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[goblolo]

Flatten the ocean is Phase 1 of Clearedpages's Master Plan.
Things quickly became quite a nightmare. I was able to throw up some walls, a channel, and a drawbridge and get my initial 7 walled in. Migrants came and were slaughtered by the elephants. Here's my entrance.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We have a plump helmet farm in the soil layer and the beginnings of a fort in the first stone layer. A still, a forge, specialized masonry shops (obsidian, microcline, and conglomerate), carpentry, jewelry, and an atomsmasher. The next step is going down to the caverns for wood.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I know how you will die. It will be undead ravens.
Or you can build a roof or a hatch covers over the entrance.

[Trouserman]

I'd imagine you could do something like go out, build a retaining wall to keep the ocean out (with pumps keeping the ocean out while you do) then preparing the obsidianized layer with hatches linked to a lever or something and pump water back in and then pop all the hatches open and obsidianize the next layer down of magma, dig down, prepare that level, repeat.

Of course, I think if you popped open whatever your bottom floor is for magma forges and such, that it would start filling back up through the hole in the floor, so you'd probably have to sequester some magma off to the side to use for forges once you're below the ocean floor.

I'd think that tendency to refill the tube would cause a problem with putting hatches in place. You have to crack the floor before you lay down a hatch, and that leaves an opportunity for the magma to ooze out and ruin your plans. Perhaps it would work better to flood the working area with 2/7 water before digging down? Or flood it, then crack the floor all at once with a cave-in.

[Nuoya]

Update.





I breached the caverns and walled off a huge section. The resources are plentiful and worldgen did just what I asked: a nice flat cavern that is mostly open. I like being able to see almost everything without changing z-levels. I gave up on making tree farms because there is so much designation cancelling because the soil is damp from the water above.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Next was building a secondary entrance lined with cage traps. It was an enormous undertaking; not only building the traps themselves but planning ahead. I built a mass pitting system nearby. OCD also kicks in: I demand stone block floors or smooth stone under all stockpiles and buildings. Obsidian blocks are used because I can mine it out quite easily right now, and it will be easily infinite later.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But there was carnage. I scummed many times! No matter how I fiddled with things, I always lost a dwarf or two even though almost everything got caged. The main issue was the kobold zombies. They retain trapavoid status and ignored locked doors. One of my two axe dwarves died in the end. I thought I had gotten everything under control but that death caused a mini spiral. As things went along, 6 of the dwarves ended up getting married. The two axe dwarves had been married already, and then the two miners married, and then the woodworker married the stoneworker.

After Athena the axedwarf died, it eventually triggered melancholy in Pinkerton the miner. When he died, his wife Petunia followed. She had a baby at the time and dropped it on the floor when she went insane. I was afraid the baby would die of thirst but she actually turned into a child just in time. Meanwhile the farmer/brewer Budweiser went insane, and so did the woodworker/leader Jane.

In the end I only had 3 dwarves. Ares the axedwarf, Marx the stoneworker, and the child. They managed to carry on. First they threw all the zombies into the pit to recycle the cages, then they atom smashed all the leftover refuse. Then they made slabs for the fallen, learned to farm and brew for themselves, and waited.

Migrants came. And the fortress grew. Industry has expanded for a few years and the fortress is quite nice. At the moment metalworks are being built. I don't really have wood to spare, and bones aren't readily available, so I need to make bolts out of metal. There is tetrahedrite to be smelt!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I need marksdwarves. By raising the drawbridge and opening the secondary entrance I can get rid of most zombies on the surface as they wander into the cage traps. However the goal isn't just zombie capture (though they are nice for training). I need to control the surface. I have lost most migrant waves and EVERY caravan to the zombies. I've been able to clear the surface once or twice but it's fairly labor intensive and takes a whole season each time. Also, kobolds and goblins have sent ambushed and they tend to just join the swarm. I need permanent marksdwarves perched on top, and I need to wall almost everything, build a paved road to the border, and generally defend better. Mostly I need to block line of site so the masons can build my huge land bridge in peace. I've imposed a challenge on myself in that I'm not allowed to use any magma until I breach the volcano's crater, so I need to build north.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The fort is 24 strong, with 2 axedwarves and 3 marksdwarves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Kallin]

You have an embark that has half zombies, half not? This is a great resource!

What you do is you need to use the ocean as a massive, salty moat. Build up a castle that's connected to it. Preferably by some means of device that suspends it by breakable supports so you can pull the two levers that you need to sink your whole castle into the ocean.

Next, you have a dwarfmade stream that carries all your dumped refuse into the zombifying terrain. By doing this with all your butchered remains, you can create a massive zombie army that can be held inside a small area, opened via lever for sieges or the like.

Meanwhile, the use of ballistae or catapults on your bridge leading to your castle can be used to eliminate any zombies who come too close to your fortress.

[Naryar]

Yeah, underwater volcanoes do happen when you go volcano-happy (like I do) on worldgen.

Make your fort out of cast obsidian INSIDE the volcano. You know you want to.

[laularukyrumo]

Regarding the kobold zombies... There actually is a clever way to get rid of them without having to hand-to-hand them.

Pressure plates.

