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Acorn Arcade forums: Games: Dwarf Fortress
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Dwarf Fortress |
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richard cheng |
Message #108315, posted by richcheng at 13:39, 8/9/2008 |
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After reading about Boatmurdered I've just started playing Dwarf Fortress.
So far, it is a lot of fun!
Anyone else tried it? |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108316, posted by Phlamethrower at 13:51, 8/9/2008, in reply to message #108315 |
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Heard of it, never played it. NetHack is usually enough for me when it comes to roguelikes (although Dwarf Fortress isn't exactly a roguelike)
That Boatmurdered experiment looks like an interesting way of playing it, though. |
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richard cheng |
Message #108317, posted by richcheng at 16:26, 8/9/2008, in reply to message #108316 |
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Yeah, it's more Sim City than roguelike.
Other people: BTW, the second Boatmurdered thread is funnier than the first (although you kinda need to read the first, first), and it probably helps to try out the game before you read it too, so you have a vague idea of what's going on.
If you're interested in giving it a try, then what I did was to follow along with this:
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Your_first_fortress
which seems to have been a fairly good introduction. That is basically as far as I've got, so far. |
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richard cheng |
Message #108318, posted by richcheng at 16:29, 8/9/2008, in reply to message #108317 |
Posts: 655
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Yeah, it's more Sim City than roguelike. Although having said that, I never really enjoyed Sim City, but I am really enjoying this. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108319, posted by Phlamethrower at 18:35, 8/9/2008, in reply to message #108318 |
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Until now I just thought Dwarf Fortress was a defend-the-base type game, but now I know that it's also a mining simulator (and that you build the place up from scratch) I might be tempted to give it a shot at some point (since I quite enjoyed Diggers - and it looks like the mining in Dwarf Fortress has some tactical elements too since you can mess up and flood the place with lava) |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #108320, posted by filecore at 18:54, 8/9/2008, in reply to message #108319 |
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Diggers  |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108335, posted by Phlamethrower at 01:42, 10/9/2008, in reply to message #108320 |
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Finding the right place to start isn't exactly easy, is it?
Also it's chosen the rather ominous name of "Woundsplattered".
Despite this I've managed to set up the initial habitat without any fatalities. It's built in a layer of peat and sand, so most of the mining work will be on the layers below which are full of rock and tasty dolomite.
I've foolishly built the stairwell I'm planning on using for the main shaft without adding any places for flood gates, so everyone will probably be dead soon.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 02:44, 10/9/2008] |
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VinceH |
Message #108336, posted by VincceH at 08:10, 10/9/2008, in reply to message #108335 |
 Lowering the tone since the dawn of time
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so most of the mining work will be on the layers below which are full of rock and tasty dolomite. Well, if your gameplay is successful, I suppose it will be a triumph. |
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richard cheng |
Message #108337, posted by richcheng at 11:03, 10/9/2008, in reply to message #108335 |
Posts: 655
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Screenshots please! I'll post mine tonight. |
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richard cheng |
Message #108338, posted by richcheng at 11:09, 10/9/2008, in reply to message #108335 |
Posts: 655
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Finding the right place to start isn't exactly easy, is it? No. I spent ages trying to find a spot that fulfilled the requirements given on the Your First Fortress guide and when I finally found somewhere I thought ticked all the boxes and tried to embark, I was warned that it had an aquifer. 
Then I discovered the "find desirable location" option ("f") which found me somewhere good after a couple of attempts. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108339, posted by Phlamethrower at 12:08, 10/9/2008, in reply to message #108338 |
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Then I discovered the "find desirable location" option ("f") which found me somewhere good after a couple of attempts. Whaaaaaat? Why didn't they say about that in the guide 
Pictures coming tonight, I guess. |
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richard cheng |
Message #108340, posted by richcheng at 14:22, 10/9/2008, in reply to message #108339 |
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Then I discovered the "find desirable location" option ("f") which found me somewhere good after a couple of attempts. Whaaaaaat? Why didn't they say about that in the guide
I know! Maybe it is new? If I could be bothered I would go in and edit the guide to mention it.
