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DWARF FORTRESS - For real this time. - This topic is for you (yes YOU)
- Thread starter GDJustin
- Start date
Finally got around to trying this on my laptop. Went painfully slow. Waited a good 20 mintues for the world to load. Once the game started, only one of my dwarfs decided he wanted to dig, but this one is probably user error. I had to make all the others gather food because they wouldn't do anything else.
I'm gonna try this again, but on my faster desktop. I'm not waiting another 20 mintues to get in the game.
I'm gonna try this again, but on my faster desktop. I'm not waiting another 20 mintues to get in the game.
Ah yes, my terrible vocabulary at show once again. Loading is different than creating. But I still had to create a new world on my desktop. And not only did the world create in less than a mintue, but all my dwarfs are 5 times as fast as they were on my laptop. Now that I see the game in its full glory, I'm starting to see its appeal.syllogism said:
SpinningFrog
Member
Well I'm off to start a new fortress, I got angry at the last one and broke my moat into my fort drowning everyone. I think this time I am going to experiment with lava.
Nishastra said:Yes, don't be fooled by the ASCII graphics. The game requires a decent computer to really run well, thanks to the ludicrous amount of detail and calculations in everything
Yup. The speed the game runs at is actually determined by your CPU. The faster your comp, the faster months pass by in-game. I always get excited when I roll a new fortress because the game zips along so fast... but then immigrants bump my population to 50+ and then suddenly I'm much less excited about the game's speed and am using every trick in the book to boost FPS :lol :lol
PillowKnight
Member
After a painstaking 3 hours to learn the game, I finally got my first decent fortress up. That is, until the first goblin raid where a freak ballista accident murdered more dwarf than any goblin would. Even worse, all the goblins just disappeared right afterward. What ensued was a string of dwarf hissy fits that brought my fortress to it's knees. I went from 90+ dwarfs to 20 within the spawn of a summer as one dwarf after the other went mad. Also, the crazies kept complaining about a "lack of buckets" even though there were at least ten buckets just lying around.
platypotamus
Member
I wonder if your madness was due to a lack of burial facilities? They really don't like seeing dwarf corpses.
Alright guys, I started digging out a bit of a fortress, and then realized I was near to top of a mountain and there was no trees or soil around anywhere. Looking around a bit I found that there WAS such stuff, but it was several levels downwards. Is there anyway to cancel my designations and move/dismantle my workshops to start again down at this new spot? It seems like it will be a lot more accommodating.
EDIT: Nevermind, found how to cancel the piles. As for the shops i might just have to abandon them.
EDIT: Nevermind, found how to cancel the piles. As for the shops i might just have to abandon them.
Lonewolf_92
Member
Damn you GDJustin! Just when I thought I had finally kicked this virtual crack, you show me pics of that awesome tileset and here I am, downloading it onto my hard drive again. I'll tell my wife and rapidly dieing free time they have you to blame for my fall off the wagon.
syllogism said:
You need more than that many to
get the king to show up, by normal means.
Side note - even though I have (literally) thousands of them, I can't bring myself to dump/melt stones. It's a sickness. It creates endless hauling jobs, basically slows up everything important I'm trying to do, and clutters up all my rooms, but I still can't just throw them out:
Speaking of annoying, is there a way to turn off the announcement of your mining dwarves hitting a new rock (or the same stupid rock over and over, I'm looking at YOU Alunite)
Or even just so it doesn't zoom in on the new ore, making me have to go back to whatever level I was at previously.
Or even just so it doesn't zoom in on the new ore, making me have to go back to whatever level I was at previously.
For those that have gotten into the game thanks to this topic - here's the real beauty of Dwarf Fortress:
It has been in development since 2002, and the dev logs date back to 2004:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_2004.html
The single developer has been working on DF fulltime since late 2006 (has it really been that long? That's about when I got into it...)
So the beauty part is, the game is always evolving, and changing. And not in minor ways, either. In HUGE ways. The original Dwarf Fortress didn't generate a world... it just gave you a semi-randomized area to play in, to fake world simulation. Bigger still, the original Dwarf Fortress was 2D. "Outside" was on the left, and you dug to the right, into the mountain. At the far right, you'd hit magma, and then not be able to dig much farther. There weren't up/down levels to play with. So imagine all of us that had experienced that for years, and suddenly a new release comes along, and the entire world is now 3D and we can dig wherever we want o.0.
It's been over a year since the last release, and it's beginning to look like, whenever the new release does drop, that it will be almost as epic as the move from 2D to 3D. Take a look at everything that's going to be included:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=30026.0
A couple examples -
- Dwarves now have tissue layers. This leads to all kinds of things. The "fat" layer gets smaller/bigger based on what they eat and how strenuous their work is. Tissue layers can be damaged in unique ways (bone can cut through the skin layer as a result of injury). Tissue layers will lead to scarring.
