Bay 12 Games Forum

I've found that a completely untrained user wielding an M16 tends to kill or maim everything up to a wearer of Police Body Armor with one burst. A six-man squad wielding M16's will slaughter any group smaller then about five more often then not. High-agility wielders will even get two turns to every one the enemy gets, meaning much mowing-down ensues.

I tried this. He threw them all. He was holding them at the time. Does it make a difference if the thrower is holding the items in his hands or pulling them from his backpack?

I'm running a five-year fortress game, and I've hit a problem. My military is all heavily trained, but I've yet to equip them. Plus, a forgotten beast has shown up. The first two were easy to dispatch, and this one is flesh, so it'll die fairly easily. But it has an 8x8 radius dust attack that apparently causes the nerves of anything it touches to instantly rot. Any dwarf caught in the blast will suffer yellow wounds to every part of its body and become 'numb' for several seconds before losing the ability to breath, or bleeding to death. Is there anything I can do to defeat this beast without losing my entire military? Even my crossbowdwarves get gassed by the radius. What exactly is this syndrome they're catching anyway?

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=3284

Managed to binge my way to early winter. Won't be able to do much more for a few days, so I've uploaded it as is. Long story short: damage-control to the max. Everybody now has defined jobs, there is tons of food, and a massive farm in operation (note: we have tons of pig tail seeds, plant 'em, we need thread). Forgotten Beasts crawled up the shaft to the old farm shortly after I built the new one, so I walled it off.

The new farm is controlled via floodgates. Unexpectedly, the FB's seem totally uninterested in gaining access to the fortress through them. Still, if you walled them off, I won't hold it against you.

I unsealed the adamantine vein, floored off the bottom, and reclaimed the rest. We have plenty of furnace operators (the labourers), so Vulcan might enjoy training with magnetite or other low-value ore till he hits legendary, then set him making stuff out of sweet, sweet adamantine, we have tons of it.


All the furniture is of Exceptional quality or better by now, except beds. There is one of most every workshop, with two kitchens and two querns. There are legendary masons and carpenters, so try only to use them in making things (raw adamantine furniture?).

Since there are no migrants on the horizon (or ever, and I mean EVER), the housing complexes are useless. I recommend training dwarves you can and giving them armour, not to mention finding a way to defeat either the FBs or the horde of invaders up on the surface.

A note on professions.

Labourers have stone detailing, hauling, furnace operating, butchery (I think) and just about every other skill that doesn’t have quality modifier productions.

All other profession names are pretty obvious. I recommend using DF Manager or a program like it to explore the full list before doing anything.

Any other questions, feel free to ask.

25th of Granite, 1057.
My head hurts. I feel like I’ve been in a strange dreamworld for years. . .it wasn’t pleasent. I open my eyes, and I look around. I take in the narrow cavern that serves as my bedroom, inhale the stinking scent of seven years worth of uncleaned vommit, the cloying oder of rotting flesh and spilt blood.
This isn’t what I wanted. A peaceful little outpost on the edge of nowhere, that is what I invisioned. A quiet place where refuges from mainstream dwarven civilisation could gather together in peace and harmony. A literal hellhole wasn’t what I had in mind.

Still, I’m -me- again, thats the most important thing. My dream may have been shattered, but Exilo does not give up so easily! At worst, I can see this place cleaned up again and turned back into a habitable hostel, instead of the charnel house it seems to have become during my mental lapse.

At first glance this is an orderly fortress, then I find the stairs that lead nowhere, a sure sign of a badly run outpost. The problem is enhanced by the trails of vommit, EVERYWHERE. If I poke my head above ground for longer then a heartbeat, I fall faint for ten seconds or so as the concentrated oder of a square kilometer of dwarven bile strikes me like forgotten beast breath! Calling a meeting with the senior outpost members wasn’t exactly as productive as I’d hoped, either. A previous overseer, in his infinite wisdom, erased all their profession identifies and replaced them with little badges that read ‘STD’. After several days worth of intensive interviews, I have finally managed to get things into some sort of order. Since the demon attacks reduced our numbers to twenty-nine dwarves, there have been notable gaps in our service roster. I’ve assigned what dwarves I can back to the professions they’ve been trained as, and created a new ‘Labourer’ subgroup, members of which will dedicate themselves to hauling, cleaning, furnace operating, and all the other mundane issues that don’t really need skilled labour to perform. Hopefully they’ll gain skills in these areas and make up for the shortfall.

