I embarked on a chilly but otherwise not too hostile area. Last night I played it up through the first migrant wave; things went more or less according to plan, considering this was the first time I was trying this starting strategy. I did do a few things in the wrong order, and wound up spending a lot longer above ground than I would have liked, but by the time I got the first wave of four migrants I had a small hole dug and almost everything moved inside, the first two axedwarves armed and armored, and a moat dug all the way around a ~80x40 above ground area (normally I would make it so I can raise a bridge and seal off the fortress, but this time it's tochannel stealthed foes into a choke point where they can be revealed.)
The site has a complete layer of sand, and the first stone layer I dug into has flux, coal and iron ore all together, so I will be able to get started on steel right away, and I'll sell the bronze goods for the first caravan. However, I am not going to be setting up the main fortress this close to the surface -- after the essentials of food, booze and defense are set up, I'm going to dig deep right away, and start out with magma forges. My previous fortress had about 150 Z-levels between the living quarters and the forges, which made things just intolerably slow, so this time I will set up the living quarters much deeper.
So a great start, but I won't be able to play again until Sunday at the earliest.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Planning a new fortress
So I've gotten my first fortress to the population cap (and the lag has set in), and learned a lot about dealing with some of the new threats, vampires and necromancers. Since a new patch just came out today, I decided it was time to generate a new world and start a new fortress. I've been thinking about writing up one of these stories, and since this succession game blog seems to have dropped off the rails, that I'd use it for this purpose.
To begin with, I lowered the population cap to 100 from 200, and generated a new world with the default parameters except I bumped the Savagery and Metal Abundance up by one level each.
My self-imposed goal for this fortress is to defend the fort with dwarves. The doors must stay open all the time, and the main entrance will not be trapped. This means that military development will need to start before embark, and not just wait until after I have magma forges set up, like I usually do.
Vampires are annoying, but can be dealt with by careful screening of migrants. Necromancers, however, are genuinely an existential threat. Dealing with them will require more of a perimeter defense than my usual setup, and while I intend to still keep corpses in a large pile outdoors, I will make sure that the above-ground entrance to the pit has plenty of cage traps that are out of LOS of the refuse stockpile. While I won't trap the entrace to the fort, I will allow myself bridges to smash walking dead (since currently, chopping a zombie in half just results in two zombies. Stealthed necromancers are completely broken.) I also plan to use a large force of marksdwarves behind fortifications to deal with goblins sieges, and outdoor livestock pens behind fortifications, to drain Goblin Elite Bowmen of all their arrows.
I am also going to try a more DIY embark setup: enough food and booze to get started, 3 turkeys (for eggs), 3 dogs (to start breeding; they will be trained to war dogs once I have time), and an anvil, with the rest of the points being spent on logs, bituminous coal, and ore (bismuth, tin and copper, to make bismuth bronze -- the most cost effective weapons-grade material) along with a couple bars (fire-safe material to build smelters before I have picks to get stone). I will start out by burning a log for charcoal, then smelting coal, bismuth bronze (the most cost-and-fuel effective material at embark), then forging two picks, two axes and two full sets of bronze armor, so I can have a fully equipped military right off the bat.
The lower cost of materials will allow me to start out with maxed out skills for the dwarves:
• 1 miner/mason (will become pure miner once migrants arrive)
• 1 miner/carpenter (will become pure miner once migrants arrive)
• 1 armor/weaponsmith
• 2 Axedwarves (5 axeman, 2 fighter, 1 shield, 1 armor, 1 dodge)
• 1 farmer (2 cooking, 3 brewing, 5 growing)
• 1 misc crafter (3 mechanic, 2 stonecrafter, 2 leatherworker, 3 furnace operator)
To begin with, I lowered the population cap to 100 from 200, and generated a new world with the default parameters except I bumped the Savagery and Metal Abundance up by one level each.
My self-imposed goal for this fortress is to defend the fort with dwarves. The doors must stay open all the time, and the main entrance will not be trapped. This means that military development will need to start before embark, and not just wait until after I have magma forges set up, like I usually do.
Vampires are annoying, but can be dealt with by careful screening of migrants. Necromancers, however, are genuinely an existential threat. Dealing with them will require more of a perimeter defense than my usual setup, and while I intend to still keep corpses in a large pile outdoors, I will make sure that the above-ground entrance to the pit has plenty of cage traps that are out of LOS of the refuse stockpile. While I won't trap the entrace to the fort, I will allow myself bridges to smash walking dead (since currently, chopping a zombie in half just results in two zombies. Stealthed necromancers are completely broken.) I also plan to use a large force of marksdwarves behind fortifications to deal with goblins sieges, and outdoor livestock pens behind fortifications, to drain Goblin Elite Bowmen of all their arrows.