Pictures coming tonight, I guess. Sweet. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108341, posted by Phlamethrower at 20:48, 10/9/2008, in reply to message #108340 |
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Here we go.
The caravan was placed at the middle of the map, where the X is on the first image. This is practically the highest point on the map, so I went down one layer to get a decent amount of ground to excavate. But my initial fort layout was scuppered by the small lake that you can see near the starting position, so after a few more planning blunders I ended up with the layout seen in the second image. Note that although the barracks look like they're an entirely sealed room, they aren't - there's just an incredibly hard to see wooden door there (I hadn't dug down to the rock below yet, so had to rely on the trees outside for building materials). And as you can probably tell the 3rd image is my initial exploratory excavation of the lower layer.
At the moment the place isn't as secure as I'd like, but I'll probably wait until the first trader caravan before making any decisions about moving things around since I need to know where the caravan will come from and how it's going to get to me. A more pressing matter than security is probably to work out how to cook all the meat I've got sat rotting away 
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 21:50, 10/9/2008] |
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richard cheng |
Message #108345, posted by richcheng at 10:14, 11/9/2008, in reply to message #108341 |
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Looking good! I think your fort is a bit better designed than mine. Mine is very obviously lacking any kind of obvious thought. I have all these stupid long-ass corridors. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108346, posted by Phlamethrower at 10:23, 11/9/2008, in reply to message #108345 |
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Looking good! I think your fort is a bit better designed than mine. I wouldn't say that! Last night I dug out a load of small rooms for sleeping quarters, then realised that I'd be much better off moving everything to the rock layer since I'll be able to smooth the walls and floors to make it look pretty and keep the dwarves happy.
Mine is very obviously lacking any kind of obvious thought. I have all these stupid long-ass corridors.  |
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richard cheng |
Message #108347, posted by richcheng at 10:24, 11/9/2008, in reply to message #108345 |
Posts: 655
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This game is evil! I had a few chores to do when I got home yesterday, and I really could have done with getting an early night, but instead I stayed up till half two building workshops that no-one has the time to staff, and slaughtering puppies and kittens. Aargh!
Okay, so here is a screenshot of my fortress and the surrounding area. This is just after the first caravan left in Autumn of the first year. There's no swanky key, like yours, because I am lazy. Let me know if anything's not obvious and I'll try to add one at lunch.
My notes:- I should've built the main areas of my fortress on the level below. I didn't realise you can't smooth sandy walls
- That little tunnel leading up to the murky pond on the left is the initial construction work for the pond draining project, so I can then build a well. There's no running water on my map!
- There's a refuse stockpile indoors (middle, bottom), but the airlock door is currently locked shut and my dwarves and cats are using the outside stockpile to prevent miasma buildup. The indoors one is in case I get sieged.
- I built the still near the farm, with a room with two custom stockpiles in it in between (the L shaped one). One is for seeds, and the other is for harvested plants, so my farmer and brewer shouldn't ever have too far to travel.
- Except... the kitchen is up near the dining hall (top leftish). My brewer/cook is currently madly running between the still and the kitchen cooking meals and brewing wine so my dwarves won't die of thirst and my meat won't spoil.
- At the bottom of the well I struck diamonds! For some reason I can't get anyone to cart them upstairs to the stone stockpile, though. Hence the well being left half built till I figure out why everyone's slacking off instead of haulin' stone.
- Six dogs is probably too many to start with. They keep popping out puppies! I've designated most of them for slaughter, but my butcher is also my brewer/cook and, as I mentioned, he's kinda busy. There's also a kitten in a cage in that room right at the bottom right. The other kitten that was born adopted my Mason before I had a chance to cage her up. My Mason now owns three cats! She is a crazy cat lady.
- All my dwarves seem pretty ecstatic with their "meagre" bedrooms (top left). The fools!
- There is a horse chilling out in the statue room, and a camel roaming the halls. I don't remember bringing them with me, though. Where did they come from? It is a mystery.
- No immigrants this year!
