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Author Topic: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory  (Read 1807 times)

SQman

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LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« on: August 19, 2020, 06:11:18 am »

This is a thread for test forts and adventures running with my bloated modpack - LCM. The forts will be generally low on plot, focusing mostly on gameplay,though they are still in the same continuity as Dungeonevened, just a few centuries later.

The main idea behind the modpack hasn't changed either; it's still al about stuffing as many mods into a single game as possible, this time also squashing bugs and incompatibilities as I go. So far there's no errorlog and the worlds generate reliably with the following mod list:

Spoiler: Mod list (click to show/hide)

Time for the first fort of the series - EmpireArmory



"My employer is interested in acquiring that plot of land for growing pig tails; what's the city's business in not selling it to us?" I asked the city overseer. As a representative of Empire Armory clothing company it was my duty to ensure that the land ends up in our posession. I was aware of only a single explaination why the city could be holding onto it.

"As you most likely know, miss Qman, some families and organizations have certain privileges. House Drilledterrors is also interested in acquiring the land, and I'm not allowed to sell it to anyone until they make a decision." The house overseer explained. Coming from a privileged home, House Hateromanced, she had no sympathy for simple folk who had to work to get by. It was the time to uncover the contingency plan:

"What if I was to take the company's plans somewhere else, far away from the city? A colony under the management of Empire Armory could technically exist, and it's overseer would be the one deciding what to do with the new land."

"So you're volounteering for the colonization program provided that it will be your company leading the new colony. I'm fine with this as long as you prove to be able to defend and provide for the colony."



"Do not expect any infrastructure being in place. You will be the first to settle those lands. Natural resources should be plentiful, though"



"Neighbors may be troublesome at times, but you should be able to strike a deal with local centaurs and moss elves. Who knows, maybe your company will gain a few new customers."



I've borrowed a handful of employees from the headquarters to assist me in creating a branch of Empire Armory in the unforgiving wilderness.

I specialize in negotiating prices and also appraisal of items of all kinds.

Uthimi is skilled in the art of digging, and knows this and that about plantlife, and that's why I employed her as our landscaper.

Raniya can tend to the fields and process plants; just what we need to kickstart the production.

Emura is skilled in turning raw material into finished product.

Tharama is a carpenter and a mason, the right person to furnish our new base of operation

Cenopi is good with a lance; she will keep monsters and invaders at bay.



I have personally packed everything a drow might need when settling the frontier - food, tools, coal, bags and barrels, and of course seeds. Pig tails and white lichen are materials for our clothing, of course; dimple cups will provide blue dye; deep juniper is a source of drow gin that we will need a lot of if we're to remain sane and unstressed.

We've also taken two zee-bats for vermin control, four moonwing moths and five cave silkworms for valuable silk, two Speleoraptors and three Cavvekans for hunting and defense, and a quaggoth slave who will do simple jobs such as hauling and helping out with the harvest. We have chosen a guar and a dimple cow to pull our wagon.



After two weeks of uneventful journey we have arrived in the spot. Time to strike the earth!

Enemy post

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2020, 08:43:11 am »

PTW.
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SQman

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2020, 12:13:35 pm »

The game does take a long time to load, it's gotta be said. It discouraged me a bit during the week, and I had a Rimworld itch to scratch, so sorry for not doing anything productive.
Here's mini-update; more like a continuation of the first post than anything.





As any good businessman would do, immediately after our arrival I took upon myself the analysis of the local market, and by that I mean what resources are available for the future manufacture. Starting with the basics, the ground here is raised mire, wet and acidic; some plants thrive in such soil, but many do not. Strangely, despite the ground being soaked with water, the flora doesn't seem to differ much from that typical to a regular dry coniferous forest - redwood, pine, spruce, sequoia, some deciduous trees in between. Only moss trees are typical for moist environments. Non-tree plants that I could identify are coneflowers, chicory, water berries, embermoss, murkweed and some more. Nothing of much significance to the production proces, but at least we won't be starving any time soon.
On the fauna front, we have not seen any large animals, but the aether is shaking with the cries of Lambeosauruses. These gentle giants might provide a plenty of material for bags and shoes. And they said the course in dinosaurology would be useless, hah!

After digging for a while we've discovered that under the raised bog is a layer of clay. I doubt it will be extensively exploited soon or ever. Firing and glazing earthenware is much more effort than its worth. Maybe if it was fire clay or kaolinite, but boring old clay isn't what we're about in Empire Armory.



With no story to tell I can post short updates semi-frequently, so I'll probably end up doing that. My laptop isn't made for running DF, and if I accidentally leave something running in the background, I have to wait obscenely long for the game to stop lagging like crazy. Youtube is a serious offender here. That was the case with Dungeonevened too, so it's not like the modpack is doomed, it just takes some dedication to play.

Darkening Kaos

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2020, 11:30:19 pm »

     Build a potter's kiln and start collecting the clay, you can build with it even when it is not fired.  Put a sun-dried clay-brick wall up around the camp.
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So! Failed to make peace, war looms, kill the infidels... what are our plans for the weekend?
The Giant Moles in the caverns of my current fort breed like crazy, even while regularly being decimated by other beasts entering them...

