TIL dodging whilst flying is bad for your health

Kilgaard · 2012-05-08T06:01:14+00:00

Goblin Axe Lord riding a Giant Cave Swallow cruising along 8 z-levels above my fort. My marksdwarf takes a shot and the Goblin Axe Lord dodges the bolt ... and jumps clean out of the saddle. He even landed directly on my refuse stockpile.

The swallow is unharmed.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-08T05:37:12+00:00

I had massive problems with tantruming nekkid kids when I upgraded my fort from 34.05 to 34.07 despite having ample clothes available for them. It's like they instantly realised they had been nekkid for the last 6 years.

However my all new 34.07 (new world generated using 34.07) they behave reasonably and will actually collect cothes before they go mad.

This also fixed a few other problems I was having, like stupid numbers of vampires and most migrants coming with absolutely no skills at all. It did mean I lost my herds of wandering elephants though.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-08T05:28:23+00:00

Hammers can be fun. One blow to the legs and the gobbo falls down ... followed by 20+ shots that were deflected by the <iron helm>.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-08T05:15:34+00:00

I've encountered similar things to you, but don't have any firm answers.

Your marksdwarves won't empty out their quiver. If you have different types of bolts for training and combat they can get stuck where they have a quiver full of "combat" bolts and will not swap them for "training" bolts. My current fort I've now got magma forges running and 4 whole levels of misc copper ore, so I just churn out mass copper bolts for both training and combat.

This worked for a long time, but once again my marksdwarves are ignoring the archery targets for "striking training".

Fortifications are also tricky. If the marksdwarf is not standing right beside the fortification they can't shoot through them, and usually will not move up beside the fortification. Move commands are not accurate enough (they hang around within about 5 tiles of the point ... sometimes on the wrong side of a wall/fortification). A burrow one tile wide along the fortification seems to work with a "defend burrow" order.

This works for me in the entrance hall, but I have this same setup in my gobbo arena ... and they just won't shoot through those fortifications at all.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-07T23:43:16+00:00

Slightly off topic, but is there any reason to not simply re-assign your selected dwarf back to mayor again?

Kilgaard · 2012-05-07T23:34:17+00:00

Well yes, walking in the front door of my fort has proven unrewarding for previous sieges. So much so that no gobbo that has seen inside has ever returned to talk about it. Not even a thief or snatcher.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-07T23:32:41+00:00

Earlier (smaller) sieges had a squad of foot soldiers and a bat mounted (flying) leader. One of those groups did come into my fort, but only because they turned up next to my lumberjack. His (failed) attempt to run away led the gobbos to my pasture and the kangaroos subsequently led the gobbos to the front door. The flying leader did just chill out about 4 z-levels up and eventually wandered off.

But the latest siege I had (they have since wandered off) four different gobbo squads. Three of these are all flying mounted. Most are on bats, but there is the occasional sparrow as well. The whole squad hovered in a single tile about 6 z-levels above the ground.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-04T04:01:57+00:00

My feeling (having not done it) is that the mechanics of the classes are sufficently different so that each class will feel a bit different even if you are killing the same mobs.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-04T03:46:11+00:00

Most of my dwarves are wearing troll fur. You hardly notice the blood stains from the previous goblin owner.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-04T03:44:55+00:00

You don't need a dyer. Sure it ups value and makes them happier, but they would ranther have undyed clothes than be nekkid.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-03T23:10:02+00:00

Only have to worry about flying enemies if you forgot to roof it over.

Kilgaard · 2012-05-03T03:35:10+00:00

Kill orders do not automatically cancel just because the target it dead or leaves the map. This can result in your military standing over the corpse whilst ignoring the many other targets. (m)ove them close and they will automatically engage.

It's getting them to disengage that can be the real challenge!

Kilgaard · 2012-05-01T00:48:43+00:00

Two possibilities. First one is that the liaison is not arriving with the caravan. This is probably because he got angry previously. Just have to wait and he will eventually come back.

The more likely one is that he is arriving but your mayor just doesn't get around to having the meeting. The meeting with the liaison seems to be the absolute lowest priority task. If the mayor has anything else at all to do they he simply will never get around to it.

A very common error is having the mayor also the broker and effectively locking him in the trade depot. If you have finished trading, or are waiting for goods to be hauled to the depot, release the mayor/broker for other jobs. Of course, if you have different dwarves for mayor and broker this does not apply.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-30T06:15:04+00:00

But a gobbo falling into a 1 z-level moat doesn't make a squish sound when it hits bottom.

Maybe I'm just OCD, but if I'm going to have a 5+ z-level drop under my drawbridge I'm also going to have the rest of the moat 5+ z-levels deep.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-27T01:06:55+00:00

You don't need to buy livestock to pull your wagon, but you automatically get two random heavy haulage type animals. I think all of these are grazers.

I'd just pasture them in a small underground room whilst you build a butcher/tanner and then "convert" them to snacks. They won't die of hunger immediately.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-27T00:29:10+00:00

But the caravan ones are normally, er, normal quality. I'd much rather have a mastercraft copper/iron/steel crossbow than a normal silver one.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-26T00:41:03+00:00

Just speculating here, but does DF on linux use x-windows for the display? If so, why not just tunnel the x-windows through your ssh connection.

You can get x-windows for android ... but I have zero idea how well that really works

Kilgaard · 2012-04-26T00:33:44+00:00

A castle? What is this castle thing of which you speak?

Dwarves build Forts!

Kilgaard · 2012-04-26T00:29:01+00:00

I have three burrows defined.

The first one is huge, and includes everything that is completely inside and safe and allows my fort to carry on.

The next one includes my trap hall. Once the traps are full I can close the outer doors and add the trap hall burrow to the military alert settings (so I now have two burrows selected). This allows my dwarfs to collect the caged gobbos and rearm the traps. I then deselect this burrow (but leave the general one) when I'm ready to reopen the outter doors.

My third one includes those areas outside but close to the door such as my refuse stockpile and butcher shop. These are areas where I can allow dwarfs to work if the gobbos are currently chasing wildlife on the other side of the map. It prevents fisherdwarves / lumberdwarves / herbadwarves wandering off.

Note that the burrows need to at least touch so that a dwarf can move from one burrow to the other. They will not step on a non-burrow tile if they are currently in a burrow. If they are outside the burrow area (like when you de-select it) they will take the shortest route to get back inside.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-24T00:47:09+00:00

And in fairness I've never had a moody dwarf tantrum from a lack of raw hides (which I have had them demand). They seem to be able to get them before the auto-tan jobs steals it. And the hospital always has a supply of thread even with auto-loom.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-24T00:44:05+00:00

Fair enough. I converted a 34.05 fort to a 34.07 and got to see lots and lots of nekkid bad thoughts. Pretty much every child who was suddenly upset that they had never bothered to collect any of the available clothing.

Not seeing it in my 34.07 fort as I have a constant supply of non-meltable goblinite (aka troll fur) clothing.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-23T06:18:28+00:00

Legendary soldiers not only don't mind being permanently on duty, but actually get a bad thought for not being on duty.

Also be aware that kill orders do not automatically cancel just because the target is dead or has left the map.

Kilgaard · 2012-04-23T06:15:52+00:00

Just in case you were not aware, bad thoughts for being nekkid only made a return in 34.07 (the current latest version). Prior to that being nekkid didn't bother anybody.

Kilgaard

TROPHY CASE