An Error Has Occurred!

[Captain Utopia]

4th Timer, 203, Late Autumn

So I received word from the King today, that my tenure as ruler of Dyecertain will be coming to an end as of this coming Spring.  Apparently Mountainhome feels that I have not being exporting enough "lulz".  Though what class of gem that is, I do not know, maybe some lie in the barely touched rock below?  What follows is a simple recount of our status and the first few uneventful years.

The lands I chose to settle are serene, quite flat and heavily forested.  There are no rivers, although there may be one underground, and the only source of water are the numerous small ponds.  The rain has been lighter than I expected, and drained ponds refill slowly.  The topmost sedimentary layer is red sand, and underneath that brown siltstone.  Despite all the trees, the trade depot is accessible, and we maintain good relations with our tall neighbours, the elves and humans.

The main entrance is on top of the largest hill in the region.  For defense purposes, it is located in a natural channel, and two smaller hills just to the north could provide an opportunity to trap an enemy in crossfire.  That is, should we ever face an enemy more formidable than a mildly irritated squirrel.  The areas closest to the main entrance are almost entirely deforested - there are a few saplings, but many have perished under a careless peasant haulers boot.

The first year was spent digging out the topmost workshop area and living quarters.  I selected a craftsdwarf to pump out siltstone kitsch, and he successfully gained several levels while creating bins full of crafts which has been our main trading staple ever since.

During the second year, we gained 7 migrants.  At this point I was too busy digging around the lowest layer, trying to find the source of the hot air vent I correctly supposed was the result of a magma pipe, so I set the new folk to smooth some stone, and promptly forgot about them.



At the bottom left you can see a grid where I was looking for kimberlite, mistakenly thinking that it occurs in olivine.  Diamonds, of course, only occur in kimberlite, and I really wanted to find some diamonds.  When the magma pipe was discovered, it was a simple matter of digging up and across until the top of the pipe was discovered.  The miner quickly walled up the entrance that had been breached, in order to prevent nasty fire creatures pouring through.  But in doing so, walled himself into the magma chamber.  Stupid dwarf.  A few more attempts of reconstructing walls and we were now safe from fire imps and magma men!

The second year also saw our first kobold thief.  He promptly ran off with the only steel axe in the fortress.  Which pissed off the woodcutter at a time when we were low on lumber.   So some dwarfs had to sacrifice their beds to create a wood furnace, a smelter and a metal forge in order to create a new axe.  They grumbled into their beards a little but I'm sure they understood.

Then we completed our first major project - the magma workshops and obsidian farm!  Here is how it connects to the magma pipe:



The first lever should never need to be pulled again.  The magma contained fuels the workshops, and is at a level of 4/7.  The second level is used to control flow into a pit, and the third lever is used to control flow coming from the pipe.  The magma behind that floodgate fills up to 7/7 pretty quickly.

To use the obsidian farm, you use the second and third levers to fill the pit to between 1/7 and 2/7 with magma.  This can be tricky, and there is a door above which can be locked so that the dwarf you tell to pull the levers does so promptly, and doesn't wander off to look at a fine cabinet or something.

The next three levers control the flow of water.  The left-most water lever will flood the magma chamber with approximately the right amount of water which comes from a small cistern above.  This cistern may need to be resized, but the math to do it properly is a little tedious.  The middle lever controls flow into the cistern, and can be used to refill it.  The third lever controls the floodgate at the mouth of the water source - three ponds which drain when this system is used.  It works, but since the water source is finite, it is far from perfect -- those source ponds are emptying too quickly.

We also had a birth this year, so I gave the mother (Cog Ceroltosid) a nice desk job as clerk, and assigned her a war dog in case any goblins get any bright ideas about stealing the child.

I formed a military around the same time, but made the mistake of making the squad leader out of the spouse of Cog Ceroltosid.  She is in for some drama one way or another, as I haven't figured out how to properly train a military yet - I have them wrestling, and assigned them swords, but they refuse to pick them up and continue to wrestle. 

We got an influx of 24 new immigrants.  Luckily I had started carving out the second layer of bedrooms, and they waited patiently while I created the work orders for their beds.  The stone smoothing team had finished so I set them to engrave.  There are a few masterpiece engravings in there I think, but I haven't found them.

I don't think there's much more to add to bring the new expedition leader up to speed.  The grand hall/meeting area has a large food stockpile, and the kitchens/still/fishery are nearby for easy access.  The mist generator is a slight modification on [http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Mist]this design[/url], but shouldn't require refilling and is perpetually powered by windmills contributing 20 power each.

Some of the dwarves are starting to become cave adapted.  I have a special project in mind for that, and if I'm lucky, just enough time to do it in.

[Captain Utopia]

26th Timber, 203, Late Autumn

Winter is nearly upon us, and with the it end of my second year managing this uneventful fortress.  I'm starting to think that perhaps it was a mistake to create a large team of engravers, because they are running out of subject matter:



Yes, it is so dull in Dyecertain that we have to find excitement by making engravings about engravings.  I'm not sure what "The Insensitive Planter" business is all about, so I walk the halls in search of this masterful engraving which has apparently enthralled my fellow dwarves.

Found it!



