a brook that grows into a stream and splits in two, Freezing saltwater marshes in the center, and a large expanse of barren (and Freezing) Tundra further to the south. Throughout the island can be found deposits of Shallow Clay (as well as plenty of trees in the north to use for fuel), and there are no other civs anywhere on the island (including elves to harass the fort for exploiting those trees for survival).
The other interesting island lies a short distance to the north of the heavily goblin-infested island playing host to the majority of the world's Goblin population (which also happens to be Sinister Saltwater Marshes thoughout much of it). Similar to Gobbo Island, much of this island's terrain is comprised of flat, low-lying Saltwater (and occasionally Freshwater) Marshes. However UNLIKE Gobbo Island, several regions of Warm Shrubland and Conifer Forest can be found along the northern coast (the combination of slightly sloped terrain and higher temperatures makes the ground much less water-logged). And, of course, there are new Goblins. Building a Fortress on this island only a short distance from their homeland would be an appropriate spit-in-the-eye at the Goblins for wiping out most other civilized life over the past two centuries.
Finally, far to the northwest, lie Hot and SCORCHING Shrubland terrain, and the world's only two Necromancer towers. Nestled between these Two Towers, in a forested river-valley that feeds towards the more northern of these towers along the coast, lie a large number of abandoned (likely wiped out by the Necromancers) former Human cities (so thoroughly have the Humans region been wiped out that absolutely no Human presence any longer shows on the Embark Screen under 'Neighbors'). Closer to the coast (and the towers), where the forests of the valley begin to expand over a wider swathe of terrain, lies the one last bastion of civilized life against the Goblin menace (Humans and Dwarves both still exist, but cling tenuously to life by a single thread in a pair of minor Hamlets and occupied Cave sites, respectively), a number of large and populous Elven Forest Retreats...
Now, it is time for Dwarves to rise again! We must venture forth from our caves (yes, that's right- it appears Dwarves have reverted to becoming cave-dwellers in order to survive) and build great fortresses once more! We, the last remaining Dwarves civilization, the Aqua Hills, must show the world what it means to hold Dwarven faith and Dwarven pride!
By the way, surprisingly, despite the long and storied history of violent struggle by Dwarves against the Goblin menace in this world, there is only one site available for Reclaim- the ruin of Shootshands- the former Dwarven capital of the Aqua Hills, destroyed in the year 149 by the Forgotten Beast Anu Siltyquids "the Eagle of Thrones". This site would be EXTREMELY difficult to settle, however, even without a Forgotten Beast that's likely been lurking deep in the ruins for the past 101 years- the site, which lies in an isolated area along the northern edge of The Slow Barbs (the northern mountain range- the other significant range has a mixture of names due to being slightly broken-up) is a mixture of *HOT* Mountain terrain with some rather steep slopes, and the edge of a Hot Tropical Freshwater Marsh (hello Alligators and Hippos!) with absolutely no other sources of water than Murky pools (which would dry up rapidly in the Mountain biome, and be full of dangerous critters in the marsh) anywhere within the Embark area... There are also no shallow (only deep) Metals in either biome, clay, or evidence of Flux Stone. At least there are Elves to trade with (a single Forest Retreat lies somewhere in range, although I can't find it). I don't recommend trying to reclaim it, unless getting brutally murdered by swamp wildlife and the sick/injured dying of thirst or infection (from the Stagnant Water) before the fort even has a chance to get off the ground is your idea of a good time...
I look forward to feedback on preferred Fortress sites.
NEW: Potential Fortress Sites
OK, so I've narrowed it down to 5 reasonable (in a *very* generous sense of the word- one of the sites is within range of a Necromancer Tower) sites that are relatively flat according to the slope map (except the volcano), are at the intersection of multiple biomes (important for metal/wildlife diversity), and in most cases have Clay and some source of fuel (I am a VERY big fan of establishing a porcelain industry- especially at some of the sites with deeper soil or an aquifer where stone might be difficult to obtain).
Site #1: The Island Site
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
CHOSEN SITE (Site #2): The Volcano Site
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Site #3: The Reclaim Site
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Site #4: The Necromancer Site
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Site #5: The Isolated Site
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Also, I thought I should let you guys know I'm considering trying to build a small outpost and retiring it (somewhere isolated from the Goblins and Necromancers, so it won't succumb to an invasion) so that when we start the main fort for the succession game, we can still (hopefully) get Outpost Liaisons due to the presence of another dwarf-occupied Dwarven (rather than Cave) site on the map; and so the King/Queen doesn't arrive at our main fort in one of the first wave of migrants (assuming I can find time to settle him/her down in the outpost first)...
Doing so should also GREATLY increase the number of different types of goods we have access to through the Dwarven Caravan, since aside from some defaults, the accessible goods are calculated based on the local resources that can be found in the biomes of each occupied Dwarven (or Elven/Human for their caravans) site on the map.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 12, 2014, 04:04:51 am
Imagine: Seven dwarves sailing the seas in a tiny wagon, two beasts of burden aboard, in the hopes of establishing a fortress on some remote marshy isle otherwise inhabited by goblins. That is the kind of awesome stubborness that we need if we are to revive the dwarven empire.
Post by: peregarrett on August 12, 2014, 04:51:27 am
But posting maps would be nice.
Post by: Edmus on August 12, 2014, 05:07:06 am
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 12, 2014, 08:03:43 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 10:21:14 am
The goblins encroached upon our territory, I say we do likewise. With your consent, I'll have the dwarfed catch some fluffy wamblers; we can inflate them as makeshift pontoons. It should take us a mere two weeks (exacty two weeks) to hit that northmost island.
Imagine: Seven dwarves sailing the seas in a tiny wagon, two beasts of burden aboard, in the hopes of establishing a fortress on some remote marshy isle otherwise inhabited by goblins. That is the kind of awesome stubborness that we need if we are to revive the dwarven empire.
Haha, a fluffly wambler raft. That made me chuckle. :)
I like the imagery as well. I should remind you, though- the northern island doesn't actually hold any Goblins or evil terrain. It's the island just to the south of that that is jam-packed with Gobbo's (and when I say jam-packed, I mean all but 3 of the island's 72 Region tiles are purple with Gobbos or Sinister terrain)
I was leaning strongly towards one of the islands though, purely on the logic that an island fort is much more likely to survive (building on the mainland isn't going to provide any advantage other than trade routes with Elves- I can't seem to find the last two occupied Human hamlets visible through Legends) due to the lack of Goblins. However, there are also broad swathes of land in the north that are too distant from any Goblins to receive attacks (the two Necromancer towers are located in the northwest, but they have a much more limited range of attack). This includes, on more careful perusal, the abandoned Dwarven capital I mentioned in a spoiler.
Come to think of it, maybe the reclaim site wouldn't be too bad- due to its extreme isolation (it doesn't even have Kobolds...) But I'm still rather worried about that Forgotten Beast.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 10:29:49 am
The South Rage sounds dwarfy enough!
But posting maps would be nice.
The Southern Rage sounds like suicide to me. Freezing temperatures, no trees, tons of Goblins (their mainland civ is EXTREMELY close by), extremely steep slopes (most 11+ with asterisks on the Local Map) to challenge perimeter construction, and who knows what horrors might crawl out of that volcano...
I also promised preference to DoctorMcTaalik on many things as he abandoned setting up his own Succession Game to help co-host this one. So in the event of a tie (if at least two other people can't agree on a different location), I'll definitely be going with the northern island.
I'd love to post a map (or several, with Region-level views of several different locales), but I have no idea how to do it. Believe it or not, I've never actually posted screenshots of Dwarf Fortress before... (I was planning on using text to summarize my first turn, and maybe a couple Paint files with important locations circled produced using the Snipping Tool)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 12, 2014, 10:48:58 am
As for taking a picture of the whole map, it's possible to export the whole thing during generation, but in our case there's no way to do this besides World Viewer (which might not be compatible with our version) or with some strange means to zoom out the game view in order to screencap the whole map. I'm not an expert on the subject, but this is as much as I can provide.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 12, 2014, 11:30:00 am
That being said, we probably should probably not squat in the goblin ruins. I would seal them immediately, in case the forgotten beast is inside, and only explore them once we have a disposable yet well trained military squad.
Post by: peregarrett on August 12, 2014, 11:51:46 am
I'd love to post a map (or several, with Region-level views of several different locales), but I have no idea how to do it. Believe it or not, I've never actually posted screenshots of Dwarf Fortress before... (I was planning on using text to summarize my first turn, and maybe a couple Paint files with important locations circled produced using the Snipping Tool)You can export whole world map from legends mode, with various features like elevation or savagery.
At fortress mode you can export pictured for each separate z-level using ESC - Export local image - mark floors to export - pick the screenes at your DF folder. Run compress_bitmaps to convert them into png - that's much lighter than bmp it initially is.
But people (and me) usually just do Alt-PrScr at DF window and then paste into Paint. Or use "scrissors" utility. Then edit as necessary and save.
After you have a file, you should upload it on some picture hosting - tinypic or anything, get a link and put into your post ising IMG bbcode tag. Most hostings can provide you with right tag automatically.
That's simple :D
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 12, 2014, 12:02:45 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 02:56:21 pm
I don't really have a preference about the starting site, though I have heard of reclaims occasionally having the HFS open when you arrive.
I'll keep that in mind as one more potential point against the Reclaim site.
By the way, EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW, I've gone and edited five potential fortress sites into the third post (the one detailing the world we'll be living in). Please take a look at them, and select one of the five to vote on. I want to get this fortress going soon- I've already spent too much time pondering over things like rules and site selection.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 12, 2014, 03:06:07 pm
I don't really have a preference about the starting site, though I have heard of reclaims occasionally having the HFS open when you arrive.
I'll keep that in mind as one more potential point against the Reclaim site.
By the way, EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW, I've gone and edited five potential fortress sites into the third post (the one detailing the world we'll be living in). Please take a look at them, and select one of the five to vote on. I want to get this fortress going soon- I've already spent too much time pondering over things like rules and site selection.
Regards,
Northstar
I vote #5. If you need any help with rules and such, message me.
Post by: peregarrett on August 12, 2014, 03:13:16 pm
I still think volcano is the best site, since it has shallow metal (probably iron ore, or at least copper), deep metal (probably cassiterite?) and a marble layer for steel production. Also, goblins mean a steady supply of goblinite.
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 12, 2014, 03:18:54 pm
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 12, 2014, 03:59:49 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 04:00:09 pm
Brook: Jawsdissolved the Meal of Ignition. Water from there must be VERY TASTY.
Yeah- I nearly broke up laughing when I saw the name of that brook!
At least Site #5 has a slightly more pleasant name for its water-source: Focusbound the Canker of Nurturing (though cankers are a rather nasty type of sore...)
I still think volcano is the best site, since it has shallow metal (probably iron ore, or at least copper), deep metal (probably cassiterite?) and a marble layer for steel production. Also, goblins mean a steady supply of goblinite.
If we settled there, we'd pretty inevitably have to dig straight into the earth, seal ourselves in, and not even *think* of coming to the surface for *quite* a while.
Not only are the goblins pretty dangerous (until we've got the Magma Kilns running full-steam to produce bricks for walls- the Very Deep Soil and presence of an Aquifer means digging for stone early on simply isn't practical), but the deep-Freezing temperatures are in themselves a hazard. In *VERY* extreme cold (such as could actually be found there in the Winter), Dwarves can actually catch frostbite and even die of cold- *especially* if they're not properly clothed. I've never seen it happen before, but I've also never before embarked so far south/north of the Freezing line on the map (the coldest site I ever built at was on the border between a Cold and Freezing biome- and was actually warm enough to get a general thaw for a few days each year)
Yes, in the *long run*, such a fortress has a lot of potential- due to the presence of Shallow Metal, an Aquifer (which also means we can produce an infinite supply of Obsidian), Clay, Goblinite, and probably also Sand in those Very Deep Soil layers. But in the *short run*, I'm worried the cold, the lack of surface water (it's too cold for Murky Pools to thaw), the Magma-creatures, and the Goblins would probably wipe us out...
In OTHER NEWS OF NOTE, I've decided to go ahead and build a small outpost to the north of Site #5, where the stream Focusbound the Canker of Nurturing) hits the ocean. That should make for an interesting little adventure on my part (I might even post a couple screenshots here of the site just before I retire it), and more importantly should increase the trade potential of any other site we choose by providing an Outpost Liaison (once again, hopefully- if I really understand how this game mechanic works) and a greater variety of Dwarven Caravan trade-goods for whatever site we eventually settle on...
It also, not-coincidentally, should make the ruins (or gloriously-retired community: just trying to be optimistic here) of any fort at Site #5 easier to find for future adventurers (probably headed East from the Elven/Necromancer area, since it's the only non-Goblin civilized area currently on the map)- just head east along the coast until you hit the outpost, then follow the stream north. If you follow the *correct* branch of the stream (such that it retains the same name- Focusbound retains its name from Site #5 all the way to the ocean due to its being the largest tributary by that point) then you will hit Site #5, and whatever fort we decide to build there, if any.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 04:06:51 pm
I'd vote for the necromancers or the reclaim, simply because having only elves for neighbours seems a bit boring.
Boring? Unlikely. Just because we don't have a Forgotten Beast ROFL-stomping us or a pile of zombies raping us within 2 months of Embark doesn't mean we aren't going to have !FUN! (and if there was !FUN! that early, it would only actually be MY FUN, since I take the first turn- you'd never get the chance to take a turn before the fortress had descended into turmoil and the last dwarf died an agonizing death...) :P
The abundance of tropical swamp-creatures (like alligators and hippos), Megabeasts, Semi-Megabeasts, Forgotten Beasts, hostile and underground creatures, and possibly even HFS at nearly all the other sites should keep us plenty-occupied. Not to mention that even the best-designed fort in the safest location has a tendency to tear itself limb-from-limb when some poor bloke manages to fall to his death while mining early in the fort's history while people are still sleeping on the ground (setting off a tantrum-spiral), or some overseer forgets to brew enough booze or grow enough crops. I don't think we'll be having any problems with things becoming "interesting" in the long run: even when playing *very* carefully in idyllic "Joyous Wilds", I've never yet had a fortress survive for more than 20 years... :D
I'll keep your vote in mind (and the tally), though personally I'd strongly recommend the Volcano site if you're looking for more of a challenge, but want something that's actually got some long-term potential.
Regards,
Northstar
P.S.
I vote #5. If you need any help with rules and such, message me.
Yeah, I'm already thinking about how I'd like to handle deciding on an Embark Profile. I'm writing you a PM about it now...
P.P.S. And... SENT. Let me know ASAP if you got it.
Post by: Edmus on August 12, 2014, 05:01:27 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 12, 2014, 05:50:44 pm
Anyway, that's my two cents for whatever it's worth. I'm not signing up to run the fortress for a turn at this point, but I'll definitely follow the story if it's at "The South Rage." The way I see it, anyone can set it up next to a necromancer tower for a zombie challenge or in an easy environment for a safe choice. But that particular volcano environment is fairly unique.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 06:24:53 pm
This looks like it has a lot of potential. If you ask me, I think the volcano tundra site would be epic. It's a crazy environment, but at the same time gives you a lot. There's good resources, an aquifer for water, and very deep soil for underground farms. You have everything you need to deal with the freezing temps early game when you set up everything underground. Just bring a third pic to mine with, a bit of extra wood, and add a couple turkeys and pigs (at least one of each gender for breeding for both turkeys and pigs) for some good non grazing animals to help you out. The surroundings are calm so there shouldn't be too much early game to threaten you besides the Goblin sieges. Being a volcano, there is also likely to be fairly shallow magma. In theory, that would help with the goblins. It could also potentially help with the cold somewhat if you decide to go above ground. The other main problems are the lack of wood (which can be solved later on by caverns) and the cliffs. And the cliffs are nuts. But here's the thing. Even if you don't start up on the top, you could burrow your way up to the top and make that the main outside part of the fort anyway.
Anyway, that's my two cents for whatever it's worth. I'm not signing up to run the fortress for a turn at this point, but I'll definitely follow the story if it's at "The South Rage." The way I see it, anyone can set it up next to a necromancer tower for a zombie challenge or in an easy environment for a safe choice. But that particular volcano environment is fairly unique.
You make a fairly good argument for the Volcano. So why don't you sign up for a turn and vote for it? It doesn't look like it's going to win otherwise, but you've made enough of a point for me to consider potentially swinging my vote that way if you sign up for a turn...
Keep in mind that you've got quite a few players ahead of you, and you could always allow other players to cut in front of you for their second turn before you take your first. So you wouldn't have to actually play a turn for quite a while...
In other news, this is getting really slow, so I'm *STRONGLY* leaning towards just selecting the embark goods myself (since I have the first turn- I've already PM'd DoctorMcTaalik about it). If things go *HORRIBLY* wrong, then DoctorMcTaalik could always Reclaim the site and try again on his second turn. And I want to get PLAYING already once we decide on a common site (I'm wavering between Site #5 and the Volcano- and will probably make up my mind on which after I see how my outpost in the Scorching terrain by the sea north of Site #5 works out...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 12, 2014, 06:55:40 pm
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 12, 2014, 07:12:24 pm
You make a fairly good argument for the Volcano. So why don't you sign up for a turn and vote for it? It doesn't look like it's going to win otherwise, but you've made enough of a point for me to consider potentially swinging my vote that way if you sign up for a turn...Well it's tempting to think about if I wouldn't have to play for a bit and if it would potentially sway in the direction of the volcano site. And I do like the two year rule for turns instead of one year. From reading older games of hand off forts, I feel like as soon someone started to do anything that the year would end and they would have to give it over. I think lack of continuity was the main problem in a lot of the other succession forts. This allows a little more continuity which will hopefully allow the fort to survive longer.
Keep in mind that you've got quite a few players ahead of you, and you could always allow other players to cut in front of you for their second turn before you take your first. So you wouldn't have to actually play a turn for quite a while...
I just worry that late August and September (especially early on) might be a busy time for me, so there is a decent chance my hypothetical turn might come at a bad time in real life for me based on the timing of this fortress.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 12, 2014, 07:27:56 pm
Don't worry about it. If you need to pass up a turn, we can add you in later.You make a fairly good argument for the Volcano. So why don't you sign up for a turn and vote for it? It doesn't look like it's going to win otherwise, but you've made enough of a point for me to consider potentially swinging my vote that way if you sign up for a turn...Well it's tempting to think about if I wouldn't have to play for a bit and if it would potentially sway in the direction of the volcano site. And I do like the two year rule for turns instead of one year. From reading older games of hand off forts, I feel like as soon someone started to do anything that the year would end and they would have to give it over. I think lack of continuity was the main problem in a lot of the other succession forts. This allows a little more continuity which will hopefully allow the fort to survive longer.
Keep in mind that you've got quite a few players ahead of you, and you could always allow other players to cut in front of you for their second turn before you take your first. So you wouldn't have to actually play a turn for quite a while...
I just worry that late August and September (especially early on) might be a busy time for me, so there is a decent chance my hypothetical turn might come at a bad time in real life for me based on the timing of this fortress.
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 12, 2014, 07:31:50 pm
Don't worry about it. If you need to pass up a turn, we can add you in later.
Alright then. Sign me up and put my vote in for the volcano.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 12, 2014, 09:55:39 pm
Don't worry about it. If you need to pass up a turn, we can add you in later.
Alright then. Sign me up and put my vote in for the volcano.
Done, and done. And I've changed my vote to the Volcano based on your compelling argument and after finding the seaside outpost (so our Dwarven civ- the Aqua Treaties, which I got the name of wrong before, can have a second site besides our fort) a bit less exciting than I hoped.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 12, 2014, 10:08:44 pm
Don't worry about it. If you need to pass up a turn, we can add you in later.
Alright then. Sign me up and put my vote in for the volcano.
Done, and done. And I've changed my vote to the Volcano based on your compelling argument and after finding the seaside outpost (so our Dwarven civ- the Aqua Treaties, which I got the name of wrong before, can have a second site besides our fort) a bit less exciting than I hoped.
Regards,
Northstar
Alright, just know- I'm not to be trusted with volcanoes.
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 13, 2014, 07:33:50 am
Alright, just know- I'm not to be trusted with volcanoes.
Given the game, I don't believe that'll be a problem.
More a solution, if anything.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 13, 2014, 03:04:28 pm
THE VOLCANO
The vote came out 3-2-2 (Volcano, Site #5, Reclaim), with my own vote being the deciding vote. Since I gave preference to DrMcTaalik (who voted for Site #5) and I'm not particularly fond of Necromancer sites, Site #5 would have been my 2nd pick. But the outpost I established just north of there teetered on the edge of disaster (due to two Dwarves going Berserk due to failed Strange Moods, and some sort of Loyalty Cascade set off by assigning War Dogs to the first dwarf to go berserk just before he lost his marbles...) and it felt almost like a bad omen to me.
If the volcano fails, we'll re-assess: if there's enough interest (especially if the volcano didn't last long), we can try Site #5, or any of the other sites. Although, I intend to be stubborn about trying to establish a fort at the volcano. IF the first expedition fails, we launch a reclaim, etc.
There's a saying that I feel is of relevance for me (I'm applying to the US Marine Corps officer program in real life), and the group:
"Marines don't die. They just go to hell and regroup."
I feel this saying would best be modified as such:
"DWARVES don't die. They just go to hell and regroup."
(Somebody REALLY needs to make a meme for that!)
Now let's DO THIS!
Details on my Embark setup (I've decided just to handle that on my own, since I go first, and DoctorMcTaalik goes 2nd and was OK with that) and my first impressions of the site to follow shortly.
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Due to the way succession mechanics work for the throne, and a tantrum spiral that claimed our queen- and nearly the outpost I set up earlier (who was SELECTED from among the first 7 Dwarves to the coastal outpost I established- apparently our civ was lacking one, having only live minor nobles), our current queen is actually a MERCHANT with the Dwarven Caravan. Expect to possibly see her in an early migrant wave to our main fort or with one of the trade caravans, since I failed to keep our first queen alive at CraftedDawn (the outpost I set up earlier).
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 13, 2014, 03:25:50 pm
OK, so the final decision is... drumroll please...
THE VOLCANO
Alright! I have a good feeling about this fortress.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 13, 2014, 04:28:31 pm
Alright! I have a good feeling about this fortress.
It's hard to tell if that's well-placed. I've run into some really good, and really bad luck already.
First, the bad news:
(http://i.imgur.com/VZEGxkE.jpg)
It appears our embark site is over a Saltwater Aquifer, rather than a Freshwater Aquifer, despite the considerable distance to the nearest coast.
Now, the 7 Dwarves we started with (feel free to dorf yoursefl- but keep in mind I will NOT be separating dwarves by profession this early on. Thus, just because you chose Urist McLikes Shields, doesn't mean the dwarf will be getting an armorer or carpenter profession anytime soon...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Now, as for the embark goods:
(http://i.imgur.com/TIBKFBI.jpg)
Some of you may notice the following:
(1) I embarked with almost no booze! Don't panic- all of the plants I packed were brewable, and I intend to start underground farming plump helmets ASAP
(2) I embarked with no livestock. This might have been a mistake (especially since we had a Urist McLikesPigs in our First 7, and pigs would be the best livestock IMHO opinion due to the low availability of pasture- there's only a tiny bit of mountain grass clinging to some of the slopes that won't regrow after eaten) but I didn't want any pigs running off panicked into the nearest volcano the first time they see a polar bear from the top of the mountain, leading to instant bacon... :D
(3) I embarked with a LOT of stone. This was because the Embark screen listed Very Deep Soil, so I thought stone would be hard to get at besides the obsidian in the volcano rim. The ores (Tetrahedrite, Cassiterite, and Bismuthinite) are for making Bismuth Bronze- bar for bar the cheapest and most profitable weapons-grade material we can make using embark ores, given our lack of ability to embark with Copper Nuggets or Malachite. Turns out that the stone is QUITE accessible though, and we have Native Copper available right near our Embark Wagon, so we probably would have been better off with some piggies... :(
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Now, as for the Dwarven skills:
(http://i.imgur.com/NCbyHiZ.jpg)
I didn't start with hardly any. 2 Novice Miners and a single Adequate Carpenter (to churn out some decent-quality beds from the start). Other than that, all our Embark points were invested in supplies.
Now, HERE is what our Embark site looked like the moment the game loaded up:
(http://i.imgur.com/KEoaPoW.jpg)
Looks like I was right about our starting on the peak of the volcano. Though not shown, the highest Z-level is also comprised of Clay- so we should have a VERY easy time mass-producing bricks using clay hauled down from there (or better yet, I'm thinking of piling it on a Hatch linked to a lever, and DROPPING it down a sort of elevator-shaft to the Z-level where we can locate our Magma Kilns). There's also Sand everywhere, and Clay on much lower Z-levels: though unfortunately it's all standard Clay, NONE of it is Fire Clay (so we won't be able to use it to hold our booze without investing our imported wood supply in glazing it...)
Also, I'm not stupid. I now Dwarves have a silly tendency to climb DOWN volcano rims. So one of my first acts as overseer was THIS:
(http://i.imgur.com/zBDnMsh.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/BcF0dQ1.jpg)
That extends all the way from the z-level of the Wagon up to the volcano lip, and I expect NOBODY to remove that restricted area without VERY good reason. I do NOT want our Dwarves incinerating in Magma simply because they got a little frightened by some harmless bird diving into the side of the volcano, or caught sight of a Polar Bear over the walls, and decided to go volcano-diving as a result of the normal "treeing" logic (if pigs respected restricted areas as well as Dwarves, I would have brought some of them along on the Embark- but the bird suicidal dive-bombing bug is just as likely to kill them as not long before I manage to get them inside...)
This should be a FUN embark, though I intend to try and avoid having !FUN! this time around. I'll see you all soon with news of how my turn goes.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 13, 2014, 05:56:44 pm
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 13, 2014, 06:47:50 pm
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 13, 2014, 09:06:08 pm
The one thing I might second guess is the lack of livestock or animals in general. With the outside temperatures, this make you almost entirely reliant on underground farms to start. I also have a feeling that if there are thieves or vermin (basically like thieves) in the area, they may be a problem at first considering you have no cats or dogs to detect them and potentially stop them. Not trying to tell you how to run your turn, but if you desired, a way you could minimize that is by building a series of storage rooms with the only entrance to them being through the barracks to potentially minimize thieves ravaging the inventory.
Again, you know what you are doing. Feel free to ignore any or all of this that you may find annoying. I'm just analyzing it out loud. Again, it's simply a different approach than I expected. That doesn't make it bad. Or maybe it proves that I'm just way too reliant on animals with the way I play. Either way, I look forward to seeing what you decide to do. I think this will be a very interesting fortress.
Post by: HiEv on August 13, 2014, 10:40:27 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 14, 2014, 12:35:52 am
By the way, I love that we've embarked in "The Blizzard of Oranges". I'm sure that name will help us attract migrants.
Indeed- but actually, I hope it doesn't. Since we're going to be heavily reliant on limited food supplies from trade and underground farming (until it can be sufficiently ramped up) for the first two years, more migrants just means more mouths to feed...
Your play style is already so different than mine. If it were me, I would bring 3 copper pics to mine as much as possible as fast as possible, and for livestock I would have brought both two turkeys, and two pigs. (opposite genders for breeding included)
Why would anybody ever want to "mine as fast as possible"? I generally find that with efficient utilization of resources and space, my miners spend most of their time doing other jobs anyways. More often, the limiting factor for my forts is my willpower to actually lay out new room plans and expansions to the fort rather than the actual speed my miners can mine it...
The lack of livestock, however, was a regrettable trade-off. See my next post- I actually ordered up quite a few for the next Dwarven Caravan (gladly, my plan of establishing and retiring a small fort before this one so we could get an Outpost Liaison worked! We got a liaison right on-schedule with the first Dwarven Carvan, even though the earlier outpost never got a single Outpost Liaison in either of its two autumns...)
I wouldn't even bother with the axes (to save points) because you got no trees to start anyway. Then again, I'm pretty crazy. Most of what you did makes complete sense. It's just different than I expected, which makes it that much more interesting to me. I was also surprised by the increase of stone versus bringing wood. I had figured stone would be easier to find than wood, considering that while there are like no trees, there is stone on the map even if the soil is very deep. But I guess you could have enough wood to get by if you use some of the containers. So maybe that's a moot point.
I was trying to not only get weapons-grade material, but as much container space as possible as cheaply and durably as possible. A quartzite boulder can be carved into 4 rock blocks (did I mention quartzite is lightweight and magma-proof?), or a large pot that holds a greater quantity of food supplies than a wooden barrel while simultaneously providing better protection against gnawing vermin (the PENETRATEPOWER token on vermin matches up against container type and material. Cloth is the easiest to gnaw through, as in an exposed seeds bag. Wood provides better protection. Stone/metal provide the best protection against vermin). It also costs exactly the same as a wooden log at embark, despite its greater initial utility.
I didn't bring THAT MUCH in the way of stone: I brought 72 Willow Logs- so I'm well aware of the situation with wood. Using stone for furniture instead of wood also makes it more resistant (or impervious with quartzite) to magma, and trains up my Mason rather than my Carpenter- who is likely to see relatively little use on a map with so little wood.
The one thing I might second guess is the lack of livestock or animals in general. With the outside temperatures, this make you almost entirely reliant on underground farms to start. I also have a feeling that if there are thieves or vermin (basically like thieves) in the area, they may be a problem at first considering you have no cats or dogs to detect them and potentially stop them. Not trying to tell you how to run your turn, but if you desired, a way you could minimize that is by building a series of storage rooms with the only entrance to them being through the barracks to potentially minimize thieves ravaging the inventory.
I intend to seal the fort off from the outside world entirely, with the only way in or out being a raising bridge that seals into a solid wall when raised (and only lowers for the caravans). Therefore thieves shouldn't be much of a problem (the only things they will be able to steal will be things I intentionally leave outside because they have no value- such as cartilage from the Butcher). Vermin, on the other hand, are going to be an issue until I get my first shipment of cats- which is why I am using stone pots instead of wooden barrels, and intend to move the food storage to a room with brick walls and floors (some vermin, like worms, only spawn from exposed soil) as soon as I find the time.
Again, you know what you are doing. Feel free to ignore any or all of this that you may find annoying. I'm just analyzing it out loud. Again, it's simply a different approach than I expected. That doesn't make it bad. Or maybe it proves that I'm just way too reliant on animals with the way I play. Either way, I look forward to seeing what you decide to do. I think this will be a very interesting fortress.
Your points are good, and valid. They're concerns I thought of myself. Keep watching! And see what you think of the next post...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 14, 2014, 01:22:18 am
First of all, I thought it might be helpful if everybody knew the date on the calendar of embark, so that you all realized that your turns will begin in mid-Summer instead of early-Spring:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Anyways, my first order of business was to do something about the booze situation (namely, that I didn't embark with any of it). I started off by freeing up some storage space:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Once that was in swing, I also got started on smelting the ores I would need to make a bit of Bismuth Bronze for picks:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My mason also got busy making rock blocks for construction of workshops and rock doors for the rooms of the fortress:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And I quickly set up a butcher and slaughtered the Water Buffalo Bull for some additional meat:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Here's a look at the jobs screen:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And as soon as the first bismuth bronze picks were completed, it's time to start mining out some sheltered living space!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
While this was going on, we got our first Outpost Liaison!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And I duly ordered up a bunch of goods for the next Dwarven Caravan:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I also got an export agreement for next year's Caravan. Apparently they want Prepared Meals and Drinks- which is good, because it means I'll be strongly rewarded for prioritizing farms and agriculture as my first industry...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Finally, most recently (before posting this), I slaughtered the Donkey as well, and quantum-stockpiled all our goods inside the small dug-out area (we can sort them out later)- hence the job cancellation spam as Dwarves carried off job items for jobs set on repeat...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: The Bastard of France on August 14, 2014, 09:18:55 am
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 14, 2014, 11:03:10 am
Why would anybody ever want to "mine as fast as possible"?
Lol. This part wasn't a suggestion. I was simply referencing where my own playstyle differs. You see, I like to mine out vast infrastructures as fast as practically possible right from the start. That is especially true in evil areas or areas with hostile surface temperatures. So I bring 3 already assembled copper pics so I can start right away. So I get a little mining happy. But I'm special. ;)
The lack of livestock, however, was a regrettable trade-off. See my next post- I actually ordered up quite a few for the next Dwarven Caravan (gladly, my plan of establishing and retiring a small fort before this one so we could get an Outpost Liaison worked! We got a liaison right on-schedule with the first Dwarven Carvan, even though the earlier outpost never got a single Outpost Liaison in either of its two autumns...)
I was curious on how you planned to do this without any animals. But I'm just as fine with you getting the livestock through trading anyway. In fact, I noticed you got both turkeys and pigs, which makes me very happy because those are the ones I tend to use. I noticed you got dogs and cats as well.
I was trying to not only get weapons-grade material, but as much container space as possible as cheaply and durably as possible.
I didn't bring THAT MUCH in the way of stone: I brought 72 Willow Logs- so I'm well aware of the situation with wood. Using stone for furniture instead of wood also makes it more resistant (or impervious with quartzite) to magma, and trains up my Mason rather than my Carpenter- who is likely to see relatively little use on a map with so little wood.
Yeah, I figured out you were doing the container trick thing as I was writing that part, so I mentioned that. Somehow, I missed the 72 willow logs. >_> Oops...
I intend to seal the fort off from the outside world entirely, with the only way in or out being a raising bridge that seals into a solid wall when raised (and only lowers for the caravans).
That works.
Your points are good, and valid. They're concerns I thought of myself. Keep watching! And see what you think of the next post...
Well, I don't have any concerns at the moment. It's early, but you have handled it very well so far. I found the starting time interesting. In some ways, starting out in midsummer might be better so that you have the most heat before you turn it into a shelter. I look forward to seeing how it goes.
Post by: Meme on August 14, 2014, 12:27:57 pm
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 14, 2014, 12:34:59 pm
FYI, the thread title is misspelled. You have "The Agless World" instead of "The Ageless World".
Well, we don't have any ags, do we?
By the way, I love that we've embarked in "The Blizzard of Oranges". I'm sure that name will help us attract migrants.
Indeed- but actually, I hope it doesn't. Since we're going to be heavily reliant on limited food supplies from trade and underground farming (until it can be sufficiently ramped up) for the first two years, more migrants just means more mouths to feed...
If we get too many useless migrants, systematic dwarven purges may be in order.
I also got an export agreement for next year's Caravan. Apparently they want Prepared Meals and Drinks- which is good, because it means I'll be strongly rewarded for prioritizing farms and agriculture as my first industry...
That's good. I have a bad habit of neglecting the
Sign me up for a turn. I've never done a succession game but this looks to be very fun!
I think it will be. Hopefully not too Fun; Northstar wants this place to last.
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 14, 2014, 12:52:12 pm
I also got an export agreement for next year's Caravan. Apparently they want Prepared Meals and Drinks- which is good, because it means I'll be strongly rewarded for prioritizing farms and agriculture as my first industry...
That's good. I have a bad habit of neglecting theAgAgricultural industry somewhat in favor of large mining projects.
So I'm not the only one! That's a relief.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 14, 2014, 02:52:37 pm
Anyways, first of all, I got the farms started:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I then proceeded to slaughter a Water Buffalo Cow I bought from the caravan (the bones and hooves alone will be worth more than it cost me once transformed into trade goods) and buy some more food:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then I started on the Magma Smeleters, Magma Forges, Magma Glass Furnaces, and most importantly- Magma Kils:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then I got started on some surface fortifications in earnest, while also building up the Magma Kiln/ Glass Furnace capacity further... Then the unthinkable happenedL
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Although it's not show (yet), I did manage to seal all my remaining Dwarves and livestock (a cat, blue peacock some migrant bought as his pet, and the Horse from the caravan earlier which I haven't slaughtered yet) safely inside the fortress. And the unhappiness levels from the lost Dwarf are manageable- at least until his body starts to rot away due to the Gobbo's blocking access to hauling it to a coffin...
I've got plans to deal with our unfortunate invaders (like any good Dwarves whose deities include a Goddess of the Earth, they involve making the Goblins one with the mountain...) but there's no replacing that lost Dwarf. At least we have plenty of stone to carve memorial slabs out of, and glass to make sarcophagi!
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Please remember that if this Embark doesn't work out, Doctor McTaalik is free to make a Reclaim of the site. It's turning out to be a nice site- and as you'll catch glimpses of in future screenshots, I've already invested rather heavily in setting up useful surface fortifications and covered courtyards...
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 14, 2014, 04:17:14 pm
Post by: Askarn on August 14, 2014, 05:28:38 pm
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 14, 2014, 07:05:20 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 14, 2014, 11:18:34 pm
I think that the first year invaders are a bug caused by the game no longer starting. On the first of Granite or something similar. If we get lucky, something will scare them and they'll climb into the volcano.
I've managed to weather several sieges (pictures coming soon) by this point, and I don't think you guys will have to worry about invaders much in the future. The fortress now has large walls for defense, a moderate amount of enclosed low-productivity pasture (grass doesn't grow very well in the Tundra even in a greenhouse), and 42 livestock (as of this post) within the walls (most are dogs/cats/pigs). There is also enough underground farmland to feed 4 or 5 times the current population with booze-cooking and careful management, and at least twice without.
As long as you remember to keep the bridge up most of the time, you should be fine. In fact, as I write this post (currently in the final month of my first turn), I'm laughing at Goblin invaders running circles around my walls, and thinking about if I'll have time to kill them before the end of the month. 8)
Images coming soon.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 15, 2014, 12:38:30 pm
Would have loved to have these images up last night, but my internet died on me... The fortress is almost ready to be passed on (any advice on the best way to transfer the file? As in specific file-sharing sites- I've never actually posted files to this forum before...) but I've got a few more days left in my mandate and one sudden emergency to attend to before I lay down the reins of leadership for the time being...
First of all, we got more migrants! And the fortifications began to really come along:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But we also got more Goblins- and lost ANOTHER Dwarf to their attacks:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
But we survived, and soon we had another Dwarven Caravan and Outpost Liaison:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Bad news came with the caravan though, Crafteddawns- the trading fortress I established before (with a perimeter wall and 20 Dwarves, so I wouldn't really call it *small*) was conquered by the Goblin menace a few months ago!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I dutifully ordered up some more trade goods for next year's caravan with the Outpost Liaison. Hopefully we get a liaison next year despite the loss of Crafteddawns...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And re-appropriated out Magma Kilns to make crafts instead of bricks in the hope of pawning off these essentially free Earthenware trinkets for valuable stuff like metals (and metal items we can melt down for free at our Magma Smelters), wood, and breeding pairs of livestock:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The caravan decided they were going to leave before I could get hardly any trade goods or my Broker to the Trade Depot though (I was rather occupied with building fortifications and expanding the fortress), so I decided to deconstruct the Trade Depot and STEAL everything they had brought to trade with us. I don't feel great about it, but what are they going to do- siege us? That's laughable once you see the strength of our fortifications by the end of my turn...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The fortifications continued to come along, slowly but surely. Unfortunately, I wasted quite a bit of effort building something and then second-guessing its position and deconstructing it after completion instead of just GOING WITH IT. But the end result was still an impressive castle of a fortress...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The Outpost Liaison, meanwhile, offered us an export agreement for next year despite stealing all the Caravan's stuff. Pay careful attention, because THESE are the goods you will be needing to sell to them Doctor McTaalik:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
And MORE migrants arrived soon after the caravan. Our fortress population is growing slowly but surely, despite the best efforts of the Goblins...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then a Clothier was possessed. Hmmm, I wonder what he'll make us- an artifact shirt perhaps?
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Unfortunately said Clothier insisted on blindly running around without apparent purpose outside of the fortress, instead of going in and claiming a workshop. This didn't bode well for him when a Goblin invasion arrived and insisted on hunting down everything alive they could find...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I survived that siege as well, though, and went back to my ordinary business, including slaughtering some livestock I had gotten (stolen) from the Dwarven Caravan:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I also got some more migrants- which is good. We're one step closer to reaching a critical mass of population where we can exist indefinitely without additional migrants (Dwarves won't marry their own brothers/sisters/cousins, so you need a population above a certain threshold to ensure multiple parallel family lines can exist.)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Then one of our Craftsdwarves withdrew from society in a strange mood...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(http://i.imgur.com/93AoxGf.jpg)
And constructed Udtomus- a basal table! Nice! We now have a Legendary Mason, as well as an artifact-quality table, which should be perfect for building a Legendary Dining Hall!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It wasn't long before the Goblins arrived though- apparently drawn by word of our Legendary Table (I wonder what it'll do when magic comes out for artifacts- maybe allow Dwarves to eat without consuming the food item?)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I proceeded to laugh at them though (this was when I made my previous post). After all- what could they do?! All my Dwarves and livestock were cloistered safely inside the fortress walls, and I raised the main gate shortly after they arrived... :P
That turned out to be a mistake though... NEVER underestimate the stupidity of your Dwarves! :-[
(http://i.imgur.com/1ubZyoB.jpg)
Apparently, my Dwarves decided that this was the PERFECT time to practice their high-board diving skills OFF THE EDGE OF THE FORTRESS, INTO SOLID GROUND A HALF-DOZEN Z-LEVELS BELOW! Or rather, I ordered the construction of an additional z-level of wall along the top of my existing fortifications, and when my Dwarves caught sight of the Goblins waiting patiently on another hill-top HALFWAY ACROSS THE MAP (since they could find no way into my fortress), most of them decided to panic and jump off the walls AWAY from my fortress rather than back inside it (two or three Dwarves with some existing points in Discipline actually ignored the Goblins, and made it safely back down from the walls after completing their assigned squares of wall...)
Three of the Dwarves are crippled from the jump, with serious spine or limb injuries, and probably won't make it back inside the walls alive (as they are unable to move- they periodically flashed white X-marks, even though you can't see it here). The other three Dwarves, however, miraculously landed with nothing but bruises. I'm currently torn between the need to pull them back inside the walls to try and avoid a tantrum-spiral (the loss of 3 Dwarves might be acceptable to the others- especially if they weren't well-liked; but the loss of 6 Dwarves spells almost certain doom for my fortress of just over 30 Dwarves...), and the risk of losing the rest of the fortress or additional Dwarves if I open the main gates to try and retrieve them...
News on the final result (and the save file- once I figure out how to upload it. I'd appreciate advice in this matter), soon! I've only got a week or two left in my mandate to resolve this crisis!
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: peregarrett on August 15, 2014, 01:01:09 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 15, 2014, 01:07:58 pm
Just zip your whole region folder and upload to DFFD.
Good idea, will do.
DoctorMcTaalik, your turn. I ended my mandate three days early (on the 20th of Malachite 254, instead of the 23rd) so you'll have more time to resolve the crisis I left you- you have until the 23rd of Malachite 256 for your turn. Nobody's going to be a stickler if you go two or three days over, but try not to.
Speaking of the crisis, I did my best to resolve it in what time I had left. That is, after inspecting the injuries to my Dwarves (it turns out only 1 of the 6 Dwarves was actually crippled- the other two had just passed out from pain after one or both of their hands exploded in gore...) I decided to open the main gate, and trust they could find their way back in:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I now concede leadership, for the time being. I ended 3 days early to give DoctorMcTaalik a bit more time to form and execute a plan to try and save the remaining Dwarves outside the walls (if possible) and make sure there aren't more Dwarves trapped outside than I thought (I recommend going down each and every Dwarf in the Citizens List accessible through "u" to see where each Dwarf is located (by zooming to them with "c").
Also, this should give you a bit more time to try and come up with a plan to kill the invaders (whatever you do, DON'T try and engage them in melee combat- that would be suicide, as none of our Dwarves are significantly skilled in combat, and we don't have any armor aside from what we stole from the last Dwarven Caravan...)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
One last image- the status of the fortress (and calendar date) as I left it:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Some advice to the next overseer (DoctorMcTaalik)
(1) Appoint a new Expedition Leader ASAP ("Replace" through the Nobles Screen using "r"). You DON'T want the Expedition Leader to get killed- sometimes this creates bugs with the continuity of the fortress and our future ability to receive Outpost Liaisons. I would have done this fore you, but I wanted to leave it up to your judgment who would make the best replacement Expedition Leader...
(2) Feel free to "dorf" players as requested. I got a number of players requesting to be "dorfed" before, yet nobody pointed out specific Dwarves they wanted to get assigned even though I showed you all screenshots of the character screens of the starting 7 Dwarves. COME ON GUYS! If you want to be Dwarfed, you've got to speak up about which Dwarf suits your fancy... Or we could just assign you randomly at-will, if you'd like. I don't like to specialize my Dwarves early on, though- so I understand you couldn't expect their profession to remain constant.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(3) The fortifications are (mostly) finished, and as tall as they can safely be built upwards- as I just demonstrated, building further upwards has become QUITE HAZARDOUS. If you want to engage in more surface construction, the best approach would probably be to dump several hundred Earthenware bricks outside the fortress walls using a Garbage Dump, and have new migrants build a sort of town at the base of the main fortress walls... However whatever you do, DON'T do this by dropping the bricks over the fortress walls- this is likely to get more Dwarves killed the next time there's a Goblin invasion, and there is a much better approach:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(4) Two or three types of above-ground crops grow in the Tundra biome- Cranberries, Bilberries, and possibly Blueberries. All should be brewable, and Cranberries/Bilberries can be farmed in the exposed Above Ground soil in the basement of the fortress (see the NOTES page for this and other hints I left around the fortress for future overseers), as well as possibly Blueberries- if you manage to gather some blueberry seeds (I don't have any, so they don't appear on my farm plots). They're new with the 0.40.08 update, as "Garden Plants", so I don't blame any of you for not being familiar with them yet:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Crop#Garden_Plants
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
(5) See the NOTES page (press "N"). Before I upload this fort, I'm going to upload the save one last time and leave even more NOTES around the fortress for future overseers.
Future overseers should also use the Notes Screen. This is one of the best ways for us to explain to the next overseer what each component of the fortress was built for, and what plans we had for the future.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 15, 2014, 02:00:53 pm
Just zip your whole region folder and upload to DFFD.
Good idea, will do.
DoctorMcTaalik, your turn. I might have even gone a few days past the end of the mandate in trying to resolve the crisis situation you saw before... Speaking of which, a quick update on that:
Regards,
Northstar
Have you uploaded your save? I can't find it on DFFD.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 15, 2014, 02:39:23 pm
Have you uploaded your save? I can't find it on DFFD.
WOW, you got on this FAST.
No, not quite yet. I decided I had too many loose ends left up around the fortress, and I needed to add a few more Notes symbols, with the game paused, so that you would have a better idea what my plans/ideas were for everything. Also, I'm still waiting for the Activation E-Mail for my DFFD account.
