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[Fleeting Frames]

NWKohaku's analysis in FPS thread suggests that you'd need tens of thousands of items to dominate FPS calculations, hence my wondering at mere 600 having the suggested strong impact - that's less than what 43 immigrant dwarves wear, about equivalent to 7-8 minimal archery towers with nobody inside.

Pathing, especially to mother/trainer can have heavy cost, though - I assume you did use multiple cages/small closed rooms to keep poultry under control and pathing limited?

[NCommander]

I didn't. I did the usual throw everything into a single room with nest boxes and butcher forgetting how many birds come out of a turkey. I've been caging the hens when I don't need the leather, but I had an unexpected clutch hatch since no one got them off their boxes before round two hatched. The birds are caged right now, so its not a big deal, I just need to finish the butchering.

I'm probably going to have to run a autodump round to get the framerate back up in the 90s or just let someone use the volcano dumper.

[NCommander]

This is a masterwork dog leather journal owned by Kogan 'NCommander' Kelnakuth. On its covered is adored images of seven dwarfs. The image related to the founding of Scorchedgravel, the last Dwarven settlement.

Winter 553




With our leather problems solved for the moment, archery practice (and demonstrations) have begun. I'm getting to the point that I'm fairly sure I could train someone into an elite marksdwarf without using a single bolt!

OOC: It is theoretically possible if you get a dwarf with Teacher+Marksdwarf/Archer skills if you can get them up to novice. I *might* try this to get a legendary blowgunner if I can liberate a few darts.

Nix has made progress in drilling additional bore shafts to explore the caverns safely. By using a lacework from the ceiling, she can drill a hole straight down after a hatch is installed. By carefully positioning the bore holes where I think the caverns are, we can successfully explore them without risk of anything nasty coming up.

As it turns out, Atlantis has land after all.



Look at all that wood. We have to get it ...

Another bore hole missed Atlantis and instead hit below. We found this:




While I won't know for sure until we've fully explored the lower cavern, the stack of bodies is rather disturbing, including a forgotten beast we didn't even know was down there. I've come to call the second cavern "Bone Valley" due to its lifeless nature and lots of corpses.

Digging deeper, I had Nix drive another bore hole through a known piece of rock in an attempt to find more of the second cavern. Instead she hit the third one!




Worse, she had actually actually hit it as such the borehole had a connection to the ground. She immediately had company!



Fortunately, in a bit of good thinking, instead of running down in Rodentland, she darted back up the stairs and locked the hatch behind her.  Of the three caverns, the third has the best opportunities for wood especially the rare and unique nether-cap and blood throne, but also the most amount of danger. While I'm fairly sure we could take a bunch of rodentmen, the third cavern is well known for being the most dangerous.  Worse, I suspect there's a connection between Bone Valley and Rodentland (we need a better name for it) because there is only a single Z level between the two of them. Right now, that means both of them are not safe, at least until we know for sure.

If we're going to get wood for our steel and soap industries, we need to get into Atlantis. We just need to get past the gateskeeper. Who is right now sitting on the shaft Nix dug back when we arrived in the badlands for spores.

Fortunately, I have a plan.




After several rounds of webs vs. bolts, bolts ultimately won the day. Let it be known that Ryukan officially got the fatal blow and is the first dwarf to shed blood in Doomforest Scorchedgravel!

---

I've started work on my plan to raid Atlantis. There's a large outcropping of rock which we're going to make a storage yard. I've had Nix started digging it out with room for two bridges so we can it access both sides.



Drawbridges will act as a seal when we're not down there. The rough plan is the Virginal Fences will station right in the middle of the forest, while Gwolfski and Imic cut logs like madman. We'll worry about getting them somewhere more useful later. Derro and Nix (who will have the emergency pickax) will haul. We need to be in, and out fast before anything nasty can show up. I'm expecting the operation to take place next year, pending bridge construction. Our goal is 100 logs which gets us both soap, and a good amount of steel. If we can convert most of iron into steel, I'll be very happy.

---




Life continues ...

[Imic]

I have a son! So does Nix!
 
Life goes on.

[NRDL]

Our children are probably gonna end up marrying each other 

[Imic]

Our children are probably gonna end up marrying each other 

All to a good cause. May many more children be borne!

[Derro]

Our children are probably gonna end up marrying each other 

The first marriage isn't that bad, but afterwards you start getting dwarves marrying each others' brothers and sisters-in-law.

Also; am I the only one worried about the dozen elk bird corpses in Atlantis?

[Gwolfski]

Our children are probably gonna end up marrying each other 

The first marriage isn't that bad, but afterwards you start getting dwarves marrying each others' brothers and sisters-in-law.

