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[Bigheaded]

Aye.  Thanks for taking a turn and getting the save file posted Bigheaded!

So I think I might take over for a while (not necessarily 2 years, but probably longer until somebody wants a turn) unless somebody else already wants a turn?

Also, in other news, I *think* it's time to update the save file to 0.40.19, it's only been out for a couple weeks now!  I'll have to see about that if I take the next turn.


Regards,
Northstar

oops, forgot to say, already done the upgrade to .40.19.

There's no reason why you can't play a few months and if someone wants a turn to pass it over. Still not entirely sure about the defenses seeing that i again lost a marksdwarf due to his own idiocy (pretty sure he climbed as high as he could and jumped off). He was able to fire at the goblins though, so he wasnt trying to club them.

Other than that, we should be ok, could use some extra marksdwarves, seeing i kinda made a mess of the last lot (oops) and we have only 1 survivor and instead have melee.

Also worth considering adding more weapon traps, they literally killed more goblins than anything else. If traps could have names they'd have the middle, last and description of their names.

[Northstar1989]

oops, forgot to say, already done the upgrade to .40.19.

Great!  Did you make sure to update both the save file raws, and the version of DF+Ironhand?

There's no reason why you can't play a few months and if someone wants a turn to pass it over.

I actually meant more like I might play 5 or 6 years until somebody else took over.  I have no problem with slow+steady progress.  I have a lot of projects in mind that take time- such as a *drastic* expansion of the above-ground portions of the fort.  I also need to completely re-model some systems, such as the butchering system- which is currently rather slow+inefficient...

Still not entirely sure about the defenses seeing that i again lost a marksdwarf due to his own idiocy (pretty sure he climbed as high as he could and jumped off). He was able to fire at the goblins though, so he wasnt trying to club them.

I'll double-check for ways the Dwarves might be able to get out.  The best way to find those, though, is to wait for a siege and carefully watch the Marksdwarves in small time intervals (one-step if you're really fanatical) and see how they're getting out...

Other than that, we should be ok, could use some extra marksdwarves, seeing i kinda made a mess of the last lot (oops) and we have only 1 survivor and instead have melee.

Also worth considering adding more weapon traps, they literally killed more goblins than anything else. If traps could have names they'd have the middle, last and description of their names.

I'll keep that in mind.  It's probably best if we add another archery range closer to the surface, and drastically improve the traps system (I'm thinking of a retracting bridge that captures Goblins into a pit with all sorts of captured baddies from the Caverns, or that encases them in ice...)


Regards,
Northstar

[Bigheaded]

yes i updated both. All the best. Looking forward to seeing what you can do with it.

[Amperzand]

So, what's the fort position on semicheaty projects? 'Cause I, for one, think a Dwarven Childcare would... Help our military greatly.

[Bigheaded]

So, what's the fort position on semicheaty projects? 'Cause I, for one, think a Dwarven Childcare would... Help our military greatly.

Basically what i did to the military was "slightly cheaty", i.e put a few sets of 2 training and in fact, i set orders for them to train in "minimum of pairs" 5 times on larger squads.
I don't think item drop training is really required when you have 6 dwarves whom have basically maxed out physical attributes. With a couple more in training. 2 of which being legendary in weapons, fighting, blocking, armor, dodging... you get the idea. I was going to get you to 1v1 the cyclops but i wanted to look at my own fort and got attacked by goblins when i was trying to finish up.
Use the file and have a look how ridiculous your stats are lol

To be fair, if you take a turn, basically do what you feel is best to do, for example i cleared the map of 10,000 items (mostly cave spider silk webs) to improve the FPS from 16 to 30 odd. This basically IS cheating, but i don't think anyone really wants to play in a FPS death fortress and I might even be asked to do it again (should it be needed!)

With the fort as it is, i would say it was pretty noob friendly, the hotkeys i've added shows the main few areas to keep an eye on. After Northstar looks into the Marskdwarf situation, should be good to go for literally anyone.
Personally i quite like a mess to clean up anyway, a fort gets a bit boring, even with mass goblin attacks, if there's no actual serious threat, unless it has a purpose.

