Arr, mateys.
**NOTE:
I have changed the name of the thread to reflect the oceans on which we now sail in the budding community fortress.
The Dread Ship Bellsmaw sailing in the Realm of Winds on the waves of The Fondled Waters!
((Edited Community Fortress, The story of Bellsmaw begins on Page 2!))
Well, one of the things I've always wanted to be able to do in Dwarf Fortress was to have a ship. *edit, I just looked through the bloats, reqs, and cores, and I can't find anything about boats, so I guess I was misinformed and sir toady will NOT be doing boats. It's up to US!
About 2 weeks ago I decided, to hell with it, I'm going to make my own damn ship.
Here are some screenshots rendered in the 3D Dwarf Visualizer (Thank you for this visualizer SINOTH, you are welcome aboard my ship ANY day):
***Note: YES the ship is made ENTIRELY out of wood. The textures are stone because I do not know how to make the viewer read them as wood, but the other screenshots linked below show the deckstructure in game and you can see that the entire ship, every plank, every wall, is made out of wood)
More images (LARGE images, sorry) from in-game with labeled layers of the ship:
From BOTTOM LEVEL to TOP DECK ( and a few levels up for a shot of the crows nest):
Bottom Deck
Second Deck
Third Deck
Main Deck
Captains Chambers (above main deck)
Crows Nest
It's technically not floating in the water, of course. It is held up by one single pillar on the bottom level.
I constructed the ship in a dry-dock that took quite a while to dig out (partially because I hit an aquifer half-way down and had to try for about an entire day to plug it up so I could finish the dock).
The ship is 5 levels of main area, with a walkable crows nest on top of a mast about 10z's up from the surface I believe.
The ship and the dwarves aboard are fully self sufficient and have no need to ever go ashore. During construction I purified water and pumped it into a storage tank with a connecting well.
On board I have a large number of rapidly reproducing livestock (mules, cows, horses, dogs, etc) for slaughter in the event of a food shortage.
A crows nest sits atop the main mast. The crossbeam on the main mast houses 4 chains for jailing tantrumy pirates where they will not be able to harm anyone but themselves.
For the truly mutinous dogs, there is a retractable lever-operated plank with which I can perform pirate justice.
Fishing provides the main source of food, and the ship has the workshop capability to process any number of fish and animals and brew from the massive amounts of plump helmets I stowed below decks. When they run out, the fresh water tank will be the main supply of hydration.
Workshops on the ship:
Fishery, Butcher Shop, Craftdwarfs Shop, Masons shop, Carpenters shop, Tannery, Leather shop, Kitchen, and Still.
The ship has enough beds to fit 12 dwarves at the moment. However, on board, in the case of grown children or stow-aways, we have a small extra supply of wood and stone should we need to build extra furniture or bedrooms.
The dining hall can sit 16 at the moment, but it is expandable.
Provisions on board include a large stockpile of steel and iron weapons and armor (the craftdwarves make bone bolts from butchered animals for my crossbow swashbuckler to practice with and to shoot at passing sharks), extra furniture, mechanisms, and a massive amount of food and beer to last for many many years, provided the population stays relatively low. Also on board, on the top deck, is a row of caged slave animals which I can either train or slaugher.
Yes, I have caged macaques. Yes, I plan to have monkey knife-fights on the deck.
The trade depot on the top deck has never been used, but I suppose if the situation turned incredibly dire the dwarves could cannibalize some of the deck planks to turn into a bridge allowing merchants to come aboard ... so we could SEIZE everything they brought. (C'mon, we're pirates!)
History of the Ship:
The name of the ship (randomly genned) is Bellsmaw.
The year is currently 1057. It took me QUITE a while to gather all of the wood, create the supplies, stock, fit, and waterproof the ship, as well as flooding the drydock and surrounding it with water.
We've seen our fair share of goblin ambushes and kobold thieves attempting to sneak onboard during construction, but I *THINK* we caught them all.
A few times the ship was in jeopardy, including an attack of 5 zombie tuna, and an absolutely deadly short fin maco shark which slaughtered half of the original crew.
Right now is the moment when I've finally cut free from land. We are at sea. The waves break over the deck and the dwarves bask in the mist while swilling grog.
Our journey is just beginning!
The purpose of this post is to gather feedback from the community:
What can I do to improve the ship?
Would anyone be interested in doing a community or succession fortress based upon this map?
What kind of ships have you made and how have your sailors fared in the past?
Thank you in advance and I look forward to your feedback, YE SCURVY DOGS!! =)
SIGN UPS CLOSED! Who are the ones foolish enough to board the Dread Pirate ship Bellsmaw? I give you;
Fenrir: Male, 'Sigurd', Viking
ColonelTEE3: Male, 'Skipper', Fisherdwarf, First Mate
Retro42: Male, 'The Professor', Mad Scientist
Impending Doom: Male, 'Imp', Buccaneer (marksdwarf)
Tigerbunny: Male, 'Horatio, Petty Officer
martinuzz: Male, 'Beardless Bob', Powder Monkey (RIP BEARDLESS BOB)
martinuzz: Female, 'Beardless Binty', Child
Kagus: Male, 'Fishgut'+name, Swashbuckler
JoRo: Female, 'Boucher', Grog Mistress
Dasqoot: Female, 'Q-Tip', Wench
Xotes: Female, 'Kalen', Swashbuckler, Captain
sidew: Female, 'Jaina', Shipwright
DuncanFrost: Female, 'Duncana', Quartermistress
Our 2 newest crewmen:
Wiles: Male, 'Tiny', Brawler
Splime: Male, 'Knifer', Swashbuckler
FUTURE PIRATES:
AlienChickenPie: 'Barnacle', Hammerdwarf
othorocksmoms: 'Malanga', Grog Apprentice
Kaelem Gaen: 'Kai/Ula', Galley/Mace
[ March 14, 2008: Message edited by: valcon ]