Print

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

[inaluct]

You could channel out a good deal of the map, leaving a bunch of little islands. Bring life to the desert!

Then, you could pepper the tiny islands with statues. Just like those moai on Easter Island. But cooler.

[Thuellai]

Build a mountain.  Leave areas of it hollow that look like mining tunnels and rooms.  A dug-in fort in miniature, made out of green glass, like a bizarre model made by the gods with little mechanical dwarves doing dorf things.

[Shoruke]

Okay... this is all starting to come together in my head...

I think I'll make a fort in a different folder, and use designation to plan out a 3d labyrinthine maze three levels tall. This will stand just outside of The Gate, and be the only way into the fortress. I might include a couple small traps in there, possibly involving water. Once through the maze, any invader will go down the ramp belowground, and (because of a pulled lever to block off the normal route), take the really long path through DoomFlippySpikesThing, which will be on a lever set to be repeatedly pulled.

The maze outside will be constructed entirely of green glass (if only the magnifying glass effect was implemented in DF, we would melt the invaders like ants), and the DoomFlippySpikesThing will be all obsidian bridges and iron spikes and colourful mechanisms.

However, there are a few kinks in this general plan, none of which are crippling but all of which are annoying.

-Since the maze will be 3 layers high, and the marksdwarves' level of The Tower is only 2 levels off the ground, the marksdwarves suddenly won't be able to shoot to the west. One remedy is to just screw the west and let the marksdwarves handle the goblins as they come from every other direction. Another option is to remove all the iron blocks we currently have as the marksdwarves' level, and bump it up three or four floors, and have their level extend out over the maze.
-With this big ol' frigging maze in the way of The Gate, traders won't be able to get into the fortress, and I rather like them because they bring fallen trees with which to make clear glass. So, should we have a lever that can temporarily remove part of the maze and make a three-tile-wide path, or should the maze have three-tile-wide paths through it (wouldn't the traders just be THRILLED with that), or what? I think that only having a route to the trade depot available some of the time is a bad idea, because if I forget to reopen the path once, there goes half of our wood supply for the year...
-Labour is always an issue. It's going to take forever to get all this done. I might have to take some dwarves off of food crew and put them in glassmaking, for god's sake.
-I am almost completely unfamiliar with pressure plates. If you have a pressure plate that is set to trigger when water touches it that is 7/7 depth, if the pressure plate is permanently submerged, will it continuously activate, or will it only activate once? Or should I just use a lever, and count on the philosopher to be available and well-fed, well-rested, and drunk when I need him? Or should I attempt to design an intricate automated water system to continuously activate and deactivate a pressure plate?

Suggestions/comments/opinions are welcome as always.

[sonerohi]

Repeating levers are the simplest way. With my idea, be sure to have a lever for the bridges and a different lever for the spikes. Use the bridges once, and the rest of the time have the spikes on repeat. Otherwise the bridges would atom smash all our goblin clot- err..  trade goods.

[Shoruke]

I am bringing my thread back to life, and now I am done planning out the 3d labyrinth. I'm thinking that the whole thing should be obsidian. And I also say that DoomFlippySpikesThing should be automated (the spikes, but not the flippies) by a water system, so that we don't have to count on the philosopher to pull a lever to save us all. If he's not drunk, or he's sleepy, and we get sieged, it's all over otherwise.


Shoruke's Log. 27th of Galena. (late summer, year 27)
After consulting with the dwarves, we have mutually decided to implement two megaprojects: A three-dimensional maze outside The Tower's Gate, which will become the only way into the fortress (or even The Tower), and a space which invaders will be rerouted through, containing drawbridges and retracting spikes.

The maze is quite large, wide enough in all places to allow merchants' wagons to pass through, and it will be made entirely from obsidian blocks. In order to obtain this much obsidian, however, we're going to have to make an obsidian farm. This will involve a chamber which we will fill with magma, pour water into it, mine it out, and do it over again. Thankfully, I have just a perfect place in mind (which is conveniently close to the old torture chambers practice rooms, so we'll use them for making the blocks).

In the area with bridges and spikes, henceforth to be known as DoomFlippySpikesThing, the drawbridges will be able to fling invaders large distances, and the spikes will be powered by an automated water system so that they will repeatedly extend and retract on their own. Obviously there's going to have to be some way to turn the spiking system off, so that we can collect goblin loot without losing dwarven lives. The drawbridges will be operated by one lever (for maximum chaos when all invaders go flying at once), but will only be used once per siege to prevent 'atom smashing', which apparently destroys anything at all that is less flat than ground.

