Bay 12 Games Forum

So in the last couple years my fort has been experiencing a lot of very ugly, very public deaths.  These deaths have revolved around well traveled and public places like temples and guilds.  At first I didn't think much of it when I found bodies in the cathedral of oozes, but hell they worship Zimesh, god of Death & Suicide, what did I expect.  Bodies also turned up in the temple of Unib Zealromanced, they worship wealth, depravity, and lust; all respectable ideals that I can get behind so I actually built that one without them requesting, but again, with tenets like that, no surprise of bodies.  But when bodies started turning up in the fishworkers guild, I knew something was starting to stink. . . well, besides the umm obvious.

I started to suspect that it may have something to do with the artifacts I have on display, some worth hundreds of thousands of gold, and my wanton abandon of accepting any petition placed before me from visitors whom wish to join my fort.

I began to have these suspicions when one of my artifacts seemed to turn up missing, the display case shattered, and a mysterious clue at the scene of the crime. . . . . A novel on "A Meditation On Kidnapping".  Had I found the "smoking kipper"?  A coincidence?  Well, probably but a really good one.

Attempting to get to the bottom of this nefarious plot, conspiracy?  I consulted my justice system.  Sadly I found it to be about as effective as modern day justice systems, a bunch of petty crimes for disorderly conduct, nothing more.

My questions are. . . . what's going on?  Are dorfs killing dorfs for these artifacts?  Are the temples whipping dorfs into a maniacal, religious frenzy?  Have the fishworkers been smoking too much of that pink algae?  And throughout all of this I can't help but ask the age old question, where are the authorities when you really need them!

I have an embark where I have found nothing better than copper/silver yet.  I was raided by some elves upset about my tree cutting.  They simply couldn't be led to understand that the tree cutting was necessary for our annual "Worlds Strongest Dorf" competition and had to be thrashed mightily.  They left behind a decent assortment of iron weapons and armor so I hesitated in wholesale melt-down and hoped to use some and trade the others.

I seemed to be unable to sort the usable vs non-usable.

I set up two stockpiles with nearly identical settings:

1st with all weapons and armor of any quality and make - usable (forbid unusable)
2nd (near trading post) with all weapons and armor of any quality and make - unusable (forbid usable)

The dorfs moved absolutely ZERO items to the unusable stock-pile.

Am I implementing this switch incorrectly?  Is there a clean'ish way to sort the clutter or should I go back to my universal smelting option?

Thank you!

This flashing blue damp stone on lv3 under the two aquifer levels definitely led me to believe it was another layer and so I tried to treat it as such.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1z-8hz3Y86VsXnGuY_676eKNgnYRuCu7x

I have been playing this game for years and feel I just hadn't "gotten around" to performing certain functions as there was always so many other things to do.  I finally decided to do embarks that *forced* me to ramp up on something I had been neglecting so I did a string of embarks on islands in the ocean which typically have multi level aquifers almost immediately.  My requirement for success was lumber and dorf power only so I figured the "double-slit" had to be the method I needed to focus on.

This method did not work for me.

I spent three days and probably 20 hours pouring over videos and reading.  Pausing the game, taking each layer step-by-step, with multiple videos, wiki's, and illustrations up on each of my monitors.  I found I had no issue piercing the 1st level and everything worked as it should.  Following that though the 2nd level absolutely would not naturally drain into the 3rd level even though it was a 4z aquifer.  I thought it may be the area so I did about four other areas on the map. . same results.  Chose a new embark on the world. . . same result. 

I did end up doing an expanded two slit, two pump system.  When pumping from one slit to the other and forcing the current aquifer level to be put under pressure it would absorb the additional water though.  I ended up with my janky 2 pump system with some water left over and used a bucket brigade to quickly remove the excess and re-stage the pumps.  It took longer, it wasn't pretty, but it was satisfying and fun just getting it done finally and passing the "aquifer barrier" both literally and mentally.

Has anything changed with the Aquifers and flow that may cause this to no longer naturally drain or at least not in certain conditions or biomes?

Next two embarks ->

Hostile embark to finally force me to ramp up my military faster

Embark to force me to build up rather than down, homes, castles, etc with full roof.  Any recommendation on an embark for this one that would lend itself to reaching for the sky?

First of all. . . . wow, thank you for the support and input in my lonely post Superdorf, Loci, and Vindcara.

::Superdorf::  I find it odd that Moldath equipped that, I let it run for a month, with those settings, before I posted this and they did nothing.

Dorfs will be dorfs.

Thank you all, truly appreciate your time and attention.

I *really* love DF and support on Patreon.  I recently dove back in and can manage the day to day workings of a fort well enough.  That being said, I now remember why I rage-quit last time. . . .military.

I have read the wiki, watched video tutorials. . . . I just can not get the dorfs to put on their uniforms.

I made them all nice full sets of copper armor and they prefer to put on pig tail boots.  I have followed suggestions to have them remove all amor and put back on, disbanded the squad and recreated it. . . . they just run around with partial mis-matched crap again.

I feel that maybe I'm missing something basic, maybe that pig tail boot is better than copper?  I have included a link to my save, maybe someone could take a look and make some recommendations or recommend a more comprehensive tutorial on JUST uniforms.

Isn't the military development arc coming around soon?

Thank you!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19M3QKbdP49NK1S0EU558QsfodOucNuTl?usp=sharing

I have completely ignored clothing since the "oh noes clothing" update.  There is so much to learn in DF that I usually only teach myself to address changes in the game that require me to do so or areas where I feel I want to progress into and do something more with.  I have never made a single article of clothing and yet have forts go on for years and years with populations of 60 to 100 with no negative ramifications.  I check dwarf therapist often and if my dorf citizens are sad about the clothing (or lack thereof), it does not seem to impact their overall mood which seems to remain cheery.

I am not sure *why* I have not had to address this yet but it simply has not become enough of an issue to design and create an industry.