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[cliffjeff]

I don't have any creative RP story to go with my fort, but I just wanted to share how it progressed over the 7 years of game time it lasted since it was my first fort that was even moderately successful =p

Tourlabor

The beginning was quiet... too quiet... no real attacks from the river, the chasm, or the lava river when I hit it, so I just built up in peace for many years... then the goblins started coming.  first I just locked them out while I frantically built a trap corridor.  That took care of them.  Next year, the traps sufficed again, though I had some casualties.  Third year, they came with trolls.  Many, many trolls.  15+.  I wasn't prepared for this.  some fell into my trap corridors, but many stormed right through the untrapped front gate and into my halls and barracks.  they made quick work of my 20 or so military dwarves and started tearing up the place.  we did eventually drive them off, but there was a lot of damage and about 30 casualties.  I still have over 100 dwarves left so I could certainly keep going if I wanted to, but I think I'd rather take what I've learned and make a fresh, more elegant fort...

on that note, any tips?  especially on surviving troll attacks (and attacks from even more fearsome creatures)?  I'm going to set up better fortifications and barracks this time, and maybe some catapults too... but really, I'm pretty inept when it comes to combat in this game.  also, is there any way to keep your dwarves from walking into the line of fire trying to pick stuff up?  like, what's the point of trap corridors if your dwarves will walk right into them to clean up the mess and get instagibbed?  maybe I should just use fluid defenses instead, though those still mystify me.  I'll have to read the wiki a bit more on those.  

please, feel free to look at my sad fort and give any tips you can think of =p

time to dig to the demon pits so this place goes out with a bang...

[ October 03, 2007: Message edited by: cliffjeff ]

[Shzar]

Hey, you're DiscoZombie from the NS forums, right? Either that or you just made a fort with the exact same name (and the same fate) as another guy in an unconnected forum.  :p

Anyway, your link is messed up, but

Here

is a proper one until it is fixed. Now, my comments. First off, get a wider hallway! A two-square wide hallway will probably generate considerable gridlock with 50 dwarves, nevermind 100. I find a 5-tile-wide main hallway is pretty decent for 100 dwarves + animals. Second, have you considered making a 'mini-fort' on the far side of the chasm to the benefit of your smiths? Provided you haven't activated the economy you can assign bedrooms. Some people construct "airlocks," two sets of locked doors, that allows food and other goodies to be passed through to a section of the fort without the risk of unnecessary traffic. It's just a hassle for when you actually want a dwarf to pass through.

A question of my own: I noticed your gigantic stockpile south of the entrance has just about anything in it. How did that work out for you? Anyway, your fort sure ain't pretty but at a glance it seems quite functional and unique. Good show!

[BurnedToast]

Shzar is right, get a bigger main hallway! I usually use 4 tiles for ~50 - 100 dwarves, but 5 or even 6 would not be a bad idea. you have PLENTY of room, no need to squeeze everything in.

Otherwise, build past the river! again, you have plenty of room - even if the river is as far right as possible and the chasm is as far left, you can build a comfortable fort between them.

Trolls won't smash locked doors... or rather, they will but only if they try and path through them. if you lock all the doors fast, then they won't generate paths through them and you can still lock them out. Also raised drawbridges won't be smashed by trolls (I've heard demons can though, but never experienced it). so you can lock them out with those if you choose.

traps are powerful. very powerful. 3 no-quality bronze serrated disks in a trap will slaughter trolls (and goblins) no problem - just make a few rows of these (3 - 5 or so) at every possible entrance and you should have no problems. It's kinda cheesy, but it works well. use spiked balls if you are worried about hauling tasks from severed limbs - they are second best and don't lop off limbs.

Make a moat outside every entrance (goblins can shoot ~15 squares so keep that in mind when you make it) and fill it with water (or better magma) when the goblins arrive. use catapults and ballista to drive them off.

if it comes down to it, you can always lock your dwarves in and flood the whole world with magma. be VERY careful of flaming corpses and items and do not let your dwarves out till they are all extinguished or your whole fort will burn down and everyone will die.

[cliffjeff]

thanks for the tips guys =p and yep, I'm the same DiscoZombie from the NS forum - I told the same story about my fortress there, as you noticed   but once I finally dug to the chasm and lava, I was trying to relocate my fortress further east - smithing by the lava, residences past the river... didn't get around to finishing my efforts til it was too late though.  

I was going to build a barracks-type bedroom without the barracks flag, with individual assigned beds.  that way I would save on space, and the 1/4 value overlapping room penalty would kick in, so the rooms would be cheap enough for my dudes to afford when the economy kicked in.  I had the nobles bunking together and they were happy as clams =p

my big stockpile didn't really work out well =p it wasn't meant to be a long-term solution - I wanted to have one big stockpile at first and diversify as the opportunity arose, and while I did relocate some of my stockpiles elsewhere by the end (metal by the magma, seeds by the farm, cloth by the tailor), the giant stockpile was still used for a lot of stuff... I need better planning next time.  

I think hauling tasks are what really killed my fortress.  even with 130 dwarves, they could never finish all the hauling tasks... especially stone... how can people ever get rid of all that stone?? =d I have that huuge stone stockpile outside my fortress and it's completely full.  I just kept making it bigger and bigger and my dwarves were doing nothing but hauling stone for years... next time maybe I'll just leave it in my hallways, aesthetics be damned...

very good tips about drawbridges and a moat and stuff - I think I'll have both next game.  I'm taking all sorts of notes.

[Freddybear]

It really pays to plan for specialized stockpiles ahead of time. "One big pile" means a lot of walking to get what's needed.

Don't even bother trying to clear all the stone from your fortress. If you look at most of the really big successful forts, they all have rough stone lying around everywhere. Put small stone stockpiles next to the workshops that use stone, and the catapult range. A few years of catapult practice can clear a pretty big area, and stone blocks and crafts can also help.

[cliffjeff]

that settles it, the stone is staying where it falls next time (with maybe some smallish stockpiles by the masons).  

I should mention that I sent this fortress out with a bang.  I opened the demon pits and poured lava into the chasm at the same time.  the carnage was awesome.  to my surprise, my newbie dwarves actually managed to take down a couple demons... in the end though, most died to smoke inhalation.  what even causes so much smoke when the demons attack?  burning dwarf?  the smoke wouldn't go away for months and months...