After having too much to drink and reading Boatmurdered (WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT), I thought about starting up a secession style game with you guys, and maybe a few personal friends if there aren't enough volunteers. For those that haven't heard of this, it works by somebody embarking, playing the first year while keeping a blog journal of what happens (usually role playing as the head dwarf), zipping the file up at the start of the second spring, and sending it to the next player, who then rules for a year before passing it on to the next person and so on until the fortress is beyond repair or everyone gets bored.

Turn order:
1- Laughing Man
2- winnertakesall
3- xole
4- Inquisitor Lord Bane
5- doc1234
6- VezrilX (??)
7- Sir Pseudonymous
8- Open
9-Open

ALSO! ENTER YOUR NAME AND PROFESSION TO WIN A DWARF DREAM HOME IN THE HALLS OF HAMMERSAINT!!! Prizes include a free bedroom suit, complete with cabinets for your possessions, a casket to call your own upon death (and a friendly PM), and a brand new car!

(OK, I lied about the car...)

PM me if you would like to be Dorfed

If I could play the game, in a heartbeat.

Alas, I'm about as good at playing Dwarf Fortress as Stark Raving Mad is at building doomsday devices.

I will gladly volunteer my name for the first soapmaker to enter the fortress though

I'd love to but much like MrMoustaffa I can barely play the game...
I do volunteer to point and laugh though...

I cannot play but I would be interested in reading the inevitable saga.

You guys are making me sad...

Well if we are no good at playing then at least it wouldn't be a FPS killing fortress

I think DF is probably the most complicated game in the entire universe

Trying this game out for the first time now...

I'll probably sign up for this.

Dr. What wrote:Trying this game out for the first time now...

I'll probably sign up for this.

Just remember, losing is FUN!

I'd definitely be interested, although I haven't played for a few versions (last I played Vampires and bees had just been added). PM me if this actually ends up happening, as I'm horrible at checking threads.

I'll take a crack at learning it again if anybody knows of a good "tutorial" for it.

I had a pretty decent hang of it last time I tried it, but I could never get past digging a hole in the ground and putting beds in it. Had the worst time getting farms going for some reason.

I've always found farming to be alot of trouble for some reason

But here is two good tutorials:

http://dftutorial.wordpress.com/

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Quickstart_guide

If we can get just one or two more people we can start on ironing out the setup

I lost so much first time I played. I had a dwarf that went mad, and blockaded himself in the weapons storage room, at the same time I had an undead siege, which I somehow didn't notice, and was suddenly assaulted by undead mussels, fish, and some cows.

So much undead food.

I really want to download and try this game, if I'm not terrible at it (hell even if I am and nobody cares) I'd be down

Thing is, Dwarf Fortress is nigh on impossible to pick up and play.

I'm not exaggerating. It's impossible. Even after watching a few tutorials you'll likely struggle until you're a little bit in.

But, give it a try, it's awesome. And I'd recommend downloading 'Lazy Newb' instead of the standard dwarf fortress, as it changes the blocks from ASCII to some textures which is always nice.

Yeah bro, I've been playing for months and almost all of my fortresses starve to death within the first 3 years. If you haven't considered throwing your computer out a window, you aren't doing it right.


EDIT: Punctuation

But yeah, I'd be up for a succession game. I've only really started playing it recently, and I'm pretty damn terrible at it.

As long as I don't have to equip a militia, designate too many things, or trade, I'll be fine.

I wouldnt mind getting in on this, cant have worse luck on it than i have had on Cataclysm lately so why not. Am in the "i need to relearn this thing" camp tho :/

Well we all need some touching up, so it's not a huge issue if we take an extra week or two to get back in the groove before this takes off. The fort dying off and having to savescum when each of us takes over wouldn't make for a epic tale, would it?

Sounds great! Give it a week or so, in order to touch up skills for some, and learn the game for others.

Some elves elves asked me to stop cutting down trees.

I replied 'no'

2 years, haven't heard from them. Bloody elves.

 winnertakesall wrote:
Sounds great! Give it a week or so, in order to touch up skills for some, and learn the game for others.

Some elves elves asked me to stop cutting down trees.

I replied 'no'

2 years, haven't heard from them. Bloody elves.

their planning something, a coordinated elephant/elf attack plot clearly.

Already participating in a succession game right now, so I dunno if I should do a second one. But good luck, have fun

OK, so since alot of people need refresher courses, I figured we could kick this off in the first week of February if that works for everyone. That gives 2 weeks to pick things back up. In the meantime we can lay out the ground rules:

-Playing on DF vesrion .34.11 (I personally use LazyNewbPack, I like my Phobeus tilepack and Dwarf Therapist)
-Each person oversees the fort for 1 year, from Spring to Spring, after which they zip up the save file and either email it or put it online somewhere for the next person to download and play a year, and so on and so forth. If for some reason someone can't finish their turn, the next person can either use the last save available, or if able to finish both the current year and theirs.
-The next person in line has 24 hours to download the save and let people know they are still active, otherwise the next person in line steps up.
-Short of complete disaster (magma flooding, circus comes to town in the 2nd year, etc.), the next overseer will be left to deal with the fort in the condition its in.

Those are pretty much universal hard rules for any succession game, feel free to add or question them as you please. But here is some basic game settings that are up for discussion:

-Any suggestions for an embark site? I was thinking instead of a 4x4 embark, we could do a 3x5 into the side of a mountain

-I was pondering upping the embark points from 1324 to 2000, allows for more skills and slightly more gear.

-Make minerals more or less scarce?

-Do we want aquifers?

-Any other advanced worldgen ideas? more or less vampires/werebeasts, titans; and what starting year do we want?

Try to avoid aquifers if you can we want:

Flux stone
Shallow Metals
Deep Metals
Forested
Deep Soil (or very deep soil it's great for crops!)

Anything else?

Other than that, I think the standard world gen, and try to find a suitably awesome starting spot

God I am terrible at DF but i will follow this thread with interest!

Just realised how rusty I am.

I can't remember how to deal with trade caravans. And my dwarfs refuse to build workshops but I can't understand why.

 winnertakesall wrote:
Just realised how rusty I am.

