Too Much Time on My Hands...

So I'm playing Dwarf Fortress.

Our story begins in the Oracular Universes, in the Land of Principle. Times are tough for Dwarven kind, so seven brave dwarves decide to leave their Kingdom and settle somewhere new.

They decide that this looks like the best place.



Hurrah!



The seven of us (five males and two females) set out to found Angzakrovod (Terrorarch), calling ourselves the "House of Lords". We end up regretting our choice of land pretty quickly: this 'mountain' is just an especially large pile of sand. I decide the best plan of action is to dig straight down until we find solid ground.



When we get past this level, we immediately strike Borax. According to the Dwarven handbook, this is fairly useless to us, but it means we are getting closer to the rock. We tunnel through the Borax for a very short distance, and continue ramping down. Rosenshyne finds Sylvite on this floor. DarkFool is excited. Nobody else is, though, because this is still not particularly useful.

On the level after this, we find Olivite. This is actually quite good, because this implies there will be some Platinum, if we are lucky. The House of Lords decides to continue digging on this level, just in case they do find anything, though it is planned that the dwarves will live a few levels down still (just to fully ensure nobody tunnels out the side of a mountain or some such event).

Meanwhile, the white sand above will be useful for farming. So a large portion of this is carved out.

After carving through some Olivite, we finally decide to ramp down again. This layer is made up of Kimberlite, which is the only rock known to hold diamonds! What a treat that would be if we found some!



Darkfool, myself, and Vorak (pictured from bottom left, moving counter-clockwise) are on this level when we find some Onyx Opal! Technically, this isn't that great: opal is found everywhere. But still, we can sell it and stuff!

After this tunnel is finished, we start digging east, presumably into more Kimberlite veins. We are dissapointed: There is nothing here. We continue ramping down. Things are getting more Gabbro-ey the further we go. I decide we will settle down on level 10.

More Olivine on level 6. It has been about a month now, and we've been surviving off of what's in the wagon. Xiao and Zanza are (presumably, I haven't been checking) busy farming. I'm not sure what we will do about water. It won't be an issue once Vorak gets a still set up, but until then, my dwarves risk thirst.

On the third of Slate (Month 2, day 3) we finally break into level 10. This appears to be an Olivine layer. We will carve out a barracks for ourselves. In the meantime, I realize (after checking some maps and doing some estimations), that we are actually about six or seven levels below a river. This interests me, in a slightly diabolical way. I may be able to channel water into a reservoir via waterfall. Hopefully we don't just plug the damned thing.



By the 16th of Slate (Month 2, day 16), this is what we have accomplished. The large room on the left is the barracks, our communal sleeping quarters (we will upgrade to private quarters later on, if all goes well). The three rooms in the corridor to the right are (from left) a Carpenter's Workshop, a Mason's Workshop, and an unclaimed spare room. Going up the ramp above is a storage place where Vorak will put wood that he cuts down. I've marked the approximate vertical location of the river in blue.



While Vorak is busy chopping down trees, the rest of us have a reservoir to build! This is the risky part, where everything we've worked for these past couple months might be for nothing. My plan is to build a massive pit northeast of our workshops, and then tunnel upward until we reach the bottom of the river. Then, we will run as fast as we can to get away. I imagine Rosenshyne will want to build some floodgates or something, as well, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

It's the 16th of Felsite, and the first stage is complete. Our reservoir is two levels deep. There was one scary moment where some poor planning caused us to be stuck in the pit for a while, but we ended up being able to dig up and around. These will be good service tunnels later! (Actually, I suspect they will be filled with water)

Summertime falls upon us. I decide that we should postpone the reservoir project for a while and work on constructing a dining room and a food storage area now that the plump helmets (mushrooms, yum) have matured.



On the 3rd of Hematite (Month 4, Day 3) Fish, Rosenshyne, and I are popping open the floor in the reservoir when it collapses. This is a lesson in tunnelworking: Never take the opportunity to get some extra work done. Luckily, it seems it is only the fall that knocked us out, and we are otherwise mostly okay. Actually, I get the worst of it. Rosenshyne is making beds again within a day. We're lucky to be alive.

This will not deter us from constructing our waterfall.



This is what our new dining area looks like. The room on the left will be furnished whenever a mason gets around to making tables. The room on the right is a pantry.

