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Author Topic: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?  (Read 8373 times)

Nilbert

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How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« on: January 04, 2017, 09:28:50 am »

My fort Stabcaves has just entered it's fiftieth year with an FPS still running high in the 30s.  Its a simple fort, ten layers of stores, quarters, tombs, shops, and barracks underground, and a five layer castle complete with moat and towers and houses above ground.  My clan dwarves (all from the same family clans) live underground, the rest above ground.  Each group has their own tavern, food stores, and temple.  Everything has run smooth this way for over thirty years (took twenty or so years to build).

But there is a problem.  Stabcaves is prone to buzzard invansions every year.  It becomes a slaughterhouse as surface dwarves pummel them in the bar, marksdwarves shoot at them from the walls, and food from the above ground stores gets dropped on top of the castle roof.  After thirty years, my surface fortress is a mess.  Broken crossbow bolts everywhere, blood everywhere, crossbow bolts and buzzard bits stuck on rooftops and fortifications.  Even my well collapsed and the chain stuck in the cistern.  And of course, the vomit.  Visiting merchants must be totally disgusted entering the gates of Stabcaves.  Strange they freak out at the site of one goblin tooth on the ground and not the vast quantities of blood...  As for the bar... it must be the worst dive ever.  True it has gold tables, but how much blood, vomit, puss, and buzzard bits can a person take before their mushroom and kangaroo tripe roast is no longer appealing?  Don't they worry about slipping on the pools of blood as they do the conga portion of The Fabulous Periwinkles dance?

So my question.  What do you do in your fort to keep it clean?  Particularly the outside portions that don't get rained on.  My solution is to build floors over the surface, leave them there until sufficiently bloodied, and then remove them and rebuild them.  I do the same with the walls, doors, windows, fortifications (have to get that crossbow bolt out), everything.  Honestly, this is rather time consuming and it always seems that after doing so another buzzard flock decides to descend.  Any other solutions?  I do like a little blood and vomit and broken crossbow bolts, but not so much that I think my dwarves are living in an Evil Dead movie.  Thanks!
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mirrizin

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2017, 09:41:53 am »

Dwarves can't be made to clean on "outside" tiles, even if they're technically inside of a building, and broken bolts seem to be a permanent dent in the ground. I think I've personally complained on the "suggestions" thread about that.

I think if you download dwarfhack, there's a command you can use to remove splatter. That might be your best bet.

On the other hand, corpses and body parts (things that can be hauled) can be confined to a stockpile and/or eventually dumped in a garbage dump. I'm fond of filling mine with magma to reduce clutter. Far as things stuck on roofs, build a ramp or staircase. For things stuck in fortifications, deconstruct the fortification and then reconstruct it to remove the offending object.

I sympathize, I also find the trails of vomit annoying and ignore them if I can. Or build outside constructions out of olivine (any dark green stone will do) or pretend that it's all olivine.
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Broken

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2017, 09:42:31 am »

Flood the fortress. Just have grates to drain all the water to a sewer system for disposal.

(Note, you can carve fortifications in the map border to use as a drain).
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mirrizin

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2017, 09:44:58 am »

Flood the fortress. Just have grates to drain all the water to a sewer system for disposal.

(Note, you can carve fortifications in the map border to use as a drain).
Doesn't that usually just rearrange the muck? Or is it a question of leaving the water running long enough to actually wash away the mess?
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Nilbert

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2017, 10:12:54 am »

I have a dwarf whose only job is buzzard bit and goblin teeth removal.  Stockpile and dump.  Its those annoying bits that get stuck in the fortifications and on the roof tops that are so problematic.  I do build ramps for them to reach them every so often (along with the miscellaneous crossbow bolt and half starved dwarven child).  I had read about the dwarf hack cleaning command but when I loaded it back in July after the new version it wasn't up to date with the current version.  May need to try it again. 

It'd be great that there would be a job command like engraving to clean up stuff.  Bucket, XX<pig tail cloth>XX, and bar of buzzard soap as tools and all is well!  Urist McMaid masterfully cleans pool of werelizard blood!  Urist McMaid has endowed the name "Vomit Wipequick" on a XX<pig tail cloth>XX.  Such possibilities...

I have thought about the flooding prospect but doesn't that leave mud?  I have a marble floor that needs to shine!
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Nilbert

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2017, 10:15:35 am »

Just thought, instead of Dwarven Children helping with harvesting, they could instead automatically help with cleaning.  Than again, that doesn't work with my own children... so nevermind...
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RocheLimit

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2017, 10:29:34 am »

Mostly DF Hack and a smidgen of dwarven dumping power.

Frequency: after every siege (1-3 times a year).
Any siege or critters are fought in a long, wide (~70x30) room that is 1z tall, with interior bridges that raise to create a maze and lower to facilitate cleanup.  Mass claim and dump makes cleanup a breeze.  The enhanced stock menu (another df hack thing I believe) allows me to filter any weapons/armor that are set to be dumped and remove said dump, dumping only the bodies and parts. 

Frequency: twice a year or so.
Blood spatters, vomit smears, and the like gradually accumulate over time in the fighting platform mentioned above, the arena (where captured cavern critters fight each other), the cavern loops, and the meeting hall.  As do leaves from the smattering of trees I left along the edge of the embark.  A combo of "clean map items"  "clean map item" & "clean map all" in df hack clears it all away.

