Bay 12 Games Forum

I haven't read the whole thread so forgive me if i'm rehashing some points.

Personally, I'm in favor of tunneling units, I'm really in favor of anything that makes the game challenging without having to impose handicaps upon yourself (okay, i wont make my fort invincible, or too many traps... or should i build no traps... what's fair? etc)

although I think tunneling should be limited, only used rarely and only by certain threats. I think two steps that should be included before tunneling with regards to sieges:
-goblins being able to build crude bridges or rafts to cross channels/moats (or being able to swim over small ones, perhaps with a chance to drown in the process)
-goblins being able to break down any constructed walls/barriers after some time (and perhaps requiring multiple goblins working on the same tile). this would give a more realistic under siege feel, with archers trying to kill off the invaders while the invaders try to break in, instead of current seigers milling around on the other corner of the map while you sit inside comfortably.

and these could happen over subsequent seiges; eg goblins arrive and your fortress is impenetrable. perhaps they will attempt to break down wooden doors/bridges to get in. if they can't and eventually leave, the next seige comes prepared to cross channels and break down walls. if that fails, the next seige comes prepared to tunnel in.

i am also obsessed with aesthetics and dig the idea of temporary tunnels that would only admit the small/narrow creatures that dug them and close up after a time.

q then x on the trap

that's the stone, which it sounds like he's already got.

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Strange_mood#Demands

you can see what he's already grabbed by hitting t and highlighting the workshop (the item with the B next to is what the workshop is Built out of, the rest is what he's working on). you'll still see him list all his demands even if he's already gotten all of the rocks he needs.

it's stacked cloth, not clothes. as in pigtail cloth or cave spider silk cloth. so loom some if you can or buy some.

and bars of mtal means just that, bars, not ore. smelt some bars

Do you have a meeting area designated from a dining room or whatever?  If dwarves don't have a meeting area, they'll hang out wherever they want (which is usually someplace idiotic and/or suicidal) but if you have a meeting area, they'll spend most of their idle time there.

i think this is actually a bug, although i've only run into it a couple times and can't replicate it intentionally. dwarf gets trapped somewhere for awhile, then freed, and for some reason the spot where they were trapped becomes their personal meeting area (even with active/accessible meeting areas that all their friends are using) and they keep returning there. it seems to go away if you just make that spot inaccessible, build a door leading to this chamber and keep it locked when the room isn't in use (or just wall it off if dwarves don't need to go in there at all)

yes, yes, i found it now. like i said i've searched for said option for ages, i never suspected that it existed but was just hidden unless you're at the site, and not just grayed out like every other option.

heh. check out http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Exploratory_mining
and http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Stone_layers
and do some diggin. almost everywhere has some useful ore to be found.

not floodgates, but Supports will do it. you hook em up to a lever/pressure plate and they collapse when it's thrown (also completely safe for your dwarves (provided they dont wander under it) since they don't have to be near the thing when you activate it). a simplified way of doing it:

..... open space
.....
u+S.. up stairs, +floor, Support (on a floor)
.....
.....
..eee
..++e  +floors Extending as far out as you like
dg++e Down stairs, floor Grate
..++e
..eee

so you throw the switch hooked up to the support, and the whole upper level falls (the floor grate will provide access for your builders but wont support the structure). all you'd need to rebuild each time is the 1 tile of floor and support on the lower level (and connect it to the lever), and however much killspace you wanted to be dropping. you could even make multiple levels of too-be-dropped area so you could use it repeatedly quickly (just make sure to drop them in order from lowest to highest, or the higher floors will crash through the lower ones)