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Our uniform shall be blood (red)

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Danger room training shall be forbidden.

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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: April 02, 2013, 10:22:42 am

[CaptainArchmage]

Quite frankly I'd throw our gold into the volcano if it sped up the framerate. But since there's plenty of corpses and I need the gold for construction+beehives, I'm sticking to corpses.

Edit: Fixed cut-off sentence when I first posted this.

Also, In a nutshell, the construction plan as overseen by Mad Meng is to construct 4-6 new towers around the edges of the map, extend a couple of the existing ones, and possibly add some accommodations and the like in and around/on top of existing structures. Maybe some sculpture gardens as well. And bees. Lots of bees. Exact plans aren't certain, and these aren't going to be the prettiest towers ever, since I'm basing them off the existing constructions that others have done, and I'm going for a "get it built" approach rather than a "make it all out of one material" approach. I'm assigning dwarves as they become idle, and I'm hoping to have a network of platforms linking the perimeter towers, with bridges to seal them off if necessary. Should be quite nice and speed up militia response times...if I can finish it.

Edit2: I'll do an update later today or tomorrow IC as Meng, explaining what I'm doing. I think if I can get this to work it should go rather well.

A proposition would be to switch of temperature, weather, and invaders to increase framerate (double it). To keep some invasions going, leave that on during the winter.

What kind of FPS are you getting?

[Triaxx2]

I keep seeing comments about FPS, but I've never noticed any.

Anyway, I only meant that the way to control what gets dumped is to adjust what those stockpiles accept.

[MDFification]

Pretty sure you can only have 60 "live" beehives at a time, unfortunately for Meng.

[Urist McKiwi]

Pretty sure you can only have 60 "live" beehives at a time, unfortunately for Meng.

60 is enough. I'll leave the others lying around "just in case". Or have the beekeepers form a union and rebel against all this extra work.

What kind of FPS are you getting?

Current FPS is between 29 and 32. It's increasing as I tweak things, use up stone and wood, and burn corpses. Plus the fire's gone out now, which has only helped. With luck I *might* get it up to 40 by the end of the year, if all the extra construction doesn't cause pathfinding issues (I'm using traffic zones to try and minimise this). 30FPS is manageable, and I could quite happily run the year on that.....but every little bit of optimising I do now is a little more time the fortress has before the problems that Ardentdikes had start to creep in. We want to be able to potentially flood the place with lava while fighting demonic hordes as the surface burns without a permanent corruption of the savegame halfway through (unless we want to end this fortress with Udib Wastedlabor happily sealing another fort into an alternate dimension and heading off to find some more schmucks to build him a brand new anti-McDuck fort again, which would have a nice symmetry to it I must say).

I'll get to work on some diagrams now that I've more-or-less decided what "Phase 1" of the construction plan is, and edit them into this post with a spoiler tag. It's the most ambitious building project I've ever done, and it's going to be interesting to see if I can accomplish it. Don't expect something pretty, mind.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Why do we have pools of blood hanging in midair? Every time I build something it seems I'm building it through a cloud of gore that's been hanging there for the last decade or so....

EDIT: Done!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Most Dashing Commander McKiwi III

Enclosed is the second-level diagram for the new tower and walkway system that I have designed for the redevelopment. Please provide feedback on the proposed layout based on your experience, as I am by no means a military dwarf and as such have probably made some mistakes. A soldier of your caliber is an immensely valuable resource when trying to design a project as large as this as quackly as I am forced to by current events.

-Meng Rirnolas, Master Architect



Attached to the message is a weathered scroll that looks nothing like the diagram below...


There's a few mistakes and stuff, but that's my actual working diagram, with a few extra labels and stuff so it's slightly understandable.

[CaptainArchmage]

Do you have temperature, invaders, and weather turned off or not?

The redesign looks good. I think you should also build some farm buildings and aboveground houses so dwarves can quickly milk the animals there, not that we have any shortage of food at the moment. I also think Moltenchannels could also use some minecart lines to deliver things to places other than the volcano.

