Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

40d:Challenges

2010-02-24T01:27:53Z

Newtype0083: /* Mesoamerican Dwarfs */

:''Part of this article was originally taken from the DF forums thread [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=466.0 "Goal-Based Dwarf Fortress"].''

The general goal of [[Fortress Mode]] is to survive, acquire wealth, defend your stronghold, and become the capital of your civilization. However, many players find that fighting off repeated [[siege|sieges]], keeping their people alive, and expanding just aren't enough anymore. They begin to experiment with different sets of starting builds, arbitrary requirements and restrictions, and even feats of construction to appease Armok, in search of more difficulty and [[fun]]. These are some goals to attempt or use as inspiration.

==Pre-Embark Build Ideas==
Before you embark, you can optimize or sabotage your fortress from the very start, depending on how you distribute your points. After a few years, a well-developing fortress may or may not stabilize (depending on your idea of [[fun]]), leaving you to other challenges.

=== Diplomacy ===
* Six dwarves with only social [[skill]]s
* One skilled dwarf

Six courtiers of the king's court made some ill-advised remarks within earshot of the king, and as a result have been ordered to go found an outpost. They've hired you to make sure they survive. The six nobles only have social skills and refuse to do any work that is beneath them.

=== Minimalist/Survivalist build===

* 1 anvil
* 2 copper ore

Nothing else. From that alone, forge your pick and axe. (Figure it out yourself, or see the [[DIY#Minimalist_challenge_build|Do it Yourself]] article for a step-by-step "how to".)

===Peasantry===
* Spend 0 Points on embark

This challenge is moderately to very difficult, depending on the wildlife and outdoor food sources. Note that the three logs from the wagon are just enough to build a trade depot.

=== Stranded Scout Squad ===
* Military skills
* Weapons, ammunition, armor, war dogs
* Picks are not weapons

Your civilian 'friends' promised a caravan in the fall as they left, laughing. Hopefully, you can survive until then with your forward scouts.

==Races==
Pretend to be another race! You can mod the game or just pretend that Elves have hair. It doesn't matter what you look like, just what you build, with what materials, and what's for lunch after we build it.

===Elves - The Ultimate Hippy Challenge===
Peace, man.
* Don't gather plants except those you plant yourself.
* Don't gather wood nor trade for it with humans or dwarves.
* Trade for plants and wood only with the elves; they understand your environmental code.
* Don't burn any [[fuel|coal]]. Do you know what that does to the environment, man?
**Magma-smelting is an option, but steel can't be had.
* Don't cause any creature's death, except in self-defense.
**No military, induced submerging, or lethal implementation of corkscrews.
* Only use cage traps, and either tame the creatures you catch, or release them back into the wild.
* [[Elf|Hippies]] prefer sunlight and wooded areas, with minimal use of rock (digging and building).

For an extra challenge try this in an area with a cave.

===Humans - Living Large and Standing Tall===
Pretend you're a filthy above-ground dwelling [[Human|humie]].
* Build a town wall.
** Only hovels and farms outside the town walls.
* House your dwarves in small town homes
** 5-10 dwarves per house (they had pretty big families back in the day)
** Upstairs bedrooms, small dining room, maybe a single level basement.
* House your workshops according to profession, not convenience.
* Build warehouses for stockpiles, and set guards outside them.
* Create a keep, with its own wall, barracks, treasury, etc.
** House your nobles within the keep.
* Create a market square.
* Create a main street from the town wall to the market square and/or keep. Well-paved blocks, statues and decorative shubbery are a must.
* No underground connections between different areas.
* For obtaining stone, metal, etc. a mine may be built, but must have separate entrance from other buildings. It can be outside the fortress, but must not connect to the interior, or vice versa.
** If you create a side hill mine, only carve large (at least 2 tiles) tunnels, and create shaft to the surface to allow air circulation.
** Or better than that, create an open pit mine / quarry, with ramps to access lower floors.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Build a large, multiple-z-level fountain complete with decorations.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Human Inn, containing your only booze stockpile and should be party-oriented.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Farm simulation, complete with crops and free-range livestock, etc.
* BONUS: Easy Play: Embark on top of a Human Town.
* BONUS: Advanced Play: Modify the raws and actually use humans to make the fort.
* MEGABONUS: Build your entire fortress as [[mega constructions|one huge arcology]].
* MEGABONUS: Build your City in a giant, artificial cave.

===Luddite===
Shun technology and contraptions. Who can really trust them, with those [[Gremlin|gremlins]] around. This may be challenging, as it forbids easy isolation/defense from attacks, all traps and wells. Irrigation is reduced to solid elbow grease and maybe a bucket or two. This challenge may be even harder combined with another challenge.
* No mechanics or [[mechanism]]s
* No [[machine]]s

===Earthworms===
Live constantly tunneling. Churn up the soil as you go and visit the surface only rarely to collect the stuff you need..
* Create one long tunnel. Dig forward at one end whilst sealing off (collapsing, building walls across) the other end.
* Workshops should be built directly behind the row of miners. When they reach the point where they would be destroyed, take them apart and rebuild back by the miners again.
* To make it easier, you can come up to the surface now and then.
* Try to keep the tunnel as short as possible.
* Like this: ||||||||==========> (| is walled off end section, = is tunnel and > is the miners.
* BONUS: Leave those pesky nobles walled in as you tunnel away from them!
* BONUS: Leave stockpiles of armour and weapons for any future diggers to find!
* MEGABONUS: Surprise a goblin siege by tunneling up underneath them!

==Utter Dwarfiness==
Need new ways to behave or new techniques to dip your toes into? Give any or all of your starting 7 some quirks to live up to. Want to try making your Boss a hell-bent, paranoid despot? Or establish a routine mass murder of small animals to provide your fort with raw meat by a vaguely intimidating, estranged butcher?

===Bandit Camp===
* Three or more Marksdwarves (perhaps with [[Ambush|ambushing]])
* Embark site featuring places to hide

Attack and loot every enemy sentient creature you can find, such as goblins & kobolds. Develop sneaky and even horrific methods of trapping and 'processing' friendly sentients (merchants, diplomats, and even migrants). Take no prisoners and leave no evidence of foul play.

===City-States===
* All dwarves embark as peasants
* 7 or multiple of 7 of everything you bring (especially picks and axes)

At the start your dwarves split everything equally and move to 7 different locales that are not interconnected. They have to mine their own rooms, plant their own crops, use their own craft piles. This will probably require a bit of cross-fertilization until you get [[door]]s and can lock everyone in, but after that it is every dwarf for him/herself!

This challenge may be easier to perform after Burrows are implemented.

===Equaland===
* No embark requirements
* Construct a successful fortress
* All dwarves are given equal attention regarding quarters, dining, armament and burial
* One dwarf elected to be "The Leader" commands a lever system capable of killing a single dwarf of your choice in their room, however you wish
* Allow the Leader (your id) free reign on his power, enforcing impossible and unannounced criteria on your other dwarves with death being the only punishment

===Hermit===
* Spend points ONLY on ONE [[Pick]]

A well known and popular challenge. Kill off 6 starting dwarves and any [[immigrants]] as they arrive, and try to make a living for the last dwarf. Turn away merchants. If they don't leave, kill them.

'''Variants'''
To moderate difficulty, feel free to allow these exceptions:
* Keep one male and one female dwarf as the Dwarven Adam and Eve.
* Keep your starting seven, but no immigrants.
* Selectively admit dwarves based on name, profession, etc.
* Embark with an anvil as well.

===Hunting Party===
* One Marksman+Ambusher
* One Cook+Farmer
* One Brewer+Farmer
* Four exclusively social dwarves
* Embark with no anvil, many hunting dogs, into a challenging biome (terrifying areas may have no supply of wood)

===Immigration and customs enforcement===
* One miner/mason/architect
* One woodcutter/carpenter/architect
* Five military dwarves
* Embark into a canyon or on a road
* Don't embark with an anvil

Spend the first year building fortifications to interdict traffic. Immigrants can build a town around you, but your original seven dwarves remain dedicated to their mission (purely military in purpose).

==="Let Loose the Dogs of War"===
* No military Dwarves are permitted, including Fortress Guard.
* No weapons or armor may be forged, and any obtained from looting must be melted down.
* War dogs must be your only form of attack and defense.
** Bonus : No traps or defense mechanisms of any kind may be utilized, only dogs.

===28 Days Later===

*Embark at a terrifying biome(Scary Biome), make sure there are zombie somethings. Set up a five thick wall around your camp. Never leave the perimeters. All migrants would be wandering survivors, let them in or don't, as they might be infected.
*Bonus: If you have "reason" to believe the migrants are infected, sacrifice them to the Blood God. Remember he loves Magma.
*Bonus: Only Marksdwarves for defence, You shouldn't get near the zombies, as they bite.If they are wounded, they must be quarantined, and shall therefore die.
*AdvancedPlay: Add zombie to the creatures list and set them as [EVIL].
Bonus: Send one heroic guy to save the migrants from the zombies, like in 28 days later.
Remember Elves can not be trusted and should be treated as infectees, and should be Dwarven atom smashed(Magma and Chasms work equally well).(Note this is also true for normal Dwarf Fortress).
*Elf skin clothing anyone?
*Keep a diary from one of the characters perspectives, to be read when the world is repopulated.

===Master Of One===
Pre-Embark:
* All starting dwarves must have only one skill

Post-Embark:
* No changes are allowed on any dwarf's labor screen, except to ''disable'' hauling labors (enabling hauling is forbidden)
* All immigrants must stay with the profession(s) they arrive with
* All peasants must be activated into the military

'''Variant:'''
*Only allow one dwarf for each skill to remain in your fort (1 mason, 1 miner, 1 farmer, etc.). Slaughter or draft all other dwarves.

===Monarch with a grudge===
* Forbid any and all use of stone and metal
* No exposed tile may be labeled "Underground"
* Artifacts containing stone and metal are to be destroyed '''utterly''' (magma or the [[Dwarven_Atom_Smasher|DAS]])

"Nay, no ponderous stone doors or shining silver arcades, not while I live!"
The new king has decided rocks and metals can no longer be used in construction. He'll be overthrown shortly, but in the meantime construct your fortress without them.

'''Variants'''
* Embark with no construction materials, into an area devoid of trees.
* Construct a fortress made entirely out of glass. Try not using magma or limit yourself only to clear and crystal glass.
* Build with soap bars. Show those elven traders just how much you despise their philosophies by building with stuff derived from dead trees ''and'' dead animals. Cats are an excellent source of tallow.
* Choose one type of rock, one type of metal, one type of gem, one type of wood, and optionally one type of glass. All constructions can only use those types in their construction. An easy way to enforce this with stone is to mark all but your choice "Economical".
* Bonus points: Stone is forbidden along with digging

===Noblesse requiro===
* Construct a fortress only to please nobles (who, for the sake of this challenge, are all criminally psychotic)
* Criminals who deserve justice should be incarcerated, tortured, and executed for ''any'' offense. Use your imagination for every step of the process. Remember, there is no right to a fair and speedy trial in Armok's eyes.
* All Nobles must be treated to the highest quality living conditions
* All others must be treated to the bare minimum needed to physically keep them alive
* Elected nobles are to be treated as regular dwarves, but mandates hold equal sway regarding justice

===Sitting on trees===
* Construct a wooden "tree" or several, spanning many (a dozen or so) z-levels
* Establish a successful fortress not inside, but around, these constructed trees

===Stop, Hey, What's that Sound===
* (Optionally) Generate a world with abundant cave systems
* Establish a fort near a very large cave
* Imitate the role of "Angband", leading small parties inside on military excursions
* No more than 3 dwarves can enter at a time
* Siege equipment and other weapons (or dangerous contraptions) that a dwarf can't carry on him is forbidden when cave-exploring

'''Variants'''
* Only solo adventurers are allowed to enter the dungeon
* Only use 'Thieves' to steal loot and create traps inside the dungeon

===The Mad Butcher===
* One dedicated Butcher+Tanner
* Minimal supplies and skills, so you can bring...
* As many puppies and kittens you can afford
* All food-gathering skills (except your Butcher+Tanner and Brewing) are forbidden

Caging your animals will increase performance to prepare a suitable butchery. Construct a wide, deep shaft to be zoned as an animal pit. At the bottom, outfit an isolation chamber complete with food and alcohol stockpiles, a bed, a butchery and a tanner's workshop. An active well will prevent mishaps. You should include during the construction either an airlock chamber (to enable the butcher to pass on food) or a second pit where the butcher dumps his created food. After construction, seal your butcher+tanner inside and live only off of his work.

===The World is Flat===
* No pre-embark requirements
* You'll probably want a region with lots of hills/mountains.
* You may only work/build/live on the original Z level where your wagon was
* No moats allowed, as this requires a channel, which goes below your z-level

==="I guess it's up to us to repopulate the planet..."===
* Embark on a loner site - this means one where traders, siegers, migrants, etc. simply don't show up, ever.
* Kill five of your starting seven, leaving one male and one female.
* You will get no population influx in any way (ever!) aside from breeding. Uncertain if inbreeding is possible for more generations of dwarves - unlikely. Hope the McUrists are prepared for a big family...

===Hunter and Gatherer===
Pre-Embark (World-Gen)
* Try creating a world in year 1 (optional)
Post-Embark
* Everything allowed except Farming.
Bonus
* Embark in a desert, so only hunting and (aquifier) fishing.
** Extra Points: Dont fish in the aquifier. How could the turtles get there anyway?
** Create a huge pyramid and sacrifice living beings or valuables to Armok for rain by dropping it in the hollow inaccessible pyramid from the top.
*** Extended version: Fill the pyramid with magma!
** Create lines like the Nazca to honour Armok, so he will send some rain (maybe).

==Arbitrary Law==
Rule your fortress with a Soapen Fist! Or see how far you get until a (voluntary) significant flaw sends you into an inevitable sadness spiral. Whatever it is, be sure to stick by it or you'll be meeting the Hammerer.

===ASPCA===
* [[Animals]] are forbidden from the fortress
* Animals following immigrants cannot enter the fortress
* Lethal traps forbidden, caged non-sentients must be immediately released
* Butchery is forbidden, but leatherworking is allowed

Rather than forbidding immigrant pets from entering, you can choose to deal with the owner of that pet instead for a more sadistic challenge.

===Commune===
* After embarking, enable all labors on all dwarves (including immigrants)
* Beds can only be designated as barracks, and no dwarf can be assigned to a bed (even nobles)
* Coins are forbidden
* Be aware that nobles are to be considered part of the "bourgeoisie" and [[Unfortunate accident|dealt with]] immeadiatly

===Couples only===
* As soon as a married couple exists in your fortress:
** Kill all single dwarves
** Kill all incoming single dwarves
** Try to save children, until they are adult and single

===Dieting Dwarves===
* Exclusively dine on a food type of your choice (meat, fish, plants, alcohol)
* Optionally, forbid alcohol consumption to limit carbohydrate intake
**Note: forbidding alcohol permanently is as good as accepting a slow but continuous fortress death

===Dwarf Liberation Movement===
* Nobles are worthless scum, we give them nothing!
* As soon as possible, cage your expedition leader.
* Never appoint any dwarf into becoming a noble.
* Cage any dwarf that appears on the nobles and administrators screen.
* When your population elects a new mayor, release your old one and cage the new one.
** Bonus : Cage the king and all of his escorts!
** Extra Bonus : Once you have caged all nobles, administrators, the king and his advisor; you must unleash the Dwarf Atom-Smasher upon them.

===Fight for your name===
* Before embarking, randomly generate a fortress name and be sure to know its English translation
* Do the same with your group name
* Creatively designate a serious goal for your fortress, based on these names
* Fanatically reach your goal

===Fort Geneva===
* Lethal traps are forbidden
* Caged sentient creatures are to be considered prisoners of war and treated humanely

Suggested provisions for prisoners: a bed, a personal cell, a commons area, aboveground exercise yard, and the clothes the creature was wearing when captured. For more inspiration, go to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions Geneva Conventions]

===Government in Exile===
* Only Military and Social skills can be purchased and enabled in your entire fortress

All dwarves are either nobles or in the military. The only useful dwarves you'll have will be your broker, manager, mayor, bookkeeper, and dungeon master. If you can survive until the sheriff arrives, transfer your entire military into the fortress guard. With a little luck, and a lot of exported roasts, you too can rule without proletarian interference.

===Hardcore Altruism===
* Do not allow the death of any Dwarf

Though not viscerally entertaining, an incredible challenge. All strange moods must be given what they crave. All medical attention must be done ASAP. Mining, fishing and hunting must be done with much care. Sadness must be met with excellent social skills and quality furniture.

===Industrial Plant===
* Choose one industry that produces commercial goods
* No other industries permitted, only imported

===Johannesfort===
* Find a starting location with a lot of gabbro, containing Kimberlite
* Mine and cut all the diamonds on the map
* Only gems can be traded.

===Sexist Segregation===
* Establish two functioning and stable fortress
* One must be entirely male, the other entirely female
* Married couples are to be processed

===THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA!===
* At least half of your fortress population must be active in the military.
* Crossbows and traps are forbidden.
* Only spears, swords, wrestling, helmets (helms) and shields may be equipped by military and used to fight.
** BONUS: All weapons and armour must be made from bronze.
* Civilian dwarves have all labors enabled.
** If ever activated, cannot use quality weapons or armor.
* Maimed dwarves (perceived to be) incapable of being fully healed must be killed. (This includes incurable spinal injuries in military dwarves!)
* Devise methods of dropping Liaisons down pits during meetings. Yell, "THIS IS SPAARRTAAAAA..." at your monitor.
* Demand goods be turned over from all caravans.
* Recreation is forbidden, as well as any 'improving' action, such as smoothing/engraving, or constructing things out of metals what can be done with rock and wood (besides spears, swords and shields).

Note that the above suggestions are modeled on the popular movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film) 300], an adaption of the visual novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(comics) 300], both of which historically inaccurate. For a more "realistic dwarven Sparta", try reading the Wikipedia article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta#Society Spartan society].

===Mesoamerican Dwarfs===
* All food must be grown above ground, on small plots, surrounded by canals (chinampas)
** BONUS: Flood the farms annually.
* All buildings must be above ground.
* Capture as many of your enemies as possible.
* Build a massive step pyramid at the center of your fortress. Appoint one dwarf high priest and have him kill the prisoners at the top.
* Surround your fortress with an artificial lake.
** BONUS: Build it in the middle of a natural lake.
* Use only copper or bronze metal (except for iron anvils).
* Soldiers can only use obsidian short swords. Axes are only for wood cutting.
* No armor except leather and only let champions use it. All others must fight unarmored.
** BONUS: Divide your soldiers into "Jaguar[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_warrior]" and "Eagle[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_warrior]" warrior societies and outfit them with leather armor made from their respective animals.
* Demand that all non-dwarf caravans surrender their goods as tribute.
* Build a giant, multistory building for holding skulls.

==Megaprojects==
Instead of deliberately inhibiting yourself, create a wonder of the dwarven world that would make the Mountainhomes proud. Be sure to upload it to the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/ Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] when it's finished. More projects can be found where [[Stupid_dwarf_trick|stupid dwarves try crazy tricks]]. [[Mega construction|Incredible feats of construction]] are usually very [[Fun|fun]] so you'll see many different (and probably similar) constructions across the Wiki. Use whatever ideas you think are ingenious.

===Aqueducts===
For some reason, a noble was harmlessly pulling a lever when suddenly, magma flooded the river and exploded the booze! The king requires your band of seven to build a great aqueduct to bring water to the capital. Start with supports, and build up your aqueduct until it is 10 z-levels high!

BONUS: Start over a human town, build a wall around it, pump water through the aqueduct and into it!

===Biodome===
All material, seeds, food, tools, and dwarves must be in the fortress within one year. Then, seal up the entrance. Any new immigrants... well, they might be in trouble. Survive for as long as possible!

No chasms/underground rivers/magma vents allowed.

===Casting===
Who needs to construct giant statues?! We need ours made from natural walls, however, we want it above ground level as well. For casting your goal is to create some giant structure out of natural obsidian walls through the use of an extremely elaborate scaffold of lava and water pools and screw pumps. When you are finished, just deconstruct the scaffolding and smooth/engrave the statue as you go. Just imagine the bridge over that chasm, now complete with two giant dwarf statues on either side to strike fear into all who enter and to show them the power of your fortress.

BONUS: Make the statues spit lava.

===Castle===
Build a castle, greater than anything built by human, elf or dwarf. This is highly time
consuming if you want it to be a good castle. There must be floor indoors, and no underground
constructions except for mining operations and cellars. For an even greater challenge, build
a gigantic tower in the middle, where the nobles stay.

===Ceremonial Sacrifices===
Build an amazingly complex or spectacular killing device. A shaft that extends across the entire Z-plane is a good start. A constantly shifting maze of atomsmasher drawbridges is another. For the minimalist, a very confined space where you will drop a dwarf wrestler along with the gobbos once in a while. Perhaps a waterslide that carries your prisoner all the way down into a chasm? Whatever your idea, build it and dedicate your fort to the construction, maintenance and improvement of your device.

Do not kill any of your invaders. Capture them using cage traps, and them set them off in your device. Keep a record of the number of victims you drop into it.

BONUS: Create a statue garden to memorialize your victims, with one statue per victim. Structure your fortress such that sacrificial victims have to pass through the garden on the way to their demise.

===Computing===
Can your dwarves build the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera mechanism]? Can you program the fortress to play tic-tac-toe? More details at [[computing]].

===Colosseum===
Build a pit, around it on steps lots of Thrones, make the whole thing a meeting area, train Gladiators, capture goblins, leave them their weapons and let them fight against your gladiators. If they win, let them go.

===Crematory Fortress===
* Requires a [[magma pipe]] and [[bauxite]].

Build a temple structure above a [[magma pipe]] and [[engrave]] every available surface. The temple should be as opulent as possible. In the temple, build a retracting [[bridge]] over a hole in the floor, and designate a [[coffin]] [[stockpile]] on it. Whenever a dwarf dies, build a [[bauxite]] or other [[magma-proof]] [[coffin]] for him, place it on the [[bridge]], and retract it, committing his body to the [[magma|fiery blood of the mountain]].

::Note: Since coffins are unassigned and emptied when deconstructed and cannot be constructed on top of a bridge, this will not actually work. An alternative would be to place the coffins in individual chambers which can then be flooded with magma afterwards.

::: You could expose the magma pipe, build a one-tile wide floor span across it, and then above that build a support that holds up your temple floor on the z-level above. The temple floor would be separated from the walls of the temple and would be connected for walking access diagonally. The support holds it up. You would have to construct the coffins in the temple, then when someone gets buried you pull the lever attached to the support. You then rebuild the narrow span below, the temple floor, and the support, then link the lever to the new support.
::: You can do this without scaffolding if you build the temple floor access straight in, and then the span below and the support, then once the support is in place you destroy the straight temple access leaving only a diagonal temple access.

===Doomsday Clock===
Build a water or mechanical clock whose final state triggers the support which holds your fortress up or a megabeast out.
See how much wealth you can achieve before the clock runs out.
*Bonus: Create something that resets itself, as well as purging the map, so that you can reuse the same fortress over and over.
*Super-Bonus: Create something that involves pressure plates and a small kitten, when the pressure plates are hit in the right order, your map ends. Toss the kitten in and hope for the best. Alternatively, make the sequence quite unlikely, but add 2 kittens; breeding introduces a probability of doomsday that is a function of time (depending on the mechanisms involved)
*Super-Bonus: Create the super-bonus above, but place the kitten on the lowest Z-level and never return to either look at it or see how many of the conditions for the doomsday device have been met. This way, the kitty mimicks Schrodinger's cat: we cannot observe the state of the kitty, but we can infer it from the state of the world (spin-pairs effectively).

===Dwarf like an Egyptian===
*Build a pyramid of epic proportion.

Build a legendary dwarven pyramid, with a corridor running to a central tomb for your favourite noble. Then construct lots of different [[traps]] in it to avoid grave robbery. Perhaps build it entirely out of glass? Or try to make the top twist in a bit of a swirl. Alternatively, make your entire fortress inside a pyramid, which stretches below the ground.

*Build rows of Obelisks

Build a double row of Obelisks before the Pyramid, and engrave the sides. Build ramps on the tops.

*Build the whole thing upside down.
** And then another one on the upside-down one.

*When the time has come, or when your fortress is about to be destroyed by a siege etc perform the ceremony to translate the mortal form of the noble to the underworld. Give him a ritual death, and make sure you kill his servants as well. If the tomb is built for your king make every dwarf die but one, who inters everyone into their resting place. His final act will be to pull a level that seals the tomb as well as kills him. Then enjoy going back and reclaiming your fortress to observe your efforts.

===Graveyard Master===
Every dwarf deserves a decent resting place:
*Build a tomb for ever dwarf that dies, the more dwarves you manage to bury the better.
*Tombs must be rooms with exactly 5x5 of size and 1 of height, with only one entrance tile that must be closed by a door.
*Tombs must have all its surfaces engraved.
*Tomb must contain at least 4 statues.
*Once complete, the door must be locked and the tomb must not be ever entered again.

===How high can you go?===
Construction, construction, construction! Just how big a tower can you build? Out of glass maybe, clear glass? Steel? Pump water to the top? Make your tower a ''pinnacle'' of achievement and stun humans, elves and goblins alike - for they know nothing of construction and engineering like dwarves do!

===Land battleship===
Turn your mountain into a huge battle-station, complete with crew quarters, decks, command centre, cantina, and a large collection of deadly weapons : Batteries of marksdwarves, ballista cannons, catapults, boarding bridges and -teams, but also lava projector or remote explosive devices (ie cave-ins in a part of the map triggered by a lever). Make sure it ends up looking like a real battleship, with nothing but plains surrounding it (you could build it on an actual plain, or destroy a mountain, choice is yours). The battleship has to be autonomous, and dwarves shouldn't wander outside it.

*Bonus: The weaponry covers every tile of the map (i.e., everything that enters the map can be shot)
*Bonus: Build several other ships, maybe dedicated to a specific product (food, ammo etc.)
**Bonus: Find a way to let them fight each other in a naval battle
*Bonus: Each crew member has a civil and military formation, and when the enemy arrives, stop every economic activity. All hands to quarters !
*Mega Bonus: After building your Ship(s), flood the surrounding countryside.

===Moria===
Build a huge hall - at least 3 z-levels high. Leave few pillars symmetrically placed in the hall (don't build them, carve them out). Smooth and possibly engrave everything (not only the lowest z-level!). Then build thin bridge (not the bridge building, just a thin piece of rock to walk on) above magma - support it with bauxite supports connected to a lever (bauxite mechanisms needed in support). Destroy stone holding it at the both ends and replace it with floor hatches (so when you pull the lever it all goes down). After that build a bridge above the chasm.
When it's all done seal your dwarves deep inside in safe place and get invaded by goblins. At the same time dig out HFS. Lead the HFS across the both bridges and then collapse the second one when one of the champions clashes with it (it doesn't matter that the champion has killed the HFS with one hit).

===Mountain audit/core sample===
Start in a mountainous area and strip mine everything down, down, down to ground level. Stockpile everything, and calculate the mountain's composition. For kicks, try not excavating one tile on each z-level. You'll be left with one enormous core sample.

===Project Mayhem===

*You do not talk about project Mayhem
*Build a series of towers, at least 10 z-levels high, of different size and shape. They must be supported by a series of supports linked to a lever.
*Store all your riches in the towers : crafts, precious metal bars, gems, artifacts, everything. You may also want to house your nobles on top of the towers.
*Pull the lever and watch the collapse of financial history.

Bonus : make the towers' walls out of glass!

Bonus : Make soap! And remember, human fat is ideal...

===Santa Claus===
Get ten thousand toys built and offered to caravans yearly. Optionally, build ten thousand toys, fetch them in adventure mode and deliver them to every single city of the world.

===Skull collector===
What proves the might of a civilization better than a hall full of skulls?
*Try to collect as many skulls as you can during your fortress life, and put then in a special skulls-only storage. The more skulls the better.

BONUS: Cover all the skulls in blood, and make the stockpile also a throne room.
SUPERBONUS: Also fill the throne room with kittens.

===Space Ship===
Create a giant space ship fit for space travel. It should be able to hold about 100 dwarves for at least 2 years.

*BONUS: Use exploding [[booze]] as ignitable fuel.
*BONUS: Make a removable [[ramp]] for boarding.
*BONUS: Make the [[water]] for the 2 years be on the ship using removable pumps.
*BONUS+: Make it totally self sufficient. (Make an internal system which pumps the [[water]] supply through a room every few years to muddy the floor. Plant [[seed|seeds]] in the [[mud]] that's now on the floor. Manage your consumption to maintain self sufficiency.)
*Modding BONUS: Mod the game so that merchants can fly their new wagonships into your docking bays. ''(If possible)''
*BONUS+: Make it all out of [[steel]].
*[[fun|FUN]]: Let it be held by a single [[support]], ignite the [[booze]], remove the support an let it "fly".
*EVEN BETTER: Drop it down a chasm.
*More [[fun|FUN]]: Set up a mining operation on the surface and dig into the HFS. Watch the alien creatures take over your ship and hunt down your dwarves. Form a squad of heroes to overload the booze reactor to prevent the aliens from reaching earth. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Space_%28video_game%29 Dead Space] and/or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28film%29 the Alien series])

===Swiss Precision===
Build a working clock. The clock should accurately track DF days, months, and years.

Bonus Points:
*If the clock has a mechanical effect in the fortress proper to announce new days
*If the clock creates seasonally appropriate effects at the change of months and/or seasons.
*If the clock is used to aid in the operation of the fortress in addition to its role as a clock (automatically controls farmland irrigation at particular times, automatically opens the <s>blast doors</s> <s>floodgates</s> Magma Channels in time for merchants, etc...).
*If the clock governs the schedule of a working rail station (which is always on time). (Definitions of 'working' and 'rail station' are subject to player imagination).
*If the clock takes measures to protect itself. ''"I can't let you do that, Urist."''

But don't worry about the bonus points, a precision time device should be hard enough.

===Temple===
Designing a temple to Armok. Aesthetics count - the god will be very angry if there are no stained-glass windows and domed ceilings carved with frescoes. To gain more favor, make regular sacrifices and keep the fountains and rivers red with [[blood]].

===The cube===
Play a fort as usual, but emphasize catching goblins in cages to support and fill this construction:
Construct a series of rooms in a symmetrical fashion, all connected to each other with appropriate doors. Of course, enough rooms to make a maze-like structure, and if you feel like it, an exit that is hard to reach. Fill a bunch of the rooms with traps and pressureplates. Then fill one room with 4-6 goblins (preferably in cages, opened by an outside lever), release them and watch them randomly walk around the rooms dying to traps and whatnots.

*Bonus: Do multiple story maze (3d-maze)
*Bonus: Use pressureplates to open/close the exit randomly; otherwise, all the goblins will just follow the shortest route to the exit.

===The great brewery===
Disaster has struck the kingdom. A strangely glowing [[Fire|‼]]<nowiki></nowiki>peasant[[Fire|‼]] visited the greatest brewery of the empire, and as a result the whole thing exploded. No time for weeping — create its successor, a fort dedicated to alcohol production, and get the alcohol supplies flowing! Try to make the widest variety possible, and give or trade it to the dwarven [[caravan]] each year.

===The Great Wall of Urist===
Build a dwarven great wall of china that splits the map in half. Must be at least 10 tiles thick and reach the highest z-level.
* BONUS: Make it block the <s>mongols</s> goblins out of your half of the map.
* BONUS: Make it out of obsidian.
**BONUS+: Embark on a map without obsidian.
* BONUS: Find a way to make it touch the boundaries.
* BONUS: Build one gate
* BONUS: Arm it with ballistas.

===The Monolith===
As the inevitability of a fortress-wide mental breakdown looms over every single fortress why not have something that alludes to that precipice of [[insanity]]. Like the book and feature film, 2001: A Space Odyssey you must have a Monolith. This has to be made from [[obsidian]] and have a completely smooth surface (You cannot build it from blocks) You can have it be any size as long as it is outside, at least 2 tiles thick to ensure there are no pillar tiles, and has about the same ratio of width to height as it does in the movie (1:4:9) to make it as close to the real thing as possible. It would be preferable to make it large so that it seems to be dominating the landscape and your dwarves' psyche. The bigger the better.

*If the rock obsidian strata isn't deep enough in parts to make a monolith feasible consider casting a monolith with a large rectangular block in the exact same dimensional criteria as above.

===Statue of greatness===
Build a giant statue, spanning 10-20 z-levels and make it in the shape of say, a dwarf you like or an animal you like.
* Bonus: make it in the shape of a teapot that has a working boiling system and a spout that water can come out of.

===Underwater fortress===
Encase your entire fortress in [[water]]! Your fortress should be watersealed: surrounded by water against all [[wall]]s and the top of the fortress.
* Bonus: Build all water-touching walls/roof in clear glass!
* Bonus: Use [[magma]] instead of water!
* Bonus: Build it in the [[ocean]] or a non-freezing lake
* Bonus: Build large glass domes that encase the fortress. A dome 20 tiles wide should be 20 z-levels tall. Which may be hard to cover in water.
** NOTE: Actually, a dome 20 tiles wide should be 10 tiles tall, or less, since the steepest dome will be only semi-spherical, and most domes will start out at an angle anyway.
* Bonus: Have a mechanism for dropping your enemies into the water to drown! Or fill the water with carp.
* Mod: Make your dwarves amphibious and include airlocks between the wet fortress and the dry.
* Remake: Make Rapture city from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock Bioshock]

===Wealth===
The kingdom's coffers need lining, so hop to! Found a fort and start accumulating wealth as fast as possible. Attain as high a fortress value as possible, and make most of your wealth into coins for the vault. Try to beat your record for one year, two years, or five years.

===World Domination===
Pretend you are an evil mastermind. Now come up with some device or machine to render the world (or at least your portion of the map) totally unlivable, aside from, of course, your hidden lair.

You will receive bonus points for making a more realistic World Domination setup. Some suggestions:

* Make one dwarf the evil mastermind. The evil mastermind will have no empathy whatsoever, and they will hate all other races, and put no value on the lives of his minions. Protect him at all cost. If he should die, switch his position to his oldest child (who will avenge his father, because insanity is hereditary.) or the most insane, diabolical dwarf in your fort.
* Impractical, overkill solutions to everyday problems ("Sir, the dungeon master wants a better room" "Well then turn his room into a tomb and flood it with magma, and do not bother me with such trivial matters again or I will have you shot.")
* Give the evil mastermind a pet to obsess over. Give it a name like Mr. Bigglesworth or Snuggles.
* Have a science lab. Use living creatures and people as test subjects.

Doomsday device suggestions:
* Flood the map with water/magma (may require building walls around the edge of the map)
**BONUS: the water has carp in it.
* Build an "Earthquake Machine" (the entire map is supported by a single support, which is connected to a lever)
* Build an extensive holding cell network for "scientific purposes". Fill it with megabeasts and <s>elephants</s> unicorns in secret. Have a lever that lets everything free to feed on the general population.
* Embark in an evil area, and capture and tame all those undead animals if possible to create your own undead army
* Bonus: Eliminate the dwarves who constructed your device before you set it off. They must not be allowed to warn the rest of the citizens.
* Build an orbital weapons platform in space (which should be 12-15 stories above the ground, use your imagination), then arm it with magma bombs (droppable tank of magma) to glass the planet, rendering it uninhabitable for a few years.
* You can also recreate the most evil society in history and try a Nazi-dwarf concentration camp.


[[Category:Guides]]

=== The Grand Treasury ===
At first, have the king come to you. Then excavate a laaarge room and fill it with i.e.: Lots of coins, shiny gems, artifacts, golden statues, silver mugs, etc. pp. But the king is still not satisfied with his possessions, so he wants more and more shiny and sparky things.
Of course sooner or later (probably sooner) those filthy kobolds and goblins will come and try to steal this enormous hoard. We must never tolerate this! Turn your treasury into a strongroom like the world has never seen before! Secret doors, traps in abundance, guards at every door, ballistae, guard dogs, the whole program. If anything gets lost, you have proven your incompetence, and the king will have your fortress abandoned and founded another to guard his treasures.