I can't remember how to deal with trade caravans. And my dwarfs refuse to build workshops but I can't understand why.

They have to have that skill enabled. Otherwise they will get to it. Eventually. Just disable hauling on the dwarf you need to build the shop beforehand

And also, I could try to find a 3x5 that has forests at one end and a volcano at the other for easy magma...

 winnertakesall wrote:
Try to avoid aquifers if you can we want:

Flux stone
Shallow Metals
Deep Metals
Forested
Deep Soil (or very deep soil it's great for crops!)

Anything else?

Other than that, I think the standard world gen, and try to find a suitably awesome starting spot

You farm on the surface? Eeeeeew.

What do you think I am? Some kind of filthy elf?

Nah, but I end up ballsing things up too often when digging into underground water to make mud, so I just use soil now. Not to mention soil is faster to mine and skills your dorfs really fast

Yeah, but it makes your fortress look like it was dug by hobbits. Much better to just find a convenient mountainside with a sand deposit nearby.

Well I can gen a world and pull up a few embark sites and we can vote on it. I'm still in the volcano mindset

Also, Edited the OP to show who all is confirmed. Will continue to edit the OP as new developments occur.

Actually volcanoes could be fun.

All I can picture though is burning dwarves, death, and mayhem.

Still, magma forges.

Magma is still non-Newtonian last I checked, so it's fairly easy to dig a channel for it under your forge layer without flooding your fortress. You might have one dwarf catch fire when he carves the fortification to let the magma through, but proper layout usually prevents that from happening.

Also, great place to pit trash and captured goblins that aren't being used as silk bait.

 winnertakesall wrote:
All I can picture though is burning dwarves, death, and mayhem.

This will happen regardless of whether or not there is a volcano there. The dwarves will find a way.

Color me interested. I know how to play, it's been a month or so since my last fortress.

I am in favor of a volcano. There's a lot of beautiful things that can happen when you have magma at surface level.

Definitely easier than building pump stacks, at least.

So, is there anyone else who is going to do this succession game then? I need someone else to blame when I inevitably kill everyone.

I've been reading about it since seeing this thread, but I don't think I'd have the time to commit to it. I had to drop out of Urban Dead due to lack of free time O_o

You could do about 30 minutes if that a day, it's a long project.

And if you don't finish, just zip it up and send it on

Yeah, one year takes about 2 hours to do if you pause every time you need to think stuff over. You would get a week to do those 2 hours.

I would love to, but I won't have the time to commit to it between all the other stuff going on in life right now sadly. I will gladly contribute my name to the most expendable dorf you can find though.

No worries. There i s always the next one (I have a feeling this fort wont live past its 6th year)

And if I put your name in the top as a confirmed player by mistake (pretty much anyone who says they are interested) PM me and I'll fix it.

I would be interested in this.. if you don't mind yet another noob overseer.

I'm definitely in. I'll probably end up yelling at everyone.

VezrilX wrote:
I would be interested in this.. if you don't mind yet another noob overseer.

Worst case scenario we keep restarting it until it turns into something epic. We all have stuff to learn.

6th year? I think you're being a bit ambitious.

I still completely fail at defending myself from ambushes, let alone sieges. My military always sucks.

Still I managed to write the saga of Erwin the War-Panther, who killed so many robbers I lost count.

One of my first priorities is to put up a moat and walls with a drawbridge, so you can hold a fortress with nothing more then a lever until there is a proper military

Hm yeah, there are ways to defend, I suggest learning how to use traps and cages. Burrows are also hugely important for defense, keeping your vulnerable dwarves in the right spot and away from danger during attacks. Also there is just plain walling yourself in. As for using militia-it's not quite as hard as it seems to simply throw a group of dwarves together and send them to attack, though getting the right dwarves trained up and equipped is another story.

Now.. I cant say I'm good at any of this stuff or have had a successful fort last passed year 4 but that's one of the reason why I want to be in a succession game, to be able to see other peoples' take on how to defend and manage.

That and, if we're not gonna get rolling for 1-2 weeks then you should be able to get familiar with the basics of staying alive to the point that we can keep defenses working for us during our reign.

 Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:
One of my first priorities is to put up a moat and walls with a drawbridge, so you can hold a fortress with nothing more then a lever until there is a proper military

Better: Moat, two drawbridges, and a trap corridor between. Lets you funnel enemies into it, then slam the inner bridge once they've entered the killing field.

If we're using a volcano location I'd rather just build magma reservoirs near the main entrance and flood it at the first(and, due to the nature of magma, last) sign of trouble, with a bridge to act as a floodgate.

Well we still have to figure out turn order as well, so that will have a big impact on defense.

Atom smashers really are ridiculous, used them pretty much single handedly with 4 heavily armed dwarves to see of a goblin siege.

I end up dead in 5 minutes at best with Dwarf Fortress.

Killed by ascii overload, I presume. That or you embarked in a bad (or unlucky) spot.

Try the lazy newb pack, makes everything so much easier. I initially completely died inside when I saw the ASCII graphics, not so hard after you learn to play.

at the end of the fortress, be sure to put up the files so we can adventure to it and have FUN.

Anyone got any news on anything?

My grand total of captured goblins is now at 87.

I suppose I should probably do something with them at some point. And my fort is so rich, everything metal is silver, mostly because that's the only metal I have at my embark site.

Namely because that's all my embark site had, and I'm still smelting all the required steel to replace the weapons and armour for my militia.

 winnertakesall wrote:
Anyone got any news on anything?

My grand total of captured goblins is now at 87.

I suppose I should probably do something with them at some point. And my fort is so rich, everything metal is silver, mostly because that's the only metal I have at my embark site.

Namely because that's all my embark site had, and I'm still smelting all the required steel to replace the weapons and armour for my militia.

Make silver chains for all the goblins.

Chain them up in front of your fort.

Instant Goblin army of doom.

What could possibly go wrong?

Waste of silver. Make a ton of warhammers out of them, it's the best metal for blunt weapons, and at the very least you can make some deadlier traps.

Trouble is, I physically have more silver than my warehouses can deal with. I've tried buying metal off trade caravans, but I just can't get enough.