By the way, see my post above. I actually posted a super-short post as a placeholder, and then Modified it into a much longer and more detailed post. So it's changed A LOT since you quoted it... (turns out I ended my mandate 3 in-game days early, rather than a few days late, for instance)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 15, 2014, 05:58:49 pm
First, the good news: the Year 254 save file (the fortress was founded in 252) is now uploaded to DFFD!
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9408
The bad news- it turns out that there are still 6 DWARVES (as well as a pet) outside the fortress walls. Apparently, either the Dwarves didn't enter the gate before when I thought they did, or there were even more Dwarves outside than I thought. I highly recommend trying to find some way of saving them...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I leave this up to you, Doctor McTaalik. This might take EXTREME action to save the fortress.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The survival of the fortress has to come first. Having one or two individual Dwarves survive a tantrum-spiral won't do any good if they destroy everything inside the fortress through tantrums and make it unlivable; murder all the livestock; and are either crippled, or too injured to work, from fist-fights they survived during the course of the tantrum spiral...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 15, 2014, 06:32:21 pm
OK, so there's good news and bad news.
First, the good news: the Year 254 save file (the fortress was founded in 252) is now uploaded to DFFD!
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9408
The bad news- it turns out that there are still 6 DWARVES (as well as a pet) outside the fortress walls. Apparently, either the Dwarves didn't enter the gate before when I thought they did, or there were even more Dwarves outside than I thought. I highly recommend trying to find some way of saving them...Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I leave this up to you, Doctor McTaalik. This might take EXTREME action to save the fortress.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The survival of the fortress has to come first. Having one or two individual Dwarves survive a tantrum-spiral won't do any good if they destroy everything inside the fortress through tantrums and make it unlivable; murder all the livestock; and are either crippled, or too injured to work, from fist-fights they survived during the course of the tantrum spiral...
Regards,
Northstar
I'm glad no one was dorfed yet. This is going to be FUN indeed.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 15, 2014, 07:22:08 pm
I'm glad no one was dorfed yet. This is going to be FUN indeed.
What would Dwarf Fortress be without a little !FUN! here and there?
Nonetheless, I think this can be managed.
Even in a worst-case scenario, where you have to seal all the Dwarves but one inside what I like to euphemistically call a "Darwin Chamber" to prevent them messing up the rest of the fort; there is nothing technically preventing the fort from continuing onwards...
There are no invaders inside- and tall walls to prevent that.
There is no lava flooding the halls (and if somebody, at any point, unleashes that on the fortress, I WILL be reverting this to the last good save before that. You literally have to be trying to flood the fort to accomplish that- your miners stop mining whenever they encounter "Warm Stone".)
There are no links to the Caverns or HFS (yet) to unleash hordes of "Clowns" or Forgotten Beasts in a never-ending foot stamping on the face of the fortress (and I would ask that ANY such links be capable of being sealed by retracted bridge or caved-in. There's simply no need to expose the fortress to such danger.)
Dwarf Fortress in not a game that defeats you because it's too hard (at least, once a properly-designed fortress has been set up), it's a game that defeats you because you run out of willpower to sort through what needs to be done when you halls are flooded with Miasma, and your Dwarves are murdering each other with reckless abandon (that is, if a tantrum spiral you didn't see coming catches you. We KNOW there is going to be a tantrum-spiral now, so we can take steps to seal most of the fortress' population in a "Darwin Chamber" to limit the damage...)
Often the best solution to any problem is either to seal most of your population in a bunker and let them kill each other, or seal a small segment of "sane" Dwarves in a bunker (with access to plenty of stone to engrave Memorial Slabs to the rest) and let them wait out whatever is killing the rest of your fortress...
Of course, bunkers can't be dug in a day- they take foresight. So, I propose that once this mess is over (however it may turn out), we establish a self-contained bunker to help the fortress survive future catastrophes.
Ideally, such a bunker would have access to an obsidian farm to allow unlimited slab-engraving (so murderous ghosts from the main fortress don't slaughter the bunker's inhabitants), access to a (caged or sealed) seed population of baby livestock, plenty of stockpiled (and forbidden) seeds, and access to (forbidden until activation of the bunker) picks, anvils, and new directions to expand in so that it can essentially survive and grow as a separate fortress until whatever is affecting the main fortress is at an end.
Better yet, separate a couple Dwarves from the next migrant wave out, and seal them in such a bunker *ahead of time* as "Groundskeepers". If they're a married couple, they can keep the fortress going for at least 100 years (Dwarves live much longer then Humans). And if we're still playing the fortress by that time, I'm sure we can divert a few migrants to marry their (yet unborn) children when that time comes...
This Fortress MUST survive. THE FUTURE OF THE DWARVEN RACE DEPENDS ON IT (remember, this is the last major site to stand against the Goblin menace since CraftedDawns was conquered...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 15, 2014, 07:53:17 pm
I'm glad no one was dorfed yet. This is going to be FUN indeed.
What would Dwarf Fortress be without a little !FUN! here and there?
Nonetheless, I think this can be managed.
Even in a worst-case scenario, where you have to seal all the Dwarves but one inside what I like to euphemistically call a "Darwin Chamber" to prevent them messing up the rest of the fort; there is nothing technically preventing the fort from continuing onwards...
There are no invaders inside- and tall walls to prevent that.
There is no lava flooding the halls (and if somebody, at any point, unleashes that on the fortress, I WILL be reverting this to the last good save before that. You literally have to be trying to flood the fort to accomplish that- your miners stop mining whenever they encounter "Warm Stone".)
There are no links to the Caverns or HFS (yet) to unleash hordes of "Clowns" or Forgotten Beasts in a never-ending foot stamping on the face of the fortress (and I would ask that ANY such links be capable of being sealed by retracted bridge or caved-in. There's simply no need to expose the fortress to such danger.)
Dwarf Fortress in not a game that defeats you because it's too hard (at least, once a properly-designed fortress has been set up), it's a game that defeats you because you run out of willpower to sort through what needs to be done when you halls are flooded with Miasma, and your Dwarves are murdering each other with reckless abandon (that is, if a tantrum spiral you didn't see coming catches you. We KNOW there is going to be a tantrum-spiral now, so we can take steps to seal most of the fortress' population in a "Darwin Chamber" to limit the damage...)
Often the best solution to any problem is either to seal most of your population in a bunker and let them kill each other, or seal a small segment of "sane" Dwarves in a bunker (with access to plenty of stone to engrave Memorial Slabs to the rest) and let them wait out whatever is killing the rest of your fortress...
Of course, bunkers can't be dug in a day- they take foresight. So, I propose that once this mess is over (however it may turn out), we establish a self-contained bunker to help the fortress survive future catastrophes.
Ideally, such a bunker would have access to an obsidian farm to allow unlimited slab-engraving (so murderous ghosts from the main fortress don't slaughter the bunker's inhabitants), access to a (caged or sealed) seed population of baby livestock, plenty of stockpiled (and forbidden) seeds, and access to (forbidden until activation of the bunker) picks, anvils, and new directions to expand in so that it can essentially survive and grow as a separate fortress until whatever is affecting the main fortress is at an end.
Better yet, separate a couple Dwarves from the next migrant wave out, and seal them in such a bunker *ahead of time* as "Groundskeepers". If they're a married couple, they can keep the fortress going for at least 100 years (Dwarves live much longer then Humans). And if we're still playing the fortress by that time, I'm sure we can divert a few migrants to marry their (yet unborn) children when that time comes...
This Fortress MUST survive. THE FUTURE OF THE DWARVEN RACE DEPENDS ON IT (remember, this is the last major site to stand against the Goblin menace since CraftedDawns was conquered...)
Regards,
Northstar
The next update is going to surprise you. Or, maybe it won't.
Regardless,
DoctorMcTaalik
(ps- If you want dwarfed, post a message with your preferred gender/prof/age/whatever, and I'll do my best.)
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 15, 2014, 11:35:01 pm
The next update is going to surprise you. Or, maybe it won't.
Regardless,
DoctorMcTaalik
(ps- If you want dwarfed, post a message with your preferred gender/prof/age/whatever, and I'll do my best.)
Arghhh, the suspense is killing me!
Maybe I could convince you to post a mini-update before you're anywhere near done with the save file and ready to pass it on to the next player in the list? (I also feel like frequent updates encourage greater detail of reporting, just like longer turn-times make players feel more invested in the fortress and give a greater sense of continuity...)
By the way, if you're naming Dwarves, and the fortress HASN'T managed to descend into a tantrum-spiral (or you pre-emptively contained it), like I said is likely; then dorf me just for the heck of it (after yourself, of course). I'll leave it up to your judgment what Dwarf would be a good choice- just don't make it some new migrant you've reserved for hauling duties... :D
Simply "Northstar" will do. No need for the 1989 part.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 15, 2014, 11:43:39 pm
Familiarizing yourself with the Dwarven Pantheon will make my posts make a lot more sense.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
20th Malachite 254-
(http://i.imgur.com/9jKjOLu.png)
I wept today, diary, but the tears were tears of joy. The terrible siege which until recently had us cowering in the fortress is finally over! We learned upon lowering the bridge that one of the Dwarves trapped outside, a craftsdwarf by the name of Raluksodel, valiantly risked life and limb to defend her unconscious comrades. Her merciless pummeling of one of the invaders must have terrified the superiorly armed goblins, for they quickly fled.
(http://i.imgur.com/5HtBUp2.png)
23rd Malachite 254-
Today, the unexpected happened. A note arrived at my workshop, from the local overseer, naming me his successor. I was unaware of the existence of the office, but upon asking around I learned that it basically means, "King", but with minor stipulations.
My first act as Overlord was to reveal unto my new subjects my true identity: Doctor McTaalik, last priest (and therefore High Priest) of Moldath, and sole survivor of the Burning of the Hidden Temple of Moldath in the Alchemical Jungles. I also took the opportunity to outline for them my plans for the future. Of course, Diary, you were in my pocket the whole time... Surely you remember my rousing speech, in which I meticulously explained each step in my glorious two year plan? I need not recount it here.
I also appointed some new nobles. (ed note: screenshots to be added)
28th Malachite 254-
The ignorance that pervades this fortress disgusts me, Diary.
It is understandable, in times of crisis, to question one's beliefs, and to call the last century a time of crisis would be a gross understatement. When I left the ruins of the Great Library for Pagetower, I suspected to find a reasonable shortage of faith among these uneducated Dwarves.
But what I found, Diary, was a spiritual famine. Of the thirty-seven other dwarves in this fortress, only four profess to worshipping Lady Moldath, and further questioning suggests they are mere "casual" believers. Moldath allowed us into her kingdom! Her earthly body warms us, and shelters us, and allows us to survive in this harsh frozen desert. We owe everything to her, and it's time we pay her our respects.
Post by: Taupe on August 16, 2014, 08:19:34 pm
Not sure if you still have some room left, but if you guys do, I'd like a turn somewhere down the line. I don't pretend to be good at this game, but I hardly see how incompetence and volcano-based infrastructure could mix badly.
Otherwise, just a dwarf named after me would be cool. (no real preferences)
thanks.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 16, 2014, 09:15:08 pm
Hi,
Not sure if you still have some room left, but if you guys do, I'd like a turn somewhere down the line. I don't pretend to be good at this game, but I hardly see how incompetence and volcano-based infrastructure could mix badly.
Otherwise, just a dwarf named after me would be cool. (no real preferences)
thanks.
You're welcome to have a turn, and I've added you to the end of the list.
Whatever you do, just don't mess with the lava. I repeat, DO NOT MESS WITH THE LAVA. If you do, and manage to flood the fortress with lava, we'll have to tie you up (ban you from further turns) and think of a slow and excruciating death for your Dwarf, followed by flipping the lever on the secret time-machine (we'll load up the last save before your turn) to undue all your harm by preventing you from ever becoming overseer. Don't make us do that. 8)
That being said, there's plenty of other good stuff to do around your fortress! I look forward to your first turn! (though my own 2nd turn is starting to look like it won't occur for a distressingly long time...)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. You shouldn't really have much need to play with the lava anyways. I've already established enough Magma Kilns and Magma Smelters to serve even the most enormous of fortresses. The ONLY really useful thing left to do with the the lava is to establish heated wells once we access the Aquifer (and desalinate some water). Other than that, lava is just a pretty (and VERY, VERY DANGEROUS) toy that you probably shouldn't be messing with in a succession fortress if you don't know what you're doing...
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 16, 2014, 09:39:00 pm
This following excepts are more to tantalize Northstar than anything. I will do most of my turn tomorrow, unless real life decides otherwise.
(Also: Because I had to play on a mac, I'm using the default tileset. Sorry, I hope to switch back to a PC soon.)
Familiarizing yourself with the Dwarven Pantheon will make my posts make a lot more sense.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
20th Malachite 254-
(http://i.imgur.com/9jKjOLu.png)
I wept today, diary, but the tears were tears of joy. The terrible siege which until recently had us cowering in the fortress is finally over! We learned upon lowering the bridge that one of the Dwarves trapped outside, a craftsdwarf by the name of Raluksodel, valiantly risked life and limb to defend her unconscious comrades. Her merciless pummeling of one of the invaders must have terrified the superiorly armed goblins, for they quickly fled.
(http://i.imgur.com/5HtBUp2.png)
23rd Malachite 254-
Today, the unexpected happened. A note arrived at my workshop, from the local overseer, naming me his successor. I was unaware of the existence of the office, but upon asking around I learned that it basically means, "King", but with minor stipulations.
My first act as Overlord was to reveal unto my new subjects my true identity: Doctor McTaalik, last priest (and therefore High Priest) of Moldath, and sole survivor of the Burning of the Hidden Temple of Moldath in the Alchemical Jungles. I also took the opportunity to outline for them my plans for the future. Of course, Diary, you were in my pocket the whole time... Surely you remember my rousing speech, in which I meticulously explained each step in my glorious two year plan? I need not recount it here.
I also appointed some new nobles. (ed note: screenshots to be added)
28th Malachite 254-
The ignorance that pervades this fortress disgusts me, Diary.
It is understandable, in times of crisis, to question one's beliefs, and to call the last century a time of crisis would be a gross understatement. When I left the ruins of the Great Library for Pagetower, I suspected to find a reasonable shortage of faith among these uneducated Dwarves.
But what I found, Diary, was a spiritual famine. Of the thirty-seven other dwarves in this fortress, only four profess to worshipping Lady Moldath, and further questioning suggests they are mere "casual" believers. Moldath allowed us into her kingdom! Her earthly body warms us, and shelters us, and allows us to survive in this harsh frozen desert. We owe everything to her, and it's time we pay her our respects.
Excellent mini-update! I look forward to the rest of what you have to post.
I guess I should have seen that coming- several of the Goblins were nothing more than unarmed, untrained Recruits (including the one who took a pummeling). It looks like the experienced Goblins just decided to round up a bunch of civilians to act as meat-shields to travel with them, but then ended up chasing their friend when he went running crying back to his Goblin mommy... Oh well- it's for the good of our fortress.
Don't forget though, the tragedy isn't over quite yet. The Expedition Leader who fell and broke his spine before isn't going to be able to feed or water himself anytime soon, and unless you're quite quick about digging down to the Aquifer and setting up a functional desalinization system (using a Screw Pump to remove the salt- though you can use buckets to raise the water to where it's needed), he will probably die of thirst sooner or later. Don't forget to assign somebody else as Expedition Leader before that (possibly) happens!
Also, you need to set up a hospital after you develop a secure source of fresh (and clean!) water. I could provide you with a few pointers about the best way to do this if you're interested... In the meantime, I suggest checking the Wiki for some pointers about how to circumnavigate some of the biggest bugs with hospitals (like the Dwarves stocking the chests will all the thread/cloth in the fortress...)
I'm sure you'll have your hands busy with all this, plus the suggestions I left you on the Notes Screen and here on this thread, and your apparent plans to build some sort of altar or temple to the Dwarven God of Volcanoes (though I suggest you take care of building a hospital and water source BEFORE you undertake that project- it wouldn't be fair to our former Expedition Leader to leave him to die of thirst just because you're too busy building some worthless temple... Let the Dwarves worship in private- in their closets if need be.) Just don't forget to take screenshots and write notes to yourself so you can keep all of us updated on what you're doing!
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Askarn on August 16, 2014, 10:30:07 pm
Looks interesting, put me down for a turn
Erm, what about me?
Also, I assume we'll be updating to .40.09 when it comes out, providing saves aren't broken?
Post by: Redzephyr01 on August 16, 2014, 10:33:13 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 16, 2014, 11:04:39 pm
Looks interesting, put me down for a turn
Erm, what about me?
Also, I assume we'll be updating to .40.09 when it comes out, providing saves aren't broken?
Whoops, looks like I missed you there.
I'll insert you between Taupe and Meme, since that's when you posted.
Depends what bug-fixes are included in 0.40.09, and whether they're compatible with new saves. Often, I find that new versions break older versions- and 0.40.08 seems to be perfectly stable; though of course we can try having players run the latest uploaded save when 0.40.09 comes out, and see what happens...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 16, 2014, 11:10:35 pm
May I please be dorfed?
You'll have to ask DoctorMcTaalik about that, since he's the one currently taking his turn.
Also, do you just want to be dorfed, or do you want a turn as well? Keep in mind that at some point we're going to have to draw a line and say "no more new players for now" in order to give existing players a reasonable chance at having a 2nd turn. I was expecting we wouldn't reach this point for a LONG time- but the rate of growth in players is really surprising me... I'm thinking not more than 12 or 15 players in total- DoctorMcTaalik, what do you think about this? (PM me)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on August 16, 2014, 11:13:07 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 16, 2014, 11:20:08 pm
New fortress and long (2 years) turns means we get a short and easily approachable thread. My guess anyway.
Well, I don't know about "short"- this thread has already exceeded 5 pages on my browser. But appealing, likely- I decided to go with 2 year turns for a reason (it gives a much greater sense of continuity to the fort), and it seems like most players like the idea.
By the way, this goes for any player- if you complete your turn in LESS than 72 hours, you're perfectly free to upload the file sooner. Just because players like me (I had the first turn, after all, and a LOT of things to get in order to put the fortress on solid footing) and DoctorMcTaalik took most of our turn time doesn't mean you have to as well. The quicker the turns, the more players we can add into the rotation and the less time you'll have to wait for a second (or even third) turn.
2-3 turns per player may sound optimistic- but I don't see anything happening to the fortress anytime soon. As it stands, the walls are already practically impenetrable, and the fortress is capable of producing everything it needs within those walls. That's only going to become more of a pronounced effect as new players improve the fortifications (with new towers, causeways, 2nd and 3rd layers of wall, etc.) and expand the fortress further... I imagine something like a Dwarven Minas Tirith as the final state of our fortress...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 16, 2014, 11:40:51 pm
"Made creatures prefer to flee normally if possible (rather than jumping off cliffs etc.)"
I also saw notes on fixing the raws for pineapples (they are indeed currently a little bit bugged- as I noticed when embarking with pineapples to found this fortress), on creating warnings when Embarking if your civ is dead (this might have popped up in our game as our civ was limited to a few captured Kobold Caves), and on creating announcements if one of your fort members assumes a civ-level position (such as King/Queen- this might affect us in the future if the current Merchant acting as King/Queen gets killed in a future ambush of the Dwarven Caravan...)
We *MIGHT* want to update to 0.40.09 after all. I've never actually bothered with updating saves before- does anybody know the best way to update one? I was thinking we might want to replace all the Raws inside the save file once a version of Ironhand is released for 0.40.09
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 17, 2014, 06:43:19 pm
Also, what of the turkeys? It sounds like we have a steady population of a lot of good domestic animals, including pigs. But it also seemed like we lost some turkeys. This worries me. Do we still have enough left for breeding?
Post by: Taupe on August 17, 2014, 08:29:11 pm
Post by: Askarn on August 18, 2014, 02:16:20 am
As for how to update the save, I must confess I just use the tool in the Starter Pack (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=126076.0)
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 18, 2014, 01:46:47 pm
Honestly I was thinking of the marriage and wagon bugs. I'd rather not need to use the deconstruct Trade Depot exploit and if our parent civilization is as dead as it appears, we may need to grow our own reinforcements.
As for how to update the save, I must confess I just use the tool in the Starter Pack (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=126076.0)
Well, first of all, it's not an exploit. Deconstructing a Trade Depot registers *exactly* the same as seizing all the goods on board it (all the goods count as stolen and the parent civ notes the lack of their return). True, in the current version you can't normally seize goods from your parent civ- but desperate times call for desperate measures, and I had no problem doing so once early in the fortress history when those sniveling merchants insisted on leaving the fort before I could get any trade goods to the depot...
Anyways, we'll definitely look at updating the save to 0.40.09 if it's possible.
Second, DoctorMcTaalik, I just wanted to remind you that there are currently 4 hours and 12 minutes left in your turn to both finish your play and upload your save (a report would also be nice). Tick-tock...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 18, 2014, 10:40:22 pm
Have you completed your turn yet? You've now exceeded your allotted 72 hours by several hours, and it's getting very late in most American/European time zones... It would be best if you could get your turn uploaded As Soon As Possible.
Everyone else, although I doubt DoctorMcTaalik will fail to post the save and his log/journal soon, I just want to remind everyone that you need to be timely with your posts to keep this moving along. If you are more than 24 hours overdue on posting your save after confirming receipt of it (that is, more than 96 hours past the time the save before yours was posted- you only get 24 hours to grab the save in the first place though), we will skip your turn and the next player is the list then has 24 hours to confirm they've downloaded the most recently posted save, and 48 more hours from that point to complete their turn (they will still have up to 72 hours if they from the time their turn was announced to complete their turn if they're quick on the ball).
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 19, 2014, 02:46:04 pm
Post by: Timeless Bob on August 19, 2014, 03:11:59 pm
Those who wish specific dates (due to scheduling conflicts) may be slotted into the appropriate turn number in this manner as well.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 19, 2014, 05:46:30 pm
If I may suggest: Alter the turn list to have discrete dates for when each Player may upload "the latest save" for their turn. If a Player through some misfortune hasn't uploaded a link to their turn's save by the time the next turn rolls around, well, chalk the missed chance to be part of the world's history up to "a learning experience" and stick 'em on the end of the turn list for another go. In this manner, no-one has the power to hold the entire game hostage and people who want to join can then know in advance when their turn will be coming around and be able to add that to their schedules well in advance. The moderator only needs to add new dates to turn-takers on the list, because the game self-perpetuates until no-one downloads any more saves, naturally concluding the game.
Those who wish specific dates (due to scheduling conflicts) may be slotted into the appropriate turn number in this manner as well.
That's actually *exactly* what's already been limited with the 24-48/72-24 hour turn limits.
And on that note, Doctor McTaalik has only 16 minutes left to upload his save or exceed the last of those 24 hour limits- I just haven't bothered to write down for you guys the actual times these represent, due to possible confusion from us all being in different time zones.
I'll cut him a little extra slack (24 more hours) since I decided on the final limit AFTER he began his turn, and without his co-consent (out of necessity, since I haven't been able to contact him). But if DoctorMcTaalik hasn't uploaded by exactly 6:00 tomorrow in my time zone (it's 5:48 now), we'll skip his turn and InifiniteCastor (the next player on the list) has permission to begin again from my save.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 20, 2014, 07:54:13 pm
Post by: Taupe on August 20, 2014, 08:16:29 pm
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 20, 2014, 09:49:17 pm
The real victim here are the dwarves who jumped down the wall in the middle of a siege... they got miraculously rescued and carried inside, then lived happily for almost two years... Only to realise that this was all just a dream induced by the blood loss. they are still down the wall, crippled and surrounded. their nightmare is far from over.
That's true. I think Northstar might have to leave upgraded suggestions to try and re-simulate what the late doctor (that's how I'm going to refer to him from now on) did to save some of them from the Goblin siege. Also, didn't Northstar say something about a possible way to save the expedition leader? Perhaps there would be a way to finesse it better?
Anyway, the whole thing just doesn't sit right with me. I don't know why he would just vanish like that once his turn started, especially with how he volunteered to help co-host this. It was only the second turn. I get the feeling something went wrong. Not much we can do about it, though. I guess the late doctor missed his chance.
Post by: Taupe on August 20, 2014, 11:03:32 pm
Let us learn from his mistake: One shall not bargain with Krhan-Zelag, the ancient volcano spirit, for his schemes are as the fire itself: Warm and inviting, but in the end, they shall consume all. Except for a yearly sacrifice, obviously. We don't really want the volcano god to get MAD at us.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 21, 2014, 12:21:02 am
Confirming that I have the save. If this is how it will be, I will post my next turn post-haste.
Unfortunately, that is how it will have to be, as much as it pains me (unless the Doctor miraculously comes out of the woodworks with his save before then- in which case *you* will have the choice between overwriting his save, or being offered as much of 4 game-years as you can play in 72 hours as compensation for scrapping your years 2-4 save and using the Doctor's year 4 upload...)
You have until 6:00 PM, 23 August Central Time (I don't know what that comes out to in your time zone) to upload your next turn. If you have not posted by 6:00 PM, 24 August Central Time, we will skip your turn in course and move onto the NEXT person on the list.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 21, 2014, 12:33:34 am
The real victim here are the dwarves who jumped down the wall in the middle of a siege... they got miraculously rescued and carried inside, then lived happily for almost two years... Only to realise that this was all just a dream induced by the blood loss. they are still down the wall, crippled and surrounded. their nightmare is far from over.
Indeed. DoctorMcTaalik has demonstrated it is POSSIBLE (with a little luck, at least) to save the Dwarves though.
That's true. I think Northstar might have to leave upgraded suggestions to try and re-simulate what the late doctor (that's how I'm going to refer to him from now on) did to save some of them from the Goblin siege. Also, didn't Northstar say something about a possible way to save the expedition leader? Perhaps there would be a way to finesse it better?
I believe what you remember my saying was just the opposite- namely that the Expedition Leader was still doomed (due to his broken lower spine) even after the Doctor managed to drive off the Goblins, unless the Doctor could delve down to the Aquifer *AND* set up a functional desalinization system before the poor Dwarf dies of thirst...
The best way to drive off the Goblins, however, appears to be to draft the Dwarves outside the walls into the military and have them start beating on the nearest Goblin Recruit (NOT one of the trained warrior-Goblins), as DoctorMcTaalik already so beautifully demonstrated for us.
Don't try it in 0.40.09 (to which we haven't yet updated) though- the Morale system might have received a few tweaks in the latest patch (of course, so did the Dwarven tendency to jump off cliffs to escape invaders, even when already safely out-of-reach, which CAUSED the whole mess...)
Anyway, the whole thing just doesn't sit right with me. I don't know why he would just vanish like that once his turn started, especially with how he volunteered to help co-host this. It was only the second turn. I get the feeling something went wrong. Not much we can do about it, though. I guess the late doctor missed his chance.
Perhaps he dug too deeply in search of water for the Expedition Leader (nobody actually knows how far down the Aquifer is), and unleashed some dark power of the underworld upon the fortress? :-X
Of course, if one of you DOES manage to destroy the fortress on your turn, don't delay in uploading the save/report. The whole thing will become a "dream" (at least this early on), and we will revert to the last good save.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 21, 2014, 12:39:11 am
He obviously found a way to save the fallen dwarves, but that involved something dark, like making pacts with shadowy individual or selling one's soul. The price proved to costy, and now the late Doctor is gone...
Let us learn from his mistake: One shall not bargain with Krhan-Zelag, the ancient volcano spirit, for his schemes are as the fire itself: Warm and inviting, but in the end, they shall consume all. Except for a yearly sacrifice, obviously. We don't really want the volcano god to get MAD at us.
Don't say I didn't warn you all about the dangers of volcanoes. :P
Moldath, the Dwarven Goddess of Volcanoes (check the Doctor's mythology post), does not take kindly to Dwarven sacrifices, however. And she weeps to see good Goblinite and Dwarf-sized clothing burned within her fires if Goblins are thrown into the volcano depths without being properly stripped first (you can due this by "Dumping" all the items being worn or held by a Goblin while they are caged).
The only PROPER gift to such a fierce yet benevolent goddess is something cute and fluffy- like a whole litter of newborn kittens that just *happen* to have all adopted owners immediately after birth (making them ineligible for being made into delicious +Cat Roasts+), and threaten the fortress with a cat-splosion... In which case, the kittens shall be duly "pitted" within the volcano rim as a due and fitting sacrifice of cute, furry, softness to the secretly cat-loving volcano goddess who yearns to hold them within her fiery embrace. :o
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. The animal stockpiles had at least a half-dozen caged cats as of the end of my turn. Somebody just needs to set them free to roam about the fortress, and beget future +Cat Roasts+ and sacrifices to Moldath (depending on whether they adopt an owner), and *occasionally* kittens that are allowed to grow up to perpetuate the next generation of fortress cats...
P.P.S. Don't forget to set the dogs free as well (pasture them just inside the gate to catch thieves)- so there is something to chase the cats. :)
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 21, 2014, 04:37:03 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 21, 2014, 09:18:40 pm
In a case between using the latest version of the game and using Ironhand, I'd like to know a few opinions before I make any moves.
I don't get the question. Ironhand is currently up-to-date for 0.40.09 (as of when I checked, oh, about 5 minutes ago- and the Ironhand changelog says it was updated 4 days ago), and there should also be an archived version for 0.40.08 on the download site.
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8747
Actually updating the save to 0.40.09 takes a little bit of effort, but can be done. You'll have to overwrite the raws in the save with the raws for Ironhand + 0.40.09
I want to get this going, so unless you're really adamant about using the newest version of DF, just don't give the Dwarves any jobs on the top z-level of the walls (so they don't go up there and jump off in a siege) and use Ironhand + 0.40.08 for now. Later, maybe next turn or the turn after, we can worry about updating to 0.40.10 (if it's out by that point...)
Dwarf Fortress 0.40.09 actually has a few NEW bugs 0.40.08 did not have. Of *particular* note, crossbows now fire at approximately the rate of machine guns. So I WOULDN'T recommend updating until it reaches version 0.40.10, which has already been announced will have a fix for this new bug.
If for some reason you CAN'T get your hands on Ironhand + 0.40.08 (such as you already updated Dwarf Fortress, and can't find the archived version of Ironhand + 0.40.08), then just update to Ironhand + 0.40.09. You do this by replacing the "Raw" folder in the save (save the original as a backup just in case until you know it works) with a copy of the the "Raw" folder from Ironhand + 0.40.09 (Ironhand comes pre-installed on DF at the link I provided above and in the OP), and nothing else (i.e. don't overwrite the .SAV file or the art files with anything)
You WILL have to do this to update the save. Per the Ironhand changelog from the link above:
8/17/2014 - Updated to 0.40.09 - Raws have changed
Anytime it says the raws have changed, this means you need to replace the save file raws in order to update a save.
Don't forget your turn is running out (you still only have until 6:00 PM Central Time on August 23rd). Tick-tock.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on August 21, 2014, 10:17:59 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 23, 2014, 07:34:13 am
20th Malachite
The past few days have been...stressful, to say the least. I've been given the position of Overseer, as North has finally grown weary of leadership. Given the situation I was left with, it's understandable, so I took the position with acceptance. I didn't make a journal entry on the first day because of all that was going on, but I can finally say with relief that the goblin attack has recently been routed. One of the brave dwarves trapped outside the walls came to the aid of the injured Tekkud Akirostar, Fish Dissector.
(http://i.imgur.com/0kDEIDY.png)
I was told to my surprise that he literally "punched the goblin's head into pieces" after severely beating it.
(http://i.imgur.com/vC3EMcI.png)
His heroism will be remembered, as now one more dwarf is safe and the rest of the greenskins run in fear. But soon, they will be back, and I intend to be ready for the next time that takes place. So, as my next order of business, I'm ordering a staircase carved down into the mountain.
(http://i.imgur.com/cgxM6G6.png)
With any luck, we'll find some good metals to make into weapons and armour. Copper will work for now, just not to be unarmed, but we are dwarves, and can always forge better. I also would like to carve more proper lodgings; one can only feel comfortable for so long in such cramped accomodations. To this end, I've reassigned a few workers with unusable labours to mining. Soon we will be able to carve out a true fortress. As well, the walls atop the mountain are having fortifications carved into them as I write this.
(http://i.imgur.com/USFmo8B.png)
In the meantime, no other matters stand. Our food supplies are adequate for now. We are safe in our home, and our people work diligently.
So begins the year.
Post by: Wacksonoff on August 23, 2014, 08:34:57 am
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 23, 2014, 09:53:03 am
Can I be dorfed? As anyone really.
Consider it done.
Post by: Wacksonoff on August 23, 2014, 09:58:42 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 23, 2014, 01:10:29 pm
I made a judgment decision and just decided to pull up 0.40.09 (after getting off a minor game binge that distracted me). We'll see where it goes from there. In the meantime...let's begin.
I hope you don't mind machine-gun crossbows then! We'll all need to keep an eye out for 0.40.10 then, and update to it ASAP, as it fixes this issue.
20th Malachite
The past few days have been...stressful, to say the least. I've been given the position of Overseer, as North has finally grown weary of leadership. Given the situation I was left with, it's understandable, so I took the position with acceptance. I didn't make a journal entry on the first day because of all that was going on, but I can finally say with relief that the goblin attack has recently been routed. One of the brave dwarves trapped outside the walls came to the aid of the injured Tekkud Akirostar, Fish Dissector.
(http://i.imgur.com/0kDEIDY.png)
I was told to my surprise that he literally "punched the goblin's head into pieces" after severely beating it.
(http://i.imgur.com/vC3EMcI.png)
His heroism will be remembered, as now one more dwarf is safe and the rest of the greenskins run in fear. But soon, they will be back, and I intend to be ready for the next time that takes place. So, as my next order of business, I'm ordering a staircase carved down into the mountain.
(http://i.imgur.com/cgxM6G6.png)
With any luck, we'll find some good metals to make into weapons and armour. Copper will work for now, just not to be unarmed, but we are dwarves, and can always forge better. I also would like to carve more proper lodgings; one can only feel comfortable for so long in such cramped accomodations. To this end, I've reassigned a few workers with unusable labours to mining. Soon we will be able to carve out a true fortress. As well, the walls atop the mountain are having fortifications carved into them as I write this.
Not-quite-retired, Northstar, sitting back sipping a martini in his modest but quite acceptable communal bedroom, wonders why anyone would carve deep into the mountain in search of more metal when there are such enormous stockpiles of copper and silver bars in the southern Magma Smelter as for the workers to complain of it being "Cluttered", significant stockpiles of Bismuth Bronze in the main stockpile, more metal ores ordered up with the Outpost Liaison coming with the next Dwarven Caravan, and enough meltable worthless trade goods and metal cages (magma-forged glass aquariums will replace them perfectly well) made of copper, bronze, or iron to supply a fortress this size with weapons-grade materials for years to come. All anyone can hope to find underground is more copper, anyways.
Now if one were to dig underground for WATER to stop the last Expedition Leader (poor crippled Dwarf) from dying of thirst, on the other hand, THAT would be a good use of Dwarven Labor, thought Northstar...
(http://i.imgur.com/USFmo8B.png)
In the meantime, no other matters stand. Our food supplies are adequate for now. We are safe in our home, and our people work diligently.
So begins the year.
Northstar sighs, and hopes the Dwarves remember the urgent need for clean, fresh water. And that a Magma Kiln left idle is Dwarven labor wasted. Hoping the new overseer will remember to put Dwarves back to work on the Magma Kilns, and *QUICKLY* dig for fresh water and set up a desalinization/cistern system, he finishes the remains of his Martini and heads for a party in the Legendary Dining Hall he constructed during his term, having no real job to do until the new Overseer gets some Dwarven labor busy operating the Magma Kilns, Magma Glass Smelters, and perhaps even the Magma Smelters and Magma Forge (smelting new alloys and working new arms and armor out of the enormous stockpiles of Bismuth Bronze, and Iron freshly-reclaimed from melting down useless trade goods)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. I CANNOT over-emphasize the importance of securing a fresh water source ASAP, so the injured Expedition Leader doesn't perish (also, remember to re-assign his position to another Dwarf who can actually *fulfill* the duties ASAP). All that is needed in the short term is a deep 1x1 shaft down to the Saltwater Aquifer (I already started on one near the indoor pastures to the south of the stairwell you began digging, see the Notes Screen- the miner can climb the rough walls back to the top after finished as long as you don't dunk him in the drink), a well placed on top (wells magically make salt water usable for sick/injured Dwarves- although they will not remove any contamination such as from mud or stagnant water, and may not actually desalinate it like a Screw Pump), and a small cistern dug on a z-level nearer the fortress to store the water in the longer term (make sure this cistern has a SMOOTH walls and floor- one constructed of blocks or smoothed natural stone- and is at least two z-levels deep, to minimize contamination with mud in the long run). Further down the line, it would be worth looking into a wind-powered Screw Pump system to bring the water up to a higher Z-level automatically...
P.P.S. Also, you might not want to carve fortifications *RIGHT UP TO THE BARRACKS DOOR* like that, as it will allow Elite Goblin Archers to shoot up through the fortifications and into the barracks in the event the door is left open (say, if an injured Dwarf were propelled backwards into the door tile- a rather common occurrence in my experience). I would suggest smoothing or re-constructing the walls 2-3 tiles from the door, and only starting the actual fortifications after that point.
Post by: InfiniteCastor on August 23, 2014, 02:02:31 pm
And, in fact, the expedition leader is up and well even with his broken spine. I can't explain it, but he's working as normal right now. DF being DF I suppose.
As for fortifications, I haven't been so unlucky to have something like what you are suggesting happen to me, but given that the barracks are very soon going to be moved downstairs, the fortifications should be fine as is.
Finally, I'm still not entirely sure how it is that the conclusion was made that I was not running all of the magma kilns, but I have been keeping each one busy since the beginning of the turn.
13th Limestone
It's been a calm few months. The new housing project that I began in Galena is nearly furnished.
(http://i.imgur.com/moMce83.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/4aEZ9qh.png)
A Wood Furnace was built in order to facilitate for ash, lye and soon soap. The fortifications are just about done. In addition, traps are currently being laid out
about the entrance in case any invading greenskins find it wise to approach our gates.
(http://i.imgur.com/4qsSrHq.png)
As well, a dwarven caravan arrived today. North met with the liaison and returned to report that she had made specific requests for fuel to be used in steel production, seeds to bolster our farming and extra lumber in case of a sudden need. She added that figurines are in high demand for whatever reason and that nothing new about the world was of interest.
As soon as the traders are unpacked, we'll begin making deals.
16th Limestone
(http://i.imgur.com/y7lPPbK.png)
After exploding into inspired enthusiasm, he immediately went to claim a Craftsdwarf's shop and began collecting wood. What he might produce, nobody is entirely sure.
22nd Limestone
Dodok finally revealed his artifact today; a willow figurine representing dwarves, dubbed by himself as Wheelbrute the Celebrated Berries. I would sell it, but I feel that such items should be kept as prized possessions and as such it shall remain as part of the fortress' stocks. However, with the celebration comes mourning as well. Without water, Dobar Ledrag the weaponsmith fell into dehydration and perished today. It pains me that we are not killed by our injuries, but by a simple liquid. Even now we dig to levels that make it hard to breathe and still no caverns have been found. I can only hope that some exploratory mining will help to quell this problem.
7th Sandstone
Migrants arrived today, bringing our numbers up from 38 to 47. The new arrivals consist of a Cheese Maker, a Soap Maker, two Traders, a Fishery Worker, a Presser, a Weaponsmith, a Lye Maker, a Woodcutter, and one rather ordinary fellow who was still trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to do. I assigned them all tasks immediately.
***
{Right, as it should just so happen, it seems that I have gotten myself caught up in something else that immediately demands my attention. With that in mind, the save is here and if possible, I'll take the next year and a half in line.}
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9496
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 23, 2014, 07:02:27 pm
The real victim here are the dwarves who jumped down the wall in the middle of a siege... they got miraculously rescued and carried inside, then lived happily for almost two years... Only to realise that this was all just a dream induced by the blood loss. they are still down the wall, crippled and surrounded. their nightmare is far from over.
That's true. I think Northstar might have to leave upgraded suggestions to try and re-simulate what the late doctor (that's how I'm going to refer to him from now on) did to save some of them from the Goblin siege. Also, didn't Northstar say something about a possible way to save the expedition leader? Perhaps there would be a way to finesse it better?
Anyway, the whole thing just doesn't sit right with me. I don't know why he would just vanish like that once his turn started, especially with how he volunteered to help co-host this. It was only the second turn. I get the feeling something went wrong. Not much we can do about it, though. I guess the late doctor missed his chance.
If I may suggest: Alter the turn list to have discrete dates for when each Player may upload "the latest save" for their turn. If a Player through some misfortune hasn't uploaded a link to their turn's save by the time the next turn rolls around, well, chalk the missed chance to be part of the world's history up to "a learning experience" and stick 'em on the end of the turn list for another go. In this manner, no-one has the power to hold the entire game hostage and people who want to join can then know in advance when their turn will be coming around and be able to add that to their schedules well in advance. The moderator only needs to add new dates to turn-takers on the list, because the game self-perpetuates until no-one downloads any more saves, naturally concluding the game.
Those who wish specific dates (due to scheduling conflicts) may be slotted into the appropriate turn number in this manner as well.This is not looking well. Have you been able to contact him? Perhaps something happened? I find it strange that since he was basically running this thing with you.
My sincere apologies to all of you, especially Northstar and InfiniteCastor, for basically disappearing for a week. Some unforeseen issues occurred, and I've been without internet access for five or six days. I'm relieved to see you moved on without me.
To compensate you for the lost time, I may post some non-canon bits, just for fun.
(ps- When I was dorfing players, I chose an 80 yr old male fisherdwarf worshiping both Moldath and the Earth God for myself. If you could assign me either to he, or another ardent moldathite, that would be most appreciated.)
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 23, 2014, 07:45:00 pm
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 23, 2014, 09:55:37 pm
My sincere apologies to all of you, especially Northstar and InfiniteCastor, for basically disappearing for a week. Some unforeseen issues occurred, and I've been without internet access for five or six days. I'm relieved to see you moved on without me.
To compensate you for the lost time, I may post some non-canon bits, just for fun.
(ps- When I was dorfing players, I chose an 80 yr old male fisherdwarf worshiping both Moldath and the Earth God for myself. If you could assign me either to he, or another ardent moldathite, that would be most appreciated.)
The late doctor speaks! I see. I guessed it had to be something like that. That stinks that you lost internet right as your turn was going on. It's probably worst for you.
Post by: Taupe on August 23, 2014, 10:02:58 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 23, 2014, 11:24:59 pm
Can I be dorfed? As anyone really.
Consider it done.
Don't forget about Taupe or Redzephyr01
Also, I see I was dorfed as "North" the Broker, apparently? Interesting choice. Could you lengthen the name to Northstar, rather than just "North"?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 12:09:33 am
Response time! I'd like to think that machine-gun crossbows shouldn't be a problem given the period of time in which my turn is progressing, but the update would be preferable, I will agree on that. Yes, I am aware of our metal stockpiles. That's why I stated that copper [and etc.] would work for now, but I've often had Legendary +5 warrior dwarves killed by mediocre enemies even when clad in steel armour, so I have little faith in anything of lesser material quality. Water is my highest priority at this point, but as you'll be able to see, it's not turning out so well.
It's great that you were focused on finding water, but it shouldn't have taken that long, really. A single dwarf digging a 1x1 tunnel straight down can easily find water in just a few game weeks- though he risks digging through the ceiling of a cavern and ending up stranded with a broken leg subject to God knows what horrors creeping around in the caverns...
And, in fact, the expedition leader is up and well even with his broken spine. I can't explain it, but he's working as normal right now. DF being DF I suppose.
That's good, I suppose... Strange, but good.
As for fortifications, I haven't been so unlucky to have something like what you are suggesting happen to me, but given that the barracks are very soon going to be moved downstairs, the fortifications should be fine as is.
You do realize you can have multiple barracks for each squad, right? Each is indicated by a letter in the squad screen. Ideally the (S)leeping barracks should be above-ground, up in the archery towers (the military should be composed almost entirely of marksdwarves- there's absolutely no reason to risk dwarven lives engaging in melee combat), whereas the (T)raining and (E)quipment barracks should be located somewhere underground where there is more room. This ensures that some marksdwarves will usually be readily available to shoot at enemies from the towers, but they still have plenty of room for training. Also, the constant trips between the archery towers and the basement will maximize the chances of a military dwarf being present if a dwarf should break out berserk or an enemy should make it inside the main fortress.
For marksdwarves, Bismuth Bronze helmets and breastplates should be all that is required. This will protect their vital organs and brains from being impaled by any reaction fire from Elite Goblin Archers (only the elites can shoot through fortifications without standing directly next to them), while not weighing them down nearly as much (or being half as expensive) as a full suit of armor. The armor also comes in handy in providing protection from tantruming Dwarves.
Look up how to construct and archery range on the Wiki that allows full recovery of all fired crossbow bolts, and make sure to build one of those somewhere underground (but not too far from the surface).
Finally, I'm still not entirely sure how it is that the conclusion was made that I was not running all of the magma kilns, but I have been keeping each one busy since the beginning of the turn.
What were you occupying the kilns with? (and what plans do you have for the products?) I hadn't heard any word of that in your updates, so I assumed they were idle.
13th Limestone
It's been a calm few months. The new housing project that I began in Galena is nearly furnished.
(http://i.imgur.com/moMce83.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/4aEZ9qh.png)
OH GOD! Moldath and Armok! What is THAT!!!!
That is the single ugliest, most useless slum of a housing development I have EVER seen.
Did you even THINK to check the room quality of the current shared bedrooms? The two current sleeping quarters provide "Modest" and "Decent" sleeping quarters respectively. My guess is that monstrosity doesn't even surpass "Meager".
I encourage the digging of additional sleeping quarters, but (this goes for ALL PLAYERS) if you're going to do so, PLEASE at least follow these common-sense ground rules:
(1) Assign at least 4 Dwarves per bedroom. This not only cuts down on the need for doors, IT ALSO DETERS VAMPIRES. Vampires will quickly be caught if they attempt to suck blood in plain sight of 3 other Dwarves. Make the rooms at least 4 times bigger and there will be no corresponding decrease in room quality.
(2) Don't dig bedrooms unless they are going to be EQUAL TO OR BETTER than the quarters the Dwarves already have on the Room Quality Scale. This ensures you don't make our Dwarves MORE UNHAPPY by moving them from a nice bedroom to a much worse one. The best ways to increase room quality are by making the rooms bigger, smoothing/engraving natural stone, and adding extra furniture. Please see the Notes Screen for a few pointers I left on Dwarven housing.
(3) Use renewable materials whenever possible. Don't use stone for doors or furniture- use green glass. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT use wood for ANYTHING other than beds. (I stretched this rule to get Dwarven housing up QUICKLY, before the glass-making industry was well-established, by using stone doors and furniture for example. I expect future housing to follow this rule to the letter, however, except for housing for nobles- which can use metals for furniture to raise room value.)
