Bay 12 Games Forum

I haven't played in a couple of versions but had a massive craving to return lately, both to revisit old fun and to check out the new features. The new needs system, as much as I like then idea of it, gives me a bit of a headache though. Though I can deal with most aspects of it, what's really been demotivating me is massive problems with dwarven loneliness -- both due to the strict requirements for what counts as socialization between individuals, and because dwarves have so little to no initiative. It's sad to see a bunch of increasingly unhappy beards sitting in the pub with "no job" rather than making friends with each other or talking to the local family members they miss so much. (I've also had problems with dwarves stressing out about not being able to pray despite there being both dedicated and general use temples.)

Has Toady mentioned anything about upcoming improvements to these issues? I'd be really nice if the dwarves sought each other out, if spending time together (mining, engraving, training, debating etc.) built friendships, etc.

In order to maintain my interest in a fort longer than a few years, I really need to have a Plan(TM) for something bigger. I'll never be creative enough to make a second Flarechannel or Undergrotto, but I'm looking for inspirational examples all the same. However, most posts in the design threads and on the wiki are all about making things compact and efficient. That's not what I'm want here, naturally. To HFS with efficiency, I want beauty, ingenuity and grandeur! So this is a place to show off your projects. Great domed halls with pillars and mosaics, personal palatial suites for every dwarf, lovingly designed gardens and shrines, overly complicated (read: dwarfy) defense structures, organic shapes and fractals, labyrinths and mazes, structures that serve no game mechanical purpose but just look sweet. Links to DFMA uploads are especially appreciated.

Bonus points if you share your methods of finding inspiration for such designs -- and for planning them out, if they get really complicated (such as 3D statues/monuments).

On my personal favourites list so far are Relicrags and Towersoared as overall "normal" forts (meaning mostly dug underground), Chasmcity and Roofdwelling as surface forts, and the Divine Quarter from Blackstone.

*sigh* The duchess of my most successful and fun fort so far, the only fort I've managed to stick with for a decade, is about to go bonkers and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop it. The wiki suggests it was caused by her getting the "utterly traumatized by a lesser's room" thought. Now I had another noble get jealous, before but that one didn't go crazy over it and I was able to balance it with happy thoughts. This one doesn't GET any happy thoughts anymore. I can go back a season when she's still Very Unhappy but it is too late then too, the thought is already there. Even Runesmith (which I downloaded just to try and save her) can't prevent it.

I suppose it IS too late for her and I just have to watch her die. Seeing as how she was one of the founders, my expedition leader, mayor for several years and broker from the beginning as well as a now-legendary blacksmith (no mood, just trained up bit by bit) that hurts since she's one of my favourites and losing her may mean shelving the fort. To help prevent this from happening again, I have some questions.

First off, does anyone actually choose a favourite dwarf as baron or just some random schlob for just this reason? I don't really want to "reward" Urist McUseless with a noble title and power, but at the same time I refuse to let founders, legendaries and soldiers live in some hole in the wall just because of some prissy twit with an entitlement complex. All my dwarves get a smoothed 5x5 bedroom with a gem window, special dwarves get real suites.

Second, just what triggers that massively bad, ultimately fatal thought? My duchess has the best rooms in each category, going by the order in which the Rooms view lists them. Is it triggered when anyone has a room of the same quality level (Grand, Decent, etc.) or when anyone has a room above a certain level? How does the noble learn about it: by being in or near the room, by socializing, or do they just know it via hivemind telepathy?

I'm tempted to turn off the jealousy-inducing token in the entity file. Mandates I can live with, even impossible ones (slade, toad teeth ...), but this is just depressing. Or I WILL elevate a random peasant next time and just not care if s/he goes insane.

I've been searing for a good embark for my next fort -- well, an evil embark actually. Having found a few promising ones, I have some questions before I decide.

1) Does a biome with dead trees/plantlife ever grow any new vegetation if grass is trampled and trees are cut?

2) If an evil map spawns undead creatures, does it only spawn them or can live ones turn up too? I'd like a shot at trapping and taming interesting, living creatures.

