Print

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

[HMD Majesty]

Just started a ‘tiny fort’. Got the pop cap screwed down to 7. I’ve also set the fps to 50 while I get the fort dug out and everything running nicely.
The plan is then to dial the fps back up and hope for some families to start germinating.

I’ve put all of them into an axe/shield squad, but I’m wondering if it would be better to have a mix of weapons to cover a broader spectrum? Maybe Axe/Spear/Sword/Hammer/Axe and a second squad with two crossbows? Or with such a small population maybe I should just burrow down!

What are you planning on facing?

Our personal Advice is to burrow down, but then again We've never been skilled at forming or equipping a proper Military and generally reply on sheer Numbers to kill Foes.

[Uthimienure]

Had no shells in inventory and a moody dworf required shells. So we drafted a papermaker as a miner to tunnel to the trapped web-spitting bloated quadruped with a huge shell. The trusting dorf approached the crowd of armored militia waiting in the cave near her assigned training area, she was probably starting to get suspicious as she pushed through the crowd... "I've never mined before!" she nervously said. Some of the newer fighters snickered and said they were only there just to protect her as she learned to use the pick.

She broke through the tunnel deep in the cavern and was immediately webbed and kicked to death, poor Tosid. One of those new fighters also perished... so sad.

It was then I noticed the beast was composed of glass.

Population -2 to 394.

[Magmacube_tr]

A web-spinning hill titan attacked, killing my whole fortress as I was unable to defend. Eh, was starting to be bored of it. At least had my first fortress collapse.

It was freakishly fast. It was a towering dingo, and they are fast animals. Does that makes a difference?

Now that entire fort is covered in webs, like how the spiders intended it to be.

[Uthimienure]

We hit 400 population.

A dwarf in prison (chained) in an unlocked cell has been trying to "attend meeting" for weeks. 
The mayor waits in the mayor's office trying to "conduct meeting" for a while, then leaves, then returns repeatedly. 
I'm assuming this might be a known bug, but don't remember hearing of it and searching forum & web doesn't find it.

[fatcat__25]

I have encountered that one before. Its been around for a couple of years at least.

[Magmacube_tr]

I discovered that cobaltite can't be smelted to cobalt bars. My dissapointment is immeasurable.


I also discovered a function in DFHack that allows whatever creature with speaking and learning tags you want to become your forts citizens. But not quite.

It makes them long-term residents, not guests. Which is a problem as player has limited control over those.

I always wanted to have animal people in my forts, so I made three great horned owl men long term residents of my fort. They were flying by and just stopped moving when they became civilised. They didn't enter they fort, they didn't flew down to eat or drink. I even tried "domesticating¹" them with the help of another DFHack command. But nothing worked.

So I expelled them, which then they immidiately stared flying again, out of the map. But they were not animals anymore, I think. They registered as visitors in the units screen instead.

Why didn't they swoop down?


1) Game considers animal people as "wild".

[Eric Blank]

I discovered that cobaltite can't be smelted to cobalt bars. My dissapointment is immeasurable.

Historically, cobalt was used in ancient times in blue dyes and pigments, glass production, and in India to make blue tinted gold and silver, but wasn't recognized as a unique elemental metal until 1735, and historically had been confused with bismuth, or not known to produce useful known metals. Theoretically dwarves could smelt it with 14th century (df's cut-off timeframe) technology, might recognize it as a unique material, lore wise lots of people think dwarves should be extra good at metal and stone identification, but the arsenic gas cobaltite gives off would be lethal and kill your smelters. But lots of other gasses that heating ores gives off are also lethal and those don't kill our dwarves despite smelting in confined, poorly ventilated underground spaces. It's not like aluminum where you need electrical furnaces to smelt it, but it's not known from the 14th century back other than as a dangerous ore that you'd avoid smelting because of the evil spirits, kobolds, that it generated that would kill the smelter, or as pigment.

Lots of mods do let you smelt it, but I doubt Toady will implement it in vanilla.

[Magmacube_tr]

I discovered that cobaltite can't be smelted to cobalt bars. My dissapointment is immeasurable.

...lore wise lots of people think dwarves should be extra good at metal and stone identification, but the arsenic gas cobaltite gives off would be lethal and kill your smelters. But lots of other gasses that heating ores gives off are also lethal and those don't kill our dwarves despite smelting in confined, poorly ventilated underground spaces. It's not like aluminum where you need electrical furnaces to smelt it, but it's not known from the 14th century back other than as a dangerous ore that you'd avoid smelting because of the evil spirits, kobolds, that it generated that would kill the smelter, or as pigment.

Hmm, makes sense. Even though dwarves should be immune to it as they are to lead and cinnabar.

[chaotic skies]

So what I'm hearing is dwarves are nigh-immune to toxic gases, right?

That's a useful ability.

[Eric Blank]

Especially if you enjoy huffing weird shit

My dwarves huffed some cave-in dust recently, after a misplaced wall deconstruction designation on the turkey watch boxes on the walls left a floating pillar. A single turkey gobbler was crushed to death and a dwarf suffered a broken leg, after a four z-level fall through the farms and food stockpile

[chaotic skies]

I was thinking it could lead to some warcrimes !!FUN!! forms of siege defense.

[muldrake]

But lots of other gasses that heating ores gives off are also lethal and those don't kill our dwarves despite smelting in confined, poorly ventilated underground spaces. It's not like aluminum where you need electrical furnaces to smelt it, but it's not known from the 14th century back other than as a dangerous ore that you'd avoid smelting because of the evil spirits, kobolds, that it generated that would kill the smelter, or as pigment.

Lots of mods do let you smelt it, but I doubt Toady will implement it in vanilla.

Lots of things that would kill humans don't kill dwarves (or the humans in the game for that matter).  For instance, there are no ill effects from drinking from lead or storing food in lead barrels, for burning wood to ash or charcoal in confined areas, and a number of other practices that would get OSHA sicced on you in the real world.

[chaotic skies]

Magma smelting comes to mind. Even setting aside the logistics of it, magma frequently releases toxic gases of its own IIRC. And is almost certainly against some OSHA violation or another.

[anewaname]

I can't be the only one that was determined to fill a fort with masterwork lead goblets and toys.

[A_Curious_Cat]

I’m currently being attacked by a giant featherless pterosaur, and I think I just atom-smashed the elven diplomat while trying to let him in…