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[MoridinUK]

This is my first fortress in an evil biome.  It was inspired by the Ghoullights and one day I may try to build a fort on that map unless this one proves even harder than that.

Of course I've already lied to you all haven't I?  This isn't my first evil fort, nope there were 3, that's right not 1, nor 2 but 3 before this one, all on the same world, same embark site!

So the world is a small one, with more frequent metals.  The embark site is low in savagery, high in evil, has an aquifer, deep soil, shallow and deep metals and flux stone.  It is also very forested.

So why is this fort number 4, well in the first 3 attempts I think my newbieness and luck messed me up big time. 

The main problem has been working with my own embark set up!  I've no idea what to take with me!  The first fort, I didn't bother taking any axes, after all I hoped to make my own or trade.  This meant I couldn't cut any trees down.  Doh! So the undead swarmed in as I couldn't clear the starting spot well enough to build a quick wall.  Boo... In this attempt I also ran out of embarked stone.  This is when I discovered that the site our wagons rolled to a stop was on top of an aquifer in sand!  grrr

Second embark was better thought out, but I was rushed by undead emus in the first week!  I took gabbro and wood for making screw pumps for the aquifer and build a stone wall quickly! 

Third embark when very badly.  I was advised to take Bituminous coal apparently only costs 3 and can be made into blocks!  Cool I thought, fuel and building materials! sadly I could not find Bituminous coal under the stone options I did find Bismuthinite and figured that was close enough.  I can't imagine how I made this mistake but now assume I had accidentally got into the wrong new item menu.  As I said newbie here!

Forth attempt and I finally managed to through up a wall, and get everything inside.

This is the story of that fort and the 7 utterly unskilled idiots pioneer dwarfs who decided to put their trust in me!

Happy to Dwarf anyone interested enough!  So far there are only the starting 7 and get points, yes I really did it, I took them with no skills at all! Oh Ok, so maybe I made one a novice brewer another novice cook and another a novice masonry guy (I was going to need blocks fast)...

Do let me know if you are interested, I'm sorting out pics of how the fort is and will do the start of the fort to today (all of 28th Slate, 251)

Also I'm very very happy to take any advice on this! Naturally...

Chapter 1: 1st Granite to 28th Slate 251.
Chapter 2: Kikrost's New Year log book update Happy 252 everyone!

13 Dwarfs available for Dwarfing if anyone is interested!  I guess I should Dwarf myself huh?

[joeclark77]

Tell us more about the site!  I'm looking for a nice evil embark myself.  Any colorful weather?

Personally I find that it's easier to dig in quickly, stockpile your goods inside, and then wall off the doorway, than to build a palisade wall on the surface which won't even protect you from flying creatures.  Then you can construct your "true" entryway and get the drawbridges hooked up at your leisure before exposing yourselves to the surface again.

[edgefigaro]

Yah, a few forays into terrifying biomes teaches you to cave in your wagon a couple of zlvls and then Floor/Bridge over it at the beginning. Hauling takes to long. The surface is not your friend. Get underground asap.

The goal is to be able to be able to accept migrants and traders. This is no small feat.

Also, if there is reanimation (most likely what you want when you are first cutting your teeth on evil), put cage traps everywhere. In hallways. Around corners. Near workshops. In dining halls. Surround the butcher with em.

[MoridinUK]

Tell us more about the site!  I'm looking for a nice evil embark myself.  Any colorful weather?

No sorry, weather wise the place is a cozy temperate.. One of only two sites that had Evil and metals!  I said it was a small world, there is an old road here.  Any ideas on how to get back to the site search screen for a world I'm currently playing?

Yah, a few forays into terrifying biomes teaches you to cave in your wagon a couple of zlvls and then Floor/Bridge over it at the beginning. Hauling takes to long. The surface is not your friend. Get underground asap.

The goal is to be able to be able to accept migrants and traders. This is no small feat.

Also, if there is reanimation (most likely what you want when you are first cutting your teeth on evil), put cage traps everywhere. In hallways. Around corners. Near workshops. In dining halls. Surround the butcher with em.

