My first embark into a terrifying biome was filled with reanimating corpses and giant undead cougars. Quickly relocating to the caverns, the 16+ monster slayers I accepted for security turned every cavern creature into an undead monster. They then died to these undead monsters 1 by 1, adding to the growing number of threats. Having no buckets nor wood, all the woodcutters slowly dying of thirst in the hospital with most of the other injured, it wasn't long before the hospital turned into ground zero for the T-Virus as all the patients turned and killed the rest.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/df99/zy1y177oow80bn56g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?zy1y177oow80bn5)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/bc1d/11nnvgkeqq2ohfs7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?11nnvgkeqq2ohfs)
A wave of 25 migrants arrived with no axes or picks, and no dwarves were left standing to pull the lever to open the drawbridge. But it didn't matter because a pack of undead monkeys and Giant Cougars made quick work of them all before they could assemble themselves. The last dwarf standing died fighting an undead chicken. Being knocked unconscious by a ferocious right toe'd kick, several combat log pages of being scratched in the head weakened her until the giant undead Cougar came in to finish her off.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c436/8ta1f4y4y9w2jqs6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?8ta1f4y4y9w2jqs)
Edit: In her defense, he was a muscular chicken.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/9cf4/u2d3g4uoq88cd8s7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?u2d3g4uoq88cd8s)
The first reclaim attempt ended not even 1 month in as the 25 migrant undead brutalized the starting 7 together with the local fauna.
The second reclaim attempt with 10,000 embark points: All 7 have bronze armor, iron war hammers, are skilled in war hammering, proficient dodgers, and disciplined. They put down the rabble and made a quick bunker box to get out of the green "rain" and giant undead carnivores. The aquifer under most of the map requires a long tunnel to the lower biome section of the site before stone can be mined and the army of angry ghosts memorialized. It turns out bringing stone would have been a good idea.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/696f/5c5t5qkaeao5yub7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?5c5t5qkaeao5yub)
It will be tamed...
I had to abandon the initial starting zone and find another. Having several migrant waves, trade caravans, embarks, monster honters, and wild critters all die on the surface makes for almost an insta-death embark.
The new site is equally dangerous, hopefully more so. It took a few probing embarks, but I found another reanimating evil biome with high savagery. It's a hot climate, so not much evil rain, but there's potential for giant elephants and rhinos which is always good. It seemed like a worthy trade off. So far just undead boar packs and cougars have been roaming the surface.
Having learned my lesson on the last 4 failed embarks, I first set up the butcher / drawbridge smashing dump zone. There's also a lockable pen where grazing pets are spared the zombie mauling of trying to graze on the surface and can instead starve to death in relative peace. Where upon they then maul the other pets in the pen having just turned into zombies themselves. Phase 2 of that plan involves digging out more rooms to isolate grazing pets from each other, but as it is now, it protects the fort in its current configuration. Two migrant waves managed to have excellent timing and pass the undead boar herds completely unnoticed. The trade caravan unfortunately was not as lucky, but managed to put all the boars down. ....For now. I'm not going to venture into the caverns so early and unprepared this time either. And any monster hunters petitioning to join my fort can go straight to hell.
Here's the dumping pit, next to the butcher's shop (surrounded by other associated workshops), and the dining hall as it is at the start of year 2.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/e546/2rzbwu0d63ch3nk7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?2rzbwu0d63ch3nk)
At this point, it feels easy having learned from the past several losses, so I'll have to take some steps to increase the challenge. Starting some wars might do it. Establishing a surface presence is another idea I'm leaning toward.
it is same "must have" tool as therapist, i think. Besides of many manipulations which can be considered as cheats, it contributes to interface. At least search in many in-game lists is a big deal.
It turns out I have been using it. The list searching, and sorting trade goods by value or distance are incredibly helpful features. I just haven't used the command input interface of it. Notifications of starving dwarves is nice too for when the miners have mined themselves into a place they can't get out of.
Careful planning would have been a good idea. But I went for it all at once: Dig the zombie pit, construct a maze of bridges, build retracting bridges to pasture starving animals, and construct a drawbridge to seal the pit from the fort. I had 80+ adult dwarves so there was no shortage of labor. The first thing completed was pasturing the starving animals on the bridges. Since not all of them were linked to levers, a single 2x2 bridge had 5 animals on it. The original plan was to seal the animals in rooms, then open a bridge and wait for them to path onto another bridge where they would be dropped. But when I found that I could create pastures on top of retractable bridges, that just seemed better.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/cfb6/qp30zpbsk37mgyg7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?qp30zpbsk37mgyg)
As it turns out, having just a 1 tile gap between the bridges, and a shared back wall, the zombie animals are able to cross from 1 bridge to another. Also, dwarves walking nearby to get to the dig site find it irresistible to attack them. And dwarves too are able to somehow scurry along the walls to get to the zombies on the bridges.
When fighting on the bridge, some of them fell or dodged off and fell 5 z levels. So did some of the zombie animals. No big deal I thought, I'll just dump their corpses into the atom smasher... That was until several other dwarves died to the zombie cattle and new zombie dwarves. A squad of 10 well trained mace Dwarves was stationed to protect the cleanup efforts. But hat quickly spiraled out of control and 26 dwarves were killed and turning into zombies on the spot. This was now ground zero of the zombie apocalypse.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/50bd/m2cnmscy59bo13m7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?m2cnmscy59bo13m)
Hastily, a lever was constructed in an attempt to link it to the 1 bridge that could seal off the pit from the rest of the fort. But before any links could be made, the zombie horde was chasing the living over that same bridge. In hind sight, that would have been a good thing to set up first. But it was time for plan B: construct a wall at the next choke point where the initial tunnel was dug. These zombies however are not like the ones you see in the movies. When charging after critters, they are FAST! And that's exactly what they were doing, chasing after the few remaining living pets right down that tunnel. ...It was not sealed in time.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/f69e/u2r2vfaznjr845r7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?u2r2vfaznjr845r)
Fortunately, the barracks was right around the corner, and Team Alpha was able to put them down as they approached. At this point, 40+ dwarves had died, so the entire tunnel and pit was mass forbidden to prevent any more temptation to recover wounded or store items in a stockpile. Most of the surviving dwarves were now in the sub-par hospital (no soap, no water), with 10 sharing a single bed. Desperate times I guess... Checking in on the status of Team Alpha revealed that they were down to 6 from 10, so they retreated back to the subterranean farm plots / stairway entrance to the main fort. The breach was lost. The farms will be the last stand.
The surface was sealed off to prevent the large pack of giant undead hyenas from coming in, and also to prevent dwarves from venturing top side to say hi to the surface zombies. A good long last stand it was. Only 1 zombie at a time managed to straggle down the other tunnels and into the farms, where they were pulped by the 6 mace wielding heroes. But then someone had to go and die of thirst in the hospital and turn into a zombie. In mere moments, the hospital corner became the second outbreak of this zombie apocalypse.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2916/sjpibm82lru2w8e7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?sjpibm82lru2w8e)
No big deal - doors had already been built everywhere, so they were locked and forbidden. Urist McStupid however was able to open forbidden doors to haul some stone to the stockpile next to the hospital, and release them into the main stairway. Team Alpha valiantly fought them back, more dwarves were hastily recruited into the squad, and walls were built around the doors to stop the rest of the horde from being let in. Now it was a fight to atom smash all the corpses, and also fight their severed body parts crawling everywhere.
