Bay 12 Games Forum

I feel like most troubles in DF yield best to planning, even if there in the moment solutions.  So I'd go with:

....  Also, I guess, a lesson that most threats are neutralized by appropriate armor PLANNING.

I'm experimenting with 3X3 rooms connected together in chains such that a source stockpile leads to a workshop, which outputs to another stockpile, which is pulled from by another workshop, etc.

The easy example is I have a 3X3 wood stockpile that pulls from my central sorting stockpile.  It is adjacent to 3X3 rooms containing a bowyer and a carpenter, and is linked to give to them.

The more complex example is:  A 3X3 pile of barrel-less seeds pulls from central storage and gives to 4X7 room of farm plots adjacent to it.  That 4X7 room gives to a barrel-less pile of food.  That pile gives to a still (which ends that arm of the chain) and a farmer's workshop.  The farmer's workshop outputs to a pile of food that gives to a kitchen (and a pile of thread > loom > pile > clothier, so a non-food industrial chain;
 and yes, I need to learn to dye, since I'm grinding dimple cups into bags anyway).  The kitchen also draws from a pile linked to a butcher (also linked > tanner > pile > leatherworker in a non-food industry).

It ends up being a tiny warren of 3X3s linked by doors, and does take a bit of engineering to avoid issues w. workshop non-passable tiles.  However it looks organic, which I like.  It is also kind of easy to designate as it mentally works off of my mental models of the industries I know (and encourages me to better understand industries I'm not currently using).  So it's like, "okay, doing metals...   starting near the woodpile a room for a woodfurnace, another for charcoal, another for a smelter, now near that as well one for ore, another for economic rock, now ... how do I fit the bar stockpile next to the smelter as well ... aha!  Okay, that means the forge goes .... Here.  and weapons and armor and goods feed back into Central Sorting.  Now, I put the doors in once it's dug, add the shops, create the piles, set up the links ....   Pefecto!"  I have almost no idea how it will all look at the start, but it flows easy and looks okay at the end.

It's likely I have too many stock-piles in there, maybe I could link some workshops to other workshops instead.  I don't have a really good sense of how much clutter will effect things, vs how much excess stockpile space will result in higher "inventory" slowing the total production time to end-product.  For now I mostly use intermediate stockpiles though the butcher > tanner link is a notable one that doesn't use an intermediate stockpile.  So if anyone has a clue on that I'd love input.

For some time now I've been working on a custom embark.  One of the requirements is that I bring the necessary goods to pierce an aquifer.  Now I like two screw pumps for aquifer piercing, and I like magma safe so I can use them later.  So ... 2 glass screws, 2 glass pipes, 2 glass blocks, 2 magma-safe rock mechanisms.......

umm....  2 mechanisms???

Yeah, so, for all these embarks I've been bringing enough rock to cover 5 mechanisms, three for a lever and a bridge (really a basic safety requirement IMO) and 2 for ... screw-pumps......     Except I just found out this morning I don't need mechanisms for screw pumps .....

So why have I been bringing those two extra rock all this time???

*face  meet   palm*

I'm just getting my vanilla reflexes back.  It took me a while to learn to use dfhack, so there aren't THAT many things I need to retrain.  (the biggest turn out to be using dfhack's labor-viewer, relying on my mouse to do things on the map, and the difference between "+" and "=" in menus -- that last is by far the biggest)

Not sure if I run the right version, but these succession stories are sounding pretty fun.

If Simple Fort restarts I'd like to try a turn.  (though I'll probably be dull as dirt and just finish everyone's projects and re-factor production orders)

I am amazed at the audacity!  He has done it.  Vucar, King of the Dwarves, has declared war on the goblins -- admittedly this is merely a formality as all the pits subservient to The Greatest Tick consider themselves at war with the world.  But consider dear reader the implications within the fort.  As of now their King has appointed officers, commanded the creation of a stocked armory, and begun training for war.  As a sign of how serious he is even his nobles have been conscripted -- into a squad commanded by the rawest of Captains.

