# Gird your nerdly loins: Dwarf Fortress



## Crispy (Mar 1, 2013)

I'm ill and off work for the day so I have been learning Dwarf Fortress. Everything you've read about this game is true. The depth, the complexity, the brain-fuckingly insane interface. I've spent about 4x as much time looking stuff up on dwarffortresswiki as I have actually playing the game. I've got a graphics pack installed so it doesn't look entirely like the matrix.

So I'm nearly a year into my first fortress, which the game named Tubesportals. It's home to my 7 settlers and 7 immigrants. I've managed to run out of brewable food items, so my Dwarves are going without booze. This means they're having to run outside to drink from the stream. Although some dwarves are complaining about not having booze, they are made happy by the smooth walls and floor of the main hall, and the fact that they each have a private bedroom. I also appear to have fucked up the farming somehow and have run out of seeds. This means my dwarves are living off fish, which is ok, but it means lots of dwarves outside the fort all the time, catching fish. It makes me nervous.

I've found plenty of iron ore and common gems, so I've been forging and crafting loads of crummy things to trade with. Now I just pray the traders turn up with seeds and booze before my dwarves go mad from sobriety.

It's a great game, I can tell, but my god does it need a better UI. It's entirely keyboard driven and only slightly consistent. I'm getting faster with it, as is the way with all keyboard UIs, but it's completely undiscoverable. I have double figure browser tabs open at all times.

Anyone else "play" this game?


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 1, 2013)

Crispy said:


> I'm ill and off work for the day so I have been learning Dwarf Fortress. Everything you've read about this game is true. The depth, the complexity, the brain-fuckingly insane interface. I've spent about 4x as much time looking stuff up on dwarffortresswiki as I have actually playing the game. I've got a graphics pack installed so it doesn't look entirely like the matrix.
> 
> So I'm nearly a year into my first fortress, which the game named Tubesportals. It's home to my 7 settlers and 7 immigrants. I've managed to run out of brewable food items, so my Dwarves are going without booze. This means they're having to run outside to drink from the stream. Although some dwarves are complaining about not having booze, they are made happy by the smooth walls and floor of the main hall, and the fact that they each have a private bedroom. I also appear to have fucked up the farming somehow and have run out of seeds. This means my dwarves are living off fish, which is ok, but it means lots of dwarves outside the fort all the time, catching fish. It makes me nervous.
> 
> ...


This is why I never play computer games, ever.

If I started nobody would ever see me in public again.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 1, 2013)

Looks mental. 

Did Paradox copy the idea for a Game of Dwarves?


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## JimW (Mar 1, 2013)

Crispy said:


> ...
> Anyone else "play" this game?


I'd seen posts about it on the net and always meant to give it a whirl, then when I was home at Christmas turns out my nephew is really into Minecraft so I mentioned this Dwarf game I'd heard of and tried to set it up to show him. Loved the concept but never got as far as you, as I was still reading all the bloody wiki articles to work out what to do. My nephew was kind about it all


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## Crispy (Mar 1, 2013)

I had an invasion of buzzards, but my traps got two of them and a hastily assembled militia finished off the last one. First blood goes to Otha the fisherdwarf!

Citizen66 - Kinda. From what I can tell, GoD is more of a traditional management game, with a bunch of closed systems that you need to master. DF is completely open-ended. There are no victory conditions and no "correct" way to play. If GoD (and Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park etc.) are like building an intricate pyramid, DF is like balancing a hundred pencils on their points.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 1, 2013)

Graphics pack is cheating 

As long as you started in a safe area, it doesn't really make a lot of difference if your dwarves are outside to begin with - they need to be to chop wood and fish and hunt anyway. You don't get raided until the settlement reaches a certain size, though you may get goblin snatchers and kobold thieves, who are generally quite wimpy at that level and normal dwarves will beat them up without you really doing anything (as long as they detect them).


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## JimW (Mar 1, 2013)

FridgeMagnet said:


> Graphics pack is cheating


First thing I did was find that pre-set-up 'Lazy Newb Pack' for the slightly enhanced graphics. Maybe that was where I went wrong.


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## tommers (Mar 2, 2013)

I tried it but the interface deterred me. It was too much like hard work.


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## Crispy (Mar 2, 2013)

Holy shit. I was pootling along with 18 dwarves, getting nice and comfy. The new wave of immigrants have turned up and there's *38 *of the fuckers. Jesus christ. Time for some emergency barracks and mass digging. I'd better make some more picks.

EDIT: And now some goblins have shown up. Apparently. Dwarves are being distracted by them, but pressing z to zoom to the scene of the crime shows... no goblins.

I have mustered my military dwarves to the entrance and rushed the civilians indoors. Let's see if I can fight them off...


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## Crispy (Mar 3, 2013)

And now I've hit Caverns. My god they're huge. I am walling myself back in for now.


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## TruXta (Mar 3, 2013)

Are you still ill?


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## Crispy (Mar 3, 2013)

Oh dear. I think it's all gone wrong. I sent my militia after a crocodile, which was much stronger than I thought. It wiped out my soldiers, and now the rest of the fortress is getting sad because of their dead spouses/friends. My best mechanic has gone insane: Berserk.


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## Crispy (Mar 3, 2013)

TruXta said:


> Are you still ill?


I've pretty much recovered from my cold, but I think I'm coming down with a case of Dwarf Fortress Addiction


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## TruXta (Mar 3, 2013)

Crispy said:


> I've pretty much recovered from my cold, but I think I'm coming down with a case of Dwarf Fortress Addiction


Hence my question. I've heard dire stories about this horribly disfiguring disease maskerading as a game.


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## Crispy (Mar 3, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Oh dear. I think it's all gone wrong. I sent my militia after a crocodile, which was much stronger than I thought. It wiped out my soldiers, and now the rest of the fortress is getting sad because of their dead spouses/friends. My best mechanic has gone insane: Berserk.


Well, it's ok, the rest of my dwarves killed him as soon as he killed my best miner 
It is not a happy fortress. However, over time, I hope to pick things back up again. I plan to pump and divert some water from the nearby stream to make a decorative waterfall on one side of the main room. Dwarves like waterfalls.


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## JimW (Mar 3, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Holy shit. I was pootling along with 18 dwarves, getting nice and comfy. The new wave of immigrants have turned up and there's *38 *of the fuckers.....


Should have installed the Dwarf-KIP mod


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## Crispy (Mar 5, 2013)

I started again, having learned from my newbie mistakes. Fortress #2 is going much better, although I didn't bring an anvil with me, pissed off the dwarven caravan in year 1 and they haven't come back in year 2 

So, whilst I have excellent wood and stone industries, I am completely metalless.

Also, a Forgotten Beast has awoken in the caverns. "Kutsob Sposnungom Usbu Asno" A towering quadruped composed of moss opal. It has large mandibles and a gaunt appearance. Beware it poisonous vapours!

There is a 1-wall gap which I MUST block before it finds it. Fingers crossed. If it can't swim, then I have more time...


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 5, 2013)

I built a whole system to channel stagnant water down from rainwater pools on the surface to an underground chamber, where it gets purified via a screw pump and fed into an expandable series of reservoir cells that supply a well above them.

What I would really like to do is have the initial pump and the floodgates between the cells open and close automatically depending on water pressure, using pressure plates. So once water depth in the intake pool gets to a certain point, the purifying pump starts to put the water into reservoir A. Once reservoir A gets to a certain depth the floodgate to B opens and water is shared between them; once the total depth in A/B gets too low, the floodgate closes and a pump starts to move the water from B to A. At the moment I have to open floodgates and activate pumps manually.


