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1) Players will turn in their fortress as-is, at no additional penalty

45 (60%)

2) Players will be given a short extension, dependant on how near they are, and how many players are unfinished

27 (36%)

3) Players will be disquallified from scoring

2 (2.7%)

4) Something else (please explain)

1 (1.3%)

Total Members Voted: 75

[Magua]

I'm going to buck the trend and say that I *will* submit my map!

In the morning.

I've got 18 days left before spring, and I want to do as much cleanup as I can.

And so I ask of you: how do I get an artifact out of a bin?

[CobaltKobold]

I'm not sure, but I'd guess that dumping the bin works, if you make the arti-stockpile stop using 'em. (Then again, I suspect they'd just haul the bin back.)

Or, as I hear artifacts are indestructible (something I personally doubt), liberal application of magma. But I don't recommend trying it now, for obvious reasons.

Strange tidbit: Wells do not block pumping.

[Martin]

I'm going to buck the trend and say that I *will* submit my map!

In the morning.

I've got 18 days left before spring, and I want to do as much cleanup as I can.

And so I ask of you: how do I get an artifact out of a bin?

Create a stockpile which only holds artifact quality whateversitis. Mark the stockpile it's in to not hold artifact quality thingers. Someone will come along and move it from the one to the other (provide it's not forbidden).

Artifacts are most assuredly destructible. But they are undumpable.

[Magua]

Create a stockpile which only holds artifact quality whateversitis. Mark the stockpile it's in to not hold artifact quality thingers. Someone will come along and move it from the one to the other (provide it's not forbidden).

Artifacts are most assuredly destructible. But they are undumpable.

I did that for most of my artifacts, but one of them went inside a bin, and that didn't work.  Apparently, dwarves won't fetch things out of bins to put into a stockpile.

I researched a bit, and the advice seems to be "get the bin into a stockpile, and then have your artifact stockpile (t)ake from the first one".  I did this, and gave it 14 days, and no dwarf came to take the artifact out of the bin (even with 60-70 of them idling), so I can't speak to the veracity.

Then I realized that the bin was copper, so I melted it down.  Problem solved, and it got stowed into the museum just in time.

[Magua]

Map is done!  Four days late, but better than never...

Download

Dwarf Fortress Map Archive

I played this one "dwarfy", where "dwarfy" is "embodying the rules that I usually ignore in Dwarf Fortress":

1) All nobles were kept alive.  In addition, their requirements, mandates, and demands were actually followed instead of ignored (as the legendary dining room is usually proof against any unhappiness caused).  For the most part, the mandates were easy stuff -- scepters, quivers, querns, maybe the occasional black bronze.  However, the duke would occasionally mandate large gems (difficult; lost a dwarf to failing one of these), and the duke's consort liked to mandate stuff made out of bismuth.  You can't make anything out of bismuth.  My supply of bismuthinite was small, but adequate.

2) A Sheriff was appointed, rather than left vacant.  A vacant Sheriff means that no Justice will be served; having a Sheriff appointed means that you need to watch out for the Hammerer.  I managed only three violations through the eight years; only one of those was fatal (why did a leatherworker get punished for missing a large gems mandate?  Who knows?)

3) The suggested number of Royal and Fortress guards were drafted.  So the huge fighting force of 25 or so dwarves that could trample my enemies was instead useless and unmanageable, and indeed, as far as I could tell, did exactly nothing.  They certainly didn't catch and kill any kobold thieves that made it into my fort while it was open, I can tell you that.

4) Alcohol was not cooked.  In addition, all of the underground plants were harvested and used, to give a wide selection of food and booze, instead of unending stacks of plump helmet roast and dwarven wine.

(I did not, however, make coins.  Enough FPS problems as it was.)

Project List:
#1: Sign
#2: Pump Towers
#3: Hammer
#4: Pick
#5: Sacrificial Pyramid

Along with subprojects:
A. Be dwarfy (as above)
B. (Untested automated) drowning chamber.
C. Waterfalls through dining room.

But, enough of that.  Pictures!

Status Screen

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

3.8 million dwarfbucks, 159 dwarves.  The vast majority of the wealth is in prepared food.  I swear that at the beginning of Opal, the wealth stood at 4.2 million dwarfbucks, which means that 400,000 dwarfbucks of food was consumed during that time.  Although I performed every industry that I could, the only one that I used to produce wealth en masse was stonecrafting.  Even with two legendary stonecrafters working full time, the amount of wealth I had in food was staggering.  When I offered 100,000 dwarf bucks to the dwarven caravan to appease the Incoming King, 30,000 was in stone crafts and 70,000 was in prepared meals.

