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[jimboo]

OK but, I'd already given the baseline twice in earlier posts.  29 =>52 w/ 95 idlers, old laptop running Win 7 Home Premium, 6.1.7601, Intel duo-core P7450 @ 213GHz, 2.33 MHz, 4.0 GB physical memory, bumped to 8.90 virtual for DF, generally running overclocked but not at the moment.  Not using Large Address Aware Patch because I can't tell that it makes any difference, World Gen or after.  No graphics card or dedicated display memory. 

Edit:
oh, should probably add this: the virtual page was changed because my processor usage goes from 8 - 18% to 77 - 84% during an 80+ Uninvited Guest siege and would occasionally lock as a consequence.  This was the single best thing for making DF run on my laptop.  FPS 22 is, for me, the magic number since anything less stutters SoundSense.  Your mileage may vary.   

[arclance]

^ On a processor that old and slow (not likely to have more than 2 cores at that age and speed) you probably would get a small FPS increase from turning off soundsense to reduce the number of processes competing for use of the cpu.
DwarfFortress wants one of your cores for itself and if you only have two cores running other things can slow it down by competing for the use of your limited number of processor cores since your OS will need some time on the second one as well.

[jimboo]

Sparring:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hammerdwarves with basic quality crossbows?  OK, as long as it’s just sparring.  In the meantime, our best Weaponsmith is working on welded wolfram hammers.
Oh – and then one of the sparring dwarves bled to death.  So much for “hardly ever,” guess it’s time to use some of that fungiwood for practice weapons.  Down to 21 soldiers.

Healing:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There’s a lot of praying in this fortress.  Seems to work at least some of the time, hey.

14th Felsite.

The Drow leave – finally – and a Vile Force of Darkness appears to see them off.  No surprise there but these Drow had more than a few guards and could take care of themselves.  Now we’re under Siege … by Leprechauns?  OK, there’s a goodly number of the little green snots but – nobody else shows on the Kill screen.  Alright then, Legion to Leprechaun duty!  The head Elf gave us his second warning in a month about cutting trees, between that and the other greenies we may not have an Elf caravan this Spring.  Which is OK, the Embassy is now up and there are certainly gold coins to be spent.  But we’ve only cut maybe six trees in the past two months (they were in the way of construction).  What’s the Elf diplomat so upset about?  The Drow merchant delivery?  Hey, if he can’t take a joke, then …  I suppose we could use the Embassy to “declare war on the Elf fanatics,” which could be fun but cooler heads seem to think the time would be better spent training and outfitting these new recruits.  The fortress has rooms loaded with armor but much of it isn’t very impressive (studded leather sounds cool until you’re facing an Orc with a steel blade). 

Just fiddling around with experiments on random items and we got a chrome full body shield.  Good, better than a bloody shield of Armok but still not as good as a bladesteel shield.  I like those; request ‘em with high priority, buy every one offered.  And now I’m wondering what “random item” was sacrificed to get that chrome shield.

This fortress uses about 100 units of booze a month.  With current stocks, we’ll need to make more sometime late next year.     Same with meals but if we stop cooking there’d be no way to get rid of the 3K stockpiled meat. 

Flooding: two magma channels were opened, short ones taking only two game days to fill.  FPS hit of only 2, will stabilize shortly but I’ll keep an eye on the volcano for how long the 6’s dance around. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are non-magma safe floodgates linked on the right.  The second one wasn’t really necessary but I dug the tunnel too long before thinking about it.

Reason: we have 20 soldiers and a lot of warm bodies w/ zero skills (#21 is a Lifemancer, not to be risked).  Year six, sieges are likely to come with large numbers of well-armed troops, probably elite ranged and accompanied by named warbeasts and invisible wizards.  There won’t be time to train recruits in armor wearing and leather isn’t likely to stand up so, mithril.  We have none in stock and only one magma metallurgist.  The two blast furnaces are cranking stocked ore 24/7 to make silver, of which we also have none smelted into bars.  Steel we have so, mithril armor to start will hopefully give some protection without burdensome weight.  Weapons – we have those, too, although the best ones seem scattered about the surface.  I expanded the magma channel because this is DF and somehow dismantling a current smelter just seems so wrong.  Except the many clay ovens; two of those went right away.  Metallurgist workshops are bigger, anyhow.

