Bay 12 Games Forum

Huh...That's really neat.

In Zonnish Kukon, my community fort, I have a dwarf who has lost the use of his hands. He's leading his own squad, but I can't find any use for him in civilian life. What jobs do not require use of hands?

I had the image of ObeseHelmet's dwarf riding a whale, brandishing a pointy stick at goblins until he realises that as long as he's riding the whale he's too far away from the goblins to poke them.
...War whales one rides would be awesome.

Sensible. That's "at least 20 unowned pairs of trousers," right?

Heh. I have made no jewelry industry, just a workshop that someone worked in. More to the point, Broken's services are very needed. Then again, so are the services of someone who can make seven-league boots--I've lost someone to the militia's slowness.
Back to GreatWyrmBrass's journal.

-----

One good lady I'd like to mention from the siege is Mrs. Gulleytowers, of the Spears of Urging. She killed five beak wolves and awarded herself the title of the New Swcrets of Drying. (She claims there was a typo, but it's already official, so...) The other beak wolf killed was killed in a single shot by Glovedtrumpet, who simply shot it in the head.
On the 27th of Granite, Rampartpaddle saw a snatcher while gathering wood. All militiadwarves not bedridden due to the beak wolves (which, sadly, seem to have waylaid or eaten the winter migrants) have been ordered to aprehend the thief. In case you've forgotten, Rampartpaddle is a hammerdwarf. Sadly, the thief got away.
I decided that the river-drain-blocking-off thing was too time-consuming and unneeded to continue, to I stopped it. Instead, I'll have a wall built along the sourthern coast of our courtyard.
Splint was attecked by some crow-men. He drove them off.
Quilltorch, the former commander of The Spears of Urging, has lost his ability to grasp stuff. He has been relieved from command ( and is being moved into his own squad, The Copper Fates, which he can run as he likes.
The same crow-men who harrassed Splint are attacking the New Ways of Drying.
On Granite 6th, a cat gave birth.
In health news, most of the patients are well; aside from BerserkNINJA and Quilltorch, everyone's working. I'm sure Quilltorch would be working if his hands worked.
Interestingly, the caverns have remained silent. Not a troll or cave fish has shown up yet...Wait a sec, I heard something down there. It sounds like an infant's cry.
Mrs. Manorgloves gave birth to a healthy little girl while she was hauling some ore up from the caverns. This child, who has been given the surname of Paintfountains, is both the first child born to Manorgloves and Tradeplans, but also the first child born in our fortress. Manorgloves takes a moment to pick up her child, then hauls the ore the rest of the way to the fortress proper.
On the 21st, Broken shouts about needing Splint. She rushes to help, when Broken informs Splint that she meant the wooden thing. Splint asked if Broken needed wood; Broken confirmed. Hilarity ensued; Splint got a black eye and was denied treatment.
On the 26th of Granite, I tried accelerating the construction of the prisoner insertion device by usage of a controlled cavein. It worked, although Townbud was right on the edge of a deep drop; I decided to discontinue the concept, at least small-scale. Large-scale, maybe it could propel her back into a corridor. The next day, a big accident happened. Memo to masons: Bridges to not, repeat do NOT hold up walls. The day after that, the mason presumed responsible was found, dead, drowned, after passing out underwater and swimming feebly. If he had swum a little faster, or woken up a little earlier...but weep, for it is not to be.
Shortly after the discovery of Shem's corpse, a snatcher was found. About this time, Manorgloves realised her little girl was missing! Plaitmansions was, thankfully, right next to the goblin; he had recovered from the cavein well, and was soon chasing the snatcher. As The New Ways of Dying and a rookie, quiver-deprived marksdwarf chased the first snatcher, a slightly older-looking goblin was seen. It was carrying a noisy bag.
Sadly, the more successful thief made off without any injury.The junior thief also escaped, having received some ineffectual slaps from Plaitmansions and returned a stab (dealing a glancing wound). Worse, the thief returned an attempted attack from the rookie marksdwarf, breaking her arm and knocking her crossbow out of her head.

