UglySurprises the Swamp of Chaos - an above-ground Dwarf Fortress.

[blue emu]

The great majority of our Dwarves are either happy or content 79 out of 82), but we have a handful of troublemakers. In particular, our Gem Setter likes to get pissed drunk, throw a tantrum, start throwing things, and then beat somebody up. A few months ago he assaulted one of the (male) exotic dancers in the Tavern. Maybe he didn't like the way the guy's willy wagged, or something.

Anyway, I've had just about enough of his antics. After his latest drunken brawl (injuring a Glazer rather seriously) I hauled him into court and convicted him of Assault. The sentence handed down was for a judicial beating... not sure why, since we have a jail set up.

Lucky for him, the Gem Setter was wearing Armor, and weathered the beating with only minor wounds.

 

[blue emu]

That crazy Gem Setter just murdered our fort manager.

OK. I think I'll lock the bastard up and drop the key down our well.

That blinking red arrow shows that our criminal is not happy. Well... neither am I.

 

[blue emu]

I mentioned that there were three Dwarves in the fort that were causing trouble. A second one of the trio was apparently upset that his buddy got sent to jail… so today in front of 20 witnesses he beat up the same (male) exotic dancer, who oddly enough is called "HorrorGristle".

I'm glad I missed his routine down at the club.


Anyway, our tough-guy Bookbinder is going up in front of a court, just like his friend the Gem Setter.

 

[sortulv]

I mentioned that there were three Dwarves in the fort that were causing trouble. A second one of the trio was apparently upset that his buddy got sent to jail… so today in front of 20 witnesses he beat up the same (male) exotic dancer, who oddly enough is called "HorrorGristle".

I'm glad I missed his routine down at the club..

Have you considered that this dancer is going out of his way to provoke them? I mean if every troublemaker is beating on this one dwarf, one might start wondering if it really is just them...

 

[blue emu]

I had expected our resident Goblin Poet to be the first victim, but he seems to be reasonably popular.

Our hospital is now 100% full, with all the patients being victims of either brawls or judicial beatings. Surprisingly. fort morale remains good in general.

 

[blue emu]

One of the three unhappy dwarves seems to be going insane:

What's his problem?

250 was the year we embarked... almost four years ago, and he's still upset about it. This guy REALLY doesn't like being rained on.

 

[blue emu]

One of the Dwarves who was seriously injured by the two Dwarven Hoodlums mentioned above has entered a Strange Mood!

This will turn out tragically, because he's unconscious in a Hospital bed, and even if he woke up, he can't walk.

He will certainly fail his Mood and go insane. And eventually dehydrate.

In other news... I just found a decayed body in our Tavern, still sitting in a chair! Since I received no announcement of the death, it must be one of the visitors, not a citizen. This theory is supported by the fact that the decaying corpse was clutching a musical instrument. It looks like one of our visiting Bards drank himself to death.

 

[blue emu]

By Armok's Beard! He woke up, rolled out of the Hospital bed, and CRAWLED upstairs to a workshop and claimed it. Now he's crawling around collecting ingredients for his artifact.

In other news... one of those Dwarven hoodlums that have been giving me so much grief decided to slap one of the visiting female Bards around.

She broke both his arms and put him in the Hospital!

 

[jacob-Lundgren]

 

[blue emu]

Jeeze… that other hoodlum (the Carpenter) is at it again. Beat up at least four people (in separate incidents) including one who was asleep in bed at the time.

OK, no more Mr Nice Dwarf. This time I gave him a judicial beating PLUS 76 days in prison.

Here's the log:

… and then:

LOL.

 

[blue emu]

I'm undertaking another major engineering project. I've decided to incorporate both a Dodge-Em trap and a Magma Pump-Stack into our defense plans. This will require punching a HUGE (25 x 20) hole in the aquifer... without allowing it to flood the fortress, of course.

 

[blue emu]

Almost ready to make The Big Hole through the aquifer.

The aquifer layer has been channeled out to form a pond:

The overburden has been carved into two cofferdams and a central plug:

… and at the surface, the cofferdams have been suspended from lever-actuated support pillars and otherwise disconnected from any neighboring support:

Dang! There's a Dog, a cat and a kitten running around inside the construction site. I'll knock a hole in the fence and chase them out to safety, and then we'll be ready to drop.

EDIT: Boom!

 

[sortulv]

I'm undertaking another major engineering project. I've decided to incorporate both a Dodge-Em trap and a Magma Pump-Stack into our defense plans. This will require punching a HUGE (25 x 20) hole in the aquifer... without allowing it to flood the fortress, of course.

Isn't it a lot easier to do that from below now that you already have a path down?

 

[blue emu]

Isn't it a lot easier to do that from below now that you already have a path down?

Digging into an aquifer from below is a sobering experience.

Dwarves do not like sobering experiences (or, indeed, ANYTHING with the word "sober" in it).

 

[sortulv]

Digging into an aquifer from below is a sobering experience.

Dwarves do not like sobering experiences (or, indeed, ANYTHING with the word "sober" in it).

Only if you don't also dig far enough down to have a proper drain - It may be less than a nice way to treat your CPU, but building a massive staircase down to the caverns, and then starting to work along the edges of the aquifier shoring it up can be a lot easier than dropping a plug... (forgetting to find a good place to put the water is a good way generate ghosts though...

 

[blue emu]

My objections are:

1) The long-term hit to my frame-rate, which is already down by half (started at 100, now about 50). And I'm running on an i5-8400.

2) Not sure how I would seal the edges afterward. Dwarves won't work in water deeper than 2/7. Period. They cancel the job instead. And aquifers are a limitless source of 7/7 water. I might have to somehow seal it with obsidian casting... which will be a LOT more work than dropping a cofferdam.

3) I don't want to risk a long-term connection to the cavern layers; certainly not until I have a better military. Plenty of cavern denizens can fly, including many Forgotten Beasts.

On the whole, dropping a cofferdam seems to be the quickest and safest option. And I'm quite experienced with that particular technique.

 

[sortulv]

I get 1 very well... DF is not framerate friendly at the best of times, and playing with water is a good way to drive that down
Sealing the edges is very simple however - as long as the tile accessed has a hole below, you will never see water on the aquifier. The trick make it directly down, or at least nearly so. I haven't tried more than 1 to the side for each level, but I guess that 2-3 might work.
Connection to the cavern is easily solved - just remember to complete the blocking bridge before digging all the way...

 

[blue emu]

Our hoodlum Gem Setter grabs the Bard by the STORY and beats the crap out of him!

(never seen THAT before!)

Then he grabs a Peacock by the tongue, swings it around a few times, and then turns a Turkey into Chicken Chunks!

Looks like time for another sojourn in Jail.

 

[blue emu]

Unfortunately, I started getting CTDs two or three times per game year, and the fort became effectively unplayable as a result.

The good news is: Toady has released a new version 0.47.xx which has focused on fixing crash bugs... so it might be possible to start a new fort.

I'll try one off-line, to see how stable the new version is.