Amazingly enough the only threat I can find here for DF is over two years old.

So, any other players here? Any particularly physics annihilating stupid dwarven tricks you've pulled off?

I tried to get into it but I just don't... get it.

It's a sandbox game in the vein of something like simcity or minecraft. What you do with it is up to you.

Oh, I get that much. I just can't seem to get its control scheme.

Or... much else about actually playing it.

The graphics and controls are probably the worst. But it's ultimately a lot of fun.

I stopped playing it when farming got mucked up. Building a wet farm was far too much work early in the game when you needed it most.

Yeah, it really is. I've tried to get into it, but it's just so confusing, even to a veteran gamer used to things like MUDs and ASCII-driven games.

I wanted to get into it, it sounded like the funnest game ever (thanks TV tropes )

But...I couldnt do it





Perhaps if someone made a "User Friendly" version, I could. Much like how I love Dungeons of Dreadmoor, a user friendly Rogue-like game

Downloading the Lazy newb pack for dwarf fortress...I'd like to see this.

"I am a dwarf, and I'm digging a hole... Diggy diggy hole, I'm digging a hole..."

I love DF. It definitely takes a while to learn how to do anything, but once you do it feels so awesome. The first time I learned how to designate stuff to be dug out was mind-blowing for me.

Is there a let's play or tutorial video I can watch on youtube? I mean a good one, not a random one from some guy who talks like his face is actually his ass and he's wearing pants. I mean, the pants thing is good ,but the wearing them over his face, which is also his ass, is not, as it muffles and mumbles his voice.

Melissia wrote:Is there a let's play or tutorial video I can watch on youtube? I mean a good one, not a random one from some guy who talks like his face is actually his ass and he's wearing pants. I mean, the pants thing is good ,but the wearing them over his face, which is also his ass, is not, as it muffles and mumbles his voice.

Really, you need to read through the tutorial.

Embark somewhere, dig a hole, make some beds and furniture, set up a dining room and barracks, and figure out how to survive a season or two.

Then you'll get raided by some goblins, or run out of beer, or your dwarfs will get eaten by carp, or a variety of ailments will befall you.

So you embark somewhere else, figure out how to make a farm, or beer, or whatever, and you'll survive for a little longer. Then you'll die again.

Eventually you'll survive and some more dwarfs will show up and you can assign them to new tasks, like mining, making trinkets to trade, keeping your other dwarfs fed, and a variety of other useful tasks.

Then more dwarfs show up.

Then more. Soon you don't know what you're going to do with all of these dwarfs.

Eventually you get a noble and everything becomes dedicated to bowing to every absurd whim that those bastards can imagine. Oh, the king wants a ruby window in his room so he can look at his throne. And now he wants a gold cabinet encrusted with emeralds and obsidian...

Stupid nobles.

Dwarf Fortress is pretty amazing. The learning curve is more of a cliff than a curve (that cartoon nailed it). But, once you climb it, the game is really excellent.

It's also pretty easy once you figure out how to find the right embark spot. Farming becomes a joke if you have plenty of soil layers. Of course, half the fun is intentionally trying to play it on less than ideal embark spots...

biccat wrote:Embark somewhere, dig a hole, make some beds and furniture, set up a dining room and barracks, and figure out how to survive a season or two.

How do you embark? Or dig a hole? Or make... anything?

That's why I was hoping for a video-- seeing someone do it while they're talking about doing it is far more helpful...

I love and hate this game.

This game is not about succeeding. It's about the most epic failures.
Like a dead butterfly blocking your gate and this resulting in lava (designed to kill hostile attackers) pouring into your fortress and devastating your kingdom.
The description of dwarves is just awesome. A leader lady-dwarf who hates males, has a pet vulture, wears an aye patch and likes wooden weapon stands and glass?
The best way to learn in here is to fail miserably and then fail a bit less.
Grab some add ons like stonesense. Read this.

Dwarf Therapist is a MUST.

Melissia wrote:

biccat wrote:Embark somewhere, dig a hole, make some beds and furniture, set up a dining room and barracks, and figure out how to survive a season or two.

How do you embark? Or dig a hole? Or make... anything?

That's why I was hoping for a video-- seeing someone do it while they're talking about doing it is far more helpful...

Seeing someone do it won't help because you won't see the keyboard commands.

Here's a step-by-step guide for playing in a pre-generated world. Although I don't think it's as much fun, since you won't die right away.

Arrow keys to move, enter to select, space to pause/toggle options (although on some menus there will be different options, e.g. "e" to embark on the embarkation screen).

Well, that wiki tutorial helped (the first one, not the one with a pregenerated world)

And it led me to the amusing term "thermonuclear catsplosion", so I say the game is alright so far.

First off, the keystrokes are always annotated at the bottom of the menu. They're not terribly clear usually but they're there. The real issue is that it's not always consistant. Some menus let you use the arrow keys to scroll, some only work with +/-, some need Ukhm, or UKHM, it's byzantine to be wildly generous. I've been playing for a while and I still forget which menu responds to which keys sometimes.

