Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Poll

Cant get rid of this

.
- 0 (0%)
.
- 0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: April 06, 2013, 08:55:48 pm


Pages: 1 ... 13 14 [15] 16 17 ... 23

Author Topic: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed - Who needs migrants!☼  (Read 60635 times)

gchristopher

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #210 on: May 11, 2013, 11:58:42 pm »

Early summer! CogDis successfully convinces the elves to sell a Dragon Raptor.

Leave it to Urvad to successfully insult the elves enough that they weren't willing to accept lots and lots of money. That deserves some kind of prize.

Meanwhile...

Brook Troll's Diary, day... something. Can't count.
The mole....weasel thing came to life again. Smooshed it. Hate this place.

Diary, another day.
I should eat that thing or kick it or ... I dunno. I smooshed it again.

Yet another day.
Some weird misty stuff floated by. Was awfully close to me. Smooshed the weasel. Hate being alive.



Urrrr, hey! Where'd the chain go? I's free! Run away!

27 Malachite, Mid-Summer: Sadly, the great troll experiment was thwarted by an invasion of Forest Imps! They proceeded to charge into the fortress, where they were promptly discovered and mostly fled.

The prototype swordgolem knocked one off the bridge, where it was badly battered and spent two weeks vomiting into the river before recovering and swimming away. Forest imps are strangely resilient, apparently!

Down in the minimalistic magma forge area, Spish was having serious doubts about his orders. He had started by building a rather large number of minecarts and the next page of instructions had him building, well, more... minecarts?



He dutifully forged the iron, creating a minecart festooned with sharp protuberances in all directions, like some kind of gold-rush fetish device. When the time came to add a maker's stamp, he carefully embossed the words "Proudly made by DeepBlue Tobulotil."

Following increasingly strident and insistent orders from the three-ring binders, the dwarves carried the gratuitously puncture-prone minecarts away, one each to small pits recently dug outside the entrances to the fortress proper.

The next directive was clear.



"I'm not sure," said Chaosgear, who had just returned from carving a strange arrangement of tracks into the area. "It doesn't seem safe."

"Of course it's not safe." replied The Master in the calm cadence that was his as Preacher. "That was Armoks order for the End of All Things. Pull the lever, and the mountain falls. It's how all dwarves will die, one day."

"Wait, what? Die? Maybe, uh, we should, you know, not, die?"

The Master Preacher just grinned and strode to the newly built Central Control Room, and pulled a lever. It might even have been the right one. Somewhere nearby, several bridges ground open, revealing sloped tracks underneath.

WHUNK  WHUNK  WHUNK  WHUNK  WHUNK  WHUNK

The sound of minecarts crashing into walls echoed through the cursed and forsaken hills surrounding Exhultationhexxed. The sound was metal grinding on rock and forged spikes scraping endless tiny gouges into the rock as they went around and around and around. It was the kind of sound that would drive a human mad and make an elf's ears explode.

Deep undergound, Tholtigluzat, the Pan sat alone and listened to the cacophony filter down to her rough stone cave. "Ahhhh," she sighed, "that's a proper dwarven lullabye," as she drifted off to sleep.

....

Things were uneventful for a while, no alerts or reports, just dwarves going about their business, carrying out inscrutable orders, making small piles of stones, and collecting a rather large amount of sand to feed the glass forge.

As, the Mad One, came down from chopping trees. "Hey Spish! Come look at this! Down in one of the cart pits."



It was a kobold torso. Just a torso, with no sign of any other body parts nearby. There was plenty of blood, but the rest of the body, legs and all, may as well have simply evaporated. Very soon, that wasn't all to be seen.



"Remind me not to walk that way." Spish muttered.
"Aye, that's a right mess." As agreed.

18 Galena, Late Summer: Human merchants and a diplomat arrive, and levers are pulled to briefly halt and cover the traps to let them in. They came bearing plenty of food, plants and drink. (Seems like the humans don't suffer from incredibly slow-growing plants, unlike notoriously unproductive dwarven farms.)

CogDis cements her value to the fortress by successfully negotiating for enough supplies to last the next year, and



Logged

Spish

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #211 on: May 12, 2013, 04:04:16 pm »

An actually functional minecart system? Pinch me. :P
Logged
Ah, yes, I thought something was amiss. Now I see. There's not enough terrible things in the lakes.

The Master

  • Bay Watcher
  • A respectable sort of psychopath
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #212 on: May 13, 2013, 10:46:56 am »

[EXPUNGED]
I really need to get more sleep.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2013, 11:44:25 pm by The Master »
Logged
Holy jesus I thought I was ready but nothing could have prepared me for this
Hush, little Asea, don't you cry.
If he notices we'll surely die!
You. Made. Asea. CRY.

