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[StrikaAmaru]

Great job, applet! I'm honestly intrigued by how close coal- and magma-based approaches are; I'd have expected magma to be substantially better. You may be entitled to some bonus points on account of the no-savescum achievement too... though if we start rewarding that, it just adds perverse incentives for people to not admit to savescumming.

As for zinc, I haven't used it; I was digging in entirely the wrong levels. I did use tin, though, and even so it didn't really matter, because I built statues as close to the smelter as possible. Any weight differences just didn't have time to crop up (which is good, considering my 54 lead statues).

Salmeuk, congratulations on the idea and on starting this whole insanity. I don't think I've ever been so enthusiastic about DF ever since 0.42.1 introduced the fancy trees.

[Salmeuk]

Another thing in this optimization challenge is the weight of the statues themselves, here it seems that zinc would be preferable (or aluminium).

Very good point, this one. Frankly, I'm going to have my work cut out for me coming up with the next scoring item, this metal statue thing seemed to be a very good balance of difficulty and feasibility.

As the years pass onward, we are going to run into the other side of this challenge; dealing with the poor design choices of previous winners, lack of food or military, the fact that we will be using up all the easily accessible resources in these early rounds, and the general sense of chaos that seems to accumulate in any succession fortress.

Salmeuk, congratulations on the idea and on starting this whole insanity. I don't think I've ever been so enthusiastic about DF ever since 0.42.1 introduced the fancy trees.

I've been thinking up this kind of thing for about a year now, but it's only working because you guys volunteered! So, thank you!! I think DF is more enjoyable when you are highly-motivated to accomplish some public-facing goal, and I'm glad this kind of competition is proving fruitful.

Alright, I'm sending the final submission warning out today. Get yer final scores in now! Nice work applet breaching the 300+ mark (honestly, waaaay more than I thought was possible in the first year).


I am planning to begin round two this Wednesday, 9/23/20, giving me time to double-check the scoring and write some quick fortress summaries. I will PM all interested parties the day before as a reminder, so please explicitly 'opt' in so I know who to keep track of.

[applet]

Tested my theory on coal ores (not meant as a competition entry, mind you)


Start of winter (3 months to go)

This was done with reveal though

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

but one could argue that this is fair since you could just mine and savescum over and over to see where the ores are...

In large part possible due to the copious amount of booze and food, so the early game can be used to make progress (and skill up the relevant skills) instead of frivolous food production.

[Radipon]

Yeah, I did another magma run that cracked out 322 statues. Way overproduced on food and had a ripple when i didn't notice that the gray ores were tetrahedrite. Too bad I thought the deadline was the end of today.

[Radipon]

347 statues of vesh
19 statues of other things that I didn't catch for a week, all forbidden and dumped
1 Artifact Gold Cabinet

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is my best attempt so far. Savescummed once for a good migrant wave but never had any useful strange moods. At the very end a blacksmith got possessed. I ran the fort like a gulag; straight to magma with a dormitory and nothing else. Drinks are depleted, food is unknown, and both original miners died of infections or poison from an undead bushmaster. There was just enough metal to produce statues all the way to 12-25. Thereafter, I queued up a farm plot and some plant gathering orders. The fort is in no way in peril, but there are a lot of open needs and all food/drink production is outdoors.

Save File

[NordicNooob]

Yeah, I won't be able to submit this week, I had less time than I expected.

[Spriggans]

I ran the fort like a gulag; straight to magma with a dormitory and nothing else. Drinks are depleted, food is unknown, and both original miners died of infections or poison from an undead bushmaster. (...)  The fort is in no way in peril, but there are a lot of open needs and all food/drink production is outdoors.

Year 2 is gonna be a bitch ! I love that.

[Radipon]

The upshot is that most of the limonite is untouched and bituminous coal is available for steel.

[Bralbaard]

It is also a question if the rules will allow tossing all those statues in the smelter in the second year. That is possibly the easiest accessible metal right now.

[Salmeuk]

Thanks to all who participated. Here I will catalogue the entries and show off noteworthy elements of each! Please note these are not meant to be criticisms of any person, I simply adopted the tone of a neutral sports commentator who might be a little drunk.

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Firstly, we have QuantumDrop's fortress. Like every other entry, this fortress is nestled into the stone of the central peak.



Unlike other's, however, Quantum has created an almost-livable fortress experience.



In some ways it would be tough to tell that any sort of competition had gone on here, as the dwarfs are mostly agrarian in nature and the strange death god statues are limited to the basement.



Minimal surface mining was performed. A quaint little fortress that, funnily enough, would have presented the most hospitable should Quantum have pulled off the victory.



Sadly, with a score of 43 (though it should be noted the total constructed statue count was almost twice as high!), Quantum pulls in the rear of the group. Better luck next time!

Quantum wins the "Benevolent Overseer" award, for a general sense that one could actually live in his fortress and not, like, be depressed or whatever.
===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Next up, we have Applet's fort. A modest hole-in-the-ground, it appears no attempt was made to build a gate, or even a doorway - the plainest of situations. As you travel down, you come upon this collection of rooms.



Wow, that's a lot of turkeys! You know what they say about a man with a lot of turkeys. Further down, we find extensive mining occurred in a layer of microline.