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At the start of winter in 126 the dwarves of Rithdakas, "Bellscolor", began to prepare for war.

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1 Moonstone:

It seems the first shall be momentous in many ways.  I'll start with the bad, we lost our first dwarf -- after a long period of madness and thirst Zaneg Logenmozib died last night.  We buried him in the temple this morning.  The personal is that my fever broke last night!  The important is that at the funeral Vucar commanded that Rithdakas was ready to begin to prepare for war.  He ordered the gates raised until spring, and appointed five new Captains to head up squads for the entire settlement.  As he asked I chose mostly random people to start as captains until we know who will suit the job best -- the exception being the mother of our newest dwarf, I think appointing her a captain will do well for the morale of the entire fort.

I have much to do in the meantime.  I must speak with out book-keeper and manager about regularizing and increasing steel production.  We'll need fifty more steel helms immediately, and we need to start producing weapons daily.  I fear we are no longer brewing or cooking enough as well, and those orders -- along with many others, shall need to be regularized.  I'll have to bring our broker into it as well, our stockpiles need a major re-organization, they're quite the mess.  Thankfully The Scrapes are mostly cleared away and ready now;  the tavern and library both seem to be going well, and our food production in the basement has never slowed, while the crops aboveground are starting to flourish.

I am ordering the breakdown of many of our organic mason's shops and smelters, as unused stock moves away from them their usefulness decreases.  With The Halls filling with shops and beds for working-dorfs I am ordering new stockpiles based on mine-cart dumps to be constructed for their supply.  When spring comes and it is time to put out the new watch-peacocks and prepare for the Festival and the visiting traders we shall be in good order.


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Rovod nodded and reached out to take Cilob from his wife.  The baby grabbed on to first his arm, then his chest, fists gripping his clothes like clamps on a wood-crafting bench.  Rigoth stretched, her arms reaching for the sky as she straightened.  His wife was a handsome woman, by any man's standards, and the sight of her always brought him joy.  Yet ... he had to keep trying, "I still don't understand why you have to serve?"

Rigoth snorted in annoyance at her husband.  She took up the wooden scepter hanging from her belt, "The King made me a Militia Captain for the same reason as everyone else, because we all fight.  And I'm getting tired of hearing you complain about it."  Her eyes narrowed as she glared at Rovod, who raised both hands in surrender.  She looked over as the last of her squad appeared -- climbing up through the 'Creation of Adventures' too slowly.  "And it's no dishonor that my squad was understrength, King Vucar even gave me all of his nobles to fill out the squad until more migrants arrive."

As that last of her dwarves struggled up the stairs she frowned even more and muttered under her breath to Rovod, "Even that lazy mayor, and orders to get him into shape."  She reached out, "Here, give me him back.  Not a one of them wrestles worth a damn if they're afraid of hurting him, so I'm a cinch to win every match in practice today."  As he passed the baby over Cilob let go of his father and transferred that iron-strong grip to his mother's clothes.

Rigoth turned towards the group of her new troops, putting a snarl on her face.  "You'd better get your fat arse moving Ubbul," she roared!  "If I catch any of you the King's given me permission to set the pumps up in the courtyard and we'll be pumping ALL WEEK!"  As she bellowed at her men and women she broke into a trot, then a run.  "Now run like I'm that giant, chasing you for my meal.  Run you lazy dwarves!  RUN!!!!"

Rovod watched his wife charge away, roaring like a beast, scattering her squad before her in terror -- a fierce grin plastered across her face.

"I've never seen her so happy," he commented to a very long-moustached dwarf setting a stepladder up against the nearby plum-tree.

"Doc made a good choice with her," King Vucar Ushulbavok the First, Last King of the Free Dwarves, replied -- before climbing up into the plum tree to be sure there weren't any fruit still clinging on as winter began.


