Inkflew returns! After careful planning, a military order was posted across the fortress: "All dwarves to report to statue garden for military standing on the spot duty".
After a bit of running around, picking up equipment and retiring to sleep... all dwarves eventually assembled, and the nobles did the duty of flooding the north and south channels. Life in the fortress could resume, safe in the knowledge that they were protected from future sieges... for the time being.
If I am to keep this fortress successful I must forge onwards deeper into the mountain. A source of heat must be located in order to start a sustainable metal industry, as there is no where near enough wood available to serve the hungy forges and smelters at the front of the fort.
I plan to route magma up from deep within the mountain out to cave river and set up smelters and workshops along its edge. - Markavian
There are 41 comments for this map series, last post 2007-11-02
Inkflew
SHIFT + Key doubles keyboard scroll rate.
Don't have Flash?
You can download the compressed map file:
inkflew-5-1063-1524-spring.fdf-map
but you will need the .NET version of
SL's DF Map Compressor
to convert to the .PNG image format.
Submitted by: Arehandai - 2007-06-11 to 1057 Early Summer
I've decided I am a fan of the tileset you've got there. Got a name or link?
Since I should comment on the map too, I always try to make the pre-river bit my military wing, but can't think of enough stuff to put there. What do you tend to put before the river?
Submitted by: Arehandai - 2007-06-13 to 1058 Early Summer
Missed you on your first upload of this fortress, here it is again:
I've decided I am a fan of the tileset you've got there. Got a name or link?
Since I should comment on the map too, I always try to make the pre-river bit my military wing, but can't think of enough stuff to put there. What do you tend to put before the river?
Submitted by: Arehandai - 2007-06-13 to 1058 Early Winter
ACK. Markavian, check the comments on your last two uploads. (sorry)
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-06-14 to 1058 Early Summer
Hi Arehandai,
Here's the link to my tileset:
http://mkv25.net/showcase/df/mkv_curses_960x300.png
Displayed here:
MKV Curses 960x300 Tileset
RE: The fortress layout, I tend to put a starting fort before the river, and then abandon it for storage later on. There's normally a big siege trap / grand entrance (still working on that). On another fort I put all the noble offices at the front of the fortress 'out of the way'.
I'm not quite sure what to do with all the space at the moment, I'm not planning on building housing, so maybe just more workshops, maybe some offices for nobles.
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-06-14 to 1058 Early Winter
Checked! I responded, see Inkflew - 1058 Winter. As for this map, I've started building some tunnels around the outside so that I can divert water from the river out around the map.
Submitted by: Genuine - 2007-06-16 to 1059 Early Winter
I never noticed the color difference between a flooded channel and flooded non-channel tile before. Nice touch and I really like it.
Submitted by: JellyfishGreen - 2007-06-20 to 1059 Early Summer
I continue to admire your room tiling pattern.
Submitted by: Cross Quantum - 2007-06-20 to 1059 Early Summer
Your bridge designs are very interesting. Do they help with flooded-over dwarves any or are they purely ornamental?
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-06-21 to 1059 Early Summer
JellyfishGreen, and the the tiling pattern continues to expand!
Cross Quantum, the bridges will eventually cover up all* of the river. Reducing the river gaps to 2 or 1 tiles vastly improves the chances of a dwarf finding their way back to a bridge or dry land when they go swimming. The pattern is designed to match the overall fortress pattern, so later when I fill in the gaps, all the bridges will join up.
*almost all, need gaps for mills.
Submitted by: Vinic - 2007-06-25 to 1061 Early Winter
I could never use your geometric layout because it would drive me insane, but it looks like it's pretty damn quick for the little hairy midgets to use.
I was straight copying your moat up until i noticed your channels going around the bridges *through* the river. How did you do that? Can you dig out channels while the water's frozen or something?
Also I am just plain fascinated by the anti-flood loops. I have no idea how those things work.