Royal Journal of CaptainArchmage III, King of The Strategic Bodices
5th Granite 1098

We finally decided Meng Rinrolas will be the new leader for this fortress. We used the new entertainment room, "Club Zero", for the last part of the selection. There were many criteria on the lists we used, which were taken from the Ancient Codex on The Ultimate Selection Procedure for the Ultimate Fortress Leader. Some of these criteria could only have been made up by a stark raving mad dwarf tap-dancing sober on top of a diamond-studded platinum ball going down a magmafall. I have high hopes for the coming year.

1st Slate, 1098

I just took a look at Meng Rinrolas' designs for the expanded fortress. They look pretty good, I think my hopes are going to be fulfilled. Hopefully there won't be any invasions when we build the last tower out there, but a good Mountainhome has a fully armed squad of elite soldiers to cope with that!

[Urist McKiwi]

Everything's turned on (Edit: I think). I might turn off weather later, but the rest is staying because I love the smell of forest fires in the morning. I'd turn off the weather now, but I could really use some heavy rain. It'd wash the blood out of the air so I can build walkways without them immediately becoming covered in gore.

Having looked at my own diagrams again, I need to tweak it a bit more to add some extra connections to the main fort. With bridges to seal them off, obviously. At present, that design would have some bottlenecks that would slow down the process of moving troops around the fort.

I'll also see about some civilian areas if I can find/make some clear or crystal glass for some nice "windows" (read: Glass walls).


Other things I haven't shown:

-The Moltenchannels & Fiery Pit Light Railway is getting more walls around it so it can operate year-around, even with invaders around the place.
-I'm installing a nether-cap bridge across the moat to the eastern compound as a temporary measure to speed up construction. I'll wire it in to the other bridge controls and put some defenses on it later.
-Candy mining is back, if the miners ever finish last years assignments
-Did you know we have more gold bars than we have most types of stone blocks? I'd order more blocks, but I think I'll just build with raw stone and then just use the gold for showing off.
-All available kittens and cats have been ordered killed. Why? Because I find it amewsing.
-We're out of mechanisms because of all the traps I've ordered to be installed. More are to be expected whenever our dwarves have a free moment (Probably some time in Timber at this rate). I'm using all the crappy weapons we have lying around because while I could melt them, I'd then have to make more weapons for the traps, and that takes time. Plus I'm making a lot of traps, so the quality of weapons is less important than the quantity.
-Beehive orders have been reduced to ~50 hives.
-New food/drink sotckpiles in McKiwi Tower (I'll move them later and add "bolts" to the list later) [EDIT]

[CaptainArchmage]

How are we doing for exploring the depths of the caverns? There is a drawbridge on the end of the road now, you just have to break open the cavern wall and make sure nothing gets in. There are a few other forgotten beasts around you could try to trap.

You can also put me down for another turn. Sometime.

[Urist McKiwi]

Building first, exploration and combat later. I've got literally one idle dwarf, and that's a chained vampire in an oubliette. After cancelling most/all repeating orders. Once I seal the caverns (I also missed this off the "in progress" list), or if I get bored and have free soldiers, then I might go for it. If we do get a demonic incursion the walkway/tower network will be invaluable if we can get dwarves into it before the place is overrun.

Which reminds me, i need to replace the original McKiwi II era containment system on McKiwi's Tower....it was designed to secure the construction while it was being built, rather than secure the tower itself. And make sure we've got enough booze for this kind of project. Guess it's gonna be another hour of designations and checklists before I can unpause the game again.

[CaptainArchmage]

Building first, exploration and combat later. I've got literally one idle dwarf, and that's a chained vampire in an oubliette. After cancelling most/all repeating orders. Once I seal the caverns (I also missed this off the "in progress" list), or if I get bored and have free soldiers, then I might go for it. If we do get a demonic incursion the walkway/tower network will be invaluable if we can get dwarves into it before the place is overrun.

Which reminds me, i need to replace the original McKiwi II era containment system on McKiwi's Tower....it was designed to secure the construction while it was being built, rather than secure the tower itself. And make sure we've got enough booze for this kind of project. Guess it's gonna be another hour of designations and checklists before I can unpause the game again.

