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[Ilmoran]

So I've started a new fortress, which I randomly generated names until Lovelycells came up, because it seemed appropriate.  I then added the descriptive text "the caring prison of heaven".

Basically, this is an isolation fortress, and will involve heavy micromanagement.  There are two broad groups of citizens in my fortress:  Residents and Caretakers.  The Caretakers are my miners, lumberjacks, engravers, and haulers (and 1 "Master Architect" who will have architecture, mechanics, masonry, and carpentry, and 1 "Overseer" who is a useless noble/should be the easy candidate for mayor).  Eventually the infirmary staff and security will also be part of the "Caretaker" group.

The Residents are pretty much anyone with a skill that produces things:  Farmers, crafters, furnace operators, mechanics, etc.

The design of the fortress is this:  Residents will be isolated to their own individual burrows, and further have no way in or out (after being escorted to their rooms, the caretakers remove the stairs/ramps).  There will be a hole in the ceiling of their room, and another in the floor.  Food, booze, furniture, and raw materials will be dumped in; they process the goods and dump them out through the hole in their floor.  The caretakers scurry along collecting everything that is dumped out of the rooms, and dumping new items in.

It will be very micro-management intensive, but it should be interesting to get everything set up and essentially have a fortress where more than half the population is locked in rooms for eternity, but has all their basic needs covered.

Edit:  I have decided that this will also be a partial community fortress.  Basically, as I get immigrants I don't want, they get sent accross the brook as outcasts.  Said outcasts will be a community fort.

[Imp]

I will follow your sad tale of loneliness and separation! 

[TALLPANZER]

This should make an interesting read

[dwarfguy2]

can i claim a resident? kthx. i bring a pick and do not let anyone else have it.

[Spartan 117]

Sounds cool. Can I have a medic or guard?

[Ilmoran]

can i claim a resident? kthx. i bring a pick and do not let anyone else have it.

Resident's are given custom names of "Resident <room number>", and miners are slated to be caretakers anyway.  No resident would be left in his room with a pickaxe (and I'm currently trying to come up with an in character method of dealing with weaponsmiths, when I eventually get some).  I'm also avoiding constructed walls on the basis that, in theory, anyone can deconstruct them.  By and large, most of the residents are trapped in their rooms, especially if they're the types who will never recieve any building materials to work with (and I'm hatching a plan for dealing with those types as well).

The fort is already into autumn, so I'll have to do a little save scumming to get some pictures, and then do a writeup of events.

Also a little more on the world itself:  I've done a small amount of modding (and the version is 31.03):  Mithril is an alloy of gold, silver, and steel (and I probably need to tweak the values for it); gold and platinum occur as cluster instead of vein (because what dwarf doesn't want the grand dining hall carved into a cavern of platinum), and I believe I'm using some of the "community balance on weapons" mods, although I've never actually used the military much.  I've also made giant cave spiders pet domestic and trainable, so people will occasionally show up with their pet giant cave spiders, and dwarves have a speed of about 300, because I have a tendency to make sprawling complexes where normal dwarf speed means half the time they get hungry on the way to do anything.  I'm also using the medical training building and training dummy custom buildings, and my own stone smasher custom building (though I might not ever build one), appropriate reactions for them, and a meat to ash custom reaction.

What can I say, I have some odd taste in customization.

[dwarfguy2]

but... all the other burrow forts are all taken up and i'm a maccy!

[Ilmoran]

Journal of Led Kubukbakust
Morning of Granite 1, 1051:
We've arrived at our destination.  I don't know why it's our destination, but it is.  We left the mountainhomes of The Equal Roof months ago, only to end up at what I assume to be some elf infested forest.  And... I don't want to tell anyone, for fear of causing a panic... but, I think I saw elephants...  why anyone would choose to settle here, I don't know, but here we are...

Afternoon of Granite 1, 1051:
Shortly after arriving, the Overseer and the Architect began discussing something.  Probably how the fortress should be laid out.  I'm not sure what they're planning here, but it certainly doesn't look like much on the surface.  This damned place is flat in all directions, unless you count the trees.  And it's all sand.  Well, on the surface anyway.  But according to the prospector's report, there's sand, clay, and then Dolomite.  With flux here, we might be able to set up a decent metalworking industry.  Not me of course, no skill for the forge.  Speaking of skills, we're an odd lot.  Of the seven of us, five are miners, and are referred to as "Caretakers".  Three of the Caretakers are engravers, while the other two (myself included) are skilled at the purging the land of these blasted trees.  Then there's the Overseer, a useless noble-in-training to be sure.  Not a skill to speak of, unless you consider speaking a skill.  Then again, he did convince us to come out there, and I have no idea how he managed it.  But we're here now, and so we better make the most of it.  Last is the "Grand" Architect.  From what I can tell, he has an eye for structure, and a mechanical aptitude.  He also seems to be prepared to build "what needs building".  Something about the way he said it seems funny, and I don't know if he actually knows how to make anything, but as long as anything he cobbles together stays standing, I won't much complain about how it looks.

