Dwarf Fortress (more time wastage ahead!)

[Shian]

I love reading these logs

[Dragonboy]

Making them is even more fun... You can always try the game, you might like it… I know I did after first learning it with a graphic pack.
Also attempted at making an Istaria mod for the game.Although I guess the undead dragons I chose as the main WA force were a little strong since after only 50 years had past in world creation the age of time became and stayed Age of Undead Dragons. Also wasnt able to get all the Istaria races alive and kicking at the same time (not even with undead dragons removed again), must have annihilated themselves.

In a way it is a pity that we don’t have an official underground river or pool, then we could just leave the doors open, let the goblins have fun with the weapon traps and harvest our trees far underground. FPS drop is annoying however.


So who's next? Tcei, me or an unexpected newcomer?

[SinOfSuns]

Good question, DB. I have no idea.

Also, don't trees only grow on the surface? Or is there something special you can do to make them grow?

Either way, I think this fortress is only a few years away from "winning" at this rate... just need the population to go way up and a few more things to happen and it's pretty much settled that the place will be fine for the rest of its existance.

Aside from some crazy bad luck, I really can't see even the largest armies ever overtaking our fortress now. It's just that good :P

Finally, Shian makes it all worth it lol

[Dragonboy]

In fact… When you have an underground river or pool and you receive the message that you have found this phenomenon every underground tile that you make wet, doesn’t matter if it is water from a surface river or underground river you will have a chance of growing tower-cap trees. They are supposed to be huge mushroom like things.

Only problem is that you need a HUGE room to fill with water and drain it again of course.

I actually did it once and after that decided it was not worth the also huge FPS loss for filling and draining the chamber, not to mention the FPS loss you get from all those additional creatures that live in that pool or river that btw attack you on sight.

For this reason I also do not like chasms or hidden fun stuff. The only cool thing about a chasm would be the spiders that provide a steady income from day one. (btw emtpy wagon challenge is quite easy with a chasm in the area)

[SinOfSuns]

Ohh, tower caps. I've heard of that! I thought you meant like real trees lol

Personally I haven't tried many different scenarios, and haven't really ever experienced the joys of chasms or the like. Sounds like fun though...

[Dragonboy]

Well apparently the elves think of Tower Cap as trees.

I have tried many different scenarios although I never bothered playing a long time because of the extreme FPS drop I got after a few years.

Would the game itself support multi core processors I would love to have a map with multiple specials, but now even a river can be annoying.

[SinOfSuns]

Well, doing multicore processing is quite a task for a programmer, as it involves all kinds of tricky scheduling, so I can understand why it doesn't. I noticed that my FPS count was getting a bit low even in the last year of DF, and I can see how that would be a put-off.

That said, that year went by strangely fast. Maybe it was because I didn't have to micromanage every 6 seconds... the Dwarves just did their jobs and everything was fine without my help.

Anyway, I don't think anyone else will be volunteering anytime soon. So either we can wait a few days/weeks for someone to go "Hey, I'll take the next year!" or you can do it if you'd rather not hang around. I've got a bit of free time now that I have my computer science degree completed so I'm not too troubled about how it all goes down.

[Dragonboy]

We shall wait a little while, not really in a big rush suddenly the week before xmas.

However I can understand how difficult it would be to let the game make use of multiple cores, I still hope however that this will get a small priority since untill then the game is fun, but eventually it loses its fun factor when having to many discovered specials like magma pool, UG river or pool, multiple hidden ambush groups and of course the worst of them all HFS.

[SinOfSuns]

While we're waiting for a volunteer here, I'd like to mention something that just happened in a new DF game I made a few minutes ago. I popped up in the freezing, untamed wilds of an artic volcano island (cool already, I know) with my scrawny band of Dwarves and began to go about my business.

Then, outta nowhere, about 12 rhesus macaques STORMED MY FORTRESS, attacked my Dwarves, and I thought I was in trouble until my assigned axedwarf and 7 guard dogs came to the rescue, chopping/mauling them all into tiny monkey bits. Still, it was the most epic beginning I've ever had for a fortress, and my only regret is that I won't get sieged later on in the game since I'm on an island. That said, the natives are hostile enough as-is for the time being.

I've checked and there's also wolves, a fire man, and some fire imps wandering around out there. This is gonna be fun!

[Dragonboy]

Sounds like an interesting place indeed.
btw if you are looking for some interesting fights... I think I can remove the dust from my undead dragons... Think regular dragons... Only stronger hitting and bigger... Only you need to start over a game in the age of undead dragons. No need for an Orc or raptor mod with them around.

[SinOfSuns]

Well, I seem to recall promising I would do one more year, and thus I shall at last keep my promise. Hi everyone, by the way, it's nice to see you all again! It's been a while, eh? Well I'm a graduate now, will be a games developer as soon as I can find a games company (there are literally none near me right now), and have finally found a bit of time for good old Dwarf Fortress.

Without any further ado, I shall begin the 3rd journal of Sibrek 'Ironhand' Zulbanmigrur, reluctant BossDwarf of Towerreleased...

1st Granite, 206… again
Uh… so we had a big meeting to determine who’d lead for the upcoming year this time instead of a sudden transferral of duties like before. Since I was still the leader I was calling the shots, so I told the other past leaders “None of these shenanigans this year, Tcei, Rvlion! We’re doing it properly, so get in here!” We all sat around a rough-hewn stone table, and I ordered a round of drinks for everyone to smooth things over before I began.

“Alright you two. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but I want to settle this fairly this time. My time as leader is ending, and so the new leader should be chosen fairly. When I say go, you’re both going to say ‘not it’, and the person who says it last is the new leader. Got it?” They nodded.
“Then go!”
“Not it!” They declared, Rvlion slightly behind.
“Are we all happy then? As agreed, the next leader is the person who was the last to say ‘not it’.”
“Yep, congrats, leader!” they both said in unison.

Darn it, I should have seen that one coming.

