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[Salmeuk]

Haha Delphonso, just in the nick of time! I'll include you in the writeup (likely) posted later today.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh, and sincere congratulations on your fatherhood. Though, if you learned anything from this challenge, it would be how useless the little buggers are. Get them brewing early!

Consider submissions closed.

Here's the save. I didn't link it in the play-through, because I've linked it before in a post on the previous page (that's how applet grabbed it and found the 5 non-booze barrels). I also didn't think anybody would be interested in it...

Oh. I must be blind lol. tyty

[Salmeuk]

I will start calling this the 'Fortress Review' - post-round commentary on a job well done.

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quantum covered the surface in farms, huge haphazard plots of land, some falling within a short stone wall.



A large area was set up for woodburning and the processing of ash into potash, for use in field fertilization. Inside was a large brewing operation, with 18 stills all together. One z-level below was the vault, a rectangular affair, holding an uncountable amount of booze (as it was all forbidden in the quest for glory).



Modest but effective, it is tough to quantify such large-scale operations without actually having constructed them. 7 dwarves lay dead on this map.The most glaring fault here is the lack of turkeys - I counted only 4!!

Final Score = 636
Quantum wins the "Fertile Fields" award, for his strategic use of dead tree dust.

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A most foreboding message greeted me as I opened the save:



A cluster of fields at the surface.



The booze vault took on a vertical shape here, 6 levels deep, which honestly I thought I explained I wanted 1-z level vault but I'm not a stickler for these kinds of things. If the booze is safe, I'm happy. A pile of sleeping children flanks the booze.



I counted 8 stills altogether, a small number for sure, but enough to get the job done. Of note are the individual rooms built for the dwarves, though they are cramped and lack doors.



Considering there is enough booze to literally swim in right outside the rooms, these dwarves are likely ok with that.

Final Score = 1219
Radipon wins the "Rulebreaker" award, for failing me in a horrible and unforgivable fashion.

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A messy surface, indeed:



Farms both inside and out, strung together on whatever soil could be found. A mangled tiger corpse greets newcomers to the fortress, which when alive was infamously named 'Notonumril'. 12 dwarves lay dead on this map, and I counted 12 stills being used for production - an unhappy coincidence. Of note is the use of pots to hold the brew, and perhaps this was the winning strategy, though I can't imagine why it would change much of anything. Maybe they weigh less?

Final Score = 1468
Applet wins the "Pothead" award, for his prodigious pot use, as well as the "Runner Up of the Second Round" award.

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Upon loading, it is obvious something has gone horribly wrong in this place:



THERE ARE ELVES IN THE WALL! (actually a graphical bug induced my lack of the same graphical tilset as used during the save)

All jokes aside, there is a lot of care put into this place. The surface plots are smartly hidden underneath a well-designed stone plaza that somehow lets in enough light to grow crops.



Below, a series of spacious rooms are under construction. Perhaps an afterthought but certainly one that the citizens might later appreciate. Only 3 dwarves lay dead here, though they reside in a glorious tomb.



The vault itself is wide and spacious, and a unique decision was made to have the stills at a lower level than the farms.

When I saw the following, I considered calling an end to all scoring and just awarding Strika  the gold medal:



A true gentlemen never culls his turkey-herd. What glorious breadth of fecund feather-friend we find here!

Final Score = 1084
StrikaAmaru wins the "Friend of Turkey" award, for his renowned breeding practices. Huzzah!

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spriggans surface is more spread, but also more organized, than the others.



The same can be said of his vault - what a unique design (and how horrible it was to count)!



I counted 19 total stills, the most of any. Oh and what's this beautiful chamber? Is that gobbling I hear?!



Indeed! The poults running about bring great joy to my tired soul. Did you know the most famous poet in all our time wrote his first poem about a pet turkey of his? I bet you didn't!

Of note is Spriggan's attempt to use water to couteract the natural thirst of dwarves. It appears he drained some of the swampland into a cistern underground.

