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We're going to an island, so don't bother coming around to trade or immigrate! Well, actually we're not taking over the entire island plus surrounding waters so somehow it is easier for you to find us.

We are dwarves who are not completely satisfied with the dwarven way of life at Mountainhome, and we're setting out to do something better. Changes from normal embark:

* No digging tools

We reject the ideology that a dwarf's primary purpose is digging, and his/her place underground. Rock is a useful substance, but by limiting the supply we plan to elevate other means to the same ends.

* No anvils, metal bearing ores, metal items or ingots

We also reject the means of creating digging tools. If an immigrant brings his own, that's fine.

* No seeds

Obviously, with no digging we won't be able to plant underground farms. The embark site has plants, and caverns (if we ever get to them) can provide seeds.



Post embark, we want no contact with Mountainhome. This is difficult as dwarves are stubborn and will keep trying to trade every year. Therefore, post embark:

* No trading.

We reject the idea that a fortress cannot or should not be self-sufficient. We also reject the idea that skills such as lying, storytelling and appraisal should drive the economy in even the smallest way. If we ever trade, it will be out of kindness not necessity. Until the council decides otherwise, no Depot and no trade agreements of any kind.


I tried some of these ideas earlier with a full-island embark (no caravans, no immigrants). Eventually, I ran out of RAM because the site was too big. This time with a 2x2 I should get farther. It took the better part of two years to fully wall the map. We were on the slope of a volcano



so the walling and flooring to create a significant flat area took some material. Local wood ran out long before the walls were finished (wooden walls have since been replaced with glass or olivine blocks, for an all-green look). Power up the glass furnaces? If only it were that easy. We gathered plants but came up empty on rope reed. No cloth. Turkeys would eventually provide us with leather to make bags, if only we had bags for sand to run the glass furnaces. When some miners showed up with their own picks, I had them remove some ramps outside the walls and dig for the first caverns.



Barren. The second caverns were also dry as toast, with lots of silk lying around but not safe and not the hundreds I'd need for a fast-growing fortress.



The third cavern level was more generous. Embark was at level 117, and the third caverns were at -25. All caverns were breached, then immediately walled off. We have almost no metal armor or weapons. Zero military.

After a few years, caravans started dying outside the walls leaving gifts. After we breached the third cavern level in about year 5 they left a supply of leather and cloth.



So we built a door, but mostly we keep it closed. I considered not allowing immigrants, but I'd just have to make coffins for the poor saps when they died of dehydration. My dwarves are bleeding hearts, and when an immigrant died of dehydration outside the walls they made an artifact statue to memorialize him.

Currently in year 7, more traders are dying outside the walls. This time they're leaving meat and wood. The meat was lying on the ground, guarded by a trader and his camel who both went crazy. Now it's gone.

With some help from http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91141.0 I created a new world, and in year two a splinter faction of dwarves took their leave. Permanently.

With the ocean all around, we expect no caravans, diplomats or other pests to visit. At least, not overland.

DF seemed to realize that we were leaving for good, to start a new civilization, so it gave me a ton of extra embark points. For animals I brought turkeys, dogs, pigs, and the horses that pulled my wagons. I also brought supplies to make steel weapons and armor, extra wood, milk, meat, booze, seeds. In all, vastly more than they needed.

I had them make steel picks and axes, and cheese to free up some barrels. A buzzard stole some cheese before wardogs were trained up. Buzzard-hide bags, that's right. There are no fisherdwarves assigned and no fisheries or fishing zones, but an orca washed up on shore and my dwarves hauled it to the butcher's workshop for over 200 meat.

It's only been about a year. I put a priority on digging/smoothing a decent bedroom. Hoping for some beard-on-beard sexytime, because there will be no migrants.


As you can see, we're starting to get a dogsplosion. The puppies have since been assigned to an underground pen.


In the second year, we faced a poultsplosion.

Poults have hatched.

No big deal, when some labor frees up I'll butcher the adult birds and

Poults have hatched.
Poults have hatched.

Are they supposed to hatch that fast? Oh well, I've been meaning to dig a poulting area ...

Poults have hatched.

Take those gobblers out of there, put them next to the butcher. That should slow them ..

Poults have hatched.
Poults have hatched.

Gobblers butchered. This can't go on much ..

Poults have hatched.
Poults have hatched.
Poults have hatched.
Poults have hatched.

Ok, cancel all other labor, build three more butcher workshops, butcher all adult turkeys. But it's too late! The poults are pressed up against the door in a solid wall of poultflesh, making it impossible to collect eggs or path to adult birds! They escape down the hallway and fill ... the bedroom.