"Unnos Shithath"?!  One shit?  WTF!  I'll be glad to see the back of this place  

In more pleasant news, my last project is on track, and I should finish it before spring/this evening.

[Captain Utopia]

Nvm - mispost.  Sorry!

[Captain Utopia]

Only two years, feels like more.  Unzip this into your data/save/ directory and it'll show up with the same name in the "Continue Playing" menu:
  http://thedeviousplot.com/random/dyecertain-spr-204.zip

So, I finished my "secret project", I was so proud.



It's a 5x5 glass floor/ceiling over the main eating area/meeting hall.  And see that green glob on the top-right corner?  Vomit.  From the dwarf constructing it.  I feel more sorry for the poor dwarves who were sitting below happily eating their lunch.  Hopefully this will help with the cave adaptation which is starting to kick in.

I ended up doing another 3x3 one for a small indoor farm, as I heard a few guys grumbling about being bored of their booze.

Two kobold theives, I managed to activate my military for the second but the pace was matched and the soldier never caught up with the kobold, though he chased one square behind him until he left the map.  Remember that previous kobold thief that stole the battle axe?  These guys do:



Speaking of engraving, we're one step away from getting an engraving about an engraving about an engraving:


These dwaves are bored.

A few minor things:

• There's a small patch of bauxite to the northwest should you want to play with magma, or just search for gems
  
• The obsidian farm is still cooling - there's magma at the entrance, and you'll want to channel just the top layer to ensure you get the rocks
  
• There's a stray dog left untrained - I don't do hunting yet, but you have the choice.  There are also six puppies, and five wardogs.  The latter are mostly assigned to the mothers of infants - I haven't seen any goblins yet but I'm paranoid
  
• The mist generator is still working!
  
• Two new births in the last month, three infants in total now.
  
• Our stone crafts dwarf and engravers create so many masterpieces now, I don't really bother to check.
  
  We got a useful artifact "Ilromkosak", by Besmar Tekkudmogshum.  He became possessed and wandered into a masons workshop carrying only two chunks of platinum ore, and somehow made a native platinum throne valued at 144000.  The total fortress worth was less than 100k at the time.  It's now just a sliver over 300k, but I expect you will probably see more action as a result - migrants/enemies?
  
  This is what the status looks like now:
  
  
  Oh, and one thing I was keeping quiet about, there is a slight problem with horses.. I'm not cold-hearted enough to wipe them out:
  
  
  Good Luck!

[Issarlk]

I played it and loved it. But I never go beyond a few years because when the number of dwarves increase it become too confusing and you still need to micromanage too much.

I didn't know there was a dev version, I should look into it since it seems to add interesting things to manage better (military screen? infirmary? cool).

[Golden Applesauce]

So, I finished my "secret project", I was so proud.



It's a 5x5 glass floor/ceiling over the main eating area/meeting hall.  And see that green glob on the top-right corner?  Vomit.  From the dwarf constructing it.  I feel more sorry for the poor dwarves who were sitting below happily eating their lunch.  Hopefully this will help with the cave adaptation which is starting to kick in.

I ended up doing another 3x3 one for a small indoor farm, as I heard a few guys grumbling about being bored of their booze.

For future reference, ordinary floors and ceilings work just as well for this.  The game treats anything not directly below natural earth as   "above ground" (which is what is important for cave adaption and what kind of crops you can grow) - light doesn't factor into it, which is fortunate because glass stuff isn't transparent according to the game anyway.

I don't remember if you can actually cure cave adaption - you might just have all your cave-adapted dwarves vomit every time they go into your dining room.

[Captain Utopia]

The meeting hall underneath is Inside, Light/Above ground - apparently the latter is a single check.  But I read that although glass will allow plants to grow, it doesn't treat/prevent cave adaptation.  I knew about the regular constructed stone floor passing light quirk, but I wanted to do it "properly", even though mass production of clear glass is a pain in the ass.. especially with small stockpiles/workshops.

Are you interested in playing a year?  It could really use an experienced hand, I only started playing when I saw this thread!

[Golden Applesauce]

And here's why we're lucky the game functions at all:

Hey Toady, out of curiosity, do you write unit tests for any of your code?

Anything I'd think of to do there seems like it would be too annoying to maintain and prone to introduce bugs in the unit test when I try to maintain it, when it comes to setting up the objects etc necessary for the test.  I don't have any experience with it.

Hopefully he'll learn the value of things like unit testing before version 1.0 happens.

[PeregrineBF]

And here's why we're lucky the game functions at all:

Hey Toady, out of curiosity, do you write unit tests for any of your code?

Anything I'd think of to do there seems like it would be too annoying to maintain and prone to introduce bugs in the unit test when I try to maintain it, when it comes to setting up the objects etc necessary for the test.  I don't have any experience with it.

Hopefully he'll learn the value of things like unit testing before version 1.0 happens.

See, shit like that is why TDWTF exists.
Also, Nethack > DwarfFortress. Very different games, but Nethack is the best computer game ever.

[Triple Zero]

Except of course for Tetris, which is the best computer game ever.

[Jasper]

Hey guys.  Anyone played Armored Core: For Answer yet?  Shit is so Ca$h.