Print

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

[NewoTigra]

So far this week I have had two forts crumble due to negligence, and one prematurely ended due to poor planning.

the first time I had a nice little fort set up, a bear breeding + training area, and a complicated series of pits and drawbridges to release trained bears against attackers¹.

During one siege a single migrant fisherdwarf managed to get locked outside. He wasn't being bothered by the siegers so I dropped some supplies to him via the bear release pit and had him start building a Microline² tower with a moat and an underground dining area + farm plot / food storage³.

I was finishing off the moat + drawbridge when I saw a purple announcement at the bottom of the screen.
Urist McLegendaryWeaponsmith has died of thirst.
I was so busy building the tower I had forgotten to order my cooks to brew more booze. Appropriately enough they both died before they could brew anything. It turns out those three dwarves were super-popular, and the fort soon destroyed itself via Tantrum spiral. Well, that and lack of booze as everyone was too busy tantrumming to brew any.

Eventually just the fisherdwarf in his Microline tower remained. Then a carp swam into the moat as he was fishing.⁴
*HeadDesk*

Fort #2 died because I left them with a well over the local river (walled off for safety) and then went to have lunch while they built the megaproject. They ran out of booze and the river froze over during winter, deconstructing the well.
I can back to a "Your fortress has crumbled to its' end" message. I facepalmed.

For Fort #3 I was digging out an entrance next to the ocean, and poor channelling caused part of the roof to collapse. The dust knocked all six miners into the sea, where they drowned. Sort of a 'rocks fall, everybody drowns' moment. The remaining dwarf suicided shortly after seeing all his friends sink to their deaths.

¹:what? I managed to get several breeding pairs. Besides, Bear Military.
²:To blind anyone trying to attack it.
³: So it would be self-sustained via fishing and farming.
⁴:I'm actually somewhat amazed that they didn't get him sooner, as he was digging the moat.

[Roland]

This one is just stupidity on my part. I had a really nice fortress going (my second; my first one died because I didn't know what I was doing) and after several years of boring (not that killing every noble that arrives is boring, but they don't come that often) I decided to abandon the fortress and create a new one somewhere else. I failed at that, having had a really good location for my abandoned fortress, and decided to return and reclaim my old one. Little did I know that abandoning apparently means dwarves running around throwing your most valuable goods in every direction. I am still cleaning up, and it's been 3 years.

[TheStratovarian]

In a new game, and a real surprise to me. Im pretty new to this, but learning as i play. Today, I had a very nice setup, even found some adamantium very early though deep digging, and lost it. When in creating the first squad, even armoring them with a bit of steel armor, and giving them weapons to train, i finally see as i turn the 2nd migrant wave group (the first usually drops 10-20 guys, the second usually takes me to 50 dwarves) to some soldiering, and see three death messages, but only having two soldiers, i wonder, and get to see they killed each other, and the mayor through bleeding to death. the death spiral, after my miners got through, well, none could have been a match for two near legendary ones and a pick. I just abandoned after that.

[Grendus]

Embarked in a mountain biome. I'm usually not a big fan of mountain forts, but this one was fairly flat, so it's more like a mountain built on a plain-type environment.

My first mistake was in only bringing about 20 logs. Considering that I was playing with Dig Deeper but orcs modded to be trappable (actually, they weren't, I intended to give them the goblin's siege triggers and the goblins their siege trigger, but it completely failed so I made them trappable) and intended to capture scores of them for a megaproject, I had no wood and not enough dwarves to set up a glassmaking industry. I just barely got by with copper cages.

My second mistake was in not setting up a good well early in the game. After a personal record breaking immigration wave (35 or so dwarves, frakkin ridiculous) I was struggling so hard for food that I nearly forgot about water. Since this was a mountain next to a desert, the only water was in the UG river, and since my only farm was a pitiful thing dug into a small nook of sand on the mountains edge, I didn't even have enough plump helmets to eat much less brew. Fortunately, this crisis occurred right after I flooded my tower cap farm, so one of the herbalists I received was able to quickly find some pig tails for my moody clothier (first time I've EVER seen a dwarf demand plant fiber cloth, they always want silk) and a good mix of processable and edible plants. In addition, the magma dam I used to set up my flooder (which works great, diverts the entire UG river into a tower cap farm for very quick flooding) had a side effect of creating an underwater obsidian wall that seems to screw with the river-dwellers pathing and keeps them from entering the southern half of that tier of the river, so I was able to access water and even build a nice well.