Evening of Granite 1, 1051:
The Overseer called the Caretakers together and gave us our instructions.  Ambitious instructions.  He has marked off a perimeter that we will be claiming; first, we must clear it of trees and any edible plants we can find.  Erith and I can handle taking out the trees, so the orders didn't bother us.  But the other Caretakers began protesting that they had never been "Elf-loving berry pickers".  A few words from the Overseer sent them happily on their way to pick strawberries, fisher berries, and whatever else they could find.  I don't know how he does it, but I fear the Overseer can make anything sound reasonable.  After we finish clearing the vegetation, we're to begin digging.  Ambitious digging.  It will takes us at least a week to complete.  I'll sketch it out when we're done.  Tomorrow we Strike the Earth.

Embark screen:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Overview of the site (big):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[dwarfguy2]

YE ELF! THERE DINNAE MOUNTAIN! AND DWARVES DINNAE DIG OUTSIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS! ARE WE GOIN' TO LIVE LIKE SOME PANSY ELF?!

[darkflagrance]

(and I'm currently trying to come up with an in character method of dealing with weaponsmiths, when I eventually get some).  I'm also avoiding constructed walls on the basis that, in theory, anyone can deconstruct them. 

Maybe guards are posted at the forges who prevent the weaponsmiths from taking the weapons away with them? Or maybe the weaponsmiths can be considered additional guards sent from the mountainhome? And how did you trap dwarves without constructions of any kind? Pits?

[Ilmoran]

(and I'm currently trying to come up with an in character method of dealing with weaponsmiths, when I eventually get some).  I'm also avoiding constructed walls on the basis that, in theory, anyone can deconstruct them. 

Maybe guards are posted at the forges who prevent the weaponsmiths from taking the weapons away with them? Or maybe the weaponsmiths can be considered additional guards sent from the mountainhome? And how did you trap dwarves without constructions of any kind? Pits?

Can't *exactly* trap them without any constructions, but I plan to put hatch covers linked to mechanisms, so that, in theory, they wouldn't be able to get out (I know they could just remove the hatch covers, but somewhere I have to draw the line between imagination and what the game makes possible).

For the weaponsmiths though, I figured it out.  I won't be setting up forges for them until I can get magma, and basically, their rooms will be suspended in magma.  Going through any wall is a quick magma bath, and other than that the only way out is through the hatch covers.

[Ilmoran]

Journal Melbil Ingishtinoth, Hematite 1, 1051:

The Overseer has had us working all spring.  After clearing the perimeter of plants (and picking berries like damned elves!), we dug a trench for a future moat.  We've run tunnels all the way to the damp earth marking the edge of the brook, but we have not yet broken through.  Next, we set up several chambers in the sand layer within our perimeter.  Some of the chambers are open to the sun, others are not.  I believe these may be farms eventually, though we have no one to work them.  We then began to dig deeper, carving out a central staircase into the clay, and then the stone beneath it.  In early spring, there was a setback: someone got the wrong set of orders for the central stairs, and instead of carving a staircase leading up and down, they carved it down only.  One of the Caretakers was "trapped", though I suspect he was taking the time to freeload.  Once the mistake was pointed out, the Architect set about creating a set of stairs out of wood; I expect they will be replaced with stone once we find suitable material for it.  In the meantime, the freeloader was ordered to begin digging out access tunnels and a temporary storage area in the clay while the staircase was constructed to allow access to the floor.  I must grudgingly admit, she cleared quite a lot while the stairs were being built.  I suspect she was trying to make up for the time she spent slacking, to avoid punishment.

Here are sketches of the surface, the farm floor, and the temporary storage area:

Surface:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Farms:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Storage:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After the storage area was completed, we began digging out a set of rooms, while the Overseer and Architect began moving supplies inside.  At least they don't expect us to do everything.  The design seems strange, and I wonder if they are meant for nobles.  The rooms are quite large, but relatively inaccessible.  There is a single access point in the ceiling and floor of each set of three connected rooms.  It seems rather early to be digging nobles quarters, so I'm not certain what the point of these rooms is.  I've included another sketch, showing the lack of lateral access:

(Resident rooms):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The next floor seems to be more traditional set of rooms, though I must admit, they were still fairly sizable.  I'm not sure about the southwest corner, I think the room above it is to have an indoor fishing area, fed from the brook through that tunnel.  We're still digging out the rooms on this floor, but surprisingly, the Overseer has told the Architect to began crafting a set of beds for us, and told us that we would each be given one of these rooms. 

(Caretakers quarters):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Edit:  Restarted the fort.  Entry no longer applies

[dwarfguy2]

wait,wait,wait. confused. am i in?

[Ilmoran]

wait,wait,wait. confused. am i in?

There's not really an "in"; if people really want someone in my fortress named after them, I'll do that, but I'm not running this as a community fortress, and Residents don't get named, because I'm pretty much treating them as forgotten, nameless people in my fortress, and thus they get custom names which are their room numbers.  The last thing you mentioned was wanting to have a Resident with a pickaxe, which like I said, isn't happening in this fortress.

[dwarfguy2]

DOH! fine. a miner caretaker (?) with a pick, who is very secretive and does not like to associate with others. +999 awesome points if i dig out my own tiny fort.