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Voting closed: May 25, 2020, 03:39:38 am

[StrikaAmaru]

I'm splitting Malachite because I finally tackled defense, and holy fuck. I played 23 in-game days in 6 hours, took 38 screenshots, and wrote 15 pages in Google Docs (most pics included).

As always, album.

Summer Part 2 - Some of Malachite; also, Preparations, Part 5: Defense (Syke, you thought Part 4 was last?)

10th of Malachite. A gem setter withdraws from society! On one hand it’s not another possession, on the other a large gem is pretty useless, no matter how perfect.


14th. I finally remember I made a slab for the ghost that has risen 15 days ago. When going through the placement orders, I find 4 more slabs, so I build those as well. Then I declare the room a memorial room, because why not?


15th. The jeweller has not made a perfect gem; he somehow made an armor stand:


(ooc: that is an entire armor stand, from a single green zircon rough gem. I’m going to guess it involves significant amounts of magic, and looks like something made by Protoss).

16th.


While the latest additions to the fort make their way around, I rummage through the stocks, while pondering the long-neglected defense situation.

In short, our surface entrance will probably be fine, until a flying attacker arrives. Or any titan arrives. Or we forget to lock the door.

The caverns have been sealed already. I will miss the enormous amount of webs scattered about, but we have an imprisoned giant cave spider that can be used for silk production. This part I have dismissed as a priority for quiet times, perhaps during a goblin siege, but looking at the thread and cloth stocks, perhaps I should move it up in priority:



That absurdly large number of cave spider silk threads includes the uncollected webbing too; threads that will be available for use are going to be much fewer. And it’s clear we have all neglected pig tail production. Actually, what’s the state of the farm this summer?

… Plump helmets. They have orders to plant plump helmets in the summer. In the only season when you can grow the only plant thread available for dwarves, they have orders to plant a crop which can grow year-round, including in winter. Honestly, there’s only one way in which this could be worse, and that’s if they planted dimple cups.

Alright. Before I blow the proverbial gasket, how are we for pig tail seeds?


We have exactly 5. I’m going to guess they were here since the fort was founded, and were never planted. I change orders to plant pig tail seeds in the upper plot, the one currently seeded with plump helmet spawns, and order the second one planted with cave wheat seeds - the other summer crop. Then I change my mind, and flip it around. Maybe we can get two plantings done, between summer and early autumn.


Isn’t it fantastic how you can start with cavern security, and end in farm plot management? But that’s how it is, every aspect of a fort’s existence is interwoven with every other aspect, and you never do just one thing.

But back to security. The cavern is further complicated by the slight goblin infestation (and beak dog infestation, but I regard that as part of the goblin one). I’m still unsure how that happened, beyond a vague idea that my predecessor has attempted to drown caged invaders. Irrespective, there are now freed invaders loitering in trees, a dead tribe of amphibian people, and a flooded sub-level of irrecoverable cages and corpses. I see no evidence of any floodgates having been built before the flooding, so draining this mess is not going to be easy.



In theory, it would be possible to drop a stone plug from the upper levels and plug the flow of water; then a pump could drain the rooms and make them usable again. Something worth doing just for the corpses of dwarves that I can glimpse floating around… I presume that was the cause of the ghost?

… You know what, I’ll sketch it out since I’m here. Above the temporary bone-crafting level, these two chunks of stone need to be separated from the surroundings:


A separation needs to be made above, as well: channeling the empty space, digging above the plug.


Then you’d return to the level, channel all floor tiles except the one next to the access tunnel, and channel the access flooring last. Carefully. The plug will fall 2 levels, scare the goblins in the tree at least half to death, and cover the ramp that was channeled to let the water in:

 
The other one has a bit of a complication, because the plug needs to fall through the secure room, and we’ll also need to deconstruct a few tiles of wall. Both of these tiles can be used for plugging:


Then it’s just a matter of re-sealing, building two pumps, one for each room, and letting the pump operators get busy.
And that’s about half with the cave. The other half would be an easily-sealable, indestructible, entry to the cavern, for which I’d go with either a classic bridge, or upstairs sealed with hatches. Compared to everything else, that’s just trivial.

[Errata, 6th Galena]: It belatedly occurs to me the goblins in that tree will make channeling practically impossible for the northern plug. I'll try using a block from the upper level, kept up by a support, and moving the entire operation a few tiles west so I don't need to punch through the wall. For the southern one, the plan remains unchanged.

[DwarvenLord]

I'm also genuinely puzzled by her not smoothing out her room; I'm pretty sure that would only happen if she's not technically part of this fort anymore, in a process similar to what happens in a loyalty cascade. And it might have been exactly that - caused by her one and only kill, a human named Kofi Feedgarlic/Lapaimec, in 177. Looking in the dead units list, s/he's listed as a "werechameleon child".

... That's it, isn't it? She has changed allegiances; that neatly explains why fort dwarves kept being "interrupted by a miner", why her thoughts and emotions are all fucky, and why she's not obeying orders.

Why would that happen? I mean, while it was a child, it was still an outsider and an invader- and she followed orders to get into her room right after it, and she's still on our unit list.
This dwarf is an enigma. That saying,
Samulek, how did you get DwarvenLord into the office in the first place?

Yeah, the goblin drowning was a disaster- I didn't know things don't drown while in cages, and I also didn't know that goblins were really good swimmers. So blame me for that.

Oh, I just remembered something I forgot to put in that last post- there were a couple humans looking for one of our artifacts- we declined, of course, and later found one sneaking around. Wonder if that'll come back to bite us.

[StrikaAmaru]

[..] while it was a child, it was still an outsider and an invader- and she followed orders to get into her room right after it, and she's still on our unit list.
This dwarf is an enigma. That saying,
Samulek, how did you get DwarvenLord into the office in the first place?

The finer points are covered in the wiki page on Loyalty Cascades; it's nicknamed "the civil war bug", and it could happen if the were-child was a member of our civilization (or even fort). It even lists the "was interrupted by {profession}" as a symptom.

