Bay 12 Games Forum

Now, I think it would help if any intruders infiltrate your fortress to have dwarves hide in their rooms, but there isn't a command like that for orders... I mean, it would make sense, since the military would have less to patrol to keep dwarves safe (depending on how your fortress works). However, still necessary at some point.

I haven't read if someone already recommended it, but still, I can imagine it wouldn't be difficult.
At my school, we have a "Lockdown" drill where we all hide in the nearest classroom if there is some sort of killer on the loose inside the school or something.

For dwarves that don't have rooms, they would hide in the barracks or nearest bedroom.

Anyway, I have a story to go with this.

It all began spring year 3 or 4, of my favorite fortress of "Stronghold".
I finished building an arch for style out of chalk.
Within minutes, a fire consumed everything around my fortress (luckily my chalk walls prevented it from getting in). And two kittens died in the fire. KITTENS DIED!
Well, in the mean time, I had all the dwarves in the command of "dwarves stay indoors"
I forgot to shut my bridge to get into the fortress, and somehow goblins got into my fortress (via the bridge I guessed).
There happened to be an elf caravan at the trading post, and they all were killed in a bloody mess. I brough my guards in as fast as I could. The trading post was on my production layer (i know, i shouldn't have it organized like that, it is not efficient), but there was 1 dwarf killed in that incident (along with all the elves).

Anyway, a dwarf broke out in insanity and killed 3 dwarves (yeah 1 dwarf can kill 3, but goblins could kill only one, proves they are inferior, but they were also on my production layer as well).
Well, two dwarves went on tantrums, and now they destroyed some chairs, tables, and the trade post (still with elf supplies on it, lol).

Aftermath, dwarf bodies everywhere, dwarves thirsty and hungry, and everyone is traumatized.
Now many are going insane because of the chaos, and more dwarves die.

Now, I think more died, actually, since I see dozens of dead bodies on the ground, but I am too sad to see Stronghold destroyed to count their heads...

Anyway, if this command was in place, I think almost no dwarves would be dead, or traumatized.

A friend of mine, while we were, well, idk... I guess you could call it a sleep over, it is complicated, we were staying overnight somewhere for a competition. But, anyway, he wanted a bed time story (jokingly) so I made up one, right on the spot. Here it is, I hope you enjoy it:

Once upon a time, there was a man named James Parker. He wanted to be an adventurer, although he was an average man. He gotten a job, to deliver a letter to a nearby town. So, he headed off to this town, but the normal path was blocked. He went the opposite road out of the city he lived in, because that was the only path. For nearly days, he followed this path. Eventually he gotten to a fork in the road, one leading to a freezing cold mountain, another leading through a dark, slimy cave, and another leading through a pleasant forest path. He thought looks are deceiving, so he took the cave route.

He had no form of lighting, so he went across the walls of the cave. He lost track of time, and he made his way slowly through the cave cautiously. He eventually found the light at the end of the cave.

When he gotten out, there was a city of dwarves that were willing to help him, but for a price. They wanted him to go back into the cave, and kill a beast that was dwelling in the cave, and killing any that went in. So, he took a lantern, and made his was to slay the beast. When he went to slay the beast, he could see that the beast was actually a giant bunny rabbit. He chopped off it's head, and went on his way.

After seeing the beast dead, the dwarves gave him food and water for his travels, and also two dwarves Frodo and Sam (those are their names no matter what now). They all made their way on the road again.

On their way, James Parker was making racist jokes to the dwarves, and they were not pleased. They threatened to leave with the food to return home, but he said he wouldn't do it again. The group then encountered a forest. The dwarves were afraid to go into the forest, since the evil elves were there. James Parker convinced them that if elves were to come across them, he would protect them, and tell the elves, "They're with me." So they continued again. While walking through the forest, James began making more racist jokes. The dwarves threatened to leave again, but James said, "Then the elves will get you!" So the dwarves didn't leave, after he promised not to do it again. When they were getting lost in the forest, James yet again made another racist joke. The dwarves decided, not matter what the risk, they don't want to deal with him. As they were leaving with the food and water, arrows shot through their necks, and elves appeared out of no where, stabbing them repeatedly with swords, and taking all their belongings, leaving behind only what looked to be a corpse of a dead goat now.

The elves offered to help James, and they led him out of the forest, because they didn't want to deal with his racist jokes. So then James needed to go through the great desert. He drank all the water he had quickly, and eventually resorted to drinking his own urine. He found a dead camel, and cut it open, removed the innards, and drank the water from within it (Man vs Wild style). He felt as if he lost hope, but then he saw in the distance, the town. He ran to it as if it were his last hope of survival!

He stumbled into town, and delivered the letter. That important letter, will then be the sequel for the next adventure!

Hope you liked it.

It is not your fault, Dwarf Fortress Forum, but rather my own.
I just began recently my first fortress, or, well, it is my first fortress that I designed.
Before this, I played through the walkthrough tutorial someone made here

It began quite well, I had everything organized, the perfect location, everything.
I discovered a magma pipe very early on, while I was trying to build a production layer in my fortress. I planned everything I build that point on on that.

So, today, I turn on Dwarf Fortress load up my save, 'My Dwarf Fortress' and I work on it for a while, about an hour or so. But in this hour or so, I built my living quarters, all of my flood gates (as precautions for the magma, also I have a small pond I was going to put somewhat underground), and my dining room. When I finally have the courage to open the magma flood gate and start making my magma production area, BAM an error pops up in my face, and Dwarf Fortress just turns off (I don't remember what it was, it just happened, and I am angry >=-O)

I reload it, and it is basically all my hard work gone, and the work was done from when I loaded it before my hard work.

Can someone please say some encouraging words? or maybe a way I could get my hard work back? since this wasn't really losing, and it wasn't very fun... ='(

Oh, and if some people want to say worse situations to make mine seem insignificant, go right ahead.