Bay 12 Games Forum

So you decide to embark in a desert without looking at the vegetation. You find out you have no trees to hack down to make beds, which will undoubtedly lead to unhappy dwarfs early on. I've come up with a remedy, to be able to have 3 units of Straw whenever you harvest cave wheat of any other plant that grows on an 8-foot-long stalk. This straw, along with a unit of cloth, can make a mattress, which can be used the same way as a bed, but can also be bought at embark. Mattresses also should be combined with another new thing, blankets, to make a true bed.

With mattresses, dwarfs can happily place them anywhere they want (except in water or magma), and essentially sleep on the floor.

With blankets, one blanket should be enough in temperate areas, 2 for cold ones, and at least 5 in freezing areas. One blanket should also be used in warm areas, just in case. Also, blankets could be used as a crude way to put out fires (should dwarfs care about one) in the future.

Both blankets and mattresses should be used in a bed.

Anybody decide they've had enough and want to kill things that don't involve a quest (wildlife not included)? In one of my many adventure worlds, I'm planning to go renegade and kill some elves and dwarfs. Problem with dwarfs is, I CAN'T FIND THE FRIGGIN' FORTRESS ENTRANCE!!!!! That, and it's dark, and wet, and scary down there... I don't want to get eaten by olms and Giant Cave Spiders. *shudders* I HATE spiders. With elves, all I can do is set trees and shrubs afire until I smoke out a few elves. Then kill them, 'cause their wooden crap weapons and armour are good as firewood. I just hope that them elves won't figure out that they can make their wooden arrows become !!wooden arrows!! and shoot me, potentially turning me into a !!renegade assassin!!. I WANT TO KILL EVERYTHING NOT OF MY CIVILISATION!!!!! Muahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! I'm evil.

I've seen a thread for missing pre-1400s technology, which has included the use of gunpowder. I've been thinking, why not suggest different types of guns and explosives to use? Mechanisms, the guns and artillery need to have appropriate workshops: the Gunsmith's shop and the Foundry. Mechanisms and artillery (cannons, mortars, grenades, mortar bombs, cannonballs and the mighty bombard) will be cast out of bronze, iron or steel at the foundry, depending on the mechanism and artillery piece. Guns (obviously) need to be made at a gunsmith's shop. Dwarves are able to make and use: Hand-Cannon, Matchlock Pistol, Flintlock Pistol, and Blunderbuss. Humans can use Dwarven guns, in addition to: Matchlock Musket, Flintlock Musket, Flintlock Rifle, and Arquebus. Matchlock guns are thought to have wider-spaced muzzle and are more useful for hunting. The blunderbuss, on the other hand, has a regular muzzle and can be used for either hunting or combat. Ammo can be either paper cartridges with a lead bullet, a charge of powder (hand firearm sized) and paper for wadding (recommended for gun-using dwarves), or individual bits and bobs for a true hunter: a bag for bullets, another bag for scrap cloth (byproduct of making clothes, used for wadding) and a cow or yak horn with powder in it. Shot cartridges are basically paper cartridges with shot, an ammo type that spreads, instead of a single bullet.

Guns and ammo (Dwarven use only) are listed, along with uses: Matchlock pistol (shot cartridge, hunting, militia use), Flintlock pistol (paper cartridge, hunting, combat, militia use), Blunderbuss (paper cartridge, combat), and Hand-Cannon (small cannonball, hand-cannon powder charge, combat). It should be worth noting that I did not recommend the blunderbuss or hand-cannon to be used for hunting, because A. They are military-grade guns, B. The hand-cannon was extremely inaccurate, and C. The significantly louder noise of a hand-cannon would (and should) awaken--and maybe even startle-- everything on the map.

Artillery can be considered siege engines, but are made entirely out of metal, and need to be cast. This is why I suggest a Foundry to Cast {metal name} Cannon, Cast {metal name} Mortar, Cast {metal name} (hand) Cannonballs, and Make Grenades. I will expand this post using a different one later.