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[Moontayle]

Ok, so here is my submission for DFM3. I've been a pretty vocal component here (to the point where sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself... more than usual that is) and I think this is the first submission but I could be wrong and someone who just doesn't talk much has already put theirs in. Anyhoo, I had a blast and truth be told this is the first fort I've ever had that lasted more than five years or so. I think the new features of the 2010 version of DF keep people on their toes and allows for a lot of leeway in terms of how you play.

Now I'm going to be honest and say that I did have a few unkillable FBs come by and wreck havoc on the fort but for some reason or another the game almost always crashed once the FBs made their way into the fort proper. I'm thinking maybe there was an item error somewhere that the game couldn't process because it happened about a half dozen times all in all. I also got a lot of crashes in the final six months of the fort which meant I started saving every two in-game weeks so I didn't lose a lot of progress with building designations and changes to the military (did a lot of both towards the end). I can't be sure what was causing the crashes because I would always do the same things when I went back into the game and two times it might crash while the third would make it through.

Anyhoo, I only had the one bug with the Elves leaving everything behind but I also think that there's a bug which now prevents me from getting a Baron (and the Hammerer and Tax Collector as a result) now that I have the King living with me. Since it's the Liaison that gives you the option of becoming a Barony, and since he's now living at the fort and no longer does meetings, I don't think I'll ever get the option. Seems like it might be a bit of an oversight. Oh, and I no longer have the option of requesting items from the dwarven caravan. Now they'll likely send me things randomly based upon what I buy from them like the humans and elves do.

Anyhoo, as listed before here is the final status of the fort:



Here's the link to the map. I went through and added a ton of POIs with descriptions so you can get a feel for some of the things I was doing. I also point out a couple of the interesting things that popped up over the years. I ran the game with the Pheobus tileset.

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-8882-moontayledfm3

And here's the upload for you judges to look at. It's 31.04, just so ya know.

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=2440

Overall I had 19 total deaths to various reasons. By far most of the dwarves died violently and I even had a child die when a Jabberer somehow made its way past my defenses and I didn't notice until the death message popped up. I had numerous sieges (about five total), ambushes, several FBs show up as well as an Ettin and a Cyclops. Plus the normal creeps you'd run into with the caverns. I had 15 artifacts made, most of them useless but a few useful ones popped up (a couple of which you'll see later). 182 dwarves, 26 of them kids so 156 mildly useful dwarves (depends on your definition of useful). Of those 44 were Legendary in something and another 6 were on the verge of being Legendary. The skill decay definitely works because I had a few of my early survivors who were the first to get assigned to my military end up being peasants for lack of any job related skills. I think that's it. On to the scoring stuff!

Spoiler: Project D'Toady (click to show/hide)

I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do but I knew from the outset that I wanted magma to be involved. In the end I decided on something simple and yet utterly useful as well as very dwarfy (imo). It's difficult to get a sense of this, even in stonesense, but I'll lay it out for you as best as possible.

What I ultimately decided on was creating a structure within the magma vent in the first cavern. It serves many purposes which I shall lay out to you now. Descriptions are underneath each picture.


This is where the King (or in this case Queen) resides and it is the top floor of the structure. I named her Toady upon arrival and had this set up long in advance. Each piece of furniture is made out of raw adamantium, even the bed which is an artifact (worth well over a million dorfbucks).


The next level down is where the Hammerer would have resided if I had ever gotten the chance to be a Barony. Alas, I did not and these rooms go unused but they are set up and I figured it was the perfect place for the dwarf that the populace fears the most to reside. The Jail also exists here since it seemed like the thing to do.


This is the Tomb of Fallen Dwarves. It's a little hard to see what I'm doing here in stonesense which is why you should look up the POI in the map archive but it's where dead dwarves are laid to rest. Statues are erected in the tomb of each dwarf comensirate with their status in the fort. Platinum for Military fallen in battle. Gold for Fortress Guards. Silver for Useful Dwarves. Copper for Peons and Children. It's not expandable for obvious reasons which is why once it's full I would create a tomb somewhere else but for 26 dwarves it would be a very nice place to spend the rest of eternity.