Ok, fine, whatever. Last year was so quiet I could have slept through it, so this year will be just as quiet, right? I’ll just cruise along and have them build an enormous statue of me or something. No problem. Unfortunately, I kind of forgot everything because I thought someone else would be having a turn this year, so now I have to refresh my memory of exactly what’s going on. Excuse me while I go for a wander about the fortress…

2nd Granite, 206
We’ve had an interesting thing happen… our tame alligator gave birth to an adorable alligator hatchling… right in the WADD! (In case you’ve forgotten, the WADD is the Wild Animal Doomsday Device) In any case, since the only way to get it out is to release the device, I think I’ll just let it grow into a fearsome guard gator and go from there. Not much else to report… there’s really very little that needs doing right now!


((This is the Wild Animal Doomsday Device, or WADD for short. All those random letters are wild animals I've had tamed and placed in the containing pit there. The floor is made up entirely of trapdoors, so all it takes is one pull and a snarling menagerie of doom comes falling down on unsuspecting foes. On the right are the guard towers, second floor. Bottom right corner is the lever room!))

6th Granite, 206
We finished making Libash’s mandate today (two suits of chain mail). As I placed the finished product on her desk, she looked me in the eye, grinned evilly and then said “Good. Now make 3 more.”

I hate her so much, diary.

In other news, we finished taming another war dog, whom I immediately assigned to one of the dog-less recruits. I figure the more war dogs we have out there with our soldiers, the fewer casualties we’ll suffer. Seems to work so far! Other than that the fortress is still nice and quiet. I’m going to hold off on any big projects for now though, or at least until inspiration strikes.

Oh, and I noticed a very dangerous thing – trees growing up where the ballistae are supposed to fire through! That would be terrible in a siege, so I had the workers build a road over the dirt to prevent any more trees growing up, and cut the ones in the way down!

15th Granite, 206
So it looks like a caravan was on its way here, because a guard and his mule were just outside of the north fortress walls when a goblin ambush struck! I ordered the first division, commanded by Nil Olinadil to help, and the second division, our crossbow dwarves, to standby at the front gates in case another ambush arrived while the first was being dealt with.


((You can see all those little g's around the @, I hope. They are goblins. The @ is a caravan guard about to get majorly beaten down. This is just above the fortress' north wall, by the way.))

As expected, a second goblin ambush followed the first, just as our military Dwarves arrived on scene. Half of the first ambush ran off, chasing after that one caravan guard, while the remainder stayed to get utterly slaughtered by Nil. After that, the first division continued on to wipe the remaining goblins off of the face of the planet. Sadly though, the guard died before he could be rescued, leaving behind previous resources to be scavenged by our own Dwarves and sold for a high price.

At that moment, a third ambush popped up just northeast of the main fortress. As the second division was closer this time, I ordered them in to deal with the new attack. ((I made a little movie of it here. I apologise for the goblins being hard to see, but the crossbow bolts should at least be obvious!)) At the same time, an elven caravan arrived. Talk about bad timing! It got worse, however. Yet ANOTHER goblin ambush leaped out to attack the caravan, slaughtering several elves long before the second division could even make an appearance on the scene. Atir Kalkathil, a random clothier, was wounded by a stray goblin crossbow bolt and had to be brought inside on a stretcher to rest. Tulon Likotgigin, one of my siege engineers, was also wounded, though only a light cut on her left upper leg, not enough to relieve her from her work.

The elves scattered, trying to flee, as our military made a desperate attempt to reach them in time. They did not make it. Most elves fled into the hills, though one of their trade camels was slaughtered and left behind a significant amount of items for us to collect. No doubt we’ll be blamed for the goblins’ actions, as silly as it sounds. Speaking of whom, many of the goblins also fled into the hills, apparently more interested in killing elves than bothering us. Whatever, I say, if they want to go bother those pointy-eared nature freaks, then let them. It’s not like they won’t blame us for it anyway!

It clearly becomes apparent, however, that more military squads are a must. While the ones we have consist of nigh undefeatable heroes, the fortress is a big place, and it certainly couldn’t hurt to have a few extra squads patrolling the grounds at all times. That said, we’re sitting on exactly 60 Dwarves in this fortress. Most of them have a vital function of some kind, so we’re not exactly bursting at the seams with free hands to help! Therefore I’ll have to wait for some migrants and then conscript them all before they can say no!

18th Granite, 206
All’s quiet after that minor goblin invasion a few days ago. We finished making the chainmail for Libash, and I was thoroughly looking forward to the disappointed scowl on her face that I was going to get when I displayed it to her. But no. I get there, she gives me that friggin’ smarmy look again, then goes “Awesome. Make me an adamantine item.”
With WHAT, your lordship? The adamantine we have hidden away in a closet somewhere? If we struck that stuff we’d be in the big time, but there’s none of it to be found anywhere! Looks like another poor soul is gonna go to jail for no reason over this…

Oh, and our graveyard is rather crowded. I was trying to figure out why, then I realized that all of the traders, guards and even elves who died near the fortress were being buried in OUR coffins. They aren’t even citizens!

As I was down there yelling at the Dwarves who were in charge of burial, I noticed one walking past with a pile of limbs. “What the heck are you doing?” I demanded of the startled Dwarf, who informed me that he was, in fact, burying an elf called Shem Zuntirbuzat who had been killed by the goblins. I nearly yelled at him too, but when I looked at how many pieces of the elf there were, I changed my mind. Whoever he or she was, they went out in a pretty gruesome way. Let ‘em have their coffin. Rest in pieces, elf.

Heh. That was a good one.

Either way, to deal with all the deaths that we didn’t have anything to do with, I ordered a mass grave site dug out for the less important people. More pets died than anyone else, anyway. Speaking of pets, among the many treasures dropped by that elven camel was a black bear in a cage. I immediately ordered it be placed into the WADD along with all the other stray and dangerous animals. Someday you’ll be useful, WADD, someday…

26th Granite, 206
Ah, the sweet sound of nothing going wrong! The birds are chirping, the WADD is making a horrible cacophony of growls, hisses and screeches, and all’s right with the world. Everyone in the fortress is busy with work of one kind or another, most of which being the salvaging of the ton of valuable items dropped by the elves in their recent desperate flight from the goblin horde. I’ve taken up bone carving in my spare time, since otherwise I’d have nothing to do all day besides order people around.

