Dwarf Fortress Succession Game #6 in the Playground! Return of the Evil Biomes.

[Gnoman]

Well, how should we handle this?

[Celesyne]

Add it to wookies death count for fortresses. Managed to kill one without goblins or starving, or dehydration, or even a tantrum spiral. Takes real skill, man.

[Grif]

Add it to wookies death count for fortresses. Managed to kill one without goblins or starving, or dehydration, or even a tantrum spiral. Takes real skill, man.

I am honestly impressed.

Start a new year again, Wookie. Let's see if you can find more ways to kill your fort.

[Wookieetank]

Add it to wookies death count for fortresses. Managed to kill one without goblins or starving, or dehydration, or even a tantrum spiral. Takes real skill, man.

I am honestly impressed.

Start a new year again, Wookie. Let's see if you can find more ways to kill your fort.

Why bother having a reputation if you can't uphold it.

I'll get a new one up and going at some point today, should be able to get through the first year by saturday.

[Celesyne]

I wager my warhammer it dies by being a corrupted/bugged world gen in the first year. Wait... that means I die too... uhhh.... I can't win in this can I....

[Wookieetank]

Because twice just wasn't good enough, here's the charm:

Journal of Wookieetank Overseerer exhausted:

Spoiler: Yet Another Dwarfy year

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The sky went black, the world collapsed in on itself. I find myself flying out of my bedroll to findmyself as leader of an expidition in a strange land. The other dwaves threatened mutany if we kept on, so we started a settlement in this land of spiders and fell creatures. Many months pass in this place and it increasingly gets to me. I eventually snap and start smashing the hell out of anything I can get my hands, up to and including the trade depot. The other dwarfs won't have any of this and send a wood cutter after me. I evade him for many days until I slip up and the last thing I see is an axe coming towards my face....

I wake up drenched in sweat, trying to make sense of what was real and what was dream. Seems I need to lay off the cave mushrooms right before going to sleep.

Overseerer's Log Dwarfdate 1st Granite, 551: Today I write to you from the settlement of Boltedroads. Our meger force numbers only to 7, but these lands look as if they could support a full blown mountainhome mark 2. Time to strike the land and lure more inhabitants to these promising lands.

Overseerer's Log Dwarfdate 22nd Felsite, 551: Despite the recurring nature of my unsettling dreams even after abstaining from cave mushroom consumption, things around here have progressed well. Outside of the occasional snapping turtle of spitefulness anyways. We've managed to build 3 farms so far, the start of above ground fortifications, a few workshops and the start of bed rooms. All in all not too shabby.

Overseerer's Log Dwarfdate 6th of Hematite, 551: Today we have struck iron! Our first bridge across the river has been completed, granting us full access to any merchants that may travel by.

Overseerer's Log Dwarfdate 5th of Malachite, 551: Migrants arrived today swelling our numbers to 13. They've been put to work de-elfing the surrounding land. We shall soon have quite the supply of tree corpses out of which to craft buidling materials.

Overseerer's Log Dwarfdate 9th of Sandstone, 551: More migrants arrive today, and this time we acutally have bedrooms with doors for them to come to. The mining progress comes along nicely and the surface fortifications are almost complete.

Overseerer's Log Dwarfdate27th of Opal, 551: Despite having 3 farms and a rigerous planting routine planned out, we find outselve without food, and in the middle of winter. I'll have the others gather what plants they can from outside in the hopes that we might make it to spring.

Overseerer's Log Dwarfdate 2nd of Granite, 551: We manged to survive the winter, all 19 of us even! It is with a great sense of relief that I step down and allow someone else to take charge.

Topside:

Farms & Bedrooms:

Original Attempt at housing turned burial area post damp stone discovery:

Workshops of Magnificince:

Most of the Mine:

Save! Take it, its yours I don't want it anymore.

[iyaerP]

Vundebar! I believe that first turn is Gnomans?

[Celesyne]

Hooray! It lived! A festival should be had. A national holiday named! Now to see if my poor Hammer-wielding self gets into any fun before dying miserably.