PLEASE, next player in line, scrap that slum and dig something nicer (more spacious, so that the room values will actually be at least on par with the better of the original two bedrooms) and with shared bedrooms (to deter vampire, and reduce lag on pathfinding options through doors) elsewhere. In fact, that's not a request. I'm going to issue an order that InfiniteCastor's slum shall not stand, and if you ignore this order should be torn down by the next player to upload the save (or myself- I have no problem uploading the save between players for a mini-turn to "fix" this).
I know I promised to try and respect player projects- but there was a reason I said *try*. Some projects are simply too detrimental to the future of the fortress to allow them to stand. A slum like that for Dwarven Housing is a perfect example. Housing should be higher quality than that- after all, better housing means happier Dwarves and fewer tantrums. Consider the following thought:
"Slept in a (good/very good/great/fantastic/bedroom like a personal palace) recently."
This is generated whenever Dwarves sleep in a high-quality bedroom. The better the bedroom, the higher the positive weight the thought is given towards their happiness. Dwarven psychology really isn't all the hard to understand- it's all based on a points-system, and your goal is to create the highest positive totals possible as a buffer against tragedy and tantrums. See the Wiki for an explanation and a list of all possible positive and negative thoughts:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Thought
For the new use of the site, I suggest throwing up some brick walls and breaking it into stockpile and/or workshop space. We BADLY need more specialized/spacious stockpiles, rather than one compact quantum general "super-stockpile" plus a few food stockpiles... Specialized workshops fed by custom stockpiles (to allow the construction of mechanisms only with magma-safe stones without having to disable other stone types fortress-wide, for instance) are also extremely useful.
A Wood Furnace was built in order to facilitate for ash, lye and soon soap. The fortifications are just about done. In addition, traps are currently being laid out
about the entrance in case any invading greenskins find it wise to approach our gates.
(http://i.imgur.com/4qsSrHq.png)
That's great that you're adding to Dwarven industry, but do you actually have a wood stockpile dug out yet? That should take priority BEFORE building more workshops that use wood, and will allow you to see where the most intelligent place is to build such workshops (near the wood stockpile and ideally to minimize distance dwarves must travel to reach the workshops from the rest of the fort). Ideally, the wood stockpile should also be rather close to the Trade Depot, as trade is currently our only source of wood.
Also, regarding the traps, that's GREAT that you're prioritizing the defenses- but how do you plan to trigger them? I recommend setting up a lever somewhere safely out of reach of tantruming dwarves (i.e. NOT near a meeting hall- if only we had one outside the dining hall- or anywhere else Dwarves like to congregate...) so that some schmuck with anger-management issues doesn't end up impaling a trade caravan on a bed of spikes... You'll notice that the lever to the main gate is not only close to its target (to make it easier to find and reduce the time to link the two up), it's also somewhere Dwarves NEVER go unless they have a hauling/pasturing job, since there's nothing near the Trade Depot but a few stockpiles.
As well, a dwarven caravan arrived today. North met with the liaison and returned to report that she had made specific requests for fuel to be used in steel production, seeds to bolster our farming and extra lumber in case of a sudden need. She added that figurines are in high demand for whatever reason and that nothing new about the world was of interest.
Did you think to queue up more metal-bearing ores for the next caravan? That should ALWAYS be one of the top priorities for any player in this fortress, as it will allow us to train up our weapon and armorsmiths making low-quality gear for export/trade. Speaking of which, can I ask what QUALITY the armor was that was worn by your Legendary+5 warriors who were killed in steel armor? You do realize that a Masterpiece-quality (or better yet and artifact) piece of Iron armor is MUCH better than a basic-quality piece of steel armor of the same type, right?
As soon as the traders are unpacked, we'll begin making deals.
Great. I recommend prioritizing low-value food items (not only to be eaten raw by our Dwarves, but also to be used as fillers in Prepared Meals. Don't forget even seeds are cookable), ANY ores/stone/wood they are carrying (except clay), and ALL METAL-BEARING ITEMS- as they can be melted down for free at our Magma Smelters (we don't necessarily need fuel to make steel- we can get plenty of it from melting down steel trinkets from the trade caravan...)
16th Limestone
(http://i.imgur.com/y7lPPbK.png)
After exploding into inspired enthusiasm, he immediately went to claim a Craftsdwarf's shop and began collecting wood. What he might produce, nobody is entirely sure.
22nd Limestone
Dodok finally revealed his artifact today; a willow figurine representing dwarves, dubbed by himself as Wheelbrute the Celebrated Berries. I would sell it, but I feel that such items should be kept as prized possessions and as such it shall remain as part of the fortress' stocks. However, with the celebration comes mourning as well. Without water, Dobar Ledrag the weaponsmith fell into dehydration and perished today. It pains me that we are not killed by our injuries, but by a simple liquid. Even now we dig to levels that make it hard to breathe and still no caverns have been found. I can only hope that some exploratory mining will help to quell this problem.
Darn. Weaponsmiths are among our most important Dwarves... I hope you're being sufficiently aggressive with the exploratory mining- I pressed the importance of finding water as far back as DoctorMcTaalik's "turn"...
7th Sandstone
Migrants arrived today, bringing our numbers up from 38 to 47. The new arrivals consist of a Cheese Maker, a Soap Maker, two Traders, a Fishery Worker, a Presser, a Weaponsmith, a Lye Maker, a Woodcutter, and one rather ordinary fellow who was still trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to do. I assigned them all tasks immediately.
***
{Right, as it should just so happen, it seems that I have gotten myself caught up in something else that immediately demands my attention. With that in mind, the save is here and if possible, I'll take the next year and a half in line.}
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9496
Good to see more migrants. I'm sorry you didn't have time to finish your turn... (the deadline for it is now past, by the way, but I'll see what we can't do for you later...)
I'm going to try to kick the save over to DoctorMcTaalik and let him play the next year and a half (I feel bad for what happened to him...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 01:06:33 am
Does that make it my turn then?
Maybe. I'm going to see if Doctor McTaalik has time to finish off InfiniteCastor's turn first. If not, then you're free to pick up the remaining 1 and 1/2 years, plus 2 years of your own, provided you can finish it all within 72 hours from when the Doctor announces whether he'll take on the next 18 Dwarven months...
Feel free to download the latest save though, and have a look around to familiarize yourself with the layout and current issues/opportunities. Better yet, take the time to read the Notes I left around the fort (on the Notes Screen) and consider implementing my suggestions when it comes to your turn... I've seen absolutely no move to expand underground to the northern half of the volcano, for instance, despite the multiple Notes I left InfiniteCastor suggesting this, and the large amounts of available near-surface space... (shallow z-layers are preferable because, in times of peace, you can easily dig and cover "light shafts" from the surface to prevent cave adaptation and vermin remains from generating Miasma, as well as covered pastures for animals...)
Other opportunities include:
- Establishing above-ground plant farming infrastructure in the marked (on the Notes page) area of the lit (above-ground) fortress basement. Such infrastructure should include not only Farm Plots, but ideally a nearby Still (to brew booze from the berries), food/seeds stockpile, and Kitchen (to cook up a portion of the booze and surplus seeds).
- Establishing additional ranching infrastructure around some of the existing indoor pastures. This basically means a Farmer's Workshop (to milk and shear the sheep), a Loom (to turn wool yarn into wool cloth), and possibly a Butcher/Tanner combo (to slaughter some of the older sheep nearing the end of their lives). I say "sheep" because they are the only truly useful grazers for our fortress- the grass grows too slowly in a Tundra biome to support most larger grazers (besides, we have Pigs for a meat industry), and they have the lowest pasture requirements of all the shearable animals in the game... Of course, I've currently allowed a llama and alpaca to hang around (they should still be there- assuming InfiniteCastor hasn't butchered them or allowed them to starve to death yet by forgetting to rotate them between pastures- there are already too many grazers to keep them alive on any of the small enclosed pastures w/o occasional pasture rotations) for the time being until the sheep population expands further and puts additional pressure on the very limited indoor pasture space.
- Setting aside additional tombs for coffins. Designing/building nicer tombs in advance for our Nobles (whenever we get a Count or Mayor, if ever...)
- Constructing the "drop hatch" for supplies near the gates I talked about before, and building an above-ground "village" near the main gate (leaving a path for caravans, of course) but outside the current fortress walls using the labor of new migrants (not letting them inside the main walls, but instead dropping bricks/picks/food/drink through the causeway above the main gate and letting the migrants labor outside without endangering the rest of the fortress in a siege). This village could/should be enclosed by an extension to the main fortress walls (built from outside them) as soon as dwarvenly possible to make it secure, of course.
- Building a "Hunter's Hamlet" on the opposite side of the fortress from the main gate using the same method. This should be built against the mountain or fortress walls to save on construction materials, but would probably be much less secure than the village I suggested building near the main gate, and wouldn't need a path into the fortress for caravans... Obviously, this would be designed for hunters (although it would be wise to give it a small pig-pen and cranberry/bilberry/blueberry garden as a backup food source- game is scarce). Although I haven't seen much besides Ravens around the fortress yet, there should be plenty of herds of animals like Caribou that will eventually make their way across the map... (just be sure to not hunt any herd out completely, always let a couple animals escape- or you'll eventually reduce them to local extinction). Building a secondary entrance into the fort connecting to this hamlet (1 tile wide and sealed with a bridge most of the time except when needed) would also allow hauling of Caribou hooves/bones/antlers into the fortress for the craftsdwarves to use for trade goods and furniture decorations (using bone/hooves/antlers for furniture decorations is a great, renewable way to increase room value) and to make more bone bolts for the hunters... (although the hamlet could also have a workshop to make its own bolts)
As you can see, my suggestions tend to focus pretty heavily on above-ground expansion. This is for good reason- the downfall of most forts (once a surface perimeter wall is up) tends to be delving too deeply underground too quickly, and running into nasties like Forgotten Beasts, Cave Spiders, and underground ambushes (by Goblins or subterranean animal-men) before they're ready, not to mention HFS... With proper use of hatches to drop supplies outside the walls for new migrants, there's no reason you can't expand on the surface without endangering the main fortress by lowering the gate or sending out laborers..
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. A note on the light-shafts and covered pastures: make SURE to extend walls around the surface portion of these areas BEFORE opening potential paths for invaders into the fortress while the light-shafts and pastures are still in the process of being covered...
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 01:17:45 am
My sincere apologies to all of you, especially Northstar and InfiniteCastor, for basically disappearing for a week. Some unforeseen issues occurred, and I've been without internet access for five or six days. I'm relieved to see you moved on without me.
To compensate you for the lost time, I may post some non-canon bits, just for fun.
(ps- When I was dorfing players, I chose an 80 yr old male fisherdwarf worshiping both Moldath and the Earth God for myself. If you could assign me either to he, or another ardent moldathite, that would be most appreciated.)
Glad to see you back Doctor!
If I may suggest though, forget about the shrine/temple to Moldath, at least for the time being. Even though I'm going to kick you the save now, as it doesn't look as if InfiniteCastor was able to finish his turn in the allotted time- that is if you have time for playing now; it would be best if you focused on issues more essential to fortress survival, like establishing a dependable, clean freshwater source and increasing our food security (by digging out more food/booze stockpiles, making use of the enclosed above-ground space I set aside in the fortress basement, and expanding the fortress to the northern part of the volcano and channeling+covering more indoor pasture space...)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Woot! Post #101 in this thread! Due to my abundance of advice, in part, of course- but still it's great to see this thread maturing... :D
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 24, 2014, 01:37:13 am
My sincere apologies to all of you, especially Northstar and InfiniteCastor, for basically disappearing for a week. Some unforeseen issues occurred, and I've been without internet access for five or six days. I'm relieved to see you moved on without me.
To compensate you for the lost time, I may post some non-canon bits, just for fun.
(ps- When I was dorfing players, I chose an 80 yr old male fisherdwarf worshiping both Moldath and the Earth God for myself. If you could assign me either to he, or another ardent moldathite, that would be most appreciated.)
Glad to see you back Doctor!
If I may suggest though, forget about the shrine/temple to Moldath, at least for the time being. Even though I'm going to kick you the save now, as it doesn't look as if InfiniteCastor was able to finish his turn in the allotted time- that is if you have time for playing now; it would be best if you focused on issues more essential to fortress survival, like establishing a dependable, clean freshwater source and increasing our food security (by digging out more food/booze stockpiles, making use of the enclosed above-ground space I set aside in the fortress basement, and expanding the fortress to the northern part of the volcano and channeling+covering more indoor pasture space...)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Woot! Post #101 in this thread! Due to my abundance of advice, in part, of course- but still it's great to see this thread maturing... :D
I don't think I'll have enough time to play the rest of InfiniteCastor's turn tomorrow, so I'm going to pass.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 01:58:46 am
My sincere apologies to all of you, especially Northstar and InfiniteCastor, for basically disappearing for a week. Some unforeseen issues occurred, and I've been without internet access for five or six days. I'm relieved to see you moved on without me.
To compensate you for the lost time, I may post some non-canon bits, just for fun.
(ps- When I was dorfing players, I chose an 80 yr old male fisherdwarf worshiping both Moldath and the Earth God for myself. If you could assign me either to he, or another ardent moldathite, that would be most appreciated.)
Glad to see you back Doctor!
If I may suggest though, forget about the shrine/temple to Moldath, at least for the time being. Even though I'm going to kick you the save now, as it doesn't look as if InfiniteCastor was able to finish his turn in the allotted time- that is if you have time for playing now; it would be best if you focused on issues more essential to fortress survival, like establishing a dependable, clean freshwater source and increasing our food security (by digging out more food/booze stockpiles, making use of the enclosed above-ground space I set aside in the fortress basement, and expanding the fortress to the northern part of the volcano and channeling+covering more indoor pasture space...)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Woot! Post #101 in this thread! Due to my abundance of advice, in part, of course- but still it's great to see this thread maturing... :D
I don't think I'll have enough time to play the rest of InfiniteCastor's turn tomorrow, so I'm going to pass.
OK, Deus, it's your turn then. You've got until 2:00 AM (Central Time) on August 25th to confirm you have downloaded the latest save, and until 2:00 AM on August 27th finish your turn and upload the save.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 24, 2014, 07:53:29 am
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 24, 2014, 10:22:13 am
He obviously found a way to save the fallen dwarves, but that involved something dark, like making pacts with shadowy individual or selling one's soul. The price proved to costy, and now the late Doctor is gone...
Let us learn from his mistake: One shall not bargain with Krhan-Zelag, the ancient volcano spirit, for his schemes are as the fire itself: Warm and inviting, but in the end, they shall consume all. Except for a yearly sacrifice, obviously. We don't really want the volcano god to get MAD at us.
Moldath, the Dwarven Goddess of Volcanoes (check the Doctor's mythology post), does not take kindly to Dwarven sacrifices, however. And she weeps to see good Goblinite and Dwarf-sized clothing burned within her fires if Goblins are thrown into the volcano depths without being properly stripped first (you can due this by "Dumping" all the items being worn or held by a Goblin while they are caged).
The only PROPER gift to such a fierce yet benevolent goddess is something cute and fluffy- like a whole litter of newborn kittens that just *happen* to have all adopted owners immediately after birth (making them ineligible for being made into delicious +Cat Roasts+), and threaten the fortress with a cat-splosion... In which case, the kittens shall be duly "pitted" within the volcano rim as a due and fitting sacrifice of cute, furry, softness to the secretly cat-loving volcano goddess who yearns to hold them within her fiery embrace. :o
My sacrificial plans are more elaborate, and may involve makeshift catapults.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 10:35:31 am
Obtaining the save now. Might keep the ridiculously small bedrooms for children and other parasites.
I've learned one too many times the hard way- a tantruming child can still kill a full-grown adult Dwarf.
Tear down the tiny bedrooms (what you do with the space is up to you) and dig something more spacious elsewhere.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 10:37:20 am
He obviously found a way to save the fallen dwarves, but that involved something dark, like making pacts with shadowy individual or selling one's soul. The price proved to costy, and now the late Doctor is gone...
Let us learn from his mistake: One shall not bargain with Krhan-Zelag, the ancient volcano spirit, for his schemes are as the fire itself: Warm and inviting, but in the end, they shall consume all. Except for a yearly sacrifice, obviously. We don't really want the volcano god to get MAD at us.Moldath, the Dwarven Goddess of Volcanoes (check the Doctor's mythology post), does not take kindly to Dwarven sacrifices, however. And she weeps to see good Goblinite and Dwarf-sized clothing burned within her fires if Goblins are thrown into the volcano depths without being properly stripped first (you can due this by "Dumping" all the items being worn or held by a Goblin while they are caged).
The only PROPER gift to such a fierce yet benevolent goddess is something cute and fluffy- like a whole litter of newborn kittens that just *happen* to have all adopted owners immediately after birth (making them ineligible for being made into delicious +Cat Roasts+), and threaten the fortress with a cat-splosion... In which case, the kittens shall be duly "pitted" within the volcano rim as a due and fitting sacrifice of cute, furry, softness to the secretly cat-loving volcano goddess who yearns to hold them within her fiery embrace. :o
My sacrificial plans are more elaborate, and may involve makeshift catapults.
As long as you're sacrificing surplus "adopted" kittens and not dwarves, goblins in full armor, or still-butcherable animals...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 24, 2014, 04:01:44 pm
Pagetower, the next great fortress of the Aqua Treaties. Hah. This place barely qualifies as a hovel, if we’re being generous, but apparently it’s my burden to try turn it into a place someone might be willing to take refuge in if their life depended on it. My first order of business is going to have to be removing all those traps in front of the depot, since they’re preventing any traders actually getting into the fortress. I’ve just been shown the bedroom they expect me to sleep in, and it looks like that’s going to have to be rectified as soon as possible as well.
In order to train up some weaponsmiths and protect our fortress more adequately, I’ve commissioned the forging of a hell of a lot of copper trap components, which ought to stop invaders from murdering us all in our sleep. The glassmakers aren’t out of work anymore either, since the new bedrooms I’m having dug will require some nice furniture.
1st of Timber:
A voracious cave crawler gained access to our main stairway, which is apparently directly linked to and completely undefended from our subterranean caves. I sent our militia to deal with it, only to find out that they’re completely unequipped. This didn’t deter Limul Thobevost, who punched the creature to death. In any case, I’m sealing off the caves for now and will create a more defensible passage once the miners are finished with the bedrooms.
15th of Timber:
I just noticed that we actually have quite a lot of bismuth and tin, so we won’t be using up all of our copper on those trap components then.
20th of Moonstone:
Excavation of some burial sites has begun, which I imagine will be helpful once the place descends into anarchy and bloodshed like it inevitably will. In other news, we caught a few crundles in the caves, so I’ll have to think of something to do with them. Probably befriend them and then butcher them for their delicious innards.
27th of Moonstone:
Asob Lolokrurast, one of our miners, has withdrawn from society and taken over our mason’s workshop.
14th of Opal:
Asob created this thing:
(http://s28.postimg.org/rpogsuwzt/Untitled.jpg?noCache=1408914050)
I'm sure we'll find a use for it somewhere.
That picture got cut in half for some reason. Hrm.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 07:26:43 pm
Asmoth’s Log, 11th of Sandstone:
Pagetower, the next great fortress of the Aqua Treaties. Hah. This place barely qualifies as a hovel, if we’re being generous, but apparently it’s my burden to try turn it into a place someone might be willing to take refuge in if their life depended on it. My first order of business is going to have to be removing all those traps in front of the depot, since they’re preventing any traders actually getting into the fortress. I’ve just been shown the bedroom they expect me to sleep in, and it looks like that’s going to have to be rectified as soon as possible as well.
It's good that you're focusing on living quarters. Maybe you'd also consider expanding the above-ground portions of the fortress outwards with the next migrant wave?
In order to train up some weaponsmiths and protect our fortress more adequately, I’ve commissioned the forging of a hell of a lot of copper trap components, which ought to stop invaders from murdering us all in our sleep. The glassmakers aren’t out of work anymore either, since the new bedrooms I’m having dug will require some nice furniture.
1st of Timber:
A voracious cave crawler gained access to our main stairway, which is apparently directly linked to and completely undefended from our subterranean caves. I sent our militia to deal with it, only to find out that they’re completely unequipped. This didn’t deter Limul Thobevost, who punched the creature to death. In any case, I’m sealing off the caves for now and will create a more defensible passage once the miners are finished with the bedrooms.
Wait, WHAT, we breached the Caverns? Not only that, but the 2nd/3rd level caverns already? WHY wasn't this is the previous updates? This kind of thing is a MAJOR development, but yet InfiniteCastor didn't think to mention it (in fact, just the opposite, he said he was having trouble finding the caverns...)
In the future, this kind of thing NEEDS to be mentioned in updates, rather than catching us all by surprise when a Cave Crawler (or worse, a Forgotten Beast) makes its way into the fortress...
Did the Cave Crawler do any damage before it was slain? (Cave Crawlers are build destroyers, you know...)
15th of Timber:
I just noticed that we actually have quite a lot of bismuth and tin, so we won’t be using up all of our copper on those trap components then.
Yeah, I was just going to point that out before. Somehow, player after player keeps thinking that all we have is piles of copper, without looking to see we also have loads of bismuth bronze, and bismuth/tin to make more of it...
20th of Moonstone:
Excavation of some burial sites has begun, which I imagine will be helpful once the place descends into anarchy and bloodshed like it inevitably will. In other news, we caught a few crundles in the caves, so I’ll have to think of something to do with them. Probably befriend them and then butcher them for their delicious innards.
How did you catch Crundles if you already sealed off the caverns??? Some pictures would be nice- considering nobody even though to mention before that we already breached the caverns...
27th of Moonstone:
Asob Lolokrurast, one of our miners, has withdrawn from society and taken over our mason’s workshop.
14th of Opal:
Asob created this thing:
(http://s28.postimg.org/rpogsuwzt/Untitled.jpg?noCache=1408914050)
I'm sure we'll find a use for it somewhere.
What is it? Since the picture is cut in half, nobody can actually see what it is...
That picture got cut in half for some reason. Hrm.
Whatever it is, what do you plan to do with it? If it's a piece of furniture, obviously it should be placed in one of the larger communal bedrooms (to split up its value among many Dwarves, rather than going overkill on just one or two...) If it's armor or a weapon, it mgiht prove mighty handy for our militia. If it's something like a grate, it could be used to filter out building destroyers from the caverns before they penetrate deeper into the fortress... (also, beware- I think there are some Goblins that have migrated underground to the north, if that's even possible- you may need to be prepared for sieges from underground as well as above. A sealable bridge is advised.)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 24, 2014, 07:38:55 pm
I put some cage traps down where the cave crawler got in while I was ordering the stairs sealed up, but didn't take them back up again, so they caught a few crundles.
Only the first cave was breached, it just feels weird writing it in the singular when talking about something as big as they are.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 08:35:34 pm
Er, yeah, it's a floodgate so I'll probably stick it in some noble's bedroom.
You're kidding me, right? Artifact-quality floodgates are just about one of the MOST USEFUL artifacts (aside from weapons and armor made out of high-quality metals) a fortress can obtain. We were EXTREMELY lucky to have one of our Dwarves construct one... (first an artifact table, now a floodgate? Moldath must be smiling on this fortress...)
Please post the save IMMEDIATELY so that, in case something happens to your copy (like it gets corrupted) we still have a copy of the save available with the artifact-quality floodgate...
Artifact floodgates are extremely useful as *COMPLETELY INDESTRUCTIBLE* entrances/exits to a fortress. Unlike a bridge, they can't be destroyed by Dwarves throwing a tantrum. Unlike a door, they can't be destroyed by building destroyers (and in fact, such floodgates can be used to "filter out" building destroyers from an attacking force). Even magma can't destroy an artifact floodgate- no matter what it is made of (even one made of wood will simply burn for all eternity without ever being destroyed- though I wouldn't recommend this for lag/FPS reasons...) The only weakness of such a floodgate is that, like a door, it can't close with anything occupying its tile- even the remains of a simple sock or monarch butterfly will prevent it from closing.
The floodgate should be great for a lever-operated entrance/exit to the caverns.
I put some cage traps down where the cave crawler got in while I was ordering the stairs sealed up, but didn't take them back up again, so they caught a few crundles.
I see. Keep the Crundles- they are superior egg producers to Turkeys once fully-tamed (taming will take multiple generations of Crundles). Despite their humanoid appearance, they are not sentient and quite butcherable, and though they yield less meat when butchered (and scales rather than tannable hides), they live up to twice as long (10-20 yrs instead of 7-10), and lay a potentially larger clutch of eggs (5-20 instead of 9-14). Their children are also smaller at birth (size 50 instead of size 85, and size 1000 by 1 year instead of size 2500), though their adults are larger (size 10,000 instead of size 5,000) reducing the chances of babies harming their parents when fighting due to overcrowding; and they are sexually mature at birth (making it less likely that the population will naturally die out than with birds). Finally they have the advantage of being native to the area- we're not going to capture any wild turkeys if our bird population dies off naturally or gets slaughtered during a siege.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Crundle
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Turkey
Only the first cave was breached, it just feels weird writing it in the singular when talking about something as big as they are.
I didn't say "cave", I said "Cavern Level". Based on the presence of Crundles and Voracious Cave Crawlers (both level 2-3 creatures), it appears we skipped straight over Cavern Layer #1, and breached layer #2 or 3 instead:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Caverns
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Voracious_cave_crawler
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Crundle
Also, was there any cave fungus/moss growing on the cavern level? If so, that would be EXTREMELY important to the future of our fortress- since it affects our ability to create additional underground pastures for animals once we find a source of water (by the way, have we found any water yet?)
I'm excited- it's been a *long* time since I've even had a fortress live long enough to breach the caverns (though I didn't get to do it myself). My observations on caverns generally being the doom of fortresses come from reading the stories of MANY, MANY succession fortresses- not so much from my own experiences (my forts generally fall to tantrum-spirals resulting from Goblin ambushes within the first year- strangely they always seem to arrive *extremely* early in my games, this fort being no exception...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 09:07:14 pm
The raws didn't get changes from 0.40.09 though, so all you need to do is update your DF+Ironhand install to version 0.40.10, and the save will work as updated for 0.40.09 (you remembered to update the raws in the save file InfiniteCastor, right? If not, we might start seeing some bugs soon due to certain incompatibilities between version 0.40.09A/0.40.10A of Ironhand graphics and 0.40.08 raws in the save file...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on August 24, 2014, 09:36:56 pm
Plus it just builds up character. How are they to live daily and safely on a friggin volcanic cliff if they cant climb over a cabinet to get in/out of bed?
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 24, 2014, 10:03:43 pm
I for one like the bedrooms. They make our dwarves akin to the very magma fueling our home: Volatile and fiery little things crammed full into thight stone veins, ready to boil up and erupt at the worst moment. Clearly it is in accordance with Moldath's design.
Plus it just builds up character. How are they to live daily and safely on a friggin volcanic cliff if they cant climb over a cabinet to get in/out of bed?
It's far too late for that- the slums have already been ordered demolished (and probably already cleared out by Deus, although I'm waiting on the save to confirm that).
It would be one thing if that was the *initial* housing for our Dwarves- but it's entirely another when we already had quite a bit of adequate housing for many of our Dwarves, and InfiniteCastor suddenly wanted to take them out of their comfy communal bedrooms and cram them into lonely, vampire-prone, individual Dwarven cubby-holes that provided a lower quality housing experience and were a much less efficient use of time and resources (besides taking an average of four mined out tiles to create a rock door, it takes much longer to craft and deploy a door than for a skilled engraver to smooth and engrave several tiles of wall/floor- and the engravings greatly enhance room value).
I *strongly* believe the first priority of any fortress overseer should be the happiness of his/her dwarves. This means, primarily, great bedrooms (we're not there *yet*), a legendary dining hall (done), even better rooms for the nobles (and some quality noble tombs- peasants don't much care where they're buried), a good variety of booze, plenty of clothes, high-quality grub (masterpiece-quality lavish meals to maximize the chance and strength of happy thoughts), and lots of high-quality statuary and such to create even more happy thoughts... This also means taking every conceivable measure to minimize the chances of death and unhappy thoughts.
After that, the second priority should be industry and the generation of wealth/trade, and the third priority should be safety and overwhelming military preparedness. Stupid Dwarven Projects (like temples/shrines) should only take a distant fourth.
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Taupe, I *am* starting to question your sanity as a fortress overseer, however. You don't seriously want our Dwarves to kill each other off in an orgy of murder this early on, do you? Do you?!!! :o
Post by: Wacksonoff on August 24, 2014, 10:17:57 pm
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 25, 2014, 01:21:26 pm
Now that some of the new bedrooms are reasonably kitted out, I got one of our up and coming artists to make a drawing of the rooms:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The rooms to the left are going to be converted into office space and various chambers for the nobility if I get any say in it. Doubtless they'll just end up as stockpiles for turnip seeds instead.
He must be pretty good to remember the locations of everyone while he drew it, but I suppose that's what you get when you take the time to find a good artist. Unfortunately, that obsessive attraction to detail seems to be carried over to every part of his life, judging by this description of our militia commander that was written on the back.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In accordance with the wishes of our founder, I've also taken the time to send directions to our fortress back to the mountainhomes so that they can locate our amazing floodgate in the case of an emergency. (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9514)
25th of Opal
With the laying down of a layer of cage traps at the top of the stairs, the caves have once again been opened for business at this entrance. We also have three crundles, one male and two female (we had another male but someone killed him for food). In any case, this should make sure that our fortress is adequately supplied with food and wood.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 25, 2014, 07:04:44 pm
Asmoth's Log, 20th of Opal 254.
Now that some of the new bedrooms are reasonably kitted out, I got one of our up and coming artists to make a drawing of the rooms:Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The rooms to the left are going to be converted into office space and various chambers for the nobility if I get any say in it. Doubtless they'll just end up as stockpiles for turnip seeds instead.
That's an awful lot of rooms. Are you anticipating a massive population boom? You probably would have been better off digging out a smaller number of even larger rooms- as it stands, the rooms you carved have almost exactly the same (in fact, slightly higher) housing density (measured in dwarves per tile, and tiles per room divided by occupants; 11 usable room floor/wall tiles per Dwarf vs. 10.25 floor/wall tiles per Dwarf) as the slums before- their only real advantage is use of less doors, a lot more floorspace for furniture (but relatively less wall available to engrave), and improved resistance to vampires...
Also, why did you lay down the furniture *BEFORE* smoothing/engraving the floors of the rooms? The rooms will have higher value (and thus make Dwarves happier) if the floors under the furniture are smoothed+engraved as well.
Shouldn't you be using green glass doors though? (they are listed in the Magma Glass Furnace as glass "portals") Rock boulders would be better-used for making large rock pots- which are capable of holding booze (the more we store up the better), unlike the cheap Earthenware pots our Magma Kilns can churn out (unless they are glazed- which costs wood or tin ore), or for rock-fall traps and catapult ammunition... I *strongly* recommend stockpiling (or quantum-stockpiling if you don't feel like digging out huge stone stockpiles) the boulders and making the doors out of green glass instead...
He must be pretty good to remember the locations of everyone while he drew it, but I suppose that's what you get when you take the time to find a good artist. Unfortunately, that obsessive attraction to detail seems to be carried over to every part of his life, judging by this description of our militia commander that was written on the back.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
There's nothing in the spoiler.
In accordance with the wishes of our founder, I've also taken the time to send directions to our fortress back to the mountainhomes so that they can locate our amazing floodgate in the case of an emergency. (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9514)
Thanks. I also wanted to see what the current state was of the fortress, so this should be helpful...
25th of Opal
With the laying down of a layer of cage traps at the top of the stairs, the caves have once again been opened for business at this entrance. We also have three crundles, one male and two female (we had another male but someone killed him for food). In any case, this should make sure that our fortress is adequately supplied with food and wood.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
What's with all the stairways into the Caverns?!!!! It should only take ONE entrance to get in and out of the caverns, and the caverns are DANGEROUS- so the more entrances/exits you dig the harder the fortress becomes to defend. You're also opening a path straight into our fortress for Forgotten Beasts, which are building destroyers (meaning they can smash anything blocking their path except artifacts and raised bridges) and trapavoid to boot (making those cage traps COMPLETELY WORTHLESS when it *really* counts...)
I would respectfully request that you block off one of the entrances to the fortress- and preferably that you also build a sealable bridge (that is, one that raises to present a solid wall to intruders) or the artifact floodgate across the other ASAP- linked to a lever of course.
A 3-wide entrance would be useful for letting the caravan escape into the caverns during surface sieges, but is useless for that purpose if you use stairs. And what the heck is with the 3x3 stairwell?!! You should only need a 1x1 or 1x2 (to reduce congestion) stairwell for most purposes, and making it any larger is just a waste of valuable space. This just joins the list of new features added to the fortress that are silly, inefficient, and I am really *not* liking...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Askarn on August 25, 2014, 10:06:19 pm
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 26, 2014, 03:01:20 am
Post by: HiEv on August 26, 2014, 07:25:19 pm
the empty spoiler has Wax's profile in it. Not sure why you can't see it.
It's because the link you used (http://s15.postimg.org/5kuglzkyi/Untitled.jpg) gets redirected to a web page (http://postimg.org/image/6zw1apm1j/) for us, so it doesn't work as an image.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 26, 2014, 09:01:42 pm
The entrance to the caves on the left is already blocked off at a higher level, and the empty spoiler has Wax's profile in it. Not sure why you can't see it.
Alright, good. Why the 3x3 stairways though?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Meme on August 27, 2014, 12:59:28 am
Post by: Taupe on August 27, 2014, 02:05:18 am
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 27, 2014, 07:40:36 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 27, 2014, 05:00:36 pm
Not sure why the stairs are 3x3, they were like that when I got there and I didn't want to have them suddenly narrowing. There'll be a year long update with my end save up in a few hours, doubt I'd get much more done.
Alright, make sure to get the save up soon- you were supposed to post it by 2 AM Central Time today (i.e. last night) at the latest.
Take 50 lashes with a Fluffly Wabler as punishment. :)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 27, 2014, 07:48:51 pm
I've sent some woodcutters out to deforest the caves. This will have no negative repercussions whatsoever.
25th of Granite, 255.
That was quite the New Year's party! Time to go on a break!
1st of Slate.
I can't think of anything else for the miners to do at the moment, so I've sent them looking for gold:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Should keep them busy for a while.
19th of Slate.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This should be good.
24th of Slate.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Some migrants arrived today. Most of them seem pretty useless. Our population is now up to sixty six working dwarves, plus one baby. In other population news, we now have three female crundles and two males.
10th of Felsite.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The crundling begins. Unfortunately, our crundles aren't particularly well trained at the moment, but I'm sure that will improve as time goes on. Hopefully we'll discover a use for their scales in the meantime.
1st of Hematite.
A vile force of darkness has arrived! This may not end well.
5th of Hematite.
The main gate has been closed after our weapon traps spectacularly failed to do anything whatsoever, landing a hit on only one goblin out of the ten invaders. On the bright side, that goblin is dead now. Mistem Rimtarlegon went out to try recover his weapons and armour, barely making it back inside before the gates and/or goblins smooshed him.
7th of Hematite.
Goblins are stupid, apparently. With the gates closed, they started wandering around and one of them found another weapon trap. We're down to eight.[/u]
18th of Hematite.
The forgotten beast Gol Ozmatgozru attacked us from the caves today. Our militia was able to take it down with no more than a fractured wrist, though three of them were overcome by terror when it first appeared. That does not bode well for our chances of breaking the goblin siege. Gol apparently had poisonous gas, but I have yet to see any symptoms.
27th of Hematite.
Apparently, we don't have a source of water anywhere in the fortress. The medics are refusing to discharge the guy with the broken writs until they clean him, and they won't let him drink anything but water, so it looks like he's going to die of thirst unless the miners can crack open another cave.
30th of Hematite.
Er... wow. I didn't even know this was a thing that could happen.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm also a little bit suspicious of our new captain of the guard, as she hasn't yet claimed a bedroom and has no relatives. On the other hand, her skillset isn't all that unusually varied, so I'm assigning her a room so keep her happy about having rooms and stuff.
23rd of Malachite.
The goblins have been driven away, and it barely even cost us half of our militia! This is a picture of our dwarves battling the final member of their dastardly army, showing no fear whatsoever, aside from one recruit who got 'possessed by a great idea for an artefact, honest':
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
2nd of Galena.
The guy who abandoned his comrades to die turned up again today with this:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm sure it's a very nice mechanism, but I think he'd probably have been more useful at his post.
--------------
I kind of made a hames of everything to do with that siege. It's my first fort to deal with the new horror/discipline etc mechanics, and I underestimated how much it was going to affect the military. Here's a save from before (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9540) I tried to get rid of the gobbos, and here's one from after (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9541). The after one is in the process of stabilising and shouldn't turn into a cascade barring further invasions and deaths, but there's a lot more death in it than there needed to be.
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 27, 2014, 08:04:28 pm
19th of Slate.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This should be good.
24th of Slate.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Some migrants arrived today. Most of them seem pretty useless. Our population is now up to sixty six working dwarves, plus one baby. In other population news, we now have three female crundles and two males.
30th of Hematite.
Er... wow. I didn't even know this was a thing that could happen.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm also a little bit suspicious of our new captain of the guard, as she hasn't yet claimed a bedroom and has no relatives. On the other hand, her skillset isn't all that unusually varied, so I'm assigning her a room so keep her happy about having rooms and stuff.
2nd of Galena.
The guy who abandoned his comrades to die turned up again today with this:Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm sure it's a very nice mechanism, but I think he'd probably have been more useful at his post.
Ummm... A bunch of your spoiler pictures appear as nothing. And you didn't provide enough description to properly update us without them. I quoted the ones that you missed on. I think I got them all. I didn't bother to check the saves.
Perhaps a refresher in posting screenshot images from the game to the forums might be necessary? Maybe add instructions for the saves to that as well. I think a generalized how to might serve some of us well.
Post by: Redzephyr01 on August 27, 2014, 08:56:47 pm
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 27, 2014, 09:20:27 pm
I can see the pictures in those spoilers and I'm currently on a different computer to the one I used to post the pictures, so I'm not sure why you can't see them.19th of Slate.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This should be good.
24th of Slate.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Some migrants arrived today. Most of them seem pretty useless. Our population is now up to sixty six working dwarves, plus one baby. In other population news, we now have three female crundles and two males.
30th of Hematite.
Er... wow. I didn't even know this was a thing that could happen.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm also a little bit suspicious of our new captain of the guard, as she hasn't yet claimed a bedroom and has no relatives. On the other hand, her skillset isn't all that unusually varied, so I'm assigning her a room so keep her happy about having rooms and stuff.
2nd of Galena.
The guy who abandoned his comrades to die turned up again today with this:Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm sure it's a very nice mechanism, but I think he'd probably have been more useful at his post.
Ummm... A bunch of your spoiler pictures appear as nothing. And you didn't provide enough description to properly update us without them. I quoted the ones that you missed on. I think I got them all. I didn't bother to check the saves.
Perhaps a refresher in posting screenshot images from the game to the forums might be necessary? Maybe add instructions for the saves to that as well. I think a generalized how to might serve some of us well.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 28, 2014, 12:25:24 am
I kind of made a hames of everything to do with that siege. It's my first fort to deal with the new horror/discipline etc mechanics, and I underestimated how much it was going to affect the military. Here's a save from before (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9540) I tried to get rid of the gobbos, and here's one from after (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9541). The after one is in the process of stabilising and shouldn't turn into a cascade barring further invasions and deaths, but there's a lot more death in it than there needed to be.
WHY would you send the Dwarves to engage the Goblins in melee combat? Especially when you had perfectly good traps to pick them off, and the safety of fortifications to shoot through? Didn't I already lecture you guys quite long enough about the uselessness and stupidity of engaging the Goblins in melee? What's the point of building tall walls if you don't USE them to your advantage?
Scrap the 50 lashes with a Fluffy Wambler. When (not if) we find a Giant Cave Spider, orders are for for the first Dwarf used to farm silk from it to be dorfed with your name. Failing that (if the GCS should be killed rather than captured), the first Dwarf killed by it or some other giant cave beast will be given your name instead- as punishment for killing off half our militia by engaging the Goblins for no good reason.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on August 28, 2014, 03:17:43 am
I can see the pictures in those spoilers and I'm currently on a different computer to the one I used to post the pictures, so I'm not sure why you can't see them.
Well, I have no idea why I can't see them. I didn't think it was me because I could see the rest of them fine. That is really strange.
Post by: Taupe on August 28, 2014, 04:18:28 am
Post by: Deus Asmoth on August 28, 2014, 07:40:09 am
Post by: Taupe on August 28, 2014, 10:06:06 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 28, 2014, 10:27:46 pm
The weapon traps weren't working, and they had a bowgoblin who could apparently 360 no scope anyone who tried to fire on him. Plus, the militia only had two members before the goblins came, so it made a net profit.
Situations like that (facing an invading party with an Elite Bowgoblin, and only 2 Dwarves are in the militia) are where you WAIT OUT the siege. It's not like they posed any real threat- you had everything you needed for survival inside the fortress walls.
Was it an *ACTUAL* Elite Bowgoblin, or just a really skilled basic Goblin Bowman? The difference is that ONLY the "Elite" Bowgoblins can shoot through fortifications they aren't standing directly next to. If it was a basic Bowgoblin, the fortifications would have protected your Dwarves (that's why they were built in the first place)
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Fortification
If you INSISTED on engaging the invaders, the safest way to do it would have been to mob that one Bowgoblin through the fortifications with a bunch of Marksdwarves (or Siege Operators on ballistae, if you wanted to be REALLY clever). A dozen Marksdwarves probably could have taken him/her down with far fewer losses than engaging in melee combat. From there, the rest of the goblins would have become mere targets to be potted with crossbow bolts at will.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Siege_engine
Your Dwarf's punishment still stands. There was no reason to engage the Goblins when you could have just safely waited them out.
Finally, for the future, I *HIGHLY* recommend creating a well-drilled, well-equipped, cross-trained military to deal with future such threats. Focus on training Marksdwarves, crafting high quality-level bronze helmets and breastplates/mail for them, and improving the fortification network (for instance with retracting bridges that allow you to safely rally a large number of Marksdwarves in one place before exposing them to enemy Elite Bowgolbins through the fortifications). This is a MUCH better use of time than pointlessly "mining for gold" that we already know isn't there, or creating useless temples/shrines to Dwarven gods/goddesses...
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Cross-training
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on August 29, 2014, 06:39:23 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This is why we need gold. Giant molten moving dragon statues. Like imagine if we can trap a bunch of those in a room? The volcano gods would be so impressed.
Post by: HiEv on August 29, 2014, 05:20:30 pm
I can see the pictures in those spoilers and I'm currently on a different computer to the one I used to post the pictures, so I'm not sure why you can't see them.
The same reason as last time (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=142169.msg5608291#msg5608291), the links you posted redirect to web pages now, so they won't show up as images. The reason you can see them and we can't is likely because they're in your browser's cache. Clear the cache and reload the page, and I bet they'll be gone for you too. To prevent this in the future you either need to make sure you're grabbing the links properly, or you need to use a better image hosting site.
Anyways, here are the missing image links:
19th of Slate - Your URL (http://s30.postimg.org/plrj89fxb/Untitled.png)
24th of Slate - Your URL (http://s27.postimg.org/m8bhg1owh/Untitled.png)
30th of Hematite - Your URL (http://s16.postimg.org/cg01kduyr/Untitled.png)
2nd of Galena - Your URL (http://s18.postimg.org/jyx29hn8n/Untitled.png)
I could pull the image URLs from those webpages, but I can't promise they wouldn't break again.
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 29, 2014, 09:23:35 pm
I can see the pictures in those spoilers and I'm currently on a different computer to the one I used to post the pictures, so I'm not sure why you can't see them.
The same reason as last time (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=142169.msg5608291#msg5608291), the links you posted redirect to web pages now, so they won't show up as images. The reason you can see them and we can't is likely because they're in your browser's cache. Clear the cache and reload the page, and I bet they'll be gone for you too. To prevent this in the future you either need to make sure you're grabbing the links properly, or you need to use a better image hosting site.
Anyways, here are the missing image links:
19th of Slate - Your URL (http://s30.postimg.org/plrj89fxb/Untitled.png)
24th of Slate - Your URL (http://s27.postimg.org/m8bhg1owh/Untitled.png)
30th of Hematite - Your URL (http://s16.postimg.org/cg01kduyr/Untitled.png)
2nd of Galena - Your URL (http://s18.postimg.org/jyx29hn8n/Untitled.png)
I could pull the image URLs from those webpages, but I can't promise they wouldn't break again.
An artifact-quality STEEL spear (I think the utility of this is obvious), a legendary mechanism (great for impressive levers), and a Drarf whose spine is completely rotten?
This is the kind of information we *NEED* to have to give good advice, and plan for our turns. Please use a better image-hosting site (like Imgur) in the future...
By the way, that Dwarf (Wacksonoff- I assume he was the Expedition Leader from before?) whose spine is rotten will eventually die of blood poisoning if he doesn't receive surgery to cut out the rotten tissue in/around his spine (although this process can take several years). A proper hospital NEEDS to be an immediate priority, as does obtaining a good water source. How come nobody's dug into the aquifer yet? Nobody was playing with a modded version of DwarfFortress that disabled aquifers, were they? (Starter Pack/Lazy Newb Pack will both tend to do this by default- you need to go into settings and make sure you didn't have this option enabled if you had one of these installed- although players were NOT supposed to be running either mod pack for precisely this kind of reason...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 29, 2014, 09:28:40 pm
Furniture doesn't block dwarfs from smoothing/engraving.
I know it doesn't block smoothing, but I've definitely observed Dwarves failing to engrave a tile when there is furniture underneath it.
Peregarrett, it's your turn (and has been for more than 48 hours- you're lucky we haven't skipped you for your lack of responsiveness yet). Could you show us a "Look" (k) screen of the bedrooms and what there current status is now- including whether they have been engraved?
If peregarrett doesn't confirm he has begun his turn in the next 24 hours (by 9:30 PM, August 30, Central Time), he will be skipped and the turn will pass to Edmus. Edmus has 24 hours to confirm downloading the file and starting his turn (until 9:30 PM, August 31, Central Time) or he will be skipped and the turn will pass to Shadow of Fate (if this is too busy a time for you Shadow, let us know now- and I'll bump you in at the end of the list, and Meme will follow Edmus instead).