Last but not least is the King/Queen's Tomb (open to the public) and a menagerie of creepies that made their way into my cage traps. As an aside, the jail used to be here but if you check the Justice tab in the Z menu you'll see two dead dwarves in there. That's because they died of thirst while serving out their sentences, a byproduct of the room being right above the magma and causing all water brought to them to evaporate. After the second dwarf I figured out the cause and moved the jail up two levels. This works out better anyways.

Now, I haven't mentioned it yet because it exists on every single level, but each room is surrounded in some part by Green Glass Windows and around them all flows magma pumped up from the magma pipe and pushed through to eventually be deposited back into the pipe. And hence, magma is a part of the project.

Spoiler: Military (click to show/hide)

Now, miitary is the one thing I wanted to spend the most time on (and I did) and in the end I have five total squads, one of which is the Fortress Guard. Equipment issues kept this from being jessu but in the end I have 40 functioning military dwarves, 4 functioning guards and 6 guards in the hospital (more on that later).

By far my most experienced squad is the Axesquad (of which each dwarf in it has a custom profession of... Axesquad). The Militia Commander is by far my best overall military dwarf and he is assigned to be decked out in full adamantium. Unfortunately, even though that is assigned to him, he has not gone to get the items in question. I know how to fix that but it would seem pointless to disband the entire squad so one dwarf can get new equipment. Anyhoo, they all have Adamantium Battle Axes.

As a bonus, here's the kill list of my commander:


Second best squad is the Sword Squad (profession:Swordsdwarf) who are also using Adamantium Short Swords. Rounding out the rest of the military is a Squad of Macedwarves, one of whom arrived at the fort already Legendary and was promptly assigned an Artifact Mace, and a squad of Speardwarves that was just outfitted within the past year (hence most of them being around Novice level).

The Fortress Guard is largely set up as Wrestlers but the Queen arrived with a Legendary Marksdwarf so I replaced the injured and resting Captain of the Guard with him.

All dwarves are using Steel Equipment and as mentioned some exceptions were made in regards to weapons.

Now, for the most part I was content to let my dwarves train until I needed them but since "Master Level" military units get a negative thought if you keep popping them in and out of duty I eventually set up patrol routes in Caverns One and Three. Initially I had the dwarves doing two months of patrol with one month of downtime but this was causing some issues so now it's one on, one off. Currently, the Axe and Sword squads are set to alternate patrolling of Cavern Three as follows:



The Mace and Spear squads, being a bit less experienced and with Cavern One being light on enemies for the most part are set to alternate patrolling as such:



The orders are set up as needing 7 dwarves to do a patrol and this works out well.

The Guard isn't set to patrol at all and constantly train.

I have five seperate barracks set up:

Guard:


Mace/Spear:


Cavern One (Axe):


Cavern Three (Sword):


The latter two are set up to be entirely self sufficient so that when a dwarf goes off patrol for sleep/food/drink they have something nearby to grab easily. For the most part even though I had backpacks and waterskins/flasks available, very few of my dwarves actually equipped them. The first two barracks don't have the stockpile/dining area since they're already within a short distance from the main ones.

Now, as to equipment issues, outside of replacing some stuff I never really had an issue. Once the dwarves were assigned something like a Steel Breastplate, depending on what order they were in on the equipment assignment list ('P' on the equip tab in the Military menu) they would upgrade to better equipment as it became available. The only issue I had was when I upgraded my axe and sword dwarves to adamantium weapons I ended up disbanding the squads, waiting for all of them to take their equipment back, and then reforming the squad with the new equipment set up. Otherwise they would pick up the new weapon but never use it since they didn't drop their old one. I had a dedicated Arsenal Dwarf to handle all of this, even to the point of having all Hauling and Cleaning Labors taken off. Whenever something needed to change in terms of equipment, unless he was sleeping, eating, or drinking he was on it immediately.

I think that's it. On to the next one!

