10 Astounding Tales Which Exemplify Dwarf Fortress' Insanity

4. The Undergrotto - The Ultimate Megaproject

Rather than focusing upon something so trivial as survival, some players turn their fortresses into personal projects. Set up with a single goal or idea, these can evolve into monolithic subterranean empires or produce wonders the game was never programmed to account for. Some past examples have included turning a fortress into a massive calculator and primitive computer via workshops and machinery, but nothing quite compares to the Undergrotto. Built by a member with the forum handle Retro, the Undergrotto was less a fortress than it was a full blown terraforming project with dwarves altering massive sections of the map piece by piece until the entire place had been transformed from within. Along with carving out entire interior of a mountain, primarily because no single one could fit what Retro had planned for his fortress, the design did not utilise many easy and obvious ways to access one level to the next. For example, rather than stairs the fortress featured long, twisting slopes which wound around the interior and linked into multiple suspended walkways hanging between buildings. Rather than actually mining out sections of solid rock to construct work rooms, lavish dining halls and everything a fort needs to survive, he instead constructed entire buildings from scratch within the mountain, with pillars, monuments, and even a mock-up galleon in the small inland sea. Bear in mind this isn't merely like accomplishing a vast project in Minecraft while you still have to worry about creepers, gravity and hunger. This is accomplishing building an entire city with a barely controllable interface, nobles making constant demands which get in your way, workers suddenly falling under their own moods or throwing tantrums, alcohol constantly being in short supply and the risk of awakening the odd dragon. Difficult bordering upon impossible doesn't quite cut it.