My fort continues
Changing print mode from 2D to VBO solved some of my graphical glitches. In my experience this is worth fiddling with. I still have trouble with stockpiles. There seems to be no displayed information about taking and giving.
I've built an atom-smasher. I prefer it to dfhacky methods. It might be an exploit, but it is a
legit one as it requires some work on the part of my ponies. I got rid of some refuse, such as ghoul skeletons, but not much else.
My BB guns take down even feral dogs with great trouble and serve mainly as a deterrent and for training. I don't have enough charcoal to waste small calibre ammo on target practice. I need to switch my main ranged squad to pistols, make them train only in the barracks when not platrolling and make a second squads of newbies with BBs. There seems to be no danger of running out of feral dog pellets.
I finished the water cistern, but not the room above it. The picture below is from a few months later.
My miners found another cavern. There are some trees there, but no salvage. Everything in there is in one shade of red or pink or another. I order construction of walls around the staircase.
Caprice, one of my Unicorn crafters, has entered a fey mood. She claimed a craftpony's workshop and collected lots of dog bones, some blocks and a rough black citron. This better be good... Meh, an amulet. I guess, I'll put it in a display case. Wow, my bone carvers are good. I have 3 legendaries and 3 workshops now. They produce those bone pellets faster than I can use them or kill the dogs. Still, that's 3 ponies plus some haulers. I'd rather have a better source of pellets and use these work-hours for something else.
I've got some medium quality salvage, which included a few civilian crates and one MoM crate. I got the usual: broken wires, tools and unopened food and drinks that for some reason have trouble getting open. Do I need more barrels? I have some rock pots in furniture stockpile. Well, it's better than scrap anyway.
I ordered lots of various pieces of furniture, mostly stone ones. Among them were 2 clay statues. I got a deity and Caps, surrounded by ponies, commemorating him becoming my chief of security.
I upgraded my main ranged squad to combat pistols. They have 8-13 marksponyship already and I need more firepower. To make use of those dog pellets, I made a squad of newbie BB gunners. It consists of Lilly Butterfly, UPF, captain; Gypsum Casts, EPM; Hail of Metal, UPM, a sickly and antisocial individual, but showing great promise in shooting; Apple Pie, EPF, yet another member of the Apple clan and Prime Rib, EPM.
Shortly after her appointment, Lilly Butterfly has given birth to an unicorn filly, Bright Eyes. This was the first baby to be born here.
A thief managed to make it almost to the entrance. A combined barrage from two turrets, two protectorponies, a sprite-bot and four recruits with BB rifles chased him away and gave him some bruises, but not before he smashed my workbench to pieces. At that moment another raider has shown up and shot a medium calibre bullet, despite having no gun. Then another one. I ordered the security to kill them all and retreated to safety. The battle raged close to the entrance and as soon as one of the bandits has been slain, a fourth one appeared. Caps, our machete-wielding militia commander, got severely wounded. Several more workshops were ruined. It is a good thing, I have those extra anvils. Two raiders were killed and two escaped. This attack was surprisingly well organised and we had trouble repelling it. The wall project just got prioritised, but first we need a more spacious place for the masons to make stone blocks. The workshops were replaced. I fear what trouble may next come our way...
An ambush!
Seven well-armed slavers have come our way. They have sledgehammers and kinetic sledgehammers, which should fare well even against high-quality bronze barding. They also have metal barding and multiple shields. They mean business.
At the worst possible time, it turned out that the gunner's squad still had pellets and not bullets and couldn't shoot their pistols. I ordered them to resupply and join the fight with the rest of the security. I also ordered all the civilians to stay inside (in a burrow), we don't need more dead ponies.
While our robots and recruits gather around the entrance and shower the invaders with laser shots, bullets and pellets, the machete squad engages them, to hold them away from the gunners. One of the slavers falls unconscious, but wakes before the fight is over. Meanwhile Psalms, the commander of our pistoleers, is busy killing a pack of feral dogs with his armoured hooves on the other side of the camp.
Some of the slavers get wounded, but they manage to knock Apple Jam unconscious. In retaliation, one of the invaders is shot in his face and looses all his teeth, which scatter on the battlefield. Apple Jam is killed and Nerdie, another machete soldier, is wounded in his hooves, but manages to hold the line. Meanwhile Shadowdancer fights two slavers alone with her hooves, but her blows are dodged or blocked.