[Gnoman]

I'm rather busy on the weekend, I'll get to it tomorow.

[Gnoman]

I've gone about a month into spring. Was so busy trying to clean up last minute details (and there was so much announcement spam from masterpieces) that I missed the announcement.


Journal

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1 Granite, 552

Since the previous overseer, in his infinite wisdom, saw fit to plant completely inedible-without-processing plants almost exclusively, we are starving to death. Despite this obvious problem, he saw fit neither to butcher our livestock or construct a fishery to handle our large stocks of raw fish. I have ordered him to deal with it personally, while I try to find something useful to do with the garbage he had planted.

2 Granite
The fortress is currently built around a central staircase. This is not a very efficient way of organizing things, and is particularly bad at moving ore. I've ordered a ramp dug to replace it, and will destroy the stairs as soon as it is done.

12 Granite
The slaughtering and processing has commenced. I have personally constructed a kitchen in the makeshift food workshop area to process the fat from the kills and better cook the meat. As a long term-goal, I have decided to relocate the main fort gradually into the mining tunnels for both comfort and security. Once we are properly fed, I will begin having an area engraved and walled as a dining room, and will construct chairs for the purpose.
15 Granite
We have struck ruby in the new dining room area. Truly, this is a sign that my decision was correct.
25 Slate.
Great progress has been made. New bedrooms are being dug out, which will soon allow the conversion of the old ones into a hallway. In the meantime, twenty-four dwarves have joined our ranks.
3 Felsite
We've had our first possession.

18 Felsite
Our possesed crafter has created a microcline mug. It's a mug. Also, the elven caravan has arrived.

23 Hematite
The merchants are leaving now. We sold them some fine iron maces in exchange for a considerable quantity of drink and some exotic animals. Another 9 migrants have arrived, but there is no shortage of work at this time.

21 Galena
One of the miners has been found, dead in his bed. I'll have him buried in the deepest rock we've yet found, and a memorial slab will be placed in the dining room. It appears that he may have been injured in a fall of some sort, and made his way back to his room to die. Nonetheless, I find this suspicious.
21 Limeston
One of the metal crafters has been taken by a mood.

1 Sandstone
The metalcrafter has produced an iron earring. I have named him a Metal King, and will award him with his own forge.

25 Sandstone
12 more dwarves have arrived.

12 Timber

The Dwarven Caravan and outpost liason has arrived.

26 Timber
So valuable were the master crafts of the Metal King, many of which were decorated heavily with gems, the only parts of the caravan we did not purchase were those that were useless to us. We obtained a massive quantity of food, cloth, leather and, booze, along with a decent amount of metal and some weapons and armor. In addition, I have sent some of our finest crafts as an offering.
I feel that it is time to organize our militia, and have chosen myself as the commander. I fear that, while there were weapons aplenty, there was only enough armor to equip one. Once the caravan is gone, I will set the smiths to remedying this, although we have very little steel. We shall have to rely on iron and bronze for our needs.

4 Moonstone
The miners have discovered a small quantity of platinum in what will be the new wood stockpile. I have ordered it smelted immediately, and will have the Metal King craft from its bars as soon as this is done.

9 Obsidian
A potter has been taken by a mood.
20 Obsidan
He has made a stone earring

Summary: 1 Death, 6 births, 45 migrants.



Spoilered for large images:

Surface

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Before:


After:

I changed virtually nothing here, other than channelling out the staircase in favor of a ramp. I also added a pair of large pasture areas to the north, an animal training zone, a pair of chains north and south to tie up the bear and dingo I bought against thieves, and a fishery.

Farms:

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Before:

After:

Changes begin to be greater here. I dug out and floored over the staircase. I removed the housing area here completely, and dug it into a corridor. Widening the passage required drainig one of the little lakes, which is why there's a microcline wall there. Aside from that, I've placed a kitchen there, and moved the food stockpile north of the farms where there's much more room. By the end of the year, our stocks were overflowing.

