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Author Topic: Long Term Fort  (Read 9003 times)

King Zultan

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #30 on: October 15, 2022, 04:41:05 am »

On the hammer is, in lapis lazuli, an image of a hydra rampaging and destroying 2 towns, a cave, and massacring a bunch of dwarves.  I picture it as essentially Trogdor burninating a bunch of villages.
That's one of the best visual interpretations of a artifact I've seen in a long time.
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
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Schmaven

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #31 on: October 16, 2022, 10:25:58 am »

That's one of the best visual interpretations of a artifact I've seen in a long time.
Some artifact descriptions are just too good to pass by.

So the stage was set for the elves:  The three adamantine squads stationed outside the front gate, all other exit paths sealed off, and some wooden instruments brought to the trade depot.

At the first warning of the traders departure, an offer was made to 9 of the 11 elves of some wooden instruments for a lump of their clay.  Taking great offense, it still took them some time to pack up and get moving, but they gradually made their way to the entry.  Unsurprisingly, the adamantine weapons did quite well against the unarmored elven merchants.  The archer squads had to be sent in however to deal with the pack animals which seem to be completely unencumbered by their load of trade goods.  One of the fleeing horses was knocked unconscious by a giant grizzly bear bone arrow to the head.  In the combat logs, limbs were severed, bodies cloven asunder, and lots of comments like "I have a part in this.  This might require an answer."  Presumably an acknowledgement of the diplomatic consequences soon to follow.

With that out of the way, preparations begin for re-locating the barracks to the 3rd cavern layer.
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Schmaven

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #32 on: October 30, 2022, 12:12:28 pm »

All 11 elven civilizations arrived again to trade, dropping FPS by a good 30%.  Rather than generate another big mess to clean up, they were allowed to trade, and sent off with a year's worth of tattered cloths and unwanted seeds.

With 114 bears designated to be put in a single cage, and only 1 bear brought in at a time, it will probably be another year to load up.  The cavern fortifications have been taking some time as well, so that's fine. 
Spoiler: Bears are everywhere (click to show/hide)

The stressed out cavern work crew was unleashed back into the fort as the full labor force was sent into the caverns to wall it off, and make it more of a fighting position.  One of the workers threw a tantrum, toppling the bone carving workshops where all the training ammo is created.  The timing worked out well however, as just a giant war grizzly bear was wandering through the boneyard, and no other dwarves, so they were locked in to either starve, or take their chances fighting the bear.

The cavern preparations are nearing completion:
  • Fortifications have been carved for the archers, 100s of steel arrows forged and quantum stockpiled nearby.
  • All melee training has been relocated to the cavern entry, the artifact wielders training 100% of the time, other squads cycling on and off to help with garbage disposal and other FPS increasing activities.
  • A 27 bed hospital set up, filled to the brim with soap, cloth and thread, with a cavern-fed well adjacent.  The 3 most skilled doctors given private quarters also right next door.
  • A modest dining room with food and drink stockpiles between the barracks and hospital was carved out.
  • A couple stockpiles of high quality steel axes and long swords were stashed behind the barracks.
  • A panic room is locked away behind 2 weapon traps of masterwork steel axes, a steel door, a lever to close an adamantine draw bridge, some food and drinks, bed, steel helms, gauntlets, and the last of the adamantine forged into 6 weapons.  And like any good panic room, it has a craftsdwarf workshop with a pile of 21 blank slabs ready to memorialize any unrecoverable dwarves.
  • The area outside the fortifications was floored over to keep plant life at bay
  • Oh, and a lever to open the bear cage was also constructed in the panic room.
All that remains really is for the last 45 bears to finish being loaded up.

FPS hovers around 24 now that the elves have left.  It was a slow reduction over 40 years to get to this point, so like a frog in a pot of boiling water, I've grown accustomed to it.  Getting things done still happens fairly quickly with a population of 220 (so long as multiple parts can be done simultaneously).
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TheFlame52

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #33 on: October 31, 2022, 03:25:37 pm »

What's the goal behind collecting massive numbers of massive animals? Are you going to raid the goblins? Or is it just to have them?

Schmaven

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #34 on: October 31, 2022, 09:29:40 pm »

What's the goal behind collecting massive numbers of massive animals? Are you going to raid the goblins? Or is it just to have them?

It consolidates the industry inputs for training ammo, meat, stealth detection, and lethality to just have a single large herd.  Raiding is their ultimate purpose, but they also seem to do fairly well against on site enemies.  The current breed's destiny is to stand by while the dwarves mine out the remainder of the adamantine.
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Schmaven

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Re: [s]Long Term[/s] Fort
« Reply #35 on: November 06, 2022, 09:58:17 am »

The miners did their work, but all 3 were quickly killed by the surge they uncorked.

One of the elite guards got out beyond the fortifications and killed 2 before his hand was exploded into gore and he passed out from exhaustion.

It turns out these foes not only bypass weapon traps completely unaffected, but they also fail to trigger pressure plates, so the caged giant war bobcats have to sit this one out.  Too late to link that cage to a lever, but the cage just past the trap hall with all the bears is linked to a lever. 