I'll take another turn in like a month or so, to see how it's getting along

[Amperzand]

I have been improving with Fort Mode, but if FPS is a problem for anyone with a computer made after 2005, I will run it at maybe two frames a minute.

[Bigheaded]

I have been improving with Fort Mode, but if FPS is a problem for anyone with a computer made after 2005, I will run it at maybe two frames a minute.

think it's more to do with the programs limitations rather than anything else. I wouldnt imagine that been any particular issue. If it is, then i can look into removing more "excess stuff".

Would be nice to see a few new players join the wagon too

[Northstar1989]

You're free to take a turn if you want Amperzand.  I haven't actually loaded up the save *yet*- I got a little distracted with real life (for instance, I just signed up with a temp agency due to my inability to find any long-term jobs on my own...)


Bigheaded, I'm glad you enjoy cleaning up messes, because I certainly don't.  I share Taupe's propensity for OCD levels of neatness and organization, and much prefer a smoothly-running fort to any level of chaos.  While I am *capable* of saving a fort on the brink of disaster (in fact, quite skilled at it), the temptation for me is just to "let it burn"- I don't like all the effort that is required to pull things from the brink...

That's why I advise you guys to be so cautious- I don't WANT to see the fort burn, but I also don't want to have to deal with a crisis.


As for larger purposes, I've always envisioned this fort as a sort of "grand capital" for the (renewed) Dwarven empire.  High walls.  Towers reaching up to the clouds.  Sprawling farms and pastures.  Huge amounts of above-ground living space.  My goal for this fort is to take over the surface, rather than to colonize the underground.  Why?  Because I want to give those darn Goblins something to gawk at, while they get slaughtered by hails of crossbow and ballistae bolts...


Regards,
Northstar

P.S.  *Eventually* I want to retire this fort and establish a string of other smaller forts to expand the Dwarven empire.  However that needs to wait until defenders have a bit better odds of fighting off invasions- or that will just lead the fort to falling to Goblins that march across the entire world to reach us.  Speaking of which- I really want to go back and reclaim that earlier trading post in this world from the Gobbo's in Adventure Mode at some point... (basically- walk inside and kill the Goblin leader, declaring the fort as part of the Dwarven empire- by declaring allegiance to a member of our civ before doing so...)

[Amperzand]

For now, I truly feel I am inept enough to be less than useful, but my succession of doomed-but-amusing practice forts is certainly helping, so within the next few months I may get much better.

[Northstar1989]

For now, I truly feel I am inept enough to be less than useful, but my succession of doomed-but-amusing practice forts is certainly helping, so within the next few months I may get much better.

Well, I look forward to when you feel ready to take a turn!


In the meantime, Bigheaded, I noticed you uploaded the fortress save as a .RAR file.  Please try and upload .zip files in the future- a wider variety of compression utilities can unpack those, and it makes me feel more comfortable with what I'm downloading...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

I downloaded the fort, and have been playing it for a while...

Great job overall Bigheaded!  There were a couple things that bugged me, though:



First of all, the Caverns still were not secure.



Second, pigs were still trampling saplings in one of the Tree Farms



Third, somebody cooked/pressed all our Rock Nuts!  Was that you?



Some of the walls were made out of Clay.  Why?  We had perfectly good Magma Kils available to bake that clay into bricks, and Earthenware Bricks are actually much lighter to haul and quicker to build with than Clay.  They also don't allow easy handholds for climbers like rough walls do...



Oh, and there were also new Butcher Shops underground (or somebody else added them, and I didn't notice them before).  Generally NOT a good idea, as this will lead to the production of Miasma.  I ordered their deconstruction, and continued work on improving the above-ground portions of the fortress to make more room for our meat industry...


Overall, though, great job!  It looks like the fortress was in a fine state of operation when I took over.


