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[taro8]

Greetings everyone!
I wanted to post my attempt at building a fortress, Clinchedbuttocks of Buttery Butter, and ask some questions.

So, first I will present you want I managed to do, nothing much, but I think I managed to start pretty well. I did quite some lurking and managed to make some rather complicated stuff.....well at least THIS time .

So as for current status its autumn of 1 year of this fortress

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here you can see the entrance to the fortress, at this level there also: Carpenter, Mechanic and Mason workshops. That big room is a storage for any items said workshops create. Currently corridor also serves as communal bedroom, at least until I finish proper living quaters.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One level bellow entrance there are stockpiles for wood and stones, they are dug under workshops so craftsdwarves dont need to go around looking for materials.
Also on this level there is something Im proud of: a system that allows to flood farms bellow at will and each plot separatly.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is third level of my fortress and I think it will be main living area. Those four big rooms are farm plots, they can be flooded separately. To their left I set up small, custom stockpile for seeds.
My miners are in process of digging living quarters, I intend to give each dwarf his/her own room.
At this level I also intend to put meeting/dining hall, I already have food storage (the bigger room) and room intended for booze storage. I read that booze fires are dangerous and common thats why I want to dig a water tank on top of it so storage can be flooded in case something funny happens.
Here I also build kitchen, still and butchery.

Oh, on this level I found gold vain as well.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is currently a bottom of my fortress, here you can see a tank designed to hold water in case I mess up something when flooding farms (I already made that mistake  ). The stairs lead all the way up to the flooding chamber, the canal and smaller tank are the so I can have water in well at the dining hall.


Now that the tour is finished I would like to ask some questions.

1. I wanted to build well, but I cant as I dont have a chain and a bucket. I assume that bucket can be created by carpenter, but I think that chain will cause me some troubles. I take it that I will need to find coal, some metal ores, set up blacksmith workshop and so on, or I could dig to magma sea and set up magma forge (well I think I could pull this off). At what level usually magma shows up?

2. Now that I have starting point more or less figured out Im at loss what to do now. Should I start building traps? What could be best ones in current situations?

3. How should I start to create military forces? I know I can order carpenter to create some training weapons. I also have bowyer, will I need metal to create crossbows (I read that they are one of the most deadly weapons in DF)?

4. I intend build flood gates at each floor so each level can be sealed off in case of some fun stuff. Is this a good idea, or unnecessary?

5. I want to stuff all the cats I can into a cage so I can keep them close to the butchery. I read that they will keep breading even if they are in cages, is that true? How do I put animals in cages?

Any more advices?

This would be all for now.

[Gnauga]

Chain can be a metal chain, or a cloth rope. The cloth rope is easier to make, usually, and can be ordered from the Clothier's Workshop.

Possibly the cheapest trap to make is the stone-fall trap. Stone is in abundance, but there's no guarantee it'll kill an enemy. Cage traps are possibly the strongest, to the point of exploit, in that they nullify any single unit that's not trap_avoid instantly and without fail. If you have many of these on a chokepoint, you're nearly immune from ambushes.

Crossbows are not especially deadly. The axe is regarded as one of the most generally effective weapons, provided that the metal is strong enough to overcome the enemy's armor. Blunt weapons ignore armor, but generally take a long time to deal a killing blow. Salvage any whips you find, as they are rather deadly, being blunt and moving at supersonic speeds.

There's no such thing as unnecessary.

Press "b" to bring up the build menu and "j" to select ca[j]es. Build a cage (any cage), and once constructed, you can assign as many animals as you want. Pregnant cats will give birth from within the cage, but spores cannot pass through cages. You will need to assign born kittens to the cage, lest they be taken out.

[Golcondio]

BTW, I appreciate your idea of separately-flooding farm plots, but I have to disappoint you: once you muddy a plot, it is for life (for now at least)...
But you can recycle the design for some fun trap/maze for captured enemies!

[Jetsquirrel]

there is no magma chamber in your design

[taro8]

Chain can be a metal chain, or a cloth rope. The cloth rope is easier to make, usually, and can be ordered from the Clothier's Workshop.

I thought that I did took a rope on embark, guess I was wrong.... Anyway, I dont have a clothier among my dwarfs, this bring me to another question. Can I order a dwarf to do some job he did not do before? For example I would like to make that cheesemaker to make some ropes, or I will need to wait for some migrants to arrive hoping that clothier will be among them.

BTW, I appreciate your idea of separately-flooding farm plots, but I have to disappoint you: once you muddy a plot, it is for life (for now at least)...
But you can recycle the design for some fun trap/maze for captured enemies!

Many thanks, I didnt knew that, still that chamber is also a part of watter supply to the well, so at least it wont be totally ueless.

Can enemies pass through closed floodgates? I want to add one at the entrance so I completely seal off whole fortress by flipping one lever. Does ambush can pass through doors?

