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[Random_Dragon]

Urist McBerserker cancels charge goblin horde: shitting bricks.

[cochramd]

Stuff happened overnight.

I gave the armorsmiths a break. The anvils I needed were made quite a while ago, and I have 6 permanent magma forges now.

More cave crocodiles hatched, and all the hatchlings were trained.

I've realized that since volcanos refill, creating a tube inside the volcano would be extremely dangerous if not impossible and attempting it would result in the loss of several miners whether I succeed or fail. I can get most of the block extended while risking only 2 lives; I guess I'll just accept that weird bump in the duke's dining chambers.

The dwarven caravan came, traded and left. Instruments sold at 126% their usual price this year; the next time the dwarven caravan arrives, they will sell at 219% their usual price. My glassmakers, endlessly toiling to churn out green glass saxophones that regularly go for 500 or 1200 dorfbucks depending on if they're exceptional or masterwork, they will earn their keep manyfold in the coming year (or years, depending on when the goblins arrive) doing more than their fair share in helping me purchase large amounts of desired metals, gems, expensive leathers and parchments and whatever else the hell I feel like picking up from the caravan.

Obsidian was mined out, smoothed and engraved. The obsidian boulders are being consolidated into stockpiles as I type this.

My architect is not training as fast as I wish he would. Build those bridges, dammit!

I opened up the second (and final, because I played with worldgen) cavern for giggles and shits. Lots of ores and gems down there, lots of colorful trees, a big lake and no creatures but crundles so far.

I've smelted all the iron ore I've yet found, and I'm running out of things to melt. I've had my 2 Legendary+5 Armorsmiths (one of whom is also a Legendary+5 Weaponsmith; the other is additionally Legendary+5 in Blacksmithing, Cooking, Farming, Woodcrafting and, thanks to my recent smoothing and engraving binges, Stone Detailing) resume their work in 2 forges, and had my Legendary+5 Weaponsmiths (I have 5, plus the guy who's an Armorsmith too) to work making large serrated steel discs in 3 forges, leaving one forge open for strange moods. According to my stocks screen, I have 207 steel bars, 14 pig iron bars, 1726 iron bars and I don't need to look at the stocks screen to know that I don't need to worry about flux stone or fuel. I've got what I need to make the rest of the armor I need, so I don't have to worry about that. Getting all the steel I need for the trapline, on the other hand, now that I'm going to have to do some exploratory mining for because the caravans don't bring me THAT much iron, pig iron and steel every year.

It is the 15th of Obsidian, the dead of winter. I cannot help but wonder when the goblins will come again. A recent engraving indicates that their last siege was in fact 2 years ago this spring. This means that they're changing their schedule again and I can't predict when they'll show up. This really isn't a big problem for me; my fort is so inwardly focused now that hunters are the only ones who ever go outside (and thus could be killed by goblins before making it to the safety of the burrow). For someone else, though, I can see how not being able to predict when the goblins will arrive could be disastrous. Imagine that you're starting a massive outdoor construction, and the goblins come onto the map right next to it!

Oh, and did I mention that the giant olms and giant toads are popping out babies? Because they are.

[SyrusLD]

I was trying to flood my fortress with lava from the vulcano - it is sadly too high to just dig a hole into the vulcano, so I build some pumps while suffering 7 fps...

And then I realized that there was absolutly no wind on this map.

This is why one of the first thing i do when i start a new fortress is build a windmill.
You could always build a water reactor, or perhaps have dwarves pump it manually.

I tried the latter, they didn't get far...

Building a water reactor is kind of difficult at that place. Unless I build a magma/lava generator. Hm...that might be an idea, can't cost more FPS than I already don't have. :/

[Kneenibble]

I've smelted all the iron ore I've yet found, and I'm running out of things to melt.

You seem to metal on a very large scale.  I'm curious about your workshop and stockpile flow design.  Where do you put the mass of bars you must accumulate from this industriousness?