Speaking of which, I’ve ordered another dining room to be constructed on the same level as the furnaces (but far away from them of course!). With this, we hopefully can handle more Dwarves eating, which may be a problem soon otherwise. We also had a mountain goat give birth in the WADD, making it the second animal to give birth in that machine of death. The goat kids aren’t as useful as the alligator hatchling, but they ARE cute I guess…

11th Slate, 206
Today something worrying happened. Out of nowhere, one of the weapon traps malfunctioned and killed a war dog. OUR war dog. Why did it die? What caused the trap to malfunction? Nobody really knows, the only thing that’s for certain is if it happens once, it might happen again. Those traps cover our main entrance, so you can imagine the result if it does! The dog was of course buried in our graveyard, and I’ve heard tell that it may have been wounded beforehand. Certainly passing out on a trap would activate it, so that makes sense. Let’s just hope that’s the end of it. By the way, work STILL continues on salvaging all that elven and goblin gear, but if it doesn’t finish soon I may call it off to reduce the danger of ambushes.

3rd Felsite, 206
Well, we have enough gems to encrust every toilet seat in the fortress right now, but no iron ore. The occasional Dwarf is still running out to grab some doodad or bebop from the grass outside the fortress, but the goblins clearly aren’t coming back, so I’ve relaxed the guard. Well, it’s more appropriate to say I’ve sent the guard back to training, since the crossbow Dwarves still have a ways to go to get better, and they won’t get any better by walking in circles all day!

As should be obvious by this journal’s date, it’s late spring now (Felsite). If we’re gonna get migrants, it’ll be this season, or late winter, if I recall. I hope we do, because my plans all sort of hinge on having more hands to help out, plus we’re stocked to the brim with food, furniture, and everything we could ever want. Can’t see why you’d avoid this place, goblin ambushes aside. Other than that, everything’s doing what it normally does. Not much to say right now, kinda hope it stays that way until I get some more migrants.


To be continued...

[Shian]

Man, I love reading these

[SinOfSuns]

Woo, my one fan is still around! XD

I'm working on the next part of the year right now!

[Freelancer]

Hey guys,

I heard about this game from a friend and now am playing it (at the expense of building my lair. Sigh). So after finishing the video tuts I have a for that is sitting at a pop of around 75. Here is what I remember so far.

It was a fine and pleasant spring day when the 7 dwarves arrived at their site. Quick inspection of the river showed many dangerous carp so one of the first projects was to find some stone (for fortifications) and build a pond that would be feed by the river for safe drinking. Alas this project was not completed before some dwarves found themselves swamped by the evil fish and being ripped apart. May they rest peacefully. The fortress started in a layer of sand which was perfect for the farming of mushrooms. So much so that I currently have of 1000 in supply. The farms were set and the breweries were running hot. The craft shops were making quality items and the masons were very busy making all kinds of furniture. The metal industry was going well with native gold, platinum and silver as well as plenty of other metal ores including iron.

A second entrance for the fort was dug and fortifications were carved out of the walls so the dwarves could defend the fort from inside and the first entrance was sealed off. After this was finished construction of the main above ground fort and a safe outside meeting area began. Walls were built and the outside meeting area was completed with a floor and wells to boot. A similar inside meeting area was created for times of siege.

After the outer walls were constructed the first (and inner) part of the moat was dug and connected the river with two rows of fortifications as carp filters. Alas, that did not seem to be enough and some time later one of my dwarves fell victim to a stray carp in the moat.

During the early days many of the craft dwarves were possessed and took over craftdwarf shops and went insane due to the lack of resources. These dwarves had to be put down for the good of the fort. Those were dark days but they have now pasted.

Countless ambushes have happened and each time they have been foiled. The humans have come to lay siege. The first siege was fought of with small losses and the single line of weapon traps and double cage traps did their job. The second siege was something different. To avenge their fallen comrades the humans returned with 4 platoons all mounted on horses. It was a long and bloody battle with heavy losses on both sides. More than half the military died in the fight but the fortress stood. White with red fortifications an impressive sight to all who saw it.

But this is all in the day of a dwarf. Construction continues on the fortress with the wall and floor constructed for an above ground barracks, archery range and storage for trading. The fortifications above the main entrance are all but complete and should prove to be quite deadly to any foe the runs that gauntlet.

Construction of the roads into the fort for caravans and traders has started and trees are being felled to make way for the rest. Weapon traps are under construction to help protect the fort and a wall is under construction to fence off a large part of the upper area so tree cutting and outside farming can occur in safety. This has already cost the lives of many good dwarves.

Seasons come and so do migrants. Their life expectancy is expected to rise. I feel that there is no underground river or any magma at this fortress. One day a new fort will begin but until then I am freeing the horses that are clogging up my cages.

Axe High!!
(pics coming later, I hope)

[SinOfSuns]

Continuing on from before... I also have a movie or two, and made some awesome discoveries. More on this after the journal.

Also, Freelancer, you interested in joining this succession game?

8th Felsite, 206
Ah, Libash. Where would our wonderful fortress be without your horrific art and ridiculous mandates? Today I was informed by one of the Dwarves with nothing better to do than gossip that Libash had created another masterpiece within the new eating area located south of the furnaces. Immediately suspicious of elves and humans eating each other, I hastened down to see if I could save the meeting room in time.

No, I could not. Adorning nearly every available wall were pictures of elves and humans killing each other in bizarrely grotesque ways. Oh and the floor too. Libash even got another engraver in on the action. Note to self: Send that guy to clean the magma furnaces…



WE EAT IN THERE, LIBASH! Speaking of eating, Libash just couldn’t help himself.