Final Score = 1563
Spriggans gains the title, "Winner of the Second Round", as well as the "Liquid Engineer" award, for his thifty use of limited aquatic resources. Spriggans' fortress will become the new save for round 3, the rules of which I will post sometime tomorrow, along with a copy of the save. Congratulations! Glory to the winner!

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The whole fortress seems to fit on one layer!



Though, it turns out the vault extend upwards a few layers. Note to self: keep the scoring rules simple, or get better at communicating them. I counted 15 stills here. I enjoy how the small hillock is hollowed out and filled with booze. I believe that to be rather dwarfy indeed, and a good use of the available space. Of note is Delphonso's use of stone pots, a unique strategy this round. I couldn't tell you whats faster - hauling the lighter wood from far away, or using the heavier stone right at hand. Still, for a one-shot attempt, an admirable score indeed.

Final Score = 1213
Delphonso wins the "Last Minute" award for submitting his turn at, well, the last minute.

===

Honor and Praise bestowed upon thee, Spriggans of Bay12!


Thanks all for an enjoyable round. Check in tomorrow for the next challenge.

[delphonso]

Well done Spriggans! I'm very glad my terrible fort didn't win! Looking forward to our turkey based goal for the next round.

To be honest, I sort of glazed over the vault rules so it may not have been a failure on your part, Sal...
Interesting that Radipon and I both failed to recognize the vault rules and also ended up with a similar amount of barrels.

[StrikaAmaru]

Congratulations on your victory, Spriggans! Now could you please post the save? Because yeah, Spriggans' save was not made publicly available - it was PM'd to Salmeuk somewhere at the end of page 7.

1. We're definitely gonna lower childcap to 0/0 as a global init rule, but depending on the init setting the winner had during this year's liason visit, it might not take effect until round 4.

2. What do you guys think about a 100-dwarf popcap? Partially to counteract the aformentioned 'child problem', but also to give the fortress a bit more oompf when it comes to defense and production, an increase might help us out. A large siege followed by a mass-reanimation would prove particularly difficult to work around without some combat troops.

1. YES PLEASE! We have ~35% of the fort as children, which is a bit much.

2. For best results, can we set the child cap in year 3, and up the popcap in year 4?

[Spriggans]

Wow ! Did I really win ? I'm too good at this game ! I save-scummed like a pro !

There goes The SAVE


On an other note, I'm impressed how different fortresses are !
Some made cozy places, with well defined rooms, safely sealed underground.
Mine is a glorified dirt hole with stills and stockpiles... I ashamed I'm picked for next year.

Some tips for next year :
- There are many holes into the "fortress" because of cut trees. So the fort is NOT SAFE. It's no big deal since we can savescum sieges/invasions tough... (see 1/)
- We have no military. I appointed 2 dwarves to a squad to deal with zombies, but they have no training to speak of. Using miners with picks is our best militia as of now (warning : our legendary miner has mining turned off as of now).
- I Fallowed all crops in october. So no seeds are currently growing , and the farms can be removed.
- Happiness wize, our whole pop at Stress ~= 0, except Rapidion who is Unhappy (25k stress), and Stakud (the legendary barrel-maker), who is Happy (-26k stress)
- Pop is 50 dwarves, and 30ish children, of whom are 5 babies of this year IIRC. If we keep 80pop cap, we should maybe pile-up the children in a small room next to a bridge ?

Suggestions :@Salmeuk
1/ To make things more FUN, could we ban the save-scumming on Sieges/invasions ? I had a 7 crossbow-gobos siege. I killed them but ended with 10 crippled dorfs, I just reseted, and got no sieges after that. That's a bit cheaty...
I should have taken time to make walls / military properly. But save-scumming sieges makes these 2 useless (apart from making the eventual Zombies easier to deal with).

2/ We have 11k booze. That means 11k seeds were produced. A good amount of that got planted again, okay, but I feel like unused seeds will be a FPS-death. => Can we DF-hack to remove them seeds ?
Also, by calculation, 11k drinks mean 7 years of alcohol for 80 dwarves. So no worries here.

