Welcome to BloodCarnage!... a Dwarf Fortress succession game

[randakar]

The game has slowed down quite a bit while these guys duke it out. The edges of the map are crawling with various sorts of nasties, and FPS has dropped from somewhere in the 80's to 90's (on this desktop, at least) to 35-40.

Overall, the zombies are losing - goblin weaponry is just a lot better than the unarmed strikes the elven zombies bring to the table.
Against trolls though the elves are quite a bit stronger - for some reason all of the unarmed attacks the trolls make just glance off the zombies.
No idea how, but a dead troll is a good troll, as far as I'm concerned, so I'm fine with it.
This is going to take a while, though: Still 267 foreign units on the map ..

 

[Gen. Skobelev]

Just sit back, watch and enjoy the carnage. How's the dwarven population developing? I'm assuming that married dwarves pop out little babies regularly but is the population increasing steadily? Any bottlenecks slowing down it or is everything running smoothly - apart from occasional attacks?

 

[randakar]

Just sit back, watch and enjoy the carnage. How's the dwarven population developing? I'm assuming that married dwarves pop out little babies regularly but is the population increasing steadily? Any bottlenecks slowing down it or is everything running smoothly - apart from occasional attacks?

I've capped the population on 150 dwarves, with a maximum of 5 children or 10% of the population (whichever is lower).
However, when I took over we already had quite a lot of dwarven children and babies running around, plus some pregnant dwarves that continued to give birth despite us exceeding the caps.

Since then however no new pregnancies have developed, and all of the babies have grown into dwarven children.
Right now we're at 119 citizens, of which some 45(!) are children.
The youngest of them is one year old, born on the 3rd of Hematite in the year 142. (I have the game paused on 26th Timber, 143. That's the 9th month of the year. Hematite is the 4th month of the year.)

The only way we will reach the cap now is through immigration. But if any immigrants show up now, they'll get slaughtered.

 

[randakar]

All of the elven zombies are dead. For good, this time. Until that necromancer shows up and resurrects them, that is.

The list of "other" units on the map has gone down to 157, of which 22 are caged prisoners and 3 are wild animals roaming around the map. I don't think a lot of the goblins died to that attack. Perhaps a troll or two, but I doubt it did much more than itch a bit and give the goblins some XP to spend.

Meanwhile one of the goblin batriders has landed on our roof and killed the peahen we stationed there. Not a great loss, but I'm not going to replace that until we've roofed the place over in any case.

 

[AsdfeZxcas]

M..m..my peahen....

THEY SHALL PAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

 

[Gen. Skobelev]

Is the 0-child policy (decreed by Politburo, no doubt) due to lack of resources or would more slave... dwarves make the game too slow without contributing much to it? And I suppose reversing the policy is fast and easy enough so it won't endanger the survivability of community.

 

[randakar]

Is the 0-child policy (decreed by Politburo, no doubt) due to lack of resources or would more slave... dwarves make the game too slow without contributing much to it? And I suppose reversing the policy is fast and easy enough so it won't endanger the survivability of community.

It's mostly the latter. Having lots of animals children and whatnot on the map will cause the FPS to degrade, especially during large invasions. Putting caps on that leaves more room for other things, like large pieces of machinery, to eat your FPS ;-)

 

[blue emu]

When you eventually replace the Peahen, you might want to rebuild that small section of the roof as an IWACS (Intruder Warning Avian Containment System). You can use Windows or Gem Windows instead of Fortifications, put a 1x1 pasture inside (and make sure that there is only a 1x1 walkable floor inside anyway, so the Peahen can never leave the pasture) and roof it over, with a hatch on top to "reload" the IWACS in case the Peahen dies somehow (old age, poisonous vapors, etc).

 

[randakar]

Good idea. I'll put that on the todo list.
This was the quick and dirty solution and has a lot of flaws (such as being exposed to the open air ;-) ).

 

[randakar]

I'm looking at military equipment this morning. A lot of the injuries in previous battles were caused by hits on the hands, lower arms and feet, because the dwarves in question were not wearing protection even though their assigned equipment explicitly asks them to put stuff on those body parts. In fact, looking through the military, *none* of the military dwarves is wearing gauntlets, for instance.

So I've been trying to figure out why my dwarves only wear parts of their armor, and I think I now know why:

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Armor#Size.2C_Permit.2C_and_layering_armor

This .. is complex. To put it mildly.

But the salient quite is this:

In fortress mode, "under" layers cannot be put on over "over" layers, so, for instance, a dwarf cannot put on socks unless it first removes its shoes. They can wear over layers without putting an under layer on first, which explains their fondness for "going commando" (trousers without loincloth). Dwarves will only put on the specific armor they are told to put on -- unless they are not told what to wear.

Also, if you do not tell dwarves to replace clothing with a uniform, they will wear it alongside the uniform and possibly come into conflict with layering and sizes/permits, making them unable to wear assigned items.

Right. So in order to fix this, I'm going to order these guys to replace their clothing with the uniform. And I guess I should make their uniforms a bit more complete by adding things like underwear to them.
This will be a timesink (of course) but hopefully well worth it.

 

[madchemist]

This looks interesting. Mind if I have my very own dwarf to die a horrible and agonizing death?

 

[randakar]

This looks interesting. Mind if I have my very own dwarf to die a horrible and agonizing death?

