Bay 12 Games Forum

Have you made a bug report?

This sounds like exactly the kind of thing Toady needs to hear about:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/my_view_page.php

I didn't think of that. I'm actually not even sure how to make a bug report. Honestly, I see it as one of those "It's not a bug, it's a feature" situations. It doesn't seem to break anything. If I can figure out the bug reporting process, I might report it anyway.

I've never heard of river sources overflowing. Didn't even realize it was possible. Are they just failing to stop filling, or is the water somehow flowing downhill? If your site's got an aquifer, you could try draining the overflow into that.

Ever since my last coastal embark, I've been curious to see if I could use waves and floor grates to create an easy mass mist generator, so I don't think I could resist another ocean embark, despite the reclaim issues.


On an unrelated note, in my current fortress I found out that the Red Sand tiles created by the tree collapse aren't located on a constructed floor but on top of the tree itself!. It seems that even though the game allowed me to designate constructions in the same space as tree branches, those constructions cannot actually be built. But by attempting to build floors between the trunk and upper branches of a tree, it looks like I caused the upper branches to collapse, creating a cloud of red sand. Normally this sand would act as a contaminant rather than creating a soil layer, but for some reason it works on the top of a tree.

There was recently another collapse at the sandy tree tiles. I suspect that the game is trying to make the tree grow, but either the sand layer on top or the surrounding floors interfere with it, causing them to collapse again. Fortunately, it didn't damage anything. I'll have to test and see if this is reproducible. SCIENCE!!

Edit: Can confirm, totally reproducible! With the correct application of dwarven SCIENCE!!, sand really does grow on trees!

Could my settlement live mostly on food and meats gathered, fished, or hunted from the lands?

Oh, most definitely! Well, depending on the biome. It doesn't work so well on a glacier. But based on the environment you described, you should have no problems. The best part is that brewing plants and fruits that you've gathered yields seeds that can be used for above-ground farming, so it might actually help improve your farm efficiency!

So... I forgot that dragon fire can destroy drawbridges. Consequently, my fortress has dropped from 120 dwarves to 20 dwarves, half of whom are children. Also, the majority of the contents of the top half of the fortress were vaporized, and the entire forest burned down (again).

BUT! Among the survivors are 5 battle-hardened, Legendary level warriors. I had more, but a forgotten beast with deadly dust caused them to violently expel all of their blood out of every orifice shortly after they killed it. But I digress.

The point is, we're down but not out! I've finished construction on the lighthouse, but I'll be damned if I let this fortress fall before I've gotten it lit! I've dug down to the magma sea, but at this point I don't have the dwarfpower to pump magma 100+ Z-levels. And frankly, I doubt I'll be getting any more migrants in the foreseeable future after all the dwarves who've died.

The plan is simple: set cage traps around the magma pools and wait for fire imps or magma crabs to stumble into them. I've built a crystal glass pedestal at the center of the light chamber and set a worthless wooden artifact on it. Around the pedestal, I've stockpiled worn out clothing. Once I've caught a suitable fire-breathing creature, I'll set the cage at the top of the lighthouse and hook it up to a lever. I'll do the same with... idk, a cat or something. Maybe a disarmed goblin. Lock the doors, pull the lever, and watch the fireworks! Hopefully having all the flammable stuff around will increase the chances of the artifact catching fire.

Wish me luck! This plan is 100% reliant on it.

Hah. I always lay a few traps outside my hatcheries, but a 'few' probably wouldn't cut the mustard

Heh, yeah not quite. Fortunately I have the surface littered with cage traps (I embarked in a Joyous Wilds tropical forest. Gotta catch those unicorns somehow!). I also managed to re-lock the door before all of them got out.

Unfortunately, they were still locked in with the egg boxes. After the next batch of eggs hatched, I decided I had to put a stop to that for the sake of FPS if nothing else. I dug a tunnel leading from the hatching room right up next to the ocean and carved a fortification to flood the chamber.


Speaking of the ocean, I've been building a lighthouse! Purely for my own amusement, obviously it serves no functional purpose. Anyone got ideas for a "light source"? I feel like it would be incomplete without one, but short of getting really lucky and capturing some titan or forgotten beast composed of flame, I'm not entirely sure what to use.

I started my adventure in the dwarven capital Nationworks, evidently a member of the fortress guard named Deduk Pickshoots. I asked around and found out that the goblins were marching on Nationworks! I started shouting around offering to lead people to safety. I got about 5 dwarves following me around at one point, but for whatever reason only 2 of them stuck around after I got out of the fortress, Asmel and Rakust. Asmel was actually a member of the fortress guard as well. Neither of them had any family to seek out, so I opted to head for a temple of Rash Guardhealer, dwarven goddess of Death, War, Fortresses, Jewels, and Wealth (Deduk's object of worship and my personal favorite deity in this setting).

Along the way, we briefly passed through goblin territory. There we chanced across the dwarven slave Zaneg, who begged us to help him escape. The more the merrier I figured. After conversing with him a bit, I realized Zaneg was an ardent worshipper of Rash as well! The 4 of us continued south towards the temple, traveling along the main road, hunting camels for food and ravens for sport.

Eventually, the main road cut through a mountain range, meaning I'd have to travel the slow way to proceed. The hike through the mountains was fairly uneventful. Asmel, Rakust, and Zaneg chatted amongst themselves as we walked. They seemed to get along. But unbeknownst to me, something was boiling just under the surface...

Zaneg and Asmel got into an argument. I don't even remember what it was about. Something stupid. Zaneg tried to deflect the argument with flattery. And Asmel did not like that one bit. She decided to settle it with a good old-fashioned beatdown. She flew into a rage, throwing punch after bone-breaking punch at the freed slave! By the time I even realized what was going on, she had already rendered him paraplegic! Rakust joined the fight, coming to Zaneg's defense. I tried to get Asmel to yield, but she was lost in rage and beyond reason. I sheathed my sword and attempted to wrestle her into submission. She drew her crossbow and shot a bolt right into my liver! I tried to get her to yield again, but still she refused to listen. I soon realized that the fight had escalated beyond the point of no return. No Quarter would be given, and so none would be offered. I drew my sword. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't quick. But the fight came to an end as Asmel's head sailed off in an arc.

Zaneg succumbed to his wounds shortly after. I said a prayer to Rash on his behalf. Rakust refused to speak to me. Anytime I tried, she just spat and called me a murderer. She still traveled with me though. We continued on our journey. Eventually, I managed to persuade her of the nuances of loyalty (even though Deduk himself doesn't truly believe that). When we got to the next fortress on our path, I decided to carve some bone figurines. I made four. One depicting each of the members of our little band of refugees, carved from the bones of the camels we hunted together. I gave Rakust the one depicting her. She doesn't spit or call me a murderer anymore. I think she's forgiven me.

One of the dwarf civilizations in my world has a god of Fortresses, War, and Valor named Tomus Tomusaldil. At the dawn of time, he helped bind a demon into the mortal world in order to promote eternal war.

The demon's name was also Tomus.

I'm still getting the hang of navigating Legends mode, so I haven't found much else of note.