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Voting closed: August 21, 2015, 01:45:24 am

[Urist McKiwi]

So my basic plan for this year is to seal off the fort (yes, there's stuff out there we can use....but eh, I don't want to get us caught-out by a siege and slaughtered), and start work on a few engineering projects. These will disrupt previous works by the last two overseers....but since no one's done anything big yet, I'm gonna have some fun.....with water wheels.


Basically, we have a stream/river coming in from the eastern side of the fort. I'm gonna divert it (or at the very least, siphon water away from it) through a set of power turbines to give us lots of lovely energy that we can use for wonderful things in the future. Like diverting the other river and building a dam (which I'd really love to have happen). Or pumping magma. Or making a waterfall. Or drowning goblins/elves/whatever. That's for future peeps to work on....I'm just going to build our first little hydro scheme.

Keeping in mind that I have two machinery projects under my belt right now, this will be an interesting learning experience. The first was killing moltenchannels, and the second was a simple set of water-wheels for a test fortress....so this will be a small step up. I'm thinking about trying to run a switchback of water-wheels, rather than just a straight passage. I figure if we've got water-based lag already, might as well run with it and get something out of it. Depends on how much space (and how many dwarves) I have to work with, of course.

[Urist McKiwi]

17th Slate. Murderflood.


The fortress was bustling with activity. Dwarves carrying planks, blocks and machinery parts bustled as the southeastern corner of the fortress started to transform. Urist McKiwi VI watched from the parapet of the northern wall, a tear in his eye. One of his ideas was actually working.


Things hadn't gone entirely smoothly for the new overseer. He'd had to order a new lever built for the southern gate after being completely unable to find it again, and the elves had been rather nasty about the felling operations when they'd dropped in to trade. Worst of all, one of the dwarves assigned to the new power station had decided to get.....introspective. McKiwi had, perhaps, not handled it entirely well. Still, the dwarf had given him a rather nice stick to make up for it.....



The new power station would, in the mind of McKiwi, be a good way to kickstart engineering work at the fort. He wasn't really that sort of dwarf, but this sort of thing seemed to be what you did when you ran a good fortress. So he'd drawn up some plans, cursed at them, then found someone who could draw them up for him after he described the idea. It hadn't entirely worked out....his original idea for a switchback design would have flooded the fortress.....but the initial level had been entirely feasible, and was easily large enough to power a moderate-sized engineering project in the future. The eastern creek would be diverted through a canal, where the energy for the fortress would be generated.



Fortunately, the tunnel that had been dug for the second hall would be fully capable of draining the waste water away and over the cliffs.

The only problem that he could think of was defense...a new building to protect the wheels and machinery might be useful.



--------------------

[/IC stuff]

Alrighty! So a switchback would have gone.....quite interestingly wrong....and I realised this embarrasingly late. So the design is a bit odd. Still, it should work.
Our northern wall is taking shape: I'm increasing the height to 2 Z-levels so that we can one day extend it to 3, and put fortifications on it so we can shoot things.

The elves came, and I sold some goblinite to them (and some glass corkscrews) in exchange for a tiger. Because you can never have too many tigers.

I've also added a new little bridge....as a dumping system. I'm sick of all these corpses lying around the turbine hall, so I'm going to dump them off the waterfall. The setup is visible next to the fixed bridge over the creek in the second screenshot. I'm starting to dump stuff on it now, and then I'll pull the lever and it'll all go away. What can go wrong?

Edit: Also, I'm basically ignoring the ongoing events from the last thread because 1: 14 pages and 2. McKiwi VI is a forgetful dwarf and thus I can handwave.

[Taupe]

The lever to the south gate is northeast of the little bridge crossing the river, it looks like a smiling clown face in the screenshot.

[Urist McKiwi]

The lever to the south gate is northeast of the little bridge crossing the river, it looks like a smiling clown face in the screenshot.

That lever did nothing when I pulled it. So I put the new one in. Not a big deal though....redundant levers are a fact of life in any good succession.

[Triaxx2]

Those bloody levers are a pain in the nuts. I had to build a second bridge to the east, because I pulled the lever the first time, and the bridge just up and vanished on me. So I'm completely unsurprised that the southern bridge lever isn't working.

[Urist McKiwi]

So it turns out that diverting water from the creek will lower it. And then the dwarves go charging in to recover logs that fell into it right next to the waterfall. And dwarves are not good judges of current.

.......we only lost a few of them, but it's still impressively stupid. At least one of them seems to have burst from the impact....or at least his arm did.

