Undergrotto - 88 Early Autumn by Retro

Map Description:

It's been a few years and the digging for the main cavern is done. I've yet to collapse it; I created a second folder and tried it, and I lost all my ramps. Sure, I could build more in their place, but having them actually visible as natural ramps is important for me so they look organic in the visualizer.

Also finally found the cave river; the bottom layer shown here is four Zs from the bottom of the map, and the cave river resides on the Z-level up for the very bottom. It's very short, very well-hidden, and it was VERY lucky that as I began exploratory mining, I almost immediately dug into the far side of the chasm, exposing the thing without risk of the riverlings pouring out after me. Since then, I've drained it, captured both Giant Olms (not a breeding pair, shame), and sent my military in to mop up the rest. There's... a lot of gore. The seven samurai are legendary in every military skill except crossbows at this point, which I'm switching them to shortly.

Anyhow. This upload is mostly for the sake of seeing where all my ramps are to help me dig away above them. I'm going to have to channel out EVERY SINGLE SQUARE above each ramp on every floor to make sure they don't get destroyed. Yeesh. This one could take a while... of course, I also have to do the same to the uppermost layers when I collapse THEM down. I'm thinking about not digging out the layer immediately above my current temp ceiling, collapsing everything above onto it, and then channelling it away in the 'traditional' way so as to not worry about collapsing anything else.

Oy vey, what a project.

If you look carefully at where the ramps are, you can KIND of see where the collapsed area is going to be. But again, this upload (and long ramble) are for my own benefit. Once I start the actual collapsing and rebuilding of the grotto, it'll start to be visibly cool. Woo.

Point of Interest: Widest view

I think this shot shows the best judge of Undergrotto's size. It extends a bit at the NE and SE corners higher up, but you can't see the Industrial Plaza (the gear-shaped area) from there. - Retro

There are 15 comments for this map series, last post 2010-03-13

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Comments

Submitted by: ajr_ - 2009-11-13 to 85 Mid Autumn

Looks great. The yard is ugly though. It's great you've gound such a great graphics tileset.

Submitted by: Retro - 2009-11-15 to 86 Early Autumn

I totally agree - it's an awful yard. Again, it's temporary (thank gods) so once I finish the diggin' and get permanent places for things underground, I'll be able to finally take remove that mess.

Submitted by: Doomshifter - 2009-12-03 to 89 Late Spring

This place is AMAZING! May I request that you share the save on DFFD? I'd really like to take a better look with vis-fort. I wonder what it'd look like on Stonesense?

Submitted by: Retro - 2009-12-03 to 89 Late Spring

Why thank you! Since I don't think anyone's done anything quite like this before (in terms of sheer terraforming and natural cavern shaping), I'm expecting to post a topic in the forums with a buttload of information, screenshots (in VF as well as Stonesense - the fort's designed for viewing in visualizers, actually, so it's quite cool), and the save - but not until I'm completely done. I've got quite a vision ahead of me still, and I'm only a month or so into the project thus far.

I suggest reading through older map POIs if you haven't already. I enjoy detailing my fort, so there's quite a lot of information there!

Submitted by: Henman - 2009-12-12 to 92 Mid Spring

I am amazed by the scale of this project!

Submitted by: Lord Dullard - 2009-12-14 to 92 Mid Spring

Quite impressive! You have a very imaginative way of constructing things.

+Fav.

Submitted by: Markavian - 2009-12-17 to 92 Mid Spring

Excellent undergrotto, visionary stuff :)

/req stonesense pictures as well, if they turn out good!

Submitted by: Retro - 2009-12-17 to 92 Mid Spring

I've done some looking around in Stonesense, but what with the colours all being the same, I didn't take any screenies. The new version just came out today, though, so I'm going to take a look-see in that later tonight and edit some screenies into this comment.

ed- screenies are here.

Thanks again for all the positive comments. I won't be able to use DF for a while thanks to exams then festivities, but the next time I upload a map, I'll be sure to make the blurb at the top smaller. In hindsight, it's a huge pain to scroll up then down every time you change POIs.

[Message edited on 2009/12/21 at 01:55 by Retro]

Submitted by: Silfurdreki - 2010-01-16 to 92 Mid Spring

Beautiful map!

I really like the way it's made to look good for dwarves, doing something like that takes some skill at visualising just what you're building and seeing the potential in unshaped landscapes. This is usually the way I try to build my own fortesses, and as such I think this is exceedingly beautiful, way better than any fort I've ever made.

I especially like the way the entrance snakes its way from the surface into the cavern via the trade depot on top of the huge pillar thingie.

Submitted by: Markavian - 2010-01-19 to 92 Mid Spring

Retro- yeah, wow! The undergrotto looks fantastic in stonesense. The variety and colour presented really does it justice.

Submitted by: Retro - 2010-01-22 to 92 Mid Spring

Thanks for the positive feedback guys!

I've been working on a community fort since late December, mostly to give myself a break and work on my writing, but I think in February I'm gonna take the month to get back to it and finish up the stalagtite housing districts and jail stuff I had in mind. And maybe build that boat in the drydock I wanted, too. Oh, and the palace where residential housing currently is. Yeah, lots to do still.

@Silfurdreki- Yeah, although the insane path to actually access the grotto is pretty nice, it takes like 10 days for traders to arrive. They don't have much trading time left when they get there, so you gotta have everything at the depot already. I really enjoy your style as well (at least, Silverwaters, which is the only fort of yours I've seen). Team up for something someday? :P

(removed the save that was posted here earlier; gonna wait until I've got a finished fort)

[Message edited on 2010/02/23 at 10:16 by Retro]

Submitted by: Silfurdreki - 2010-01-29 to 92 Mid Spring

Actually, teaming up for something someday would be really cool. It could be potentially become Pure Awesomeness

:P

Submitted by: Retro - 2010-02-10 to 93 Mid Spring

Sounds great, I'll drop you a line when the new version's out. I got an idea for a partner-based contest that I think would be pretty cool.

Also, uploaded some more VF screenies here. Stalactites are visible. Check 'em out!

Submitted by: Tiogshi - 2010-02-12 to 92 Mid Spring

Sure puts my vertical carving project, a fully smoothed and engraved castle carved of natural stone, to shame. I shall obviously have to try harder. :)

Submitted by: Demonic Spoon - 2010-03-13 to 96 Mid Autumn

Amazing fortress, awesome in every detail. You deserve a medal. Also, why do you insist upon calling the shrine to armok modest and small and simple the whole time, I found that rather amusing. Also, love the mystery chair in the pool beneath the lighthouse, the graveyard is awesome, the throne room impressive, the boat humorous, the grotto awe-inspiring and the cage over the trade depot made me laugh.

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