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[edgefigaro]

Man, I'll take another crack at it today. My last aquifer piercing success was killed by naked mole corpse, IIRC, and the more recent attempts have been over before they start due to not being able to get away from the giant ravens that immediately charge my crew.

Also, I've never uploaded video, and have a tendency to trail off when I am trying to talk and DF at the same time.

And yes, I set the number of titans up to be stupidly high.

[WanderingKid]

Awesome to hear Edge.  It personally took me 4 tries to get everything downstairs before the RNG had the giant ravens fly over my head.  Regarding trailing off, a recommendation?  Use Sound Recorder alongside your FRAPS.  I had the same tendency and by using a separate audio channel I can split the audio, record a new snippet where required, and include it.  Helps a lot.

However, doing that is also what caused me half the problems with FRAPS recording the wrong damned screen.  Make sure you bury the sound recorder under DF on the same screen when you do it, avoids a lot of issues.

Those titans are BRUTES.  Gyeah.  My surface is littered with undead. Including a now undead titan.  He eventually overwhelmed himself with undead parts.

Part 3 for FurnaceClans is now up for those interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPADloNMZGw

As a warning (and previously mentioned), there was a savescum involved in this episode, but it was for scientific research for caravan pathing.  When the caravan first showed up on the surface I was confused, so I used DFHack to restart the save and perform experiments in depot access pathing in the few days between the save and the merchant arrival to confirm that it wasn't that my path was too small from the cavern edge.  Once I'd confirmed that I'd found the rest of my dwarves had done some amazing work in clearing up the fort to the levels of impossible, so I re-scummed and just played it out normally.  However, you'll find that science in the video as well.

In this video, however, I show you a technique (there has to be better ways, I got lucky) of gopher-holing the dead merchant's stuff down from the surface, what's going to be the primary fortress layout now that it's mostly dug out, the job split between my 9 available dwarves, and general operations of the fort.

[edgefigaro]

Just found the caverns on that world, and got the thing recorded. Going to add audio and hopefully upload.  Embark shows alot of promise, I got a bridge over the freeze drill site and a wall so I have access to the above-the-aquifer area of the fort.  All seven dwarves are healthy, and I hope to have booze soon.

Next step is getting the caverns fortified, though, it may be better just to carve out a huge swath of area next to the surface so trees can grow.  There is water in caverns-one that will make my area easily defensible.

I may be able to get a caravan airlock made before fall.

[Merendel]

Gota say I saw you mention this chalange on the questions board and gave it a try.  Definatly fun, both the real world and the DF world definitions of the word.  Had my first one spiral out of control due to the skin of my first butchered pack animal deciding to reanimate 2 steps after butchering was done, the dwarf didnt even have time to move before things got messy.

Second one sadly died of dehydration.  Embark said glacier, terrifying, aquifer but I couldnt find the aquifer.  after initial probes failed I dug down to the caverns in desperation, they were dry and I couldnt get any of the plants down there brewed fast enough to save the first dwarf, who proceeded to kill the rest.  Shortly before the fort died I did a DF hack reveal and found there was an aquifer, a small 20 tile or so section off in the middle of the NW quadrant of my embark.   single biome embark as well so not sure what was up with that one.

3rd one is up to the second dwarven caravan now.  7 layer deep aquifer this time but there was a very thick vein of kaolinite runing through it.  Took a bit of clearing to follow it all the way down without risking a flood but got down there.  Somehow missed layer 1 of caverns and found layer 2.  that ones too hazardis atm to do anything with so I used the aquifer and a bucket brigade to get a farm going, first caravan brought in enough wood and plump helmets to get that going.   Sadly this embark seems relitively tame, its reanimating but nothing else.  some frost wolf corpses roam the surface but caravan guards clear them out each time along with the 1 or 2 migrants that dont quite avoid them.

While a poster above is right that you can keep food from roting in a stockpile without containers you still have an issue with vermin eating the food.  with no cats to contain them your best bet is to try to get pots first or you'll still loose half the pack animal before you can find pots.

[edgefigaro]

Gota say I saw you mention this chalange on the questions board and gave it a try.  Definatly fun, both the real world and the DF world definitions of the word.  Had my first one spiral out of control due to the skin of my first butchered pack animal deciding to reanimate 2 steps after butchering was done, the dwarf didnt even have time to move before things got messy.

Second one sadly died of dehydration.  Embark said glacier, terrifying, aquifer but I couldnt find the aquifer.  after initial probes failed I dug down to the caverns in desperation, they were dry and I couldnt get any of the plants down there brewed fast enough to save the first dwarf, who proceeded to kill the rest.  Shortly before the fort died I did a DF hack reveal and found there was an aquifer, a small 20 tile or so section off in the middle of the NW quadrant of my embark.   single biome embark as well so not sure what was up with that one.

