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[Qmarx]

Not having cats, though, cuts down on miasma problems significantly.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

As you can see, opinions on cats and dogs differ among the players (^_^;;

Anyhow, I wanted to mention one thing about the defense strategies (maybe obvious, but maybe not):

While the two concepts I outlined differed, you can actually switch between them if you desire so - traps and built walls can be deconstructed just like any other building, new bridges can be built, and civilians can be drafted and soldiers returned to a civil life.

So, as a suggestion, maybe you would use traps/narrow path defenses in your first years and once things are looking good in your fortress you can dismantled some of the traps and start training soldiers.

Just a thought I had.

...
And believe me, cats rule :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Deathworks

[RedKimchi]

Thanks to everyone whose helping me get started out o.ob

But answers only seem to spawn more questions :/

1. Should i bring an anvil? I've never gotten to the point of using it and sorta wonder if they're useful to beginners.

2. So i could just defend myself by making a moat, adding a narrow entrance to my fortress, and filling it with traps and a war dog?

3. How tall should towers be?

4. How much food and drink should i have in order to survive the winter?

[1138]

1. I never brought an anvil until I started playing on maps with magma. If you have lots of fuel, it's probably worthwhile to bring it, if not, by the time you can afford to supply that stuff, you can probably afford to buy one.

2. **WARNING* my personal strategy; take with grain of salt** I just suggest that any traps behind your bridge are for a last resort "oh no! They didn't pull the lever!" situation. Heavily trap the "hostile" side of your drawbridge right across from the door and the goblins will walk right into them when the bridge is down, hopefully giving you enough time to pull it up. A goblin should never get as far as your entrance.

3. Not sure about this one, but defences probably shouldn't be much more than one story up, otherwise the bad guys will be out of their range. Other than that, "as tall as they can be" is the correct answer.

4. At this point you can't really have too much food, as long as you carve yourself enough storage. Make as much as you can, and then you'll be okay in case of accidents.

Now for some free advice that is worth exactly what you're paying for it! The one thing that really helped me with my forts was learning to use the z-levels more. I now make my staircase about ten stories deep, with bedrooms and tombs at the bottom levels, storage and workshops at the top. This makes for a much faster moving fort, as dwarves don't have to walk as far for things, which means you're using less food and drink as well.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

No problem. Everyone is happy to see new faces who will probably come up with new ideas or antics eventually :) :)

Anyhow, about your new questions:

1. No, definitely no. You only really need to embark with an anvil if you either do not expect any traders at all OR if you are one of those pros who get their magma forges going before the first autumn (don't ask me how they do that, but they do, it seems).

Iron anvils are rather cheap, so you can easily buy it in the second year.

So, I strongly suggest to dump the anvil and give each of your starting dwarves 10 job skill boosts (that's the max; besides giving each either woodcutter or miner, I suggest giving them a mix of job skills; first level is enough to get them started).

Buy the animals you wish to bring.

With the rest of the points, buy food and drink (mostly drink; it doesn't spoil that fast but is consumed quite quickly).

If you embark in a map that has any vegetation besides trees, I also suggest you do not buy any seeds on embark screen if you plan to do surface farming (which is currently very easy and quick to set up). Simply harvest the bushes and use the seeds once the berries are eaten or distilled.

2. Actually, the defense of the fortress proper is already taken care of with enough traps that anyone who wishes to enter has to walk through at least about 3 traps, no matter which path is chosen.

However, especially in the beginning, you will have a lot of dwarves running around on the surface and they will not benefit from those defenses - but this is only important once you get goblin assaults.

The first thing you usually get are kobold thieves (usually around the time the caravan comes). Once a kobold thief is found, simply draft the dwarf closest to him and station her at the position where the thief is - case closed (kobold thieves are weak!).

This is the reason why the war dog is not really necessary - if the passage is narrow and you have a lot of traffic going through it, someone will spot the thief. And any dwarf is able to kill off a single kobold thief without problems.

Otherwise, make use of the terrain.

Something to note is also that all terrain is currently sloped. Beforehand, we had cliffs dropping several z-levels with no way of climbing them, but for the sake of adventure mode, they have been removed from the current version.

Walking creatures can not climb up sheer cliffs, they need stairs or ramps. You can use that in your defenses to narrow the possible approach routes for invaders. The advantage is that removing ramps is done relatively quickly, as compared to building walls, and does not require material.

Just make sure you leave the clear path for the wagon of the caravan to travel, though (mind you, clear, not straight :) ).

3. For what purpose? If you are talking about defenses, there is not really a minimum, I think, although being one level above the attackers may be advantageous :) The important thing is that if you want to put archers there, they should have LOS of as much terrain as possible.

Here is also a little bit of oddity: constructed floors can not have any buildings on them as they are already buildings themselves (no building stacking!). However, if you construct a wall, one level above, it functions as a floor, a floor which is not considered a building.

This is important, because this allows you to place ammunition stockpiles into your archery towers, or have the barracks in there as well, making absense of soldiers less common.

4. Mmmhhh, I have to admit that I don't have any concrete figures there. But if you have 2 3x3 farms working and a still and a kitchen, I think you should be fine for the first winter.

So, good luck with your fortress, and please tell us if something interesting happens or if you need more help.

Deathworks

[Qmarx]

I believe you mean construct a wall one level below.

