ProjectsStairwayYes, it’s a weird place to start. But, as said before, the stairway defines a fort’s layout.
I’m still not giving up on my standard-issue 3x3, not least because many of my other standard-issue levels depend on it. This is somewhat frustrated by the second cavern, which passes very close to the current 1x1 stair. But worry not, there is a solution:
Smithy.
The new smithy will be carved on level -6, two levels above the existing one.
This is one of my standard smithies, with 7 smelters, 6 forges, 1 kiln and 1 glassworks. In a normal fort, it will be enough for most purposes. NumberCurse is not a normal fort.
In recognition of the challenge, two major changes will be made. Firstly, the smelters are going to be doubled. Secondly, the forge channels will be made dual-purpose: magma will be placed for both forge construction (center-right) and for glassworks/kiln (center-top). Meaning, under the pod (helpfully denoted by the yellow square) the channel looks like this:
Should it ever be necessary to swap forges for kilns or glassworks, you only need to channel one tile and floor over another, and you’ve got a full conversion. Right now though, you’re getting eight spanking new forges:
In addition, there’s a room above, which for now only holds a massive stone stockpile intended to clear the rocks below, and mason’s workshops to cut all that into blocks. All this is temporary, as you can imagine. In the long term, this space can be used for either bar storage, or for ore.
27th Slate. With the last month of spring about to start, the new smithy is about to be finished. The future bar stockpile is happily churning blocks:
The smithy itself is fully cleared of non-ore blocks, and has seen its first two stockpiles related to the challenge: an ore pile, and a bar one, which for the moment takes mica blocks and all metal bars. The entire fort was assigned engraving to finish this asap:
Below, the magma channels are only a few wall blocks away from completion, and this will be done as soon as the three masons carve out some microcline blocks. This smithy will be color-coordinated! My sense of style demands it!
5th Felsite. The lower level is done. Time to punch into the magma sea!
The three smithies get orders like this:
I briefly debate if I want to make my own anvils, or wait for the summer caravan to buy some. I’ve decided to make my own, on the grounds that this is a month-long delay, not counting how long it will take to haul the new anvils all the way down. Plus, there’s a chance I’ll get an invasion instead.
And I think that’s the end of the smithy proper, to be honest. From now on, it will churn bars and weapons on its own. Weaponsmiths and skilled smelters are removed from other jobs, they’re the backbone of this enterprise. Five more dwarves, including ‘myself’, are appointed as weaponsmiths; they can join the smithy as soon as somebody, anybody, makes their new anvils.
24th Hematite. With the trading concluded and the giantess slain, I check on the smithy. I make two observations: setting up 14 smelters was a bit too much, and setting up 8 weaponsmiths was a bit too little. The smelters are eating through ore faster than dwarves can haul it, but forges are going through bars at a much lower rate; enough so that some smelters are becoming
cluttered. Doubtlessly compounding the problem, 2 or 3 forges are always unmanned (un-dwarfed?) because weaponsmiths are off doing other stuff, such as drinking, eating, or sleeping.
… why did I never think to make a dining hall by the smithy? That would have saved me time. Luckily, there’s an unused room right above; a bit littered with stone, but we can fix that. Heck, I’ll make a set of larger rooms across the stairs, assigned exclusively to smiths!
I can honestly say I’ve never done something like this before:
Alright then. Time to rebalance the tasks. The greatest time sink available, the ore stockpile, has been disabled. The dwarves thus freed are quickly tasked with cleaning the stone above. Our smelters will make bars until they run out of ore, then be allowed to stop. And everybody in the fort gets weaponsmithing for a month. Yes, everyone. This gives the talented weaponsmiths a chance to go change their clothes, because they hadn’t. And on the level above, excavations proceed.
Malachite: … when suddenly, a wild Spriggans has posted! With a strategy of, and I quote, “25% Swords, 30% X-bows, 40% Hammers, 5% spears”, we are directly competing on swords. Technically, on spears too, but at 5% it’s not really a competition. I wonder if Spriggans will pull a ‘ha, gotcha’ at the end of the challenge, and reveal that when he said ‘swords’ he actually meant maces, and when he said ‘hammers’ he actually meant picks. Or something. I mean really, how many of us downloaded the save to check? I know I haven’t.
And so things carry on, until winter.
Obsidian. The fort is preparing for handover.
In the smithy proper, work has been carrying on. The new constructions are a sand bag stockpile and a small pod above, which was supposed to hold kiln-and-glass related items: glass gems bought from traders, potash and pearlash, maybe even the four rocks that produce gypsum powder (gypsum, alabaster, selenite, and satinspar).
Unfortunately, the stockpiles were filled with random gems and random blocks. Either I managed to run the fort for a moment before setting the stockpile restrictions, or dwarves are stupid. And since I tend to pause the game before setting up stockpiles exactly for this reason, I know who I want to blame.
Oh yes! This is also the site of the only active dumping zone in the fort; it’s right above the single surviving smelter on the right side. It was set up to dump all remaining weapons originating from outside the fort, but it didn’t work; then I forgot to deactivate it or remove it. The stockpile it sits on top of is a melt pile; you can probably figure that out, but I’ll say it anyway.
