Bay 12 Games Forum

Dear Urist McBrewer,

The fortress is running out of booze ever since we got that wave of thirty-two new dwarves making our glorious hold their home. I do not appreciate you going on break for half a month when we only have six units of dwarven wine left in the booze stockpile.

Sincerely,

The Overseer (who is beginning to bite his nails hoping nobody goes for a drink until you return to your post)

A trainee axedwarf took on 2 kobolds for 'notable kills', 2 other kobolds and 2 giant wolverines all with his trusty (and now sentimentally attached to) apple wood training axe! I may just promote him to militia commander instead of my other dwarf... once he's finished healing from the hospital of course.

However, I just realised he's also married with 2 kids (no joke), all of whom are in my fort. Oh, friends with the mayor, sheriff, hammerer, chief medical.... I think retirement my be the better choice for him lol

Nah, just make him so badass and always keep him with a full squad of elite dwarves at his side that the only way he'd die would be from old age. My militia commanders are always the roughest, toughest, most-kills-to-their-name-in-all-the-military dwarves.

What I've done is to set the population cap at 115 or so, but the strict population cap at 220. This then limits my immigration and allows the second half of my fortress to slowly grow up from there as the remainder is born and raised right there.

Right now, and in v.34.11 even, I would say that the be-all and end-all of any fortress defence is a single bridge, walls surrounding your entrance, and a roof over it all with no path up/down from the inside. Turtle yourself in and you can outlast anything (except perhaps a dragon breathing fire right on your raised bridge, because its flame breath can and will destroy most of them) so long as you see to the needs of your dwarves and don't rely on the caravans for food or clothing.

However, once we start getting goblin sieges where they bring units whose sole purpose in life is to destroy bridges, then everything will get a lot more interesting. Right now they can only enter if you let them in or your only defence is a door, which can be destroyed by building destroyers like trolls. Once they get the capability to break their way in whether you're ready to fight them or not things are going to become a lot more FUN.

Dwarf Fortress is a numbers game, but it's also about seeing that legendary fisherdwarf you've got out there getting caught by an elf ambush, wrestle their swordsman to the ground and punch his face in when he's got no military training, and then climb up and jump from tree to tree back to your fort with the elves fleeing away in terror.

Or about having that trader caught outside in a siege flee directly into the goblin horde, get slaughtered, and then watch as all of the recruits flee in terror from the sight of their dead enemy, routing the whole force.

Quote from: penguinofhonor on December 02, 2007, 03:03:00 pm

I'm trying to recuperate after a bronze colossus attack. I had 50+ dwarves, now about half that. Luckily, they survived because the colossus was busy killing the 40+ kittens and puppies, along with about 3/4ths of my military (all wusses because I'm afraid to let them spar... I'm reconsidering. Let all dwarves that get mortal wounds die!). It died because it kept walking over weapon traps next to a door. It would walk onto them to start killing the door, then see a kitten to kill, then kill it, then walk back, then start again, then see a dwarf to kill, kill it, come back, etc. Took about 7 times to kill the bugger. My army managed to scratch its right arm. Damn them. Now I have to keep my mayor alive but I used my last bucket on an ashery and my dwarves are too busy tantruming to make more. A true disaster, but one thing makes it awesome: losing is fun! Yay!<P>Speaking of engravings, a while ago (before the attack) I got one of a dwarf in the fetal position. I'd love to see the ones I'll get now.<P>Off to make 25 coffins!

Deconstruct Ashery, get bucket.

Dwarves don't kill each other sparring these days. Have them spar as often as they want.

Have them train 9 months of the year while staying active, make sure that they are all wearing their uniforms to avoid the severe unhappy thought that goes with being uncovered, let them sleep in their own rooms at will (since I've noticed having them sleep in a designated barracks gives them the 'slept without a proper bedroom' unhappy thought), and generally make your fortress as nice as possible with legendary dining rooms, lots of different food and drink options, and statues all over the place. Make your fortress a great place, and your military will be proud and happy to defend it.

For as long as I've been playing DF, which is about a year and a half now, I've only now just started to venture into using minecarts...and I'm finding myself stumped by them. I've gone through the tutorial on the wiki and I've watched a couple of videos so I know in theory how they work...but I just can't seem to get my dwarves to do anything with them and it's driving me crazy!

Can anyone help? Attached is my save where my frustration is gathered from.

*Edit* Link removed.