I am also going to try a more DIY embark setup: enough food and booze to get started, 3 turkeys (for eggs), 3 dogs (to start breeding; they will be trained to war dogs once I have time), and an anvil, with the rest of the points being spent on logs, bituminous coal, and ore (bismuth, tin and copper, to make bismuth bronze -- the most cost effective weapons-grade material) along with a couple bars (fire-safe material to build smelters before I have picks to get stone). I will start out by burning a log for charcoal, then smelting coal, bismuth bronze (the most cost-and-fuel effective material at embark), then forging two picks, two axes and two full sets of bronze armor, so I can have a fully equipped military right off the bat.
The lower cost of materials will allow me to start out with maxed out skills for the dwarves:
• 1 miner/mason (will become pure miner once migrants arrive)
• 1 miner/carpenter (will become pure miner once migrants arrive)
• 1 armor/weaponsmith
• 2 Axedwarves (5 axeman, 2 fighter, 1 shield, 1 armor, 1 dodge)
• 1 farmer (2 cooking, 3 brewing, 5 growing)
• 1 misc crafter (3 mechanic, 2 stonecrafter, 2 leatherworker, 3 furnace operator)
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
New version released
They've just released the first updated version in nearly a year.
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Training troops
So in my current fort, I decided to not use a danger room. I made three squads of 10 soldiers, one of axes, one of mixed maces/hammers, and one of crossbows based on the skills the dwarves I drafted had. While I managed to get the marksdwarves up thanks to a nigh-invulnerable forgotten beast I trapped behind some fortifications (it now has over 500 bolts stuck in it!) the melee squads were training very s l o w l y with most troops around skill levels 1-4.
Reading the wiki and forums, there was a suggestion that squads of 2 soldiers trained the fastest.
Reading the wiki and forums, there was a suggestion that squads of 2 soldiers trained the fastest.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Levers weren't long enough...
...but I had places to put them.
The entry floor of the fortress:
When the moatworks bridges are raised they deny access to the interior of the map (but not the abbatoir). (I guess its possible they could enter from the brook, too, which would get them inside the moatworks.) You need to close the inside bridge using the lever on 135, to seal the fortress itself. The bridge outside was just to shorten a route over the brook, and is not linked to a lever. You can see the two barracks in this shot as well. But sending guys outside to harvest wood or gather plants should be relatively secure, inside the bridges at least.
The danger room is inside the inner barracks. Just station troops inside it and have someone pull the lever on repeat. I only used it a little - maybe 10 strokes or so - to get troops out of the totally green skill zone, since it skills them up very rapidly. If you "accidentally" let pets or children (including babe-in-arms for female soldiers) in the room while it is active, they will be killed. Feel free to ignore it and let natural training take place, or assign troops in there for hours and hours and turn them into Cave Seal Team Six.
One level below:
The unmarked lever shortcuts the trap corridor, not shown. It should probably never be pulled. You may want to create another bridge to block the entrance to the trap corridor, and link it to this lever, so dwarves can safely go in and reset the weapon traps if they get jammed.
You have over 300 coke already made (along with another almost 200 lignite dug out waiting to be processed, and plenty more unmined veins on levels in the northeast). The miners had finished digging everything I designated. We have gold nuggets that haven't been smelted too, so you can start crafting some serious bling if you want.
You can craft stuff to trade in just about any industry you want. We have:
3 legendary miners
1 legendary carpenter
5 legendary masons
1 legendary weaponsmith
2 very close to legendary armorsmiths
1 legendary gem setter
1 legendary woodcrafter
1 legendary stonecrafter
1 very close to legendary weaver
1 very close to legendary clothesmaker
The skill that we need to improve the most is stone detailing. There are lots of designations from Miranda that haven't been completed yet, so they've been working all year, and our best engravers are still only level 6-7.
You have 1500 drinks, 500 prepared meals, and plenty of food coming in. You can keep cooking Lavish Meals to improve morale.
The caverns are currently sealed. I did no exploration, except near the top for coal, and for grabbing some wood early on. Feel free to send some soldiers out exploring (or just throw some of our excess kittens in there and wall the entrance back up, they'll go exploring for us.)
The storehouses for trade goods are filled, so the stuff in the depot is not getting hauled. (I wonder if thats why the caravan didn't unload more things.) If you care about that you might dig and designate some new stockpiles.
If you want to craft new, more expensive furniture for everyone, there are whole layers of obsidian (starts around Z=109). You could dig out a big area and make mason's workshops down there, then refurnish everything.
