Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[VerdantSF]

Worksizzles was my most promising fort to date. I created a trade tunnel network that connected 8 points across the map to an underground trade depot.  I forget the name of the forum member who first suggested this idea, but a big thanks to whoever you are!

 Here's a portion of it representing the north quadrant (R = Ramp, D = Drawbridge):

RRR     RRR
---      ---
DDD     DDD
---      ---
---      ---
---      ---
-----------
-----------
-----------
    ---
    ---
    ---
    DDD

   DEPOT

    DDD
   FORT

At any given time, access to the Fortress was closed, while access to the Trade Depot remained open.  When caravans arrived, they were able to path inside safely, with drawbridges closing behind them.  There was a battle or two with ambushers, but the caravans were pretty safe from goblins.  The only trade casualties I had were from a rampaging roc. 

Given caravan spawning AI, only 1 path to the trade depot was needed, but the multiple spots were for the benefit of migrants.  No matter where they spawned, they were always close to a tunnel leading to the fort, bypassing surface dangers almost completely.  With soldiers stationed around the entrances and in the tunnels during migrations, I only lost three civilians that were caught by a goblin bowmen ambush.  I once had a migrant wave that spawned just three tiles away from an entrance.  They disappeared into the tunnel so fast that it wasn't until later that I discovered that FIFTY dwarves had migrated safely into the fort.

Things were going well, and at 230+ dwarves, I had settled into a comfortable routine.  For this fort, I didn't use any traps or danger rooms, but I managed to create a formidable militia.  Back in my danger room days, I only used Axe- and Hammerdwarves, but this time I let migrants train in the weapon skills they arrived with.  My best fighters turned out to be a Speardwarf and a Macedwarf.  The speardwarf slew the aforementioned roc, while the macedwarf routinely entered combat well before the rest of the troops, often slaying 6 or more foes ahead of reinforcements.

Good times all around... until a vampire struck.  After combing through the nearly hundred adult dwarves, I finally found a "19 year old" dwarven female who had a longer history than dwarves three times her apparent age, and who didn't have any thoughts regarding the legendary dining room she was sitting right in the middle of.  I was just about to take care of her when a migrant wave arrived that needed guarding.  I set the vampire issue aside for a moment to get all the migrants in safely only to have her kill one of my original 7.  At the same time, an ambush entered the tunnels and killed one of my best soldiers who had fallen asleep right before battle .  Both dwarves were relatively popular and caused my baron to lose it.  He started a fist fight and then the tantrum spiral struck. 

I haven't abandoned the fort yet, but I did manage to get the vampire charged and sentenced to jail in the middle of the chaos.  Right now I'm trying to build an atom smasher over the vampire, but the tantrum spiral is still ongoing, causing tons of cancel spam.  About 30 of my 230+ dwarves are dead.  Not sure when I'm going to pull the plug, but I at least want this vampire smashed to oblivion before I do...

[Buttery_Mess]

My third migration wave consisted of sixty dwarves, at least 34 of whom were children. I am wot??!? Fort was seriously unequipped for it.

[Oaktree]

Skullsgate has been mothballed after 11 years.  Right before abandonment it crushed one more goblin siege and I got good work out of the archery bunker I built over the entrance to the tunnel to the Depot... and the goblin grinder as well.  Marksdwarves were pinging mounts on the way in, and finishing off cripples trying to limp off the map.  They also shot down a giant bat and its goblin rider.  I had to cut down a tree to get the goblin's corpse for the smasher pile.

I look forward to seeing what migrants who experienced Skullsgate turn up at the new fort.

Which has begun - with the name of Cryptdagger.

Another flat embark with a small river and an indicated mix of 2-3 metals, flux, and clay.  Though instead of being right at the river's headwaters the fort is well north of it, and a bit to the east of where the biome changes from grassland to badlands.  Sparse trees, but so far pretty benign wildlife.  The original seven for a expansive 25x25 area ditched in, installed a small drawbridge for the gate, and have also blockhouse, ditched, and bridged the stairs leading down into the fort proper. 