[delphonso]

1. YES PLEASE! We have ~35% of the fort as children, which is a bit much.

2. For best results, can we set the child cap in year 3, and up the popcap in year 4?

Seconded - this sounds like a great way to make sure those kids get atomsmashed. I mean - that we end up with a larger adult population.

[Quantum Drop]

Congratulations on your victory, Spriggans.

Also, thirding Plan: Atomsmash the Little Parasites Kids.

[Salmeuk]

Alright, here we go. Round three info below for newcomers!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. Name one of the dwarves after yourself, and post here (preferably today) which dwarf you chose. If this dwarf is dead when you submit your final save, you will be disqualified from the scoring. There are no rules about locking them up in a small chamber, but of course, that is a free pair of hands you are unable to use for the challenge.

2. You are free to save scum. Hell, you can restart the whole challenge if you feel like it! Keep track of how many times if you want, I'm curious how often people will need to do this.

3. Please no cheating utilites, like reveal_all, fastdwarf, etc. That's no fun! Feel free to use quality of life utilities since this is DF after all. I suppose you might declare which ones you plan to use, for transparencies sake.

4. You have 1 week IRL, unless you need an extension, then 2 weeks max. In-game, you have a little less than 1 year, until the next spring comes (Granite 1st).

5. Use the following INIT settings. Note the popcap has increased to 100, and the new addition of a childcap.

[STRICT_POPULATION_CAP:100]
[BABY_CHILD_CAP:0:100]
[VISITOR_CAP:40]


[INVASION_SOLDIER_CAP:60]
[INVASION_MONSTER_CAP:100]


[GRAZE_COEFFICIENT:100]

[PRIESTHOOD_UNIT_COUNTS:10:25]
[TEMPLE_VALUE_LEVELS:2000:10000]
[GUILD_UNIT_COUNTS:10:25]
[GUILDHALL_VALUE_LEVELS:2000:10000]

[TEMPERATURE:YES]
[WEATHER:YES]
[ECONOMY:YES]
[INVADERS:YES]
[CAVEINS:YES]
[ARTIFACTS:YES]

Every other INIT setting is fair game.

6. Remember, when you complete your turn and feel satisfied with your score, please PM me the uploaded save so I can secretly verify and tally. If you want, perform your own item count so I can double-check my accuracy.

7.Journal and screenshot as you please - nothing, some, or as normal for succession games. Just don't mention your score!

I changed the popcap and childcap to 100 and 0 respectively. Don't forget to post or PM me your chosen dwarf. Remember these changes might not take effect for a year, depending on Spriggan's settings last time the dwarven caravan visited. I haven't decided yet about savescumming, honestly I don't think I can change the rules on it without breaking the game, so for now it's free and easy. Kind of unfair for the people with tight schedules and less time to grind, but eh it's fine - strategy is still king.

Feel free to clean up the seed explosion with utilities, though it's only 1400 seeds. Don't autodump anything else! Spriggans ended early so you have an extra 11 days to compete. His save is here, along with some notes about the fortress you are inheriting!

Here is the scoring item for round 3:

The top 3 most valuable individual items in your fortress, excluding artifacts, will be totalled for a final combined value. These 3 items must be each placed on separate pedestals, but it's up to you where and how you arrange them. The total value will be your score. You will specify which items you want me to tally at the end. These must be single items, so no stacks of ammo or masterwork prepared meals. Again, no artifacts, and I will also exclude traded divine materials. Only the hard work of your dwarves and your careful micromanagement will bring about victory.

Uh please note I reserve the right to change this scoring rule in the next couple of days - I can't think of anything right now, but I would want to exclude any broken combinations or techniques I might have forgotten. Yes, adamantine is legal! If I were you I would study up on base item valuation before starting, and try to identify the most available adornment materials on the map, then pair that with a high-base value item set. God knows how annoying it will be to micromanage adornment for an in-game year but consider this round experimental. 

