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[Pseudo]

A few things:

- I suspect using a cave-in at the lowest cavern level might not plunk down a wall, but rather punch a hole in the floor into the unknown.

I shall have to test this...

- I found a hospital can actually have some use, but you have to enable and disable it to release those resting there before they get too thirsty. Some treatment actually seems to be performed though, and one dorf that was bad enough to be able to crawl to a barrel and not being able to drink recovered enough to drink, and seems to even have picked up a crutch. Annoyingly, dorfs that have no damage left still have the cleaning job on them, and go to rest/sleep in the hospital as soon as it's enabled.

Also note that you can have a CMD with no actual hospital. Won't actually do anything, but you can at least glance at the medical screen and see who needs diagnosing.

- A whacky thought: I think it should be possible to build a windmill farm reasonably safely by building the mills underground and then make a ramp hole over the center of each windmill. I don't know if there's any wind at the embark, and even if there is, there's no fluid to pump, so all power would go to mine carts, which I normally power with impulse ramps.

Making windmills secure in this version is actually rather difficult now that things can jump and climb. I wonder if a windmill will operate under a bridge?

It'd certainly help with milling. Hmm... May be a use for that artifact grate, now that I think about it.

Save scumming: [snip]

Normally I'll revert to the beginning of the season without a second thought. That being said, for this challenge...? I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Reanimation:[snip]

Looks like things reanimate quite slowly underground, but they do reanimate. I've been running operation splat for a while now, and unfortunately it seems to be producing more cages than it is freeing up...

Since the first generation of peafowl matured I'm having my full time militia (4 dorfs) stationed in the butcher's shop to handle any reanimations.

(Operation splat: exactly what it sounds like on the tin. Hole dug from ~2 levels below surface to ~2 levels above the bottom, cage trap corridor at the bottom leading into by butchery leading into more cage traps. Drop things, they go splat, dwarves grab the remains to butcher / etc, I lock the door and repeat. Generally a couple parts reanimate (hair in particular), but they are caged quickly.  Haven't lost a dwarf yet.)

I've also secured the cavern, which is a big step.

I've "secured" the cavern. By which I mean it is safe against non-fliers, but not safe against fliers.

[PatrikLundell]

I do have a CMD and, as indicated, I've set up a hospital zone that I enable and disable.

I know how to make a building destroyer invader proof windmill farm (after help from the forum) and can try to describe it from my memory, if desired. It's a lot of work, though. For a single mill I think you can get away with only two wind mills if you still want to do it safely. A windmill requires free access to the sky above the central tile, but I don't know if either drawbridges or grates block it. It has to be outdoors as well as sun lit. If you build everything underground and then dig an up ramp above the center, you shouldn't have to be exposed to the elements at all, in theory. I think you have to channel down as well after the up ramp to expose the windmill to the elements.
And, by the way, I don't consider it cheating to make a copy of the current DF game to test things out and then discard it (I've considered doing it with the windmill, in which case I'd just make a standard mill on top of gear test, but since I don't mill, I don't really have any use for power).

Save scumming: I generally do that a fair bit, since DF normally is about enjoying yourself, not competing (which I'm not really doing: I'm trying to achieve the goal, but I'm playing normally without trying to explicitly maximize wealth). Another thing I've done is the set the pop cap to 10 above the current pop, since I dislike huge immigration waves, and that is what I do normally (which usually means 6-9 immigrants). On the one hand, it reduces production due to the lower number of dorfs, but on the other it reduces risk, since an immigration wave is exposed for a shorter time.

I just had my second attempt at receiving the second caravan (a DF crash stopped the first one, which had resulted in a fleeing caravan and the loss of one of my dorfs, but the situation under control). In the second attempt I noticed the patch of horse tallow on the ground as the caravan came in, and sure enough, even though they were all healthy, they had a dead horse in a cage, so I quarantined them in the trade depot, and yes, the horse reanimated outside of the cage, killed one merchant, a draft animal, and two guards, but didn't chase the other animal and attendant dwarf who fled down a bit in one of my tunnels. I managed to get the horse to catch itself in a cage trap, and after waiting a couple of weeks more, I sent dorfs to collect and disposed of the bodies and body bits lying around, with no incident (no reanimation). I've engraved a slab for the merchant, but the guards don't show up in the list, so I can't engrave any slabs for them. IF ghost for them show up, I consider it legitimate to kill them as a bug work around (the same as for unkillable reanimated head body parts). Anyway, it looks like I have no choice but to loot the remains of another caravan (waiting for the survivors to leave, but the last time I had survivors hiding out like that they didn't leave even when the message said they would).

