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Dwarf Fortress => DF Dwarf Mode Discussion => Topic started by: HastyLumbago on October 05, 2009, 05:13:30 am

Title: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: HastyLumbago on October 05, 2009, 05:13:30 am

OK, so I'm no genius. I've never managed the gleaming crystal glass towers, the indoor giant waterfalls, I've never survived more than about twenty minutes after realizing there was magma on the map, and I've never breached the aquifer.

That said, I love DF, and I play the hell out of it. I've got no less than 5 copies on my compy (one completely vanilla, one with light mods for cat mouths and butcherable cats and dogs, as well as exotic-trainable beak dogs, one mayday graphics set version, one modded for super-cheatyness for epic construction testing purposes, and one which I use to screw around with various modding ideas) And I've developed, over time, a few odd little behaviors which I do for my own amusement, which have little to no impact on the game:

1. In any area I'm about to enclose in solid walls, I designate a single-tile custom dwarven wine stockpile, so that when the last wall tile is built, and the dwarf who does so is inevitably walled in, I can imagine him screaming "For the love of God, Montressor!" until he starves to death.

2. I replace my bookkeeper's table once per year, so he can have a fresh surface to chisel the records to. The old table, I move to a dedicated records room.

3. I nearly always name my first dwarfs for the days of the week.

4. Once per year, in winter, I cancel all jobs, take a few rooms I've places statues in, and designate them as statue gardens, thus encouraging my fortress to party for Dwarfmas.

So, my question is this: do any of you do similar things? What are they?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: shadowclasper on October 05, 2009, 05:20:34 am

My dwarven fortresses almost ALWAYS have an enormous goblin bone industry. Seriously, it's a freaking holiday after goblins arrive. They go into the roach-motel of trapped doom, no survivors, let them rot because NO ONE goes into there unless absolutely necessary. This period of allowing them to rot away is filled with much celebration in anticipation of the new influx of supplies for the goblin bone industry.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: gerkinzola on October 05, 2009, 05:53:36 am

i smooth and engrave every surface possible with my soon to be drafted cheese makers and peasants.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: chinkeeyong on October 05, 2009, 06:11:35 am

Quote from: HastyLumbago on October 05, 2009, 05:13:30 am

In any area I'm about to enclose in solid walls, I designate a single-tile custom dwarven wine stockpile, so that when the last wall tile is built, and the dwarf who does so is inevitably walled in, I can imagine him screaming "For the love of God, Montressor!" until he starves to death.

You win.

I don't really have a dwarf-mode personal eccentricity, since I never play seriously for more than half a dwarf year. When wrestling in adventure mode, though, I find it disturbingly entertaining to gouge both eyes, break every joint, and strangle my opponent until he bleeds to death. Extra wrestling points!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: XSI on October 05, 2009, 06:57:43 am

I've sort of made a sport of trying to get as many sparring injuries in my forts, masterwork steel weapons for everyone, we'll see about armour later.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: JubalHarshaw on October 05, 2009, 09:12:13 am

Quote from: XSI on October 05, 2009, 06:57:43 am

I've sort of made a sport of trying to get as many sparring injuries in my forts, masterwork steel weapons for everyone, we'll see about armour later.

Agreed, military service in most of my forts is an "Only the Strong (or Lucky) Survive" type of scenario. I figure if they die in training, they didn't have what it takes anyway.

Other eccentricities include noble-quality bedrooms and tombs for my Starting Seven dwarves, and if I'm feeling lazy and cheater-like, I usually de-construct the trade depot when a caravan is on it to loot all the stuff.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Goron on October 05, 2009, 10:42:35 am

Quote from: chinkeeyong on October 05, 2009, 06:11:35 am

Quote from: HastyLumbago on October 05, 2009, 05:13:30 am

In any area I'm about to enclose in solid walls, I designate a single-tile custom dwarven wine stockpile, so that when the last wall tile is built, and the dwarf who does so is inevitably walled in, I can imagine him screaming "For the love of God, Montressor!" until he starves to death.

You win.

Chinkeeyong called it right.
I am not sure how you expected other people to post anything nearly as awesomely eccentric, HastyLumbago...
I think I may start copying you with that... Every new big construction project of mine will involve bodies in the walls- literally:-)

I also like your Dwarfmas celebration. It is the little things like that- completely in the hands of the player and not really forced by the game- that make playing DF even more fun.

I suppose the most frequent quirky stuff I do is the same as many others- such as recognizing the original seven with special rooms, statues, monuments, or whatnot.
Some others:
I like to design 'real' rooms rather than 'economical' rooms- you will never see 'best possible layouts' of sleeping quarters in my forts. I try to make them natural and realistic. I also love to form rooms against cliff faces, a practice that usually results in a lot of wasted space but I think it looks cool.
Along that note, I will usually split out the offices or nobles from their living spaces. It seems most people make the noble areas three room apartments (office, dining, bed). I'll usually make the living space contain a furnished bedroom with an adjoined dining area but have the offices in a separate area of the fort that acts as the administrative area.
The dining rooms are never just a table and chair- I'll make a four table block (or more) to resemble a large dining table.
I also love double doors. Pretty much every noble room has a double door.
And last I can think of for now: I make shared bedrooms for couples. I will make a double bed and assign the baron to one and consort to the other. Sure, it makes it harder to make the room 'nice' enough to please them but I figure they should sleep in the same room- married peasants do it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Skorpion on October 05, 2009, 11:22:14 am

- Lots of masonry. I keep my fort employed with masonry.
- Skull totems. Lots of skull totems.
- Goblin clothing is dumped, then either reclaimed and sorted or destroyed with magma.
- I tend to clear and smooth corridors to improve transit times.
- High-density dwarven living, in 2*2 rooms with a bed and maybe a cabinet, set out in lines.
- Huge stockpiles of everything, because I don't know how to NOT produce huge amounts of stuff. This means enough food and booze to last a year or two, trade goods for a decade, and huge amounts of metal. The earth is plundered and stacked neatly in patches of cleared ground.
- A large standing military, with a squad or two on guard at all times. Traps are imperfect and endanger valuable dwarves, whereas the military is trained and armoured and entirely male to prevent babies being wounded.
- Recycling! I will buy exotic metal items off caravans and melt them down, melt down items from invaders, and even individual bolts. I have no shortage of labour, so it's worth the effort for every time I get a whole bar of iron out of melting down one single bolt.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: jseah on October 05, 2009, 11:35:44 am

- Massive food industry for the first two or three years, then once I have 160k food and drink, I stop it completely

- If there's sand, clear glass will be used in all fancy stuff

- High density dwarven living mkII.  No corridors.  Every room has 4 doors and doubles as a corridor as well.  All rooms are adjacent to another room.  Porous Fort. 

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: cerapa on October 05, 2009, 12:28:03 pm

I never let dwarves go idle. If they dont work, they go engraving.

Needless to say, all my fortresses are completely smooth.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Demonic Spoon on October 05, 2009, 12:46:04 pm

I like walling off my ant/termite colonies and starting wagons with clear glass. The dwarves can then visit the wagon museum and learn about the efforts of the brave first settlers or admire the natural beauty and ingenuity of the brave ants etc.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Akhier the Dragon hearted on October 05, 2009, 01:15:19 pm

I only spend effort on the dungeon masters room. all other nobles get the cluster room.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Duke 2.0 on October 05, 2009, 01:30:41 pm

 SYMMETRY!
 YOU! GROUND! I don't dig you 'till I figure out the absolute perfect thing to add to you. NEVER 'TILL THEN!
 You leader, you will be named after a god. YOUR POSITION IS RA, SUN GOD.
 I need a pit! I'm not even going to drop anything down it, I just want a pit! And no weaksauce 5x5 pits either, half the goddam mountain is gonna be an underground pit when I'm done.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Demonic Spoon on October 05, 2009, 01:53:27 pm

Quote from: Duke 2.0 on October 05, 2009, 01:30:41 pm

SYMMETRY!
 YOU! GROUND! I don't dig you 'till I figure out the absolute perfect thing to add to you. NEVER 'TILL THEN!
 You leader, you will be named after a god. YOUR POSITION IS RA, SUN GOD.
 I need a pit! I'm not even going to drop anything down it, I just want a pit! And no weaksauce 5x5 pits either, half the goddam mountain is gonna be an underground pit when I'm done.

I'm not seeing anything strange or out of the ordinary here?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Duke 2.0 on October 05, 2009, 01:58:30 pm

 I play as Humans.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: kurokikaze on October 05, 2009, 03:06:28 pm

Quote from: Duke 2.0 on October 05, 2009, 01:58:30 pm

I play as Humans.

Now that's eccentric :)

I build separate room for all my dorfs (even those in the military) from the first day. I also decorate these rooms with random drawers/chest/tables.

Also i often floor nearby lakes - just to make some space.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Sensei on October 05, 2009, 03:16:57 pm

Even though I could usually sustain my entire fort for infinity with underground farming, I like to wall off an area (usually a very large one) outside. I also build a network of roads, and make them high traffic areas (originally to save the trees, but now because I like how it looks). ALWAYS smooth stone roads. I smooth the walls outside too, and make bridges- usually, a few years in, 70% of the map is a fortress, protected in absolute by sniper towers accessible only from underground, and divided up into choke points loaded with traps. There are NO opportunities to fire into the aboveground fort areas, and sniper posts and bridges are fortified. There are usually similar towers where caravans and ambushes come into the map.

And like I said, none of this is really necessary.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darkrider2 on October 05, 2009, 03:30:42 pm

when I build my production floors (the top 2 or 3 levels) I build four of every workshop so they are in neat squares.

I also LOVE using machines like screw pumps. I love using them to play with water... like making drowning chambers, waterfalls, dams, noble killing chambers. sad to say alot of my forts die of accidental superflooding.

Also everything must have doors... and hatches...every workshop room, stockpile room, everything.

And I always build the fort up, building a huge roof over the outside portion of the fort, and then building huge towers for archers.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Jim Groovester on October 05, 2009, 03:33:38 pm

I play as goblins.

Everybody has a phase where they want to play as humans, and when they want to build giant towering cities.

But who can say that they have a phase where they want to play as goblins?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Mapleleaf on October 05, 2009, 03:46:24 pm

I have a certain type of hierachy in my forts.

-I build a massive palace for my first expedition leader.
-I build a lot of luxury quarters around it to house my millitary's elites.
-Pillars.
I love making obelisks and pillars in big rooms, when a room is bigger than 2 z-levels, I always leave two obelisks standing in the middle, they're usually 2x2 or 3x3.
-Mausoleum and catacombs, same as with the housing, one gigantic mausoleum for my leader, surrounded by luxurious tombs for my elites.

Not really eccentric but still :P

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on October 05, 2009, 03:50:41 pm

Quote from: HastyLumbago on October 05, 2009, 05:13:30 am

3. I nearly always name my first dwarfs for the days of the week.

Dopey, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Doc, Bashful ;)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Doomshifter on October 05, 2009, 04:41:34 pm

I play kobolds. Each and every kobold has his or her place in my heart, as well as custom name and title. Sure there's not exactly that many of them, but my tiny little camp is good enough for them all. I've only had one major problem with them, and otherwise they've been perfect little darlings.

You shoulda seen how pleased I was when two of my kobolds fell in love! ^^

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Overspeculated on October 05, 2009, 05:53:03 pm

All my dwarves get buried in a coffin, and roughly 90% of those have a Note above their coffin describing the circumstances of their death and important facts about their lives.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Duuvian on October 05, 2009, 05:55:00 pm

I put my graveyard stockpile right outside the main entrance and the statue garden just beyond it, so on the way to the party dwarves have to climb over their rotting friends or just their skeleton.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Duke 2.0 on October 05, 2009, 05:58:25 pm

 I replaced kobolds with Olmmen.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darkflagrance on October 05, 2009, 06:17:54 pm

Quote from: Overspeculated on October 05, 2009, 05:53:03 pm

All my dwarves get buried in a coffin, and roughly 90% of those have a Note above their coffin describing the circumstances of their death and important facts about their lives.

I would probably do that if the notes and corpses survived into adventure mode or reclaim mode.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: denito on October 05, 2009, 06:31:45 pm

Quote from: HastyLumbago on October 05, 2009, 05:13:30 am

3. I nearly always name my first dwarfs for the days of the week.

That's an awesome idea.  I embarked on a new fortress today and I named them like this since you suggested it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Goron on October 05, 2009, 06:55:13 pm

Quote from: Overspeculated on October 05, 2009, 05:53:03 pm

All my dwarves get buried in a coffin, and roughly 90% of those have a Note above their coffin describing the circumstances of their death and important facts about their lives.

I like that idea...
I may copy you:-)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: martinuzz on October 05, 2009, 07:32:43 pm

I tend to place caged goblins in my archery range, in between the archery targets, with notes placed, like textballoons, with goblin screams and curses. And I laugh at the idea of those goblins being pummeled by misfired goblin bone bolts for the rest of their pathetic lives.

I usually make a small maze at the bottom level of my fort, and designate it as a personal statue garden for the dwarven philosopher.

My champions all get their own bedroom, with a personal tomb below it.

My legendaries all get their own bedrooms, and engrave it themselves. This is a bit of a micromanagement hassle, as I have to turn off the stone detailing job on all dwarves every time I get a legendary dwarf.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Iapetus on October 05, 2009, 07:36:13 pm

I like to keep track of where my dwarves came from and what befell them.

The original seven are given names (either a generic "Founder" or "Pioneer" etc, or alternatively something relating to their main job), while migrants are given a name indicating what wave they came in ("1st Wave", etc).

When a dwarf dies, I change its title to indicate the date and cause of death ("Winter 154.  Goblin siege).

Particularly noteworthy dwarves get their nickname changed to record their great deeds, for example 'Carpbane' Isankeskal LisatNekol, who fought and killed a murderous named carp in its own element, and escape to tell the tale (but was later tragically killed by a Nightwing that appeared on day).

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: RedWick on October 05, 2009, 08:17:54 pm

I have a tendency to make the gates to my fortress out of vertical grates and hook them up to a lever, like a portcullis.  This means that, even if I totally turtle up, the enemy can still shoot through the gates and potentially hurt my dwarves.  It's a pointless and silly risk, but I like how it looks and how it feels conceptually.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on October 05, 2009, 08:54:46 pm

I always make my fortress based around a spirling caravan pathway (7x7 needed to turn) which means that I build from the ground up and I remove my ability to lock invaders above ground, (maybe not so bad)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Puzzlemaker on October 05, 2009, 09:13:26 pm

Quote from: RedWick on October 05, 2009, 08:17:54 pm

I have a tendency to make the gates to my fortress out of vertical grates and hook them up to a lever, like a portcullis.  This means that, even if I totally turtle up, the enemy can still shoot through the gates and potentially hurt my dwarves.  It's a pointless and silly risk, but I like how it looks and how it feels conceptually.

Why don't you use a drawbridge and a portcullis, so the raised bridge can stop incoming bolts, but you can still have the portcullis?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: RedWick on October 05, 2009, 09:22:47 pm

Quote from: Puzzlemaker on October 05, 2009, 09:13:26 pm

Why don't you use a drawbridge and a portcullis, so the raised bridge can stop incoming bolts, but you can still have the portcullis?

It's never been a problem, and really, by the time I'm at the point where I'm being sieged, I can afford to lose a dwarf or two to a stray arrow.  Plus, the siegers almost never make it to the point where my dwarves would be at any risk (marksdwarves standing atop high towers see to that).  In actuality, I almost never close the gates.  I just leave them open and station my archers over top of the gateway and my melee dwarves at the entrance and wait for siegers to come to me.  Mind you, I only play vanilla, so they're not especially taxing.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Raminagrobis on October 08, 2009, 07:58:31 pm

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Hi world!

I never use traps, too overpowered, not *fun*. The only exception is cage traps for wildlife.

I don't optimize my fortresses anymore. Now I prefer to choose a cool starting location, with cliffs and valleys, and dig my fortress according to the landscape. Bonus point if it's original (ie fortress split in two by a valley, with a bridge connecting both sides...). I always try not to plan ahead.

Quote from: Iapetus on October 05, 2009, 07:36:13 pm

I like to keep track of where my dwarves came from and what befell them.

The original seven are given names (either a generic "Founder" or "Pioneer" etc, or alternatively something relating to their main job), while migrants are given a name indicating what wave they came in ("1st Wave", etc).

I do exactly the same thing. I also name the kids born in the fortress "local" or something like that. And I give them good jobs (admin, squad leader... not soapmaker or hauler).

If one of my dwarfs becomes a family guy (more than two children) he is allowed to do a less dangerous job. He'll never have to be a military ever again. Of course females with babies always become cook, or some other quiet job. I don't use babies as meatshields.

Offices are in a different part of the fortress than bedrooms, the "administrative part", even though this way nobles have to walk more and are less efficient.

Ah yes, also, I never kill any noble. If my mayor has decided my metalcrafters have to suffer for not making electrum toy boats, it's Armok's will, and I won't go against it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darkflagrance on October 09, 2009, 07:10:42 am

Although, I doubt anyone will gripe about inefficiency with regards to how you manage noble lifestyle, location, etc. They never really need to do any work, and there is at least one noble I'd like to see never work at all.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Adultratedhydra on October 09, 2009, 07:15:43 am

ive got 2 different start profiles.

One geared towards 6 miners and 1 trader and one geared towards all woodcutters and 1 trader.

wichever mood strikes me. im prepared for.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Shurikane on October 09, 2009, 10:14:04 am

-I have trouble parting with stone.  I compulsively save all stone I find.  Stone outside, I get it brought inside.  I convert the stone to block to save space.  I just can't get myself to get rid of any.  If I need to channel over a magma pit or someplace that's impossible to access, I get the stone moved out of the way first.

-I never give my military weapons, out of fear that they'll hurt each other when sparring.

-I also never give them armor, as I somehow have enough luck that the guys wearing armor almost always get killed first.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: AtomicPaperclip on October 09, 2009, 12:29:43 pm

Quote from: Shurikane on October 09, 2009, 10:14:04 am

-I have trouble parting with stone.  I compulsively save all stone I find.  Stone outside, I get it brought inside.  I convert the stone to block to save space.  I just can't get myself to get rid of any.  If I need to channel over a magma pit or someplace that's impossible to access, I get the stone moved out of the way first.

-I never give my military weapons, out of fear that they'll hurt each other when sparring.

-I also never give them armor, as I somehow have enough luck that the guys wearing armor almost always get killed first.

Me either D:

I do occasionally part with orthoclase or olivine or other abnoxious colored stones, but never rhiolite or diorite or especially obsidian.

It is annoying not being able to dump junk into a pit though.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Micr0 on October 09, 2009, 12:45:22 pm

Quote from: JubalHarshaw on October 05, 2009, 09:12:13 am

Quote from: XSI on October 05, 2009, 06:57:43 am

I've sort of made a sport of trying to get as many sparring injuries in my forts, masterwork steel weapons for everyone, we'll see about armour later.

Agreed, military service in most of my forts is an "Only the Strong (or Lucky) Survive" type of scenario. I figure if they die in training, they didn't have what it takes anyway.

Other eccentricities include noble-quality bedrooms and tombs for my Starting Seven dwarves, and if I'm feeling lazy and cheater-like, I usually de-construct the trade depot when a caravan is on it to loot all the stuff.

I thought I was the only one that did the natural selection sparring thing. I guess it's a good strategy, the weak get critically wounded or die, and the strong get trained.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Satarus on October 09, 2009, 02:45:42 pm

I start them off with silver weapons.  I never get anything more than a nervous system damage.  Those guys get crossbows if I need some more marksdwarves or they get inducted into the Royal Guard Dwarven Department of Veterans Affairs.

Maybe because I make sure they are legendary pump operators and at least elite wreslers before I give them weapons first.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Copper on October 09, 2009, 04:19:02 pm

Quote from: AtomicPaperclip

I do occasionally part with orthoclase or olivine or other abnoxious colored stones, but never rhiolite or diorite or especially obsidian.

:D I do the exact opposite - igneous stone is boring and gray and gets made into crafts to dump onto merchants while olivine and other colored stones are precious commodities and are hoarded mercilessly - woe befall any crafter foolish enough to waste it on mere trinkets.

In maps heavy with orthoclase/microcline I usually fashion them into doors since it mutes the color and they also look nice together if you have light colored walls.

I like to make sure the walls are a different color than the floors - this usually means paving all the rooms (ALL of them) with stones of pretty colors. Which of course have to made into blocks first. I also use wood/metal, even if I can't spare it - who cares if there aren't enough beds or the army doesn't have any hammers.

Also I always make lots of long, one tile wide food stockpiles in the dining room - dwarven buffet tables. Cooked food goes in in one with a smaller plant stockpile for the salad bar.

Likewise I sometimes put chairs (or tables depending on the way you want to look at it) in front of the similarly patterned drink stockpiles to make a bar - when we get burrows I'm going to make a tiny one with a drink hauler in it - he'll be the bartender.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: sproingie on October 09, 2009, 06:40:25 pm

Quote from: Raminagrobis on October 08, 2009, 07:58:31 pm

Ah yes, also, I never kill any noble. If my mayor has decided my metalcrafters have to suffer for not making electrum toy boats, it's Armok's will, and I won't go against it.

A mandate is just a noble's way of offering himself to Armok.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: denito on October 09, 2009, 08:02:31 pm

Quote from: Copper on October 09, 2009, 04:19:02 pm

Quote from: AtomicPaperclip

I do occasionally part with orthoclase or olivine or other abnoxious colored stones, but never rhiolite or diorite or especially obsidian.

:D I do the exact opposite - igneous stone is boring and gray and gets made into crafts to dump onto merchants while olivine and other colored stones are precious commodities and are hoarded mercilessly - woe befall any crafter foolish enough to waste it on mere trinkets.

I looove Cinnabar.  If I strike Cinnabar and Native Gold at the same time, I go for the Cinnabar first so I can make everything red.  It'll be awefulawesome if Toady ever makes the game treat Cinnabar as poisonous.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Dakoth on October 09, 2009, 10:26:36 pm

Quote from: Raminagrobis on October 08, 2009, 07:58:31 pm

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Hi world!

(http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn245/tedtheviking/DF/FishyStick.jpg)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Raminagrobis on October 10, 2009, 08:29:41 am

Quote from: Adultratedhydra on October 09, 2009, 07:15:43 am

ive got 2 different start profiles.

One geared towards 6 miners and 1 trader and one geared towards all woodcutters and 1 trader.

wichever mood strikes me. im prepared for.

This must cost you a lot of dwarfbuck in copper axes on embark. Wait, you don't take the anvil, do you?

Quote from: Lord Dakoth on October 09, 2009, 10:26:36 pm

Quote from: Raminagrobis on October 08, 2009, 07:58:31 pm

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Hi world!

(http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn245/tedtheviking/DF/FishyStick.jpg)

Hey, I love fishsticks! errr, I mean... You know.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Akhier the Dragon hearted on October 10, 2009, 09:15:26 am

Quote from: Raminagrobis on October 10, 2009, 08:29:41 am

Quote from: Lord Dakoth on October 09, 2009, 10:26:36 pm

Quote from: Raminagrobis on October 08, 2009, 07:58:31 pm

Long time lurker, first time poster here. Hi world!

(http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn245/tedtheviking/DF/FishyStick.jpg)

Hey, I love fishsticks! errr, I mean... You know.

Ya I know, in your mouth right?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Dakoth on October 10, 2009, 12:39:48 pm

No no, it's NOT a penis joke!

On the Elder Scrolls forum, it's customary to welcome new members by giving them a fishy stick. I'm just bringing that tradition here.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: XSI on October 10, 2009, 12:53:17 pm

You know, that counts as eccentric behaviour, so it fits in perfectly at this thread. :P

Besides that, I noticed today that I always try to make (Green) glass windows as a wall when replacing underground walls I dug out, instead of just walling it up.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Magua on October 10, 2009, 02:30:23 pm

Eccentricities:

1) Tombs/coffins are setup in either one of two ways:
   a.  At the bottommost z-level, in the Halls of Silence, or
   b.  In the legendary dining room.

Crafts forts tend towards a), Sparta forts tend towrads b).  Regardless, every dead dwarf gets a (N)ote about their cause of death or anything else of interest I remember about them.

2) Rank and file dwarves get the exact same room type -- all furniture made of the same stone, with the exact same layout.  It's very hotel-ish.  Legendary dwarves or nobles get individualized rooms.  I will often theme them based on a material the dwarf likes.

3) Any member of my military's goal is to become legendary with all weapons -- wrestler, hammer, mace, axe, sword, spear, crossbow, in that order.  Thus, for fighting off ambushes, I am often sending champions who are legendary with their axe out with swords, which they are dabbling at.  Soldiers who suffer nervous injuries are relieved from duty if they are below elite, or switched to marksdwarf immediately. 

4) I love making plumbing, but I hate deconstructing walls.  So I install doors *everywhere*, even into things like pressurized magma pipes.  This has caused more than one curious child to die, as I tend to also not remember to lock the doors.

5) I never use artifacts to bump up a noble's room value -- they always go into a vault or a museum.

