Dwarf Fortress: The child punches the cave spider in the thorax, bruising the brain!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dwarf Fortress: The child punches the cave spider in the thorax, bruising the brain!

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darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Masterwork problem; I've got a steam engine which is obviously working, but I can't seem to actually use the power. I have two gear assemblies and a horizontal axle attached to the top left and right corners, where the power's supposed to come out, but all of them are showing inactive and unpowered. Most perplexing. I'm trying to learn about minecarts, but it's proving difficult because I can't power the rollers. :argh:

The engine in question is low-left; got a diamond gear assembly going north from it to the roller, a steel assembly just attached to the right corner, and an axle going north from the right corner. None of them are powered, though the engine is working.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2014 00:43

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 11:50

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Kayle7 posted:

I had this same issue. I can't recall what I actually did to get it fixed, but I THINK that the gears and stuff need to be built after the steam engine is in place.

That can't be it, because all those were built after the engine and they still aren't powered. Will try deconstructing the engine and rebuilding it, to see if connecting an engine to existing assembly works better.

quote:

I'm working on a design for a line of magma steam engines, I think due to the way they work and how the magma can only be below one certain tile, and the water has to be below another tile, that it has to be horizontal. I also am not sure if this is even worth it, because I've heard they wear out over time and the building just breaks? Like how a crematorium does.

It doesn't necessarily have to be horizontal; you can have two parallel pipes of magma and water which occasionally branch off to feed your engines. This is especially useful since AFAIK water and magma don't have to be under any two specific tiles, just so long as they don't meet and turn to obsidian. They do break; I lost one engine to a boiler explosion because I worked it too hard, which is why I have the newer engine only producing 200 power.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2014 19:15

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Kayle7 posted:

Bummer... they really, really shouldn't break. It just makes them even more of a pain in the butt to make when you can always just make some perpetual water wheels that never stop and never run out.

On the other hand, a) dwarven water reactors do bad things to FPS and b) one steam engine can do the work of up to 5 DWRs. Given that, I'm not too upset about boilers occasionally exploding to balance out their advantages.

ETA: Also, my problem with the engine solved itself after I rebuilt the engine in that same place and hooked it up to the existing assemblies.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2014 18:27

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Subjunctive posted:

I am not an expert, but I recommend not turning on "harder" anything, leaving research off, and maybe disabling the slag pit. (You can use slag to make concrete from ash, which is its only redeeming feature. Otherwise it's really heavy clutter, though I guess you could decorate with it.)

Personally I'm making big use of slag + lye => 2 potash, since I'm making lots of clear glass for my fortress. I also modded in the gnomish slag => sand reaction for dwarves, so I'm less reliant on having a sand layer in my fortress. I've actually had a few times in my fortress when I ran out of slag and had to do more smelting just to make some.

quote:

You can make beds with stone blocks once you make the furniture workshop, in sets with door/cabinet/chest. Pretty handy when your expanding empire needs sleepytimes, and the furniture is worth more.

This can become extra useful when you combine it with ore processors churning out boatloads of blocks you don't really need as a byproduct of purifying your ores.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2014 03:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Tunicate posted:

Oddly enough, if they like you they're more likely to just bring tons of cloth.

Yeah, they'll try to cram as much value onto their camels as they can, which means lots of light and valuable cloth, and animals after that. The best solution is to mod elves to bring wagons, though I forget how you do that.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2014 19:57

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Nietzschean posted:

A few things that I always include are 6 of each seed (giving me a bag full of 5, plus a bag of 1 for each) and 21 of each drink (the extra 1 for the extra barrel), and one unit each of anything I can foresee needing literally any of just to get the free bag or barrel; for example, I will bring along one unit of wood, one unit of each type of sand, and so on. If my intention is to start a metal industry very quickly, then I will also bring a unit of each of the fuels, flux stone, and iron ores, which again results in more barrels. If you don't want an immediate metal industry, then you do not need those things nor do you need an anvil; however, you probably want to bring some metal tools; e.g., copper picks. Bringing a battle axe is not strictly necessary since you can build a carpenter's workshop and training axe with the three wood that the wagon will deconstruct into, and that is what I generally do as my first military dwarfs are usually miners.

I have to point out that the bolded is wrong. (AFAICT, this may have changed in the most recent version) Only seeds, sand, and powders will take up bags, and only food and drink will take up barrels. Wood, stone, and metal will just be carried open to the elements. Also, sand comes with one bag per unit, so you don't get any more benefit from bringing one of each type than you do from just bringing a lot of one type.