- Dwarves now AGE, and their appearance changes accordingly (wrinkles, etc)
- Combat radically fleshed out (I can't even highlight any specific examples).
- Health care radically expanded. Dwarves can't just "rest" to be healed up. Infections will need to be stopped via amputation. Broken bones will need to be set and then allowed to heal via a cast. Open wounds will require stitches.
- Revamped the "underground" to make it more interesting. Underground civilizations can be discovered (likely both friendly and unfriendly). Natural cave systems are in. Burrowing creatures.
...and a lot more. By the time it comes out he'l have been working on it for ~15 months. SO EXCITED.
It has been in development since 2002, and the dev logs date back to 2004:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_2004.html
The single developer has been working on DF fulltime since late 2006 (has it really been that long? That's about when I got into it...)
So the beauty part is, the game is always evolving, and changing. And not in minor ways, either. In HUGE ways. The original Dwarf Fortress didn't generate a world... it just gave you a semi-randomized area to play in, to fake world simulation. Bigger still, the original Dwarf Fortress was 2D. "Outside" was on the left, and you dug to the right, into the mountain. At the far right, you'd hit magma, and then not be able to dig much farther. There weren't up/down levels to play with. So imagine all of us that had experienced that for years, and suddenly a new release comes along, and the entire world is now 3D and we can dig wherever we want o.0.
It's been over a year since the last release, and it's beginning to look like, whenever the new release does drop, that it will be almost as epic as the move from 2D to 3D. Take a look at everything that's going to be included:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=30026.0
A couple examples -
- Dwarves now have tissue layers. This leads to all kinds of things. The "fat" layer gets smaller/bigger based on what they eat and how strenuous their work is. Tissue layers can be damaged in unique ways (bone can cut through the skin layer as a result of injury). Tissue layers will lead to scarring.
- Dwarves now AGE, and their appearance changes accordingly (wrinkles, etc)
- Combat radically fleshed out (I can't even highlight any specific examples).
- Health care radically expanded. Dwarves can't just "rest" to be healed up. Infections will need to be stopped via amputation. Broken bones will need to be set and then allowed to heal via a cast. Open wounds will require stitches.
- Revamped the "underground" to make it more interesting. Underground civilizations can be discovered (likely both friendly and unfriendly). Natural cave systems are in. Burrowing creatures.
...and a lot more. By the time it comes out he'l have been working on it for ~15 months. SO EXCITED.
platypotamus
Member
Yeah, I'm waiting on that new version to start a new fortress I think. Can't wait either though.
Littlegator
Banned
HarryHengst
Member
Why would you want one gigantic file of several hours long? Guess you could edit them yourself and just paste everything behind one another?Littlegator said:
Littlegator
Banned
Eh, I just plan on watching it in 2 or 3 goes probably, and don't feel like loading up 40 different videos.
I just ended up making a playlist, though. >_>
I just ended up making a playlist, though. >_>
SpinningFrog
Member
Well, my first attempt at playing with lava almost went horrible, turns out my moat can overflow. Oops.
Well, I started a fortress and using the handy "Complete and Utter Newby Tutorial for Dwarf Fortress" I have a messy, unorganized, but passable fortress. But now I'm kinda confused as to what to do next. Is there a point in making weapons or re they just for show? Should I be making small armies and conquering the surrounding areas, or should I be working on my farm? Just trying to figure out what my Dwarven priorities are.
The game's super addicting though.
The game's super addicting though.
squinters said:
If you keep pimping out your fortress and raising it's value, you'll likely attract the attention of your neighbors, leading to a goblin siege. Weapons very much ARE NOT for show, but there's no guarantee your fort will see much combat. You're playing in one small portion of a completely simulated world - tough to say how much evil is/isn't left nearby.
But ultimately, Dwarf Fortress does not (yet) have any win conditions, just a long, increasingly bloody and convoluted (and fun!) list of lose conditions. It's very sandbox-y:
- I was just reading a story about someone that kept their Trade Depot underground but kept it accessible to traders via ramps. Whenever Elven traders would show up at the Depot they would lock them in then open a set of floodgates they had waiting, flooding the room and drowning them all. They had floor drains rigged up to a separate leaver to repeat the process. :lol :lol
- Another popular pastime is mega-constructions:
http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Mega_construction
Personally one of my favorite pastimes once my fortress has stabilized is to just... pimp the shit out of it. Dig out HUGE mountainhalls. Make goblets made of gold and encrust them with gems. Make all my bins out of glass instead of wood. Smooth and engrave every surface. Mint a shitload of gold coins and keep them locked in a vault deep underground, just because I can.
~~~
If you're still pretty new, you might use your relatively "safe" fortress to experiment. Mess with channeling to make sure you understand it's ins and outs. Mess with screw pumps to learn about generating power. Mess with military. Then, when you feel like you really grasp DF, re-roll a new fort in a high-evil, undead region. Or in a desert. Or a polar ice cap.
platypotamus
Member
GDJustin said:
This is the best thing I've ever heard.