*Bonus: Build up the treasury and raid it successfully in Adventure Mode

=== Heaven ===
Build a dwarven version of heaven. Every dwarf must want to come to you! Important pieces:
# Streets paved with gold.
# The mindless hordes are held back by pearly gates -- or at least a close equivalent. Marble doors with diamond encrustations.
# No dwarves die (except for criminals). Heaven is everlasting.
# All criminals must be cast into the fires of Hell. Ideally, this would either be HFS or the bottom of a magma pipe.
# Nothing is ever stolen. St. Peter doesn't screw up.
# After the King has arrived, any male children he has must be sent out to fight sieges alone.

BONUS: No dwarves are ever unhappy -- no tantrums and no insanity. 
BONUS: When migrants arrive at the pearly gates, view their thoughts and preferences and only allow those with a similar/same Diety as your population. 
BONUS: Make Heaven 10 stories above the ground 
Mod: Make Angel dwarves and a godly being. (suggestions: Cacame, Morul, Ironblood.) 
ULTRABONUS: Make Heaven in the air, an earthly society on the ground (a wooden town perhaps?), and carve the HFS place into Hell, complete with a lake of Magma/fire.Look up the character of every dwarf and send him to the appropriate place. 
MEGABONUS-(Re)Make: The Seven Seals have been broken and the Apocalypse arrives.
# The Sky darkens (an obsidian ceiling spanning over the map).
# Meteors (opened lava tanks and cave-ins) devastate the earth.
# All bodies of water turn bloody.
# Dig into the HFS and have a battle between Heaven and Hell. 

=== City of Ember ===
Show those filthy humans that when dwarves build a secret underground refuge, they build to last! In other words, recreate Ember from the film "City of Ember" (yes, everyone is aware there is a book), but do it right - none of these leaking pipes and crumbling buildings stuff, after only two and a half centuries underground!
# Mine out a massive cavern multiple z-layers high , and build a human-style city underneath it instead of carving out various chambers.
# You must seal it off. How long you wait to do this is up to you, but once it is sealed, you cannot unseal it for at least 200 years (if you decide to play that long). Ideally, use a utility to embark with a full set of dwarves (to represent the immigrating population) and seal the city off within one year of embarking.
# Build individual houses with their own dining rooms and bedrooms. Multiple dwarves can live in one house, but usually only a single family will live in one house.
# Build streets connecting all of the buildings, in the way that in the film, Ember didn't really have any space that wasn't either paved or built on until you got to the outskirts of the city.
# Have a "greenhouse" out on the outskirts for farming.
# You MUST have an underground river and use it for power.
# You MUST have magma and use it for power.
# Build City Hall, where the mayor has his office, with a nice fountain out front that actually works (probably involving water pressure, and as a testament to the fact that dwarves do it better, and their underground refuge isn't running desperately short of food, water, or power).
# No military, because there is simply no need for one, but have a fortress guard (to function as police, basically).
# After 200 or more years, unseal the city and colonize the surface.

BONUS: Instead of building your houses/other structures out of blocks or rocks, plan it all out beforehand and simply don't dig out the tiles that you want to be the walls of buildings, and smooth it all down so it looks the same, but your buildings are actually made out of solid natural rock. 
BONUS: Actually cause some kind of catastrophe on the surface (flood it with magma or something) that makes it uninhabitable, to FORCE yourself to stay underground, but when you unseal the city after 200 years, the surface should have healed and be habitable again. So, don't do something permanent.

User talk:Newtype0083

2010-02-22T04:33:04Z

Newtype0083: Created page with 'Hello everyone. Started playing last summer ('09) and have really enjoyed the game so far. Cannot wait for the new version to come out and hope the bugs will be a to a minimum. …'

Hello everyone. Started playing last summer ('09) and have really enjoyed the game so far. Cannot wait for the new version to come out and hope the bugs will be a to a minimum.

Mostly I tend to tidy up articles, fix grammar mistakes, and try to organize information in more intuitive ways.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this wiki. It has been incredibly useful in all of my games.

40d Talk:Weapon

2010-02-19T15:22:54Z

Newtype0083:

Are the bows and blowguns melee or ranged? -- [[User:Bovinepro|Bovinepro]]

:Both. When they run out of ammo the dwarves will beat their enemies to death with their bows. The listed damage is for when that happens. --[[User:Ikkonoishi|Ikkonoishi]] 17:15, 4 November 2007 (EST)

----

What about damage done by artifact weapons? Is it x2 like masterwork items?

:The exact damage bonus granted by artifact weapons is unknown, though it's quite likely much higher than a masterwork, if the value is any indicator. It's difficult to determine the exact bonus, as it's not in the raws, Toady hasn't told us, and it's very difficult to gauge exactly how much damage a weapon is dealing due to how little is known about the combat calculations in general. --[[User:Hesitris|Hesitris]] 07:31, 18 November 2007 (EST)

== Conflicting Info? ==

Earlier on, we say that dwarves can't wield bows because they are too big. Down in the tables, the bow is listed as two handed and not unwieldable. Need to correct one or the other (I'm too lazy to verify that in the current version bows are still unwieldable.) --[[User:TheUbie|TheUbie]] 06:20, 28 November 2007 (EST)

:Well, a bow is two handed and unwieldable to dwarves, do you mean in adventure mode with humans/elves? I think most of this data is fortress mode specific. --Gotthard 18:15, 28 November 2007 (EST)

::I didn't write the article, so I don't know it's original intention, however there are other weapons that can be wielded 2 handed by humans and others in adventure mode, but are listed as unweildable by dwarves. Need to choose to make the table fortress specific, adventure mode specific, or add another col and make it specific to both. As it stands now, it doesn't make sense. --[[User:TheUbie|TheUbie]] 18:54, 29 November 2007 (EST)

:::I'm almost certain this is dwarf specific, because I had some goblin axemen siege my base, and one of them was wielding a great axe in one hand, and a shield (not even a *buckler*) in the other hand. I think I saw the same thing with a halberd, but a pike was multigrasped. Looks like goblins have a lot more options than our poor dwarves. --Gotthard 12:16, 30 November 2007 (EST)

:::As another issue I just noticed, my hammerer came equipped not with a hammer, but a *maul*. Seems that spawned creatures can use whatever they are spawned with, but telling them to equip items they can't use is the problem. Purely speculative, but it would account for goblins with two handed axes and shields, as well as my hammerer with the maul (which was AWESOME by the way...) --Gotthard 04:34, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

== Pike ==

I been able to wield a bronze pike with an adventurer in 23a and it was quite deadly. This need to be verified. Maybe there is a strength requirement? --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 14:43, 28 November 2007 (EST)

== Whips and scourges ==

So, I'm guessing that you can't assign dwarves to use whips and scourges unless you've traded for one, right? And on the article for [[Scourge]] it says it's deadlier than a whip (which currently has no page)... Does that mean scourges are better in every way? What's worse? --[[User:Penguinofhonor|Penguinofhonor]] 21:03, 1 December 2007 (EST)

:Did you actually read the tables? It does 10 more damage, and is the same in everything else. Dwarves can't become lashers. There are no lasher option in the military settings... --[[User:Nitem4re|Nitem4re]] 14:13, 4 December 2007 (EST)

I have a complaint... Reading this wiki gave me the impression that whips and scourges were weak weapons and that it would require several for them to be noticeable. So it was that I came upon the idea of using a small number of scavenged and traded whips and scourges in weapon traps at the extremity of my fortress to weaken incoming attackers and to slow retreaters, hoping that if they got lucky and killed one it would probably bleed to death after safely leaving the trap. What I did not expect was rivers of blood, corpses piled 4 deep and exploding goblins. While I missed the event it would appear that a head travelled up one Z-level, west 8 X-levels and north 10 Y-levels, whilst a lower body travelled up 2 Z-levels, west 6 X-levels and south 2 Y-levels. I can only assume that they collapsed from the pain and were pulled into the mechanism...

My haulers are demanding an apology for the mess they need to clean up, perhaps a note could be made indicating that whips can be effective(and messy) despite their low damage values...

It is this sort of thing that makes me glad that the thoughts "horrified by an unfathomable scene of carnage" and "Saw something unnatural happen to a fellow living creature" have not yet been implemented...
[[User:RAM|RAM]] 04:56, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

:How many did you put in the traps? Even crappy weapons like whips will obliterate an enemy when you have a bunch of them all hitting simultaneously. --[[User:LegacyCWAL|LegacyCWAL]] 16:17, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

::Odd, I could have sworn that I liked to a movie of me examining the area, it is 3 1-deep rows of traps in a 3-wide corridor, the first row each have 1 low-quality bronze whip, second row each have 1 no-quality iron scourge and the third row each have 1 iron and 1 bismuth bronze whip, with one trap having an additional bronze whip. The mechanisms are good quality but it doesn't really seem to be alot to me, but I am new to DF...

::Here [http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1170-scarywhips] is the movie, I must say that this is very effective for stopping sieges, my goblins are unmodified, and they don't seem to have any trolls or beak dogs, but(if I recall correctly) in a recent siege this setup left me with 23 goblin corpses(and about 25 body parts) and only 3 traps clogged, with no goblins reaching any other defences(I think some made it through but ran back because of injuries and goblins dying behind them), funnily enough it was the single weapon traps that did most of the clogging...[[User:RAM|RAM]] 14:38, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

:::Hrm. Most of the goblins are unarmored wrestlers, and most of the rest are poorly-armored archers. By the time they got to the third row, they had taken multiple hits from gore-damage weapons (and one of the third row of traps had some really nasty ones in it). Whips and scourges don't do a lot of damage, but they do cause pain and bleeding. That doesn't matter too terribly much against heavily-armored soldiers who can shrug off a couple blows, but it doesn't take many hits like that to make a werestler bleed to death. And if the traps weren't clogging up much, most of the goblins would've taken a lot of hits, which with gore damage would really add up. I also see that several goblins made it to the stonefall traps. If it took that long to break them, then the odds are good that many made it past the traps, broke, and ran back across the traps for another go. With that many hits, even whips and scourges can overwhelm a metal-armored soldier. Long story short, it was pretty much an absolute best-case scenario for whips and scourges, making lots of attacks against poorly-armored targets ;) --[[User:LegacyCWAL|LegacyCWAL]] 16:14, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

== Unorthodox weapons ==

Is there any information on unorthodox weapons such as coins and loincloths? For instance, are the material and crafting value taken into account, and what is the base damage of the item? [[User:Patarak|Patarak]] 04:13, 13 February 2008 (EST)

:"Unortodox" weapons are not really weapons. However, since ''absolutly anything thrown is deadly in the curren fight code'', a lot of people use about anything in adventure mode. This is how coins became popular as a throwing weapon. Part because it's as deadly as anything else and very light which mean you can carry a lot around, part because it is a weapon used in other ascii or rogue like games. You could throw butterfly corpses and mud around and it would be just as deadly as coins. --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 17:52, 13 February 2008 (EST)

:Well, you don't even have to throw them for them to be deadly. I know of a cyclops that had managed to wrestle a full waterskin from one of my adventurers and beat several of them to death with it, greatly amplifying the damage it was doing. --[[User:Toastdieb|Toastdieb]] 21:26, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Does anybody know the actual damage values for improvised weapons? I just picked up a chunk of raw adamantine and killed a tentacle demon in a matter of seconds.--[[User:Igfig|Igfig]] 11:41, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
:(In Fortress or Adventure mode?)
:(Adventure. I doubt it matters for the values though.)

== Great axe ==

I'm not saying dwarves can wear it, but the dead goblin over there wore one, and even a shield too..if I can get 5 minutes of peace from this annoying little buggers i will try to let one of my dwarves wear it..--[[User:Koltom|Koltom]] 21:40, 3 March 2008 (EST)

:You're lucky. You get alot of goblins! I want some! Can you send some over?--[[User:CrazyMcfobo|CrazyMcfobo]] 18:16, 10 April 2008 (EDT

== Weapons ==

Clicking the links of some of the types of weapons redirects back to weapons. --[[User:Chrispy|Chrispy]] 21:07, 10 April 2008 (EDT)
:This is a feature called a redirect. If you want to then go ahead and create enough of an article that nobody reverts it back to a redirect. For a lot of weapons there isn't that much of a need for a seperate article, but the redirect will point someone back to a place they can find out what they need to know.[[User:GarrieIrons|GarrieIrons]] 00:21, 10 June 2008 (EDT)

== Trap components as weapons ==

"There are a few enormous weapons that no race can wield..." 
I beg to differ. In Adventure mode, at least in "Play Now", you can in fact pick these things up and hit people with them. I dunno if they come with lots of negatives for being a stupid weapon, but I know I've used an enormous wooden corkscrew to fight troglydites before. That, and a barrel of dwarven wine.
--[[User:Dadamh|Dadamh]] 11:19, 2 June 2008 (EDT)

:I know that adventurers can do things that shouldn't be possible. Other creatures are technically capable of doing those things, but their code won't ask them to do them. --[[User:Savok|Savok]] 12:51, 2 June 2008 (EDT)

::I'll say. In adventure mode, you can carry around and throw anvils at enemies. It does no more damage than sand and you'll have the speed of a glacier, but it's hilarious. I suspect, though, that improvised weapons are as effective as unarmed attacks. I'll have to check on that though. --[[User:Smartmo|Smartmo]] 15:45, 13 January 2009 (EST)

== Possible bug with long swords in 40d (not wieldable in two hands) ==

Today I traded for two wooden longswords and set two new recruits to use them for sparring.
The recruits continually go pick up the swords ("Pickup Equipment") and then instantly drop the weapon on the ground. It doesn't matter whether they are on duty or not, actually.

Is it possible this is a bug in 40d? Is it possible that oversized weapons that the article lists as being wieldable in two hands actually require a certain amount of strength attribute? Or is it that the article is just completely mistaken on long swords as being wieldable by dwarves using both hands? Any thoughts or input would be nice.
--[[User:Jpwrunyan|Jpwrunyan]] 01:02, 11 February 2009 (EST)

:If I recall, someone somewhere mentioned that setting a dwarf to use two weapons will permit them to hold two-handed weapons. I'm yet to confirm is this works, since I've not got any two-handed weapons available.--[[User:Quil|Quil]] 12:28, 11 February 2009 (EST)

::Ok, thanks. Stupidly, in a moment of frustration I abandoned the fortress. I will also try to confirm this again. If it's true, that info definately needs to be in the article...--[[User:Jpwrunyan|Jpwrunyan]] 00:35, 12 February 2009 (EST)

My dwarves won't use the longswords I loot off goblins. If I set them to use Two Weapons, they'll just pick up two short swords instead. Curiously, one of them had two obsidian short swords in the ''same hand.'' Predictably, he is now resting in the barracks with a broken arm. --[[User:Loyal|Loyal]] 16:47, 30 December 2009 (EST)

==Unusual materials==
I was hoping to make some wooden weapons for sparring, but I don't seem to be able to make anything but the enormous trap components and bolts out of wood. Am I missing something, or can dwarves only make bolts from wood, and other wooden weapons have to be traded for/looted?
Along the same lines, it'd be really nice to know more specifically what the "handful" of weapons are that can be made of other materials, and what materials each can be made from. If anyone can verify that info here I'll try and add it into the article. (I'll find out what I can, but have no access to obsidian atm). [[User:Kirig Stonebeard|Kirig Stonebeard]] 19:32, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

:That "handful" of weapons is just bolts (wood or bone), crossbows (wood or bone), and stone short swords (1 wood + 1 obsidian, just as deadly as steel). Anything else has to be imported. The good news is that you can make weapons out of silver, which is just as bad as wood when it comes to hurting things. It's expensive as hell, but sparring weapons are sparring weapons. --[[User:LegacyCWAL|LegacyCWAL]] 19:44, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

::Thanks Legacy, the way I was reading the article I was SURE there must be others and I was just missing something on how to manufacture them. It seems to me that list is short enough to be specific about, so I'll go ahead and edit it in (and probably steal your concise formatting) to make it clearer (unless someone objects).
::Thanks also for the tip on silver; I was planning to check the table right after I checked here. I do have some galena on my current map but it might be a while til I can reach it... since the elves are mostly bringing me useless junk and haven't appointed a liason, I might just go with copper weapons and iron/steel armor and cross my fingers.
::On the bright side though, they're bringing me plenty of tamed bears in case I decide to forge a few tricycles, sew a few fezs and start a circus! [[User:Kirig Stonebeard|Kirig Stonebeard]] 05:06, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

==Overall best trap weapon==

Disregarding material, which weapon would work the best for a weapon trap? ''(unsigned by [[User:Lemonpieman|Lemonpieman]])''
:Simply put, there is no single "best". If the creature has internal organs, the spiked ball (3 piercing attacks) can achieve a lucky (if not immediate) kill. The giant axe is the meanest, dishing out huge amounts of damage and can severe limbs - and even a zombie GCS is less dangerous without a leg or four. The corkscrew and serrated disk are in between, each w/ diff crits as above. A spike has some special uses that are unique to that. Slashing weapons tend to leave body parts that dwarfs want to clean up. Decide what you want to kill (or maim), and what its weak points are, and base your decision off of that. (and sign your posts)--[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 12:05, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

:: [[Cages]]. They're one enemy removed automatically, no matter how powerful. (Of course, since they're one-shot traps, it's probably best to back them up with row after row of serrated discs, spiked balls, and axe blades). And we can't forget the importance of using weapons that your dwarves can't, like mauls, to add a bit of an unpleasant surprise. --Count Dorku

== Weapons dwarves can use in Fortress mode ==

Dwarves can't be assigned to use two handed weapons (except the crossbow), whips and daggers. Can they use the Scimitar, Flail and Morning Star, a sword and maces if the fortress manages to get a hold of them?--[[User:Seaneat|Seaneat]] 19:52, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

:Yes on scimitar.

:Funny thing: If you set a soldier to sword and only long swords are available, he will run in circles picking it up, trying to equip, drop it, walk away, turn back, pick it up, trying to equip, drop it...unless you set number of weapons to 2 - then it works! --[[User:Birthright|Birthright]] 02:07, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

::While a dwarf can use a mace (among others), it isn't one of the "basic" weapons, that dwarfs can manufacture. That's how those tables are set up atm, not "usable/not usable". Mace should not have been moved (or the tables re-sorted). I'd rather see basic/foreign weapons, w/ notes as to whether they're usable or not, and how.--[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 03:11, 15 September 2009 (UTC)
:::Er what? Look at your forge or a random dwarf. I guess you mixed up [[mace]] with some other weapon. [[Macedwarf]] is a perfectly normal [[skill]]. --[[User:Birthright|Birthright]] 10:26, 15 September 2009 (UTC)
::::...I gotta stop smokin' crack while I'm editing, clearly. I guess that since the stats 100% ''identical'' to a hammer, I had put it in the same category as morningstar or scimitar in my mind. nm. <goes back to hittin' the pipe> --[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 16:15, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

== Blowgun damage ==

Wait, is it just me, or do blowguns do ''more'' damage in melee than they do in ranged combat? What's up with that? I know the darts are small and all, but WHAT.– [[template:unsigned|unsigned]] comment by [[User:KoboldInDisguise|KoboldInDisguise]]
:I'd guess it's intended as a poison delivery system, a part of combat not (yet?) implemented. For all those scorpion and spider and etc venoms we see in trade that have no (current) use.--[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 15:01, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

== Two Weapons ==

Does the two weapon setting allow dwarves to dual-wield or do they use one weapon with both hands?
--[[User:Newtype0083|Newtype0083]] 15:22, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

40d Talk:Dwarven weapon

2010-02-19T15:14:17Z

Newtype0083: /* Pick Breakage */

==Old Discussions==
Moved from individual Talk pages when articles were condensed here:

===Pick===
I think I have noticed a speed difference when using steel picks over coppers ones. Although it may have just been because of a different map due to stone type/fps/miner stats. Not sure how to test this accurately. [[User:Jikor|Jikor]] 04:54, 10 January 2008 (EST)

:To bypass FPS issues, use single-stepping {{k|.}} --[[User:N9103|Edward]] 22:33, 10 January 2008 (EST)

:Maybe just make two absolutely unskilled miners with different picks, and order them to mine two parallel hallways? If they won't be distracted, it'll be a perfect speed comparer for miners $) --[[User:Dorten|Dorten]] 05:06, 10 January 2008 (EST)

::Obviously you'll want to ensure that two 'identical' runs of stone are isolated from each other. The runs of stone should be quite long indeed, and I would recommend a number ultimately divisible by 100 or more. I would also avoid having any two designated tiles accessible at the same time (diagonal corners). Reveal and walling should make this rather easy to test. And paired with single-stepping, it should be clear once and for all if there's a difference. --[[User:N9103|Edward]] 22:33, 10 January 2008 (EST)

:::That sounds so complicated. Unless the difference is negligible (in which case, it's probably not real), I would think speed differences would show up after 20-50 squares (and unskilled miners will not get through 100 without having to eat/drink first). All in all, it should be easy to test. ''But'', [[encumbrance]] can be a factor too. I'm not sure what the encumbrance rules and item weight formulas are in the new versions.--[[User:Maximus|Maximus]] 23:30, 10 January 2008 (EST)

You can have adamantine picks too.
--[[User:Armrha|Armrha]] 03:20, 27 October 2008 (EDT)

===Spear===
==== Critical bonus? ====
+2 chance out of what? Shouldn't this information be given in a neutral format, such as a percentage? Either that or there should be a link to a page explaining the combat mechanics. --[[User:Geofferic|Geofferic]] 02:16, 13 December 2007 (EST)
:The combat mechanic itself is too purely understood for now to say anything better then to compare which weapon has bigger number and so is better at certain things. Of course the +2 number can be substituted with a verbal description that would still mean exactly the same. :( --[[User:Another|Another]] 08:19, 13 December 2007 (EST)

==== Other materials? ====
Um, my craftsdwarf just got possessed, and he made a bone spear. "this is a rhesus macaque bone spear, highest quality craftsdwarfship, adorned with hanging rings of birch. does anyone how much damage it will do? is it even possible? [[User:Destor|Destor]] 10:26, 28 September 2008 (EDT)
: Even though you can't make weapons out of bone normally (except bolts), it uses the same mod as wood (which is 50%). The modifier for being an artifact weapon is somewhere in the neighborhood of x3 (I think, I don't have and can't find any good data on it). So the artifact spear should be doing around 150 damage.

:People who have poked okay, peeked through the game's memory values suggest that artifacts and masterpieces have the same "quality" value, which probably means just x2 damage. We really need to ask Toady one of these days just to settle the question once and for all.--[[User:Maximus|Maximus]] 00:27, 29 October 2008 (EDT)

== Unarmed to Pick use ==

''(I'm posting this for a (truly) anonymous user, for general consumption.)''

...one of my miners was killed by cave pool creatures... I then recruited everyone else and sent them down there. While they were fighting, I suddenly had the idea to assign one of the recruits the mining labor, to see if that dwarf would use the discarded pick. That recruit then picked up the pick and continued fighting, somewhat contrary to the wiki stating that the dwarf must have the pick when recruited. What's more, THAT RECRUIT BECAME A DABBLING MINER. ...I don't think it's really recognized (granted, it's not particularly useful to know) that a dwarf can learn to mine by plunging a pick into living flesh. I mean, mechanically it's a logical conclusion, but it's just so bizarre to see it actually happen... 
''via'' --[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 20:49, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

== Pick Breakage ==

Do picks break? I've had a miner suddenly have to go get equipment in the middle of digging. I hadn't been keeping tabs on my number of picks...--[[User:Aescula|Aescula]] 10:01, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

: I've never seen one break, even the crappy copper picks that you start with. As far as I know tools and weapons don't wear out, unlike clothing or food. Armor might also be immune to this, at least the metal varieties, as leather armor might be considered the same as leather clothing. Even adamantine clothing wears out, or so says the wiki. Is it possible you had them assigned to some other labor at the same time and they decided to go do that instead? --[[User:Newtype0083|Newtype0083]] 15:14, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

40d:Wound

2010-02-19T14:36:03Z

Newtype0083: /* Nervous system */ Lopped-off eyes prevent melee sparring

[[Creatures]] with severe '''wounds''' will flash with a yellow or red + icon; see [[status icons]] for a full list of status and injury indicators. A creature's injuries can be seen by pressing {{key|w}} while {{key|v}}iewing creature info in [[Fortress Mode]], or by {{key|l}}ooking at a creature and selecting their letter in [[Adventure Mode]]. Wounds are listed by body part and described by color, as displayed in the following table.

::{| border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1 style="background: black"
|-
| '''unhurt'''
|-
| '''lightly wounded'''
|-
| '''moderately wounded'''
|-
| '''broken'''
|-
| '''mangled'''
|-
| '''lopped off'''
|}

:''Note that "lightly wounded" is '''light''' grey, and "lopped off" is '''dark''' grey - these can sometimes be easy to confuse.''

== Wounding ==

:''This section is incomplete; much about the [[Combat| combat system]] is unknown.''

If an attack connects, the target will be wounded in some part of the body. The severity of the wound depends on 1) the strength of the attack, 2) the protective value of any [[armor]] or other protection available for that body part, and 3) a (large) random factor. Wounds are cumulative: when an already wounded body part is hit the wound will worsen, even if in adventure mode it produces the same message about the condition of the body part more than once.

The mathematics are at present pure guesswork. However, we do know that armor value does not simply subtract from damage; you can be wounded (usually lightly) by an attack substantially weaker than the protective value of your armor. Armor is vital to survivability, but it can't make you immune. Creature size is also vital; larger creatures hit harder and can endure more base damage. Attacks, especially piercing attacks with critical boosts (e.g. arrows), can damage vital internal organs located in the area of that body part.

== Effects of wounds ==

When a wound is inflicted, no matter how lightly, it will usually bleed (even if only for one turn). In [[Fortress Mode]], wounded dwarves receive various unhappy [[thoughts]], but also some positive thoughts from the rescue and recovery process (see next section).

A wounded limb or organ becomes less effective. A severe wound to an arm or hand causes held items (weapons, shields) to be dropped from that hand. Wounds to either leg often cause the target to topple over, greatly slowing it down. Pierced lungs make it easier to become Winded. Damaged internal organs often cause the victim to periodically become stunned or unconscious until they heal (which in some cases never happens).

Death from [[Blood|blood]] loss will happen quickly whenever wounds to major internal organs occur, like the heart being pierced or "entrails shooting out through the wound". In [[Adventure Mode]], a "Mortal Wound" status indicator will appear when this happens to your adventurer. There is no way to avoid this. A pierced lung doesn't always result in bleeding to death, but it may eventually cause suffocation, or dying of thirst due to Drink actions being interrupted by falling unconscious. [[Attributes#Toughness|Toughness]] may be a factor in helping to prevent this.

Other effects of wounding (for most creatures) include pain, which can cause temporary paralysis due to fainting ("giving in to pain"), [[vomit]]ing, and stunning (slowing), especially if the creature is not very Tough.

Stunning seems to also inhibit a dwarf's social skills, such as [[Judge of Intent]].

=== On organs ===

When a creature is attacked with a piercing [[weapon]] or projectile, organs might take damage. This table shows most major organs, their functions, and what happens when they are damaged.

:{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|- style="background: black; color: white;"
! Organ !! Function !! '''lightly'''/| '''moderately wounded''' effects !! '''broken'''/ '''mangled''' effects !! '''lopped off''' effects
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Heart || Circulatory Organ || Not possible || Fatal Heavy Bleeding when pierced, death can occur fast. ''Can only be mangled.'' Can only be broken metaphorically. || Not possible
|- style="padding: 1px;"
|| Brain || Movement || Bleeding, possibly becoming Winded. Usually not fatal || Paralysis. Weapons get dropped, limbs become useless, inability to stand. The only attack possible is 'Push' || Decapitation, or other gory head explosion effects, naturally, cause instant death.
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Throat || Breathing || Bleeding, possibly becoming Winded || Heavy Bleeding and becoming Winded. Lethality depends on Toughness || Fatal Heavy Bleeding and/or suffocation, no chance of survival.
|- style="padding: 1px;"
|| Lung(s) || Respiratory Organ(s) || Not possible || Heavy Bleeding and becoming Winded. Possible suffocation depending on toughness and number of lungs pierced. ''Can only be mangled.'' || Not possible
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Eye(s) || Visuals || Bleeding, vision is impaired if all eyes are effected. || Not possible || Heavy Bleeding. Possible extreme pain depending on Toughness and number of eyes removed. Destroys accuracy and lessens vision permanently. If all eyes are removed, the creature is completely blind, and can only "see" what's next to it (other words, 3x3 vision).
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Guts || Not known || <s>Not possible</s> Possible from heat. Dwarf lives as normal although wound never heals. || Fatal Heavy Bleeding (on and off) as entrails spill out, extreme pain, and nausea. Can be a slow, painful death. ''Can only be mangled.'' || The entire lower body is severed from the rest of the body or it is completely destroyed. Instant death.
|}

= Wounds in Fortress Mode =

Most '''wounds''' will '''heal''' over time - some almost immediately, some slowly improving over weeks, months or years, and some never fully heal.

Dwarves with yellow or red wounds will attempt to get to a bed to [[rest]], if possible. Civilian dwarves with the [[health care]] labor will drag severely wounded dwarves to a bed and bring them [[food]] and [[bucket]]s of [[water]] as they recover. A severely injured dwarf will stay in bed, and occasionally cancel tasks to rest their injury. [[Toady]] has stated that beds which are not in any defined [[room]] are considered hospital beds, and dwarves will recover faster when sleeping on them. Dwarves with light or moderate (medium grey to brown) wounds do not need to rest.

In the current version{{version|0.28.181.40d}} wounded dwarves who rest are automatically labeled as "unconscious". Unlike the previous versions, this does not prevent the other dwarves from bringing them food and water.

== Healing ==
Generally, light or moderate wounds will be healed in a day, a week at most. Broken body parts will take between a few days and some months of bed rest to recover. A mangled part can take years. Severed limbs do not grow back.

Yellow or red wounds have an additional chance to heal on [[season]] changes. The likelihood of yellow or red wounds making a recovery is quite variable. Limbs are more likely to eventually heal than internal organs. In some cases, a badly wounded dwarf will not recover at all.

====Nervous system====
Wounds to the nervous system (the neck, brain, or spine) will ''never'' fully heal. If these wounds are not too severe the dwarf will be able to continue his daily routine without any problems. Military dwarves with nervous wounds will never spar, however. Melee dwarves with nervous injuries may still be valulable as a Marksdwarf. If a dwarf has yellow or red nervous damage, he will be a permanent invalid;; however, they can still serve as a warm body for the [[Guard]], or a particularly ruthless fortress leader may wish to arrange for that dwarf's demise so as to prevent him from forever requiring other dwarves to bring him food and water.

While eyes are not part of the nervous system ''per se'', a dwarf with at least one missing eye will not spar in melee, just as if they had suffered nervous system damage. However, dwarves with at least one eye will still practice archery.

====Improving Healing====
Since losing consciousness due to pain can be resisted by dwarves with high Toughness, very Tough dwarves tend to survive injuries more easily. Toughness also greatly speeds up the healing process, a superdwarvenly tough dwarf can heal yellow injuries in a day. Losing a limb, however, can make even the toughest creatures give in to pain.

Note that if a dwarf with low toughness is bedridden with a permanent wound (such as a mangled lung), you can train that dwarf in [[swimming]] to possibly increase his toughness by flooding the hospital room with 4/7 water, then draining before he drowns.

===Stuck arrows/bolts===
Arrows and bolts can become stuck in limbs, showing up in the wounded dwarf's inventory. This does not prevent the wound from healing, and the arrow/bolt will eventually get removed. Like other shot ammo, it will initially be in forbidden state, so to heal the wound you must claim the stuck missile. Marking it for dumping may be faster than waiting for the wounded dwarf to do it themself, but is not necessary.

==un/happy thoughts==
Dwarves have various [[thoughts]] from injury, unconsciousness, and the healing process. Injuries cause unhappy thoughts, but these are offset by happy thoughts from getting rescued, being able to rest and recuperate (i.e. stay in bed), and being given water and food. Check for unhappy patients, as wounded dwarves have been known to go berserk when unhappy thoughts accumulate (see below). If you cannot ensure their happiness, you may have to station armed guards nearby as a precaution, or even lock the wounded dwarf in his bedroom and write him off.

= Wounds in Adventure Mode =

Healing is much simpler in [[Adventure Mode]]; walking one space on the overland map will heal everything but severed limbs, including hunger and thirst. Your <strike>Meatwall</strike> friends will also be healed, as long as they were reasonably close to you when you left the map. If you leave them bleeding and crawling in the cave below, however, they won't come with you.

In the current version, it is observed that beginning to freeze to death during a cold night will produce blood spatters on every surface of your body and inflict minor wounds to every organ and surface possible. This includes your eyes, limiting your vision to a single square around you. This is almost certainly because of wounds in the eyes, as if you {{k|T}}ravel away you will retain the blood in your eyes but regain normal vision. A similar effect is observed if you manage to set yourself on fire, although you are also blinded and suffocated by the smoke in this case.

==== Descriptions ====

In Adventure Mode, wounds will generate messages when they are inflicted. The following table lists the various messages you'll see when a wound is received. Messages corresponding to immediately fatal blows to the three major body parts (head, upper body, and lower body) are also provided. Most of these messages are displayed for organic beings only, not for skeletal, mechanical, etc. creatures.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|- style="background: grey; color: black;"
! Damage type !! Lightly wounded !! Moderately wounded !! Broken !! Mangled !! Instantly fatal (head) !! Instantly fatal (upper body) !! Instantly fatal (lower body)
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Pierce || "It is pierced!" || "It is badly pierced!" || "It is broken!" || "It is mangled!" || "It is pierced through entirely!" || "It is pierced through completely!" || "It is run through!"
|- style="padding: 1px;"
|| Bludgeon || "It is bruised!" || "It is battered!" || "It is broken!" || "It is mangled!" || "It is smashed into the body, an unrecognizable mass!" || "It collapses into a lump of gore!" || "It explodes in gore!"
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Slash || "It is cut!" || "It is badly gashed!" || "It is broken!" || "It is mangled!" || "It is split in half from the crown to the chin!" || "It is cloven asunder!" || "It is mostly cut away from the rest of the torso!"
|- style="padding: 1px;"
|| Gore || "It is torn!" || "It is badly ripped!" || "It is broken!" || "It is mangled!" || "It is torn apart!" || "It is torn into pieces!" || "It is ripped into loose shreds!"
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Burn || "It is singed!" || "It is burned!" || "It is cracked by the heat!" || "It is partially incinerated!" || "It is incinerated!" || "It is incinerated!" || "It is incinerated!"
|- style="padding: 1px;"
|| Cold || "It is chilled!" || "It is frostbitten!" || "It is cracked by the cold!" || "It is frozen through!" || "It is shattered!" || "It is shattered!" || "It is shattered!"
|- style="background: #eee; padding: 1px;"
|| Heat || "It is blistered!" || "It is charred!" || "It is cracked by the heat!" || "It is partially incinerated!" || "It is incinerated!" || "It is incinerated!" || "It is incinerated!"
|}

If the major body part was "lopped off", which is different than just having an instantly fatal wound, the message would say "The *Body part* flies off in a bloody arc!"

A creature inflicted with a fatal blow will be announced as "struck down" or, if a ranged weapon was used "shot and killed". Other death messages include "starved to death", "drowned", "fallen into a deep chasm", "burned to death", etc.

[[Category:Dwarves]]
[[Category:Military]]

40d:Melt item

2010-02-18T00:10:24Z

Newtype0083: /* Yield */ Unnecessary duplication of an early discussion of how fractions of metal bars work in melting

You can '''melt''' items at a [[smelter]], using the [[furnace operator]] labour, to recover some of the [[metal]] they were made of. [[Decoration]]s in a different metal are not recovered or considered; the metal recovered is the specific metal that basic item was listed as being made from. The % return is predictable and consistent for each item type, and ranges from 10%-60%, depending on the item. Higher skill levels in furnace operator speed up the process, but have no effect on the % return.

Recovered metal is measured in 1/10th's, and 1/10ths of bars of each metal are saved at the smelter where the item was melted. Fractional bars are not "shared" between smelters, nor do they exist as usable objects as is. When 10/10ths of a type of metal are accumulated at the same smelter, 1 bar of that metal is produced. If the smelter is torn down or destroyed, all fractions are lost.

