Logs of the fortress manager

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Sure, I could post the fortress map, but it would be uploaded somewhere or have a lot of screenshots(Or just one of the main floor) since I like working with the third dimension, don't expect things to be too big though, most of the things made are just small things that had to be finished, and there is still a lot on the to-do list.
Would you prefer screenshots or to have the map uploaded somewhere?


Besides that, what to take on embark really depends on where you're embarking and what dwarves you're getting, but in general I'd suggest you trade in a starting axe for extra supplies, you only need one woodcutter for all the wood you need at first, and by the time you need more you have enough trade goods to buy a new axe from a caravan. Also having 3 dogs and 3 cats makes it so you will almost certainly have 1 female and 1 male.

Some people prefer to take the metal bars and make the axes and picks on site, it's cheaper then buying them at embark, but you will have to start out by putting up a forge and making what you need.

I'd suggest you always bring some extra food, seeds, and if you need a safe watersource quickly, a rope for a well. Besides that, take whatever seems like a good idea at the time, almost everything is useful. (Side note, taking milk on embark makes it 100 units of milk in one barrel, cooking with that milk has been reported to make items(Food) worth over 1 million, but this is an exploit)

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Leaders log, page 40, 5 moonstone, year 244

Nothing at all happened the last few months, which might be a good thing, since now the magma channel is almost ready, just a few more things to connect to levers, but the first pumps can be tested already, which will be done now. Pull the lever!

10 moonstone

Notes to self:
1. Move lever closer to idling rooms.
2. magma moves really slow
3. Consider adding a second magma channel to speed things up.
4. Remember that goblin you tossed into the magma pipe? You should do that again sometime.

15 moonstone

So, now the magma is at a little checkpoint I've set up for it before it will enter the actual fortress, there is a line of floodgates stopping it, and I think I'll flip the switch on that soon so it moves on to the forges. Until then, waiting on a mechanic to connect those floodgates to a lever.
Oh, and a stoneworker got possessed, that would be more artifact furniture.

21 moonstone

Oh, look, another titan, and look, the cagetraps are reloaded. No military will be needed for now, just get all the dwarves inside. The scouts report the titan is female...And naked.. Also, she is called Lum Mesmanir.
Besides that, a kobold thief just got pushed off the entrance bridge again, he survived, so I've send Kharak to deal with it, he should appreciate the new sparring partner. Another thief got beaten to a pulp when he interrupted a farmer that was on his way to eat.

During the thieves failed attempt to get in Lum killed a cat, and then walked right into a cage,now being contained in a small, low quality wooden cage.

5 opal

So, the artifact furniture, it turns out to be a door. "Ilashiltang Gostergidur", Leaguefork the Hoary Memories, worth 109 200, it has rock, wood, and opal gem decorations, spikes of wood, stone, and 2 kinds of leather. There is the image of 2 cave spiders in black gems on the door. A very nice artifact.
Besides that, Kharak is in the arena, and 9 goblins are getting dumped in.
One goblin tried to run, but was tossed in anyway. Another tried to run, but the hammerer was trying to toss him in, by hitting him hard enough with the hammer, so it died before falling into the arena. All other goblins died. Arena time ended when one jumped out of the arena and then tried to escape Kharak chased him, but decided he wanted a drink instead, so while still running after the goblin he walked to the stairs to the meeting hall where dwarves drink, and then walked up there as if the goblin never existed.
Glurki stood at the front door and tossed the goblin off one of the bridges, with his spear still stuck in the goblin's leg. He fell down with the goblin, but luckily landed on top of it and had no injuries. The goblin didn't survive.

13 opal

Pulling the lever, after this the magma gets to the last pumps, and from there on we can pump it into the forges.

(Log ends here on account of failing laptop, luckily, nothing was lost)

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Yay! Goblin killing time!

