Simple, effective, food is found both by the dining hall and sleeping quarters

Looking over our living arrangements, I quickly realize that the planners of this place had not listened to the Dwarven Philosopher ThunderClaw’s Treatise on Decentralized Living.  It was time to educate them.  I quickly set down a bold new plan to deal with Barracks and Dining for our few remaining troops.  Additionally, I order the masons to pave over the stairs to the “Under Dark.”  That’s a headache for another Dwarf.

One Lazy Sod who can't figure out if he's a Craftsdwarf or a Farmer

Looking for my good-for-nothing masons, I quickly realize that there is no division of labor.  Jobs seem to be assigned willy-nilly.  Enough of that.  I lay down my first decree: One Dwarf, One Profession.  It’s time to clean up the lazy sods who try to get away with doing nothing by having 5 jobs.

Now our Fort had taken a lot of losses lately, so there wasn’t time to worry about fancy things like Clothes and Crafts. We need to focus on the basics: Masons, Miners, Carpenters, Woodsdwarves, and Farmers.  We get those nailed away, and I’ll start worrying about things like trinkets for the humans.

Almost immediately, idlers drop to our remaining noble.  One I can stand, any more and I might have to arrange a fortunate accident…

What’s more, our military is low.  Now I don’t have the manpower to train up new dwarves, so we’re going to take on a policy of isolationism.  That means gates and paving over caves.  I’m also going to see if some of these sods know which end of an Axe to hold.  The way I see it, even if they don’t, things’ll still improve.

26th of Granite 1055

I took the time to lay out our new living arrangements while on break.  Even on break, a dwarf should work hard.  I like how they came out, dining halls and all.  Even left a room in there for useless dwarves.

A Pick makes a good Pen in Dwarven Hands

In the mean time, I’ve got to get my boot on the dwarves that are supposed to be constructing this gate of mine.

21st of Slate

While construction on the new living quarters began nicely, we soon realized that it was dug into the side of an underground cave.  A quick wall and relocating and construction is back underway.  Unfortunately, I notice that our resident mason seems to have gone missing.  Turns out that while paving over stairs, he accidentally trapped himself underground.  Construction is halted while we go dig him out.  This soon leads to the discovery that our other mason has similarly trapped himself.  You’d think they’d learn?

Migrants arrive despite the danger.  The fools.  It seems that rumors of our wealth have spread very wide and 18 new dwarves join us; none are worth mentioning, but it seems we do have a plethora of Masons and Engravers.  Perhaps I can recall those diggers now… ach, better not.  Shouldn’t waste a dwarf.  What’s more, by the looks of it, this batch of Masons isn’t any smarter than the last.  One’s already walled himself into a corner.  On the plus side, it seems our army is about to be bolstered in size.

Ducim, Cerol, Kogsak, Sibrek; welcome to the Tongs of Gold.  Goden, Lolor; you’re in the Whips of Craft.  Welcome to the suck.  As of today I am instituting a new military schedule: 6 months out of the year the Tongs will patrol and the Whips will train.  The other six months they’ll switch.  None of this part-time tree dung; you are full time Soldiers now.  My father was a Soldier back in 40d; had one arm because they didn’t have Surgeons back then.  If he did it, you can.

Good.  Seems the threat of full time military duty is starting to whip some of these men into shape.  Only 3 idlers.  Let’s go see what their problem is, my boot is getting hungry for dwarf beard.

27th of Felsite

An ambush of over a dozen goblins appear.  They quickly kill a Woodsman and nearby Kitten before falling prey to our Trap army.  At first, it seems excessive to have so many traps, but as new waves of goblins move to reinforce, it quickly becomes clear why there are so many.  As the third wave breaks through, it quickly sets in on elven traders (who I had left out in the cold because… well… they’re elves).  Seeing the problem quickly resolve itself, I activate the military to safeguard the fort.  Fortunately, the neverending trap army prevents the remainder of the Goblins from breaking through.  I think one of the horses went mad, but it’s hard to tell since horses are pretty stupid.

Funeral rites are held for Zefon the Cat.  I rummage through Erith Erithdatan’s clothes for that nugget of silver he owed me.

The remaining elves form a delegation to negotiate.  Funny how an Axe swings just like a Pick.

Negotiations are quickly put on hold as Goden is possessed.  He navigates the twisting hallways (who designed this place?) before finally coming to rest at a Craftsdwarf’s shop.

18th of Hematite

More migrants!?!  When I started there were only 33 of us left, now there are 58.  We’re not back up to full strength yet, but it’s a step in the right direction.

15th of Sandstone

The new apartments are complete, so I’ve started assigning rooms.  Soldiers and Miners first!  They’re much more spacious than our old rooms and it’s good to have a place to call my own.  I’ve drawn up plans for two more apartment complexes to fill our new Migrants, but we’re short on wood.  I’m going to have to assign some more Woodcutters and Engravers.  Got to get this place up to spec.

Goden starved to death because of his possession, but I’m going to need to take another look at our food production.  I also took a look at some of our more useless dwarves and I noticed that the Mayor has two rooms!  What is going on with this guy?  He’ll probably want whatever Ducim produces.  Oh, forgot to mention Ducim was taken by a fey mood.  What is with Soldiers and moods?

I also started laying out some new areas for work shops and supplies.  This spreading everything everywhere stuff has got to end.  Sadly, I don’t think I’ll have them done before next Spring.  It’s a standard Butterfly design which fits 4 workshops in the interior areas with supply caches on the wings.  One direction for input, one for output.

Good Dwarven Layout, the Model of Efficiency

On a more personal note, I prepared a tomb for myself in my spare time.  I’m calling it the Hall of Sixteen Pillars.

Now, it looks like good Dwarven traders have arrived, let me see if I can unload some of these clothes and Goblins.

18th of Timber

Just as I’m working out some of the finer details of trading “Gladiators,” in comes another Goblin ambush!  Well, I think it’s time to try out that new gate of mine.  Let’s see if these Goblins are any challenge for good Dwarven Craftsmanship and Obsidian stone.

It seems though that a couple of the Masons were caught in the open and they go down hard.  Domas the Woodburner valiantly rushes to save them from death, but he too is struck down.  Time to start mobilizing the infantry.

With the help of the Caravan Guards, we were able to repulse the attack.  Nil charged valiantly into battle and fell unconscious.  Unfortunately, we weren’t in time to save the Masons and Domas, but Nil survived and is recovering.  I think he broke every bone in his body.  What’s worse is that Winter is upon us now and I doubt we’ll be able to get him water to heal quickly.

