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[piesquared]

Okay, so I genned a bunch of worlds and eventually found a site I was looking for. A straight section of major river, lots of limestone, and a magma pipe. The idea is to build one tower on each side of the river, walled in with the only access to each being from the other tower and from a bridge extending across the river, such that you have to cross a long bridge to get into the fort, but you can get in from either side of the river. (The bridges are to be overlooked by crossbowdwarves, obviously, and possibly have a ballista or two pointed down each.)

So, the problem...

Year one: no traders.
Year two: elves show up, orc siege.
Year three: elves show up, orc siege.
Year four: elves show up, goblin abush, orc siege.
Year five: elves show up, orc siege.
Year six: elves show up, humans show up.

In all this time, not a single dwarven caravan. Every season "your fortress has attracted no immigrants". A repeating drawbridge system and stout walls are enough to shut down the sieges, but going is slow with only my starting dwarves in charge of quarrying, building the towers, and keeping themselves alive. Plus how can I hope to rain bolts on my foes with only my starting dwarves, none of whom can be dedicated entirely to military?

So, my question: why would this happen?

Population cap is 150, the embark screen shows access to dwarves, humans, elves, orcs, and goblins. Only one dwarf civilization is listed. Legends mode.... legends mode froze when I tried to enter it, and I'm not sure what to look for there anyway. My fear is that this means my civilization is dead and I'll never get a population unless I have children or something. My hope is that as humans didn't show up until the 6th year, perhaps dwarves are taking their time about it as well?

[Jim Groovester]

Unless your civ is dead, you should always get a dwarven caravan. Do a quick check of your civ screen and see if there are any leaders.

If there's not, rejoice! Rebuilding dwarven civilization from only seven dwarves is an interesting challenge to take on.

If you don't like it, just embark on the same site from a different, not dead dwarf civilization.

[Derakon]

Caravans and migrants don't arrive if you're under siege at the time, which is easily possible with the orc mod. Of course, if the elves made it in the springtime, then your migrants should also have been able to make it...probably.

[Grendus]

If the orcs are always sieging in the fall, the mountainhome probably still thinks you're broke. You have a few options to alleviate this:

1. Build a megatrap. I built a drowning pit with my starting 7, and it worked pretty well. Orcs tended to get confused and not walk over the bridges, but it caught most of them. Other possible megatraps - path of spike traps, magmafall, giant cave in, Operation FTW, etc.

2. Mod the orcs to not siege in the fall. Remove the [ACTIVE_SEASON: AUTUMN] tag (or something like that, I can't remember) and they'll leave you alone that season.

3. Suck it up. Either wait for the orcs to not siege in the fall or let your dwarves idle for a season, get married, and start reproducing.

I had a similar problem where I only got one migrant wave for four years until the dwarves FINALLY got through, then I got a 45 dwarf wave (good god, even the barracks couldn't handle them). Since migrant waves are triggered by fortress wealth, which is updated by the caravans, the mountainhome probably thinks you've been holed up in your pit sized fortress for seasons instead of slowly building up massive wealth.

[piesquared]

Unless your civ is dead, you should always get a dwarven caravan. Do a quick check of your civ screen and see if there are any leaders.

Okay... it appears that my civilization isn't listed on the "c" screen.

If you don't like it, just embark on the same site from a different, not dead dwarf civilization.

I checked and there was only one civ available.

Caravans and migrants don't arrive if you're under siege at the time, which is easily possible with the orc mod. Of course, if the elves made it in the springtime, then your migrants should also have been able to make it...probably.

If the orcs are always sieging in the fall, the mountainhome probably still thinks you're broke.

I've only actually "waited out" one siege, and it wasn't in the fall. As far as I can remember I've never had invaders on the map during the fall. Certainly not more then twice out of six years.

1. Build a megatrap. I built a drowning pit with my starting 7, and it worked pretty well. Orcs tended to get confused and not walk over the bridges, but it caught most of them. Other possible megatraps - path of spike traps, magmafall, giant cave in, Operation FTW, etc.

Exactly what I did. There is a 47-tile-wide river on the map. To cross it one must pass over three seperate drawbridges. During an invasion I stick someone on lever duty, dropping orcs into the carp-infested water and even crushing a few. The first siege I bottled up for, but of the rest only one orc has crossed the river, that one because it took too long for someone to decide to pull the lever instead of hauling more stones.

2. Mod the orcs to not siege in the fall. Remove the [ACTIVE_SEASON: AUTUMN] tag (or something like that, I can't remember) and they'll leave you alone that season.

At least in the currently available version (the one I'm using) they're already only active in summer and winter.

3. Suck it up. Either wait for the orcs to not siege in the fall or let your dwarves idle for a season, get married, and start reproducing.

I've already had two marriages and one birth, so I suppose it's an option...

I had a similar problem where I only got one migrant wave for four years until the dwarves FINALLY got through, then I got a 45 dwarf wave (good god, even the barracks couldn't handle them). Since migrant waves are triggered by fortress wealth, which is updated by the caravans, the mountainhome probably thinks you've been holed up in your pit sized fortress for seasons instead of slowly building up massive wealth.

So it's relatively certain that the problem here is lack of caravans. Possible causes are apparently "your civilization is dead" and "you're confused and you've actually had invaders every fall". I don't suppose there's anything I can do about "dead civilization" other then "ignore it" and "wait for babies"?

[Derakon]

I think the only way to get your civ to not show up on the civilizations screen is for it to be dead. Otherwise it should be there as soon as you embark. So it sounds like your civ is dead.

You should be able to get the same site with a live civ if you change the history seed, though.

[dakenho]

Something is wrong with this.
Lets review
You said
...

Year one: no traders.
Year two: elves show up, orc siege.
Year three: elves show up, orc siege.
Year four: elves show up, goblin abush, orc siege.
Year five: elves show up, orc siege.
Year six: elves show up, humans show up.


So now when you encounter a civilization it should show up on your “c” screen
So you “should” see elves, humans, goblins and orcs, but you said only one civ is on that screen though I suppose it is possible that the orcs have killed the elves and the goblins, and the humans, and now you are all that’s left (but that is speculative as I do not know if that can occur outside of world gen).

On a side note, what is listed on the “c” screen? (screen shot maybe?)
Also from what I can tell legendary dwarfs seem to breed more often (from what I can tell on the forms).   You could find one married couple draft them as fortress guards and let them pump out babies (I think I have seen mention that they pump out 6 children a year) (it does not take fortress guards that long to become legendary dwarfs)