Obviously, in order to implement all these changes, some alterations are going to have to be made to our existing fortress. We'll have to find some way of diverting siegers through DoomFlippySpikesThing without forcing our own dwarves to go through it all the time. The cage traps and platinum road outside the fortress are going to have to be removed to make way for the labyrinth. (The Queen never even used the road we built specifically for her; she came from the south instead of the west like she was supposed to.) Even bigger than removing all those cage traps, though, will be moving the whole Marksdwarves' level of The Tower. Sure, it's not even nearly done yet, but it's still something like 200 iron blocks we have to move. This is to make it so that the marksdwarves will be able to shoot to the west once The Labyrinth is completed (the labyrinth will be 3 stories tall, and the marksdwarves' level is currently level with the third. I'm even considering having the Marksdwarves' level extend onto the top of the maze).


Shoruke's Log. 10th of Limestone. (early autumn)

We have non-megaproject-related news. Sir Geo just gave birth to her ninth (whoa) child, and it's a boy. Hopefully this one lives long enough to learn to walk on its own, so that it isn't killed during one of his mother's battles. Sir Geo seriously needs a babysitter, but of course no dwarven woman will relinquish her child until it's old enough to walk on its own.

Also, one of the farmers (specifically a wood burner/potash maker) came down with a fey mood today. He took over a mechanic's workshop. I wonder what he's going to make. I honestly cannot hazard any guesses as to what a fey dwarf would construct at a mechanic's shop.

And the dwarven caravan arrived! Which is bad, because we don't have any goblin clothing to sell to them. We could always just TAKE their stuff... no, I will not do such a thing to our fellow dwarves. Besides, we're the mountainhome now, so the other dwarven cities should be relying... on... us... to-

HAYWAITAMINUTE

If we're the mountainhome, why are the dwarves sending us a caravan? I'm confused. Well, Flint (who was standing guard outside) insists that they bring a wagon full of stuff, so I guess we'll trade with them, whether it makes sense that they would bring us stuff or not. I think we'll sell them some of the lesser helmets that Dracnor has forged. Armok knows we have enough of them.


Shoruke's Log. Supplementary.
That farmer has amassed his materials: two rocks of kaolinite, one of claystone, and a turtle shell.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 13th of Limestone. (early autumn, year 27)
While absolutely nobody was bringing the helmets to the depot, that fey farmer (who, I recently learned, was actually possessed, not fey, and has no recollection of making an artifact, and therefore didn't learn anything and isn't suddenly legendary) finished making his artifact. It's a kaolinite mechanism(s)! I guess I should have seen that coming, since he took over a mechanic's workshop and all. It's worth a measly 8,400☼, but it has a very nice picture of the first king of the dwarves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wonder if better mechanisms trigger faster? I've noticed there's always a short lag between a lever being pulled and something happening because of it; could it be that better mechanisms work faster? Regardless, this little widgit is going into DoomFlippySpikesThing somewhere. It'll probably be the lever to activate the drawbridges.

But I am a little peeved at the haulers right now. Because we deconstructed most of the platinum road before the merchants showed up, everyone is rushing out to reclaim the platinum blocks instead of bringing stuff to the trade depot like they should be doing. Gah.

[R1ck]

Hooray! Updates! Anyways, now a few advisory points.

It is impossible to seize the dwarves' goods at the trade depot as you can with the elves and humans, you would have to pull some other trick such as destroying the depot as they are in it.
Even though you are the mountainhome, you will continue to get dwarven caravans from the old mountainhome, but you will no longer get dwarven trade diplomats. So you can't request what you want anymore.
I do not believe that better mechanisms decrease the time it takes for something to trigger. Some things(such as floodgates and bridges) will always have a delay whereas other things like doors or hatches have no delay ever. It's pretty awesome that the mechansim has a picture of the very first dwarf king coming into power though.
This is Rick RFB, advisor/macedwarf signing off, keep up the good work!

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 14th of Sandstone. (mid autumn, year 27)
I had the miners dig out some random pieces of earth in the hope of finding more valuable ores. Specifically, I had Elfbane dig north and Emperor dig south from the hallway of the nobles' rooms. Elfbane only found more diorite (not valuable, or even remotely uncommon), but Emperor found a vein of gold ore. I'll have them dig that out when they're done the obsidian farm.

Also, I've stopped giving massive orders to dump stone into the volcano. We're going to need all the labour we can get, since we have to remove what we've built of the marksdwarves' level of The Tower. While I am loathe to reassign dwarves' jobs, I think an exception can be made for the fisherdwarves.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The downside to having everyone have some spare time, is that they'll chat and gain some speaking skills. Hopefully none of them will become proficient enough to rival me, but hopefully some of them get married and have kids (child labour is actually useful right now).