3rd one is up to the second dwarven caravan now.  7 layer deep aquifer this time but there was a very thick vein of kaolinite runing through it.  Took a bit of clearing to follow it all the way down without risking a flood but got down there.  Somehow missed layer 1 of caverns and found layer 2.  that ones too hazardis atm to do anything with so I used the aquifer and a bucket brigade to get a farm going, first caravan brought in enough wood and plump helmets to get that going.   Sadly this embark seems relitively tame, its reanimating but nothing else.  some frost wolf corpses roam the surface but caravan guards clear them out each time along with the 1 or 2 migrants that dont quite avoid them.

While a poster above is right that you can keep food from roting in a stockpile without containers you still have an issue with vermin eating the food.  with no cats to contain them your best bet is to try to get pots first or you'll still loose half the pack animal before you can find pots.

If you are in a glacier, you can cave in a chunk of ice to make water. 

[Merendel]

ya I've done that before but by the time I realized that was my only option it was far too late to do that.  I was expecting to find the aquifer for easy water.   when that faild I figured that the cavern was the next easiest option.  by the time that faild I was only a few days from Urist Mc'Parchedlips has died.  no matter current fort is doing well but this may be the last migrant wave that makes it inside mostly intact.    the surface undead have semed mostly unintrested in geting inside my fort and mostly mill around on the surface.   I loose a migrant or two each wave as they chase the first one they see around the map while the others dash for the doors.   unfortunatly theres about 20 dead migrants up there now and the gauntlet is probably a smidge too much.

on the bright side up to 100ish beards, the food and booze are flowing and construction is well underway on the new magma forge level.   On the down side half of those beards are from this migrant wave and now I've got to expand the dorms and figure out something for them to do.  Probably going to build a pump gym in the next season or two to keep em busy and not partieing till I'm ready to outfit a military.  I'm also not too thrilled by that cat that showed up as a pet.  its a female too so thats just asking for trouble if a male wanders in with another wave long enough to knock her up.

[WanderingKid]

Gota say I saw you mention this chalange on the questions board and gave it a try.  Definatly fun, both the real world and the DF world definitions of the word.

Awesome! 

3rd one is up to the second dwarven caravan now.  7 layer deep aquifer this time but there was a very thick vein of kaolinite runing through it.  Took a bit of clearing to follow it all the way down without risking a flood but got down there.

Caution is sometimes a dwarf's best friend.

Sadly this embark seems relitively tame, its reanimating but nothing else.  some frost wolf corpses roam the surface but caravan guards clear them out each time along with the 1 or 2 migrants that dont quite avoid them.

If you want an embark that's going to seriously test your ability, check out the save that edgefigaro provided earlier in this thread.  That Tundra's a real threat.

Just found the caverns on that world, and got the thing recorded. Going to add audio and hopefully upload.  Embark shows alot of promise, I got a bridge over the freeze drill site and a wall so I have access to the above-the-aquifer area of the fort.  All seven dwarves are healthy, and I hope to have booze soon.

Next step is getting the caverns fortified, though, it may be better just to carve out a huge swath of area next to the surface so trees can grow.  There is water in caverns-one that will make my area easily defensible.

I may be able to get a caravan airlock made before fall.

My jealousy knows no bounds.  I'm sending Stez over to you to discuss your prosperity. 

Beware Giant Olms and Cave crocs if you're going to depend on water as walls.  It's a surprise waiting to happen.

[WanderingKid]

Okay, this is highly annoying.

Has anyone had any issues seeing the annotations in youtube?  Speech bubbles, notes, etc?

I can't seem to get them to be visible outside the annotation option after upload for any of my accounts.  I want to make sure it's just my machine.  I've tried in IE and Chrome to make sure that it's not software specific.

[WanderingKid]

Just an update on FurnaceClans.

It's mid-winter, year 3.  Migrants have stopped coming.  Merchants have stopped coming.  Liasons... have stopped coming.

The fort is stabilizing.  The second set of merchants came in, got slaughtered, and the majority of their goods were also gopher-holed, similar to the first caravans.  Our 9 dwarves are between happy and ecstatic in joy levels, so no spirals in the near future.  We got rock nuts so I'll be able to (eventually) get some soap together.  The cistern/waterfall is still on hold while I dig out the undead trap.  Currently we're punching the aquifer in a different location using doubleslit that I'll seal off the entryway from the main fort and try to create a weapontrap walk that'll force dodging into what I hope will be a water collection system to drop the undead on top of each other in a giant hole somewhere off in the corner of nowhere... never to be heard from again.

Tempted to create a lever somewhere that would release them all as a form of home-made HFS for adventurers, but we'll see.

