Bay 12 Games Forum

For a while, I've been feeling like my fortresses are just too roomy.  They sprawl all over the place and Z-levels never get used.  It's very sad!

So I've started doing a challenge mode for myself:  Embark on a 2x2, and then restrict my fortress to the middle 1x1 of that (so, a quarter of each embark region).  I can only build things strictly inside that area, and the only time I can even dig ramps or stairs outside of it is if caverns are empty space the entire way down through it.  Mining on the periphery is possible, if there's a vein; otherwise no exploratory mining.  It does look pretty cool, like it's actually mined out instead of just weird walls.  I suppose that if I ever run out of stone, then mining for more stone will be legit, too.

In any case it makes life more interesting...taverns and temples tend to take up most of their floor.  Important nobles get floors all to themselves, and stockpiles are no longer "dig out a massive area below each crafting area and don't think about it".  Caverns are meaningful, too--you're forced to deal with them in a significant way, instead of them just being an unimportant choice that you can breach if and when you feel like it.  Kinda like the river, the chasm, and the lava in classic DF.

I'm thinking of making it even more restrictive; reduce the buildable area even more, and forbid stairs throughout the entire fortress (to make travel take a while, as it should).  It bugs me a bit that hauling something up and down stairs is the same as taking a quick jaunt down a short hallway.

Transporting water and lava is a nightmare...which is exactly as it should be.

Does anyone else have a way they've restricted space like this, or any other challenge modes other than "build aboveground only"?  Things that need a lot of stone-block walls are disappointing because wall value stops being a thing.  I'm looking for ways to make my fortresses take some real thought in planning.

Simon Belmont approves.

So I've led a dozen prisoners, mostly kids, out of a pit and taken them safely to a nearby hamlet.  I've asked them all where they want me to take them and gotten a list of relative names and towns.  The hamlet I'm in is where one of these relatives lives...

...so how am I supposed to find them?  The kid's dialogue doesn't change when I'm in town, I can't seem to spread rumors of this kid's kidnapping, I can't ask for directions to the parent.  The hamlet's probably too big to search (and I don't want to introduce myself to everyone to learn their names).

Do I need to return the kid for the quest to be successful?  My Q screen agreement does just say "Bugi Hedgepeek agreed to join you to be brought safely away from Sternhorrors", which does feel pretty accomplished at this point.

(Related question:  I don't seem to know about some of the towns that others want me to take them to.  I can't find them in 'Sites' on my travel map, and I can't ask about them.  Any ideas?)

Awesome, thanks!

...Don't suppose there are any good sample games made with it?  The way in which I'm supposed to call some of these things is quite confusing.

Outpost and Outpost 2: Divided Destiny
Two games by Sierra that were released for freeware. I haven't played the first one yet, but it was described as a Simcity-like, but on a moon of Jupiter.

The second one is more of a C&C-like, but with a very good storyline. Apparently, the multiplayer community is still active, since the last news bit on the site was 3 days ago.

I dug up and played the first one again recently.  I don't recommend it unless you are trying to relive old memories.  It suffers from a really bad case of bad-interface-itis:  Almost no feedback about what's happening or why, and it's impossible to manage your minerals in any meaningful way, which means if you overextend even a little bit, your colony will collapse into unrecoverable failure.

Second one is amazing though.

Now that was weird.

I'm in the first Ethereal ship, a plot related one, and I put ghost armor on a guy and sneak him into the big room in the middle.  Okay, there's two muton elites and what I assume is an Ethereal.  Hide my guy in a dark corner and spend the next turn bringing up people with stunners...and then suddenly when I go to move someone, the screen scrolls into the floor and it says I've won the mission.  I didn't even hear things explode!  I did get an Ethereal corpse out of it...

(A couple missions later, I lost a Major and my favorite Colonel while trying to capture one of those bastards alive.  Bleah.  At least I got him...but in this case, it didn't do any good!)

I don't use customize at all, except that I make my psykers red.