Wookie's workshop area has been removed completely.

"Mine"

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Before:

After:

This is now the main area of the fort, which I suspect Wookie intended, as I can't see any other reason to mine out as much as he did. Because of the vast changes, I've annotated the image.
1: This is the dining room. The adjacent room contains stockpiles for prepared food and drink, drawing off the main stockpile upstairs. These should not need messed with unless something goes wrong.
2: Carpentry and bowyers workshop. The empty bay is intended for a craft shop, but I didn't get to building it yet.
3: Fabric shops. The stockpile is set to take cloth and leather. The empty bay is for a dyer's shop I din't get round to building.
4: Barracks
5: Metalworking. The stone pile is set to accept ores, lignite, and bitco only, while there is a bar pile south of the smelter. The forge on the right is a dedicated metal craft forge that is set to only be used by the legendary Metal Crafter designated "Metal King"
6: Craft area. There's a masonry shop, a jewler's, and a craft place, along with the main stone, gem, and bone/shell pile.
7: Bedrooms. There are currently 44 rooms prepared, although roughly half of them lack beds due to production shortfall.


Comments:
Replacing the stairs with ramps and widening the corridors boosted productivity about %2-300, because before that dwarves were spending most of their time trying to push through occupied spaces. Between that and adding resource stockpiles, mostly stone and wood (the way wheelbarrows work makes these extremely attractive now), production was going vastly faster even without extra dwarves on the production tasks. A few suggestions for the next overseer:

First, the bedrooms and dining room aren't fully furnished yet.
Second, We keep running out of booze due to a barrel shortage.
Third, I had to stop making armor due to a coal shortage. Both smelters are set to do nothing but make coke, so finishing equipment should be feasible.

Save:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ITPDF/GiTP.zip

[Wookieetank]

Dwarfy stuff and things

Showoff. Looks good though, might even survive a 2nd turn lead by me :O

Next player is iyaerP as decreed by the multi-colored cube of choosing.

[Luzahn]

Ooh, rubies and platinum? Sounds promising.

I love hunting for star rubies and the like.

[Gnoman]

Those cups I mentioned offering? Thanks to all the gems I stuck in them, they were worth around ☼25,000 each. I had five, and bought out an entire dwarven caravan with two of them (plus most of the wooden crap Wookie had turned out on hist turn. This was mostly just to get rid of it now that there's decent crafting material available). IIRC, offerings can make later caravans better.

[Wookieetank]

Updated first post with current turn order and list of hopeful applicants for the position of Fortress leader.

[iyaerP]

Save downloading now.

4th of Slate, 553: I have finally arrived at civilization! Months of trekking through the wilderness are at an end, as this morning I all but stumbled upon another dwarf who was busy fishing at the bend in the brook I have been following in hopes of finding my way out of this endless expanse of TREES. The dwarf in question, one Inod Cerolgigin, seemed to assume that I was just another migrant making my way to this new colony, and gave me directions to the fortress proper. I stopped for a moment to share a drink with him before moving on, but it seems that out beyond the far reaches of the kingdom, my renown as an architect is not quite what it was back in the Mountainhomes.

Spoiler

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http://i.imgur.com/T0lamC1.jpg

As I left the fisherdwarf behind, I came to a great clearing in the forest, the sound of axes and the scattering of stumps telling me everything I needed to know. I made my way up to the drawbridge of a lone walled off section of ground, clearly the pre-cursor to a grander design. I asked one of the dwarves making his way inside how long this outpost had been here, figuring by the meager defenses that it couldn't have been more than a couple of months. When I was told just over 2 years, I was nearly bowled over in shock. For a dwarven outpost to have such a lack of defensive structures after two entire years was completely unacceptable. I immediately began berating the hauler, pontificating on the lack of suitable fortifications, and very nearly had an apoplectic fit when I found that the lever to control the drawbridge that was the only real defence that this tiny fortress had was just inside the drawbridge itself, completely vulnerable to any attacker. I may, in my anger, have gone on a tirade, grabbed the hauler by his beard, and demanded to speak with the outpost's overseer about the appalling lack of defensive measures. It was then that I learned that there was no current overseer of the fortress, the previous "Tyrant" having stepped down to head the militia. A militia, I might add, of which I saw no evidence. As other dwarf had wanted the position, it had remained vacant, and the inhabitants of the outpost had spent the last month and a half pretty much following their normal routine but without any leadership. It goes without saying that I appointed myself overseer on the spot and began to lay plans to ensure the safety and security of this colony that I have learned is named Boltedroads.....