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Leaders log, page 41, 19 obsidian, year 244

Second pumps activated, just a few more days until we can actually use the forges. I would have gotten us through this boring winter with some goblin fights, but Kharak decided to sleep instead. I've checked, and the top layer of magma from the magma pipe is pumped dry, it's all in the channel now, luckily it will refill over time, but that magma man seems a little pissed off.

I will take some time to explain the magma forges, channel, and regulationsystem.

First we have a magma pipe, a large pipe that will slowly refill with magma from the nearby volcano, from there we have found a good place to drill into it, and extract the magma into the channel, but not before filtering it through a line of grates, and 2 lines of fortifications. No imps or other creatures can come in.
After that it comes to a line of pumps, which will raise it one floor higher, further preventing entry through the magma, and to speed up the flow. The pumps are operated by waterwheels in the nearby underground river, so they will never stop working.
After the pumps it reaches a line of floodgates, with a line of grates before it to prevent anything from getting stuck in the floodgates.
It then moves a while till it reaches another line of pumps protected by grates, which will pump the magma into a reservoir next to the forges, so we can always refill it quickly. These pumps are operated by power like the others, but these got an off-switch. The reservoir opens into 6 floodgates, each having an individual lever and a masterswitch.There is also a door leading into the reservoir, operated by lever, in case someone has to go in for any reason.
After that, it flows under the forges, allowing up to 21 smelters and 21 forges to work with it. I might have overestimated the amount of workspace we needed, but better to have more then less.

26 obsidian

The reservoir is full, and ready to be emptied into the forges, I've ordered the pumps to be stopped, and the floodgates to open, soon we will have all the metal we could ever want. And just to make sure nobody screws up, doors to the smelters are locked until everything is done.

1 granite, year 245

Crap. A floodgate broke, luckily, it means the reservoir will just empty into the forges, which still need more to operate, but there will be a delay as the floodgate will need to be fixed.

14 granite

The reservoir still has some magma in it, so we can't fix it yet, but the elven diplomat arrived again, and the elven caravan is coming. I guess I'll just trade them some of the rocks laying around, not the rock crafts, just the rocks left around when we were digging, not like they have anything useful anyway. To top off this visit from the elves, a cook got into some mood, so we're probably getting another artifact. And a kobold got shot by a hunter

In case of emergency, all magma can be drained into a large, 2 floors high reservoir below the forges. No use is planned for this magma as of yet, but hopefully, we won't have to fill it anyway.

3 slate

Oni was just walking back in with a wooden log when he found a kobold trying to sneak in. He ripped off the thing's right arm and then strangled it to death, without ever letting go of the log. Besides that, we're fixing the floodgate, so it should be a month until we have the magma forges ready.
And as final point today, the artifact, "Atorbasen", Perfectsprayed. A toy boat, made of turtle shell, decorated with opal, has spikes of 2 diferent gems, and goblin bone, on it is an image of the first ever dwarven king in opals, and the image of 3 bats in silk. It is worth 94 800.

16 slate

Dwarves have been complaining about the well being dry for the past month now, and attempts to refill it mysteriously failed. Inspection shows that the reason why that is was because there is a giant mushroom growing in the channels, and it's blocking off the water. Seeing an oppertunity to expand the well's water supply, I've ordered the miners into the low water to dig into the rock, and make sure it's smooth at the ends, just because I can order them to do that.
Besides that, the magma floodgate got fixed, lets fill the forges.

23 slate

Migrants, The first thing they will get is a tour of our new magma forges, they will descend down a large stairway, before passing through a door decorated with goblin bones. Then they will see it, forges and smelters, the faint red glow of magma below it, fueling all the metalworking processes a dwarf could ever dream of. The dark grey walls will reflect some of the glow, and it will smell like...Beef? What?..Oh, a cow fell in, nevermind.

Anyway, the migrants:
7 recruits, 1 axedwarf, 2 macedwarves, 3 swordsdwarves, 1 speardwarf
1 guard
1 royal guard
1 metalsmith(The only one that will actually work)

also arrived:
1 cow
1 dog

Glurki gained command over the speardwarf recruit.