Orange Wizard

  • Bay Watcher
  • mou ii yo
    • View Profile
    • S M U G
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #213 on: May 14, 2013, 03:22:47 am »

Logged
Please don't shitpost, it lowers the quality of discourse
Hard science is like a sword, and soft science is like fear. You can use both to equally powerful results, but even if your opponent disbelieve your stabs, they will still die.

gchristopher

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #214 on: May 15, 2013, 10:27:46 pm »

Life in Exhultationhexxed had settled into a pretty familiar routine, mostly of hauling, plus cooking and brewing the immense load of supplies purchased from the humans.

For entertainment, Spish and Chaosgear would occasionally peer down the entry corridor, because they could swear they heard screaming coming from that direction.

Here's what they saw:



By the way, what the hell is a "Crudhelm" and why would you put one on your head?

A bit of Dwarven CSI followed.

"Maybe they got into a fight and cut each other into pieces?"

"I heard kobold rotgut actually makes you explode if you drink it. That might've happened."

"Orcs are pretty ugly. They coulda looked in a mirror and died of embarrassment."

In the end, though, this is the scenario they settled on:



"Ya know, maybe those things are a bit ... too..." Chaosgear began, but couldn't finish the sentence. "Too dangerous" simply isn't a part of the dwarven vocabulary.

"HEY! HEY GUYS! Stop staring at the pile of Orc bits and come look at this order in the three ring binder!" The Master called down. "I think we're done with all this crazy construction. Read this:"



"Pull the.. what?" Spish began. "We have a what?"

"That seems pretty clear, we have a cannon made of magma," began The Master. "Or, uh, maybe it fires magma?"

"Maybe it's powered by magma, and fires something else?" Chaosgear ventured.

"Whatever. Don't care." said The Master, and rushed to pull the lever that had recently sprouted a mysterious note labelled "Magma Shut-Off."

Deep below, a bridge ground back and a pile of iron minecarts began to fall into a trench with a loud gloomph and a spray of magma mist. Then they spiraled back up through the many strange track rails before crashing to a halt and ejecting their contents into a small catching chamber.

From there, the magma flowed down and rapidly filled the large area under the magma forges, bringing the rest of them to life. More magma flowed into a second level labelled "Extra Magma (Have Fun)."

After the lower chambers filled, the magma kept being delivered from the depths in layer after load after load of high speed glorps.

It was Aigre that asked the first question. "Umm, once those all fill up, where's the magma going to go? Will it just back up and flow into the fortress?"

"HA!" called Zacen from farther away. "I'm glad I'm not one of you nobles with the nice bedrooms on the lower levels now!"

As it happened, there was a plan for that part, if one accepts a very loose definition of the word "plan."



I bet the elves are gonna love that part!

Armed now with their overly complicated, mostly pointless magma cannon, the dwarves of Exhultationhexxed continued work, mostly on cleaning up the mess and brewing even more booze.

On 16 Timber, 264, merchants arrived along with a liason from the strangely standoffish homeland. CogDis spent his time haggling over an interesting-looking pair of golden geese, along with a pile of assorted raw materials, food and drink.

Meanwhile, The Master was preaching the glories of life at Exhultationhexxed to the caravan guards. "We have a Magma Cannon! Do YOU have a magma cannon? Huh? HUH?" He was apparently successful, because all nine of the guards decided to remain at the fort instead of return with the merchants! (Editor: we're hacking to steal guards since migration has stalled. More on that below.)

From deep below a terrible cry announced the arrival of, some snake thing.



The dwarves ignored it. It's probably no big deal.

2 Obsidian, 264:


The Master has become a father! He's been a busy The Master this last year, what with all his shirking duties as a noble and drinking and On Breaking.



Seriously? Welcome, everyone to The Master story, starring The Master, where everything that happens, happens to The Master.



After he claimed a Mechanic's workshop, the rest of the dwarves played a fun game of "hide the stone" so The Master had to do several tedious trips back and forth from his workshop, feverishly grabbing all the gold and titanium ore left in the fortress until the game had grown tiresome. Then, discovering that he had a large pile of stones in the workshop, he went ahead and crafted them all into a strange and insanely complicated mechanism.



Perhaps the crazed overcomplication of this, the fort's first artifact, reflected all the other strange and incoherent activities. In any case, here's what it looks like:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Toward the end of the year, the three binder had become strangely reluctant to issue orders. The dwarves continued hauling and organizing, but the fever pitch of activity that had started their year had seemingly come to an end.

