Bay 12 Games Forum

With the new rotting system in place, it seems like a hot biome would see perishable items spoil faster and cold ones slower. Throwing your food in a snowbank is an accepted way of preserving meat if you've no other way to do so.

So I was starting the fortress of Machinemeets after Digging Too Deep at Craftsfrills, my first 'real' fort, when I was pleasantly suprised to find that iron ores, lignite, and bituminous coal were in great supply, and the ledge was made of dolomite. Naturally, I started building a steel industry. Midsummer migrants, about four of them, show up, one of which is a talented weaponsmith. "Sweet", I think, and set him to cranking out some steel weapons. I trade one of them to the autumn caravan and order food and fuel, since I've been chasing veins instead of excavating farms. Then, a winter group (if you call two guys a group) of migrants shows up.

One of them is a legendary weaponsmith.

After changing my pants and scraping my jaw off the floor, I wonder. Is this a bug, an improbable but not unintended event, or a gift from Armok himself that can only be repaid by spilling goblin (and maybe some elf) blood in previously unheard-of amounts?

Secondarily, I've heard and read that steel weapons and armor against goblins, especially the earlier ambushes, is like bringing the death star to a knife fight, even with relatively unskilled dwarves. Is this true?