AleDrinkers - Zombies, Dragons, Ghosts... and maybe Vampires! Dwarf Fortress Game version 47.05

[blue emu]

Toady claims to have fixed some of the crash bugs that brought our last community fortress to a premature end, so here we go again...

Game version 47.05, no mods. Using the latest Peridexis (Python) Lazy Noob Pack for QoL utilities.

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We have embarked out in the Untamed Wilds, where the mountain foothills meet the semi-tropical forest. The overlapping biomes should give us a good variety of wildlife, including some dangerous types such as the Yetis that our scouts have reported.

Our source of surface water is a shallow stream, which crosses our plateau and then pitches over a five-level drop into the valley below. Owing to the peculiar way streams are handled by the game engine, the waterfall is itself dry (???) and we will need to "mine" through the surface of the stream to reach the water... or to release it for a genuine "wet" waterfall.

The northern half of the map is heavily forested, and the southern half is bare. My plan at first glance is to build a castle on the surface straddling the stream... which will require clearing away some of the forest closest to the stream... and positioning the entrance to our underground fort inside the protection of the surface fort.

The map seems to be about 140 levels deep (from the surface all the way down to the magma sea and to the demon-infested Hell beneath that).

By sheer coincidence, those chuckleheads back at Mountainhome did something right for once; they gave us one male horse and one female horse to pull our wagon. They were just as likely to have given us two males, or draft beasts of two different species. But with a mated pair of horses and wide-open plains of grass, we can start raising a herd of horses as soon as we get squared away. We also brought one male and one female pig, as well as breeding stocks of dogs, cats and peacocks.

As usual, I have claimed the Mechanic character for myself... I'm already planning some insane doomsday weapons... so the remaining six available dwarves are:

two Miners
a Lumberjack / Carpenter
a Mason / Engraver / Building Designer
a Brewer / Cook / Armorsmith
a Grower / Weaponsmith

Who wants one?

 

[blue emu]

A bit more info:

The Dwarf Therapist analysis of our seven starting dwarves:

I'm the Mechanic / Architect with Doctor skills (Diagnosis, Wound Dressing, Surgery) and a few Leadership skills (Organizer, Judge of Intent, Negotiator, Consoler) plus the new skill Fluid Engineer. No idea what it does, but I bet I can drown half the fortress finding out.

And here is what the DFHack Prospector has to say about this embark site:

Layer stones and metal ores:

Gems:

Miscellaneous minerals:

and Trees and Shrubs:

So it looks like we have the makings of a decent Steel industry, since we have Iron Ore, Coal and Flux. We also have both Copper (in massive quantities) and Tin, so we can also make Bronze equipment... not quite as good quality as Steel, but much easier to manufacture. We also have plenty of Gold and Silver (both for our own domestic use and for export) and a wide variety of gems including Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire and Opal. We should be able to set up a wealthy crafting industry.

 

[blue emu]

The good news:

Strike the Earth!... and the very first swing of our picks hits a deposit of Magnetite ore! Jeeze... we can't even sink a stairwell down without hitting an important mineral deposit! Looks like our Iron and Steel foundry will be starting up as soon as we have the workers to dwarf it.

The bad news:

We struck Iron ore immediately because there is solid rock underfoot. No soil layer at all... none... which means that growing our underground crops will be a real bitch. You can't grow crops on bare stone. This problem is urgent... we brought enough food to last us until the first caravan arrives, but a poor caravan or a couple of large migrant waves will put us on the road to starvation. So we'll push forward on two different solutions simultaneously, and see which one pans out first:

1) I'll detail a dwarf or two to search the forest for edible vegetation. Maybe we'll find something that we can cultivate above ground.

2) I'll send our miners digging northward not far below the surface. We sank our stairwell in the southern biome (a Mountain plateau). Perhaps the northern (Forest) biome has a soil layer.

If neither of those possibilities pans out, we'll have to start making crossbows and ammunition, and training a few dwarves as hunters (and perhaps a couple of dogs as hunting hounds). It's not worth doing just now, because we haven't seen any animals except the tame ones we brought with us.

