Logs of the fortress manager

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

I'm still interested.

 

[garfield751]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

same here

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

14 galena

The last pump of the first floor, first ring has been designed, exactly 150 pumps were needed for this small part of the project. The second ring is much bigger, and still under construction, but we can place pumps on about a fourth of it already, and will start that as soon as the pumps we have ready now are done.

A mason also started acting secretive, and as a working camp isn't immune to the moods of dwarves I expect some artifact furniture once he's done. And with his new skills the project will go a lot faster. The result was a weapon rack with rock and gold decoration.

19 limestone

As I just finished trading with the dwarves(Nothing special) I heard the founding miner fell into the water, but he can't swim and the ocean is deep. Luckily, he managed to hold on to a ledge, and as I quickly grabbed a pick to help him by carving away some rock to make a ramp he started having trouble breathing. He's tough enough to ignore the whole water in lungs thing, so he climbed out using that ramp I made for him. The ledge he was on was very small, and should he have fallen just a little bit further into the ocean he would be laying at least 4 floors down, and there's no getting out of that.
I immediately afterwards threw a private party in the dining room, just me, the miner, and 6 barrels of booze.

1 moonstone

Winter, and if someone would just put the materials together for that pump we would have a fourth of the large ring done. Well, at least the first floor of it. Nothing happened besides a kobold thief injuring a farmer's hand, the farmer is resting in bed. The kobold is resting in the refuse pile, where he will be turned into a skull totem and a stack of bolts.
What might be interesting is that I've set up a row of waterwheels and watersupply to provide extra power to the pumps, it will be needed.

12 moonstone

The depot was inaccesible, so a few woodcutters went to cut a path and make a rough road, that should stop the trees from blocking caravans.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

150 pumps? That's a lot...

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Oh, that's nothing yet, it's the first floor of the first ring, and the first ring is only about 1/6th of the big ring. Currently using 2500 power if it has to be activated, of which 600 is lost due to gears and other transmissions.

To be fair, I am draining 6z-levels of ocean over a 3x3 embark area, so it wasn't like I expected this to be done in a few days.

Speaking of which, I will be without internet for a few days starting tomorrow, so this will be on hold till then.

If anybody wants it, I could make and upload some screenshots of before and after the draining.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

I'd like to see them. It'd give me a better idea of the whole project.

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

So, back, and while I was hoping to do something during the time without internet, vista rearranged my desktop without asking 2 times a day so not a lot got done.

20 moonstone

A mason finished another artifact today, an armour stand which should go well with the weapon rack. It has gem, iron, rock and leather decoration, and an image of mountains in turtle shell. I guess the creator is feeling homesick for the mountains or something, or he just wanted to make a mountain on his artifact.
Oh, and a kobold got killed.

22 slate

Nothing at all happened in winter, and most of spring. Elves came and went without anything happening, and now, we are apparently getting some noble. And a hammerer, and tax collector, and dungeon master...I think we need more rooms for them..Maybe the glassmaker can put up a green glass wall in one of the fully mined out areas, that should get us some quick walls for a room.

And so, migrants

Tax collector
Hammerer
Baroness
Baron
Dungeon master
1 miller(Also becoming architect)
5 new masons
1 experienced mason
1 dyer
1 cook
1 miner, not really needed for now, but always a good thing to have a backup miner.
1 mechanic
1 hunter-note to self, make coffins, and prepare the kitchens for elephant meat.
1 carpenter
1 glassmaker
1 wood burner
2 farmers
1 crafter-also known as hauler
1 furnace operator
1 metalcrafter
1 animal trainer

I'm seeing 40 idle dwarves, meaning the masons aren't working hard enough to complete the rings and keep up with pump construction, more masons are needed.
As I looked at the busy dining room full of idlers, I noticed a new problem..
How exactly are we going to forge in the middle of the ocean? I need to find a way to get magma to a single specific location without spilling any into the water, or burning any dwarves. And as the liason is dead I can't order bauxite for mechanisms, so I can't just drop some into a hole after it's drained and then close the place..Unless I think of so-..Ok, I know how...And another way to do it..And a suicidal but fun way..And...I think it's best to focus on just draining the place for now.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Mass an hero? Fun.

 

[garfield751]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

You must be registered to see the links

this might give you some good idea how to forge in the ocean

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Oh, it's obvious that it's easy to get magma out there. What I was going for was getting magma out there, without spilling, and without bauxite.

I already have plenty of ideas.

You can also see that video is not using pumps to clear the water like I am, and is more just dumping magma in the ocean to probably build inside the obsidian..Which doesn't work if you want your walls to be glass.

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

14 hematite

A human diplomat arrived just a few days ago, and as I was meeting him I got a message from one of the hunters.
Goblins are attacking. Shit, this means we're getting delays again, but luckily, we have 4 marksdwarves ready to defend our small wall from the invaders, and as soon as everybody gets inside we can just continue our work, although a bit slower.
On the bright side, some jeweler got moody.

4 malachite

Using a single gemstone the moody jeweler made a statue, which goes great with the other statue in the dining room. Dwarves will see the two statues and be very happy about the great art produced in our outpost so far.