KefkaTaran
Member
I'm not remotely interested in actually playing Dwarf Fortress -- I don't think I'd last longer than an hour before getting frustrated and giving up -- but I freakin' love reading about the game. So much so that this thread and the Boatmurdered saga have kept me entertained literally all night long, like from 9 or 10pm until now (2 am). Thanks, GAF, you've probably single-handedly pushed back the launch of the website I'm working on.
After a few initial abandoned fortresses to get a handle on the game and all of the basics I needed to pay attention to, I finally built one up enough to provoke the first goblin ambush. My legendary woodcutter (who was busy clearcutting the entire map; the elven traders don't seem to mind) spotted the threat first and easily fled while my five dwarf military of three marksdwarves and two hammerdwarves ventured out to meet the enemy. One marksdwarf, Fronk Fatalhandles, made the unfortunate mistake of being first out the door and was promptly beset upon by the goblin horde and slaughtered.
Garly Chuckpicks, the leader of the squad as a legendary wrestler and skilled hammerdwarf, took offense to this.
In the span of mere seconds, the entire force of nine goblins lay strewn across the map in pools of their own blood, bodies shattered by one dwarf's fury. The rest of my military could only watch in awe and failed to get a single shot or blow in. Garly herself wasn't even scratched despite having just a steel helm for protection, and I believe her newly earned title speaks for itself.
Dearly departed Fronk leaves behind only his lover and fellow marksdwarf, Faith, who remains ecstatic for reasons that escape me.
Regardless, having had my first taste of blood I now eagerly anticipate more and plan to bolster the military's ranks significantly with the wave of immigrants that arrived shortly after the battle.
I've also acquired three goblin snatchers over time thanks to a series of cage traps. Should I: A. collapse a ceiling on them, crushing them all simultaneously, B. seal them in a room with Garly and open the cages, or C. continue collecting them for the sheer twisted satisfaction of it?
Also, what's the best way to go about getting my soldiers to upgrade their iron gear to steel?
edit: Forgot to mention that I had a stonecrafter go beserk prior to all this for lack of materials for his artifact. He took out a marksdwarf and four civilians and gave a peasant a nasty head wound before a wrestler finally fought him to the death, losing his own life in the aftermath. The peasant is still bedridden, but he'll recover. I've since learned to keep the military stationed near the workshops when a mood strikes. Nothing else has happened since, thankfully. One kid made a pretty sweet bed out of nothing but bone, though.
Garly Chuckpicks, the leader of the squad as a legendary wrestler and skilled hammerdwarf, took offense to this.
In the span of mere seconds, the entire force of nine goblins lay strewn across the map in pools of their own blood, bodies shattered by one dwarf's fury. The rest of my military could only watch in awe and failed to get a single shot or blow in. Garly herself wasn't even scratched despite having just a steel helm for protection, and I believe her newly earned title speaks for itself.
Dearly departed Fronk leaves behind only his lover and fellow marksdwarf, Faith, who remains ecstatic for reasons that escape me.
Regardless, having had my first taste of blood I now eagerly anticipate more and plan to bolster the military's ranks significantly with the wave of immigrants that arrived shortly after the battle.
I've also acquired three goblin snatchers over time thanks to a series of cage traps. Should I: A. collapse a ceiling on them, crushing them all simultaneously, B. seal them in a room with Garly and open the cages, or C. continue collecting them for the sheer twisted satisfaction of it?
Also, what's the best way to go about getting my soldiers to upgrade their iron gear to steel?
edit: Forgot to mention that I had a stonecrafter go beserk prior to all this for lack of materials for his artifact. He took out a marksdwarf and four civilians and gave a peasant a nasty head wound before a wrestler finally fought him to the death, losing his own life in the aftermath. The peasant is still bedridden, but he'll recover. I've since learned to keep the military stationed near the workshops when a mood strikes. Nothing else has happened since, thankfully. One kid made a pretty sweet bed out of nothing but bone, though.
Lonewolf_92
Member
Sciz, wall them in a room flanked by a hallway with arrow slits between and connect their cages to a lever set in the hallway. Open the cages via the lever and let Faith and your remaining marksdwarves get some live practice/revenge for Fronk Fatalhandles death, it's the Dwarfly thing to do. Plus, you can gather your ammo and any equipment the Goblins might have had afterward, use the Goblin corpses for crafts, and recycle the cages to get more targets!
Plus, you can gather your ammo and any equipment the Goblins might have had afterward, use the Goblin corpses for crafts, and recycle the cages to get more targets!
Woo-Fu
Banned
For the goblins an easy method of disposal is throwing them into a pit. designate the pit, build the cages next to the pit area, then assign the goblins to the pit. Your dwarfs will yank them out of the cages and toss them into the pit. If the pit is deep enough they won't survive the fall. I like throwing them off of bridges.Sciz said:
Create a room with a door.