On the bright side, Rampartpaddle gave birth to a scrawny little boy who seemed to like the cats in the food stockpile. That's where she gave birth. The new baby was surnamed Sunkengirder. His older siblings were really happy about their new baby brother; Blockadeswords kicked her older brother to get the first chance to hold him. The baby, not her older brother. I removed Rampartpaddle from the military, so as to protect the baby. Oh, and BerserkNINJA has company in the hospital.

On the 8th of Slate, I discovered that the caverns are...less stable than I imagined. I accidently ordered Townbud to order an evidently-weight-bearing pillar, and suddenly she slams into a wall, leading to broken ribs and a torn heart. Townbud swiftly bleeds to death. This accident doesn't even finish the job it was supposed to accelerate! I order Rampartpaddle to take Townbud's place as a miner.
On a brighter note, on the 13th, after checking twice and cleaning my glasses, I note that BerserkNINJA is walking about, pushing a minecart. She's clutching a steel pick and shield, a bismuth bronze mace, and and ash crutch in her left hand as the right is unuseable.

And, just to balance that out, the beekeeper/mason/speardwarf was found dead, inexplicably. Currently my best theory is either infection or complications from the head wounds received during the siege, but it's a mystery.

-----

I'm stopping before I get too far behind.

I usually train with smoothing until my engraver become legendary. But the problem is that sometimes i want another one to be legendary, and I have then yo wait (because in this case, the other (already legendary) would be to fast for the other, which is still younger in the job).
I regret that :
- there is no artefact engraving, which could take several tiles of wall
- There is no scenery in engraving (the life of XX monster, who first destroyed XX and XX and XX and XX and then get struck by XX, or the life of a particular dwarf).

Separating smoothing and engraving could be a good idea. Or, linking smoothing to mason, as smoothing walls is (IRL) the job of the mason

First off: Engravers can go moody. They create mason-type objects, but gain engraving skill.
Second off: The type of smoothing most likely used by dwarves IDF involves a chisel to remove the parts of the rock that aren't smooth, and perhaps adding something to the little holes and pits, leaving a smooth surface. This is more similar to how dwarves presumably engrave than how they presumably make stone furniture. Also, how would you train engravers if smoothing trains masonry?

Trying to make reasonable skill groupings is impossible, because it's ultimately a matter of taste and playing style. Should stonecrafting be in the stoneworking, or in the crafting group? Weaving, farming or crafting? Butchery, animal handling or farming? Tanning: crafting, farming, or animal handling? etc.

There's related discussion in this recent thread (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=110611.0) and on keywords "skill synergy", "skill system" etc.

The idea above was to merge skills, e.g. saying that small animal dissection is similar enough to fish dissection (since both of them are getting extracts from small animals) that they should be the same skill.

New update!

-----

BerserkNINJA is recovering slowly, but a lot of work still needs to be done. Thankfully, Broken's been doing little but helping her recover, and even Townbud is helping with her wound-binding knowledge...and her...food-bringing knowledge.
On the 20th of Opal, we found the caverns. We're preparing the prison area.
I was planning a way to drain the river into the aquifer, but the plans were implemented before I could finish them or remember everything I wanted to do. So, if it works, it'll keep the river drained more or less permanently. I'm working on an ad hoc way to turn off the drain involving two grates and some clay.
On the 8th of Obsidian, Plaitmansions began to withdraw from society. He would be perfectly fine if he had built the jewler's workshop a month or two ago when I ordered it, but until we get a traction bench Broken's pretty much done with BerserkNINJA, so she'll be able to do it. After two days, Plaitmansions claimed the shop; three days later, having gathered two rough bloodstones, a rough clear tourmaline, and some metal (pig iron and trifle pewter, both imported), began working. I can't wait to see what he makes...probably some big, cut tourmaline...
The same day, the grates were finished.

On the 15th, a horrible thing happened. A vile force of darkness arrived--eight beak wolves and a giant grasshopper. They're arriving on the farthest chunk of land, so they must cross both narrow bridges to get here. The Superior Mines (except BerserkNINJA) will station themselves on the chunk of land between bridges, the Constructive Fortresses will station just north of that to rain bolts on the enemy (assuming they have the bolts, quivers, and ability to not charge into battle), and the Spears of Urging will be stationed just within the east gate, just in case. Eleven dwarves with various arms against fifteen glorified beasts and an oversized bug? Not even a battle.
I hope...

