Dworf Fortress - Sucession Game

[Brad]

Sure, pass it along. I have been hankering for some dorf fortressitude.

[Nick]

Ok. I started it during lunch today. If I have a chance to play tonight I will probably hit spring.

[Nick]

Its been a hard year, but a fruitful one. Until just recently everyone in the fortress has been busy. Digging tunnels, brewing ale and constructing walls.  The farm plots are productive, and as there is little wildlife, they are our only source of food.

The forgery is almost complete. The channels have been dug and flooded with magma, the magma-gate is shut and the area is ready for forge construction. We also just struck iron ore while digging out the magma channels, had we found the ore earlier we would have dug the channels elsewhere. But done, is done. There is bound to be more ore about. And besides, we are lousy with gold and copper. Even aluminum, one of the rarest of raw metals! Those will bring in more cash then needed to buy steel bars.

As it stands we need to stream-line the distilling process. We keep running out of either containers or plants to distill. Perhaps more of the local flora should be harvested.

And I am off! A vacation at last, and a mountain to climb! Good luck, I have heard rumors of goblins about...


http://randomland.net/DF/    <- The saves. To place your own in that folder, put them in /var/www/DwarvenFortress Succession/

[zourtney]

Fascinating! I like the "story". And reading a summary of all the happenings is probably more fun than playing, for me. So keep up with the updates

[Brad]

Just to let you know, I did download the savegame and get it working. However with dwarf fortress is a difficult game to be playing while totting around a baby. So it will be slow going.

Will keep you up to date on the year's progress.

[Brad]

During the first few days of being the newly appointed leader of a band of surly dwarves, I decided to be as much of a take charge and act now sort of leader.

I completed the construction of a new magma forge and magma furnace. I also designated construction sites for a magma kiln and magma glass furnace. I am considering temporarily closing up these extra magma vents in the ground less some clumsy dwarf fall to his doom. They would still be able to reopened if the growth of the fortress made multiple magma forges or furnaces useful.

A large project has begun, one which make take up a significant part of my year in command. As I have been unable to find a close aquifier or sufficiently large lake and as breaching into the caverns is inadvisable at this point with our meager military might I have decided to redirect part of the river down an aqueduct leading a large source of clean water directly into our fort. This would allow us to build good wells for the hospital and in case the booze runs out. It might also serve as a method for the creation of obsidian.

I have also commissioned the creation of a new set of magma-side dwarven apartments. These cozy dwellings are warmed by the raging inferno of an active volcano just a thin stone wall away from their bedroom. These should be perfect for housing some of the newly arrived immigrants (19 in total this time!)

The dwarf Ral Oddommoozib was taken by a fey mood today. He locked himself in our craft workshop. After hours of toil he created "The Elevation of Snarls" a birchen wood scepter. The best thing about the scepter is that it has an image of itself inlay-ed with alunite.

We've also started a picturesque statue garden near our front gate. This will keep the dwarves relaxed as well as giving them some needed time in the sun.

You should receive my next report soon.

[Brad]

Well, it is summer now.

Due to being gifted with a large number of completely unskilled and lazy immigrants, I've decided to draft a militia. None of them are much skilled, but hopefully with practice they will be come a decent fighting force.

To outfit our militia I ordered the creation of some iron weaponry. As soon as I did this I discovered that not a single one of the 36 dwarves in our colony has any weapon crafting skill whatsoever. In fact, none of them even know how to operate a furnace. To remedy this I designated a mostly useless dwarf to start learning these tasks. I'm a little concerned about the shoddy quality of our weapons and equipment, hopefully they are not put to the test anytime soon.

[Brad]

My time has come to an end... Spring has arrived.

I leave a few notes for my successor.

My obsidian creator project is near completion. I was foiled at the last moment by the arrival of winter and the freezing over of the river, my water source. Now that spring has arrived, to complete the creation of the obsidian the middle lever in the aquifer control room must be pulled. This will drain the water down unto the magma below. Once the rest of the magma has been turned into obsidian it can be removed by channeling. After all the obsidian has been removed, the pump on the level below can refill the obsidian creator. The pump must be operated manually. It is a good idea to have the floodgate connecting the river to the aquifer to be open when creating obsidian. To really "finish" this project, a drainage system for the excess water left sitting on top of the cooling obsidian should be created. Feel free to write me for more details...

I leave the fortress with a moderately weak militia, equipped with a few steel weapons and pieces of armor but mostly of iron.

There are far too many dwarfs out of work. Unemployment is a serious problem.

Also there is a crazy dwarf holed up in a mason's workshop demanding body parts. He has been in there a long time and I fear he may do something rash. I have built a butcher"s workshop and designated a few animals for slaughter but it has not been done yet.

