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[Deathworks]

Hello!

So, I have really restarted my project of a slow-growth fortress, this time turning INVADERS OFF. Because I have a pop cap of 5, growth and development is extremely slow (there is only so much 7 dwarves can do). Thus, giving all details of things would be rather boring - so this will remain somewhat sketchy about many parts.

This being said, this first post is a bit rough - I have screenshots/information available, but it is on a different computer, so not available for this first post. Still, I think there are enough general things I can tell even without having the details here at the moment.

As was said before, this is a normal world with INVADERS OFF and population cap 5. The idea is to have a fortress with a minimal death rate and a slow, natural growth. In addition, making things aesthetically appealing is another goal. With these plans in mind, I sent my seven dwarves to settle in a normal swamp within elven dominated territories. The site was selected mainly because it included in its 3x3 zone a biome with black stone layers, as well as one with white stone layers.

After embark, I found this site to offer a lot of trees and bushes, ideal to start my industries and my surface farming. Ah! I had also chosen the site because there was a sand layer - allowing for a glass industry and offering a z-level where I can put intermediate things like my first food stores. As was to be expected, the entire map is completely flat, exception for the many murky pools.

So, first things first. After correcting the settings for who is broker and bookkeeper, I designated large sections of trees to be cut down and some smaller sections of bushes. At the same time, I had a downward stairway dug leading to a corner of a north and east corridor along which I ordered 3x3 rooms to be create for food storage, as well as one room for sand gathering (as that z-level was the sand layer - yeah!), a few rooms of similar size for finished goods and so on storage.

With the first trees cut down, I started building workshops on the surface and built beds I placed in the corridor (not making them rooms or barracks). I also had a  small meeting hall dug out and produced doors, tables and chairs to allow it to be defined.

So far, so good, a standard start.

Ah, as I usually embark in forests, I was worried about the wildlife, but there is just one animal, an alligator. Fortunately, my dwarves and kittens on the one hand and the alligator seem to have come to terms with "live and let live" and neither seems to want to get involved with the other.

Now came the first real personal touch of my fortress, namely the well. Health care is important for me as I don't want to lose dwarves, so the well is a main feature for me. A proper well is consists of several z-levels of a narrow shaft (1 tile in size) which leads to a reservoir which is about 5x5 tiles in horizontal size and several z-levels deep. This reservoir is linked via an openable floodgate to one of the murky pools for refilling if necessary. All stone walls and the bottom floor of the well are engraved and in one corner, there is a maintenance stair well leading right from the bottom to the surface to allow escape for accidental plummets.

Well, digging out the reservoir and the shaft was not much of a problem (I did delay the upper opening to the shaft though, until the well building was finished in hope of keep the shaft from turning above ground - which didn't work). But when I dug the tunnel connecting the reservoir to the pool, I found space to be very scarce. Still, no major problem - but in the end, there was not enough space to properly place the floodgate and later add the mechanism as I was using ramps within the tunnel instead of stairs (the tunnel is effectively a pipeline, so stairs just felt wrong).

Okay, this meant I needed to widen the uppermost area so I could reach the side of the floodgate, link it to the lever, and then close that gap with a constructed wall before digging the channel that connects the floodgate with the pool.

Easy enough.

But then, the imp of the perverse struck me, and instead of linking the floodgate with the lever, I dug the channel first. As the constructed wall wasn't there to close the gap next to the floodgate, water started to flood into the "pipeline"! Fortunately, I had placed a constructed wall in the middle of the pipeline to prevent any accidents, but still, the pipeline and floodgate were not finished but were flooded and thus unreachable.

Well, my hope rested with winter and a possible freeze of the water. Winter came after I did a little trade with the dwarves and ordered all sorts of stone - but the pools didn't freeze!

