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[Nightwind]

After my last world died from.... well what do you call it when, in an attempt to kill a kitten with a bronze colossus, you accidentally destroy the fort?

No fun novice questions this time, just some logs of what I intend to do, what I did, and what I've got.

Site is a 9x6 in a "micro" world with some modifications.  Took me over 300 before one would finish, then I got lucky, 2 good sites.  The 4x4 has magma, underground river, flux and other features. Also has a sandy loam soil layer.  In other news, no trees.  Means I'm going to need to learn to towercap farm.

I could reduce it as small as 4x4 and still get everything but the 'other features' but I doubt I'll have to.  Framerate can chug if it has to.

Interestingly enough I'm one tile over from the home kingdom.  And yes, I built a volcano in this world, why, because I could.

b1: The Poetic Wall
mountain
warm, no trees, no vegetation, calm
Rhyolite, basalt, diorite

b2: The Awe Inspiring Dune
badlands
warm, no trees, no vegitation, calm
Sandy loam, Dolomite, phyllite, diorite

So the Dolomite is my flux.  There's a chance of hemitite in my mountain layers, so it looks like I'm digging UP.  On the other hand, if I mine out all the dolomite, I might find large clusters of iron stone, with platnimum in it... tempting.  Ah, and so is the COAL. 

It looks like I've got a chance of bauxite AND magma in this together.  Bet my magma is in the mountain part.  My farming is in the southern part, as are most of my "features"  So put housing, workshops, and such in the mountain and farm out?

No sand though, that's a shame.  Simplifies my crafts though, right?  Stone crafts (no wood, no class) and bone crafts (totems?) and that's my trade...

No, lets scrap the adamantium deposit.

Taking it down to a 2X2 I loose my river.  Smallest with river is 2X3... Magma pipe is down near the bottom of my area.  Has to be bottom LEFT.  Flux is bottom Right.  Underground river is through the upper 2 tiles.  Now lets expand this so I get a more even distrubution in my biomes...

There, 4X4, and I think I know where my features are.

I hit p, so there's a copy of this... somewhere?  So it can be redone in case of "fun" right?

Now to build my embark team, now where did I leave those notes? 

... odd, I can't get bauxite on embark...

Ok, no trees, no sand... so starting skills are.

Leader Ambusher, novice Animal Trainer, Novice Marksdwarf, competent Armor user, novice judge of intent, novice appraiser, novice building designer (not going to be hunting, but free armor, free ranged weapon, leader, and cooks my books)
Smith Proficient Carpenter, Proficient Metalsmith (likely will be moving items for others until established)
Armor Proficient  Miner, Proficient Armorsmith
Arms Proficient Miner, Proficient Weaponsmith
Tinker Proficient Miner, Proficient Mechanic (main miner)
Chef Proficient Grower, Proficient Cook
Brewer Proficient Grower, Proficient Brewer

Now, items:

plump helmet (32) booze, food, seed, all is good under the world.

meat (all 2 cost ones)
extra turtle (31 total) (I'm in a mountain, in the desert, this is all the shell I might ever have)

booze (11 of each of 4)

seeds (5 each of starting 6)

Iron Anvil
cinnabar (for making a metalshop)
Tetrahedrite  x3 (three picks)

Towercap Logs (51) some for burning, some for beds, there's nothing else to burn here...

4 dogs (I can train them up with my "leader")
1 kitten (vermin, but there has to be a better way someday)

Strike The EARTH

[Nightwind]

Alright, I started right at the devide between rhyloite and dolomite.  I've got a rather nice starting space, in theory.

Central shaft all the way down.

Farms branch out at the lowest level I can grow.
4 levels of storage and temporary workshops
homes below that

Let cave adaption happen, there's NOTHING on the surface for me.  Unless i put a walled garden in for surface crops?

Remove hunting from the leader.
Take apart the wagon
Build a wood furnace
make 6 charcoal
temporary surface meeting zone
remove wood furnace
build smelter
smelt 3 Tetrahedrite  (no silver)
build kennels
build kitchen
remove smelter
build weaponsmiths shop
train 4 wardogs
make 3 picks
remove turtles from cookable list
make "meals"

STRIKE the Earth!

Right, made a hatch cover and a throne.
Moving my stockpiles underground.
Soon I'll be able to build the cover, close the door, forbid it...
(you have struck hematite)

[Mraedis]

Shouldn't this be in this forum?

[Nightwind]

nope, i'm not telling a story, I'm asking questions.