6) Traps are for catching wildlife.  Ambushes and sieges are handled by military.  I will sometimes make an exception and have a single line of cage traps set up in an entranceway so I'm not bothered by snatchers; in this case, I will often set up death mazes full of traps to deal with the captives.

7) Large rooms tend to be setup in some multiple of 10, plus one -- the size of designating a tile, and then shift-arrow'ing in some direction.

8) I very, very, very rarely dump things.  Even if I've got 3000 diorite lying around, I will setup craftsdwarves to pump out trade goods rather than dump it.  I *will* offer things (as in, give them for free) to caravans in preference to dumping them.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Gothmog on October 10, 2009, 04:28:53 pm

1. I always ignore my dwarve's needs. Like in my current fortress, setting up the epic entrance with 2 z-level lake-like moat and pillboxes for marksdwarves was more important than "farming" or "brewing". What do you mean "I'm thirsty"? Go drink from the well. No, I don't care about "snakemen" in the well. DRINK.

2. I never build temporary fortresses. It's the real thing, or nothing. That means that all food, drinks and idlers will be stored safely in my entrance for the first few years, since that is were everything goes as soon as I start digging.

3.Ever since reading Nisth Akath I build central stairways whenever possible, with graves at the bottom (sometimes). It's not only practical, but also fun.

4.When I get bored I start to build little "places" all over my fortress, especially when I have a lot of old stuff lying around. Example: After mining a gem pocket out I don't just wall it up but smooth and engrave it. Maybe put a statue in there and then wall it up. Or smooth and engrave an old ore vein for no reason before forgetting it somewhere in the deep mines.
Future generations of dwarves and archaeologists could find it and... look at it or something. Same goes for little mined-out spaces along my entrance road or just somewhere in the wilderness (because of mining out gems or whatever). After smoothing it and putting some chairs/tables and statues in there it sure is nice for travelers, traders.. you know.

5.Uniformity. All rooms have the same color, same interior, furniture has the same color for everyone, multiple z-levels with the exact same apartments copied over and over. Also: symmetry.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Zruku on October 10, 2009, 07:05:11 pm

Every one of my migrant dwarves has to serve the military for one year. If they survive I make sure they get nice bedrooms. If they get a ton of kills/legendary they become fortress guard, those who survive and destroy sieges get special rooms.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Reasonableman on October 10, 2009, 09:47:22 pm

I build in 10x10 blocks almost without exception. Those few times I do try something new, it has to be perfectly symmetrical along at least one axis.

Oh, another thing. If I want to build an aboveground storehouse, it HAS to be cylindrical, like a silo. This is a massive pain, but I am compelled to do it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Shade-o on October 11, 2009, 01:11:53 am

Quote from: denito on October 09, 2009, 08:02:31 pm

Quote from: Copper on October 09, 2009, 04:19:02 pm

Quote from: AtomicPaperclip

I do occasionally part with orthoclase or olivine or other abnoxious colored stones, but never rhiolite or diorite or especially obsidian.

:D I do the exact opposite - igneous stone is boring and gray and gets made into crafts to dump onto merchants while olivine and other colored stones are precious commodities and are hoarded mercilessly - woe befall any crafter foolish enough to waste it on mere trinkets.

I looove Cinnabar.  If I strike Cinnabar and Native Gold at the same time, I go for the Cinnabar first so I can make everything red.  It'll be awefulawesome if Toady ever makes the game treat Cinnabar as poisonous.

A blood-red stone that makes any Dwarf that touches it go mad and die? It might just be the crystallized blood of Armok!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Akhier the Dragon hearted on October 11, 2009, 01:52:36 am

It's like solid magma only instead of heat and fire it uses poison and  toxins!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Shade-o on October 11, 2009, 03:36:13 am

Quote from: Akhier the Dragon hearted on October 11, 2009, 01:52:36 am

It's like solid magma only instead of heat and fire it uses poison and  toxins!

I smell the opportunity for a new way of eliminating Elf caravans.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Demonic Spoon on October 11, 2009, 03:55:38 am

Well known and used, especially by that one person with the dancy elf girl avatar, think name starts with 's' skorpion

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on October 11, 2009, 11:59:16 am

Anyone who makes an artifact gets their bedroom engraved. Even if it takes me a couple of seasons to find their room.

Also, I try to build symmetrically, but for some reason only once I'm at least three levels below the surface.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: slink on October 11, 2009, 05:32:43 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on October 11, 2009, 11:59:16 am

Even if it takes me a couple of seasons to find their room.

You can find someone's room fairly quickly by using the "r" list.

I'm still developing my DF eccentricities, but I've put in the All Economic Stones mod so I can control what stone is being used where, along with a recycle entry that I use on the fly to recycle anything made by mistake when I forget to set something back to non-use after using it for a special purpose.  One advantage of this is that I'm learning item tokens.   :D

I tend to try to build pyramids above my underground fortresses, not for any good reason except that I like pyramids.  They have no function for the Dwarves, so far.  Just recently I started centering my central staircase under the intended peak of the pyramid-to-be.

I dislike losing stone into magma, where it never really goes away, so I have the Dwarves haul all the rock off the surface where I intend to build magma-utilizing buildings.  Just recently I learned about boiling off unwanted stone types by setting their boiling point to 0.  It's fun!

I often cut a ramp into dried ponds so that my Dwarves can recover the ammunition lost during the rainy season.  We scavange everything.   ;D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Tryptic on October 11, 2009, 06:04:19 pm

I have a few...

One is "Heating".  I always build bedrooms near magma.  If the magma has yet to be found, or is too far from the planned room, I'll use a set of heating ducts.  I figure my dwarves should stay warm.

Next is Coffins.  They go in nobles rooms.  Specifically, they go into the Mayor's bedroom, unless a baron comes along, then they go in their bedroom.  I expect my Mayor to feel adequate contrition for any lives lost while under his command.
The only time this is not the case is the occasional "lost an entire squad in an ambush".  They get dropped into magma, while the Mayor delivers a speech.

Thirdly, my Fortress Guard is merit only.  Specifically, if I wind up needing to "distract" an ambush I wasn't expecting/prepared for.  I draft one dwarf, while my champions get into place.  If he lives, Guard (usually Captain).  If he dies, massive tomb, the works.

Lastly, I set my dining rooms up like restaurants, with little cubicles, and paired tables, and the like.  It's a very cozy, intimate type of setup.  Also, I almost never have any bedrooms that aren't barracks/noble's quarters.  I like the cozy feel.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Shima on October 11, 2009, 06:50:37 pm

I combine mining, quarrying stone, training engravers, defense, and deathtrap all in one:

I dig a long (3-5 bridges long), thin (3-5 tiles wide) channel, bridge it (Raising at the fort end, the rest retract), and then we dig ALL the way to the bottom, smoothing each layer and bringing the stone up with a garbage dump.

That alone trains engravers almost to max, gets us enough stone for the life of the fortress, and is a perfect defense as long as someone pulls the lever, which I keep in the dining room to ensure there's always someone to pull it.


I also have well-made tombs for all heroes, who also get nice rooms when alive.  Both the Hall of Dead Heroes and the Hall of Heroes have long lines of statues to represent our heroes.



Just the same, I try to have the dining hall in a central place, with a huge pillar in the middle.  If I can, I also dig it out so it's a large, engraved obelisk in the middle of the dining hall.  Bonus if I can get them sun safely so they don't vomit should they need to go outside.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Zwebie on October 11, 2009, 11:33:18 pm

Quote from: Duke 2.0 on October 05, 2009, 01:30:41 pm

SYMMETRY!
 YOU! GROUND! I don't dig you 'till I figure out the absolute perfect thing to add to you. NEVER 'TILL THEN!
 You leader, you will be named after a god. YOUR POSITION IS RA, SUN GOD.
 I need a pit! I'm not even going to drop anything down it, I just want a pit! And no weaksauce 5x5 pits either, half the goddam mountain is gonna be an underground pit when I'm done.

Sigged.

I name my first seven dwarves after the Seven Dwarves from Snow White. That's... That's about it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: UristMcGunsmith on October 12, 2009, 04:33:55 am

I play as elves.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Assassinfox on October 12, 2009, 10:06:45 am

When talking to the trade liaison, I always request meat from the most deadly creatures on the list just because I like to imagine the civilization sacrificing hundreds of people in order to procure the meat.

"Sir!  We've already lost 10 men!  Why are we attacking this Giant Cave Spider nest?!"
"Cakerape wants Giant Cave Spider meat, so we're gonna get it for them!  Our society will fall apart without their alunite mugs!"

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: kilakan on October 12, 2009, 11:21:10 am

I ALWAYS, cancel any weddings, I don't believe in marriage, and so I force my dwarves to not believe in it either, though I encourage parties.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Rolan7 on October 12, 2009, 12:53:10 pm

I make a hall of records: every season, I dig out a new square of a 1-width tunnel, and have my legendary engraver record the three most interesting events of the season.  Sadly the founding of the civilization was apparently so incredibly epic that hundreds of years later, in terrifying skeleton-infested mountains full of magmaworks and artifacts, it's the only thing master artisans can think of to engrave about.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darkflagrance on October 12, 2009, 03:49:12 pm

I also worry about the same thing as the above poster.

Thus, when I decide to appoint engravers, I carefully review the candidates before enabling the labor. Those I choose must at least "have a fertile imagination". Appreciating art is also an advantage.

I give my engravers tombs that they themselves have engraved when they die. It is a sad day when one of them falls in one of my fortresses. In my latest fortress, I have a hall specifically dedicated to honoring the work and sacrifices of my engravers.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Korbac on October 12, 2009, 04:30:41 pm

I give my families names in their "custom profession" tag, and give people names when they reach ~6 attributes.

I also look after my dwarves, and never attempt to kill or lose any. When a dwarf dies it is a day of sadness.

The exception to this rule is the Hammerer, who I used to starve and will now drown with my new drowning chamber.  ;D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Blackburn on October 12, 2009, 05:53:29 pm

I'm putting this under a spoiler tag because the list is very long and VERY boring.

I'm unsure as to whether or not the stuff I do is unique or normal. I know most of it is dumb, though.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Workshops never touch the walls.

Workshops of similar services (like masons and carpenters) get jammed into the same rooms or in rooms close together, often close to their needed stockpiles.

All my rooms are square or rectangle. And I plan ahead; I make huge stockpiles for everything, even junk I don't have or need. My initial meeting hall is usually big enough to house fifty dwarves.

I make long lines of tables and chairs, and they don't touch the walls of the meeting hall. In fact, I try to keep everything from touching the walls.

My barracks are huge and have lots of beds.

I obsessively dig out all gems, regardless of any plans I had for the area.

I build a five-tile-wide corridor deep into a mountain, carve out a room there for the trade depot, then start the fortress from there.

When I start making bedrooms, they're all the same 2x2 square with identical set-ups and I have halls dug around them, even if no one has any business walking through the halls.

Speaking of halls, all rooms connect to a two-tile-wide hallway that twists throughout the entire fort. No exceptions. These halls are always smoothed when I have free time.

I rarely extend to z-levels beyond my starting one, as I'm obsessed with using all the space I have. If I manage to do that, then I go down. Efficient floor plans? What are those?

I chisel away at mountain- and hill-sides, smoothing them into flat surfaces. And I dig away all slopes near the entrance to my fort, even if I have no reason because the entrance is a huge corridor.

I handle food stockpile overflow by cooking everything into roasts.

The only things I don't cook are dwarven booze and dwarven seeds for making dwarven plants for making dwarven booze. All other plants, seeds, and booze are allowed to be cooked/eaten.

I collapse random hills for fun. This tends to be my leading cause of death for miners.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Gunner-Chan on October 12, 2009, 05:59:49 pm

I have an odd habit of building aboveground mostly, but making a bunker like underground fortress stocked with spare stuff for hard times.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Zruku on October 12, 2009, 06:37:35 pm

Quote from: UristMcGunsmith on October 12, 2009, 04:33:55 am

I play as elves.

Ready the magma pits

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Mechanoid on October 12, 2009, 06:41:47 pm

Besides modding the game so that there is only a white color stone that produces by reaction a reduced amount of metals (the majority of the alloys get deleted) and altering creature spawns so that the magma and water features are naturally clear of them...

Golden Rule: Minimum 3x3 bedrooms with no-quality furniture for dwarves, going so far as to setup a reaction to give exactly a bed, metal chest, wood cabinet, wood armor stand, stone weapon rack, stone table, wood chair, and wooden door to make sure they all get the exact same treatment. Wether or not the room is smoothed depends.

- Only allow east/west doorways because of the designation rule where the dwarf will prefer to engrave the east wall face first and then the west wall face; so that all engravings are "inside" the room.
- 2 tile thick walls so that each room gets it's own smoothing/engraving, 1 tile thick walls only for rooms that will not be smoothed
- Try to stick to the old 7x7 cave-in rule.
- Lowest two levels reserved specifically for plumbing.
- Third lowest level is 'street' level, the rest of the fortress is built upwards from it.
- Other rules probably mentioned before by other people.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Chewykittens on October 12, 2009, 07:21:34 pm

I curl the ends of defensive walls in and build ramps along them.

If I can help it, and if the trees are broad leaf, I only cut lumber in the winter. I don't like the idea of my dwarfs having to deal with leaves.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: UristMcGunsmith on October 13, 2009, 01:35:11 am

Quote from: Zruku on October 12, 2009, 06:37:35 pm

Quote from: UristMcGunsmith on October 12, 2009, 04:33:55 am

I play as elves.

Ready the magma pits

Lol sup Zruku, it's Teks from 420chan.

Anyways, Zruku here doesn't like playing in terrifying biomes or playing deadly challenges. He views those who do as "masochists" and "sadists".

PHOOEY

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Shrike on October 13, 2009, 12:59:13 pm

Quote from: UristMcGunsmith on October 12, 2009, 04:33:55 am

I play as elves.

I play as elves that hate trees and eat goblin and orc bones almost exclusively in their massive, miasma- and smoke- generating 'blighthome'.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Dakoth on October 13, 2009, 01:04:09 pm

So... they offspring of Cacame or something?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Shrike on October 13, 2009, 01:24:40 pm

It's an experiment to see if they can be made even as fractionally awesome as the great king.

It starts to fall apart when they choke to death on bones and start tantrum spirals. Which, being elves, I call 'Huffs' or 'Snitfits'.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Blackburn on October 13, 2009, 03:50:00 pm

A bunch of elves slapping each other while complaining. How fort-destroying.


I haven't done this yet, but I plan on always minting coins (yes, I know the problems behind it) and locking it behind a big vault with multiple doors. Perhaps golden, silver, and copper doors.

No dwarves will have any coins. Even if I have to lock them in the vault and leave them to die and rot, no dwarves will walk out of there with any coins. Perhaps I'll lock a metalsmith in there with a forge and materials and leave him to make coins until he dies. So as to not risk him picking up any.

If I ever figure out how to utilize magma in my forts, I will build magma traps that lead into the vault in order to melt any dwarf who somehow gets in and picks up any coins. Even though the magma will destroy the coins.

No coins for anyone. The coins stay in the vault.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Vactor on October 13, 2009, 03:52:19 pm

I build fences using vertical axles as posts, and 3 tile long horizontal axles as stringers.  I build them along the edges of my outdoor block roads that have traffic designations.  I also use vertical axles as posts on either side of where a bridge connects to the ground.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: cowofdoom78963 on October 13, 2009, 06:37:26 pm

I prefer playing Satyrs that live on physics breaking towers.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Zruku on October 13, 2009, 06:55:53 pm

Quote from: UristMcGunsmith on October 13, 2009, 01:35:11 am

Quote from: Zruku on October 12, 2009, 06:37:35 pm

Quote from: UristMcGunsmith on October 12, 2009, 04:33:55 am

I play as elves.

Ready the magma pits

Lol sup Zruku, it's Teks from 420chan.

Anyways, Zruku here doesn't like playing in terrifying biomes or playing deadly challenges. He views those who do as "masochists" and "sadists".

PHOOEY

I don't like it because 1. I always spend hours finding a good site, and 2. I play with dig deeper making most places already a bitch.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: kilakan on October 13, 2009, 08:03:44 pm

Quote from: Zruku on October 13, 2009, 06:55:53 pm

Quote from: UristMcGunsmith on October 13, 2009, 01:35:11 am

Quote from: Zruku on October 12, 2009, 06:37:35 pm

Quote from: UristMcGunsmith on October 12, 2009, 04:33:55 am

I play as elves.

Ready the magma pits

Lol sup Zruku, it's Teks from 420chan.

Anyways, Zruku here doesn't like playing in terrifying biomes or playing deadly challenges. He views those who do as "masochists" and "sadists".

PHOOEY

I don't like it because 1. I always spend hours finding a good site, and 2. I play with dig deeper making most places already a bitch.

I play with dig deeper too, and only ever embark on high terrifying/savage maps, and anyone who can't handle the loss of a dozen or so wood cutters, aren't courageous enough to be even elves.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Count Dorku on October 30, 2009, 10:01:41 pm

I have a few odd habits.

Firstly, there's my Inanely Convoluted Engineering habit. In order to build a pump (a SINGLE pump mind you) to flood a very limited area from the nearest brook, I built something like a dozen windmills and an absurd number of axels. To make this even more of a triumph of overengineering, it goes three storeys down, links up at the gears, then goes up another four storeys, then shifts around the original holes in the ground for the original windmills (which are subterranean except at the centre), and finally grinds to a halt at an actual pump.

Then there's the tunnel messages. I'm prone to writing things like "oh crap" by digging it out of the rock.

I've also had a bizarre naming theme - I gave everyone names out of Paranoia and tried to dig out the message "THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND". I only stopped when I couldn't figure out a good system for linking clearance and skill levels, and I didn't have material of the right colours to put together clearances.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kietharr on October 30, 2009, 10:34:29 pm

No idling allowed, ever. Not much demand for your leatherworking around in between catsplosions? Pick up a pick and dig your heart out, or make some stone blocks. Or go spar if you're not legendary so I can use you as fodder needbe and draft you out of partying or breaks without a sad thought.

I also do the thing where I have a coffin for every dwarf and I give them a headstone with notes. Sometimes I'm more specific or I leave disparaging remarks on their stone if they died in a very stupid way (Here lies Morul, who should have taken the all dwarves stay indoors order more seriously).

I treat nonlegendary dwarves like garbage. They get a fancy meeting hall and fancy food, but their rooms aren't engraved unless I'm seriously short of things to do, and I won't hesitate to mass draft them and give them nothing but wooden crossbows and bone bolts to fend off sieges in order to limit casualties on my masterwork steel champions. Any jobs that imply suicide or danger like tapping magma pipes, fishing, woodcutting, outdoor masonry or digging and hunting are automatically assigned to the red shirts that are my migrants. Sometimes I will give one a crappy weapon and send him into the prisoner pit to clean it out, or die trying.

I also pit my prisoners of war and caged beasts but I pretty much never clean out the pit or anything, so it just ends up being a bunch of goblins and shit in there with broken bones and horrible injuries crawling around and passing out, with the occasional death from wounds (usually from a goblin hitting a stone trap then crawling into the cage before getting pitted).

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dante on October 31, 2009, 06:27:15 am

i'm pretty obsessive-compulsive with fort design. I make a multi-z-level aboveground fort where each z-level, and almost all the furniture in it, are only composed of a single substance, and home to a single type of industry. So on the wooden level I have carpenters and woodcrafters, on the tallow level I have kitchens and farms, etc. I try to go from best to worst value, so I have nobles at the very top of the fort _{close to the bridgeapults} where they can admire the view.

If I do dig my fort underground, usually something goes wrong and I end up digging out a 100x100x100 space in which to rebuild the way I wanted it :(

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Luraien on October 31, 2009, 07:49:58 am

I dont really do this anymore (it's hell for my [ u ] ) but I'd capture a load of goblins and make a glass room with ten dogs in. I'd have tables and chairs on the outside of the glass and a pit above the room. I'd 'feed' the dogs twice every hour or so playing. The dwarves would clean it out once miasma appears, through a dwarf-only passable door.

Also I seem to go sacrifice crazy when theres a magma/chasm hole, I build a platform leading to the middle then chuck in a goblin or horse every now and again. Don't know why I do it, guess it's just an excuse to magma something.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on October 31, 2009, 08:08:41 am

When new migrants come onto my map, they are sorted into useful and useless.

The useful are given luxurious accomodations, ushered into the fortress with much celebrity, escorted by the Iron Guard. Useful being defined as any dwarf with skill in a job I currently have need for, useless being defined as everyone else.

Once the useful are taken care of, I turn to the useless. If I need recruits for the Iron guard, the useless are handed a wooden or silver training weapon and a suit of leather armor. They are then placed in squad with the Training Master, who is a grizzled old champion hammerdwarf with an artifact lead warhammer and masterwork iron platemail. They stay in training with him until injured so badly they cannot keep fighting, at which point they are dragged off to the barracks. Assuming the injuries are non-permanent, they are officially designated an Iron Guard recruit and placed in the training squad with other recruits until they are promoted to champion status, at which time they join the Iron Guard.

When I do not need recruits, the useless dwarves are given a pick and sent into the Hall of Failure, a large cavern excavated in the side of the mountain. They are made to dig a small 3x1 room from the hall, make a statue and coffin at the masons shops there in the hall, set up their own statue and coffin, and then use a piece of stone to seal themselves into the tomb with a wall. Once they die of starvation and neglect, the tomb is opened briefly to strip the useless dwarf of his clothing and pick and to inter him in the coffin he made for himself.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Mightymuffin on October 31, 2009, 08:45:46 am

I take my army's recruitment rather seriously. Under no circumstances will I recruit anyone but male peasants, and only then will I pick peasants with names preferably beginning with M like Minkot or Mafol or Momuz as my leaders, and when I have everything set up, they'll have to prove themselves by fighting goblins completely unarmed.

Women are generally sent to work in the fortress kitchens, farms or looms anyway so that I can quietly amuse myself by creating a successful but incredibly misogynist fortress.

It's also my intention to, as my expedition leader has recently fallen in love, seal his lover in a small room and have him mine his way in in a sort of damsel in distress-rescue thing.
I shall listen to "The Spinners - Working My Way Back to You" while this occurs.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darkrider2 on October 31, 2009, 09:26:51 am

I build my siege ammo stockpiles in columns with 2 spaces between and one space between the column and the wall, so that none of the siege ammo overlaps anything.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on October 31, 2009, 11:45:22 am

The dimensions of every single room in my fort can be related to the number 7.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grendus on October 31, 2009, 01:31:00 pm

When I get peasants, I sort them as such:

Any dwarf with a useful but redundant skill (such as an immigrant armorsmith) becomes a Hauler. They do all the unskilled labor jobs (making ash->potash->pearlash, cutting wood, building walls and traps, hauling, etc.)

Any dwarf with a moderately useful but unskilled job (thresher, miller, furnace operator, etc) becomes a soldier. They're given high quality steel and leather (because I have too much steel on a fort with chalk, coal, and magnetite), trained to legendary, and spend most of their time off duty except when I have a siege/lagspike.

Any dwarf with a useless or no skills (soap makers, animal trainers, potash makers, etc) becomes cannon fodder. They wear leather, train as wrestlers, and are sent in first. Any canon fodder who gets a title gets upgraded to soldier.


I'm building a giant goblin pachinko board (thus the pearlash, one wall will be solid clear glass windows to watch). When I'm done, I'll let my dwarves play pachinko for furniture in their rooms (or a room if they don't already have one).

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darthbob88 on October 31, 2009, 01:54:30 pm

I build everything RPT everything out of blocks; it's a good use of my masons and stone, and it makes things more valuable and admirable. I also buy and melt any metal crafts the caravans bring, since I can do more with iron bars than I can with large/narrow/small iron gear.

One other thing I like to do is make steel sarcophagi and build a graveyard in my obsidian farm; all the dwarven heroes of old can rest in peace, slumbering in the heart of the mountain. Naturally, those poor bastards who died because they couldn't get inside quickly enough get poorer coffins in the catacombs. If it weren't for the sad thought that comes with destroying the remains of a loved one, I'd just set all the coffins in there, for a Dwarven Crematorium.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: HFS on October 31, 2009, 03:08:24 pm

I play as, well...You have three guesses, and the first two don't count.

I play with a couple mods other than that, which I also made myself.

If I'm not playing as the obvious, then I follow a design based on which race I'm playing as.

Dwarves? Private bedrooms, dining rooms, offices, and tombs for everyone.

Humans? An aboveground city.

Elves? Bridge over magma pipe. Get everyone on it. Pull lever. 'Nuff said.

Goblins? Large aboveground obsidian fortresses (not necessarily towers).

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darthbob88 on November 01, 2009, 02:58:54 pm

Another thing I like to do, tying in with my procedure for dealing with POWs, is use naked goblins to train my military; lock them in a room with a half-competent axedwarf, or a squad of newbies, or just let the marksdwarves shoot them through the fortifications. Their bones then get used for bolts and decoration, and their skulls are used to pave my entrances. Because a) I don't sell enough skull totems to justify it, and b) It's dwarfy as anything.

