can't stop playing, even though my fortress is likely fucked after my whole army died to goblin siege

now i'm riddled with depressed dwarves everywhere... any tips? >.> (other problems: can't find coal, low on wood, have no well, have no jail, my diggers aren't digging [well, everyone' depressed], lost all my cats so vermin are everywhere.)

]343[

United States10328 Posts

April 16 2012 00:46 GMT

#1068

bump--can anyone help? XD

wiki says coal is in "sedimentary rock layers"; I picked a place with flux stone, and there's chert everywhere, but I haven't found any coal... though my suspicion is that rioting dwarves will take me down before I get a chance to do anything, hehhh.

Astarwulf

United States63 Posts

April 16 2012 00:49 GMT

#1069

Engrave everything.

xccam

Great Britain1150 Posts

April 16 2012 00:51 GMT

#1070

Thats dwarf fortress

just do whatever you can to try and raise happiness before a spiral of depression, madness, and likely murder occurs. make engravings, and set nice things out in your dining hall and other main meetingplaces. try and at least ygive you time to find coal etc

]343[

United States10328 Posts

April 16 2012 04:04 GMT

#1071

hmm, well my dining hall is 100% engraved ("legendary"), and i have an artifact or two sitting around in public areas.

I'll try engraving all the bedrooms (heh, if the masons are willing to do it....) thanks!

MisterD

Germany1338 Posts

April 16 2012 08:54 GMT

#1072

you likely won't find any coal, i think in some version the map generator was changed and makes almost no coal anymore. Chop down some trees and make charcoal at a furnace, that can be used the same way as coal.

oh and of course dig deep enough as fast as you can to find lava, and then just make lava-powered crafting stations, then you barely need any coal anymore.

amatoer

Germany212 Posts

May 19 2012 10:09 GMT

#1073

Do you build your Magmaforges down there at the Lavapool or do you pump up the lava?
I always did the first thing, but I feel like my dwarfes forget that there are those buildings or they take quite a long time to go there and as soon as they start forging they get hungry /thirsty/ tired and stop again. I think this could become better if the forges were closer to the rest of the fortress, but I never really tried to magmapump the stuff up (actually, i never tried to pump anything).

MisterD

Germany1338 Posts

May 19 2012 10:30 GMT

#1074

well just try it then ;D sounds like a good project to do, most people struggle rather fast to find enjoyable projects in these sandbox games.

plated.rawr

Norway1676 Posts

May 19 2012 11:22 GMT

#1075

The obvious solution would be to keep a food and booze stockpile as well as some beds near the magma forges, so that your ~~slaves~~ respected craftsdwarves can take a break every once in a while. Or, you know, just move the entire fort downstairs once you've found magma.

Anyhow, anyone tinkered around with the new version yet? I see toady's added minecarts as well as some modification to the hauling system, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

amatoer

Germany212 Posts

May 19 2012 17:51 GMT

#1076

thanks plated.rawr, i will give it a try.

how are your forts going? I just started a 1-man army with a guy whos only armed with his fists (i let him train in a dangerroom though). Some weeks later he discovered a troll in an underground cave and wanted to kill the ugly invader. At first Urist MacFistfight was surprised by the troll's mass who constantly charged at him. But it didnt take long untill my mighty dwarf was able to dodge the attacks of the filthy troll and pulled out his glorious two friends. The first hit was a perfect counterstrike, causing the troll to collapse to the ground (it helped that the ugly giant was exhausted). What followed were twelve long days where my hero pleased his bloodthirstyness: he didnt get tired punching the troll's head, bruising fat, muscles, skull. The whole surrounding was decorated with splatter of troll blood untill the troll finally passed a way in his own mixture of blood and vomit.
I too enjoyed every second.

myopia

United States2928 Posts

May 20 2012 02:00 GMT

#1077

I've got my largest fort ever running: 177 dwarves. I've learned a ton from this round. A tantrum spiral just started after a few dead vampire victims were found... let's see what happens!

my fort peaked at around 200, with the tantrum spiral steadily gaining momentum, when a goblin siege showed up. It was my first, and pretty anticlimactic - I lifted my drawbridge, mustered my force of ~30 (mostly recruits with copper weapons) right next to it, dropped the bridge and slaughtered them all. This action has not helped the spiral. I've lost about 20 dudes to berserking, and counting. I can't hold it back any more. I will wait and watch as the end comes.

Roving bands of berserking children are trying to kill my military dwarves as miasma covers my entire stock of food.

Alak

Sweden380 Posts

May 20 2012 12:15 GMT

#1078

Isn't it time soon for another team effort? Last fortress was great fun and I find myself with plenty of spare time at the moment.

rapidash88

United States194 Posts

May 20 2012 12:39 GMT

#1079

I'd say so!

plated.rawr

Norway1676 Posts

May 21 2012 14:02 GMT

#1080

Definately, it'd be fun. It went a bit too smooth last time though, so I think we need to add in some conditions or something to spice things up a bit. You know, just to unstabilize things ever so slightly. Anyone got any good ideas? Personally, I roll with things like

- Multiple entrances. Defense is pretty rough without tons of tactical chokepoints
- No traps aside from decor and for animal training
- Blind law. Follow accusations blindly, even when they're wrong
- People's chioce. Let popularity decide mayors rather than yourself
- Labor castes. About ten or so types of workers with specific hauling and workmanship jobs, without deviations
- Caste segregations. Keep the filthy peasants apart from your nobles and quality craftsmen. Let them sleep in dirty dormitories rather than private chambers.

And so on and so forth.