Spoiler: Medical (click to show/hide)

Despite some of the bugs surrounding this aspect of the game I pushed through and set up what I consider to be a very good medical center. I would highly recommend the judges go through my military dwarves to see just how much this hospital has been used over the course of the fortress. Also be sure to check their inventory so you can see the bits of thread woven into their battered bodies.

My hospital is set up into two parts, both of which are within spitting distance of my cistern.

Area One:


Area Two:


Currently there are six dwarves permanently laid up here because they've lost the ability to stand and despite the presence of crutches even the ones with only a single mangled leg won't use them. There's also a single dwarf who needs surgery laid up here. He keeps getting attention but since that aspect is bugged he never gets better.

I have six dedicated Doctors (no hauling/dumping). For the most part all of them showed up with skills, including a High Master Diagnostician/Wound Dresser (since downgraded to Master since there hasn't been a major catastrophe in years).



For the most part, the hospital has worked as intended with no dwarves who end up making it to the hospital ever succumbing to infection or dieing from their wounds. They either died in the battlefield, from moods gone wrong, or (in two cases) pure stupidity.

Issues I ran into is the obvious surgery bug and gypsum plaster never making its way into the hospital inventory. I also never got my dwarves to put some soap in the lower hospital and I never saw crutches being used whatsoever.

Not sure what else I can put here to help the judges. Again, I would recommend the judges go through my military dwarves (they have custom professions in the unit list and are easy to spot) and check out their health history. It's probably the best way to judge how effective my medical set up has been.

Spoiler: Fortress Operations (click to show/hide)

Here's my list of Nobles:



No Baron (much to my dismay), despite owning the requirements listed in the Raws since the second year of the fortress. Of course, this also means no Hammerer and no Tax Collector. Also no Champion. There are three total mayors including the current one.

The Justice System is fully functional.


The only thing that has ever gone wrong is unfulfilled production orders (phantom mayor liked native copper items and there's no such mineral on this map). At one point I did have a ton go to jail because of export prohibitions but shortly after the game blew up and I had to roll back to before the ban had been implemented. As the judges will see, I have no unfulfilled sentences.

Spoiler: Other (click to show/hide)

Nothing to report here. I spent most of my energies on figuring out the military and hospital, as well as working on the Toady project. I did create a pretty huge mist generating machine but that was possible in 40d so wouldn't count.

I think that covers it. If any of the judges need to know something just reply or PM me and I'll answer as best I can. I really went as descriptive as I could be in the DFMA upload so I hope it covers just about everything. I had an absolute blast doing this and I hope I do well. Later!

[Imp]

Woo, nice to peek at your submission.  Martin's in charge and all, and I won't say anything cause I'm not sure what he wants to say and I'm following his lead and all, but I didn't want you to hear silence until he could respond ether 




So, an unofficial "well done!" you are the first to say on the forums that you are finished; though maybe other(s) mailed Martin or something.

And I like that you added comments such as the one below, that sort of guidance is appreciated.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Despite some of the bugs surrounding this aspect of the game I pushed through and set up what I consider to be a very good medical center. I would highly recommend the judges go through my military dwarves to see just how much this hospital has been used over the course of the fortress. Also be sure to check their inventory so you can see the bits of thread woven into their battered bodies.

[Kipi]

Lesson of the day:
Periodically save your game. I had my game opened for couple of days without saving, and today the computer crashed. My last save was from summer of year three, so didn't have to go back but about two seasons. Still, a dwarback on my schedule.

I think I'm going to make one big pot of coffee and have a DF marathon today, perhaps tomorrow as well...

[Moontayle]

Woo, nice to peek at your submission.  Martin's in charge and all, and I won't say anything cause I'm not sure what he wants to say and I'm following his lead and all, but I didn't want you to hear silence until he could respond ether 




So, an unofficial "well done!" you are the first to say on the forums that you are finished; though maybe other(s) mailed Martin or something.

And I like that you added comments such as the one below, that sort of guidance is appreciated.

