UglySurprises the Swamp of Chaos - an above-ground Dwarf Fortress.

[blue emu]

From the journal of Blue Emu LashRelieves:

Well, it looks like those cookie-pushers back at Mountain Home have dropped us into another fine mess. We've been sent out to establish a new fort, in the middle of a swamp! The whole district is as flat as a table except for a few little dried-up waterholes scattered around.

According to the clan technomancers, there's plenty of Adamantine, Iron and Flux on this site... down below that Gods-damned aquifer, of course. They warned me that the aquifer might be as much as three levels thick, so I'm supposed to set up a surface fort to defend the site while we figure out how to breach that aquifer. A surface fort! Like a bunch of tree-hugging Elves!

Until that's accomplished, we won't have any honest stone to work with, except for the few lumps that we brought with us. I hope to Armok that we brought enough.

 

[blue emu]

This game will feature a self-imposed challenge: how do we penetrate a multi-level aquifer, without access to more than a few lumps of stone?

A quick look with DF-Hack tells me that the aquifer is two levels thick, covering the entire map from edge to edge. It also begins only three levels below the surface, which gives us only two levels of dirt to work with... and one of those two levels will have to be removed, in order to expose the aquifer so that we can attempt to breach it. So our chosen breaching process must work with only a single level of dirt.

Here's my plan:

Right at the surface, we will channel out two concentric rings of dirt, leaving a middle ring and a central "plug" intact. The two red X symbols represent the spots where we will build lever-controlled wooden support columns, attached to an overhead construction gantry also made of wood. Stone is only required for the lever mechanisms... three pieces of stone per lever.

After this construction is complete, we will entirely dig out the room directly below this, and channel down into the aquifer to leave an underground pond the exact size of our middle ring of dirt (but shaped like a square, not like a donut). Then we evacuate the area and pull the first lever, dropping the middle ring of dirt down through the empty room and into the underground (aquifer) pond... where it will form a coffer-dam sealing the edges that connect the pond to the first aquifer level.

Then we pump out the water in the now-sealed-off pond, clearing a work-space to pull the same trick again one level lower down. After we've channeled away the second level of aquifer (creating a second underground pond) we will again evacuate the area, pull the second lever, and drop the plug down into the underground pond. Then we just dig a staircase down through the center of the plug to reach the layer of stone below... and we're through the aquifer!

 

[Avernite]

Doesn't sound all that hard when you write it that way, but I bet I'd have loads of FUN! if I tried it

 

[blue emu]

I have nearly completed a wooden stockade surrounding the excavation site.

 

[blue emu]

Some migrants have arrived!

Three new Dwarves... a Trapper with a crap-load of social skills, a Leatherworker/Catapult Operator and a Book Binder/Stone Crafter.

That makes nine dwarves available if anyone wants one... the three mentioned above plus two miners, a mason/architect, a lumberjack/carpenter, a grower/weaponsmith and a brewer/cook/armorsmith.

As usual, I have claimed the Mechanic as my own character.

Work continues on the Aquifer project. We have finished the wooden stockade, and are now digging out the coffer-dam. The next step will be to remove the superincumbent overburden from the aquifer, and channel out the pond that will be receiving the coffer-dam.

 

[blue emu]

The preparations are complete.

Up on the surface, we have channeled out the coffer dam and the central plug, after connecting both to the overhead support gantry (to prevent them from prematurely collapsing into the pit).

Overhead gantry:

Ground level: (the brown I things are lever-controlled support columns, linked to the gantry)

One level down, the underground pool, ready to receive the coffer dam:

The door is locked, to prevent stupid dwarves from getting crushed in the cave-in, and the two levers are linked to the coffer dam (upper lever) and the central plug (lower lever).

Looks ready to go!

 

[blue emu]

The coffer dam dropped successfully, although one of our idiot dwarves wandered over to have a good look at the operation and got knocked unconscious by the cloud of debris generated in the collapse. He seems to be OK. We are preparing to pump out the coffer-dammed pond preparatory to excavating the second layer of the aquifer... but the dwarven caravan has arrived and there will be a brief interlude while we buy all their booze.

Also... two more migrants have arrived. Both of them are Fighter/Armor User/Climber/Swimmer/Liar, oddly enough.

 

[blue emu]

First drop: (coffer dam)

Second drop: (central plug)

… and then we just dig a staircase down through the plug:

… and we are THROUGH the two-layer aquifer and into the dry stone beneath.

I'm planning to make this a surface fort, using the underground only as a source of stone, ores and magma; and as a place to grow our cave-only crops.

 

[jacob-Lundgren]

Can you built upwards in an unlimited manner?

 

[blue emu]

Not sure, with the current build of the game. You used to be limited to 15 levels above the highest terrain feature.

The fort is going well. Screen-shots to follow.

 

[blue emu]

The Elven caravan has arrived!

My Fort is built entirely out of Wood!

Do you think they'll be impressed?

EDIT: They brought a Giant Eagle!

I'm buying that! I will name him "Flappy".

 

[jacob-Lundgren]

mmmm giant pets

 

[blue emu]

mmmm giant pets

Yup. This is the ONE thing that the Hippies are good for.

There are a couple of drawbacks (or at least, caveats) to our new pet.

