Bay 12 Games Forum

You want to do a repetitive, objectively-defined task to a large number of items?  Sounds like a perfect job for a program.  I'm looking into using a data dump from OmegaWiki to either format selected words or just create one massive language file, but I'm unfamiliar with SQL.  I'll update if any progress is made with that.

Figuring out the caging system, but only after two Ogre-related incidents. Apparently dwarves living off of -dwarven ale- and +dwarven ale roast+ don't have the cognitive skills to realize that they can't transfer a raging Ogre from cage to cage by hand. I've been a lot more careful with similar tasks since....

I used to have this problem, and actually stopped playing for a while because of how boring it got. I would spend FOREVER finding the perfect site, setting up my embark, and setting up my actual starting area by ramp-carving the cliff face flat. At first, from there, I would proceed to build a terribly unorganized fortress which led to such disarray it was unplayable. Them, I began building better and better forts until I had it down to an art. Tunnel down to the farm, food stockpile right by it, dining room on the other side, and houses expending southward from the westward tunnel making it adjacent to the dining room. Workshops and stockpiles up north. It was efficient, easy to build and designate, and boring.

The only solution I've found for this is to find interesting starting areas. The best ones are always mountainous. Varied terrain with intermingled stone and soil tiles help. A chasm and river, preferably close to each other, are a must. This keeps the game interesting at least during the design and build stage, as well as prolonging the build stage. For instance, try getting an aqueduct across a chasm and down a few z-levels to your farm while simultaneously channeling it to a moat and avoiding dangerous situations.

Once you're done with the interior design, there's normally not much to do except micromanage dorfs. That's where intricate defense setups and megaprojects come in. Try building a defense setup that doesn't rely on a standard or exploit-like method of killing. Long hallways of stonefall or cage traps, atom smashers, and your standard ballista-marksdorf hall are some examples. Try building a defense system that traps the enemy and floods them, then pumps the water back out. Or drops them down to a pit filled with fifty of your hammerdwarfs, wardogs, cats, nobles, fire imps, and booze. The possibilities are limitless.

Once you've done this a bit though, I would suggest either declaring war on the Elves or downloading Orc mod. The challenge presented by Goblins isn't great enough to make building these feel justified, as it normally isn't.

Basically, with a sandbox game, the goal isn't quite to make it easier on yourself, it's to make it harder.

I'm assuming this requires the Orc mod, which I can't seem to find. Googling returns only forums talking about it. Anyone have the link?

As you set up your fortress, spend your time building an extravagant, ingenious, mechanical merchant death machine. Kill every caravan you see. Let all your children get snatched by snatchers. Employ a team of ten lumberjacks to strip the landscape of anything resembling life. When this is done, rest assured, fun will be on its way.

Ok, the wiki was rather unclear about this. Do spike traps do ANY damage to creatures that fall on them? I wasn't sure if "no (additional) damage" meant no damage in addition to what the trap normally does or in addition to the falling damage. If they don't do damage, then is there a way to actually have the spikes trigger when a critter falls on them?