After the year turned, a single forge in there still works: it’s making copper armor, to level up the fort’s only armorer of any decent skill - a level 6.
Above, the housing project has been long completed, assigned, and smoothed out. The larger rooms are for families, and the small 2x3 ones are for single dwarves. I’ve assigned all furnace workers and weaponsmiths, regardless of skill, and the smoothed out rooms are all occupied. I have neglected to also move the one armorer, the four blacksmiths, and the two metalsmiths, so I can say the housing complex is about as big as it should be. And just to assure you, yes all those who were moved here were removed from the rooms upstairs.
On the right side, the masons still haven’t finished chewing through the stone. Keep in mind they’re removed from anything else, and have been working since spring to make blocks, doors, coffers and other bits of furniture.
Then, we have the unofficial dining hall; it’s not part of any zone, it’s just a bunch of tables and two food stockpiles. And on the right of that, is the Rock of Silver, a metalsmith’s guild holding some artifact figurine as centerpiece:
Above that, there are only mining tunnels. I ran tunnels through the center of embark squares, to make sure I hit any veins. As I noted in year 1, a good chunk of the map doesn’t have ores, but above the smithy there are veins of tetrahedrite, multiple silver ores, and gold.
Surface (and Farming).
These two technically unrelated aspects are getting lumped together, for no other reason than convenience.
Farming gets a harsh review: one of the underground plots gets dismantled, because the light of the Sun fell upon one tile of it, and now DF doesn’t know how to handle it. A temporary cloth stockpile gets made on top of it.
Above, all but the nearest plots are dismantled; the nearest ones are only spared to plant some thread-producing plants. These three are quickly planted with jute, the only one we have seeds for around here; I’d have expected some rope reeds to exist, but they don’t.
(Also featured: the non-sapient corpse stockpile, and a temporary wood stockpile for the carpenter to make some shields and wheelbarrows).
There’s also a bunch of furniture items loose on the surface, mostly beds and bins; I want to get them indoors. For this purpose, I create a stockpile that allows all furniture, except a few: statues, barrels, doors, and sand bags.
Internal fortress structure23rd of Felsite. On the brink of summer, the miners have dug out the new smithy, a bunch of ore near the smelters, and most if not all of the new staircase. What else is there to do? Why, everything else, of course!
Let's begin with some more rooms for our poor little dwarves. The beds in the dirt layer don’t really count as rooms, do they?
But before I put pick to stone, there are a few things to consider and plan. For instance, there are several layers of more valuable flux stone; chalk from 147 to 144, then marble from 127 to 123 (or possibly from 128 to 117, the associated granite and gabbro layers go between those two). Either of them is ideal for high-value rooms, and the upper chalk level has already been used for this.
Eventually, I settled for a bedroom extension on level 144; 32 small rooms, and 13 larger ones in the back. I’d intend those to be given to families with children, even if DF doesn’t really care about that level of roleplay.
The empty area in the middle is meant for nobles; at a minimum, we should be made barony some time soon.
This particular project was kind of a flop; it was started a whole season before I got the idea to house the smiths and forge workers near the smithy, and half of it turned out to be phyllite not chalk. So much for that juicy flux stone bonus. At the moment it’s unfinished and unoccupied, and there are some 20 dwarves who don’t have rooms; most are children.
The three large rooms are prepared for Spriggans, our future baron.
Moving on. Actual farms and pastures are going to be in layer 148, under the surface. This leaves some room for the farming-related structures in the layers between surface and housing.
On level 147, the turkeys received a proper room. They also get a combined butchery and tannery next to them, and stockpiles for meat and fat, so maybe they shouldn’t rejoice much.
The level under this is untouched; I’m tempted for a plant and/or cloth stockpile here. But this can wait, and so can the dedicated crafting level(s).
24th Hematite. All excavations on the above were completed, and it’s time to build a few walls and floors. Plus, any spot where I intend to make a workshop get smoothed out; at the moment, that’s just the future butchery. Then most digging is done in the smithy, and that is covered in its own dedicated section.
Obsidian. At the end of the year, the area was extended with a refuse stockpile, and associated atom smasher. You can see the completed fat and cooking zones, and the butchery with a bunch of rawhides laying around and rotting, because the fort’s only dumbass tanner elected to go hauling:
Next on the list, is a
safe trade depot. In this fort, the trade depot can be a real life-saver, seeing as we don’t necessarily focus on the best interests of dwarves.
So it’s ironic the depot is going to be built to the west, fully inside the resurrecting biome. This is the shortest distance from map edge to the fort, so they can deal with it.
It won’t be done in time for humans, and probably not for the dwarven caravan either, but my theoretical successor will trade in new digs. Literally.
The trade depot airlock was built and sealed during summer; then it sat idle until winter, when miners were free enough to dig the 7-wide tunnel into the bowels of the fort:
Well… mostly; this little area is outside the burrow, and so nobody dug it out before the year ended:
This tunnel sinks two levels before arriving near the crafting level where it ends in a circular room which should have the depot in the middle. I say should, because apparently I dun goofed, and the depot is one tile off:
Lastly, I repeat the link to the save.
SAVE.
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Topic: Numbercurse - Competitive - The Curse has been Lifted (Read 29636 times)