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Topics - DwarfUli

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1
DF Gameplay Questions / Let down by wardogs and overrun by pond turtles
« on: January 17, 2022, 04:08:22 pm »
One of my dorfs made a legendary musical instrument, my first. He even used glass in its manufacturing, it was so glorious. A human trader offered me 60k db for it....what a treasure. Of course I would never dream to sell such an item.

Then this happened...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I hate keas for their intelligence.

The way between the tavern drawbridge entrance and the instrument had 3 war dogs chained up, the last one literally standing in the square in front of the instrument. I received no (timely) warning and apparently war dogs don't attack birds. I have two black bears, will they attack thieves? What does a war dog do? My dorfs can kill keas quite easily (see corpse pile), but the dogs seems useless, even for warning? I guess next time I will station a dorf next to my treasured artifacts? The world I created is covered in keas for some reason.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now the tavern is becoming overrun with pond turtles. If I had filled my tavern moat by pump or through a grate, would I have avoided turtles getting all over my water wheel and inside my tavern? or are they just part of the biome once the water connects to river. They rot quite easily and are becoming a nuisance.

Thanks!

EDIT: I solved the pond turtle problem by building a small fishery/restaurant next to the tavern and now I serve local pond turtle stew. Stew is served in the turtle shell...fancy..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)




2
DF Gameplay Questions / Can Kado Spinwalked save the world?
« on: January 10, 2022, 02:46:53 pm »
This was really fun and I never had seen this before. I created a small world and it turns out there are only 3 small dorf hamlets left and the rest of the world is being taken over by this female dorf necromancer. The elves act very passively and have stayed out of trouble by hiding deep in the most northern forests but the humans and dorfs are being decimated by this necro. I built two quick forts near her tower and did 4 raids on the tower...this led to me losing most of my dorfs and her getting more undead soldiers. I made two adventurer dorf Heroes to investigate the tower and wasn't even able to get past the first room of undead humans. One of my heroes was whipped to death with a silver chain.

I figured; "Know thy enemy", so I entered Legends Mode and I noticed something I had never seen before; the female dorf necromancer had written a scroll which had the name of another historical figure in the title (that wasn't a forgotten beast or such, just an average human/dorf/elf).

"Can Kado Spinwalked save the world?" (a legendary kakapo scroll). Such a poignant question. Was there hope left for this world? Is there for ours? Who was Kado and would she come through for us all in the end?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)


Now after the necromancer created the scroll, it was not labeled as stored in her tower for 8 years! Does that mean the scroll was in her inventory for 8 years? after which it was stockpiled in the tower? How important was this scroll that it was carried around by its creator for 8 years....You can imagine the RP value I am getting out of this one....You have this necromancer slowly destroying the world around her, and succeeding at it, but she then reanimated the human female poet Kado Spinwalked who died at age 77 of natural age, and several months later the necro writes the scroll with her name in the title. And why did Kogan Guilddrums think Kado might save the world from her necromantic destruction? Especially a mere poet? I assume that Kogan decided Kado indeed could not save the world, and placed the scroll in storage. I, of course, want this scroll more than anything. It has become my sole obsession. I believe it holds great knowledge, and even greater secrets.

All this happened 50ish years ago. Kogan Guilddrums has almost reached her goal of ruling the world. Entering a tower full of undead humans has proven very difficult. Interestingly enough my age contained 3 vampires. One was killed in a vampire purge, but two remain. One of them is the half brother of Kado Spinwalked. His curse might be my only salvation to obtaining the kakapo scroll.

My goal is to create a final hero class adventurer dorf, try and find this vampire so I myself may become an undead dwarven child of the night, and hopefully be able to steal the dozen or so writings of Kogan Guilddrums, from his wretched tower.

Kado Spinwalked has two surviving children. Her son is a respectable bowman, and I hope to find him also and maybe he will join me in my quest. I also need to collect all the poetry written by Kado herself (There are 2 works by her in Legends, and 10 by necro Kogan Guilddrums).


Is it true that in adventure mode you can read necro slabs and become a necromancer? Can this still be done if you are a vampire? If I don't find this vampire (so far, it has not been easy to find him, some local drunks at the tavern know of him but that's about it) can I tip over a statue in a fortress temple to receive the curse? I think I read somewhere that vampires are not attacked by undead, and I should be able to sneak into the tower. 




3
DF Gameplay Questions / Sea-land reclamation project question (infinite edge water)
« on: December 29, 2021, 05:26:31 pm »
I started a new fortress called Towerpuzzle. When I embarked I couldn't believe (but should have expected) how cool wave action was simulated in DF. My embark site is right on the beach of a large salt water, inland ocean. I am planning to create multiple beach forts around this ocean on neighboring embark sites.
I noticed there was driftwood scattered on the beach, luckily there is a bit of higher ground with some trees and plant life. My goal is to reclaim as much land from the ocean using a set of dry docks and pumps, and I am building some wooden dikes to hold back the waves. I started with building a pier into the ocean. To my amazement my fisherdorf started fishing on the pier, in the mist of the crashing waves (see image).