So, no other way then breaking down the wall and draining the pool. However, I was reluctant to do so, as the well needed to be completely engraved and prepared before water can be filled in AND I was also worried about the safety of the dwarf removing the wall - after all, on the other side of the wall, there was 7/7 water waiting to rush him/her down the pipeline. If someone was to fall into the empty reservoir, they were probably doomed to die.

So, I continued building the other components of the well and also added marble grates where the water leaves the pipeline and enters the reservoire in hope of preventing the worst if things turned out badly.

In between, elves and humans showed up. Unfortunately, no elf representative seems to be interested in my site, so I can't order wood from them (I was looking forward to that as they have a large territory, so many different types of wood should have been available). Still, I was able to trade for some items I needed, and production of export goods were constantly increasing. In addition, I also started to create a tomb section in the NE corner of the map at the lowest z-level, double engraving specious tombs and placing rock coffins in them. At least some of the tombs have a special system of why I placed certain dwarves there.

Over time, even though I have a pop cap of 5 and no dwarves lost yet, I saw some immigration of single dwarves, and now, in the summer of 1053 (fortress foundation 1051), I have ten dwarves.

The well is nearly finished (only the ceiling above the door needs to be finished), and I have already breached the wall and emptied the pool. I gave the command in spring 1053. Contrary to my fears, the 7/7 water first seemed unsure of what to do with its new found freedom allowing the dwarf who set it free to leave without even getting wet feet. Well, once it figured out that it was free to go, it rushed merrily down the pipeline.

My estimates were good, so the entire pool got drained filling just about 1/3 of the reservoir. Now, I have placed the floodgate where it ought to be and linked it to the lever. Ever since, there has been some rain (a common thing on that map :) :) :) ), and the pool is not broken this time, instead, it has begun to refill (yeah!). Thus, my well is up and running perfectly.

About 5 tombs are finished and three more are just waiting for coffins while the engraving of the other 12 burial chambers is advancing nicely, as is the preparation of the mass burial chamber for pets and other friendlies not owning tombs.

Near the burial site, I have also started a bigger design project I wish to continue slowly.

The preparation of the fortress proper, on the other hand, is starting only slowly as I want to use surface buildings of blocks of identical material. So, I am still mass producing blocks for that purpose with all my workshops still unprotected outside.

As for the breeding project, two dwarves became lovers relatively early on during the first year, but their affair has not developed into a marriage yet.

On the commercial side, scraping together all I could, I was able to buy an iron anvil from the dwarves in 1052, and have now started to turn rose gold, tin, and other uninteresting materials the caravans delivered or I found on site into crafts or trinkets my trading partners are looking for to make profit. I have to say that this way of really producing goods for export and actually looking at what my partners are asking for is much more fun than simply dumping all the goblin junk on them, just to get rid of it. Still, I do use them to get rid of the low quality statues and other objects I do not plan to use in my fortress :) :) :)

I am not sure whether it will be winter 1053, but I plan on reducing the workload on my dwarves so I get some idlers in between. After all, I can't really expect them to socialize if I keep them working 24 hours a day.

So, I am really happy with the developments at "Archwind", despite the initial glitch at the well, and despite the annoying fact that they have a $#^%$ dog as the symbol for their local government (first a coffin, now a dog - DF seems to hate me (T_T) ). Even the traders have not interfered with the alligator who is still strolling around the map keeping far away from my settlement (I have not a single job cancellation because of the alligator). Too bad the alligator doesn't have a name - it has become a regular subject of the engravings of my dwarves.

Well, that is all I can say at the moment. The dwarven caravan will be the real test for my new production philosophy - if everything works out well, I really hope I can give my dwarves a bit of a rest in the winter ... although there is still a lot of engraving to do (^_^;;

Deathworks

[Strife26]

I'd like to hear more! Whenever you get a chance of course Deathworks.

About what are you getting FPS wise?

[Deathworks]

Hello!

Thank you for your interest.

The game is currently going through Winter 1055. With large food stocks and also some repeat commands for trading goods for the elves, I can actually leave it alone for a while.