Oh, by the way, I found where the Gobbo's/Trolls were getting in, and the Marksdwarves getting out.  It was through a hole right in the middle of the shooting gallery floor that I pointed out to previous overseers ages and ages ago.  Apparently, nobody had ever bothered to fix it...  I don't blame you for not knowing about it- although I suggest carefully inspecting the fortress for yourself when you see odd behavior like Dwarves seemingly walking through the walls in the future, because it's more likely you missed something...



Now, on to my update...


Regards,
Northstar

[Northstar1989]

You guys will have to forgive me for the relative lack of roleplay in this update- I'm tired, and want to get on to other games...


My first orders of business, were to secure the caverns and close the hole in the shooting gallery floor:







Shortly after that, a nasty-looking FLYING Forgotten Beast arrived (it would later make mince-meat out of Voracious Cave Crawlers and some wild Trolls wandering the caverns- it certainly would have been a threat to our Dwarves).  Good thing I secured the Caverns early on!



We also got a Ghostly Wrestler wandering around somehow.  I wasn't sure how this happened, as the catacombs had plenty of empty coffins- but then I noticed a steel shield, pick, and helmet in one of the magma channels for the Magma Kilns.  It looks like he died ages ago by falling into the lava, leaving no corpse to bury...  I started production of a slab for memorializing him, but even as of the end of my play session didn't get around to it...  He's little more than a Restless Haunt, so somebody else should find a spot for the slab in some Noble's bedroom (to add to room value) at their leisure...



We also got a Dwarf claiming a workshop!  We actually got several of these (3 in the course of a few game-months), but the first one had me rather excited...



As the Dwarf worked on his artifact (and I micro-managed making sure he had the available supplies, and forbid/unforbid various components to increase the amount of materials used in the hopes of getting something more interesting than a piece of glass jewelery) the Dwarves put the finishing touches on securing the Caverns with a second wall so that, even if a Forgotten Beast glitched through the newly-placed floors, he'd still end up in a small 3x3 room with no way into the fortress.  The Dwarves then promptly held a party!



I also got to work at this point on replacing the Clay boulder walls with proper Earthenware Brick walls...



Soon after, my Glassmaker began construction on his artifact!  Due to a quirk of the order in which I forbid/unforbid items he was using, he actually began work on the artifact (at a Glass Furnace, and his highest moodable skill being Glassmaker) without any glass gems tasked.  This led to some interesting results, as you soon shall see....





Yes, that's right, he made an Iron Flask!  At a Glass Forge!  Somehow, he superheated iron hot enough to blow it into a flask- or something like that...

It was also the most valuable artifact the fortress has EVER produced- partly due to the selection of cut gems used...





The next runner-up in value is the Artifact Steel Spear that was made early in the fortress' history...  Not bad for a mere Glassmaker- and unlike many of the other Finished Goods artifacts, this one can actually be used (to hold water/booze of military Dwarves).  That could make for one happy Militia Commander!  (or Adventurer, pillaging the ruins of the fortress someday...)

No sooner was the artifact complete than ANOTHER Forgotten Beast showed up!  This one was a fire-breathing Snail (try hacking through THAT shell without getting burned to a crisp!)  Boy I was glad I sealed the Caverns before!



A bunch of time then passed without much of particular interest occurring.  I continue work on adding another z-level to the fortress walls, and improving some of the buildings off the main courtyard (you guys DO realize we have some nice, spacious rooms topside, right?  They would make excellent bedrooms, workshops, or even just stockpiles...)

Some more migrants eventually arrived, though, despite the "Danger".  Not a bad thing, actually- we need to keep the Dwarven gene-pool sufficiently diverse that if the fort ends up having to close its gates permanently or getting retired, Dwarves can still find spouses and continue the fortress line... (they aren't allowed to marry any named relatives- include brothers, sisters, aunts/uncles, and first or second cousins)



Most of what happened of interest for a while after this point was a few Dwarves growing attached to their weapons and shields, and their acquiring names...







