Bay 12 Games Forum

This is a stability patch for the last release. A few raid-related crashes are fixed, as well as some strange behavior related to stolen livestock. To get the full fix for stolen livestock, old saves will need to add [PET] to beak dogs and unicorns.

so......you can now get unicorns even if you're NOT in a peaceful/blue biome?

this changes everything.

Or, rather, changes my strategy with elves. Instead of waiting for their caravan, I can now send raiding parties (aided with legends mode) to get some bad-ass animals.

Could we get melt % of Pedestals put into the Melt page?

I realize this is a very early in the release cycle, just thought I'd point out something that isn't there yet. I'm not sure how to look this up, an I don't have a wiki account.

There had been a promise to get pet war dogs to travel with squads that you send on raids, rather than having them stay home waiting for their masters. So that's now properly completed. If your vision of dwarves is less about crafting in the mountains, and more about a lone dwarf descending from the hills to attack a village with a pack of a dozen hounds, your vision is now a reality. That's how I tested it, anyway. Five of the dogs were struck down, but the humans will now think twice about whatever it was they were thinking about, that's for sure.

So based on Toady's latest post on the front page (see above), I may be using a new strategy next version:

Embark with a couple flux stones, some coal, ores, and approximately 50 doggos (2-3 males in that whole lot). They will all be immediately trained for War, then thrown in a cage by summer. All puppies will be put in cages until they mature. Other war animals (tamed or traded for) get the same treatment, unless Grazers.

I tend to play (mostly failed/failing) small pop generational forts these days, so I will be allowing the first migrant wave (two at most) into the fort (or surface fort) before declaring all others as Meatshields.

Meatshields will be sent off to war with as many war doggoes as possible. The first warroes to go will be males with bad stats, followed by females with bad stats. The best 10 or so female doggoes will be kept for breeding (the actual Ten will be revised every year, when puppies start growing up and become trained to become warroes themselves).

Meatshields will be sent out 1-4 at a time with approximately 30 warroes at a minimum, with the rest of the Meatshields and expendable warroes hanging out in the entryway/maze, training, until weapon traps are fixed.

Craftbridge, my other thread currently on the front page of this forum, has helped me refine my Overseer-fu from "I'm just poking around and playing with what I know how to do" to "Okay, I KNOW how to do this, and there aren't enough challenges for me in this Fortress, even though I'm doing better than I ever have before."

I tend to write up as I play, so if I haven't posted for a while check for new edits. Give a shout out if you want to be Dorfed.





And with that, we are off to Stabbedlancers, founded by the group The Labyrinthine Lancers.

Huh. How about that? A breeding pair of horses. Except they're both asexual. Because of course they are. And 2 Ace female cats, but of course. At least I can get everything I deliberately brought with me to breed.

One of my reasons I got kinda bored by Craftbridges, I think, weas I didn't have enough goals. So I'm setting up some short-term goals for me:

Get Deduk Wetdaggers married to Bomrek Vaultlizards Rith Glazedyelled Why is he 16 years older I want their babies Zon Minedfancied, Weaponsmith (set up honeymoon suite).

Get Uzol Boredguilds (Bowyer/Butcher/Tanner) married to Lokum Basementsearched, Not-a-Fisherdorf

Get Rith Glazeyelled, Amazing-martial-stats (Strength 95, Agility 19, Toughness 74, Endurance 62, Recupetion 82, Disease Resistance 35) married to Lorbam Kindlances, Potter and fellow Militia-Dorf.

That takes care of my 3 "Wants Family" Dorfs.

Get Kogan Crazedarrows fully equipped with armor and some kind of weapon, and training with a migrant from the first wave. She's asexual, so therefore she will not be thrown into the baby-making suites ever, and is exiled to the military.

Get everything inside/Underground.

Build Trade Depot

After the Dwarven Caravan leaves, the raws will be edited to allow goblin sieges.

Mid-term Goals (End of Year 3):

Have at least 4 decently-trained members in the Militia.
Magma-powered Metal/Ceramic/Glassworks
Functional Minecart system
Begin working on a Megapile cube.


Get at least 1 other couple married in the next 5 years


Overseer's Journal,
Granite 1, Year 2
Stabbedlancers

I never asked for this. I didn't ask to be born into this horrific world. I didn't ask to be sent off to make sure dwarfkind didn't die out in case the goblins attacked the Mountainhome again, in greater numbers, and gets wiped out. It was only by Risen Diamondcolor's own grace that the demon didn't kill us all.

All I wanted was to settle down and have a family. And, by Armok, I will! This fort will survive in this savage world if it's the last thing I do. Even if the Mountainhome is wracked by dragons, rocs, and Hydras, Goblins, and the Goblins' horrible demon master, we will survive, and thrive. We will take everything the world has to throw at us, capture what we can, and then throw all of it right back into its face!

In the parlance of my people:

Strike the Earth!