I was going to ask if I could butcher stuff, I brought 3 hens and a rooster.. lol..

This fort I managed to get dug in and fenced off.  I never thought of the cave in idea, but I really have no idea how cave in s work!

I'm trying to figure a plan for the traders/migrants.  I need to understand the migrant pathing, they want a meeting hall isn't that right?  The problem is trying to figure out how to get them underground fast! 

I'm thinking of airlocked meeting halls, near the map edges, with long, trapped entries...  However, I really need a metal industry for all these traps and I fear the map may lack for metal, even more challenging!

[joeclark77]

Tell us more about the site!  I'm looking for a nice evil embark myself.  Any colorful weather?

No sorry, weather wise the place is a cozy temperate..

I guess you haven't tried enough evil embarks to get what I mean by "colorful weather".  I meant like rain storms of red blood or purple "disgusting ooze" etc.

[joeclark77]

I'm trying to figure a plan for the traders/migrants.  I need to understand the migrant pathing, they want a meeting hall isn't that right?  The problem is trying to figure out how to get them underground fast!

It depends how evil  your embark is.  If you have a re-animating biome, you may get to the point where there's a permanent zombie mob all over the surface and you can never safely open your doors.  That's a tough situation.  On the other hand you may only have intermittent visits from undead creatures who simply wander at random around the map.  In those cases it's often likely that migrants (pathing directly to your fort) will get to the door without encountering the wild"life" or get there ahead of them.  So there are maps where you'll get most migrants most of the time, and maps where you'll lose every migrant for the first few years.

I would suggest reserving the first soil layer for underground tunnels all over the map which attach to emergency entrances (i.e. hatch covers) all over the place.  This gives you a way to get migrants in, and also to get lumberjacks or haulers out, to the places you want them when the zombies are occupied elsewhere.  If you do this, have all of the tunnels feed into a more secure (airlocked and trapped) entrance on perhaps the second soil level.  That way you don't have to set up traps, etc, for every single entrance.

Another thing I like to do is build archer towers near my entrances.  If it's a close race between migrants and zombies, the archers might take out the first couple zombies so that some of the migrants can get in before you have to close the door.

[MoridinUK]

I guess you haven't tried enough evil embarks to get what I mean by "colorful weather".  I meant like rain storms of red blood or purple "disgusting ooze" etc.

Lol... no obviously I haven't! It was raining, but it looked pretty normal rain to me.  However the site is set to search for Evil: High, Savagery :low.  I'm expecting reanimation!  Or I'd have brought some dogs with me!

I would suggest reserving the first soil layer for underground tunnels all over the map which attach to emergency entrances (i.e. hatch covers) all over the place.  This gives you a way to get migrants in, and also to get lumberjacks or haulers out, to the places you want them when the zombies are occupied elsewhere.  If you do this, have all of the tunnels feed into a more secure (airlocked and trapped) entrance on perhaps the second soil level.  That way you don't have to set up traps, etc, for every single entrance.

Well, I've not seen anything reanimate yet but like I said it is a highly evil biome so...  It is also not flat, so reserving the first soil layer is not much use, that and the fact that there is a multi level aquifer below my strike point, makes things even harder.  Once I start building in stone I must think to make a fort in a fort.  Will Migrants rush to the nearest hatch? or will they decide it may be faster to path overland for a bit?

[MoridinUK]

After a grueling journey Kikrost Okanglor finally led her party of 7, The Godly Artifact, into the valley that would become their home, or more likely their grave.  She still couldn't remember the night she had lost the wager and had thus been forced to lead the other 6 wastes of space potentially legendary dwarfs to the very worst place on earth.  One thing she could remember was that the Sewer Brew was really something else that night, that brought a small smile to her face. 

On the journey she had several disturbing dreams, 3 or 4 times she had dreamt of arriving at this place and meeting a terrible and untimely end.  She took them as good omens, as suggestions!  As she rounded the final curve around the mountain she looked into the valley and beheld the site where they would make Dwarf history.  She thought back to those dreams: Gaunthall they had named the place, she made a note to avoid this name. 