28 malachite

We needed more wood, so one woodworker volunteered to go out and grab some, although he got us a lot of logs, in the end, he just fell asleep outside and got shot by a goblin. He had no family and no friends, but will be missed regardless.

11 limestone

Goblins still here, masons still busy, other dwarves still bored. In fact, to give a measure of boredom, the fisherdwarf was trying to fish from the well.

15 limestone

The goblins left, great, I've ordered the front door to open again and we will be going at 100% construction speed again shortly. The first thing the hunter did was go out to hunt again, but she was a bit overzealous, and got herself launched against a rock by an elephant. The thing got a name for it too. I've ordered cage traps to be set so we may be able to some day catch Gimobur the elephant as revenge.

17 sandstone

A hydra is aproaching our outpost, not that there's anything for it here, but I've called in all dwarves anyway. I just hope it runs into the cage traps, and not the stonefall traps. Because..Well, it's a hydra, I want it in a cage, then maybe in a zoo later. And I hope it doesn't break the...Nevermind, we should rebuild the waterwheels later, it broke pretty much everything near it(Not a lot), but is having trouble with the cage. Everyone back to work, nothing to see here.
In celebration of the captured hydra, a carpenter made a pretty armourstand, decorated with gems, glass, bone, leather, wood and iron ore.
Sadly, no trading this year, too much trouble popping up I guess.

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

16 moonstone

More damn goblins, but this time, everybody got in safe while the goblins followed. The first 2 goblins were smacked on the head by a drawbridge, and the other goblins behind them were shot by our marksdwarves. It didn't take long for the first group to start running, but there's still 2 more groups outside, and among them is a elite ranged fighter.

4 opal

I just heard a thief stole some items, but it were things we did not make, or even were ours. And as it turns out, that goblin elite bowman had his arrows stolen from him, and most of his clothing was apparently ripped off his body without him noticing. Maybe if we wait long enough they will ignore it when their weapons get stolen. A lot of goblins are without parts of their armour already.

17 opal

Finally, the big ring is done, 490 pumps ready to drain just a small part of the ocean, 6260 power produced by 30 waterwheels, and 90 windmills, now then, the goblins have gathered on the beach, let's give them a little show of what dwarves can do. Gentlemen? Pull the lever.

Small ring

Spoiler

Center of the big ring

Spoiler

20 opal

It worked, for..A few days I guess, after that the power dropped by an oversight in the lever's mechanical workings, it is being fixed.

22 opal

Succes! The water has been drained of this part, and I've told the rookie miner to dig to where the water used to be, it is time to place the second level of pumps, and drain the next area. Well, for the small ring at least, the big one is still draining..Slowly.

13 obsidian

During the work a baby fell into the water and drowned. I have no idea what a baby was doing down there anyway, but work is going slowly, thus explaining why there's still dangerous parts in there.

25 obsidian

Sadly, one of the better masons drowned today, and I am unsure of the best way to continue the project without massive mason casualties. I have settled for not working on it for now, and waiting to see if the situation gets better by itself.

(Most problems right now are buggy dwarf behavior, and the water is behaving weird, I did not get anything done past winter because of dwarves spamming dangerous terrain for 1/7 water..Which is all there is in the middle of the rings right now. The same 1/7 water pushes things around, like the dwarves, but it is strangely specificly targeting some things and completely ignoring the rest. 1/7 oceanwater also counts as fully submerged in terms of building things. Water randomly moves around inside the rings, while it should by now have been completely gone on that z-level.)

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Well, that's some interesting water...

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

mini-update

11 granite

Just as the siege left, we've started working on a part of the project that doesn't do anything with water. We are digging a tunnel to the bottom of the ocean, which will be the way for caravans, and migrants, to enter our new underwater paradise..Once it's done anyway.

The walls for the landbased part will be made of flux blocks, expensive and nice to see. In case of emergencies, 5 steel floodgates will be blocking off the way in and out of the second section of the entryway, but the second part is going to come much, much later then this.

