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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

[Urist McKiwi]

Bit of a delay due to some issues IRL, but here we go.
Diary of Urist McKiwi III, Dashing Swordsdwarf

8th Timber

So everyone's out looking for Meng now. The king isn't happy, and when royalty isn't happy, they do tend to get things done. Nurse Cutey appeared the instant we got that poor planter out from behind the hives and dragged him off screaming. I don't blame him, frankly. We have got to sort out this mess with the bees!

I ran an inspection of the militia before sending them out. Not good. Most of them haven't seen a battle, and aren't being trained enough. So I've set up some training runs. We're not going to finish this massive rebuild this year anyway....might as well make sure we're trained well enough to survive a siege. Squads will train at 3 month intervals, then spend a month on duty doing patrols......then have a month of leave. The exception to this will be the Royal Fist....as my own elite squad, we will train at 2 month intervals to maintain our skills at the highest possible level.

I suppose that's the good thing about Meng being away....I can get my own work done again. I'm not in charge, but since the person who should be giving the orders isn't, I can just keep things running. But still....we have so few dwarves these days to work with. We've got to find him.....




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10th Timber, Late morning.

"Udib? Udib!"
"McKiwi? What is it?"
"Got a tipoff from UristTheGrey. Meng's fast asleep down in the old living complex. Want to head down and see what's up with him?"
'Hmmm.....yes. That would be wise. I have noticed a strange focus of McDuck's energies of late, since that last wave of animal posessions. Meng Rirnolas' disappearance worries me."
"And we need the whole beehive thing sorted out. That poor planter had Nurse Cutey looking after him for days..."

McKiwi shudders as she and the Priest start their descent into the fortress. Udib Wastedlabor scratches his beard, thinking for a moment.

'The bees interest me. Rirnolas has placed hives quite deliberately at focal points for the main hauling routes....almost as if arranging for citizens to be stung is the point of the hives....'
"That's not very dashing."
"Maybe. But I think there's a reason why he's doing it, and I would rather like to find out what that reason is....

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

Screenshot and stats time!

Our great fortress of Moltenchannels has a population of 138 dwarves, up by 1 from last year (yaaaaaay). 33 of these are children. The adult population breaks down by skill as follows:

5 engineers
27 farmers
2 fishery workers (these guys probably need some training in other jobs, since we don't have any fish)
5 peasants (this includes Meng, who is technically a Master Architect but doesn't actually have architecture skills)
10 nobles
11 craftsdwarves
3 jewellers
8 metalsmiths
4 rangers
18 stoneworkers (skewed a bit by my construction work)
7 woodworkers (also skewed a bit)
5 miners

This does not take military skills into account, since the militia is on leave. We currently have a full military of 50 dwarves. Some squads (mostly the marksdwarves) are well trained, but others are just cannon-fodder. To alter this, I've changed the schedule so that we have regular training for most squads, with extra training for the Dead Armors, as they are really inexperienced. I have never used the schedule system before, so I've no idea if this will work.


Anyway! Screenshots! These are both large images, so be warned.

Spoiler: Groundlevel (click to show/hide)

Circled in red is the area where the planter got trapped. I'll probably leave those walls deconstructed just to be safe

Spoiler: Walkways (click to show/hide)

As you can see, construction is rather stalled. Ah well, such is life. And some of it is useable at least. The tower in the top-left of the central island is going to be "interesting" to finish, as both the magma weapon and the corpse-disposer go right through it. However, I am optimistic that it can be safely build around the existing structures, although ramp/stair design is a little convoluted. Ideally, I would have built walls and ramps for ground-level parts of the towers as well, to give them their own farms and breweries in case they get sealed off for long periods of time. That went out the window with the slowdown.

[Triaxx2]

You could probably safely re-route the disposer around the outerwall of the tower if you have to, just don't leave anything unsupported. It'd probably be easier. Since the magma weapon runs higher than the cart track, you could probably cast the track around the outside then carve it that way.

[Urist McKiwi]

You could probably safely re-route the disposer around the outerwall of the tower if you have to, just don't leave anything unsupported. It'd probably be easier. Since the magma weapon runs higher than the cart track, you could probably cast the track around the outside then carve it that way.

