Bay 12 Games Forum

Hello

So, I decided I wanted to try a new fort, and I think I accidentally reduced the fortress size from 3X3 (the default right?) to 2X2.  So the "playing area" I have to work with is quite small.

On one hand, this means I can see almost the whole map on my screen and I have to spend a lot less time looking for thing - and my dwarves don't have to run 300 tiles to get something.  It also improves FPS I've been told.   On the other hand, the edge of the map to the centre is pretty darn short (ie enemies are on top of you rather quickly) and there is less resources I imagine.

So, before I invest too much time in this fort... can this work?

Yes, it works. Short notice for evil clouds or invasions can be a disadvantage but on the other hand you get more fun and less hauling. Be aware that it really is A LOT smaller and you do not even have a guaranteed adamantine vein anymore.

For a more realistic conduct people could try only selling no-quality raw products (quality levels in general have way too much impact on trade values otherwise) and maybe set yourself additional taxes of local produce (offer the caravan), suddenly it makes more sense. For a challenge only trade raw products mountainhome does not have (offer).

I also go with Juche, embarked plantless/seedless and refused to trade for agricultural plants/seeds. The whole agriculture in my current fort is based on the glorious cavern plant gathering during the first year of the fort. And since the fort is rich in galena ore, the dwarves learned to appreciate lead furniture. For luxuries I go with sterling silver and billon. But I am less aggressive towards traders, traders are bad, but invasions are worse for fps, clutter etc. so I tend to send them away with gifts. (I will look for an embark or world without elven/human traders in the next fort.)

The whole tangent about war animals is misleading. The best pets are those you trapped and trained yourself (and you can trade away surplus specimen) - my current fort goes with giant cave swallows and the lovely blue centipedes. Buying animals is good for livestock, you don't find in the wild (milk and wool producing animals mainly), hardly for war animals.

I have traded for gypsum plaster, fire clay, rare metals such as tin and iron, exotic fruits for food diversity, leather (when no domestic leather industry), animals (for zoo, sometimes for wool/milk), wood. None of this was really necessary, but I can buy what I need with bone crossbows and voracious cave crawlers.

That still doesn't do anything, but it's not that big a deal  I have a more important issue.

I've successfully drained one level of aquifer, but on the second layer to be drained, the pump isn't working, even though it's set up almost exactly the same. 

(Forgive me if there's a special aquifer trouble thread)

Won't work. The whole method works on the assumption that you have two SEPARATE slits in the lowest layer, so you can drain one into the other (as long as original aquifer soil tiles are present they mysteriously soak up water). Once you have reduced one slit to one aquifer tile (this one first), the other to zero aquifer tiles, you can channel the last aquifer tile from above. Further above having two slits doesn't matter because drainage is downwards anyway.

(You can forget about the one step thing, look what stone-types can carry an aquifer. An aquifer always sits above a layer that can not carry an aquifer. Once you revealed the tile you can know whether you are still in the aquifer or not - no need to catch the frame it is still dry. )

Quote from: KingMurdoc on November 11, 2014, 05:55:29 pm

You can already decide what everyone wears already, but I personally don't want to have to deal with the micromanagement of "disable labors on miners->add them to military->tell them to replace clothing->ensure they have protective gear on->atomsmash or forbid literally everything that isn't armor->remove from military->re-enable mining on miners."

In other words, you can't actually do it reasonably already... I equate this with "impossible" since it's never going to happen routinely in anybody's fort either way.

Make it easy, though, and some people totally would do it. I probably would do it if it were as simple as clicking down a list and assigning a uniform to each person (30 seconds total). If for no other reason than to weed out all the random crap articles of clothing I don't care about and replace with tunic, trousers, shoes for simplicity and maybe even FPS.

No socks? 

Guess I am in the dollhouse faction, I have replace clothing for the military and check that each one has two of them issued.

Quote from: taptap on November 10, 2014, 07:58:44 am

Quote from: TBeholder on November 10, 2014, 07:25:15 am

Quote from: taptap on November 10, 2014, 04:45:15 am

What does it need for dwarves to marry in DF2014 (40.14+)? (Or even just socialise more.) 10 years and waiting, several romances, but not a single marriage so far.

Meeting zones? Bedrooms? Are these romancing dwarves content or grumpy in general?

I had meeting areas of various types - which should work similar to zones with regard to socialising, right - I put a zone on top of it now, but no real difference. Everyone has a bed room, I even put couples in adjacent OR at times overlapping bedrooms (to no avail). Everyone is happy, no one is stressed.

In older versions of the game I've always had trouble with this, even when letting dwarves have lots of idle time and with small meeting zones to encourage them to talk.  It seems to just take a very long time or luck.  Also, unless I'm mistaken it's possible in the current version of the game for dwarves to not be interested in marriage, which could cause them to get up to Lover status but no further.

The "no interest" thing is both intentional and may behave like a bug - given that dwarves are lifelong monogamous and use highly effective contraceptives out of wedlock - so even one disinterested partner results in no children.

Yet, I am pretty sure the low amount of socialising in general (none of my starter dwarves is even novice conversationalist after 9 years) is a completely independent bug / emergent behavior due to the emotion changes. They do party and talk at times though not really with their lovers - and I notice xp gains (via DT), but it is only 1 at a time - and thus no real skill gain or "progress towards marriage" happens. This may be slightly different in larger forts with more encounters and more idlers (I play with low soft pop cap of 25, but a much higher hard pop cap). My fort isn't even that large and has only one smallish dining room of 6x6 tiles, a well room and a small zoo - so they do encounter each other frequently.

Welcome to RL marriage. (haha)   Might you're putting too much pressure on them? Your Armok eye peering down on him, he can't perform! You sure it's a male and female pair, females look like males. Real Comment: My dwarves are having babies so I've not had this issue.

Which version? Married in fortress or arrived married as migrants? How large is your fortress / how long does it last? More data, please.

Quote from: taptap on November 10, 2014, 04:45:15 am

What does it need for dwarves to marry in DF2014 (40.14+)? (Or even just socialise more.) 10 years and waiting, several romances, but not a single marriage so far.

Meeting zones? Bedrooms? Are these romancing dwarves content or grumpy in general?

I had meeting areas of various types - which should work similar to zones with regard to socialising, right - I put a zone on top of it now, but no real difference. Everyone has a bed room, I even put couples in adjacent OR at times overlapping bedrooms (to no avail). Everyone is happy, no one is stressed.