Aquifers sound like way too much hassle for my lazy self, so I've avoided them like the plague. Why not just settle somewhere without one?
I've finally managed to keep a fortress running for more than a few seasons, up to 86 (was 88) dorfs now. I've even struck some adamantine, praise the miners! However, there seems to be a distinct lack of bad dudes. I've had a number of goblin ambushers, but nothing that's really tested my squad of legendary axedwarves. Although one has been laid up in hospital with a busted toe for a season or two now. I think euthanasia might be the only option at this point...
I'm 3 or 4 years in now, and have had all 3 layers of caves open for most of the last two, should I be expecting mega beasts imminently?
dig down a few levels, make a huge room. put some food stockpiles in it, and load them up, then remove the stockpile tiles. dig a route to the surface from this room, barred by a door.
Put all your cats in the room.
seal it up.
When your invaded by a legendary beast, open the door leading to the surface. See how it likes hundreds of cats and kittens attacking it!
So this is where dorf Leader Buttcleft decided he'd stop our wagon... Somwehere between a desert and a forrest.
Nothing higher than an ant hill for miles... days.
/facepalm
So we get our assigned tasks...
Lots of mining and tree felling the first three months... and we cleared out most of the area for the farms... should have that finished by Mid summer. Waiting on a lever to be hooked up to the floodgate. Then the farmers can go nuts and I can work on mining out the rest of the home.
What task do I need to set in order to have this dragon corpse butchered?
You need a Butcher's workshop and a dwarf with Butchering set. In addition, you may need for the corpse to be in a refuse stockpile; try designating a one-tile refuse stockpile directly under the corpse. If that doesn't do the trick, make another refuse stockpile near the butcher's shop and adjust the settings to forbid the Item Types and Body Parts categories (leaving just Corpses), then set it to take items from the stockpile under the dragon's corpse.
Aquifers sound like way too much hassle for my lazy self, so I've avoided them like the plague. Why not just settle somewhere without one?
I like a challenge. I've had multiple 100+ dwarf forts and have only had two forts fail. I have a few patients awaiting water in the hospital as well. The water that I have is apparently salt water, but I am 98% finished with my wood wall/floor cistern/fishing hole.
For those that don't know, pumping salt water will desalinate the water into fresh water, as long as it is pumped into a constructed wall/floor area. If the water touches a natural rock/sand/etc wall/floor that has been dug out, it will turn back into salt water.
My embark spot is a volcano/mountain that is an island. Volcano Island yo.
So this is where dorf Leader Buttcleft decided he'd stop our wagon... Somwehere between a desert and a forrest.
Nothing higher than an ant hill for miles... days.
/facepalm
So we get our assigned tasks...
Lots of mining and tree felling the first three months... and we cleared out most of the area for the farms... should have that finished by Mid summer. Waiting on a lever to be hooked up to the floodgate. Then the farmers can go nuts and I can work on mining out the rest of the home.-
The bustling community of Blazewaters, home to some 46 dwarfs and dwarfen children was subject to not 1 but 2 goblin ambushes at nearly the same time. One an ambush of axegoblins, the other of crossbow goblins.
Now only four dwarfs remain, one of which never left his bed as he had a previous injury from a Giant Olm. So three functional dwarfs are alive.
The majority of the tamed animals were all cut down as well.
The blood covers nearly 7 levels of the Fortress.
I had a rather ill-equiped Squad that was cut down rather quickly. Looking at the reports, they were cut down by bolts mostly.
I suppose I should look into building better defenses next time, that was just a slaughter.
Can I be dwarfed as that one dwarf (you know, that one) that refuses to stay inside during a siege when you got your defenses and traps all set up no matter what and gets killed, then other dwarves run out to get his corpse and then your population goes from 80 to 12
I apparently have an aquifier or a map wide river 4 z-levels down. I have tried dropping a few squares of each layer above into the water to fill it up, but the collapse doesn't fill the plug that I created. I channeled out a square, and then mimic'd that square up a few z-levels, then channeled the top one off and let it collapse all the way down.