Look at DF the way you would to an online FPS. Expect to die a lot just figuring things out. Once you get them figured out still expect to die a lot to random wierd gak. The way I learned, am learning the game is to start a fortress and just focus on getting one or two things figured out until the next disaster hits. Then I figure out how to survive that until the next thing kills me. Just keep repeating. If you're like me you'll hit the point where you'll have a self sufficent fortress that can survive most random bs long enough for you to be the cause of it's (forgotten beast) implosion (flooding), before (tainted water) too (flooding, again) long (magma oops).

For the ASCII issue I can't recommed the Lazy Newb Pack enough. You get the latest version of DF, an interface to help tweak the most common variables, along with several excellent tile sets and a whole host of useful utilities. I wouldn't say Dwarf Therapist is a must but working through the default interface, especially when you need to deal with 150+ dwarves, is agonizing. So use Dwarf Therapist, it's the second utility in the list in the LNP. The LNP also lets you turn invaders on or off, in case you want to figure out how to survive yourself before the game starts throwing goblins and forgotten beasts at you, turn off aquifers, set your population cap, and auto save. Lots of good stuff.

Also, make your life easy to begin with. Take the easy embarks. Start with a river, heavily forested, and moderate to deep soil. Clay is nice to have as well. During world gen you can also set savagery to low, beasts to low, and minerals to abundant which will make things easier. The game will kick your ass at first without making your life any tougher. Later on you can increase the difficulty and fun.

I'm using the Phoebus set for graphics. It's much better than the ASCII as far as stopping confusion-- almost akin to minecraft really.

No other mods just yet...

I haven't tried any other mods either. Dwarf Therapist is separate program. It doesn't modify anything. It allows you to set your dwarves labors, names, professions, etc. without having to do it through the stock interface.

Tyyr wrote:I haven't tried any other mods either. Dwarf Therapist is separate program. It doesn't modify anything. It allows you to set your dwarves labors, names, professions, etc. without having to do it through the stock interface.

It is worth downloading! Made the game much more enjoyable for me.

If you get the LNP you've got it. I use DT exhaustively because really, master potash maker in the first wave of immigrants? Are you kidding me?

My dwarves all wind up with custom professions. I can't imagine doing that through the stock UI.

lol, I kinda got confused about setting up farms, fisheries, etc and screwed everything up. Starved dwarves!

So I started new game and found this little gem of a starting area:



For amusement's sake, I'm gonna use it. I just need recommendations for a fortress name.

Melissia wrote:lol, I kinda got confused about setting up farms, fisheries, etc and screwed everything up. Starved dwarves!

So I started new game and found this little gem of a starting area:



For amusement's sake, I'm gonna use it. I just need recommendations for a fortress name.

That actually looks like a pretty decent starting location. Calm surroundings, deep soil, plenty of metals, and lots of trees to work with. Should be a great spot to take your time and focus on learning the game.

It also has clay, and, hopefully, sand. Also, you should have plenty of layers of sedimentary rock, so there should be plenty of coal and iron to work with. Do you know if it contains flux?

Be careful about the water freezing in the winter! Make sure to set up an indoor water supply for your soon to be injured dwarves.

It doesn't seem to have a flux stone. What're flux stones used for?

Melissia wrote:It doesn't seem to have a flux stone. What're flux stones used for?

Flux stones don't appear in the list on the embark screen. But, if you do a search of your world for regions, you can specify that it contains flux stone, and then pick from the spots it finds.

Flux stones are used in smelting operations to make Steel. The reactions are the following:
1 Iron Ore (Hematite, Magnetite, or Limonite) in a smelter with energy (either magma, 1 Charcoal, or 1 Coke) -> 1 Iron
1 Iron + 1 Flux Stone (Calcite, Chalk, Dolomite, Limestone, or Marble) + 1 Fuel (Charcoal or Coke) in a smelter with energy (either magma, 1 Charcoal, or 1 Coke) -> 1 Pig Iron
1 Iron + 1 Pig Iron + 1 Flux Stone (Calcite, Chalk, Dolomite, Limestone, or Marble) + 1 Fuel (Charcoal or Coke) in a smelter with energy (either magma, 1 Charcoal, or 1 Coke) -> 2 Steel

Charcoal is:
1 Wood in a Wood Furnace (no energy required) -> 1 Charcoal

Coke is:
1 Bituminous Coal in a smelter with energy (either magma, Charcoal, or Coke) -> 3 Coke (nets you 2 if you don't have a magma smelter)
OR
1 Ignite in a smelter with energy (either magma, Charcoal, or Coke) -> 2 Coke (nets you 1 if you don't have a magma smelter)


So to get 2 Steel Bars, you need:
2 of Hematite, Magnetite, or Limonite
2 of Calcite, Chalk, Dolomite, Limestone, or Marble
2 Wood or Ignite, or 1 Bituminous Coal
Either a magma smelter or 4 Wood or Ignite, or 2 Bituminous Coal


If you don't have flux stones (a common problem), you either have to stick with Iron for your weapons and armor, trade for flux stone (NOT blocks), or trade for Steel items and melt them down.


Also, I assume you haven't seen magma yet. Be careful with it, as magma is very fun!

Grakmar wrote:Flux stones don't appear in the list on the embark screen.

I recall seeing some say flux stones.

Either way, the search that found this area had flux stones set as yes.