In that room put a steel armor stockpile.
station the squad(s) you want to switch to steel in that room.
Lock the door.
Set them to no armor.
Forbid the armor they take off.
Set them back to chain/plate.
Since the door is locked the only armor they can get to is in that room and since you set the old armor to forbidden they'll put on the new armor.
You don't have to use a room, it just makes it much easier to forbid every piece of gear they could try to put on instead of what you actually want them to put on.
Additionally, you can get them to layer certain pieces. They'll wear a metal helm over a metal cap and they'll wear metal plate over chainmail. To get them to do this put all of the armor in question in the room with them, then switch them to the next highest level of armor(none->leather->chain->plate) one stage at a time, waiting for them to run around and pick up the gear in between each stage.
You'll end up with:
helm over cap
plate over chain
greaves
right gauntlet
left gauntlet
right highboot
left highboot
shield
For anyone else who was captivated by the gruesome story of Boatmurdered, there's a sequel chronicling the hellish settlement of Headshoots. I think it's just as good of a read. I don't believe you need a SA account to access the thread.
SirPenguin
Member
ffffffffffffff...
He better effin' keep that living vomit blob!
For those of you running a mac, you should seriously consider downloading and using this release:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=40349.555
For me it runs MUCH faster. It's impossible to pinpoint exactly how much faster the game runs (since on the mac native release FPS counter doesn't work), but I play a lot of DF... the difference is clear.
Edit: On an unrelated note, the first official NeoGAF Dwarf Fortress Succession game is imminent. Details to follow
Edit: aaaand I've officially found the location where the succession game will take place. Immediately after embark my dwarves were rushed by a skeletal raccoon :lol
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=40349.555
For me it runs MUCH faster. It's impossible to pinpoint exactly how much faster the game runs (since on the mac native release FPS counter doesn't work), but I play a lot of DF... the difference is clear.
Edit: On an unrelated note, the first official NeoGAF Dwarf Fortress Succession game is imminent. Details to follow
Edit: aaaand I've officially found the location where the succession game will take place. Immediately after embark my dwarves were rushed by a skeletal raccoon :lol
PillowKnight
Member
GDJustin said:For those of you running a mac, you should seriously consider downloading and using this release:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=40349.555
For me it runs MUCH faster. It's impossible to pinpoint exactly how much faster the game runs (since on the mac native release FPS counter doesn't work), but I play a lot of DF... the difference is clear.
Edit: On an unrelated note, the first official NeoGAF Dwarf Fortress Succession game is imminent. Details to follow
Edit: aaaand I've officially found the location where the succession game will take place. Immediately after embark my dwarves were rushed by a skeletal raccoon :lol
Totally in for this. Although, I don't think ours will be as epic as the SA ones.I am happy to announce...
:: The NeoGAF Dwarf Fortress Succession Game: Fortress Fightanus ::
Are YOU brave enough to lead The Mortal Daggars of Blood for one year?
I must say, they picked a pretty cool name for themselves. Although I don't think "mortal" means what they think it means...
We'll be building on a Haunted mountainside, that drops off into a much-more-friendly temperate grassland:
Why couldn't the dwarves have just embarked a few more miles to the West? Why did they HAVE to insist on the haunted mountains? Maybe they're masochists.
~~~
For the uninitiated, how succession games work is that the fortress is controlled by a different player every in-game year. At the end of their year, whether the previous ruler was good or bad, the save is then passed along to the next player for their turn. Players are HIGHLY encouraged to take lots of pics and at least try to develop some sort of narrative for what happened during this year. Although this might be easier or harder according to how much shit actually goes down.
All Dwarf Fortress players are welcome. All but the newbist of newbs, who know so little that they might ruin it for the rest of us. If you're new to the game, DON'T BE SHY. We'll space your years around some veterans, so they can clean up your messes If you're interested in participating, just reply. All we need to know is your approx. skill level, so we don't have new players running the fort for 4+ years in a row.
FIGHTANUS SIGN UP SHEET - LET'S GET INSIDE THAT ANUS:
Year 1: GDJustin - medium skill [Part 1] [Part 2]
Year 2: Mash440 - new player
Year 3: SirPenguin - Med/High skill
Year 4: Leam - Noob that will probably kill us all.
Year 5: platypotamus - fortress veteran.
Year 6: Norante
Year 7 - PillowKnight
Year 8 - WooFoo
Year 9 - ixix
:: The NeoGAF Dwarf Fortress Succession Game: Fortress Fightanus ::
Are YOU brave enough to lead The Mortal Daggars of Blood for one year?
I must say, they picked a pretty cool name for themselves. Although I don't think "mortal" means what they think it means...