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108348, posted by Phlamethrower at 11:07, 11/9/2008, in reply to message #108347 |
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At the bottom of the well I struck diamonds! For some reason I can't get anyone to cart them upstairs to the stone stockpile, though. Hence the well being left half built till I figure out why everyone's slacking off instead of haulin' stone. Maybe you need a gem stockpile? Or do you have to do something to seperate the diamonds from the rocks first?
There is a horse chilling out in the statue room, and a camel roaming the halls. I don't remember bringing them with me, though. Where did they come from? It is a mystery. Local wildlife. |
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richard cheng |
Message #108349, posted by richcheng at 11:33, 11/9/2008, in reply to message #108348 |
Posts: 655
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At the bottom of the well I struck diamonds! For some reason I can't get anyone to cart them upstairs to the stone stockpile, though. Hence the well being left half built till I figure out why everyone's slacking off instead of haulin' stone. Maybe you need a gem stockpile? Or do you have to do something to seperate the diamonds from the rocks first?
Well, they did actually bring a couple up. They've just left a bunch down there. Might try building a gem stockpile anyway, though.
Edit: From reading the stockpile page, I think you are right. I think the gems that were hauled upstairs must've been moved directly from the well shaft to the Trade Depot.
There is a horse chilling out in the statue room, and a camel roaming the halls. I don't remember bringing them with me, though. Where did they come from? It is a mystery. Local wildlife.
If that's true, then they need to get the hell out of my fortress before my brewer/cook dwarf gets a spare minute and hauls them off to the butchery!
He is also my animal training dwarf. He is a busy boy.
It's actually more likely I *did* bring them with me, and then just forgot about it, I think.
[Edited by richcheng at 14:41, 11/9/2008]
[Edited by richcheng at 16:54, 11/9/2008] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108351, posted by Phlamethrower at 00:54, 12/9/2008, in reply to message #108349 |
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My first trader caravan has come and gone. But they didn't have any anvils, and I didn't have much to trade except 2000 lumps of rock that are too heavy for them to carry, so not much happened. Until I realised at the last minute that I needed to get a hold of something to make rope out of, of course.
Sometime soon I should have my well completed - although I initially thought I only had a load of pools of water in the level, there's a brook that cuts across the south-west corner. Which is as far away from the fortess as you can get. So I've now got a load of long passageways to bring the water to a well site near the center of the fort. The well is an ambitious automatic-filling design which is sure to fail, but at least I've got flood gates in all the right places to avoid killing everyone, and to allow me to drain and correct the mechanism if it does fail.
The only problem is that while the trader was here I forgot to check the booze supply, so I've now run out. And if booze-less dwarves weren't bad enough, they insist on walking all the way to the brook in order to get a drink. Luckily I do have a still built, so hopefully I can brew enough to get the well finished before they starve to death on the trek to and from the brook.
Also I haven't received any immigrants either, which is probably a good thing considering that most of the bedrooms are bedless and we're out of booze.
Plus I've just noticed that my woodworker managed to get himself trapped on the wrong side of the grate I was putting in the well passage, which explains why he hasn't finished building all the beds yet.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 01:57, 12/9/2008] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108355, posted by Phlamethrower at 23:53, 12/9/2008, in reply to message #108351 |
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Late spring migrants. Hurrah! I now have 29 dwarves to boss around. That should be more than enough to make sure each dwarf has no more than 1 important job.
I also managed to get the well finished before everyone got killed outside (including rescuing the stupid woodworker). However I completely over-estimated the water pressure of the brook, so it looks like it's going to take up to a year to fill properly. I think I'll also have to build an extra chamber for storing water otherwise the weeks-long delay between water passing the entrance gate and reaching the trigger in the well will cause the well to overflow due to too much water being let in.
More pictures:
* Upper level, with the unfurnished bedrooms that were abandoned as soon as I realised building them on the lower level would be better. The small and large fort entrances are controlled by flood gates, and after having a second load of kobold thieves I've finally installed some traps. Leading off to the south you can see the passage that leads to the shaft the water flows through to get to the well. The dead-end passage at the north works its way around the troublesome surface lake; I'm planning to eventually use it to build some fortifications covering the smaller fort entrance.
* Lower level, with the half-finished fancy bedrooms, stone/ore storerooms and related workshops. Except there are too many rocks all over the place for the storerooms to be used properly. Also the well room, which I'll have to open up in a minute to allow the extra water chamber to be excavated.
