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Author Topic: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!  (Read 1800 times)

Banehallow

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Greetings my fellow Urists,

Today I want to present to you my first ever Megaproject: Irtirrimtar, sometimes better known as Danglecastle!

IMG: Top floor of my fort!
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The origins of this project date back to over a year ago (Hence why it was made in 0.31.25), where talks about megaprojects with a fellow student and Urist enthousiast sent me into a strange and secretive mood. Ideas started forming about large castles, bridges and towers. Only these weren't your average towers and bridges. No. These were buried underground. Upside down, suspended from the ceiling of a gigantic cavern.

The cavern is really where the MEGA of the project comes into play. in a crude estimation, I reckon around 350.000 tiles were dug out during construction. To some of you this might seem like a paltry number, but due to my studies, I was forced to use the computing power that was available to me. Carrying this gem on my USB stick and starting it up whenever I could find a computer helped somewhat, allthough having to dig out 300.000+ tiles at 10-15 FPS takes a while. Actually, make that QUITE a long while. Even with my 24 dwarf mining crew, off of a population of 69 dwarves.

The design and execution was tremendous fun for me. I have a nice little irrigation system for my suspended farms and hanging mushroom forest, luxurious hanging appartments for my dwarves, and well... everything a dwarf can desire!. A flooding mechanism was also put in place to allow me to flood the cavern with water to create a beautiful pristine lake underneath my dangling castle. I daresay I have some extra space left, but hey, at least the dwarves have some breathing room right?

Without further ado, let me present to you, in all its dwarfy glory, Danglecastle! http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-11880-danglecastle

Feedback and/or ideas for the future are always welcome!

PS: Full disclosure: DFhack was used for two things in order to save the fortress from FPS death: Moving the UNGODLY amount of stone that was produced, and to help me fill up the cavern a little bit: with all the evaporation and FPS maiming that unleashing the stream did to the PC's I used, it would have taken several months of real time running to fill them up to that degree.
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marc

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2013, 09:35:24 am »

The last thing i was proud of it was coveredpick.A tower carve into the ground severals z levels(the project fail because i never was able to float the basement whit water xDDD)
Is good to know people do similar things thats mean  a truly dwarf intelec is behind of this tipe of cronstruction.
Awesome job  :o
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Larix

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2013, 01:07:28 pm »

Nice job. Considering how long it takes to mine out 10.000 tiles, the excavation job alone is already quite impressive.

And of course, that's a pretty spiffy fort, quite spacious for such a small population. The next step of course is to include central heating, and maybe a small magmafall. Mix with the cavern lake for self-made obsidian...
Although, if your current FPS are too lousy, it might be better to run the next big project on a new map.
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DS

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2013, 01:34:47 pm »

I'd be interested in seeing some Overseer screenshots, if you're able to get it running.
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Finished: Weatherwires, the Last Mountainhome. A tragic mix of Children of Men, City of Ember, and, uh, magma.
Stymied: Correspondence from Syrupurns, a prematurely ended narrative, told through annual updates.
In Progress: Roomcarnage, a fortress clinging to life beneath a haunted glacier.

darkrider2

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2013, 02:25:02 pm »

How wide/tall/deep is that? I can't quite tell from DFMA but it looks like 4x4 embark?
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Banehallow

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2013, 03:32:21 pm »

It's about 180x170x12 large. The cavern that is. So yeah, a 4x4 embark

And lol, if I were to try and make a magma pumpstack, I'd probably end up at 0.2 fps or something. That would probably mean some real time years before I were finished. (Though believe me, Ive thought about it).

Currently I'm working on a more modest fort, but with the hopes of converting all of my dwarves into vampires. Different version of DF, so definitely different map.
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itg

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2013, 12:49:35 am »

Impressive. I second the request for overseer screenshots.

BTW, magma pump stacks aren't that bad for FPS. Just make sure you have an off switch, and turn off temperature while running it if the FPS hit is really unbearable.

Spitfire

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2013, 08:41:15 am »

Danglecastle :P

I'm not totally familiar with ASCII-DF. I don't see access to certain stockpiles. How can your dwarfs reach their sweet sweet +Plump Helmet Spawn Roasts+?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Gentlefish

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2013, 12:44:32 pm »

The item hides the stairs.

This is pretty awesome. Did you gine all the rooms +green glass windows+?

edgefigaro

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2013, 10:05:20 pm »

I really like the fort. I like the fort's theme. I love that it is suspended above a pool. I like the towers and such, and the use of hanging farms and tree gardens is grand.

What I want to see on it is a main gate. You made a hanging, underground castle. Make a gatehouse main entrance for caravans and cavern/surface dwellers to approach in your large atrium.

I'm just sayin'. Your main gate is outside. No self respecting hanging cave castle has a main gate on the surface.
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SixOfSpades

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2013, 12:46:55 pm »

Awesomeness. This idea makes me want Toady to make a cavern-dwelling creature that cannot fly, but is considerably lighter than air, so it can only walk . . . on ceilings. Granted, it'll almost certainly never happen, due to the absence of "ceiling ramps" and the problem of what to do when one gets caught in a cage trap, brought up to the surface, and released into the open air, but still . . . fun idea.
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Banehallow

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2013, 10:01:01 am »

Unfortunately the overseer pictures are kinda disappointing. The underground perspective and colours make for a confusing overall picture, which doesn't really portrays the fort in the correct way.

Still, it's nice to see people like my design.
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Snaake

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Re: My first ever Megaproject: The majestic "Irtirrimtar", Danglecastle!
« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2013, 08:18:59 pm »

Unfortunately the overseer pictures are kinda disappointing. The underground perspective and colours make for a confusing overall picture, which doesn't really portrays the fort in the correct way.

Still, it's nice to see people like my design.

What about stonesense (remember to up the displayed area size)?
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