Down below the soil is clay loam, an unexpected (but very welcome) layer of white sand, more clay, and then into siltstone.  The first cavern was hit shortly afterwards (two layers of stone at most), with the succeeding caverns discovered fairly high up as well.  If the third cavern is any indication than magma is less than thirty levels below the surface.  Mineral strikes so far have been tetrahedrite and lignite.  The dolomite flux stone appears to be under an aquifer and thus a little harder to get at.  The large mineral clusters are bauxite which is a little disappointing.  Put in an iron ore instead and I'd be champing to start making steel already.  In any case some lignite is already being used to smelt some of the tetrahedrite since a few silver trade goods should be useful soon.

Wood is going to be an issue if a large migrant wave shows up demanding beds.  But that can be traded for, and magma and some lignite avoids needing it for charcoal.

More experimentation with minecarts going on compared to Skullsgate.  A stone/wood quantum dump running from a minecart track is in the center of the industrial sector and seems to be working so far.  How it handles a full-bore industrial set up has yet to be seen.

Still, a lot for seven dwarves to do.  They're all keeping very busy and multi-tasking except for the two miners.

I also have to sit down and decide what this fort's goblin deathtrap will be.  I'm tempted to make a pit to dump them directly into the convenient first cavern lake - but that makes goblinite recovery a bit problematic.  But between an aquifer and the cavern and drown and dump pit is probably easy to keep going.  Might be an FPS killer when filling/draining though.

[hjd_uk]

Cleanup continues after the Little Siege and Great Tantrum Spiral. Migrants arrived (thank Armok - the population was getting pretty low, another Tantrum Spiral and itd be all over).

Elven caravan arrived but overworked broker didnt make it, had to blind-trade using a random civillian.

A Possesion required silk, bad news, just about managed to make some silk in time by opening passage into 1st cavern (only 1 breached so far [trying to keep FPS up] ).

Production of steel continues at a slow pace - need more furnace operators.

Thieves and Snatchers keep turning up, had an ambush of bow-goblins. Worried another siege will turn up before im ready - millita is small and traps are not very numerous.

[malimbar04]

Cleanup is going painfully slow, which is to be expected with only a handful of dwarves (and only say 4 of them are actually able to haul crap to the dumpster). I also want to force two lover dwarves to actually get married, but they're always too busy to spend time together. I set up a few old masterwork statues and a bed in the dining room, and set up a small burrow for these two siege dwarves. Hope that works, because we need more than one breednig pair of dwarves in this fort.

This is a particular shame because our first line of defense is two dwarves, and one is out of commission. Why? because a training accident. More specifically:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

His finger took the full force of a 1 z level drop. Ouch, that has GOT to hurt. Why didn't he, you know, use his full hand? because that would be too easy, wouldn't it.

NinjaEdit: they got married! yay! Party for everyone! Well... I... apparently they didn't want a party. Oh well, the butcher (our expidition leader) organized a party anyways it seems immediately afterward.

[Oaktree]

Cryptdagger is three seasons in.  Local wildlife relative benign so far.  Mothmen, grasshopper men, giant grasshoppers and giant thrips.  Some giant langurs as well, but I locked things down until they left.  Enough flyers I want to make sure stuff is roofed over.

Two migrant waves have brought the population up to nineteen.  One ten-year-old child and no extra pets so far.  A few migrants are veterans of Skullsgate, so I have 2-3 extra mid-level (5-7) fighters and one is legendary or master at a wide skill set (Weaver, Cook, Leatherworker, Furnace Operator) plus as good as anyone in the fort in a few other skills. 

Fort found a gold vein and the Magma Sea about twenty-five levels down.  The gold was used it to get more trade goods ready for the first caravan.  No wagon access yet, so just settled for a group of pack animals visiting.  But a magma-proof minecart was acquired as well.  Now to use it on the track down to that level which was recently completed.  (Kudos to whoever posted the one helical design for descending track.  Works like a charm and if I get power I will see about automating the upward run.  Nice to fit a cart track and separate stairway in roughly a 5x5 box for transiting past the caverns in a small footprint.)

Kobold thieves have started appearing.  A guard dog mangled one, and the other two have run off.  Gate defenses are being improved and a gatehouse with archery bunker being added to double as a barracks.  The ditch enclosure is getting walled and roofed (slowly) and will be used for training barracks and pasture as necessary.  Farm plots are in place, but need more seeds to get going.

