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Yes. It is

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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: October 08, 2015, 10:25:56 pm

[QuQuasar]

it's.... coming along
hopefully it will be complete tomorrow.

In your copy did you get a titan instead of an FB? that would have been fun 

I haven't gotten anything yet. Not a titan, not a werebeast, nothing. Such not dying, very disappoint.

And holy crap roasts are a rediculously overpowered trade good. We might as well just call the trade caravan a "supply caravan", because we're never going to have to worry about the cost of items.

Could I petition that we add the rule of banning purchase of all food items from the caravan then? It just seems a cheap way to circumvent one of the main challenges of this succession game, which is the frantic post-trade-food-resupply phase.

I *would*, but it's also the only way to get some crops. Nevermind: all the crops we can actually grow are gatherable.

So yeah, let's ban the buying of food in the future. From here on out, we only eat what we produce ourselves. If you don't keep production up, starvation is a very real possibility.

(Edit) Aww man! I just looked up the wiki and worked out why it's been so hard to find crops. I thought the dwarves were just cooking the seeds, but no. They don't all grow in tropical biomes! More than half require a temperate biome, and I didn't include one in this embark. Kicking myself right now.

Oh well, live and learn. There's still a *lot* of tropical crops we haven't found any seed for yet, so keep your herbalists busy and a weather eye out for tropical seeds.

(Edit) Oh so that's what stepladders are for! I didn't even know you could pick fruit from the trees with a gathering zone! ('i' 'g'). Neat! We can probably get more crops with that. Give it a shot if you get a chance!

[Taupe]

Could also be cool to trim trees as to create an actual orchard...

[PsychoAngel]

Yeah, let's accomplish as much as we can with any and all information we've got! The more, the merrier, as they say, and here the more things that we will have are crops! And fruit for booze! And dwarves with which to gather said crops and fruit! Wheeee

[Taupe]

"Crops and fruits and trees and booze! Nature is actually awesome!" the dwarves chanted and danced right before a dragon ate them all.

[QuQuasar]

Yeah, I did some examination of the local flora and have been comparing it with the wiki. There are definately some wild crops we're not yet growing on the map (watermelons, horned melons, mung bean, lesser yam's), but they're not gatherable at the moment in my game. They must depend on season: we'll need to dedicate some full-time herbalists and either keep setting gather designations, or set a dedicated gathering area for it.

There's also plenty of fruit tree's. I know for a fact we've got apricot's, olives, custard apple's and finger lime's, and I wouldn't be surprised if we've got a whole variety of really nice tropical fruit as well. Mango's, oranges, pineapples... let's go full Redwall and make the food in Breadbowl the envy of every civilisation!
 
By the way, these will probably help identify crops and fruit bearing tree's:

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Crop
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Tree

"Crops and fruits and trees and booze! Nature is actually awesome!" the dwarves chanted and danced right before a dragon ate them all.

         
"Okay Urist McCheesemaker, we have two fortresses for you to choose between. The first is Breadbowl. It's a wooden, aboveground village. I'm told the dwarves there dance and sing about the awesomeness of nature..."
         
"THE SECOND ONE! THE SECOND ONE!"
         
"The second one is literally a colony built in hell. Demons slaughter the entire population every two months."
         
"I DON'T CARE! ANYWHERE BUT THE FIRST ONE!"

[Taupe]

...which is ironic given how we may be the only fortress in this world that actually could make use of said urist cheesemaker...

[QuQuasar]

Quasar's Journal:
         
I spoke with the elvish couriers when they arrived. They were utterly horrified at our wooden settlement, of course, and refused to carry any of our drink barrels back to the mountainhome, but I managed to pacify them by explaining our purpose and requesting their aid in identifying edible and brewable tree's in the area.
         
They were intrigued and more than happy to walk the forest with me, and despite a series of faux pas on my part (really shouldn't have let them read over my shoulder when I was labelling category 3), they remained willing to talk with me. I think perhaps they hope to temper our lumber operations by offering alternative uses for the tree's in the area.
         
Thus I've put together a list. Say what you will about the elves, they certainly know their tree's. Hopefully the overseer will find this information useful.
         
         
1. Both edible and brewable
         
Banana (very sweet and mushy)
Carambola (aka "starfruit". Interesting tangy flavor)
Custard Apple
Date Palm
Durian (smells like your average fortress)
Guava
Lychee (small, tangy, inedible skin, but surprisingly sweet inside)
Mango
Olives (not brewable, but can be pressed into oil for soap)
Papaya (aka "Paw Paw")
Pomegranite
Rambutan (similar to the lychee, but spikier)
         
         
2a. Edible fruit
         
Avocado (poisonous skin, but nothing a dwarven constitution can't handle)
Bitter Orange
Citron
Coconut palm (Both a nut and a fruit? tree's are confusing)
Desert lime
Finger lime
Kumquat
Lime
Oranges
Pomelo (aka. grapefruit)
Round lime

2b. Edible nuts/beans

Candlenut
Cashew (apparently the shell is poisonous to elves and some humans)
Coffee (Bitter. Might be okay as a garnish?)
Macadamia
Paradise nut
         
         
3. Wood
3. Useless
3. Shade tree's that are beautiful and harm no living creature
         
Abaca
Acacia
Cacao
Cedar
Kapok (Light. Bins and barrels?)
Mahogany (Nice, dense red wood. Perfect for furniture)
Rubber tree
Tea tree (completely useless)
Willow (Also light)
         
         
4. Other
         
Glumprong's (purple, heavy wood)
         
The elves actually hesitated for a moment when they saw these. Although they would still prefer we cut no tree's at all, they asked that if we must, we limit our felling operations to the glumprong's. Well, I certainly have no problem taking an axe to them. I can think of several uses for their unique wood.

