Methinks the gold has doomed us.

@Seaborgium said:

I've saved the game for now. Any advice on saving our collective dwarven skins?

Just one idea: If you have access to any invader weapons you can try to salvage those. Foreign weapons are forbidden by default so you would have to unforbid those in your stockpile menu. Conscript the entire fort, set their military labors so they'll use the right weapons and have a good old fashioned bloodbath. Weapons pretty much make all the difference in combat, even unskilled dwarves equipped with a decent weapon can do some serious damage.

Due to all the deaths and lack of booze the fort must be dangerously close to a spiral of depression. A great dining room and good food/drink can offset even the worst negative thoughts.

If you guys can recover from all this I will be mighty impressed. Either way this is great so far. I fucking love Dwarf Fortress.

Most of the dwarves are at yellow/green in Dwarf Therapist at the moment; Daveyo's engraved dining room seems to have staved off a tantrum spiral. We may have lost 10 dwarves or so over the last year, but they've mostly been recent migrants who have few friends and no skills worth getting worked up about. That reminds me - two dwarves got strange moods and wanted something we didn't have (bone, I think), so I had to wall them in and let them starve.

Our channel should hold them off, and I'm hoping the caravan guards/traps will do some decent damage, but if worst comes to worst (the goblins patrol the outside and we start running out of food and drink), I'll throw dwarves at the goblins en masse. Maybe the last two migrant waves - hopefully even if they take massive losses, they won't have many friends outside their respective waves, so the rest of the fortress will be insulated from a tantrum spiral. I'm not confident about their chances, though. Some of the newly recruited military guys (who should have been equipped) went out to drink after I restricted civilians to inside the fortress, and they got absolutely torn up. I don't think any of the goblins even got hit.

@Seaborgium: The engraving is BoG's doing I just kept it up.

@Seaborgium IF you do get the goblin problem taken care of. First thing should be building a drawbridge over that channel so that its not totally isolated.

entertaining indeed eheh ... i wonder how many reclaims we will be in for

@envane said:

entertaining indeed eheh ... i wonder how many reclaims we will be in for

As many as we have people left to play in the roster I think. Or as many as we find mildly entertaining. We'll see.

Edit: Next up is Sankis... Historically he seems to know how to handle deadly hostile outside worlds. If memory serves, he's the one who decided Boatmurdered should be able to flood the entire world with lava.

@Shofixti:

So there's hope yet? To Dwarf Fortress and Mumble I go!

A single goblin has rushed in. The trap doorway has proven extremely effective, incapacitating him entirely.

What's more, the caravan guards are heading out to attack. Perhaps we'll survive this ambush after all.

Well, it's spring now. Two goblins are down; two remain outside, butchering our livestock. I just got a message from the mountainhomes; after the goblin situation, I'm being "retired" again. They're sending in some new guy, Sankis something-or-other, supposedly a former defense expert or something. Well, that's fine with me. I'll keep the books here, maybe round down on the gold crafts stocks every once in a while, as long as the fortress still stands.

There's a lot of stuff that needs doing if this fortress is to last more than a few more years, though. First of all, Sankis will have to beat some sense into the farmers and get them to start working. Track down the plump helmet spawn, maybe even scrap the farm and start a new one, that sort of thing.

Once the goblins are taken care of, our dead have to be buried, and there are many. We don't want the ghosts coming back. On that note, I've neglected to build myself a tomb. Sankis can dig out a spot if he likes; if not, when the time comes, he can toss me in with the rest of the rabble. Not like I'd be around to appreciate it, anyway.

Later on, we need to increase our fortress' defenses. More traps is always a good idea. Ideally we'd want an extended doorway maybe 20+ tiles long, filled with traps of some sort. Cheap but effective. A channel and bridge would also be good, maybe a series of repeating bridges with a deep pit to drop invaders to their deaths. I've started some large-scale excavation a ways down; if we keep digging, we should find some ores we can use to start a metalworks and make our own weapons. Any idle dwarves should be drafted and trained. Some sniper towers would help, if we can train a few marksdwarves.

On the lower-priority stuff, the move to the underground isn't fully finished. Some bedrooms and noble bedrooms, as well as the dining table, remain on the first level. They should be migrated to their new locations (we'll need some more noble bedrooms, too). An out-of-the-way area should be designated to hold all of the extra furniture we have; it's taking up all of our stockpile space. Beds, chairs, and tables can go into deep storage; maybe keep barrels in the farming area; buckets can probably go next to the hospital.

Idle dwarves can also be set to join the stone detailing crew. They should just smooth stone for now; once they get their skills up (legendary), they can start engraving the bedrooms and such.