27 slate

Time for the smelters to start, we have plenty of ores, goblin equipment, and dwarves, lets make those ores into bars.

19 felsite

I admit it, we have a labour shortage. Nothing gets done in reasonable time, we have 226 dwarves(37 children), of which 11 metalworkers. Now, I know this won't fill all the forges, but if I can watch our brand new magma smelters/forges for 10 days, personally assigning all ores to be smelted down, and all forges to make bins(For the bars I was expecting), and nobody even steps into the area, something is terribly wrong with the metalworking part of the fort. So, I went to check on the other parts as well, the results are even worse then I thought..

Mining: Medium size designated sections not mined out yet.
Woodcutters/herbalists: The northwest forest was designated to be cut and gathered about a year ago, it's still standing with minimal changes.
Masons/engravers: Large sections of the fortress still not engraved. Medium amounts of walls not build. Large amount of rocks not made into furniture yet.
Hunters are doing fine.
Metalworkers..See above.
Jewelers doing fine, mostly because there are no gems to cut, see mining.
Crafters, including clothers and leatherworkers: Large amounts of cloth still needs to be processed, at most 1 out of 8 workshops are manned at a time. A lot of bones are waiting to be turned into praktise bolts.
Fishers are doing fine
Farmers, wood burners, tanners, butchers, brewers, cooks: No plants available, low booze stocks, very inefficient farming. Prepared food is doing fine, and so are the tanners and butchers.
Engineers: Doing ok, no need for engineering at the moment, so they can't not do ok.

Guards: Not working, not fighting, over 70% of them have braindamage of some sort.
Royal guards: Not working, barely fight, roughly 30% spends most of the year in bed.
Military: Slow training, about 50% braindamaged, lacking steel armour, see metalworkers. No practise for the ranged soldiers, see crafters. Archery range too small for current amount of marksdwarves.

 

[garfield751]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

wow you should really get some helmets for your guards to avoid them being braindamaged

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

I thought so too, but the metalworkers seem to be off doing something else.

Leaders log, page 42, 17 hematite, year 245

Nothing happened, except a few very small projects. I've designated the new barracks for smoothing and engraving, then later had beds and furniture moved there. The engravements were kind of nice, most of them were about Kharak killing goblins(The only thing that seems to happen these days). Besides that, the clothing workshops have finally been moved to the new area, where they will hopefully be more efficient(If they bother using them). The smelters started working, although slow(And nobody is touching the forges yet), and today, a human diplomat arrived with a caravan.

And nobody cared to take out that mushroom blocking the wells, it's a towercap, we can use it for wood..Not that we need extra wood now, we're forging on magma power, and the small amount of wood we need for producing steel is stuff we make ourselves. Extra wooden bolts for the military is always a good idea though.

Today, I'm also tossing 10 more goblins in for Kharak. One tried to escape when moved by the hammerer, and got a hammer to the face. And another tried to escape, got a hammer to the face, and was then dragged into the arena while bleeding and unconscious.

5 malachite

The nobles heard of the whole not working thing, and decided to have a clothier set an example. He was dragged to the jail by the hammerer, and then had his leg broken by him. I know they wanted to punish them for not working, but I doubt it helps to cripple a worker for a few seasons, if anything there will be one less dwarf to do the work.

(This is all that happened so far, it's getting a bit more boring now)

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Dwarven justice.

 

[garfield751]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

im kinda glad that all of my fortresses dont survive long enough to get to the hammer part

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Leaders log, page 43, 1 galena, year 245

It seems a woodcutter has secretly claimed an unused workshop, and made an artifact. This explains why that towercap isn't cut down yet. The artifact..Well, here it is, a bone ring by the name of "Orsharkokeb Tangatharzes", Webdwelled the Trampled Knight. It's worth 37 200, it has bands of bone, spikes of bone, wood, and rock, an image of a door in cloth, the image of clouds in gems, and the image of a tree in leather.
Besides that, that towercap won't be cut down, the water will just have to flow around it..Shouldn't be a problem now the digging has made the area bigger.
And for fucks sake, feed the wounded dwarves, a hammerdwarf starved to death because of a sparring incident hurting his foot. If you can be there within a day to bury the corpse and loot the belongings, I don't see why it takes a month just to fetch him a bucket of water and whatever food is laying nearby.
Side note on food, Naera's tomb is now filled with plants as she wanted, and the plants are not to be taken out again.

