Dwarf fortress

[Ilena]

All those above are good tutorials to learn to play. You can never know enough to play dwarf fortress.

[TheSummoner]

Heres an odd little problem...

I have 4 champions. They are all legendary wrestlers with no weapon skill yet. None have injuries to the nervous system or anywhere else for that matter. They're all set to wear leather with shields and no weapon currently. They will not spar...

Anyone have any idea why?

[Destro_Yersul]

Are they on duty? They won't spar if they're currently on duty.

[TheSummoner]

Currently, yes, but only because I don't want them standing around in the meeting area doing nothing (I'd rather have them do that near the trade depot =P).

But when I set them to off-duty, they still wont spar... its odd.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Check for nerve damage. If they have any kind of wound (even just a gray one) to neck, upper spine, or lower spine then they won't spar. You can give them crossbows and that will work regardless of nerve damage. Also they won't spend all their time sparring. They like to socialize in the meeting areas from time to time.

[TheSummoner]

None have injuries to the nervous system or anywhere else for that matter.

Already done that.

[Ilena]

Ummm ... recruit more dwarves to make champions and use these 4 to stem the tide of goblins? :P

[Cubey]

You did set up a barracks somewhere, right?

[TheSummoner]

Yes I did and I'll recruit more military when I have more dwarves to recruit from =/

[charl]

Yes I did and I'll recruit more military when I have more dwarves to recruit from =/

You could try removing all labour tasks from your soldiers. They aren't supposed to do any of those when they are recruited, but you never know.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Destroy your barracks and then build a new one from a bed. Also go in and set them on duty and then take them back off duty. Wait a little while and they should start sparring. Maybe also check to see if they have another job like pickup equipment which could be inaccessible and preventing them from sparring.

[Ilena]

for all you true dwarves out there .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVwYKtgFYCc&feature=fvw

[TheSummoner]

We need a DF Anti-Elf song, not a WoW one =P

[Ilena]

Well i know .... but its better then nothing :P i definately consider FRAPSing some video of killing elves :P which is actually interesting i had like 4 ambushes in spring time and the first ambush of the year was on the elven caravan that was just outside my fort :P

[Artanis]

Heres an odd little problem...

I have 4 champions. They are all legendary wrestlers with no weapon skill yet. None have injuries to the nervous system or anywhere else for that matter. They're all set to wear leather with shields and no weapon currently. They will not spar...

Anyone have any idea why?

I highlighted the most likely reason: you have 4 soldiers. Soldiers don't spar constantly, and even when off-duty and otherwise unoccupied (i.e. not drinking, eating, etc.), they don't spend all their time sparring. I tend to go seriously overboard with the military, and even with two dozen or so soldiers there's times when nobody is sparring.

Note that the dwarves being legendary wrestlers doesn't really mean squat when it comes to sparring time because a bug makes them skill up REAL quick.

[TheSummoner]

I only had 4 because I had like... 17 dwarves total...

Havent played much recently (been preoccupied making my Halloween costume and trying for Mr. Perfect), so I haven't really tried to get them to spar again (got 4 new recruits and I dont want to put recruits up against champions) so I currently lack a reason to have my champions spar.

[Artanis]

The number of non-soldiers you have doesn't affect how much time the soldiers spend sparring

[TheSummoner]

I know, I was simply letting you know why I had a mere 4 soldiers... because thats still a quarter of my total population.

[Arachu]

Some even train their civilians to be Wrestlers, and start a militia. I usually just picked the best to lead about ten people and built them a fancy stone-block tower with hardwood floors and sniper posts. Or, I'd build the entire above-ground portion of the fortress underneath a solid, cinnabar box. And then make all these channels about, that turned into bloody moats when they intersected the river, and then I'd build a wall inside of that...

What? I had a monkey problem! I swear those Rhesus Macacues were, like, ghosts or something. I mean, they consistently got past gates with guard dogs. And then there were those bleeding Goblins...

And the horses. Those. Freaking. Horses. One day my hunter said something about horse meat, and walked off into the distance, never to return. An hour later, we see this freaking horse, covered in blood, holding a severed arm in its mouth. Evil horses, man.

I think I'm suffering withdrawal, can anyone tell?

