Dwarf Fortress III: Instant Fun : Just Add Magma

[dgnslyr]

I (foolishly!) set up a line of weapon traps, piled 10 high, to guard my front entrance. A secondary entrance, equally heavily trapped, is ready to be opened in the event I need to make a sortie. How many weapon traps do I need to deal with a Dragon?

[TheSummoner]

It varies depending on how strong the weapons are and how lucky the dragon is.

But I'll say it again... If you use cage traps, you only need one... or more if the hallway is wider than 1 tile, but the point is if the dragon steps on the cage trap, the dragon is trapped in the cage. Period.

[dgnslyr]

I'll set some up, but the weapon traps I set up should be enough. The dragon will run over at least four or five fully loaded traps, so I hope I'm okay...

The drawbridge is lowered, but it won't budge. It just stands there, next to a pair of statues it attacked, by the long corridor of traps that line the single entrance to my fortress.

[TheSummoner]

Not sure if the same applies with megabeasts, but I've noticed that ambushes (and probably sieges as well) have a tendency to get a bit smarter about running into traps after a previous group fails...

I've noticed that they tend to mull around the outside and wait it out instead of running headlong to certain death.

I usually deconstruct and reconstruct my traps after each ambush/siege and that seems to work (since because they're now "new traps" despite being made of the same parts and being in the same spot), but with the dragon right outside your door, that probably isn't the best idea...

[dgnslyr]

I have an "emergency sortie" exit. It's a long corridor lined with traps, but hasn't been breached to the outside yet. On one hand, I'm hoping it'll kill anything that tries to come in that way. On the other, I'm afraid that opening up a second entrance will add weakness to my fortress. Of course, it's lined with about ten fully loaded traps, so that may be an unreasonable fear...

[TheSummoner]

Its not like you can't just seal the passage off again when it isn't in use. I say go for it.

[tribble]

What should I do for my first megaproject?

[dgnslyr]

A giant image of a dwarf? And by dwarf, I mean the smiley Toady has so wittily chosen to be the icon of a dwarf.

Mega-Dwarf Bonus: Make it the same color as an esteemed dwarf of your choosing.

Uber-Mega-Dwarf Bonus: Find a way to meaningfully incorporate it into your fortress.

[TheSummoner]

Ultra-Mega-Bonus

Engrave it and have every engraving also be the smily icon. This will require save scumming or amazing luck.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Clear glass above ground palace!

[Shpadoinkle]

Or use green glass and recreate the Emerald City from the Oz books.

[TheSummoner]

And keep your highest ranked noble in a small alcove near a giant head made of gem windows that flash between the various shades of green!

[Rockphed]

Ultra-Mega-Bonus

Engrave it and have every engraving also be the smily icon. This will require save scumming or amazing luck.

Or building things that destroy engravings on it. Or getting the offending tiles wet and letting a tree grow on them.

[TheSummoner]

Or getting the offending tiles wet and letting a tree grow on them.

Elf!

Burn it in the magma moat!

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Hey if growing trees so I can chop them down and make beds, ash, lye, or coal out of it is wrong, i don't want to be right!

[TheSummoner]

Its only wrong if you do it intentionally. If they grow on their own and you then slay them and use their carcasses to make furnature, crafts or items necessary for the creation of better furnature or crafts, thats fine.

[Rockphed]

I was just mentioning ways to destroy engravings so they could be redone. Then again, I do often flood huge areas of the underground with the explicit idea of growing trees and cavern plants.

[tribble]

Clear glass above ground palace!

Or use green glass and recreate the Emerald City from the Oz books

And keep your highest ranked noble in a small alcove near a giant head made of gem windows that flash between the various shades of green!

Unfortunately, I have no sand. Will do the smiley.

EDIT: Whoa, major problem! was going to do the dwarf in Platinum, since I never use the stuff anyway, but now I'm out of nuggets, and not nearly finished! what's worse, I mined out the only vein of platinum I found so far already. any tips on finding another? (I never updated from 40d, if that's relevant.)

[TheSummoner]

You should...

Caverns are awesome and you can import sand in DF 2010. Abandon your current fortress, upgrade, never look back.