At the darkest hour, 5 adult dwarves (1 insane, 3 totally stressed and harrowed) and 7 children were alive before a migrant wave arrived. Everyone was drafted into inactive squads and given just 1 labor: Refuse hauling. A few more died, but the corpses were cleared, and another wave of migrants arrived.
With the apocalypse under control, the task of engraving 181 memorial slabs begins.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/b69b/ebfqmauvlpo2bbl7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?ebfqmauvlpo2bbl)
The plan remains to use zombies for defense. However magma may have to be pumped into the pit for now to deal with the zombie horde before progress can continue.
Edit: I honestly did not expect to have to resort to magma so soon.
The few survivors luckily had a massive food and booze stash that was uninfested by zombies, so they were able to go into full memorial slab carving mode. Ghosts really get in the way of productivity. Also, a few iterations of attempted hospitals had to be sealed off to help contain the zombie explosion.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6af2/o6y3xab3etw2tfb7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?o6y3xab3etw2tfb)
With the ghosts under control, and all the remaining corpses and crawling limbs atom smashed, it was time to get that magma involved. It was a few firsts for me: first pump stack, first windmill farm, first dwarven micro water reactor. It took over 700 Urists of power to bring magma up above the zombie pit. With only 20 power per windmill, I gave in to the allure of the Micro-Reactor which instead nets 90 power each. I was going to need way too many windmills otherwise.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3a67/ab9v8askca3kylb7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?ab9v8askca3kylb)
The giant square space was going to be a magma holding tank with levers for particular hatches to target magma drops on certain points of the zombie pit trap with laser-like precision. Due to the zombie apocalypse however, no hatches were ever constructed, and only a few drop holes were dug.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/f236/g7xx8kdi0aik1n17g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?g7xx8kdi0aik1n1)
The moment of sweet revenge: magma begins pouring down into the pit and onto the zombies :)
Saving and re-opening the game seems to clear much of the magma smoke from view.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/9ee1/qfg8zhpl0dda73q7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?qfg8zhpl0dda73q)
Edit: with all that has happened so far, and the dead count up to 256, this thread should be re-named Riling up the Terror. But it's just the storm before the calm. There are grand plans for this embark.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/99c5/4zow5754d30qzsp7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?4zow5754d30qzsp)
Just waiting for a 7-Z level deep pit to fill completely with magma. The magma sea level has dropped to 3 in some areas from the so far 18 month pumping operation, resulting in the magma forges now being unpowered.
I guess this fort has died?
Depends on how you define died. There are 70 undead, and 263 dead/missing compared to 52 citizens. Not exactly a thriving with life ratio. But I like to think it's still hanging in there.
The magma forges and smelters shut down a while ago due to excessive pumping into the zombie trap, which I'm still filling with magma. Pumping water into it to obsidiafy it all was the plan, but to make components for a water pump stack, I need to allow the magma sea to refill. But not before the magma incinerates the zombies who are currently occupying the trap work area. The surface and caverns are also too full of zombies to get any more wood.
The dwarves of "Blazedtin" are currently relying heavily upon trading with the humans to make leather clothing. It seems to fair better than pigtail clothing when dwarves are surprised by reanimated limbs and such. The dwarven caravan no longer comes after they had to fight through a herd of undead, even though they survived and made it to the depot. Maybe the liason died? I didn't check. A human trade caravan arrived, and in the much appreciated hustle to get all the goods to the depot, the dumping tasks became a lower priority. This lead to announcements such as, "Cattenvudthar, Dwarven Child cancels Harvest Plants: Interrupted by ďngizstibmer's left hand." and "Urvad Stinthädkalal, Hen <Tame> has been found dead."
I got discouraged by a lack of sieges, so I checked the civilization screen 11 years in to the fort to find that there were only 3: 2 dwarven and 1 human civilization. I wasn't looking to start trouble, but rather to meet it with a giant zombie trap. But it seems I'll have to start a war once the trap is ready for functional testing. Edit: The civilization list shows only those I have made contact with. Checking the other tabs in the civilization screen showed that the world is indeed full of goblins, elves, humans and dwarves. Probably just the thick hordes of undead keeping them away from the fort.
Fortifications were carved into the containment area, marksdwarves got some practical training, and the old crafting area / hospital has now returned to being a normal part of the fort!
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6e43/exdbemi92i4dbot7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?exdbemi92i4dbot)
When the wind farm came down, it punctured several Z levels into the fort, destroying the gears and axles for both the water and magma pump stacks, and leaving a lot of openings to the surface. Team Alpha is currently stationed by the breach while the remaining dwarves build floors and walls to seal it off amidst giant undead monarch butterfly, and undead armadillo boar attacks. The farms had to be fallowed, and stockpiles disabled to free up some of the labor force.
Also probably not very good for the FPS was a previous incident where a planned cave-in unexpectedly punctured the floors below, dumping magma onto the memorial slab garden, lighting many of the slabs on fire (lignite was a bad choice of slab material), and releasing many ghosts in the process. Several of the slabs are still burning, but much of the magma has evaporated.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3cff/74tb527c0b9uhsn7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?74tb527c0b9uhsn)
The primary task now is increasing FPS. I have never had a fort get this low on FPS before, so this is new territory for me. First step, trade or atom smash every non-essential item (though I am tempted to preserve an iron shield with 2 kills associated with it). Second step, reduce path finding options. Third step, reduce the cavern layers of undead and flowing liquids. Fourth step, research. A human caravan just arrived, so I'm currently gambling on deactivating the surface breach guards and suspending sealing the breach in order to trade as much crap as possible (mostly old clothing it seems), as 12 FPS is brutal when you're accustomed to 70. I can say for certain that the drop was due to filling a 23 x 25 x 7 pit 100% with magma, turning the top into a variable 3-Z topogrophy of obsidian with chaotic mining / cave-ins, then draining 23 x 25 x 4 magma into the caverns.
On the plus side, I now know how to make a ghost bomb.
Update: After trading away just about everything, atom smashing everything else, limiting path-finding options, and only gaining a handful of FPS, I resorted to DFHack to see if this fort could be saved from FPS death. 10 FPS is not really a workable speed for me to clear the caverns with dwarf might. Especially when every season, "The Fortress Attracted No Migrants"
Reveal showed me the true cause of the FPS drop. I checked the units screen and found over 1300 undead on the map. And in the most inaccessible places too: Very narrow and maze like caverns. There were isolated cavern pockets on the edge of the map, just filled with undead crundles that would be like finding a needle in a hay stack. There appears to be no population limit to the crundle. Surely the total unit count above 1300 was the cause. But I had to be sure. I was about to surrender to FPS death at this point so I figured, what the hell, I'll cheat a bit... I found the biggest clusters of undead and with the liquids command in DFHack, gave them nice refreshing magma showers - dropping the 'Others' count in the unit list down to 470, with the 'Dead/Missing' count up to 1235, and FPS up to 24 rather than 10, with spikes up to the low 30s.
Some further magma cleansing got the 'Others' count down to 163 and FPS up to 88 calculation and 50 graphical (max setting for graphical). This is now a speedy fort again like a fresh embark :) Saved by DFHack!!! Now I can continue with the original zombie trap plan unhindered.
The one unfortunate consequence of my unskillful use of DFHack is that the map can no longer be un-revealed. Don't save and exit before using unreveal. You can always re-reveal if you need to. I'm trying not to take advantage of it. Already with hundreds of bars of iron, and having spotted the adamantine when the magma sea was breached, I don't really need to know what's veins are where, etc. Either by design or by luck, large rectangles of normal hidden squares remain over the adamantine areas.