Might or might not be eccentric, but these days I'm making everything I can out of green glass, barring those things that need to be made of military-grade material. Because magma == infinite glass == free furniture.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Cruxador on November 01, 2009, 03:45:32 pm

I've got a couple. I base my fortress designs around a single large stairwell, with auxiliary stairwells placed as needed. The main one has a drop n the middle all the way to the lowest z-level. The sole purpose of this is for dwarves to fall down. My stairwells always extend at least a bit into the air as towers, the main one always reaches the top.

Often, I'll intentionally make things more hectic, putting rooms in weird places or shapes to avoid repeating square patterns. I dig extensive, complicated catacombs at the bottom z-level.

Recently, I've taken to putting caged goblins everywhere.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on November 01, 2009, 03:47:55 pm

Quote from: Grendus on October 31, 2009, 01:31:00 pm

When I get peasants, I sort them as such:

Any dwarf with a useful but redundant skill (such as an immigrant armorsmith) becomes a Hauler. They do all the unskilled labor jobs (making ash->potash->pearlash, cutting wood, building walls and traps, hauling, etc.)

Any dwarf with a moderately useful but unskilled job (thresher, miller, furnace operator, etc) becomes a soldier. They're given high quality steel and leather (because I have too much steel on a fort with chalk, coal, and magnetite), trained to legendary, and spend most of their time off duty except when I have a siege/lagspike.

Any dwarf with a useless or no skills (soap makers, animal trainers, potash makers, etc) becomes cannon fodder. They wear leather, train as wrestlers, and are sent in first. Any canon fodder who gets a title gets upgraded to soldier.


I'm building a giant goblin pachinko board (thus the pearlash, one wall will be solid clear glass windows to watch). When I'm done, I'll let my dwarves play pachinko for furniture in their rooms (or a room if they don't already have one).

1:  Time for a Marxist revolution!  Cannon fodder around the world rise up and unite!  ::)
2:  How are you making a Pachinko board when goblins don't....bounce?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grendus on November 01, 2009, 11:43:58 pm

Quote from: Dvergar on November 01, 2009, 03:47:55 pm

Quote from: Grendus on October 31, 2009, 01:31:00 pm

When I get peasants, I sort them as such:

Any dwarf with a useful but redundant skill (such as an immigrant armorsmith) becomes a Hauler. They do all the unskilled labor jobs (making ash->potash->pearlash, cutting wood, building walls and traps, hauling, etc.)

Any dwarf with a moderately useful but unskilled job (thresher, miller, furnace operator, etc) becomes a soldier. They're given high quality steel and leather (because I have too much steel on a fort with chalk, coal, and magnetite), trained to legendary, and spend most of their time off duty except when I have a siege/lagspike.

Any dwarf with a useless or no skills (soap makers, animal trainers, potash makers, etc) becomes cannon fodder. They wear leather, train as wrestlers, and are sent in first. Any canon fodder who gets a title gets upgraded to soldier.


I'm building a giant goblin pachinko board (thus the pearlash, one wall will be solid clear glass windows to watch). When I'm done, I'll let my dwarves play pachinko for furniture in their rooms (or a room if they don't already have one).

1:  Time for a Marxist revolution!  Cannon fodder around the world rise up and unite!  ::)
2:  How are you making a Pachinko board when goblins don't....bounce?

Goblins don't bounce, but they can be bridgeapulted. Use retracting bridges to keep them from being atom smashed. My last attempted pachinko board died to lag, so I've lowered the max population to 100. Should work.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Sleetmonster on November 02, 2009, 12:33:49 am

I've got a few eccentricities myself.
For one, my favorite area to strike the earth is in a recess on the cliff face with a small hill directly in front of it, making a sort of C shaped area. I'll wall the exposed sides up and remove the ramps within. And the hill gets turned into the main barracks, spanning its z-levels and ending in a tower (if I make it that far.)

Also, if I'm ever digging out a large area to eventually fill with water, I like to put some interesting feature in there, usually a statue. Just for kicks.

My fortresses seem usually to start off as a 2 or 3 tile wide hallway leading into a large room before branching off. That room usually ends up being a dining room, which is invariably oval-shaped and with four pillars (not actual pillars, just unmined stone that I can have engraved later.)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Tael on November 02, 2009, 12:56:58 am

Quote from: Dvergar on October 31, 2009, 11:45:22 am

The dimensions of every single room in my fort can be related to the number 7.

First post on page 7?
I think you were just waiting for that weren't you?

On that note:
I'm obsessed with designating out my fortress, and trying to anticipate EVERYTHING I ever might need, and get everything done before I need it.
Needless to say, I spend more time paused and designating stuff than I do running my fortress.
I also have a nasty habit of trying to make a pseudo noble out of one of my dwarves -- architect/trader with no hauling labors, no special labors, and they get a FAR FAR larger and nicer room/office than any of the other starting seven.
Each of the starting seven have rooms of AT LEAST 3x4 size for bedrooms, and 3x4 sized office/dining rooms. Bedrooms also get at least two chests/storage locations.

On a separate note: Anyone have a worldgen for a nice 3x3-4x4 embark area with HFS right next to the ocean?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Haedrian on November 02, 2009, 07:57:07 am

(not so eccentric) - All my animals have only 1 male / species and the rest are all females. All other males are slaughtered at birth

(~ eccentric) - All military dwarves are used to build constructions before they finally get drafted.

I love green glass. Eventually I start filling everywhere with glass furnatures.

All high-ranking siege prisoners get a false trial and then get executed by firing squad. Everyone else either gets drowned (if I have water), or take part in the Gladiator contests. In my current fort, I'm going to build a temple with a 'sacrificial pit'.

Oh right: I also insist on levelling any mountains I can see to the ground. This usually takes ages and kills my framerate

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dorf3000 on November 02, 2009, 09:26:05 am

My only ec-center-ic behavior is.. damn, I just gave it away.  If I have a feature like a pit or a magma pipe or something, it has to be centered.  I absolutely detest having it stuck on the edge of my map, and I've abandoned forts before because they were dug a few tiles off-center and didn't connect to some underground feature properly.  If I dig circular rooms they have to be perfect circles (well, as close to perfect as possible anyway) - no rounded squares or odd shapes for me.
Slightly less eccentric is the compulsion to mine out each and every ore tile, going so far as to train up legendary miners first before digging out an early gem patch or something.  I just can't dig out a bunch of rooms and leave some ore walls in there.  Heck, I've used reveal before just to check I wasn't putting the next bedroom complex in a bunch of gems.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on November 02, 2009, 04:05:11 pm

Quote from: Tael on November 02, 2009, 12:56:58 am

Quote from: Dvergar on October 31, 2009, 11:45:22 am

The dimensions of every single room in my fort can be related to the number 7.

First post on page 7?
I think you were just waiting for that weren't you?

No, actually I only noticed that after I posted, I didn't realize I would start a page or even what page I was posting on.....you are very observative

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on November 02, 2009, 05:04:08 pm

Quote from: Dvergar on November 02, 2009, 04:05:11 pm

Quote from: Tael on November 02, 2009, 12:56:58 am

Quote from: Dvergar on October 31, 2009, 11:45:22 am

The dimensions of every single room in my fort can be related to the number 7.

First post on page 7?
I think you were just waiting for that weren't you?

No, actually I only noticed that after I posted, I didn't realize I would start a page or even what page I was posting on.....you are very observative

Too bad you weren't six posts later, really.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: LeoLeonardoIII on November 02, 2009, 05:36:25 pm

1 - I use the color stones to build workshops. My stone workshops are one color, wood workshops another, etc. I use red stones for my butcher/tanner. The workshops always all have doors (even the ones that can't get a fey mood) and the door matches the workshop color.

2 - I do the spiraling wagon ramp downward. It's actually pretty quick for dwarves on foot, and you can predictably place traps on the ground where you know the enemy will walk.

3 - I always have a little aboveground maze so enemies have someplace to die before getting underground. That means my moronic little entrance-dancers won't ever have to see them until I let them stay outside.

4 - I like making huge Rube Goldberg devices that start with a lever pull and end with some crazy effect. I made one that unlocked the food stockpile and took a whole year to run through. My dwarves were all so hungry and tired of eating vermin by the time it finally opened.

5 - I hate the Hammerer. I always give him a royal bedroom furnished with multiple traps full of steel hammers and a pressure plate. I'm sure he appreciates their effectiveness. At one point I had Several piles of Hammerer bones lying around the room. I can only imagine what the next Hammerer thinks. Certainly not "Hey maybe I should straighten up and fly right!"

6 - I always pick one unfortunate dwarf who will be the sacrificial miner / whatever. His job is the go out and do the thing that's really dangerous, like mining out the last tile under the magma. If he survives he is taken off the sacrificial list and gets the good-skill jobs. If he fails ... his spouse is billed for the copper pick.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Zruku on November 02, 2009, 05:54:42 pm

I have a new one, I stat train my military dwarves by having them be engravers, masons, and mechanics. They can get a lot of work done in the fort before they become champions. I hate having idlers so I have nearly everyone have masonry.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: nosesquid on November 03, 2009, 12:18:52 am

I give all my legendary dwarves Viking funerals - their coffins are built on a golden platform in the middle of a magma pool, and pumped-in magma washes over them, carrying their spirits to Armok.  The pumps are hand-operated, of course, so that they can have servants in the afterlife.
Annoying nobles get dropped into the same pool, but they are sealed in clear glass coffins, so that they must look upon the funerals of better dwarves in eternal, silent jealousy, condemned to never feel the sweet touch of magma.

Needless to say, every post on here about a magma trap for elves or nobles is shocking - don't people realize that magma, the lifeblood of Armok, is far too good for such wretched creatures?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darthbob88 on November 03, 2009, 02:26:38 am

On the contrary, disposing of such vile creatures in the holy lifeblood of the mountain is purifying, cleansing. Alternately, it is the holy wrath of Armok smiting those who offend him, be they nobles who refuse to contribute or elves who refuse to cooperate. In either case, disposing of the offenders in hot magma is entirely acceptable and admirable. On the other hand, my habit of throwing garbage into the molten garbage disposal is probably three or four different kinds of heresy.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Shintaro Fago on November 05, 2009, 05:13:11 pm

In every fort I keep a squad of hammerers in full iron plate armor sets, training in barracks made of iron blocks and iron furniture. I change their profession to "Iron Crushers" and treat them as a loyal special task force feared everywhere.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Rowanas on November 05, 2009, 05:37:47 pm

Whenever new immigrants come in I draft them. Not unusual, you say. But with each one I declare "<Insert Job Here>? RECRUIT".

Also, I make my dwarves dance. I set out little routes for them and have them dance for me on my screen. I should screenshot it some time. It takes forever to get an entire squad of dwarves to dance like that.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: moki on November 05, 2009, 05:55:51 pm

Well, my eccentric behavior is always starting my fort in the exact center of the map. Very... centric, in fact ;D
The center of the map has to be the center of my fort, usually the main tower with staircases extending downwards or even a giant Nist Akath inspired spiral staircase or ramp. And if there happens to be a river, it either has to go somwhere else or have something interesting built right in the middle. When the center of a map (that's otherwise alright) doesn't look promising, I'll abandon and try somewhere else.

Also, in a mature fort (say, about 120 dorfs) I always keep at least two squads of four champion wrestlers, even if there are enough training weapons and time to spar. They're like police or military reserve, protecting civilians who have to go outside from ambushes and "guarding" dorfs who are about to go berzerk.
The real fighting against real gobbos is still done by real military with real weapons while the wrestlers keep the peace beyond the front line.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grendus on November 06, 2009, 09:22:26 am

Quote from: darthbob88 on November 03, 2009, 02:26:38 am

On the contrary, disposing of such vile creatures in the holy lifeblood of the mountain is purifying, cleansing. Alternately, it is the holy wrath of Armok smiting those who offend him, be they nobles who refuse to contribute or elves who refuse to cooperate. In either case, disposing of the offenders in hot magma is entirely acceptable and admirable. On the other hand, my habit of throwing garbage into the molten garbage disposal is probably three or four different kinds of heresy.

Honestly, I just fry them if they bring 20 bins of rope reed and no exotic animals. Saves the whole cleanup thing, just build the trade depot out of bauxite so it doesn't melt. Alternatively, lock them in with the hammerer, when they go berserk he either kills them or he's unworthy to serve the nobles.

The hard part is keeping the trade depot clean enough to magma-tize traders.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on November 06, 2009, 11:40:08 am

I've just noticed that for some reason I avoid using diagonal entrances to rooms. Maybe they just bug me because it doesn't look like anything would be able to get through.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: moving_target on November 06, 2009, 12:37:57 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on November 06, 2009, 11:40:08 am

I've just noticed that for some reason I avoid using diagonal entrances to rooms. Maybe they just bug me because it doesn't look like anything would be able to get through.

I don't either for the same reasons. I just imagine a dwarf crawling through a crack in the wall to get to that room and I don't like it.

My only eccentric behavior is making everything look good. Rooms and stockpiles have to be symmetrical and everything has to be smoothed stone with engravings if possible.   

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dunc on November 06, 2009, 04:06:45 pm

i build everything aboveground except mine shafts and transportation tunnels. I also pave the streets of my town. Also I avoid using crossbows because it isn't honourable.

My favourite fort ever was when i had a huge town with a well-trained squad of champions. A mere ambush killed a few champions who were friends with everyone. Cue rioting. It looked like the LA Riots in my town, the city was in chaos. There was fighting in the streets, people attacking the fortress guardsmen.

The police barracks kind of became the hospital, and there were always tantrumming dwarves coming in to beat wounded people to death. The police had kind of retreated to the barracks to protect the wounded. There were corpses and broken things everywhere.

Eventually I drafted the dwarves who looked the least unhappy, pulled them to the west side of the city, and had a Berlin wall built, condemning the west side to fend for themselves. The main food stockpile was in West Berlin, for a while the Easterners survived on what animals were left in that end, but then I had them do some farming and help themselves.

East Berlin was an utter shithole with lots of fighting and wounded. Berserkers and melancholy were ubiquitous. People were jumping off of the tops of high-rise buildings and such.

West Berlin prospered, it was doing fine. It also had access to the outside world, via the west bridge. The East bridge had been blocked off to seal in the quarantined easterners.

Then a goblin siege came. I frantically knocked down the Berlin wall for the citizens of both sides to unite together to beat back the foreign foe. They won at great cost. The next siege wiped out the whole town though. It was hands down the most fun i've ever had in ANY game.

Some photos:

Below is a good shot of a big part of the city. The red lines are drawn where the Berlin wall used to be. Note that in the riots, civil infrastructure took a big hit, rioting dwarves hate roads. That statue garden was the wild west. All the dwarves loved to gather there and fight. It had some gold and platinum statues that I had moved to the West just before the quarantine.
(http://i33.tinypic.com/2dj4g83.jpg)

Below is a scene of part of the Reunification Battle, when the heroic combined forces drove back the goblins.
(http://i38.tinypic.com/2nkjejb.jpg)

Below is a scene just before the Fall of Berlin. That building in the top left where there are a tonne of goblins, that was an apartment complex. It had four apartments each on maybe five levels. The goblin horde hit that building first, going door to door slaying wounded and sleeping dwarves. You can see what remained of the active defence force, they didn't stand a chance.

(http://i37.tinypic.com/b5fb7b.jpg)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 06, 2009, 04:14:05 pm

All my useless immigrants lately have gotten the job "practice target" and told to stand in the catapault range.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Haze on November 06, 2009, 09:12:58 pm

I never dig into soil unless I intend to farm from it. It feels un-dwarfy.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on November 06, 2009, 09:23:34 pm

Quote from: Haze on November 06, 2009, 09:12:58 pm

I never dig into soil unless I intend to farm from it. It feels un-dwarfy.

I feel the same way. On the rare occasion that I do need to dig into soil, I dig one tile extra on every side and wall/pave the rooms with stone.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Greiger on November 06, 2009, 09:43:37 pm

I play a modded race.  Most of my little eccentricies relate to the in characterness of them.

- All underground housing has a sunlight access window.  Or at least sunlight access in the main traffic areas.  The race happily live underground, but not as deep as dwarves and like sunlight.

- Similar to nosesquid burials for warriors involve magmaflooding the room.  Non legendary civilians, crossbowmen and nobles, get a typical non magma burial.

- Non crossbow Warriors get one tile added to the size of their tomb for every notable kill.  When possible the extra tile gets reflorred with a bar of precious metal.  If the tomb gets so large as to be unable to be extended, precious metal statues get added per kill.  If they extend beyond that capacity a special royal quality tomb gets built for them specifically.

- Crossbowmen while necessary for the defence of a fortress, are dishonorable.  They are never more than 1/3rd of the fortresses total military might.

- Warriors only use Swords and spears in battle.  Shields are dishonorable, warriors go into battle either weilding 2 weapons or a 2 handed custom variant.

- Traps are dishonorable, traps are never more than 1 tile thick and cannot have more than 1 weapon in each.  Cage traps are used sparingly.

And for non character related things.

- Diagonal doorways look odd to me, I don't use them.

- Invader equipment is either melted or trash compacted.  None will be sold.

- I treat nobles fairly, I complete their mandates when possible and attempt to the best of my ability to meet their housing requirements and demands.  The only odd case is the Hammerer.  Who while, having his housing requirements met, quickly finds his front door replaced by a steel wall, and 10 units of food and booze being dropped in through his ceiling once a year.  Nobles are never killed intentionally, no matter what the demands.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Aspgren on November 07, 2009, 09:24:23 am

Little to no impact on gameplay huh?

Well I usually take the time to go through legends of the world before starting a fortress. I look at the gods and goddesses of a civilization and I go with the most badass one. Some guys are worshipping a giant bat goddess? I'M GAME! That's the civilization I want to belong to ... I also check what civilization has conquered the most forts. Super bonus points for forts belonging to other races. (i do this in adventure mode)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: MelloHero on November 08, 2009, 01:16:23 am

Quote from: nosesquid on November 03, 2009, 12:18:52 am

Needless to say, every post on here about a magma trap for elves or nobles is shocking - don't people realize that magma, the lifeblood of Armok, is far too good for such wretched creatures?

And this is why it is written, "Wherefore whosoever shall mine this adamantine, and use this magma of the earth, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of Armok."

That said, I don't do much in the way of eccentric behavior, apart from never having used magma (never had any good maps for it), I try to limit my engravers to those who are imaginative or at least artsy, and the frivolity of a full military review (a single pass of the fort military and guard along a specially-designated patrol path) at the arrival of all diplomats. That's about it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Tofu on November 08, 2009, 12:55:48 pm

What I find weird about my behavior when playing DF is that I really like to get a muckload of dwarves in one fortress (about 120- 180), and then pick several of them depending on their likings, their family etc. and give them apprenticeships to titles,(actually also giving them the title apprentice first) like for example, I always have a female dwarf with the title  of Hammerqueen, with the position of captain of the guard, a kickass hammer, a custom name and a really nice living complex consisting of a nice room, hopefully with an artifact bed, an office, dining room, and a realllly nice family tomb made for her and her children, that, btw are going to inherit the title.
I also create some trio of champions, like I currently have three speardwarves that can singlehandedly kill 80 gobbos in a row(provided they don't have crossbows in large amounts)
I would even savescum, just to save these guys from a pathetic death. Does anyone else do this sort of stuff?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Fien on November 08, 2009, 01:24:38 pm

My veterans get the kind of treatment my nobles could only dream of. War heroes get decked out tombs and if they get too injured to fight anymore they get sent to a peaceful retirement of training the next batch of recruits (till one of them manages to kill him) or as a member of the fortress/royal guard.

I just feel like it's the least I can do for what are arguably my most useful and competent dwarves.

I also like to buy and chain up the most exotic creatures I can find. Giant Eagle at the front door, Elephants guarding my tomb, etc. etc.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on November 08, 2009, 03:32:29 pm

My starting seven recieve the highest in treatment, and each successive immigrant wave is largely segregated from any other, some forts even have seperate complexes, if they don't have a pick then they can starve  >:(

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 10:31:42 am

I always have a huge spherical central chamber, which everything else is connected to. Said chamber varies in size from fort to fort, but always contains another sphere 3 tiles smaller in every dimension. Said second sphere is supported by supports at the top and bottom (floor on top is supported by a support hanging down from the ceiling above).
At least 8 supports are always used, and each is linked up to a pressure plate in a 6x6 room in one corner of the fort. These pressure plates are trigger able by cats / kittens.
The room consists of alternating doors - walls, with all the doors locked.
A complicated series of pumps and tunnels is set up to fill the secondary sphere with magma, and is then dismantled once this is complete.

Once the fort is up and running nicely and has a population of 60-80 (or when I get bored), I throw a newborn kitten into the pressure plate room.

This way, after a while the kitten / cat will step on the pressure plates in the right order, and all of the supports will deconstruct.
As the pathing of the cat determines when the secondary sphere will explode, It always comes as a nice surprise, especially if the statue garden is located in the central chamber.
I always like to imagine the last conversations of the doomed dwarves;
"So Urist, hows the wife?"
"Oh she's fine, she made a nice gauntlet yesterday"
"Good for her! Hey have you heard about Tekkud?"
"No, why?"
"Well, apparently he started muttering about cave spider si-OHGODITBURNS!"
Urist McSmallTalk has cancelled conversation: Magma
*assorted screaming and burning hilarity*
Urist McSmallTalk has died in the heat.

EDIT: Unrelated to Dwarf Fortress, whenever I make myself a cup of tea / coffee, I always pour out two mugs, So I can have a half-empty one and a half-full one.
It also give me opportunities to use 'me, myself & I' jokes, most of which are tired and old.
Usually something such as
"Why do you have two cups of tea?"
"Well, one's for me, the other is for myself, and I isn't thirsty."

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: hitto on November 15, 2009, 03:46:47 pm

Quote from: Tofu on November 08, 2009, 12:55:48 pm

I would even savescum, just to save these guys from a pathetic death. Does anyone else do this sort of stuff?

I savescum because my game usually crashes a lot before the yearly autosave - but I get your point. I've sometimes let whole megaconstructions go to hell just for the lulz, but if Urist McChampion dies during a stupid sparring session...

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Aspgren on November 15, 2009, 05:15:01 pm

Quote from: hitto on November 15, 2009, 03:46:47 pm

Quote from: Tofu on November 08, 2009, 12:55:48 pm

I would even savescum, just to save these guys from a pathetic death. Does anyone else do this sort of stuff?

I savescum because my game usually crashes a lot before the yearly autosave - but I get your point. I've sometimes let whole megaconstructions go to hell just for the lulz, but if Urist McChampion dies during a stupid sparring session...

That actually happened recently to me. A most devastating thing ... but I didn't savescum.

Due to the undead always harassing my strawberry farms, fisherworkers and woodcutters - I put a couple of recruit groups on permanent patrol. They took turns of 6 months and it solved the problem.

When they're not patrolling the groups practiced like crazy. A tantrum spiral hits and one group is destroyed, the other is fine. The two dwarves are women, one with an axe the other with a hammer. Together they're boasting over 150 kills. Dwarves, goblins, elves, undead and a surprising amount of camels.

Now the thing is that they were both legendary wrestlers and such - and the hammerdwarf was the leader of the group. They've proven to be extremely dangerous and deadly, but the axe had almost twice as many kills as the hammer. I went and gave them nicknames and they are a separate squad of the military now - only that deadly duo is needed to repel an entire goblin siege.

 But then it happened. The axedwarf MURDERED the hammerdwarf during sparring. I found it shocking! It was only a short while after I named them and decided, against the evidence of who was the best warrior - appointed the hammerdwarf the leader.

 I took great pleasure in imagining the murder and the hidden jealousy behind the scenes here. I just might make an illustrated story about them!
 Another story I could make is the terrible fate of a family during the tantrum spiral. A child managed to murder her own mother! She had 4-5 siblings and one of them was only a baby who now commited suicide. The entire line dwindled to an end in that horrible spiral. My clerk endured much hardships as well, she lost her entire family...

 Fort is filled with orphans. 4/5 children have lost both their parents.

This will all become visual in a blog eventually ... would you count this as eccentric behaviour?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 05:19:11 pm

pretty normal by most standards I'd say...

...jk, would probably count as eccentric behaviour by the game / dwarves themselves, unless of course you deliberately planned the tantrum spiral...?

Quite an awesome story though.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Aspgren on November 15, 2009, 05:25:56 pm

Quote from: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 05:19:11 pm

pretty normal by most standards I'd say...

...jk, would probably count as eccentric behaviour by the game / dwarves themselves, unless of course you deliberately planned the tantrum spiral...?

Quite an awesome story though.

I didn't plan it. When it started I just figured it'd sort itself out ... and when it didn't I hurried to put together a zoo and fill it with all animals I could think of - unfortunately these included captured undead creatures and goblins.

