Bay 12 Games Forum

OK, I've tried a couple of different repeaters and I failed at both of them.

First off is the classic mist generator, with 4 pumps in a square above my fort entrance.  I hooked it to a set of water wheels (not a DWR, just some WWs) with plenty of power, and it completely failed.  The water got one pump away from the initial spot and spilled all over the place, and didn't stay around for the mist to generate.

Then I tried AncientEnemy's four tile repeater, (http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/40d:Repeater) which worked in 40d evidently...does it not work in 2010?  I couldn't build a drawbridge, only a retracting bridge, and I don't think that functions for this particular repeater.  Is something wrong with the way I'm doing things?  Or have bridges changed since d40?

It's a "Fey" mood, not a Macabre, and the little kid is asking for body parts.  The wiki says Bones, Skull, Horn, or Ivory.  I have just butchered some cats and a yak, so I have bones, skulls,and horns...and NO IVORY.  Is there a way to generate Ivory other than elephants (of which I have exactly zero on my map)?  I believe I am DOOOMED, this punk kid (Dwarven Child who has taken over my craftsdwarf shop) is gonna go berzerk and start a tantrum spiral, I JUST KNOW IT.

Of course, it might help if I start mining metal and make armor and weapons, but all I got is copper right now!  Maybe I should dig down to the magma, build a pumpstack (or piston) and start mining copper.

For some reason, I have some stones on the stairway to the bedrooms marked for dumping, but the dwarves completely ignore them.  Anyone have any clues why that might be?

Things I've thought of:

No path to items.  Invalid because there are dwarves sleeping within sight of the stones.
Forbidden items.  Invalid because, well, they're not forbidden, I checked.
They're outside.  Invalid because they're underground, dark.

I'm sure it's something stupid, but I can't figure it out.

This may be a 'facepalm' moment.

Haven't played DF in a while, picked up 31.19 to get back into it.  Load my usual setup, modified to include a doctor.  Mine out a space to put my food stockpiles in so they don't rot, then start putzing around with other stuff, but no military or defense.  Went on like this for about a year, and then the dwarves started hunting vermin.  Oops, forgot to set up farming.  Do a quick farm set-up using floor hatches from above and a drainage ditch, get farming working, get my dwarves up to like 1000 food, 1000 booze after another year or two.  Notice I still haven't bothered to do military.  I say to myself, "Self, you haven't set up a military...but you also haven't seen any snatchers or thieves.  Well, whatever."  Self still does not bother setting up military.

And then the seige comes. 

I draft 21 random dwarves (since I still don't quite get the DF2010 military system, despite reading the wiki), send them against the seige, and hope that it's enough.  Well, 4 dwarves die, 6 go to hospital and eventually recover, and the seige is broken.  Hot damn, I say!  And then I return to my normally scheduled ignoring of the military system.  Break through to the first cavern, pit a llama baby to do some exploring for me (he's wandering around with red injuries coz pitting him led to a 9 z-layer fall).  Start doing the dining room and offices for nobles, and...AMBUSH...I say to myself again, "Self, this time, let's figure out what we're doing!"  So, I pause the game, use Dwarf Therapist to figure out who has essential skills and who can go in the military, set up custom professions, then assign them all to squads, then assign the squads to go kill the goblins.  You can predict what happens next.  I sent 3 squads of 9 out to meet the goblins.  They came back with 1 or 2 in each squad...or should I say, those guys were probably eating and didn't even go out.  Tantrums started erupting.  I hadn't set up burrows to keep the civvies indoors, so they were all pathing out to get the dead bodies and dropped crap, and getting killed by goblins. 

Another fortress killed by overconfidence and laziness.

I don't like how rare metals are in 31.19.  I had plenty of wood to smelt metal and make stuff out of it, but no ore to do so with.  Oh, I could have bought it, but where's the fun in that?

Anyway, I'll try again, I'm sure.  And this time, I'll build farms and a military infrastructure much sooner.

This is a discussion of Hidden Fun Stuff.  If you don't want to know (what are you doing here) don't read.

I had a minor goblin invasion, which I defeated through basically pure luck (as I'm not that good at defensive setups yet).  One of my guys is dying from red wounds in heart and both lungs.  But he keeps trying to rest, but keeps failing to do so because 'Interrupted by Goblin Wrestler'...which is in a cage nowhere near him. 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anyone? 

If that's what's actually happening (whether by accident or really), that is totally cool.

I'm looking for coal.  I know it's here, somewhere (using a seed from the website that says there is coal).  Other than random test drills, what process do you use to prospect for any given material?