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Messages - sinister agent

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1
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: How have you been dying recently?
« on: July 12, 2012, 01:43:07 pm »
Quote from: wsoxfan on July 11, 2012, 09:00:31 pm
Quote from: sinister agent on July 11, 2012, 08:48:59 pm
Finally decided to give adventurer mode another go, since the combat system is so unique.  Got sick of trudging aimlessly around with no armour or hope of winning any fight, let alone taking on a bandit group or vampire lair.  So, when I started surrounded by stray cats and guinea hens (?), I figured they'd be some nice training.

53 dead animals and pissed off townsfolk later (some of whom I choked out and systematically mutilated to train up my skills.  It wasn't psychotic!  It was very rational!  And I felt terrible the whole time, so that makes it okay), I've just managed to disable a suturer and am choking him when another stray cat scratches me.  At this point I'm physically fine, and have nothing but a few bruises for my trouble.  Yes still I pass out.  And I never wake up.

Mauled to death by a cat.  Yeah.
I'm going to go off of a hunch and say that you had an astronomically low willpower attribute(willpower is what determines if you pass out or rough through it after a wound. Also, if it was a pack of cats like you said, all they need is to scratch your limbs a lot and you'll eventually bleed to death.

Nope.  Above average willpower, toughness, endurance, and strength.  I forget the others.  It was only one that knocked me out - apparently it somehow got a shot at my tongue, and suddenly I was immobile for god knows how long.  Long enough for more to arrive and claw me to death, apparently.

2
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: How have you been dying recently?
« on: July 11, 2012, 08:48:59 pm »
Finally decided to give adventurer mode another go, since the combat system is so unique.  Got sick of trudging aimlessly around with no armour or hope of winning any fight, let alone taking on a bandit group or vampire lair.  So, when I started surrounded by stray cats and guinea hens (?), I figured they'd be some nice training.

53 dead animals and pissed off townsfolk later (some of whom I choked out and systematically mutilated to train up my skills.  It wasn't psychotic!  It was very rational!  And I felt terrible the whole time, so that makes it okay), I've just managed to disable a suturer and am choking him when another stray cat scratches me.  At this point I'm physically fine, and have nothing but a few bruises for my trouble.  Yes still I pass out.  And I never wake up.

Mauled to death by a cat.  Yeah.

3
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: OCD abandoning
« on: September 14, 2011, 10:27:03 pm »
Quote from: MW on September 11, 2011, 03:40:00 pm
If you're the bookish type, there is a nice documentary on "emergent" architecture called How Buildings Learn. With a book on it by Stewart Brand to boot. You can watch the full BBC miniseries on Google Video. It's all about how actual architecture slowly morphs and mods itself over time to support larger populations and new circumstances. I found a few analogs with it to how some of my older forts have slowly changed over time. Perhaps that might !!inspire!! you to think about fort design in new !!ways!! or something like it?

I used to work in a building that was actually three old buildings knocked together.  One was a couple of centuries old, one 60 years, and another about 25 years.  I worked partly in an office on the ground floor, partly in a room two floors up, and partly underground. 

If we had a visitor we didn't like, we'd just send them back out without a guide, and they'd usually never be heard from again.  It was great. 

Ahem.  But yeah, I'm quite interested in that sort of thing.  You can see a similar thing on a bigger level with towns and cities - the history of even some quite modest towns can be full of massive, gradual changes that nobody planned.  I love games that can recreate that, like DF or, say, tropico.  What starts off as a couple of spartan homes for some miners gradually develops into the thriving, metropolitan high street of the whole island.

4
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: blunt weapon usefullness
« on: September 14, 2011, 10:10:54 pm »
Quote from: khearn on September 12, 2011, 03:34:13 pm
I've gotten away from using all hammerers in a squad. They have a tendency to run up to a goblin and quickly break its arms and legs, making it a non-threat, which is great. But then they just stand there and pound on the goblin again and again, bruising organs and breaking every bone in it's body, turning it into a quivering mass of flesh, but carefully avoiding its head. Unless the poor gobbo gives in to the pain, they can keep pounding on the same guy for ages.

Blunt weapons are good for disabling goblins quickly, but left to themselves, they seem to take forever to actually kill them. They should be mixed in with axes, spears and/or swords that can speed up the kill so the group can move on to the next target.

That's what I was going to say, except you put it a lot better.  An all blunt approach is valid, but it will be far more effective if you mix a couple of axe/sword fighters in there to do the finishing.  Blunt cripples, blade kills. 

5
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: 'dodge-me' traps
« on: September 14, 2011, 09:59:17 pm »
Quote from: Girlinhat on September 13, 2011, 03:08:38 pm
Add upright spikes to the bottom of the pit.  Even training spears will impale deep from that height.

I can confirm this.  I built a setup like this almost by accident in an early fort - it served as a second-ditch defence against surface scum and as an automated troglodyte maimer.  It was only open on one side (the other was a wall) but that was more than enough.  Every now and then a trog would come up and either be killed by the traps or fall onto a spike, then either lie there vomiting and passing out until he bled to death, or crawl back up and be slowly punched to death by my trainees.