In all the confusion, Ducim went berserk and had to be put down. I also realized Lolor got caught in a cage, but by that time he had also gone berserk.  I’m starting to worry about a tantrum spiral.

12th of Obsidian

Mosus decided to hold a party in the grand dining room.  It’s well needed as far as I am concerned.  Everyone could use a little joy.  I “liberate” one of the casks of Ale we received from the merchants and we tell stories about Nil’s courage.  He’s resting up well now that we have water again and I hope he’ll begin to heal.  Babinathel slips away from the party as a Fey mood takes him.  I manage to catch up with him later, but he’s already hard at work.  Looks like at least one of our moods won’t go poorly.

Looking back over the year, we lost a couple good dwarves but for the most part things ran well.  Our new accommodations are nice, but I haven’t had a chance to streamline our production.  We’re safe from dangers outside and below, but our military is in poor shape.  Our food stores are holding out, but they need expanding.  I really wanted to put a roof on the outside, but that’ll have to wait.

Finally Babinathel has become a legendary Carpenter, and we have grown by 20 Dwarves over the course of the year.

Personally, I feel its time I move on to Greener Pastures and leave this place in the hands of a younger dwarf.

I have just been put in charge of Earthdance.  It is spring, and we are hungry.  There is nothing to eat in this entire fortress, nothing to drink.  No wells.  Nothing but river water.  Too many dwarves rotting in the sun.  We have mad dwarves running amok and I’m fairly sure there’s still a loose goblin somewhere.  Our fortress is vulnerable to attack in the winter when the river freezes.  And I’m hungry.

I’ve assigned a few dwarves to gather the plants near the entrance.  It’s not much, but it’ll be something.  I’ve also assigned more to the farms.

5th Granite 1054

I knew there was a loose goblin! He ambushed my dwarves as they were cleaning up and emptied his quiver on them.  He slew Thikut Lolorritas and Udil Agsalmonom with silver arrows!  He shot and then bludgeoned to death Iton Unnosaban, our bookkeeper. More corpses to pile with the rest.  So many dead.  Thankfully he ran out of arrows before the militia got there.  They cut him in half.

10th Granite 1054

Starving.  Cleaning out the refuse.  Trying to gather plants.  Anything to eat.  Must have food.

15th Granite 1054

Just when I thought things might be calming down Sigun Mamgozzaneg loses it!  Not a little bit either, no, he’s off the deep end.  Lorbam Ralost quietly died today.  Starvation is what everyone thinks.  It seems it’s not long before the same fate awaits us all.

21st Granite 1054

Ingiz Kodorasob is now just sitting in a corner rocking himself.  We really couldn’t afford to lose him, as he was a farmer.

22nd Granite 1054

In desperation, I have instructed the commander to kill one of the wandering hoofed creatures above.  I believe the humans call them “deer.”  He’s still chasing it around the fortress.

27th Granite 1054

We finally have food.  Why everyone refused to slaughter the livestock before, I don’t know, but their hunger has gotten to them now.  The sight of so many dwarves tearing into the donkey flesh…  Still no drink … so long since booze … booze

What’s this!  Shorast Mengthob’s mind has left her!  Why did it have to be someone with an axe … the blood… the gore … she’s killed Ingiz Kodorasob.  Ingiz was a farmer … how many more can we lose!  I’m sending Asmel and her troops after Shorast.  She must be torn to shreds!  Revenge, revenge!!

28th Granite 1054

Now she’s killed Doren Ethabfikod!  Took her lower half off in a few hacks!  Where is Asmel!

2nd Slate 1054

She just killed Stinthad Oboknakuth, but I think Asmel is finally closing in!  Rip her heart out!

3rd Slate 1054

Shorast and Asmel fought.  That gods-forsaken elf lover wounded Asmel.  Asmel survived, and Zeton, one of Asmel’s recruits, put an end to Shorast.  May she rot in pieces …

16th Slate 1054

Things have calmed down some.  Still a lot of tantrums, but no more insanity.  Some migrants arrived today.  Let me go out and meet those foolish enough to come to this place now.

19th Slate 1054

Twenty-two hardy souls came to join us!  These aren’t migrants, they’re a rescue party!  Why they didn’t bring any wood workers or soldiers I don’t know, but blessed be!

20th Slate 1054

All hail Olun Kubukor, he is mighty and incredibly quick to heal!

Today brave Zefon lost his pebbles.  I sent the other troops to handle him, but he  killed Avuz Aliserib, the speardwarf.  Olun Kubukor ran into him in the hallway and cracked his skull with his bare hands.

Also, I’m not sure what is wrong with Oddom Ibelzon.  He’s sitting in a craftdwarf’s workshop and muttering.  I hope he’s not going to go crazy too.

1 Felsite 1054

I thought things were beginning to go better, but Dodok Takuthdodok went quiet this afternoon.  Now he won’t eat.  In brighter news, the wall is going well.  No more winter attacks I hope.

3rd Felsite 1054

Uzol Zarethsakzul pitched a tantrum today and killed Morul Asoblikot.  I’ve had enough of this lawlessness, I’m appointing Zuglar Orstistrigoth as the captain of the guard.

17 Felsite 1054

I’m not sure making Zuglar Orstistrigoth captain of the guard was such a good idea.  He punished Sibrek Abanbasen to death.  I didn’t think a bare handed fish cleaner could do that much damage.  I’ll see if I can buy some more rope off these elves.  Imprisoned dwarves are better than dead dwarves …

20th Felsite 1054

He killed Unib Kadoltirist as well.  Punched her right in the brain!  I asked him about it and all he would say is “She had it coming.”  I think he’s taking his position too seriously.

24th Felsite 1054

I traded the elves some high quality crafts for some low quality rope, quite a bit of booze, and a horse.  Mmmmm, tasty horse.  The wall is also going well.  We should be safe before autumn.

26th Felsite 1054

Alas poor Asmel, captain of the guard. Struck down for her crimes of passion.  I’m taking this opportunity to make Olun the Bold militia commander.

27th Felsite 1054

Alex, Supreme Manager.  He died today of a brain injury.  Kol, the chief medical dwarf, says it looks like he fell down the stairs, as Zuglar had his heavy hand on his shoulder.  We will remember this day for Alex’s wisdom and leadership.  I can only hope a better fate awaits me

2nd Hematite 1054

The new ropes are finally installed in the jail.  I hope this will finally resolve …. that problem that we’ve been having.

5th Hematite 1054

Oddom Ibelzon went mad today after two months of cowering in that workshop.  At least he hasn’t punched anyone in the brainpan … yet.