That would actually take even longer, since I'd need to dismantle stuff. Plus I'd need to shut it down while I worked and....well, yeah. Basically it's easier to just build around it and accept a slightly convoluted layout. I won't finish this by the end of the year, of course....but I can designate the beginnings of it. I've only got 3.5 months left to do everything, and believe me when I say that you do not want me learning to cast obsidian in a succession fort.

[CaptainArchmage]

You could probably safely re-route the disposer around the outerwall of the tower if you have to, just don't leave anything unsupported. It'd probably be easier. Since the magma weapon runs higher than the cart track, you could probably cast the track around the outside then carve it that way.

That would actually take even longer, since I'd need to dismantle stuff. Plus I'd need to shut it down while I worked and....well, yeah. Basically it's easier to just build around it and accept a slightly convoluted layout. I won't finish this by the end of the year, of course....but I can designate the beginnings of it. I've only got 3.5 months left to do everything, and believe me when I say that you do not want me learning to cast obsidian in a succession fort.

Nice job! The fortress additions look like they were made by drunken monkeys.

I think you can route some of the minecart tracks to being supply tracks for the rest of the fortress. You may be able to use minecart tracks to supply the building materials more easily.

[Urist McKiwi]

You could probably safely re-route the disposer around the outerwall of the tower if you have to, just don't leave anything unsupported. It'd probably be easier. Since the magma weapon runs higher than the cart track, you could probably cast the track around the outside then carve it that way.

That would actually take even longer, since I'd need to dismantle stuff. Plus I'd need to shut it down while I worked and....well, yeah. Basically it's easier to just build around it and accept a slightly convoluted layout. I won't finish this by the end of the year, of course....but I can designate the beginnings of it. I've only got 3.5 months left to do everything, and believe me when I say that you do not want me learning to cast obsidian in a succession fort.

Nice job! The fortress additions look like they were made by drunken monkeys.

Well we are talking about dwarves here.

The bad bits are where I ran out of coherent building materials. The slate/wood parts actually look quite respectable. And the gateway towers, were they to be finished, would look rather spiffy as well. Although perhaps the aluminium fortifications are a tad showy. It's the stuff like random pewter/bismuth/soap walls and the like that completes the 'the architect hasn't been seen for 6 months and we have no idea what we are doing' look.

The only bits that genuinely don't make sense are the foundations to two towers I changed the design of midway through (and then the dwarves decided to stop working on them altogether), and the aforementioned "tower that has everything going through it".

If I can find our various minecart tracks, I'll investigate setting up a transfer system. I do have stone stockpiles on the surface.....it's just that I'm allocating building materials long before they can be hauled up to those same stocks. Also more beehives, because you can never have too many solid gold beehives.

No further update today, because the power went out for a while. Tomorrow I have classes, but I'll squeeze something into the evening. With luck I can still finish this before going off on field work....if not, there'll be a 1.5 week hiatus while I go hunt bugs and stuff.

[CaptainArchmage]

The bad bits are where I ran out of coherent building materials. The slate/wood parts actually look quite respectable. And the gateway towers, were they to be finished, would look rather spiffy as well. Although perhaps the aluminium fortifications are a tad showy. It's the stuff like random pewter/bismuth/soap walls and the like that completes the 'the architect hasn't been seen for 6 months and we have no idea what we are doing' look.

Having gateway towers and proper walls would be great. Aluminium fortifications are fine if you build an aluminium wall and then engrave fortifications, because this ensures there is a walkable tile on top.

If I can find our various minecart tracks, I'll investigate setting up a transfer system. I do have stone stockpiles on the surface.....it's just that I'm allocating building materials long before they can be hauled up to those same stocks. Also more beehives, because you can never have too many solid gold beehives.

No further update today, because the power went out for a while. Tomorrow I have classes, but I'll squeeze something into the evening. With luck I can still finish this before going off on field work....if not, there'll be a 1.5 week hiatus while I go hunt bugs and stuff.

Minecarts would be great for hauling gold to build areas, since it takes a rather long time given how heavy the bars are and the distance the metalsmiths need to walk.

How many gold beehives do we have?

Do we have a run of coins for this year? It might help to mint a copper/silver/gold series just to see what we have.

Real life bug hunt sounds fun.

