Dwarf Fortress you sick temptress, you!

I finished my magma channel defense system. Sadly, there's a bug in the aqueducts that I didn't hear all the details on. Not a big deal, no major hassle, still a bit annoying. Down south I have a long channel with aqueducts spanning the chasm and river. There's a series of 4 floodgates along that channel that let me control the flow, and doors sealing off the whole area because I'd read that dwarves walk over lava channels without a second thought (this turns out not to be true in the current version).

Unfortunately, the aqueducts leak due to a bug. The service tunnel running alongside the channel is now flooded with magma. Only the doors I used to seal the area off prevented it from flooding my entire base. However, it's well contained and the final floodgate, the one that prevents it from filling the outdoor channel, is still working fine. To the north I have two more floodgates diverting the river into that same channel. If I want, I can flood it with water, then open the magma floodgate and create a big steam bath. Not sure if it accomplishes anything, but it shor is purty.

Currently having some trouble uploading my map, otherwise I'd post it.

Okay, here's my map:

http://rps.net/QS/Images/DW/map4.gif

Some items of interest:

Note the lava-flooded passage far to the south. That's my magma channel with the bugged aqueducts. Also note the corresponding channel to the far north west of the cave river. That steam where the channel hits the river? Left over from when the magma pushed all the way to the river. It's spawning a small amount of steam there and won't stop.

Why does the chasm have a red stripe running through it? I have no idea. Because of the bugged aqueduct pouring lava into it, I guess. That red stripe doesn't actually show up in the game.

As you can see, I've mined out most of my accessible iron. I think I hit 4 veins crossing the lava. Searching deeper faces the risk of hitting demons.

Note my gigantic supported room on the east of the lava. That's right, all of those supports will soon be attached to a single lever and woe to the wicked! Of course I'll have to test it out and then reload the save game.

It just turned spring and I'm expanding the residence halls again. Immigration has not yet been overwhelming and I want to be ready for it, since it just turned spring.

Those 4 ballista work pretty darn good. You must keep dwarves inside while they're firing though. They will kill any dwarf in their path. I might run some more channels to keep the dwarves from stepping in front of them while the magma is flowing.

What's the leaking bug? My magma tunnel worked great. I think initially upon construction, the river aquaduct filled the tunnel with water, but when I openned the magma floodgates the magma pushed the water out of that aquaduct. When the magma was turned off and receded past the river floodgate it did not fill back up with water. Whatever says I.

Tonight Quicksilver the metalsmith took a magmaman's fireball to the head. She didn't make it to a bed to recuperate, suffocating halfway. Of all the dwarves that could have taken her body(74), Grumpicus the miner laid her to rest at the graveyard. I swear these dwarves know things they shouldn't.

I read that the red strip down your chasm was an indicator that you had filled it with magma and now the chasm inhabitants are all dead, so you needn't worry about them attacking anymore. I don't believe that was confirmed though.

Wait, you have a moat that can be filled with water and or magma at will? That's pretty frikkin awesome.

Mentioned here, I think:
http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/...

What happened was that the aqueduct leaked out the side, the lava poured along the service tunnel, hit the magma channel, and created like a feedback loop. Even closing my magma floodgates have no effect.

Think there's any negative fallback for locking the human traders in the trade minister's office and letting them starve?

Bah, screw it! I think I have this game figured out and it again throws something at me that make my ears smoke.

I'm going back to something simpler. Like Tetris.

Kee-rist. The goblins just LOVE to attack while there's a merchant caravan on their way in or way out. The goblins slaughter the humans and then my damn greedy f*cking dwarves run out to collect the loot!

Can you tan human flesh?

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

Can you tan human flesh?

Ha, I don't know. You can sure tan cat and dog though.

What I've done now is put every non-combatant into on giant squad. At the first sign of a siege, I can activate the entire squad, set a station, and make sure they're on duty. I've verified that none have weapons or armor.

The problem I was having this last siege was that as I activated each yokel running out into the blood-soaked field, by default each squad is set to chase enemies and these guys were still each in their very own squads. Additionally, some had armor or weapons set, and they decided to run out into the battle to pick up equipment dropped by humans or goblins. The result was a slaughter.

You, sir, are a brilliant tactician. I'm talking like Gandalf with a viking helmet level tactician.

Keep the tips rolling, this is great stuff. I'm making my 7th fortress now, and have things going pretty well at 63 dwarves. I will be trying to make an variation on your magma tunnel.

When is the time that you will be besieged? In all the fortresses I have made I only had ambushes, but never a full siege.

Koning_Floris wrote:

Keep the tips rolling, this is great stuff. I'm making my 7th fortress now, and have things going pretty well at 63 dwarves. I will be trying to make an variation on your magma tunnel.

When is the time that you will be besieged? In all the fortresses I have made I only had ambushes, but never a full siege.

Hmm, I don't know. Maybe starting around your 5th or 6th year?