Didn't work. I tried a pumping scenerio where I pumped and attempted to dig down while the water was low right next to the pump. Also didn't work.
What are your favorite ways to get past the underground sea?
I feel your pain, my brother. I ran into the same thing trying to get through an aquifer. I tried the cave-in method and could never get it to work. Questions about it on various forums usually went like this:
"I'm trying to get past this aquifer using the cave-in method, and it's not working. Any tips?"
"Are you sure you're doing it exactly like it says on the wiki?"
"Yep."
"Dunno, man. It always works for me."
I finally got it to work a time or two, but frustratingly enough, I'm not sure what I did differently between the times it worked and the times it didn't.
My best suggestions (which you may already be implementing):
Make sure the hole you're trying to plug is at least 3x3. If it's 2x2, it won't work.
Make sure you're dropping whole tiles and not just floors.
Make sure you're dropping at least 2 z-levels into it. If you can do 3 z-levels, that's probably even better.
Good luck.
Extreme Unction on
Have you found yourself reading Dwarf Fortress threads and thinking to yourself "Gosh! I would love to play this game! But the default ASCII graphics make me want to claw my eyes out and pour quartic ammonia into the bloody, empty sockets!"?
Is there any way to check the layers on my map now that I'm already in the game?
See what kinda rock you've got the most of, and check the DF wiki to see what layers they show up in.
Extreme Unction on
Have you found yourself reading Dwarf Fortress threads and thinking to yourself "Gosh! I would love to play this game! But the default ASCII graphics make me want to claw my eyes out and pour quartic ammonia into the bloody, empty sockets!"?
I apparently have an aquifier or a map wide river 4 z-levels down. I have tried dropping a few squares of each layer above into the water to fill it up, but the collapse doesn't fill the plug that I created. I channeled out a square, and then mimic'd that square up a few z-levels, then channeled the top one off and let it collapse all the way down.
Didn't work. I tried a pumping scenerio where I pumped and attempted to dig down while the water was low right next to the pump. Also didn't work.
What are your favorite ways to get past the underground sea?
I feel your pain, my brother. I ran into the same thing trying to get through an aquifer. I tried the cave-in method and could never get it to work. Questions about it on various forums usually went like this:
"I'm trying to get past this aquifer using the cave-in method, and it's not working. Any tips?"
"Are you sure you're doing it exactly like it says on the wiki?"
"Yep."
"Dunno, man. It always works for me."
I finally got it to work a time or two, but frustratingly enough, I'm not sure what I did differently between the times it worked and the times it didn't.
My best suggestions (which you may already be implementing):
Make sure the hole you're trying to plug is at least 3x3. If it's 2x2, it won't work.
Make sure you're dropping whole tiles and not just floors.
Make sure you're dropping at least 2 z-levels into it. If you can do 3 z-levels, that's probably even better.
Good luck.
Any chance it will freeze in the winter? that at least would give you time to maybe boar through the bad level and wall off everything around the stairs.
Bummer, looks like my mountain doesn't go above the igneous layers at all. No coal for me?
Coal isn't a huge deal if you have a ton of wood to chop.
Otherwise, just request it from the caravan. Or dig for magma. There are always solutions!
I do have a ton of wood to chop.
I just remember back in the days of 2-D (the last time I dabbled in Dwarf Fortress) it was a cardinal sin to use wood for charcoal. I'm finding that my heavily forested map is regrowing trees pretty steadily, so I guess I shouldn't worry about it!
Bummer, looks like my mountain doesn't go above the igneous layers at all. No coal for me?
Coal isn't a huge deal if you have a ton of wood to chop.
Otherwise, just request it from the caravan. Or dig for magma. There are always solutions!
I do have a ton of wood to chop.