It has a bug attached, and there's some arguing on it - it was claimed to be resolved in 42.xx, but people reproduced it in 44.12

The summary is that each has 2 loyalties: to the fort, and to the civilization. And:
- If a citizen (who's loyal to both) attacks a member of the civilization who's not a member of the fort, they become enemies of the civ while still loyal to the fort - separatists. These guys follow orders, and the civ in their description changes to... something else generated at random.
- Then if a citizen attacks a separatist, they become enemies of the fort but not the civ - loyalists. These guys don't follow orders.
- lastly, if any of them kill a 'normal' citizen, they become enemy to both - renegades. These can be killed with no problems.

Relevant quotes from the wiki:

Attacking a berserk citizen or werebeast in wereform
Dwarven military can no longer be relied upon to put an end to the rampages of citizens gone berserk or transformed into a beast. Fighting such a threat is treated as assaulting a citizen and will cause the defenders of your fort to lose loyalty and be hunted down as traitors. Bug:7107 Seems partially fixed in 0.42Verify.

Dwarves from these different "factions" will cancel jobs if they ever come across one another, each running away. This will likely lead to a massive number of job interruption announcements reading Urist McDwarf cancels Eat: Interrupted by Farmer

NOTE: Tame animals are loyal to civilizations and fortresses indefinitely due to a bug, so they can be used to kill off separatists/loyalists without repercussions.

As dark as it sounds, I say we also wait until the autumn caravan - there are 5 very unhappy dwarves in the fort, and 2 of them keep tantrumming regularly. It's possible they'll go punch a merchant or guard, and be declared separatists themselves; then I'll at least have confirmation that the bug still repros. This almost happened with the humans, and I think it was prevented when I kicked Zulban out of the military.

--oOo--
As to how Salmeuk got her in the room, I think that hospital designation was how - she either walked in, or was hauled in while unconscious.

Oh, I just remembered something I forgot to put in that last post - there were a couple humans looking for one of our artifacts- we declined, of course, and later found one sneaking around. Wonder if that'll come back to bite us.

... I need to remember this is the villain update. They haven't returned, as far as I know. Now I'll go audit the artifacts I have around.

[edit #2] QuantumDrop, I'm afraid you skipped over Spring Part 2 - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127953#msg8127953 . It should be #7, and Summer Part 1 is #8.

And while we're at it, Summer Part 2 is above - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128328#msg8128328 and Summer Part 3 will be posted in maybe 8-10 hours. After I sleep a bit.

[Quantum Drop]

I've fixed the post order in the OP - thanks for pointing out that brain-fart.

As for the two tantruming dwarves, I would agree with using them to test if the Cascades still happen. Failing that and assuming continued disruptive behaviour, may I suggest the Amontillado Procedure? 

[StrikaAmaru]

Or I could post Summer Part 3 now, and sleep in peace.

Summer Part 3 - Malachite Contd, Trade Depot Musings, and Tower Reconstruction

The security of the surface is more complicated; there are 3 points I see about it: the tower, our entry, and the trade depot.

At this moment, it’s not possible to seal the trade depot from the rest of the fortress, and sealing the trade depot from the outside implies also sealing the fort - which, all right, is acceptable, because if you need to seal the depot then the surface is probably not safe for dwarves either.

If sealing the depot from the fort doesn’t seem a priority, consider that it’s entirely possible for a cursed being to arrive as part of the depot guards, or even the merchants.  Bad enough the trade good haulers would be a write-off, we should not give this unfortunate soul unimpeded access to the rest of the fort.

And that’s not even counting some of the rumors wafting out from RoomCarnage like a bad miasma - rumours of entire caravans cresting the edge already corrupted into foul fog zombies, instinctively opposed to all living things… but then again, RoomCarnage was in a sinister biome, and we are not.

(ooc: the two of you who haven’t read RoomCarnage yet, do so. It’s ridiculously awesome).

So it’s obvious that the trade depot should be moved in a sort of airlocked area; preferably, not too far away from the fort itself, because otherwise hauling goods would be a pain, but one which can be locked away in a moment; either with doors, or again with floor hatches over stairs, which are a bit more secure due to the elevation.

On the outer seal of the airlock, walls, floors and bridges are the only way to go. There isn’t really an alternative.
Now I just need to figure out where any of this would be placed… I may not begin it now, because I have other priorities, and I couldn’t possibly finish it before autumn, but there’s no point in postponing all the planning for winter.

The fort, in approximate layout, is closer to the east edge than the north, south, or west one. I’m exactly scrupulous enough to prefer a centralized location, and I’m pleased to find some interesting overlaps:

The vertical center on the surface is in this neat little valley; the wall has been built as close to the edge of our territory as we are allowed:


And on the crafting level, the center aligns very well with the stone crafts workshops:


I now intend for no loftier goal than a completely subterranean, easily lock-able, trade depot area. And I’ll make the depot out of gold or platinum, because why not?

(The only thing more precious would be adamantine, and I would absolutely not use it for that; it’s downright sacrilegious!)

On the edge of the map, digging and channeling designations have been made; the trees are set to be cut, with the utmost priority… Do we even have woodcutters? Oh yes, four of them. The southern edge is already sealed, but the northern edge will require a bridge. It’s still a great fascination to me how laws dictate we can't build walls too close to the edge of our claimed lands, but bridges and floors are perfectly fine...


In continuation of that channel, a gentle slope will descend for 11 levels, to the crafting area:



All external designations, including that little bit in the slope’s terminus, have been marked for immediate execution; channeling cannot be done from below, so I want it finished, and sealed from the fort, as soon as we can. Given our idlers, that would be now. The rest of the channel, however, was marked for minimal priority; the miners will return to it when there’s literally nothing else for them to do.

Next, I turn to matters much closer to the fort: the tower and the bridge.

… that could be a book title.

The bridge is fine, if I’m honest. It would be a problem if it would be unsealed vertically, but it’s not; it’s (almost) completely floored over, as part of the tower’s first level:


The only exception is a single tile exposed by the wall which seals the stairs down, and that can be easily fixed. I’ll even use logs like the rest of that flooring!


(ooc: I was working on bad assumptions here: I could have sworn the down-ramp was open to the outside; now that I know it’s sealed properly, I’m not going to screw with it).

The tower is unfinished, and, if you’ll forgive me a frank opinion, was badly built. Even if it were properly roofed, it would still have issues:

On the second floor, the southern row of fortifications is built facing the ground level outside. This allows skilled enemies to fire arrows through, as if the fortification would not even be present. The northern one is fine, and the archery targets backed by fortifications and empty space are quite a brilliant idea as well.


