Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jools]

Stone-seeking code might be causing stuff to run slow as well. We have enough that when I get down to the "Stone" part of the stocks list, I sometimes think the game has hung - but it hasn't, it's simply trying to count the stupid number of lumps of rock our miners have dug out. And then it all gets worse when dwarves try to find lumps of stone - I can't remember exactly but I do remember vaguely something about the algorithm for finding the nearest lump of a given rock not being very good at tracking things on different floors with distant staircases, which in our case might lead dwarves to decide that the nearest lump of diorite is on our labyrinthine bottom z-level, making the path-finding process for them to (a) get there and (b) navigate the labyrinth highly processor intensive.

Or it could be the still rather stupid number of animals we have. Things did improve when I caged all the non-pets, but a few pet-related accidents might speed things up.

Or we could even cut down on the number of dwarves we have. Especially the pointless nobles (I'd like to add at this point that a Duke Consort is a vital part of the fortress and should never be killed) but perhaps we could off some of the more demanding ones. And any useless peasants we have. And maybe that relative-killing trader...

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

It looks like my term in office might be given over to FPS boosting.

[Jools]

Pffffft. That would be *sensible*. Do something crazy instead. We need more pointlessly large monuments or cool systems that aren't very practical.

But above all, keep the salt flowing!

[Kazindir]

Indeed.

Sounds like turning off the farms and making all but a breeding pair of none-pet animals into pies might help then. Not sure what to do about the stone though as we already have 8 or so masons shops making blocks and things for easy storage. I suppose "stop mining out z levels" might help but that seems somewhat undwarven!

For an epic project in itself, you could always reorganise the farming/workshop/stockpile levels. They started off small in the first year but have grown organically since, so are a real mess now - eg the only route from the living quarters to the surface involves traipsing through the middle of a stockpile and has done since I accidently flooded the old route...

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Pffffft. That would be *sensible*. Do something crazy instead. We need more pointlessly large monuments or cool systems that aren't very practical.

But above all, keep the salt flowing!

I wish you could salt meat.
That would solve the animals problem and we'd be using the salt.
Perhaps I should make a rambling family mansion, or a prototype house for dwarves forced to live above ground.

[Jools]

I might have accidentally on purpose shut down the mason's workshops so that we had dwarves building stuff (the bridge, and extra levels of the tower) rather than just making rock salt boulders into rock salt blocks. But they could easily be reactivated. And might need to be since I immediately went and used all the blocks made to that point on building vast roads, beautiful bridges, and extra levels of tower.

Besides, the handy storage method seemed to be leaving the blocks in the workshops, so they weren't exactly productive once cluttered by 30,000 tons of rock salt blocks each. Though that could have been just me screwing things up and not letting stuff be moved...

Re-arranging the crowded, cluttered workshop areas would be good, but don't let that detract attention from cool side-projects. Like vast banks of stadium-style seating for the arena, or a multi-z-level fully engraved office for the glorious Duke Consort, or some insane system to try and wipe out the carp from the river.

And if we think that the bottom level mine might be slowing things down, but don't want to stop mining out z-levels, we could try digging out all the remaining walls to simplify pathfinding. Just leave the entire map supported by one diorite (or whatever) staircase. It'll be fine. Once empty we could even flood it as a tree farm, and not have to venture outside for wood.

Building above-ground houses would be a good idea too - but not just one, a whole mess of a maze of them, at ground level and above, linked by narrow walkways, and some rooftops to chase goblins over. And lots of twisty little alleys, so bowgoblins can't shoot us at range, but have to fight Kazindir on his terms, up close. Or a Roman villa or something - mosaics on the floor, multiple rooms, add bits on as the years go by. That might actually be a good place to house the Queen...

[Kazindir]

Oh yes, forgot about that! I think you'd need to have strategically placed small wood stockpiles though, as wooden walls won't burn. Or at least I don't think they will, they're immune to magma at any rate, not sure about dragon fire.

Meat - you can't salt but you can sell the merchants lavish elephant roasts stuffed with minced kitten and alligator....and a rock salt block, "so they won't go off."
 
Sadly though treecaps only grow if you've discovered an underground lake or river - simply flooding an underground area won't work. Something about spores I believe.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Perhaps a Dark Tower of Ultimate Punishment?
A cathedral?

[Jools]

A Dark Tower would contrast nicely with our lovely rock salt tower, so might look very pretty... but take it from me, even in the recent versions with the ability to designate multiple tiles of floor & wall at once, they're boring to build - and forget about getting it done all the way up the Z axis in a year.

