Bay 12 Games Forum

To adress the comments:

Only QS present are for ore and bars, with bins disabled.  Space for doors to lock th was provided.

For farms, you can never have too many.  Just fallow them if you don't want to use them.  Tearing them down lets cave crap grow in the dirt and makes it really hard to reuse the plots if they are needed.  In a surplus of food, lavish meals make a great trade good.  We have had so many food issues that I never want to leave the following overseers withou crops that should come in during a time of need.

For the forges... I forgot that MW workshops don't have the same tile mechanics as vanilla.  Oops.  I'm sure some sort of dwarevn engineering can fix that.  Just cave in some solid stone from above after the pools fill in.  I left plenty of access and space around the forges.  The lava issue is actually the refilling of the lava tube.  That will stabilize.

The steeloak was forbidden because some (me) used it all on his first turn, and later overseers prudently made sure to reserve it so that ash making and the like didn't consume it.

There is a millstone under a windmill, just look for it.  Someone already got that done.

As for coins, I wanted the next overseer to be able to call in whatever they needed stat.

For the levers, the only two you NEED arethe far right two on the top row.  Pulling those seals the trap tunnel.  Everything else is of less importance.  I think.  I didn't use any of those my whole second turn.  In fact most of the top left row is now defunct, as that entrance was walled off.

Update on the arbalests:  if you take down the fortifications, they should actually work.  Apparently they cannot shoot through them.  I recommend moving them up to the edges, too, as yhey might have the 45 degree limitation that archers have.  Those changes should make the effort of researching and building them worthwhile, and give our defenses some more bite.

I recently tried to use arbalests, to little effect.  I had built them, had bolts and siege operators, and when a siege came, i activated them for a month.  The siege ops grabbed bolts, went to the arbalests, transformed, then went into trances.  But when the enemies walked in front of the arbalests, no bolts were fired, no combat logs were updated, and no ammunition was visibly fired.  The arbalests were 1 to two z-levels above the enemies, directly behind fortifications.  The enemies ranged betwee 1 space and the map edge away while the operators were in the arbalests.  Also, although the reaction name says 1 month, the operators only stayed for about 2 weeks.

Is this bugged?  Am i doing it wrong?  From the manual it does not seem that elevation or fortifications should pose any problems.

I'll spoiler some parts of this in case you don't want to know about surprises lurking in MWDF.

So I just started a fort.  My own personal MW fort after a lot of community games.  Such fun was to be mine.  I found a nearly perfect embark.  I had the central stairs started, and I began work on a tunnel to go up into the cliff-side, to prepare for the future bastion and bridge.  I named my only named dwarf after myself, out of the starting seven.


Some quick thinking and luck later, my bastion tunnel is walled off for now, with no deaths.  I know the mod has ways to deal with this, but so much for laying the interior groundwork of the bastion.  Although I know how to solve this problem, I am thinking of trying to confront it head on.  Anyone actually dealt with this by trying to solve the problem with iron?

Journal of Waaghina, Overseer of Silvergoose

After Smurfington the Third stepped down, I was asked to become overseer.  I’m not sure what I can do to help, but I’ll try my best.  My main goal this year is try and get our magma forges up and running, and get our research back on track.  We have lots of gold, but no good way to spend it.

3rd Granite

One of our sergeants has become a steel golem!  I’m not sure what this strange creature is, but I hop it can help us fight off all of the invaders that keep coming to our fortress.

21st Granite

Migrants have come to our fortress, at last!  Our population has doubled from 30 to 62.  Although we need alcohol and food, and most of the old farms were destroyed.  I hoped to re-assign the space, but the burrows are full of tree saplings that we can’t seem to cut down.

9th Felsite

I got into a fight with a hawk a few days ago while hunting.  What a stupid thing.  I beat it off, but not before it tore apart most of my head, and injured my arm severely.  I can just now write again.  Updates may be rather short, as it hurts quite a bit to write.

12th Felsite

Mammoths and Giants have appeared on our borders.  I have ordered everyone inside and had the bridges shut.  I hope that strange malachite door can hold back the intruders.

19th Felsite

Elves have appeared on the horizon, but refuse to come near our fortress.  The bastards are watching the giants and mammoths lumber towards the trap corridor.  I was hoping the giants would attack the pointy-ears, but the few that have made it through the corridor are just staring at the door, entranced.

25th Felsite

All of the giants are now in one place, in our trap tunnel, staring at the door.  Many of the mmamoths were caught in the cages.  Looking at the layout of our courtyard, I we may be able to rig a cave in and try to crush the giants.  My arm is feeling worse and worse.

12th Hematite

The Collapse was a success!  While the giants were busy staring at the artifact door, we collapsed a ceiling segment on them from above.  Every one of the fell beasts was crushed into a fine ichor.

8th Malachite

With operations continuing in the lava forges, I have ordered the collapse of the old suspended magma works.  While a wonderful feat, it leaves us open to attack from the evil beasts below and there seem to be elementals swimming in the lava.  It was spectacular to watch the platform fall into the magma.

12th Malachite

Even more Migrants have come!  We do have enough food to last through the year, but I have also dug out a new above ground farm plot.  The steeloaks are taking up most of the usable space.

12th Galena

Another siege has come, this time full of putrid blendecs.  I’ve order a quick test of the brazier system.  We should be able to light the grass and shrubs on fire and hopefully scare away or even burn a few of the bastards.

1st Sandstone

The brazier works, but the blendecs were smart enough to avoid it.  I will try to lure them into the trap tunnel and capture as many as possible then crush the rest.