This is something I intend to keep, and assign to The Ochre Youths for training. Very soon even, now that I remember only two of their ranks have any sort of experience. I wonder if we have enough bones to carve into bolts, so they can be used for training? I now vaguely regret ordering metal bolts to be forged… but that’s nothing I can’t solve with two stockpiles and a forbidden designation.

Another detail that I noticed: the tower is constructed from either logs, or from unpolished mudstone rock. This is what makes it so easy to climb, as opposed to the added difficulty provided by smooth stone blocks. Unfortunately, it’s also a pain to fix; deconstructing large areas is always dangerous, and while construction is underway, the only thing keeping the fort closed would be a single door.

I believe I won’t bother; I’ll just seal the roof, and rebuild the unfortunate row of south-facing fortifications.
On the third floor, there’s only a row of wooden fortifications, which I intend to leave as they are, and nothing above is really built:





(ooc: sorry for the black color in empty spaces; I dun goofed something in d_init; I was trying to change the character for empty space, not the color. And then I kinda liked it, it makes it look like night)

In preparation for the changes to the tower, I order a stockpile at its base, accepting only granite blocks. Both masons have gone up a level of skill while crafting these, so I expect they are numerous; on the flip-side, they were habitually used for walls and floor, so I am not sure how many are currently available; stocks only record the total number, not the details of each.



(I also built a tiny farm plot off to the side; we have quite a few outdoor plants that can be brewed, and 54 hemp seeds. These stand a much better chance of kick-starting our cloth industry than the 5 pig tails that will soon go out of season...)

While I’m visiting the stocks again, I look at the rocks that have been dug so far. My initial purpose was to see what other stones can be cut into crafts - mica looks like a good candidate, it was dug out with the marble - but I also saw the rather numerous lumps of clay. I presume they were bought from traders, just in case a potter wants one. This does bring up a good point, how does a pottery mood look like? I’ve never heard of one, and I certainly never saw one myself.


There are some more minor changes I’m doing, before letting work progress: I am setting three ammo stockpiles. The first is for only metal bolts, and is nestled between the barracks and the stairs; the second will be only for bone bolts, and is located in the tower; and the third is a catch-all for non-bolt ammo; it’s sitting near the entry, in anticipation of it being filled primarily with goblin arrows.




The first two do not accept bolts of masterwork quality, because bolts often get destroyed after firing, and destroying masterwork bolts is going to displease their creator. Now recall the bone bolts, in particular, are being crafted by the least happy dwarves in the fortress… and you’ll understand why I want to sell any such items.

23rd.

The water level in our cavern well has dropped below half; once again, we are completely out of alcohol. You can guess what I did: restarted production at the still, and re-filled the well. I suppose my next project is going to be the farming area?


25th. Zulban GearMazes is throwing another tantrum. This time a guinea hen chick is getting mauled. At this rate, the dwarfette will spend next year in prison on charges of disorderly conduct and vandalism; that’s going to improve her mood, won’t it? At least she no longer has a weapon; and I must remember to draft two replacements for her, and the poor recruit who died in spring.


And on that note, Malachite ends. I expect Galena will be uneventful, I’ll mostly execute what I have lined out here, starting with the tower which I want to finish before autumn, just in case our caravan is replaced with a goblin siege. And maybe plot out the farming and cloth crafting areas; we keep running out of booze, and clothing does begin to be tattered...

[StrikaAmaru]

I've fixed the post order in the OP - thanks for pointing out that brain-fart.

Hi. No problem, I'm prone to brainfarts too (see newest chapter, where I was convinced the ramp is open to the air; then I finally realized the tower covers it).

As for the two tantruming dwarves, I would agree with using them to test if the Cascades still happen. Failing that and assuming continued disruptive behaviour, may I suggest the Amontillado Procedure?

Don't tempt me, they keep tantrumming, then calming down, then tantrumming again. Doing crafts for 2 months did help a bit, but it's still a drop in the ocean. I need to smash the corpses, so they stop getting bad thoughts from "Seeing a copse" which they haven't really gotten anywhere near.

But, if the situation becomes untenable, I'm sure a bout of cave exploration would not be amiss; maybe they can be sent to poke those goblins and beak dogs in the tree?

Oh. Somewhat related, this here image:


All those crimes? Zero witnesses. And I call bullshit, the vandalism charge at least refers to a crafts workshop that Zulban toppled in hematite, and she had at least 3 witnesses; but nobody 'fesses up.

[StrikaAmaru]

Well there we go. My two days of peace, quiet and uninterrupted gameplay have ended; the pace of my updates is going to drastically slow down from now. Which is fine, because I don’t have any more planning to do, and that’s what ate most of my time. Or at least I think so, it’s hard to tell them apart from writing and editing, since one implied the other so they overlapped quite a bit.

I'm trying to figure out how much time I spent so far: I had about 2 hours Saturday evening, the full Sunday (~10h) and Monday from 8 to 16:00, and then ~1h right now, this message included.

Twenty one hours, nearly a day, well-wasted.

[Morning Edit]: Quantum Drop: sorry to nag you again, but the table of contents is still skipping over a post - Summer Part1 is now missing:

8 - Summer #1 (Hematite)
   http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128230#msg8128230
9 - summer #2 (Malachite a) is listed as 8 at this moment
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128328#msg8128328
10 - summer #3 (Malachite b)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128512#msg8128512

[StrikaAmaru]

I had a choice: either I post the shortest update I ever made, or I completely give up any attempt at separating posts by seasons or months. I chose the former. So here’s Part 11: The One Tower. Backed by a new album.

Incidentally, I solved my sky problems in d_init. The four parameters of the SKY instruction are still a mystery to me in terms of values, but I did get the brilliant idea of looking in a previous version to see how they're defined. The new values are [SKY:32:8:9:0] and [CHASM:0:0:0:1]. It looks pretty spiffy, if I dare say so; very sky-like. And it lets me see just how many holes there are around the tower:


Summer Part 4 - Galena
As the last month of summer rolls around, I find myself pondering our tower.

The current design has an internal space of 22x9. Mostly. There is an exception in the south-east, where for some reason the corner was not built.


Contrary to my initial idea, I will order all the walls torn down, and will rebuild them out of granite blocks. For the floor, I’ll try to keep to the current brown aesthetic, although most of that brown will be mudstone blocks, not wood.