:''Example:'' If two items of the same metal worth .4 bars each are melted at the same smelter, that smelter has .8 bars worth waiting in it.
:If a similar item of a ''different'' metal is then melted there, that smelter would have .8 bars of the first metal and .4 bars of the second.
:If a similar item of the first metal is then melted at a ''different'' smelter, that smelter will have .4 of that metal, and have no connection to the fractions in the first smelter.
:If (finally!), a 3rd, similar item of the first metal is melted at the first smelter, adding another 4/10ths, and giving a total of 12/10ths of that type of metal, 1 bar of that metal is produced, and 2/10th's are waiting (plus the 4/10 of the second metal, also waiting).

So, it's recommended that you designate one smelter as your "melting" smelter (or one/metal type), to guarantee that fractions will add up effectively.

==Designating items to melt==
You can designate metal items for melting from any interface that allows you to view the object's description screen, such as from the [[Stocks]] page or the Loo{{k|k}} interface.

To bring up a individual object description screen when the object is:
:* On the '''ground''': Type {{k|k}}, scroll to the object, select it from the list, and type {{k|Enter}}.
:* In a '''workshop''': Type {{k|t}}, highlight the workshop, select the object from the list, and type {{k|Enter}}.
:* '''Held''' by a dwarf: Type {{k|v}}, highlight the dwarf, type {{k|i}} to show his inventory, select the object from the list, and type {{k|Enter}}.
:* Inside another object: Display the container's object description screen, navigate to the specific object you wish to see, and type {{k|Enter}}.
:* In the '''stocks''' menu: Type {{k|z}}, hit right-direction a few times to select "stocks" and press return. Scroll to the type of object you wish to melt, type {{k|Tab}} to show individual items (You have to have an exact number or this won't work. See [[Bookkeeper]] for how to get this.), scroll to the specific object, and type {{k|v}} to view.

To designate the item, simply type {{k|m}} to mark the object for melting. If the item is designated for melting and [[forbidden]] then the item will '''not''' be melted.

However, this only marks which items you want to be melted - you still have to place the job-order in a smelter...

==Melting the items==
Items designated to be melted will be left alone until you queue a "Melt a metal object" job at a [[Smelter]]. Melting down an object requires the [[Furnace Operator]] labour (and consumes a unit of [[fuel]] for a non-magma smelter).

The job gives the same experience to the [[furnace operator]] skill regardless of % yield of the item melted.

==Yield==
For every unit of [[material size]] an item has, 1/10th of a bar of that item's metal type will be recovered. These fractional bars are "stored" at the specific smelter where the item was melted; when a full bar's worth of one type of metal has been melted, one bar will be produced. Therefore, you should do all your melting at one smelter, at least for each different type of metal or [[alloy]] melted.

Melting objects nets you fewer bars of metal than were required to make them, although for some objects this loss is much greater than for others. Some items are available cheap from traders, or are otherwise refuse, so melting is a distinct option. An entire suit of chain armor, including shield, consumes 7 bars to make - melted (and with ''high'' boots) it yields only 2.1.

====Melting armor & weapons====

Fortresses will often accumulate armor and/or weapons that they don't need, either from [[invader]]s, from [[caravan]]s ''(with or without [[trade|trading]] for them, ahem)'', or from unsuccessful, low-skilled early efforts at forging your own.

Rather than let these gather dust, some players choose to recycle them back into iron or steel (or bronze or copper, etc) bars.

{|cellpadding="2" border="1"
! Armor Item !! Pct Return !! Abs Return
|-
| [[cap]] || 10% || .1
|-
| [[helm]] || 20% || .2
|-
| chain armor || 30% || .6*
|-
| plate armor || 30% || .9*
|-
| [[gauntlets]] || 20% || .2
|-
| [[leggings]] || 50% || .5
|-
| [[greaves]] || 30% || .6*
|-
| low [[boot]]s || 10% || .1
|-
| high [[boot]]s || 20% || .2
|-
| [[shield]] || 40% || .4
|-
| [[buckler]] || 20% || .2
|-
|}
:''(* Note that these items take more than 1 bar to make initially.)''
{|cellpadding="2" border="1"
! Weapon!! Return
|-
| large dagger, whip || .1
|-
| blowgun, scourge || .2
|-
| bow, crossbow, mace, scimitar, short sword, spear, war hammer || .3
|-
| battle axe, flail, longsword, pick, pike || .4
|-
| great axe, halberd, two-handed sword || .5
|-
| stack of # arrows, bolts || # /100, rounded up*
|-
|}
:''(* Round up to nearest 1/10th. A stack of 1-10 bolts or arrows produces .1 bars, 11-20 produces .2, 21-30 = .3, and 31+ = .4. A weaponsmith can produce a stack of 25 metal bolts, which produces 0.3 bars. You could "create" metal this way, if you could reliably collect individual metal bolts after they were shot (and unbroken).)''

Due to the low return, many players opt to install weapons into [[weapon trap]]s instead, especially if the weapon is of any [[quality]].''

====Training metalsmith skills====
It can consume many, many bars of metal to train the various [[metalsmith]]ing [[skill]]s up to high levels*. If you are short on metal, producing items, melting them and re-producing them may be necessary. If you want to retain as much metal as possible from this process, some items are better to produce and re-melt than others. The skill to be trained in the chart below is trained at a forge; melting items at a smelter only raises the [[Furnace Operator]] skill. When using a produce/melt loop to train up a skill for a minimum metal loss, the following items work best:

:''(* Upwards of 1,000 bars to train from unskilled to Legendary+5, the highest skill level.)

:{|cellpadding="2" border="1"
! Item Melted !! % Returned !! Skill
|-

| [[enormous corkscrew]]s, [[giant axe blade]]s, [[menacing spike]]s || 50%1 || [[weaponsmith]]ing
|-

| [[leggings]] || 50% || [[armorsmith]]ing
|-

| [[goblet]] || 60% (2/10 each)2 || [[metal craft]]ing
|-

| [[chain]] || 50% || [[metal craft]]ing
|-

| [[bucket]] || 50% || [[blacksmith]]ing
|-

| [[furniture]]3|| 33% (1 bar each)4 || (''not recommended for training)''
|-
|}

Notes:
:1) Some [[other weapon]]s have a better return/weapon, but cannot be manufactured by dwarves, negating their value for training purposes.
:2) Goblets are produced in threes, and have an individual item size of 2; 2/10 x 3 = 60% recovery/bar.
:3) Includes [[cage]]s and [[anvil]]s, both of which are available from [[trader]]s. Anvils will always be either [[iron]] or [[steel]], while cages can be of [[copper]], [[lead]], [[nickel]], [[tin]], or [[zinc]] only.
:4) Furniture takes 3 bars to create, and returns 1 bar for each item melted

== Bugs ==
For reasons unknown, attempting to melt a metal [[Chest]] will fail. When attempting to do so, it will be carried to a smelter and the "Melt a metal object" task will be completed (granting Furnace Operating experience, and consuming [[fuel]] if not magma-powered), but the chest will not actually be melted - it will remain in the smelter's inventory to be returned to a stockpile, and no metal bars will be produced.{{version|0.28.181.40d}}

[[Category:Jobs]]
[[Category:Items]]

Ettins

2010-02-17T17:21:09Z

Newtype0083: Redirected page to Ettin

#REDIRECT [[ettin]]

40d:Exploit

2010-02-17T17:18:36Z

Newtype0083:

An '''exploit''' is a quirk of a game that allows players to gain what other players may consider an unfair advantage, usually by making use of a feature that is not working properly or which defies logic. 'Exploiting the game' is distinct from '[[cheating]]' because exploits occur within the game as written and do not need any external [[utilities]] or [[modding]]. Whether a player chooses to make use of an exploit or not depends on their personal taste; given that [[Dwarf Fortress]] is a single-player game, the user alone can decide what liberties to take and what options to shun. Among DF players there is much discussion what actually should be considered an exploit, going from making sweetpod syrup instead of sugar, growing crops in winter, or even underground, as the one extreme, to justifying 'water wheel batteries' as the other. This page takes a rather relaxed approach in that you considering it an exploit is basically enough to add it, if you don't get too much opposition.

Some exploits are listed below.

== Atom Smasher ==

A [[drawbridge]], when rapidly triggered on and off, can be used to obliterate any creature or item beneath it. Only large creatures (with a SIZE greater than 10) are capable of withstanding a drawbridge crush.

==Bling Bolts==

Adding a [[decoration]] to a stack of [[bolt]]s causes a huge [[value]] increase. The value of the decoration is multiplied by the number of bolts in the stack. This is considered a [[bug]].

==Bookkeeper Exercise Program==
Changing your [[bookkeeper]]'s settings to maximum accuracy causes him to work furiously in his office, training quickly up to [[legendary]]. Even if this is a bug it is not really an exploit, since a) you actually want highest precision anyway b) he attains highest precision rather fast (depending, for example, on how many stones you have mined) and thus one can not train an unlimited number of, if even several, dwarves that way.

== Castle of Ice in a Lake of Fire ==

[[Construction]]s are indestructible, regardless of material, and walls of wood and ice easily stand up to [[magma]]. Entire fortresses can be built of ice in temperate climates equally impervious to catapults, the summer sun, or a thousand tons of boiling lava.

On a similar note, all buildings and furniture are equally strong - indestructible to most creatures, tissue paper to others. Witness a single troll bashing through a multilayered set of [[adamantine]] and [[steel]] doors, while an army of Elite Hammergoblins are stymied by a single [[glass]] [[portal]].

== Cooking alcohol ==

[[Alcohol]] can be cooked without requiring any other solid ingredients, producing food that is eaten and not imbibed. Doing so is a highly efficient means of producing food, as each plant produces five units of alcohol.

Though some consider it an exploit, many people make use of this feature. It will eventually be plugged with [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_req_101-150.html Req129]:
<blockquote>Req129, IMPROVE COOKING, (Future): More food. Food should require a substrate, rather than just being seeds etc. Seeds, syrups, drinks and other such objects can contribute to the likes/dislike checks as they do now, but they shouldn't add to the number created. A good roll could lead to the recipe being given a name and saved to the entity definition, where it can then be encountered in other cities in subsequent games.</blockquote>

== Dwarven Kick In The Pants ==
When a dwarf is "On [[Break]]", it is possible to draft this civilian into the military and then immediately undraft in order to cancel the break. This does give an unhappy [[thought]] (but only if the dwarf has no military and/or civilian skills), so it is not a significant exploit and some may consider it a perfectly acceptable gameplay method. Of course, if you allow every dwarf to spar a little when you draft them so that they are at least Novice Wrestlers, you'll get the double advantage of being able to cancel dwarfs' breaks at will and then send them back to work with no unhappy thoughts, as well as having dwarves who fare a little better against unexpected attacks.

== Extremely Intricate Artifacts ==

When a moody dwarf sets out to fetch some material he's craving, forbid all the other items he has gathered so far. The dwarf will set out to find a replacement for the forbidden item(s). When he returns, forbid the new one, and so on. After a while you should have a large stockpile of stuff on the moody dwarfs workshop. After you unforbid an item, the dwarf will retask it if the number of items of that type that were gathered before that one is not enough for the artifact. With careful forbidding and unforbidding, you can create ridiculously large artifacts.

== Extremely Intricate Artifacts II ==
Put all workshops outside, then set set your [[standing orders]] to "Soldiers Can Go Outdoors" or "Dwarves Stay Indoors" once you get a strange mood. Your dwarf will start collecting his first requested material over and over, never proceeding to subsequent objects. Set orders back to "Dwarves Can Go Outdoors" to make him finish gathering the rest of his materials and produce an artifact using '''all''' of the materials gathered. It is suspected that this method is what resulted in the creation of [[Planepacked]].

== Frère Jacques ==
Need a [[sleep]]ing dwarf to do some work? Kick him out of bed by deconstructing it. This does not cause an unhappy thought.

==Indestructible Cages==
[[Cages]] made out of glass or wood are just as capable as steel ones. Fire-breathing [[dragons]], [[ettins]] and other [[megabeasts]] can be held in such cages, even though their fire/strength should allow them an easy escape.

==Infinite Quivers==
By setting archery ranges where nobody can use them, and ammo stockpiles without any space for more ammo, you can force your marksdwarves to fill their quivers with an impossibly large number of arrows. They will pick up bolts to go practice, decide they can't because there's no room, decide not to put the bolts back because there's no room in the stockpile, and keep the bolts in their quiver, along with the other 200 or so they have. The bolts still weigh as much as they should, so dwarves will still be slowed by their humongous quivers.

==Manager Exercise Program==

As a [[Manager]], skill is gained as tasks are approved, not completed. Simply by queueing lots of jobs ({{key|j}} {{key|m}} {{key|q}}), the manager will quickly level to [[legendary]]. The tasks can then be removed once approved.

== Melting chests ==

It is impossible to melt chests. The job will be done and fuel is used, but the chest will not disappear and will remain designated for melting. Your furnace operator will continue trying to melt the chest repeatedly, gaining experience each time. Combined with a magma forge, this results in free Furnace Operator skill.

[http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=46988.0 original discussion thread] 
[http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=31660.0 bug report thread]

==Merchant Swindles==

There are a variety of ways to cheat [[merchant]]s out of their cargo without seizing it. Tearing down the [[trade depot]] while the merchants are there is the easiest way.

Also, marking items for [[dump]]ing, using view creature mode ({{key|v}}), the stocks menu ({{key|z}}), items in room mode ({{key|t}}), or mass dump mode ({{key|d}})-({{key|b}})-({{key|d}}) then marking the entire depot, lets you relieve merchants of their goods. Just reclaim the items from your garbage dump [[zone]] later. You can even take clothing and equipment off merchant and guards this way.

The merchants will still leave disappointed if they have less value in goods when they leave the map than when they entered {{verify}}.

== Miasma can't move diagonally ==
[[Miasma]] can only move horizontally and vertically. This means that if your refuse stockpile is only accessible on a diagonal, there is no way for the miasma to escape. This is more effective than the use of doors or even pairs of doors in an "airlock" setup, as doors can be stuck open if a creature or material is occupying their square. The same method can be used to create enclosures to prevent the spread of miasma from kitchens, tanneries, and butcher shops.

==Nudist Fortress==

Dwarves get a bad [[thought]] from having [[clothing]] [[wear]] out{{verify}}, but nothing happens if they can't find replacement clothes. As long as you don't make new clothes, they will happily go naked. This also avoids the problem of messy dwarves leaving clothing strewn around the fortress.

== Optimized-Value Artifacts/"Custom" materials ==
When a dwarf enters a strange mood, examine the item types he wants to use, then use the Stocks menu to forbid all except those you want him to fetch. With no other choices available, he will use your valuable materials instead of the common junk that may be closer. By doing this, you can create artifacts with "optimized" wealth or make sure your armorsmith's artifact is actually made of [[steel]] rather than [[zinc]]. Be warned, though, that moody metalsmiths may insist on a specific type of metal if they have a preference for it, brooding in their workshop instead of fetching your desired materials. Also note that forbidding a type of stones also forbids the workshops made from that stone, preventing all your dwarves (except the moody one) from using them. The non-exploit variant of this is to build custom stockpiles near (or right under) your relevant workshops that only take highest value items, a typical choice being native platinum and steel bars.

== Parents are back, party over! ==
A party can be stopped right away by {{K|f}}reeing (removing) the room the party is taking place in. The room can be recreated the same instance. Similarly, in times of high activity (e.g. mass dumping, trading; hauling) removing all rooms in which parties can take place will prevent them from being held. Since parties also have benefits this is not necessarily an exploit.

== Quantum stockpiles ==
By designating a garbage pit [[zone]] instead of a [[stockpile]], you may store an infinite number of objects in a single tile by dumping them, then reclaiming them when you want to use them.

A similar effect may be achieved by building a wall two tiles in front of a catapult and digging a channel between the wall and catapult. By firing the catapult at the wall, the stone falls into the trench. The stone will pile up in the channel, putting it out of sight and out of mind. Not only does this train [[siege operator]]s, but it clears the stone that your legendary [[miner]]s leave.

Another way to quantum stockpile is to not have appropriate stockpiles to move items back you moved to the trading depot. The depot can hold an infinite number of items, and those items will not be removed if there is nowhere else to place them. This is also useful for anything you want to trade anyway.

==Recycling Archery Range==

In an [[archery range]], [[bolt]]s that hit the target are are always destroyed, but bolts that miss can be saved. Dig a [[channel]] between the [[archery target]] and the back wall of the range, and [[stairs]] to get into it. Amazingly, the bolts will no longer shatter on impact with the wall, but fall intact into the channel. Reclaim the bolts, and your dwarves will re-use them for target practice. This exploit has the unfortunate side effect of splitting up [[stack]]s of bolts, so your dwarves will make a separate trip for each individual bolt.

This trick will work for a [[ballista]]s as well. Be careful for friendly fire.

== Self-powered pumps ==

It is possible to produce a perpetual motion water pump where the act of pumping actually powers itself! See [[screw pump]] and [[water wheel]] for details.

== Trap fields ==
Laying a field of [[trap]]s with a sufficient depth can protect your fortress from all invaders with no need to maintain a [[military]]. Traps are somehow intelligent enough to distinguish between [[pet]]s and allies while being dangerous to enemies and wild animals.

Toady One

2010-02-17T00:03:05Z

Newtype0083: /* Early Life */

{{D for Dwarf}}


== Early Life ==
Toady One was born on January 5th, 1981 in Anchorage, Alaska. There was a blizzard at the time of his birth, and he sustained crippling frostbite to both his feet almost immediately upon exiting the womb that debilitates him to this day. Because of his injuries, he was never an active or social child and had to stay indoors under the care of his mother, in a household with a severely [[alcohol|alcoholic]] father, who, in his drunken frenzies, strapped him to his chest as a meat shield while hunting [[wolf|wolves]] and [[carp]] with his decorative, and non-functional, hunting [[bow]] that often resulted in the beast being beat to death with it.

By the time he was 10, he had already had multiple points on his body mangled from the wolf attacks. To his fortune, however, his father was killed in the great [[goblin|Eskimo]] [[Siege]] of 1992. This left him with many years to contemplate the meaning of life, developing a keen sense of logic.

== College Years ==
When entering college, he quickly found a taste for programming. Alone and miserable in his dorm with his [[ThreeToe|abusive boyfriend]], he spent most of his time honing skills in software engineering and smoothing his ideas for [[Dwarf Fortress|a game with unimaginable brutality and carnage]].

On the brink of [[insanity]], he was bailed out from [[Hidden Fun Stuff|the depths of hell]] in April 2009 by his now better half: [[Scamps]]. The two of them spent hours alone discussing what to implement in their life's work. Among these, in the excavated notes, were [[bridge|large crushing devices]], [[dwarf|alcoholic creatures which barely care for their children]], cinematic brawls, and other [[carp|bizarre, horrific aquatic creatures]].

== Current Lifestyle ==
Little is known about Toady One, as he spends most of his time in his basement with Scamps. [[ThreeToe|His lover]] is sometimes rarely seen outside in the front yard, screaming in [[strange mood|pseudo-shakespearean language about various demands]] (such as chunks of rock, bins of cloth, and turtle parts). Very rarely, ThreeToe will even begin reading a history textbook, demanding that he will only stop if everything he says is imprinted on a [[Planepacked|limestone statue]]. However, after a few days, he passes out and presents the only opportunity in which Toady One may be seen: Dragging his dehydrated body back inside. Scamps remains elusive.

{{Game_Data|[CREATURE:TOADY_ONE]
[NAME:toady one:toady one:toady one]
[TILE:249][COLOR:2:0:0]
[FREQUENCY:100]
[CAN_LEARN]
[CAN_SPEAK]
[BENIGN]
[CANOPENDOORS]
[INTELLIGENT]
[AMPHIBIOUS][UNDERSWIM]
[BODY:HUMANOID:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:HUMANOID_JOINTS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:5FINGERS:5TOES:MOUTH]
[ATTACK:MAIN:BYTYPE:GRASP:punch:punches:1:2:BLUDGEON][ATTACKFLAG_WITH]
[ATTACK:SECOND:BYTYPE:MOUTH:bite:bites:1:1:GORE][ATTACKFLAG_CANLATCH]
[MAXAGE:60:120]
[SPEED:2900][NATURAL]
[FAT:3]
[PREFSTRING:coding]
[NOCTURNAL]
[HOMEOTHERM:10067]
[STANDARD_FLESH]
[SWIMS_INNATE][SWIM_SPEED:2500]
[LAYERING:10]
[MALE]
[SPEECH_MALE:human_male.txt]
[MUNDANE]
}}

[[Category:Game development]]

40d:Challenges

2010-02-16T07:17:29Z

Newtype0083: /* Mesoamerican Dwarfs */

:''Part of this article was originally taken from the DF forums thread [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=466.0 "Goal-Based Dwarf Fortress"].''

The general goal of [[Fortress Mode]] is to survive, acquire wealth, defend your stronghold, and become the capital of your civilization. However, many players find that fighting off repeated [[siege|sieges]], keeping their people alive, and expanding just aren't enough anymore. They begin to experiment with different sets of starting builds, arbitrary requirements and restrictions, and even feats of construction to appease Armok, in search of more difficulty and [[fun]]. These are some goals to attempt or use as inspiration.

==Pre-Embark Build Ideas==
Before you embark, you can optimize or sabotage your fortress from the very start, depending on how you distribute your points. After a few years, a well-developing fortress may or may not stabilize (depending on your idea of [[fun]]), leaving you to other challenges.

=== Diplomacy ===
* Six dwarves with only social [[skill]]s
* One skilled dwarf

Six courtiers of the king's court made some ill-advised remarks within earshot of the king, and as a result have been ordered to go found an outpost. They've hired you to make sure they survive. The six nobles only have social skills and refuse to do any work that is beneath them.

=== Minimalist/Survivalist build===

* 1 anvil
* 2 copper ore

Nothing else. From that alone, forge your pick and axe. (Figure it out yourself, or see the [[DIY#Minimalist_challenge_build|Do it Yourself]] article for a step-by-step "how to".)

===Peasantry===
* Spend 0 Points on embark

This challenge is moderately to very difficult, depending on the wildlife and outdoor food sources. Note that the three logs from the wagon are just enough to build a trade depot.

=== Stranded Scout Squad ===
* Military skills
* Weapons, ammunition, armor, war dogs
* Picks are not weapons

Your civilian 'friends' promised a caravan in the fall as they left, laughing. Hopefully, you can survive until then with your forward scouts.

==Races==
Pretend to be another race! You can mod the game or just pretend that Elves have hair. It doesn't matter what you look like, just what you build, with what materials, and what's for lunch after we build it.

===Elves - The Ultimate Hippy Challenge===
Peace, man.
* Don't gather plants except those you plant yourself.
* Don't gather wood nor trade for it with humans or dwarves.
* Trade for plants and wood only with the elves; they understand your environmental code.
* Don't burn any [[fuel|coal]]. Do you know what that does to the environment, man?
**Magma-smelting is an option, but steel can't be had.
* Don't cause any creature's death, except in self-defense.
**No military, induced submerging, or lethal implementation of corkscrews.
* Only use cage traps, and either tame the creatures you catch, or release them back into the wild.
* [[Elf|Hippies]] prefer sunlight and wooded areas, with minimal use of rock (digging and building).

For an extra challenge try this in an area with a cave.

===Humans - Living Large and Standing Tall===
Pretend you're a filthy above-ground dwelling [[Human|humie]].
* Build a town wall.
** Only hovels and farms outside the town walls.
* House your dwarves in small town homes
** 5-10 dwarves per house (they had pretty big families back in the day)
** Upstairs bedrooms, small dining room, maybe a single level basement.
* House your workshops according to profession, not convenience.
* Build warehouses for stockpiles, and set guards outside them.
* Create a keep, with its own wall, barracks, treasury, etc.
** House your nobles within the keep.
* Create a market square.
* Create a main street from the town wall to the market square and/or keep. Well-paved blocks, statues and decorative shubbery are a must.
* No underground connections between different areas.
* For obtaining stone, metal, etc. a mine may be built, but must have separate entrance from other buildings. It can be outside the fortress, but must not connect to the interior, or vice versa.
** If you create a side hill mine, only carve large (at least 2 tiles) tunnels, and create shaft to the surface to allow air circulation.
** Or better than that, create an open pit mine / quarry, with ramps to access lower floors.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Build a large, multiple-z-level fountain complete with decorations.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Human Inn, containing your only booze stockpile and should be party-oriented.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Farm simulation, complete with crops and free-range livestock, etc.
* BONUS: Easy Play: Embark on top of a Human Town.
* BONUS: Advanced Play: Modify the raws and actually use humans to make the fort.
* MEGABONUS: Build your entire fortress as [[mega constructions|one huge arcology]].
* MEGABONUS: Build your City in a giant, artificial cave.

===Luddite===
Shun technology and contraptions. Who can really trust them, with those [[Gremlin|gremlins]] around. This may be challenging, as it forbids easy isolation/defense from attacks, all traps and wells. Irrigation is reduced to solid elbow grease and maybe a bucket or two. This challenge may be even harder combined with another challenge.
* No mechanics or [[mechanism]]s
* No [[machine]]s

===Earthworms===
Live constantly tunneling. Churn up the soil as you go and visit the surface only rarely to collect the stuff you need..
* Create one long tunnel. Dig forward at one end whilst sealing off (collapsing, building walls across) the other end.
* Workshops should be built directly behind the row of miners. When they reach the point where they would be destroyed, take them apart and rebuild back by the miners again.
* To make it easier, you can come up to the surface now and then.
* Try to keep the tunnel as short as possible.
* Like this: ||||||||==========> (| is walled off end section, = is tunnel and > is the miners.
* BONUS: Leave those pesky nobles walled in as you tunnel away from them!
* BONUS: Leave stockpiles of armour and weapons for any future diggers to find!
* MEGABONUS: Surprise a goblin siege by tunneling up underneath them!

==Utter Dwarfiness==
Need new ways to behave or new techniques to dip your toes into? Give any or all of your starting 7 some quirks to live up to. Want to try making your Boss a hell-bent, paranoid despot? Or establish a routine mass murder of small animals to provide your fort with raw meat by a vaguely intimidating, estranged butcher?

===Bandit Camp===
* Three or more Marksdwarves (perhaps with [[Ambush|ambushing]])
* Embark site featuring places to hide

Attack and loot every enemy sentient creature you can find, such as goblins & kobolds. Develop sneaky and even horrific methods of trapping and 'processing' friendly sentients (merchants, diplomats, and even migrants). Take no prisoners and leave no evidence of foul play.

===City-States===
* All dwarves embark as peasants
* 7 or multiple of 7 of everything you bring (especially picks and axes)

At the start your dwarves split everything equally and move to 7 different locales that are not interconnected. They have to mine their own rooms, plant their own crops, use their own craft piles. This will probably require a bit of cross-fertilization until you get [[door]]s and can lock everyone in, but after that it is every dwarf for him/herself!

This challenge may be easier to perform after Burrows are implemented.

===Equaland===
* No embark requirements
* Construct a successful fortress
* All dwarves are given equal attention regarding quarters, dining, armament and burial
* One dwarf elected to be "The Leader" commands a lever system capable of killing a single dwarf of your choice in their room, however you wish
* Allow the Leader (your id) free reign on his power, enforcing impossible and unannounced criteria on your other dwarves with death being the only punishment

===Hermit===
* Spend points ONLY on ONE [[Pick]]

A well known and popular challenge. Kill off 6 starting dwarves and any [[immigrants]] as they arrive, and try to make a living for the last dwarf. Turn away merchants. If they don't leave, kill them.

'''Variants'''
To moderate difficulty, feel free to allow these exceptions:
* Keep one male and one female dwarf as the Dwarven Adam and Eve.
* Keep your starting seven, but no immigrants.
* Selectively admit dwarves based on name, profession, etc.
* Embark with an anvil as well.

===Hunting Party===
* One Marksman+Ambusher
* One Cook+Farmer
* One Brewer+Farmer
* Four exclusively social dwarves
* Embark with no anvil, many hunting dogs, into a challenging biome (terrifying areas may have no supply of wood)

===Immigration and customs enforcement===
* One miner/mason/architect
* One woodcutter/carpenter/architect
* Five military dwarves
* Embark into a canyon or on a road
* Don't embark with an anvil

Spend the first year building fortifications to interdict traffic. Immigrants can build a town around you, but your original seven dwarves remain dedicated to their mission (purely military in purpose).

==="Let Loose the Dogs of War"===
* No military Dwarves are permitted, including Fortress Guard.
* No weapons or armor may be forged, and any obtained from looting must be melted down.
* War dogs must be your only form of attack and defense.
** Bonus : No traps or defense mechanisms of any kind may be utilized, only dogs.

===Master Of One===
Pre-Embark:
* All starting dwarves must have only one skill

Post-Embark:
* No changes are allowed on any dwarf's labor screen, except to ''disable'' hauling labors (enabling hauling is forbidden)
* All immigrants must stay with the profession(s) they arrive with
* All peasants must be activated into the military

'''Variant:'''
*Only allow one dwarf for each skill to remain in your fort (1 mason, 1 miner, 1 farmer, etc.). Slaughter or draft all other dwarves.

===Monarch with a grudge===
* Forbid any and all use of stone and metal
* No exposed tile may be labeled "Underground"
* Artifacts containing stone and metal are to be destroyed '''utterly''' (magma or the [[Dwarven_Atom_Smasher|DAS]])

"Nay, no ponderous stone doors or shining silver arcades, not while I live!"
The new king has decided rocks and metals can no longer be used in construction. He'll be overthrown shortly, but in the meantime construct your fortress without them.

'''Variants'''
* Embark with no construction materials, into an area devoid of trees.
* Construct a fortress made entirely out of glass. Try not using magma or limit yourself only to clear and crystal glass.
* Build with soap bars. Show those elven traders just how much you despise their philosophies by building with stuff derived from dead trees ''and'' dead animals. Cats are an excellent source of tallow.
* Choose one type of rock, one type of metal, one type of gem, one type of wood, and optionally one type of glass. All constructions can only use those types in their construction. An easy way to enforce this with stone is to mark all but your choice "Economical".
* Bonus points: Stone is forbidden along with digging

===Noblesse requiro===
* Construct a fortress only to please nobles (who, for the sake of this challenge, are all criminally psychotic)
* Criminals who deserve justice should be incarcerated, tortured, and executed for ''any'' offense. Use your imagination for every step of the process. Remember, there is no right to a fair and speedy trial in Armok's eyes.
* All Nobles must be treated to the highest quality living conditions
* All others must be treated to the bare minimum needed to physically keep them alive
* Elected nobles are to be treated as regular dwarves, but mandates hold equal sway regarding justice

===Sitting on trees===
* Construct a wooden "tree" or several, spanning many (a dozen or so) z-levels
* Establish a successful fortress not inside, but around, these constructed trees

===Stop, Hey, What's that Sound===
* (Optionally) Generate a world with abundant cave systems
* Establish a fort near a very large cave
* Imitate the role of "Angband", leading small parties inside on military excursions
* No more than 3 dwarves can enter at a time
* Siege equipment and other weapons (or dangerous contraptions) that a dwarf can't carry on him is forbidden when cave-exploring

'''Variants'''
* Only solo adventurers are allowed to enter the dungeon
* Only use 'Thieves' to steal loot and create traps inside the dungeon

===The Mad Butcher===
* One dedicated Butcher+Tanner
* Minimal supplies and skills, so you can bring...
* As many puppies and kittens you can afford
* All food-gathering skills (except your Butcher+Tanner and Brewing) are forbidden

Caging your animals will increase performance to prepare a suitable butchery. Construct a wide, deep shaft to be zoned as an animal pit. At the bottom, outfit an isolation chamber complete with food and alcohol stockpiles, a bed, a butchery and a tanner's workshop. An active well will prevent mishaps. You should include during the construction either an airlock chamber (to enable the butcher to pass on food) or a second pit where the butcher dumps his created food. After construction, seal your butcher+tanner inside and live only off of his work.

===The World is Flat===
* No pre-embark requirements
* You'll probably want a region with lots of hills/mountains.
* You may only work/build/live on the original Z level where your wagon was
* No moats allowed, as this requires a channel, which goes below your z-level

==="I guess it's up to us to repopulate the planet..."===
* Embark on a loner site - this means one where traders, siegers, migrants, etc. simply don't show up, ever.
* Kill five of your starting seven, leaving one male and one female.
* You will get no population influx in any way (ever!) aside from breeding. Uncertain if inbreeding is possible for more generations of dwarves - unlikely. Hope the McUrists are prepared for a big family...

===Hunter and Gatherer===
Pre-Embark (World-Gen)
* Try creating a world in year 1 (optional)
Post-Embark
* Everything allowed except Farming.
Bonus
* Embark in a desert, so only hunting and (aquifier) fishing.
** Extra Points: Dont fish in the aquifier. How could the turtles get there anyway?
** Create a huge pyramid and sacrifice living beings or valuables to Armok for rain by dropping it in the hollow inaccessible pyramid from the top.
*** Extended version: Fill the pyramid with magma!
** Create lines like the Nazca to honour Armok, so he will send some rain (maybe).

==Arbitrary Law==
Rule your fortress with a Soapen Fist! Or see how far you get until a (voluntary) significant flaw sends you into an inevitable sadness spiral. Whatever it is, be sure to stick by it or you'll be meeting the Hammerer.

===ASPCA===
* [[Animals]] are forbidden from the fortress
* Animals following immigrants cannot enter the fortress
* Lethal traps forbidden, caged non-sentients must be immediately released
* Butchery is forbidden, but leatherworking is allowed

Rather than forbidding immigrant pets from entering, you can choose to deal with the owner of that pet instead for a more sadistic challenge.

===Commune===
* After embarking, enable all labors on all dwarves (including immigrants)
* Beds can only be designated as barracks, and no dwarf can be assigned to a bed (even nobles)
* Coins are forbidden
* Be aware that nobles are just "optional" and can't feel pain

===Couples only===
* As soon as a married couple exists in your fortress:
** Kill all single dwarves
** Kill all incoming single dwarves
** Try to save children, until they are adult and single

===Dieting Dwarves===
* Exclusively dine on a food type of your choice (meat, fish, plants, alcohol)
* Optionally, forbid alcohol consumption to limit carbohydrate intake
**Note: forbidding alcohol permanently is as good as accepting a slow but continuous fortress death

===Dwarf Liberation Movement===
* Nobles are worthless scum, we give them nothing!
* As soon as possible, cage your expedition leader.
* Never appoint any dwarf into becoming a noble.
* Cage any dwarf that appears on the nobles and administrators screen.
* When your population elects a new mayor, release your old one and cage the new one.
** Bonus : Cage the king and all of his escorts!
** Extra Bonus : Once you have caged all nobles, administrators, the king and his advisor; you must unleash the Dwarf Atom-Smasher upon them.

===Fight for your name===
* Before embarking, randomly generate a fortress name and be sure to know its English translation
* Do the same with your group name
* Creatively designate a serious goal for your fortress, based on these names
* Fanatically reach your goal

===Fort Geneva===
* Lethal traps are forbidden
* Caged sentient creatures are to be considered prisoners of war and treated humanely

Suggested provisions for prisoners: a bed, a personal cell, a commons area, aboveground exercise yard, and the clothes the creature was wearing when captured. For more inspiration, go to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions Geneva Conventions]

===Government in Exile===
* Only Military and Social skills can be purchased and enabled in your entire fortress

All dwarves are either nobles or in the military. The only useful dwarves you'll have will be your broker, manager, mayor, bookkeeper, and dungeon master. If you can survive until the sheriff arrives, transfer your entire military into the fortress guard. With a little luck, and a lot of exported roasts, you too can rule without proletarian interference.

===Hardcore Altruism===
* Do not allow the death of any Dwarf

Though not viscerally entertaining, an incredible challenge. All strange moods must be given what they crave. All medical attention must be done ASAP. Mining, fishing and hunting must be done with much care. Sadness must be met with excellent social skills and quality furniture.

===Industrial Plant===
* Choose one industry that produces commercial goods
* No other industries permitted, only imported

===Johannesfort===
* Find a starting location with a lot of gabbro, containing Kimberlite
* Mine and cut all the diamonds on the map
* Only gems can be traded.