Frequency: once every 5+ years
The caverns gradually accumulate corpses (from crundles/reachers trying to climb down 60z cliffs) and webs.  Too far to grab and dump the corpses, and web cannot be dumped as far as I know.  Easier to just mass dump each layer and use df hack's autodump destroy command.

More df hackery than I'd really like, to be honest.  But fps is a serious concern for my fort, at least until it reaches the goal I have in mind for it. 

That said, I have left a few dozen limbs and/or corpses tastefully hanging off battlements and trees from various sieges or executions.  Can't have it be said invaders don't know what they're getting into as they march towards my keep.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2017, 10:33:40 am by RocheLimit »
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Werdna

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2017, 02:50:47 pm »

I use the exact same method as RocheLimit (even with the internal maze bridges!).  I dump into atomsmashers, and build them right next to the combat zone.  'Autodump destroy' in particular is a quick way to handle body parts stuck in fortifications. 

I've long since gotten over any qualms about relying on DFHack for cleaning.  Cleaning up after sieges can get really tedious and suck the fun out of play sessions.  I still make soap, design bathtubs and cleaning areas so I'm not ignoring cleanliness.  That said, I'll rejoice the day I can hand an +alder mop+ and a *plastic Hefty sack* to migrants and petitioners and tell them to earn their way into my keep.  :)
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Skorpion

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2017, 03:38:00 pm »

I don't build anything other than fortifications aboveground, and I concentrate the mess around the main entrance if possible.
The trade depot can be cleaned with pumped water. This is useful when it needs to be cleaned of elves.
The entrances nearby to the depot are lined with weapon traps to defeat animal swarms. I feel a 'debirdinator' is a necessity for forts after getting sick of 'interrupted by Raven' spam.
Idlers clean indoors, and the entrance ways are over grates.
Dwarves spend as little time outside as possible. Literally only hunting, soldiering, and woodcutting/haulage.
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Elves do it in trees. Humans do it in wooden structures. Dwarves? Dwarves do it underground. With magma.

Thisfox

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2017, 04:59:31 pm »

Filling the fort with water will indeed leave mud over everything, and if the caverns are breached, stuff growing over everything. And the walls don't seem to wash off even when you do have a flow of water through the room anyhow.

In GuildedPlunge, I've been attempting to only have indoor spaces, and no outdoors for any dwarf. I've moved my sheep farm down into the caverns where the grazing is rich. For the first time ever, I'm only using indoor trees. Seeing as GuildedPlunge has a practically unlimited supply of zinc (But, unfortunately, no copper. Sigh.) we have nice big zinc doors between us and the outside, and of course I brought the trade depot underground. If anything attacks out there on the (admittedly lovely) surface, we will just close the doors and wait for it to come to us.

But the tavern is a complete mess. Building a floor and then rebuilding it sounds like a clever idea, I might try that.

Another fort I once had, Alligator Creek, had two dwarfs who did nothing but clean. I hadn't chosen this for them, they had the usual sequence of skills and so on, but the constant carnage (few dwarfs had all their limbs, the fort being under constant siege from limb-chomping beasts) seemed to just make them horribly traumatised, and all they would do was wash blood, mud and vomit off the marble floors and walls, incessantly. Their obsession was annoying sometimes, as they would just drop what they were doing if anyone messed something up, so that they could clean it, but boy I wish I could have kept those two around for the subsequent forts I've played with.

I've never downloaded any of the third party programs, but if I did, I know it would be to clean up.
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Nilbert

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2017, 06:20:04 pm »

That said, I'll rejoice the day I can hand an +alder mop+ and a *plastic Hefty sack* to migrants and petitioners and tell them to earn their way into my keep.  :)


LOL!  Thinking of the work orders required to make a *plastic Hefty sack*...  Would you need pearlash to make it a *black plastic Hefty bag*?
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2017, 10:39:27 pm »

If you don't want mud over the marble floors or to wash the blood and puke into walls, there is also magma and perhaps fire (in a minecart). Though if you use steel/iron bolts I'd guess those would remain (not sure).

Not really viable though. You'll either have to remove dwarves from the facilities while purging, or perhaps burn away dwarf fat and dress them in firesafe FB silk while using lowest speed rollers to move around a minecart with ‼lignite‼

Rain should wash outside tiles, but this will not work on broken bolts or limbs stuck in fortifications. Plus actually needs rain to wash the tiles.

Ironfang

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2017, 07:21:49 am »

In a related note. I have a tundra volcano that is starting to have its hillsides turn green. There is so much vomit everywhere, that I can track major traffic routes by the green.
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FakerFangirl

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2017, 09:18:51 am »

Just thought, instead of Dwarven Children helping with harvesting, they could instead automatically help with cleaning.  Than again, that doesn't work with my own children... so nevermind...
Kek.

Did not know about the fortifications at edge of map.
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taptap

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Re: How Do You Clean Your Fortress (or do you)?
« Reply #14 on: January 05, 2017, 10:47:15 am »

Clean all for blood and vomit etc., dumping for items and "no invasions/no caravans". (How interesting are invasions for you when you have a multiple thousand kill list?) Or failing that process invaders in a way that does not clutter. (Ice or magma.)
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