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Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: IronBeer on January 03, 2013, 05:35:28 pm

Title: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on January 03, 2013, 05:35:28 pm: As promised, I finally have gotten around to starting the HLP Dwarf Fortress! Not going to waste a whole lot of time with introductions, I'll just get right to the first-session recap. Also, to keep things clean, please submit join requests here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83219.0).

(https://i.imgur.com/V6XtTn4.png)
"If you want to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe." -Arthur C. Clarke
Indeed! For those who aren't aware, Dwarf Fortress isn't simply a highly-detailed ASCII simulation of little bearded men living under a mountain and digging for gold, it is first a fairly-detailed world simulator. The first step of any playthrough is to create a world that your fortress will exist in, and often be impacted by.

(https://i.imgur.com/N7mFR2T.png)
I'm not going to bother with an "advanced-parameter" world generation procedure, but the addition of quick presets to the default creation option were a nice touch. To give our world some serious gravitas, I'm choosing to run a large world for a very long time. Develop a nice long history and all that. And, while this doesn't directly impact the final choice of site, I'm bumping the natural savagery and resource presence just a bit, in accordance with the group's general consensus.

(https://i.imgur.com/i50qNy8.png)
In the beginning, the world was unformed... then suddenly there were changes in elevation, temperature was set, the rivers ran for the first time, lakes were formed, and the minerals were seeded for the inheriting life. Yeah, this part took quite a while. Guess there were a lot of minerals to seed... oh, wait.

(https://i.imgur.com/apfKpwd.png)
And here I thought the mineral seeding took a while. Good grief, I now remember why I do an "advanced parameter" worldgen, so I can cap the number of simulated people running around and doing stuff. "Very Long" history means 1,050 years' worth of history, and even with my very powerful rig, that much time with that many historical figures took well over half an hour to simulate.

(https://i.imgur.com/7dfIvHz.png)
Finally, with the world creation and the initial history done, we can finally select a location to settle. Hrm. A quick look at the world map and some deeper scanning indicates that there aren't any truly dangerous evil biomes to try and settle. Best I can do is a fairly wild and evil desert that borders some mountains. The cursors decided to flake out on me when I took this screengrab, but on the Region Map, we are near the middle of that screen, east-northeast of the central omega symbol (which represents another Dwarven stronghold). The home region of our parent civilization, The Heroic Ring, is indicated on the World Map by the cluster of blue omega symbols. Suffice to say, we are pretty far from home, though we aren't too far from Dwarven civilization.

I guess this is as good a time as any for a quick word about the world map, and the symbols it uses. To my eyes, the ASCII characters are actually quite a relief, compared to more rudimentary games like ADOM and DoomRL (yes, that's a thing. Look it up, it kicks ass). But I suppose an orientation is in order. Let's work off of the Region Map screen seen in the screenie above. Wavy lines represent deserts, the color of which usually indicates the color of the sand, but in this case, the purple indicates an Evil biome. Close-packed green arrows represent forests and woodlands, which are quite far from our site. Green quotemarks signify flat grasslands, the various sizes of upside-down U's indicate rolling hills, and the grey triangles are mountains. Dwarves like mountains, and I'll go ahead and stop there. Generally, you can quickly pick up the symbolic/color system even with just a few minutes of scanning around.

Also, the worldgen function has a really cool feature that lets you export the entirety of the world map at the zoom level of the Region Map screen. Why did I phrase the "zoom level" malarkey like that? Well, you see- each tile on the World Map represents the most common terrain feature for a pretty large block of Region Map tiles. The Region Map is a little different- the entire area of a Local Map is contained within a single Region Map tile, and we're only settling a 5x5 block of Local Map tiles, which itself represents a roughly 200x200 (I don't recall the exact conversion) area of individual game area tiles. The world is really, REALLY big, is what I'm getting at, and I've made a full-scale exported bitmap of the World Map available for download HERE (http://www.mediafire.com/?nfn40150iiqptv1), if you're really interested.

(https://i.imgur.com/1aduPzZ.png)
Geezalo, ok, with all that out of the way, we can get back to playing and planning. Upon choosing to Embark at this location, we now get to choose the initial skills for our Starting Seven, and our initial load of equipment. Both skills and equipment count against the same point total, but skills are generally a much better investment. Skilled dwarves complete labors more quickly, and (generally) produce higher-quality goods when making things. Also, the physical and mental stats for each starting dwarf is assigned now, and I gotta say, I didn't exactly get a very stellar group of personnel this time around. Most of you are Weak or Quick to Tire, or have issues with Focus. These stats DO matter, so I did what I could to match labors to the most-appropriate candidates. Also, I have no control over gender, so some of you might wind up gender-bent, like TrashMan, who I'm not referring to as a man here. Because Trash's dwarf is a dwarfette. So what's the deal with these job titles you see? As mentioned in the recruitment thread, I'm picky about what skills I take at embark, and this line-up is my standard skillset:

*Doctor: Self-explanatory. Since he doesn't have a regular job, Trash will be responsible for butchery and other miscellaneous tasks.
*Gearsmith: Primarily responsible for building and setting up mechanical stuff, like levers and traps. Also, booze. Brewing is key to running a successful fort, and the two jobs generally won't interfere with each other.
*Fortifier: Mason and Armorer. Patriot's gonna see a lot of early work when we get around to making furniture.
*Plantshaper: Farmer and Carpenter. This pairing isn't ideal, since there's a pretty good demand for early wooden goods, but the combination works, so it stays.
*Warsmith: Weaponsmithing and eventually Siege Engineering. Wat's also not gonna have a whole lot of day-to-day work, but he needs to be good at his real job when I need him. Only the best weapons and heavy equipment will be accepted!
*Digger: Miner, with a variable set of secondary skills. Since Scotty asked, his dwarf has a little training in Gem Cutting.
*Coordinator: Miner, with an administrative/diplomatic secondary skillset. Polpolion will be the unofficial leader and mouthpiece for the fort, at least until you elect a mayor.

(https://i.imgur.com/kqDFnEU.png)
Not much to write home about for the supply list. Initial food, drink, materials, and a few animals. Protrick- it's cheaper to take ore and fuel along and forge tools and weapons onsite than it is to take weapons. However, since I don't know what the embark site will be like, I hedged my bets and took a pick in case we need to get underground in a hurry.

Also, on the embark screen you get to choose the name for your fortress and the name for your merry band of bearded loonies. Cycling through the "random" features on both of those (because hey, Roguelike after all), I settled on "The Mighty Silvers" as the expedition name. And the name of our fortress shall be ... Wallbones.

(https://i.imgur.com/H2cd02w.png)
Embark prep is done, only thing left to do is to get out there and get to work.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZWQR6zb.png)
Here's our first look at what will be our new home, and yes, the little smiley faces represent dwarves. Regarding some other new symbols, the white O's of various sizes are "staring eyeballs", and the pink shapes are "wormy tendrils". The tendrils can move on their own- most unpleasant, but that's what we get for settling in an Evil area. Well, time to get to work- I'm designating the area directly beneath the wagon to be dug out, and all dwarves not digging are to slap up a quick defensive perimeter around the access point in case something nasty comes along.

(https://i.imgur.com/MvcsJNJ.png)
Oh, something nasty comes along, not something we can fight, but mercifully it's not something that's terribly dangerous. We haven't even unloaded the wagon when this nasty, putrid sludge starts falling from the sky like rain. Any dwarves that pass near it immediately start throwing up (this is indicated by the green staining on some tiles). Gross! Time to get indoors.

(https://i.imgur.com/PvBdgkm.png)
Once a quick-and-dirty hideyhole has been established, work that would normally be first priority can now commence. Patriot and Wat start refining our stock of coal, smelting iron ore, and making the rest of our initial tools: another pick (for Scotty), and an axe (so Mongoose can chop down trees, though there aren't many around). While that's going, I have Trash butcher our two pack animals. I do that for 2 reasons: a) extra meat, and some bone crafts, and b) so I don't have to deal with managing pastures in a desert. Large grazing animals need to be assigned an area of grass to graze on. There's very few plants to graze on, and since the nasty sludge hasn't stopped raining down, I'm not sending my dwarves out into that putrid sea. So to the butcher's shop with the draft animals!

(https://i.imgur.com/ZBaPsoD.png)
The sludge is still pouring down. Perhaps it was incorrect to categorize this area as a desert? At any rate, Scotty and Polpolion are digging out a secondary access tunnel. Turns out that a portion of the map is normal, and uncontaminated with the sludge. We shall dig out our main entrance there.

(https://i.imgur.com/O6pdI1N.png)
Lotta things going on here, so I'll explain them one at a time. I had used a bit of our wood supply to put up the (now unnecessary) defensive wall, so I ordered the walls torn down to reclaim the materials. By now most of the desert was coated in that fetid sludge, everybody was puking and nobody was having a good time. It was at this point that a wandering wolverine, in the midst of its own dry heaving, decided this would be a fun time to mess with Patriot. I don't screw around with unfriendly wildlife, and in a stroke of good luck, most of the group was up on the surface (Trash was, somewhat smartly, safe underground carving some bones from the slain pack animals). Dwarves assigned jobs that need tools, like Miners, will always carry their tools with them. Since Scourge and Polpolion were already miserable on the surface and armed, I ordered them to kill the troublesome wolverine. The dispatch it with little fanfare, and Trash hacks up the creature's carcass for some more meat. It was at this point that Scotty started getting a little moody, and who could blame him? Truth be told, the ever-present vile sludge was wearing on everybody's morale, but thankfully surface operations were pretty much done.

(https://i.imgur.com/dAkGvI9.png)
First migrant wave. Just two- a Craftsdwarf and her Tanner husband. I assign Apollo's moniker to the quite-skilled craftsdwarf, and continue developing the fort's infrastructure. As a matter of morale, I had ordered (basic) individual bedrooms dug out and a temporary communal dining area established.

(https://i.imgur.com/HsA2l3R.png)
The next wave came soon after, a very proficient Suturer with some other skills and his Soapmaker wife. While extra dwarfpower is always a good thing, I'd rather have my ducks in a row regarding food and housing before taking on extra population. Looks like the wretched conditions outside are actually working in our favor for now.

(https://i.imgur.com/4HAGiHa.png)
The nasty rains continue. Though there is a small river to the north of our current fort location, it's several levels below us, and it will be tricky to get water all the way to the fort. Fortunately, there is another viable short-term solution for clean water- drain a nearby pond into a cistern. This will provide the fort with a (temporary) supply of water for cleaning wounds, personal hygeine, and (Armok forbid) emergency drink.

(https://i.imgur.com/elqX4kW.png)
Overview of the fort at present. The abbattiore and tannery are off to the side, the central area houses the remaining workshops and stockpiles. The central "fishbone" area is the bedroom clusters- each brown elongated theta is a bed. The area next to the bedrooms is the hospital, which just received its first stocks of thread, gauze, and soap. It still needs splints, crutches and plaster powder, but for now our medical supplies are sufficient. Off on its own is the well- I built it pretty much right beneath the source pools, to minimize water lost in transit.

(https://i.imgur.com/i8vxGJA.png)
And that's all for today.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Colonol Dekker on January 04, 2013, 06:28:46 am: Dekker or Dekkette respectively.

I'd like some sort of military/engineery profession.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on January 04, 2013, 07:36:47 am: I'll uh, throw my name in there
Though I'm not entirely sure where it'll end up. I can barely follow what's going on here
First I've seen something like this, so it's actually pretty interesting
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on January 04, 2013, 08:35:08 am: IronBeer did ask for admin-related stuff like signups to be kept to this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83219.0) thread.

A question: how much "individual management" (for want of a better term) is involved in this game? Like, do you have to cater to the dwarves' individual needs like hunger, thirst a la The Sims, or do you just give them tasks to do and they handle the low-level stuff themselves?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on January 04, 2013, 10:07:59 am: Quote from: CommanderDJ on January 04, 2013, 08:35:08 am
A question: how much "individual management" (for want of a better term) is involved in this game? Like, do you have to cater to the dwarves' individual needs like hunger, thirst a la The Sims, or do you just give them tasks to do and they handle the low-level stuff themselves?
Dwarves are smart enough to feed themselves and keep themselves clean, provided the necessary stuff is available. However they tend not to have the best judgement regarding emergency situations, particularly with hostile creatures.

Regarding jobs, it generally works by the player assigning things that need to be done, like marking an area to be dug out, or submitting an order for a certain number of goods. Dwarves with the proper labors enabled, the right gear, and sufficient materials will then start to work on said orders. The dwarves are pretty much autonomous, the player just does "high-level" management.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Mongoose on January 04, 2013, 06:29:37 pm: I've seen a few Dwarf Fortress LP's before, but I've never managed to get a good handle on the actual game display. Are those shots taken from an overhead perspective, or a cut-away of the underground areas, or some combination of the two?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scotty on January 04, 2013, 08:33:21 pm: Both. The display is a "slice" of the game world at whatever y-level you're looking at, which you can change with the < and > hotkeys (note: that incluces the shift key).
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TwentyPercentCooler on January 05, 2013, 10:58:29 am: I....think I need to try this game. The potential for drunken, dwarven schadenfreude is high!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Thaeris on January 05, 2013, 09:23:53 pm: I was playing an older version for a while, and I still have it (complete with carp of legendary might!). However, it also had a graphics mod, which was much, much more pleasant to look at. However, I really liked your last LP, so please continue. :D
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Pred the Penguin on January 05, 2013, 10:37:51 pm: I've never been able to get into Dwarf Fortress because of the graphics. What kind of mod did you use?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Patriot on January 06, 2013, 07:31:19 am: yay, i get to be a starter dwarf :D
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on January 06, 2013, 08:47:00 am: Quote from: Pred the Penguin on January 05, 2013, 10:37:51 pm
I've never been able to get into Dwarf Fortress because of the graphics. What kind of mod did you use?
phoebus graphics are usually the easiest on the eyes and easiest to figure out.

thos who want to play it in ascii have a whole new level of hell designed for themselves.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on January 06, 2013, 09:02:14 am: I do wonder why no one re-does Dwarf Fortress with proper grahics.

Heck, even something simple, like this would be great:
http://springfiles.com/sites/default/files/images/mac/strategy-and-building/wesnoth-1.6-4_0.jpg
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on January 06, 2013, 09:14:55 am: Phoebus' Graphic set (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57557.0)

Also, this thread is a godsend. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=28829.0)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on January 07, 2013, 04:52:41 am: Quote from: CommanderDJ on January 04, 2013, 08:35:08 am
IronBeer did ask for admin-related stuff like signups to be kept to this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83219.0) thread.

Ah missed that thread... sorry 'bout that.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Kobrar44 on January 07, 2013, 07:09:34 am: Quote from: TrashMan on January 06, 2013, 09:02:14 am
I do wonder why no one re-does Dwarf Fortress with proper grahics.

Lack of graphics is exactly what makes DF so great. You can learn to read symbols pretty fast, and once you do that, you can see where the action happens, but you can't see how it looks like. No ****ty roaring dragons and the stuff like that. It just sprays your screen with '&'s and you know you're f****d. Any kind of graphics would ruin that. Srsly, what's wrong with your imagination, guys?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TwentyPercentCooler on January 07, 2013, 10:23:05 am: Yeah, I kinda like the low-tech feel. Graphics would just turn it into The Sims with dwarves, ale, and lots of rocks.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on January 07, 2013, 12:21:52 pm: Quote from: Kobrar44 on January 07, 2013, 07:09:34 am
Quote from: TrashMan on January 06, 2013, 09:02:14 am
I do wonder why no one re-does Dwarf Fortress with proper grahics.

Lack of graphics is exactly what makes DF so great.

BS.
Gamepaly makes great games great.
And bad graphics is never a plus.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on January 07, 2013, 12:48:10 pm: Here we go again...
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scotty on January 07, 2013, 01:28:02 pm: Quote from: TrashMan on January 07, 2013, 12:21:52 pm
Quote from: Kobrar44 on January 07, 2013, 07:09:34 am
Quote from: TrashMan on January 06, 2013, 09:02:14 am
I do wonder why no one re-does Dwarf Fortress with proper grahics.

Lack of graphics is exactly what makes DF so great.

BS.
Gamepaly makes great games great.
And bad graphics is never a plus.

This is your only warning, Trash. Drop it and don't make a big argument out of it, and it'll be fine.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on January 07, 2013, 03:01:56 pm: Looks like this is a decent time for me to step in as the OP. I'm going to stick with the original ASCII graphics because frankly, I'm more used to interpreting the symbols than I am any of the graphics packs. I'll explain potentially dense screenshots as best I can, and am fully willing to do additional explanation or even annotations if desired or needed.

I love older games- this includes the "bad/crappy graphics" associated with them. The graphics are part of the gaming experience, and particularly with Roguelikes, lets me experience an (faux) ultra-retro style of gaming. I still play the crap out of classic Doom (albeit through a source port) and my only complaint about the original XCOM is the unfriendly UI. The ASCII screengrabs will stay, but I really hope that the style of my presentation won't be a point of contention.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Pred the Penguin on January 07, 2013, 03:43:45 pm: Well, your screens made perfect sense when you explained them. Not being able to play DF myself in ASCII style is just a personal limitation :p. I still think Dwarf Fortress is awesome.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: BritishShivans on January 07, 2013, 05:01:13 pm: I'm amused that people are even starting about this. Bad graphics are acceptable if the gameplay is good enough, but if it looks dog**** is an eyesore, it's time to think about making your game look better so it reaches "passable enough" rather than stay it "horrible eye-hurting abomination".
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on January 07, 2013, 06:02:22 pm: I'd started toying around with DF about a week ago after reading the legendary tale of 'boatmurdered'. It did take a while to adapt to the ASCII characters (still finding myself using the look around tool to learn things), but honestly it took far less time to get used to than I would have guessed -- the character representations were selected very intelligently and are for the most part intuitive, in my opinion anyway. I actually prefer them over any graphics mod. It doesn't strike me as ugly at all, quite the contrary I think it has that old-school videogame charm and is even beautiful. It leaves a lot open for the imagination as well.

But enough of that, of course not everybody wants an ASCII-rendered game and that's why those graphics mods exist in the first place. Let's just have fun with this and see how our Wallbones fortress plays out.
[IT WILL END HORRIBLY, NO DOUBT.] :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on January 08, 2013, 04:31:16 am: Quote from: Scotty on January 07, 2013, 01:28:02 pm
Quote from: TrashMan on January 07, 2013, 12:21:52 pm
BS.
Gameplay makes great games great.
And bad graphics is never a plus.

