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[Northstar1989]

Edmus has contacted me to let me know he won't be able to take his turn on-time.  As such, the next turn falls to me.  I am downloading the save now.

I will have until 1:25 PM on September 16th Central Time (84 hours after Edmus sent his message) to upload my save.

Look for updates soon.


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Taupe, you really left the fortress with its pants down in your misguided attempts at expansion (there's a *reason* I advised dropping all the building materials over the walls BEFORE expanding, and using immigrant labor- you leave the fortress vulnerable for months at a time if you leave the main gate down and let Dwarves haul the building materials out block by block...  Speaking of which, use blocks, not boulders- boulders are MUCH heavier and the rough walls they make can be climbed by invaders...)

Here's what would happen *IF* I were to face the invaders head-on (there are over 70 of them who eventually appear on the map)

http://imgur.com/a/poMWy#0

The Goblins get slaughtered despite their enormous numerical superiority (with the militia under my careful management- no guarantees if a less skillful commander led them into battle), but they still manage to cause enough casualties to initiate a tantrum spiral...


Also, the previous overseers have MASSIVELY over-expanded the fort.  It took nearly an hour just for me to get familiar with it, and I built the main structure in the first place!  Most of the expansion was in the form of pointless mining tunnels.  There's no reason we needed to engage in so much mining, especially strip-mining, when we had an unlimited source of wealth from the volcano.  Also, past overseers saw the need to constantly make new expansions to the fortress instead of improving and renovating existing sections.... (such as the abandoned slum-housing which was never torn down)

Expect an alternate-reality update soon, with what will ACTUALLY happen, when I close the main gate and leave any Dwarves who don't make it inside on-time to their fate... (though I'll probably still draft them so they go down fighting)  The expansion plans will be abandoned until I can fine time to cook up a few hundred Earthenware bricks, and mass-dump them OVER the fortress walls rather than carrying them around from the stockpiles one at a time...


Finally, unbelievably, the booze shortage was quickly identified as having two causes.  The first was, as I pointed out earlier, previous overseers failing to manufacture any new large stone pots at the workshops.  The second was, unbelievably, neglect of the farming fields- more than half the acerage went unplanted at any given time (during that field's planting season) just so that Dwarves could spend all their time sparring in the military (as I've demonstrated, all that training turned out not to save the fortress in a pitched battle anyways) and digging out pointless mining tunnels for gold and gems... (crafting Earthenware goods would be a much more labor-efficient way of creating additional wealth- *IF* we needed it...)  This led to a plant shortage despite an abundance of seeds and unused farm tiles with queued plantings...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

My first REAL act as fortress overseer (the bit about a direct confrontation with the Goblins was just a "what if" timeline...) was to establish an alert to limit all civilians to inside the fortress and immediately activate it:



However hanks to *cough*, someone's use of boulders to build the walls instead of bricks (bricks are MUCH lighter), several of the Dwarves were moving back inside the walls at a snail's pace, as can be seen here (I hate to think how long it must have taken them to get out there in the first place...)  I couldn't seem to get them to drop the rocks at first- even forbidding them and making sure they have other jobs doesn't work.





Then I had a burst of insight when I noticed that some of the dwarves closer to the gate dropped their boulders as soon as they were inside it- MAYBE, I just needed to expand the burrow around the laggard dwarves' locations and they would drop the boulders where they stood.

And sure enough, it worked:



So, with all the dwarves safely inside the walls, I raised the gate:





Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

My next priority was to fix the glass furnaces, pastures, and other existing production infrastructure.

Some of you may not have noticed, but the only sand collection zones in the fortress have become overgrown with cave moss and underground tree saplings since the breaching of the caverns- preventing any further sand from being collected:




The logical/obvious preventative measure for this would have been to place grates on these tiles to prevent the growth of moss/saplings in the first place without impeding sand collection.  It wouldn't have been very difficult since grates could be made for free out of Green Glass right there at the Magma Glass Furnaces...

Other problems include the filling of the sand bag stockpile with green glass chests (clearly somebody didn't get that this was the intention of the stockpile) and the lack of non-magma glass furnaces to speed up sand collection...


As for the pastures- the problem was that they weren't in use.  Despite the presence of a number of large indoor/outdoor aboveground and underground pastures (the latter growing cave moss) we still had stray grazers randomly wandering around the fortress without an owner to feed them or a pasture to feed on- in short a ticking time-bomb of Miasma until they starve to death in some corner of the fort:



I quickly put THAT problem to rest:



Some of you may notice I've assigned several bunnies to the pasture near the Butcher's shop.  That's not a coincidence.  While having 5 or 6 rabbits hopping around the fortress now may SEEM cute, it won't be when we have a rabbit-splosion on our hands...  Admittedly, at least rabbits won't adopt owners on their own like cats, but we already have a breeding pair adopted by owners that I can't butcher- so I have no problem butchering their offspring...