I have decided to expand it to 25x9; the initial idea has come on account of that natural clay wall, jutting out to the north barely 3 tiles away from the existing wall.

Upon closer consideration, I realized this will permit me to fit 3 7x7 training areas per floor, plus allow some extra space for dividing walls, and a 1-tile corridor; perfect for stationing marksdwarves next to fortifications. Thus, the decision to rebuild was taken.

The stairway for the tower will be rebuilt as well, in the south-western corner; the old one would end up in an awkward position, so I will deconstruct it after all other construction is complete. The new stairway will be built from marble; surely the steel industry will not begrudge me this little splurge. And if they do, I'll have words with them; it's barely two rocks, get ahold of yourselves.


Given the extended scope of this project, I have decided to enable construction and deconstruction on every citizen of the fort, except for our two masons; they will continue to cut blocks, of both granite and mudstone. I have a suspicion that current stocks of blocks are going to prove insufficient.

27th. Presumably, all that masonry and crafting has added up:


... And then we just as quickly get embarrassed:


28th Galena.
Summer is very nearly over, and we are almost entirely out of blocks. At this point, there are exactly 2 granite blocks left, and the last 3 blocks of mudstone will soon be used to plug that strange 3-wide hole in the tower’s floor. There used to be a wooden palisade in there, for reasons which baffle me.

All said, constructing and reconstructing the walls of the new tower has proceeded within the expected timeframe. The outer shell will be complete within mere days, as block production is bound to produce the remaining 20 (ish) blocks that are needed. Oh yes! I ordered two temporary farm plots in the first floor of the tower, on top of the natural soil; as soon as a new season begins, they'll be planted with hemp, and whatever brewable plants we have seeds for.






The roof, on the other hand, cannot be finished before the caravan arrives. That’s acceptable; we can take a break and trade, while masons continue cutting blocks.

Until then, I'll line up a short job, which I wanted to do since the trade depot plans have materialized: in the crafting area, there's a 1-wide walkway; I intend to expand it to 2, and have it lead towards the trade depot. This means the eastern side of the stone-crafting area is getting rebuilt once again, to move it the left; also, our poor mayor's quarters are getting shifted once again:


It might be beneficial to just give everyone some time off, in the next two weeks until the caravan. After that, work will again continue with barely any breathing room... First when hauling goods to the depot; I intend to pick all tattered clothing that we have thrown about and I know from experience that is a great deal of running around. Then second we're restarting tower construction, a month is quite a while for blocks to stockp

---oOo----
A dwarf bursts through the door; he's breathless, and has been clearly running like his life depended on it. "Siege!" he gasps. Then he breathes deeply, and says again:

"Goblin siege! And there's a lot of them!"

[LeftHandofGod]

Fuck, fuck, fuck, and more fuck. Wow. Worst timing ever.

All this tells me is that I can probably look forward to one or more sieges during my time as overseer. Damn gobbos. Once we have a good military, we should consider sending in a few squads to butcher them all.

[StrikaAmaru]

Album

Smith Soldier 180, Part 12: Autumn #1

A vile force of darkness, and it’s only just barely autumn. Impatient, aren’t you?

Well. I privately thank my ingrained paranoia for not allowing me to leave an open way into the fort, even on for a short while.

Then I go check all possible ways into the fort; the ramp to the future trade depot has been sealed; good.


The logs chute is as sealed as it was all summer. The large atom smasher is also sealed, and has never been changed in my rule. The holes in the roof were all patched; they weren’t a problem before, but now the inner wall has been dismantled, so they constitute a way in for any invader brave enough for a 1-level drop. The bridge is as it always was, but the door to the upper levels of the tower is very clearly jammed open:


When I activated the alarm, all the people hauling bone bolts to the training bolts’ stockpile suddenly found themselves without a way up, to reach their destination. So they dropped the cargo where they were - straight in the door. Worse, a granite block slated for construction has also been dropped in the same spot; this one can’t be moved without cancelling the construction.


What does the upper floor look like?


Good, they built the back-up door already, and the floor is being built. Once those last 2 tiles are done, I can remove this floor from the emergency burrow and lock the door.

Now I'll keep an eye on the invaders, while I consider what I’m going to do in the coming months. There are many projects I have considered and postponed; the trade depot freshest in my mind. But the one that’s more important is sorting out the entangled situation of farming, seeds, animals, corpses and refuse, butchery, processing (meaning: alcohol, prepared meals, fat and thread extraction), and cloth weaving, dyeing and finally making clothes. I have some ideas bouncing around in my head, but usually there's still a lot of work in turning ideas into plans.

3rd. After I convince myself there are no stragglers outside, I close the bridge. A human poet is loitering on the eastern edge; for his sake, he’d better be leaving…



4th. Goblins have reached the foot of the tower. I am watching them intently, to see if any begin to climb. The first floor was removed from the emergency burrow already, but I haven’t locked the door yet.

6th. Will they?


8th. No, they won’t. They keep going around, and not finding any way in. Now go a bit to the right, would you kindly?


9th. The full siege has been made apparent. Any notions I entertained about engaging them with our new and inexperienced military have been very thoroughly evaporated:





(ooc: i haven’t counted all of them, but I’m eyeballing around 140-150, going by page size; 43 per page, 3½ pages total. This doesn’t include/count the guys stuck underwater and in the cavern, those are grouped lower in the list)

On a lark, I check on that human poet to the east. He’s still there, and as far as I can tell, none of the siege has gotten near him. If they do kill him, I’m not exactly sympathetic - he had 3 days to run for the fort, and he didn’t. He’s not even that far; could have easily made it in half a day…

12th. I have convinced myself invaders won’t climb the new tower. That said, I still lock the door, and turn my attention inward. I’ve got three things to do in the near future: check on the crafting area, masons and smiths in particular (oh yea; I need to order a slab engraved); begin planning the food/corpse/cloth general area; and lastly - or rather immediately after the first - get a goddamn drink! I’ve postponed this for nearly two weeks, with the goblin distraction, and I can feel that indescribable twitching caused by a lack of alcohol.

But before I can make my way to the drinks, I must set up some stockpiles and orders for our crafting area. It takes little enough time, no need to postpone it.

Firstly, I order the creation of as many steel armor pieces as we can make. The dwarf on task for this will be Salmeuk, our legendary armorsmith.


