[Admiral_Stones]

So, I got my ass lifted and really looked into it. It's stonking GREAT! A bit unintuitive, but great.

I guess I should fortificate before some goblins come...

[Shade]

Yeah, that would be a good idea. Be careful with traps, though. Ones that automatically trigger (as opposed to going off when you pull a Lever of Doom) will happily take out any caravans coming to trade with you as well. Not that this is always a bad thing, after all dead caravans = free goods and more bones to make arrows out of The humans just sometimes decide to siege you in retaliation if you make a habit of slaughtering them.

[Flipside]

Problem is, if you use cage traps, you end up with a ridiculous amount of stored Gobbos, I've got a Goblin Zoo in the middle of my Fortress at the moment, but even now, new captures are thrown into the Barracks and released in front of my trainees, good training

I've been modding it of late, added some Mithril and Scale Mail for the Dwarves, though there's still too much Mithril about atm, tried to add punts (Heavy Crossbows) as well, but that seem to be causing a problem.

Might be nice one day to start a community Fortress, but we'd have to agree on a version to use etc

Edit: If we do a community fortress, I'll probably start us with a little bit more money than usual, probably about 5000 instead of 2000, but the rest would be best on vanilla DF.

[Shade]

I'd definitely be game for that It should be in a challenging location then, with much opportunity for disaster

[Flipside]

Hehe, yup, I'm scouting a few possible locations now, the problem is, with most maps it's a choice between Lava or Flux Stone, every time I find a place that has good steel-making possibilities with the opportunity to inflict fiery death upon all and sundry. the top soil layers are always sand, which is useless for fortifications

I'll try to scout out somewhere fun, and then start a new thread

[Shade]

If goblins are around, Hematite or other iron ores are probably unnecessary. Goblins are an excellent source of the stuff Magma and flux *would* be nice though.

[Flipside]

I've got a place in mind, but you would have to have a very short-range defence set-up because you can't fortify sand walls. Though, at least it means my Glassmakers won't keep getting killed for not fulfilling demands, but it also means you can't just sit behind the walls and throw XBow bolts at invading armies.

Best bet in that case, is to train up a load of Hammerers, and double them on XBows when you have spare training ammo, since in melee, a XBow uses the Hammer skill, and just training XBows does nothing for the armour skill. Lots of traps would be good too.

[Shade]

I believe you can build fortifications directly from glass even though you can't carve them on existing walls. We could just make a rule of "No fortifications or traps" to keep things interesting, though

[Flipside]

Heh, no Fortifications I could live with, but I think without traps, you'd lose dwarves too quickly during sieges.

One interesting thought is I could remove all ranged weapons from the game, for all races, that way all combat has to be hand to hand, that'll sort the men from the boys

[colecampbell666]

Been playing again, and the succession game really appeals to me. New topic maybe?

[Shade]

New topic maybe?

Nope. Old Topic Flipside's been busy though so it's not too late to sign up, as it hasn't started yet.

[Flipside]

Yup, all wrapped up in Uni work, we're in the second term now and things are pretty hectic, but I'd still like to give it a go at some point

[colecampbell666]

I've got everything figured out, save one thing:
I CAN'T MAKE A SUSTAINABLE FARM!
Try as I might, my farmers plant the thing once, the seeds grow, I put the plant in the still to generate seeds and booze, but come the second season nothing gets planted. (it rarely happens, and yes, I do set what grows in each season, and I have the proper seeds) Either that or there isn't a second season because everyone eats the food before it's distilled. Sometimes they just refuse to plant the damn things. What am I doing wrong?

[Flipside]

Well, for protecting the seeds etc, hit 'Z', got to 'Kitchen' and make sure that stuff like Plump Helmets are set for 'Brew' only, else they tend to get cooked before they can be brewed.

I tend to set almost the entire Fortress as Planters to be honest, otherwise Farming is pretty touch and go.

[Shade]

I find it helps immensely to turn off hauling jobs for the planter(s), otherwise they like to do anything but their job.

[colecampbell666]

How do I get my bowdwarves to practice? I set them to active, set them to use their bows, gave them ammo, and built the range. I set the range to the appropriate size/direction etc, and they just sit and talk.

[Shade]

They'll only use bone and wood ammunition for practice, so make sure you have some of those. Iron, steel etc. will only be used for actual combat.

[colecampbell666]

That`s all I have. And now no one but my guards will train, even with the proper equipment. My wrestlers just run around and try to look busy.

[Flipside]

Ah, wrestlers don't train at Archery, as long as they are in the Barracks and off duty, the will practice wrestling with each other, and will slowly improve.

Be careful when you start making Axemen etc though, when they train, they can end up hurting each other, make sure you use copper weapons, or, even better, buy some wooden ones from the Elves.

[colecampbell666]

Ah, wrestlers don't train at Archery, as long as they are in the Barracks and off duty, the will practice wrestling with each other, and will slowly improve.

Be careful when you start making Axemen etc though, when they train, they can end up hurting each other, make sure you use copper weapons, or, even better, buy some wooden ones from the Elves.

No, I mean that my wrestlers wont wrestle and my archers wont... Arch (IT'S A WORD! SHUT UP!) I've designated the proper areas, set their weapon types, put them on duty, made a ****load of bolts and crossbows... No dice. They aren't set to patrol or anything, they have no orders, ergo they should be sitting practicing.

The wrestlers are unarmed and unarmored... Maybe I'll set them as guards, and then once they're trained return them to their original duties.