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[johnalex]

I'm attempting to actually do a fort now... I've done alot of training "missions"  through the past couple of years but this time I've decided that I'm just gonna push through when my initial plans fail and tough it out.  I'm thinking of implementing this whole, look at a single dwarf and fix one complaint of theirs tactic that seems fun.  But, I'm curious, before I start doing this type of thing I want to know typical fort longevity.  I'm not in evil or anything like that... I've had a few dwarves die to a Mosquito swarm (Two-named Mosquitoes too!) but got a immigration wave of over 30 afterwards, so with a population of over 50 I'm ready to go on til failure.

But to plan on anything special I need to know, can longevity ever be achieved?  Or is this just a constant race to get stronger before the bigger evil strikes?  Whats the longevity of your typical fort (not the ones you abandon cuz you got bored or fps, but actual destruction)?

(p.s. ... with my new notebook, fps won't be the killer, it generated to 250 years in less than 2 or 3 minutes for  sure, maybe in a minute... also, things have died before I even knew there was combat...  so, its actually almost too fast even with 50 dwarves)

Thanks for your help, and feel free to give stories of your longest fortresses!

[oldark]

My longest for was only 5-6 years old but I know I've seen forum posts of forts (Weatherwise? something like that for example) that lasted even 100+ years. So longevity CAN be achieved, it just depends on your patience for it.

[Mushroo]

I've never made it past the 10 year mark, personally. I enjoy starting new fortresses and the fight for survival during the formative years, it is my favorite part of the game. But lately I've been wondering what it might be like for a dwarf to have grandchildren so with the new release I've lowered the population cap to 7 and walled off the outside world. So far I am at year 7 and it's been very boring.

[wierd]

Mine almost always die because I abandon from boredom, or because the save eats itself.

The previous attempt to build a giant obelisk out of greenglass spanning the whole 5x5 embark died this way. (Save corrupted.)  It was on year 35.

[twilightdusk]

I've found it fairly easy to get forts running stably, if that's your goal here's my advice:

1) Don't breach the caverns, doing so introduces unstable Fun that can easily disrupt your fortress, if you feel you must do this, wait until you've been stable long enough to build up a good army.

2) Become self sufficient as quickly as possible, the goal of a stable fortress is getting to the point when you do not strictly speaking need the caravans for survival, that is to say that if there's a goblin siege outside your fortress and a caravan arrives, you can afford to not open your gates. For that matter,

3) Construct a secure entryway. Your goal with this is to make it so that nothing short of a flying building destroyer can get into your base without permission, and even that can be guarded against if you've become self-sufficient to the point that you don't mind leaving caravans and migrants out in the cold.

4) Keep your dwarves happy, legendarily engraved dining halls and personal bedrooms can go a long way towards this, a happy dwarf is a dwarf who will not go insane on you if one little thing goes wrong.

I will note, however, that a fort geared for long-term survival this way is rather boring to play once you've got it built up, since the smartest move is to just lock all the !!FUN!! outside. Dwarf Fortress is a curious game like that, attempts to fight off what comes at you are doomed to failure, the only winning move is to refuse to play.

[VerdantSF]

The holy grail for me is a stable fortress that remains accessible to caravans and migrants.  Someone else achieved this by using a network of underground tunnels that allowed traders and migrants to quickly escape the surface and travel underground while under military escort.

[johnalex]

okay, I've got this idea, but I haven't implemented it yet

Outside my main area, I'll have a designated meeting area about 6*7 -> enough for even the largest migrant wave

basically

Unlocked Door ----> Meeting area (Immigrants here)  ----> Secured and Locked Door -----> Another Meeting area in my Fort

then, once there

Locked Door ---> No longer meeting area ----- unlocked door ---->  new immigrants inside

this should be helpful unless I encounter vamps (and kobolds who seem to just waltz on in through locked doors, right?

[twilightdusk]

The holy grail for me is a stable fortress that remains accessible to caravans and migrants.  Someone else achieved this by using a network of underground tunnels that allowed traders and migrants to quickly escape the surface and travel underground while under military escort.

Yes, I think I remember reading about that, the theory behind it is to have tunnels from your depot to 4 corners of the surface, with drawbridges blocking off the entrances . You keep the traders sealed in while you open one of the exits, making the invaders path to it since it becomes the path to as close to your depot as they can get, then you close it just before they reach the tunnel, open the exit on the opposite side, and unseal the traders. If your depot is near the center of the map, this gives a sizable headstart to the traders to get away before the invaders can reach that other exit.

