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[mahrgell]

I will stay mostly above ground, even for traps I started my testsite for the Seesaw, and as the Heartgrinder it goes one level deep into the earth, actually, there won't be any natural floors or walls used for it ^^(there are actually reasons for that... even If it would be situated deeper, all floors/walls would be constructed) But workforcewise it is just a small project compared to my other work/block drain ^^
As a rule of thumb I would say: Anything requiring less then 2k blocks is not a big deal to do above ground at this point. For comparison: The current sleeping area has 80 2x2 rooms and required about that many blocks. Back then it was quite an investment, but I have way more workers now and with average distances would say I can process about 1k blocks per season.

@palu
No need Oh, and I dislike reactors due to FPS reasons, so as long as I can avoid it, I will do so ^^ And as seen with the heartgrinder... minecarts don't require power. (Okay, the Heartgrinder is reset manually, as the dwarves have to bring the carts back on the hatches, but it is quite safe, as enemies can't reach the place where the minecarts go.
But the seesaw will make it better

[mahrgell]

18th Hematite
Migrants... Only 8 this time, but there was one among them, that caught my attention.

(this is an icemage lvl 3!!! But I said I wont use mages...)
I'm not sure what to do about her... For now I better keep her away from danger... Danger to herself, and other dwarves around her.

25th Malachite
Someone needs to die... I can fully understand that our lack of progress regarding magma production may be frustrating to some... but certainly THIS is not acceptable...


15th Galena
Someone doesn't have enough. One may even assume, that someone is quite mad...
Again about 50 Tigermen riding goats have arrived. Well... procedure is clear. But what made it somehow special is their leader.

Their general himself has decided to lead their forces. Does he want to avenge their most recent losses? Hopefully he rides into the Heartgrinder first!

17th Galena
Looks like they won't head for the entrance immediately. They are spreading out around the Fortress. What are they gonna do?


18th Galena
Slowly they trickled into the Heartgrinder. But this time both chambers worked... Sadly their cowardly general was riding in the back, and once two of their elite warriors (and about 30 other attackers) were dead, they turned again and ran....

1st Limestone
It is somehow telling, that by now we consider a season with 100 siegers as uneventful. But that is the only word that would describe what has happened. Most of the season was just about one thing: Roofs... About 1000 blocks were used alone this season just to close every possible hole a flying enemy could use to get into the fortress. And we are almost done. Probably another week or two and we are finished.


16th Limestone
We survive the biggest sieges... and then we lose dwarves to random wildlife?

Looks like our militia will have to solve the problem.

17th Limestone
Another apostle of armok was taken down, before the spiders were finally killed. What a pain.

11st Timber
Time has progressed quickly. Today there we had another useless artifact.

Whatever... Enemies are expected soon. And the engineers have given their instructions for a testsite of the new defense system. But most masons are busy elsewhere. It looks like they are building a huge sunsail above the fortress. But they have already finished the roof, so what may be the purpose of this?

15th Timber
An Orc ambush! We have no idea how many of them may be out there, so we ordered everyone in...
But we also decided, not to use the Heartgrinder this time. The traps will probably be enough to take down the Orcs, and if not, we may capture one or two of them in our new it and can finally try to drop them onto the spears.

17th Timber
Test failed. Not because of bad design or traps but because of bad test objects. 3 Orcs were shred by the first 2 traps and then the remaining ones fled the field. None even reached the pit. Disappointing.
But... we found new test candidates...

Humans! Only 10 of them, with the leader riding some funny looking camel, but why are they sieging us? We didn't even kill their caravan this year (maybe, because there was none) and they still grief for last year? Okaaaay. Let them come!

21st Timber
The humans heard of our defenses... They are just hanging around. This is somehow bad, as this means there won't be a caravan from the mountain homes for us this year. Well... kamikazi and ColdBones are now using the chance for some live target practice. Their copper axeheads have troubles penetrating the human steel armor, but that doesn't matter much. They will certainly leave, once they suffered too many wounds.