I would absolutely not mind at all

Would you like to be an axedwarf, a mining soldier (which is much more dangerous than it sounds because these guys tend to be send into all of the nasty fights), a marksdwarf, or some type non-combatant?
Note that my long term plan is to eventually put every single dwarf into the military (except perhaps Duke Blue Emu and useless nobs of similar rank) so even if you choose somebody who is not a soldier odds are you'll become one at one stage or other.

edit: I've set the squads to 'replace their clothing' with their uniforms. Immediately about 12 soldiers which I had stationed in the barracks get the 'pickup equipment' task. Good.

 

[madchemist]

Absolutely not.
Would you like to be an axedwarf, a mining soldier (which is much more dangerous than it sounds because these guys tend to be send into all of the nasty fights), a marksdwarf, or some type non-combatant?
Note that my long term plan is to eventually put every single dwarf into the military (except perhaps Duke Blue Emu and useless nobs of similar rank) so even if you choose somebody who is not a soldier odds are you'll become one at one stage or other.

I'll go with a mining soldier. Multitasking is good.

 

[EUROO7]

Who says shameless advertising doesn't work?

 

[Falc]

This is one of the main issues I have with these sorts of games. Dwarves are too braindead to put on proper clothes but are independent enough to make stupid mistakes like running outside to pick up a valuable piece of clothing in the middle of a siege.

 

[randakar]

This is one of the main issues I have with these sorts of games. Dwarves are too braindead to put on proper clothes but are independent enough to make stupid mistakes like running outside to pick up a valuable piece of clothing in the middle of a siege.

If you use burrows to restrict your civilians to non-dangerous areas only during sieges then that won't happen. Unless you screw up the burrow or forget to turn on the alert it's tied to, at least.. ;-)

This game has a *lot* of depth to it. Most problems can be avoided, once you know how things work.
Not everything, though. Ambushers are a pain, dwarves going insane due to moods requiring materials you don't have is nigh unavoidable, and if that necromancer ever shows up himself we're in for a *lot* of fun because the ground level map has corpses and body parts all over the place.

 

[randakar]

I'll go with a mining soldier. Multitasking is good.

Very well. That makes you the 6th and last dwarf in the mining squad to recieve a nickname:

Aside from a Talented Miner and the stuff listed here, you're also a Proficient crutchwalker, have a few (rusty) farming skills, and a bunch of social skills on 'dabbling' level.
The crutchwalking thing is a result from a goblin hammerlord breaking your foot during a fight some updates back. (Your former name was "Likot Lisedurist".)
The foot has healed completely, though, so you're probably going to get a bit rusty with that skill.

I have also enabled the alchemy skill on you, because of obvious.
Though I'm sad to say right now that skill does absolutely nothing.

Who says shameless advertising doesn't work?

I sure don't

As an aside, since my imgur account only allows me to have 250 public images, the earlier updates may start losing their images at some stage. If anyone notices that, please holler, so I can arrange an account upgrade.

 

[randakar]

Our refuge incineration room is as of now fully operational. The lever to flood the place has been pulled, and has an immediate effect:

Once that has filled up I will order the outer lever pulled, which will cause molten lava to pour through the floodgates, out onto the hillside, and onto the beardless heads of our goblin enemies.
That ngebzo guy is in for a surprise

Those doors in the screenshots are basalt (magma-proof), set to forbidden, tightly closed, and internal. That should stop any dwarves from waltzing through them. I've also removed the "inside" burrow designation from that room to make triple sure nobody goes into it.
Finally, there is another door on the upper level barring passage to the secondary entrance to that room. Again: Tightly closed, passage forbidden.

 

[randakar]

Lava flooding things is still slow. Also, because of all the hauling jobs, the fact that I've scheduled our militia to train even during DEFCON1 alert status, and the fact that FPS is down to 30-40 ish or so because of the siege everything seems to take forever to complete.

In the meantime, I've ordered the construction of a lead floor at the bottom of the dodge' em trap, to increase it's effectiveness.
That actually goes rather quickly - apparently our smiths aren't too busy at all. (Though I've given them plenty of stuff to craft ..)

One of our children, one Domas Onthob, has been taken by a fey mood. He will either construct an Artifact, or die trying.
Since he's a kid we have no control over his job list and he lacks experience with any of the moodable skills. So what he will try to make is probably made in a craftsdwarf's workshop.
There is no surprise there, though - he is only two years old ..

edit: Yep, he's claimed a craftsdwarfs' workshop.
edit2: .. and he's begun his work. Good. That means he managed to get all of the materials, so he won't be going insane.

 

[randakar]

The goblin siege force has left the map without warning. I'm opening our trade depot doors now, and lifting the alerts.

Edit: We have a new artifact: Koshtob Uzar Nicat, Slaughtersgirders the Grotto of Chains, a jabberer bone chest.

This is a jabberer bone chest. All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality.
It is encrusted with oval cinnabor cabochons, decorated with llama wool and encircled with bands of jabberer bone and giant cave spider silk.
This object is adorned with hanging rings of lead and menaces with spikes of elk bird bone and prase.
On the item is an image of pines in donkey bone.
On the item is an image of dwarves in purple spinel. The dwarves are traveling.
The artwork relates to the foundation of Bloodycarnage the Horror of Slaughter by The Hopeful Fool of the Empire-Girder of Thorns in the early spring of 137.
On the item is an image of Eshtán Wheelweights the raw adamantine amulet in bronze zircon.