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Topics - lastofthelight

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136

DF Gameplay Questions / Adamantine Clothing

« on: May 29, 2008, 01:31:00 am »

Question. I have a fortress which just hit adamantine (no sign of any Balrog pits yet.) Also, this is a bit convoluted.

I actually find my elven adventurer to be a bit cooler then the fortress though - I'm having trouble getting enough wood to produce wooden items, despite having a (very small) forest, and despite having loads of silver, my stupid dwarves seem to have problems actually producing weapons and armor in a regular fashion, probably because I put my mines far away from my living areas, and despite having three or four dozen cut gems and stockpiles of finished goods, refuses to let me encrust anything with the gems (hitting the encrust button just brings up the 'finished goods/ammo/etc' menu, hitting the buttons to select which type does nothing - doesn't even get me out of the menu.), and worst of all, despite having no less then 6 caged unicorns, everytime I try and move one to the zoo from the animal cage stockpile they escape. So I'm restarting.

***In any case***...

If I produce some adamantine clothing, then dig up (wherever the pits are), with the result being my fortress is destroyed, would my elf adventurer be able to come back wear that clothing? Would it fit? Would it provide any additional protection - I mean, adamantine clothing has to be better then say, leather armor. And a chain mail is basically a metal shirt, so.

Also, does anyone know - if in my next fortress, I switch the civ_controllable tag from dwarves to elves, would there be any problems with things such as the elves cutting trees (all they can use is wood, but they arn't supposed to cut down trees...hmmm....) - and making elf-shaped items/weapons?

[ May 29, 2008: Message edited by: lastofthelight ]

137

DF Gameplay Questions / Calculating Food Requirements

« on: May 28, 2008, 08:57:00 pm »

I looked on the wiki but couldn't find this information. How do you calculate how many prepared meals your dwarves will need in a year? (Or in a season, even?) I'm sure theres a set number of x/dwarf/season, but I can't find it.

138

DF Gameplay Questions / Trap Critique

« on: May 27, 2008, 05:46:00 pm »

I've been building my current fortress, and I have a complex series of traps I'd like a critique on. Most of the rock surrounding the area is ig. intrusive; granite and the like - I have a mountain on one side, and a (very very small) savana on the other which I use to get (some) trees. My main entrance is a massive thing built deep into a cliffside, which connects to my barracks (which is empty, when I have more then 30 dwarves whom are never idle I'll put some into it) - and my mining operation.

Anyways.

Underneath the forest (its like a 2-3 minute underground walk for my dwarves) I have a single massive chamber in which I have built all my workshops, and some walls in which I've put my stockpiles. Underneath that by enough z-levels to keep noise down I have about 100 bedrooms and about 30 dining rooms built (I'm done for now). I have a secondary exit directly to the forest from this main hall which leads into a walled off facility which can only be entered by means of a bridge which leads to what amounts to a 2 z-level granite ramp-block. The idea is I can seal this off at any time; it only exists because the walk aboveground is much shorter for my dwarves.

Near the 'main' entrance - which is really there for trap purposes (eventually I'll just order them to never go outside, probably) I have a brook, into which I am building several pumps (not finished) which will pump the brook onto the flat z-level (flat abeit small) in which my main entrance is, and which any armies will need to be on to invade.

The large main entrance is filled with weapons traps (I decided to go with a larger number of 2-weapon traps because I can't churn out 100+ spiked balls to fill every square, and since they have a 20% chance of failing, I'd rather see a larger number of smaller ones to maximize the # of times they are used) - at the end of which is a pit trap; which is a complicated way of triggering a 3x3 cave-in that I can easily fix and undo (it involves bridges, a pressure plate, and a support) - the collapse of the support that sends the goblin down a z-level will also open floodgates leading to the brook. In addition to the pumps on the z-level above - I don't know if those will work or not, somehow I can't see 'pumping the map with a brook' as working.

Anyways, so they get through the main entrance just before my locked hatches, and they'll set off a mini-cave in which leads one z-level down, blocks off the hatches, and floods that (lower) z-level with a channel from the brook.

At that time they've gone through 20 squares of weapons traps, about.

The only thing I'm concerned with is that by effectively putting channels/bridges in front of both my entrances, I've been 'cheap' - goblins can't ever get past those, can they?

Anyone have any criticisms or advice for this strategy before the goblins actually show up?

[ May 27, 2008: Message edited by: lastofthelight ]

139

DF Gameplay Questions / Oh no, strange mood!

« on: May 26, 2008, 10:05:00 pm »

Though they are apparently useful, I have found them only troubling thus far. I've already lost one dwarf to them (he just stood around; after he went insane, I figured out it was because I hadn't built his workshop) - and have a metalsmith (whom has claimed the metal forge) demanding bars and rough gems. But I have bars - and rough gems. I suspect he may want a specific kind, but....there are a /hell/ of a lot of types of bars. And if he wants steel he's out of luck, because while I have literally dozens of veins of silver, I have no iron. (Though there is adamantine lying around, I havn't found it and would get killed by the demons anyways).

