Bay 12 Games Forum

Dear Toady One,
In the devlog*, you mentioned migrants with historical relatives, and migrants that are generally historical figures. There are a few uncertain things and interesting possibilities related to that that I'd like to ask you.

1. Are all migrants historical figures, or are they still mostly generated on-the-spot?

2. What happens when your civ runs out of citizens? Or do historical migrants stop genning before then?

3. If something like the famous Cacame Apebalded incident happened, could you get elf migrants?
3b. I suppose this would count for non-dwarven adventurers as well.

4. Can the monarch migrate to your fortress if it houses most/all of the civ's population? (Which would require massive worldgen wars or something, but how unlikely is that?)

5. If that happened, would it count as a bug or an unintended feature?

If you choose to answer these questions, thanks! (If you don't, that's fine, but I'm not going to thank you for not answering a question.)

*I think that's what the thing on the main DF page is, but I might be confusing it with something else.

I'm sorry to hear that. I was thinking that you were someone who was merely ignorant. I hope you understand that I was only trying to help, not criticize.

The whole "no tone of voice on the internet" thing can really be aggravating sometimes.

Some send their enemies through a Trial By Maws, or a Trial By Water, or a Trial By Fire, or a Trial By Ice, or a Trial By Earth, or a Trial By Gravity, or a Trial By Fur, or even a Trial By Air. You are trying to make them go through a Trial By Steel; good luck! You must put your dwarves through a Trial of their own if you want them to succeed. A Trial By Maw is an excellent choice, but controversial. Trials By Steel require attacking enemies, and most of the other aforementioned Trials lead merely to a reduction of the surplus population; however, a Trial By Fur can train soldiers from the moment you choose a militia commander.

[Translation: Some of us kill goblins and other invaders by using repeating spikes, or drowning traps, or magma traps, or freezing traps, or cavein traps, or dodge-me traps, or war dogs, or even cave-in dust. You are trying to fight goblins with a military; this isn't the most efficient way to kill enemies, but it is dwarfy. You need to find some non-sparring-based manner of training if you want your dwarves to be ready to fight off sieges before the mountains crumble around you. A danger room using repeating wooden training spears is a great choice, but considered an exploit by some. You don't have enough enemies to train on them, and most goblin-killing methods will only kill off your recruits; however, sending your militia off to kill small, fuzzy animals is quite effective for training.]

Make sure that your modded version of picks, or whatever you have, is set so that rabbit-sized creatures can wield it. I made that mistake once.

Granite 4, 32
The barracks are completed!
A dog gave birth to two male puppies.

Geanite 5, 32
A badger gets angry at the very existance of Wallgorges.

Granite 9, 32
A badger gets angry at Bridgeinches. Mmm, badger...

Granite 20, 32
As part of Operation: More Badger Steaks, we reached Fh 0.7/3.4.

Granite 22, 32
Ack! Somehow migrants slipped past my notic yesterday! Here're their bios, assuming I didn't miss anyone:

Uvash Sealheld, a master weaponsmith! That's enough to keep him!
Libash Diamondclasp, a massive in all dimensions weaver and thresher. He likes glumprong wood, hammers, and gibbons. Libash, welcome to the militia!
Mistam Wonderrims, a woodcutter and wax worker. She's clumsy, glimsy, weak, and generally worthless.
Dobar Counselwheel, a fat gem setter who dabbles in spinning. She seems a bit antisocial, but who isn't who's willing to come here? We may have another militiawoman, but she's not the type to make a good, sturdy meatshield.
Ral Spottedceiling, an untiring thresher, followed Counselwheel. She has good bone doctoring skills, and seemingly a decent personality for medical work.
Atir Reinmirrored, a woodcutter and -crafter, as well as axedwarf, became a new militia dwarf. She is skilled, but not very agile or quick-healing, so she's not becoming militia commander.
Following Atir is Kubuk Cradlewheeled, a strand extractor and a weaponsmith. To the militia with ye!
Endok Bootthrone is a generally pathetic smelter. She may be kept, or maybe sacrificed against our enemies' blades. Being allowed to choose her squad's name, she selects “The Peaceful Mechanisms.” Yeah, that's a suicide squad. Endok has a pet puppy, a fat female named Mestthos Channelsircles.
Imush Bellstrails, a scrawny woman, is a wood burner, glaxer, and being drafted into the militia.
Aban Riddledagger, a metalsmith, follows. She is weak but fast-healing and has a good mind.
Sodel Bowlspear, a fat and muscular high master potter, follows.
Zuglar Daggerwhip, a high master metalsmith, is the...elventh? migrant, and puts Riddledagger out of a job. Don't worry, there's a new militia squad I'm starting, inspired by Zuglar's name..
Sarvesh Stockadeglowed, a tough little girl of four years, is Zuglar's daughter and the next migrant.
Rakust Cloisterrhythm, a healthy presser, is completely worthless except for his axdwarf skills. His pet poult, Zulban Glazehills, is fat and gigantic.
Kadol Claspclosed is another, completely useless migrant. So are Ezum Razorsmith and Atir Squareguild. Asob Workedbranded is also worthless, but at least qualifies for The Peaceful Mechanisms.

Non-pet animals came also: a gigantic, muscular mule foal; an enormous, weak male llama; a gigantic, muscular giant cave spiderling; a muscular and gigantic female horse foal (filly? Now I have an odd desire for a cheesey beef sandwhich...); and a giant, male horse foal

Thus concludes our migrant wave (I think). Our population is now 37.

They'll fight, all right. If you tell them to kill something, they'll walk right up to it and attack, like normal. Unlike normal, they won't run off to kill a fuzzy groundhog when there's an angry troll preparing to eat your legendary brewer or whatever. However, blind dwarves are INCREDIBLY useful: They run into the fortress when asked instead of running away because there's a goblin on top of the hill, and when given control of a safe ballista, they won't run from their targets when said targets are in sight.

That's right. Blind dwarves are the best choice for operating the most powerful aimed weapon in the fortress.

Hunting? I use war animals only. Well, and untamed.