Bay 12 Games Forum

I've had crocodiles from the elves fight off gobbos, so not surprising in the least. I'm rather glad that I'm not the only one who buys up exotics from the elves. They usually turn out to be useless for much other than meat industry and leather, but they're fun to say you have. Now if they'll only bring a male jaguar...I'll have babies and have more than my 2 war ones. Or another grizzly...

Finally restarted my game after losing everything due to computer battery dying while playing last weekend.

Had a siege this time, which didn't happen before, but it was stupid. I killed 30-some with my traps and they left...meanwhile I'm picking up all their crap. Still working on getting the atom smasher up and running and disposing of all worn clothes. Tedious, but necessary based on how slow it is...

Could you explain your pump stack setup? I haven't figured them out yet at all, and yours sounds fun. Do you need one pipe section for every z-level you're piping or are they just magic like mechanisms?

Thanks for the help. Once I get my dwarves clad in full steel I'll have 2 ambushes worth of goblins to slaughter.

If only I had bituminous coal on the map though... Charcoal is kind of ineffective, but it's not like I have that much to do... 5 sets of shields, gloves and boots...

To take everything from caged goblins, run a d-b-d on the cage, then exit out of the menu. k over the cage, and un-designate the cage itself for dumping. It will take eons for them to take everything. Before you assign them to a chain, check them in the u [tab][tab] c i menu. That should pull up the inventory of the gobbo in question. If they have stuff on them, don't assign them to a chain.

Snatchers don't usually have much on them so you can use them intermediately if you want. Start out (if your military is as annoying as mine) by stationing the squad (s [squad letter] m I think, for move, but I'm not playing at them moment) near the gobbo to kill. It won't attack because it's chained. Once you have enough of your squad there, then give the kill order. That'll keep one super gung ho dwarf from taking on the legendary swordsmaster singlehandedly while his buddies lollygag in grabbing their stuff and heading down to help out...

Ownrag's gotten so slow (played for 6 or 7 game years now) that it's running slowly. So I'm currently working on making some atom smashers in a room by my underground dump. Two 10x10 bridges set to retract with 10x10 dump zones in them. I had a siege that I used the mountainhome traders to help with, so I have not only some of the crap I traded to them again, but also what I didn't take from them. I haven't done any intentional atom smashing yet, so this will be interesting. For the moment, I'm just setting random old stuff I have found in my fortress entryway (x through XX) to dump. Once both stockpiles are full, I'll hook both bridges up to the same lever (probably placed in the room) to smash, rinse and repeat. Hopefully the old clothes will speed my life back up a bit. Because it's painfully slow. The 826 animals currently in my fort might have something to do with that too, but I'm having issues with food production...namely that food is going rotten in my kitchens before it gets eaten, or else the slaughtered meat goes rotten in the butcher shops. I've been trying to help it out by making lots of my extra useless animals assigned to the "outpost" chains, but it's just a drop in the bucket. So every ten or fifteen minutes I get a miasma in my kitchen area and designate the food to be dumped.

I think the fix to my kitchen thing might be to re-configure my stockpiles (I usually just make a bunch of everything stockpiles) to not accept tools, and have a tools-only stockpile that doesn't accept bins. Any thoughts on whether that would help?

Also, I designated my partially-constructed dragon pillbox to be de-constructed. I realized it was so close to my moat that I wouldn't be able to channel around it to keep archers from walking up and shooting. So I have a channel being dug with one tile between it and my moat channel (my biome freezes in winter). I'll put the blinder bridges inside of that channel, then the pillbox right next to those. I'm rather excited about it (dragon has reverted back to semi-wild, but still doing well in his cage. I need to figure out how many of my weapon traps I will have to remove so he doesn't melt them (I like using the failed siegers' weapons in traps to be used against them...seems pretty dwarfy to me). I'm working to make the entire area inside of my moat but away from Ziril a mass of traps with no visible grass whatsoever, with the exception of the windy path I made for traders' wagons (can fit 3x3 wagon the whole way but they go one tile, turn 90 degrees, go one tile, turn 90 degrees, etc.). I've also turned his pillbox 90 degrees, so the 2-long side is going west to east, with the 1-length side facing my entrance being a door, not a wall or fortification. I'm still deciding if I want the blinder bridges to all be on the same lever, or if I want the control to designate one bridge at a time to move to try to target the most enemy without harming my fort/dwarves. I wouldn't necessarily mind burning the elves...the only thing I got from them the last time was seeds and sand since my biome doesn't have any. Maybe some alcohol too, I'm a little low for my taste.

I might need to figure out setting up a firefighting system in case of uncontrolled fire. I still haven't figured out pumping/how to manage liquid flow yet (pipe sections?). Any good tutorials on doing anything with liquid flow beyond just digging a channel? I'd be looking to create a mist that might put out the fire (if that's even possible).

Anyways, that's Ownrag. It's drowning in its own ragged clothing. Guess it's appropriate!

Was your mountainhomes liaison killed during one of the sieges?

If he's chained, he won't try to burn my guys, will he? Just want to be sure before chaining him and then deciding to move him. I am rather paranoid about getting him in place.

EDIT:

Ziril Oltarkovest Kadol Osram, Stray Dragon, is now trained (but still in his cage - I thought that wasn't even possible but apparently it is). I think I will war train him before sticking him in his pill box (since it is still being built...). Score! Surprisingly, my civ still doesn't even have "general familiarity" about dragons. Maybe someday.

My floor plan for this pillbox is:

BBBBB
W##WB
#   C#B
WD#WB
__BBB

B = bridge
C = chain
W = wall
# = fortification

I've built an up/down staircase (x2 levels) so I can put the roof on, and will dismantle it as soon as it's built. This whole thing is tucked in the corner of my moat, as far from both my pasture area and my entrance as possible.

And, of course, the siege comes before I'm done building. Oh well - the mountainhomes were almost done loading their wagons, so they're cutting them down. PLUS it means I have more training aides...

Caught a dragon in a trap, and am trying to plan out a pillbox/fire funnel for future goblin roasting (anybody bring the marshmallows?).

Had a double ambush come through my fort and managed to lose 2 dudes, although I now have 2 snatchers and 7 goblin fighters to train my military on. I think I'll try stationing the squad before issuing the attack order to ensure it's not just one dwarf vs goblin pike lord or whatever. Maybe that will help to train everyone fairly.