Okay, it should have them. I'll look out for those.

Question though-- I know I found bronze and silver (I had to look up the item names and what they meant, but they were ores for those metals), what building would I use to smelt them?

I get smelter, but the menu's large and I keep missing it... what is its shortcut?

Grakmar wrote:Also, I assume you haven't seen magma yet. Be careful with it, as magma is very fun!

Actually I did in my previous (doomed) game. It was at the bottom of a massive natural cave system that seemed to have followed me from Minecraft.


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Also, got a recommendation on the name?

It's probably too long, but I currently have...

Sedilnazush Geshud Nom
Angelblood, the Fortress of Gods

Melissia wrote:

Grakmar wrote:Flux stones don't appear in the list on the embark screen.

I recall seeing some say flux stones.

Either way, the search that found this area had flux stones set as yes.

Okay, it should have them. I'll look out for those.

Excellent!

A good thing to check right now is the Stone screen under Status (access with Z). Look through the list of stones. Anything in Green is considered non-economic and will be used by your dwarves whenever they want. Anything in Red is an economic stone and will only be used when you explicitly tell them to use that stone. By default, any "worthless" stone (meaning you can only use it to build stone constructions) will be non-economic and any useable stone (meaning it's flux or fuel or can be smelted) will be marked as economic. However, any layer stone (meaning it makes up the default stone of that layer, rather than just a mineral vein or cluster) will be non-economic, and some of the flux stones can make up layers.

So, go through that list now and see if any of the flux stones are non-economic. If one of them is, you'll have a ton of it and will have no problem with flux. If one of them isn't, your flux will be somewhat limited, meaning you may have to go exploring to find it, and you should be careful in what you make out of Steel.

Melissia wrote:Question though-- I know I found bronze and silver (I had to look up the item names and what they meant, but they were ores for those metals), what building would I use to smelt them?

I get smelter, but the menu's large and I keep missing it... what is its shortcut?

The smelter (or magma smelter) does all the smelting. Everything involved in making metal bars takes place here (other than making charcoal from wood, which takes a wood furnace). To build it, it's b (build) e (furnace) s (smelter), and you require 1 fire-safe material and a dwarf with Furnace Operator enabled.

To queue up jobs on the smelter, you hit q, then move the cursor onto the smelter. Or, if you appoint a manager in the nobles screen (shortcut n), you can automate this. Once he's appointed (and assigned an office), click j (jobs) m (manager) to see all the jobs the manager is handing out. If you hit q, you can add a new work order. Just start typing in the order you want to narrow it down. Then, enter the quantity you want made, and the manager will automatically assign it among all the various relevant workshops.

Example:
Hit j, m, q, type "coal" and then select Burn wood for coal or whatever it is, enter "30". Then hit q again, type magnetite and select Smelt Magnetite, then enter 30 again. Your manager will assign the tasks and your dwarves will go about producing 30 iron bars.

There are a few drawbacks to the manager. The reactions you can't perform because you lack the materials aren't automatically disabled, like selecting them in the actual workshop. And, the manager will keep assigning the tasks until they're complete, even if you run out of supplies, meaning you get a message saying "Urist McSmelter cancels job Smelt Magnetite: needs fuel" every few minutes or so until you get fuel or cancel the job in the manager menu. But, as your fortress grows, you get multiples of each workshop and you sometimes loose track of where the workshops are, the manager saves the day. Plus, once you have plenty of supplies, you can queue up a whole ton of different jobs for the same workshop and not have to go add more for quite a while.

Melissia wrote:

Grakmar wrote:Also, I assume you haven't seen magma yet. Be careful with it, as magma is very fun!

Actually I did in my previous (doomed) game. It was at the bottom of a massive natural cave system that seemed to have followed me from Minecraft.

Ah, you're a minecraft player! In that case, you'll climb the learning cliff faster than most. Just be prepared, it's hard to go back to minecraft after you've mastered Dwarf Fortress. It just isn't the same doing all that mining without having to deal with drunken, homicidal workers messing up your plans.

Melissia wrote:Also, got a recommendation on the name?

It's probably too long, but I currently have...

Sedilnazush Geshud Nom
Angelblood, the Fortress of Gods

Sadly, I'm not a very good at creating names. All my D&D characters have absolutely terrible names. I just use whatever Dwarf Fortress randomly generates (they are usually pretty funny).

Just wait til the real "fun" begins....

Read this for some good entertainment: http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/

Actually I kinda like having workers instead of doing the mining myself. I'm more of a construction type person, IE, building design, aesthetics, etc.


edit: Have you read Bronzemurder?


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lol, I just realized...

I forgot to bring an axe with me. Fun!

But I can still survive until the trader comes at least. All I can do is expand until the trader comes and brings me some wood or fuel, heh.

Melissia wrote:lol, I just realized...

I forgot to bring an axe with me. Fun!

But I can still survive until the trader comes at least. All I can do is expand until the trader comes and brings me some wood or fuel, heh.

Relying on the trader? That's not very dwarfy!

