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Author Topic: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress  (Read 16358 times)

KodKod

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This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« on: August 13, 2011, 05:07:41 pm »

A wondrous, magical thing happened to me today which reminded me exactly why I love Dwarf Fortress so much, and I thought I would share that joy with all of you. Allow me to give you a little background to today's events.

I started the fortress of Caveswamp and immediately moved down into the caverns, where all my dwarves live, to provide myself with a bit more of a challenge; no longer is a bridge all I need to guarantee absolute safety, I don't even have that option anymore. Of course, this meant that a heaping dose of Fun was headed my way when my first forgotten beast appeared, and I saw in its description "poisonous vapours".

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As it turns out, these poisonous vapours in particular were 100% fatal, any exposure to them whatsoever stop both lungs from functioning, and anyone effected vomits up a lovely little trail of blood until they crawl into a corner and suffocate, which doesn't take particularly long. Sadly I didn't have a military at this point, because the time leading up to this forgotten beast attack had been marked by attacks from alligators, giant toads and giant cave spiders, it was all I could do to survive. Needless to say, a forgotten beast which guaranteed death to anything nearby was not something I could handle.

Thankfully it was my brave legendary miners who saved the day, after being drafted into a small military squad and ordered to use their picks in combat. They all died, of course, they still had to get near the blasted thing, but one lucky strike through its brain ended the threat for good. For a time I was worried that the extract covering the ground would cause me problems, but after a year I thought it was safe to say that it was harmless, so life continued as usual in Caveswamp, despite it having wiped out 24 dwarves, over half of my population.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

About a year and a half after the events rutherers started harassing my home. Normally they're peaceful, but they have a tendency of taking a swing at any dwarf which gets too close; considering that they're 50 times the size of a dwarf, that's bad news. 

The first victim of the rutherers was a helpless miner, carving out bedrooms. This rutherer decided that it wasn't just going to take a swing at the miner, but that it was going to pummel him into a bloody mess on the floor. Needless to say, it succeeded, and limbs were strewn all over the corridor. The miner had fought back, but he was un-armoured and nowhere near legendary status, there hadn't been a miner of that calibre in Caveswamp since the forgotten beast attack, so all he had managed to inflict was a few cuts a bruises, leaving the rutherer almost completely unharmed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At least that is what I had thought.

A few moments after having killed my miner I noticed that a little white X was starting to flash over the rutherer, and a trail of blood was following it everywhere it went. In less than a minute the beast was dead despite having suffered no aggravated wounds. It was only then that I decided that I would take a look at what my miner had been wielding, and when I saw what I did I realised that I had been blessed by Armok himself:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yes, that's the very same extract that I thought had become inert once it had solidified. As it turns out, all of the picks in my fort, one steel, two copper, are coated in a poison which will cause guaranteed death to anything they so much as scratch; truly weapons sent by the gods as a sign to promote my renewed faith!

Only in this game can the biggest catastrophe to hit your peoples grant you godmode weapon; and the best thing? This is not a strange or magical occurrence, it's not the most exciting thing that has ever happened to anyone, nor is it the most unexpected; it's just another day in Dwarf Fortress.

I love this game.
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Sting_Auer

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2011, 05:12:22 pm »

Note to self: equip useless migrants with weapons and put them in a room with a caged forgotten beast that has poisonous attacks. Retrieve weapons later and assign to military.
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Thank you everyone for the help! I've since flooded the fortress I was working on and now have a new one going up.

Elisebambi

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2011, 05:14:16 pm »

can i sig an entire thread?
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Bloxace

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2011, 05:15:38 pm »

I'm surprised I haven't heard of kind of thing before. These pick must be put in the military, ASAP. Also, see if you can get the extract onto something you can eat, and send it as an offering to the leader of an elf civilization. Or send the rutherer.
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...Said Bloxace.

sneakey pete

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2011, 05:20:49 pm »

All i've had with FB's in the last few months was one made of salt that died in 3 hits...
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CookieBrigade

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2011, 06:45:38 pm »

Only in dwarf fortress can picks become the greatest weapons in a game.
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ledgekindred

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2011, 07:39:51 pm »

Brilliant!  Great storytelling too.  I love hearing about the little things that the game comes up with, seemingly all on its own.

