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[talysman]

So, although I haven't tried out every basic technique yet in "safe" embarks, I got interested in the minimalist/survivalist build listed on the wiki. I decided to try out a slightly modified version, still very do-it-yourself, but not as extreme: two copper, one anvil, but animals, food, booze, and seeds are also allowed. To make up for relaxing the equipment restrictions, I only gave craft skills to one dwarf; the others are a medic, trader, administrator, clerk, and two Chatty Cathys.

Embark wasn't too difficult, although it's a lot slower than I'm used to. Some damned kea women stole several chunks of charcoal I made, but not until after I made my pick and ax. No other metals yet, haven't really set up the industries other than stonecrafting.

First dwarven caravan arrives on the map, so I start moving rock mugs to the depot, since that's all I have to sell. Except for some reason the caravan doesn't show up. Turns out the kea men attacked them and "killed" one wagon (it was listed as Deceased.) The other wagons, if any, and the merchants all fled. Only the diplomat shows up at my fortress.

On the plus side, the kea men didn't hang around, and the "dead" wagon was only 10-15 tiles from my entryway, so I was able to safely claim all the caravan goods. Of course, that makes survival even less of a challenge...

[talysman]

Around the time of the next caravan (the elves,) a kea woman showed up, so I thought I'd see a repeat of the slaughter of the dwarf caravan. But instead, she took an interest in a giant sponge and has been fighting that exclusively ever since.

I also noticed I had a pile of dingos in the river, just sitting there. Looked closer, realized there was a 1 z-level waterfall; the dingos are getting swept over the falls and stay in the river, but never drown. Maybe I should look on the bugtracker to see if "wild animals not drowning" was reported?

When goblin invaders showed up, they started with the usual slaughtering of the herd animals, then hunted down my one hunter... and celebrated the hunter's death by jumping in the waterfall. A couple of them didn't seem to be dying, so I put together a two-person marksdwarf squad and sent them to stand *near* the river, without crossing it, hoping they'd shoot down at the goblins. Didn't work; one marksdwarf went to the side of the river, spotted the two goblins still alive, and jumped right in, whereupon he was killed by the dingos. Goblins eventually died, too, but the dingos are still hanging out. They've been down there about two years.

[Drawde]

Rivers and most other water sources have air above them.  And many animals have the ability to swim, due to the SWIMS_INNATE tag.  So the animals will just permanentally swim at the top of the water, breathing just fine.  Unlike a dwarf which lacks the innate ability to swim, and thus sinks to the bottom where there's no air.

[talysman]

Thankfully, goblins apparently don't have SWIMS_INNATE, either.

I'm kind of ticked that I lost one of the few crossbows I have right now, but oh well.

[Loud Whispers]

but not as extreme: two copper, one anvil, but animals, food, booze, and seeds are also allowed.

This is pretty much a standard embark, frees up points to spend in random junk

[khearn]

Any thread title that includes the words "goes awry" is probably worth reading.

[Nullset]

I put together a two-person marksdwarf squad and sent them to stand *near* the river, without crossing it, hoping they'd shoot down at the goblins. Didn't work; one marksdwarf went to the side of the river, spotted the two goblins still alive, and jumped right in, whereupon he was killed by the dingos. Goblins eventually died, too, but the dingos are still hanging out. They've been down there about two years.

Sigged.  Also, this thread is a boss.  Will continue to read.

[talysman]

Any thread title that includes the words "goes awry" is probably worth reading.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

No new developments. Some kea people showed up to steal unclaimed socks left by the dead hunter. The original kea woman is still attacking that giant sponge. The fortress is pretty well carved out, but I still haven't found any metal ores or coal, so I'm pretty low on weapons and traps. Of course, what with invaders committing suicide as soon as they arrive, maybe I won't need a military... still, I'm prepping a detour around the caverns to see if there's any ore beyond them.

Maybe something interesting will happen when I play it in 34.6.

[krenshala]

I think the dingos are stuck in the river because they are technically in the lower tile, which does not have an up ramp, even though the upper tile has the corresponding down ramp (there's a bug on it, and my stream/river is that way, but I haven't tested it).  A quick test would be to dig a channel into a tile next to the lower side of the falls and see if they immediately climb out.

[talysman]

I think the dingos are stuck in the river because they are technically in the lower tile, which does not have an up ramp, even though the upper tile has the corresponding down ramp (there's a bug on it, and my stream/river is that way, but I haven't tested it).  A quick test would be to dig a channel into a tile next to the lower side of the falls and see if they immediately climb out.

It's actually not a bug in this case. The reason I didn't notice the falls originally is because the banks of both rivers are at the same height, and there are no ramps or slopes at all along the lower river. I had thought about digging a channel to get down one z-level and digging a second channel on that level, to create an exit area, but since there's a whole pack of dingos down there, I decided it was kind of risky.

[talysman]

Latest news: finally dug an escape ramp from the river. It was too late for anyone who drowned there, of course... which includes a couple miners, who chose to wade through the river instead of using the bridge. Fortunately, I had some spare migrants and had bought a couple pick-axes from the last caravan, so I drafted two more miners, set traffic areas, and designated a "fake" channel location that I figured they would path to correctly without committing suicide. Almost lost the miner who made the access channel, but he eventually emerged.

Metal (gold) turned out to be about 30 z-levels down. Don't know how much is there, or whether there are other metals. I could have sworn I embarked to a location with *shallow* metals.

Also, went down a little further and found magma, and got my first notice about CANDY. I've never gotten into candy production, so I should read up on it.

I've got a vampire mayor, also, and possibly another vampire (the mayor accused someone else of a crime after being convicted. I don't know why, but the mayor was never punished (I convicted him before he became mayor, so that's not it.)

Oh, and the kea woman is still after the giant sponge.

[krenshala]

Oh, and the kea woman is still after the giant sponge.

Have either of them become legendary at anything yet?

[talysman]

Oh, and the kea woman is still after the giant sponge.

Have either of them become legendary at anything yet?

I didn't know you could check stats/skills on hostile or wild creatures. I'll see if I can find out.