Operation splat: I don't quite understand what you do, since tame critters cannot be butchered after death? I do it the traditional way, i.e. lead the animals to the butchery and have them killed. The hide is taken next door to the tanner (all dorfs have the tanner task enabled). So far I've dumped all hair into my garbage compactor (right beside the butchery), while wool has been spun without incident (everyone has spinning as well). I'll try to spin some hair when I get the next chance, since the on/off hospital means thread won't be stored there, but taken for looming. I did encounter a bug when a crundle scale reanimated. It was quickly killed by my militia, but it generated a lot of bits to be dumped. One of them refused to be dumped, hauled to a temporary refuse pile, etc. It was stuck on/in the butchery, and was released when I finally dismantled the butchery (but I'm sure it would have been free to move just fine if it had reanimated).

Unless I misunderstand you, I think you haven't secured the cavern against non fliers either. Non fliers can enter the embark on top of walls built flush with the embark edge and climb down (I think they couldn't before) and if a wall is one tile away from edge they can climb normally. I've got 3 places where I can let critters in if desired, and I'm building my first airlock. I haven't caught anything interesting yet (a bunch of crundles, the last of which still remains to be butchered), but with a secure cavern I've build a loom at the bottom to collect webs, so some silk clothing should be in the pipeline (the pig tail yield took a nose dive with the loss of my farmer, and none of my immigrants have any skill, but on the flip side, I've bagged a level 10 carpenter).

An amusing observation: I've discovered some (grass type) vegetation on one or two of my entrance down ramps, so it might be possible to grow surface crops if you got hold of seeds. I wouldn't test that, though, since I suspect a roof over the plot won't protect the farmer below from melting. I know that kind of farming (and creation of grazing grounds) work quite well in normal desert embarks.

Edit: The "parts stuck in building" bug is rather annoying. A donkeys skin as well as its hair attacked and both split into multiple pieces, one piece of each stuck in their corresponding processing building. The donkey head hair part reanimated again, and I DFHack exterminated it, since I know from previous experience that head hair is invincible. I've also DFHack exterminated a reanimated cavy sow pup, since a pile of dorfs with real weapons did nothing but scratch its skin and knock out its teeth (a number of lost teeth, a broken nose, and a smashed ear, plus bruises on the dorf side, plus battle exhaustion. One of the dorf teeth stuck in the kitchen building). By the way, the caravan brought dimple cup spawns, so I'll try to dye thread for the first time (after harvest, of course).

[Pseudo]

Operation splat is for reanimated critters. Or ordinary ones, who fall down, die, then reanimate, get picked up by the cage trap, and then I send them down again.

Actually works pretty well, assuming I make sure to not send too much down at once.

Also derp, fixing up wall now. Still used to non-climbing things.

[PatrikLundell]

Spat: Ah, I see, clever. Does it block reanimation of hair and skin as well? I normally hook up the cages of reanimated critters to a lever and then atom smash them. I'm considering saving the two of them for future silk farm bait (just need a GCS...).

Wall: Glad to be of service before "reality" came came smashing down

I've just killed my first FB a first time. The repeating glass spikes take their time dealing with the reanimated version, though, probably partially because they array of two only has two spikes in each tile (rather than my normal 10). I'm not in a hurry, though.

[Pseudo]

Does it block reanimation of hair and skin as well?

No, no it doesn't. As my multiple bruised dwarves can attest to.

But my refuse quantum stockpile, my corpse one, my tanner, loom, and butcher, all have cage traps surrounding them. (And I have dedicated dwarves for each task burrowed there) That being said, I've had to uncage dwarves from cages a few times due to unfortunate dodges 

Something interesting is that reanimation seems to be random - I have a number of full carcasses that haven't reanimated. Perhaps it's a "max number" thing? If so, that could be exploited...