This is your only warning, Trash. Drop it and don't make a big argument out of it, and it'll be fine.

Wut?
What are you so riled up about?

Meh...whoever wants to ignore graphics is welcome to play FS2 without the SCP goodies.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on January 08, 2013, 06:42:03 am: /me rubs his forehead and exits

Looking forward to the next update, Ironbeer. :yes:
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Colonol Dekker on January 08, 2013, 06:57:02 am: I've no experience with DF at all, not a jot, not one iota...... Not a bit.

How'm i doing in ti?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on January 08, 2013, 07:56:38 am: I'd say that as long as you haven't died in a comicly horrible accident, you're doing fine.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on January 12, 2013, 03:59:06 pm: So as of the end of this session, here's how we are regarding the roster and the requests I've picked up on:

Polpolion- Miner/Administration
Scourge (of Ages)- Tanner
(Cmdr) DeeJay- Mechanic/Brewer
Mongoose- Farmer/Carpenter
Scotty- Miner/Gemworker
Trash(man)- Head physician/chemist
Wat(isname)- Weaponsmithing/Engineering
Kobar(44)- Unassigned, I'll give you a nice Axefighter when I start the military
Apollo- Craftsdwarf
Patriot- Armorer/Mason
(SpardaSon) Dante- Unassigned, you're in the same boat as Kobar
(NGTM-1R) Night- Expendable soapmaker
redsniper- Stonecrafter
(FireSpawn) Spark- Glassmaker
Ghostavo- Miner
Dekker- Siege Engineer
deathfun- Suturer/wound dresser

(https://i.imgur.com/bf44Jr8.png)
And to completely undermine the previous list, here's the old roster at the end of the first session and the beginning of this one. Not much to see here.

(https://i.imgur.com/sXGP2C1.png)
Rackum frackum. Our first outside trade caravan has shown up, and their wagons apparently can't navigate the vast expanses of filth-drenched sand. The remainder of the caravan is on foot and with pack animals, and they at least can reach our depot.

(https://i.imgur.com/47eSwyF.png)
I'm not sure if I ever uploaded a good picture of our front gate, but here's a "caravan access" view of the area. The left side of the screen is the contaminated desert, which apparently counts as impassable terrain to wagons.

(https://i.imgur.com/POS4Jys.png)
Before the caravan arrives, a dwarven diplomat went ahead of them and tracked down Polpolion. One of the responsibilities of being the leader is dealing with foreign envoys, and in this case, negotiating trade agreements. The next few screens will be of that discussion.

(https://i.imgur.com/MgIdhhc.png)
The first phase of the negotiations is to set up import agreements, or "what do we need?". In this case, I made arrangements to import gypsum plaster (a key component of bone-healing casts), a little bit of Raw Crystal Glass, and one other commodity I can't quite recall. We're actually pretty much OK on the self-sufficiency front, so the imports are things we can't get easily. Plaster in particular is really hard to find naturally, and I don't think bone healing can be done too easily without a cast.

(https://i.imgur.com/xHrRbdr.png)
In the midst of the negotiations, the on-foot portion of the caravan shows up. Polpolion is also the trade spokesdwarf, so the merchants will have to wait until he's done doing the whole diplomacy thing with the dwarven rep.

(https://i.imgur.com/hap9AsQ.png)
The "import agreement" simply shows the modified prices for all available commodities. Only commodities which were specifically requested will get their prices jacked up, and the price hike naturally gets worse the more desperately you request something. Hey, a merchant's gotta turn a profit somehow.

(https://i.imgur.com/O6QBqbg.png)
The second half of the negotiation goes a lot more easily. Polpolion will talk with the diplomat to find some stuff that the nearby dwarven stronghold wants.

(https://i.imgur.com/QLqc4ry.png)
We're under no obligation to make any of this, but if we do, we'll make a fat bonus in future trades with our neighbor.

(https://i.imgur.com/S1Omp3A.png)
All-righty then! Diplomat's on his way, and now we can parley with the merchants camped by our front door.

(https://i.imgur.com/ajkLrRl.png)
Right. Trading starts by first designating stuff that you want available for trade. In this case, Trash had made some trinkets from the bones of our slaughtered pack animals. Those crafts probably won't go for a whole lot, but we should be able to get something from the caravan.

(https://i.imgur.com/8pmgRd5.png)
I twiddle my thumbs for a bit as everybody brings the (sizable) number of trinkets to the depot one at a time. Turns out I derped a bit and didn't make any bins for the crafted goods stockpile; goods in a bin can be taken all at once rather than one by one. Oh well. We wait.

(https://i.imgur.com/CwWW7ZR.png)
Somewhat counter-intuitively, trading doesn't really work on some medium. Money generally isn't exchanged, and actual coins make a poor trade good. Rather, goods have a value assigned to them. I'm not going to go into the finer points of value determination, but for a basic treatment: expensive materials (precious metals, gems, etc) and high-quality craftsdwarfship will crank the value of something through the roof. Bone isn't worth a whole lot, and while Trash is a decent bonecarver, her work is anything but legendary. Add in the fact that we simply don't have a lot of shiny stuff laying about for trading, and we hock the pile of bone goods for some extra food and booze.

(https://i.imgur.com/oDaFy5h.png)
Once the trade is complete, the dwarves gather up the goods that are now ours and squirrel them away in the appropriate stockpiles. In the meantime, a few of the dwarves head to the hospital for not-terribly-apparent reasons. Fearing the worst, I shadow deathfun. He staggers into the hospital, puking more than once, and collapses onto the nearest bed. Trash scurries over to diagnose deathfun. Fortunately, it looks like deathfun is simply nauseous, a natural side effect of our location next to an ocean of filth. A few more dwarves take breathers in the hospital and Trash checks most of them. Nobody seems to have any lingering ill effects.

(https://i.imgur.com/eysfiUT.png)
Annoyed at the prior SNAFU with the depot, I begin looking for an alternative location. I find a nice little natural alcove in one of the non-sludged areas. Polpolion and Scotty dig out a nice and even room for the depot, and I direct the rest of the dwarves to build a stone roof over the depot as a defensive measure. This time, wagons should be able to reach the depot. Now, why would I go through all this trouble? It's quite simple- wagons add a LOT of additional commodities to a caravan.

(https://i.imgur.com/Ww9l3lz.png)
Since I'm sure the boys and gals have gotten tired of the rather pitiful sandy initial accommodations, I block out a more permanent living/working area in granite and mica. In the process of digging out the new work hub, one of the miners uncovered a gem deposit. Gems themselves aren't terribly remarkable, but a nodule of emeralds this close to the surface is. This marks Wallbones' first deposit of truly valuable materials. Yay!

(https://i.imgur.com/KRO0Q8A.png)
In the midst of the excavation project and the moving, a couple kobold thieves try to pinch some stuff. The first one manages to get away safely, but the second one isn't so lucky. The kobold gets caught sneaking and tries to flee, but Scourge and redsniper are having none of that and proceed to beat the **** out of the kobold. Redsniper tackles the thief and starts breaking some limbs. Scourge takes advantage of the kobold's compromised position and crushes the unfortunate creature's head with a mighty punch. Scourge gets credit for killing the first true invader of Wallbones, and while it doesn't officially count, redsniper gets an "assist". Bravely done, boys.

(https://i.imgur.com/LHLWTNt.png)
It's not entirely unusual to see dwarves from the starting group develop feelings for each other. At this point we still only have a grand total of 12 citizens, so there isn't a whole lot to do other than socializing. DeeJay and Trash decide to do more than just socialize and get married. Congratulations!

(https://i.imgur.com/dzrn6mB.png)
Aaaand here we go. Migrant wave, a big one this time.

(https://i.imgur.com/mMFR8Qt.png)
This new wave pretty much doubled our current population and gives us a much larger skillbase. All good things, but I'm still sorting out the bedroom situation.

(https://i.imgur.com/Z2EYo5b.png)
Hm. Elf caravan showing up. We don't have any real trade goods to sell, but I do find something. Some of our recent arrivals had the Hunting labor enabled; I disabled that labor because I frankly don't want any dwarves on the surface. Immigrants that arrive with Hunting skill also come with a crossbow and a set of bolts. After a little poking around I find a silver crossbow and a stack of silver bolts. Silver's a crappy material for weapons, but it's got some value. I have the dwarves take the silver stuff and a crummy copper dagger from the late kobold thief to the trade depot. The weapons are traded away for a large supply of logs, which we desperately need.

(https://i.imgur.com/qyhNNkW.png)
I order the logs crafted into barrels and beds, but barrels first. We can't brew booze without an empty food storage vessel, so I (in retrospect, stupidly) prioritize the production of the barrels. This is kinda dumb because beds can only be made from wood, and we now have another 20 dwarves to sleep. Oh yeah, Apollo is now a mother- congratulations!

(https://i.imgur.com/dGZOKhE.png)
What's this- our first Strange Mood? Looks like one of the newcomer bonecrafters just got a big idea. I'm gonna keep close tabs on this guy, just in case he goes nuts for some particular material. Basically, any dwarf can occasionally get into a Strange Mood and attempt to craft a max-quality Artifact. The artifact will generally be an object/material combination related to a high-ranked skill that dwarf has.

(https://i.imgur.com/UVMo3GG.png)
The dwarf will scurry around the fortress, grabbing materials as he goes. He will also claim a workshop, which can sometimes bugger workflow. If the dwarf stalls at the workshop without working on the project or gathering materials, then he wants something that you don't have in stockpiles. Checking the workshop will offer some clues as to what he wants, but he won't outright say for example: "I want some iron bars". At any rate, our bonecrafter has everything he needs and has gotten to work.

(https://i.imgur.com/JEaZ2aS.png)
Aaand here's what he built- a legendary bone hatch cover. Well- it's honestly not that cool, but I can still put it to good use. You'll see how in just a sec.

(https://i.imgur.com/KXyDoiF.png)
Detailed description of the artifact. The names are randomly generated and usually don't have anything to do with the artifact itself. Because expensive stuff is good for morale when dwarves behold it, I order the hatch cover to be set up in the new common room, where the whole population can admire it.

(https://i.imgur.com/fsmkZCE.png)
Night is now a mother as well. Since she has all but expressed a deathwish in the past, this may lead to some !!FUN!! in the future. Also, here we get a good look at the new living and working areas. I'll elaborate starting with the next caption.

(https://i.imgur.com/uCUysGN.png)
The old living areas are pretty much abandoned, but I'll keep the farms and supplementary storage areas there. Here's what we have now: The central area where most of the dwarves are hanging out right now is the common area/dining room. Up from the dining area are individual bedrooms, a lot larger than the old ones, and soon to be furnished as well! The central hallway to nowhere will eventually be part of our last-line defensive strategy, I'll show that off later. The open area to the left of the living area is storage and workshops, and there are some tunnels between the work and rec areas. (see next pic)

(https://i.imgur.com/bpUS1Xs.png)
This is directly below the previous floor. We have the primary food storage area, the kitchens, and some crossunder tunnels. The crossunder tunnels link the working and living areas together. Once again, I'll illustrate the purpose of the crossunder tunnels at a future point. This floor also holds another block of the housing complex- I don't have enough beds to fill out the entire complex at the moment.

(https://i.imgur.com/XBAOt7b.png)
And we'll go ahead and end this long post here. 'Till next time!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on January 13, 2013, 11:21:41 pm: Yeah! That's what you get, ya stinkin' kobold!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on January 14, 2013, 01:53:04 am: Wallbones' first legendary artifact is made of bones.

I like it. :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on January 14, 2013, 02:33:57 am: And I think that artifact is on the wall, too, so now the fortress of Wallbones finally has bones on the wall.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: redsniper on January 14, 2013, 04:13:55 pm: Grabbing kobolds with my right upper arm seems... anatomically improbable. :D
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Mongoose on January 14, 2013, 05:27:50 pm: Headlock. :D
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on January 14, 2013, 05:53:01 pm: Dwarves love WRAAAAASTLING; also punching things in the head so that their skull implodes.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Thaeris on January 14, 2013, 11:20:04 pm: Hmmm, random question:

It may be due to the mod I'm playing with, but is the "all dwarves stay inside" standing order no longer present in this version of DF? When I come under attack, I'd love to pull my followers indoors, but that just doesn't seem to be happening now. Or... do you need to define a burrow first?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on January 15, 2013, 02:50:25 am: Quote from: Thaeris on January 14, 2013, 11:20:04 pm
Hmmm, random question:

It may be due to the mod I'm playing with, but is the "all dwarves stay inside" standing order no longer present in this version of DF? When I come under attack, I'd love to pull my followers indoors, but that just doesn't seem to be happening now. Or... do you need to define a burrow first?
define burrow, go to military screen, create new alert, assign a burrow to that alert and when danger comes, switch the civvies to that one. just remember to switch em back to inactive later.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Colonol Dekker on January 15, 2013, 04:22:13 am: I like my new job.

I can hardly wait to see how i benefiyt the greater good with my new responsibilities!

PS--

Can i have an assistant to do the manual work?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Thaeris on January 15, 2013, 09:27:24 am: Quote from: pecenipicek on January 15, 2013, 02:50:25 am
Quote from: Thaeris on January 14, 2013, 11:20:04 pm
Hmmm, random question:

It may be due to the mod I'm playing with, but is the "all dwarves stay inside" standing order no longer present in this version of DF? When I come under attack, I'd love to pull my followers indoors, but that just doesn't seem to be happening now. Or... do you need to define a burrow first?
define burrow, go to military screen, create new alert, assign a burrow to that alert and when danger comes, switch the civvies to that one. just remember to switch em back to inactive later.

Good Lord, that's a lot of micromanagement, more so than there is already. Is there any reason that old standing order was removed?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on January 15, 2013, 01:44:00 pm: Quote from: Thaeris on January 15, 2013, 09:27:24 am
Quote from: pecenipicek on January 15, 2013, 02:50:25 am
Quote from: Thaeris on January 14, 2013, 11:20:04 pm
Hmmm, random question:

It may be due to the mod I'm playing with, but is the "all dwarves stay inside" standing order no longer present in this version of DF? When I come under attack, I'd love to pull my followers indoors, but that just doesn't seem to be happening now. Or... do you need to define a burrow first?
define burrow, go to military screen, create new alert, assign a burrow to that alert and when danger comes, switch the civvies to that one. just remember to switch em back to inactive later.

Good Lord, that's a lot of micromanagement, more so than there is already. Is there any reason that old standing order was removed?
burrows. its a lot less than the other usual hilarity.

also, its a one and done thing that you set up once and forget about it until invasion time.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on January 18, 2013, 03:27:15 pm: Update! So, picking up from where we left the last session, we had a surplus of migrants, and a deficit of wood for beds. Fortunately, I have a cunning plan to get more wood. Since the surface is pretty much scoured of anything useful...

Somewhere below our fort, there will be at least one "cavern" layer, loaded with underground fungus-shrubs and fungus-trees. And a load of nasty creatures, so we'll need to prepare for potential combat. First priority is to locate the nearest cavern layer, then to make some weapons and armor.

(https://i.imgur.com/ABS7qck.png)
Of course, it's never quite that simple, is it? Oh yay, MORE migrants, and our housing situation is already strained. Actually, it's not that dire, but each dwarf having their own room really helps smooth out shocks to happiness.

(https://i.imgur.com/R64CL55.png)
In preparation for our push into the deep, I order the newly-christened head smith Gortina to produce a set of basic iron gear for our first two military recruits, Dante and Kobar. As requested, these two will get to be axedwarves.

(https://i.imgur.com/tiJ0EwN.png)
Every military needs a barracks to sleep and train in, and an old depleted quarry area is in just the right spot. I slap down some of the few beds I have left, and mark the area as a barracks. Barracks also function as a flophouse for homeless dwarves, and the transient currently hogging one of the beds is one of the new arrivals without a proper room. I built the barracks first because I wanted Dante and Kobar to get a little practice with their gear before trying to chop up some wildlife, but at first they didn't want to do their training-type things. After closer examination, I headdesked upon remembering that I had forgotten to assign the barracks as an available training area. I mark the area, and Wallbones' army of two gets right to training.

(https://i.imgur.com/L0uhnq5.png)
Success! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_VheAwZBuQ) Underground caverns are an interesting thing- they repersent a lot of exposed rock, so I'll generally get a massive influx of potential gems and minerals. There's often an underground water source like a subterranean lake or river, but not this time apparently. Also, and the biggest reason why I need an army, the entirety of the cavern is *not* revealed once the miners punch through. Once I'm ready to actually go into the cavern, Kobar and Dante will recon the area near my chosen entry point.

(https://i.imgur.com/bJu7dMr.png)
Of friggin course. Unsurprisingly I don't have anything to trade away, but I do have a cunning plan. And my plan is a bit better than simply tossing a grenade at a car (holla NGTM-1R and HLP-XCOM).

(https://i.imgur.com/lalEbrZ.png)
Select the primary craftsdwarf's workshop...

(https://i.imgur.com/rJHrJTL.png)
...go into the workshop profile and dial up the minimum skill level. Looking over the skills of my dwarves, I noticed that redsniper and Apollo are very skilled stonecrafters, so I pretty much restrict this workshop just to them. Stonecrafting is basically free money, since just about all forts will produce a lot of extra stone, and having skilled crafters just multiplies the potential profits. Oh, and they work faster too, so I can crank out a run of stone trinkets for these latest traders.

(https://i.imgur.com/kLC5svV.png)
A wave of kobold thieves makes the mistake of sneaking into the fort. There were three in total; the first and third escape the fort with their lives and none of our stuff, but the second kobold... well, he had some trouble.

(https://i.imgur.com/B3z4nGD.png)
Specifically, one of Wallbones' pet dogs. All alone, with no support, the dog ripped apart the invader! Who's a good boy? Huh? YOU ARE! :3

(https://i.imgur.com/v87PfIr.png)
But it wasn't without cost- the dog, Meng Dishgears, got hurt really badly in the fight. If everything in Dwarf Fortress worked properly, an injured animal would need an Animal Caretaker dwarf to patch them back up. Such as things are though, animals can self-heal impressively well. Meng will be limping and pretty messed up for a while, but he should eventually be fine.

Oh, the wound system. For those who don't know- Dwarf Fortress actually uses a surprisingly gritty wound system. Rather than a simple stack of hitpoints, injuries to limbs, bones, and internal organs are tracked seperately, and death occurs from typically fatal injuries: bleeding out, corporal annihilation in some form, decapitation, or otherwise destruction of the brain. A body part in brown has taken minor damage (which can still include bleeding), yellow generally indicates a "break" or some loss of function, cyan indicates functional failure without integrity failure, red indicates a "mangled" part with loss of structural and functional integrity. Parts in dark grey have been severed. Also, not every single part of a creature is listed at first; an uninjured creature usually has just major body parts listed.

