Bay 12 Games Forum

So apparently cats make the artifact?

That is both a lie and a secret.

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The Warm Creative After-Spray of Love by the Assaulted Book of the Holy Channels

seriously??
is that from the RNG or did you type that? if it's random that is absolute brilliance

A little from column A and a little from column B. I figure with an island embark, they must have traveled over the sea, making them "seadwarves" when they founded the place. If they'd been men, they'd have been... er, ANYWAY



Is it boring? It is a little boring, but with a few unusual challenges.

With no anvil, some immigrant metalworkers want to get into a mood and then get all huffy when I don't provide. I encourage them to study glass when they arrive, but sometimes it isn't enough.

With no military and almost no metal weapons/armor, it's hard to get dwarves to practice fighting and kill what I want them to. And then I can't keep them from killing what I don't want them to. I have 3 useless FB trapped on little pedestals and my best archers won't hunt them, even when I give them a convenient burrow. Then a novice two-shots my captive webber.

Eventually, I want to build my walls up to the peak of the volcano and cast obsidian all around to make the outside ground level, put a depot in the center and (informally) agree to trade one item per year to rockhome in exchange for whatever miserable goods they have to exchange. The relative peace and quiet helps with this. I also want to reproduce and toy with some of the clockwork posts (automated swimming trainer/marksdwarf trainer), without worrying that the next siege might get lucky or that FBs are wearing down my squad of axedwarves.

Can I build acceptable bedrooms with constructed floors and statues instead of walls? (Usually I engrave everything.) If so, how difficult/horrible is this?

And of course I'm also examining some of the assumptions that the simulation makes. Friendly relations with the home civ? No, we do NOT. So why is our animal training experience transferred home? On embark, the home civ had no access to plump helmets. Did they gain this knowledge from us, even with no formal trading? Maybe if I trade with them someday I'll find out.

With no depot and usually no way inside the walls, traders stay on the edge. Usually they leave, sometimes they're attacked by wildlife, but sometimes they go berzerk on their own. Sometimes traders show up with immigrants and have no trade goods and won't come inside. They just hang around on the edge of the map and eventually die.

To combat FPS/RAM death, I'm considering walling off most of my fortress at any one time. Right now, I think that would be tedious so fortunately it seems like a ways off. I like to build larger than DF plus the hardware I run it on wants me to.

With all the constructing and deconstructing, you're better off using the fast two-slit method (fast because it uses 2 z-level deep staircases instead of channels).  No exaggeration, was able to pierce a z-7 layer aquifer in probably no more than 45 mins.  Whether it's the fastest, I'm not sure. But it sure did feel like the most hassle-free.

HASSLE-FREE? What are you, a human?

We're going to an island, so don't bother coming around to trade or immigrate! Well, actually we're not taking over the entire island plus surrounding waters so somehow it is easier for you to find us.

We are dwarves who are not completely satisfied with the dwarven way of life at Mountainhome, and we're setting out to do something better. Changes from normal embark:

* No digging tools

We reject the ideology that a dwarf's primary purpose is digging, and his/her place underground. Rock is a useful substance, but by limiting the supply we plan to elevate other means to the same ends.

* No anvils, metal bearing ores, metal items or ingots

We also reject the means of creating digging tools. If an immigrant brings his own, that's fine.

* No seeds

Obviously, with no digging we won't be able to plant underground farms. The embark site has plants, and caverns (if we ever get to them) can provide seeds.



Post embark, we want no contact with Mountainhome. This is difficult as dwarves are stubborn and will keep trying to trade every year. Therefore, post embark:

* No trading.

We reject the idea that a fortress cannot or should not be self-sufficient. We also reject the idea that skills such as lying, storytelling and appraisal should drive the economy in even the smallest way. If we ever trade, it will be out of kindness not necessity. Until the council decides otherwise, no Depot and no trade agreements of any kind.


I tried some of these ideas earlier with a full-island embark (no caravans, no immigrants). Eventually, I ran out of RAM because the site was too big. This time with a 2x2 I should get farther. It took the better part of two years to fully wall the map. We were on the slope of a volcano



so the walling and flooring to create a significant flat area took some material. Local wood ran out long before the walls were finished (wooden walls have since been replaced with glass or olivine blocks, for an all-green look). Power up the glass furnaces? If only it were that easy. We gathered plants but came up empty on rope reed. No cloth. Turkeys would eventually provide us with leather to make bags, if only we had bags for sand to run the glass furnaces. When some miners showed up with their own picks, I had them remove some ramps outside the walls and dig for the first caverns.



Barren. The second caverns were also dry as toast, with lots of silk lying around but not safe and not the hundreds I'd need for a fast-growing fortress.



The third cavern level was more generous. Embark was at level 117, and the third caverns were at -25. All caverns were breached, then immediately walled off. We have almost no metal armor or weapons. Zero military.

After a few years, caravans started dying outside the walls leaving gifts. After we breached the third cavern level in about year 5 they left a supply of leather and cloth.



So we built a door, but mostly we keep it closed. I considered not allowing immigrants, but I'd just have to make coffins for the poor saps when they died of dehydration. My dwarves are bleeding hearts, and when an immigrant died of dehydration outside the walls they made an artifact statue to memorialize him.

Currently in year 7, more traders are dying outside the walls. This time they're leaving meat and wood. The meat was lying on the ground, guarded by a trader and his camel who both went crazy. Now it's gone.

Uninterested.

You got something against ice beds, what are you an elf?

Quote from: cats on September 05, 2012, 11:25:09 pm

Quote from: Loud Whispers on September 03, 2012, 01:34:58 pm

Lural: Others have tried, only to be crushed beneath my heel like vermin.

Like a vermin?

...

Crushed for the very first time?

Why did you post, I though this topic was dead, why?

Aw, don't feel sad and blue. 

If the ocean near your island freezes over, you can still get migrants/caravans/intruders.