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 2500 blocks in the small keep area so far, and I started with 2 masons (currently 7) making blocks non-stop. I set 21 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
w+++++++w
d+>+++>+d
d++<+<++d
w+++++++w
d++<+<++d
d+>+++>+d
w+++++++w
wwddwddww

(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
w>++++w.........wwwww.....wwwww.........w++++>w
w+++++wwwwww>+owDDDwo+>wwwwww+++++w
w+++++d..........w+++w......w+++w.........d+++++w
w+++++wwwwww+++wPPPw+++wwwwww+++++w
w+++++d..........wwdww......wwdww.........d+++++w
wwwwwdw.............................................wdwwwww

(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. The whole thing is about 2500 blocks.

The foundation is laid for the outer wall at this time; circumference 10 circular walls for the corner towers, 5x5 wall towers, and 7x7 gate towers (with a semi circle at the front for a total of 7x10). 5 wide drawbridge and portcullis, and a 5 wide moat are planned. The moat will be 2 layers deep, I'm having a new miner dig through the first level, the soil, so he can get to legendary so he won't waste stone later. My other legendary miner has perfect stats, so he's just a hauler/soldier now. I am going to dig out the second layer, and have one support holding up the entire 'ceiling' to the moat; I will channel out the top to avoid dwarves trapping each other, then pull the lever and have an 85x85 ring fall out to finish the moat.

Still wondering if I should put traps in the gatehouse, between the drawbridge and the portcullis. Since military dwarves can't pull levers, not sure how useful this would be unless they were far inside...

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.