8th Hematite 1054

The wall is doing well.  The well is up and running as well.

22nd Hematite 1054

Young Dodok Takuthdodok died today from thirst.  Hopefully, he will be the last to die.  My new fishing operation is up and running, and hopefully, will help feed us.  It also gives Zuglar something to do, besides … cleaning his office.

25 Hematite 1054

The wall is finished.  I hope we can convert it to stone soon.  Maybe add a gate and some towers …

24th Malachite 1054

Thank goodness for a quiet month.  Nothing of much significance happened.  I’ve started up training for the squad, and our food situation is getting better.  I’ve started mining operations again.  I’d like to start forging in earnest, but we lack coal and flux.  Without coal I have to make charcoal, and without flux I can’t make steel.  I have commissioned some iron armor for the troops.  I’ve also opened a path down into the caverns, but don’t worry.  I know what kind of things live in the dark; I’m securing it.

10th Galena 1054

Oddom Ibelzon finally died of thirst.  He’s been sitting on the stair since he lost his pebbles.

18th Galena 1054

We had a kobold show up at our doorstep.  Eshtan, one of the new recruits bravely held down the scaled thief, and Olun the Bold hacked him in half.  Eshtan took a dagger to the gut.  Now we’ll see if those doctors of ours know their trade.

20th Galena 1054

Thankfully, Esthan seems to be doing better of his own accord.  Also, the breastplates are done.  I hope to get them distributed to the troops soon.  Gut wounds are messy …

21 Galena 1054

Uzol Zarethsakzul died today in the dungeon jail.  Completely unrelated, but Zuglar is now claiming the title of The Terrible.  Each trims his beard his own way.  Also I think I can smell marble around here.  We’re digging deeper!

12th Limestone 1054

Things are going well, but this lack of coal is becoming a real pain.

11th Sandstone 1054

Things are running smoothly.  Finally have the Whips of Craft into their breastplates.  Apparently, they didn’t know they were for them.  Apparently, they thought they were supposed to wear leather.  Well, that’s straightened out now, and they’re wearing good dwarven iron.  Now if only we could find that marble…

26th Sandstone 1054

We’re all fed and relatively happy.  Found some plump helmet spawn, and some cave wheat seeds hidden away.  Those will go a ways toward making us farm sufficient.  I don’t want to have to kill horses because we have to eat them.  I want to be in a situation where we can kill horses because we want to eat horse.  Having trouble getting anyone to go down and mine through the caverns.  We’ll see about that.

1st Timber 1054

Rockslide!  Blast it, a troll got in, how did that happen!  Sending the military after it.

3rd Timber 1054

Olun The Bold does it again, he cut the troll in half!  Good work by the recruits as well, they held it down so Olun could get to it.

Olun seems to be enjoying his job.

That troll blood looks good on the walls.  Now about those walls and traps by the caverns …

5th Timber 1054

In all the chaos, I didn’t notice.  We found Marble down below the caverns!  Steel here we come.  I can almost feel that smooth metal now.

13th Timber 1054

Caravan just showed up.  Let’s see what they’ve got; I’m ready to get rid of some of these crafts anyway.    I made Stakud Cattenonul broker a while back.  I don’t think that other guy knew what he was doing.

19th Timber 1054

Goblins be damned!  An ambush while I’m trying to trade.  We’re all headed down.  Let them deal with the traps …  Aquifer!  The goblins are getting into it with the caravan guard, and Id Rithrober is stuck on the wrong side of the wall.

20th Timber 1054

Between the caravan guards and the traps, those goblins aren’t a problem anymore.  Id is even ok, after hiding behind a tree a goblin shot at her.  Now, let’s see about that trading!

21st Timber 1054

A snatcher tried to sneak in after the attack and ended up in a cage.  We’ll have fun with this one later …

22nd Timber 1054

Another ambush!  Olun ran into them while picking up some wood for the furnace.  I was caught in the open too, but those caravan guards really pulled us through again!  Olun got a little beat up, but he should be fine.

8th Moonstone 1054

Traded most of our crap crafts for sundry goods.  I’m going to enjoy this dog lung.

12th Moonstone 1054

The river just froze.  Time to expand a bit.

17th Obsidian 1054

Uzol Enshalzaneg got possessed by something.  I hope the spirit doesn’t have any unreasonable demands.  In other news, the troops have been sparring some recently.  I hope it improves their effectiveness.  Maybe we should recruit more troops when migrants arrive.  It’s also been a long time since we’ve had migrants.  We have food laid up, and my tenure is almost over.  Construction on the new walls is going.  I got all the rivers walled over that I wanted, now it’s just filling in the open spaces.   We really need more room.

18th Obsidian 1054

I’m relieved to find Uzol’s spirit got what it wanted.  He’s now working on something in a mason’s workshop.

23 Obsidian 1054

Uzol finished his project and the spirit left him.  It’s a beautiful alunite coffer.  No idea what we’re going to do with it. Now if it was a coffin …

28th Obsidian 1054

Earthdance hums pleasantly with the sound of crackling furnaces, smelting iron, making coal, and other dwarvenly endeavors.  We have gone from starvation and weakness to plenty and strength, with some fortune and the help of some brave caravan guards.  Let us feast on the fatted bull tonight!  I am Edem  Almoshstakud.  I have lead this fortress for a year.  Judge me as you will; call me what you will; I have done the best a dwarf could.

So when I received a replay in the mail asking for advice my first thought was: I’ll load up StarCraft 2 and email him back what I think.  I quickly realized that a lot of the things I was telling him could be more useful on a gaming.stackexchange question and added my thoughts there as well.  Having completed this task, I realized that certain things weren’t easy to convey over text, and that a visual representation might be more helpful.  They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions…

I loaded up Fraps, popped in the replay, and started recording.  I learned two things: 1) I don’t like the sound of my own voice, and 2) I don’t know how to cast a game of Starcraft 2.  I probably should have known the second one ahead of time; however, I was trying to help someone, so I stuck at it.  A couple more attempts and a couple takes later, and I finally had a product that I wouldn’t mind on youtube.  Unfortunately,  it turns out you can’t just hit save and be done with it.  Instead I had 7, 3 minute segments on my Hard Drive, each spanning 4 gigabytes.  Ok, on to Virtual Dub.