Ok, you've got a pick, right? In that case, dig until you find some copper (or silver or one of the iron ores). Then, build a smelter, wood furnace, and blacksmith from various stone and your anvil (you brought an anvil, right?). Now, deconstruct your wagon (select it like a building using q, then hit x to deconstruct it) which will yield a 2 (maybe 3?) wood. Turn two of those into coal at the wood furnace. Use one coal in the smelter to turn one of the ores into a bar. Then, use the other coal and the metal bar at the blacksmith to make an axe!


Or, if you feel like taking advantage of a bug, wooden training axes currently chop down trees. So, deconstruct the starting wagon and use one of those wood at a Carpenter's Workshop to make a Wooden Training Axe.


(One of my favorite challenges is surviving with minimal embark supplies. All you need is an anvil and a single copper nugget and you can produce everything you'll ever need.)

Actually I only realized I forgot to make/bring an axe when I had run out of wood and noticed they weren't chopping trees.

Melissia wrote:Actually I only realized I forgot to make/bring an axe when I had run out of wood and noticed they weren't chopping trees.

Have you happened to already have made a charcoal? If so, you can still make an axe (mine until you find coal or ignite for the 2nd fuel needed to forge the axe). If not, you'll have to wait.

I have to wait.

BUT! I got a shipment of four (relatively useless in my situation) migrants! So now I have them all smoothing the floors in my residential level.

They will have to work for their food and booze.

And I now have quite a few floors with smoothed walls and floors. Yay for increased property values?

Melissia wrote:I have to wait.

BUT! I got a shipment of four (relatively useless in my situation) migrants! So now I have them all smoothing the floors in my residential level.

They will have to work for their food and booze.

And I now have quite a few floors with smoothed walls and floors. Yay for increased property values?

You can give them new professions. Do you have someone manufacturing trinkets to trade to the elves? Enough furniture builders? A local militia?

Yeah, I had lots of cut jewels to trade off for wood. But it was a dwarven caravan rather than elven.


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I'm now experimenting with windmills to try to get a milling stone running. Let's hope I can figure this out without letting goblins in.

I'm planning out an underground forest.

Basically like this:

EEEEEEEEEERRRR EEEEEEEEEERRRR EEUUUUUEEERRRR EEUUUUUEERRRRR EEUUUUUCCFRRRR EEUUUUUEEERRRR EEUUUUUEEERRRR EEECEEEEEERRRR EEECEEEEEERRRR EEVVVVEEEERRRR

IE, essentially build two underground areas, and build a set of canals down into the first, the last block being the final barrier (F) to the river (R). The river flows in, floods the underground forest area (U). I then put a floodgate (where F is) to block the water from continuing to flow in. Then I complete the second canal to the reservoir (V) where my well will draw water from, which will be larger than the underground area so it drains entirely, leaving a muddy floor for trees to grow from.

I dunno how possible it is to do this without drowning a dwarf though.



For reference, the purpose behind this is to let my dwarfs gather wood without risking being attacked by gobbos.

Melissia wrote:
IE, essentially build tw underground area, and build a set of canals down into the first, the last one being the final barrier (F) to the river (R). The river flows in, floods the underground forest area (U). I then put a floodgate (where F is) to block the water from continuing to flow in. Then I complete the second canal to the reservoire (V) where my well will draw water from, which will be larger than the underground area so it drains entirely, leaving a muddy floor for trees to grow from.

I dunno how possible it is to do this without drowning a dwarf though.

I'd consider making the tree farm area MUCH larger. Trees randomly start growing and take a year to mature, so with only 20 grow spots, you won't be getting many.

To do that safely, you'll need to consider water pressure. If you're digging out significantly below the river, the water will flow very fast. Have an emergency shutoff and drainage ready.

To prevent drowning a dwarf, I'd suggest you move the floodgate back a single tile, so you can install it before opening up yourself to the river. Then, you can mine out the last location (if pressure is minimal), or you can make a tunnel on the level above and channel out that last tile from above. This lets you keep that floodgate closed. But, be careful, water can still flow upwards if it's under pressure.

I like to install all of my plumbing systems with plenty of floodgates in them, and then finally break the seal for water to access it at the surface level, so pressure is minimal. I also like to instal automatic shutoffs and drainage into the system, just in case I miscalculated the pressure and Urist McLeverPuller decides he needs some more booze before he can throw the switch to prevent all his friends and family from ending up in a watery grave.

Ah, good point. My idea was to have the floodgate be basically a hole in the wall, so that when closed it'll block all outsiders from getting in. I would choose to only use the top layer of the river (I'll check how deep it is in a bit) to prevent overpressurization?



edit: Oh yay, I found a serene area that fits most of my requirements (lacking only clay and having some soil but not deep soil). I'm gonna explore, perhaps I can find some sunberries for trading

Melissia wrote:Ah, good point. My idea was to have the floodgate be basically a hole in the wall, so that when closed it'll block all outsiders from getting in. I would choose to only use the top layer of the river (I'll check how deep it is in a bit) to prevent overpressurization?

Water pressure in DF is actually really complex and modeled pretty accurately. It retains pressure around bends, so if left unchecked, it will fill to the same level as its source. The rate at which it fills is highly dependent on how much water in the source is above the tile it's flowing into.

For example, if you pierce the ocean from underneath, it will fill your entire fort in only a few frames. But, if you pierce a river or stream on the same level as it, the flow will be slow enough you can react to it.