Update: The first Dwarven caravan in years arrived, likely due to rumors from trading so much value to the humans last season, and were also generously paid for their goods. Following that was 26 migrants, a much needed boost to the work force now that FPS has returned to normal. But following that was the arrival of a WereElephant who made quick work of the unfortunate leatherworker by the entrance. To my amazement however, the first macedwarf to arrive on the scene killed the beast with just 4 blows from her *iron mace*. Luck was on her side as the first strike seemed to be very crippling: The Mace Lord bashes the wereelephant in the neck with her *iron mace*, bruising the muscle and tearing the upper spine's nervous tissue!
Update: A dragon arrived right in the middle of the entryway re-construction project. Everything was forbidden / suspended to encourage everyone to get back inside. The dragon scared 1 dwarf who went running away, and then waited around the corner by the entryway, melting him when he came back around.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/791a/9wz7du4q95bypb87g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?9wz7du4q95bypb8)
Only 1 of the marksdwarves made it to the halfway constructed tower before the dragon did, but he quickly climbed down to fire 2 shots at point blank range before being melted. Both head shots, leaving the bolts embedded.
Everyone being cave adapted, the mace-lords were stationed just inside the burned down entryway, waiting for the dragon to come in. Taking the gate entrance instead of the wagon ramp access left the dragon in a 1x1 stairway where dragon fire cannot spread as far. Seizing the opportunity, the mace-lords charged in to the stairway, and surprisingly made quick work of the beast. Only bruises were sustained underneath their iron armor as they pulped it.
Update 6/25/19: A Roc showed up shortly after the dragon, but didn't severely injure any of the 30 mace lords waiting for it by the caravan entrance. It did survive a lot longer than the dragon, but also it was a lot bigger than the dragon. Lacking fire breath, I'll take a Roc any day over a dragon. The 30 mace lords seem capable of anything right now, but with 105 dwarves total in the fort, I don't think it would be enough to put down another zombie apocalypse. Lacking flux, I only get about 25 steel bars on a good year from trading for flux / steel items to be melted. Most of them have mostly iron armor. Some patchwork steel and adamantine is being crafted into the mix as it becomes available.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/866a/6h908v20wdw0c617g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?6h908v20wdw0c61)
I'm doing my best not to let loose the Fire Devils and whatever else might be in that eerie pit that just got aggro'd. Walling off the gap before grabbing all the adamantine proved to be a good idea.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3fe9/547el5skvs2isii6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?547el5skvs2isii)
And Ballistas!
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/fa54/4btcygb67wxbl0l6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?4btcygb67wxbl0l)
The adamantine mines have been shut down after the clowns made an appearance; so it's mostly iron for the squads. The last incident in the caverns left the few pieces of steel and adamantine gear they did have up in the trees surrounded by not only the zombies that killed the soldiers, but now too the risen mace lords and marksdwarves themselves. There will have to be a reclamation mission at some point to salvage the gear and administer some good old fashioned Dwarven justice.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/69ea/3yndo3gkend0pc46g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?3yndo3gkend0pc4)
As you can see, the reveal all command has unfortunately turned permanent. At this stage in the fort, I already have an abundance of what is available on the map, so there's no real advantage to seeing everything. The smelters haven't been able to keep pace with the trade goods, let alone what has been incidentally mined out to make the fort. There is currently a stock of 334 iron bars, 392 copper bars, and 248 metal ores. Enough to probably get another armorsmith trained up to legendary.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/69e1/5nx32g89rnz228a6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?5nx32g89rnz228a)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/bc15/douzzk58ocbccan6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?douzzk58ocbccan)
I had to zoom way out to get the whole entrance in 1 screen shot. So far everything has been constructed out of obsidian blocks, mined out of the pit. The caravan has no other entry into the fort but this sky bridge that descends down ramps next to a guard post with a glass ceiling.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/218a/6o67agc745lwhcl6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?6o67agc745lwhcl)
Three more skybridges in each of the cardinal directions are planned to discourage traders on foot from leaving the north side of the map despite the skybridge descending just 4 tiles from the southern edge. The local fauna can be fierce.
Building on the surface in a reanimating biome is very costly in terms of Dwarven lives. But it did also expose some vulnerabilities in the entrance design. Undead with climbing are able to scale down the pit right into the "safe" part of the entryway. So a magma moat is now planned surrounding a 1-Z wall with a 1-tile floor overhang on the inner edge of the moat.
I couldn't keep track of how many died in the construction. Herds of undead Rhinocerous, Lion Men and Hyenas liked to wander into the construction area, so 2 squads of 10 mace-lords were on full-time zombie duty for about 2 years. Only 4 of them died. I expected more. But many workers lost their lives. There were often announcements such as,
The rhinocerous corpse gores the spinner in the head with her second horn and the injured part explodes into gore!
Avuzmonang, Spinner has been found dead.
A Were-Pangolin outbreak also turned into a quite a distraction as I missed a few bites in the combat logs.
Fighting around the edge of the pit, several fell into it, 10-Z down. The lucky ones did not land on the upright iron spears. The unlucky ones became several reanimated parts that had to be put down. Including a left arm that kept coming back to terrorize the fort, refusing to become mangled no matter how many times the mace lords were sent after it. Gradually, it was hauled relay team style to the atom smasher.
The great fire of 127 (apparently caused by over-filling the magma moat) burned all the trees, but regrettably did not harm any of the giant undead tics that were roaming the forest at the time.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3265/1eq84l8gfyn48qm7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?1eq84l8gfyn48qm)
The animals migrants bring with them have so far tended to out-live their dwarf counterparts. The previous livestock estimate was nearing 150. Rather than save them for the pits, they were butchered and replaced with much more dangerous animals from the elves. Currently 2 elf caravans arrive each Spring. I'm still hoping for another elephant of the opposite gender to show up for trade. An army of undead war elephants would be ideal, but until then, there are war lions, war tigers, cheetahs and hippos as an intermediary plan.
The safe caravan access phase is nearing completion. Gotta secure those steel imports!
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/a02a/hn3uc2vbssu39k77g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?hn3uc2vbssu39k7)
The slow magma dripper was tested. It is fed from the magma moat, and passes through a series of diagonal gaps before dropping onto a single tile surrounded by iron grates on the 3-tile wide siege entry, then drops further below onto more iron grates where it is drained off to the edge of the map. Or with the pull of another lever, there is the option to flood the pit with magma again.
Edit: The left bridge still has yet to be re-built after a deconstruction cave-in killed 5, and stranded the human caravan wagons.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2bf6/0ip73160tm45jrh7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?0ip73160tm45jrh)
...another fall victim located.
The accuracy of the ballistas is... while not good, acceptable.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/9f7d/y6fd9zmppal86yx7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?y6fd9zmppal86yx)
And with iron ballista heads, they appear to be quite effective; as this unfortunate ballista operator will tell you.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/1062/h9rgs99i2t3pav67g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?h9rgs99i2t3pav6)
To avoid future accidents, more fortifications were built by the ballistas. And in true tragic fashion, that very same siege operator lost her other leg as well, illuminating the fact that I neglected to block the diagonal way through the door.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/601e/q08oa962ikijitd7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?q08oa962ikijitd)
Examining her thoughts and preferences, I don't think she's going to make it...