But silver goblin chains eh? What could possibly go wrong?....

 winnertakesall wrote:
Trouble is, I physically have more silver than my warehouses can deal with. I've tried buying metal off trade caravans, but I just can't get enough.

But silver goblin chains eh? What could possibly go wrong?....

I had the same issue. I started making all of my furniture and bolts out of silver. Still have too much

Blegh on the plus side this will solve my problem of im terrible at starting things out, once i get rolling i can be fine, just seems 90% of my messups are within the first year -_- Yet Another Stupid Death indeed >>

I hate it when I forgot to build a cistern, and then forgot to brew drink.

Out of the 28 dwarves I had, 7 survived.

Were would i get this lazy newb pack currently my fortresses usually dont last past year one but the one that did two dwarves one experienced at mining and building other gathering food from the wild so yeah

Here

Well count me in i will do my best

I recommend the Phobius tileset. I fond it the most pleasing and simple to understand, not to mention it dies good screenshots.

Now that we have a party going on we need to figure out turn order. Feel free to PM me your preferred spot, and Ill work it in the best I can

I'd vote on going first, if only because I have a decent grasp of the worldgen raws and know how to get industries running in a short time frame. Would need someone who can work the military side of things in second, of course, as there's never enough time to get defenses working properly in year 1...

Yeah id like to be pushed back a bit, as i said it tends to be the start i screw up the most on

Yeah, it's probably best I don't do military, because my standard tactics is to conscript every new migrant till I have about 30 or 40, give them some kind of weapon, and have them attack en mass until either they, or the enemy are all dead.

Im quite good with traps and such but this is assuming that i dont starve are dwarves to death or the ogre will break the chains or something on that side of things

I don't understand what all the fuss is with military when we have magma.

 xole wrote:
I don't understand what all the fuss is with military when we have magma.

Flying units. Plus magma isn't a guarantee just yet, though it seems likely

Anywhoo, I generated the world, I'll comb it for good embark sites and post screenshots up of them tonight, we can take a vote

True, but magma IS more fun.

I'm all about the volcano. I even upped the volcano variance in worldgen to make it easier to find one that fits our needs

 Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:
I'm all about the volcano. I even upped the volcano variance in worldgen to make it easier to find one that fits our needs

Use Perfect World. Lets you get volcanos and sedimentary layers in the same embark.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 xole wrote:
I don't understand what all the fuss is with military when we have magma.

Flooding the caverns with magma is typically not a wise idea.

Sorry about the delay, my computer decided to give up on life for a bit there.

This is the ONLY embark site wit a volcano, woods, and flux stone

Is that a site with two volcanos? O.o I don't care if it's a frozen wasteland filled with undead. We must take it.

EDIT: Wait. No. Misread that. Take it anyway and pray for iron ore.

I set mineral scarcity at 1500 (usual is 2500). I don't think it will be an issue.

Looks fine to me, and there is a brook aswell, so we can use waterwheels to power lava pumps. Always a plus!

Thick vegetation in event of famine, looks good to me.

We going for high savageness and evil? or not?

Its wilderness, so I think its low evil, medium savageness. When I get home from work I'll post up turn order, and fix up the OP a bit, then we can prepare to start on Friday if there's no objections.

Seems good to me

 winnertakesall wrote:
Looks fine to me, and there is a brook aswell, so we can use waterwheels to power lava pumps. Always a plus!

Thick vegetation in event of famine, looks good to me.

We have surface magma. If we're using pumps, we've failed as dwarves.

My God. I complete forgot about that.

I don't know how.

All I can picture is burning goblins, and someone designing some incredibly over elaborate system to flood caverns with lava.

 winnertakesall wrote:
My God. I complete forgot about that.

I don't know how.

All I can picture is burning goblins, and someone designing some incredibly over elaborate system to flood caverns with lava.

Still seems a waste of the goblin caravan...

Turn order posted. Still haven't heard back from VezrilX though.

 winnertakesall wrote:
My God. I complete forgot about that.

I don't know how.

All I can picture is burning goblins, and someone designing some incredibly over elaborate system to flood caverns with lava.

If I don't have other problems I'll probably install a way to vent my frustrations into all 3 cavern levels and the surface.

AND AWAY WE GO!

http://www.mediafire.com/?qet98r2s2422q9w

....who is going first?

Laughing man. If he doesnt show that he is alive and playing in the next day or so, then I'll pass it along to you, as you are next

I've finished. Just need to append some notes and reupload it. Should do so after work tonight.

Oh snap that was quick. Looking forward to your report

Journal Entry #1
We have arrived at our destination. The volcano ahead of us shall make for an excellent shell for our new settlement. We shall have to be careful, of course: Not only is magma notoriously fickle, but our scouts report a pair of trolls have made their lair here. We must do our best not to rouse their ire.

Journal Entry #1 - Addendum
A stray dog has roused their ire. Armok damn it all to hell.

Journal Entry #2
We have begun digging the fortress while the troll merrily chases the dog across the mountain. We have made plans for a vertical housing complex, along with similar stockpiles for food and other objects. Basic workshops are to be dug, along with a trap corridor, farm, and barracks. We have even begun planning how to build the foundries that shall surely bring us vast wealth.

Journal Entry #3
The trolls have caught the dog and ate it. They have now begun chasing the mule.

Journal Entry #4
A troll has caught the mule. We have waved goodbye from a safe distance.

Journal Entry #4 - Addendum
We're not quite sure how it happened, but the mule has emerged victorious from its struggle. We have decided to throw a feast in its honor.

Journal Entry #4 - Addendum to the Addendum
The mule has not survived the feast. On a related note, mule meat is rather tasty. However, through the miracles of dwarven science the mule shall live on to slay ever more dangerous monsters.

Journal Entry #5
The fortress is coming along nicely. We have finished the magmaworks, and our forges burn hot with the mountain's blood. Our birds supply us with a feast of eggs, and the farms not only bring us enormous quantities of alcohol but still manage to have enough left over to eat as well. The hunters even bring in the occasional wolverine. However, we have received word of an approaching titan. Truly, we must gird our loins and hold fast to survive the coming onsl- Hold on. Is that a dwarf? And why is he naked?

