Bay 12 Games Forum

For some reason the keyboard was only partly operating, escape didn't work, and the arrow keys only worked left and down, not right and up.  Some keys worked, some keys didn't.

I hit ctrl-alt-delete and it brought up the menu, I saved and exited and got back in with no problems, so whatever it was didn't get saved.

I'll note that I'm running XP and it automatically switched to the entry mode it uses when you come back from screen saver.  I was running in full-screen.

First I tried to recap on an arctic glacier Webbedcloisters, but could find no water and no magma and my guys dehydrated and died just as the first elven caravan arrived.  Maybe I could've sent a reclaim wave in...but it didn't seem very promising.  There was magma on the local but I never found it, and I dug quite a few tunnels.

So I found another location, Melbillibad: Tomepraises.  A temperate volcano with a brook.  A lot of very rough terrain (it has like what seems like 40 z-levels.)  A brook that freezes.  A cave.  A pit (that's a chasm that looks like a dry magma tube, I hope there's something, but it sure looks like a chasm at the bottom. I haven't found any HFS yet, although I've read Puzzlemaker's excellent spoiler thread.)  It also had a hot magma tube and a named cave system.

Things were going along fine, and I noticed that the named cave system had an Ettin.  The Ettin took out one of my woodcutters so I started building a defense network to deal with him.  Then he went after a couple of other guys (although he only killed some dogs.)  I didn't want him to defeat me in detail so I decided to enlist all 6 of my guys (it wasn't even summer yet.)  I threw them at the Ettin with no training or armor and they managed to kill it losing 4.

Since I'd built industries and defense and had quite a stockpile of food and a bunch of trade goods I hoped I could make it til the caravan arrived and maybe get my first migrant wave.  

But alas, the last guys were a miner and woodcutter.  I thought it was touch and go, but at least I figured I could dig out more stuff.  The miner tantrumed, then went berserk.  He started chasing my woodcutter and finally killed him.  That was it, the game ended (I guess there's no recovery from Berserk?)

So I sent a reclaim wave back in.  I've done this before, but I don't really know how it works.  It recommended 70 guys go back in.  Mostly hammerers, marksdwarves and axemen.  When I spent the remaining points I had quite a bit of gear.

I sent the reclaim wave back.  Things were going swimmingly so I deactivated the military (which gave me a non-representative cross-section of the dwarf population....I had like 7 miners, 7 woodcutters, 7 stoneworkers, 7 farmers, etc.  I really don't understand the reclaim mode yet.

The Berserk minder was still lingering around and he managed to kill one of the pets and then my guys took him out.

Am I the only one who thinks another bloat goals is that the dwarves should be able to do a little performance art?  I.e., "Hammerer Krupke?" it only takes a handful of edits to transform it from the dysfunctional world of 1957 to the even more dysfunctional world of 1051...

Dear kindly Hammerer Krupke,
You gotta understand,
It's just our bringin' up-ke
That gets us out of hand.
Our mothers all are junkies,
Our fathers all are drunks.
Golly Moses, natcherly we're punks!

CHORUS
Gee, Hammerer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good!

DWARF: There is good!

ALL:
There is good, there is good,
There is untapped good!
Like inside, the worst of us is good!

BOOKKEEPER: (Spoken) That's a touchin' good story.

DWARF: (Spoken) Lemme tell it to the world!

BOOKKEEPER: Just tell it to the judge.

ACTION
Dear kindly Sheriff, your Honor,
My parents treat me rough.
With all their gutter cruor,
They won't give me enough.
They didn't wanna have me,
But somehow I was had.
Leapin' lizards! That's why I'm so bad!

Judge: Right!

Hammerer Krupke, you're really a square;
This boy don't need a judge, he needs an analyst's care!
It's just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
He's psychologic'ly disturbed!

ACTION
I'm disturbed!

DWARVES
We're disturbed, we're disturbed,
We're the most disturbed,
Like we're psychologic'ly disturbed.

JUDGE: In the opinion on this court, this child is depraved on account he ain't had a normal home.

DWARF: (Spoken) Hey, I'm depraved on account I'm deprived.

JUDGE: So take him to a headshrinker.

DWARF: (Sings)
My father is a bastard,
My ma's an S.O.B.
My grandpa's always plastered,
My grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!

PHILOSOPHER: (As Psychiatrist) Yes!
Hammerer Krupke, you're really a slob.
This boy don't need a doctor, just a good honest job.
Society's played him a terrible trick,
And sociologic'ly he's sick!

DWARF:  I am sick!

ALL
We are sick, we are sick,
We are sick, sick, sick,
Like we're sociologically sick!

PHILOSOPHER: In my opinion, this child don't need to have his head shrunk at all. Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease!

DWARF: Hey, I got a social disease!

PHILOSOPHER: So take him to a social worker!

DWARF:
Dear kindly social worker,
They say go earn a buck.
Like be a maggot milker,
Which means like be a schumck.
It's not I'm anti-social,
I'm only anti-work.
Gloryosky! That's why I'm a jerk!

BROKER (as Social Worker):
Eek!
Hammerer Krupke, you've done it again.
This boy don't need a job, he needs a year in the pen.
It ain't just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside him, he's no good!

DWARF
I'm no good!

ALL
We're no good, we're no good!
We're no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!

SHERIFF (as Judge)
The trouble is he's crazy.

PHILOSOPHER (As Psychiatrist)
The trouble is he drinks.

BROKER (As Social Worker)
The trouble is he's lazy.

HAMMERER
The trouble is he stinks.

BOOKKEEPER:
The trouble is he's growing.

LIASON:
The trouble is he's grown.

DWARVES:
Krupke, we got troubles of our own!

Gee, Hammerer Krupke,
We're down on our knees,
'Cause no one wants a fellow with a social disease.
Gee, Hammerer Krupke,
What are we to do?
Gee, Hammerer Krupke,
Krup you!

Edit: typos (probably more)

[ February 17, 2008: Message edited by: AW ]

Friday, February 08, 2008
Heigh-ho
I'll bet that when Donald Rumsfeld warned America would face threats from "unknown unknowns" he never imagined this new menace unearthed by the Swedish police.

The Register reports:

Swedish police are quizzing "people of limited stature" with criminal records following a spate of robberies from the cargo holds of coaches - possibly carried out by dwarves smuggled onboard in sports bags. According to the Sun, the gang responsible pack their vertically-challenged accomplices into bags and stick them in with other passengers' luggage. The undercover operatives then rifle the hold for valuables before resealing themselves in their hiding place, to be extracted later by another gang member at the coach's final destination. ...

Michael Chertoff at the DHS recently described its efforts to protect the country from dangerous things. "This past year, as promised, we got to the point of scanning a hundred percent of containers coming into our southern border, and almost a hundred percent of containers coming into our nation’s seaport. And we’re at 91 percent scanning for radiation at our northern border. We want to continue building out to virtually a hundred percent scanning by the end of this year. And we also want to continue to expand our Container Security Initiative, as we have done to 58 ports, as I speak now."

But who would have thought of dwarves?