We have other uses for that pasture land anyways, like herbalism to produce brewable plants for our lagging brewing industry... (grazing animals would trample some of the brewable wild-growing plants)




Regards,
Northstar

[DoctorMcTaalik]

Taupe, you really left the fortress with its pants down in your misguided attempts at expansion (there's a *reason* I advised dropping all the building materials over the walls BEFORE expanding, and using immigrant labor- you leave the fortress vulnerable for months at a time if you leave the main gate down and let Dwarves haul the building materials out block by block...  Speaking of which, use blocks, not boulders- boulders are MUCH heavier and the rough walls they make can be climbed by invaders...)

Here's what would happen *IF* I were to face the invaders head-on (there are over 70 of them who eventually appear on the map)

http://imgur.com/a/poMWy#0

The Goblins get slaughtered despite their enormous numerical superiority (with the militia under my careful management- no guarantees if a less skillful commander led them into battle), but they still manage to cause enough casualties to initiate a tantrum spiral...


Also, the previous overseers have MASSIVELY over-expanded the fort.  It took nearly an hour just for me to get familiar with it, and I built the main structure in the first place!  Most of the expansion was in the form of pointless mining tunnels.  There's no reason we needed to engage in so much mining, especially strip-mining, when we had an unlimited source of wealth from the volcano.  Also, past overseers saw the need to constantly make new expansions to the fortress instead of improving and renovating existing sections.... (such as the abandoned slum-housing which was never torn down)

Expect an alternate-reality update soon, with what will ACTUALLY happen, when I close the main gate and leave any Dwarves who don't make it inside on-time to their fate... (though I'll probably still draft them so they go down fighting)  The expansion plans will be abandoned until I can fine time to cook up a few hundred Earthenware bricks, and mass-dump them OVER the fortress walls rather than carrying them around from the stockpiles one at a time...


Finally, unbelievably, the booze shortage was quickly identified as having two causes.  The first was, as I pointed out earlier, previous overseers failing to manufacture any new large stone pots at the workshops.  The second was, unbelievably, neglect of the farming fields- more than half the acerage went unplanted at any given time (during that field's planting season) just so that Dwarves could spend all their time sparring in the military (as I've demonstrated, all that training turned out not to save the fortress in a pitched battle anyways) and digging out pointless mining tunnels for gold and gems... (crafting Earthenware goods would be a much more labor-efficient way of creating additional wealth- *IF* we needed it...)  This led to a plant shortage despite an abundance of seeds and unused farm tiles with queued plantings...


Regards,
Northstar

Yeah, the fortress is a mess underground. The amount of strip mining previous overseers have done is in insane; there are tunnels everywhere.

We have a lot of earthenware trade goods, and I highly recommend dumping them on the first merchant you see in exchange for all their vaguely edible wares. Just please refrain from selling the masterwork Moldath action figures. Those are mine, dammit.

(Also, there's a trader named. Kogan Bloodmountains. If you could dorf me as him, that would be great.)

[Northstar1989]

Yeah, the fortress is a mess underground. The amount of strip mining previous overseers have done is in insane; there are tunnels everywhere.

The strip mines irritate me to no end.  It's going to be a pain in the rear renovating that space into something useful.  But it needs to be done, even if it's just into stockpiles...

We have a lot of earthenware trade goods, and I highly recommend dumping them on the first merchant you see in exchange for all their vaguely edible wares. Just please refrain from selling the masterwork Moldath action figures. Those are mine, dammit.

No promises on that.  Trade goods are trade goods.  And besides, I don't know what's with this unhealthy obsession with the volcano deity Moldath when we have other perfectly good gods/goddesses.  What about Shin and Ethad, the Dwarven deities of Light and Forgiveness? (given the tendency of most succession forts to descend into Miasma and enraged random killings, which are the main mechanisms of tantrum-spirals, we could certainly use plenty of both...  Or at least a jail and plenty of light-shafts and aboveground living areas...)

(Also, there's a trader named. Kogan Bloodmountains. If you could dorf me as him, that would be great.)

Done.




Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

While starting to straighten up the production and industry of the fortress, I noticed something else interesting: a number of Dwarves were "fishing" somehow...




It turns out they were able to fish through the green glass grate covering the entrance to the flooded first cavern layer (the 1st layer is completely flooded, the 2nd is the one we breached at the beginning, and the 3rd hasn't been breached yet...)



