Editing User:Gotthard

== Castles ==


I'm currently experimenting with making castles; one of my current fortresses is on a biome with all obsidian/chalk and hematite.  I've got about 1700 blocks in the small keep area so far, and I started with 2 masons (currently 4) making blocks non-stop.  I set 12 more people to have masonry on, but don't let them make any of the blocks so they just put the stones in for me.  I suppose I could have just made it directly out of stone, but then it wouldn't be *smooth* castle walls, now would they?

There is a central keep over the main entrance to my underground areas~

wwddwddww<br />
w+++++++w<br />
d+>+++>+d<br />
d++<+<++d<br />
w+++++++w<br />
d++<+<++d<br />
d+>+++>+d<br />
w+++++++w<br />
wwddwddww<br />

(d=door, w=wall, +=floor, <=stairs down, >=stairs up)

The keep is currently 9 levels high, and the second and third floors are a small barracks and armory respectively.  The third level has fortifications for shooting (not that z-level shooting is hopefully fixed) and the fourth level is a small shooting gallery to practice.  The fifth level has more fortifications, and the planned sixth level is another barracks/armory, with the 9th level possibly having siege equipment.  As for 7 and 8?  Who knows.  Maybe a ballista practicing ranging with a target/pit to recycle the large bolts below, or pumps to get the soldiers training.

Surrounding the central keep is a series of walls and 4 towers, with gatehouses:

wwwwwww............................................wwwwwww<br />
w>++++w.........wwwww.....wwwww.........w++++>w<br />
w+++++wwwwww>+owDDDwo+>wwwwww+++++w<br />
w+++++d..........w+++w......w+++w.........d+++++w<br />
w+++++wwwwww+++wPPPw+++wwwwww+++++w<br />
w+++++d..........wwdww......wwdww.........d+++++w<br />
wwwwwdw.............................................wdwwwww<br />

(This is replicated around the entire keep area)
(d=door, D=steel door, P=vertical steel bars for portcullis, w=wall, +=floor, >=up stairs, o=lever)

The walls go up to two more levels, and the third level is only one wide fortifications, with the other side floors to enable shooting off the walls.  The corner towers are currently 6 high, with small barracks and ammunition storage for the archers.  The gate towers are 5 high, and mostly contain small shooting places and barracks for soldiers, and more ammo.  The left lever opens the portcullis, the right lever the steel doors.

I have some preliminary plans for the outer wall, and roads (in white stone) going to every inner and outer wall tower location.  I think the moat will be 5 wide, fed off a small brook on the edge of the map.  The outer wall turrets will be circular, 11 wide, with small wall towers before the large 7x7 gate towers supporting a 5 wide drawbridge on every side.  My very preliminarey calculations say this will take the inner wall and keep around 2000-2200 blocks, and the outer wall area another 10k-12k, so this is still a large work in progress.  I'm having problems with it crashing, I wonder if I have too many items?  Playing the map with 60 dwarves at 5 FPS is becoming a chore, perhaps I will try a more abandoned map without lava, water, and creatures and try again.  I have to let it run for 30 min, and come back to place 50 blocks, and then wait another 50 min.  You'd think a 3.4ghz would be enough to run this, ah well.

== Utilities ==

I'm working at making a small script to autoplace towers/walls/floors in certain dimensions.  You'll be able to save the 'floor plan' in a config file, and load it out as you wish.  
{Update}
It seems to work alright, although the testing on multiple levels is continuing, and the material issue is still annoying.  Also, for those hard to reach corners, or areas where masons might trap themselves, it's better to do by hand.  I've temporarily solved the material issue by having a stockpile with the material I want close to the work site, although this can be time consuming without a lot of free labor.  I'm wondering if this could be useful for placing mining tiles... just to put a floor plan in anyway.  Is there any demand for something like this?  It's mostly just something I do to pass the time while my slow-ass game places more blocks.

Why autohotkey by the way?  www.autoit3.com is the only thing I use.