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[Kipi]

Mid-winter of year five.

Shrine almost ready, my first other project nearly finished and second project has been started.

Population has been staying at 101 dwarves. No special nobles so far, I'm a bit disappointed.

I feel a bit lucky by the fact that the scoring system doesn't take into account the general aesthetics of the fortress layout. I'm using the method where, at the beginning of the game, I built fortress, and after that just altered the layout by adding rooms, halls, stairs as well as removing something. Aesthetically my fortress sucks, as there are rooms no longer in use, not all farms are in same place and so on. But so far it has been more or less efficient layout.

Right now it feels like I should be able to complete this fortress in time. Haven't had much time to pay during last couple of days, but I'm only missing three more years, with not much pausing to be done, and I have couple of days with nothing better to do.

[Kipi]

Oh, and quiz: How long it takes to smooth area about 43*48 with four engravers? None of them are legendary in status. And I mean time in in-game time. They won't engrave the area completely, as part of it is inaccessible due walls, but I think only around 20 tile is not going to be smoothed.

I will post the result when the smoothing is finished...

EDIT2: Okay, then smoothing begun 17th Obsidian, 554...

And the smoothing ended 22nd Opal, 555. It took eleven months to smooth the area. Of course, I added one more engraver to the project when around 3/5 was done, to make things faster. Now, just a bit more to work for my miners and I can unleash the magma one more time, then the shrine is ready.

Finally decided to make the schedule system of military to work. So far, four of six soldiers are stationed at the entrance. Every second month is for my military squad, every other to my guard squad. So far the transition has gone well, hardly ever there has been moments when less than two soldiers were guarding the entrance.


On a funny note, I just realized that I have never done much with magma before this fortress. Now, I have two projects going which heavily involves magma, and especially a lot of pumping it through several floors. I calculated that in the end I have something like 17 magma pumps operating, not all of them at the same time. In best scenario I should have 15 pumping at the same time, in rare cases all 17. So, as a learning process this competition has filled it's purpose, as I'm more confident on how to use magma and how to move it than before.

EDIT: I take back what I said earlier. Looks like my guard squad has no interests in stationing anymore when used schedule. My military squad works fine though...

EDIT2: COOOL!!
I pierced the wall to get access to third cavern. The miner doing the job was immediately attacked by magma FB. The battle took place in deep stairway. Result:
FB -> Dropped about 15 floors, died immediately after hitting the floor.
Miner -> Some wounds, still alive.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Forgotten beast... of magma?

Also, that's how you do the impossible! You drop it fifteen stories to its doom.

[Moontayle]

Forgotten beast... of magma?

Also, that's how you do the impossible! You drop it fifteen stories to its doom.

Stairs, for all intents and purposes, are not considered solid ground so a column of stairs can and will act as a fee fall to the bottom.

[Martin]

And the smoothing ended 22nd Opal, 555. It took eleven months to smooth the area. Of course, I added one more engraver to the project when around 3/5 was done, to make things faster. Now, just a bit more to work for my miners and I can unleash the magma one more time, then the shrine is ready.

Protip - one legendary engraver is faster than a small army of untrained ones - in part because it is very inefficient at low skill levels, but also because of the way that DF assigns an adjacent block, multiple engravers tend to get blocked and wander all over the place. As soon as you can afford it, task one dwarf with engraving (with luck you'll get an immigrant with a decent skill level) and run him up to legendary, then swap him out for another, etc. When you get to a big smooth/engrave job, turn them all on and it'll get done in no time - and your engravings will all be high quality.

[Kipi]

Okay, the miner did not survive, after all. But no wonder, it has damaged body, damaged leg, both it's arms had damaged thumb, first finger, second finger and third fingern as well as damaged body. Died to bleeding while going to booze stockpile... 

Yeah, the forgotten beast was made of flames, the game listed it for some reason as magma FB. But otherwise, I could have been able to kill it with normal combat, it had head. Also, it didn't fall on stairways, but the pit next to stairs. The stairs are part of my execution system, which basically means around 50 floor drop 

Also, for the engravers, the strange thing was that all of them has been engraving since year two or three, but still none of them are better than Talented or something like that. Oh well, I had no rush with the smoothing anyway...

So, my fortress has been the doom of six dwarves so far. Quite low number, if you ask me. Though two drownings should have been avoidable with better management.

EDIT: Made some calculations. The ground where the pit ends is in floor 88, while the floor where the falling begins (where the prisoner is placed before activating the mechanism) is on floor 151. So, it's 63 floor exactly. Wanted a deeper one, but semi-molten rock came to my way...

EDIT2:
Ooooh SHIT!!

Another siege, this time the force has:
15 Goblin hammermen
1 Goblin Spearmaster and 1 Goblin Pikemaster
15 Goblin Bowmen
15 Goblin Lashers
8 Trolls

Some of them are riding with Rutherers, some Giant Cave Swallows.

This is going to be bloody. But it has to wait till tomorrow, going to have couple of drinks with my friends now.

[Moontayle]

You should probably be a bit drunk before tackling it anyways. 

[Kipi]

You should probably be a bit drunk before tackling it anyways. 

