Minedcrafts - a Dwarf Fortress Succession Game!

I said that I'd do it, just for hilarity. But would you still mind walking me through the steps to actually play this fortress?

 

You can grow food above ground. You can use water from the caverns, or you can make magma flow under ice to melt the ice. Make sure you have a cistern for that.

It would be better if we were both on MSN and you could ask me stuff while touring the fort. Most of it is pretty straightforward. For example, farms grow things

 

I meant more about actually installing the save file so that I could play it on my computer. I have been playing DF for a year or two, y'know.

 

I put instructions in the description on the download page.

 

You've certainly made one hell of a start in your first year! Awesome work getting steel already...

With the lake frozen, now is your chance! Dig through the ice and make an underwater fortress! Crazy tower entrance in the middle of the lake! Huge drawbridge! Aquarium viewing rooms with all-glass walls! Cat drowning chambers!

 

I'll leave that to another guy.

 

Actually, the lake is only frozen in the middle of winter. It would certainly be a lot easier to make an underwater bastion, which is what I would do if this was a regular Let's Play.

Heck, I might even turn it into one (as an alternate history, of course).

 

Player list for reference:

Players
Double A
mythmonster2 - up
Dave Shack - on deck
Luckymoose
woot7
cindle
Cowabungaa

No shaft down to magma yet? Looking forward to proceeding with that if it's not done before it gets to me. The only pure reason for coal is to make steel, any use of it pre-magma is wasteful of Armok's bounty.

I've taken to drilling straight down at the inner corner boundary of the nxn region, more often than not I get to the molten rock layer without hitting anything along the way. If this is a 4x4 that would be right in the center of the map. On a 3x3 it is 1/3 from one of the corners along a diagonal. Then back up a few layers and drive a tunnel sideways about 15 tiles, if no warm stone go down again and you should hit magma from the top. Slight chance of hitting a valuable blue metal instead, if that happens do not dig further unless you want to start a new game! If it gets to molten rock again you're just unlucky, go back to the side tunnel and try another direction.

Interesting style of entrance. Apparently stairs work for caravans in the absence of wagons? I haven't tried to use floor hatches in up/down stairs. Saw something new already, which is part of the point of these things.

I usually make my carpenter or a miner the bookkeeper and take the small hit up front in order to get a precise drink and plant inventory. But don't suppose it hurts to not have that.

 

I've been playing DF on and off for less than a year (started last summer) and I can honestly say I've never made a magma forge at a non-volcano. I just didn't need to. I got close to needing metal one time, but then my Mac's harddrive totally screwed up and I lost that fort along with everything else.

The center of the 4x4 is a lake, soooooooo...

No wagons still, so yeah that's why I did it. I could have made a ramp, but that's no fun.

I really like having a bookkeeper, but I just saw everything else as more important. I probably should have made the novice miller the bookkeeper, but miller is such a bad skill I didn't want to reward him.

 

On digging down, if the entrance is off center just dig sideways less than 5 layers below ground, unless of course the aquifer intersects. Or wall off any underground for now and jump in there later after there is enough military.

Magma is also useful for the gigantic pump stack of doom. The geography is right for bauxite and we have proven iron reserves large enough to put all the military in full steel jackets with enough left over for corkscrews and pipe sections. Then if still alive that long we might build an entrance structure with a large dip and pump in magma to handle sieges. I wonder if putting the outlet in the lake would then be useful for obsidian farming?

 

Bauxite isn't the only magma-safe rock...

If course it still is the best. Because it's friggin red.

 

what about kaolinite?

 

It starts with a k.

 

Uh, yeah, you'll have to find someone else to play it for now. DaveShack, you're up. I won't be able to play this round, but I should be able to actually play in a week or so or whenever my turn rolls around next.

 

All that work conserving the stuff, and it turns out there is no shortage of magma-safe rocks any more.

OK, got it.

 

I'm expecting to need up to 28 dwarf names by the end of summer, though it might just be easier to leave them to begin with and just give nicknames to the legendaries.

After getting outgoing leader Double A tucked into bed
first order of business was to take a look around and see what the landscape looks like.

Spoiler :

I have some fear that a siege could arrive on those bits of land at the top right corner, and then we'd be stuck in siege mode forever. Sounds like a good mega construction project. Easy enough to build it with some retraction bridges that will drop the invaders in the middle of the lake. Or build an open structure for the gobbos to cross and a parallel shooting range with fortifications and a roof. Or even make the causeway nice and straight, with a protected catapult or ballista pillbox to max the carnage.

But first, lets check what our more urgent needs might be.
Don't see a trade depot near the surface, but we had traders?
Oh, there it is on level 3, along with the dining room and forges. Good, it has a hotkey F4.

Spoiler :

Workshop checks: no butcher's or tanner's shop. That's odd, isn't one of the first rules of new fortress construction to have a way to eliminate unwanted kittens? Egad, we have two puffballs! Whew, both male -- well, tomcats are fine but better prepare for the inevitable females. And I suppose Diamondeye is exempt from butcher duty.