There is, however, nothing 'interesting' nor 'dangerous' right now though, so I haven't felt the need to film things.  I was creating a tutorial for doubleslit but my hard-drive started having space issues so I spent a day cleaning things out, doing a checkdisk on the drive, things like that.  Once I layout the "Surface Hostile Obnoxious Organizer" trap (SHOO) I'll bring you in, but I need to get the aquifer punched and figure out exactly how I plan to do this.

Meanwhile, my dwarves are... partying.  Well, maybe some lovers will get married with some downtime, who knows.  We need BABIES!

[Merendel]

If you want an embark that's going to seriously test your ability, check out the save that edgefigaro provided earlier in this thread.  That Tundra's a real threat.

I'll check it out.  downloading now  My fort got alot more intresting once a siege showed up and a bunch of them died.  had to lock a caravan in my depot and abandon my upper level because I couldnt let them out.  It puttered along very nicely for another year till it tantrum spiraled due to a stupid mistake on my part... I forgot to setup a cloths industry.   Sad thing is I had plenty of pig tails by that point but by the time I'd realized I'd forgoten I couldnt proccess clothes quick enough to save the first few dwarves and things went progresively downhill from there.

In other news I love the name generator.  I just realized as things were dieing that Leromozsit translated into Pantcrabs and the group embarked under the name "The Tender Sack".  The even more ironic thing was that a lack of pants led to the downfall of the fort. I should have taken the civilization "The thin ashen rags" as a warning.

edit:
good lord that things a pain particularly on a 2x2.  took 4 trys to get underground simply due to RNG.  dispite the same steps each time first 2 had a flyby before my designated miner even had a chance to grab the pick and the 3rd failed because my miner was a moron.   2 dwarves and one animal got scared off but everything else was underground I was building the wall to lock the others outside... and the miner finished his designation and ran backoutside in contradiction of the burrow and meeting zone just a few steps before the wall finished.  that level of stupidity proved he was not much of a loss but did he have to take the pick with him?

update 2
Well I got underground, got small base going. turns out this embark has a thin aquifer only 2-3 layers thick and it does not cover the whole map. found a way around the thing so got down to the caverns without issue.   I got even luckier when the first bunch of migrants arived there was only 1 raven corpse up top so I quickly punched a hole out long enough for them to run in, all but 1 made it.  He got a very nice slab for his sacrifice, 12 workers ftw. on less fortunate news this is a very mineral scarce embark.  I've got gold, some gems, and a whole lot of rock and jack squat else.   Cheated out of curiosity and DFhack prospect all came back with only gold and candy... darn. that will make new picks... interesting to acquire.  going to see if I cant make a realitively safe path for the caravans to enter from some time when there are no flying critters up top cause I'm going to need them.  it just turned autum and my miner is on break so this could be close.

update 3: well look at that wave 2 was the max 10 migrants.  Even more shocking 6 of them even survived to get inside.  They a smidge shell shocked but I'm going to need all the warm bodies I can get eventualy. 4 more slabs honoring the valiant migrants comeing right up.  Got the main part of the depot up but we'll have to see if the bridge gets linked up in time for me to open it for the caravan.  caravan guards will hopefuly be able to take on whats up there on the surface.

[edgefigaro]

update 2
Well I got underground, got small base going. turns out this embark has a thin aquifer only 2-3 layers thick and it does not cover the whole map. found a way around the thing so got down to the caverns without issue.   I got even luckier when the first bunch of migrants arived there was only 1 raven corpse up top so I quickly punched a hole out long enough for them to run in, all but 1 made it.  He got a very nice slab for his sacrifice, 12 workers ftw. on less fortunate news this is a very mineral scarce embark.  I've got gold, some gems, and a whole lot of rock and jack squat else.   Cheated out of curiosity and DFhack prospect all came back with only gold and candy... darn. that will make new picks... interesting to acquire.  going to see if I cant make a realitively safe path for the caravans to enter from some time when there are no flying critters up top cause I'm going to need them.  it just turned autum and my miner is on break so this could be close.

Psh. Choose a new embark location if you are sneaking around the aquifer.  The aquifer challenge isn't "pick an embark location that has a partial aquifer."

And yes, I was hoping for a thicker aquifer. What are you going to do? 

[WanderingKid]

Strange.  My embark seems to have a crapload of magnetite through it.  Enough iron that I'm basically not worried at all, especially since I also have marble to make steel with if I choose.

I've just finished the double-slit aquifer.  Made all the more interesting by my masons and whatnot running off to help the harvests while I kept un-canceling.  Used to doing double-slits much earlier in a fort's life.  In a facepalm, I should have burrowed the mason into the double-slit until the walls were completed.

I'm now toying with a number of different trap approaches, and have tested a design in another fort to have bridges (read: Atom smashers) cycle every 210 tics or so with a single roller of power so I can get an atomsmasher into the minecart mauler system if I go that route.  ITG brought up an idea though, but I don't know how well (or if) it functions... I'm not sure that undead will path through magma.