On the plus side, he did do ONE engraving that I liked. It’s this one:



Oh right, I forgot. The masterpiece. Well, Libash seemed to tire momentarily of engraving elves and humans, much to my relief. However, he didn’t do much better than that… he engraved a picture of himself! For the love of Aran… why? Now other people are going to engrave engravings of him engraving an engraving of himself just because it’s so detailed! Gah! Can’t catch a break in this fortress, I swear.



9th Felsite, 206
Oh wait, there we go. Libash is back in his groove.



16th Felsite, 206
Oh noes, a snatcher! Whatever shall we do about the goblin who literally walked into a cage trap and is now well and truly screwed? I know, how about FEED HIM TO THE WADD! Nonetheless, the appearance of another goblin could possibly herald an ambush, so I alerted the military again and sent them out to patrol, just in case. Shortly afterwards, another goblin leaped into the exact same cage, making me wonder why they even bother in the first place.



Back to the stupid goblin, the WADD was very happy to receive its mana from the gods. It was amazing! He literally died instantaneously in a frenzy of teeth and claws. Little was left but a chunk or two, and we didn’t even take his weapon away! He never got a chance to use it. Muahahaha!



The other goblin somehow escaped his cage and was instantly slaughtered by my alert military, leaving behind all sorts of goodies for us to collect and trade. One thing that did worry me, however, was a cook wandering off with the goblin’s corpse… hopefully not to add to our latest stew.

26th Felsite, 206
Well, seems some of our puppies have matured, meaning we’ve got some more war dog material on the way. Might let them wander for a bit, since everyone important seems to have a war dog already, and once we get new recruits they’ll need some protection.

Oh look, someone’s taken by a mood. He’s a cook too, so this should be interesting! Wait, what? He claimed a mason’s workshop! Get back in the kitchen, dammit! Bah, at least let’s see what he wants…

Ok, so far he’s claimed two brimstone, some silver bars, some copper bars, a slab of diorite, 3 bunches of cat bones and is still going. Not a word out of him edgewise, but he’s definitely doing something instead of going crazy, so that’s good Ah, there we go. He grabbed a turtle shell, some bactrian camel leather, and has begun work. I’m sure that’s the most ingredients that have gone into an artifact to date!

Meanwhile, I’ve ordered the construction of some metal barrels since we have way too many free billon bars, and also ordered that copper plate mail be produced to arm our soldiers. Really though, I’m just sprinkling stuff over the top of an already well-prepared fortress. Dwarves are STILL collecting the fallen spoils of the elven caravan too, by the way, however we seem to be getting pretty close to finished, which is good.


12th Hematite, 206
Ok, so it’s summer now, and good old Endok Okirvabok has come out of his fey mood, and produced… a quern. Seriously, did we need another useless grinding stone that is too priceless to be used as a grinding stone anyway? At least it’s valuable, its worth being estimated at 24 000. Ok, you know what? No. I’m actually going to USE this quern and make the most epically expensive millstone ever. I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY.



I have ordered the sacred quern room dug out just north of the two woodworking stations. No doubt it shall see very little use, if at all, but if we ever DO need flour or dye then we have the sparkliest darn quern ever for it. I also ordered an extension for our seeds room, as we have quite a few at the moment.

Oh, and since we have two legendary querns, I’m picking to use ‘Romanticsneer’, the more expensive of the two, for our sacred quern room. Hmm. Sacred querning grounds? The quernoleum? I’ll have to think on the name.

15th Hematite, 206
Click here to see what happened.

Excellent! A human caravan has arrived from Pesor Taba, wherever the heck that is. More importantly, we have SO many trinkets to sell it’s not funny, so I’m very glad they are here. I’ve ordered the Dwarves to bring out the goods… which should actually take them quite a while, considering how many there are!

Shortly after we began our trade preparations, Libash was re-elected (hooray.) and a kobold thief was stumbled across by one of our workers. Naturally, both ran screaming away, and I figured that was the end of that. Still, my attention was more focused on offloading our goods on these traders more than anything else.

But then suddenly, and without any warning, Fath Udostekkud, one of our metalworkers, was killed! Why was she killed? BECAUSE OF FREAKING LIBASH! Here I was thinking Libash had ended his mandate responsibly, but no. Instead, he ordered a beating on one of the metalworkers, and the beating was from legendary champion Nil! Needless to say, that beating was smeared all over the walls and floors, and took us hours to clean up after.

But anyway, back to moronface…aka Libash. Because of our failure to pull adamantine out of our asses, he ordered one of our best metalworkers to be beaten to death! We have a jail! Why didn’t you use the jail? Gah! I was so angry that I was tempted to engineer Libash’s death, but I decided to hold off since we are now down to 59 Dwarves already. Ironically, Fath was beaten to death in the graveyard, so we didn’t have to travel far to put her to rest. Still, I’ll be getting revenge for her somehow… you wait, Libash!



Oh and what’s Libash doing during this time? Figures.



Ugh, now we need another metalworker!

25th Hematite, 206
Anyway, back in the trading area, our broker wasn’t coming in time, so I went personally to trade with the humans. Now, I had no idea what anything was worth, so I just threw piles of stuff at the humans in order to pay for various things. They loved it, and I didn’t even spend any of our actual stuff – just the armour and weaponry the goblins left lying around after we crushed them into paste. Much to my delight, the merchants brought a huge amount of animals with them, so I bought a bunch of dogs and sent them off to the Dungeon Master for war training. I also purchased several other animals for slaughter, which will give us plenty of meat for quite some time, I daresay.

I also bought a few picks, iron bolts, flour bags, all of their alcohol, several berries, all the cheese they had and some random weapons that will probably never be used, but it’s much better than hoarding goblin underwear, so nobody complained. Also on that list were several iron shields and bucklers, which should outfit a sizeable army should we ever attain one. The humans were so happy with the trading that they didn’t even care when I made ridiculously one-sided offers, merely mentioning how they won’t trade at a loss until I’d offered enough goblin underpants to satisfy their twisted desires. No doubt the humans made an enormous fortune from our trading, but we lost absolutely nothing, and gained a ton of valuable items. And space. We needed that space!

