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Author Topic: How long do you keep a fortress?  (Read 15059 times)

Tevish Szat

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #15 on: September 21, 2011, 01:11:12 am »

Yeah, all an atomsmasher is is a drawbridge that raises/lowers on a target square or area.

1: build 1x2 raising bridge over solid floor
2: Build lever, attach it to bridge, pull.
3: Create 1x1 garbage dump activity zone on the square the raised bridge will fall on.
4: order all junk dumped, turning on "dwarves gather outside refuse" if need be
5: pull the lever.  everything the bridge falls on is obliterated.

The wiki article on "dwarven atom smasher" confirms the erasure from existence of victim-items.
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Tevish Szat likes books, computers, board games, and cats for their aloofness. When possible, he prefers to consume hamburgers and macaroni and cheese. He needs caffeine to get through the working day.

They Got Leader

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2011, 01:17:44 am »

IIRC, it doesn't actually get rid of the objects, it just removes them from sight, it doesn't solve your FPS problem. I may be wrong on that point, though.

Well, I know hiding things makes for easier planning, but I thought you could atom-smash objects out of existence?  Dead units don't go away, but you can crush the actual corpses out of the game...?
[/quote]

No, I meant that I don't think it helps with your FPS problem.
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King DZA

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2011, 01:24:34 am »

If it's numbers you want, "the bitter end" usually arrives at around 3-5 years.

This is a rough estimate based upon my painstaking calculations of the lifespans of every fortress i have ever had up to this point, discovering the average time length my fortresses stand before collapsing due to an overflow of fun.

But just how many fortresses is that, you ask? Well let's see, counting my current one? give me a second...

Two.

EDIT: Oh, and in real time? no idea. I only have the chance to play for a few hours, 4-6 days a week. So a couple weeks, maybe.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2011, 01:36:12 am by King DZA »
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Doughnut189

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #18 on: September 21, 2011, 01:29:35 am »

If it's a good embark (one with metals enough to build an industry off of) I generally have it for 3-4 years before it gets maddeningly overcrowded and a siege with 4 pages of invaders stabs everyone in the face and/or a tantrum spiral knocks it down.

If it's not then I either get bored and abandon it within the first two years or everyone dies within that time.
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Monkeyfacedprickleback

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #19 on: September 21, 2011, 02:50:35 am »

20ish years if i'm not taking a challenge. Depends on what challenge i'm taking, for example the glacier fort lasted five years before i abandoned 'cos I wasn't getting traders or invasions (i found out i was on an island)
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ThatAussieGuy

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #20 on: September 21, 2011, 03:29:21 am »

I generally go with a good worldgen and site and stick with it till it falls.  Granted, I've only had the one fort that didn't implode on itself in some way or get slaughtered by gobbos, but it's still technically valid.

Angel Of Death

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #21 on: September 21, 2011, 03:51:20 am »

Several years. Usually about 2. My longest fort was 5 year but the ultimate downfall of it was the goddamn moronic dorfs.
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Reiina

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #22 on: September 21, 2011, 04:02:15 am »

I kept my last fort for around 5-6 years(dorf years that is :p), then with 186 dwarves it started to go at a crawl(fps wise), I installed 2 extra butcheries to kill the vermin, err I mean the dog puppies. Then after when it was still going so slowly I decided to just call it quit. I hope at some point toady implements multithreading, if only for path finding. When the game starts becoming a slideshow, it's not as fun.

In the meantime I think I may limit the number of dwarves I get(only started playing a few weeks ago, so it's the first time I reached that point, didn't realize how bad it could get before).
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Axedwarf

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #23 on: September 21, 2011, 06:26:29 am »

well 3 years usually, that sounds weak.
Mostly because I try to be überdwarfly and iron/steel-clad half of my fort and run towards the enemy. No traps, no marksdwarf, fun only, final destination.
But without changing anything to this perfect awful dwarven strategy, I have actually a 8 year old capital running, and even though a squad contains crippled axedwarves rolling around on the ground, I managed to resurrect my dying militia.
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Xen0n

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #24 on: September 21, 2011, 06:56:54 am »

My first fort took me ~1 month real time to get 16 dwarf years in.  Technically it's still active; I realised my failure as a dwarf when it became apparent that my first time playing DF will not end in a massacre.  I suspect I could play that fort out until the end of time if I tried; it simply refuses to die.  I set up a MSPA -style suggestion thread for people to command my fort to it's doom, but I don't think much will come of it.  In the end while still viable, it's been at a playable, but slow 25-30 FPS the last decade (possibly since I breach HFS and sealed off the survivors from the clowns), and most of the dwarves are handicapped in several debilitating ways due an endemic Syndrome I can't weed out, which further slows down everything (Half of them have the "Sluggish" diagnosis). 

So now I'm on my second fortress ever, it's taken me 1~2 weeks to get 3 years in and I'm HOPING I can play this one into oblivion as I intended with my first fort.


EDIT:
A growing list of mods, tweaks and rebalances that I accumulated and wanted to try out also greatly contributed to me starting my new fort.  I just kept assuming, "Well, tomorrow I'll probably die and then I can use those," but for AzmolCerol, tomorrow never came.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2011, 07:01:28 am by Xen0n »
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Melissia

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #25 on: September 21, 2011, 06:59:56 am »

Danger room your monarch and send him in.

Now, how long are these forts?  "till death" is dramatic and all, but it's not a number.
*shrug*

I don't keep track.  I just play.
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Locke

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #26 on: September 21, 2011, 09:11:01 am »

Mine usually end at around year 3-4 before I realise I messed something up horribly. Got one to 6 years, was doing amazing and realised I had no access to enemy races. I want seiges. Another one, another embark three years to realise I have nothing but copper. (sigh, but now I use DFprospector). Three years, realise I didn't put Fortress Defense in correctly. Two years and a week.. oooooh DF Genesis looks awsome!

Hello, my name is Locke, and have Fort ADD
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AWdeV

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #27 on: September 21, 2011, 09:27:45 am »

Hello Locke, you seem familiar. Are you the same Locke from TW?
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TheChosen

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #28 on: September 21, 2011, 09:35:46 am »

I usually abandon the fort when A. Shit hits the fan too hard or B. Nothing really happens for a long time and I cant think of anything creative to do
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Locke

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Re: How long do you keep a fortress?
« Reply #29 on: September 21, 2011, 09:54:34 am »

Hello Locke, you seem familiar. Are you the same Locke from TW?

Probably not, mostly because I don't know what TW stands for.
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