Here's a map of the fortress as it stands, levels 1-3.

See the dwarf trapped in a mason's workshop on the third floor? Don't let him out, he's insane.

Nice job on surviving. Those noble bedrooms look like they are in dirt which means no engravings. That might be a problem but.. Eh. Space is totally ever a problem in DF.

Edit: Maybe? I just cant tell. I'm not used to how ironhand looks.

We may live yet.

@jesterroyal: yeah thats some dirt rooms hehe .. but im sure one could fix that by constructing a gold floor and statues etc

@Sankis Prepare yourself, I'll have your save file ready shortly and your turn will begin at Midnight tonight.

All things considered, I think Seaborgium did a great job of minimizing our losses. The Fortress lives to exist another year.

Upon embark, i thought that the shimmer in our name may have referred to our glorious walls of gold. But after those last few pictures, I fear that it might refer to the glistening crimson in the sun that comes from the pools of our own blood.

@Shofixti said:

@Sankis Prepare yourself, I'll have your save file ready shortly and your turn will begin at Midnight tonight.

All things considered, I think Seaborgium did a great job of minimizing our losses. The Fortress lives to exist another year.

I'M READY.

@Sankis: But are WE ready for you?

why isn't this in the cool shit by the community thing yet

So would people prefer I stick to using a graphical tileset? I'm still not too fond of them but i'll use one for the sake of the succession game if it helps.

Not that I know how to change a tileset game back to ascii and get rid of the glitches, anyway. Someone tell me how to do this for future reference!

@Sankis: It is your personal preference. If you don't want to use them don't.

@Sankis: Yeah, I say its personal preference. Everyone with the lazy noob pack can change it back if they want. However, i've been trying to find instructions on how to change the region 's art manually but I have no clue.

@Sankis said:

So would people prefer I stick to using a graphical tileset? I'm still not too fond of them but i'll use one for the sake of the succession game if it helps.

Not that I know how to change a tileset game back to ascii and get rid of the glitches, anyway. Someone tell me how to do this for future reference!

If your using the Lazy Newb Pack, just set the graphics to standard ASCII.

If your not, then to do that manually I've found through experimentation that all you need to do is delete everything in the graphics folder of the save game.

@Animasta said:

why isn't this in the cool shit by the community thing yet

Good question

@Shofixti said:

@Sankis said:

So would people prefer I stick to using a graphical tileset? I'm still not too fond of them but i'll use one for the sake of the succession game if it helps.

Not that I know how to change a tileset game back to ascii and get rid of the glitches, anyway. Someone tell me how to do this for future reference!

If your using the Lazy Newb Pack, just set the graphics to standard ASCII.

If your not, then to do that manually I've found through experimentation that all you need to do is delete everything in the graphics folder of the save game.

Yeah, I tried it with LNP but it completely messed up the ASCII. Oh well. I'll give it a shot when I hopefully take the turn tomorrow.

@Shofixti said:

@Animasta said:

why isn't this in the cool shit by the community thing yet

Good question

I hope if we do make it to the spotlight the summary page makes it. This one is a pretty good jumble.

@Sankis: did you update saved games after changing it back to ascii ?

I think we should get close to done before the other Shimmeroiled thread goes in in to the community spotlight.

@Sankis I don't think its a big deal if you play/take screen caps in ASCII but I would do what @Seaborgium did afterwards and circle and show what things are. I'm sure we can all figure it out, but its incomprehensible to anyone who's not played DF (such as many...most of the GB user base).

Also, just wanted to say to those who've played already, you guys have done an EXCELLENT job not only with managing the fortress but the write-ups as well. Keep it up!

While i can read the acii game. (Boatmurdered helped) I prefer a tileset. However trying to get a unified pack or tileset going is a bit hard, main thing is use the same version of the game. Ill have to use the lazy noob pack. As I prefer may day except I dont know about compatibility.

I wonder if the fort lives.

If by lives you mean "whether Sankis has the turn and is playing it" the answer is yes. If you mean lives as in "I wonder if there are living things in the fort." WELL YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE.

Edit: What did you guys use for screenshots? FRAPS doesn't seem to like DF.

@Sankis: Print Screen son.

@Daveyo520 said:

@Sankis: Print Screen son.

Mhmm.

@Shofixti said:

@Seaborgium: This sounds like a really familiar problem. I think I've seen it on the help thread here.

Edit: Here it is:

@gladspooky said:

@isnipeyoudie said:

So, after getting my fort up and running for a year, I started running into the problem of farmers no longer planting seeds- it simply says that they need the appropriate seed, when it says I have around 140 of that type of seed in my kitchen, two floors down. Why won't they plant anything when I have a barrel full of the damn seeds?