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((  OOC, Have some images of the state of the fort:  ))
The main keep aboveground. 
The first and second levels of The Scrapes:

The Prison, and the main Sorting Stockpile where the broker's throne sits:

An example of what I mean by "organic workshops", a mason and smelter right where I'm clearing out a vein:

We then have The Halls, I intend to line all those back walls with beds, let the dorfs sleep where they work, a hard-working dorf is a happy dorf (so long as you keep them drunk of course):

Finally, here's my work orders, most of these are repeating daily with various conditions limiting them.  I believe in small daily production orders keeping fairly small stocks constantly replenishing.  It takes little attention once in place, but you can't furniture out 50 beds at a time this way, instead you do 2-3 a day for a month and place as you go.  It's not without disadvantages, and you do need to scale orders up as you increase in size.  That's actually MY goal for the winter, to regularize these orders.

Thanks!

So, if I get this right, we have ..

The aboveground walls, with a bit of farming, my training areas, the depot and it's double-bridge based "airlock" over the river, and a couple shops.  I love having two plum trees and a walnut inside the fort's walls, very convenient fruit and nuts.


The first and second layers of "The Scrapes".  I've done some cleanup since, and most of the workshops are gone from the first level, I've also cleared away most of the clutter and moved chairs and tables to the side to give myself room for a tavern dance-floor.  The rooms on the northeast of the second level down are my hospital, small, but fully stocked, and with two wells.  Eventually most of the rooms will be let out to permanent residents, I hope.


Finally there are my "Halls".  I intended to put all my crafting in here, but I felt the need to add a basic throne room, bedroom, and I'll put a burial site on the upper most room.  The north-east I have turned into a temple, and the other wings I have now fully filled with every workshop, a few with duplicates.


My access to flux stone is far below the Halls, and the limonite vein lies between the Halls and the Scrapes.  Moving forward I've a bunch to do here, but eventually I'll build a "final" fort somewhere new -- behind a fully fortified approach, with no back-doors.

It is important to recall that even in the midst of momentous events the mundane is never lost.  During a great siege women still give birth.  Despite armies marching between settlements crops still get grown.  No matter the Great And Glorious, wild animals still hunt, and feed.
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In mid-spring of 5 dingoes attacked the stocks at Dikehaven.  They devoured several peahens, cavvies, a rabbit, and two cats. 

In the mid-autumn of 12 a bronze earring was stolen from Dikehaven. 

In 22 a magpie-woman emigrated to Dikehaven and became a farmer. 

In 27 the child Tirist Worthyfloor was abducted by a goblin, Dikehaven mourned.  By 35 Tirist escaped and returned to Dikehaven, as a pedlar.

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23 Galena:

Dear Gods, how can spring, and now summer, come and have gone so quickly?  We have barely finished digging out the halls for craftsmen below -- some workshops are still working hard up in The Scrapes.  The work on the Limonite vein progresses, we've more iron now than I've ever seen in my life, though Kosoth says it isn't much of a stock at all compared to what we'll need.  But still, no flux stone.  I wanted to stop digging, build defenses, but Vucar is constantly pushing for more exploratory mining.  He has the main staircase going down and down, unceasingly.  He says that until we can make steel we can not be safe.

The Festival went well, we didn't offend the Gods and invite disaster on ourselves, and the elves who came brought some animals and foods we traded glass-works for.  I've claimed one of the halls for our King, though mudstone isn't really what I'd like to have for him it is better than dirt.  Production on goods for it is begun.

We broke through into some caverns, which I immediately had walled off.  As a result we've been plagued ever since by a never-ending stream of humans -- and even a goblin -- who are seeking to slay monsters in the caves below.  Vucar has refused each one, like myself he feels that only dwarves should be allowed down into the stones -- they are the bones of the earth, and ours by birthright.  The most recent petitioner troubles me, she is the Lady Consort of one of the human kingdoms, I fear they might take offense when Vucar refuses her pleas, and refuse her he shall.