Then, several stockpiles will sort out the remaining clutter in the smithy. The least smelter-related ones will be placed south of the smithy, in rooms dug for ores and bars before I moved the smithy. Now, the rightmost two rooms will contain three stockpiles:


The top one holds metal armor of excellent, masterwork, and artifact quality (and metal shields, tho I don't expect any to exist; we have an enormous stock of wooden ones). This will remove worthy pieces from the spot near the smelter, where they have been lying since the deconstruction of the forge which crafted them. That spot is going to be occupied by all the melt-designated items... but not until the good pieces are moved.

The middle one is for quivers and backpacks. These are unconnected to any smithing business, but very connected to the military business.

The bottom one is for lead bars, and nothing else. We have a remarkable number of lead bars, resulting from all the galena smelted in previous years.

Lastly I order some old stones dumped from the gem temple; such an amazing construction, and nobody has bothered to clean it up...

On a more personal note, coming across Salmeuk's name has made me realize that I haven't paid any attention to the worthwhile dwarves of the fort; a regrettable lack of relations building on my behalf. I will deal with it whenever I deal with it. Although I'd prefer to do so while still overseer, to benefit from the added weight of the title...

14th. I have nearly made it to the drinks stockpile, when the better of our two masons intercepts me with a sheet in hand; I’m guessing it’s a formal request of sorts, otherwise why would he come to me? I tamp down on the annoyance of yet another thing standing between me and a good stiff drink, and I greet him. Sure enough, he hands me a request for a guild hall, for the benefit of the newly established masons’ guild, The Blockaded Hall.


Yes you will receive a guild hall. Now let me get a goddamn drink! I don’t tell him anything like that, but I was very tempted.

-----------------

I’ll try to make smaller posts; the big ones are a pain to edit, and I’m guessing they’re not that great to read, either. The next post should cover the rest of autumn, since it will contain mostly digging and hauling.

The indescribable twitching I mentioned is what I get when I’m insufficiently caffeinated; it’s kinda like being very thirsty, but also not really. I have no idea how a chemical addiction to alcohol would manifest, but… write what you know.
-------------------

[StrikaAmaru]

Album

Part 13: Autumn #2 Limestone, contd.

17th Limestone. Now that I can think clearly again, it’s time to plan.

I already have a general pasture for grazers; what I haven’t made yet is a coop, and an area for butchery and tanning; in proximity to this last one, it’s wise to make a refuse stockpile, that serves as both input and output for the butchers (and neighbors a small atom smasher for those corpses that won’t be butchered).

My first idea was to make them near the old rooms, and use the comparatively more distant atom smasher west to the Temple of Armok (you might recall I dug it out during the spring tantrum panic, and then did nothing with it):


Then it occurred to me that I am not obligated to build on a single level, and that only the grazers’ pasture truly needed to be on soil. The coop can easily be built on stone, to say nothing of the refuse stockpile, and our industry.

On the lower levels, the only thing so far is an older execution chamber, built at the end of a 7 & 8 levels drop, depending on where you count the input. It is clearly unfinished, and I intend to use the Temple of Armok for our growing stock of goblins, trolls, and beak dogs. I doubt my own plans will come to intersect with these chambers, or the chute towards them, but if I do, I doubt it’s a great loss.

 
As if in compensation, the Temple of Armok will undergo some minor modifications. Firstly, the dirt walls will be dug out, and replaced with mudstone walls. I have considered different materials, including marble, but the entire level is in shades of brown (except our glorious tavern, of course; and you can make an argument that yellow is close enough to brown that it’s not such a jarring transition).


One of these walls will be then carved into fortifications, allowing our marksdwarves to finish off any survivors of the spikes. I'm considering a west-to-east firing direction, even better if the east wall can be turned into a fortification with a pit behind.

Next, 4 more upright spikes have been constructed; we have 46 spears and spikes, so 4 was the most we could build at this moment. I dare say it’s enough. The southernmost row was clearly meant for building spikes as well, but I decide not to; it’s too close to the edge.

On the level above, the room was slightly reshaped, and the corresponding row of southern-most hatches were marked for deconstruction; the holes will be floored over. An animal stockpile permitting only goblins, trolls and beak dogs has been defined on top of it. Invaders shall be punished by death. Now we need only move the wild animals, and collect the cages from outside.

Moving on. I will create a new stairway, especially for this complex; it’s aligned horizontally with the old one, it begins up in the soil layer, next to our sub-par temples, and ends slightly above the crafting layer. If I had taken it all the way to the crafting layer, it would have come out near the library. In hindsight, I believe I dug it too deep; now it’s already too late, as legendary miners dig about as fast as others walk.

While we are on this subject, the old stairway has been expanded on a 2x2 configuration, from its old 1x2.


Immediately under the grazers’ pasture, I designate four rooms. In clockwise order from the top left, they are for poultry, butchery, refuse, and kitchen making prepared meals. Fat is going to be elsewhere.


Right below, plants and fruit will be processed to alcohol and thread. This is a very uncomplicated room, essentially a square with containers at the top, workshops in the middle, and plants at the bottom. The business end of the atom smasher will also exist on this level, but that won’t be carved until the rooms above are done.


The last big areas would be cloth dyeing and processing, and bone/ totems/nails/ivory. I have not planned them yet, though obviously they’ll all continue beneath current excavations.

22nd Limestone. Multiple farmers have come to complain that they cannot find the remaining hemp seeds; there should be some, according to stocks, but they are unable to find them anywhere, and they assure me they have looked very thoroughly.

I dig through the older records, and I believe I found the issue: the bag of seeds is outside, right on the edge of the map. I can only assume it was dropped on death by some unfortunate merchant or draft animal. This leaves that hemp seed bag technically in our stocks, but still completely unavailable.

In response I changed the farm plot designation to plant billberries; I’ll cycle through all the alcohol crops as the seeds are expended (or, more likely, when I remember).

-------------------

Remember what I said about new overseers never completing old overseers' megaprojects? I am the exception.

About the input settings for the Temple of Armok: I considered letting beak dogs off the hook, on the grounds that animals don’t comprehend the law, therefore can’t break the law. But I remembered dwarven justice allows you to convict animals of crimes, just as real-life medieval justice did, so clearly that’s not a valid argument in this context.