Virtual Dub is one of those thing you just kind of have lying around, like a screwdriver or Cat-5 cable; sure I don’t need it in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word, but there is no reason not to have it.  After futzing around with the DivX codec and then going back and rerecording the whole thing in 720p, I finally had about 24 minutes of something.  It turns out youtube will let you upload 15 minute segments (did not know that, thought it was 10) as long as they stay under 2 Gigs.  My newly compressed videos were 500 Megs all together so I felt good about the whole thing.

Here I had done something nice for someone, and hopefully people could benefit from:

Oh $#*!, does this make me a caster now? Do I have to start hating myself?

Upon examination of the fallen leader “Macha” Besmarilral’s possessions, it has been discovered that contrary to prior belief, he did keep journals of the latter half of his reign, and here they are.

Autumn

Autumn has begun with a goblin attack on the fortress. I decide to sound out our militia to deal with them. This was a mistake. Our militia has now fallen, and the goblins are camped outside.

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Here are the goblins, attacking our militia

However, the  goblins seem content to just wait outside and shoot at… to shoot at… well,I don’t know what they’re shooting at, but it saves our asses, so I’m not complaining. Instead, I go focus on an issue I can deal with: the completion of our great hall to last the ages. This has actually been quite successful. And to follow it up, I will build some new bedrooms beside it.

The finished hall, and some new rooms.

One of our dwarves has gone into a fey mood. It’s disturbing how often this happens, but we luckily have all the resources to satisfy him. In another issue, one of our dwarves has earlier stopped producing drink, causing a fortress wide shortage, so I order him to get back at it, the lazy sod.

However, my attention gets diverted back to something more dangerous, as the goblins resume their attack, leaving blood everywhere, as a wounded dwarf staggers back in. With the increased danger, I now order everyone back into the fortress.

Winter

Wish something hadn't happened to that militia.

Meanwhile, a small fight breaks out underground between two of our dwaves. It turns out that our former leader antony.trupe has died in the attack, and the two are fighting over who gets his room. This is disturbing on many levels. Not the least that they neglected to inform me, but that he hadn’t had a proper tomb. I quickly build a few tombs, and arrange for his body to be transported to one of them. Once I’m sure he’s been given a tomb, I set out a graveyard for dead common dwarves. It appears he had been gathering resources when he was caught by surprise by the attack. I hope nothing like this ever happens to me…

Alas poor Antony! I knew him, Urist;

And of course, I should show the new tombs, and- hold on, there’s an urgent issue I need to attend to.

It appears that the river has frozen up, allowing the goblins easy access to our fortress should they think of going around. However, luckily, as I was investigating the issue, a human caravan came along, and the goblins followed it in, falling to our cage traps. Anyway, back to those tombs.

The Emperor's New Tombs.

Mine is the second on the left, so, when I am in my old age, I can be confident in having somewhere to rest. Anyway, it’s the start of Spring now, and the new leader is due to arrive any minute now, so I need to go help the new leader get settled in. I have to say, I am proud of what I accomplished here, and, despite being free to go now, think I might stay. I don’t want to give up a place in a nice (thanks to me), safe fortress.

The Year 1053 is at its end; Two leaders have ruled this fortress before me, and now I just finished my year.

My Name is Ushrir “Alex” Gatinstukos, and here I present you some excerpts from my diary of the last year.

1st of Granite 1053

Even if I’m not around for that long, having arrived with the greatest influx of dwarfs has its advantages; I, “Alex” Gatinstukos have been challenged to run this fortress for 1 year (Okay, I did some complaining, and they challenged me to do better).

2nd of Granite 1053 (early morning)

After getting out of bed, I knew I couldn’t back out on this challenge and had to accept it!

2nd of Granite 1053

I’m currently checking out the fortress, looking around for things that I’ve missed while I hadn’t this heavy responsibility. (What was I thinking this morning?)

4th of Granite 1053 (end of the evening)

Finally done walking around this hole in the ground that is supposed to be a fortress, time to go to bed now, and start working tomorrow. (Too tired now…)

5th of Granite 1053

First day of work and the first thing I do is change around some of the assigned labours of my fellow dwarfs, which allows them to have all the time for what they do the best.
I allow our previous Leader, Chief Medical Dwarf and Accomplished Butcher “Macha” Besmarilral to keep handling our diplomatic relations with the Elves and Mountainhomes, while I focus on the more important things here, like giving ourself a proper fortress, instead of this makeshift hole in the ground

6th of Granite 1053

Our Broker/Manager/Bookkeeper Likut Ikalzuglar comes to me, and requests to be allowed to focus more on Stonecrafting instead of paper pushing.
After careful consideration and a review of his recent crafts, I wholeheartedly say yes, even if it requires me to find other dwarfs to fill the spots he left behind.

7th of Granite 1053

I found a new trader in the name of Solon Zozzas, and he accepted my request to become our dedicated trader.
For the spot of record keeper, I have temporarily assigned Iton Unnosaban, in the hope he will be able decipher the records left behind by Likut Ikalzuglar; If he can, he has earned that spot.
I personally will be filling the spot of manager, that way, I can properly manage who works on what.

10th of Granite 1053

While working on some improvements on the wall, so we are protected against invading hordes in the winter too, our Cook and member of the Masonry Team, Sibrek Abanbasen suddenly dropped all of his stuff, kicks Likut Ikalzuglar out of the Craftsdwarf’s Workshop and started collecting all kinds of materials.

15th of Granite 1053

I haven’t seen Sibrek Abanbasen for days, and I’m getting reports of him furiously working in the Craftsdwarf’s Workshop.

19th of Granite 1053

After days and days of work, Sibrek Abanbasen has finally come out of the workshop, showing me his secret project, Vutramrubal Stal Thatthil, a basalt bracelet, encircled with bands of even more basalt, jelly opal and turquoise.

Noticing the sheer detail and quality of his work, I tell him, he’s now the responsible dwarf for all the engravings that have to be done, and go out to find a new cook.

24th of Granite 1053

A very large migration wave has arrived… I don’t know where to put all those dwarfs, but we will find a solution.
They also brought some highly qualified dwarfs, which I’ve directly integrated in their respective work teams.

26th of Granite 1053

Obsidian, and according our initial surveys not a small amount, but layers and layers thick.

3rd of Slate 1053

During excavation of one of the main shafts, our miners noticed there was some open space on the floor below them. I’ve ordered them to stop digging further below, until we can get a good look on what’s actually there.

17th of Slate 1053

Due to the sheer amount of obsidian our miners have excavated, I have mandated that all stone constructions are done with obsidian from now on.

11th of Slate

Rhesus Macaque have been plundering our stockpiles; I think about ordering war animals to be trained to handle any further intrusions.

