Let's Play Dwarf Fortress: Syndrome Conundrum

Internet Kraken

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Mar 18, 2009
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Chapter 61: From the journal of Goden Ducimtathtak


__________________________________________________

28th Galena, 1055, Late Summer



These goblins are relentless. Reports have just come in about a small squad of them fighting an earth golem down on the beach. These aren't goblins from the last invasion either, rather a whole new batch. Clearly they want to keep applying pressure to Reveredtour to prevent us from regaining our strength.

It is, however, a rather pathetic goblin force. It consists of only 6 goblins, none of which possess ranged attacks. I'd send the military out to crush them, but Momuz is still being...unreasonable.

I have no choice but to once again initiate a lockdown.

1st Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn



According to the calendar autumn has already arrived. There has been no sight of the human caravans, who normally show up before the end of summer. It is likely that they ran into the goblins on their way to Reveredtour.

Speaking of goblins, I've successfully locked them out of Reveredtour. However, it seems there is a minor issue with the lockdown.



Once again a result of stupidity. There was plenty of time for the dwarves to retreat back into the fort before the bridge was raised, yet some fool is running around out there with the goblins. It's some random mechanic that I don't give a damn about, so I will not be helping her. This is not pointless cruelty. Though Momuz has calmed down a bit, his emotional state is still a serious issue. We can't risk any major military operations with him like this.

Besides, what's one more body when we've already got a pile of corpses? Nobody shall notice her missing, and she will be swiftly forgotten within a week.

2nd Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn



Yeah that's pretty much what I expected. At least she died quickly and didn't leave a trail of blood several yards long. Reveredtour has an abhorrent amount of blood staining it, mainly because it never rains here. No rain means there's nothing to wash away the blood, so it just dries up in the sun and becomes impossible to remove.

3rd Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn



They can't even build a wall. They can't even build a wall without almost getting themselves killed. There is something seriously wrong with these dwarves. Nobody can be this dumb.

6th Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn



Despite the fact that the goblins cannot actually harm anyone at the moment, everyone is still in a panic due to the mere sight of them. Once again the fort has fallen into disarray and no work is being done. It seems I have no choice but to have the military fight the goblins and pray Momuz doesn't go crazy during the fight and decapitate someone.

7th Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn



Despite giving the order for all soldiers to station themselves near the bridge, Momuz refuses to leave the barracks. He sits in there by himself, brooding. Any attempts to move him will most likely end poorly, so we'll just do without him. So might question the decision to send a bunch of mediocre soldiers to fight goblins without leadership. These people have not had to deal with the constant screaming of dwarves terrified by the mere presence of goblins several yards below them.

I'd participate in the battle myself, but any strenuous activity induces another session of horrible vomiting. I'll just have to settle with directing the battle from afar and hope these idiots understand basic orders and-

Momuz: "THAT'S IT!! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU FUCKERS!!! I WASTED MY CAREER ON THIS FUCKING PLACE, AND WHAT DID I GET??! FUCKING NOTHING!!! YOU CAN'T FUCKING DO ANYTHING RIGHT!! SO I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO SHOW YOU HOW TO FUCKING FIGHT PROPERLY!!!!"



By the gods...he's lost it.

8th Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn



Momuz finally couldn't control his rage. He went crazy, and sought to kill the closes thing he could find. In this case, it was an earth golem that he cut down with frightening efficiency. I had no choice but to order the military to slay their former commander.



Fortunately, Momuz was to enraged to fight properly and had managed to exhaust himself. So the military would not have to worry about him cutting them down, as he lacked the strength to do so.



When I gave to order to kill Momuz, they hesitated. Who wouldn't when you've suddenly been told to kill the man that trained and fought alongside you. It's not something anybody wanted to do, but they quickly realized they didn't have an option. They swarmed him, doing whatever they could to take him down.



His armor allowed him to stay alive longer than most would, but he had no chance of fighting back. Tragically, Momuz died a pathetic death at the hands of a novice soldier.