19th Sandstone

We have mastered the secrets of alchemy!  Time to make up some nickel to speed up coin production!

4th Timber

A hydra has come.  Perhaps he will attack the blendecs, as they seem to be content wandering the fields outside our walls.

12th Timber

And another siege has come, a host of dark stranglers.  The hydra scared off the blendecs, and appears to be entranced by our malachite door.  This should be interesting to watch.

23rd Timber

The carnage is beautiful.  The hydra has killed some 27 stranglers so far.  They charge into the trap corridor and the hydra lashes out.  I think I will order a second trap corridor built, and we will try to capture the hydra between drawbridges.

17th Moonstone

The trap corridor failed to entice the hydra at all.  We will collapse the ceiling on the hydra, as it now has us trapped within our own fortress.

20th Moonstone

We have a schizophrenic dwarf who came with one of the migrant waves.  I have ordered him sealed off in a room to prevent anything terrible from happening.  While it seems cruel to starve him to death, there is nothing else to do with the creature.

22nd Moonstone

Another small wave of migrants arrived.  Sorry for the short delay, but the infection in my arm led to surgery to remove the blasted thing.  I am so addled with wine that I can barely hold the quill...

9th Opal

We have discovered the secrets of the Volcanic Foundry, and the Arbalest!  I will work on getting both constructed as soon as possible.

18th Opal

The arbalests have been built in turret towers at each corner of the fortress walls.  Now we should be able to repel invaders without resorting to cave ins!

1st Obsidian

One of our militia, Unib, went berserk today.  He was complaining about lack of shoes, and refused to put on new ones.  He killed an infant, and then our Golem ended his former mates life.

14th Obsidian

Another siege of giants, orges, and jotun have come.  As they approached the fortress, I order the nearest arbalests to engage.  Two of our siege operators ran up to the ramparts with bolts, and settled into the chairs, but as the giants and ogres came within in range they appeared to go into a rage, and simple stare with bloody vengeance at the foes.  They never fired a shot…

I suppose we shall have to use the cave in again, once the foul invaders come close.

While we wait for them to shamble in, I shall draw up plans for the next overseer of the progress I made on the fortress.

To use the collapsing floor on the invaders, wait for them to all become entranced by the door in the trap corridor, then look at the floating floor in our courtyard.  Finish constructing the floor and then remove the tile shown in the drawing below.  It will take out the floor below, and crush anyone in the tunnel.  Remember to rebuild the floor at the normal courtyard level, so our builders are not spooked by sieges that come later.

Here are the levels of the arbalest emplacements, if you can figure out how to make them work.  Each corner has two arbalests, and below them are ammunition stockpiles.  I had roofs built above to keep dwarves from getting wet if they need to man the machines during a storm.

This is the failed trap corridor in the bottom, a trenched out above ground farm to the right, and a newer underground farm to the left.  I have ordered the above ground farms planted with various berries in the spring.

Extra space has been carved off the dining room for more food preparation and storage, and workshops.

The Temple Complex has been surrounded by a crypt.  I moved all of our dead down here, to bring them closer to Armok’s bosom.  The schizo is walled off in a room.

Further down, I added a Biologist and a Scriptorium to copy research results.

The bedrooms, or at least beds, for 100 dwarves have been moved lower as well.

Further down I started some exploratory mining to find more iron, as our research has used up much of the old stocks.

Finally, our magmaworks.  Almost every workshop you could want is here, and there is plenty of room for more to the left.  The entire area beneath is flooded.  There are two miraculous stockpiles by the ore processors and slag pits, which hold a limitless amount of ores, on the left, and bars, on the right.  If you prefer a less magical storage system, the entire floor above is empty, save for a long tunnel with can have rooms carved out.  The stairwell is currently near the processors, but the central stairwell can be easily attached with a few days of digging.  All the old entrance from the caverns have been sealed off.

Oh, and there was this:

Annual Report

With that, I retired to relearn how to live, but with one less arm.  May Armok bless our next overseer.

The lineage game sounds fun.  I'd be willing to give it a go.  Another way to do that would be through each player naming an overseer, then playing for a year limit (5, 10?) or dorf death, whichever comes first.  Bonus rule: If a previous overseer dies of any non-natural cause, the player must end the turn immediately, as a failed overseer.  Those rules just keep the game moving.

Another thought is setting up a feud:  Embark with an even number of dwarves, then separate them into two separate fortresses that are not allowed to interact.  This would make things especially fun in MW mod, where you could "steal" research and items from each other and have resource imbalances play out on the map.

Has anyone used arbalests?  Are they any good?  Like, good enough to make up some sort of arbalest star-fort layout above ground?

Also, the above ground portion of the fort is driving me crazy, so I think my goals will be:

Rearrange the forges.  The Phoebus tileset won't reinstall properly, and the Obisidian tileset with mixed ground is driving me nuts.  We also have a fair amount of gold so I plan to melt and mint gold coins en masse.

Double check food, as we hope to have a population increase.  This may mean re-expanding the farms to prevent mass die-off again.  If our population passes 80 again (currently at 62, so... that's going to happen), we will start getting nasty sieges.  Does that trigger count current population or historical population?

Due to the above, I will re-work the above ground defenses.  I am thinking, for now, a star fort with arbalests, as it will take at least a year or two to get a working militia that won't just die to a big swarm.  I will also put in some braziers to help thin sieges in case it gets really nasty.

I also want to get research up and running again.