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[Marconius]

Okay, so I'm basically planning on starting a new fortress as soon Toady releases the new version. That should happen in a few days, so I'm gonna open this thread ahead of time! I thought it would be fun to turn this fortress into one of them fancy community forts... I've never run one, but I've been reading the threads around and it seems simple enough to do; plus, fun!

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The basic idea is to make a fortress built directly above the magma sea. This will give us quick and easy access to magma, but will mean fighting off the wildlife in the caverns, as well as having some difficulty chopping trees or gathering sand for glassmaking. Oh, and the sedimentary layer will be far up, the depot will be far down and... oh so much fun.

But let's add some more fun! Some special rules:
1) Surface trees will not be used. Surface trees are for sissies and Elves; real Dwarves use giant mushrooms!
2) Dwarves will be specialized. That means all of them will have only one small group of professions, and this will not be changed, ever.

The profession groups are as follows (hopefully I won't leave anything out):
Miner - Mining
Woodcutter - Wood cutting
Woodworker - Carpentry, Bowmaking, Woodcrafting
Mason - Masonry, Architecture
Engraver - Engraving
Ranger - Animal training, Trapping, Hunting (as well as the other two useless animal professions)
Doctor - Doctory stuff
Brewer - Brewery
Butcher - Butchery
Cook - Cooking, Cheese Making
Farmer - Farming, Plant Gathering
Soaper - Lye making, Wood burning, Potash making, Soaping
Farmhand - Milling, Milking
Fisherdwarf - Fishing, Fish cleaning/dissection
Smelter - Smelting
Smith - Various smithing duties
Jeweler - Gem cutting and setting
Craftsdwarf - Wood, Bone and Stonecrafting
Clothier - Clothesmaking, Weaving, Dying
Leatherworker - Tanning, Leatherworking
Glassworker - Glassmaking
Strand Extractor - Strand Extracting
Engineer - Mechanics, Pump operation, Siege engineer and operation, Architecture

Various nobles (except the expedition leader) will also be assigned to perform only their duties. That means they'll busy themselves with hauling and slacking most of the time. Soldiers will also be drafted full time, unless an injury forces them to retire, in which case they will be assigned a permanent job.

All these roles will be assigned once a dwarf arrives to the fortress and will not be changed. The only exception from this rule is if a dwarf gets a strange mood and manages to reach legendary status in a profession, in which case his labors will be switched so he'll work as that.

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Right, those were the technical details. As I've said, the fortress hasn't been started yet, but I'm aiming to embark on a pretty mellow location, probably a good aligned biome so we can kill unicorns... I'll try to look for a spot with no aquifer, a sedimentary layer and maybe even a brook or river.

The starting seven will be:
3 Miners
1 Brewer
1 Cook
1 Farmer
1 Mason

We won't be working wood for a while, so I'm not gonna bother taking a woodcutter or a woodworker. Also won't bring any axes, which should free up a lot of points.

The above dwarves, faceless as they are, are up for the taking! Feel free to pick one and give him/her a name and/or a nickname!

Also, if there are any special requests or suggestions, feel free to make them now, I'll see what I can do!

Oh yes... and out long term goal? To blot out the son and char the surface with magma! No longer will our Dwarven kind have to bear the horrendous light of the cursed shining orb, or the disgusting sensation of grass brushing against their feet!

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For the curious, I exported an image of the entire world. It's a big image, but if you have a preference as to where we should embark, just say so! The north is scorching hot, the south is freezing cold.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[melkorp]

Marconius has a plan.

"Melkorp", profession: Brewer, please. 

[addictgamer]

I want an engineer, so I guess I won't be one of the starting 7.

Also, seems your list is missing an architect.
Can you add the architect labor to the engineer?

Name: Capitan Coder
Profession: Engineer


Suggestions?
Try to find an embark with a river that has a multi-zlevel waterfall and carve a fancy entrance into the sides of the cliffs formed.

[Marconius]

Ah yes, I've decided not to take an engineer in the starting 7, there shouldn't be a need for one. I'll try to find a waterfall somehow, though no guarantees on that.