13th Felsite.
Caravan time coming up and A Vile Force of Darkness has arrived!  In the cavern, we can live with that.  Hey, our first three Dragon Raptor eggs in the new nursery!  Warbeasts to follow.  The mother is pretty busted up according to the health screen so, the first 10 tsks of the new Kennel is Heal Nearby Pet.  Then, steel-cladding those unicorns.  Oh, wait; not in this version, dang.

17th Felsite, Elven caravan.
There probably won’t be much time before uninvited guests but the dwarves are dashing out for at least the closest staffs and wands; some of them are 197 steps away.  I want those partial souls.  And so of course, it’s party time again.  Two parties, now.  And our Iron Colossus can move after all; he’s staggered in to join.

24th Felsite
It took a week for the Elves to get their act together and be ready for trade but their Sworddancers were busy with some Goblins so I’ll cut ‘em some slack.  Now, we need a broker.  Steel was content to stand around the first few days but then he went to get a drink.  OK, I’ve seen this before: first the drink, then the eat, then the sleep and another week has gone by.  So I switched brokers.  Nine times.  Everyone is at one of the parties.  Chaosgear is #82 on the list of skilled alternatives (?!).  I like having more than a couple dwarves with appraisal to start but this is ridiculous.  #10 trading some trinkets for wood just to keep the Elves occupied while somebody gets their fill. 

28th Felsite
FINALLY got a qualified dwarf not drinking or partying to play broker, Corridor.  Oh, still no Appraisal skill and the windows already been opened so, some more wood for trinkets while we wait around for someone to get drunk enough.  I may have to deconstruct a table or statue (and no one likes a party-pooper).  Steel has had enough booze for now, then decided to party.  This could take awhile. 

1st Hematite, Summer.
I’m about to give up and just trade blind for those few barrels of poison; the Elves didn’t bring much else of value.  3rd Heme: Hate finally got his act together, the Elves are ecstatic from taking away worn-out clothing.  Picked up some bitterroot barrels.  They offered shields make out of bricks??  Only an Elf.  We have heavy steel choppas in inventory; an idea of what to expect in days to come.  Well, we *had* heavy steel choppas.  They’re gone now, along with a few hundred bone trinkets.  It’s a start.  While the Elves were busy loading up, I sent the guys out to grab a few of the better weapons that were close by; no telling how much time we have for that.  And while the Elves had nothing of real value, the next caravan might so some expendable saw blades and such are being carried to the Depot; no telling how much time next time, either.  And it’s “all hands on deck, masonry” to try and get those bridges fixed to be able to close off that main entryway other than ‘drop into volcano.’

On Becoming the Capital:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

0 gifts to the dwarves to date.  Good.  Our Baron, Panopticon (formerly OverBaron) seems decent enough and so far hasn’t made any demands for that alcavian horn he’s fond of; the copper, concrete and javelins we can deal with.  He seems content enough but we have a good metalsmith so perhaps we’ll gift him with some copper furniture.

The Marble Bridge:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There are two paths on the surface to the Trade Depot.  That’s good.  But one of them isn’t TD accessible.  The end closest to the Depot is closed off so I knocked down 3 tiles of the side wall.  Still inaccessible.  Hmm.  Seems there are open spaces at the bottom (again, black floor tiles on a black background are easy to miss).  This bridge isn’t linked anyway (no mechanism present) so it’s already a defense liability and the two above it are linked (volcano drop) so, it’s being deconstructed to give access to those open tiles.  I want to floor those over before anyone falls into the volcano – which has happened before.  There are actually two marble bridges adjacent but if the bottom one lowered south (I can’t find the lever) it would crush the war drakes.  North, it’s overlapping the other, longer bridge over the volcano.  Since that path to the TD isn’t accessible now anyway, I’m doing some re-design.   Oh, and apologies to previous Overseers; I look for notes, of which there are none.  But a couple of levers were named and I hadn’t noticed.  So the left side surface path is secure and three wide, the main one over the volcano isn’t.

[jimboo]

That last scroll.

Jimboo had four scrolls of notes from the first meeting with the mid-level managers and had grouped those ideas into three categories: good ideas that could be done within a year, good ideas that the groundwork could be laid for later, and ideas that sounded good but were just never going to happen with this bunch.  Adamantine?  Of course, it was the stuff of dwarven dreams but jimboo didn’t yet have even a map of the areas already opened.  He shuddered to remember finding that passageway from the Tombs going down into the caverns, seemingly forgotten.  The miners were not enthused about exploring deep; they had their own stories involving wraiths and other things best not mentioned.  Exploring the Third Cavern?  Maybe, could even be exciting fun but with only twenty soldiers, who would be left to guard the fortress? 