[Urist McKiwi]

The fortifications were constructed as-is, which was a mistake...but one that can be fixed just by putting some ramps and stuff in place. The walkway between the two towers is supposed to be open to the air (to let the bees out and allow shooting at flying targets) so that's not a concern. The upper tower is mostly built, except the roof and part of the upper level. The lower tower is stalled because of a lack of builders. If I had 25 more masons I'd be done by now. <_<

We've got maybe 10-15 gold hives, all up. Possibly more, I lost count a while back. All of them are either installed or en route for installation.

I'll order a run of coins. I also ordered a candy spear a while back for one of our better militia members, but I don't know if it got built. I'll cancel the hive construction for now (actually, I'll swap it over to glass to free up the metalsmiths) and get that stuff done.


Edit:I did a test run on a brand new fort of my own, and I think the ignored constructions are due to a bug that kicks in when too much construction is ordered at once....so they may need new designations entirely. I woulda done more, but a vampire turned up, drained the most popular guy in the fort and the whole test devolved into people ripping each other apart while monkeys stole the wheelbarrows. Good fun, but not that helpful. I'll continue with the save later tonight.

[Urist McKiwi]

12th Timber, Mid afternoon.

A dark, dusty room in an isolated corner of the fortress. Piles of parchment lie haphazardly, along with the detritus of someone living rough. A clattering of armor comes from the hallway as the Militia Commander and Priest enter what has until recently been the refuge of Meng Rirnolas. McKiwi, tired of the monotony of searching, takes a swig from her flask.

"You know....some day we have got to make stairways that don't take several days to climb up and down."
"I don't think there is space for them...you know as well as I do how intricate this fortress is. In any case, we are where UristTheGrey reported our missing architect.....
"And he isn't here. Brilliant."
"And yet....he has evidently been doing a lot of writing. I wonder...?

The priest of Armok picks up a wad of papers. The words "The bees will keep it out" are scrawled messily and repeatedly on the top page. Flicking through the bundle, all the pages are similar.

"'The bees will keep it away'.....'the bees will keep it out'.......more of the same here as well...hmmm. You know what this means, McKiwi?"
"That our architect has gone completely mad?"
 "I know you tend towards what I can only hope is sarcasm when your "dashing" side slips, but think! The bees will keep it out! Rirnolas starts to act odd. He comes up with a plan for an immense defensive structure, then puts beehives everywhere that people go. He's planning a defense against something, and I'm certain it's McDuck!"
"While I'm all in favor of massive defenses, being dashing and all, what good would bees do against a malevolent psychic maddwarf from a parallel world? All they do is sting people and make them angry!"
"I'll admit I'm not that sure about....ah! Of course! Anger! Distraction! It takes your mind off things!"
'Which helps us...how?"
'Do you have any idea how hard it is to reliably possess someone? The amount of concentration....McDuck can reach through, but the slightest jolt can knock him away.'
"Like....the sting of a bee?"
"Precisely!"
"Speaking as a dashing swordsdwarf of some renown who will readily admit that she doesn't always care for newfangled tricks....that is the single least practical tactic I have ever heard of!"
"Can you think of a better one?"
'Ehm.....ah......wait, how do you know how difficult it is to possess someone?"
"We don't need to talk about that right now. Anyway, let's see if we can find our architect....he cannot be far from here."

Udib takes a final look around the room, making sure that the architect has not simply died under a pile of paperwork and been forgotten. McKiwi raises an eyebrow as the priest walks out into the hallway....


Not right now, perhaps...but we are going to have words about this later, she thought.



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

Ok if anyone saw that excuse for filling the place with bees comign, go buy yourself an icecream now. Basic logic:

-Ok, what can I do for this turn so it is definitely going to be weird?
-Well, I can fill it with bees!
-Why?
-Because I can!
-No, I need an excuse. I also need to stop thinking loudly at myself and having conversations in my head, but that can wait until later.
- Been a while since we moved the old "McDuck" plot along......
-Hmmm. How can bees help against demons without referencing the horrible Wicker Man remake?
-Stinging makes a distraction that makes McDuck lose his grip on minds?? Maybe? Eh, good enough. Time to fill the place with bees.


Although the current beehive total is only 7 new gold ones, with possibly some other ones from other materials so it's not that bad. And wall construction is picking up wooooooooo.