I'm gonna add the Architecture labor to both Masons and Engineers, thanks for reminding me.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Might I suggest a place on the major river between the Good-aligned lake and the ocean? Preferably with elephants.

I'll take an axedwarf, but (s)he HAS to be a metalcrafter and HAS to like zinc. My custom profession will be "Berserking Metalcrafter".  There's a story behind this, involving HFS, a failed mood, and the last two dwarves alive in a recent succession fort.

[addictgamer]

Of course, but waterfalls are nice


So...We'll be very deep in the mountain eh...
Can we carve out a giant chamber in the rock, and build a huge dungeon and fill it with all the beasts we can?
Also, "float" the huge building on an artificially created magma lake?
Tunnels. Passages. Levers. Traps. Pressure plates. All the good stuff.
Would be fun to go through that in adventure mode.
If you want, I can draw a mock-up in paint.

Yes, I love crazy megaconstructions.

[Josiwe]

I'd like a female hunter, nickname "Athena", profession "Huntress".

If possible, pick a dwarf who like a cool type of animal you have access to and mod that animal to have [TRAINABLE_HUNTING], then train and assign it to her. For example, if she liked cougars she would hunt with her pet hunting cougar. It's ok if she likes donkeys though, just not a dog please. If it doesn't conflict with your rules, I'd like her to get some military training before going out so she's more survivable - dodging/fighting/xbow.

Thanks!

[Marconius]

Urist, you can't be an Axedwarf and a Metalcrafter at once. You're either in the military or a civilian, can't go both ways. Or were you saying I should wait for a metalcrafter (that likes zinc) to pop up and draft him/her to become an Axedwarf? Because... that might take some time!

Addict, I'm not quite sure what you mean, so that draft may be necessary. My current plan is for the base level of the fortress to be two levels above the magma to avoid the annoying "warm rock found" spam. Magma workshops will have a ramp leading down to them.

The plan is to make the main gate on this level and basically build the fortress upwards.

By the way, the depot -is- gonna be in the depths (eventually), so I'm gonna have to carve out a way aaaaaall the way down... planning to make it 5 tiles wide, fully engraved and lined with statues!

Josiwe, hunting is currently pretty much broken. Arrows/bolts aren't picked up by dwarves and they refuse to go out without those. If this is fixed in the new version, I will definitely have a hunter (or more than one) for the meat, leather and bones. But if it's not fixed, I'm afraid hunters aren't gonna be around.

By the way, forgot to mention, but I'm using a completely unmodded game. I may make small modifications like the above requested, but I actually have no experience editing the raws, and I'd like to avoid it as much as possible.

[Marconius]

Well, I've looked through embark sites a bit. Most of them either have an aquifer or have no access to other civilizations for trading, which is a bummer. I'll keep looking though, I'll post if I find a place that looks good.

EDIT: After much searching, I have discovered our future home! It's not in a good area, but it does have a waterfall, a sedimentary layer, sand and elephants! Oh, and apparently flux too, that's good!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[addictgamer]

Alright.

The dungeon:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And don't forget, it needs to be full of twisting passages.
Monsters that we caught.
Complex traps.
Maybe even some artifact items.

[Marconius]

Well, you can't really pump out the magma sea, so cutting the ground out under the fortress seems impossible. Unless I build the fortress a bit higher and fill the area under with magma via pumps, but that kinda defeats the whole idea of building the place directly above the magma sea.

I did plan on making the road leading down to the fortress to be quite long and twisting though! It will hang down from the top of the caverns, going over cave lakes and such.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Or were you saying I should wait for a metalcrafter (that likes zinc) to pop up and draft him/her to become an Axedwarf?

I meant this.

[addictgamer]

No, the dungeon is not the fortress.
This construction is separate from the fortress.
And, why is pumping the magma out to this chamber for the dungeon seem impossible?

Shall I detail my idea and it's creation process?
It will be less confusing.

[Marconius]

Well no, creating an entirely separate chamber to serve as a dungeon is possible. Filling the bottom of this chamber with magma is also possible.

Though to be honest, I'm not really crazy about this idea. Maybe I'll do it if this fortress lasts a long time and I manage to finish all the other stuff I wanna do.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Also, the dungeon could be suspended from the ceiling.