Also, after Shadow has announced whether he will be taking his turn on-time, I will be adding DoctorMcTaalik and myself to the end of the list for second turns. If anyone else wants in on the turn order, let me know now- and your qualifications- as, after consulting with DoctorMcTaalik, I'm considering closing the fortress to new applicants for a bit so everybody gets a chance at a 2nd turn... (especially considering the number of turns that have been cut short)
Finally, DoctorMcTaalik, don't be afraid to remind players of their turn. You *are* helping to co-host this thread after all, and you have just as much authority in running it as I do... (even if for the moment I've fallen into a position of being "first among equals"- this state of things need not remain so!)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. That last bit gave me a chill down my spine, reminding me of the attempts of Marcus Aurelius to restore the Roman Republic... Long live the Republic! (Let me put it this way- if myself and DoctorMcTaalik are the "co-consuls" of this thread, and I am currently filling in as the "Dictator"- originally a temporary position in Roman Republic for centuries before Ceasar- you guys are the senators. When I founded this thread, I meant for *everybody* to have a say, hence why we choose the Embark site democratically...)
Post by: Northstar1989 on August 29, 2014, 10:23:00 pm
Censor- Will be responsible for monitoring players to make sure they take their turns at appropriate times, and empowered to skip delinquent players and hand the turn off to the next player in the turn order (though myself and DoctorMcTaalik will still act as backups to the Censor). As a reward for putting forth the effort, the Censor will be given two votes in any issues the fortress decides to vote upon as a group.
Aedile- Will be responsible for monitoring the state of fortress supplies and stockpiles (including food/drink, stone, wood, and fuel stockpiles), and advise players on their use. Can call a vote upon, and will be empowered with two votes, on any issue regarding fortress production/trade.
Quaestor- Will act as both an assistant to the fortress Aedile (it can become rather tiring constantly bugging players about what they are producing, or where they are storing things), and the official Fortress Artist (both the go-to person for player-created art, and responsible for monitoring the aesthetic of the actual fortress). Can call a vote on any issue regarding fortress administration, but will receive no votes in the decision, unless it pertains to artwork/aesthetics.
Tribunes- The two Tribunes (singular, Tribunus) will be responsible for overseeing the fortress military. This means (1) ensuring that players are engaged in active training, equipment, and cross-training programs for the military; and (2) overseeing and advising in the actual use of the fortress military (including ensuring that players are NOT engaging in unnecessary battles). Each Tribunus will be endowed with two votes regarding all fortress military issues, the ability to call votes on such issues, and limited executive power to oversee the military (this includes the ability to order players to revert saves after unwise and unnecessary military engagements that went badly, and the ability to dispense punishments if players ignore common sense and endanger the military/fortress against all reason...)
Please PM me if you are interested in one of these positions, and I will discuss the candidates (privately) with DoctorMcTaalik.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Wacksonoff on August 31, 2014, 02:06:56 pm
God damn it, how'd this happen?
Post by: Timeless Bob on August 31, 2014, 02:54:36 pm
the way, that Dwarf (Wacksonoff- I assume he was the Expedition Leader from before?) whose spine is rotten will eventually die of blood poisoning if he doesn't receive surgery to cut out the rotten tissue in/around his spine
God damn it, how'd this happen?
With humans, their palms grow fur and their eyes go blind - for dwarves, their spines get rotten. It's a "genetics" thing.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on August 31, 2014, 09:53:04 pm
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on September 01, 2014, 03:53:10 pm
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 01, 2014, 03:59:04 pm
As I understand it, the order for the next 10 turns should be:
Meme (1st turn)
Askarn (1st Turn)
Taupe (1st Turn)
DoctorMcTaalik (skipped, first turn)
Peregarret (skipped, first turn)
Edmus (Skipped, first turn)
Shadow of Fate (skipped, first turn)
Northstar1989 (second turn)
InfiniteCastor (second turn, first full turn)
Deus Asmoth (second turn)
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 02, 2014, 07:23:20 pm
Edmus has also informed me he (or she) will be unable to play this round. That means it is on to Meme's turn.
As I understand it, the order for the next 10 turns should be:
Meme (1st turn)
Askarn (1st Turn)
Taupe (1st Turn)
DoctorMcTaalik (skipped, first turn)
Peregarret (skipped, first turn)
Edmus (Skipped, first turn)
Shadow of Fate (skipped, first turn)
Northstar1989 (second turn)
InfiniteCastor (second turn, first full turn)
Deus Asmoth (second turn)
Sounds good, I'll update the turn order on the first page accordingly. However, it has been 24 hours since your post informing him of his turn, so Meme has been skipped and added to the end of the list.
One small thing I'm going to change though- I'm pushing Peregarret to behind Deus Armoth in the turn order as he didn't even bother to send anyone a reply explaining why he couldn't take a turn as far as I know...
Askarn, per the usual, you have 24 hours to confirm download of the save- until 7:30 PM Central Time September 3rd.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Askarn on September 03, 2014, 04:50:39 am
Watch this space
Edit 1:
Time very, very quickly showed going with the post-invasion save was foolish. The situation might be salvagable, but I don't have much experience warding off tantrum spirals. Plan B!
Edit 2:
28th Hematite 255
I assume power at a dark hour in the history of Pagetower. Part of the dread goblin horde stands outside our gate. Though it burns at my very soul to cower behind these walls, we do not yet have the strength necessary to defeat them.
Unfortunately, the defilers are not our only concern. Although we have plentiful supplies, we have no source of water whatsoever. For the moment practically any wound will prove a death sentence. Four of our number, including Northstar are already injured and I fear for them. Exploration of the caverns has provern fruitless, so the only hope is to continue exploratory mining. Two other dwarfs are ill, including Militia Commander Wacksonoff cling to life but even if we had water, they would not survive. The noxious fumes of a Forgotten Beast laid them low and only a miracle could help them now. Preparation for their burials have already begun, I can only hope that no one else will suffer the same fate as them.
The mission before me is clear; I must prepare Pagetower for war. Though we possess some weapons, precious few know how to wield them. We must use the power of the mountain to forge armament on a scale not seen before. We must set aside pottery and learn the way of the axe and the crossbow. And we must find water, so our brave warriors need not fear death at mere scratches.
In order to better secure the fortress, my first order is to seal off the caverns. With no water to be found there, it is currently an unnecessary distraction. This done, I shall set about reorganising the militia and equiping them better.
Post by: Meme on September 03, 2014, 06:41:03 am
Dangit xD So close yet so far.Edmus has also informed me he (or she) will be unable to play this round. That means it is on to Meme's turn.
As I understand it, the order for the next 10 turns should be:
Meme (1st turn)
Askarn (1st Turn)
Taupe (1st Turn)
DoctorMcTaalik (skipped, first turn)
Peregarret (skipped, first turn)
Edmus (Skipped, first turn)
Shadow of Fate (skipped, first turn)
Northstar1989 (second turn)
InfiniteCastor (second turn, first full turn)
Deus Asmoth (second turn)
Sounds good, I'll update the turn order on the first page accordingly. However, it has been 24 hours since your post informing him of his turn, so Meme has been skipped and added to the end of the list.
One small thing I'm going to change though- I'm pushing Peregarret to behind Deus Armoth in the turn order as he didn't even bother to send anyone a reply explaining why he couldn't take a turn as far as I know...
Askarn, per the usual, you have 24 hours to confirm download of the save- until 7:30 PM Central Time September 3rd.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on September 03, 2014, 01:19:08 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 03, 2014, 11:33:00 pm
Well since Meme is apparently here, we can probably arrange for him to go right after Askarn. I honestly dont mind. I can easily see how various people skipping their turn in a row can result in the like, third guy in line to not immediately answer.
That sounds reasonable to me. I can see how he wouldn't have expected (exactly) 3 people to get skipped ahead of him.
Meme, I'll insert you back in the turn order right after Askarn, since you did eventually manage to report in. In the future, though, I advise everybody in the rotation check the thread regularly in case something like this happens again.
Speaking of which, is anybody interested in the officer positions I posted? I haven't received any messages stating interest yet. They are all VERY important positions, and I am sure we could arrange special lodgings to be made for your Dwarrves (*if* they survive- perhaps their body could be moved to a special tomb as reward if they are already dead... Personally, I don't mind being buried in a pauper's grave, however.)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 03, 2014, 11:35:05 pm
The mission before me is clear; I must prepare Pagetower for war. Though we possess some weapons, precious few know how to wield them. We must use the power of the mountain to forge armament on a scale not seen before. We must set aside pottery and learn the way of the axe and the crossbow. And we must find water, so our brave warriors need not fear death at mere scratches.
In order to better secure the fortress, my first order is to seal off the caverns. With no water to be found there, it is currently an unnecessary distraction. This done, I shall set about reorganising the militia and equiping them better.
Good instincts Askarn! Personally, these are *exactly* the steps I would have taken in this situation.
Note that Speardwarves tend to be more effective than Axedwarves, though, as their slashing and piercing attacks *almost* always deal heavy damage, and their weapons can get stuck in targets and then be twisted to cause additional damage. The ideal military for our current situation and available resources would be a small number of highly-trained and heavily-armored Speardwarves (think of them as a palace elite- most of which were historically equipped with spears, not swords; for when melee combat becomes inevitable), and a large number of Marksdwarves wearing nothing but helmets and breastplates... (who hide behind walls/fortifications)
Spears can be made out of *just one metal bar*, and are most effective at piercing armor when forged out of copper or bronze (copper is best at piercing iron, bronze at piercing copper/bronze), due to the density of these metals, although their slashing attacks are weaker when using these metals than when using iron. Thus, due to our large abundance of Bismuth Bronze, spears are probably the best choice for our military, as a *Bismuth Bronze Spear* is still quite effective, but a *Bismuth Bronze Sword* is far less so... Plus, the main enemies you need to prepare for are large, unarmored Forgotten Beasts/Megabeasts, and armored Goblins (against both of which spears are far more effective than axes/swords- large creatures laugh off slashing attacks, but can fall to piercing wounds; armor effectively blocks sword strikes, but not spears...)
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Spear
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Metal
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Weapon#Types_of_weapons
If you dig straight down far enough, you should be able to find water. The embark showed the presence of a Aquifer, if you guys don't remember... (although a warning on Embark let us know it is a salt water aquifer)
(http://i.imgur.com/VZEGxkE.jpg)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Also, since we have pretty much the most bad-ass spear possible for fighting unarmored opponents (an *ARTIFACT-QUALITY*, STEEL spear- Adamantite spears are actually fairly weak at piercing as the material is too light to pierce even some hides when used in a spear...), training our melee Dwarves in spear use will help ensure that we always have a Dwarf available to wield the artifact. And since artifact-quality weapons get a 3x to-hit modifier (as opposed to 2x with Masterpiece-quality weapons), you can be sure that whoever wields it is going to strike home with the spear most of the time if he/she has sufficient skill, just so long as the target isn't wearing armor... (an artifact-quality Bronze Spear would have been better for piercing armor, due to its higher density)
Post by: Askarn on September 04, 2014, 06:53:18 am
Regarding the militia, personally I've always gone with a mixture of weapons.
1st Limestone 255
Wacksonoff and two other dwarfs have passed away. The first two deaths were beyond the talents of even the most learned, but the third death was brought about by dehydration. It fills me with deep shame to see one of our own die in such a pointless manner.
Following the deaths, there are 63 adult dwarfs in Pagetower and a single baby. In the interest of history, I have recorded the names and professions of them below.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With Wacksonoff's death I have reorganized the militia and instituted a new training regime. Additionally, a new archery range has been constructed for the Marksdwarfs to practice in; this has delayed the exploratory mining slightly, but that cannot be avoided. The forging of chain mail and helmets is proceeding apace, albeit with an unskilled workforce.
(Tomorrow's update will be more substantial)
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on September 04, 2014, 08:33:19 am
In the past I've always found aquifers to be near the surface and we've already dug down more than 100 levels. Still, I'll give it a go.
I haven't seen the layout of our fortress in awhile. Could it be possible we already dug past the aquifer layer, but were just on the wrong side? I have also never encountered an aquifer that was so deep.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 04, 2014, 01:16:39 pm
In the past I've always found aquifers to be near the surface and we've already dug down more than 100 levels. Still, I'll give it a go.
I haven't seen the layout of our fortress in awhile. Could it be possible we already dug past the aquifer layer, but were just on the wrong side? I have also never encountered an aquifer that was so deep.
Yes, it's entirely possible we've already dug through the aquifer layer, but not hit it. Aquifers can only reside in certain stone types, meaning we could have dug through in a patch of stones incapable of supporting the Aquifer without realizing it...
The Wiki lists that Siltstone and Mudstone cannot maintain an Aquifer, for instance, although if I remember there are other stone layers that can't:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Aquifer
It might be helpful to dig out horizontally in some of the unexplored shallow layers; but if you do so, be sure to construct doors across the tunnels to prevent flooding of the rest of the fortress (I *highly* recommend using green glass for the doors, as it is 100% renewable)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on September 04, 2014, 04:11:27 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 04, 2014, 07:17:55 pm
Regarding the militia, personally I've always gone with a mixture of weapons.
That doesn't make sense. Why would you equip a portion of the military with inferior weapons against the opponents they are facing?
The best weapons for the foes that are likely to actually be *dangerous* (aside from rare inorganic foes, the most dangerous foes are larger ones and those with armor) are Piercing Weapons (Spears/Picks, but picks can only be trained through mining).
Let me lay out the best Weapon Types for a given type of foe (I'm going to ignore foreign weapons in each class when specifying examples since the main way to get high-quality specimens of them is through Strange Moods: those available from invaders or trade are usually low-quality)
Small/medium, unarmored foes: Slashing Weapons (axes and swords) are best, Piercing Weapons (spears and pickaxes) less effective but useful
Large, unarmored foes: Piercing Weapons (spears and pickaxes) are best, Slashing Weapons (axes and swords) are moderately ineffective
Armored foes: Piercing Weapons (*especially* against larger armored foes) are best (if made of Copper/Bronze- Iron/Steel cannot pierce armor as effectively), Crushing Weapons (Maces and War Hammers) less effective but still very useful
Inorganic foes: Crushing Weapons somewhat effective, Piercing Weapons mildly ineffective (they can pierce and damage even a Bronze Colossus, provided they are made of dense materials like Copper/Bronze, but there are no internal organs to destroy), Slashing Weapons highly ineffective (as these foes cannot feel pain or bleed-out, if they are made of a material that can even be hacked through in the first place...)
Note that Crossbows count as a subset of (highly effective) Piercing Weapons when used at-range, but are (somewhat ineffective) Crushing Weapons when used in melee. Bows (if Dwarves could used them) are near-useless Slashing Weapons in melee.
The larger the organic foe (one with internal organs and a meaty structure) the less effective Slashing Weapons are (it's much harder to decapitate or de-limb an Elephant than a Badger), but Piercing Weapons maintain their effectiveness (a well-aimed spear is just as capable of piercing the heart of either). Crushing Weapons are more effective the smaller foes (it's easier to pulp a smaller foe), but maintain their effectiveness against armor and inorganic foes.
Piercing Weapons are also quite capable of piercing Iron/Bronze armor when made of Copper or Bronze (these metals are denser than Iron/Steel, and the capability of Iron/Steel to maintain a superior edge to Copper/Bronze doesn't matter much when piercing through metal.) Bronze is usually the best overall choice of material for Spears, as it maintains a sharper edge than Copper (Spears have a highly-effective slashing attack with a very low to-hit-modifier), but is still dense enough for the main piercing attack for which Spears/Picks are best known (which has a much better chance of hitting than a Spear's slashing attack).
1st Limestone 255
Wacksonoff and two other dwarfs have passed away. The first two deaths were beyond the talents of even the most learned, but the third death was brought about by dehydration. It fills me with deep shame to see one of our own die in such a pointless manner.
I don't know why this didn't occur to me before, but Wacksonoff and the other dwarf almost certainly died due to a Forgotten Beast syndrome. Basically, some Forgotten Beasts have gasses or other fluids that can rot away the nervous tissue of Dwarves, starting with the Spine (which, surprisingly, is not immediately lethal) and moving to the Brain (which is quickly lethal)...
If I'm not mistaken, both of those dwarves were exposed to Forgotten Beast syndrome-gas earlier... (which is why I recommended sealing the Caverns)
With Wacksonoff's death I have reorganized the militia and instituted a new training regime. Additionally, a new archery range has been constructed for the Marksdwarfs to practice in; this has delayed the exploratory mining slightly, but that cannot be avoided. The forging of chain mail and helmets is proceeding apace, albeit with an unskilled workforce.
Great, did you remember to build the archery range in such a manner that spent bolts can be recovered? If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you probably did not- basically what you need to do is set up the target end of the archery range so that there is a 1 z-level drop anywhere the bolts can hit besides the targets. This can be accomplished by channeling the space between the targets and where you want the Marksdwarves to stand to fire. Just make sure the space below is nothing but an empty pit (this is where the spent bolts go, and can be recovered from)- you wouldn't want spent bolts raining down into a dining hall!
Also make sure used ammunition is set as forbidden and the area is set as a forbidden Traffic zone- you don't want Dwarves walking in front of the Marksdwarves (wandering, or to recover spent bolts) while the range is still in active use! (to safely recover spent bolts, periodically turn off the use of the archery range and un-forbid the used bolts: Dwarves can enter a Forbidden Traffic zone when they have a job assignment there, such as to dump the used bolts in a Quantum Stockpile...) You can also set up a complex system to safely recover used bolts while the range is in active use with lever-operated Hatches/Grates and a recovery level another z-level further below the archery range if you want an engineering challenge... (with a door that is forbidden or lever-operated to stay closed whenever the Hatches/Grates are open)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 04, 2014, 10:21:17 pm
In the past I've always found aquifers to be near the surface and we've already dug down more than 100 levels. Still, I'll give it a go.
Regarding the militia, personally I've always gone with a mixture of weapons.
1st Limestone 255
Wacksonoff and two other dwarfs have passed away. The first two deaths were beyond the talents of even the most learned, but the third death was brought about by dehydration. It fills me with deep shame to see one of our own die in such a pointless manner.
Following the deaths, there are 63 adult dwarfs in Pagetower and a single baby. In the interest of history, I have recorded the names and professions of them below.Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With Wacksonoff's death I have reorganized the militia and instituted a new training regime. Additionally, a new archery range has been constructed for the Marksdwarfs to practice in; this has delayed the exploratory mining slightly, but that cannot be avoided. The forging of chain mail and helmets is proceeding apace, albeit with an unskilled workforce.
(Tomorrow's update will be more substantial)
I firmly believe that as a teaching method, mere instruction is inferior to real experience; knowing how to wield a sword and actually wielding it are two very different things. The fate of Pagetowers depends on how adequately we prepare this new wave of up and coming soldiers to defend our fortress- as such, I propose the implementation of new, more hands-on training programs for our militiadwarves.
For instance, sending new recruits on short excursions into mildly hazardous terrain would go a long way towards readying them for real combat. Lock 'em in the caverns for say, a week, with some basic copper weapons. Mark my words, when you open those doors, you will be amazed just how much tougher they are! Those dwarves who come back, that is... but don't you worry about the others, they clearly aren't soldier material.
Post by: Askarn on September 04, 2014, 11:40:08 pm
Actually it was the rotten spine that killed Wacksonoff and friend; once the middle spine is damaged a dwarf will suffocate to death. I left it ambigious in my report since ICly there'd be no way to tell.
Regarding the archery range, good idea. I've done it with siege weapons before, but not archers. I think that bolts are automatically forbidden once they're shot, but I'll keep an eye on it...
2nd Limestone
Good news at last! The goblins have given up the seige. Opinion is divided on whether it was the bitter cold or the inherently indisciplined nature of the enemy that drove them away, but the result is the same. Disgracefully they abandoned their dead where they fell. I have given orders that the corpses be stripped and dumped atop a hill out of site. Unpleasant work, but necessary.
21st Limestone
The caravan and outpost liason arrived to my relief. It appears our kin still survive despite the depravations of the goblin horde. In exchange for many of our clay and bone crafts, we have acquired bolts, leather, wood and most importantly more steel and bronze in form of bars, crafts and anvils. I asked that next year they bring yet more bronze and steel, as well as wood. The liason informed me that warhammers (185%), meat (189%), plants (142%), ammunition (187%), headwear (157%), drinks (179%), prepared meals (211%), earrings (167%), windows (135%), tanned hides (176%) and goblets (132%) were in demand. In truth though, we have an embarassment of riches.
Atis Geshuddogik, a metal crafter seized a forge and began working furiously. He produced a silver ring of the highest quality, menacing with gem spikes, but sadly remembers nothing of the event. I reprimanded him for delaying our rearmament efforts.
A group of brave dwarfs have travelled the wilds to reach us. We now number 72, including three children.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
29th Timber 255
I write with mixed feelings.
Last week a Minotaur encroached on our lands. The Legendary Miner Stukos Thikutfesh was outside the walls and was slain almost immediately. Though the beast was fearsome, I felt that our newly equipped warriors would surely be able to avenge Stukos. In a sense I was correct. Our warriors slew the minotaur, with Logem Akulmigrur delivering the final blow. Unfortunately, it was too late for one of their number, Mistem Degelatul. A second preventable death weighs upon me. There were other dwarfs outside, who might well have not made the safety of our walls had I not sent forth the militia, but I cannot help but feel I was overeager to test our weapons. Atis Geshuddogik will take Stukos' place in the militia
The good news is that we have at last struck water. I never thought that as a dwarf I would be so happy to see unfermented liquid! Strangely enough it was not an aquaifer we discovered, but an enormous underground lake. In light of our experiences with the other cavern we discovered, I have designed a solution that should allow us to draw from the lake, while not exposing ourselves to its dangers. A hospital has also been built nearby.
Post by: Askarn on September 05, 2014, 08:14:11 am
Ducim Ruldoren has created a tapestry. Well, I think its a tapestry, he insists its meant to be worn to cover your face. Regardless, Ducim is now a legendary clothesmaker and a legendary potter. Overachiever. Meanwhile Olin Kilrudmingkil produced an incredible breastplate... except its made of copper and he has no idea how he did it. I'd conscript him into the militia, but he's already part of it. He was right to call it the Spiral of Lamenting
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
We were attacked by a giant, which provided the opportunity for some live fire practice by our guards. The only casualty was one wardog that had its paw broken. Subsequently the militia claimed to have slain a giant monster composed entirely of steam.
Three babies have been born and a large group of migrants arrived. Pagetowers is now home to 84 adults and 5 children. With our swelling numbers, I have decided to add another three recruits to the Helmed Skulls, all from the most recent migrant wave.
In a rather less exciting piece of news, I was called upon to reorganise our sleeping arrangements. Evidently my fellow citizens were unable to decide which wardrobe belonged to who and were spending all day moving their clothes from one to another. Now everyone has a three by three corner of the room to themselves. This is why we can't have nice things.
With the militia progressing nicely, I have opened up the caverns temporarily. For security reasons though, I have built a bridge infront of the exit, so it can be sealed off easily. The level is on the main level, next to the main gate controls.
To ensure that the sacrifices of those who have fallen are never forgotten, I ordered that slabs memorialising every dwarf who has died in Pagetowers be created.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 05, 2014, 09:00:11 pm
Regarding weapons, my experience has been that a dwarf's skill is more important than their weapon; even though maces are generally the least effective weapons a macelord will still tear a bloody swath through the enemy. That being said... eh, why not. Spears for everyone!
Maces and Warhammers are not particularly fast, but they work well against armored and inorganic enemies. That being said, spears are usually the best weapons (pikes would be better *if* Dwarves could manufacture them). They're especially effective against large, unarmored enemies like the Minotaur you encountered earlier. On a hit-for-hit basis, spears can hold their own with Crossbow bolts (which any experienced player will agree are slightly OP'd) when in skilled/capable hands, if that gives you any idea...
Actually it was the rotten spine that killed Wacksonoff and friend; once the middle spine is damaged a dwarf will suffocate to death. I left it ambigious in my report since ICly there'd be no way to tell.
I see. All the more reason to be cautious of the caverns.
Regarding the archery range, good idea. I've done it with siege weapons before, but not archers. I think that bolts are automatically forbidden once they're shot, but I'll keep an eye on it...
Really, you've never built an archery range with 100% bolt recovery before? I made it a standard practice with all my archery ranges, from the very first one I ever built. Of course, many of my fortresses tend to be shallow surface forts that come under attack *very* early in their history (before they had any chance of raising a decent melee militia), so having skilled Marksdwarves was *essential* to their survival (usually I didn't have the bolts to spare to throw them away firing them against targets without recovery...)
Good news at last! The goblins have given up the seige. Opinion is divided on whether it was the bitter cold or the inherently indisciplined nature of the enemy that drove them away, but the result is the same. Disgracefully they abandoned their dead where they fell. I have given orders that the corpses be stripped and dumped atop a hill out of site. Unpleasant work, but necessary.
Good job keeping the discipline to keep the Dwarves inside the walls! I wouldn't have advised dumping the bodies on top of a hill though- Dwarves get horrified thoughts when looking at corpses (even those of their enemies) with the new morale system. Dumping them as far out of sight as possible would have been idea.
The caravan and outpost liason arrived to my relief. It appears our kin still survive despite the depravations of the goblin horde. In exchange for many of our clay and bone crafts, we have acquired bolts, leather, wood and most importantly more steel and bronze in form of bars, crafts and anvils. I asked that next year they bring yet more bronze and steel, as well as wood. The liason informed me that warhammers (185%), meat (189%), plants (142%), ammunition (187%), headwear (157%), drinks (179%), prepared meals (211%), earrings (167%), windows (135%), tanned hides (176%) and goblets (132%) were in demand. In truth though, we have an embarassment of riches.
So basically, they want food, food, and more food? That's great, because we should still have a HUGE surplus if you've been keeping up with the agriculture/farming (keep in mind it's not a no-maintenance system: the Quarry Bushes need to be processed into bags and the leaves cooked up to recycle the bags, the Sweet Pods need to be brewed or turned into sugar/syrup, and the Pig Tails need to be brewed or processed into thread... The pigs also occasionally need to have their numbers thinned or be expanded into additional pens, or they will end up fighting each other due to overcrowding... Finally, the Crundles/Turkeys are a food source mainly through eggs- which need to be cooked to be edible, and occasionally need to be forbidden to allow additional generations to hatch; and the Crundles need to have the oldest generations butchered to eventually become fully tame over many generations...)
Atis Geshuddogik, a metal crafter seized a forge and began working furiously. He produced a silver ring of the highest quality, menacing with gem spikes, but sadly remembers nothing of the event. I reprimanded him for delaying our rearmament efforts.
Fairly worthless, of course. But maybe we could stockpile such worthless trinkets in the bedrooms so that Dwarves will occasionally stop to admire them? (generating Happy Thoughts)
A group of brave dwarfs have travelled the wilds to reach us. We now number 72, including three children.
I hope you're making sure there are enough living quarters for them, and working to continuously improve the quality of the existing bedrooms (by merging smaller rooms together and improving the quality of furniture... The low-quality furniture should probably be sold or gifted to the Dwarven Caravan...) Higher room-quality bedrooms give Dwarves Happy Thoughts (helping to prevent tantrums)- the nicer the bedroom the stronger the effect the thoughts have on Dwarven mood (incremented step-wise by the various room-quality levels, and capping out when a bedroom reaches Legendary status...)
Last week a Minotaur encroached on our lands. The Legendary Miner Stukos Thikutfesh was outside the walls and was slain almost immediately. Though the beast was fearsome, I felt that our newly equipped warriors would surely be able to avenge Stukos. In a sense I was correct. Our warriors slew the minotaur, with Logem Akulmigrur delivering the final blow. Unfortunately, it was too late for one of their number, Mistem Degelatul. A second preventable death weighs upon me. There were other dwarfs outside, who might well have not made the safety of our walls had I not sent forth the militia, but I cannot help but feel I was overeager to test our weapons. Atis Geshuddogik will take Stukos' place in the militia
That's perfectly understandable- I'm not against ALL melee combat, just the unnecessary stuff. There are some situations (like where a large number of Dwarves are stuck outside the walls) where it is advisable to send forth the militia into melee combat. Just make sure they have high-quality Bronze Spears, and preferably heavy Iron/Steel armor for future such situations (there are different *levels* of armor protection: for instance breastplates provide heavier protection than chainmail, but cover a more limited area of the body), or at least Bronze if there isn't enough Iron/Steel to go around (Bronze is better than Iron/Steel for Spears, but not for armor of course...) Of course, the best way to avoid these potentially risky situations (even in the best armor, a Giant or other large creature can still bludgeon a Dwarf to death through their armor) is to keep the gates closed and the Dwarves inside the fortress whenever possible.
The good news is that we have at last struck water. I never thought that as a dwarf I would be so happy to see unfermented liquid! Strangely enough it was not an aquaifer we discovered, but an enormous underground lake. In light of our experiences with the other cavern we discovered, I have designed a solution that should allow us to draw from the lake, while not exposing ourselves to its dangers. A hospital has also been built nearby.
Oh, nice. Do you know if the lake extends to the edge of the map (in which case it must be sourced from an aquifer or underground river) or if it's only a limited supply?
I would recommend *constructing* a secure cistern on a higher z-leverl, closer to the fortress and hospital, and then filling it up by bucket (filled by well from the lake to minimize hauling time and water usage) using multiple iterations of the "Pond" zone. Then you can have a secure water supply, and easily build the hospital on a higher z-level. Just make sure you have a large number of Pond zones designated around the edge of the cistern, and make it taller rather than wider to increase its capacity, so that water won't evaporate nearly as fast as it's put in when you first start filling the cistern. Also, make sure it has smoothed walls/floors or ones constructed out of blocks to help minimize mud contamination. Also, make sure you have a way to seal off the lake cavern with something not damageable by flying/amphibious Building Destroyers (aka. some of the worst Forgotten Beasts a fortress will ever have to deal with...)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Also, good idea with the Memorial Slabs. Not only will this give our fortress more of a sense of history- they can also be strategically placed to create Happy Thoughts and raise room value by being built in Dwarven bedrooms, Nobles' studies, dining halls etc. (the positive effect of happy thoughts from slabs/statues/furniture is greater when the object is owned by that Dwarf...)
Post by: Askarn on September 06, 2014, 03:19:39 am
The caravan and liason came around again. I have requested more metal (both in crafts and bars) and wood, while the liason informed me that they desire maces (140%), meat (207%), figurines (154%), windows (142%), scepters (184%), crutches (194%), fish (189%), quivers (141%), armor (165%), crowns (138%) and blocks (131%). We acquired quite a bit of metal and leather.
I also decided to accept the advice of Northstar and build a new cistern. With hindsight, making it 6x3x3 units in size may have been slight overkill, but we've got plenty of manpower; there are now 94 adults and 8 children calling Pagetowers home. In addition to the well and cistern, I've added a small bath.
With our enlarged population, I feel its time to reorganize the militia again. Instead of a squad of 8 Speardwarfs and a squad of 10 Marksdwarfs, we will now have two squads of 6 Spear Dwarfs and two squads of 7 Marksdwarfs. Reorganizing and reequipping will take a bit of time, but hopefully my successors will reap the rewards. The Militia now looks like this...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Shortly after the reorganization was undertaken a scouting party of goblins were spotted. None of them survived to report back to the main horde. None of our soldiers suffered so much as a scratch.
With this success, I've decided to give up the position of overseer slightly early. My objectives when taking over were to build an efficient militia and find a water supply. Both of those things have been accomplished (more or less). Hopefully this way Meme will be able to get some playtime over the weekend and the Fortress will keep ticking over at a good pace. Some suggestions for my successors:
-There's a group of six crundles behind a locked door that have reverted to wildness. We've got plenty of cages, so the best idea would probably be to clear out the tame ones, put down a bunch of traps, then open the door.
-The militia has been performing pretty well, but they're by no means invincible yet. The marksdwarfs in particular could use some live fire practice. I made a small arena for that purpose, but didn't get a chance to put it to use.
-The underground lake isn't completely sealed off yet; an aquatic building destroyer could still cause FUN there.
-I used up a fair chunk of our bronze supplies. There's also quite a bit of Steel that I melted down, but the only weapon ore we have available is Native Copper.
-There's plenty of food, but quite a lot of it needs to be cooked. Some micromanagement there could be useful.
-FPS may be starting to become an issue depending on your machine. Atom smashing or dumping some junk in the volcano and sealing off the mining tunnels that aren't in use should help.
Save game is here: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9625
Post by: Meme on September 06, 2014, 04:20:25 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 06, 2014, 06:24:39 pm
:-\ After looking through the fortress I realize I have a long way to go before I could do something like this, at least a bit more practice before I would delve into this. I give up my turn to the next person in line.
Try downloading some of the various saves and see how you would do in handling the various crisis situations we've already run into before disparaging yourself...
In the meantime, Taupe, it's your turn now. You have 24 hours (until 6:25 PM Central Time 9/7/14) to confirm download of the save.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Wacksonoff on September 07, 2014, 09:03:24 am
Post by: Taupe on September 07, 2014, 08:12:18 pm
Don't expect a full two years straight, I'll need to figure out where things are. Maybe a year. Rest assured, i have taken good notes of our priorities, namely finding gold, building temples, and moving everyone to some smaller bedrooms. And volcano sacrifices, let's not forget 'em.
More updates tomorrow.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 08, 2014, 08:50:02 am
Ok i just got the save, I was away yesterday due to a severe case of the saturday. Not sure I'll have much time to play it in the next two days as I hadn't planned to get the save right away. I'll see what I can do.
Don't expect a full two years straight, I'll need to figure out where things are. Maybe a year. Rest assured, i have taken good notes of our priorities, namely finding gold, building temples, and moving everyone to some smaller bedrooms. And volcano sacrifices, let's not forget 'em.
More updates tomorrow.
And cavern expeditions. Can't forget those.
Post by: Taupe on September 09, 2014, 02:35:45 am
This is, of course, all metaphorical. I am not to go anywhere near the volcano, let alone do something with it. Northstar blatantly insisted on that.
4th of Granite, 257: Ok, so I've started a new project. Hint, it involves throwing prisoners into the volcano. Our first objective is of course to obtain prisoners, meaning we need cages. Either trade them or craft 'em. Moldath has spoken to me in my sleep. she whispers her desire in my ear, and for long she has been begging for offerings, in vain. Soon she shall be answered to. While at it, I have decided to institute my title. I shall now be known as the Oracle of Flames.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I spend most of the week trying to figure out where the workshops are. I spent so much time alone meditating above the volcanic mouth that the fortress is alien to me, as if I was laying eyes on it for the first time. I decide to take a good look at our mines, and the caverns below. They are locked, and apparenlt filled with a giant lake, so i decide to leave them be. Instead i survey our mining strips, and realise we have a TON of gold and gems lying around, so i designate them all to be excavated. I decide to also include all that pretty yellow stone, because yellow is like gold and gold is friggin pimp. If i was to build a temple made of golden rock and giant golden dragon statues, that would be rather kickass.
(note: i've only played with dfhack so far so i have no actual clue how to ''click'' on workshop and lever.I can view them alright, but im unabe to activate a workshop to give it a task or press levers.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I notice we have a lot of iddlers, so I decide to give them some jobs, by creating some stone stockpiles. I'll build them above the main workshop areas, so we have easy access to them. Maybe we already have stockpiles for that, but I didnt find em. I add pillars, because nothing says dwarven civilisation like pimping your granite dumps.
Meanwhile the mayor has imposed a ban on the import of quivers. Big deal. I notice we have quite a few cages already, but apparently not enough rock mechanisms. I order our manager to begin producing some more. And i send some workers outside to gather dead goblin things. A busy fortress is a growing fortress.
18th of granite: I find our lack of drinks and plants to be bothersome, I'll dispatch some peasants to the mountainside, so they can pick up cranberries. They are interupted by an elk, which our hunters proceed to murderise tenderly. I order some of our cages to be placed near the weapon traps, so that we may begin amassing prisoners. ( Also something about another layer of defense? )
The southern side of the mountain is to be levelled. When we have a nice surface, i shall have the masons wall it up. we'll use the new enclosed area for some aditionnal storage.
17th of felsite:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
PRAISE BE TO THE VOLCANO GOD!
Post by: Taupe on September 09, 2014, 03:24:40 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After the Cyclop was captured, I told Urist of my grand vision regarding the beast, and he immediately became posessed, no doubt by the spirit of Moldath herself. The flames were shining in his eyes while he worked, producing a great figurine worth 3600 dwarfbucks. It depicts the rise of both a general and a queen. I ask urist who they are, and he replies, in a fiery, booming voice that is not his own:
''Those are the forebearers of your people, Oracle. A queen and a mighty warrior, who rose to the highest spheres of glory and honor, of wealth and renown. All that i asked of them were worthy offerings. In time, this fortress shall become legend, so long as grand gifts are hurled in the mouth of my daughter. Please me, and I shall nurture this citdel into a paragon of fortune and might. Displease me, and I shall engulf it in flames, so that from the ashes may rise something more worthy of my blessings.
Now go, for your task is done. for it was I that brough ill-fortune upon all those would-be overseers, delaying their reign so that you could be in charge in this very moment. But now, none shall doubt your visions, nor the justness of the demands that they convey. Another shall take your place, but you shall remain here as my voice. Meditate, and listen, for a time will come where you are to serve me again...''
The booming voice fades, and urist's eyes stop glowing. As the volcano spirit releases her grasp upon this mortal shell, Urist falls to the ground, shaken. He does not seem to remember anything about this encounter, nor does he have any memories of the last weeks. The only testament of his possession lies within my hand, a glowing figurine, a reminder of our deeds to be.
I order the figurine to be placed somewhere safe, and prepare to resign from my post as overseer. I shall return to the mountain top, and pray.
NOTES: I couldnt get the save within the first day of my mandate, and i'll be working tomorrow, leaving me with basically no more time to play. Instead of wasting time and waiting for tomorrow, I'm updating the savefile now. to my successors, a few things
1-The new room i dug was designed as a gem stockpile/gemcutter studio. Feel free to engrave it or repurpose it. We have tons of gems coming out of the mining complex at the moment, so queing some gemcutting jobs would give us a great deal of stuff to sell.
2-Make SURE that the Cyclop is sacrificed to the Volcano God, or else a terrible fate will befall us. MARK. MY. WORDS.
3-Our drink supplies are dangerously low. Please advise. We don't want a wave of soberness crashing down on us...
4-I started a new wall to the south. By finishing the wall, adding a new layer to it, and flattening the surface, we'd get some more safe space for farms, animals, and various other things...
5-Oh yeah, i forgot, the first day of summer brought forth something interesting...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Save file is HERE: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9652 (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9652)
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 09, 2014, 08:46:22 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 09, 2014, 08:52:00 pm
I will start my turn tomorrow.
Alright, but don't forget that you only have 72 hours from when the save was uploaded to post your save.
Nice job Taupe, but, ummm, why are the drink supplies low? We should have TONS of brewable plants coming out of the farms. Did you send any brewing jobs to the Stills? You can select workshops with the "Q" key...
DoctorMcTaalik, I *highly* advise pulling all the Dwarves inside the walls (there might still be some wandering around from Taupe's turn if the Gobbo's just arrived) and spending a bit of attention on the Kitchen Screen and food/drink management... You might also want to update the save to the latest version of DwarfFortress (0.40.11, just remember to replace the raws with the new ones for Ironhand+DF) and finish filling the cistern if it wasn't done already... The newest changes to the evaporation code make it MUCH easier to fill tall cisterns... (water will no longer evaporate if there is a full z-level of water beneath it)
Also, why has nobody made use of the bedroom on the Trade Depot level of the fortress? Somebody emptied the 4 beds out of there a while ago, as well as the beds from the Northwest Tower, and nobody's re-purposed either for anything else (like as an office for a spoiled Noble, or emptied out the remaining cabinets and statue and used it as a workshop/stockpile room...)
Finally, as always, check the Notes screen when you load up the save file- there are a number of suggestions there that still haven't been touched upon, or have been carried out and can be deleted...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on September 10, 2014, 12:14:37 am
I was planning to restock using the next caravan. (either plant, seeds, or finished products) We should have a bunch of jewels to trade by then, even more if the new gem center is put into operation. there should be space for two workshops on either side of the northern room.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 10, 2014, 03:29:13 am
We were at around 100 when i got the save. With hindsight, i realise this is either due to a lack of barrels, or our very low plant supplies not allowing for brewing. I had a few brewing jobs added to the queues to make sure any still i missed with my survey of the fort would be put to work regardless, but the dwarves never got to it, meaning they lacked something. I tried to gather some cranberries from the left cliffside, but then a cyclop attacked there and all my priorities regarding barrels went down the drain.
I was planning to restock using the next caravan. (either plant, seeds, or finished products) We should have a bunch of jewels to trade by then, even more if the new gem center is put into operation. there should be space for two workshops on either side of the northern room.
It's likely that the problem was lack of storage barrels. But queuing jobs through the Manager doesn't always work- which is why you needed to go to the individual Stills... (there's one near the farms, for instance)
Earthenware Pots cannot be used to store liquids (including booze) unless glazed- which is why I advised previous overlords *NOT* to use precious stone for furniture or other items that can be made out of glass or clay. Stone needs to be reserved primarily for use carving out large numbers of Stone Large Pots for booze storage- which is a task that is likely overseers since myself have largely neglected.
Now that we have a (limited) source of water, we also have potentially unlimited supplies of water, however. It is possible to increase the water supply through controlled freeze/thaw cycles using the freezing temperatures (which will create a full block of ice even from 1/7 deep water) and lava (which will melt ice blocks through a 1 tile thick wall- generating a 7/7 deep tile of water regardless of the depth when it froze). Just remember you need to have somewhere to drain the lava to after draining away a portion of the water underground for storage (though remember to leave some water behind to freeze again and seed the next batch of ice). I like to think of it (from a roleplaying perspective) as collecting snowfall and melting it...
To seed the Ice Farm with the first water/ice, you will probably need to use Screw Pumps or have the Dwarves haul it up from the underground lake (or the cistern) to the Ice Farm (which needs to be on the surface) in buckets. Beware though- I think that water freezes in buckets when carried outside for too long...
An unlimited supply of water (from an Ice Farm), plus an unlimited supply of lava (from the volcano), also equates to a potentially unlimited supply of Obsidian. It is difficult to engineer, and there is a lot of potential for screw-up's, but a wise overseer could construct an Ice Farm to generate unlimited water, and an Obsidian Farm to utilize a portion of that water for stone-making. Another portion of the water can be diverted to underground cisterns/reservoirs for drinking...
Finally, the piercing of the caverns combined with the discovery of water has given us the ability to generate potentially unlimited supplies of wood. By establishing an underground Tree Farm on stone muddied with water generated from an Ice Farm (as described above), we can grow potentially unlimited numbers of underground trees. The tricky part is hollowing out a space large and TALL enough for trees to grow to their full height, now that trees are multiple z-levels tall...
Trees do grow properly as of the 0.40.11 update. But they grow VERY slowly compared to previous versions of DF, so expect a tree farm you establish now to not become productive for several years...
Establishing any and all of these production facilities (Ice Farms, and the Obsidian/Tree Farms they enable) should be on the to-do list of future overseers. Rather than elaborate temples to (false) Dwarven gods, and silly sacrificial schemes to the volcano; establishing a renewable source of drinking water (through an Ice Farm) would have real, tangible benefits to our fortress...
Also, one last thing- gems should absolutely NOT BE EXPORTED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! (Excepting Large Gems, which are inherently worthless except as trade goods). Gems are inherently a limited resource, and are required for some Strange Moods (as such, some gems should ALWAYS be kept in reserve in case a Dwarf needs gems for an artifact- glass cannot be used in their place). They are also highly useful for encrusting furniture to increase the value of our Dwarves' bedrooms... (although clay and green glass can, and should, also be used for decorations first).
The Magma Kilns and Magma Glass Furnaces can produce an unlimited supply of Earthenware and Green Glass trade goods to export in their place (there is no need to queue up many more such jobs though- we already have an embarrassingly large number of these trade goods sitting in the stockpiles and workshops from previous overseers...)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. I recommend renovating and re-purposing currently useless space, such as abandoned mineshaft tunnels, for these projects if possible. There's no reason to have tons of empty mineshafts around, killing FPS when cats decide to path into them hunting vermin... Put the space to good use or don't bother mining it...
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 11, 2014, 09:56:37 pm
I realize how bad this looks, especially given the fact that I am supposed to be administering this thread. I tried several times to get onto the forums last night, in order to announce my inability to play my turn, but all I oils get we're "502 Bad Gateway" errors. It seems the website picked the least convenient time to go down.
Edmus, it is your turn. As always, you have 24 hours to obtain the save, and a total of 72 to play your turn. Good luck.
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on September 11, 2014, 10:15:20 pm
I tried several times to get onto the forums last night, in order to announce my inability to play my turn, but all I oils get we're "502 Bad Gateway" errors. It seems the website picked the least convenient time to go down.
You are not alone in this. I couldn't access the forums last night, either. So yeah, they must have been down. If it makes you feel any better, I haven't found a good time to play my turn either due to my schedule. Things happen.
Post by: Taupe on September 11, 2014, 10:35:42 pm
that being said, I believe the various skips and time constrains we have experienced so far point to a common issue: The time period allocated for each turn is rather short, given the 2 years mandate of each overseer. Each new player must aquaint himself with the fortress before he truly starts to play his turn. We've seen many people unable to log in the required amount of time when their turn came up, which in turn lead to the next in line to be unable to play as well, since he wasnt expecting it, which create a domino chain of skips. Weekend turns can be especially deadly if the first planned guy decides he cant play.
I would suggest that we extend the playing time of each overseer to 4 days. This shouldnt open more possibilities for many of us, and in turn ensure that we don't just end up skipping 7 turns in a row. Seing how we've spent most of our time so far chasing after players rather than progressing, i dont think it'll hurt the fort that much to give it a try. If people complete their turn ahead of time, they can just upload the save early anyway.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 12, 2014, 03:45:07 pm
Doctor, are you SURE you don't want to be added to the end of the turn list again? After I put down some of the other people for their second turn, it will be quite a while until then...
I would suggest that we extend the playing time of each overseer to 4 days. This shouldnt open more possibilities for many of us, and in turn ensure that we don't just end up skipping 7 turns in a row. Seing how we've spent most of our time so far chasing after players rather than progressing, i dont think it'll hurt the fort that much to give it a try. If people complete their turn ahead of time, they can just upload the save early anyway.
3 days seems to be a little short, but 4 days is too long. DoctorMcTaalik also wants to extend the turns a bit. So I'm going with a compromise:
From now on, all players will have 36 hours to confirm download of a save, and 48 hours after that for their turn. So, if they confirm the download immediately, they will have up to 84 hours for their turn, instead of 72 as previously.
Edmus, this means you have until 10:00 AM Central Time tomorrow morning (instead of this evening) to confirm download of the save, otherwise it's my 2nd turn.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on September 12, 2014, 04:01:29 pm
I wasn't able to access the forums either, so don't worry about it Shadow. I'll put you as Delayed again. How much further would you like to be bumped down the turn list?