The elves do good trade with me, but I don't get a representative at this site. So no ordering interesting wood. Actually, Elven trade failed in 1054 since I didn't know they disliked clear glass (^_^;;

Other than that, the anvil is already bringing in a large profit, and either the humans or the dwarves (I keep forgetting which) have changed to sending ONLY the items I ordered. Nothing else. No food, no cloth, nothing. Just the things I ordered.

On my side of the bargain, I am currently concentrating on crafts as I have a lot of the weird metal bars lying around. However, for 1053, the dwarves had mentioned in 1052 they were interested in short swords, so I had hurried to produce some short swords which I was then able to sell for a good profit (the humans ordered goblets for 1054 with which I also complied).

I still haven't had a real chance to relieve the workload of my dwarves. It seems that immigration stops at 10 if population cap is 5. I had the feeling in my previous fortress, but because of the many deaths there, it was not really something for sure. Now, with no deaths and no dwarven births, the number seems certain.

Speaking of reproduction, I still don't have any married couples. However, I have another set of lovers (because there is no announcement, I can't say precisely when they came together), so, hopefully, there will be some good news in the future.

I do have the feeling that power makes sexy for dwarves, though. The first couple involves Erith, my fortress leader and bookkeeper. Her boyfriend has now become my first legendary in 1054 as a legendary miner. The second couple involves Litast, my fortress broker and manager. By now, I have two Legendary Engravers, one Legendary Miner and one Legendary Woodcutter. I take special pride in the fact that Litast has become a legendary engraver and not a legendary appraiser/trader.

My cats are slowly breeding and are a healthy population. However, I do have an animal problem - the donkeys are breeding like madness. I am not sure, but I think I had only one donkey, but that one took advantage of the caravans, it seems... Currently, I have about 126 animals of which 60 are donkeys!! - And the butcher shop is actually not scheduled yet (^_^;;

I also solved the mystery about the alligator. It simply decided to lurk in one of the pools away from my site, so none of the merchants was able to reach it. I am considering trapping and taming it, but I am not sure whether I need a Dungeon Master for that.

Below the surface, building and engraving have increased in pace. Considering that 3x3 is a rather small location, I don't think I will be able to place a lot of nice housing on the surface, so I decided to give at least my first seven subterranean rooms. So I dug down again to the lowest level (just like the graves, but a different path/entrance) and dug out 4x5 rooms to use for bed rooms. Currently, 4 are ready and in use and I am delaying the rest a little bit as I placed a crafts workshop in one room there to get rid of all the stone.

Each dwarf has their private tomb and most tombs should have all the necessary item bearing furniture. I have been a bit negligent about putting statues in them, but I have so much rock now, that producing statues is no problem. In the corridor in front of the animal/visitor tomb, I have placed an additional masonry workshop to convert all the granite there into blocks (I have decided that granite makes a good material for most neutral building projects, including the streets in my fortress, so I need a lot of granite blocks).

One level above the graves and living quarters, the lowest level of the great temple is beginning to take shape and the plaza in front of it is nearing completion as far as engraving is concerned. Unfortunately, I seem to have picked a solitary swamp with no history whatsoever, so it is just fortress history events they engrave (T_T).

On the surface, I have built a street leading to the west border from my depot. I say street also to stress that it consists of floor constructions rather than roads, so I can place other things on it or change details of it easily (each tile is a separate building and thus can be manipulated separately).

Unfortunately, production of Alder Blocks has been rather slow, so the construction of the Dragon Tooth Inn is still not getting anywhere (T_T)

I have started building an olivine block hut around the entrance to the living quarters (after all, green is supposed to mark such regions :) :) :) ), using green glass portals for the entrance and serpentine blocks for the floor - but one side wall is still missing for lack of blocks. It is also to feature green glass windows to keep in the common flavor. Currently, my glassmakers are busy producing green glass blocks which I plan to use for the ceiling of that hut.

I really need to get things sped up about the Inn.