* Initial excavations at the new lower level. The store rooms will be linked to the upper ones to improve workflow. Plus you can see the well shaft, if you didn't spot the room in the previous pic. The trigger controlling the well refilling is another couple of layers down, so there's plenty of space for the big buffer chamber.
In case you're wondering about the well design, it uses:
* A grate closest to the brook, to prevent nasties getting in.
* A manual floodgate, to allow the safe maintenance of the fill passage.
* A door connected to a pressure plate in the well shaft to stop more water getting in once the well is suitably full.
* Another door connected to a pressure plate, but this time the plate is a bit further along in the fill passage. This is to regulate the flow rate of the water, since the distance between the entrance doors/gates and the pressure plate in the well is so great that it would easily overflow if too much water is allowed in at once.
I also ended up adding a lever to manually control the two doors, since they started off closed. The lever's also been used to force open the flow control door, to allow full flow until the well is near-full.
The only reason I've used doors instead of flood gates is that I expected the water to flow a lot quicker, and was worried about the well overflowing. But in reality the pressure of surface water seems so low that you can probably dig a passage faster than the water that's flowing behind you.
Handy hint: If you've got a room full of levers like mine, use the (N)otes thing to label each with a letter/number, and place the appropriate letter/number next to the object the lever operates.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 00:57, 13/9/2008] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108360, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:19, 14/9/2008, in reply to message #108355 |
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Just started my third year, and received another bumper crop of immigrants, bringing my population to 58. Luckily my forge started working properly a season or two ago, so I've got enough picks to keep the migrants occupied either cutting rock or hauling it away, or turning it into trade goods (hmm, a room full of craftsdwarves workshops could probably make quick work of all the spare rock). And if I really can't find enough jobs for people then I can easily draft them into the military (currently 5 peasants and 3 war dogs, formed to tackle the increasing threat of goblins and kobolds sneaking into the fort). Or I can put them to work on another Great Wall project.
Other news:
* The well finally filled sometime late last year. However since I ran out of booze (again) before then, I caved in and built a second well by draining one of the surface lakes.
* Increasing the farm plot size and temporarily stopping the use of plump helmets for cooking now means we have plenty of booze. Except the population is now almost twice that of yesterday, so I'm guessing they'll soon work their way through what's there. Luckily the food stores are also healthy.
* Since there were so many people and so much rock sat around doing nothing, I've built a Great Wall surrounding about 1/8th of the forest land, to provide a secure outside area and wood supply. With the well(s) working I can now survive a siege for a good number of years.
* The last two caravans have left without trading anything. The first was a human caravan that was annoyed by my haggling (I spotted that I had a second bin of wares to sell, so tried adding it, but they'd already made a counter-offer and I couldn't find a profit level they'd accept after I'd added my second bin and selected some of their other wares). The second was an elven caravan that got annoyed straight away after I tried selling them goods that were stored in wooden bins
* One of the military recruits has gone insane. No violent outbursts yet, but that's probably just a matter of time.
* Strip mining operations have begun, in search of ores and gems.
Oh well, guess I'd better put the bed maker back to work and start designing the mayor's new quarters.
New pics:
* Great wall, upper.
* Great wall, lower. Lots of rocks ready for if I need to expand it.
* Fort entrance level. The original entrance now leads to the walled-in area; the only way to the outside is through the trade depot, which will probably have proper fortifications added soon. This is also why the passage leading behind the lower workshops dips down to the level below before rising up to the surface - so I can stick another 3-wide wall of flood gates in to trap enemies (or annoying traders) in the room with the trade depot without compromising the security of the extra surface access. Also I've just spotted that you can see the (thirsty) insane military recruit at her station near the depot, so maybe dehydration will soon take care of her for me.
* Lower level. Not that much new here, just more bedrooms, passages, and the emergency well to the east.
* (Not so) new lower level. Strip mining! And ~40 bedrooms, half of which are about to become occupied. Plus the sherrif's office/jail, which will soon be outfitted properly so it can receive whoever the first prisoners are.