Well, I would like to be put back a couple weeks. My problem is I'm busy on the weekends, and on Tuesdays and Thursday I don't get out until 8 at night my time. So I need a Monday and/or a Wednesday to get good playing time in.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 12, 2014, 09:28:07 pm
I wasn't able to access the forums either, so don't worry about it Shadow. I'll put you as Delayed again. How much further would you like to be bumped down the turn list?
Doctor, are you SURE you don't want to be added to the end of the turn list again? After I put down some of the other people for their second turn, it will be quite a while until then...I would suggest that we extend the playing time of each overseer to 4 days. This shouldnt open more possibilities for many of us, and in turn ensure that we don't just end up skipping 7 turns in a row. Seing how we've spent most of our time so far chasing after players rather than progressing, i dont think it'll hurt the fort that much to give it a try. If people complete their turn ahead of time, they can just upload the save early anyway.
3 days seems to be a little short, but 4 days is too long. DoctorMcTaalik also wants to extend the turns a bit. So I'm going with a compromise:
From now on, all players will have 36 hours to confirm download of a save, and 48 hours after that for their turn. So, if they confirm the download immediately, they will have up to 84 hours for their turn, instead of 72 as previously.
Edmus, this means you have until 10:00 AM Central Time tomorrow morning (instead of this evening) to confirm download of the save, otherwise it's my 2nd turn.
Regards,
Northstar
Alright, scratch that thing about me dropping out.
Regardless of whether or not I end up playing, I will continue to monitor the thread and assist Northstar.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 12, 2014, 09:42:26 pm
Edmus, do you know if you're going to be able to take your turn? We still haven't heard anything from you...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 13, 2014, 02:11:24 pm
I will have until 1:25 PM on September 16th Central Time (84 hours after Edmus sent his message) to upload my save.
Look for updates soon.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 14, 2014, 12:57:58 am
Here's what would happen *IF* I were to face the invaders head-on (there are over 70 of them who eventually appear on the map)
http://imgur.com/a/poMWy#0
The Goblins get slaughtered despite their enormous numerical superiority (with the militia under my careful management- no guarantees if a less skillful commander led them into battle), but they still manage to cause enough casualties to initiate a tantrum spiral...
Also, the previous overseers have MASSIVELY over-expanded the fort. It took nearly an hour just for me to get familiar with it, and I built the main structure in the first place! Most of the expansion was in the form of pointless mining tunnels. There's no reason we needed to engage in so much mining, especially strip-mining, when we had an unlimited source of wealth from the volcano. Also, past overseers saw the need to constantly make new expansions to the fortress instead of improving and renovating existing sections.... (such as the abandoned slum-housing which was never torn down)
Expect an alternate-reality update soon, with what will ACTUALLY happen, when I close the main gate and leave any Dwarves who don't make it inside on-time to their fate... (though I'll probably still draft them so they go down fighting) The expansion plans will be abandoned until I can fine time to cook up a few hundred Earthenware bricks, and mass-dump them OVER the fortress walls rather than carrying them around from the stockpiles one at a time...
Finally, unbelievably, the booze shortage was quickly identified as having two causes. The first was, as I pointed out earlier, previous overseers failing to manufacture any new large stone pots at the workshops. The second was, unbelievably, neglect of the farming fields- more than half the acerage went unplanted at any given time (during that field's planting season) just so that Dwarves could spend all their time sparring in the military (as I've demonstrated, all that training turned out not to save the fortress in a pitched battle anyways) and digging out pointless mining tunnels for gold and gems... (crafting Earthenware goods would be a much more labor-efficient way of creating additional wealth- *IF* we needed it...) This led to a plant shortage despite an abundance of seeds and unused farm tiles with queued plantings...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 12:38:30 am
(http://i.imgur.com/MNiZFRt.jpg)
However hanks to *cough*, someone's use of boulders to build the walls instead of bricks (bricks are MUCH lighter), several of the Dwarves were moving back inside the walls at a snail's pace, as can be seen here (I hate to think how long it must have taken them to get out there in the first place...) I couldn't seem to get them to drop the rocks at first- even forbidding them and making sure they have other jobs doesn't work.
(http://i.imgur.com/bo0gobs.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Sx2NM4K.jpg)
Then I had a burst of insight when I noticed that some of the dwarves closer to the gate dropped their boulders as soon as they were inside it- MAYBE, I just needed to expand the burrow around the laggard dwarves' locations and they would drop the boulders where they stood.
And sure enough, it worked:
(http://i.imgur.com/lnkB6kn.jpg)
So, with all the dwarves safely inside the walls, I raised the gate:
(http://i.imgur.com/5cOOZtS.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ZtvLuHY.jpg)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 01:05:50 am
Some of you may not have noticed, but the only sand collection zones in the fortress have become overgrown with cave moss and underground tree saplings since the breaching of the caverns- preventing any further sand from being collected:
(http://i.imgur.com/tDLrrNd.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/2oaIWOn.jpg)
The logical/obvious preventative measure for this would have been to place grates on these tiles to prevent the growth of moss/saplings in the first place without impeding sand collection. It wouldn't have been very difficult since grates could be made for free out of Green Glass right there at the Magma Glass Furnaces...
Other problems include the filling of the sand bag stockpile with green glass chests (clearly somebody didn't get that this was the intention of the stockpile) and the lack of non-magma glass furnaces to speed up sand collection...
As for the pastures- the problem was that they weren't in use. Despite the presence of a number of large indoor/outdoor aboveground and underground pastures (the latter growing cave moss) we still had stray grazers randomly wandering around the fortress without an owner to feed them or a pasture to feed on- in short a ticking time-bomb of Miasma until they starve to death in some corner of the fort:
(http://i.imgur.com/BRICJQg.jpg)
I quickly put THAT problem to rest:
(http://i.imgur.com/K5Ibp3H.jpg)
Some of you may notice I've assigned several bunnies to the pasture near the Butcher's shop. That's not a coincidence. While having 5 or 6 rabbits hopping around the fortress now may SEEM cute, it won't be when we have a rabbit-splosion on our hands... Admittedly, at least rabbits won't adopt owners on their own like cats, but we already have a breeding pair adopted by owners that I can't butcher- so I have no problem butchering their offspring...
We have other uses for that pasture land anyways, like herbalism to produce brewable plants for our lagging brewing industry... (grazing animals would trample some of the brewable wild-growing plants)
(http://i.imgur.com/L3pBVcL.jpg)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 15, 2014, 01:14:59 am
Taupe, you really left the fortress with its pants down in your misguided attempts at expansion (there's a *reason* I advised dropping all the building materials over the walls BEFORE expanding, and using immigrant labor- you leave the fortress vulnerable for months at a time if you leave the main gate down and let Dwarves haul the building materials out block by block... Speaking of which, use blocks, not boulders- boulders are MUCH heavier and the rough walls they make can be climbed by invaders...)
Here's what would happen *IF* I were to face the invaders head-on (there are over 70 of them who eventually appear on the map)
http://imgur.com/a/poMWy#0
The Goblins get slaughtered despite their enormous numerical superiority (with the militia under my careful management- no guarantees if a less skillful commander led them into battle), but they still manage to cause enough casualties to initiate a tantrum spiral...
Also, the previous overseers have MASSIVELY over-expanded the fort. It took nearly an hour just for me to get familiar with it, and I built the main structure in the first place! Most of the expansion was in the form of pointless mining tunnels. There's no reason we needed to engage in so much mining, especially strip-mining, when we had an unlimited source of wealth from the volcano. Also, past overseers saw the need to constantly make new expansions to the fortress instead of improving and renovating existing sections.... (such as the abandoned slum-housing which was never torn down)
Expect an alternate-reality update soon, with what will ACTUALLY happen, when I close the main gate and leave any Dwarves who don't make it inside on-time to their fate... (though I'll probably still draft them so they go down fighting) The expansion plans will be abandoned until I can fine time to cook up a few hundred Earthenware bricks, and mass-dump them OVER the fortress walls rather than carrying them around from the stockpiles one at a time...
Finally, unbelievably, the booze shortage was quickly identified as having two causes. The first was, as I pointed out earlier, previous overseers failing to manufacture any new large stone pots at the workshops. The second was, unbelievably, neglect of the farming fields- more than half the acerage went unplanted at any given time (during that field's planting season) just so that Dwarves could spend all their time sparring in the military (as I've demonstrated, all that training turned out not to save the fortress in a pitched battle anyways) and digging out pointless mining tunnels for gold and gems... (crafting Earthenware goods would be a much more labor-efficient way of creating additional wealth- *IF* we needed it...) This led to a plant shortage despite an abundance of seeds and unused farm tiles with queued plantings...
Regards,
Northstar
Yeah, the fortress is a mess underground. The amount of strip mining previous overseers have done is in insane; there are tunnels everywhere.
We have a lot of earthenware trade goods, and I highly recommend dumping them on the first merchant you see in exchange for all their vaguely edible wares. Just please refrain from selling the masterwork Moldath action figures. Those are mine, dammit.
(Also, there's a trader named. Kogan Bloodmountains. If you could dorf me as him, that would be great.)
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 01:27:45 am
Yeah, the fortress is a mess underground. The amount of strip mining previous overseers have done is in insane; there are tunnels everywhere.
The strip mines irritate me to no end. It's going to be a pain in the rear renovating that space into something useful. But it needs to be done, even if it's just into stockpiles...
We have a lot of earthenware trade goods, and I highly recommend dumping them on the first merchant you see in exchange for all their vaguely edible wares. Just please refrain from selling the masterwork Moldath action figures. Those are mine, dammit.
No promises on that. Trade goods are trade goods. And besides, I don't know what's with this unhealthy obsession with the volcano deity Moldath when we have other perfectly good gods/goddesses. What about Shin and Ethad, the Dwarven deities of Light and Forgiveness? (given the tendency of most succession forts to descend into Miasma and enraged random killings, which are the main mechanisms of tantrum-spirals, we could certainly use plenty of both... Or at least a jail and plenty of light-shafts and aboveground living areas...)
(http://i.imgur.com/OLpHKsL.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/HygUrX8.jpg)
(Also, there's a trader named. Kogan Bloodmountains. If you could dorf me as him, that would be great.)
Done.
(http://i.imgur.com/rDCtBRc.jpg)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 02:02:02 am
(http://i.imgur.com/7UIEDlY.jpg)
It turns out they were able to fish through the green glass grate covering the entrance to the flooded first cavern layer (the 1st layer is completely flooded, the 2nd is the one we breached at the beginning, and the 3rd hasn't been breached yet...)
(http://i.imgur.com/oOJr9pn.jpg)
Which gave me ideas about establishing an underground fishing industry...
(http://i.imgur.com/lIcHK8g.jpg)
(Watch this space for updates on the fishery)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on September 15, 2014, 02:47:28 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 03:10:03 am
The main issue with ''forgiveness'' is it doesnt melt cyclops and goblins to a liquified mineral paste when they fall in it. It's true. I tried.
I don't pretend to ignore the utility of magma to our fort- in fact if I have my way it will soon provide us with a renewable source of water much closer to the surface than the underground lake (which IS sourced from the edge of the map, and thus already provides us with an unlimited supply) if I have my way with establishing an Ice Farm in the upper fortress basement (more on that later, hopefully- I have many other things to get to first).
However a *BALANCED* fortress needs to pay attention to other avenues for improvement as well. Like the digging of light shafts to prevent cave-adaptation (which a number of our dwarves have started to suffer from already) and create guaranteed Miasma-free zones, and the establishment of a penitentiary where dwarves might do penance and be forgiven of their crimes against the fortress (tantrums and random murders) after being given the chance to cool down and serve out their jail sentences to make their victims happier
As a side-note, in 0.40.x versions of Dwarf Fortress, being released from prison at the end of a sentence is one of the SINGLE HAPPIEST thoughts a dwarf can get (+1000 points)- much like how real life prisoners are often ecstatic to be released- so unlike in real life, in Dwarf Fortress a prisoner who doesn't go insane is likely to become a model citizen of the fortress and not cause any trouble for some time...
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Thought#Justice
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 03:28:03 am
(http://i.imgur.com/TnJ5uar.jpg)
I'm afraid I'm probably to blame for this one- I didn't accurately describe how to build a bolt-recovering archery range before. A proper range needs the channeled space BEHIND the targets, not in front of them. Dwarves will actually refuse to shoot at a target if there isn't a straight walkable path to the target (but bolts that overshoot the target can be recovered with channeled space behind it...)
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Archery_target
I also decided to renovate the abandoned slum-housing from before into what will eventually form 4 large stockpiles (for wood, stone, and various knicknacks/gewgaws...) You can never underestimate the value to a fortress of organization.
(http://i.imgur.com/iUkxcjG.jpg)
Beyond that, I've also begun hollowing out a space for a small underground fungal-tree farm in the soil layers (more on that later), and expanding some of the underground garden/pastures such as the one near the main gate:
(http://i.imgur.com/mrqCRYj.jpg)
Never forget that these gardens provide a minimal-effort source of food with a skilled herbalist: without having to manage seed stockpiles, planting/harvesting settings, or anything else these spaces provide free and reliable growth of various underground herbs such as sweet pods and plump helmets. They also can serve as pasture for animals once we have something worth grazing- such as sheep (with a Ram we can start growing our sheep herd beyond the three mate-less Ewes we currently have...)
Last, but not least, I know I'm breaking my own rule about placing images in spoiler tags for these posts. I apologize. I'll go back and enclose them later...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 04:20:01 am
It seems that a couple unlucky goblins wandering around outside the Main Gate managed to stumble upon some of our weapon traps. One of the spotters reported a Giant Serrated Copper Disk tore clear through a Recruit's belly, and that the goblin now looks rather sick... I hope he barfs all over his companions- maybe that will get the vile creatures to leave Pagetower alone so the next migrant wave can begin establishing a town to the south of the main fortress in peace.
(http://i.imgur.com/nNBqOpS.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/CnMNkOC.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/enimw3q.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/jyU7AsX.jpg)
Our masons reported leaving behind all the materials needed to establish a fresh fortress there before leaving earlier- stone boulders (both loose and in the partially-built walls), fuel (both coal coke and charcoal), wood, and even weapons-grade metal bars (silver and steel). All the migrants would need is a long enough peace to finish the perimeter wall, and some seeds from the scattering of wild blueberries growing outside for farming...
(http://i.imgur.com/1GdWchm.jpg)
You can also catch a glimpse of the beginning of the underground tree farm I am hollowing out at the top of the screen here. My first step was to dig out a few tunnels to confirm the soil layers go enough z-layers down for my purposes at that location...
6th Hematite
More and more Goblins wander onto the weapon traps. The traps even managed to make short work of a cave troll the goblins had with them...
(http://i.imgur.com/UE0vKvu.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/moJxNAp.jpg)
17th Hematite, 257
There are Crundles everywhere. Crundles in the nest box zones. Crundles in the corridors. Crundles in the stairwells. The other day I was about to sit down to take a dump, and guess what crawled up out of nowhere? A Crundle.
As such, I've began putting Pagetower's butchers to good use solving the problem. I call it the Crundle Organ Liberation program... (into tastes +Crundle Brain Roasts+) The idea is to slaughter the least-tame Crundles before they end up going wild... The more tame ones will eventually give birth to a new generation that will hopefully be a little easier to manage...
(http://i.imgur.com/A1cr4Oz.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/hkYWYyj.jpg)
2nd Malachite, 257
We're starting to make a dent in the Crundle population, but the other dwarves seem incredibly lackadaisical to haul them up to the Butcher Shop. Personally, I'd be herding them up there en-masse if it were my job. I'm sure we'll get the job done eventually though...
(http://i.imgur.com/tyLjGaP.jpg)
Oh, and did I mention the Magma Glass Forges are back up-and-running? (the grates protect the sand-collection zones from further grass growth) Now I just need to find the time to expand the glass forge facilities with a couple traditional furnaces to aid in sand-processing...
(http://i.imgur.com/MeQYLtU.jpg)
The tree farm is also complete- 3 Urists tall and more than twice the size of the dining hall. Yet the botanists tell me that 3 Urists is only the height of the absolute shortest fungal trees they've spotted growing in the caverns (mostly the stunted varieties in the flooded layer). So only time will tell if trees will grow, or if we will need to dig it another Urist or two taller. Also, do fungal trees have roots? I know the surface varieties do, but some of the botanists have raised this question when trying to decide if we needed to leave soil underneath the trees for their roots to grow in...
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. I've decided on a good use for them, but *why* exactly were there silver and steel bars just sitting around by the construction site on the south side of the main fortress Taupe?
P.P.S. For those of you who didn't notice the change in title, I updated the game to 0.40.12 before loading up the save. Don't worry, I made sure to replace the raws in the save files with the new ones for DF+Ironhand 0.40.12A, so there shouldn't be any issues- and I haven't noticed any yet...
Post by: Taupe on September 15, 2014, 08:15:22 pm
Well, y'see, I told the dwarves to build the wall using stone. We had a thousand of it or so from all those endless tunnels anyway. But for some sections of the wall, instead of using the previous material, the game decied to put a random material at the top of the list. I didnt notice until it was too late, so I had the dwarves deconstruct the random parts and I had to scroll at random places in the list every time to tell them to use fucking stone one boulder at a time. They were on their way to gather the random metals, but a Cyclop appeared and suddenly our haulers lost interest in picking up silver bars.
An honest mistake, really.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 15, 2014, 09:07:44 pm
I know you don't put much value in stupid dwarf projects, Northstar, but with minimal effort those tunnels could be converted into some say, some practical catacombs, or maybe a big labyrinth.
Hell, we could stick the cyclops in the middle if we went for the latter (as long as you chained him up, that is). Maybe even drop some crundles down there on occasion, for the war god Enam.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 09:14:02 pm
Well, y'see, I told the dwarves to build the wall using stone. We had a thousand of it or so from all those endless tunnels anyway.
You do realize the fortress Masons could have turned those boulders into stone blocks/bricks, right? They would have been MUCH lighter/quicker to haul that way, would have used 1/4th as many stone boulders for the same length of wall (waste not, want not), quicker to construct once in place, and wouldn't confound the Stocks screen as to how many stone boulders we had in the fort of each type... (this is an important consideration for players like me who rely heavily on the Stocks screen)
But for some sections of the wall, instead of using the previous material, the game decied to put a random material at the top of the list. I didnt notice until it was too late, so I had the dwarves deconstruct the random parts and I had to scroll at random places in the list every time to tell them to use fucking stone one boulder at a time. They were on their way to gather the random metals, but a Cyclop appeared and suddenly our haulers lost interest in picking up silver bars.
An honest mistake, really.
I see. Don't worry about the metal bars- I found a use for them anyways. :)
You *do* realize you can designate long lines of wall to be built rather than one tile at a time though (using u/m and k/h) right?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 15, 2014, 09:18:19 pm
I'm relieved you decided to deal with the crundles. The little heathen critters were growing out of control.
I know you don't put much value in stupid dwarf projects, Northstar, but with minimal effort those tunnels could be converted into some say, some practical catacombs, or maybe a big labyrinth.
Hell, we could stick the cyclops in the middle if we went for the latter (as long as you chained him up, that is). Maybe even drop some crundles down there on occasion, for the war god Enam.
The Crundle problem isn't over yet. We've still got a bunch more of the little buggers to butcher (I'm going to leave just the most tame ones), and especially with the invaders present, the framerate is dragging... We've also got budding kitten, bunny, piglet, and even puppy problems... The butchers and meat haulers are going to be BUSY tonight...
Given the current FPS, I'm worried even I might not be able to finish 2 years in the time allotted. So I have no choice but to request a special extension to deal with the livestock population-explosions and the plummeting framerates in order to finish...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 15, 2014, 10:03:08 pm
I'm relieved you decided to deal with the crundles. The little heathen critters were growing out of control.
I know you don't put much value in stupid dwarf projects, Northstar, but with minimal effort those tunnels could be converted into some say, some practical catacombs, or maybe a big labyrinth.
Hell, we could stick the cyclops in the middle if we went for the latter (as long as you chained him up, that is). Maybe even drop some crundles down there on occasion, for the war god Enam.
The Crundle problem isn't over yet. We've still got a bunch more of the little buggers to butcher (I'm going to leave just the most tame ones), and especially with the invaders present, the framerate is dragging... We've also got budding kitten, bunny, piglet, and even puppy problems... The butchers and meat haulers are going to be BUSY tonight...
Given the current FPS, I'm worried even I might not be able to finish 2 years in the time allotted. So I have no choice but to request a special extension to deal with the livestock population-explosions and the plummeting framerates in order to finish...
Regards,
Northstar
Alright, good luck.
I for one happily condone the mass slaughter of innocent baby animals. The little buggers would do the same to us, if they had opposable thumbs.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 05:10:45 pm
I'm uploading the file now. I probably won't have time to proceed further for the next few days, though I'd appreciate being able to go in on the second half of my turn relatively soon (I had a lot of things I had to leave unfinished)
Here is the save. I've got to run now IRL, but will be posting a LOT of screenshots and "diary entries" relatively soon detailing what happened (this could take almost a day in itself).
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9723
If there is one thing you should know about the fortress before playing, though, it's that it recently survived a major tantrum spiral (only thanks to my determination and clever use of burrowing to keep some of the happier dwarves safe from the murderous ones). The fortress is SEVERELY depopulated as a result (less than half the previous population), and there are still a few injured/unhappy Dwarves floating around and even a couple who are insane (all their friends are dead though). Still, keep an eye out that things don't destabilize further, and AVOID MELEE COMBAT AT ALL COSTS.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 17, 2014, 07:10:46 pm
I apologize for the delay. I didn't realize how slowly time would proceed with the current framerate... In fact, I spent almost all my free time (and quite a bit of time I should have been doing other things) playing Dwarf Fortress over the past 48 hours, and still didn't manage to get through more than a year of in-game time.
I'm uploading the file now. I probably won't have time to proceed further for the next few days, though I'd appreciate being able to go in on the second half of my turn relatively soon (I had a lot of things I had to leave unfinished)
Here is the save. I've got to run now IRL, but will be posting a LOT of screenshots and "diary entries" relatively soon detailing what happened (this could take almost a day in itself).
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9723
If there is one thing you should know about the fortress before playing, though, it's that it recently survived a major tantrum spiral (only thanks to my determination and clever use of burrowing to keep some of the happier dwarves safe from the murderous ones). The fortress is SEVERELY depopulated as a result (less than half the previous population), and there are still a few injured/unhappy Dwarves floating around and even a couple who are insane (all their friends are dead though). Still, keep an eye out that things don't destabilize further, and AVOID MELEE COMBAT AT ALL COSTS.
Regards,
Northstar
I look forward to seeing those screenshots! I am anxious to see whether my dwarf pulled through.
If you want to postpone your turn until after Northstar's update, InfiniteCastor, I understand. In light of the recent hectic events, I don't think it would be fair to insist you jump in immediately. In the mean time-
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O0wOD9TWynM
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 07:15:48 pm
I look forward to seeing those screenshots! I am anxious to see whether my dwarf pulled through.
Nope.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
If you want to postpone your turn until after Northstar's update, InfiniteCastor, I understand. In light of the recent hectic events, I don't think it would be fair to insist you jump in immediately. In the mean time-
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O0wOD9TWynM
I *HIGHLY* recommend downloading the save now and starting to familiarize yourself with the fortress' situation (while paused) InfiniteCastor. It's going to take a while to get a hold of everything that's changed.
Also, after seeing how slow progress is with the more mature fortress, I've become *strongly* in favor of extending turn times to a full 5 days from the posting of the last save. It's simply too much to ask for somebody to play a full 2 years at the current framerates and level of complexity...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 07:41:38 pm
#^@&$... (obscured by blood)
I don't know how I ended up in charge of the fortress. It all happened so quickly.
First, one of our masons panicked and jumped through a gap in the fortifications opened up while working on upgrading the gatehouse archery tower. The goblins were on him faster than he could scream for help. But then, reacting instinctively, Northstar- our brave leader- jumped down to try and save him. It turned out to be a foolish decision- the dwarf was dead before he even hit the ground, and several other dwarves jumped down in turn to try and save Northstar in turn...
(http://i.imgur.com/YQrHaCn.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ERMJnaY.jpg)
When the dust cleared, several dwarves lay dead, and the fortress was without its long-standing leader. Thus, the burden of leadership fell unto me, a mere %%@#dwarf... (obscured)
To make matters worse, one of the goblins somehow managed to scale the smooth brick walls and overhang leading to the hole in the defenses (carrying a 6-foot pike to boot!), and reached the main courtyard of the fortress- where he managed to cripple one of our Marksdwarves before his companions could come to his rescue...
(http://i.imgur.com/Ht0wzHw.jpg)
Our Marksdwarves quickly sought revenge, however. Soon, they began living up along the fortress walls and pelting the enemies below with crossbow bolts- starting with a large Troll...
(http://i.imgur.com/dmFghdv.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/EhqHM5D.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/mwZGbZt.jpg)
I pray for the future of our fortress. Without the wise leadership of Northstar, who knows how long we'll survive?
*The manuscript is unreadable past this point*
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 08:15:20 pm
The Marksdwarves have turned against us!
Angered by the loss of their brethren in the initial catastrophe of this siege, and severely nauseated by the bright light of the surface after years of living underground (curse those fool past overseers who buried the living quarters and barracks deep underground!), they have begun turning on each other and the rest of the fortress in fits of rage, and even attempted murder...
(http://i.imgur.com/DFWVrBr.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/uSKMsIk.jpg)
Some have merely turned on some of the semi-wild Crundles just downstairs from the gatehouse tower- saving out butchers the hassle of having to deal with them later... (but ruining perfectly good meat)
(http://i.imgur.com/ncFxfNf.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/FHHhNV5.jpg)
But others have turned on the civilians of the fortress- setting off a spiral of rage and murder that seems to know no end. In the past weeks along, several dwarves have already gone Berserk in the hospital:
(http://i.imgur.com/1A9Zrw5.jpg)
On top of all this, a great and fearsome creature has arisen from the depths! Some of those lucky enough to have seen it and lived identify it as a great, towering armored "dinosaur" with 3 eyes, a horn, and a clubbed tail holding a poisonous sting:
(http://i.imgur.com/aRoNwie.jpg)
Meanwhile, our military continues to blissfully slaughter the civilians of the fortress rather than their proper enemies- the Goblins and Trolls which lie in wait outside our gates, or the great armored beast lurking in the underworld...
(http://i.imgur.com/voLhsOC.jpg)
In the midst of all this, the fortress' architects and engravers have come up with a plan to beautify the fortress catacombs- which all predict will soon be full to overflowing- with a series of engravings into the marble pillars supporting them...
(http://i.imgur.com/P3uaDQR.jpg)
Wisely, they also saw it fit to improve the hospital by smoothing the walls and floor. Some say this might reduce the chance of infection (although their reasoning for this is questionable). Others insist that the main benefit will be ensuring the nurses do not have to sleep on dirty, rough cavern floors if they collapse of exhaustion while going to feed their patients (which with the great carnage throughout the fort of late, has become a common occurrence), thus reducing the chances of their turning in rage on the very injured dwarves they seek to heal and care for...
(http://i.imgur.com/Kv1Ja3J.jpg)
The rest of this scroll is obscured by strains of blood and gore.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 08:36:49 pm
These are dark times. The military continues to slaughter innocent civilians at will (curse those underground barracks! One of Northstar's last pieces of advice before jumping was to make sure the military is NEVER stationed underground for such long periods of time again...) and even our cats are not safe- if they do not get brutally murdered by a tantruming soldier back from a shift on the wall shooting at goblins, they jump down to the goblins themselves- and are promptly beheaded!
(http://i.imgur.com/WRwdxML.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/dwxKRCS.jpg)
A portion of this scroll is obscured by a large and particularly nasty-looking splotch of dried gore.
Today, the Captain of the Guard took a hammer to the head. Some strange idea possessed him that it was a GOOD idea to jump down to meet the goblins head-on. He was promptly pulped by a warhammer- against which even his dense bronze helmet provided little protection...
(http://i.imgur.com/wwOtFmJ.jpg)
Several more paragraphs are obscured by another patch of gore... You aren't sure how so much gore got on the fortress log manuscripts- perhaps the gore was spattered across them when they were being written, or perhaps there was a particularly brutal set of murders here in the archives room- which would explain the restless ghosts drifting through some of the hallways in this section of the fortress.
The military continues to slaughter dwarves at will... It is reaching the point where they are a more effective combat force against the dwarves of our own fortress, than against the enemies outside the walls. Many Marksdwarves are now too busy throwing fits to pick up additional ammunition...
(http://i.imgur.com/1bKT4GY.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Syrq7e4.jpg)
However it is not just the military that is dangerous now. It has reached the point where not even the catacombs are safe- recently a dwarf went berserk in there after hauling a body to its final resting place...
(http://i.imgur.com/naOjAy8.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/RkUKG3E.jpg)
However he wandered close to the barracks in his search for dwarves to kill, and was quickly dealt with by the remaining soldiers who were still functional enough to use their spears on threat to the fortress rather than each other...
(http://i.imgur.com/RKDSzPy.jpg)
The hospital, meanwhile, continues to be one of the most dangerous places in the fortress. Recently one of the nurses went berserk in there, and nearly killed several recuperating patients:
(http://i.imgur.com/erpuLsA.jpg)
One of the patients went berserk soon after that- upset by his recent injuries. But he was far too weak to cause much damage...
(http://i.imgur.com/OY0FX0Z.jpg)
The rest of the fortress is little safer though. Recently, another dwarf went berserk between the cistern and unused arena, and managed to injure several dwarves before the remnants of our military was able to deal with him:
(http://i.imgur.com/eWzVmyJ.jpg)
Another dwarf, meanwhile, lost his marbles in the dining hall and started trying to kill people- but was dogpiled by a number of dwarves who just wanted to eat their food in (relative) peace...
(http://i.imgur.com/WnZmht3.jpg)
The remainder of this scroll in unreadable due to blood and gore...
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 09:05:05 pm
3rd Limestone, 257
Things are starting to look up. Although the orgy of violence continues, the goblins have been driven away from the fortress by our Marksdwarves. Most of them lie dead, pin cushioned full of crossbow bolts...
(http://i.imgur.com/YcFa5aA.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/iTfAO4u.jpg)
11th Limestone
Things continue to look up. Although our numbers continue to dwindle, more of the dwarves losing their minds are now stripping off their clothes and running through the halls naked rather than taking a pickaxe to the nearest dwarf's skull. However, a small, unhappy child began to stalk silently through the hallways and collect pieces of bone and gore; and then hauled them all to the Butcher's Shop. His surviving relatives are worried about him...
(http://i.imgur.com/yUgR8Y0.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/buheAEc.jpg)
14th Limestone
The dwarf Asmoth lost his mind today and went into a blind rage, yelling about how he was going to "kill us all"... However he choose the militia barracks as his object of rage- which didn't bode well for him when he was quickly slaughtered by a number of heavily-armored Speardwarves engaged in Individual Combat Drills... He was quickly and easily dealt with.
(http://i.imgur.com/KOjxIlz.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/KlAIklG.jpg)
19th Limestone
The small child I wrote about earlier has begun a mysterious artifact. Who knows what he might produce? Hopefully it will be a worth silver lining to the misery the fortress is currently going through...
(http://i.imgur.com/F5te7cO.jpg)
I have received orders from the interim overseer to open the gates to the caverns, however. He says that it is better we face the Forgotten Beast there now, while we still have enough strength to defeat it, than risk it breaking in and claiming the fortress for its own if we have to abandon it later due to the damage being wrought by this orgy of murder and violence...
(http://i.imgur.com/Q6qjU5Z.jpg)
There is a small patch of dried blood obscuring the date here...
The child I wrote of earlier has created a masterful iron bracelet, encircled in many rings of bone. Interesting, and beautiful, but not exactly the kind of thing anybody was hoping for... A cage or a door would have been better...
(http://i.imgur.com/URZQQ6M.jpg)
25th Limestone
The militia dwarves bravely faced the Forgotten Beast today, and won!
At first it didn't look pretty, but after a few well-aimed spear strikes (I can almost hear Northstar's voice now saying "I told you so"- he made a great point of reminding us of the effectiveness of heavily-armored Speardwarves against large and fearsome creatures such as fleshy Forgotten Beasts...) even the children were dogpiling onto the thing, eager to say they landed the killing blow!
(http://i.imgur.com/LFAIYqb.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/DeJ2ycX.jpg)
Even the best armor has chinks and holes in it however, and the great dinosaur-like monster managed to sting one of our soldiers through a chink between his helmet and mail shirt. Two other dwarves it slaughtered by delivering fearsome kicks that even the best of adamantite helmets could hardly have hoped to stop...
What matters most, though, is that at the end of the day the creature lay dead, and our dwarves victorious. Even if the fortress were completely abandoned now, this creature could never lay claim to it as its own...
(http://i.imgur.com/6oURGJN.jpg)
The overseer promptly directed us to seal back up the gate to the caverns after the fight...
(http://i.imgur.com/FnTpoFo.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/gP93z2c.jpg)
The scroll ends here, but there are several more in the archives...
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 09:18:00 pm
The glassmakers made a great new discovery today- they could make pots for food and booze out of nothing but magma and sand!
(http://i.imgur.com/KoWL6eZ.jpg)
The overseer promptly relaxed his restrictions on the use of stone for many purposes- although he still insists we should save large amounts of it for memorial slabs and rock mechanisms...
Meanwhile, another child seized a workshop in a strange mood. This one produced something useful, however- a great masterfully-crafted cage made out of the bones of the last Forgotten Beast!
(http://i.imgur.com/DL3goyB.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/XApGyXZ.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/kNA5nHt.jpg)
I say the *last* forgotten beast, however, because another one has arrived. This one is a great, winged earthworm. That doesn't sound particularly terrifying, but our soldiers point out that means it has no limbs to hack off, few internal organs to pierce, and is capable of flying through any gap in our defenses. It also has a poisonous sting...
(http://i.imgur.com/clq86nA.jpg)
Luckily, our defenses are impervious even to a flying monstrosity such as this:
(http://i.imgur.com/NwVoCZh.jpg)
Meanwhile, another of the fortress' children seized a Tanner's Wokshop some time ago. Worryingly, though, he sits there without doing anything...
(http://i.imgur.com/b3z80yY.jpg)
12th Malachite
We're lucky we sealed the caverns. Recently, a Forgotten Beast even more fearsome than the earthworm! This one has four legs, is made out of pure green glass, and is capable of blasting its enemies with a dangerous dust...
(http://i.imgur.com/3QkHiKW.jpg)
Worryingly, soon after it arrived there were reports of the echoes of a cave-in sounding from the caverns. Some dwarves worried the beast might somehow be tunneling through the rock towards our fortress. However, there were no further reports of the beast after the cave-in, so it appears it may have actually accidentally crushed itself under a section of cavern rock- however it may have triggered the collapse in the first place thus being highly irrelevant...
(http://i.imgur.com/sXJ2Imb.jpg)
A splotch of mud obscures the signature and date at the end of the scroll, which terminates here...
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 17, 2014, 09:45:03 pm
The situation is the fortress has stabilized greatly.
The orgy of violence and murder seems to have come to an end- the majority of the dwarves involved now being dead. Several new waves of migrants helped to replace them, however, and a few dwarves without friends in the rest of the fortress managed to survive the chaos through isolating themselves in the semi-secure area to the south of the main fortress walls... (That plan worked for them until a tantruming dwarf stormed outside the walls and killed two of their number- setting off a tantrum spiral in miniature. But by that point several groups of new migrants had arrived at the main fortress, and the situation there had stabilized...)
We are still finding dead bodies around the fortress here-and-there. But the main danger has passed, and the last goblin siege repulsed...
4th Limestone
We're through the heart of the storm, but all is not clear yet. Another goblin siege has arrived, just as the interim overseer is preparing to retire for the time being. Luckily, there are no gaps in the defenses for idiotic dwarves to jump through this time (the gatehouse upgrades having been completed since the last siege).
(http://i.imgur.com/uH3a6Zq.jpg)
The only REAL danger to the fortress at this point is a second wave of the kind of violence that occurred before- if future overseers manage to upset the dwarves, who are still rather quite on edge (we still have a relatively harmless isolated tantrum or two now and then). Barring that possibility, it's a simple matter of lining up the marksdwarves on the lowermost level of the fortifications (where the new outbuilding was recently constructed) and pelting the invaders with =Pig Bone Bolts= until they decide to leave.
The gate was also sealed in a rather hurry. It's been sealed with walls rather than with a bridge, to keep the invaders out.
The overseer says that the job to connect the bridge up to the lever had to be "suspended" halfway through, as the second mechanism selected for the purpose is currently located outside the walls.
He recommends that the next overseer simply drive off the goblins with crossbow bolts (by stationing the dwarves near the wall on the *lowermost* level with fortifications, where they are protected from the snow and any possibility of return-fire by a roof overhead), and then "un-suspend" the task after deconstructing the wall segments blocking the gate to the fortress. He says this will save on time and mechanisms rather than cancelling the job, having to de-construct the bridge (to recover the mechanism already inserted into it- it wouldn't make sense to leave a perfectly good mechanism sitting there useless now, would it?), and then re-build the bridge and start the linking job over from scratch...
The scroll ends here. No further scrolls can be found in this section of the archives, as the sections are organized by overseer term rather than years of the fortress...
OOC: I hope you guys enjoyed the updates. Like I said, MAKE SURE to attack the goblins from the LOWERMOST level of the fortifications. There are still some gaps in the defenses where they can receive return-fire on the upper levels, and the Marksdwarves will be less accurate from higher up anyways...
Also, here's an image of the bedrooms- which I've been renovating.
(http://i.imgur.com/n85wp01.jpg)
I moved the gold statues from the hallways to the bedrooms, because they'll do a lot more to promote dwarven happiness there. Not only do owned objects count for 2x as many points when generating happy thoughts, happy thoughts are based mainly on quality-level than on material (unless the dwarf has a preference for that material). So golden statues of low quality like this are more useful in the rooms, where they lead to higher room-value and the accompanying happy thoughts from that, whereas masterpiece Earthenware Statues are much more useful in the hallways than low-quality golden ones... (although they're still highly useful in improving room value).
I've also moved all the memorial slabs into the dwarven bedrooms- once again because they're more useful in improving room value there (a high-value bedroom automatically generates happy thoughts every time a dwarf sleeps there) than in generating happy thoughts (most of them are of low quality, and so won't generate any at all).
Through this, I've managed to improve room quality to the "Grand Bedroom" level for a number of rooms- the only higher level is "Royal Bedroom" (which it might be wise to reserve for the Duke/Monarch, if we ever get one...)
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Room#Quality
Note that having a "Grand Bedroom" generates the "Slept in a Fantastic Bedroom" thought:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Thought#Accommodations
InfiniteCastor, your turn. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks/sounds- the fortress should be perfectly stable by this point as long as you don't do anything stupid, minus an occasional tantrum or two (which you can easily control by locking up the offending dwarf in his/her room or a jail cell). I'd also like to give you (and everyone to follow in similar fashion) 5 days from *this post* to complete your turn, if DoctorMcTaalik and everyone else is alright with that.
Regards.
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on September 17, 2014, 10:36:27 pm
I'm not exactly sure how the previous Oracle perished tho. What matters is that a new Oracle of flame be chosen. he shall take the nickname of ''Ashes'', and be selected among the new migrants, just take the most fervent follower of our beloved volcano deity. Now that we know we can make pots and stuff out of magma, just make him a glassblower I guess.
May i suggest that we start planning for a magma moat around our walls? This would prevent further wall climbers, and we have an artifact floodgate anyway. Setting up the whole thing wouldnt be that dangerous thanks to nearby volcanic pools, and an impervious floodgate without the need for adamantine.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 18, 2014, 01:43:06 am
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This scroll appears to be little more than a hastily-scribbled note. The date on the first section is illegible due to poor handwriting. It appears whoever wrote this had plenty of other things to attend to...
The situation is the fortress has stabilized greatly.
The orgy of violence and murder seems to have come to an end- the majority of the dwarves involved now being dead. Several new waves of migrants helped to replace them, however, and a few dwarves without friends in the rest of the fortress managed to survive the chaos through isolating themselves in the semi-secure area to the south of the main fortress walls... (That plan worked for them until a tantruming dwarf stormed outside the walls and killed two of their number- setting off a tantrum spiral in miniature. But by that point several groups of new migrants had arrived at the main fortress, and the situation there had stabilized...)
We are still finding dead bodies around the fortress here-and-there. But the main danger has passed, and the last goblin siege repulsed...
4th Limestone
We're through the heart of the storm, but all is not clear yet. Another goblin siege has arrived, just as the interim overseer is preparing to retire for the time being. Luckily, there are no gaps in the defenses for idiotic dwarves to jump through this time (the gatehouse upgrades having been completed since the last siege).
(http://i.imgur.com/uH3a6Zq.jpg)
The only REAL danger to the fortress at this point is a second wave of the kind of violence that occurred before- if future overseers manage to upset the dwarves, who are still rather quite on edge (we still have a relatively harmless isolated tantrum or two now and then). Barring that possibility, it's a simple matter of lining up the marksdwarves on the lowermost level of the fortifications (where the new outbuilding was recently constructed) and pelting the invaders with =Pig Bone Bolts= until they decide to leave.
The gate was also sealed in a rather hurry. It's been sealed with walls rather than with a bridge, to keep the invaders out.
The overseer says that the job to connect the bridge up to the lever had to be "suspended" halfway through, as the second mechanism selected for the purpose is currently located outside the walls.
He recommends that the next overseer simply drive off the goblins with crossbow bolts (by stationing the dwarves near the wall on the *lowermost* level with fortifications, where they are protected from the snow and any possibility of return-fire by a roof overhead), and then "un-suspend" the task after deconstructing the wall segments blocking the gate to the fortress. He says this will save on time and mechanisms rather than cancelling the job, having to de-construct the bridge (to recover the mechanism already inserted into it- it wouldn't make sense to leave a perfectly good mechanism sitting there useless now, would it?), and then re-build the bridge and start the linking job over from scratch...
The scroll ends here. No further scrolls can be found in this section of the archives, as the sections are organized by overseer term rather than years of the fortress...
OOC: I hope you guys enjoyed the updates. Like I said, MAKE SURE to attack the goblins from the LOWERMOST level of the fortifications. There are still some gaps in the defenses where they can receive return-fire on the upper levels, and the Marksdwarves will be less accurate from higher up anyways...
Also, here's an image of the bedrooms- which I've been renovating.
(http://i.imgur.com/n85wp01.jpg)
I moved the gold statues from the hallways to the bedrooms, because they'll do a lot more to promote dwarven happiness there. Not only do owned objects count for 2x as many points when generating happy thoughts, happy thoughts are based mainly on quality-level than on material (unless the dwarf has a preference for that material). So golden statues of low quality like this are more useful in the rooms, where they lead to higher room-value and the accompanying happy thoughts from that, whereas masterpiece Earthenware Statues are much more useful in the hallways than low-quality golden ones... (although they're still highly useful in improving room value).
I've also moved all the memorial slabs into the dwarven bedrooms- once again because they're more useful in improving room value there (a high-value bedroom automatically generates happy thoughts every time a dwarf sleeps there) than in generating happy thoughts (most of them are of low quality, and so won't generate any at all).
Through this, I've managed to improve room quality to the "Grand Bedroom" level for a number of rooms- the only higher level is "Royal Bedroom" (which it might be wise to reserve for the Duke/Monarch, if we ever get one...)
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Room#Quality
Note that having a "Grand Bedroom" generates the "Slept in a Fantastic Bedroom" thought:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Thought#Accommodations
InfiniteCastor, your turn. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it looks/sounds- the fortress should be perfectly stable by this point as long as you don't do anything stupid, minus an occasional tantrum or two (which you can easily control by locking up the offending dwarf in his/her room or a jail cell). I'd also like to give you (and everyone to follow in similar fashion) 5 days from *this post* to complete your turn, if DoctorMcTaalik and everyone else is alright with that.
Regards.
Northstar
I agree with Taupe, that was a great series of updates. And yes, increasing the amount if time allotted for each turn is a wise decision.
Great updates, and good job salvaging the chaos that plagued Pagetower.
I'm not exactly sure how the previous Oracle perished tho. What matters is that a new Oracle of flame be chosen. he shall take the nickname of ''Ashes'', and be selected among the new migrants, just take the most fervent follower of our beloved volcano deity. Now that we know we can make pots and stuff out of magma, just make him a glassblower I guess.
May i suggest that we start planning for a magma moat around our walls? This would prevent further wall climbers, and we have an artifact floodgate anyway. Setting up the whole thing wouldnt be that dangerous thanks to nearby volcanic pools, and an impervious floodgate without the need for adamantine.
I am quite hesitant at the thought of making Moldath's daughter bleed unnecessarily. I would not recommend trying a magma moat unless you are completely confident in your own abilities. It would not do to have the whole tundra submerged in magma.
I personally will probably wait to ask for re-dorf until I feel the time is right. I'm not sure whether I'll continue with the High Priest of Moldath thing or not (you seem to have the fanaticism covered with your Oracle of Fire).
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 19, 2014, 11:35:32 pm
I don't want to skip him, since he was already skipped before, so would anyone object to me re-loading the save and trying to finish a little more of my turn if we don't hear from him soon?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 20, 2014, 03:49:12 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 20, 2014, 12:46:54 pm
I doubt there'd be any problems with that.
OK, well you're next in the turn order after InfiniteCastor, so if you're OK with it then I'll re-continue the save.
Update to come soon.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 20, 2014, 08:14:14 pm
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9753
Fortress logs coming SOON (TM)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 20, 2014, 08:39:01 pm
Goblins lurk outside the walls, and monsters below it, but here in the fortress we have found some measure of peace and calm...
(http://i.imgur.com/H5XYeWo.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/zU1kS1j.jpg)
The latest news is that one of the great beasts slew the other in the caverns beneath the fortress. I guess we know which was the stronger now:
(http://i.imgur.com/9VoQUxK.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Em8QZQL.jpg)
A dwarf also claimed a Craftsdwarf's Workshop after the latest Goblin siege left, and began construction of a great artifact:
(http://i.imgur.com/rIqEK3b.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/veZdjgP.jpg)
Well, a stone figurine. But he seemed rather happy with his handiwork, and I guess that counts for something...
(http://i.imgur.com/kyj7gID.jpg)
More beasts come to take the place of those that fall quicker than ever, though- so I am sure the beasts slaying each other counted for little:
(http://i.imgur.com/NSaPIUR.jpg)
This concludes the first page of notes.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 20, 2014, 08:42:40 pm
More migrants arrived today. The fortress is booming, and dwarves are flocking to it from all around to share in its prosperity:
(http://i.imgur.com/p1njkly.jpg)
The fortress laborers could use the help. They are busier than ever lately:
(http://i.imgur.com/9ZLMCwV.jpg)
I am sure there will be many more migrants in the future:
(http://i.imgur.com/ySBS6NU.jpg)
This concludes the second page of notes.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 20, 2014, 08:53:36 pm
The greatest danger to our fort, it appears, is ghosts. Just last week, one ushered in the beginning of a series of hauntings by frightening a poor puppy to death. Since then, dwarves have reported dizziness, howling spirits at night, and our poor mayor's guts even mysteriously spilled out for no apparent reason (some witnesses claimed that they saw a ghost gut him...) I fear the ghosts less than I fear the paranoia and violence that may erupt among our dwarves if this situation is not contained.