We will run this game for the next two weekends until Monday 10/12/2020, or until everyone who has committed to playing has submitted their final saves. Good luck!

[applet]

Here is the scoring item for round 3:

The top 3 most valuable items in your fortress, excluding artifacts, will be totalled for a final combined value. These must be placed on pedestals, but it's up to you where and how you arrange them. The total value will be your score. You will specify which items you want me to tally at the end. These must be single items, so no stacks of ammo or masterwork prepared meals. Again, no artifacts, and I will also exclude traded divine materials. Only the hard work of your dwarves and your careful micromanagement will bring about victory.

The first time I read this, I thought you meant item types, not individual items. I would clarify that by changing the pedestals part to "These must be placed on their own 3 pedestals".

Do you get bonus points for !!item!!s?

[Spriggans]

I changed the popcap and childcap to 100 and 0 respectively. Don't forget to post or PM me your chosen dwarf. Remember these changes might not take effect for a year, depending on Spriggan's settings last time the dwarven caravan visited.

I had the default 100:1000 during all my play.

This year's objective doesn't seem too dwarf-power intensive !
While maybe 20 dwarves work on the items, it's time for the others to improve our dirt hole boys ! Let's have a proper fort at last =)

[delphonso]

This year's objective doesn't seem too dwarf-power intensive !
While maybe 20 dwarves work on the items, it's time for the others to improve our dirt hole boys ! Let's have a proper fort at last =)

I was thinking the same thing - let's be real, this round is all about that sweet sweet "most beautiful fort" award.

I'm in on this round, by the way. I'll try to read the instructions a bit closer this time...

[Quantum Drop]

I'm in on this round. Will edit in my chosen Dwarf when I crack open the save and start doing things.

[applet]

So let's dive into the metagame.

Item value derives from:
* Item type
* Primary material of item
* Quality of item
* Decorations
** Material of decoration
** Quality of decoration

For item types, some stick out:
200 - parchment Scroll/Quire (? - This seems to be old info)
126 - Spiked ball/large serrated disc
50 - Stepladder, Minecart, Instrument, Wheelbarrow
25 - Statue (for reference)

Primary material seems to have adamantine as the only viable material at 300, followed by adamantine ore at 250.

Quality, Masterwork has a factor of 12, anything else being disqualified tbh.

Decorations are additive, one can add as many decorations as you have different materials for..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are 5 types of decorations, Bones (and related tooth, horn, etc), Gems (of a surprising variety), Metal, Leather, Cloth

Leather and cloth can only be applied to soft things, that is, leather or clothes base items and you cannot "stack" different leather decorations. Supposedly.

Gems can not be applied to weapons or armor.

Decoration value could potentially make the base item value almost irrelevant.

Some science required, this is only theoretical so far.

Did I miss something?

[Salmeuk]

(lots of good details about item valuation)

That's pretty much as I understand it. Simple base value can be important, but decorations are infinite and can easily become the main value source, even for a masterwork adamantine axe or whatever. It will come down to your workflow for each item. As I understand it, if you order a workshop to repeat a decoration, they will keep picking up the same item over and over again.. but honestly I don't know for certain how difficult this kind of thing will be to manage. Supply of ingredients vs. skill of worker vs. time spent working, all of these should be focused on.

Nice catch about individual item vs. categories, I edited the scoring criteria to be more specific.

RE: "While maybe 20 dwarves work on the items, it's time for the others to improve our dirt hole boys ! Let's have a proper fort at last =)"

YESSSS this is the round to show your design skills off to your fellow players, and potentially force them to work around your insanity. Ideally you work towards a good balance of utility and aesthetic, but honestly, this is DF so anything goes.

[delphonso]

The quality multiplier could make an adamantine good pretty strong on its own depending on how fast decorating goes.

Important info I feel is worth sharing, adding metal decorations does not use fuel - so if you want to stud stuff, you can do it at a forge anywhere.