v0.31:Stonegears/Construction

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In this part of the tutorial we're going to build a small and incomplete portion of the surface defense of your fortress. By default you need no defense in the tutorial game, since the INVADERS option‡ is set to NO, and the annoying Template:Ls have been removed. However, even if you don't plan on turning INVADERS to YES, you should still go through with this section, since a drawbridge and lever used in the next section of the tutorial, and you'll be using the other commands demonstrated in other games. If you do plan on turning on the INVADERS options, see the Template:L and Template:L articles, since dealing with invasions is currently beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Masonry labor

To get things done more quickly, turn on masonry labor for some (or all) of the migrants, either with Dwarf Therapist or in the game via v-p-L (architecture is under the Stoneworking labor group).

Drawbridge

We're going to put a Template:L north of your wagon. To place a drawbridge use b-g, x to make it raise to the south, k-k to make it three tiles wide west-east, use the arrow keys to position it, Enter to place it, - and + to scroll through the list of materials to make it from, and Enter to select the material. This will leave a blinking bridge, to indicate that it hasn't been built yet:

SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER

If you interact (q) with the to-be-built bridge you'll note it says Needs Architecture. Building some things requires the Template:L labor. Architecture only increases the value of the resulting building, so the only practical effect is that you have to have one or more dwarves with the architecture labor turned on, or buildings needing architecture will never be built. Turn on architecture labor for some of the migrants (architecture is under the Other Jobs labor group) and let them build.

Levers and mechanisms

When the bridge is complete it will be in the down (usable) position. To make is draw up you have to connect it to a Template:L, which requires Template:Ls. You might have gotten a Template:L among your migrants. If not, turn on the Mechanics labor (under the Engineering labor group). Go to the level with the masonry and carpentry workshops and add a Template:L (b-w-t). When it's done, interact with it (q) and add three Construct Mechanism tasks (a-t three times). Your mechanic will carve three mechanisms out of three chunks of rock.

Now that you have some mechanisms, it's time to make a lever. Go to the living area level, use b-T-l, use the arrow keys to move the cursor right next to the stairwell, hit Enter to select that spot for the lever, and Enter again to select the mechanism to use. Your mechanic will take a mechanism and turn it into a lever. Interact with the lever (q) and select the Link up a Bridge task (a-b); the game will zoom from the lever to the bridge. Press Enter and your mechanic will connect the bridge to the lever by attaching one mechanism to the lever and another to the bridge. Once they're connect you can add a Pull the Lever task (q-a-P), and a short time after it's pulled the drawbridge will raise, turning it into a indestructible wall. Pulling the lever again will lower the bridge.

In-game notes

Often you'll have a game with multiple levers, and once you connect a lever up to something there's no way to determine what it's connected to. This can be a problem if you come back to a game days/weeks/months later, or if you're playing a game round robin with other players. The solution to this is to use in-game Template:Ls. N will bring you into notes mode. You can move the cursor around like normal, place a note with p, then give it a name with n (up to 20 characters long) and/or give it text with t (up to 100 characters long). Entering notes mode later will let you look at the text of the note to remind you what the lever does.

Constructing long walls

We already made walls when blocking off cavern entrances, but those walls only covered a single tile, a method which would be cumbersome for making long walls. Fortunately you can lengthen walls like you can for bridges and farm plots.

Go to the surface where the drawbridge is and do b-C-w to build a wall. Once in wall placement mode you can use k to make the wall longer west-east and u to make it longer north-south. Make the wall three long west-east, position it next to the bridge, and hit Enter. It will ask you for what materials to use, and say 3 Needed to tell you how many rocks/logs/etc are needed to build it. Use - and + to scroll to a rock, since you don't want to use up logs, and making a wooden wall would use the carpentry skill instead of the masonry skill. You can hit Enter three times to pick the selected rock three times, or you can hit Shift-Enter to select as many rocks and needed from the selected type. When you're done there'll be three column symbols in a row. Each symbols is a separate "make wall" job which aren't related to each other; placing a long wall like that rather than one tile at a time is merely a matter of convenience, and doesn't affect how the game treats the built walls. This means that if you want to Template:L construction of the wall you have to do one suspension per tile.