11 citizens of Muckgrotto died during the eight years
- 1 from the wildlife (a woodcutter charged harpies to save an engraver)
- 3 due to a fire imp teleporting through fortifications into the magma forges (2 from the imp itself, and 1 from hauling a burning bag of sand)
- 2 from the humans during their sieges
- 2 from sparring injuries
- 1 from being hammered after a large gem mandate wasn't met (this was a leatherworker, not a jeweler, oddly enough)
- 2 from stupidity (being on a stair above magma that was being deconstructed, opening a door holding pressurized magma)

10 additional merchantdwarves and their guards died, and were buried as is proper
- 3 from fire imps / wildfire
- 6 from goblin ambushes
- 1 from a hydra

Overview Picture

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sign

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The bed is the symbol of the Conjurers of Vegetables, the local dwarven government. The narrow crescent is the symbol of the Lenses of Toning, the dwarven civilization.  Zagstokuzar is, of course, dwarvish for Muckgrotto.

This is constructed entirely out of felsite blocks, after I saw how many I had after completing the mold for the pyramid.

Pump Towers

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first project completed.  Gives me both water and magma pressurized to the second highest z-level.  This allows the pyramid to be a fountain, and for water/magma to flow to the top of the hammer/pick without additional bulky pipes, or routing power there.  This was used during the casting of the pyramid.

The pumps are powered by 35 water wheels (generating roughly twice the power required to run all of my machinery in the entire fort.  Oh well.)  Originally, I was very worried about generating the flow required, and drew up plans for a huge vertical shaft down which water would fall and the like.  In the end, given that an aquifer acts as both a source and a sink, the answer was simplicity itself. 

The Hammer

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It doesn't show well in Visual Fortress, but while the shaft of the hammer is felsite, the head is actually iron.  Originally, the head was going to be some rock as well, but when the exploratory mining for copper turned up so much hematite, the plan was changed.

The hammer contains quarters for the King (for when he arrives), his Advisor (ditto), the Duke, and the Duke's consort.  It also contains the pressurized magma pipe, which was used for casting the pyramid.  Sadly, the topmost floor of the hammer is unfinished because I ran out of iron (and time to mine for more iron).  Inside the head of the hammer, the magma pipe is made of clear glass, to impress the nobles.

Tangentially: the Duke's consort loves scepters, and mandated the construction of many.  This is fine; legendary stonecrafters cranked out rock crafts non-stop, so scepters were generated as a matter of course.  However, she also decreed an export ban of scepters...pretty much permanently.  At one point, I go to trade with the merchants with a stockpile full of finished goods bins...none of which show up because they each contain at least one scepter.  I know that trading bins that contain unexportable goods actually doesn't cause a crime (because only the bin was moved, not the good), but that violates the "be dwarfy" bit.  Instead, all scepters are now stockpiled in her room.  Still can't sell them, but at least they're out of the trading stockpile.  Not only does she own dozens of scepters personally, but she has hundreds in her room.

Also tangentially, there's supposed to be a windmill at the top of the hammer to power the pump that acts as a floodgate...but I see it's not there.  Must've deconstructed when I cut the power to the pump, even though it's on solid floor.  Oh well, live and learn.

The Pick

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The companion to the hammer, the pick is made with a felsite shaft and a copper head.  Copper was chosen because construction of the underground fortress hit three large veins of copper, so I had plenty; however, construction of the pick's head proved problematic because of support issues, an inability to build downwards as opposed to upwards, and my general crappiness at designing 3-D shapes.  In the end, the plan changed a lot in midstream, and I ran out of copper which led to much of the exploratory mining.  Still not entirely happy about the shape.

Anyways, the pick contains the quarters for the hammerer and the tax collector.  It also contains the pressurized water tower that was used to cast the pyramid.  The very tip of the pick reaches just over the top of the pyramid, so that water or prisoners can be dropped directly onto the top.  This way, dwarves can toss captives onto the pyramid without actually having to go outside themselves.  Inside the head of the pick, the water pipe is made of clear glass, to impress the nobles.

The floor of the hammerer's quarters are felsite block, since I ran out of copper (and ran out of time to mine for more copper).

Tangent: Looking over the map fully revealed now that I'm done, I see that my exploratory mining missed two large veins of copper by less than five tiles.  Oh well.

Sacrifical Pyramid

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The originally-conceived megaproject was a fountain, but the design of the fountain looked very much like a Mayan pyramid, and I remembered reading in the forums about people using Mayan pyramid like structures to dispose of captives, and, well, there you go. 

The pyramid was cast from obsidian, with the magma provided by what would become the hammer, and the water provided by what would become the pick.  Each level was done with this process:

1) Build a mold.  For the lower levels, this was a two-level mold; for the larger levels, one level was all that was necessary.

2) Flood with 2/7 magma.

3) Flood with water.  In the case of a one-level mold, excess water spilled into the aquifer.

4) Remove mold (again, water drained into the aquifer) 

5) Repeat, using a new, smaller mold on the new level.

The first two levels went slowly; the rest of them were relatively quick.  *Everyone* was given the mason task. for building/removing the mold.

The accent on the pyramid is cinnabar, which I found metric tons of during the exploratory mining.  The statues, in addition to being a nice artistic touch, were put on to correct the design flaw -- I was unaware of the fact that you could use a ramp to move up *and* diagonally at the same time until I saw my dwarves do while smoothing the pyramid, so the statues are put in place to keep someone from using the ramps in the death channels to escape and get onto the pyramid proper.

