[platypotamus]

What you're looking at are the beginnings of me designating where stone floor needs to be built. I am known for incredible, impractical construction, but this one is a doozy, even for me. It's probably going to take a year just to do the first floor, since they have to travel through my fort to pick up each individual stone they will need to use.

You mean you aren't turning them into blocks first? Damn it, GDJustin, if you're going to do incredible, impractical construction, at least do it PROPERLY :D

[GDJustin]

Well I was doing pretty good, just had my third said of migrants come and join my people, but then everyone started dieing. Apparently I forgot to build wells. Lesson learned. Time to start again.

Making dwarfs drink water gives them bad thoughts and, if you do it longterm, even worse consequences. Dwarfs need alcohol!

When you embark, take a ton of it with you (at least ~30 barrels of each variety imo). This will give you a healthy cushion. Then, when you get your farm setup rolling and producing (most likely) plump helmets, set up a still nearby and have someone get to work turning those plants into dwarf wine.

Alcohol >>> food in terms of dwarf contentment, imo.

You mean you aren't turning them into blocks first? Damn it, GDJustin, if you're going to do incredible, impractical construction, at least do it PROPERLY :D

Oh, damn. Am I supposed to? Does that lead to smooth floors instead of rough? I told you, it's been like 8+ months since I've played. At least that's my excuse >_>

[SpinningFrog]

They kept complaining about wanting wells, I was doing my best to provide brews for everyone but they all just keeled over. Quite sad really.

[platypotamus]

Injured dwarves need water, they won't drink beer, for whatever reason. I remember one time a dragon attacked my fort, (I had like 70 dwarves at the time). By the end of his rampage, I was down to about 55. By the time the fires were walled off (couldn't extinguish them then, not sure if you can now), I was down to about 50. Over the next several months, another 25 or so continually passed out due to injuries, and eventually died of thirst, because of lack of water.

[GDJustin]

Helpful links for first-timers (I'll add these to the OP):

Download the game (without graphics): Link
Download the game with graphics (Win): Link
Download the game with graphics (Mac/Linux): Link
Probably the best step-by-step tutorial. Follow this, and you'll know how to play: Link
Video Tutorials: Link
Dwarf Fortress Wiki (ie your best friend): Link

[gofreak]

You make this sound amazing, OP. Amazing.

I've long wanted an ultra-deep castle simulation thingie. I have to admit that my heart did sink a bit seeing the graphics (i'm a whore, yes), but I will still give this ago.

One day I hope this kind of simulation will get the royal treatment, AV-wise.

[gofreak]

WTF?? This thing says I need a better GPU? :lol I have a 4800 series mobile GPU. How could this require anything even remotely like that? :o

edit - oh, I think I maybe see the problem now. It has to have a resolution of 1024 vertical pixels? My laptop's display doesn't go that high :| Will try it on my home PC when I get a chance so.

[GDJustin]

Might re-roll in a high-evil area next. No more leaving workshops outside for 3+ seasons while I work on the perfect indoor setup. :lol Those dwarfs will IMMEDIATELY dig a hole in the ground and wall in said hole the moment the disembark :lol

So, I went ahead and rolled a fortress in a high-evil region like I was discussing on page 2. So allow me to tell you the story of the shortest-lived fortress of all time: Ostarineth, or "BuryCity."



As usual, after embarking, I hit the "u" key to see what creatures are kicking around with me:



Shit.




SHIT. There were many, many more pages like this one.

So, the first thing I do is promptly dig straight down. I don't even bother finding a mountainside to dig into. Just get me underground ASAP. I failed to bring any wood with me. So I'm going to have to chop it down. Only problem? The only trees on the entire map are guarded by a small squad of Zombie Cave Swallowmen. In terms of undead opponents, they're honestly kind-of pushovers. So I militarize my dwarves, and send them over to sanitize the area.



SUCCESS! My carpenter can now cut down the couple essential trees we'll need in (relative) safety.

But wait, what's this?



Hmm... a little investigating shows that a Giant Skeletal Bat roaming around just to the south is to blame. Not only did the Giant Bat kill the dog, it literally tore the dog's limbs off, in a shower of gore:



Bolstered by my Zombie Cave Swallowman victory, and because there was only ONE giant bat, I once again militarized my dwarfs and sent them over to deal with the threat...