Overseer's notes: I don't think I will be able to implement a super-weapon this turn. It is going to be a major work just to get the defenses up to the point where we will be able to survive our first ambush. Our fledgeling militia, while it has dwarves assigned, does not appear to have any training grounds, so they will never train, the chains that are supposed to have watch animals are conspicuously empty, and as previously noted IC, the one drawbridge that is our sole defensive structure has its lever just 4 squares away from the actual drawbridge itself, meaning that if there are ever enemies at the gates, we won't be able to close it since pulling levers is a civilian job, and civilians won't go near hostile mobs. Oh, and there are 2 weapon traps barely worthy of the name at the bottom of one of our ramps into the fort itself. Given that this is year 3 and based on the corpses, we haven't seen any ambushes yet, I am expecting the first one to be 12-20 goblins in 2 squads, one of which will almost assuredly be bow goblins. This is going to be !!FUN!!.

I have one important question before I begin my massive construction projects. Where do the caravans come from?

[Celesyne]

Have I been Dwarfed in dwarfy goodness yet? I'm enjoying the read so far... and you guys are far richer than any of my forts already...

[Gnoman]

Save downloading now.

Overseer's notes: I don't think I will be able to implement a super-weapon this turn. It is going to be a major work just to get the defenses up to the point where we will be able to survive our first ambush. Our fledgeling militia, while it has dwarves assigned, does not appear to have any training grounds, so they will never train, the chains that are supposed to have watch animals are conspicuously empty, and as previously noted IC, the one drawbridge that is our sole defensive structure has its lever just 4 squares away from the actual drawbridge itself, meaning that if there are ever enemies at the gates, we won't be able to close it since pulling levers is a civilian job, and civilians won't go near hostile mobs. Oh, and there are 2 weapon traps barely worthy of the name at the bottom of one of our ramps into the fort itself. Given that this is year 3 and based on the corpses, we haven't seen any ambushes yet, I am expecting the first one to be 12-20 goblins in 2 squads, one of which will almost assuredly be bow goblins. This is going to be !!FUN!!.

I have one important question before I begin my massive construction projects. Where do the caravans come from?

The Dwarven caravan came from the NW. There should be three weapon traps at the base of the entrance ramp, not two, and the militia is quite certainly training in the barracks (my dwarf had zero military skills before, and now is starting to gain them. There has also been shooting at the Archery Range right next to the barracks, although less that I would prefer.

If you turn off fishing on everyone, there should be only a couple of dwarves outside at any given time, just the woodcutter and a single hauler (when you have a stockpile set to use wheelbarrows, it uses only wheelbarrows, so the wood stockpile only generates one hauling job at a time.) Relocate the lever downstairs, and the defenses should be tolerable. Had I more time, I would have moved the depot inside and improved the fortifications, but just turning it into a working fort took all of my time.

[iyaerP]

My first action as overseer has been to take stock of the fortress. Although there is a decent amount of food stockpiled, the booze stockpile is nearly nonexistant. Note from the previous overseer indicate a barrel shortage. Looking at the assigned workshops, I see that none are set to make either barrels or stone pots. I order the carpenter's workshop to nonstop barrel production, at least until this crisis has passed, and order the construction of additional craftdwarves workshops, as the only one we currently have is set to nonstop bone bolt production, a measure I wholeheartedly approve of given the state of our militia, and our need for more defences. A brief look at those workshops however, shows that even though we have a plethora of skilled workers, none of them are actually doing their jobs, some being assigned to the milita despite a lack of relevant skills, and others lugging various things around. The idea that a master craftsdwarf would waste his time with menial work when his expertise is sorely needed is a galling one, and I order the immediate suspension of hauling duties from anyone of critical economic importance. Likewise, all master craftsmen are excluded from the draft. I expect to see an upsurge in productivity immediately.

