Bay 12 Games Forum

au contraire, they also perform amphibious assaults. 

Marines could EASILY be the dwarfs that are trained to swim so that they are advantaged when they need to wade into a partially filled drowning chamber.   

Or they could be the dwarfs whom brave the locks to haul mermaids and whalesharks from the cage traps into aquariums. 

Or, as Zemouregal pointed out, they could be the ones deployed across the surface of the moat, with enough velocity to skip off the surface (this is actually totally do-able) so that they might engage an enemy on the opposite bank.

These last could also be characterized as Dwarfey SEa, Air, and Land teams.

And vampires are immune to drowning, thus they would make the perfect amphibious assaulters! YEAH!

I also believe that vampires continue to gain stats after being converted, its other night creatures that get "frozen" stats. 

This is a thread on super-soldiers and we have yet to have a single mention of vampire blood-wells!?  Shame on you, forums!

Becoming a vampire doubles physical attributes.  Whats more, your vamp-soldiers will not need to eat, fill their waterskins, or even sleep! They don't even technically need to feed on blood (they will never die of "thirst" in fortress mode).  Just keep them separate from the rest of your fortress, but with plenty of opportunities to "greet" those nice hippies that come to play ever spring!

Salt cannot be the only preservation method- not only would it severely punish forts that don't have rock salt/ocean access, but several more alternatives exist for the time period.

Pickling has already been mentioned.  To clarify, any booze is just one step from becoming vinegar, so all forts should have access to pickling.  The real issue is that pickling food alone isn't enough, the container also must be sealed.  Typically, wax (bees) was used to seal the jars shut.  I believe fat can also be used to seal the jars shut.

Smoking meat.  Beef jerking/smoking meats is another "old as dirt" preservation method.  You'd sacrifice a log for a stack of meat.  Mmmmm smoked elk bird spleen!

Honey.  Sugar/honey actually works as an anti-microbial agent.  Traditionally, fruits were persevered in jars of honey.  I doubt dwarven syrup would work, however.  Honey is an anti-fungal AND microbial built in.  Sugar works via dehydration (sugar molecules absorb moisture from the bacteria, killing them). 

With honey/wax both being used in food preservation, the bee-industry would actually become an awesome and integral part of your fortress! Instead of just "oh hey, I got 100 idling dorfs.  At least one can keep bees, I guess?"

Also, lets not forget flour.  This already exists in game, but only as a means to increase food VALUE.  However, flour typically has an indefinite shelf life if kept free of vermin.  Early forts can rely on bags of flour until they can trade for salt/get their pickling industry going. 

For the bravest (most desperate) of dwarven souls, there is always lye.  Basically, lutefisk.  *shudders*

What about ice-rooms? "root cellars" traditionally just required on storing vegetables in a cool, dry place.  With ice walls, you'd have a veritable low-tech freezer/firdge.  Think about it, eskimo's really don't have to worry about food spoilage when everything is ice, snow, ice, and more snow.  At the very least, spoilage should be slowed in winter months.  When the rivers freeze over, food isn't going to spoil very fast (if at all).  Scientists have actually dug up mammoth carcasses frozen solid for 10,000+ years AND ATE THAT SHIT.  Mammoth stew was heavily freezer-burned, but otherwise edible.  Let that sink in before you dismiss disabling food spoilage in a glacier embark.

The only foods that should spoil very quickly are meats though.  Most vegetables and some fruits (apples/oranges) really don't start to rot for a month or so.  Berries on the other had rot within days/weeks.  Meat... if left out at room temperature would rot within a couple days.  Intestines? Practically overnight.  The intestines contain massive amounts of bacteria to begin with.  Second the animal dies those bacteria tend to go wild. 

But as has been said... pretty sure beds have to be made of wood because no "padding" is being used.  A wood bed would be far more comfortable than a stone or metal one sans the mattress. 

I totally agree that beds should be made in multiple parts, but I suggest that it should be frame-padding-blanket.  Frame can be anything (wood, stone, metal, glass), then for padding you can either use the standard cloth options (pig tail cloth, yarn) or preferably use animal hair (fur) or feathers.  Right now feathers are 100% useless, even though they have been used for padding (and decorations) since... well the first mattresses probably.  However, "cloth" typically isn't used as padding, but perhaps the un-processed wool (yarn) or animal hair would be more typical.  Finally, you can add a blanket which is derived from cloth. 

*shrugs* using exploits as training wheels takes all the fun out of the game for me.  You might as well just use DF hack to generate the metal or fiddle with the RAWs to change goblin melting points so they instantly die when entering the map.  If you can step in and bend the rules whenever you see fit, where is the challenge and sense of accomplishment?  I am not even the only person to say that in this very thread.  Yet now I am the bad-guy for going a little more in-depth in to why they shouldn't be used? Aslandus said he needed training wheels to help learn the game.  I simply "suggested" that he not embark on more advanced areas (low metal in this case) until he is comfortable with dealing with the consequences of not having iron/any military-grade metals.  I didn't call him a n00b, I didn't tell him to go die in a fire, I wan't even condescending (to him) at all.  I was only condescending towards "Urist Tilaturist" WHOM I BLOODY QUOTED for saying that exploits didn't exist, and are in fact "emergent gameplay." 

