Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Mishrak

1 (33.3%)

Flabort

2 (66.7%)

HavingPhun

0 (0%)

Gigaz

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 3

[Zealord]

I find the three year fortress death claim rather dubious tbh. Even when I played at a popcap of 200 on 4x4's I never suffered fps death on year 3 on my laptop.

My current fort is sitting at year 7 (pop cap set at 50, actual pop of 80) on a 3x3 with most of the surface covered in blood, ichor, vomit, or some combination of the three and I'm sitting pretty at a stable 89 fps.

I must have a super computer as well.   

Same here, even on a 4x4 embark with 150 dwarves running around sharing blood with everyone I get to a stable 70 FPS
What does it depend on then?

[vjek]

so, 10 years or 10 hours?  which one? both?  any limits on embark, worldgen, etc?  The author tried at least two embarks in that time...

EDIT:  Ok, going for 10 years, myself.  I'll make the best (IMHO) fort I can in 10 years of in-game time, and post it on DFFD.

[Giver99]

I will join. i usually get to about year 7-8







I have a super computer!

[Mishrak]

I'm going to do a volcano embark, just my normal one.  Try to find one that connects to gobbos and other things so I can get invasions and all the caravans.  I'll also rescind my normal policy of a pop cap so things get kinda wacky sooner.

I see no reason to limit embark or worldgen either.  Just as long as it's Vanilla DF with or without a Tileset.  10 hours, 10 years, whichever is less, or whatever you feel like as long as it doesn't exceed that time frame.  My whole point was to illustrate that, in the same 10 hours she spent beating her head against the game, a moderately experienced and somewhat informed player (Me) can make a viable and fun fort.

We should put ourselves on the clock, so that it's not "10 hours unpaused" but 10 hours played, which includes time worldgenning, designating things, planning, etc.  I'd say the only time it doesn't include would be preparing the write-up, as that will take a bit longer.

Also, what deadline do we want on this?  Should it be next weekend (March 10th?) so the dust hasn't settled on the Ars article yet?  Or should it be a little longer, as that may not matter as much?

[Mushroo]

I love this idea, sign me up! I should have time this weekend.

[Ruhn]

How about we have 2 different divisions? 10 Realtime Hours, and 10 Game Years. That should minimize some confusions, as well as any bickering about the rules between the groups. Submissions should include preferred FPS settings to be listed.

Let's not forget, some people play at different gameplay rates besides FPS rates as well (we have planners, CODs, Project-oriented, and etc. that might sign up for this).

Sure, if we have enough submissions then creating divisions for the voting sounds fair.

Personally I probably have the game paused 50% of the time planning every little thing, might not even make it to year 5.

(OP has been updated)

[Ruhn]

So, what's criteria for best fort? I'm tempted to join in, but I'm not going to if it's simply monetary gain or best trap hall.

This may give me an excuse to finally build me green glass pyramid.

Also, are we using any embark? Is there to be a standard?

Judging will be done by the community at large via Poll.  The purpose I had in mind is to get the most advanced fort to show what an experienced player can do in 10 hours, as a contrast to someone brand new who might be only able to build a still.  If that takes the form of a mega-project, 3z of traps, lava fun, or creating 2000 socks it is up to you.

Embark: anything you want.  Doing something great in harsh surroundings will look all the more impressive.

(sorry for 2x post, I will add a Q&A section to OP)

[Kon]

Sign me up. I will upload my fort after 10 years or 10 hours, whichever comes first.

[HavingPhun]

We can only enter one fort right

[Mishrak]

One would probably be best, as from the looks of things, we'll have a lot to vote on as it is.

Also, re: the date poll that was just put up.  Time is of the essence, before the dust settles on this article.  Lets not go two or three weeks before we get these out.  I'm voting Monday the 11th for submission deadline, and by that Friday (15th) we've got voting wrapped up and can submit it to them before the weekend.

[Ruhn]

I see your point, Mishrak.  So far it looks like 11th is the favorite choice.  If everyone is done before then, we will surely move the timeline forward.

The OP has been updated with some Q&A, as well as possible secondary awards we will vote on after the Grand Prize is given out.

[Big Bear]

Good luck to everyone!  Wish I had time to participate, too.

Hopefully, these fortresses will showcase not only advanced fort designs, but a lot of the typical DF moments that we've come to expect as well. I think a lot of people just think of DF as a building game with ASCII characters and difficult UI, and they think, "Well, if I wanted to build something, I could just go play Minecraft. It's easier to learn, and it has 3D graphics, too!"

