Bay 12 Games Forum

I suppose I'll get in with Turkey.  Berlin to Baghdad, here we go!

I attempt to resurrect said dwarf, and practice the art of resurrection in general.

I'll join up with red team.

I attempt to become one with the light, in order to gain super-healing powers as well as the ability to smite mine enemies in thy holy mercy.

Well, given, it's not quite as great as I would like it to be, but here's how I built it:
Note: this method for building a pier only works if you have the walkway itself on beach+1, and pillars at beach+0

1) Build floor tiles out as far as you would like the pier to go.
2) Build bridges alongside the edge of the pier on the beach level (bridges are preferable over floors because when deconstructed, they leave their materials on the same z-level)

.....BBBBBBBBBB~
.....~~~~~~~~~~~
.....~~~~~~~~~~~
.....~~~~~~~~~~~
.....BBBBBBBBBB~

3) Build single walls along regular intervals underneath the floor of the pier (the floor will support the wall below)

.....BBBBBBBBBB~
.0..0~~0~~0~~0~~
.....~~~~~~~~~~~
.0..0~~0~~0~~0~~
.....BBBBBBBBBB~

4) When you get to the end of the bridge, build another bridge in between the last pillar you built and where you want your next pillar built

.....BBBBBBBBBB~~~
.0..0~~0~~0~~0BB~~
.....~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.0..0~~0~~0~~0BB~~
.....BBBBBBBBBB~~~

5) Build the next pillar (should still be supported by the floor)

.....BBBBBBBBBB~~~
.0..0~~0~~0~~0BB0~
.....~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.0..0~~0~~0~~0BB0~
.....BBBBBBBBBB~~~

6) Build the next long bridge next to the pillar, which supports it

.....BBBBBBBBBB~BBBBB
.0..0~~0~~0~~0BB0~
.....~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.0..0~~0~~0~~0BB0~
.....BBBBBBBBBB~BBBBB

7) Repeat steps 3-7 until pier is at desired length
8) Take great care while deconstructing the bridges, so that you leave no material on the seafloor
9) Enjoy tossing captured goblins off the edge of the pier into the ocean to feed the fish.

What this method doesn't do that I would like to do eventually:
It doesn't do anything under the water.  The pier is supported only by the floor attached to the land and the pillars on the beach.  Eventually, I want to deconstruct the whole thing and use magma to make obsidian pillars under the water.  This, however, will take quite a bit of time and planning.  First, I want to make stone houses for all my dwarves and have a basic layout for the city down.  It might also wait until I have the harbor wall started, which would make it laughably easy to make a pier (the ocean is only 1-zlevel deep, so I could just make a harbor wall, pump out all the water, and then use surface construction methods.

Yea, there is a way around it, but you need to know a decent amount of integral calculus.  Specifically, I learned the Leibniz formula for pi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz_formula_for_pi  Basically,  you end up adding an infinite string of ever-decreasing numbers (a series for you math people); the more numbers you add, the closer approximation you get.  Since you can never add an infinite amount of numbers, you will never get an exact answer. 

I hear there are better and faster ways to calculate pi, but I'll be darned if I know what they are...


And now for something completely different:

Boo!

Glad to see you back and posting.  Still enjoying the story.  Keep it up!

They work best on the same z-level at the enemy, preferably with a ditch and fortifications seperating them from said enemy.  The problem is that when you go up a z-level, there is a "blind spot" at the base of the wall.  When you go up 2 z-levels, this blind spot increases.  This happens in real life, too.  The difference is that, in real life, your maximum range also increases.  In DF, it does not.  I still build my watchtowers at least 3 z-levels high, but it's purely for aesthetics; I rely on melee for my military.