Malachite 12th, Year 2
Stabbedlancers

By the mountainhome everything here is enormous. Giant Beetles, Giant Ticks, Giant Barn Owls....we dare not go hunting without a fully armed and armored hunter. Kogan Crazedarrows has volunteered to be our defense and our miner.

We have moved the Turkeys and the seeds inside, but mining goes slowly. There was but a thin layer of soil before we ran straight into basalt. Our excavations go slowly, but steadily. We have already exhausted the supply of sand that we brought with us, but we discovered Fire Clay as we did our digging. A steady supply of the stuff will let us create large ceramic pots without having to glaze anything.


Limestone 21st, Year 2
Stabbedlancers

Giant Elephant balls I had forgotten how quickly clay piled up if you tell people to collect clay indefinitely. The good news is that I have plenty of building material and potting material for easily the next three years.

The bad news is that if I ever forget to exclude Fire Clay from any stockpile, I'm worried that only fire clay will ever be deposited into the stockpile.

On the other hand, we don't have much for trade, and I'm going to see just how much I can get for each unit of fire clay. If I run low on funds, I'll be selling off the raw clay.

The third migrant wave has arrived, and, with it, the news that the Goblins will be marching on us very, very soon.

Our Metwalworking shop is going to be working night and day to get our now three militia members fully kitted out. A wave of poults has hatched, and have been caged, as has litters of kittens, puppies, and piglets. Our new butcher is sharpening his knives as we begin selectively breeding our animals. We have also begun work on a Siege entrance, that is long and windy, designed to give our militia plenty of time to get fully equipped, show up, and kill whatever makes it past our trap gauntlet.

Except for the dogs. they're all gonna be trained as war dogs and given to the militia members. their selective breeding begins with the next generation that is currently growing up in the cage. Our mechanic has been doing nothing but making mechanisms, and it is time to begin work on our traps.

It has been further decided that each soldier will be assigned a breeding pair of War Dogs once they are trained by Obok. Any resulting puppies will be thrown into a cage until grown, at which time they will be trained for war, then given a Doberbomb assignment in case of emergency.

The exception, of course, will be our breeding bitch and dam. They will be kept safe deep inside the Fortress, pumping out puppies.


Personal log. Keep out. THIS MEANS YOU, MOM!

I really need to get a new diary. I'm an Overseer now, and my mom is a long ways away. And I'm 69 years old. And I lead an Expedition.

I've changed my mind about who I want babies with. I WANT Rith, but he doesn't want anything to do with me

I feel the need to play sad music on something my mind is trying to call a "guitar" and get "sad violins" playing. I have no idea what either of those things are, but they sound stupid. As Overseer and Expedition Leader, I am ordering Zon Minedfancied to love me and put babies into me. It may take a while to convince him.






Granite, Year 3.

One year down, the rest of them to go. No Goblins have been sighted, though a pair of humans have come to investigate our tavern. All of the supplies (bar some bones and skulls) have been brought inside, the entrance we're using now has a gate that can be closed, and our labyrinth upstairs has been prepared for invaders. It is low on traps at the moment, but its primary purpose is to slow them down and weaken them so the militia can be fully geared up and ready to deal with them.

Of slightly more importance is the discovery that we are out of iron. We have one full set of armor, and a few scraps of other armor. Unfortunately, our only miner is our Swordsdorf. We're going to have to dig, and fast.

But that's not MY problem. I will be leaving the Overseer journal for a year or more, while I.....convince Zon that we're meant to be together, because I say so. Also get a baby thrown up inside me. I'm going to throw this into the Dining Room and whoever picks it up is the new Overseer until I get back.

Once I DO get a baby, that lucky bitch Udol is going to be thrown into the Honeymoon Suite with Rith. They may be let out prematurely if invaders show up, because they're both in the militia.


Granite 2nd.

The miner, Kogan, tells me we've hit Hematite. Excellent. Sounds like a fairly big vein, too. Zon is in the Dining Room, and I'm just getting there now.

OH LOVER BOY!!!!!


Deduk, upper left getting in the mood by listening to music. Zon is lower-center. Curiously, the Bard that is visiting also happens to be the Human Guild Rep, but the civ hasn't shown up in the list yet. we also have a human dancer. this is a marked improvement over the last fort, that never, EVER got visitors.


[Editor's Note]

Wait. There are NO ELVES in this world. that means.......WOODEN POTS ALL AROUND!

Thanks to Anewaname for helping me refine this option. Well, he refined my original idea. And my original idea was for a place to store a strategic reserve of a material, not necessarily a place for every-day use. Though with these results.....For example, if you're running out of wood, stone, blocks, etc--or they're clogging up your stockpiles. This option works for logs, stone, and bars/blocks (according to the wiki, bins hold 5 blocks to a bin, so this would be ultra-storage for them).