OH GOD, THE DWARF-MANITY. For the those with untrained eyes, what you're looking at there are dismembered dwarf-corpses, body parts, and lots and lots of blood. ONE dwarf was left alive. But surely the squad's death wasn't in vain, and they inflicted mortal wounds to the undead giant bat?



Shit. While we did manage to lop off his right arm (wing?) and mangle his upper-body, the evil bat seems to have escaped relatively unharmed. Especially when compared to the pile of dead dwarfs.

Th bat pursued my final fleeing dwarf, knocked him unconcious, then went to work on his prone body:




...and there you have it. The tale of BuryCity, the shortest-lived fortress of all time.

Maybe next time I'll go "medium evil" instead.

[platypotamus]

WOW that was a rough area.

Also, don't forget that you can dismantle your wagon for three logs :)

[GDJustin]

Yeah, but I figured I would need at least ~10 logs total. 7 for beds, and a couple for bins. I might give this same region another go, and just take more wood with me. Or have a dedicated military dwarf archer at embark. I think if I could get inside and wall up the entrance I could make a good go of it...

[FFChris]

Just wondering, how do I find soil to farm underground? Do I just keep digging around and cross my fingers to find some, or do I dig down?

[GDJustin]

Just wondering, how do I find soil to farm underground? Do I just keep digging around and cross my fingers to find some, or do I dig down?

You need to discover the joys of underground irrigation :)

The first time I figured this out and did it right, that was the first moment Dwarf Fortress really "clicked" for me and I understood how deep the game was.

Basically, any time water washes over stone, it creates mud. Mud that can then be farmed.

The easiest way to accomplish this (without flooding your entire fortress and killing everyone) is to dig out the area you want your farm to be next to an underground river. Then use floodgates hooked up to levers to control the flow of water from said river.

Another easy-ish option is to install a screw-pump one level ABOVE the river. Then you can pump water from below up into the space you need to get wet.

http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Irrigation

[Woo-Fu]

Just wondering, how do I find soil to farm underground? Do I just keep digging around and cross my fingers to find some, or do I dig down?

The easiest method is to find soil on the surface and then just dig out the layer beneath it. It will almost always be loamy something or other that you can a) dig and leave no stone so it is immediately useful, and b) suitable for farming.

The other method is to flood underground areas to make muddy tiles and then farm on that. I've not once had to do this, btw, at least not for food, only for wood. By default the game typically won't even let you embark on a map where you can't find any loamy soil to farm.

oh, and to the person who thought he needed wells, you only need wells to heal injured dwarves/or to have warriors on patrol carry water with them. Normally your dwarves want beer/wine/liquor/etc. make them drink water and they'll become very unhappy.

[The Technomancer]

Hmm, I downloaded the Mac version from the first post that supposedly has the enhanced graphics, but it still seemed to be ASCII when I booted it up.

[GDJustin]

Hmm, I downloaded the Mac version from the first post that supposedly has the enhanced graphics, but it still seemed to be ASCII when I booted it up.

Try this link:

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=881

Edit: Although the OP link works for me, so IDK what to say.

[The Technomancer]

Ah, okay, read you have to open the script file instead of the main DF program...although where is that script file?

[ixix]

You're even more generous than me. I always go 3 x 3 for regular dwarves with 6 x 6 for the stupid nobles. Everyone eventually gets fully engraved walls though, so that's nice.

All of my nobles get an extra special room linked up to a reservoir, a magma vent, a crushing machine personal drawbridge, or a free-range dangerous animal sanctuary. The only ones who get to stay are the Mayor and the Dungeon Master, since they actually do work.

Can't be having the insipid grasp of the bourgeoisie and their damned capitalism ruining my underground utopia.

[Songbird]

Boatmurdered is legendary, especially Project: Fuck the World. Alas I'm too much of a pansy to actually play it meaningfully.

[Dreavus]

GD Justin you and this amazing thread have convinced me to give this a shot! :D

I scoped out a starting area and chose what to bring and what to train the dwarves in, but I haven't got enough time at the moment to really learn what the hell I'm doing yet. I wonder if I can set a record for how quickly someone is killed. :lol

[Pandamator]

Oh man, i'm really trying, but so far I still haven't managed to look up or down a level because the key bindings seem to be different than in the tutorial videos :(

[FFChris]

Goddam this game is addictive. :lol

Still having trouble flooding my fortress. I think it may be because I'm using ponds instead of rivers, but I'm a bit confused about the process to be honest. I mean, a floodgate seems to only cover one fortress level, but if you dig a channel it is dug a level lower, so I guess the floodgate wouldn't be any use?