Of all things this is the best however:  a mass of escapees from Dikehaven arrived!  The Resistance managed to free nearly two dozen from the pits, and we are now 53 souls strong at Rithdakas!  We now have walls about our farms and shops and training areas above, and a massive gate at our entrance -- with a second, smaller and walled off, entrance leading across the river to the trade-road. 

Vucar and I will be going over rosters this evening after dinner to set up four new squads and put almost everyone into the militia for immediate training.  He has decided some nobles must, due to the needs of the job, be exempted from military service -- my nearly missing a chance to trade with the elves due to archery training convinced him that Ubbul Rithstizash -- a recent arrival -- was a better choice for broker.  I have since managed to convince him to let me train a new manager, and book-keeper.  I have mixed feelings about this last bit, but I truly am grateful -- Atir Idenkeskal may not be as good at diagnoses as I am, but he is an excellent doctor in every other respect and it was at my own insistence that Vucar named him our new Chief Medic.

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Rovod Zonarros walked down the stairs as he shifted his pick from one shoulder to the other.  Despite being a wood-crafter by training, and now a near-supernaturally-skilled one, he had always enjoyed mining.  The King's policy of having as many picks available as possible and letting every dwarf dig suited him just fine.  He was looking forward to the chance to do some digging alongside Alath as well, as the only two to have successfully crafted artifacts they shared a bond.

He passed a dwarf babbling madly on his way down.  It was a shame, the leatherworker had been the first escapee to arrive at Rithdakas, but they hadn't had the kind of leather he'd needed.  Rovod wasn't sure these "strange moods" were really a good thing after he saw how frustration drove the other dwarf mad.

Soon he heard the rhythmic sounds of pick-axes striking stone from down below.  As he descended a bit more he heard the mining songs the dwarves sung as they worked, the picks striking providing a never-ending beat.  He joined in as he stepped up to the rock face to take his place, "... been told, a big-legged dorf ain't got no soul.   I don't know, but I been told ...," the song continued for a time-less time as three dwarves mined together.  The work soothed Rovod's worries, alongside Alath, and a broad-backed third dwarf, he felt like part of the team, a cog in a Great Machine.  The world, his concerns, time itself, all seemed to slip away as he became part of the team.

Eventually the three stopped for a break, each pulling the cloths wound around their faces to keep them from breathing too much dust away.  With a shock Rovod recognized the very long mustachioed face before him, "Your Majesty!"  He started a bow, before King Vucar stopped him.

"I hate that, bowing and scraping.  It reminds me of an unpleasant past.  Here, now, I'm just a dwarf with a pick, and a place on the team."  Rovod and Alath both nodded, they understood that drive well.  A thoughtful look on his face Vucar continued, "But I think perhaps we should set aside all of our old ways.  The bowing was at the goblin's commands.  I do not wish to be anything like them."  His brow furrowed, lips tightening in a look that Alath was beginning to realize meant the King was coming to difficult decision, but was increasingly sure of the rightness of it.

Vucar took a swig from the rock pot of ale set nearby, then picked his pick up once more.  "Alath, you're off-shift soon, set the pick down and head up-top to the mine-head.  I have two messages for you to bring to Datan.  The first is my Royal Command;  No more shall dwarves act as slaves, and I wish us to do our best to forget the horrors from which we came and instead focus on our future, as free dwarves.  No bowing, no whippings, and no more beatings -- criminals will be imprisoned as a lesson, then returned to society, even our worst we shall treat better than the goblins treated our best.  The second message is much shorter."  With a grin splitting his face he pointed down at a corner of the stairs being carved out of the gneiss.

Rovod looked closer, "It does look different, I think."  He knew he was neither the smartest dwarf nor the most knowledgeable with stones -- he worked in wood after all.  But Alath's gasp meant she saw something there.  Vucar laughed, for the first time Rovod could remember it sounded like a happy sound, Vucar could be a bit grim.

The King spoke, "Tell Datan we just struck marble.  Tomorrow, and forever more, the smelters in Rithdakas shall begin work on Steel!"