Best secure the palace, and install a drawbridge right next to the adamantine. Seal the miners in with some food, booze, and beds and unseal to collect the adamantine at intervals. Welcome to Dwarf Fortress!

[Urist McKiwi]

Diary of Urist McKiwi III, Dashing Swordsdwarf.

18th Slate

Meng and I finalised the design today. Our king took a look a while back and approved of it, but it needed some tweaks for security before I could give my personal approval. Udib's been rather quiet of late, but I think he approves of it as well. No news is good news on the McDuck front, and the fortress should be a lot more secure if we can get 'The Project' finished. Meng's.....oddities....seem to be fairly stable. And this new defensive ring should be invaluable if Udib's ideas about McDuck prove valid.

Builders and carpenters are swarming around the fortress, hammering and sawing. Ramps and pillars go up to support the new walkways and provide access for the builders, and the old siege batteries are in the process of being dismantled. I've been doing my own part too with the masonry. Think I'll try my hand at carpentry as well. It can't be too hard, can it? Once I've had a drink, I'll go talk to one of Meng's foredwarves. While it's not as dashing as a good victory in battle, this whole enterprise does have a certain thing to it.

Odd that young Meng would come up with an idea like this out of nowhere though. I wonder what drove him to design it?



---------------------


Writings of "Mad" Meng Rirnolas, 20th Slate, 1098


Commander McKiwi's feedback has resulted in a few changes, but the overall design is sound. I spend all day thinking about the project....it keeps the thing away. The bees will keep it away in time, but for now I have to stay thinking about the project to keep it away. It's angry, but I won't listen to it. I must be quick.




--------------------

I have hinted previously about what exactly is wrong with Meng, but I've decided to get progressively less subtle until it gets obvious, then keep going until I've had some fun with it. I'm looking forward to seeing how I develop this guy. He's only 13 years old, but has somehow survived to adulthood here in Moltenchannels. Given he was born here, aged magically by CaptainArchmage II, and has lived his entire life in this wonderful locale......the possible range of causes for the not-quite-madness is actually rather wide.

In other news, a mason has been possessed, thus robbing me of another worker for no major gain, and I've designated a lot more construction. Now I just have to keep an eye on things and add more designations (and mess with labor settings) as time goes by. I'm currently almost at the end of Slate. I've recruited some more soldiers as well, just to keep the training going effectively.

The hardest bit of the building process is going to be retrieving the bodies from the 1095 sieges from the NW wall of the eastern compound. I'd left them up there after the siege by accident after the goblin army was lured up there by stray goats and shot up by the military. They have to come down for safety reasons...a necromancer arriving at the wrong time could cause interesting (read: "Fun") problems for the builders. Since McKiwi's Tower is right next to it, I'll station marksdwarves there when the time comes.

[MDFification]

If FPS issues makes the fortress utterly unplayable, you might be able to mod the raws to create standardized materials mid-game. Note the might; if you're very lucky, that could be done, but I doubt it. Anyway modding that into the raws gives you a large fps boost, but causes all animal/plant materials to become generic (i.e. elf leather becomes just leather, oak logs become just wood logs, all grasses are now just called grass).

[Urist McKiwi]

I think the more mundane solutions (traffic zone optimising, cutting back on stone/wood/whatever piles) should work for now. I've managed to get an extra 3FPS out of things recently and that's with a lot of pathfinding stuff happening with the construction work.

Updates are on hold for a few days: I've got family visiting  and then I've got to pack to head back to University. Updates might be a little sporadic after that (it's a course with fieldwork, and I do not know when I'll be off the grid for that.. Plus the course is a condensed one to get in before the main semester starts.) but they will happen.

[Urist McKiwi]

Diary of Urist McKiwi III, Dashing Swordsdwarf

13th Felsite

The elves are here, and the gates are open. I've moved the Laborious Assemblies to one of the unfinished gateway towers. It takes 10 dwarves away from the building work, but until the elves are inside and the door is shut we need some guards to make sure nothing comes in with them.

