GitP Dwarf Fortress Succession Game 4: Dwarves on Patrol

[Gnoman]

Hmm... I tried a bit at home but my Dwarf Therapist didn't work. Anyway I would like to be up for the next turn. Can't do any breeding or taming or beekeeping (although maybe I'll learn) but I know how to put this ghost to rest

The lastest version of DfHack integrates the labor-assigning functionality into DF itself. Not quite sure how they managed that, but it's quite handy.

[Grim Portent]

Sorry for taking so long to get the next post done. it'll be up sometime soon.

[Wookieetank]

You needed to expand the graveyard even more? I had made a coffin for every living dwarf and then some just in case...

[Zar Peter]

You needed to expand the graveyard even more? I had made a coffin for every living dwarf and then some just in case...

You can NEVER have too much coffins.

[Luzahn]

I've never heard a truer statement. They're up there with booze. And iron.

[Grim Portent]

Journal of Overseer Grim Portent:

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6th of Malachite 1058: The Dwarf has claimed a Mechanic workshop.

12th of Malachite 1058: the wretched planter has made us a glorious chert mechanism. Yay. I really wish I could justify abandoning that timewaster in the caverns.

23 of Malachite 1058: I have begun work on a dining room, I grow weary of having nowhere to sit when I eat.

24 of Malachite 1058: Migrants. Why do people keep coming to a fortress that lacks proper dining and meeting rooms?

18th of Galena 1058: Damn, I can't seem to find my journal pages for the past few weeks, we also seem to have a thief problem and a silver xelic caravan arrived

20 of Galena 1058: It seems the damn xelic caravan was followed by some ambushers, a band of Violet Xelics have arrived.

21 of Galena 1058: It would seems the Violet Xelics brought reinforcements.

4 of Limestone 1058: Journal of Urdim Oriton: The xelics were driven off but we now number 31: Our overseer was killed in the attack, I have taken over for the time being.

18 of Limestone 1058: The miner Sohala went insane today, driven to madness by our recent losses. I was forced to order our military to put him down.

22 of Limestone 1058: A planter has gone berserk, and with Sohala still roaming free. I was forced to order our militia to back away from Sohala, he was dispatching military dwarfs with worrying ease. Fortunately he is chasing a cat for now.

23 of Limestone 1058: Never have I been so happy to see migrants, Sohala has killed several of our people. His skill with the pickaxe is terrifying but he has at last been put down.

25 of Limestone 1058: after our troubles we number a mere 29. So much death.

8 of Sandstone 1058: The mason Luzahn has been spending weeks tantruming like a child.

9 of Sandstone 1058: Another planter has gone berserk.

7 of Timber 1058: The mason luzahn has been possessed.

8 of Timber 1058: Luzahn has claimed a masons workshop.

13 of Timber 1058: A caravan has arrived from the mountainhomes. Luzahn has made a chert grate. I am less than impressed.

19 of Timber 1058: A Vamarian caravan has arrived.

22 of Timber 1058: The caravan from the mountainhomes left, we were unable to bring them sufficient goods to buy more than a few barrels of drink from them.

26 of Timber 1058: Sand Raiders have arrived to ambush our workers as they gather the dead.

11 of Moonstone 1058: Thieves. How I hate them.

14 of Opal 1058: More thieves.

25 of Opal 1058: Due to the mayor being in the hospital with a broken leg the outpost liason has left dissatisfied.

1 of Obsidian 1058: As the year draws to a close we are but 22 in number.

14 of Obsidian 1058: A frost giant caravan has arrived to trade.

15 of Obsidian 1058: Another attack by wretched Violet Xelics.

16 of Obsidian 1058: A dyansauri caravan has arrived.

18 of Obsidian 1058: A hobgoblin caravan has arrived.

Spring has arrived and with it the time for a new Overseer.

Link

The current state of affairs:

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Well, as I mentioned above we only have 22 dwarfs. We seem to have avoided a tantrum spiral at least and we have enough food and drink to last for a long while.

The graveyard may need expanded again for the next year.

I got a set of smelters, wood furnaces and a forge set up on the floor below the masons and mechanics. Melted down a bunch of weapons and shields so we could forge suits of full armour for the dwarfs, whoever's up next may want to look into doing that.

The liason left unsatisfied since a new Mayor was appointed while the previous one was in the hospital waiting on his leg being treated.

There are still traders waiting at the depot.

[Shpadoinkle]

I know I haven't been around much, various things have kept my attention elsewhere for a while, but I AM happy to see this is still going (even if several forts have been lost along the way.) One question though; why no screenshots? Cutting my DF teeth on Boatmurdered, Headshoots, and Syrupleaf have probably given me a particular leaning towards them, which is why I have so many of them during my turns, but I find it a lot harder to keep interest in a succession game if there are no screenshots- I find it helps me understand hat's going on.

[Grim Portent]

I've never been good at working out screenshots, not something I have much cause to do usually.

[Luzahn]

I've usually been posting them on my turns, I think many people like to just look at the save or something.

[Sohala]

How many heads did I get by the way?

[Grim Portent]

How many heads did I get by the way?

