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Author Topic: HopelessAbbey  (Read 2213 times)

mainman879

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HopelessAbbey
« on: January 12, 2013, 09:18:09 pm »

I am going to start a new Bloodline game with standard rules:
1. One year in game (Spring-spring)
2. One week RL
3. If Fortress is destroyed in your turn we revert
4. post your logs in this topic, with pictures! but keep it neat
5. Stupid Dwarf Tricks are acceptable as long as the Fortress is not destroyed
6. Any questions feel free to ask
*Bear with me as this is my first time trying out a succession style game and i am willing to take suggestions and ideas*
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Lt_Alfred

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2013, 09:27:33 pm »

What's the theme of the fortress? any background story? a good story is what makes a good succession game
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mainman879

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #2 on: January 12, 2013, 09:31:06 pm »

Background: The king of your nation is very old and sick, and his underlings have assumed control and are extremely greedy, so send you and your group out into the wilderness with very little support.
Theme: Show those nobles who's best by making the biggest strongest fort imaginable
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notquitethere

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2013, 06:49:33 am »

Okay I'll bite. Sign me up. So our goal is to make a flourishing fortress capital in which the king can eventually move to?
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Gavakis

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2013, 01:42:11 pm »

Let me show you hammerscar, it has nearly the exact same story, but with better writers.
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UristTheGrey

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2013, 02:24:27 pm »

Okay ill take a turn, when are getting this thing going? Also I think itd be more fun to keep playing through the FUN, even if it it nearly destroys the fort. Thats the best part, toughing it through these kind of obstacles
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jimboo

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2013, 05:56:02 am »

I'll take a chit.  You asked for suggestions:

1) The starting 7 skill sets are of varying importance depending upon the embark site.  Do you have a particular biome or combo in mind? (I'm currently batting .000 against Necromancers.)
2) Have you decided upon a grid size?  2x2 is great for later FPS and players with slower PCs, not so much for size of adamantine deposits.
3) I'm decent enough playing vanilla DF (maybe) but I'm not a programmer by profession; how can you tell if someone is cheating? (e.g., reveal.exe, Hack autodump, etc.)  I utilize every available exploit and bug but I don't "cheat" as some call it.  Unless that's a given condition, of course.
4) Lt_Alfred makes a valid point: a common theme gives a clearly defined goal (if the primary purpose is to develop magma cannons, well, everybody knows).  But there's something to be said, too, for variety and spontaneity (some call it Chaos).  Or perhaps the theme will develop over time.   
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Orange Wizard

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2013, 07:35:50 am »

Backstory, you say?

I'll take the whole 'evil nobles' and 'old, sick king' idea. But I will take a great many liberties in the narrative.
I think I'm up to this. If people like this little bit, I'll put some more effort in to the next things.

King Bëmbul Fieryaxes sat up. He was ancient, and had ruled in the mountainhome for nearly a century. He was seventy-five when he inherited his father's throne. Now, though, his age was getting the better of him. There was no way he could rule an empire as big as his for much longer, and his advisers and high lords flocked around him like carrion crows.
"Dastot!" he cried, calling for his servant. "Bring me my fine clothes! And-" He never finished the sentence, but he almost collapsed from the racking coughs that shook his frail body. He looked at his hand. It was red with blood.
"Your Grace?" It was Dastot. He was a plump youth of fifteen, and a son of one of his nobles... who was it, now? Bëmbul struggled to remember. Some pompous oaf, no doubt. Probably buying mercenaries to seize the throne, given a chance.
"Get my my damned clothes, you fool!" Spittle flew from the king's mouth, and he descended into another fit of coughing.
His daughter Tekkud would never be allowed to succeed him. She'd probably end up as a cheese maker, or a wood burner... some useless unskilled job where those treacherous nobles could keep an eye on her, or remove her if she caused trouble. He shook his head. He wasn't dead yet, and he still had time to make sure those seven dwarves escaped the capital...
« Last Edit: January 15, 2013, 06:43:16 pm by InsanityIncarnate »
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Hard science is like a sword, and soft science is like fear. You can use both to equally powerful results, but even if your opponent disbelieve your stabs, they will still die.

mainman879

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2013, 07:44:48 pm »

So we Have these people so far
1. Me
2. Notquitethere
3. UristTheGrey
4. jimboo
5. InsanityIncarnate
6. Kalemyr Skyfire
7. pivole
8. CaptainArchmage
9. ...

