Bay 12 Games Forum

I remembered the Terracotta army. Naturally I stopped and went "Hmm, that would work."

The question is, Do I make them entirely out of one material? Or do I mix it up a bit.

Any idea's to improve it?

Mod in terracotta. Make them out of that. You could have clay gathered like sand from appropriate soil layers, then add a reaction in the kiln to fire a bag of clay into a terracotta statue.

Come now, let's not spell it out so explicitly. I want people to have to imagine it before they figure it out. It's the "ahha" moment that really makes it memorable.

Also, I think I'll just embark with a thousand dogs for security. I am hoping a small-scale dogsplosion can combat a couple of orc sieges. So that is my plan for dealing with the orc question. I still want to hear if anyone has a strategy for casting obsidian downward.

Edit 1: I loaded up the Dwarven Dream site with orcs, and found this fellow was among my seven:

Who better to build the tower I've planned than a dwarf who loves a good thrill, is immodest, and is self-disciplined?

Edit 2: Ok, my embark group has Zasit with the dissection skills like his idol Morul, Urvad the Carpenter, Tekkud the Mason, Zefon the Architect, Tholtig the Grower, Kol the Cook, Nish the Brewer, and ... 64 dogs. Zasit's six friends are also proficient Marksdwarves, just in case.

Edit 3: Heh, somehow Zasit was chosen as expedition leader. I've appointed Zefon to be the Manager, Bookkeeper, and Broker, and I think I'll start a narrative from his perspective.

I am planning a one dwarf megaproject. The entire megaproject will be one dwarf's lifelong fey mood. My plan is to have one superdwarf do all construction, pumping, mining, engraving, furniture creation and placement, etc. by himself. He'll work on it singlemindedly and without help. He's going to develop a lot of legendary skills in the process, so I figured I should finish the job. I'll be borrowing heavily from the experiences shared in this thread once the tower is finished. I probably won't be worrying much about the skills that required modding to get legendary.

The obsidian tower I have planned will be circular and peak in a mushroom shape. At the base of the tower will be two oblong reservoirs, one for water, and one for magma. From there a system of pumps will lift liquids through the center of the tower where they will pour from the top.

I plan to leave the land untouched so the tower will appear to rise directly out of the wilderness. This means that the dwarves will be forced to live in constructions built above ground until a few layers of obsidian have been poured. Then they'll deconstruct everything as they move inside. The central pumps will allow me to build upward without marring the landscape, the connection to the magma pipe and the aquifer will be underground. I haven't decided yet if the liquid reservoirs should be above- or below-ground. If above, they'll be hollowed from cast obsidian to match the tower.

Here are the questions I don't have answers for yet:

Should the tower extend below-ground? I've thought of taking it all the way to the lowest z-level of the map, to make the tower as tall as possible. I don't know that I'll need/want all that space. If anyone can suggest a way to cast obsidian in a space with a roof I can start at ground level and work down if I'm dissatisfied with the topside tower. Without one-level obsidian casting technology I will have to pour the lowest level first, which requires more planning.

Can I turn off immigration temporarily? I'm thinking that the six dwarves in the embark crew will be the friends of the supermoody dwarf, who follow him out of curiosity/loyalty and keep him protected and fed, since these petty concerns won't trouble him. I don't want to worry about keeping any other dwarves entertained during construction. I want to have immigrants arrive and live in the fort once it is already started. (The less above-ground housing I have to build, the better.)

Should I play with orcs? Originally I had planned to include them, but if I am going to limit myself to my 7 embark dwarves orcs may be more trouble than they're worth.

Extend your archery targets room designations as far as possible. It makes dwarves miss the target more often, and it looks a lot cooler.

If I understand correctly missed shots give 0 xp. The only advantage to this method is that missed shots are recycled, so you get xp for every bolt created. Making your dwarves miss more just slows down leveling, it doesn't save you any materials.

Turns out the woodcutter couldn't cut the tree not because he was afraid of magma (dwarves aren't afraid of a little fire!) but because the only access to the tree was on a diagonal.

That's pretty /facepalm. All that magma in the grass for nothing!

Ah well. Things are moving along as designed now. I only hope the magma reaches the end of the pipe before the two saplings growing down there mature...

I am working on a megaproject involving casting lots of obsidian, including in some ... hard to reach places. I set up a long pipe to pump magma through, partly dug through the mountain, partly some walls above ground. I set up about 100 lever-operated doors that'll open to mix the magma and the water, walled off a chamber to fill with water from the aquifer, you get the idea. Tons of preparation.

Then I turned on the pumps. The water filled nicely. The magma was moving more slowly. I figured this was due to it being thicker than water. I waited for a few more "cancels pump, exhausted" cycles, and checked the magma again. It hasn't moved.

A freaking tree grew in my pipe.

Now I've got 7/7 magma filling most of a long pipe. I opened up the far end of the pipe to send a woodcutter in to get rid of the tree, but he won't go. I'm going to have to vent the magma out into the grass...

I present you "The Curl of Cradling" a green glass barrel:

On the item is an image of a dwarf and dwarves in green glass. The dwarf is surrounded by the dwarves.

I guess I've got the most boring fort ever...

My artifact iron floodgate "The Lauded Cacti" in the same fort has an awesome name. That's ... something?