Bay 12 Games Forum

Ok, so this is going to be fun.  The traders are leaving, and they've left all the stuff behind in my Depot.  It's Elves, so it could be worse, but what just happened?

My initial guess is that it has something to do with mass forbidding the depot.  I was going through my inventory list to clean up forbidden items that shouldn't be when the Traders were in the depot, and I accidentally unforbid some trader items, so I did a mass forbid over the depot.  Either that or it has something to do with the active Goblin ambush, but the last batch of traders during an ambush functioned normally.

Any thoughts?

Harry Voyager

Actually now that I think about it, I've got piles of wood outside, a dwarf that they are ignoring (who is sitting around mourning that he has nothing to do), and a walled in back entrance.

I'm going to build a lid, and open up my old front door, until I train up an army that can fight them.

Can you get additional ambushes while the first is still active?

Harry Voyager

So, is there something that influences how quickly the diagnostician gets around to diagnosing?

I'm currently expecting this patient to stave to death before the CMD shows up (given that the CMD, bless his pointy little head, is currently acquainting himself with a keg), but in the future it would be nice if the patients did die before the CMD got around to looking at them.

Harry Voyager

Addendum: What also floors me, is I've also assigned the guy "Feed Patients" in his job list, and he isn't doing that either!

I once played a game where my fortress was next to a volcano, except the volcano had no magma in it.  So, it was effectively a hundred or so z-level shaft of empty space down to the magma sea.  At the top of the shaft was the entrance to my base, which was two drawbridges over the chasm.  I like to think that traders would get woozy looking down (I also had my trade depot suspended over the magma sea down near the fortress proper, so all trading would be done next to a couple z-level fall into magma), and that when goblins and trolls and other various monstrosities rushed over the drawbridges that were inevitably raised as they charged, they would scream the entire way down, through the caverns where my dwarves worked, and past the forges.  To give you an idea of how long they fell, it took about 20 frames for them to go from top to bottom.

So instead of a waterfall, your fort came with a Goblinfall?  I wonder how hard it would be to rig up a catchment and an array of pumps to pump them back through again.  Maybe a pit at the bottom, with a flight up stairs leading up to a bridge that "ajoins" your fort, with a couple rows of resetting pitfall traps that drop them back into the catchment.  The only problem I can see if tuning the goblin attrition rate, such that you don't run out of Goblins before the next raid comes, but you don't also find yourself overflowing in goblins either.  Collecting the goblinite at the bottom may be a bit tricky as well.  Perhaps an off switch of extending spikes at the bottom, to temporarily halt the flow.

651: When you see the layout of an RBMK-1000 reactor, and the first thing that runs through your mind is "I bet I could build one of those in my fort."

Day One:  I've lost my Dwarves.  Can you help me find them?
Upon embarking, a cave-in occurred, and my dwarves are no no longer on my screen.  This could be a problem.

Day Two:  They have a Cave Troll.
So, the zoom to item fixes the missing dwarves problem, and I have located them all standing around the wagon, next to a frozen lake.  This will be fun when it thaws.

Now to scout the area, and select a good building point for my dwarfy home.  Ooo: Lignite exposed on the surface.  Ooo: Bituminous Coal exposed on the surface.  Huh, someone has already built a cave here.  I wonder what's with all the stuff lying around.  One corpse, two corpse, one Twilight thing?  Now I know why I fear the night: they have a Twilight Troll.  It was at this point that I decided I should record the tale of my Fortress of the Soon to be Devoured, preferably before the Devouring takes place, as a lesson and a warning to others, or at very least entertainment, preferably before my dwarves are devoured by Mrs. Nabsiztamed, and her husband if he ever shows up.

Well, let the fun begin.

Day Three: Windows is Dead!  Long Live Windows!

We have resolved to press on, even with the discovery of the Troll, (mostly because none of us can out run it, and we might be able to dig in before it finds its way out of the snow).  Now to dig in.  Digging appears to crash the game.  It also appears to be repeatable.  This might be a sign, but I've never been one for those.  I've been talking about trying Linux for a long time now, so presents a perfect opportunity.

Download to fun started.

One of hte tutorials had a double drawbridge system.  The first drawbrige was there to cut off the short route into the base, sending everyone coming in through the maze of sharp pointy traps and crossfire zones, and the second drawbradge was there to slam in the face of any hostiles that survived the maze.

I tried it on my fort, and it actually works really well.  I just had my first siege, and the assorted goblins didn't even make it fully into the maze before they were cut to giblettes.

Harry Voyager

Are you equiping them with chain or plate?   Marksdwarves can only shoot when in leather or lighter armor.

I've got this wonderful steel factory running right now, so I'd kitted my marksdwarves out in steel plate.  Took me forever to figure out why they weren't practicing.

Harry Voyager