[Chevaleresse]

Suffering from serious post-retire weirdness:

My population is a good 10 dwarves higher than I remember. I had a number of merchants listed as citizens (who are now gone) but the bards also listed as such are still around. My map is covered with around a hundred "hostile" humans and fallen (modded race, play Destiny for details), who don't seem to particularly care about my dwarves. I've also got my adventurer listed as a soldier and a citizen but I can't actually put him in a squad or give him any orders. He also refuses to attack the "hostiles." On the plus side, retiring gave him a few trophies, including a roc nail amulet. The randomization of positions meant that FB went from "imminent risk outside the fort" to "murdering the expedition leader in the bedrooms," though I managed to wall it in. All the food is gone and the booze seems to have just leaked out of the barrels, meaning I began with 35-odd dwarves and no supplies. They also "failed to complete" the buildings that were in progress before retirement.

[cochramd]

I was trying to flood my fortress with lava from the vulcano - it is sadly too high to just dig a hole into the vulcano, so I build some pumps while suffering 7 fps...

And then I realized that there was absolutly no wind on this map.

This is why one of the first thing i do when i start a new fortress is build a windmill.
You could always build a water reactor, or perhaps have dwarves pump it manually.

I tried the latter, they didn't get far...

Building a water reactor is kind of difficult at that place. Unless I build a magma/lava generator. Hm...that might be an idea, can't cost more FPS than I already don't have. :/

Can't build a magma wheel yet, unfortunately. Even if you could, magma doesn't flow without pumps or cracking open a volcano/magma tube and without pumps it'll only flow slowly. Really, what you want is a magma steam engine.

By Armok's Thick Lustrous Ball-Beard, my weaponsmiths are making the discs insanely fast while the armorsmiths are hardly making anything at all! I should've seen this coming for a number of reasons, but it surprised me nonetheless. Oh well, perhaps it's for the best. I get 50% returns on melting the discs, and I'm losing metal on all the armor I'm making except for the shields (yeah, yeah, I know, leather and wood shields are better because lighter is better and shields are indestructible when used for blocking, but come on, they're clad head to toe in masterwork steel armor. They're not going to die because I made them use heavier shields for the sake of looking cool. Besides, I want to see goblins get WRECKT when they get shieldbashed) so I think I'll still be able to get all the armor I need pretty soon. I just got the last masterwork helm I needed, so now all I need is 5 more masterwork breastplates, 13 more masterwork mail shirts, 4 more masterwork greaves and 2 more masterwork shields.

I've smelted all the iron ore I've yet found, and I'm running out of things to melt.

You seem to metal on a very large scale.  I'm curious about your workshop and stockpile flow design.  Where do you put the mass of bars you must accumulate from this industriousness?

Truth be told? I haven't found a truly great deal of iron ore yet and that's why I've managed to smelt it all by now. I've only found a dozen or so hematite veins so far with no trace of limonite or magnetite, and it was all found in the ground floor (base of the mountain) or higher. This embark was a race to find the first cavern because A) there was no river or lake and having a water supply is kind of fucking important and B) the sooner I found it, the sooner I could start working towards the great obsidian block. As a result I didn't do any exploratory mining in between the ground floor and the first cavern except for automining anything interesting my staircase hit, then automining anything interesting that previous automines hit (which reminds me, I still have some automining to do that I forgot about a long time ago). That hasn't turned up any iron yet, but I've done a lot of mining around and below the first cavern; I'm pretty sure this is an embark where all the iron is on or near the surface. I guess that and not having coal is the price I pay for a volcano embark. When I do go looking for more iron ore, I'm pretty sure I'll find some more either in the mountains or above the first cavern, but I'm worried that I won't, and that if I do find any it won't be much. And not all my metal is home-made; I've been ordering and buying iron, pig iron and steel every year from the caravan for...12 years? Definitely more than a decade.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, I cheat by tampering with the raws. 5x skill gains, no skill rust, way faster attribute gains, no attribute rust, and dwarves move pretty damned fast. I gave all that except the faster attribute gains to the humans and elves too, just to keep things interesting.

