You gotta get into Dwarf Fortress if you haven't already.

[Benitosimies]

(I searched for a thread dedicated to DF but could not find one.)

Site.

Helpful wiki.

I got this game ~week ago and spent like a day just learning it and dicking around.

I don't know why but it is somehow fun as hell to try to keep these idiots alive. It's like Lemmings + Oregon Trail + Nethack + The Sims.

Want to get in on a Succession Game? Click Here!

[SecondTalon]

Took me about ten fortresses before I got farming and water supply completely down, as well as identifying areas quickly that wouldn't result in all of my dwarves dying before the first migration wave.

Also - flooding out your fortress. Seems like it'd be difficult to do. Seems like it. Turns out rivers leap out of their beds, chase you around, and follow you down into your fortress... at least, that's my story. Couldn't possibly be because I wasn't paying attention and knocked down the wrong wall.

[Jessica]

Oh man DF is awesome stupid horrible awesome.

[Coin]

Heh, I've been following the developement of this for some time now and I must say that it is becoming more and more advanced.
Now Toady will be introducing some sort of army function wich will let you create armies and rampage around the world and return the favour to those pesky goblins that lay siege to your fortress every now and then.

My biggest challenge at the moment is to get all the mechanical parts working, such as windmills =)
I havn't really found them usefull before but I've set out to learn how to use them well.

[SecondTalon]

Oh man.. using mechanical stuff is really the only way to go.. and understanding it well. I usually end up digging a fairly large (10x10x10) area that I flood and use as my water source.. and have the whole thing rigged up to a ton of screw pumps and power sources so that should some morose dwarf throw themselves into the drink, I can drain the whole thing and have someone go down there and get the corpse and deal with it.

Sure, it takes time, but it's amusing. I'm starting to move towards the idea of a floodable entrance area, where I can (In theory, using double or triple deep floodgates) trap an invading force and drown the bastards.

[b.i.o]

Hmmm, I may try this again. The ASCII graphics really killed it for me when I tried playing it last though . Presentation is, for me, a bit part of pretty much anything.

[SecondTalon]

You can get tilesets for it, and those will replace the ascii with simple graphics.. nothing more complex than what a late NES/early SNES game would have displayed.

That being said.. yeah, once you get used to the ascii art.. it works fine.

[Vaniver]

The game's motto is "losing is fun." This does not bode well for the dwarves

I am currently watching the world initialize itself, and kicking myself for not finding a pregen.

[Azrael001]

I have the game downloaded, it is taking a loooong time to load. I am too lazy to read the readme, is this a bad move?
(note, it is late and I am avoiding bed, hence the laziness.)

[SecondTalon]

If by Load you mean generate a world.. that takes a while. They've got pre-generated worlds you can download (at 25ish megs a pop) or seeds you can use to generate one relatively quickly..

But if you just ran in to it as is.. yeah, taking a while to generate the first world is normal. By your tenth fortress on the world, you'll be shaking your head at your first choice of location, thinking "Man, what a n00b I was..."

[Azrael001]

By load I mean I downloaded the game in about 10 seconds, extracted it and double clicked on the "make it go" icon. A small black window appeared. Since then I have posted here (now twice) and wrote a long and rambling post for a SB thread. It is still in the original black window with no options, menus or even words displayed. I can only assume that this is not normal behavior.

Edit: it is still not working. Sigh.

[Kag]

Sure, it takes time, but it's amusing. I'm starting to move towards the idea of a floodable entrance area, where I can (In theory, using double or triple deep floodgates) trap an invading force and drown the bastards.

Personally, I prefer the elegance of the serrated disc, although that might just be because it'd be impossible to implement any sort of flood-based defenses in my fort, at this stage.

Note to anyone new to the game: bring an anvil when you embark. It really blows to have an armorer immigrate, go into a strange mood, and go insane before even getting to your fort because you couldn't make a metalsmith's forge.

[SecondTalon]

....okay, yeah.. that is not normal..

Out of the box, when I run it, it asks if I want Full Screen or Windowed... I always choose windowed because, hey, I like doing other shit while I play.. then it plays the intro moves and reminds me to turn the damn sound and crap off in the config.

So.. give that a go. Navigate over to \Dwarf Fortress\data\init\ and there should be a file called init.txt

Open that puppy up, and.. as the sound annoys me, you're free to change that to OFF. I recommend it.

Anyway, below that a couple of lines should be [INTRO:ON]

Change that to [INTRO:OFF], save, and try the game again. Maybe the intro movies and your system don't play nice.

Re:Anvils and the bringing of them...

At this stage, I don't even bother with having an anvil or making a metalsmith. I rely on one showing up in an immigration wave and as 99.9999% of all of my strange moods need a fucking Craftsdwarf Shop, a dwarf needing a forge has never really been a problem. By the time I'm ready to get a metalworking industry up and running, a metalworker has shown up and I've been able to trade rhyolite rings for one.

[Azrael001]

The problem could be that I have no init.txt in the specified folder... or anywhere at all.

Also is Dwarf Fortress/RAW supposed to be empty?