[Maulrus]

I spent twenty minutes looking on a rather bland world I genned for a suitable location to start my first fort in months. I start it up, dig for a while, see that there are some fish in the river. "Damn, I wish I'd brought some fisherdwarvers."

Well, I forgot two things.

1. Breweries are essential for dwarves. Without them, they'll go to the river for water.
2. CARP SO MANY CARP OH GOD BLOOD EVERYWHERE

All my dwarves are now dead.

[Grendus]

Spent half an hour wondering why my dwarves weren't butchering kittens. Finally realized that after a frogman siege (pathetic siege, even in force they're pitiful enemies) I forgot to let my dwarves outside. Dwarves were walking around thirsty because, due to the Dig Deeper plants, I ran out of booze and they couldn't reach my wells. Giant facepalm.

[Skooma]

"Hm, this area is pretty heavily forested. Better build a paved road so the wagons can reach my depot."

The road hasn't been used in the ten game years since I built it.

I built a bypass through a mountain just for caravans.


Caravans never used it, but an ambush did.

[Julius Clonkus]

This tops the amount of STUPID my fortresses have ever witnessed so far. That being said, I was concerned about my dwarves' mental state. But I'm happy to see they are the lazy bastards I was promised. Especially when they're named after one of your buddies.

[Euld]

Embarked on a volcanic island in an ocean with two aquifers.  Knowing it would be difficult (but rewarding, <3 glass) I forgot that although miners start with picks, woodcutters don't start with axes.  Then I preceeded to use all my wood for beds, ran out, and realized what I did.  Did control alt delete so I wouldn't have to wait until fall.

[assimilateur]

I forgot that although miners start with picks

Excuse me? I'm pretty sure you have to pay for picks yourself.

EDIT: And even if not, you might as well. Copper picks only cost 20 DB, and spending embark points on the mining skill is a waste, seeing how miners become legendary in no time without them.

[darthbob88]

I forgot that although miners start with picks

Excuse me? I'm pretty sure you have to pay for picks yourself.

EDIT: And even if not, you might as well. Copper picks only cost 20 DB, and spending embark points on the mining skill is a waste, seeing how miners become legendary in no time without them.

AFAIK, that is correct. The only free equipment you get, aside from clothes, is if the dwarf is an ambusher, in which case they get armour, crossbow, and bolts for free. And yes, I always spend the points on miner/woodcutter skills. I'm beginning to think I should spend those points on the hard to raise skills and simply designate dwarves for certain jobs.

Edit: Can probably call this my most recent face-palm moment.

[XSI]

I had another face palm moment a while back, and forgot to check a dwarf's preferences before assigning him to get the social stats/expedition leader.

He liked cats, adamantine, crystal glass, and bismuth.

I'm playing the fort with the hammerer locked up nice and tightly in his cozy bedroom with ceiling hole for food.

[darthbob88]

I had another face palm moment a while back, and forgot to check a dwarf's preferences before assigning him to get the social stats/expedition leader.

He liked cats, adamantine, crystal glass, and bismuth.

I'm playing the fort with the hammerer locked up nice and tightly in his cozy bedroom with ceiling hole for food.

I keep seeing people do that, and I don't know how to do it. How do you throw food down a hole like that? Pits don't work, stockpiles can't be set up on bridges, and dumping it would probably not bring food/drink alone.

[NecroRebel]

You drop things down a hole by making a garbage dump zone over the hole, switching off all of your other garbage dump zones, removing the dump designation from items you don't want to give to the 'prisoners,' and then designating that which you do want to give to them for dumping.

In the alternative, you could make a stockpile on the edge of the hole, then use water to push items in. That method is more complicated, more difficult to set up, less reliable, and more dangerous, however it also requires less micromanagement, so it may be dwarfy.

[assimilateur]

I have yet to try anything like that, but I don't see why it wouldn't work to dump food and drink through a hole. Only problem I see is possible spoilage, and I'm wondering whether or not designating a food stockpile under the hole would remedy that.

Other than that, using an airlock seems like a viable way of feeding a prisoner.