Embark chat: I always make sure everybody has a moodable skill; the farmer(s) will have two or three points in armor-/weapon-smithing, the doctor's also a leatherworker, the administrator also knows stone/glass/bone crafting, and I think everybody else has one by default. It may not increase the chance, since AFAICT moods are still determined by profession, so a farmer/metalsmith would still get a farmer's chance of inspiration, but it increases the utility, since they'd become a legendary metalsmith.

I do also go in for DIY weapons; bring an anvil, some ores, a couple hunks of fire-safe stone, and either lots more wood or some coal, and we can have even steel tools for surprisingly cheap. Although granted, I usually stick with copper or possibly bronze for economy's sake, though this still means you can have bronze weapons for less than the embark cost of one bronze axe.

On that note, I generally include my carpenter/lumberjack in the (plans for the) military, and give him some points in axe/armor using and animal training. Until they're assigned, trained animals will tend to follow their trainer, so this gets him some cheap armor. OTOH, given that he's going to be using at least 6 skills, this is going to take some points away from his carpentry, but we can probably make up for that by having him crank out barrels and bins by the truckload.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2014 21:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Moridin920 posted:

after a while you don't need the menus it's just b-c for a chair, bCw for walls and you don't even think about the lovely UI

loving irritating to learn though. what does get me is that some menus use - and + and some use the arrow keys that's just silly.

Problem is, it's even more inconsistent than that. The hotkey to construct a floodgate, f'rinstance, is b-x. You make a glass floodgate with q-a-(e/c/k)-H. You make a wooden or stone floodgate with q-a-l. Coffins are o for glass, k for wood, and p for stone, and n to put in place. And there are no hotkeys for working at the forge, most likely because there are over 9000 possible metals, so making a hotkey system that can handle each possibility is more work than Toady wants to put into it.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2015 00:17

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Muscle Tracer posted:

He's saying that the hotkeys for selecting materials are not the same across different objects -- it would make sense for "Build glass _____" to always be, say, G, while stone would be S and wood would be W, as opposed to having a different hotkey for various objects.

Actually, I'm OK with the materials being different, and as far as I'm concerned G-for-glass is implied by the fact that you're queueing a job at a glassmaker's/carpenter's/mason's workshop. It's the items having different hotkeys depending on which menu you're in that annoys me, because that means I can't just remember that it's c for chair, t for table, etc. It's c for chair, unless I'm building it in a glass workshop in which case it's r and labeled as a throne. A coffin is n if I'm putting it in place, k if I'm making it in a carpenter's shop, p if I'm carving it in a mason's shop, or o if I'm casting it in a glass furnace. If I want some statues, it's u at a mason's workshop or glass furnace, but s at a kiln or to put it in place. Cabinets, doors, and tables are at least consistently f, d and t, respectively, but there are enough other pitfalls that it really starts to get on my nerves.

WRT "Thank Armok there's a semi-automated job manager", there are edge cases where I want certain products made by one particular workshop rather than any and all. If I need steel armor, or obsidian statuary for the nobles, I want those jobs queued at the shops used by the master craftsdwarfs, and not the remedial shops where newbies crank out -copper leggings- and diorite blocks from now to Goblin Christmas.

ETA: Also, if I want a workshop to just repeat a job or two, like collecting sand and making green glass blocks, or brewing alcohol, or cranking out copper leggings, it usually is easiest to queue the job at the workshop and set it to repeat forever rather than ask the manager to queue the job in lots of 30. For like 80-90% of what I do, though, the manager actually is pretty adequate.

darthbob88 fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Jan 19, 2015

# ¿ Jan 19, 2015 09:07

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Moridin920 posted:

If you're a paranoiac like me you would also put a bridge in the aqueduct going from the surface water to your cistern so you can block it off when your cistern has water. Extra points: put a pressure plate in it near the bottom set to keep the bridge open if there's no water on the plate - refills automatically.

This will prevent invaders who can swim somehow getting in there and then getting in the fort through your well.

It's gotta be a bridge though, building destroyers will break a floodgate down.

I always just put a couple fortifications around the floodgate, so nothing can actually get to it. Or can creatures, including building destroyers, swim through fortifications?

# ¿ Jan 23, 2015 18:46

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Subjunctive posted:

I keep thinking I will use them for "get ores many levels down to the magma forges", but haven't bothered so far.