Journal Entry #6
We tried to greet the dwarf. He wrecked our depot. We shot him, and rebuilt the depot.

Journal Entry #7
I don't care how well made it is, the dwarf who made this is wrong in the head. Oh god. I can hear the buzz of their wings...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Right, now that the report is out of the way, what's been done:



The troll lair is to the south, and still has a troll in it. I've restricted the area around it, but do try not to make any tasks in the general area.

Things that need to be done:
1) Find iron and flux. I don't have huge hopes for coal, but I've asked for large quantities of wood from our liason so we can make coke ourselves. I've got a couple exploratory mines around the edges of the map, but more needs to be done in deeper layers.

2) DO NOT BUTCHER THE BIRDS. I've got them all penned in the nest room, and they're currently feeding the fortress with their eggs. Try to pen any newly arrived birds, lizards, or spiders in there so they'll lay more quickly.

3) Once you have steel, finish the trap corridor. Serrated steel discs are amazing, and ten of them in a trap murders all comers.

4) Make sure stone pot production continues (possibly even make another craftsdwarf workshop to increase the rate), and make sure we continue brewing. Don't want the little bastards to riot over only having water to drink.

5) The goblinite HAS begun to flow, with the occasional snatcher corpse found in the existing traps. Try to keep everyone inside so as to avoid ambushes.

6) Continuing the existing housing pattern would be lovely, as it's one of the more space and travel efficient patterns barring fractals. Also easy to designate once you figure out the trick.

7) The western workshop rooms all have magma flowing under them, meaning it would be best to reserve them for industries that require magma (kilns, forges, smelters, glass, etc).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And finally, the link to download. Enjoy, and try not to die horribly.

http://www.mediafire.com/?h47vmftz0azx1i1

Well now you've said that, it's going to fail horribly.

Everything is so neat and well planned out too....

I expect casualties, high casualties, as I'm going to do something that's completely slowed, and......oh the pressure!

Hopefully I should be done by tomorrow night.

Top notch start. Heh were up to me the little guys would still be banging rocks together in a damp hole >.> And i mean in the bad un-dwarf way.

I don't know whether you noticed, but it seems that **a lot** of the stuff from the dwarf caravan seems to be strewn over our trade depot. Did that weredorf cause them abandon their stuff?

If it did, the prospect of wood next year isn't looking promising.

On the bright side, there seems to be some nice stuff there, a couple of steel anvils and some other things.

I don't think we're getting that wood delivering though, as I imagine they're going to be pretty pissed off that their profit margins are low this year.

So uh, the place have a name?

Yep! The great Dwarven settlement, of Hammersaint.

So heh i guess i should no this but how do I use the save when its my turn

If you use LNP then set the autosave to yearly, or seasonally. Otherwise hit esc. and use the "save game" option

**cough** Well this definately could have gone better.

Total casualty report: About 6 dwarfs, a couple of cats, and dog.

Entry 1: Spent 20 minutes looking at things hoping I wouldn't kill everyone. I then proceeded to slightly extend the trap tunnel to 6 spinning blades. And set up a drawbridge, I do like those.

Entry 2: **sigh** still no iron of flux stone Armok me damned! Looks like everything is being made of silver and copper. Dug a small exploratory mine a few levels down. On the bright side, I did find 8 pieces of aluminium

Entry 3: Bedroom size doubled, can now have around 70 bedrooms. Set a stone detailer to work smoothing the dining room and bedroom walls, so we can get him to legendary.

Entry 4: I decide it was time to show off the shackles of humanity and become a Dwarf, I summoned up our slightly extended militia which now consists of 8 crossbow dwarfs, and charged them at the troll. The result was pleasing!

Entry 5: The dwarfs settle down the party about the trolls defeat:


Entry 6: Started setting up a hospital, it's barely build atm. Well, it's the 27th of obsidian I can't see anything that could wro- Oh bugger. A goblin siege. 2 giant olms, and a good 18 goblins. WELL let's get this done I set a burrow up, and told all my dwarfs to stay in it. the goblins charge at the trap tunnel, and I move up my militia to rain crossbow bolts on them as they struggle the spinning tunnel of death things seem to be going well, wait, what's this, why does my chief medical dwarf have a bucket? No...what are you do- NOOOOOOOOO The chief medical dwarf was slain, and for some reason, another 2 dwarfs tried to empty the depot of 3 silver cups all of a sudden. So, in total, 1 medical dwarf (our ONLY medical dwarf) 2 planters, a hunter who was caught outside, and 2 dwarf children who were in the arms of the various killed dwarfs. OH! And a several cats who decided they were going to get themselves killed. And a lamb. And a dog........and a sheep. BUT OTHER THAN THAT, IT WENT FINE.


http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ajc5nkw7mn02kpe

Sounds about the usual for a succession game.

Oh yeah, the 'to do' list:

Getting a source of fresh water would be awesome, but isn't really important

Getting the hospital set up would be good

Keep the little dwarf brewing 24/7

Burying the bodies from the siege, I didn't have time

A few more traps in the trap corridor, try buying some steel from the next dwarf caravan, the dead goblins need looting, and most of them have 2-3 iron items on them.

And most importantly, Dig deep!, Dig Greedily!

Excellent. I'll be needing to reinstall the lazy newb pack(I'll miss you MASTERCRAFTED), and then hopefully I can get all of these problems taken care of...or make more of them for someone else. Y'never know.

Could be worse. As long as the next person can contain the tantrum spiral, it should be fine. Also, anyone want to install a danger room in that 3x3 I dug by the barracks?

Hey guys im sorry ive been given a crap ton of work and wont be able to participate at least as of now sorry.

 Laughing Man wrote:
Could be worse. As long as the next person can contain the tantrum spiral, it should be fine. Also, anyone want to install a danger room in that 3x3 I dug by the barracks?

Pods. Hardest thing to pull off, but best way to have a happy and productive fortress.

Yeah, but they're boring.

Any updates so far?

If we dont hear something in the next 3 days, I'll move onto my turn the following day, as it will have been a week.

I just desperately want to know what's happened.

Is everyone dead yet?