[Beanchubbs]

nope, i'm not telling a story, I'm asking questions.

No you aren't. The only questions in your posts are rhetorical or you have answered on your own. You are basically just posting what your fortress is about, and wondering openly to yourself what you should do. Anything that might be a question on there isn't. You are posting ideas for what you want to do, and not asking any questions. If you do indeed have questions, don't post your entire fortress schematics and layout, just ask them. We will help you if you ask questions, but you aren't, so this thread belongs somewhere else.

[Nightwind]

very odd, cause this is exactly what i did for my last one, a list of my actions, my design, and what details of what I've been doing, and then the occasional question as it came up...  i did get some very good suggestions and my blatant mistakes pointed out to me, instead of being flammed.  Guess this place has gone downhill between then and now.

[Euld]

Actually I found it very interesting to read.  It never occured to me to just shut my dwarves underground in areas where there's no surface features to make use of.  The format was great, I can easily picture what's going on.  I didn't catch on about the "I'm open for questions" part though... sorry I'm still quite a newbie.  A friendly newbie, but still new :3

I see no blantant mistakes, although I wonder, how will you interact with caravans?  And how will you fend off sieges (or will you need to fend them off at all?) while everyone is underground?

[Nightwind]

I've been trying to figure that out myself, as well as where surface gardening would go in, these are things that cause me to draw blanks.  These are things I could use suggestions on.

Right now, as I've gone no further, I'm seeing I will not have any trade goods, and as there's only me and the homeland up here near the volcano trading is limited.  I'm going to be seriously short on fuel until I can find the magma.

Maybe I should have brought a little silk for moods or something, I'm honestly not sure, but I think I'll be ok until dwaves start to die from moods.

As long as I keep population down, i'm ok, right?

[dogstile]

ehh, ignore beanchubbs, he doesn't understand what you're doing.

[Nightwind]

ok, just how DO i towercap farm properly?

I know I can't until I find my river, then after that, muddy some ground and wait?

Turned 6 of my precious logs into beds and started my living floors.

My map looks like a stack of + signs that are fat around the middle.

I really wish the site with the famous maps loaded better, are there any "perfect" examples of what a fort should look like?

Guess I'm asking the stupid questions afterall, and here I had hope I'd be able to ask something slightly more useful this time.

First wave "attracted no migrants this season"  That's 100% what I was expecting, there's almost nothing going on here that even COULD attract anybody.  I've seen HERMIT stories attract more attention.

Opened my hatch for the sake of the caravan from the mountainhome, let in the agent to talk.  Requested more of each seed (just in case) and silk thread, silk cloth, and towercap.

They are asking for gems to pay for next year's shipment.  I've got some sunstone, no trouble for me to cut and polish them, easy trade good for next year.

I'm compromising on quantum stockpiling (ie stone dumping) by putting just the "generic" stones without colour into the dump.  I really am only going to take it back out if I'm absolutely out of all other stone so it's as good as over a cliff.  I think this sounds justifiable, but then again it always does to yourself?

Whoops... my failure to build a depot caused some of the caravan to go insane.  Guess I better let some of "us" out to collect from my mistakes...

On the other hand, I wasn't able to get any of the material into my fort without designating it as refuse and dumping it.  Any clue what I did wrong here?

Other then still not understanding stockpiles...

I think I've got this setup for 7 solved.  As long as I never go outside, I'll never risk getting hurt, no need for water.  I'll not need to forge anything new, no need for fuel.  I'm growing enough pig tail to make clothing... So that's why/how people can play first 7 hermit...

but what's the fun in that?

Speaking of fun, elvish caravan.  Odd, civ screen STILL claims no others nearby, these elves should not exist.  Oh well, better QUICKLY build a depot.

And this year I get migrants.  Odd that a few mugs make such a difference, or maybe it's the food.

Siege Engineer
Furnace Operator x2
potash maker
Peasant X6
Animal Dissector
Bowyer X2
Miller
pump operator

child

Armorer
Woodworker
mason x2
Jeweler
metalsmith

+mule X2 (have to kill them eventually in some kind of a trap, right? framerate killer, does not breed, what's the point)
+cow
+puppy
+donkey

population 29

Looks like I have the start of my military and labor castes. And it looks like I'm "able" to have a sheriff.  Lovely.  Luckally I dug a 2nd set of nobles rooms for such an occasion.

I'll kill off some of my dogs to make armor from the hides and start a wrestling program.... just as soon as i find the river.  Or maybe I want to have  them trained up before I find the river?  Help?