Even though I can't make myself play this, I really enjoy reading this thread- keep it coming!

Jadawin wrote:

Even though I can't make myself play this, I really enjoy reading this thread- keep it coming!

I second this! I've never been to interested in game After Action Reports, but some of the stories you all describe are amazing. I have a hard time figuring out where creative writing takes over from gameplay experience, but this little ASCII world and all its interactions is just so intriguing.

Little?! When you first start the game it creates a planet. A planet! A planet unique to your game. With a unique history dating back hundreds or thousands of years

... little...

Edit: Oh and my greek god character got Bill'd

this epic ASCII world and all its interactions is just so intriguing.

I am not worthy. I have corrected my statement

Here's an interesting new starting strategy from the Wiki:

Megor's Mystery Farmless Fort

Dwarves:

* Proficient Herbalist / Novice Wrestler
* Proficient Cook / Novice Wrestler
* Proficient Brewer / Proficient Building Designer / Novice Wrestler
* Proficient Mason / Novice Wrestler
* Proficient Carpenter / Novice Wrestler
* Novice Woodcutter / Novice Mechanic / Proficient Axeman / Proficient Wrestler [Emergency Asskicker]
* Proficient Miner / Novice Wrestler

Supplies:

* One Pick
* One axe

Map:

* Must have thick vegetation

You should have some points left over to spend on your favorite skills and supplies after all of this.

At the start of the game, you will want to designate some plants for gathering and remove all jobs except Gather Plants from your herbalist. You may also want to nickname your herbalist so that you can more easily keep track of him. Make sure he is harvesting plants nonstop, because these are what will keep you alive.

At the same time, you need to build a still and a kitchen and designate a large food stockpile around them so that your herbalist has a place to put the things he finds. Otherwise, he will just leave them out in the forest and they will wither. These buildings are an essential part of providing your fortress with enough food to survive. By first converting your plants to alcohol at the still, and then cooking the alcohol and seeds at your kitchen, you will increase the quantity of your food by more than six fold, since each unit of brewed plant produces five alcohol and at least one seed. Better yet, as your cook improves in skill, so will the quality of his productions. High quality food makes dwarves who eat it happier and is also excellent for trading; my legendary cook produced non-masterpiece food piles worth 1000-3000 coins (with the masterpiece piles being worth up to 6000 coins). For comparison, a cut ruby is worth 400 coins and a standard quality stone craft is worth 10 coins. Not bad at all for an infinitely renewable resource!

You should also send your woodcutter to cut trees, dismantle your wagons, build a carpenter's shop, and designate a good sized woodpile around it. You will need lots and lots of wood for barrels, bins, and beds. Never underestimate the number of barrels you will need.

If you do things right, you can have more than 400 food when summer of the first year comes around, not counting drinks or seeds. When I tried this strategy I had 900 food before winter hit, and since plants can still grow and be gathered during winter, I increased my food stockpile to 1200 by spring and my drinks to about 300.

Eventually, you will want to venture into farming, because this strategy will not feed you indefinitely. However, it should be good enough for the first two or three years of your fortress at the minimum, and herbalism will always be an excellent supplement for your food supply.

By the way, don't forget to disable cooking of prickle berries, fisher berries, strawberries, and so on from the kitchen screen. Waste not, want not.

I'm also thinking that it is entirely possible to survive on just caravan bought food. It's pretty easy to encrust crafts with gems and jack their price up into the hundreds or thousands, a few of which will buy out a packed human caravan. I haven't tried it yet but so far my fortresses are usually running in excess of 3,000 food after the first few years, and I'm beginning to wonder how much of that is home grown.

EDIT: Oh, and carved up horsies. Can't get through the working day without jerky.

There's a new version up. Most of the significant fixes have to do with Adventure mode, but its nice to know that dwarves wont go for more than one shield anymore (I never noticed that happening personally)

I think the best fixes are adding confirmation to sleep and waking you up if you get hurt. I might get to find out if it's worth doing now.

I'm on 115 dwarves now, I have build up some bellista defenses and I am have begun with my magma channel. First thing todo will be 'filling' that chasm with magma. The screams coming from down there will echo down my corridors forever I think. I wonder if there is a ballrog down there. At least he'll be warm and cosy.

Notefull events, I had a carpenter die of thirst at my gate entrance, while a well was not more then 50 paces away.
Somehow a friendly unit trigged my touchplate, sending the ceiling down and killing 2 dogs and a mule. I could not find hostile creatures anywhere near.
I have lost 3 masons and a carpenter to a mood where I could not supply the right ingredients. One of them was shot at the front door by my marksdwarf (I think).
I have created the mother of all mining stock places at my front door in the hope my fortress will finally get cleaned of rubble. I think this still will be a multi 100 year plan tho.

And I have a question. How do you guys handle a full caravan buyout? I have ALOT of food rotting every time I buy out the caravan. I get 200 food or so, and not even 50 is left after a few days. I tried setting all the other gather things on ignore by the 'O' menu, it did help, but not much. Any good strategie for that?