Not yet. I was a lot busier this weekend than I had anticipated, and yesterday I had a migraine. My sincerest apologies for the delay. however, I've got everything up and falling apart so I should be able to finish my year this evening...and there should be a year after that one.

Entry 1
-I see a lot of dead dwarves. Dead dwarves everywhere. And a lot of the living ones are angry, presumably about the presence of dead dwarves. Whoever is supposed to be making coffins is not doing so. I am displeased.

Entry 2
-Started on hospital. Made another masonry place in the hopes that someone will use it. They probably won't. I don't think the dwarves have found all of the dead bodies yet, which is somewhat pathetic since they are right outside the door.
-I begin to dig deeper. Need more metal. Goblinite alone will not suffice.

Entry 3
-I think I have enough coffins for now. I saw a lot of dogs sitting around so I slaughtered all the ones I could find.

Entry 4
-I try to keep all my dwarves busy but there are just too many of them! If only...there were less of them.
-Some idiot got himself possessed. We'll see what he makes.
-He makes an earring made of maple...with an image on it of the same earring made of maple.



Entry 5
-Another siege. Is it that time of year already, or did I miss something? Things seem to have gone by awfully fast. Hopefully dwarves know how to run away quickly.
-Strongly considering just letting them run around and then try and kill all the dwarves it upset. We're up to 96 dwarves now. That's actually down about 10
-I just looked and it's only Malachite. I think I should have enough time to fix this.
-I don't know if the Trolls came with the goblins(and the giant crocodiles...and giant frogs) or on their own but they sure don't like dwarf coffins. I can't even find some of the corpses anymore.



Entry 6
-The siege went away. I think we killed them all? Or maybe they left. I really don't know, I just saw dwarves running around in panic. I will remember fondly the dwarves who starved to death on top of a farm.
-The human caravan showed up and my dwarves sagely and without hesitation stole everything they had. Good dwarves.



-We appear to be suffering a tantrum spiral. I’m not concerned yet, but I’m working to fix it. Graves are cheaper than houses.
-Someone made a “dwarf bone drum” made of dwarf bone. Neat.

Entry 7
-Solved overpopulation crisis.
-Still working on dwarf post-life housing shortage.

Entry 8
-Another siege. My attempt to just wall the place up fails, and the goblins enter my domain, slaughtering all in their path.




Well...I killed the fortress. I think it’s a little early for this, so I suggest a reset back to the previous save and whoever wants to go next goes next.

Good luck. You will need it.

Well now, this should be interesting for me...

I'll probably do my turn this weekend, I'm about to leave for work in a few minutes

EDIT:Spelling

Year 3.

Well, it's better than I initially thought was going to happen, but seriously though, why the hell does everything hate us? In the space of 2 years, we got 3 sieges, and 2 ambushes.

I hate you goblins. I hate you so much.

I would suggest not bothering to dig for steel, instead dig for magma proof ore and build a goblin welcoming device. The goblins can provide us with the weapons for weapon traps.

Not if you soak them in magma. Anything useful melts.

I have a plan in mind, but the surprise can wait for y'all

 Laughing Man wrote:
Not if you soak them in magma. Anything useful melts.

In the basic game is there any metal left behind? usually I play masterworks.

Not much, anyway. Magma temperature is 12,000 Urist. Steel and iron will survive, but not anything else besides cotton candy.

Journal of 'Bane' Uzolmïshak, Overseer of Hammersaint
1st Granite, 503
I arrived at this "Hammersaint" place, and all I see is blood and corpses everywhere. Noone is in charge, and for some reason the moment I walked up somebody called me the savior of Dwarves, and now I'm in charge of this hole. Time to get cracking.
3rd Granite, 503
After going over the history of this place, I've decided to do a serious overhaul of security here. I've drawn up plans to leave my mark on this cursed earth. I call it "the Wall of Bane. It will be a massive towering structure that strikes fear into our enemies hearts...



More to come soon

Sorry about the delay, work sucks...

18th Granite
Migrants! The rash of deaths before my arrival can finally start to be recovered from.

1st Slate
Reg Koganlolum begins the first of his several small tantrums. I order him to be watched closely for signs of further mental instability
5th Slate
Uzul Kubukamal has decided to withdrawl from the community, locking himself in our only craftsdwarf's shop, and only comes out to grab a few things here and there. Listening to him from the other side of the door all I can hear is him mumbling to himself about "the perfect head"
9th Slate
The inner wall of the first level of the Wall of Bane is finished. It is nowhere near done, but it will hold until I can spare the rescorces to finish it.
14th Slate
After 9 days, Uzul barged into my room, claiming he made perfection. He then pulled out a box and asked if I was ready to have my head blown, to which I eagerly demanded to see it. It was a pair of ing maple earrings...
The rest of Slate
I have ordered the construction of a series of catacombs, to allow our fallen brothers to rest for all time in peace. I have also ordered both a personal quarters and tomb for myself, as the position of Overseer deserves. Further gains to our home are the births of 2 boys, a girl, and 2 litters of puppies. I'm also taking a personal hand in our food and drink production, as we seem to be drinking faster then we can brew. Second still is up and running as a result.
13th Felsite
It's a good thing I am as security minded as I am. Today marks the first time the Wall of Bane will be tersted in battle, as filthy goblins have arrived at our gates. Unfortunatly several of our hunters didn't make it back in time, and were lost in battle. Erush Tenshedustuth was paticuarly crucial in buying us time, singlehandidly killing 2 trolls and wounding a goblin before being rushed by 6 more.


Thats it for Spring. A mixture of having overtime at work, my son this week, and being DF OCD (I am completely renovating parts of the fort, and reorginizing everything from stockpiles to individual dwarf labors, it takes a while) have slowed actual playing to a crawl. I'll put up summer (halfway done plaing) tonight, and hopefully some screenshots will happen as well.

Can I still get tacked onto the list, or am I too late?