I just remember back in the days of 2-D (the last time I dabbled in Dwarf Fortress) it was a cardinal sin to use wood for charcoal. I'm finding that my heavily forested map is regrowing trees pretty steadily, so I guess I shouldn't worry about it!
You're a lot safer now because wood is much more plentiful. You'll find it when you hit caverns, merchants start to bring tons of it, you don't have to worry too much about having plenty of wood.
I apparently have an aquifier or a map wide river 4 z-levels down. I have tried dropping a few squares of each layer above into the water to fill it up, but the collapse doesn't fill the plug that I created. I channeled out a square, and then mimic'd that square up a few z-levels, then channeled the top one off and let it collapse all the way down.
Didn't work. I tried a pumping scenerio where I pumped and attempted to dig down while the water was low right next to the pump. Also didn't work.
What are your favorite ways to get past the underground sea?
I feel your pain, my brother. I ran into the same thing trying to get through an aquifer. I tried the cave-in method and could never get it to work. Questions about it on various forums usually went like this:
"I'm trying to get past this aquifer using the cave-in method, and it's not working. Any tips?"
"Are you sure you're doing it exactly like it says on the wiki?"
"Yep."
"Dunno, man. It always works for me."
I finally got it to work a time or two, but frustratingly enough, I'm not sure what I did differently between the times it worked and the times it didn't.
My best suggestions (which you may already be implementing):
Make sure the hole you're trying to plug is at least 3x3. If it's 2x2, it won't work.
Make sure you're dropping whole tiles and not just floors.
Make sure you're dropping at least 2 z-levels into it. If you can do 3 z-levels, that's probably even better.
Good luck.
Any chance it will freeze in the winter? that at least would give you time to maybe boar through the bad level and wall off everything around the stairs.
I've already gotten through winter, no freezing. Hot biome. You may be thinking of the map I abandoned with the freezing ocean.
I was indeed collapsing dug out floors!! So how do I go about dropping undug squares? channel out a square AROUND undug area? Hrm. Might work. Crazy enough it might just work!!! lol
So, if my best-trained-and-equipped squad of axedwarves killed a dragon with no losses (only two of ten even got to it before it died) should I be safe to dig for some caverns?
So, if my best-trained-and-equipped squad of axedwarves killed a dragon with no losses (only two of ten even got to it before it died) should I be safe to dig for some caverns?
Boy, I'm just full of questions today.
I generally like to wait until I'm packing some decent grade weaponry and some fairly skilled soldiers before I go cave exploring. Unless the dragon was severally underpowered I'd say it you're safe to do some more exploring.
If "Losing is fun" is the first rule of Dwarf Fortress, the second rule is probably "Ask a ton of questions"
Combat is still pretty random. You should always be wary.
My woodcutter chopped off a trolls leg and killed it in a few swings, when at other times those buggers punch whole squads into bloody pulp.
Ferrus on
I would like to pause for a moment, to talk about my penis.
My penis is like a toddler. A toddler—who is a perfectly normal size for his age—on a long road trip to what he thinks is Disney World. My penis is excited because he hasn’t been to Disney World in a long, long time, but remembers a time when he used to go every day. So now the penis toddler is constantly fidgeting, whining “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How about now? Now? How about... now?”
And Disney World is nowhere in sight.
No, the second rule is implement every idea that pops into your head, and when it fails, make a hilarious forum post about the consequences.
edit - such as:
I had a fort going yesterday where I did a 70 floor deep staircase to get to the magma. In the process of this, I tapped into the roof of an underground cave. Didn't think much about this early on, and let it sit. Even had a forgotten beast show up who was unable to do anything because he couldn't reach the hole in the floor where my staircase was.
Fast forward a couple years, and a second forgotten beast shows up. "Eh, he can't get to me." He was pretty far away from my staircase so I ignored him too. A year later, he wanders directly under my staircase, and reveals to me that he has wings. Dude flies up into my fort and starts slaughtering everything. I had a backup plan for this event, three nearly completed walls that would seal my fort off from the underground. Except when I un-suspended the construction, the beast showed up and killed all my masons.