There is currently a bug with waterfalls, so watch out if you have them. The game interprets the source of the water to be the highest level of the waterfall, so you can get some unexpected results if you use water downstream from a waterfall.

Melissia wrote:edit: Oh yay, I found a serene area that fits most of my requirements (lacking only clay and having some soil but not deep soil). I'm gonna explore, perhaps I can find some sunberries for trading

Just beware the unicorns!

Edit: Also, if you feel like micromanaging (or setting up the proper permissions and stockpiles), Feather Trees are pretty amazing for things like Barrels. They're super light, so your dwarves can haul around objects made from Feather Trees at basically no impact on their speed.

Well, I intended to have the first floodgate at the SIDE of the river, not the bottom.


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Why is it that on a good-aligned, low-savagery area the first thing that happens to me is I get attacked by a remarkably aggressive vulture?

Melissia wrote:Well, I intended to have the first floodgate at the SIDE of the river, not the bottom.


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Why is it that on a good-aligned, low-savagery area the first thing that happens to me is I get attacked by a remarkably aggressive vulture?

A philosopher once said "Life's a b*tch and then you die"
This is remakably true.

Okay, vulture's dead, my carpenter's got a few bruises. Yay?

Now to strike the dirt! Aaand I find clay despite it saying there wasn't any, odd.

Melissia wrote:Well, I intended to have the first floodgate at the SIDE of the river, not the bottom.

Excellent! That means you should have plenty of time to react to any unforeseen issues.

Melissia wrote:Why is it that on a good-aligned, low-savagery area the first thing that happens to me is I get attacked by a remarkably aggressive vulture?

Vultures can appear in Tropical Grassland, Tropical Savanna, or any Desert. They're not dependant on being good/neutral/evil or benign/neutral/savage. Plus, they're pretty weak. Your dwarves may run from them, and they may steal your food. But, even a single, unarmed dwarf should be able to fight one off if need be.

They're more a nuisance than an actual threat.

Well, it was a nuisance. Now it's the first item in my new fort's refuse pile.


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I've leanred something important.

When you want a specific place dug first, you DON'T queue up lots of other dig sits after it. They don't do things in order, they do them at an incredibly random whim.

My three diggers switched randomly between four levels of digging and didn't get any but half of one room of the first level of digging done, the first level being the one I wanted done first lol.


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I was pondering starting a game with an Aquifer and utilizing the aquifer for power (let water flow from one level of aquifer, re-route it into another level with pumps and using waterwheels to get power). How difficult do you think this is?

Yeah, when it comes to digging don't designate large areas unless you either have a lot of miners or aren't terribly concerned when they get the job done.

For water control I tend to go to a bit of an extreme:



The orange boxes with X's are flood gates. The G are grates. L's are levers for actuating the flood gates. D are doors. I dig out everything and get everything hooked up except for that last single tile separating me from the river. Then I open the flood gate, dig it out, and my miner runs like hell out the doors as the system goes in service. I've tweaked a few things here and there based on fort design but it gets my cisterns filled. The extra floodgates to no where are for expansion later.

How far away should I put my residences to make sure there's no noise pollution? I'm not sure how noise works...

Melissia wrote:How far away should I put my residences to make sure there's no noise pollution? I'm not sure how noise works...

Noise travels in 3D and creates a cube, centered around the object creating noise. Workshops currently do NOT create noise, but this is assumed to be changed in future releases.

The main sources of noise you need to worry about:

1) Eating!!! It creates noise 1 tile away (meaning a 3x3x3 cube around the eating dwarf) and happens pretty frequently. So, don't put a bedroom directly above or beneath your dining room.

2) Engraving (3 tiles), mining (8 tiles), wood cutting (8 tiles). These can last quite a while, so they can be somewhat problematic. If you need to do any of these around your bedrooms, do them in quick spurts. Your dwarves can handle getting woken up every once in a while, but don't make it too frequent.

3) Placing (or removing) buildings (16 tiles!!!). This can be a major problem if you aren't aware of it. Placing a building can be anything from a workshop to a chair. As your bedrooms expand, you'll be forced to place a ton of new buildings that will make noise across almost all of your existing bedrooms. So, when doing this, I make sure to create all the beds, doors, chests, etc that will go into the new bedrooms. Then, I turn on everyone's furniture hauling, stop any unnecessary work, and create a huge wave of placing everything.

4) Siege Engines (16 tiles), or Water Wheels (3 tiles). These are near constant noise creators (well, Siege Engines only if you are training a dwarf on it), so make sure these are far enough away from the bedrooms.

5) Combat (16 tiles). This is rather sporadic, and when you're in an extended combat, your dwarves will either be fighting or locked away in the panic room, so I don't worry at all about combat noise. But, if you build a colosseum and use it consistantly, it needs to be far enough away from the bedrooms.

Hm. My residential level is seven floors below any other level, and a cheap dormitory is below that. I should have stuck them off to the side instead apparently...

edit: huh. How do you remove down stairs? Pave over them with floors? I don't want a flying creature to come up from the cave I just discovered into my dormitories.

Down stairs are really just a hole in the floor. Build a piece of floor over it and you'll close them off.