By 'letting beak dogs off the hook' I mean I wanted to not go Vlad the Impaler on them; I was still going to appoint an animal trainer, and train them just enough to be docile for butchering.

... come to think of it, that was error-prone; maybe it's better this way.

As to the seed thing: the fort was producing ridiculous amounts of cancellation spam. I had to get involved, and forbade the offending bag from the map edge.
===============

[edit] I have managed to cock up the numbering to my own posts; for the benefit of all, but mostly QuantumDrop, here's a summary from #7 until now:
7: Spring Part 2
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8127953#msg8127953
8: Summer Part 1 - Hematite; Smithing & Crafting has begun in the brand new area, and we trade with the humans.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128230#msg8128230
9: Summer Part 2 - Malachite, The Fate of the Cavern.
 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128328#msg8128328
10: Summer #3 - Malachite Contd, Trade Depot, and Tower Reconstruction Musings.
 http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128512#msg8128512
11: The One Tower. Summer Part 4, covering all of Galena (aka, the short one)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128943#msg8128943
12: Autumn #1, testing the tower's climbability (is that even a word?) and trying in vain to get a drink.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=175780.msg8128943#msg8128943
13: Besieged! Autumn - revamping the Temple to Armok, and preparing to do a whole new area. Ends about mid-autumn.
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index).php?topic=175780.msg8130025#msg8130025

[Salmeuk]

I’ll try to make smaller posts; the big ones are a pain to edit, and I’m guessing they’re not that great to read, either. The next post should cover the rest of autumn, since it will contain mostly digging and hauling.

Sorry that I've been absent, but how enjoyable it was to come back to this epic and detailed fortress log! And I thought I was bad when it came to spending way too much time documenting everything. Not that it isn't amazing to read (I particularly enjoyed your section criticizing literally every fortress element for it's utility and design), but be wary of tendonitis haha. This post will be my own lengthy reaction.

RE: how I got Dwarvenlord in his room, I honestly can't remember, but I believe I created a temporary hospital because I knew he was gonna wereform all too soon. You seem to understand the underlying mechanics a bit better, and that was a nice writeup on loyalty cascades. TIL all dwarves are a fistfight away from the French Revolution.

Glad you're using the wood chute. Curious, how much wood is left on the surface? I remember thinking, "HOLY CRAP, we'll never use all these logs!", but I would like to be proven wrong.

That  pig iron hammer should be given to one of the military, no matter how shit it is.. it's an artifact after all and deserves a chance at glory. On that note, have there been any new names given to training weps or shields?

You've done a good thing rearranging the military. And also refusing to engage 150 goblins, wise choice lol. Perhaps we should expand further, if our fighters are ever going to see action?

Wow, I can't believe you re-constructed the surface fort. I was pretty unhappy with it's design, but I liked the idea of having a keep on the surface and went with the existing foundations. It must have looked butt-ugly being made from wood and mudstone.

Of important note is the artifact floor hatch that is located just above the entrance staircase to the keep. I linked it to one of the levers and left a note of it's location. Now that the keep is safe from climbing it might be good to retrieve and use elsewhere.

Yeah, holy crap those gobbos. Some kind of meatgrinder device might be necessary, perhaps in the next year. LeftHandOfGod, I'm sure you can build a meatgrinder or bridge trap-labyrinth-device? Might be a worthy project if you're feeling overwhelmed by the rest of the management. Oh right I signed up for next turn! This should be interesting.

I'm not really visualizing your new depot entrance slope thing, but hopefully you complete it and we can see the final product.

Again, thank you for your detailed and image-heavy writeups. I'm kind of speechless at the amount of time you've put into it, and also very happy the narrative of Smithsoldier lives on! Do you happen to live in a quarantine state? because that might explain things lol

I'm going to read Roomcarnage tonight, which I assume is another succession game. How privileged are we to have access to so many amazing stories!

[StrikaAmaru]

Not that it isn't amazing to read (I particularly enjoyed your section criticizing literally every fortress element for it's utility and design), but be wary of tendonitis haha.

..  that was a nice writeup on loyalty cascades. TIL all dwarves are a fistfight away from the French Revolution.

Well if I'm going to upend everybody's previous work, I have to at least explain why, right?

I basically cited the wiki article on loyalty cascades. And be easy; it's a bit more complex than just throwing a punch, or tantrumming dwarves would be a one-off problem, not a recurring one . The loyalty bug crops up when only one loyalty is breached - so when they ?assault?/kill guests and caravaneers; and I think long-term residents too, but I'm not sure.

Glad you're using the wood chute. Curious, how much wood is left on the surface? I remember thinking, "HOLY CRAP, we'll never use all these logs!", but I would like to be proven wrong.

Every scrap of wood in a 21-tile are has been dumped, and so has almost every log in a 31-tile area. I cancelled at the end of spring because I had rocks that needed dumping with higher priority. And the forest is recovering fast, trees have been growing backs like weeds; that's why I decided to continue with a coal-powered smithy, instead of digging down for magma (the way I usually do my smithing)

We're still chewing through the stocks, the only type of wood I ran out is willow, which got carved into bins and a coupla barrels. Because I'm too anally retentive to allow for any but the lightest possible! I'll cut more willows after the siege lifts, and preferrably after the map freezes, so the logs stop falling to the bottom of ponds.

There are still a crapton of logs on the surface; I advise you do a new dump session, because the smithy is ravenous, and because a dragon may pop up to burninate the countryside.

Something else I've done, and didn't mention: I defined a wood stockpile at the bottom of the chute, and linked it as source to all the other stockpiles. Then I set the other stockpiles as taking from links-only. That's so dwarves will stop hauling logs from the surface, thus defeating the entire purpose of the wood chute.

That  pig iron hammer should be given to one of the military, no matter how shit it is.. it's an artifact after all and deserves a chance at glory. On that note, have there been any new names given to training weps or shields?

You've done a good thing rearranging the military. And also refusing to engage 150 goblins, wise choice lol. Perhaps we should expand further, if our fighters are ever going to see action?

Beyond the initial rearrangement, the military has been practically shut down. They spent this year hauling and constructing. I intend to get them to work in the winter, after the tower is roofed. Especially The Ochre N00bs, who have practically no skills- their fate is to get bone bolts and get locked in the tower, shooting at archery targets. I'll give them food and booze, and furniture too, but they're not coming out.