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## Crispy (Mar 8, 2013)

Fortress #2 died in its 3rd year, from an invasion of goblins riding giant blue cave worms, supported by trolls that turned up just as I'd opened a temporary gap in my defensive wall. A shame. I'd just struck magma.

Fortress #3 is being built into a tall cliff. I intend to build balconeys and things. I was rather careless, however, and got my expedition leader caught up in a cave-in while lowering a small hill, which broke his right forearm. He's comfortably sleeping away in the hospital, but I have no thread to suture his wound, which needs to happen before my hastily-assigned doctor can set the bone. There's no fiber plants so I'm having to wait for the first caravan. So I'm one miner short, and there's always someone wasting their time getting water. But I'm going to stick it through. Losing is fun etc.

EDIT: Great. I finally get him fixed up and then he falls down a hole and breaks his legs. Another 6 months in bed for him, how wonderful.


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## JimW (Mar 10, 2013)

Just seen a link to this, an isometric viewer for your fortress: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Utility:Stonesense


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## Crispy (Mar 10, 2013)

My creaky old laptop gets bogged down enough just by DF on its own! 

Today, fortress #3 fended off a fell Bush Titan without taking any casualties. I think it was stuck in its own webs. I have a huge pack of dogs Penned outside my front gate that reliably rips thiefs to shreds. I have struck Raw Adamantine and have been very carefully mining the safe bits. I have built a hideously complicated pump chain to get a waterfall down one side of my meeting hall and am having to build 16 windmills to power it. Those dwarves had better fucking like it.

A child has crafted a legendary mountain goat bone earring. An engraver has imortalised it on the wall.

No iron ore at all so far 

EDIT: It really is just me and Fridge isn't it?


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## Crispy (Mar 11, 2013)

So I finally cracked and bought a gaming PC. To play Dwarf fucking Fortress at a decent frame rate.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 12, 2013)

"Oh hai I am a Marksdwarf - I've been allocated to a squad for the use of the most utterly devastating weapon dwarves can make, the crossbow. It punches through any armour and two or three bolts will kill or cripple any goblin, and a dozen or so will easily kill a forgotten beast or equivalent."

"Hey tell you what, why don't I not do any weapons training even though you set the squad to Active/Training. But let's pretend that I'm trying to. Oh you unset the Active/Training flag? Right, now is the time to do some archery practice!"

"Hey wow you set us all to active because we're being invaded. Dude. That's great. Okay, let's wait for a while. No, you know what, I can't be arsed doing anything."

"Hey wow you now told us to kill some targets. You know what? Even though I've been designated as a Marksdwarf and it says it on my fucking title and I'm carrying a crossbow and I've had about half an hour to equip myself with some of the fucking three million iron bolts in the stockpile right next to me, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to run at these goblins - on my own, not waiting for anyone else - and try to hit them with my crossbow."

fuck dwarves


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2013)

In my current fortress, my marks dwarves are confined to the first floor, where they sleep, eat, "train" and have access to a 20-wide battlement of fortifications so they can rain doom on any invaders outside. They're still useless most of the time.

I don't think there's such a thing as a DF "fan". We're "enthusiasts".


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## tommers (Mar 12, 2013)

Do you get used to the interface?  Or are you still looking at a wiki every few minutes?

I liked it but couldn't see any rhyme or reason to how you did things so I gave up.


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2013)

tommers said:


> Do you get used to the interface? Or are you still looking at a wiki every few minutes?
> 
> I liked it but couldn't see any rhyme or reason to how you did things so I gave up.


I'm used to it now. Clattering around the keys to designate rooms and constructions. The more common stuff is muscle memory. I still have to stop and pause to find which key to press for uncommon buildings, and I wish so badly that you could type a dwarf's name to select it from a list instead of scrolling through 200 of the things. But I'm over the hump.


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2013)

My pack of stray dogs just took down a Swamp Titan all on their own 
Ok, so its body was made of water....


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## el-ahrairah (Mar 12, 2013)

still off sick?


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 12, 2013)

This game sounds amazing, terrifying and utterly bewildering in roughly equal measure.


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## stuff_it (Mar 12, 2013)

el-ahrairah said:


> still off sick?


Gardening leave at this rate.


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2013)

el-ahrairah said:


> still off sick?


I have become my sickness


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## tommers (Mar 12, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> This game sounds amazing, terrifying and utterly bewildering in roughly equal measure.


 
It's dense.


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2013)

I have 60 idle dwarves, so to keep them busy I have designated a massive stone stockpile to forbid stone and made an equally massive empty stone stockpile next to it. When they're done moving all the stone from one to the other, I'll swap the designations.


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## TruXta (Mar 12, 2013)

Crispy said:


> I have 60 idle dwarves, so to keep them busy I have designated a massive stone stockpile to forbid stone and made an equally massive empty stone stockpile next to it. When they're done moving all the stone from one to the other, I'll swap the designations.


Shall I call a psychiatrist out for you?


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2013)

TruXta said:


> Shall I call a psychiatrist out for you?


Not worth it at this point.
Even if they have the Psychiatrist labour enabled, they'll still probably prefer playing with their pet guineahen, or be too busy attending a party at Finely Engraved Quartzite Dining Table.


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## TruXta (Mar 12, 2013)

He's lost to us


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## el-ahrairah (Mar 12, 2013)

TruXta said:


> He's lost to us


 
it was always going to happen eventually.


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## fractionMan (Mar 12, 2013)

It's like moria, but worse.

I am so glad I'm not downloading it.


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## Crispy (Mar 12, 2013)

Keep telling yourself that. Underneath the ugly, it's the ultimate computer game.

My best sword and spear dwarves are armed with adamantine now.
However, I'm having a baby explosion. More than a third of my dwarves are children. If anything ever breaches the defences, it's going to be a massacre.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Mar 14, 2013)

I own a copy of the dangerously similar sounding towns
http://www.townsgame.com/

it's a bit more pretty though.

looking at the faq  they admit it 


> the advanced game-play makes this game unique in quite a few aspects, we have taken cues from our favorite games. Diablo, Dungeon Keeper, Evil Genius, and even Theme Hospital are in the mix, although an honorable mention must be made to the absolutely gigantic elephant in the room, Dwarf Fortress.


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## Crispy (Mar 15, 2013)

A goblin siege showed up but refused to leave the edge of the map. I sent a sacrificial dwarf out to entice them in and they eagerly followed. At the same time, a minotaur showed up! So I quickly sent my good squad out to kill it. The first guy on the scene traded blows for a while to no effect, but then the adamantine weapons got into the fight and it was all over quickly. Managed to get everybody except one unlucky hunter back inside before the persuing gobnlins. They tore my pack of dogs to shreds and are now chasing a piglet round the map, which seems to be too fast for them.


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## fractionMan (Mar 15, 2013)

This is the first game I've seen I want to download to my mac.  Damn you crispy, my gf would never forgive me.


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## Crispy (Mar 15, 2013)

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=106790.0

Use Phoebus graphics
Always run Dwarf Therapist 
Read all the tutorials and watch all the videos you can
Strike the earth!


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## JimW (Mar 15, 2013)

Crispy said:


> http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=106790.0
> 
> Use Phoebus graphics
> Always run Dwarf Therapist
> ...


Oh Christ, it's a Dwarf evangelist!


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## tommers (Mar 15, 2013)

Crispy said:


> http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=106790.0
> 
> Use Phoebus graphics
> Always run Dwarf Therapist
> ...