===Sexist Segregation===
* Establish two functioning and stable fortress
* One must be entirely male, the other entirely female
* Married couples are to be processed

===THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA!===
* At least half of your fortress population must be active in the military
* Crossbows and traps are forbidden
* Only spears, swords, wrestling, helmets (helms) and shields may be equipped by military and used to fight
** BONUS: All weapons and armour must be made from bronze
* Civilian dwarves have all labors enabled
** If ever activated, cannot use quality weapons or armor
* Maimed dwarves (perceived to be) incapable of being fully healed must be killed. (This includes incurable spinal injuries in military dwarves!)
* Devise methods of dropping Liaisons down pits during meetings. Yell, "THIS IS SPAARRTAAAAA..." at your monitor.
* Demand goods be turned over from all caravans
* Recreation is forbidden, as well as any 'improving' action, such as smoothing/engraving, or constructing things out of metals what can be done with rock and wood (besides spears, swords and shields)

Note that the above suggestions are modeled on the popular movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film) 300], which was historically inaccurate. For a more "realistic dwarven Sparta", try reading the wiki article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta#Society the real Sparta]

===Mesoamerican Dwarfs===
* All food must be grown above ground, on small plots, surrounded by canals (chinampas)
** BONUS: Flood the farms annually.
* All buildings must be above ground.
* Capture as many of your enemies as possible.
* Build a massive step pyramid at the center of your fortress. Have your champions kill prisoners at the top.
* Surround your fortress with an artificial lake.
** BONUS: Build it in the middle of a natural lake.
* Use only copper or bronze metal (except for iron anvils).
* Soldiers can only use obsidian short swords. Axes are only for wood cutting.
* No armor except leather.
** BONUS: Divide your soldiers into "Jaguar[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_warrior]" and "Eagle[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_warrior]" warrior societies and outfit them with leather armor made from their respective animals.
* Demand that all non-dwarf caravans surrender their goods as tribute.
* Build a giant, multistory building for holding skulls.

==Megaprojects==
Instead of deliberately inhibiting yourself, create a wonder of the dwarven world that would make the Mountainhomes proud. Be sure to upload it to the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/ Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] when it's finished. More projects can be found where [[Stupid_dwarf_trick|stupid dwarves try crazy tricks]]. [[Mega construction|Incredible feats of construction]] are usually very [[Fun|fun]] so you'll see many different (and probably similar) constructions across the Wiki. Use whatever ideas you think are ingenious.

===Aqueducts===
For some reason, a noble was harmlessly pulling a lever when suddenly, magma flooded the river and exploded the booze! The king requires your band of seven to build a great aqueduct to bring water to the capital. Start with supports, and build up your aqueduct until it is 10 z-levels high!

BONUS: Start over a human town, build a wall around it, pump water through the aqueduct and into it!

===Biodome===
All material, seeds, food, tools, and dwarves must be in the fortress within one year. Then, seal up the entrance. Any new immigrants... well, they might be in trouble. Survive for as long as possible!

No chasms/underground rivers/magma vents allowed.

===Casting===
Who needs to construct giant statues?! We need ours made from natural walls, however, we want it above ground level as well. For casting your goal is to create some giant structure out of natural obsidian walls through the use of an extremely elaborate scaffold of lava and water pools and screw pumps. When you are finished, just deconstruct the scaffolding and smooth/engrave the statue as you go. Just imagine the bridge over that chasm, now complete with two giant dwarf statues on either side to strike fear into all who enter and to show them the power of your fortress.

BONUS: Make the statues spit lava.

===Castle===
Build a castle, greater than anything built by human, elf or dwarf. This is highly time
consuming if you want it to be a good castle. There must be floor indoors, and no underground
constructions except for mining operations and cellars. For an even greater challenge, build
a gigantic tower in the middle, where the nobles stay.

===Ceremonial Sacrifices===
Build an amazingly complex or spectacular killing device. A shaft that extends across the entire Z-plane is a good start. A constantly shifting maze of atomsmasher drawbridges is another. For the minimalist, a very confined space where you will drop a dwarf wrestler along with the gobbos once in a while. Perhaps a waterslide that carries your prisoner all the way down into a chasm? Whatever your idea, build it and dedicate your fort to the construction, maintenance and improvement of your device.

Do not kill any of your invaders. Capture them using cage traps, and them set them off in your device. Keep a record of the number of victims you drop into it.

BONUS: Create a statue garden to memorialize your victims, with one statue per victim. Structure your fortress such that sacrificial victims have to pass through the garden on the way to their demise.

===Computing===
Can your dwarves build the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera mechanism]? Can you program the fortress to play tic-tac-toe? More details at [[computing]].

===Colosseum===
Build a pit, around it on steps lots of Thrones, make the whole thing a meeting area, train Gladiators, capture goblins, leave them their weapons and let them fight against your gladiators. If they win, let them go.

===Crematory Fortress===
* Requires a [[magma pipe]] and [[bauxite]].

Build a temple structure above a [[magma pipe]] and [[engrave]] every available surface. The temple should be as opulent as possible. In the temple, build a retracting [[bridge]] over a hole in the floor, and designate a [[coffin]] [[stockpile]] on it. Whenever a dwarf dies, build a [[bauxite]] or other [[magma-proof]] [[coffin]] for him, place it on the [[bridge]], and retract it, committing his body to the [[magma|fiery blood of the mountain]].

::Note: Since coffins are unassigned and emptied when deconstructed and cannot be constructed on top of a bridge, this will not actually work. An alternative would be to place the coffins in individual chambers which can then be flooded with magma afterwards.

::: You could expose the magma pipe, build a one-tile wide floor span across it, and then above that build a support that holds up your temple floor on the z-level above. The temple floor would be separated from the walls of the temple and would be connected for walking access diagonally. The support holds it up. You would have to construct the coffins in the temple, then when someone gets buried you pull the lever attached to the support. You then rebuild the narrow span below, the temple floor, and the support, then link the lever to the new support.
::: You can do this without scaffolding if you build the temple floor access straight in, and then the span below and the support, then once the support is in place you destroy the straight temple access leaving only a diagonal temple access.

===Doomsday Clock===
Build a water or mechanical clock whose final state triggers the support which holds your fortress up or a megabeast out.
See how much wealth you can achieve before the clock runs out.
*Bonus: Create something that resets itself, as well as purging the map, so that you can reuse the same fortress over and over.
*Super-Bonus: Create something that involves pressure plates and a small kitten, when the pressure plates are hit in the right order, your map ends. Toss the kitten in and hope for the best. Alternatively, make the sequence quite unlikely, but add 2 kittens; breeding introduces a probability of doomsday that is a function of time (depending on the mechanisms involved)
*Super-Bonus: Create the super-bonus above, but place the kitten on the lowest Z-level and never return to either look at it or see how many of the conditions for the doomsday device have been met. This way, the kitty mimicks Schrodinger's cat: we cannot observe the state of the kitty, but we can infer it from the state of the world (spin-pairs effectively).

===Dwarf like an Egyptian===
*Build a pyramid of epic proportion.

Build a legendary dwarven pyramid, with a corridor running to a central tomb for your favourite noble. Then construct lots of different [[traps]] in it to avoid grave robbery. Perhaps build it entirely out of glass? Or try to make the top twist in a bit of a swirl. Alternatively, make your entire fortress inside a pyramid, which stretches below the ground.

*Build rows of Obelisks

Build a double row of Obelisks before the Pyramid, and engrave the sides. Build ramps on the tops.

*Build the whole thing upside down.
** And then another one on the upside-down one.

*When the time has come, or when your fortress is about to be destroyed by a siege etc perform the ceremony to translate the mortal form of the noble to the underworld. Give him a ritual death, and make sure you kill his servants as well. If the tomb is built for your king make every dwarf die but one, who inters everyone into their resting place. His final act will be to pull a level that seals the tomb as well as kills him. Then enjoy going back and reclaiming your fortress to observe your efforts.

===Graveyard Master===
Every dwarf deserves a decent resting place:
*Build a tomb for ever dwarf that dies, the more dwarves you manage to bury the better.
*Tombs must be rooms with exactly 5x5 of size and 1 of height, with only one entrance tile that must be closed by a door.
*Tombs must have all its surfaces engraved.
*Tomb must contain at least 4 statues.
*Once complete, the door must be locked and the tomb must not be ever entered again.

===How high can you go?===
Construction, construction, construction! Just how big a tower can you build? Out of glass maybe, clear glass? Steel? Pump water to the top? Make your tower a ''pinnacle'' of achievement and stun humans, elves and goblins alike - for they know nothing of construction and engineering like dwarves do!

===Land battleship===
Turn your mountain into a huge battle-station, complete with crew quarters, decks, command centre, cantina, and a large collection of deadly weapons : Batteries of marksdwarves, ballista cannons, catapults, boarding bridges and -teams, but also lava projector or remote explosive devices (ie cave-ins in a part of the map triggered by a lever). Make sure it ends up looking like a real battleship, with nothing but plains surrounding it (you could build it on an actual plain, or destroy a mountain, choice is yours). The battleship has to be autonomous, and dwarves shouldn't wander outside it.

*Bonus: The weaponry covers every tile of the map (i.e., everything that enters the map can be shot)
*Bonus: Build several other ships, maybe dedicated to a specific product (food, ammo etc.)
**Bonus: Find a way to let them fight each other in a naval battle
*Bonus: Each crew member has a civil and military formation, and when the enemy arrives, stop every economic activity. All hands to quarters !
*Mega Bonus: After building your Ship(s), flood the surrounding countryside.

===Moria===
Build a huge hall - at least 3 z-levels high. Leave few pillars symmetrically placed in the hall (don't build them, carve them out). Smooth and possibly engrave everything (not only the lowest z-level!). Then build thin bridge (not the bridge building, just a thin piece of rock to walk on) above magma - support it with bauxite supports connected to a lever (bauxite mechanisms needed in support). Destroy stone holding it at the both ends and replace it with floor hatches (so when you pull the lever it all goes down). After that build a bridge above the chasm.
When it's all done seal your dwarves deep inside in safe place and get invaded by goblins. At the same time dig out HFS. Lead the HFS across the both bridges and then collapse the second one when one of the champions clashes with it (it doesn't matter that the champion has killed the HFS with one hit).

===Mountain audit/core sample===
Start in a mountainous area and strip mine everything down, down, down to ground level. Stockpile everything, and calculate the mountain's composition. For kicks, try not excavating one tile on each z-level. You'll be left with one enormous core sample.

===Project Mayhem===

*You do not talk about project Mayhem
*Build a series of towers, at least 10 z-levels high, of different size and shape. They must be supported by a series of supports linked to a lever.
*Store all your riches in the towers : crafts, precious metal bars, gems, artifacts, everything. You may also want to house your nobles on top of the towers.
*Pull the lever and watch the collapse of financial history.

Bonus : make the towers' walls out of glass!

Bonus : Make soap! And remember, human fat is ideal...

===Santa Claus===
Get ten thousand toys built and offered to caravans yearly. Optionally, build ten thousand toys, fetch them in adventure mode and deliver them to every single city of the world.

===Skull collector===
What proves the might of a civilization better than a hall full of skulls?
*Try to collect as many skulls as you can during your fortress life, and put then in a special skulls-only storage. The more skulls the better.

BONUS: Cover all the skulls in blood, and make the stockpile also a throne room.
SUPERBONUS: Also fill the throne room with kittens.

===Space Ship===
Create a giant space ship fit for space travel. It should be able to hold about 100 dwarves for at least 2 years.

*BONUS: Use exploding [[booze]] as ignitable fuel.
*BONUS: Make a removable [[ramp]] for boarding.
*BONUS: Make the [[water]] for the 2 years be on the ship using removable pumps.
*BONUS+: Make it totally self sufficient. (Make an internal system which pumps the [[water]] supply through a room every few years to muddy the floor. Plant [[seed|seeds]] in the [[mud]] that's now on the floor. Manage your consumption to maintain self sufficiency.)
*Modding BONUS: Mod the game so that merchants can fly their new wagonships into your docking bays. ''(If possible)''
*BONUS+: Make it all out of [[steel]].
*[[fun|FUN]]: Let it be held by a single [[support]], ignite the [[booze]], remove the support an let it "fly".
*EVEN BETTER: Drop it down a chasm.
*More [[fun|FUN]]: Set up a mining operation on the surface and dig into the HFS. Watch the alien creatures take over your ship and hunt down your dwarves. Form a squad of heroes to overload the booze reactor to prevent the aliens from reaching earth. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Space_%28video_game%29 Dead Space] and/or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28film%29 the Alien series])

===Swiss Precision===
Build a working clock. The clock should accurately track DF days, months, and years.

Bonus Points:
*If the clock has a mechanical effect in the fortress proper to announce new days
*If the clock creates seasonally appropriate effects at the change of months and/or seasons.
*If the clock is used to aid in the operation of the fortress in addition to its role as a clock (automatically controls farmland irrigation at particular times, automatically opens the <s>blast doors</s> <s>floodgates</s> Magma Channels in time for merchants, etc...).
*If the clock governs the schedule of a working rail station (which is always on time). (Definitions of 'working' and 'rail station' are subject to player imagination).
*If the clock takes measures to protect itself. ''"I can't let you do that, Urist."''

But don't worry about the bonus points, a precision time device should be hard enough.

===Temple===
Designing a temple to Armok. Aesthetics count - the god will be very angry if there are no stained-glass windows and domed ceilings carved with frescoes. To gain more favor, make regular sacrifices and keep the fountains and rivers red with [[blood]].

===The cube===
Play a fort as usual, but emphasize catching goblins in cages to support and fill this construction:
Construct a series of rooms in a symmetrical fashion, all connected to each other with appropriate doors. Of course, enough rooms to make a maze-like structure, and if you feel like it, an exit that is hard to reach. Fill a bunch of the rooms with traps and pressureplates. Then fill one room with 4-6 goblins (preferably in cages, opened by an outside lever), release them and watch them randomly walk around the rooms dying to traps and whatnots.

*Bonus: Do multiple story maze (3d-maze)
*Bonus: Use pressureplates to open/close the exit randomly; otherwise, all the goblins will just follow the shortest route to the exit.

===The great brewery===
Disaster has struck the kingdom. A strangely glowing [[Fire|‼]]<nowiki></nowiki>peasant[[Fire|‼]] visited the greatest brewery of the empire, and as a result the whole thing exploded. No time for weeping — create its successor, a fort dedicated to alcohol production, and get the alcohol supplies flowing! Try to make the widest variety possible, and give or trade it to the dwarven [[caravan]] each year.

===The Great Wall of Urist===
Build a dwarven great wall of china that splits the map in half. Must be at least 10 tiles thick and reach the highest z-level.
* BONUS: Make it block the <s>mongols</s> goblins out of your half of the map.
* BONUS: Make it out of obsidian.
**BONUS+: Embark on a map without obsidian.
* BONUS: Find a way to make it touch the boundaries.
* BONUS: Build one gate
* BONUS: Arm it with ballistas.

===The Monolith===
As the inevitability of a fortress-wide mental breakdown looms over every single fortress why not have something that alludes to that precipice of [[insanity]]. Like the book and feature film, 2001: A Space Odyssey you must have a Monolith. This has to be made from [[obsidian]] and have a completely smooth surface (You cannot build it from blocks) You can have it be any size as long as it is outside, at least 2 tiles thick to ensure there are no pillar tiles, and has about the same ratio of width to height as it does in the movie (1:4:9) to make it as close to the real thing as possible. It would be preferable to make it large so that it seems to be dominating the landscape and your dwarves' psyche. The bigger the better.

*If the rock obsidian strata isn't deep enough in parts to make a monolith feasible consider casting a monolith with a large rectangular block in the exact same dimensional criteria as above.

===Statue of greatness===
Build a giant statue, spanning 10-20 z-levels and make it in the shape of say, a dwarf you like or an animal you like.
* Bonus: make it in the shape of a teapot that has a working boiling system and a spout that water can come out of.

===Underwater fortress===
Encase your entire fortress in [[water]]! Your fortress should be watersealed: surrounded by water against all [[wall]]s and the top of the fortress.
* Bonus: Build all water-touching walls/roof in clear glass!
* Bonus: Use [[magma]] instead of water!
* Bonus: Build it in the [[ocean]] or a non-freezing lake
* Bonus: Build large glass domes that encase the fortress. A dome 20 tiles wide should be 20 z-levels tall. Which may be hard to cover in water.
** NOTE: Actually, a dome 20 tiles wide should be 10 tiles tall, or less, since the steepest dome will be only semi-spherical, and most domes will start out at an angle anyway.
* Bonus: Have a mechanism for dropping your enemies into the water to drown! Or fill the water with carp.
* Mod: Make your dwarves amphibious and include airlocks between the wet fortress and the dry.
* Remake: Make Rapture city from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock Bioshock]

===Wealth===
The kingdom's coffers need lining, so hop to! Found a fort and start accumulating wealth as fast as possible. Attain as high a fortress value as possible, and make most of your wealth into coins for the vault. Try to beat your record for one year, two years, or five years.

===World Domination===
Pretend you are an evil mastermind. Now come up with some device or machine to render the world (or at least your portion of the map) totally unlivable, aside from, of course, your hidden lair.

You will receive bonus points for making a more realistic World Domination setup. Some suggestions:

* Make one dwarf the evil mastermind. The evil mastermind will have no empathy whatsoever, and they will hate all other races, and put no value on the lives of his minions. Protect him at all cost. If he should die, switch his position to his oldest child (who will avenge his father, because insanity is hereditary.) or the most insane, diabolical dwarf in your fort.
* Impractical, overkill solutions to everyday problems ("Sir, the dungeon master wants a better room" "Well then turn his room into a tomb and flood it with magma, and do not bother me with such trivial matters again or I will have you shot.")
* Give the evil mastermind a pet to obsess over. Give it a name like Mr. Bigglesworth or Snuggles.
* Have a science lab. Use living creatures and people as test subjects.

Doomsday device suggestions:
* Flood the map with water/magma (may require building walls around the edge of the map)
**BONUS: the water has carp in it.
* Build an "Earthquake Machine" (the entire map is supported by a single support, which is connected to a lever)
* Build an extensive holding cell network for "scientific purposes". Fill it with megabeasts and <s>elephants</s> unicorns in secret. Have a lever that lets everything free to feed on the general population.
* Embark in an evil area, and capture and tame all those undead animals if possible to create your own undead army
* Bonus: Eliminate the dwarves who constructed your device before you set it off. They must not be allowed to warn the rest of the citizens.
* Build an orbital weapons platform in space (which should be 12-15 stories above the ground, use your imagination), then arm it with magma bombs (droppable tank of magma) to glass the planet, rendering it uninhabitable for a few years.
* You can also recreate the most evil society in history and try a Nazi-dwarf concentration camp.


[[Category:Guides]]

=== The Grand Treasury ===
At first, have the king come to you. Then excavate a laaarge room and fill it with i.e.: Lots of coins, shiny gems, artifacts, golden statues, silver mugs, etc. pp. But the king is still not satisfied with his possessions, so he wants more and more shiny and sparky things.
Of course sooner or later (probably sooner) those filthy kobolds and goblins will come and try to steal this enormous hoard. We must never tolerate this! Turn your treasury into a strongroom like the world has never seen before! Secret doors, traps in abundance, guards at every door, ballistae, guard dogs, the whole program. If anything gets lost, you have proven your incompetence, and the king will have your fortress abandoned and founded another to guard his treasures.

*Bonus: Build up the treasury and raid it successfully in Adventure Mode

=== Heaven ===
Build a dwarven version of heaven. Every dwarf must want to come to you! Important pieces:
# Streets paved with gold.
# The mindless hordes are held back by pearly gates -- or at least a close equivalent. Marble doors with diamond encrustations.
# No dwarves die (except for criminals). Heaven is everlasting.
# All criminals must be cast into the fires of Hell. Ideally, this would either be HFS or the bottom of a magma pipe.
# Nothing is ever stolen. St. Peter doesn't screw up.
# After the King has arrived, any male children he has must be sent out to fight sieges alone.

BONUS: No dwarves are ever unhappy -- no tantrums and no insanity. 
BONUS: When migrants arrive at the pearly gates, view their thoughts and preferences and only allow those with a similar/same Diety as your population. 
BONUS: Make Heaven 10 stories above the ground 
Mod: Make Angel dwarves and a godly being. (suggestions: Cacame, Morul, Ironblood.) 
ULTRABONUS: Make Heaven in the air, an earthly society on the ground (a wooden town perhaps?), and carve the HFS place into Hell, complete with a lake of Magma/fire.Look up the character of every dwarf and send him to the appropriate place. 
MEGABONUS-(Re)Make: The Seven Seals have been broken and the Apocalypse arrives.
# The Sky darkens (an obsidian ceiling spanning over the map).
# Meteors (opened lava tanks and cave-ins) devastate the earth.
# All bodies of water turn bloody.
# Dig into the HFS and have a battle between Heaven and Hell. 

=== City of Ember ===
Show those filthy humans that when dwarves build a secret underground refuge, they build to last! In other words, recreate Ember from the film "City of Ember" (yes, everyone is aware there is a book), but do it right - none of these leaking pipes and crumbling buildings stuff, after only two and a half centuries underground!
# Mine out a massive cavern multiple z-layers high , and build a human-style city underneath it instead of carving out various chambers.
# You must seal it off. How long you wait to do this is up to you, but once it is sealed, you cannot unseal it for at least 200 years (if you decide to play that long). Ideally, use a utility to embark with a full set of dwarves (to represent the immigrating population) and seal the city off within one year of embarking.
# Build individual houses with their own dining rooms and bedrooms. Multiple dwarves can live in one house, but usually only a single family will live in one house.
# Build streets connecting all of the buildings, in the way that in the film, Ember didn't really have any space that wasn't either paved or built on until you got to the outskirts of the city.
# Have a "greenhouse" out on the outskirts for farming.
# You MUST have an underground river and use it for power.
# You MUST have magma and use it for power.
# Build City Hall, where the mayor has his office, with a nice fountain out front that actually works (probably involving water pressure, and as a testament to the fact that dwarves do it better, and their underground refuge isn't running desperately short of food, water, or power).
# No military, because there is simply no need for one, but have a fortress guard (to function as police, basically).
# After 200 or more years, unseal the city and colonize the surface.

BONUS: Instead of building your houses/other structures out of blocks or rocks, plan it all out beforehand and simply don't dig out the tiles that you want to be the walls of buildings, and smooth it all down so it looks the same, but your buildings are actually made out of solid natural rock. 
BONUS: Actually cause some kind of catastrophe on the surface (flood it with magma or something) that makes it uninhabitable, to FORCE yourself to stay underground, but when you unseal the city after 200 years, the surface should have healed and be habitable again. So, don't do something permanent.

40d Talk:Other weapon

2010-02-16T04:53:21Z

Newtype0083: /* Maul */

==Previous discussion moved from stub-articles along with content now in this article:==
::::::::::::::''(by'' [[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 17:13, 16 September 2009 (UTC)'')''

=== Blowgun ===
In the pre-Z level version, ive been attacked by batman wielding these. [[User:Diabl0658|Diabl0658]] 00:02, 1 December 2007 (EST)

Where can you get darts for this weapon? [[User:Xaque|Xaque]] 19:33, 23 January 2009 (EST)

:Re-read the article. Darts cannot be manufactured in Fortress Mode. Might be able to find some on attackers if they're wielding blowguns and you wax 'em before they can use up their ammo. As far as Adventure Mode, my guess would be the same--you have to find them on creatures wielding blowguns. [[User:RedKing|RedKing]] 02:23, 24 January 2009 (EST)

=== Bow ===

Can bows be used in weapon traps? [[User:Diabl0658|Diabl0658]] 02:53, 11 December 2007 (EST)

:I guess this still needs verification.--[[User:Richards|Richards]] 18:18, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

::The article "Weapon" states that bows can be used in weapon traps. --[[User:Bouchart|Bouchart]] 20:25, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

:::Thanks.--[[User:Richards|Richards]] 02:08, 21 April 2008 (EDT)
[[File:dwarfwithbow.jpg|thumbnail]]
Dwarves can use bows! At least when they are trained by goblins to use them against you. I think therefore it's rather something cultural that does them forbid to use bows than their fingers.
--[[User:Arni|Arni]] 16:45, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

=== Large dagger ===

Can be used by anyone? Are you sure about this, or does that only refer to Adventure Mode. I've had almost a dozen daggers in my Fortress in the past, and I can't get any of my dwarves to use them. --[[User:Thanatos|Thanatos]] 19:54, 18 December 2007

:Well, dwarves are theoretically able to learn the skill, since a dwarf adventurer can, but you can't make your fortress mode dwarves pick one up and train with it. Best just to trade them away or melt them down. --[[User:Mzbundifund|Mzbundifund]] 20:01, 18 December 2007

=== Pike ===

As I said a lot of times now, I've managed to wield a pike with a dwarven adventurer in 23a. This need to be verified, maybe there's a strenght requirement. --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 18:34, 10 December 2007 (EST)
: You CAN wield it as a dwarf in AM, but not in DM, because they are fobidden to do so by the game code. --[[User:Heliopios|Heliopios]] 18:40, 10 December 2007 (EST)
====Pikeman skill VS Spearman skill====
I'm not going to start or create an edit war here. If you ([[User:Heliopios|Heliopios]]) are so sure you're right, then prove it. If you are indeed right I'll be happy to oblige you. Otherwise, I'm going to edit it back again if you can't answer to this in about a few days...
:I also think that whatever happens, it should be pointed out that the aforementioned pikeman skill is only used in adventurer mode since dwarves can't wield it in fortress mode. If we're going to make this weapon entry fit with all the others, readers will assume that the skill written there is the fortress mode skill. --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 01:06, 11 December 2007 (EST)
[[Image:Dwarffortpike.jpg|right|thumb|100px|Pikeman]]
Is this enough to prove you wrong? Next time do some simple research before you go saying that shit doesnt exist. --[[User:Heliopios|Heliopios]] 01:58, 11 December 2007 (EST)
:Sorry... I'm not the one who's agressive about it here. Obviously, we don't all have a degree in Dwarf Fortressology like ''you'' do... *rolls eyes* --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 02:29, 11 December 2007 (EST)
So what about a halberd and a pike? I've seen goblins wielding shields and halberds, I don't know about pikes. I always thought a halberd was a pike with an axe on the end. --Gotthard 12:39, 11 December 2007 (EST)
:Halberds are shorter than pikes, about 6ft in real life. Pikes are closer to 18ft. In the raws it says it requires 2 hands, though I don;t know about real life. I don;t know what's happening with those goblins, maybe they are mutant 3 armed ones? [[User:Dangerous Beans|Dangerous Beans]] 06:07, 1 December 2008 (EST)

====Pikedwarf in Fortress Mode====
[[Image:Pikedwarf.PNG|right|thumb|100px|Pikeman]]
I think I've found a bug. There's a pikedwarf in one of my coffins. I've never trained a pikedwarf, and I don't think I can. Moreover, I've checked my game log and it has no record of this person dying. Is it possible that Dwarven guards of merchant trains can be pikedwarfs? Maybe one of them got caught and killed in a siege and ended up in my mortuary.
[[User:Revan|Revan]] 15:12, 16 February 2009 (EST)

:Probably not what happened, but it could always be possible that pikemen dwarves could immigrate to your fort. --[[User:Myroc|Myroc]] 15:47, 16 February 2009 (EST)

::Possibly a member of a human caravan. Dwarves belonging to other civs still get buried in your coffins. [[User:VengefulDonut|VengefulDonut]] 16:56, 16 February 2009 (EST)
::More likely a kidnapped child who returned as attacker with goblins. They too end up in your coffins.--[[User:Birthright|Birthright]] 13:10, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

=== Whip ===
So how does the game ensure that a dwarf can't wear a whip in fortress mode? --[[User:Birthright|Birthright]] 23:30, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

== Maul ==

A maul is a <s>very</s>, very large, heavy hammer...

(and actually a term for sledge hammer))
And a "spear" is a term for something you go snorkling with to catch little fishies. Just as there are axes for work and there are battle axes, there are mauls for work and there are mauls for battle. I've always pictured a "battle maul" as something MUCH different from a sledge hammer, even tho' when you use a "maul and wedge" (to split wood), you're (probably) just using a generic sledge from the hardware store. Just as a war hammer is much bigger than a claw hammer (perhaps starting at the size of a one-handed sledge, or bigger), a maul is another step up from that - cartoony big, looking more like a section of a treetrunk (banded and decorated, or not) on a proportionally large handle. In Conan the Barbarian, one of the bad guys had a maul, one that he missed <s>Arnold</s> Conan with and broke a huge <s>plaster</s> stone column in <s>James Earl Jones'</s> Thulsa Doom's lair. To me, that's a "maul", in the combat sense. Meh.--[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 21:44, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Can goblins wield mauls? It says here that only humans can, but many hammer goblins in sieges have been seen with them. Are they actually wielding them or just carrying them?
--[[User:Newtype0083|Newtype0083]] 04:52, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

== Flail ==
One of my macedwarf champions is merrily holding a flail. This leads me to suspect that dwarves can use the weapon despite it not being listed so, here. :D
--[[Special:Contributions/131.111.213.42|131.111.213.42]] 20:03, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
:Checked all my macedwarves, and a few of them are using flails. GASP! --[[Special:Contributions/131.111.213.42|131.111.213.42]] 20:06, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

40d Talk:Other weapon

2010-02-16T04:52:55Z

Newtype0083: /* Maul */

==Previous discussion moved from stub-articles along with content now in this article:==
::::::::::::::''(by'' [[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 17:13, 16 September 2009 (UTC)'')''

=== Blowgun ===
In the pre-Z level version, ive been attacked by batman wielding these. [[User:Diabl0658|Diabl0658]] 00:02, 1 December 2007 (EST)

Where can you get darts for this weapon? [[User:Xaque|Xaque]] 19:33, 23 January 2009 (EST)

:Re-read the article. Darts cannot be manufactured in Fortress Mode. Might be able to find some on attackers if they're wielding blowguns and you wax 'em before they can use up their ammo. As far as Adventure Mode, my guess would be the same--you have to find them on creatures wielding blowguns. [[User:RedKing|RedKing]] 02:23, 24 January 2009 (EST)

=== Bow ===

Can bows be used in weapon traps? [[User:Diabl0658|Diabl0658]] 02:53, 11 December 2007 (EST)

:I guess this still needs verification.--[[User:Richards|Richards]] 18:18, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

::The article "Weapon" states that bows can be used in weapon traps. --[[User:Bouchart|Bouchart]] 20:25, 15 April 2008 (EDT)

:::Thanks.--[[User:Richards|Richards]] 02:08, 21 April 2008 (EDT)
[[File:dwarfwithbow.jpg|thumbnail]]
Dwarves can use bows! At least when they are trained by goblins to use them against you. I think therefore it's rather something cultural that does them forbid to use bows than their fingers.
--[[User:Arni|Arni]] 16:45, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

=== Large dagger ===

Can be used by anyone? Are you sure about this, or does that only refer to Adventure Mode. I've had almost a dozen daggers in my Fortress in the past, and I can't get any of my dwarves to use them. --[[User:Thanatos|Thanatos]] 19:54, 18 December 2007

:Well, dwarves are theoretically able to learn the skill, since a dwarf adventurer can, but you can't make your fortress mode dwarves pick one up and train with it. Best just to trade them away or melt them down. --[[User:Mzbundifund|Mzbundifund]] 20:01, 18 December 2007

=== Pike ===

As I said a lot of times now, I've managed to wield a pike with a dwarven adventurer in 23a. This need to be verified, maybe there's a strenght requirement. --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 18:34, 10 December 2007 (EST)
: You CAN wield it as a dwarf in AM, but not in DM, because they are fobidden to do so by the game code. --[[User:Heliopios|Heliopios]] 18:40, 10 December 2007 (EST)
====Pikeman skill VS Spearman skill====
I'm not going to start or create an edit war here. If you ([[User:Heliopios|Heliopios]]) are so sure you're right, then prove it. If you are indeed right I'll be happy to oblige you. Otherwise, I'm going to edit it back again if you can't answer to this in about a few days...
:I also think that whatever happens, it should be pointed out that the aforementioned pikeman skill is only used in adventurer mode since dwarves can't wield it in fortress mode. If we're going to make this weapon entry fit with all the others, readers will assume that the skill written there is the fortress mode skill. --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 01:06, 11 December 2007 (EST)
[[Image:Dwarffortpike.jpg|right|thumb|100px|Pikeman]]
Is this enough to prove you wrong? Next time do some simple research before you go saying that shit doesnt exist. --[[User:Heliopios|Heliopios]] 01:58, 11 December 2007 (EST)
:Sorry... I'm not the one who's agressive about it here. Obviously, we don't all have a degree in Dwarf Fortressology like ''you'' do... *rolls eyes* --[[User:Eagle of Fire|Eagle of Fire]] 02:29, 11 December 2007 (EST)
So what about a halberd and a pike? I've seen goblins wielding shields and halberds, I don't know about pikes. I always thought a halberd was a pike with an axe on the end. --Gotthard 12:39, 11 December 2007 (EST)
:Halberds are shorter than pikes, about 6ft in real life. Pikes are closer to 18ft. In the raws it says it requires 2 hands, though I don;t know about real life. I don;t know what's happening with those goblins, maybe they are mutant 3 armed ones? [[User:Dangerous Beans|Dangerous Beans]] 06:07, 1 December 2008 (EST)

====Pikedwarf in Fortress Mode====
[[Image:Pikedwarf.PNG|right|thumb|100px|Pikeman]]
I think I've found a bug. There's a pikedwarf in one of my coffins. I've never trained a pikedwarf, and I don't think I can. Moreover, I've checked my game log and it has no record of this person dying. Is it possible that Dwarven guards of merchant trains can be pikedwarfs? Maybe one of them got caught and killed in a siege and ended up in my mortuary.
[[User:Revan|Revan]] 15:12, 16 February 2009 (EST)

:Probably not what happened, but it could always be possible that pikemen dwarves could immigrate to your fort. --[[User:Myroc|Myroc]] 15:47, 16 February 2009 (EST)

::Possibly a member of a human caravan. Dwarves belonging to other civs still get buried in your coffins. [[User:VengefulDonut|VengefulDonut]] 16:56, 16 February 2009 (EST)
::More likely a kidnapped child who returned as attacker with goblins. They too end up in your coffins.--[[User:Birthright|Birthright]] 13:10, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

=== Whip ===
So how does the game ensure that a dwarf can't wear a whip in fortress mode? --[[User:Birthright|Birthright]] 23:30, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

== Maul ==

A maul is a <s>very</s>, very large, heavy hammer...