Five minutes later, everyone's dead! Beast had a bruised foot, and he's a little tired. Otherwise perfectly healthy.
Update on Sazir Mafoloddom, Working Mom, now known as Super Mom:
I had my main axedwarf squad, with giant war eagles, waiting for the Mountain Titan that was attacking my fortress, with the police force (including said working mom/captain of the guard) standing behind them ready to sacrifice themselves in a glorious last stand if the axedwarves fail.
What does Sazir do? She charges past the axedwarves and war eagles and engages the titan in a duel to the death, managing to dodge all of its attacks while still holding her two babies. A lot of hacking and wound-twisting follows, after which the titan is literally in pieces while Sazir and her babies remain unharmed, even if covered in blood. Now she's ecstatic because she "took joy in slaughter".
My favorite part:
It's a true family of warriors. Her hubby is part of the axedwarf squad now too.
Update on Sazir Mafoloddom, Working Mom, now known as Super Mom:
I had my main axedwarf squad, with giant war eagles, waiting for the Mountain Titan that was attacking my fortress, with the police force (including said working mom/captain of the guard) standing behind them ready to sacrifice themselves in a glorious last stand if the axedwarves fail.
What does Sazir do? She charges past the axedwarves and war eagles and engages the titan in a duel to the death, managing to dodge all of its attacks while still holding her two babies. A lot of hacking and wound-twisting follows, after which the titan is literally in pieces while Sazir and her babies remain unharmed, even if covered in blood. Now she's ecstatic because she "took joy in slaughter".
My favorite part:
It's a true family of warriors. Her hubby is part of the axedwarf squad now too.
I've been playing since the 2D days and have never found how to access the detailed battle reports. How do you get them?
Posts
I've finally managed to keep a fortress running for more than a few seasons, up to 86 (was 88) dorfs now. I've even struck some adamantine, praise the miners! However, there seems to be a distinct lack of bad dudes. I've had a number of goblin ambushers, but nothing that's really tested my squad of legendary axedwarves. Although one has been laid up in hospital with a busted toe for a season or two now. I think euthanasia might be the only option at this point...
I'm 3 or 4 years in now, and have had all 3 layers of caves open for most of the last two, should I be expecting mega beasts imminently?
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
dig down a few levels, make a huge room. put some food stockpiles in it, and load them up, then remove the stockpile tiles. dig a route to the surface from this room, barred by a door.
Put all your cats in the room.
seal it up.
When your invaded by a legendary beast, open the door leading to the surface. See how it likes hundreds of cats and kittens attacking it!
Nothing higher than an ant hill for miles... days.
/facepalm
So we get our assigned tasks...
Lots of mining and tree felling the first three months... and we cleared out most of the area for the farms... should have that finished by Mid summer. Waiting on a lever to be hooked up to the floodgate. Then the farmers can go nuts and I can work on mining out the rest of the home.
(Big List of dorfs)
Assigned Neckbeards
Saphier - Miner - Done
SulSeeker - Miner - Done
Buttcleft -Expidition Leader - Done
WaveCutter - Woodworker - Done
Lux782 - Stoneworker - Done
EndlessInfinity - Farmer - Done
Unassigned Neckbeards
Farmer Job
Awating Neckbeards
Ilmmad - Hunter -
SithDrummer - Miner -
Art Vandelay - Architect -
TheKoolEagle - Medical -
Nosalt - Engraver -
Juc - Soap maker -
Firmus - Armory Dorf -
Verdian - Captain Guard -
Marken - Sword Dorf -
MuddBudd - Butcher -
Kris_xk - Dog Dorf? -
Bliss101 - Cheese maker/Milker -
Tiphareth - Female Soldier Dwarf -
You need a Butcher's workshop and a dwarf with Butchering set. In addition, you may need for the corpse to be in a refuse stockpile; try designating a one-tile refuse stockpile directly under the corpse. If that doesn't do the trick, make another refuse stockpile near the butcher's shop and adjust the settings to forbid the Item Types and Body Parts categories (leaving just Corpses), then set it to take items from the stockpile under the dragon's corpse.
