Who in the Playground plays Dwarf Fortress?

[Tiktik Ironclaw]

Just wondering who else enjoys lobbing cats at Bronze Colossi, putting nobles in special rooms, and torturing elves, and what you may have modded in.

I've added drow, hobgoblins, orcs (Uruks and Snaga), gnolls, hobbits (a race of Belkars), wizards, valkyrie, devas, succubi, ents, and two races, the mermadens (male) and marmadens (female), who are the two genders of one race who are violently opposed. I also made kobolds black lizards that are slightly shorter than dwarves who have black, red, blue, white, or green scales and devil eyes who worship dragons. Many of the races also have sorcerer casts.

Creature-wise I've added worgs, flying bisons, hellcows, imps, tiktikkis (Drowtales), centaurs, and nymphs. Dragons are normally cerulean lizards with wings now as well.

Playable Civs are dwarves, kobolds, drow, and goblins.

A few bits of certain anatomy also got added using caste-based creature raws. Don't worry, not putting them to any Obok Meatgod-style uses.

Any replies are appreciated!:smallsmile:

[Triaxx]

The partially complete green glass tower says yes, I do.

[Wookieetank]

I'm not entirely sure 'play' is an accurate term for my relationship with DF (see my sig). I also play Gnomoria and Towns (DFlikes essentially) with my level of ability being: Gnomoria > DF > Towns (although with a pop of 14 and a total of 84 and counting dead in my current Gnomoria settlement, I'm not sure how much skill I have).

If you haven't found it yet here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254422) is the playground's current community fort thread.

[Grim Portent]

I am an avid player of modded dwarf fortress (Vanilla got dull quite quick, I need more cats, more nobles and more sieges). I favour making humans playable and building towns, so much harder to defend when you have no steel and flying undead are terrors. :smallbiggrin:

Working on a Norse Fortress mod at the moment.

[Triaxx]

No, you have that backwards. Your skill is determined by the number of dead and still having a settlement. Ergo: You've lost 84, but you've still got 14, so you're in good shape.

Vanilla got dull? I didn't find it so. Or rather when I did, I started playing other games againi.

[Grif]

I wander in and out of Dwarf Fortress as they update, since I'm not entirely fond of the UI they have setup currently. Mostly just to check out what Toady added and follow the progress.

The day Dwarf Fortress actually has a usable UI that doesn't hark back to the good old days of text-based dungeon crawls is the the day I'll play the game in earnest. (Being able to use the mouse for something would be a good start. I think the military screen already supports a mouse though.)

[Triaxx]

Fah, the interface is amazing and should never change.

Plus you can use the mouse for mining designations.

[Grim Portent]

I always get a bit puzzled when people say the UI is bad, other than the lack of search menus to abbreviate lists (sorting out large armour from sieges for example) I've been very content with it. And since DFhack adds a search option to the various menus I've been happy as a kobold that managed to steal a -cat leather mitten-.

[Slipperychicken]

I played Adventurer mode for a while, being too intimidated by Fortress Mode. I know, I know, I should try Fortress Mode :smalltongue:

I mostly ran around trying to do quests, but then quit after a while, after being instructed to take missions from a realms' leader, but not being able to find him. I did get to kill a few dragons though, which was pretty sweet.

[Wookieetank]

I played Adventurer mode for a while, being too intimidated by Fortress Mode. I know, I know, I should try Fortress Mode :smalltongue:

I mostly ran around trying to do quests, but then quit after a while, after being instructed to take missions from a realms' leader, but not being able to find him. I did get to kill a few dragons though, which was pretty sweet.

I've had more trouble trying to figure out adventure mode than fortress mode myself.

[Grim Portent]

I've had more trouble trying to figure out adventure mode than fortress mode myself.

The trick is to take a few skill levels in swimming (about 3) then find a companion with nice gear and make them drown in a river, take their stuff and then go find a bandit camp. Sneak near the camp and start throwing stuff at the bandits. Rocks, arrows, spears, corpses, doesn't really matter what you throw since it can all hurt them badly, though I've heard good things about serrated discs looted from dead fortresses.

[Slipperychicken]

The trick is to take a few skill levels in swimming (about 3) then find a companion with nice gear and make them drown in a river, take their stuff and then go find a bandit camp. Sneak near the camp and start throwing stuff at the bandits. Rocks, arrows, spears, corpses, doesn't really matter what you throw since it can all hurt them badly, though I've heard good things about serrated discs looted from dead fortresses.

It was pretty fun when I realized that, given a high throwing skill, pretty much anything heavy or dense becomes a decent weapon :smallbiggrin:

Also, leveling up sneaking is pretty hilarious, as you can walk up behind people and hack both their legs off before they even notice you.