Well Josh, here's the keys. Don't wreck it!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36782583/PlaidSlacks%20141.zip
The entry floor of the fortress:
The danger room is inside the inner barracks. Just station troops inside it and have someone pull the lever on repeat. I only used it a little - maybe 10 strokes or so - to get troops out of the totally green skill zone, since it skills them up very rapidly. If you "accidentally" let pets or children (including babe-in-arms for female soldiers) in the room while it is active, they will be killed. Feel free to ignore it and let natural training take place, or assign troops in there for hours and hours and turn them into Cave Seal Team Six.
One level below:
You can craft stuff to trade in just about any industry you want. We have:
3 legendary miners
1 legendary carpenter
5 legendary masons
1 legendary weaponsmith
2 very close to legendary armorsmiths
1 legendary gem setter
1 legendary woodcrafter
1 legendary stonecrafter
1 very close to legendary weaver
1 very close to legendary clothesmaker
The skill that we need to improve the most is stone detailing. There are lots of designations from Miranda that haven't been completed yet, so they've been working all year, and our best engravers are still only level 6-7.
You have 1500 drinks, 500 prepared meals, and plenty of food coming in. You can keep cooking Lavish Meals to improve morale.
The caverns are currently sealed. I did no exploration, except near the top for coal, and for grabbing some wood early on. Feel free to send some soldiers out exploring (or just throw some of our excess kittens in there and wall the entrance back up, they'll go exploring for us.)
The storehouses for trade goods are filled, so the stuff in the depot is not getting hauled. (I wonder if thats why the caravan didn't unload more things.) If you care about that you might dig and designate some new stockpiles.
If you want to craft new, more expensive furniture for everyone, there are whole layers of obsidian (starts around Z=109). You could dig out a big area and make mason's workshops down there, then refurnish everything.
Well Josh, here's the keys. Don't wreck it!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36782583/PlaidSlacks%20141.zip
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
25th Timber
The liason from the mountainhomes has offered to make us a barony! The mayor nominates herself to be the first baroness. While this isn't surprising, she is also our broker. The meeting with the liason continues to drag on, and I hope she can get to the depot before the traders depart.
I see our engravers have been set to smooth a huge amount of the hall, which explains why the fortifications have not been carved into the outdoor barracks. I do wonder why our dining hall is built on clay, which cannot be smoothed or engraved to improve morale.
The liason from the mountainhomes has offered to make us a barony! The mayor nominates herself to be the first baroness. While this isn't surprising, she is also our broker. The meeting with the liason continues to drag on, and I hope she can get to the depot before the traders depart.
I see our engravers have been set to smooth a huge amount of the hall, which explains why the fortifications have not been carved into the outdoor barracks. I do wonder why our dining hall is built on clay, which cannot be smoothed or engraved to improve morale.
The trenches I dig to try and seal the eastern edge of our river area have breached the mining tunnels. I quickly order the breach sealed.
Justice
8th Sandstone
I receive a letter addressed to me in my medical capacity, a letter filled with hurtful, vile words. Words like, Malpractice, Criminal Negligence, and Legal Retribution. Having treated a few broken and bloody recipients of dwarven "justice", a cold sweat breaks out under my beard. Fortunately, we have grown thus far without a justice system in place which gives me a way to minimize any damage preemptively.
I ask Christopher Rithlutunib to be our Captain of the Guard, as he is one of our founding dwarves. He starts to protest, claiming that he is weak and very quick to tire. I point out that with the constant training a law officer can engage in, those attributes will improve. I also point out that as a noble, he will be assigned a larger room with his own office, dining room and furniture. I further point out that since there have been zero violations of the law so far, he will likely have very little work to do except sit in the dining hall and drink. This gets his attention. He asks if we could have the plant processors mill some dwarven flour, and get the cook to come up with some sort of... circular... fried... dough... things, glazed with Dwarven Sugar, to eat while he drinks his Sewer Brew. Since we already have three querns, I agree.
He accepts the position.
I receive a letter addressed to me in my medical capacity, a letter filled with hurtful, vile words. Words like, Malpractice, Criminal Negligence, and Legal Retribution. Having treated a few broken and bloody recipients of dwarven "justice", a cold sweat breaks out under my beard. Fortunately, we have grown thus far without a justice system in place which gives me a way to minimize any damage preemptively.
I ask Christopher Rithlutunib to be our Captain of the Guard, as he is one of our founding dwarves. He starts to protest, claiming that he is weak and very quick to tire. I point out that with the constant training a law officer can engage in, those attributes will improve. I also point out that as a noble, he will be assigned a larger room with his own office, dining room and furniture. I further point out that since there have been zero violations of the law so far, he will likely have very little work to do except sit in the dining hall and drink. This gets his attention. He asks if we could have the plant processors mill some dwarven flour, and get the cook to come up with some sort of... circular... fried... dough... things, glazed with Dwarven Sugar, to eat while he drinks his Sewer Brew. Since we already have three querns, I agree.
He accepts the position.
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| You will respect my authoritah! |
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