(and actually a term for sledge hammer))
And a "spear" is a term for something you go snorkling with to catch little fishies. Just as there are axes for work and there are battle axes, there are mauls for work and there are mauls for battle. I've always pictured a "battle maul" as something MUCH different from a sledge hammer, even tho' when you use a "maul and wedge" (to split wood), you're (probably) just using a generic sledge from the hardware store. Just as a war hammer is much bigger than a claw hammer (perhaps starting at the size of a one-handed sledge, or bigger), a maul is another step up from that - cartoony big, looking more like a section of a treetrunk (banded and decorated, or not) on a proportionally large handle. In Conan the Barbarian, one of the bad guys had a maul, one that he missed <s>Arnold</s> Conan with and broke a huge <s>plaster</s> stone column in <s>James Earl Jones'</s> Thulsa Doom's lair. To me, that's a "maul", in the combat sense. Meh.--[[User:Albedo|Albedo]] 21:44, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

Can goblins wield mauls? It says here that only humans can, but many hammer goblins in sieges have been seen with them. Are they actually wielding them or just carrying them?
[[User:Newtype0083|Newtype0083]] 04:52, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

== Flail ==
One of my macedwarf champions is merrily holding a flail. This leads me to suspect that dwarves can use the weapon despite it not being listed so, here. :D
--[[Special:Contributions/131.111.213.42|131.111.213.42]] 20:03, 11 October 2009 (UTC)
:Checked all my macedwarves, and a few of them are using flails. GASP! --[[Special:Contributions/131.111.213.42|131.111.213.42]] 20:06, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Template:Sg/caption

2010-02-16T01:53:18Z

Newtype0083:

{{choose|c={{{1|default}}}|default=No caption? Add one!
|1=Preparing a ballista.
|2=A well-placed door holds back disaster...
|3=Belal's 16x16 tileset
|4=Use utilities like 3Dwarf to render your fortresses
|5=Communal living: who needs walls?
|6=This is how we handle diplomatic relations with goblins.
|7=The dwarves hang around in the ale storage area to get some alone time with their alchohol.
|8=A baby crawling through the aftermath of a human siege at Ringfissures
|9=The dwarves have found a way to paint their walls. It's a shame they ran out of paint when they were half-way done.
|10=With friends like these...
|11=Some fish are better left alone.
|12=No matter what your orders may be, your dwarves know the real matters of importance.
|13=Maybe Little Miss Muffet was a dwarf?
|14=All the comforts of home.
|15=Remember, only you can prevent forest fires!
|16=GODS DANGIT MELBUL AND YOUR WATERFALLS!
|17=Ah... the great outdoors.
|18=You heard the man, Gimli. Your cot's in the barracks.
|19=A colossus makes short work of captured goblins in an arena.
|20=Is that a euphemism?
|21=Pain and hardship starts at a young age in dwarven culture.
|22=The vanity of dwarven engravers is not to be underestimated.
|23=Goblins have a very fickle relationship with their body parts. A skilled Axedwarf can quickly have them calling for a divorce.
|24=The King is dead. Long live the King!
|25=A mechanical binary addition engine.
|26=My pastimes? Oh, I enjoy tearing wolves' legs and heads off with my hands every so often.
|27=Hydras probably have sever psychological issues regarding decapitation.
|28=Dwarves are alot like ants. Except that instead of using pheromones to mark their trails they use vomit and useless crap.
|29=This bin is worshiped by three different kobold civilisations. Kobold children everywhere dream of stealing it.
|30=A booze stockpile is a meeting zone in its own right.
|31=Ianuamania; madness relating to the obsessive placement of doors.
|32=Sittin' on the dock of the bay...
|33=Who needs pikes to put heads on when you have statues?
}}

Template:Sg/caption

2010-02-16T01:50:36Z

Newtype0083:

{{choose|c={{{1|default}}}|default=No caption? Add one!
|1=Preparing a ballista.
|2=A well-placed door holds back disaster...
|3=Belal's 16x16 tileset
|4=Use utilities like 3Dwarf to render your fortresses
|5=Communal living: who needs walls?
|6=This is how we handle diplomatic relations with goblins.
|7=The dwarves hang around in the ale storage area to get some alone time with their alchohol.
|8=A baby crawling through the aftermath of a human siege at Ringfissures
|9=The dwarves have found a way to paint their walls. It's a shame they ran out of paint when they were half-way done.
|10=With friends like these...
|11=Some fish are better left alone.
|12=No matter what your orders may be, your dwarves know the real matters of importance.
|13=Maybe Little Miss Muffet was a dwarf?
|14=All the comforts of home.
|15=Remember, only you can prevent forest fires!
|16=GODS DANGIT MELBUL AND YOUR WATERFALLS!
|17=Ah... the great outdoors.
|18=You heard the man, Gimli. Your cot's in the barracks.
|19=A colossus makes short work of captured goblins in an arena.
|20=Is that a euphemism?
|21=Pain and hardship starts at a young age in dwarven culture.
|22=The vanity of dwarven engravers is not to be underestimated.
|23=Goblins have a very fickle relationship with their body parts. A skilled Axedwarf can quickly have them calling for a divorce.
|24=The King is dead. Long live the King!
|25=A mechanical binary addition engine.
|26=My pastimes? Oh, I enjoy tearing wolves' legs and heads off with my hands every so often.
|27=Hydras probably have sever psychological issues regarding decapitation.
|28=Dwarves are alot like ants. Except that instead of using pheromones to mark their trails they use vomit and useless crap.
|29=This bin is worshiped by three different kobold civilisations. Kobold children everywhere dream of stealing it.
|30=A booze stockpile is a meeting zone in its own right.
|32=Sittin' on the dock of the bay...
|31=Ianuamania; madness relating to the obsessive placement of doors.
}}

Template:Sg/cat

2010-02-16T01:45:35Z

Newtype0083:

File:Heads-on-statues.PNG

2010-02-16T01:40:54Z

Newtype0083: With all the champion axedwarves around, some goblin heads were bound to end up in odd places.

With all the champion axedwarves around, some goblin heads were bound to end up in odd places.

40d:Workshop design

2010-02-16T01:29:36Z

Newtype0083: /* Plumbing Access */

Workshop layout is very important to making a fortress run smoothly. [[Workshops]] should be close to [[stockpiles]] containing their inputs and outputs in order to minimize the amount of [[hauling]] necessary. In many cases, it is also desirable to be able to lock workshops either to force the use of certain materials or to contain a dwarf in the case of a failed [[strange mood]].

Pair workshops that have similar inputs or similar outputs or where the output of one is the input of another. Examples: Pair a mechanic's workshop with a mason's workshop because both consume stone and produce furniture, or a forge surrounded by smelters. If multiple inputs are required (smelter, smith..), it is better to make specialized stockpiles rather than having a single 'input' stockpile because you want to make sure that there is always some of every input. Use the 'take from stockpile' interface to fill these subsidiary stockpiles from your main stockpile and vice versa.

For more information on organizing stockpiles see [[Stockpile Design]]

There are several possible layouts for workshops and stockpiles, including but not limited to the following.

== Basement stockpiles ==

This design gives workshops easy access to input and output stockpiles.

Level 1: Level 2 (below, as shown, but could be above as well)

╔══════╦══════╗ ╔══════╦══════╗
║WWWWWW║WWWWWW║ ║iiiiii║iiiiii║
║WWWWWW║WWWWWW║ ║iiiiii║iiiiii║
║WWWWWW║WWWWWW║ OiiiiiiOiiiiiiO
║..>>..║..>>..║ ...<<.....<<...
╚══════╩══════╝ OooooooOooooooO
║oooooo║oooooo║
W = workshop ║oooooo║oooooo║
i = input item ╚══════╩══════╝
o = output item

Alternatively you can place input above and output below the workshops or the other way round, depending, for example, on the location of your trade depot, or other workshops involved in the chain of production. Additional stairs may be useful.

== 3x3 rooms ==

This design makes it easier to contain berserk dwarves.

╔═══╦═══┼..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
╩══┼╩┼══┼..
....X......
╦══┼╦┼══┼..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
╚═══╩═══┼..

W = workshop
X = up/down staircase
... = hallway

Access and stockpiles are placed above and below the room. Similar workshops can be grouped together for easier checking on, and doors can be locked should a moody dwarf's wishes be unmet. This concept can be used for your entire fortress:

Below you can see a piece from around the central staircase, to see how the design should start. Notice that it is pretty modular, you can have two workshops pushed together, or you can separate them all, and you have a couple options on how you set up your entrances, connecting two workshops with one door, or leaving them with separate entrances. Up to you. Notice the initial diagonal terminates at a workshop, and starts the grid pattern.

║WWW║.║```║.║WWW║`
║WWW║.╠═══╣.║WWW║`
║WWW║.║WWW║.║WWW║`
╩═══┼.║WWW║.┼═══╩═
......║WWW║.......
══════┼═╦═┼═══┼═══
WWWWWW║.O.║WWW║WWW
WWWWWW╠OXO╣WWW║WWW
WWWWWW║.O.║WWW║WWW
══════┼═╩═┼═══┼═══
......║WWW║.......
╦═══┼.║WWW║.┼═══╦═
║WWW║.║WWW║.║WWW║`
║WWW║.╠═══╣.║WWW║`
║WWW║.┼WWW┼.║WWW║`
╚═══╣.║WWW║.╠═══╝`
````║.║WWW║.║`````
````║.╠═══╣.║`````

The floors alternate workshop/storage. On workshop floors the diagonals immediate to the main stairway are mined out a couple spaces to make room for the first workshops; around those you can start mining in straight lines and start a grid pattern. For storage floors you can leave a wall of stone around the staircase with only one or two walls mined out for access; then mine out everything around it. On the ground level you start by mining into a cave, clear out space for a trade depot, and mine out one spot where you build a single downward staircase; here the entire fortress starts. It works great and is very efficient, though it takes a while to get setup right.

== Decentralized Workshop Complex ==
Designed for use with the [[Bedroom_Design#Decentralized_living|decentralized living]] plan, this plan emphasizes fine-grained planning with many small, specific stockpiles and planned workshop quarters. It therefore requires some micro-management to get going. However, once you have it working, things work extremely smoothly and you should never have a significant delay in production again.

[[Image:Workshops.GIF]]

Total workshop loadout for 1 floor:
* Sixteen (16) 3x3 workshops
* Four (4) 4x3 workshops
* Two (2) 5x5 workshops

Maximum walk to stockpile on same wing: 18.

The light gray crosses are optional doors. They can be useful for sealing off a Kitchen or Butcher's Shop to keep [[miasma]] from annoying the neighbors. Beyond that, the blue field is the stairwell access (recommend separate up stairs and down stairs for safety reasons), and the gray fields are stockpiles.

4x3 workshops are useful for workshops with strange blocked square formations (the Bowyer's shop is an example). They can also be nice for setting up a tiny 1x2 or 1x3 stockpile for a specific workshop - with bins, this can be a significant reserve of material. Imagine a Clothier or Leatherworker with 3 full bins of cloth or leather right next to them.

The 5x5 workshops are useful for [[shop]]s, [[kennel]]s, and [[siege workshop]]s. You can even put your [[trade depot]] in one of them if you've got a mind to. Maintaining proper security can be a nightmare in that situation (remember that [[troll]]s and others can break down doors and floodgates), but if you manage to get it done it can be a trader's dream come true. They can also be useful for making a specialty shop with a few stockpiles designed to accomplish only one thing (encrusting statues with gems, for example).

The 3x3 workshops are best organized into wings, where a pair of workshops share a similar function with the pair directly next to them. They share stockpile space better this way. When set up correctly, less than 10 dwarves will regularly use each stockpile room, so traffic is a non-issue. There tends to be a lot of dwarves in the halls, though, because [[peasant]] haulers visit the workshops frequently, hence the 3-wide corridors.

Finally, this design offers lots and lots of wall space for smoothing and engraving. Free wealth is good.

== Interconnected 6x6 rooms with stockpiles ==

╬══┼┼══╬══┼┼══╬
║.****.║.****.║
║**..**║**..**║
┼*....*┼*....*┼
┼*....*┼*....*┼
║**..**║**..**║
║.****.║.****.║
╬══┼┼══╬══┼┼══╬
║.****.║.****.║
║**..**║**..**║
┼*....*┼*....*┼
┼*....*┼*....*┼
║**..**║**..**║
║.****.║.****.║ * = pathway
╬══┼┼══╬══┼┼══╬

In this design, each room functions as workshop, hallway, and stockpile. A workshop is placed near the center of each room, preferably so that only a walkable tile overlaps the (*) pathways. The pathways form a virtual double-wide diagonal hallway, allowing dwarves to move through the fortress easily. The pathways, as well as the remainder of each room, are filled with the appropriate stockpiles. Each room should have at least one set of stairs for easy access to adjacent z-levels.

Each workshop has a short path to several nearby workshops on the same and other z-levels, allowing for a lot of flexibility in which workshops are placed in which rooms. Each room is also lockable if necessary. Optionally, the corner can be replaced with a door to allow faster movement between diagonally adjacent workshops.

== Fluid workshop locations ==
Alternatively, you can employ a "work site" methodology where workshops are constructed and destroyed as necessary. For example, if you mine out a huge dining hall and it is completely filled with stone, build a masonry shop in the hall to manufacture tables and chairs. This eliminates the need for a stone hauler because your mason only has to travel a few squares to get raw material. In addition it makes furniture hauling more efficient because the tables and chairs are right next to their eventual location. And of course it clears stone out of your dining hall, eliminating the need for a refuse hauler to dump it all.

== Smelting Operations ==
In very resource-heavy maps, 10-12 [[smelters]] may be necessary to keep up with mining operations. I've had very efficient results with this setup - and it looks good, to boot. The stairways lead down into a high Z-level mining operation (keeps the [[noise]] away from the bedrooms, too), with additional [[bar]] storage 1-2 levels below. One or more [[magma forge]]s would be down the hall from the bar stockpiles.

╔════════════╗
║SMSSMSSMSSMS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
╠┼┼═══┼┼═══┼┼╣
║............║
║............╠══════╗
║..╔═....═╗..┼OOOSMS║
║..║>>BBBB║..┼OOOSSS║
═════╝...>>BBBB...║OOOSSS║
.........BBBBBB...║OOOSMS║
.........BBBBBB...║OOOSSS║
.........BBBBBB...║OOOSSS║
═════╗...BBBB>>...║OOOSMS║
║..║BBBB>>║..┼OOOSSS║
║..╚═....═╝..┼OOOSSS║
║............╠══════╝
║............║
╠┼┼═══┼┼═══┼┼╣
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║SMSSMSSMSSMS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
╚════════════╝

*S = Smelter
*M = Magma access (lines up with unpassable tile on magma smelter)
*B = Bar Stockpile
*O = Ore Stockpile

== Plumbing Access ==
Unless you plan your fortress design carefully it can be difficult to pipe water and magma into it without serious remodeling. With this workshop and stockpile setup you can add in tunnels for both liquids after the initial construction without rearranging the whole area. If you later need the extra space in the stockpiles you can always expand them into the plumbing areas.

Key:
. Floor (path)
_ Channel
W Workshop
≈ Magma
= Stockpile
█ Stone/unused space (reserved for plumbing)

Layout:

Z -1:
╔═══┼═══╗ ╔═══┼═══╗
║WWW.WWW║ ║_WW.WW_║
║WWW.WWW║ ║WWW.WWW║
║WWW.WWW║ ║WWW.WWW║
┼...X...┼ ┼...X...┼
║WWW.WWW║ ║WWW.WWW║
║WWW.WWW║ ║WWW.WWW║
║WWW.WWW║ ║_WW.WW_║
╚═══┼═══╝ ╚═══┼═══╝

║WWWXWWW║ ║_WWXWW_║
Z -2:
█████████ ╔═══════╗
█████████ ║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║
██╔═══╗██ ║≈╔═══╗≈║
██║...║██ ║≈║...║≈║
██║.X.║██ ║≈║.X.║≈║
██║...║██ ║≈║...║≈║
██╚═══╝██ ║≈╚═══╝≈║
█████████ ║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║
█████████ ╚═══════╝

██║.X.║██ ║≈║.X.║≈║
Z -3:
╔═══════╗ ╔═══════╗
║=======║ ║=======║
║=======║ ║=======║
║=======║ ║=======║
║===X===║ ║===X===║
║=======║ ║=======║
║=======║ ║=======║
║=======║ ║=======║
╚═══════╝ ╚═══════╝

║===X===║ ║===X===║

The rest is a repetition of the normal (non-magma) Z -2 and Z -3, alternating. I recommend using workshops that are similar - while this makes it harder to contain berserk dwarves, placing any kind of traps around the workshops should help prevent this.
Z -2 is considered to be a "plumbing" level.

An example magma setup (side view):
║_WWXWW_║ <- Workshop layer
║≈║.X.║≈║ <- Magma (power for workshops above)
║===X===║ <- Stockpiles (holding material for workshops)
██║.X.║██ <- "Plumbing" layer
║===X===║ <- More stockpiles
██║.X.║██ <- "Plumbing" layer
║===X===║ <- More stockpiles
█████████ <- (Repeat above as necessary)

Finally, note that up and down staircases are recommended on all levels; it saves time in building the same pattern upwards, if such is required.

[[Category:World]]
[[Category:Design]]

40d:Workshop design

2010-02-16T01:14:07Z

Newtype0083:

Workshop layout is very important to making a fortress run smoothly. [[Workshops]] should be close to [[stockpiles]] containing their inputs and outputs in order to minimize the amount of [[hauling]] necessary. In many cases, it is also desirable to be able to lock workshops either to force the use of certain materials or to contain a dwarf in the case of a failed [[strange mood]].

Pair workshops that have similar inputs or similar outputs or where the output of one is the input of another. Examples: Pair a mechanic's workshop with a mason's workshop because both consume stone and produce furniture, or a forge surrounded by smelters. If multiple inputs are required (smelter, smith..), it is better to make specialized stockpiles rather than having a single 'input' stockpile because you want to make sure that there is always some of every input. Use the 'take from stockpile' interface to fill these subsidiary stockpiles from your main stockpile and vice versa.

For more information on organizing stockpiles see [[Stockpile Design]]

There are several possible layouts for workshops and stockpiles, including but not limited to the following.

== Basement stockpiles ==

This design gives workshops easy access to input and output stockpiles.

Level 1: Level 2 (below, as shown, but could be above as well)

╔══════╦══════╗ ╔══════╦══════╗
║WWWWWW║WWWWWW║ ║iiiiii║iiiiii║
║WWWWWW║WWWWWW║ ║iiiiii║iiiiii║
║WWWWWW║WWWWWW║ OiiiiiiOiiiiiiO
║..>>..║..>>..║ ...<<.....<<...
╚══════╩══════╝ OooooooOooooooO
║oooooo║oooooo║
W = workshop ║oooooo║oooooo║
i = input item ╚══════╩══════╝
o = output item

Alternatively you can place input above and output below the workshops or the other way round, depending, for example, on the location of your trade depot, or other workshops involved in the chain of production. Additional stairs may be useful.

== 3x3 rooms ==

This design makes it easier to contain berserk dwarves.

╔═══╦═══┼..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
╩══┼╩┼══┼..
....X......
╦══┼╦┼══┼..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
║WWW║WWW║..
╚═══╩═══┼..

W = workshop
X = up/down staircase
... = hallway

Access and stockpiles are placed above and below the room. Similar workshops can be grouped together for easier checking on, and doors can be locked should a moody dwarf's wishes be unmet. This concept can be used for your entire fortress:

Below you can see a piece from around the central staircase, to see how the design should start. Notice that it is pretty modular, you can have two workshops pushed together, or you can separate them all, and you have a couple options on how you set up your entrances, connecting two workshops with one door, or leaving them with separate entrances. Up to you. Notice the initial diagonal terminates at a workshop, and starts the grid pattern.

║WWW║.║```║.║WWW║`
║WWW║.╠═══╣.║WWW║`
║WWW║.║WWW║.║WWW║`
╩═══┼.║WWW║.┼═══╩═
......║WWW║.......
══════┼═╦═┼═══┼═══
WWWWWW║.O.║WWW║WWW
WWWWWW╠OXO╣WWW║WWW
WWWWWW║.O.║WWW║WWW
══════┼═╩═┼═══┼═══
......║WWW║.......
╦═══┼.║WWW║.┼═══╦═
║WWW║.║WWW║.║WWW║`
║WWW║.╠═══╣.║WWW║`
║WWW║.┼WWW┼.║WWW║`
╚═══╣.║WWW║.╠═══╝`
````║.║WWW║.║`````
````║.╠═══╣.║`````

The floors alternate workshop/storage. On workshop floors the diagonals immediate to the main stairway are mined out a couple spaces to make room for the first workshops; around those you can start mining in straight lines and start a grid pattern. For storage floors you can leave a wall of stone around the staircase with only one or two walls mined out for access; then mine out everything around it. On the ground level you start by mining into a cave, clear out space for a trade depot, and mine out one spot where you build a single downward staircase; here the entire fortress starts. It works great and is very efficient, though it takes a while to get setup right.

== Decentralized Workshop Complex ==
Designed for use with the [[Bedroom_Design#Decentralized_living|decentralized living]] plan, this plan emphasizes fine-grained planning with many small, specific stockpiles and planned workshop quarters. It therefore requires some micro-management to get going. However, once you have it working, things work extremely smoothly and you should never have a significant delay in production again.

[[Image:Workshops.GIF]]

Total workshop loadout for 1 floor:
* Sixteen (16) 3x3 workshops
* Four (4) 4x3 workshops
* Two (2) 5x5 workshops

Maximum walk to stockpile on same wing: 18.

The light gray crosses are optional doors. They can be useful for sealing off a Kitchen or Butcher's Shop to keep [[miasma]] from annoying the neighbors. Beyond that, the blue field is the stairwell access (recommend separate up stairs and down stairs for safety reasons), and the gray fields are stockpiles.

4x3 workshops are useful for workshops with strange blocked square formations (the Bowyer's shop is an example). They can also be nice for setting up a tiny 1x2 or 1x3 stockpile for a specific workshop - with bins, this can be a significant reserve of material. Imagine a Clothier or Leatherworker with 3 full bins of cloth or leather right next to them.

The 5x5 workshops are useful for [[shop]]s, [[kennel]]s, and [[siege workshop]]s. You can even put your [[trade depot]] in one of them if you've got a mind to. Maintaining proper security can be a nightmare in that situation (remember that [[troll]]s and others can break down doors and floodgates), but if you manage to get it done it can be a trader's dream come true. They can also be useful for making a specialty shop with a few stockpiles designed to accomplish only one thing (encrusting statues with gems, for example).

The 3x3 workshops are best organized into wings, where a pair of workshops share a similar function with the pair directly next to them. They share stockpile space better this way. When set up correctly, less than 10 dwarves will regularly use each stockpile room, so traffic is a non-issue. There tends to be a lot of dwarves in the halls, though, because [[peasant]] haulers visit the workshops frequently, hence the 3-wide corridors.

Finally, this design offers lots and lots of wall space for smoothing and engraving. Free wealth is good.

== Interconnected 6x6 rooms with stockpiles ==

╬══┼┼══╬══┼┼══╬
║.****.║.****.║
║**..**║**..**║
┼*....*┼*....*┼
┼*....*┼*....*┼
║**..**║**..**║
║.****.║.****.║
╬══┼┼══╬══┼┼══╬
║.****.║.****.║
║**..**║**..**║
┼*....*┼*....*┼
┼*....*┼*....*┼
║**..**║**..**║
║.****.║.****.║ * = pathway
╬══┼┼══╬══┼┼══╬

In this design, each room functions as workshop, hallway, and stockpile. A workshop is placed near the center of each room, preferably so that only a walkable tile overlaps the (*) pathways. The pathways form a virtual double-wide diagonal hallway, allowing dwarves to move through the fortress easily. The pathways, as well as the remainder of each room, are filled with the appropriate stockpiles. Each room should have at least one set of stairs for easy access to adjacent z-levels.

Each workshop has a short path to several nearby workshops on the same and other z-levels, allowing for a lot of flexibility in which workshops are placed in which rooms. Each room is also lockable if necessary. Optionally, the corner can be replaced with a door to allow faster movement between diagonally adjacent workshops.

== Fluid workshop locations ==
Alternatively, you can employ a "work site" methodology where workshops are constructed and destroyed as necessary. For example, if you mine out a huge dining hall and it is completely filled with stone, build a masonry shop in the hall to manufacture tables and chairs. This eliminates the need for a stone hauler because your mason only has to travel a few squares to get raw material. In addition it makes furniture hauling more efficient because the tables and chairs are right next to their eventual location. And of course it clears stone out of your dining hall, eliminating the need for a refuse hauler to dump it all.

== Smelting Operations ==
In very resource-heavy maps, 10-12 [[smelters]] may be necessary to keep up with mining operations. I've had very efficient results with this setup - and it looks good, to boot. The stairways lead down into a high Z-level mining operation (keeps the [[noise]] away from the bedrooms, too), with additional [[bar]] storage 1-2 levels below. One or more [[magma forge]]s would be down the hall from the bar stockpiles.

╔════════════╗
║SMSSMSSMSSMS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
╠┼┼═══┼┼═══┼┼╣
║............║
║............╠══════╗
║..╔═....═╗..┼OOOSMS║
║..║>>BBBB║..┼OOOSSS║
═════╝...>>BBBB...║OOOSSS║
.........BBBBBB...║OOOSMS║
.........BBBBBB...║OOOSSS║
.........BBBBBB...║OOOSSS║
═════╗...BBBB>>...║OOOSMS║
║..║BBBB>>║..┼OOOSSS║
║..╚═....═╝..┼OOOSSS║
║............╠══════╝
║............║
╠┼┼═══┼┼═══┼┼╣
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║OOOOOOOOOOOO║
║SMSSMSSMSSMS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
║SSSSSSSSSSSS║
╚════════════╝

*S = Smelter
*M = Magma access (lines up with unpassable tile on magma smelter)
*B = Bar Stockpile
*O = Ore Stockpile

== Pillars ==
See Midna's page on [[User:Midna/Pillars|pillar design]].

[[Category:World]]
[[Category:Design]]

40d:Grate

2010-02-14T14:35:15Z

Newtype0083:

'''Grates''' are a furniture building can be placed either as walkable platforms (as a '''floor grate''') or as walls (as a '''wall grate'''). They can be constructed from [[stone]] or [[ore]] (with the [[masonry]] [[labour]] at a [[mason's workshop]]), wood (with the [[carpentry]] labor in a [[carpenter's workshop]]), or [[Metal|metal bar]]s (with the a [[blacksmithing]] labour at a [[forge]]). They are represented in game by the symbol " # ".

Grates, like [[Bars]], are incredibly useful as a semipermeable membrane. Uses include:
*Creatures may walk over floor grates.
*Creatuers may not walk (or swim) through wall grates, making them a useful separator in Underground Rivers.
*They can be operated with a [[lever]] to retract them in either position.
*[[Fishing|Fisherdwarves]] may fish through floor grates.
*Dwarves may drink through grates (assuming there is 4/7 or more water directly under it).

Floor grates ''must'' be attached [[orthogonal]]ly (i.e. not diagonally) to firm ground or some solid construction (a wall, floor, etc), not (just) other grates. [[Construction]]s, of any type, will ''not'' be supported by grates - although the game allows you to designate something supported only by a grate, any construction will collapse as soon as it is completed. Wall grates need only be placed on top of a natural or constructed floor - no supporting walls are needed.

Since a grate must be connected to something other than other grates, they currently cannot be used to cover a large area by themselves. Therefore, large areas can only be covered with some sort of patchwork connected to solid ground, such as this tessellated pattern, which covers 80% of any extended area with grates, and the top of a "wall" only 1 every 5 tiles:

# #+## #+##
#+####+####+## + = natural ground or top of [[wall]] 1 [[z-level]] below*
##+####+####+# # = grate
##+####+###
##+# ##+#

:''* Note that none of these floors are constructed floors, unless those are attached to something other than a grate, like an outer wall or otherwise anchored floor tile.''

== Compared to Bars ==

Floor grates and wall grates are much like floor [[bars]] and vertical bars. Are they different? [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=12967.msg120313#msg120313 Toady writes]:

<blockquote>
I don't think there's a meaningful distinction at this time [10/31/2007] (perhaps the grate does have that extra step to make the item). Later, I imagine larger items will fall through bars, and only small items will go through grates. Grates might also stop most vermin. Perhaps even small units could go through bars.
</blockquote>

{{buildings}}
[[Category:Furniture]]

40d:Stupid dwarf trick

2010-02-13T22:06:16Z

Newtype0083: /* Doberman Launcher */

{{D for Dwarf}}

A '''stupid dwarf trick''' is any project that requires a large amount time and effort, for little or no practical benefit. They exist only as a challenge for experienced players.

==Adventure Mode Fortress==

Build a fortress specifically for exploring in [[adventure mode]]. You can either make a nasty monster-filled challenge, or a Smörgåsbord of masterpiece steel weapons and armor. Possibly both. A [[chasm]], underground [[river]], or [[hidden fun stuff]] can ensure the fortress is occupied.

'''Difficulty:''' The sky's the limit.

'''Usefulness:''' Not applicable.

==Alarm Clock==
Are your soldiers all sound asleep while blood soaks the walls? No need to deconstruct their beds one by one, ''if'' you bought the Dwarf Wakey 3000! Simply a solitary floor tile balanced on a support, one or more can be toppled with the pull of a lever to produce an earth-shaking racket that'll have them leaping for their axes!

'''Difficulty:''' Low.

'''Usefulness:''' Low.

==Aqueduct Power==
If your river's a long way away from your fortress, building a trans-map axle may be less efficient than building an aqueduct and pump stack driven by waterwheels in the river. The pump stack raises it to the height of your fort, where it flows through the long, long aqueduct and drives waterwheels on the other end. Getting the water pressure just right so it powers your waterwheel without flooding the fort can be [[Fun]]. Diagonal channels make good pressure reducers.

'''Difficulty:''' High. Lots of stone, lots of engineering, lots of dangerous outdoor work, lots of trial-and-error for the receiving waterwheels.

'''Usefulness:''' High. As much water and power as you want, wherever you want, whenever you want.

==Aquifer Power==
Aquifers can be a resource of immense power. If you have two levels of aquifer, you can generate a continuous flow by draining one level of aquifer into another and plant waterwheels above it. One stream can power a lot of wheels.

'''Difficulty:''' High. Anything to do with draining aquifers is very [[Fun]].

'''Usefulness:''' High. The lowly windmill pales in utility compared to a waterwheel.

==Artificial Waterfall==
To keep the waterfall going, you need a [[pump]] stack, preferably powered by a [[windmill]] or [[water wheel]].

'''Difficulty:''' Moderate.

'''Usefulness:''' Dwarves love [[waterfall]]s. Putting a waterfall in your [[meeting hall]] will give your dwarves good [[thought]]s, although it can significantly lower framerate.

==[[Ballista]] Battery==
Overlap a few ballistas to completely cover a narrow corridor. There is an unavoidable risk of your operators wandering into the line of fire.

'''Difficulty:''' Low. If you insist on highly-trained operators with high-quality ballistas, it gets harder.

'''Usefulness:''' A complicated and dangerous way to defend a single corridor. Ultimately extremely effective. Sometimes.

==Bridge-a-pult==
A bridge that opens outwards, to fling enemies away. Ideally, they land in a very nasty place.

'''Difficulty:''' The hard part is the nasty place they get flung to.

'''Usefulness:''' There are a far more effective ways to defend a fortress, but few are as entertaining.

==Dam==
Build a wall across a riverbed to stop the flow of water. Floodgates optional.

Bonus: excavate a reservoir and a lower river valley
Bonus: build a control center to control the water flow
Bonus: draw your entire energy from a power station within

'''Difficulty:''' On a map that freezes in the winter, this is easy. Otherwise, very difficult. (See [[dam]], or Moses effect, below. But with the bonuses it gets a bit harder.

'''Usefulness:''' Depends on how much bonuses you fullfill. The Power station is obvious, and with the control room you could build up a nice defense system.

==Doberman Launcher==
Whenever a dog or cat gives birth, stuff all the kittens and puppies in one cage in your entryway. Link this cage to a pressure plate beside it. Should your last lines of defense be breached, goblins will step on it and in the next instant be torn apart by dozens of goblin-seeking hostiles and distracted by dozens of surplus targets. The trap actually going off will probably be very bad for your framerate. Bonus: Train all dogs inside as wardogs when they mature. Super bonus: Make it a Bear Trap. MEGADWARF bonus: Combine with a drowning chamber and carp trap.

'''Difficulty:''' Low.

'''Usefulness:''' Medium, potentially fortress-saving

==Drowning Chamber==
'''Difficulty:''' Moderate.

'''Usefulness:''' You can kill prisoners, useless peasants, irate nobles, hammerers, untrainable animals, or anything else.

==[[Computing|Dwarfputer]] Complex==
A big mess of fluid and/or machine logic full of hatches, floodgates, gears, pumps, etc. and powered by waterwheels, windmills, or useless idle dwarves. Hook it up to doors, bridges, and traps.

'''Difficulty:''' Medium to high, depending on what you want to build. You'll want to build for very high water flow if you have more than a few fluid gates.

'''Usefulness:''' Your mechanics and architects will level up very fast. Manual pumps give something for your haulers to do and makes them stronger. Try and make a clock to trigger different mechanisms in different seasons. See if enemies actually blunder into your intricate traps. Watch all hell break loose as water freezes.

==Dwarven Apartment Complex==
Essentially, one of the many possible [[mega constructions]] dedicated to providing dwarves with rooms so high above the ground they get vertigo. Every floor must have plenty of rooms of at least 2x3 squares, with walls and a door surrounding this. Oh, and it has to go up as many Z-levels as possible. For extra credit, decide on what the top story will be (i.e. as many levels up as you deem possible, minus one so you can build a roof) and turn this into a Royal bedroom for a [[noble]], complete with gem windows, artifact/masterwork components, and untold numbers of armour stands and weapon racks. And then build some shorter but wider apartment buildings nearby to turn your fortress into essentially a giant fist with extended middle finger. Extra points for adding extra useless things for luxury, such as a magma-based heating system, fireplaces in rooms, and a lock-down lever in case of goblin attack. (or a self-destruct lever connected to the main supports, in case your dwarfish tenants are unsatisfied with your 5-star service.

'''Difficulty:''' Low, although the walls around the rooms can be a bit fiddly due to the impossibility of building walls on constructed floors (yes, an extra credit challenge is to do this without using Remove Construction).

'''Usefulness:''' Limited, because you could just dig the things underground and save yourself the hassle. However it is much harder to flood a tower than a cave, in case you're prone to fun by water.

==Execution Tower==
Just a tall tower to chuck your captives to their deaths.

'''Difficulty:''' Easy.

'''Usefulness:''' Lets you dispose of prisoners, and claim expensive silk, meltable iron, and (eventually) useful bones. Also highly amusing.

==Flood the World==
'''Difficulty:''' High danger. Will kill your frame rate.

'''Usefulness:''' Will prevent any sieges, at least. Or anything else, save for the occasional invasion of sociopathic [[Carp]].

==Gladiator Arena==
Station some soldiers at the bottom of a shallow [[Activity_zone#Pit/Pond|pit]] and dump your captives in. You can also use dangerous animals instead of soldiers. For extra points, put the prisoners in cages connected to ramps underneath the arena floor. One lever will open both the cage and a hatch above the ramp.

'''Difficulty:''' Moderate, but time consuming. Some danger depending on the relative skill of your soldiers and the danger of the captive.

'''Usefulness:''' The most difficult way to dispose of prisoners. It does give your soldiers a little bit of experience.

==Glass Ceiling==
Sick of having your dwarfs vomit all the time when they go out to retrieve loot or lumber? Despair no more! Build an almost-infinitely tall tower, and then put a glass floor on the highest level, spanning the entire map. For extra kicks, make a mechanism that will crash the entire thing upon the heads of the one goblin horde that manages to get through all your other deathtraps.

'''Difficulty:''' Medium. Very grueling.

'''Usefulness:''' Low, but potentially fortress-saving. (see above)

==Greenhouse==
A [[greenhouse]] is just a farm with the the ceiling channeled out from above. This lets you grow outdoor plants without venturing above ground. For maximum style, build the greenhouse above ground and cover it with a glass roof to keep your farmers safe.

'''Difficulty:''' Low.

'''Usefulness:''' Surface plants can be grown at any time of the year, and some are more useful than those available underground - for example, [[sun berry|sun berries]] can be brewed into valuable [[Sunshine]], and [[whip vine]]s can be milled into superior quality flour. Having greater food and booze diversity can also keep your dwarves happier.

==Hammer of [[Armok]]==
A gigantic hammer made out of pure steel and/or valuables looming over your fortress entrance ready to smite those foolish enough to lay a siege on you. Also, gives you a psychological advantage over the traders who unload their goods under it. Attach to a lever-linked support for quicksmiting, or any other single-tile collapse mechanism. BONUS: Cover it with blood.

'''Difficulty:''' Low. Depends on size, materials and magma's existence, though. Make it a gold hammer menacing with adamantine spikes, if you're going for high quality.

'''Usefulness:''' Low-medium. 10x10 size is minimum for practical effectiveness. 30x30 hammer extending handles length from your entrance actually works against sieges.

==Ice tower==

Building a huge tower is easy. To make things more [[fun]], make one out of some exotic material, like [[glass]], [[ice]], [[gold]], or [[soap]].

'''Difficulty:''' Low. You need to be on a freezing map to pull off an ice tower.

'''Usefulness:''' None.

=="I dinna say we wurren't crazy!"==

Build a huge room with nothing in it except rock pillars, then dig channels on the levels above and below it until you have a ridiculously huge room ten Z-levels in height. Inspired by Irregular Webcomic.

'''Difficulty:''' Mainly in putting up with the incessant channelling, and avoiding dropping large chunks of ceiling onto the floor from five levels up.

'''Usefulness:''' Negative, due to the insane amounts of space it takes up.

==It's A TRAP!==
It seems that [[traps]] are buildable outside. This provides for numerous opportunities. The first that comes to mind is to trap the entire outside world of your embarkation point. This will make your sieges very amusing, as a hundred high-level goblins rush onto the field and are immediately shredded into ribbons by invisible traps before even seeing one dwarf.

