Bay 12 Games Forum

I noticed something about my Fortress.  I burn wood to produce ash and charcoal and have furnaces turning ores into metal items and....there is no smoke. 

I realized what Dwarf Fortress was missing was that little touch - the smoke pouring up into the atmosphere from the industry from the furnaces and other workshops.  We can mine out the ores, cut down the trees, plow up the land, make protective walls, build mighty towers, redirect rivers, wipe out the animals to feed our workers, and scoop out the very heart of the mountains to live within them.  But the sky goes untouched.  What is the point of that?

I therefore put this forward -

1.  Workshops fueled by coal, wood, charcoal, so on, produce a small amount of visible smoke.
2.  The smoke is not a problem as long as the workshops have a pathway above, a open space that allows the smoke to escape into the atmosphere.  It should be able to go through grates, for example, and other 'items' that would allow the smoke to escape while keeping out dangerous animals and enemies.  Maybe small pipes that could be made from clay, glass, stone, or some of the cheaper metals?
3.  If there is no way to 'vent' the smoke the workshop, for safety, will not function.

And of course, it will be one more thing to piss off the Elves.

 

OP, I believe that means your broker has the dislikes-authority personality trait. Which might be the cause of some of your other problems with him .

I see, so torture...er....reeducation is needed in his future.   

If I had somebody better or equal to dealing with the traders I would readily replace him.  But I really need imports to help our metal industry.  Well, I did.  Now the goblins are supplying me.  Hmmmm....

You will be happy to know the dome has been completed.  And also that my two militia units, the Surface Grunts and the Surface Spits, are starting to become hardened.  All the blood and gore I guess.  Some of them even enjoy it.   A few have titles, don't care about others, and even have named weapons.  The Duke for example has turned into a hardened soldier. 

The Stone Cutters, of course, rarely leave the walls.  I want my elite archers training, training, training.

The City Guard is just full of badly trained, lightly armed riot police, so I am not even sure why they are in the military menu.

My plan now is to wait for my first children to develop into adults (just a few more years now) and see what they are like.  I have been told that Fortress born Dwarfs are pretty useless, maybe being farmers.  So I have four career paths planned out for the young adults who don't end up with some kind of useful skills.

1. The first four or so will be made into 'Nurses'.  All labors but medical related ones and bringing water to Dwarfs will be turned off.
2. The next dozen will be turned into 'Janitors'.  All labors but cleaning, refuse hauling, and burial will be turned off.
3.  I will make a few dozen 'Haulers'.  All labors but wood, stone, item, food, and furniture hauling will be turned off.
4.  I have built two brand new barracks.  I plan to make two melee units with the rest.  They will likely end up with bone and leather armor, leather shields, plus whatever weapons they can find.  They will not do too well in battle but there are over 80 children and babies in the Fortress with more being born every few days, so new recruits will be available yearly.  They may make good troops.  I noticed one kid already has a scar and both parents are dead.
Living in a Dwarf Fortress is no picnic and many of them may be pretty tough by the time I draft them into the Death Squads...er...Happy-Joy Units.

Now I just need two names for the new units. 

Well, after getting rid of the wall horses the Dwarven caravan arrived to Palacedeserts, right on cue. For some reason half of the caravan decided to start unloading on different depot than the rest, but luckily dismantling the other depot got them moving on to the right one. Now I'm hoping the whole caravan actually leaves this time; it's nearly spring and they're still packing up their massive bounty of dirty socks.

In other news, the jewelers got out of control and encrusted a large troll leather loincloth with no less than eight different jewels. The damned thing must now look like Liberace's codpiece.

Wow.  How much is it worth and who grabbed it to add to their wardrobe?

BTW, are you in a desert?  Now I picture your Dwarfs dragging about sandstone blocks and making huge pyramids. 

If he's anything like my broker then i think he was actually chatting with a support.

Could be.  He drinks and sleeps and eats so much, I picture him a cross between a adult who never really outgrew college and Wooster. 

10 AM - Wakes up, goes to stockpile, grabs some booze and food, goes back to his dining room, has breakfast.
10:30 AM -Goes back to bed.
11:45 AM -Gets out of bed, goes to stockpile, grabs some booze, gets drunk, goes back to bed.
2:30 PM - Gets out of bed to attend party.  Gets drunk.  Goes back to bedroom to sleep.
5:30 PM - Gets out of bed to attend party.  Gets drunk.  Crashes in hospital.
6:45 PM - Gets out of bed in hospital to attend party.  Gets drunk.  Goes back to bedroom to sleep.
8:45 PM - Gets out of bed, goes to stockpile, grabs some booze and food, goes back to his dining room, has dinner.
9:00 PM - Idles (Translation - Goes around the Fortress, pointing at people with his forefingers saying things like, "Hey! How you doing?" and "Looking good!")
11:45 PM - Helps haul some rock.
11:50 PM - Goes to get some booze from a stockpile and takes it to the Grand Hall to socialize with whoever is there at the time.
1:AM -Goes to his bedroom (or whatever bed is available) to crash after a long day of existing.
Repeat.

Copper Snarling saw one it's most decorated spearmasters die in perhaps the rarest of all fashions for a dwarven soldier. After slaying countless enemies over his long years of service in the fortress's elite point guard, it was finally old age that took the grizzled weapon lord to meet Armok. Rest well venerable champion.

I have only had a few livestock die from old age.  Cool.  My Dwarfs all die in battle or in accidents or when somebody goes berserk.

Lately, I accidentally had them mine out a part of a cavern and had to wall it up again when a Forgotten Beast got into the main stairway.  Luckily a cat wounded it before being killed and the Beast seemed to be unable to move - just sat there and shot fire balls at people.  When the soldiers arrived to kill it sometimes it hit itself with its own fire balls.

Funny, after the hole was walled up another Forgotten Beast showed up in the stairway AGAIN.  Not sure how it got there.  It ran into one of the dogs (who survived long enough for reinforcements to arrive), got stuck fighting it, and got butchered by the militia.   

I also worry about the King, he likes to hunt and hunts all the time when not working along the metal smiths.  He also seems to have some medical labor on too.  He seems to be a proper Knightly King but I don't want him being ambushed.  Yet I don't wish to rein him in.  Better to die killing goblins then to die in bed.  Also he keeps bringing in game! 

Also, I like his Queen.


And she is the Aunt of half the Mountainhome!  Half the Dwarfs are her nieces or nephews.  I even had her young brother as a Soldier but he died in battle before she arrived.  And unlike the King her relationship list is already pages long with new friends.

"You have done good son you have done good."


You'll be happy to know not only did I offend the last Elf caravan that was visiting (there was a piece of wood someplace in what I tried to trade them) but at the same time there was two goblin ambushes, both wiped out, so the trade depot is covered in gore and blood from the tramping feet of my surface militia.  On top of that, one ambush was just to the north of the depot, so the Elves will get a nice good close up view of piles of dead goblins, being stripped of their equipment by Dwarfs, limbs and heads all over the space. A couple of bridges they have to cross to leave the map is painted red with enemy blood. 

And I use to have such a nice friendly relationship with the Elves.   

And the dome is almost complete.  HA!  In your face mother nature, weather, and the sun!