Bay 12 Games Forum

What few memories you had left fade in and out of existence, before finally and conclusively vanishing. The last emotion you feel is a joyous relief. It is over. It has begun. You fall forwards, knocking against the weathered obelisk as you hit the sand with a thump. As you are dragged away, your vision finally fades away.

---

Your eyes open. You are in a small tent, lit by an elderly clay oil lamp. The muffled sound of shrieking wind surrounds you, as a sandstorm engulfs everything outside. A small, wiry Lizard-person with yellowish-brown scales and what looks like wool clothing sits beside you, reading a book with the light of the lamp. You barely move from your position, but he has already seen you. The book shuts, and he turns to you with a pair of tired eyes.

"You're awake? Good. I'd rather get the talk done with before the morning. I take it you can't remember anything?"

He suddenly stops, and lightly slaps himself.

"sorry..." he mumbles.

"Ahem. Can you understand what I'm saying? Probably should have started with that."

Your body feels uncomfortable all over.

Your head hurts, a lot.

As your vision begins to fade in, a white room comes into focus. Light is coming through windows in the opposite wall. You're... you're in a bed. You look to your left, and then to your right. There are more beds, but although you can make out figures in some of them, you seem to be the only one awake. Your eyes scan the room, and finally rest on the doorway, to your right. A sign over it has the words "Coma ward" written in bold, clear letters.

"You're awake?"

You turn back to your left, and standing over you is a tall, pale figure wearing something resembling a combination of a robe and a coat, all in white. His face is professional, but friendly. He begins to speak again.

"How do you feel, Does anything hurt?"

So I've wanted to draw for ages and ages and ages, it's one of my biggest, longest lasting ambitions, but although I've finally managed to get into the habit of drawing every day, I'm still a long, long way from getting there. Every single person I talk to has said some variation of "Draw what you enjoy" when I ask what I should focus on, but that's incredibly, incredibly unhelpful. If I want to improve my skill at drawing, what topics and subjects and skills should I focus on? Shadows, perspective, life drawings, or something else entirely? If there is any advice, anything at all, youse might have, I'd desperately appreciate it.

I’ve become increasingly interested in Adventurer mode recently, and I’ve been doing some messing around with the areas where it and Fort mode intersect. When building a Fort with the intention of then visiting it in adventurer, what are the best known ways to maximise fps, what drains the fps the most, and what effect does the size of the Fort’s embark have on Adventurer fps? How big can you make one while still gwtting away with it?

I have Complex post traumatic stress disorder, stemming from verbal child abuse as a 5/6 year old courtesy of a specific Teacher who shall go unnamed. I have lost most, if not all memories of that time period, though my memories of the times before it and after it are more present. I don’t know exactly what happened beyond snippets from my Parents and others who were in that class, but it lead to me becoming extremely uncomfortable around a wide spectrum of things and topics which includes arguments, disagreements, People singing, dancing, or in general being particularly outgoing, and a few others that are harder to pin don, which I will summarize as Drama. I spent most of my Childhood ducking out of rooms in which there were movies playing, or where People were arguing, I found myself instinctively skipping parts of books, and becoming a more diplomatic and unintrusive person to the point of becoming a bit of a doormat so as to avoid antagonizing others. When I went to the Cinema, I sent most of the experience watching from the exit. I ended up playing Video Games because Video Games don’t need Characters or Drama.

I’m currently undergoing therapy, which has been very helpful with isolating a lot of problems, but I just want to look for some advice from the Bay, because I want to desensitize myself to Drama in TV and Movies and Books, which will hopefully work to desensitize myself to real Drama, though I doubt there’s much that will make it all go away short of a lobotomy. Would anyone here have any advice, or ideas, or... anything?

I’ll probably delete this Eventually.

For fvarious reqsons, I would like to put forward a question: If you were to design a Fort after those constructed across Europe by the ancient Roman Empire, how might that be laid put with DF’s requirements for a fort? And would it be practical?
It’s an odd question yes, but it makes sense.

---

Far to the North, you have long heard of an ancient Stronghold of Dwarves, beneath the mountain range known as the Seven Spears. For reasons known only to you, you have decided to venture to the Seven spears, and enter the dark tunnels and halls that once buzzed with activity, now abandoned for reasons unknown. With nothing but your weapon, the clothes on your back, and a basic understanding of the Dwarven Language, you are the next doomed soul to enter the Darkness of the seven spears.
The deep is calling.

Well, here I am, starting a new Fort, everything’s going fine, and the first set of Dwarven Merchants come along. Their caverns couldn’t reach my site at first, since the landscape around my entrance is surrounded with boulders, and they showed up in the most bouldery bit they could have gone for, but the Merhcnts do come, in the end. I’m a bit disapointed that they didn’t bring any Booze, but I do my trading, and when Autumn ends, they leave.
Except... they didn’t. They left the Depot, certainly, but they’re just standing around to one side of the above-ground defences in which the Depot is constructed. I tore a hole in the wall to get them to leave, built a bridge across the brook (Which runs through a bit of the aboveground defences), just inc ase the game was confused about what layer they were on or something, bit no such luck. But here’s the very confusing bit: The Elven and Human Caravans have been and gone, with no such problems. This is now a serious issue, since with no contact with the mountainhomes, I have gotten no migrants all this game, except the first two, scripted, waves, and it has now reached Autumn of the second year. No Migrants, no Dwarven Caravan come back. They haven’t even gone insane, which worried me for a long time, but no. They simply... stand there, doing nothing.
I have DFHack, so if there’s a fix for this I’m all ears, but I have had no such luck myself.
So, uhm... Help?