'''Difficulty:''' High. Depending on the size of your embarkation point, this may involve placing thousands of traps. Depending on the type of trap, that may involve making tens of thousands of trap components.

'''Usefulness:''' High. Sieges will be instantaneous, and if you use cage traps, your [[arena]] will never want for combatants, including all those pesky wild animals you no longer need to hunt for.

==It's A CRAP!==
CRAP: Carp trap...wait, why are you laughing? Anyway, here what you do.

Capture some carp in terrarium cage trap. If you don't die instantly, tame them. Then dump them in your moat and breed them.
All the little goblins (or Orcs) coming toward you in a massive siege must be directed into your moat. When they fall in, they
become (goblin chunk). Laugh maniacally.

BONUS: Edit the raws to make carps eat their kills.

'''Difficulty''': Like going within two tiles of a carp infested river and surviving.
'''Usefulness''': Questionable

==Journey to the Center of the Earth==

Construct a sturdy vessel hanging over the top of a magma pipe or volcano, outfitted with everything your intrepid crew might need for their journey of exploration - food, booze, sleeping quarters and a bridge a must, but depending on the amount of effort it can include other items such as a recreation deck, water reservoir and trade depot for dealing with the natives. When all is ready, lock the explorers inside and send them on their way. Bonus points if you can detach it from inside so you can use it in Adventure mode later.

'''Difficulty:''' Moderate to High, depending on the size of the ship. For bonus points, carve the entire thing out of existing rock overhanging a magma pipe and engrave it with messages. The main problem is getting the whole crew inside at the same time - separate sleeping quarters help here.

'''Usefulness:''' Negative. For some reason, no explorers have returned. Of course, if you select only the [[Nobles | Best and Brightest]] for the ship's crew...

==Labyrinth==

A maze of twisty little passages, all alike. [[Trap]]s and dangerous animals are essential. You can have a retracting bridge drop invaders in, or just have a labyrinth as a back door.

'''Difficulty:''' It's a lot of mining. Having a bridge drop invaders inside is more difficult, but more useful.

'''Usefulness:''' It makes a nice element of fortress defense, and you can dump your prisoners inside it. Also makes a great place to explore in [[adventure mode]].

*BONUS: Generate a world with large mountain [[cave]]s. Instead of using the labyrinth as your backdoor, use it as your fortress.

==Magma Chamber==
'''Difficulty:''' Dangerous as any magma project.

'''Usefulness:''' It's like a drowning chamber, but any non-iron items carried by the victim will be destroyed. Depending on your style of play, this may be a good thing.

==Magma Cannon==
[http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=33837.0 It can be done!] It uses a row of pumps to pressurize the magma in a chamber with only one exit. When the floodgate opens, the magma flies out a short distance.

'''Difficulty:''' Very high. You need [[metal]] (or [[glass]]) [[screw pump]]s to make it work, [[magma-safe]] floodgates and mechanisms, plus a big above-ground construction.

'''Usefulness:''' Marginal. But very cool.

==Magma Mausoleum==
This trick involves dripping water on to the middle of a magma pool until you have a column of obsidian, then channeling down into the obsidian ''more than'' one Z level, and putting a burial receptacle there. This probably won't work in magma tubes or Volcanos since the created obsidian would fall into the bottomless pit. The trick is getting the water to fall onto the magma in a controlled manner. Bonus points for each additional level down you manage to place the coffin.

'''Difficulty:''' High. Requires certain resources from the start, plus lots of setup. And your dwarves tend to erupt into dwarf steam occasionally.

'''Usefulness:''' None, since an obsidian lined room with the exact same furniture somewhere else will please your nobles just as much.

==Magma Pumping==
It's a lot like pumping water, only more dangerous, and requires the [[screw pump|pumps]] to use [[magma-proof]] pipes and screws in their construction.

'''Difficulty:''' The difficult part is making all those [[iron]] or [[steel]] pumps and [[bauxite]] [[floodgate]]s. Very high risk.

'''Usefulness:''' Magma is fun, but also [[Fun]].

==Mega/Water Drowning Trap-Thing==
This is basically a channel above some pressurized water with a short tunnel leading to a door. The door needs to be connected to a lever somewhere in a safe part of the fortress. Position the door facing the main stairs into your fortress (for multiple stairs use multiple traps). When enemies come down the stairs, pull the lever and make them drown. (It helps to seal off the rooms).

'''Difficulty:''' Medium. Needs flowing water under pressure and levers.

'''Usefulness:''' Medium. Depends on the size of your fortress/defences/amount of attackers. Works well with fire demons to create a sauna.

==Monumental Statue==

'''Difficulty:''' Depends on how big you want the statue to be. If you are feeling really masochistic, cast it out of obsidian using magma and water.

'''Usefulness:''' None.

*BONUS:Make the statue hollow and have dwarves live inside it.

==Moses Effect==
With enough pumps, you can pull water out of a square faster than it flows in. This can create a reverse waterfall, or a dry spot in the middle of a flowing river. The effect is like Moses parting the Red Sea.

'''Difficulty:''' Surprisingly easy.

'''Usefulness:''' You can use this trick to create a waterfall or drowning chamber. It is also important if you want to pass through an [[Aquifer]], although that is far more difficult.

==[[Obsidian]] factory==
You need one reservoir of water, and one of magma. Mix, cool, mine, and repeat as necessary.

'''Difficulty:''' Medium.

'''Usefulness:''' Obsidian is 50% more valuable than [[flux]] and 3 times as valuable as ordinary stone, making it ideal for your [[mason]]s and [[stone crafter]]s. Done properly, it can also serve as a magma chamber ''and'' a drowning chamber.

==Pit o' Doom==
Combine with an Execution Tower for maximum z-level executions! Spike traps are a must.

'''Difficulty:''' Low. You want it nice and deep though.

'''Usefulness:''' Dispose of prisoners, execute nobles, gruesome fatal injuries, laugh maniacally.

==Pressure Washer==
A huge tower with floodgates at the bottom on one side. When opened, the pressurized water fires out and pushes anything in the way of the flow away. Depending on size, can be surprisingly powerful. You can see an example tower [http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-7485-griffonwind here]

'''Difficulty:''' Medium, construction technique takes some consideration.

'''Usefulness:''' Medium-High. Tested with 50 recruits standing infront of it when the floodgates opened, killed 46 of them, including ones not pushed into the pit.

BONUS: Fill it with Magma instead (though Magma doesn't pressurize).

==Self Destruct Lever==
A mechanism that, for example, could flood your fort with magma, or release a trapped megabeast. For bonus points, build the whole fort on a single [[support]].

'''Difficulty:''' Very high. Extremely dangerous.

'''Usefulness:''' None, by definition, but highly amusing.

==[[Swimming]] pool==
It's a reservoir that fills to 4/7 exactly. Station soldiers inside, lock them in, and fill. This way they gain [[swimming]] skill.

'''Difficulty:''' Low. It's just a pair of reservoirs.

'''Usefulness:''' The swimming skill is only slightly useful. This is most useful if the entrance to your fort has narrow walkways/moats surrounded by water, and you station your soldiers there. It does help gain attributes though.

==[[Tower-cap]] Farm==
You absolutely need to break into an underground river or lake. Make some muddy floors over a big area and wait.

'''Difficulty:''' Moderate.

'''Usefulness:''' Depends on size - bigger is better.

==Underground Perpetual Motion Power Plant==
Combine with a use for the power and you either have an awesome setup, or a ticking time bomb.

'''Difficulty:''' High. Maintaining the correct water level is annoying difficult at times.

'''Usefulness:''' Depends on size of plant and what it's connected to. Also useful as a puzzle for adventurers.

==Vomitorium==
Prevents [[cave adaption]]. It's like the greenhouse, only instead of a farm, it's [[meeting hall]] or [[barracks]]. Since you can't build [[table]]s or [[bed]]s outside, build the room and [[channel]] down to it, or build a [[bridge]] or two over the top.

'''Difficulty:''' Low.

'''Usefulness:''' Low. Make sure to wall the pit in or it will become very [[Fun]] once [[goblin]] archers become involved.

==Rehabilitation Centre==
Had any problems with dwarves charging brainlessly towards the enemy, getting slaughtered, and then starting a tantrum spiral that will destroy your fortress? Turn your prison into a luxurious room full of things that make dwarves happy. Add artifact furniture, beds, a booze stockpile, chains made of gold (or anything valuable,) a waterfall, creatures in cages, etc. Hopefully they will return to society as a happy, productive dwarf.

'''Difficulty:''' Low-Medium. Acquiring valuable items and setting up the waterfall can be annoying sometimes. Also you need guards to actually put them in jail. And it can be a real pain when those ungrateful sobs destroy the nice furniture you give them.

'''Usefulness:''' High. A tantrum spiral can quickly turn a productive fort of 200+ dwarves into a rioting fortress inhabited by a bunch of insane, miserable dwarves who spend their time punching people and breaking furniture. Don't let it happen to you.

==U.R.I.S.T. Artificial Intelligence==
Basically, a dwarf in a bunker that controls your fortress. Being that there are no supercomputers in DF at the moment, we'll have to use the closest substitute, a dwarf. Seal a dwarf in a room full of levers that activate various floodgates, bridges, doors, hatch covers, traps, etc. Make sure this room has no exits or entrances, but it needs a luxurious bedroom and dining area, and you must include a chute for dropping in <s>food</s> biomass and <s>alcohol</s> coolant fluid. Profile the levers so that they can only be used by the A.I. dwarf.

It would be a good idea to make the system into two rooms. The food/drink/bed room and the lever room. Should you need to add more levers, you can lock the A.I. dwarf outside the lever room and have your mechanics set up more levers.

You can make the lodging room suited for the particular dwarf by adding furniture made from their favorite materials, and smoothing and engraving everything. Use quantum stockpiling to give them 10+ years of food and drink. Make sure the A.I. is unable to communicate with other dwarves. His/her mood must not be affected by the deaths of the walking meat-bags who tried to befriended him/her.

You must also make a snazzy/lame acronym name for your AI, here are some examples:
<ul>
<li>U.R.I.S.T. - Underground Reasonably Intelligent Settlement Technology</li>
<li>D.O.R.F. - Dungeon Operator, Really Fast</li>
<li>M.A.G.M.A. - Massively Alcoholic Gear-Machine Assembly</li>
<li>A.R.M.O.K. - All-Reaching Master Of Killing</li>
<li>A.S.S. - Almost-autonomous Systems Selector</li>
<li>D.I.E.D. - Dedicated Irrigation and Everything else Device</li>

</ul>

'''Difficulty:''' Medium. Setting up all the levers and lodgings can be a micromanagement hassle. Further research is required as to how well the A.I. will fit into a dwarven economy.

'''Usefulness:''' High. Having a dwarf dedicated to pulling levers will ensure that they are pulled on time. Additionally, you will have a constantly-ecstatic dwarf who is virtually invulnerable to all threats. Should your fortress be slaughtered by orcs or drowned by flooding or tantrum spiraled, your fortress will be preserved until more migrants arrive.

40d:Defense design

2010-02-12T16:01:37Z

Newtype0083: /* Siege engine turrets */

This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. This page will focus on the physical layout and architecture of a fortress - specific suggestions, examples, diagrams and discussions of combining walls, fortifications, tunnels, channels, bridges, and terrain into a defensible whole.

See the [[Defense guide|Defense Guide]] for a general overview of threats and considerations for fortress defense.

For suggestions on training, organizing and deploying soldiers and militia, see [[Military design]].

Many defenses rely on complex traps as a central part, that are, essentially, the defense themselves. For complex traps that are '''not''' a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan, (but might be adapted or plugged into one) see [[Trap design|Trap Design]].

----

:'''''Editors & Contributors''' - Please see top of [[Talk:Defense design|discussion page]] before posting.''

==Standard key==

'''Key:'''
'''symbol tile'''
· - Empty space
+ - Constructed floor, or top of wall section from lower level
'''0''' - Isolated wall section
╔╦═╗
╠╬═╣ - Connected wall
║║ ║
╚╩═╝
╬ - Fortifications
X - Up/down [[stairs]]
< - Up stair
> - Down stair
▲ - Up ramp/slope
▼ - Down ramp/slope
, - natural ground
☺ - dwarf

==General suggestions==
General designs should include suggestions that can be "plugged in" to a part of any typical fortress, and/or can be modified to suit a number of purposes.

Any fortress defenses need to be able to protect your dwarves while outside, whether that's military or civilians. On the truly labor intensive end, you can fully enclose areas of wilderness you wish to utilize in walls or behind moats with the only access being from within your base. Hostile creatures, even 'invisible' ones like ambushers, start at map edges and travel across the map - they will only spawn in regions where they can path to a dwarf. By controlling which areas have access to paths to dwarves, you can force all hostile forces to appear in predictable and limited killing zones and battlefields that you control.

===Meeting area as defense===

Especially in the very early game, you can use a [[Zone#Meeting_Area|meeting zone]] to attract animals and idle dwarves to a given area. This makes a pretty poor defense in general, but it's not a bad way to create an alarm system against minor threats such as [[thieves]] near your stockpiles, at least until you have something better (which won't be hard). Remove the zone later, or it attracts idle dwarves and children. Note that until you designate something else, the site of your wagon (even once deconstructed) is a default meeting area.

===Guard Animals===

Both [[thieves]] and [[ambush]]es are invisible until something bumps into them - a dwarf, a [[caravan]], a wild creature, a [[domestic animal]], anything. Once this happens (even if it was triggered by a wild [[groundhog]] on the far edge of the map), the game will pause with the appropriate [[announcement]], forcing your attention to the situation - which is nice. Therefore, it's a common practice to use animals to act as alarm systems, by [[restrain]]ing them in entryways.

There are some considerations to good placement of such animals. If you have a 1- or 2-wide hall, one animal is enough. If you have a 3-wide hallway (wide enough for a [[caravan]]), you need to restrain two animals, one at each side of the hall.

══════════ R = restraint
+++1R1++++ 1 = area of animal 1
+++bbb++++ 2 = area of animal 2
+++2R2++++ b = area of both
══════════

This pair creates a thief-proof barrier against unannounced intrusion, as there is no combination of locations where an invisible enemy can sneak by without bumping into one or both. Caravans can pass over [[restraint]]s and restrained creatures without problem. Guard animals can also see hidden enemies one z-level below them, so long as there is no intervening floor, so if space is tight you can also place them above your entranceway.

Unless you're happy losing these animals on a regular basis, you should try to keep them alive...
:* Put them around a corner or behind a U-bend, so archers cannot fire at them from a distance.
:* Don't have them as your "first line of defense" - put them deeper in the entry, behind some traps
:* Put them inside, so flying creatures have to come down to their level to attack them.
:* Consider using a [[pressure plate]] at the extreme entrance to seal off the hall further down and keep your guard animal(s) safe. Thieves won't trigger them, but the animals can deal with those - ambushes ''will'' trigger them, and you don't want them getting to your guard animals.

Remember that anything short of a [[megabeast]] is not a good match for an armoured opponent. While watching your tame [[grizzly bear]] or [[alligator]] tear a thief apart has an amusement value, watching the goblin maceman send them flying across the map, mangled and dying, has less.

===Defending the edge===
You're not allowed to wall within five squares of the edge of the map... but this rule has more loopholes than the US federal income tax code. Until more versatile attackers emerge, it is not clear where effective play ends and exploit begins. ''(Note: we disclaim any responsibility for damage involving [[harpy|harpies]] and skeletal [[giant eagle]]s)''

* To start with, you can channel the '''''second''''' square from the edge. This blocks entry of trade caravans or their movement along the edge of the map. If barriers are used to prevent a Trade Depot near the edge of the map from being accessed from any other direction, caravans will be forced to appear in the un-channeled or bridged section of the edge, even if it is only three tiles wide. Your depot can be ready with stockpiles of favored trade goods, offset behind a wall to protect from archers a few squares away.
* You can also build bridges all the way up to the edge. A long, skinny bridge is, effectively, a wall; however, it looks the same whether it's open or closed.

Train up diggers in soft soil and you can surround most of the map with a moat by the time the first migrants arrive. Be very, very wary of cave-ins, especially on highly sloped diagonal terrain - note that a downward ramp does not support adjacent floor tiles, and no tiles are supported diagonally.

Diplomats have a strange habit of appearing well inside the moat, but need to be allowed out when finished. ''[Note: On one 6x7 map [[horse]]s and other animals were also found to appear one embark unit (48 squares) left and up from the lower right corner, inside or atop the walls of a 5x5 doorless enclosure. Defend all leaks...]''

==== Design considerations ====

* The moat should be designed to prevent entry except by falling and entry except by climbing, from both sides. (Otherwise inside and outside forces might be tempted to shake hands from adjacent squares, with much annoyance) Despite an abundance of giant corkscrews, grates, ballista bolts, etc., no one has ever invented the ladder, so this keeps anyone from entering or leaving the rest of the map.
* The moat should be dry, because sooner or later you will be tempted to let someone visit the edge to loot goblins or hunt varmints, and next thing you know your Legendary Weaponsmith who outpaces all your smelters will be whiling away his time carrying a leather thong to a stockpile when he runs into a groundhog and decides to react by jumping into the moat and holding his breath beneath the shallow waters until he drowns. (As always, the notice that he has drowned is the first you'll hear of it)
* The moat doesn't actually ''need'' to be adjacent to the edge of the map except when conserving valuable surface terrain (such as [[tree]]s on a map that is mostly rock). It is easier to free trapped miners when they can dig further outward, and placing the moat on the sixth or further square in from the edge allows further modification with floodgates, walls, and doors. Any [[channeling]] permanently changes the dug-out tile to "Light Above Ground", which restricts these features from tiles near the edge even if floors are later constructed to close the space.
* Because migrants might turn up near wild animals or be followed closely by [[goblin]]s, it is nice to wall off the last square in shorter segments. Each one or two segments are served by a separate lever bridge. This can be done by:
** natural barriers. The map edge is mostly continuous ramp, but occasionally a break appears on an uneven surface, by a river channel, etc.
** trees. If left intact they separate any fertile patches into many small segments.
** floors. Although you can't directly Remove Stairs/Ramps at the edge, building a single square of floor on an up-ramp at the edge will destroy that up-ramp (and the down-ramp above it) and block movement around the edge. Building a square of floor on a down-ramp and then removing it creates a [[one-way]] path.
** You can build drawbridges *along* the edge and raise them. Combined with a channel right next to the drawbridge, this can completely obstruct passage of anything which can't destroy the bridge.
** You can build up ramps at the edge, which may disrupt passage?Needs testing
** Fortifications carved into the outer edge rock the next layer down? It may be possible to carve fortifications all the way around the edge of a rocky map, allowing entrance only onto designated bridges surrounded by moat and with a steep drop beneath, with some sized appropriately to admit siegers only and one other sized for a trade wagon. In this way combat can be reduced to a simple thumbs up/thumbs down decision at the lever.Probably not.
* Migrants, thieves, and sieges turn up all around the map, and can be allowed in by remote controlled bridges. (Doors will not hold back [[building destroyer]]s, and remote [[lever]] control is needed because other gates can be "taken by invaders" and become unlockable) Invaders can be allowed in by small groups and fought if desired, or preferably admitted into underground zigzags with a door waiting to be locked at the far end once they get close to it. If most of the invaders can be trapped inside such spaces, the remainder will stand and be wiped out completely without retreating.

===Simple 5x5 Archer's Tower===

Build a [[tower]] specifically to post archers on, possibly away from your main defenses. This lets you open fire before the enemy approaches your gates. A pillbox can be attached to your walls, or separate, so that the only access is from tunnels below. Thse tunnels can stretch across the map, and only need be 1-tile big if no regular traffic is expected. Construct [[fortification]]s on the second or third floor, so your dwarves can fire out. For extra usefulness, build a [[barracks]], [[archery target]], [[food]] [[stockpile]], [[well]] and [[dining room]] in or near the tower. Add a door or hatch to lock them in.

As discussed step-by-step in the article on [[mega construction]], this particular design is about as basic as it gets. As shown, it assumes entry from an underground tunnel, but a door or drawbridge (with moat!?) could easily be added, or even access via a protected sky-bridge.

When placing multiple towers, know that crossbows have a range of 20 tiles, so, depending on whether you want overlapping fire or not (and how intense/accurate), anywhere from maybe 15 to 38 tiles between the edge of the towers is recommended. Crossbows actually have their range ''reduced'' by extra height in DF, so all you need is 1 level up to keep enemy archers from using your fortifications against you, and you're set. (Channeling a defensive moat further out will also work, moving potential enemy archers even further away, but also moving non-missile targets that far as well.)

Side Below Ground Archer Roof
view: ground: Level: Level: Level:
╔═══╗ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····
X__ X ║X,,║ ╬X++╬ ·X++·
╬X__╬ ║,,,║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
___║X__║___ ║,,,║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
X ╚═══╝ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····

_ = floor, natural , = ground tile
or constructed

This can hold 3 archers/side, and has the potential to be as many "archer levels" tall as you wish. A top-level "down stair" is necessary to build the "roof" - might as well build an up/down stair instead, no real reason not to. Remember to use the "corners first" technique when necessary. (See [[Tower]].)

All told, for a simple 1 archer-level tower, this takes just over 50 stones or blocks (plus 25/extra archer level).

Larger towers (or this with larger floors on higher levels) could house barracks, practice ranges, and other facilities. Just expand to preferred size with floors, and then attach walls to those to act as a base for the next level of building. Add more stairs (adjacent to each other is always better) if high traffic is anticipated.

====Siege engine turrets====
If it's big enough, build a [[siege engine]] inside a pillbox. Since siege engines cannot fire at targets higher or lower than them, the device needs to be on the same [[z-level]] as any targets, but this could be across a large gap to a nearby plateau. Only a single tile of fortifications is needed to fire through the wall. Position the tower to fire where invaders tend to congregate. Since [[siege operator]]s are civilians, the "dwarves stay inside" order must be off unless this is built as an open room under a natural ceiling.

You will want to guarantee that enemies do not approach the position and scare the civilian operators - this distance has been reported to be up to 20 tiles or so. Dig a moat, have some intervening valley or build some secondary fortifications to keep enemies at a distance. Unlike walls, fortifications on the same z-level do not block siege engine missiles, at any range. Unfortunately, if an enemy can walk up to them, fortifications will protect enemies from your archery fire (but not siege engine fire.)

===Control Room===
Have one (large?) room (or several stacked on top of each other) for all defense-related levers, and central to idle dwarves - near your [[meeting area]]s and [[noble]]s quarters, with one or more halls or stairs leading to it for quick access. Connect a lever to all those doors and hatches as the first lever to be pulled in an emergency, and the respondent will lock themselves in for you, guaranteeing that they will then have nothing else to do but stay there and pull levers.

It may also be an idea to have a second lever to at least one door, for emergency access. And possibly to add a stockpile of booze and food or a well for longer sieges.

===AI abuse===
Taking advantage of the game's Artificial Intelligence and [[path]]finding is a whole article in itself. Try leaving a door un-forbidden during an attack. When the bad guys approach the door, forbid it, and the enemy will wander off. Unlock it again, and they turn around and head back towards the door again. You can get enemies to march back and forth over a set of traps this way, or lure them deep into a complex trap. This could be automated via [[pressure plate]]s. This might count as an [[exploit]], or not - that's up to you, and what you consider fun and challenging.

===Bait animal===
[[Restrain]]ing a sacrificial animal just outside your walls, but within range of your marksdwarves and/or siege engines, can lure an enemy into attacking that while you cut them down. Make sure to place a pattern of some walls (or statues, see below) so enemy archers cannot simply shoot the creature from a safe distance.

=====Fortifications=====
Adding a ring of fortifications to help defend the animal against missile fire will keep melee troops away, but invite archers to come adjacent to the fortifications - and under your walls and crossbows. If you allow any path, the melee troops will try to follow it to the animal - be creative with that fact.

=====Traps=====
Surround the animal with traps to kill or capture approaching goblins.

=====U chumps=====
Surround the far side of the animal with a U shaped 3-sided wall, open facing your defenders, so the enemy has to come closer to attack the animal, and you gun them down.

=====Distractions=====
Releasing a [[cage]] full of surplus animals will keep the enemy archers very busy. They may even be out of ammo when your wrestlers show up.

=====Vanishing act=====
Having a linked drawbridge that can open/shut (perhaps on both a lever to open and a nearby pressure plate to close), to lure the enemy in under your guns and then protect the animal when they get too close (for multiple uses.)

=====Roach motel=====
Build a long, narrow, and twisty passage, accessible from the outside, but unconnected to your fortress. Build as many simple traps as you like. Place a bait animal inside. Enemy attackers walk right in, and get torn apart by the traps. If any manage to make it to the end, and kill the useless animal, they're surrounded by traps, and no closer to your fortress.

If the roach motel is deep enough underground, you can build a tunnel above it, channel down, and mark the channel a [[Activity_zone#Pit.2FPond|pit]]/pond. That way, you can "reload" a new bait animal.

=====vs. building destroyers=====
For [[building destroyers]], spare statues can serve the same purpose as bait animals.

=====Pathing slowdowns=====
If you're playing on a low-powered machine and you close up all entrances to your fortress during a siege, your game may grind to a halt and/or crash as the siegers continuously fail at pathfinding into your fortress. Bait animals may alleviate this.



==Entrance designs==

===Airlock defenses/buffer zone===
Build two walls, each with a drawbridge. Build the trade depot in the buffer zone between them. Keep the outer bridge open, and the inner one closed. When the merchants appear, put crossbows on the walls to guard their approach. Once all the merchants are safely inside, close the outer bridge. Once there's no enemies left in the buffer zone, open the inner bridge so your civilians can start loading up the depot.

The airlock pattern can be useful even without putting the depot there. Let a few siegers in at a time, and crush them. Reset the traps, Rest up the soldiers, and repeat.

===Siege Engines===
One effective way to have [[Siege engine]]s (help) defend your fortress is:

'''One ballista vs 3-wide hallway'''
══════════════════════════╦═════
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····║▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬◄═«
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····║▐▄/
══════════════════════════╩═════

Using this design you can cripple an army using a well timed volley. The hallway can be much longer than shown if you wish, as ballistae have extended ranges well over 100 tiles. The channeled area is necessary, as civilians (siege operators are "civilians") will run when enemies get within about 5-10 tiles of them, regardless of the actual path to that threat.

====Ballista battery====
3 (or more!) ballistae can be put into a "battery" if overlapped - one per tile-width of the hallway, with each ballista aiming down their row of tiles.

╔═══
══════════════════════════╦══╦══╝▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬ ╬▐▀\◄═« (~ammo~)
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬▐▀\◄═«▐▄/
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬◄═«▐▄/ (~ammo~)
══════════════════════════╣▐▄/ (~ammo~)
╚═════════

Be sure to use fortifications to prevent dwarfs from wandering in front of the ballista to their deaths. If desired (and you have the <s>man</s>dwarfpower to spare), catapults may be put behind those, as they shoot safely ''over'' workers in front of them. Altho' less effective than ballistae, it's a little more firepower - and that can't be a bad thing.

For added flavour, channel out one or more tiles down the length of the 3-wide hallway and install retractable bridges. When invaders attack, retract the bridges, forcing them into paths that are only 1-tile wide.

Adding additional channels on either side of the hall will allow stray ammo to be recovered at a later time. Make sure to add locked doors, to prevent siege operators from walking down below enemy archers during a battle.

===Flooded entrance===
Using a chamber as your entrance alongside a chamber full of water and some machinery you can flood or drain the entrance at will.

The basic premise requires two levers, two [[screw pump]]s and two [[Gear assembly|gear assemblies]]. The amount of power required and the number of additional components needed to get the power to the screw pumps varies depending on distance/setup. One pump is placed to draw from chamber 1 and dump into chamber 2. The other is set in reverse. A gear assembly is placed next to each pump and connected to the main power system. Each gear is linked to a lever. Now at the flip of a switch you can submerge your entrance with [[water]] or [[magma]] for easy, secure defense against creatures that aren't amphibious or magma-dwelling, depending.

[[Image:Entflood.jpg]]

The picture above shows the design in action. The green pump is currently on while the red has been disconnected through the grey marked axle. The yellow X is just to mark that there is a channel under the axle.

=== The "Reverse Battlement" design ===

Level Z+0 (ground):
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
F ═══════════════
O ,≥,g≥,,,g,,,,,,
R ,,≤,,,,,,g,,,,,
T ,,,g≤,,g,,,,,,, <-- enemies enter here
R ,,≥,,,,,,g,,,,,
E ,g,≤,,,,,,,,,g,
S ═══════════════
S ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Level Z+1 (bridge):

E ·····║+++║·····
N +++++║+++║+++++
T ·····╬☺++║·····
R ·····╬☺++║·····
A ·····╬☺++║····· <-- archers shoot them from up above
N ·····╬☺++║·····
C ·····╬☺++║·····
E +++++║+++║+++++
·····║+++║·····

Note that in this diagram, the fortress interior is to the West, and the enemy forces come from the East. The marksdwarves on the bridge with the [[fortification]]s are one level above the [[goblin]]s (or other attackers), who will pass under the bridge and charge on toward the west. As the first clear from under the bridge, they are targeted from behind (which is one level above), as the marksdwarves wait in ambush. This allows the marksdwarves to face far fewer enemies at any one time, at least to begin with, and any enemy archers must clear the bridge, take their lumps, and then return fire back the other way before the marksdwarves are ever under attack.

For extra safety, hollow this tunnel out from under a ledge of the mountain (so it counts as "surface" and Dwarfs can "stay inside"). The bridge part can then be made out of construction, as soldiers can be ordered to go outside anyway.

If you're feeling especially nasty, make the tunnel really long into the mountain and add a ballista battery (see above). In my current version of the fortress, the goblins have to cross a long series of drawbridges to even get inside the mountain, so the ballista dwarf gets a lot of shots, and I can launch any escaping troops into the air.

''(Adding ammo stockpiles, of your best quality bolts, to these stations will speed up reloading for longer sieges/battles. Even adding small, convenient food and alcohol stockpiles is not unheard of. Some designers place access to/from archery ranges very close to these stations, for faster deployment.)''

==Scenic route==

[[Image:defense_3bridges.png|thumb|right]]
An example of some advanced defensive construction tactics to deal with vile forces of ''any'' size. (See picture).

*'''Bridge 1''' seals off the entire base
*'''Bridge 2''' forces everyone to take the long, winding, heavily trapped/defended path of death.
*'''Bridge 3''' seals the inside of the fortress

Clever triggering of the bridges allows you to break the hostile forces into smaller chunks to be trapped in the courtyard while being caught in traps and a crossfire of arrows from the fortifications around.

===Goblin detour===

This particular design works well with plenty of archers, siege engines, and other ranged weaponry.

++++++++++++++++++ENTRANCE+
══╦════════════════O╞═╡O╦══ <-- Bridge 1
+☺╬·+++++++++++++++++++·╬☺+
++╬·+···············╞═╡·╬++ <-- Bridge 2
++╬·+··+···+···+···++++·╬++
+☺╬·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+++·╬☺+
++╬·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+++·╬++
++╬·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+++·╬++
+☺╬··+···+···+···+··+++·╬☺+
++╬·················+++·╬++
++╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╗·+++·╬++
++☺++☺++☺++☺++☺++☺╬·+++·╬☺+
++++++++++++++++++╬·+++·╬++
++++++++++++++++++╬·+++·╬++
══════════════╗++☺╬·+++·╬☺+
║+++╬·+++·╬++
║+++╬·+++·╬++
║++☺╬·╞═╡·╬☺+ <-- Bridge 3

The 3 tile wide lane is for traders, so if your [[trade depot]] is located before this set-up, cut it down to a 1 tile lane to slow down invaders more.

===Twisty maze===
A maze of turns and blindspots patrolled by quality military can be a very formidable defense. Wide enough for wagons to pass though, but with no clear shots for any ranged weapons. Missile weapons do have a minimum range, so if a target is closer than that range, they will instead just charge to melee - and meet a dwarf with a much better melee skill. Downside to this is that you'd be mixing it up in melee all the time, but so long as you have at least 10 dwarves greeting the goblins as one coherent mass, you should win.

Variations on the twisty maze include:

*A wagon-wide twisty maze, and a not-so-twisty 1-tile wide hall o'traps, with a drawbridge that can force one or the other as the only [[path]] into your fortress.

*Making the side of the maze into fortifications, with a channel separating the fortifications from the actual floor of the maze, and having your archery targets on the other side of the fortifications so your marksdwarves can practice. When the goblins round the corner, they charge through a hail of crossbow bolts, and drop dead.

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Fortress defense| ]]
[[Category:World]]
[[Category:Design]]

40d:Challenges

2010-02-10T19:57:31Z

Newtype0083: /* Mesoamerican Dwarfs */

:''Part of this article was originally taken from the DF forums thread [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=466.0 "Goal-Based Dwarf Fortress"].''

The general goal of [[Fortress Mode]] is to survive, acquire wealth, defend your stronghold, and become the capital of your civilization. However, many players find that fighting off repeated [[siege|sieges]], keeping their people alive, and expanding just aren't enough anymore. They begin to experiment with different sets of starting builds, arbitrary requirements and restrictions, and even feats of construction to appease Armok, in search of more difficulty and [[fun]]. These are some goals to attempt or use as inspiration.

==Pre-Embark Build Ideas==
Before you embark, you can optimize or sabotage your fortress from the very start, depending on how you distribute your points. After a few years, a well-developing fortress may or may not stabilize (depending on your idea of [[fun]]), leaving you to other challenges.

=== Diplomacy ===
* Six dwarves with only social [[skill]]s
* One skilled dwarf

Six courtiers of the king's court made some ill-advised remarks within earshot of the king, and as a result have been ordered to go found an outpost. They've hired you to make sure they survive. The six nobles only have social skills and refuse to do any work that is beneath them.

=== Minimalist/Survivalist build===

* 1 anvil
* 2 copper ore

Nothing else. From that alone, forge your pick and axe. (Figure it out yourself, or see the [[DIY#Minimalist_challenge_build|Do it Yourself]] article for a step-by-step "how to".)

===Peasantry===
* Spend 0 Points on embark

This challenge is moderately to very difficult, depending on the wildlife and outdoor food sources. Note that the three logs from the wagon are just enough to build a trade depot.

=== Stranded Scout Squad ===
* Military skills
* Weapons, ammunition, armor, war dogs
* Picks are not weapons

Your civilian 'friends' promised a caravan in the fall as they left, laughing. Hopefully, you can survive until then with your forward scouts.

==Races==
Pretend to be another race! You can mod the game or just pretend that Elves have hair. It doesn't matter what you look like, just what you build, with what materials, and what's for lunch after we build it.

===Elves - The Ultimate Hippy Challenge===
Peace, man.
* Don't gather plants except those you plant yourself.
* Don't gather wood nor trade for it with humans or dwarves.
* Trade for plants and wood only with the elves; they understand your environmental code.
* Don't burn any [[fuel|coal]]. Do you know what that does to the environment, man?
**Magma-smelting is an option, but steel can't be had.
* Don't cause any creature's death, except in self-defense.
**No military, induced submerging, or lethal implementation of corkscrews.
* Only use cage traps, and either tame the creatures you catch, or release them back into the wild.
* [[Elf|Hippies]] prefer sunlight and wooded areas, with minimal use of rock (digging and building).

For an extra challenge try this in an area with a cave.

===Humans - Living Large and Standing Tall===
Pretend you're a filthy above-ground dwelling [[Human|humie]].
* Build a town wall.
** Only hovels and farms outside the town walls.
* House your dwarves in small town homes
** 5-10 dwarves per house (they had pretty big families back in the day)
** Upstairs bedrooms, small dining room, maybe a single level basement.
* House your workshops according to profession, not convenience.
* Build warehouses for stockpiles, and set guards outside them.
* Create a keep, with its own wall, barracks, treasury, etc.
** House your nobles within the keep.
* Create a market square.
* Create a main street from the town wall to the market square and/or keep. Well-paved blocks, statues and decorative shubbery are a must.
* No underground connections between different areas.
* For obtaining stone, metal, etc. a mine may be built, but must have separate entrance from other buildings. It can be outside the fortress, but must not connect to the interior, or vice versa.
** If you create a side hill mine, only carve large (at least 2 tiles) tunnels, and create shaft to the surface to allow air circulation.
** Or better than that, create an open pit mine / quarry, with ramps to access lower floors.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Build a large, multiple-z-level fountain complete with decorations.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Human Inn, containing your only booze stockpile and should be party-oriented.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Farm simulation, complete with crops and free-range livestock, etc.
* BONUS: Easy Play: Embark on top of a Human Town.
* BONUS: Advanced Play: Modify the raws and actually use humans to make the fort.
* MEGABONUS: Build your entire fortress as [[mega constructions|one huge arcology]].
* MEGABONUS: Build your City in a giant, artificial cave.