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-06-25 to 1061 Early Winter
Hi Vinic, its pretty easy laying out the pattern, you can quickly tell when you get a tile wrong... its main purpose is 'efficient use of space'.
Frozen river! You can dig it out and turn it into a channel. If you look at the earlier screenshots, the channel system was a bit flawed because beasties could cross the river during winter, leaving gaping holes in the defense.
Anit-flood loop, its not that complicated, it just involves some clever lever timings. Its like a racetrack to watch once the first floodgate is closed... "was the second floodgate closed soon enough?". I think building it using channels, like on this map, is neater because I can bridge over the channel tiles, but water travels twice as fast along channels, so you need twice the distance inorder to be able to switch the levers in time.
Submitted by: Gaulgath - 2007-07-09 to 1062 Early Summer
Wow, 1062 and no magma? Any particular reason for avoiding it?
Submitted by: Anxiety - 2007-07-10 to 1062 Early Summer
Neat! Probably not the most efficient layout, but still cool. I like what you've done with the outdoors in particular.
Also, what tileset is that?
Submitted by: rewolf31 - 2007-07-10 to 1062 Early Summer
Crazy Layout! Looks cool!
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-07-22 to 1062 Early Summer
Thanks! I don't know about efficiency... allows for minimum route distance between all points, all that's important is the closeness of the related workshops. I'm trying to shift the brewing to the east bank and cooking and foodstuffs to the west bank. That might all change as I continue with the fort.
Gaulgath, no chasm either! I'll... I'm... getting there. I'll need to soon if the goblins keep sieging me. I'll probably be a sneaky dwarf and set up magma forges near the front of my fort with a bit of fiddling after running a magma channel down from the fissure.
I'm actually scared of hitting the chasm incase I hit lots of nasty monsters, so I need to reflood the outside and get my defences in order before pressing deeper into the mountain.
Submitted by: Anxiety - 2007-07-22 to 1062 Early Summer
By setting up magma forges near the front, you mean cheating, right? Via the "magma channel to magma river" utility or something? Channels aren't usable for buildings right now (though they should be in the next version).
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-07-22 to 1062 Early Summer
Anxiety, thats exactly right. I did it in a previous fort, Clear Constructs, and I found it an incredibly efficient way of getting rid of the damned ore that was littering the front end of my fortress.
Submitted by: Yvain - 2007-08-05 to 1062 Early Summer
What is the spiral channel structure at the northern edge of the fortress?
Submitted by: matryx - 2007-08-09 to 1062 Early Summer
I'm curious about the history pillars. How are they made, and how do you engrave them? Are they just supports or is there something more to it?
Submitted by: Sparky - 2007-08-12 to 1061 Early Winter
To what end? I've never gotten into the midgame, so I'm not sure what the fandangled anti-flood channels do. And I'm SO adopting this tesselating layout.
Submitted by: Sparky - 2007-08-12 to 1062 Early Summer
Why the hopscotch bridges? (am I reading those right?)
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-08-20 to 1062 Early Summer
Hey matryx, the pillars outside are a complete cheat... I used granite.exe to create blocks outside. The grey ones (left) are double engraved, while the green ones (right) are single engraved ready for future years.
Yvain, the spiral area is a statue garden. It was a test of an entrance design I came up with that used a spiral to create a long path, which could be bridged to form a short path into the fortress. I already had a front gate though when I came up with the idea so I built it elsewhere.
Sparky, the hopscotch bridges are just a convinient way to use up stone and train up architects/masons. The pattern is designed to be interlocking, so if I want to cover the whole river and make it look neat I can.
Submitted by: Bingbing - 2007-08-31 to 1063 Early Summer
You mean my fort. That, plus I don't see how a flooder and a ballista have anything to do with each other. Oh yeah, you should start having a dying operation to fit the name.
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-09-01 to 1063 Early Summer
Flooders and ballistas are a means to an end, they both execute designated dwarves. I'm not sure I want to start a mass-dye operation, I've got a cloth/thread dying area set up next to the river north of centre, but don't really see the use. My plans scale further then a mere name!