Aaand now it's not letting me build an up stair to get back up. lol, my best mining dwarf is now shut off from the rest of dwarf society.

Guess I'll have to build around and get a new way up.

Another helpless victim dragged by DF. Can't wait to hear stories about undead fish killing dwarves, lava defensive contraptions gone wrong, unkillable monsters slayed beacause of game bugs or farmers going berserk because snailman was looking at them.

Melissia wrote:Aaand now it's not letting me build an up stair to get back up. lol, my best mining dwarf is now shut off from the rest of dwarf society.

Guess I'll have to build around and get a new way up.

Are you trying to construct a stair? Because he needs a piece of stone to build a stair from. Or are you trying to dig a stair?

No, it showed me a red X when I tried to build a ramp or up stair, and it simply didn't place the designation for an up stair when digging.


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Macok wrote:Another helpless victim dragged by DF. Can't wait to hear stories about undead fish killing dwarves, lava defensive contraptions gone wrong, unkillable monsters slayed beacause of game bugs or farmers going berserk because snailman was looking at them.

None of that's happened yet, but I HAVE doomed a few fortresses to starvation or insanity through sobriety so far because of some basic mistakes.

Everyone does that when you start.

Yeah, I imagine. There's a lot t o remember.

I need to remember to take along at least one cat next time, for example. It'll help keep vermin down and thus keep my workers happier.

Melissia wrote:Yeah, I imagine. There's a lot t o remember.

I need to remember to take along at least one cat next time, for example. It'll help keep vermin down and thus keep my workers happier.

Immigrants sometimes arrive with animals, and you can trade for them as well. So, you should be able to eventually get a cat. And, eventually, a breeding pair.

Just be sure to get a butcher up and running to keep the cat population in check. Unlike other animals, cats choose to become a pet, rather than you designating them as pets. And, you can't butcher pets. So, 2 cats can quickly become 200 unkillable cats.

Eventually leading to the aformentioned thermonuclear catsplosion?

http://www.mkv25.net/dfma/movie-518-nuclearcatsplosion

Melissia wrote:Eventually leading to the aformentioned thermonuclear catsplosion?

"Catsplosion" refers to when the number of cats grows exponentially to the point where your processor can't handle all of their pathing, so your FPS drops to unplayable levels.

"Thermonuclear catsplosion" refers to when you mod the game to give the cats a body temperature well above their ignition and boiling temperatures, causing them to immediately explode in flames, blood, and body parts. Sadly, you can't edit a game in progress to do this. You can only do it in WorldGen.

Heh, I figured that, but it's stilll amusing.

Yeah, after the traders come I make sure to hit the animals screen of the summary and set up all the ones I bought for butchering. I also weed out all the kittens and most of the puppies.

I now have three female cats (formerly kittens). I guess if I get immigrants I'll see if they bring any toms and butcher them if they do.

Tyyr wrote: I also weed out all the kittens and most of the puppies.

:(

Tyyr wrote:I also weed out all the kittens and most of the puppies.

I never butcher puppies. I tend to go through dogs rather quickly (leaving them chained outside to act as sentries isn't good for their survival rate). And, even if I do have way more dogs than I need, I let the puppies grow up. Adult dogs provide much more meat and bones than puppies.

Mmm, puppy liver.

I'm now starting to reclaim an old fortress of mine now that I'm getting the hang of the game Wish me luck?

I've got about 30 war dogs right now and they will make a good 30 puppies or more every year if don't do something about it. I am sort of a trap scummer so all my war dogs do is eat snatchers and thieves. I've got over 200 dwarves right now and my framerate is starting to dive so I don't want any more little things running around than I absolutely have to have.

And Kittens.... why the hell didn't I think of just bringing two female cats and kill the toms... DUH.

Well technically taking toms are safer, because if a migrant worker brings a molly in to an area full of toms, only one cat gets pregnant, while if you have an area full of mollys and they bring in a tom, well... the entire population can become pregnant.

But I chose females because all my dwarves initially were females (I always check descriptions to try to find out who's best to put what skills on), so it seemed fitting.

One or the other, the whole unisex thing is a big DUH for me.

I just realized that cooking plump helmets and other plants makes them lose their seeds/spawn.

No wonder I kept running out... I need to stop cooking plump helmets.

Yes, you do, sometimes.

Go to your summary screen (z) and use the arrow keys to get to the kitchen screen. Scroll up (plump helmets are usually towards the end of the list. When you start the whole sale slaughter of every animal that enters your embark the first part of the list with the meat can get long) to get to the plump helmets. Once they're highlighted hit c to switch cooking to red. Now you'll only brew them into dwarven wine and save the seeds. Note however, the game doesn't store more than 200 seeds of a certain kind. You can buy more than that but once you hit 200 seeds the game stops collecting them after brewing or eating.

One thing to note is you usually wind up with a lot of plump helmets so you can wind up preferentially brewing all of them. This gives you a ton of dwarven wine. The downside is you can get the, "Is tired of drinking the same thing all the time," unhappy thought. So I play with the plump helmets. Anytime my dwarven wine stocks start to really outnumber everything else I'll turn off brewing of plump helmets and turn on cooking. When I get down to only about 150 to 200 plump helmets left I'll turn cooking back off and brewing back on. Just be careful and keep an eye on your seed, food, and booze stocks and juggle accordingly.