I like a challenge. I've had multiple 100+ dwarf forts and have only had two forts fail. I have a few patients awaiting water in the hospital as well. The water that I have is apparently salt water, but I am 98% finished with my wood wall/floor cistern/fishing hole.
For those that don't know, pumping salt water will desalinate the water into fresh water, as long as it is pumped into a constructed wall/floor area. If the water touches a natural rock/sand/etc wall/floor that has been dug out, it will turn back into salt water.
My embark spot is a volcano/mountain that is an island. Volcano Island yo.
I WILL CROWN YOU!
My computer use and advice blog:
http://www.examiner.com/x-41452-Oklahoma-City-Computers-Examiner~topic715649-Computer-Use-and-Assistance
View and comment please! Thanks!
Can I be dwarfed please?
Monarch - Weaponsmith/Armorsmith
I WILL CROWN YOU!
My computer use and advice blog:
http://www.examiner.com/x-41452-Oklahoma-City-Computers-Examiner~topic715649-Computer-Use-and-Assistance
View and comment please! Thanks!
The bustling community of Blazewaters, home to some 46 dwarfs and dwarfen children was subject to not 1 but 2 goblin ambushes at nearly the same time. One an ambush of axegoblins, the other of crossbow goblins.
Now only four dwarfs remain, one of which never left his bed as he had a previous injury from a Giant Olm. So three functional dwarfs are alive.
The majority of the tamed animals were all cut down as well.
The blood covers nearly 7 levels of the Fortress.
I had a rather ill-equiped Squad that was cut down rather quickly. Looking at the reports, they were cut down by bolts mostly.
I suppose I should look into building better defenses next time, that was just a slaughter.
Where's the sedimentary layer?!
are you playing the latest version K? honestly bituimous coal is urrrrrwhere
I'm just digging a huge mine shaft now, maybe I'll find it
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Sedimentary
You might've embarked on a location without one however.
I feel your pain, my brother. I ran into the same thing trying to get through an aquifer. I tried the cave-in method and could never get it to work. Questions about it on various forums usually went like this:
"I'm trying to get past this aquifer using the cave-in method, and it's not working. Any tips?"
"Are you sure you're doing it exactly like it says on the wiki?"
"Yep."
"Dunno, man. It always works for me."
I finally got it to work a time or two, but frustratingly enough, I'm not sure what I did differently between the times it worked and the times it didn't.
My best suggestions (which you may already be implementing):
Good luck.
Well today may be your lucky day...
See what kinda rock you've got the most of, and check the DF wiki to see what layers they show up in.
Well today may be your lucky day...
There was a tool that let you do that in 40d, but not sure if there is one yet for 2010.
Any chance it will freeze in the winter? that at least would give you time to maybe boar through the bad level and wall off everything around the stairs.
but yes... the above ground portion is going to have some glass bunkers, watchtowers and whatnot.
Autumn is posted here
Edit: 19 days in and another 8 dwarves, total of 24 now.
Saphier - Miner - Done
SulSeeker - Miner - Done
Buttcleft -Expidition Leader - Done
WaveCutter - Woodworker - Done
Lux782 - Stoneworker - Done
EndlessInfinity - Farmer - Done
Nosalt - Engraver - Done
MuddBudd - Butcher/brewer - Done
Unassigned Neckbeards
Farmerx2
Bowyer
Fisherman
Milker
Siege Operator
Peasant
Awating Neckbeards
Ilmmad - Hunter -
SithDrummer - Miner -
Art Vandelay - Architect -
TheKoolEagle - Medical -
Juc - Soap maker -
Firmus - Armory Dorf -
Verdian - Captain Guard -
Marken - Sword Dorf -
Kris_xk - Dog Dorf? -
Bliss101 - Cheese maker/Milker -
Tiphareth - Female Soldier Dwarf -
Monarch - Weaponsmith/Armorsmith -
override367 - Bait Dorf -
Coal isn't a huge deal if you have a ton of wood to chop.