"Her heart is mangled beyond recognition. Her upper body is cut open. Her stomach is mangled beyond recognition. Her lower body is cut open. Her lower left leg is spraying dwarf blood."
At least there's also, "She is getting used to tragedy" in there too. She immigrated about 4 years ago to the fort. Despite now missing both her legs, she managed to drag herself to the booze stockpile for a drink of dwarven beer.
While observing the ballista testing, I got interested in the announcement, "Mace Lord cancels Get Provisions: Interrupted by a rhinoceros corpse." and got to see this combat report unfold predictably as the two fight on the bridge over the lava moat:
The rhinoceros corpse misses the Mace Lord!
The rhinoceros corpse charges at the Mace Lord!
The rhinoceros corpse collides with the Mace Lord!
The Mace Lord is knocked over and tumbles backward!
The rhinoceros corpse misses the Mace Lord!
The Mace Lord is no longer stunned.
The Mace Lord is caught in a pool of Lava!
The rhinoceros corpse proceded to then kill a new recruit before another Mace Lord could stop it.
...And the slab room continues to fill...
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/e6bb/dmz8j3fb80ew9q17g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?dmz8j3fb80ew9q1)
Checking back in on the siege operator - she made it to the hospital, was swiftly treated, and is now roaming about the fortress picking up new clothes (an easier task with no longer a need for socks or shoes. I'm curious if she'll wear pants / a skirt since she only has an upper left leg). Regardless, she has earned the new nickname, "Lucky to be Alive"
A stray reindeer calf was used as the test dummy to see how lethal the 6-Z drop into the pit is from the bridge above. It died of injuries shortly after the fall, then turned into a zombie..
The next test involved a Reindeer calf, a Buffalo calf and a Lamb, all at once (Thank you migrants for the test subjects). The Reindeer calf landed on the Buffalo, and sustained no injuries. The other 2 were only slightly injured. The Lamb fully recovered in a week. Expecting them to starve to death and turn into zombies, I was disappointed to find that somehow one of the soldiers climbed into the pit area and killed all 3 zombies after they had risen. All line of sight to the drop area has since been blocked with walls and floors to preserve future zombies.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/e26d/me0fbcr4z89a1ql7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?me0fbcr4z89a1ql)
Giant Monarch Butterfly corpses have been wreaking havok, simply flying over the magma moat and killing a dwarf or 2 before being put down. The aerial gap has now been floored over to prevent further attacks of that kind, and the entire caravan bridges have been floored over. In the combat logs I noticed 1 dwarf managed to beat one to death with a +Willow Crutch+. All platnum bars have now been crafted into crutches to take advantage of this.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/9d95/8kvy4qcalttjjim7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?8kvy4qcalttjjim)
Now with a magma moat on the surface, and stray magma pools leftover from obsidianizing the apocalypse, it would be helpful to have a direct stairway down to the magma sea level where 400+ metal ores are still stockpiled so they can be brought up to the new forge location as part of the re-centralizing the fort around the pit project. The last attempt to dig directly down, and wall off the caverns at the same time was a failure. Two forgotten beast zombies immediately noticed a path into the fort and killed many before the stairway could be sealed off. A worrisome amount of steel and adamantine armor has been found in the magma moat. It can be slowly drained via the magma dripper onto invaders. So as long as it doesn't decay out there, I'm inclined to leave it for now.
Preparing for another attempt at going through the caverns, everyone was drafted into squads with metal armor and designated to be uniformed when inactive. The past few months have been nothing but picking up equipment. I've split the armory into 3 levels: steel, iron, and copper/bronze, set only to accept masterworks, no bins (mostly so I can visually see where things are at myself without the stocks menu). I also reset the gear priority list so the most experienced melee soldiers get first dibs. I expect a few more months of equipment shuffling before more productive work can resume.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/5314/981wyj2yzwp8bg27g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?981wyj2yzwp8bg2)
Checking back in on that unfortunate dwarf who 4 years ago lost both legs in the ballista tests, she is now wearing just a bismuth bronze breastplate, bronze greaves, a bronze helm, and an iron shield. She is also covered in rum spatter. She periodically stumbles around obliviously having "been utterly harrowed by the nightmare that is her tragic life." But since, "She dreams of creating a great work of art, and this dream was realized.", she still hauls things and helps with the mining.
Not much else has happened aside from the random dead dwarf turning up as a zombie with an expired combat report, so I have no clue how they died; and the occasional insane dwarves being locked away in their quarters. The barracks has been re-sized to not overlap as much with the War Tiger training area after a dead Macelord was found next to 2 dead War Tigers and 3 injured War Tigers. There are currently 7 War Tigers, 2 War Elephants, 17 Tiger Cubs and 7 Elephant Calves. Not enough to send to the pits yet without impeding their population growth. And after several years of waiting, the elves finally brought 2 eagles of the opposite gender. Eagle breeding can now commence!
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/0ecf/0vi5jekn39322277g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/?0vi5jekn3932227)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/463e/sxy2n2i3tz6iit57g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/sxy2n2i3tz6iit5)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/4d24/13gn5o6y73517u47g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/13gn5o6y73517u4)
Preparations are also being made for the re-taking of the caverns to salvage the precious adamantine armor lost by the first squads. Currently 4 forgotten beasts are listed in the units screen, so that should be fun. Currently a barracks and archery range are set up, so the military can be re-centralized near the caverns. There is also a dining room and dormitory / food and drink stockpiles so that workers can better assist with cavern work. It's a bit of a run - over 300 tiles from the main fort area.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/IgSBL0DAkUUy8QZo3D/giphy.gif) (https://media.giphy.com/media/IgSBL0DAkUUy8QZo3D/giphy.gif)
Caravans leaving their food behind has lead to some unfortunate miasma all over the main level, so now a legendary weaponsmith and armorsmith are both haggard. The human traders died to a pack of giant undead hyenas before the vomiting / dizzy dwarf soldiers could reach them; and as suspected, they did not send another caravan the next year. A part of me still wants to start over after the map ended up getting revealed, but since I'm no longer searching for metal ores or anything exploratory like that, I'm just gonna keep this fort going. It just crossed the 40 year mark too.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8b02/tp6rp8idq126df07g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/tp6rp8idq126df0)
At least the armory is now completely filled with masterwork iron armor, ready for the next few batches of recruits to fall into the lava / get trapped by undead jabberers in the caverns...
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c168/zsz5cw5ck025kkt7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/zsz5cw5ck025kkt)
I keep getting announcements of tigers being found dead, but the combat reports just show the final moments where they skid across the ground into something and die. Being in close proximity with one another, I suspect it is tiger on tiger violence, and not a rogue dwarf going in and killing them randomly. But I'm still not exactly sure what's going on. The population remains strong despite several tiger deaths in the past few months. Currently in the autumn of year 140 there are 30 war tigers, 26 tiger cubs, 2 war elephants, 7 elephant calves, 43 eagles and 15 eagle chicks. An elite squad of 5 mace lords is currently stationed with the tigers to prevent a possible zombie explosion. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with all the eagles, but I suspect they will have their day in the sun before too long.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/4514/az4jf5wdaf51cba7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/az4jf5wdaf51cba)
With the latest Dwarven caravan arriving, a couple hundred worn bags and other trash items were discovered and traded away. Still the efficiency of the fort is fairly poor, having taken a bag seat to just surviving so far. Currently the fortress is in a bit of a consolidation and reorganizing phase to free up more dwarves for the military. Also, elephants take 10 years to reach maturity, so some time will have to pass before that part of the plan can be implemented.