Oh yes, and I finished trading with the old mountainhome. We didn't even have to sell them any of the super-high quality stuff, we managed to buy all of their (useful) goods for *iron helmets* and worse. We didn't even have to sell all of them.

Rick came into my office today, and offered some political advice. Apparently he knows a thing or two about becoming the mountainhome that I didn't. He says that the old mountainhome will still come sell us stuff, but they won't send a diplomatso we can't request anything specifically.

And I suppose that, at some point, I should have the metalworkers (which I guess includes myself now) start placing the iron blocks for the marksdwarves on the correct level. Actually, I should go do that now.

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 28th of Granite. (mid spring, year 28)
Yes, it's been half a year since the last time I wrote in this log. I guess quite a bit has actually happened, but very little of it happened at once. Let's see...

-We finished removing all of the previous marksdwarves' level of The Tower.

-We got a decent start on moving it upward, but... yeah we're out of iron blocks.

-we're also out of clear glass blocks, and the stuff to make them with, so there's a small gap in the south side of the marksdwarves' level.

-One of the fisherdwarves got a fey mood, and made an artifact of low worth: 20,400☼. It's an animal trap made from, ironically, a turtle shell. But it's a very interesting artifact in that it has no less than five different pictures on it: one of a different one of our artifacts, one of the ruler of the other mountainhome, one of Sir Geo beating the schist out of a goblin, one of our artifact bed (which the Queen herself is currently using, much to her delight), and one of ANOTHER one of our artifacts. What a piece of work. Amazing how something with this much decoration is worth so little.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-The obsidian farm is up and running, if slowly. A chamber is filled with magma, from the side, and then the floodgate is closed. Then a different floodgate is opened, one level up, and water flows through a small hallway, to fall onto the magma chamber. As the magma solidifies, it creates a floor for the water to flow over, and the water is therefore able to reach the whole room. We then dig out the chamber, dump the obsidian into the torture chamber practice room, where it is turned into blocks. Then the process repeats. The problem is one of timing: because the whole system is controlled by levers, I have to micromanage in order to get an acceptable amount of water into the chamber: not too much to flood the miners when they dig it out again, but not so little that we can't solidify all the magma.

-With the obsidian farm going, we've actually started on that labyrinth. I have the whole thing sketched out already; it's three z-levels tall, and the paths through it are wide enough to allow merchants to pass through. It's linear, so the merchants will still be able to get through it, but then again so will the goblins. Oh well. Once the paths through it are done, maybe I'll put some traps in to screw the goblins (and possibly later the elves) up. They'll be harmless enough traps, like water or pitfalls, they're just to mess with invaders. Although, I have always wondered just how devastating weapon traps can be. I must remember to implement some in DoomFlippySpikesThing.

-The elves came to trade. They gave us free wood, like they always do, and they seem a little grumpy about it. I wonder why they even bother to keep coming.

-Lilika's injuries healed when winter hit, but her arm was broken one week later in a skirmish with some skamels. I will say that her bravery was remarkable in that conflict, though; even with a broken arm, she still charged forward to help subdue the last skamel before she went off to rest.

-I had the miners do some random digging one level below The Archives (that area is going to be part of The Archives at some point too, so no bid deal). We didn't find any valuable rocks, but we found some kaolinite. And some gems. And some kaolinite. And some kaolinite. And some kaolinite. Some day, I'm going to get through to the miners, that I don't really need to hear about colourful-yet-worthless stones. I only need to hear about metallic ones and gemstones. I honestly didn't care about striking kaolinite the first, second, or third time, why the hailstones would I care the fourth?

-We got some more nobles. We got a Tax Collector, A Duke, A Duchess, and a Hammerer. Thankfully Unfortunately they came within the fortress boundaries right beside a pack of skeletal camels. The Tax Collector and the Duchess both almost got mauled (they were scared schistless at any rate), the Hammerer valiantly failed to fend off all the skamels on his own, and the Duke... well, he got broken and then killed. So we have a Duchess Consort and a Tax Collector to deal with in residence. I want to WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE TAKE CARE OF THEM but I can't think of a creative enough way to do it. Maybe one of the other dwarves will have an idea.

-Dracnor has made several times more masterwork helmets than we are ever likely to need, so all non-masterwork helmets are to be melted down and recycled. He's also made us quite a few good gauntlets. If we had more iron available (we're almost out), I would have him make us some really nice boots too. But alas; they must wait. Hopefully the goblins come soonish, armed to the teeth with iron and not bows.