Posting from cellphone, and drunk, so sorry any smelling pistakes. (that Speling error was intended )

Yeah, I wll prolly tackle the invasion whe  I get home. Going to save before, so that if alcohol affects too much.  Hopefully it turns out wel.

But seriously, my military, and I mean the military and not the guards, they prolbably will be able to deal the invasion without much casualties. Stationed both squads to the entrance, behind traps, so I think it should be okay.

[Martin]

Ooooh SHIT!!

Another siege, this time the force has:
15 Goblin hammermen
1 Goblin Spearmaster and 1 Goblin Pikemaster
15 Goblin Bowmen
15 Goblin Lashers
8 Trolls

Some of them are riding with Rutherers, some Giant Cave Swallows.

This, combined with the open pathing, is why you have to play all 8 years. But I'm envious - I haven't gotten any ambush/sieges to penetrate my outer defenses. I think that group might manage to get a few by (I kinda miss weapon traps jamming).

[Kipi]

Okay folks, never ever play DF while drunk, especially if you are in condition where you can't remember a thing next morning.

Woke up an two hours ago, started DF and noticed that I had seriously messed my fort. Half the population was dead, I had flooded bottom section of fortress and released group of goblins from caged. Interestingly though I had survived from the siege, with only two dead soldiers. Now, I just wish I could remember how I did that. And finally I had managed to save all that mess, forcing to go back backup of winter year 555.

On a side note, basing on receipts I found from my wallet, I had quite fun evening. And surprisingly I don't even have a bad hangover.

[Ultimarr]

  Apperently.. my DF folder got corrupted? I have no clue what happened, but now the only saves that work is year 3 and before. WHY?!  Right now, I am ready to kick something... GAH! How much profanity is allowed here? I mean... DAMMIT!

I guess I won't be scoring, unless it suddenly starts working. Only two days away... I'm going to sleep.

[Kipi]

Awww... that sucks!

Hopefully it starts working again, though I doubt it.


About my situation, I have entered some interesting times. Year six going, nearly the end of mid-summer. No siege so far, only two ambushes. Dealt quickly. I made some modifications (again) to my entrance, now the soldiers stationed there are behind line of traps, on a small room which any invader has to pass through to gain entrance to my fortress. This way I can minimize the time of how long my soldiers need to be under arrow fire.

Breached third cavern, stationed my Guard squad there. So far they have two Forgotten Beasts, and several critters living down there. The guards are also fully suited on steel finally, no crappy combination of copper/iron/steel/leather anymore.

The shrine is almost ready, two or three stones need to be dumbed, then magma must be applied. My first project is also nearly finished, a bit floor must be constructed, one support and some mechanisms set. Second project is also nearly finished, still waiting for the magma to the shrine. I combined partly the shrine and second project in a way that the magma I apply to the shrine will also be pumped to the project.

Population is somewhere around 130. Still no king or any other nobility, I wonder why.

Lastly, mined some Adamantine. Didn't breach The Fun Stuff yet, I'l try to avoid doing that as best I can. Hopefully I have enough adamantine to give my military squad full set of adamantine equipment. Steel industry is also back in bussiness after some hiatus due lack of iron ore. Now I have to think what I should do with all that steel...

[Josiwe]

Unfortunately due to a combination of bugs and sickness, I was not able to get past year 3. Good luck to everyone who managed to hang in there for all eight years!

[Kipi]

Late autumn of seventh sixth year.

Got a siege which seems to be stuck. Part of the siege did try to enter my fortress, those were melee only. Looks like their leader died or was caged as before my military was needed they begun fleeing. But only melee forces fled, all those ranged goblins are hanging at the edges of the map, not fleeing nor trying to enter my fortress. Could it be that the leader was caged, and that's why part of the invading forces stayed?

Shrine, project 1 and project 2 are all ready. So, right now my only task is keep the fortress running till the end of the contest, making some small improvements here and there, making sure my wealth rises steadily and nothing unwanted gets inside. FPS is steadily around 25-30, sometimes a small peaks in lag, usually caused FB or something other trying to get inside.

[Kipi]

Year seven. Less than two years to go... 

Remade the squads to avoid any multiple weapons/shield, preventing any of them being used properly. Also, made my military to equip full suit of adamantine with adamantine axes as weapons. Guards are going to stay on steel equipment.

The siege finally left on its own, though sadly missed yearly dwarven caravan due this. After that got one ambush. One goblin died, and one of my mechanics died. On a funny note it seems that the most dangerous profession in my fort is mechanic, as three mechanics has already lost their lives. There has also been three deaths of military, though their life should be dangerous anyway. And one soldier died from drowning as he was pushed to river, so basically two and half real deaths in military. All three mechanics died because of wounds caused by attackers. The last one died on hospital, already diagnosed but doctors didn't manage to heal him fast enough.

My forts wealth is nearly 2 million. That's not much, I know, and big part of it comes from adamantine. But hey, the wealth wasn't big thing in scoring if I understood correctly.
Low wealth is also explainable due the fact that I have not claimed nearly all the stuff laying outside my fort, as it's usually too dangerous to do that. Also, not many artifacts with very high value. Normally my artifacts has been around 3k to 30k worth, not much.

I will shortly test my execution device, I'll record the process with video and post it when I have completed the competition.