Don't forget that you can smooth and then carve a fortification instead of mining directly. The fortification would allow you to see what's behind the wall without freeing a demon on your miner
For a better selection you could use dfhack military sorting to find best suited candidates. It shows which dwarves have higher chances to win any kind of battle considering their attribute caps.
I think the best one I experienced was short but quite good. Not sure how common this is but one time i was besieged and had sent out my military to deal with it, nothing unusual. One of my humans, however, upon encountering a dwarf, both it and the dwarf immediately dropped their weapons and they both just started biting each other??? including once on the tounge and teeth?????? I'm not sure what advanced battle techniques this human had come up with but it worked and the dwarf was defeated. I was in such disbelief of just what on earth I had just witnessed.
Jabberer breeding program c'mon! I always wanted to get my civ to be knowledgeable in some sort of rare cavern monster. Is it possible to move the knowledge about a single Creature to "Domesticated"?
A fortress like this doesn't seem quite feature complete without a ravine spanning walkway of courage (filled with stonefall traps) to welcome visitors and invaders. I'm tempted to give it a try, I think I've seen similar ravines in most of the worlds I've generated.
I dropped a dwarf at least 12 z-levels once during one of my constructions. Guy walked it off like a champ, idk if the 3/7 water he fell into padded the fall? lol.
i've always had a very "zoomer" taste in games; the only reason i picked up dwarf fortress was because its such a big piece of history, i couldn't NOT try it! well I'm on my fourth fort, the first three ending in fiasco (i.e. paving over engravings to put in nice flooring causing the engraver to stab my unemployed haulers, or forgetting to activate the "children" burrow during a siege and moods plummeting to levels i dont think i could recover from), and the weird and wacky stories are fun and all... but I really just found myself reading through each dwarf's life, values, and needs, getting to know my little civilization just enough to get attached enough to where I watch Urdim Urzbsdbfsdhfsdfsduiwsjdfkskfj- who valued sacrifice for others- 1v1 a firebreathing forgotten beast just long enough for my citizens to reach the burrows, crippling it before perishing, and allowing my less skilled force to finish the job. Of course, not before one child bravely rushed out to get bravely turned into ash, and now lies in a permanently smoking coffin for some reason. It felt write to dedicate a few minutes crafting a little golden tomb for my fort's brave hero. it just feels nice to see little stories unfold as you chip away at the micromanagement. you best believe i'm holding the fortnite sesh back just long enough to make sure my depressed carpenter gets the martial training he needs, or my nobles properly cared for.
i think my favorite dwarves are the ones who take to a crutch, but dont let a disability get in the way of their work, martial prowess, or life in general, and knowing the nice hospital i set up and supplied for them is keeping their QoL high. maybe im developing some sort of maternal psychosis for these virtual dwarves
I'll never forget the time I read the combat log for a kea that was stealing my jewels. No one had sharp weapons so they were just crippling the fuck out of it. Broken wings and legs, crawling along the floor in a desperate attempt to escape while two different dwarf civilians grab it by the throat and the toe and fling that fucker into a wall. Had to smith an axe and start a militia just to put the fucking thing out of its misery while it tried to crawl away outside the fortress.
Mine have had a few seasons without alcohol. Occasionally cook all the plump helmets, or struggle to irrigate some farms before running out of the start supply I embark with.
It’s refreshing to see how many creators (you included) don’t frame dwarf deaths as failures where so many games are about keeping your individuals safe, this game can be brutal really fast and it’s cool to see how you can still manage to pull it off through hardships. I’ve not had much success on the wild biomes but I’m hoping to try one next time! Thanks for the videos and ideas!
To avoid the constant stings, generally the best solution is to create a separate room for the bees with the only connection to the brewery, the kitchen and maybe a craft's workshop for some wax craft. That way stings are solved. That way you can keep a separate stockpile for honey, royal jelly and wax as well. Also due to the multi task nature of the game, you can end up with huge stockpiles, meaning you can have a lot more mead for more residents.
Imagine some god wiping out Earth because our numbers were so large it was lagging reality and he wanted to watch some civilization elsewere fail uninterrupted.
Couldn't you recruit a bunch of sellswords and get them to die with honor protecting you? Maybe it's hard to recruit more when the first batch turn up slightly blue....