-I've had some of the non-legendary marksdwarves practice their shooting. Void is now an elite marksdwarf, and our craftsdwarves' workshops are slightly less cluttered.

-The skamels, and the occasional skaguar, seem to be becoming... smarter. They now rush the fortress as soon as they are within sight, instead of just milling around in a group until someone gets close enough to bother chasing.

[sonerohi]

Spike traps, long and thin corridor, and a door. Set up a lever in the corridor that does nothing, and have a lever outside that actives the spikes (number up to you). Halway down the hallway, cancel the task on the empty lever and then lock the door, so that the noble will mill around there. Or just give them some rooms and lock them in.

[Snuffs]

I like the idea of

a) building a couple of levers outside, to get the nobles out there, then locking them out and leaving them to fend for themselves, or
b) capturing as many skamels and other wild-unlife as possible and having a big fight in the arena against the nobles.

Essentially, 'karmic' backlash for abandoning their friends to their fates.

[Shoruke]

Actually, I've been having the dwarves put the goblins/skamels/hydra into the arena when there's nothing else to do, so the karmic backlash idea works GREAT!

Now how to deal with the monsters when the nobles are gone... I'll probably just put Monk in his turret 

[Shoruke]

Shoruke's Log. 15th of Hematite. (early summer, year 28)
Translating from my sketch of the maze to real life is harder than I thought it would be. And of course, the maze is taking up materials like crazy. We're severely hard-pressed to keep up our stocks of obsidian blocks. So, I'm having the masons put the blocks in a single-tile-wide path, so that we have the skeleton of the maze down, and then when we get more obsidian blocks ready we can just expand the path.

The human caravan came, but they never even made it to The Gate; they got close though, before they were ambushed by skamels. Oh well. Free stuff. Everything they left us is usable, including the merchants' clothes (to sell back to them). They also dropped some wood (for clear glass), some metal gear (to melt down, thankfully most of it's iron) and some food (for, duh, eating).

Since we have to work out in the open to construct the labyrinth, the skamels are becoming a hell of a nuisance. I have Maggarg, Rick, Flint, and Atir perpetually standing guard around the construction zone, but the workers are still being scared off sometimes. The outdoor construction site, mixed with the skamels' newfound rushing tactic, means that there's almost continuous fighting.

I had the miners dig out all around the volcano on one layer, digging only the obsidian. So we have enough raw obsidian to last us a while; the problem is that one dwarf in one practice room doesn't turn the rocks into blocks fast enough. I'm having another practice room set up for another dwarf, to increase production. And I'm putting Kol, the legendary mason, in the new one.

Perhaps someone with a long memory will recall that I had the miners dig north and south of the hallway to the nobles' rooms. I'm having upright spears placed in one of those hallways, with a lever just beyond them. The spikes are connected to a completely different lever. This isn't for any particular reason, it's just for fun.

I've had the dwarves set up some of the goblin and skamel cages inside the arena on their spare time. This was mostly to free up space in the cage stockpile, because after disassembling all the cage traps outside The Gate, we have way to many cages around here. I'm also having some of the metallic cages melted down, because they are more useful as semirare metal bars than as empty cages.

The Duchess Consort was chased down and killed by a skeletal camel, which saw her while she was foolishly trying to retrieve her husband's underwear from where he died. It chased her all the way around the fortress, but the champions standing outside the fortress couldn't save her because the other skamels had rushed The Gate. So anyway, she's dead, and we don't have to worry about her pointless 'lead items' mandate.

The Queen has requested 'item in Dining Room', and I think I know what she wants. She wants an item, made of no material at all, to be placed in her dining room. And she won't accept the air in her room as an object made of nothing. So, I have no idea how to meet her demand.

Did I mention the skamels are really annoying and keep sieging the construction site? Cuz' they are.

[Shoruke]

For any who are interested, yes I have been playing Angcuggan Okbod, just not posting about it... another fisherdwarf got a fey mood, and made a mug with 4 pictures on it. The groundwork for the labyrinth is about 3/5 of the way done. And I decided that we would NOT be selling caged goblins to the dwarven caravan, on account of the goblins escaping when I try.

[R1ck]

Good to see that the maze is coming along nicely, and I have a couple of points to make about it.
1. Is the path quite convoluted?  If it is, then when the merchants are coming to the fortress, if it takes too long, they might turn around and head home right after they arrive at the depot.
2.Weapon traps are a great defense, and it's been said that large glass serrated disks do little damage, and so can torture an enemy by cutting off their hands and feet and such, while not killing them. Weapon traps are also a good way to use up semi-useless goblin weaponry.