(https://i.imgur.com/9UIHLYH.png)
Just about to break into the cavern layer now. You can see the stairs, indicated by "<" for upward stairs, near the center of the screen. I wait on breaking in while I move Dante and Kobar into position on our side of the tunnel. Right after the miners break through, I'll plop some sturdy doors into the opening to keep undersirable elements out.

During all this, I trade away the small pile of stonecrafts that redsniper and Apollo cranked out. In exchange, we bartered for a big pile of wood from the Humans' wagons, a few bars of metal, and some surface booze.

(https://i.imgur.com/mjy8iS2.png)
:mad2: Seriously people, cut this **** out. Ah well, at least it's not a massive wave of useless peasants, like in most of the previous versions.

(https://i.imgur.com/YZ0bGaW.png)
Hey now! Not long after that migrant wave, one of the new dwarves, a clothier, gets a big idea. I quickly have a space excavated, and one of the non-mooded clothiers build the appropriate workshop.

(https://i.imgur.com/kQ8g12E.png)
Unlike Wallbones' previous mood, this guy doesn't get right to gathering. Instead, he's sitting in the shop, showing people these odd sketches, presumably of things he needs. A clothier naturally would want some cloth for his artifact, and I could've sworn we had some...

(https://i.imgur.com/rFVrYAG.png)
...yep. "Oh crap" mode engaged. Apparently silk made from Giant Cave Spiders isn't good enough for this prima donna, nooooo. Apparently this joker needs *plant fiber* cloth. Grump. I've had this happen way too many times, and I don't think I'll be able to get any plant fiber cloth before this guy goes nuts. Oh yeah, the risk of a mooded dwarf- if they can't finish their artifact for whatever reason, they'll go insane. One possible insanity is the Berserk state, which is just what it sounds like. Berserk is BAD; even an out-of-shape, unarmed dwarf can overpower and kill armed fighters. To mitigate that risk, I build most workshops into their own little cubbyholes that I can lock down if the worst comes to pass. I quietly order a door placed in the entry to the shop.

(https://i.imgur.com/L09mf3d.png)
Hmm. Maybe I can salvage this guy's project after all. A dwarven caravan means the potential for some Pig Tail cloth. Pig Tail is one of the dwarves' underground plants, which can be brewed into ale, or spun into thread and cloth. I also wouldn't have enough time to grow any of my own. Here's hoping that caravan can get here soon.

(https://i.imgur.com/kWJvPqe.png)
There's a naked mole dog in the fort! Everybody run for your lives! Soon after the caravan's appearance, some animals managed to get into the fort; Dante and Kobar kill a few wimpy subterranean critters, but a few get through, and apparently a vulture managed to bumble into the farming area. Kobar's been making a much bigger mess than Dante thus far- Kobar was the first dwarf through into the caverns, and earned the first kill of Wallbones' army.

(https://i.imgur.com/xyeOAuz.png)
After securing the lower "backdoor" and remembering to lock the doors, I order traps built in that corridor: weapon traps with automated giant axeblades, and a number of stonefall traps to squash unwanted creatures. I then get Dante and Kobar to kill off the vulture in the fort. The vulture is no threat on its own, but it disrupts the workflow by causing the civilans to run away. Current killcount: Kobar 4, Dante 1, Scourge 1, doggy Meng 1, and redsniper 1/2.

(https://i.imgur.com/1g25qNE.png)
Whoops. Time to lock Mr. Alathlinar in with his failed project. Berserk dwarves can't knock down buildings like doors (thank Armok!) so I'm just going to keep that area locked down until he dies of thirst or starvation. Cruel, but a better move than risking several lives to stop a superdwarvenly strong and tough berserker.

(https://i.imgur.com/H8TXgKP.png)
Seeing as that poor SOB is pretty much a dead dwarf walking, I order the first coffins built. I also located a good spot for Wallbones' Hall of History, the combined burial area and artifact vault. I'll show that off in a later post.

(https://i.imgur.com/RtfLxpS.png)
The caravan arrived right after Mr. Alathlinar lost his ****, so they (naturally) won't be helpful in saving him. I sell off our stock of remaining trinkets, but I notice something on one of the crafts while trading. Crafts can take many forms, in this case, the form of an actual historical figure or deity. There are a lot of deities in any world history, and a metric ****-ton of living historical figures. Craftsdwarves often craft goods that express their personal preferences (or in some cases, grudges!), so perhaps this figurine and others like it tell us something about Trash, hm?

(https://i.imgur.com/a3WqlSW.png)
Congratulations to DeeJay for birthing a lovely girl.

(https://i.imgur.com/UiQWSad.png)
One of the unnamed newbie crafters just had a child too!

(https://i.imgur.com/wwn4410.png)
...and in quick succession, Wallbones' bookkeeper just had a child as well! Did I miss a monstrous party a few months ago or something? Dwarven babies grow into children at 2 years of age, at which they can't be assigned any work per se, but they will help pick crops, and can still have Moods. At... 10 years old (I think) children grow into full-fledged dwarven adults.

(https://i.imgur.com/1AhF7La.png)
I'll end this on a cliffhanger. What will become of the insane crafter? Will Wallbones' greatest threat come from within?
Spoiler:
He's going to die; in fact, he's already critically dehydrated. And.... probably not.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on January 18, 2013, 04:09:00 pm: Quote
deathfun- Suturer/wound dresser

This is surprisingly accurate of how I play games. If I have the ability to run across the map to save someone, I'll stab that teammate with the syringe and get him up on his feet

I am now starting to see how this game functions on a visual level, kinda. Nifty
And ha to the berserker not being able to bust down some flimsy door. You'd think he'd go all "I'M THE JUGGERNAUT *****" and pow his way right through that ****
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on January 18, 2013, 04:24:19 pm: Oh yeah, ****'s getting good now. :)

Do the deities ever make physical appearances, or are they mainly just there for lore? Deity of darkness sounds kind of cool.

Also, is it possible to grow trees and other planty things underground like in Minecraft? I'm kind of doubting it since that seems like too easy of a solution to your shortage of wood and stuff. Freaking malevolent deserts.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Apollo on January 18, 2013, 05:34:42 pm: Wtf how am I a mother?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on January 18, 2013, 06:07:22 pm: Quote from: Apollo on January 18, 2013, 05:34:42 pm
Wtf how am I a mother?

Well, when a man dwarf loves a woman dwarf...
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on January 18, 2013, 06:42:24 pm: Oh, I'm a glass maker? That 'blows' ;7
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Apollo on January 18, 2013, 11:01:54 pm: Quote from: deathfun on January 18, 2013, 06:07:22 pm
Quote from: Apollo on January 18, 2013, 05:34:42 pm
Wtf how am I a mother?
Well, when a man dwarf loves a woman dwarf...

But I'm a man! That **** don't make sense!

IronBeer, did you flip my gender?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on January 18, 2013, 11:05:45 pm: Yeah, and wasn't I married to Trash, who was a female? How did I give birth? o_O
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on January 19, 2013, 02:07:15 am: Quote from: Apollo on January 18, 2013, 11:01:54 pm
But I'm a man! That **** don't make sense!
IronBeer, did you flip my gender?
Technically, *I* didn't flip your gender, but I wanted you to be a useful dwarf in the settlement. So, more directly, you are Fem-pollo, or something along those lines. I can adjust your nick in my next session.

Quote from: CommanderDJ on January 18, 2013, 11:05:45 pm
Yeah, and wasn't I married to Trash, who was a female? How did I give birth? o_O
Trash is in fact, TrashMan. Derp. No weirdness going on here- it just didn't cross my mind to check that amidst the multiple things I was juggling at the time.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on January 19, 2013, 04:35:33 am: I have been womanized!

Oh well.... since I'm a doctor and all, can I try to heal the poor, brave dog?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on January 20, 2013, 10:43:44 am: Now Kobar and Dante. Don't you dare to break that gear I made you.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on January 20, 2013, 01:01:33 pm: Why don't you tell that to the monsters in the caverns? :P
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Patriot on January 20, 2013, 04:36:06 pm: I forget what kind of dwarf i am, and what is happening with me anyways? :(
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on January 21, 2013, 04:23:04 am: Quote from: SpardaSon21 on January 20, 2013, 01:01:33 pm
Why don't you tell that to the monsters in the caverns? :P
Those magnificent examples of craft(wo)manship can dig themselves into any kind of unwanted material (and protect the user from it aswell), but only if handled properly.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on January 21, 2013, 01:37:43 pm: (http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa335/masterdasd/images.jpg)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on January 21, 2013, 04:01:01 pm: Quote from: TrashMan on January 19, 2013, 04:35:33 am
I have been womanized!

Oh well.... since I'm a doctor and all, can I try to heal the poor, brave dog?
Lemme clarify: you were always male. Somehow at embark I got it in my head that your dwarf was female. The naming has since been rectified.

Doctors only patch up other dwarves. The main profession that *should* deal with wounded pets is Animal Caretaker, but that isn't currently working, so animals can simply self-heal at the moment. Perhaps later when the fort has a lot of dead weight, I can ~~arrange some treachery~~ handle some minor accidents so you and deathfun can hone your skills. At present, there's usually a small trickle of citizens heading to the infirmary because of the sludge outside- the sludge apparently causes very minor bleeding in addition to violent nausea. If nothing else, you get to train your Diagnosis skills.

Quote from: Patriot on January 20, 2013, 04:36:06 pm
I forget what kind of dwarf i am, and what is happening with me anyways? :(
First off, you're still alive and well. You were one of the starting seven, an armorsmith/stonemason. Several very skilled smiths have moved into the fortress, so I'm afraid the only smithing you'll be doing is training, and not for a while. That said, you've been very busy turning out stone furniture as part of my ongoing efforts to actually make Wallbones a nice place to live.

It may not be terribly obvious, but I've got a lot of things to juggle. That last session was actually quite short, and things were happening fast. As such, I'm primarily going to comment on individual dwarves as they affect the fort's running and my current goals. However, if anybody's curious as to how they're doing, just ask- I can easily make time to check up on specific citizens.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on January 21, 2013, 04:58:08 pm: Quote
I can arrange some treachery handle some minor accidents so you and deathfun can hone your skills
*Insert maniacal laugh here*
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on January 22, 2013, 03:20:17 am: :drevil: :drevil: :drevil: :drevil: :drevil: :drevil:
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Colonol Dekker on January 22, 2013, 11:17:17 am: Have i done anything useful in this?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on February 13, 2013, 05:39:09 pm: Took a while, but I finally managed to sit down for another session. A lot happened, and quickly, so I'll just dive right in.

(https://i.imgur.com/c7zojcV.png)
Besmar Alathlimar, Clothier, has died of thirst.

Once again, tragic, but necessary. Since death in the fort is not a matter of "if", but rather "when and how", I've already scooped out an area to serve as a graveyard and deep vault. I call it the "hall of history". (I'm trying literal highlighting of points of interest in screencaps. In the absence of dissent, I'mma keep doing this from now on.)

(https://i.imgur.com/cFMuzBN.png)
Not much at the moment, but then again, not a lot of history has happened yet. I've installed a couple of coffins already, they're indicated by ASCII zeroes.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZvJicjl.png)
Rest now, unfortunate soul.

(https://i.imgur.com/JOTGWMs.png)
Expansion to the farming/storage area. Need some safe space to grow wild subsurface plants and wood. Similar to Minecraft, you can indeed grow some plants underground. There are a few differences, though. Plants are divided into surface and subterranean types- where each grows should be obvious, and the distinction goes for trees and "trees" as well. The other difference is that "wild" subsurface plants will start growing on any exposed soil once a cavern layer is opened up. That's where the wierd splashes of color on the sand have been coming from.

(https://i.imgur.com/UmLBML8.png)
Digging out a bigger and better hospital. This position fits better with my overall defensive strategy, and the room will get to be made of good, sturdy stone.

(https://i.imgur.com/nUlcegy.png)
Food is getting a little tight, though not critically so. I direct the chefs to start cooking up some Quarry Bush leaves. Quarry bushes are a type of underground plant that grows from Rock Nuts. Unlike the dwarven staple of Plump Helmets, the bushes cannot be eaten raw, nor can they be brewed. They can however have their leaves isolated, and said leaves can be used in cooking. No detailed descriptions are available, so use your imagination for its appearance.

(https://i.imgur.com/WXg8CR5.png)
Babies!

(https://i.imgur.com/t1MQeXj.png)
Kobar has earned the right to truly be called an Axedwarf. Military dwarves can use any weapon they (or I) please, but their "class" is dictated by their highest weapon proficiency. Newly-inducted fighters count as Recruits until they hit "adequate" in a weapon skill, which actually isn't too high. Still- a start.

(https://i.imgur.com/VYmaTEn.png)
Mo' dwarves, mo' problems.

(https://i.imgur.com/ETaTguM.png)
Indeed "more" problems. Population of 80 is an important milestone- Wallbones is now eligible to come under siege from goblins, ancient beasts, and other such nasties. Time to really prioritize a comprehensive defensive plan. For the moment "lock the doors and wait for the siege to go away" will work fine, but more ..active countermeasures will be necessary at some point.

(https://i.imgur.com/Nqkz1X8.png)
Moar babies... mayhaps I should consider having the brewers mix contraceptives into the boozahol?

(https://i.imgur.com/R3NMlO6.png)
Definitely thinking about it...

(https://i.imgur.com/ppbPbj5.png)
Nothing exceptional here, just assigning more living space to be dug out.

(https://i.imgur.com/FINv9YQ.png)
So, just prior to this image, I got an announcement that somebody's pet duckling had bled to death, but I couldn't find any combat reports indicating violence. So I zoomed to the location of the announcement and saw something that will permanently change the way Wallbones deals with our contaminated surroundings.

(https://i.imgur.com/176ENRL.png)
Simply put, we won't whenever possible. I thought there was something fishy about the steady trickle of dwarves going to the hospital. Turns out the sludge isn't just incredibly stinky, but also mildly flesh-eating. This poor SOB is a new arrival, and the duckling that died was his pet. Sucks to be him, I'm not risking any lives to recover his ducky. This guy actually wound up at Yellow on all body parts before making it back inside.

Whole lotta (http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120623162530/adventuretimewithfinnandjake/images/e/ef/Nope.jpg.jpg) going on outside, if I say so.

(https://i.imgur.com/kATPNea.png)
The true invasion is from within! The tide of babies continues unabated!

(https://i.imgur.com/DkNPLs0.png)
Well, arming up a militia might be tough with no forgeabe metals. Fortunately, I do have a solution.

(https://i.imgur.com/8YiSiuI.png)
I spotted some exposed tetrahedrite deposits on the surface. The mineral is an ore for copper, with a chance of producing silver. Copper is the least-valuable of all forgeable metals, but at least it's some metal Gortina can put between our soldiers and danger.

(https://i.imgur.com/ihRFmA8.png)
/me starts looking up ethanol-soluble contraceptive mixtures...

(https://i.imgur.com/nbTDtgd.png)
Metal's metal. Galena isn't very good stuff- it's primarily an ore of lead, with a chance of producing silver. It isn't totally useless though. Silver can be used for ****ty edged weapons, or deceptively good blunt weapons. Since the fort apparently lacks iron ores, I'll need to use whatver I can find.

(https://i.imgur.com/hrXvCcB.png)
What do you mean "Dwarf-google" isn't a thing? I need to do something to stem this unending tide of babies! (not really, but this seemed a good recurring axe to grind.)

(https://i.imgur.com/andmbYT.png)
Oh, ****. That is all. "Deadly blood" is one of the last things I want to see- combat is necessarily very bloody, and I've heard a lot of horror stories about militas that chop up a beast like this only to find that the blood causes rapid tissue necrosis... What's worse, most of these stories include fighters accidentally spreading the blood all over the fort and infecting a BIG fraction of the fort.

(https://i.imgur.com/YgfPm4v.png)
To make matters worse, I had *just* launched a subsurface wood grab op. I cancel the op, forbid all the chopped wood, and try to herd all my dwarves back into the fort.

(https://i.imgur.com/xmnVDdT.png)
Hah! The beast is foiled by our mighty doors!

(https://i.imgur.com/2g0uhYV.png)
...until it decides to smash them. Perhaps it'll be satisfied with a *little* wanton destruction? /sheepish

(https://i.imgur.com/oMiWbRl.png)
Oh no.

Locking the doors caused all the dwarves to ignore any collectible resources in the caverns. Once that restriction was lifted, some dwarves immediately ran down to get some stuff.

Like Apollo, carrying her youngest child. Apparently getting some cave spider silk was a critical need.

(https://i.imgur.com/vddebwD.png)
Apollo's pretty quick on her feet, even with a baby, so she manages to elude the beast for quite some time. Of course, some good-for-nothing elves show up right in the midst of our chaos.

(https://i.imgur.com/3tSen9K.png)
'Apollo' Akrulnon, Craftsdwarf, has been struck down.
Iden Zinatir, Baby, has been struck down.

You had to know this was coming.

(https://i.imgur.com/mPBUyPD.png)
Predictably, it's not a pretty scene. Apollo is still technically "missing", but I know for a fact she's dead. I reviewed the combat log, and ...well, she's definitely dead.

(https://i.imgur.com/D6Unbum.png)
****! NO!!

A no-name animal trainer decided to take this particular moment to fetch ...something from the cavern. I don't even know what she went after, but she did manage to stall the beast for a while as well.

Rakust Gebarber, Animal Trainer, was struck down.

(https://i.imgur.com/lnpnFG2.png)
Right when I saw the beast break the doors, I ordered my masons to wall over the main staircase. Solid constructions like walls and floors cannot be broken by monsters, thus serving as an impenetrable barrier. In the case of this wall, I almost had to consign TrashMan to death as well. Right when I started the construction, he charged down the stairs to fetch a stone, of all things! This happened right when Rakust was trying to evade the beast.

I waited for TrashMan to complete his task only because he's the sole general doctor in the fort. Armok help me, I truly did wall in poor Rakust and condemned her to death. As with all unpleasant descisions, For the Greater Good.

(https://i.imgur.com/FkSJ9fz.png)
Geez! Can a guy catch a break? No harm, no trouble. These idiots just run off when discovered. Good riddance; they're lucky I don't decide to get vindictive and sic Kobar and Dante on them. At least the Elven caravan lets us top off on wood. Can't ever get enough.