To clarify
1. Probably 3x3 or 3x4 grid
2. many metals in a wilderness biome with moderate trees/vegetation with goblins nearby
3. It will be Vanilla DF 34.11
4. I like the start of what you're doing InsanityIcarnate (I am not very imaginative and not very good at writing)
5. The goal will be to build a fort that would rival the capital and in your turn you will be allowed to do any Stupid Dwarf Trick you want
6. I will probably start it off when we reach about 7-8 people willing to do it
Remember i am new to bloodline games so any and all suggestions/criticism is welcome
« Last Edit: January 16, 2013, 03:53:21 pm by mainman879 »
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Kalemyr Skyfire

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2013, 01:40:21 am »

I'll enlist. Hopefully my other commitments will be finished by the time it's my turn.

Insanity, good story but slight problem; dwarves can live up to 170 years old, you might want to fix that....
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pivole

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2013, 06:54:50 am »

I'll 'list myself. Preferably an armoursmith with dabbling appraisal.
Let's begin?

Edit- Should the fort be magnificent above the ground, below it, or both? I elect a magnificent town, fairly 2-D, but 2z above the ground. With skyfarms and accompanying deep workings.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2013, 06:57:36 am by pivole »
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Orange Wizard

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2013, 06:55:11 pm »

Updated my story thing. Bëmbul is now the ripe old age of 168. (I didn't explicitly state that, I know, but it's stated that he's old: seventy-five when he became king, reigned for almost a century).
I'll get round to writing more, but I'd like to know what professions/names/genders the starting seven are first.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I vote we build around a volcano, with noble houses suspended above it, and have rooms dug/constructed around it.
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Please don't shitpost, it lowers the quality of discourse
Hard science is like a sword, and soft science is like fear. You can use both to equally powerful results, but even if your opponent disbelieve your stabs, they will still die.

CaptainArchmage

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #12 on: January 15, 2013, 09:52:33 pm »

Sign me up please!

Dwarf Name: Archmagion
Custom Profession Title: The Captainwizard

Actual profession: Weaponsmith and Medic Dwarf.
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jimboo

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2013, 11:40:25 pm »

Insanity: I like the backstory and hope you’ll expand it.  Can you work the war chinchillas in there, somehow?

But I don’t understand why you would volunteer to be an Adequate Mechanic.  ??  In the current release, there are more than enough embark points to skill up 7 dwarves to the max of 10 each, Proficient in the major profession while still keeping the anvil along with cats, dogs and a couple of egg-layers.   

As to your other suggestion,

A volcano in a wilderness biome with multiple metals … yeah, right.  Good luck with that one in the World Gen.   :) And while you’re writing that mod script to forward to mainman879, might I suggest that you include running water, clay and sand?  Very useful stuff, glass, and even with a sedimentary layer and clay it’s still a crapshoot whether or not there will be sand on the grid and it can take years to punch into the caverns and trample down the saplings to get some, and there goes your FPS.  Oh, and hard code in some Sun berries, please – the tree huggers never seem to bring me any and I wouldn’t want to jinx the Abbey.  :)

More seriously,
I agree with you on the value of an Architect and this is one of the very few times I’ve disagreed with the profession assessment on Wiki (or anything else on Wiki).  It takes only a couple of years to skill up from Novice to Legendary in any case, and if we actually construct the supports in some out-of-the-way room of rock and then deconstruct them, it also trains others in the moodable skill of Masonry.  A good Building Designer goes a long way towards keeping the inevitable tantrums from spiraling. 