Then there was that last scroll, the one given to him by the Commander and Champion, Meph.  Jimboo had read it and shrunk back from the implications.  Jimboo was getting the hang of this Overseer thing – mostly, it was getting others to do what needed to be done and that wasn’t particularly hard once word had gotten around; a couple of weeks loo duty had silenced the loudest grumblers and the rest were content to party, drink and work like dwarves were supposed to.  But that last scroll, that one was different.  Digging and planting and planning and arguing were all easy things to do and no one ever got hurt from a mistake (well, not too badly hurt although there was that recent sparring mishap).  But that last scroll, that was different.  Dwarves would die if the wrong orders were issued.  Armok’s beard, dwarves were going to die, many of them -- even if everything went right.  Jimboo did not want that responsibility, had not asked for it.  But there wasn’t anyone else for many seasons.

[jimboo]

“We are still alive and the fortress still stands.”  The overseer jimboo has this on the wall next to his bed so it’s the first thing he sees each new day.  Each day is harder than the one before and he is more tired at the end of each.  It has been only one season. 

The Military Situation:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ugh.  I have not been looking forward to this:  I’m no more a fan of micromanagement than anyone else.  20 soldiers isn’t nearly enough.  A siege coming any day.  Most of the soldiers we have are inadequately equipped.  Most of the best weapons are scattered about the surface.  First tip:





Our bloody-armored, slow moving Commander was wearing leather boots, now volcanic plate.  Big, strong, tough, highly skilled, and holding two shields as well as his two-handed weapon.  I think his hands are full.     Still, he’s managed two notable kills and one slug so, wouldn’t want to piss him off.  The equip screen shows that he – like everyone else – is under the global command for “metal armor,” etc.  Some soldiers have two shields.  Some have two weapons – and a crutch under one arm.  None have assigned warbeasts.  Our long-sparring rangedwarfs are highly skilled in Hammering, no one is using the fancy archery range.  Our two best swordsdwarfs are fems.  The first ten mithril helms made for new recruits never showed up in inventory; “metal headwear” means dwarfs will upgrade as it suits them and apparently our standing 20 liked mithril better than steel or volcanic.  Which would have been OK if we had enough mithril but we don’t, and now the guys with zero armor-wearing skill have the heavy equipment.  Back to padded leather, short term, metal helms and hope.  Time will tell and I’m doing my best but, I really think we’re all gonna die.      Assigned weapons are mostly not as good as ones sitting at the Trade Depot and none of them are poisoned (a personal favorite because admittedly, military tactics are not my strength).  Many of the improved weapons are made of glass, gems, wood or stone; our legendary axe is white copper.  On the good side: there are only twenty guys to micromanage – fewer, if I discharge the fems w/ children.  I’m stationing everyone next to the Depot so if they drop whatever at least it will be somewhere I can find it.  [side note for anyone thinking, “jimboo, everything is easily visible already” – yeah, right, after playing with the color and contrast on the screenshots before uploading to Bay12; trust me, a basalt lever on a basalt floor on my laptop screen is all but invisible.]     

Well, nothing to do but get to it.  If we’re lucky, there will be time before the next siege to have some things rearranged.  If not, better for the fortress to go down in flames than quietly fade away, right?  Right? 

[jimboo]

Sauropod attack:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Say what? Two sauropods are stomping the dwarves.  Next to the Trade Depot.  I thought it was a scuffle near the Kennel after penning too close but it seems two wild ones – one named Brush –  wandered in past the Guardian and one squad and are now squishing haulers.

Drake defense:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Axed:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I do like that spinning, outstretched arms move with ☼volcanic battle axe☼
Uncorn defense:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I might as well stick this one here before I forget.  In a lab once, first day the manager gave me a new notebook and told me to number every page.  I did, and he flipped through it, initialed the back page w/ date and gave it back to me.  I asked why and it was to prevent “anyone” from slicing a page of lab notes out with a razor.  I try to embark and play Masterwork “full Meph mode,” never using DFHack to cheat but something always seems to come up or there’s a new release “so maybe next time.”  Bannerheart has a DFHack notation 01 Granite 50 which might be enough to keep me from temptation. 

