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[Merthyn]

"After six years of hard, unremitting labour in the accursed sun, the overseer's project started to take shape."

Off to a good start, time to get to work on the rest of the fortress! I figured I'd post a thread for the progress on my latest passion project; Prophetmirrored. I wanted to push my boundaries in terms of dwarfy architecture and decided to kick off with a proper gigantic statue. The build took approximately six years dwarf time (three afternoons real life time) and isn't fully finished as is, there's still plenty of work to be done on the finer edges of the statue's throne. Not to mention I haven't really gotten around to building the actual fortress. I still plan to terraform the region quite a bit and hope to post a bit of an account of the fort's progress for those interested. Although I love Armok Vision to bits, it sadly doesn't render all the colours yet and drags things a bit out of shape vertically, so here's a stonesense screenshot as well!

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The statue itself is 31 z-levels high, 19 wide and 23 long. The armour is made out of copper blocks (due to lack of tin and bronze), the boots and finery on the armour are made of obsidian, the beard of Gneiss and Silver blocks and the throne of out of Mica. No cheats or hacks were used in the construction, with the exception of autodump to move some rocks out of my fortress rooms while I was building to reduce clutter in 3D viewers. A mere five dwarves perished on construction, ironically enough on the removal of the stair pillars used to construct the statue rather than the actual labour of building. Nothing like a baptism of blood to please Armok, I reckon.

Here's a few 3D progress screenshots during the 31-layer build;

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The Feet and build site


Legs and bottom of armrests




Armrests under construction


Hands and beard build



Beard and arms


Shoulderpads


Face and Shoulderpads


Crown-helmet


Crown

I hope to post more as the actual fortress is built underneath!

[oldmansutton]

This is great!

[MrLurkety]

This. This is awesome.

[Aerth]

An awesome work .. Please keep us posted on the progress of your fortress and your efforts to make that region more dworfy.

[IT 000]

Very impressive! Not to many people attempt to build three dimensional constructions. Looks very nice

[Merthyn]

Update time! Thanks for the kind words, there's no better motivation to make Prophetmirrored bigger and better!

Due to work on the lower levels I finally had the Mica I needed to finish up the throne of the statue; I also removed the scaffolding from the head, so there won't be anymore up-down staircases showing behind the helmet slits!



As a fun little aside; whilst finishing up the top of the helmet and crown, there was a meeting between the mayor and liaison on the top of the statue (they were stuck due to a mistaken building block). It was thus that Prophetmirrored was declared a barony on top of the statue!

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Here's a stonesense screenshot of the upper area; I've also started work on a protruding double barracks above the main fortifications.

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A screenshot of the entrance; the central circular area houses the staircase to the 'main' fortress and is three z-levels high. I might knock out some more of the ceiling if I feel like it.

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Time to descend into the main fortress, via our gradual obsidian-gold staircase!

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This leads us into the 7 z-level great hall, made out of obsidian blocks and golden statues. 64 Golden statues, to be exact. The dwarves really enjoyed that hauling job from the forges.

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In due time I'll knock out the ceiling to replace it with floors for a more uniform look. While I'm at it I might try my hand at a ceiling mosaic. I'll also hollow out some parts of the wall for taverns with terraces overlooking the main hall. When I get down to plumbing I think it's going to have four waterfalls too.

Here's a view of the main layer and the designation of the housing areas! After nine years of blood and toil, 80% of my population will finally have rooms.

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Afterwards I decided the housing area also needed an extra Z level or two, so those levels are going to get some attention later too.

BONUS: As for special goings-on in the fortress itself, things have been rather quiet, bar the occasional goblin siege that my military dispose of surprisingly well. Turns out however that our human friends aren't getting along with our long-eared treehugging pests.

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The toil continues!

[Dunamisdeos]

I like the variable room shapes and sizes.

[knedl]

I sooo want to send my envoy to visit your awesome fort and I would bring full wagons of booze as a gift . It's a real piece of art and you should send this pics to Toady. This fort is ballistic and can't wait to see more of it.