Right after I finished trading the humans for everything they had, Libash imposed a ban on Adamantine items. WHAT ADAMANTINE ITEMS? So help me, someday he’s going to fall into one of our weapon traps and I won’t save him!

Ugh, in more bad news, no migrants this season, meaning no- OH YOU’RE KIDDING ME! A Dwarf has just informed me that someone had posted a “no migrants� sign on the fortress and that’s why they’ve been avoiding us! I immediately had the sign removed, and ordered whoever put it there to be thrown into the magma, but sadly nobody seems to know who did it. Maybe it was the goblins. ((Truthfully, I just checked and someone set the population limit to 5. No WONDER no migrants were appearing! I’ve fixed it now, but it could be a few seasons before we see any more action in this fortress.))

There is one positive thing that came from all of this, however. I’ve been ordering bone bolts to be made for our archers to practice with, and have thus received a huge pile of goblin bone bolts. Needless to say, the irony is delicious that in death the goblins will be serving to slaughter more of their own kind.

27th Malachite, 206
All’s quiet again, now that the humans have left. I noticed that we have over 300 iron arrows, items which we do not use at all, thus I ordered them to be melted down. With this, we should have plenty of iron to make many, many things with. Well, most likely we’ll just use it for steel, but it’s still a very useful thing. Gotta figure out a way to get rid of the other arrows though.

Speaking of weaponry, I placed 5 new weapon traps (3 especially dangerous ones) as a secondary line of defence. Though it’s highly unlikely, if some goblins manage to sneak past the huge line of death traps, I’ll have another line waiting for them to fall into. The new traps are located just below the south drawbridge, and are filled to the brim with serrated, glass disks. I’m quite sure that anyone who steps on one of THOSE traps will be very, very sorry.

The humans have asked for and are willing to pay high price for tanned hides, seeds and plants. They are also willing to pay highly for shields and cloth. I doubt we’re going to bother changing our objectives to fit their desires, but we may have some spare anyway. I guess we’ll see.

28th Galena, 206
It’s been quiet again. Today the WADD’s alligator gave birth to more hatchlings, making my alligator army even stronger than before! Other than that, things are quiet. So quiet, in fact, that I’ve begun adding a new walkway north of the fortress. This walkway will be retractable just like the other ones, and will allow our Dwarves quick access to the abundant forests north of our base without exposing us to much danger. To be safe, I’m having it trapped as well.

To be continued...

I mentioned additional things, did I not? Well here they are! Firstly, good news for those of you who like actual graphics! Thanks to the power of random people, we can now bring you most of our screenshots in a visual form such as this:



Those red squares are the traps at the front of the fortress. The stairs west of those are part of the WADD, and the paved area with a pit in front of it just east of the traps is the place where the trees were growing up in front of the ballistae.

Also, yes, there's a graphic pack thing too, but this one is cooler 'cause you can run it alongside DF, meaning you can watch multiple areas at once. It makes it a little easier to see everything for non DF-ized people, though the multiple z level thing tends to cut a lot of stuff off.

This is what the fortress looks like in a non-text form.
Those yellow squares are actually siege engines, apparently there's no graphics for them yet.

This is the same fortress, a few levels up.
You can see there's a roof over the stairs that lead down into the fortress proper, and on the right side there is Sibrek's personal tomb. Most of the coffins are for his pets.

Lastly, we have the furnace room, where all the forges and furnaces are set up.
Not much to say here, just felt like taking a picture.

In the future, I'll probably do most of my screenies using the visualizey thing, aside from the artifact descriptions and the like. Mainly it's for you guys, so be happy :P

Also, I found an awesome tool that I don't mind using if people think they'd be up for it. It uses a terminal system to allow other players to connect to and watch your fortress as you play. How awesome is that? You can chat and stuff too, and it's possible to let others play the game for you online, though I wouldn't do that 'cause it could lead to issues. Either way, if there's enough people willing I can set one up, else I'll just leave it in the pile of awesome things for use later or something.

Either way, there's two more journal entries to go before this year is over.

[Freelancer]

Hey SinofSuns et al.

I am not sure what the succession game is. You pass the fort around between you and play a year of game time?

Also I am very new to the game and am still learning things. (like I have only just worked out how to get war dogs and assign them to dwarfs)

Above is my first fort that has gone anywhere. Still many many things to learn.

[SinOfSuns]

Hey SinofSuns et al.

I am not sure what the succession game is. You pass the fort around between you and play a year of game time?

Also I am very new to the game and am still learning things. (like I have only just worked out how to get war dogs and assign them to dwarfs)

Above is my first fort that has gone anywhere. Still many many things to learn.

Ah, well yes. Basically you each take turns to do one year with the fortress, starting and ending on the 1st of Granite (Spring). I admit, joining the game at this point will be a bit tricky since there's a LOT going on and you're new to the game, but it's doable, if you're interested.

I'm assuming you have access to the Dwarf Fortress Wiki, since that has all the info you're likely to need in it. It's a huge learning curve, so even if you play a lot there will still be systems you don't know how to use yet and stuff like that. Thus, having the wiki lets you look up practically any aspect of the game and receive helpful advice on it.

As for the succession game, so far only me, Dragonboy and Tcei have actually had a shot at it, meaning we all know just about everything there is to know about the fortress, while you'll probably be very confused to begin with. Still, as we mentioned at the start, the fun of a succession game is the narrative story behind it, and each player describing their successes and failures as they progress throughout their years. In other words, even if everyone died and the fortress half burned down during your turn, it's still a success so long as you make it an interesting read.

We can always go back and reclaim a fortress too, thus continuing the story of Towerreleased even after its demise. That said, I don't think you'd have that happen. More than likely you'd just have some troubles dealing with the finer details, as the fortress itself is rather hard to destroy, what with its nigh-invulnerable army and self-replenishing resources. The only thing you should really be wary of is the importance of the "named" characters within the fortress. For example, Sibrek 'Ironhand' Zulbanmigrur, the character I randomly chose to narrate with, is now an important Dwarf, even though his actual fortress function isn't that special. He's important because everyone knows him, so you wouldn't want to start sending him out onto the front lines or anywhere there's a chance he'll get killed.

