Bay 12 Games Forum

I took the save on the 6th, so I figured I had at least a week to keep it going.  I'll finish up the oubliette and eternal passage then post the save.

I'm taking the save.  Let's see what this looks like.

Yes, expired links.  If the OP would post their frocess for turning the descriptions into acoustics, then others may be able to replicate the process. (Possibly even write a program to do so automatically, then port it to "Soundsense", so that it will play that tune when it is being played during the game...)

One would think so, yes.

I suppose I could mine the stream for ice during the winter and make an unmelting Ice Castle relatively easily. <facepalm> Why didn't I think of that before?

6-01-23: After a polite discussion with a local rival, Miss Pimra Crestrite (Human), has claimed the position of Guild Representative of  the coastal hamlet of Beeclosed to the North. The Trade federation that rules Beeclosed is named "The Union of Dying"

6-05-06: Thirsty after a hard week's excavation of the Whitecastle Town's sewers, Miss Tulon Whitecastle joined her fellow miners in drinking from an aquifer
they'd found.  According to her horrified fellows, she passed out from her exertions and drowned before anyone figured out what was happening.  Her body shall
be interred in the Public catacombs with a statue raised in her honor.  She will be missed.  Expedition leader Iteb Stesokrab will be holding interviews during the
Rites of Spring to fill the now vacant Book-keeper position.

6-05-20: More migrants have arrived to swell our numbers.  A Shearer named Rith Leaderboards and a Merchant named Miss Vucar Languagegolds.  A stray
kitten travels with them as well, either as a companion or in some other role...

6-07-16: The caravan from the Connected Castle was sighted on the horizon today.  Perhaps they will bring news from the Queen!  Sadly, they had nothing to
report other than "The world is the same as it ever was".

6-08-09: More migrants arrived after the caravan had set up camp next to the site of the Castle for a day or two already. This time, it was a group of six
dwarves: two males and four females, all unmarried and the first of their kind.

6-08-15: Fikod Whitecastle has built an artifact dacite and amethyst bed, naming it "Sabreconflicts".  On it is written a decree from the Gods:
     Appease the Mother of Screaming, for if you do not, She shall bring great grief to the Dwarves.

Quest:
6-12-20: Mr Domas Anguishedtribe has just completed an artifact gold ore coffer named "Serpentoar".  On it is written a prophecy from the Gods:
     When the Fountain of Molten Glow is discovered,
        "The Hammers of Shouting" will come to claim it
        They will build a fortress encompassing it. 
        And that Fortresses' name shall be "Serpentoar.

Mr Domas Anguishtribe will now change his Family name to "Serpentoar" as Tradition requires.  We congratulate the Serpentoar Family
on their new status.

7-01-01: Another year has finished, and the Town of Whitecastle grows yet again.  Three more humans, including the lovely Guild Representative of Pimra
Crestrite has petitioned to become permanent residents of Whitecastle, winning beds of their very own in the Human Dormitory.  This year has brought two
messeges from the Gods and enough wood coming in on the Caravans that some has been diverted into making coal.  As a result, some of our gold ore has been
smelted into beautiful gold bars to be placed inside the treasury along with our other treasures: our artifacts.  The sewers have all been excavated and most of
the latrines sport their own roofs - within the next year, we will have full housing for up to seventy people.  Some of the single dwarfs have been agitating for a
"local pub" in the workhouse section.  That seems reasonable enough...  Anyway, time enough for all of that after the Rites of Spring have come and gone,
ushering in a new year.

Whitecastle Year 6

Idea: Make it a "pocket island", but max out the number of races that can fit onto it.  I'm usually able to to fit 100-120 races onto a pocket world with unlimited population cap and unlimited sites, but rare minerals.  Give the world a single megafauna to make the Age of Myth be named something more fitting like "The Draconic Age" or even "The Age of Ishia".  Only allow a dozen years to pass in World Gen - that should keep the goblins from multiplying beyond control, but allow things like Towers and various minor lairs to develop, as well as allow all the races to build up their populations enough to make post world-gen an interesting place to be in when all the wars blow up.  With minerals set to be less common, precious metals like Gold become truly precious.  After world-gen, we should scout around for minerals and use that as the initial reason the Humans decided to build an outpost there: to mine out those precious metals. 

I've found that building houses with peaked roofs rather than flat boxes uses up more wood, and things like gutters or door placement become more important than they have been before.  Likewise, not excavating a flat area out of a slop to put a house, but rather building walls on the down-slope side to produce the foundations for the main floor also are historically more accurate (and uses up all that extra stone from excavating the mineshafts too.)  Eventually, I envision an area to be designated as "The Quarry" to specifically excavate stone for use in building homes/workshops, ect... because all the excavated stone on the map has already been used for one purpose or another.

Something to think about when planning your city: what kind of sewers are you going to use? Excavating those should give us a good general idea where houses and other water-needing/using buildings may be built.  Run-off from the major streets will be going into these via grates, and of course all sorts of secret societies and underworld criminals may begin using these passages for their nefarious purposes as well.  As the city develops, more cellars and possibly an underground highway might even be developed, depending on need and traffic flow.

To keep people from going through houses or workshops on their way to wherever, I suggest paving some main roads over the sewers and designating them as high traffic areas.  As the city builds up along these main roads, sub-streets and alleys will develop naturally as a matter of course.  I would further suggest that similar occupations each claim a side street on which to build their work-shops and homes.  In this manner may the side roads be named: "Fisher's Way" for example, or "Old Mine Road".  The fourth building away from one of these main roads could then have the address of "#4, Old Mine Road", and we'd know precisely where to find that house.  Once we build up the city a bit, having some empty houses for adventurers to claim would really be fun, don't you think?  They could walk over to the pub down the street or walk over to their favorite shrine or temple to pray or meditate.  They might head up one block and over to #8 Metalsmith Lane to exchange some gossip with the weaponsmith there and maybe make a trade with that person for one of their weapons in stock.

