Bay 12 Games Forum

I realy would like to provide you with savegames, but there are 3 mayor problems with that.

For one these are problems wich occured during my last 20 or even 30 attempts because i tried different sollutions before posting here (see first post, zerg style, spec ops style, "Marksdwarf gattling" etc.). So I couldnt show you all problems in one savegame. Another Reason are some world generating problems. During the same time I experimentet with the world generation module to learn wich attributes result in wich worlds. The problem here is the crashing of DF.exe once you already got one world and are trying to create another. No big deal, as long as you delete the old regions.

The last problem is my SSD wich is only 64GB in total (btw, SSD realy improve your lag ressistance, I realy recommend buying one) and my settings to save every season. DF gets realy big during 2 ingame years. (I got a 2,5 GB savegame after 1,5 years on a 10x10 embark site ^^")


For now my fortress runs pretty smooth, once "lot of Fun" appears I try to recreate the old problems but for now I try to figure out how to end it propperly. Just building a giant magma reservoir to flood my fortress, but there must be other, more creative, ways to kill ~200 dwarfes, ~100 Goblins, Elves, Kobolds and a Bronzegolem with one lever.

If he has no head you are fucked.

If he has he will be no problem unless he has some special abillities like poison etc.

What I meant by calling flooding mechanisms "hypertheoretical" is, I am talking about the first ambush or siege. At that point you merely have established food production or Craftsdwarfes, you are trying to set up some sort of metal Industrie, dig out all neccessary rooms etc.

You usually have no time to dig out, and prepare, some sort of flooding mechanism during the first year.


Just like the restraint version, its a good idea for year 3 or 4 but not year 1. Of course you can try one of these "7 - Miner" embarks and dig out everything while asigning new migrants to usefull jobs, but unless you are very lucky you still get some Problems.



Anyway, what would be your plan on frozen (or even frozen + hostile) embark sites?

Quote from: Damien White on April 18, 2011, 08:39:53 am

Erm, a siege may be announced, an Ambush is not. And most the time the Ambush appears next to a dwarf and so the dwarf gets killed 90% of the time.

There's your problem. WHY do you not know an Ambush is going on before a dwarf finds it? Ok sure, if it's a migrant or a wood hauler/cutter then there's little helping, but fort entrances should have long corridors watched over by animals to detect ambushes long before important dwarves get in contact with the stealth goblins. Then you have ample time to switch on the civilian alert to restrict everyone's movements to limited portions of your fort.

My Entrance look like this:

WWWGGGWWW
WWWGGGWWW
WWWGGGWWW
WWWGGGWWW
WGGGGGGGW
WGWGWGWGW
WGWGWGWGW
WDWDWDWDW
WGWGWGWGW
WGWGWGWGW

W = Wall
G = Ground
D = Dog

I get 4 entrance, each one 1 tile wide and 4-6 tiles long, guarded by one war dog. behind the 4 entrances there is the usuall 3 tile Hallway.

You also should know how ambushes work. They are hidden and "passive" unless one of your animals or dwarfes runs straight into them. Some of you told me to place animals all over the place, but even with 20 dogs, breeding like crazy you wont get enough animals for this sort of defence and also not enough ropes.

This might be an great option for year 3 or 4, but not 1.

Anyway, the main Problem are dwarfes running outside because of stupid reasons. Like i mentioned in the first post, they run outside to watch the Sun or some 2/7 mudhole, even if you provide them with more entertaining stuff, there are still some which run outside.

And yes, I createt Zones for whater, fishing (and disabled every fishing related labor), I got at least 4 meeting areas (1 legendary dining room, 1 legendary statue garden inside, 1 statue garden outside and 1 after a hallway full of caged animals and statues)

Quote

If I am unlucky the ambush happens right when a migrant wave appears and so 5-8 dwarfes got killed. Even if my dwarfes inside my fortress have no idea who the other dwarfes are, they get mad and throw tantrums.

Check your dwarves' thoughts. Getting into a tantrum because random migrant #7 died just as he entered the map should not happen. See exactly what's causing them to get miserable, it must be something else not the actual migrants' deaths.

I figured out, my dwarfes lived to happy. I stoped engraving the walls (just smoothed them) and they stop throwing tantrums. My theory is, because the lived a live without any sort of negative aspect they got kinda "lazy" and once something goes wrong they get crazy like hell cause they have no idea how to handle the situation.

But its just a theory.

Quote

Its simply dwarfen training

You still get posts in this thread because you resorted to danger rooms. Your choice in how you play DF so all is fine. Just that some players have figured out how training is only meaningful when kick-started with experienced combatants so they frown on danger rooms as a cop out to learning how to get training to work. Dwarves who don't know how to fight cannot properly teach others how to fight and nobody wants to spar until they know how to wield their weapon in the first place.

Realy? Never thougt of that....

And avoid having too much luxury in your fortress too soon : Gold statues, steel armors and engraved walls are goblin magnets. I try to stay low-profile until I have a few soldiers battle ready.

You sure about that? Someone said only exportet crafts count to the "siege'o'meter". Do mined out tiles also count? I usually try to establish some sort of water reservoir aka a large chamber below my fortress, 20x10x4 in size, connectet with wells an water zones.

Or simply create a pasture next to a flodgate behind a magma chamber.

Let them burn!

Well, you say you Mason Workshop has to be build of one tower cap log and so your dwarfes use one tower cap log. If you say they should use some Gabbro etc they use this instead.


Only at forges and smelter the material is important, wood simply burns down, stone doesnt.

You want metal? Simply dig for it or craft Stuff to buy some.

I get embark sites without usefull metal quite often but most the time there is other usefull stuff like gold, gems etc I can craft to valuable Items for sale.

Most the time this is more effective than forging steel equip by yourself, I usually equip my first 10 dwarfes with traded items.

Chanel a square around the sword, remove the ramps, build Fortifications next to it, chanel another row behind the fortification and build a a bridge to cross over. Place one dwarf inside, seal the whole Area, raise the bridge and place 30-40 Marksdwarfes behind the fortification.

A Ammo Stockpile with at least 1k Bolts would be nice to have, but unless lag dont kill you you get a damn god practiseground for your Marksdwarfes.

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GG...........GG
GG.FFFFFFFFF.GG
GG.F.......F.GG
GG.F.GGGGG.F.GGMMMAAAAA
GG.F.GGGGG.F.GGMMMAAAAA
GG.F.GGSGG.B.BGMMMAAAAA
GG.F.GGGGG.F.GGMMMAAAAA
GG.F.GGGGG.F.GGMMMAAAAA
GG.F.......F.GG
GG.FFFFFFFFF.GG
GG...........GG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
S = Sword
F = Fortification
G = Ground
. = Empty Space
B = Bridge
M = Marksdwarf
A = Ammostockpile


Of Course you need to adjust it to your suroundings, but the Demons cant get out and only your bolts can go in.



But be prepared for the sickest Lag you will ever experience.