Bottom line is: If you want to play once my year is over, then you're more than welcome to! Try not to put Tcei, Rvlion or Ironhand in danger and other than that you can do pretty much whatever you want (so long as you're trying to help the fortress grow and aren't purposefully trying to kill everyone off)! If it ends in disaster then that's just how it is. If it doesn't, then well done! Either way, you'll have become an important part of Towerreleased's history.

But really it's up to you. I won't be done with this "year" until probably Wednesday at the soonest, and after that it doesn't matter even if we wait a week or two to see if any more volunteers pop up. Ultimately I can finish the whole thing on my own, but it would be ideal for more people to join in and add their own personal touch to the story.

There are also addons and the like that will let you display graphical images of the Dwarves, make movies for other players, and generally make your journal entries more impressive, should you so desire. I'll give you more info on those later, if you are interested.

[Dragonboy]

You must not forget SinOfSuns that losing is fun and with all the weapon traps laid out in front of the current fortress it is almost impossible to lose except due to extreme boredom or low FPS annoyance. Not even 2 simultaneous sieges would get past them and we would only have to lose dwarves who are stupid enough to try and collect junk outside while the goblins kill themselves.

It is always possible to start a new succession game if Freelancer wishes to join us. Only considering Freelancer is still a relative newcomer to the game I would vote for the 40d version of the game and not the newest version 0.31.04 (mostly due to bugs)

All we need to know then is if Tcei is willing to join us again.

[SinOfSuns]

Well, I said there would be two more journals, but the final few seasons were moderately quiet, thus there will only be one. As for your suggestion, Dragonboy, I'd rather not start a whole new succession game unless we have at least 4 guaranteed players, because otherwise we'll end up repeating Towerreleased in terms of who does all the work. And really, we haven't won yet and migrants have not come for 2 years now, so the game is still a little up in the air. That said, the new version does intrigue me greatly and I would like to try out all the new mechanics, like the hospital. I'ma miss Sibrek though, his life is awesome XD

In any case, here's the final journal chapter for Sibrek's third year in charge at Towerreleased.

1st Limestone, 206
All this peace is making some of the Dwarves a bit crazy, I note. Sodel Idenlektad has suddenly been possessed by a fey mood and has whisked off to claim a jeweller’s workshop. He’s the first Dwarf to claim a jeweller’s shop, if I recall, so I’m eager to see what he makes. All he’s grabbed so far is two green zircons and some cave spider silk, so I can’t really imagine what he must be doing with them. Maybe he’s making an amulet?


((Also visible here, aside from Sodel doing his thing, is the legendary quern Romanticsneers, just southeast of him))

The overpass-in-progress is moving along smoothly. The really dangerous bit will be adding a lever for the drawbridge, since for that small period of time we’ll have opened another path into our fortress. I’ve moved the military there so as to discourage anyone from trying anything until it gets fully built.

9th Limestone, 206
Sodel has completed his magnum opus: A green zircon crown. Not bad actually, all things considered.



Also, a caravan from the Dwarven homelands has arrived, a little early by the looks of things. Once again, I ordered all of our trade goods out for sale, as we still have many to get rid of for useful items. I’m starting to get the hang of this broker thing, I’ve noticed. My last experience with traders has given me a decent eye for value, so I was finally able to trade a little more competitively with our Dwarven cousins. Of course, as I gave the humans such a great deal, I felt obligated to do the same for the Dwarves, so it didn’t matter, but at least I could tell what was going on this time!

The Dwarves had good stuff, as one could expect from our kin. I bought quite a few platinum and steel bars for our armoury, as well as a few miscellaneous gems and some animals, because having more war dogs is always a good thing! Then I bought all of their booze, a steel crossbow, and some assorted steel armour. By this point, they didn’t even care that they were barely even making a profit – they were just happy to take all of our unwanted goblin underwear! Man, we have a lot of that. I can’t seem to ever exhaust our supply, maybe it’s because they keep coming over here and giving us more to sell. I also grabbed a bit more turtle meat, and some super rare cave lobster, as not only can we use the shells, but the cave lobster makes the finest dishes in the land!

Whatever the case, I sold as much of it as I could without wasting money, and we walked away once again with fantastic goods. Nevertheless, we still have more goblin underwear left to sell! I have a feeling that before too long that amount will increase even further, too. I asked the liaison to bring more alcohol next time, and some dogs. Maybe even some lumber for our ever-endangered supply. We really don’t need any, but hey, at least we know they’ll bring something useful next time as well.

1st Sandstone, 206
Well, the construction of the overpass is now complete. For the time being, I’ve left it open for travel so our woodcutters can harvest from the abundant north forest. It’s also still being trapped on the far end, so the military presence is high, and the entrance is being guarded carefully. That said, the traps there now are incredibly nasty weapon traps that would easily kill pretty much anything dumb enough to walk over them, so we shouldn’t have to worry too much about it if a few foes get in while the bridge is down.



In the image depicted here, you can also see the magma disposal chute further to the west. This chute allows for us to drop anything we want into the volcano, thereby safely disposing of it. So far we haven’t needed to use it, but if we ever want to deal with a goblin in a more unique way than WADD sacrifice, that’ll be the place to do it from. The Dwarves have asked me to prepare them spears, battle axes, idols or tanned hides for their next visit. I’ll think about it, since making spears and axes shouldn’t be too hard and I think we have a fair amount of ore lying around at the moment.