And for some reason, and elf diplomat came to say he's pissed we cut down trees, in response I've ordered the northern section of the forest to be clear-cut.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Does the entire pumpdown have to be done at once? I mean, could you do something like this:

~~~~~  ~~~~~  ~~~~~
~~~~~  ~~~~~  <%^%>
~~~~~  ~~~~~  <%%%>
<%^%>  <%^%>  <% %>
<%%%>  <%%%>  <% %>
<% %>  <%|%>  <%|%>
<% %>  <%|%>  ~~|~~
<%|%>  <%|%>  ~~|~~
~~|~~  ~~|~~  ~~|~~

Basically only pumping down the area around the chunk of wall you're installing at the moment? So that there's less random chance of those 1/7 bits of water bobbing about in the middle of your pump zone.

I dunno what it takes, I've never done waterworks of this type.

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

I hope this kinda makes sense, it's 1:30 and I'm going to bed.
--------

Actually, yes, the entire pumping has to be done at once(For each level anyway), otherwise I would still not be anywhere near halfway the completion of the big ring, and there would not be enough trees in the large heavily forested jungle to make the pumps.

While it helps to make smaller parts to pump out one bit at a time, the sections to pump have to be incredibly small if they are to stop the random flow of 1/7 water.

And that design you posted may work for a single z level, but for multiple z levels you need to keep the pumps running to be able to build on the level below it, and you can't build pumps directly under eachother because of the way it works with pumping water from one side.(Thus directly under the pump will be 7/7 water or near that.)
You also can not construct stairs down into nothing, so I need to always maintain a connection to the shore at the level that is being build on.(It is the easiest to keep the connection open, as it has to be opened every level anyway)

(I'm also not using walls to block the water, the ends of pumps come with a wall installed.)

Oceanwater appears slightly buggy though, as 1/7 of it counts as completely submerged for constructions, and a 1/7 flow of water will nearly never push anything on land..But on water it is deadly. The 1/7 bits also flow predictably in a pattern, the same pattern is seen in magma when draining a pipe.(And can not be build around, and it won't evaporate because it's the ocean)

On the bright side, I've found a way to use about half the rough stone in the ring constructions, which should help make sure there are less dwarves in the dangerous places for less time.

Current design: (Not on scale)
~ is water
P is the pump ring
X is the area inside the ring, which will be drained.
I is the shore

Z 0
~~~~~~~~~~I
~~PPP~~~~~I
~PXXXPPPPI
~PXXXXXXXI
~PXXXPPPPI
~~PPP~~~~I
~~~~~~~~~I

The problems:
1. the 1/7 water on z-1 inside the ring.
2. rings get smaller the lower they get, as pumps can't be build exactly below the one above them, meaning that if the top level has a too small area to drain, it won't even be possible to get to the lowest level as there simply is no space.
3. Dwarves keep partying, and the mayor has 4 pages of friends listed under relationships.(And a fitting grudge against the hammerer) Not a big problem as most dwarves are useless right now with the 1/7 water blocking the construction, but if even just one of those dwarves drowns there may be a tantrum spiral.

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

20 hematite

With the usual human traders there was yet another goblin ambush. This time they caught a newbie jeweler outside, and shot him. The goblins then arrived to the trade depot to be forced to bend over for the humans, a goblin got a lucky shot on one of the humans, and shot him in the lower body, the human died of blood loss, but all the goblins died.

8 malachite

Someone gave birth while building a pump, the baby went right from the mother into the water, and then drowned. I think this is less of a case where the dangerous construction work claimed the life of a dwarf, and more a case of a bad mother giving birth in the wrong place at the wrong time.

16 malachite

A dragon has arrived, sadly, this means he will probably be killed by the human caravan, and most the goods they had will probably burn, but on the bright side, dragonbone is expensive, and there is the small chance that it just kills all the humans and then walks into a cage trap.

 

[cross_grave]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

Well, project "pet dragon" worked well last time.

I'm trying to think of a solution to this water problem, but I'm afraid I can't. Not enough experience with the game.

 

[XSI]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

25 malachite

First the dragon simply approached the trade depot which had 20 or so humans huddled close together, before using it's fire breath to burn the depot and 15 of the humans, the depot went up in a large fireball which instantly burned everything in it, or on it.(Turns out it's a bad idea to make the trade depot out of imported lignite and coal blocks) he then proceeded to just burn and kill whatever humans were still alive, and there's a donkey that's at least medium-rare by now, having been hit by 4 blasts of dragonfire in short succession. It then went on to hunt down 3 of the merchants that were running around in panic while on fire, casually walking past the caravan guards, and burning one for good measure.
He then killed the merchants and burned the animals a bit more, before turning back to take care of the humans still poking him with iron weapons. He killed one outright, and burned the other before destroying 3 waterwheels and nearly bringing about a power failure which would set back the project by at least several months. He then stepped into a cage trap and is still sitting there.

Well, I can see a few positives to this, I mean, the dragon got captured in the end, that counts for something, right? We can just completely ignore the burned ground outside and the still smouldering human corpses and that one guy that's still alive even though the dragon bit his legs off and lit him on fire.
And hey, it's not like everything was lost, we still have the iron stuff from the humans, and as it turns out, a dwarf was moody and needed bones that we didn't have before this, so the dragon probably saved that dwarf by making some bone available, and for the rest of the bones, well, you can never have too many practise bolts.
I guess the next trade depot will be made from fire-safe materials...Like wood? How about that?

26 galena

Another mason fell into the water today, but luckily, I had precautions ready, and after getting over the initial shock of being in the middle of the ocean without being able to swim, he managed to climb back out at a specially designed ramp after walking a short distance on the bottom of the ocean.
Sadly, the moody dwarf went crazy, as he also needed silk, and we don't have that.
Oh, and some moron lost her baby in the construction area again, she's set to not be allowed to go there anymore, she is now going to be a forge worker for our magma forges, which have open magma sources right under them to provide easy access.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Logs of the fortress manager

*snicker* So now she can lose babies in the magma?

More serious question... is the dragon tamable, since it fried lots of humans but not a single dwarf?