Thank you. And Martin did say that some guidance on our part would be appreciated in the Military and Medical aspects so I wanted to be thorough. Have fun going through it!

Lesson of the day:
Periodically save your game. I had my game opened for couple of days without saving, and today the computer crashed. My last save was from summer of year three, so didn't have to go back but about two seasons. Still, a dwarback on my schedule.

I think I'm going to make one big pot of coffee and have a DF marathon today, perhaps tomorrow as well...

That's what I had to do in order to make it through the last few years. Despite precautions, the FPS was low enough the last year or so that it took me a good two days to make it through the last year, about 12 hours of playing time in total. Not counting rollbacks from a crash (had more than a couple, as I mentioned).

[Kipi]

Yeah, the FPS is the biggest problem here.
How low it went in your fort during last couple of years?

Okay, let's see... For DF marathon I have some premade meals which just need heating in microwave, beer, coffee, couple packs (30 per one pack) of cigarets, some good music and bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey... 

[Moontayle]

Yeah, the FPS is the biggest problem here.
How low it went in your fort during last couple of years?

Okay, let's see... For DF marathon I have some premade meals which just need heating in microwave, beer, coffee, couple packs (30 per one pack) of cigarets, some good music and bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey... 

About ~20 on average. Not horrendously slow but enough that it did take some time when you couple needing to pause to issue commands and such.

[Kipi]

Hmm... that sounds manageable.

By the way, does statue get destroyed in magma? Anyone knows?

EDIT: And anyone knows how I can prevent my miner to try to clean my magma resrvoir? The guy is trying to clean the magma from one ramp which was left while I dug the reservoir, and all the time the magma level gets low enough because of pumping allowing him to try it, then cancel due dangerous terrain.

EDIT2: Apparently diamonds burn. At least when covered in magma

EDIT3: Looks like golden barrels are useless, not food is stored to those. 30 gold barrels, without any use...

EDIT4: Later winter, nearly new year. Got two ambush at the same time. Result: 7 dead goblins, two dead dwarves. One dwarf fell down to river. Second one, the hero of the combat who single handedly killed five of the seven goblins and drove them away died from blood loss from arm. And what did my doctors do? Idled!!!
They just hanged in dining room, with No Job label. No-one cared to carry the hero to the hospital for healing. How come??

Bright side of the event was that my evacuation procedure worked very well. I had one burrow set down deep in the fortress, and when the ambush occured I set the burrow from alarm system to everyone. All who weren't in squad evacuated there.

But seriously, did I miss something in my hospital setting? I have the zone set, two dwarves with all doctoring related jobs enabled, but no luck.

[Moontayle]

I ran into that a couple of times. I found it helpful to have a couple of dwarves set to only recover wounded once a battle started. Make sure they're productive dwarves you try and keep busy so you know that they do the work. You really don't need a couple of hundred fungiwood's chopped down right that instant do you?

I had a burrow as well (should edit that part in) but it ran from the Trade Depot and encompassed the entirety of the fort. Since enemies rarely made their way past the Depot, it worked out very well. As buggy as burrows are when you try and assign individual dwarves to them, I didn't want to attempt to get too complicated with that aspect.

Edit: It's a relief not having DF over my head. First night in a while that I didn't have a DF related dream.

[Kipi]

Thanks. Hopefully those two deaths doesn't prevent any migrants to come...

Oh well, Kosoth Oltarūthir Zonsolam Nish was just buried in The Shrine. R.I.P. hero!

EDIT: Oh, and I have good way of punish the goblins who were caged: I put them in my barracks, surrounded by the rest of the survived squad, and release them. Though I'm not totally without mercy, I will leave the equipments. Four angry, bloodthirsty dwarves with full steel equipment. Best thing which could happen is that my doctors get some minor work to do (finally).

EDIT2:
And here is the grand battleground, also known as the entrance to my fortress.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

All those goblins were killed by Kosoth, his body was found from the same tile as the goblin crossbow soldier (the green 'g' at left side. That goblin was already fleeing, but with his last strength Kosoth hunted it down and killed, before collapsing from bleeding.