SQman

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2020, 10:26:43 am »

Can you believe I had no idea how clay actually worked? I thought it went into bags like sand and was unusable until fired. Explains why caravans bring boulders of clay.

The game doesn't even take that long to load after resetting the PC





As our interior decorator dug the interior, I ordered the construction of what some call an amber forge. Amber as a material can be used in the same way glass can, without the need to spend fuel that we may not be able to source from underground. Resin needs to be squeezed out of wood using a screw press and a pair of strong drow (or quaggoth) arms. It's elven technology.



The cave silk worm are already productive; they've covered our entire investment eith their silk and the staff members are getting tangled. We were supposed to have a trade depot by now! There's no time for setbacks like this.



I am proud to announce that our first farm plot is fully operational! Right now it grows deep juniper because both deep lichen and pig tails grow in different seasons.



I have found a use for clay after all. Huge lumps of it carried to the surface in huge quaggoth hands dry off and harden into bricks that, while not the most durable, can nevertheless stop arrows and spears of anyone who would wish to harm our enterprise. The compound will be safe in no time.



The silkworm situation is getting ridiculous. The sooner we get them in their own hole the better.




One day I heard something different than the calls of Lambeosauruses - loud grunts and stomping of large beasts. Then I saw them with my own eyes:



A herd of dinosaurs with beautiful striped hides. If we don't get to hunt Lambeosauruses, Muttaburrasauruses will do perfectly well.



Ginseng is not what I was hoping to produce here, but the rations from the capital are running low and we have to...



What the hell?



A qurupeco was fighting a Deviljho just outside of our walls! It then summoned another deviljho and set both of them on fire along with the forest!



Maybe if we ignore the fire it will go away. Nire made amazing juniper jelly the other day. It has a faint note of parsnip.



The fire did NOT go away! Everything besides a few juniper bushes is gone including the jelly. A kiln has also survived on the account of being made out of schist.



Our livestock is dying! Ignoring the problem has not made it any better! It will take months to recover from those losses!



The becursed bird monster keeps calling deviljhos from all around the world to keep us out of its territory. Fortunately the giant pickle beasts get choked up on the smoke from burning trees and tangled in the silk of our remaining moths. The one that wandered too close to our settlement was actually attacked by one of the insects and died from amassed wounds, mostly from before the encounter. Meanwhile our chief of security hugged a moss tree and refused to move. I'll have the quaggoth remove this tree.



Man, my first great fire ever! But yeah, tere's a bird throwing angry cucumber at us and the militia commander is the most cowardly drow we have. Tree collapse spam is driving me up the wall. At least we have saved what little food we had, and we can butcher some dead deviljhos and brew some gin.

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #5 on: August 24, 2020, 10:53:46 am »

Quote from: Everyone ever, at some point.
Ignoring the problem has not made it any better!
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Darkening Kaos

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #6 on: August 24, 2020, 11:13:48 pm »

     Ah, damn, just a bit longer and would've had that clay wall around the camp and had everything useful protected.
     Also, Drow me as a mechanic, (it's tradition, dammit), and maybe a part-time farmer.

     And, SQ, where are the raws?  Need to get some Drow action.  Don't need your world save, I want to create worlds of my own for drow to play with huge, lumbering dinos.

     Please?!
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So! Failed to make peace, war looms, kill the infidels... what are our plans for the weekend?
The Giant Moles in the caverns of my current fort breed like crazy, even while regularly being decimated by other beasts entering them...

SQman

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #7 on: August 25, 2020, 03:57:36 am »

I'll post the raws in the development thread later today.

Thhe drow experience should be a bit harder now. They are smaller at 60k, have no innate skills and only minor bonuses to weapon skills learning, farrie fire got nerfed and made unable to target the same creature twice (better against sieges, worse for monsters). Since the drows have carefuly selected pets now, they have lost access to some heavy hitters such as trolls and ironheads.

About the fire, I had no means to prevent damage because it started very close to our walls, the forest was denser than a rom-com manga protagonist, and we've got only a single axe-wielding crackhead ewok to cut down trees.

SQman

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Fall of Imperial Armory
« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2020, 07:30:18 am »

Short update today because reasons.





Time for Contingency Alpha: Outsourcing Violence. It is not outsourcing per say because Zecalo is still on the team, but he's not a drow and the name was too cool not to use.



Nice job Zecalo, just what I wanted you to do - climb a tree and get set on fire.



Contingency Beta - let's go home.



This was extremely !FUN! but also incredibly not fun. Every tick a message of a tree collapsing, the bird airdropping deviljhos cunitinually, cowardly militia commander unable to get close to monsters. Next one will be the one.

Darkening Kaos

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Re: LCM: Tales of the Third Age - The Imperial Armory
« Reply #9 on: August 28, 2020, 02:11:32 am »

     Sooo, the 4th age?
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So! Failed to make peace, war looms, kill the infidels... what are our plans for the weekend?
The Giant Moles in the caverns of my current fort breed like crazy, even while regularly being decimated by other beasts entering them...