The legendary armorsmith who kept throwing tantrums, crippling other dwarves and destroying workshops, so he was sentenced to being dropped into the zombie pit:
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/633e/cgw7cf632cd114d7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/cgw7cf632cd114d)
Unfortunately, even unarmed, since he was expertly trained, he managed to kill most of the war dog and other corpses residing in the pit. At least once he rises, he should make a formidable zombie.
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/4e53/m3n3l0aiv6te4lm7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/m3n3l0aiv6te4lm)
Tigers mysteriously keep dying and killing one another once zombies. As soon as I get the announcement a tiger has been found dead, the only thing in the combat logs is their body skidding across the ground. Until the causes can be determined, the militia commander's elite mace dwarf squad has been stationed nearby.
(https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3001/sius89fbutrf18f7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/sius89fbutrf18f)
The militia commander's current equipment:
- Nist Kodor, "The Fear of Dawn", a rose gold mace (2.46 times as dense as steel), a recent creation with only 4 kills, 3 zombie dwarves and a zombie tiger. It is encircled with spikes of red zircon
- Zatthudmuzish, "Judgemartyred", a jagged gold helm. It is encircled with bands of baguette cut rubies. On the item is an image of a forgotten beast in gold
- Gashcoz Gärem, "The Proliferation of Generals", a platinum shield, just crafted
- Exceptional Adamantine Breastplate
- Masterful Adamantine Gauntlets
- Exceptional Adamantine Greaves
- Masterful Adamantine High Boots
He has currently accumulated just 16 kills in the 30 years he's lived at the fort. All zombies and werebeasts.
Outdoor construction of the siege entry was well underway, most other industries suspended to free up as much dwarf labor as possible. The goal is to force invaders along a zig zag path in front of the marksdwarf bunker to soften them up before they enter the pit.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/03dc/qx9we772umx9qnr7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/qx9we772umx9qnr)
A pack of 13 giant hyena corpses was successfully repelled from the contstruction site with only a few dwarven deaths. One of the weaponsmiths was killed and came back as a zombie, but this beast of a Mace Lord wasn't going to let him get far:
'Weaponsmith' Rigothnokgol's corpse charges at the Mace Lord!
'Weaponsmith' Rigothnokgol's corpse collides with the Mace Lord!
'Weaponsmith' Rigothnokgol's corpse bounces backward!
A new artifact was created:
Ducimmunést Luslem Am, "Workedgroves the Puzzel of Yawns"
A cave spider silk thong. The thread is midnight blue, exceptionally colored with dimple dye. It menaces with spikes of cave spider silk, acacia, obsidian and green glass. On the thong are 2 images of Foldedspeechless, the pig tail braies. One in cave spider silk, the other in obsidian.
Naturally, I assigned this to the hammerer. As he was already wearing steel chain leggings, I can only assume he put it on over top of his armor.
Then a green dragon arrives and immediately burninates both the countryside and my FPS
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/f200/xoi9jajesyfvceq7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/xoi9jajesyfvceq)
Now seemed like as good a time as any to put the pit trap into action. The zombie containment core was opened, the caravan bridges closed, and the pit entry made the only way for outsider to path into the fort.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/a797/jjl36vezkquw5af7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/jjl36vezkquw5af)
The marksdwarves were stationed along fortifications, but seemed more interested in shooting at the zombies than the dragon. But one of the Mace Lords literally jumped right into the pit at the dragon, and upon reading the combat report, I can only assume he landed in one of those superhero power punch poses, with his fist buried into the floor.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8d08/0v1rftoifgwkwhy7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/0v1rftoifgwkwhy)
I had the dragon on follow, but kept getting the game paused and re-centered to the surface every couple of seconds as the forest fire raged on. So I toggled that off in the announcements.txt file in the init folder. This made it much easier to follow the dragon, as I was reminded how dragon fire can destroy even obsidian draw bridges. Having destroyed the only bridge to path into the fort, the dragon raged on, burninating all the zombies, and breaking into the left beast containment area.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/bad4/lxgbirdh0wt97vf7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/lxgbirdh0wt97vf)
Luckily the dragon managed to get caught in one of the cage traps before making it any further into the fort. Or so I thought luck was on my side. There now appeared to be magma in one of the stairways next to the pit. Very unusual. I have everything magma related pretty much on lock down, taking every precaution I could imagine. Surely it must just be something melted from the dragon fire.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/22ce/yxp246x78y1uoca7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/yxp246x78y1uoca)
Further investigation revealed that the magma moat had been punctured. Presumably from one of the burning trees collapsing on the surface.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/d78e/p3lf10a6qidgrg67g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/p3lf10a6qidgrg6)
In hindsight, I should have been more timely with putting doors everywhere. Or at least put some around the main lever room that controls all access to the outside world not involving the zombie pit.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/d057/p3u7qaxvx78mo4c7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/p3u7qaxvx78mo4c)
At least that mystery miasma problem should be fixed now. For several months, miasma had been emanating from some kitchens near the trade depot. Looking around with 'k' there were no rotting food items, corpse bits, or any other sources of miasma I know of.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8e86/l1mobblssbxmjos7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/l1mobblssbxmjos)
A couple months later, and much the magma has either drained into mostly unused areas of the fort, or evaporated. Igniting the forest turned out to be a very good tactical play on the part of the Dragon. But the the dwarves can't be beaten that easily, and work continues. Though this time with more doors, and magma-safe levers...
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/62b5/4fzx9qzzak3a87n7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/4fzx9qzzak3a87n)
The outdoor preparations to flood the whole surface with magma will have to wait a bit as many slabs and doors need to be made, and bridges deconstructed / re-linked to levers. But here is the progress so far.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/201e/bm5m9kxu2ns7d5o7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/bm5m9kxu2ns7d5o)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8e01/16miqys342x62dc7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/16miqys342x62dc)
The steel maces literally everyone is equipped with that work so well to stop zombies, seem powerless against this terminator machine thing that has arrived in the middle of the chaos, seemingly destined to finish off the fort with such timing. The elite squad of knights, all now over-exerted, have not even managed to scratch the thing. Their decades of training and 143,000 dodging skill has so far kept them unharmed. But I know exhaustion will be the death of these knights at some point, despite being the elite of the elite.
The 4 remaining soldiers in the elite Southern Squad were re-assigned a steel battle axes and sent after this Colossus. The 8 general soldiers assigned iron picks. And the elite West Guard assigned steel short swords and Gemeshtan, "Conflicttick", a adamantine battle axe. It is encrusted with rectangular bituminous coal cabochons and round brilliant cut amethysts. It is also adorned with hanging rings of adamantine. The snipers were simultaneously sent toward the fortifications, but the fight drifted out into the winding halls beyond their view. The fortified position was originally intended to just be used to quell the zombie herds if need be. The Green Dragon and Bronze Colossus, magma-moat-draining combo attack was not at all what this pit was designed to handle.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6857/uywnnrjetpccc2k7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/uywnnrjetpccc2k)
It was discovered that the entirety of the second most elite squad, the Bravo Knights, are all already dead, likely due to the spontaneous magma flood. But on the plus side, the marksdwarves are behaving exactly as intended. Those stationed above got many shots into the Green Dragon as he crossed the bridge and also managed to pepper the zombies in the winding passages below.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8e4b/a69zcdznn15j86u7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/a69zcdznn15j86u)
Dwarves with iron picks arrive first, but all their attacks glance away. Then a couple more dwarves with steel axes and spears arrive on the scene, and push the colossus back toward the middle, though only with glancing blows for 26 additional combat report log pages.
