Yay, while I was visiting family out of town, you released new versions. I tried playing with Civforge back when I posted last, but it just wasn't the same. Lots of good stuff in it, but needlessly complex in areas and missing a lot of my favorite stuff.
Loaded it up, carved into what I thought was soil for my depot/storage area (I also build a barracks, dormitory, hospital, and the basics up there. Then after I've gotten everything moved inside, I carve down into the stone for nicer rooms and the like). Ended up carving into conglomerate (most of the embark was it), laced with copious amounts of hematite, limonite, and even bauxite (I never got around to using the bauxite, though). Had so much metal, I gave up smelting at a certain point.
My favorite new feature? Rock jugs. For the first time ever, my dwarves drank all of their alcohol (I'm glad non-irrigated soil farming is back), but I had too much food (it's normally the reverse). I couldn't brew alcohol, because I didn't have enough wood for barrels - then I found that jugs can be made of rock, not just clay, and great joy of joys, I was brewing things left and right again!
Despite plentiful farming, I seemed to feed the majority of my fort on the eggs of a single turkey. I love those things, they don't ruin pastures like heavier animals, and lay tons of eggs.
Was hard managing my axedwarf, but that's nothing new - not picking up the right equipment, dropping it all when I tell him to kill a kobold, that sort of thing.
Being a fan of D'n'D, I embarked with an acid mephit, but he didn't do a damn thing, just flew around and ran away from every threat. I should have known, damn mephits. Next time I'm getting a dog.
I woke up, and saw there were some big savebreaking changes, so I switched over. I'll miss that embark, but hopefully I'll get a new one.
So, questions :
1. Mephits really aren't supposed to do anything, right? They're like deadly cats that don't hunt? Hell, my turkey almost killed a kobold, and my mephit just flew around.
2. Has anything changed to make bronze, or hardened iron (wrought iron?) more useful? I still skip straight to limited steel production. Hardening iron is easy, but you can get steel with just a flux and another wood, so I haven't seen the point. Bronze is much more complicated, uses materials I never see compared to iron, and isn't as good, so I never use it.
I always think of steel as near top-tier gear, and I don't really like the fact that it's easier for me to equip my dwarves in it, than work my way up (If it isn't apparent, I don't like refusing to make steel on principle alone).
3. Deon, you mentioned that training now takes reagents, etc. Does this change how training dummies or obstacle courses are used? I still can't tell if using a training workshop is faster than military training, however. Or rather, I've forgotten. Does anyone know?
Thanks for all of your hard work, Deon, and Tomi too. On this embark, unless I land in a pile of iron, I'm going to go leather first, just to see if I can make myself.
Note to self: Stop giving people points in butchery or tanning on embark...