Bay 12 Games Forum

Ok, I had a fun lesson with aquifers and water pressure today!

My fortress was going along well, and I had a population of 37, pretty nice considering it was my second year. I had dug through the aquifer using a volcano and digging through the dry obsidian. However, I wanted a well for my people to use. My meeting hall was below the aquifer, and I wanted to try digging up into the aquifer to get a reservoir underneath the meeting hall for my wells.

I remembered to place floodgates. that was fine and dandy. However, I realized (after I had finished digging into the aquifer, of course) that I had placed the floodgates incorrectly! The floodgates were put to block off the access shafts made to dig the reservoir, but I didn't remember to actually put one right at the entrance to the aquifer! In layman's terms, I watched as the water filled up the aquifer and then started spilling into my main hall. I tried to get the holes where the wells were to be put floored up, but they weren't finished before the water came rushing up.

Now, as this is the main hall, there were 12 dwarves eating or on break. When the water rushed out, they... continued eating and being on break. As they realized that there was water rushing in to drown them, I designated them to get through doors that I could lock to prevent further water flow. Four or five of my dwarves ended up being herded into random rooms so that they could sit there while the water flooded by. I had two mining dwarves also, one of which was stuck in a hallway with no way of getting through the water back to safety. I ended up having to get them to dig stairways upwards above the pressure of the water to escape, and the result is now having two dwarves digging their way to safety, with a few other civilians trailing behind, having also been sent to the higher locations to escape drowning death.

I must say I was surprised by the results, though. I knew I would lose nearly the entire floor when the disaster started, but I managed to keep the scale of it relatively small. My first thought was: "Jesus christ, this is a save-scum". My second was "Heck, losing is fun. I'll give it a shot." By quickly locking some doors, I've managed to save the lives of nearly all the 10 or 11 dwarves that were in danger. One hunter got drowned because he refused to leave his break despite the water rushing towards him, and a blacksmith that had fallen asleep by my booze stockpile was probably too drunk to save himself. The only problem now is getting my surviving dwarves out of the locked rooms they're currently loitering around in. This is easily the most hilarious disaster that has ever happened to me in DF.

Also, I never really figured out how to save pictures in DF. I'd love to post some if you could tell me how.

I've been playing for a while now, and while I think I have most of the gameplay under control, I still wonder what the "optimal" set-up might be. What are the items you bring in a "normal" embark?

I usually bring a small amount of cloth, leather, wood, and stone in case of ingredient emergencies such as moods. I bring one steel weapon for the dwarf I have with fighting skills (I've been starting in terrifying regions recently). I bring one steel axe for my wood chopper, 100 units of food, and 100 units of booze. I generally don't bring an anvil except for areas with magma.

What about you?

How do you set the game to show you your fps during play? I've looked around a bit, but I couldn't see the answer off-hand.

I'm still somewhat new to this game, and I've pulled off a few regular old normal fortresses. I usually abandon them just due to running out of space for improvement, with all my ideas and projects completed. So, I've decided to try working with magma now, and I've found what seems to be the perfect starting site... (sorry, I don't know how to export location images, I'll just list the cool stuff)

Sand: Check.
Magma: Check.
Obsidian: Check.
Trees: Check. (heavily forested  )

Problems:

Saltwater
Aquifer

I haven't tried a game with an aquifer yet, and I'm especially worried with the salt water present. Will the aquifer be salty as well? Also, it's not actually just magma, it's an entire volcano in my starting location. Does the igneous rock of the volcano stay dry despite the aquifer?

PS: I haven't tried an aquifer yet, but I do know about the article on passing it in the wiki. I just need to know how magma/salt water reacts with it.

Alright, I've got an elaborate trap design planned, but I need some questions cleared before I even start on it. Here goes:

1. Does a 1 z-level fall hurt you/ how much?

2. Do spikes do damage when things fall on them?

3. if not, do they do damage when you try to walk over them?

4. do pressure plates activate instantly?

5. how do I stop friendlies from setting off a pressure plate?

As you may have guessed, I've used a hallway of floorgrates hooked up to a lever to drop invaders on to a room filled with spikes and a locked door. I haven't actually done any projects involving spikes before, though, and I'm considering switching the lever to a pressure plate. I have a row in the hallway without floor grates, and I'm hoping to trap goblins/adventurers for target practice with my marksdwarves. Any help answering my questions or improving my design would be appreciated  

Alright, when you try to build an upright spike trap, it asks what you want to use. You can use up to 10 items. Will adding more items make it do more damage/break less often?

In a single sentence, I never really got the hang of it. I'm good at making forts last, good at making massive wealth, and have some awesome trap ideas I use now and then, but I never really learned how to make my forts look good. I use "tack it on when I need it" structuring, which results in hideous masses of hallways, bedrooms, workshops and dining halls. Looking at some of them causes my brain to try escaping out of my ear.

Point is, does anybody have any reliable/useful method of fortress planning? Productivity really goes down after a few years in my forts, just because lack of stockpile/workshop planning causes everything to be 1000 steps away from everything else.