 Everyone gathered in the zoo and it wasn't long before they tantrumed, went berzerk and such and the entire zoo was filled with gore and violence. Also they tore the cages apart and released the hostile creatures so ... it didn't help... I'm keeping a log on the side so I can write this illustrated blog when the fortress has ended - and that year alone 145 dwarves died. 135 from the tantrum spiral.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 05:28:51 pm

jeezebus. That's more than most of my forts have in total. I usually only get to about 100-120 then get bored and initiate the magma bomb countdown kitty.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Aspgren on November 15, 2009, 05:44:09 pm

Quote from: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 05:28:51 pm

jeezebus. That's more than most of my forts have in total. I usually only get to about 100-120 then get bored and initiate the magma bomb countdown kitty.

Yes well ... someone had to go and create a native platinum amulet that as worth more than colorado - and immigrants showed up like crazy... and then they married!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 05:47:09 pm

Quote from: Aspgren on November 15, 2009, 05:44:09 pm

Yes well ... someone had to go and create a native platinum amulet that as worth more than colorado - and immigrants showed up like crazy... and then they married!

I imagined you saying that with a particular stress on 'someone' and looking around menacingly at something nearby.
Then sighing at the end.

Probably a reflex from reading tons of stuff, and voicing out dialogue in my head. It helps with story immersion.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Aspgren on November 15, 2009, 05:49:46 pm

Quote from: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 05:47:09 pm

Quote from: Aspgren on November 15, 2009, 05:44:09 pm

Yes well ... someone had to go and create a native platinum amulet that as worth more than colorado - and immigrants showed up like crazy... and then they married!

I imagined you saying that with a particular stress on 'someone' and looking around menacingly at something nearby.
Then sighing at the end.

Probably a reflex from reading tons of stuff, and voicing out dialogue in my head. It helps with story immersion.

I'm not bitter about it though. Let me check the log ... ah yes .. Minkot Trenchpulleys threw a tantrum and destroyed his own bed - upon which he was beaten to death.

In a way he brought it upon himself. or herself. I never took note of his/her sex.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: MoonLightBird on November 15, 2009, 09:00:01 pm

I always make one room per dwarf. When they die I turn their room in to a tomb for them. They have all their possessions and if they have a pet it gets locked in the room till it dies. The rooms always get locked after the coffin is made.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: DocFaustus on November 15, 2009, 11:30:25 pm

I tend to invert the standard viking funeral bit. Instead of returning only Legends and Champions to the stone/ magma (by either immolating them or dropping them down a chasm) all good dwarves are permitted the honor of going to Armok in the afterlife... except Legends, Champions, most Nobles and the Starting Seven. Legends and the Seven are given ornate tombs built near to the magma/ chasm, but still within the realm of the living, such that their Paragon wisdom might forever bless the fortress and guide its people. Nobles don't get to go to Armok because... well, they're nobles. We tell them its because its their duty and honor to remain forever with us, but really its just because everyone suspects that Armok doesn't want to deal with their crap, and knows that those dwarves in the Deep Paradise definitely don't. After they die, all the decorations in their tombs get deconstructed and moved elsewhere, in the knowledge that, in death, their spoiled little spirits will be kept from doing anything about it by those ancestors that people actually like. Nobles aren't actually told any of this, and all noble tombs are sealed after the noble has taken up residence, to prevent accidental revelation.

For added devotion to Armok, I'll build the Paragon tombs with grates for ceilings, and drop captured goblins a bunch of z-levels down onto them, such that their blood might drip down to rejuvenate the spirits of the honored ancestors contained within. Nobles sometimes get open-top tombs such that whole goblin bodies can be tossed down there, or, if I really didn't like the bastard, live goblins can be released to defile the tomb with their presence.

Kobolds will occasionally be dropped into the chasm/magma, partially because I've always felt sorry for Kobolds, and feel they deserve some manner of pleasant afterlife, and partially to give those in Paradise something to play with.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 16, 2009, 01:04:35 am

Quote from: Aspgren on November 15, 2009, 05:44:09 pm

Quote from: NewoTigra on November 15, 2009, 05:28:51 pm

jeezebus. That's more than most of my forts have in total. I usually only get to about 100-120 then get bored and initiate the magma bomb countdown kitty.

Yes well ... someone had to go and create a native platinum amulet that as worth more than colorado - and immigrants showed up like crazy... and then they married!

What isn't worth more than Colorado?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: MelloHero on November 16, 2009, 02:10:37 am

^Oooooo, harsh.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pandarsenic on November 22, 2009, 04:58:05 am

I have an dining hall, usually about 30 tiles long and 7 wide. The entire length of it has:

_ctstc_
_ctstc_
_ctstc_
etc.

(space chair table statue table chair because I don't care to find the appropriate symbols)

Also, I wall off my entire map as soon as I've got enough idlers to assign 30+ masons and outdoor block stockpiles.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Doomshifter on November 22, 2009, 06:18:30 am

Whenever traders get pissy at me for not accepting their dumb trades, I pull the lever in my meeting hall, which locks the only way in and out of the fortress. I then steal their underwear and whatever item I was trying to get from them (the last time it was an anvil that they wanted for a bunch of narrow GCS clothing, a bunch more than I wanted to give).

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Haspen on November 22, 2009, 06:50:40 am

Acting like some damn Bookkeeping Manager.

Beside journal of Rigothar*, "Craftflesh" if you wish (tundra, berserking children, dehydration and usual), I keep list of:

-Citizens (wave in which they came, their family, on-place children birth dates also noted)
-Dead dwarves (just a number, gotta make a full detailed list)
-Gods (Who, how depicted, their 'spheres' and how many believers of them are in Rigothar)

When something happens (like, another baby pops up), I pause the game and write all necessary info onto the list.

*I think I will tweak the journal and post it in Community Stories sometime.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on November 22, 2009, 10:14:48 am

Quote from: Haspen on November 22, 2009, 06:50:40 am

Acting like some damn Bookkeeping Manager.

Beside journal of Rigothar*, "Craftflesh" if you wish (tundra, berserking children, dehydration and usual), I keep list of:

-Citizens (wave in which they came, their family, on-place children birth dates also noted)
-Dead dwarves (just a number, gotta make a full detailed list)
-Gods (Who, how depicted, their 'spheres' and how many believers of them are in Rigothar)

When something happens (like, another baby pops up), I pause the game and write all necessary info onto the list.

*I think I will tweak the journal and post it in Community Stories sometime.

I can't wait until something similar is automated :)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 22, 2009, 10:29:22 am

I do the same thing in many games, particularly SEV.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Haspen on November 22, 2009, 01:29:52 pm

Quote from: Dvergar on November 22, 2009, 10:14:48 am

Quote from: Haspen on November 22, 2009, 06:50:40 am

Acting like some damn Bookkeeping Manager.

Beside journal of Rigothar*, "Craftflesh" if you wish (tundra, berserking children, dehydration and usual), I keep list of:

-Citizens (wave in which they came, their family, on-place children birth dates also noted)
-Dead dwarves (just a number, gotta make a full detailed list)
-Gods (Who, how depicted, their 'spheres' and how many believers of them are in Rigothar)

When something happens (like, another baby pops up), I pause the game and write all necessary info onto the list.

*I think I will tweak the journal and post it in Community Stories sometime.

I can't wait until something similar is automated :)

Then it will be un-fun! :(

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on November 22, 2009, 02:14:09 pm

Quote from: Haspen on November 22, 2009, 01:29:52 pm

Quote from: Dvergar on November 22, 2009, 10:14:48 am

Quote from: Haspen on November 22, 2009, 06:50:40 am

Acting like some damn Bookkeeping Manager.

Beside journal of Rigothar*, "Craftflesh" if you wish (tundra, berserking children, dehydration and usual), I keep list of:

-Citizens (wave in which they came, their family, on-place children birth dates also noted)
-Dead dwarves (just a number, gotta make a full detailed list)
-Gods (Who, how depicted, their 'spheres' and how many believers of them are in Rigothar)

When something happens (like, another baby pops up), I pause the game and write all necessary info onto the list.

*I think I will tweak the journal and post it in Community Stories sometime.

I can't wait until something similar is automated :)

Then it will be un-fun less of a pain in the ass! :)

Fixed that for you

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pandarsenic on November 22, 2009, 08:44:21 pm

Oh, another of my odd behaviors: I like to make a "hall of labors" in the stone one floor beneath my main stockpile, with stairs in the middle going up. EVERY workshop  have is in a room attached to that hall and stockpiles are either above or below it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

i always dig out a fairly large farming complex first. 10x20 food stockple 10x20 booze stockpile 5x5 seed stockpile a bunch of 4x4 plots next to the food stockpile i make a huge wood stockpile, so i can continue use during a siege. and i buld all food/farming related workshops in their own little room they get doors if there is a chance of miasma. next i always dig out the workshop. 20x20 area and i group the workshops. masons/mechanics in top left. jewler center left carpenters/bowyers bottom left, top right woodburners/glassmakers/smelters/metalworkers (these get their own workshop if i have magma) right center is the kennel and bottom right a bunch of craftdwarves shops. each workshop type has a stockpile to keep them supplied. there is a 3x3 set of stairn in the center, and 20x20 stockpiles in rooms above and below, each room is an individual stockpile, except for the ammo/weapons/armor/leather level. only once the main workshop and first storage (furniture) is made do i start on the bedrooms.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Vactor on November 23, 2009, 05:44:31 pm

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

i always dig out a fairly large farming complex first. 10x20 food stockple 10x20 booze stockpile 5x5 seed stockpile a bunch of 4x4 plots next to the food stockpile i make a huge wood stockpile, so i can continue use during a siege. and i buld all food/farming felated workshops in their own little room

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

buld all food/farming felated workshops in their own little room

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

felated

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pandarsenic on November 23, 2009, 05:45:58 pm

Quote from: Vactor on November 23, 2009, 05:44:31 pm

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

i always dig out a fairly large farming complex first. 10x20 food stockple 10x20 booze stockpile 5x5 seed stockpile a bunch of 4x4 plots next to the food stockpile i make a huge wood stockpile, so i can continue use during a siege. and i buld all food/farming felated workshops in their own little room

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

buld all food/farming felated workshops in their own little room

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

felated

Well he is Typoman.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kidiri on November 23, 2009, 05:53:14 pm

Quote from: Lord Shonus on November 16, 2009, 01:04:35 am

What isn't worth more than Colorado?

Colorado?

As for eccentric behaviour: every (non-military) dwarf must have a personal room with a cabinet and coffer. And doors. Door everywhere. If there's a gap between two walls, a door must be placed in it. And the dining room must be furnished evenly and equally (material AND quality). Stones must be kept too. But they also have to be out of the way (not just invisible, out of the way). Furniture (and crafts an mechanisms etc.) can only be made out of the first layer-stone that I strike. That's about it...

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 06:26:49 pm

Quote from: Pandarsenic on November 23, 2009, 05:45:58 pm

Quote from: Vactor on November 23, 2009, 05:44:31 pm

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

i always dig out a fairly large farming complex first. 10x20 food stockple 10x20 booze stockpile 5x5 seed stockpile a bunch of 4x4 plots next to the food stockpile i make a huge wood stockpile, so i can continue use during a siege. and i buld all food/farming felated workshops in their own little room

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

buld all food/farming felated workshops in their own little room

Quote from: Typoman on November 23, 2009, 04:44:39 pm

felated

Well he is Typoman.

quite(and i mean quite not quiet), i'll fix that now XD

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on November 24, 2009, 08:30:21 am

Quote from: Kidiri on November 23, 2009, 05:53:14 pm

Quote from: Lord Shonus on November 16, 2009, 01:04:35 am

What isn't worth more than Colorado?

Colorado?

A fine point, that.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Binamrad on November 25, 2009, 02:42:59 pm

Whenever I strike an ore vein I start digging only rocks belonging to that ore, so that I'll have an empty ore vein left afterwards that I usually engrave and use as a burial chamber for all the dorfs.

Also, I always kill the hammerer nobles and make at least one artificial indoors river in the fortresses that lack one, usually a few stories below the water level. In my most recent fortress, the water went down 16 levels before it got pumped up again. I used a total of 80 pumps.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: MelloHero on November 25, 2009, 02:56:13 pm

^Just making sure, you can't grow tower-caps in an artificial river like that, right? I don't suppose so, any more than one would expect cave crocodiles to spawn in it, but it's worth asking.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on November 25, 2009, 02:57:53 pm

Quote from: MelloHero on November 25, 2009, 02:56:13 pm

^Just making sure, you can't grow tower-caps in an artificial river like that, right? I don't suppose so, any more than one would expect cave crocodiles to spawn in it, but it's worth asking.

Tower caps and underground flora can only grow if you have uncovered a natural underground river or pool. Once you have 'discovered' this feature however the tower caps and other underground flora will grow anywhere underground where there is water/mud.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Roland on November 25, 2009, 07:54:14 pm

Kill the hammerer, consort, and ruling noble. Keep the dungeon keeper and philosopher. Reward any dwarf in military service with a tomb with engraved walls. Engrave everything, obviously. The brewer gets some of the best of everything, along with the chef. Lots and lots of traps. Small "hit squads" composed entirely of Champions.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: UndeadLenin on November 26, 2009, 09:22:18 am

Everybody gets wars wolves. Sieges are a depressing time for the soldiers.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on November 26, 2009, 02:42:29 pm

I let elves live on the offchance that they'll bring decent booze. That's pretty eccentric, right?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darthbob88 on November 26, 2009, 04:43:52 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on November 26, 2009, 02:42:29 pm

I let elves live on the offchance that they'll bring decent booze. That's pretty eccentric, right?

I let them live because they might bring awesome aminals, like tigers, eagles, or elephants. Besides, elves haven't actually offended me yet, so I see no reason to slaughter them outright.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: returntonull on November 26, 2009, 05:26:30 pm

Hrm, lesse...

I seem to have this infatuation with great halls, and dining rooms. So I often build enormous main hallways (10+ tiles wide, the biggest running the entire length of the fortress it was in) where I carve nooks in the walls for statues and coffins to be used by rank and file dwarves.

The great dining rooms end up even bigger as I insist on having enough tables and chairs to seat the entire fortress.

I should really stop trying to do these when I only have the initial seven.

Speaking of the initial seven, my initial social/trader dwarf is always given the custom profession of 'Foreman'

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Innominate on November 26, 2009, 07:08:49 pm

Quote from: darthbob88 on November 26, 2009, 04:43:52 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on November 26, 2009, 02:42:29 pm

I let elves live on the offchance that they'll bring decent booze. That's pretty eccentric, right?

I let them live because they might bring awesome aminals, like tigers, eagles, or elephants. Besides, elves haven't actually offended me yet, so I see no reason to slaughter them outright.

My elves have only brought me wolves, alligators, racoons, deer and jaguars. Which is actually impressive, given that my eccentric player behaviour is stopping worldgen the year the first megabeast dies (and they're modded to be stronger as well), so they have barely any towns.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: silhouette on November 27, 2009, 04:59:58 am

Quote from: Jim Groovester on October 05, 2009, 03:33:38 pm

I play as goblins.

Everybody has a phase where they want to play as humans, and when they want to build giant towering cities.

But who can say that they have a phase where they want to play as goblins?

ME
CONSTANTLY
24/7!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Jim Groovester on November 27, 2009, 03:09:57 pm

Quote from: silhouette on November 27, 2009, 04:59:58 am

Quote from: Jim Groovester on October 05, 2009, 03:33:38 pm

I play as goblins.

Everybody has a phase where they want to play as humans, and when they want to build giant towering cities.

But who can say that they have a phase where they want to play as goblins?

ME
CONSTANTLY
24/7!

Heh heh. Do dwarves' constant thirst for alcohol annoy you, too? Do you much prefer a race that eats the bones of their enemies, like me?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lemunde on November 27, 2009, 05:42:11 pm

I like to keep most of my dwarves idle unless they're hauling stuff.  And they haul a lot of stuff because I like to keep all my corridors clear of stone.  That means almost all my dwarves are very tough. 

No fishing and no hunting.  It's a waste of time.  No plump helmets either.  All my food comes from berries grown on the surface and meat from trade caravans.

No cloth industry.  I hate cloth.  I buy up a little in case any of my dwarves get in one of their moods.  I keep my food and my booze in separate stock piles.  Sometimes I separate the meat and plants into separate stockpiles.

After my fortress gets on it's feet I like to replace a lot of my stone furniture with glass furniture.  I make all my statues out of either clear glass or expensive metals like gold, aluminum and platinum.  I import expensive metals when I can't find them and turn them into crafts for great profit.

My army consists of no more an no less than 6 dwarves, usually all marksdwarves.  I keep a max population of 30 to keep things from getting out of hand. 

I guess you could say I've found a good system for creating an orderly, productive fortress.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Vayre on December 03, 2009, 04:44:36 pm

For some reason I seem to have decided that milkers make good nobles, frankly its not a bad solution, it gives the useless buggers something to do and the more useful dwarves are free to be useful.

That and every army I have must have a lemming squad with no armor and not always with weapons, and often no clothes. Give the goblins a bit of false hope before my heavily armoured champions decide to stop drinking for a few seconds. =D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pandarsenic on December 03, 2009, 05:07:22 pm

I typically end up with 30 or so idlers "on call" for when the caravan comes; one of these usually ends up as my mayor because even my children have goddamn superpowers from learning to talk so well.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: nil on December 03, 2009, 05:21:48 pm

I pretend dwarves can't go diagonally; even if it means I'll fit one less bedroom into a tower or something like that I'll never make the only entrance to an area be diagonal (with the sole exception of exploratory mining tunnels).  I also love to make multi-z-level rooms; my current fortress is a city in a 5-z level cavern that covers nearly the entire 4x4 embark.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: RevolutionaryDorf on December 03, 2009, 05:36:24 pm

To curb unemployment in a mature, self-sufficient fort, I'll create Dwarven strip clubs. Make a large room with some tables, chairs, a food and booze stockpile, build some levers and set the profile on the levers to accept only their designated "entertainer". Set the room as a dining hall, and put pulling the levers on repeat, and voila! Your very own army of pole-dancing dwarves! It doesn't really serve any practical purpose, other than making stories in the fort more interesting. My bookkeeper, who's single, seems to spend a lot of time in there. I'm thinking of adding an "intimacy room" which could foster relationships. I just don't know how to use water programming to make a timelimit for each use, so I don't have to manage it all the time.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kavalion on December 03, 2009, 08:40:03 pm

Sometimes I set up little fireplaces with wood logs stored behind a wall grate.  Other times, I build a room out of soap with a lever in it that dumps water on the person that pulls it.

I've never actually used traps or fortifications or anything... I just have a large military.  When they become heroes, I leave them on active duty so they won't train any more because I prefer their elite titles and graphics in Mayday.

I once set up my military to train wrestling so they wouldn't hurt each other until I finished full suits of armor for all of them.  I ended up with so many legendary wrestling champions... never again.  I'd rather have novice spearmen with nerve injuries.  Makes for more exciting fights.

I give one guy the profession of Undertaker.  He has a tiny room near the graveyard to live in and his own Mason's shop to build coffins.  His only labors are Masonry and Burial.  Burial is removed from everyone else's labors.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Playbahnosh on December 03, 2009, 09:59:35 pm

Quote from: Demonic Spoon on October 05, 2009, 12:46:04 pm

I like walling off my ant/termite colonies and starting wagons with clear glass. The dwarves can then visit the wagon meseum and learn about the efforts of the brave first settlers or admire the natural beauty and ingenuity of the brave ants etc.

You Sir, are a genius!

From now on, I'll build my own dwarven museum to educate the later generations. Awesome idea!

Also, the Dwarfmas is one thing I'm going to do.

My quirks:

- I'm totally mad about security, but I NEVER use traps. I build my forts in the side of mountains, and I wall off everything! There is only one way in or out, always protected by a drawbrige and moat, two story high and thick walls with arrow towers. the entyway is protected by steel doors and guards. I usually build safeties into EVERYTHING! I build escape valves and exits into moats, so if a dwarf falls in accidentally, the valve drains the water and he can escape through the emergency passage. Also good for collecting loot after battle when enemies fall in. The same with wells.

- I also use automated emergency bulkheads, so if a disaster happens (flood, invasion, etc) one single lever closes the bulkheads, lifts the drawbridge and shuts off valves, sealing off the entire fortress until the disaster can be averted. I usually have years worth of food, drinks and ammo stored, so the archers can take their time to pick off invading forces from the towers. No open confrontation unless REALLY necessary. Yea, I'm kind of a coward, but this tactic saved may dwarven lives and property.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Foa on December 03, 2009, 10:23:45 pm

Heh playbeh, I have a great design that my help you when the bridge is down.
Al you need to do is station multiple guards in the place of where these wrestlers are, this'll guarantee around the clock protection, and this is the inner curtain, the outer curtain will come later...

(http://public.animatorhost.org/srv/2009/12/03/dersignincurtain.png)
Edited design, when the two bridges close, they complete the 2 tile thick wall.
(http://public.animatorhost.org/srv/2009/12/03/dersignincurtain2.png)
Edit2: here is what they'd look like closed...

Oh and playbeh, you use bulkheads too, I think I found a friend!

Playbeh, if you pm me, I'll give you an idea on how to send out troops when the fortress is in lock down.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pandarsenic on December 04, 2009, 01:27:46 am

Stealing that bridge layout.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Foa on December 04, 2009, 01:40:09 am

Quote from: Pandarsenic on December 04, 2009, 01:27:46 am

Stealing that bridge layout.

It is version two of my bulkhead design.
PM if you want help with designs, I'm current working on a noob, a water clock, and a cellar ( for various demons on the under death, and of the savage beyonds, and pitting prisoners against them... ) .

The noob gets priority.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Nivim on December 04, 2009, 02:04:19 am

 I make random shortcuts underground or above when it looks like the dwarf might like it. Such as connecting the booze stockpile to the bedrooms that happen to be near it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Foa on December 04, 2009, 02:40:33 am

I treasure kobolds more than my actual dwarves, they get a great cave, and valuable objects for their hoards.

Elves aren't gladiators, they are dropped into the cellar.

Prisoners, cellar, or purged into deep pools of water and repeating spikes.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Retro on December 04, 2009, 04:36:37 am

Quote from: Kavalion on December 03, 2009, 08:40:03 pm

Sometimes I set up little fireplaces with wood logs stored behind a wall grate.

I give one guy the profession of Undertaker.  He has a tiny room near the graveyard to live in and his own Mason's shop to build coffins.  His only labors are Masonry and Burial.  Burial is removed from everyone else's labors.

I like doing stuff like the fireplaces too; lots of fun.

The Undertaker thing, though, that's just genius. I hope you don't mind if I pillage the concept.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Innominate on December 04, 2009, 05:17:54 am

[MATGLOSS_WOOD:FIREWOOD]
[NAME:firewood][ADJ:firewood]
[TILE:5]
[PREFSTRING:warmth]
[BIOME:ALL_MAIN]
[SPEC_HEAT:409]
[IGNITE_POINT:10200]
[MELTING_POINT:NONE]
[BOILING_POINT:16708]
[SOLID_DENSITY:1346]

Alternatively, add the last 5 tags to all the trees you want to use for firewood (in matgloss_wood.txt). It might be hard to light. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to go about it. 10200 is 111 degrees Celcius or 232 Fahrenheit, by the way. You could easily lower the ignite_point for long enough for it to catch alight however. Note that you might be able to prolong or shorten burning duration by changing the SPEC_HEAT or SOLID_DENSITY. I don't think research has really been done there. Also note that, if you lower the ignition point it will cause all instances of firewood to catch alight (not trees IIRC) if they meet the criteria, not just the ones in your grate.

Suggestions: have a tower with firewood atop it. Pump magma to 7/7 in the z-level directly beneath the firewood. Enjoy your signal fires. For bonus points, mod in a friendly creature which tolerates fire and put it on that point, so that flying enemies will set themselves alight trying to kill it.

Hell, for bonus points drop kittens in it. Slow death by fire is better than instantaneous death by magma, at least as far as mind-control rodent hunters are concerned.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dorf3000 on December 04, 2009, 06:27:44 am

Quote from: Kavalion on December 03, 2009, 08:40:03 pm

I give one guy the profession of Undertaker.  He has a tiny room near the graveyard to live in and his own Mason's shop to build coffins.  His only labors are Masonry and Burial.  Burial is removed from everyone else's labors.

Is he also a champion Wrestler? ;D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Retro on December 04, 2009, 05:35:44 pm

Quote from: Innominate on December 04, 2009, 05:17:54 am

<whole bunch of stuff about firewood>

Ooh, you could put a stockpile of this on one side of a magma moat and a bridge over it, then send dwarves you don't like to go dump it... as they carry it back, WHOOSH!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: kilakan on December 23, 2009, 10:22:31 pm

then they run screamin to the food stockpile and WHOOSH FUN!!!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: The Mad Engineer on December 23, 2009, 11:35:10 pm

I like capturing invaders and releasing them into a bizzarro-fortress that is just under my real one, has the same layout, furniture, and stockpiles filled with gourmet meals, but has no dwarves or contact with the surface.  They spend the rest of their lives partying in decadence in a guilded cage, while my dwarves toil for their benefit.

Then, at night, my high priest of Armok comes for them.  Takes them one by one.