Great game though, are the programmers still actively working on it?

[syllogism]

Goddam this game is addictive. :lol Still having trouble flooding my fortress. I think it may be because I'm using ponds instead of rivers, but I'm a bit confused about the process to be honest. I mean, a floodgate seems to only cover one fortress level, but if you dig a channel it is dug a level lower, so I guess the floodgate wouldn't be any use? Great game though, are the programmers still actively working on it?

The programmer is

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_now.html

[SpinningFrog]

Well, after a couple days of playing I believe I have some of the basics down, growing food(plumps helmets, strawberries), brewing, making barrles/bins/beds etc.. I actually have a Mayor now, never lasted that long before and I started a small army/guard headed by my Captain of the guard, who I promoted from hunter. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to get them to guard my entrance. Then I'll move on to the making weapons, armor and stuff. I also had another person drop from thirst, even though I have some 100+ barrels of brew sitting around. The other thing I need to work on is my leather/clothier/butcher stuff good thing theres a wiki for that. Pretty fun so far.

[The Technomancer]

Okay, in the enhanced graphics version, I have no idea which script file I have to run on my Mac. Advice please :D

[BobJustBob]

Oh man, i'm really trying, but so far I still haven't managed to look up or down a level because the key bindings seem to be different than in the tutorial videos :(

If you're using one of the all-in-one graphical versions, they often rebind some of the keys. You'll have to check a readme or something. By default < and > change Z levels.

[GDJustin]

Goddam this game is addictive. :lol Still having trouble flooding my fortress. I think it may be because I'm using ponds instead of rivers, but I'm a bit confused about the process to be honest. I mean, a floodgate seems to only cover one fortress level, but if you dig a channel it is dug a level lower, so I guess the floodgate wouldn't be any use? Great game though, are the programmers still actively working on it?

Ponds don't have an unlimited water source - they can (and will) be drained if you use them for underground irrigation. Although rain water will refill them if it rains much in your region :D It's still fine for learning how to irrigate, though. In fact it might be pretty smart, because you don't run the risk of flooding your entire fort.

Anyway, the key is to dig out your farm room, then place your flood gate so there is still ONE piece of wall between the river/pond and the floodgate. Then, from the level ABOVE, you channel out that last remaining piece.

And yeah, the game is made by ONE person, who works on it fulltime. He's been building it for years. He used to release new versions all the time, but now he waits, and packages up a ton of major changes into a new release. The last new release was Sept. 2008, and his last dev update said he was "trying" to get the new one out by the end of this year.

The new release should be amazing, though. The last time we went this long between releases, the game switched from 2D to 3D. There never used to be multiple Z-levels, just one. Imagine what a mindfuck that was for those of us already used to the old version :lol

Well, after a couple days of playing I believe I have some of the basics down, growing food(plumps helmets, strawberries), brewing, making barrles/bins/beds etc.. I actually have a Mayor now, never lasted that long before and I started a small army/guard headed by my Captain of the guard, who I promoted from hunter. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to get them to guard my entrance. Then I'll move on to the making weapons, armor and stuff. I also had another person drop from thirst, even though I have some 100+ barrels of brew sitting around. The other thing I need to work on is my leather/clothier/butcher stuff good thing theres a wiki for that. Pretty fun so far.

If you've already drafted them as military dwarves, this is easy. Form them into a squad and then position the squad where you want them to guard or patrol.

http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Squads

They should guard their post and automatically take food/water/sleep breaks. That's one reason it's smart to build a barracks and maybe a small secondary food stockpile close to where they'll be guarding.

Okay, in the enhanced graphics version, i have no idea which script file I have to run on my Mac. Advice please :D

Basically, the only actual executable in the folder that doesn't end with .exe :p

I've downloaded a couple mac packs and the program had different names. either just "df" or "Dwarf Fortress" with the icon of a dwarf.

[SpinningFrog]

Well, some sad news, my guard captain went down, along with a woodcutter, both got ambushed by about 15 goblins. Seconds later a trade caravan arrived, which was promptly half demolished, one of the horse teams/wagons made it away safely, but the other one was completely destroyed, however the barrage of bolts being shot from the caravan guards killed all goblins except for one, which I then killed using my army.