It's his only kill, though I doubt he will want to brag about it.

So our greatest fighter has Died today. He died fighting against those he had once called comrades. It's...depressing, to say the least. This news is going to devastate all of Reveredtour.

However, I cannot dwell on it right now. The goblins must be eliminated. I'm sending the soldiers out to kill the goblins. Their squad seems to have split up into small groups for some reason. so it should be easy for the soldiers to overwhelm and kill the individual goblins, Even if they do lack leadership at the moment.

12th Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn



The goblins have been defeated. As I write this the only survivor is being chased down by the military. The military does not appear to have sustained any casualties either. I'd have given a more detailed account of the battle but I've been too busy trying to keep the fort under control. It would help if Stinthad was around, since she's more...charismatic I suppose, but she seems to have withdrawn to her own personal quarters for some reason. I don't have the time at the moment to see why.

18th Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn

The fortress is still incredibly unstable, but now that the goblins are gone I managed to get some control over it. A limited amount of work is now underway with the single goal of boosting the defenses of Reveredtour. However, after several days I still had not seen Stinthad, so I went looking for her. She was in her room, stuffing a few things into a bag with a gloomy look on her face.

Goden: "Stinthad, what are you doing? You need to get back to work."
Stinthad: "I don't think so..."
Goden: "And why is that?"
Stinthad: "I've decided that it would just be best for me to...leave."
Goden: "What?"
Stinthad: "I fucked everything up! I couldn't do anything right! Everyone who died here died because of me! Reveredtour would be better in your hands. I can't stay here knowing that I ruined so many lives..."
Goden: "You're serious?"
Stinthad: "After Momuz went insane...I just can't stand this anymore. Yes, I'm serious. I should have listened to everyone when they said I would fail in the first place. You were right; I'm not cut out for this."
Goden: "Look...I know things have been horrible here lately. But this is something you can overcome. At first you were a downright awful leader, but you've...improved."
Stinthad: "Improved? Everyone is dying! How is that an improvement?!?"
Goden: "Well if your management skills were the same as they were when we first came here everyone would already be dead. But you made decisions that have saved Reveredtour. And I'd be lying if I said every decision I made was perfect. So while I can't say you've done everything right, nobody has. Overall I'd say your still capable of saving Reveredtour, if you try."
Stinthad: "I didn't think you had any confidence in me..."
Goden: "I didn't, at least not until recently. But I came to a realization; if we work together, we can save this fort. You can be foolish at times, but so can I. If we both truly cooperate, we can accomplish things we wouldn't have been able to do alone."
Stinthad: "You really mean that?"
Goden: "Yes, I do."
Stinthad: "Well...how many dwarves are in the hospital?"
Goden: "A lot."



Stinthad: "I...I guess I better go help them."
Goden: "Good. You do that."
Stinthad: "Goden, thank you so much! You're a true friend!"



Friend? I didn't mean to give her the impression that I like her. She just needs to stop moping and get some work done. I did mean what I said about her being useful. The gods told me that to save this fort I'd need to work with her. Though now that I think about it, she isn't that bad. At least not as bad as she used to be. Maybe it's only because I've spent so much time dealing with her, but I guess I do like her. A bit. She can still be a complete idiot though, and I wouldn't say we're friends.

23rd Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn

So every time I think the fortress is under control, some new problem comes up. But I didn't think I would be dealing with the shit that happened today. Stinthad called me up to the hospital, where I was greeted by the sight of two fresh corpses. I asked what on earth had happened, and she told me that Avuz had killed them in a fit of rage.

Avuz the child.



I don't know what the fuck to do with this kid. Apparently he was really upset over his mother dying, but that doesn't justify killing someone. I don't buy that he did it accidentally either. You can't accidentally kill two dwarves with your fists. I was ready to throw him in jail, but his father stopped me. Apparently he found out about some loophole in dwarven law that keeps me from putting his kid in jail for life. So now we've got a little murderer running around and legally I'm not allowed to do anything about it.