We already have unicorns.  Canadian Moose gets the press but I once lost a dwarf to a Centaur; strangled the dwarf with the opposable pinion feathers of his wings, held him at wings-length and repeatedly kicked him in the groin until he died.  Very DF-y.  We have unicorns which seem happy to breed, now in war training and they helped with the dinosaurs. 

- One War Raptor is now steel-clad. 
-“Grown to be a Hunting Giant Drowspider?”  They’re trainable?  They’re also breeding and we have several so they were penned across the western entry just in case another group of wandering sauropods comes by to stomp the dwarves again.  Cute red icons, the bugs.  We lost two dwarves, two more are “resting” in the Hospital.  The Dragon raptor eggs, sadly, are rotting in the nest.

18th Hematite:
The Elves are getting ready to leave.  OK, now I have a guesstimate on how long it takes them to stock the bones amulets, bracelets and rings.  We loaded ‘em up.  800 down, several thousand to go, loaded in about a week.  I was keeping the masterwork bonecrafts until noticing just how many of them there were; Chaosgear, in particular has a gift.  They’re still only worth a hundred, though. 

Wire Murksholdier has just made a ☼leather backpack☼; I need to remember to task him soon with appliqués.  No reason not to keep dwarves happy and who knows what tomorrow will bring, tantrum-wise.  For the moment, everyone seems mostly happy or even ecstatic – I think it’s all the booze scattered around the fortress along with the parties. 

22nd – traded an extra 200 amulets, will see how long it takes to load.  Same day?!  Wow, that doesn’t seem right but I’ll try to remember there’s only one warning bell; they just up and left. 
Elf caravan: upon reflection, we purchased back the steel choppas and anything that might someday be used against us.  The odds are low but, still.  They didn’t bring much, they didn’t offer much but they did haul away a thousand bone trinkets.  No poisons offered, I asked for Raptors (no Dragons offered, and no turkeys) and mithril hopefully everything but, no crates were offered, nada much.  Should we have ordered sauropods?  They’re still quite powerful in this mod and we lost two dwarves recently to the stomp surprise but, it just doesn’t seem right to me.  Dinosaurs and dwarves?  We overpaid tremendously and made some gifts, maybe next year they’ll bring a better attitude.  There were some of the fancy arrows for sale, decent quality, they’re in inventory and have asked for some more although we lack quality bows.  Bought ‘em because the RAWS say “they’re worth it,” have never tried and we have great melee weapons but ranged, not so much.  And sometimes, you know, the comments in the RAWS are right and sometimes they aren’t.  Bitterroot and shadowleaf in stock.

Hey, look at that: brewmeister/miner/Overseer jimboo is our best diplomat (level 6).  Dunno how that happened, I may Guild myself when the Hall is next open.  In the meantime, I’ll send for the dwarves, usually the best caravan.  We’ve no idea what’s been Wish Listed already. 

26th Heme:
The dwarven caravan arrives – took only six days?  Or maybe not; there are two nice dwarven cultures, one evil one on this map.  Is the one arriving the ‘generic ask dwarves’ caravan?  Must be, it’s first month summer.  Oh – only one wagon, one merchant so this can’t be what was ordered by Panopticon last fall.  Will those then be delivered in the fall?  I’ve never played with this many civilizations before.  Well, maybe we can request more of the special blueprints and scarce raw materials (titanium for welded mithril, etc.) if the single merchant makes it through, two squads going out now to provide escort. 

We now have three new squadrons to augment our veteran 2018: Fodder, FirstUp and SloppySeconds.  They have mostly mithril helms but now we’re out of the white metal so, studded leather it is.  Steel is getting low and while we have a lot of exposed iron and levels of marble, there are no silver veins left exposed and I’ve yet to send any exploratory miners out.  Mostly, dwarves have been doing a lot of hauling and digging, trying to bring workshops all close to the central staircase with dedicated storage for goods and resources, along with some “waystations” going deep to set up future explorations.  This is the part that tempts me to use reveal.exe.     So, is there any reason not to have two Taverns?  We do have an awful lot of copper, 2:1 on coin exchange and while there is labor involved and hauling, we also have the magma.  Isn’t mithril the best choice for armoring new recruits?  Each mithril bar at the new Metallurgists requires 3 silver, and helms for the new recruits took all we were able to make from silver ore stock.  There are a few things to melt but not enough to make it worthwhile but just in case, that’s why we laid in the new Metallurgists and forges. (Although really, they were to get as much mithril as possible and quickly for the new conscripts; I feel lucky that we’ve made it a month with only a minor siege in the caverns and a few thieves and the like.)  Alchemy does the transmutation thing but not quickly; that could be useful to get the 1:1 titanium required for welded mithril but won’t help much for the silver.  Many copper coins is the best option I’ve come up with so far.  Zinc: we have tons of it in bar stock and as sphalerite ore (literally): does anybody know what it’s good for?  Brass?   