After that I went back through and had my dwarves pick up all the remains, got a nice haul, too bad I get the feeling this wont end well...

[GDJustin]

Well, some sad news, my guard captain went down, along with a woodcutter, both got ambushed by about 15 goblins. Seconds later a trade caravan arrived, which was promptly half demolished, one of the horse teams/wagons made it away safely, but the other one was completely destroyed, however the barrage of bolts being shot from the caravan guards killed all goblins except for one, which I then killed using my army. After that I went back through and had my dwarves pick up all the remains, got a nice haul, too bad I get the feeling this wont end well...

Congrats on your first goblin attack. All things considered, sounds like it went pretty well :D And yes, they will almost assuredly be back. Maybe with a full-blown siege, next time. Might be time to start some/all of the following:

- Get a Bowyer set up to make some crossbows. This is actually kind of a pain, because bolts and quivers need to be made separately.
http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Bolt#Bolts

- Once you have some archers in your military (make sure on the military equip. screen you're telling them what to equip!) set up an archery range so they can practice, and increase their skill-level safely.
http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Archery_range

- You might want to set an order to forbid dwarves to go outside. You'll probably still need wood, so consider setting up a tower-cap farm inside, underground.
http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Tower_cap

- More advanced (but more fun!) ideas include digging a large channel all around your fort entrance, with the only access coming from a drawbridge. Or leaving the front door wide open, but rigging it with ballistas, stone-fall traps, floor pressure-plate traps, chaining guard animals to the walls of the front walkway, etc etc.

[Gestahl]

To add to the Boatmurdered point, just a reminder that the Let's Play subforum on SomethingAwful has a Dwarf Fortress collective run up almost constantly. Some get pretty close to Boatmurdered status, and the dwarfs are all named after people participating in the thread so it can be interesting to people like myself who have no clue how to play the game. It took me ages to figure out how to mine shit and actually make a fortress.

[Yaweee]

I've been trying to get into this, but the sound and music won't work. I changed OFF to ON in the init file, but nothing. Any suggestions?

[GDJustin]

I've been trying to get into this, but the sound and music won't work. I changed OFF to ON in the init file, but nothing. Any suggestions?

If you're downloading one of the integrated graphics packs, they were put together by fans of the game. The graphics have nothing to do with DF's developer himself.

So along with replacing the ASCII "art" with actual pixel art, these packs also typically do stuff like remove the music, remove the opening movie, and other streamlining that they assume longtime DF fans don't want anymore.

You'll need to download the "full version" that includes the music file:

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

I don't remember specifically where the music is stored (I haven't played with it in years) but you should be safe copying the music files into your version of DF that already has the graphics set up.

[Opiate]

I absolutely love Dwarf Fortress. Very polished game.

[syllogism]

There's pretty much only one track and it's in data/sound in ogg format so even if for some reason sounds didn't work you could just put that on loop. I've to say it's oddly hypnotizing and the game wouldn't be the same without it.

[GDJustin]

I always lol so hard at this page of boatmurdered:

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Boatmu...apter1-16.html

So the merchants arrive to see blood and vomit everywhere, us hauling corpses en masse to the graveyard, a couple rampaging elephants

Also, "We've got a little elephant issue happening down south." is destined to go down as one of the biggest DF understatements of all time :lol :lol

[Yaweee]

If you're downloading one of the integrated graphics packs, they were put together by fans of the game. The graphics have nothing to do with DF's developer himself. So along with replacing the ASCII "art" with actual pixel art, these packs also typically do stuff like remove the music, remove the opening movie, and other streamlining that they assume longtime DF fans don't want anymore. You'll need to download the "full version" that includes the music file: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ I don't remember specifically where the music is stored (I haven't played with it in years) but you should be safe copying the music files into your version of DF that already has the graphics set up.

Thank you a ton. The only two sound files were the first title and game music.

If I renamed a random .ogg file to what the regular songs are called and replace them, it should play those musics instead, right?

Not sure what purpose that would have rather than just using a regular music player...


Somebody is attempting a rotatable isometric viewer for the game. It looks pretty cool.

[SpinningFrog]

So I guess the attack by the goblins earlier was just the "test the defenses" type deal, as they just rushed my meager army of 25 with about 50 goblins and dogbeaks needless to say that my army of professionaly trained marksdwarves was crushed in a horrific fight. I only survived by recruiting every single person into the army where the goblins then promptly ran away.