22 galena

Small sideproject success. I've ordered Burrito to mine out a small piece of rock right above the magma pipe. More specificly, above the pipe and where we're getting the magma from. The stone punched through the rock holding back the magma and has created a small magmafall that leads it right to our pumps. This only means we will have a lot easier access to magma if we want to do something with it later, but still, it's something.
Besides that, remember that dwarf that got hammered for not working? He won't ever work again. Since nobody bothered to feed him, give him water, or even look in his direction, he died after laying in the jail for at least a month. And like before, it takes less then a day for the remains to be buried. Nobody tried to loot them because he had nothing to loot.
Another side note, everybody is complaining the wells are dry, but nobody is bothering to even touch that last pump that needs a jumpstart. Even worse, the pump operator came to me, complaining the wells were dry..because -HE- didn't do his job. Idiots, at least there's booze for the important dwarves.

(After this nothing happened, so I got bored and decided this was enough for today...Also, please make suggestions on a new main project now that we have the magma forges/smelters)

 

[Diagasvesle]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

You can try to make an education system?

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Can we build a torture chamber for stupid dwarves?

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

No educational system available, and I can't think of any non-lethal torture for dwarves..Well, besides not giving them alcohol.

I don't think a dwarf torture chamber is possible.

 

[wallpaper]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Any chance of making couriers of food and water or something? XD They seem pretty lazy about that.

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

I have 1 dwarf that has no jobs except feeding and watering the wounded, and he seems to be doing nothing at all most of the time.

No log today, going to family for a barbecue.

 

[garfield751]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

i have an idea you can build some above ground structures like houses, farms, hospital/clinic, jail, city walls, pubs, banks, and stores if possable. that slould move some of the bums underground and prevent cave adaption. oh and most inportantly build a moat prefably filled with magma or traps

and also do you have any tips on how to find the underground river and magma pipe without digging too much?

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Above ground structures will probably do more harm then good, as the all dwarves stay inside orders actually mean all dwarves stay underground. Cave adaption is really no problem.

And there already is a moat, it's 3z deep, and 3-8 tiles wide. It's getting deeper later when the miners get bored. In the moat are 2 constructed towers(Made when the masons got bored), and those are used for the marksdwarves when we get attacked.

Finding the magma pipe is easy in some areas, look at the surface for a circle of obsidian, right under that is the magma pipe. The underground river is a bit harder, since it can be very small. You can build a trade depot and then use shift-d to see accessible areas, go underground and you will see some parts have everything marked as inaccessible, and others have nothing. In the areas with nothing there is something underground, this also works for the magma if you can't find it. And the game seems to always spawn the starting wagon near a feature, so explore around that if you still can't find it.


Leaders log, page 44, 16 limestone, year 245

Nothing happened since the last time I wrote, well, except 4 things.

1. Dwarven traders arrived.
2. the wells have been refilled, and will stay full now the pump system is automated again.
3. A recruit with braindamage switched to a marksdwarf squad.
4. Beardy adopted another cat, bringing his total to 20 cats and kittens. Or roughly 20% of all cats in the fortress.

I've also noticed 3 things that kind of always were, but are still interesting.

1. Dogstile's dog is still alive, and it seems to have taken to accompanying every dwarf that goes out to retrieve the remains of the dead, staying with them until the corpse is in the tomb.
2. The vault is nowhere near big enough for our coins.
3. A hunter likes to sleep in the middle of the magma forges.

