SummerSavescum count: one full restart - spring has been played twice, from start to end, and won’t be played a third time because I genuinely don’t think I can improve.
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This season begins with two main priorities: to finish our smithy, and to get a decent number of migrants; the savescum counter is bound to increase.
The extant dwarves are easy to account for: close to the surface, the farmer is kept from rock hauling duty only by the 10 plump helmets to harvest, and 20 summer seeds to plant. The mason is busy cutting blocks from the fort’s only magma-safe stone so far - a bit of mica found near the surface. Then she’ll descend to the smithy, to build and use our first smelter.
The two miners are set to digging the tetrahedrite vein on level -4. Kol the smith was removed from all jobs except the obvious; he has to build a forge, then he’ll use the bars produced by the mason; besides the obvious, I’m angling for some picks and anvils; there’s a limonite vein nearby on the surface, and as soon as miners stop to eat or drink, I will prioritize it for them to carve.
Lastly, two dwarves are stone haulers, slowly filling up the ore stockpile at the bottom of the world.
17th Hematite. Migrants have arrived, right as the summer started, and it’s… kinda fine?
Four children and five mostly-unskilled adults have spawned in the north-western corner of the map, well away from the four zombies in the south-west. The children are the obvious argument to save-scum, especially since none of them is going to grow up anytime soon; the oldest is 8 years old, and the youngest 3. On the other hand, they’ve all arrived very early, and 5 new haulers are good enough.
All have made it indoors, without incidents. I should take this time to move some wood indoors… but I think I’ll save the fort here, and use my save-scumming privileges.
Savescum #2: (Dropping: 1st Hematite to 22nd Hematite).
The world gets reset, and all the stockpiles and job assignments are lost. Derp. After re-doing all of them, I apply my newly-acquired hindsight to quicksave the fort. Then it’s nothing but the wait.
17th Hematite. Guess who. They’ve come from the south-west this time, and they are lucky that the flock of undead parrots is no longer there.
That said, their luck will not hold. Two children, one fisher, and one peasant with not a single skill to his name.
Die.
Savescum #3. (Dropping: 1st Hematite to 19th Hematite).
Blah blah blah,
17th of Hematite. Again. For the autumn, I’ll make my savepoint before the season turns, there’s no way this is a coincidence. Once again, the crop of migrants is inferior to the first batch - there were 4 children and 3 peasants. I’m beginning to wonder if I should go back to the first save.
Die.
Savescum #4. 17th of hematite. It’s only better compared to the disaster of savescum 2: one child and 3 adults of at best adequate skills. Still gets the axe.
Die.
Savescum #5. The migrant wave has 4 adults and one child; one of them is a legendary weaponsmith. Besides that, there’s a woodcutter, a skilled mechanic, a beekeeper who’s really out of luck, and the child who’ll turn 12 next year, in Granite. The weaponsmith is really tempting, but… what am I supposed to do with him? I stare at the screen for a few seconds, then make my decision.
Die.
Savescum #6 Are you kidding me?
Die.
Savescum #7 Holy sweet mother of…
Quicksave!
Seven new dwarves, doubling my working population. To really put the cherry on top, the legendary weaponsmith from savescum #5 is included in this wave. Welcome to NumberCursed, Cerol! I’ll ask you to make some picks, soon.
I appoint 4 furnace operators and 4 miners, total; they won’t do much until the ore stockpile is full, but with the wheelbarrows that’ll happen quickly.
The smithy arrangement is 3 smelters and one forge, soon to be 2 forges. Probably, because I have no idea who’ll man it. I decided it’s best to build some backup stock before really kicking off the industrial process.
26th Hematite. Cerol is asked to make 3 copper picks. I’m briefly tempted to line up more weapons, but then I remember what the goal of this challenge is. My successors, if any, can go crank out their own masterwork weapons.
Then, the statues are lined up (I wish I could say Kel has rushed in and made the fort’s first statue, but he was busy drinking at the time).
And a new DfHack command gets used:
Workflow. Not for the limits and such, but because of cancellation protections - I want the finicky statue designations to remain in the forge when I temporarily run out of bars.
3rd of Malachite. Made the first statue.
5th. The statue was built, in the smithy itself; the rest will go into the dug-out vein, because I sure as hell won’t bother with making a dedicated space for them - unless Salmeuk asks for it.
Also, the ore stockpile is full, there are 5 idlers, and the only living creature on the surface is one zombie pangolin. With the haulers somewhat freed and the surface somewhat safe, I unlock the hatch for some wood. It’ll be needed for beds if nothing else.
6th of Galena. Poults have hatched; they’re a bit cramped:
The miners, by the way, have long finished digging the known veins, and have been carving exploratory tunnels near the smithy. There's a chance I'll break into the cavern, but yeah whatever.
We found out the western side is a barren wasteland, full of diorite but no ores or even varied rocks. The eastern half holds tetrahedrite and galena, which you’ve seen already, and native silver and cassiterite, that you haven’t. Plus there’s iron ore near the surface, but that’s 200 tiles away and I won’t bother digging it, outside of what I needed for anvils.
The miners have been digging something else, too:
On level -4 above the smithy I’ve made a small dining room, and will soon make a small temple. I should perhaps also pay some attention to the looming caravan, but… do I really want to?
… nah. For what is very likely the first time in all my days of playing Dwarf Fortress, the caravan will be ignored. Honestly, even elves don’t get that kind of disrespect; at the very least, I’d use their arrival to clean the fortress of loose clothing.
Autumn has arrived; the smithy looks like this:
I’ve thought better about building statues in the vein, and dug out a 21x11 area for them. I’ve also constructed that second forge, at the very end of summer. Cerol the legendary weaponsmith will take a third job in this fort, after creating picks and smelting whatever.
All statues are made from copper, silver, and lead. Presumably, tin will follow after more of it will be brought back into the stockpile.
Two levels higher, lay the most pathetic temple and inn that I have ever seen, let alone make:
I did see worse guilds, though.
Our objective so far:
The fort is running like the proverbial well-oiled machine: 2 blacksmiths, 3 smelters, 4 miners, and 5 haulers. I doubt I’ll bother savescumming any further for the autumn migration wave.
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Savescum count: 7 - one full season restart for spring, 6 migrant optimizers (though technically only the last had any effects). Other DfHack commands I’ve used:
die,
quicksave,
dig vein, and
workflow. Wonderful, wonderful, workflow.
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Topic: Numbercurse - Competitive - The Curse has been Lifted (Read 32682 times)