 

[blue emu]

... So we'll push forward on two different solutions simultaneously, and see which one pans out first...

Success on both fronts!

The Dwarves that we sent to search the northern woods have returned with Parsnips, which can be either cooked into meals or brewed into drinks. This dual use is critically important for starting a subsistence crop, since brewing recovers (and therefore recycles) the seeds, while cooking does not. So we can brew the Parsnips that we find and plant the seeds in our above-ground garden, and then cook a portion of the Parsnip Brandy into a pudding. We also found a few other above-ground crops which can be brewed into drinks (and one that can be spun into thread), but only the Parsnips are both cookable and brewable... at least, so far.

Meanwhile, our Miners tunneling northward have crossed the boundary between the Mountain and Forest biomes, and have struck a shallow sand layer... only one level deep, but it's enough to grow the underground crops that we need.

Crisis averted!

 

[hyme]

Dawi me

 

[hyme]

Success on both fronts!

The Dwarves that we sent to search the northern woods have returned with Parsnips, which can be either cooked into meals or brewed into drinks. This dual use is critically important for starting a subsistence crop, since brewing recovers (and therefore recycles) the seeds, while cooking does not. So we can brew the Parsnips that we find and plant the seeds in our above-ground garden, and then cook a portion of the Parsnip Brandy into a pudding. We also found a few other above-ground crops which can be brewed into drinks (and one that can be spun into thread), but only the Parsnips are both cookable and brewable... at least, so far.

Meanwhile, our Miners tunneling northward have crossed the boundary between the Mountain and Forest biomes, and have struck a shallow sand layer... only one level deep, but it's enough to grow the underground crops that we need.

Crisis averted!

We must get a prickle berry farm going asap!!!

 

[blue emu]

Any preferences? All of the starting dwarves except for my Mechanic / Doctor / Expedition Leader are still available.

Here is an update on the progress so far:

With the discovery of a Sand layer our incipent food crisis has been solved; and it's still Spring so our first crop is now being planted.

With that matter settled, we have begun digging out accomodations and have started moving everything underground where we can protect it.

First, immediately below the surface we just dig right through the first layer of rock, and head on down to the second layer before branching out into tunnels.

The reason for this is that any structural collapses on the surface will carry on down through the subterranean parts of the fort, wrecking everything and killing dwarves, UNTIL they hit a layer of solid, undisturbed rock. Since we are planning to build an above-ground castle over our tunnel entrance using a work-force composed of drunken maniacs, potential structural collapses are a fact of dwarven life. So we skip the first layer of stone, to ensure that the castle itself will be underlain by a solid, undisturbed layer of stone. This will isolate any above-ground collapse and prevent it from propagating down through our fort.

Next, we are building a few essential workshops. At the moment, we have a clutter of temporary workshops set up in the corridor, but they will be moved into their own specialized areas as soon as possible. My typical workshop design is a three-level stack, with the raw materials stores on the top level, the workshop itself on the middle level, and the finished products on the bottom level of the three. These three warehouse / workshop / warehouse rooms are all directly connected by stairs, in order to minimize walking and maximize throughput.

Top:

Middle:

Bottom:

We then skip a few levels (in order to insulate the bedrooms from the noisy workshops) and lay out the bedrooms.

Note that each bedroom has its own walls, not shared by neighboring bedrooms (that's why the bedroom walls are two tiles thick). This allows any bedroom wall engravings to count at full value for happiness, instead of having that value shared by a neighbor on the other side of the wall. Our dwarves will be happy!

Suddenly!... in the middle of our preparations... our map is invaded by a group of flying Owl Men and Owl Women!

This is not good news, since we have neither any soldiers nor even any weapons.

To be continued...

 

[hyme]

I sure there will be nothing to fear from them, unless they are armed:

Great horned owl men are animal people variants of the common great horned owl, who inhabit most savage regions. They spawn in groups of anywhere between 5-10 individuals and are generally content to keep to themselves. In terms of size, they are a little over half the weight of the average dwarf. All great horned owl men are born with Legendary skill in climbing.

