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Author Topic: Damn dirty moat.  (Read 5699 times)

unfun

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Damn dirty moat.
« on: May 13, 2008, 04:08:00 pm »

The latest fortress my dwarves have created is almost a masterpiece. They employed symmetry wherever possible and build a roughly vertical fortress. The entry point is silty loam so they built farm plots up there without need for irrigation. They have a well and all of the shops are up and running. Almost everyone has a bed and my nobles are happy. After the first year I started getting nervous. What if this fortress becomes really successful and the dwarves are set upon by more than just the idle snatcher? What if "big trouble" comes along? I know! A moat! Since the fortress is relatively vertical it doesn't spread out too much. A moat would be a prefect barrier. My dwarves are pretty handy with mechanisms so I plan to build a few drawbridges, four in all, 3x2 so that travelers can still access the depot. The way, however, was not as clear as it first appeared to be. The first Spring two of my best miners were lost in a cave in after digging over an underground pool. They survived for a few minutes, bloodied, under water, and very afraid. Sadly their precious picks were lost and the bodies couldn't even be recovered for a proper burial. In summer, with two of the drawbridges in place and trigged, I lost another miner. This one was legendary. He was mistakenly digging out a patch of rock that should have been channeled from above and the rocks took his life immediately. Just as his corpse was beginning to rot in the graveyard, the final insult was added to his injury. Winter came. The moat froze solid, all the fuckety-fucking way around. As many of my dwarves are freezing, sleeping, or starving through this hard winter, I sit realizing I need to begin training some more recruits. So much for a small squad of elite and neigh untouchable marksdwarves. We're well and truly fucked for 25% of the year.  :mad:
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here is nothing to catch in the southern swamps.

Areyar

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Re: Damn dirty moat.
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2008, 04:19:00 pm »

You already got the uselessmoat and bridges,
now add the perimeter wall.
Then a more fortified gatehouse, turn it into a large airlock.
Then a walled courtyard killingfield.

or dig the ice out and make it a trench.  :D

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unfun

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Re: Damn dirty moat.
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2008, 04:26:00 pm »

Digging the trench sounds fun. Especially with only a dyer and a peasant to swing picks. While I was posting a moment ago my last true miner died of thirst surrounded by channels of his own making. I'm ready to abort this creation but I hear tell there could be adamantine below. Perhaps I'll just slowly let it abort itself over the coming days/weeks.

[ May 13, 2008: Message edited by: unfun ]

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here is nothing to catch in the southern swamps.

Deon

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Re: Damn dirty moat.
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2008, 04:31:00 pm »

quote:
my last true miner died of thirst surrounded by channels of his own making

Am I missing something, or is it a bad skill of victimless mining? (No offence   :D)

If he's on an island and there're channels around him, tell tim to dig an upward ramp just under him. It should work.

[ May 13, 2008: Message edited by: Deon ]

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unfun

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Re: Damn dirty moat.
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2008, 04:38:00 pm »

You are quite right. This has happened before, but if I'm aware I can easily designate an egress. The culprit was an unfortunate designation (two rows of channel backed by a wall) combined with my capacity to ignore dwarves while trying to look busy at work. My saving grace is that from a distance DF looks like a terminal window filled with incomprehensible code. Actually, come to think of it, it looks that way even close up.
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here is nothing to catch in the southern swamps.

Imic

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Re: Damn dirty moat.
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2016, 02:06:45 am »

I randomly decided to come back here for no good reason at all.
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