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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 16, 2015 0:57:10 GMT -5
Well, whoops. I removed 3 out of 4 of my miners from their duties, and had one do some exploratory mining deep into the earth. Like a 1-tile up-down stairs until he hits cavern layer. He finally hit one at 103 levels down... right into the maw of a cave dragon. I wasn't exactly haphazard about it as I carefully watched the whole thing while having a squad station down every five levels.
The squad manages to rush down and kill the dragon with no injuries to them. The miner on the other hand, gets a leg and an arm chewed off. Lots of blood loss. Surgeon managed to fix it, and now he requires crutches. On the other hand, he's thirsty, and the medical staff isn't paying him any attention. Don't think he'll make it.
For now I sealed off the stairs with a hatch, as I noticed some haulers trying to haul out body parts of creatures down in the caverns to the refuse stockpile.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 16, 2015 4:57:30 GMT -5
Shame I couldn't butcher the cave dragon for meat. I can probably salvage it's skeleton at least for bones. There's a few creatures down in that cavern that can potentially be a source of food; though once again it's pretty much a matter of owning rather than needing. I can trade for enough meat in the caravans, the problem of a lack of food is non-existent, and even giant cave spider silk can be acquired through trade; masterpiece quality silk cloth can be produced via trading thread and weaving them to cloth. The fact is I want them rare materials: meat, bones, pets, and leather.
So I reckon I'll need to station and stockpile. Refuse stockpile that'll only take corpses of specific features, somewhere around the stairways down the depths. Wheelbarrows used, dwarves assigned only to haul corpses. A butcher's shop next to the stockpile. When it's ready I send the soldiers down to kill everything in sight, then station them there to mop up any new creatures who show up. Then I send my haulers to come collect the bodies with the butcher near the butcher's workshop to get some work done.
Also, the miner survived his ordeal. A little stressed, missing a leg and an arm. He'll spend a while as a hauler while he gets used to walking with a crutch, but it's probably back to mining duty for him later on.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 16, 2015 9:30:43 GMT -5
Hmm, so far I got a sort of system set so far on deep cavern hunting. 10th underground depth, I got the workshops set up in case I want the products I nab from slaughtering creatures deep down below. Stockpiles with wheelbarrows, when I use it I have some haulers whose job is to haul refuse/corpses only with wheelbarrows, so even a 100 floor trip is somewhat manageable. Whatever I kill, I set up that stockpile to accept only the corpse, nothing else. When beasties are killed, and hauled to stockpile, I change the stockpile into a food stockpile, so that decay will slow down - as refuse piles speed it up instead. The butcher who is set on a burrow on that zone, gets to work as fast as he can before rot sets in. There's floor hatches above that floor in case the haulers try to be cute and do something else.
15th depth is the soldier's waiting room. When it's time for them to do their work, they get stationed there. There's floor hatches above and below that floor. Kind of like an airlock room; the one below is locked by default. They go to their station, and the floor up gets locked, and floor below is unlocked, and I send them down.
Works so far. With a bigger population I reckon I can task more dwarves to do hauling there, and perhaps even other work such as logging. Hell, I can do with one more squad - to be more or less be permanently stationed down there. Would be great if there's a command in the game where they will escort another dwarf, as that would seriously decrease the risk of miners getting attacked.
I can probably even set a sort of food chute system. Dig a hole leading straight down to the underground station. Set the starting point of the chute as a dump site, then dump food which will lead straight down to the squad.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 16, 2015 15:06:35 GMT -5
Today I learned that you can decorate goods with as many items as possible, one for each type of gem/metal/bone.
My path is now clear. Decorate a single statue with all the materials present in my fort. Already got a statue, as luck would've had it. A masterpiece aluminum statue, which was a slight stroke of luck. I only made one because there's no aluminum down in the mines, that I know of at least, and I made one to decorate the main dining hall from aluminum bars from trade.
Gonna ask for all the gems possible to be traded for, and encrust that statue. The I move on to using stones and unrefined ore as well. The I'll stud it with all the possible metals I have... sadly platinum is excluded as there's none in the mines and caravans. Then, even though it adds a tiny value, I'll decorate it with bone as well.
Hrmmm, on the other hand, the content's of the statue is a little iffy. It's one of the fort's dwarves and a masterpiece marble pot that he made. Now, while that's nice and all, marble being a core element in the fort, a better statue design would be a statue that depicts the foundation of the fort.
