Dwarf Fortress

[NeonSamurai]

Oh don't get me wrong, i like attention to detail, but DF takes it to an extreme.

Speaking of blood, etc, I need to invent me a dorf washer, as my waterfalls don't seem to be cleaning them. Maybe a room connected to pressurized water source, instant flood and drain thing so they don't drown. 2 z levels with a grated floor so the 2nd level which they stand on drains near instantly (also dorfs don't get sucked through floor grates, unlike wall grates).

hmmm

[Safe-Keeper]

I am back to the old version for a while now, just too buggy and many of my favorite tools don't work.

Agree -- I miss burrows, though. They're the #1 best feature of DF 2010. I just save-scummed my way out of a failed siege because my stupid dwarves insisted on staying on the wrong side of the moat with a horde of Orcs attacking. You pretty much have to activate the entire civilian population and force-move them below-ground, and the instant you deactivate them (to man siege engines, say), they charge back out to get slaughtered. Siege preparation pre-DF 2010 is a lengthy exercise of frustration involving mass forbidding, hair-tearing, curse words and a general incredulous state of "how the **** can they be that dumb?!".

I never save-scum, by the way. Dead-is-dead, that's how the game is to be played. Only two times I've done it is this one and that time I forgot to lock the door to a corridor flooded floor to ceiling with magma, and some genius dwarf decided to open it and venture inside. Yeah.

Btw anyone think that the creator of this game is seriously obsessive compulsive. The amount of imho stupid things the game keeps track of is beyond crazy (and is a waste of processing power). I really wish he would work more on the core game play and less on this fiddly stuff like tracking how many toes a dwarf has, and which ones are caked in blood, vomit, and mud.

That's actually a very plausible and actually rather frightening possibility. Lots of people who have hobbies they work hard on for years without stop do not enjoy them at all.

Edit: as a side-note, I really wish there was an init option to bypass the new hospital system. Seriously, call me squeamish, but it's just too graphic for me, not to mention that I don't know how good it is for gameplay (you have to spend a lot of embark points on some dwarf's medical skills, and if he or she dies, you're without competent medical aid until you by some stroke of luck have people with medical skills stroll into your fortress). Prefer to have the current system where wounds just heal magically.

[NeonSamurai]

Burrows would be nice, but they are not necessary. Just design your forts so that the defensive systems are mainly outside. For example my fort uses an large castle structure outside as its entrance, it is backed up against a mountain hill with a high vertical slope behind it (which I cut out of the mountainside), and a 3 sided moat to the front. It uses 3 drawbridges, one for the exterior moat, and 2 for the interior (one is used to divert enemies onto a winding path. The fort has 4 towers, one on each corner with fortifications all around and a roof (so that no one can snipe from above on the hill). the wall only has fortifications on the inside to shoot at enemies on the winding path. I also made the inside of the fort floodable with pumps (and drains) to drown small armies in. I didn't bother trapping the inside of the fort though, just the outside around the first drawbridge. The ramparts can also be sealed off with a lever deep inside the fort. Oh and the moats can also only be accessed when the bridges are down (3 tile wide moat with stairs in the middle beside the bridge)

So if a siege comes i just order all the dwarves inside, and let soldiers go outside into the ramparts and towers. Even if the enemy could bypass the castle, the entrance is a long tunnel with a ramp going down towards the end, this ramp gets covered by 2 bridges on each side, and a portcullis in front of it, beyond the bridges is 4 masterwork ballistae behind heavy fortifications that overlap and cover the 4 tile wide passageway.

Nothing is getting in the front door unless I let them Anything else will get drowned, shot to bits by crossbows, or splattered by ballista bolts.
The secret entrance is also pretty secure though not as fancy, but the passage way in is flooded to be a small "lake" when not in use (that is what makes it secret, as the lake is drained and refilled as needed).

Beyond that I keep careful tabs on exterior jobs and tend to do them in large batches for safety. Technically though there is no reason to ever open the gate other then to trade. Water comes from an underground river (which is also fully secured), wood comes from underground tower cap farms (the only wood real dorfs use), and orders are set up to keep stupid dorf wandering into ambushes to a minimum.

But then I am very security minded.

[Safe-Keeper]

I have now commissioned the construction of a couple siege revolvers, which should even the playing field somewhat.

[Safe-Keeper]

I apologize for the double post, but this just had to be shared. An awesome little combat report coupled with equally awesome graphics. A must-read.

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