 
Hmmm... I might give it another go once I've got a minute.  Or two.


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## Crispy (Mar 15, 2013)

The link I gave is for mac. For windows, google Lazy Newb Pack


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## Radar (Mar 15, 2013)

Fess up Crispy, how many hours have you sunk in there so far ??


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 17, 2013)

I found some raw adamantine, starting digging around it whilst avoiding lava, then dug through a hollow spire and breached into a huge eerie cavern. Full of demons. Now there are a few dozen demons racing up my back staircase, which doesn't even have a hatch on it. Ideally I'd be able to manage building a hatch before they got to the top, but with the sense of priorities that dwarves display, they'll all insist on hauling items or attending a party instead until they are melted in clouds of flame.


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## treefrog (Mar 17, 2013)

I have absolutely no desire to play this game at all, but this thread is oddly compelling.


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## Crispy (Mar 17, 2013)

FridgeMagnet said:


> I found some raw adamantine, starting digging around it whilst avoiding lava, then dug through a hollow spire and breached into a huge eerie cavern. Full of demons. Now there are a few dozen demons racing up my back staircase, which doesn't even have a hatch on it. Ideally I'd be able to manage building a hatch before they got to the top, but with the sense of priorities that dwarves display, they'll all insist on hauling items or attending a party instead until they are melted in clouds of flame.


if I remember rightly, the demons can destroy doors and hatches.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 17, 2013)

Crispy said:


> if I remember rightly, the demons can destroy doors and hatches.


They're building destroyers, but according to the wiki they only do it to things on the same z-level, so you can use hatches on stairs.

If that doesn't work I'm totally screwed. There are about as many demons as I have soldiers, and each demon could probably kill all my soldiers by itself.


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## Old Gergl (Mar 17, 2013)

treefrog said:


> I have absolutely no desire to play this game at all, but this thread is oddly compelling.


This. 

This thread makes me happy, but I'm not quite sure why. More pls.


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## Crispy (Mar 17, 2013)

Moar:

I completely missed the squad of trolls beating the crap out of everyone entering and leaving the front door. I lost a lot of dwarves, and about half my militia. My previous 5 squads of soldiers are now just 3, reorganised. Luckily, I had plenty of coffins pre-made, so I'm managing the burials in a timely fashion. This means I won't get any ghosts, cross fingers.

Still no bloody iron ore anywhere 

For my next fortress, I think I'm going to maintain a strict migrant filter. The population gets far too large and unwieldy otherwise. So I'm going to create a special immigration hall with spikes and retractable bridges. Only the strong and skilled will be allowed entry.


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## rubbershoes (Mar 17, 2013)

Crispy = Nigel Farage


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## tommers (Mar 17, 2013)

Daily mail's wet dream.  Doesn't take long for the facade to drop.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 17, 2013)

I think DF immediately adds migrants to your general population once they appear, with the same status as those who were there from the start, which obviously means it was written by communists.


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## rich! (Mar 17, 2013)

I have to manage my DF addiction. I am, for example, allowed to play it when in hotels, on trains, on planes and so forth. But not at home. That way lies weeks and weeks of optimising silver serrated disk and iron/steel armour production to maximise fortress wealth...


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 17, 2013)

Now come on. Silver is for maces and warhammers.


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## Crispy (Mar 17, 2013)

I forgot that leaving my front door open also leaves my back door open. I really should have set two levers. Now a hoard of goblins and trolls are inside, butchering the children. The walls and floors are painted red with blood.

From a population of 200 to zero in a matter of minutes.


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## tommers (Mar 17, 2013)

Crispy said:


> I forgot that leaving my front door open also leaves my back door open. I really should have set two levers. Now a hoard of goblins and trolls are inside, butchering the children. The walls and floors are painted red with blood.
> 
> From a population of 200 to zero in a matter of minutes.



 rivers of blood.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 20, 2013)

I was helping my dad move a load of stuff from one shed to another shed, which is then going to have to be moved to a third place later on, and I said "you know this is just like Dwarf Fortress".

It _is_ based on the idea that everything is basically in the wrong place, though, and if it's ever in the right place it will be in the wrong place very shortly. At any one time over 50% of my dwarves are hauling shit from one place to another, and they do this all the time.

Anyway I'm not playing it any more. After the demons wiped the whole place out I started a new one and spent something like 16 hours in a day on it and had a moment of clarity. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can recover.


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## Crispy (Mar 20, 2013)

If I could be bothered to photoshop a "one day clean" medal with an ASCII dwarf in the middle, I would.


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## Crispy (Mar 21, 2013)

Had a nice little fortress going. Just hit magma, was smelting gold like nobody's business. Got some jobs interrupted by an Elk Bird. That sounds harmless enough, soon have it dead. Fucker and its two mates have killed half my dwarves and half of the survivors can't walk. Nobody's collecting the wounded. Doom.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 21, 2013)

This thread is better then Eastenders.


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## Crispy (Mar 21, 2013)

Oh god and here comes the rest of the flock.
I liked this fortress. I'm going back to an earlier save. (so sue me)


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## Crispy (Mar 22, 2013)

My jeweler died somewhere and I couldn't find his body. So because I couldn't bury him, he came back as a ghost. But he doesn't fly around the fortress going whoooo! like most ghosts, he just sits in his old workshop all day and night. I've walled up the door so he doesn't scare the other dwarves. 

So. Much. Gold. I think I might build a tower out of it.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 22, 2013)

To get rid of ghosts you build a slab and then engrave it, to make a memorial, then put the memorial somewhere.


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## Crispy (Mar 22, 2013)

Which is what I would usually do. But this guy appears to be no trouble, so I'm letting him haunt himself


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 22, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Which is what I would usually do. *But this guy appears to be no trouble*, so I'm letting him haunt himself


Why do I get the feeling these words will come back to, errrrr, haunt you?


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## rubbershoes (Mar 22, 2013)

You know dragons are attracted by the smell of ghosts


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## Crispy (Mar 22, 2013)

My immigration policy is working out well. In a typical wave of around 25 immigrants, I choose the 5 or so with no personality flaws, then assign the rest to a deathlist, whose members I constrain 5x5 room with a drawbridge in it. Once they're all in there, I assign a repeating Pull Lever job in the meeting room, which makes the drawbridge slam up and down, eradicating the weaklings.

As a result, employment is high with very few idlers, and those that do work are better at it. Also, the risk of tantrum spirals is reduced.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Mar 22, 2013)

Crispy said:


> My immigration policy is working out well. In a typical wave of around 25 immigrants, I choose the 5 or so with no personality flaws, then assign the rest to a deathlist, whose members I constrain 5x5 room with a drawbridge in it. Once they're all in there, I assign a repeating Pull Lever job in the meeting room, which makes the drawbridge slam up and down, eradicating the weaklings.
> 
> As a result, employment is high with very few idlers, and those that do work are better at it. Also, the risk of tantrum spirals is reduced.


David Cameron: The Dungeons & Dragons years.


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## tommers (Mar 22, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> David Cameron: The Dungeons & Dragons years.



I'm just praying Iain Duncan smith isn't reading this.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 22, 2013)

I found it more effective to retrain immigrants in more useful professions than "Beekeeper" and "Soapmaker", as well as build up the manufacturing infrastructure, so as to increase my economic output and level of growth. Or, er, I put them in the army.