15th of Felsite 1053

Reports are coming in that Goblin ambushes has killed several wandering kittens; I think it’s time to get our military back on its feet, and get some dwarfs from the Meeting Hall who are willing to enlist in our new army.
Luckily the elven caravan has arrived too, so we have some help in that department.

18th of Felsite 1053

We have to report some losses, but we are victorious! The cage traps our previous leader installed have managed to capture some of the invaders, all the others are dead. (I think I’m going to bed early today).

— It is now Summer —

6th of Hematite

I’m getting reports of dwarfs not liking the current state of the fortress, lack of food and booze, and general unhappiness.
Luckily the Farm & Dining Project has reached Completion Phase 1, which means when the rooms are cleared and watered, the farms can be built.

16th of Hematite

“Macha” Besmarilral just told me that she managed to evade the elven diplomat; she did not like meeting him because of the three slaughters that have occurred. I just hope it doesn’t have too much of a negative consequence for our lovely settlement.

2nd of Malachite

Why didn’t I get the note we now have a mayor? Ah well… It seems our new mayor has decided that we can’t allow anyone else to be seated; yes indeed, we can’t export rock thrones for now. Not a problem anyway.

13th of Malachite

Oh shit! Oh SHIT! OH SHIT!

Please fall in a trap, please fall in a trap, please fall in a trap!

14th of Malachite

GOTCHA!!!

I’m off to bed early today… too much stress!

22th of Malachite

Today one of our weavers, Kumil Akumcog, started shouting in the dining room, demanding a workshop, because he had the greatest ideas!
Naturally, I ordered the workshop build ASAP.

26th of Malachite

And that might soon mean Another Dwarf Lost; Kumil Akumcog started making unreasonable demands for his idea, and talking like two civilized dwarfs was not possible anymore, so I had to serve him a dinnerplate with one serving of starvation.

14th of Galena

Another ambush! I’ve already added some more recruits to the army and are preparing again for a standoff against them.

15th of Galena

Well, that was… easy! They just walked blindly in our traps!

— Autumn has come —

8th of Timber

I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! I know our farmers won’t like the new guys, but they left me no choice!

18th of Timber

Our caravan from the homestead has arrived! And they’ve brought food! And booze!

19th of Timber

… AND GOBLINS! Luckily our military rushed to the scene and is now destroying the threat, but in the skirmishing, our ex-leader “Macha” Besmarilral has been taken out.

— Winter is upon you —

1st of Moonstone

Our Weaver, Adil Lorstetad, isn’t responding  anymore… even his friends can’t get him to say hello. And to make the matter worse, just before, he told us no-one could enter “His Workshop”. What is he thinking… “His Workshop”? I can only wonder what we get from this; let’s hope not another death.

20th of Moonstone

Our liaison from the mountainhomes has arrived and is now talking with our mayor.

27th of Moonstone

I have received the trade agreement documents; it seems like they really want tanned hides, bone figurines, hardware and blocks, but if we can catch fish for them, they would be ecstatic. Still important, but to a lesser degree are crowns, legwear and windows.
Finally, they get a shortage of short swords, goblets and musical instruments soon; this might enable us to sell them at a bit higher price.

7th of Obsidian

Our miller is running around hitting people and has already killed someone.
This is not good for our already fragile dwarven community, and the military has been ordered to kill him before he kills anybody else.

16th of Obsidian

More Goblins have been sighted, and our traps are ready for them.

(they can go around these traps because the river is frozen.)

17th of Obsidian

The river just unfroze! Take that goblins!

(It seems like goblins can’t swim.)

(And the ones that didn’t drown are still on the outside of the wall!)

26th of Obsidian

Soon my time is up, and I certainly can say this has been an interesting and challenging year.

The last thing I do before I end this year is increase the graveyard a bit.

Final Toughts

As you can see, this has been an interesting year, and I only hope our next ruler can improve this fortress.

If you think you can do better, you can always go out and start your own fortress or even join our fortress.

Welcome to PAX

For those of you who didn’t make it to PAX this weekend, you have my most sincere sympathy; it truly is an amazing experience for a gamer.  From playing Duke Nukem Forever on the expo floor to listening to Scott and Kris talking about making blamimations to watching Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins play D&D, there really is nothing quite like PAX; I highly recommend attending if you find yourself in the Seattle or Boston area.  I’m sure you’ve seen some of the news for Duke Nukem Forever or Final Fantasy 14, but there are a lot of games shown off at PAX.  For those of you who couldn’t make it out this year I thought I might review some of the lesser known titles which were shown off at PAX this year.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Good-Feel

I suppose this game has been in the works for a long time, and everyone got a look at it during E3, but it was a completely different experience when I finally got my hands on it.  Compared to Sonic 4, KEY was very easy to pick up and I didn’t have to spend 10 minutes figuring out how to swing on a vine (I might be a little angry at SEGA for wasting my time).  I may have to dust off my Wii for this one.

Nintendo’s new philosophy seems to be to take their old IP and re-imagine it on the Wii.  Unlike the other games Nintendo was demoing, KEY felt like a new kind of game, not just an identical remake *cough* Donkey Kong *cough*.  The “yarn” aspect gave me new ways to interact with enemies as well as the environment.  From lassoing to unraveling the fabric I was playing on, it felt like a completely different game.

Shibuya

Nevercenter

Shibuya is supposed to be based on the Shibuya district of Tokyo.   Now I’ve never been to Shibuya or even Japan, but if it’s anything like this game, then I need to talk to my travel agent.  I know most people aren’t huge fans of the iPad/iPhone as a gaming platform, but sometimes it’s worth checking out cool things on new platforms.  Shibuya’s gameplay is based around a similar concept to Tetris, but instead of different shapes dropping, blocks drop automatically and you choose which color they are.  The idea is to line up as many of the same color as possible; the only problem is that you can’t choose which color you have to assign next, only which block you assign it to.  While this game play may sound complicated, it’s actually very intuitive and you pick it up within a few seconds.  It’s definitely worth checking out if you own an iPad/iPhone.

Darkspore

Maxis Software

After the original Spore, I’m very hesitant to recommend a game with a similar name from the same company.  I’m told that the only thing that DarkSpore shares with it’s ancestor is the engine and creature creator.  Fortunately Darkspore actually knows what kind of game it is: Action RPG.  Darkspore feels more like Diablo than a Maxis game.