I'm currently up to 23rd Timber, with updates lagging. I may update again today (there's a bit planned which would work well as a not all that good cliffhanger). I will be away from tomorrow (wednesday) until next friday, doing ecological field work. There's no net access, but I'll definitely not be vanishing for good.

[Urist McKiwi]

I'm back! Quite a nifty trip all up. A few distant kea, some cool parasitic wasps and a bunch of rather nice sciencey things. And I got to hear one of the rarest birds in the country (probably), so it was worth the lack of magma. No time during the trip to play DF, so I'll continue playing today.

Interestingly my first thoughts on reloading the save after 12 days or so was "what the heck was I doing here anyway?".

Edit: Booyah, new candy spear with no one to use it. Random aristocrat in the militia, it's your lucky day! Also more bee-stings and craAAAAAAzy building capers. And peeps getting stuck behind hives...which I've tracked down to a fold in space time which seems to have resulted in a hive being built and not being built. When I had it deconstructed it was officially 'observed' and reconstructed itself properly. I must congratulate CaptainArchmage for somehow managing to create Schrödinger's Beehive.

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

12th Timber, Evening

Urist McKiwi sighed. Even though wandering around the tunnels down here was rather relaxing after a while, she was still annoyed at Udib for how stupid things were getting. Still, there weren't many more places Meng could be.

"Urist? You hear that?"

McKiwi stood still, and listened. From a room down the hallway, the faint sound of someone snoring drifted out into the empty chambers....

[CaptainArchmage]

Welcome back!

Since it is Timber, we should be getting a caravan soon?

[Urist McKiwi]

Welcome back!

Since it is Timber, we should be getting a caravan soon?

In Update Land, it's still waiting to arrive. In actual 'this is where I've played up to', it's arrived, I bought a bunch of stuff (not all that much, since carting stuff to the depot is hard when all your dwarves are either militia peeps on duty or are hauling a stone for 2 months to build one tile of wall) and it's getting ready to leave. And we very nearly had a beserk hammerdwarf until I adjusted scheduling to give them some extra leave to get over a serious arm injury (My guess? Hit by a minecart).

To expand upon the wacko hive problem....I think the game tried building two hives on one tile. Or rather, the same hive, twice. WITH the same hive. However it did it slightly out of synch, so only one of them got built. But the other still existed, only it didn't. So when it was time to load bees into the hive, the phantom hive that wasn't there but was got in the way of the hive that was there AND was, so there was a pathfinding problem caused by the hive obstructing itself (only it wasn't. But it was).

Fortunately getting rid of the hive that was there and was actually there there allowed the one that wasn't there but was there as well to become a proper hive that was actually there-there and could be used. Unless it's done it again, in which case I'm going to need the name of the mason who carved it so we can get them making nested weapons traps that aren't there but are. Or that are there but aren't. I'm not entirely sure, but it's stupid enough to be worth trying.

[MDFification]

Might be old news, but on the offchance nobody's posted this in the thread yet, I figured out why you're not getting any new migrants.
The fort's reached the local population cap. After you get 3000 units (of any type; the even includes deceased units listed) no more migrants come. There is a DFhack script to get around this by clearing the Dead units list (the data is stored so it can be restored later) available here if you decide to run it.

[CaptainArchmage]

Might be old news, but on the offchance nobody's posted this in the thread yet, I figured out why you're not getting any new migrants.
The fort's reached the local population cap. After you get 3000 units (of any type; the even includes deceased units listed) no more migrants come. There is a DFhack script to get around this by clearing the Dead units list (the data is stored so it can be restored later) available here if you decide to run it.

Wait - is there a way to change the local population cap in worldgen using the advanced settings?

[MDFification]

Might be old news, but on the offchance nobody's posted this in the thread yet, I figured out why you're not getting any new migrants.
The fort's reached the local population cap. After you get 3000 units (of any type; the even includes deceased units listed) no more migrants come. There is a DFhack script to get around this by clearing the Dead units list (the data is stored so it can be restored later) available here if you decide to run it.

Wait - is there a way to change the local population cap in worldgen using the advanced settings?

I don't know. There might. If there is it would require regenning though.

[CaptainArchmage]

OK. We tried running the script to delete the dead units, but it did not change things. We still have no migration.