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## Crispy (Mar 22, 2013)

It's just a pain to administer that many dwarves tbh. And I'm sitting on so much gold I don't really need other industries


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## Citizen66 (Mar 26, 2013)

Crispy said:
			
		

> I have 60 idle dwarves, so to keep them busy I have designated a massive stone stockpile to forbid stone and made an equally massive empty stone stockpile next to it. When they're done moving all the stone from one to the other, I'll swap the designations.



I got made to do that when I was an aporentice (but with scaffolding)


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## Crispy (Mar 26, 2013)

If Dwarf Fortress interests you for its complexity and emergent story possibilities, then keep an eye on Clockwork Empires, which is explicitly inspired by DF, but with graphics and UI and things. Individual AI actors with personalities and moods, task-oriented controls, stockpiles and workflows, staving off doom rather than aiming for a goal etc.

http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/clo...games-lovecraft-laden-steampunk-city-builder/ 

I posted this in a SimCity thread, but I suspect the readerships of that thread and this don't overlap entirely.


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## tommers (Mar 26, 2013)

I liked that on the other thread crispy, not liking it again.  Nice try though.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 26, 2013)

It was a different link though. So you're not that sharp-eyed.


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## Crispy (Mar 26, 2013)

Should have posted it here first, on reflection


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## tommers (Mar 26, 2013)

It's very ambitious and I'm a bit concerned cos Dredmor, as great a roguelike as it is, does have a bit of a rubbish sense of humour running through it... but I am really excited about it.  If they pull it off then it could be epic.


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## Crispy (Mar 27, 2013)

I'd just built the foot-shaped foundations of my golden dwarf statue standing astride the trading depot on the surface, and enlarged my magma smelting operation to churn out gold blocks by the dozen for said statue, when I forgot to roof over said magma smelting area enlargement, leaving the fortress wide open to invasion by a forgotten beast, who immediately went about slaughtering my dwarfs until only 6 were left, all stuck in its webs. Then it fucked off back to the caverns. It took 10 minutes of background running for them to starve/bleed to death. Ah well.

Next time, NEXT TIME.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 28, 2013)

I found a vampire in the fortress - I actually noticed that it called them "Somebody Somebody, Vampire Fish Dissector" and showed them as having large teeth, presumably because they'd just been doing something vampirey - so I thought it was best to get rid of them. I'd read that vampires were quite tough so I made them into a squad of one and sent them down into the caverns to attack stuff until they died.

She killed a couple of troglodytes pretty easily, but I then spotted a herd of eight or so elk birds, and thought "right well that's going to finish her off surely" and set her to try to kill all of them. It was carnage - unarmed and unarmoured, as well as untrained, this vampire was chasing elk birds around the map and ripping them to bits. Vampires are apparently really fast, absurdly strong (they can punch limbs off and shatter bones with their fists) and can also tear targets open with their teeth. So, I decided not to try to kill this one after all but have instead given them armour and weapons and set them training. What's a few drained corpses every now and then?


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## Crispy (Mar 28, 2013)

How hard is it to set up a NOT gate?


Specifically:
I want to have something step on a pressure plate, which causes bridge A to open and bridge B to close.
And then another pressure plate which causes bridge A to close and bridge B to open.


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## rich! (Mar 30, 2013)

There's a whole section on the df wiki about logic gates. Bonus points if you do it with minecarts.


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## rich! (Mar 30, 2013)

Across three laptops, I have about 10 worlds with various fortresses of various ages. Makes for an interesting random pick.

I tend to use fresh meat either to stock up my armies, or as additional smelters and web gatherers. You can't have too many dwarves wandering the caverns in search of GCS silk in my mind...


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 30, 2013)

Fuck's sake. About seventy goblins and trolls, all with metal weapons and armour, suddenly turn up, and what do my military decide to do? All run out of the entrance routes trying to pickup equipment from dead people. There's literally no way of stopping them apart from shutting all the doors, which I'd rather not do because that means goblins can't chase people inside and get caged/sliced up by my traps.

Eventually managed to cage and slice enough of them so that I could finish off the few that were left on foot, and as I'm clearing up, _another fucking seventy come along_. And the fucking military do the same thing. Plus the bloody goblins can shoot through my own fortifications now. I just closed all the gates and got on with mining adamantine this time - I've got wells, underground farms, all that sort of thing. The goblins fucked off eventually.

*and where is the fucking coal

seriously though where the fuck is it, I have an easier time finding an imaginary mineral than coal*


----------



## rich! (Mar 31, 2013)

Grow trees underground, make charcoal with woodburners: no need for coal.

Also, you can use the area commands to forbid everything you can find outside, that works.

Finally, if your armies don't already have their weapons, you aren't training them often enough. 2 months on, 2 off is good...


----------



## FridgeMagnet (Mar 31, 2013)

Well, they do now. I have no idea why they were looking for steel goblin greaves etc but they shouldn't any more.

Also I built a danger room. Apart from one health and safety nightmare where one of them brought a baby into it (wtf) the thing is stupidly effective - people go up to Axe Lord etc while you watch. If only I could get the station command to actually station all the dwarves in the squad rather than whichever ones could be arsed, it would be even more effective.

And a mass pitting zone for target practice - dump all the goblins in the cage traps into a pit behind fortifications and have marksdwarves - again, the ones who can be arsed turning up at all - shoot them slowly to death.

(For people reading this who aren't familiar with the DF combat system, it's horribly detailed. Every injury is described down to the level of which organ has been damaged and how much.)


----------



## Crispy (Apr 17, 2013)

DF players - how about a succession game? We take turns to run a fortress for a year and write up/illustrate our experiences in a thread, for entertainment of an audience, and for spicing up the gameplay by inhheriting other peoples' madness grand designs.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 17, 2013)

FridgeMagnet, rich!, tommers, fractionMan you know you want to.


----------



## tommers (Apr 17, 2013)

Crispy said:


> FridgeMagnet, rich!, tommers, fractionMan you know you want to.


 
Mate.  I do, I really do.  But I'm still obsessed with Tales of Maj'Eyal.

I'll take a turn a bit later on if you want.  I need some time to jump off that learning cliff.  I'm up for it though.


----------



## Garek (Apr 17, 2013)

I've recently become withdrawn and lacking in any interest in socialising and seeing anyone. I am also a gamer who needs a new challenge.

I have found this thread at the perfect time.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 17, 2013)

Well then. I will play my current fort until it dies, then start a new one in a more... interesting location and do year one. Should be a week or two away.


----------



## tommers (Apr 17, 2013)

OK.  That sounds good.  Let me finish my current TOME character and get some time to get the hang of it.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 17, 2013)

I've been checking out Legends mode, and this handy viewer: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=72702.0 to find historically interesting embark locations. Just found a dwarven civilization that consists of just a single settlement, population 377 (all the other dwarven civs are thousands strong). Although they are quite close to elves and goblins, they have never gone to war. This is because of Reg.

Reg Bisekerith was one of the first dwarves in the world, having been created in year 1 as the General of the settlement Roadfords of the civilization known as The Citadel of Spreading (note: it's ironic that the civ has never spread beyond its founding walls!). However, in year 2, he profaned the Cathedral of Diamond. Geshud, the local Mountain God punished Reg by cursing him and turned him into a were-armadillo. Reg left town and went into retreat for two years, before returning as a sworn enemy of Roadfords.