They are never seen again.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Asmodeous on December 24, 2009, 09:37:37 am

I turn all those idiots with jobs I don't care about into a mason army and smooth and engrave every surface in the entire fortress. 30 masons make quick work of things. I also tend to give every profession (except for soap makers :P ) 4 dwarves, just to be on the safe side.

I'm also keen on giving legendary miners a vacation until the other miners catch up to them.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Jordo on December 24, 2009, 12:10:27 pm

I've never set up a good metalcrafting industry. therefore, my military is always full of unarmored wrestlers. They're actually quite dangerous if all of them are champions.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Fishbulb on December 24, 2009, 02:54:24 pm

I always designate my farm plots as restricted traffic areas. I don't know whether it makes any difference, but I just like seeing my planters walk along the perimeter instead of tramping over the rows. It works for me, somehow.

I also designate high-traffic paths in my outside areas. The fort I'm building right now has a large walled-in lawn area with 10x1 farm plots for aboveground farming (I'm playing Dig Deeper, so there's quite a bit to grow). I've got paths criss-crossing it to save the plant life. Which is kind of silly, since I modded my dwarves, dogs and cats with "grasstrample:0" anyway. Which, in turn, is a remarkably elfish thing to do. I'm going to go hang my head in shame now.

Oh. And at least for the first few years, every dwarf gets assigned their own war dog.

I just realized I have another: I always keep a furniture stockpile right next to my still. It's set to accept only empty barrels, and only wood ones. The metal barrels go into another empty stockpile near the farm. As much as possible, I try to keep the booze in wood barrels, and the food in metal barrels. OCD at its finest.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on December 24, 2009, 06:36:22 pm

Quote from: Dorf3000 on December 04, 2009, 06:27:44 am

Quote from: Kavalion on December 03, 2009, 08:40:03 pm

I give one guy the profession of Undertaker. 

Is he also a champion Wrestler? ;D

I think you meant dabbling comedian and professional liar.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: MrPomponopolis on December 25, 2009, 12:38:16 am

I always make a row or ring of refute stockpile in front of my main (and only) entrance. Anyone near would be greeted by the dead, mutilated bodies and bones of their friends who tried to screw with my fort before them. It gives it a nice Vlad the Impaler touch.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: JoystickHero on December 25, 2009, 03:05:07 am

I don't do too well with space efficiency or good pathing. My fortresses tend to have big, wide hallways, with large, square or rectangular rooms. When I build in places with lots of cliffs, I'll often extend rooms outside of the mountain with walls and ceilings out of a stone a different color than the surrounding rock. My mountain forts end up looking like castles that mountains have grown around.

My hill forts are usually only a couple levels deep, and terribly space inefficient. Guess I'm a hummie at heart.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Amalgam on December 25, 2009, 06:09:53 am

I have a sort of coppice management system where I never designate areas to be chopped if there's too many saplings around. I just suck it up and chop some trees further away. I used to define restricted areas so dwarves wouldn't trample groves with lots of immature saplings, but due to the way dwarves path large distances they tend to use certain roads anyway. I almost never use more than one miner, and, historically my forts tend not to have a military because it takes dwarves away from my work force, which is just barely sufficient at 40-50 dwarves. Most of the time I absolutely MUST have a mountain where I embark because a hole in the ground for an entrance feels kind of wrong, but I'm breaking away from that with my new coastal glacier fort. I can't stand boulders and I usually smooth them away the first opportunity I get. I tend to cluster workshops using similar resources together for pathing reasons and plan this stuff out all at once so I don't end up getting land-locked. I have an irrational phobia of letting my engravers engrave anything until they're legendary, I only let them smooth. I find it incredibly difficult to slaughter pets after their owners have passed away and tend to keep them in a cage somewhere. Despite my best efforts my forts are usually paradoxically haphazard and perfectly uniform at the same time since I rarely use anything other than a square or rectangular room, pretty unimpressive altogether. I'm a scatterbrain and a shitty architect.

I have an odd habit of putting little "engravings" on the coffins of my dwarves and deceased pets using the note system. I usually depict how they died and pick out a suitable symbol to represent them, most typically the dwarf symbol with whatever color their profession was and a red background. Dwarf fortress is special because it's the only single-player game I find myself roleplaying in. I guess I've read one too many community forts >.>

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Jack_Bread on December 25, 2009, 07:13:09 am

I usually give my starting 7 5x3 rooms which get replaced with nobles when they die.
My entrance starts with a meeting hall, then goes onto stockpiles(which I designate with SHIFT+up/down, SHIFT+right/left), and then neat rows on workshops.
My bedrooms are always far from my workshops and 4 z-levels down.
My dining hall is 2 z-levels down and my barracks is 1 z-level down.
SYMMETRY.
I don't build tombs until my first dwarf dies.
My main hallways are always 3 TILES LONG. Side halls are 2 TILES. Doorways are 1 TILE.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: ungulateman on December 25, 2009, 07:43:23 am

Quote from: Jack_Bread on December 25, 2009, 07:13:09 am

I usually give my starting 7 5x3 rooms which get replaced with nobles when they die.
My entrance starts with a meeting hall, then goes onto stockpiles(which I designate with SHIFT+up/down, SHIFT+right/left), and then neat rows on workshops.
My bedrooms are always far from my workshops and 4 z-levels down.
My dining hall is 2 z-levels down and my barracks is 1 z-level down.
SYMMETRY.
I don't build tombs until my first dwarf dies.
My main hallways are always 3 TILES LONG. Side halls are 2 TILES. Doorways are 1 TILE.

You took the words right out of my keyboard.

Wait, what?

Also, I always play in calm woodlands with heaps of trees and vegetation, without running water, and minimal magma. I keep getting killed by bad digging design, whether it's magma or water.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Vieto on December 25, 2009, 01:13:46 pm

well, I name my dwarves alphabetically based on Migrant waves, with babies always getting the name theme of the parents.

starters: A
1st wave: B

etc.

Also, I always build a big courtyard wall around the entrance to my fort.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Funk on December 25, 2009, 05:25:00 pm

a build a dry moat and fill it with spears then drop spare pets/nobles/elves in.
just keep the moat out doors.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: DwarfOfDefeat on December 25, 2009, 05:42:08 pm

i ally with the kolbolds and make them a huge feast for dwarfmas :D and i train an army of ratmen to "soften up" any intruders ;D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on December 26, 2009, 04:02:18 am

Quote from: Vieto on December 25, 2009, 01:13:46 pm

well, I name my dwarves alphabetically based on Migrant waves, with babies always getting the name theme of the parents.

starters: A
1st wave: B

etc.

Also, I always build a big courtyard wall around the entrance to my fort.

What do you do if Charlie has a kid with Erin?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: ungulateman on December 26, 2009, 11:48:41 am

I never bring steel battle axes - I use a wood furnace and some copper bars and smelt some copper axes instead. Thank you, deconstructable wagons.

I class my dwarves by usefulness.

Class S - Champions, Nobles, Children, anyone who can't work. Treated as demands go, although champions may get a kicked out tomb or a nice artifact if I have one.

Class A - Miners, Woodcutters, Carpenters, Masons, Growers, Brewers. Any jobs necessary for survival go here. These dwarves get the best treatment available. 5x5 bedrooms, offices, everything engraved, closest to food / drink, personal mausoleums.

Class B - Record Keepers, Engravers, Animal Trainers, Armorsmiths, Furnace Operators, Metalsmiths, Weaponsmiths, Stone / Wood / Bone Crafters, Butchers, Mechanics, Building Designers / Architects. Very useful jobs go here. They get normal (my normal is another player's "pretty good") treatment if possible. 4x4 bedrooms, small office (except Record Keeper, he gets a pimped out one), smoothed and eventually engraved, small personal tombs.

Class C - Bowyers, Animal Trainers, Gem Cutters, Leatherworkers, Wood Burners. Useful jobs go here. They get "meh" treatment, and I get around to them later than the Class As and Bs. 3x3 bedrooms, smoothed and a high-quality shared graveyard.

Class D - Pretty much every other non-military, non-trading skill. Given shittiest rooms possible and drafted into the Engraver Corps or sent out with a wooden weapon and no armour as fodder or for hunting. Also do pretty much all the hauling. 1x1 or 2x2 beds, thrown out after death and given insulting nicknames. Any Class D who hits legendary in a job gets to become a Class B citizen.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: dolalmoth on December 26, 2009, 02:27:35 pm

I have a long hall where I carve history--like the Chamber of Marzubal in lotr

Also I have a zoo where I keep goblins and elves captured in my cage traps

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: GrafZeppelin on December 26, 2009, 02:34:39 pm

My tombs are always based by "caste":

Zero Room, Medium Size, Outside the main Tombs: Tomb of the Foreigner. Any bodies that I deem worthy to be placed in (i.e. a human warrior who bravely fought off goblins/carp/etc but did not survive, or a truly honorable goblin warrior who provided a nice challenge) are placed here.
First Room, Biggest: Tomb of the Worker. Any common schmucks who never made it to legendary (or never made an artifact) are put here.
Second Room, Large: Tomb of the Craftsman. Any legendary worker or artifact maker is put here. (possessed moods, dontcha know)
Third Room, Medium: Tomb of the Soldier. Soldiers go here.
Fourth Room, Large: Tomb of the Hero. Champions go here.
Hallway: Leads to the various Nobility tombs.
Final Room, Medium: Tombs of the Founders. Leads to the 7 tombs of the founders, which may or may not be occupied. The Leader of the Founders' room leads to the Treasure Vault, which is hidden behind a floodgate controlled by a lever at the top of the fortress, usually.

Strangely enough, I don't do the same with my living quarters, and everyone has just about the same living quality, not counting nobles.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Toxicles on December 26, 2009, 03:00:06 pm

I build a giant burial vault somewhere out of the way so the dwarves can sleep in peace.  Regular dwarves don't get their own big, awesome tombs with cabinets and weapon racks, but they ARE guaranteed a nice stone coffin in a 1x3 room with a door.

And then I build a marble mausoleum nearby for the bodies of their faithful war dogs.

Worse yet, one of the first things I do is designate up/down stairways from wherever I end up starting all the way down to the very, very bottom.  Let's ignore the fact that I only ever use like six Z levels for my fort.

I imagine that will begin to end poorly if the next version has 50 to 100 layers below as the update list said.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Magick on December 26, 2009, 03:16:13 pm

-Everything is hooked up to magma. Everything. Dining room? magma. Bedrooms? magma. Stockpile? magma. King's throne room? Definitely magma.
-I use the stone beds mod so that i never have to touch a single piece of wood ever.
-All of my non-military dwarves are masons, furnace operators, or smiths. There is one grower in the entire fort. He also happens to be every settable noble, a cook, a brewer, and a weaver/clothier.
-Every day is garbage day, where i lock everyone in their rooms and purge the hallways with magma.Sometimes, annoying nobles fail to get into their luxurious rooms on time, and are incinerated.
-I regularly capture live fire snakes in steel cages and dump them in the magma pipe.
-I capture the servants of armok(read: fire imps, fire men, magma men) and put them in the best rooms. Usually with an annoying noble or two to eat.
-I try to keep the good nobles happy, and when they become a nuisance they get dumped in the magma pipe.
-I never trade with anything that isn't a dwarf
-I put half of the booze near the nobles rooms, and then I dump a fire imp on the stockpile.
-Dwarves with legendary skills get a small adamantine-plated tomb with an adamantine sarcophagus in it.
-I don't dump siegers in magma. Instead, i take all of their clothing/equipment, dump the poor fool into the glowing pit, and throw a single copper short sword down after them. Their equipment goes to the magma pipe. I like to think that this is why no more demons are ever sent after me, because they are having enough fun tearing a goblin to pieces.
-I use lignite/coal to lite a series of booze stockpiles that are hidden in channels. Dwarven fireworks, anyone?
-every single champion in my fortress is armed with an artifact weapon. If they don't have one, they get thrown into a small pit until one is made.
-I have a small pit filled with 1/4th of the fortress's total population. It is also hooked up to magma.
-I usually add in a fail-safe that collapses the entire mountain. Should the fortress become compromised, one switch will crush everything. This switch is kept in the barracks.
-The armor/weapon/ammo stockpiles and prison are only accessible from the barracks.
-I arm squad leading recruits with adamantine maces, just for the horrific hilarious sparring injuries that will ensue
-Should a dwarf go insane, garbage day is re-enacted, but without the whole locking in the room thing.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: shadowform on December 26, 2009, 05:46:30 pm

Quote from: Magick on December 26, 2009, 03:16:13 pm

-every single champion in my fortress is armed with an artifact weapon. If they don't have one, they get thrown into a small pit until one is made.

Screenshot of your artifact screen or I won't believe it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Magick on December 26, 2009, 10:16:19 pm

I forgot to note that most of them starve to death in the pit.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Rakonas on December 26, 2009, 11:45:32 pm

I never use the same general layout twice in a row. My current fort is finally back to the grand central staircase plan, last one was placed on one floor with every workshop belonging to a dwarf, with connected bedroom, dining room, study, and store room across z level. Fort before that was all ramps, fort before that was some crazy nonsensical layout, and so on.
I always cover the area around any exposed magma pipes with statues of battle-ready dwarves. A kind of massive 100 scarecrow defence mechanism.
I also like to have tombs spanning multiple z-leves and screens. Occasionally with the entire lower z-level filled with warrior statues. Tombs also have any non-weapon artifacts that were created by the occupant in them.
I hate plump helmets, and never, ever, plant them.
Never Traps. Never. Also, never sealing the fort in with doors or bridges. If I do seal the fort in, I build several layers of wall after removing all possible trace of the fort ever existing on the outside.
I segregate people by castes unless I'm operating with a different intent with the fort.
I also get all my champions masterwork midnight blue (or black if available) gcs silk cloaks as soon as possible.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on December 27, 2009, 06:51:32 am

Quote from: shadowform on December 26, 2009, 05:46:30 pm

Screenshot of your artifact screen or I won't believe it.

Having a shitload of artifact weapons isn't that impressive if you consider two things:
1. You can greatly increase your odds of getting weaponsmith moods by giving all your haulers (and other dwarves with no moodable skills) one appropriate job at the forge, so they're all dabbling weaponsmiths.
2. Using Dwarf Companion you can have moods trigger at will. I'm not saying that the previous poster used DC, but even what I said in point 1. makes it sufficiently easy (at least in theory, because I have yet to use it) to get what moods you want that one shouldn't make a big deal out of it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Omegastick on December 27, 2009, 10:08:26 am

I build a death chamber as soon as I get about 50 dwarves in an attempt to get rid of all the useless dwarves ( I could draft them but this is more fun).

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: NewoTigra on December 27, 2009, 05:58:54 pm

Quote from: UndeadLenin on November 26, 2009, 09:22:18 am

Everybody gets wars wolves. Sieges are a depressing time for the soldiers.

I gave the goblins / orcs war wolves, spiders and elephants. Then I felt this was a bit too much so I gave my dwarves war-bears (http://c2.api.ning.com/files/K-XUvcAylbf3bH9m6w-KQXs*ENbWgBcxSJFfpH7c0wVvTzhy4K9UmvOfLNzR7Npt/BearCavalry.jpg).

In a response to this daring move, the ice-raiders (a race composed of viking versions of superman) started to train up their platoons of penguins (http://szenenzauber.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/penguin_army.jpg).

Yeah, I like giving my civs war animals, the stranger more culturally appropriate the better.

Most of my forts also have an entrance as elaborate as is feasible at the time, such as dragons' maws rising from a magma moat, or a giant speartrap-filled aboveground tunnel, made entirely from ice.

And death pits, the more the merrier. Current fort has a tower with 4 walkways branching off at the top, each delivering prisoners into a different pit. There is are regular, spiked, magma and drowning pits. All are inescapable.

The regular pit also has a bridge that attests the poor prisoners' fall a few levels short of them dying from the impact, retaining a few wounds instead. They can then walk along the bridge into a side room...which is a large coliseum, right next to the 'extremely dangerous' animal pens, and has a few handy access hatches in the ceiling for soldiers / condemned criminals / animals to be dropped in.
Sort of like the Roman coliseums, if the criminal / prisoner can kill whatever else is in there with him, he goes free. For the soldiers it's just a live-action training exercise. For the animals it's a free meal.
Win / Win situation for all involved!

EDIT: I think there is also a subset of humans modded to only settle in deserts, also with location-related war animals, but they don't show up much. Something to do with the whole 'vast swathes of desert are only in super-tweaked world-gens'. I need to find more...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I also thought about modding in some sort of shark-demon, sort of like the regular frog ones, but significantly more badass. And less slimy.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on December 27, 2009, 08:28:14 pm

Quote from: Toxicles on December 26, 2009, 03:00:06 pm

I imagine that will begin to end poorly if the next version has 50 to 100 layers below as the update list said.

Not to mention all the open caverns, water, magma layers, and hidden fun stuff you might start piercing in the new version.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Magick on December 28, 2009, 12:25:42 pm

Quote from: assimilateur on December 27, 2009, 06:51:32 am

Quote from: shadowform on December 26, 2009, 05:46:30 pm

Screenshot of your artifact screen or I won't believe it.

Having a shitload of artifact weapons isn't that impressive if you consider two things:
1. You can greatly increase your odds of getting weaponsmith moods by giving all your haulers (and other dwarves with no moodable skills) one appropriate job at the forge, so they're all dabbling weaponsmiths.
2. Using Dwarf Companion you can have moods trigger at will. I'm not saying that the previous poster used DC, but even what I said in point 1. makes it sufficiently easy (at least in theory, because I have yet to use it) to get what moods you want that one shouldn't make a big deal out of it.

Last i checked, editing moods caused the dwarf that has it to stop doing things.
and created moods from DC don't make artifacts.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: decius on December 28, 2009, 12:59:40 pm

I put copper floor bars over the entrance to my pit. Now I'm filling it with water.

Let's see if troglodites can breathe water.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Particleman on December 28, 2009, 02:05:08 pm

I enjoy making catacombs. Basically just a bunch of 5x5 rooms, each containing a coffin, four statues, a cabinet, and a chest. I make the walls between them two tiles thick so each tomb has it's own set of unique engravings. Once a dwarf's body and all his posessions are placed in his tomb, I forbid the door to it and build a wall in front of it with stone blocks to make it blend in with the rest of the wall (which is smoothed.)

I prefer for my catacombs to either be huge and symmetrical (at least east-west symmetrical) or a single long, twisty passage with all the doors on the same side.

I also seperate most of my immigrants into two groups- serfs and drudges. Drudges are basically peasants but with Pump Operating enabled as well, so they can build up some agility.

Serfs are rough laborers. They do hauling like drudges, but they also do things like building walls and floors, smelting, woodcutting, butchery, and tanning. y reasoning is that if I had dedicated butchers, tanners, and woodcutters, they'd all spend downtime hauling stuff anyway. Plus, having two dozen amatuer woodcutters makes harvesting wood a lot faster (or at least about the same speed) as a single legendary woodcutter.

Serfs also do the majority of work on my projects.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: madjoe5 on December 31, 2009, 02:57:48 am

Every fort of mine has to have a coliseum. No, not an arena, a coliseum.

It's much greater that any arena I have seen, so far at least. It's a well organized, intricate part of my fortress. It is completely smoothed out and walls are engraved. The lower floor is for gladiator combat, and is paved in patterns of color and smoothed and engraved as well. Note that bones and corpses are never cleaned from this area, even though I could. The exit from this level is an intricate two door and a bridge/wall system that at any moment can make all the hostile creatures path to the inner part of my base, and walk over cage traps, but also keeps them in.

The upper level is much larger, consisting of a channeled out middle are, in which the pit is visible. Glass windows are placed on the perimiter of the hole, and those are surrounded by chairs for the audience (again entire area smoothed and walls engraved). There is a hallway leading to this in which there are two ticket booths and stairs to the third level. Just before that, there are doors to the two holding chambers. The holding chamber is where the combatants' cages are built and they are held not during battle. The north one holds my war bears, war dogs and war cougars, all equipped with the [CAN_LEARN] tag as well, and the South is for hostiles (invaders, untamed etc.).

The upper level is another level of window/chairs surrounding a hole that can view the combatants.

It is a shame I can't see my dwarves actually sit and watch, but it still looks epic.

Edit: Forgot to add that the holding chambers are zoos and sometimes I add breeding pens. There is also a water system that I can fill the pit with and drain appropriately, for aquatic battles.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Halmie on December 31, 2009, 04:31:24 am

- I always name my first dwarf after a god and cheat to give him high stats but don't spend points on anything else bar a pickaxe, an axe, a couple of seeds and a special item for my demi-god dwarf. e.g. If he/she is called Thor I grab a hammer.

- Often I split my fortressess into sectors. Each sector has a material and a general theme. Usually going: Slum, Apartment, General Residential, Mansions, Temples, Sacred Areas.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: kobot on December 31, 2009, 05:00:50 am

I make all of my rooms and tunnels curving and rounded and asymmetrical, more like a burrow or natural system of caves than an engineered fortress

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Toxicles on December 31, 2009, 05:19:41 am

I've grown a habit of doing needlessly complex things to solve my fort's problems.  For example, the map I'm on now has pools all over above ground near my entrance.  I was fishing them, but they dried out within a few years.

So, when I found an underground river, instead of fishing it, I built some water wheels and a pump system, hollowed out a stack of areas for the pump, and then dug out an aqueduct.  The water pumps like six z levels up out of the mountain, hits the outdoor aqueduct, and then rolls down into one of the pools.

Nearby pools are connected with underground tunnels I dug out.  There's a reservoir and everything.  There's also a pressure plate that turns off the aqueduct when the pools fill so nothing floods.  There's also three control rooms for the various flood gates and a panic lever in case I need to shut down the whole system.

Oh, and a maintenance hatch in the side of the mess.

All so my dwarves can fish without walking too far.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Laskuraska on December 31, 2009, 07:42:43 am

I smooth and pave everything. Dirt floors? Fuck no! I pave those! Rivers? Paved. Murky pools? Paved. Lakes? Also paved. The sky? Paved. Dorf umbrella!

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Chalk on December 31, 2009, 07:49:17 am

I tend to separate my building styles out by Z-level. It doesn't always work out that way, but the fort I like very much and spend most of my time on has this layout:

-Farms on the first underground layer, laid out in a very organic manner. Also, clothiers and the corresponding stockpiles.
-Same deal on the next one down, except less of a warren (far fewer random passageways connecting everything, much more dependent on large hallways)
-Two very Roman levels of bedrooms. Straight lines and symmetry everywhere! Rooms are uniform, save for the starting seven, which are larger and engraved.
-The fun levels, wherein I dug artful catacombs, winding passageways, and multi-layer beehives out of the rock. Any ore discovered here is dug out in its entirety and the resulting passageway is turned into something.
-At the very bottom, some very convoluted noble bedrooms. They look like spaceships, only full of +diorite crown+s.


When a dwarf hits legendary, I take off all his cleaning/hauling labors...except burial.

I like to build little cafes all over the place as well. Decentralized dining just works.

My military is usually completely cut off from the rest of the fort... either aboveground or tucked away in a catacomb somewhere. I don't like them mingling. >:(

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Freeklace on December 31, 2009, 08:44:37 am

Quote from: JoystickHero on December 25, 2009, 03:05:07 am

I don't do too well with space efficiency or good pathing. My fortresses tend to have big, wide hallways, with large, square or rectangular rooms. When I build in places with lots of cliffs, I'll often extend rooms outside of the mountain with walls and ceilings out of a stone a different color than the surrounding rock. My mountain forts end up looking like castles that mountains have grown around.

My hill forts are usually only a couple levels deep, and terribly space inefficient. Guess I'm a hummie at heart.

You sir have just given me an idea for my hammerer's next room...

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Toxicles on December 31, 2009, 09:20:00 am

Quote from: Chalk on December 31, 2009, 07:49:17 am

I like to build little cafes all over the place as well. Decentralized dining just works.

Wait, that isn't normal?  Weird...I thought it was.  My food stockpiles are all over the place and I end up with like 6 9x9 dining rooms near them.  I figure, my hard-working dwarves shouldn't need to spend all day walking to get to the nomz.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: wagawaga on December 31, 2009, 02:00:02 pm

If I can, I try not to kill invaders. I cage them all and pit them down a 1x1 pit, with several drawbridges down to make the fall non-lethal. And I just forget about them, until the day comes when I want to end my fort.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on December 31, 2009, 02:00:45 pm

Quote from: wagawaga on December 31, 2009, 02:00:02 pm

If I can, I try not to kill invaders. I cage them all and pit them down a 1x1 pit, with several drawbridges down to make the fall non-lethal. And I just forget about them, until the day comes when I want to end my fort.

Wait, doesn't that keep you in siege status?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: InsanityPrelude on December 31, 2009, 02:20:42 pm

I don't kill cats. When they start having kittens, I cage some of them as trade goods.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on December 31, 2009, 02:25:07 pm

Quote from: forsaken1111 on December 31, 2009, 02:00:45 pm

Wait, doesn't that keep you in siege status?