Once i find the river, what do I have to do to stop towercaps from growing where it will clog my well?


wait, 29?  I don't have anywhere near enough wood for, wait, yes, just enough wood for these beds, and i think I can keep up on the food.   I admit I'm tempted to slam the hatch cover and not let them in.  Easier, yes.. better, no, i hope.

[DaPatman]

After my last world died from.... well what do you call it when, in an attempt to kill a kitten with a bronze colossus, you accidentally destroy the fort?

Fun.

ok, just how DO i towercap farm properly?

I know I can't until I find my river, then after that, muddy some ground and wait?

Yep.

I really wish the site with the famous maps loaded better, are there any "perfect" examples of what a fort should look like?

I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "perfect fort".

On the other hand, I wasn't able to get any of the material into my fort without designating it as refuse and dumping it.  Any clue what I did wrong here?

Other then still not understanding stockpiles...

There is no other problem. Stockpiles are something you're just gonna have to learn about, preferably sooner rather than later.

Once i find the river, what do I have to do to stop towercaps from growing where it will clog my well?

Constructed floors.[/quote]

wait, 29?  I don't have anywhere near enough wood for, wait, yes, just enough wood for these beds, and i think I can keep up on the food.

You only really need one bed per dwarf once the economy kicks in (assuming you have it turned on). Otherwise, a barracks containing one bed per two dwarves with no personal bedroom works fine, as long as you don't mind the "slept without a proper room lately" negative thought.

[Retro]

Yeah, this should probably be in Gameplay Questions.

Although, I am curious: What exactly is the title of this thread a reference to? I didn't catch it anywhere.

[Nightwind]

maybe it should be in questions, I'd be ok with that move, but it's nothing like the stories that the other person was thinking to have it moved into...

It's the name of my expedition vs the name of the settlement.

[Nightwind]

Rather lax at my attempts to document today.

Honestly getting these stockpiles worked out is quite a bit of hard work and little sense to make from it.  Still I thought making a stockpile that was permitted to contain everything would have brought things in from outside.

Oh well, figure out what went wrong the next time it goes wrong.  And if I can't no harm in dumping it all and reclaiming then sorting.

I bought two cages, one with a cardinal, one with a bat, from the elves.  Now I've got to move those into animal traps... done... still seems I can't cook them, only let them become pets, oh well, no cardinal and syrup roasts for me.

Job manager "brew 30" and "easy meal 30" and "mill 30" and so forth for each of the farming jobs "to bag, to barrel" keeps them repeating well enough that I've stopped worrying about keeping my food ready, but...

Quarry Bush Leaves... I can do something other then cook them down directly, right?

I'm going to have to look through cooking/farming on the wiki again, I can't keep track what ones destroy seeds and what ones release seeds and I think I might have destroyed an entire crop... not too hard really as I only started with 5 of each seed.

Under "orders" inside "refuse" "dwarves dump: Other" is chunks from the butcher shop and what?

Had to manually dump the chunks this first time before I found that, but I want to report that my "bullseye" seems to be keeping the miasma inside.  Dump is the bullseye.  Round that is a solid stone with a door on the diagonal.  Then a hallway "low traffic" around the dump, then a diagonal door into my halls.

I've got a ... very strange ... main living floor arangement.  Coffins, the dump, the dining hall, a spare meeting hall, the jail, the barracks for the sleepers until I can give them beds... All in the same general area.  Sleepers are going to sometimes complain about the noise from the workshops, those are only 3 tiles up, but I can't really help that right now can I?  Prepared meals should keep them happy though I hope.

I've an outside refuse pile too, for the rare times I let them go out.  Last time I let them out there was a rush to claim a dead camel from the failed caravan.  Go figure.  So now there's a place for it to go.

So how DO I make a stockpile for only prepared meals?

I'm thinking I might be spoiled by my tendency to request soil layers from my sites.  I've never had to fill one room with water, then release it into another to grow crops.  That might be why I've not gone looking for my underground river yet. 

Ah, here's my 2nd caravan, going to have to donate a lot to make them happy, them going away a little dead last time after going a little insane, it didn't help.

Sold off the gems I'd mined for them and smoothed.  Sold off any stacks of food more then 300 in value.  Bought up a small slew of things to plant and cook with...