On the plus side, the array is up and running (albiet rather inefficiently...I used a lot more gear assemblies than I really should have, but eh....someone else can fix that, or add more windmills, or whatever). It currently generates 4,700 units of power, but has quite high power requirements. And it's currently draining into the aquifer through a happy accident. This might be a problem later, but eh....it's easy enough to fix with a full shutdown and drain of the system.

[Urist McKiwi]

Quick update: Turbine hall progressing nicely. 5 dwarves total killed by waterfall diving. Efforts to build a safety-grate ended very, very badly. I've walled that little bit off now. Bought a lot of cloth from the humans. More migrants (population is ~130). I've started a new militia squad, and tried building a rather crude training area. Gnott QT got re-elected as Mayor.

Might be a bit sparse on the updates, and may need a little extra time: I have a major assignment due on Friday that's going to take a lot of my time. The framerate is good though, so it shouldn't be too bad. Writing it up is the annoying bit.

[Taupe]

What season are you at? And, where does your fps sit at, after the engineering duties?

[Urist McKiwi]

What season are you at? And, where does your fps sit at, after the engineering duties?

I'm in late summer (only just, mind) and FPS is quite reasonable. Starts at ~60FPS, then drops to 30 after a few minutes. There's definitely some optimising to be done, but it's not all that bad considering. I've shut down the hydro array for now to speed things up a little....although it takes a LONG time to drain. Might try modifying it to speed up the drain cycle. My IRL project is handed in (bar a few extra things I've got some extra time for), and so I should be able to polish off the year in the next few days. It's just been a lack of time on my part.


Current status: Building stuff! We're continually running out of stone and blocks, so I've been mining out large areas to get more. This is doing wonders for our coal and gem stocks. The resources are getting sunk into a building to house the turbines.....it'll be three stories eventually and link in to future extensions to the outer perimeter wall, assuming I can get decent amounts of it completed. I've also added some notes to the new levers I've built. I may also relocate the lever for the hydro array to the second floor of this new building....currently it's in an obscure little corner of the main fort, near the outlet for the array. It's labelled though.

Speaking of gems, I just had a look and we're sitting on a mountain of the things. I've tracked down the jeweller's workshops and set them to try to cut everything that we've got. That should give us some nice sparklies.

Edit: Oh hey, a dude just walled himself into the new construction work. Guess I'm removing a few bits.....


Edit: You know what I like? Impatient caravans who can't wait for the gates to open before declaring that they can't take their wagons in. I'm moving the trade depot to try to prevent this for future years. A little airlock system will handle that. I've also built a nice little barracks for our militia, above the turbine hall. It has little gem windows and everything and it is wonderful and lovely and don't you dare fill it it with corpses and oooh I can fit some weapons traps in here....

...This isn't quite going to end like the infamous Moltenchannels walkway system, but there'll be a few mystifying bits here and there. That being said, as of mid autumn it's looking like things will be rather functional. IC update coming later today or tomorrow.

[Urist McKiwi]

Mid-Autumn, Murderflood

Urist McKiwi VI looked over the growing turbine hall with a sense of pride. He knew he wasn't the smartest dwarf, and he'd be damned if he could remember anyone's name. Or remember the specifics of very much in general. But he'd built this. With some help, of course.

The turbines had been shut down for modifications. They'd added a new drain, and improved the outflow to reduce the risk of flooding. They'd also relocated the controls to a more sensible location. All in all, it had gone well. The mechancs were still somewhat crude, but they'd do for the time being. The floor was a bit messy as well, since they lacked the spare materials for paving it. Then it had just been a matter of the building around the hall.

The dwarves had dug out huge galleries under the surface to quarry the rocks needed for the new construction work. They'd carried hundreds of blocks of stone across the river on a set of brand new bridges, then up through the turbine hall to complete the first floor. Then they'd run out of rock. So while they now had a rather fancy barracks for McKiwi's squad (McKiwi had wanted a new dining hall, only to be reminded that they already had one, and he was eating in it while proposing the new one), they didn't have very much else on the first floor. Still, it was good progress and the perimeter wall was a lot more secure in this corner as a result. They'd also planted some strawberries and pepper around the place since it seemed like a good idea at the time.

McKiwi frowned at the dwarves crossing the stream. Those clothes looked awfully threadbare. And his own shirt was a bit ripped.....some new clothing seemed in order. But who could be spared for making any more? All the useful people were already.....

Ah, of course! That fellow! Yes! The one who'd annoyed him earlier! Now why would.......

....

....Yes, the skirt. That had been it. Some clothier or some such had run up to him babbling about fey and that he was feeling 'fantastic' and wanted to make something. After ignoring him for a while, the chap had gone and made......a skirt. With far too many frills for a true dwarf to wear.