I haven't played DF since it was easy, and we had to make our own Fun, like giant inverted pyramids of cast obsidian supported by great spires of clear glass forming the living quarters of the useful/early dwarves, while the wretched migrants who came later had to squat outside the walls and mine for resources given to the priviledged side through special airlocks... (In the interest of honesty, I must say I only got through the casting of the pyramid/removal of the mold and the construction of the glass spires, I never bother to finish the internals of it (though I did get some of the excavation done before getting bored))

I also pioneered reliable water clocks via aquifers and atom smashing (as in, no one else had solved the issue of unreliability before I did, working in concert with the handful of other people on the bay12 forums who were messing around with the problem of reliable timing at that point).

I'll throw you right on, We're a pretty noob bunch here, but its all about the !!FUN!!.
In other news, I just spent 3 hours on Dwarf Therapist and in-game on pause to take a deep look at what we have and what we dont. We had 20 farmhands (8 farmers, !11 planters!, and a few others). Everyone is sorted out for the most part, and I created a slave mason class of workers and wood burners/furnace operators.

Uzolm
Journal of 'Bane' Uzolmïshak, Overseer of Hammersaint
16th Hematite, 503
Still under siege, but too keep the idelers busy and their minds off of the enemy at our gate, I've organized a massive cleanup of the stone left lying around. That made 37 people busy right off the bat, and I also made a new stockpile for metal ores and bars near the forges. The human caravan is due soon, but unless they have some amazing guards, I doubt they will make it through the siege
11th Malachite
Dôbar Udilishlun locked himself away in one of our magma forges today, ranting about the gods and such nonsense. I've also gone over the list of higher up positions, and have asked Mayor Tholtig Ustuthudar to serve as Manager in addition to his current duties, to which he happily accepted the responsibilities. Libosh Thocitavuz has also been promoted to Chief Medical Dwarf, and while reforming Dwarven healthcare is on my to-do list, it might not happen before I leave my position as overseer.
13th Galena
The siege has ended!! And the human caravan has arrives the same day!! Now we can find and bury our honored dead.
22nd Galena
I have tired of the humans constant whining about conditions here, and gave them a reason to go home by taking all of their goods and expelling them form my fortress. We needed the supplies anyway
10 Limestone
We recover more bodies daily, and more importantly, construction on the Wall of Bane continues, with the outer wall in place, and new flooring for both the first and second levels being put down. Whoever succeeds me will have to add fortifications and boltholes (1x1 bridge linked to a lever to block LOS when need be)


That about does it for me. Here's some screenshots of the progress made:

As a side note, can we please avoid pissing off any elves? I want war tigers.

OK, I couldn't finish my turn due to real life events, but I put up what /i accomplished. Its near the end of sandstone, and the first thing people need to do is build a new trade depot, I de-constructed the last one to sieze the goods, and ran out of stockpile space to put the stuff in. Other then that the place is in really good shape. Everyone is working on either the Wall of Bane, or hauling stones from the mines. Healthcare needs to be worked on, I never got around to it


Here


When I can I'll edit my last post to include the rest of the journal

Apologies for the delay, currently posting this from the library, afraid to say my laptop had a few troubles of the frazzle and pop kind and insisted on showing me some pretty blue screens. Sorry about that chaps but whoever is next may want to take over. Sorry again!

I'll wait a few days for the next person on the list to show up (also, I seem to need a proper computer with a proper internet connection to download this; I just downloaded it around five times, each ending with "download successful" and prompt, inexplicable deletion by this wretched phone (I managed to download the latest DF version with it, and transfer it to my computer, at least)). I was planning on grabbing it, playing through today, and uploading it if the next player hadn't shown up by then, but see above about the download issues.

Has anyone had a miner just up and break their neck and die while channeling? Back in 40d it was dangerous to designate large channel areas, so the standard was to go down a z level and designate a bunch of up ramps, though since channeling is now basically just "dig down ramps" it seems safe all around. Except for the miner with the inexplicable broken neck, of course... (same fort: several unarmored dabbling sworddwarves with wooden shields took on a firebreathing titan, killing it while suffering no injuries.)

I've sent VezrilX several PMs throughout this game and have received no response, even when I originally posted turn order. If he doesn't make himself known in the next 24 hours, feel free to pick it up Sir. Worst case he goes after you instead

Well you guys got me interested in trying this game out, went in fully green with no aid or what have you. So far im doing ok (started 2nd year of the fort), just trying to figure out how to get a well going for a reliable water source. Only troubles ive had was some werepanther came into my fort and killed a couple cats before my militia of 3 chased him off

 Tazz Azrael wrote:
Well you guys got me interested in trying this game out, went in fully green with no aid or what have you. So far im doing ok (started 2nd year of the fort), just trying to figure out how to get a well going for a reliable water source. Only troubles ive had was some werepanther came into my fort and killed a couple cats before my militia of 3 chased him off

Just make sure he didn't infect any of your dwarves, that wont have a happy ending...


EDIT: edited my last post for the journal and added screenshots above

I'll try to get the file in the next couple of days. If it seems like it'll be longer than that, I'll check back so the next person can go in the meantime.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tazz Azrael wrote:
Well you guys got me interested in trying this game out, went in fully green with no aid or what have you. So far im doing ok (started 2nd year of the fort), just trying to figure out how to get a well going for a reliable water source. Only troubles ive had was some werepanther came into my fort and killed a couple cats before my militia of 3 chased him off

Use the wiki extensively. A lot of the difficulty can be overcome with some planning and caution, but there's a lot of idiosyncratic stuff that an get you anyways, if you don't know what to look for. I suppose there can be some fun in stumbling through yourself, but sooner or later you'll hit a point where it's just annoying when disaster comes about from an unintuitive or buggy feature.

The latest version seems much better in this regard than the old 40d, where I learned it, though since I just automatically avoid the problems that had, I don't know if they've actually been fixed to any extent, or if I'm just not running into them.

Oh, one possibly big thing: disable cooking of raw crops in the kitchen menu unless you just have a ridiculous number of one of them, because cooking destroys the seeds and can very quickly destroy your whole farming operation.

If you want an easy way to effectively bring more stuff on embark, remove the tools (but not the anvil) and take three cheap rocks, ten logs or so, and a piece of tetrahedrite. For ~140 points, you get the anvil and everything you need to make two picks and two axes, three picks and an axe, or, if you take a few more logs, four picks and a wooden axe, though you shouldn't need more than two miners until much later, when you have a bunch of worthless layabouts with redundant skills or skills in industries you're not bothering with.