But hey, if you want to see my refinery, be my guest: WARNING: BIG PICTURE, LOTS OF TEXT BEHIND SPOILER

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The top bit shows the smelters and forges as well as the metal and ore stockpiles. Right below the smelters, you'll see 2 stockpiles with bins that 2x31 each. These are for fuel for steel production. The 31x31 gold ore stockpile is pretty obvious; it also contains aluminum ore and (imported) platinum ore. The mostly empty 31x31 stockpile in the center is SUPPOSED to be filled with iron ore and flux stone, but those are found on the surface and this is pretty deep down. That stockpile has never even been so much as half full. On the left, you have 2 metal bar stockpiles; a 2x31 steel bar stockpile right below the forges and a 31x31 stockpile that accepts everything but platinum and aluminum - since I can't pick and choose what metals instrument parts are made of in the forge menus, I have to do it by linked stockpile. The aluminum and platinum stockpile will be 3x14 and right next to the leftmost forge on the left side. This system is going to be pretty inefficient for smelting any other ores, but hey, I've got all the important ones covered.

The other 2 screencaps are just to show I built the whole thing. I suppose that when most guys want to clear an area of stone to use it as storage space or because they don't want to leave any ores in the magma pit they just use quantum stockpiles but I never even tried to learn how to use those because it's not my style. Instead, I channeled out the desired storage space/magma pit and built floors and walls for them from blocks. I would've used stone blocks, but building the casting chamber had a monopoly on that, so I had my magma glass furnaces and magma kilns pump out green glass and stoneware blocks for the magma pit and the actual floor respectively. (Don't ask to see those - they're just a lucky case where fire clay was very close to the volcano on one level and sand was very close to the volcano on the level below.)

Overall, I don't think my workflow is spectacularly efficient, but if you think yours is rubbish, here's my advice: it's a no-brainer that the heavier the material you're dealing with the more you'll benefit by reducing hauling distance to the workshop and since ores and metal are both pretty fucking heavy you want your ore stockpile next to your smelters next to your metal bar stockpile next to your forges yadda yadda. But don't forget, sometimes when the stockpile is full or there is no stockpile your shops will be taking stuff from each other directly, and if you build it right and assign tasks properly that can be more time-efficient than using a stockpile. Stick all your smelters together is you want to produce alloys but not directly from ores (have alloying smelters directly adjacent to the ore smelters, which skip the stockpile) or produce steel, especially while smelting iron (pig iron smelter needs to be next to flux, fuel and iron, while the steel smelter has to be next to all that AND pig iron). And stick your forges right next to the smelters too; sometimes they'll grab bars before they get hauled to the stockpile saving labor, or sometimes when the stockpile is full or non-existent. And let me tell you, having a forge producing items that will be melted right next to a smelter on melting duty is beautifully efficient when it's items that lose metal when melting; when it's items that don't lose metal or even GAIN metal upon melting, it is, as Urist McMetalsmith might put it, "completely sublime".

It appears that several paragraphs ago, spring arrived and brought a goblin invasion with it. Either the goblins took a year off, or I was counting the years wrong. Some of my new militia are pretty badass, but some aren't yet, and they're my best candidates so I'd hate to lose them prematurely. This siege will be mercy kills only; next time, I'll have them do a full, proper clean up.

Time to mine some goblinite!

[SyrusLD]

I was trying to flood my fortress with lava from the vulcano - it is sadly too high to just dig a hole into the vulcano, so I build some pumps while suffering 7 fps...

And then I realized that there was absolutly no wind on this map.

This is why one of the first thing i do when i start a new fortress is build a windmill.
You could always build a water reactor, or perhaps have dwarves pump it manually.

I tried the latter, they didn't get far...

Building a water reactor is kind of difficult at that place. Unless I build a magma/lava generator. Hm...that might be an idea, can't cost more FPS than I already don't have. :/

Can't build a magma wheel yet, unfortunately. Even if you could, magma doesn't flow without pumps or cracking open a volcano/magma tube and without pumps it'll only flow slowly. Really, what you want is a magma steam engine.

Yeah...forgot that. Can't you use nether-cap for a magma safe water wheel though? Or does that just not react to magma "flowing" below it?