That was my original thought as well, except the orebodies I draw from are scattered across z-levels and often outside my walled-off fortress, so I can't pull directly from them to the forges, and there's a finite amount of ore in the region, so what do I do with the old cart tracks when that runs out? For that reason I also just use minecarts for automated stockpiles, and use wheelbarrows to do the job minecarts were intended for. With DFHack I can attach enough wheelbarrows to a stockpile to make up for their lack of carrying capacity, and I place my main stone stockpile close to the main up-down stairways, so that's quick and easy for them to traverse.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2015 18:53

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

DFHack question: Can you actually create an aquifer using tiletypes? Supposedly you can add the aquifer flag, but when I've tried it, all I get is an area of damp stone, not the endlessly flowing river I want.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2015 23:08

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

GulMadred posted:

For a water source:

liquids > rs

You may be underwhelmed by the quantity of water disgorged by a riversource tile - it's much less impressive than an operating Screw Pump. If you intend to create a "Tidal Wave of Doom" trap then you can either allow your riversource tile to gradually fill a large reservoir (which you then dump into the killzone) or just spawn a whole bunch of riversource tiles behind a raised drawbridge.

All I really need is enough to fill a well for my hospital, which a river source should be enough for.

quote:

For a water sink:
pre:
[DFHack]#tiletypes
tiletypes>paint mat soil
tiletypes>paint sh wall
tiletypes>paint aquifer 1
tiletypes>paint sp normal
tiletypes>  Move cursor to target spot; press Enter
An aquifer wall created in this manner will allow 7/7 water to exist in the tile immediately above it. Any additional water that arrives (e.g. 1/7 in the tile 2 z-levels above the aquifer wall) will be quickly (but not instantly) destroyed. A DFHack'ed aquifer is an effective way to remove excess water (especially if you've spawned a riversource in your fortress to generate an indoor waterfall) but you'll need to plan ahead and include some enclosed "headspace" above the aquifer. If dwarves are somehow able to reach the aquifer tile on foot, then you're probably going to get flooded.

So far as I can tell, the aquifer I spawned using just paint aqua 1 is working fine as a sink. I've used the other options before, but is there some place I can find what all the SPecial options do, what the difference between smooth, furrowed, and smooth_dead is?

# ¿ Mar 21, 2015 03:27

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Zereth posted:

If you build roofed over paths to each map edge that lead to your depot, and make sure the wagons can't get in any other way, that should probably help there. I remember there being a way to force the caravan to spawn in a specific section of the map edge so they don't go along it to reach your safe path, but I don't remember how.

I think it was channeling out an area near the edge, combined with walls, or statues if you're feeling posh, to define the only cart-accessible path to your depot.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 01:24

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Wait, can you actually do things with docks these days, or are they just some place else for fisherdwarves to sit?

# ¿ May 14, 2015 02:44

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

You think that's bad.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2015 01:35

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Met posted:

What mod is it that changes all items to have simpler names? All leather products are just "leather" instead of "chimpanzee leather" or "stingray leather", for example.

Accelerated mod, probably?

# ¿ Aug 9, 2015 21:37

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Zereth posted:

I'm pretty sure dwarves, when they decide to do a job, look for things to, say, encrust with shells, close to where they are, rather than close to the workshop.

Even if that's not it, last I heard dwarves would select job items based on distance in space rather than pathfinding distance, meaning they'd choose the mug one level up over the gold amulet two tiles east. Still doesn't explain the mine cart rather than gold furniture, though.

# ¿ Aug 20, 2015 08:40

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Excelzior posted:

wait...if I read that right, you can stuff people to make mummy/statues?

There is precedent, with Jeremy Bentham among others.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2015 21:25

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

skasion posted:

You could build a bunch of floodgates next to each other in order to get a sluice more than two tiles wide.

Yeah, but personally for cases like this I use bridges, since IIRC they have the same delay as floodgates and take fewer blocks and mechanisms for the same area. They also don't require me to special-manufacture anything, but that's a negligible advantage.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2015 23:15

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Nietzschean posted:

Quick dumb question that the wiki doesn't have readily available and totally should: at what level of skill do military dwarves swap to the elite/lord title?

Pretty sure it's 10/Great, but I could be wrong.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2015 05:45

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Gibbo posted:

Didn't masterwork already have the Tears of Armok gem veins that bleed and created some sort of blood demon when mined?

No, Tears of Armok were aquifers, it was veins of living stone that you could mine out and render for food.