When the caravan shows up, I put EVERYONE on food and item haul. Like 50 dwarves.
and I make sure I build a lot of barrels ahead of time. I don't know why, but sometiems the food just gets dropped without any barrels it seems.

I never have much trouble with caravan food, but then again they never bring much, usually 5 small stacks and more cloth than anyone could ever need. I believe somewhere in the future development page they talk about wanting to add lumber and finished goods to the caravans. I think they'll also be bringing the food in barrels, which only makes sense.

Anything's better than 10 tons of silk cloth.

My rock solution has proven pretty viable. I only have one stone room in the whole fortress (3rd year fortress, pretty big). Its something like 10x10 with 2 craftdwarf workshops, a mechanics workshop, and a masonry sitting all around it. All but the mechanic is pretty much constantly churning out rock crafts and necessary doors etc. Sometimes new rock will hang around for a while but it all gets cleaned up without having huge rooms dedicated to useless rock storage eventually. Plus I have so many rock crafts that I can get anything I want from the caravans. I'll take 5 or 6 bins full of the stuff and just trade it all away to empty out the bins, basically making a massive donation to the kingdom, which Im sure they appreciate.

rabbit wrote:

When the caravan shows up, I put EVERYONE on food and item haul. Like 50 dwarves.
and I make sure I build a lot of barrels ahead of time. I don't know why, but sometiems the food just gets dropped without any barrels it seems.

Yes, this is advice to follow. Toady admitted that the food rot in the depot was a little fast. Until that gets adjusted, make sure you make barrels and you have dwarves dedicated to food hauling. Best to give your carpenters time to build barrels by waiting until the merchants are just about to leave before completing your purchase.

On buying out the Caravan:

1. Have 30-40 empty barrels in a furniture stockpile. Barrels in a workshop are useless.

2. Have your main furniture stockpile near the trade depot. Preferably inside to avoid thieves, with a wide thoroughfare to the depot seperate from your main entrance. The food stockpile doesn't really need to be nearby.

3. Take any legendary miners, craftsmen, whatever and turn off their main function temporarily while leaving food hauling on. Legendary dwarves are a lot faster than your average ass-scratcher, use it.

4. Constantly harass the traders as they are setting up their goods so that you can start trading as soon as they are ready.

5. Purchase only 5-10 food items at a time, wait for those to be hauled off and buy another batch. I'm basically working the assumption that food doesn't start to rot until you've bought it. I don't know if that is true or not, but better safe than sorry.

Ok, I will try that. Only I hope I can find the patience to buy it 5-10 at a time.

I had my first siege, 1 sqaud of goblins. For some reason my main squad won't go outside and ingage them. The quad leader thinks it's more important to have a bite first. And everyone knows it's not smart to fight with a full stomach, so he's acting double stupid. I have a savegame just as the goblins enter the maps, and I have tried it many different ways, but they just won't show up.

What does work is activating my trappers, 3 of them are marksman, and they let loos a nice hail of bolts while my dogs make a Goblin Feed Frenzy Fest (GFFF (tm)). I also had my ballista shoot 2 dwarves in one shot. That was a nice shot by my carpenter/siege operator.

But now there is a new problem. I understand the part where they need buckets to give the wounded water. I'm crunching out enough buckets to meet demand. But what I don't understand is them saying they can't bring foor, while I have a 100+ more pieces of meat and plants. Why can't they bring those? Any ideas? Could my halls be too crowded?

Even more wonderous is that I have now people dying of starvation ON my foor stockpile. Still having 50+ meat and plants tho, but they just don't eat it for some reason. Anyone have this happening before.

KF,
is it foods they cannot eat raw? you may need to either gather some raw edibles or have someone start pumping out meals.

I have 68 plump helmets. They can be eaten raw right?

Koning_Floris wrote:

I have 68 plump helmets. They can be eaten raw right?

Yup, and it's better that way: you get the seeds back.

Koning_Floris wrote:

Even more wonderous is that I have now people dying of starvation ON my foor stockpile. Still having 50+ meat and plants tho, but they just don't eat it for some reason. Anyone have this happening before.

It's hard to say. I've had periods where I thought I had plenty of food and yet lots of dwarves complaining of hunger and spending their time hunting vermin. It might be a bug in the AI. If you can, build a kitchen and try to convince them to cook some easy meals.

One thing to keep in mind about soldiers and squads: dwarves don't care about attacks. They will follow their daily schedule whether or not there are a hundred goblins assaulting your gate. What's worse, all dwarves in a squad will follow their squad leader no matter what he is doing. If the squad leader is eating, the whole squad will follow him to the kitchen. If he is sleeping, they will huddle around his slumbering form. When the leader of a squad goes to sleep, eat, or drink, you need to promote someone else from the squad (someone who's not distracted) to leader.