[Gnoman]

So that's what that workshop the moody guy took over was supposed to be making. Pots.

[iyaerP]

okay. this new forum code sucks donkey testicles. it has TWICE now eaten my update.

in short: traded with elves for food and booze, a wereshrew showed up just in time to turn back into its human form, and I went out alone to battle a minotaur:

[iyaerP]

Journal of Kubuk Ustushat, Mayor of Alathtulon:

22nd of Malachite: The previous Overseer who so valiantly went forth to slay the Minotaur threatening our town has been struck down, along with Multhket Ulzleriteb, another in his squad of marksdwarves. Several others in the militia have been grievously wounded, but the beast is dead. I now see what iyaerP was going on about in his continuous rantings about our defensive preparations. If a single monster could lay low so many of our warriors, what hope would we have against a marauding horde of goblins, or a true megabeast such as a dragon? While the legend of our wealth and exceptional craftsdwarfship has surely fueled the great migration to our outpost, it also will no doubt attract more monsters and brigands of all sorts. We must be ready for them. As such, I have ordered the continued expansion of the curtain wall that iyaerP had begun, as well as preperations to station our troops on the surface, so that when another such attack comes, they will be ready and in place already, not having to run the entire length of our caverns to reach the fight*. I have also ordered the creation of a hospital and the expansion of our crypts, which I have labelled the Hall of Heroes.

*iyaerP's note: this is one of the biggest flaws with our current setup. Whoever is closest responds first, and in this case, it was myself and another marksdwarf who was out hunting. Unarmoured marksdwarves vs minotaur went about as you would imagine it.

27th of Malachite: More migrants. I don't know how we are going to feed everyone, and we have less than half the beds we need already. The fortress now numbers 108.

7th of Galena. We have had a metalcrafter taken by a mood and begin working. We all eagerly await the results. This is a good pick-me-up for morale in the fortress as the losses incurred by the minotaur had been weighing heavily upon some.

11th of Galena: Kogan Esinath has finished construction of atastogred, a zing figurine of Shorast Ringtrench, one of our historical kings of ages past. Most amazingly about it is that in a single beautiful ruby embeded in the figurine is an image of the figurine itself, an improbable bit of recursive artwork achievable by only the most legendary of craftsdwarves. It is worth nearly 70,000 dorfbucks.

19th of Galena: The humans merchants have arrived. Time to roll out the craftsdwarfship that made this town famous. As always, a few examples of our peerless metalworking was enough to buy out the entire stocks of the caravan, giving us exotic food and drinks for our dwarves to dine upon as well as a plethora of human weapons to fill the weapon traps with. A good day of trading, if I don't say so myself.

[iyaerP]

3rd of Sandstone: It has been brought to my attention that despite our new hospital, a number of dwarves have been recovering from wounds in their own beds. I have ordered them forcibly evicted and brought in for proper medical treatment. Also, we seem to be lacking in soap, a vital part of healthcare. This shall have to be remedied.


8th of Sandstone: More migrants! Between the constant births and the new migrants, the fortress now numbers 125

22nd of Sandstone: A Grevious day, for former overseer Gnoman died of infection from wounds he sustained fighting the minotaur. He shall be interred in the hall of heroes. The soap that was needed to save his life still is not yet ready. One good bit of news is that the housing crisis is finally over and ever adult dwarf in the fortress has a bed to call their own.

27th of Sandstone: Gnoman's baby daughter Lucar died of thirst today. After her mother had passed on, she just wouldn't eat or drink.