No New New lower level this time, although I may add one if I need significantly more workshops for things.
How's your place doing? I can't imagine the cramped corridoors and all those lakes doing much to help your efficiency once your population gets as big as mine. And all that wood! Did you forget you were there for mining? 
[edit]
Ack! First real goblin attack. About 6 of the blighters appeared out of nowhere (i.e. 6 feet infront of the base) armed with iron war hammers and wearing iron armor. The recently-created Fortess Guard were busy arsing around in their barracks as usual, and the guards for the visiting traders didn't seem too interested, so it was down to my brave leather-clad crossbowmen(?) and war dogs to save the day. Two war dogs were struck down immediately (nooo!) as well as one recruit (bah!), but it seems that the goblins were dispatched before anyone else was injured or killed (Although I've just spotted two lightly injured goblins fleeing across the countryside).
Good job there weren't any masons out there at the time. They'd only just finished building those walls that are now stained in blood. And it's a good job that I have actually started work on the doorstep deathtrap (drawbridge over deep pit, probably) if the fort is now large enough to attract proper raiding parties.
(Also you may be interested to know that the psycho recruit wasn't there. After seeing that she was just standing at her post starving to death I thought I'd try relieving her of her duty to see if she moved. She then went outside and ran around like mad woman before dieing)
[edit #2]
More death! This isn't turning out to be a particularly good year.
While digging out the big pit for the death trap one of the miners became isolated on an island. And rather than sit there and wait to be rescued, he decided to dig/jump to his death (Also causing much distress for one of the other two trapped miners). Interestingly the obituary says he died of suffocation - perhaps the fall was great enough to produce a dust cloud? At least I know the pit's deep enough, I guess.
Also one of my woodworkers, who had been in a fey mood, decided he'd rather go insane, and some time later died of thirst two paces away from the well.
Plus I've had to rip up the drawbridge and rebuild it (which is what led to the miners being trapped) because you can't channel out the land that's directly beneath the bridge (I'd left a small walkway for people to go in and out while the construction was in progress). So let that be a lesson to you/me!
[edit #3]
Goblins! In the hole I cut through the great wall to allow temporary outside access! They're in the forest! Killing everyone! Argh!
2 civilian dwarves, a fort guard member, a kitten, and a war dog down for no goblin losses. Plus one other civilian dwarf trapped outside, where he'll surely die. Half of my previously off-duty military are asleep, so I've had to lock down all the entrances - it would just be even more of a slaughter if I allowed the goblins to get inside.
And it's happened at the same time as the traders being here again! Bloody traders bringing goblin raids down on me! Next time, the traders are going in the pit, the bastards.
Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to this bloodbath!
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 01:33, 15/9/2008]
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 01:33, 16/9/2008]
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 02:04, 16/9/2008] |
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richard cheng |
Message #108362, posted by richcheng at 14:00, 16/9/2008, in reply to message #108360 |
Posts: 655
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I haven't had a chance to play any more since I made the screenshot
I had big plans for what I was going to do next, but, reading your posts, I think I might concentrate on my defenses instead! |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108363, posted by Phlamethrower at 14:09, 16/9/2008, in reply to message #108362 |
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I had big plans for what I was going to do next, but, reading your posts, I think I might concentrate on my defenses instead! Yes.
And certainly don't make the same mistake I did of making your secure area unsecure! (Although admittedly there's no guarantee that the casualties would be less if they'd come through the trade depot instead) |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108364, posted by Phlamethrower at 00:03, 17/9/2008, in reply to message #108360 |
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Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion to this bloodbath! End result: My miners went out wearing shiny new iron armour (with the now-woken crossbowmen as backup) and split the skulls of four of the goblins. The remaining two escaped.
The dwarf (and a child!) that were stuck outside died, as did a couple more animals. Also one of the miners was injured and has been off-duty recouperating ever since.
But on the plus side, a small group of immigrants arrived just after the caravan left, so the population count is now at 56. I've also finished the bridge (again), sealed the hole in the wall, stuck a catapault over the top of the entrance, and dug some fortifications inside the trade depot room so I can safely shoot at any enemies that I trap in there. And my 8-ish miners are making quick work of the rock on the main mining level - they'll soon have dug over half the thing out.
