Bay 12 Games Forum

With the latest string of chasm related accidents, the dwarven population of Cloisterbrother had dropped sharply from fortyeight to only forty in just two months. Far from it's record sixty dwarves from it's third year, and with no immigration, things didn't look well for the outpost. Something had to be done...

I decided to try to play as elves, and added the controllable tag to the elves, and set off. I had forgotten to give them any means of digging or cutting wood though, so after smacking my forehead for my stupidity I abandoned.

Later I came back, doing a reclaim, with humans this time. And what do I find? Not just the cart from the old expedition, still intact, but in fact so were the elves.

All the original seven elves from the earlier expedition were still there, standing around.

I wonder if they'll do anything once I start building?

Yea. I was digging a moat and almost forgot about the -1 farm area beneath. I circumvented the problem by moving the farms, only to notice apparently a stream isn't enough to fill a moat. I just got some sparse 1 and 2 water squares that dried out as quickly as they came.

Oh, well. Empty moat is better than no moat, I guess.

My first siege was six or so goblins that appeared at the end of a seven cart human caravan. The six goblins made mincemeat of the entire caravan in just seconds... then they all died in my traps.

They also killed eight dwarves that for some reason just HAD to run out and watch the goblins closely.

quote:

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Originally posted by aeroue:
<STRONG>
Some guy made a comment, that as far as Dwarf Fortress knowledge goes was undeniably wrong. So what if all that Savok did was provide a link, it was concise and helpful and got straight to the point.</STRONG>

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That has been thoroughly contested in earlier posts, and I don't have anything to add there.

quote:

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<STRONG>
Unlike the page and a half of rubbish after, full of people whining because there 'e-feelings' have been hurt.</STRONG>

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The only rubbish here is the notion that manners don't matter on the Internet and that people's feelings don't matter if they're not physically present to punch you in the face.

A jerk is a jerk no matter if he's standing three feet away or hiding behind an alias on the Internet - and I mean that in general terms and not pointed at anyone in particular here or otherwise (although some pre-teens in MMOGs come to mind   :p )

Most of the people who post in this forum are working hard to improve the game experience to everyone, and I think it's very rude and inconsiderate to disregard what they have to say as "whining".

I always get upset by an unhelpful "RTFM", and when someone doesn't just post that, but actually takes the trouble to link it somewhere, it's not just lazy, they're taking trouble to be actively unhelpful.

The forum has qualities the Wiki doesn't. It's dynamic. It fosters discussion. You don't just get a tersely written theory (there is a lot of "might" and "could" and "is believed to" in the Wiki for some strange reason) but you get a discussion about the subject. People offer their opinions on the subject, you get a lot of different suggestions on solutions, and a lot of the time the discussion gives rise to new ideas on how to do things better.

The Wiki doesn't contain any of this in it's current state. It's just a reference sheet of minimal facts which are usually not complete, which strikes me as odd. There's no need for a "might" or "is believed to" in the case of a software project. Everything is (or should) be documented. Selling crossbows doesn't "maybe" promote immigration of crossbowdwarves, it either does or doesn't - it's in the code.

This aside, I understand if someone doesn't want to take the trouble to sit on a forum and give meaningful answers to people, but I don't understand why someone would want to sit on a forum and give meaningless answers.

Crossbows really are that powerful. A decent bolt from a decent crossbow isn't stopped by mere plate armor or a shield. That's why you use fortifications.  

Be glad the gobbos don't use gastraphetes. Me, I'd like to see humans employ those... Then again, my siege-weapons fetish is widely known.   :p

I lost my entire army of six, as well as eleven civilians and two mules and two dogs to a goblin force of eleven. The dwarves don't fight all that intelligently... But I had something the goblins didn't - prisoners. I took eight of the goblins prisoner, and made them wish they'd died in the fighting.

Mue he he he. Makes you wish you could build a torture chamber...

Java and Flash are installed but refuse to work. The joys of Linux. Well, now I know to look using a working browser instead.

Knew it was something like that. *mutter*