Open to suggestions so far:
-Additional design features for ship
-A name for the ship (must convert well in dwarven; must be at least a bit different from the original (IE- not 'bloodfist' nor 'sky-fortress of god' can be repeated/involved)
-A suitable embark location (Made a list below of my requirements.)
-A suitable embark setup/starter setup (dwarf skills and equipment)
Preferred Embark (Use
PerfectWorldDF if you must. I don't have the most finesse in it myself, I've tried.):
-Bauxite or fireproof-material access (so I can also embark with some or find some; at least, without digging deep first.).
-Copper-rich and possibly gem-rich (both factors may be a dice-roll however)
-No aquifer preferred, little is allowed, provided I can find a use for it, as long as it's away from a potential quarry or "Dig Deep" zone. Speaking of which, a cave opening is an option. I'm okay if there isn't one.
-Heavily forested location. Not to be an elf, but the denser, the better. This is gonna be huge, and the seasonal growth better be favorable for harvesting annually and/or constantly which also minimizes wandering distance for expanded harvesting (risk of ambush increases the more distance between harvesting and the project site; according to previous notes).
-A fertile, moist, seasonally friendly biome where lakes/ponds won't dry up, as would the grasses. If we face any fires, I don't want our lands to char up like last time. Especially considering the latest features to come.
-Easy-access magma pool/pipe is welcome to speed up metal and glass processing, as well as assist with ceramics (if ceramics can involve magma). I'll worry about any imps that come out if they appear.
-Considering the version, I doubt chasms or bottomless pits will make any appearance anyway, but I'm open to them for added challenge like the last project.
-Nearby hostile activity can keep my builders and defense contractors on their toes, at least, until they lose them somehow.
-Anything else, or no magma readily available, I can always risk it and dig deeper. I can always make a processing plant. Thank you burrows.
-To keep tradition (and for security reasons) we prefer to keep this project, or at least some of it, on a secure rocky base. Something solid enough to plant a drydock firmly into the foundation, as well as a landscape we can take advantage of for the sake of crafting some adequate defense lines. I speak, of course, of a mountain, or at least, rocky landscape should claim about 1 local embark tile at least.
In case I'm too chicken about messing with magma deep underground (I have yet to make a fort that involves being deep underground), I can always make an access pipeline to it like I would in Minecraft, and make a walled-in pocket to it. I wish my woodcutters farming the colorful fungus the best of luck, unless the military is more user-friendly.
Old design:
We already know the dimensions of the old Bloodfist: (region tiles = 48 fort-mode tiles)
X: 37 (.77083 of a local region tile)
Y: 63 (1.3125 of a local region tile)
Z: 5
V-Engines: 12
H-Engines: 4
Boilers: 2 (sufficient to power 16 engines (1 boiler for every 8 engines, 10 if redlining))
Crew Quarters: 6
Captain's Quarters: 2 (1 for captain, the other for the navigator/cartographer)
The spare rooms are for the chef the brewer and maintainence mechanic.
Barracks/Dormitory Housing: 27 troops/guests
New Design:
As of now, probably something that requires the use of 4 boilers, considering the scale of the project, so I'm looking at maybe a total of up to 32 engines. This thing will be big and heavy. I may also make use of a dedicated section of a deck for placing the machinery so I can apply more luxury to the rest of the ship, and have the moving parts less exposed.
Considering the complexity of the machinery, and potential extended uses (at maybe the sacrifice of an engine or 2), up to half a deck will have to be sectioned off, only through a series of maintainence hatches will it be accessed by engineering crew (with possibly a bed or 2 stationed within, in case we have gearheads).
If we are to have any livestock aboard (if I choose post-31.19 to work in), we'll need a proper animal storage deck. This can also be used for maintaining any mounts for high-ranking officials (sounds similar to the Highwind with the chocobos), and an assigned dwarf with sufficient husbandry skills to maintain the deck and animals.
Considering a number of complaints from the troops of the Bloodfist, as well as well-established crew members of the same said ship, medical concerns were not a consideration, especially given your average dwarven lifespan when it was created. I wouldn't blame them. Considering we still have most of our original crew intact over the years, and that a new ship is in order in the new world we've colonized (much thanks to reaching it by our former glorious craft, showing it's years, being retired as a monument to our first claiming of the skies, awaiting restoration for any dwarf interested), a welcome suggestion is a utility we have in our new kingdom, a proper medical station on board, and for strility reasons, it's own supply storage and treatment station locked away from the rest of the ship. This may be the only portion of the ship that may also be made of a metal, or of a stone that ensures cleanliness. Copper, I feel, would make an appropriate material metal-wise for an operation room.
Processing all the information the new ship will have to deal with will defiinitely call for a much more elaborate Chenjesu system. The previous ones (A and B) were only 1-3-3 LCD (Linked-Crystal-Dynamics) systems. We may need to double the output at least (say a 2-3-3 Y-symmetry setup?). I hope we can still have enough in reserve to make a backup like we did with the original design.
I heard reports from other mountainhomes that we haven't explored the underground enough, and that there are amazing and horrifying things that lie deep underground. Cave systems with all kinds of splendid colorful materials and such. Tower caps are not the only dense fungus we can use. For living under rocks, I'm surprised we missed this. Anyway, we can elaborate on more designs and color schemes and still keep the ship light enough to keep the stress on the engines low enough. Mayhaps we can put designs on the sides as well? After all, we ought to go larger than 5 decks. Right? Let's give the new ship more vertical dimension. Make it more luxurious.
Granted we did well with the initial setup, there have been times where we have been under-gunned or both of our balista have broken down. We had to place more hardpoints, and at times, even remove parts of our ship to stock up on bolts and mounting more balistae to protect ourselves from those damn giant birds, or protect topside from attacks from the many dark fortresses we had to strike. I advise next time we add more default hardpoints to the next ship. I mean, if anyone is going to learn from the remains of the old ship, then we might see some air-to-air combat, and we need some tactically placed hardpoints, plenty fixed, and a couple flexible. Of course, this will mean more mandatory housing for siege operators to man them, and at least one dedicated room for a siege engineer to maintain them. Let's hope this won't cut into the luxury factor too much.
An odd request has come in, but I wonder if it's possible to move land onto the topside of the ship to serve as a garden or area for the animals to graze. Could work for those multiple purposes if it can be pulled off (Modding thread might have something that can allow for it to work; part will have to be installed before takeoff however). (Idea also inspired by One Piece with the Going Merry, and that it has tangerine trees on the upper deck.)