On the very last day before the new year, Spish sought out the book to find his next order, but all the pages were blank! No orders, no diagrams, no instructions, no grumpy notes about frequent breaks. The three ring binder had exhausted its magic and was done.

All, except one small note on the last page:



"AAAUUURGGGG! Noooooo!" Spish screamed and ran to the bridge, carrying the book. "No way! No!" With all his strength, he hurled the book down into the river at the base of the waterfall, where it vanished amid the turbulence and rocks.

Cogdis came running up. "What is it? What happened?"

"Oh, uh... the book said to throw it in the river," Spish replied.

"Really, was that all?"

"No, it, uh, it said that someone else has to be overseer, now. I'm done, and now it is, too."

With that, Spish headed downstairs to get a drink.

(Editor: That's it for the turn! Good luck!)

(Also, I just noticed that Spish is female. Oh well. Too late now. She was having a gender crisis this turn.)
Logged

gchristopher

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #215 on: May 15, 2013, 10:48:21 pm »

File is uploaded at DFDD.

Here are some notes:

The cart trap pits were added to the entrances that Spish set up, across the bridge and on the ramp leading down off the plateau. They're really annoyingly dangerous and will easily wipe out merchants or a diplomat. They'll also pretty easily kill the entire fortress if anyone tries to recover wounded or corpses of dwarves in the pit.

If you don't want to deal with the micromanagement of the cart traps, there are two levers that shut down the trap. The left lever extends bridges that halt the cart, making loot retrieval possible. The center lever extends bridges covering over the traps. (The right lever is the magma control.) When a diplomat shows up, someone must immediately pull one of those levers or the diplomat will get turned to mulch.

FPS: I think Spish's river modification created a little FPS drop, because now the lower river is less full and has more flow. The magma cannon also eats some FPS, but it can be shut off with the lever in the control room.

Merchants: the merchant chamber has a couple more cart traps with forbidden doors to invite thieves and sneaks to take the shorter path through the traps. There are double doors between the merchants and the fortress proper. The easiest way to keep the merchants from leaving the wrong way and getting eaten by the traps is to forbid those nearby doors and force them to leave the other way.

So, in short, the traps are a pain, but easy to turn off.

Hacking: Since migration broke, Spish, The Master and I talked about using dfhack's tweak makeown command to steal caravan guards so there's enough population to invite more trouble. As many others have observed, this command doesn't work great. I think I've made it work a bit better by creating historical figure entries for the guards and adding them to the fort and civ, but it's experimental and I could have broken something. I've tested a bit, and it doesn't seem to break the game so far.

Here's what works: the new citizens show up in Therapist, obey job orders, claim bedrooms, can join squads and if so, they equip uniforms, will go to training and obey squad orders.

What doesn't work is: assigning them as nobles or squad leaders doesn't stick. The position remains unfilled.

I posted the script I used for each dwarf after tweak makeown in the dfhack thread.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 12:21:11 am by gchristopher »
Logged

The Master

  • Bay Watcher
  • A respectable sort of psychopath
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #216 on: May 16, 2013, 03:36:01 pm »

I'll begin my turn either today or tomorrow, depending on my free time!
Logged
Holy jesus I thought I was ready but nothing could have prepared me for this
Hush, little Asea, don't you cry.
If he notices we'll surely die!
You. Made. Asea. CRY.

The Master

  • Bay Watcher
  • A respectable sort of psychopath
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #217 on: May 16, 2013, 04:57:32 pm »

1st of Granite:
The voices told me that Spish is no longer required in a position of power, so I've had my loyal followers cast him out of power. The voices also told me that I should appoint myself as the new overseer! All hail me! ALL HAIL ME!

2nd of Granite:
The voices have spoken once more! They have told me to order the construction of a massive tower to be built over the entrance to our mighty fortress!

3rd of Granite:
It appears that the common-folk do not understand where my orders have come from! I've tried to explain that the voices have instructed me, but they do not listen! I've already been diagnosed twice and I'm perfectly sane! It's not like Cogdis would lie to me! Would he...?

4th of Granite:
I held a meeting today with Spish. Did not go well. I think I will have him executed.

5th of Granite:
Spish just doesn't understand the grand scheme of things. The voices tell me what I must do, then I follow. It isn't that complicated! Why he must insist that i'm delusional is beyond me.

7th of Granite:
Cogdis diagnosed me with something called Schizophrenia. He told me that this is most severe case he's ever seen in his entire life. He also said that this is the third time he's told me this.