The first and only real damage came almost 3 days of fighting later on 142-11-24 from the recruit captain who was assigned Teshkadtoral Mözir Absam "Pricelaw the Rout of Searching", an exceptional steel short sword. After a pommel strike glanced away, a slash fractured the right ear, another dented the lower body (make of that what you will). Another stab to the left ear chipped it, and twisted the colossus' head from the force. A stab to the left upper leg fractured it and bent the hip. More stabs chipped away at the magical beast of bronze. Slashes mostly leading to dents and fractures. Some stabs also causing fractures too, until a final slash to the lower body with his Teshkadtoral Mözir Absam mostly cut it away from the rest of the torso, at last defeating the colossus.
In its place now lies A masterful bronze statue of a forgotten beast created by an unknown artisan. The item is a masterfully designed image of a forgotten beast in bronze.
This is the fourth kill for the Recruit Captain but a first for the steel short sword. The 80 year old Captain "Nimaktis Quillstakes" has survived with the fort for 12 years now. Having been the drill sergant for most of that time, whipping the new recruits into shape, he is unbelievably strong, basically unbreakable, indefatigable and very agile. He has a stunning feel for spatial relationships, unbreakable focus, uncanny intuition, a great kinesthetic sense, an iron will and a natural ability with music. He is essentially the best fighter a fort could hope for. Who better to whip the new recruits into survivable shape? He now has 237 exp as a Dabbling Swordsdwarf due to that fight. With 213,000 exp using a mace, it makes sense why he first hit the colossus with the pommel of his sword before trying to use the pointy end.
Conflicttick, the adamantine battle axe was kept very far away, by the lower forges at the magma-sea. So the dwarf armed with it didn't finish his hiking expedition to retrieve it before Nimaktis ended the fight with his steel short sword. With the steel axes glancing away, I was curious how an artifact adamantine one would do, lacking the weight, but having the sharpness. Though being unbelievable strong with 2520 strength, he's actually one of the weaker combat dwarves, with the strongest being the Captain of the Southern Squad with 3210 strength (according to Dwarf Therapist). So weapon type seems to definitely be the deciding factor against a bronze colossus.
The following new issues currently are the wrenches in the gears of getting this pit trap up and running:
- Magma moat empty
- All bridge seals in / out of the fort inoperable
- Main lever room flooded with magma
- The Dead rising up all over the fort
- All new clothing stockpiles incinerated
- All extra wooden barrels incinerated
- FPS in the low 20s
- The pit trap now completely empty of zombies
My first priority is FPS. As I previously found to be the case, hordes of cavern fauna in the mushroom trees tend to build up over time and tank fps. Though I would prefer to send wave after wave of dwarves down there to sort that out, it is just not practical to do with such low fps. So I resorted to DFHack to spawn some magma on a couple hundred cavern creatures. DFHack aside, a mining dwarf was sacrificed to drain the main lever room into the eaglery. As the eagles experienced mortal fear, magma slowly filled their room; Cavern critters ran around on fire for a bit; And FPS gradually stabilized around 30.
The remains of one of the elite Bravo Knights were found next to 14 mangled war tiger corpses, so I think I know how 1 of the 5 died. Still on the lookout to piece together what happened to the rest. The tiger breeding program has been nothing but undead tiger trouble, so the remaining 50 tigers were sent to the atom smasher. It's gonna be just war elephants for the pit program. Elephants live 50-70 years, whereas tigers live only 10-20 years in total; so there should be far fewer instances of old age induced zombie outbreaks in the herd.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/d8bb/dmlb47xau6pocuu7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/dmlb47xau6pocuu)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6db7/utjaunhju4q0lck7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/utjaunhju4q0lck)
I just found out that 1 of the dwarves prays to Zefon, a deity of The Perplexing Works. Zefon most often takes the form of a male dwarf and is associated with the sun, fire, volcanos and mountains. Seems pretty dwarfy. So 2 of the magma forges were queue'd up to turn all 19 of the fortress' gold bars into statues of Zefon.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c441/l0ls2c4pr92ern47g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/l0ls2c4pr92ern4)
By Zefon's help, this pit trap is gonna see some real use.
The magma filled stairways have been drained, levers re-built and re-linked. Now with doors to prevent future flooding! Bins, clothes and other incinerated items restocked. And the zombies have been put to rest. FPS is hovering around 27 now. Closing off old unused tunnels all over the map seems to have helped. Due to almost exclusive Dwarven losses, and the lack of fresh migrants these past few years, re-filling the magma moat has been postponed.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/e1c5/ooyme44t6net5pb6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/ooyme44t6net5pb)
The elephant population nearly tripled to 38, as the dwarves fell to 108. But surface construction presses on. Only the elven caravans still come to the fort. And probably due to a lack of exports, no migrants have arrived in a few years. Some stressed dwarves were sent out on a mission to demand tribute from another dwarven civilization. They rejected our demand, but sent a trade caravan. Hopefully trading 391,390 Urists of artifacts, meals, furniture, etc. in exchange for 33,637 Urists of metal items for the smelters will entice some migrants to come.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/ad39/z0mgam1xg87r4w27g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/z0mgam1xg87r4w2)
The above ground farms could probably be smaller, but once the surface is flooded with magma, it will be much more difficult to expand, so I went big. So far it's just strawberries, sliver barbs (black dye), and potatoes to try and keep lavish meals rolling.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/05d6/m1caq5qb1cao81m6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/m1caq5qb1cao81m)
In an effort to keep undead giant monarch butterflies, and undead mosquito people out of the above ground farms, obsidian production was ramped into high gear, depleting the cavern's water supply for the first time in 47 years. It is re-filling, but not very quickly. The supply pumps had to be turned off, since the reduced flow was evaporating before it could reach the magma chamber.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/04c0/bgji4o0juh8vjep6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/bgji4o0juh8vjep)
An elite marksdwarf with one of the fort's few steel armor sets was sacrificed to the cavern critters in the process of extending the pump stack 1-Z lower. He survived a little over a month by running away from everything until he ran right into "Gamozothrol: An enormous undead dove with external ribs. It has large mandibles and it has a bloated body. Its jade feathers are patchy. Beware its fire!" A swift toggling off of refuse gathering, and all item hauling got the dozen or so haulers back into the fort before the last block of wall was finished. The recovery of Scout Engigkeskal's and others' steel armor will have to be sometime after the surface work settles down and more dwarves are freed up.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/49bf/wms5gsfa6nse1wo7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/wms5gsfa6nse1wo)
The mysterious disappearance of the elite Bravo Knights was resolved. It appears they were lost in the magma flood.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/ca9e/4t1akksvfihu4lm6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/4t1akksvfihu4lm)
Due to the unanticipated success in the elephant breeding program, a few of them starved to death. The dwarves were too busy preparing the surface for magma to keep them all fed. The starved elephant calves were quickly dumped into the atom smasher before they turned to zombies. It was later discovered that even young elephant calves are enormous. If a drawbridge is lowered onto a creature 1,500,000 cm^3 or larger, the bridge is destroyed. Dwarf Therapist revealed that by age 2, all my calves exceed 2,000,000 cm^3. Zombification chambers are now being prepared to thin some of the adult herd, while keeping them ready for the pit. 3 of the oldest war elephants are now assigned to cages in a long row of 1 x 2 halls with a cage trap at the entry. So if they starve, they will either stay in their cage, or escape and get caught in the cage trap. I'm fairly certain raising from the dead breaks them free of the cage they died in, but I have yet to see it for myself, so the cage trap may or may not be necessary.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6175/t9p4vmfpf5tznap6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/t9p4vmfpf5tznap)
A pile of war tiger teeth and a single war grizzley bear are all that now remain in the old tiger pen.
