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1st Opal, 103, Mid-Winter

    Her Royal Majesty
    Ùshrir Eldersalve
    Queen of the Dagger of Wards

Your majesty,

    I can only hope that Ast Walldimple, your faithful servant and outpost liaison, will survive the return journey and see this letter reaches you. He assures me of his skill as a ranger, so I do not think my hope is misplaced. We shall see.



    Your majesty is, of course, curious as to why this and last year's caravan have failed to return from Syrupurns. Last year, in mid-summer, a goblin ambush forced us to close our doors. Not too much trouble, of course - I had recently overseen the construction of a trapped corridor, designed to cage any foe who sought to enter your majesty's fortress. While we were reloading the traps, the caravan arrived from the mountainhome, and that was when the foul sorcerers struck. Their hordes of undead - the animated corpses of your own slain subjects, your majesty - tore the caravan apart just outside the entrance. We could hear the entire affair, echoing through the raised bridges, until there was no sound besides the shuffling of feet and the damned incantations of those necromancers raising the merchants and their guards into unlife.

    I am pleased to report - however bittersweet such a report may be - that we have captured those sorcerers that laid siege to Syrupurns. Four necromancers now lie caged in a dark corner of the fortress, where they may be put to your majesty's judicious use. Please advise.









    I can assure your majesty that all of the undead dwarves will be given proper burials. We are still dealing with those in cages, but our refuse stockpiles are overflowing, despite our masons churning out coffins. In time, each one of your subjects will receive their deserved respite.



    As for this year's caravan - well, Ast himself can give you an eyewitness report. He watched with his own eyes as two goblin ambushes descended upon the merchants, slaying several. A handful of caravan guards survived, however, and may live to tell you the tale in person.

    More joyous news - the Scoured Spider laid siege to us this past year, but their strength was not enough to pierce the walls of Syrupurns. The entire army was captured in cages, and even now the warriors are being stripped of weapons and thrown down into a deep pit. No goblin yet has survived the thirty-six Urist drop, although we suspect a few of the undead we threw down there may have "survived," in their own way. I was surprised to see that no trolls accompanied these goblins - instead, they brought with them several monstrous blizzard men from the far south. I will save these exotic creatures for your majesty's menagerie.




    Unfortunately, the trap corridor can only do so much. A squad of crossbow goblins holed up inside the corridor, refusing to move further in or to leave entirely. Most of our meager military was sacrificed to rout these remaining foes, which nearly resulted in a tantrum spiral. Praise Doren, we are lucky that did not happen, or I may not have been here to write you this letter! In any case, work has been directed towards a new defense system, which will seamlessly integrate into my grander architectural plans. Ast was here to see some groundbreaking progress - I hope he will relate the details to you, if you are interested.



    Regarding those plans, the proportions have been set and surveying completed. I fully expect to begin excavation within three years. Things are still too hectic in Syrupurns to move into the initial stages of the project - with these necromancers and the goblins laying siege to us every year, not to mention ambushes, it is necessary for me to ensure the complete safety of every dwarf in Syrupurns.

    On an unrelated note, has her majesty tasted unicorn? It is utterly delightful.



    Walk with Doren,
      Reg Labormurder
      Grand Architect
      Mayor of Syrupurns

If you can deal with completely changing your fortress' sleeping arrangements, relocating your only beds to the main hall is simple method which forces a vampire to reveal itself. Once the hunger comes, if the only available sleeping dwarves are in the main hall or some other well-trafficked area, you have a good chance of having several witnesses to the murder.

Of course, all those witnesses will get unhappy thoughts, which could be a bad thing, depending on your dwarves' morale. And you'll lose a dwarf in the process.

    prologue:

11th Sandstone, 100, Mid-Autumn

    Her Royal Majesty
    Ùshrir Eldersalve
    Queen of the Dagger of Wards

Your majesty,

    Firstly, let me humbly thank your majesty for your kind words concerning my accomplishments here in Workgold. Due to your majesty's preference to remain in Sacksquid, I feared you might never view my architectural designs in person. It pleases me greatly to know that word of the designs I have implemented here has reached you in the capitol, and that you were so impressed. Let me assure your majesty of the essential truth of the reports, but I have a few corrections. The ceiling of the great hall here in Workgold is fourty-seven urists high, although I understand how one not trained in building design might have underestimated the distance. What was reported to you concerning the baroness' quarters is correct, assuming that there was nothing else aside from what you included in your last letter.