Spoiler: plan (click to show/hide)

okay, I've got this idea, but I haven't implemented it yet

Outside my main area, I'll have a designated meeting area about 6*7 -> enough for even the largest migrant wave

basically

Unlocked Door ----> Meeting area (Immigrants here)  ----> Secured and Locked Door -----> Another Meeting area in my Fort

then, once there

Locked Door ---> No longer meeting area ----- unlocked door ---->  new immigrants inside

this should be helpful unless I encounter vamps (and kobolds who seem to just waltz on in through locked doors, right?

I'd make it lever-operated floodgates personally, and if you put your trade depot in there you can let the traders arrive safely as well (though it would be on them to leave safely if a goblin siege gathers outside...)

[PatriotBob]

the only winning move is to refuse to play.

Like thermonuclear warfare!

So far I've had forts last 10+ years before game-ending fun. But I make some conditions on my defenses... I won't allow my forts to completely wall off access. I have to have the choice to allow traffic from the surface and/or the caverns. Admittedly though, my longest lasting fort met it's untimely end because a particularly nasty FB somehow managed to "squeeze" through fortifications I was using to fill a reservoir from the cavern level. I was under the impression that fortifications still stopped passage, I think it a bug with water flow and fortifications, but hey, all the more "fun" to be had. Right?

[wierd]

The plan I have for the necropolis, is to create a burrow that covers the tombkeeper complex, which has *all* of my dwarves inside it.

Those seeking eternal respite from the sorrows of the world have a special "hospice" built for them.  They go there, hit the meeting hall, trand around and chat, then go to sleep. Their bedroom doors are locked tight, and they die horrible agonizing deaths from booze withdrawal. (Unless they are vampires, in which case they just stay locked up.)

Corpses are collected and interred in the tomb complex.

The tomb complex is as close to hermetically sealed as is possible.

[twilightdusk]

the only winning move is to refuse to play.

Like thermonuclear warfare!

Admittedly though, my longest lasting fort met it's untimely end because a particularly nasty FB somehow managed to "squeeze" through fortifications I was using to fill a reservoir from the cavern level. I was under the impression that fortifications still stopped passage, I think it a bug with water flow and fortifications, but hey, all the more "fun" to be had. Right?

Glad someone got the reference.

from the wiki though, if a fortification has 7/7 water in it, it won't prevent swimming enemies from passing through.

[Sphalerite]

I've had fortresses last 30+ years.  That's in 31.25, I haven't created a fortress in 34.01 yet.

In my experience, long-running fortresses are boring fortresses, largely by necessity.  Having a fortress run that long usually requires having a fortress where any invasion or monster will be dealt with quickly and largely automatically, while your dwarves bask in the luxury of their legendary dining rooms and fine meals.  The biggest threat to a fortress like that is inevitable FPS decline from the constantly increasing number of items and creatures.

[johnalex]

I have a river, so do you think a moat is in order?

I have a bridge... I could just link it to a lever and then make a giantish moat.  From then on, I could make a roofed fortification tower and train marks-dwarves, right?  Have them rotate between staying in the tower and training?

How many z-levels up should my tower be?

[johnalex]

I've had fortresses last 30+ years.  That's in 31.25, I haven't created a fortress in 34.01 yet.

In my experience, long-running fortresses are boring fortresses, largely by necessity.  Having a fortress run that long usually requires having a fortress where any invasion or monster will be dealt with quickly and largely automatically, while your dwarves bask in the luxury of their legendary dining rooms and fine meals.  The biggest threat to a fortress like that is inevitable FPS decline from the constantly increasing number of items and creatures.

This:  It is what I want.

(Remember Zeus:  Master of Olympus... thats what my Dwarves want.  I'll still make them go up and fight, don't worry...)

[NecroRebel]

I'm with Sphalerite on this one; you can have forts that last, effectively, indefinitely, but they're kind of boring. Once you have a trap field and/or military that can easily take out any threats and enough farms and barrels to produce sufficient food and booze to sustain your population, the only thing that will really end your fort is simple boredom. This is especially true if you've also breached and vanquished the depths, since that's really the only other fort-ender that exists.

Like Sphalerite, I've also had forts in 31.x that have lasted 30+ years. For instance, one of my 31.25 projects was a cast-obsidian tower that took around 25 years just to make, and I finished that project. FPS decline isn't really a threat as such, or at least it isn't on its own; it simply contributes to a fort becoming boring.