Bay 12 Games Forum

Today, for the first time after my small break from DF, I generated a world which I found rather interesting... interesting in that there is a serene forest biome directly next to (and within!) a sinister biome of the same forest type.

Before looking at this map, I had never thought it would be possible to have an embark with both good and evil-aligned biomes, but it would seem this is actually possible! As I embarked, I thought to myself, "Well, maybe the game will gimp me out in some way and only give me the good creatures or the evil creatures." I was very happily proved wrong when I opened my unit screen to find a small army of zombie rhesus macaques headed toward my base while five unicorns pranced along happily in the distance.

Feather trees are growing even on the evil parts of the biome, and there are no glumprongs. I have yet to see either phantom spiders or fluffy wamblers; only rats and hedgehogs have made their appearances as far as vermin are concerned.

Unfortunately the embark did not have a volcano, but it does have a river and it's my first time playing a cold biome as well as an awesome level of biodiversity since I've got both the good and evil surroundings (high biodiversity is one of the first things I consider when starting a new fort.) I could've went with a terrifying mountain somewhere, but I think this is probably more interesting.

My question is this: are events like this rare? Do good and evil often occur in the same biome like it did in my case?

I am absolutely in love with my current fortress. Despite being embarked on the border between life and death, the border between savage forests to the north and the terrifying mountain to the south, my dwarves have remained stalwart, conquering their environment completely within the seven years they have arrived. A constant supply of strange and exotic creatures fill our cages, flowing freely from the caverns below, and the elk-bird hatcheries produce an enormous abundance of heavy elk-bird meat and valuable bones. No less than eight rutherers have joined the fortress as guards, tethered by chains of gold in the hallway which leads directly into the heart of our fortress, and no less than forty war dogs are caged behind them; a last-ditch defense in a case of emergencies. The mayor's office alone is personally guarded by the two largest male draltha in our stock of purebreds. Of course, we also possess many other creatures, for every occasion... but they are in lesser numbers, and so they are not oft put to practical use, merely being left to lurk the dark recesses of our famously large dining hall...


However, that changed when we received word of the forgotten beast Ngok lurking our first (of three) cavern chambers...

An enormous humanoid composed of solid salt. It has two long, curly tails and undulates rhythmically. Beware its poisonous gas!

And that is when inspiration struck me.

Though our defenses are in no way lacking, nor are they in any way perfect. Our elite rutherer guard is almost one-hundred percent effective at eliminating thieves, but they would not have that same luck against sieges, a task better left to our elite brigand corps. We do have a drawbridge out front, which we can close to act as a wall if we are besieged by more forces than we can handle, but more will be necessary once the troll shock-troops and heavy cavalry begin to arrive. A large pit, ten stories deep, has been installed in front of our main gate, complete with a retractable drawbridge to cover it, forming an effective pit-trap for the unsuspecting goblin forces.

But this is still not enough. Because the pit is three-by-ten Uristtiles wide, at least 300 iron spikes would be necessary to ensure that everything that falls into the pit will die, one-hundred percent of the time. A giantess had been captured, and we had considered releasing her into the pit that she may enjoy herself on the living remains of those fallen in, but that idea was discarded immediately once we learned of the beast's approaching.

Immediately, once I learned of its poisonous gas breath, my brain set to work, and an elaborate trap was designed to capture the old creature alive...
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^  ^  ^  ^  ^ 
^ ^ GCS ^  ^   [Downward stairs leading into the first cavern]
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The plan would be that the beast would confront my captured she-spider, engaging it on top of the traps where it would become ensnared by the spider's webs and then trip said traps, causing the cage to close up around it, effectively capturing it.

Of course, the trap succeeded...all according to plan.

One might be expecting me to release the ancient creature into the pit, where it would feast endlessly upon goblin bones. But doing this would leave me no way to collect the spoils of war. I need the help of the great minds of the Bay12 forums to decide what to do with this majestic beast. All ideas are welcome! Creativity is encouraged.

Personally, my idea was this: Build a fortified square in the center of the pit, where the beast will be caged, and channels will be dug around the square. The holy beast of salt will gas the goblins with his boiling fogotten beast extract through the fortifications, down into the channel, where the deceased goblins will be washed away by water into a "separation room", where their equipment will be stripped off them and handed over to the military of Scaleddaggers. The bloody water drains into the first cavern, which is in close vicinity to the bottom of the pit.

Of course, all of presents a question: can forgotten beasts blow breath attacks up multiple z-layers? I would imagine they can, since projectile weapons can, but similarly I don't believe that cave spiders can shoot their silk up multiple z-layers, and I think the anatomy of a breath attack is more similar to the GCS's silk blasting skill than a true projectile weapon.

Thinking about all of this, I also began to think of more...diabolical uses that the beast could be put to... such as a very *true-to-definition* gas-chamber, in which prisoners would be exposed to the full extent of the beast's poisonous breath.