A grand total of five dwarfs died by your pick.

Also I misread, the fort is only at 20 dwarfs as I left it.

EDIT: We also appear to have two more Sohalas wandering around. Strange times.

[Luzahn]

Apologies for not clarifying the matter earlier: Please post if you would like the next year of the fort. I would ask that the next player provides screenshots, but if you are unable I am willing to grab some after the save is complete.

[Gnoman]

I'm interested.

[Luzahn]

Right, looks like you've got the round, Gnoman. Good luck.

[Gnoman]

I don't know who put that ballista there, or why it was set to continuously fire through the main passageway of the fort, but I'm destroying it.

[Luzahn]

...Thief prevention? I like it. Very Dwarfy.

(Please destroy it, it terrifies me )

[Gnoman]

I suspect, given the zoned meeting area in front of it, that it was supposed to be some sort of training tool.

[Sohala]

If the meeting area is right inside the doors, that is the first one I set up after digging in; the ballista on the other hand I know nothing about.

[Gnoman]

That's the meeting area. If they were set up at different times, the existence of the ballista is most perplexing. It's not behind fortifications, and can only be used against an enemy if that enemy is already inside killing everyone.

[Wookieetank]

Ballista would be me. Didn't realize the meeting area was just inside the fort entrance. Set up the ballista there to help deter intruders.

[Gnoman]

In that case, I'm afraid I'll have to nominate you for the "Most worthless defense possible" award. Even if there were no meeting area in front of it, the chances of it doing anything to unwanted guests were %0.

[Wookieetank]

In that case, I'm afraid I'll have to nominate you for the "Most worthless defense possible" award. Even if there were no meeting area in front of it, the chances of it doing anything to unwanted guests were %0.

I was just glad to have finally gotten a balista fully built to be honest . Usually things have gone horrifically wrong before I have everything to put one together.

Seeing as how I have a record of killing more forts than not, I'll add the "Most worthless defense possible" award to the pile.

[iyaerP]

One of the many tricks wiith ballistae is that they are manned by civilians, who will fleet at the first sign of danger, so you need to have at least ten tiles between the enemy and your ballista bolts. Most forts I have seen/made do this with either a pit in front of the ballista and its fortifications.

Other important things to know about siege weapons: Quality matters a great deal. Thus, you probably have to spend a year or two making ballista and catapult parts to train up your siege smith so that the engines you have guarding your front are of worthy quality. The other thing that matters a great deal is crew skill. This can be easily taken care of by putting a catapult somewhere safe underground pointed at a wall, assigning it to always fire, and having your siege gunner of choice set to only operate siege machinery.

This will have a few important effects. Siege engine parts(from training up your craftsdorf) make pretty decent trade goods if weight is not an object, and with wagon caravans, it usually isn't. You will clear your fort of LOADS of excess stones training up your gunner(s), and lastly, by the time a siege or multi-ambush shows up, you should have a battery of fully masterwork-crafted ballistae operated by a bevy of Legendary siege operators.

Of course the mod you guys are using right now seems to upp the intensity of early conflict significantly, but that can be solved by having the training catapult face the entrance. Catapult stones don't hit fort friendlies, so all should be good.

[Wookieetank]

One of the many tricks wiith ballistae is that they are manned by civilians, who will fleet at the first sign of danger, so you need to have at least ten tiles between the enemy and your ballista bolts. Most forts I have seen/made do this with either a pit in front of the ballista and its fortifications.

Other important things to know about siege weapons: Quality matters a great deal. Thus, you probably have to spend a year or two making ballista and catapult parts to train up your siege smith so that the engines you have guarding your front are of worthy quality. The other thing that matters a great deal is crew skill. This can be easily taken care of by putting a catapult somewhere safe underground pointed at a wall, assigning it to always fire, and having your siege gunner of choice set to only operate siege machinery.

This will have a few important effects. Siege engine parts(from training up your craftsdorf) make pretty decent trade goods if weight is not an object, and with wagon caravans, it usually isn't. You will clear your fort of LOADS of excess stones training up your gunner(s), and lastly, by the time a siege or multi-ambush shows up, you should have a battery of fully masterwork-crafted ballistae operated by a bevy of Legendary siege operators.

Of course the mod you guys are using right now seems to upp the intensity of early conflict significantly, but that can be solved by having the training catapult face the entrance. Catapult stones don't hit fort friendlies, so all should be good.

Thanks for the info. If it wasn't for minecraft, I'd prolly be a lot better at this game/have more time to learn more about how everything in it works. XD

[iyaerP]

I intend to put myself in the turn roster again at some point, it is just that real life has kept me quite busy of late.

[Shpadoinkle]

You can launch excess stones off the map with catapults, or you can have your siege operators constantly launch the same stone at a wall. I forget if a catapulted stone has to drop a level to avoid being destroyed or what... I recall digging trenches underneath the 'target' wall, though I can't remember why I did so.

I'd like to come back to this at some point, but I'm not sure I've really worked up enough motivation to fix everything you guys have no doubt screwed up :V

I have a new computer that's a lot better than my old one, and I played a couple solo DF games, but it's still running the game pretty slow after a few in-game years.