(https://i.imgur.com/yRLAnML.png)
Ah, the master list of dead and missing. This isn't everybody- Apollo's the only figure of import not on here.

[(https://i.imgur.com/d3vxN8X.png)
:mad: GO AWAY! Snatchers are Goblin thieves who try to kidnap children and raise them as their own. Sometimes it's possible to see non-Goblin troops or even squad or siege leaders among a Goblin siege. None of Wallbones' children will do any such thing on my watch! ...the three spotted thieves bolt and run when discovered. No gobbo blood is shed yet.

(https://i.imgur.com/H1wifyQ.png)
Well, at some point, NGTM-1R got elected to be the Mayor of Wallbones. How 'bout that? His appointment makes him the first officical Noble in the fort. Nobles require nicer housing then their "common" peers and get to make Mandates. Mandates can be "make (x) amount of (y)" or "you can't export (y)". Night proves to be reasonable by mandating the production of some bolts, which the fort'll need eventually anyhow.

(https://i.imgur.com/cYKt80G.png)
Migrants. Nothing more, nothing less. Seems like a lot of this game is organizing living and sleeping quarters.

(https://i.imgur.com/PYAI59j.png)
Hey, another mood! Let's hope this guy can actually get what he needs. Possession is special- the possessed dwarf will still produce an artifact, but won't get any job experience for doing so. Still- potential artifact.

(https://i.imgur.com/IMJYUcy.png)
This guy proves to be into smithing of some sort, and I definitely sighed in relief a bit when he actually got to work. In the meantime, I start the development of a secured surface plant farming area. This involves flooring over an outside area, which will still count as "outside" and "light" even though there's a roof now.

(https://i.imgur.com/kcbzgA3.png)
Suddenly out of ****ing nowhere, WEREWARTHOG! He must have been sneaking, because he simply appeared at the work site! ****!

(https://i.imgur.com/Ipw4PkC.png)
That's Patriot, currently getting shredded by the werewarthog.

'Patriot' Dorenlogem, Fortifier, has been slain.

And the carnage only continues as the werewarthog jumps another stonemason!

(https://i.imgur.com/NV0luJz.png)
The militia, which now includes some civilian recruits, arrives just in time to save the other mason. Our uninvited guest takes the shape of a goblin! That's new for me.

(https://i.imgur.com/jnyTr9V.png)
And our army can't get to him as he slips off of the map edge. Goddamnit! Everybody's mad about Patriot's death, but the other mason desperately needs medical help.

(https://i.imgur.com/30xX1D8.png)
Right in the middle of this, our busy smith finishes his creation, a silver cage. Busy at the moment, so I'll post a detailed description of the artifact later.

(https://i.imgur.com/Sgko6Rw.png)
The werewarthog's second victim, Domas Saziruz, is in pretty rough shape. Luckily, he's a tough sum***** (really- he's got the "very tough" trait. Might've saved his life), and TrashMan started working right away. Domas endures surgery, suturing, wound cleaning, dressing application, casts, splints, and winds up needing a crutch while his injuries heal, but he survives. All the while, his faithful pet goose stays by his side.

Another thing in this image I'd like to touch on is the other highlighted area. Dekker and his lovely ladydwarf siege engineer assistant built four mighty ballistas for use in fortress defense. These hallways are organized such that ballista crews will be safe from invader activity and can still fire back.

(https://i.imgur.com/bjMyfby.png)
I'm not quite done with the defensive design, but when all is said and done, an invading army will be forced to walk up through this hallway while getting hammered with titanic ballista bolts. WIP at the moment. My focus is currently on the "backdoor" defenses- the assortment of basic traps barely hurt the invading Forgotten Beast, who is still chilling in Wallbones' "backyard".

(https://i.imgur.com/p8s2CYQ.png)
Gotta stop for now, but we've got our work cut out for us. We will mourn Patriot and Apollo someday, but for now, we must find some way to kill the invading beast without contaminating the fortress. Scourge (who is Apollo's spouse, to remind you) hasn't handled the recent turn of events well, but we're simply not in a position to challenge the beast. Dante and Kobar, even as our two strongest soldiers, likely stand little chance, and our other soldiers lack even weapons! This is now, but I have a plan for later.

Until next time.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on February 13, 2013, 08:40:29 pm: That's a ****ton of babies
And yes! Suturing! Finally!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Apollo on February 13, 2013, 09:08:15 pm: Quote from: IronBeer on February 13, 2013, 05:39:09 pm
'Apollo' Akrulnon, Craftsdwarf, has been struck down.
Iden Zinatir, Baby, has been struck down.

You had to know this was coming.

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! :(
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on February 13, 2013, 11:29:57 pm: Quote from: Apollo on February 13, 2013, 09:08:15 pm
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! :(

Also nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! My baby too!!!!!!!!

/me is blinded by rage and attempts to break down the wall to get at hellbeast

I will avenge youuuuuuuuuu!!! Also the other guy!!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on February 14, 2013, 12:44:50 am: That beast must die. You shall have my axe.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Colonol Dekker on February 14, 2013, 03:18:53 am: I'm hammering away in my battlements...

AND building stuff ;7
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on February 14, 2013, 04:20:41 am: We will mourn for you Apollo, Patriot and babies. :(

I became a virtual dwarven mum! Yay! \o/
But why did I have to cancel Destroying a Building for that? And speaking of which, what the heck was I destroying in the first place? And why?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on February 14, 2013, 09:41:26 pm: /me sheds a tear for the lost mother and baby. Also the poor ducky. :(

And why is our army not fully equipped?! I should be crafting asskicking gear, not sitting on my own ass. D:

/me runs to the forges
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on February 14, 2013, 10:03:42 pm: Time to put down the glass blower, step out of the workshop and get myself fitted for some armour.

I wanna go be An Hero!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on February 15, 2013, 02:23:17 am: Looks like no accidents would be necessary to keep my doctoring skills sharp.

Well, at least I managed to save one dwarf....

But the baby? and ducky?
The Beast ...must...DIEEEEE.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Patriot on February 15, 2013, 08:45:19 am: NO, I DIEDED :(

Can i be a new guy?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on February 19, 2013, 05:48:26 pm: I most make update.

(https://i.imgur.com/aZtYMGL.png)
At some point during the chaos of the earlier update, a human caravan arrived. I trade away a modest pile of low-value gems for some wood, then wave them away with irritation. We've got work to do here!

(https://i.imgur.com/QV8xnhr.png)
Perusing the current military skills of Wallbones' citizens revealed a lot of dwarves with crossbow experience, with one being an Elite Marksdwarf. I quickly organize a second militia squad under the Elite, and hand everybody a weapon and some bolts. Marksdwarves can safely skip on armor if I use them properly, since they should never be getting hit directly.

(https://i.imgur.com/myPsSA4.png)
A quirk of the "new" equipment system requires that marksdwarf squads receive ammo on a per-squad basis, rather than on a per-dwarf basis. At any rate, the whole group is armed and ready to go after a bit of quick forge work by Gortina and some of her assistants.

(https://i.imgur.com/OaINPkt.png)
Makes sense that Kobar would become attached to a shield that's served him well for quite some time. In this case, "attachment" isn't going to be a problem. But if Kobar had become fond of, say, a wooden training axe, then things might be complicated a bit. From what I understand, dwarves with an equipment attachment are difficult to separate from the gear in question, and get a strong unhappy thought from separating.

Also, consider the new staircase hall next to the walled-off staircase. This corridor is important to my cunning plan.

(https://i.imgur.com/hX5jcn5.png)
DeeJay and the other mechanics have begun rigging up an ingenious retracting bridge in the corridor. Beneath the bridge is a shallow trench. Non-flying creatures can't climb out of the trench, so the retracted bridge will safely and controllably bar access to the fort from this corridor.

(https://i.imgur.com/lQSbZyU.png)
As our unstoppable injured mason works on final assembly, let me explain the plan in a little more detail. Wallbones' miners will dig an alternate route to the backdoor tunnels. The forgotten beast is still milling about in our cavern layer, so once a path into the fort is open, it will try and get into the fort. Hopefully, I can retract the bridge before the beast gets in and bar its path. Eventually the beast will get bored and wander back out through the backdoor. Overlooking the area will be the cadre of citizen archers, who will pincushion the beast with no fear of retaliation! If I had a mustache, I'd be twirling it.

Quick aside: bridges can be built as retracting or lifting. Retracting bridges will effectively disappear when retracted, and lifting bridges will form a wall when lifted. Lifting bridges can be weaponized to create a "dwarven atom smasher" or a rather unpredictable catapult-like device.

(https://i.imgur.com/Ihg988T.png)
Handful of migrants. No time to make nice rooms for them or evaluate their skills- we've got a monster to kill!

(https://i.imgur.com/q5mp4t0.png)
During all this prep, I remember that Night had made a Mandate. In a rare example, his mandate and my plans converge.

(https://i.imgur.com/mK4bfWC.png)
I order some copper helms to be built when possible. I'm not bothered by Night's mandate, since I'd need to outfit my melee soldiers with armor and weaponry at some point anyhow.

(https://i.imgur.com/3lOQDvA.png)
Yet another distraction during the battle preparations- one of the Lye Makers has gone Fey. "Fey" is the third kind of Strange Mood, and is functionally the same as a Secretive Mood. The dwarf will gather a bunch of stuff, make something (hopefully) awesome and instantly hit legendary in the skill involved.

(https://i.imgur.com/2cRODtV.png)
Archers are in place. It isn't very apparent from this screencap, but this emplacement overlooks the "backdoor" corridor. I just hope I got the angle right for the archers. If I did, that monster's a pincushion waiting to happen!

Oh, the funny-looking structures up from the archers are Fortifcations. Fortifications can be shot through, fluids can pass through them, but creatures can't get through them. Think of them as crenulations or arrow slits.

(https://i.imgur.com/qzcjOR3.png)
Polpolion prepares to break into a corridor already compromised by the beast. Hopefully, I can get the timing right on this. It might be tricky, since the beast is already a few levels up scratching on the walled-over staircase.

(https://i.imgur.com/YcnfN96.png)
****. ****! Polpolion got away safely, but I underestimated the beast's speed and the bridge retracted just an instant too late. The monster is now in the fort, and we'll have to take it on in melee to win. Here's hoping that we can do it and that its blood isn't horridly toxic.

(https://i.imgur.com/jvIBXVS.png)
Regrettably, the fight isn't very concucive to screencapping, but I'll retell what happened as best I can.

Right after the previous pic, the beast focused its hate on somebody's pet rabbit. The rabbit fled into a nearby community dorm room while I raised the alarm. Kobar's fighter squad rushed to engage the beast and I ordered the civilian marksdwarf squad to double-time it back to the fort.

Kobar, Dante, and three other fighters armed only with bravery were the first to reach the monster. The beast was temporarily focused on tearing apart the bunny, so the fighters got the first blow. Kobar and Dante managed to stay in the whole fight, hacking away with disciplined fury, while their "wrestler" comrades and a few wandering civvies jumped on the beast. Three of the unarmored wrestling dwarves had to be carried off with pretty serious wounds, but Kobar and Dante held the beast at bay, their armor and shields preventing major injuries.

Despite suffering wounds that would have slain a lesser creature several times over and painting half the dorm with its blood, the antlion monster keeps fighting. "Buglike" monsters can withstand incredible injury, feeling no pain, nausea, fear, fatigue, or remorse. The swiftest marksdwarves arrive just in time to finish off the crippled yet still kicking monster, and the kill goes to a random unnamed marksdwarf soldier. I decree that Kobar and Dante are each to be awarded a half-kill on the beast for engaging the monster the whole time.

(https://i.imgur.com/wO0ETlX.png)
The beast is dead! And, more amazingly, we had no further fatalities. TrashMan and the Wallbones Medical Corps quickly patch up the injured dwarves with little trouble.

(https://i.imgur.com/yIgXMpN.png)
And here he is, the lucky dwarf who landed the killshot: Rith Claspwound. He's even got a pretty good name.

As the dust settles from the fight, I take the marksdwarves off of active duty. They'll serve as the "Fortress Guard" and they keep their crossbows on them even while inactive. Since I can arm and armor "civlian" dwarves, I'm making just that a new priority for the fort.

(https://i.imgur.com/9Vtcuoa.png)
But for now, we must recover our lost and lay them to rest. Apparently dwarves left unburied long enough rise as ghosts! Fortunately, ghosts don't seem to do much, and I've already set to fixing up the Hall of History and fortifying the back entrance.

(https://i.imgur.com/Y4CWwv2.png)
Oh yeah, this guy. I wonder what he's making?

(https://i.imgur.com/Ou0wInZ.png)
Yet another artifact. A figurine counts as a "finished good", so I can't put it on public display in the common area. This artifact will be locked away in the Hall of History soon.

(https://i.imgur.com/JpsUr0W.png)
I always like getting artifacts that depict local history. In particular, the main focus of this peice is one of our founding members. If there's enough curiosity, I can puzzle out exactly who is depicted here; item descriptions don't use nicknames.

(https://i.imgur.com/b6LtJXf.png)
And here's the description of the silver artifact cage that was made during the previous session. Not mind-blowing, but it'll look nice in the common area.

(https://i.imgur.com/Rf5Dd6O.png)
As we recover the bodies of our fallen and inter them in the Hall of History, the ghosts disappear one by one. And things begin to return to normal (for what it's worth) around Wallbones.

(https://i.imgur.com/W3zmXeo.png)
What better way to get extra revenge against the hated beast than to eat it? Because of the way that Dwarf Fortress handles butchery and blood, meat from a forgotten beast with "deadly blood" will be safe to eat. I think. At any rate, if I'm right, we're set on food for a long time.

(https://i.imgur.com/keMFkBV.png)
That's all for now- just a quick session.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on February 20, 2013, 12:52:04 am: Ha ha! Vengeance! Take that, you danged, tasty, hellbeast!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on February 20, 2013, 12:54:13 am: Death to the wretched beast!
Shame the plan didn't go as well as it could have
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on February 20, 2013, 04:18:07 am: IronBeer, are you even paying attention to the other thread in which you asked us to put forth our wishes to be "recruited" into the dorfen army?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on February 20, 2013, 11:11:46 am: Quote from: pecenipicek on February 20, 2013, 04:18:07 am
IronBeer, are you even paying attention to the other thread in which you asked us to put forth our wishes to be "recruited" into the dorfen army?
Actually I am. I'm just not making a huge show of it because there was a rather pressing matter in this session. You're in as a master weaponsmith.

Also just prior to finishing up last time, I got Patriot a new body, another ladydwarf smithmistress who's just about as skilled as Gortina. And Pred now inhabits our third Axedwarf.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on February 20, 2013, 12:01:45 pm: I just downloaded DF and this too:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=1f710d78731b7da99b1b2b35b239c51d&topic=53180.0

Looks really good.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on February 21, 2013, 02:46:44 am: i tried ironhand's, but i dunno. not my cup of tea. i'm torn between mayday and phoebus usually.

also, TrashMan, if you dont know how to play yet, DFWiki (http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Main_Page)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on February 21, 2013, 09:57:47 am: Dunno, I think Irohand makes DF look good enough - everything is easily recognizable.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on February 21, 2013, 10:16:43 am: Quote from: TrashMan on February 21, 2013, 09:57:47 am
Dunno, I think Irohand makes DF look good enough - everything is easily recognizable.
so does phoebus and mayday's :p

but enough of that.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on February 23, 2013, 04:16:29 am: This game is brutal. So far food and water are my biggest concerns (desite having huge, active farms).
Any way to stockpile water during winter, when the rivers and lake freeze?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on February 23, 2013, 10:51:24 am: Quote from: TrashMan on February 23, 2013, 04:16:29 am
This game is brutal. So far food and water are my biggest concerns (desite having huge, active farms).
Any way to stockpile water during winter, when the rivers and lake freeze?
Dig an aqueduct and route water to an underground cistern. Dwarves feel better drinking from a well, but they don't *need* one.

More importantly tho, all dwarves are alcoholics. Water is a drink of last resort; dwarves will start to get grumpy and work increasingly slowly in the absence of booze. Also, under normal circumstances, water is only used for bathing and cleaning wounds.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on February 23, 2013, 05:33:06 pm: Quote from: IronBeer on February 23, 2013, 10:51:24 am
Quote from: TrashMan on February 23, 2013, 04:16:29 am
This game is brutal. So far food and water are my biggest concerns (desite having huge, active farms).
Any way to stockpile water during winter, when the rivers and lake freeze?
Dig an aqueduct and route water to an underground cistern. Dwarves feel better drinking from a well, but they don't *need* one.

More importantly tho, all dwarves are alcoholics. Water is a drink of last resort; dwarves will start to get grumpy and work increasingly slowly in the absence of booze. Also, under normal circumstances, water is only used for bathing and cleaning wounds.

They're not unlike humans in that regards!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TwentyPercentCooler on February 24, 2013, 09:13:12 am: Quote from: TrashMan on February 23, 2013, 04:16:29 am
This game is brutal. So far food and water are my biggest concerns (desite having huge, active farms).
Any way to stockpile water during winter, when the rivers and lake freeze?

Easy! Stick to warm climates. :D

Nah, I had the same problems, though. But if you take turkeys and/or chickens, you either get tons of eggs, or a birdsplosion. Unlike catsplosions, nobody cares if you butcher and eat the birds.

I almost wish I could lock my doors to the stupid @#$%ing migrants. I swear they always show up right when I've just finished properly housing the last wave. I get excited about being able to build things other than bedroom furniture...NOPE. So far, I've only been attacked by kobolds that promptly managed to get their skulls caved in by my hammerdwarf and their bones made into crossbow bolts. Dwarves don't play around.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on February 24, 2013, 11:29:51 am: Quote from: IronBeer on February 20, 2013, 11:11:46 am
I got Patriot a new body, another ladydwarf smithmistress who's just about as skilled as Gortina.

Ooh nice. We'll double the effort and quadruble the results.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Patriot on February 25, 2013, 11:42:03 am: woo, new body, and i got boobies now! :D

Thanks oh great and wonderful master!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on March 09, 2013, 10:20:43 pm: Update time. This is a big one, so I'll be breaking it into two posts. Also, without giving anything away just yet, there is a decision regarding the fort's future that must be made. I will leave it to y'all.