My point was that if you were going to cheat, at least own up to the cheat and don't hide behind flowery words.  But that makes me a bad-guy, apparently.

I wasn't being a tyrant and telling this n00b to keep his grubby neck-beard away from using exploits.  I simply voiced my opinion and offered suggestions to work around not using it.  Why the bloody hell can't I have a reasonable debate to try and change someone's mind? "Never try to convince someone is your own personal views" sounds like you are hte one trying to force that view on me.  I told him I'd rather him not do it, but that it was his single-player game so w/e.   I never told him I'd shoot his dog or hack his computer or even ignore him if he tried to stop.  I just tried to calmly suggest otherwise.  I never once called him any names or got petty with him.  I simply cannot fathom how that is wrong.

Since I apparently need to clarify things... my point now is that there is no moral imperative stating you can't DISCUSS something with intent to change another's mind.  It's how the entire world functions!  Have you never once tried to argue why X game/movie/song/restaurant is better than Y with your friends? Seriously...  I never once tried to actually STOP a friend from listening to Nickelback, but I can sure as hell try to convince him to stop so long as I don't resort to name-calling.

Duping metal is a cheat.  I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, but there is no other way to look at it.  I said you are free to do it if you want, but I was responding to others trying to pass it off as "emergent gaming" and "unplanned features."  They were trying to cheat and not call it a cheat. 

Remember the core principle of Dwarf Fortress: Losing is FUN! Every time you screw up or realize you made a mistake, learn from it! Once you realize that not all embarks have iron, you learn to only embark on places with "shallow/deep METALS (plural).  This is one of the #1 beginner tips along with not settling on aquifers.  You can also check your civ to see what metals it has access to.  I have built several successful forts that have fought off sieges and megabeasts with only something useless like "sphelarite" or no metals at all within my embark.  You either import all your metals from caravans, or use various traps and bone crossbows (or obsidian clubs, only melee non-metal weapon).  Remember, you can freely melt down imported "large iron breastplates" and "bronze cleavers" or even "steel crafts" for bar fractions.  I just make note of any items I melt down for more than 100% efficiency and remove the extra bars. 

Look, this is a difficult game, I won't deny that.  But if you are new and settle on a terrifying glacier with no metal, a (salt water) aquifer, 5 nearby necro towers and a goblin civ, and your own civilzation is both extinct and lacks any metal above copper... are clearly in the wrong place.  You die and learn from it.  Go back to easier areas.  Its like playing any other game where you take a wrong turn out of the gate and wind up in a high-level area.  You don't go "screw this, I'm cheating to survive!" You turn around and head back into the easier areas until you get a better grasp of whats going on.  Once you have the experience and know-how to flourish in the milder zones, you can start adding on challenges (no/scarce metals, goblins, HFS, aquifers, extreme climates, etc). 

If you are new to the game, don't go "I'm cheating to survive!" when you stumble onto an advanced challenge... you do the best you can and take notes.  Losing is FUN kids. 

Not if there's a building destroyer about.

Except that misses the real issue.  Trap-avoid means pressure-plate avoid too... and you said that you wanted something "more reliable than cage traps."  So this won't capture a single thing that a cage trap wouldn't, and in fact will capture several LESS things.  As Grak mentioned, floodgates are NOT immune to building destroyers.  That would trap a common troll for mere seconds.  It would be somewhat more realistic that a cage trap in that a dinky wooden cage shouldn't hold anything more than a small critter, yet alone a powerful warrior. 

To trap a building destroyer you have to stun or web it first  This is done by either having a spider spit web over the trap (by chaining a goblin or dog behind the trap), causing a cave in above the trap tile, or dropping the creature several z-levels on top of the trap (stunning it with fall damage).  Now, some beasts are both "trapavoid," and "web/stunavoid" so there is little you can do about them in the name of in-game "traps."  You can, however, seal them into rooms with raised bridges.  Its how I make "zoos" out of titans and forgotten beasties

if you want to trap kobold thieves and goblin baby-snatchers, then your best bet is early detection.  A pair of dogs on a chain near your entrance will spot them. 

We're going to deal with any remaining issues with multi-species forts for this release, and there'll be opportunities to incorporate some visiting critters into your fort on a more permanent basis (most likely mercenaries/adventurers).

That is straight from Toadyone's mouth (well, fingers) in the 1/10/15 update last week.  As it stands, forts are comprised of dorf's and animals.  So if its not a dorf, it's treated like a dog and unable to do any labor.