Way I remember it, sieges get broken as soon as the invaders try to retreat. Caging most of them should be enough for that.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: wagawaga on December 31, 2009, 02:49:08 pm

Yes, usually i let all my traps set off and kill the eventual remaning siegers until they run off.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: TrueAnkh on December 31, 2009, 03:55:06 pm

I make my farms less defended than the rest of my fortress because I always seem to have much more than enough.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Particleman on December 31, 2009, 05:39:05 pm

Quote from: TrueAnkh on December 31, 2009, 03:55:06 pm

I make my farms less defended than the rest of my fortress because I always seem to have much more than enough.

It's really not difficult to get a huge surplus of food.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Furtuka on December 31, 2009, 08:01:51 pm

I built a prisoner of war area since I'm too lazy to execute the ones that got in cage traps

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on December 31, 2009, 08:30:50 pm

Quote from: Furtuka on December 31, 2009, 08:01:51 pm

I built a prisoner of war area since I'm too lazy to execute the ones that got in cage traps

Really? It's not that much work; just make your POW "area" into a pit and direct a channel of water into it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Urist Imiknorris on December 31, 2009, 11:05:58 pm

All my military dwarves get 3x3 rooms, smoothed, along a single hallway. This is mirrored with their tombs, which are engraved, and for every dwarf that dies in combat with orcs, a masterwork native gold statue is placed in my entryway.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Beanchubbs on January 01, 2010, 12:52:03 am

All my champions are given at least a 7x7 room (larger if they earned their skills in battle), fully smoothed and engraved by legendaries. They also get a Mausoleum grade tomb with any thing they like that I have in them. If they like an animal, I chain up two of them in behind it's doors as 'gaurd animals'.
I train all my military dwarves in Master or greater in wrestling and shield user. I use no traps except cage traps, but that's for having fun with prisoners. I build hatches above the outside of my entrance, so my dwarves can air drop into the battle field without risking my citizens. I make a prison with iron wall grates, and low quality beds, and put POWs caught in above traps into them. And there are a few other things I've had engraved into my brain so bad I don't even know if they are eccentric behaviors or not.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: xdarkcodex on January 01, 2010, 02:15:02 am

Every time I get a few migrants I give them the best rooms with floors and walls made of gold for a few days and them I let my champion with the adamite plates adamite spear adamite shield ect play with his new recruits and i chuck there bodies to the carp to eat and kill the carp and get my champion to eat the carp.All that is true except for the part when the champion eats the carp.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Jake on January 01, 2010, 10:56:24 am

I have some of the most arty dwarves in the world. Worked-out coal or metal veins and any other odd-shaped rooms I don't have another use for become art galleries, engraved and filled with sculptures. My economy revolves around stone crafts and clothing, encrusted with whatever gems I can find.

Nobody's ever just a hauler. Peasants and dwarves with a trade I don't need right that second are usually set to whatever profession I need the most at that point, preferably something related to their existing skill (wood crafter or bowyer to carpenter, siege engineer to mechanic etc), and hauling is left on for everyone except legendaries and dwarves with a job I need them doing full-time like the butcher and fish cleaner. There's usually fewer dwarves than workshops so hauling gets done on something like a rota.

Wood-burning and smelting takes place aboveground for fear of fire. Forges and kitchens get a grating in the roof for ventilation.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: InsanityPrelude on January 01, 2010, 03:21:25 pm

As long as we're on the subject of tombs, I'm building a "hall of heroes" for any military dwarves that have enough kills for a title. It's not all that fancy, but it has a nice copper vein running through it, at least.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: xdarkcodex on January 01, 2010, 06:10:58 pm

How much kills does one need to be in the hall of heroes?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on January 01, 2010, 06:26:35 pm

Quote from: xdarkcodex on January 01, 2010, 06:10:58 pm

How much kills does one need to be in the hall of heroes?

They get a title for five significant kills. Which is rather low, actually, at least for a professional soldier.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Rotten on January 01, 2010, 08:35:50 pm

Every fortress has a cat.

EVERY ONE.

Right now, I'm doing a military/bare minimum fort in a forest (no digging besides for the farm). 6 soldiers, 1 skilled dwarf, a pick, an anvil, food, beer, an axe and a kitten.

I love cats :).

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: xdarkcodex on January 03, 2010, 12:40:33 am

Nah no cats for me. I made it so they blow up when the appear on the map.I'm mean ain't I?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: ofgeeks on January 03, 2010, 07:05:13 am

I set my map creation so that it will stop on 9, 99 so that my dwarves start out in year 10 or 100. It just makes it cleaner to keep track of the years for me.

I usually embark with nothing but peasants for added fun.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Dvergar on January 03, 2010, 07:38:24 pm

Quote from: Beanchubbs on January 01, 2010, 12:52:03 am

I build hatches above the outside of my entrance, so my dwarves can air drop into the battle field without risking my citizens.

I have used this to save starving and trapper miners before, but never for combat, how do your dwarves manage to survive the rather lengthy period of vulnerability while stunned?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: xdarkcodex on January 03, 2010, 08:12:58 pm

Quote from: Dvergar on January 03, 2010, 07:38:24 pm

Quote from: Beanchubbs on January 01, 2010, 12:52:03 am

I build hatches above the outside of my entrance, so my dwarves can air drop into the battle field without risking my citizens.

I have used this to save starving and trapper miners before, but never for combat, how do your dwarves manage to survive the rather lengthy period of vulnerability while stunned?

Only the dwarves that survive being attack while stunned are worthy of his army.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Urist Imiknorris on January 03, 2010, 09:15:56 pm

Quote from: xdarkcodex on January 03, 2010, 08:12:58 pm

Quote from: Dvergar on January 03, 2010, 07:38:24 pm

Quote from: Beanchubbs on January 01, 2010, 12:52:03 am

I build hatches above the outside of my entrance, so my dwarves can air drop into the battle field without risking my citizens.

I have used this to save starving and trapper miners before, but never for combat, how do your dwarves manage to survive the rather lengthy period of vulnerability while stunned?

Only the dwarves that survive being attack while stunned are worthy of his army.

Or he cushions their fall with kittens.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 03, 2010, 09:17:29 pm

That's what I do. Tie a kitten up at the bottom of a 1 tile shaft with a door at the bottom which is closed to pets. If they fall on a creature they take no damage.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: inteuniso on January 03, 2010, 09:24:41 pm

Oh. You know, kitten parachutes are a reliable, renewable alternative.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Beanchubbs on January 04, 2010, 12:41:46 am

Quote from: Dvergar on January 03, 2010, 07:38:24 pm

Quote from: Beanchubbs on January 01, 2010, 12:52:03 am

I build hatches above the outside of my entrance, so my dwarves can air drop into the battle field without risking my citizens.

I have used this to save starving and trapper miners before, but never for combat, how do your dwarves manage to survive the rather lengthy period of vulnerability while stunned?

What I do to prevent this is set up multiple air drop hatches around my fortress in different places, so the dwarves have time to recover from their fall, form up, and charge. I also believe it would be demoralizing to the enemy to see a squad of gold armored champion dwarves coming from behind them and tearing their partners to shreds.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: labouts on January 04, 2010, 05:40:46 am

I like having caged enemies but feel like cage traps are overpowered. To resolve this I place pit traps (holes covered with retractable bridges) around my map and keep myself (and idle civilians near levers) entertained during battle by trying to trap enemies in the pits without getting my own solders. If I manage to catch them, I feel like I deserve to cage them and make one exit with a cage trap to capture them.

I make displays out of my prisoners of war by placing them in uncomfortable places. My two favorites are
    1) Underwater, often in my moat. They don't die while caged underwater; they drown eternally.
    2) In my refuse room, constantly surrounded by filth and miasma.

If I cage an enemy leader (like goblin weapon masters) I put them on display above my entrance or in my highest noble's throne room.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grendus on January 04, 2010, 04:36:39 pm

Every fort has a lockdown lever that seals the entrance. It is never used, I'd rather lose the fort than admit I need to use a placeholder mechanic to keep enemies out, but it's there. I don't know why, I just do it.

I instinctively buy every barrel, cage, and rope that traders bring, even though I don't need them. Usually the ropes end up gem encrusted and I sell them for tons of money, though that's nothing special since they do the same thing to blood and vomit encrusted loincloths.

I refuse to use stonecrafting for trade goods. On the rare instances I do, I don't use mugs. I make metal mugs, but stone mugs are too much of a hauling drain.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 04:42:13 pm

Quote from: Grendus on January 04, 2010, 04:36:39 pm

placeholder mechanic to keep enemies out

Now come on. You can't tell me it's unreasonable, especially for dwarves, fantasy's greatest engineers, to be able to build doors, floodgates, hatches or grates capable of holding goblins at bay.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Euld on January 04, 2010, 05:14:02 pm

I don't bother naming children until they become adults.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Retro on January 04, 2010, 05:16:52 pm

Quote from: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 04:42:13 pm

Quote from: Grendus on January 04, 2010, 04:36:39 pm

placeholder mechanic to keep enemies out

Now come on. You can't tell me it's unreasonable, especially for dwarves, fantasy's greatest engineers, to be able to build doors, floodgates, hatches or grates capable of holding goblins at bay.

Now now. Goblins may be bloodthirsty evil monsters who desire nothing but to turn your insides into an Art Attack, but they still have manners.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 05:26:26 pm

Quote from: Euld on January 04, 2010, 05:14:02 pm

I don't bother naming children until they become adults.

Then I must be the most eccentric motherfucker on this forum, because I don't name dwarves, at all. All they get is custom profession names, and when a dwarf is important and my fort lasts for a couple of years, I eventually remember at least their first name.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Korbac on January 04, 2010, 05:43:13 pm

I also put Goblins in the rooms of my dwarves, as pets of sorts I guess. My fortresses are also very organic - very unplanned, yet also functional, and they grow into resources / space as I see fit.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grendus on January 04, 2010, 09:09:40 pm

Quote from: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 04:42:13 pm

Quote from: Grendus on January 04, 2010, 04:36:39 pm

placeholder mechanic to keep enemies out

Now come on. You can't tell me it's unreasonable, especially for dwarves, fantasy's greatest engineers, to be able to build doors, floodgates, hatches or grates capable of holding goblins at bay.

I'd understand if a legendary metalsmith using steel or addy to build a wall, but Urist McPotashmaker building a wall out of a block of glass made by a dabbling glassmaker wouldn't even approach indestructible. Same thing goes for doors, grates, floodgates, etc. It's a placeholder, eventually these will be destructible. Toady just hasn't gotten around to it yet.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Arrkhal on January 04, 2010, 09:12:50 pm

I never name my dwarves or give them custom professions.  Maybe I should start.

I also like to capture gobbo babysnatchers and put them in a "torture chamber" consisting of an exit-only hallway lined with single whip traps.  I actually modded in a new component, "shredding [material] hooks," which do 3 hits of 20 gore damage, just to make it a bit easier and more space efficient.  2 of those made of glass, or 1 of iron, is typically enough to completely mutilate a babysnatcher while leaving it alive.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 09:23:29 pm

Quote from: Grendus on January 04, 2010, 09:09:40 pm

I'd understand if a legendary metalsmith using steel or addy to build a wall, but Urist McPotashmaker building a wall out of a block of glass made by a dabbling glassmaker wouldn't even approach indestructible. Same thing goes for doors, grates, floodgates, etc. It's a placeholder, eventually these will be destructible. Toady just hasn't gotten around to it yet.

Technically, I agree that walls being totally indestructible is a place-holder mechanic, but I really don't see the problem in practice. Sure, wood, glass or soap walls being untouchable is unrealistic, but structures built out of stone or metal should be perfectly capable of keeping goblins with no siege equipment out. Now, if they ever brought anything like a catapult, that might be a different story.

As to walls or doors, or whatever, becoming destructible: I'm all for it. But I hope we don't end up with gamey bullshit like goblins hacking iron or stone doors open with swords.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Halceon on January 05, 2010, 07:31:12 am

Quote from: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 05:26:26 pm

Quote from: Euld on January 04, 2010, 05:14:02 pm

I don't bother naming children until they become adults.

Then I must be the most eccentric motherfucker on this forum, because I don't name dwarves, at all. All they get is custom profession names, and when a dwarf is important and my fort lasts for a couple of years, I eventually remember at least their first name.

I don't customize my dwarfs at all. And i don't see this as excentric. The only exception is community games, and even then it's just naming one miner after myself.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: XmasApe on January 05, 2010, 10:18:59 am

Every dwarf receives a custom profession so I can track them in Dwarf Therapist - though custom does not mean unique, and I've had as many as six "Forgepriest"s when I got a dump of metal-working immigrants. Labors are customarily assigned by group - only Culinarists haul food and gather plants, only Laborers haul furniture, wood, and stone, etc. However, I rarely change their names.

If you can build it out of blocks, I only build it out of blocks. Rough stones are raw material, not building supplies! Additionally, no external fortress wall can be made of soil.

Military training occurs in waves, beginning with Proficient Pump Operator before recruitment for the stat gains. Every recruit becomes a competent wrestler, then a competent marksdwarf. Then, if their personality is not grossly ill-suited to permanent military service - not self-conscious, timid, or full of RAGE - they acquire competency in the spear, then the hammer, then the axe, while the Fortress Guard is also taught swordsdwarfship. Once all these skills are at Competent, they alternate between wrestling and weapons practice for the remainder of their military career. If a dwarf's personality precludes them from service, they spend each winter practicing marksdwarfship and the rest of the year working their civilian jobs.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 05, 2010, 01:52:15 pm

Quote from: XmasApe on January 05, 2010, 10:18:59 am

Additionally, no external fortress wall can be made of soil.

I do this, but for every wall(even internal) and floor except farming space. My farms are dug out one space extra and block walls are erected around them, and stone block floors go around the farming areas. I will often place stone block floors in the main halls or dining rooms to form mosaics or designs as well.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: dAGNARUS on January 05, 2010, 03:17:09 pm

I don't like loose stones hanging around. I will order ALL of my dwarves to clean up the mess until there is not a single stone out of the quantum-stockpile-trade-depot thingy.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 05, 2010, 03:38:39 pm

Wouldn't it be easier just to hide them?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 05, 2010, 03:40:36 pm

Quote from: Lord Shonus on January 05, 2010, 03:38:39 pm

Wouldn't it be easier just to hide them?

But they're still there. They can get in the way of stockpiles, slow down building, and.. you know they're still there all over the place.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Heliman on January 05, 2010, 03:42:51 pm

I always assign all of my wardogs to one recruit and rename the person "denmother."

I always make at least 2 layers of space inbetween my fort and the surface in case I want to put anything there.

I always keep Jailed dwarves on the very bottom Z level of my map (next to the burial chambers)

I always have a room connected to the enterance pathway of my fort (even if I never use it!)

I like elves. for their wood, of course. (1x1 forts are scarce with the stuff.)

All my levers have notes on them and instead of removing levers that accidentally screw up processes I leave a humorous note on it.

Despite protesting by other nobles, my philosopher always gets quarters equal to a baron's in quality.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Stelknecht on January 05, 2010, 09:50:23 pm

I always channel a hole in the roof of my refuse stockpile, and then wall it on the level above, creating a chimney of miasma. I often continue to raise the chimney until the scaffolding outside to build it gets too unwieldy. I don't think it actually works, but the idea is to give the stink a place to go.

What I actually end up with to keep it in the refuse stockpile is an airlock, but the chimney and it's belching clouds of purple seem like the signature of my mature forts.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kadzar on January 06, 2010, 12:11:30 am

Right. Anyway, whenever I find a map feature such as lava, a bottomless pit, or a cave pool with at least 2 z-levels of empty space above it, I am compelled to build some sort of a bridge over it. This is regardless of any need to path across the feature and often ignoring the danger this puts my dwarves in.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Asteranx on January 06, 2010, 02:20:26 pm

I always gift a matched set of three high quality mugs to any caravan that visits.  The mugs are made of a plentiful local stone, and generally embellished in some way.  I like to think of them as complementary souvenir travel mugs.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 02:33:31 pm

Oh I do that too! I always have one really nice item, only touched by my most experienced craftsdwarves, ready for the dwarven caravan each season and I gift it to the leader.

Also I build monuments to large battles or especially important events. Once I embarked next to a magma tube and a fireman and several imps killed 6 of the 7 starting dwarves and two of my four dogs. I had the remaining unskilled dwarf build a pillar from the ashes the fireman left behind on the spot all this happend (after the fires went out), surround it with marble block floor, build a marble block ramp down into the ground and beneath the pillar/monument I interred all 6 dwarves and 2 dogs in coffins with statues in front of each one. (Marble was plentiful here, as a layer stone) and I placed the bones of the fire imps as well as totems made from their skulls down in the tomb.

As that fort went on I had the migrants and survivors slowly embellish the tomb with engravings, decorate the fire imp skull totems with gems and other things, and stacked precious metals down there until it felt 'done' to me. I then sealed over the ramp and put a note on the ash pillar describing the event and when it happened.

A bit overboard maybe, but fun.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on January 06, 2010, 04:18:55 pm

Quote from: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 05:26:26 pm

Quote from: Euld on January 04, 2010, 05:14:02 pm

I don't bother naming children until they become adults.

Then I must be the most eccentric motherfucker on this forum, because I don't name dwarves, at all. All they get is custom profession names, and when a dwarf is important and my fort lasts for a couple of years, I eventually remember at least their first name.

The only ones of mine who get names are the founders, and they generally only get "One", "Two", etc. since I can't think of anything better.

I think a while back I gave my Guard Captain the custom profession "Sarge", though. (Is sergeant higher than captain? I can never remember.)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Euld on January 06, 2010, 05:15:55 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on January 06, 2010, 04:18:55 pm

Quote from: assimilateur on January 04, 2010, 05:26:26 pm

Quote from: Euld on January 04, 2010, 05:14:02 pm

I don't bother naming children until they become adults.

Then I must be the most eccentric mother ::) on this forum, because I don't name dwarves, at all. All they get is custom profession names, and when a dwarf is important and my fort lasts for a couple of years, I eventually remember at least their first name.

The only ones of mine who get names are the founders, and they generally only get "One", "Two", etc. since I can't think of anything better.

I think a while back I gave my Guard Captain the custom profession "Sarge", though. (Is sergeant higher than captain? I can never remember.)

So much for me trying to sound heartless  ::)  Maybe my adult naming methods are weird enough?  Miners always get named after opposite things, followed by "miner."  I always embark with two miners, so they are often "life miner" and "death miner," or "sun miner" and "moon miner," or even "black hole miner" and "pulsar miner."  If I get an odd number of miners due to immigrants, I either slowly train up another miner (yes this takes a while) or make sure the next immigrant miner matches the last one I got.  This is a weird tradition I picked up from my earliest fortresses, I know that much.  Everyone else gets named after video game characters, or whatever name comes to mind first.  Military dwarves get named "El" then a random spanish word or something random like Death or Z.  Fortress guard are called Judge [insert random here], and Royal Guards are Saint [insert random here].  Although I don't have a fortress guard anymore.  Oh yeah, Link is always a legendary weaponsmith, Zelda is always a legendary Mason, and Ganondorf is a legendary woodworker (weird how the villian of that little love triangle is the non-elf).  And "Mario" and "Fox McCloud" always seem to end up married to each other.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on January 06, 2010, 05:19:41 pm

Quote from: Euld on January 06, 2010, 05:15:55 pm

  ::) 

Did you just fucking censor me? I think I'm gonna be sick.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 05:45:12 pm

That is a bit silly, censoring a quote.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on January 06, 2010, 05:50:40 pm

Quote from: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 05:45:12 pm

That is a bit silly, censoring a quote.

Which is why I pointed it out. It might also arguably be understood as rude and patronizing, but I suppose that wasn't his intention.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kidiri on January 06, 2010, 06:07:09 pm

Quote from: Asteranx on January 06, 2010, 02:20:26 pm

I always gift a matched set of three high quality mugs to any caravan that visits.  The mugs are made of a plentiful local stone, and generally embellished in some way.  I like to think of them as complementary souvenir travel mugs.

My merchant went to [insert fortress name] and all I got was this lousy mug.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Heliman on January 06, 2010, 06:16:39 pm

Quote from: assimilateur on January 06, 2010, 05:50:40 pm

Quote from: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 05:45:12 pm

That is a bit  ::), censoring a quote.

Which is why I pointed it out. It might also arguably be understood as  ::) and  ::), but I suppose that wasn't his intention.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 06:17:32 pm

Hehehe, now that's just asinine.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 06, 2010, 06:53:09 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on January 06, 2010, 04:18:55 pm

I think a while back I gave my Guard Captain the custom profession "Sarge", though. (Is sergeant higher than captain? I can never remember.)

Never. Sergeants are senior non-comissioned officers, promoted from enlisted men. Captain is a rank for commissioned officers, which is reserved for graduates of a service academy, persons of some difficult to obtain, highly specialised skill (such as surgeons) or for extremely competent enlisted personnell.

The previous is true for armies based on the British or Amercian model, and might not hold true in other forces.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 06:54:47 pm

Also note, in the Navy a captain is an even higher rank, roughly equivalent to a full colonel.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on January 06, 2010, 08:07:03 pm

Quote from: Lord Shonus on January 06, 2010, 06:53:09 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on January 06, 2010, 04:18:55 pm

I think a while back I gave my Guard Captain the custom profession "Sarge", though. (Is sergeant higher than captain? I can never remember.)

Never. Sergeants are senior non-comissioned officers, promoted from enlisted men. Captain is a rank for commissioned officers, which is reserved for graduates of a service academy, persons of some difficult to obtain, highly specialised skill (such as surgeons) or for extremely competent enlisted personnell.

The previous is true for armies based on the British or Amercian model, and might not hold true in other forces.

Hmm. Serves him right for wanting such a fancy office, I guess.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 06, 2010, 08:53:07 pm

Quote from: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 06:54:47 pm

Also note, in the Navy a captain is an even higher rank, roughly equivalent to a full colonel.

Of course, the Navy doesn't have sergeants.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on January 06, 2010, 08:54:00 pm

True...

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: ed boy on January 07, 2010, 10:36:18 am

After reading about it on these forums and giving it a go once, I now find it impossible to go without naming my founding seven happy, dopey, sleepy, grumpy, bashful, doc and sneezy.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on January 07, 2010, 03:28:44 pm

Quote from: ed boy on January 07, 2010, 10:36:18 am

After reading about it on these forums and giving it a go once, I now find it impossible to go without naming my founding seven happy, dopey, sleepy, grumpy, bashful, doc and sneezy.

Bonus points if you try to match the names to their personalities.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: xdarkcodex on January 07, 2010, 07:59:03 pm

Quote from: ed boy on January 07, 2010, 10:36:18 am

After reading about it on these forums and giving it a go once, I now find it impossible to go without naming my founding seven happy, dopey, sleepy, grumpy, bashful, doc and sneezy.

hmmm never thought bout that.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Comrade Ankh on January 08, 2010, 02:20:52 am

Wood burners are treated to the highest quality rooming I can afford. Also, their rooms are towers made out of ash, constructed right beside the main road, where the elves can see them.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Flaede on January 08, 2010, 02:26:17 am

If I find that there are at least 3 dwarves with the same name in a relatively small fort, I immediately move them all into one squad, and recruit them.

If there are enough of the same name to make up the entire palace guard, I do that instead.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Mungrul on January 08, 2010, 02:41:24 am

When a dwarf becomes a champion, I rename them either after their first or most prominent kill.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Innominate on January 08, 2010, 07:50:28 am

Quote from: Mungrul on January 08, 2010, 02:41:24 am

When a dwarf becomes a champion, I rename them either after their first or most prominent kill.

Identity fraud?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Mungrul on January 08, 2010, 07:58:28 am

Quote from: Innominate on January 08, 2010, 07:50:28 am

Identity fraud?

"Aren't you a little short for a dragon?"

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: xdarkcodex on January 08, 2010, 06:01:50 pm

Nah dont be silly.I'm a bearded dragon.The ones in Australia are only 5 inches long.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Julien Brightside on January 08, 2010, 08:08:13 pm

So far, I have made a huuuuge goblin prison deep down in my fortress (might make my dwarves evil in the eyes of the goblins, turning their sieges into rescue missions).
Although made a seperate prison for the imprisoned Titan.

I don`t make names for my dwarves either, I think their borned names are more funnier to read.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pandarsenic on January 10, 2010, 06:10:14 am

Quote from: Flaede on January 08, 2010, 02:26:17 am

If I find that there are at least 3 dwarves with the same name in a relatively small fort, I immediately move them all into one squad, and recruit them.

If there are enough of the same name to make up the entire palace guard, I do that instead.

That sounds awesome, but what if one of them is a Legendary Weaponsmith or Armorer?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grendus on January 10, 2010, 08:53:36 am

I refuse to use stonecrafting or obsidian short swords. That's partly due to obstinacy, partly due to the painful effect it has on trading (either you sell all your bins or you need thumb surgery after three years), but mostly due to boredom. Likewise with obsidian short swords, I'd rather train up an all purpose weaponsmith and use hammers.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: azazel on January 10, 2010, 05:30:28 pm

I never wall in a dwarf taken by any kind of moods. If they go insane and murder half the fortress... so be it.