Trigger Happy and Short Bursts get themselves some bullets and join Lily's squad, but their shots still turn out to be not much better than the pellets, which barely mange to dent the skin, even if they hit. True to her name, Shadowdancer dances around her two slavers, with both sides receiving only two minor wounds the whole time. Still, she manages to hold them off from the main fight. Nerdie holds his own against three slavers without getting more wounds. He gets a lot of covering fire from 2 turrets, 2 protectorponies, 2 pistoleros and 5 BB rifles.
The slavers slowly accumulate wounds. A few of them get temporarily stunned or knocked unconscious. The tide of battle turns in our favour. Meanwhile, Psalms is finally done with 6 dogs and decides to have a nap. He quickly reconsiders and just stands around, waiting for the battle to end. Three civilians ignore the orders to stay safe and go outside, luckily away from the fight.
Lilly runs out of pellets and charges into the fight, still holding her foal. Leader of the ambush and another slaver fall unconscious, which buys the soldiers some time to score hits. One of the invaders tries to chase the civilians, two dance with Shadowdancer and a tardy slaver joins the fight. Others in Lily's squad run out of ammo too, join the fray and the fight becomes more chaotic.
The slaver leader stands up, drops his weapon and one of his shields and tries to run away. On his way out, he falls unconscious again. More and more soldiers run out of ammo and join the melee. The slavers are trying to flee. We have won! The fight moves further and further away from stationary defences at the entrance. Meanwhile, Psalms just stands on the other side of the camp. He later said, he was expecting the enemy to send reinforcements or some other lame excuse. The fighting takes so long that some ponies manage to regenerate their less serious wounds before the end.
Nerdie turns out to be quite the hero, wounding some of the slavers, while holding 3 of them away from the gunners, but his steel machete just doesn't cut it when it comes to unconscious ponies in combat helmets. Three slavers, including their leader, manage to escape. Others don't make it, but keep on fighting till the bitter end. A slaver is fighting 3 recruits while under fire by 2 turrets and a protectorpony. He tries to flee. The rest is mopping-up and training for the security forces. Meanwhile more and more civilians go outside, so I finally allow it to stop their cancellation spam.
(( Wow, I am not ready for a siege. I need rifles and gunpowder. I usually have less trouble than this with goblins and kobolds in DF, but this if Fallout.))
(( My ponies keep getting wounded in the hooves and all of them have horseshoes. Maybe with your armour and pony body plan, there is some uncovered part? ))
The loss in matchette squad is replaced with recruit Sparkling Clean.
Another kidnapper manages to steal Bright Eyes from Lilly Butterfly. She is still joyous and goes to "sleep it off". I don't know what's more disturbing, her reaction, or the fact that we are loosing foals.
Tasty Scraps has 3 infected wounds and is being healed by Splint and Scalpel.
Another foalsnatcher has shown up and died.
Textbook is now an adult. She is going to join the carpenters, masons, engravers, architects and mechanics.
The pistoleers still carry some pellets around in their ammo pouches. I ordered them to dump those. ((v->i, go to quiver, press enter, then press enter and d on each pellet. Later reclaim them.))
Silvertongue has given birth to an Earth Pony filly, Joyous Spirit.
Except for some new dogs, all my supply of bones was processed into 1.6k BB pellets.
Update: 2.5k
Apple Juice has given birth to another Earth Pony filly, Pesky Questions.
Caps, the chief of security, stands over Tasty Scrapses bed, preventing any healing from happening.
((Somehow they both claimed the same hospital bed. After deconstruction of it, Tasty Scraps was moved to another one and healed, but Caps is bugged and I see no hope for him. I still try removing a tile of hospital zone and his bed.))
Joyous Spirit got kidnapped.
I've found my first ammo box. It had a 100 steel BB pellets.
I fiddle with the military some more and assign the artiffact shield to Nerdie.
Textbook got a strange mood and claimed a craftpony's workshop.
After long conversation with our architects, we decide where to put the wall. For now only the cornerstones mark the future compound. The masons need to make blocks first.
This is my water source in the cavern:
The outpost:
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