Morale is holding up, but resources will need to be diverted soon to improving the housing, eating, and clothing situations.  Military readiness is pretty dismal.  I have some trained dwarves but only enough weapons to arm 5-6 dwarves.  And barely enough armor for two, and it's bronze and copper.  Getting some magma forges running to improve this is a priority since the one lignite vein found so far has tapped out.  Will also need the magma-powered industry to get clay, glass, etc. going full bore for furniture, storage, and additional items.

And I half expect the next migrant wave to be massive since things are going fairly well so far.

[VerdantSF]

The desert fortress of Heatrazor is in its first year, founded after the collapse of Worksizzles due to vampire shenanigans.  It's my first desert embark, but so far it's been a lot fun.  Given the dry climate, my first order of business was setting up a waterworks from the nearby stream.  I know you can immediately farm on sand, but it just felt right to have a network of water tunnels, muddy ground farms, wells, and public baths for this parched zone.  Despite the harsh reputation of the biome, it was nice to have a free embark slot since woodcutters aren't needed.  I took a hammerdwarf instead, who made quick work of giant louse that got too close to the front gates.

I'm thinking of creating a replica of the pyramids of Giza, along with a sphinx (or a dwarfy replacement, like a massive stone statue of a desert scorpion).

[PainRack]

And my water cistern managed to successfully claim its first drowned victim. The well dictates that I can't grate it over, and for some odd reason, dwarves keep falling down my mist/waterfall generator into the cistern.... even though NO DWARF should go near the region, ever. I wish that there's a way for DF to have a playback so that I can see why the fuck dorfs keep venturing into my danger region.....

I missed the announcement that should had normally occurred, thanks to the fact that it was a baby and I thought it was a routine baby slipping out of mum arms at the waterfall......

There goes Linkot. born 555 spring, died 555 summer,Mighty, Agile, Slow to tire....... You would had made an awesome Dorf....

[VerdantSF]

And my water cistern managed to successfully claim its first drowned victim. The well dictates that I can't grate it over, and for some odd reason, dwarves keep falling down my mist/waterfall generator into the cistern...

Wells are considered solid constructions, but according to magmawiki, floor grates are not.  So you can't build a grate on top of a well, but if you deconstruct the well, you should be able to set the floor grate down and rebuild the well on top of it.

[Mageziya]

Started a new fort. Half of it is a mirthful mountain (at least near the top.) with flux, the other half  is a plain (With a river) that possesses an aquifer.It is currently late Fall, and so far I have 14 dwarves, have a farm up, and have the Dwarven caravan on my depot. In terms of metal I have only found Nickle and native silver, however I have yet to probe the plain for metal. Also I have way to much work queued up.

This will be an interesting fort.

[VerdantSF]

Wells are considered solid constructions, but according to magmawiki, floor grates are not.  So you can't build a grate on top of a well, but if you deconstruct the well, you should be able to set the floor grate down and rebuild the well on top of it.

Whoops.  I just tried this out and it unfortunately does not work .

[wuphonsreach]

Entering my 5th or 6th season with the humans camped outside at the map edge in a siege.  Fortunately, I have everything I need inside to turtle up with my 56 dwarves, 307 livestock, 14000 prepared meals and 3000 drinks.

So, playing around with encrusting masterwork stone/glass furniture with cheap gems.  Melting down stuff for metal bars, carving out a larger trade depot area, and I'll probably draft some dwarves into a permanent army soon.  I need to make full sets of armor first.

(The problem is that the humans, while only a single squad, are all ranged attackers.  And they're a better shot then my mostly untrained militia.)

[Telgin]

I'm still figuring out some of the intricacies of .34 after playing .31.25 for so long.  I ran into the completely logical in game consequence (if silly IRL) of setting uniforms to replace armor, and not having enough armor, resulting in naked soldiers with weapons who are miserable.  I managed to avoid any berserkers or even injuries from tantrums, but I'm not entirely sure how.

Won't make that mistake again. 

[Broseph Stalin]

Whoops.  I just tried this out and it unfortunately does not work .

Could you have the well 1 z above the water source? That's what I do but with lever operated hatches so I can just pull a lever to make them stop using it.

[Wolf Tengu]

Blargh. I can't even begin- am I being to picky with my embark?

I want trees AND a hill/mountain to dig into the side of, but three worlds genned and I can't seem to find a good spot. IT HAS TO BE JUST RIGHT!!!