He hadn't even bothered to yell at the imbecilic cretin, but perhaps....perhaps the dignity of unripped clothing was worth a few frills here and there.



----------------------------------------------

I'm almost done with the year! One or two more days, and all will be well. We have a new building (well, most of it), new bridges, improved turbine drainage system, and a WIP airlock for the new trade depot. I'm going to finish up the build work, make myself a tomb, and then tidy a few things up.

Bonus picture: Here's McKiwi VI, sparring in the new barracks above the turbine hall. The barracks is the only room in this area that currently has a proper roof above it, but I'm working on that.



The Z-level below this is full of water-wheels, the level above is a WIP, but has fortifications on the outer side of the wall, as well as the start of more rooms. The two weapons traps visible in the screenshot are each loaded with 5 menacing copper spikes, because that's what I made earlier in the year. Construction is a bit delayed by a lack of blocks, but I'll be redoing some designations with new blocks (rather than stones) to speed up the stopgap stuff to get the place at least semi-inhabitable. The idea is that these two rooms will be training and sleeping areas for squads....one melee, one ranged. SInce that's all the military we have right now, I'm not adding any more space. Besides, I'm running out of time.

I tried but could not get steel production running. Something must be preventing the jobs from reaching the furnaces, since I'm not even getting cancellation messages. I've made more furnaces in a little corner of the place, BTW. I would advise future overseers to get the walls completed up to 2-3 Z-levels high all-around the fort, then start producing steel. As a result of my quarrying, we have mountains of coal and iron ores to smelt, and I think we've got flux somewhere. I think we may have a stairwell into the caverns that needs sealing as well..... I might see if I can do that myself.

Final update should be done in 1-2 days.

Edit: Oh, one more thing. I walled off Sir Humphrey Cactusson so he doesn't get accidentally cut down.

[Taupe]

Good job. You've increased the number of buildings in the colony by 50 percent! We now have three things!

[Urist McKiwi]

Good job. You've increased the number of buildings in the colony by 50 percent! We now have three things!

And not one of them is on fire yet!


And it's only taken, what, 6 or 8 months or so? We're doing just fine!


More seriously though, this building is a lot simpler, but larger than the other stuff, and I had a lot of materials to start with...so it's been a fairly easy build for the most part. Security is a bit iffy (the ground floor cannot be fully locked-down because of the axle coming off the turbine array, although you CAN lock the drawbridge at one end of the hall to buy a little more time), but the hatches on the second floor should keep it nice and safe. It would be a good place for putting an extra hall, since our existing one is pretty tiny. I'd say "also a hospital", but I won't since there's no water supply to clean the Death out of the place every so often.

Edit: Reading the quotes on the OP, I recall with interest that a stray porcupine (un-named) did indeed die this year. I'd initially thought that it had fallen off the waterfall because of the combat message, but it turns out that it had actually climbed up one of the existing buildings, then fallen off a ledge and burst on the Z-level below. As they do, apparently.

Also we have a small ghost problem, and I can't get the dwarves to engrave slabs. Oh well. It's not hurting anyone yet.

[Triaxx2]

Check if there's room to drop the turbine axle down one level and run it out of the way, then you should be able to secure the ground floor.

If we want a Hospital, we should stick it on the ground floor, and hang it over the cliff side. Then we build a pressure tower and set it up so it pumps into one side of the hospital, and flushes everything out grates on the other side. Doesn't even need to be a terribly large tower either.

[Urist McKiwi]

Check if there's room to drop the turbine axle down one level and run it out of the way, then you should be able to secure the ground floor.

It crosses the stream, so it either has to go up a level, or down 3 levels (and miss the aquifer) to avoid flooding problems. Either one is possible (although the aquifer would be tricky since I can't exactly cave-in the turbine hall to breach it), but would take some retrofitting.


If I've got some spare stone, I might do some early work on a hospital. I probably do not, however. We probably don't even need to use a pressure tower....if we build it a Z-level or so below ground level, hanging off a cliff. Then we can just use the stream.

[Taupe]

More seriously though, this building is a lot simpler, but larger than the other stuff, and I had a lot of materials to start with...so it's been a fairly easy build for the most part.

I ran out of blocks at the start of winter, what with building the wall and the dinning hall, so I put a few people to the mines, just to get extra materials. Stockpiling and cutting blocks isn't too long, but sometimes the building process can take a while when you start working on upper levels.

Building a single building is actually a year-long project for an overseer, but I think the result so far is really cool. We don't have much, but everything has a purpose and a history, unlike the typical maze of randomly excavated rooms in a typical fort. The place has a very awesome feel so far.