First off, our current roster (regarding actual forumites):
Polpolion- Miner/Administration
Scourge (of Ages)- Tanner
(Cmdr) DeeJay- Mechanic/Brewer
Mongoose- Farmer/Carpenter
Scotty- Miner/Gemworker
Trashman- Head physician/chemist
Wat(isname)- Weaponsmithing/Engineering
Kobar(44)- Axefighter
~~Apollo- Craftsdwarf~~
~~Patriot- Armorer/Mason~~ RePatriot- Smithmistress
(SpardaSon) Dante- Axedwarf
(NGTM-1R) Night- Expendable soapmaker
redsniper- Stonecrafter
(FireSpawn) Spark- Glassmaker
Ghostavo- Miner
Dekker- Siege Engineer
deathfun- Suturer/wound dresser
pecenipicek- Weaponsmith
Gortina- Smithmistress
Pred- Axedwarf

(https://i.imgur.com/goKYPbH.png)
The oldest of Wallbones' babies has just matured into a Child. Dwarven children aren't much better than babies, but they can help out a little bit around the fort, mostly by harvesting crops.

(https://i.imgur.com/8S0CxvM.png)
I set the smiths a-working to make some metal armor and weapons for our melee squad. Well-crafted copper gear should be at least passably good.

(https://i.imgur.com/JEZMBpW.png)
Damnit. Meng Dishgears, canine hero who killed a kobold thief, has succumbed to infection. I *knew* there was something bad about that beast's blood. Our dwarves are unaffected because they washed the tainted blood off, but dogs aren't quite smart enough to do that.

(https://i.imgur.com/I5lAMpk.png)
I notice a cloud of miasma following another dog around, and get a little curious. Oh, miasma manifests as a thick purple cloud in-game, and indicates a really bad smell, usually coming from rot. Yes, this rot can come from necrotic tissue as well as decaying corpses.

(https://i.imgur.com/uUhpTtw.png)
Argh, just as I feared. Well, nothing much I can do about it, since animal healthcare is pretty much non-functional at the moment. This dog might get better on her own, but I wouldn't count on it. Infections are currently waaay OP- if certain body parts get infected (like fingernails, yes really) they can't be operated on and the infection will eventually kill the patient.

(https://i.imgur.com/kn9fOIS.png)
Night likes her helms. So much so that Wallbones is forbidden to export any. No skin off my nose, though the helms *would* fetch a nice price in trades.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZAmXToS.png)
Oho! Scotty's got a big idea for something.

(https://i.imgur.com/7s0a9QM.png)
Scotty's a miner, so it makes sense that his potential artifact would involve stone somehow.

(https://i.imgur.com/GJ3LnqC.png)
He's managed to get all his materials together. Let's give it a few moments and see what he comes up with.

(https://i.imgur.com/9NyEWSY.png)
Boss. Another kickass furniture piece to put into the common area!

(https://i.imgur.com/GcKCiSa.png)
I have no idea who Ushat Copperlords is, but apparently he's got a thing for giant hares. Ushat must be a historical figure of some importance or fascination to Scotty. If anybody's interested, as always I'm willing to investigate the connection.

(https://i.imgur.com/79C37mL.png)
Night had been complaining for a while about not having a "proper mayor's quarters", so I spent a good amount of time and effort to put together the first really nice suite in Wallbones. The walls and floors have been smoothed then engraved, thus all the decorations.

(https://i.imgur.com/bGdq1Kq.png)
Captain of the Guard apparently also necessitates nice quarters, so I whip up an apartment next to the barracks.

(https://i.imgur.com/b9HTvYF.png)
With the melee squad properly equipped, I think it's time to go and reveal the remainder of the first cavern layer. I need intel on the whole area so I can block off access points to the outside.

(http://i1102.photobucket.com/albums/g449/Ironcitadel99/572e0dfd-e218-4925-84aa-521faa25d55c.jpg)
During the course of our explorations, we come across a Cave Crocodile. What do we do with dangerous wildlife? We kill the crap out of it, of course!

(https://i.imgur.com/gkcNHuy.jpg)
Kobar's squad takes down the croc, but Kobar takes some pretty serious injuries in the process. He'll live, though.

(https://i.imgur.com/Z0VuY4N.png)
A no-name woodcrafter gets an idea for something cool. Can't wait to...

(https://i.imgur.com/OpRSl1j.png)
...oh **** me. Of course I started letting dwarves back into the cavern. "Surely there won't be another beast this soon!" Hahahaha no. Rescue as many dwarves as possible, consign the rest to death, you know, typical response. I don't want to play with a poisonous bite.

(https://i.imgur.com/U8urBkO.png)
What the ****, really? Did I burn down an orphanage in a past life? A Titan is essentially the surface equivalent of a Forgotten Beast- randomized attributes, but uniformly dangerous. Some of my most recent migrants still have hunting and fishing enabled, so those bumblers will buy me time to seal off the rest of the fort. Shame they'll have to wind up a Titan snack.

(https://i.imgur.com/EYDL3h5.png)
The new bridge system completely locks out the Cobra Beast from below, but traps three citizens in the cavern layer.

(https://i.imgur.com/Yz8b4RK.jpg)
At the same time, I have my masons wall off the stairs leading out from the fort. Once again, poisonous bite. Do not want.

(https://i.imgur.com/Hyz8XSt.png)
Goddamn shame, but better just them than everybody.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZjLLPOc.png)
Once the fort's all buttoned up, I notice something odd about the melee squad. First is Kobar- despite getting treatment for his upper body injury, he somehow managed to get his eyelid infected. Yes, his eyelid. It got scratched in his fight with the cave croc, and the infection may just kill him- remember what I said about incurable infections? Yeah, I think this is one of them.

Not pictured: Pred. I never noticed, but in the fight against the Antlion Beast, he suffered permanent nerve damage in one of his legs and needs a crutch to get around. He can still fight with his axe and shield on the same arm, he just walks a little slowly.

(https://i.imgur.com/W9VhTb0.png)
Start plopping down some of the furniture we've made to improve the quality of life for our newer immigrants.

(https://i.imgur.com/Dj6ZcXi.png)
As I've mentioned before, not much time passes between most of these pictures. Naturally, in the middle of all this chaos, some elves arrive. They'll get torn apart by the Titan. Screw 'em.

(https://i.imgur.com/1Jd3yJ6.png)
Moving the marksdwarf squad into position by the backdoor to try and pincusion the Cobra Beast. I'll be much more attentive with the beast's movement this time, so we should be able to kill it fairly easily.

(https://i.imgur.com/lXphx8a.png)
The beast is currently overshadowed by a pointer, but it's right at the gates. Holy ****, my harebrained scheme might actually work!

Unless you look real closely at the bridge in the corridor. What do you see? That's right- a braindead civilan dwarf running right to the beast. Apparently my melee sqad decided to play as well.

(https://i.imgur.com/DtkvO7U.png)
Triple ****nuggets. Yep, I must've done something bad in a previous life. Now we have the Caterpillar Beast, and Kobar's decided to take them both on before his squad can back them up. Shockingly, my archers aren't shooting. Line-of-sight error, perhaps?

Of course, Kobar's squad and the flood of civilans get slaughtered. I should have been more careful with the bridge management.
Kobar has been slain.
Dante has been slain.
Pred has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/yUdGZOw.png)
Attempting to open up the line of sight, I order my miners to open up the channel to the lower levels. Five internet points if anybody can tell me what I did wrong, and why Wallbones may now be screwed.

Spoiler:
I didn't see that I'd be channeling into a rock wall, rather than into empty space. So, some rock ramps were created, allowing the Cobra Beast into the fortress!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on March 09, 2013, 10:21:00 pm: Ok, so the marksdwarf squad just got slaughtered. I've just ****ed up. Bad. Civilians are running around panicking everywhere, and at this point I don't think I could actually save the fort by sealing things off.

Dekker has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/GAuRDaK.png)
As a last ditch defensive measure, I draft all the dwarves with mining skill into a squad. Picks can be formidable weapons in the right hands, and they might be enough to kill the Cobra Beast. But, given how quickly Kobar's squad got torn apart, I'm not hopeful.

(https://i.imgur.com/rVcJou4.png)
This is what chaos looks like. I've lost track of the dead, and many of the miners have already been killed. I think we're screwed, but I'll make sure we go down fighting. Polpolion in particular does a great job- despite having only a pickaxe, he takes on the Caterpillar Beast single-handedly and inflicts terrible, terrible damage. Unfortunately, the Caterpillar Beast is another of the loathsome "bug" monsters, and just. Won't. DIE.

(https://i.imgur.com/3Lu1Gtr.png)
The Cobra Beast (I refuse to use their "real" names) returns to the main backdoor after chasing down some runners. It swiftly kills the rest of the miner squad.

Polpolion has been slain.
Scotty has been slain.
Ghostavo has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/NMXq25W.png)
At this point, I begin to lose particular track of when dwarves die. It's obvious the Cobra Beast can't be beaten without plenty of high-quality weapons and strong arms wielding them and we just don't have either anymore. I start just recruiting everybody into wrestler squads to try and kill the Caterpillar Beast. Maybe 30 unarmed dwarves dogpiling it will kill the thing. Oh, the Caterpillar Beast is indeed a threat, but I can at least kill it out of spite. Everybody except Doc Trashman gets called up; maybe, just maybe some dwarves might survive this. I don't even know when everybody died. I'm just gonna start going down the list semi-randomly.

Scourge has been slain.
DeeJay has been slain.
Mongoose has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/dnHH7R3.png)
Migrants arrive. I can do nothing for them. The Lyrebird Titan will surely kill them soon.

RePatriot has been slain.
Night has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/ne7RNSW.png)
The slaughter continues. The Caterpillar Beast begins to slow down, but the Cobra Beast is still going strong, bearing no major injuries.

Spark has been slain.
Wat has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/bCuZ0RN.png)
The Caterpillar Beast is dead, but the Cobra Beast cannot be stopped. There is no longer enough order to try and wall off the fortress from the carnage.

deathfun has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/SQ6IREK.png)
The numbness begins to set in. A constant flood of announcements declares disrupted item hauling and eating schedules alongside the steady flow of deaths.

redsniper has been slain.
pecenipicek is mortally wounded but managed to escape the slaughter for now.

(https://i.imgur.com/YRGUQE2.png)
One-third of the fortress' population lies dead.

(https://i.imgur.com/fkjstqK.png)
And now I know for certain that containment would not work. Too many dwarves are too unhappy. A child has gone berserk.

(https://i.imgur.com/aHuT2Lt.png)
Before being slain himself by bystanders, the child managed to kill an adult dwarf in about 3 seconds.

pecenipicek succumbs to his wounds.

(https://i.imgur.com/v0ozKww.png)
The beast has begun advancing towards the fortress. There can be no survival now.

(https://i.imgur.com/ju0spd5.png)
I can barely stay focused enough to keep taking screencaps. Equal parts horror and fascination cloud my awareness.

Gortina has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/hnDW1yP.png)
Scourge has snapped.

(https://i.imgur.com/F0j99JC.png)
Scourge is jumped by all the dogs of Wallbones, but somehow during all this mayhem he managed to deck himself out in copper armor. He manages to kill the entire pack with his bare hands before being taken down by some other panicking civilians.

Scourge has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/GjkCdcq.png)
The beast is in the living quarters. This doesn't seem real. Just keep taking screencaps- it's the only thing I can do now.

(https://i.imgur.com/UqxBXkz.png)
A goblin ambush materializes. They will find no prey here, I fear.

(https://i.imgur.com/PmqaoPm.png)
Two-thirds of the fortress lies dead. The remaining dwarves barely cling to sanity.

(https://i.imgur.com/CabQlv8.png)
Ghosts appear, to apparently no purpose. The slaughter continues.

Trashman has been slain.

(https://i.imgur.com/O5tv3ZZ.png)
Against all reason and logic, some no-name migrant managed to construct an artifact. I don't even bother to get the description.

(https://i.imgur.com/rpGOE4d.png)
Almost everybody's dead. About half of the survivors are currently insane.

(https://i.imgur.com/e5QQzcZ.png)
The last sane dwarves persist in the infirmary. Even if the beast does not kill them, they'll surely die from dehydration/starvation eventually.

(https://i.imgur.com/gsTk0rN.png)
Except that their wounds aren't as serious as I thought, and they manage to flee the infirmary. There is only one other dwarf left in Wallbones, and he's trapped on the surface, running around naked and talking to himself.

(https://i.imgur.com/egBsFPK.png)
Behold the last dwarf of Wallbones, instants from death. His whole right arm and left leg have been severed, and the Cobra Beast bears down. This is the end.

(https://i.imgur.com/FiWznYE.png)
Except apparently not. Right at that moment, a wave of migrants arrives. I **** you not.

(https://i.imgur.com/uTLhkeP.png)
Wallbones' population is now ten assorted filth-covered dwarves on the surface. None of them are miners, so we couldn't get back into the fort even if I wanted to. A careful scanning of the surface revealed an unsurprising fact, and a surprsing fact.
First, there are remains of the elven caravan in various places on the surface. That means a modicum of supplies for these migrants should I choose to use them.
Secondly, the elf caravans somehow managed to kill the Lyrebird Beast, although apparently all the merchants succumbed to their wounds.

(https://i.imgur.com/KhGGEbO.png)
What does this mean for us?

Well, it means that I will leave that descision to you! We could potentially re-establish a base and scrape by until a caravan comes around and we secure another pickaxe. All of Wallbones' internal structure is unsafe now, so we'd effectively be starting from scratch in a new location. There's a smidgen of food on the surface, and there's a river available.

So, what's it going to be? Shall Wallbones start over, or will we call our strength broken?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on March 10, 2013, 12:10:31 am: Let's start over and build a new fortress, with blackjack, and... hookers! ;)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on March 10, 2013, 12:20:13 am: Omg, after all that, you've gotta keep going! Put my vote in for persisting. If we actually manage to pick ourselves up after this, it would be extremely awesome.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Mongoose on March 10, 2013, 01:56:16 am: Not only that, but you must avenge all of us and kick some giant monster ass!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on March 10, 2013, 08:18:55 am: Start over.

And I do reccomed you use the graphics pack. Makes for better screenshots.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Pred the Penguin on March 10, 2013, 01:44:57 pm: Wow, what an insane slaughter. Do you figure you can keep the few migrants alive for a fresh start, or will they just be eaten by another roaming monster?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on March 10, 2013, 02:32:22 pm: I vote for a new start in a less hostile area...Or at least one that doesn't rain corrosive sludge upon the land.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on March 10, 2013, 07:36:55 pm: Definitely setup a new place with what you've got
That's also a hell lot of purple
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TwentyPercentCooler on March 10, 2013, 10:25:59 pm: Well, that escalated quickly!

Dear lord, that is both terrifying and hilarious. I got into this a bit late so I don't wanna tell you what to do. I will just be watching with interest no matter what happens. :D
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on March 11, 2013, 06:06:55 am: Quote from: watsisname
[IT WILL END HORRIBLY, NO DOUBT.] :)

D:
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Dragon on March 11, 2013, 09:21:38 am: Let's not give up. This could be fun. :)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: redsniper on March 11, 2013, 11:57:36 am: Never give up. Never surrender.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Kobrar44 on March 11, 2013, 02:06:02 pm: Quote from: Dragon on March 11, 2013, 09:21:38 am
Let's not give up. This could be fun. :)
Thsi is already FUN by DF definition, and we can have FUN lasting a little longer! With all this elven wood, you might succeed.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on March 11, 2013, 04:57:23 pm: I do think it would be awesome... hell, FUN to try to persist with our fallen fortress, but I have no preference. Repopulating in a region less prone to raining bull**** might be more sane. :P
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on March 11, 2013, 07:02:21 pm: Quote from: redsniper on March 11, 2013, 11:57:36 am
Never give up. Never surrender.

Trust your instincts!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on March 11, 2013, 08:08:14 pm: Quote from: watsisname on March 11, 2013, 04:57:23 pm
I do think it would be awesome... hell, FUN to try to persist with our fallen fortress, but I have no preference.

Same goes for me.

Wow that was intense, it's hard to really tell what's going on, but dang... Too bad I couldn't have gone berserk in the vicinity of the monster instead, like some sort of copper-clad elephant of dooooom.

And I would have to agree with Trashman, for what it's worth. I didn't really pay any attention to the screenshots, aside from the text at the bottom of the screens. One of those texture packs might make stuff easier to follow.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Colonol Dekker on March 12, 2013, 03:31:12 am: Whatever happens, I'd like my same job plox.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Patriot on March 12, 2013, 01:14:05 pm: Continue, but migrate to a new place with a little less Evil monsters to rape us.

Also, Smith again :3
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on March 14, 2013, 01:47:37 pm: Quote from: SpardaSon21 on March 10, 2013, 12:10:31 am
Let's start over and build a new fortress, with blackjack, and... hookers! ;)
Quote from: CommanderDJ on March 10, 2013, 12:20:13 am
Omg, after all that, you've gotta keep going! Put my vote in for persisting. If we actually manage to pick ourselves up after this, it would be extremely awesome.
Quote from: Mongoose on March 10, 2013, 01:56:16 am
Not only that, but you must avenge all of us and kick some giant monster ass!
Quote from: deathfun on March 10, 2013, 07:36:55 pm
Definitely setup a new place with what you've got
That's also a hell lot of purple
Quote from: Dragon on March 11, 2013, 09:21:38 am
Let's not give up. This could be fun. :)
That's what I was hoping to hear! We've been handed a second chance, and I intend to make it count!

I've got a bit of experience with absolute bare-bones starts: zero gear, and zero skills. This should be a lot easier than a true bare-bones start, but it'll still be dicey. I'll hammer out a new session soon.

-
One other thing:
Quote from: TrashMan on March 10, 2013, 08:18:55 am
And I do reccomed you use the graphics pack. Makes for better screenshots.
Quote from: Scourge of Ages on March 11, 2013, 08:08:14 pm
And I would have to agree with Trashman, for what it's worth. I didn't really pay any attention to the screenshots, aside from the text at the bottom of the screens. One of those texture packs might make stuff easier to follow.

Two-and-a-half reasons why I'll be sticking with the basic tiles, rather than graphics:
1) It's what I'm used to. And...
1b) I don't want to try and acclimate to a new graphics system at this EXTREMELY delicate time in Wallbones' history. I'm 100% familiar with the tile graphics, and that familiarity will improve my information-gathering and decision-making abilities. Yes, I'm serious- it matters!
2) Dwarf Fortress combat simply isn't very photogenic, even with graphics. You will never see creatures lunging and swinging at each other, instead you get background color changes and the occasional chunk of one combatant will fly off. Oh, and the splattering of red all over the walls and floors. Furthermore, the wholesale slaughter of the fortress would have been mostly obscured by the clouds of miasma anyways.

