Let's succeed a Dwarf Fortress! [Krash-ing for Fun!]

[Berekän]

You can view how much of any items you have at the 'Z' menu, switching to the 'Stocks' screen, but to get better overviews of the general amount of food you need to set up a bookeeper, at the Nobles screen (N), and using the settings (S) to select the precision on which you wish the estimates. Also, don't forget to give him an office.

 

[Krash]

Booze is more important than food, without it your dwarves work painfully slow and become unhappy, they also consume something like 4x more booze than food. The easiest way to supply both is to set up a plump helmet farm (you can grow directly on soil or you can wet stone with water) and use them as both food (they eat the raw harvested plump helmets) and booze (they brew them at a still into dwarven wine). This provides for your needs so effectively that some players will ignore plump helmets altogether.

Eating only one type of food for too long gives dwarfs an unhappy thought (although it's not really that big a deal).

 

[Cassidy]

Playing in a Temperate forest I got the hang of building machinery, but in time it wasn't fun enough to keep going after a while, so I abandoned it to start another fortress over a Glacier.

In the forest fortress, I could make like $17,000 out of the trap components both carpenters were shelving by the time the second merchant convoy arrived, and population grew to a point I couldn't bother redefining their jobs and I wasn't sure about the changes of surviving a siege as I totally neglected raising a militia all the time.

Building the first water purification and irrigation pump(two pumps, more exactly, both taking water from a level below and pumping it back down to maintain a constant flow) gave me enough basis for the economy side of the game, and the mist rose the moods on the drier side of that pump room transformed in a meeting area, until a dwarf child got possessed, threw himself over the cistern and smeared the entire water supply with blood.

Also, how is the succession line? Could I get a spot at the end of the line to continue this LP?

 

[Destroid]

I think there's only 2 to go till we go back to the start, I'm sure you are welcome to join us, especially with your good back catalogue of LPs.

Unfortunately we've had a few slow players and some crashes so we are going pretty slow.











Well, that's the end of that fort... there comes a time when one squad just isn't enough.

 

[TripJack]

i wish i could find magma and adamantine as easily as anusblaze has

also, MOAR

 

[Destroid]

The trick is, to just keep digging, asshole!

 

[TripJack]

oh shit so thats what ive been doing wrong thanks destroid

 

[Cassidy]

An Yeti invaded that Fortress of Ice I'm trying. Luckily it foolishly seized a small bedroom before causing much damage and thus was locked there until it dies of starvation. I'll see if I can get it fed though, because having its door triggered by a pressure plate that is only active during emergencies through a lever could be useful later.

Also built biggest machinery ever in so far. Two Windmills over the surface linked by gear assemblies on the level right below and to a pump at level 11 by vertical axles going all the way down, that keeps the water from running out by evaporation or freezing while having formed a convenient mostly dry spot for farming below.

I'll definitively try something crazier provided it survives long enough. Also I wonder how deep it takes for magma to be found. Even after that, with dwindling wood supplies, making magma-proof iron components is going to be hell until I manage to create enough mud near the underground cave for trees to sprout randomly from, as I found out that is the only practical way to have a access to locally extracted wood in hostile biomes.

 

[Destroid]

I'll definitively try something crazier provided it survives long enough. Also I wonder how deep it takes for magma to be found. Even after that, with dwindling wood supplies, making magma-proof iron components is going to be hell until I manage to create enough mud near the underground cave for trees to sprout randomly from, as I found out that is the only practical way to have a access to locally extracted wood in hostile biomes.

Like most things in DF, it's highly variable. Sometimes it is quite shallow, other times it is extremely deep. Likewise the caverns can be as little as a few z-levels below the surface or more than twenty. Incidentally, the caverns are also a good source of wood, although significantly more hazardous to harvest than the surface.

 

[JagreenLern]

Autumn 256 Continued

Theocrat's journal 26th Limestone: I've ordered production of a small number of adamantine weapons and shields.

Theocrat's journal 5th Sandstone: Engraving work on the new tombs is complete, with space for 24 fallen workers. The haulers will start bring in coffins, and the engravers will get to work on the new living quarters.

Theocrat's journal 6th Sandstone: Dammit, I though we had coffins. Guess the masons should get to work on 24 new ones.

Theocrat's journal 10th Sandstone: One of our dwarves became possessed, and made a fancy mug. The cratfsdwarfship is wonderful, but I really wish he didn't make it out of fucking adamantine.

Theocrat's journal 13th Sandstone: It's been over a month since the enemy have tried to assault the entrance to Anusblaze, and it still isn't safe for us to go outside. There is still three units of goblins, one unit of humans, and a unit of trolls. We can stay down here forever, but I don't want to let the enemy ambush the ambassador from the mountainhomes.

Theocrat's journal 20th Sandstone:The miners are almost done digging out the new living quarters. After they're done, they will begin work on a small exploratory tunnel in the caverns below, to see if we can find a way to dig around and below the magma sea.

Theocrat's journal 28th Sandstone: The engravers are soon to begin smoothing out rock in the new living quarters.