While building our vertical shaft, we find Garnierite on Malachite 8 (Month 5, day 8). We can smelt this into Nickel. Interesting find. I'll keep in mind. Nothing will cause me to ruin this waterfall. As a compromise, I decide to place a 'gem storage' room to my storage level (which is above us. Just a bunch of rooms with stuff in it, nothing too exciting).

On 20th of Malachite (Month 5, day 20), Rosenshyne creates a masterpiece chair. How wonderful! We are so close to our goal. Time to begin planning for the main reservoir.



On the 12th of Galena (Month 6, day 12), Zanza finally finds the bottom of the river. This is it. As soon as the reservoir pit is completed, we will be ready!

On 24th Galena (Month 6, day 24), we collapse the reservoir, and all fall inside. This hurts a lot more than the first collapse. Some of us bleed all over the place. That's deep enough, on to floodgates.

On 12th Limestone (Month 7, day 12), some traders come by. With all the attention we spent building the water tunnels, we forgot to construct a trade depot. Oops. Also, Rosenshyne is unwell. Must be all the falling into reservoirs she's been doing. DarkFool takes it upon himself to create a bucket to bring her water. This will be way easier when the reservoir is ready.

On the 27th of Limestone (Month 7, day 27), we start digging a tunnel through the barracks to make room for some private quarters. We find native Platinum. Hellz yeah.

On 6th Sandstone (Month 8, Day 6), Fish starts to finish setting up the control room and the floodgates. We are so close I can taste it. Soon, soon. However, something has come to my attention.

Just how fast are we? Is there hope that we can actually open up that tunnel and get back into the fortress before the water overtakes us? Although this is a difficult decision, whoever goes up there and opens the river needs to be fast, no question. If they can't get back inside before the reservoir starts to overflow... we will have to lock them in.

On 17th Sandstone (Month 8, day 17), seven immigrants arrive, having heard that things are going well here. The above problem is no longer an issue. One of them will gladly volunteer to open the river! The task falls to a young dwarf peasant girl named Rigoth Kivishrigoth. Brave soul! Ironically, as she's working her way to the bottom of the river, she gets thirsty and goes all the way back downstairs for a drink.

The 15th of Timber (Month 9, day 15). Rigoth has been preparing herself for this all month. This is her moment. The moment when she becomes hero of the dwarves. Despite the restricted traffic postings in the water tunnels below, she thought she saw one of the other women she came with, a blacksmith, wandering around collecting stone. No time to worry about that. It's every dwarf for herself.

The wall stands before her. All she has to do is start digging a ramp upward, and water will start leaking through. Easy enough.



She swings her pick.



Oh my! The water gushed out pretty suddenly! Get out of there, Rigoth, get out now!

Rigoth is fucking fast. She actually makes it. Not only that, but she convinces the Blacksmith woman to come with her as she does. I've literally never seen a dwarf run that fast before. I wish I had made a video of this. I could barely keep up with her.

I have overestimated the speed of a river rushing through a tunnel. Rigoth and her blacksmith friend manage to set the levers in such a way that the water will surely flow into the reservoir. I feel kind of silly for having us construct a safety reservoir. A vertical shaft with floor hatches may have worked better. The safety reservoir takes a while to fill. A few weeks, in fact, probably due to the fact that Rigoth only managed to get a single small opening into the river. It must be widening over time, though, because the ascending tunnels are completely filled with water. I expect that by the time it reaches the reservoir, we won't have to worry overmuch about waiting for more whenever we run out: when it finally fills, it will really be filled.

Indeed, once the safety reservoir fills, the maintenance tunnel we built all those months ago serve to accelerate the rate at which the place fills. The water roars toward our indoor lake.

Now, as long as I remember which lever to pull, the lake will be finished (if I pull the wrong one, everybody will drown, so here's hoping my memory serves me correct. I should probably have taken notes or something).

Vorak does indeed go over and pull the wrong lever. The floodgate (hereby known as the one that should NEVER BE OPENED) opens. Oh gawd. Hopefully he can get back in time to correct this mistake.



I notice he wasted no time in running for the exit as soon as he pulled that lever. You might notice me inside the mechanic workshop (I mentioned that this is what I did with the spare side room, right?). I think this is intentional.



Ultimately, it's not Vorak who fixes the problem. In fact, two previously unmentioned immigrants simply rush in and turn it off. Not before I'm literally lifted off the ground and swept out into the hall, however. We'll be muddy and wet, but at least we're alive.

AND THE RESERVOIR IS COMPLETE!!