The death channels that the captives must travel to escape are filled with ten weapon traps each, one per level.  Each trap contains ten silver weapons: two swords, two maces, two spears, two hammers, two axes.  Grand total of 320 weapons.

Why silver?  Because the idea of death-by-a-thousand-cuts amuses me (what fun is it for the captives to die on the top level?), but also because by the time I was putting in the traps, I knew I was essentially out of iron *and* copper.

Sadly, I received no sieges nor ambushes once it was completed, so it as yet untested as to whether it is easy or difficult for a captive to escape alive.

Dining Room

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nothing out of the ordinary here, except for the waterfalls, which can sort of be made out in the picture (the room is not, in fact, flooding).  The dining room functions as a hub for the underground fort, so the dwarves path constantly through the waterfalls that fall over each exit.  Doesn't seem to make them cleaner, though.

Exploratory Mining

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A shot of the bottommost level, showing the strip mining that occurred in the search for More Copper(tm), and eventually More Iron(tm).  Based on the three copper veins I hit on the way down, I thought copper would be plentiful.  I was wrong, but I did find plenty of iron.

The bottom six levels all essentially look like this: A grid of 40x40 squares, with any veins I ran into mined out (with the exception of cinnabar at the end).

Drowning Chamber

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The fortress' only real defense.  Six pumps, fed by the aquifer, with six raiseable bridges, that, when lowered, return the water to the aquifer.

In theory, this is now automated -- pressure plates trigger the raising of the bridges and power to the pumps, and a different set of pressure plates stops the pumps and lowers the bridges when it's full.  Entirely untested, as ever since its completion, I've had no sieges, and ambushes have all been driven off by merchants.

Human History

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As related elsewhere in this thread, in 101, the human liaison was killed by a fire imp.  I totally didn't notice.

In 102, the humans sieged.  They waited for a looooooong time before actually attacked, and then quite ungallantly died in my drowning chamber.

In 103, the humans sieged again.  Since I required a dwarven caravan for cave spider silk, outwaiting them wasn't an option, so I started a wildfire which killed them all.

In 105, they sued for peace.  I think only a single dwarf had personally killed a human during the entire war.

[Magua]

Also, I saw Martin asking for Visual Fortress screenshots, so here are some screenshots of his fort:

Bird's eye view

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

View of the front

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

View from the side

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ground level view

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Martin]

Magua,

Wow, that is seriously cool. I love how the pyramid turned out in the visualizer, and using the hammer and pick as water/magma deliverers to the pyramid is inspired. I had considered doing a large aboveground construction with obsidian but I couldn't figure out a good way to get the materials up high that didn't seem contrived.

That's a wicked amount of work. Well done.

And I too like weak weapon traps. Among other things, if the first few lines of traps are really weak, enemies get wounded but don't clog up the traps because they don't die there. Sometimes highly efficient traps are too efficient, get jammed, and then your defenses are gone.

[Martin]

Thank you so much for running visualizer on my fort. It does a nice job with the battlements on top. The windmill tower/pump looks much larger than I imagined and unfortunately provides a nasty blind spot for my soldiers - ninja spawns are almost always right behind that thing.

I think I should have worked more color in. The green is pretty monotonous.

[Magua]

You're welcome -- you gave me the pleasure of locking up my computer for five minutes, it's the least I could do in return.  =P

As for the green: A little color, yeah.  I'm getting to the opinion that it's good to have a 95% solid color, with 5% accents.  It's actually kind of annoying, having a really good legendary dining room and then looking at it in Visual Fortress and realizing that because a third of it was mined out of a microline cluster that it looks garish.  My nobles' rooms look garish because I put the highest value stuff in there, not necessarily the stuff that looked best together.  One of the charms and aggravations of DF, I suppose.

[Martin]

You're welcome -- you gave me the pleasure of locking up my computer for five minutes, it's the least I could do in return.  =P

Did you get the levitating wagons? If you pull the lever right away from the save, the wagons will still be on screen and everything falls except for them. Kinda cool.

[Realmfighter]

hey, Magua, could you post VF pics of my fort to?

[Magua]

It won't run on my machine at home, but I can certainly do it Monday.

[CobaltKobold]

and the duke's consort liked to mandate stuff made out of bismuth.

Tip: Mandates for metal items...can be filled by smelting bars of the metal. It's also number of items, not jobs executed. Certainly helps with my gold-loving countess. So, then, gold items [4/4] could be smelt gold(1) forge gold goblet(1)

[Meta]

I'm out for this contest. I don't have enough free time to finish it. Maybe I'll post my unfinished map on DF Map Archive.

Eight years are really too long, and, in the end, I think that a survival challenge needs to be magma-free. It was too easy with it.

@Magua: nice pyramid!

[CobaltKobold]

I kind of got distracted from the map just now.