Quite a bit of hauling to move those orestones back from the farthest vein. The statues themselves fill pretty much every empty space, and in particular are clustered around the central staircase leading down into the mountain. No attempt was made to breach the magma. Two legendary dwarfs are present, including Cerol the weaponsmith. Applet constructed 314 total statues, including this masterpiece platinum statue, surely worth more than my car:

Applet wins the "Scrooge McDuck" award for his work with platinum, the heaviest but most expensive material.

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Following Applet, we have StrikaAmaru's entry. Strika meticulously journaled his work towards the goal, so much that it was his downfall as we will later see. So I will be light on the details here, instead choosing to show you what made his fortress so successful. Again, he has many turkeys, obviously a key to success in these early rounds.



 Strika built much higher, probably leading to less legwork overall for those basic neccessities, but this was counteracted by the fact his smithy was a good 100 z-levels below. By far the most ore was mined in this fortress.



His score proves just how useful a magma smelter is when it comes to efficient ore processing: every job takes one less walking trip to complete. Plus, all of Strika's statues were placed right next to the smithy. Have you tried to lift one of those things? They weigh a ton! It could take a dwarf weeks to move the statues down a hallway, so it was smart thinking to keep the placement as close as possible. We also see the largest variety in statue material here: Iron, gold, silver, tin, lead, and copper.



StrikaAmaru took whatever ore was closest and used it to his advantage. With a total of 337 statues, Strika appeared the clear winner for a few days there. Oddly enough, 14 other statues were produced of subjects irrelevant to the competition, including the following:

Ah, how sweet! Certainly a friend to animals this one. Strika wins the "Variety" award, for his use of all kinds of metal. As well, for his close second place score, the "Runner-Up of the First" award.

===

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Finally, we have the winner of the first round: Radipon and his total score of . . huh?



EXCUSE ME? You mean I actually have to COUNT the statues like I PROMISED?? Hold on. . .

(after like 20 minutes of grumbling)

. . . his total score of 341 statues!

Radipon, though the winner, cared not for the conditions of his dwarfs. With zombies literally clawing their way out of the trees, he chose to set up an open-air labor camp with no doors, walls, or guards to speak of.



Those farms aren't even constructed, they are just present to convince the new migrants that, "Yes, we do eat food here! Haha, why would you think otherwise? *stares at starving dwarving children hunting for cockroaches*".

A single staircase was dug straight to the magma, with any encountered veins being dug and hauled to the bottom. There, surrounded on three sides by the deadly magma sea, the statues were produced in great numbers, and erected right next to the smithy.





The dwarves also slept here, though if you were given a choice between working more and trying to sleep with the sounds of metalworking, quenching, and the god-forsaken heat, would you not work yourself to exhaustion too? There is almost nothing to spare in this fortress, all activity is directed towards the one goal of constructing these statues. And, well, it worked! Radipon's final submission was the clear winner, though I will never forgive you for not having a bookkeeper.

Radipon has won the "Gulag" award, for obvious reasons. He has also earned the glorious title of "Winner of the First Round", and will be allowed to keep his titled dwarf into the next year of competition. Should this dwarf meet some terrible end at the hands of some other competitor, well, it's certainly not my job to keep track of these things. . .

===

Congratulations Radipon! Glory to the Winner!


================

Please please please don't forget to sign up for round 2! So far I only have an affirmative from Quantum, though I assume the rest of you are interested. Again, I am only particular about this so I can keep track of things on my end.

[Salmeuk]

It is also a question if the rules will allow tossing all those statues in the smelter in the second year. That is possibly the easiest accessible metal right now.

Yup, there is no need to keep them constructed for round 2, however, a little birdie told me that metal might not be nearly as relevant in the second round.

[Spriggans]

I will play. Though I won't Roleplay anything. Only casual screenshots.
And since work is a little time-consuming, I probably won't save-scum as much as the others did. But my superdwarven skills will overcome the savescummers !

[applet]

I'll play again.

I'm somewhat curious why both magma entries seems to have built most (all?) their statues on the same level, instead of going up, closer to the forges.

My sense was that it was more important to minimize haul distance of the statues rather than for other tasks (sleep, eat, drink), although neither seems to be a major factor, being beat by migrant count and skill instead.

I wish you could assign wheelbarrows to workshops.

[Radipon]

I'm up for round 2. The funny thing is that no one is particularly upset or unhappy. The undead have numbed them to dead bodies, and the lack of any furniture is made up for by their awe from being in a legendary sculpture garden littered with masterworks.

[Radipon]

I'll play again.

I'm somewhat curious why both magma entries seems to have built most (all?) their statues on the same level, instead of going up, closer to the forges.

My sense was that it was more important to minimize haul distance of the statues rather than for other tasks (sleep, eat, drink), although neither seems to be a major factor, being beat by migrant count and skill instead.

I wish you could assign wheelbarrows to workshops.

 The reason for building them on the same level is that the production and ore procurement are the main bottlenecks. Furniture hauling is a last step that any number of dwarves can do in parallel and only mattered for the last few constructions which I designated upstairs. It was also easier to count that way.