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[Ruttiger]

My nephew was watching me play dwarf fortress, and wants to know what the record for the longest lived fortress ever is.

I've got one at 16 years right now.  It's slowed to a crawl though. 

[Awayfarer]

My current fortress, Okbomrek, just hit 21 years today. The population is around 275. I think I need to drop the baby cap to "0" because my dwarves keep breeding despite being past the pop cap.

[Ametsala]

I think Nist Akath's (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=19279.0) been running for over 32 years..

[FellMoodFox]

Does Nist Akath count, given the augmentation of events for the sake of story?

[The Doctor]

It's still a fortress.

The kid didn't ask "Longest lived non-cheating fortress" just, fortress.

[FlyingScissorKick]

I have a fortress named Papercloaks that is alive and well at 25 years.

[Skanky]

Does Nist Akath count, given the augmentation of events for the sake of story?

As far as I am aware, he has only cheated to make the game harder for the dwarves.

[Cavalcadeofcats]

Nah, he savescummed like crazy at the beginning so that everyone wouldn't die by skelk. Read the first two or three pages.

Later, when he couldn't get migrants, he started stealing them from caravans.

Also, he recruited a Titan.

None of those really sound like they're "making things harder" for him.

[Skanky]

I was more referring to the megabeasts he modded to have extra damblock just so they wouldn't be butchered by his soldiers immediately. What with his soldiers being quite skilled. I don't think the Titan added anything to decrease difficulty either - any creature the titan could kill, the regular soldiers could kill more easily.

I will trust you on the savescumming though. It has been a while since I read those first pages.

[Haven]

Yeah, there was scumming, but only for the first year or two, nothing that couldn't be easily done by restarting a few times.

Has anyone got the numbers on the 'Hands Off' challenge's total years?

[Grand_Marquis]

I don't think the Titan added anything to decrease difficulty either - any creature the titan could kill, the regular soldiers could kill more easily.

Yeah, he actually folded the Titan into the fortress with the hope that the dwarfs could train him to fight better, not the other way around 
His first (and as far as I know, only) fight was against another Titan, and he failed miserably.

Though I appreciate Nist Akath and Cap Ironblood more for the story they've developed than I do for their lifespan, considerable though it may be.


The OP's question, I think, leads to perhaps a more relevant one, though:  At what point does Dwarf Fortress become a dead cycle?  I mean, eventually, you're going to see everything your particular game is going to let you see as far as new challenges or old challenges with a new twist are concerned.  This is sort of inevitable, even after the Army Arc is complete.  But I imagine the current version would have a more clear deliniation between "This is building" and "This is going nowhere".  But is there really a clear timeframe for this?  Awayfarer? Scissorkick?  Your thoughts?

[SquirrelFarmer]

Is there any practical reason why a fortress would end eventually, or is it just because the idea of starting a new one becomes so intriguing? In my case, it's always the latter, so I've never seen one hit a natural limit. I would think setting a reasonable population cap would help, for FPS reasons.

[Eatnobles4breakfast]

That's why there needs to be periodic "purges" where an indestructable creature bashes through your fortress and out the other side, right before a gobbo seige, to make things interesting. If you survive, then you win, and you make a new fort...

[Tormy]

I had a ~40 years old fortress before, the game modded tho, since the vanilla game is way too easy right now.