We'll see how much longer this goes on, everyone is currently throwing tantrums and I am tempted to just let them kill themselves and start a new fortress.

[oxrock]

I read the OP, watched some video tutorials and decided this game has some KILLER potential. However it's complicated as all fuck and has no graphics. When they introduce a much more intuitive UI and graphics I'll be all over this. Until then it's not gonna happen.

[HarryHengst]

I read the OP, watched some video tutorials and decided this game has some KILLER potential. However it's complicated as all fuck and has no graphics. When they introduce a much more intuitive UI and graphics I'll be all over this. Until then it's not gonna happen.

Good luck waiting a couple more years for the UI upgrade. :( And quite possibly the game will never get proper graphics. But really, with a graphics pack the game is a lot more bearable.

As stated, the game has been created by a single person. He actually lives off donations he gets from fans of the game and usually gets around 1500-2500 dollar a month. This is from the last couple of months:

August Donations: $2510.86
July Donations: $2202.37
June Donations: $2723.83
May Donations: $2221.92
April Donations: $2549.15
March Donations: $2997.46
February Donations: $1428.62
January Donations: $2099.48
December Donations: $5279.49

I dont think there is any other independent developer who has this amount of stable income purely from a game.

I also like how the brother of the programmer writes stories based on the game and things that happen in the story get added as gameplay mechanisms (or well, more correctly speaking, they get added to the to-do list).

[asa]

I downloaded the game three times:
orginal from the makers website[fuuck ASCII!]
->
gfx patch[no sound, weird resolution and the tutorial guy says download his pack]
->
tutorialpack[now we're getting somewhere!] [/I]

After that I finally got into actually playing the game.. aannd boy you weren't kidding.. it's hard to get into allright. Thank god for the tutorial, I can't imagine how anyone could learn to play this without one..

Anyway, I think I dwell deeper tomorrow ;) Got my dwarfes mining, producing and gathering. Thanks OP!

[Acosta]

I just wanted to thank the OP for the effort. Yes, Dwarf Fortress is absolutely awesome and rewarding for anyone making a bit of effort learning it.

Dwarf Fortress is exactly the direction I would like to see videogames advancing: simulation for everything. It´s a long shot, but hey, dreaming it´s free.

[Volodja]

It's been a while since I played my last (and unique) game of DF.
This time I'm going tutorial-less and it shows, I've just deleted a fortress that was kind of a mess, so much so that I even deleted it by accident. Sigh.
Time to create a new one, possibly without drowning my miners in my own canals.

[Norante]

Do we have enough people to start a succession game yet?

[gofreak]

Whirling around with my first dungeon, based on the tutorial wiki. Fun so far! Nothing too eventful..have a farm, a refuse stockpile in a 'detached' but indoors area, a still, a carpenters workshop and various other stockpiles...guess my next steps will be making stairs and digging down to make bedrooms and things...

Is there a ultimate goal to all this asides from having a nice stable, large fortress? Is there a kind of story you follow, or is it just purely open ended simulation?

[Volodja]

Do we have enough people to start a succession game yet?

Succession games look interesting (at least reading the tales of Boatmurdered) but I don't know if I would feel confident enough in my abilities (and knowledge of the game) to take a spot.
Especially if there are pissed off animals near the fortress.

Whirling around with my first dungeon, based on the tutorial wiki. Fun so far! Nothing too eventful..have a farm, a refuse stockpile in a 'detached' but indoors area, a still, a carpenters workshop and various other stockpiles...guess my next steps will be making stairs and digging down to make bedrooms and things... Is there a ultimate goal to all this asides from having a nice stable, large fortress? Is there a kind of story you follow, or is it just purely open ended simulation?

Open ended. Do what you want the way you want it, at least if you manage to survive and fullfill the needs of your dwarves.

[SpinningFrog]

Aquifers suck. I just started a new round, had a nice base carved half out of a mountain, had a moat, smiles and all that. Tried to dig down, couldn't even find stone, just damp stuff everywhere, I think I've tiled out half the second underground floor looking for another way down.

[Woo-Fu]

Aquifers suck. I just started a new round, had a nice base carved half out of a mountain, had a moat, smiles and all that. Tried to dig down, couldn't even find stone, just damp stuff everywhere, I think I've tiled out half the second underground floor looking for another way down.

Depending on the map you've got a number of options.

