Hello fellow dorfs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E15IC3YKv8gI've decided to share a megaproject that I've been working on since late December '12 (on and off). It was inspired by the infamous WhaleShoots (I can't seem to find a link to it, would be grateful if someone could point out where that thread is).
Here's the current save of the project for those interested in exploring the fort or using it to further !SCIENCE!
The savegame itselfDF map archiveIt isn't fully completed (need furnishing here and there, and I haven't decided what to do with HELL itself yet), but it's close enough.
The Idea;
When I started this fort, I had set myself a goal. Build a fort in the ocean itself! One capable of both providing for the population, and destroying it in one fell swoop.
To increase the challenge I found a 4 z-level ocean to initiate my build, though I must admit that I regret not doing this in a zombie infested biome to make things even harder.
Pump Ring Methood (failed);
The first thing that came to mind was to 'pump' the ocean away. "What a dwarven idea!" I thought. I dug through the aquifer to build myself a temporary base and started production of pump parts.
Things started turning sour once the second level had been completed after 6 in-game years of hard work though. Once I turned on the pumps of the second layer the water started behaving strangely. It was as if I had created a wall of water. The surfacewater slowly started to drain away and I was left with a towering wall of water surrounding my pump site before the game crashed completely.
It seems water pressure is not to be taken lightly
Obsidian Casting Methood (succeeded);
Since the pump ring was unable to breach the 4 z-level ocean I went to the forums and searched around for a solution. I found someone mentioning that it was possible to use obsidian casting for this purpose, so I decided to try it out.
Sadly I couldn't re-use the pumps I made for the pump ring as it was entirely made of wood, so it was back to the productionline with the dorfs.
The magma pump in itself would probably have been considered a megaproject. Towering 126 z-levels, made entirely out of glass. It took x in-game years to complete.
Thankfully I could use that time to build the obsidian cast over the ocean, so I was prepared once the pump was in action.
Building the cast, the pump and getting the obsidian cast took another 5 in-game years, making the total of 11 years so far. Once the obsidian had be cast, I deconstructed the cast and scaffolding (to reduce clutter of junk on the oceanfloor). Many a soul was lost to the waves in the process.
Then the obsidian was dropped into the ocean, and a tunnel dug underneath the cast. I had to empty the cast of water, so I dug a channel under the cast all the way down to the aquifer level. Then I dropped a constructed floor ontop the site to cause a cavein. The water was gone in an instant.
Now all that was left was building the fort itself.
Constuction of the Fort;
The fort has ever since been under construction, adapting to the needs of the fortress.
I decided to cast the fort itself out of pure obsidian as well, and to breach a 2-level aquifer with the entire fortress (using magma to breach the aquifer). The process of breaching the aquifer and building a tower of obsidian out of the ocean took 6 in-game years. Followed by another 5 years of producing floodgates to cover the outer surface of the fort completely.
Connecting the floodgates to the levers took eons, so I started using dfHack's 'fastdwarf' command to speed things up (still took a few in-game years to complete even with that on).
The fortress has a second layer of floodgates as well, this serves as sort of a fishing ground as the larger creatures that pass get caught in the cagetraps that encircle the entire thing between the two floodgate rings. So far, I've caught a few orcas and large sharks, all of which are in my animal stockpile.
Removing the Obsidian Cast;
Once the fort had been completed on the outside, it was time to 'drop' the cast. To do so, I had to channel a few z-levels underneath and dig a bit further out so that I could cave-in the cast into the aquifer levels below.
Side view (across z-levels):
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Then I built a new casts to drop into the remaining holes to smoothen out the ocean floor.
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Regaining Cavern Control After Decades of Neglegt;
During most of the project I had breached the lower two caves and sealed them up once the magma pump was complete and forgotten about them.
This was to bite me in the ass as megabeasts started piling up down there. So, once the fort itself was more or less secure I started pondering how to get rid of the beasts.
I built a giant room filled with cagetraps, thinking I could drop constructed floors on the (trapavoidant)beasts to make them unconcious and thus get caught in my trap.
As a backup, the z-level above was made such that I could place my marksdorfs there and slay them from a distance.
Needless to say, the beasts didn't get trapped. I got lucky though, as one of the beasts could shoot webs.
I didn't realize this, but once I opened another cage of kittens I saw that I had managed to capture a few beasts via WEBBED cages from the other megabeast.
This got me an idea to capture the beast and tame it for !SCIENCE!. Took a while, but eventually I managed to lure it into a spot where I could trap it.
Sadly I don't have any screenshots of this process, but you can see traces of it in the bottom cavern (in the save) where the beast still shoots webs at a dog, to be collected for fashionable forgotten beast silk fabrics.
Eventually I managed to clear that particular cavern with the webbed cage approach, and later catch a Giant Cave Spider which I could use to use this principle to capture the beasts of the second cavern.
Defeating the HFS (Webbing);
Of course, having captured a bunch of megabeasts via webbed cagetraps I thought I'd take on the HFS the same way! I used a Giant Cave Spider however as it was easier to transport than a un-capturable FB.
The clowncar was defeated! Some of the fire-based demons melted the cages around them though, so I didn't look at this as a very 'secure' win, but at least I could venture into hell itself after walling in the caged HFS.
Dorfs of Interest;
LimbStrong got his nickname after falling a great distance to his 'certain' death but surviving the fall and the heavy injuries. I dare say he's probably the most injured dorf I've ever managed to save.
Nearly all limbs were broken. I didn't think he would make it at all. He spent 2-3 years in the traction bench recovering from all the fractures, and immediately ran to my food stockpile upon recovering.
I had one interesting situation come up after a battle with a megabeast that slay a large portion of my swordsdorfs. The few that were still alive after getting hit by the dust were brought to the hospital, waiting for certain death. Or so it would have been if it weren't for a dorf holding a party, all of my injured milita rose from their beds, puking their guts out the entire way, trying to attend to the party. Sadly they all suffocated on the way there. It must have been one hell of a party to leave your deathbed to try to attend
Other than the usual goblin sieges and megabeasts I've had one kobold ambush and one zombiefied megabeast attack (which oddly enough resulted in no casualties).
I find it interesting that after I webbed so many megabeasts, I've noticed an increase of megabeasts appearing that are completely trap-avoidant (aka have the webbing ability themselves).
Some even have a different ability mentioned as their main one but still have webbing as a secondary (had a giant spider attack that had 'beware it's blood' property but still it could web.
This of course means my military has more !FUN!
The Fort's Diningroom (yes, that's caged HFS & FB's decorating an underwater diningroom);
Graveyard that I set up to honor the builders, built of glear glass and rose gold with platinum coffins encrusted with diamonds of the highest quality!;
Random Statistics;
Age of Fort: 35 years
Casualties of the Project: Around 60
Cage Traps used: 2469
Floodgates used: 1172
Floor Grates used: 419
Author
Topic: KeyWork of The Imprisoned Quakes - Taming the Ocean (Read 1868 times)