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[brewer bob]

Good luck with the ambitious minecart project!

[Bralbaard]

Section 2: Machineroad the Joy of Working

Work has started on the second section of the Machine Road, and it is time for an update. First some details about the design. Machineroad will feature a double track over its entire length with carts traveling on the right hand side. Experiments with windpower driven impulse towers have been succesful. It looks like a single kick by the roller systems of such a tower can propel a cart over at least a 10 urist wide embark, but towers are currently set up at shorter distances. 

The connection between embarks is cause for concern. Theoretically all should be fine, but this can only be tested by adventurers. With the current travel restrictions in the world, this is however not possible. The Machineroad team strongly advices future travelers to wear helmets at all times: Remember, a yak on the track can really ruin your day! 

Speaking about creatures on the Machineroad:

The liaison from the mountainhomes came for a visit in autumn.


Not only did he walk on the rails, no, he was also a goblin! After nearly getting hit by one of the minecarts that was transporting quartzite blocks down the rails to the current construction site, he started to complain that no trade depot had been set up for his traders.

He left unhappy after finding out everybody was to busy to talk, and after seeing that the only construction on site besides the road was a muddy hole with 14 beds. It was clear that nobody was going to bother to build a depot, or trade goods.

[Bralbaard]

Section 3: Machineroad the Swamp of Swamps

Though this section is named after the swamp we expected to encounter here, our real nemesis was the steep hill side in the middle of the section. Building a system that gets the minecarts uphill without killing the occupants in the process turned out to be surprisingly difficult. We feel confident that travel from Bedbugs to Squidtowers is safe, but the other way around is 'experimental'.  The high speeds required causes the minecarts to glitch through walls, and undergo weird teleport effects.  The good news is that eventually the cart arrives at it's destination! Do not be distracted by the ghosts of deceased railroad workers and test pilots that haunt this area. We hope to solve this problem eventually.
 
Section 4: Machineroad the Squid of Towers

This brings us to the final section of the track, the end station near Squidtowers! Work here went smoothly. The section of track was so short that the fresh workers had no time to get too upset by their working conditions.
We even had time to construct a nice train station:



With that the Machineroad is finished. The boarding stations are set up just outside Bedbugs and Squidtowers. At these and several other locations around the track, minecarts are parked that can be used for travel. Some notes:

-please remove the carts from the track after use and place them in these parking areas, carts left on the track can cause accidents, or travel delay.
-Obviously the full travel distance can only be experienced when adventurers will be free to travel the world again, and more extensive testing will be needed at that time before it can be considered safe.
-The track is designed for carts to travel on the right hand side of the double track.
-Again, some testing has been done, but not all sections are properly tested. use at your own risk.
-Feel free to expand on the rail network, and to unretire rail sections for that purpose!

This is the map with the new sites:



1: Machineroad the Bed of Bugs (section 1)
2: Machineroad the Joy of working (section 2)
3: Machineroad the Swamp of Swamps (section 3)
4: Machineroad the Squid of Towers (section 4)

And here is the save: dffd link
Good luck on the next turn!

[Salmeuk]

Bralbaard, brilliant engineer, has blessed us with a path of metal track stretching through the jungle depths. May Armok look down with pleasure upon this great work of dwarven engineering.

Obviously the full travel distance can only be experienced when adventurers will be free to travel the world again, and more extensive testing will be needed at that time before it can be considered safe.

they say the day may come, in the future times, when the children of this forum will be free to travel the god-created planes and universes we so desire to explore

to put it another way, I'm def excited to crash at extreme speeds during the eventual testing phase.

anyone up for a turn? I'm rather inspired by this feat but I have little time due to travel..

[King Zultan]

That's a really nice railroad you built there, to bad there's no adventure mode in this version.

[Bralbaard]

It was a lot of work. If the future adventure release is not save compatible, I might go stark raving mad.

[Bralbaard]

Well some good news from the FOTF thread:

Maybe this has been discussed before, but I was wondering what the odds are that saves from the current version will be compatible with the future adventure mode release?

Odds are currently really good ha ha.  Something could come up, but it's less likely this time than it was with the fort mode conversion since the base objects of the game shared with adv mode have already been moved over, and I don't have to worry about active adv mode games the way I had to worry about active fort mode games, since there aren't any (in the versions we're compatible with.)

This means we can happily continue world building, chances are very good it will be compatible.

[King Zultan]

Huzza!

[Salmeuk]

very nice!! let me pick this up for a turn.

[Salmeuk]

civ: the gears of lauding (pop ~150)
southeast quadrant of the world
hemmed in by goblins and necromancers, this civ has no other contact with the outside world
it was decided to create a chain of outposts for weary travelers
and maybe, eventually, talk to some other survivors
 of the necro apocalypse

in year 825, the first of such outposts was founded. Gatinduthnur, "Patherguard" - so named for the many ferocious wildcats who lurked in the tropical broadleaf forests - was settled to the west of the remaining populations of The Gears of Lauding.



two years passed uneventfully, though fierce wildlife regularly crept along the boundaries of our settlement.



a chalk tower was constructed, as tall as the jungle canopy. if you bothered to make the climb, the top floor provided a clear view of misty, faraway mountains.

below, a series of round rooms allow for a great number of citizens to grow and thrive in relative luxury. farms provided fungus aplenty. one birth was reported during this time, huzzah!

 no more than two migrant waves arrived, suggesting our civilization remains incapacitated. More time and effort will be needed to restart this lineage.

In the end, the settlement was handed over to local management.

====

It is late winter of 827. the overseer begins to hunt for a second embark

[Salmeuk]

three small outposts... hardly 'complete' but together they have added another 50 dwarves to the civilization known as The Gears of Lauding. my turn is complete, for now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

a scene from Mirthbite

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

a curious statue of an ancient historical event

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

extensive cavern digging resulted in a surplus of food

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

a scene from Earthenroom - a chalk stronghold near the dead jungles

save here: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=16850

browsing legends, none of the player fortresses have fallen to invasions, and the world appears as still as ever... this world may be slightly TOO dead for the usual shenanigans... yet because of this it makes a great environment for building. minus the wildlife.

i took a 'macro' perspective for this turn, thinking in terms of A. building population and B. supplying visitors with goods. it was kind of fun to have this larger, strategic thinking guiding some decisions, even if (for now) they are mostly aesthetic . so it was an unexpected surprise when the final fortress, Earthenroom, received three times as many migrants in only a single year.

it seems that, if you  chain multiple embarks nearby, your dwarves tend to throw themselves at the newest place in town and this can be abused for projects. obviously this is not needed in a thriving civilization, but for this world? fairly important