My fort is now 50 years old and one of the main things that has kept me going is my attachment to certain dwarves. It's especially cool to watch babies grow up and take a prominent place in the fort. I also used to rage quit when favorite dwarves died, but then I realized that if everything always went to plan, I would definitely be bored. The unexpected
accidents and
fatalities make the
rescues and
triumphs that much sweeter. Throwing it all away is just unthinkable now.
Big projects also help. Whenever I read about a cool idea on the forums, I'm tempted to
try it out. Usually this meant starting up a new fortress, but it's much, much easier to test things out with a mature fortress. No more starting from zero over and over again. These days, after a project has run its course, I just dismantle it, or leave it be, as a monument of sorts, rather than abandoning.
Before this fortress, most of mine only lasted 3-7 years. Sometimes, I would even scrap a fortress if I couldn't find iron in the first few levels. Going back to the earlier thought, imperfections make things fun. My current fort has flux, but no native iron ore. I relies on trade and goblinite to fuel the steel industry. Especially in the early days, making sure caravans got in safely was paramount. It led me to construct the
underground trade network that I mentioned upthread. This has become a defining piece of the fortress as a whole - all due to the lack of iron, a major embark imperfection which I had a VERY hard time tolerating before.
Symmetry can be a big thing for me, too. Keep in mind, if you mess up, you can always restructure rooms with constructed walls
. Good luck to you!
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Topic: Longest Game? (Read 8255 times)