===Luddite===
Shun technology and contraptions. Who can really trust them, with those [[Gremlin|gremlins]] around. This may be challenging, as it forbids easy isolation/defense from attacks, all traps and wells. Irrigation is reduced to solid elbow grease and maybe a bucket or two. This challenge may be even harder combined with another challenge.
* No mechanics or [[mechanism]]s
* No [[machine]]s

===Earthworms===
Live constantly tunneling. Churn up the soil as you go and visit the surface only rarely to collect the stuff you need..
* Create one long tunnel. Dig forward at one end whilst sealing off (collapsing, building walls across) the other end.
* Workshops should be built directly behind the row of miners. When they reach the point where they would be destroyed, take them apart and rebuild back by the miners again.
* To make it easier, you can come up to the surface now and then.
* Try to keep the tunnel as short as possible.
* Like this: ||||||||==========> (| is walled off end section, = is tunnel and > is the miners.
* BONUS: Leave those pesky nobles walled in as you tunnel away from them!
* BONUS: Leave stockpiles of armour and weapons for any future diggers to find!
* MEGABONUS: Surprise a goblin siege by tunneling up underneath them!

==Utter Dwarfiness==
Need new ways to behave or new techniques to dip your toes into? Give any or all of your starting 7 some quirks to live up to. Want to try making your Boss a hell-bent, paranoid despot? Or establish a routine mass murder of small animals to provide your fort with raw meat by a vaguely intimidating, estranged butcher?

===Bandit Camp===
* Three or more Marksdwarves (perhaps with [[Ambush|ambushing]])
* Embark site featuring places to hide

Attack and loot every enemy sentient creature you can find, such as goblins & kobolds. Develop sneaky and even horrific methods of trapping and 'processing' friendly sentients (merchants, diplomats, and even migrants). Take no prisoners and leave no evidence of foul play.

===City-States===
* All dwarves embark as peasants
* 7 or multiple of 7 of everything you bring (especially picks and axes)

At the start your dwarves split everything equally and move to 7 different locales that are not interconnected. They have to mine their own rooms, plant their own crops, use their own craft piles. This will probably require a bit of cross-fertilization until you get [[door]]s and can lock everyone in, but after that it is every dwarf for him/herself!

This challenge may be easier to perform after Burrows are implemented.

===Equaland===
* No embark requirements
* Construct a successful fortress
* All dwarves are given equal attention regarding quarters, dining, armament and burial
* One dwarf elected to be "The Leader" commands a lever system capable of killing a single dwarf of your choice in their room, however you wish
* Allow the Leader (your id) free reign on his power, enforcing impossible and unannounced criteria on your other dwarves with death being the only punishment

===Hermit===
* Spend points ONLY on ONE [[Pick]]

A well known and popular challenge. Kill off 6 starting dwarves and any [[immigrants]] as they arrive, and try to make a living for the last dwarf. Turn away merchants. If they don't leave, kill them.

'''Variants'''
To moderate difficulty, feel free to allow these exceptions:
* Keep one male and one female dwarf as the Dwarven Adam and Eve.
* Keep your starting seven, but no immigrants.
* Selectively admit dwarves based on name, profession, etc.
* Embark with an anvil as well.

===Hunting Party===
* One Marksman+Ambusher
* One Cook+Farmer
* One Brewer+Farmer
* Four exclusively social dwarves
* Embark with no anvil, many hunting dogs, into a challenging biome (terrifying areas may have no supply of wood)

===Immigration and customs enforcement===
* One miner/mason/architect
* One woodcutter/carpenter/architect
* Five military dwarves
* Embark into a canyon or on a road
* Don't embark with an anvil

Spend the first year building fortifications to interdict traffic. Immigrants can build a town around you, but your original seven dwarves remain dedicated to their mission (purely military in purpose).

==="Let Loose the Dogs of War"===
* No military Dwarves are permitted, including Fortress Guard.
* No weapons or armor may be forged, and any obtained from looting must be melted down.
* War dogs must be your only form of attack and defense.
** Bonus : No traps or defense mechanisms of any kind may be utilized, only dogs.

===Master Of One===
Pre-Embark:
* All starting dwarves must have only one skill

Post-Embark:
* No changes are allowed on any dwarf's labor screen, except to ''disable'' hauling labors (enabling hauling is forbidden)
* All immigrants must stay with the profession(s) they arrive with
* All peasants must be activated into the military

'''Variant:'''
*Only allow one dwarf for each skill to remain in your fort (1 mason, 1 miner, 1 farmer, etc.). Slaughter or draft all other dwarves.

===Monarch with a grudge===
* Forbid any and all use of stone and metal
* No exposed tile may be labeled "Underground"
* Artifacts containing stone and metal are to be destroyed '''utterly''' (magma or the [[Dwarven_Atom_Smasher|DAS]])

"Nay, no ponderous stone doors or shining silver arcades, not while I live!"
The new king has decided rocks and metals can no longer be used in construction. He'll be overthrown shortly, but in the meantime construct your fortress without them.

'''Variants'''
* Embark with no construction materials, into an area devoid of trees.
* Construct a fortress made entirely out of glass. Try not using magma or limit yourself only to clear and crystal glass.
* Build with soap bars. Show those elven traders just how much you despise their philosophies by building with stuff derived from dead trees ''and'' dead animals. Cats are an excellent source of tallow.
* Choose one type of rock, one type of metal, one type of gem, one type of wood, and optionally one type of glass. All constructions can only use those types in their construction. An easy way to enforce this with stone is to mark all but your choice "Economical".
* Bonus points: Stone is forbidden along with digging

===Noblesse requiro===
* Construct a fortress only to please nobles (who, for the sake of this challenge, are all criminally psychotic)
* Criminals who deserve justice should be incarcerated, tortured, and executed for ''any'' offense. Use your imagination for every step of the process. Remember, there is no right to a fair and speedy trial in Armok's eyes.
* All Nobles must be treated to the highest quality living conditions
* All others must be treated to the bare minimum needed to physically keep them alive
* Elected nobles are to be treated as regular dwarves, but mandates hold equal sway regarding justice

===Sitting on trees===
* Construct a wooden "tree" or several, spanning many (a dozen or so) z-levels
* Establish a successful fortress not inside, but around, these constructed trees

===Stop, Hey, What's that Sound===
* (Optionally) Generate a world with abundant cave systems
* Establish a fort near a very large cave
* Imitate the role of "Angband", leading small parties inside on military excursions
* No more than 3 dwarves can enter at a time
* Siege equipment and other weapons (or dangerous contraptions) that a dwarf can't carry on him is forbidden when cave-exploring

'''Variants'''
* Only solo adventurers are allowed to enter the dungeon
* Only use 'Thieves' to steal loot and create traps inside the dungeon

===The Mad Butcher===
* One dedicated Butcher+Tanner
* Minimal supplies and skills, so you can bring...
* As many puppies and kittens you can afford
* All food-gathering skills (except your Butcher+Tanner and Brewing) are forbidden

Caging your animals will increase performance to prepare a suitable butchery. Construct a wide, deep shaft to be zoned as an animal pit. At the bottom, outfit an isolation chamber complete with food and alcohol stockpiles, a bed, a butchery and a tanner's workshop. An active well will prevent mishaps. You should include during the construction either an airlock chamber (to enable the butcher to pass on food) or a second pit where the butcher dumps his created food. After construction, seal your butcher+tanner inside and live only off of his work.

===The World is Flat===
* No pre-embark requirements
* You'll probably want a region with lots of hills/mountains.
* You may only work/build/live on the original Z level where your wagon was
* No moats allowed, as this requires a channel, which goes below your z-level

==="I guess it's up to us to repopulate the planet..."===
* Embark on a loner site - this means one where traders, siegers, migrants, etc. simply don't show up, ever.
* Kill five of your starting seven, leaving one male and one female.
* You will get no population influx in any way (ever!) aside from breeding. Uncertain if inbreeding is possible for more generations of dwarves - unlikely. Hope the McUrists are prepared for a big family...

===Hunter and Gatherer===
Pre-Embark (World-Gen)
* Try creating a world in year 1 (optional)
Post-Embark
* Everything allowed except Farming.
Bonus
* Embark in a desert, so only hunting and (aquifier) fishing.
** Extra Points: Dont fish in the aquifier. How could the turtles get there anyway?
** Create a huge pyramid and sacrifice living beeings or valuables to Armok for rain by dropping it in the hollow inaccessible pyramid from the top.
*** Extended version: Fill the pyramid with magma!
** Create lines like the Nazca to honour Armok, so he will send some rain (maybe).

==Arbitrary Law==
Rule your fortress with a Soapen Fist! Or see how far you get until a (voluntary) significant flaw sends you into an inevitable sadness spiral. Whatever it is, be sure to stick by it or you'll be meeting the Hammerer.

===ASPCA===
* [[Animals]] are forbidden from the fortress
* Animals following immigrants cannot enter the fortress
* Lethal traps forbidden, caged non-sentients must be immediately released
* Butchery is forbidden, but leatherworking is allowed

Rather than forbidding immigrant pets from entering, you can choose to deal with the owner of that pet instead for a more sadistic challenge.

===Commune===
* After embarking, enable all labors on all dwarves (including immigrants)
* Beds can only be designated as barracks, and no dwarf can be assigned to a bed (even nobles)
* Coins are forbidden
* Be aware that nobles are just "optional" and can't feel pain

===Couples only===
* As soon as a married couple exists in your fortress:
** Kill all single dwarves
** Kill all incoming single dwarves
** Try to save children, until they are adult and single

===Dieting Dwarves===
* Exclusively dine on a food type of your choice (meat, fish, plants, alcohol)
* Optionally, forbid alcohol consumption to limit carbohydrate intake
**Note: forbidding alcohol permanently is as good as accepting a slow but continuous fortress death

===Dwarf Liberation Movement===
* Nobles are worthless scum, we give them nothing!
* As soon as possible, cage your expedition leader.
* Never appoint any dwarf into becoming a noble.
* Cage any dwarf that appears on the nobles and administrators screen.
* When your population elects a new mayor, release your old one and cage the new one.
** Bonus : Cage the king and all of his escorts!
** Extra Bonus : Once you have caged all nobles, administrators, the king and his advisor; you must unleash the Dwarf Atom-Smasher upon them.

===Fight for your name===
* Before embarking, randomly generate a fortress name and be sure to know its English translation
* Do the same with your group name
* Creatively designate a serious goal for your fortress, based on these names
* Fanatically reach your goal

===Fort Geneva===
* Lethal traps are forbidden
* Caged sentient creatures are to be considered prisoners of war and treated humanely

Suggested provisions for prisoners: a bed, a personal cell, a commons area, aboveground exercise yard, and the clothes the creature was wearing when captured. For more inspiration, go to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions Geneva Conventions]

===Government in Exile===
* Only Military and Social skills can be purchased and enabled in your entire fortress

All dwarves are either nobles or in the military. The only useful dwarves you'll have will be your broker, manager, mayor, bookkeeper, and dungeon master. If you can survive until the sheriff arrives, transfer your entire military into the fortress guard. With a little luck, and a lot of exported roasts, you too can rule without proletarian interference.

===Hardcore Altruism===
* Do not allow the death of any Dwarf

Though not viscerally entertaining, an incredible challenge. All strange moods must be given what they crave. All medical attention must be done ASAP. Mining, fishing and hunting must be done with much care. Sadness must be met with excellent social skills and quality furniture.

===Industrial Plant===
* Choose one industry that produces commercial goods
* No other industries permitted, only imported

===Johannesfort===
* Find a starting location with a lot of gabbro, containing Kimberlite
* Mine and cut all the diamonds on the map
* Only gems can be traded.

===Sexist Segregation===
* Establish two functioning and stable fortress
* One must be entirely male, the other entirely female
* Married couples are to be processed

===THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA!===
* At least half of your fortress population must be active in the military
* Crossbows and traps are forbidden
* Only spears, swords, wrestling, helmets (helms) and shields may be equipped by military and used to fight
** BONUS: All weapons and armour must be made from bronze
* Civilian dwarves have all labors enabled
** If ever activated, cannot use quality weapons or armor
* Maimed dwarves (perceived to be) incapable of being fully healed must be killed. (This includes incurable spinal injuries in military dwarves!)
* Devise methods of dropping Liaisons down pits during meetings. Yell, "THIS IS SPAARRTAAAAA..." at your monitor.
* Demand goods be turned over from all caravans
* Recreation is forbidden, as well as any 'improving' action, such as smoothing/engraving, or constructing things out of metals what can be done with rock and wood (besides spears, swords and shields)

Note that the above suggestions are modeled on the popular movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film) 300], which was historically inaccurate. For a more "realistic dwarven Sparta", try reading the wiki article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta#Society the real Sparta]

===Mesoamerican Dwarfs===
* All food must be grown above ground, on small plots, surrounded by canals (chinampas)
** BONUS: Flood the farms annually.
* All buildings must be above ground.
* Capture as many of your enemies as possible.
* Build a massive step pyramid at the center of your fortress. Have your champions kill prisoners at the top.
* Surround your fortress with an artificial lake.
** BONUS: Build it in the middle of a natural lake.
* Use only copper or bronze metal (except for iron anvils).
* No weapons except obsidian short swords. Axes are only for wood cutting.
* No armor except leather.
* Demand that all non-dwarf caravans surrender their goods as tribute.
* Build a giant, multistory building for holding skulls.

==Megaprojects==
Instead of deliberately inhibiting yourself, create a wonder of the dwarven world that would make the Mountainhomes proud. Be sure to upload it to the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/ Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] when it's finished. More projects can be found where [[Stupid_dwarf_trick|stupid dwarves try crazy tricks]]. [[Mega construction|Incredible feats of construction]] are usually very [[Fun|fun]] so you'll see many different (and probably similar) constructions across the Wiki. Use whatever ideas you think are ingenious.

===Aqueducts===
For some reason, a noble was harmlessly pulling a lever when suddenly, magma flooded the river and exploded the booze! The king requires your band of seven to build a great aqueduct to bring water to the capital. Start with supports, and build up your aqueduct until it is 10 z-levels high!

BONUS: Start over a human town, build a wall around it, pump water through the aqueduct and into it!

===Biodome===
All material, seeds, food, tools, and dwarves must be in the fortress within one year. Then, seal up the entrance. Any new immigrants... well, they might be in trouble. Survive for as long as possible!

No chasms/underground rivers/magma vents allowed.

===Casting===
Who needs to construct giant statues?! We need ours made from natural walls, however, we want it above ground level as well. For casting your goal is to create some giant structure out of natural obsidian walls through the use of an extremely elaborate scaffold of lava and water pools and screw pumps. When you are finished, just deconstruct the scaffolding and smooth/engrave the statue as you go. Just imagine the bridge over that chasm, now complete with two giant dwarf statues on either side to strike fear into all who enter and to show them the power of your fortress.

BONUS: Make the statues spit lava.

===Castle===
Build a castle, greater than anything built by human, elf or dwarf. This is highly time
consuming if you want it to be a good castle. There must be floor indoors, and no underground
constructions except for mining operations and cellars. For an even greater challenge, build
a gigantic tower in the middle, where the nobles stay.

===Ceremonial Sacrifices===
Build an amazingly complex or spectacular killing device. A shaft that extends across the entire Z-plane is a good start. A constantly shifting maze of atomsmasher drawbridges is another. For the minimalist, a very confined space where you will drop a dwarf wrestler along with the gobbos once in a while. Perhaps a waterslide that carries your prisoner all the way down into a chasm? Whatever your idea, build it and dedicate your fort to the construction, maintenance and improvement of your device.

Do not kill any of your invaders. Capture them using cage traps, and them set them off in your device. Keep a record of the number of victims you drop into it.

BONUS: Create a statue garden to memorialize your victims, with one statue per victim. Structure your fortress such that sacrificial victims have to pass through the garden on the way to their demise.

===Computing===
Can your dwarves build the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera mechanism]? Can you program the fortress to play tic-tac-toe? More details at [[computing]].

===Colosseum===
Build a pit, around it on steps lots of Thrones, make the whole thing a meeting area, train Gladiators, capture goblins, leave them their weapons and let them fight against your gladiators. If they win, let them go.

===Crematory Fortress===
* Requires a [[magma pipe]] and [[bauxite]].

Build a temple structure above a [[magma pipe]] and [[engrave]] every available surface. The temple should be as opulent as possible. In the temple, build a retracting [[bridge]] over a hole in the floor, and designate a [[coffin]] [[stockpile]] on it. Whenever a dwarf dies, build a [[bauxite]] or other [[magma-proof]] [[coffin]] for him, place it on the [[bridge]], and retract it, committing his body to the [[magma|fiery blood of the mountain]].

::Note: Since coffins are unassigned and emptied when deconstructed and cannot be constructed on top of a bridge, this will not actually work. An alternative would be to place the coffins in individual chambers which can then be flooded with magma afterwards.

::: You could expose the magma pipe, build a one-tile wide floor span across it, and then above that build a support that holds up your temple floor on the z-level above. The temple floor would be separated from the walls of the temple and would be connected for walking access diagonally. The support holds it up. You would have to construct the coffins in the temple, then when someone gets buried you pull the lever attached to the support. You then rebuild the narrow span below, the temple floor, and the support, then link the lever to the new support.
::: You can do this without scaffolding if you build the temple floor access straight in, and then the span below and the support, then once the support is in place you destroy the straight temple access leaving only a diagonal temple access.

===Doomsday Clock===
Build a water or mechanical clock whose final state triggers the support which holds your fortress up or a megabeast out.
See how much wealth you can achieve before the clock runs out.
*Bonus: Create something that resets itself, as well as purging the map, so that you can reuse the same fortress over and over.
*Super-Bonus: Create something that involves pressure plates and a small kitten, when the pressure plates are hit in the right order, your map ends. Toss the kitten in and hope for the best. Alternatively, make the sequence quite unlikely, but add 2 kittens; breeding introduces a probability of doomsday that is a function of time (depending on the mechanisms involved)
*Super-Bonus: Create the super-bonus above, but place the kitten on the lowest Z-level and never return to either look at it or see how many of the conditions for the doomsday device have been met. This way, the kitty mimicks Schrodinger's cat: we cannot observe the state of the kitty, but we can infer it from the state of the world (spin-pairs effectively).

===Dwarf like an Egyptian===
*Build a pyramid of epic proportion.

Build a legendary dwarven pyramid, with a corridor running to a central tomb for your favourite noble. Then construct lots of different [[traps]] in it to avoid grave robbery. Perhaps build it entirely out of glass? Or try to make the top twist in a bit of a swirl. Alternatively, make your entire fortress inside a pyramid, which stretches below the ground.

*Build rows of Obelisks

Build a double row of Obelisks before the Pyramid, and engrave the sides. Build ramps on the tops.

*Build the whole thing upside down.
** And then another one on the upside-down one.

*When the time has come, or when your fortress is about to be destroyed by a siege etc perform the ceremony to translate the mortal form of the noble to the underworld. Give him a ritual death, and make sure you kill his servants as well. If the tomb is built for your king make every dwarf die but one, who inters everyone into their resting place. His final act will be to pull a level that seals the tomb as well as kills him. Then enjoy going back and reclaiming your fortress to observe your efforts.

===Graveyard Master===
Every dwarf deserves a decent resting place:
*Build a tomb for ever dwarf that dies, the more dwarves you manage to bury the better.
*Tombs must be rooms with exactly 5x5 of size and 1 of height, with only one entrance tile that must be closed by a door.
*Tombs must have all its surfaces engraved.
*Tomb must contain at least 4 statues.
*Once complete, the door must be locked and the tomb must not be ever entered again.

===How high can you go?===
Construction, construction, construction! Just how big a tower can you build? Out of glass maybe, clear glass? Steel? Pump water to the top? Make your tower a ''pinnacle'' of achievement and stun humans, elves and goblins alike - for they know nothing of construction and engineering like dwarves do!

===Land battleship===
Turn your mountain into a huge battle-station, complete with crew quarters, decks, command centre, cantina, and a large collection of deadly weapons : Batteries of marksdwarves, ballista cannons, catapults, boarding bridges and -teams, but also lava projector or remote explosive devices (ie cave-ins in a part of the map triggered by a lever). Make sure it ends up looking like a real battleship, with nothing but plains surrounding it (you could build it on an actual plain, or destroy a mountain, choice is yours). The battleship has to be autonomous, and dwarves shouldn't wander outside it.

*Bonus: The weaponry covers every tile of the map (i.e., everything that enters the map can be shot)
*Bonus: Build several other ships, maybe dedicated to a specific product (food, ammo etc.)
**Bonus: Find a way to let them fight each other in a naval battle
*Bonus: Each crew member has a civil and military formation, and when the enemy arrives, stop every economic activity. All hands to quarters !
*Mega Bonus: After building your Ship(s), flood the surrounding countryside.

===Moria===
Build a huge hall - at least 3 z-levels high. Leave few pillars symmetrically placed in the hall (don't build them, carve them out). Smooth and possibly engrave everything (not only the lowest z-level!). Then build thin bridge (not the bridge building, just a thin piece of rock to walk on) above magma - support it with bauxite supports connected to a lever (bauxite mechanisms needed in support). Destroy stone holding it at the both ends and replace it with floor hatches (so when you pull the lever it all goes down). After that build a bridge above the chasm.
When it's all done seal your dwarves deep inside in safe place and get invaded by goblins. At the same time dig out HFS. Lead the HFS across the both bridges and then collapse the second one when one of the champions clashes with it (it doesn't matter that the champion has killed the HFS with one hit).

===Mountain audit/core sample===
Start in a mountainous area and strip mine everything down, down, down to ground level. Stockpile everything, and calculate the mountain's composition. For kicks, try not excavating one tile on each z-level. You'll be left with one enormous core sample.

===Project Mayhem===

*You do not talk about project Mayhem
*Build a series of towers, at least 10 z-levels high, of different size and shape. They must be supported by a series of supports linked to a lever.
*Store all your riches in the towers : crafts, precious metal bars, gems, artifacts, everything. You may also want to house your nobles on top of the towers.
*Pull the lever and watch the collapse of financial history.

Bonus : make the towers' walls out of glass!

Bonus : Make soap! And remember, human fat is ideal...

===Santa Claus===
Get ten thousand toys built and offered to caravans yearly. Optionally, build ten thousand toys, fetch them in adventure mode and deliver them to every single city of the world.

===Skull collector===
What proves the might of a civilization better than a hall full of skulls?
*Try to collect as many skulls as you can during your fortress life, and put then in a special skulls-only storage. The more skulls the better.

BONUS: Cover all the skulls in blood, and make the stockpile also a throne room.
SUPERBONUS: Also fill the throne room with kittens.

===Space Ship===
Create a giant space ship fit for space travel. It should be able to hold about 100 dwarves for at least 2 years.

*BONUS: Use exploding [[booze]] as ignitable fuel.
*BONUS: Make a removable [[ramp]] for boarding.
*BONUS: Make the [[water]] for the 2 years be on the ship using removable pumps.
*BONUS+: Make it totally self sufficient. (Make an internal system which pumps the [[water]] supply through a room every few years to muddy the floor. Plant [[seed|seeds]] in the [[mud]] that's now on the floor. Manage your consumption to maintain self sufficiency.)
*Modding BONUS: Mod the game so that merchants can fly their new wagonships into your docking bays. ''(If possible)''
*BONUS+: Make it all out of [[steel]].
*[[fun|FUN]]: Let it be held by a single [[support]], ignite the [[booze]], remove the support an let it "fly".
*EVEN BETTER: Drop it down a chasm.
*More [[fun|FUN]]: Set up a mining operation on the surface and dig into the HFS. Watch the alien creatures take over your ship and hunt down your dwarves. Form a squad of heroes to overload the booze reactor to prevent the aliens from reaching earth. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Space_%28video_game%29 Dead Space] and/or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28film%29 the Alien series])

===Swiss Precision===
Build a working clock. The clock should accurately track DF days, months, and years.

Bonus Points:
*If the clock has a mechanical effect in the fortress proper to announce new days
*If the clock creates seasonally appropriate effects at the change of months and/or seasons.
*If the clock is used to aid in the operation of the fortress in addition to its role as a clock (automatically controls farmland irrigation at particular times, automatically opens the <s>blast doors</s> <s>floodgates</s> Magma Channels in time for merchants, etc...).
*If the clock governs the schedule of a working rail station (which is always on time). (Definitions of 'working' and 'rail station' are subject to player imagination).
*If the clock takes measures to protect itself. ''"I can't let you do that, Urist."''

But don't worry about the bonus points, a precision time device should be hard enough.

===Temple===
Designing a temple to Armok. Aesthetics count - the god will be very angry if there are no stained-glass windows and domed ceilings carved with frescoes. To gain more favor, make regular sacrifices and keep the fountains and rivers red with [[blood]].

===The cube===
Play a fort as usual, but emphasize catching goblins in cages to support and fill this construction:
Construct a series of rooms in a symmetrical fashion, all connected to each other with appropriate doors. Of course, enough rooms to make a maze-like structure, and if you feel like it, an exit that is hard to reach. Fill a bunch of the rooms with traps and pressureplates. Then fill one room with 4-6 goblins (preferably in cages, opened by an outside lever), release them and watch them randomly walk around the rooms dying to traps and whatnots.

*Bonus: Do multiple story maze (3d-maze)
*Bonus: Use pressureplates to open/close the exit randomly; otherwise, all the goblins will just follow the shortest route to the exit.

===The great brewery===
Disaster has struck the kingdom. A strangely glowing [[Fire|‼]]<nowiki></nowiki>peasant[[Fire|‼]] visited the greatest brewery of the empire, and as a result the whole thing exploded. No time for weeping — create its successor, a fort dedicated to alcohol production, and get the alcohol supplies flowing! Try to make the widest variety possible, and give or trade it to the dwarven [[caravan]] each year.

===The Great Wall of Urist===
Build a dwarven great wall of china that splits the map in half. Must be at least 10 tiles thick and reach the highest z-level.
* BONUS: Make it block the <s>mongols</s> goblins out of your half of the map.
* BONUS: Make it out of obsidian.
**BONUS+: Embark on a map without obsidian.
* BONUS: Find a way to make it touch the boundaries.
* BONUS: Build one gate
* BONUS: Arm it with ballistas.

===The Monolith===
As the inevitability of a fortress-wide mental breakdown looms over every single fortress why not have something that alludes to that precipice of [[insanity]]. Like the book and feature film, 2001: A Space Odyssey you must have a Monolith. This has to be made from [[obsidian]] and have a completely smooth surface (You cannot build it from blocks) You can have it be any size as long as it is outside, at least 2 tiles thick to ensure there are no pillar tiles, and has about the same ratio of width to height as it does in the movie (1:4:9) to make it as close to the real thing as possible. It would be preferable to make it large so that it seems to be dominating the landscape and your dwarves' psyche. The bigger the better.

*If the rock obsidian strata isn't deep enough in parts to make a monolith feasible consider casting a monolith with a large rectangular block in the exact same dimensional criteria as above.

===Statue of greatness===
Build a giant statue, spanning 10-20 z-levels and make it in the shape of say, a dwarf you like or an animal you like.
* Bonus: make it in the shape of a teapot that has a working boiling system and a spout that water can come out of.

===Underwater fortress===
Encase your entire fortress in [[water]]! Your fortress should be watersealed: surrounded by water against all [[wall]]s and the top of the fortress.
* Bonus: Build all water-touching walls/roof in clear glass!
* Bonus: Use [[magma]] instead of water!
* Bonus: Build it in the [[ocean]] or a non-freezing lake
* Bonus: Build large glass domes that encase the fortress. A dome 20 tiles wide should be 20 z-levels tall. Which may be hard to cover in water.
** NOTE: Actually, a dome 20 tiles wide should be 10 tiles tall, or less, since the steepest dome will be only semi-spherical, and most domes will start out at an angle anyway.
* Bonus: Have a mechanism for dropping your enemies into the water to drown! Or fill the water with carp.
* Mod: Make your dwarves amphibious and include airlocks between the wet fortress and the dry.
* Remake: Make Rapture city from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock Bioshock]

===Wealth===
The kingdom's coffers need lining, so hop to! Found a fort and start accumulating wealth as fast as possible. Attain as high a fortress value as possible, and make most of your wealth into coins for the vault. Try to beat your record for one year, two years, or five years.

===World Domination===
Pretend you are an evil mastermind. Now come up with some device or machine to render the world (or at least your portion of the map) totally unlivable, aside from, of course, your hidden lair.

You will receive bonus points for making a more realistic World Domination setup. Some suggestions:

* Make one dwarf the evil mastermind. The evil mastermind will have no empathy whatsoever, and they will hate all other races, and put no value on their lives. Protect him at all cost. If he should die, switch his position to his oldest child (who will avenge his father, also insanity is hereditary.) or the most insane, diabolical dwarf in your fort.
* Impractical, overkill solutions to everyday problems ("Sir, the dungeon master wants a better room" "Well then turn his room into a tomb and flood it with magma, and do not bother me with such trivial matters again or I will have you shot.")
* Give the evil mastermind a pet to obsess over. Give it a name like Mr. Bigglesworth or Snuggles.
* Have a science lab. Use living creatures and people as test subjects.

Doomsday device suggestions:
* Flood the map with water/magma (may require building walls around the edge of the map)
**BONUS: the water has carp in it.
* Build an "Earthquake Machine" (the entire map is supported by a single support, which is connected to a lever)
* Build an extensive holding cell network for "scientific purposes". Fill it with megabeasts and <s>elephants</s> unicorns in secret. Have a lever that lets everything free to feed on the general population.
* Embark in an evil area, and capture and tame all those undead animals if possible to create your own undead army
* Bonus: Eliminate the dwarves who constructed your device before you set it off. They must not be allowed to warn the rest of the citizens.
* Build an orbital weapons platform in space (which should be 12-15 stories above the ground, use your imagination), then arm it with magma bombs (droppable tank of magma) to glass the planet, rendering it uninhabitable for a few years.
* You can also recreate the most evil society in history and try a Nazi-dwarf concentration camp.


[[Category:Guides]]

=== The Grand Treasury ===
At first, have the king come to you. Then excavate a laaarge room and fill it with i.e.: Lots of coins, shiny gems, artifacts, golden statues, silver mugs, etc. pp. But the king is still not satisfied with his possessions, so he wants more and more shiny and sparky things.
Of course sooner or later (probably sooner) those filthy kobolds and goblins will come and try to steal this enormous hoard. We must never tolerate this! Turn your treasury into a strongroom like the world has never seen before! Secret doors, traps in abundance, guards at every door, ballistae, guard dogs, the whole program. If anything gets lost, you have proven your incompetence, and the king will have your fortress abandoned and founded another to guard his treasures.

*Bonus: Build up the treasury and raid it successfully in Adventure Mode

=== Heaven ===
Build a dwarven version of heaven. Every dwarf must want to come to you! Important pieces:
# Streets paved with gold.
# The mindless hordes are held back by pearly gates -- or at least a close equivalent. Marble doors with diamond encrustations.
# No dwarves die (except for criminals). Heaven is everlasting.
# All criminals must be cast into the fires of Hell. Ideally, this would either be HFS or the bottom of a magma pipe.
# Nothing is ever stolen. St. Peter doesn't screw up.
# After the King has arrived, any male children he has must be sent out to fight sieges alone.

BONUS: No dwarves are ever unhappy -- no tantrums and no insanity. 
BONUS: When migrants arrive at the pearly gates, view their thoughts and preferences and only allow those with a similar/same Diety as your population. 
BONUS: Make Heaven 10 stories above the ground 
Mod: Make Angel dwarves and a godly being. (suggestions: Cacame, Morul, Ironblood.) 
ULTRABONUS: Make Heaven in the air, an earthly society on the ground (a wooden town perhaps?), and carve the HFS place into Hell, complete with a lake of Magma/fire.Look up the character of every dwarf and send him to the appropriate place. 
MEGABONUS-(Re)Make: The Seven Seals have been broken and the Apocalypse arrives.
# The Sky darkens (an obsidian ceiling spanning over the map).
# Meteors (opened lava tanks and cave-ins) devastate the earth.
# All bodies of water turn bloody.
# Dig into the HFS and have a battle between Heaven and Hell. 

=== City of Ember ===
Show those filthy humans that when dwarves build a secret underground refuge, they build to last! In other words, recreate Ember from the film "City of Ember" (yes, everyone is aware there is a book), but do it right - none of these leaking pipes and crumbling buildings stuff, after only two and a half centuries underground!
# Mine out a massive cavern multiple z-layers high , and build a human-style city underneath it instead of carving out various chambers.
# You must seal it off. How long you wait to do this is up to you, but once it is sealed, you cannot unseal it for at least 200 years (if you decide to play that long). Ideally, use a utility to embark with a full set of dwarves (to represent the immigrating population) and seal the city off within one year of embarking.
# Build individual houses with their own dining rooms and bedrooms. Multiple dwarves can live in one house, but usually only a single family will live in one house.
# Build streets connecting all of the buildings, in the way that in the film, Ember didn't really have any space that wasn't either paved or built on until you got to the outskirts of the city.
# Have a "greenhouse" out on the outskirts for farming.
# You MUST have an underground river and use it for power.
# You MUST have magma and use it for power.
# Build City Hall, where the mayor has his office, with a nice fountain out front that actually works (probably involving water pressure, and as a testament to the fact that dwarves do it better, and their underground refuge isn't running desperately short of food, water, or power).
# No military, because there is simply no need for one, but have a fortress guard (to function as police, basically).
# After 200 or more years, unseal the city and colonize the surface.

BONUS: Instead of building your houses/other structures out of blocks or rocks, plan it all out beforehand and simply don't dig out the tiles that you want to be the walls of buildings, and smooth it all down so it looks the same, but your buildings are actually made out of solid natural rock. 
BONUS: Actually cause some kind of catastrophe on the surface (flood it with magma or something) that makes it uninhabitable, to FORCE yourself to stay underground, but when you unseal the city after 200 years, the surface should have healed and be habitable again. So, don't do something permanent.

40d:Challenges

2010-02-10T15:03:46Z

Newtype0083: /* Arbitrary Law */

:''Part of this article was originally taken from the DF forums thread [http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=466.0 "Goal-Based Dwarf Fortress"].''

The general goal of [[Fortress Mode]] is to survive, acquire wealth, defend your stronghold, and become the capital of your civilization. However, many players find that fighting off repeated [[siege|sieges]], keeping their people alive, and expanding just aren't enough anymore. They begin to experiment with different sets of starting builds, arbitrary requirements and restrictions, and even feats of construction to appease Armok, in search of more difficulty and [[fun]]. These are some goals to attempt or use as inspiration.

==Pre-Embark Build Ideas==
Before you embark, you can optimize or sabotage your fortress from the very start, depending on how you distribute your points. After a few years, a well-developing fortress may or may not stabilize (depending on your idea of [[fun]]), leaving you to other challenges.

=== Diplomacy ===
* Six dwarves with only social [[skill]]s
* One skilled dwarf

Six courtiers of the king's court made some ill-advised remarks within earshot of the king, and as a result have been ordered to go found an outpost. They've hired you to make sure they survive. The six nobles only have social skills and refuse to do any work that is beneath them.

=== Minimalist/Survivalist build===

* 1 anvil
* 2 copper ore

Nothing else. From that alone, forge your pick and axe. (Figure it out yourself, or see the [[DIY#Minimalist_challenge_build|Do it Yourself]] article for a step-by-step "how to".)

===Peasantry===
* Spend 0 Points on embark

This challenge is moderately to very difficult, depending on the wildlife and outdoor food sources. Note that the three logs from the wagon are just enough to build a trade depot.

=== Stranded Scout Squad ===
* Military skills
* Weapons, ammunition, armor, war dogs
* Picks are not weapons

Your civilian 'friends' promised a caravan in the fall as they left, laughing. Hopefully, you can survive until then with your forward scouts.