The miners and interim overseer seem to agree- they recently began excavating out two new sections of catacombs to put the wyaward spirits to rest...
(http://i.imgur.com/QedDsjk.jpg)
A ranger also began acting strangely recently, and produced another artifact (this time a stone earring). He claims he was possessed by a departed spirit that never fulfilled its wish of creating an artifact while in the flesh, and has no memory of how he actually made the thing...
(http://i.imgur.com/wvO7o0z.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/nugsqSO.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/KVqZUeP.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/UU204km.jpg)
I fear for the mental health of our dwarves with everything being attributed to departed spirits like this, but soon the catacombs will be complete. Hopefully that will put their minds at ease- and we'll celebrate with a gigantic party!
(http://i.imgur.com/lOkEODP.jpg)
Despite all its troubles, this fortress is now a beacon of peace and prosperity in a cold, unforgiving arctic wasteland. I hope it remains that way for many years to come, and that my skills are never needed beyond the occasional mining accident...
(http://i.imgur.com/89rxPfz.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/51zZT6p.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/TTTQw9x.jpg)
I will say my prayers to the gods of light and forgiveness that I may not suffer a fate like the similarly-named brick-maker who once led this fortress.
Regards,
Sir Northstar von Latvium
P.S. If you'd be so kind, please consider dorfing me as the surgeon who is set up in the NW tower of the fortress. Use the name "NorthstarVL" as a shorthand for this slightly different character name.
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 20, 2014, 08:56:58 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 20, 2014, 09:02:27 pm
I guess I'll confirm I'm available to play a turn, subject to Castor not taking the fortress for a spin.
Just download the save. InfiniteCastor has had well longer than the normal period of time to get the save, and still hasn't bothered to say anything around the thread. He'll have to go later.
I look forward to your report! Remember, you have 5 days.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 20, 2014, 09:24:41 pm
- From the memoirs of Melek, former overseer, first paragraph.
The first proper entry will be up by this evening. Senseless deaths will be kept to a minimum.
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on September 21, 2014, 02:17:42 am
Post by: Taupe on September 21, 2014, 02:54:45 am
Quote
Man, this fort has everything! Ghosts, caverns, giant Kaiju doing battle in said caverns... What more could you ask for?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEizJ-TWua0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEizJ-TWua0)
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 22, 2014, 05:10:43 pm
The first thing I discovered upon taking the reins of Pagetower was a strange child, who seemed to be missing a somewhat vital family member:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Setting that aside, I went on with attempting to just be generally sane and contributive to the fortress' well being. The large number of corpses lying around was to be my first order of business. My predecessor had started well, entombing most of our fallen citizens, but they left the bodies of our slain animals and enemies lying around to fester. The best way to remedy that seemed to be with lava, so I had a small stairway built to a height above the lip of the volcano that would prevent splashback setting anyone on fire, hopefully. This would also prove to be a useful way to get rid of the vast majority of things we had no use for, like old clothes, rotten produce and prisoners.
My next worrying discovery was that everyone in the fortress was apparently assigned to three or four skilled labours each, resulting in jobs being done slowly and poorly. There wasn't really much I could do about this other than on a case by case basis when I ran into dwarves in the hallway. I guess I needed some therapy to do group oration.
Our new POW handling initiative:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
As Hematite continued, we found an engraver by the name of Momuz Thobibel dead of dehydration. I could only assume that he was refusing to drink, as we had both water and alcohol on offer. Shortly after this, I made a somewhat controversial descision. Owing to there only being one person in our militia, and few dwarves with any military training, I added some of the miners we had lying around to the ranks. They proved to be... effective in a training exercise.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Not much happening really. I didn't get much further than the end of Hematite, mostly because I spent a fair chunk of that time designating things to be melted or dumped.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 22, 2014, 10:02:47 pm
I had a small stairway built to a height above the lip of the volcano that would prevent splashback setting anyone on fire, hopefully. This would also prove to be a useful way to get rid of the vast majority of things we had no use for, like old clothes, rotten produce and prisoners.
You're kidding me, right? Withered plants disappear on their own, and aren't worth tossing. Meat/cheese/eggs should be stored in a food stockpile at all times anyways, where they won't decay- and will also disappear in the rare instance they do manage to rot (so aren't worth exposing our Dwarves to Goblin archer fire as the current set-up you've built does...) And prisoners have an EXCELLENT use- just find a way to safely dump them down into the caverns, and let them duke it out for their lives with the Forgotten Beasts there...
Old clothes shouldn't be destroyed either. Quantum Stockpile them near the main gate, and trade them to the first trade depot to make it inside the fortress... Saves on labor vs. having to create entirely new trade goods later on.
My next worrying discovery was that everyone in the fortress was apparently assigned to three or four skilled labours each, resulting in jobs being done slowly and poorly. There wasn't really much I could do about this other than on a case by case basis when I ran into dwarves in the hallway. I guess I needed some therapy to do group oration.
Labors are spread thin intentionally, for two EXCELLENT reasons:
(1) It minimizes the chance of a dwarf sitting idle. Not only does this give them the chance to make friends- which puts the whole fortress at greater risk of a tantrum spiral- it also will eventually represent increased productivity if they manage to live long enough to attain a high degree of mastery in their 3-4 skills.
(2) It reduces the damage to the fortress if any individual dwarf is lost. Except for a couple highly-specialized professions like metalworking and medicine (which you'll notice there are relatively few dwarves assigned to) where skill level is the most important factor, generally a short-term loss of quality/speed is worth the long-term protection against "putting all your eggs in one basket"- especially when that basket happens to be an explosively-unstable, booze-soaked one with a long beard...
Our new POW handling initiative:[/i]Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Once again, bad idea. You don't want to risk Dwarven lives so soon after the last tantrum spiral, do you? The current strategy needlessly exposes Dwarves to Goblin archers (and spotting goblins and running off the wall into the lava in a panic- which apparently is still not fully fixed yet). Just designate some more cage/animal stockpiles, forge some more green glass cages ("aquariums"), and store up the prisoners until you can find a way to feed the prisoners to the Forgotten Beasts (they even might do some damage to the beasts if you don't disarm them first). And demolish that darn staircase over the volcano lip.
As Hematite continued, we found an engraver by the name of Momuz Thobibel dead of dehydration. I could only assume that he was refusing to drink, as we had both water and alcohol on offer. Shortly after this, I made a somewhat controversial descision. Owing to there only being one person in our militia, and few dwarves with any military training, I added some of the miners we had lying around to the ranks. They proved to be... effective in a training exercise.
The problem is that there is still relatively little booze compared to the population, and few buckets to draw water. If all the available barrels/pots/buckets are currently being used, the dwarf will cancel his/her "drink" job and go do something else rather than wait for a turn. I suggest replanting the farms (the infrastructure got badly damaged during the tantrum spiral, and I demolished what was left so we could select a better farming area elsewhere) before the booze runs out completely, and brewing up a bunch more booze...
And, like I said, get rid of that staircase. I've suggested superior alternative uses for the clothes and prisoners. The rotten food doesn't really matter- dump it in the indoor (but aboveground) refuse stockpile if you have to (and it's not in a pot/bag/barrel- which will be damaged by the refuse stockpile).
If you want a direction for future growth/expansion, I *strongly* suggest constructing (out of earthenware bricks) some new luxurious bedrooms in the above-ground section of the fortress. Build up rather than out or down. Cave-adaptation already proved to be a MAJOR issue during the last siege- and was one of the main reasons the crossbow militia turned on the civilians (they had spent years training underground, never seeing the light of day, and were quite nauseated by the light). We are also short of housing, as I decided to drastically reduce housing density in order to improve housing quality. There is a need for more Grand Bedrooms on the upper levels of the fort (placing gold and decorated-earthenware statues is an easy way to raise the quality level of constructed rooms)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. See those red and blue boxes on the screenshot of the Troll being incinerated? Those are blueberry and cranberry bushes. Designate some dwarves to gather them (especially the ones just outside the walls, while it's still safe) when they reach the point in the seasons where they start presenting berries (examine them with "K" to see). They'll help you stretch the booze/food supplies until the farms can be replanted. I intentionally cleared large open areas and let them grow wild with grass/moss inside the walls- so that there would always be a safe backup booze/food supply for the fortress in times of trouble... (some of these areas also double as tree farms if the saplings will ever grow...)
Post by: Taupe on September 23, 2014, 12:49:31 am
Quote
Our new POW handling initiative:
Oh thank the fiery Gods this is finally happening.
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 23, 2014, 04:59:39 am
We already have enough crafts to trade for anything we could ever want from a caravan, and literally hundreds of old clothes which are murdering the framerate. The Fire King thanks you for your donation.I had a small stairway built to a height above the lip of the volcano that would prevent splashback setting anyone on fire, hopefully. This would also prove to be a useful way to get rid of the vast majority of things we had no use for, like old clothes, rotten produce and prisoners.
You're kidding me, right? Withered plants disappear on their own, and aren't worth tossing. Meat/cheese/eggs should be stored in a food stockpile at all times anyways, where they won't decay- and will also disappear in the rare instance they do manage to rot (so aren't worth exposing our Dwarves to Goblin archer fire as the current set-up you've built does...) And prisoners have an EXCELLENT use- just find a way to safely dump them down into the caverns, and let them duke it out for their lives with the Forgotten Beasts there...
Old clothes shouldn't be destroyed either. Quantum Stockpile them near the main gate, and trade them to the first trade depot to make it inside the fortress... Saves on labor vs. having to create entirely new trade goods later on.
Quote
If there were any goblin archers, perhaps the dwarves would be exposed to them. There aren't, so that isn't an issue. If some turn up, I'll stop using the staircase. Logic. And my way of dealing with prisoners is more amusing.Our new POW handling initiative:[/i]Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Once again, bad idea. You don't want to risk Dwarven lives so soon after the last tantrum spiral, do you? The current strategy needlessly exposes Dwarves to Goblin archers (and spotting goblins and running off the wall into the lava in a panic- which apparently is still not fully fixed yet). Just designate some more cage/animal stockpiles, forge some more green glass cages ("aquariums"), and store up the prisoners until you can find a way to feed the prisoners to the Forgotten Beasts (they even might do some damage to the beasts if you don't disarm them first). And demolish that darn staircase over the volcano lip.
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 23, 2014, 01:01:28 pm
Little happened as summer waned into autumn. The new militia squad was moved into an above ground barracks to prevent nausea in the sun, and I had the cage with a cyclops in it set up in my office. It made a good talking point when we were later visited by the outpost liaison. Perhaps offended by our capture of her friend, we were attacked by another cyclops on the twenty third of Malachite, one by the name of Yamoru. I decided to leave her to her own devices, assuming that she'd be crippled trying to get through our gate. That was before I found out someone had deconstructed the majority of the weapon traps around our entrance. The miner squad was forced to engage a totally healthy and presumably pissed off cyclops, but fared unexpectedly well. She punched one of them in the head, killing him instantly, but was then killed by the others without any other injuries. A mere fifteen corpses remained to be buried at the end of Galena, not counting all the pets people want entombed in our good coffins.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 23, 2014, 02:41:44 pm
we were attacked by another cyclops on the twenty third of Malachite, one by the name of Yamoru. I decided to leave her to her own devices, assuming that she'd be crippled trying to get through our gate. That was before I found out someone had deconstructed the majority of the weapon traps around our entrance. The miner squad was forced to engage a totally healthy and presumably pissed off cyclops, but fared unexpectedly well. She punched one of them in the head, killing him instantly, but was then killed by the others without any other injuries. A mere fifteen corpses remained to be buried at the end of Galena, not counting all the pets people want entombed in our good coffins.[/i]
That's strange. The weapon traps were working fine when I ended my turn/ uploaded the save...
Mind at least throwing the captured Cyclops into the caverns? I suggested throwing prisoners down there because we need to deal with those Forgotten Beasts sooner or later. Making prisoners duke it out with them is a lot safer than risking our dwarves...
Also, the old clothes weren't murdering out frame-rate. I guarantee that if you burn up every single one, and melt down every piece of Goblinite for metal (PLEASE don't throw prisoners in the volcano without at least stripping them of their arms/armor first- it's perfectly good metal that can be melted down at the Smelter and re-used) it will still be abysmal. (look up on the Wiki how to disarm/unarmor prisoners if you're not sure how- it involves using the "dump" function on their items with a garbage dump NOT into a volcano)
What's murdering our frame-rate is the 100+ livestock wandering around our pastures/cages or free as pets (I butchered several dozen during my reign, but they breed so fast!) Deal with THEM, before their numbers become too large to control, and forget about the clothes (which are best traded along with the old trade goods) if you want to improve frame-rate.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 23, 2014, 03:14:22 pm
"I have come to deliver this message, direct from the goddess Moldath herself. She WEEPS at all the metal being thrown into her fiery chasm on the backs of the foul prisoners, instead of being melted down at the Smelter and forged into arms and armor bearing her likeness, instead of that of foul Goblins. She orders that the Goblins and Trolls be delivered justice by being filled with Crossbow bolts instead of used to POLLUTE her pure volcano. Also, foul fluffy kittens plot the destruction of our fortress- and must be dealt with! Throwing the "pet" cats into the volcano *IS* acceptable to her.
(http://i.imgur.com/32lbYGp.jpg)
In other words, stop incinerating prisoners in the volcano, and start disarming/disarmoring them (and start meting down their arms/armor for equipment for our militia), and use them for live target practice for new squads of Marksdwarves instead. I really don't care THAT MUCH what you do with the old clothing, but the wasting of our valuable prisoner supply in unacceptable to Moldath (and me), and there WILL be consequences, perhaps from beyond the grave, if you do not heed the ghost's warning.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 23, 2014, 05:20:28 pm
From the memoirs of Melek, third chapter.
In order to combat a potential food shortage, I decided to designate what looked like a million kittens for slaughter. There were still quite a few cats left in the fortress even after this, doubtless on the lookout for revenge. Though I was careful to watch them as much as I could, I could never catch them plotting the vengeance I knew they desired.
The second of Limestone would prove to be a bad day. A craftsdwarf took over a glass furnace, claiming Armok had sent him visions of some great artefact that he had to build, and then we were invaded by goblins. No one in the fortress would pull the lever, because they were all to busy making sub standard engravings or whatever it was they were doing. I would eventually solve this problem by making a burrow around said lever and telling everyone that no one was leaving until it got pulled. A few cats would get trapped outside when the drawbridge lifted, but perhaps it made them focus their rage on the greenskins rather than us dwarves. The goblins would prove to be distinctly unhelpful, staying well outside the range of our archers once they saw that the gates were closed.
The craftsdwarf would later re-emerge holding a green glass table he called 'The Teacher of Forever':
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
In the meantime, the goblins continued patrolling our walls, looking for a way in, and Lokum the forgotten beast strangled a giant olm. A troll and a crossbowgoblin climbed our walls, but they were taken care of without any casualties. Limestone ended with the enemy still at the gates.
Post by: Northstar1989 on September 23, 2014, 07:49:29 pm
From the memoirs of Melek, third chapter.
In order to combat a potential food shortage, I decided to designate what looked like a million kittens for slaughter. There were still quite a few cats left in the fortress even after this, doubtless on the lookout for revenge. Though I was careful to watch them as much as I could, I could never catch them plotting the vengeance I knew they desired.
Watch them and you will see, you will seeeee... They want to fill our fortress with a million mewing kittens that will drag our fortress FPS down into the single digits.
Butchering the unowned kittens was a good first step- and what I would have done myself (though technically we could have obtained more meat/fat if we let them grow to adulthood first- kittens only yield skulls). But don't forget that the *owned* cats/kittens still need to be dealt with- you might still consider throwing some of them into the volcano if their numbers become too great...
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Catsplosion
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Cat
The caged Goblins/Trolls still make excellent live target practice for our Marksdwarves. If there are any left, DON'T throw them into the volcano- not only is it dangerous (as the dwarves could get shot by archers- even when no siege is visible on the map there is always the danger of an ambush), but it also deprives our Marksdwarves of valuable experience. I suggest emplacing the Goblin cages in the arena set one by one of our predecessors for shooting some of the wild-reverted caged Crundles, and releasing them by lever so they can be shot at by our militia. The caged Trolls, however, need to be placed in a chamber with a sealed bridge- as they are building destroyers capable of smashing through doors to get at our fortress...
I also suggest digging an INTERIOR garbage disposal shaft in the long run, so we can safely throw things like cartilage and unbutcherable corpses into lava without exposing our dwarves to archer fire over the walls. Digging it will be risky, however, as it will require piercing the side of the volcano (which could incinerate the miner, or flood the fortress with lava)- so you might want to view the Wiki for safe ways to do so...
In the meantime, the goblins continued patrolling our walls, looking for a way in, and Lokum the forgotten beast strangled a giant olm. A troll and a crossbowgoblin climbed our walls, but they were taken care of without any casualties. Limestone ended with the enemy still at the gates.
Don't forget there are MANY places to shoot at Goblins at- not just from above the main gate.
How did the Troll/Goblin get in though? Did you see where they climbed the walls? The Troll/Goblin that got in during my turn I thought were only able to get in because I had opened a hole in the floor above the gate during renovations (to add the guard-shack in the courtyard south of the NW tower- which you might have made the barracks, or left empty...) It sounds like you had them climb clear over smooth brick walls, however, which technically shouldn't be possible- only rough/natural walls are supposed to be climbable... (smoothed or block-constructed walls are supposed to be unclimbable)
I guess we'll need to build the walls another z-layer or two higher once the siege is gone, to try and further deter climbers... (every level they have to climb increases the chance of falling- potentially to their deaths) You might also consider pasturing some trained War Dogs around the courtyard area as "guard dogs" to deal with the occasional surviving climber... (this thought comes to mind after having been chased by several guard dogs while political canvassing today)
Finally, don't forget about digging out some underground farms somewhere in the soil layers of the upper fortress- our dwarves are getting hungry/thirsty! (Crundle eggs should provide plenty of food, if we can get the surviving Crundles back to laying eggs- and preferably hatch a new, tamer generation and finish domesticating them- and we also have a breeding population of peacocks/peahens, as well as milkable/butcherable pigs; but we need a reliable source of booze aside from herbalism on the underground pastures...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 24, 2014, 05:45:24 pm
The goblins got bored or something, leaving during the early days of Opal. I remember wishing that they'd just write a travel guide that told other would-be invaders that there was poor accommodation and little to no slaughter opportunities in Pagetower to save us all some hassle. The gates were re-opened for any traders that decided to come in the middle of winter, i.e. none. In the meantime, Lokum killed a voracious cave crawler and a whole bunch of crundles.
(http://i.imgur.com/VOkIzvu.png?1?4917)
This is the commemorative picture I took of the glorious second of Obsidian. It depicts the last dwarf corpse in the temporary dwarf corpse stockpile I had set up in the moments before it was laid to rest, signalling the end of our long and arduous mission to bury all of our dead. I declared the day a national holiday in celebration.
So yeah, not much is going on at the moment. I've got some farms up and running again, and the miner squad is training away happily. Next on the agenda is starting to get rid of all those goblin corpses, I guess.
Post by: Taupe on September 24, 2014, 06:32:39 pm
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 25, 2014, 03:22:00 pm
The nineteenth of Obsidian saw the creation of yet another goddamn table:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
With winter's end, yet another vile force of darkness showed up on our borders. Perhaps they thought we were having a New Year's party, I don't know. The gates ground shut once again, whatever their motivations were. I knew that the great god Deler would send a sign that he favoured us still, and he did! On the twenty fifth of Granite, 260, a divinely inspired fire imp swam up the volcano and set some of the goblins on fire! The fire spread, engulfing several of the goblins and trolls, and none doubted the power of Deler, aside from the people who said that it was just a random fire imp.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After this sign from Deler, and with most of the fortress now clean of vomit and blood, I decided to turn the place over to the control of another in order to concentrate on doing whatever it is that a mayor is supposed to do.
Behold! Hardly any vomit or blood at all! (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9787)
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on September 25, 2014, 03:39:41 pm
On the twenty fifth of Granite, 260, a divinely inspired fire imp swam up the volcano and set some of the goblins on fire! The fire spread, engulfing several of the goblins and trolls, and none doubted the power of Deler, aside from the people who said that it was just a random fire imp.
Lol. That is hilarious. I don't think I have ever had anyone light an enemy siege on fire for me.
Btw, the bottom link is not working.
Post by: Deus Asmoth on September 25, 2014, 04:18:30 pm
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9787 (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9787)
Post by: Taupe on September 25, 2014, 10:00:56 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 01, 2014, 12:15:03 am
Peregarrett, you have been skipped (you've had almost a week to get the save and haven't)
Meme, it's your turn. You have 72 hours (yes, that's longer than the normal 48) to confirm download of the save or you will also be skipped, and play will proceed to Edmus.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 04, 2014, 12:20:16 am
Meme, you have been skipped- you had 72 hours to confirm download of the save and did nothing.
Edmus, it's your turn. You have 72 hours (once again, extra time- as you didn't know both Peregarrett and Meme would be skipped) to confirm download of the save, and up to 5 days to play from the time of this post.
Also, I'd like to add to the end of the turn list a little. Who's up for a 2nd turn? Askarn, Taupe, InfiniteCastor? Would you like to finally take a full turn DoctorMcTaalik? How do you feel about taking your turn now Shadow of Fate?
The fortress is reasonably stable, secure, and ready for improvement... Directions for future growth might include: streamlining of the meat industry (currently our haulers/herders waste a lot of time moving animals and meat around...), upwards construction of the fortress for additional living space and enclosed pastures, and of course the construction of an Obsidian Farm...
Besides works of industry/growth, we could definitely use some additional training facilities for our military (such as a "gym" where they work useless Screw Pumps to build strength; or imprvovement of the live-training arena to be larger, able to safely hold uncaged Trolls, and not generate Miasma (a new arena built at the base of a covered light-shaft would help with this: the old arena could be converted into an additional Cistern or food stockpiles...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on October 05, 2014, 06:56:33 pm
How do you feel about taking your turn now Shadow of Fate?
Well, I got major deadlines early this week and on top of that I'm sick. I won't be up to playing anytime this week. Next week might be more doable. Or it might not. I have no idea. It just depends on how much work I get. I didn't think I would be this busy early October, too.
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 09, 2014, 12:59:11 am
Well, I got major deadlines early this week and on top of that I'm sick. I won't be up to playing anytime this week. Next week might be more doable. Or it might not. I have no idea. It just depends on how much work I get. I didn't think I would be this busy early October, too.
No problem. Real life comes first. I understand it can get crazy/hectic.
Edmus, you've been skipped.
DoctorMcTaalik, how do you feel about finally taking a turn now? Since we don't have anyone next up in the queue, you can basically take as long as you want with it until somebody else pops in and asks for a turn (in which case, you'll have 72 more hours or until the end of 5 days to finish your 2 years, whichever is longer).
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on October 09, 2014, 07:11:07 pm
Well, I got major deadlines early this week and on top of that I'm sick. I won't be up to playing anytime this week. Next week might be more doable. Or it might not. I have no idea. It just depends on how much work I get. I didn't think I would be this busy early October, too.
No problem. Real life comes first. I understand it can get crazy/hectic.
Edmus, you've been skipped.
DoctorMcTaalik, how do you feel about finally taking a turn now? Since we don't have anyone next up in the queue, you can basically take as long as you want with it until somebody else pops in and asks for a turn (in which case, you'll have 72 more hours or until the end of 5 days to finish your 2 years, whichever is longer).
Regards,
Northstar
I should have some time over the next few days, so I'll play as much as I can. With Creepy McPriesty dead, I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the Roleplay aspect, but I'll figure it out.
Updates tomorrow, maybe.
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 09, 2014, 07:17:55 pm
Sure. I probably will be able to post tomorrow at the earliest.
Awesome man! Take as long as you need- I haven't heard about anyone else who wants to go after you yet...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on October 10, 2014, 06:39:07 pm
You all should know, somebody left the drawbridge up. Or down... whichever way it works with our weird fort. What FUN!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Post by: Amperzand on October 10, 2014, 06:45:11 pm
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on October 11, 2014, 02:06:03 pm
1st Slate, 260
Dearest Diary,
It is in times of strife and conflict that the greatest philosophies, greatest technologies, and most of all the greatest leaders arise.
The dwarves have asked me, Sodel Ochrehonor, to step in as dictator of Pagetower... a very wise decision if I do say so myself.
(http://i.imgur.com/RSApD6W.jpg)
And honestly, I do.
I am not like other overseers, diary, for I understand the plight of the common dwarf. For years, I too have strained under the oppressive weight of incompetent leaders. It was I who toiled endlessly in the masonry shops, slaving over the table night and day to produce the mandated quotas of cheap kitsch for the traders to hawk.
Yet my skill with masonry is legendary, paralleled by none. I received much praise for a magnificent desk I recently completely, an artifact which then-overseer Melek wrongly dismissed as "yet another goddamn table"
(http://i.imgur.com/P3t2QJj.png)
I will not punish him for the insult, for I respect what he has done for the fortress. Now, I have important duties to attend to.
(http://i.imgur.com/6cTZb4C.png)
-Sodel Ochrehonor
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on October 13, 2014, 09:28:36 pm
Post by: Amperzand on October 13, 2014, 10:23:20 pm
Post by: Timeless Bob on October 20, 2014, 01:30:04 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 23, 2014, 09:16:28 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDL6HNjZvxk
Just thought I'd spice things up a little bit...
I hope your update is soon Dr McTaalik. You've got as long as you still need, but I'm still hoping to hear of the progress soon!
Also, does anyone else want to be added to the list of players? If we can't find any veterans who want in, I'm willing to open this up to a couple new players...
- Northstar
Post by: Taupe on October 23, 2014, 09:22:26 pm
This may also be appropriate.
Post by: Amperzand on October 27, 2014, 04:25:10 pm
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on October 27, 2014, 06:13:10 pm
While I guarantee that giving me control of the fort itself is a bad idea, I'm currently playing Adventure mode for the long haul, and could start posting the latest, if that would help the thread along?
Sure.
Post by: Amperzand on October 27, 2014, 08:09:38 pm
The Adventures of Dosheb Mithalomoth Speaktombs the Explorer, part one; Events up till now.
Dosheb is a human Lasher with very low empathy, I'm not going to bother copying out his full stats.
I started in a small town full of dead goblins and what appeared to be friendly bandits, but turned out to be the nomads of the Contained Group, the leader of which I was in service to as a lieutenant. After recruiting the three most useful-looking, Ngahen Yorestraps the Hammerman, Ted Gripweakness the Swordsman, and Thrun Musicalclap the Archer, I noticed a surviving goblin fishery worker, Usbu Burndungeons, running away, chased him down, and killed him. When I returned to the group I found that he had attacked Ted and the leader, and traded for gear with my compatriots before leaving with my newly recruited three.
After a number of escapades, I decided on a mission to complete and headed in the correct direction, only to find that I needed to travel around a large body of water to reach it. In the process of doing so I was assaulted by two named alligators, Stirrises and another whose name the game didn't record, in the middle of the dry savanna, and killed them by backing away while throwing arrows at them until they gave in to pain, then whipping their skulls in. I returned to my companions to find that they had slain Thrun and injured Ngahen, leaving him with one hand missing and a badly bruised upper spine, causing him to have difficulty standing, before chasing after me.
I traveled for a while before finding a number of goblin Dark Pits in my path, forcing me to come out of fast-travel mode and sneak around the outskirts in the normal walk system, a process that, while likely hazardous, I managed without a single Goblin encounter.
After further travel, I found myself back in civilized human territory, and upon approaching the first village I came across, found myself pulled out of fast-travel by a "You feel uneasy" type ambush. Having assessed the situation, I found myself to be surrounded by human Crossbowmen and melee soldiers of various types. Fully expecting to
Managing to recruit one of the townsfolk, Azlez Ashringed the Axeman, to my cause, I moved on, the strange soldiers maintaining their wall until I passed town limits, at which point they departed, the Crossbowman, who had apparently decided I was his very best friend, making one final inquiry as to my recent trading exploits before leaving.
It is at this point that the narrative will begin.
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 29, 2014, 05:12:33 am
While I guarantee that giving me control of the fort itself is a bad idea, I'm currently playing Adventure mode for the long haul, and could start posting the latest, if that would help the thread along?
It seems to be a little late for this now, but I'd prefer if we kept this thread on-topic to Dathateyo and the fort.
Speaking of which, how's the update coming along Doctor?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Amperzand on October 29, 2014, 12:38:08 pm
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on October 29, 2014, 07:42:57 pm
While I guarantee that giving me control of the fort itself is a bad idea, I'm currently playing Adventure mode for the long haul, and could start posting the latest, if that would help the thread along?
It seems to be a little late for this now, but I'd prefer if we kept this thread on-topic to Dathateyo and the fort.
Speaking of which, how's the update coming along Doctor?
Regards,
Northstar
Here's (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9996) the save for the next player. I still have to finish my year summary, though.
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 31, 2014, 12:25:57 am
Here's (http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9996) the save for the next player. I still have to finish my year summary, though.
And I believe that next player would be... Shadow of Fate!
Are you ready to take your turn yet man?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on October 31, 2014, 12:26:31 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0)
This may also be appropriate.
Awesome link, made me chuckle.
You don't want a turn next (after Shadow of Fate), do you?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on October 31, 2014, 12:49:23 am
Post by: Amperzand on November 06, 2014, 12:56:07 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 07, 2014, 07:22:39 pm
Bump.
Well, you can feel free to jump in for a turn. I haven't heard back from Shadow of fate yet (I'm going to send him a PM about it now), and all we're waiting for right now is Doctor McTaalik's update so we'll know what went on during his turn of the fort... (PM'ing him also)
If nobody jumps in, I'll probably take over the fort after Doctor McTaalik, and keep taking consecutive turns until somebody's ready to jump in... I'm quite good at playing slowly/carefully- I rarely lose a fort once that initial walls are up. So you can expect the fort to be around for quite a while into the future if you want to jump in eventually...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Amperzand on November 08, 2014, 02:21:16 pm
Post by: Shadow Of Fate on November 10, 2014, 01:35:46 pm
Post by: Amperzand on November 10, 2014, 04:41:44 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 17, 2014, 12:50:28 am
Herein follows the account of James Northstar the 3rd, ninth overseer of the fortress of the Mint Pillar in the second age of Dathateyo.
Our great fortress has survived many hardships. Yet from the reign of Northstar the First and Asmoth the Great until the present day, we have persevered and built our fortress into an ever greater monument to Dwarven strength, determination, and ingenuity...
Today, I, Northstar the 3rd, take over command of the fortress. Unlike my predecessors, I hope that my reign shall be long and peaceful. But in the event it is not, I have a surprise or two in mind for those who would wish vile destruction upon our fortress...
The account seems to be continued on another tablet. You begin searching the fortress archives for it...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Amperzand on November 17, 2014, 01:28:46 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 18, 2014, 02:29:15 am
Thank you for taking up command, I do hope this thread avoids death by overseer starvation. Especially given the state of Murdermachines. {Dammit Terry}
Yeah, I'll keep this thread going. Though see my next update- the late Doctor seems to have lost his mind. He's done everything from carving holes through the walls (such that enemy archers have a clear line-of-sight on some of the magma kilns) to forgetting to close the gates before a Troll got in (there is a skeleton in the courtyard to prove it). There are also Magma Crabs about to enter the fortress through walls he tore down that were protecting the fortress from the volcano...
I'm not sure if I can salvage the situation, or want to try to... It might be time to load up the save previous to his...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 18, 2014, 02:59:08 am
Our most recent overseer was quite the madman. Calling himself a "time-traveler" and insisting we refer to him as "the Doctor", his antics in running the fort seemed completely incoherent, misled, and downright dangerous. He didn't seem bothered by his mistakes, as he announced he would "be back to fix it all with time-travel", but somehow I doubt he had many marbles left by that point... I recount some of his error here so that the reader might understand the state of the fortress I was left with.
First of all, his concern for the safety of the fortress seemed quite lax during the last siege. Although he did *eventually* secure the gate, 'twas not before a number of vile creatures made it inside. The skeleton of a Troll in our main courtyard serves as a very real reminder of this, as do the numerous Goblin skeletons scattered around the fortress variously pin-cushioned full of crossbow bolts or hacked into pieces...
(http://i.imgur.com/gWv59rx.jpg)
Yet, he seemed immensely interested in putting "those vile Crundles" to death in our arena. At least it finally saw some use:
(http://i.imgur.com/reAOmrp.jpg)
He pastured pigs in the main Tree Farm, trampling countless saplings before they could hope to grow to their full size, despite the lack of any need to feed the pigs moss with the abundance of kitchen waste and Goblin guts available...
(http://i.imgur.com/QND8IY5.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/2LxjLT3.jpg)
Though I must admit, thanks to the careful planning of Northstar the 2nd in carving out such large spaces for the purpose, the tree farm have nonetheless been quite productive (especially the secondary one in which no pigs were pastured)
(http://i.imgur.com/wtc7DZH.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/kSwE2D6.jpg)
However the Doctor's mis-management of logistics was incredible, Despite an abundance of food stocks, some dwarves have been forced to hunt foul vermin to survive, thanks to a drastic over-expansion of the fortress without new food stocks to complement the growth:
(http://i.imgur.com/DcU6jum.jpg)
And, he ordered the miners to dig out a strange spiral into the ground- wasting countless months of Dwarven labor, without any indication of the actual purpose of the thing. The shape also forced our miners to walk enormous distances to find food or drink, despite their relative proximity to existing food stocks, contributing to the starvation problem...
(http://i.imgur.com/monr8Wy.jpg)
The cistern, meanwhile, was neglected. Little water remains in the bottom, and mud coats much of the interior due to the low residual water levels sloshing around before evaporating...
(http://i.imgur.com/o1QDc4t.jpg)
The large number of casualties during his reign didn't help the water situation either. The catacombs are now also stuffed nearly to capacity with corpses as a result:
(http://i.imgur.com/OttSsXc.jpg)
The walls protecting the Magma Kilns from the volcano, meanwhile, were torn down. Arrow slots were also carved into the walls at ground-level despite the fact that this allows, as any good marksman will tell you, the enemy the option to simply walk right up to them and use the fortifications AGAINST US to pepper Dwarves inside the fortress at will...
(http://i.imgur.com/XhDx69V.jpg)
Goblin corpses liter the kilns as a result, giving off a foul smell (though none who live know whether the Gobline gained entrance to this part of the fortress through jumping over the lava where the wall was torn down, or by some other means...) and Magma Crabs have now been heard scurrying up the volcano walls from the depths below, giving off their foul screeches and no doubt planning on entering the fortress through the now-absent walls guarding the fortress from the horrors of the volcano...
(http://i.imgur.com/r8fz2Vq.jpg)
However perhaps the GREATEST indicator of the "Doctor's" insanity, was his order to build this Bridge to Nowhere over the main courtyard:
(http://i.imgur.com/orD0mfA.jpg)
These burdens will trouble my sleep tonight. I only hope that I can find some way to save the fortress from our late Overseer's insanity, and restore some semblance of sense and order to its administration. If not, I can only pray to Moldath that there was some truth to his tales of how "time-travel" would save us all from his own mistakes...
Here the account ends. You are forced to search for another tablet to continue studying the history of the fortress of the Mint Pillar.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Pencil_Art on November 18, 2014, 03:21:53 am
Post by: Taupe on November 18, 2014, 03:36:16 am
Quote
However perhaps the GREATEST indicator of the "Doctor's" insanity, was his order to build this Bridge to Nowhere over the main courtyard:
That's obviously a corpse-catapulting device meant to shoot goblins at other goblins. Possibly?
Post by: Amperzand on November 18, 2014, 02:38:59 pm
Post by: Bigheaded on November 18, 2014, 02:53:45 pm
Seems like you're after someone with a little time.
clearly that spiral is some form of time vortex! I am 100% sure of this.
How do i know?
Well, many dwarf hours went in, but nothing came out! spooky.
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 21, 2014, 02:23:22 am
QuoteHowever perhaps the GREATEST indicator of the "Doctor's" insanity, was his order to build this Bridge to Nowhere over the main courtyard:
That's obviously a corpse-catapulting device meant to shoot goblins at other goblins. Possibly?
It's possible. The angle of ejection, location and height (the highest z-level of the western wall) are all appropriate for a corpse-catapult.
Shoot me a PM if there's a spot free, willing to give it a run for 2 years with a fun writeup.
Seems like you're after someone with a little time.
No need for a PM, you're in the lineup! It's that easy! :)
And yes, I definitely need someone with a little time- I haven't even had time to do anything with the fortress yet aside from assessing the initial situation, thanks in part to real life (among many other things, I'm applying to join the Marines...)
clearly that spiral is some form of time vortex! I am 100% sure of this.
How do i know?
Well, many dwarf hours went in, but nothing came out! spooky.
Worse than that- many dwarves apparently went in- but never came out (thanks to starvation or thirst as a result of the lack of nearby food stockpiles). Your response really made me chuckle though. :)
Just download the last save the Doctor posted for your turn. I haven't done anything in the fortress yet. And feel free to go longer than 2 years if you want- there's nobody behind you in line...
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. There currently are no existential threats to the very existence of the fort except the magma crabs (make sure to lock the doors to the magma kilns if they get in through the holes the doctor punched in the wall or the forge a dwarf apparently destroyed in a tantrum- if one gets in they can light everyone on fire). Everything else just requires better management and effort (even though the dwarves are starving, none of them except the nobles look close to tantrums. I'm sure an "unfortunate accident" can be arranged if the nobles become unmanageable while the fort is getting back on its feet...)
Post by: Amperzand on November 21, 2014, 09:08:33 pm
Post by: Taupe on November 21, 2014, 11:11:44 pm
Quote
Yeah, the nobility can go the way of Tsar Nicholas if they start getting annoying.
I'm not sure waiting for them to commit pneumonia-induced suicide is a great murder strategy. Unlike you were talking about the other one.
Post by: Amperzand on November 21, 2014, 11:15:14 pm
Post by: Taupe on November 21, 2014, 11:44:46 pm
Post by: Amperzand on November 22, 2014, 03:23:23 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 24, 2014, 05:28:02 pm
You've got the save now, right?
Also, one thing to be aware of that I forgot to mention- you need to update the save to 0.40.16 again (or better yet, to 0.40.18). I updated to 0.40.16 when I DL'd the Doctor's save- but since you were going off *his* last save instead of mine (which I didn't upload, as I did nothing but update the DF version), you need to update it or some of the graphics will be messed up a bit...
The way to do this is to go to the Ironhand graphics page and download the latest version of DF+Ironhand (you're supposed to be using it anyways in this community game- switch to it if you're not), and then update the raws for the save.
The last part is VERY important. If you don't update the raws in the save, not everything will work properly (particularly the graphics), and you could encounter some strange bugs...
Update the save raws by copying the 3 folders under the "Raw" folder of the latest version of DF+Ironhand into the save file for the community game, overwriting the ones that were previously there (or, like I do, just delete the identically-named folders first...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on November 26, 2014, 04:55:41 pm
@Bigheaded
You've got the save now, right?
I have now located it and downloading now.
[/quote]
Quote
Also, one thing to be aware of that I forgot to mention- you need to update the save to 0.40.16 again (or better yet, to 0.40.18). I updated to 0.40.16 when I DL'd the Doctor's save- but since you were going off *his* last save instead of mine (which I didn't upload, as I did nothing but update the DF version), you need to update it or some of the graphics will be messed up a bit...
The way to do this is to go to the Ironhand graphics page and download the latest version of DF+Ironhand (you're supposed to be using it anyways in this community game- switch to it if you're not), and then update the raws for the save.
The last part is VERY important. If you don't update the raws in the save, not everything will work properly (particularly the graphics), and you could encounter some strange bugs...
Update the save raws by copying the 3 folders under the "Raw" folder of the latest version of DF+Ironhand into the save file for the community game, overwriting the ones that were previously there (or, like I do, just delete the identically-named folders first...)
Regards,
Northstar
Will change to .18, as that's the version i have.
Hadn't expected to be chucked at the front of the queue, looks like i got work to do, and i have an empty weekend to play with! excellent.
Running right now, thanks for being very clear on how to do that, i managed it in about 2 minutes flat if not less due to clear instructions. Big thunbs up!
Post by: Bigheaded on November 26, 2014, 06:55:40 pm
"WAKE UP"
"what's this nonsense?" i ask drowsilly.
"You Sir Bigheaded are the new Mayor" replies some fancy looking dwarf, "You seem to somehow have not bothered with the last mayors crazy idea of a vortex, even though you are a miner and were set to work on it, which shows more sense than the rest of them!"
"Mayor? Me? ARE YOU FREAKING NUTS? OR JUST COMPLETELY OUT OF YOUR MIND?"
It made no sense, i had barely been here a month, mostly hiding out of the way with a pick whilst i picked up what was going on here. Now Mayor? What happened to the last one? Why now?
"So where is the *ex-mayor* now? And why the heck do YOU have the authority to make me Mayor?!" I demanded.
"the *good doctor*, or should i say bad, seems to have somehow used the vortex device he was mining to completely dissapear! Seemed to slowly fade somehow distantly. And I am Sodel the Splendid, Baron of this fort, and any more tantrumming from you and i'll have you hammered!"
Oh crap. Today was not going to be a good day, well, make the most of it and hope things can only get better. Or so i hoped.
"Oh, well then Baron Sodel... if that's the case, how about a quick tour? As i'm still unfamiliar with this fort"
"I shall assign Timeless Bob to do that for you, i am off to stare at my cabinet!" sodel replied as he sauntered off
Who the heck is Timeless Bob? I knew most of the dwarven idiots running around the fort by now, except those even better at hiding than i was! But i'm sure i counted 50, now 51 after meeting the mayor.
In my reflective moments, A woman with a newborn came upto me she was drinking from a massive barrel of ale as well as holding a baby at the same time, which i thought rather impressive.
"Hi there, i've been told to give you the tour, we would have got round to it sooner but... the last mayor was.... well the less said about him the better, ALL will be better now you're in charge" she said imploringly.
"You're Bob?! but that's a mans name... not even a dwarven name, what in living heck was wrong with your parents?!"
"No, i'm not Bob, this is Bob" Pointing at the child.
And that was how things began to get worse.
"WHAT IN BLEEDING STUFF IS WRONG WITH THIS FORT?" I notice this upset the poor woman, and whilst it felt good releasing my anger on the poor soul, it wasn't getting anywhere. Thinking quickly i add "Nevermind about that, can you lead me to the surface? I wish to see our defenses"
"but.. but.. the Baron was very very implicit that BOB MUST GUIDE THE STRANGER" she starts crying
"BOB IS FREAKING TWO MONTHS OLD AND WILL BE OF NO HELP WHATSOEVER! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU" I was furious, what on earth was wrong with people here?
She screamed and ran.
Well i was probably better off alone anyway. I decide that the surface and defenses must be higher up, so i went to the stairs, why someone had decided to put the housing under 20 sets of stairs i don't think i'll ever know.
I reached the surface:
(http://i.imgur.com/ZbxjfYv.jpg)
I find the trade warehouse, which seems in order, and 3 layabouts
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING UP HERE?!" Still needing to vent some frustration, although this was short lived as they shrieked as one and also ran off.
Freaking wonderful.
I decide to have a look round, the dining room and the Food stockpile looked in order, although i did wonder why they kept seeds up here, i'll have to do something about that i thought.
As i inspected the butchers, i realised i had much bigger problems.
Why on living heck, do we have a dead dwarf waiting to be butchered?!!!
Seriously, the place was insane.
I check down the other path, a miner, of all things, was feeding CRUNDLES!
I was speechless.
1. Why do we have crundles.
2. Why arn't they tearing us apart, i heard they were savage creatures of the underground
3. Why are we feeding the crundles.
4. Why of all things is a freaking miner doing it?!
5. Why was there a turkey hen with them?
6. Why had the turkey had it's lung torn out?
I gave up and decided that enough was enough and that i'd deal with it later and went back to bed.
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 26, 2014, 10:32:23 pm
Unfortunately, the scene that greets his eyes when he wakes up makes him wish he was still asleep. A strange ghost stands before his eyes, strangely reminiscent of some of the statues of the Fortress' founding lying about...
"Greetings, Mayor Bigheaded" the ghost says in an unexpectedly warm and comforting voice. "I am the ghost of Northstar the First, the original mayor of the Mint Pillar. And I am here to guide you about the fortress as it currently stands, lest you and this fortress disappear into the oblivion of Dathateyo's long and stormy history..."
Bigheaded slaps himself several times, hoping to wake up, but to no avail- for he is already awake...
"Bigheaded, follow me" the ghost says- and without another word it floats towards to door of the bedroom, stopping to gesture impatiently for Bigheaded to follow. Slowly, reluctantly, Bigheaded straps on his trousers, and follows the ghost out (or rather, though) the door...
OOC: Due to the amount of information that follows, the fort tour will be broken into several additional posts...
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. I don't address it below- but the dead Dwarf waiting to be butchered probably corresponds to some sort of failed Strange Mood in the recent past. A few of the moods that can only be assigned when Dwarves are extremely unhappy lead Dwarves to abandon glass and steel, and make artifacts out of more... sinister materials.
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 26, 2014, 11:02:09 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/wtc7DZH.jpg)
"This. This is the first thing I wanted to show you, Bigheaded. This is the beating, growing heart of our entire fortress. Without underground greenhouses like this, the entire fortress would quickly grind to a halt of dehydration and starvation. The greatest of miracles is a single blade of cave-grass, and this place is no exception. Earlier overseers have been neglecting my legacy in this regard- except for Northstar the Second (who ordered the digging out of the tree farms). From the very first days of the fortress, I prioritized digging out underground pastures where the Dwarves could collect wild-growing blueberries and cranberries in peace, without the threat of Goblins, and set flocks of sheep to graze. These green and blue moss pastures are no different- and Plump Helmets grow wild here. The trees that occasionally grow (if incompetent overseers don't allow Pigs to trample their saplings) are also necessary for the long-term health and safety of the fort. Don't forget that without trees, we don't have beds, and without beds, Dwarves will kill each other in tantrums..."
Bigheaded begins to say something, but Northstar cuts him off...
"Save your comments, we have a lot more of the fort I need to introduce you to..."