As the wagon came to rest she knew what would be needed, her prophetic vision guiding her.

"Strike the earth there" she called.

And her party obeyed.

Moziralath was founded.

[edgefigaro]

Third embark when very badly.  I was advised to take Bituminous coal apparently only costs 3 and can be made into blocks!  Cool I thought, fuel and building materials! sadly I could not find Bituminous coal under the stone options I did find Bismuthinite and figured that was close enough.  I can't imagine how I made this mistake but now assume I had accidentally got into the wrong new item menu.  As I said newbie here!

The items and animals your dwarven civilization has to offer at embark can vary. Notably, you may not have access to bituminous coal, lignite or an iron source.

Cave In Tutorial-

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Concept: If you cave in the terrain the wagon sits on, it will be deconstructed and destroyed, but all of the items will survive in the hole you caved the wagon into. Thus: Drop the wagon into a hole, and then put a floor or bridge on top of it.

I started up a little howto game on an old world I had without an active fortress to walk you through the process. Double Biome, Terrifying Haunted Freezing/Cold Forest. Aquifer on the haunted side. Some metals I think, I don't remember. I don't pay attention to metals a lot.



Notable Notables:
Dwarves: 3 Miners, a peasant, a hammerdwarf, a mason, and a cook.

No animals (don't know if I get reanimate or not)

Embark stone options were fortuitous on this embark: Coal and iron and bronze.
*The world had 2500 embark points instead of the normal 1324, so I have 1176 to 'spare'.

3 Picks, I want to get underground as fast as possible.

This is what I arrive to:


I designate out my cave in area:


Note, a masons shop on the left and a meeting zone/pen for animals.

The undead horde quickly arrives by granite 2 however:


Cave in on granite 5th. I shortened the access channel for speed because of the undeads.


Alas, my efforts are in vain



Granite Tenth, Fortress Death. All the wagon items are on zlvl -2, I needed to finish my wall and my bridge for a seal.

I made some errors. I needed 2 more stone blocks for a bridge of that size, I needed to bring a training axe to make less work for my miners by cutting down trees which ended up slowing me down considerably, and after the cavein, I should have dug out more area below rather then having my miners idle.

But this is the general idea.

[MoridinUK]

Thanks very useful for my next attempt!  What order should I designate the digging in?  i'm in fear of my wagon landing on a miner!

I had no idea the embark stuff changed, is that world to world or each embark?  I had no choice for anvil but Steel at 300 points that really limited me. And I had far fewer points than you did!  What controls that world size?

 

[MoridinUK]

Chapter 1: Survival 1st Granite to 28th Slate 251

Cast:

Kikrost Okanglor, female Miner
Atis Avalezum, female Miner
Urdim Imushiger, male Mason,
Sigun Obakdurad, female Cook
Rovod Eralgubel, male Brewer
Obok Alathzeg, female Carpenter, farmer
Zasit Thabumtekkud, male Farmer

Atis and I struck the earth with full force, the haunting sounds of ghostly boar snorts reverberating around our souls.

As soon as we had dug a small area out I put Urdim to work cutting gabbro blocks from our stocks.  Everyone else was ordered to move our stocks under ground, yes even before there was enough space.  The idiots didn't seem to understand that I wanted the junk any where we had dug out room!  They complained about a lack of stockpile or whatever!  I had to stop vital digging to tell them the new space was ok to dump our stocks in.

I also split off Zasit and Obok, and had them start cutting the three trees needed so we could construct our wall and then to work on it as the blocks came available, adding the occasional raw gabbro in for speed. In short order we had hollowed out a hole in the first layer of silty loam.  My dreams had warned me that much lower and we'd hit that crazy aquifer! 

I set up some basic workshops and the first plump helmet farm.  Food was going to be a problem we had very little with us for fear the meat may reanimate!

