100 years! It was never supposed to go on for that long, but here we are, and I'm trying to make it last for another century. About 80 of these years are detailed here, and the dwarves of Wirejade have lost much, and created even more during this time. The original idea was to relate the spectacular and seemingly inevitable collapse of a fortress, describing how everything and everyone dies messy deaths and call it a day. But it proved far more resilient than I had expected, and I couldn't simply leave things as that. There had to be a conclusion, and after years and years of struggle we got where we are now. In many aspects, Wirejade has never been greater. But how long can it go on? Will there come a day when no one is left to walk beneath its golden colonnades? We'll see, and I'll report it here.
The fort was brought to a standstill as much of its workforce was locked in a small dining room, originally built so the metalworkers and other dwarves working far away from the fort's core would have somewhere to eat without running back and forth 100+ z-levels. I'm still not sure if it really helps with that. Anyway, the dwarves made a lot of friendships with each other, and Alath the medic even threw the first party in... a long time, possibly ever. However, no matter how long I'd leave them in only one romantic relationship developed - between the blacksmith Libash Papermatch and Fath Helmscraped, a farmer. I put them in a tiny stockpile with food and drink, and they're ecstatic and definitely talk to each other, but still aren't married after 3 or so months. Oddly enough they're not upset about sleeping on the floor.
This frustrated me to no end, to the point I put the game away for several months. I don't why is it going like this - dwarves may be too closely related, too distant in age (DF requires a narrow window of max 10 years difference) or too incompatible character-wise. I fear I may have to trudge through the dwarf list to cherrypick potential couples, stick them in burrows and hope for the best. If only that one couple marries and has kids, the fort is doomed, even though it would take up to around 150 years for their offspring to die out of old age.
The airlocks are ready and operational. The initial project called for one on each side of the wall, but there are too many glowing pits in the south and the animals released there wouldn't be able to get anywhere. Others have already proven useful: lions were all burned to death by a passing fire demon, cheetahs successfully took down a few tick devils before getting slaughtered and cougars went up against leech demons, which blew themselves up with their own deadly dust. Tiger iron demons killed off the survivors. Thanks to this my framerate is going up, the hallways are less cluttered and I'm learning more about the combat capabilities of the demons. Wonderful! The only drawback is the amount of clean-up required. I can only hope nothing gets punched in the teeth.
The construction didn't go without accidents, of course. It wouldn't be proper. A pale brown demon got in and destroyed some doors, then fortunately left on its own. The lone animal trainer who happened to be in Hell then sneaked away thanks to the animals holding the creature back. The fire one caused a bit more trouble. I took the opportunity to test a few different ways of dealing with it. As it turns out, dwarves are relatively safe if they're not standing on a flammable tile and aren't wearing anything that can catch fire. A close combatant will still die due to fire he breaks off the creature melting his body and causing bleeding. A good old cave-in is the safest bet. There was an ape devil too, and while it was killed Mosus lost his remaining foot, and Iden Armorkeys his left hand.
Time has been hard on the fort's military. Datan Rockheld, Tekkud Paddledfocus the Contested Gallows of Order and Lor Giltsoothes the Turquoise Stake of Creating, all legendary hammerlords, passed away due to old age. Mistem Tattodyes, elite marksdwarf and Momuz Granitelessons the Teal Bride of Hawks, a swordsmaster met the same fate. Momuz got her own ornate tomb in recognition of her deeds. Tholtig Bannershorts, only 30 years old and already a legendary mason, fell and broke her spine with deadly effect, further limiting my options in the marriage game. Replacing the dead warriors should become less of a problem if I can lure in a steam demon - just have them beat on an armed dwarf for a long enough time and watch the skills go up to legendary levels in no time, at no risk.
The trash railway is up and running. It had stubbornly refused to work right for ages, until I put temporary stops on every level below the ones I had known for sure to be fine and found the broken one. Apparently semi-molten rock doesn't count as a proper wall for track ramps to stand next to, surprisingly enough. I'm not sure what to do with the dragon now, so he just sits in a cage and grows bigger.
The anniversary special is the hell fort, which is what I wanted to complete in time for the occasion. I have another idea, but I'll see if I get to it. It's not an in-game thing though. I don't know, this update simply feels kind of underwhelming, at least to me and I thought I might try to compensate for this.
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Topic: [0.34.11] [SPOILERS] The Tale of Wirejade (Read 94515 times)