[Gnoman]

Catapult stones don't hit fort friendlies, so all should be good.

This is false. If a friendly unit is in the square where the stone comes down (this can be most easily seen if you're in a snow area, because the impact and bounces show clearly), it will take damage. I've personally tested this in the latest version.

As a status update, things are going pretty slow, because I keep finding things that need tweaking. I spent almost an hour unforbidding and reworking melt designations (some very good usable armor and unusable but extremely valuable weapons were designated for melting, which I suspect was due to a mass-melt designation) yesterday.

[Grim Portent]

This is false. If a friendly unit is in the square where the stone comes down (this can be most easily seen if you're in a snow area, because the impact and bounces show clearly), it will take damage. I've personally tested this in the latest version.

As a status update, things are going pretty slow, because I keep finding things that need tweaking. I spent almost an hour unforbidding and reworking melt designations (some very good usable armor and unusable but extremely valuable weapons were designated for melting, which I suspect was due to a mass-melt designation) yesterday.

Yeah the mass melt stuff would be my fault, I couldn't be bothered working out what would be best to keep in the state it was in and decided to melt it all down and let the next person forge some more complete suits for a military. Not sure about the forbidden stuff, most likely something to do with all the dead invaders and caravan guards towards the end of the year.

[Gnoman]

Yeah, all the Forbidden stuff was from dead people.

We have been ambushed!

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I am slightly confused.

[Gnoman]

Tradelord's journal

1 Granite

With my ascencion to command of the fortress, I have appointed myself Tradelord and broker of this fort. The post was empty, presumably due to death. I have also noticed many injured animals and citizens. For some reason, a predecessor of mine constructed a ballista that was ordered to fire continuously down the main corridor of the fort. As it is completely useless, I have ordered it destroyed.

3 Granite

The hobgoblin merchants here had some amazingly good weapons that we sadly could not afford. I will continue to have refuse hauled to the depot in the hopes that we may yet be able to buy them. I have also rearranged our melt orders, as they were not optimally assigned. Some of the items marked for destruction were quite useful (OOC note Void Crystal Breastplate = Awesome armor, I suspect that this was tagged with a mass-melt designation), while others that are useless to us will have very good trade value.

4 Granite

The large everything stockpile near the entrance are a serious bottleneck. Once trading is done, I will have them replaced with more useful ones.

21 Granite

Unfortunately, the merchants departed before I was able to gather anything significant in the depot. I have ordered the stockpile reconfiguration to proceed. A stockpile for unusable armor/clothing and one for finished goods is set up for trading, and stockpiles for gems, cloth, and leather are positioned nearby in order to expidite clearing of the depot after trading. I have noticed that there are two ordinary wood furnaces in the forging area. Plainly, my predecessors were not aware of the improved high-efficiency model.

3 Slate
Noticing that we possess an artifact mechanism and an ordinary masterwork one, I have decided to install a pair of weapon traps as a last line of defense inside the fort. They will not stop a determined attack, but will, at least, provide a final impediment to any foes that get through our other traps and soldiers.

8 Slate
Migrants have arrived, despite the unpleasant reputation our fort is aquiring. In less happy news, one of the wounded dwarves has succumbed to dehydration. We now number 37.

23 Slate

A wandering crag drake is harassing our workers as they gather things from outside. I have dispatched the militia to dispatch it. It will be a dangerous foe.

25 Slate

The crag drake has been slain, but not before he was able to maul one of the civilians. She has lost a leg, and is not expected to survive.

14 Felsite
A squad of violet xelic archers has attacked. I have ordered the militia to their posts and sent all civilians inside.

17 Felsite
A high elven caravan has arrived. I fear that my only choice will be to send the militia forth and engage the ambushers directly in order to save our trading partners.

18 Felsite
An elven caravn has arrived. I don't care about them.

21 Felsite
With the aid of the high elven guards, the xelics were dispatched, although two of our soldiers were badly wounded in the battle.

26 Felsite
Another squad of xelics has attacked. Hammermen this time.

27 Felsite
The hammerbugs have been destroyed, again with the aid of the merchant guards.

4 Hematite
Unfortunately, the battles have discouraged the high elves from trading. We unloaded a massive amount of worn-out clothing on the elves in exchage for wood and berries.

6 Hematite
A Wood Burner has been possesed

12 Malachite
Migrants have arrived, bringing us to 48 souls.

20 Malachite
The possessed wood burner has gone inside. Fortunately, it is the suicidal, reclusive form of insanity instead of the "beat all your friends and family to death with your pants" form. I've ordered the milita to stand down.

14 Galena
A human caravan has arrived for trade. The expected ambush appeared, composed entirely of war animals. I've sent out the militia, and am very confused.

15 Galena
Sand raiders have been spotted among the animals. Presumably, they are leading them.


And everybody died.

There were two or three squads of sand raiders led by swordmasters and axe lords. I never managed to get leg and hand armor made (was being made when the battle started), so they tore through the militia, and clogged the cage traps with their mounts. The stonefall traps were almost completely useless, only injuring a single attacker despite every trap being triggered.

Save: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...TPCivForge.zip