Do we have dedicated Emotional Support Ducks yet?
This turn ran slightly over 1 year (since Spriggans donated a few extra months), and I did not build the Asylum for Wayward Dwarves, nor did I build a roller coaster, nor did I build a mandatory swimming pool full of 5/7 water for dwarves to splash around with their beloved ducks, nor did I build any defenses, or work on the militia, or make a duck launcher/flight trainer, or pour magma anywhere, or send out a party of War Ducks to raid the goblins, or do ANYTHING with all these lovely adamantine bars that have built up.
So many adventures our duck-loving dwarves could be having, and there's still a few months left in year 9! Overseers are welcome!
The save is Year 9: 09-19, also leaving a little extra time for the next overseer if they'd like. Summer and Fall were mostly about cleaning up messes and leaving plenty of resources for the next overseer (as previous overseers did). There's also one or two ducky surprise details to discover that aren't in the posts. (Again following the excellent example of prior overseers.)
This fort has some pretty severe water/magma flooding risks and limited defenses, so it's probably worth mentioning a few important levers.
Z Level 94: Surface Defense LeversThree levers here, added by a prior overseer, claim to control the front gate bridge, militia sally bridge, and trade depot bridge on Z98.
Z Levels 33, 53, 88: Cavern Bridge LeversThese levers control each control a nearby bridge in a lazy and half-baked defense of the cavern entrances.
Flying Magma and Flooding Every Z-LevelThe fortress had a river feeding a well on Z98. That was one way to flood the entire fort if handled badly (or a future swimming building destroyer visits), but I think forts need LOTS of ways to flood/burn or .... um .... floodburn.
Let's look at an innocent-looking side-tunnel on Z88:
A shunt was added to the tunnel feeding the well, that flooded a stairway running all the way down to the magma sea. The gray lever controls a bridge on Z98 that was opens/closes that shunt, which supplies a few new additions like the waterfall cistern.
If obsidianizing the magma sea is your jam, enjoy!
If flooding ... everything below Z88 is your jam, definitely unforbid and open that door to the right.
Magma! The yellow lever is basically the off switch for the magma cart spiral. The actual magma machinery is water powered, and lives on Z-8 to Z-11. This lever will open a door on Z94 and after hurling their magma into the cistern, carts will pile up on the track to the left instead of falling down to be refilled. Letting dwarves in there while they're piling up is an OSHA violation. Letting ducks in is a crime. Carts can be put back into the magma cart spiral by assigning them to the "Loading Spot" stop on the "Magma Cart Spiral" hauling route. If you don't forbid the cart immediately after it is launched into the cart spiral and the dwarves chase after it, the results are Hilarious.
There's probably also the usual risk of flying magma going awry and flowing everywhere, but surprisingly I never saw that happen. That was weird.
More water:
The lever that pulls water from the main column to the waterfall cistern and upper fortress water reactors is on Z91:
This lever exists because I had to drain and re-fill that stupid cistern three times to fix mistakes. Now it's there for you to make your own mistakes. Enjoy.
Your Own Personal Pet Duckthulu!The silk farm and improvised trap is on Z85.
I still can't believe that worked. You're not supposed to be finishing your trap as the forgotten beast is charging in.
Anyway, there's four levers.
- The cobaltite blue lever opens/closes a hatch that drops the red minecart into a repeater loop. This flaps the bridge to allow silk to accumulate on a "Manual Web Drop" bridge just below it, so you can control when it finally falls to the collection area 1 z level down
- The quartzite white lever controls bridges north and south of duckzilla, which is how it was trapped, and can be released. Fun!
- The microcline light blue lever raises/lowers a bridge that opens line of sight between the spider and duckstrosity. Toggle it at the wrong time and the bridge will probably disintegrate.
- The cinnabar red lever opens the red door, allowing the spider to be recaptured.
Where our ducks got crazy lucky (after some really obnoxious fortification carving) is getting the cage trap north of death duck. It's webbed now! There's at least some chance that lowering the bridges would let it be captured! Try it for yourself!
Automate All The ThingsWhen I started the turn, my only idea, other than trying to be Ducktastic, was to move all the Things from the dirt layers down into the mostly already dug out stone layer workshop spaces. That'd leave all that nice dirt growing area for gardens or death-mazes or whatever. I broke down and set up some basic quantum stockpiles, too.
Now, someone who's really mastered workshop profile orders and conditions should be able to set up orders so all materials are processed, reserves are kept of each material type, and there's never any job cancellation spam.
You get my attempt, instead.
I think this will keep most of the fortress basics flowing, (except that I suspended thread processing because too much was building up) but it's still pretty heavy on cancellation spam.
Save File!Here's the save game on dfdd!
Thanks PsychoAngel and all the other duckverseers! Let's hope the ducks go on to have more adventures!
Quack!Saint DuckyLord says: "
Don't forget that the 28th of Slate (2nd Month) is now the Day of the Duck, in honor of Oxox Uspsastremzu Kagussat, 'Sword Smokerouts the Crazy Sabres' arriving in Wavebirds.
....
Jeez, that's a goofy name. Somebody rename that thing to Duckthulu or something."
Quack*( *amen )