The craft workshops are set on repeat, which is good, but I add some variety to get us better average value with the traders.


I queue up a throne in the mason's workshop for the new bookkeeper's "office" (Rith the Miller gets the nod as the least experienced in any primary skill) and get the new year started. A few seconds later, more kittens, also male.

 

I set it on crafts because the dwarves wanted earrings and scepters. I think.

Two of those, anyway.

And as for the two places up top, I suggest a twisty walkway that spans the entire lake and multiple z-levels, and at some point going under water (so we can drown anything that doesn't die from bolts).

 

Always keep a breeding pair of kitties eh. It's such a nice source of leather, bones and meat.

 

Noooo! Leave the kitties alone, you meanie.

 

Spring 1052:

New leader DaveShack has an insatiable yearning for magma, and an intense phobia of cats. Quickly new orders go up to build a butcher shop and dig deeper. The steel production line grinds to a halt as the pig iron / steel smelter uses up the last of the iron bars, so the smelter is put on a cycle of coal / iron for a while. Not knowing the full trade situation he alters the craftshop production schedule to include toys, instruments, and mugs, but after being informed by Double A that the dwarven traders had requested crafts specifically, the ratio was returned to a craft heavy load that still produces some of the other goods in case the elves and humans have different tastes. Unlike some other dwarves, DaveShack does not hate the elves. He feels pity for them that they cannot stomach the use of trees by others than themselves, and contempt that they are willing to give in trade the same things they will not accept from others. They are still a valuable source of logs and the area is a bit short of land and heavy on water so we are likely to outstrip the local supply. And making endless supplies of stone trade goods is a fabulous way to keep the fortress' craftsdwarves busy. Busy dwarves are happy dwarves, as long as the booze holds out.

Speaking of booze, we have plenty for now but are running out of barrels. More barrels are requested, and it is noted we're almost out of wood. Fine, our woodworker can go chop some trees after the barrels are made. But what's this, woot7 still doesn't have a job?? Oh, right, only one axe and someone else is holding it. Well, we found some malachite while digging the deep exploration shaft, so it's a minor thing to smelt a little copper and forge another axe. But by the time that's done a huge party of migrants arrives, 22 in all. Nice, the immigrants brought 2 axes. I didn't notice if there was already a crossbow or if they brought it too.



The deep exploration was pretty eventful. The miners found damp stone a couple of layers under the lake, so they stopped tunneling sideways and went deeper, and breached a cavern. The hole was quickly floored over, and using a quickly sketched map of the area they dug towards a rock column that passed undisturbed through the center of the cavern, and then down through it. A short time later they nicked the edge of another cavern. Walling that opening as well, they shifted the shaft location a bit and continued their exploration of the deeper realm. Finally warm stone was found 28 levels below ground, in an area abundent with granite and containing veins of cassiterite. Surely there will be additional ore, even more valuable.


Going back up several levels for safety, the miners then worked sideways again, over the location of the warm stone, and then began digging down. Soon the exciting news flashed throughout the fortress: We have found a great magma sea, raw adamantine, a magma pool, more raw adamantine, and yet another great cavern! The area is perfect for magma smelters and forges, and all these new immigrants need jobs. Once an area is cleared for stockpiles and smelters, we can go into full steel production and start a well equipped military. It won't be long before the goblins discover we have a very rich fortress and they are sure to come in numbers.






Noting that the butcher shop is ready, and there is a kitten which has not deigned to choose an owner yet, our first slaughter is scheduled. The bookkeeper is asked to firm up the numbers on the stockpile, as we do not yet know exactly how many of each type of plant we have. And some plant processing (to thread) is ordered, gotta stay ahead on that and we'll need bags eventually. Beds for the immigrants are queued up, and our wealthier dwarves will someday need to store their owned objects in their bedrooms, so a bunch of coffers and cabinets are ordered. Looking around some more, we don't seem to have a designated hospital, so an area for that is dug (in the kaolinite area so the blood blends in better) and some extra beds are ordered. A sand collection zone is designated, might as well build a magma glass furnace and churn out some terrariums for use as animal cages and cage traps.

18 Felsite - an elven caravan arrives. While not exactly welcomed with open arms, they may be a useful supplier of wood, booze, barrels, bags, and powders including sand and dyes. We want to avoid trading them scepters and earrings, as those will get a better price from the fall dwarven caravan. The elves brought no wood, but we do acquire some booze, barrels, sand, bags, and plants & seeds for variety. They are pleased with a small profit, and we return our remaining goods to the stockpiles. The food stockpile is expanded, as it was bursting at the seams already. Maybe we should turn some of the raw foodstuffs into finished meals so they take less room and are easier to deal with. However the chef (well, cook right now, maybe he'll become a legendary chef one day) is known to go overboard on putting alchohol in his meals, so booze is put strictly off limits for cooking! Note: part of the food stockpile is designated no barrels, prepared food only, the rest is designated as no prepared food. Since prepared food does not spoil when not in barrels, this will let us get by with fewer barrels than we might otherwise. And every dwarf knows, the best use for a barrel is booze.