RWAAR

Two of the really nice features that Darkspore has are a) customizable characters, b) squad switching combat.   DNA is the basic currency of the Darkspore world and it allows you to customize basic features of your squad.  Instead of equipping new weapons, we were able to recreate the DNA of our squad.  The squad is not the traditional squad based combat of RTS games, but instead the squad style of Lost Vikings, where you can instantly switch between members of your squad.  This allows you to literally play 3 different characters at the touch of a button.  I’m still hesitant after Spore, but I might be willing to give this one a try.

Swarm

Hothead Games

Brought to you by the makers of Precipice and Death Spank, Swarm feels like the makers of Lemmings spent too much time hanging out with Michael Bay.  Swarm had the distinction of being one of the PAX 10 games; games selected expressly by the makers of Penny-Arcade to be shown off.  I’m not sure how to explain how fun it is to order around little blue men to their explosive destruction, but it’s clear the designers knew when they built the things.  Just check out this short video:

For those of you familiar with the concept of Boids, the Swarm game play is a natural extension of these algorithms.   You don’t control a single member of the Swarm (despite what earlier trailers featured), but rather you attempt to control the Swarm as a whole.  For those of you unfamiliar with Boids, it’s a series of algorithms which relate the movement of members of the Swarm to the movement of other members.  The practical application of this is that when you issue a command to the Swarm, individual members attempt to perform this action with the closest objects to  imitate the action you’re trying to preform.  So if I tell the Swarm to pick up a rock and throw it, various members of the Swarm will look for rocks to pick up and throw (and sometimes replace “rock” with “each other”).  Clearly Swarm is not designed for the more faint of heart, as you’ll often have to sacrifice some members for the survival of the whole.  Swarm is set to release in 2011.

Shank

Klei Entertainment

In the tradition of games like Metal Slug, Shank is a 2D side scrolling shooter; a genre from a decade past.  While these games may have dominated the arcades of my childhood, it’s an amusement that seems to have faded with time.  In many ways, one of the coolest things about a service like XBLA (or PSN) is the rekindling of that spirit.  Shank, however, does not try to reenact the experience verbatim (at least not in the way Mega Man 9 does) but instead brings the human and gameplay elements of modern games.  From God of War style quick time boss battles, to a highly characterized animation style, Shank feels more like a creation by the minds behind Castle Crashers than Metal Slug.

El Toro

To give you a feel for the game, at one point during the demo you faced off in a cage match against an over-sized Luchador.  To handle the fierce wrestler, Shank’s protagonist leaps upon his back and cuts away with a chainsaw.  Though the act is intensely brutal, your opponent seems hardly phased and angrily bucks you off.  This strange mix of dark humor seems to hold itself well throughout the game, and its 1200 MSP price is hard to argue with.  Definitely worth checking out.

Other Games

I could probably go all day about some of the games we saw, but here are a few more that were fantastic: Hegemony, Fluidity, and Bomberman Battlefest.  But why are you sitting here reading this review? Go play some!

And knowing is half the battle

There has been a lot of discussion on the topic of Starcraft 2 rankings recently, and I thought we might take this time to sit down and have a chat about them. At their core, rankings seek to address the eternal questions of “Who am I?” and “Am I a man?” and more frequently, “How can I prove that I’m a better person than my friend Bob?”

Throughout the ages, man sought to prove his dominance over his fellow man. This was instinctual ever since we first left the trees for African plains. However, early man lacked the comforts of Battle.net 2.0. Instead, he was forced to resort to cave paintings, local competitions and iCCup. In these days, ranking was not something that happened between you and your 99 friends, but rather a letter grade which was bestowed upon you like a tardy student at the end of 2nd year English.

iCCup rankings were based upon the earlier Elo ranking system designed by Arpad Elo for comparing chess players.  An accomplished physicist, Elo knew that performance could not be measured accurately, but could be inferred, much like a black hole can be inferred by its effect on surrounding stars.  By treating individual matches as samples, a win, loss or draw would suggest the relative skill levels between the players.  An accomplished chess player himself, Elo designed his system so that the average score would approximate 1500 with a difference of 200 points indicating a .75% chance of win or draw.

The application of Elo across various competitive sports is well documented, and the iCCup’s choice to use this as their rating metric can be seen as “standard play.”  To further help users understand their rating, iCCup designed a set of rankings based on various ranges.  For greater accessibility, these rankings were designated along the lines of grade school report cards from D- to  A+, with each difference in grade (C to C+) indicating Elo’s 200 point difference in skill.  It’s worth noting that given that the average level of play in iCCup is on par with a mid-level Diamond player in SC2, the vast majority of players found this system largely inaccessible.

The iCCup's description of their Ranking System

It’s plain to the average person that Blizzard considered this system when designing their own games (the WoW Arena famously uses a hidden Elo ranking to match players).  Initially, Blizzard made this system public but quickly learned the lesson of iCCup where new players found the system inaccessible.  In an effort to fix this, Blizzard made the system less transparent.  A player’s Elo rank was hidden, and instead, they were shown a point value.  This point value had a number of friendly properties:

• Players started at 0 and could not drop below this number
• Players received points based on their hidden ranking
• Hidden rankings were used across different teams (preventing smurfing)

The combination was arguably a success over the previous system.  In the creation of the Starcraft 2 system, Blizzard also added the following:

• Users were placed in separate leagues (this was only partly based on their Elo)
• Leagues contained a smaller amount of the player base as players went up them
• Match making was based on Elo with a predictive component to quickly adjust for differences in skill
• Players were assigned to a division in their league (giving them only a rank compared to 99 other players)
• Rank in a division was based on visible points
• Bonus points were added as visible points

For players coming over from iCCup, they quickly found themselves in the top league.  This is likely an accurate measurement of the average, C rank, iCCup player as compared to the general populous.  For new players, they found themselves in other leagues with similarly ranked players, with most players existing in the bottom 2 leagues.  Movement between leagues is governed by the following rules:

• To move to a new league, you must have a 50% expected win chance against members of that league
• You must have at least 7 losses (this is to prevent statistical anomalies)
• Your hidden rank must be above, or below, a certain number (dependent on the target league)

Inside a given league, players were given points to differentiate rank 1 from rank 100.  These points are given based on the difference in ranking between the players and additional bonus points.  All players accrue bonus points based on the time that has passed since the beginning of the season.  They are then awarded these points as bonuses to their win.  Since all players receive bonus points at a rate of 1 every 2 hours, this rating inflation is evened out for players with an empty pool.  Finally, this visible score is reset at the end of every season.