27th Hematite
The Elf diplomat is unhappy yet again about the trees.  3rd warning.  Yeah, yeah.  But I’m glad we bought back those iron and steel weapons for more amulets and worn-out clothes.  If they want to come at us with those copper short swords used to train weaponsmiths, OK. 

4th Malachite, mid-Summer
The single dwarf with his single wagon has made it to the Depot and he did bring some interesting stuff.  Those steel choppas for wood and crystal glass quickly made him ecstatic about trading but, really, wealth is not any concern.  There are a couple of better-than-ours mechanized javelin and axe-head throwers and an inactive swordgolem.  We can use that!  A 15K swordgolem, purchased ecstatically for 9K – just keeping the trading skills in practice.  Some minor poisons, a few barrels of blood (always useful).  Good grief, that single wagon of his has an allowed weight of 32K, a quantum stockpile on wheels.  We traded away 500+ carved bones mostly in bins to speed the loading and also to get rid of the cement (?) bins.   We now have two new carpenter workshops next to the fungiwood working 24/7 on bins but I don’t think another six months will be enough time for them to make the bins necessary to group all the remaining bones.  Even 15 steps away from the Depot, that main refuse pile is still a 30 step RT haul for each single trade and thankfully, the brick and block makers down in The Pit seem to have a priority for bins.  We overpaid by 20K or so for a single bola as last trade so, maybe this dwarf will also bring lots of stuff next trip.  I think I like this Embassy, may use it for other civs to clear inventory.  Maybe this was the previously requested stuff; no animals but lots of rare silks and top leather.  We have a legendary leatherworker, there are now a half-dozen each weaponsmiths and armorers as highest-moodable skill so I think we’ll train some Tailors, Weavers and Dyers with the remaining craftsdwarves.  Just options for the next Overseer and maybe this will turn into a 20 year fortress with a great Stupid Dwarf Project. 

8th
Invited the drow back.  We have gnomes but can’t invite them?  Bummer.  Wonder if they’d come to an everybody’s welcome Tradefair.  This might be a chance to see if the Drow return with last winter’s Wish List and I wish we knew what that was.  Clockworks don’t breed in this version, we won’t have many hellfire mines without caravans. 

Road Sandband is making steel broadhead javelins. By the time she’s finished there should be a smithing library to get her to legendary then, more ranged weapons and piercing steel javelins with poison. 

[Brilliand]

What happened to Brilliand?  I don't see myself in that first squad, where I last remember being.

[jimboo]

4Brilland:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

No surprise here for a professional soldier

+ volcanic boots and a mithril helm on next screen

Brilland is still around, one of our best pikemen and currently standing at ease after escorting in the dwarf caravan-of-one.  Fine dark violet brick, eh?  I’ll see what we can do.  Currently, Meph is in The Pit burning green brick for his own new quarters.  Since I’m planning my own tomb, I should probably spend some time with the former Overseer quarters.  Excepting Panopticon, of course; our Baron seems to be doing alright in his Opulent/Royal rooms. 

[Brilliand]

Oh, fourth squad.  I must have misremembered.

It looks like I don't have my bloody armor any more.  I'm a legendary+5 armor user, so I can wear that with no slowdown, if I understand that formula correctly.  Where has it gotten off to now?