Also; am I the only one worried about the dozen elk bird corpses in Atlantis?

At least they're corpses... Oh, I suppose you're wondering what made them corpses.....

[Fleeting Frames]

Note on Teacher-Student relationships: While I recall only military gives teacher experience, student can be attained through the reading of books.

Forgotten Beasts make best teachers, though! How good archers are they now?

For penetrating cavern, I see so much raising drawbridges with such designs. Perhaps Nix should dig ramps instead of straight tunnels, though, to be closed by the lowering of the raised drawbridge, as this way there's no danger of atomsmashing or something too heavy stopping the operation, and to close it down in emergency takes only 100 steps with a pressure plate, not 200.

For recovering the logs, a trick that I mostly use for getting wagon goods inside and multi-z crisscrossing minecart ramp systems is putting a (coins, typically) stockpile on the items, then digging ramps underneath - ramp will be dug, items will fall down, but the floor itself will remain untouched.

E: Oh yeah, about the tunnels: With the caverns up against each other, they're harder to notice, but I'd guess the downward passageways don't necessarily occur more often for it.

[NCommander]

Pressure plates aren't very useful. Of the things I'm worried coming in, with the exception of a GCS, they're all TRAPAVOID (aka FBs). Drawbridges will fling on raise, and I have them raise inward. That being said, I may switch the design to using hatch covers instead since I can quickly forbid and unforbid them with the "q" menu, and they can't be breached from below.

Due to RTX + Fourth of July, I don't expect to have any updates for a few days. As for magic teleporting items due to ramps, that's a bit too exploitly for me :/. Also, I still need to get in there to cut it down or cave it in which won't help.

Also; am I the only one worried about the dozen elk bird corpses in Atlantis?

THat's why I'm really not liking cavern two at all. I'll poke a few more bore holes as situations allow, but I'm not optimistic there's anything worthwhile down there.

[Fleeting Frames]

Well, I would have suggested hatch covers....Expect you have multiple entrances, so forgetting one results in all of them being vulnerable. No reason can't use both, though - at least the cover ought to slow it down a little.

Also, with the exceptions of single gremlin, all cavern critters who are trapavoid are also buildingdestroyers. Can use the old "door holding back minecart from pressure plate" trick, which is why I mentioned "on" signals.

...Albeit you may consider that cheap way to trivialize trapavoid, for 3 of 3 of rejecting ramps.
Mm, I can only suggest ideas, what one dislikes or likes in a game really differs from person to person. ❄£❄

A curious phenomenon.

Still, I suppose Dwarf Fortress is not the first game where I see - I do - "fighting with sheathed claws" happen, like lion cubs. But no other place has it that much - though they do have the 'cheap' considerations much more consistent - and no other place has lion cubs in game.

Demon-fighting lion cubs. ᐜ&ᐜ

[NCommander]

So after two attempts to raid Atlantis, it hasn't gone well because dwarfs are idiots, and fall into the water and immediately drown. I'm going to have to train swimming :/

[Dame de la Licorne]

I'm going to have to train swimming :/

Well, at least you have time to kill before the kids grow up.  There are worse ways to spend it.

-Dame de la Licorne

[NRDL]

Yeah, cross training to build up everyone's stats would actually be a really good idea for the long term survival of our dorfs.

[Dame de la Licorne]

--before the kids grow up--

Speaking of this (apologies for the bad form in quoting myself), you'll want to get them married off ASAP, to breed the next generation as soon as you can.  I don't know if you've thought about how you're going to do it, but I've toyed with several different room designs, and the most efficient (for me) seems to be something like the following:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

##########
#8+======+
#8#======#
##########

where:
# -> wall
8 -> single-tile bedroom assigned to each compatible dwarf (1 male, 1 female)
+ -> lockable doors
= -> two stockpiles (1 for drink, 1 for food, you can size this room as large/small as you like)

I call this the "airlock system".  Burrow the dwarves into their bedrooms, then lock them in and remove (or unassign them from) the burrow.  Allow the other dwarves to fill the stockpiles (use "take from" for greatest efficiency), then lock the outer door.  Rinse and repeat whenever their food/drink supplies get too low (the autopause on every season change reminds me to check on them), until you get the marriage announcement.

Once you lock them in, you can also designate the beds as a 2-tile meeting zone (which you can temporarily turn into a temple as needed), but I haven't been able to tell if this speeds up the process at all (can't hurt).

Because you'll have spent more than twelve in-game years not having them work, you probably won't miss them while they get married off.

-Dame de la Licorne