Otherwise, just request it from the caravan. Or dig for magma. There are always solutions!
But....you have a ton of trees waiting to be cut down.
I suppose if you don't have a glass maker or bags then it's kind of pointless.
I do have a ton of wood to chop.
I just remember back in the days of 2-D (the last time I dabbled in Dwarf Fortress) it was a cardinal sin to use wood for charcoal. I'm finding that my heavily forested map is regrowing trees pretty steadily, so I guess I shouldn't worry about it!
You're a lot safer now because wood is much more plentiful. You'll find it when you hit caverns, merchants start to bring tons of it, you don't have to worry too much about having plenty of wood.
I've already gotten through winter, no freezing. Hot biome. You may be thinking of the map I abandoned with the freezing ocean.
I was indeed collapsing dug out floors!! So how do I go about dropping undug squares? channel out a square AROUND undug area? Hrm. Might work. Crazy enough it might just work!!! lol
I WILL CROWN YOU!
My computer use and advice blog:
http://www.examiner.com/x-41452-Oklahoma-City-Computers-Examiner~topic715649-Computer-Use-and-Assistance
View and comment please! Thanks!
Boy, I'm just full of questions today.
I generally like to wait until I'm packing some decent grade weaponry and some fairly skilled soldiers before I go cave exploring. Unless the dragon was severally underpowered I'd say it you're safe to do some more exploring.
If "Losing is fun" is the first rule of Dwarf Fortress, the second rule is probably "Ask a ton of questions"
My woodcutter chopped off a trolls leg and killed it in a few swings, when at other times those buggers punch whole squads into bloody pulp.
And Disney World is nowhere in sight.
edit - such as:
I had a fort going yesterday where I did a 70 floor deep staircase to get to the magma. In the process of this, I tapped into the roof of an underground cave. Didn't think much about this early on, and let it sit. Even had a forgotten beast show up who was unable to do anything because he couldn't reach the hole in the floor where my staircase was.
Fast forward a couple years, and a second forgotten beast shows up. "Eh, he can't get to me." He was pretty far away from my staircase so I ignored him too. A year later, he wanders directly under my staircase, and reveals to me that he has wings. Dude flies up into my fort and starts slaughtering everything. I had a backup plan for this event, three nearly completed walls that would seal my fort off from the underground. Except when I un-suspended the construction, the beast showed up and killed all my masons.
Five minutes later, everyone's dead! Beast had a bruised foot, and he's a little tired. Otherwise perfectly healthy.
It's okay, that fort was getting dull.
I think bronze is the best grade material I'm going to be able to wring out of this map, so I'm not going to wait for anything better.
Don't we all, man.
I had my main axedwarf squad, with giant war eagles, waiting for the Mountain Titan that was attacking my fortress, with the police force (including said working mom/captain of the guard) standing behind them ready to sacrifice themselves in a glorious last stand if the axedwarves fail.
What does Sazir do? She charges past the axedwarves and war eagles and engages the titan in a duel to the death, managing to dodge all of its attacks while still holding her two babies. A lot of hacking and wound-twisting follows, after which the titan is literally in pieces while Sazir and her babies remain unharmed, even if covered in blood. Now she's ecstatic because she "took joy in slaughter".
My favorite part:
It's a true family of warriors. Her hubby is part of the axedwarf squad now too.
I've been playing since the 2D days and have never found how to access the detailed battle reports. How do you get them?