Ok, I think I reached the end of the road: I'm writing this post after officially giving up on my 55A colony. 190 day long journey on the frontier, a really fun game to be honest, especially inthese last few days, in which a lot of FUN (enable Dwarf Fortress dictionary) things happened! To be honest it's kind of a failure in my point of view: I couldn't do everything I wanted to do, and this is because what I wanted to do required quite a bit of time. Time that this colony does not have: the game right now it incredibly unstable: I reached the point in which I would save two-three times a game day in fear of an imminent crash. And that was really a pity, since some interesting things happened right before a crash (and probably caused it); obviously upon re-loading everything went differently... Firt thing first: a somewhat complete view over the colony: Spoiler: colony view
And now a more in depth visual, with all the modules to be seen, so that these buildings can really show the rich furniture in the inside Spoiler: modules
(I'm sorry for the fact that I have to do a lot of replies to post everything, but it was the most writer-efficiant way tht I found out... -.-') And some close ups on the workshops I'm more proud of Spoiler: I'm so proud I really like the distillery-pub-kitchen zone: each of them is designed in a peculiar manner and this cluster resulted in a quite efficient supply chain of alcoholic beverages. The onyl downside is that I can't produce distilled spirits as fast,or faster as they are consumed by the pub and the chemistry lab (laudam!) that is aslo in that zone. As we will see this particular organization as also some downsides... Also, 11 vats pub! I really like that build! The first capentry was a really messy tetris of decor and modules, so when I demolished it to build a new one I put some care in how to organize space and decor, and I was quite peased by the result. The smithy, well... lot of modules, lot of radiators, lot of industry... XD It's a pity that this is the only really industrialized building.... And that the charcoal production chain is almost unused due to that lack of timber (in the end I decided to create the third bamboo farm next to the smithy, but the game didin't last long enough to see this manpower investment pay off...). The Manor: it took a lot of time to built, to be honest; hauling all the materials was a long task, especially for the windows... there was two more beds in the initial blueprint, but when I realized that the aristocracy doesn't have the same house mechanics as the other two social classes, I was a bit disappointed and left only the double bed and a third one (otherwise the house would be too much empty for my taste). I wanted to put a big dining table, but, as I discovered, ornate tables are not welcome in upper-class manors... Note: +40 quality suckers; I can hear the communism rising...
Wow, that must be a record number of massive buildings and sheer amount of modules and furnishings. I think the pub is my favorite. Now you just need some kind of eldritch tornado to smash it all to pieces.
ok, now that I posted quite a lot of colony images we should be get back on rails with the story. My goals: build almost everything that was available in the game. My biggest challange was building the steam knight production modules. This modules, as may know, are only available in the advanced workbech. This means that I'm able only to build those in stack of 5. So, not only this things are really expensive, but you also need to pay 5 times the price because dev only things -.-' This makes the challange even more FUN (note: what I mean is this http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Losing type of "fun"). And to be honest I got quite close to getting it complete Spoiler: close enough Almost 50 plates! -.-' I admit I completely forgot about the ceramic press... I realized it only while I was capturing screenshots of the colony Another of my goals was to get some aristocrats. This was only half-way accomplished: manors need to be big and have a lot of furniture, while I was able to build one, I didn't have the time to build the second one I had in mind. In the rpevious views there was one that captured a pretty big mesa plateu. It's artificial: Spoiler: this one In my plans this would have been the site of the second manor. I wanted to make use of the terrain altitude in my colony. The main problem is that terraforming is a long process and it often traps the workers... So in the end I decided to build only a Manor into an high place, in reference to "The Lurking Fear", a short story of a pretty unknown author. No time left! D: This allows me to talk about the lacquer planks production: it's slow. Also, it's impossible to build stack of them, just as distilling I would suggest to make this an option, just as it is for a lot of other items... Did I already say that I love the weapons lockers? Spoiler: I love them
Talking about military: I discovered that mass producing ammunitions is not something you should do. I had 5-6 barracks in this colony. The moment i decided to switch from one tier of guns to another (and thus changing the type of ammo) what would happen is that the first barrack to hve the new kind of gun enabled would just absorb almost all the ammunitions crates available. This is because a lot of people at once would try to supply the barrack, resulting into leaving the other barracks almost without ammo... I the end I decided to have Leyden weapons in all barracks execpt one, that would use granade launchers. Those weapons are awesome I have to compliment the devs: leyden weapons are what I call a good risk/reward mechanic. Those weapons can be so dangerous that I even thought a few times to get back to carabines... "How can they be dangerous?" you would ask. well, remember when I said that the distillery-kitchen-chemistry lab configuration had a downside? Well