Now I don't really need aluminum to trade away, but the aluminum I trade for is somewhat scarce, so it's a real long shot to get a statue that's both masterpiece quality and depicts the foundation of the fort. And, if I am to be somewhat obsessive about it, as aluminum is not native to the fort, it would be slightly iffy to use a foreign material (not counting all the foreign decor I'll be using on it). Marble is way too low a value. Iron works as I have some in small supply. Steel is even better, somewhat less than iron as I need iron to make steel, but still a lot more than aluminum. Value's not as hot as aluminum, though... but it steel does use marble for the creation of it.
So yeah. Military supplies is set up already, so I'll just use the excess steel that I've been building up in hopes of creating the right statue I want to represent my fort.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 17, 2015 4:59:32 GMT -5
It is almost done. It took 19 steel statues made before the 20th one produced the masterpiece steel dwarf statue that I wanted. A statue of dwarves laboring that depicts the founding of the fort. There was another one before, also masterpiece, and also depicting the foundation of the fort, but it shows the dwarves traveling which wasn't the one I wanted. So all in all it took 60 steel bars, about 2/3rds of my current supply.
It has been encrusted with all types of gems that I had on hand, and studded with one type of metal each, except for a few things. Steel was one of the metals that can't be used, as the statue was steel and the same type of metal can't be studded for some reason. Platinum was another as caravans don't have them and my fort doesn't have any native in the area. For the same reason as platinum, there's also tin and one or two other low value metals.
For metals you can only stud a type of metal only once. Gems I'm not sure since I'm kinda certain that I encrusted it with a type of gem more than once; perhaps maybe because of the different cut of gem. So far it's been studded with top level value gems I got from caravan trade, and gems that were native to the fort. Once the human and dwarven caravans show up I'll request all the gems they have available, even the low value ones, to further layer gem upon gem into the statue.
Right now I'm training, or hoping for a migrant, that will be legendary skill in bone carving, so I can further add bones to decorate the statue. During decorating, there's a chance that the decoration will have an image added in the design.
My intention is to make sure that every damn piece of history be decorated in this statue.
So far, the masterpiece steel statue has a base value of 12k, if I recall. Current value of the pimped out statue is at 75k - at the level of some decent artifacts that uses mid-value materials.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 17, 2015 5:39:18 GMT -5
Next project is to probably set up several cage traps on cavern layers. Lots of rare beasts to catch there. Best way is to probably station the military down there while the mechanics load up the cage traps. I'll have to forbid the severed body parts of cave animals that was left behind on previous hunting expeditions, otherwise the haulers will wander down there and risk getting attacked.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 17, 2015 10:09:57 GMT -5
Project finished. Was easier than expected thanks to a number of preparations. Firstly, I had set up stockpiles that held wooden cages and the mechanisms needed for cage traps around the airlock gate. Then I gave all haulers the mechanic labor to quickly set up traps en masse. With the soldiers stationed down there... and the hatches to the living area sealed shut, everything got done in a couple of months.
Wooden cages are pretty light to carry... but it's probably gonna be hell to carry them back up once there's creatures in the cages.
Chained one tortoise to act as a lure to underground creatures.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 18, 2015 6:21:29 GMT -5
SCORE! SCORE! SCORESCORESCORE!
The underground cage traps paid off. Caught a female cave dragon. They're smaller and weaker than regular dragons, and don't breathe fire, but they're still powerful enough - the one that nearly killed one of my miners had apparently killed some cave ogres before with hardly any effort, judging from the mangled ogre corpses I found.
Now all I need is to hope for a male cave dragon to show up, and I can start a breeding program of tame cave dragons... that can be trained for war. According to the wiki, they lay around 1-3 eggs per time, and with an immortal lifespan I can wait and wait until I find a male one to give me all the dragons I want, for pets, or meat, and bones.
Also, one other part of the caught cave dragons not being as effective as I might expect is their size. They take 1000 years to reach full adult size, so the ones I catch right now is basically an adult, but small as it's been only 70 years since the world has been made. Still a moot point because DRAGONS! DRAGONS! DRAGONS!
I'll sacrifice the sentient creatures I caught in cage traps in hopes that Armok might be pleased enough to lead a male cave dragon to my underground caverns.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 18, 2015 8:39:33 GMT -5
In other more mundane, less cave dragon related news, the giant louse breeding program has reached its end. Last batch of births had only females, and the last male is dead. Rather than risking finding a male to continue the breeding program, all giant lice have been butchered.
Aside from cave dragons, the cage traps caught a full pack of 15 crundles. They're pretty much butcherable imp-like creatures. Low value pets, same worth as common animals. They lay eggs, but instead of a breeding program to produce more crundles my plan is to have them lay eggs for a more diverse food supply. Elk birds have been caught as well. Underground bird, and while I can set up a breeding program it will be hard as they're also grazers. A mother that lays eggs can't be removed from the nest box, but they need a grass tile to eat... so there's a problem right there. I could set them up at the very least to lay eggs for food, perhaps.