    Concerning my appointment, I will of course serve as your faithful architect-in-chief and leader of the expedition. I have already begun to draw up plans for a new fortress that will fulfill your majesty's impressive guidelines. The scope of what you describe is feasible, but I will need as many workers as the realm can devote to such a project. In the end, what I envision will dwarf Workgold in size, and shall serve as a grand improvement upon ancient Sacksquid. This new fortress shall be, as your majesty put it, a utopia.

    I will need the talents of many workers. Of course, a few dedicated miners will be necessary for digging out a self-sufficient staging area near the surface from which we will manage the excavation. Two farmers, for food and alcohol production. A woodworker, of course, but I would prefer our miners to handle any stoneworking that might be necessary during the first months. That ought to suffice, until we can safely provide for more.And now, your majesty, I must confess some reservations regarding the location of the fortress, which you detailed in your last letter. As I examine my map, your coordinates seem to be directly between the elven forest retreats Fecicièbire and Vaficeepeve, in our tongue Glitterraced and Drunkensparkles. The elves may not suffer our presence lightly, although they have always been friendly to us in the past. Now, we tread on holy ground for them - the Jungle of Suns is a blessed place, with herds of unicorns and feather trees.

    There is a worse danger that far south as well. You must be aware that foul necromancers reside beyond the Jungle of Suns. Esminzostra lies within the cold Forest of Selling, not far from the icy southern shores of the Windy Oceans. Once they become aware of our presence, they will besiege us with countless undead. For such a project as this, there is too much at stake, and every additional enemy - let alone the armies of the damned - is an unnecessary hazard that could jeopardize huge amounts of the realm's resources. Why not relocate? The foothills of the Mortal Spine lie a short walk to the north. We have built our fortresses there for a hundred years, and the Dagger of Wards has flourished. The wealth of the Jungle of Suns will still be at our disposal, but we would have our ancestral home at our back! I will, of course, trust your majesty's wise judgement in all matters, but please consider my appraisal of the situation.

    Please find attached my requisition for supplies.



    I will make arrangements for a replacement manager here at Workgold who can oversee the completion of my last projects here, soon after which I will depart for Sacksquid. Expect me to arrive early in Moonstone.

    Praise Doren,
      Reg Labormurder
      Grand Architect
      Mayor of Workgold

Builder, mostly. I generally assign an arbitrarily large project to accomplish with a given fort, and then work towards that. I rarely complete any projects, however, since I also assign arbitrary handicaps upon my playing style - generally, I don't permit myself to use exploits, and I try to avoid using my own knowledge of the game (as distinct from what the dwarves would know) to influence my management.

After a certain point, emergent aspects of the game tend to influence a shift in playing style from builder to storyteller - or, more accurately, story extractor. Once I've become familiar enough with a fort and its inhabitants, stories worth writing about just sort of happen, with little active effort from myself.

Quote from: DS on August 09, 2013, 04:55:49 pm

So my question is, why do you want to build the constructions on the edge of the map?

Because eventually I'm going to be caving in everything else.

Well, that certainly does make things a little more complicated.

So, regarding that specifically: my gut instinct tells me that there is probably some ingenious way of doing it. I don't know what it is. Cave-ins have achieved for me in the past everything that you described in the OP, but not at the edge, obviously. 2 tiles away at the closest.

Then again, I can certainly empathize with not wanting to compromise on another aspect of a larger project. So, best of luck.

I would recommend cave-ins, definitely, or obsidianization which you already mentioned. I would point out that both methods are by no means a permanent barrier to refilling water: after you've drained the area within the barriers, you can freely place constructions on the dry interior of the wall, and mine holes in the wall afterwards to reopen the water supply.

Ninja'd: don't cave-in the very edge. Cave in a little further into the map, at choice places where it is convenient to use cave-ins.

Right, accidents happen. One of the advantages of ramps over channels is that you can see the layer that will be excavated as you're designating the ramps, as opposed to channelling, where you're viewing one layer above the one that will be excavated. This cuts down on unnecessarily fun surprises.

Are you designating layer by layer? Many accidents can and, statistically, will happen if you to designate an entire three-dimensional area to be excavated all at once.

If you are indeed digging out a single layer at a time, I'd recommend using ramps instead of channels. They are generally safer, although channels might be better in highly specific situations.