1st Moonstone
Autumn is here and were still under siege. This seriously hinders construction and testing. Dawnofdarkness asked me, if she can go out there... Her thirst for blood is really worrying me. But Cpt Crunchy looked like she would approve that move.
I ordered Pascale to my little office, to ask what was up with the sunsail, but he wouldn't answer me. Instead he proudly told me, that the colorchange of the pathes to the bastions has almost been completed... Those crazy masons had really rebuild half of those walkways, just because they didn't like the color? … Oh and I still had no idea, what the sunsail was for... To my question, if we could put any workshops there, I just got a quick 'No' but that was all the information I could get out of the secretive architect. But it looks, like they aren't done with it...

[Meph]

Fill them with magma. 

[razorback]

Would you please make a stonesense screenshot? 

[mahrgell]

As you wish
Have never used stonesense before, so I'm surely no talent in using it or making constructions for it ^^

Screenshots were taking at New Year, update for winter will come soon

[Pascale]

THAT is why we have to have matching colors. THAT. We're dwarves, we can be functional and look damn good at the same time ^^

[razorback]

All hail to dwarven architecture, statics and physics 

[mahrgell]

3rd Moonstone
Maybe it is me, who should stop worrying about dawnofdarkness and Cpt Crunchy. Right now I'm close to worrying about their enemies... What they did with the humans was not so nice... Surprisingly this time Cpt Crunchy won the their kill number duel with 5:2.

9th Moonstone
Today our construction workers were disturbed again. This time it was an Orc thief. But we will forgive the thief, as he volunteered for our tests. Test results may not be accurate, as the Orc is already wounded, but whatever.


10th Moonstone
That was... disappointing. The orc survived. We better do not rely on this trap too much. But still... being caught down there, enemies can't do any harm either, so it may be okay.

OOC: Problem ist most likely the orc bouncing into the wall while falling, reducing the downward verlocity :/

2nd Obsidian
After our masons have used the whole time on the sunsail. I will never get it. On the outside there were a few testruns with the Seesaw, but the results were not good yet. Meph mumbled something about not working pressure plates and environmental damage. It looks like it will take some time to develop the fine tuning.
But today our masons had a truly brilliant idea. With the enemies coming in at around a week they.... razed the whole western wall... I ordered Pascale to my office right away.... „we are finally repairing the symmetry... Isn't it great?“ Yeah... sure...

6th Obsidian
Wow, that was quick. They build a new wall, and now everything is better... or so.

13th Obsidian
Some will never learn it.

Goat riding Tigermen again. But at least they increeased their numbers. Now there were as many enemies as dwarves in the area (130) Not that the Heartgrinder would care about it.
A single mason was caught outside, working on the Seesaw. Well... Killing him was probably the biggest achievement those Tigermen ever had.

19th Obsidian
And I will never understand them. Did they think, we deconstructed the Heartgrinder? After the first 20 attackers were shredded, the rest decided to retreat. See you next season then.

1st Granite
That was all? Only Tigermen? Looks like it, as it is New Year. After the insane spring, in which the fortress had many clutch moments, the rest of the year it looked like the Tigermen were the only ones to even dare to come here. And they didn't do well.
And so we spend three quarter of the year almost entirely on construction. Most important project was the closing of all potential entries into the fortress beside the intended ones. This took quite some time and resource investment but was finally completed. For some reason Pascale afterwards decided, that some cosmetic changes were necessary and had rebuilt various parts of the fortress. And now all work is going toward the Seesaw testsite and the sunsail. I was told, there will be another Seesaw test during Granite. It is all about some pressure plate working as intended. But even if this works, Palu had explained, that her idea required even more tests to get some timings right. Something about 99 ticks. Seriously, why are they even telling me such details I would never understand?
As Pascale also had not shown any signs that the works on the sunsail would be finished soon, the first half of the new year will most likely just continue with what we had done during the last half of the old year.
Only few things were on our short term agenda. The haulers would have to catch up with our bonecarvers, as they had produced furniture enough for the whole apartment area. This should be all done quick, as this would certainly raise the general mood here. And this would be needed, as we are approaching another booze shortage during spring. It is even more severe then last year, but at least we now have those underground farms that should solve the problem once and for all during summer. But until then thirst will be a problem.

