Bay 12 Games Forum

So, I've played earlier versions extensively, and have read quite a lot of the forums (and played one or two games) since 2010 came out, so I though I had the cosmology figured out, but what I've come across seems... our of the ordinary.

I genned a world with slightly custom settings- lots of volcanoes, I think that was it. I wandered around and found a nice-looking site- river, limestone, black sand, heavily forested. When I embarked, I noticed some shiny blue stuff that turned out to be adamantium... there was, in fact, an adamantium pipe that was open to the surface. I promptly saved the game and started digging down near it, figuring demons would eat me before I got too far, but if I hurried I might get a look at hell.

No demons have come. At about z-50 I broke into the shaft and it gave me the message about the strange hellscape I'd discovered, but still no demons. Since then I've assigned my dwarves a meeting area on the slopes of a hill in hell, started moving our supplies down there, and (why not) threw a horse in a cavern.

So... where are the demons? Do they take a while to show up? Did they all leave before I got here, as the pipe was open to the surface?

Also, when I was building the staircase to let my people into hell, it gave me the option to build it out of slade. Isn't that supposed to be impossible?

Oh, and what happened to the magma lake?

Also, whether or not I actually managed to conquer hell with seven dwarves by accident... what should I do? Build a thriving megapolis down there? Build a system of levers connected to the trade depot to lead all elven merchants into hell and leave them there? Wait five minutes for the demons to notice and devour my dwarves?

PS: Despite the game telling me I have excellent FPS (at or near cap), the horse fell *really* slowly.  Oh, and about half the erie glowing pits have mud on them. Huh?

EDIT: I've since built a still down there, and diverted the river into the adamantine tube; the first round of plump helmets is now being planted on the slade floor of hell. Now, seriously, what's going on?

EDIT 2: You can find the map at http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=3523

Not actually modding related, but I wasn't sure where else to put this (and you guys have the most tech knowledge).

So, getting a new computer as of tomorrow- quad-core nehalem processor, 6 gigs of ram, TB drive. I'm planning to dual-boot between windows 7 and Ubuntu linux, and run DF on the linux half (Less OS overhead).

Anyway, I'm trying to decide between 32 and 64 bit Ubuntu, and wanted to know what effect such will have on DF (Yes, I actually play DF enough that this may be the deciding factor in my choice of OS).

Thanks for any answers you can give, or general tech advice- I've been using a mac for six years now, so I'm more than a little out of the game.

Can hardly believe that *I* am starting one of these threads, but...

Ok. Girl I like. Very smart, very nice, somewhat sheltered/innocent- she was homeschooled and is still pretty shy and never had a real relationship, barely any friendships, but on the other hand she works two jobs, one of them as a victim's advocate for raped children, and the other for an adoption agency. Started talking to her in person while I was in Oregon last year, got along perfectly, brought up getting into a relationship once or twice but she had a few issues with such (she's got trust issues from her job, and a couple of other things). I have dinner with her family, they love me.

I go back to Kentucky for the summer, we're trading emails, talk on the phone once, every-thing's still great. I head back to Oregon, we talk a little while I'm on the bus, she tries to find a way to meet me at the station but can't due to scheduling issues. She says we should meet the next day instead (Last Friday). On Friday I get an email from her at about 10AM saying we should meet downtown at 4ish, and she'll get back to me with details.

On Sunday I still haven't heard from her, so I call her house (no answer) and her family cell, where I get her mom, who says she's been sleeping a lot lately but says some stuff to indicate that, as far as she knows, she still likes me.

On Monday I finally get one email from her, in response to one from me asking if she was ok. She says something did happen, that she's fine, and that she'll check in with me later in the week- she apologizes for not meeting on Friday, says she hopes my trip went well, and that's it- no explanation or anything. Haven't heard from her again since.

So. Plausible explanations, nightmare or otherwise. Not really looking for advice- I'm pretty clear on "Keep waiting, don't make assumptions, and learn what's going on before you get angry/make any choices," but I need *something* to distract myself, and speculation seems as good a fix as any.

What determines if a creature "escapes" while being drug around?

I'm trying to move a captured GCS to a room I set up as (if it works) a GCS silk factory. Bastard escapes the moment a dwarf reaches the cage.

However, the same thing seems to be working for my (also experimental) plump helmet man farm.

Is there a way to get the GCS in there without having to build it a cage?

I usually have a large central staircase running through my fortress, 3x3 with the middle channeled out all the way to magma, for dumping and a few defensive uses. I heard that this is an FPS killer, and that ramps will make a fortress run much faster. I was wondering if anyone had any stairwell designs better than the ones I use.

Also, base in general, for FPS- is it better to make it a tree, so that there's only one way the search algorithm *can* run, or make as many connections as possible, so that it's more likely to find an easy solution?

My civilization appears to lack any notable figures; this may have resulted from the fact that, in an effort to stop constant extinctions, I ended history at 50 years.

I just got my second elven caravan, and have yet to receive a single dwarven one. I've gotten migrants, but none for several seasons, and I understand they're tied to the caravan.

My site has everything it needs, but without more dwarves I'll never be able to do much. Do I need to just give up on this fortress now, or will caravans eventually come, or will migrants show up regardless?

EDIT:

...And the guy that came with the Elven Caravan claims to be from the mountainhome.

So, I've been playing bunches of little "flavor" forts in the same world- just intended to add some interesting ruins for adventurer mode, maybe see them turn up in engravings. At least, that was the plan.

The first fort was just supposed to be a little ruined lighthouse with access to the cavern layers. I figured I'd build as high as I could before my dwarves died, as I'm playing this one *very* poorly.

They won't die.

I've breached all cavern layers, with no war dogs, no military, and no traps except for two "Upright Spears"  in my main hallway, linked to a lever, which I have being pulled constantly. I've been attacked by crundles, elk birds, giant rats, giant olms, a blind cave ogre and a giant cave spider. My miners killed them. One of my dwarves became a legendary fighter. One of my miners just named her pick, after she killed the gremlin that showed up to help my dwarves pull the spear lever.

My population has actually gone *up*.

Seriously, these are some stubborn ass dwarves.