I'll also sift through the previously-ignored migrants to see who's good for more squads.

Your namesake has been forging steel armor since around Limestone 10th, and he's got quite the stock of steel bars to chew through - the end result of 2 furnaces, running for almost 3 months, and they keep running.

Incidentally, this ups fort value significantly. I expect every season to start with a gobbo invasion; good thing I'm finishing the Temple of Armok, eh?

Wow, I can't believe you re-constructed the surface fort. I was pretty unhappy with it's design, but I liked the idea of having a keep on the surface and went with the existing foundations.

The reason I re-built the tower was that it was climb-able by invaders. This would leave them very hard to shoot, and if any archers climb on the roof, our sniping tower kinda become their sniping tower...

I really liked the whole assembly of archery target > fortification > pit. I knew there was a way to save the bolts that are fired, but I didn't remember how, so that was a good thing to find out. The tower is a great place for lodging the barracks, because it keeps dorfs from getting cave-adapted. Everybody's getting trained there, not just archers!

Of important note is the artifact floor hatch that is located just above the entrance staircase to the keep. I linked it to one of the levers and left a note of it's location. Now that the keep is safe from climbing it might be good to retrieve and use elsewhere.

I've found the lever, but never noticed the hatch (and I repeatedly moused over it, read the description, and that it's operated by lever...); I used doors. >.> After the tower is roofed, it will become superfluous, but I also don't have a particlularly important place to use it.

Yeah, holy crap those gobbos. Some kind of meatgrinder device might be necessary, perhaps in the next year.

Well, we're waiting for winter The current crop of invaders will get to test the Temple of Armok, and I'm keeping marksdwarves in reserve for those who don't die to spikes.

I really, REALLY, hope the ToA works. In previous versions (0.42 and 0.44) sentient creatures could not be pastured or pitted, which made dealing with goblins and trolls into a fucking nightmare. Eventually, I just gave all of them TRAPAVOID; it was just not worth the hassle of emptying the cages.

On the plus side, some crow people were already successfully pitted (by DwarvenLord, iirc) so this 'feature' might have been removed.

You'll still need to drain the cavern room, I'm not going to get to that by year's end. I'll see about making some pump components, though.

I'm not really visualizing your new depot entrance slope thing, but hopefully you complete it and we can see the final product.

Eh, I guess you'll see it soon enough. There's not much to it, it's a series of connecting channels, staggered right-to-left so they go down, in a wagon-navigable manner. The dug out strip of flatland between the bottom of a channel and the top of the next one isn't required, but I like it.

Again, thank you for your detailed and image-heavy writeups. I'm kind of speechless at the amount of time you've put into it, and also very happy the narrative of Smithsoldier lives on! Do you happen to live in a quarantine state? because that might explain things lol

I'm going to read Roomcarnage tonight, which I assume is another succession game. How privileged are we to have access to so many amazing stories!

I am in a quarantined country, yes; and working from home, so not much of a change really. But Saturday and Monday were a special case, because I had literally nothing else to do. No housework, no supply runs, no cooking, no nothing - Eastern-rites Easter is big like that. And thanks to the pandemic, no Church either

RoomCarnage isn't a succession, actually; it's all one overseer; and it's posted exclusively on imgur. Bay12 only has the discussion thread.

It's a glacier/volcano embark (already amazing) in a sinister biome that was 'gifted' with a foul fog that turns all who touch a smear into thralls opposed to life. The syndrome acts immediately, and cannot be stopped by anything (no armor save, is what I'm saying).

Now consider how contaminants spread and are effectively un-destroyable... I'm pretty sure something like this can't be cleaned either, the dwarf who'd try gets affected immediately. Spoiler: the guy pumped magma over the glacier, in the hopes of either burning the fog smears, or hiding them under a nice layer of obsidian.

[StrikaAmaru]

Part 14 Autumn #3, Sandstone

Excavations for the first 2 levels designated last month have completed; this will leave me to order a mass-dump of all loose stone. And a thought belatedly occurs: that would mean, especially as lower levels progress, that my fellows would need to go up levels just so they can then go down levels. That’ s a bit ridiculous, especially since all I need to fix it is to extend the staircase into the crafting level:


With that done, and while all stones are being hauled, the next level is getting marked.

Right below the plant processing, thread processing will take place. Perhaps it’s a bit oversized, but this room is the exact size of its upstairs neighbor. Two spots in the left will house clothier’s workshops, and on the right the fort’s only leather workshop will stand. I’m of the opinion you hardly need more…


Looms can be built without enclosure, since no mood has ever required one. Dyeing workshops and a dedicated dye processing area can also be added, but I doubt I’ll bother; maybe if I get seriously bored in the winter… frankly, the fort doesn’t even have a quern.

8th Sandstone

A concern has been raised by some of our visitors: they would like to leave. And they refuse to extend their stay, despite my pleas and reminders of the giant siege outside.


It was tempting to ignore their requests and just carry on as normal, until the siege would be lifted. But this is a risky proposition; it’s possible that one would react with anger and violence, either from having their long-term plans invalidated, or just from cabin fever. So I have reached a compromise with the three would-be travellers - we will enable them to leave through the caverns:


No sooner is the constructed wall torn down, that all three exit and head south-ward, led by the prophet, Seba WadeMunches. I wish them the best of luck, and spare them no further thoughts.

In the long term, the trade depot airlock can be used for the same purpose; no need to open up the caverns.

13th. Our perpetually depressed human bard has not been seen for a while; I worry that she has opted for a very final balm to her woes. I check the lodgings, and ask some random idler to go check her room.


The worst has happened: Gib has locked herself in her room, and allowed herself to end. She will be interred in our cemetery.


(ooc A suddenly locked door might have been involved… but I’ll role-play it as suicide. This leaves me with only 4 perpetually sad sacks)

I’ll leave the food situation aside for one moment, to carve a more easily-controlled access point to the caverns. Needless to say, this was prompted by our guests wishing to leave. I still consider doors too easy to break, so hatches are going to be used.

(OOC: I could have sworn I took a screenshot of the initial planning... but I didn't. You'll have to put up with an image from early winter, whic also contains a mild spoiler for the state of our cloth industry):


The last thing to do before the end of the month is to build the new atom smasher. As mentioned, it and its controlling lever will be in the food processing layer, and enclosed by the fort’s last two granite doors:


The next month all this complex will be finalized. Which sounds amazing, but I know what it will involve: hauling, hauling, and more hauling.