Now is a good time to show you what we've done in terms of expanding the rest of the fortress.



The three rooms are (from top to bottom): A metalcrafting workshop, a smelter, and a still. That large blue thing on the right is the indoor lake.



We dug a tunnel through the barracks. We will be putting private residences in here. We will also need to expand the dining room.

Interestingly, Xiao and Fish seem to be lovers.

Around late Moonstone (Month 10) I decide to open the floodgate blocking the bottom of the reservoir so we can start to drink from it. Unfortunately, we pull the wrong lever again. Luckily, I had Jazintha Piper (one of our immigrants from a few months back) tear the lever for the NEVER TO BE OPENED DOOR right out of the control room. Unfortunately, the reservoir filled to the top, and when we did get the correct floodgate open, it flooded out the smelter, metalcrafting workshop, and still. All the same, it could have been worse, and the reservoir will level itself out soon.

Being winter time and all, the river itself has frozen. Not OUR water, though. We are so awesome.

Eventually, it becomes clear that having a place to collect water from the side of the reservoir is a stupid idea. Water is seeping into the pantry. We decide to dig upward and build a well over the damned thing instead.

It's been a full year. Rosenshyne has finally completed her 6 month recovery. Things are looking good.

On 13 of Slate (Month 14, day 13), 19 new immigrants arrive. Obviously, the tale of Rigoth and the reservoir has spread, and now that it is known that the floors are not sopping wet, its legend grows ever mighty. We assign six of these new immigrants to guard the entrance. It becomes evident that they have no weaponry. Hmm.

 

I have no idea what the hell I just read.

 

same here, it's like Gilmore Girls and thinking "WTF!?"

 

Rosie will accept that, but you will have to challenge her in armed combat for the position of first wife. FYI Xiao: When you make my sandwiches after sex just remember that I like mayonnaise, not Miracle Whip.

 

Please don't kill me, Rosie, please don't kill me. I'm quite happy not to fight to the death, thanks...

Man, now I wanna work on my MotB LP. Fuck you, NWN2, for running so crappily that it's a good day if I can reach the menu.

 

Xiao is an acceptable second wife. In fact, in the name of wifely harmony, I invite her to share my quarters when Fish is busy. You know, so she won't get... lonely.

 

XD

ok.... starting to sound like my work office.

 

Oh my... *blush* So, uh... do I wear the leather or the lace?

 

Lace sounds perfect. -drool-

 

Why can't it be both?
Why can't it be neither?
Why can't it be posted?

 

I was gonna start with honey, but leather's good, too.

 

For the confused, I'm playing Dwarf Fortress, this neat freeware game that's uber-complex and detailed. When the fortress dies, I can actually go back with an adventurer. However, it will probably be flooded with water.

Here is a link.

Does anyone else here ever play this? I think a bloodline game would be pretty sweet.

 

I played it once a few years back, but found it to complicated at the moment.

Or I just didn't grasp the game.

Anyway, will give it another try in the week.

 

ZZT is a personal favourite of mine, it has colours.

 

I also found it way too complicated when I first saw it in September of 08 (my RL friends were playing it right after the most recent version came out). It wasn't until Thursday or Friday when I picked it up again for something I could do while waiting for my incompetent partner from my Accounting course to finish getting the calculations wrong that I really started to grasp what to do.

What I pictured above is my first attempt at building aqueducts to form pools. Since then, this has gotten pretty easy. I need to find a better way of getting into volcanos, though. Haven't done much with magma except burn my test dwarves to death.

I have two legendary stone detailers running around engraving every room in the fortress with beautiful artwork. I actually have to hold off with them sometimes because the nobles get upset if lesser nobles have prettier offices and bedrooms, and they turned the Mayor's office (square room with a stone table and chair) into an 'Opulent Throne Room' just by carving up the walls.

Also: 'The Prisoner has admired some fine chains lately'.

 

I have played it a little in past, has been a long time though.

Quite happy to join a bloodline game shortly if one comes up, my turn will most likely end up with 90% of the dwarves dead and starving however...

 

According to this, the creator of Dwarf Fortress makes enough money off Dwarf Fortress in donations that he doesn't technically need a job. Though, I'm sure he has one.

This makes me think back to all those shareware games from the early part of the last decade (maybe as far back as the late 90s) that would lock up certain features until you donated. It seems like a slap in the face to that old policy.

 

shareware does not equal freeware.