Like other savage animal people, great horned owl men can join civilizations, become historical figures, appear as visitors and be playable in adventurer mode.

DF2014:Great horned owl man - Dwarf Fortress Wiki

dwarffortresswiki.org

"Any preferences? All of the starting dwarves except for my Mechanic / Doctor / Expedition Leader are still available."
Nope.

 

[Ironhide G1]

I'm interested in this- how exactly can I participate? This is my first time with this type of game.

 

[blue emu]

I'm interested in this- how exactly can I participate? This is my first time with this type of game.

To participate, you claim a dwarf as your player character. So far, two of our seven starting dwarves have been claimed:

My Mechanic / Doctor / Expedition Leader

Hyme's Miner

That leaves five available dwarves from our initial seven... or if you prefer, you could sit on the sidelines for a (in-game) year or so and wait for a dwarf of a specific type to immigrate (a soldier, for example, or a hunter).

These dwarves are immediately available:

one Miner
one Lumberjack / Carpenter
one Mason / Engraver / Building Designer
one Brewer / Cook / Armorsmith
one Grower / Weaponsmith

The dwarf's profession is not set in stone (so to speak)... once we have our metal forging industry set up and running, I'll be drafting a dozen or so dwarves into our new military and training them as soldiers. I gave Hyme a Miner with that in mind... the skills that a Miner develops in his normal day-to-day work (Strength, Endurance, Toughness, Willpower, etc) will all come in useful when he gets drafted as a soldier.

Once you've picked a dwarf and entered the game, I will keep you (and everyone else) updated on what's happening in our little game world. Players (and even onlookers) are always free to offer suggestions on what I should focus on (or try to avoid), and I often... but not always... act on these suggestions.

 

[blue emu]

Eight new immigrants arrive in late May! And every one of them...

Every. Freaking. One.

... is a Military dwarf.

Circled (above) are the Armor and Shield skills. To the left of that are first the weapon skills, then the Discipline and Dodge skills.

Unfortunately, three of the eight recruits are Bowdwarves... unfortunate, because dwarves of our civilization cannot manufacture Bows, so we can't equip them properly. So we'll need to cross-train those three dwarves with other weapons. No big deal.

For the moment, though, instead of forming a Military immediately we'll just conscript those Military dwarves as Civilian workers... for two reasons:

1) We don't yet have our metal forging industry set up, so we really can't equip a proper military. We can't even manufacture crossbow bolts yet. Soon. There's also the small matter that we don't have a barracks, training area or Marksdwarf's range set up yet. Who would have expected a big immigration wave of Soldiers?

2) Military dwarves need regular time off training, or they get really upset. So we need to schedule training time alternating with time off. HOWEVER, if a Military dwarf has no Civilian profession at all, then he gets really upset whenever he isn't either fighting or training. So he'll get angry if we keep him ON duty, and will also get angry when we take him OFF duty. The only way out of this Catch-22 situation is to make sure that each Military dwarf has some Civilian profession that he can pursue whenever he has off-duty time. That will keep him content. So before forming our Military squads, we'll train each dwarf in some civilian skill.

 

[Ironhide G1]

Since this is my first foray into this, I'll take the Mason dwarf, unless you want me to claim something else to help out. Just tell me what you want me to do for this, and I'll be happy to do it.

 

[blue emu]

The Mason is fine.

You are Ironhide BridledChanneled. You are a skilled Mason, plus a few other skills such as Building Designer, Engraver and Herbalist.

Right now, you are hard at work turning the mined-out rock from our tunnels into doors, chairs, tables and so on. Your permanent workshop isn't set up yet (we have a thousand things to do) so you have built a temporary workshop in the corridor on level 2 and are working there.

Your on-screen character wears white, the usual Mason's uniform.

I'll keep you posted on any interesting things that happen to you.

 

[blue emu]

It turns out that while all of our second-wave immigrants have Military skills, not one of them brought a weapon or any armor. Except for their skills, they are as defenseless as the rest of us.