[Meph]

Maybe on of our ELEVEN !!! children took it. You sly fox 

[jimboo]

B2 (or not)

AWOL.  At least, that’s what I thought when trying to address Brilland’s armor.  It’s easier to do all at once rather than piecemeal (at least in my experience) so I thought to first put him in a new squad, Pikers.  Discharge, no problem.  N screen, no Brilland.  Waited a day, still no Brilland.  Went back to doing other stuff, tried again and no Brilland.  Seems he’s still on the M screen, just refusing the promotion to Sergeant.  Hmm.  OK, I let the squad stand down after deleting all Brilland’s current armor.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Skilled armor wearer or no, he dropped all that heavy stuff immediately and went to get a drink.  Being a dwarf, of course, he did not put down the flask and probably hung onto the backpack just out of habit.  I hope he wasn’t attached to any of that gear and some of it was pretty good (welded mithril mail shirt, for example, we can’t do better, have 2).  But he is skilled at armorwearing and a veteran so I decided to upgrade his equipment but who remembers layers, size and ubsteps?  Looking over the Wiki page for the first time in a long time, I read that plant fiber clothing weighs four times as much as either silk or yarn.  Huh, how about that.  Silk makes sense but cotton weighing four times as much as yarn?  There are no socks in Masterwork but still, every little bit helps with agility and we have all that new silk ...  should have ordered sheep from the Elves.  1 weight unit per silk/yarn clothing but 4 for pigtails?  There’s also a comment about the weight of a copper shield (13) and why wood is better; the Armor2012 page has been edited a lot since the last time I looked at it.  Back on point: Brilland is now decked out in some upgraded armor tho’ this was really just a test to see how easy/fast it would happen.  Turns out, pretty easy and at least the old armor is inside the walls; this will be good to know if and when we get runes on those volcanic breastplates Talanic is churning out.  It was a tough call but I think we need our legendary armorsmith on the single Great Magma Forge more than better ranged weapons for now; Road is skilling up on available metals until the library is ready.  The next siege might be elite ranged Evil Humans and there are already steel bullets and muskets on the surface. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

An inventory check confirmed he’s picked everything up.  The other vets are on global orders and Partial match so they’re picking and choosing individual melee weapons and armor as they see fit.  I can’t get the bloody armor for you until everybody is refitted.  Since Brilland is skilled, he is wearing a masterful steel helm after being ordered to give back the new mithril one he’d taken from a recruit. 

[jimboo]

I have all these notes … yellow pad pages, scattered all over.  Thought I knew what I was doing, didn’t.  Before stepping in to work on the FPS thing, I re-read all the pages of this thread.  Missed one.  Didn’t even see the large screenshot clearly showing the catacombs, had to have it pointed out to me.     So what else did I miss?  Going back through all those pages of the thread, maybe get some hints on what Navatar did to bring up a military quickly, and what stands out is that everybody else really does seem to have a fortress that looks different than this one.  Basalt levers?  No problem.  Bright green grass!  I have no bright green grass.  There aren’t enough filters in the software to make my screenshots look like those and I don’t understand why not.  It’s a HiDef screen and the color calibration is spot on.  It doesn’t have a graphics card so Stonesense is not an option but, otherwise everything works.  But I can’t get screenshots like those and things can be really hard to see in this ‘wow, everything is dark gray and black’ fortress.  Well, I’d been wondering what to do with all that brass, anyhow.  And – it turns out brass on my machine *in this fortress* shows as dark brown.  Bummer.

[jimboo]

10 Malachite, mid-Summer

It really takes a long time to get anything done in this place.  I don’t mean the slow walking dwarves (FPS), that’s actually fine and easier to keep track of what’s happening.  I mean, it took *two months* to reconstruct that marble bridge over the volcano to open up the main path to the Depot (even with the lower, small bridge deconstructed and the open spaces floored over, it didn’t work so back to square one and a new bridge).  The new levers are also marble so at least I can see ‘em.  Same delay in linking things; even with many dwarves mechanic labor enabled, it’s as if somebody calls out, “No worries, guys, I’ll get this” and only one dwarf gets to work.  I’d like to plot out the skill increase of study/time compared to sparring/time and prisoner beating over time but it’s taking much longer than I expected to get going.  I may get things set up and running for the next Overseer.  Fer instance: four of our soldiers have been sparring – um, three soldiers, now – and they’re good at hammering, these marksdwarves, but how long have they been at it?  So we made some wooden weapons and now have a “beat on some of these many prisoners” room.  Which we’ll start using just as soon as workers get around to linking those cages.  Again, one guy.  Harder farming, smithing, mining and learning but it still takes much longer than expected to construct something.  Oh, and I just noticed weaker traps is on; I’ve never done that before.  Do they show up differently on the map?  Still shouldn’t matter (I hope) for cage traps like ours.  We have quite a few practice dummies in storage and I’ll need to remember to disarm them before combat.  If they ever get linked, our newest recruits will start practicing on grimelings. 