8th of Granite:
I saw a roach today.

9th of Granite:
I sneezed.

10th of Granite:
THE HOUNDS DRAW EVER CLOSER! PREPARE FOR THE HOUNDS!

11th of Granite:
The voices have told me that the tower must be finished before next spring or else I'll face very dear consequences.

12th of Granite:
Cogdis tried to lock me in traction today because he said that I was unfit to lead and that I was mentally deranged. I broke his nose then threw him against a wall.

13th of Granite:
...

14th of Granite:
I've mandated the construction of thirty engraved statues.

15th of Granite:
The voices said that I must set myself on fire. Surely that can wait though! They never said I had to do it today!

16th of Granite:
I saw a fish die.

17th of Granite:
I invited a bear to lunch today. He didn't say much so I bit his head off.

18th of Granite:
The voices told me that I should stop setting fire to the squirrels.

19th of Granite:
Spish insulted my mother. I think.

20th of Granite:
I think I'll take a nap.
« Last Edit: May 16, 2013, 05:20:42 pm by The Master »
Logged
Holy jesus I thought I was ready but nothing could have prepared me for this
Hush, little Asea, don't you cry.
If he notices we'll surely die!
You. Made. Asea. CRY.

Spish

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #218 on: May 16, 2013, 05:49:27 pm »

I like where this is going.

That was a pretty great turn GC, especially liked the unique perspective and drawlings. I don't think we'll have any issues with the new recruits though. As far as I can tell, ineligibility for nobility is the only problem.
Logged
Ah, yes, I thought something was amiss. Now I see. There's not enough terrible things in the lakes.

The Master

  • Bay Watcher
  • A respectable sort of psychopath
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #219 on: May 16, 2013, 06:18:19 pm »

Who would want smelly old farts being in a position of power anyway? OH WAIT
Logged
Holy jesus I thought I was ready but nothing could have prepared me for this
Hush, little Asea, don't you cry.
If he notices we'll surely die!
You. Made. Asea. CRY.

jimboo

  • Bay Watcher
  • Bastart
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #220 on: May 16, 2013, 08:48:18 pm »

I like where this is going.
That was a pretty great turn GC, especially liked the unique perspective and drawings.{clip}

What he said.

A working magma mine track and saveAwesome.  After what others had written (including Wiki), I thought that pistons and/or NecroRebel’s 1-over-3 pump stacks were the only ways to go.  There is still that trifling thing with the parts a-flyin’ …
Logged
Good walls make for good neighbors. -- Urist Frost
Avatar photo credit: NomeDaBoy@Worth1000.com, reposted from BoingBoing.net (great site)

Meph

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
    • worldbicyclist
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #221 on: May 16, 2013, 10:48:43 pm »

The mod also has magmatankers that you can directly fill at any magma-forge. Although I quite enjoyed reading the dip-minecart-into-magma-then-put-minecart-into-minecart idea.
Logged
::: ☼Meph Tileset☼☼Map Tileset☼- 32x graphic sets with TWBT :::
::: ☼MASTERWORK DF☼ - A comprehensive mod pack now on Patreon - 250.000+ downloads and counting :::
::: WorldBicyclist.com - Follow my bike tours around the world - 148 countries visited :::

gchristopher

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #222 on: May 17, 2013, 12:44:17 am »

Glad people liked the turn. I hope I didn't mess anything up too badly. Thanks!

Things are definitely in much better hands with The Master now, though.

Heh, I noticed the magmatankers. I refrained from abusing them. I'll comment over on the MW thread.
Logged

Velard

  • Bay Watcher
  • Anyone want some cantalope?
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #223 on: May 17, 2013, 12:36:00 pm »

Hey. This looks like fun.

I'll sign up for a turn if you're still accepting overseers.
Logged
Quote from: Mitchewawa
I mined out a moderate sized area above the stairway to hell in order to have enough rocks to fuel my insane architectural boner.

The Master

  • Bay Watcher
  • A respectable sort of psychopath
    • View Profile
Re: ☼Masterwork Succession Fortress: Exultationhexxed☼
« Reply #224 on: May 17, 2013, 12:53:13 pm »

Hey. This looks like fun.

I'll sign up for a turn if you're still accepting overseers.
Always friend! Would you care for a dorf too?
Logged
Holy jesus I thought I was ready but nothing could have prepared me for this
Hush, little Asea, don't you cry.
If he notices we'll surely die!
You. Made. Asea. CRY.
Pages: 1 ... 13 14 [15] 16 17 ... 23