==Races==
Pretend to be another race! You can mod the game or just pretend that Elves have hair. It doesn't matter what you look like, just what you build, with what materials, and what's for lunch after we build it.

===Elves - The Ultimate Hippy Challenge===
Peace, man.
* Don't gather plants except those you plant yourself.
* Don't gather wood nor trade for it with humans or dwarves.
* Trade for plants and wood only with the elves; they understand your environmental code.
* Don't burn any [[fuel|coal]]. Do you know what that does to the environment, man?
**Magma-smelting is an option, but steel can't be had.
* Don't cause any creature's death, except in self-defense.
**No military, induced submerging, or lethal implementation of corkscrews.
* Only use cage traps, and either tame the creatures you catch, or release them back into the wild.
* [[Elf|Hippies]] prefer sunlight and wooded areas, with minimal use of rock (digging and building).

For an extra challenge try this in an area with a cave.

===Humans - Living Large and Standing Tall===
Pretend you're a filthy above-ground dwelling [[Human|humie]].
* Build a town wall.
** Only hovels and farms outside the town walls.
* House your dwarves in small town homes
** 5-10 dwarves per house (they had pretty big families back in the day)
** Upstairs bedrooms, small dining room, maybe a single level basement.
* House your workshops according to profession, not convenience.
* Build warehouses for stockpiles, and set guards outside them.
* Create a keep, with its own wall, barracks, treasury, etc.
** House your nobles within the keep.
* Create a market square.
* Create a main street from the town wall to the market square and/or keep. Well-paved blocks, statues and decorative shubbery are a must.
* No underground connections between different areas.
* For obtaining stone, metal, etc. a mine may be built, but must have separate entrance from other buildings. It can be outside the fortress, but must not connect to the interior, or vice versa.
** If you create a side hill mine, only carve large (at least 2 tiles) tunnels, and create shaft to the surface to allow air circulation.
** Or better than that, create an open pit mine / quarry, with ramps to access lower floors.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Build a large, multiple-z-level fountain complete with decorations.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Human Inn, containing your only booze stockpile and should be party-oriented.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Farm simulation, complete with crops and free-range livestock, etc.
* BONUS: Easy Play: Embark on top of a Human Town.
* BONUS: Advanced Play: Modify the raws and actually use humans to make the fort.
* MEGABONUS: Build your entire fortress as [[mega constructions|one huge arcology]].
* MEGABONUS: Build your City in a giant, artificial cave.

===Luddite===
Shun technology and contraptions. Who can really trust them, with those [[Gremlin|gremlins]] around. This may be challenging, as it forbids easy isolation/defense from attacks, all traps and wells. Irrigation is reduced to solid elbow grease and maybe a bucket or two. This challenge may be even harder combined with another challenge.
* No mechanics or [[mechanism]]s
* No [[machine]]s

===Earthworms===
Live constantly tunneling. Churn up the soil as you go and visit the surface only rarely to collect the stuff you need..
* Create one long tunnel. Dig forward at one end whilst sealing off (collapsing, building walls across) the other end.
* Workshops should be built directly behind the row of miners. When they reach the point where they would be destroyed, take them apart and rebuild back by the miners again.
* To make it easier, you can come up to the surface now and then.
* Try to keep the tunnel as short as possible.
* Like this: ||||||||==========> (| is walled off end section, = is tunnel and > is the miners.
* BONUS: Leave those pesky nobles walled in as you tunnel away from them!
* BONUS: Leave stockpiles of armour and weapons for any future diggers to find!
* MEGABONUS: Surprise a goblin siege by tunneling up underneath them!

==Utter Dwarfiness==
Need new ways to behave or new techniques to dip your toes into? Give any or all of your starting 7 some quirks to live up to. Want to try making your Boss a hell-bent, paranoid despot? Or establish a routine mass murder of small animals to provide your fort with raw meat by a vaguely intimidating, estranged butcher?

===Bandit Camp===
* Three or more Marksdwarves (perhaps with [[Ambush|ambushing]])
* Embark site featuring places to hide

Attack and loot every enemy sentient creature you can find, such as goblins & kobolds. Develop sneaky and even horrific methods of trapping and 'processing' friendly sentients (merchants, diplomats, and even migrants). Take no prisoners and leave no evidence of foul play.

===City-States===
* All dwarves embark as peasants
* 7 or multiple of 7 of everything you bring (especially picks and axes)

At the start your dwarves split everything equally and move to 7 different locales that are not interconnected. They have to mine their own rooms, plant their own crops, use their own craft piles. This will probably require a bit of cross-fertilization until you get [[door]]s and can lock everyone in, but after that it is every dwarf for him/herself!

This challenge may be easier to perform after Burrows are implemented.

===Equaland===
* No embark requirements
* Construct a successful fortress
* All dwarves are given equal attention regarding quarters, dining, armament and burial
* One dwarf elected to be "The Leader" commands a lever system capable of killing a single dwarf of your choice in their room, however you wish
* Allow the Leader (your id) free reign on his power, enforcing impossible and unannounced criteria on your other dwarves with death being the only punishment

===Hermit===
* Spend points ONLY on ONE [[Pick]]

A well known and popular challenge. Kill off 6 starting dwarves and any [[immigrants]] as they arrive, and try to make a living for the last dwarf. Turn away merchants. If they don't leave, kill them.

'''Variants'''
To moderate difficulty, feel free to allow these exceptions:
* Keep one male and one female dwarf as the Dwarven Adam and Eve.
* Keep your starting seven, but no immigrants.
* Selectively admit dwarves based on name, profession, etc.
* Embark with an anvil as well.

===Hunting Party===
* One Marksman+Ambusher
* One Cook+Farmer
* One Brewer+Farmer
* Four exclusively social dwarves
* Embark with no anvil, many hunting dogs, into a challenging biome (terrifying areas may have no supply of wood)

===Immigration and customs enforcement===
* One miner/mason/architect
* One woodcutter/carpenter/architect
* Five military dwarves
* Embark into a canyon or on a road
* Don't embark with an anvil

Spend the first year building fortifications to interdict traffic. Immigrants can build a town around you, but your original seven dwarves remain dedicated to their mission (purely military in purpose).

==="Let Loose the Dogs of War"===
* No military Dwarves are permitted, including Fortress Guard.
* No weapons or armor may be forged, and any obtained from looting must be melted down.
* War dogs must be your only form of attack and defense.
** Bonus : No traps or defense mechanisms of any kind may be utilized, only dogs.

===Master Of One===
Pre-Embark:
* All starting dwarves must have only one skill

Post-Embark:
* No changes are allowed on any dwarf's labor screen, except to ''disable'' hauling labors (enabling hauling is forbidden)
* All immigrants must stay with the profession(s) they arrive with
* All peasants must be activated into the military

'''Variant:'''
*Only allow one dwarf for each skill to remain in your fort (1 mason, 1 miner, 1 farmer, etc.). Slaughter or draft all other dwarves.

===Monarch with a grudge===
* Forbid any and all use of stone and metal
* No exposed tile may be labeled "Underground"
* Artifacts containing stone and metal are to be destroyed '''utterly''' (magma or the [[Dwarven_Atom_Smasher|DAS]])

"Nay, no ponderous stone doors or shining silver arcades, not while I live!"
The new king has decided rocks and metals can no longer be used in construction. He'll be overthrown shortly, but in the meantime construct your fortress without them.

'''Variants'''
* Embark with no construction materials, into an area devoid of trees.
* Construct a fortress made entirely out of glass. Try not using magma or limit yourself only to clear and crystal glass.
* Build with soap bars. Show those elven traders just how much you despise their philosophies by building with stuff derived from dead trees ''and'' dead animals. Cats are an excellent source of tallow.
* Choose one type of rock, one type of metal, one type of gem, one type of wood, and optionally one type of glass. All constructions can only use those types in their construction. An easy way to enforce this with stone is to mark all but your choice "Economical".
* Bonus points: Stone is forbidden along with digging

===Noblesse requiro===
* Construct a fortress only to please nobles (who, for the sake of this challenge, are all criminally psychotic)
* Criminals who deserve justice should be incarcerated, tortured, and executed for ''any'' offense. Use your imagination for every step of the process. Remember, there is no right to a fair and speedy trial in Armok's eyes.
* All Nobles must be treated to the highest quality living conditions
* All others must be treated to the bare minimum needed to physically keep them alive
* Elected nobles are to be treated as regular dwarves, but mandates hold equal sway regarding justice

===Sitting on trees===
* Construct a wooden "tree" or several, spanning many (a dozen or so) z-levels
* Establish a successful fortress not inside, but around, these constructed trees

===Stop, Hey, What's that Sound===
* (Optionally) Generate a world with abundant cave systems
* Establish a fort near a very large cave
* Imitate the role of "Angband", leading small parties inside on military excursions
* No more than 3 dwarves can enter at a time
* Siege equipment and other weapons (or dangerous contraptions) that a dwarf can't carry on him is forbidden when cave-exploring

'''Variants'''
* Only solo adventurers are allowed to enter the dungeon
* Only use 'Thieves' to steal loot and create traps inside the dungeon

===The Mad Butcher===
* One dedicated Butcher+Tanner
* Minimal supplies and skills, so you can bring...
* As many puppies and kittens you can afford
* All food-gathering skills (except your Butcher+Tanner and Brewing) are forbidden

Caging your animals will increase performance to prepare a suitable butchery. Construct a wide, deep shaft to be zoned as an animal pit. At the bottom, outfit an isolation chamber complete with food and alcohol stockpiles, a bed, a butchery and a tanner's workshop. An active well will prevent mishaps. You should include during the construction either an airlock chamber (to enable the butcher to pass on food) or a second pit where the butcher dumps his created food. After construction, seal your butcher+tanner inside and live only off of his work.

===The World is Flat===
* No pre-embark requirements
* You'll probably want a region with lots of hills/mountains.
* You may only work/build/live on the original Z level where your wagon was
* No moats allowed, as this requires a channel, which goes below your z-level

==="I guess it's up to us to repopulate the planet..."===
* Embark on a loner site - this means one where traders, siegers, migrants, etc. simply don't show up, ever.
* Kill five of your starting seven, leaving one male and one female.
* You will get no population influx in any way (ever!) aside from breeding. Uncertain if inbreeding is possible for more generations of dwarves - unlikely. Hope the McUrists are prepared for a big family...

===Hunter and Gatherer===
Pre-Embark (World-Gen)
* Try creating a world in year 1 (optional)
Post-Embark
* Everything allowed except Farming.
Bonus
* Embark in a desert, so only hunting and (aquifier) fishing.
** Extra Points: Dont fish in the aquifier. How could the turtles get there anyway?
** Create a huge pyramid and sacrifice living beeings or valuables to Armok for rain by dropping it in the hollow inaccessible pyramid from the top.
*** Extended version: Fill the pyramid with magma!
** Create lines like the Nazca to honour Armok, so he will send some rain (maybe).

==Arbitrary Law==
Rule your fortress with a Soapen Fist! Or see how far you get until a (voluntary) significant flaw sends you into an inevitable sadness spiral. Whatever it is, be sure to stick by it or you'll be meeting the Hammerer.

===ASPCA===
* [[Animals]] are forbidden from the fortress
* Animals following immigrants cannot enter the fortress
* Lethal traps forbidden, caged non-sentients must be immediately released
* Butchery is forbidden, but leatherworking is allowed

Rather than forbidding immigrant pets from entering, you can choose to deal with the owner of that pet instead for a more sadistic challenge.

===Commune===
* After embarking, enable all labors on all dwarves (including immigrants)
* Beds can only be designated as barracks, and no dwarf can be assigned to a bed (even nobles)
* Coins are forbidden
* Be aware that nobles are just "optional" and can't feel pain

===Couples only===
* As soon as a married couple exists in your fortress:
** Kill all single dwarves
** Kill all incoming single dwarves
** Try to save children, until they are adult and single

===Dieting Dwarves===
* Exclusively dine on a food type of your choice (meat, fish, plants, alcohol)
* Optionally, forbid alcohol consumption to limit carbohydrate intake
**Note: forbidding alcohol permanently is as good as accepting a slow but continuous fortress death

===Dwarf Liberation Movement===
* Nobles are worthless scum, we give them nothing!
* As soon as possible, cage your expedition leader.
* Never appoint any dwarf into becoming a noble.
* Cage any dwarf that appears on the nobles and administrators screen.
* When your population elects a new mayor, release your old one and cage the new one.
** Bonus : Cage the king and all of his escorts!
** Extra Bonus : Once you have caged all nobles, administrators, the king and his advisor; you must unleash the Dwarf Atom-Smasher upon them.

===Fight for your name===
* Before embarking, randomly generate a fortress name and be sure to know its English translation
* Do the same with your group name
* Creatively designate a serious goal for your fortress, based on these names
* Fanatically reach your goal

===Fort Geneva===
* Lethal traps are forbidden
* Caged sentient creatures are to be considered prisoners of war and treated humanely

Suggested provisions for prisoners: a bed, a personal cell, a commons area, aboveground exercise yard, and the clothes the creature was wearing when captured. For more inspiration, go to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions Geneva Conventions]

===Government in Exile===
* Only Military and Social skills can be purchased and enabled in your entire fortress

All dwarves are either nobles or in the military. The only useful dwarves you'll have will be your broker, manager, mayor, bookkeeper, and dungeon master. If you can survive until the sheriff arrives, transfer your entire military into the fortress guard. With a little luck, and a lot of exported roasts, you too can rule without proletarian interference.

===Hardcore Altruism===
* Do not allow the death of any Dwarf

Though not viscerally entertaining, an incredible challenge. All strange moods must be given what they crave. All medical attention must be done ASAP. Mining, fishing and hunting must be done with much care. Sadness must be met with excellent social skills and quality furniture.

===Industrial Plant===
* Choose one industry that produces commercial goods
* No other industries permitted, only imported

===Johannesfort===
* Find a starting location with a lot of gabbro, containing Kimberlite
* Mine and cut all the diamonds on the map
* Only gems can be traded.

===Sexist Segregation===
* Establish two functioning and stable fortress
* One must be entirely male, the other entirely female
* Married couples are to be processed

===THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA!===
* At least half of your fortress population must be active in the military
* Crossbows and traps are forbidden
* Only spears, swords, wrestling, helmets (helms) and shields may be equipped by military and used to fight
** BONUS: All weapons and armour must be made from bronze
* Civilian dwarves have all labors enabled
** If ever activated, cannot use quality weapons or armor
* Maimed dwarves (perceived to be) incapable of being fully healed must be killed. (This includes incurable spinal injuries in military dwarves!)
* Devise methods of dropping Liaisons down pits during meetings. Yell, "THIS IS SPAARRTAAAAA..." at your monitor.
* Demand goods be turned over from all caravans
* Recreation is forbidden, as well as any 'improving' action, such as smoothing/engraving, or constructing things out of metals what can be done with rock and wood (besides spears, swords and shields)

Note that the above suggestions are modeled on the popular movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film) 300], which was historically inaccurate. For a more "realistic dwarven Sparta", try reading the wiki article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta#Society the real Sparta]

===Mesoamerican Dwarfs===
* All food must be grown above ground, on small plots, surrounded by canals (chinampas)
** BONUS: Flood the farms annually.
* All buildings must be above ground.
* Capture as many of your enemies as possible.
* Build a massive step pyramid at the center of your fortress. Have your champions kill prisoners at the top.
* Surround your fortress with an artificial lake.
** BONUS: Build it in the middle of a natural lake.
* Use only copper or bronze metal (except for iron anvils).
* No weapons except obsidian short swords. Axes are only for wood cutting.
* No armor except leather.
* Demand that all non-dwarf caravans surrender their goods as tribute.

==Megaprojects==
Instead of deliberately inhibiting yourself, create a wonder of the dwarven world that would make the Mountainhomes proud. Be sure to upload it to the [http://mkv25.net/dfma/ Dwarf Fortress Map Archive] when it's finished. More projects can be found where [[Stupid_dwarf_trick|stupid dwarves try crazy tricks]]. [[Mega construction|Incredible feats of construction]] are usually very [[Fun|fun]] so you'll see many different (and probably similar) constructions across the Wiki. Use whatever ideas you think are ingenious.

===Aqueducts===
For some reason, a noble was harmlessly pulling a lever when suddenly, magma flooded the river and exploded the booze! The king requires your band of seven to build a great aqueduct to bring water to the capital. Start with supports, and build up your aqueduct until it is 10 z-levels high!

BONUS: Start over a human town, build a wall around it, pump water through the aqueduct and into it!

===Biodome===
All material, seeds, food, tools, and dwarves must be in the fortress within one year. Then, seal up the entrance. Any new immigrants... well, they might be in trouble. Survive for as long as possible!

No chasms/underground rivers/magma vents allowed.

===Casting===
Who needs to construct giant statues?! We need ours made from natural walls, however, we want it above ground level as well. For casting your goal is to create some giant structure out of natural obsidian walls through the use of an extremely elaborate scaffold of lava and water pools and screw pumps. When you are finished, just deconstruct the scaffolding and smooth/engrave the statue as you go. Just imagine the bridge over that chasm, now complete with two giant dwarf statues on either side to strike fear into all who enter and to show them the power of your fortress.

BONUS: Make the statues spit lava.

===Castle===
Build a castle, greater than anything built by human, elf or dwarf. This is highly time
consuming if you want it to be a good castle. There must be floor indoors, and no underground
constructions except for mining operations and cellars. For an even greater challenge, build
a gigantic tower in the middle, where the nobles stay.

===Ceremonial Sacrifices===
Build an amazingly complex or spectacular killing device. A shaft that extends across the entire Z-plane is a good start. A constantly shifting maze of atomsmasher drawbridges is another. For the minimalist, a very confined space where you will drop a dwarf wrestler along with the gobbos once in a while. Perhaps a waterslide that carries your prisoner all the way down into a chasm? Whatever your idea, build it and dedicate your fort to the construction, maintenance and improvement of your device.

Do not kill any of your invaders. Capture them using cage traps, and them set them off in your device. Keep a record of the number of victims you drop into it.

BONUS: Create a statue garden to memorialize your victims, with one statue per victim. Structure your fortress such that sacrificial victims have to pass through the garden on the way to their demise.

===Computing===
Can your dwarves build the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism Antikythera mechanism]? Can you program the fortress to play tic-tac-toe? More details at [[computing]].

===Colosseum===
Build a pit, around it on steps lots of Thrones, make the whole thing a meeting area, train Gladiators, capture goblins, leave them their weapons and let them fight against your gladiators. If they win, let them go.

===Crematory Fortress===
* Requires a [[magma pipe]] and [[bauxite]].

Build a temple structure above a [[magma pipe]] and [[engrave]] every available surface. The temple should be as opulent as possible. In the temple, build a retracting [[bridge]] over a hole in the floor, and designate a [[coffin]] [[stockpile]] on it. Whenever a dwarf dies, build a [[bauxite]] or other [[magma-proof]] [[coffin]] for him, place it on the [[bridge]], and retract it, committing his body to the [[magma|fiery blood of the mountain]].

::Note: Since coffins are unassigned and emptied when deconstructed and cannot be constructed on top of a bridge, this will not actually work. An alternative would be to place the coffins in individual chambers which can then be flooded with magma afterwards.

::: You could expose the magma pipe, build a one-tile wide floor span across it, and then above that build a support that holds up your temple floor on the z-level above. The temple floor would be separated from the walls of the temple and would be connected for walking access diagonally. The support holds it up. You would have to construct the coffins in the temple, then when someone gets buried you pull the lever attached to the support. You then rebuild the narrow span below, the temple floor, and the support, then link the lever to the new support.
::: You can do this without scaffolding if you build the temple floor access straight in, and then the span below and the support, then once the support is in place you destroy the straight temple access leaving only a diagonal temple access.

===Doomsday Clock===
Build a water or mechanical clock whose final state triggers the support which holds your fortress up or a megabeast out.
See how much wealth you can achieve before the clock runs out.
*Bonus: Create something that resets itself, as well as purging the map, so that you can reuse the same fortress over and over.
*Super-Bonus: Create something that involves pressure plates and a small kitten, when the pressure plates are hit in the right order, your map ends. Toss the kitten in and hope for the best. Alternatively, make the sequence quite unlikely, but add 2 kittens; breeding introduces a probability of doomsday that is a function of time (depending on the mechanisms involved)
*Super-Bonus: Create the super-bonus above, but place the kitten on the lowest Z-level and never return to either look at it or see how many of the conditions for the doomsday device have been met. This way, the kitty mimicks Schrodinger's cat: we cannot observe the state of the kitty, but we can infer it from the state of the world (spin-pairs effectively).

===Dwarf like an Egyptian===
*Build a pyramid of epic proportion.

Build a legendary dwarven pyramid, with a corridor running to a central tomb for your favourite noble. Then construct lots of different [[traps]] in it to avoid grave robbery. Perhaps build it entirely out of glass? Or try to make the top twist in a bit of a swirl. Alternatively, make your entire fortress inside a pyramid, which stretches below the ground.

*Build rows of Obelisks

Build a double row of Obelisks before the Pyramid, and engrave the sides. Build ramps on the tops.

*Build the whole thing upside down.
** And then another one on the upside-down one.

*When the time has come, or when your fortress is about to be destroyed by a siege etc perform the ceremony to translate the mortal form of the noble to the underworld. Give him a ritual death, and make sure you kill his servants as well. If the tomb is built for your king make every dwarf die but one, who inters everyone into their resting place. His final act will be to pull a level that seals the tomb as well as kills him. Then enjoy going back and reclaiming your fortress to observe your efforts.

===Graveyard Master===
Every dwarf deserves a decent resting place:
*Build a tomb for ever dwarf that dies, the more dwarves you manage to bury the better.
*Tombs must be rooms with exactly 5x5 of size and 1 of height, with only one entrance tile that must be closed by a door.
*Tombs must have all its surfaces engraved.
*Tomb must contain at least 4 statues.
*Once complete, the door must be locked and the tomb must not be ever entered again.

===How high can you go?===
Construction, construction, construction! Just how big a tower can you build? Out of glass maybe, clear glass? Steel? Pump water to the top? Make your tower a ''pinnacle'' of achievement and stun humans, elves and goblins alike - for they know nothing of construction and engineering like dwarves do!

===Land battleship===
Turn your mountain into a huge battle-station, complete with crew quarters, decks, command centre, cantina, and a large collection of deadly weapons : Batteries of marksdwarves, ballista cannons, catapults, boarding bridges and -teams, but also lava projector or remote explosive devices (ie cave-ins in a part of the map triggered by a lever). Make sure it ends up looking like a real battleship, with nothing but plains surrounding it (you could build it on an actual plain, or destroy a mountain, choice is yours). The battleship has to be autonomous, and dwarves shouldn't wander outside it.

*Bonus: The weaponry covers every tile of the map (i.e., everything that enters the map can be shot)
*Bonus: Build several other ships, maybe dedicated to a specific product (food, ammo etc.)
**Bonus: Find a way to let them fight each other in a naval battle
*Bonus: Each crew member has a civil and military formation, and when the enemy arrives, stop every economic activity. All hands to quarters !
*Mega Bonus: After building your Ship(s), flood the surrounding countryside.

===Moria===
Build a huge hall - at least 3 z-levels high. Leave few pillars symmetrically placed in the hall (don't build them, carve them out). Smooth and possibly engrave everything (not only the lowest z-level!). Then build thin bridge (not the bridge building, just a thin piece of rock to walk on) above magma - support it with bauxite supports connected to a lever (bauxite mechanisms needed in support). Destroy stone holding it at the both ends and replace it with floor hatches (so when you pull the lever it all goes down). After that build a bridge above the chasm.
When it's all done seal your dwarves deep inside in safe place and get invaded by goblins. At the same time dig out HFS. Lead the HFS across the both bridges and then collapse the second one when one of the champions clashes with it (it doesn't matter that the champion has killed the HFS with one hit).

===Mountain audit/core sample===
Start in a mountainous area and strip mine everything down, down, down to ground level. Stockpile everything, and calculate the mountain's composition. For kicks, try not excavating one tile on each z-level. You'll be left with one enormous core sample.

===Project Mayhem===

*You do not talk about project Mayhem
*Build a series of towers, at least 10 z-levels high, of different size and shape. They must be supported by a series of supports linked to a lever.
*Store all your riches in the towers : crafts, precious metal bars, gems, artifacts, everything. You may also want to house your nobles on top of the towers.
*Pull the lever and watch the collapse of financial history.

Bonus : make the towers' walls out of glass!

Bonus : Make soap! And remember, human fat is ideal...

===Santa Claus===
Get ten thousand toys built and offered to caravans yearly. Optionally, build ten thousand toys, fetch them in adventure mode and deliver them to every single city of the world.

===Skull collector===
What proves the might of a civilization better than a hall full of skulls?
*Try to collect as many skulls as you can during your fortress life, and put then in a special skulls-only storage. The more skulls the better.

BONUS: Cover all the skulls in blood, and make the stockpile also a throne room.
SUPERBONUS: Also fill the throne room with kittens.

===Space Ship===
Create a giant space ship fit for space travel. It should be able to hold about 100 dwarves for at least 2 years.

*BONUS: Use exploding [[booze]] as ignitable fuel.
*BONUS: Make a removable [[ramp]] for boarding.
*BONUS: Make the [[water]] for the 2 years be on the ship using removable pumps.
*BONUS+: Make it totally self sufficient. (Make an internal system which pumps the [[water]] supply through a room every few years to muddy the floor. Plant [[seed|seeds]] in the [[mud]] that's now on the floor. Manage your consumption to maintain self sufficiency.)
*Modding BONUS: Mod the game so that merchants can fly their new wagonships into your docking bays. ''(If possible)''
*BONUS+: Make it all out of [[steel]].
*[[fun|FUN]]: Let it be held by a single [[support]], ignite the [[booze]], remove the support an let it "fly".
*EVEN BETTER: Drop it down a chasm.
*More [[fun|FUN]]: Set up a mining operation on the surface and dig into the HFS. Watch the alien creatures take over your ship and hunt down your dwarves. Form a squad of heroes to overload the booze reactor to prevent the aliens from reaching earth. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Space_%28video_game%29 Dead Space] and/or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28film%29 the Alien series])

===Swiss Precision===
Build a working clock. The clock should accurately track DF days, months, and years.

Bonus Points:
*If the clock has a mechanical effect in the fortress proper to announce new days
*If the clock creates seasonally appropriate effects at the change of months and/or seasons.
*If the clock is used to aid in the operation of the fortress in addition to its role as a clock (automatically controls farmland irrigation at particular times, automatically opens the <s>blast doors</s> <s>floodgates</s> Magma Channels in time for merchants, etc...).
*If the clock governs the schedule of a working rail station (which is always on time). (Definitions of 'working' and 'rail station' are subject to player imagination).
*If the clock takes measures to protect itself. ''"I can't let you do that, Urist."''

But don't worry about the bonus points, a precision time device should be hard enough.

===Temple===
Designing a temple to Armok. Aesthetics count - the god will be very angry if there are no stained-glass windows and domed ceilings carved with frescoes. To gain more favor, make regular sacrifices and keep the fountains and rivers red with [[blood]].

===The cube===
Play a fort as usual, but emphasize catching goblins in cages to support and fill this construction:
Construct a series of rooms in a symmetrical fashion, all connected to each other with appropriate doors. Of course, enough rooms to make a maze-like structure, and if you feel like it, an exit that is hard to reach. Fill a bunch of the rooms with traps and pressureplates. Then fill one room with 4-6 goblins (preferably in cages, opened by an outside lever), release them and watch them randomly walk around the rooms dying to traps and whatnots.

*Bonus: Do multiple story maze (3d-maze)
*Bonus: Use pressureplates to open/close the exit randomly; otherwise, all the goblins will just follow the shortest route to the exit.

===The great brewery===
Disaster has struck the kingdom. A strangely glowing [[Fire|‼]]<nowiki></nowiki>peasant[[Fire|‼]] visited the greatest brewery of the empire, and as a result the whole thing exploded. No time for weeping — create its successor, a fort dedicated to alcohol production, and get the alcohol supplies flowing! Try to make the widest variety possible, and give or trade it to the dwarven [[caravan]] each year.

===The Great Wall of Urist===
Build a dwarven great wall of china that splits the map in half. Must be at least 10 tiles thick and reach the highest z-level.
* BONUS: Make it block the <s>mongols</s> goblins out of your half of the map.
* BONUS: Make it out of obsidian.
**BONUS+: Embark on a map without obsidian.
* BONUS: Find a way to make it touch the boundaries.
* BONUS: Build one gate
* BONUS: Arm it with ballistas.

===The Monolith===
As the inevitability of a fortress-wide mental breakdown looms over every single fortress why not have something that alludes to that precipice of [[insanity]]. Like the book and feature film, 2001: A Space Odyssey you must have a Monolith. This has to be made from [[obsidian]] and have a completely smooth surface (You cannot build it from blocks) You can have it be any size as long as it is outside, at least 2 tiles thick to ensure there are no pillar tiles, and has about the same ratio of width to height as it does in the movie (1:4:9) to make it as close to the real thing as possible. It would be preferable to make it large so that it seems to be dominating the landscape and your dwarves' psyche. The bigger the better.

*If the rock obsidian strata isn't deep enough in parts to make a monolith feasible consider casting a monolith with a large rectangular block in the exact same dimensional criteria as above.

===Statue of greatness===
Build a giant statue, spanning 10-20 z-levels and make it in the shape of say, a dwarf you like or an animal you like.
* Bonus: make it in the shape of a teapot that has a working boiling system and a spout that water can come out of.

===Underwater fortress===
Encase your entire fortress in [[water]]! Your fortress should be watersealed: surrounded by water against all [[wall]]s and the top of the fortress.
* Bonus: Build all water-touching walls/roof in clear glass!
* Bonus: Use [[magma]] instead of water!
* Bonus: Build it in the [[ocean]] or a non-freezing lake
* Bonus: Build large glass domes that encase the fortress. A dome 20 tiles wide should be 20 z-levels tall. Which may be hard to cover in water.
** NOTE: Actually, a dome 20 tiles wide should be 10 tiles tall, or less, since the steepest dome will be only semi-spherical, and most domes will start out at an angle anyway.
* Bonus: Have a mechanism for dropping your enemies into the water to drown! Or fill the water with carp.
* Mod: Make your dwarves amphibious and include airlocks between the wet fortress and the dry.
* Remake: Make Rapture city from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshock Bioshock]

===Wealth===
The kingdom's coffers need lining, so hop to! Found a fort and start accumulating wealth as fast as possible. Attain as high a fortress value as possible, and make most of your wealth into coins for the vault. Try to beat your record for one year, two years, or five years.

===World Domination===
Pretend you are an evil mastermind. Now come up with some device or machine to render the world (or at least your portion of the map) totally unlivable, aside from, of course, your hidden lair.

You will receive bonus points for making a more realistic World Domination setup. Some suggestions:

* Make one dwarf the evil mastermind. The evil mastermind will have no empathy whatsoever, and they will hate all other races, and put no value on their lives. Protect him at all cost. If he should die, switch his position to his oldest child (who will avenge his father, also insanity is hereditary.) or the most insane, diabolical dwarf in your fort.
* Impractical, overkill solutions to everyday problems ("Sir, the dungeon master wants a better room" "Well then turn his room into a tomb and flood it with magma, and do not bother me with such trivial matters again or I will have you shot.")
* Give the evil mastermind a pet to obsess over. Give it a name like Mr. Bigglesworth or Snuggles.
* Have a science lab. Use living creatures and people as test subjects.

Doomsday device suggestions:
* Flood the map with water/magma (may require building walls around the edge of the map)
**BONUS: the water has carp in it.
* Build an "Earthquake Machine" (the entire map is supported by a single support, which is connected to a lever)
* Build an extensive holding cell network for "scientific purposes". Fill it with megabeasts and <s>elephants</s> unicorns in secret. Have a lever that lets everything free to feed on the general population.
* Embark in an evil area, and capture and tame all those undead animals if possible to create your own undead army
* Bonus: Eliminate the dwarves who constructed your device before you set it off. They must not be allowed to warn the rest of the citizens.
* Build an orbital weapons platform in space (which should be 12-15 stories above the ground, use your imagination), then arm it with magma bombs (droppable tank of magma) to glass the planet, rendering it uninhabitable for a few years.
* You can also recreate the most evil society in history and try a Nazi-dwarf concentration camp.


[[Category:Guides]]

=== The Grand Treasury ===
At first, have the king come to you. Then excavate a laaarge room and fill it with i.e.: Lots of coins, shiny gems, artifacts, golden statues, silver mugs, etc. pp. But the king is still not satisfied with his possessions, so he wants more and more shiny and sparky things.
Of course sooner or later (probably sooner) those filthy kobolds and goblins will come and try to steal this enormous hoard. We must never tolerate this! Turn your treasury into a strongroom like the world has never seen before! Secret doors, traps in abundance, guards at every door, ballistae, guard dogs, the whole program. If anything gets lost, you have proven your incompetence, and the king will have your fortress abandoned and founded another to guard his treasures.

*Bonus: Build up the treasury and raid it successfully in Adventure Mode

=== Heaven ===
Build a dwarven version of heaven. Every dwarf must want to come to you! Important pieces:
# Streets paved with gold.
# The mindless hordes are held back by pearly gates -- or at least a close equivalent. Marble doors with diamond encrustations.
# No dwarves die (except for criminals). Heaven is everlasting.
# All criminals must be cast into the fires of Hell. Ideally, this would either be HFS or the bottom of a magma pipe.
# Nothing is ever stolen. St. Peter doesn't screw up.
# After the King has arrived, any male children he has must be sent out to fight sieges alone.

BONUS: No dwarves are ever unhappy -- no tantrums and no insanity. 
BONUS: When migrants arrive at the pearly gates, view their thoughts and preferences and only allow those with a similar/same Diety as your population. 
BONUS: Make Heaven 10 stories above the ground 
Mod: Make Angel dwarves and a godly being. (suggestions: Cacame, Morul, Ironblood.) 
ULTRABONUS: Make Heaven in the air, an earthly society on the ground (a wooden town perhaps?), and carve the HFS place into Hell, complete with a lake of Magma/fire.Look up the character of every dwarf and send him to the appropriate place. 
MEGABONUS-(Re)Make: The Seven Seals have been broken and the Apocalypse arrives.
# The Sky darkens (an obsidian ceiling spanning over the map).
# Meteors (opened lava tanks and cave-ins) devastate the earth.
# All bodies of water turn bloody.
# Dig into the HFS and have a battle between Heaven and Hell. 

=== City of Ember ===
Show those filthy humans that when dwarves build a secret underground refuge, they build to last! In other words, recreate Ember from the film "City of Ember" (yes, everyone is aware there is a book), but do it right - none of these leaking pipes and crumbling buildings stuff, after only two and a half centuries underground!
# Mine out a massive cavern multiple z-layers high , and build a human-style city underneath it instead of carving out various chambers.
# You must seal it off. How long you wait to do this is up to you, but once it is sealed, you cannot unseal it for at least 200 years (if you decide to play that long). Ideally, use a utility to embark with a full set of dwarves (to represent the immigrating population) and seal the city off within one year of embarking.
# Build individual houses with their own dining rooms and bedrooms. Multiple dwarves can live in one house, but usually only a single family will live in one house.
# Build streets connecting all of the buildings, in the way that in the film, Ember didn't really have any space that wasn't either paved or built on until you got to the outskirts of the city.
# Have a "greenhouse" out on the outskirts for farming.
# You MUST have an underground river and use it for power.
# You MUST have magma and use it for power.
# Build City Hall, where the mayor has his office, with a nice fountain out front that actually works (probably involving water pressure, and as a testament to the fact that dwarves do it better, and their underground refuge isn't running desperately short of food, water, or power).
# No military, because there is simply no need for one, but have a fortress guard (to function as police, basically).
# After 200 or more years, unseal the city and colonize the surface.

BONUS: Instead of building your houses/other structures out of blocks or rocks, plan it all out beforehand and simply don't dig out the tiles that you want to be the walls of buildings, and smooth it all down so it looks the same, but your buildings are actually made out of solid natural rock. 
BONUS: Actually cause some kind of catastrophe on the surface (flood it with magma or something) that makes it uninhabitable, to FORCE yourself to stay underground, but when you unseal the city after 200 years, the surface should have healed and be habitable again. So, don't do something permanent.