Bay 12 Games Forum

I feel you.

In my last couple of forts, my DF experience basically devolved into full-time-trying-to-get-"marksdwarves"-to-train. Sometimes it would work for a little while but usually it was just frustration. So I gave up and stuck with legendary melee dwarves.

Then came flying invaders.

Danger zone.

Because I use a Jurassic Dell, I start fighting for FPS at embark. I have weather and temp off by default and only turn temp on briefly if snow need melting. I promptly butcher all animals (no matter how tempting keeping then may be), atom-smash all non-essential gear, seal all cleared veins, etc. I build with only efficiency in mind often at the cost of aesthetics. I have a pop cap of 80 and 5 max children. If a migrant wave sends me too far over 80, I send some out to die. I use DFhack to immediately clean mud/blood/vomit/etc. and to autodump with shameful frequency. I micromanage obsessively.

I have learned how to get about 8 years out of a fort before it hits 20 FPS menacing with spikes of 0 FPS. At that point, I'm out.

I dream of the day when I have a good computer and can do more than constant FPS CPR.

But somehow, it's still worth it.

I used to search for "prepared". But I like the ideas in this thread. Fine tuning, here I come.

To reiterate,

Bones that can be used for crafting must come from one of the following sources:
A) From a tame animal that was slaughtered and butchered at the butcher's shop.
B) From a wild animal that was killed by a dwarf (or presumably a war or hunting animal) and butchered at the butcher's shop.
C) From a limb of any non-dwarf that has been severed from the body while living and then given time to dry/rot until there is only a bone left.

If anyone knows of exceptions to this, I would be glad to hear them.

I have a related issue.

My baron just got promoted to a count by a liaison. I get a dwarven caravan about every other year (probably because they don't come during sieges). Every season I get a "attracted no migrants" message and there are no leaders listed in the "c" screen for dwarves.

Does this mean my civ is dead? And if so, how do I keep this from happening? It seems to happen in all my best forts. I once even had the dwarves disappear entirely from the "c" screen after a few years (though I've been told that that is impossible).

Also, in case you don't know already, you want to make the change in the "save" for an ongoing world.

I had this problem bad not long ago. I missed out on a few years of trading due to attacks. Since I counted on that trading, the ford went bust.

I started a thread about it and the best solution that I was given was to create a safe passage for the caravan. Build walls from your depot right up to the edge of the map (use raised bridges for that last little bit). The caravan will appear in that slot as it's the only place that they can access the depot. Once they're in, you can lower the bridges and fight the invaders.

If you're getting as many attacks as you say, the challenge will be to build the walls without the masons getting killed. A military escort and luck may be the answer. If you have lots of armor, you could draft the masons and leave them inactive. This should at least send them out to build the wall in armor.

Good luck!