Oh God the POULTS. Won't someone please collect the eggs? I found myself planning a drowning lever, if I ever have idle dwarves again. Usually I build an egg farm 4x this size with 64 nest boxes. I thought, oh, I'll just have my cook practice on eggs. Too many eggs.

They weren't collecting the eggs because the egg barrel was full. I thought a single barrel could hold more eggs, but the limit seems to be 500? I made a new stockpile, and eventually the eggs got collected and the poults settled down.


To head off trouble, I butchered all the adult pigs. I'm keeping a breeding pair of horses around, moving them from pasture to pasture but the soil is weak all over the island.

I had a dwarf child go into a strange mood and claim a craftsdwarf's workshop. No big deal.

I check back on him later, and see that he's gathering a lot of wood. At about 50 wood, I started to wonder what was going on. Oh, he'll probably hit some magic limit to dwarven enthusiasm. After 100 wood, with no idea what was up, I checked the wiki and forums.

After reading about http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Planepacked I took him out of his burrow. I have all children and babies in a burrow that keeps them away from really dangerous areas, like outside the city walls and deep underground. He had access to all the materials he wanted, but being in the burrow made him gather wood endlessly. When free of the burrow, he started to gather other materials.

By the time I figured it out, he had gathered 252 logs. Then he proceeded to add: goose leather, vulture leather, giant earthworm leather, rough pyrites, limonite gizzard stones and turkey leather.

Etur Sakrithled works secretly...until one day, on 1st Limestone, 264

Etur Sakrithled, Dwarven Child has created Edosshetbeth, a highwood trumpet!

Weight: 2 (TWO??)
Basic Value: 321600

This is a highwood trumpet. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is encrusted with round limonite cabochons, decorated with alder, blood thorn, oak, chestnut, birch, ash, willow, larch, highwood, fungiwood, spore tree and giant earthworm leather and encircled with bands of blood thorn, tower-cap, maple, birch, ash, alter, chestnut, oak, highwood, acacia, willow, fungiwood and vulture leather. This object is adorned with hanging rings of birch, chestnut, blood thorn, oak, ash, willow, alder, highwood, acacia and tunnel tube and menaces with spikes of fungiwood, palm, acacia, candlenut, blood thorn, highwood, oak, birch, chestnut, ash, alder, mango wood, larch, willow, tunnel tube, saguaro rib wood, goose leather and pyrite.

On the item is an image of pear cut gems in highwood. On the item is an image of a square brilliant cut gem in willow. On the item is an image of a white-spotted puffer in blood thorn. On the item is an image of Lokum Daggercopper the dwarf and dwarves in blood thorn. Lokum Daggercopper is surrounded by the dwarves. The artwork relates to the appointment of the dwarf Logum Daggercopper to the position of outpost liason of the Blockade of Quickness in the late autumn of 254.

On the item is an image of Rith Wanedsabre the dwarf and Morul Stormroad the dwarf in blood thorn. Morul Stormroad is striking down Rith Wanedsabre. The artwork relates to the killing of the dwarf Rith Wanedsabre by the dwarf Morul Stormroad in Toolheld in the early winter of 251.

On the item is an image of Dastot Paddledhide the dwarf in blood thorn. On the item is an image of brown recluse spider men in blood thorn. On the item is an image of a nether-cap in blood thorn.

On the item is an image of Datan Idolsteels the dwarf and dwarves in blood thorn. Datan Idolsteels is surrounded by the dwarves. The artwork relates to tthe acceptance of the ghostly dwarf Datan Idolsteels as a member of The Blockade of Quickness in the midsummer of 252.

On and on, the description goes on for pages

On the item is an image of Cloudbeans the native gold mechanisms in blood thorn.

...

On the item is an image of Amazedtwinkled the highwood trumpet in highwood. On the item is an image of Amazedtwinkled the highwood trumpet in chestnut.

...

Until finally

On the item is an image of Tobul Tincloisters the dwarf and The Cosmos of Patterns the perfect turquoise in blood thorn. Tobul Tincloisters is raising The Cosmos of Patterns. The artwork relates to the creation of The Cosmos of Patterns in Toolheld by the dwarf Tobul Tincloisters in the early winter of 254.

On the item is an image of Domas Flagpassions the dwarf in blood thorn. On the item is an image of a forgotten beast in turkey leather.


The child is now a Legendary Wood Crafter (I should hope so), and his first task after completing an artifact trumpet: Drink.