There are also a bunch of more exploitish things, like getting free containers by taking one or-container-capacity-plus-one of an item that comes in a bag or barrel (capacity is five or ten for most things (booze, food, seeds) or one for things like sand), you might want to avoid those if you don't want to be cheap.

Turkeys are an excellent food source from their eggs alone, and if you let the eggs hatch you'll get ~ten more turkeys inside a year, for every clutch of eggs that's allowed to hatch (read the wiki for how that industry works: you need nestboxes and if you want the eggs to hatch, you have to keep anyone from harvesting them (which means having the turkey+nestbox behind a locked door), and there's more caveats), and they're only six points a piece on embark (and you only need one male).

After looking at the latest pics, I'm suddenly not surprised by the invasion problems anymore...

 Laughing Man wrote:
After looking at the latest pics, I'm suddenly not surprised by the invasion problems anymore...

Yeah, literally within 5 minutes of finishing a goblin army came-a-knockin. She may not look like much, but shes got it where it counts

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:
I'll try to get the file in the next couple of days. If it seems like it'll be longer than that, I'll check back so the next person can go in the meantime.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tazz Azrael wrote:
Well you guys got me interested in trying this game out, went in fully green with no aid or what have you. So far im doing ok (started 2nd year of the fort), just trying to figure out how to get a well going for a reliable water source. Only troubles ive had was some werepanther came into my fort and killed a couple cats before my militia of 3 chased him off

Use the wiki extensively. A lot of the difficulty can be overcome with some planning and caution, but there's a lot of idiosyncratic stuff that an get you anyways, if you don't know what to look for. I suppose there can be some fun in stumbling through yourself, but sooner or later you'll hit a point where it's just annoying when disaster comes about from an unintuitive or buggy feature.

The latest version seems much better in this regard than the old 40d, where I learned it, though since I just automatically avoid the problems that had, I don't know if they've actually been fixed to any extent, or if I'm just not running into them.

Oh, one possibly big thing: disable cooking of raw crops in the kitchen menu unless you just have a ridiculous number of one of them, because cooking destroys the seeds and can very quickly destroy your whole farming operation.

If you want an easy way to effectively bring more stuff on embark, remove the tools (but not the anvil) and take three cheap rocks, ten logs or so, and a piece of tetrahedrite. For ~140 points, you get the anvil and everything you need to make two picks and two axes, three picks and an axe, or, if you take a few more logs, four picks and a wooden axe, though you shouldn't need more than two miners until much later, when you have a bunch of worthless layabouts with redundant skills or skills in industries you're not bothering with.

There are also a bunch of more exploitish things, like getting free containers by taking one or-container-capacity-plus-one of an item that comes in a bag or barrel (capacity is five or ten for most things (booze, food, seeds) or one for things like sand), you might want to avoid those if you don't want to be cheap.

Turkeys are an excellent food source from their eggs alone, and if you let the eggs hatch you'll get ~ten more turkeys inside a year, for every clutch of eggs that's allowed to hatch (read the wiki for how that industry works: you need nestboxes and if you want the eggs to hatch, you have to keep anyone from harvesting them (which means having the turkey+nestbox behind a locked door), and there's more caveats), and they're only six points a piece on embark (and you only need one male).

Thanks a ton for all that info! And that bit about cooking the crops destroying the seeds would explain why i ran out so quickly

Ok, I've got the save.

 Tazz Azrael wrote:

Thanks a ton for all that info! And that bit about cooking the crops destroying the seeds would explain why i ran out so quickly

Happy to help. It's a daunting game, and the idiosyncrasies can kill you without giving away the source of the problem. The seed thing happened to me in one of my first games. Also carp, back when that was a problem (due to an oversight in the raws, carp were extremely dangerous animals that could drag fisherdwarves and anyone going to a river for water in, and tear them apart; they're not anymore, so far as I know Edit: not *as* dangerous, but they still freak dwarves out, which can lead to dodging into water according to the wiki). Possibly the same game.

So...in the downtime I downloaded meself a copy of Masterwork Dwarf Fortress


Its fething awesome . I suggest everyone give it a try when they are comfortable with the game, I might even run it for my next succession fortress.

Status update: I've been busy the past few days, but I just played through the winter of the incomplete turn and have gotten into spring of my turn. I couldn't figure out how the wall was supposed to be setup, so I just patched the holes in the defenses and moated off the mountain above the entrance. I've expanded underground operations, and am nearly done with the first part of a secret project I hope to complete within my turn. Should I fail, I'll leave detailed notes on what's left to do. I also breached two cavern layers, one flooded. Did the first person to go get a message about a cavern or the magma sea on starting? I'd like to know if I'm missing a cavern, or if it's just flooded with magma.

I never went into any caverns, although I did pit a tame pig (all hail Comrade Pigonaut) to see if he could find the magma sea and any connected caverns. He found the former but none of the latter, before his radio cut out amid a chorus of confused oinks.

I've stalled out here (mid-spring). The morale situation is grim, but probably salvageable (the newest immigrants, who make up more than half the military, should be insulated, and things shouldn't go too bad before immigrants arrive). I could probably get through it, but every time I try it just gets too depressing since there's nothing to be done but ignore the problem and continue work, and I've taken too long with this anyways. It was ultimately caused by an ambush, a stupid accident (a miner stood on a square she was channeling out, above an eight level drop, despite a safe square next to the designated block), and an inexplicable accident (a block of loam materialized in mid air during the excavation of the great cistern, killing one and injuring two; this is what made the morale situation go critical, leading to a berserk mayor, three murders, a new mayor, who just committed two more murders, and numerous injuries; current casualties stand at eight or nine, counting the accidents and the numerous murders).

I've uploaded the save. The great cistern (5404 squares in size) is complete, and almost 1/6th filled. The stairs down to the site where excavation of a giant space to flood (using the cistern, which currently has a release lever that will drain it into the first level of caverns, though the drain tunnel is accessible and designed to accommodate alternate end points) and use as an underground pasture/farmland/tree farm are designated. The idea was to dig out a ridiculously huge area (something like 50x50) with a large column in the middle, large enough to contain all of a functioning fort's industry and housing, with storage above and below the space, down 3-4 Z levels, with multiple levels in the outside area, so as to maximize the muddied land.