1. If there is a mountain tile anywhere on the map there won't be aquifer under it.
2. Magma pool or magma pipe will have enough obsidian around it that you can safely tunnel through it to beneath the aquifer.
3. If your map gets cold enough in winter exposed water will freeze. Expose a an area of aquifer by channeling out ever layer on top of it so that it is exposed to the surface. In the winter the water will freeze. Dig out an area and replace the outside facing blocks of water you dug with stone, leaving a stairwell in the middle.
4. You can build enough screw pumps around an excavation such that you can pump out enough of the aquifer to build a caisson.

One of the biggest rules in fort building is never dig upward into an area you don't already know what is there. Dig upwards into an underground river or an aquifer and you can pretty much kiss your fort goodbye unless you get lucky and react very quickly. You will lose that dwarf miner most likely, regardless of what you do.

[GDJustin]

I also like how the brother of the programmer writes stories based on the game and things that happen in the story get added as gameplay mechanisms (or well, more correctly speaking, they get added to the to-do list).

Yeah, this is something I wanted to mention in the OP, but it was already so huge I decided to skip it. DF has perhaps the most non-traditional development cycle of any game I'm familiar with. One brother writes stories, and the other brother makes the actual game itself. The idea is that anything that ends up in one of the stories should be possible to pull off in the game. ANYTHING.

From the micro-level (a goblin wearing a necklace made of dwarf ears), to the macro-level (one civilization conquering another, and enslaving them, razing their cities). Dwarf Fortress doesn't "fake" any of these systems. So in order to get ear-necklaces in the game, a bunch of sub-systems had to be written. A) body parts needed to be able to be targeted and chopped off in combat. B) Those parts need to then become items that can be interacted with, carried, etc. C) Body parts need to be flagged as possible ingredients for crafting.

That sounds like a huge amount of up front work for one smallish thing (and it is), but the point is that once the system has been written, it can apply to anything. So ANY body part can be interacted with, in that manner. For the new release he's adding eyelids... meaning they can be lost in battle o.0

An infamous example is that if someone is on a drawbridge, and the bridge is raised, they'll be flung off. This is in the game because it was included in one of the early DF stories.

After that I finally got into actually playing the game.. aannd boy you weren't kidding.. it's hard to get into allright. Thank god for the tutorial, I can't imagine how anyone could learn to play this without one.. Anyway, I think I dwell deeper tomorrow ;) Got my dwarfes mining, producing and gathering. Thanks OP!

Hehe... you're welcome. The more converts the better :)

The thing about DF is that it has to be approached with a different mindset. If you make "learning the game" a goal in and of itself, then little victories become fun. Even though I wasn't really accomplishing anything, the first time I correctly designated a dig site and correctly set up a stone stockpile, it was super cool to then unpause and see all my dwarfs run off.

The UI really does become second-nature eventually, I can now rapidly hit b, C, w, uuu to start construction on a wall three sections long. And I'm not even thinking about the buttons, or looking at the menus. But in the beginning, if you can savor the small victories (first time constructing a wall, chaining an animal, etc) you'll get it down.

Is there a ultimate goal to all this asides from having a nice stable, large fortress? Is there a kind of story you follow, or is it just purely open ended simulation?

The game is technically still in alpha. Huge chunks have yet to be included, including proper overland wars, etc. Also not included yet is an actual victory condition :)

DF community has adopted the motto "losing is fun!" and in this instance I absolute agree. It's more fun to say "I had a good fort going but then a herd of elephants rampaged through the front door and killed everyone in a sea of blood" then to say "everyone is happy and healthy."

Aquifers suck. I just started a new round, had a nice base carved half out of a mountain, had a moat, smiles and all that. Tried to dig down, couldn't even find stone, just damp stuff everywhere, I think I've tiled out half the second underground floor looking for another way down.

Aquifers make a good fort very tough, yes. You might consider using this opportunity to try out a vertical construction. See if you can build a multi-level tower with mined stone or wood.

[WretchedTruman]

I have downloaded this game.

I took it in my hands.

I watched.

And....a-and I...

[platypotamus]

Aquifers make a good fort very tough, yes. You might consider using this opportunity to try out a vertical construction. See if you can build a multi-level tower with mined stone or wood.

Last time I tried to do this was before you could designate the lengths/widths of walls/roads/floors as you built them. It was such a pain to build one room that I gave up.

[Woo-Fu]

Dwarfs were not meant to live above ground. :D