Bay 12 Games Forum

Testing done on my own 1.5 year old fort in a 250 year old world:

shape                                  16%
civ symbol                              10%
local symbol                            8%
artifact                                8%
item                                    7%
plant                                  6%
deity                                  6%
selection of expedition leader          5%
foundation of fort                      5%
my history                              5%
region history                          5%
creature                                5%
dwarves                                4%
tree                                    4%
local historical figure history        2%
appointment of bookkeeper              2%
local historical figure likes bolts    1%
-If the engraver has item, plant, tree, creature preferences they will carve them. This is not labelled as "x is surrounded by the x". (I got weapon racks, turkeys, and lots of square cut gem shapes)
-If the engraver doesn't have a preference, they will carve random things (I got random trees and plants from this guy)
-The engraver appears to carve only their deity
-Artifacts evenly distributed among existing artifacts
-My fort's history includes goblins dying by falling or by a miner's pick, as well as the scuttling of a wagon and the haunting and putting to rest of a ghost (dwarven liason)
-My region's history was only a goblin being killed by a giant dingo
-Local historical figures get mention when they settled or were accepted into the fort. It appears that you have to kill something, get a noble position, or become legendary to become a local historical figure.
-It appears that local historical figures will be associated with their favorite/hated items or creatures.

Reduced complexity percentages:

civ symbol                              10%
local symbol                            8%
artifact                                8%
engraver's preferences or random 48%
history                            25%
I didn't get any "rendition of masterpiece" type engravings due to the fort being young.

Remember to filter your engravers to get rid of ones with annoying preferences or deitys!

Next up for testing: likely either statues, or the difference between skilled and unskilled engravers.

Whilst I'll admit that there will be plenty of fun things we ought to be able to do with rollers, I can't help but think that most people here are ignoring their latent potential.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCEc_043-Fc

They even had magma pits! Now imagine that with crossbows.

... and stay out of range of all but really, really good observers. Unless you can corner them, you won't find them ...

Just reconfirmed with arena testing: a noob elephant in stealth can walk in circles around a grand master observer dwarf, as long as the stealthing elephant stays 4 tiles away from the dwarf. The moment I stepped the elephant within the 7x7x7 cube detection area (centered on the observer), it was spotted. So no matter how good your observers are, you need to corner them first.

Anti-necromancer bomb idea: put a skeleton or something on a pressure plate outside, where the plate is surrounded by fortifications or glass windows. The plate is linked to several supports holding up walls, creating a cave-in trap that hits anyone within sight range of the plate. The plate will never be disturbed unless something animates the body. Do this without the plate/supports for an early warning system.

As far as I can tell, the hiding necromancer actually runs away when he spots your dwarves, and turns around a few seconds later when he feels safer. This leads to him staying outside detection range (3 tiles) while staying within the range of his animation ability. I don't know what happens if a hunter necromancer comes to your fort.

Been playing for a few weeks now...
Nothing worth telling cept this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Its not even a fight!
The FB targeted a milker,rushed and just rammed face-front(or Limbs-front?) into THE MILKERS LEFT LEG and DIED.

The milker left leg got bruised btw.
He had deadly dust, and my milker is probably going to die fast because everything part of his body is rotten.

What happened here is that the FB used its dust ability, which pushed it into a wall or off a cliff, similar to the effects of cave-in dust, causing the falling damage.

Everyone simply assumes that you can't hurt giant sponges, but you're not thinking outside the box.

Sure, you can't harm them... physically. But have any of you tried a hurtful personal insult? Making fun of its weight, perhaps, playing up its insecurities?

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=101243.msg2998984#msg2998984

FYI relevant bug:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=5346