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[Colonel Sanders Lite]

I get the sense that the main way dwarf fortress is played is: Create a world.  Play a Fort.  Create a world.  Play a Fort.  Etc.

I have been no different in that regard until I started playing the world I'm currently playing.

One observation I have is that player forts are extremely attractive to all the forgotten beasts.  So much so that my world has actually run out of them over the course of just two forts.  There are exactly 3 FBs left in the world.


There is one living in the caverns of my first fort.  I don't remember the reason why, but I suspect that with the Low FPS I had at the end of that fort, I just didn't feel like dealing with him before I retired.

I have one living in the caverns of this fort as well.  He's currently stuck in a small patch and can't get out.  I'll probably eventually figure out a way to dispose of him.

The last one is living in the ruins of a fort he destroyed during world gen and has shown no inclination to ever leave.



A couple of thoughts occur to me.
First, I suspect that the utility of the caverns is likely greatly improved now that I don't have to worry about FBs just randomly wandering in.  I would appreciate any thoughts from overseers that have been in that situation before!

Second, FBs really need some sort of tuning to be viable in the more long term.  Between just 2 forts, I have had over a hundred FB attacks and they pretty much all end in one of 3 ways.

1: The FB wanders around killing things, leaving behind a huge FPS killing mess until it eventually takes on one too many crundles/elk birds/whatevers and the lucky hits start to pile up and he dies.
2: The FB wanders around killing things, leaving behind a huge FPS killing mess until it eventually runs into another FB and he dies.
3: The FB wanders around killing things, leaving behind a huge FPS killing mess until it eventually gets stuck between/in some trees and I send a group of marksdwarves to shoot him.

[PatrikLundell]

I generally lure the FBs into my cavern entrance airlocks with bait doors where I kill them with mine cart repeating menacing spikes. A stuck FB is normally dealt with by a cave-in, although that may require the removal of some trees, in which case I remove those with ballista arrows fired from behind fortifications (I don't want to risk my dorfs unless I absolutely have to).

I tend to brick off the entrances to the caverns by using fairly safe periods when benign cavern critters are there, withdrawing the work force as it's time for the critters to leave. Once I've built an airlock or to at the sides (typically one on each side in a complete cavern) I can get more work done while critter groups enter outside of an air lock. FBs is a risk you just have to take, as you can't really predict when they appear.

You can clean up the FPS draining mess in the cavern, and then pave/floor them over to deal with the trees. I generally wall caverns off before dealing with the rest of the mess (although it's hard to get dorfs to work when there are so many infinitely more attractive dried skeletons to haul). The part you can't reasonably deal with is webs, but dumping and destroying those with DFHack commands every 5 years or so should keep them in check.

[Warlord255]

If you're finding FBs run out on you, consider a pinch of modding to increase the frequency of cavern creatures - things like Iron Men, Cave Crawlers, etc. rather than the harmless and mess-making Crundles.

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Perhaps that's not a bad idea.  On the other hand, if FB encounters are desired, this would probably have the effect of killing them off much quicker.

[nuget102]

Perhaps that's not a bad idea.  On the other hand, if FB encounters are desired, this would probably have the effect of killing them off much quicker.

Sounds to me like you're ready for advanced world's. Edit a advanced world with increased number of forgotten beast, it'll make for more fun for a longer amount of time. It's something I always ramp up.

[PatrikLundell]

Perhaps that's not a bad idea.  On the other hand, if FB encounters are desired, this would probably have the effect of killing them off much quicker.

Sounds to me like you're ready for advanced world's. Edit a advanced world with increased number of forgotten beast, it'll make for more fun for a longer amount of time. It's something I always ramp up.

The number you can increase in the advanced settings is the number of Titans. If I understand it correctly, DF generates one FB for each underground region (excluding the magma sea ones), and I don't know of any way to increase the number of those regions apart from increasing the world size (or DFHacking to split regions into smaller parts, but that would presumably have to take place during world gen after region formation but before FB generation. It should be possible to do the region splitting, though, as you can mess with surface regions [one region for each cavern and world tile?]).

[Sutremaine]

First, I suspect that the utility of the caverns is likely greatly improved now that I don't have to worry about FBs just randomly wandering in.  I would appreciate any thoughts from overseers that have been in that situation before!

I've never run out of FBs, but I do like to find the caverns and get the edges under my control before an FB wanders in. There's a wide open area to work with then, though I do find myself short on stone sometimes because there's no need to dig very much*. It's kind of like being on the surface, but with a much more limited map border.

*Current fortress (in its second Autumn) has a single cavern 100 levels down, and contains 387 blocks and 379 stones, with a further 26 stones having been converted into furniture. The cavern is secured, which was much easier than usual because of some troglodytes who arrived via tree and hung out long enough to start giving birth once I knocked them loose with a ballista bolt.

[nuget102]

Perhaps that's not a bad idea.  On the other hand, if FB encounters are desired, this would probably have the effect of killing them off much quicker.

Sounds to me like you're ready for advanced world's. Edit a advanced world with increased number of forgotten beast, it'll make for more fun for a longer amount of time. It's something I always ramp up.

The number you can increase in the advanced settings is the number of Titans. If I understand it correctly, DF generates one FB for each underground region (excluding the magma sea ones), and I don't know of any way to increase the number of those regions apart from increasing the world size (or DFHacking to split regions into smaller parts, but that would presumably have to take place during world gen after region formation but before FB generation. It should be possible to do the region splitting, though, as you can mess with surface regions [one region for each cavern and world tile?]).

You're absolutely right. I was thinking of megabeast and semi-megabeast. Would be nice to have a setting for forgotten beast.