I'd really like not to beleaguer this point. Tiles is simply the way I've chosen to portray this LP, and by my worldview that should pretty much be it.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on March 14, 2013, 01:58:06 pm: Well, my point was that the only one who can understand the screenies is someone who played DF extensively. To everyone else the screenies are gibberish.

Even someone who never played DF can understand most of this:
(http://i54.tinypic.com/2hg7m6v.png)

But it's your LP, so do it in whatever way you like.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Pred the Penguin on March 14, 2013, 02:12:39 pm: That's an interesting set! Is it one of the ones posted before?

I still find the original fascinating though, especially in this Let's Play. I would just never be able to play it myself. :p
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Col. Fishguts on March 14, 2013, 05:00:06 pm: Quote from: IronBeer on March 14, 2013, 01:47:37 pm
2) Dwarf Fortress combat simply isn't very photogenic, even with graphics. You will never see creatures lunging and swinging at each other, instead you get background color changes and the occasional chunk of one combatant will fly off. Oh, and the splattering of red all over the walls and floors. Furthermore, the wholesale slaughter of the fortress would have been mostly obscured by the clouds of miasma anyways.

That may be true, but in most screenshots I couldn't even find the things which you were describing.
While I love reading your LP, the screenshots are basically useless for me. So yes, even a simple graphics set would help a lot.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on March 14, 2013, 06:07:54 pm: Or just more highlighting on the pics. let the guy be, at least until the prolonged survival is likely.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on March 15, 2013, 02:20:48 am: Quote from: Pred the Penguin on March 14, 2013, 02:12:39 pm
That's an interesting set! Is it one of the ones posted before?

It's the one I'm using. I might have linked to it before.
Ironforge pack..or something like that.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on March 15, 2013, 11:25:42 pm: Just a quick update, but perhaps the most important of Wallbones' history.

(https://i.imgur.com/jUuBZES.png)
Digging through the Stocks screen to figure out our available resources actually isn't that easy. I need to sort out what resources are in the compromised Old Fort and what's out on the surface. What I'm looking for are "Forbidden" logs- they would have been dropped by the Elven caravans, and although they're technically ours now, they aren't available for use. After extensive poking around and confirming locations, I estimate that such logs (they have an "F" next to them and are tallied in red next to the log total) come to only 68 logs. That's not much.

It is enough to at least put up a full defensive palisade, make some food storage, and maybe a bit of roofed areas and furniture. The survivors will be safe from a ground attack if I can build the palisade, but I won't be able to stop a flying attacker without a full roof. If the Lyrebird Beast's cousin shows up, we're done.

(https://i.imgur.com/oRTljfx.jpg)
This area is where the palisade will be. I assign a meeting area at what will be the interior of the palisade, next to the river. On the river, I designate a fishing/water source area. If I can't scavenge any food on the surface, our survivors will need to fish for sustenance. I really hope that a trade caravan will arrive soon- this will be a ****TY existence until then. Sure beats getting killed though.

(https://i.imgur.com/8mJlzja.jpg)
This may not look like much, but under the cursor is the salvation of our survivors: a dead merchant's donkey with a big pile of usable wood. I Claim the whole pile, and direct the survivors to gather it by the palisade site.

(https://i.imgur.com/SfXYMty.jpg)
I found another dead merchant's donkey with a sizable stash of tradeable goods. We might need to nick some of this stuff and sell it for pickaxes if we can survive until the next supply caravan arrives. I also notice a small number of Elven wooden weapons in there. While they're not straight-up training weapons, wood simply isn't a very good weapon material. Those weapons miiiiight be useful in an absolute last-ditch effort, but I really doubt it.

(https://i.imgur.com/bNSWIMo.jpg)
Palisade's up, and the only door can be walled over from the inside in the worst case. Also visible is the wood stockpile (with most of its contents vomited on), a butcher's shop, and a carpenter's shop. All the survivors were tasked with carpentry so that the construction and door-making could proceed ASAP. I slaughter one of the survivor's random stray animals and stock the Doomsday Palisade. Once the meat is barrel-ed up and stored away, the Palisade can house all the survivors quite safely if uncomfortably. Right after I take this picture, I order a Trade Depot built so we can actually keep going if we survive to the next caravan.

(https://i.imgur.com/xaYyvWW.png)
Nerves are fraying rapidly, and most survivors are in really bad moods. That said, everybody seems to be barely holding it together so far. And before too long, the prayed-for salvation arrives!

(https://i.imgur.com/kGfT6Wo.png)
HNNNNNNNG (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeaWNonSAY) IT NEVER ENDS. Right on the heels of the Dwarven caravan, a goblin siege shows up!

(https://i.imgur.com/tBRnjyh.png)
Fearing the worst, I immediately lock the lone door leading to the Palisade, sealing a lone dwarf inside. I did this not knowing the intentions or strength of the goblin attack force, although the caravan and all their guards have parked in front of the Palisade. I really hope I don't have to condemn most of the survivors to death so that Wallbones may endure. /nailbite

(https://i.imgur.com/Aq0dEgM.png)
A lucky break! Well, for us at least. The goblin attack force (about a dozen hammertroops and a macefighter) decide to chase after the Dwarven Diplomat rather than our citizens! I think quickly and draft all the survivors into a military squad, unlock the Palisade door, then order them to station inside the Palisade. All but one survivor is smart enough to understand my order intent and get inside safely. I then re-lock the door and pray for the dumb bastard still outside.

The Dwarven Diplomat is swift for a dwarf, but is eventually chased down and slain. The goblins advance on the miserable wooden rampart that is Wallbones.

(https://i.imgur.com/0qLmBwe.png)
Did I mention that the caravan had several guards? Because they do.

(https://i.imgur.com/bANpvLl.png)
The goblins charge Wallbones from the south and the merchants flee. The guards counter-charge the goblins, hell-bent on protecting their Dwarven brothers, despite being outnumbered 2-to-1!

(https://i.imgur.com/Tqzj5Tr.png)
Dwarven steel clashes with goblin iron, dwarf and goblin collide, and blade meets flesh! After a short and furious brawl, six goblins lie dead, the surviving attackers flee, and the caravan guards show little wear for their efforts! Once the goblins have fled the map, the merchants slowly return to the trade depot.

I order the wall over the door torn down and some of the slain goblins' clothing and gear gathered up for trade. Except things don't entirely work. Despite the danger passing and the merchants returning to the depot, they refuse to re-enter the "trading" state. If the merchants won't trade, then we can't get the picks we need! Will the goblins have the last laugh as the merchants prepare to pack up and leave?

(https://i.imgur.com/NrT2Ixh.png)
**** no. Wallbones has survived the Forgoten Beast Electric Boogaloo from Hell and was given the stupid luck of split-second migrants, we sure as Hell aren't being stopped by a glitch. Recalling a horridly troll trick from the Bay12 Forums, I order the Trade Depot deconstructed with the merchants still on it!

The merchants instantly lose possession of ALL their trade goods, and I order every pickaxe snatched and used to dig out a new living cavern. Incidentally, we now have possession of all the goods the merchants would have had for sale- we'll be set for a long time if we can squirrel it all away to safety.

(https://i.imgur.com/JpV3iSD.png)
The main hall of Wallbones mk2. Not much right now, but we have survived! Of course, there may be repercussions. A slain diplomat will hurt relations with our patron nation, and a caravan that returns with a lower value of goods than they arrived with is another black mark. ...And since we basically just jacked an entire Dwarven caravan and an Elven caravan, relations between both nations WILL be strained. Hopefully they won't get pissed and go to war with us; that is a possibility should bad things happen to enough caravans.

(https://i.imgur.com/ieE4hvG.png)
We're still in the game, but that's all for now.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on March 16, 2013, 12:18:55 am: Wooo! Go Wallbones!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on March 16, 2013, 02:02:58 am: Merchants don't wanna trade? **** them!

Steal ALL their things!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: redsniper on March 18, 2013, 10:01:48 am: Sometimes you have to roll a hard six.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on March 19, 2013, 10:48:37 pm: Quote from: redsniper on March 18, 2013, 10:01:48 am
Sometimes you have to roll a hard six.

BSG reference for the win
Unless that was used elsewhere, but I'll go with BSG

Love that trade thing. That was hilarious
"Don't want to trade? Well **** you" *collapse trade* *steal everything*
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on March 26, 2013, 07:06:29 am: Well damn that really escalated quickly.
Good that you decided to start over, I don't want to see it end just yet. Not without a fight. Wallbones Mk2 will rise! :yes:

Also I'm still in if ya get it going and need some HLP names. Gortef or Gortina, both will do just fine again.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on March 27, 2013, 02:53:22 am: Epic trolling manouver!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on March 27, 2013, 09:07:02 pm: What a day.

Since Wallbones is no longer in immediate mortal danger, I've thought about the ASCII vs tiles thing and come to a conclusion. As a matter of better presentation, I'll switch to Ironhand's tile pack from this point forward. Unless there's an absolute uproar over it (which I don't anticipate in the slightest).

(https://i.imgur.com/foRNxmp.png)
So here we are, picking up from last time. It's still going to take me a while to adapt, but I'll bear with it for my audience.

(https://i.imgur.com/0pKazuI.png)
I'm not at all keen on making luxuries at this stage, but Wallbones' mayor simply won't be happy until he gets 'proper' housing arrangements. Our current tantrumer, Mr. Febthob, is not the mayor. Nerves are frayed, but things should definitely start improving.

(https://i.imgur.com/EMFua6F.png)
*Sigh*. At least he didn't go berserk. Down to 9 dwarves now.

(https://i.imgur.com/pB1BoqI.png)
Can't even go four minutes without tripping across a god-forsaken AMBUSH! FFFFFFFF. Oh yeah, I'm building a stone palisade around the pile of seized goods so we can at least hold those supplies for the time being. For some reason, the caravan pack animals and the guards won't leave. Good for us- they can chase off these kobolds.

Two of our dwarves take hits. Their wounds aren't serious, but they need to be cleaned pronto. Unfortunately, I'm near certain that the surface is no longer safe. Like even a litte.

(https://i.imgur.com/q4A7cam.png)
Seeing the need for water, and the fact that I mis-judged the food situation a bit (we're not going to starve, relax- supplies are just lean)- I order a new well dug out. This one can actually be refilled with clean, clear brook water. Since the fortress is below the level of the brook, an actuated floodgate system is needed to manage the flow. Our mason is also a modestly skilled mechanic, and I set him to work.

(https://i.imgur.com/WgThKP5.png)
Oh, good! We can hock some of the war scraps left around the fort for supp...

(https://i.imgur.com/fijUpsI.png)
Goddamnit. Just.... goddamnit.

(https://i.imgur.com/V3T0D8i.png)
The elven caravan is dispatched in very short order. As the goblins march on Wallbones' stone palisade, a sneaking suspicion suggests that I should wall off our surface access.

(https://i.imgur.com/ILYhfIz.png)
Walling completed.

(https://i.imgur.com/c7hG0iJ.png)
And not a moment too soon. Trolls are a common sight in mid- to late-game golbin seiges. Rather than spewing inflammatory comments over the internet, these trolls prefer to be a little more direct. Trolls love smashing up dwarves and buildings- these powerful building destroyers will happily bust down doors and open paths for their comrades. Too bad they'll do no such harm to us.

(https://i.imgur.com/MGy7m19.png)
Verily, **** the surface. We can still get fungus growth on exposed subterranean dirt, and we still need new farms anyways, so I direct our cadre of novice miners to hollow out a large soil area.

(https://i.imgur.com/fCO69JS.png)
It's a massacre outside. The trolls bust down the palisade doors, and the caravan has no chance against the seige. I think they managed to kill one or two gobbos. The remainder of the seige absolutely can't get in, but they aren't leaving any time soon. They'll camp out by the fort for a few months, and eventually they'll get bored and leave.

(https://i.imgur.com/S223RSY.png)
Remember when I used to get bent out of shape over births? Haha, those were the days. As of now, children may very well be our only chance at population growth. Also, not the large amount of job cancellation spam- our injured dwarves *are* OK, but without any wound dressings, the doctor I've assigned won't let them leave the hospital. I over-estimated the available resources from the trolled caravan; apparently there was zero cloth in that big pile of trade goods. Since we have only Plump Helmet and Dimple Cup seeds, it'll be really difficult to get some thread-bearing Pig Tail plants. There's a chance that dirt tiles will spawn usable plants, and Pig Tails are a possible spawn.

(https://i.imgur.com/hgLro1i.png)
So, the insane dwarf finally died. Interesting note- the new baby's mother is currently in the hospital and can't properly take care of him. So the baby is just randomly bumbling around the fort, more or less fending for himself. If he matures before his mom gets out of the infirmary, he's going to be one tough kid.

(https://i.imgur.com/CEqeXWq.png)
So.... apparently some ghosts are malicious. Like this disgruntled former Marksdwarf who decided to kill our current star Mason. Ghosts have been floating around Wallbones Mk2 for a while, but they haven't really done much. This changes everything! These ghosts must be eradicated!

(https://i.imgur.com/ygBpjTS.png)
...by laying them to rest. Since there's no way in all the hells that I could recover and bury their remains, I order a number of Memorial Slabs made. At the very least this will let us quickly put down any dwarves that get uppity with their afterlives.

(https://i.imgur.com/U714VDe.png)
An unknown dwarf from Old Wallbones has come back as a smartass poltergeist. Since I don't know just WHO has decided to not stay dead, I can't specifically make a memorial for them. Of course, I could just make memorial slabs for all the 150 dwarves of Old Wallbones so we'll never need to deal with their cranky spirits again, but we don't really have the spare manpower for such a task.

(https://i.imgur.com/JMi5b1P.png)
Instead, I prioritize those that are known to have returned. Ah well. There's only so much we can do with fvie able-bodied dwarves.

(https://i.imgur.com/vl7cVux.png)
(sigh) Make it *four*. In the process of digging out an indoor fishing pond, a section of floor fell loose, taking the mayor with it. As you can see, the mayor has a massive lower spine injury. From this point forward, he's going to be paraplegic, and infirmary-stuck for the immediate future. He can potentially return as a useful worker since he still has both hands, but he's going to have some quality-of-life issues even after getting put back together. Stupid and wasteful- I should have been more careful when designating the dig job.

(https://i.imgur.com/30HSk4I.png)
Another child! At least this one's mother is healthy and can take care of the little tyke. And in just ten short in-game years, we'll have another able-bodied adult! (Ten in-game years is a long time! All of Wallbones' history is less than five!)

(https://i.imgur.com/qEFGsio.png)
This is why we don't go outside anymore. Human caravan shows up, they get upset that our Trade Depot is still smashed by trolls. Less than a minute after I re-open Wallbones Mk2 to the outside world, two friggin' gobbo ambush squads appear.

(https://i.imgur.com/Ja39Ma5.png)
....Aaaaand of course, one of our VERY limited dwarves is off prancing around on the surface trying to collect some pointless irrelevant object from the other side of the map. We're now down to THREE able-bodied dwarves.

(https://i.imgur.com/ki9kRNt.png)
Despite the incomprehensible nightmare that is Wallbones' recent happenings, a group of migrants arrives. While a gobbo kill squad is still on the map. I figure these migrants miiiiight have a chance at killing the gobbos. I mean, if they do, I'll let the surviving migrants in, since it'll be a relatively safe time to do so.

Silly me- the new migrants all die.

(https://i.imgur.com/0Vfz1yh.png)
Here's our current roster. I'd give just about anything for a Pig Tail plant and/or some seeds so I could finally get the injured dwarves back on their feet. I did see a soil tile spawn a Pig Tail plant, but the dwarf I sent to pick the plant blew the skill roll and came back empty-handed. Frustrating, but we have all the time in the world. Everybody's doing OK mood-wise, and it's not difficult to feed only nine dwarves.

We're still scraping by, but not by much. Oh, and regarding requests for reincarnation- I don't think this would be a particularly fair time to honor those requests. Perhaps later when we have healthier population numbers.

(https://i.imgur.com/SumtdfE.png)
So Hard Light, are we having !!FUN!! yet?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Cyborg17 on March 27, 2013, 10:58:35 pm: Wow! That's incredible!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on March 27, 2013, 11:27:07 pm: Yes! Good fun is being had! I can finally sort-of see what's going on, and the struggles and survival are quite interesting.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on March 28, 2013, 12:06:48 am: Still loving this. You can do it, IronBeer!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on March 28, 2013, 11:19:47 am: (http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/17553550.jpg)
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on March 29, 2013, 01:42:09 am: HA! The Mayor isn't so uppity now is he!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on March 31, 2013, 12:55:50 pm: Hang in there. We will root for ya. :yes:
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on April 01, 2013, 10:07:17 pm: Picking up from where we left off, not a whole lot happens for a while. The goblin killsquads are still camped on the surface, and I'm still waiting for a Pig Tail spawn.

(https://i.imgur.com/Suw2MAK.png)
Then, a caravan. I expect the killsquads to forcibly evict the caravan...

(https://i.imgur.com/E3oI647.png)
...so I get to work digging out some individualized bedrooms. It'll be quick work with only nine total citizens.

(https://i.imgur.com/VrzpCH6.png)
Against my expectations, the caravan guards drive off the killsquads, taking down a couple gobbos in the process. I take the risk of opening up the fort and building a new Trade Depot.

(https://i.imgur.com/tYml8pq.png)
As one of my three healthy dwarves decides to fetch some irrelevant thing from the other side of the map, I decide to finally start using Burrows. Near as I understand them, Burrows are "activity areas" that can have dwarves assigned to them. Dwarves will only use resources within their own burrows, and I think they won't leave the area unless chased out. I'll be using this feature heavily from this point forward: I set up a single burrow that encapsulates New Wallbones' underground areas and a bit of the surface.

In the meantime, I bite my nails while watching the dwarf's trek.

(https://i.imgur.com/aTNGeGb.png)
Luckily, she returns safely, and the merchant caravan is not far behind.

(https://i.imgur.com/jEjuEIa.png)
It's been a while since I've actually managed to see the trade screen. I gather up some nearby war detritus and sell it for seeds and food. Unfortunately, these merchants didn't have any cloth! STILL!

(https://i.imgur.com/Vyji58i.png)
Not long after the merchants depart, finally some success! Fungishrubs continue to pop up in the unfarmed soil areas, and one of the workers finally manages to harvest a usable Pig Tail specimen! I'll need to have a Farmer's Workshop built so that usable Pig Tail thread can be made, but things are finally looking up.

