Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Bohandas]

I was thinking it could work something along the lines of you get a announcement

it redirects your camera to a edge of the map and a few of the edge tiles start flashing with the digging animation then go away

it then leaves you to Finish the tunnel and connect it to a trade depot

and then this is where the dwarf traders come from and leave from

all the other races still have to come by over land

Seconded

[Zesty]

...have you ever tried crossing the world by foot?

Now imagine that in a tunnel, without any natural food or water (or light, which Toady also has mentioned implementing)... and someone has to dig the ENTIRE way over for a Fort that may or may not make it past year 5.

It's not realistic unless you're incredibly close to your home civilization.

[Bohandas]

...have you ever tried crossing the world by foot?

Now imagine that in a tunnel, without any natural food or water (or light, which Toady also has mentioned implementing)... and someone has to dig the ENTIRE way over for a Fort that may or may not make it past year 5.

It's not realistic unless you're incredibly close to your home civilization.

And yet tunnels are placed between sites in world-gen...

[Karakzon]

and toady is also thinking of putting mine carts in.

when they come in, it will be feasable, since theyll be a way to move large loads of rock and equipment.

[Starver]

and toady is also thinking of putting mine carts in.

when they come in, it will be feasable, since theyll be a way to move large loads of rock and equipment.

And supplies.  (But note no steam-engines, so no analogues of the Tube/Metro/U-bahn/etc...)

[Jeoshua]

Deffinitely support this idea.  I am actually in the middle of embarking at a 2x2 in between the Mountainhome and a suburb, for the express purpose of seeing if anything wanders in through the tunnels the Finder assures me are there.

[Thundercraft]

This is a nice idea.
And I can see how this could be useful and make the game more fun.

For example, it has been complained about before that embarking on an island is boring because of the lack of trade caravans and sieges. But if dwarven caravans could use such tunnels, that would solve at least part of this problem. Also, if goblins or some other critters can occasionally find their way into such trade tunnels, then that would add to potential fun.

As for the realism of such tunnels connecting mountainhomes separated by vast distances, perhaps parts of these tunnels run through underground caverns in places? That might help explain how they could build such vast stretches of tunnels. And it would give a way for critters to sneak in.

Edit: On second thought, I could see how this could be abused. With trade tunnels, it would be incredibly tempting to close off the surface entirely and ignore the dangers there. Especially after the Caravan Arc is finished and trading becomes much more useful.

[Karakzon]

this would have to be implamented after the millatery arc is complete, if it was at all. since when the millatery arc is done, well be facing goblin diggers / construction destroying war machines.

[Lord Zack]

I hope this isn't too egregious of a necro, however I have something to add. We're supposed to eventually have smaller settlements springing up around our fortress right? So there should probably be tunnels connecting them to each other and you're fortress.

[Uthric]

ok i let this die out, but backup we go im guessing for more imput

[Maklak]

I can't really see the point. Caravans can already travel through the caverns.

[Karakzon]

I can't really see the point. Caravans can already travel through the caverns.

correction, they can only leave through caverns, they dont enter by them. meaning any iland embark is tradeless.
also: option of building Under a mountain.

[Norseman]

A tunnel like this should be insanely expensive and should take a very long time to dig. It wouldn't be easy either. If you make it a shallow tunnel, you need to potentially deal with burrowing creatures getting into it, and you need to haul in a lot of stone to build roads (otherwise underground trees may block the tunnel). If you make it a little deeper, you need to deal with digging around aquifers and rivers. If you dig even deeper, you might need to deal with caverns or magma pipes. If you dig deeper still, you'll definitely have to deal with caverns, and all the creatures they contain. No matter what, it won't be easy or cheap.

Let's assume we pay each dwarf working on the tunnel a salary of 500 dwarfbucks per month (this includes hazard pay). Let's assume the digging team will consist of 3 miners, 3 masons, 30 haulers (carrying food and booze from the home settlement, and moving stone as well as beds, chairs and tables for everyone...), 1 architect, 3 doctors, one squad of 10 axedwarves, and one squad of 10 marksdwarves. There are 60 dwarves in this digging team, so you'll need to pay 30,000 dwarfbucks per month of digging. Since the caravan comes once per year, you should pay in installments one year at a time, so you'll need to donate 360,000 dwarfbucks before they get started on construction.

Construction time should be, on average, about two months for every normal embark tile they need to pass through, six months for every embark tile of river they need to cross, and a year for every embark tile of ocean or lake they need to dig under. Your distance to the nearest inhabitated dwarven settlement would determine exactly how much time and money would be necessary to complete the project.

Once the tunnel is built, you'd want to have guards patrolling the tunnel routinely to ensure that you can kill any weak underground creatures, to warn you of any possible invasion through the tunnel, and to identify any problems that will require maintenance. Assuming you have two squads like I suggested above, and assuming they bring 20 haulers and 3 doctors, you'd need to donate about 250,000 dwarfbucks per year to keep the tunnel open. If they run out of donations to keep the tunnel open, they can seal it up until you're willing to donate more money for it.

[Jeoshua]

The point the original poster was making is not that tunnels should be constructed.  No, they are already constructed between Dwarven towns.  But not to player forts, which needs to be changed.  And I agree.

My experiment, mentioned above, did not go over too well.  Nothing wandered in nor out.  They were virtual-sealed at the ends.

And to those of you who complain "oooh, it's so much digging" I say BUCK UP, ELFLOVER! Since when do Dwarves complain about the volume of a dig? God, I remember a day when digging dwarves would dig until they starved to death!

[Karakzon]

Norseman:

tracks and so forth for rubble, and mounted dwarf patrolls. not to mention they could probably have a small team rigging up simple traps that other dwarfs can knotice all along the tunnel length.

this is a suggestion that wouldnt be implamented untill those were. Having the ability to haul so much more stone and use pack animals -underground carnivors if now, normal when toady implaments hay etc- not to mention you could have random dwarf settlements throughout the system, underground. mining outposts etc.

as for dwarf bucks: it dosent take much to lower costs, they have to pay you/the company for their recreation and food. How do you think Britain got the Navis to build all the railroads so cheaply? wile they out in the tunnels or isolated, you provide supplys, and the money just cycles round. sure, its going to be expensive in the long run, and such a project would be. But all you need are sponsers, contracts to mining companys, a bit of hired muscle and some wagons and supplys to get you started. It wouldnt be hard, trust me. i would say that dwarfs would be able to dig out a tunnel through an embark tile well within or under a month of work. To finish the tunnel can be done by follow up teams, not to mention fungi wood etc dosent grow if theirs no mudd, meaning so long as the forward survay teams dont break an aquifer open outside of plans, their should be no problem on that score.