Even better, we've had a bunch of new howls and screams from the caverns. I think at least two more beasts have arrived.


18th Felsite

The caravan's been safely escorted to the depot, and the gates are shut. We don't have that much we want from these guys, but we'll see what we can do for 'em.

23rd Felsite

We've got both new bridges up. They're not connected to any control system yet, but that'll come later. Udib's supposed to meet with the elves soon, but he's off drinking. I don't think he likes them much. In any case, Meng's new constructions are coming along fairly well now that we've got a full (well, nearly) workforce on it. This is going to make defense so much nicer once we're finished. Meng's a little stressed over the lack of mechanics and parts for his trapped areas, but the blacksmiths can only work for so many hours per day.

18th Hematite

Things are going well! Although I haven't seen Meng for days now....we had a dinner to celebrate progress on the building work last week and he hasn't been seen since. That dwarf has real potential for dashingness. Not as dashing as a soldier, but certainly something special enough.

More screams from the caves. I'm worried....we're stretched thin by this construction work, and while it's good training to be lifting all this rock and wood, it's not going to help if something gets past the walls down in the compound.

6th Malachite

Still no sign of Meng. I'm starting to get worried. We're running a rescue mission for a trapped builder who's too scared to climb down a ramp on the scaffolding. Not dashing at all, but it's a chance for a rather more brave chap to pose for the engravers, so it has some use at least.


--------------------


We've got a thingie with fire (another one) and a giant shrimp with webs. I suspect that repreating order to smelt down gold (and our new slate table, courtesy of that possessed mason) has encouraged their arrival. And the cats are dying.

And I bought us a tigerman (tigerwoman?) and a giant bushmaster on the grounds that what this place really needs is more absurdly dangerous critters.

Edit: the giant bushmaster is now proudly pastured in our eastern courtyard, and the tiger-woman is just on the fortress side of the trap corridor. Any kobold or goblin who sneaks in when the bridges are down is in for a world of hurt. We've got a few issues with cluttered construction sites slowing the work, but generally it's working well enough. There's a backlog, but I've got it under hand. I hope. I'm not sure everything will be finished by the end of my turn, but that's the magic of succession games, isn't it?

We've had at least 4-5 new FBs arrive in the caverns so far. I am...slightly worried by this. The most recent was a "noxious gas", but it's looking like we are not going to get into hell via that fortress, unless we obsidianise the whole place and mine through it. All up we're talking about 11 forgotten beasts, not including undead ones. I'm not sure how that breaks down on a per-cavern basis.

If we get a flier, we'll be in trouble. Every soldier we have is working on the walls, and it'll take a while to redeploy them to the compound if there's a breach. I've been patching the wall to try to seal the cavern once and for all, but I'm less than a third of the way through and I've run into some issues with the setup I need to build on top of. I'll probably get McKiwi to take a squad down there until the work's done.

[CaptainArchmage]

We've had at least 4-5 new FBs arrive in the caverns so far. I am...slightly worried by this. The most recent was a "noxious gas", but it's looking like we are not going to get into hell via that fortress, unless we obsidianise the whole place and mine through it. All up we're talking about 11 forgotten beasts, not including undead ones. I'm not sure how that breaks down on a per-cavern basis.

If we get a flier, we'll be in trouble. Every soldier we have is working on the walls, and it'll take a while to redeploy them to the compound if there's a breach. I've been patching the wall to try to seal the cavern once and for all, but I'm less than a third of the way through and I've run into some issues with the setup I need to build on top of. I'll probably get McKiwi to take a squad down there until the work's done.

The best way to deal with the forgotten beasts is to expand the FB containment area. You can use cats as the bait, so the Forgotten Beasts will get into the cells where you can seal them in.

Can you check up the FB's special attacks? Some of them might be useful.

[notquitethere]

I tried to weaponise the forgotten beasts, to mixed result. They were good at killing some of the undead horded, but eventually you always end up with an undead forgotten beast, which is like a regular undead except it can also break down doors.

I think we should look to drawing them all out into chambers near the surface where they can be let loose on invaders at the flick of a switch.