(https://i.imgur.com/Kp7alba.png)
What in the hell? Scourge is the latest ghost to arise, and it looks like he's still pretty angry! I never saw a notification for his target's demise, but I check on her anyways.

(https://i.imgur.com/avGwYkY.png)
"Battered" my ass- I'm simultaneously spooked and impressed. Scourge managed to neatly amputate Stukos' right arm above the elbow- no bleeding, and no pain when I checked on her! Stukos didn't even stop by the hospital (which is good, because we still need the workers).

I rename Stukos as 'Lefty' because I'm kind of a dick, and she has a story behind the nickname. Fortunately, Lefty can continue working just fine as a civilian dwarf with a few exceptions. First, she can't hold a pick properly anymore (as it needs two hands) so she's off mining duty. Second, I don't think she'll make a very good soldier with just one arm.

At any rate, I'm ok with it. She's still alive and able-bodied, which is something of a ray of sunshine in benighted Wallbones.

(https://i.imgur.com/UWTJ7BR.png)
Cloth for wound dressings. At last, Armok-damned cloth! And splints for the more serious injuries, but it *was* the cloth shortage stopping everything.

(https://i.imgur.com/Tz6lXYR.png)
Diplomat from the Mountainhomes has been waiting for the mayor to get patched up, and once the mayor's out of the hospital, dimplomacy ensues. I make a simple request: coal, and lots of it. The remains of multiple killsquads and sieges will offer plenty of iron-bearing fodder for our forges. That is, once I find a particular feature. Though that is a project for later...

(https://i.imgur.com/eajpNBm.png)
Natch. This time, at least, I had the walling materials ready to go. Unfortunately, the diplomat gets sealed in with the rest of us. I sure hope he copes with the isolation well...

(https://i.imgur.com/AsMScV5.png)
Walling complete in just a few seconds. Naturally, the gobbos brought trolls. Shame we're nice and sealed off from the outside world now.

(https://i.imgur.com/KZUaze1.png)
Finally, everybody's back on their feet (as it were. The mayor's still paraplegic).

(https://i.imgur.com/Je2jV21.png)
I plopped down a memorial slab for Scourge's angry spirit a while back, but now I'm definitely starting an ongoing project. Since it's now apparent that ANYBODY will return given enough time, I've started plopping slabs for all the dead of Old Wallbones. This will take some time.

(https://i.imgur.com/jmOjYhV.png)
At least we now have a nice and proper dining room dug out in addition to private sleeping quarters.

(https://i.imgur.com/MtT3rmS.png)
Well **** me. Looks like our guest couldn't handle the isolation too well.

(https://i.imgur.com/C6XA85J.png)
Technically, he hasn't *left* unhappy, but the poor SOB sure won't be returning our requests to the Mountainhomes any time soon. Or any time ever, actually.

(https://i.imgur.com/zD26twD.jpg)
So, berserk dwarf right in the heart of Wallbones. As usual, Dwarf Fortress' graphical style doesn't make for gripping fisticuffs, so here's a reconstruction of the events as I understand them.

For some reason, the paraplegic Mayor was near the farming plots. Being the nearest target, the now-berserk diplomat immediately attacked her. I respond my drafting all dwarves except the assigned medical dwarf into a combat squad. Half of Wallbones' adult population is active miners, so we have a modestly passable milita. One of the unarmed dwarves reaches the berserk diplomat and dispatches him single-handedly. Crisis averted, and nobody suffered further injuries.

(https://i.imgur.com/va1lOfo.png)
After a bit of stoneworking and some mechanical shenanigans, the fishing pond that cost the mayor's ability to walk is finished. It probably won't be worth much in terms of fish output, but it will serve as an alternate water source.

(https://i.imgur.com/cCDo9so.png)
Woot, another caravan. And they don't get killed by a goblin ambush squad. I send them away with some war pickings, and we retreat back underground with surface food and booze. Important things, ya know.

(https://i.imgur.com/pb87AML.png)
Since at this point I'd never be able to prepare a proper military response even with 100% population participation, I start making alternative defensive plans. This area will house a new Trade Depot, and will be connected to a vicious defensive contraption (the details of which I will reveal ...soonish).

(https://i.imgur.com/ITwotec.png)
Dante is the latest ghost to rise, making his presence and displeasure known by trashing the old fort. I simply prioritize him in the current batch of memorial slabs. Once his slab is down, he returns to his ghostly slumber.

(https://i.imgur.com/1lUbNLd.png)
Excellent. Adil's growth to a child marks the second year of New Wallbones' survival. Sure feels like a lot longer than that.

(https://i.imgur.com/rsEVJUw.png)
Seriously? Hell, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but really? After everything that's happened, this batch of migrants would think that coming here is a good move? Whatever they say. We desperately need the extra hands.

(https://i.imgur.com/zOPHz7W.png)
Following rather closely on the heels of the migrants is a goblin kidnapper. The jackass flees quickly once spotted.

(https://i.imgur.com/JGNZtZg.png)
As the migrants get settled in, I order private bedrooms dug out for them. It actually seems as though things are looking up, I daresay. And now I get word of a human caravan arriving. Finally, a stretch of good news!

(https://i.imgur.com/n9A2iIR.png)
****ing Murphy's Law. Well, the caravan guards will have to deal with this on their own. I hope they have fun.

(https://i.imgur.com/LKxOu9l.png)
After releasing the merchants from my attentions, I get word that they made it to the trade depot safely! Huh. Dwarf Fortress NOT ****ting on us for a change? Seems good.

(https://i.imgur.com/x6ipFji.png)
SUDDEN EPISODE END! I'll remember that we have a merchant caravan waiting to trade. Some of the war bitz should net us a handful of useful stuff. Until next time!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on April 01, 2013, 11:12:17 pm: I was legitimately a little nervous when reading this! Nice to see that we haven't bit the dust yet. Onwards!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Kobrar44 on April 02, 2013, 01:22:58 am: Just wait until you discover a
Spoiler:
vampire
or two in your ranks :lol:
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on April 02, 2013, 01:31:00 am: Wooooooooooo, I am a master surgeon ghost! I specialize in disarming goblins and dwarves, whichever comes first!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on April 30, 2013, 03:14:44 pm: Unbelievable as it may seem, I have not forgotten about our fortress. I was rather occupied the last few weeks IRL, but I did recently manage to sit down for a bit and advance Wallbones. Let's see what's been happening!

(https://i.imgur.com/oxav1i5.png)
More digging. This area will eventually be the primary defensive contraption for Wallbones, though it may not be obvious how it works just yet.

(https://i.imgur.com/2ioKw6x.png)
The central square becomes a downward-reaching shaft, and the uppermost floor is cut into a single-tile-wide spiral, with a down stair in the middle. The central shaft will tunnel downward as far as I can take it, ideally the z-level just above the accursed cavern layer.

Basically, the whole contraption will be an automated "gravity blender". The uppermost walkway will be completely riddled with floor-based weapon traps; enemies walk on the traps and face a devilish choice. They can either take a hit from the trap, and I'll be loading the traps with serious components, giant sawblades and the like, or the invader can dodge. Dodging usually means "move to a nearby unoccupied tile", which in this case means "open-air tile above a 20-level fall"! I don't think there are many creatures that can survive a fall like that, and I can rig the killing floor to flood with lava too (once I find a source). Cue the evil cackling!

(https://i.imgur.com/3xrT2BV.png)
Yay! More dwarfpower!

(https://i.imgur.com/53c4ws0.png)
O noes. A gremlin in Old Wallbones. I don't even know who or what gave me eyes on the gremlin, but right after it was spotted , it scampered right back down to the cavern layer. Whatever.

(https://i.imgur.com/3z4hYVg.png)
Work continues on the gravity blender when suddenly- a possession!

(https://i.imgur.com/jfmHuRI.png)
At first, I had briefly forgotten that a possession was good, then I quickly remembered when I saw the forge get claimed. Ah, uhm... metal bars might be a bit tricky. Also, here we observe one of the downsides to a tile pack- that weird spacing in the dwarf's demand. Ah well, the demand is still readable, and my audience is happy.

(https://i.imgur.com/JThTRQl.png)
Actually, I lied about metal being hard to do. Initially, I thought that I'd have to melt down some discarded gear, but it turns out there was a steel bar just sitting on the surface unclaimed. I mark that bar to be taken under, and Reg snatches it right up for his project and gets to work. Oh boy! A steel artifact, hope it's something awesome!

(https://i.imgur.com/sDOCJLE.png)
Kickass! A steel artifact weapon will pwn ALL teh n00bs!

(https://i.imgur.com/dh1djtr.png)
Not the most creative of decorations, but an artifact doesn't need to menace with nine types of gems to be more effective in battle.

(https://i.imgur.com/o28gHHD.png)
And a caravan shows up shortly after the spear's completion. Lemme just take a second and figure out what I can tr-...

(https://i.imgur.com/WqEnl2O.png)
....without fail. Gee- it's a good thing we don't need anything from those trade caravans, right? Actually, we are a bit low on wood, but the open-soil area will provide us a slow yet steady trickle of fungi-timber.

(https://i.imgur.com/jpxhZEl.png)
Bar the doors, and don't feed the trolls. Well-rehearsed **** at this point. Wallbones is buttoned up in a matter of seconds.

(https://i.imgur.com/UFhJhjp.png)
Excavation for the gravity blender continues unhampered by the troubles on the surface. But work is hampered by troubles within. One of our tanners takes a serious ass beating from another cranky ghost. I check Rigoth's wounds right when I get the message- Rigoth's got gut injuries and is red for the lower body. Pretty serious injuries, but Rigoth shambles towards the hospital...

(https://i.imgur.com/u7Om7Mq.png)
...but doesn't make it. Goddamn, ghosts are assholes!

(https://i.imgur.com/asMamFZ.png)
Welp. Plop down another coffin for our latest unfortunate SOB, and prioritize a slab for our newest cranky visitor. We've made some good progress with the slab engraving project. Slabs aren't very well represented under this tile set- they're represented by the dark blotches in the middle of the screen. At present, I think we've memorialized about half of the dead from Old Wallbones.

(https://i.imgur.com/CLzdLKh.png)
What kind of hax is this? Now dwarves that aren't even mine can become ghosts? MAN, this is some bull****. Ah well, add those assholes to the engravers' list as well. Now I need to memorialize anybody with a dwarven name. WHY CAN'T YOU JUST STAY DEAD, EH?

(https://i.imgur.com/J0hKa54.png)
And now we're running into another slight complication owing to our status as a... "spinoff" fortress. Dwarf Fortress will prevent a fortress from having more than 200 of any type of seed in the entire fortress gamespace. You know, to prevent ridiculous overloads and all that. An unfortunate side effect of this is that we now can't regenerate our stocks of Plump Helmets, and we aren't really able to grow many other plants. We do still have Sweet Pods and Cave Wheat (albeit not much), both of which can be used for food and booze. If the gobbos ever leave, I can make arrangements for a fortified "above-ground plant" garden, but for now we're kinda stuck. To help make ends meet, I order all the fungishrubs that have popped up to be collected. Lemme clarify one thing, however- we're not in danger of starving. I just want to sort out this plant bidness before it becomes a major issue.

(https://i.imgur.com/3i5f9ij.png)
And with that, I must leave for now. I'll try to get a more substantial session up before much longer, but I can't say for certain when I'll do that.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Mongoose on April 30, 2013, 03:41:21 pm: So if you want to fix that quota issue...you're basically going to need to invade Old Wallbones at some point? ;7
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on April 30, 2013, 03:52:26 pm: Quote from: Mongoose on April 30, 2013, 03:41:21 pm
So if you want to fix that quota issue...you're basically going to need to invade Old Wallbones at some point? ;7

Anyone going in there will most likely end up well and truley Wallboned.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on May 01, 2013, 01:11:13 am: But they've got the steel spear studded with steel!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on May 01, 2013, 02:10:30 am: Quote from: FireSpawn on April 30, 2013, 03:52:26 pm
Anyone going in there will most likely end up well and truley Wallboned.

:lol:

Persevere, IronBeer! (Hey that rhymed.) You can do it!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: redsniper on May 01, 2013, 10:47:17 am: Dwarven Spear of Longinus ftw!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Hobbie on May 01, 2013, 09:53:44 pm: Been a long time since I've read a DF LP. You open to naming the dorfs again yet?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on May 02, 2013, 07:56:37 am: Wallbones still lives!

Invade old Wallbones? First we need a proper military. And luck. And Gandalf.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Kobrar44 on May 02, 2013, 08:25:13 am: Flood it with water and wait until everything is dead. Might cost you a dwarf or two, though.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on May 30, 2013, 01:19:47 am: IronBeer's got a little something for all the good girls and boys of Hard Light's GamDisc! That's right, a brand-new bigass update on the status of Wallbones! This will be a pretty monster post, but I assure all involved that you'll want to read this whole thing! With no further ado, let's get into it!

(https://i.imgur.com/CnyDsQ6.png)
Work continues on the seemingly Sisyphean task of memorializing all the dwarves slain in our vicinity. It may not be obvious, but Wallbones' workers are actually making some significant progress against the list of the dead now.

(https://i.imgur.com/HlfLfwM.png)
****! ARGH! DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT! (Snarlsigh....) Grar. Wasteful and needless. Part of the Gravity Blender design necessitates a staircase running the height of the device, all the way down. Stair tiles can be constructed like walls or floors, but they can also be built from above (i.e. from an overhanging stair tile with no other support). Dwarf Fortress decided to forget this fact- a tile was being constructed from above as some other workers were digging out the floor beneath it, and the stair tile decided to drop.

(https://i.imgur.com/QyrMbND.png)
Two other dwarves were killed in the accident as well, and all of the miners at the site suffered work-stopping injuries.

(https://i.imgur.com/S7deF6P.png)
Patching-up took a while to start, mostly because I forgot that we didn't have an assigned Suturer yet. Now we do.

(https://i.imgur.com/RREmuan.png)
Oh boy, a mood.

(https://i.imgur.com/5rBca2n.png)
The goblin siege finally decided to piss right off. Excellent news- there's a minor construction project I couldn't start with those idiots ****ting up our beautiful countryside.

(https://i.imgur.com/LqXhGxD.png)
First, I have to build a leather works for our current moody craftsdwarf.

(https://i.imgur.com/MX2f7Rh.png)
And he gets right to work, how pleasant.

(https://i.imgur.com/wQKl5Z7.png)
EPIC LEATHER PANTS!

(https://i.imgur.com/CPw4ChJ.png)
As the EPIC LEATHER PANTS were being crafted, I had the second-line and serviceable first-line miners dig out a small alcove in a sandy area.

(https://i.imgur.com/STPfsAR.png)
Oh look, babies. To think I used to hate babies being born. Well, I still hate the interruption factor, but we definitely need the population.

(https://i.imgur.com/dtcKR9s.png)
Since the gobbos are gone, I take an opportunity to scavenge some resources from the surface. Among a few other things, I manage to find a few bags of surface plantseeds. Wallbones' workers grab the seeds and a the few splinters of wood still available.

(https://i.imgur.com/YA8rPg7.png)
Just in case the previous screencap didn't make it clear, we had another child born.

(https://i.imgur.com/rDnHtNw.png)
Ok, so here's one of several cases where Dwarf Fortress' wonky simulation quirks works in our favor. New Wallbones can't recover seeds for several dwarven staple crops because of gamespace saturation. (Remember this, this is actually a serious problem!) There are many types of surface plants that we can grow, and none of those plants even have seasonal restrictions on them! But you'd think that these plants would need to grow on the surface, near the sun's warmth?

You'd be half-right. Surface plants do need a "lighted" tile, but they don't need to be on the surface. And there's a funny thing about "lighted" tiles- once they're exposed to sunlight, they count as "lighted" forever after. Here we see workers building a roof over that alcove I had dug out a few screencaps ago. The roof will keep hostile arrows out, but let our farmers grow delicious surface crops in the safety of our fort!

(https://i.imgur.com/AWH84vu.png)
A side benefit of this project- a long-dead caravan pack animal falls into our domain during the project. It carries a number of useful goods, which we shall claim at our leisure.

(https://i.imgur.com/Lxzpzbn.png)
Excellent. We still need to replenish our ranks. The newcomers rapidly scamper to the safety of our tunnels.

(https://i.imgur.com/qxBoCw7.png)
Shortly after our newcomers start getting settled in, some elves drop by, wanting to trade.

(https://i.imgur.com/25qRRSO.png)
And an all-too-familiar screen follows them about thirty seconds behind.

(https://i.imgur.com/JUiTO0B.png)
We wall ourselves in, and try to block out the sounds of battle and goblin occupation.

(https://i.imgur.com/i1FQTVc.png)
Wallbones' craftsdwarves really have made progress. The "master list" for deciding the order of potential memorial subjects appears to be in reverse order of death. Most of our named dwarves perished early in the First Sack, so we're getting close-ish to the end of the list.

(https://i.imgur.com/suHrK56.png)
Oho? What have we now?

(https://i.imgur.com/LG56P4K.png)
He gets right to work.

(https://i.imgur.com/a4y4Xwq.png)
A rather plain, but exceptionally-crafted mica crown. What's not to love?

(https://i.imgur.com/FJo8RGh.png)
And now, out of friggin' nowhere, I begin taking actions to solve our seed saturation problem. The solution to that problem? Kill the Cobrabeast that STILL haunts Old Wallbones, and start pulling supplies from the still-intact stockpiles there.

I want to minimize risks, so that means the solution will require a lot of work and dwarfy engineering. It's anything but obvious here, but I'm planning on building a king-size rockfall trap to kill the beast. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING in Dwarf Fortress can survive a cave-in, and this time, I've actually got a well-planned design and scheme to go along with it.

(https://i.imgur.com/cGHmOSE.png)
FFFFFF. No big deal, I'll just shift where we're putting the trap by a small amount.

(https://i.imgur.com/HRC5j0e.png)
Consider the oh-so-eager-to-kill goblin army outside our walls. So close, and yet so, so far. This area will be the top of the trap.

Cave-ins only occur if a tile or block of tiles become completely orthogonally detached from the larger mass. Mass of the block doesn't matter, so I'm going to dig out a big stone pancake and have it held up by a single support. I'll draw the beast in, have another dwarf break the support via lever a safe distance away, and KER-SPLAT! ...at least, that's the plan. And we all know just how well my plans work. This one's got solid fundamentals at least, I promise!

(https://i.imgur.com/QDpRiwN.png)
Dig, dig, dig....

(https://i.imgur.com/Bbq2irw.png)
Luuuuurvely. Whatever, we're busy.