22 limestone

It seems we're getting some action, goblin's ambushed a brewer that was out grabbing stones instead of working, the brewer, while doing the smart thing(Running), is not doing it right, as he's running the wrong way, and is probably going to get killed if he keeps it up. Even though he's perfectly capable of outrunning goblins, he probably can't outrun arrows. In the end, he died just a few steps away from that safe house build earlier. (The one nobody bothers using, he would probably have walked right past it anyway)

Note to self, turn a migrant into a replacement brewer when the next migration arrives. Preferably one that remembers which direction the large underground fortress with a lot of guards is.
Oh, and the part about the brewer being naked probably didn't help, new rule: No pants No brewing.

The goblins gathered at our entrance, and then changed to lemming mode, walking into the weapontraps one by one until they were all dead. One of the traps jammed, and of all people who came to clean it, it had to be the hammerer, which ran in and killed off the last 4 goblins. He got sick because of the sun at the last goblin, so his cave adaption forced him to throw up...Right over the goblin that was under him, trying to dodge the hammer. He then killed it, only to have yet another group jump from ambush. The goblins then ganged up on him, and killed him before going back to trying to throw themselves on the traps. During this fight the duchess tried to clean a trap, and had her 8 dogs run with her. The dogs decided to attack the goblins, actually killing the rest and chasing them away. These were untrained dogs, so it was a little unexpected. 2 dogs died.

Where was the military during this? Oh, just the usual routine of booze and sleep. 8 goblins were captured, I guess I'll toss them to Kharak again.

 

[wallpaper]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

XD That's awesome! I love that you have an old cat lady (er, man) and that 'no pants no brewing' policy. Oh, dwarves, so wonderfully stupid sometimes!

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Leaders log, page 45, 12 timber, year 245

Boring time, just waiting for the jobs to get done, and at the same time hearing complaints about there being no jobs. But anyway, on to why I'm writing today.
Bagash told me workers have been using the same excuse of burying the hammerer's things so they won't work. I thanked him, and went down to the where the hammerer used to live to see what it was about.
The room is a mess, the man had a fascination with 'toy mini-forges', and it seems he has claimed and gathered every mini-forge ever made in the fortress. There is no space to walk in the room, and there must be at least 70 of the toys here, not even counting the few that have been moved to his tomb.

On seeing this I ordered the tax collector's room, and the philosopher's rooms to be inspected, and there we found the rooms full of idols of all kinds, and a room full of anything made from the stone mica, respectively. On questioning, the tax collector claimed to have no less then 120 idols, and the philosopher claimed 80 of the mica items.
This is strange to say the least, but I feared there might be a bigger problem, and went to inspect the duke and duchess' rooms.
The duchess owns 9 dogs, and has stacked bracelets in her room, she has 82 from what she said, made from any material possible. The duke had a bit stranger item he likes, he has 75 mittens..That's it, 75 mittens, some of them aren't even dwarf-size, coming from the corpses of goblins or humans, whatever the case, he loves the things. I think they will need a bigger tomb if we want their rooms to be cleaned after their death. And since the miners were done with their jobs and got bored, I ordered them to stop making the moat deeper and instead dig out a few large tombs. Oh, and after asking him about it, the duke mandated more mittens to be made.

I'd also like to mention I'm designing a new trade depot closer to our stockpiles, but instead of being made of solid gold, this one will be made of pure platinum..Just because I can.

25 timber

Entirely unexpected, but here's the newest artifact, it's worth 112 800, and goes by the name of Teling Aroth, The Coasts of Magic. It's a rock idol, decorated with opals, having bands of opals, hanging rings of opals and silk, and wooden spikes. On it is the image of a large wolf, surrounded by dwarves, seeming to refer to a story of a great wolf that murdered a lot of dwarves..About 20-25 years ago. The image is in iron, making it better then a lot of other images. (Note to self, keep this away from the tax collector)

 

[wallpaper]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

XDD The insanity never stops!

 

[garfield751]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

do you have coffers/chests in your dwarf's rooms cus if you do then the dwarf will store it all in one coffer(stone)/chest(wood)