[Deathworks]

Thanks, Qmarx.

That sentence indeed turned ambiguous. The intention was to say, as you pointed out, that a wall serves as a floor in the level above the wall.

I hope I didn't cause any confusion.

Deathworks

[RedKimchi]

Thanks, Qmarx.

That sentence indeed turned ambiguous. The intention was to say, as you pointed out, that a wall serves as a floor in the level above the wall.

I hope I didn't cause any confusion.

Deathworks

So just to clarify

X = walls
+ = floors
< = stairs up

XXXXX
X<    X
X      X   this is my first floor
X      X
XXXXX

If i move up a z level, it would look like this?

+++++
+       +
+       +
+       +
+++++

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Exactly. Just remember to build a down stair above the up stair.

While we are at it, constructions only need a walkable perimeter. They do not need to be based on a floor tile themselves. Let me explain what this means for a tower:

+ - floor
O - wall
X - fortification

First you build this:

+++++
+++++
+++++
+++++
+++++

Then, without adding any permanent new floors, or anything, you can add fortifications and walls like this:

OOXOXOO
O+++++O
X+++++X
O+++++O
X+++++X
O+++++O
OOXOXOO

(Actually, you need to build temporary floors to build the four corner walls, but once they are built, you can remove those floors as the neighboring walls should keep them up)

If you build your walls/fortifications like that, it does not matter whether the floor is constructed or due to a wall below your current level as you do not place the constructions on the floor tiles.

And personally, I think it looks really cool to have those bulging walls and fortifications.

Deathworks

[Areyar]

personally I've stopped using vertical stairwellshafts when several of my dwarves were shot inside one... hadn't expected bolts to pass a stairs vertically.
I already had spiralling water wells and this lead to massive spiral stairwells carved out of the living rock.
eg:

Code: [Select]

     IN 
#####+++##### #############
####+++++#### ####+++++####
###+.....+### ###+.....+###
##+.......+## ##+.......+##
##+..#^+..+## ##+..+v#..+##
#+..##^++..+# #+..++v##..+#
#+..vvOvv..+# #+..^^O^^..+#
#+..++^##..+# #+..##v++..+#
##+..+^#..+## ##+..#v+..+##
##+...+...+## ##+.......+##
###+..+..+### ###+.....+###
####+++++#### ####+++++####
############# #############
    EVEN           ODD
There is an abbys isolating the stairway from the fort proper (actually the abbys is a bit wider in my current fort).
I have recreated here the main entrance connecting floor, and a generic 'ODD' floor
the walkway  (will be) lined with blunt weapon traps to throw invaders into the depth.
It winds up to the top of the mountain and is capped by a small domed keep there , downwards it winds all the way to the neutronium floor of my world.
At many floors 3-wide bridges cross the gap to the stairs, from the sides, these will be mostly be retracted in case of an invasion, while some remain to path the siegers into my killing pits.
at some other floors (one up/down) the perimeter is lined with fortifications, ammo stores and barracks nearby.


Just wanted to awe you with an example of how DF engineering projects go from small to bigger (to catastrophically huge!)

[LegacyCWAL]

I feel so insignificant, reading about ambitious construction projects like Areyar's.  It gives me genius envy 


The biggest I've done is another example of a project that goes from small to huge.  It was in my previous fort (in .38), when I built a modest Bridge o' Doom for my XBows to stand on while they covered my Corridor o' Doom.  It started off as just a short skyway linking a couple of pillboxes to each other, but it just kept growing...and growing...and growing.

It eventually wound up as an entire network of defenses that was complete and utter (and literal) overkill:  eight siege engines, five moat-protected ground-level bunkers, and about 100 tiles' worth of iron/steel-only bolt stockpiles, with every square inch linked to each other and my main barracks by a 4-floor-wide, Fortification-lined monstrosity of a skyway


The downside (other than .38's one-at-a-time construction-building) was that my Watery Execution Chamber became useless as nothing lived long enough to get to the cage traps anymore

[Areyar]

epic!

Now I feel insignificant in return.

I have only had plans for such corridors of doom.

My latest dream would be a labyrint surrounding a central pyramid entrance, the pyramid would sit on top of my spiral shaft (maybe made square for the occasion) and have carved fortifications in it covering the path towards the top. the labyrinth meanwwhile should be 2 layers deep, the bottom layer peopled by wild animals and leading back to the start of the topside labyrinth level (closed by several doors that the animals cannot open) the upperlevel labyrinth will be liberally covered with traps and ranged missiles.

BTW on the bottom level of the spiral stairway will be wooden stakes. (I'm constructing them now)
I tried throwing a goblin thief down the stairs, but it escaped! and killed a dog, then my recruited herbcollector strangled him right in front of my fortress' first child. xD

[RedKimchi]

Quick questions o.o

1. Do dwarves get angry when there are rocks in their rooms?
2. Can i buy pets from caravans?

[Qmarx]

Quick questions o.o

1. Do dwarves get angry when there are rocks in their rooms?
2. Can i buy pets from caravans?

1. No, in fact they'll add a miniscule amount to the room's value (3 turtles)
2. Yes, but only elves tend to stock the more exotic animals.  They're kept in cages labeled with the animal name (IE: dog cage).  You assign pets to dwarves through the animals screen (z-enter, If I Recall Correctly).