BingBing, I updated the PoI to link to your fort... I do admit yours is much better/gruesome then mine.
[Message edited on 2007/09/01 at 02:57 by Markavian]
Submitted by: Tairnyn - 2007-09-05 to 1064 Early Autumn
Very nice design. I love the recursive squares and attention to detail to create symmetry. Le art!
I feel your pain reagrding the siege complications. Notihng is worse than watching an army of non-combat dwarves throw themselves at the enemy to pick up some leather armor they dropped.
Submitted by: schm0 - 2007-09-05 to 1064 Early Autumn
How are your outer moats at defending against seiges?
And how well do your catapults work against them?
Submitted by: schm0 - 2007-09-05 to 1065 Early Spring
Is that the Pokemon Center being built? Or perhaps an Easter Egg factory? :P
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-09-05 to 1064 Early Autumn
Thanks Tairnyn, it reminds me of dungeon quests of old, where all the rooms looked identical, except for the positions of the door... I loved the way they created mazes wrapping the player around a map to make maximum use of space.
I've had worse seiges, I'd rather get pesant replacements though, not nobles!
schm0, the outer moats are there to force through the north and south entrances, while providing an 'outdoors' zone where I can dump refuse and harvest plants/trees if need be. The catapults were useless. The range seemed pretty random, and the timing is really difficult. I think ballistas aimed squarely at advancing goblins is the way to go, will probably make some changes to the defenses in due time.
Submitted by: GauHelldragon - 2007-09-06 to 1065 Early Spring
Where are the levers!?!
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-09-06 to 1065 Early Spring
The levers? :) They're all over the place! The easiest to find are the three just inside the main barracks at the front of the fortress on the west wall. Three in a vertical row, the top floods the north channel, the bottom floods the south, the middle closes the front two gates... there are separate levers for the side gates infront of the stockpiles.
The levers controlling the farm irrigation are just near the floodgates. Just east of the cave river, north of where the channels meet the water are two levers controlling the two floodgates. Lots of steam there at the moment.
At the rear of the fort, there is a double smoothed control room with various levers for controlling the floodgates near the magma.
Submitted by: Savok - 2007-09-20 to 1061 Early Winter
What color set does this use?
Submitted by: Gryffydd - 2007-10-12 to 1065 Mid Autumn
It's driving me mad... How did you run your channels right across the river like that?
Submitted by: Savok - 2007-10-12 to 1065 Mid Autumn
I don't see any channels that run over the river.
Submitted by: Gryffydd - 2007-10-13 to 1065 Mid Autumn
Look at 1059 Early Summer and 1062 Early Summer... You can clearly see channels crossing the river... Unless I'm totally misreading it which is entirely possible...
Submitted by: Savok - 2007-10-13 to 1065 Mid Autumn
I can't find any. Would you make a POI?
Submitted by: Gryffydd - 2007-10-14 to 1065 Mid Autumn
Added one to 1059 Early Summer.
If you look in the same place in 1062 Early Summer, you'll see that there's yet another channel across, just no longer between the statues..
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-10-14 to 1065 Mid Autumn
Gryffydd, the channels across the river were made during winter... when... the river was frozen. Random, simple, but it works!
Submitted by: Gryffydd - 2007-10-14 to 1065 Mid Autumn
Ah... That would explain it... too bad I'm on a warm site at present (The plus being I can fish in winter...)
Submitted by: Savok - 2007-10-14 to 1065 Mid Autumn
Oh, the outdoor river. Yes, you can run channels across it when it is frozen.
A glacier counts as a giant frozen river.
Submitted by: Darkie - 2007-11-01 to 1060 Early Summer
that is one hell of a big flood... man that seems bigger than a lake
Submitted by: Markavian - 2007-11-02 to 1060 Early Summer
Yes, it was a thorn in my side for quite some time! Where did all that water come from.