5
« on: March 10, 2010, 03:00:34 am »
You have never seen the wondrous fort that sent those 7 dwarves to a new Mountainhome, have you? The only thing you know of them is that you get to see the caravan liaison's face every Autumn. However, I don't see why you can't play the originators of these budding dwarven settlements. And in fact, there are several ways in which establishing new forts can be beneficial to you.
So I'll cut to the chase here.
Requirements are as follows:
-Population of 100+
-The noble King must have arrived in your fortress and have his proper requirements (room, furnishings, etc.)
Per each embark:
-You may handpick seven dwarves to embark on the expedition. The odds of survivability are based upon the presence of necessary/complementary skills, as well as the presence of military skills. You MAY NOT send out legendary dwarves. Such champions of dwarvenkind are too precious to waste on colonization.
-You must part with 100 food and 100 drinks, of any kind and any combination.
-You must construct a wagon (which costs 9 wood) and part with 2 of any combination of mules, horses, or donkeys. The construction of a wagon is only available when the requirements to establish a settlement are met.
-You must provide at least 2 picks.
Options:
-Past the necessities, you may, at your option, load 5000 wealth worth of goods onto the wagon for the dwarves to take with them. This may increase the odds of survivability.
-You may choose the area you wish to dispatch your colonists to. This will be very important for the matters of trading with your colony.
Supporting your colonies:
-Every spring after you have established a colony, you will be asked if you wish to send immigrants. You may send no more than 10% of your existing population, and you will be allowed to handpick your immigrants. Sending immigrants requires an accessible trade depot. If the edge of the map is accessible by foot, but not be caravan, you may only send up to 5% of your population. You may not send legendary dwarves for immigration.
-Every autumn, you may send a caravan to the settlement. You choose what to load the caravan with. Goods will be bought from your caravan dependent upon the presence of necessities (food/booze/seeds), and objects listed in the import request. Trade goods that you receive in return will be dependent upon the biome of the settlement and your export agreement. Sending a caravan requires an accessible trade depot.
-A colony may have its own struggles and needs. This may be reflected under such things as requests for food/booze, immigrants with certain skills, or military immigrants. This, on top of other influences such as satisfying import requests, appropriate embarking group, etc. will determine whether a colony lives or dies. Yes, your child fort has its own problems and may go under as any other fortress would.
Why is this important to you?:
Aside from a constant interaction with a child fortress, which will have its own status menu that you may view, trading with a child fortress will allow you a limited opportunity to acquire materials that may otherwise be impossible or difficult for you to have. Trading with a child fortress is also much different than trading with a caravan. Rather than having a limited array of goods to choose from, you instead send out what you want, and gain back goods that are relevant to the location your colony is in. The success of trading is also not based upon the value of the goods you bring nearly as much as the import requests. Therefore, sending a large number of request-inappropriate goods may leave you mostly empty-handed, but sending goods that the colony requests will earn you a very good return.
If treated well by satisfying the colony's needs, sending immigrants regularly, and meeting import requests, the fortress may give you offerings as well.
And besides, who doesn't want their own Dwarven empire?
