Bay 12 Games Forum

Sounds good, man.  Doo iiiiiiit.

Sure, you can go after Fivex.

Argembarger, do you think you'll still have time to play over the holiday?

OK, I was able to snag some pictures!

Here's the base of The Stack.

I was able to lay 34 pumps on The Stack during my turn.  Here's the top of where I reached, in the middle of the 2nd cavern.

The Housing continues straight up through the caverns towards the ground.

The Stack will, of course, require quite a bit of power.  That's where The Reactor comes in.

I've begun filling the reservoir for The Reactor with a single pump to the south.  You can also top off with this pump, but be careful not to overfill!

The Reactor is just about ready to connect to The Stack.  You can see here that The Housing is not completely sealed up this high.  There's also scaffolding that will need to be replaced with floors, channels, and walls in appropriate places.

Also, we needed a place to eat indoors.  Here's the dining hall I built just south of the Pillar of Chiefs.

Diary of Graebeard I, The Frigid

Slate: We have started.  I've met with the architects to devise the best way of bringing warmth to the surface. We've decided on The Stack; a great stack of alternating screw pumps.  There were a few places to choose from for the base of The Stack, but each had its own problems.  Ultimately, we decided on a centralized spot above the topmost magma pool.  It'll be a breeze making it past the 3rd cavern, but we'll have to build The Housing; an enclosure to protect the stack as it rises through the 2nd and 1st caverns.

Also, we need to find some way of manufacturing 108 pumps that can withstand the magma's heat.  Vabok suggested we craft corkscrews and pipes from the abundant gold just lying around this frozen hellhole.  Well.  That would be great if gold wasn't so damn easy to melt.  We'll have to figure something else out.

Felsite: Progress.  While frantically casting about for some solution to our materials-shortage problem I literally stumbled into the answer.  It's hard to see and pure chance that I noticed it, but there are a few scattered piles of sand near our underground farms.  I immediately ordered magma glass furnaces set up at the base of our fort to begin crafting glass tubes and corkscrews.  I also decided to expand the stairway down to the forges to deal with the resulting increase in traffic.  It's been difficult managing these lazy glassmakers.  They keep complaining that there is no sand available, even though there are dozens of bags just lying around for them.  After slaughtering all the animals I could spare for their leather I think I've given the bums enough bags to stop their whining.

Hematite: Warm, balmy summer.  At least, that's all I can think of now that what passes for "summer" in this bitter, desolate void has arrived.  Summer should include sweaty mines and lawn games, not hiding from the oppressive cold in ramshackle huts built from ice blocks.

At least The Stack has begun.  We've built the first few pumps, and already the ground feels warmer with the promise of heat.  We've also begun building The Housing to protect The Stack through the 2nd and 1st caverns.  This is a large project requiring quite a bit more planning that I'd originally allowed for.  That's OK.  We've got the labor to support it.

Malachite: Damn dirty Elves.  Normally, I'd flood them in whatever fluid were handy.  Now I have to trade with the insufferable bastards for food and cloth for more sand bags.  Oh well at least they brought elephants.  But wait, two males!!!  Argh.  That's OK.  Hopefully we'll get a female next year.  They'll get what's coming once The Stack is complete.

Galena: Work continues.  The enormity of this project is starting to hit home.  Progress is much slower than I'd originally hoped both because of the challenge of building The Housing and because of our architects' inability to build competently.  For some reason they keep building pumps in the wrong order, leaving those above unsupported and falling into those being constructed below.  I've found that the simpletons can usually handle working on 2-3 at a time, but any more than that and they make a grand mess of the whole thing.  Sigh...

Limestone: Treachery!  The human caravan finally arrived, but the stupid brutes must have had a group of kobold archers following them to our fortress.  We took care of the little bastards, but not without taking a few arrows first.  That's OK, none of the injuries seem too bad.  With the ambush I've decided to lay a small perimeter of cage traps at the entrance to the fortress.  Hopefully that'll keep us appraised of any future incursions ahead of time.

Sandstone: My machine is beautiful, but so, so large.  With work on The Stack progressing nicely we can finally manage to turn our attention to the small problem of powering such a massive contraption.  With all this freezing wind you'd think that a few windmills would be able to put out a good amount of power.  Well, you'd be wrong.  The one we have standing is only giving out 15 spare power.  That means we'd need about 72 of these things, not accounting for any couplings.  There must be a better way.

Timber: Yes!  I've designed what I think will be a great solution to our power needs.  My experiments have shown that a waterwheel can turn a water pump that will in return power that wheel while still producing 80 extra energy.  Some say this perpetual motion machine is madness, but I'll show them.  It'll work.  The Reactor will have to work.

Moonstone: The space for The Reactor is designated for carving.  It will be beautiful when it is complete.