Edit: I'll post a detailed account of my turn later tonight, I was in a hurry and didn't have the logs I kept with me when I uploaded the save.

**cough**

Who is next?

Laughing Man, I believe. I'm a little surprised neither he nor Bane's checked in already.

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:
Laughing Man, I believe. I'm a little surprised neither he nor Bane's checked in already.

I sent him a PM on the 6th. Its been more then two days, so winnertakesall is up by default

Oh god no. Remember what happened last time?

gg, it's all over. Nevermind.

I'll try my best, I just hope everyone doesn't die.

The lever that closes the outside gate is the one closest to the inner gate, if I'm remembering correctly. When the outside gate closes the fortress becomes completely inaccessible (and, as I redid the gate, there's a ditch to protect against building destroyers). The currently on lever controls the flow of water into the cistern, and the lever near the stairs into the drainage tunnel below the cistern controls the drain.

Some unhappy/miserable dwarves are locked in their rooms, as is a berserk dwarf and an insane one. Let the still sane ones out if they start to get hungry or thirsty, otherwise they'll die and cause more unhappiness. The tombs may need expanding soon, if the murders keep on. The hospital needs more beds in it too, I think.

So enjoy the horrible situation I couldn't bear to deal with. Or look at the improvements I made and then start over from Bane's save.

Sorry, on vacation this week. I've got computer access, so I can download it and mess around with it still. Just might actually take me the full week instead of the night it did last time.

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:
The lever that closes the outside gate is the one closest to the inner gate, if I'm remembering correctly.

This is correct. Its double gated so you can have dwarves hide in the wall if you lose the fortress to a FB or the circus. If I had time I was going to build it 5 or 6 z-levels high and make a full barracks and stuff in there, with a healthy supply of food and booze to wait out a siege.

Some unhappy/miserable dwarves are locked in their rooms, as is a berserk dwarf and an insane one. Let the still sane ones out if they start to get hungry or thirsty, otherwise they'll die and cause more unhappiness. The tombs may need expanding soon, if the murders keep on. The hospital needs more beds in it too, I think.

So enjoy the horrible situation I couldn't bear to deal with. Or look at the improvements I made and then start over from Bane's save.

I don't remember more then just the one dwarf freaking out...hmmm...

Laughing Man wrote:Sorry, on vacation this week. I've got computer access, so I can download it and mess around with it still. Just might actually take me the full week instead of the night it did last time.

At this point, you waited 4 days to respond, though Winner seems a bit...skitish. You two can take a day or so to PM and figure it out if he hasnt started his turn yet. Otherwise you can just take my turn when hes done and I'll sit this round out due to real life stuff

 Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:

Sir Pseudonymous wrote:
The lever that closes the outside gate is the one closest to the inner gate, if I'm remembering correctly.

This is correct. Its double gated so you can have dwarves hide in the wall if you lose the fortress to a FB or the circus. If I had time I was going to build it 5 or 6 z-levels high and make a full barracks and stuff in there, with a healthy supply of food and booze to wait out a siege.

Some unhappy/miserable dwarves are locked in their rooms, as is a berserk dwarf and an insane one. Let the still sane ones out if they start to get hungry or thirsty, otherwise they'll die and cause more unhappiness. The tombs may need expanding soon, if the murders keep on. The hospital needs more beds in it too, I think.

So enjoy the horrible situation I couldn't bear to deal with. Or look at the improvements I made and then start over from Bane's save.

I don't remember more then just the one dwarf freaking out...hmmm...

In the save I uploaded. We suffered several casualties, three from an ambush, one from a miner digging out a channel over an eight level drop, another from a block of loam appearing in midair during the excavation of the great cistern (a 6 level, 30x30 space with a drain on the bottom and a well breaching the roof), then a murder, then the mayor went berserk and was put down (his father struck the killing blow, no less), then another murder, then, I believe, another, then the new mayor killed two more, then I uploaded the save and stepped away. In the meantime a dwarf went berserk but was in his room, so I locked the door, and another went insane in his own room, so that door got locked too. Like I said, the morale situation is grim.

I'm quite happy to wait for him to do his turn, I don't think he's been yet, and I have a bunch of other stuff I need to do.

I'm the one who started the game. But yeah, I'll try to get a save uploaded tonight once I'm off the slopes.

Out of curiosity, which save did you go with, mine or Bane's?

So, did you kind of forget about this or what?

Its been 9 days, i sent a wave of PM's out to Winnertakesall, Laughing Man, and Doc1234. Laughing man is skipped altogether at this point, winner had 24 hours to announce he is taking his turn, and doc has 36 hours to tell me if he wants to take his. Otherwise its down to you and me an I'll simply move this to Bay 12's community games forum

I can't follow it there; I got permabanned from bay12 a couple of years ago for, no joke, politely and privately questioning Toady's actions. The most psychotic part was that he proceeded to immediately fix the grievance I pointed out.


It's odd that everyone would just up and drop out like this though. It looked like laughingman was done with his turn...

Wow, I didn't even know you could get banned from there...


Anywhoo, Laughing Man was on holiday and completely forgot, and hes working Comicon this weekend, and Winnertakesall has no idea whats going on. I pointed him in the right direction and we shall see where it goes in the next day or so

Yeah, I had just shy of 2,000 posts and had been an active member of the community for over a year, it was a huge shock. I saw several people banned for pretty frivolous things (including the guy who taught me to play 40k), when others carried on in the same fashion or worse with impunity. I suspect it was down to whether he personally agreed with them or not. Dakka is much chiller, and yet has more open discussion in my opinion, since it's the people who burst into flames who get slapped down instead of just a random individual who happened to be in the center of a maelstrom.


Ok, that's good. I was wondering how everyone just vanished so suddenly after seeming to have an active interest in this.

OK then! After some significant delays, I am downloading the latest save now.

Everyone pray to Armok.

On a lighter note...