ETA: ^^ Those could be used for magma in the alchemist's shop, IIRC.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2015 06:57

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Lawman 0 posted:

Personally I prefer to grab some alpacas and llamas for a combined animal industry and build some pens but on hostile biomes or when my civ starts off at war with another I will bring piggies if I can afford it.

Yeah, but alpacas and llamas are grazers, while pigs aren't, and barring modding they're the only non-grazer milkable animals.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2016 19:57

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Lareine posted:

I keep being hit with the "Need unrotten dye item" bug. How are you supposed to fix that? Forbid barrels?

I just ordered my main food stockpile to forbid milled plant so they get left in the quern/mill.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2016 02:24

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Omnicarus posted:

I really wish Toady would add more industry to sugar. Something like mixing milk and processed sugar to make frosting that we could then to foods with and sculpt/engrave with images into the frosting using the new design engraving options. Dwarves would get happy/sad/mad from eating food with stuff like liked/mourned/hated engraved in it. It would add a lot of fun to the otherwise kind of bland kitchen options. Maybe add baking too at the same time so you could have a whole cake industry.

Hell, cooking in general. Meat and vegetables can rot without preservation, so you have to pickle them in brine, salt them, dry them to jerky, pack them in sugar, bake them into pies and cakes, can them in glass jars and clay jugs, whatever. Roast flour and water into bread, possibly with cheese and garlic and other delightful additions. Add sugar and syrup for icing, eggs and oil to make yummy cakes. Maybe something for new reactions, because Urist McEscoffier has come up with something new to make with 2 llama meat, 1 peacock egg, and 1 pig milk. I call it Elephant de Urist.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 00:01

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Tenebrais posted:

This is Dwarf Fortress we're talking about. The moment Toady decides to implement cooking properly you know the kitchen will be asking if you want white bread, brown bread, rye bread, spelt bread...

Thankfully no, now that 42.06 allows you to set job materials. You just tell it to make bread, and set that job to use white/whole wheat/rye/whatever flour. This will instead require the querns have to have options for making white/brown/whole grain flour, but that should be simple for the same-ish reason. Sourdough/poolish/sponge fermentation will almost certainly be a thing, though, and so might marbled bread, baguette/sandwich/boule loaves, cheese/garlic/pepper additions, and possibly even shaping the dough into interesting figures. This is a loaf of bread. It is a well-designed image of a hedgehog. It menaces with spikes of dough. It is adorned with a honey glaze.

Or, to make things even worse the other way: He starts tracking calories for each food item, so dwarves now have to eat beyond simply shambling down to the food stockpile every couple months. Or macronutrients; feed your military dwarves a high-protein diet, give the carbs to your workers.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2016 03:07

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Tunicate posted:

Nah, it's great because you can place it for dwarves to admire. Way better than a scepter or earring or some poo poo.

Specifically, place it in a noble's room, on top of a magma pipe. Be careful you don't attach it to a lever, lest somebody accidentally flood the room.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2016 09:01

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

IAmTheRad posted:

Wizards with self control?

I don't think they have any.

That's the joke; I don't have the image, but The Wizard's Guide to Self-Control is a short, but masterfully written, book concerning the worthlessness of self-control. Also summarized as "A Wizard's Guide to Self-Control: Don't."

# ¿ Apr 1, 2016 22:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

necrotic posted:

Or start off with a couple turkey hens and a gobbler (I do 6 and 1). Get nest boxes up asap, and "forbid" ~3 stacks of the eggs (in nest boxes) immediately (using the rest for cooking). Wait a year for them to hatch, then another for them to hit maturity.

Slaughter most males and then build a huge nest box farm. Eggs for days!

I think blue peahens are another good choice, they mature faster maybe?

edit: I do the above approach with both turkeys and bluehens for new forts and have more than enough eggs by the start of the third year to make roasts forever.

Guineafowl have a higher clutch size than peafowl and mature faster than turkeys, so they're my preferred choice, but I also try to bring a variety to satisfy as many wants as possible. Crundles are also pretty drat prolific, and if I can tame a female my dwarves are usually swimming in +crundle egg roasts+. I also quite like elk birds when I can get them; healthy clutches of eggs, good meat, and horns.

# ¿ May 9, 2016 16:39

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

necrotic posted:

Yeah you can still do it very easily with minecarts.