His first act of vengeance was eating someone's pet rabbit, but this was just an appetiser. Over the following 250 years Reg has come to disrupt the fortress again and again and again. He is now known as "The Beak of Heather" and has 24 kills to his name. Not only that, but he has successfully bitten and cursed 8 of his former kin, who now also regularly run rampant through the halls, killing and maiming as they go. Roadfords has suffered nearly 600 were-beast rampages in the last 250 years, claiming the lives of 142 dwarves.

There have been 14 kings and queens of the Citadel of Spreading. About half of them were killed by the were-beast plague. The current ruler is Mistem Inethartob. After battling with were-beasts all his life (most recently, Reg the Beak of Heather), he has decided that he cannot face the same fate as his forebears. He has become obsessed with his own mortality and seeks to extend his life by any means.

This means one of two things. He will get bitten by Reg and become an immortal were-beast. Or he will access arcane knowledge and become a Necromancer. I am tempted to run the simulation again, but give it another couple of decades, to see if Mistem manages to achieve his goal...


----------



## FridgeMagnet (Apr 17, 2013)

I'd do a succession game. Right at the moment though I don't have a lot of dwarfing time, as what time I do have (about two hours a day) I like to spend Not Looking At A Computer.

I'm getting a bit bored of my current fortress tbh. When I can entice goblin armies into my heavily trapped entrance it can be amusing, but irritatingly my dwarves still seem much too keen to just run out and take them on single handedly. Actually when they are weapon lords they can take out huge quantities and sometimes scare all the rest off, but even so. And most of the time it's just dig dig dig.


----------



## stuff_it (Apr 17, 2013)

rich! said:


> There's a whole section on the df wiki about logic gates. Bonus points if you do it with minecarts.


Whoa, step away from the computer. 

I really shouldn't look at this thread.


----------



## fractionMan (Apr 17, 2013)

Crispy said:


> FridgeMagnet, rich!, tommers, fractionMan you know you want to.


Never


----------



## Crispy (Apr 17, 2013)

I seem to have acquired the ultimate punchbag. It's name is Nenpe and it is a human deity. It came with their caravan pretending to be a diplomat. It's actually some sort of hideous tortoise monster. It can't fight for shit, but it's also incredibly tough. So I've had my two melee squads taking turns whiffing at it. They're leveling up to Professional swords-and-axedwarves yet they're still not putting the thing down. It's been fighting so long, its old wounds have turned into scars. Its scars probably have scars.


----------



## Bob_the_lost (Apr 18, 2013)

To be honest I was hoping for more graphs of Dwarf productivity over time in various scenarios.


----------



## FridgeMagnet (Apr 18, 2013)

Crispy said:


> I seem to have acquired the ultimate punchbag. It's name is Nenpe and it is a human diety. It came with their caravan pretending to be a diplomat. It's actually some sort of hideous tortoise monster. It can't fight for shit, but it's also incredibly tough. So I've had my two melee squads taking turns whiffing at it. They're leveling up to Professional swords-and-axedwarves yet they're still not putting the thing down. It's been fighting so long, its old wounds have turned into scars. Its scars probably have scars.


I would lock it underground somewhere inside a set of fortifications, then set a routine around it for new marks dwarves, and set them on that occasionally,.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 18, 2013)

Unfortunately, someone got a lucky strike on its head, which sailed off in an arc


----------



## treefrog (Apr 18, 2013)

Oh Crispy, this is why you're so ace  I want to play this and I don't play computer games and it sounds like the worst thing ever. But still.


----------



## stuff_it (Apr 18, 2013)

FridgeMagnet said:


> I'd do a succession game. Right at the moment though I don't have a lot of dwarfing time, as what time I do have (about two hours a day) I like to spend Not Looking At A Computer.
> 
> I'm getting a bit bored of my current fortress tbh. When I can entice goblin armies into my heavily trapped entrance it can be amusing, but irritatingly my dwarves still seem much too keen to just run out and take them on single handedly. Actually when they are weapon lords they can take out huge quantities and sometimes scare all the rest off, but even so. And most of the time it's just dig dig dig.


*Dwarf* fortress - it's going to be a lot of digging.


----------



## rich! (Apr 19, 2013)

stuff_it said:


> *Dwarf* fortress - it's going to be a lot of digging.


nah, more about smelting gold and making gold crafts.

If you've got more than 14% of your dwarves digging, you've only got 7 dwarves.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 24, 2013)

I think I've found a "fun" world and embark for the succession game 

tbh, I'm keen to get a move onto it, as my current fortress is getting boring. I keep seeing off the goblin sieges by raining crossbow bolts on them till they give up. My legendary weaponsmith has made adamantine swords and axes for my cave-creature death squad. There's not a lot of challenge left. I feel the need to settle somewhere more interesting.


----------



## tommers (Apr 26, 2013)

Start it then... I'll sit there scratching my head, staring at lists of commands and wondering why the interface is so bloody inconsistent until you're ready.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 26, 2013)

RIghto then


----------



## tommers (Apr 26, 2013)

Guide said:
			
		

> This document and most documents on the wiki use key symbols that look like t to indicate what keys are used for an operation. Note that these are *case sensitive*. In order to save space, Shift+t will be written as T. So t means "press the 't' key without the shift key" and T means "hold down shift and press the 't' key". Sequences of keys will be written with dashes between them. So a-b-C means "press 'a', then press 'b', then hold shift and press 'c'".


 



> Sometimes you use the directional keys ↑ ↓ ← → and Enter to make menu selections, but sometimes you will need to use the alternate selection keys (- and +) to make menu selections. Generally speaking, when dealing with menus, if the directional keys don't work try -/+.


 
WHY?!? JUST MAKE IT ALL THE SAME!


----------



## Crispy (Apr 26, 2013)

You'll get used to it.
I would do the beginners guide on the wiki, step by step with no deviations. Don't try and be too careful, your dwarves will die. Then start again. Your third fortress will probably be the one that has a chance of making it long term.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 10, 2013)

bah, x windows isn't included with OSX any more and it's taking _ages_ to download.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 10, 2013)

oh, it's not a fan of retina displays then


----------



## Crispy (Jun 10, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> oh, it's not a fan of retina displays then


 
Hah  Tiny little dwarves?


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 10, 2013)

it makes the window full size then only fills a 1/4 of it 

I'm going to get neck ache


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 10, 2013)

fixed it: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=123264.0


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 10, 2013)

argh.  Can't get it to work in anything other than 1280x400 which is a teensy bit letterbox.


----------



## Crispy (Jun 10, 2013)

and now you have to learn the damn thing! A hard thing just got harder.
Fnar.


----------



## stuff_it (Jun 10, 2013)

Crispy said:


> and now you have to learn the damn thing! A hard thing just got harder.
> Fnar.


 
SITREP please! I got all excited even though my namesake isn't doing much at all atm.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 11, 2013)

I worked it out, the window is resizable


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 11, 2013)

ook, so I had a little go and started digging into a hill.  I designated the mining but only one dwarf started mining. how do I get more on the job?  

also, can you make them drag the waggon to a better spot?


----------



## Crispy (Jun 11, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> ook, so I had a little go and started digging into a hill. I designated the mining but only one dwarf started mining. how do I get more on the job?
> 
> also, can you make them drag the waggon to a better spot?


 

If you embarked with the default set of dwarves and equipment, you only get one pick and one dwarf with elevated mining skill. Be sure to have some stonecrafts (nice and simple to make) ready for the Autumn caravan, so you can buy another pick or two and assign Mining to more dwarves.

