In Dwarf Fortress dwarves have a tendency
to take your instructions as suggestions rather than commands. While you might want them to start digging
out a new section of fortress, they might think that it's time for a break. In my opinion this semi-autonomous behaviour
is what makes dwarves fun to deal with, and I wouldn't like the game nearly as much if
they were robots who bent to my every whim. But their independence has often made me wonder
how long my fortresses would survive without my input. And so today I'm showing you what happened
to my three most recent fortresses when I handed over all of my responsibilities to
my dwarves to find out. The first fortress that I left to my dwarves
was Frozengifts - from the video "the true meaning of dwarfmas". Its original purpose had been to generate
presents, also known as artifacts, in time for the holidays. And under the independent control of my dwarves
it actually continued fulfilling this purpose for the first couple months, producing a kaolinite
mug and crown. Without me around to tell them what to do,
and with new artifacts getting produced at a healthy clip, the mood in the fortress even
began to improve under the leadership of my dwarves. This party was immediately dashed when the
first goblin siege came to visit and nobody could order the militia (which was in the
basement) to fight the goblins before they infiltrated the main level of the fortress. While my dwarves suffered about 15 casualties
in the siege - they were able to recover pretty nicely within a migrant wave or two, and while
the mood was dampened by the skeletons, corpses, and miasma filling the tavern - the fortress
was still holding pretty steady. This marked the beginning of a cycle where
my dwarves suffered major losses in sieges but made up the population in migrant waves
- which kept the fortress from totally collapsing in on itself, but did nothing to save the
mood from circling the drain. Eventually, after a couple cycles, the depressed
mood in the fortress got so bad my dwarves decided not to fulfill an active work order
to produce alcohol - which resulted in 10 dwarves dying of dehydration. And while the order then got picked up and
worked on before the whole fortress could collapse, and a migrant wave could easily
refill the 10 dwarves that were lost, my dwarves had made a fatal mistake in letting Cerol
the manager die. With no water in the frozen tundra, no well
down below, and no-one to reactivate the alcohol production work order - the fortress was doomed
to die of dehydration. It briefly looked like my dwarves would be
put out of their misery by a forgotten beast that snuck into the fortress through a gap
I accidentally left in the farm, but, while my dwarves were actively dying of dehydration
left and right they still managed to suppress the web-slinging forgotten beast through sheer
numbers - dooming themselves to a much slower death. In the end all that remained of the fortress
once the mortals had run out of drinks was a necromancer who had no need for such worldly
pleasures, the gaunt zombie she had raised in a moment of weakness, and a half dozen
ghosts that seemed pretty displeased by their own existence. The second fortress that I left to my dwarves
was Keywhip - from the video "what I build when I'm not recording". This fortress had originally been designed
as a massive metropolis along the sides of a canyon that was dammed and filled with water
- turning the bottom layers of the fortress into a fishbowl. If you watched that video then you'll know
that, due to a variety of factors, this fortress struggled for migrants throughout its life,
which meant that the 60 or so dwarves living inside it when I handed over the reigns would
be all the population my dwarves had to work with. Despite their limited numbers and nonexistent
reinforcements this fortress didn't have to fear sieges and forgotten beasts the way the
first one did - because in this side world none of my neighbours had ever been very interested
in me and because I didn't leave a hole in the farm wall this time. This meant that the collapse of this fortress
was slow and steady - as my dwarves died to unfulfilled strange moods - and sometimes
took other dwarves down on their way out, angry ghosts built up over time and battered
random dwarves every season, bad moods developed and led to violent tantrums, the thawing of
the fishbowl every Spring caused dwarves to fall in, and the lure of the mists at the
bottom of the waterfall proved too strong for some of my dwarves. Halfway through the decline of this fortress
the game began to slow to a crawl and I started thinking that this fortress might end up dying
to lag rather than attrition. But a quick search in DFHack showed that there
were actually 608 olm men living and apparently thriving in the caverns under the fortress,
which had no bearing on my dwarves' ability to survive on their own, and so I had to wipe
out the self-sufficient olm civilization to keep my dwarves' slow disaster chugging along. And chug along they did, because while the
first fortress I had given to my dwarves died within 2 years, Keywhip limped along for 5
and a half, losing a couple dwarves per season until all that remained of the fortress was
a full hospital with more ghosts than patients. The third fortress that I left to my dwarves
was Waterdrinks - from the video "5 years in an alcohol-free fortress". The purpose of this fortress had been to deprive
my dwarves of alcohol for half a decade to see how they would react - which had made
my dwarves slightly angrier and much slower by the time they were finally left in charge. This left them vulnerable in a very obvious
way when it came to fighting back against the first goblin siege they had to manage
on their own. Despite the goblins bringing bows to what
should have been a swordfight, my dwarves' slow and panicky reactions meant that the
goblins basically tore through the whole fortress - floor by floor - without much of a problem. I'm pretty sure at least half of the 100 dwarves
that died in the siege were so disoriented by long-term sobriety that they had no clue
there was even a problem afoot. Ultimately I considered this fortress as good
as dead when the last goblin was killed and the few remaining healthy dwarves were so
slow cleaning up the fortress that their injured comrades started dying of dehydration in the
hospital. Of all the fortresses I left to my dwarves,
this one failed the quickest, lasting a matter of months rather than years. On one hand these experiments made it clear
to me that a fortress left in the control of dwarves is hopeless against sieges, ghosts,
bad moods, and losing key nobles. Which makes it pretty clear to me that I play
an important role in the success of my fortresses. But on the other hand what do I do in my fortresses
if not harass my dwarves with sieges, ghosts, bad moods, and the death of their nobles? Maybe my dwarves aren't so hopeless after
all... Maybe they're actually just doing my job better
than me. Thanks for watching, an extra thank you to
those of you who support me on Patreon, and I'll see you next time!