[StrikaAmaru]

Part 15 - Autumn 4 (Timber)

1st of Timber. As the third month of summer rolls around and I anticipate the lifting of the goblin siege, perhaps it’s worth taking stock of the fortress, and seeing what can be done before we'll all be far too busy, cleaning up our surface from the debris of their passing.

The crafting area had changes only in the stockpiles. In an approximate left-to-right order:


Firstly, bins were disabled for the coal stockpile; there were cases when somebody from the metal industry needed a coal bar form inside a bin that had just been picked up for hauling. All the bins present are ‘legacy’.

Next to the southernmost smelter, a melting stockpile has been designated. This contains all metal items of less than excellent quality, of various types.



This copy of permissions is for armor items, but similar entries were made for weapons and furniture; I’m holding on finished goods, due to a need for chains elsewhere. I’ll get to it. We have fewer quivers and backpacks than I expected. Quivers at least are equipped already by the 7 marksdwarves of The Ochre Youths, but for backpacks we are doing far worse. And the two honorary captains of effectively dead squads are hogging some excellent armor, because I never instructed them to not carry weapons and armor… perhaps I should do so.

In the north of the stone crafting zone, steps have been taken for creating traction benches. Three temporary stockpiles were made: for poor-quality tables, poor quality mechanisms, and poor quality ropes and chains; this last one is the reason finished goods are not yet allowed in the melting pile.

When the stockpile was created, we had no available ropes or chains in the entirety of SmithSoldier. But we had a smithy, and we can craft chains from a variety of materials. I picked gold; we seem to be drowning in it, the stockpile dedicated to it is certainly overflowing.

Anyway, I digress; the intention of these three stockpiles is to create a lifetime supply of traction benches; 15 or 20 perhaps? Then they’ll be removed, and replaced with a stone ‘pile for mechanisms. Because you can never have too many mechanisms.

Actual goods crafting, of spare mica into sellable goods, has been left by the wayside. A stockpile was defined at some point, before the room was shrunk by one, but then was removed, and never re-established; I dimly recall doing so in the summer, when I initiated tower modifications. People had better things to do than haul rocks, and I had doubts about the sheer size of the stockpile.

For the Temple of Gems, the only change was allowing a limited number of bins in the rough gems location; I’ve taken this decision because the number of excavated gems has vastly outstripped available space. For the cut gems, I have made no alterations besides dumping the loose chunks of granite, and emptying a stray bin filled with both cut and raw gems; doubtlessly a remnant of older stockpiles…

5th Timber. A human has moved up in the world; congratulations! Will nobody in The Contained Fellowship mind that you have spent months if not years drinking in a dwarven fortress?


Then again, that at least means you have good taste.

At around the same time, all loose stone from our three excavated levels have been removed and brought to the crafting level. This means I can start defining stockpiles, and send my kin into a different kind of hauling.

I won’t bore you with too many details, I’ll just add the end results, and some notes on the more peculiar stockpile restrictions:

On level 141, we have the butchering-oriented part of the food production industry:


The food stockpiles (there are three of them in that one sketch, if you’d believe it) are geared towards holding raw materials for cooking. The largest one is filled with meat, fish, and cheese. Of the smaller ones, the left-side one is for items that don’t respond well to being placed in barrels - milled non-dye plants, eggs, leaves, pressed materials, the like. The right-side one is for edible extracts, excluding milk.

Incidentally, the coop is currently locked away, in the hopes of fertile eggs being laid by our one breeding pair of chickens. All fowls except for one rooster are pets to some dwarf or another.

The garbage pile holds all the economically-unimportant bits for refuse; it also contains corpses, in the rationale that all dwarves will be buried, and any other sentients are likely invaders, who can be smashed away without concerns.

(Seems I forgot to build a dividing wall between food and corpses; a rather revolting error, that will be resolved immediately).

One level below, our new plant processing area can be put to use; we have disturbingly few barrels, though. The carpenter has been working on that.


Of note here is the stockpile below the stills; this is the ‘master stockpile’ for all plants, fruits, and leaves. All other such stockpiles take from it, including the one for leaves upstairs, and the neighboring one which holds only thread-producing plants.

I also note the atom smasher has been finalized; that will allow me the enormous satisfaction of finally getting rid of all the corpses above.

But moving on: the cloth works. All threads and cloths are separated by type. You might say that’s too much hassle, and I’ll agree with you, but better tolerate a little hassle than having a mood fail because you ran out of yarn last year, and never noticed until some poor sod went insane. Speaking of that, we need more silk and yarn threads. And perhaps some of that leather can be converted into backpacks?


The last thing I’ll say about food hauling: we have an enormous amount of unprepared fish; that, and prepared meals, are the last things remaining in the old stockpile space.


Lastly, I get to do something I’ve been hankering to do for a long, long time: dump all of this stinking garbage…

And smash it into non-existence!


28th Timber. The goblins loose in the cavern have picked a fight with pond grabbers. It ended amazingly bad for them:


And amazingly well for us; there are no more enemies in the cavern right now. This prompts an idea:


All of those are looms. As soon as the fort is even vaguely free, the hatches to the cavern will be unlocked, and the bounty of spider silk will be hauled in. I don’t expect this to happen in the next month, though; the siege is about to be lifted, and then we’ll all be too busy cleaning the surface, replacing the all-too useful cages, and preparing the prisoners for their final destination.

Also, construction will be resumed. The tower needs a roof, after all, not to mention all the internal structure. The entry to the depot likewise needs a roof, and a bridge sealing it to the north; I think I’ll use marble. I’ve already decided where the lever for this bridge will be placed:


Likely an overly-lofty place for a lever which, by all accounts, will be pulled exactly once; I’ll admit I only used it because most of the room was already in place from a dug out cassiterite vein.

-----------------

I’d like to give some unsolicited advice about sifting stockpiles of items that can be placed in bins or barrels: use give/take linkage, don’t just ban the items from the old stockpile. Because dorfs will try to move items individually - they’ll begin to empty barrels/bins, instead of hauling any full containers. Plants were hauled the hard way, while meat was moved via linkage; that’s how I noticed the thing.