[SecondTalon]

... No, it shouldn't be empty. Should have two folders - objects and graphics, and both should have stuff in them

I downloaded from this exact link and got a file called df_27_176_38c.zip that was 5.32mb in size.

I suggest re-downloading the game, as something went horribly wrong last time.

[Azrael001]

Thank you. The problem was when I extracted the game, some of the files in the sub-folders weren't being extracted along with it. I had to do those seprately. It is likely that I did it wrong, but I will blame my winzip program anyways.

Edit: Holy crap it's 4am. I should probably sleep...

[Benitosimies]

I'm starting to move towards the idea of a floodable entrance area, where I can (In theory, using double or triple deep floodgates) trap an invading force and drown the bastards.

That would be a cool thing to try but you'd probably drown less of your own people if you just use

the serrated disc

Disadvantage of that though is it eventually stops resetting. So uh, choose wisely dwarf masta Talon. I guess.

My siege contingencies:
Arrow slits built in the walls over the entrances, so archers can shoot down through the murder holes at goblins (since archers can shoot to different places on z axis).

Drawbridge 1: The moathole is in the process of being filled with menacing iron spikes, which I am linking all up to one lever. So when goblins fall in, I can shank them repeatedly by pulling the lever over and over again (maybe I can set the job to repeat). Also, four cage traps next to the wall + grate that's keeping the moathole separate from my fort, so that none may escape THE MURDER CHAMBER.

Drawbridge 2: Dunno. Wish I had some sort of Death Ray. Ballista might work but it is hell of slow and I'd hate for it to get rushed, etc. What should I fill that moat hole with? My best plan right now is a deeper moat hole.

To do (to prepare for inevitable goblin siege):
Emergency levers throughout the fort (marked as such by being in 1x1 alcoves) that raise the bridges.
Ballista (just don't have a good place for it).
Cage traps all over the god damn place.

I'm not going to bother with dogs because dogs will just get shot.

My vulnerabilities:
A one-tile wide stream I diverted so I can power my water mill, so now there's a one-tile wide hole in my fort basically. I'm not really screwed unless I'm fending off some really good swimmers. In which case fuuuuck. Maybe I could cause a cave in there, I don't know.

My fishers and hunters are going to be out fishing and hunting and will probably get killed because I have no way of telling them hey, bring a spear with you. Hopefully they're really good at running away and I can be clever with high-traffic areas.

[thecommabandit]

Any discussion of the adventurer side of things? That's what sold my download and it seems like it could be pretty cool, but so far no-one's even mentioned the word.

[Coin]

A one-tile wide stream I diverted so I can power my water mill, so now there's a one-tile wide hole in my fort basically. I'm not really screwed unless I'm fending off some really good swimmers. In which case fuuuuck. Maybe I could cause a cave in there, I don't know.

Just put metal bars/grate in there and you'll be safe =)

Any discussion of the adventurer side of things? That's what sold my download and it seems like it could be pretty cool, but so far no-one's even mentioned the word.

I havn't played that side of the game much; I'm having far too much fun with the fortress side. Also the times I have tried it I haven't been able to do much, wich is disheartening.
I should probably go investigate some of my old fortresses though

[b.i.o]

You can get tilesets for it, and those will replace the ascii with simple graphics.. nothing more complex than what a late NES/early SNES game would have displayed.

That being said.. yeah, once you get used to the ascii art.. it works fine.

Hmm, I may do that then, I much prefer simple graphics to ASCII graphics.

[Kag]

The downside being that the game will not run as quickly, which can be a pretty serious issue in quite a few cases if you don't have a significantly powerful computer.

[Memo]

The first time I played this game it was the old version, 2D. I never got into it. I found it boring and too complex. Curiously enough, when I tried out the 3D version I was sucked into it. I spent a week playing it, rejoicing when the new version with some bugs (well crash anyone?) was released.
I stopped playing after realizing how slow everything was, a game-year took entire afternoons to be played. My old computer was the one to blame, but now that I have a new one, I'm too lazy to download it again.

[Kag]

...I can't believe this.

I just lost 12 dwarves to a group of snakemen and olmmen. The first one died (fishing, or something. Dumbass.), then the rest were brutally murdered trying to recover the bodies. By the time my newly created military (consisting of two peasants with an axe and a sword) showed up, it was too late. My axedwarf got there, followed a snakeman into a lake, and went out in a blaze of glory fighting a horde of lizardmen.

It was awesome.

[Clumpy]

I'm glad that this game exists because the docs are fun to read, but I found the whole thing so horribly intimidating I gave up within the first half hour. They should have college classes on the topic.

[MoD]

I just downloaded and I'm creating a world. This is epic like nothing since... ever.

DWARVES, prepare to FORTRESS!

Eventually.

[SecondTalon]

Clumpy - it's not as complicated as it seems. Honest.

[Clumpy]

It would be more fair to say that I didn't know where to start.

I'll try it again. Once I know the controls some experimentation should set me straight.

[4=5]

the world is really beautiful.

I just started playing on my mac.
so um how do I build a fishery?

and say a floodgate or door

[Kag]

All of those things would be in the buildings menu (b).