Demuslim has the highest win rate of any top Diamond player and is ranked #3 in the world

Despite the effectiveness of this system at encouraging new players, an Elo system has natural flaws.  As new members enter into the system, there is a natural rating inflation.  Additionally, players who do not play enough are no longer accurately ranked.  Blizzard hides these flaws by hiding the system, but they still exist.

As I sit here in my luxurious arm chair, sipping my expensive brandy next to a roaring fire, I want you to know something. I am not better than you because I have an expensive after dinner jacket or because of my Scrooge McDuck style money bin or my harems of beautiful women. No, I’m better than you because I’m diamond rank and you’re not.

I'm takin' over!

(This is part of the Dwarf Fortress succession game that members of Gaming.SE are playing. This is the second turn. The first player has yet to write a post to publish here, but his summary is linked to)

So, I have recently been appointed, and by appointed I mean exiled, to this new fort called Earthdance. Which means that after finally making a name for myself and achieving a level of comfort at my last fort, Regoddom, I now have to go through the whole bloody process again. Luckily, the last leader kept a good record of his decisions, even if they weren’t great. I was told to keep quiet and observe at first, so I disguised myself as a Medical Dwarf. Now that I’ve got a good idea of the state of this fortress, I’m taking over.

So, starting out, I have plans to modernise this fortress, bring it up to the standards of 1052, rather than the plain old hole in the ground it was. First off, I need a room. And not one of these near-surface things the current leader has. So, let’s plan this out:

A room fit for a leader.

(Note for graphics set users: The default tileset is rectangular, not square. That’s actually twice the width of antony.trupe’s room.) My own needs dealt with, it’s time to deal with the needs of the fort. My most pressing concern is the lack of  security in the food supply. Population could easily pressure our one small farm, so here’s the new farm planned out (with some handy water to drain).

A new farm for the future, going in here.

A lot of our dwarves seem to be busy engraving our corridors. While I approve of a good wall, we have more urgent needs, so I temporarily cancel this, and work on getting some more picks forged so we can mine faster. I burn some of that wood lying around for fuel and forge a few more iron picks.

One of our stonecrafters seems to be having a good day at work. Nearly all his creations are being proclaimed as masterpieces.

There's another half page of masterpieces before this lot as well.

We get some migrants; 7 more citizens to help out this fort. I don’t really see why we are so appealing, but extra hands are extra hands. I set them to work, letting the engraving continue, now that we have the dwarves to do the work. An elven trade caravan arrives. I sell them some stone trinkets we made, in exchange for various goods such as cloth, bins, and wood. I don’t see much need for them at the moment, but they’re better than the rubbish we gave the elves in exchange, so I don’t really care.

They don’t leave it at that however. They insist we only cut down 100 trees this year. Given the amount of wood items they sold us, this seems a tad hypocritical, but we aren’t in a position to fight a war at the moment, so we reluctantly give in. Or at least that’s the impression we gave them. In reality, my previous fort was all but without trees, so I’ve grown used to not having the stuff around, so this isn’t even a minor inconvenience.

Summer arrives, and with it, another 7 migrants, and it’s time to irrigate the new farm area so we can later grow new crops. I order a dwarf to release the pool into the new area.

And we have water!

Meanwhile, my own room is finished, and as you can see, it’s quite a nice one too. Those worker dwarves have really done well.

My finished room

Now, I can’t have my only building extension be for myself. And of course, if a room that close to the surface wasn’t good enough for me, it sure as hell won’t be good enough for a grand dining hall. So, I get my miners to hop to work on that.

The new dining hall will be here.

The rest of summer passes uneventfully, as the work on the dining hall goes on.

To help you understand this, it’s probably best if I start by explaining what a “Hard Counter” is.  The concept of a counter unit is very much based in the children’s game Rock-Paper-Scissors.  For those unaware of the game, children simultaneously choose one of the three titular elements, each of which wins against another element while losing against the other differing element (same elements are considered draws).   A first glance at Starcraft seems to indicate a similar trend: Hellions do extra damage to light units (which Zerglings are) and can be upgraded even further in this capacity; by comparison Zerglings do not do extra damage to Hellions and, further more, clump up causing them to take additional damage from the Hellions’ AoE .  This would imply to the layperson that an army of Zerglings will lose to an army of Hellions.  Strangely enough, you’ll see many Zerg players actually employ Speedlings (speed upgraded Zerglings) in defense against Hellions.  While this may seem counter intuitive, if the Speedlings can surround the Hellion (thus preventing escape) they are very effective at killing it.

As Day9 might say, “[Hard Counters] deeply bother me.”

The Magic Box is a technique which gives Mutalisks the advantage against Thors.  For a long time people considered Thors to be the “Hard Counter” to Mutalisks, and it’s not hard to see why.  A Thor costs 300 Minerals and 200 Gas, has a DPS of 8 (or 16 vs Light, which Mutalisks are) and 400 Hit Points.  Since gas is often a limiting factor in building costs, conventional philosophy dictates that you could build 2 Mutalisks for the same price (100 Gas each), each doing 5.92 dps (or 8.55 spread across three targets), and having 120 Hit Points.  The armchair math is thus, 400 HP @ 8.55*2 dps vs 240 HP @ 16 dps.  It’s not hard to see which will die first.  What’s even worse, for the Zerg player, Thors do splash damage, and Mutalisks have a tendency to bunch up (as air units often do).  As a result, a sufficient force of Thors could wipe out a much larger force of Mutalisks.

This sort of armchair theory crafting was debunked very early on.  A good example of this can be found in Day9 Daily #125.  Sen demonstrates that Mutalisks build much faster and, with a little Micro, can avoid most of the damage when there are few Mutalisks.  The problem with this approach is that in larger pushes, mass Mutalisk was still very susceptible to Thor heavy armies, as they require a lot of micro to reduce this damage (the production difference also is minimized in larger pushes).  That was until IdrA vs Tarson.

For a moment I’d like you to put yourself in Gregory “IdrA” Field’s shoes:

He's only 20 Ladies

After the early bracket play, you have just emerged the Leader of your group only to struggle (3-2) in the Quarter Finals of the IEM against a relatively unknown Terran, SarenS.  A long time proponent of “TvZ is imbalanced,” you’re faced again in the semi-finals against another Terran player, Tarson.  Once again, you’re forced into your least favorite match up, where you constantly feel you have to outplay your opponent by a significant margin just to beat an “inferior” player.  Imagine how that must feel for you, once again to be face to face with an unfair system.

Right before the match, however, one of your friends and practice partners comes up to you saying, “I just had this crazy idea.  Remember how if you move, not attack move, with Mutalisks, they stay spread out? And it always makes them harder to micro with?  What if, and just thinking here, in Muta vs Thor, you don’t micro them into clusters?”  You give him a funny look, why would you micro into clusters against Thors? “No, I mean you just move instead of attack moving, so your Muta are already spread out.”  Seeing your apprehension, he adds on, “I tried it last night, there is no splash.”  The conversation is cut short as you’re rushed on stage for your match, the words “no splash” ringing somewhere in the back of your head.

Somewhere during game 3, you find yourself in just such a situation.  Tarson is pushing out with a heavy Mech force backed up by a number of Thors, and you see yourself with a Muta heavy army.  All of sudden those words echoing in the back of your head ring true.  Spreading out your units you use,  what will be later known as, the magic box.  The Thors crumple under the weight of your Mass Mutalisks with only a single one dying, and every Zerg player watching at home has the exact same reaction: “OH EM GEE!”

It’s a story with a happy ending (if you’re a Zerg).

Idra would go on to win 3-1 vs Tarson before losing to an unexpected build in the finals (MarroW’s 5 Rax Mass Reapers), but those are just details.  Within hours, forums would be flooded with questions and experiments on The Magic Box.  There are a couple good videos demonstrating its use, but I find the following to be the best:

I won’t waste your time with another explanation of the technique, but for those of us who track the meta-game, it’s an exciting time.

A Day in the Life of a Dwarf

By Urist McBlogger

It’s not easy being a dwarf you know. Constantly getting ordered around “dig this, dig that”, “build a floodgate here, release the lava there”. Those nobles, they think it’s easy. They just have to map out an area, by pressing d, then selecting a few tiles. We have to dig it. Have any of them picked up a pickaxe like a real dwarf and dug their way through the rock? No. And the way they treat us… it’s like we’re expendable. Just because we don’t know which side of a floodgate is which!

Now, I know some of these nobles like to claim that managing a dwarf fortress is the hardest task they could ever have been given. But they have an illustrated guide, guiding them the whole way through running a fort. I mean, as long as you remember not to dig too far down through the adamantium, to brew enough drinks for us working dwarves by building your stills, and giving a few dwarves jobs as brewers by pressing q and telling them to brew a drink, life is fine.

Urist McText doesn't mind. Really.

For those who don’t like the diagrams done by my good friend, Urist McText, you can even get others to do them for you. He’s a real craftsdwarf, and he won’t mind. He’s just happy to know the job is done. Some of the older dwarves swear by him, and wouldn’t take anyone else, so he must be doing something right.

Actually, I should probably take a hammer out of his forge. Well, as soon as he’s done making those picks for our miners. Maybe I’m just an old cynic, and I’m being too hard on you lot. Maybe the old baron has just coloured my opinion of nobles. You look like a bright chap, who might be able to lead a fort to some happiness. Just, if you do lead a fort some day, remember me, and take care of your workers.

I know it will be obvious to you when you only have your few expedition members, and every little bit of help is needed, but as forts get bigger, their rulers tend to treat us working dwarves as.. expendable. When we were building the magma pump for this fortress, digging down a few layers, building some pumps so we could bring it to the surface, putting together the enormous corkscrews our metalsmith had made with the blocks our masons had made, one of our dwarves got stuck behind a new floodgate. Rather than wait to get him out, the baron ordered us to start the pump anyway by pulling the lever to connect the power. It was horrible. We heard his screams for ages.

Actually, now that I think of it, there are a lot of new fortresses being built lately. Some of them are being built to handle our population growth, some are being built just for experiments in fortress building. I heard of one fortress where they built it all above ground. Can you believe that?

Now, because you seem to be a decent dwarf, I’m going to let you in a few facts I’ve picked up since I’ve been appointed to chronicle our fort. This will be very important if you ever run a fort. They probably neglected to tell you this in whatever place they teach you nobles, what with all that “love the motherland” rubbish they try to breed into you.

While you run your fort, you’ll have to make sure you keep on top of all the industries. To make beer, you will need some plants. Now you could just gather these, and at first you will have to, but eventually you will want to set up some farms, or there won’t be enough beer to go around. After you’ve got your plants, you build your stills. Just go into the build menu with b, go to the workshop list with w, and select it from the list. You know what some dwarves are like when they haven’t had enough to drink, or if they’ve had to live on water, so you’ll want to be pretty sharp-ish about getting the booze. I mean, I know the best of us go into some strange moods at time, but as long as you give us what we need, you’ll usually get some nice items from it.

The other important area is your military. Not to blow my own horn or anything, but as a former miner, I’m pretty tough. But, that’s no good if you get attacked by a dragon or a titan. You’ll need a force of dedicated axedwarves and marksdwarves to deal with those nasties if you don’t want your fort to get ruined. You’ll need to have the smiths make weapons for them and build them a barracks to train in. And as your fort gets bigger, you will need those soldiers, as you will attract the attention of the nasties. Now, I’m no general, so organising that military is beyond me, but they seem pretty effective. They’ve ensured that so far, only the outside of the fort is a desolate wasteland.

I mean, sure, last time we looked, the outside looked like something from Boatmurdered, but we're fine in here.

Anyway, back to the advice. It’s amazing how much freedom there is in a new fort. It’s like the pile of rock is waiting to be sculpted into a masterpiece. My father was a sculptor, making little rock items to sell off to the elves, and he always used to say that what he did in the small, a good fort builder did in the large. I suppose he may have been influenced by my grandfather, who was an engraver. See those engraved walls around our dining hall? Those ones that the guests always are in awe of? When my grandfather started, they were just lumps of rock. But he smoothed them down, and later led a team of dwarves to engrave them. How can you get those in your fortress? Why, just appoint some engravers, and then designate (using the d key), some walls to be smoothed first, then engraved.

Now, I suppose you’ve heard something of Boatmurdered? You haven’t? Well, here is the tale of Boatmurdered. You know, when I was a boy, my father brought me to the ruins of the place. It really is a grim place. I’d always assumed it was a tale made to warn bad dwarves about the perils of a fort gone wrong. I felt that I’d probably enjoyed reading it too much, when I thought about all those dead dwarves.

The weird thing is, he talked to some of the former nobles there, while they were still alive. They had this odd attitude. Despite the constant elephant attacks, and other various disasters, they seemed to treat it all as fun.

Anyway, we’ve spent enough time chatting here. I’ve got some messages to deal with. Oh.. this one might interest you. Looks like you might get your turn to run a fortress sooner rather than later.

Or, I hear some folks are starting a new fortress as a group. Why not join them?