And I need to produce more blocks of different kinds so that I can finally relocate the workshops.

My road design is not ideal at some places (the Inn ended up bordering directly at its street and the entrance hut mentioned above is also placed a bit awkward), but there are no major glitches and with a little bit of design and though, I think I can improve those things I am not satisfied with.

Wood is definitely not a problem on this map. The regrowth rate is really huge, and now that I have laid down at least some traffic zones, I hope that even around my central areas, tree growth will be alright.

As for farming, I do have some rope reeds by now, but I have not yet built up a cloth making industry as it is currently not needed by the fortress.

Alcohol stocks are going up and down quite a lot, but as these things are pretty cheap, it becomes more and more an import affair.

To help with food stocking, I have increased my stockpiles a bit and also tried cooking food, but I simply do not have enough manpower right now to be sure that all the food gets transported before it spoils.

I am really curious about how the Temple will fare, though. It is definitely too great a design for just my 10 dwarves, so I hope I see those marriages soon (^_^;;

Well, this is how things are looking right now. As expected, not really much excitement here.

Deathworks

P.S.: Framerate (with Irfanview running in the background for screen captures) is currently at around 25 FPS, probably because of all the donkeys running around aimlessly.

EDIT!!
I have uploaded captures of the local map for each spring at the map archive:

http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/map-4445-archwind

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Sorry about the double post, but this fortress is probably nearing its early end now.

Without many additional events, I have reached the end of 1060, and various miscalculations on my part and missing cooperation from the game are adding up to a rather uninspiring fortress.

But first, the news of what has happened.

In order to fight the explosion of donkeys going wild, shortly after the previous post, I started my slaughtering programm. Since I still only have 10 dwarves and they have other things to do, it took nearly 2 years untill the last of the foul creatures was dead.

Originally, I had 129 animals when I started butchering, besides the cats/kittens and the donkeys, there was also a horse (non-pet). At first, things started at a decent pace, but then, my dwarves took a break of butchering for a month - and the breeding began. From 104 animals, it went up back to more than 120 animals - all because of the donkeys breeding (basically, for each kitten born, four or five donkey foals were born) like mad.

But after 2 horrible years, the last E-A- was heard in my fortress. Even though my industry was horribly stretched, I managed to get more than 70 (!) pieces of donkey leather out of this.

While the construction of the inn was still not getting anywhere, I did start building a tower over the trade depot, housing the offices of my record keeper and my trader, as well as armor, ammo, weapon, finished goods, and coins stock piles.

This, in turn allowed me to get my stockpile records up straight which my record keeper finished within a year (I may be mistaken, but she seemed awfully fast in the beginning).

I deconstructed all my fields and ceased demanding food from the traders as I simply had far too much of it (10 dwarves and 2600 units of food, 760 of which were drinks).

Because I did a very inefficient ordering policy, the dwarves only brought the ordered goods and only one or two pieces of each.

With the merchant tower nearly completed (a few microcline walls are missing), I started work on the glass production tower where I wanted specialized stockpiles and workshops needed for glass production (ashery, glass furnace, kiln, wood furnace) to be atop of each other. Having designed this somewhat better, construction has flown smoothly.

I also started building a small fisher hut for the fisher's workshop and also began work on the fence around the park area.

As a little art project, I designated a 7x10 area outside to be floored and selected olivine, serpentine, and kaolinite blocks - leaving it up to the dwarves to determine where to put the stones. I surrounded the area by walls and put some statues in it as my first statue garden.

Well, along these lines, I reached the year 1060 which added quite a lot of frustration.

2 cats died of old age, and they were not buried, instead put on the refuse heap (they didn't even get to be brought to the graveyard pile I designated hastily.

I still have two pairs of lovers and no married couples!

The dwarven merchants killed my (untamed) alligator! A new one has arrived quickly, but it has not settled down yet.

In between, I got confirmation that I settled in a single-tile swamp, meaning I will definitely not get any interesting engravings.