[shadow_archmagi]

So, anyone else listen to the new podcast?

Giant shrimp with hair.

Purple hair.

And a trunk.



Dear god the next version will be rad.

[Lord Herman]

There's a podcast? Nifty!

[TheSummoner]

Typically every dwarf I get who doesn't come with a useful skill gets put into the military unless. The sole exception to this is married women since I do not condone the use of baby meat-shields. They're given fruitful jobs as haulers until I have a task I need them for.

[Shpadoinkle]

I like the idea of building a bunch of tunnels just under the surface to interconnect a bunch of small buildings (2x2 or 3x3 on the inside) with fortifiied walls surrounded by ditches or moats. Have your crossbow dwarves enter through the tunnels (actually, the tunnels are the only access route to them) and snipe away at the enemies from inside. Enemies without ranged weapons can't touch them, and enemies with ranged weapons have a hard time hitting them beause they have to get a shot through the fortifications before they even have a chance of hitting the dwarves, and then they still have to get past armor.

Set them up in a grid and make the outer walls of the buildings no more than 38 spaces apart, and you can potentially cover the entire map without your dwarves ever having to set foot outside. I never got around to making more than a couple of these myself, though.

[shadow_archmagi]

Set them up in a grid and make the outer walls of the buildings no more than 38 spaces apart, and you can potentially cover the entire map without your dwarves ever having to set foot outside. I never got around to making more than a couple of these myself, though.

This is called "Cheating" because "a trench with a wall behind it" should not be the defense to end all defenses. As soon as the next update is finished, Toady is going to start working on pathfinding and movement.


EDIT: Which is not to say I don't approve, and that is a brilliant way to defend yourself. It just isn't in very good sport.

In one of the podcasts he says something to the effect of

"Theoretically, I should be able to plop a goblin down anywhere on a map and have him get anywhere else on that map, whether he has to build ladders or bridges or ramps or battering rams or what"

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I normally just throw up a castle wall with a keep (containing my baracks) over my entrance.

[Arachu]

Once I made a bunker out of solid shale blocks. It was hollow, with double walls, and the only entrances were stairs from the inside. Underneath it was a chamber paved with grey stones, connected to the outside world via a 3x1 ramp that just barely peeked out from the bunker itself. The only entrance to the fort lay in the back; a triple-wide staircase flanked with chained-up war dogs.

Given its remote similarity to a Russian bunker (I was going to have an underground gulag), I decided that the dwarves there are soviets, and eventually modded in a hammer-and-sickle symbol with the adjective "Oram Lathon", for that was the world's name. So, "Oram Lathon Hammer and Sickle Signs".

...

CITIZEN URIST

[ObadiahtheSlim]

In Soviet Fortress, unfortunate accident happens to you!

[Lord Herman]

So, anyone else listen to the new podcast?

Giant shrimp with hair.

Purple hair.

And a trunk.



Dear god the next version will be rad.

Thanks for pointing out the podcast to me. It's awesome!

For those who don't know where it is: Linky!

[Shpadoinkle]

This is called "Cheating" because "a trench with a wall behind it" should not be the defense to end all defenses. As soon as the next update is finished, Toady is going to start working on pathfinding and movement.


EDIT: Which is not to say I don't approve, and that is a brilliant way to defend yourself. It just isn't in very good sport.

In one of the podcasts he says something to the effect of

"Theoretically, I should be able to plop a goblin down anywhere on a map and have him get anywhere else on that map, whether he has to build ladders or bridges or ramps or battering rams or what"

My inspiration was the Maginot Line. If you're unfamiliar with it, it's pretty much what I described and was built by France between World War 1 and World War 2, except instead of covering all of France in a grid, it just covered thier border with Germany. Germany had a hell of a time getting any ground troops accross it, and eventually just said "Screw it" and went around.

I'm looking forward to invaders being able to build bridges and ramps and such, though.

If I do get around to building the "Crossbow Network," for lack of a better name, I don't think I'll be using it unless I'm just overwhelmed all to hell and, all my melee dwarves have been killed, and I'm not ready to give up the ghost just yet. I agree it's not very good sport, it's just sort of an emergency backup.

[TheSummoner]

Bout f***ing time goblins grew some brains. I look forward to smarter, more challenging goblins.