So far I have been able to at least create a "break wall" to stop the waves from approaching land. This has pushed back the water quite a bit and there was tons of driftwood to be found on the former sea floor. The largest dock is now roughly 30x50 and stands 2 z's tall. A group of 5 large tortoises have started living in the dock. I wonder if they make good soup for my dorfs.

My questions are mainly:

1) Is ocean water touching the edge of the screen "infinite" or can I pump away water from the ocean? (I don't want to use "tricks/bugs" of draining the ocean from side of screen and such).

2) If you reclaim land, will trees/plants start growing and will wildlife return if the fort is retired for a few years?


The ocean floor seems to have two levels (see image). I can build on the first ridge line (white arrow) and have started building my walls there, but could I pump off the top z-layer of water standing above the ocean level up to the underwater ridge drop that is shown by orange arrows.

I am searching for an underground cavern and hope to be able to pump it full of sea water to reclaim the land and be able to build a bee farm on the ocean floor. I am not sure how much I can really reclaim if any, beyond the main breaker wall off the beach, which is pretty much how far the dorfs can wade into the ocean, and build a wall.



4
DF Gameplay Questions / Using pressure plates on tavern dance floors
« on: December 25, 2021, 04:46:20 pm »
If I place a pressure plate on the tavern dance floor that is 12x12, will this change the patterns of the dancers? I built a drowning tank for my trade depot, but I don't want my dorfs to be to murderous so I figured I would have visitors dancing in the tavern trigger the kill system, but the visitors don't seem to dance on my triggers in the floor? Did my dorfs pick a square that is just never used in dance?




5
DF Gameplay Questions / Suicide by chicken
« on: December 17, 2021, 09:37:30 pm »

I had a horrible event take place tonight (beautiful). I was working on my first attempt at an elaborate aquaduct system, 13 z-level up in the sky, when one of my chickens jumped into one of the water basins. I observed and laughed...then another chicken jumped in....were they trying to drink water? Oh well, the loss of two chickens to finish this part of my aquaduct was no big deal, it was then that my expedition leader/broker/book-keeper(/animal care-taker.....something i forgot) decided to jump after them and tried saving them (?? I still don't know why he went after them really, only thing I can think of was that he was only one with animal care-taking on). I panicked and created a burrow, trying to get him to give up his quest of diving into a 2 z-level deep wooden tunnel after two stupid chickens as the tiles filled from 1/7 to 7/7 in 10-20 seconds. Every dorf in my fort went to the burrow, but despite him being assigned to the burrow, he kept going after the chickens? He died, and now my broker is a peasant dorf who can barely speak or write.

What's the best way to quickly get to move a dorf away from danger? Even if they don't really want to?

6
DF Gameplay Questions / Couple "Beginner's Mind" questions
« on: December 04, 2021, 02:11:22 pm »
I have a couple of noob questions I can't find an answer to online or from the DF wiki  ???

1) If I bring two dogs because I want to breed them to create a number of war dogs, does war dog training affect their fertility? Can you breed war dogs as easily as untrained dogs?

2) I struggle a bit with the whole; "plump helmets spawn -> planted in field -> harvest -> brewed, cooked or eaten raw -> seed production" cycle, I really don't have a good feel of what really is going on. I read a wiki reference about crop yields and that a 3x3 plot of plump helmets can produce enough yearly drink for 80-90 dorfs, but nothing really beyond that. I just check my stocks every so often, to see if I have enough drink and food but I don't have a good handle on how to scale this. I recently went from 30 some dorfs to 80+ in one migrant wave, and it made me scratch my head a bit on how to know how much more to plant or even how much more to harvest. Any light someone can shine on this would be helpful.

3) I would really like to grow Kenaf. It is ultra versatile; thread and paper production, seeds can be eaten and it is fast growing, but obviously there are no seeds available at the preparation screen. Do I have to hope I can buy them through trade at my fort? Do I need to harvest the seeds from native plants?

4) If I pick an island location, do tradespeople still visit?

5) Is there a benefit to picking a starting 4x4 square that has a major road traveling through it? Does this mean more tradespeople will visit my fort?

My apologies for the 20 questions routine!
Thank you

7
DF Gameplay Questions / A goblin was killed in the tavern, with the candle stick...DF becomes Cluedo
« on: November 15, 2021, 11:57:18 am »

I was wondering if it is wise to allow anyone into my tavern? Currently I have it set to allow anyone access, because I find the visitors so interesting and fun to watch. The dancing, drinking and all the merry-making. I finally figured out how to set up a metal industry, and I was having fun with that but I always watch announcements at the bottom of the screen. I know a porcupine spearwoman visited and I received an announcement at some point that a goblin was visiting. I was so excited about making gold bars and coins, I lost track of what was going on in the tavern.
I took a casual look at my tavern and there, in the middle of my dance floor was the dead corpse of a goblin! I have NO idea how it got there, who killed him and for what reason. The porcupine woman is still wandering between my temple and the tavern, but hasn't attacked anyone as far as I can tell.

