Undergrotto - 93 Mid Spring by Retro

Map Description:

FOR THE MAIN CAVERN POIs AND VF SCREENIES, CHECK THE 92 MID SPRING MAP. Or a later map, if you're reading this from the future.

After two weeks of solid effort, Undergrotto's second half is fully carved out! For the first time we have the entire cavern visible all at once. Digging took a LONG time - I literally had DF running nonstop (overnight, etc) for 10 days straight to get the cavern dug out, dump all the stone (close to 300k in this batch), and channel the up/down stairs away. Digging took almost exactly a year game-time, from 27th Slate to 9th Slate. Check this video out to see how arduous this process was for me.

The main feature of the upper cavern are the giant hanging stalactites, which double as housing for our industrious dwarves. As you can see, I've yet to furnish and engrave their rooms (not to mention giving them all windows), but the main objective for this update was to get all that earth gone.

Why not head on over to the POIs and take a look around?

I'll try and post VF and Stonesense screenies in the comments later. It's hard to see the stalactites without light coming through the mountain in VF, and I'm having SS technical issues.

Undergrotto's still got two, maybe three significant progress markers left in it, and I want to finish up by the end of February if possible. I still have a lot of projects left to work on, some of which I haven't even started yet, and I really need to get my dwarves into permanent housing. Some of them have been living in temp-res for eleven years now.

Point of Interest: oh elves, you will never learn.

A month prior I dropped their diplomat off the Mountaingate bridge into a gibby mess. Yet they keep coming. The year before I let them go berserk and then trapped them in cages for personal use, but they starved. This time I'll just let the problem deal with itself. - 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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