When the next group of immigrants arrive I think I'll try sending them out to build the Even Greater Wall - I'm in danger of burning through the trees I currently have too quickly, and don't really want to leave my front door unlocked if there's loads of goblins around. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108372, posted by Phlamethrower at 22:09, 18/9/2008, in reply to message #108364 |
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... don't really want to leave my front door unlocked if there's loads of goblins around. These goblin attacks definitely seem to be related to when traders arrive (or maybe it's just because the interior of my base has been sealed off until now). An elven caravan arrived, and a short while after I opened the interior flood gate to allow my dwarves to move the trade goods to the depot a bloody mess and a goblin corpse (and some vomit!) appeared under one of the stonefall traps. After quickly securing the area and rallying my troops I sent them outside to loiter a bit - a while later 3 goblins and a human(!) appeared. Thankfuly they were all slaughtered with no injuries sustained by my dwarves.
[edit]
Another group! One of my dwarves is injured now. I think I'll just keep them inside until the caravan gos.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 23:20, 18/9/2008] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108374, posted by Phlamethrower at 01:07, 19/9/2008, in reply to message #108372 |
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The goblins... THE GOBLINS!!! THEY'RE COMING OUTTA THE WALLS, MAN!
20 more migrants arrived, so I set them all to work building the Even Greater Wall, with my crossbowmen on guard. Then sometime later a human caravan (which I think was meant to be bringing me some dogs for training) arrived. And sure enough a load of goblins appeared. They actually appeared right next to the caravan and destroyed one of the wagons, causing the others to flee (except the human guild representative, who managed to slip away and get to the fort). Although the goblins seemed to leave after that attack I decided to play it safe and pull everyone inside the base, leaving the crossbowmen outside, along with the iron-clad miners as backup.
And sure enough, as soon as the leader of the miner's squad decides to nip down the pub (taking his entire squad with him), a bunch of goblin bowmen appear on the horizon. They proceed to take out my poorly-trained and poorly-armoured crossbowmen with ease (I guess I should have set them to work in that archery range I built - and upgraded their armour to iron like I was planning to), while I assign a new commander to the miners and try to get them out there to help (The fort guard are, of course, still busy pissing around in their barracks). And just when it looks like backup might arrive in time to save the remaining soliders outside... a third group of goblins appear. Seeing that it's now an impossible fight to win I try and pull all the soldiers back inside to seal the fort - but there's an unconscious dwarf outside who can't get inside and a crossbowman and two war dogs who won't stop fighting. The crossbowman manages to pick off another one or to goblins (and gains a marksmanship level!) before I disband his unit in an attempt to get him inside before the 3rd wave is upon him. He gets onto the edge of the drawbridge before being struck down, at which point I pull the plug and retract the drawbridge.
End result:
* 5 dead dwarves
* 3 dead war dogs (one of which is in the pit - I may have killed him by accident, but since he must have been right at the edge of the bridge at the time there's little chance he would have made it inside anyway. Assuming he was even trying to get inside)
* 1 dead kitten (hurrah? although that might actually have been my butcher at work)
* 3 dead goblins
* 4 fleeing units (3 goblin, 1 human)
* ...and an unconscious human bowman at the bottom of the pit.
(plus assorted corpses elsewhere from the attack on the caravan)
If that human bowman survives (he's got head, neck and back injuries - but nothing showing as red) then I'm sure he'll provide excellent target practice for the remaining crossbowmen.
Meanwhile, I think I'd better start thinking of ways to improve the entrance security some more. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108381, posted by Phlamethrower at 00:11, 21/9/2008, in reply to message #108374 |
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Meanwhile, I think I'd better start thinking of ways to improve the entrance security some more. Skip forward a year or two, and the Even Greater Wall is now complete, despite several more bloody battles during the construction. I've also built a moat around the entrance to the fort. It isn't filled with water yet (still need to link up a couple of flood gates), but there are three drawbridges that cross over it - one to the north, one to the west, and one to the south. This way I can easily control which direction enemies attack from. And I've improved the defenses in the depot/entrance room a bit - there's a ballista behind the fortifications, and some extra fortifications dug out to allow people inside to shoot out when the entrance doors are closed. In the future I suspect I'll also be building a mechanism to allow the pit under the main drawbridge to be flooded and drained, since the fall wasn't great enough to kill that human bowman.
And it's a good thing I've got the bridges finished, because I've just had the start of my first siege! About 14 assorted goblins are sat at the edge of the map wondering what to do, since all the bridges are retracted. I guess I'll rally my troops and lower the western drawbridge, and see how they feel about walking headfirst into a hail of crossbow bolts and catapaulted boulders.
I've now got over 90 dwarves, in case you're wondering when you're going to receive your first seige.
New pics:
* Uppermost level, showing the extent of the Even Greater Wall (it reaches as far to the edge of the map as possible), and the catapault sat over the fort entrance.
* Fort roof. That block of 4 grates is a chimney built over the internal refuse dump, to get rid of miasma buildup. However I'm not entirely sure it's working - miasma will flow through an open space fine, but seems to be blocked by grates (Or maybe the grates destroy any miasma that touches them?). I might just remove the grates and try building a proper fully-sealed chimney that rises a few floors up, keeping the miasma contained within.
* Entrance level, with all the fancy new fortifications (and roads, since it's just another way of getting rid of all the rock that's cluttering the place) There are cage traps next to the road, but now the moat and bridges are there I don't think they'll be much use.
* Lower level, showing how far the water has to travel from the brook. A 3-wide tunnel will transport water about 10 times faster than a 1-wide tunnel (Or maybe the fact that the water has dropped a level has helped too?) Also you'll spot that the engravers ran out of stones to smooth, so almost everything is engraved now as well. A few of the engravings even have pictures of dwarves being killed! Also that lower-right storeroom is full of trade goods. I'm finding it hard to find enough things to buy from visiting merchants to get rid of all the trade goods (plus the fact that goblins usually destroy a wagon (leaving lots of loot for me to take) and/or chase off the traders before they reach me doesn't really help)
* 2nd lower level. Strip mining still in progress, but should be complete soon.
* 3rd lower level (new!). Lots of bedrooms, I'm just finishing furnishing them. About 20 of them are occupied so far. Plus lots more space for workshops, and I've made the jail a lot bigger (it extends from the floor above). I probably won't need to make it any bigger in the future; it looks like you need one jail cell per 10 population.
* 4th lower level (new-ish). Just the base of the pit under the drawbridge for now.
Also, a handy hint about appeasing nobles who want armour sands/weapon racks: Put them in the same room as their office and it should work. Attempting to make the stand/rack into a barracks and then assigning the room to the noble doesn't seem to do the trick.
[edit]
Well, that was interesting. The goblins get within about two paces of piercing death, and then a dragon turns up. After quickly checking the wiki (They can't fly yet! Hurrah!) I decide the best course of action is to hide inside and wait for it to kill the goblins, then deal with it afterwards.
Unfortunately a couple of my war dogs have other ideas, and make a charge at the goblins across the western drawbridge. The drawbridge retracts with both goblins and dogs ontop; about a third of the goblins end up on the inner island, the other two thirds are left on the outside. The pack of war dogs make quick work of the goblins that were thrown over the bridge to the inner island. And with the base safe from the dragon getting inside, I move the crossbowmen back out to pick off the remaining goblins (I think a few of them might have fled, but there's a fair number of corpses on the far side of the moat).
However...
Before the drawbridge retracted I could see that there was a good chance some of the goblins would end up being thrown into the moat channel. And the moat channel is still open to the inside of the base because the flood gates aren't linked up yet. So not really knowing how many goblins might end up in the moat, I play it safe and ask for a wall to be built to close off the access.
It turns out that one of the goblins does land in the moat, and he's unhurt. Unfortunately the dwarf who built the wall was foolish enough to trap himself in the moat with the goblin. So I immediately send him to work to dismantle it again, and send my swordsmen (they've given up being miners a long time ago) down to deal with the goblin. But the goblin scares the dwarf away from his work before he's able to dismantle the wall. Seeing that no-one else is trying to dismantle the wall I realise that it would be a lot quicker to just get the crossbowmen on the surface to walk over to the moat edge and shoot the goblin. And although that works, it's too late for the dwarf who's now bleeding to death on the ground.