Is there a way for me to see what happened? If I use "k" and look at the corpse it describes everything it is wearing and for some reason the dead goblin was missing a mitten, which I later found in a hallway, very eerie the whole thing. Is there a way for me to see what happened to the goblin? how it was killed and what injuries were sustained? Can I track down the killer somehow? I have no military set up yet, so I am confused what happened in the tavern.

The hilarious thing is, while I am trying to figure out what happened, I got an announcement that a "Goblin representative" is visiting. I followed him down to the tavern and he just found a dead goblin on the floor..should I imprison the goblin? Kill the representative also? I don't want word to spread in the world that we randomly kill artisan goblins in my fort.

I am making a coffin or two to be safe. I will give them a decent burial place I reckon, goblins or not..

8
DF Gameplay Questions / Hunting Keas from towers
« on: November 13, 2021, 07:53:00 pm »

I have a quick question. I created a 10x10 stockpile of small cut gems and placed them on the surface, in the grass. This is attracting waves of 6-9 keas at a time. I want to build two small towers near the field and station 2 dwarves on each tower with crossbows. Do I use burrows to assign each dwarf to each tower? And will they automatically attack keas as they swoop in to steal the small gems like they have been? I noticed that when keas steal items, they are able to fly up 10-20 z-levels in seconds, will average bow dwarves be able to hit them?

Thank you. I live on a sailboat, and have to pay for data as though it was the 90s...sorry if I ask things that are obvious to find out on youtube :/

Uli

9
Creative Projects / Programming projects using ancient languages
« on: September 25, 2021, 05:27:35 pm »
I was watching a cool interview today on the utube with Master Tarn and Master Zach. They were discussing the game Temple of Loth which induced heavy flashbacks in myself. It took me back to
1988 when I was learning GWBasic on my x8086. So I started wondering if people still use these ancient languages to make cool games? I decided to go ahead and download Free Pascal, which I assume is very similar to Turbo Pascal and will mess around a bit with that and relive the 90s. To my amazement, COBOL is still used quite a bit.

I'd be interested to see if anyone else does fun projects using these somewhat dinosaurs? I might relearn some skills.

10
DF Gameplay Questions / Water rushing down ramps
« on: September 23, 2021, 08:46:19 am »

My last fort was coming along quite well, and my dwarves hauled *so* many stones...suddenly 4 undead goblins appear, the screen paused and I was advised to gather together my dwarves and run. It was then that I realized I didn't know how to force all my dwarves to go to a specific spot, 6 were killed almost instantly, the last one jumped in the river and drowned. Time to learn about early game defense strategies.

I watched some videos on drowning tanks and such. I was wondering, if I cave out a very large tank and fill it with water, if that water is released  rapidly (from multiple points in the bottom of the tank) to rush down a ramp that narrows towards the bottom into a channel; 1) will that flush enemies down the channel 2) if there is enough water, will the force of the rushing water do actual physical damage to enemies?

Thanks

Uli


11
DF Gameplay Questions / Moving instruments to different locations
« on: September 19, 2021, 04:28:22 pm »

I traded a bunch of stone goblets for an Elven made instrument. Based on the description, its a small, stringed instrument (complete instrument, not parts).
It was hauled from the trade depot, to my main stockpile. I can actually see it sitting there. I tried placing it using (b)build but "instrument" does not show the existence of any instruments.
I then changed the custom settings (t) of the main stockpile, to specifically not allow instruments. But even if I create a 1x1 stockpile in my tavern that only accepts instruments, the instrument is not moved to the tavern. I tried placing a large chest in my tavern, hoping I needed some sort of case for it, but how do I load the instrument in the chest? I have 45 citizens. Most have hauling turned on.
I will say, when I saved last, of 45 dwarves, 27 where either getting drunk or praying..dwarves are strange creatures.

The thing was rather expensive, 180db or so. I'd like to get some good use out of it.
Thanks for any advice

12
DF Gameplay Questions / Storing goblets in chests
« on: September 18, 2021, 08:32:34 pm »

I created a stockpile in my tavern that allows only "goblets", yet my dwarves seem to always place their goblets on top of the wine barrels in the tavern. Is there a way to force things to be stored in chests?

13
DF Gameplay Questions / Question on tile sets and stairs
« on: September 18, 2021, 06:32:09 pm »

Hello,

I am new to DF and have been using the most recent Vettlingr tile set. I really love the way it looks but somebody warned me that tile sets can cause problems and don't always display correctly?
Is this correct? I tried playing the ASCII and I actually found it quite beautiful, and somewhat mesmerizing, will it perform better than using tile sets?

Also, do dwarves tire faster going up and down stairs? I am making a fortress with 8+ layers and when I see them haul things 8 floors, I wonder if this creates negative thoughts or tires them faster?
It doesn't seem to bother them.

One last question; when I break the last block to get into a water source or lava, will the dwarf drown/get burned? Do I have to break that last tile in a certain way?

Thank you so much,
Uli

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