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[nezclaw]

also uh. is anyone other than me and weird actually still invested in this?

[scourge728]

I am here

[wierd]

Take a turn! Its open!

[nezclaw]

Please! I only stopped because my laptop couldn't keep up and my desktop isn't updated to this version of DF!

[delphonso]

Someone must keep the torch of Dawnthunder burning!

[Quantum Drop]

(Quantum Drop gestures!)

(The thread shudders and begins to move!)

I have picked up the latest save, and-

What in the name of Armok's hairy arse is going on?

Fort is running at 21 FPS, the ground is having a panic attack in places, and what looks like a conga line of zombified Hungry Heads has formed on (I think) Z-level 32 of the caverns.

Will post when more has happened, unless this counts as thread necroing.

[Superdorf]

Bahaha, oh dear. Guess I'd better go whip the OP into shape a bit...

[Quantum Drop]

Obsidian 12th

It is not easy to transcribe the nature of this strange place that I mind myself in. Trying to put to paper some of the things I have seen…

It is like trying to sing gold or speak water; to see scents or believe nobles. Even now, the words on this page shift before my eyes – paragraphs bud eyes, full stops bite, and entire sentences simply… vanish.

I will try my best, nonetheless.

The fortress is currently in good shape, in terms of supplies:

Spoiler: Supplies State (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Though I note that one of the scholars in this mad place has apparently become oblivious to his surroundings. A small multitude show similar signs of stress, perhaps from the incessant madness of this warped fortress. I myself am injured, though I cannot for the life of me remember how.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A quick look over the books confirms the source of the stench in the air: we have over eight thousand rotting body parts in various places, along with at least a thousand corpses or more.

At least one of our Axedwarves has been missing for a week, our militia’s commander is in a cage near the farms, screaming about being repentant, and the less said about the lower levels of the Caverns, the better. The stink is almost overpowering, and I really don’t want to think on what is making all those crunching and rattling noises, coming up from the depths of the fortress.

I have a lot of work to do.

Addendum: Some of the more stressed dwarves have taken to throwing random bits of rotting produce at him to see if it provokes a reaction. Nothing yet, no, but damn me if it isn’t funny to see.

Obsidian 15th

After a review of Dawnthunder’s current layout, I believe I have a general grasp of the fortress’ layout. That said, I will need to review the mechanism-links – I still have no idea how to open the gate leading to the trade depot, nor do I know the precise function of that strange assortment of levers and bridges on level six.

Spoiler: Is this where the Caravans are meant to come through? (click to show/hide)

The hospital still needs to be located – if only to treat my current wounds – and that scholar who keeps screaming about cage traps and reloading needs pacifying. And then there’s the giant undead corpse-mangling thing in the Caverns, which the mechanics have quite firmly assured me is not a threat to us so long as it is ‘properly operated’.

Armok help me.

Obsidian 17th

Work has begun in the walled-off section of the Caverns. I have given the order to craft a hatch cover and dig a small, narrow shaft straight to the magma sea. That should provide a method to dispose of the numerous body parts accumulated by our fortress, along with some of the Goblin prisoners and perhaps some of the extraneous animals.

Additionally, the mechanics report a problem with the ‘Cleaner’ – though much of their terminology is beyond me, they were able to get it across by pointing and a fair bit of miming. The rollers at the corners, responsible for propelling the minecart, appear without power for the moment, though the rest remains powered.

The bait may also be deceased, though I cannot tell properly: the stinking clouds of miasma prevent me from getting closer, and what looks like purple ink stains obscure large parts of the sketched design. At any rate, the walking corpses don’t look to be entering the main section of the device. Further examination is required.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sorry for the short update. The game crashed when I tried to save, and that wiped a couple weeks of progress, so I'm posting what I managed to salvage. Add that to me playing blind and the 18 FPS, and the result is that things are going a mite slow.

[nezclaw]

DAWNTHUNDER LIVES AGAIN

[zava]

bravo on this thread so far!
hopefully the broken veterans will pick up the endless fight for fps once again after this new commando has finished his year.

[Quantum Drop]

11th Granite, 1060(?)
Repairs – or whatever the hell you can call it – to the Cleaner have begun. Intake is currently off, as is power and such. Hammerdwarves have cleaned out the Crundle Corpses still lurking in there, allowing me to take a closer look at the current state of the machine and its damaged manual.

The bait needs replacement, considering that it’s been consistently failing to draw Undead in despite the primary insertion point being unrestricted. I have sent for a stray Donkey to be dragged here and chained in place, so that normal operations may resume.

Addition of gear assemblies and potential addition of power sources to corner rollers necessary for maximal execution of undead. Following careful study of the operator’s manual, I recognise that no further construction need be performed on the device and have ordered as such. With luck, operations will be able to resume within a month or so.

25th(?) Granite, 1060

A Forgotten Beast showed up.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Hammers took care of it without a single wound to them. It truly is a sad day when Dwarves being spooked by undead Crundles and not digging a hole to the Magma Sea are greater problems than a literal abomination from a time before time attacking.