My dining room feature tables in a square like so:
###
#0#
###
With the middle space occupied by a statue.

My dining room spans 2 z-levels, and contains natural (engraved) columns.

The entire fortress is smoothed.

I build physics-defying towers, with a single column supporting each tower. I place a pressure plate after the tower (but before it's "inside" the fortress) and position my squads before the plate (below the towers). If they fail, the tower might drop on their heads. I like to think that they know this and will fight harder.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Fishbulb on January 11, 2010, 07:17:59 pm

I just noticed another eccentricity of mine: I always, always smooth the inside of magma and water pipes and power conduits. Always, no exceptions. I haven't the foggiest idea why. These are places that, once they're finished, my dwarves will literally never go, and yet I'm compelled to smooth them anyway. I'm really weird.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: lazygun on January 11, 2010, 09:46:15 pm

I smooth the lava channels too. After all, it's the last chance I'll ever get to do that. I suppose I could just do the floors and leave the walls for later. Funny how you can dig a parallel tunnel and smooth the walls from the outside.

For water channels, I've started laying down constructed floors. Only because constructed floors are a way to prevent tower caps gumming up the pipes when there's an underground water source. Of course I use smooth blocks.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: mal7690 on January 11, 2010, 10:20:25 pm

I always use water for my major traps.  Pressure is so much more Fun than magma.

On that note, I keep water as pressurized as possible unless absolutely necessary.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grafsburg on January 12, 2010, 12:01:19 pm

I usually play as my own made-up race, and I like to do things like build temples (which are just statue gardens), fancy barrackses (barracks?) for my troops, stuff like that.

I also like to build an 'execution pit' that drops unwanted people like nobles and criminals down about ten stories and kills them. They usually explode upon impacting the ground, which is pretty gross to say the least.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kidiri on January 12, 2010, 12:23:10 pm

Quote from: Grafsburg on January 12, 2010, 12:01:19 pm

I also like to build an 'execution pit' that drops unwanted people like nobles and criminals down about ten stories and kills them. They usually explode upon impacting the ground, which is pretty gross to say the least.

You misspelled awesome.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Grafsburg on January 12, 2010, 12:40:55 pm

Quote from: Kidiri on January 12, 2010, 12:23:10 pm

Quote from: Grafsburg on January 12, 2010, 12:01:19 pm

I also like to build an 'execution pit' that drops unwanted people like nobles and criminals down about ten stories and kills them. They usually explode upon impacting the ground, which is pretty gross to say the least.

You misspelled awesome.

You actually made me look through my post about three times before I realized what you meant <_>.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Sphalerite on January 12, 2010, 04:57:31 pm

Not only do I smooth water and magma conduits, but if a water conduit or cistern intersects a vein of cinnabar or realgar I dig it out and wall up the hole, making sure none of the loose stone is left in the cistern.  I know that DF doesn't have heavy metal poisoning.  I just do this anyway.  Then I make the cinnabar into mugs and give it to the elves.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darthbob88 on January 12, 2010, 05:44:32 pm

Quote from: Sphalerite on January 12, 2010, 04:57:31 pm

Not only do I smooth water and magma conduits, but if a water conduit or cistern intersects a vein of cinnabar or realgar I dig it out and wall up the hole, making sure none of the loose stone is left in the cistern.  I know that DF doesn't have heavy metal poisoning.  I just do this anyway.  Then I make the cinnabar into mugs and give it to the elves.

Interesting. Do you do that also with orpiment, also an arsenic sulfide; cobaltite, cobalt arsenic sulfide; stibnite, antimony sulfide; or, of course, pitchblende, uranium oxides? Going like this, I think I might have to build all my potable water systems out of glass. Moats, drowning traps, and obsidian farms will receive no special treatment, but anything my dwarves are going to drink or which will irrigate my farms is going to be somewhat pure.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Fishbulb on January 12, 2010, 09:57:20 pm

That's going a little overboard, even for me. After all, where does the water come from in the first place? Either murky pools, which by definition are murky, or from streams and rivers meaning the water's so full of carp waste and offal you could probably burn it for fuel in your smelter.

Obviously we need to petition Toady to add water purification to the game.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on January 12, 2010, 10:20:09 pm

That's all well and good, but shit probably isn't exactly as toxic as heavy metals.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darthbob88 on January 12, 2010, 10:25:05 pm

Quote from: assimilateur on January 12, 2010, 10:20:09 pm

That's all well and good, but shit probably isn't exactly as toxic as heavy metals.

Agreed, and you can filter out macropollution like waste and carcasses much easier than you can remove heavy metals.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Sphalerite on January 13, 2010, 09:21:50 am

Didn't know about Orpiment, I'll have to start sealing that off too.  Pitchblend I already remove and set aside for the Dwarven nuclear power program, of course.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Fishbulb on January 13, 2010, 11:20:37 am

Quote from: assimilateur on January 12, 2010, 10:20:09 pm

That's all well and good, but shit probably isn't exactly as toxic as heavy metals.

I dunno, I'm no expert but I imagine more people have died over the years from cholera and dysentery than heavy metal poisoning.

I mean, think about it. I dump corpses into my plumbing to make vermin fish spawn for my fisherdwarves. That same pipe, not thirty tiles away, feeds my well.

It's a miracle any of my dwarves survive.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kidiri on January 13, 2010, 11:52:57 am

Don't they get bad thoughts from a dirty well or something? I've never actually built a well, but I've heard it happen. Also, to all of the people digging out and walling of the heavy metals, do you also pave the floor? Because the floor is still a pitchblende/orpiment/cinnabar/... floor? Or do ou even go completely overboard and channel out and repave those tiles, just to be sure there is no toxin left? And what if you use a very porous rock, such as limestone or sandstone?

As for eccentric behaviour, I'm currently hoarding all microcline I can find. But this is more of a one-time thing, actually.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Sphalerite on January 13, 2010, 11:58:02 am

I always pave the floor of waterways, but that's more because I'm paranoid about tower-caps growing and blocking the flow of water.  I know some people say they've seen tower-caps grow on constructed floors, but so far in my fortresses paving channels with constructed floors has been a 100% effective method of stopping tower-caps from growing.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: kawaiidesunekochan on January 14, 2010, 02:36:16 am

OP,you gave me an idea. I'm making a dwarfmas tree out of rock. It's going to be like a green pyramid that takes up several levels,and on the top of each level is going to be gem stockpiles for dwarfmas lights. At the tippy top,I can put a pretty golden statue :D

maybe I can even tame a few reindeers or polar bears and chain them to it :3

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kidiri on January 14, 2010, 06:26:38 am

Quote from: kawaiidesunekochan on January 14, 2010, 02:36:16 am

OP,you gave me an idea. I'm making a dwarfmas tree out of rock. It's going to be like a green pyramid that takes up several levels,and on the top of each level is going to be gem stockpiles for dwarfmas lights. At the tippy top,I can put a pretty golden statue :D

maybe I can even tame a few reindeers or polar bears and chain them to it :3

Instead of a gem stockpile, how about gem windows? Where each window has three differently coloured gems. If I'm not mistaken, the windows will flash between the colours of the gems used, creating flashing fairy lights.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: darthbob88 on January 14, 2010, 03:31:53 pm

I'm currently on a "NO IMPORTED WEALTH" kick; all imported goods get either melted, decorated, or otherwise consumed. Except for the clothes on their backs, everything my dwarves have or use is created in this fortress. Metal armor and weapons are melted, cloth and leather items are decorated, seeds are planted, and meat is cooked. Everything gets naturalized or consumed one way or another. The only one which gives me trouble is non-weapon-grade metal bars; don't need metal crafts enough to use them, and don't want to melt them down to destroy them.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kidiri on January 14, 2010, 05:22:03 pm

You could decorate your über-weapon with those bars: take the ☼Steel weapon☼ and plant a decoration in every metal/gem/bone/... you can find on it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on January 14, 2010, 09:33:16 pm

Or alloy them, or turn them into furniture if you have a set of three.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Flaede on January 15, 2010, 01:05:57 am

Quote from: Pandarsenic on January 10, 2010, 06:10:14 am

Quote from: Flaede on January 08, 2010, 02:26:17 am

If I find that there are at least 3 dwarves with the same name in a relatively small fort, I immediately move them all into one squad, and recruit them.

If there are enough of the same name to make up the entire palace guard, I do that instead.

That sounds awesome, but what if one of them is a Legendary Weaponsmith or Armorer?

That is a problem. Then I usually just try to have the group become an honour guard for the legendary one: stationed at their workshop, or by their quarters, or patrolling between them.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Retro on February 22, 2010, 09:48:09 pm

This is a minor necro, but I've noticed this a while ago and have been wanting to post it for a while.

I'm finding that I abuse traffic orders to make the dwarves behave how I like. For example, all tables are restricted - dwarves will politely walk around only, and I treat them like walls in term of access. Also, in areas like the jail building with a main lobby and front desk, I make dwarves run up to the desk and check in first (a fortress guard will generally be sitting in his 'office' behind the desk) using high-priority lines before moving inside. It definitely adds to my sense of immersion. Plus I like unnecessary things like adding secretaries with full multi-desk offices for each of my main appointed nobles to have working for them and that sort of thing.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Dakoth on February 23, 2010, 01:09:31 am

I feel that this thread should stay alive.

Quote from: Retro on February 22, 2010, 09:48:09 pm

I'm finding that I abuse traffic orders to make the dwarves behave how I like. For example, all tables are restricted - dwarves will politely walk around only, and I treat them like walls in term of access. Also, in areas like the jail building with a main lobby and front desk, I make dwarves run up to the desk and check in first (a fortress guard will generally be sitting in his 'office' behind the desk) using high-priority lines before moving inside. It definitely adds to my sense of immersion. Plus I like unnecessary things like adding secretaries with full multi-desk offices for each of my main appointed nobles to have working for them and that sort of thing.

Ah yes, I do that too. For some reason, it bothers me to see an elephant, three dogs, and a herd of cattle standing on a table. Especially when a dwarf comes along and happily sits down to eat.

Oh yes, I also have a personal vendetta against all pets, especially cats. I always build special devices to destroy pets without harming the owners. Cats are different, though. Anyone who immigrates with a cat is given the custom profession "Cat-Friend" and is stationed in a sealed room with the cat. The room is then purged with magma.

My dwarves' rooms are always 3*3, and include a bed, door, cabinet, and chest. Legendaries get a 3*4 room with double doors, and occasionally a personal dining room upstairs. Nobles' offices always have to have a waiting room with a reception desk, then an "interior" door into the office itself. Nobles who behave (by restricting their mandates to obtainable materials) get clear glass aquariums with live fish.

I dig 1*2 niches in my great hall for artifacts to be placed. By messing around with stockpiles, I can get specific "craft" artifacts into specific places. Then, I seal them off with clear glass windows to give it a nice "museum" feel.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Hungry on February 23, 2010, 01:33:04 am

I go through and change profession names to family names and put families together in their own room, it really changes things when a member of such 'family' dies you know almost exactly who to cheer up.

That and I give legendaries nicknames based on ancient myths...Jonah legendary fisherdwarf cancles fish, Interupted by Zombie Whale.

And the nitpicking over how stuff looks.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: bhamv on February 23, 2010, 04:48:26 am

Using the Economic Stones mod, I always arrange my dining rooms' tables and chairs to have a neat pattern of colors.  Four tables and four chairs for each color.

It started through my habit of building the middle tables and chairs first, then making new ones and putting them on either side as my fortress population expanded.  Eventually, not sure when, I started making each set of tables and chairs out of different colored stones, metals, or wood.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/5425/3ddining.png)

(http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/98/2ddining.png)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: geoduck on February 23, 2010, 07:07:05 am

I always smooth out all the floors in the dining hall/workshops area first, then go back and do the walls. I just like the way it looks.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Khasha on February 23, 2010, 12:04:42 pm

Quote from: Dvergar on October 05, 2009, 03:50:41 pm

Dopey, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Doc, Bashful ;)

The last (and only) time I did this, Doc was the leader, naturally (interesting because I did an 'embark with absolutely nothing' embark). Sometime around the end of the first year, about 20 Rhesus Macaques showed up. One of them snatched out Sleepy's eye... You know the rest.

Sleepy had an unfortunate accident with a drawbridge the following year.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Hungry on February 23, 2010, 12:33:36 pm

I just remembered that I only engrave walls due to my lack of ability it tell them apart from engraved floors at a glance.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: newtype0083 on February 23, 2010, 04:34:57 pm

I've only just started this, but I plan to continue/improve the idea with each fortress.

Massive skull rack. Floor upon floor of shelves, with a hollowed out interior so visitors can gawk properly at the library of my enemies. Since bones disappear above ground, even inside of buildings, I need to carve away from a mountain if I want to have one outside my entrance to intimidate visitors.

Oh, and no butchered mountain goat or cow skulls. Only goblin/kobold/elf skulls are worthy enough to be displayed in triumph.

Now if only there were a way to ensure that only engravings of goblins getting killed appeared on my skull display, my dwarves could die happy.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: forsaken1111 on February 23, 2010, 04:36:34 pm

Not sure if anyone else does this, but I make food storage rooms with wooden shelving. I hollow out a 5 z-level room and build 1 tile wide 'shelving' (wooden floors) all along the edges with wooden stairs up and down, as well as freestanding wooden shelving running up and down the room.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: gtmattz on February 23, 2010, 06:37:16 pm

Every time I start a new fort I gen 6 worlds that I ignore and look for my site on the 7th.  If there is nothing suitable I gen 4 more worlds and check the 11'th.  If nothing in either, I delete them all and start over...  So all my forts are on region 7 or 11...  I really have no reason why I do this, but it has become habit.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: LoneJedi7 on February 23, 2010, 07:24:04 pm

i like capturing stuff.....lots of stuff, currently i have approximately 462 caje traps on my map......im gonna keep going until i have at least 1000.  too much? not at all. ;D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: PhilbertFlange on February 23, 2010, 08:58:50 pm

I've taken to using the revealvein.exe to find olivine deposits. I hollow out the one closest to the edge of my map with a 1-tile wide border of olivine left. I then smooth the whole thing and build my trade deopt in there, out of more olivine.

This is so my caravans have to wait in my "green room" before seeing my broker.  :P

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pandarsenic on February 26, 2010, 05:36:07 am

Quote from: Sphalerite on January 13, 2010, 09:21:50 am

Didn't know about Orpiment, I'll have to start sealing that off too.  Pitchblend I already remove and set aside for the Dwarven nuclear power program, of course.

I don't think giving dwares nuclear power is a good idea.

I think it's a great one.

I mean, look at the wonders they can work with geothermal power.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: lastofthelight on February 26, 2010, 07:17:12 am

I usually start with entirely unskilled dwarves, aside from farmers, or the occasional point in something else as a personal strange mood.

My first building project is almost always a dining room, as soon as I can make it, and it is usually absurdly large, and I spend two years or so making statues to cover every wall -a fter the walls are engraved of course. Despite the fact that I usually start with all unskilled dwarves, it usually ends up being Grand Quality.

My Head Starting Dwarf also always has a death lever in his office which seals the entrance chamber and floods it with either water or magma, which I almost always en-devour to make sure is available. If I happen to be in a glacier, the entrance trap must be as complicated as possible, ideally involving turning enemies into icecubes or melting the ice beneath there feet, though the latter seems to always result in more dead dwarves then skeletons or goblins (depending on the mod I'm using at the time), since either it doesn't work at all or it destroys half the fortress.

I also never seize caravan goods and always respect the wishes of the elves if they ask me to stop being a tree-jerk.

Captured sentient beings (such as goblins) are treated in the same way I treat statues, and put near the entrance to important doors, on either side in pairs. I'm not sure what would keep them from spitting at the dwarves from inside their cages, but I like to pretend they are broken and helpless, treated as monkeys in a zoo.


Lastly, I always mod in a Succubus creature, I don't remember if its a semi-mega beast or not right now - and give them [Power] and the lust domains. I take pleasure in watching them have cults of goblins under their control in legends, even if I've never managed to meet one in an invasion or adventurer mode.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Awayfarer on February 26, 2010, 08:42:22 am

I always engrave a single square on a mined out gem cluster. ONLY ONE.

Single dwarf? 2x2 room. Bed, cabinet, door.
Lovers? Same
Married couple with a kid? They get 4x5 dining room, three chairs (or more) and a table, and a 2x3 bedroom with two cabinets. The kid gets a standard room with the best bed available. I encourage families.

I build a temple of sorts, designate it as a meeting area and then install a chair and make it my philosopher's "office."

The dungeon master's quarters, dining room, office and tomb are always at least 5 z-levels lower than the rest of the fortress. At the bottom level if possible. Maybe even located within the tomb level.

Fishing is seasonal. I turn off fishing labors for half the year.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: xczxc on February 26, 2010, 11:37:04 am

When I dig big rooms such as storage room or dining room, I always leave pillars like in a real cave.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Asmodeous on February 26, 2010, 11:58:50 am

Quote from: darthbob88 on January 12, 2010, 05:44:32 pm

Quote from: Sphalerite on January 12, 2010, 04:57:31 pm

Not only do I smooth water and magma conduits, but if a water conduit or cistern intersects a vein of cinnabar or realgar I dig it out and wall up the hole, making sure none of the loose stone is left in the cistern.  I know that DF doesn't have heavy metal poisoning.  I just do this anyway.  Then I make the cinnabar into mugs and give it to the elves.

Interesting. Do you do that also with orpiment, also an arsenic sulfide; cobaltite, cobalt arsenic sulfide; stibnite, antimony sulfide; or, of course, pitchblende, uranium oxides? Going like this, I think I might have to build all my potable water systems out of glass. Moats, drowning traps, and obsidian farms will receive no special treatment, but anything my dwarves are going to drink or which will irrigate my farms is going to be somewhat pure.

Personally, I tend to use that on purpose. Also, as I have taken to making everything out of metal from the onset to level up my metalworkers more rapidly instead of wasting a bunch of crap later, all buckets, goblets, and barrels are made out of lead (where accessible), and I produce lead toys/goblets for selling off to everyone.

Also I tend to make the food-production facilities (kitchen, butcher, still, etc) out of Pitchblende. I want radioactive zombie dwarves.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Caledonian on February 26, 2010, 03:19:52 pm

I build a stone room, ideally above the wagon's embark location, which has the offices of the nobles.  The trade depot is atop this tower.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: rickvoid on February 26, 2010, 04:36:46 pm

I bring enough wood on embark to at least build a 5x5 cabin, with a roof, wooden door, six beds, and a wooden floor.

My main fort starts life as a mine shaft cut into the side of the mountain (complete with a wooden building that acts as the entrace to the mines). I name my dwarves after the Disney seven dwarves, try to match up personalites, when I can. Doc is my leader. Grumpy is my axedwarf/woodcutter. Bashful is my miner, who hides far away from other dwarves. Dopey is my planter. Happy is my cook/brewer. Sneezy is my mason. The sneezing come from all the rock dust he inhales! Sleepy is my second miner. He doesn't get a bed, but he does get a room with stuff assigned to him. The no bed thing is just so he falls to sleep all over the fort, bwahaha.

One day, I will get a female human to die on the site. She will be placed in a glass coffin, on the surface, with various wild animals in cages around her. I will use DC to rename her Snow White. ;D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Haspen on February 26, 2010, 05:14:56 pm

Quote from: rickvoid on February 26, 2010, 04:36:46 pm

One day, I will get a female human to die on the site. She will be placed in a clear glass coffin, on the surface, with various wild animals in cages around her. I will use DC to rename her Snow White. ;D

Fix'd it for ya.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: rickvoid on February 26, 2010, 06:05:08 pm

Yeah, that's what I meant. Thanks. :)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Archmage Ansrit on February 26, 2010, 11:41:14 pm

It is my first fortress, but I, too, want a sniper tower accessible only from underground.

I have developed a hatred for chalk.

I give everyone 1*3 or 3*1 rooms and engrave them (A legendary Engraver, dubbed Engraver of the Apocalypse, helps by engraving a masterpiece every two or three engravings he does), I give them coffers and armor stands.

I engrave all important rooms, like tombs, dining rooms and offices.

I designated the exterior of the mountian to be smoothened. I'll do so with the other mountains once I reach them.

I hollowed out the tip of small mountain and plan on engraving it and making it the royal tomb, might be way too overkill even for DF though.

I plan on giving the nobles a 3*3 room, engraved, the best doors I can crank out... and with an emergency lever for stupid mandates.

I have a goal, to make the most awesome outfit ever, though that is going to be... difficult, to say the least. Hint, y'see how adamantine can be made into everything?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: ToonyMan on February 26, 2010, 11:52:09 pm

I always give each Dwarf an identical room.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: sproingie on February 27, 2010, 12:04:05 am

Quote from: xczxc on February 26, 2010, 11:37:04 am

When I dig big rooms such as storage room or dining room, I always leave pillars like in a real cave.

I totally do this because it just looks cool when they're smoothed.

Plus, someday the old cave-in system will return and you'll NEED those pillars.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Kidiri on February 27, 2010, 08:46:59 am

Quote from: Archmage Ansrit on February 26, 2010, 11:41:14 pm

I have developed a hatred for chalk.
I plan on giving the nobles a 3*3 room, engraved, the best doors I can crank out... and with an emergency lever for stupid mandates.

Why do you hate chalk so much? It's a flux material AND can contain massive loads of iron ore and lignite/bituminous coal. and 3 by 3 is way too small. It might serve for the first few nobles, but they will want better rooms. Unless you ram every piece of ☼<☼furniture☼>☼ in it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Nobbins on February 27, 2010, 11:46:16 am

I play as lizardmen.
I build massive castles in deserts.
I always seizure whenever chert mountains are unavailable.
I almost never have a military.

I'm pretty average.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Archmage Ansrit on February 27, 2010, 01:59:35 pm

Quote from: Kidiri on February 27, 2010, 08:46:59 am

Quote from: Archmage Ansrit on February 26, 2010, 11:41:14 pm

I have developed a hatred for chalk.
I plan on giving the nobles a 3*3 room, engraved, the best doors I can crank out... and with an emergency lever for stupid mandates.

Why do you hate chalk so much? It's a flux material AND can contain massive loads of iron ore and lignite/bituminous coal. and 3 by 3 is way too small. It might serve for the first few nobles, but they will want better rooms. Unless you ram every piece of ☼<☼furniture☼>☼ in it.

My entire mountain is made of it. Actually, it's not even a mountain per se, but it protudes from the ground a level. My stone stockpiles get incredibly cluttered so I designate some to Dump.

As for the nobles, maybe you're right, though I do have a legendary engraver... Maybe I should put some weapon traps on them as well.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Pyrophoricity on February 27, 2010, 02:26:32 pm

- Large Sunberry vineyards spanning as much space as I can care to wall off.
- All inclusive Multistory Inns to house immigrants, once/if they prove their worth then they are given quarters in the actual fort.
- Starting seven are given names as is anyone else I end up 'liking'
- Consequently I feel threatened if an unnamed dwarf does something at the expense of a named dwarf.
- This usually ends in the unnamed dwarf going hunting with a silver weapon.
- War Muskox, several of which are allocated to one dwarf who will be known as a "Beastmaster"
- Magma lined sparring area for new recruits who are paired up before hand, last dwarf in each pair alive receives training. Should either dwarf fail to kill the other we make things interesting and an Orc is released

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: sproingie on February 27, 2010, 03:56:30 pm

At least chalk is reasonably believable as a building material.  I've got a fortress that's about a third talc, and they're eating on talc tables and drinking from talc mugs.  Crumbly.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Archmage Ansrit on February 27, 2010, 04:43:41 pm

They drink from mugs? What kind of freak fortress you run anyways? Real dwarves drink ale right off the barrel.

Speaking of which, I went from a period of not having enough barrels, to suddenly having a lot of empty ones... I need better judgement on my containers. At least I have enough stuff to put on the stills to fill those barrels.

Back on topic: I (try to) give legendaries custom profession names, like Champion Bash-skull-in or Rip-your-face-off. Also, Engraver of the Apocalypse.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Ohtar on February 27, 2010, 07:35:13 pm

I almost always turn out of the way played out veins or deposits into tombs, carefully smoothing and engraving the floors and then putting coffins in as dwarves die. Important dwarves get rarer metals, of course, and military dwarves are always buried in iron deposits or veins.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Sysice on February 27, 2010, 09:02:31 pm

Anyone I like I give a name. Anyone who I really like or who does something insanely awesome I give a custom title. For example, my starting miner who beat off three fire imps and a pack of seven rhesuses with only a copper pick, in the first spring, without a single scratch. And if I'm in a artistic fortress, I build a 2D mural of their deeds. (Btw, his looks awesome.)

I either build very artistic fortresses or extremely efficient ones. I'm not really one to do both half-way.
I sometimes engrave mountains.
Leaders get their rooms filled with a custom stockpile only accepting skulls.
At least one completely crazy and useless thing and one statue five z-levels or higher in every successful fortress.
Any valuable ores in the middle of something are carefully mined out then replaced by walls. I can still see it, but my dwarves can't!
I replace walls and floors in any non-worker-drone dwarf with one solid rock, usually either microcline, cinnabar, or orthoclase. That way they get awesome colors and I get the ability to see important bedrooms easily.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Jervous on February 27, 2010, 09:07:46 pm

I divide all the job categories into guilds, and usually pick the one with the most members to rule my fort. It's usually the Cooking Guild. They rule with an iron fist.