The axe is regarded as one of the most generally effective weapons, provided that the metal is strong enough to overcome the enemy's armor

Currently I have cobalt, gold, copper and aluminum and maybe something else. Still I want to know if it will be hard to set up magma forge or should I invest more time to find coal (or its easy to find?).

Press "b" to bring up the build menu and "j" to select ca[j]es. Build a cage (any cage), and once constructed, you can assign as many animals as you want. Pregnant cats will give birth from within the cage, but spores cannot pass through cages. You will need to assign born kittens to the cage, lest they be taken out.

So maybe putting all the cats in one cage, and the release them in a room they cant escape (doors set to not pet passable)?

there is no magma chamber in your design

You mean a trap? Well I only dug 5 levels into stone so I think I will not see magma anytime soon (or will I).

[Magma_science]

there is no magma chamber in your design

You mean a trap? Well I only dug 5 levels into stone so I think I will not see magma anytime soon (or will I).
[/quote]
Not quite a trap. legendary magma chamber. Preferably the size of your embark.

[melomel]

1. I wanted to build well, but I cant as I dont have a chain and a bucket. I assume that bucket can be created by carpenter, but I think that chain will cause me some troubles. I take it that I will need to find coal, some metal ores, set up blacksmith workshop and so on, or I could dig to magma sea and set up magma forge (well I think I could pull this off). At what level usually magma shows up?

Ropes work pretty much just like chains; you can tie animals up with them, too.

4. I intend build flood gates at each floor so each level can be sealed off in case of some fun stuff. Is this a good idea, or unnecessary?

Start with doors...  easier to make and install, most animals and invaders can't get through locked doors, and the ones that can break down a door can break down floodgates too.  Add bridges later for extra security.  So far nothing can destroy walls you build with b+C, even if the walls are wooden.

I thought that I did took a rope on embark, guess I was wrong.... Anyway, I dont have a clothier among my dwarfs, this bring me to another question. Can I order a dwarf to do some job he did not do before? For example I would like to make that cheesemaker to make some ropes, or I will need to wait for some migrants to arrive hoping that clothier will be among them.

If you kept the gear the game gives you at the start, you might have one somewhere.  Find the dwarf you want to make clothes and hit v+p+l; that lets you change the kind of work he'll do.  A dwarf that isn't skilled won't make high-quality items, but for a starting well that shouldn't matter--for chains/ropes, it only affects value.

[Gnauga]

The importance of skill varies depending on the job. For some jobs it affects value, for others merely speed. Special instances include mining, where skill also affect the probability to successfully extract stone or gems from mined out wall. Also if you have trees, you can set up a wood furnace and create charcoal, which is equivalent to coal.

[nbonaparte]

Currently I have cobalt

No, you don't. Cobaltite isn't an ore of cobalt.

[Jayce]

Coal is only needed for steel,if you have a magma forge/smelter you dont need any fuel other than to make steel,cage traps are the best easiest traps,weapon traps are better if you have high quality weaponparts,if you havent a magma forge,burn wood at wood furnace for fuel for normal forges.

[Hans Lemurson]

Currently I have cobalt

No, you don't. Cobaltite isn't an ore of cobalt.

Just like Bauxite isn't an ore of Aluminum.  It's just that cobalt metal doesn't even exist in the game, since historicly it was an impurity of nickel...which is itself a largely worthless metal in DF.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Nickel's only redeeming features are that its magma safe and if you have it, you have lots of it.

[taro8]

I decided to do an expedition to see what I have under fortress. The answer: two big caves (probably with giant cave spiders judging from webs) and something like magma pipe or something at around -85 levels bellow, I cant pinpoint it as it goes up for at least 7 levels. I think that for now I will settle on wood coal and cooper for weapons and armor. Cooper is the only thing I know it can be used to produce weapons. I didnt find iron, but I will dig some more and maybe I will get lucky. If all fails I will make freaking gold weapons and armor as I pund that there arequite a few vains deep under my fortress .

[Urist Imiknorris]

Weapons can be made of copper, bronze, silver, bismuth bronze, iron, steel, and a certain metal you will find in the depths.

Silver is the best metal for blunt weapons, followed by copper and bronze. Bronze is also a good metal for edged weapons, so if you have a granite layer on your map, start mining out cassiterite to alloy with your copper.

In case you didn't know, hematite is an ore of iron, and appears in all the same places as copper.

[fivex]

I decided to do an expedition to see what I have under fortress. The answer: two big caves (probably with giant cave spiders judging from webs) and something like magma pipe or something at around -85 levels bellow, I cant pinpoint it as it goes up for at least 7 levels. I think that for now I will settle on wood coal and cooper for weapons and armor. Cooper is the only thing I know it can be used to produce weapons. I didnt find iron, but I will dig some more and maybe I will get lucky. If all fails I will make freaking gold weapons and armor as I pund that there arequite a few vains deep under my fortress .

It is spelled copper
Also, I do believe that copper war hammers would be pretty good, if you made some iron battleaxes or something as well