However, there are ways to find out... and that's my next test fort. !!Undead pathing Science!!... for once, literally.  Not sure I have any other active forts in undead biomes at the moment, I'll need to confirm.

Reading the above from Edge and Merendel, I'm feeling a bit miffed about Stez just pwning the surface for so long on me.  Sorry, a titan that early just isn't !FUN!.  On the flipside, under other circumstances I would have tossed the fort in annoyance, but I'm invested pretty deeply in this one now, and I've never felt quite so attached to a handful of dwarves.

So!  It's not that I've thrown away FurnaceClans, nor that I'm not going to continue the youtube review of the fort.  There was a TON of micromanagement crap, doubleslit job cancellation reinstatements, purposely idling the dwarves so my lovers would all get married, and harvesting plants to build up food, booze, and cloth reserves.

Also, a few badly failed attempts to breach the surface.  Apparently my dwarves can see for ~20 boxes... and there's an undead within that range... everywhere.  We're up to 80 surface undead now.  I'll show you those too.  Sorry for the delays, but I needed to do some testing on some things... and I needed to play a bit of fort that I could just relax and not get frustrated at the dozen little things for a bit.  I'm almost ready to get back into it.  I expect I'll post a new video Wednesday or so once I check a few more anti-undead methods.

[WanderingKid]

Tussok,

Have you successfully had dump zones (not pits, dump zones) work through a hatch?  I've tried it twice in two forts now and anything dumped at a hatch sits on the top of the hatch, and doesn't go down.  Good guard dog, good.  Kill the bad evil skin.

[Merendel]

Psh. Choose a new embark location if you are sneaking around the aquifer.  The aquifer challenge isn't "pick an embark location that has a partial aquifer."

And yes, I was hoping for a thicker aquifer. What are you going to do?

Meh I'm going to run with it for now  I'll move over a ways for the next fort once this one inevitably goes to hell (considering I need candy for anything weapons grade thats literal)  I figure the ease of geting through the aquifer is offset by the fact that no way in hell are any migrants/caravans geting to me any time soon considering whats up there and this is the most mineral poor map I've seen in a while.

had a caravan show up right as I was useing the bridge to the depot to atomsmash some zombies.  figures that the wagons would turn away while the bridge was up.  Guards and the pack animal traders were slaughterd.  Spent a whole season agonizing over the anvil on that corpse.

Built a setup to goferhole that pile of supplies. Punch through to the surface and then lock the door so no undead notice. my grand plan of controlled cavein fizzled I guess that constructed wall suported from the ceiling.  I waited out the flyers and was about to send out a brave sacrifice volunteer to deconstruct the ramp when

The Desert Titan Dak Katakginuk Mes As has come!  A towering Three-eyed cricket.  It has lacy wings and moves deliberately.  beware its poisonous bight!

...Its still the first bloody winter and I've got jack all in fortress wealth whats he doing here?  Better yet whats he doing up in a tundra miles from the desert? :/  Had to quickly build a wall because a forbidden door was all that stood between him and the fort.  he wrecked the door then I had the bright idea of opening up my trade depot.  I figured the bridge couldnt smash him but at least I could lock him in while he worked on the depot.  Intrestingly deconstructing a wall so I could go remove that ramp teleported all the stuff to that spot.  score blocked off that opening agian and right now am hauling all this loot in to where my dwarves are staying.  Yes even that lovely anvil.  And because I had the forthought to slap a food stockpile designation theres still some unrotten food left

Oh and apparently there is cursed dust on the surface of my map just in case things were not intresting enough up there.  not quite sure what it does but I'm sure I'll find out eventualy.

[WanderingKid]

The Desert Titan Dak Katakginuk Mes As has come!  A towering Three-eyed cricket.  It has lacy wings and moves deliberately.  beware its poisonous bight!

...Its still the first bloody winter and I've got jack all in fortress wealth whats he doing here?  Better yet whats he doing up in a tundra miles from the desert? :/  Had to quickly build a wall because a forbidden door was all that stood between him and the fort.  he wrecked the door then I had the bright idea of opening up my trade depot.  I figured the bridge couldnt smash him but at least I could lock him in while he worked on the depot.  Intrestingly deconstructing a wall so I could go remove that ramp teleported all the stuff to that spot.  score blocked off that opening agian and right now am hauling all this loot in to where my dwarves are staying.  Yes even that lovely anvil.  And because I had the forthought to slap a food stockpile designation theres still some unrotten food left

I feel your pain.  Stez was a Savannah Titan who arrived early summer... roaming the Tundra.  At least you got some migrants in. Mine got webbed on arrival.     You got a flier, I got a webber.  That should be interesting.  Is your trade depot underground?  If so, very nice trap. 

I've also got the teleportion bug fixed in my version so that wasn't an option.     Nice bonus, though.