I didn't have a problem with dwarf casualties, as the path wasn't used much except by miners, because I had a busier tunnel running parallel to it, which was blocked off in the event of an invasion.  If you're using combined traps and militia defences, you might want to try something similar and just let the soldiers hang back.

6
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Weapon Guide?
« on: July 05, 2011, 10:07:04 am »
Quote from: kotekzot on July 04, 2011, 10:35:08 pm
I find reducing an enemy's head to paste with a silver warhammer works a treat for killing.

Yep, but with a blade you can lop off any limb and wander off, whistling.  That can save a lot of time instead of waiting for a good head shot, especially in a crowd.

7
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Weapon Guide?
« on: July 04, 2011, 07:35:17 pm »
Yeah, as a very simple rule, I'd say blunt for disabling, blade for killing.  I'd suggest it's worth even a mace lover carrying a small sword or spear for getting the killing blow in for a particularly stubborn enemy.

8
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Funniest Names
« on: July 04, 2011, 06:50:13 pm »
Quote from: Cannabust on July 02, 2011, 09:02:09 pm
Mill Murdercake

"Every day is my birthday, and the presents are your ORGANS!"

That's terrific!

9
DF Adventure Mode Discussion / Re: Funniest Names
« on: June 29, 2011, 09:24:30 pm »
The first shop I visited was called "The Pants of Searing".

I went next door instead.

10
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: how to entice someone into playing dwarf fortress
« on: September 03, 2010, 08:55:15 pm »
Get them to play Liberal Crime Squad first.

It's a much more accessible and intuitive game (and it's not as massively buggy, for obvious reasons).  But its control scheme and ascii-ness are a great way to bridge the gap, especially as it's just as descriptively violent, with all sorts of details in how people can get injured or traumatised, and what effects they can have.

11
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Favorite Designs/Tricks?
« on: August 27, 2010, 02:12:30 pm »
*dig death channels alongside important tunnels - deep and lined with spikes (wood will do if the drop is far enough).  Line the path with cheap weapon traps to encourage any invaders/creatures/maniacs to dodge their way to a gory death.

*A general-purpose stockroom connected as directly as possible to your depot.  Divide it into specialised lines, and keep a few spaces empty in case you need to trade something specific.

*A shooting gallery entrance.  Goblins enter the tunnel, triggering a pressure plate that locks the doors.  One level above, crossbowmen open fire.


12
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: "The Blender"
« on: August 24, 2010, 03:41:36 pm »
I am quite proud of 'Shinshatter Shaft'.  It's nothing special, but basically a small crater I embarked in (to much initial confusion) just outside my main entrance.  I quickly converted it into an absurdly deep mine shaft, and covered it with a false floor (initially I used collapsing cielings to save me having to fiddle about channeling the floors away after I'd mined the layers below), and sealed it.  It's simple, fast, and brutally effective.

What I am most pleased with is that at the other entrance, there's a flooding trap.  I'd never used one before, and wasn't sure what to do with the water once everyone was dead, but I soon realised that with a small modification, I could connect the two so that any mangled, bleeding survivors in shinshatter shaft would find themselves showered in the bloody, fetid water that killed their friends a few weeks ago.

13
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: Labor Management Fun!
« on: August 20, 2010, 02:36:26 pm »
Another voice of support for Dwarf Therapist.  It's simple and highly effective, and vastly more efficient and less tedious than going back and forth between dwarf screens all day.

Also, if you want people to stop carrying things around, switch off hauling options in their labour page (or via Dwarf Therapist).  You might find that some of your useless dwarves will end up being permanent, full-time haulers, while more skilled or important dwarves never haul.

If a worker needs a material to build or make something, though (eg: stones for stonemason, logs for wood burner, etc.), they'll fetch it themselves.  What they won't do is store whatever they make - they'll leave it lying around in the workshop, which can slow their next project down.  Haulers will come and take the produce away if there's a suitable stockpile.

14
DF Dwarf Mode Discussion / Re: saddest moments?
« on: August 19, 2010, 04:28:44 pm »
Of the seven original founding dwarves, three survive a series of invasions and disasters.  One loses his wife and pets,a nd finally cracks.  He goes on a rampage, and kills one of his two surviving friends.

His other surviving friend is the one who comes up behind and brains him with a pick.

Poor guy lives through years of death and suffering, and finally has to kill his only friend in the world.

15
DF Gameplay Questions / Re: dwarves complain of thirst while standing on a mountain of booze
« on: August 18, 2010, 01:01:41 pm »
I had this - a miner sat in a cavern for weeks, dying of thirst, despite everyone else pathing up and down just fine.  Eventually, I switched off the notices and consigned her to her fate, and then happened to find her months later, still dying of thirst, only now she was standing directly on an enormous stockpile of about 400 booze (with <50 dwarves).

I left her to it, and after another few months, she was back to normal.

No idea what caused it, or how it was fixed, but it pretty much took care of itself.  I don't know if that helps, but it seems that it's your only hope.

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