Which gave me ideas about establishing an underground fishing industry...



(Watch this space for updates on the fishery)


Regards,
Northstar

[Taupe]

The main issue with ''forgiveness'' is it doesnt melt cyclops and goblins to a liquified mineral paste when they fall in it. It's true. I tried.

[Northstar1989]

The main issue with ''forgiveness'' is it doesnt melt cyclops and goblins to a liquified mineral paste when they fall in it. It's true. I tried.

I don't pretend to ignore the utility of magma to our fort- in fact if I have my way it will soon provide us with a renewable source of water much closer to the surface than the underground lake (which IS sourced from the edge of the map, and thus already provides us with an unlimited supply) if I have my way with establishing an Ice Farm in the upper fortress basement (more on that later, hopefully- I have many other things to get to first).

However a *BALANCED* fortress needs to pay attention to other avenues for improvement as well.  Like the digging of light shafts to prevent cave-adaptation (which a number of our dwarves have started to suffer from already) and create guaranteed Miasma-free zones, and the establishment of a penitentiary where dwarves might do penance and be forgiven of their crimes against the fortress (tantrums and random murders) after being given the chance to cool down and serve out their jail sentences to make their victims happier

As a side-note, in 0.40.x versions of Dwarf Fortress, being released from prison at the end of a sentence is one of the SINGLE HAPPIEST thoughts a dwarf can get (+1000 points)- much like how real life prisoners are often ecstatic to be released- so unlike in real life, in Dwarf Fortress a prisoner who doesn't go insane is likely to become a model citizen of the fortress and not cause any trouble for some time...

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Thought#Justice


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

Another area in obvious need of improvement was the archery range.  The first step in doing this was de-constructing the existing targets...



I'm afraid I'm probably to blame for this one- I didn't accurately describe how to build a bolt-recovering archery range before.  A proper range needs the channeled space BEHIND the targets, not in front of them.  Dwarves will actually refuse to shoot at a target if there isn't a straight walkable path to the target (but bolts that overshoot the target can be recovered with channeled space behind it...)

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Archery_target



I also decided to renovate the abandoned slum-housing from before into what will eventually form 4 large stockpiles (for wood, stone, and various knicknacks/gewgaws...)  You can never underestimate the value to a fortress of organization.



Beyond that, I've also begun hollowing out a space for a small underground fungal-tree farm in the soil layers (more on that later), and expanding some of the underground garden/pastures such as the one near the main gate:



Never forget that these gardens provide a minimal-effort source of food with a skilled herbalist: without having to manage seed stockpiles, planting/harvesting settings, or anything else these spaces provide free and reliable growth of various underground herbs such as sweet pods and plump helmets.  They also can serve as pasture for animals once we have something worth grazing- such as sheep (with a Ram we can start growing our sheep herd beyond the three mate-less Ewes we currently have...)


Last, but not least, I know I'm breaking my own rule about placing images in spoiler tags for these posts.  I apologize.  I'll go back and enclose them later...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

4th Hematite, 257 (all previous entries were 1-3 Hematite, my term beginning on the 1st)

It seems that a couple unlucky goblins wandering around outside the Main Gate managed to stumble upon some of our weapon traps.  One of the spotters reported a Giant Serrated Copper Disk tore clear through a Recruit's belly, and that the goblin now looks rather sick...  I hope he barfs all over his companions- maybe that will get the vile creatures to leave Pagetower alone so the next migrant wave can begin establishing a town to the south of the main fortress in peace.






Our masons reported leaving behind all the materials needed to establish a fresh fortress there before leaving earlier- stone boulders (both loose and in the partially-built walls), fuel (both coal coke and charcoal), wood, and even weapons-grade metal bars (silver and steel).  All the migrants would need is a long enough peace to finish the perimeter wall, and some seeds from the scattering of wild blueberries growing outside for farming...



You can also catch a glimpse of the beginning of the underground tree farm I am hollowing out at the top of the screen here.  My first step was to dig out a few tunnels to confirm the soil layers go enough z-layers down for my purposes at that location...


6th Hematite

More and more Goblins wander onto the weapon traps.  The traps even managed to make short work of a cave troll the goblins had with them...





17th Hematite, 257

There are Crundles everywhere.  Crundles in the nest box zones.  Crundles in the corridors.  Crundles in the stairwells.  The other day I was about to sit down to take a dump, and guess what crawled up out of nowhere?  A Crundle.

As such, I've began putting Pagetower's butchers to good use solving the problem.  I call it the Crundle Organ Liberation program... (into tastes +Crundle Brain Roasts+)  The idea is to slaughter the least-tame Crundles before they end up going wild...  The more tame ones will eventually give birth to a new generation that will hopefully be a little easier to manage...