We'll be building on a Haunted mountainside, that drops off into a much-more-friendly temperate grassland:
Why couldn't the dwarves have just embarked a few more miles to the West? Why did they HAVE to insist on the haunted mountains? Maybe they're masochists.
In truth I took a peak at the region post-embark, and it's pretty quiet. This likely won't be too brutal of a fortress. But then again, boatmudered ran for four years before the first elephant incident...
~~~
For the uninitiated, how succession games work is that the fortress is controlled by a different player every in-game year. At the end of their year, whether the previous ruler was good or bad, the save is then passed along to the next player for their turn. Players are HIGHLY encouraged to take lots of pics and at least try to develop some sort of narrative for what happened during this year. Although this might be easier or harder according to how much shit actually goes down.
All Dwarf Fortress players are welcome. All but the newbist of newbs, who know so little that they might ruin it for the rest of us. If you're new to the game, DON'T BE SHY. We'll space your years around some veterans, so they can clean up your messes
If you're interested in participating, just reply. All we need to know is your approx. skill level, so we don't have new players running the fort for 4+ years in a row. FIGHTANUS SIGN UP SHEET - LET'S GET INSIDE THAT ANUS:
Year 1: GDJustin - medium skill [Part 1] [Part 2]
Year 2: Mash440 - new player
Year 3: SirPenguin - Med/High skill
Year 4: Leam - Noob that will probably kill us all.
Year 5: platypotamus - fortress veteran.
Year 6: Norante
Year 7 - PillowKnight
Year 8 - WooFoo
Year 9 - ixix
My god GDJustin, this game is amazing. I've been playing DF way too much lately. :lol
I abandoned my initial fortress with the meager amount of trees and instead embarked in a new area with zero trees. Seriously, it's like a fucking Mount Doom or something, not a single shrub or tree or even grass anywhere.This seems like a bad idea for what is essentially my first fortress! Needless to say I ran out of wood before I even had a craftdwarf's shop up; a migrant who seemed to have brought some with him had to finish it for me. In the first winter everyone almost starved because I had a tough time finding soil to plant stuff on (Mount Doom!). Thanks to the migrant-with-lumber's timely arrival I had some pointless trinkets to trade by the time the second caravan arrived (the first one was blockaded by boulders). And lets just say that the lack of wood meant a lot of dwarves didn't have beds for a while. Maybe it'll be good for them!
I seem to be able to get by fine exclusively on imported wood now, although it is very annoying for basic things like making more beds for the constant stream of migrants that never seems to stop, or making barrels to brew stuff in. I could go with metal barrels, but that's even worse because the damn forge needs fuel to run and guess which resource is great for turning into charcoal? I know you can find those underground trees but I haven't come across an underground river with them around yet. I was too busy steeling myself for the goblin raids that never seem to happen.
That's the other thing: curiously, I've been running the fortress for several in-game years now, and I haven't been attacked by goblins once. Wildlife is pretty tame too (enraged goats is the worst thing to have upset my hunters), but I think that's because of the area I'm in. I've got around 100 dwarves now, and I've been over 80 for a good while, but not even one ambush party has shown up yet. Should I feel insulted? Maybe my fortress isn't worth their time and there are bigger fish to fry. I've only ever been beset by Kobalds that seem to follow the traders around, and I think a goblin snatcher stole someone's baby, but that's the only goblin I've ever seen!
There was also that named Titan that killed 4 dwarves before being taken down, which was awesome, but as for proper sieges nothing has happened yet. Am I just lucky or is the worst yet to come?
EDIT: A succession game sounds really cool. Don't sign me up yet though, I'm still grappling with a few things in the game!
I am also wishing I had taken a lot more screenshots, especially of that Titan. Is there an easier way to save screens than the old "print screen --> paste into paint" method?
I abandoned my initial fortress with the meager amount of trees and instead embarked in a new area with zero trees. Seriously, it's like a fucking Mount Doom or something, not a single shrub or tree or even grass anywhere.This seems like a bad idea for what is essentially my first fortress! Needless to say I ran out of wood before I even had a craftdwarf's shop up; a migrant who seemed to have brought some with him had to finish it for me. In the first winter everyone almost starved because I had a tough time finding soil to plant stuff on (Mount Doom!). Thanks to the migrant-with-lumber's timely arrival I had some pointless trinkets to trade by the time the second caravan arrived (the first one was blockaded by boulders). And lets just say that the lack of wood meant a lot of dwarves didn't have beds for a while. Maybe it'll be good for them!
I seem to be able to get by fine exclusively on imported wood now, although it is very annoying for basic things like making more beds for the constant stream of migrants that never seems to stop, or making barrels to brew stuff in. I could go with metal barrels, but that's even worse because the damn forge needs fuel to run and guess which resource is great for turning into charcoal? I know you can find those underground trees but I haven't come across an underground river with them around yet. I was too busy steeling myself for the goblin raids that never seem to happen.
