Bay 12 Games Forum

Most workshops right now in Dwarf Fortress are made magically by a dwarf formaing a piece of wood or stone into shape, creating the workplace for a specific task and all the tools for it.

The workspace creation is fine for me, but i would like to see an addition that would make the dwarven industry more "alive".

What if all workshops required an item called a "toolkit". A toolkit could be used for making any workshop, a toolkit would have a specific amount of times it could be used depending on what it's made out of and it would be created by a carpenter, mason or metalsmith. When a toolkit in a workshop breaks the workshop would need another toolkit to be functional.

Except from the aspect of realism in this feature i think it would be a nice touch to raise the bar on having a self sufficient fortress. Right now about 50%-90% of all the things a fortress produces are raw export goods, which doesn't do wonders for the satisfaction of having a fortress which holds it's own.

Of course the durability of toolkits would have to be high and the worth low in the raws, to make it simple for beginners, and intermediate to expert players could just raise the bar by modifying the raws for a more challenging game. The game is already a hell for new players to start anyways ^^

Any feedback, is this worth anything for anyone but me?
Thanks for your time

I really didnt know if i was to post this as a bug or a question, but here goes!

Ive got 3 hoary marmots and a rattlesnake as captured animals from cage traps, ive got plants, meat, a kennel and 4 dorfs with animal training.
When i select "Tame Large Animal" at the kennel none of these captured animals show up?!?
Am i doing something wrong or is this a "feature" since the update ^^ I remember taming animals as easy before

YAY, cage escape! This stuff is some nice developement

One thing i thought about when reading this is that any creature can break out of a cage built inside a workshop if given enough time and if its strength allows it. But if you transfer the creature into a "prison" chamber it will have a really hard time breaking out. Designating a prison could be done by designating by using the door or by a zone.

Additional to this could be improving your prison by crafting some large steel caging, allowing dwarves to imterrogate prisoners from safe distance or just observe the vile beasts. There could be a "prisonmanager" (another name perhaps?) dwarf, who ensures that the prisoners are fed and interrogates them.

Also. Renaming the siege worshop to something else and have it craft parts for everything larger then one tile would also be a nice improvement. I think for example windmills and water wheels would require some parts instead of just 4 logs, and this remade siege workshop could also produce these large metal cage poles.

Raise a hand all of you who are annoyed by wrestlers leaving their shit permanently in the barracks after their kinky sparring exploits, where they rip eachothers socks off! Soldiers should do their personal chores as well, such as storing their possesions in their cabinet for example. I would like to see an improvement in gathering by the other dwarves as well.

Also dwarves, not only nobles should get nagative thoughts when they dont have proper containers in their rooms for their personal stuff. Chests and cabinets for normal dwarves, but also weapon/armor rack for military dwarves, so they dont have to sleep wearing full plate armor.

am i the only one here who wants the items of the fortress to stay in place? would love to design a dungeon where the final chamber actually contains all the artifacts of my dwarves in adventure mode, and then send it to a m8 for exploring ^^

im playing a fort in the new army arc version, and it seems all civs are at peace with eachother.

i wonder if there is any way of getting a siege by killing caravans and stuff?

Ok, came up with this idea after playing a hugely successful but FPS-wise slow fort. I chose the fattest location, with a huge caveriver and 80 total z-levels (yeah i know this is madness). Later on at 80 dorfs my FPS dropped to 25-30, and i didnt have anything to manage really.

So, my suggestion is this:

Let the player decide, in-game how many z-levels he wants to view, apart from the z-levels that display the aboveground area of his start location and maybe 3 sky levels or so. This would remove the unneccesary sky levels when digging into a mountain or the excess levels of rock when building your settlement aboveground. Also, this would mean that the player could also increase the amount of z-levels, allowing taller towers and deeper caves.

16th Malachite, 1052 Under the scorching sun!

Oddomidash's log

The weather is unbearable, but we are managing. Surviving in this lush forest does not seem much of a problem as there are more berries than i could have hoped for, and these prickle berries aren't so bad.

I got quite angry when our "leader" ordered me to herd some elephants into a cage trap recently, their largest male charged me and i barely escaped. I know times are grim but we don't need taking risks. I hope to convince the rest of the expedition that i am more fit for managing our hovel later, as Othil still seems very distraught of our history.

Oh well, i guess i can't blame him. I too miss our old home, my deceased wife and children, and friends of old. We are the last of "Speardanced", and are now forced to live in this stinking forest like bloody elves, without equipment or even a chance of building safe lodgings!

I have vowed to strike a bone bolt into the first goblin who venture here!

                 
16th Malachite, 1052 Cool breezes!

Oddomidash's log

It seems to be getting colder, i bet back at "Speardanced" the snow lies thick by now. Lucky thing is our brethren had already got our messenger eagle and send a caravan our way, with wagons and all!

We traded the little low-quality clothing we had managed to produce for the life saving bronze axe and pick they brought, thank goodness! I personally got started with digging a cavern for living quarters immediately, it's dirt floor, walls and roof but who cares as we got shelter.

Strangely as it is, everyone seems happier by the day! We have had lots of time on our hands as we watch the rope reed grow, not anymore though as we make barrels, bins and beds. This time has even brought me very close to our newly appointed Woodcutteress, which brings me much joy as her stomach is wide and her beard is thick, Adovan is indeed a real dwarf lady!

As i was making wooden bolts from some spare wood, wishing i had a goblin or two to try them on, some elven horn sounds through the forest. They appeared quickly at our trade depot bearing mostly worthless stuff 'cept from a cougar and a cat which they had tamed. I told Othil to accompany me with a crossbow, in case they tried something when i went to trade with them.

Apperently the elves were disgusted by the sight of our finely crafted bone totems and wished to leave. No wonder my father, the Broker of Speardanced was grumpy after dealing with this rabble. Othil had a moment then, and i was quite amused as our leader walked up to their leader pointing a loaded crossbow at him saying "Give us the wares we desire, or find yourself as a totem dwelling in our bins soon enough!". Later, after the elves had given us the tame animal and some other wares he walked up to me with the cougar in a leash. "I thought i had to compensate you for the incident with the elephant, a bad decision from my part. I saw this beast here enthralled you, why don't you have him as a pet".

It is hard not to respect Othil after this, and i've named my new friend "Captain Ironblood" after the legendary soldier of Nist Akath.