For myself, I’m not picky; I’ll take whatever’s left over that we need.  I strongly urge that we start with a Proficient Carpenter (quality shields), Proficient Mechanic (a dwarf’s best friend, the mechanism, and ToadyOne has confirmed it is the quality of the mechanism that determines the effectiveness of a cage trap), and a Proficient Grower because as Wiki points out, the cascade effect makes it hard to overestimate the value of a Proficient Grower to a starting fortress.  And more than one dwarf with Novice Diagnosing skill because nothing happens in a hospital without the initial diagnosis, dabblers can’t diagnose, and – Fun Happens.  Any single dwarf can succumb to infection from a stubbed toe before the soap is ready and hasn’t everyone had a fortress swell to 200+ without a single diagnostician migrating in?

If mainman lets us choose, make me a Novice Woodcutter (with one metal axe and an assigned hunting dog, please!) and I’ll clear cut the surface while the rest of you do the heavy lifting.  Make me a Proficient Teacher also, and that’s only six total points against embark.  Adding Novice Axedwarf to the mix would still only total seven and give us one Kobold chaser/bear defender to start.  Why Proficient Teacher?  Because it isn’t a trainable skill and Wiki says that a Champion who is also proficient in teaching can quickly train up the migrants into a suitable military.  That’s assuming that everyone agrees that a Danger Room is an acceptable exploit; if it is, giving the Woodcutter/Teacher several trips through with the various weapons and a cloak but without a shield quickly brings him up to Legendary in all combat skills.  For this, you can pick the there-always-seems-to-be-one-in-every-embark clumsy, weak, stupid and socially-challenged dwarf (I get the irony).  Name him/me Sarge (drill sergeant), make him a militia captain in a squad of one for DR training and he can “go pro” early on and keep the other squads from getting rusty even without melee rooms until we need a Champion.  I also like to start with an up-skilled Herbalist since there won’t be any ambush for at least four seasons and if we’re lucky, there will be rope reeds and whip vines along with berries on the map and we’ll only need the Elves for hauling in wood.  (If we go that route, assign the other Hunting dog to the Herbalist at the start.  Hunting dogs trump war dogs, imo, since they are just as effective as meat shields, just as tasty, and the sneaky dogs don’t run away during Civilian Alerts.)  If the starting rules for HopelessAbbey say no Danger Rooms, then I suppose I really need more practice on the military side before my turn comes up …

Diagnostician is the only make-or-break skill; everything else has a work-around but no dwarf goes from zero skill to Novice in Diagnosis – at least, that seems to be the consensus on Bay12 forums (right?).  And Teacher is not a trainable skill so, those are my two suggestions.  Ah – just thought of a third suggestion, then I’ll close this (too long) post and hush up: Has everyone read Boatmurdered?  What a great story!  But at several points, the various players made some pretty snarky comments about each other and “that moron who was the previous manager.”  There’s a world of difference between snark and a wisecrack (the smiley face is pretty much a give-away on that one). Let’s have fun and try not to have too much Fun too soon!


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Orange Wizard

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Re: HopelessAbbey
« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2013, 03:45:07 am »

Right, this is my two (three?) cents on the above post.

<snipped because OH ARMOK WALL OF TEXT>
> War chinchillas? OK, mildly amusing contrivances are a go.

> My current personal fort is on a 4x4 volcano embark. I have native aluminium, native silver, horn silver, native gold, tetrahedrite, and bismuthinite. I import steel weapons and armour, but I can afford to do that because I have so much silver.
Anyway, just set mineral scarcity really low. It means we get more metals, but less flux and coal. But that won't matter if we build on a volcano...

> Mechanic is a fairly quickly trained skill, so there's no point in making Cassætheru any better at his/her job. Embark points can, IMO, be better spent on items like booze. Always good to bring loads of booze.

> Quality of shields has no bearing on their effectiveness. A xlarch shieldx is just as good as an ☼adamantine shield☼. It's the Shield User skill that has all the effect.

> Sunberries? Screw that. My midgets drink plump helmet wine unless they get lucky with a caravan, and some other booze can be imported.

> If my dwarves are injured, they have a choice: Do something useful, or die. There is no middle ground.

> I've never had a fort reach 200 dwarves, because my pop limit is 120. Otherwise my FPS dies. But I agree! Novice Diagnostician for everyone!
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Please don't shitpost, it lowers the quality of discourse
Hard science is like a sword, and soft science is like fear. You can use both to equally powerful results, but even if your opponent disbelieve your stabs, they will still die.
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