(this might be part of turn-off thread, but it is not turn-off or ranty enough i guess)
One of issues I have with long running forts is that eventually everything devolves to maintenance.
I start with zero skill / zero item embark, setting up vital industries is challenge. Uncovering underground is interesting. Booting non-esential industries and setting army is good pass-time.
After that comes luxury phase where one can focus on building aspect game and go lego. Give each dwarf room with masterwork bed.
But after that, it kinda dies and game quickly descends to "another year, nothing new" of requeueing production orders for booze, food and nonessentials (mill stuff, make soap, produce thread, whatever...), siege cleanups and trading for steel. Sometimes you have to draft few dwarves to replace losses or handle child becoming adult. Or handle nobles (yay, my duke wants 68th traction bench).
Each year you get enough steel for one more suit of armor and with 278 dwarves that is 278 years of looking forward for dwarven caravan.
You do some megaconstruction in meantime, but it feels different than stuff like defensive walls and surface barracks.
Now, that is not bad as it can be relaxing. On the other hand this is worst outcome of playing fort: FPS death is regretfull, FUN death is memorable. This undeath is a bit depressing.
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Oh well, triggering loyalty cascade sounds like fun since majority of dwarves have masterwork steel weapons and rest have masterwork silver blunt weaponry :-) Die, dwarven merchants, die!.
Any thoughs on other solutions than mass slaughter or making magma-drooling statues of insane dwarf?