While the lack of married couples is definitely a major problem for the project, the failure of my big underground project was really what made me lose interest in the fortress.

Having somehow managed all things that needed quick responses and waiting for the right blocks to be produced, I had my dwarves dig out the second level of the temple interior and the ramps to the third level. As I was watching my dwarves carve those ramps, my thoughts dwelled on the rain that was taking place above the ground.

I was kind of surprised to see something blue among all the marble-white of the digging. As I was thinking about the rain, I first thought about a bug causing the rain to come inside. But then I realized that water was streaming down the freshly dug ramps.

Had I found an underground pocket of water? After all, I was digging from -13 to -12 on a completely flat map, so none of the murky pools would go that far down.

So, I switched the view one z-level up and grew red with embarassment.

The ramp had breached the wall of the maintenance shaft of the well and the water coming down was the contents of the reservoir...

Fortunately, it was really just a hole of 1 tile diagonally from the stair, so, as soon as the water level had sunk, I was able to close the hole with a single piece of wall.

However, even with this solved, it meant that the temple was absolutely impossible to finish. The outside would definitely interfere with the well even if I shortened the inside drastically. And this would still leave the unsightly remainder of the aborted initial excavation.

So, with no breeding dwarves in sight, no interesting engravings, and a drastic architectural failure to boost, I think I will abandon in Spring 1061 and start afresh taking advantage of the lessons I have learned.

Deathworks

[Strife26]

Well Deathworks, did you have fun? That's all that matters.

[Haika]

Interesting to read

The breeding problem is why I always have a shared cage set up in the middle of my dining halls, stuffed with any random animal not allready claimed as a pet, so they don't breed, and can be butchered at leisure.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Thank you for the encouragement.

As for fun, it was something of an up and down experience. But it was definitely exciting all the time.

In the beginning, with all the optimism, it was a lot of fun.

Then the elves didn't send someone to negotiate with and instead of the dwarves the donkeys began breeding like mad and I made the stupid mistake with the well.

That phase wasn't really fun.

Then I started the surface buildings and the temple in earnest, and these projects really cheered me up. The success with the tower over the trade depot was really empowering.

I also realized some of the other strategic mistakes I had made and fixed them.

So, in that phase, the game was real fun.

But then the temple broke away, and with no dwarven breeding in sight, the fun level of this fortress hit rock bottom - there was simply nothing to look forward to.

Still, the fortress was well worth it.



I have genned a new world which accidentally didn't have any goblin civ, so I was able to turn invaders on again.

I just saw the first elven caravan and again, no negotiator, which forces me to change my plans about the foresting policy (I wanted to do no tree cutting once I got to order wood from the elves), but is only a minor set-back.

My dwarves are getting along and I have one pair of lovers. The horse and the one-humped camel have pre-emptively been slaughtered, and my kittens have grown up and begun to breed.

My well is finished (this time a subterranian well to protect against freezing). The reservoire has a little water, but the pool I use as a source, combined with the long way the water takes to get to the reservoire yields only 3/7 per filling (^_^;;

I did forget to order raw stones for crafting/furniture from the dwarves, so I had to do some quarry work. Fortunately, this time I have a more mountaineous map, so there was a small peak I could remove easily without too much hazzle - getting some pieces of flint.

The kobolds also visited. Most of the time, they escaped, but one got killed allowing me to acquire one of those giant spider silk loincloths - this should allow me to purchase an anvil and thus overcome the handicap of having not ordered the raw stones.

I may give a more detailed report once I am sure that things will be alright this time - no need to get people excited only to see the project prematurely abandoned.

Deathworks

[Sareth]

Do you ever write posts less than a paragraph in length? It would be refreshing to see something like:

Hi!

No.

Deathworks

or

Hi!

Well fuck you and your pansy elven tree city!

Deathworks

Seriously though, you act nice for somebody with a badass name like Deathworks.