I think that names weapons and shields count as artifacts, and are tracked throughout world-generation (even with an active fortress or Adventurer) as long as they aren't destroyed, right?  So even if a Kobold ran off with one of the names Swords (perhaps with it embedded in his guts!), it would show up in his home Kobold cave, for instance...  I still don't know what would happen if an Adventurer died with an artifact on an unloaded location (such as a road) though...


Regardless, the fortress made it to Summer!  And with it, we started getting LOADS of ripening blueberries, cranberries, and bilberries (Bilberries are a close relative of Blueberries, with a similar taste and texture, by the way- the main differences are that they're a little sweeter and a LOT softer- which makes them difficult to commercially harvest and transport to distant cities in real life...)  The herbalists, and some loafers I assigned as herbalists, had a field day! (forgot to take a screenshot, of course)



Then, as my attention was mostly focused on herbalism and completing the additional z-level of fortress walls (good luck climbing over them NOW, Goblins!) a Child began work on another artifact:



Things were going well, and the Dwarves seemed quite content with my rule.  I guess that's part of why the Mayor got re-elected (OK, so I know it's REALLY just because he's still the biggest slacker with the most friends, but humor me will you?)



And finally, we got a second (or was it third?  I might have missed some little trinket) Artifact.  This one was just some worthless crown, though (boy I can't wait for when Magic is implemented, and these "useless" artifacts start actually doing something interesting...)




And then I played for a few more game-months, but nothing interesting happened.  I've become bored with Dwarf Fortress; and I'm off to go work on gigantic electromagnets, and launching little green men into the cosmos using them!  (or rather, I'm off to induce a supernova in my Kerbal Space Program save, and update to the newly-released Beta, and then see if my Mass Driver mod I originally forked off a dying mod with an open license has any new bugs in 0.90)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103511-WIP-0-90-Mass-Driver-Mod?p=1606733#post1606733


It might be a while until I make an appearance in Dwarf Fortress again, so here's the save to do whatever you want with.  I'm thinking about personally retiring this fortress anyways, and playing an "alternate history" timeline where I go off and establish other forts in the same world, or just starting a new world entirely (the changes to army combat have made it significantly less likely for the Goblins to drive the Dwarves and Humans to near-extinction like in this world), while occasionally checking back in here to make sure everything is running smoothly.  The sprawl and mess levels induced by other, less OCD overseers have simply become too much for me.  I prefer the life of a simple gentleman farmer/astronaut running a small fortified Villa to a giant, bustling, but infinitely complex succession fortress...


I'll have a DFFD file link to the fortress up *very* soon though.  Enjoy!

EDIT:  Here's the link!

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=10270


Regards,
Northstar

[Bigheaded]

Bumping this as there were still a few followers and i quite like it, i might consider taking a turn to hunt down all those FB's.

We are currently at 40.19. If you want a turn, it's currently open for takers. Can literally grab it and Post here saying "taking a turn" and go!
If FPS is awful, i can take a look and attempt to improve it.



Just a note: the marksdwarves were NOT getting out through that hole, i made that hole after a siege because getting a marksdwarf to line up in that gap was extremely difficult before with the strange room there. So that's partly my fault, but i had barely begun that operation before passing it to you and i "think" i mentioned it.
I'm somewhat sure the marksdwarves saw the goblins, headed to the roof and jumped off. Pretty weird.
Yes i made things out of clay, we had tonnes of it for no apparent reason and i had forgotten we could simply make bricks out of it.
Heck it took me 1 hour to remove a ridiculous number of clay artifacts someone decided to make for lolz.

Nice to see Amperzand eventually named his sword, was pretty sure he would seeing he killed a bunch with it

[Amperzand]

Yup. Well, it's too bad the fort seems to be in a decline...

[Northstar1989]

Yup. Well, it's too bad the fort seems to be in a decline...

In a decline, but not dead!


Actually, I'm playing in a small fortress of my own in the same world right now!  I'm hoping to eventually open the fort back up as a "Reclaim" or as a site for a community-adventuring game if anyone's interested...


Regards,
Northstar