Accordingly, I have drafted the new immigrants to start setting up our metal industry. That way, we can quickly churn out some cheap armor and weapons for them.

Our Miners haven't located the flux (for steel-making) yet, but that's an academic point. Steel equipment is MUCH more time-consuming to make than Iron, Copper or Bronze equipment, so we'll put steel on hold for now and make all of our starting equipment out of Iron. Bronze would also be quick and fairly competitive with Iron, but (as usual) our Miners haven't located the Cassiterite (tin ore) yet either.

Iron it is. Fortunately, it's the third-best weapon-grade material (after Adamantite and Steel), and by chance we sank our fort's stairwell right through a large deposit of Iron ore, Copper ore, and Coal. So we don't need to go looking for it... the spoil from our tunneling is full of Iron and Copper ores.

The Copper ore we'll use for crossbow bolts, where the extra density of the copper counter-balances its lesser hardness. For armor and weapons, Iron is much superior to Copper, but for crossbow bolts it's a wash (they are about equally effective).

 

[blue emu]

@Ironhide G1 - If you have no experience with DF, then you probably haven't read Boatmurdered? https://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/

Or Headshoots? https://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Headshoots/

 

[blue emu]

Dang! We got so involved with digging out our tunnels and setting up our industries that we missed the Fall caravan. I wasn't expecting it to arrive quite so early in the Fall. We are quickly slapping a trade depot together to see if we can catch any of the Merchants before they leave.

At least I managed to get my office partially set up in time to meet with the Outpost Liason. I placed an order for NEXT year's caravan to bring Leather, Booze, a variety of Surface Crops (strawberries, melons, etc) for our garden, and some Dingo's Kidneys.

EDIT: Cool... Hyme managed to slap together a rough Trade Depot before the last of the Merchants got bored and left, so we didn't miss the Fall Caravan entirely. We just missed the wagons, which means that we can only trade them light stuff that they can carry without using wagons. Platinum nuggets turned out to be too heavy... the Merchants wouldn't accept them because they claimed that they couldn't transport them with the wagons already gone. So we ended up trading them a handful of cheap uncut gemstones... just the crappy stuff like agate, jasper and smokey quartz... in return for some surface crops; berries and melons. Hopefully we can get some seeds out of that, to start our surface farm.

 

[blue emu]

With the trading finished, my Mechanic character decided to have some of the new berries for lunch... and yes, we recovered the seeds. So we can start setting up a garden on the surface. This will require irrigating a stretch of land, since in this inhospitable biome we can't grow anything without prior irrigation. Fortunately, I had foreseen this eventuality and had our Carpenter construct the components that we will require for a couple of pumps. I'll want to set up a few retaining walls first, to make sure we don't accidentally flood anything except the intended garden site.

Meanwhile, with our two new Miners (now four in total including Hyme) we are expanding our bedrooms in preparation for the next wave of migrants.

Our metal industry is making progress, with several dozen units of coke (processed coal) and about the same number of Iron bars already created. We are now branching out and starting to smelt some Copper and Platinum ores as well.

Our zero-skill Peasant from the summer migrant wave has learned the Furnace Operator trade, so when we get around to creating a military he will no longer get upset every time his shift ends.

 

[hyme]

Where is the kitchen?

 

[blue emu]

Where is the kitchen?

Next door to our underground crops.

We started out in a bare rock biome, which prevented us from immediately starting an underground farm. We had to dig around a bit before we found a pocket of sand in which we could set up a farm. So, to reach our farm from the fort entrance, you go downstairs two levels then walk north along the corridor about 30 Urists, then follow the ramps up one level on your right (leaving you only one level below the surface, in that aforementioned pocket of sand). The farm is immediately to your left, and the kitchen, still and farmer's workshop are to your right.

 

[blue emu]

Six more migrants, including another Miner, another Doctor (our fourth, including myself), two Farmers, a Thresher and another Lumberjack.

That brings us up over the "20 Dwarf" threshhold... we should start getting Strange Moods almost anytime now.