Bay 12 Games Forum

My brother's just had this too! He started an adventurer to get some stuff from an old fort, took one step in his starting town and WHAM: huge cloud of dust, you have discovered an underground cavern, you slam into an obstacle and blow apart. He has 31.18 and his world was unexceptional until this event.

I'm gonna see if he'll give me the save to take a look at.

The answer's in the word "puddingstone" - it's a large cluster stone that has a chance of being a small localized aquifer. Puddingstone occurs in conglomerate, so if your mountain's got a conglomerate layer it's not a surprise to find a puddingstone deposit. And since puddingstone isn't a layer stone, it wouldn't show up on embark.

I love these ideas, especially the Innsmouth one - I think I might do that when I'm done with my current fort.

As for R'lyeh, aren't all dwarf fortresses nightmares of non-Euclidean geometry anyway? On a serious note, obsidian casting/carving would definitely be the way to go for that one, especially if the whole thing was then engraved all over with nightmarish images of horror. You'd have to bring that one through a tantrum spiral a couple of times to get the right sort of material. Sounds fun.

Woohoo! I rock!

Put a refuse stockpile next to the butcher's shop and set Gather Refuse from Outside so they bring the gibs over. If that doesn't work, or if you've done it already, I dunno. :|

Ice Wolf steaks would be delicious though.

Dear Urist McMetalworker, Militia Commander,

I know it's upsetting to see something that should rightfully be dead still up and walking, but please let me point a few things out.

Firstly, it is a zombie arctic fox. It is even smaller than a regular red fox. Not only that, it is slow moving because it is a zombie. Even your arch enemy, Urist McCivilianGemsetter, could punt that thing into the middle of next week.

Secondly, it is outside the city walls, four z-levels below you. It cannot possibly get to you while you are putting the roof on our Cathedral of Armok.

Thirdly, it is an arctic fox on the surface of the glacier. You are four z-levels above it and at least fifteen tiles away horizontally. How can you even SEE it down there in the snow?

Fourthly, you are actually the leader of our first and highest ranked military squad. Don't get me wrong, I am pleased to see you taking some time out from Individual Combat Drill to lend a hand to the construction workers, but I also have to remind you that you carry a masterwork steel axe. You are not setting a good example for your squad members by running up and down the battlements screaming. If the zombie arctic fox bothers you that much, go down and kill it or I shall draft you to do so.

Now PLEASE stop suspending construction every three seconds.

Thank you.

maybe he wants broadleaf forests so he can cut them down? Oak wood is nice.

Wiki says mid elevation, high rainfall, high drainage and non-freezing for forests. Added to that, fiddle with the temperature ranges to get plenty of temperate terrain. I suspect it's just random whether you get broadleaf or conifer forest, but boosting the amount of forest terrain generally should give you more chance for broadleaf forests overall.

Don't think there's a way to mod the game to slaughter pets.

The simplest way I've found if you want to keep the owner but kill the cat is probably to build a cat spiker.

o+||||+...

One-tile dead end corridor with some upright spike traps between two doors. The spike traps are linked to the lever (o) at the end. Set the lever to be only usable by the cat owner, then tell him to pull it on repeat (or, more safely, make a one-tile burrow to get him in there). Then watch carefully. When he's in there, eventually the cat will come in looking for him. Lock both doors as soon as it's in the corridor. Dwarf pulls lever, cat gets spiked, cat dies, end of problem. You only have to build this thing once and you'll be catsplosion free for the rest of the fort's life.

Try to get the bodies in coffins if you need to kill a lot of cats, it'll make the owners slightly less miserable.

I'm terrible about restarting. I even export worldgen info and regen the world so I can restart the same embark clean. There's just something about that moment with seven dwarves standing by a wagon when everything feels possible. And then when you do start to dig all those millions of options start to disappear one by one...

I tend to at least hang on until I get sieges now, and I did get the King (Queen) once, but I deleted that one and genned a new world because it was just too easy. I've made a resolution that I'm gonna go all the way with this one though, it's a terrifying glacier (my favourite) with four chalk layers and a LOT of adamantine below. I'm going to build a castle out of steel, which should keep me here for a few years at least. Try a megaproject or a mini-megaproject to keep you motivated?