So I'm puttering around a bit in an 31.19 test fort to see the new critters. Embarking with a rooster and two hens yielded a whooping total of 19 eggs for the first clutch which I allowed to hatch, then another clutch or two which were eaten. So far so good.

However, I then deconstructed the nest boxes to move them to another spot, and since then the hens refuse to lay more eggs. They "claim" them just fine, but never sit on them. Nothing seems to persuade them to do so. Assigning them to a pasture with the boxes in it, removing the boxes again, building more boxes. Now I have four boxes for my two hens and all are "claimed", but never used.

Anyone else found that problem? I think I'll toss it on the bug tracker.

I'd like to try a fort with a bit of "theme" next and thought I'd fish for inspiration. Who here has done a military fort and can share their experiences? Are there any megaprojects you incorporated into the fort? What rules, if any, did you set for yourselves? Is there a map you'd like to show off?

My embark will be a perfectly flat, cold, Untamed Wilds taiga with a brook that I hope will be unfrozen at least during summer. It has sand for a glass industry and an upright spoiler at z-26. A goblin fort is relatively close, so hopefully they will sends "sparring partners" soon enough. If not, I will piss off the humans.

Thoughts so far:

• I'm capping my population at 80, no children allowed (though obviously migrants will probably bring a few). This should help with FPS, and hopefully make things a little less anonymous than with my last 220+ fort.
• I've very much been playing it safe, so deaths have been rare. This time I want to be more reckless, risk more injuries and deaths.
• Danger room use will be allowed, but restricted. I'm thinking to stop once the first skill reaches level 5. After that it's normal training, live combat and prisoner-bashing only. I hope this will give me some basic survivability but allow room for Fun.
• Everyone has to undergo at least some basic military training. Everyone will have to earn their place in the fort by serving in at least one ambush/siege, and ideally by slaying at least one enemy (in live combat or 1-on-1 against a prisoner). I may make an exception from the second rule for my doctor unless/until a migrant with decent medical skills shows up.
• Once that condition is met, the dwarf will be entitled to individual quarters. Until then, they have to crash in the newbie barracks.
• For now I'm undecided whether I will allow for this fort to become a barony. Maybe allow the first dwarf with x kills or the first legendary weapon-user to become the baron (unless s/he has hots for slade or mostly stuff I don't have)?

I don't think there's a good way to reserve a swanky dining room and the best food and booze only for proven residents while the newbies have to make do with basic stuff, is there? I'm not going to build two essentially separate forts.

And finally: if I stick the green recruits in iron or copper for their trial-by-fire period (or even just leather) and reserve the good steel for the pros, am I crippling their odds too much? I want the odd death and injury, yes, but I don't want entire barely-trained newbie squads annihilated by a single ambush group.

... or do I?    (I have been rather too easy on my dwarves so far.)

One of my hammerdwarves is married. Her first kid died in the danger room, so when she gave birth again I relegated her squad to another place to train -- I try not to get anyone (even bloody useless babies) killed on purpose. Now that second child is gone, and bugger if I can figure out why. I discovered this when I checked on the hammerdwarf to see if it was safe to send her squad back into the danger room. She didn't have the baby with her. In fact, it's not even on my unit list anymore. It IS still listen under her "relationships", and all it says there in the top paragraph is:

"<Name> has been ecstatic lately. He is happy to be free."

I didn't see any baby snatcher messages. In fact, with his mom being a soldier I'm sure any snatcher would have been instantly pasted. And the kid's details still say he is a member of my civ and fort. So what gives?  Is this my first ever kidnapping case or not? I can't imagine what else it could be, but I can't imagine how a thief could have made off with him and still leave him as a member of my civ to boot.

Hey folks. The militia commander in my latest fort has gone funny in the head. I noticed that while the rest of her squad is happy to follow move, train and kill orders, she has started to just run to a certain spot and stand there apparently indefinitely unless the squad is moved to "Inactive" and she has civilian duties to do. I reloaded my last save and tried several ways to fix it but to no avail. Disbanding and reforming doesn't help, she just picks the same or a new spot to stand in afterwards. What's worse, when I made another militia member the commander, THEY would do the same and the old commander still did it too. I'm rather at my wits' end here. Has anyone else encountered the same problem?