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

[blue emu]

A "Guest" has arrived at our fort: Mebzuth ChanneledIron, a Dwarven Warrior and Adventurer. This is part of the new functionality introduced in the latest series of patches.

EDIT: I've opened a Tavern underground... more of the new functionality... and four more Guests quickly arrived... three of them Legendary fighters! One Legendary Marksdwarf, one Legendary Hammerdwarf, and a Legendary Macedwarf. These, plus a non-Legendary Speardwarf and a non-Legendary Marksdwarf make up our five Guests. An adventuring party, perhaps? They are currently carousing in our Tavern.

 

[blue emu]

Hmmm... according to the list of current bugs, "Tavern proprietors will continue to serve their guests alcohol until they drink themselves to death".

You can't get much more Dwarfy than that!

Let's have a round for the house!

 

[blue emu]

… and the first Strange Mood of the fortress goes to:

Me!

A family heirloom? More new functionality? I'll give his bedroom a chest and a cabinet to store it in.

Unfortunately, this Strange Mood was a Possession, not a Fey Mood... so I got no experience from it. On the other hand, creating an Artifact give a mood boost, so it's not a total wash.

 

[blue emu]

 

[blue emu]

Plenty of progress has been made in the past year.

Work continues on the Castle. Ground floor:

All of the drawbridges are made of Magma-safe materials, and all are hooked up to levers by magma-safe mechanisms. Each exit has a double-row of cage traps, and the ones covering the depot are behind the depot rather than in front of it, since merchants will refuse to cross traps. Each set of cage traps includes one complete row of magma-safe traps. The gang of dwarves pictured above are paving an area that will be turned into a Corridor of Spiky Death.

Second Floor:

As stone blocks become available, we are flooring this area over. When complete, we will have plenty of new floor space for workshops and stockpiles.

We have also set up some temporary forges, and are forging weapons (ten axes, ten crossbows, some crossbow bolts) while our smelter operators smelt enough steel for twenty suits of armor. We have a few other industries just getting started, including Leatherworking, Weaving and Glassmaking.

 

[blue emu]

I didn't even know this was possible!

It's worth over 1000 dwarfbucks. Decadent.

 

[blue emu]

Further progress:

I've pumped up water from the stream to irrigate some outdoor fields, and planted six fields of fiber-production crops: two each of cotton, kenaf and rope reed. All three can be processed to thread, and cotton seed and kenaf seed can be pressed for oil (which can be further processed to food or soap).

 

[sortulv]

[QUOTE="blue emu, post: 26088499, member: 26762A family heirloom? More new functionality? I'll give his bedroom a chest and a cabinet to store it in.[/QUOTE]
Did he actually claim the item, or was that still just fluff text? Whenever I got one of those, I ended up building a pedestal to display whatever the item was (in his/her room unless a jealous noble was around to object)

 

[blue emu]

Yeah, it's still in stockpile.

 

[blue emu]

Our domestic animal population has grown large enough that I can start slaughtering the excess animals for meat, bone and hides, thus enabling our Leather crafting industry. Leather is needed for cloaks, backpacks and quivers for our military force. Our steel industry has created weapons and six full suits of armor for our projected Axe-Dwarf squad.

 

[blue emu]

We've breached the second (or possibly the third?) cavern layer. It has water. And Cassiterite (Tin ore), for a Bronze industry.

 

[blue emu]

One of our no-name dwarves has been elected Mayor. He likes Peacocks. Fortunately, we embarked with some and they've been breeding, so I put one in a cage in his bedroom. That ought to keep the little bugger happy.

 

[blue emu]

Now we're rocking...

 

[blue emu]

We have finally finished flooring in the second floor of the Castle and can now start moving some of our crap indoors. Work proceeds on the roof level, where we will locate our Archery ranges and Sparring mats... in order to prevent cave adaptation among our military. If (when!) we need to send our military outdoors to fight, we don't want them to be dazed by the sunlight.

 

[blue emu]

OK, things are starting... just STARTING... to get weird.

A troop of entertainers has taken over my Tavern. More than a dozen Bards, and several Dancers including an Elf (male) and a Goblin (female).

I'll have to keep an eye on this situation...

 

[blue emu]

Six of the Bards that were visiting our fort have requested residency permits, so that they can live in our fort and entertain people. I have granted the request. Unfortunately the Goblin was not among those requesting residency... I had hoped for a chance to implement my "Gobputer" Goblin-driven logic engine design.

Looks like I'll have to control my Corridor of Spikey Death with fluid logic instead. Designing that now, with floodgates, pressure plates and drawbridges.

Another NPC requesting asylum is the sister of one of the Bards, a Baroness and consort to the ruler of one of the other Dwarven forts. Not sure why she wants to stay here instead of going home... according to her Relationships screen, her husband is still alive. Again, I granted the request.

 

[blue emu]

OK, here's my plan:

Inside the shaft that we've driven through the aquifer (with our coffer-dam method), we build this device. It's completely walled in by masonry to prevent the aquifer from drowning us all. Once it's been made water-tight, we channel out the connecting tile and let the aquifer flood it.

The northernmost floodgate (red X) is our way to turn the repeater on or off. It's connected to a remote lever that will close the floodgate, preventing any more water from entering the repeater from the aquifer. Or pull the lever again to open the floodgate, allowing water to flood into the device and start the repeater again.

In the middle of the device (green square) is a Pressure Plate set to trigger ONLY when the tile it sits on is completely full of water (7/7 water) flooding in from the aquifer. When it triggers, it sends a signal to raise the drawbridge (just north of the pressure plate) isolating the repeater from the aquifer, and a second signal to the southern floodgate causing it to open.

When this southern floodgate opens, it creates more space for the water already trapped inside the repeater (water cannot enter a floodgate tile unless the floodgate is open) so some of the water sloshes OFF of the pressure plate into the tile that the floodgate no longer blocks.

This drops the level of water in the pressure plate tile down below 7/7, and the pressure plate responds by sending an "Open" signal to the drawbridge and a "Close" signal to the southern floodgate... returning the whole device to its initial state, ready for another cycle.

And repeat. And repeat. Hence the name.

But aside from flip-flopping back and forth between states, what does it actually DO, you ask?

Whatever we want it to do. Before sealing it off with masonry, we will connect the Repeater to our long row of weapon traps inside our Corridor of Spiky Death. Then when a siege assaults our fort, we first flip the isolation lever (closing all routes into the fort except the one leading through our Corridor of Spiky Death; then flip the next lever to open the northern floodgate and start the repeater. Then our Spiky Death spikes will start going pokity-poke, and we can just let them turn the invaders into goblin smoothies.

 

[blue emu]

With the repeater constructed, I decide to test it before hooking it up to all the weapon traps in the Corridor of Spiky Death.

Drawbridge open, floodgate closed:

Drawbridge closed, floodgate open:

… and repeat.

Works fine. I flip the lever to turn it off and isolate it from the aquifer, and re-open the casing to connect it to the weapon traps.

 

[GaiusC]

"The Fierce Eater of Frogs"

Good luck with the fun ahead!

 

[blue emu]

"The Fierce Eater of Frogs"

Good luck with the fun ahead!

Yes, these Dwarves sound vaguely French. Not sure why.

The fun may be starting soon. Out of the 80-odd Dwarves in the fort, three are quite unhappy... one of them sufficiently upset that he has stopped work and just wandered around in a depression. Hopefully we can avoid a tantrum spiral or (worse) a loyalty cascade.