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Author Topic: how to survive the first week in evil regions  (Read 2560 times)

javascripter

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how to survive the first week in evil regions
« on: January 04, 2019, 12:41:29 am »

Is there some way to avoid the evil rain long enough to get underground?
As far as I can tell the evil fog / undead always starts off the map, so I have enough time to haul some seeds / wood / anvil underground, but the evil rain starts immediately, so I can only survive if the rain is stunning/nauseating, and then I have to wait for the dwarves to wake up and finnish hauling everything underground.

Only other major problem I've ran into is my dwarves starve to death fighting yak skins, but I can try putting the yaks in a pasture outside so they don't go to the meeting area.
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delphonso

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2019, 01:04:18 am »

My best advice is that less is more with evil biomes. Don't bring many pets - especially dogs as they will attract fights with undead and potentially draw them over to the dwarves. Embarking on a 4x4 or larger area will help put distance between you and the baddies, but cost framerate in the long run.

Again, less is more. With less stuff to haul, you'll spend less time outside. A few bags of seeds and an anvil plus some tools can be scurried inside quickly.

I'd suggests kindly depositing the yaks or horses into nearby magma. Butcher them asap and toss the unprocessibles far away. The hair will get back up, probably. Leather won't reaninate, though. Good luck and remember, losing is fun.

PatrikLundell

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2019, 04:01:29 am »

A common recommendation is to get underground ASAP and then recover the embark wagon goods with the help of a cave-in.

As far as I know the unkillable reanimated stuff bug has been fixed, so you shouldn't starve to death fighting skin, in particular not yak ones, as those are large creatures in the first place. You may have to fight the first skin, "kill" it, resulting in a bunch of skins, and then have the "head skin" reanimate so you have to put that one down as well. The good thing of that process is that you'll get more leather from the yak that way.

This is typically beyond the first week, but anyway...
Going without animals is one way to avoid issues with butchering. The other one is to take protective measures around butchering and processing of the skin/hair (militia stationed to deal with any reanimation, prompt processing of the products to avoid reanimation incidents as far as possible [unless you want skin/hair duplication]. Cage traps to catch reanimating parts and dodging civilians [to get them out of harm's way] is also possible). Obviously, great care should be taken when bringing single time kills from the caverns (and the surface).
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delphonso

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2019, 05:07:17 am »

Oh, and hammers - less parts fly off, less parts to fight. Crush some skulls. You can equip a group of three people in copper armor with copper warhammers for not a lot of cash in the embark screen.

javascripter

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2019, 07:01:56 am »

I've been taking very little but I'll try taking just one trip inside and seeing if they can survive the rain, or maybe I'll end up in some place where the rain isn't lethal.
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delphonso

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2019, 07:05:26 am »

In my experience it usually isn't - it's random though, so you might just have bad luck.

PatrikLundell

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2019, 08:54:53 am »

As delphonso said, it's rarely deadly. The worst I've had was one that induced permanent tuberculosis (coughing blood), resulting in everything covered in blood, with a few kids dying due to it (not counting an incredibly hot embark where the rain caused all fat to melt off because of the heat, rather than any syndorme).

Now, evil fog is different, but I've turned that one off.
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anewaname

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2019, 10:06:19 am »

Dig out a 3x3 room and if rain starts, set it as a burrow and sound the alert. If there is a full-sized tree and you have not dug fast enough, put the burrow under the tree and sound the alert.

Less is definately more... It is easy for a dwarf to mangle a yak skin that animated at the butcher's shop, but after ten or twenty times, the dwarfs that were involved will be nervous wrecks. Reanimating biomes are more difficult in version 44.x than in 43.x due to the accumulated emotional trauma. As an individual, you may be forced to adapt new standards of ethics for your fort to survive.

If you like to spend a lot of time choosing the right location and embark setup, consider setting the data/init/d_init.txt file's INITIAL_SAVE:YES and reloading that save.

Get an underground source of water as soon as possible, for dwarfs to clean themselves at, and set standing orders to zone-only water. Otherwise, they may walk to an above ground pond to clean themselves and then walk back, in the same rain.
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Leonidas

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #8 on: January 04, 2019, 01:23:28 pm »

Start with three miners.
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2019, 06:04:57 pm »

try "embark-assistant" and deny all reanimating weather etc. and still have evil biome.
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Sarmatian123

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2019, 07:17:08 am »

Start with three miners.

I expect by this time all experienced DF players start with 5-6 miners plus 1-2 woodcutters. Dig up a hole big enough for all-items stockpile and dismantle wagon asap. Even on safe normal maps. Why? Keas and similar pest. :)
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nutregina

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2019, 01:09:48 pm »

1 deconstruct the wagon
2 channel out the drop
3 build a bridge/floor over the pit
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Pvt. Pirate

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2019, 05:53:20 am »

1 deconstruct the wagon
2 channel out the drop
3 build a bridge/floor over the pit
i wonder if that really doesnt take longer than building an entrance the traditional way.
all the hauling of construction materials for that can take as much time.
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"dwarves are by definition alcohol powered parasitic beards, which will cling to small caveadapt humanoids." (Chaia)

PatrikLundell

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #13 on: January 12, 2019, 07:42:39 am »

The advantage with bringing the wagon contents down from below is that it can be done from below, i.e. mostly or wholly out of reach from the weather and non flying undead. Hauling off the contents takes basically the same time regardless of whether it's from the surface or a few Z levels lower, but with a bridge over the head the danger from above is taken care of.
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RLS0812

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Re: how to survive the first week in evil regions
« Reply #14 on: January 12, 2019, 09:38:46 am »

Dig a stairway right next to the wagon, and build an everything stock pile ?

 That usually avoids most of the FUN in my experience.
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