A diversity of booze is a good idea so don't neglect planting other brewable plants including surface plants.

I finally managed a SAFE break in to the first level of caverns.

I also walld it off while I trained a militia out of the latest wave of useless immigrants (including a lye maker, a potash maker, a glazer, and a wax worker). Hopefully there's no building destroyers waiting for me to open up that wall.

Breaking open the caverns usually isn't so bad, so long as you immediately pause the game, cancel further digging, and send a mason to wall it up ASAP.

And it lets you get your tree farms going.

I know -.- a tower cap just grew in the middle of a hallway.

Thankfully my hallways are three wide.

Lay down floors. (b -> C -> f) That'll prevent any unwanted cave stuff growing in your traffic lanes.

And get rid of my immense stockpiles of jet, hrm.

Exactly. Pick whatever useless rock you've got a feth-ton of that makes the color floor you want and pave the bitch over.

I can't seem to get hunting and butchering to work... there's lots of angry badgers outside of my home that keep interrupting tree cutting, fishing, and plant gathering. Are they just not edible creatures?


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.....aaand now I'm being interrupted by a troll who is about seven z-levels down and unable to actually do anything.

Guess I'll give my militia commander an order to stand there and shoot the poor troll until it dies, seeing as it can't attack back with the z-level difference.

Hmmm... this game looks interesting, though I am having to get one of the graphics packs as I have no idea what the hell all the text symbols are about

Forgot to mention this but doing things like floors is a great way to build some experience in your lowbie masons. Like smoothing everything is great practice for newbie engravers.

Badgers are edible. To hunt you have to have a crossbow or bow, bolts or arrows, and have the appropriate labors activated. That said low level hunters are really crappy, tend to waste most of their bolts, and in general don't return anything worth hunting for. I get more meat from butchering migrant animals than I hunt up.

Silver, look for the Lazy Newb Pack on the forums. It'll have everything you need.

Tyyr wrote:Silver, look for the Lazy Newb Pack on the forums. It'll have everything you need.

I was seeing if I could just play the game straight off, but my brain now hurts

*Downloading the LNP now*

Though I do like games where I can dig out mines...

The LNP still defaults to ASCII graphics, but it includes a couple of the more popular tile sets as well and the ability to quickly and easily switch between them.

Tyyr wrote:The LNP still defaults to ASCII graphics, but it includes a couple of the more popular tile sets as well and the ability to quickly and easily switch between them.

I'd installed one of the graphics packs myself, but figure all the other stuff that is in the LNP will probably be handy

Anyway, I am going to bed as I have managed to dig a cave following the quick start guide

I hate the Rhesus Macaque....

Toady does love his monkeys.

Best solution I've seen is wardogs chained right outside your entrance, or right in it, up to you.

b -> v then bring up the rope/chain with q and assign a dog to it.

I solved my problem with a steel warhammer, myself.


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My bowyer got into a fey mood and asked for logs and silk.

I have logs. But I do not have silk. However! I was about to go into the underworld anyway. So I might end up getting some soon. Course I might also let a troll into my fort.

Either way it should be fun.

How do I clear rocks/ore and gems and things that my digger chaps have left in the middle of the floor?

SilverMK2 wrote:How do I clear rocks/ore and gems and things that my digger chaps have left in the middle of the floor?

They left them in the middle of the floor because there is no place to put them. Designate a stockpile (and build some bins) and someone with the "stone hauling" enabled will come by to pick them up.

Or, you could designate them as trash and someone will haul them to your refuse stockpile.

Ahhhh... I see. I made a custom stockpile and didn't enable stone

Cheers.

SilverMK2 wrote:Ahhhh... I see. I made a custom stockpile and didn't enable stone

Cheers.

Don't enable stone!!! You generate so much of it that it will quickly take up all the space in your stockpile.

Instead, create a garbage dump. Then, designate all that stone for dumping. (Mass selection by using d-b-d). Your dwarves will come by pile all that stone into the 1-tile garbage dump.

You can also be tricky by placing the dump next to your mason's workshop, or near to wherever you're doing masonry (building walls, floors, etc). Then, mass reclaim all that stone (d-b-r I think) and you'll have a massive pile of useable stone right next to where your masons need it!

Yeah, never stockpile stone. The quantum stone dump Grak described is your best bet. Personally I make my dump a bit bigger because a one tile dump can be a problem if you've got 100+ dwarves in your fort.

Yes, I have discovered that my 800 million square stone store got filled quite quickly

I was trying to work out how to get the stone into the dump - which is one reason I just made the store

I somehow managed to run OUT of stone while building an above ground fort extension to my entryway.

A problem easily rectified.

Ran out... does not compute...

You ran out of stone? That must mean you aren't mining very much...

She's an elf! Get her!

Elf, ELLLLFFFF!

Someone ready the Magma.

Tyyr wrote:Elf, ELLLLFFFF!

Someone ready the Magma.

What's wrong with elves? I love elves! They buy useless trinkets in exchange for delicious alcohol and cats.