But once the Masons Guild blackmails with evidence that the Cooking Guild's leader is having an affair with one of the Peasants Guild members, we'll see if that'll spark a guild war! ;o

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Euld on February 27, 2010, 10:24:50 pm

Quote from: rickvoid on February 26, 2010, 04:36:46 pm

One day, I will get a female human to die on the site. She will be placed in a crystal glass coffin, on the surface, with various wild animals in cages around her. I will use DC to rename her Snow White. ;D

You only need to build one, why not go for the gusto? :P

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: rickvoid on February 27, 2010, 11:06:05 pm

The real fun comes in when, rather than having Prince Charming arrive to wake her with a kiss, she moulders to bones while my dwarves watch.

I love this game. :D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: ungulateman on February 27, 2010, 11:44:43 pm

I almost always have 3-wide corridors, with 3*3 rooms. It saves designating time.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: PhilbertFlange on February 28, 2010, 12:28:21 am

Quote from: rickvoid on February 27, 2010, 11:06:05 pm

The real fun comes in when, rather than having Prince Charming arrive to wake her with a kiss, she moulders to bones while my dwarves watch.

I love this game. :D

If you want to keep her preserved, try to mod coffins to be acceptible for use in cage traps. Then corral and cut off a female human from the caravan until she goes berzerk and gets caught in the cage/coffin trap. Then build it in the meadow. She'll stay preserved without food or water for all eternity.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Urist McOverlord on February 28, 2010, 03:05:36 am

I put coffins everywhere.

Mined out gems? Coffins!
End of a hallway? Coffins!
Farms? Coffins!
Legendary dining room? You get the idea.

Also, I place tombs almost exclusively posthumously.
Further, I try to name my philosopher after a real philosopher. My current guy is named Henry Dwarfid Thoreau. I built him a wooden cabin near the river.
The hammerer is not to be killed, and is to be named Urist McHammer, so that I can imagine him kicking down poor Morul's door and screaming "STOP! Its justice time" before he goes about his dirty work.
Other than that, no dwarf gets a name. Ever.
Lastly, I force adherance to a very strict sequence of proffession naming, which is applied to all dwarves the minute I see them fail to conform.

Yeah, I think I qualify as eccentric.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: HastyLumbago on March 08, 2010, 06:06:54 am

Quote from: Fishbulb on January 12, 2010, 09:57:20 pm

That's going a little overboard, even for me. After all, where does the water come from in the first place? Either murky pools, which by definition are murky, or from streams and rivers meaning the water's so full of carp waste and offal you could probably burn it for fuel in your smelter.

Obviously we need to petition Toady to add water purification to the game.

Oddly enough this is another behavior I started recently. I build water towers. all drinking water is routed through a pump matrix with charcoal storage in it. I count that water as purified.

And yes, all constructions through which drinking water passes are made of non toxic materials. Glass if sand is available, and if it isn't? Marble and copper. Dwarfs aren't allowed to drink from unpurified sources.

Incidentally, thanks everyone for keeping this thread alive. having a thread this old, even one which someone Necro'd, and then noone complained... I feel like a part of the community. Thanks again.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Garrie on March 08, 2010, 06:24:24 am

Quote from: HastyLumbago on March 08, 2010, 06:06:54 am

Quote from: Fishbulb on January 12, 2010, 09:57:20 pm

And yes, all constructions through which drinking water passes are made of non toxic materials. Glass if sand is available, and if it isn't? Marble and copper. Dwarfs aren't allowed to drink from unpurified sources.

NoNoNoNoNo! You're doing it wrong!
You are meant to use Lead and Yellowcake!
Why else do you think all those dwarfs have all those cool moods and get their ideas for building beds out of cast iron?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: mrbobbyg on March 08, 2010, 06:51:02 am

I smooth out all my magma plumbing, because it just looks prettier that way.  And doors.  I set make doors to repeat and door up every corridor, which are all 2x2.  I like to think this will come in handy in case of a catastrophic fun spiral, but it never really does.    But it does give me something to do with all that stone.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: mal7690 on March 08, 2010, 12:41:08 pm

I always have a massive cistern to manage all of my water needs.

This usually results in at least one instance of Fun when I forget which pipes need to be unpressurised and which ones need to be pressurized and half my fort gets flooded.  Emergency pressure gates to control the flow are commonplace.

The rivers also run dry after I get sieged.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: EliDupree on March 08, 2010, 04:40:00 pm

Quote from: mal7690 on March 08, 2010, 12:41:08 pm

This usually results in at least one instance of Fun when I forget which pipes need to be unpressurised and which ones need to be pressurized and half my fort gets flooded.  Emergency pressure gates to control the flow are commonplace.

That happened to me once, except that luckily only one dwarf died. Now I always put spare doors and hatches all over the place in water-pressure-related tunnels.

I'm not sure I've been playing long enough to have any great eccentricities... I guess in my current game, there's the fact that I've trained my Dungeon Master up to an Accomplished weaponsmith (and intend to train her up to legendary) forging menacing spikes for my traps. Might as well make some use of her, eh? ;)

I'm also smoothing my entire mountain, but that's more of a pointless mega-project than an eccentricity.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: mrbobbyg on March 08, 2010, 05:17:31 pm

This thread reminds me of how totally noobish I am.  I can do some pretty sweet stuff, make basic machines, but I still lack the DF skill to do totally preposterous projects.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Rolan7 on March 08, 2010, 05:23:50 pm

Quote from: mrbobbyg on March 08, 2010, 05:17:31 pm

This thread reminds me of how totally noobish I am.  I can do some pretty sweet stuff, make basic machines, but I still lack the DF skill to do totally preposterous projects.

Consider yourself lucky!  You can do with ease what us veterans are constantly striving for: have fun. 

By which I of course mean losing.  But I also seriously mean having fun.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Fishbulb on March 08, 2010, 10:47:21 pm

It's true. The very beginning, where you're still figuring out the basics, is the best part by far. Later, after you've "mastered" the basics (as much as anybody can master a game this complex), you'll start hitting limits. You'll find yourself coming up with really cool ideas that are simply physically impossible. The game is so rich it fools you into thinking it's boundless — and that's great! — but discovering that there really are boundaries out there takes just a bit of the shine off.

Enjoy the early game. Skip reading the wiki and build experiments of your own. Challenge yourself by embarking with an empty wagon. Try to build a fort that thrives only on farming. Explore. Have fun.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: viront on March 08, 2010, 10:54:17 pm

Weirdest thing I do, remove all jagged cliff edges and flatten most mountains.

All elevated surfaces end up as a rectangle or if I have time, a square. This started when I made it part of the dwarf training regiment. I always end up killing a bunch in collapses. I think I'm flattening surfaces incorrectly... My last fort discovered the magma pipe by collapsing 3 dwarfs into it. I guess I should have noticed the obsidian :(

Migrants all follow this process:

*Assigned to Wrestling for 1 or 2 skill levels before champion (so they can fight later without becoming champion).
*Once they reach high enough wrestling level I grant them their dwarf name. This could be anything but it makes them show up differently in dwarf manager so I know they have completed the first process. Last game I picked character names from various games.
*I assign the dwarfs to mining and begin flatting the land. I usually pick large embark areas so this never gets done.
*Once they reach at least professional mining I assign them to build constructables like walls/bridges. If I have a project I have them do that otherwise just build some tower then deconstruct.
*Now they are assigned to smoothing. I stopped engraving because that seemed to make the value of fortress sky rocket and bring to many migrants.
*Dorfs that aren't gaining stats like I want them to are assigned to sweat shop pumping rooms. Otherwise skip to next step.
*I assign many to civilian tasks like hauling, these keep their names. Royal Guards get a RG at the beginning of their name, G for Guards, S# (s1, s2, s3) for squad dwarfs, X for my crossbow squad.

All starting dwarfs receive 4x4 bedroom, study, and dining room. Eventually they get statues and other fancy crap when my mason is legendary. Migrants receive 2 rooms, one has study and dining room and the one is bedroom with 2 containers on opposing sides. This becomes a nightmare when economy starts but I insist on leaving it on to torture myself. I try to assign dwarfs to tasks that make them decent money.

I always follow this process and its very time consuming. Sometimes I don't make it all the way or plans change.

Edit: I forgot one. I pamper the baron consort or baroness (whichever ends up being female). I go out of my way to give them things they like and make all of their stuff (except bed) out of rose gold to get a purple room. I was able to make all the walls and some of the floor rose gold once. I usually assign a squad of 2 to guard her room (in addition to the standard royal guard) and make them follow her when she feels like walking around. I also try to get exotic pets as long as she doesn't dislike them. Giant eagles are my favorite along with large felines. I think it was panthers... If I feel that I've just about done all I can for her I will start in with platinum or gold if that's unavailable for her male counterpart.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 09, 2010, 04:09:45 am

Laately, I've been building my royal tombs with a single-tile shafet from outside, directly over the coffin. (I build the room first.)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Quantum Toast on March 09, 2010, 08:27:23 am

Quote from: Lord Shonus on March 09, 2010, 04:09:45 am

Laately, I've been building my royal tombs with a single-tile shafet from outside, directly over the coffin. (I build the room first.)

Nice and efficient. But how do you close the coffin lid after dropping the noble down there?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: EliDupree on March 09, 2010, 01:08:55 pm

Quote from: Fishbulb on March 08, 2010, 10:47:21 pm

It's true. The very beginning, where you're still figuring out the basics, is the best part by far. Later, after you've "mastered" the basics (as much as anybody can master a game this complex), you'll start hitting limits. You'll find yourself coming up with really cool ideas that are simply physically impossible. The game is so rich it fools you into thinking it's boundless — and that's great! — but discovering that there really are boundaries out there takes just a bit of the shine off.

For me, the boundaries are actually the fun thing. There are so many little quirks that many things you wouldn't expect actually are possible, it just takes a ton of thought and experiment to find out how to manage them.

For instance, right now I'm working on an automatic food transport system based on the fact that flowing water moves light items with it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: RantingRodent on March 09, 2010, 02:09:19 pm

I am really particular about profession names. I use Dwarf Therapist to maintain a very regimented set of profession names. I also insist on giving all of my dwarves decent accommodations. I refuse to kill off nobles, although I wouldn't be entirely adverse to interfering with the Hammerer's ability to do his job. Is there any semi-reliable way to relieve a dwarf of both of his arms?

It would be a great fortress challenge to collect a bunch of the realism and dwarf cultural quirks people have mentioned in this thread and build a fort all the way to a getting the King while obeying those restrictions. I've been struggling to find a fortress challenge that really grabs my interest, maybe this one will do it.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Solifuge on March 09, 2010, 02:36:45 pm

I tend to rarely specialize my dwarves, instead opting to let them perform a variety of thematically related tasks: For instance, I have a group of "Rangers" who cycle between woodcuttters, herbalists, axedwarves, and hunters. "Cooks" are often Butchers and Fish Cleaners. "Farmers" often branch into Herbalism, Milling, or even Animal Training. Sometimes I have a "Military" leader, who is an intimidator, trained in melee combat skills, and operates as Record Keeper. He or she always goes and deals with big monsters, or Sieges personally.

Also, I create a heirarchy of laborers, based on experience level, length of time in the fortress, achievements, etc. There will be a Master Mason, who has a workshop which only he is allowed to use, or a Master Trapper (mechanic) who strictly sets, resets, and cleans traps, operates levers, etc.

Oh, and Fishers are always trained Swimmers and Wrestlers too, in case an errant Carp or Sturgeon comes by.

Urist Erwin: "Look at the soize o' that one! Ain't she a beauty!"

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: gopher dude on March 09, 2010, 02:47:37 pm

I don't really do anything too crazy or eccentric but what the hell.

I set up a sort of caste system for migrants:
if they have any farming skills then I give them permission to do milling clothes making cooking planting butchering leatherworking fish cleaning fish dissecting cooking thread spinning and trapping along with small animal dissection. Thats my farming caste
If they have any skills pertaining to wood they become wood workers and I give them permission to go wood cutting/burning, carpentry, bower, wood working and plant gathering/proccessing.
Wood caste.
If they have any skills in mining then they get stoneworking, architecture, mechanic, mining, stone detailing, and masonry. Mining caste.

Migrants who can smith get the obvious metal working skills, furnace operating, and mining.
Peasant not born in my fort all become soldiers...I only really train wrestlers with shields and crossbow dwarfs with bucklers.

Dwarfs with just a random useless crafting skill become craftsdwarfs and are set on all the crafting skills.
Other then that I'm pretty lax with my dwarfs.
Mayor mandates however are always ignored.


And I do have this thing about channeling all small ponds together.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: EliDupree on March 09, 2010, 02:49:35 pm

Quote from: RantingRodent on March 09, 2010, 02:09:19 pm

Is there any semi-reliable way to relieve a dwarf of both of his arms?

Without risking their death? No.

I think the easiest solution is to lock the Hammerer in a room with no exits, and use some mechanism for putting food in once in a while. It can double as your control room, too.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: SethCreiyd on March 09, 2010, 05:12:03 pm

I:

- Make custom noble professions, such as Clerics, Undertakers, Doctors, with scant labors (Brewing, Burial and Health Care respectively).  They are often my old administrators, legendarily purple.
- Always build an outdoor log cabin for my best carpenter, even if there is no wood on the map and even if the poor blighter hates working outside.
- Leave bones, skulls and shells all over the fortress in places like the dining room and kitchen.  We're talking hundreds of bones.
- Nickname all my legends based on their personalities / distinguishing characteristics.
- Dig out all the soil tiles above base level on mountain tiles. 
- Often rename my peasants' professions to "Slave."
- Build all levers in a depression in a natural wall, and engrave the walls behind them so that the dwarves know which lever is which.
- Tend to lock nobles in their tombs with a lever for them to pull for a while.
- 'Forget' about them.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: EliDupree on March 09, 2010, 07:57:10 pm

Oh, I also have an obsession with automating things. Does that count? Or is it too normal?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Cypress on March 09, 2010, 08:14:32 pm

Quote from: EliDupree on March 09, 2010, 07:57:10 pm

Oh, I also have an obsession with automating things. Does that count? Or is it too normal?

Depends. Are you
1. Automating your fortress defense so that it can be toggled by a single lever?
or
2. Automating your fortress so that when you pull a lever, every animal on the map dies?
or
3. Automating your Nobla-pult

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: jugglervr on March 09, 2010, 09:00:41 pm

Quote from: EliDupree on March 09, 2010, 01:08:55 pm

For instance, right now I'm working on an automatic food transport system based on the fact that flowing water moves light items with it.

"i'm hungry. why don't you flush us up some dinner?"

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Lord Shonus on March 09, 2010, 10:27:24 pm

Quote from: Quantum Toast on March 09, 2010, 08:27:23 am

Quote from: Lord Shonus on March 09, 2010, 04:09:45 am

Laately, I've been building my royal tombs with a single-tile shafet from outside, directly over the coffin. (I build the room first.)

Nice and efficient. But how do you close the coffin lid after dropping the noble down there?

I leave the gap in the wall that I used to get the miner out, then close the gap.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: kawaiidesunekochan on March 10, 2010, 11:35:35 am

I always make this:
(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c323/pinkmuffin14/archive-1.png)
I give one dwarf all the skills required to run these workshops,I call him the decorator. The house on the side is his.

On the top,I put all the workshops that can add decorations to things:craftsdwarf's,jeweler's,and metalforge. Next to them I put a stockpile of the stuff I want to decorate.

at the bottom,I have a mason's workshop. When a mason (or the decorator,I give him the masonry skill too) gets inside the workshop,I lock him in and I lock all the doors to the stone colors I don't want him to use. Then I can make things of the color I want easily.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Cdizzl3 on March 10, 2010, 12:37:23 pm

This thread is giving me so many great ideas!

 ;D

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Haspen on March 10, 2010, 12:49:39 pm

Mass-engraving catacombs.

My catacombs (fairly large, thanks to constant hostility outside the gates) have more engranved tiles than rest of the fort combined.

Also, writing down relevant information about every dwarf, that include:
-Name, last name, title (if have one)
-Family (if known)
-Date of birth (if born at site)
-Relevant positions (exp.leader/mayor, baron, and so on)
-Date of death (obviously, if dwarf is dead)

I have additional file with deities and number of their worshippers in my fort.

Also, every occupied coffin have a small 'N'ote, if occupied, with date and a bit of info about the cause, like: "Failed artifact mood, berserk - Hematite 217".

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: EliDupree on March 10, 2010, 02:15:54 pm

Quote from: Cypress on March 09, 2010, 08:14:32 pm

Quote from: EliDupree on March 09, 2010, 07:57:10 pm

Oh, I also have an obsession with automating things. Does that count? Or is it too normal?

Depends. Are you
1. Automating your fortress defense so that it can be toggled by a single lever?

No. Automating my fortress defense so that it kills all invaders without me having to order the pulling of a single lever.

Even when I don't manage to design something without levers, I try to make it so that I only have to pull the lever once, instead of once to turn it on and then a second time to turn it off.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Caesar on March 10, 2010, 02:32:45 pm

One of the crazy things I do is trying to keep my starting seven alive whatever happens, and, preferably, dig each of them their own palace.

I also once engraved a 11x11 room with a legendary+5 engraver. I made sure that every tile and wall was masterfully engraved, saving after every one, terminating and re-loading if it wasn't.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: OddProphet on March 10, 2010, 07:05:53 pm

I don't bother executing prisoners.  I set up a custom stockpile right outside the fortress for all future invaders to see their fate: abandoned to the vagaries of surface weather, railing against their fate for eternity.

My graveyard is right next to them as well, and I don't build coffins.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on March 22, 2010, 11:42:48 pm

Quote from: Fishbulb on January 13, 2010, 11:20:37 am

I mean, think about it. I dump corpses into my plumbing to make vermin fish spawn for my fisherdwarves. That same pipe, not thirty tiles away, feeds my well.

Does this mean that the fishing industry can be made indefinitely sustainable by dumping corpses into your channels/pools/rivers?

This is important, because it was my understanding that after a couple of years of constant fishing, your vermin fish would depopulate for good. Unless that's a myth in the first place?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Blargityblarg on March 22, 2010, 11:52:31 pm

AFAIK, the corpse-dumping is a myth. You get x fish per month, and once you've fished them, that's it for the month for that embark tile. You get y fish overall, and once you fish them, that's it for the duration of the fort for that embark tile.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on March 23, 2010, 12:17:52 am

That corpse dumping thing did sound like a myth, but so does the theory that you only get a set amount of fish in your fortress's lifetime. So far I've only read anecdotal evidence for it, and it would help a lot if someone could honestly claim that they, themselves, have depopulated their local bodies of water and not merely read about it.

The notion that vermin fish populations (or those of large prey, for that matter) are limited is even less believable if we take into account the unlimited populations of invaders.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Innominate on March 23, 2010, 02:08:41 am

Quote from: assimilateur on March 23, 2010, 12:17:52 am

That corpse dumping thing did sound like a myth, but so does the theory that you only get a set amount of fish in your fortress's lifetime. So far I've only read anecdotal evidence for it, and it would help a lot if someone could honestly claim that they, themselves, have depopulated their local bodies of water and not merely read about it.

The notion that vermin fish populations (or those of large prey, for that matter) are limited is even less believable if we take into account the unlimited populations of invaders.

Vermin fish populations, as with all wilderness (not invader - they are spawned randomly) populations are limited. They will reproduce (on map only - no off-map reproduction at this point), but overfishing will depopulate the entire biome.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on March 23, 2010, 02:26:07 am

Can you provide a source for that claim? If you've personally seen your embark no longer spawn fish and game after 10 or 15 years, that's gonna be good enough for me. If you base the above on supposed "common knowledge" learned on these forum or on the wiki, then I still consider this open for discussion.

I've checked my world_sites_and_pops files from an old fortress. One was exported in spring of 51, the other in winter of 58; the populations of things like goats, turtles or foxes (all of which have been spawning on my embark, and some of which have been harvested) hasn't change by one. That, together with the fact that invader pops are unlimited, is logically inconsistent with the claim of limited fish and game populations. Now, I'm not saying that game mechanics are always logical, but in cases like this I'd need more than mere folklore to convince me otherwise.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Haspen on March 23, 2010, 02:28:25 am

They do depopulate.

Or you wanna say that [POPULATION_NUMBER] tag in raws doesn't do anything?

Vermin and vermin fishes have [POPULATION_NUMBER:2500:5000], sometimes some other values.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Blargityblarg on March 23, 2010, 02:32:08 am

If you export your map info, there's a text file that lists the numbers of each animal, including vermin, for each biome. I think you can technically eliminate the entirety of all animals from your biome, but that fishing and hunting work much faster than cats and vermin trapping.

Also, I believe that Nobody1225 eliminated the entire population of pretty much everything in some areas during his Age of Death tests.

FAKEEDIT: Okay, you posted while I was typing. I believe that the unlimited invaders thing was only done for invaders because invaders are a more integral part of the game than hunting and fishing. I've seen my forts run out of animals, over a period of *much* less than 15 years, but I've never been big enough on fishing to exhaust those.

FAKEEDIT2: And now Haspen posted. Has anyone here seen fish completely exhausted, i.e. not just coming back next season?

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: Flaede on March 23, 2010, 02:36:58 am

Morul depopulated all fish, then went on to depopulate every other vermin, as part of leveling the fisher, trapper, and fish-squeezer skills.

don't make me search through the thread for the best quote for that, but it is true.

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=34933.0 (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=34933.0)

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on March 23, 2010, 02:46:22 am

I'm going to take your word for it, and I guess that's not that big a deal anyway. I mean, my fortresses don't exactly "rise and fall" based on whether fish and game populations are limited, but it would be nice to know the details of how this worked and how feasible it was to mod this.

One thing that readily comes to mind is upping the population number tag on some (or all?) fish and game, but whether that would even allow one's world to properly generate remains to be seen.

With that out of the way, do you have any explanation for why the pops and sites file doesn't update its populations? Surely you must see the inconsistency of non-updating population stats with having some populations limited, and others not.

Another thing: I assume those Age of Death tests were made in adventure mode? I don't need to tell you that they aren't necessarily applicable to fortress mode, if that is the case.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: XSI on March 23, 2010, 03:04:19 am

Quote from: assimilateur on March 23, 2010, 02:46:22 am

Another thing: I assume those Age of Death tests were made in adventure mode? I don't need to tell you that they aren't necessarily applicable to fortress mode, if that is the case.

The tests were done in both adventure mode and fortress mode, there was even a community started about the age of..I'm not sure which it was, death or the other one. Either way, those ages effect the forts, if all elves died out, no elves will show up. If all wolves died out, no wolves will wander onto your map.
I'll get a link in a moment.

As for myself, I've several times exhausted fish and some game in my longer lasting forts, took me 50 years for the game, but just a wave of 6 migrant fishers only needed 2 seasons to completely fish out the brook. Also fun, if you're out of aboveground targets for hunters, they will try the underground, including fire imps. They have no problems trying to swim through magma to get to their kills.

Edit for the link:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=46033.0

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: assimilateur on March 23, 2010, 03:23:04 am

Quote from: XSI on March 23, 2010, 03:04:19 am

If all wolves died out, no wolves will wander onto your map.

So much was understood, but I meant something else. Namely, that the possibility of depopulating something in adv. mode does not entail the possibility of doing so in fortress mode.

Just so we're clear: I'm no longer disputing this theory of limited fish and game populations. The accounts of that Morul guy, as well as those of you who claimed to have personally depopulated fish, are good enough for me (believe it or not). I just wanted to establish that someone here has actually experienced this, and wasn't merely quoting "folklore".

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: RavingManiac on March 23, 2010, 04:00:11 am

I make give every dwarf in my fortress the masonry and stone-detailing labor. This way, when I want a tunnel to be smoothed out or a megaproject to be constructed, it gets done fast.

Title: Re: Eccentric player behaviors
Post by: XSI on March 23, 2010, 04:06:42 am

Well, Morul is one of the most awesome dwarves known to..Dwarves.

As far as I know, it is possible to exterminate all non-vermin wildlife in adventure mode just as much as it is in fortress mode, it's just a lot easier to set 20 dwarves to hunting and have the animals come to you rather then making an adventurer and going out to hunt down thousands of animals.

According to the age of x thread though, depopulating things in adventure mode will not always make the game recognise the extinction, new ones will be generated when needed, or in case of wolves, an adventurer will be ambushed by nothing at all. All wolves died, but the game still decided wolves ambush him/her.

I think I'm missing the point. But that's ok I guess, I'm usually asleep at this time.

..Oh, right, eccentric behaviors....Er..I have a single tomb ready for dwarves that will soon fail a mood(No silk or something like that), if they fail the mood, they will be buried, if they survive it, they earned that tomb. In both cases I make a new tomb.