I also ordered two corridors cut out, one to the edge of the hill, hoping to dig around the aquifer in the very edge of the mountain, the other deeper into the mountain.  I was relieved when we hit Chert!  While it barely deserves to be called stone, it can be worked and built!  Hurrah we can construct more mechanism, buildings, maybe even crafts!  HURRAH!

I then dug straight down and found the shaft had avoided the aquifer!  I stopped once I'd hit the first great cavern!  Mosses were introduced and so there was something for our hens to eat!

I then joined Atis in digging out our first airlock, designed to hold a trade depot.  I'm unsure where I want to the controls to be, inside the airlock or near our makeshift meeting hall or maybe even both?

I was startled to see we were running low on food and ordered 3 small farm plots to be built so we can plant our other foods!  These will require milling, I plan to use the aqufier to power a watermill for the mill. So as to save labour as we can not rely on a horde of migrants

State of Fort 28th Slate 251
Z

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

z -1

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

z -2

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Fisrt Cavern z -30

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Population

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[edgefigaro]

Thanks very useful for my next attempt!  What order should I designate the digging in?  i'm in fear of my wagon landing on a miner!

I had no idea the embark stuff changed, is that world to world or each embark?  I had no choice for anvil but Steel at 300 points that really limited me. And I had far fewer points than you did!  What controls that world size?

In your dwarf fortress folder, look at ./data/init/world_gen
It is a text document with the specs for wold generation. It is where the 'design a world with advanced paramaters' reads. Starting Embark Points is set at world gen here.

Sometimes a miner dies.

Round 2

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bit more careful setup this time. Terrifying Haunted temperate shrubland and savannah IIRC.



3 Miners 2 Masons Cook and Hammerdwarf. Some Stuff for bronze. No Iron Anvil, no Iron, no coal, yes bronze.

Arrival, Sponges may present problems later in game, especially if we have husks clouds. (I know for a fact this world has no husk clouds.


Designation. You designate it all at once. Two masons shops this time. Note that the meeting area/pen is NW of the cavein, because dwarves prioritize things in the top left.



Going quick this time, Granite 2nd, ready for cavein.


Miner was an idiot and channeled from the wrong side. It is only a bruise though! Cave in accomplished!


Success, Granite 6th, all Dwarves and livestock inside.

[MoridinUK]

really cool! Maybe if you order the wagon deconstructed you could save its materials?  Can you deconstruct it while stuff is in it?

[edgefigaro]

Yeah, you can save the three wagon wood, but upon deconstructing, materials get strewn around, so you may end up losing more important things (ore) if they get put on your access tile. I'm bringing ~70 wood with me, I don't have to worry about that last three.

If you are worried about wood, bring more wood. Speed is job 1.

Also, about traps and metal.

Cage Trapping undead is superior to weapon trapping them, at least in reanimating zones. If you slice a corpse's hand and head off, you soon have 3 zombies. If you cage trap a corpse, you can remove it from play and give it a magma bath. Wooden cages are better than metal cages (lighter, dwarves can install them faster). Hacking zombies leads to death spirals. Caging zombies leads to things staying under control.

[joeclark77]

I don't think I would do the cave-in method if only because it would leave an ugly scar on my landscape.  Instead I'm leaning toward a vertical stairway going down two z-levels, then a horizontal hallway 2 urists long, then a big room, and just carry everything in by hand.  Dwarves unload stuff quickly enough almost every time.  For the 10-20% of the times they get killed by something before unloading is finished, just back up the savefile and do it again.

I like clean architecture.  Later on almost that whole dirt layer will be mined out for a tree farm, so the shape of the inital room doesn't matter.  The staircase will be re-purposed as the central stair of an archer tower and/or emergency fortress exit.

As an alternative I have thought of maybe constructing a simple 5x5 box around the wagon, with a roof, deconstruct the wagon and then dig straight down.  That might be even faster than your cave-in method.  If my calculations are correct it should take 29 logs: 20 for the 5x5 wall and 9 for the 3x3 roof.