Anyway, I made a water reactor via the pond-method. Didn't think it was this easy.
Once I set up one dwarf who'll survive with some food and drink, I'll start the flooding and finally end this lagfest. Pretty sure the many, many visitors crowded in the, for these numbers, considerably small tavern is what causing this slowdown.

Now if only the mayor and my broker, who I have chosen as the surviving dwarves will go to where I ordered them via the squad menu ... and a burrow ... it's like, ever since taverns (and libraries) they just don't care anymore what you tell them, they will still got "SOCIALIZ!!!" or whatever, no matter what. Got even less control over the dwarves than before.

[khearn]

Those that choose to socialize, rather than following your station orders are probably not the ones you want to keep, anyways.

And no, water wheels just don't work with magma, not matter what you make them out of. That's why they call them water wheels and not liquid wheels.

[SyrusLD]

Don't really want to keep anyone. This fortress has run its course, I learned a lot from it and I'm happily looking forward to a new one.
I feel like a !!FUN!! magma self-destruction is the right way for Rocksinged to go down in history.


Anyway, since Mrs Mistem Bothonasmel - my current mayor - didn't want to return to her room, Ms Urist Oslanmeb - my broker and the previous mayor ... they keep switching who is mayor every now and then - is now the designated sole survivor for this fortress. Until she dies. Or until I decide to let her dig out of HER new room - which was previously the mayor's room.
She is a miner now, or rather: she got a pickaxe.

Why is it always "Urist against the world"? ...

[FantasticDorf]

Those that choose to socialize, rather than following your station orders are probably not the ones you want to keep, anyways.

And no, water wheels just don't work with magma, not matter what you make them out of. That's why they call them water wheels and not liquid wheels.

Presumably due to the magma's properties, it doesn't have enough motion required to move like that and power it, even in overwhelmingly large amounts.

If we could run dynamo's that slow, we'd already have dynamo self propulsion machines run off industrial syrup and goop.

[Player111444]

Just started a new fortress in another world in a different save. at summer keas freaking returned and harassed my dorfs again    stole a few wheelbarrows i made to trade ( because the *masterwork* made ones gives me 250 value ).

also it seems that one of my neighbors are kobolds also, as they stole a iron boot from my metal smith's forge oh well it wasn't anything special.

also the first migrant wave was a bunch of useless dwarven families ( at least they have some use as additional miners and building my walls. )

 

[Random_Dragon]

Just started a new fortress in another world in a different save. at summer keas freaking returned and harassed my dorfs again    stole a few wheelbarrows i made to trade ( because the *masterwork* made ones gives me 250 value ).

also it seems that one of my neighbors are kobolds also, as they stole a iron boot from my metal smith's forge oh well it wasn't anything special.

also the first migrant wave was a bunch of useless dwarven families ( at least they have some use as additional miners and building my walls. )

If a kobold can make it to your smithy unmolested, something has gone hilariously wrong.

[Player111444]

If a kobold can make it to your smithy unmolested, something has gone hilariously wrong.

Well that's because i built the The metalsmith's forge outside near the wagon duh 

[Random_Dragon]

You're lucky a kea didn't steal your anvil. ;w;

[Player111444]

Well i just went back playing Dwarf Fortress. After i sold my Useless Junk Wheelbarrows and Wooden Elfy bolts. when i got my 3rd Migrant wave who have more usefulness than the one from summer expect the 4th child.

Avuz Idenetost has became possessed by unknown forces and claimed a craftdwarfs' workshop.

Great useless artifacts! Yayyy!

Also one of my dwarven deities is a female giant mole... Nunur Ugosh who is associated with Caverns, Mountains and Earth.

Sorry Nunur you giant mole. your just not cool as The Ward of Nights the deity of Fortresses, Volcanoes, Mountains, Caverns and Earth who is a Female Large Rat.

Did you have a cool deity too Random_Dragon? :3

EDIT:
NVM The artifact isn't useless after all... The Little Brat made an awesome looking Wolverine Bone Battle Axe... i guess i had doubted you Avuz... I Shall change your title from Lil Brat 4 to Star Legend Child.