[mahrgell]

11th Granite
So today was another test for the Seesaw. From a pure mechanical point of view it was a success. Everything worked as intended. There was just one thing... Some certain dwarf, that always complains about a lack of work... tried to create work, that he now can not do himself... MOSEY!!! The minecart moved only for a few seconds and 5 tiles... and he managed to walk right into it... I have no idea what he was doing there... We have no other skilled doctor... hopefully the novices can somehow put him back together...
OOC: I was certain i had made pictures of it... looks like I didn't... Seriously, there are exactly 2 tiles where a dwarf could stand to get hit by the minecart, which passed by only once... And mosey stood right there, when the lever was pulled -.- This is the second attempted suicide by him...

24th Granite
More artifact skirts! I may ask dawnofdarkness and CptCrunchy if they want to wear one in battle...


11th Slate
Exactly one month after the last test, we had another test. And it works. Not exactly as intended, I was told, but it works in it's own weird way. Our last testvictim Mosey had been released from the hospital just yesterday, but this time he stayed away from the testsite and no one got damaged this time.

The mechanics ordered the the whole thing to be built.

12th Felsite
Automatons ambushed some civilians drinking from a pool outside. As we could not afford any death in the current situation, with morale of most dwarves stretched due to the booze shortage, we send the whole militia (all 4 ) against the Automatons. We couldn't wait until they blunder in our traps.

13th Felsite
Seems our lucky day. First the Automatons had terrible accuracy, not hitting a single worker even though they were firing on short distances. Then Cpt Crunchy and dawnofdarkness ran faster then a minecart, giving the Automatons not much time and slaughtered them fairly quick. And then we spotted Elves, bringing us some needed drinks.

14th Felsite
After the militia had solved the Automaton problem, they also solved the booze problem. As expected the Elves didn't agree, but who could resist some cold orichalcum weapons?

15th Felsite
There is a new problem. One that can't be solved that easily by the militia.

One of those pesky traders (the guys that scare away migrants) found a thief... two Hellfire Imp thieves... and was promptly torched...

And now the outside is burning, and considering it is all grass there is nothing stopping the fire from spreading. The Imps fled right away, but the damage is done.

19th Felsite
We are under siege. When I first heard the message I laughed... Siegers out there in the fire. But when I heard who is siegung us, I stopped laughing.

Furies! Fliers! They could easily dodge the fire. At least we had almost all holes in our fortress fixed. Almost all... There were still a few in for our construction workers... While ColdBones and kamikazi opened fire on the Furies, dawnofdarkness and Cpt Crunchy hurried to those openings.
And it looks like the Furies aren't the only one out there. I was told of 3 more dead Imps found in our traps and even several Goblin archers, which are usually part of an ambush party... Well... the fire would certainly solve that problem.

20th Felsite
With those entrance holes guarded by the 2 most feared dwarves of this world, the Furies decided not to attack. While the two dwarves complained heavily about the lack of bravery of their foes, another dwarf was quite happy about it. Kamikazi was having fun throwing axes at the barely moving Furies, killing several of them, before they fled, seeing no chance to penetrate our fortress. I don't know what ColdBones did at this time... But somehow he had more important things to do and left kamikazi alone.

OOC: Furies mean, that I can also encounter Warwolves and Warelephants now... Maybe even more...

1st Hematite
As spring ended the fire has almost run out of ground to burn. Finally we can return to the outside. The fortress wall took no damage, and so we are standing here, in the middle of the scorched earth. It really represents what this fortress was supossed to become and now is: The beacon of hope in the center of a hostile world.

Construction was lately slowed down by a short block shortage, but we have drafted more miners now to help the problem. Still, two new lever rooms were constructed next to the dining hall, and Pascale told me, that he planned the second floor of the sunsail for the metal industry, which could be moved there, as soon as the roof was finished.