Minecarts are great because they let you not just do it, but automate it. The only hard part, TBH, is the track, but after that it works beautifully.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2016 02:56

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Zomborgon posted:

I think we call that a crematorium

Also a thing DF people are likely to implement (and already have if lava counts)

Also already exists in Masterwork, if not other mods, where it's one of my favorite sources for ash and charcoal. Combine it with a reaction to press coke to diamonds, and I've got the blingiest fortress around.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2016 05:46

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Mirthless posted:

None of the poultry are grazers, IIRC. I think you can put them in 1x1 pastures permanently chained to their nestboxes if you want.

Elk birds are grazers, though I think they're not too hungry to survive on a nest box.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2016 16:56

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

TheAwfulWaffle posted:

Do ducks and bunnies generate meat? The last time I checked, they didn't.

Apparently they're too small for that, but ducks do make a shitload of eggs, second only to turkeys. On the other hand, turkeys are also big enough to provide meat, so why the hell are you bringing ducks instead?

# ¿ Aug 8, 2016 22:06

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

IAmTheRad posted:

What a shame if the tree were to be chopped down while he is inside it. What an unfortunate accident that would be.

On the subject of tree chopping, I'm having issues with DFHack and autochop. I designate, using the dashboard, every tree on the surface for chopping, and have it set to UNLIMITED min/max, but it doesn't take. For some reason, after I leave the dashboard, it goes right back to only 147 trees marked for chop, instead of the 1000 or so it was on the dashboard. Even if I try to do it manually, designating a large swathe of the surface for chopping, my dorfs only cut a half dozen trees before they're satisfied. Help? It's the middle of summer my first year and I'm already down to single-digit FPS.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 05:33

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Eric the Mauve posted:

I want to pick this game up and have been extensively reading the wiki and some tutorials but just...

So intimidating and I'm half afraid of it taking over my life.

From Reddit:

# ¿ Nov 17, 2016 22:13

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Are bins screwed up somehow? I've got a dyer complaining that he can't find any dyeable silk cloth in a bin two tiles west of him. I've heard that ammo had issues, but is it a general issue with all manner of things?

# ¿ Nov 26, 2016 19:58

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Turtlicious posted:

Is there a DF Mod, or maybe a plugin that re-names all the ores and poo poo to simplify the game a bit?

Like Magnetite, Hemontite, Lemonite, Fuckoffinite and ballpunchinite could all be renamed to Iron

all the different flux stones could be "flux stones" stuff like that?

The closest you'll get is something like Accelerated Modest Mod, which renames the "hawk meat" and "carp leather" to just "meat" and "leather", though last I heard it was still bugged. There's also Masterwork, which includes that functionality and much more besides, but I'm not sure you'd really need the "much more besides".

Having said that, I am totally down for a mod that just replaces slate/diorite/gabbro/etc with "grey junk stone".

# ¿ Dec 26, 2016 17:50

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

scamtank posted:

Glazer takes the glaze-ee and either some ready wood ash or a boulder of raw cassiterite to the kiln, where Improvement happens. Shouldn't eat fuel.

Raw clayware should be good to go as is for dry good storage, though. It only excludes liquids.

Well, regular clay earthenware is good enough for dry food, stoneware made from fire clay is good enough for liquids. I think porcelain is good enough for liquids as well, but why are you turning it into pots instead of valuable statues or crafts?

# ¿ Apr 4, 2017 19:04

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

counterfeitsaint posted:

Was is the advantage is using earthenware when you can make literally infinite large stone pots?

You can actually get literally infinite clay and sand, and assuming you have access to magma, you can get free infinite pots.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2017 19:48

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Eric the Mauve posted:

Goblin king update: I got no migrants, no caravan and no liaison in year 2. The civilizations screen still shows various nobles, the liaison is still listed as alive, etc., though they're all goblins. I guess my civilization was conquered by goblins? Or something?

Oh well, I'll just tunnel straight down to HFS and send my dwarves into the long night the dwarfy way

IIRC Goblins are immortal, so I wouldn't be surprised if that goblin joined your civilization the same as Cacame did and then wound up becoming king simply through seniority.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 17:10

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 11:50

darthbob88: Oct 13, 2011; YOSPOS

Alright, does anybody else have issues with obsidian farms? It seems like my dwarves just won't go down into the water, even if it's just the 1/7 dampness left by the flood. Do I need to give them all a point of swimming or something?

E: Problem found, I had temperature off and apparently they didn't realize the obsidian was cool. Turned temperature on and now they're working fine.

darthbob88 fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Oct 7, 2017

# ¿ Oct 7, 2017 03:33

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Dwarf Fortress: The child punches the cave spider in the thorax, bruising the brain!

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