The wagon is effectively a "building" so you need to look at it with the q cursor and choose x to disassemble it. Your carpenter will do the work, and then the contents of the wagon will be on the ground, plus a few stacks of wagon wood.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 11, 2013)

Ok, so I've got a basic fortress together, stockpile, meeting space, fungus farm & stairs.  I'm currently digging out some workshops and attempting to get people to claim them... with not much success.  I've allocated a masonry and carpenters workshop but all my dwarves are sitting around idle and they're not getting built.  I'm not sure if they've got the materials to build it, but I chose "shale" from the list assuming I've got some lying around from the excavations.  Is this normal?


----------



## Crispy (Jun 11, 2013)

Do you have masonry and carpentry skills activated on your dwarves? They will only perform the labours you allow them to. I presume you're using Dwarf Therapist? (If you're not, you should be)

When building things, the list of materials is a list of everything that's available to build with. Unless the item(s) you select get destroyed/locked away somehow, then the building can be built.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 11, 2013)

Cheers Crispy, I think I have those dwarves & they're not doing anything.  Perhaps there's some stone in the way - I think I need to sort out the garbage dump thing for it.


----------



## Crispy (Jun 11, 2013)

Stone that's just lying on the ground isn't an obstacle, it just slows movement a little.


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## fractionMan (Jun 11, 2013)

Ah, ok.  At work now, so no playing!


----------



## stuff_it (Jun 11, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> I worked it out, the window is resizable


 
Mad skillz, you haz dem.


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## fractionMan (Jun 11, 2013)

stuff_it said:


> Mad skillz, you haz dem.


 

it's harder than it sounds


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## fractionMan (Jun 15, 2013)

My dwarves have made it through the first year without catastrophe, now focussing on going  self sufficiency. 

How do I get happiness pops in therapist? I can't find it for coffee.


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## Crispy (Jun 15, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> My dwarves have made it through the first year without catastrophe, now focussing on going  self sufficiency.
> 
> How do I get happiness pops in therapist? I can't find it for coffee.


the Linux version might not be as up to date as in windows., so they might not even exist. The happiness indicator is to the right of their names, near the profession and current jobs icons. It's either a shade from red to green, or a little smiley. Hover gives you a popover.


----------



## Maurice Picarda (Jun 15, 2013)

I'm finding this almost impossible. Half of my dwarves have formed a cult of the she-bear and the rest have turned cannibal. None of them display any interest in mining. Do I need to give them sillier names?


----------



## stuff_it (Jun 15, 2013)

Silas Loom said:


> I'm finding this almost impossible. Half of my dwarves have formed a cult of the she-bear and the rest have turned cannibal. None of them display any interest in mining. Do I need to give them sillier names?


 
I reckon, there are loads of lists left to work through - MPs or past Big Brother contestants would be fairly amusing.


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## fractionMan (Jun 15, 2013)

That's the other thing that's bothering me.  Assigning nicknames in dwarf therapist doesn't work for me.


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## Crispy (Jun 15, 2013)

Me either


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## stuff_it (Jun 15, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> That's the other thing that's bothering me. Assigning nicknames in dwarf therapist doesn't work for me.


 
That's a shame, you could have David 'wanker' Cameron et al.


----------



## Crispy (Jun 15, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Me either


so you have to do it in DF itself, from the u list, v a dwarf, a quick Enter to check gender, then esc back and y n to nickname.


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## fractionMan (Jun 15, 2013)

I am bloody loving it as a game though.  First game I've picked up in _years_.


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## fractionMan (Jun 15, 2013)

Crispy said:


> the Linux version might not be as up to date as in windows., so they might not even exist. The happiness indicator is to the right of their names, near the profession and current jobs icons. It's either a shade from red to green, or a little smiley. Hover gives you a popover.


 

Hmm, it's not working on the mac version.  The popup appears but just says things like "content" without listing the reasons.


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## Crispy (Jun 16, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> Hmm, it's not working on the mac version.  The popup appears but just says things like "content" without listing the reasons.


then it must be a version thing. Someone's forked the project cos the original guy stopped updating it, but it's only available for windows and Linux.

However, keeping dwarves happy is not too hard. Make sure you have a nice big dining room and make it a meeting room also. Give each dwarf their own bedroom. Keep the booze flowing. Once your food supply is diversified from plump helmets, make meals. A statue garden is a nice thing for them to spend their breaks.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 17, 2013)

Right, im starting up an egg industry.  Let's see what the elves bring'


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 17, 2013)

As it turns out, my broker decided to first go on a break and then go to sleep so I had to send in a novie who got predictably ripped off.  Also, no birds so no eggs.  And very little booze.  

I did buy a bunch of outdoor seeds.  I think I'll start a farm instead.


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## Crispy (Jun 17, 2013)

Keep it well walled, or be prepared for your farmers to do double duty as sacrificial lookouts.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 17, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Keep it well walled, or be prepared for your farmers to do double duty as sacrificial lookouts.


 

I've built a set of stars up to the top of the hill. There's now a completely enclosed wall around a pond, a pen and some future fields.  I may wall off the whole top of the hill this way so I can continue to gather plants and chop down the occasional tree.

It's saying the ground requires mud or something, but it's outside on green tiles with plants growing all around


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## FridgeMagnet (Jun 17, 2013)

you can ignore that message, it's a bug


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 17, 2013)

FridgeMagnet said:


> you can ignore that message, it's a bug


 

Cheers.  

Another question.  I have more than one mason, but one is much better than the others.  I want him to be constantly in the workshop building things and the others building walls.  Is there a way I can force him to make things and not build?


----------



## Crispy (Jun 17, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> Cheers.
> 
> Another question.  I have more than one mason, but one is much better than the others.  I want him to be constantly in the workshop building things and the others building walls.  Is there a way I can force him to make things and not build?


hmm. I'm pretty sure the masonry skill doesn't differentiate between crafting and construction.

What would help is restricting a single masons workshop to that mason. You need to have a manager dwarf first, and then you can access the (p)rofile menu when q viewing the workshop. The you can choose the desired mason from the list of dwarves. Then you can be sure that any furniture/statues queued at that workshop will be made by your skilled mason.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 17, 2013)

I've done that but I like the idea of a second workshop where I can queue up stone blocks etc


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 17, 2013)

I've not even thought about network yet, but the gems and spacecraft are doing well.  livestockand meat  laiks a right pAin but a recent immigrant has started hunting, which is
cool.  might start getting my head round traps next.

Eta: phone lol.


----------



## FridgeMagnet (Jun 17, 2013)

When you manage to network a few spacecraft together it really makes a difference.


----------



## stuff_it (Jun 17, 2013)

FridgeMagnet said:


> When you manage to network a few spacecraft together it really makes a difference.


 
Wait, there are spacecraft in a dwarf game? 

Must....not.....install....too.....much.....to do.......urgh.....


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 17, 2013)




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## fractionMan (Jun 26, 2013)

This seems like a pretty good tutorial:

I'm still trying to get my head around the military screen
http://afteractionreporter.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/the_complete_and_utter_newby_tutorials.pdf


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## Crispy (Jun 26, 2013)

That looks like a good tutorial
The military screen is just about as bad as it gets, tbh. Once you can navigate that without sweating, you can handle anything


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 26, 2013)

I need to read up on burrows too.  I think I could use them to stop my master mason from going outside - which means he'd be in the workshop instead of building walls


----------



## Crispy (Jun 26, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> I need to read up on burrows too. I think I could use them to stop my master mason from going outside - which means he'd be in the workshop instead of building walls


Yeah, that'd be an ideal use of the system.


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 27, 2013)

As you get more dwarves, is it normal for a lot of them to be standing around idle?  Should I get them polishing floors or something?