And then I had to open enough doors/drawbridges to fool the dragon into coming into range of my crossbowmen. The dragon was surprisingly easy to kill - with 6 crossbowmen shooting at it it only got 4 paces before collapsing (or at least there's a trail of blood 4 paces long behind it).
End result:
10 or more dead goblins
1 dead dragon
1 dead dwarf
3 dead war dogs
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 02:36, 21/9/2008] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108382, posted by Phlamethrower at 17:53, 21/9/2008, in reply to message #108381 |
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I'm beginning to spot a pattern here:
Next year, there will be more goblins. So if you plan with that in mind, you should be able to stay alive.
Although my first siege was a measly 14 melee goblins (and a guest appearance from a dragon), the second siege was over 40 goblins, about 10 of which were ranged units. And it happened at the same time as the arrival of what looked like the largest trade caravan I've ever had.
Long story short:
* Lots of dead goblins
* No dwarf casualties (Just a few war dogs, which seems to be par for the course)
* A few destroyed caravans (Which will make up for the fact I didn't get a chance to do any trading during the siege)
* I've realised I'm going to have to build a load of battlements along the wall, because my crossbowmen/catapaults don't seem to be able to hit any people who congegrate on the hill to the south of the entrance.
After much planning and head scratching the device to flood the drawbridge pit is now almost complete. Although the moat is only capable of flooding the drawbridge pit, the pumps that bring water back out will be capable of either returning the water to the moat (could be tricky since the moat uses an automatic refill), releasing it onto the hill to the south of the entrance (where it will hopefully spread out and evapourate without causing any major flooding), release it infront of the fort (which may be useful for something, I guess), or flood the depot room (which will can then be drained back into the drawbridge pit).
I'm just glad this map has wind, otherwise I'd have to build a massive axle to bring power from a set of waterwheels built over the brook (and waste about two thirds of that power due to the long distance).
[edit]
80 goblins! None of them were ranged units, so I just trapped them outside the moat and picked then off using my marksmen until they scattered.
Special mentions go to:
* A lone marksman, the first to arive on the scene, who felled a goblin mace lord in one shot, causing the rest of the squad to flee in terror (and likely saving the lives of the elven caravan that were trying to get inside)
* The random folks milling about in the switch room, who managed to pull one of the drawbridge levers just in time to catch an approaching goblin squad. Most survived, but were safely trapped on the outside of the moat.
* The catapault operators, for scoring several hits. Unfortunately catapaults only seem to damage one tile
* The dwarven swordsmen, wrestlers, and army of war dogs for performing cleanup duties once the enemy turned tail and fled.
Only dwarven casualties were one fort guard (Apparently he suffocated - not sure where or why though) and a few war dogs. Also the cage traps around the moat have served their purpose, as several now contain goblins. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with them yet.
A good number of the goblins still managed to escape, so I think it's about time I started work on my next deathtrap, something I like to call "The Mush Pit". Dig a large pit to the west of the moat, put floodgates at the entrances, and then rig it up to the tunnel that refills the moat. For drainage I can hopefully reuse the main drawbridge pit system. Rinse and repeat for however many hundreds of goblins I can trap in there.
[Edited by Phlamethrower at 13:49, 22/9/2008] |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #108507, posted by Phlamethrower at 13:14, 8/10/2008, in reply to message #108382 |
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I think I've given up on Woundsplattered. The game is running quite slow, and it doesn't look like the dwarves are all going to die anytime soon (despite my hammerer's best attempts to execute all the members of the military), so it's all getting a bit boring. Here is a recent-ish snapshot - much easier/better than spamming the forum with pics.
For my newer, more ambitious fort, cast your eyes this way. |
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richard cheng |
Message #108512, posted by richcheng at 14:21, 9/10/2008, in reply to message #108507 |
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For my newer, more ambitious fort, cast your eyes this way. That is awesome. Let us know how it goes! |
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