Bay 12 Games Forum

Got a feather wood crossbow from a strange mood. Will give this to the captain of the guard for the lulz

Good choice, thats probably the best weapon for a justice dwarf.
Check the item, if there were images on it of a dwarf beating a dwarf it would be pure gold.
Note though, this crossbow is probably the best ranged weapon you'll ever have - material doesnt matter for ranged combat, only quality does.


I just saw a child blinking in a blueish color. At first I thought "How the hell did he get hurt", as wounded dwarves blink sort of like that. But then I checked his skills:

Build a simple waterfall! Every bit of happy thought counts.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Waterfall#Design_example

And dont forget to wall off the cavern again, unless you want to have a FB to join in on your fun.

"Urist, the enemy is entering our deathtrap airlock pillbox in huge numbers! Get ready to raise the bridge at my command!"
"...raise?"

The subtle disbelief and growing rage you get when you pull the all-or-nothing lever and see the bridge, that your entire strategy is hinging on, vanishing instead or raising.

Dear god. I tried to build walls everywhere to contain the 50 or so goblins as well as possible and channel them through my barracks first. They werent quite in yet, not even in the airlock, but there was so little time left. And soldiers heading off 100 z-levels down to the adamantine facility to drink something didnt help either.
Total chaos ensued. I work with quite restrict burrow assignments (also why do not activate burrow alerts), so that people do not enter certain areas where they have no business. In order to build walls in the barracks I had to adjust the civilian burrow - which, combined with my sudden lack of oversight due to me following the actual combat, led all kinds of people try to fetch some thing or other. Hauling new cages for the traps that approx. 10 more enemies are standing on, eating at the soldier's dinner tables, retrieving x(socks)x.
Out of my  marksdwarves, 2 showed up on the battlements. Thankfully, there were still my adamantine clad (although not terribly experienced) melees. I couldnt really follow what was happening what with all the body parts flying around, but in the end I lost only 3 soldiers and several are wounded although probably not badly.
At least I've found the gaps in my defenses... of which there are quite a few.


Kids, always double check you build the right thing. And always try pulling levers to see they are connected properly before you enter a serious situation...

Why not just build the shower one level lower? This way the top pump can be inside. If you build the watermill first and then whatever it is supposed to power after right below it, it can transfer power through solid floor. This way, if a building destroyer comes and tears down the mill, he wont have a way in.

Also, dont fill the 'water tank' full up. Any water depth at or above 4/7 causes job cancellation 'dangerous terrain', if a dwarf gets hit by the travelling water stack.

And I suggest building it in a very high traffic area and preferably near your entrance.

Gah damn the items falling thing, removing the scaffolding is hurting my guys =/

Deconstruct it from the bottom? Or one z-level at a time?
Personally I would have built a sort of 'core scaffolding' that isnt connected to and thus not supported by the construction your are building. In those places where you actually have to reach the construction from the scaffold, build some additional bridges/floors.
As soon as you're done and dont need the scaffolding anymore, deconstruct the connecting pieces, leave the scaffolding and destroy the supports holding the scructure (you did build a few supports that hold the whole damn thing and connected them to a lever, didnt you?). What better way for a finishing touch for a monument than a big bang from an exploding scaffolding.

If the tantrums spiral out of hand, grab the happiest dwarves and burrow them in a remote area, along with some seeds, a few logs and a pickaxe. Build anew.
If it is still possible, try to burrow every other unhappy or near-tantrum dwarf in another area and seal it tight. You can also try atom smashing the misbehaving dwarves when noone is looking...

Urists 3rd Law.

The wall always looks nicer on the wrong side.

Underground trees grow on anything that is soil, a 'cavern floor' or a muddied stone floor after you have created at least one path into a cavern. If you have access to either water or soil layers like sand or clay, you can set up your own tree farms.
The only thing you need wood for is beds. Everything else can be made out of stone (large pots = barrels) or metal (bins).