That's the other thing: curiously, I've been running the fortress for several in-game years now, and I haven't been attacked by goblins once. Wildlife is pretty tame too (enraged goats is the worst thing to have upset my hunters), but I think that's because of the area I'm in. I've got around 100 dwarves now, and I've been over 80 for a good while, but not even one ambush party has shown up yet. Should I feel insulted? Maybe my fortress isn't worth their time and there are bigger fish to fry. I've only ever been beset by Kobalds that seem to follow the traders around, and I think a goblin snatcher stole someone's baby, but that's the only goblin I've ever seen!
There was also that named Titan that killed 4 dwarves before being taken down, which was awesome, but as for proper sieges nothing has happened yet. Am I just lucky or is the worst yet to come?
EDIT: A succession game sounds really cool. Don't sign me up yet though, I'm still grappling with a few things in the game!
I am also wishing I had taken a lot more screenshots, especially of that Titan. Is there an easier way to save screens than the old "print screen --> paste into paint" method?
Woo-Fu
Banned
I think I'm too much of a control freak for a succession game. All I'd do on my turn is rebuild everything the way I thought it should be. On top of that, my forts would be boring to most people, as I typically don't lose any dwarfs---except for the occasional baron/baroness who find themselves pulling a lever endlessly in a room that somehow got walled in.
The first year is so crucial, both in terms of what you bring with you and how good you are at getting food up at the start. First thing I always do is tunnel in wherever the wagon starts on the map, and stockpile all my stuff down there and close the door and wall it up behind me. That way I don't have to worry about my most important dwarfs getting hurt/killed the first year.
Before you even start, you'll need to figure out these things:
Anvil or no anvil. Not bringing an anvil with you frees up a LOT of points for other things. You'll be able to buy an anvil from the dwarfs or the humans in a year or two. With those extra points you can bring a lot more resources.
Animals or no animals. A breeding pair of animals provide food, fat, leather, and bones, with bones(IMHO) being the important thing. The larger the animal, the more bones. I favor muskox or bactrians. I typically have 5000-10000 bone bolts stockpiled by the time I start full time training my marksdwarfs to legendary. A muskox herd will keep your early soldiers in crossbow bolts and leather armor. Dogs too, war dogs are cheap defenders in the early game that you can skin and eat after they've done their job. Bring regular dogs, just train them to war dogs.
Axes or no axes? You can save some points here too. Axes will help clear some surface trees if you're worried about perfectly straight walls on the surface in the first year, or the few extra wood you'll have time to chop with only 7 dwarfs. I typically don't bring any axes. If you bring an anvil and also want the axe, don't bring the axe, bring the metal bar to make the axe.
How many picks? The default of two is usually fine. Just as with the axe(s), if you are bringing the anvil, don't bring picks, bring copper bars to make picks from.
Here is my current embark profile:
[PROFILE]
[TITLE:NO_ANVIL_V3_MUSKOX]
[SKILL:2:MINING:4]
[SKILL:3:BREWING:5]
[SKILL:3LANT:5]
[SKILL:4:COOK:5]
[SKILL:4LANT:5]
[SKILL:5:MASONRY:1]
[SKILL:6:MINING:4]
[ITEM:32:WOOD:NONE:WOOD:GIANT_SHROOM]
[ITEM:50:SEEDS:NONE:BUSH_QUARRY:NONE]
[ITEM:50:SEEDS:NONE:GRASS_TAIL_PIG:NONE]
[ITEM:51:SEEDS:NONE:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:NONE]
[ITEM:50RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOLOD_SWEET]
[ITEM:50RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOL:GRASS_TAIL_PIG]
[ITEM:50RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOL:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP]
[ITEM:50RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOL:GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE]
[ITEM:2:WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_PICK:METAL:COPPER]
[ITEM:50LANT:NONE:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONEONKEY:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:MULE:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:CAT:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONEOG:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:HORSE:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_CHAR:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:TURTLE:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:MACAQUE_RHESUS:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:GROUNDHOG:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_TROUT_RAINBOW:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_MOLLY_SAILFIN:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_PERCH:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:GOAT_MOUNTAIN:NONE]
[ITEM:6:MEAT:NONE:MARMOT_HOARY:NONE]
[ITEM:50:BARREL:NONE:WOOD:GIANT_SHROOM]
[PET:2OG:STANDARD]
[PET:2:MUSKOX:STANDARD]
2 miners, 1 farmer/cook, 1 farmer/brewer, 1 mason, 1 bookkeeper(unskilled), 1 carpenter(unskilled)
With the embark points from not bringing an anvil I can easily afford 2 dogs and 2 large farm animals, 50 extra barrels, plenty of seeds, a variety of meat/fish---cheap way to get some free barrels, and 32 wood---plus the wood you'll get from disassembling your wagon.
