Print

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

[Wyrdean]

See, let me paint the picture, this fortress was going to be my pride and joy, I had just come back from a long hiatus, and wanted to go big to get back into the swing of things for the steam release. I was going to go full meta with it, and just make it the best damn fortress to exist, full of fantastical treasures and locked down tighter than fort Knox. I'm doing pretty well, it's year 4, and I have set up this amazing system of traps forged by my legendary weapon crafters, my dwarves are happy, safe and healthy. My militia, though usually held in reserve, is 20-strong, and kitted out with masterwork iron gear, as well as several weapon artis given to the best fighters. Not a single one of them was less than a grandmaster in their weapon of choice, not to mention other skills to match. They had spent the grand part of the last four years training after all. I've repelled quite a few raids, ranging from 40 some-odd goblins a half dozen times, hoard after hoard of undead, and even a few FBs and other such terrifying foes. Things are going great, having a blast. Then I get a raid of 80 necro experiments, as well as six near-legendary trained lieutenants. I found out the lieutenants have the ability to essentially paralyze after one of my chickens ends up being an unfortunate test subject, which isn't great, but manageable.  The lieutenants walked on through a line of two dozen giant iron axe traps, each with three blades, 4 of them survived, having blocked, dodged, and just outright tanked their way through my defenses. Not a big issue I'm thinking, my militia can handle a few; even if they have magic powers, can't get tired, can only be killed by being mashed or diced, are legendary, and are much much stronger than normal. Wouldn't be easy sure, but they can do it, maybe with a loss or two if things turn south, but they'd make it. Then I realize, as I'm watching my traps. The better part of those experiments are trap immune, feel no pain, and don't get tired. That's when I realized there's no way for me to win, and just let it run; watching as my once 20-strong full-time highly trained military gets worn down as they accrue minor injuries, get tired, or are paralyzed by the few surviving lieutenants mixed in with the crowd. Then watching and waiting as they slaughter my dwarves left and right, painting the halls red with my baron's blood. Murdering the miner that had just found candy, a hero among my citizens. Watching as they raze the foundries, as they splatter the worshiper's organs in the grand temple hall against the altars, utterly drenching the fortress that was once home to 124 dwarves in the stench of death and rotting corpses.

I wish I could say I enjoyed the '!!FUN!!" of watching my fortress get ripped apart but the enjoyment wasn't there, was just watching the last several days and nights of my free time swirl down the drain.

[Salmeuk]

this is not a balanced game

you have two options

1.learn to scout enemy formations for untested enemies. never expect there to be an achievable win state, but you can often identify strategies for removal. atom smashers, lava generators come to mind.

2.write a great story about the events (which you already have drafted the skeleton of, here) in honor of your fallen kingdom

the current version has a somewhat brutal difficulty swing between average species and the undead. we've all been there, too, in fact I had this exact thing occur to me in a recent succession fortress and it threatened my entire turn's progress. I just rolled with it. . .

 again, this is not a balanced game.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

hidden third option:
3. mod the game to remove experiments, or otherwise avoid their towers on the world map. the solution here is to make this game exactly as you see fit, by editing various text files in the raw folder, or by selecting the perfect location so as to avoid story-adverse interruptions from local populations

[callisto8413]

Yeah.   The undead and experiments are making it harder.  So I just make mazes of death and drawbridgs and become more paranoid.  Airlocks and quarantine/isolation chambers in the hospital and good old fashion atom smashers. OR you could just edit your dwarfs to be super-dwarfs from the start.   

[gchristopher]

Official "traps" can be bypassed, but squirt guns and impulse ramp minecart grinders still kill anything indiscriminately. That won't let friendly visitors in easily, but assuming the enemy is willing to path into your fortress and not stand outside like idiots (a problem with the new pathing system), then you can mulch any invasion at the expense of manually opening gates to let guests in.

[zilpin]

Official "traps" can be bypassed, but squirt guns and impulse ramp minecart grinders still kill anything indiscriminately. That won't let friendly visitors in easily, but assuming the enemy is willing to path into your fortress and not stand outside like idiots (a problem with the new pathing system), then you can mulch any invasion at the expense of manually opening gates to let guests in.

+1

the "weapon trap" and "cage trap" are only meant for early game on their own, they are really just one part of a larger player designed trap.

once you have the resources, you are supposed to design and build your own with carts, series of waterfalls and magmafalls, crazy minecart shotguns, drop pits, chained giant cave spiders, imprisoned necromancers, towers of natural ice built painstakingly by dumping buckets of water into a freezing biome that is supported by a single Support you collapse with a lever once a Titan gets close....

Use those cage traps to capture all the Minotaurs and Giants, then build every cage around a caged necro, then when the clowns show up pull the lever.

DF is not, nor ever will, be "balanced".
"Life IS pain.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something."  --The Dread Pirate Roberts (Wesley).

You must design your own complicated rube goldbergian trap systems, micromanage them all with every game tick, even though you can never really give any direct order to anything in the game to do anything whatsoever.


That said, my personal challenge always is to create a peaceful dwarven utopia paradise with no unnatural deaths.
The ultimate DF challenge.
No success yet.

[Bumber]

Official "traps" can be bypassed, but squirt guns and impulse ramp minecart grinders still kill anything indiscriminately.

And, as always, !!magma!!.