In a moment of drunken stupidity I ordered a bunch of billon coins made, so now I’m having them melted down to prevent bad things from happening economy-wise. I just hope they haven’t started circulating yet. In other news, once again we received no migrants this season, despite our enormous amounts of wealth, low mortality rate, and awesome location. I’m starting to think someone’s posted more of those signs somewhere…

26th Sandstone, 206
As you may have guessed, it’s been really quiet. It usually seems to happen around autumn – everyone just does their own thing and the goblins and traders leave us alone. The only thing of note is that Lorbam, the administrator and bookkeeper of our little fortress, had a baby. Seems the Dwarves here are doing their best to produce offspring to make up for the lack of migrants. It’d work too, except we have to wait like 10 years for them to become mature enough to work. Might as well just wait for more migrants you silly people!

Anyway, I noticed that our two previous leaders have no tombs made for them, and if something terrible were to happen, we’d have to follow Dwarven law and bury them in the nearest open grave. Rather than risk them facing suck an ignominy, I ordered some new tombs dug out in the graveyard area, just in case. If they change their minds they can always move later, but at least they have one should something go wrong. I’ve assigned Libash to engrave their tombs. Um... sorry in advance!

To relieve my own boredom I’ve decided to take up hunting. I’m fairly sure everything out there has long since run away, but with 3 dogs as an escort, and one huge bronze battle axe, I should be just fine. Plus, it means I can practice fighting, should the need ever occur. A small update on that – just got back from making my rounds and yes, the place is devoid of wildlife. Looks like all the alligators either got tamed or were killed a long time ago, so now all I get to do is wander around in armour and look cool. That’s fine by me!

17th Moonstone, 206
It’s winter now, journal. Just as I was starting to think this season would be awfully quiet and boring, a goblin ambush attacked! They arrived just north of the new path into the base, which I immediately ordered closed, more to prevent any Dwarves blundering into the goblins than to stop them from running through trap land. I personally was out on the battlefield at the time, cutting down trees, and thus my dogs leapt to the attack long before I was even aware of the ambush.

The first division leaped onto the offensive, heading immediately to intercept the goblins as they ran towards the northern overpass. I ran for the military, and once safely amidst their ranks, headed back for my dogs. I was not about to let them die without a fight this time! Fortunately, by pure dumb luck, all of my dogs were still alive and had suffered only minor injuries by the point the militia arrived. When the first division charged, the few goblins who weren’t slaughtered on the spot ran away, and they didn’t stop even when a second ambush sprang out to help the first. Led by Nil, the first division mowed them all down, even as I was preparing orders for them to regroup at the main entrance.



With the first two groups out of the way, I ordered the militia to stand guard over the first gate, where the next wave would most likely arrive. While the squads regrouped, I realized that the militia was run by – and our best fighters were - females! We did not have one single male Dwarf leading a squad, and our champion, Nil, is also female. Well, whatever. Anyone who thinks they can take our fighters is welcome to try!

As the militia headed for the front gate, a snatcher appeared at the main entrance to the fortress – and was promptly captured in a cage trap. This was a good indicator of other goblins lurking around, so I split the first division into two separate divisions. Underneath the watchful eye of the crossbow (second) division, Nil’s now slightly smaller squad began to patrol the entrance, and I joined them temporarily to increase their number slightly. The newly made third division – now once again bearing the proud banner of “The Carnages of Shielding� and led by Dodok Atheltan - was stationed near the northern overpass to guard the Dwarves who were assigned to collect the fallen goblin weapons and armour. I don’t know who demoted Dodok in the first place, but he was promoted back quickly as soon as I noticed… which was only about 2 years late. Shush, I’m a busy Dwarf.

Anyway, we waited with abated breath for the next goblin ambush.

Turns out we didn’t have to wait long. I’d just run off to grab some better armour when the next ambush struck, leaping out at Nil’s division. They were quickly made to regret that decision, and the entire strike force was wiped out in under 10 seconds. Nil’s team returned to their patrol, and I hurried back with new armour. Once again I was too late, though, as another ambush appeared in front of Nil’s squad and was once again slaughtered within a matter of moments. Unfortunately, one of the squad members was injured this time, receiving a broken left shoulder from a lucky arrow. He was carried inside to rest and should make a full recovery within a few weeks. That aside, the death count was now up to 4 goblin squads versus one war dog, and a minor injury. Given the large number of goblin deaths, I was fairly confident they’d give up for the day, though I kept the militia on alert.

Before:


After:


24th Moonstone, 206
Time passed and it soon was time to deal with the goblin invader. I had a great idea, so I ordered him to be disarmed and put into motion a devious plan. We COULD send him to the WADD, but he turned out to be a goblin master thief, so I figured “why not make an arena?�. And that’s exactly what I’ve set out to do! Just north of the river, inside our complex, is a moderately large open area. I figured this would be perfect for staging fights between unarmed goblin invaders and heavily armed Dwarven warriors – for training purposes of course! Either way, I had it cleared of trees and ordered a wall built to create a locked room.

During this time another goblin appeared, this one looking to steal our children. Naturally, it didn’t make it anywhere near any of the kids, and instead had its hands hacked off by Zulban Kolarban, one of the first division. Of course, its head soon followed its hands, and we were grateful to receive the free trade-able goblin underwear… though now slightly soiled. I also ordered cage traps to be built above the north-western bridge – the one that crosses the river outside of the fortress. This way, when invaders try and sneak in from the north, they will be detected before they reach the entrance proper… plus I need ‘volunteers’ for my arena!

7th Opal, 206
Work on the arena is almost complete. I just need to attach the door mechanism, and hook the goblin’s cage up to the secondary lever and all will be ready. More importantly than that, Nish Athamkel, a glassblower, has been taken by a fey mood. That makes the third one this year, and I hope this one will turn out to be something useful, unlike a certain quern recently made… Hmm, interesting. Apparently the workshop our current crazy Dwarf needs doesn’t exist yet! This means it’s got to be a bowyer’s shop, a dyer’s shop, an ashery, or an alchemist’s lab. I hope it’s not the last one, because we need a special glass for that and we don’t happen to HAVE that glass! I’ll order the other three built above ground and see what happens.