And then there was the work on the Seesaw, which required more limestone blocks. For some reasons, they had also used some platinum in the construction, I may try to figure out the reasons behind that...
The mechanics won't rest for quite some time, as all the old levers have to be rewired and the Seesaw will then also require quite some work. (my old calculations were wrong, the Seesaw requires 121 mechanisms)

OOC: Sorry guys, not much happening lately, enemies were a bit lackluster... Either Tigermen with low IQ or others in low numbers^^

[mahrgell]

all praise gui/mechanisms!!!

[Tenderroast]

holy shit, thats alot of mechanisms

[mahrgell]

10th Hematite
It looks like we now get some artifact each season. An armor! Certainly useful! Well... If it wouldn't be made of bone, at least...


27th Hematite
We had a first today...

As we haven't met the dwarven caravan the last two years, our newest achievements may not have been heard there. Or did something happen to the mountain homes?

20th Malachite
Our booze stocks have recovered quite well. With another season of above ground crops we should make it through the winter without thirst this time.


15th Galena
Even though the works on the Seesaw were not fully finished, we had given the masons some construction work inside the fortress as priority. And it proved to be a good decision, as a hauler spotted a very special thief.


16th Galena
We are under siege. By about 50 camels! And a dozen war white widows. Oh and there are some Humans on the camels as well.


18th Galena
As usual the Humans chose not to attack directly but instead just spread around the fortress. And so life went on without anything happening, as we surely wouldn't rush out there. Only ColdBones and kamikazi decided to try to pick a few invaders off from their secured positions. The Humans tried to return the fire, but didn't manage to hit (Uh, I didn't think human rifleguards could fire through fortifications... turns out they can, but luckily my dwarves dodged all shots) While ColdBones took out a single camel, kamikazi was obviously looking for fame, killing the Great fiend spider thief, that was still sitting there.

Even though we don't expect it to be useful, we activated the Heartgrinder. Just in case there is anything else out there...

23rd Galena
The Heartgrinder killed 4 leprachauns. Oh and 3 dwarves. Stupid haulers tried to go to the depot, which is inside the safety parameter, but only accessible from the outside, totally ignoring the fact, that the way there is certainly not inside the safety burrow.
Meanwhile I would call the situation with the Humans a tactical draw. We won't go out, they won't come in... At least we have something nice to drink in here! So we win! Let's see when they turn.

27th Galena
Their riflemen aim better then we expected. They managed to shoot a dwarf working several floors above them, working on top of the sunsail.


1st Limestone
I just wanted to write, that summer ended, with us still being in a stalemate with the Humans... But it looks like their sudden success in hitting the mason got them a bit overzealous.

Welcome to the Heartgrinder.
There is just one problem. It looks like the eastern chamber of the Heartgrinder has its carts stuck to each other. Not only opens this a path into our fortress, but even thinking farther, this proves a huge problem. As Meph explained it looks like the two minecarts are blocking each other. Removing one would automatically lead to the other starting to race again... None of the engineers had an explanation for this odd behavior... but even with the Humans gone, this would prove to be a problem. But first we need them gone...

[CptCrunchy]

Well, at least haulers are expendable

[mahrgell]

Uh... it seems the problem with the Heartgrinder is unsolvable with the current design... If one cart kills more then the other one, it leads to the second one catching up... And if it does so completely it can happen, that in case of another crash with some object the first one gets stuck at the upramp with the other cart pushing into it from behind with them deadlocking each other... So in short: The Heartgrinder works fine only for a limited number of high resistance kills... If there are too many, it can get stuck. Well... Seesaw should be completed during the next 2 seasons, I hope... Even though I have no Idea about it's killing potential ^^ the design is quite unique and untested regarding it's damage (except for Moseys selftest )

[LMeire]

At least the flammable artifacts can be weaponized into eternal fires for smoke-inhalation traps, so that's not a total loss.