Unfortunately, the return of winter has brought even more cold, if such a thing is possible.  I had thought the cruel wind had already sucked all the phlogiston from our bones, but I was wrong.  Now that the walls are secure and The Stack and The Reactor are under way I must create an inside space for dining.  While I'm at it, I think I may as well try to make some space for all the workshops haphazardly strewn about the fortress.

Opal: The Reactor's reservoir is in place.  It's beginning to fill with water, but progress is slower than I'd like.  I don't know if I'll be able to complete it within my year long rule.  Work must continue quickly.

Obsidian: It has been a good year.  We have accomplished so much.  While there remains much to do, we are well on our way to making this abyss into something resembling tolerable.  We eat inside now.  The Stack is 34 stories tall.  The Housing has cleared the 2nd cavern and progress is good on the part that will transverse the 1st cavern.  The Reactor should be up and running within a month.

I end my reign here satisfied.  Our hope now lies in uggi's capable hands.  Hopefully he can bring my fever dream of a plan to its fruition.  May Armok guide us.

---

Aaaaaaand that's a wrap.  Here's the save.  I'll try to get some pics and a map with some POI's up as soon as my connection is reliable again.

Notes for the next overseer:

• F4 zooms to the top of The Stack.  If you have any questions on how to keep working on it just let me know.  The design is pretty standard, and you should be able to use the more completed floors as an example of how the top should look.
• The Housing is complete only up to the first cavern.  I've been building it just like you'd build a tower.  Scaffolding first, then corners, then finish the walls, then remove scaffolding/put in floors where appropriate.  I'd have completed it during my turn if I hadn't made so many mistakes and been so inefficient at the beginning.
• I haven't tested The Reactor yet, but it's just an iteration of the tried and true dwarven water reactor.  The mechanisms above will connect all 8 reactors once they're completed.  I've planned a connection to The Stack on that same level that should work once The Stack gets that high.  I'd meant to close that area off with doors (in case of flooding) but haven't been able to yet.
• Also, The Reactor reservoir is almost full.  There's a manual pump filling it right now.  You'll want to keep a close eye on that to make sure it doesn't fill up too much.  Zoom with F6.  I'd let it all go till it gets to 5-6 deep, then start the reactor.
• Good luck!

Alright!  Let's see if I can't get some of Armok's blood up to this frozen barren wasteland!

Yeah, I'm getting towards finals myself.  It's a bummer how much school interferes with my DF time.

Xenos, it looks like you're up!

It pops up in fullscreen, but all of the gameplay/menus are in the top-left corner, with the rest of the screen being blacked out, and I'd like to see if it could cover the whole screen.

Looks like you've figured this out, but you can't really change the display size of some of the menus, including the starting screen, manager screen, and others.  However, when you start playing the game you'll see that the game will fill the entire.  Personally, I always play it in windowed mode.  You used to have to edit the init file to change size and resolution, but now it's as easy as grabbing the corner and expanding the window.

My favorite way to "dispose" of caged goblins was to put them in the Soul-Fired, Bolt Catalyzed Steel Generator.

The generator involves a steel post surrounded by open space onto which the goblins are pitted.
The post is surrounded by glass walls (for the safety of onlookers) on all sides except for one corner, which has a line of fortifications on either side of the diagonal gap.
Very far off in the distance is a steel Platform of Destiny, lined up with the gap, upon which dabbling crossbow dwarves can try their luck.
Contestants get a quiver with 30 steel bolts, and if they are very lucky they will score a hit and be granted both high skill XP and entrance into the archery legion.

Civilians then come to pick up the fallen bolts, and melt them down into about 2.5 steel bars, which are then made into more bolts and the extra goes to the forges.

Sadly, the goblin souls burn out fairly fast, and you have to keep shoveling more into the reactor.

This is a great idea.  I may have to try something like this.

Also, I've seen a lot of similar posts, but nothig describing what I do.  First, I have an animal stockpile in a lockable, floodable, and drainable room.  All "guests" visit this holding room as their first stop on their "tour" of my fortress.

Nearby, I build one main cage to hold all the creatures who won't try to escape.  Lately I've been having a lot of elves and unicorns come to visit, so there's about 100 of each hanging out in there with various flavors of goblin.

Immediately next to this cage I have a garbage dump to aid with ease of disarming.  Just d-b-d the cage to strip everyone.  You don't need to un-dump the cage since buildings can't be dumped.  I d-b-c this pile periodically to reclaim everything, then I d-b-d and d-b-m the tile to automatically set wood and cloth items for dumping in magma and metal items for melting.

Nearby, I have a channeled tile behind a door that leads into my barracks with essentially a constant stream of volunteer naked sparing partners going from the main cage to my waiting trainees.

When the animal stockpile gets filled with goblin thieves, giants, macaques, etc... I pull a lever to flood, a lever to drain, and voila, problem solved with zero risk to the general populace.