----------



## Crispy (Jun 27, 2013)

fractionMan said:


> As you get more dwarves, is it normal for a lot of them to be standing around idle? Should I get them polishing floors or something?


Yeah it happens. I turn on masonry and stone detailing for all my migrants, so building projects get done quickly, and I can  designate lots of walls for smoothing. You could also consider making a larger military and have them train all the time.


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## FridgeMagnet (Jun 27, 2013)

I had an artifact built yesterday worth 600,000 - I think that's a record for me. (A raw adamantine earring decorated with raw adamantine.)


----------



## Crispy (Jun 27, 2013)

I have that beat. Bouldergloves built an adamantine mace, named Screambrides. It's banded with adamantine, encrusted with quartzite and microcline, menacing with spikes of mole leather and zircon, with pictures of goblins, larches and longland grass in zircon, phylite and leather. It's worth 1,028,400. dotty's adamantine buckler is worth 900k.

Lowest value is a coal bracelet worth 6k


----------



## FridgeMagnet (Jun 27, 2013)

bah


----------



## fractionMan (Jun 27, 2013)

I have no artifacts


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## Crispy (Oct 10, 2013)

Dwarf Fortress: A Marxist Analysis


> Nonetheless, the game Dwarf Fortress is amenable to a Marxist analysis precisely by understanding its relationship to the central characteristics of the feudal mode of production.(1) This can be grasped by looking at the main dynamics of the game: the division of labor, the reproduction of dwarven society, the economic system and trade, and their integration.


http://mccaine.org/2013/10/09/dwarf-fortress-a-marxist-analysis/


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Oct 10, 2013)

I'm still telling suitably minded friends about the quite frankly epic lava transporting railway


----------



## Crispy (Oct 10, 2013)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> I'm still telling suitably minded friends about the quite frankly epic lava transporting railway


That achievement kind of ruined the game for me. I tried starting a couple of new games and both times I sat there staring at my seven nobodies and said to them "you guys will never do anything half as spectacular as the Queen's Chamber of Bouldergloves" and ended up quitting before the first trade caravan.


----------



## beesonthewhatnow (Oct 10, 2013)

Crispy said:


> That achievement kind of ruined the game for me. I tried starting a couple of new games and both times I sat there staring at my seven nobodies and said to them "you guys will never do anything half as spectacular as the Queen's Chamber of Bouldergloves" and ended up quitting before the first trade caravan.


_*"When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer."*_


----------



## JimW (Oct 25, 2013)

Just seen this linked elsewhere, a Marxist analysis of Dwarf Fortress : http://mccaine.org/2013/10/09/dwarf-fortress-a-marxist-analysis/


> Is this the image of the dwarven future? For now, its social relations and lack of monetization, its mining collectivism have yet prevented it from arising in full. Dwarven society takes on these characteristics in its developed form, but remains within the personal bounds of early feudalism in its political organization. But it seems a plausible perspective. We have a feudal Dwarf Fortress now – will we have an absolutist Dwarf Nation soon?


----------



## Crispy (Oct 25, 2013)

4 posts above yours


----------



## JimW (Oct 25, 2013)

Crispy said:


> 4 posts above yours


 Should have guessed it would be here first. teach me not to scroll up in my eagerness to post.


----------



## Crispy (Jul 5, 2018)

Followers of this thread might like to watch Kruggsmash, probably the most entertaining DF youtube channel, with tons of content, and releases every week. He edits out all the boring bits and draws illustrations of all the notable characters, artifacts, dramatic moments ets. Really sells the story-making aspect of the game.

Check out his latest fort, Ushangvagush, which is a self-contained story, 20x 30m epsiodes and going strong so far. If that tickles you, go back and watch it all. There's a whole series of interconnected forts and adventurers, and while the presentation quality is a bit rough to begin with, it's all entertainingly told.



He's very close to making it his full-time job, so stick a $ in his Patreon if you like what you see


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 19, 2018)

I was totally tempted to plug kruggsmash on here. Excellent series. I started watching him about two months ago and basically binged his entire run (E2A: actually this isn't true I stated with evilkings).

Now throw it in the pile and get back to work

E2A: he has now broken his goal  but  he is still well worth a dollar a month IMO


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 19, 2018)

I will also note that I still can't play this game manage the dwarf fortress experience. 

Sure I can run the game. I can even mine a few shafts, set up a meeting hall, dormitory, stockpiles, workshops and a trading hub.  But then  the scope of possibilities mixed with the minituia  of the management  just cause me to sort of stare at the screen with brain gridlock.


----------



## treefrog (Jul 20, 2018)

Shippou-Sensei said:


> I will also note that I still can't play this game manage the dwarf fortress experience.
> 
> Sure I can run the game. I can even *mine a few shafts, *set up a meeting hall, dormitory, stockpiles, workshops and a trading hub.  But then  the scope of possibilities mixed with the minituia  of the management  just cause me to sort of stare at the screen with brain gridlock.


I giggled at this and I am not ashamed to say so.


----------



## stdP (Aug 23, 2018)

I'll admit to being completely sidetracked by Factorio these days but ta muchly for the Kruggsmash link. Just watching the latest episodes of Monsterkiller now and loads of ideas for avoiding the inevitable tantrum spiral I always lose to.

(I'm still just going to install the dorf graphics mod for Rimworld and pretend I'm a proper Dwarf Fortress player)


----------



## tommers (Mar 13, 2019)

DF is now on Steam. With graphics.


----------



## Crispy (Mar 14, 2019)

But lacking the hacks and side programs that make the experience bearableG  Good luck managing more than 20 or so dwarves without dwarf therapist.


----------



## NoXion (Mar 16, 2019)

I tried, but I was unable to get into this game because of its utterly atrocious user interface. There's absolutely no excuse in this day and age for such a user-unfriendly pile of complete wank to considered at all acceptable.


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (Apr 29, 2019)

Git gud!


Seriously though I don't think normal rules apply to a work of equal part madness and eldritch kenning. 

It's like complaint that the book in yellow is in comic sans


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (May 22, 2020)

Crispy said:


> Followers of this thread might like to watch Kruggsmash, probably the most entertaining DF youtube channel, with tons of content, and releases every week. He edits out all the boring bits and draws illustrations of all the notable characters, artifacts, dramatic moments ets. Really sells the story-making aspect of the game.
> 
> Check out his latest fort, Ushangvagush, which is a self-contained story, 20x 30m epsiodes and going strong so far. If that tickles you, go back and watch it all. There's a whole series of interconnected forts and adventurers, and while the presentation quality is a bit rough to begin with, it's all entertainingly told.
> 
> ...


----------



## Shippou-Sensei (May 22, 2020)

Also the  new  Steam version of  DF  looks  to have  made a stab at making this more user friendly

still going to be madness  but  now  shiny madness


----------



## Crispy (Nov 3, 2022)

Bumping this thread for the Steam version, coming Dec 6th

Here's the release trailer:



Featuring a brand new interface, with graphics, sane menus, tutorials, help text and more!

Oh, and a proper soundtrack, previewed here:



(skip to 1:10)

If only I had time for it any more


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## stdP (Nov 5, 2022)

Also owing to time constraints I don't think I've struck the earth for probably 8 years or so (and I think always with the Lazy Newb Pack and Dwarf Therapist in tow to make the insanity bearable), so colour me somewhat surprised to see how much polish it's been given on the UI level. I think my last keyboard-destroying event was endless bloody vampires.