[QuQuasar]

Ooh, I discovered another interesting feature I didn't know about.
         
You know how tree's shed their leaves in autumn? Well all the tree's on the "useless" list drop brown leaves, while all the edible fruit and nut bearing ones drop green leaves.
         
You can see it on this screenshot. See how some of the tree's in the bottom left are surrounded by brown patches? Those are wood tree's, highlighted for easy cutting.
         
This also gives you an idea of just how many fruit tree's there are in the rainforest. Easily 80% of them are edible.
         
Brewable tree's, on the other hand, are rarer. If you want to encourage an orchard of the best types of tree's, you'll need to 'k' over them and compare to the list.

[QuQuasar]

Man, this really is an completely different style of play. I'm having to develop whole new strategies and learn all about the way tree and shrub growth works to get all the crops. I'm thoroughly enjoying this!

Did you know small shrubs in df go through several stages of life before 'ripening' and becoming gatherable? And I think they grow better in sunlight, though I'm not certain of that one: the dead shrubs might be due to trampling instead.
         
Another example: it can be to your benefit, after you trade away all your prepared food, to stop cooking entirely for a while. This seems counter-intuitive since that's the point when you're closest to the brink of starvation, but it will force your dwarves to eat any edible plants you've got. In the case of non-brewable crops, this is a good way to get their seeds and start farming them.

[neblime]

Did you know you can solve any problem in the world with carpentry?
I am Neblime, the only competent carpenter round here. 
where is "here" you might ask?  Well we have a royal mandate to produce as much food as possible, and this fort was founded for that purpose exactly, but no one thought how exactly that was going to get back to the mountainhomes, so guess what solved that problem? So much carpentry
in the previous year my regular day looked something like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

but finally quasar placed me in charge.  About time I say!
As soon as I assumed the leadership one of the masons approached me and asked for an official name change

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I can't understand why a dwarf would want such a ridiculous name.

In spring we had a few kobold theives show up, probably after our lavish meals

Spoiler: what kobold could resist? (click to show/hide)

I sent a few dwarves to chase them down

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Turns out one of them was a complete coward..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

remind me never to put him in the militia, which currently consists of taupe, and a poor hapless dwarf chosen to be his training partner.
In an emergency there are 10 or 15 of us prepared to fight, however we are poorly trained.
In any case, I have never even seen a goblin snatcher in this place so I have no fear for now.

A panicked dwarf emerged from the tombs he was smoothing, claiming he heard some ferocious monster in the deeps

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The solution, as ever was carpentry.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A sturdy wooden hatch made by a competent carpenter can hold off even the strongest of beasts.

At about the same time as I noticed we actually had a smeltery of some kind one of the metalsmiths decided to make some grand work of art

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was quite excited to begin with, however when I saw he didn't claim any logs I knew it couldn't be anything too useful.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I don't even know what a round cap is.  It doesn't look as good as a helmet

Thol anan reappered in the depths, peeking down through the hatch though he looked somewhat worse for wear.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

it makes me worried, what else could be down there that could hurt a beast made of pure gemstone?

I saw a thrips man today (at least I think it was a man) I looked at him.  He looked at me.  I realised he was incredibly ugly and set one of the dogs on him.

Turns out being in charge is quite a lot of work, between that and all the carpentry that needs doing.  My contributions to breadbowl are the new furniture warehouse, expanded living quarters and the heroic defense against Thol anan.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Total exports for the year:
☼170917
770 units food
1593 units drink

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[neblime]

sorry for incredibly boring turn!! save is uploading now, it may be some time

[tonnot98]

Could I be dorfed as a butcher?

[QuQuasar]

Wait wait wait... so we've got a legendary armoursmith now?
                 
I say we test out their new skills by outfitting Taupe in their finest work and sending him into the caverns to kill that forgotten beast.
                 
Looks like we're living up to our name and producing plenty of Maize and Rye bread (that's corn and wheat), plus a few chicken egg omlettes and reindeer cheese quiches. Plus one or two more meaty meals here and there: fish, elk-bird, wild-boar, giant tick and giant leopard (!!).
                 
I'd like to think our hunters were the one's who nabbed the giant leopard, but it's possible it was stale leftovers from the original dwarven caravan, back before we institued the "no buying food" policy.

Not to worry. We should have cooked all that by now, so everything from here on out should be our own produce.

[neblime]

well i never saw any giant leopard, so i can only assume it got accidentally boughtwhen the caravans came (I had no choice with the dwarf caravan because they couldnt carry all the weight so i just randomly bought some stuff)
here is the save: http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=11086

[QuQuasar]

Awesome!
                 
Bearskie, welcome to Breadbowl.
                 
I mean, not that you actually need to be welcomed, you've been here since the start, you're our most experienced planter, what am I saying we all know you, you've only spent, what, 2 years doing endless, thankless, backbreaking toil in the fields for the good of the fortress?
                 
HOLY SHIT YOU MUST BE SO SUNBURNED BY NOW.

Good luck, see if you can finish off the dorfing list, and remember to report how much you trade.