 

[JagreenLern]

Any ideas on how to deal with the enemies outside the fortress without getting a huge number of dwarves killed in the process?

 

[Destroid]

Nope, my fort got cut down from around 100 to 30 or so dwarves when I was seiged by that many goblins and trolls. I think they go away after enough time passes without you letting them in, but that's hardly sporting.

 

[Cassidy]

Any ideas on how to deal with the enemies outside the fortress without getting a huge number of dwarves killed in the process?

That isn't time intensive, I don't believe there is any.

Magma-proof pump stacks all the way to a tunnel covered with a floodgate leading to the surface(or 10 levels above surface for total awesomeness), powered by a gear assembly connected to a windmill farm or large amount of waterwheels, linked to a lever because there is no big red button in DF. Alternatively keep the pumps always working and use the lever only to open the floodgate.

Heavily pressurized water also can be used as a weapon. As for how to do that, I presume that channeling the water from multiple pumps into a single tunnel or pump above them, and so on, should work.

Or perhaps even a combination of both to transform the surface into a gigantic cooking pot... I wonder what happens if tunnels merge water with magma flow through an Y or T intersection and then release the resulting combination...



However, if magma creatures or similar cave/underground nasties could be tamed, I'd suggest unleashing them over the goblins instead. Do you have a dungeon master?

 

[Ulminati]

Only now do you realize you should have followed my mandate for a magma resevoir to flood the surface with.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Magma flood! Magma flood! Magma flood!

 

[Fafnir]

The KKkodex demands updates

 

[TripJack]

these delays are unacceptable we must remove the theocrats head for his failure

 

[JagreenLern]

I have been contemplating the best course of action for Anusblaze, and have decided to put it to a vote.

A. Fuck the surface. We can stay down here forever. Maybe someone on the succession list will have magma pump-stack experience that we can later use to cleanse the surface.

B. Wait until the ambassador and his caravan arrive, and attempt to protect them from the attackers. Many dwarves will die, and we may well fail, but the mountainhomes will know the courage of Anusblaze dwarves.

C. Attack immediately. A shitload of dwarves will die, and chaos will probably prevail in Anusblaze for a while after, if it survives the carnage.

Choose well Codexia, many dwarven lives are in our hands!

If we are to attack, I would also like someone to suggest a battle plan.

 

[Cassidy]

B: It sounds like a reasonable choice. However, if it was possible to make dorfs follow "hold this position" order, I'd suggest trying to lure them to a chokepoint and going with C. As I personally discovered they just lack the discipline to wait and stay in a tactically advantageous position, I'll stick to B.

I was still dabbling with the game and forgot to make multiple successive burrows for civilians to retreat. It all began with a Forgotten Beast that launches freezing breath and suffocates Dorfs, then an Ambush that a human guard fortunately helped to stop. Then, at first siege, after 4 years of peace because of being in a far away glacier, around 20 goblins attacked. I still didn't get the hang of burrows, Magma was just 80 z-levels below the already built residences and thus metalsmithing remained inactive and most weapons were bought or seized from dead goblins all this time.

Then, just a few days after the first siege was defeated, with heavy casualties reducing population from 180, already reduced because of ambush and FB to around 150, antoher FB caused even more rape, and as if it wasn't enough, right after this second FB came a second siege in the form of a full rape squad, with 40 goblins and 6 trolls.

My initial plan was to use a retractable bridge as a chokepoint, and I was confident enough in it to hope the fortress would withstand but the dumb dwarves, in spite of having defined two burrows(one around the archery spots above the walled first entrance and windmill farm and the other just on the tip of the bridge as a chokepoint, while also covered to the sides by walls to secure them from bolts) forbid them from getting down from the bridge and expose themselves. Of course, instead of holding their position, they just did the dumbest thing ever and charged against the horde.

The east retractable bridge was quickly seized, and the trolls smashed the way open to the underground....

After all, due to my foolishness of not having created multiple layers of burrows for civilians to retreat deeper and deeper, and also due to the dumb dwarves not holding their position in the bridge and behind the fortifications and charging instead, getting all of the first line of defenses slaughtered, once this second siege was over, fortunately with most of the perpetrators exterminated, including four of the trolls, only 100 dorfs survived, of which a dozen became cripples for life, although it is impressive what an one-legged elite swordman with a sword in left hand and both a crutch and a shield in right can do.

 

[GarfunkeL]

C! Attack! Attack! Attack!

 

[Fafnir]

C!

 

[Azira]

A

 

[Gold]

A, unless there is no hope to salvage the fort to continue the LP, then C.

 

[TripJack]

A of course

dorfs are made to live in the earth

 

[JagreenLern]

Since seems to be no clear consensus, I'm going to do option B. Hopefully the caravan guards will hold of the enemy long enough to divide their forces while the militia deals with the enemies nearest the fortress. Hopefully we can lure them into the entrance halls of Anusblaze and let the ballistae take their toll.

I was seriously leaning towards option A, but that just doesn't seem very exciting, or honorable. Option C would probably turn into a slaughter, due the lack of dwarven unit cohesion, as Cassidy mentioned in his post above.

Update will come later today.