To make matters worse, another dwarf died today. This time it was a soldier though, so it's actually a big deal as any loss of military power makes Reveredtour vulnerable.

24th Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn

So I've given promotions to two of our soldiers to ensure that the military has proper leadership. My selections were based on the skills of the dwarves involved, as it only made sense to make the most skilled soldier of each respective squad the leader of it. As a result, Root of all Evil is now the new captain of the Immortal Rags and the militia commander, and Cowabunga is the captain of the Steamy Tours.



Most of the soldiers recognized my choices as being proper and logical, but a few wondered why Cowabunga was leading the Steamy Tours when he is missing an arm. While that is definitely an issue, it doesn't change the fact that he still has the most fighting experience out of all the Steamy Tours. If he's an unfit leader, he'll just die and then we can replace him. No big deal.

__________________________________________________

I'm going to miss Momuz. At least he didn't kill any dwarves when he went berserk though. I was expecting him to slaughter at least a few of the soldiers, but I got lucky.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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General-Veok said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Cookie Time:

Anyone who can work out why my Fortress is called Kenggeshud gets a Dwarven Cookie.
Steam fortress?
Nice, couldn't get the Dwarven word for Team :)

Eat up, it's made with freshly shredded donkey lung.

If I've got the choice for a successor Kraken, I'd like to choose the General here.

BTW...the writing on that last bit...That was quite moving indeed. *sniffles*
 

Rabid Toilet

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Pleasantly surprised you're still alive. I thought you were done for after that disaster with the goblins. Oh me of little faith.
 

JouleZeath

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Cowabungaa said:
A while ago I had a fortress that started with all workers being female, except for the leader and militia commander. Buuurn feminists!
Starting band all females except the leader(lucky bastard),then came along a migrant wave of 3 females and a male mason
The leader then died when he fell through the ice into a pond
He was misteriously surrounded by walls when he fell in and his death was immediately ruled an "accident"

Also,nice to see you're getting thru this,it'll take more that just a few dozen goblins and a couple of FBs to bring down ReveredTour
I am also sad to see Momuz go since he was my second favorite,make sure to give him a proper burial to remember him by
 

boholikeu

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
boholikeu said:
As much fun as this game looks, I vowed I would never get into it until the user-friendliness update comes out.

Yes, I realize that's last on his list of things to do. Shame, since he could have a much bigger audience.
The problem with that is that that's where all the bugs and the complaints usually come in. If you're working with a unintuitive, tough system then you know that all the people coming in want it to work, and will provide good feedback.

If it's all shiny and pretty, it will just be moans about "WHY CAN'T I CHOOSE TO HAVE ALL MALE DWARVES? MY BEST COOK IS A WOMAN, THAT@S SEXIST!" etc.

Clunky works for me. Try it. :)
Somehow I... don't think that's the best reason not to optimize your game's UI... =)

Besides, when he finally does change the horrible menu system, I can totally see older fans making similarly asinine complaints: "zomg where is the 'designations menu'?!"
 
Feb 13, 2008
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boholikeu said:
Somehow I... don't think that's the best reason not to optimize your game's UI... =)
Probably the same reason Notch isn't adding a tutorial to Minecraft either.
Besides, when he finally does change the horrible menu system, I can totally see older fans making similarly asinine complaints: "zomg where is the 'designations menu'?!"
By that time, Toady One will have recreated life - or one of the modders will have developed a Dwarven LHC and destroyed the internet, so I wouldn't worry about it :)
 

randomID

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This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here:
"Huge Success"
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Aperture Science.Dwarf Fortress. We do what we must, because we can,
For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead.

But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake liquor.
And the science industry gets done, and you make a neat gun axe
for the people who are still alive.
 

Internet Kraken

Animalia Mollusca Cephalopada
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randomID said:


This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here:
"Huge Success"
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Aperture Science.Dwarf Fortress. We do what we must, because we can,
For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead.

