Bay 12 Games Forum

My suggestion: Find yourself a nice volcano and build your fort in the magma pipe.  I've done this, though I made everything out of constructed metal and glass instead of using the cast obsidian method, and the whole fort wasn't in the pipe (I was lazy). While the pipe is drained, dig vents sideways to the outside of your volcano and floodgates to control them.  That way you can flood the world with magma from your pipe whenever you like as well as having a well defended fort.

Here's a link to my setup  http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=58221.msg1293272#msg1293272

Awesome! every nation must have a dwarf anthem.  Someone get to work on O Canada.

I'm a fan of minecraft, but DF is my first love.  The community over at minecraft makes me appreciate the DF community all  the more.  As others have said, I think the game itself is simply too complicated to attract the usual compliment of internet morons. 

The most hilarious complaint I read on the minecraft forums was someone complaining about Notch spending time to add a (seemingly) redundant rock type for the upcoming update.  Really, you are complaining about a redundant rock type?  Stay away from DF, we have dozens of rock types with no functional differences, and we LIKE IT!

And Toady has my trained-attack-carp-onna-stick!

I knew someone would bring up the "It's too modern" angle, and it's not entirely off the mark.  I think that one overlooked reason that recreational use of drugs was less in the past is because most areas only had a few native drugs, and those were better integrated into the culture.  So the Greeks and Romans had alcohol and opium, north Americans had peyote and tobacco, ect. 

Anyway, from a game perspective instead of "Pharmacy" you might want "Alchemist" or "Medicine Dwarf" or "Herbologist" or what have you (I think alchemist sounds the most dwarfy).  Royal physician is also a distinct possiblity.  It's definitely the case that in the early middle ages there were people who dealt in all sorts of strange and possibly medicinal concoctions. 

Come to think of it, you could add in the "medical" raws instructions to use potions that don't actually help the disease...for added historical realism, although I am not sure how fun it would be to have your doctors send off for hemlock steeped in mercury to treat goiter (or what have you). 

Another worthwhile thing would be societal or religious ethics prohibiting the use of potions with certain status effects.

If you can get it to work, carve longcat into the spire and throw kittens off the top. 

The previous posters are absolutely right...DF is a tool for creating art*.  I get exactly the same feeling building a fortress as I do painting. 

*A tool for creating art could also itself be art, depending on the tool

Forget the dwarves!  we need this stuff so we can remove it from cats.  Spay and neuter your pets folks.  Dwarves can keep reproducing by spores for all I care.