This is a pretty damn entertaining fort.
Thanks, I'm glad I'm not the only one enjoying it :)
The massive donations to the last caravan were a great success both in terms of more caravans arriving, and in finally getting migrants to arrive! 4 seasons in a row of 7-9 migrants have the population up to 123. The soldiers can go back on active duty now. You can never train too much for dealing with the undead rinocerous herds.
To try and keep from scaring away the merchants that have finally arrived, the giant ticks had to be pushed back off the bridges. As it so happens, giant ticks are good at pushing dwarves off of bridges. One of the soldiers was lucky and despite falling into the pit onto an upright spear trap, deflected 5 spears with his armor, and was missed by the others. The combat log reports him standing up and saying, "I have improved my armor. That was not satisfying."
Shortly after the dwarven caravan arrived, a second dwarf caravan showed up. A statue was built to block the second caravan from attempting to dock with the first. In previous years, when they both go for the same depot, 1 of them never makes it because the wagons of the first are in the way; the second caravan eventually leaves unhappy.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/fa5e/a4buibpq20e8a9b6g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/a4buibpq20e8a9b)
Unfortunately the second caravan managed to scuttle the entirety of its contents right outside the depot, and the first stayed well into the second month of the next year. The militia commander's elite squad of legendary mace lords were stationed by the depot just in case the merchants went hostile. But in an ironic turn of events, it was the militia commander who threw a tantrum and attacked some nearby mace lords. The stresses of being sent to kill mostly friendly dwarves turned zombie must have finally gotten to him. Now harrowed and unable to function in the fort, the hospital room door was locked behind him as he rested one last time after brawling.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/24ac/ajxvmtctxwt8n0w7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/ajxvmtctxwt8n0w)
The new commander ended up having to fight the old zombie commander naked, as all her new position's specific assigned artifact gear was in the hospital room, guarded by the old zombie commander. Her upper spine and right shoulder are now inhibited, but she's the next most experienced mace lord; and after having to fight unarmed for her gear, she's earned the position. Future promotions will now wait until the previous commander has been put to rest for good.
Five other dwarves were also found to be in need of urgent retirement and were sent to the newly constructed retirement facility while move orders could still be given. Three were too far gone to obey orders and were isolated in the armory, their bedroom, or wherever else doors could be locked.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/398e/vkmycq4zwlam9tl7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/vkmycq4zwlam9tl)
48 years after striking the earth, flux stone was finally discovered! Some exploratory mining revealed the marble deposit to be 30 x 20 x 10-Z.
Mining also revealed an aquifer at the very top of the deposit.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/4387/mm4aj8fw325ebd17g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/mm4aj8fw325ebd1)
Fortifications managed to be carved into the map edge, buying time for the Z-level below to be carved out to drain the aquifer away from the work area and off the map.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2a99/ic6qz8qz5lxh5af7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/ic6qz8qz5lxh5af)
The fort's real hero: the designated refuse hauler with no other labors; the one who keeps the miasma at bay; the one who gets rid of skins and hair before they reanimate; the mortician was almost killed. One of the corpses he picked up zombified on his way back to the atom smasher. It was discovered that despite wearing a breastplate and gauntlets, lacking a mail shirt leaves the upper arm completely exposed. An artery opening scratch to the unprotected upper arm caused him to lose grip of his finely-crafted grown willow crutch and fall down, taking many blows before the guards could get there. On the plus side, the injuries left him without function of both his eyes, and he has been given a brand new masterful platinum crutch. His last crutch had just 1 kill. All platinum continues to be forged into crutches.
Reports of dead elephant calves being found keep coming up. I can only imagine that over-crowding / lack of sufficient grazing area is leading to elephant on elephant violence. The combat logs only go back as far as to show the calves skidding across the ground before slamming into an obstacle and dying. The most recent rizen zombie elephant managed to kill 1 farmer and seriously injure 3 others before being put to rest again. Metal armor assigned to all civilians has reduced casualties a lot, but despite only suffering bruises through his masterful bronze helm, the force of being gored in the head tore tendons in the upper spine and opened an artery.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/37cd/hiqwpw387ivd7u77g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/hiqwpw387ivd7u7)
Perhaps once the surface work has completed, and the pit fully operational, the negative population growth can be reversed. Until then, successful trade seems to be the only method of attracting the much needed migrants workers. Additional depots with wagon access control were constructed using 1 adamantine block, 1 platinum bar and 1 gold bar in each. The fort smelted its first steel bar just 50 years after striking the earth on 151-12-17. The spirits of the fort seem to approve of the recent development in steel production, as the fort's smelter, "Urdim Controlledtreaty" started being followed around by a Ghostly Metalcrafter moaning spirit just 5 days later. However encouraging that might be, the spirit was still put to rest, memorialized next to the forges so that steel smelting can continue with fewer interruptions. Upgrading to steel equipment is planned in case increasing exports draws goblin attention in addition to attracting more migrants.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/3d27/sb5dwuns6gswjh17g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/sb5dwuns6gswjh1)
The king demanded 3 quivers every month for a couple years, and managed to completely exhaust the fortress' entire stock of leather, leading to several failed moods. There were also several announcements of executions that had failed due to a lack of weapon. Trade caravans have not once brought a single bin of leather. Some loose leather here and there, but only in small quantities. These unreasonable demands and executions were taking a toll on the population and had to stop. Using the justice system, I falsely convicted him of every unsolved crime on the list. Once he was chained up, he was walled in. Despite several migrant waves of 7 - 9, the population is currently only 133.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/f322/1stcs2tlg6lvk4s7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/1stcs2tlg6lvk4s)
Some of the Elephant Guard later dodged through the wall and killed the zombie king before I could decide what to do with the him.
***
Edit: To explain the king's demands, he was an elite marksdwarf. In the fall of 152, after another 2 dwarven caravans came with only tribute, but not to trade, it was announced:
After a polite discussion with local rivals, 'Sniper' Questedlabor has claimed the position of king of The Perplexing Works.
Which I imagine was probably a fairly threatening discussion, polite as it may be.
His description showed him to have a fairly intimidating look.
His left ear is mangled beyond recognition. His right ear is mangled beyond recognition.
His sideburns are clean-shaven. His very long mustache is arranged in double braids. His very long beard is neatly combed. His hair is clean-shaven. His lower left back teeth are gone. His upper right back teeth are gone. His lower front teeth are gone. His upper front teeth are gone. His cobalt eyes have large irises. He has a deeply recessed chin. His nose is gone. His neck bears the marks of numerous old wounds, the chief among them a massive jagged scar. His upper right arm bears a very short curving scar. His right hand bears the marks of old wounds, including a massive jagged scar. His left cheak bears a massive straight scar.