As for above ground creatures, I still haven't caught a female giant wren for a breeding program. I did get a pair of giant armadillos, which so far have produced two pups.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 18, 2015 10:54:53 GMT -5
Caught a couple of new beasts underground. Another set of crundles. They give a decent amount of meat and whatnot, but no hides for tanning. Far from the amount of meat I get from one rhino, but due to their numbers it makes up for it. Set aside four females and one male for egg-laying. One set of eggs is kept away from haulers, for hatching purposes. The rest of the eggs from the three females go straight to the stockpile.
Caught one troll as well. Can't be butchered nor trained, so overall useless. Could be usable as live training for dwarves, or I can give an attempt at dismembering it via the death tower. I reckon I'll let it stew for a while. If I ever get the cave dragon breeding program off the ground, then the troll and future others like it will be practice for the cave dragons.
Now, for the better ones. Caught 3 rutherers, one male and two females. They're pretty much an underground equivalent of a rhino. Same size, but no trainable for war or hunting. On the other hand, they're not grazers so I can keep one chained up and they won't starve to death. They age as the same rate as rhinos, but I reckon a breeding program will be worth it.
Also caught one female jabberer. Giant underground bird. Really giant. No wings, no flight, but size is almost the same as an elephant. Lays 2 eggs at most, but reaches adulthood in one year and full size in two. Even if they can't be trained for war, they can still be deadly due to size and beak.
I am having far more fun in raising creatures instead of mining for metals.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 18, 2015 20:00:53 GMT -5
Always seems to happen right now:
-Mop up underground creatures not captured with cages. -After killing the above creatures, send down haulers and mechanics to haul animals/load cage traps. -New set of animals appear to bother my haulers and mechanics.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 18, 2015 20:15:27 GMT -5
Second cave dragon, hell yeah! Another female, but still good. More dragons is better. It seems to home in towards my base/tortoise lure, so capturing is easy thanks to having set up cages to that narrow path to the tortoise.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 18, 2015 23:58:57 GMT -5
Learnt how to do patrols as now I divided my military so there would be a squad underground to patrol the area for hostile beasts. Furthermore, set up an animal stockpile on the floor above the underground cage trap zone, as with some training having a hauler drag an animal to another cage on the main living hub is a lot faster than trying to lug a cage with a bird the size of an elephant 100 floors up.
In general, I have the squad training on the stockpile floor, as it's better for them to do patrols when the workers are hauling/training animals. Having them on patrol risks them killing creatures, which is less profitable.
Also, a child dwarf reached adult age at 12 one and a half in-game year ago. Due to his good attributes I drafted him into the military as a speardwarf. He's still far from legendary skill, but has a total of 33 kills and has reached the state "doesn't care anymore" which minimizes negative thoughts from killing.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 19, 2015 6:31:31 GMT -5
No cave dragon yet, but soon enough it'll happen. Been catching a number of other creatures as well. Cave blobs, creeping eyes, flesh balls, mud men ... all immortal, and can't be trained. Some of them can be butchered, but since they're non-trainable the only way for a butcher to touch them is to kill it via other means like soldiers and get the butcher to drag their corpse to the workshop. Since I'm not short on meat, I'm trapping these in individual cages of gold and making a zoo. There's also trolls, gorlaks, and reachers... same deal, can't be butchered, but not immortal. The reacher can only live for a maximum of 40 years, while the gorlak is around 100, while the troll can live up to 1000, so they're part of the zoo of the strange and interesting.
Now, for the breeding program. Giant tortoises are now for egg-laying, non-hatching production now. Same with the crundles, as both creatures doesn't have a snazzy return in meat products. Egg laying goes to jabberers - like seriously they seem to be the largest birds, around ten times the size of regular giant birds. There's also a pair of giant wren where I finally found a female. For non-egg layers, got bugbats, rutherers, voracious cave crawlers.
Oh, and the cave dragons are on egg-laying duty, I guess. While there's no male for fertilized eggs, they still hatch unfertilized ones, so might as well make use of those.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 19, 2015 10:50:13 GMT -5
Well, now. A dwarf had a strange mood and took over a jeweler's workshop. Just a very short while later he starts his construction, and all he asked for was one cut gem. Due to forbidding cut gems in advance to make way for only the top value diamonds to be used, he used a black diamond. Still, I'm thinking with just one material the value of the artifact won't be by much.
