Coldlake - 1052 Early Summer by tom (again)

Map Description:

let's try this again, with fewer missing z-levels, no?

Point of Interest: The Miraculous Pressure-Neutralizing Pillars

the DFwiki pointed out that a neat way to neutralize pressure in flowing water is to build pillars, causing the horizontal flow to only be diagonal- this somehow abolishes pressure. it seemed to work pretty well in this still lake, though? Perhaps it;s because the area beneath the fort was hollowed out of the ice- when it unfroze, water flowed in through the diagonals and the pressure was neutralized? I'm unsure. i hope it continues to work, or everybody's fucking dead - tom

There are 16 comments for this map series, last post 2013-07-31

Add a Comment

Comments

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-04 to 1052 Early Summer

well for some goddamn reason the z-level with the actual functional building didn't upload. shit

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-04 to 1052 Early Summer

Perfect.

anyway, if anyone is actually reading this (doubtful), i've managed to avoid pressure causing an upwelling into the main building by use of specially-placed pillars on the bottom level- the water pressure is apparently neutralized by diagonal movement along the x-axis. at least in this case, where the area beneath the structure was hollowed out, forcing water to flow in through the diagonals. I'm not sure how it will hold up if the area directly beneath isn't hollowed out. oh well.

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-04 to 1052 Early Summer

i guess i didn't actually explain the premise that well. so here it is:

the lake is in a cold biome. it freezes during the winter/early spring. this allows me to drill down through the ice and assemble structures as if i were building a construction underground.

when the mid-spring thaw hits, the game freezes for ten minutes as everything melts (perhaps the freeze was also uncharacteristically long due to my wagon being on top of the ice- all that shit falling may have contributed to the lag? anyway) and kills everybody that didn't make it inside in time. alas.

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-04 to 1052 Early Summer

another note that pisses me off:

when the lake thaws, there doesn't seem to be any fish. that makes sense, i guess? a pond that freezes solid over the winter isn't likely to sustain a large fish population. but fucking come on, it's looking as if my dwarves now have to add 'starvation' to the already long list of ways they're probably going to die. good thing one of the horses managed to make it inside before the melt. bon apetite i guess

Submitted by: FunkyWaltDogg - 2010-05-04 to 1052 Early Summer

This is a hilariously dwarven execution of that ancient human dream, life at the bottom of the sea. Half your minions died horribly and the other half have an even worse fate awaiting them, slowly starving to death as they idly wait, confined in a space so small they have to deconstruct their only workshop if they want to build a different one, but by Armok they're alive! Well done.

I suggest you create a Point of Interest in your "living area" and set it as default for your map, to make it easier to find and to help your accomplishment receive the recognition it so richly deserves.

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-04 to 1052 Early Summer

thanks! i'll do that. the fortress is expanding nicely- i've added two more rooms. i'm happy with my progress. the fort has only claimed two more reclaiming groups and a few migrant waves- ~30 dwarves. and it looks like my current group is going to starve to death! 8 meat left in mid spring

sadly, my aspirations of agriculture seem to be mistaken- i need to remind my next group of reclaimers to bring mushroom spawns- surface agriculture doesn't seem to work in a building at the bottom of a lake

Submitted by: Retro - 2010-05-04 to 1054 Late Spring

I'll be watching this. You had me at "It's a dry underwater fortress" :P

At first I thought you built that through controlled obsidian casting and cave-ins, then I realized it was a frozen lake. Very clever with the pressure baffles! I imagine if someone drops their pick in the water you're screwed, though.

What have you been doing about strange moods?

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-04 to 1054 Late Spring

the one mood i've had so far was from one of hte immigrant groups. they showed up at the location marked on their maps and were met with nothing but a placid lake. yet they decided to stay. this turned out to be a mistake, as none of them had any picks or axes. they ended up dying of thirst and/or cold. as for the jewelcrafter that went into a mood, he went berserk in early winter as a result of me ignoring him, and chased the survivors around the ice until it melted. he should be around the lake bottom somewhere

i have no fucking clue what i'll do if one of the underwater folks gets a mood. i hope they like building shit out of dwarf bones

Submitted by: FunkyWaltDogg - 2010-05-04 to 1055 Early Spring

I didn't expect more updates so soon! I am in tears here. "Oh God", indeed.

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-05 to 1058 Early Spring

another note: at this depth, the water is crazy, crazy pressurized. the last group in wasn't able to install the hatches in time for the thaw- i paused immediately after the breach and the entire fortress was filled to 7/7 depth

Submitted by: tom - 2010-05-05 to 1058 Early Spring

the weird voids have blocked out a few walls now- i think this is the end of the fortress. sorry :(

Submitted by: Retro - 2010-05-05 to 1058 Early Spring

I'm going to have to favourite this now, if only because this fort is having more fun than I've seen on the DFMA in a while :P

Submitted by: Demonic Spoon - 2010-05-05 to 1058 Early Spring

One of the funnest forts I've seen a while, favourited. This thing is hilarious, here's to more crazy adventures at Coldlake!

Submitted by: FunkyWaltDogg - 2010-05-05 to 1058 Early Spring

That sucks about the black voids. It looks like other players have experienced variations on this bug (see #1008, #1265, and #1671 on the bug tracker); posting a copy of your save (you can upload it to DFFD) could be helpful. This seems to be caused by water in a tile containing a ramp freezing, in case you want to start over and try again.

[Message edited on 2010/05/05 at 03:35 by FunkyWaltDogg]

Submitted by: Todd - 2010-05-05 to 1058 Early Spring

This is a fantastic Idea!

Submitted by: Salmeuk - 2013-07-31 to 1058 Early Spring

ha, this was pretty awesome to read through. Are you going to try another?

I can just imagine the reclaim party arriving on the edge of the frozen lake after a long journey. They would stop, look around, check their maps, look around some more. "Uh, do you mean to tell me. . . they builtunder the ice?"

this fortress had me laughing.

[Message edited on 2013/07/31 at 07:29 by Salmeuk]

Viewer Controls

g

SHIFT + Key doubles keyboard scroll rate.

Problems?

Do you only see a blank space?

Don't have Flash?
You can download the compressed map file: 2010-05/tomagain-Coldlake-region7-1052-11270.fdf-map but you will need the .NET version of SL's DF Map Compressor to convert to the .PNG image format.

Login: