Dwarf Fortress Succession Fort—Angnomal, "Redstaff"

[Anaris]

OK, so this is going to be the thread for at least the initial setup of our DF succession game.

I'll lay out what seems reasonable to me, and we can haggle till we can all agree on something

• Each "turn" will be one year, spring to spring.
• Those wishing to sign up should make themselves known on this thread ASAP. Unless there is strong objection to it, I would like to be the one to start off the fort.
• Each overseer must write, at minimum, a summary report of what happened during each season.  I will attempt to set the tone for such reports with my initial year, based on my readings of previous succession forts.
• No intentional sabotage of the fort—that means no "drunken" overseers commanding everyone to do nonsensical things, no suicide charges against a siege (assuming there's any reason to believe the siege can be survived), no induced tantrum spirals, no digging down to unleash Hell in year 3...  Silly stuff is permitted, stuff that is less than efficient but makes IC sense is permitted—basically, just don't be a jerk.  Losing is Fun, but deliberately losing breaks the fun for everyone else.
• Forks are permitted, if someone really wants to take the fort in a totally different direction from a particular saved game; they just won't be considered "canon."
• The world is generated, see this post for the parameters used.
• The initial embark has been chosen based on the group's desired characteristics, and is being vetted.

Initial images of the embark area:

Full size (Warning: 3456x3456 pixels, very large!):
Z-level -1, showing the locations of the river and pools
Z-level 0, showing the location of the wagon, the volcano, and the mountains

80% Smaller (691x691 pixels):
Z-level -1, showing the locations of the river and pools
Z-level 0, showing the location of the wagon, the volcano, and the mountains

Initial list of overseers:

• Zulban 'Anaris' Ducimonol, expedition leader
• Zeneg 'Indirik' Tangathkilrud, miner
• ^ban^
• Adil 'Foundation' Inalnish, farmer
• Bembul 'LGMAlpha' Saramathel, butcher
• Ducim 'Telrunya' Nishabod, hunter
• DoctorHarte
• Iltaran

Unclaimed starting dwarves:
Kivish Bufutsibrek: Novice Wood Cutter, Competent Carpenter, Novice Wood Crafter, Novice Stone Crafter, Novice Bone Carver
Vabok Rullokum: Novice Mason, Adequate Fish Dissector, Competent Fish Cleaner, Competent Fisherdwarf

If anyone objects to the order, it's open for negotiation.

[Anaris]

Initial proposal for worldgen:

• Start with Large Region as a base
• Use the Ironhand/Wormslayer graphics set (includes non-default raws, which is why I'm mentioning it here...)
• Increase volcanism, so we have a higher chance of getting a good site with a volcano
• Dramatically decrease mineral scarcity, so that we don't have to limp along with a site with nothing but galena until we get to 5 z-levels above the magma sea
• Increase the number of z-levels between, above, and below cavern layers, to give a little more space to build grand things in.  And (in the case of the lowest one) to increase the potential for extra adamantine...

Any other ideas are welcome.

[Alpha]

I'd like to give it a try. I've played through a few fortresses. I may nosedive the fortress, but if that doesn't scare you, I'm in.

[Indirik]

I'm in. I'll take any spot, but would prefer an earlier one. My comp has problems when it gets to be closer to 200 dorfs.

Worldgen:
* Ironhand is good with me. I've been using this one for a while, and like it.
* Extra Z-levels between caverns are good. Do we need all three cavern layers? I understand that you can go down to 2 caverns, and still get everything.

Other than that, I don't know much about world generation...

[Anaris]

* Extra Z-levels between caverns are good. Do we need all three cavern layers? I understand that you can go down to 2 caverns, and still get everything.

From what I've read, if you skip cavern layer 3, you miss out on all the stuff that comes in cavern layer 3, like nether-caps. 

I will research this and get back to you; however, why do we want to remove cavern layers? If it's there, we can always leave it alone, or open it and then seal it off.

[^ban^]

I'm interested.

We need to determine a maximum turn time. I propose one full week.

[Anaris]

I'm interested.

We need to determine a maximum turn time. I propose one full week.

Actually, I think that's a little short, especially for people who haven't played much before, or have slow computers.  I can probably get a year done in a day (not counting the writing), but I have access to a pretty fast computer, one that still runs DF at perfectly reasonable speeds with over 150 dwarves.

I think that two weeks is a more reasonable timeframe.  It's not like we're in a tearing hurry with this, after all.

[Anaris]

From what I've read, if you skip cavern layer 3, you miss out on all the stuff that comes in cavern layer 3, like nether-caps. 

OK, I stand corrected: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Cavern#Vegetation

Removing a layer will cause the layer above to randomly pick from trees that it could have handled and the layer above can handle

So I guess that if we nixed the third cavern layer, the second would probably contain the nether-caps and blood thorns it was supposed to have.

I still don't see any particular reason to nix the third cavern layer.

[Telrunya]

I'm in for sure!

See no reason to remove cavern layers or whatever Volcano / closeby magma is always good, but it would be nice if we can be sure to have some minerals there. Hopefully decreasing scarcity will do the trick.

Oh, and it would be fun if we can 'dwarf' everyone.

[Foundation]

I'm up for this.   I'd also prefer a relatively early position, though Rob can go first as my comp is fairly decent and can run 60 dwarf + animal fortresses at around 80 fps (I assume that's considered decent...).

Regarding embark, I'd recommend something similar to the Ashery start if we want to be serious, though we could also have one dwarf with only conversational skills and no labours enabled except refuse gathering and burials.

So... just wondering how many people are up for a little bit of "fun" or we should run it strictly standard.  I think that with Tim starting we'll be fine even if we take some "fun" routes.

Oh, by the way, I recommend starting near elves + humans + goblins, especially close to the purple goblin fortresses that look like cabinets of death with Ironhand.   That way we get more caravans and "fun" stuff later on with more wealth.

By another way, can it be a rule that one must take at least one screenshot per season?  Preferably with a caption for each.

By the back alley, I think two weeks max would be pretty good time, if we allow early completion / early passing on for those with faster comps or more time to play.

[DoctorHarte]

I'd like to try it, though I am also new. I'd also want one of the later years as it would give me a good month or so to figure out the game before it's my actual turn. To sign me up for last place and hopefully the fort won't have been destroyed by then.

[Anaris]

Added a tentative initial ordering in the OP.  Please voice any objections to the ordering now

Also, a question related to that: Do we want to make ourselves some of the dwarves in the game, or just consider ourselves to be, essentially, NPCs?

If the former, do we want to name the dwarves after ourselves?  If so, we've got our starting 7 now

[Foundation]

I'd like to have the init option of REPLACE_ALL for dwarf nicknames, and personally I think it'd be interesting if we put our BM characters' names as dwarves, as it's less personal that way.  If anything happens to the dwarfs... personal names might not feel too good, but I'd be fine if stuff is done to my chars.  Just like in BM, so it makes it just personal enough to be fun and not burdensome.

Haha, I wouldn't mind going after Joe, hopefully there's still a fortress left by then.

[Alpha]

Added a tentative initial ordering in the OP.  Please voice any objections to the ordering now

Also, a question related to that: Do we want to make ourselves some of the dwarves in the game, or just consider ourselves to be, essentially, NPCs?

If the former, do we want to name the dwarves after ourselves?  If so, we've got our starting 7 now

I'm fine with the order.

I like the idea of personalizing the names of the dwarves. I'm fine with a character name, or my forum name.

[Telrunya]

Ah yeah, we should really should change the names of the Dwarves to ours We can go with Forum Names if we want, since we'll see most communication go through that.