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Author Topic: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.  (Read 1064 times)

Spectre Incarnate

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Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« on: June 05, 2018, 07:08:02 am »

My embark has a mountainhome civ with only one site that used to be a tower in a scorching desert, so they had low resources to choose from. There are no elves in my vicinity, so no early trading and no tame giant wolf pets. Embarked on cold, flat shrubland for a little something different.

But when we arrived... the wagon spawned halfway hanging over a pond while it was still ice. So a majority of supplies are now submerged, including all the booze. And for some strange reason the act of the wagon busting threw a sheep and two dogs up into the bottom branches of trees. Chopped the trees down and the sheep and one dog survived with no wounds. The second dog.. well, that tree fell into the pond, the dog fell with it, and logs crushed him underwater so that dog was an instant mangled corpse.

It's like the game was telling me I hadn't quite challenged myself of resources far enough for its amusement. ROFL

EDIT: Nope, I spoke too soon. Got an announcement. "No outpost liaison? How curious..."
How curious, indeed. How screwed is this fort now??  :P
« Last Edit: June 05, 2018, 07:49:05 am by Spectre Incarnate »
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2018, 08:19:36 am »

I don't see why you'd be screwed by those little mishaps, as you've obviously managed to grab at least one axe. Dorfs can drink water (even if they don't like doing so), so thirst is not an issue. Shrubland should have enough shrubs to provide your dorfs with food and with seeds that can be farmed into crops that can be used to produce booze.
You've also got logs, which means you can make a screw pump that allows you to recover your wagon resources. Since it's a pond, you can also lower the water to a level where you can recover the resources (although that can backfire if it rains, but a roof over the pond would block rain), and as an alternative you can drain the pond from below, leading the water off elsewhere. Both of these options assume you've been able to claim a pick, of course.

Since it doesn't sound like the surface is swarming with undead, I only see a minor setback (and, for the future, you may want to try stairs rather than chopping trees down to save what's climbed them. That's the better option if they're not on the brink of dying of thirst/dehydration).
You can also wait for winter to reclaim the goods, as you can just channel down into the pond two weeks before winter (as it was ice when you arrived two weeks after winter). Since you've noted the trade liaison didn't show up you shouldn't be too far away from the pond freezing again.
If you didn't recover any pick, the best bet is to build a screw pump in preparation for spring, and I'd consider building more than one, but ensure the water is disposed off such that it doesn't slosh about sweeping pump operators into the water. Once you've got a path to the goods, I'd aim at recovering the picks but nothing else, aiming for safer recovery methods for the rest of the goods.

And, by the way, unless you've been sitting on your hands, you should have been able to produce goods to buy a pick from the caravan. If you haven't quickly build wooden trap components, as they're seriously overvalued.
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Miles_Umbrae

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2018, 09:29:04 pm »

What are you complaining about?
This is the FUN that Fortress mode is all about .. right?
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Spectre Incarnate

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2018, 11:53:26 pm »

You've also got logs, which means you can make a screw pump that allows you to recover your wagon resources.
So, resources covered in water are still okay to use once you get them out of the pond? Was a bit worried about the booze and gypsum plaster, especially! Watered down rum!? Ahhhh!

Since it doesn't sound like the surface is swarming with undead, I only see a minor setback (and, for the future, you may want to try stairs rather than chopping trees down to save what's climbed them. That's the better option if they're not on the brink of dying of thirst/dehydration).
Okay, I admit I was being a bit sadistic there. Animals up a tree.. I wonder what would happen if I just... ya know.. chopped it down? ;D

And, by the way, unless you've been sitting on your hands, you should have been able to produce goods to buy a pick from the caravan. If you haven't quickly build wooden trap components, as they're seriously overvalued.
Yeah, and a bunch of huge, expensive musical instruments that only needed wood. And that was the only type of instrument they knew of.