OOC: Here, and elsewhere, I will try and post pictures if they are readily-available. If not, try and find the places I refer to on your own perusal of the fortress...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 26, 2014, 11:32:48 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/XhDx69V.jpg)
"What you see here is both the future, the past, and the greatest threat to the fortress. The volcano. It fueled our Magma Kilns to bake the bricks for our Fortress' walls. It provides us with cheap earthenware trinkets for the trade caravans. And it spews forth foul, fire-breathing creatures that will incinerate a dwarf for looking at them funny. It is IMPERATIVE that this breach, this gap you see in the defenses..."
Northstar pauses for a moment to gesture at the exposed opening to the lava, where Bigheaded could step out and jump into the lava if he so choose. Rather than face the Fortress' insanity, he briefly considers doing just that...
"be closed at the first opportunity" Northstar continues, shooting a strangely sympathetic glance at Bigheaded as if he could read his thoughts. "If we fail to do so, foul Magma Crabs and other denizens of the volcano will climb up the magma shaft and incinerate our fortress' inhabitants. I have foreseen it" Northstar says, with a strange, far-off look on his face.
(http://i.imgur.com/r8fz2Vq.jpg)
"Please make sure to wall back off this opening into the fortress at the FIRST opportunity."
Northstar pauses, then begins to walk away again, with Bigheaded reluctantly following in tow...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 26, 2014, 11:58:34 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/reAOmrp.jpg)
"The Crundles." begins Northstar, staring directly into Bigheaded's eyes "I know you have been troubled and puzzled by their very existence as pets here in the fortress..." This sentence leads Bigheaded to wonder what other thoughts of his the ghost might be aware of...
"They began in this fortress as accidental captives of our cage-traps. Ones that the cavern rangers developed a strange affection for, despite their ferocious nature..." Northstar pauses to clear his throat, and sniffles a little as if congested. Do ghosts suffer from allergies, Bigheaded wonders?
"Our more insightful leaders, however, quickly realized their potential as livestock. Not only do they live nearly twice as long as Turkeys, there are also MUCH more capable of defending themselves from fortress-invaders or tantrumming Dwarves..." with this last look, the ghost's face seems to become even paler, if that were even possible, as if Northstar were remembering horrors he would rather not speak of. Murder and fratricide come to Bigheaded's mind, aware of the history of many other fortresses, but he dares not to ask...
"HOWEVER," Northstar says, with particular emphasis "the Crundles began to breed out of control. What was initially seen as a major advantage- their incredible fecundity, soon became unmanageable as the fortress tore itself apart in the wake of major battles with the Goblins; and the population of half-tame Crundles soon began to revert to its wild state..."
Northstar pauses again, to gesture to the space around them.
"This is where this place came into relevance. Later Dwarven overseers wisely choose to slaughter the Crundles in this arena when their population began to become unmanageable. Tantruming soldiers took care of most of the rest. Now, all that remains is a few of the originally most tame individuals, and a miner or two left who once acted as a cavern ranger (before other demands on the fort forced them to take up the pick and the sword to meet outside threats) and still has the willingness to feed them while attempting to complete their domestication."
Northstar pauses again, taking a moment to stare directly at Bigheaded again, as if to emphasize the importance of what he is about to say...
"What to do with the Crundles next is your decision. It is still possible to finish taming them, by the end of which process the 4th and 5th generation Crundles should be just as docile as sheep towards Dwarves, if a bit more dangerous-looking..."
Northstar pauses again, this time as if carefully considering what he is about to say...
"All you have to do is to ensure there are a handful of Animal Trainers available who aren't too busy with other tasks to feed and tame the Crundles. And food. There must be plenty of food around to finish their domestication. Not that it should be a major concern- the mad 'doctor' who ran this fort last seems to have at least done one thing correctly- there are piles and piles of meat and eggs stored in the fortress stockpiles..."
Northstar pauses one last time.
"If you should continue to tame the Crundles, you shall be honoring the investment of your predecessors. Only, remember this- the Crundles are ferocious, wild-natured creatures, and these traits cannot be bred out of them in a single generation. You must CULL the older generations of Crundles so as to make room for the younger ones- and ensure that training progresses at a sufficient rate such that each generation is more tame than the last. Then, and only then, will you fully tame these vicious creatures into the egg-laying factories that Moldath willed them to be... Be thankful that at least they're not Cave Crocodiles- a Crundle may bite a Dwarf's arm if he forgets his training, or tear a Turkey's lung out, but he shall never rip a Dwarf's limb off. Any half-witted Marksdwarf could smash a dozen of their skulls with the blunt end of his crossbow in his sleep, if he so desired- and in fact many have done so while on sprees of murder and destruction in the past..."
Northstar pauses to look at Bigheaded again, before gesturing that he must continue to follow him. Bigheaded silently prays that this is the last time, rapidly losing patience with the long-winded ghost...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 27, 2014, 12:17:30 am
"Take a look here, Bigheaded" the ghost says, gesturing down a well-hole. "What do you see?"
(http://i.imgur.com/o1QDc4t.jpg)
"A bit of water, some mud, and a few stray gold-ore boulders" Bigheaded replies matter-of-factly, wondering why the ghost asked him this question...
"EXACTLY" says Northstar, placing great emphasis on the word "and this, THIS is supposed to be the fortress cistern, where hospital nurses draw all the fortress' water for the sick and wounded, and haulers cart off water for the baths and ice-farms further up." Northstar stops to look at Bigheaded "and HOW, exactly, do you think the surviving nurses (there aren't many of them) are supposed to draw clean water when this muddy stuff is all there is left, and they have to scrape their buckets along the murk bottom?"
Bigheaded realizes Northstar's point in taking him down here, but the ghost continues his monologue just to make the point clear...
"It is ESSENTIAL that you task Dwarves to draw more water from the flooded cavern-layer near here, or else future patients will die of thirst of infection. It's a simple task, easy really, and quite safe. The pump-stack has been designed so as to not expose the workers to any danger from the caverns below. All you have to do is ensure that both pumps are operational at the same time. Do that, and the cistern will quickly fill back up with water... I'm sure there's a simpler way to do this, perhaps one that somehow mechanically couples a single dwarf-powered pump to a waterwheel, and uses that to drive this pump-stack, but this will do for now. Just make sure you assign Dwarves to pump operation duties, and all will go well down here..."
Northstar then begins to walk (float?) off again, but pauses to say one more thing to Bigheaded before leading him out of the room...
"Also, there is an emergency food-source down here. A grate through which the Fisherdwarves can make catches. That industry- aye, it's a bit more complicated than simple pump-operation: but if you have half a brain in that rock-hard head of yours, I'm sure you'll be up to the task..."
Bigheaded seems unsure of whether it really could be as simple as the ghost describes, but follows the ghost up the stairs to what he hopes is their final destination...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 27, 2014, 01:15:41 am
(http://i.imgur.com/OttSsXc.jpg)
"Relax. Be not afraid- I've only brought you here to bid you farewell" announces Northstar's ghost, in a calm and reassuring voice... "I leave you with one last piece of advice..."
The ghost pauses dramatically before continuing...
"Look around you. Here you see the resting place of every dwarf to ever come before you in this fortress- and a few pets. Even my own skeleton rests in one of these coffins, since the late 'doctor' or some other overseer decided to clear it out of its dedicated tomb. Here your own bones shall someday lay as well- but hopefully not soon..." Northstar pauses, noticing an involuntary shudder by Bigheaded as he says this last line.
"As I said- be not afraid. There is no threat facing this fortress that you shouldn't know how to deal with. Death, madness, murder, starvation, even vengeful ghosts faced overseers prior to yourself. But all you have to deal with is some logistical problems, a few holes in the wall near the side of the volcano that you can easily deal with by enlisting the help of a some amateur masons, and rebuilding the 'fortifications' at ground-level back into smooth wall before Goblins use them to their advantage. If you do these things, the fortress may have a long and abiding future, and you might not meet the grave until you are old and ripe in years. If not- well, there are still a few coffins left empty in these overcrowded Catacombs that would be more than able to hold your corpse..."
Northstar's ghost gives one more, stern glance at Bigheaded, who is by this point trembling in his boots, before continuing.
"I told you not to be afraid. I mean you no harm. This fortress is my legacy, and I built it to last. I have no desire to see it descend into anarchy and chaos once more, and even less to see its flame of life and hope extinguished altogether. A stern and noble responsibility has been placed on your shoulders. Lead well, place the welfare of the other Dwarves first before yourself, seek constant improvement of their circumstances, and statues will be erected in your likeness as well. Remember, we Dwarves are craftsmen first, and warriors second. Trust the walls to keep us safe, but have a well-drilled military in place should disaster strike or some Goblins manage to scale the tall and smooth walls by Armok-knows what means. And, should all else fail, remember that the Cyclops and half-wild Crundles we have in cages are perfectly capable weapons against Goblins. The fate of the fortress now rests in you hands, young one..."
And with that, the ghost of Northstar the First turned around, walked into an unlabeled coffin that Bigheaded could only assume held his remains, and disappeared into nothingness. Bigheaded was left only with his own thoughts, and the weight of the responsibilities placed upon his sturdy Dwarven shoulders...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on November 27, 2014, 01:21:41 pm
Will play a season then put an update, then do the other updates when i get enough piccies/amusing stories.
One last question. Am i allowed to make a military as i please?
Seeing there is very little in post #1 on this, it appears i should do what i think best whilst adding some interesting events.
Post by: Bigheaded on November 28, 2014, 08:18:01 pm
I shall briefly explain the current situation of the fort:
1. No military whatsoever, excluding 3 marksdwarves.
2. A bridge set to block off the caverns, i'm beginning to see why.
3. In the caverns, a forgotten beast has managed to get its way inside and is currently occupying the hospital
4. Lots of injured/dying EVERYTHING...
5. Ghosts Roaming everywhere causing havoc
6. Stuff littering the caverns which the dwarves have decided it's of utmost importance to move.
WORST OF ALL
7. No Booze!
The current skill set of the fort:
2 masons, 2 engravers, 10 children, 4 medics (surely 1 is usually enough? possibly 2?), 20 miners (from the doctors project i presume) and a few of various crafters and metalworkers. Apparently we have no cook.
Does this fort actually defend itself by simply making it completely and utterly inaccessible to anything? With a few marksdwarves to pelt arrows to discourage goblins from deconstructing something?
Rather disappointed in the fact you have a volcano but no "DESTROY THE WORLD DEVICE" (i.e flood lava from volcano to outside). I'm rather tempted to make one but have only ever done one before.
Not sure my current method of resolving all 7 problems. No 3 is especially a nuisance at the moment, the only thing i can really do is equip the miners with some metal armor and send a mad zerg rush on it, which i believe is similar to what the good doctor did before after seeing it's injuries and the injuries of everything else in the fort.
I'm sure i'll think of something.
Post by: Northstar1989 on November 28, 2014, 09:34:07 pm
Good lords.
I shall briefly explain the current situation of the fort:
1. No military whatsoever, excluding 3 marksdwarves.
All the other military are dead. They died in previous battles, and haven't yet been replaced. You're free to make a military as you please, although I ask that you refrain from melee combat whenever possible. (I proposed a system of "officers" to help manage the fort a while back, which would have overseen the military among other things, but nobody bit on any of those roles...)
2. A bridge set to block off the caverns, i'm beginning to see why.
Because the caverns are full of dangerous creatures. That bridge should be sealed at all times, except when absolutely necessary.
3. In the caverns, a forgotten beast has managed to get its way inside and is currently occupying the hospital
WHAT, HOW? The Caverns were fully sealed-off by the bridge you noticed in (2). There should have been no way for a FB to get inside!
4. Lots of injured/dying EVERYTHING...
5. Ghosts Roaming everywhere causing havoc
There were few injuries and no ghosts when I loaded up the save. Are you sure you're going off the right save? This is sounding more and more like one of the earlier saves, where a FB was freely roaming the hallways, and ghosts were everywhere. All of those situations were fully-resolved. I know for a matter of fact the save the doctor handed off had no ghosts, or FB's in the halls...
6. Stuff littering the caverns which the dwarves have decided it's of utmost importance to move.
The Dwarves shouldn't have had a way INTO the caverns.
WORST OF ALL
7. No Booze!
That doesn't sound right either. There was still some booze left in the last save.
The current skill set of the fort:
2 masons, 2 engravers, 10 children, 4 medics (surely 1 is usually enough? possibly 2?), 20 miners (from the doctors project i presume) and a few of various crafters and metalworkers. Apparently we have no cook.
The fortress population was more than twice that in the latest save. Unless something went disastrously wrong in the first few months of your rule, it sounds like you're using the wrong save...
Does this fort actually defend itself by simply making it completely and utterly inaccessible to anything? With a few marksdwarves to pelt arrows to discourage goblins from deconstructing something?
Yes. It's far more effective than sending melee-Dwarves to fight and die, setting off tantrum-spirals throughout the rest of the fortress when their relatives mourn and murder. In fact, it's the ONLY way to keep a fortress alive long-term... In this game, frequently engaging the Goblins in melee is basically just asking to lose... (and Goblins can't deconstruct anything)
Rather disappointed in the fact you have a volcano but no "DESTROY THE WORLD DEVICE" (i.e flood lava from volcano to outside). I'm rather tempted to make one but have only ever done one before.
That's because such devices are entirely pointless. The invaders will leave on their own eventually, and those who are picked off by the Marksdwarves can have their arms and armor melted down to provide metal for the fortress... If you use lava, NOTHING remains, not even Goblinite. DON'T attempt to build such a device- we don't need the FPS hit to the fortress from pump-stacks full of pressurized magma. Instead, how about working on a nice Obsidian Farm if you're intent on playing with fire?
Not sure my current method of resolving all 7 problems. No 3 is especially a nuisance at the moment, the only thing i can really do is equip the miners with some metal armor and send a mad zerg rush on it, which i believe is similar to what the good doctor did before after seeing it's injuries and the injuries of everything else in the fort.
I'm sure i'll think of something.
Make sure you're using the right file. THIS is the one you should be using:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=9996
I have a copy of this on my own computer, and there is no FB in the hospital on it- both FB's are safely in the caverns.
The population of the fort is 53 Dwarves. There are no ghosts. There are only 10 miners. And there are 30 units of booze left (although production has ground to a halt under the Doctor- so that will soon run out if the Stills aren't brought back into operation).
I'm 99% sure you were using the wrong save file before.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on November 29, 2014, 05:26:34 am
The reason why the FB is in the hospital is because the bridge is at z22, and the hospital is at z80. So either there is a second bridge (which is currently raised) or second hospital or someone's made a bit of an error here. In hindsight, the best move would have been to make a second hospital rather than retake the first hospital.
I've played for a season, which is partly what the issue is. For a lot of the deaths have not been dealt with from engraving slabs/burial because every single coffin is full. I suspect if you play for an entire season you'll notice it takes a while for the slabs to be done and my guess is that you'll find a ghost in this period.
Booze was at "30" not 0, but it's close enough to 0 considering the size of the fort.
To be fair, i don't think any of the problems are particularly difficult. I shall reseal the caverns and take the hospital back at a later stage.
It's just with the military as it is dealing with a FB is rather beyond hope, but in 2 years i can probably sort it out.
Someone else will need to resolve the marksdwarf situation. Not my speciality, i couldn't even find where they train, unless they simply train on goblins (i've had success with archery targets a way back, not used them in years though).
I shall relocate the hospital and cancel the one at z80, as it makes no sense anyway, if there's 2 bridges, it makes more sense having the hospital inside both bridge defenses.
edit: just found the second bridge. Why you would put a lever on the ground level to deal with the caverns next to one for outside...
Lets put it this way, i don't remember which is which, it's fine anyway, damage is done.
Also, the FB can get in anyway, the 3 cage traps placed to prevent the second entrance is terrible, i'm unsure if you put it there, or what.
I.e, this area here, is where anything can simply bypass your bridge and wander straight up into the fort, except from the bridge at z22:
(http://i.imgur.com/ezyduRL.jpg)
Might be easiest setting up a second bridge to block there also. I suspect the doctor wanted to get into the caverns for something and seeing it was unclear how to get past the bridge in the caverns, he just made a second entrance. Will probably have to deal with that sooner rather than later.
for a fortress which doesn't use the caverns, there is a LOT of corpses of troglodytes and crundles in the caverns. Which seems to confirm my theory the good doctor had some fun down there.
From the military perspective: I will AVOID use of melee combat, but will make it possible that melee combat can be used with high skilled fighters to deal with threats such as the FB in the hospital. Seeing that's an area i can deal with.
As it is, i will seal off the fort at z22 until i'm at a stage where i can use melee to retake any other levels. I have placed a lever which deals with the bridge at Z22 at Z21. There's enough confusion on the surface with just 3 levers anyway.
Post by: Taupe on November 29, 2014, 05:32:30 am
Post by: Bigheaded on November 29, 2014, 05:51:25 am
But how are the soldiers gonna get tougher if you don't send them to be healed behind enemy lines?
Because they need to actually be trained first?
Seeing people are here watching, i can offer the choice up:
1. Zerg rush with a group of 10 miners, 3 of which are decently skilled. This is EASILY going to be the highest chance at this precise moment of dealing with the FB.
2. Curl up into ball and train until i can slaughter it using 2 dwarves (i've once had a fort hold for 20 years using only 2 military dwarves. One had roughly 1000 kills, the other had more like 3000 because she was faster)
I literally lol'd at the randomness of the blood splatters on the FB, here's a screenshot of his location:
(http://i.imgur.com/F12jB81.jpg)
Sorry for putting the x directly on him so you can't see him, but he's where the x is.
Post by: Taupe on November 29, 2014, 06:31:52 am
Post by: Bigheaded on November 29, 2014, 06:43:54 am
Just wall this thing off, and collapse the hospital on the beast from a floor above.
You have no sense of FUN! :P
Another FB decided to join the fort as a welcome visitor!
(http://i.imgur.com/nWkAUft.jpg)
I decided on the zerg rush, if that fails i shall have to go about things differently. Shame i can't get the legends viewer up, the amount of kills that FB has is likely to be in the hundreds, as i realise that all the dead stuff in caverns is from FB's wandering around killing everything.
ZERG RUSH SUCCESS:
(http://i.imgur.com/CxF7MF7.jpg)
The new FB decided to join in on the fun:
(http://i.imgur.com/lz3n4JW.jpg)
"hopefully" i can get things running normally now. Other than the fact no-one wants to produce any booze, literally had to tell nearly everyone MAKE SOME BOOZE! AND STOP MOVING STUFF!
I've "forbidden" access to the caverns until i can sort out the other bridge, which i'll do now before i forget.
Should be able to proceed smoothly now, at least until goblins arrive, where i think i'll simply just let them hang around outside. One FB left running around, but he's stuck on top of some trees, so he's not bothering us any time soon, unless tarantulas can go along walls :P
Was slightly impressed, i didn't lose a single miner in killing 2x FB's. Lost a few war dogs which is only a slight nuisance.
Post by: Bigheaded on November 29, 2014, 07:14:01 am
Should work unless we get anything which can fly, which i can deal with as and when it happens. I have other worries till then.
To illustrate:
(http://i.imgur.com/SAenUnQ.jpg)
The red boxes is what i'm worried about. Whilst on the way to the caverns from the fort, there is no way down at "fort" and they have to head towards the cavern.
To get INTO the fort from the caverns, the up/down stairs in the red box need to be removed, as they are stairs heading UPWARDS. So they will simply be placed at the "up stairs" at z88 and able to access the fort.
Lastly, that massive vortex design amusingly was just an arena as the doctor has placed a "cyclops in a box" (cage trap) at the centre.
Also worth noting, the ghost which is running around is actually the dead dwarf that's in the food stockpile, for whatever reason he was forbidden.
The cemetary has been extended and should be put to rest shortly
edit:
(http://i.imgur.com/jTHQsVL.jpg)
Post by: Taupe on November 29, 2014, 07:35:14 am
Quote
the doctor has placed a "cyclops in a box"
I knew someone would find something amusing to do with my only contribution to the fort! (A nice-looking circular gem stockpile aside, that is)
Post by: Amperzand on November 29, 2014, 04:51:35 pm
Post by: Bigheaded on November 29, 2014, 07:36:46 pm
I love how effective drafted miners are in this game. :D
not something i often use. I usually have 3 squads of 2 dwarves sparring. Now THATS effective.
Oh and my flood the world with magma device wouldn't use pump stacks, just funnel a bunch of magma at the top level of the volcano through so it can be dumped near the gate.
Not for !!FUN!! purposes, but just simply for fun and a backup although would probably drain the magma furnaces for a brief period.
I think we're looking to lose if we don't have a militia for inside the base either. We need to plan for if things go wrong.
I perhaps reacted a little slow to some of the threats, but i certainly wasn't expecting to have a FB roaming the lower levels of the fort.
I suspect a little death will actually help in the long run, if dwarves are "too happy" negative thoughts seem to impact them more. Not sure if that's true but seems to be the case.
Anyway, point is, some turns we will have very experienced players, on others we may get not so experienced players.
Given the 2 years i doubt anyone would really notice my patch up of fixing things up and to be fair, has turned the game much more spicy. I'm hoping to get a bit more access to the caverns, although the amount of "dead stuff" down there is a bit worrying although 90% of it i've now forbidden. Having some GCS guards with some swallows should they penetrate inside somehow is really quite amusing also.
Post by: Taupe on November 29, 2014, 09:18:21 pm
Post by: Bigheaded on November 30, 2014, 08:34:34 am
Just build a crundle cannon. Is it a cannon that shoots, or is made of, crundle? Your call. Ideally both.
never done a shotgun, and barely know how they work. I'll leave it be, think i've had my fun for the time being.
Have a new ghost wandering around, not sure where the body is as there's plenty of room in the catacombs. So going to slab him.
Also, does anyone want to be dorf'd?
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on November 30, 2014, 04:51:33 pm
Quotethe doctor has placed a "cyclops in a box"
I knew someone would find something amusing to do with my only contribution to the fort! (A nice-looking circular gem stockpile aside, that is)
That is no mere arena- that labyrinth is the WIP tomb of Sodel the Great, first Baron of Pagetowers, legendary Mason, Lord of the Two Persimmons. "The Doctor" had nothing to do with it- DoctorMcTaalik was an insane revolutionary and cultist of Moldath who died years ago.
Post by: Amperzand on November 30, 2014, 07:00:41 pm
Post by: Bigheaded on November 30, 2014, 07:26:15 pm
Dorf'd? Well, if I'm not already, dorf me plz.
will do so tomorrow, got till then to give me a preference. Personally heading up a military squad so my name will (hopefully) have a large list of stuff i've killed eventually :P
Heck, unless you specify otherwise you can be my training partner.
Does increase chances of dying though, or you could save the fortress in it's hour of need!
Post by: Amperzand on November 30, 2014, 09:04:59 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 01, 2014, 08:53:45 pm
100% the correct file.
You weren't clear that you had played an entire season before your updates before. So I was confused, because many things (such as the number of surviving Dwarves) changed *drastically* between your update and the last save.
If things are on the way downhill, you might want to revert to the Doctor's save (or even the one before his) and try again...
The reason why the FB is in the hospital is because the bridge is at z22, and the hospital is at z80. So either there is a second bridge (which is currently raised) or second hospital or someone's made a bit of an error here. In hindsight, the best move would have been to make a second hospital rather than retake the first hospital.
A second bridge? You mean like this one?
Actually, looking at your edit, I see you found it...
(http://i.imgur.com/Y6rDFMc.jpg)
That bridge has been there all along, and it was *raised* in the Doctor's save file (as seen here). It looks like you accidentally lowered it somehow (the bridge is two tiles thick- so you can tell if it is up/down just by looking at it). There are several Notes on the Notes Screen that identify what each of the levers there does...
The reason the FB's were able to get in was because somebody dug *around* the bridge, as you already noted...
I've played for a season, which is partly what the issue is. For a lot of the deaths have not been dealt with from engraving slabs/burial because every single coffin is full. I suspect if you play for an entire season you'll notice it takes a while for the slabs to be done and my guess is that you'll find a ghost in this period.
There were several empty coffins in the save file. It wouldn't have been that hard to make more (and much quicker than engraving slabs). And, while slabs were being engraved in the save file, it appeared to be more for decorative purposes than anything else- most of them were for dwarves who were already buried.
There also weren't many corpses lying around to begin with- although I'm still not sure what the Doctor did to kill the many Dwarves who were dead and *already* buried by the time he uploaded- in the save prior to his, there were absolutely no corpses whatsoever and everything was peaceful/secure with no way into the fort for invaders. Remember the declaration of "No More Corpses Day"?
Booze was at "30" not 0, but it's close enough to 0 considering the size of the fort.
To be fair, i don't think any of the problems are particularly difficult. I shall reseal the caverns and take the hospital back at a later stage.
It's just with the military as it is dealing with a FB is rather beyond hope, but in 2 years i can probably sort it out.
And I see you managed to deal with the FB's that got inside, as witnessed by your later updates. Please make sure to seal off the second entrance to the caverns before it causes us any more trouble!
Someone else will need to resolve the marksdwarf situation. Not my speciality, i couldn't even find where they train, unless they simply train on goblins (i've had success with archery targets a way back, not used them in years though).
Look around the fort. Check the earlier posts on this thread. There is an archery range in the fort- but my simply showing you a screenshot probably wouldn't do much to help you find it, since it's a relatively nondescript room. The actual targets might have been removed at some point since my second turn (which is the last time I can *confirm* they were in the range).
I shall relocate the hospital and cancel the one at z80, as it makes no sense anyway, if there's 2 bridges, it makes more sense having the hospital inside both bridge defenses.
The hospital *IS* inside both bridge defenses- but as you pointed out, the lower bridge has been compromised by an alternate route being dug around it. I suggest you take a more careful look at the fort's layout. The hospital is where it is because it's close to the cistern- which as I pointed out before, needs refilling.
edit: just found the second bridge. Why you would put a lever on the ground level to deal with the caverns next to one for outside...
You're right- there probably would have been more sensible places for the lever (like in a central control room). But, at the time the lever was built, there was a meeting hall next to the levers, and it was convenient place to ensure levers got pulled quickly...
Lets put it this way, i don't remember which is which, it's fine anyway, damage is done.
Fortress-ending accidents like this (not noticing that the last player dug an alternate route into the caverns, or digging an alternate route into the caverns in the first place) is why we have reverts to earlier saves...
If necessary, and you can't deal with the aftermath of the FB's or manage to seal up the alternate entrance that bypasses the bridge on time, then I strongly suggest you consider reverting to one of the saves (The Doctor's or the one before).
Also, the FB can get in anyway, the 3 cage traps placed to prevent the second entrance is terrible, i'm unsure if you put it there, or what.
I.e, this area here, is where anything can simply bypass your bridge and wander straight up into the fort, except from the bridge at z22:
(http://i.imgur.com/ezyduRL.jpg)
Might be easiest setting up a second bridge to block there also. I suspect the doctor wanted to get into the caverns for something and seeing it was unclear how to get past the bridge in the caverns, he just made a second entrance. Will probably have to deal with that sooner rather than later.
Ahh, I see. Somebody (maybe the Doctor- maybe an even earlier overseer) must have recently carved that second entrance into the caverns (which is NOT secured). It wasn't there earlier...
for a fortress which doesn't use the caverns, there is a LOT of corpses of troglodytes and crundles in the caverns. Which seems to confirm my theory the good doctor had some fun down there.
No, the FB's just slaughter the Crundles/Troglodytes for fun, actually. I see from your later updates you figured that out.
From the military perspective: I will AVOID use of melee combat, but will make it possible that melee combat can be used with high skilled fighters to deal with threats such as the FB in the hospital. Seeing that's an area i can deal with.
As it is, i will seal off the fort at z22 until i'm at a stage where i can use melee to retake any other levels. I have placed a lever which deals with the bridge at Z22 at Z21. There's enough confusion on the surface with just 3 levers anyway.
If you seal the fortress off at Z=22 below the surface, then you will cut it off from its only source of water (the caverns) and leave it with nothing but a single block of ice (in one of the underground pastures- I'm sure you saw it) that was placed so as to begin ice-farming operations (which are a difficult enough engineering challenge that nobody's attempted it yet).
Long story short- I'm not sure what dunder-head carved out the additional entrance- but it needs to be sealed somewhere below the level of the cistern-pumps ASAP.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 01, 2014, 09:53:26 pm
At z88/z89 there are stairs going up into the fort, even though there arn't any going back down, it's still enough to let them in! Considering this is on the main stairwell, this gives access to basically everything, going to remove the stairs, to enforce the use of the other entrance to the caverns.
You need to dig over to the lower z-level from the 1x3 stair-shaft you see to the right. Have the masons replace all the tiles with walls/floors, such as to create a solid barrier to access into the fort.
Should work unless we get anything which can fly, which i can deal with as and when it happens. I have other worries till then.
We've already had *several* Forgotten Beasts which can fly. And most are expert climbers. Simply removing the stairs won't be enough.
To illustrate:
(http://i.imgur.com/SAenUnQ.jpg)
The red boxes is what i'm worried about. Whilst on the way to the caverns from the fort, there is no way down at "fort" and they have to head towards the cavern.
To get INTO the fort from the caverns, the up/down stairs in the red box need to be removed, as they are stairs heading UPWARDS. So they will simply be placed at the "up stairs" at z88 and able to access the fort.
Yet another one of the strange movement-rules of Dwarf Fortress. Logically speaking, what you would expect is creatures coming from beneath to encounter a solid floor beneath the up-only stairs. But apparently that's not the case. So dig over there (from the 1x3 stairwell) and seal it off properly with walls/floors...
Lastly, that massive vortex design amusingly was just an arena as the doctor has placed a "cyclops in a box" (cage trap) at the centre.
Also worth noting, the ghost which is running around is actually the dead dwarf that's in the food stockpile, for whatever reason he was forbidden.
The cemetary has been extended and should be put to rest shortly
edit:
(http://i.imgur.com/jTHQsVL.jpg)
An arena, huh? Still a pointless waste of Dwarven labor- and a number of Dwarves were starving to death just building it, due to lack of proper logistics (there should have been food/beverage stockpiles built within the vortex itself, due to its extreme distance from the rest of the fort).
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on December 06, 2014, 01:07:48 pm
Let's begin with population, i think i started with around 80-100, but after the FB's had a field day until i worked out their evil plot, we went down to 50 odd, 1 migrant wave came in and looking at 49 able dwarves and 14 children/babies.
(http://i.imgur.com/1SiU9Wi.jpg)
The Nobles are somehow all happy, which wasn't the case when i first joined as Sodel was extemely unamused no-one had given him a weapon rack and his tomb wasn't special enough for him.
(http://i.imgur.com/sSgE3Yc.jpg)
We had a special creation as well, i believe in the success of the killing the FB's
(http://i.imgur.com/vhUWjyO.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ZJo1Hvd.jpg)
Menaces of dog and pig leather? not entirely sure how that works, but "Sir Bigheaded the Barmy" is happy to give it a try.
I've added a small barracks area in, near to the surface. I realise there's some interesting looking barracks up the top but i decided a new build was needed. Any dwarves being lazy i'll probably chuck into the military, anyone else can remove from the "full" military. Would suggest keeping the "pairs of dwarves" in militaries sit. Think we needed some metal leggings, so got some slightly trained dwarves working on melting some useless metal objects probably purchased for that purpose (as they were already designated for melting) and working on that now.
Doesn't look like much but might engrave the walls and such to spruce it up a little. I've also given them orders which encourages more sparring.
(http://i.imgur.com/fTQ4AdB.jpg)
Not seen any sign of goblins, which is a worrying sign, as where else will we get our !!FUN!!? and how will we train our marksdwarves?
Anyway, from the looks of things, it's going to be a rather less interesting second year than the first. Will update should some !!FUN!! arise.
edit:
This one amused me:
(http://i.imgur.com/hVGHY6O.jpg)
Those evil magma crabs are upto something i'm sure!
At this time of peace, my management of military matters apparently is no longer required! Sodel has decided to sideline me... i'll get him later... maybe. At least i can get on with training rather than faffing around in meetings, didn't want the job anyway
(http://i.imgur.com/WTwm83z.jpg)
Oh yes, food/booze situation:
(http://i.imgur.com/VAROl2M.jpg)
Food will last many many years. Booze is on the rise, just need to keep getting the plants to continue brewing, added some more farms to help cope with this. Might put one outside (but still inside fort) so i can grow some strawberries.
The Military situation should be 2x swordmasters/2x spearmasters by the end of my turn. If not, will be there soon. They'll deal with most things that get through.
Found the archery range. Got Sodel the Annoying to go train some more there. Might even become legendary in it soon, as he's not far off.
Also added a LARGE amount of hotkeys, with appropriate names, to help all future users.
Another Artifact, this time a weapon! Given it to the leader of the large military, seeing the other two are already a bit trained in what they do. Not sure a bronze warhammer is particularly effective anyway
(http://i.imgur.com/dzu0a6s.jpg)
Decided to leave the hospital where it is. Noticed someone got injured and only just realised i'd left the area restricted to avoid people dying to the FB that used to be there. Oops.
Also, drinks are now upto 700, so that's now very solid.
Lastly, another FB turned up. Appears to be flying or swimming, not entirely sure which. No water covering suggesting likely to be flying.
Somehow the mayor is unconcious at some stage during negotiations with the outpost liason, which is strange to say the least.
Dorf'd? Well, if I'm not already, dorf me plz.
Well, all i can say is, i hope to the gods that we don't lose your artifact or you may go on a rampage, and that might not be a good idea :P
(http://i.imgur.com/1bGQp68.jpg)
We are now a Duchy, the duke being Sodel. Mayor is still Melek
Post by: Bigheaded on December 06, 2014, 05:59:38 pm
And is not going to plan!
(http://i.imgur.com/jjEIhFr.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/63Nn2kt.jpg)
I've added a few more marksdwarves, but they keep jumping into the fight, even though i order them into places which are nowhere near anywhere they can jump off.
(http://i.imgur.com/8h9nx3D.jpg)
Thankfully, in other areas we're going pretty well.
(http://i.imgur.com/V9buW4G.jpg)
We seem to be fairly weak near the kilns, only 1 wall to "climb" and jump down from, thankfully, i trained military just in time!:
(http://i.imgur.com/SZkQzLf.jpg)
Even the Duke has come to help the defense!
(http://i.imgur.com/66ry7fE.jpg)
About 5 down, about 80 to go!
Post by: Bigheaded on December 06, 2014, 06:28:42 pm
He's upto 10 kills :)
(http://i.imgur.com/Nzc6K5V.jpg)
Another forgotten beast has arrived and is roaming the depths, i suspect it'll have a fight with the other one, as they're both swimming around. The only other FB is still stuck in a tree, as he has been since the start of my turn and long before that!
Couple of them sneak into the fort, and currently only 1 dwarf is sorting em all out as they get in. The rest are napping or something.
(http://i.imgur.com/LbIt12e.jpg)
Post by: Amperzand on December 06, 2014, 08:34:55 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 07, 2014, 03:45:36 am
Those evil magma crabs are upto something i'm sure!
Have you walled off the kilns from the volcano? That's not only an open door for the Magma Crabs- it might be a way invading Trolls/Goblins could get into the fort...
Another Artifact, this time a weapon! Given it to the leader of the large military, seeing the other two are already a bit trained in what they do. Not sure a bronze warhammer is particularly effective anyway
(http://i.imgur.com/dzu0a6s.jpg)
Awesome! Actually, bronze is one of the best materials for warhammers. The ability of the metal to keep an edge hardly matters at all because warhammers don't have sharp edges- so the main factor becomes the density of the metal. Therefore, silver (though very weak) makes the best normal warhammers. Copper and bronze come in a close second- copper is denser, but bronze is a bit stronger. Iron is actually the WORST material for blunt weaponry, and steel has high strength but low density- making it ineffective at pulping and against armored opponents. The BEST warhammers are artifacts made of exotic materials like Gold, Platinum, and Slade which have very high density... (provided the military Dwarves have the strength to wield the heavier warhammers effectively- I suggest cross-training them on the water pumps when you get the chance...)
Overall, it sounds like things are going well. Congrats on getting the fort to duchy status! Keep up the hard work, and make sure to try and close off whatever way invaders are getting into the fortress after the fight is over!
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. Was that Dwarf who was ripping apart the Goblin invaders using a steel spear wielding the Artifact Steel Spear that was made earlier? If not, just imagine what could be done using that!
P.P.S. Don't forget, you're not limited to just 2 years! Because nobody's in line behind you, take as long as you want! Just make sure to upload saves every couple years or so, and keep us updated!
Post by: Bigheaded on December 07, 2014, 05:48:12 am
I decided enough suicides, i'll be here for years if Sodel is going to have to kill them all alone (although i must admit he was doing a fine job!)
Time to open the gate and welcome them!
(http://i.imgur.com/BpJhJRa.jpg)
CHARGE!!!!
(http://i.imgur.com/KFb4jfN.jpg)
Fighting is getting a little rough!
Not entirely sure about amperzands choices in areas to hit, the EYELID? seems a bit precise, perhaps just showing off his skills! Before he cuts his head off anyway.
(http://i.imgur.com/EPV0ljF.jpg)
Success! One single goblin makes it out alive (either that or the rest fled when i opened the gates!)
(http://i.imgur.com/llDvZm3.jpg)
Amusingly, Sir Bigheaded the Barmy, whilst in the thick of it, has no combat reports whatsoever! God dang i really am the lazy guy suggested in one of my first posts :P
By the way, this is NOT planned. I had no idea... (and literally rofl'd when i saw it)
(http://i.imgur.com/k8jSd6U.jpg)
Apparently not only are you a father... you're Timeless Bob's dad! (Whos apparently a female)
Anyway, Here's how the military did:
(http://i.imgur.com/dR6S0Hr.jpg)
There are several dwarves whos kills include dwarves (the chief medical guy in particular, slightly worrying!) and one guy who killed a dog AND a dwarf! None of which were majorly involved in the defense.
Gonna collect that goblinite, or at the very least, the stuff which is nearby!
Also collect the
edit:
Here is a save "mid siege", just before i sent everyone out to clean up (must admit i wasn't 100% sure i'd win it, as i've not dealt with a siege in a while). Also lets you have a look around, for some reason the dwarves have just left the FB corpse right outside the hospital. Link: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=10197
Mop up operations going well.
apparently we are now "expert crundle trainers".
Post by: Bigheaded on December 07, 2014, 05:02:33 pm
FPS is causing a slight issue, i don't think having 3 million bones is helping, or the fact it's 3 million bone amulets!
Also have 1 dwarf being very very unhappy, one other is possibly getting there. Think i need a hammerer as i think someone got hurt and that's what started it.
I'm now also stuck, as i've got a dwarf asking for shells in their mood and apparently anything caught in the cavern doesn't have a shell, all above ground water is frozen and there isn't very much of it either (i can't even find any!)
Things could end up getting very hairy.
May i do something about the FPS with DFhack? Just beginning with a "clean all" i removed about 10,000 contaminants like vomit from the map.
Also, removing a large amount of "crap" such as the billions of bones will probably help.
Otherwise it needs some extremely persistent people to clear up one heck of a lot of crap (the bones all over the caverns probably isn't helping either, as well as from the last few sieges)
Post by: DoctorMcTaalik on December 08, 2014, 03:29:48 am
For some inexplicable reason, sodel himself is using the artifact steel spear. I suppose it is a fine thing for a duke... but not sure he can fire it out his crossbow though :P
I decided enough suicides, i'll be here for years if Sodel is going to have to kill them all alone (although i must admit he was doing a fine job!)
Time to open the gate and welcome them!
(http://i.imgur.com/BpJhJRa.jpg)
CHARGE!!!!
(http://i.imgur.com/KFb4jfN.jpg)
Fighting is getting a little rough!
Not entirely sure about amperzands choices in areas to hit, the EYELID? seems a bit precise, perhaps just showing off his skills! Before he cuts his head off anyway.
(http://i.imgur.com/EPV0ljF.jpg)
Success! One single goblin makes it out alive (either that or the rest fled when i opened the gates!)
(http://i.imgur.com/llDvZm3.jpg)
Amusingly, Sir Bigheaded the Barmy, whilst in the thick of it, has no combat reports whatsoever! God dang i really am the lazy guy suggested in one of my first posts :P
By the way, this is NOT planned. I had no idea... (and literally rofl'd when i saw it)
(http://i.imgur.com/k8jSd6U.jpg)
Apparently not only are you a father... you're Timeless Bob's dad! (Whos apparently a female)
Anyway, Here's how the military did:
(http://i.imgur.com/dR6S0Hr.jpg)
There are several dwarves whos kills include dwarves (the chief medical guy in particular, slightly worrying!) and one guy who killed a dog AND a dwarf! None of which were majorly involved in the defense.
Gonna collect that goblinite, or at the very least, the stuff which is nearby!
Also collect thesuicidalbrave marksdwarves corpses whostupidly threw themselves off the walls into goblinsbought us time.
edit:
Here is a save "mid siege", just before i sent everyone out to clean up (must admit i wasn't 100% sure i'd win it, as i've not dealt with a siege in a while). Also lets you have a look around, for some reason the dwarves have just left the FB corpse right outside the hospital. Link: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=10197
Mop up operations going well.
apparently we are now "expert crundle trainers".
I decided to equip my dwarf with some artifacts in his pre-baron days to keep him happy. He's actually a decent marksdwarf, though I would avoid sending him into combat.
As for the bodies, a cyclops and a few trolls discovered a hole in the wall near the furnaces. The bloody events that followed are collectively dubbed the Battle of the Breach.
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 08, 2014, 09:04:00 am
As for the bodies, a cyclops and a few trolls discovered a hole in the wall near the furnaces. The bloody events that followed are collectively dubbed the Battle of the Breach.
You mean the hole that you carved in the wall yourself? If my memory serves correctly (and checking the save file should confirm this) there were no holes in the walls near the furnaces until your reign. SEVERAL new holes appeared during your turn- including not only the one on the volcano side, but also a couple that you apparently plugged up with walls or fortifications after digging them... (although you left a fortification at *ground-level*, which allows Goblins to accurately shoot inside the furnace room while being invulnerable to counter-fire from all but the most skilled Marksdwarves...)
Why exactly did you go digging those breaches, again?
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 08, 2014, 09:26:34 am
apparently we are now "expert crundle trainers".
Awesome. Soon we'll have fully-tamed Crundles, if you're responsible about making sure to butcher the older generations and the less tame individuals...
Just realised what u meant when u said there was a hole there. There being in the freaking wall a massive gap so that goblins just simply had to jump down and wander in. Blocked that off and added an extra layer around the top, seeing the goblins were accurately shooting at the top level.
Yeah. Somebody carved fortifications at ground-level all over the place, which allows Gobbo's to accurately shoot inside the fortress while being protected from Dwarven counter-fire. You need to replace all fortifications accessible at ground-level with walls instead (there is also a fortification on the level of the furnace-rooms that needs to be replaced with a wall- otherwise Goblins can take potshots at Dwarves inside the furnace room, who won't be able to return fire...)
The walls should also be *at least two z-levels tall from the ground at all places.* This prevents Titans from simply walking over them. Note this needs to be 2 z-levels stacked vertically or with an overhang- nothing stops a Titan from simply walking up multiple 1 z-level steps like a staircase...
FPS is causing a slight issue, i don't think having 3 million bones is helping, or the fact it's 3 million bone amulets!
The bones should have been used for decorations and to make crossbow bolts. Not sure why they were being made into amulets. Don't throw them out- that would be a waste of Dwarven labor! Instead, make sure to order up the maximum amount of metal bars and weapons/armor/cages/toys (all of which can be melted down in the Magma Smelter) from the next trade caravan, and build up the fortress metal stockpiles some more. And if you're not doing so, work on training up some weapon/armorsmiths by churning out tons of leggings and breastplates and such- then melt down the lower quality products and start again until you have a bunch of Masterwork armor...
Also have 1 dwarf being very very unhappy, one other is possibly getting there. Think i need a hammerer as i think someone got hurt and that's what started it.
Hammerers are a bad idea (they just kill Dwarves who mess up export bans most of the time!) Instead, build a prison. This means setting up prison-cells (don't forget doors!), and designating each as a prison with a chain somewhere inside the cell...
I'm now also stuck, as i've got a dwarf asking for shells in their mood and apparently anything caught in the cavern doesn't have a shell, all above ground water is frozen and there isn't very much of it either (i can't even find any!)
Things could end up getting very hairy.
The only above-ground water is a single tile that was hauled up from the cavern-layer to start work on an Ice Farm. Since it's not a Murky Pool or stream/brook/river, I'm pretty sure it won't spawn a fish population anyways... I suggest walling off the Dwarf in his workshop with the strange mood, so if he goes berserk he won't be able to do any harm until a military squad can be assembled and the door opened to initiate combat.
Cave Lobsters apparently have shells, but I don't think they can actually be used for artifacts/crafting...
May i do something about the FPS with DFhack? Just beginning with a "clean all" i removed about 10,000 contaminants like vomit from the map.
Also, removing a large amount of "crap" such as the billions of bones will probably help.
Otherwise it needs some extremely persistent people to clear up one heck of a lot of crap (the bones all over the caverns probably isn't helping either, as well as from the last few sieges)
You have permission to clean up contaminants using DFHack, as they're a pain to clean up manually, and Dwarves seem too lazy to actually scrub down walls and floors most of the time. The bones are a valuable resource, however (used not only for Strange Moods, but also to make an unending supply of Crossbow Bolts to pepper the Gobbo's with!), and should not be deleted. The only thing you may use DfHack for is to remove the blood/vomit contaminants... (not even FB syndrome venom, if there's a way to distinguish)
Speaking of crossbows and Marksdwarves, it's almost certain that the Marksdwarves jumped off the walls at the attackers for either one of two reasons:
(1) They were not actually equipped with Crossbows AND ammunition. It's important to check that Marksdwarves are equipped with both, otherwise they just treat their crossbows like bludgeoning melee weapons...
(2) They were stationed somewhere with a direct line-of-sight at the Gobbos, rather than through fortifications. This will typically cause undisciplined Marksdwarves to panic (and run off the walls), or veterans to enter a Martial Trance and jump off the walls at the enemy (like you saw). You need to make sure to station them where there's no clear/short path between them and the enemy- like over by the fortifications/gatehouse above the main gate into the fortress.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Taupe on December 08, 2014, 01:33:52 pm
Quote
The only thing you may use DfHack for is to remove the blood/vomit contaminants...
Ugh, no, vomit everywhere is what gives a fortress it's special charm!
Post by: Bigheaded on December 08, 2014, 01:44:08 pm
apparently we are now "expert crundle trainers".
Awesome. Soon we'll have fully-tamed Crundles, if you're responsible about making sure to butcher the older generations and the less tame individuals...
I'm not entirely sure it's possible to reach "domesticated". there was a topic where there was no confirmation at ever reaching domesticated. Even the wiki doesn't state what you see when you get to domesticate an animal.