1) There is currently a bug in the game whereby TAMED flying creatures will not fly. They just hop along on the ground. Still, if I saw a Giant Eagle hopping towards me, I'd probably start hopping off in the other direction.

2) Flappy is female (yay!) and will lay eggs (yay!)… but they won't be fertile without a male Giant Eagle on the map. Giant Eagle omelets, though.

3) Giant Eagle are tamable but not trainable. So no Giant War Eagle, I'm afraid.

 

[blue emu]

Nine more migrants have arrived, bringing us up to a total of 21 Dwarves. That's enough to trigger our first Strange Mood! I can hardly wait...

The new migrants include a Shearer, a Spinner, a Gelder, and our first Metalworker.

EDIT: And another six newcomers the following season!

 

[blue emu]

Here is our current roster:

Claimed Dwarves:

Blue Emu LashRelieves - Expedition Leader, Head Mechanic, Woodworking skills, social skills.

Unclaimed Dwarves:

Erush CloisterAuthored - High Master Miner, Dancer
Athel ChapelRags - Grand Master Miner
Ablel OrbsWandered - Skilled Lumberjack, Master Carpenter, Competent Musician, Adequate Poet, Adequate Speaker
Fikod FurnaceTake - Proficient Carpenter, Adequate Fish Dissector, Skilled Herbalist, high social Skills, Competent Musician, Dancer
Kel SpreadChanneled - military skills, Competent Mason, Adequate Climber, high social skills
Lokum GlazedLancer - military skills, Skilled Climber, High Master Metal Crafter, Animal Dissector
Mafel CaveThinned - High Master Gem Cutter, Skilled Stone Crafter, Competent Musician, Competent Singer
Olon CurledPainted - Accomplished Gem Setter, Competent Carpenter, Proficient Soap Maker, Adequate Musician, social skills
Eshtan PlankGild - Accomplished Weaver, Talented Bone Carver, social skills, Adequate Poet, Adequate Speaker
Deler VaultChew - Talented Clothier, Competent Surgeon, social skills, Competent Poet, Adequate Speaker and Dancer
Erush MachineTrusted - Siege Operator, Herbalist, Bookbinder, social skills, Musician
Dumat UrgeMansion - Grower, Herbalist, Weaponsmith, Poet, Speaker, Dancer
Domas DutyBoulders - Brewer, Cook, Herbalist, Musician, Singer
Goden BoltsBastion - Jack of all trades... Novice level skills in 14 areas
Tosid StableWires - military skills, Animal Trainer, Gelder, Poet, Speaker, Musician, Singer
Sodel BronzeSling - Mason, Herbalist, Singer
Lokum PortalBeard - Broker (Skilled Appraiser), Herbalist, Trapper, Musician
Dumed WaterDiamonds - Legendary Herbalist, Stone Crafter, Leatherworker, Singer, Dancer, Musician
Ushat BodiceWealths - Shearer, Swimmer, Musician
Zaneg InkWound - Thresher, Armorsmith, Spinner
Ushrir CraftTalk - High Master Animal Trainer, Expert Teacher, social skills
Olon GravelGang - military skills, Gem Setter, Climber, Musician
Urvad GalleyHatchet - Competent Metalsmith, Talented Glazer, social skills, Musician, Singer
Libash ConfusedPulley - Fish Cleaner, Soaper, social skills, Musician, Singer
Zas MobbedGorge - Milker, Bowyer, social skills
Minkot BlockadeCrew - military skills, Thresher, Cook, Potash Maker, Musician, Dancer

 

[blue emu]

A few screen-shots:

The exterior of our Castle, under construction.

I have abandoned the attempt to build the whole thing out of wood, since it turns out that one log only yields one wooden block... a terrible waste of effort and materials. I have switched to stone (slate blocks, to be exact) since each stone gets converted into four blocks in a mason's workshop. Much better.

The trade depot, with a Human caravan currently inside.

So far the Dwarves, Elves and Humans have all sent caravans. No sign of Goblin or Kobold attackers yet... although with only 21 Dwarves, I wasn't expecting them this early anyway.

Our underground mines:

We have struck Hematite (Iron Ore), Dolomite (Flux) and Bituminous Coal (Fuel) all on the same level underground, two levels below the Aquifer. That's everything we need for a Steel industry. Time to set up a smelter...

 

[blue emu]

Nine more immigrants bring us up to 36 Dwarves. Two have military experience. One is a Miner, another has nothing but social skills. For the moment, I'll use them to carry stuff, straightening out some of the confusion in the fort.

 

[blue emu]

We have breached the first cavern layer. It is partly open rooms and partly composed of tiny interlocked passages. It has cave moss, fungiwood and tower cap, but no water, magma or adamantite. Of course, I hadn't expected to strike the latter two yet.

 

[jacob-Lundgren]

I shall claim

Lokum GlazedLancer - military skills, Skilled Climber, High Master Metal Crafter, Animal Dissector

From your list then

 

[blue emu]

Jacob_Lundgren GlazedLancer is currently having a drink. When she's not boozing it up, she is refining ore and making steel to equip our future military. Since Jacob_Lundgren GlazedLancer has good military skills ("Skilled" level in Armor User, Wrestler, Dodger, Fighter and Discipline), she will probably become a squad leader once we have enough equipment to set up a military.