[Kipi]

Sorry for double post, didn't want to over-edit my previous post.

So, late spring of the fourth year. Trying to reach year five today.

Got another migrant wave at the beginning of year, now my fort has population of 79. Yes, one dwarf bellow the siege limit.
With the migrants I was able to replenish my axe squad back to six soldiers, and I've begun making leather equipment for my archery squad, six soldiers as well. Extended my barracks with archery ranges for that purpose. Also I was able to rise the number of doctors to six, so next time I have wounded dwarves I hope they get hauled to hospital. 

Have to FB running in my map. Well, basically one, as one is running in cavern sea and is unkillable, the second one is minotaur which happened to be caged before my military was able to reach it. So far two occurances, one double assault and one FB, and still haven't had any need for my drowning chamber. Hopefully the first siege fixes this, haven't had possibility to test it. Now I'm wondering what to do with the minotaur, perhaps release it in my barracks surrounded my military for practice and hopefully some minor wounds.

Shrine is doing well, still waiting for magma to vaporize in certain sections so that I'm able to get to next phase. That should be either in this season or the next one.

Also, for some laughs, I have one rough yellow diamond in my shrine, covered in magma, and it has been burning about two season by now.

EDIT: Oh, and golden barrels are excellent for trading. Around 1500 worth per barrel?! If I wanted I would have been able to buy everything from those elves. Well, at least I don't have to worry about wood for some time again, nor about the sand.

EDIT2:
You can pretty much forget what I have said in this post, game crashed. Didn't have to go back much, just about one season (was at the beginning of the summer, had to go to the autosave of spring).

[Imp]

One question about your number of doctors, Kipi, isn't it the 'recovering wounded' labor that gets hurt people to the hospital?  Each immigrant seems to come with that automatically on (though you might be changing that), or is it that you actually need a doctor's available to treat them right at the moment or no one will recover them?

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

Recover wounded is not an actual skill. It just determines if the dwarf can bring the wounded somewhere.

Non-doctor labors

"Non"-doctors have 2 labors that contribute to healthcare:

        * Feed Patients/Prisoners
        * Recover Wounded

Note that these are not skills - they do not cause experience gain, but merely are activities that can be turned on/off for each dwarf. By default, all dwarfs start with these labors designated.

Link to the page for health care is HERE

[Neyvn]

Something says I should try this again before I run out of time...
Just need to get some insperation....

I could try making it a Prision, that would be interesting...

[Kipi]

One question about your number of doctors, Kipi, isn't it the 'recovering wounded' labor that gets hurt people to the hospital?  Each immigrant seems to come with that automatically on (though you might be changing that), or is it that you actually need a doctor's available to treat them right at the moment or no one will recover them?

The thing was that both of my doctors had the labor enabled, as well as half of the population. It just seems that the priority is just so low that they would rather idle than bring wounded to hospital.

[Kipi]

Late spring, year four.

Got migrant wave, and Ettin appear my map. attacked Ettin, and it dropped to river. Left it there, thinking it would drown soon enough. Next thing I notice it that it's scaring my migrants, and when I zoom to it it's almost at the entrance of my fortress, chasing migrants away. So, lesson of this episode, Ettins can and will climb up from rivers.

EDIT:
First time the military actually failed me. I ordered everybody to safety burrow, and my squad to entrance. Most of the time the squad was more interesting on returning to barracks to do some individual training than moving to the entrance. When I finally managed to get them where I wanted, and the Ettin was just ten tiles away from them, I ordered them to kill the Ettin. Result was that they wanted to have some drink right at that moment, leaving their post. Luckily Ettin decided to chase down the squad instead of some poor peasants, and it was trapped in cage. Still, I lost one migrant to Ettin.

Urist McPeasant: "Alarm, alarm! Ettin is chasing our poor fellows. We need some soldiers at the entrance!"
Urist McSqaudleader: "Later! Don't you see we are drinking right now. And after that we need some individual training done. Perhaps after that."