Good luck to my successor!

[Nick]

I have returned, and another years duty overseeing this outpost awaits!

I arrived to a fortress rich in crafts and poor in food. The drink was not flowing and stocks were getting low. Before I had a chance to even examine the farming and food production situation I was alerted to its status by the complaints of the dwarves them selves. Soon they were eating vermin to survive. More farmers were drafted immediately. The two on staff were overwhelmed with the demand for food. Farmers were then given reprieve from hauling tasks, and citizens were told to leave the plant gathering to the experts. Unskilled laborers always make a mess of the crops.

    With the added farm stall the soil was getting planted, but there was still little to eat. The near by ponds were nearly fished out and there was nothing left to hunt. But then! The elves! Come with a caravan loaded with acres of useless cloth, sweet brews made from the finest forest berries, and most importantly bushels of fruit! With the rock crafts that my predecessor seemed so keen on having made, I traded for all the food and drink they carried. Even bought some seeds to grow our own. Variety of booze will be the spice of these dwarves lives! But, as it stands, lets just keep the fact that it was the elves between us. Its not like we would have starved waiting for the humans. Probably not, anyway.

    One interesting thing that the elves had (and about the only thing they are good for) was some rare livestock. A breeding pair of gibbons. A pack of territorial apes might make the goblins think twice about invading.

    Speaking of goblins, we seem to be too rich for our own good. The value of the crafts are bound to start attracting attention. Time to get the iron works running smoothly and the axedwarves ready. I feel it might be a bloody winter.

Summer, and a forest titan appeared!
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

It, I am sure, with only the worst intent for the dwarves I am entrusted in overseeing.  The masons had just finished installing the last of the gates, protecting the tunnels to the rives and the rear (trap) entrance into the fortress. I immediately ordered the pulling of the levers, sealing off all but the main entrance. The beast flew over a wall and into the fishing tunnel just before the gate closed in its face. It brooded for a time, seeming confused. It them made haste to the courtyard. But by then all the civilians were safely inside, leaving only the militia in the open.

I had hoped that one of the cage traps would have caught the beast, but alas, it flew over them all. But it didn’t fly far.

Between the hunters firing bolts, and the militia hacking away with their axes, short work was made of the titan. I was expecting whole-sale slaughter from the poisonous, flying snake. But a few shots quickly pierced its lungs, and it fell from the air. Moments later there were antenna and scales flying everywhere. The militia captain got so engrossed in combat that he even  bit the thing!

Now we have hill titan roast for all!

[Brad]

That should help with the food problem...

[Nick]

Fall comes. Food is now plentiful and the metal industry is churning.  Cages, cages, cages. Must have traps. Traps for the goblins. Traps the beasts.

I have ordered a set of choke points be erected out of stone walls. These will force animals and invaders alike into narrow openings filled with cage traps. More work still needs done to them, but for now they are affective against the thieves and snatchers. Of which, we have caught a few. They have all been taken to a holding room... awaiting to take part in military training courses.   A note to my successor: they are still armed. 

Winter and an ambush! Not long after the rivers froze over a group of goblins appeared and killed a wandering dwarf. The militia was dispatched and killed one of the goblins before they all got away. I am getting more are more impressed with the militia captain. He may need better quarters. And steel armor! Next year when the dwarven caravan come, bringing the steel bars and flux stone I ordered we should have enough steel for a set or two.

Spring is arriving, and as it does, I am leaving. I bid the best of fortunes to my successor. The goblins are defiantly taking a notice to our humble burrows. Perhaps its time to draft a few of the less skilled migrants into the militia. We have had more then a few candidates show up over this last year.

[Nick]

EDITED::: I merged the two threads as they seemed rather dead.

I made this to talk about things related to the succession game without interrupting the flow of the 'Overseers logs' and any 'correspondence to the fortress'

Information like that I just created a svn repo for the saves (for any possible need to go back to and old one and for easy updating of only the files you need rather then them all)
http://randomland.net/repos/df-lovebronz

The webdav or whatever thing seems to be broken, so you cant get to the save via http right now. Probably just need to change a line in the apache config.

[Brad]

So is Zourtney or Jacsveus going to give it a try or do you want me to just take it back?

[zourtney]

I like reading the stories and continuing to have never seen the UI. I get wildly imaginative mental images of what's going on. Ya know, kind of like when you saw that picture of George Nory and it dispelled some of the fun factor? Yeah. This really is quite amusing; keep it up!

[Nick]

I have never seen a picture of George Nory... now I think I will go on avoiding it.

The whole draw of the game is minimal it is, forcing you to imagine whats going on. That and the pages upon pages of reports you get like "Militia captain bites the badger in the left rear foot, tearing the skin and bruising the muscle." That, and playing with magma.