Can anyone who's used its more recent incarnations give a quick summary of what's changed (hopefully for the better) from a UI perspective? Do the tutorials pay proper attention to the wholly holy importance of socks?


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## Shippou-Sensei (Nov 5, 2022)

I'll probably buy it out of respect to the developer  but I don't forsee myself playing it.


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## Crispy (Dec 6, 2022)

Steam release is out now


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## tommers (Dec 7, 2022)

Ive picked it up to see if the interface is any better. The answer is yes, but i lost the tutorial as the button i needed to press was hidden under the window telling me what to do. 

Anyway, i need some help. I have a farm plot set up. And i have seeds in my stockpile. But nobody is planting anything. The only option os "leave fallow". Any ideas?


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## Artaxerxes (Dec 7, 2022)

tommers said:


> Ive picked it up to see if the interface is any better. The answer is yes, but i lost the tutorial as the button i needed to press was hidden under the window telling me what to do.
> 
> Anyway, i need some help. I have a farm plot set up. And i have seeds in my stockpile. But nobody is planting anything. The only option os "leave fallow". Any ideas?



I’m stumped on this as well, I think it might need potash.

Overall I have no idea what I’m doing and there’s just so much happening it’s hard to work out what’s going on. 

Anyone know if I can set numbers on building furniture cos the options seem to be build forever or build once


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## tommers (Dec 7, 2022)

Artaxerxes said:


> I’m stumped on this as well, I think it might need potash.
> 
> Overall I have no idea what I’m doing and there’s just so much happening it’s hard to work out what’s going on.
> 
> Anyone know if I can set numbers on building furniture cos the options seem to be build forever or build once


Yes, that was my next question!


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## Artaxerxes (Dec 7, 2022)

tommers said:


> Yes, that was my next question!



This might be my issue

Above Ground Farming​

Above ground crops farming is impossible in Ocean and Mountain biomes, even if the farm is built on mud.

Above ground farming is basically the same as underground farming, with the simplifying distinction that above ground plots typically do not require preparatory work. However, there are some complications.


Couple of wikis around for it






						DF2014:Farming - Dwarf Fortress Wiki
					






					dwarffortresswiki.org
				












						V0.31:Farming
					






					wiki.biligame.com


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## tommers (Dec 7, 2022)

Artaxerxes said:


> This might be my issue
> 
> Above Ground Farming​
> 
> ...


Ah OK. Thanks. I think the setting multiple numbers of objects needs a manager?


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## tommers (Dec 8, 2022)




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## tommers (Dec 9, 2022)

this is making things much better.  There are still "how do I do that?" moments, but it's all so much more manageable.  I mean, I've only got some basics set up and I'm still trying to figure out lots of things but this is the furthest I've ever got.

I'm playing on a 4k screen and, until you sort out your settings then you only see half of the info you would normally, so be aware of that if you are doing the same (you can tell cos you won't be able to assign anybody to a squad).  So it's not exactly slick, but it's a great start.


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## tommers (Dec 12, 2022)

I think this fortress is dead.  We just got invaded by 5 or 6 undead (there are only 13 of us, no combat experience).

And this happened to one of us:



Head crushed by a sock.


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## tommers (Dec 12, 2022)

He proceeded to wipe out the rest of the fortress with just a sock. Leaving behind two kids and a dog.


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## AverageJoe (Dec 12, 2022)

(((Two kids and a dog)))


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## beesonthewhatnow (Dec 12, 2022)

tommers said:


> He proceeded to wipe out the rest of the fortress with just a sock. Leaving behind two kids and a dog.


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## Magnus McGinty (Dec 13, 2022)

Is this worth the learning curve or not particularly?


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## Crispy (Dec 13, 2022)

Magnus McGinty said:


> Is this worth the learning curve or not particularly?


If it's your sort of thing, then yes. Especially this new version, which has almost completely removed all the interface obstacles. Now you have a decently smooth, well-designed window into the brain-fuckingly complex world inside.

Of all the reviews of the new version, this is probably the best:









						Dwarf Fortress Review - IGN
					

A dedicated renewal for an already-legendary video game.




					www.ign.com


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## Magnus McGinty (Dec 13, 2022)

Crispy said:


> If it's your sort of thing, then yes. Especially this new version, which has almost completely removed all the interface obstacles. Now you have a decently smooth, well-designed window into the brain-fuckingly complex world inside.
> 
> Of all the reviews of the new version, this is probably the best:
> 
> ...


It looks somewhat like gauntlet but as a god sim in the style of D&D.
Am I close?


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## Magnus McGinty (Dec 13, 2022)

It sounds brilliant. Maybe after Christmas then...


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## Artaxerxes (Dec 13, 2022)

Magnus McGinty said:


> It looks somewhat like gauntlet but as a god sim in the style of D&D.
> Am I close?




Imagine the settlers and lemmings as imagined by DnD obsessed nerds who want to simulate everything in low graphic fidelity


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## Magnus McGinty (Dec 13, 2022)

Artaxerxes said:


> Imagine the settlers and lemmings as imagined by DnD obsessed nerds who want to simulate everything in low graphic fidelity


I'm obviously going to try it.


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## tommers (Dec 14, 2022)

I'm thinking about it all the time. I'm not sure i like it. 

Latest fortress is going ok, got steel, 25 dwarves, loads of food and drink, nice pub, most people are having a good time apart from one grumpy bastard. We even have a functioning military. Wondering how it's all going to go tits up, should find out soon i guess.


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## Artaxerxes (Dec 14, 2022)

I’ve got over a hundred but I settled somewhere quiet. So far nothing horrific has gone wrong but I’ve exiled a vampire after a few suspicious deaths (the green dodgy one looked like they did it so just exiled them) had one siege which was dealt with by charging out the squads to kill the goblins. 

Mostly there’s just way to much to keep track of, I’ve got some mods to make some things saner (especially instrument production) so just a case of running this fort to collapse and starting again. 

Farming is a fucking mystery, I’ve tons of food but no booze


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## tommers (Dec 14, 2022)

Making soap seems to be.. tricky. Especially after I read that my donkey was "often sad and dejected" so I couldn't kill her.


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## Magnus McGinty (Dec 14, 2022)

About to pull the trigger. Does the music pack mean there's music in the game or is it just an album to be played at will?


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## Artaxerxes (Dec 14, 2022)

Magnus McGinty said:


> About to pull the trigger. Does the music pack mean there's music in the game or is it just an album to be played at will?



The game has a soundtrack and audio 

The music pack is just buying the soundtrack so you can listen to it whenever you like


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## Magnus McGinty (Dec 14, 2022)

Artaxerxes said:


> The game has a soundtrack and audio
> 
> The music pack is just buying the soundtrack so you can listen to it whenever you like


Cheers, you saved me some cash. 

Just watching some youtube primers. It's right up my street. The fact it can all go easily terribly wrong probably makes it better than similar offerings where the easiness of the affair soon renders it boring.


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## Magnus McGinty (Dec 14, 2022)

This guy mentioned the music here and said playing from the download is better and gives his reasons. Just realised it's Quill18 who does great videos on Paradox stuff.


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## splonkydoo (Dec 25, 2022)

I tried the free version earlier this year but nope....could not get my head around it. 

Gonna try dive in with this again tho, and nice to throw the lads a few quid as well for such a mental game.


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## splonkydoo (Dec 25, 2022)

What guides, add-ons and tutorials do i need before i attempt and blow my brains out again o this?

Is Dwarf Therapist on the new one?


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