I imagine you'll get a chance to show them that DF is so much more than that. I can imagine them reading about the WTF-inducing moments that we take for granted, such as:

"...And then I decided to build a pressurized magma cannon in case the goblins come back, but the dwarf assigned to it turned into a were-kangaroo and just attacked my poor furnace operator. Looking at the combat report, I see that the beast latched on to his eyeball and shook furiously, tearing the tendons! He got to the hospital in time. On the other side of the fortress, my alligator farm is going well, and.. Good lord, some necromancer is raising the dead, and our supply of cow hair has come to life, and is strangling our broker!..."

 

[HavingPhun]

Good luck to everyone!  Wish I had time to participate, too.

Hopefully, these fortresses will showcase not only advanced fort designs, but a lot of the typical DF moments that we've come to expect as well. I think a lot of people just think of DF as a building game with ASCII characters and difficult UI, and they think, "Well, if I wanted to build something, I could just go play Minecraft. It's easier to learn, and it has 3D graphics, too!"

I imagine you'll get a chance to show them that DF is so much more than that. I can imagine them reading about the WTF-inducing moments that we take for granted, such as:

"...And then I decided to build a pressurized magma cannon in case the goblins come back, but the dwarf assigned to it turned into a were-kangaroo and just attacked my poor furnace operator. Looking at the combat report, I see that the beast latched on to his eyeball and shook furiously, tearing the tendons! He got to the hospital in time. On the other side of the fortress, my alligator farm is going well, and.. Good lord, some necromancer is raising the dead, and our supply of cow hair has come to life, and is strangling our broker!..."

 

Thank you for this. It reminded me of some fun things I can do.

[Itnetlolor]

Due to certain constraints, I might go for the 10-hour endurance run, provided my schedule allows for it. I'll need a project idea to keep me busy for those 10 hours however.

EDIT:
Nevermind. Provided one of my ‼Stupid Dwarf Tricks‼ works as I intend it to, then I might work on that instead.

What exactly do I have in mind? Magma/obsidian tube fort. Provided the proof of concept works, it will have a front door, and not a topside access hatch. Armok-willing, this should work; and if it does, it will rock.

[vjek]

Here's my submission.

This took me about 3 hours today, and 7 hours yesterday.

Notes/Comments

used advanced worldgen to generate the world I wanted, with 1 civ.
used finder to find shallow and deep metals

Set pop-cap to 30 (ended up with 48 max, 4 died: 1 unknown, 1 of old age, 2 to ex-noble mandate murders)

Personal Goal: each dwarf shall have... (all masterwork, studded & encrusted, wherever possible)

-a gold well (metal gold chain, metal gold bucket, metal gold block, metal silver/native gold mechanism)
-metal gold cabinet
-metal gold chest
-metal gold table
-metal gold throne
-metal gold statue
-bloodthorn bed
-metal gold door

5x5 room layout.
7 items around, adjacent to walls
1 door

need legendary miner prior to mining gold.
need legendary gem cutter/setter for encrusting (later)
need legendary metalcrafter/blacksmither for metal object quality
new clothing must be made available