let's talk about that. Near the distillery, in front of the pub I put a stockpile where to put both the products of the distillery and those of the chemistry lab would accumulate. This means that a lot of alcoholic beverage (chica, mezcal, moonshine and laudanum) was accumulated there. But in that stockpile there also something like 10-12 keg of gunpowder, another product that I was accumulating for future plans. Oh, have I mentioned that the farm plots are covered by highly inflammable plants? And that a lot of inflammable farming products were lying on said farming plots? So we have a really fire friendly environment. What do Leyden weapons do? They make your enemies catch on fire... and quite easily, I must say. So easily that all the trees next to my colony just burned down (near the end I had a lot of meteor events in a short time). When those things catch on fire, the result is quite scenographic, I must admit. Spoiler: will o' the wisp Now let's imagine something. What would happen if one of those spores was casually flying near the crop area? Spoiler: this happened I was lucky to lose only one common soldier... From what I understood of the death report she died due to the gunpower kegs explosion (it was something like "shrapnel to death"). { to be honest: it was awesome!!! }
Oh, and it happened again. I will add the save file at the end, it's the 190th day, and if you noticed the view screenshots were taken while this was happening: Spoiler: Meteor shower on the crops Note that the game doens't really survive after this event. It tends to crash or during the fire, or right after the explosions because something else is going on. Spoiler: something else is going on
Ok, this part is dedicated to a few minor things. I think that after building one last lower class house and a barrack, my disturbance level reached a critical mass: in fact it's during this final das of the colony that things started going pretty hectic: meteor showers one after the other and two three airship crashes (also, it may even and error of mine: since most of this events made the game crash, I experienced them a few times in a row). And if you think that a meteor shower in my cemetery or on my crops was something quite strange, well take a look at this. Spoiler: this Unfortunately the game crashed right after this vision of heaven. And re-loading the game game me a different crash place. The death reports are form another thing that happened while I wasn't watching near the center of the colony: a giant beetle attacked my bamboo farms. My soldiers attacked it and something caught fire and exploded. At least, this is what I think it happend: all I found was a dead giant beetle, an empty bamboo field, dead people. And reports for death from explosion. Also, bandits need to think of better places where to establish their camps Spoiler: camp Still the ammunitions supply thing: the last barrack I build was equiped with a carabine lockers, taken from another barrack, because I didn't spend metals needed for the steam knight forge. I had 20 FMJ crates in the inventory. This is what happened when I enabled the use of carabines in that barrack Spoiler: supply chain Last thing to report: diggin into the screeshots I saved, I found this little building problem I had a while ago (still 55A), I don't know if it is still existing or not, And I didn't test it further. Long story made short: the blueprint is what I was trying to do, the resulting base was glitched. I saved the game and quit until the next day. Upon realoading the base of the barracks changed to a more conventional one. And that is what was built in the end. Oh, and apparently you can't build closed windows on barracks. Spoiler: barracks
This is the save game, for today I have spent enough time on this thread, maybe I will write something else on things I don't think are working well and things I think would look good in the game. [Note: I'm an ignorant peasant, so my opinion on these things is as good as the idea of making a cream pie with onion. Raw onions.] For The Queen And The Empire! Spoiler: save file, in dropbox 'cause is too large https://www.dropbox.com/s/0wp2bej06ivw8ps/ClockworkEmpires-066.zip?dl=0
If you read further down, you can see some funny eldritch things XD The problem is that this game is unplayable at this point (on my little laptop, at least XD): let alone the fact that everything is going really slowly, but it tends to crash within a few game days or upon big events.
Have really enjoyed seeing how you design your buildings - I tend to build mine with a small nod to aesthetic while keeping them as small and economical as possible, but I'm thinking I might go a bit bigger and more creative with my next colony.
During my previous games I realized that all that I was building were small-medium-big rectangular boxes, with the result of a pretty standard and boring sight. In this particular game I decided from the beginnig to not build rectangular boxes, and try to make things visually interesting. I have to admit that often rectangular boxes can be easier to fill with modules and furnitures, but in the end they make a pretty dull-looking colony. Another thing I noticed is that you run out quickly of things to fit into your houses: the variety of modules doesn't last long... and there are a lot modules that are pretty much useless since they don't even have a quality associated with them. And the the module display on the tabs is pretty messy. I often have to search through between the two complete lists, and the building specific ones because one module comes in more than one form (like the carpets od the cloth lines) but the building specific list only have one. And tobe honest the decor modules are not that abundant if you consider them in relation to the building in which they can be placed (exp. a kitchen can have only the spice racks, the carpets and the hanging pots that are kitchen specific).