But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake liquor.
And the science industry gets done, and you make a neat gun axe
for the people who are still alive.
Not to be rude, but please don't make bad Portal references in my thread because everytime I hear that song I want to bang my head against the wall.

boholikeu said:
Yes, I realize that's last on his list of things to do. Shame, since he could have a much bigger audience.
See this is one of the things that makes you realize how much the development of Dwarf Fortress differs from other games. It's not something being made by Toady to get him his own foothold in the industry, like Notch and Minecraft. This is his pet project, something he would be making regardless of if it gave him a profit. Which means he does whatever he wants with the game at the moment rather than what would attract more people to it, like improving the horrible interface.
 

Cowabungaa

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Internet Kraken said:
The fortress is still incredibly unstable, but now that the goblins are gone I managed to get some control over it. A limited amount of work is now underway with the single goal of boosting the defenses of Reveredtour. However, after several days I still had not seen Stinthad, so I went looking for her. She was in her room, stuffing a few things into a bag with a gloomy look on her face.

Goden: "Stinthad, what are you doing? You need to get back to work."
Stinthad: "I don't think so..."
Goden: "And why is that?"
Stinthad: "I've decided that it would just be best for me to...leave."
Goden: "What?"
Stinthad: "I fucked everything up! I couldn't do anything right! Everyone who died here died because of me! Reveredtour would be better in your hands. I can't stay here knowing that I ruined so many lives..."
Goden: "You're serious?"
Stinthad: "After Momuz went insane...I just can't stand this anymore. Yes, I'm serious. I should have listened to everyone when they said I would fail in the first place. You were right; I'm not cut out for this."
Goden: "Look...I know things have been horrible here lately. But this is something you can overcome. At first you were a downright awful leader, but you've...improved."
Stinthad: "Improved? Everyone is dying! How is that an improvement?!?"
Goden: "Well if your management skills were the same as they were when we first came here everyone would already be dead. But you made decisions that have saved Reveredtour. And I'd be lying if I said every decision I made was perfect. So while I can't say you've done everything right, nobody has. Overall I'd say your still capable of saving Reveredtour, if you try."
Stinthad: "I didn't think you had any confidence in me..."
Goden: "I didn't, at least not until recently. But I came to a realization; if we work together, we can save this fort. You can be foolish at times, but so can I. If we both truly cooperate, we can accomplish things we wouldn't have been able to do alone."
Stinthad: "You really mean that?"
Goden: "Yes, I do."
Stinthad: "Well...how many dwarves are in the hospital?"
Goden: "A lot."
Stinthad: "I...I guess I better go help them."
Goden: "Good. You do that."
Stinthad: "Goden, thank you so much! You're a true friend!"
Read that while this plays:
Epic or what?
Most of the soldiers recognized my choices as being proper and logical, but a few wondered why Cowabunga was leading the Steamy Tours when he is missing an arm. While that is definitely an issue, it doesn't change the fact that he still has the most fighting experience out of all the Steamy Tours.
Aaaaawesooooome! Now make him pick up a 2-handed axe and he'll be just as awesome as Rom of the Bronzebeards. Without the heroic sacrifice, thank you very much. I prefer to stay alive.
 

Fr]anc[is

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This thread got me to try Dwarf Fortress :) Then I couldn't figure out how to dig into the dirt. Then the complete newbie guide (Thank you to whoever wrote that) got me to try it again. Now I at least I sort of know what I'm doing, but I always get overwhelmed when I get too many migrants, I don't know what to do with them all, and I feel a little bad sending master cheese makers into the military and wasting their skills. Plus the whole process of making mud indoors is so convoluted I'm thinking I might go back to the complete newbie's version. Why there isn't an option to just pour the water right on the ground is just silly.
 

randomID

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Internet Kraken said:
Not to be rude, but please don't make bad Portal references in my thread because everytime I hear that song I want to bang my head against the wall.
I am sorry to hear, that you appear to neither share my humour nor my appreciation for that song. I ensure you, that I will give my best to abstain from further references to that song.
 