The large farm animals you get to pick from will depend upon your world/embark.
1st year priorities: defense, food.
Defense: Easy, just dig in and seal it up behind you. You can build a depot on the surface near that exit if you think you're going to actually situate your fort in that area. You may not be ready to trade but the traders will have somewhere to go... and if they happen to get bushwhacked you can come out later and take all the goodies.
Food: After you're securely underground, figure out where the soil is. For most of the game, you'll only need 2 underground farm plots. Do not make these huge at the beginning! You're just making your dwarfs do more walking. I generally make two smaller plots with a line of seed storage between them and a couple staircases in the middle of that seed storage. Stockpiles and workshops above and below, one level for pigtail processing(to make thread->cloth->bags for your quarry bush leaves), the other level for plump helmet storage/distillation. I grow a couple of crops of plump helmets and then grow plump helmets/pig tails until I have enough bags. After that I grow plump helmets and quarry bushes as needed. Five or six years in I'll generally start growing some other things just to provide a variety of things for the dwarfs to drink. You can skip that and just buy it via trading if you want.
IMPORTANT: Proper food stockpile management is critical. Put your booze in stockpiles by itself with max barrels. Put your harvested plants and prepared food in large stockpiles with ZERO barrels. If you don't do this it is very easy to find yourself in need of drink with no barrels to put it into because your barrels are filled with plump helmets and biscuits.
1st year optional: Housing, dining, well
housing: Simple, just make the beds and build them wherever you have room. If you have an overall housing plan just carve out the first seven rooms for it now. I list this as optional but I think it is kind of silly to not at least make seven beds and build them first year.
dining: Simple, you've got a mason and should have enough stone to make some tables and thrones, might as well put up a dining room. You'll want a meeting area designated anyways to get your people/animals indoors.
well: You shouldn't need a well, but if you *do* need a well by the time you need it it will be too late to build one, so build it ahead of time. Make 2 wood buckets(1 for the well, 1 for hauling water to wounded dwarves). The "chain" can be a pigtail rope, and your mason can make a few blocks. Typically I'll hang a well over the nearest brook/pond and completely wall it in so that dwarfs can get to it safely as needed. Put a one square bucket stockpile next to well. If you have temperature enabled and live in certain climates the well water from a pond will dry up and/or freeze. If it freezes you'll have to reassemble the well each spring. If it dries up you'll have to look elsewhere for water. You could always build flooring over the entire pond, which would prevent evaporation, but also prevent it from accumulating rainfall. What you do will be determined by where you're doing it.
On top of that, my forts would be boring to most people, as I typically don't lose any dwarfs---except for the occasional baron/baroness who find themselves pulling a lever endlessly in a room that somehow got walled in.The first year is so crucial, both in terms of what you bring with you and how good you are at getting food up at the start. First thing I always do is tunnel in wherever the wagon starts on the map, and stockpile all my stuff down there and close the door and wall it up behind me. That way I don't have to worry about my most important dwarfs getting hurt/killed the first year.
Before you even start, you'll need to figure out these things:
Anvil or no anvil. Not bringing an anvil with you frees up a LOT of points for other things. You'll be able to buy an anvil from the dwarfs or the humans in a year or two. With those extra points you can bring a lot more resources.
Animals or no animals. A breeding pair of animals provide food, fat, leather, and bones, with bones(IMHO) being the important thing. The larger the animal, the more bones. I favor muskox or bactrians. I typically have 5000-10000 bone bolts stockpiled by the time I start full time training my marksdwarfs to legendary. A muskox herd will keep your early soldiers in crossbow bolts and leather armor. Dogs too, war dogs are cheap defenders in the early game that you can skin and eat after they've done their job. Bring regular dogs, just train them to war dogs.
Axes or no axes? You can save some points here too. Axes will help clear some surface trees if you're worried about perfectly straight walls on the surface in the first year, or the few extra wood you'll have time to chop with only 7 dwarfs. I typically don't bring any axes. If you bring an anvil and also want the axe, don't bring the axe, bring the metal bar to make the axe.
How many picks? The default of two is usually fine. Just as with the axe(s), if you are bringing the anvil, don't bring picks, bring copper bars to make picks from.