Plus, if you embark near an elf village you can raid their buildings for wood.

What's not to like?

They're tree fondling hypocrites without the decency to be worth butchering for meat.

I like elves, they provide me with exotic animals to slaughter for food.

Mm, dat's sum gud cheetah.

Do you put your trade depot right next to your butcher shop and gut the animals you buy before the elves even leave though? Trust me, there's nothing quite like buying a panda from them, moving it three squares, then gutting it for panda steaks while they watch. Bonus points if you can somehow get a kitchen and a dining hall in sight of them as well.

I commited the immoral. I edited my adventurer to have another limb....ahem.

Yeah, nothing like knocking an elf out with your.....yeah I'll just leave that there.

Just downloaded Dwarf Fortress, trying it now

I highly recommend using some of the tutorials.

A conversation on the Bay12 forums.

Dear Urist,
Why do you come in waves that almost triple the size of my fortress population?
-- Overseer Melissia

Dear questioning overseer:
There be gold in them thar hills. ... Well, maybe not gold, but wealth to be certain. And it seems to call us...
Urist mcMigrant

Dear Urist mcMigrant,

Welcome to the militia. Here's your maple training axe and spider silk cloth hat. Now let's go hunting trolls.

-- Overseer Melissia

Dear Overseer Melissia:

Well, tha' was fun. Blighter got meh a few times wit' 'is fists, but they jus' glanced off me nice hat.
It may 'ave taken a wee bit, but I go' 'em all for ye!

-- Urise McLegendaryAxedwarf

Dear Urist McLegendaryAxedwarf,

Congratulations! You are now a valuable member of this fortress. This means that, though you will still be sent on suicide missions for the good of the fortress, you will receive one (1) 3x3 bedroom, smoothed and engraved by the many not-so-valuable members of the fortress. As empty bedrooms are not useful to the fortress, you will also be provided with with one (1) finely crafted fungiwood bed, one (1) finely crafted limestone throne, one (1) finely crafted limestone table, one (1) finely crafted limestone coffer, and four (4) finely crafted limestone statues.

Upon completion of an additional feat to the benefit of the fortress, you will be assigned one (1) finely crafted silver sarcophagus and associated 3x3 burial chamber. If you do not manage to complete an additional feat before you die, you will be buried in a communal chamber.

You are also permitted to eat and drink from the BLUE barrels now. You are still not permitted to eat or drink from the BLACK barrels. If the BLUE barrels run out, you are permitted to drink from the RED barrels, and eat from the GREEN barrels. If you are caught drinking from the GREEN barrels, you will be flogged. If you are caught eating from the RED barrels, you will be flogged, and then beaten. If you are caught allowing the food in the BLUE barrels to go rotten, you will be flogged, and then beaten, and then imprisoned.

If you are caught eating and/or drinking from the BLACK barrels, no punishment will be necessary, and may Armok have mercy on your soul.

-- Overseer Melissia

Thus the evolution of my character as a Dwarf Fort player.

Sounds about right.

Huge migrant waves are the norm for me in the second year. I had a fort with 16 dwarves get hit with migrant waves of 25, 9, 26, and 20 in the second year. I spent most of that year carving out bedrooms and enlarging the dining hall.

My last 15 turns as adventurer. You crawl after the goblin warlord. You retch.

Oh, speaking of housing. I used to do 3x3 rooms but they eat up a lot of space. Right now I'm liking a 2x3 room. Enough room for the essentials without expecting the dwarf to step over their coffer to get to their bed.



I could drop this down to 2x2 and lose the chair, really the chair is the last thing I add anyways, but I still like giving them a bit of space to call their own. To boost value I can smooth and engrave all the walls and still have space between the cabinet and bed for a statue if I really need it. Given how quickly my masons hit legendary most of the furniture is masterpieces or close enough and same for the engravings. It shoots the fort value up but come the dwarven economy these, "Bedrooms like a personal palace" will kill me. Though do to owning all this fine stuff and amazing bedroom most of my dwarves are permanently ecstatic and as tantrum proof as I can make them.

I do this:

O - - - O | S B S | | H C N | | S T S | O - D - O

O, -, | = walls
S = statue
B = bed
H = Cabinet
N = Container
T = Table
D = Door
C = Chair

It's cramped, but most of my dwarves seem to like it, all except for my nobles. Having this kind of room tends to make the dwarves happier while being easy to arrange. I have excess stone anyway so building statues helps bring my mason(s) up in skill.

I know dwarves don't see things like tables and chairs as impediments to their movement but I just can't bring myself to cram them in like that.

Be careful with the nobles. If someone else has a room close to or exceeding theirs in value they will absolutely lose their gak. I lost my first baron to that.

My mayor has her 3x5 office, a 5v5 bedroom, and a 5x5 dining room, all of which have statue gardens in them. She's happy. I left room to expand the bedroom and dining room for when Momuz Erithigath "The Malign Spear" the Axelady inevitably becomes the baron or whatever.

And yes, a legendary axedwarf is called "The Malign Spear". She got it after she killed six goblins in one battle dual-wielding an iron battle axe and a wooden training axe, WHILE she has a buckler and shield strapped to her arms.


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... my smithy forged a statue of a dwarf making a door.