***
The other notable death was the ballista operator "Lucky to be Alive" After being isolated with food, alcohol, a bed and a masonry shop (isolated for destroying the atom smasher lever twice) she was mauled by another retiree who went insane, starved, and turned to a zombie. All able bodied dwarves were busy cutting trees & building roads and floors to prevent fire induced cave-ins from puncturing into the fort's upper levels again.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/e753/c072ea08ytj1m747g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/c072ea08ytj1m74)
The greener greens are vomit
A human siege was repelled by the marksdwarves after causing sufficient casualties to cause them leave. Their dead turning to zombies helped. After the siege forces had retreated, the magma pump stack was diverted to begin flooding the surface. Having continually run for 14 months so far, potential was found to increase magma flow to the surface. A thin granite formation 1-Z below the magma surface is preventing 180° of direct magma drainage into the first pump of the pump stack. Preparations have begun to increase available magma to the pump stack.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/575d/wacvl5fhuxmjxt57g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/wacvl5fhuxmjxt5)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/7a0a/is8xcjoxydg2rvh7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/is8xcjoxydg2rvh)
Another human siege arrived during the filling process. Zoomed out a bit, you can also see the start of a forest fire, the single pump stack chugging away, and extra crossbow bolts.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6a56/oz7ggpkl8z85m9m7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/oz7ggpkl8z85m9m)
As the fire spread to the other side of the moat, one of the burning trees that fell down breached the eastern part of the south-east corner.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/1a1a/fhnhr9yuxr83gh87g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/fhnhr9yuxr83gh8)
The elephant herd saw 22 elephants come of age to be trained for war in the past 2 years with only 2 deaths. Re-locating the elite Elephant Guard barracks closer to the herd has enabled many dwarves and elephants to be saved from the occasional zombie war elephant attack. (The 2x2 stairway in the first image is the same one seen below, to the right of the pump helmet farm.)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/7164/2m29uv0t7gpm7297g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/2m29uv0t7gpm729)
The first siege completely fought over magma was interesting. Once the marksdwarves made their first kill, their zombie counterparts were very effective at knocking others into the magma. The narrow perimeter path however seemed to just cause a bottleneck of confusion for the bulk of the invading force.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/43db/diep1lityspeuy87g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/diep1lityspeuy8)
Looking into the details of the civilization screen, it shows the Urists worth of imports and exports from each civilization I have made contact with. Looking at the human civilization I am at war with, I noticed this:
Exports to Sákrithakrul: Terror
Offerings from Sákrithakrul: Vengeance
Damn straight they're getting some terror!
Unfortunately, reanimated goblins and humans do not behave like the undead wildlife that wander in on the surface. While the undead rhinocerous herds are content to just wander about aimlessly, so long as they don't see a dwarf; the reanimated goblins and humans have been observed sprinting at ungodly speeds directly into the fort if there is a path. Because of this, the zombie pit will need some major re-designing in order to function properly.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/5eb1/gjq3ho6prg9ms4z7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/gjq3ho6prg9ms4z)
At least this time I don't have to flood the pit with magma.
The rare arrival of new migrants remains the biggest threat to the fortress. It's a dangerous life here, so even without dwarves going insane and killing each other, the wildlife are constantly reducing the population. A few petitions for guild halls happened almost immediately when the save was migrated to the new version, so hopefully once those are completed overall happiness will be improved. To protect the sane, all dwarves get locked up to starve in the dungeons once they start throwing tantrums. So it's always a tragedy when the military dwarves start to succumb to stress.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6121/ih5y61w2d7wtrmk7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/ih5y61w2d7wtrmk)
Amugoslan Foggywinds, from the Sniper squad is one such dwarf, with 10 kills to her name. Looking into her thoughts to see where things went wrong, it seems to just be the standard lack of decent meals, being unable to make merry, being away from people, seeing dead bodies, being haunted by the dead, etc. One of her views however might soon come to pass: "...would just as soon have nature and the great outdoors burned to ashes and converted into a great mining pit (a strengthening after being caught in the rain in 154). Another interesting find in the thoughts screen is "She is a hardened individual". I'm not sure what that means, but maybe it has to do with her being "basically unbreakable, amazingly agile and absolutely inexhaustible"
The fortresses newly trained legendary weaponsmith also went insane and died. A major loss as he had a preference for battle axes and I was really hoping for another nice artifact weapon. That one was on me though. He had claimed one of the magma forges just above the magma sea. But because the magma sea is currently being moved to the surface, the magma levels dropped down to 3/7, which caused their mood to instantly fail as the forge became momentarily unpowered. Those workshops have since been deconstructed.
Obsidian casting continues to be the main source of construction materials since all the other stone has been used up getting the masons trained to upgrade furniture to masterwork quality in an attempt to save some dwarves from getting too stressed out. But the pump stacks tend to grow trees whenever they are not actively pumping. And with the addition of powering up some mills, pumping magma to the surface, and a couple other things, the power plant needs to be expanded yet again.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/88e3/sjwecdgjjv70euu7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/sjwecdgjjv70euu)
Needless to say, the fort was again unprepared for the humans to lay siege to it. Mechanics still working on the bridges, haulers all over the surface, and all marksdwarves loaded up with wooden bolts. One of the non-stressed snipers with 23 kills to his name managed to inflict some grievous wounds, tearing spines, bruising organs, and severing a lip with just pomegranate wood bolts before he was surrounded by 8 humans and had to revert to melee with his iron crossbow. He bit a spearman's tongue off, bashed him severely, then entered a martial trance, crushing hands and feet while taking bone chipping lashes until he passed out from exhaustion and was finished off by the lasher. Rising quickly into a zombie, he got a few more devastating punches and kicks in before being again put down by that lasher.
Once the bridges were up and invaders forced to wind past the bunker, they were again broken by their reanimated friends whose charges knocked many into the lava. This has become the default method to turn away sieges for now.
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/ef74/2ot02s19wfscoj47g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/2ot02s19wfscoj4)
I learned a LOT during this fort so far. So much in fact, that it's time to start a new fort. The pit needs to be substantially deepened, the ballistas need to be relocated, and all the industries can be optimized. The engineering required to pull off the changes I want to make is probably more work than making another 50+ year fort would be. Having FPS in the teens only compounds the struggle. I suppose this could be considered FPS death.
I considered purposely ending the fort by creating an apocalypse of some kind. But couldn't decide on how. Plus I don't like to lose on purpose. So I uploaded the save to the Dwarf Fortress File Depot and everybody is welcome to mess around with it.
- https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15137
Potential sources of danger include:
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/96b8/a74b54u0f5vn32b7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/a74b54u0f5vn32b)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/18ee/7r0emo7sbh1fkem7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/7r0emo7sbh1fkem)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2f54/af9cqgtwv0u1sdg7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/af9cqgtwv0u1sdg)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/0c8e/dpqzyr9y83cunlw7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/dpqzyr9y83cunlw)
- Sieges could take the caravan entrance
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/dbca/78odp3wi5u0fyuu7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/78odp3wi5u0fyuu)
(http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/5639/znep0m21zl4l25n7g.jpg) (http://www.mediafire.com/view/znep0m21zl4l25n)
My next fort will definitely see a proper zombie pit system. I'm also excited to try out some new ideas based on lessons learned here.
One day when I remember how to use DFMA, I'll add the levels of interest here too, +6 to -22 and -38 to -43. If you do come up with an ending, or even just have some ideas for it, I'd love to hear them.
So I just got Armok Vision working and figured this old fort needed a couple 3D images.
(https://i.imgur.com/t9mhsGm.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/FXv8RMN.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/wlg8SmQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/vYP9V7n.jpg)