[Dunamisdeos]

I sooo want to send my envoy to visit your awesome fort and I would bring full wagons of booze as a gift . It's a real piece of art and you should send this pics to Toady. This fort is ballistic and can't wait to see more of it.

This makes me envision of this statue as taking off w/ a rocket booster for kinetic impact with a neighboring goblin dark tower. Maybe to the tune of Flight of the Valkyries.

[Merthyn]

I sooo want to send my envoy to visit your awesome fort and I would bring full wagons of booze as a gift . It's a real piece of art and you should send this pics to Toady. This fort is ballistic and can't wait to see more of it.

Hehe, thanks! Seeing as building takes priority over setting up proper agriculture and massive booze industry, I -do- rely on buying out booze caravans to keep my fortress afloat, actually. A while back I dipped under 1000 drink, a true cause for panic!

This makes me envision of this statue as taking off w/ a rocket booster for kinetic impact with a neighboring goblin dark tower. Maybe to the tune of Flight of the Valkyries.

It's not a bird, it's not a plane, it's your impending doom in the form of a large copper monument, woe unto the greenskin menace! I doubt I have the technical skill to even blast off minor objects, though one can dream...

[knedl]

I sooo want to send my envoy to visit your awesome fort and I would bring full wagons of booze as a gift . It's a real piece of art and you should send this pics to Toady. This fort is ballistic and can't wait to see more of it.

This makes me envision of this statue as taking off w/ a rocket booster for kinetic impact with a neighboring goblin dark tower. Maybe to the tune of Flight of the Valkyries.

Well we have only seen what is build on the 30+ levels above ground so you never know what is hiding in the 99- levels below. Anyway the duke of my fort Goldencounsel has already ordered the construction of artifact doors which will be send to Prophetmirrored together with the booze wagons. We are currently waiting for a stressed out dwarf so the work on the doors should begin fairly soon. Based on the tradition of our fort all the furniture we produce at Goldencounsel is made specifically for the taverns and is known worldwide as THE furniture of legendary inns.

[Merthyn]

Second update! It's time for some living quarters!

On a whim I decided that just have 1 level's worth of living quarters would not befit Prophetmirrored. I re-imagined my plans to include double layer hallways to accomodate future expansion upwards, this meant getting rid of all the big hallways digging designations. Afterwards my beardsly workmen could get to it.

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The clutter! The colours! It buuuuurns! My masons were going to be very very busy dwarves. Now, seeing as there were rumours of a booze shipment from a place called Goldencounsel and a necessity to give the diplomats somewhere else to hang out, work was also begun on the taverns overlooking the central part of the great hall. Halfway through I decided the rooftops of the living quarters would double as terraces and housing area for guests!

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A year or so later, the lower quarters were finally tidied up. Time for some work on the great hall! Can't have a great hall without a floor mosaic! Here I have a conflict of opinions however;
The symbol of my government, the Room of Granite, is "Dwarves". So I came up with the following:

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Now, as I started work on this, I personally thought it took up too much floor space in the great hall. I designed an alternative solution! On the floor of prophetmirrored's great hall I'd make... a mirror!
The dwarf mosaic would be relegated to the CEILING of the great hall, I could perhaps even create the illusion that the mirror reflected the central part of said ceiling mosaic, by putting this on the floor;

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Cast your votes! What I have on the floor now is merely a draft of the Dwarves.
http://www.strawpoll.me/13044507

The progress on the living quarters and upstairs terraces:

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The prophecy rises!

[oldmansutton]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who takes the time to make floor mosaics and interesting living quarters, though I think you've gone a little more intricate than I usually do.  Time to up my game! 

[knedl]

I voted for the mirror in the hall since it resembles the name of the fort. Maybe an idea for the tavern where you make the dwarfs mosaic as a dancing area and a big bigger circle around with the tables and thrones. Both mosaics look awesome btw!

[solarfall]

I LOVE this !! Awesome ! 

How do you  manage the colors of your mosaic ?
I remember I searched the net once, but didn't find anything accurate enough, even on the DFwiki.