Here is my current embark profile:
[PROFILE]
[TITLE:NO_ANVIL_V3_MUSKOX]
[SKILL:2:MINING:4]
[SKILL:3:BREWING:5]
[SKILL:3
LANT:5][SKILL:4:COOK:5]
[SKILL:4
LANT:5][SKILL:5:MASONRY:1]
[SKILL:6:MINING:4]
[ITEM:32:WOOD:NONE:WOOD:GIANT_SHROOM]
[ITEM:50:SEEDS:NONE:BUSH_QUARRY:NONE]
[ITEM:50:SEEDS:NONE:GRASS_TAIL_PIG:NONE]
[ITEM:51:SEEDS:NONE:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:NONE]
[ITEM:50
RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOLOD_SWEET][ITEM:50
RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOL:GRASS_TAIL_PIG][ITEM:50
RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOL:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP][ITEM:50
RINK:NONELANT_ALCOHOL:GRASS_WHEAT_CAVE][ITEM:2:WEAPON:ITEM_WEAPON_PICK:METAL:COPPER]
[ITEM:50
LANT:NONE:MUSHROOM_HELMET_PLUMP:NONE][ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE
ONKEY:NONE][ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:MULE:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:CAT:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE
OG:NONE][ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:HORSE:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_CHAR:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:TURTLE:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:MACAQUE_RHESUS:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:GROUNDHOG:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_TROUT_RAINBOW:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_MOLLY_SAILFIN:NONE]
[ITEM:5:FISH:NONE:FISH_PERCH:NONE]
[ITEM:5:MEAT:NONE:GOAT_MOUNTAIN:NONE]
[ITEM:6:MEAT:NONE:MARMOT_HOARY:NONE]
[ITEM:50:BARREL:NONE:WOOD:GIANT_SHROOM]
[PET:2
OG:STANDARD][PET:2:MUSKOX:STANDARD]
2 miners, 1 farmer/cook, 1 farmer/brewer, 1 mason, 1 bookkeeper(unskilled), 1 carpenter(unskilled)
With the embark points from not bringing an anvil I can easily afford 2 dogs and 2 large farm animals, 50 extra barrels, plenty of seeds, a variety of meat/fish---cheap way to get some free barrels, and 32 wood---plus the wood you'll get from disassembling your wagon.
The large farm animals you get to pick from will depend upon your world/embark.
1st year priorities: defense, food.
Defense: Easy, just dig in and seal it up behind you. You can build a depot on the surface near that exit if you think you're going to actually situate your fort in that area. You may not be ready to trade but the traders will have somewhere to go... and if they happen to get bushwhacked you can come out later and take all the goodies.
Food: After you're securely underground, figure out where the soil is. For most of the game, you'll only need 2 underground farm plots. Do not make these huge at the beginning! You're just making your dwarfs do more walking. I generally make two smaller plots with a line of seed storage between them and a couple staircases in the middle of that seed storage. Stockpiles and workshops above and below, one level for pigtail processing(to make thread->cloth->bags for your quarry bush leaves), the other level for plump helmet storage/distillation. I grow a couple of crops of plump helmets and then grow plump helmets/pig tails until I have enough bags. After that I grow plump helmets and quarry bushes as needed. Five or six years in I'll generally start growing some other things just to provide a variety of things for the dwarfs to drink. You can skip that and just buy it via trading if you want.
IMPORTANT: Proper food stockpile management is critical. Put your booze in stockpiles by itself with max barrels. Put your harvested plants and prepared food in large stockpiles with ZERO barrels. If you don't do this it is very easy to find yourself in need of drink with no barrels to put it into because your barrels are filled with plump helmets and biscuits.
1st year optional: Housing, dining, well
housing: Simple, just make the beds and build them wherever you have room. If you have an overall housing plan just carve out the first seven rooms for it now. I list this as optional but I think it is kind of silly to not at least make seven beds and build them first year.
dining: Simple, you've got a mason and should have enough stone to make some tables and thrones, might as well put up a dining room. You'll want a meeting area designated anyways to get your people/animals indoors.
well: You shouldn't need a well, but if you *do* need a well by the time you need it it will be too late to build one, so build it ahead of time. Make 2 wood buckets(1 for the well, 1 for hauling water to wounded dwarves). The "chain" can be a pigtail rope, and your mason can make a few blocks. Typically I'll hang a well over the nearest brook/pond and completely wall it in so that dwarfs can get to it safely as needed. Put a one square bucket stockpile next to well. If you have temperature enabled and live in certain climates the well water from a pond will dry up and/or freeze. If it freezes you'll have to reassemble the well each spring. If it dries up you'll have to look elsewhere for water. You could always build flooring over the entire pond, which would prevent evaporation, but also prevent it from accumulating rainfall. What you do will be determined by where you're doing it.
I'm tempted to take a turn later on but I don't know right now, I'd screw the whole fortress up and probably not even in a funny way.
However, how are you gonna name the little bearded things? If you are gonna go for the naming after request I'd at least like to be dwarfed so that I can die in a spectacular way like a true dwarf should.
However, how are you gonna name the little bearded things? If you are gonna go for the naming after request I'd at least like to be dwarfed so that I can die in a spectacular way like a true dwarf should.
Woo-Fu
Banned
Raggy said:
If you're running 40d16---and if you're not, you know what to do after reading this message---just resize the window with your mouse. Making that window bigger on previous versions is an arcane science, at least doing so on LCD and keeping things from looking like crap. Doing it on 40d16 is as easy as resizing the window with your mouse.