I had a similar idea a long time ago... called the "sickness chamber"... which I could use to punish unruly dwarves. The idea was to dig a few one-tile-wide holes in a large room, storing a caged cave floater in each one, and then put a grate over each hole and then a retractable bridge on top of that. Release the floaters with the same lever that you use for the bridges, kill them all somehow and suddenly the room erupts with toxic gasses....

...But cave floaters aren't deadly, just illness-inducing. Forgotten beasts, on the other hand, can be a lot more fun than mere cave floaters, and I have seen a many more forgotten beasts than I have cave floaters, which seem to elude me in great supply. Again, I would need to know if direct breath attacks could travel up multiple z-levels... or even if any type of gas produced by creatures can travel up multiple z-levels. Of course, I could modify the design of my chambers to keep all of the creatures on the same z-level in the event that gas doesn't travel up z-levels, but that wouldn't be as fun.

So, ideas, gentlemen and ladies? Do you have some delicious new use for me to put the beast to? Perhaps you have an addition to make to one of my existing designs? Or perhaps you feel as though something completely different should be done with it? Maybe you simply want to discuss how one would go about building a gas-chamber, with or without this particular forgotten beast involved in the design? I feel as though this will become an interesting and eloquent discussion, which shall serve to advance the science of killing gas-usage for all dwarfkind! Muahahaha *coughs violently*

I am, or was, under the impression that if I were to start in an area with multiple biomes, that creatures from both biomes would visit my fortress, correct?

Well, I did just that. I settled in an area with about three or so biomes. Two of them are savage neutral forests of different varieties, which I know because I've had both wolves and elephants visit me, and the third biome is a terrifying mountain.

While I have had hoarmy marmots and giant eagles come down from the mountain, but I haven't seen a single undead! It's supposed to be a TERRIFYING mountain, right? At first I'd attributed the lack of skeletals/walkers to maybe not having enough of the biome on my map, but then I remembered that the mountain occupies well over 60% of my embark! What the heck? I want zombies, damn it.

Will they ever show up? I really like what I'm doing with this fortress and I'd hate to have to abandon it for being too easy.

So I'm playing 31.14 with the lazy newb pack, and I'm just getting into my fifth year. I've got almost three different ways of disposing of invaders [1: Pit-drop via retractable bridge, then another pit-drop via water onto spikes/ 2: Feed to ettin/ 3, same room as Ettin: Spike traps everywhere to chew up successful gladiators] and I'm waiting on my first batch of invaders to show up. I've created precisely 2,290,000 wealth, imported 71,777 and exported 61,904 wealth. I've already gotten about seven or eight forgotten beasts, two of which I've already disposed of via draining water onto them (one was made of steam so it was susceptible to water, the other snow but that one was killed by the amphibian men) the one Ettin that I captured, as well as dealt with two gremlins.

I have heard rumors that there are absolutely no sieges in 31.14. I knew that there were issues with sieges in this version, but none at all?

My question is this: will I ever see a siege, or even a single goblin for that matter, if I continue playing this fortress with version 31.14? Typically I'd just update the damn thing and be done with it, but the Lazy Newb Pack makes everything extremely convenient and they finally put the .14 version out so I'd like to play it for awhile. I'm also currently running NoExotics and I believe that only kicks in when you generate a new world... so I might have to sacrifice my current game if I both want to run NoExotics and the new version of DF.

I know there are topics about the 'best' pets/war animals/guards/etc... but what are your favorite pets to keep around in your fort, both for protection purposes and just for the cool factor? For protection I've always been a fan starting of with 2 female wardogs and one male [I call it 3dog, lol] for a quick puppy factory... but since this is my first time using NoExotics, I'm also trying to catch a swarm of bugbats for cheap protection. I already caught a Giant Toad as well... are those any good in combat? I know Giant Olms are, but I've never caught a toady before.

Just nabbed a bunch of gibbons, an orangutan, a gazelle, and a leopard from the elves also. I know that gibbons and gazelles are no good in combat, so maybe I'll put them in a zoo or something, but how about orangutans? And what should I do with this Gorlak that just fell into my traps? I'm thinking pit fighter.

TALK ABOUT PETS EVERYBODY!

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I'm asking this because it's been about three or four years, and I've only seen one forgotten beast. No Goblins, no Kobolds, nothing. I built this massive goblin-eating trap but I have yet to see any goblins. Do they even show up at all? In my other fortresses where I did have Goblin access they would usually show up end of year two or start of year three... not middle of year four.

Obviously a refuse stockpile seems like a normal solution, but there are so many TONS UPON TONS of these f*ck**g lungfish jumping out of the river that no stockpile I can make is ever big enough to hold both the fish and cartilage, hair, etc...

So how do I just flat-out eliminate the refuse? I've been trying to figure out if there's some way for my dwarfs to dump the refuse straight into the river, but it doesn't seem to be working. Is there a way to get rid of all this shit? Creative solutions are welcome, even though I'd really just like someone to teach me how to dump everything into the river