Unfortunate as it is, it is quite the thing of beauty to see a unit list where 75% of it is on fire.  Those poor stray war giant grizzly bears...

Another lone guard charged out toward the final wave of buzzard monsters, killing 5, while the artifact wielding squad, and dozen or so bears that were not on fire were busy with the fire breathers in the relatively small bear battle chamber.
Spoiler: The smoke is clrearing (click to show/hide)

Well, the smoke was clearing... A couple more breaths of flame torched the archers who were assisting behind the fortifications, and all of the giant war grizzly bears are now burning corpses.  Not a single one survived.  Fire seems to be their weakness.  In hindsight, releasing all of them at once in a small room, already full of dozens of fire breathing demons was probably not the most effective strategy.

All in all, only 26 dwarves were lost, 11 of whom were not even supposed to be involved in the fight at all.  Heaviest losses were the archers from that last blast of fire through the fortifications.  The commander also gave his life in defense of the fort, but records were lost and buried under the 92 entries describing giant bears being burnt to a crisp.  Some 22 bears were spared due to their assignments to guard duty, chained up in various places around the fort.  The commander's long sword was found, and only has a few kills credited to it from last year, so it appears he was cut down early in the fight.

Out of curiosity to see how the giant war animals could perform, given half a chance, I re-loaded a backup from just before the fun and pastured all the giant war beasts just outside the fortifications.

A couple dwarves with very sharp weapons happened to be out in the field with the beasts, 1 of whom racked up 14 kills.  Being composed of cinders and steam, the archers too were delivering lethal shots.  Not the most durable of clowns, but still, 4 of the elite guards were lost. 

Most of the bobcats were killed, but they managed to hold off the attack wave before the full force of bears could get involved.  The few bears that did join the fight, didn't do so well.  Most attacks simply whiffed, and without armor, or skill in dodging, they were quickly taken out.

Spoiler: Unbreakable defenses (click to show/hide)

In the spirit of testing, I reset the breach again and this time drafted all the unskilled dwarves, giving them helms, steel axes, and shields.
Spoiler: Militia Defense (click to show/hide)

About 55 dwarves were lost using this approach. 

Everyone is welcome to experiment with it if you wish.  I made a backup just as the last of the giant war grizzlies were caged, and before the miners were sent to mine deep into the spire.
https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16142

About a month to go before Premium DF comes out!  I'm especially looking forward to the tile set.  This particular one makes a lot of odd choices, the default unknown sprite looking like a wooden cage, and a good number of other sprites that seem to indicate something other than what they are.  Still more workable than the ASCII for me, but Premium DF looks like it will be quite clear :)
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TheFlame52

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #36 on: November 06, 2022, 02:08:15 pm »

First time conquering hell? I've only done it a couple times myself using:
 - 3000 menacing steel spikes linked to a lever on repeat in the dining hall
 - Dwarven Checkerboard
 - Artifact table as bait + cave-in
I've never fought hell with strength of arms and won. The most powerful part of a dwarf is not his arms, but his mind.

Salmeuk

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #37 on: November 06, 2022, 02:08:23 pm »

thanks for the save. those stings are brutal damn... uhm, did you save any bear burgers for the rest of us??
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TheFlame52

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #38 on: November 06, 2022, 02:40:55 pm »

Demonic poisons
Spoiler: Waste brute (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Falcon demon (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Shade spirit (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Steam spirit (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Fiend of soot (click to show/hide)

Nothing too terrible here. I see that you have fire-breathing pterosaurs, just like I did in Bastiongate. I've seen them in at least three other forts, too. They seem to pop up unusually often.

King Zultan

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #39 on: November 07, 2022, 05:21:38 am »

Man I bet that place smelled awful with all those burning bears.
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The Lawyer opens a briefcase. It's full of lemons, the justice fruit only lawyers may touch.
Make sure not to step on any errant blood stains before we find our LIFE EXTINGUSHER.
but anyway, if you'll excuse me, I need to commit sebbaku.
Quote from: Leodanny
Can I have the sword when you’re done?

Schmaven

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Re: Long Term Fort
« Reply #40 on: November 07, 2022, 09:01:46 pm »

those stings are brutal damn...
Demonic poisons
Spoiler: Shade spirit (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: Fiend of soot (click to show/hide)

Yeah, the 'numbness' and 'localized impair function' effects are quite the understatements, though technically correct.  You can't feel a head that is no longer there.  And exploding into gore certainly impairs functionality. 

It would have been nice if the bears left behind something the dwarves considered edible, but the pterosaurs are amateur bbq-ers and over cooked them.  I doubt the smell of burnt bear fur is any better than miasma.

First time breaching hell and not just sealing it off / ignoring it.  Definitely over-prepared.  I'm still traumatized from past forts in reanimating biomes where the end was always just around the corner.  Thralls / husk zombies sound like they would be even more difficult to deal with, although the Dwarven Checkerboard looks like it could be the ultimate solution to everything.
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