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[Jimmy]

So you consider migrants arriving as traders part of the vanilla challenge? Because unless you allow fixmigrant from DFHack, they choke the migrant flows. I had my first spring migrant wave in year 2 blocked by one, and when he finally decided to move, another came right behind him. It's obviously a bug, so why not allow us to use the fix?

[vjek]

Precedence is the first pebble in the avalanche of rationalization?   

Not sure what you're looking for here.  The challenge is what it is.  There's plenty of other challenges, and some with no rules or far more flexible guidelines.  In fact, anyone that has a problem with this challenge is free to make their own DFHack-friendly-Monarch challenge.  It's only a click away.  Go forth, create!

As I've mentioned several times in the thread now, if the choice is between making an exception or having a level playing field, I choose the level playing field, for this challenge.

[MasterShizzle]

As I've mentioned several times in the thread now, if the choice is between making an exception or having a level playing field, I choose the level playing field, for this challenge.

Hear, hear! DFHack is unnecessary. After all, there are plenty of bugs in games like Super Metroid, but you don't see top-level speed runners using a Game Genie to correct them or anything. They'd be torn apart by the community at large.

Even if the bugs are a disadvantage, at least they're the same disadvantage that everyone else has. I'm fully on board with this.

[JAFANZ]

I was already using the patched exe disapproved of upthread, so between that & the situations with coal (civ-side), hippies, & humans, I'm out.

Still, I learned some things, thanks.

[Tirion]

I was already using the patched exe disapproved of upthread, so between that & the situations with coal (civ-side), hippies, & humans, I'm out.

Still, I learned some things, thanks.

Ditto, along with use of dfhack to deal with the bugged trader migrants. Minus the coal, I managed to set up a very good tree farm quite early, but the lack of water got some of my military killed.

[wierd]

I examined the start save, and this is a terrible and unnatural embark.

(Also very tiny from what I am used to.... will be.... restrictive.)

Anyhow, I will begin in earnest this weekend. The availability of a clay layer opens a couple cheap-move prospects for heavy construction efforts, even with braindead starting 7 like this.

Especially since the clay is below the ground, and doesn't grow funk on top.

*edit

The initial page of the challenge says nothing about weather, tempurature, or invaders init settings. Am I to presume that these MUST be ON?

[vjek]

heheh. Yep. default/vanilla are the rules, as per the first post.  Fear not, weather, temperature, and invaders at default will not prevent you from getting a monarch, with this save.  It's a perfectly viable embark.  It just requires using what is available as best you can.

[wierd]

Oh, the clay layer is almost cheating for me. I abuse the shit out of clay already. Clay is nearly OP in my opinion.  One boulder for a kiln, (doesn't even really need wood) and you can churn out unlimited "clay boulders" to make constructed surface walls with.

Trains mason skill and pottery skill like crazy, and stone crafts can be made from unfired clay. Unfired clay can also be cut into cabochons for training up gemcutter. (And the gems make good kinetic weapons.)

I don't care that the surface portion of the fortess will be made of crap materials: its free and abundant.

[Jimmy]

Couple of things to note for anyone playing this map:

The embark is 3x2 on a warm calm rocky wasteland, zero water, plants or wood on surface. No links to humans or elves either, so only one caravan per year.

Sand and clay are both present, as well as plenty of flux and iron ore from the start.

You won't have access to aluminum, bismuth, gold, lead, nickel or tin unless you dig it up yourself. Alloys of these are still available from traders, eg. bronze.

Traders can be asked to bring two types of precious gems, rubies and sapphires, and two types of rare gems, star rubies and star sapphires.

Overall the goblins are underwhelming. I've already got a hundred dwarves and not even one ambush in three years.

[Bot Hack]

You got me man. I coulda sworn I was destined myself to fail, but a Monarch I shall have!

[adamantinespork]

Overall the goblins are underwhelming. I've already got a hundred dwarves and not even one ambush in three years.

You haven't seen any gobbos at all? That is odd. I remember thinking it was taking them awhile right before they hit, so maybe they are close. I'm getting my second siege now, but I'm on year 354 - early summer. About thirty goblins riding giant toads and olms. I was hoping they would kill these two bugged out traders, but they are just chasing them around in circles! Not a single crossbow wielding goblin.. Nice, they finally got one of them,!

[Jimmy]

Yeah, I finally got a siege. First one was in spring so I just shut the gate and let them leave. The second one I decided to save the bugged out trader and killed about half their units to drive them off.

I'm currently in Spring of 355, 154 dwarves in the fortress. My nobles screen is now displaying the requirements for becoming the Capital. I'll dump some offerings in the caravan when it arrives, wait for the king to show up and then upload the save as my submission.

[vjek]

Yeah, I finally got a siege. First one was in spring so I just shut the gate and let them leave. The second one I decided to save the bugged out trader and killed about half their units to drive them off.

I'm currently in Spring of 355, 154 dwarves in the fortress. My nobles screen is now displaying the requirements for becoming the Capital. I'll dump some offerings in the caravan when it arrives, wait for the king to show up and then upload the save as my submission.

Nice, Jimmy!

Looking forward to seeing a winning result.

[Jimmy]

Challenge Started: 1st Granite, 351.
Challenge Completed: 12th Slate, 356.
Total: 5 years, 1 month, 11 days.

Spoiler: Screenshot or it didn't happen (click to show/hide)

Save File Download

Dwarf Fortress Map Archive

Notes:

1. Quite liked the map. I usually play on flat surface areas so this was nice. The size would have been better for me if it was 3x3 as my fortress design uses bedroom clusters on each burrow to house the population. Having a 2 vertical embark prevented me from using this design as I normally would, but it's good enough.

2. All seven starting dwarves are still alive. In fact, part of the challenge I gave myself was to avoid any dwarf deaths including merchants and bugged immigrants. I'm happy to report I succeeded in this despite multiple goblin sieges. No unit in the fortress was ever in danger or wounded. I did intentionally smash one immigrant's pet cat out of existence due to personal hatred of their habits.

3. There's no military. All enemies killed were done so using atom smasher bridges. Since my goal was to get a monarch as quickly as possible and this wasn't restricted from the tools I could use, I decided to build a simple death corridor into my fortress and squash enemies that came inside.

4. No modifications were made to the game as per rules. A fresh copy of v0.34.11 was downloaded and used to ensure a pure vanilla game was played. The only third party tool used was Dwarf Therapist.

5. I don't know if it's possible to get a monarch earlier than this date since as far as I can tell I progressed in fortress size each year until City before attracting the Queen. Note that while the wiki says you need to be a Metropolis before becoming a Mountainhome I didn't reach this rank before the Queen arrived. Guess the wiki's wrong on this one.

6. My full fortress is available for view at the Dwarf Fortress Map Archive link above with points of interest noted. I never breached the first cavern layer but wood wasn't an issue for me. I didn't use stone pots either since the caravan brings more barrels than anyone could need. Lack of fuel meant metalworking was minimal but I did produce three artifacts: a steel battle axe and two steel shields.

[vjek]

I like that layout, the design is minimal, artistic and functional.     Really well done, you should pat yourself on the back!

Jimmy's submission meets the criteria for being a winner of this challenge.  If there are no other submissions, this will be THE winning save.

The deadline for submissions, as per the original post, is Thursday, January 17, 2013, 11:59pm, MDT.