That leads into my last suggestion for this post: Have each dorfed character choose a specific industry and become the "Guild Leader" for that industry.  Anyone else wanting to work in that industry either becomes a Guild Member (and therefore able to be directly ordered and controlled by the Guild Leader from the forum) or pays some annual fee to be allowed to work for anyone as needed (like an added percentage of any work order that becomes the property of the guild.) By making each Guild workshop only allow those who are members of the Guild to use them, and setting certain stockpiles to only give to those workshops, then this system can be implemented with only a minimum of fiddling around. The city could be run by a Guild Council and whomever on the Guild Council has the most members in their Guild could be chosen as Mayor.  The Mayor never is the one who gets to actually play the turn, but is the one who sets the "City tax" on all of the Guilds. (a percentage of that year's profits that go into the "Caravan fund" for trading with the Caravan. Every year, The Guild Council could get together and vote for who gets to be the Mayor for that year.  The number of people in each Guild equals that guild's voting power.

If the City becomes populous enough, one Guild could rise to power over the others, and when a Royal title like "Baron" is offered, that Guild Leader would be the first to be chosen.  After a little while, the most powerful guilds (or wealthiest ones able to buy the titles off of the most powerful ones), would become the nobility.  The Noble titles are inherited, so unless the family died off, that dorfed person's family would continue on into the future.  Over several embarks and in between bits involving adventurers, that could make the world that much more interesting.

No one got married during The Rites of Spring.  For now we just have our four Families: Groupedlance, Anguishtribe, Towercrests, and Blowingpage.

5-04-28: Five migrants have decided to join the Whitecastle today.  A farmer, his wife and their son (the Blowingpage family), an unmarried metalsmith and a common laborer.

5-07-06: Dodok Grouplanced, Sherrif Grouplanced's eldest and only son, suddenly burst into a killing rage after realizing that the wood shortage would mean that he would never be able to complete the artifact that has had him holed up in the crafting shop for the past week.  He began toppling hives in the new Honey Farm and the angry insects stung him to a stupor. Fikod Whitecastle was there as the boy breathed his last breath.  How horrifying!  Dodok will be interred in the Grouplanced tombs under the Grouplanced Mansion.

5-08-11: More migrants arrived today. A set of six single dwarves, bound for the laborer's houses.

5-08-25: Our own expedition leader, Iteb Roadarmor, has completed an artifact vulture bone earring today.  He's named it "Stesokrab" and has taken that name as his own according to Tradition.  On the earring is written a decree from The Gods: "You must find the Fountain of Molten Glow, for there is where the Dwarves will find true greatness!"

Quest:
5-11-26: Worker's housing is coming along too slowly.  The weather has turned harsh and snowy, which has made us create
temporary housing for the dwarves whose homes are not yet ready so they don't freeze to death in the streets.  We stuck the
currently homeless dwarves in a room above the offices of the bookkeeper and manager.  I'm sure those two will be able to
look after them just fine until their more permanent abodes are finished. 

  The well has frozen again this year, so those citizens of Whitecastle who wish to wash the grime of the day's labors off of their bodies have to travel quite some distance to the east before the river ice is thin enough to break through.  Obviously, this isn't an ideal situation, so a simple "sewer system" has
been mandated to be excavated, to be expanded upon as Whitecastle grows.  Sheriff Groupedlances has finally laid her poor son's soul to rest, erecting a statue above his grave in the Family catacombs.  The oubliette below the entrance to the eventual site of Whitecastle itself has been finally completed and the small dungeons behind the guard tower will soon get their lever-locked doors installed.  Also, we've found a use for all those brimstone blocks: A yellow brick road that extends north of the bridge, south between the male and female sides of the worker's housing complex, and terminating at the base of the entrance ramp to Whitecastle.  It looks quite cheery!

5-12-07: We've been plagued by a flock of vultures who've decided to dive bomb our farmers as the emerge from the growing tunnels.  Yet another irritant to the citizens of Whitecastle that will soon be a worry of the past.  The sewers have been planned and begun to be excavated, giving our industrious masons yet more material to work with.  Each living area will have added to it a "privy" to increase cleanliness. A small room with a grate that drops "filth" directly down into the sewers, to be washed away by the river when it unfreezes.  Obviously, the well will be upstream from that effluvia, making sure that no "filth" ends up in our drinking water!

5-12-24: Morul Plaitdyes, one of our tireless miners, just finished an artifact siltstone throne.  He has named it "Miredscald" and on it is written a decree from the Gods: "You must create a shrine to the Gods decorated with a totem made from the skull of The Dead Vulture to show your veneration for your deities!"
In time honored tradition, Morul has taken the surname "Miredscald".  Congratulations, Morul!

Quest:
6-01-01: The Rites of Spring are upon us once more! Whitecastle has certainly grown quite a bit in the last year.  Three of our
four families have their own mansions, (Blowingpage House is still under construction.)  The new sewer system and yellow
block road have both made a good start and two new decrees from the Gods have shown up as well.  Just as we were preparing to celebrate this
annual tradition, our Hammerer, Mrs Kubuk Anguishtribe, dodged a dive-bombing vulture and fell three stories, knocking out
several of her teeth.  I'm sure she'll be back to celebrating in no time!

Whitecastle, Year 5