I had a small stairway built to a height above the lip of the volcano that would prevent splashback setting anyone on fire, hopefully. This would also prove to be a useful way to get rid of the vast majority of things we had no use for, like old clothes, rotten produce and prisoners.
You're kidding me, right? Withered plants disappear on their own, and aren't worth tossing. Meat/cheese/eggs should be stored in a food stockpile at all times anyways, where they won't decay- and will also disappear in the rare instance they do manage to rot (so aren't worth exposing our Dwarves to Goblin archer fire as the current set-up you've built does...) And prisoners have an EXCELLENT use- just find a way to safely dump them down into the caverns, and let them duke it out for their lives with the Forgotten Beasts there...
Old clothes shouldn't be destroyed either. Quantum Stockpile them near the main gate, and trade them to the first trade depot to make it inside the fortress... Saves on labor vs. having to create entirely new trade goods later on.
My next worrying discovery was that everyone in the fortress was apparently assigned to three or four skilled labours each, resulting in jobs being done slowly and poorly. There wasn't really much I could do about this other than on a case by case basis when I ran into dwarves in the hallway. I guess I needed some therapy to do group oration.
Labors are spread thin intentionally, for two EXCELLENT reasons:
(1) It minimizes the chance of a dwarf sitting idle. Not only does this give them the chance to make friends- which puts the whole fortress at greater risk of a tantrum spiral- it also will eventually represent increased productivity if they manage to live long enough to attain a high degree of mastery in their 3-4 skills.
(2) It reduces the damage to the fortress if any individual dwarf is lost. Except for a couple highly-specialized professions like metalworking and medicine (which you'll notice there are relatively few dwarves assigned to) where skill level is the most important factor, generally a short-term loss of quality/speed is worth the long-term protection against "putting all your eggs in one basket"- especially when that basket happens to be an explosively-unstable, booze-soaked one with a long beard...
Our new POW handling initiative:[/i]
Once again,
bad idea. You don't want to risk Dwarven lives so soon after the last tantrum spiral, do you? The current strategy needlessly exposes Dwarves to Goblin archers (and spotting goblins and running off the wall into the lava in a panic- which apparently is still not fully fixed yet). Just designate some more cage/animal stockpiles, forge some more green glass cages ("aquariums"), and store up the prisoners until you can find a way to feed the prisoners to the Forgotten Beasts (they even might do some damage to the beasts if you don't disarm them first).
And demolish that darn staircase over the volcano lip.As Hematite continued, we found an engraver by the name of Momuz Thobibel dead of dehydration. I could only assume that he was refusing to drink, as we had both water and alcohol on offer. Shortly after this, I made a somewhat controversial descision. Owing to there only being one person in our militia, and few dwarves with any military training, I added some of the miners we had lying around to the ranks. They proved to be... effective in a training exercise.
The problem is that there is still relatively little booze compared to the population, and few buckets to draw water. If all the available barrels/pots/buckets are currently being used, the dwarf will cancel his/her "drink" job and go do something else rather than wait for a turn. I suggest replanting the farms (the infrastructure got badly damaged during the tantrum spiral, and I demolished what was left so we could select a better farming area elsewhere) before the booze runs out completely, and brewing up a bunch more booze...
And, like I said, get rid of that staircase. I've suggested superior alternative uses for the clothes and prisoners. The rotten food doesn't really matter- dump it in the indoor (but aboveground) refuse stockpile if you have to (and it's not in a pot/bag/barrel- which will be damaged by the refuse stockpile).
If you want a direction for future growth/expansion, I *strongly* suggest constructing (out of earthenware bricks) some new luxurious bedrooms in the above-ground section of the fortress. Build up rather than out or down. Cave-adaptation already proved to be a MAJOR issue during the last siege- and was one of the main reasons the crossbow militia turned on the civilians (they had spent years training underground, never seeing the light of day, and were quite nauseated by the light). We are also short of housing, as I decided to drastically reduce housing density in order to improve housing quality. There is a need for more Grand Bedrooms on the upper levels of the fort (placing gold and decorated-earthenware statues is an easy way to raise the quality level of constructed rooms)
Regards,
Northstar
P.S. See those red and blue boxes on the screenshot of the Troll being incinerated? Those are blueberry and cranberry bushes. Designate some dwarves to gather them (especially the ones just outside the walls, while it's still safe) when they reach the point in the seasons where they start presenting berries (examine them with "K" to see). They'll help you stretch the booze/food supplies until the farms can be replanted. I intentionally cleared large open areas and let them grow wild with grass/moss inside the walls- so that there would always be a safe backup booze/food supply for the fortress in times of trouble... (some of these areas also double as tree farms if the saplings will ever grow...)
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Topic: Dathateyo: 'The Ageless World' (0.40.16 Succession Game) - More Players Welcome! (Read 45490 times)