(https://i.imgur.com/5przXE6.png)
And this is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. This level will be loaded up with retracting bridges and a series of wall baffles to ensure beast entrapment. Some brave SoB is going to need to dig into Old Wallbones, get the Cobrabeast's attention, lead it back here, and (ideally) get out of the kill area in time for the beast to get trapped. More likely said SoB is going to need to go down with the beast. We'll see, however.

(https://i.imgur.com/BQRh4z1.png)
Excellent, more migrants. This puts our population back at around 50.

(https://i.imgur.com/HRLplsZ.png)
We're out of food. How did we run out of food. Ok, this *is* bad, and really drives home the need to reclaim the old fort. However, I do have a minimal grasp on this problem. The plants that we can grow have been steadily processed into cooking-ready materials. I conscript all the qualified cooks in Wallbones and build an extra kitchen. Cave Wheat Flour biscuits may not be the tastiest food ever, but they sure beat starving.

(https://i.imgur.com/HLwlgwl.png)
Oh teh noes. Something's messing with the levers in Old Wallbones. No matter.

(https://i.imgur.com/tAy0068.png)
Oh, goody. Dwarven caravan. Our surface trade depot got wrecked by the last group of gobbos and trolls, so these guys are SoL.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZRlXH1k.png)
Progress on the deathchamber. The bridges are setup such that if they retract while the Cobrabeast is still on them, the beast will fall to the lower level and be trapped. Unsupported floors provide no protection against cave-ins, so we'll still be able to crush the accursed thing.

(https://i.imgur.com/JTYiNgN.png)
I forgot about the new trade depot. The footslogging merchants barge through New Wallbones to reach the new trade depot. If I can't step up food production, we'll be circling the drain really soon. I hock all the valuables we still have (aka scaveneged from other unfortunate caravans) in exchange for all the food this caravan carries. I don't even care that I'm "wasting" a lot of trading potential- this might be the only caravan that reaches us for a long time.

(https://i.imgur.com/vype6V6.png)
Kay. Another mood. Starting to get a little trite now, and that's kinda sad.

(https://i.imgur.com/qKsR6Pm.png)
Ironically, a bed's "comfort" is dictated by its value. A marble bed would be fit for a king.

(https://i.imgur.com/tHANMGa.png)
A couple of goblin childsnatchers are chased out of the fort, but the snatchers are only a prelude to an ambush! Only one dwarf gets caught on the surface... unfortunately it's the most-skilled grower in the fort! Goddamnit. (Sigh) We can survive without him. With the food from the caravan, we'll have time to train up a replacement.

(https://i.imgur.com/ilDgezM.png)
It's almost time. I now direct our workers to begin disconnecting the "kill block" from the surrounding stone. A lone support in the middle of this block will hold it up, and a lever in the safety of Wallbones will detach that support when the time comes.

(https://i.imgur.com/nhCXjsr.png)
The next level down. The channeling and isolating continues.

(https://i.imgur.com/LeXncfm.png)
I choose a volunteer to dig into Old Wallbones and provoke the Cobrabeast. Ilral here will not be expected to kill the beast- he will get the beast's attention, then flee like wildfire back to Wallbones proper. The moment of truth approaches.

(https://i.imgur.com/TOQHJtx.png)
I pre-designated digging jobs to break into Old Wallbones, and set up a special "suicide" burrow to access them. Ilral will be on his own from this point forward.

(https://i.imgur.com/EswECnD.png)
He begins working. I ignore whatever other distractions may be going on- nobody's hurt or mooding, we have food and booze, and a group of migrants is getting killed on the surface because I can't/won't evict the goblin ambush squad. We have bigger game to kill at the moment.

(https://i.imgur.com/EapD7xw.png)
My original plan hinged on the beast going aggro as soon as a path the New Wallbones became available. That didn't happen. Ilral stalks closer to the ugly beast, trying to get its attention....

(https://i.imgur.com/xWHjlE5.png)
....and he does, in the worst possible way. Ilral panicked, and didn't run straight back home. The beast caught him, and slew him.

(https://i.imgur.com/htImjnp.png)
The smug, ugly bastard doesn't press on, however. It could be something to do with the widespread and critical injuries it's suffered. This is interesting to me- I didn't realize the Cobrabeast had suffered that badly from its wound infections. Either way, that thing's still a mortal threat to the fort. I'm going to take another crack at the "bait" strategy. I conscript a fast-looking dwarf into a military position- maybe the military AI will work better.

(https://i.imgur.com/F0sG1Ef.png)
It doesn't, unfortunately. Volunteer #2 moves just like I tell him to, but he doesn't disengage. The nutty gung-ho beardman attacks the beast with his bare hands! For a while, it looks like the volunteer might actually manage to defeat the Scourge of Wallbones, but his strength ultimately proves insufficient. Volunteer #2 didn't die in vain- while he didn't do much real injury to the beast, he revealed that the beast is much weaker than it used to be. Since the beast is staying passive even with a nice path into the heart of New Wallbones, I decide to try another tactic- one that I normally wouldn't consider.

(https://i.imgur.com/Gxa2pcz.png)
Direct confrontation. While I haven't managed to scavenge any dwarf-sized armor, we do have a small number of decent weapons available, not the least of which is the deadly artifact spear Okilitred. I find six dwarves with military skills and match them to their best weapons, and march them into the festering heart of Old Wallbones...

(https://i.imgur.com/awz5zlR.png)
...and the beast falls. And the beast falls! AND THE BEAST FALLS!

The fight wasn't terribly exciting- everybody just jumped on the Cobrabeast and started stabbing/slashing/chopping the crap out of it. One brave soldier did suffer significant injuries, and I can't tell who got the killing blow despite reviewing the combat logs extensively. But, we are free! We walk knee-deep in the dead, but we are free of the Cobrabeast's reign of terror!

(https://i.imgur.com/HBn9Adq.png)
We will endure.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on May 30, 2013, 02:08:04 am: Woo! Go IronBeer! I'm really glad you've picked this back up, and that the beast is dead! Can we claim its head as a trophy or something?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on May 30, 2013, 02:37:09 am: Whoooooo, go dwarves!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: pecenipicek on May 30, 2013, 03:28:22 am: Quote from: CommanderDJ on May 30, 2013, 02:08:04 am
Woo! Go IronBeer! I'm really glad you've picked this back up, and that the beast is dead! Can we claim its head as a trophy or something?
you can carve a totem or bolts or crafts (rings, decorative stuff) out of its bones.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Phantom Hoover on May 30, 2013, 05:30:31 am: am i a dorf

i want to be a dorf
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on May 30, 2013, 07:02:03 am: Quote from: pecenipicek on May 30, 2013, 03:28:22 am
Quote from: CommanderDJ on May 30, 2013, 02:08:04 am
Woo! Go IronBeer! I'm really glad you've picked this back up, and that the beast is dead! Can we claim its head as a trophy or something?
you can carve a totem or bolts or crafts (rings, decorative stuff) out of its bones.

I vote we do this.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Phantom Hoover on May 30, 2013, 07:04:00 am: if you can get an FB's corpse to the kitchen in time it makes one hell of a stew
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on May 30, 2013, 07:22:13 am: Yes, you will "volunteer" a dwarf

More like voluntold

Success story! Finally!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: redsniper on May 30, 2013, 11:14:52 am: There is an engraving of a forgotten beast here.

This engraving depicts the defeat of Dirlu Oselgalel Edquek Ost by dwarves of Wallbones. The dwarves are attacking the forgotten beast. The forgotten beast is wounded. The forgotten best is screaming.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on May 30, 2013, 12:59:02 pm: Just FYI, I managed to seal off access to Old Wallbones' backdoor (off-screen). A long-forgotten retracting bridge that offered another backdoor is still retracted, so we're pretty much in the clear now.

Roadmap for the next few sessions:
1) Start pulling materials and furniture from Old Wallbones. In particular, we desperately need the seeds, wood, and metal stacked up there.
2) Build housing for all the new arrivals. We're sitting at around 50 dwarves, and we have beds in New Wallbones for less than half. This needs to change.
3) Add the old Hall of History into the secured perimeter. Currently, the Hall is outside the secured area. I want to reverse this situation, primarily so we can recover the artifacts interred there.
4) Attempt to recover the dead of Old Wallbones. This may be difficult; many of the fallen are in the hilariously unsecured cavern layer, and our military abilities are ...modest at best. I think I can dig up a few more qualified recruits, however, and with the materials recovered from the Old Fort, I can get them properly equipped.
5) Convert Old Wallbones into a permanent, non-functional memorial. Right now I'm thinking of converting the old dining hall into the primary burial chamber- all the dead will finally be brought back to drink and feast where they did in life.
6) With all the internal problems now squared away, we will turn our vision outward. The Gravity Blender will be completed and equipped with a stupid number of weapon traps, so we can finally fight back against the omnipresent goblin sieges.
7) Locate a source of magma.
8) ???

Also, since we're no longer on the ragged edge of disaster, I'm willing to re-accept requests for named/reincarnated dwarves. Just speak up, and be sure to mention job preference(s).
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Phantom Hoover on May 30, 2013, 01:14:21 pm: i want to be a dorf! pls make me a jeweller and/or doctor
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Polpolion on May 30, 2013, 01:41:05 pm: I'd like to be reincarnated. Miner, if at all possible. If not, I'd like to be a cook. If I can't be either of those just throw me in the military.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on May 30, 2013, 02:17:15 pm: Why not re-takeOld Wallbones? The beast is dead... plug up the exit to the cavern.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on May 30, 2013, 02:41:19 pm: I'd like to be reincarnated. Military axedwarf still, please.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on May 30, 2013, 02:56:22 pm: Can I be reincarnated as Borin Balrogbait, hammerdwarf extraordinaire?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on May 30, 2013, 05:54:01 pm: Reincarnate me, and I'll take any job, particularly if it involves bashing heads.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Hobbie on May 30, 2013, 06:28:13 pm: My name is Hobbie and I'd like to be... a MECHANIC! :P
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Kobrar44 on May 30, 2013, 06:36:19 pm: Kobar wants to be back. Being a fighter didn't serve me well, so I guess I should rather go for something like Animal Caretaker of Herbalist..
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on May 30, 2013, 07:40:44 pm: Naturally I'm interested in being reincarnated
Role is whatever have you
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on May 30, 2013, 09:17:53 pm: I'll go for some reincarnation! DeeJay the Second, and I'd like to be a blacksmith or something of that ilk. If not, just put me where you need me.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on May 31, 2013, 05:50:19 am: Tras Hmanius reporting. Whatver job...preferably a fighting one. I had enough doctoring in my previous life and a dorfs life has to be short and violent.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Phantom Hoover on May 31, 2013, 06:39:09 am: shouldn't you be one of the garbagedorfs, for the sake of nominative determinism
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TrashMan on May 31, 2013, 06:40:27 am: Shouldn't you be a dead cleaning dorf then?
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Phantom Hoover on May 31, 2013, 06:51:32 am: no, i was merely a hoover in life
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: IronBeer on June 01, 2013, 10:34:13 pm: Update!

(https://i.imgur.com/ibTRZfq.png)
And the reclamation begins. Food and drink stores have been pillaged a bit by wandering wildlife, but there should still be a ton of munchables left.

(https://i.imgur.com/VrX8OP2.png)
Crap. We had a mason Mood during the whole trap construction saga. I thought we could resolve the situation before something bad happened, but I guess I was wrong.

(https://i.imgur.com/Yo7HnCS.png)
And another dwarf snaps. ....I'm now a little worried about the situation. I've heard stories about tantrum spirals- I'm not sure if we're in danger of one, but two insanities back-to-back like this can't be good.

(https://i.imgur.com/aBS0j93.png)
Know what else isn't good? A minotaur who wants to say 'hi'. Dumbass is stuck on the surface, just like the last 500-ish invaders. Get in line, chump!

(https://i.imgur.com/AmjVwvA.png)
Oh hey, what else is new? Migrants getting slaughtered helplessly by goblin killsquads? MY FAVORITE.

(https://i.imgur.com/PaDkzkJ.png)
Except this time the goblins do something useful for me and kill off the minotaur. I'll add this little favor to my logbook, but it sure as hell doesn't excuse any of the headaches goblins have caused in the past.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZcreflD.png)
Start trying to centralize all the readily accessible dead, get organized and get a grip on how big the Mortuary project will be.

(https://i.imgur.com/VrtGqD7.png)
More migrants. Shame for them I can't/won't help them out.

(https://i.imgur.com/mNLZeNf.png)
Well, crap. A Fell Mood is a special Mood- only really unhappy dwarves are eligible for it. The Mooding dwarf will claim a butcher's shop, murder the nearest dwarf, and make an artifact out of the victim's remains. At least we get a Legendary skill out of it.

(https://i.imgur.com/SUaAmGn.png)
Well, how about that? He made something useful out of his victim- a crossbow made of dwarf bones.

(https://i.imgur.com/rtfMscH.png)
And apparently that's exactly how you motivate your voting base, because Erib Bundy over here got elected to be mayor right after unveiling his creation.

(https://i.imgur.com/aB3gsGq.png)
A trade caravan arrives. As I let them in, some shell-shocked migrant survivors slip in as well. Apparently that bunch managed to simply wait out the goblin killsquads and managed to survive.

(https://i.imgur.com/4yRFvnB.png)
Oh this is really bad how did this happen ************. The recent three deaths have seriously dragged down the morale of the fort, and at the moment most dwarves are pretty seriously pissy. Pissy dwarves I can handle, its...

(https://i.imgur.com/JVRYbAe.png)
...trollish violent dwarf ghosts appearing at this tense time I don't like. Once again, the term "battered" doesn't really fit- the victim neatly lost a hand.

(https://i.imgur.com/oaUAkwh.png)
.....aaaaand here comes the tantrum spiral. **** me, we were doing so well.

Basically, a tantrum spiral happens when most of the dwarves in a fort are friends with each other. The death of one dwarf will make many others in the fort unhappy, and already-unhappy or less-stable dwarves may be pushed over the edge to throwing tantrums or even insanity by that. Tantruming dwarves can start fights and accidentally kill other dwarves, and insane dwarves might go berserk. Mind you, everybody's still friends with everybody here, so the effects accumulate rapidly. Like we're seeing right now.

(https://i.imgur.com/SINn4t5.png)
The situation deteriorates RAPIDLY. Before long, a significant fraction of the fortress is nigh-permanently tantruming, another fraction's gone insane, and a strong minerdwarf has just gone berserk. Dwarves are starting to die at an alarming rate, and almost everybody's really, really miserable.

In desperation, I identify the few dwarves that aren't contemplating suicide or murder, and try to herd them into Old Wallbones. All the food and booze has already been lifted from there, but there are a lot of shrubs and building materials available. If I can get a small, non-emo squad of dwarves safely over there, we might be able to wait out the self-inflicted carnage in the New Fort.

(https://i.imgur.com/fYVwJwM.png)
Long story short, it doesn't really work. Sanity starts to leave the fort with great rapidity, and the dwarves that did manage to get to Old Wallbones seem unable to really do anything productive.

(https://i.imgur.com/15wQ5IN.png)
The violence slows down in the New Fort, but now about half (I think) the fort is harmlessly insane. I order food and drink prepared for the survivors, but Dwarf Fortress refuses to believe that I have the necessary materials.

(https://i.imgur.com/9H7FNeE.png)
I'll be blunt: I think we're screwed. Further bluntness: I stopped enjoying this LP about the same time the Cobrabeast killed everybody, and I'm not really in the mood to go through another period of scraping by. Nevermind the fact that all the dwarves have apparently forgotten how to eat or drink (yes this happened, I think something that I can't diagnose has bugged, so we're more than likely totally hosed anyways).

I hate to yank y'all around like this, but this *is* how things went down. The "named-dwarf" initiative is presently on hold since I don't think it would be much fun to have somebody's dwarf go for about 30 seconds before getting killed or going insane. The game *is* currently saved, but unless there's a pretty serious outcry to keep going, I'm gonna call this a wrap.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: TwentyPercentCooler on June 01, 2013, 10:51:13 pm: Wow. That went south as quickly as Boatmurdered.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Hobbie on June 01, 2013, 11:55:38 pm: Next fort!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: SpardaSon21 on June 02, 2013, 12:12:13 am: New fort!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: CommanderDJ on June 02, 2013, 12:51:00 am: Aw, we were doing so well. Welp, maybe it's time to move somewhere sunny. Thanks for doing the LP regardless, IronBeer. It was a lot of fun to watch.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: deathfun on June 02, 2013, 02:11:57 am: Quote from: PhantomHoover on May 31, 2013, 06:39:09 am
shouldn't you be one of the garbagedorfs, for the sake of nominative determinism

If we're going by that logic I'll end up being the "dorf" that goes around killing anything and everything
Including other dwarfs in the establishment...

Quote
The Mooding dwarf will claim a butcher's shop, murder the nearest dwarf, and make an artifact out of the victim's remains

...Hello me
I was just speaking of you

Shame things spiraled so quickly out of control. Well, things learned from this now apply for the next run! Specially the cave in trap. That'll do wonders against future ancient crapola
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Scourge of Ages on June 02, 2013, 02:38:53 am: That was definitely fun, even when it was spiraling crazily out of control down the chamber pot.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: FireSpawn on June 02, 2013, 02:57:47 pm: Cheers, IronBeer. This LP has provided me with more fun than when I actually play the damned game. I also think that if you do consider starting up again, a new, slightly (extremely) less murderous-by-defult area may be a good idea.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Gortef on June 02, 2013, 05:10:05 pm: I did honestly think that we were somewhat in the clear after slaying the Cobrabeast, but damn it went to hell quickly.

I can understand if ya want to pull the plug now. And if this really is it for the Wallbones, then thank you for playing it for us IronBeer.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: Mongoose on June 02, 2013, 07:35:18 pm: "Well, that escalated quickly."

If this is basically going to hell in a handbasket, and since you said you haven't had much fun with it for a while anyway, I say it's time for Wallbones 2: Electric Boogaloo!
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: redsniper on June 03, 2013, 11:08:46 am: Well that's... one way to get elected mayor. (http://fi.somethingawful.com/safs/smilies/6/d/suspense.001.gif)

I'd love to see this played out to the bitter end, but of course there's no point in doing it if it's stopped being fun.
Title: Re: Let's Play Dwarf Fortress, HLP!
Post by: watsisname on June 05, 2013, 04:36:36 am: Wallbones has been taken by Cobra Beast.
FLEE TO NEW FORTRESS!
New fortress has been taken by insanity spiral.
FLEE TO WALLBONES!

:lol: :D