It's a real tossup whether to leave the picks in the hands of the miners or give them to a military squad.  On the one hand, a military armed with biological weapons could be deadly indeed.  On the other, it gives the miners a chance in Armok of surviving an attack by cavern beasties while they are digging your fortress from unexplored depths of the earth.

If there were a real way to weaponize this stuff by extracting it and putting it in barrels, with your next siege you could reenact WoW's Battle of Angrathar the Wrath Gate as Grand Apothecary Urist Putress.

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I don't understand, though that is about right with anything DF related.
I just hope he dies the same death that all dwarfs deserve: liver disease.
The legend of Reg: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=65866.0
Atir Stigildegel, Legless Hero of Diamondrelic: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=83136.0

Gamerlord

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #7 on: August 13, 2011, 07:51:33 pm »

Hm...  :-\ Hey guys, is it possible to mod a syndrome to rot away the bones and only the bones?  ???

Umune

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #8 on: August 13, 2011, 08:17:44 pm »

Are you sure that the extract is transmitted through combat rather than occupying the same tile as the rutherer? If the miner was wearing gloves, it wouldn't rule out the possibility that the rutherer just walked over the pick after killing the miner, picking up the disease from that contact, rather than a cut.
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KodKod

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2011, 08:32:16 pm »

Are you sure that the extract is transmitted through combat rather than occupying the same tile as the rutherer? If the miner was wearing gloves, it wouldn't rule out the possibility that the rutherer just walked over the pick after killing the miner, picking up the disease from that contact, rather than a cut.

If the syndrome was transmitted by touch I think I would have a hell of a lot more dead animals.
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sneakey pete

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2011, 10:02:04 pm »

if you do train pickaxe weilding soilders, i suppose you'd better carefully manage which picks they can use. Otherwise training won't be lasting very long.
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Magma is overrated.

DoctorMonch

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #11 on: August 13, 2011, 10:17:09 pm »

The reclamation of my favorite fort I've ever run, "Bowmined" had a bit of the same situation going for it, but in a way that turned the fortress into a no mans zone.

Had a forgotten beast that brought the ending to the fortress with its deadly blood which would cause full body rot. In the beginning, it never actually made it inside my fortress, as I was walled off from the outside world. A migrant wave brought a new batch of fodder for the beast, as well as a random miner who pierced its shell and allowed the blood to spread. One of the migrants had a goose who got soaked in blood, flew over the fortress walls, went into my dining room, and died. THUS, the great fall of Bowmined began from within. Eventually, a random brewer managed to kill the beast through what I can only assume was dumb luck, after she was drafted into my militia. (The main militia died either through syndrome or in one of the many gang-rushes I sent out to kill the beast.) The brewer then died from body rot, her baby died from body rot, and so on...

I attempted to reclaim the fortress with a trained militia squad.

They run into a random forgotten beast, manage to kill it, then get ambushed by goblins.

All but 3 died from combat. The living three were wounded, at rushed to the hospital to rest their wounds.

They all died from body rot caused by the FREAKING BLOOD OF THE FORGOTTEN BEAST THAT KILLED THE FORT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I was both amazed and disturbed at how powerful forgotten beasts could be with their abilities from that point on.

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CriticallyAshamed

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #12 on: August 13, 2011, 10:32:54 pm »

I thought it had been confirmed that weapons did not transfer poisons from blood and etc? In fact I'd wager that if the dwarf had hit the rutherer it would have coated the pick in rutherer blood instead and that would remove the bio weapon.

Interesting if it's legit however.
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Urist Imiknorris

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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #13 on: August 13, 2011, 10:38:49 pm »

Did you know that animal men poison their blowdarts? Do you know how that's done? The blowdarts have venom coverings. Maybe it doesn't work with melee weapons. I doubt it wouldn't.
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Re: This is why I love Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #14 on: August 13, 2011, 10:41:38 pm »

hahaha. What a good one. DF is so crazy.
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