That's not to say it wouldn't be cool though, especially if linked to our existing tower at several levels with crazy sloping bridges.

A cathedral would be cool too. Especially a giant one, that would dwarf (ha) the aboveground hovels for our Peasants that we built to surround it...

[Kazindir]

If it's a dark tower you want you could always extend theArena Tower. Currently it's more of a stump, only 2 levels high, but it is made entirely out of diorite which we have by the bucketload and is a dark grey.

It is near the ruins of the waterfall and even worse, the Cursed Bridge though. The number of accidents, carp devourings and mysterious deaths/woundings that've happened round there, it ain't right.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

A Dark Tower above a bloody arena?
Wonderful! build some seats for the arena, then have cages on little ledges on the walls so the prisoners can view their fates.

[Jools]

A Dark Tower above a bloody arena?
Wonderful! build some seats for the arena, then have cages on little ledges on the walls so the prisoners can view their fates.

Didn't Keldor get caged a while ago? ;-P

[Keldor]

ENDOK got caged.  Not Keldor.  Keldor's dead 

XD

And, yes, I have been a bit slow posting, what with that accursed goblin siege that kept crashing, or wiping out the entire military, and also with the fact that I somehow managed to be hit with no less than my turn for THREE succession games all at the same time (one of which has also been having problems with crashes during a siege) >.<

[edit] Added ChazzyBurger to the list [/edit]

[Keldor]

Well, I'm up through to the beginning of winter now.  Almost through!

19th Limestone, 1060:

With the siege at last over, I now turn my attention over to our next major problem.



Several dwarves have been stranded in the swimming pool and are becomming most unhappy at this situation.  If any clue was needed to prove that it is indeed too deep, we have it here.  I have ordered the pumps stopped and an additional area channeled out for the pool to flow into, thereby lowering the water level.  It's important that the pumps be off, since if a mistake is made in enlarging the pool the floodgate will probably open to add more water.

21st Limestone, 1060:

I never realized how many pet cats Iden Kizbizrimtar Shukarkâkdal, a champian of our fortress guard, had until today when I saw them following him outside!



25th Limestone, 1060:

While his pet hippo may think otherwise, ďngiz Dallithavuz, the engraver, has stated that the swimming pool is simply too deep to properly engrave the bottom.  Where are those miners??

1st Sandstone, 1060:

We have a new champion!  All hail Sazir Alĺthrab Gebôtthat Roldeth, or Sazir Boltglowing the Dented Direction of Anguishing.  It's only a pity that he's a royal guard.

4th Sandstone, 1060:

Migrants have arrived, dispite the danger!  I guess they want to be here when I tame my historic first carp!

5th Sandstone, 1060:

I have just been informed that a dwarf has been sentenced to 4 hammerstrikes for failing a mandate that I was never even informed of!  Something will have to be done about this duchess!  Alternatively, perhaps we could simply lock the hammerer away?

8th Sandstone, 1060:

Another of my donkies has been dragged to a watery doom by the carp.  Why can't they simply stay away from the river banks like everyone else??

19th Sandstone, 1060:

Mafol Nangęszuglar and her baby Zasit were pulled in to a watery doom by the carp.  She was trying to cut down a tree that was on the river bank, but picked a very poor place to stand.



23rd Sandstone, 1060:

This water really IS deep!  I'm not sure I can get out!



5th Timber, 1060:

Kikrost Dolillogem has finally starved to death.  We all knew it would be for the worst when she alone refused to leave the central piller in the pool, even when the water lever was low enough for me to engrave the bottom.

17th Timber, 1060:

The swimming pool is finally shallow enough to safely swim in!  Moreover, the pressure plate has been removed, so the floodgate opens only by lever now.



19th Timber, 1060:

Dwarves have begun to call our hammerer ďngiz Okirbin Zon Azin, or ďngiz Elderslings the Helms of Watching for his many kills.  Unfortunantly, these kills were all fine dwarves that failed some mandate or other.

20th Timber, 1060:

One of our weapon traps somehow got sprang and killed a cat.  I thought cats were supposed to be light on their toes?

22nd Timber, 1060:

I just sighted that suspiscious Duke Consort looting a large gem from the caraven wreck.  Cursed nobles.



Today we were blessed with a litter of lion cubs!  Such beautiful creatures...

[Kazindir]

Succession turns are like busses. You don't get one for ages then three turn up at once.

That swimming pool was more dangerous than intended - irondwarf swimming lessons! You either learn to swim or you die.

Hmmm.