Great, now I want to get back into the game.

[Grim Portent]

When I play adventure mode I like to spill peoples guts so I can sever them and beat their friends to death with a pile of intestines. :smallbiggrin:

Good grief this game really is horrible isn't it. And I would have it no other way.

[Slipperychicken]

When I play adventure mode I like to spill peoples guts so I can sever them and beat their friends to death with a pile of intestines. :smallbiggrin:

Good grief this game really is horrible isn't it. And I would have it no other way.

You can also pick up peoples' vomit and throw it at them IIRC. Which is really adding insult to injury, since your poor enemy is probably lying there immobile due to severed feet, bleeding out and retching for several turns before a painful, humiliating death.

[Grif]

When I play adventure mode I like to spill peoples guts so I can sever them and beat their friends to death with a pile of intestines. :smallbiggrin:

Good grief this game really is horrible isn't it. And I would have it no other way.

This is the same game that encourages though on the Bay12 forums to find a way to "farm" merfolks for their bones. :smallamused: (And I think they did manage to do it. Involving some elaborate seawall and various ingenious traps.)

Yes, I'll have it no other way.

[Triaxx]

Which then caused Toady to vastly slash the worth of the bones.

[Rockphed]

Which then caused Toady to vastly slash the worth of the bones.

I think unicorn and dragon bones are still valuable. Hunting unicorns and dragons, however, is very dangerous. Farming either, however, is probably doable.

In my current fort I have finally made use of burrows. Mostly I wanted to stop the annoying snatchers, but I also wanted to keep my dwarves safe inside the slate and jet block wall I built. I have about 5 layers of soil above the rock, so once I breach the caverns I should have lots of space for tree-farms and fodder. Now I just need to figure out how to breed turkeys.

[Silverbit]

I play dwarf fortress, much to the bemusement of my friends (ASCII graphics ftw). I've survived sieges in multiple fortresses, but everyone tends to lag to death due to stone stockpiles. Anyone know how to avoid this?

[Grim Portent]

I play dwarf fortress, much to the bemusement of my friends (ASCII graphics ftw). I've survived sieges in multiple fortresses, but everyone tends to lag to death due to stone stockpiles. Anyone know how to avoid this?

Atomsmashing excess stone or building your fort above ground tend to work.

Atomsmashing is crushing the offending material beneath a raising bridge.

Aboveground forts aren't getting excess stone from digging out a room for every migrant and his dog so they have less around and what they do have tends to go into building walls and houses.

[Triaxx]

I have more than two dozen craftsdwarf workshops, all chruning out stone crafts at top speed. Plus another dozen masons workshops all churning out stone pots. The crafts go into bins, which go into minecarts and dump into the trading stockpile. The pots replace barrels.

[Grim Portent]

I have more than two dozen craftsdwarf workshops, all chruning out stone crafts at top speed. Plus another dozen masons workshops all churning out stone pots. The crafts go into bins, which go into minecarts and dump into the trading stockpile. The pots replace barrels.

Hang on, you mean you trade with the caravans? I just steal what I need from the early humans and elves and then wind up self sufficient unless I need to import coal or something.

[Triaxx]

I used to do that, but now I get so much stuff that if I don't trade it off, I end up getting Frames Per Minute. Particularly when I start on a mountain, where I have quite a ways to mine down to get to the good stuff.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Okay, the actual interface might be fine. The MAP, I can't stand. ASCII graphics are the dealbreaker for me, and I'm too lazy to figure out how to get the actual graphics.

[Grim Portent]

Okay, the actual interface might be fine. The MAP, I can't stand. ASCII graphics are the dealbreaker for me, and I'm too lazy to figure out how to get the actual graphics.

There are downloads for DF that come with different graphics already installed.

[Triaxx]

Look up the Lazy Newb Pack.

[Silverbit]

Thanks for the help, atomsmashing is the way forward. I've used it before, but that was on a trading caravan in a tragic accident. Totally. I don't know why that dwarf suddenly pulled the lever. Inexplicable.

Coincidently, my current fort is may attempt at an aboveground one. Sadly, goblins are everywhere and I forgot about military. Farewell Mirrordeeps...

[Grim Portent]

Thanks for the help, atomsmashing is the way forward. I've used it before, but that was on a trading caravan in a tragic accident. Totally. I don't know why that dwarf suddenly pulled the lever. Inexplicable.

Coincidently, my current fort is may attempt at an aboveground one. Sadly, goblins are everywhere and I forgot about military. Farewell Mirrordeeps...

