Bay 12 Games Forum

One of the things I was interested in doing was raising my dwarves skill up in swimming, both for the stat increase and the added benefit of my military dwarves wont drown should they fall into a river or something.

Well I rigged the barracks so i could flood it with water, and filled it with 3-4/7 water and now they dont seem to train. In fact, anybody walking on the 4/7 water part of the entrance goes, "eep dangerous terrain" and stops their jobs. Any suggestions on how to resolve this?

Just a question, (dfwiki is down) how many chairs will a single table service? is there a limit to one person per table? or can you have 4 people eating off of one table?

would it be possible to mod it so that a dwarf could craft magma at a smelter? If so what would be the line of code for it?

I'm thinking on making a constructed volcano that erupts on command, but I'm alittle stumped on how to accomplish this. should I have a central shaft of lava safe pumps that pumps it out over the top, or should i ahve it pump the lava out from the edge onto the mountainside?

Okay, as much Fun as tantrum spirals can be, there should be some method of dealing with them, or at least running damage control.

My fortress of about 110 dwarfs suffered 8 casualties in a goblin siege. Of course there was massive tantrums and unhappiness after this (most of my dwarfs were estatic prior to the siege) and that has lead to a massive number of melancholy and beserk dwarves. Luckily most of my beserk dwarves went nuts in their rooms, so I just lock the door and let them stew. But every now and then one goes nuts in a public place, and ends up killing another dwarf which seems to start the spiral anew. I have tried posting military dwarves in public areas but thats only a stopgap method that fixes the result not the cause.

as I said, I had 110 dwarves prior to the siege, 102 after the siege, I now have 57 dwarves left over including a small migration, and some are still beserk and melancholy.

okay enough backstory.

The problem is that the dwarven leadership, that is the stink'n nobles, cant take an active role in helping quell the unrest amongst the populace. Sure the Mayor will have a chat with a tantruming dwarf, but thats a one on one situation in a fortress with a large population that is frothing at the mouths. What wold be another option is to have a noble enacted party/celebration. It would be an option you'd turn on at the option menu, during this time there is a permenant party in all meeting areas, in which dwarves with a low happiness score would go and celebrate, also during this time, dwarves consume 2x as much food/booze as normal. The aim of the party would be more focused on resolving the issues stemming from happiness loss that cant be combated by standard methods.

Pros: Active Defense at a total collapse due to tantrums.
Cons: Increased Food/Booze consumption. Lower effeciency as dwarves party more often. Dwarves Socialize more which could lead to further spirals.

I've read all about the dwarven atomsmasher, and the various exit lounges for eccentric nobles. I have some questions regarding the placement of items/people in regards to mobile constructs.

A) How does one set up a dwarven atomsmasher to destroy junk? do you make a stockpile then build the bridge? is there a way to move specific items to the smasher for disposal?

B) apart from conscripting dwarves into the military and having them put on active duty under the bridge, how does one get non military (read as the filthy lazy ass nobles) to take their posistion under a smasher/other exit device?

C) I've read all about the energetic reaction regarding a lignite block and an iron bin. I want to try this out, but I'm still puzzeling over how to do this. From what I heard is that once a bin is lit on fire, it burns anything too close to it. I typically try to avoid unrequired deaths amongst my dwarven population, so my question is how does one set up a firebox to drop into the ocean? via retracting bridge? do you pour the magma on site, or is there a way to transport it?

D) I've heard that catapults can move stuff around, some of the stuff I've heard is vague, so I was wondering if you could shoot stuff other than raw stone with them. I understand that the ammo has to drop at least 1 z level to avoid being destroyed, and that typically a raised bridge with a channel is done to facilitate this. also, how do you target stuff with the catapult so that it aims at teh end target?

Edit: renamed the post to update its topic.

(note I wont be uploading pics for a bit, gotta figure out how to upload them in a format that doesn't massively mangle forum post for now I'll just type some of the screens out.)

The Overseer's Journal of Cerol "Bloody Crazy" Olonsholid

In regards to the Design, Construction, and Running of Fortress Famthutodthist located in the Sunderwreath Swamp

Year 1, Granite.

Those damn nobles dont know how to keep their stink'n noses out off my bussiness. "Oh it will be a new experience," they say, "Why not take all that creative ingenuity and go build a fort we have just the location for you," What they ain't say'n is, "We dont have mental capacity to understand the projects you are working on Cerol. Surely wrapping a barrel in copper ribbing and rotating it in a magnetite block will be a waste of materials, Dwarves will never harnest lightning what are you thinking about? This is the same train of thought when you showed us the repeating lava shooter, and we all know how that ended."

..

Okay maybe the lava shooter wasn't such a hot idea, but yank'n me off of a delicate project and plopp'n me out in the middle of nowhere to babysit some wee little dwarves who think they're something is horse piss. Thats what I shall call it, from hence forth the Fortress shall be known as Famthutodthist! And all shall know my anger.

They even went as far as disband'n me old company and I'm stuck with the following

Urist twin 1, a miner, hopefully he knows which end of his pick does the work.
Urist twin 2, another miner, probably a dim witted and slackjawed as her brother.
Urist twin 3, this one claims he's a wood cutter, but I dont trust him, he's a spy, and as long as he has that axe I'm keep'n my eye on him.
Kubuk, Some fancy lass, uses the phrase Dude and Far Out too often for my taste, she's a wonder with some dirt, griped about hav'n to leave her stash behind... whatever that means.
Goden, says he's a carpenter, but I saw right through it. He works with wood, therefore he's in league with the third Urist twin. The duo is probably plotting how to kill me in my sleep. Possibly with a lathe...

Then there is Geshud. He was one of the orginals of the Crazed Constructs, he can be a bit loopy but he's a deft hand with machines and stone. Possibly the only person I can trust out in these wilds.

I double checked me inventory chit
2 copper picks
1 steel battle axe (Urist3 grabbed it too eagerly for my taste)
20 units of Dwarven Rum
30 units of Dwarven Beer
20 units of Dwarven Wine (I fear we may have taken too little of the necessities, I pray this last till we can get a still going.)
10 packets of Plump Helmet Spawn
5 packets of Pig Tail seeds
1 barrel containing 15 Plump Helmets.
2 barrels containing 20 Turtles (mostly live)
1 Copper Cage (hmm... earmark for the treehuggers.)
4 Cat Leather Bags
12 Packets of Sweet Pod Seeds
1 Coil of Cave Spider Silk Rope

We are slated to leave in the morn, by my beard I forsee a long journey ahead of us.

(note: okay the initial 7 starting dwarves are named by me/game, all migrant slots are open just state your desired name, gender, and job while sending a 50$ money order to the number on the bottom of your screen. Dont hesitate ACT NOW!)