Hate Abbeyrust has made our first masterful bone statue at the new Boneyard.  I feel a Dark Church in the makings. 

Roundabout.
The is the top floor of leftovers from The Great Cave-In:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nine levels down is the Colosseum.  The first (and prior, only) Garrison is out there on the right.  The first Embassy is at the lower part of the screen – I missed it at first because that’s two screen rolls down on a laptop and Shift-R <search> still brings up so much stuff that I found it quicker just to Q search.  But you can miss things that way.  Like a big, white Embassy.     There’s another Garrison now (a bit closer) to help get recruits over the 50% penalty of harder everything.  We still have 100+K gold coins remaining.  There’s a lot of stuff on this level in those large furniture stockpiles, I should probably set a smashing bridge here but “stuff to be counted” isn’t as important for FPS as pathfinding.  Getting *to* this stuff is only by those funny-shaped stairs; next mini-project will be widening these long, 1-wide walkways and maybe another set of stairs up to the central staircase. 

- Olansarek, stray War Raptor has been steel-clad.  Brilland, say hello to your new BFF.
- A drow diplomat has arrived; an invitation from the Embassy doesn’t take very long for response (at least with a level 6 diplomat).  Oh, those invited dwarves that are still here; there was one, only one, we did the trading.  He is meeting with our mayor, hasn’t presented a Wish List yet.  Somewhere along the line, several other dwarves popped in, armed.  Good.  Still only the one wagon but now they’re on their own when leaving.  This is also why I wanted both paths to the Depot open, since Masterwork gives several opportunities each year to have more than one caravan and they can gridlock one path.  Or, as someone once pointed out to me after I’d followed the Wiki instructions for convoluted alternate paths, you can just make the one path six tiles wide but we already had the two.  Shame this version doesn’t allow hiring those guards as mercenaries.

Oh, that surface fire in the craftsdwarf workshop is really getting out of hand; I’m moving the animals.

[arclance]

I have all these notes … yellow pad pages, scattered all over.  Thought I knew what I was doing, didn’t.  Before stepping in to work on the FPS thing, I re-read all the pages of this thread.  Missed one.  Didn’t even see the large screenshot clearly showing the catacombs, had to have it pointed out to me.     So what else did I miss?  Going back through all those pages of the thread, maybe get some hints on what Navatar did to bring up a military quickly, and what stands out is that everybody else really does seem to have a fortress that looks different than this one.  Basalt levers?  No problem.  Bright green grass!  I have no bright green grass.  There aren’t enough filters in the software to make my screenshots look like those and I don’t understand why not.  It’s a HiDef screen and the color calibration is spot on.  It doesn’t have a graphics card so Stonesense is not an option but, otherwise everything works.  But I can’t get screenshots like those and things can be really hard to see in this ‘wow, everything is dark gray and black’ fortress.  Well, I’d been wondering what to do with all that brass, anyhow.  And – it turns out brass on my machine *in this fortress* shows as dark brown.  Bummer.

You probably have a modded "data/init/colors.txt" file leftover from some other tileset that changed the color scheme to what you are seeing now.

[jimboo]

That burning wooden Artifact on the surface has started another fire that’s getting serious.  Again.  The first time I d/l’d the save, the fire went out on its own in 2 days.  Not this time.  Many coughing dwarves but, no biggie and I was waiting for it to burn itself out.  Seven months now, hasn’t happened yet.  The Depot is well constructed but we’ve lost a few workshops close by.  Unfortunately, all those bones are stockpiled on clay so, the fire stops at that edge.  The surface fire is now big enough that there is only one path again to the Depot.  For the moment.  The dwarves are currently busy setting up firebreaks.  We don’t have flowing water (or much of any water) so this is another temptation to cheat with DFHack: build a wall around it, top it with a ceiling that has one open tile, use liquids-here to place a column of water z levels high and just flood it.  Then, build a nice well on that open space with some of the many aluminum bars in stock and a place a few statues on the new party patio.     But it’s still cheating.  And the smoke goes up four z levels so, if water didn’t put it out the well would become a chimney.  If we simply enclose it, the burning will still affect FPS.

Any other ideas?