5th of Timber: A bowyer has withdrawn from society and created a beautiful oaken bow, decorated with aluminum and a plethora of gems.

19th of Timber: The caravan from the mountainhomes has come today. I look forward to our trading. It is most fortuitous timing as we have just finished work on the curtain wall. This should seriously impede any attempted attacks by goblins or any other monstrosities. Once the trading with the mountainhomes is completed, I will see to the construction of defensive turrets from which our crossbowdwarves can rain down fire upon our foes.

[iyaerP]

You know what I need for my meeting with the liason from the homeland? A SCEPTER! It will make me look proper and noble. MAKE ME A SCEPTER!

[iyaerP]

Well, I just flooded the fort with my attempts at a moat, but the game crashed shortly thereafter, so no permanant harm done I guess. Comedic FUN.

[Gnoman]

Did you turn hunting back on for some reason? I disabled hunting on everyone, and removed all hunting ammunition. We had something like 500+ prepared meals when I ended my turn, and pplenty of animals as well.

[iyaerP]

13th of Opal: The merchants from the mountainhomes have left our borders after another successful trading. The river has frozen, both necessitating and allowing the expansion of the curtain wall to encompass it. If time permits before it thaws in the spring, I shall have the ice chiseled out under where the wall will be and underwater fortifications installed to forbid the access to our home by aquatic enemies. The well in the hospital already has such fortifications.

20th of Opal: And the river has thawed again, putting a halt on construction. At least we didn't have anyone drown in a foolhardy attempt at digging into the ice.

13th of Obsidian: A dwarven child has claimed a workshop and began a mysterious construction. I look forward to seeing what new genius we have among us that how that genius shall take shape.

20th of Obsidian: A busy day. First Degal finished his mysterious construction, a beautiful ring that I have taken the liberty of drawing here:

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And secondly, a kobold decided to try its luck plundering the fort. This shall prove a good opportunity for the military to test itself on a low threat target, certainly unlike that debacle with the minotaur. Sadly, they were unable to catch the little fiend before it could escape, but at least it didn't make off with any valuables.


1st of Granite: Spring has sprung. It is time for me to step down from overseership and return to my work as mayor, work that has been long neglected by having to fill in. With luck, someone will volunteer this year.

End of the year report:

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Well, we have an overabundance of food, a lot of it rotting before it can be eaten, our defenses are now what I would consider adequate. We have the walls to withstand a siege, a halfway competent militia now that they are actually training (although the primary squad is not training right now, they are currently set to inactive due to morale issues including complaints about long patrol duty), most everyone is mostly equipped, our biggest roadblock here being the slowness of our smelting operations, iron and bronze production being two key chokepoints. We have a psuedo-working hospital, but I didn't get our soap industry up and running till almost the end of the year, so expect all 3 dwarves in there to die of infection as it had already set in for them before soap was available.

All in all, a pretty slow year.

Just remember that if you expand the traps in front, you have to leave a corridor for the wagons to come in. The three levers that control the drawbridges are labeled with notes in the dining room, but incase anything happens to the notes, or just for thoroughness, the left mudstone lever controls the southern river drawbridge, the microcline middle lever controls the inner bridges around the depot, and the right bauxite lever controls the northern gate.

Speaking of which, I intended to raise that at some point and channel under it to continue the moat but never got around to it. A task for whomever follows in my footsteps. Aside from the surface, I didn't really make any major changes to the layout of the fort, just expanded and added where needed. Mining tunnels gave us lots of gold ore though, so this next year we should have exceptionally profitable trading sessions.

surface map:

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save:

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8722

[Wookieetank]

By means of flipping a virtual Loonie (Candian $1 coin), Luzhan is next up!

[Luzahn]

Excellent!

I'll be sure to waste my time digging around for shiny things. Like a proper dwarf.

[Luzahn]

I'm curious, is there any particular reason why our site is only 55 levels deep and full of a huge variety of ore? Changed some worldgen things, I assume?

[iyaerP]

I LIKE huge variety of ores. The mineral density nerf patch made me very sad.