Oooooh, magmaaaaa.

I've actually never been able to find a volcano before. I kept trying to set up a little self-sufficient outpost right above the magma sea to get the metal industry going. ):

Wtf that embark is godly. Flux, sand, volcano... we don't even need to mine iron ore, we can just process the goblinite.

I would ask to join in, but I think that would be far too much fun for me.

The saga of Oilfurnace.

http://www.timdenee.com/oilfurnace/

Ha! That was great, do you have anymore?

I recently downloaded and began playing DF for the first time. Thus far, I've just been goofing around on adventure mode. Dying, mostly. I am thinking of investing some time to play the actual game... can you declare war on the fluffy little elves and humans?

No, but you can anger them enough that they declare war on you.

Excellent! I look forward to caging those elves, as payback for being so damned elusive in adventure mode. Perhaps we'll have a circus of sorts.

Do any of you have any tips at finding a good place to set up?

After reading/watching hours of tutorials abandoning half a dozen fortresses, I think I have a pretty good idea. Ideally, you want a location with non-aquifer access to fresh water, a couple layers of soil (sand, loam, etc) for farming, an abundance of accessible stone, and a mineral that contains iron.

Or, you could do what I did, and roll in the middle of a scorching black desert without a drop of water and barely enough wood for a cage and milk camels to survive. Until the goblins come.

The Torchtombs site is really really good - volcano, sedimentary stone, flux stone, and a brook.

and sand

Ok, I have a couple of questions myself.

Before rolling my last fortress, the status screen said that there would be an aquifer in my location. I scoured the first couple layers beneath desert for it with hopes of building a well and sustaining my stalwart band of desert dwarves, but all they found was a giant cavern with some crummy adamantite... >_> Is there any way to tell, even approximately, which level the aquifer is on from the status screen? It appears as though they are "paired" with different mineral layers on that screen, and so I assumed that since this one was paired with the sand at the top, it would be a relatively easy task.

Also, is it possible to have dwarves simply relocate the mess of barrels sitting where the caravan was? When I designate a stockpile for food, they seem to remove everything from the barrels and just toss it there on the ground, and they never move the alcohol or miscellaneous materials, leaving me with a disordered heap of crap right where I want to build my tower.

Thanks.

The embark screen places the blue wavy ~ icons right next to the layer where the aquifer will be. My guess is that your embark site had at least two biomes, one of which lacked an aquifer layer and you digged right through that part of the map. Since aquifers tend to be located on soil layers, I would recommend to dig horizontally through the upper soil layers of the site to find it.



No idea, never happened to me. Try deconstructing the cart before designating the stockpiles?

Your stockpiles may not allow enough barrels, either. Check that.

You were both spot-on, and I appreciate it. All I had needed to do was change the stockpile prefs and dig around a little more. I'd say "you're life-savers," but, alas..

Successfully defended against my first goblin siege. Unfortunately one of my dwarves died in battle.

How long was it before your first siege, and how many of the yrtchy invaders did you have to deal with?






And here's an interesting anomaly:



Ignore the world map, it's wrong. In actuality, there are two distinct continents (east and west) which are connected by a single diagonal square near the lone pine tree square in the north. Unfortunately, all of the civilizations on the eastern continents are far to the south, with a vast wilderness and harpy-infested wasteland between them and this land bridge. The solid, southern mass of this would-be Pangaea on the other hand, is divided by three inland oceans, each connected by straights like the the one pictured in the local view.

Now, if I build a fortress at the point in the local view (or thereabouts, and enlarge the local area), will it be possible for me to bridge these two continents, thus allowing my adventurers to travel (relatively) safely into the eastern hemisphere, for honor and elasticity?

I have my first irrigation system that doesn't rely on buckets.

Ohhh... tell me, did you use a river, or a body of still water?