Now I'm running into the tree - construction crash bug - time to start cleaning up the edges of the caverns I guess. A shame to lose farm-able land.

I have a titan up on the surface. I suppose I should deal with him at some point, though I think I'll finish up the caverns first.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Only bruised?  Wow. 

Mine die from "pushing" the belly a few times.

Edit:

What the hell?  And by that I mean, what the apparently nonexistent hell?  How did you remove the magma layer?

[Pseudo]

You just found that out?

Also, see here.

[vjek]

... What the hell?  And by that I mean, what the apparently nonexistent hell?  How did you remove the magma layer?

Removing it has some consequences, some known, some surprising (the chopped down tree bottomless pit thing), but I removed it in this case because having it makes dealing with certain problems (like undead) too easy.  It also provides infinite forge/furnace fuel, which I wanted to be a rarity to drive the player into the caverns.

In the 0.40.x (after 34.11) world, you need a demon to lead a goblin civ, and you can't have a demon without the HFS, which is beneath the magma.  As a result, the removal of magma has the consequences of preventing goblin civs. 
IMHO, it's not a big deal in this case, as the titans, megabeasts, semi-megabeasts, fb's, and undead are more than enough fun for this embark. 

[PatrikLundell]

I no longer have any trees in the cavern. They all went down while I was plugging the exits (well, I don't know if the 3 trees that have sprung up afterwards have been felled yet). My tree cutting priority is to always get rid if the trees near building sites first. However, I've dug out 2 30*30 or so tree farms in the soil layers (but have yet to see any sapling mature).

Loss of farmable land? If you want to farm, you've got two whole soil levels plus much of the cavern for farming. I guess that's one way to increase the fortress value quickly, though.

The cages around the workshops is a good approach, which I'll adopt. I'd already decided to surround the trade depot with cage traps for the same purpose. Surrounding the loom with cages is overkill, though. Once spun the wool/hair is pacified, but I guess you meant the farmer's workshop dedicated to spinning? Dodging into cages keep your civilians out of harm, so I'd consider that a bonus.

My reanimated FB seems to regenerate as fast as it's hurt. I guess deanimating it requires complete destruction of one body part at a time, but luck to get the same part targeted a sufficient number of times in a row. If I tire of waiting, I just cave-in kill it (it's a the western edge, so it's off the bottom).

Surface titan vs securing the cavern: I think securing the cavern is the higher priority, but delay too long and you'll get a surface crawling with undead migrants and caravan members. If it was my embark, I'd try to lure it into one of my entrance tunnels and lock both ends to keep it contained until I could cave-in kill it. Isn't the titan killed by the weather and reanimated?

Reanimation maximum count: I don't think there is a maximum, apart from the total creature one (2000 or so, I think). My single previous reanimating embark had the second cavern crawling with undead that converted everything that migrated into it, and before I purged it the count in there was above 100 (probably about 120).

I think the removal of hot sauce to increase the challenge was an appropriate one.

vjek, is the scantily clad dorfs with their bare bottoms (and associated bad thoughts) intentional or just a lucky coincidence?

[Pseudo]

Tell me if the tree farm works - I thought it required 3 z-levels...

[vjek]

...
vjek, is the scantily clad dorfs with their bare bottoms (and associated bad thoughts) intentional or just a lucky coincidence?

That's the way they appeared, and it's consistent across multiple embarks in this world.  It's possible the lack of access to certain plants, leather or materials(?) has led to an entire dwarven civ without pants.

I didn't try to get them that way, so it's just lucky coincidence.  But it is interesting that they can turn out that way.

[PatrikLundell]

Trees grow naturally with only two levels (including in 2 z level deep water: a fair bit of work to get rid of), but I'll let you know. The first ones should be due to mature within a year, I think.

The cage trap ring around my tanner caught a reanimated skin. Great innovation that!