Then he goes off and creates a statue out of it. Like he didn't ask for any other materials, just one cut black diamond. Original worth of the cut gem is 300, weight value is less than one... and somehow the black diamond statue weighs 221, and is worth 252k, depicting a hydra biting off the fingers of a human. Correction, just one finger.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 19, 2015 13:02:03 GMT -5
Almost 100 different cut gems, about 20 cut stone/ore, studded with all available metals (lacking in tin, platinum, and adamantine, plus steel as that's the base material of the statue), and decorated with all the bones, horns, teeth, and shells I have. Statue V2 has been created. 10 times the base price... though honestly the studded metals and especially the bones didn't boost up the price as much as the pile of gems.
It's the crowning, non-artifact glory of my fort. As for the rest of the gems... I have no idea. Gem windows can be made, but what I'd rather have is gem floors.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 20, 2015 0:03:15 GMT -5
The zoos are overflowing. I have one cage for each type of untameable, or useless, underground creature. Got like 10 trolls slummed up in one cage, which in fairness is made of gold. New additions include the blood man, somewhat like the mud man and not as cool (or dangerous) as the fire man and magma man, which I haven't encountered yet. There's also the plump helmet mat, who's a mushroom man of the most common crop in the game, but the mushroom men ain't edible.
Things are well. Jabberers are giving birth, so are the rutherers. Since they don't lay a lot of eggs per laying, managing the newborns are easy. Set them to a pasture and wait for the trainer to tame the newborns, then send them off to the butcher's cage.
Oh. Also I caught a MALE CAVE DRAGON! HUZZAH! THE AGE OF THE CAVE DRAGON HAS ARRIVED!
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 20, 2015 3:30:30 GMT -5
Now that I got the male cave dragon to start a breeding program, I'll probably keep the deep caverns locked for longer periods of time, as I don't need to make sure that the cages are loaded at all times for capturing a cave dragon. Other underground creatures that I have caught are laying eggs and giving birth to children, so that one industry is secure.
Time for me to look towards other industries. Dyeing would be nice. Got a crop seeds that can be turned into dye, though I need more manpower. I finally figured out how to set waterwheels and machinery to have a series of waterwheels aboveground to transmit power to a millstone underground, which makes faster work than a dwarf-powered quern. I'll need one extra miller to man a second millstone though, as one dwarf ain't enough to mill all the plant. My second largest crop that can be milled to flour, is at around 1.5k units, and another crop that can be milled is at 3k. To go through all that backlog, I need one or even two more.
Once I set that up I can then maybe start a dye industry for better value cloth. On the other hand, I also need manpower for my thread makers. Got two dwarfs processing other crops to thread, and they're also somewhat undermanned. Can't really tell. I got weavers making cloth as well, mostly plant while silk and yarn thread are acquired via caravans. My clothier is currently inactive, as about four in-game years ago I accidentally requested the human caravan to bring all the different types of leather they have, and my leatherworker is still not finished on clearing them all out.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 20, 2015 9:17:41 GMT -5
Yes, YESSSSSSSSS... one cave dragon laid two eggs, and 3 months later, two males hatched. Yesssssssss. A month after that cave dragon laid eggs, the other female also laid eggs so I might soon get some more.
As for those two males... I really only need one. In general, I'll set up the breeding area like this:
NDN DDD NDN
Central D is one male cave dragon chained there, and the other Ds are the females, also chained. The Ns are nest boxes. I suppose I can replaced the first male with one of the new males; as when those get trained they become tame. I only have two trained females, but those can be replaced by tame females as well. But for now, I think I plan to keep the caught ones and have them breed for years to come. It's not that hard to train newborns to tame status. Takes a while but it'll keep the trainer busy.
So, for those two males, I might have one be another male among females in a second breeding area. The other one once it's tame... definitely war dragon training. Takes them 1000 years to reach full size, but even small it's a cave dragon. Once I set up a bigger breeding program excess males and females will be caged to be butchered after a few years.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Oct 20, 2015 12:19:53 GMT -5
Hmm, not sure if the cave dragon can be fully tamed, even the offspring. Like it seems for animal children to reach tame status, they have to be... well, in children status. Cave dragons hatch as adults, albeit small, and I'm finding the same problem for a large amount of offspring my voracious cave crawlers are bringing as those are also born as small adults.
Still, who knows? Maybe they will get tamed. Whatever happens, I'll have a swarm of cave dragon children, either stuffed in cages or as war animals. The skill of my animal trainer is already at legendary, so the training he gives lasts for a long ass time. Trained or tame, I'm still going with my cave dragon industry and cave dragon army. Either glory or doom.
Just to be safe, once one of the useless dwarven children reach maturity I'll set them up for an animal training job, in case the main trainer kicks the bucket.
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