What are you complaining about?
This is the FUN that Fortress mode is all about .. right?
Absolutely! It was hilarious! I wasn't so much complaining, as pointing out the oddity of the wagon spawning on a pond before the frost melted. And believe me, I was waiting to see if the wagon would go poof! I was curious if the items would be deposited on land or go flying everywhere. The consensus was that they go flying everywhere, including up a tree! ROFL
Is this common in Cold climates? Is it intended behavior for the wagon to spawn over a frozen pond or perhaps a placement bug of sorts?
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anewaname

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2018, 01:01:37 am »

Wagons can spawn on in many exciting places, or explode on embark if it is a steep hill (with the wagon wood gone forever, but all(?) items nearby. Here is the related ninja wiki article
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2018, 04:10:19 am »

Dorfs are serious about their booze, so they make sure their barrels are water tight... No supplies take any damage from water, nor does metal rust (at least for the time being).
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Miles_Umbrae

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2018, 08:57:21 pm »

Frozen water is treated differently than when it's a flowing stream; i.e. when the water is frozen it becomes a wagon-accessible piece of solid ground.
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Spectre Incarnate

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2018, 02:50:10 am »

Thanks for replies. Was out of town for my mother's funeral..  :-\

I do remember one time the wagon had disappeared on completely on embark and soon realized everyone was on the very tip of a tall mountain with the supplies scattered down all sides. I figured this might be a similar case, but had always considered the previous incident to be my fault for picking 9+ cliffs in the exact middle of the map, whereas this seems like the game is disregarding pond states from different biomes. Freezing glaciers, sure, but you'd think dwarves would be somewhat wise enough to know a rapidly melting ice floe in spring weather is a dumb spot to park. Hehe
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #8 on: June 13, 2018, 07:49:28 am »

Well, you'd also think dorfs ought to be smart enough not to take short cuts over frozen water that's on the verge of flash melting, as well as wading through water on the verge of flash freezing, as well as get out of the way when 1/7 magma sloshes onto the shortcut tile they're on...
This is the reason I don't embark in areas with risk of freezing or thawing...
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Werdna

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #9 on: June 13, 2018, 10:14:38 am »

On some embarks it really does feel like some blind guy is beaming the wagons down to the surface... :)

One of the things I do at embark, before I even unpause the game, is paint every square of water with d-o-r to keep the dwarves off any potential ice as much as possible (it doesn't outright prevent them from entering those tiles, but makes them prefer the unpainted tiles and walk around when possible).  Just don't forget to unpaint any bridges you later add.  I avoid swamp embarks for this reason, it's just too much to paint. 
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Spectre Incarnate

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Re: Drowned Supplies... and One Dog.
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2018, 08:07:13 pm »

Well, you'd also think dorfs ought to be smart enough not to take short cuts over frozen water that's on the verge of flash melting, as well as wading through water on the verge of flash freezing, as well as get out of the way when 1/7 magma sloshes onto the shortcut tile they're on...
This is the reason I don't embark in areas with risk of freezing or thawing...
True... or avoid a rushing river by using a bridge just a few tiles away. No they must brave the cold, fast current and be swept downstream, careening over a tall waterfall to instant death.  ::)

On some embarks it really does feel like some blind guy is beaming the wagons down to the surface... :)
I think community consensus deemed wagons are dropped by a giant flying Roc.

One of the things I do at embark, before I even unpause the game, is paint every square of water with d-o-r to keep the dwarves off any potential ice as much as possible.....
I did use pathing restrictions on that waterfall embark after losing quite a few dwarves to the river, but caravans didn't follow the restrictions and went right over the waterfall anyway. For a while that was a lot of free loot, but those who tried to retrieve the stuff at the bottom of the falls ended up drowning. I didn't understand how to engrave slabs yet then, so I had like six or more ghosts wandering around driving everyone nuts. ROFL  :D
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The in-game text has punctuation!  Who knew?
Mister Adams,
How many licks does it take to get to the [candy] center of a Dwarf Fortress?