Bay 12 Games Forum

Thread and Cloth are small.

I started to make sure that there are NO stockpiles available for thread and cloth, so that the finished goods just stay at wherever they were produced. Just put whatever wants to use it right next to it.

Yes, Good Idea. Make it so 

In my experience, dwarves (and humans) ONLY bring leather if you ask for it the year before. If you do, they bring tons of it.

if you have dfhack -> fixmerchants. And order the leather from the humans.

So I keep missing important messages from my dwarfes - like the king demanding a new item to produce.

The first step was to keep the game log open in a terminal (tail -f gamelog.txt). This worked a charm by displaying everything that is going on in a separate window.

That is - until the squads start to spar, and the gamelog fills with combat messages so fast that all the important stuff goes by unnoticed again. It took me a while to remember the shell gives me all the tools to filter the output according to key words.

Now I have two terminals open - I call them "gamelog" and "combatlog". All messages get filtered to either one or the other, and I only look at the combatlog rarely, while the filtered gamelog makes me aware of important stuff.

Gamelog also filters out "created a masterpiece", "item inaccessible" and "2x/3x/4x". But once you see it, adding/removing keywords to adjust to what you want to see should be easy.

Oh, and those run fine on the laptop next to me, so it doesn't use any screen estate on the main PC. (you know how to ssh a remote shell, right?


Without further ado, here are the terminal commands I currently use:

Gamelog (do not display any lines incl. the keywords):

tail -f gamelog.txt | grep -v "x[0-9]\|masterpiece\|inaccessible\|tapping\|strikes\|blocked\|misses\|attack\|stands\|collides\|tumble\|charge\|stunned\|ferocity\|knocked\|bounces\|wound\|tangle\|rushes\|stabs\|hacks\|punches\|tendon\|breathing\|pain\|twists\|hacks\|scratch\|loses\|slaps\|consciousness\|enraged\|kicks\|bites\|latches\|falls\|jumps\|blocks\|grip\|shakes\|vomits\|injected\|bats\|sick\|retches\|slams\|grabs\|gores\|propelled\|skids\|lashes\|severed\|bashes"


Combatlog (only display lines incl. the keywords):

tail -f gamelog.txt | grep -i "tapping\|strikes\|blocked\|misses\|attack\|stands\|collides\|tumble\|charge\|stunned\|ferocity\|knocked\|bounces\|wound\|tangle\|rushes\|stabs\|hacks\|punches\|tendon\|breathing\|pain\|twists\|hacks\|scratch\|loses\|slaps\|consciousness\|enraged\|kicks\|bites\|latches\|falls\|jumps\|blocks\|grip\|shakes\|vomits\|injected\|bats\|sick\|retches\|slams\|grabs\|gores\|propelled\|skids\|lashes\|severed\|bashes"


Yes, it's only a quick hack, but it helps me a lot. Suggestions on the keyword lists are welcome (I got this far by trial and error, not by planning what to include).

I try to have LONG running forts, so I have to keep item count low -> hiding/ignoring the stuff is sadly not an option. My current approach seems to work nice so far:

1. There's some pretty damn big walled space outside my mine gate, that can be closed/opened with bridges from the inside. The bridges are usually open, I try hard to keep all the fighting within that space. When the fighting is over, I close the area, remove the civilian "stay inside" alert and let the dorfs collect the Goblinite.

Everything outside is designated "dbc" (collect) -> "dbd" (dump it all) -> "dbm" (melt items, overwrites dump, so items to melt go pretty straight to the Smelters. The active dump point is on the roof, and is designated as 1-tile refuse pile, so most of the stuff will rot away automatically (I really only want the metal). At that point, I cheat and dfhack the remaining items away - but an atom smasher would probably do exactly the same.

2. Cage traps. Animal stockpile is close to those roof stairs. One cage built right next to the stairs. All captives get assigned to that cage. dbc / dbd / dbm -> all non-metal items will be stripped and dumped (as above). When done - make ONLY ANOTHER dump point available. dbc / dbd again, all metal gets dumped there. When done, dbc/dbm on that pile -> off to smelters.

The now naked prisoners get pitted through a floor hatch into some danger zone - spike traps in the beginning, into the training barracks later, currently into the room with the 2 Hydras (they LIKE_FIGHTING). That room is drawbridge-sealed while this happens (Trolls and stuff, I only had a door first time, and the Trolls managed to destroy the door before the Hydras were done with them ...)

Once all invaders are dead, I open the bridge, and remains get hauled to Refuse pile. With the Dwarfen Higher Learning mod installed, my Hospital team makes good use of body parts to train stitching them up. Or, Atom smasher.

Generally, I try to win invasions by fighting them, but there's lots of cage traps between my military and the main fortress, in case somebody gets through in the heat of the battle.

Obviously, Cage traps are overpowered (Giant? gotcha. Cyclops? another Cyclops? a tameable Hydra? Dragon? All caught without without and dwarf getting into danger). So adjust to your playstyle, in my case I wanted to be foolproof on the surface because this is not the issue/goal of the current fortress.

So, again I tried to get everything right this time.


[Disclaimer:
I play a modded DF that relies heavily on some dfhack features,

- workflow (sorry, is there really any other way to manage industry in a big fortress)
- cleanowned to take old clothing away from my dorfs to try and keep item count down (for FPS)
- autobutcher to manage pig/dog stock.

I try to keep away from everything else. For example autodump is a no-go.

Also, Dwarfen Higher Learning Mod (Doctors) and binpatch hospital-overstocking.]



The Fortress of Lordposts was founded in the year 5. Population Limit was set to 10, so I got the first (two?) immigration waves until the caravan arrives and had to work from there. No more immigrants.



Today is the 13th Limestone in the year of 56. I had this feeling that everything was running too smooth.

81 adult dwarfs + shitloads of children. Fully self sufficient (tree farms, legendary clear glass makers, a competent (Proficient+) team of 4 doctors, Military of 17 steel everything Axedwarfes (10 of them Axe Lords) + 2 full squads of militia crossbowmen (Mason Squad + Farmers Squad, all male).

The invasions so far didn't make it to the main gate because of the crossbowmen. In total, 4 humans made it through in a couple of invasions. They ended up in the barracks of said Axe Lords.

2 years ago, a Hydra ran into one of the cage traps around the main entrance. I tamed it.


So when the humans came yet again, I left the door open, called crossbows to positions, sat and watched. Nil Uzolkan has been quite content lately. She tends to stretch out when she's bored.

One of the farmer crossbowmen decides she's out of ammo and could hit those humans much better bashing them in the head with her crossbow. I realize this when she's already out of support range for the others, 25+ fields from the gate.

I pause the game and take a look. Invasion is down to 5 humans, 2 of them having bolts sticking in them. Axe Lords go take em. Deduk Daggerdefense the Dangerous  Amusement of Trading (seriously)(one of the original 7, the one with teacher skill) is first out the door.

The Militia Commander hacks the Human Crossbowman in the upper body with his Ebalmothkat Telin Okun tearing apart  the muscle and tearing apart the heart through the ( {large rope reed fiber cloak})!
an artery has been opened by the attack!
a major artery in the heart has been opened by the attack!
The Dragon Abli Usmokeve Kara Rulu has come! A gigantic reptilian creature. It is magical and can breath fire. These monsters can live for thousands of years.

Are you guys all using the enhanced version (splinterz?) to get an animal tab? because my vanilla DT (0.6.12 - old version?) on linux doesn't seem to have any anmals in it too.