You can get some good advice for starting up surface forts from the Bay12 forums. Generally some good measures are walls (a bit of an obvious one that), a communal dormitory/dining hall building, which I usually refer to as a tavern, burying food supplies to prevent buzzards and the like from snatching it away, a well trapped entrance and of course some soldiers need to be trained up nice and quick.

[druid91]

Okay, the actual interface might be fine. The MAP, I can't stand. ASCII graphics are the dealbreaker for me, and I'm too lazy to figure out how to get the actual graphics.

Go into the folder you keep DF in. Go into the folder labeled data. Then Init.

Open the text file labeled init. Scroll down to graphics replace the NO with a YES.

Bam. Graphics. If you want to get more in depth and change the in box non-ASCII graphics then I can't help you.

[Anajamois]

Playable Civs are dwarves, kobolds, drow, and goblins.

You made a good decision. Kobolds make up for in natural dodging and swimming for what they lack in strength.

Kobolds are really underrated in general, I think.

[druid91]

You made a good decision. Kobolds make up for in natural dodging and swimming for what they lack in strength.

Kobolds are really underrated in general, I think.

... they can't talk though.

[Anajamois]

... they can't talk though.

Since when?

[druid91]

Since when?

40d.

They have utterances. Which is random and disallows actual speech but allows for them to have their own names.

[Slipperychicken]

I haven't started a fort yet, but does one need to choose between aboveground and underground, or can one hybridize with some structures above and others below?

[Silverbit]

Hybridising is what I normally do. There isn't a choice between above ground or below ground, you just build (or mine) wherever.

[Grim Portent]

Forts are freeform, they can be dug into the ground or built into the air, or anything in between. There are a few built into the drained floor of the magma sea or balanced upon a bar of soap at the bottom of a vast tower.

A lot of players start to focus on megaprojects after a while. They dig out a basic fort to store the beards in while they prepare a giant statue of a hammer or Armok and then move everything into it.

[Triaxx]

Unless you undertake a specific challenge, chances are you'll end up with a hybrid fort. I've done above ground ones, usually on an aquifer I couldn't pierce. I actually had one fort that regularly spent time murdering Rhesus Macaques because they'd show up and we couldn't get anything done until we kill them. I lost that one do to my clean up attempt drowning all but one dwarf. He was then killed by a random badger.

[Rockphed]

Unless you undertake a specific challenge, chances are you'll end up with a hybrid fort. I've done above ground ones, usually on an aquifer I couldn't pierce. I actually had one fort that regularly spent time murdering Rhesus Macaques because they'd show up and we couldn't get anything done until we kill them. I lost that one do to my clean up attempt drowning all but one dwarf. He was then killed by a random badger.

Badgers are the worst.

I think my next fort will try to capture and train unicorns as war animals. Checks the wiki (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Unicorn). Dag. I cannot tame unicorns. Well, maybe the tree-huggers will bring me a breeding pair that I can proceed to use to make very, very valuable bone and horn crafts and fancy leather boots.

And the meat! Do not forget the meat! My dwarves will dine on unicorn heart and praise the gods!

[Grim Portent]

You can mod Unicorns to be tameable and trainable. Although I was sure that they could be tamed.

My forts tended to be all below ground, usually in the first or second cavern layer for added Fun until I started working on expanding human civs.

[druid91]

I like building it so my forts main entrance is under a river that I can stop at will. So entirely underground with a small open area up top. for the trade depot.

[Triaxx]

I'm partial to building under water falls, using two draw bridges to divert the flow and create a path.

[Wookieetank]

Made my first successful aquifer crossing today. It only took 2 attempts and 3 dead dwarves (2 drowned in first attempt (after being knocked unconcious by a cave in...), 1 was crushed in a cave in during the second attempt). I'm currently located on a small island and after the second winter I was expecting to lose the fort (only 1 starving dwarf remaining), and now I'm headed into my 3rd winter with 22 dwarfs. I think my PR dwarves need a raise or something.

[Triaxx]

I stopped attempting the cave-in method. I never managed to do anything but cause casualties. Which is a very dwarven thing I admit, but the double slit method is faster, cheaper, and safer.

[Rockphed]

I stopped attempting the cave-in method. I never managed to do anything but cause casualties. Which is a very dwarven thing I admit, but the double slit method is faster, cheaper, and safer.


What do you do when the aquifer layers are soil? I have yet to successfully pierce a soil aquifer.

[Gnoman]

Use pumps (direct these into another aquifer tile, as aquifers have unlimited water capacity) to drain the water away while bulilding walls. You'll have to build very large if you have multiple levels, though.