At some point in your entrance tunnel of doom, have a pressure plate, set to trigger on all creature weights, including civilians. Any creature that does not trigger it is either a merchant (which shouldn't be down there anyways, keep your trade depot in a separate area), a dragon, or a trapavoid entity (like those damn kobolds.) Ahead of the pressure plate is a fork in the tunnel. One path is sealed off by a linked door (since they trigger faster) at all times; the pressure plate causes one door to open and the other to close. The door that is open leads to a Goblin Grinder type trap, where the kobold zombies end up just getting repeatedly perforated with spears on repeat. Sucks to be them.

The door that is closed by default (opens when a dwarf steps on it) should lead to your traditional entrance, filled to the brim with cage traps. Easy as pie.

[zubb2]

I noiced that you have names for you'r dorves.
By that I mean GOOD names.
I name my starting seven,1,2,3,4,5,6,7, respectivly.
I used to name them after me and my freinds, but the names were too long for how easy they die.

[Nuoya]

Cleaning the world took years. I used a redundant series of atom smashers and cage traps. Zombie elephants are ridiculous; not only are they tough as nails but they break bridges. There were over 200 zombies to take care of, and it just takes time. Meanwhile dwarves are lost here and there to anything from a tantrum to failed traps to brain crushing to forgotten beasts. Right now there's only one beast lurking downstairs. It's a stonefly that shoots webs. I plan to capture it later so I occupied it's attention with an unbreakable artifact floodgate. There's also a few unslabbable ghosts haunting the halls. I think it adds character to the fort.

Anyway, I'm in the clear for now.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But at what cost?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Of the starting 7 only the axedwarf remains. There's also two marksdwarves, a legendary weaponsmith, and a jack-of-all-trades handyman. There's also the child of the original miners, and he should be an adult soon. What should I do with him? I think he deserves some special position, but I don't want him to be a noble because he deserves better.





After clearing out most of the horde, it was time to start taking the surface. But there's so many problems! First was the manpower issue. With so few dwarves, and 2 of them stationed marksdwarves, it left only 3 people to build and haul. Not to mentioned delays like eating, drinking, partying, sleeping, and so on.

Even though my underground traps took out the majority of the zombies, there were still stragglers. There are some "islands" in the north part with isolated zombies, a few lurkers in the water, and even some body parts that ended up on top of trees! It was slow working, and building that tiny little bridge connecting the islands took over a year in itself.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The most difficult work is finally finished. The fort is 10 years old. Migrants should finally be arriving. It's time to build!

[Tirion]

That's one hardcore fortress.

[Sheb]

PTW. I just started playing again, for the first time in years, and already loosed my fortress thrice to zombies and necromancers. The last reclaimer died days after the migrant showed up, which saved me from having to reclaim it for the fourth time. And I'm not even in a terrifying biome.

So I'm truly impressed by what you've done. Once you're settled in the Volcano, your whole current fortress should become a mausauleum for the countless dwarves that died settling this place.

[laularukyrumo]

I'm actually playing along, downloaded the save.

And I have to say. Hooooooly shit.

I got lucky and didn't have to deal with quite so many undead--they kept spawning on the other side of the river, and I was already safely underground (on try three--first one I scummed due to idiots picking a fight with zombie boars and dying and tantruming, and the game CRASHED on the second one before I saved.)

What I did, however, have problems with. Was your pisspoor starting supply choice.

No animals? Not even cats? I mean, c'mon dude. Pigs produce milk, meat, bones, and leather, and don't require grass. Cats, well, I haven't seen so many vermin but that's likely just because I haven't had a cat go around and slaughter them. And wow. You brought charcoal? Actual charcoal? It's three times cheaper to just bring wood and then burn it. And probably smarter, as it's more versatile in that form--you can use it for emergency beds or what have you instead.

And sandbags. You didn't bring ONE. That wouldn't be a problem, if it weren't for the fact that you ALSO brought no plants that don't come in the purple mushroom variety. No pig tails? And we're on an evil biome, so plant gathering doesn't work so well due to the fact that all the plants are dead before you can get to them. So no bags. How am I supposed to harvest sand without a bag? Trick question. You can't. Also I look forward to pointing and laughing at you when clothing starts to become an issue. As for myself, I'm just gonna cry.

other than that great job keep it up

At least I've gotten the fort to mostly self-sustaining status. We've got a bridge to keep out non-elephant undead, a wall to keep out EVERYTHING (seriously, nobody gets in or out until I have enough cage traps to satisfy my paranoia), food, booze, and beds. Out of wood, but, I don't wanna go up to the surface to get it, nor do I feel like breaching the caverns. Guess I'm gonna have to figure out how to breach that volcano... mmm. Backup saves, here I come!

[Mr Space Cat]

Posting to watch.

Man, this fort is seriously hardcore. In fact, it's flat out dwarven.

[Loud Whispers]

That growing pile of blood, body parts and bolts...

[Triaxx2]

Who needs to bring bags? Kill it, skin it, make bag with leather.

Yes, the bag will likely come to life and try to eat you, but that's just life in the fortress.

[Tirion]

Who needs to bring bags? Kill it, skin it, make bag with leather.

Yes, the bag will likely come to life and try to eat you, but that's just life in the fortress.

Wrong. Tanned skins aka leather doesn't reanimate. Nor do hairs, if spun in time.