[tribble]

You should...

Caverns are awesome and you can import sand in DF 2010. Abandon your current fortress, upgrade, never look back.

but I don't like the new key bindings, and DF2010 apparently requires me to irrigate dirt. And anyway, I like my current fortress. Maybe once I get it destroyed, then I might consider upgrading, but until that point, I'm not very eager at all to do so.

[Zarah]

Or use green glass and recreate the Emerald City from the Oz books.

Hell yes. I'm already planning my next fortress.

[TheSummoner]

but I don't like the new key bindings, and DF2010 apparently requires me to irrigate dirt. And anyway, I like my current fortress. Maybe once I get it destroyed, then I might consider upgrading, but until that point, I'm not very eager at all to do so.

Whats different about the key bindings? I don't really remember having any difficulty because of that.

And irrigating dirt really isn't that bad. Dig into the side of a small murky pool or use a screw pump and you're done. Or just dig down into the caverns which are pre-muddied.

[Shpadoinkle]

but I don't like the new key bindings, and DF2010 apparently requires me to irrigate dirt. And anyway, I like my current fortress. Maybe once I get it destroyed, then I might consider upgrading, but until that point, I'm not very eager at all to do so.

You can change the keybindings manually, and irrigation is a minor inconvenience after you've done it a few times.

The newer versions have burrows, caverns, and far more abundant ores and gems.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

If you aren't bothered with a little bit of cheating, you can mode all your soil to be sand. Doesn't require regen.

[TheSummoner]

So... Eggs.

Heres what I'm imagining when eggs are in the game.

Phoenix (semi)megabeast. On death it spawns an egg that instantly hatches into a new Phoenix. I could either be merciful and have the hatched phoenix be a different type that can't spawn a new egg... Or I could be a real dwarf and allow the rebirth cycle to go on forever...

Then again, it would just be weaponized if it could just be reborn every time...

[dgnslyr]

Now I'm starting to be afraid. The heavily-trapped emergency exit was opened, but the dragon hasn't moved a step from next to that statue.

[Rockphed]

So... Eggs.

Heres what I'm imagining when eggs are in the game.

Phoenix (semi)megabeast. On death it spawns an egg that instantly hatches into a new Phoenix. I could either be merciful and have the hatched phoenix be a different type that can't spawn a new egg... Or I could be a real dwarf and allow the rebirth cycle to go on forever...

Then again, it would just be weaponized if it could just be reborn every time...

Well, depending on how eggs work, you could have the caste that results from an eggplosion lay eggs normally. Oooh! Have the males be the ones that explode and get reborn on death, and have the females just die if killed. If you are really sneaky, have the males die and turn into females and have only males come from eggs.

[TheSummoner]

Well, right now I'm working under two assumptions...

1) You will be able to make creatures drop eggs on death (similar to how Iron Men drop Iron Statues)

2) You will be able to set the time it takes for an egg to hatch.

I would imagine I would start with a giant eagle, make it all firey, increase the size a bit, and give it four castes...

Male
Female
Male (No Rebirth)
Female (No Rebirth)

The two normal castes would drop an egg on death and the two with no rebirth would not. Males and females could interbreed regardless of whether or not they can be reborn from the ashes (oh, they should also all drop ashes) and some could be born without the ability to rise from the ashes on death. About 1 in 4 phoenixes would be unable to respawn so it would be a crapshoot whether that one bird siege dies the first time around or if you have to fight it ten times before it stays down...

The only issue I'm seeing is that a male phoenix could be reborn female and vice versa... Though that really isn't a big enough issue to stop me from modding these in...

[dgnslyr]

The dragon just immolated some goblins, and the fire is spreading. How does Can fire stop?

[TheLogman]

The dragon just immolated some goblins, and the fire is spreading. How does Can fire stop?

Fire stops at bushes, dirt, ramps, bridges, and trees, so it basically only burns on grass tiles.

Also, selecting the space a fire is on for dirt pavement automatically puts out the fire I think.

But I wouldn't worry about fires outside, they aren't really that dangerous and they burn out pretty fast, especially in areas with a lot of out of doors Z-levels.