Any tips?

Oh, I also have rough gems lying around.

140

DF Gameplay Questions / Dangerous Terrain?

« on: May 24, 2008, 08:05:00 pm »

I keep getting messages announcing things like the cancellation of harvesting seeds, building floors or walls inside my fortress, or building my walls and traps outside of it due to dangerous terrain. But there isnt' any water or magma present. Or anything dangerous. Whats going on?

141

DF Gameplay Questions / ....Map without.....metal

« on: May 24, 2008, 03:29:00 am »

I have a strange, strange, strange problem.

I decided to try out the Pi Seed. And I found a haunted glacier (though I've yet to see undead anywhere in the game) with what the regional prospector told me was an underground magma vent, and even loam! WIN!

And indeed, I have a ///ton/// of food.

But....

While I have found ungodly masses of microcline, rock crystal, and orthoclase....I...have yet to see any metal, and I've dug quite a few layers down (and even criscrossed one layer with a tic tac toe board layout.)

I then got curious and used Reveal, and (though it doesn't seem to reveal everything) - from what it did reveal....I have one pocket of tetrahedrite, and a (small) platinum cluster...and...lots and lots of rock crystal...and the magma vent...but no other metal deposits.

I just got a massive wave of 23 immigrants (I wish migration would hold off past the first year, sheesh) because I had so much food I turned most of my people into engravers, and they are all churning out masterwork engravings/masonry.

What should I do? I mean, I'm a bloody dwarf, I need metal, and it does me little good to have magma without iron or copper!

142

DF Gameplay Questions / Clearing Glacial Water Up

« on: May 22, 2008, 09:08:00 pm »

I've been browsing the "search" function heavily on the forum here to see what questions have been asked thus far, and I've encountered some contradictory information - and on the wiki, I've encounted information that just doesn't pan out. Specifically, about melting glacial water - apparently this has changed over the past few versions. So, to clear this up so I don't spend another 5 hours in foolish shinanigans, I hereby ask the following of you, Oh Wise And Very Nice Forum People Who Nicely Answer All My Incessent Questions.

I have noticed that:

1. Making ice fall does /not/ melt it; I spent the past 5 hours or so rigging up a massive, massive falling block of ice to have this fail (god, I can't believe I spent the past 5 hours doing this, I need a life) - to have it fail.

2. I have read something about roofs and underground status. What exactly is needed to preserve the 'higher temperature' areas of being inside? Under what conditions will water freeze? Ice apparently now /never/ melts on a glacial environment, but water can not freeze. What determaines what? I have a hard time imagining Toady making a situation where ice will /never/ melt when he so obviously has a temperature system built into the game, but it is still in alpha, so. How does the underground temperature thing work? For instance - if I channel an underground river so it will flow onto underground ice, will the water freeze? Is there any way to increase temperatures without judicious use of magma? And so on.

3. It appears as if lava is needed to effectively melt glacial ice and nothing else; so one needs to either have lava, or work around a 'no food growing' strategy. Is this true?

[ May 22, 2008: Message edited by: lastofthelight ]

143

DF Gameplay Questions / Abandoning Fortress and Anvils and Ignored Items

« on: May 19, 2008, 06:04:00 am »

Before I actually state my question, I'll spend a few sentences apologizing for the double post - the topic of my post/thread from yesterday morning is more suited to a specific question (specifically, glacial caves), the issue of which has been mined out, and so it was either add to that thread (which has sortof finished itself, since the question's been solved) - or uh, start a new thread about another question. Anyways...

I tend to abandon my fortresses, with the intent of reclaiming them later, if anything doesn't look to be going my way - I havn't gotten past 7 dwarves yet, so this isn't that big of a deal.

But I've noticed that not matter what I do, on none of them are anvils ever reclaimed. Even stating off the bat that I know you have to go around and claim/activate things, whenever I try to /build/ say - a magma vent forge, or whatever, it will completly ignore the anvil sitting <wherever>.

I've noticed this problem in other situations, but I'm not sure if its the same problem. A few fortresses ago I built two thrones, and after assigning one to a room, the other got put in a stockpile - and I couldn't assign the other. The game claimed I had no other ones built - but I could /see it/. The same happened with a statue on the same map.

Anyone know whats been going on?

144

DF Gameplay Questions / Glacial Caves, digging into rivers, and Other Questions

« on: May 17, 2008, 12:48:00 pm »

A list of questions I have, after--- wow, I've been playing this game /way/ too long. The other thread was answered pretty quickly and this game really /is/ as fun as I'd heard, so I figured - and I apologize for starting two threads - I'd just make a new list of questions here.

1. I adore caves. I checked out the cave entry on the wiki, but it claims they are almost impossible to find. I know caves will only occur in an area with limestone (or similiar topography) where you have old streams/the water table has dropped low enough to make them visible. Uh...other then looking for limestone mountainous regions, does anyone know of any tricks to find caves more easily? It might be fun to try making a dwarf fortress inside a cave.