More seriously, though, I believe that I understand the current issues with the Cleaner and fortress; my solutions are below, to be presented to the Mechanics and remaining ex-overseers of the fort in the hopes that they can advise further.

• There does not appear to be a bait animal present at the Cleaner’s chain, nor is one being moved despite my orders to those idiot haulers to do so. Solution: continue waiting for now, re-iterate orders if necessary (perhaps with percussive encouragement, delivered by a Hammerdwarf to the latest idiot who thinks that hauling rocks is more important than this).
• Abundance of corpses throughout fortress results in frequent job cancellations, particularly in relation to hauling of animals, digging, etc. Solution: designate temporary garbage dump/corpse stockpile in one of the atom smashers, until Magma Sea Disposal Chute can be completed.
• Multiple Dwarves display signs of significant stress; though five of these cases are relatively moderate, two appear dangerously close to terminal. Solution: complete temple(s) to satisfy religious needs, disable hauling on affected Dwarves and attempt to keep them away from corpses, fighting, etc.

5th Slate

Short entry. Was attacked.

It was the Forgotten Beast from earlier - Shash Kadandisuth. It got up after all the Hammers did to it. Got through the Caverns and into the fort. Attacked me.

Spoiler: Battle Logs (click to show/hide)

Got off lucky. My arm hurts like hell, but the Beast is dead again – some Wrestler came charging in, beat the bloody thing’s head in before it could do much more than that.

It may have offed one of the Clothiers, but it’s difficult to tell – knowing this place, it’s just as likely that the Beast ate him as it is that his pants decided to come alive and beat him to death.

No migrants, either. Damnation!

Author's Note: Realistically, there's not much of note going on at the moment. Any corpses that reanimate die before anything Fun happens, the FB died without any injury to the Hammers (beyond the Queen's broken nose, and I think that was extant before the fight), and the biggest issue is the dorfs not digging that chute for corpse disposal. Going to try and use an atom smasher or two (coupled with dump orders) to try and clean out some of the corpse parts in the Cleaner.

FPS keeps jumping around - worst so far has been 18 FPS, on the Cleaner floor.

[nezclaw]

FPS keeps jumping around - worst so far has been 18 FPS, on the Cleaner floor.

that's still better than my FPS which was about three
i'll still play if it's in the single digits but i think six is where i give up. (i have one that's currently at around 9 fps and i'm judiciously cheating (autodump, mostly) to get that up. hopefully the slaughter of a bunch of animals will help not that we need the food)

[wierd]

Really, the cleaners DOES need to be... Cleaned up.

There's over a thousand corpses, in various states of mangle, just literally ROTTING in there.  I can confirm that the fortress had dipped to like, 6fps, running on an i7, prior to installation and activation of the cleaners.  Activation of the cleaners, with the intake path opened, causes FPS to drop precipitously as all the undeads suddenly start pathing.  The computation cost is.. Massive.

Post-activation, the fortress attracted ABSURD numbers of invaders. (800 invaders, IN ONE GO, to be exact.) The surface is in danger of being reanimation hell, since there is no equivalent of the cleaners at the surface.

There should be enough water wheels to drive a very extensive minecart network. Given the Cancellation-spam heavy reactions of the fortress' denizens, it seems prudent to install such a network to minimize hauling distances, and to facilitate the movement of goods/refuse.

The rollers in the corners of the cleaners do not need to be powered. There is more than sufficient energy delivered to get the thing going with gusto in just a few game ticks of throwing the ON lever.  It is quite lethal, to be sure. Even huge undeads, like cave dragons, get mangled eventually.  I am really quite surprised how well it works; it was my first real attempt at such a death machine.

I need to start thinking of more diabolical contraptions for Lithotek Industries to come up with...


I too, think I will start playing again, if others are going to inject much needed insanity. 

[Superdorf]

Looking at the old save... there's still a fair bit of space carved out for a pumpstack, if somebody wants to throw some magma around.
(Fun fact Wierd: your Lithotek dorf is one of the few named dorfs still alive!)

I don't suppose the "cleaning of the Cleaners" could be automated somehow? A flow of water through the cart-path, say, into some kind of drain/atom-smasher?

[Quantum Drop]

I think it'd be possible to pump water up from the river and flush the body parts, blood, etc. away into an atom smasher a level or two below, but I've never done anything with water and don't want to risk screwing up and accidentally flooding the Cleaner in the process. Not sure if I should try it or leave it to a more experienced Overseer.

Once I figure out how to actually open the gates to the outside, I'm going to try and clean up the various bits lying around on the surface - probably by using one of the existing DAS and a corpse/refuse stockpile. Not sure how long it'll take, but it should lessen the risk of surface-level reanimations.

As for the minecarts, the fort currently has quite the surfeit (5900-6000 Urists) of power, so a minecart network would certainly be feasible (if not required, considering the frequency of 'cancels x: interrupted by [reanimated whatever]' messages). I'll have a look into that.