Since everyone else was busy, I made Libash do all the work. Haha, you should have seen the look he gave me! Eat it, elf boy! So far, 2 of the 4 workshops have been crossed off of the list, but so far our crazy Dwarf refuses to budge. Just in case, I’m making Libash make 3 units of ash. From that, he’s going to make 3 units of potash, and then from THAT we’ll have someone make us 3 glass vials. Then we can make an alchemy lab and if THAT doesn’t do it for the crazy Dwarf, nothing will!

Ah, I see. Apparently, she needed a glass furnace, not a magma glass furnace. The difference is one costs fuel to use, you crazy woman! Bah, whatever. She’s happy, that’s all that matters. She’s grabbed two chunks of green glass and an alunite block and has begun work. Soon we shall see the fruits of her labour!

24th Opal, 206
The time has come. At long last, the arena is built, and the goblin lies caged within it. I have taken it upon myself to christen this arena with the first goblin kill, and Libash himself shall pull the lever that seals its doom. As I write this I am donning my armour to prepare for the upcoming battle, and I am prepared mentally and physically for this job. A real live goblin versus a real live Dwarf… maybe I’ll pretend we didn’t already strip it of all of its possessions just to inflate my ego.



Oh, a Dwarf has informed me that our crazy Dwarf Nish has completed her creation – a green glass ring. To be honest, it’s a pretty average affair, worth barely anything in comparison to even the quern. On the plus side, someone can claim that and feel very rich indeed. Well, whatever. I’m off to battle now!





The pages here are smeared with drops of blood, as if someone was writing with bloodied hands.

Victory! I have slain the foul goblin with a single blow, dyeing the arena floor a beautiful crimson colour! When the cage first opened I felt apprehensive, but the goblin was completely unable to react as I clove its head from its shoulders! Haha! In any case, the arena is now open for use… all we need is something dangerous to put in it and we’re good to go! Oh, I should go rinse this goblin blood from my hands… it’s getting all over the pages.



With this kill I half expect winter’s festivities to be over. There’s just over a month left until my second year in a row is complete, so there’s not much time for anything else to happen, methinks. I’ve also ordered the kitchens to stop making meals, since we’re now at 1500 meals and have only 60 Dwarves in the whole fortress. We also have 1000 drinks, but we go through those faster, so the breweries can continue what they were doing. Also of note is the mining district. We’ve so far mined out 2 whole levels, and are now starting on the bottommost one in the hopes of finding something rare like adamantine. Pretty soon though the miners aren’t going to have anything to do, because we have enough stone to last a lifetime, and we need the other levels for store rooms and noble housing. Either way, I guess that’s the next guy’s problem, not mine.

What else… let’s see here. Ah, according to my count we should have enough weapons, armour, shields and accessories to arm at least another 30 Dwarves in full plate mail, or chain mail, if they choose. Bottom line is there’s no need to smelt any more for the time being. We also have a lot of gold and silver and gems sitting around, maybe make them into statues with the metalsmiths’ free time? I never thought I’d say this, but the dog population is getting a bit high. You should probably start sending some puppies off to be slaughtered in order to keep the population down, since we have about 10 stray war dogs, and 10 puppies. 20 dogs, not including the ~20 already assigned, is more than enough! If you’re going to slaughter them though, use the ones from the bottom of the cage. Those are the youngest ones, and thus the least likely to mature into something useful any time soon.

Looks like we’ve got an abundance of just about everything we could ask for. Whoever comes in after me might as well work on some personal or fortress-expanding projects since there may be very little actual management for them to do! Oh, but beware of the militia – they need to be re-stationed once the Dwarves finish collecting all the goblin goodies, since the first division is wandering a bit far away from the fortress. The crossbow Dwarves are in their sniper towers just hoping for a siege, but that’s not likely to happen any time soon, so feel free to move them around or whatever. I stopped their training because we were low on bolts, but now that we have some more bones perhaps we can produce another set of bone bolts and let them train again. Oh and the lavish meals in the kitchen are still on hold, but honestly I don’t see us needing more meals to be made for quite a long time. Might want to keep an eye on the drinks level though, it tends to fluctuate.

Also keep an eye on the storehouses – some are looking a tad full and more space may be needed to store finished goods. The WADD is doing extremely well for itself – one of the alligator hatchlings has matured, so now we have two fully-fledged alligators in there, as well as all the other animals just waiting to be dumped on some poor besieging morons.

1st Granite, 207
Happy new year! This year’s been pretty much normal, considering what I’ve experienced in my 3 years of rulership. We made 3 artefacts and eight goblin ambush groups lost their lives bothering us. One war dog has died and about 15 have taken its place, while one champion suffered a broken shoulder and I wet my axe with goblin blood in the new arena. Libash was re-elected just prior to murdering a metalsmith, the elves probably severely dislike us now because of the goblin ambush that killed their caravan, and conversely the humans and Dwarves love us to death. In the coming year I hope we get migrants, because that’s about the only thing this fortress is short of. We have piles of weapons, armour, food, booze, furniture and even a ton of empty bedrooms just begging to be filled. Maybe could use some ammo, but that’s up to you, next leader.

Whatever the case, it’s sure to be a prosperous 207 for us folks out at Towerreleased, and I look forward to letting some other guy handle this leadership stuff now for a while. I’m kind of getting used to it, but as I always say, I’m just a tinkerer. If I can, I’ll leave this leadership thing to someone more enthusiastic. Anyway, this is it until next time, journal! May your pages never fade!

- Sibrek ‘Ironhand’ Zulbanmigrur

By the way, if people are wondering why I keep switching back and forth between the visualizer and the text based version, it's because some of the graphics are missing on the visualizer... like blood, corpses, siege engines, wagons and items in stockpiles. Thus you really can't see the actual details of what's going on without the text version. I suppose I could switch to the graphic pack that was installed, but I happen to like the ASCII characters... it feels like I'm playing in the Matrix!

Anyway, game's ready for whoever's up next. File's here: http://sharebee.com/0ecf7143

[Dragonboy]

I will give it another go, but I won't promise to make many screenshots.