2. Do they have glacial caverns? Has anyone ever seen one? That'd be even cooler then a limestone cave.

3. Suppose I've created a water supply underground, and I want my dwarves to dig through to it so I can expand/change where it goes. Won't the dwarf doing so be drowned? Other then digging through one floor above and pumping (I've no idea how to pump yet; I don't understand the wiki's number/letter system yet - which is really DF's I understand, but you'd be surprised how much the colors help. I know it can be done though!) - other then digging above and pumping, is there any way to just dig through without the miner dying?

4. I've figured out how to get the trader's working - but I had a representative come and go without me noticing (well, I noticed the going, not the coming) - to get the trader to work, I have to q my trade depot, and tell it that it needs a trader. Did I need to do that with the representative, too?

5. If I refuse to make beer, apparently my dwarves will very slowly loose their addiction to it. Has anyone tried this? If I put my dwarves through A.A., will they be better dwarves for it in the long run?

[ May 17, 2008: Message edited by: lastofthelight ]

145

DF Gameplay Questions / Newbie Designation-Mine Question

« on: May 16, 2008, 10:33:00 pm »

Query, oh wise ones!

I'm a newbie, and I've been looking through several of the excellent Dwarf Fortress tutorials availiable, and look forward to using my knowledge of geology and physics to burn, freeze, drown, and crush invaders of whatever great fortress I construct.

However, before my lofty ambitions can be realized - I am facing a simple barrier:

I can't seem to get mine to work.

I can designate the >>> downward staircases, and have even Channeled lava into a nice moat to keep out these godawful monkeys which seem to swarm my wagon like Zerg, but whenever I try to mine, I see this little flashing green cross, and when I go to tell it what to dig like I would tell it to channel, or chop trees, or whatever - it just goes away and nothing happens; I see no change to the screen, and no sign of dwarves digging. I've tried this on temperate, tundra, and volcanic surroundings, so I think its some stupidity of mine, and not bad terrain.

Help me, oh wise ones!

146

DF Bug Reports / Dwarves Ignoring Workshop

« on: May 29, 2008, 02:45:00 am »

I've been really frustrated at this, until at least I've concluded it was a bug. I've been having a problem for days now getting my dwarves to consistently make weapons or armor, despite having tons and tons of charcoal and metals for them to do it with. Recently one of my Metalsmiths went Strange Mood, and just stood around until he went insane. So I got suspicious, set about half the dwarves in my fortress to metalsmith, and tried to get someone to make something - anything - at it.

Nothing.

Then I ordered it to be deconstructed about half an hour ago, nothing. Its in a perfectly clear area (there is a path to it), and I've had things built there before.

147

DF Suggestions / Horror and Charm

« on: May 27, 2008, 01:57:00 am »

I don't know if the Charm part is doable (it'd be hell in adventure mode, at least) - but about about being able to set a Horror token on creatures so dwarves get a large happiness penalty for seeing them? This could allow for creative modders to...say...create a Great Old One/Cthulhu Megabeast, preferrably to rise from the sea.

The charm idea would be the opposite of this; a tag so that a dwarf who tries to attack it has a randomn chance of being charmed and defending it, instead.

Both would allow for the creation of creatures where players need to think in different ways then usual before fighting them; whereas currently (most) of the creatures are essentially the same with different stats, this would allow for creatures with exotic properties which throw some flair into the game.

At least, if the next giant Megabeast could inspire your dwarves to tantrum merely from /seeing/ it, that'd certainly be an interesting encounter.

[ May 27, 2008: Message edited by: lastofthelight ]

148

DF Suggestions / Megabeast: Dire Carp

« on: May 25, 2008, 02:58:00 pm »

I propose that when the Carp Bug is fixed in the next version, the bug be memorialized by the creation of a Dire Carp Megabeast, the mother of the current spawn of Carp. And lo; the Dire Carp is not dead, for that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons of time, every Dwarven Fortress shall die.

149

DF Suggestions / Work Orders and Immigrants

« on: May 23, 2008, 05:49:00 pm »

I realize this has probably come up before, but currently the Work Orders function is less then useless. The useful tasks such as 'Plant Seeds', 'Harvest Seeds', 'Bury Corpse', and what have you should be in there. Everything in there is...well, not stuff that really needs to be in there, and what needs to be in there....isn't.

There should also be a function that you can toggle that says 'Open for Immigration', because theres no reason in the world I should /have/ to kill people because another 7 people came before my first harvest is even planted.

150

DF General Discussion / Dwarf Fortress and D&D!

« on: June 05, 2008, 05:24:00 pm »

So.

I have a DM whom is putting a dwarven mountainhall in his campaign explicitly from Dwarf Fortress. Complete with obsidian goblin towers and undead elephants.
I am going to create a dwarf from this site - level 5, if any of you know d&d lingo.

My question to you, Oh Dwarf Fortress Fanatics...anyone have any suggestions for a d&d character class/build that would most resemble one of our zany Dwarf Fortress Dwarves and all the crazy stuff they do?