-- started early spring 176 - site name "Whippedraced"
embarked with peasants, picks, axes, meat, wine, underground seeds.
assign labors.
dig out storage area in soil
designate trees around wagon to be cut down for logs
build carpenters workshop out of logs
build wooden door to block entrance from animals
dig out tree farm layer to improve mining for later
designate stockpile in storage area
desginate meeting area in storage area
deconstruct wagon
construct two chairs (one for broker, one for bookkeeper)
build chairs in storage area, build offices and assign ownership
designate above ground pasture area for animals
designate all trees above ground to be cut down
designate soil level to be dug out for tree farm
designate all surface plants to be harvested
build 20 barrels to store food/plants
breach and seal cavern layer
dig out dormitory
build & place beds in dormitory
build above ground farms for berries and rope reed
build wall around above ground farms
extend central staircase downwards to cavern floor
build walls around central staircase
dig down to warm stone, dig exploratory shafts
build magma forges, magma smelter
desginate bar/block stockpile near magma infrastructure
smelt tetrahedrite
build well components
build craftsdwarf workshop, mechanics workshop, clothier workshop
designate workshop room
designate bedrooms
designate underground water supply path
build magma garbage pit
process rope reeds
build grates on downward water path
smooth water path for engraver skilling
pave water path to prevent tree growth
build bridge in water paths as emergency shut off
build levers
tie bridges to levers
divert part of the brook
flip levers to open bridges, starting water flow into fort
create well inside fort
smelt tetrahedrite, make copper blocks, melt copper blocks, to increase blacksmithing
make wooden blocks and dump them, to increase carpentry for bloodthorn beds
cut all gems, cut several dozen diorite for working on gem setting, encrust all masterwork bloodthorn beds
make 48 each of trousers, shoes, shirts for the fort as replacement clothing
dump all old 'XX' worn clothing
place first 32 bloodthorn beds
build & place first 32 gold wells, with silver mechanisms
build 32 gold doors
decline all trader offerings, as I can build everything myself
decline status/colony increase to speed up liaison interaction
build gold tables, thrones, statues, doors, cabinets, chests, encrust as much as possible, 64 of each furniture
have jewellers cutting and encrusting during building
place all furniture
build diorite paved roads in main meeting area
rebuild hospital area with new beds/chests
restock drink supply
-- ended late winter 185

Spoiler: Living Quarters Screenshot (click to show/hide)

I met the goal, but not as I had hoped.  In the end, the rush to finish left me unable to make all the furniture items masterwork as I would have liked.  This fort had no consideration for defense, being the only world civ in a calm surrounding area, but that's what I wanted.
Ultimately, it would have been better to move everything down to the magma level to be closer to the furnaces, and minecarts probably would have sped up the ore and furniture movement, but I didn't test that.
I would have gained considerable time if I had skipped the "one well per room" idea, but I hadn't done it before, and it turned out great.  I wanted to put in a waterfall per room as well, but I wouldn't have had enough time to do that and get all the furniture made.
Skipping encrusting would have taken far less time, as well.
I was a little too concerned about getting enough cloth for clothing replacements, that turned out to be easy with rope reeds.
If I had to do it again, I would stick with rock and wood crafts instead of metal, as this eliminates the need for the forge/smelting except for chains for the wells.  Primarily this is because it takes so long to train up blacksmithing to legendary, while training up carpentry and masonry is trivial by comparison.  But I wanted to see if it could be done with metal furniture, so I guess that was worthwhile.
I put off creating booze for a while, and I think that caused some delays, as dwarves were pathing to the river to get water, when it would have been faster for me to setup a booze industry right away from above ground crops dedicated to the task.
The actual building of the metal furniture took years, by far the longest task in the overall timeline.
40+ of the dwarves are Ecstatic, so I consider that success.  Also, 4.3M in created wealth, not bad.
The layout definitely isn't my standard, but I had very few z-levels to work with, so that's how it turned out.  Normally I don't build rooms of any kind in soil layers, but ended up doing that this time.
Once I had built the shaft downwards into the cavern, I sealed it up and didn't use them.  Ended up with two FB's down there, but no other surprises.
I ended up building too many rooms, given the marriages and such.  I wasn't sure how many dwarves I'd end up with, but I had planned for 64 rooms, and made it to 64 rooms.  Could have gotten away with 32.
A fun challenge, looking forward to seeing the other entries/results!

NOTE:  I see the pop-cap rule was added, and I understand completely if this invalidates my entry.  Good luck to everyone participating!
EDIT:
I've tried this challenge again using only stone, cloth and wood instead of magma forges and metal.  It's been much faster.  The second time around, I was able to place ALL masterwork furniture in 32 rooms in under 5 years.  This second fort has 39 total population.  I'm going to try a waterfall and well in each room before the deadline.  If I make it in time, I'll update my submission on DFFD to be the new fort.  Busy week though, I might not have time.

One thing I did have to check on the wiki was whether or not cloth ropes counted as 'chains' in game, and they did.  This means no need for a forge before you build wells or rollers for minecarts.

As far as performance goes, my FPS never drops below whatever I set it at, in all the games I play.  100, 200, even 500.  This is primarily due to the way I generate my worlds, the sites I embark on, and restricting population.  I've had 27 year old fortresses running at 500FPS.  And this is with vanilla DF, with temperature, weather, everything like that enabled.  Certain specialty sites (like 40 tile-wide rivers) and draining volcanos and such obviously have an impact on FPS, but a typical/average fort, nope, all good here.