Other menus you may want to be concerned with are the unit listing (u), designations (d), stockpiles (p), building information (q), and creatures(v) (specifically so you can change your dwarves' labor preferences (p, then l) and tell them to do jobs you don't already have anyone for).

[4=5]

I haven't been able to get the +-*/ to succeed at scrolling,

[Azrael001]

I downloaded this last night (after some difficulty, but didn't get around to playing until just now. What buildings should I be starting off with. All I seem able to build are roads and farm plots. I know that there is something that I am doing wrong.

[Kag]

I haven't been able to get the +-*/ to succeed at scrolling,

I have no idea what the problem is with that. I'd look on the bay12 website.

What buildings should I be starting off with. All I seem able to build are roads and farm plots. I know that there is something that I am doing wrong.

Press (w) to go to the workshop menu. You should be able to build most of the things in there. I would strongly suggest building carpenter's and mason's shops and a craftsdwarf's workshop to start, and you're probably going to want a brewery and a kitchen eventually.

[Benitosimies]

I haven't been able to get the +-*/ to succeed at scrolling,

You need to use the numpad ones for some reason. I know, it's squirrelly.

[4=5]

ok that'll be a problem then, I don't actually have a num pad
is there a way to change which keys that function is assigned to?

[Azrael001]

I love my laptop. It's 17" monitor makes the thing big enough that I have a numpad built in. It's main purpose is games like Zangband and this.

[Kag]

From the Bay12 website.

"If you can get to the ESC keybindings menu (from the start screen, press ESC and then 2/8 to scroll to Key Bindings), you can set your key bindings."

[thecommabandit]

I'm glad that this game exists because the docs are fun to read, but I found the whole thing so horribly intimidating I gave up within the first half hour. They should have college classes on the topic.

Quoted for truth. I tried making a fortress and the only thing I built was a farm. And I'm not even sure they even built that =/ I put the plot down but the dwares I told to farm just went galavanting off-screen and I couldn't find a builder/construction worker proffesion in the list.

[Coin]

Have no fear, instructions are here!
The link below will take you to the dwarven fortress wiki where you will find tips and guides to most things along with an insight into the game mechanics.
It includes lists of professions, buildings, processes and general "how stuff works".
I enjoy the experimenting neccessary to learn the game but sometimes you just want to know exactly how something works

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Main_Page

[mister k]

I've tried twice. Once I got bored when the world was generating and I had no idea what was going on, second time I tried playing without having read the manual, and seemed to have a bunch of dwarves with no skills objects or anything to do.... I guess I need to read the manual or something because people do rave so...

[SecondTalon]

It would be more fair to say that I didn't know where to start.

I'll try it again. Once I know the controls some experimentation should set me straight.

If your wagon starts out near a wall, or you find a wall in scrolling around (Arrow keys always work for me for that, as well as Shift+> or Shift+< to move up and down the Z axis) then (d)esignate an area for (d)mining.. probably a corridor at least 2 spaces wide and at least 10 spaces long. So, like I said.. press d then d, and you're in "I'm selecting crap for digging!" mode. After pressing d and then d, if you press enter and move the cursor around, you should notice a blinking green + sign. From that point to wherever you press enter again, the game will draw a box that large (be it a 1x1 box, or a 100x100 box) and designate everything within that area that can be dug to be dug out.

So.. like I said, if there's a nearby wall, you dig in to it a bit. If there's no wall nearby, or the only walls are so close to the edge that you can't make much of a corridor, then we did down. (d)esignate a couple of spaces to be (j)stairs down (same principle, only this time we only need a 2x2 area at most) and then move down the Z axis (Shift+>) and (d)esignate the spaces immediately below your stairs down to be either (u)stairs up, or (i)stairs up and down. Once you've gone down a level, dig out a corridor. Off the corridor, dig a 2x1 space, then a 10x10 area connected to that. Once that's been dug out, we're going to turn it into a (p)stockpile.

While you can use (p)(t)custom stockpile settings, I always just build one then use (q)Set Building Tasks and Preferences to change what it's for. After building whatever first stockpile you can (I think it'd technically be an Animal Only one), you hit q then s, and scroll up and down the list, hitting e on everything but graveyard and refuse. When you're done, hit space, and press Shift+v and Shift+C. This changes your Max Barrel and Max Bin setting to the highest possible. When you space back out to the real game (When in doubt, smack space until your little brats start moving again) your dwarves should start hauling everything from the wagon to the stockpile.

Basic controls are arrow keys to move around and scroll half the menus, it seems.. + and - on the keypad scroll the other menus up and down. Space always moves you back a menu (That is, if you (b)uild a (w)orkshop, but realize you actually need a (c)onstruction, rather than smacking space until the dwarves move, then hitting (b) and (c), you can hit space once, which puts you on the build menu, then hit c to get to the constructions menu.)

Right now, you'll always want to start in an area that has trees. Look for lots of vegetation for that. The only workshops you absofuckingcannot live without would be a Carpenter's shop to build beds from wood, and a Still to make alcohol. While a Mechanic's Shop and a Mason's shop do make life much easier, I figure your first fortress should be you concentrating on figuring out Food Production. Plump Helmets are the godfood, as you can eat them, cook them in a kitchen, or brew them into alcohol.