It's a bug. Make a small stockpile next to your farm with no barrels activated. Seed barrels apparently confuse dwarves.

The problem arises from how dwarves store and use items: when they go to take something from a barrel, they will take the entire barrel to the destination, remove one item and use it, then return the barrel. If you have two farmers and one takes the only seed barrel, the other will go to the stockpile and believe there are no seeds and will let you know. As you suggested, creating a seed stockpile and forbidding the use of barrels therein should fix the problem.

Wow, this is great. I'm super happy that I went first, because I would have been toast trying to ward of goblins and lizard demons. Well done Daveyo and Seaborgium! My only regret is not making my tomb way huger than Daveyo's, ha ha. Oh, and thanks for the gold statue, Sea.

great community feature guys.

Keep it up and maintain that in character writing style, this stuff is amazing.

Edit: @Shofixti:also try compiling those short stories in the OP.

@pyrodactyl : http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/slaves-to-armok-ii-dwarf-fortress/2768/the-story-of-shimmeroiled/554987/ is the storage place for all the year summaries and stories.

@Shofixti: The summary thread points here but this thread doesn't point to the summary thread. Do you think you could add a link somewhere near the top?

@pyrodactyl: theres a seperate thread collating all the reports / stories ..check it out http://www.giantbomb.com/slaves-to-armok-ii-dwarf-fortress/61-21594/the-story-of-shimmeroiled/35-554987/#19

@BoG: I just thought it would be silly to make one bigger :P

Damnit. The game just crashed on me after almost a season. UGH. I'll finish, but I'll start again tomorrow. I was hoping to post at least a quarter/half year report tonight but it doesn't seem as though it will be the case.

PROTIP: Save your game every 20 minutes or so.

@jesterroyal said:

@pyrodactyl : http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/slaves-to-armok-ii-dwarf-fortress/2768/the-story-of-shimmeroiled/554987/ is the storage place for all the year summaries and stories.

@Shofixti: The summary thread points here but this thread doesn't point to the summary thread. Do you think you could add a link somewhere near the top?

Cando

@Sankis said:

Damnit. The game just crashed on me after almost a season. UGH. I'll finish, but I'll start again tomorrow. I was hoping to post at least a quarter/half year report tonight but it doesn't seem as though it will be the case.

PROTIP: Save your game every 20 minutes or so.

That really sucks man... No hints at all on how it's going eh?

@Shofixti said:

@Sankis said:

Damnit. The game just crashed on me after almost a season. UGH. I'll finish, but I'll start again tomorrow. I was hoping to post at least a quarter/half year report tonight but it doesn't seem as though it will be the case.

PROTIP: Save your game every 20 minutes or so.

That really sucks man... No hints at all on how it's going eh?

Since it may or may not turn out the same way all of our concerns except for food seem to have been okay for spring, at least. Food was PRETTY bad though!

@Sankis said:

@Shofixti said:

@Sankis said:

Damnit. The game just crashed on me after almost a season. UGH. I'll finish, but I'll start again tomorrow. I was hoping to post at least a quarter/half year report tonight but it doesn't seem as though it will be the case.

PROTIP: Save your game every 20 minutes or so.

That really sucks man... No hints at all on how it's going eh?

Since it may or may not turn out the same way all of our concerns except for food seem to have been okay for spring, at least. Food was PRETTY bad though!

Well, I suppose that's better than being massacred by Goblins...

On a totally different note, here's the Gold-Laced hills of Shimmeroiled!

It's a pretty crappy picture, all in all

@Shofixti: How did you do that? I wish Stonesense still worked with recent versions.

I think I read a long ass time ago that there was a DF to Minecraft converter out there somewhere. This was, I believe, pre-release though. Could be cool to run through the halls of Shimmeroiled after its inevitable demise.

@Daveyo520 said:

@Shofixti: How did you do that? I wish Stonesense still worked with recent versions.

I used DF Overseer... It's an OGRE based 3D converter but it kindof sucks for anything but getting a basic sense of what your surroundings are like

@HotSauceMagik: That would be pretty fun.

@Shofixti: Ah

Stonesense doesn't work? It works fine for me. Are you guys using the version that comes with DFHack?

Then again, DF has only ever crashed for me with Stonesense running...

Just looked into Stone Sense, I can confirm it works with the latest version, and is actually pretty neat.

@Shofixti: Oh my. Link?

@Daveyo520 said:

@Shofixti: Oh my. Link?

Comes with DFHack http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91166.0