The basic premise is to find/hollow out/temporarily remove !!Fun!! from a 32x32 area, and ([ b ]-[C]-) [f]loor the entire space with your chosen material (blocks, bars, wood, or stone). Next, in the middle of the square, build a 31x31 stockpile, and designate it for the material you have chosen. Around the perimeter of the stockpile, build one Minecart track stop per tile (same material as the stockpile and the floor), and get a minecart on it, and have each one fill from the stockpile.

And there you are. You now have a massive reserve of a given material.

How massive? Well, let's remember that a standard 31x31 is the largest stockpile you can make (961 squares) But assuming you COULD make a 32x32, it would fit 1,024 logs, stones, or 5,120 bars/blocks (according to the wiki bins take 5 bars or blocks apiece).

Stone Megapile Capacity: 2,588 (5 Stones per Minecart). 1,564 easily accessible.
Wood Megapile Capacity: 3,328 (10 Logs per Minecart). 2,034 easily accessible.
Bars/Blocks Capacity: 16,581 (83 Bars/Blocks per Minecart). 15,557 easily accessible.

So generally anywhere from a 150% to 300% storage capacity, depending on what you are storing.

Again, thank you anewaname for taking this up a notch and turning it into something more than just a 2x storage capacity option, with the suggestion of Minecarts/stops.

Of course, this could be turned up even MORE by cutting hole in the stockpile every other square and placing minecarts in the holes.


XmXmXmXmX
mXmXmXmXm
XmxmXmXmX

X=stockpile, m=Minecart. I doubt I'd ever be that anal dorfish about it, though. Even if it would basically optimise storage completely (by my quick head estimates it would store ~4500 more logs (~6500 total) and 2250 more stone (~3700 total) and ~40,000 more bars/blocks (~55k total))

Why not a Quantum Stockpile? Eh, it feels a bit cheaty to me.

Besides. Why have a dinky little 1x1 when you can do it bigger and more resource-intensive.

Of course, you could turn it up a notch by introducing water to push the stockpile out, so logs/stones/bins??? pile up on top of each other, forbid the logs/stones that are piled on top of each other, turn the water off, let the dorfs restock the now-empty spaces in the stockpile. Then, assuming no other stockpiles are going to steal the overflown logs/stones, unforbid the entire stockpile.

.....repeat?


.......could you weaponise this with high-pressure water smacking stockpiles into invaders' faces?

Or, oooh.....

an omni-directional Minecart Shotgun shotgun, with a giant stockpile at hand to refill the Minecart Shotguns.

so apparently if you forbid items from one trading session (say, hypothetically, Elves) while the traders are still there, and then claim them when the next caravan shows up (say, Humans), not only will the items not be taken out of the Depot, they will retain their [TRADING] tag.

Just discovered this because I didn't want items hauled out of the depot, only to be hauled to stockpiles far away, only to be brought AAAAALL the way back.

.......my stockpiles are a mess atm. Gonna be disabling all labors (except for 1 per person per month so they don't get bad thoughts) once all dwarves are properly mood primed. Then either selling all my shit to the caravans and then buying them all back with my few thousand prepared food pots to get them out of their bins.....

or abolishing ALL stockpiles (except my emergency wood stockpile that took forever to haul) and starting over from scratch.

Also, I'm excited because I tend to get fed up with/die by the third year of the fort. I'm in....year six of the fort (so year . I'm a couple years past the "MAKE MASTERWORKS FOR DORF BUCKS" and now I'm in the "Sell all the non-Masterworks, and prepare to destroy all the rooms so everyone can have Masterwork everything." stage.


EDIT: MY Mountainhome for a [Quality] tag for work orders, and/or for searching for trading. both for hauling goods AND for finding items to trade.

I just want to keep my Masterworks in the Fort, and make sure that I use Masterwork Pots for booze production!

Just what the title says.

just finished setting up a more defensible Trade Depot. Trying to see how defensive I can make it.

I've developed a bit of a habit, that I'm codifying into a Doctrine. At every embark, I use every single Stagnant Pool (those bits of water that are eerwhere on the surface). but not for fishing or anything like that. Nope, I use them for something better.

First step is to cut down all the trees near them. The more that fall into the pool, the better. Then, I dig out underneath the surface layer, and drain them completely. If some of the water goes over rocks, so much the better.

Next, I cover the pools with wood, making notes to be sure to replace the wood with Glass sometime in the future. These initial pools become less of an annoyance to mine around, and are first easy access to the surface to replace surface stockpiles with underground stockpiles, and then they become primary grazing land and a small handful becomes farming land. Since I tend to ebark with deep soil and sand, I'm starting to place my underground farms right next to the formerly stagnant pool surface farms, so I don't have to have separate food stockpiles, nor separate seed stockpiles, or potted seed feeder stockpiles.

Or the related workshops.

This replaces my former practices of channeling out surface areas, then sealing them off again--or finding areas with slight depressions that get walled off, roofed off, and turned into farms.


So now I ask you:

How do YOU exploit the Stagnant Pools, for the glory of the Sontaran Emp--er, Dorfen Empire!