Rabid Toilet

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Fr said:
anc[is]This thread got me to try Dwarf Fortress :) Then I couldn't figure out how to dig into the dirt. Then the complete newbie guide (Thank you to whoever wrote that) got me to try it again. Now I at least I sort of know what I'm doing, but I always get overwhelmed when I get too many migrants, I don't know what to do with them all, and I feel a little bad sending master cheese makers into the military and wasting their skills. Plus the whole process of making mud indoors is so convoluted I'm thinking I might go back to the complete newbie's version. Why there isn't an option to just pour the water right on the ground is just silly.
Same here, I've always been meaning to try this game out, but the learning cliff was too intimidating. This thread was awesome enough to make me brace myself and dive in.

Trying to farm indoors is indeed far harder than it should be. It took me a while to realize that Toady had changed it from the version in the newbie guide. Fortunately, my setup allows me to easily add new plots of farmland to my existing farm if I need to expand. I just channel out the ceiling and drop some more water in where I want it.

For the migrant problem, try limiting your population cap to a smaller number. Then you only have to worry about babies being born increasing your number of dwarves.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Fr said:
anc[is]Why there isn't an option to just pour the water right on the ground is just silly.
There is, but you have to do it roundabout ways.

Let's say you have a farm on level 142, 3x3 is usually enough for a starting farm.
Above, on 143, you dig a 5x5 room, and directly over the farm, you dig a 3x3 channel. Draw a zone over it and designate it as a pond.

Your water-carrying dwarf will then get a bucket of water, throw it into the "pond", and create mud below it.
 

Fr]anc[is

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Fr said:
anc[is]Why there isn't an option to just pour the water right on the ground is just silly.
There is, but you have to do it roundabout ways.

Let's say you have a farm on level 142, 3x3 is usually enough for a starting farm.
Above, on 143, you dig a 5x5 room, and directly over the farm, you dig a 3x3 channel. Draw a zone over it and designate it as a pond.

Your water-carrying dwarf will then get a bucket of water, throw it into the "pond", and create mud below it.
As I said, convoluted. Then you're left with a big hole in your ceiling that can make it technically outside and can only be plugged with floor that doesn't match. yea I'm ocd
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Fr said:
anc[is]
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Fr said:
anc[is]Why there isn't an option to just pour the water right on the ground is just silly.
There is, but you have to do it roundabout ways.

Let's say you have a farm on level 142, 3x3 is usually enough for a starting farm.
Above, on 143, you dig a 5x5 room, and directly over the farm, you dig a 3x3 channel. Draw a zone over it and designate it as a pond.

Your water-carrying dwarf will then get a bucket of water, throw it into the "pond", and create mud below it.
As I said, convoluted. Then you're left with a big hole in your ceiling that can make it technically outside and can only be plugged with floor that doesn't match. yea I'm ocd
Cover it over. Or just leave it. You've got bigger Forgotten things to be worrying about than pure aesthetics.
 

Double A

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Fr said:
anc[is]This thread got me to try Dwarf Fortress :) Then I couldn't figure out how to dig into the dirt. Then the complete newbie guide (Thank you to whoever wrote that) got me to try it again. Now I at least I sort of know what I'm doing, but I always get overwhelmed when I get too many migrants, I don't know what to do with them all, and I feel a little bad sending master cheese makers into the military and wasting their skills. Plus the whole process of making mud indoors is so convoluted I'm thinking I might go back to the complete newbie's version. Why there isn't an option to just pour the water right on the ground is just silly.
... there is.

You need two layers of dirt. Channel in the top layer so you have a farm on the bottom (no sunlight). Then designate it as a pond. You might want to leave some dirt up so you don't have to build as much scaffolding.

All in all, it's actually more complicated if you try anything wider than 2 (any length).