[Triaxx]

Just build walls, instead of smoothing rock.

[Wookieetank]

So one rousing tantrum spiral later and my fort is now "mysteriously" devoid of life. Also it would seem that I only breached part of the aquifer, and that there was more to it than I first found, hurray >< I plan to attempt reclaiming this fort, we'll see how well that works out...

[Hiro Protagonest]

So I decided to reinstall the game, and turn the graphics on.

Did it make a difference? The plains (steppes) are represented by n squares, but forests have tree symbols and mountains have mountain symbols.

GAH WHAT AM I DOING!? I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SOME OF THESE WORDS MEAN! (Why is there the word "Rifasidaya" directly above the stream in this area? Does that mean epic loot or horrible monster? And what's "Aferupola"? Are these forts?)

[Gnoman]

It's either the name of the stream, the name of the area that the stream is in, or the name of a town.

[Hiro Protagonest]

It's either the name of the stream, the name of the area that the stream is in, or the name of a town.

Alright. I believe the name of the stream is right after "stream:". So it's one of the latter two.

What does starting in an area with a town do? Give you free buildings or give you free neighbors?

[Grim Portent]

Alright. I believe the name of the stream is right after "stream:". So it's one of the latter two.

What does starting in an area with a town do? Give you free buildings or give you free neighbors?

It doesn't really do anything. The distance between you and other civs only matters slightly for trading and sieges.

You can get a utility program called just embark that lets you start on a human town/castle/tomb and use their stuff. The locals tend to be unfriendly though.

[Hiro Protagonest]

And now begins the task of figuring out how to gather resources and build/craft stuff. So far I have figured out how to chop down trees, and that's about it.

[Grif]

And now begins the task of figuring out how to gather resources and build/craft stuff. So far I have figured out how to chop down trees, and that's about it.

Arguably, understanding designations is the first thing you need to do. After that, you'll need to learn how to zone stockpiles. Then buildings.

Basically you can designate mining areas, gathering/foraging food, chopping down trees and channeling stuff. The first simply orders your dorf to mine the highlighted areas. Only dwarves with Mining task enabled, and has a pick will mine. The second will assign any dwarf that has Gathering task enabled to forage the bushes in the designated area. The third is obvious, and any dwarf with an axe, and with Wood Cutting enabled will do so. The last is simply an extension of mining, where instead of digging into the wall, you dig the floor, "channelling" it out.

On stockpiles, it's important to note there's many different kinds and many ways to control what you want to go into that, but most of that isn't that important. It's good enough you know how to divide stockpiles into their basic overall categories, such as food, drinks, refuse (always zone these outside!) and weapons/armor/misc stuff. You can assign more than one category to a stockpile and you can always change a stockpile category after designating it.

[Triaxx]

The first most important thing to do is learn to change the Z-level of your map. It uses <>. Which means you'll specifically have to hold shift to get to those to change the Z-level. Without that, mining isn't doing much good.

I suggest reading up on how ramps work on the wiki, so you don't run into issues. Ramps must have a full block behind them, specifically a wall, or they don't work. It's possible to trap a dwarf if you channel down, which leaves a ramp, then mine out the walls around it, because they then can't use the ramp to exit.

Most people suggest going underground via stairs, to start with. I suggest using channels instead. Make the entry way three wide. Then you can safely mine underground, using the same designation system as used to cut down trees, just with the order of dig instead. If you're not on an island, ensure that after a certain distance, the path narrows to one wide for ten or so tiles, then widens again. This gives you a nice defensive choke point.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Ooh, I found a square with a stream, lots of trees, warm climate, clay, very deep soil, shallow and deep metals, and flux stone.

[Gnoman]

Note that you can press F# to change which of the biomes is displayed on the embark screen. Most of the time, there's two or three present.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Alright, so for the last four or five worlds I've created, they've all ended in the Age of Myth. Even at 550 years! The first one ended in the Age of Legends at 250, I think. I'm using the newer version of the LNP. Some of the 550 ones had a large number of beasts, but I put the dial back down to medium for the latest.

[Slipperychicken]

So I embarked my first fort in an area which didn't have other civs visible from the region map. Does that mean I'm not going to get sieged?

[Rockphed]

So I embarked my first fort in an area which didn't have other civs visible from the region map. Does that mean I'm not going to get sieged?

In all likelyhood. You will still get your civ's traders, and you will eventually get forgotten beasts and megabeasts, but you won't get any other interaction with the outside world.

[Triaxx]

You'll probably be annoyed by wildlife for a while, and you might still get Kobolod thieves. No sieges though.