Next on my list was food, which we have plenty of. Nonetheless, I assigned three dwarves to cooking and brewing and commissioned two extra kitchens which will work round the clock from now on. The labour force has also begun smoothing out the living quarters to make them more habitable. A three-dwarf masonary corp has also been founded. Since we have no skilled masons, they’ll be our new from-the-ground-up taskforce. Currently they’re making doors, tables and thrones.

10th Slate 1057.
Upon examining the lower levels, I came across some unfinished magma smelters. For lack of much else to do I ordered them completed. Damage control efforts are proceeding admirably with the new labour corp throwing themselves into their work with great gusto. I think everybody here is just pleased to have some direction in their routines for a change.
The food stockpile has been expanded outwards and sideways, I’ve also ordered a large aboveground refuse stockpile to be constructed.

20th Felsite 1057.
An elven caravan has arrived – and is promptly attacked by goblins – I can’t say I care in the slightest. In other news, the magma smelters are complete and churning out iron bars. Vulcan has been assigned to practice smithing in the next-door magma forge. The living quarters are smoothed out, the farms have been expanded, and new furniture produced. Oh, I had a quern built as well.

16th of Malachite
I’ve assigned the miners to hollow out a new farming zone. Located right next to the cave river it’ll be flooded with water and controlled via three floodgates and levers. I’ve also made sure that nobody links the lever to anything BUT the floodgates, I’ve heard horrible tales of fortresses sinking into the ground after somebody pulled a random public lever that a previous overseer had linked up to a death-trap.

1st Galena
The fortress suffered a near total disaster today. A forgotten beast somehow managed to get inside the main access tunnel. Fortunately, it was a blob of water, and fell apart after a single punch from an unskilled labourer. Not surprisingly, this has greatly lifted the spirits of the rest of the dwarves. The camel the beast managed to maul now stumbles around with its pancreas hanging out.

12th Limesterin
I fel stthg...

14th Limestone
I feel wonderful! The other dwarves all tell me that one day I started muttering to myself, and maybe I did. But now, two days later, I find the strange fog has been lifted from my mind, and in my hands, a ring of unparalleled craftsdwarfship! Yes, dear friends, Exilo has joined the ranks of the legendary and gifted the world with another epic example of dwarven craft!

5th Opal
A siege from the humans arrived a few weeks ago and is loafing about on the glacier, since nobody can get into the fortress right now. My term as overseer seems positively blessed, everybody is happy, the farming project was a complete success, the smelters are running and House was taken by a fey mood and made a magnetite cabinet. He is now a legend in his own right, and I’ve set him churning out more cabinets!

10th Opal
House came to me today and suggested that he be assigned to work on the dreadful problem of quality stoneware in the fortress. The tables and chairs in the dining hall are all of utterly mediocre quality, so I set him building first-class replacements.

Who was the madman who gave all dwarves the 'STD' profession? It took me about an hour's work to sort them out into some kind of coherant workforce. Oh, the legendary workers had their labors turned off, and everyone was detailing a gigantic, useless underground complex. Argh!

EDIT: Oh, there are about ten billion forgotten beasts roaming the deeps. I experimented with opening up the caverns and exploring them all and found TEN lurking in the shadows. This fort is cursed!

Just downloaded the save. Will probably get the first few months done within the next ten hours or so.

So how many dwarves do we have by now? Oh, and I find it funny that Exilo has survived prettymuch everything, even being nearly the sole-survivor of the entire fortress by now.

One more thing. Am I permitted to use anti-skill-degredation 'cheats'? I get annoyed when my dwarves end up as obese, braindead, creatively sterile lumps of flesh with atrophied limbs by year ten, and thats about when I'm getting the save.

It isn't anything but a small RAW insert that prevents skills from degrading at 'I forgot how to eat since yesterday!' speeds.