Bay 12 Games Forum

5th Hematite, 206, Summer
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Who do these people think they are?!  Summer rolls in, and we get two export bans... Sigund the Mayor says we can't export earrings - which is great, because that was the #1 most requested items from the humans this year, and they're right around the corner - and the Tax Collector follows suit by banning export of Trifle Pewter items.  Pff... honestly?  We don't even have Trifle Pewter items, nor would we be dumb enough to run an economy on it.  Seriously, I think he just had to say something because the Mayor was getting his say.

This is only the beginning, unfortunately... As more consorts take up residence, there will be more mandates, more demands, more complaining, more tantrums... I wonder how long the fort will last.  Inod still doesn't have her tomb up to specs yet, so I'm expecting some kind of demand from her shortly.

There are two main projects going on right now.  We extended the southern stairwell down a few floors, but we're also creating a multi-level fountain to go right next to the stairs.  Dangerous, I know, but the flow of water won't be continuous.  It will be floodgate-controlled via a lever and a pressure plate.

Second, we're adding a new floor to the defense tower just outside the gate.  This floor will be a roost for the giant eagles.  When invaders approach, we'll pull a lever to let them out and wreak havoc.  That'll teach those goblins!

Also, I decide to do something about some of the cryptic paths Asob carved in the lower levels.  Navigating those corridors is such a headache!  I think her intent was to minimize damage dealt by moody dwarves should one go insane... makes sense, actually.  If every stairway went straight up and down through the fortress, and somebody went nuts, they could get anywhere in a heartbeat, and that gives them opportunity to do massive damage.  I guess this also goes for whatever's lurking just behind the vein of adamantine... I'm pretty sure she intentionally lengthened some paths to give the guards time to reach an internal threat.  The one-tile corridors are clearly intended for traps, but I'll reiterate my feelings on weapon traps... but depending on what's behind those walls, I'm prepared to recant that view if needed.  I decide we have to have some quicker paths, but I'm not going to sacrifice the work she did for security either, and have the miners carve out some new stairways for the magma forges.

I suppose I'm not in a big hurry to look for that river.  We have a plentiful source of internal water with the brook-fed wells, though wood is getting a little scarce.  There are more pressing matters at hand, however, so locating the river falls by the wayside.

Asob came into the room bawling about something.  I thought we were over this awkward social phase for her?  No sooner than I write this down do I see her face and know it's something worse.

"Alright, alright... What's with the water works?"

"Don't say water!!  I want to make a mandate... ban all water from the fortress!  All of it!!  Drain it off somewhere!"

"Uhhh... why?"

"Because water is a vicious, baby-killing monster!!  Another baby drowned on my watch!"


I recall, now, what Asob had written in my journal shortly after I succumbed to my injury.  Legon's two children, in crawling after their mother, accidentally found themselves in the pond after Asob unlocked the door to the pit they had fallen into.  This would be the third drowned baby on her watch... I can see why she's upset.

"We were mining out the obsidian... Reg Eralfath, the Miner, put her baby down for a second and she slipped into a channel that had filled up with water!  I was right there... I could have done something if I'd have noticed faster!"

"Now, now, don't beat yourself up... Who's the baby's father?"

"Reg Isanmörul, Cheesemaker.  And his older sister is the child Thob Kollolor."

"Wait, his mother and father are named Reg?"


I laugh at the coincidence.  Asob gives me a queer look...

"You're... laughing?  Zon, a baby drowned!  How can you laugh at that?!"

"Huh?  No, I'm not laughing at the baby drowning.  It's the parents' names!"

"How could you laugh at all?!"

"I--..." I stop.  There aren't words.  And yet, my mind races.  For the first time, I see in full view what this venture has truly done to me.  Have I really become so heartless?

"Will you stop writing for a second and take a look at yourself?? "

"I can't do that.  I need to chronicle everything that happens--"

"Why?  Were you ordered to?"

"...No, I just want to.  It will be important some day."

Asob slams my door against my wall loudly.  "Wake up, Zon!  There's more at stake here than this petty mission!"

"I wouldn't yell that where King Minkot can hear you..."

She stands in the doorway, fists clenched and quivering.  A shout comes from down the hall; the humans have arrived for trading.  She lingers a while longer.  I start to say "I'm sorry," but she leaves to meet the traders just as I begin to speak.

I spend a few hours flipping through the pages of my journal, noting the changes that have taken place in me over these past six years, and I start to wonder... was I ever really doing it because I was ordered?  Or is there something else that drives me?  Most importantly... is it consuming me?

Asob's right about one thing... I do write a lot once I get started.  I'll get the baby's green glass coffin in place, and then I need to do some silent reflection.  Assuming I'm not ambushed again like last time...

It's OK, no one's keeping score of most bugs reported

It's simple to make megabeasts more common.  You just halt world gen a little earlier than normal, before as many of them have been killed off.  We could start the first fortress at year 100 to make megabeasts more common, but make sure that civs have started to develop relations with each other.

Unfortunately, I think every animal you leave in the dungeon is dead when you get there, but I'm not sure about megabeasts.  It would be pretty cool to have a restrained megabeast in your final room as a boss fight, but I don't know whether it's possible.  I'll do a little research on it - if anyone has any experiences where their creatures survived, let us know!

Not sure what you mean by "purely logical dungeon."  Could you explain?

Wait, can dwarves even GET drunk?

I think dwarves operate much like robots in Futurama: they need booze as fuel, and operate much less efficiently when sober.

Urist McDrinky cancels spar in barracks: Blind stinking sober.

I once made a pump stack waterfall generator right at the main entrance of my fort, which also contained a well and meeting area.  This was my first time playing with pumps and fluid, and I did think to put in two emergency shut-off levers - one sealed the floodgates at the top of the pump stack, and one would flat out disable the gear assembly the water wheel powering the stack was attached to (destroying the water wheel in the process, but it was a last resort).

Now, let me quote the wiki about pump stacks:

The easiest way to do this is to stack the pumps directly on top of each other in alternating directions, also known as a pump stack. The first one pumps North to South, the one directly above it pumps South to North, the next one above that pumps North to South again, ad infinitum. Even without walls surrounding the pumps, water still gets up with only minor leakage.

I made the mistake of trusting the bolded section, which I now believe was left in intentionally to cause fun for new players.  I turned on the pump without fully walling-in the lowest pump, thinking I would only have to deal with "minor leakage."

What really happened was the entrance to my fortress flooded fast as water spilled out all through the sides I hadn't totally walled in.  Before I knew it, a dwarf had been swept away into the canal I had dug to channel the water closer to the entrance and drowned.  I order the first emergency lever to be pulled to seal the floodgate-- but, whoops, the lever was in the path of the flooding, so I sat and watched as my dwarves refused to path to it through 4 deep water already.  Luckily, they could still reach the emergency gear assembly shut-off, but not before two more dwarves drowned.

Urist McSleepyhead cancels rest: Murdering noisy noble and trashing his organ.

I do wonder about the sound created by an organ like that.  Workshops and construction disturb dwarves trying to sleep up to four tiles away in every direction.  Would the organ's noise range be proportional to its size?  It would take special consideration to isolate the thing from living quarters, particularly other nobles (personally, I group all of my nobles on the same floor within close range of each other).

Would interruption by other nearby noise create an unhappy thought for the dwarf playing the organ?

D'oh... guess I'm stuck with it.  I'll just disable rent on all the rooms, never build shops or coins, and hopefully that will be enough.

I'm not sure what to do with the hammerer or tax collector, then.  It might be worth the challenge to keep the tax collector, unless he starts demanding coins.  The Hammerer definitely makes things more challenging, so he's probably staying.