Pant-less in hell: I have no problem making pants from pig tails (haven't tried leather, but don't expect any trouble there, since they're in the list). The caravans bring leather as well. I can't make dresses, but will have to do with togas instead, for my full set of clothing.

Another observation: My now undead FB is no longer interested in destroying doors (foiling my attempt to lure it to a better spike trap). I believe I've seen that change in undeads before.

I've nabbed myself a GCS, but currently have no undeads for bait. I guess the second generation peafowl growing up should provide that, though, unless the caravan arrives before that (my latest immigrant batch arrived without incidents and without animals; that is, on the second attempt. DF crashed on the first one, when I had a dead puppy inside (in the middle of a cage trap array) and a dead bird outside, and think things were under control). I've also found that it is quite possible to quarantine migrants by using temporary meeting zones and locked doors, but for some reason morons have tried to escape out again (there's no legal destination, since all such doors are locked, and all the outside is outside my burrow). A locked door put an end on that stupidity, though. Happened on both attempts.

Ah yes: I've seen a few animals who die without other animals or dorfs being affected. It seems they start with getting hurt paws, so presumably they pick up the heat from the blood on the ground. In one observed case the blood trail started with human blood (from a dog). Note that the trail started by the trade depot around the center of the map, not by the entrance. I've yet to see any blood being dragged in and getting smeared on the ground by feet.

And finally: My king has gotten a lover! (No couples in my embarks, generally, and none have arrived here [although I assume the kids that died had at least one parent with them, but not among the surviving]).

Wacky question: What would happen to a vampire exposed to the weather?

[Sanctume]

Leather Armor, Bone Greaves, Leather/Bone Helm, Bone Gauntets should not become ratty as they are uniform armor. 

That should leave the need for clothing to the occasional wood cutter and miner.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Answer to a wacky question: their fat melts off and they die. Rather straightforward answer. Vampires aren't magma-immune, so...

Wait! The slabs said "bled to death." However, that may be a sort of stand-in death message, I know I've read something like that.

So actually not straightforward! Great! Somebody put a 34.11 vampire in magma and see if they die!

[PatrikLundell]

Yes, I know you can get non training civilians to wear armor by drafting them, but there isn't that much stuff you can produce on this embark, and I assume clothing adds to the fortress value.

I've now crossed the 1 MDwarfbuck line, just before the 2½ year line. It was a hectic summer/autumn, however, with a titan topside, a second FB in the cavern, a caravan that croaked outside my tunnels (so no goods unless I venture out), and an immigrant wave where 3 out of 6 died (and all animals). There's still a mess with dead animals outside, plus one dead dorf in my tunnels (with another one caged on the same tile). The titan has been eliminated, as has the first FB, with the second one under way.
Just got a silk farm going with an undead yak as bait (I didn't really feel comfortable with using the caged undead dorf, so that's good). Also bagged a cave dragon.

Those reanimated dorfs are scary with their lightning speed. Fortunately a pressure plate activating 3 10 tile raising drawbridges is just enough to smash them (but I sure was worried for the dorf reloading the cage trap after the yak at the end of the last drawbridge).

Well, a vampire in magma ought to burn, so it's not the same as having the fat melted off the body. The undead animals topside shed tallow without dying (again), and the titan did shed both tallow and ichor, with a lot (all?) of body parts' fat melted off, without it dying. If I get a vamp I'll send it on patrol on the surface to see what happens.

Edit: My first tree farm has gotten its first two trees, so 2 z levels is sufficient (which is also what's stated on the wiki page when I finally checked). I did however make a third one with a 3 z level headroom using a cave-in just to confirm it was possible. You can also increase the cavern yield by shearing off the roof where the height is lower than 2 (which I haven't bothered to do).
I've also realized I have a better use for a vamp than patrol duty: someone ought to haul the stuff left on the surface to safety. Now I just need to get one...
I just had a severe booze scare. The stocks were suddenly down to 13 (for 69 dorfs to share). I think too much valuable booze source material has gone to the quern. Looks like I've made it, though, without anyone getting thirsty.

Edit 2: GAME OVER! The save repeatedly crashes during loading (seemingly different locations within the loading phase). Carry on without me...I'm not starting over again.