Bay 12 Games Forum

I liked that idea and I would add something else:

Melting wood items for a fraction of coal (just like melting metal items);
"Melting" (grinding?) stone and glass into sand;
"Melting" everything else (cloth, bones, carcasses, etc) into ash.

This way, everything would be able to recycle. I would love to get rid of the infinite supply of trash from dead goblins into something useful.

Well, I think you can only actually turn certain stones into sand (at least, given that we're talking about the kinds of stone you could make into glass), but overall I agree with you and I like that idea.

Lord knows, I've often wished that I could simply burn all those damned, worthless XX Pig tail socks XX littering my fortress (and clothier's workshops...).  Hell, I wouldn't mind burning them for the sake of burning them, even without ash, but the idiot dwarves don't want to touch "owned" objects, even when the dwarf is dead, so I can't even throw them into magma.  True, you can bring the magma to *them* but that's quite a bit more... fun.

I like the idea of turning kittens into charcoal even better.

That makes me wonder if a "kitten smelter" is even possible, or if workshops only take items, not creatures.

Hmm... I should go read the modding forum...

> Only the crafting ones are pointless.

Those are the ones I want to lock up, far from the prying kobold thieves.  Yes, my dogs (actually, wolves now) stop them, but some of the main stockpiles are too close to the entrance and traps don't stop thieves.  They're also full of useless artifacts.  What good is artifact leather underwear if no one wears it?  Ditto with all those crowns/scepters/idols.

The mechanisms are in weapon traps, as are the weapons.  The furniture is already in the Queen's room.  Some of the doors were put in central locations as a sort of Dwarven Prozac.

I'd at least like to lock up the useless stuff behind a massive floodgate and a skeletal titan to make folks think twice before stealing it.

I wish you could "melt" wooden objects in a wood furnace to produce charcoal.

Currently, the best you can do is to drop wooden cages containing goblins (or kittens) into magma.  While fun, it doesn't give you any charcoal.

My idea of "dwarfy" is to drop naked goblins into the magma vent while drinking booze.

To each their own...

I could have, but there were too many, so I chanced it.

Fortunately, they did carve the fortifications in time, so the world now has a drain.  Someone should have clued Noah in about how to deal with endless rain.  I didn't realize that you could carve fortifications into the end of the map and create a gigantic drain during the winter...

Oh, and the magma forges are up.  One poor, recently-immigrated potash maker with tattered clothes and no real skills was a bit too slow to get out of the way once the fortification leading into the magma vent was carved.  He's still flashing, somewhere, on the unit screen.  The magma man was trapped and put in a zoo.  The raw recruit sent to investigate the cage-trap lined tunnel actually survived, too!  (Our kitten supply was deemed too valuable to risk). The original above-ground farms are a mess, though.  I've decided that they're effectively a water store/swimming pool now.

Current prospects are to figure out how to lure the four imps out of the vent and into the cages.  There's also an impressive bridge being built several levels above the top of the magma vent for... sightseeing purposes.  Maybe I'll make it out of green glass.  Have to talk to the architects.

Sadly, our bismuth-loving noble consort died.  I believe the official cause of death was listed as a "malfunctioning lever."  Then again, she refused to count the bismuth bars erected in her room towards the mandate.  Levers have been a problem recently, like when the bridge tipped over a human cart on its way out of the depot when the Tax Collector banned the export of iron items (and the caravan was carrying out a ton of iron goblin armor).  The Tax Collector decided to inspect that lever personally, only to die from yet another lever malfunction.  For some reason, the rest of the caravan refused to pick up the goods dropped on the floor when the first wagon was reduced to logs, but we saved them for the next caravan to pass.  The good news is that we no longer have to pay taxes.  Still, it's tragic, really.

We've had more success in expanding the fortress, though.  There are now underground tunnels that provide secure entrances for immigrants, who like to show up on the opposite side of the map from the main fortress for some reason.  They can admire the beautiful smooth obsidian roads on their way in.  And the bedroom floor is looking wonderful, housing almost two hundred dwarves, with a massive floor-spanning smoothing project going on.  Everyone owns a chest and cabinet now, too, though some of the nobles question this.  We've offered them some fine levers to play with as compensation.  Who doesn't like watching the pretty spikes go up and down?

The elves are also mad at us.  We accidentally tried to trade a single larch amulet by mistake (having gotten it from them to begin with for reasons that are no longer clear to us, given that no self-respecting dwarf would ever wear the thing).  They said that it wasn't "ethical" to make things from trees for some reason and stormed out, though they didn't seem to mind the dwarf bone crown one of the goblin leaders wore.  Maybe you have to sing the tree a song and cry before you cut it down?  Elves are weird like that.  Then an elven diplomat started getting all snooty about the trees before running off.  Now another diplomat is stalking our leader, who keeps making excuses not to meet with them.  Even when he had nothing else to do, he decided to go harvest some crops.  Then he went on break.  But he never bothered to meet with them.

I knew there was a reason I voted for that guy.

Hopefully the retracting bridge built for magma vent viewing will be available soon.  I'm sure that the elves will be in awe once they see our impressive engineering!  Maybe we could even find a way to get that elf who is a local leader of our parent Dwarven civilization to visit?  Then we can engage in traditional Dwarven sports, like dropping naked goblins into magma while drinking booze and admiring the levers.

Okay, here's the save for anyone who wants it.  I don't think I've made any changes to anything, except having attempted to toggle weather on & off that time.  I think economy is off, too, so they don't spend their lives playing with coins.  I use the graphical version, too, if it matters.  Feel free to ask if there's anything else you need to know about this save:

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=2429

I'll try to upload it, but DFFD isn't sending me the registration email.

If I get it up and anyone wants to see, the flood is in the far bottom-left side of the map near the top.

And the elf leader of the goblins is caged with the rest near the central staircase several levels down, in case people wanted to see that more than the rain.  There's also a goblin master thief somewhere, a prison complex being built, a magma forge complex being set up (floodgates all linked up, just need to gather a few pretty rocks, wall off that mined-out vein, carve the fortification and run for it while trying to wall off the stairs), and the above-ground crops that I'm trying to dry out by roofing over them, then mining out the ice this winter.

But first, I have to get a registration code so I can upload it.  Hrm.