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[Normandy]

I'm planning to have only one couple of humans (I felt dwarves don't suit what I'm trying to do), and for them to be stuck on a completely isolated island in the middle of nowhere, meaning they'll have to recreate civilization. However, since there is an aquifer, I cannot reach stone. Is there any way to get wooden weapons/tools, without using smelter reactions? It'd be kind of cheating to use smelter reactions for the challenge I'm attempting.

[Savok]

I think I see what you're going for...

No, you can't. If there is an aquifer, you have to bring a pickaxe, and possibly other stuff depending on your aquifer-breaching method.

[Solara]

If you're not even going to have an opportunity to trade you're going to need to bring along at the very least an axe so you can build workshops and walls.

Sometimes it is possible to get to find patches of stone even with an aquifer, but you'd of course need a pickaxe for that, which might go against the spirit of the challenge.

As far as weapons go, wooden crossbows and leather armor are really your only options. (I did once found quite a bit of hematite in the hills of an aquifer map, but of course that doesn't do much good without a way to smelt it...)

[Lord Dullard]

On a map without trade, if you ever plan to make any metal tools at *all* you'll need to bring an anvil along.

[Brian]

I'm on an aquifer map.  There sure is a lot of water in the ground, but with 6-7 height cliffs as well on my map, there is plenty of rock.  Maybe aquifers are only bad on flat maps?

[Lord Dullard]

quote:Originally posted by Brian:
<STRONG>I'm on an aquifer map.  There sure is a lot of water in the ground, but with 6-7 height cliffs as well on my map, there is plenty of rock.  Maybe aquifers are only bad on flat maps?</STRONG>

Well, this depends entirely on your point of view...

Essentially, an aquifer, while providing an infinite source of water for whatever fluid-based machinations you have in mind for your fort, also represents a huge barrier between you and the vast majority of mineral resources on the map.

Since it's possible to get past an aquifer using several tricks, aquifers aren't always 'bad', per se. They *do* make it pretty easy to accidentally flood your fort, though.

[Normandy]

Well, my current bypass is to put stone axes in the raws, bring one copper pick, one anvil (I really didn't want to, but I had no choice), and embark by a volcano. But that feels kind of soft compared to what I want to do. I want to make it so that my only raw materials would be the three pieces of wood from my start wagon. And an anvil. Then the suffering can begin.

[Lord Dullard]

quote:Originally posted by Normandy:
<STRONG>I want to make it so that my only raw materials would be the three pieces of wood from my start wagon. And an anvil.</STRONG>

If you want to get a little bit closer to that, you can start how I normally do:

Bring along an anvil, three copper bars, one iron bar, 3 pieces of any cheap stone, and either 3 pieces of bituminous coal or more wood.

The procedure for starting this way is to immediately deconstruct your wagon upon embarking, after which you build a Smelter, a Wood Furnace, and a Metalsmith's shop.

Turn the 3 pieces of wood into charcoal at the Wood Furnace.

Convert the 3 pieces of bituminous coal into coke at the Smelter (alternately skip building the Smelter and just burn more wood).

Turn the 3 copper bars into 3 copper picks and the 1 iron bar into 1 iron axe at the Metalsmith's shop.

----

Of course, considering what you're trying to do you'd probably just want to bring 1 copper bar.

[Shakes]

You could 'find an anchor' of a ship that had crashed on some rocks on the islands  coast. maybe your ship. that would suitably account for a pick. you'd just have to imagine though. dunno about the anvil though, maybe the ships figurehead..?

[Osmosis Jones]

quote: dunno about the anvil though, maybe the ships figurehead..?

Ships ballast stone. They just happened to make it out of valuable iron, in the shape of an anvil  :p