2nd Malachite, 257

We're starting to make a dent in the Crundle population, but the other dwarves seem incredibly lackadaisical to haul them up to the Butcher Shop.  Personally, I'd be herding them up there en-masse if it were my job.  I'm sure we'll get the job done eventually though...



Oh, and did I mention the Magma Glass Forges are back up-and-running? (the grates protect the sand-collection zones from further grass growth)  Now I just need to find the time to expand the glass forge facilities with a couple traditional furnaces to aid in sand-processing...



The tree farm is also complete- 3 Urists tall and more than twice the size of the dining hall.  Yet the botanists tell me that 3 Urists is only the height of the absolute shortest fungal trees they've spotted growing in the caverns (mostly the stunted varieties in the flooded layer).  So only time will tell if trees will grow, or if we will need to dig it another Urist or two taller.  Also, do fungal trees have roots?  I know the surface varieties do, but some of the botanists have raised this question when trying to decide if we needed to leave soil underneath the trees for their roots to grow in...


Regards,
Northstar

P.S.  I've decided on a good use for them, but *why* exactly were there silver and steel bars just sitting around by the construction site on the south side of the main fortress Taupe?

P.P.S.  For those of you who didn't notice the change in title, I updated the game to 0.40.12 before loading up the save.  Don't worry, I made sure to replace the raws in the save files with the new ones for DF+Ironhand 0.40.12A, so there shouldn't be any issues- and I haven't noticed any yet...

[Taupe]

...Oh, THAT, hum....

Well, y'see, I told the dwarves to build the wall using stone. We had a thousand of it or so from all those endless tunnels anyway. But for some sections of the wall, instead of using the previous material, the game decied to put a random material at the top of the list. I didnt notice until it was too late, so I had the dwarves deconstruct the random parts and I had to scroll at random places in the list every time to tell them to use fucking stone one boulder at a time. They were on their way to gather the random metals, but a Cyclop appeared and suddenly our haulers lost interest in picking up silver bars.

An honest mistake, really.

[DoctorMcTaalik]

I'm relieved you decided to deal with the crundles. The little heathen critters were growing out of control.

I know you don't put much value in stupid dwarf projects, Northstar, but with minimal effort those tunnels could be converted into some say, some  practical catacombs, or maybe a big labyrinth.

Hell, we could stick the cyclops in the middle if we went for the latter (as long as you chained him up, that is). Maybe even drop some crundles down there on occasion, for the war god Enam.

[Northstar1989]

Well, y'see, I told the dwarves to build the wall using stone. We had a thousand of it or so from all those endless tunnels anyway.

You do realize the fortress Masons could have turned those boulders into stone blocks/bricks, right?  They would have been MUCH lighter/quicker to haul that way, would have used 1/4th as many stone boulders for the same length of wall (waste not, want not), quicker to construct once in place, and wouldn't confound the Stocks screen as to how many stone boulders we had in the fort of each type...  (this is an important consideration for players like me who rely heavily on the Stocks screen)

But for some sections of the wall, instead of using the previous material, the game decied to put a random material at the top of the list. I didnt notice until it was too late, so I had the dwarves deconstruct the random parts and I had to scroll at random places in the list every time to tell them to use fucking stone one boulder at a time. They were on their way to gather the random metals, but a Cyclop appeared and suddenly our haulers lost interest in picking up silver bars.

An honest mistake, really.

I see.  Don't worry about the metal bars- I found a use for them anyways. 

You *do* realize you can designate long lines of wall to be built rather than one tile at a time though (using u/m and k/h) right?


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

I'm relieved you decided to deal with the crundles. The little heathen critters were growing out of control.

I know you don't put much value in stupid dwarf projects, Northstar, but with minimal effort those tunnels could be converted into some say, some  practical catacombs, or maybe a big labyrinth.

Hell, we could stick the cyclops in the middle if we went for the latter (as long as you chained him up, that is). Maybe even drop some crundles down there on occasion, for the war god Enam.

The Crundle problem isn't over yet.  We've still got a bunch more of the little buggers to butcher (I'm going to leave just the most tame ones), and especially with the invaders present, the framerate is dragging...  We've also got budding kitten, bunny, piglet, and even puppy problems...  The butchers and meat haulers are going to be BUSY tonight...

Given the current FPS, I'm worried even I might not be able to finish 2 years in the time allotted.  So I have no choice but to request a special extension to deal with the livestock population-explosions and the plummeting framerates in order to finish...


Regards,
Northstar