And seeing that crundles young is born fully grown, we cannot tame "children" which is possible with most animals so we dont get any tame ones that way either.
Lastly, do not slaughter the old crundles, as this causes particularly nasty bad thoughts on the animal trainers as they will have bonded with them.
Given an additional 2 years i could probably get some tame GCS, although at the current fps this will take a while
Just realised what u meant when u said there was a hole there. There being in the freaking wall a massive gap so that goblins just simply had to jump down and wander in. Blocked that off and added an extra layer around the top, seeing the goblins were accurately shooting at the top level.
Yeah. Somebody carved fortifications at ground-level all over the place, which allows Gobbo's to accurately shoot inside the fortress while being protected from Dwarven counter-fire. You need to replace all fortifications accessible at ground-level with walls instead (there is also a fortification on the level of the furnace-rooms that needs to be replaced with a wall- otherwise Goblins can take potshots at Dwarves inside the furnace room, who won't be able to return fire...)
Don't think it's as big of a worry as you're making it seem to be.
The walls should also be *at least two z-levels tall from the ground at all places.* This prevents Titans from simply walking over them. Note this needs to be 2 z-levels stacked vertically or with an overhang- nothing stops a Titan from simply walking up multiple 1 z-level steps like a staircase...
Will have a look, but think i've already dealt with this.
Although 99% of titans can EASILY be dealt with the military. If i get bored i might hunt that FB down in the caverns.
FPS is causing a slight issue, i don't think having 3 million bones is helping, or the fact it's 3 million bone amulets!
The bones should have been used for decorations and to make crossbow bolts. Not sure why they were being made into amulets. Don't throw them out- that would be a waste of Dwarven labor!
I will admit that they made about 100k dorfbucks in total (we have 2x legendary bone carvers) from selling some. But it's simply the amount of stuff everywhere is unbelievable.
Instead, make sure to order up the maximum amount of metal bars and weapons/armor/cages/toys (all of which can be melted down in the Magma Smelter) from the next trade caravan, and build up the fortress metal stockpiles some more. And if you're not doing so, work on training up some weapon/armorsmiths by churning out tons of leggings and breastplates and such- then melt down the lower quality products and start again until you have a bunch of Masterwork armor...
Forgot to mention that i was already doing this, and whilst he was making armor, he got a mood and made a smelly copper low boot or something, which i gave to Sodel cos he's funny and did kill one of the largest amounts of dwarves, plus isnt on front line anyway.
So we already have Legendary armorsmith & weaponsmith. I have already got several sets of copper masterwork armor, because our only mineable metals are copper and gold.
I've already purchased a decent amount of steel, locating it is the main issue, so i'm gonna have to play with the stockpiles to make them dump all the steel items near to the forges.
Also have 1 dwarf being very very unhappy, one other is possibly getting there. Think i need a hammerer as i think someone got hurt and that's what started it.
Hammerers are a bad idea (they just kill Dwarves who mess up export bans most of the time!) Instead, build a prison. This means setting up prison-cells (don't forget doors!), and designating each as a prison with a chain somewhere inside the cell...
Never actually tried prisons, i usually get bored of a fort by then or it dies by fps or i accidently do something which causes everything want to kill everything else.
I'm now also stuck, as i've got a dwarf asking for shells in their mood and apparently anything caught in the cavern doesn't have a shell, all above ground water is frozen and there isn't very much of it either (i can't even find any!)
Things could end up getting very hairy.
The only above-ground water is a single tile that was hauled up from the cavern-layer to start work on an Ice Farm. Since it's not a Murky Pool or stream/brook/river, I'm pretty sure it won't spawn a fish population anyways... I suggest walling off the Dwarf in his workshop with the strange mood, so if he goes berserk he won't be able to do any harm until a military squad can be assembled and the door opened to initiate combat.
Got enough problems with happiness as 1 dwarf is tantrumming. Whilst it says cave lobster shell can't be used in crafting, it may be able to be used in moods. Will have a look. The only other possible source of shells is a giant snail or a FB.
Might clear up some of the goblin corpses. FPS is less than half of what i would call playable (40 is basically the minimum i'd like to play at, we're at 17, 18 after the clean)May i do something about the FPS with DFhack? Just beginning with a "clean all" i removed about 10,000 contaminants like vomit from the map.
Also, removing a large amount of "crap" such as the billions of bones will probably help.
Otherwise it needs some extremely persistent people to clear up one heck of a lot of crap (the bones all over the caverns probably isn't helping either, as well as from the last few sieges)
You have permission to clean up contaminants using DFHack, as they're a pain to clean up manually, and Dwarves seem too lazy to actually scrub down walls and floors most of the time. The bones are a valuable resource, however (used not only for Strange Moods, but also to make an unending supply of Crossbow Bolts to pepper the Gobbo's with!), and should not be deleted. The only thing you may use DfHack for is to remove the blood/vomit contaminants... (not even FB syndrome venom, if there's a way to distinguish)
Given the massive amounts of metal we have at the moment, and how useless bone bolts are. I'm not particularly fussed about bone arrows. I will probably redo the archery area, as it has been done incorrectly to preserve bolts (the channel should be in front of the targets, not behind!)
Speaking of crossbows and Marksdwarves, it's almost certain that the Marksdwarves jumped off the walls at the attackers for either one of two reasons:
(1) They were not actually equipped with Crossbows AND ammunition. It's important to check that Marksdwarves are equipped with both, otherwise they just treat their crossbows like bludgeoning melee weapons...
(2) They were stationed somewhere with a direct line-of-sight at the Gobbos, rather than through fortifications. This will typically cause undisciplined Marksdwarves to panic (and run off the walls), or veterans to enter a Martial Trance and jump off the walls at the enemy (like you saw). You need to make sure to station them where there's no clear/short path between them and the enemy- like over by the fortifications/gatehouse above the main gate into the fortress.
Regards,
Northstar
More likely to be #2, as they seemed to choose a very stupid way of getting to where i wanted them to go, which passed goblins which they could see (i've now changed that, all areas should be walled in). Although Sodel (thankfully) went exactly where he was supposed to go even after collecting new ammo. Doesn't matter now anyhow as i've prevented it from happening again. As walls exceed the highest level where dwarves can now walk.
Sorry vomit is gone, i need that 1 FPS :P
Getting it from 17 to 25 will be harder than getting it from 26 back upto 40.
Another problem for the FPS i have is the fact i have ridiculous amounts of food.
Think i began the fort with it being ~50 drinks and 5000 food, i now have 1800 drinks and 9000 food. I think the growers have got it going so that 3x brewers can brew 24/7 now, which is nice.
For some reason they've changed what you grow outdoors or somethings funny, so we get cranberry and blueberry wine.
This means that i've needed more pots to hold it all in.
Cemetary has had an entire extra set of coffins (about 80 added in total), just to ensure there is plenty of room... just in case.
Will probably chuck some migrants in the military, not actually for military purposes, but to make them haul stuff faster. It's actually pretty effective. Also makes them better at various duties especially smithing, but even makes them craft better stuff as it increases some thinking skills also.
Anyway, going to do what i think best. As i need to preserve some FPS or boredom will kill it faster than anything else. As i said, i already moved 100k's worth of stuff to the caravan and it's still terrible. That's the situation.
Also, if anyone wants a turn, the fort is in prime condition, especially if i can get the fps up.
Post by: Bigheaded on December 08, 2014, 02:30:04 pm
Any guesses? It's not what you'd think! Clearing all of them will be completely un-noticable after about a year of play as well. Unless you knew what you were looking for anyway.
Will leave it secret if you don't guess it, just for amusement purposes. Just cleared 3000 of them and pretty sure there's a lot more. Will help FPS (hopefully) without really changing anything.
Just by comparison, there is about 700 bone crafts. Appears to be about 1000 or so earthenwear crafts also. Probably less bone ones cos i sold half of them.
edit:
Also going to attempt to catch one of these bad boys:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/v0.34:Pond_turtle
Will let you know how i get on ;)
Pretty sure they're in 0.40 but they simply haven't updated the wiki.
edit2: upto 30 fps so far from just the "secret item" removed.
Post by: Taupe on December 08, 2014, 05:41:27 pm
That would have been so cool.
Post by: Bigheaded on December 09, 2014, 12:13:24 pm
Although apparently there was a fish in my pond (when at 5/7ths full), until someone filled it up some more and then it disappeared. So i'm pretty sure we can get some shells for the moody guy.
Hopefully i'll get before he goes nuts.
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 09, 2014, 04:36:10 pm
I'm not entirely sure it's possible to reach "domesticated". there was a topic where there was no confirmation at ever reaching domesticated. Even the wiki doesn't state what you see when you get to domesticate an animal.
And seeing that crundles young is born fully grown, we cannot tame "children" which is possible with most animals so we dont get any tame ones that way either.
I was thinking of taming the "children". I forgot that Crundles are born sexually-mature (although they continue to grow in size for the first 2 years of life), so this might not be possible... Still, keep trying.
Lastly, do not slaughter the old crundles, as this causes particularly nasty bad thoughts on the animal trainers as they will have bonded with them.
If they're bonded with enough animals, and have enough other happy thoughts, this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Also, many of the trainers they are bonded with are long since dead...
Given an additional 2 years i could probably get some tame GCS, although at the current fps this will take a while
That would be awesome!
Don't think it's as big of a worry as you're making it seem to be.
The ability of Goblins to shoot inside the fortress while being immune to counter-fire, not a big deal? You must be kidding me...
I'm telling you, replace any fortifications the Gobbo's can reach without climbing with walls before it's too late.
Will have a look, but think i've already dealt with this.
Although 99% of titans can EASILY be dealt with the military. If i get bored i might hunt that FB down in the caverns.
All it takes is one unlucky Dwarf getting killed off to tip a fort into a tantrum-spiral sometimes. Besides, the longer Dwarves live, the more time they have to get married and perpetuate the fortress lineage, to master skills, to acquire the emotionally-hardened flags, etc. So it's ALWAYS a good idea to place the safety of your Dwarves first...
I will admit that they made about 100k dorfbucks in total (we have 2x legendary bone carvers) from selling some. But it's simply the amount of stuff everywhere is unbelievable.
Keep selling stuff! Start gifting stuff to the Caravan if necessary! We'll need to do so in order to get promoted to Mountainhome status eventually anyways...
Forgot to mention that i was already doing this, and whilst he was making armor, he got a mood and made a smelly copper low boot or something, which i gave to Sodel cos he's funny and did kill one of the largest amounts of dwarves, plus isnt on front line anyway.
So we already have Legendary armorsmith & weaponsmith. I have already got several sets of copper masterwork armor, because our only mineable metals are copper and gold.
I've already purchased a decent amount of steel, locating it is the main issue, so i'm gonna have to play with the stockpiles to make them dump all the steel items near to the forges.
Actually, we have a TON of bismuth bronze- which is a much better material than copper for armor (and one of the BEST materials to make warhammers out of). We also already have lots of steel and iron items waiting to be melted down, and an unlimited source of carbon for steel-making in the form of our underground tree-farms (always a worthwhile project to expand those, by the way...)
Never actually tried prisons, i usually get bored of a fort by then or it dies by fps or i accidently do something which causes everything want to kill everything else.
Build a prison. It's the BEST solution to the "everything wants to kill everything else" dilemma. Usually, in a tantrum-spiral it's only 10-20% of a fort's population that is unhappy enough to tantrum at any given time. The rest of the tantrums happen because the unhappy dwarves inevitably injure happy dwarves and murder their relatives, making them unhappy/murderous as well.
When a dwarf is in a prison cell with a closed door, he can't hurt anyone. Additionally, you can make sure he/she has plenty of pretty objects to look at while locked up to avert insanity. And, when a prisoner is released after serving their sentence, they get one of the happiest thoughts in the game- akin to getting married or having a child- which basically makes them tantum-proof until the thought fades away...
Got enough problems with happiness as 1 dwarf is tantrumming. Whilst it says cave lobster shell can't be used in crafting, it may be able to be used in moods. Will have a look. The only other possible source of shells is a giant snail or a FB.
Just 1 Dwarf is tantrumming, and you're worried. This fortress has survived 5 or more Dwarves constantly tantrumming at any given time! (out of a pool of 25 or more unhappy dwarves!) Just build a prison, lock him/her up, and you'll be fine. The dwarf will either go insane in jail, and harmlessly starve to death there (or make fine target-practice for the military if they're chained and go Berserk), or survive the sentence and become EXTREMELY happy when released... Make sure to use the Justice screen to convict the Dwarf of any crimes they committed with a prison sentence (such as assault or vandalism), and to have an active Captain of the Guard, or else there won't be any happy thoughts from justice being served (which benefit the victims of the crimes) or the prisoner being released...
Might clear up some of the goblin corpses. FPS is less than half of what i would call playable (40 is basically the minimum i'd like to play at, we're at 17, 18 after the clean)
Given the massive amounts of metal we have at the moment, and how useless bone bolts are. I'm not particularly fussed about bone arrows. I will probably redo the archery area, as it has been done incorrectly to preserve bolts (the channel should be in front of the targets, not behind!)
Actually, the channel needs to be behind the targets. The Dwarves need a walkable path to the targets in order to use them. You can channel out some of the tiles between where the Dwarves shoot and the tiles immediately in front of the targets, without destroying the walkable path, to catch bolts that fall short, however. Given the logic-change that now requires a walkable path, it is no longer possible to recycle 100% of archery bolts- which is why the bone bolts are so useful...
It can easily take a couple thousand bolts just to repel a single Goblin Siege. Don't underestimate the fortress' thirst for ammunition...
More likely to be #2, as they seemed to choose a very stupid way of getting to where i wanted them to go, which passed goblins which they could see (i've now changed that, all areas should be walled in). Although Sodel (thankfully) went exactly where he was supposed to go even after collecting new ammo. Doesn't matter now anyhow as i've prevented it from happening again. As walls exceed the highest level where dwarves can now walk.
Good. Hopefully we can safely pepper the Goblins with crossbow bolts in peace now. Make sure to remove any fortifications at ground-level, so the Goblins can't simply walk up to the fortifications and deliver return fire at point-blank directly into Marksdwarves' faces though!
Sorry vomit is gone, i need that 1 FPS :P
Getting it from 17 to 25 will be harder than getting it from 26 back upto 40.
Another problem for the FPS i have is the fact i have ridiculous amounts of food.
Think i began the fort with it being ~50 drinks and 5000 food, i now have 1800 drinks and 9000 food. I think the growers have got it going so that 3x brewers can brew 24/7 now, which is nice.
For some reason they've changed what you grow outdoors or somethings funny, so we get cranberry and blueberry wine.
This means that i've needed more pots to hold it all in.
It never hurts to have too much food or drink! Remember, we had Dwarves literally starving to death before! The best thing to do with that much food and drink might be to spread it out in small stockpiles throughout the fortress to minimize Smoko-breaks, however...
The outdoor crops are what they are because the fortress is built int a Tundra (it's too cold for Strawberries). You can still farm the familiar outdoor crops in warmer climates...
Cemetary has had an entire extra set of coffins (about 80 added in total), just to ensure there is plenty of room... just in case.
Will probably chuck some migrants in the military, not actually for military purposes, but to make them haul stuff faster. It's actually pretty effective. Also makes them better at various duties especially smithing, but even makes them craft better stuff as it increases some thinking skills also.
Good ideas all.
Anyway, going to do what i think best. As i need to preserve some FPS or boredom will kill it faster than anything else. As i said, i already moved 100k's worth of stuff to the caravan and it's still terrible. That's the situation.
Also, if anyone wants a turn, the fort is in prime condition, especially if i can get the fps up.
I'll probably jump in with a turn eventually.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 09, 2014, 04:41:05 pm
cleared 6000 total of the secret item, bond turtles are sadly nowhere to be found as of yet. They're like ninjas or something :P
Although apparently there was a fish in my pond (when at 5/7ths full), until someone filled it up some more and then it disappeared. So i'm pretty sure we can get some shells for the moody guy.
Hopefully i'll get before he goes nuts.
Make sure to take precautions *just incase* you don't get shells and the Dwarf goes berserk!
As for pond turtles, where did you find a pond where they might spawn? As above-ground fish, the only place they could possibly spawn is in water tiles that would normally be frozen year-round, unless heated with adjacent magma. I'm surprised if the cisterns are spawning underground fish (such as Cave Lobsters), but it you want above-ground fish, you'll have to work on some heated pools using pond zones and magma.
There's already a single ice tile in the fortress basement (the lowest z-level still lit by outside light), and if you heat it up and periodically allow it to re-freeze, you can easily expand that to a much larger pond size... (that WAS where I intended to start an Ice Farm, however. You can accomplish both purposes with one pond if you make it possible to cut off and drain the adjacent magma supply periodically, so that some tiles can periodically be re-frozen and thawed to generate additional water...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on December 09, 2014, 05:11:39 pm
cleared 6000 total of the secret item, bond turtles are sadly nowhere to be found as of yet. They're like ninjas or something :P
Although apparently there was a fish in my pond (when at 5/7ths full), until someone filled it up some more and then it disappeared. So i'm pretty sure we can get some shells for the moody guy.
Hopefully i'll get before he goes nuts.
Make sure to take precautions *just incase* you don't get shells and the Dwarf goes berserk!
As for pond turtles, where did you find a pond where they might spawn? As above-ground fish, the only place they could possibly spawn is in water tiles that would normally be frozen year-round, unless heated with adjacent magma. I'm surprised if the cisterns are spawning underground fish (such as Cave Lobsters), but it you want above-ground fish, you'll have to work on some heated pools using pond zones and magma.
There's already a single ice tile in the fortress basement (the lowest z-level still lit by outside light), and if you heat it up and periodically allow it to re-freeze, you can easily expand that to a much larger pond size... (that WAS where I intended to start an Ice Farm, however. You can accomplish both purposes with one pond if you make it possible to cut off and drain the adjacent magma supply periodically, so that some tiles can periodically be re-frozen and thawed to generate additional water...)
Regards,
Northstar
I did one indoors, seemed to somehow get a single turtle out of it (lords knows how) but i aint complaining. One ring produced with one happy dwarf running around.
Might see if i can make an above ground pond should no more turtles appear out of the indoor pond. Although i am somewhat sure they do appear in indoor ponds, as they come out of aquifers also. Which is pretty ridiculous.
(http://i.imgur.com/rpUE3oJ.jpg)
Not entirely sure about the image on it. Amusing none the less.
Onto bad news. You know how i said i wasn't very good at the justice stuff?
(http://i.imgur.com/xDlWcBB.jpg)
Anyway, lesson learnt. I will assign the weakest dwarf i can find the job of "captain of the guard" slightly amusing. I'll give him an accomplice as i don't think Tun was the actual captain.
The wiki is very good actually, and if anyone else wants to learn a little more about justice/jails read here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Justice
Also amusing is that we no longer have any particularly unhappy dwarves after this "incident". 3 of them are close to being really unhappy (mostly because in the goblin siege they watched 40 goblins die)
Back to good news, Amperzand is naming stuff, he's using a steel sword, but it's standard which is a shame. But he's attached to it and it will soon be named like this:
(http://i.imgur.com/sr15npJ.jpg)
Amperzand and Bigheaded are Legendary in about 6 different things involving fighting, they're currently working on misc object it seems and wrestler. Their main attributes (Speed/Strength/Toughness) have all been maxed.
We have various other Great or better weaponmasters, including the guy i gave the legendary war hammer to.
Tun (whom killed a decent amount of goblins and smashed the unhappy dwarf's face in) is High Master, so nearly legendary in using spear. A lot of them are actually legendary fighters already.
I also located a very strong dwarf who was a miner using Therapist, which says he will get 4500 strength once he becomes as strong as possible. To put that number into context, using a pick, he will almost certainly explode small creatures such as cats on hit, and pretty much annihilate most enemies through armor. Tun currently has only 1778 strength (considered "very strong" and you can see the damage he did WITH HIS FISTS to a dwarf (although dwarf heads are apparently bugged and do not have strong skulls).
anyway, other than a slight mistep, things are going well.
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 09, 2014, 06:20:27 pm
I did one indoors, seemed to somehow get a single turtle out of it (lords knows how) but i aint complaining. One ring produced with one happy dwarf running around.
Might see if i can make an above ground pond should no more turtles appear out of the indoor pond. Although i am somewhat sure they do appear in indoor ponds, as they come out of aquifers also. Which is pretty ridiculous.
(http://i.imgur.com/rpUE3oJ.jpg)
Not entirely sure about the image on it. Amusing none the less.
I'm in full support of digging out additional ponds/cisterns/etc. for fishing purposes. Just make sure that if you heat them, there is a way to drain the magma heating-tubes so the water can freeze up (to replenish water-levels, and allow recovery of objects dropped into ponds). If the ponds are indoors, I suggest providing a way to drain them. We REALLY need some sewers running to the edge of the map (where water can drain through fortifications) and/or some large evaporation chambers, to allow us to drain cisterns/ponds as necessary...
Obsidian Farms are also always a worthwhile pursuit. Just make sure you consult the wiki on how to build them first...
Onto bad news. You know how i said i wasn't very good at the justice stuff?
(http://i.imgur.com/xDlWcBB.jpg)
Anyway, lesson learnt. I will assign the weakest dwarf i can find the job of "captain of the guard" slightly amusing. I'll give him an accomplice as i don't think Tun was the actual captain.
The wiki is very good actually, and if anyone else wants to learn a little more about justice/jails read here: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Justice
Also amusing is that we no longer have any particularly unhappy dwarves after this "incident". 3 of them are close to being really unhappy (mostly because in the goblin siege they watched 40 goblins die)
Yeah, you might want to build a jail. It's one of the many things that got abandoned in favor of pointless excavation of mining tunnels (the volcano can provide us with all the stone we need through Obsidian Farming, and bricks for construction through the Magma Kilns... Caravans and Goblinite provide us with an infinite source of metals...) and the construction of an "arena" or labyrinth for the Cyclops...
Back to good news, Amperzand is naming stuff, he's using a steel sword, but it's standard which is a shame. But he's attached to it and it will soon be named like this:
(http://i.imgur.com/sr15npJ.jpg)
Amperzand and Bigheaded are Legendary in about 6 different things involving fighting, they're currently working on misc object it seems and wrestler. Their main attributes (Speed/Strength/Toughness) have all been maxed.
We have various other Great or better weaponmasters, including the guy i gave the legendary war hammer to.
Tun (whom killed a decent amount of goblins and smashed the unhappy dwarf's face in) is High Master, so nearly legendary in using spear. A lot of them are actually legendary fighters already.
You might want to equip Amperzand with a better weapon before he names that one. Weapon quality-level is EXTREMELY important to combat-effectiveness...
I also located a very strong dwarf who was a miner using Therapist, which says he will get 4500 strength once he becomes as strong as possible. To put that number into context, using a pick, he will almost certainly explode small creatures such as cats on hit, and pretty much annihilate most enemies through armor. Tun currently has only 1778 strength (considered "very strong" and you can see the damage he did WITH HIS FISTS to a dwarf (although dwarf heads are apparently bugged and do not have strong skulls).
anyway, other than a slight mistep, things are going well.
Glad to hear things are going well!
A cautious note about Dwarf Therapist- make sure it doesn't change the save file at all, as most players (including myself) don't use it. If I remember correctly, it can change the save files in such a way that opening them *requires* that Dwarf Therapist is installed in the future...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on December 10, 2014, 12:21:29 pm
Shortly after i realised i hadn't seen anyone tantrumming for a while, so presumed something must have happened, then found that report lol. He's now in the cemetary.
The indoor pond is 1 tile of water close to the housing. At worst we can get a miner to channel the area next to it which drains half the water between the two tiles and allows anyone to get out or for any equipment to be removed.
Don't have any decent quality steel swords about, will see what i can do in that regard. Set a bunch of stuff to melt and a few extra dwarves on furnace operating.
currently havent told therapist to do anything, it just reads the data, i've not enforced any changes, and given that info, won't do either. Therapist is very useful for various reasons seeing it's quite hard to track what 60 dwarves have enabled at one time. As i have 4 dwarves if not more set to brewing, but not a single dwarf is considered a "brewer". Although they are pretty skilled at it now. Still hard to locate them if they arn't currently brewing. This being one single example, as a LOT of dwarves have engraving set and as i said finding decent fighter dwarves is a lot simpler.
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 11, 2014, 04:07:39 pm
The indoor pond is 1 tile of water close to the housing. At worst we can get a miner to channel the area next to it which drains half the water between the two tiles and allows anyone to get out or for any equipment to be removed.
Expand the pond(s) and you'll (hopefully) expand the chance of vermin fish/turtles spawning...
The easiest way to prevent Dwarves or objects from falling into a pond is to build grates (preferably of Green Glass- because it's basically free) over it. Dwarves can still fish through grates. It also shouldn't be too hard to dig an exit ramp though- Dwarves who fall into a small pond, even those without swimming skill, can typically manage to pull themselves out via an adjacent ramp before they drown...
By the way, better get that jail back in operation. A good jail can not only act as a punishment for murderous Dwarves- it can also act as a holding cell for prisoners, and a sealed-off bunker in case of disaster (a jail should be able to be sealed off in case of a jail-break anyways). I suggest having at least 10-12 cells in the jail, as well as a "guard" barracks (possibly with included beds), an internal food/booze stockpile for the guards (so the guards don't wander too far- and to make it easier to feed Dwarves who are in jail), and an accessible cistern or well (as a backup for the food/booze stockpile).
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on December 11, 2014, 05:40:40 pm
If you're particularly worried about people escaping, place a weapon rack outside and just get amperzand and Bigheaded to train there. In fact, will do this also. Whilst they sleep, they sleep less than most due to being military trained and therefore not "gets tired quickly", which in 99% of scenarios means 1 is training while the other sleeps. I have set Amperzand Bigheaded and two speardwarves there.
What didn't work was assigning decent guards to "captain of the guard". Amusingly, it's a terrible idea, seeing punishments are dealt by those guards and will as shown kill off "naughty dwarves". A far better captain of the guard, as originally set up, are marksdwarves, preferably with as little physical strength as possible. Also, it's better to not train them, as even training in crossbows increases strength.
I'm not particularly worried about making the ponds larger, although i still need to work out how the pond turtle got in there. 1. It was just luck (and need to build one on the outside) or 2. if my presumption is correct and they simply spawn in underground ones also and just takes time for turtles to find their way in.
Will add the grates, which answers a question as i accidently made a mess of deconstructing one and couldn't remember what it actually was, as i tried to put a floodgate there by accident lol.
Should someone need to get a shell, they can designate the pond to be fished out of.
I shall upload the save tomorrow, this will allow me to have a look at my own forts. Can think about some GCS another time. As i've not got them breeding in a long time (since 0.34) and my save works 3 times faster.
edit:
Well, sorting out this was the plan anyway, but i've just had something else with more immediate concerns.
(http://i.imgur.com/TsWH24F.jpg)
But no time to deal with this at the moment, so i'm off to bed. Will hopefully post up a save this sort of time tomorrow.
Post by: Bigheaded on December 13, 2014, 09:32:22 am
(http://i.imgur.com/H9WtpAI.jpg)
3 losses in total for us, not entirely sure how many of the ~50 or so i took out. I'm pretty sure at least half fled.
1 of which was a recent addition who joined the fort, but was a very decent marksdwarf. He was placed literally 1 level above in one of the sniping areas which should have meant it was impossible for him to get out. Get out he did though and did some pretty decent damage (think he killed 3 and hurt 2 others) in some close range bolt shots. Again, don't really know how he got out.
When things had calmed down i sent the military out who killed about 10-15. Lost 1 dwarf here who wasn't skilled enough and hadn't noticed he was in the squad.
The last death was a Suturer suddenly running directly into a troll, half the entire map away from him, for no reason whatsoever (was allocated "no job"), there was nothing to collect, just wanted to suicide into a troll which was at least 60 squares away.
Amperzand gained his first named kill. I believe he killed whoever killed the marksdwarf.
The pond is a success. Pond turtles are very common in it and not a lot else. So should we need more shells, that's where to look.
Captain of the guard and his disciple are weaklings, so should they hit anyone for justice purposes, the worst thing they could possibly do is bruise something. Please do not get them to train anywhere.
Jail is in operation, i haven't set food stockpiles up yet, won't be too difficult, but i doubt we have too much crime.
2 people are stressed/unhappy. Not really sure what to do with them, military generally don't get upset very easily so chucked one in there and hoping for the best.
In terms of drink/food we have 3k and 11k. As long as the brewers are left brewing, the planters left planting and the occasional thing gets butchered, we should be more than fine for as long as the fort continues.
The item which i removed 6000 from the map (if not more) were cave spider webs. Literally the caverns were full of them.
Not entirely sure what happened with the 2 FB's which were swimming around. Only the 1 FB whom is still stuck in the tree remaining who is free to move.
That's it from me for the time being. Had a good amount of fun but i've finished for the time being.
All named dwarves who were alive are still alive. I still do not have any kills and neither does amperzand.
save: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=10241
One last thing to note, i deconstructed a small area above the entrance and added a route next to the fortifications there as i found it very difficult to get the marksdwarves into the small gap by the fortifications. In one month of the year, there is a patrol route set for sodel to walk along there. Should a siege come up you can copy and paste that, or you can just leave as is and just move there.
Anyway, point is, removed building to make marksdwarves jobs a bit easier to do.
Post by: Amperzand on December 13, 2014, 05:30:45 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 13, 2014, 10:21:04 pm
So I think I might take over for a while (not necessarily 2 years, but probably longer until somebody wants a turn) unless somebody else already wants a turn?
Also, in other news, I *think* it's time to update the save file to 0.40.19, it's only been out for a couple weeks now! I'll have to see about that if I take the next turn.
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on December 14, 2014, 06:34:23 am
Aye. Thanks for taking a turn and getting the save file posted Bigheaded!
So I think I might take over for a while (not necessarily 2 years, but probably longer until somebody wants a turn) unless somebody else already wants a turn?
Also, in other news, I *think* it's time to update the save file to 0.40.19, it's only been out for a couple weeks now! I'll have to see about that if I take the next turn.
Regards,
Northstar
oops, forgot to say, already done the upgrade to .40.19.
There's no reason why you can't play a few months and if someone wants a turn to pass it over. Still not entirely sure about the defenses seeing that i again lost a marksdwarf due to his own idiocy (pretty sure he climbed as high as he could and jumped off). He was able to fire at the goblins though, so he wasnt trying to club them.
Other than that, we should be ok, could use some extra marksdwarves, seeing i kinda made a mess of the last lot (oops) and we have only 1 survivor and instead have melee.
Also worth considering adding more weapon traps, they literally killed more goblins than anything else. If traps could have names they'd have the middle, last and description of their names.
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 15, 2014, 12:11:41 am
oops, forgot to say, already done the upgrade to .40.19.
Great! Did you make sure to update both the save file raws, and the version of DF+Ironhand?
There's no reason why you can't play a few months and if someone wants a turn to pass it over.
I actually meant more like I might play 5 or 6 years until somebody else took over. I have no problem with slow+steady progress. I have a lot of projects in mind that take time- such as a *drastic* expansion of the above-ground portions of the fort. I also need to completely re-model some systems, such as the butchering system- which is currently rather slow+inefficient...
Still not entirely sure about the defenses seeing that i again lost a marksdwarf due to his own idiocy (pretty sure he climbed as high as he could and jumped off). He was able to fire at the goblins though, so he wasnt trying to club them.
I'll double-check for ways the Dwarves might be able to get out. The best way to find those, though, is to wait for a siege and carefully watch the Marksdwarves in small time intervals (one-step if you're really fanatical) and see how they're getting out...
Other than that, we should be ok, could use some extra marksdwarves, seeing i kinda made a mess of the last lot (oops) and we have only 1 survivor and instead have melee.
Also worth considering adding more weapon traps, they literally killed more goblins than anything else. If traps could have names they'd have the middle, last and description of their names.
I'll keep that in mind. It's probably best if we add another archery range closer to the surface, and drastically improve the traps system (I'm thinking of a retracting bridge that captures Goblins into a pit with all sorts of captured baddies from the Caverns, or that encases them in ice...)
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on December 15, 2014, 02:18:27 am
Post by: Amperzand on December 15, 2014, 06:31:14 pm
Post by: Bigheaded on December 15, 2014, 06:54:50 pm
So, what's the fort position on semicheaty projects? 'Cause I, for one, think a Dwarven Childcare would... Help our military greatly.
Basically what i did to the military was "slightly cheaty", i.e put a few sets of 2 training and in fact, i set orders for them to train in "minimum of pairs" 5 times on larger squads.
I don't think item drop training is really required when you have 6 dwarves whom have basically maxed out physical attributes. With a couple more in training. 2 of which being legendary in weapons, fighting, blocking, armor, dodging... you get the idea. I was going to get you to 1v1 the cyclops but i wanted to look at my own fort and got attacked by goblins when i was trying to finish up.
Use the file and have a look how ridiculous your stats are lol :P
To be fair, if you take a turn, basically do what you feel is best to do, for example i cleared the map of 10,000 items (mostly cave spider silk webs) to improve the FPS from 16 to 30 odd. This basically IS cheating, but i don't think anyone really wants to play in a FPS death fortress and I might even be asked to do it again (should it be needed!) :P
With the fort as it is, i would say it was pretty noob friendly, the hotkeys i've added shows the main few areas to keep an eye on. After Northstar looks into the Marskdwarf situation, should be good to go for literally anyone.
Personally i quite like a mess to clean up anyway, a fort gets a bit boring, even with mass goblin attacks, if there's no actual serious threat, unless it has a purpose.
I'll take another turn in like a month or so, to see how it's getting along ;)
Post by: Amperzand on December 15, 2014, 09:29:02 pm
Post by: Bigheaded on December 17, 2014, 05:55:39 pm
I have been improving with Fort Mode, but if FPS is a problem for anyone with a computer made after 2005, I will run it at maybe two frames a minute.
think it's more to do with the programs limitations rather than anything else. I wouldnt imagine that been any particular issue. If it is, then i can look into removing more "excess stuff".
Would be nice to see a few new players join the wagon too :)
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 18, 2014, 01:20:27 am
Bigheaded, I'm glad you enjoy cleaning up messes, because I certainly don't. I share Taupe's propensity for OCD levels of neatness and organization, and much prefer a smoothly-running fort to any level of chaos. While I am *capable* of saving a fort on the brink of disaster (in fact, quite skilled at it), the temptation for me is just to "let it burn"- I don't like all the effort that is required to pull things from the brink...
That's why I advise you guys to be so cautious- I don't WANT to see the fort burn, but I also don't want to have to deal with a crisis.
As for larger purposes, I've always envisioned this fort as a sort of "grand capital" for the (renewed) Dwarven empire. High walls. Towers reaching up to the clouds. Sprawling farms and pastures. Huge amounts of above-ground living space. My goal for this fort is to take over the surface, rather than to colonize the underground. Why? Because I want to give those darn Goblins something to gawk at, while they get slaughtered by hails of crossbow and ballistae bolts...
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. *Eventually* I want to retire this fort and establish a string of other smaller forts to expand the Dwarven empire. However that needs to wait until defenders have a bit better odds of fighting off invasions- or that will just lead the fort to falling to Goblins that march across the entire world to reach us. Speaking of which- I really want to go back and reclaim that earlier trading post in this world from the Gobbo's in Adventure Mode at some point... (basically- walk inside and kill the Goblin leader, declaring the fort as part of the Dwarven empire- by declaring allegiance to a member of our civ before doing so...)
Post by: Amperzand on December 18, 2014, 04:10:39 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 18, 2014, 07:26:03 pm
For now, I truly feel I am inept enough to be less than useful, but my succession of doomed-but-amusing practice forts is certainly helping, so within the next few months I may get much better.
Well, I look forward to when you feel ready to take a turn!
In the meantime, Bigheaded, I noticed you uploaded the fortress save as a .RAR file. Please try and upload .zip files in the future- a wider variety of compression utilities can unpack those, and it makes me feel more comfortable with what I'm downloading...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 19, 2014, 01:55:48 am
Great job overall Bigheaded! There were a couple things that bugged me, though:
(http://i.imgur.com/LeTpVLT.jpg)
First of all, the Caverns still were not secure.
(http://i.imgur.com/G4CAkPy.jpg)
Second, pigs were still trampling saplings in one of the Tree Farms
(http://i.imgur.com/Ga0jNuZ.jpg)
Third, somebody cooked/pressed all our Rock Nuts! Was that you?
(http://i.imgur.com/H9l3zYY.jpg)
Some of the walls were made out of Clay. Why? We had perfectly good Magma Kils available to bake that clay into bricks, and Earthenware Bricks are actually much lighter to haul and quicker to build with than Clay. They also don't allow easy handholds for climbers like rough walls do...
(http://i.imgur.com/VwpnsHH.jpg)
Oh, and there were also new Butcher Shops underground (or somebody else added them, and I didn't notice them before). Generally NOT a good idea, as this will lead to the production of Miasma. I ordered their deconstruction, and continued work on improving the above-ground portions of the fortress to make more room for our meat industry...
Overall, though, great job! It looks like the fortress was in a fine state of operation when I took over.
Oh, by the way, I found where the Gobbo's/Trolls were getting in, and the Marksdwarves getting out. It was through a hole right in the middle of the shooting gallery floor that I pointed out to previous overseers ages and ages ago. Apparently, nobody had ever bothered to fix it... I don't blame you for not knowing about it- although I suggest carefully inspecting the fortress for yourself when you see odd behavior like Dwarves seemingly walking through the walls in the future, because it's more likely you missed something...
(http://i.imgur.com/vXtVmSo.jpg)
Now, on to my update...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Northstar1989 on December 19, 2014, 02:41:15 am
My first orders of business, were to secure the caverns and close the hole in the shooting gallery floor:
(http://i.imgur.com/KUA6KOk.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/rkd6BBv.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/SbC2cVE.jpg)
Shortly after that, a nasty-looking FLYING Forgotten Beast arrived (it would later make mince-meat out of Voracious Cave Crawlers and some wild Trolls wandering the caverns- it certainly would have been a threat to our Dwarves). Good thing I secured the Caverns early on!
(http://i.imgur.com/YqUA3eS.jpg)
We also got a Ghostly Wrestler wandering around somehow. I wasn't sure how this happened, as the catacombs had plenty of empty coffins- but then I noticed a steel shield, pick, and helmet in one of the magma channels for the Magma Kilns. It looks like he died ages ago by falling into the lava, leaving no corpse to bury... I started production of a slab for memorializing him, but even as of the end of my play session didn't get around to it... He's little more than a Restless Haunt, so somebody else should find a spot for the slab in some Noble's bedroom (to add to room value) at their leisure...
(http://i.imgur.com/acvR8TA.jpg)
We also got a Dwarf claiming a workshop! We actually got several of these (3 in the course of a few game-months), but the first one had me rather excited...
(http://i.imgur.com/x3lwxge.jpg)
As the Dwarf worked on his artifact (and I micro-managed making sure he had the available supplies, and forbid/unforbid various components to increase the amount of materials used in the hopes of getting something more interesting than a piece of glass jewelery) the Dwarves put the finishing touches on securing the Caverns with a second wall so that, even if a Forgotten Beast glitched through the newly-placed floors, he'd still end up in a small 3x3 room with no way into the fortress. The Dwarves then promptly held a party!
(http://i.imgur.com/oN8mGez.jpg)
I also got to work at this point on replacing the Clay boulder walls with proper Earthenware Brick walls...
(http://i.imgur.com/s0F7U3W.jpg)
Soon after, my Glassmaker began construction on his artifact! Due to a quirk of the order in which I forbid/unforbid items he was using, he actually began work on the artifact (at a Glass Furnace, and his highest moodable skill being Glassmaker) without any glass gems tasked. This led to some interesting results, as you soon shall see....
(http://i.imgur.com/kw0XOkH.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/PUgsEwT.jpg)
Yes, that's right, he made an Iron Flask! At a Glass Forge! Somehow, he superheated iron hot enough to blow it into a flask- or something like that...
It was also the most valuable artifact the fortress has EVER produced- partly due to the selection of cut gems used...
(http://i.imgur.com/pmaDLuw.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/LAWJKLq.jpg)
The next runner-up in value is the Artifact Steel Spear that was made early in the fortress' history... Not bad for a mere Glassmaker- and unlike many of the other Finished Goods artifacts, this one can actually be used (to hold water/booze of military Dwarves). That could make for one happy Militia Commander! (or Adventurer, pillaging the ruins of the fortress someday...)
No sooner was the artifact complete than ANOTHER Forgotten Beast showed up! This one was a fire-breathing Snail (try hacking through THAT shell without getting burned to a crisp!) Boy I was glad I sealed the Caverns before!
(http://i.imgur.com/Yeqf7nE.jpg)
A bunch of time then passed without much of particular interest occurring. I continue work on adding another z-level to the fortress walls, and improving some of the buildings off the main courtyard (you guys DO realize we have some nice, spacious rooms topside, right? They would make excellent bedrooms, workshops, or even just stockpiles...)
Some more migrants eventually arrived, though, despite the "Danger". Not a bad thing, actually- we need to keep the Dwarven gene-pool sufficiently diverse that if the fort ends up having to close its gates permanently or getting retired, Dwarves can still find spouses and continue the fortress line... (they aren't allowed to marry any named relatives- include brothers, sisters, aunts/uncles, and first or second cousins)
(http://i.imgur.com/Oltd6xB.jpg)
Most of what happened of interest for a while after this point was a few Dwarves growing attached to their weapons and shields, and their acquiring names...
(http://i.imgur.com/NbjM09q.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/LLgRK9y.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/xCzOegz.jpg)
I think that names weapons and shields count as artifacts, and are tracked throughout world-generation (even with an active fortress or Adventurer) as long as they aren't destroyed, right? So even if a Kobold ran off with one of the names Swords (perhaps with it embedded in his guts!), it would show up in his home Kobold cave, for instance... I still don't know what would happen if an Adventurer died with an artifact on an unloaded location (such as a road) though...
Regardless, the fortress made it to Summer! And with it, we started getting LOADS of ripening blueberries, cranberries, and bilberries (Bilberries are a close relative of Blueberries, with a similar taste and texture, by the way- the main differences are that they're a little sweeter and a LOT softer- which makes them difficult to commercially harvest and transport to distant cities in real life...) The herbalists, and some loafers I assigned as herbalists, had a field day! (forgot to take a screenshot, of course)
(http://i.imgur.com/T7pCBjw.jpg)
Then, as my attention was mostly focused on herbalism and completing the additional z-level of fortress walls (good luck climbing over them NOW, Goblins!) a Child began work on another artifact:
(http://i.imgur.com/qjwuGhB.jpg)
Things were going well, and the Dwarves seemed quite content with my rule. I guess that's part of why the Mayor got re-elected (OK, so I know it's REALLY just because he's still the biggest slacker with the most friends, but humor me will you?)
(http://i.imgur.com/SsHBw9w.jpg)
And finally, we got a second (or was it third? I might have missed some little trinket) Artifact. This one was just some worthless crown, though (boy I can't wait for when Magic is implemented, and these "useless" artifacts start actually doing something interesting...)
(http://i.imgur.com/t5o1reQ.jpg)
And then I played for a few more game-months, but nothing interesting happened. I've become bored with Dwarf Fortress; and I'm off to go work on gigantic electromagnets, and launching little green men into the cosmos using them! (or rather, I'm off to induce a supernova in my Kerbal Space Program save, and update to the newly-released Beta, and then see if my Mass Driver mod I originally forked off a dying mod with an open license has any new bugs in 0.90)
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103511-WIP-0-90-Mass-Driver-Mod?p=1606733#post1606733
It might be a while until I make an appearance in Dwarf Fortress again, so here's the save to do whatever you want with. I'm thinking about personally retiring this fortress anyways, and playing an "alternate history" timeline where I go off and establish other forts in the same world, or just starting a new world entirely (the changes to army combat have made it significantly less likely for the Goblins to drive the Dwarves and Humans to near-extinction like in this world), while occasionally checking back in here to make sure everything is running smoothly. The sprawl and mess levels induced by other, less OCD overseers have simply become too much for me. I prefer the life of a simple gentleman farmer/astronaut running a small fortified Villa to a giant, bustling, but infinitely complex succession fortress...
I'll have a DFFD file link to the fortress up *very* soon though. Enjoy!
EDIT: Here's the link!
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=10270
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: Bigheaded on December 25, 2014, 01:20:14 pm
We are currently at 40.19. If you want a turn, it's currently open for takers. Can literally grab it and Post here saying "taking a turn" and go!
If FPS is awful, i can take a look and attempt to improve it.
Just a note: the marksdwarves were NOT getting out through that hole, i made that hole after a siege because getting a marksdwarf to line up in that gap was extremely difficult before with the strange room there. So that's partly my fault, but i had barely begun that operation before passing it to you and i "think" i mentioned it.
I'm somewhat sure the marksdwarves saw the goblins, headed to the roof and jumped off. Pretty weird.
Yes i made things out of clay, we had tonnes of it for no apparent reason and i had forgotten we could simply make bricks out of it.
Heck it took me 1 hour to remove a ridiculous number of clay artifacts someone decided to make for lolz.
Nice to see Amperzand eventually named his sword, was pretty sure he would seeing he killed a bunch with it :P
Post by: Amperzand on January 02, 2015, 10:53:53 pm
Post by: Northstar1989 on February 14, 2015, 10:20:22 pm
Yup. Well, it's too bad the fort seems to be in a decline...
In a decline, but not dead!
Actually, I'm playing in a small fortress of my own in the same world right now! I'm hoping to eventually open the fort back up as a "Reclaim" or as a site for a community-adventuring game if anyone's interested...
Regards,
Northstar
Post by: The Big D on February 14, 2015, 11:13:01 pm
Post by: Amperzand on February 15, 2015, 10:31:19 pm
Post by: The Big D on February 16, 2015, 05:19:11 am
Post by: Northstar1989 on May 04, 2017, 11:04:15 pm
I eventually abandoned the world it was in due to changes in how civs are handled in world gen with the latest updates. So I can think we can all safely conclude this fort is retired now.
Mistakes:
- Not delegating enough responsibility early enough: leading to an overburdened host (me)
- Allowing players to do whatever they pleased. As a result, every overseer went off on their own random agenda, leading to a sprawling fort that looked like it was built by somebody with Multiple Personality Disorder (this is why I ultimately stopped playing turns to keep the fort going- I found the immense scale and lack of focus in the fort too overwhelming and demoralizing to try and manage)
- In going with #2, a lack of a clear "theme" or goals. Conquering hell, for instance- or building an open-source fort up to the clouds (where I kind of envisioned the fort going, but was too late in advocating)
- Not having a clear emergency plan or contingency plans. This lead to the fort nearly collapsing on several occasions, only being saved by its high walls, sheer size (as much as I hated it), relative autarky, and sheer determination...
Anyways, lessons learned. Maybe I'll do another succession fort soon. Any ideas?