Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 6

Author Topic: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.  (Read 22069 times)

janglur

  • Bay Watcher
  • +Blood Soup+
    • View Profile
The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« on: February 20, 2011, 12:54:49 am »

For years, I have played Dwarf Fortress, content and safe in my relative safety behind countless +Serrated Steel Disc+ traps and steel clad golem dwarves whose only challenge becomes hell itself.  These were the golden days of the dwarf, when fountains flowed of rum and every bedroom was paved in gold and silver.  This was the time of no worry and little strife, when the undead were weak and goblins little more than a nuisance.  But this time, my friends, is over.

Now, dwarves can scarcely scrape together bronze and iron for weapons, much less armor.  Traps are rendered ineffective, made of wood, bone, and stone as they are.  Goblins attack in ever greater and more frequent numbers, and the countryside is darkened by the smoke of burning villages.  Eldritch horrors lurk the dark and forgotten gods fall to the lands to reclaim it from the people of the mountains.  The undead attack relentlessly in endless droves, ever growing from their victims.  And it is said some places have become so terrifying that even the grass itself would do you harm.

This is the dawn of a new age of our Fortress.  These are the Dwarven Dark Ages.


[Who else feels .19 makes the game far darker and more grim?  I just got killed by an ambush.  An ambush, not even a siege! And I had a military!  I can't even remember the last time that happened!  And terrifying biomes?  You just have no bloody chance, man!  Metal's too scarce to eke out anything.  You can at best turtle up and never, ever dare leave through any means.  If you even get that far...  It certainly is nowhere near as easy as it was.]
Logged

Max White

  • Bay Watcher
  • Still not hollowed!
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2011, 12:56:43 am »

I know, I like it.  :D

Although, just in case you feel like he odds are too strongly against you... Cage traps.

Girlinhat

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:large ears]
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2011, 01:01:53 am »

And when you build your fortress walls from the bones of skeletal elephants, slain my weapons forged from melted goblin plunder, fed on cattle that graze on grass that blinks.  Then, you will know dwarfdom.

janglur

  • Bay Watcher
  • +Blood Soup+
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2011, 01:02:07 am »

They work great.  Except not on flyers.  Bye bye, fort!


To think, dwarves are USELESS without metal!
Logged

Girlinhat

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:large ears]
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2011, 01:05:11 am »

I'm honestly starting to become ashamed of the community.  All of our talk, all of our scheming and bragging, all the glorious and brutal ways we've managed to weaponize everything from actual weapons (re-weaponized?) to grass.  The world is our armory, and yet here we falter and die for lack of a scrap of iron.

Dwarf up and get working.

Diakron

  • Bay Watcher
  • Death Before Dishonor
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2011, 01:07:51 am »

They work great.  Except not on flyers.  Bye bye, fort!


To think, dwarves are USELESS without metal!

Reminds me of the good old days of DF, before all this metal from DF2010. Use to be you only found 4-8 metals per site so to me, all i need is the D40 military and I'm in Dwarf Heaven!
Logged
Back to Mafia with me!

noob

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2011, 01:12:21 am »

the candy is still there  :). breach the 1st layer of candy and youll have enough for 1-2 dwarfs. thats all you will ever need.
Logged
LOSING IS FUN!

janglur

  • Bay Watcher
  • +Blood Soup+
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2011, 01:12:44 am »

I'm loving the scarcity.  I have to completely redesign my strategy every season now, much less every fort!  Whereas before there were tried and true tactics.  Now it's just a hodgepodge of slaughter.  Hail Armok!
Logged

NW_Kohaku

  • Bay Watcher
  • [ETHIC:SCIENCE_FOR_FUN: REQUIRED]
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2011, 01:13:30 am »

I'm honestly starting to become ashamed of the community.  All of our talk, all of our scheming and bragging, all the glorious and brutal ways we've managed to weaponize everything from actual weapons (re-weaponized?) to grass.  The world is our armory, and yet here we falter and die for lack of a scrap of iron.

Dwarf up and get working.

Heh, them's fighting words in some threads.

I kind of like my test fortress set up where the only "deep metal" turns out to be some worthless brown gem.

Then again, I never really liked the military that much, even back in 40d, and preferred engineering, anyway.  Of course, that means I prefer "less dwarfy" solutions like rows and rows of spikes on repeaters or ballistas from across chasms.  Or just plain "cheating" things like cage traps.

Magma flooding works just as well now as before, although magma-proof material is harder to come by.  (If all else fails, you can make some obsidian as a magma-proof stone.)

Plus, you know, there's the cheesy deep metal that's now both supposedly "the most rare" and most common material in the game, which happens to make excellent armor and piercing weapons.
Logged
Personally, I like [DF] because after climbing the damned learning cliff, I'm too elitist to consider not liking it.
"And no Frankenstein-esque body part stitching?"
"Not yet"

Improved Farming
Class Warfare

Diakron

  • Bay Watcher
  • Death Before Dishonor
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2011, 01:18:51 am »

nevermind, forgot that glass is easier to make now days
« Last Edit: February 20, 2011, 01:21:14 am by Diakron »
Logged
Back to Mafia with me!

Girlinhat

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:large ears]
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2011, 01:20:00 am »

People keep forgetting that glass is magma-safe...  For real, glass pumps.  Do it.

We have grown soft in our metal abundance though.  When was the last time you saw someone use a cave-in trap that was reloadable from the inside, as their main method of defense?  A scaffolding over the field, set to allow pieces of floor and such to be dropped on invaders, could be a powerful and still dwarfy defense.  Just need enough mechanisms and stone to make another floor and support to trigger the fall, and these can be recovered after every battle.

janglur

  • Bay Watcher
  • +Blood Soup+
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2011, 01:23:16 am »

Actually, I just built a 9x9 landmine for trolls.  =D

Troll:  "OOH, PILL-ARR!"
A Troll Suturer has troppled a pillar!
KABLOOOOOOOOM!
A Troll Suterer has been struck down.
A troll shearer has been struck down
A goblin crossbowman has been struck down.
A goblin crossbowman has been struck down.
A goblin crossbowman has been struck down.
Goblin:  "Why do we take them along again?"
Logged

Max White

  • Bay Watcher
  • Still not hollowed!
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2011, 01:24:35 am »

I'm honestly starting to become ashamed of the community.  All of our talk, all of our scheming and bragging, all the glorious and brutal ways we've managed to weaponize everything from actual weapons (re-weaponized?) to grass.  The world is our armory, and yet here we falter and die for lack of a scrap of iron.

Dwarf up and get working.
Oh don't get your panties twisted. Some people need metal to pull something off! They might be trying to build a giant iron statue of armok that spews magma. The rest of us are having fun with bees and goblins.

We are as dorf as ever.

Girlinhat

  • Bay Watcher
  • [PREFSTRING:large ears]
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2011, 01:29:03 am »

Megaprojects aside, people are complaining about simple survival due to lack of steel axedwarves.  This is particularly hilarious when the same person says "I refuse to use weapon traps.  I can't survive this new version since my military has no steel!"

Urist Da Vinci

  • Bay Watcher
  • [NATURAL_SKILL: ENGINEER:4]
    • View Profile
Re: The Future of the Fortress? It is Grim.
« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2011, 01:31:04 am »

In the grim darkness of the future fortress, dwarves wear leather trenchcoats and wield bone crossbows with bone bolts.
Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 6