Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Prester]

omygod i am so mad at my dwarfs right now... i embarked near volcano on a mountain, now i want to build a real castle with walls and towers etc. but every edge or every tree is a drama, dwarfs seem to walk where they want to build a wall THEMSELVES and then tell me : creature occupying building space.
dear lord if i had more spare dwarfs i would burn every single one saying that in magma but not before i locked him in a room full of miasma before he nearly dehydrates.... i am so mad... i build floors for them to better reach locations, i remove side walls so they can stand there there are 2 spots i literally c annot make my dwarfs build a single piece of wall... but that fucks up my whole idea of a castle if dwarfs cant manage a SINGLE wall what horrors await me if i build double walls and towers :-O

that realy demotivates my idea right now :-/ worked half an hour ONLY ON ONE SPOT and couldnt manage them stupid dwarfs to not block the spots themselves -.-


well that was to blow some steam off.
my question: when i build a tower, lets say 1-2 z-levels higher than the plane ground around it, can archers on top of it shoot down throu fortificications? is their range higher? lower?

[Juxtap0se]

do your masons have pets? pets are the worst thing that wall builders can have. Also, how many masons do you have working near each other? the fools often build right next to each other and stand in each others build spot. try cancelling the build and re-ordering the construction.
What I do that seems to help is building sections of wall not in a direct line from one side of the fort to another, but alternating sides from which I build. For example, if you were building a ling east-west wall, designate a section on the east side, then one on the west side, then another on the east, then west. It seems to me that designation order plays more into dwarf build order than proximity (I'm not certain of this, however).

[Prester]

i tried so much. i first worked with lots of masons to complete it fast. when i got to the point where one spot fails often i reduced number to one. he then runs towards the spot, walks on it, suspends it. most "suspended" walls work fine if you remove trees next to it or remove a wall next to it and build the suspended wall first. i also trtied different routes, but on that particular spot was water involved, so it got kinda hard to make space for my dwarfs. i mean there were still 5 possible spots next to the spot but they didnt seem to care. now i build on the ramps downwards and then removed the ramps so the wall flies in the air ... well my dwarfs can no longer pass so its fine for the moment i guess ...

[ORCACommander]

yes marksdwarves can fire from an elevated position. as for range i had heard once it will reduce range but am unable to confirm.

[Chaia]

Markdwarf range is like a sphrere. For example 20 tiles radius: Your Markdwarf is on a 5 tiles high wall, so he can only shoot 15 tiles away on the ground

[Merendel]

I've run into this problem with constructing walls before.  It happens when either a pet or another dwarf happens to pass through the build site during construction.  After a job gets aborted for this reason it will always fail if you try to simply resume the wall.  The solution is to cancel that particular construction entirely, wait for the dwarves to clear the old building materials and then re-designate that construction.

[WanderingKid]

Neat trick for that.  hit k, forbid construction material, main dialog.  Pause.  Unforbid material, immediate rebuild the wall with the material right there.  Saves my dorfs a trip and removes the task assigned to the block to get it back in the stockpile.

[Prester]

ok thanks guys :-)

[itg]

You can reduce the number of building cancellations considerably when you understand how dwarves choose where to stand while building walls. Basically, the dwarf approaches the wall, stops at the first tile that puts him within one tile of the wall, and starts building immediately. It's a good system, most of the time, but Toady forgot to remove the build square itself from consideration. So, any time a dwarf can reach the build tile without first walking next to it, he'll stand on it and he'll never be able to complete the job. Usually this happens when the build square is at the top of a ramp or the build material is already at the build square. Cancel the job, address the problem, e.g. by removing the ramp(s) or moving the build material, then try again.

[WhimsyWink]

I've had several 'hairy KLUGE' fixes during wall building including digging out areas so the mason can get there ...

I don't know if it actually has the desired effect but I build the fortification wall one tile outside the original perimeter ... they walk on top of the lower level wall ... I've found that walking dwarfs can use the same tile but a working dwarf blocks access to if it is a one tile path I make sure they can access from both ends

[grody311]

Haha I sympathize with OP on this.  I've had the same experience building fortifications outside.  Dwarfs love to stand exactly on the spot where the wall goes and then act dumbfounded when they can't build the wall inside of themselves.

Best you can do is experiment with different build orders and placements.  Obviously the sheer cliff face is causing most of the problem, as the dwarfs have very little room to maneuver.  But it sounds like people are giving good advice.

As far as the tower thing goes, yeah, dwarfs can shoot from towers a few z levels up just fine.  If you surround the tower with fortifications, so the top layer looks something like this:

Code: [Select]

F = fortification
x = floor

 FFF
FxxxF
FxxxF
FxxxF
 FFF
... be aware that unless you have well trained marksdwarfs, they wont be able to fire through the fortification unless standing directly next to the fortification that is facing the enemy.

I also don't think that the extra elevation either provides a bonus for the defender or penalty for the attacker.  Either the bolt has LOS or it doesn't, and that's what the game emulates.

I understand you are making the towers more for aesthetics than practicality, but if they are becoming too much of a bother (and you realize how ineffective they actually are - I know, I've tried them), consider instead making bunkers into the side of the mountain, with Fortification "eye slits" for your marksdwarfs.  Way easier to construct and way more effective.