A strange mood (secretive) right in the middle of trading.  Guess I can buy anything I don't have.  It's my armor smith and the only metal on hand is some pig iron.  This, could be interesting indeed.  Yes, it could get fun.  Yup, no more metal bars in the entire caravan.  "shinning bars of metal" vs the time it takes me to smelt some more from the native aluminum I have sitting around.  Pictures of a quarry...  the pretty "blue" of orthoclase should be enough... There, got it in time. "working secretly"

I also made a point to sell back most of what was in that last caravan that accidentally went insane.

Remember that charcoal I requested, 1.  I got ONE.  Going to have to raise that another step I guess.  Honestly I better raise that and the towercap to max.  About 185% markup on charcoal, towercap, and 110% on barrels.  Honestly, I was tempted to buy bins of things, put them back up for trade and sell the contents right BACK to them, just to get a few more bins.

Braveblown, a pig iron buckler.  Encircled with bands of Aluminum.  Hanging rings of Aluminum, menaces with spikes of Microcline.  On the item is an image of a three-pointed star in pig iron. $$ 121,200 in dwarfbucks.

As for the caravan, next year they are willing to pay ... wow, extortion rates for cloth, legwear, idols and amulets.  And my mugs will still get 129% return.  It'll be a good year indeed.

This shipment also contained more animals to slaughter and completed my breeding pair of donkeys.  So I'm going to have to setup a cage room for them, likely in the living floor.  I can make them a zoo.  And eat the children.

Time for my next wave of migrants. 

Fish dissector
Fish Cleaner
Herbalist
Peasant X3
Siege Engineer


Weaponsmith
Armorsmith

Might really BE time to start that military.  Not that there's anybody other then elves to kill...

And lets face it, I'm outproducing the ability of dwarves to DRINK, so I've got things covered well enough.  So, tomorrow, military and exploratory mining. I think...

[Nightwind]

Came back to a metalsmith that just went and had a mood on me.

It likes gold.  It wants metal bars.  Something tells me that's going to have to be gold bars and I don't have that.  I don't even have fuel beyond a single block of charcoal.

Thus I'm walling him up inside a metalsmith's and waiting for the end.

I struck coal.  This... could get interesting.  Lets take my last charcoal, and see what happens...

Ok, he took iron bars.  He still wants more, I'm smelting some native aluminium to see what he does with it.  I've dyed some thread too as that was in the list.  "trees... life"  is going to be what kills him though, even with all this luck...

But maybe, it IS late winter, maybe he'll live to see elves.  Elves bring wood.

Ok, so he's taken bars of iron, aluminum, and copper in that order.  He's taken giant spider silk.  He's now brooding over wanting wood.  All this and it will be possession, so no gain beyond the artifact...

Warm stone located on the floor I'd wanted to reserve for my nobles.  Still enough room for them, but I'm going to have to be careful, it's just -1 floor from my main residances.  I don't want noise bothing my main sleep floor OR my nobles room...

Ok, here's where I feel stupid.  I search UP from the warm stone, I find a nice, solid obsidian cap on the surface.  It was ALMOST a volcano this one.  I can, not only, get my metalworking workshops in with my regular ones, I could have been doing metalwork from my first YEAR if I'd simply walked over my surface identifying stone properly from the start.

Hrm... I could crack the tube at surface level... the fun potential there is enough to make me tingle.  Ideas?

The elves arrived with ONE, just ONE piece of wood, and an entire mess of cloth.  I'm going to dye all the cloth, and then sell it to the NEXT elven caravan next year, making money on it... that works, right?

Well, the metalsmith survived his possession.

Lemisstumam, "Vinebroil" an Iron chain

This is an Iron chain.  It is decorated with Larch and encircled with bands of cave spider silk.  It is adorned with hanging gings of Aluminum.  On the item is an image of a Pig Iron Buckler in Iron.  On the item is an image of rat weed in Copper.  $$ 78,000

Madness was risked, for that?

I thought I understood how to keep a dwarf from sealing himself on the wrong side of a wall.

I breached the top of the magma shaft at the top, I stopped digging after one square opened up onto the chamber where the cool magma was.  I then ordered one wall tile built in the hole.  I also told them to build squares of wall on all sides of that block that I DID NOT WANT a dwarf standing in.  Then I suspended those tasks.

My dwarf stood on a wall that was supposed to not be built, that was supposed to stop him from standing there, built the wall to plug the chamber and keep the magma men out.  And then sat there until he was too thirsty to do anything else... except burn to death from the magma man that soon found him.

Now I can't take down that wall without fighting the magma man that's guarding it.

I've lost one of my first dwarves now.  I think this one had a wife.  Where did I go wrong?

Let the fun begin.