-----

From the diary of Splint:
Dear diary,
Today was an important day! As the highest-ranking militiadwarf in Zonnish Kukon not bedridden by being banged with some wood (heh, NINJA's never living that down), I'm leading our forces into battle. I need to grab my waterskin and put away this plant barrel and I'll be good. Maybe a backpack and stuff.
The beak wolves just gathered in the southwest for a while, wandering slightly in a tight pack, moving about but on average approaching the fort.
Brassy seems certain that we'll win--he's more worried about that river-draining thing going out of control. Classic hubris, but these things have noting but their beaks and claws against our motley crew of metal, bone, shell, and wool. Maybe we'll be fine. Even filling my waterskin, though, I'll be out there before any of the recruits in my squad. The others are already out, but out of the five in my squad, one is bedridden after being banged with some wood (that joke will never get old), one is busy cutting gems and stuff, and two are claiming that they can't reach the stationing point for some reason. Weirdos. So I'll be alone as the first line of defense.
I pass Shem, the mason, as he wheels in some wood. The beak wolves don't seem to notice, or care, about the mason. Hell, everyone needs some practice, and I needed cover while I filled my waterskin from the river; thats the only reason I ordered the Spears over here. Nothing much going wrong, the wolves are approaching, the waterskin's mostly filled, Shem's grabbing some plants to put in that barrel he's got...wait WHAT? I start to run after him, then realize I need provisions.
[I'm not making this up. Splint has really done almost NOTHING to prepare for battle. This leaves a couple unskilled speardwarves and the marksdwarves, many of which are quiver-deprived, against Zonnish's first siege. Forum!Splint, you should be embarrased about the conduct of Drof!Splint.]
The mason realised his mistake, but swiftly fled...southeast, pretty much as directly away from the fort as he could without running into the squad of beak wolves. The marksdwarves start shooting at the wolves, and I decided to not grab the food until after the battle. The Spears quickly neutralized the forerunner of the squad, with the rest lagging behind. Maybe I can grab that plump helmet after all, the newbs are doing pretty good.
In the middle of this, my squadmate joined the battle. Lokum shouted at me about grabbing provisions mid-battle and described his new artifact. Fateflushed the Mother of Mortality, a bloodstone hatch cover. I saw it after the battle. It's encrusted with eight-sided chunks of clear gems, studded with pig iron and pewter, and encircled with bands of cushion-shaped bloodstone chunks. It also has an image of a tree of some kind (Sappho said it looked like a cedar, the nerd). It's only worth...maybe 2,400 gold [36,000 db], a bit less than a third of The Rumored Wills's, and a bit less than one-eleventh of the total fort value (around 26,000 gold [400,000 db], if I recall correctly), but still...it's valuable enough that Brassy's redesigning the dining room a bit to justify putting the floor hatch in it.
Lolor really shone today. He drove the beak wolves back across the first bride to that one chunk of land, which admittadly wasn't the brightest idea seeing as he's a marksdwarf, but his martial trance was impressive. There was some cowardice, too. Rimtar Quilltorch, the leader of The Spears of Urging, was running to the hospitalormitory for some bruises and torn hands, and Atis (one of the marksdwarves) was heading in with only bruises.
After four deaths, the beak wolves were retreating over the bridge. Their leader on the grasshopper thing was barking and yelping, trying to regroup them. Soon, five were dead, most (including the leader) had fled, and one was being beaten up by that Momuz fellow. I ordered the other Spears of Urging to follow suit and for the rest of us to return to civilian duties. The first siege of Zonnish is over, and no casualties! However, Broken's got her work cut out--five new patients, plus BerserkNINJA.
The new recruits need to learn some proper post-battle ettiquette, though; two sodiers abandoned their spears (one of which was steel!), and one of those left his shield in the field. To say nothing of those who leave their weapons, backpacks, waterskins, shields, and so forth strewn about the fortress.
In slightly brighter news, they're finally burying Creedbell. She's being laid to rest right under the minecart that took her life, with her puppy ever guarding her eternal sleep. Also, the prison's being built. Finally.