Playground cancels Post; Interrupted by Dwarf Fortress

[First Speaker]

So, any other players of nightmarish OCD simcity version Dwarf Fortress? (http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/)

It's a great game, and I'd recommend anyone else here who hasn't experience the joys of mangled spleens, catsplosions, and objects that menace with spikes of rhesus macaque bone to try it out. The wiki (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Your_first_fortress) is a great help if you're confused, and the saga of Boatmurdered (http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/intro.html) provides an excellent example of the sort of thing you might expect.

My most recent fortress has started off in a ridiculously decent area. Better than my last Terrifying Glacier/Seashore expedition at any rate - lasted a surprisingly long time, until, out of nowhere, SUDDENLY, SKELETAL WHALES; the one before that was good too, until I noticed this carp infestation (place your guesses on the origin of the wall's read coloration):

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/167/picture4sg6.png

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!

Baldravens, however, appears to be a bit of a dwarven paradise, and I'm hopeful for its good fortune. HFS, tons of trees, a river, flux, more magnetite than I could hope to use (even a year in, I have enough for 10 suits of steel full plate, and there's a ton more). What's more, it has a a chasm, with a ton of ore and gems on each level. I also believe that there is a hidden magma pipe somewhere, to make glass blocks with.

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/6285/picture6jx8.png

We have not been without tragedy, however.

http://img373.imageshack.us/img373/7642/picture5uy5.png

;_;

Anyway, anyone else got a fortress running?

Do we have enough people interested (don't necessarily have to be skilled - arguably, the less you know, the better. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing) to run our very own succession game here?

[Bryn]

Hey, a new Dwarf Fortress thread!

My first fortress has had a ridiculously easy time of it, really. The only deaths have been from dwarves in strange moods without materials. I penetrated the aquifer reasonably easily. I really wish somebody would come and attack my fortress, make things a little more interesting (and allow me to use those walls I spent so long building).

A succession game would be rather fun, I do say.

[First Speaker]

Hey, a new Dwarf Fortress thread!

My first fortress has had a ridiculously easy time of it, really. The only deaths have been from dwarves in strange moods without materials. I penetrated the aquifer reasonably easily. I really wish somebody would come and attack my fortress, make things a little more interesting (and allow me to use those walls I spent so long building).

A succession game would be rather fun, I do say.

Forts next to rivers, in Terrifying Biomes, and ones with glowing pits tend to offer almost instant and overwhelming resistance to any assaults. How big's your fort though? You start getting sieges once you top 80 dorfs.

[Bryn]

*Checks* Ah - 70 dwarves. Not far off then. Thanks for the news, I'd better get ready :smallbiggrin:

One day, I want to build Rapture (from Bioshock) in Dwarf Fortress. I don't know how you'd manage that. Possibly, you might build a narrow bridge out to sea, construct a sealed room at the end of it, then dismantle the bridge and allow the room to fall down underwater. I've never tried anything like that, though - it would probably collapse when it hit the bottom.

[First Speaker]

You might be able to do something with pumps, but sinking sealed rooms out to sea is probably a bad idea. I suspect you'll get about a thousand cave-in messages. So is Andrew Ryangears the Baron of a fort that went into an irreversible tantrum spiral, then?

[Khosan]

I play from time to time. I've got spiders modded in as domestic creatures; they shoot webs and tear the crap out of things when trained into War Spiders.

EDIT:

*Checks* Ah - 70 dwarves. Not far off then. Thanks for the news, I'd better get ready :smallbiggrin:

One day, I want to build Rapture (from Bioshock) in Dwarf Fortress. I don't know how you'd manage that. Possibly, you might build a narrow bridge out to sea, construct a sealed room at the end of it, then dismantle the bridge and allow the room to fall down underwater. I've never tried anything like that, though - it would probably collapse when it hit the bottom.

Actually, someone's tried that already. I can't find it, but basically what they did was pump out the ocean enough that they could build down into it.

[Malek]

Funny thing is that I just took a break from DF, before finding this thread. So yeah, I do play (more now than before getting a new computer). Awesome game. As for sucession game idea - count me in as long as the region remains within boundaries of 4x4 or so - my laptop does handle the game decently, but last fortress that I made larger than that dropped to 15-20 fps at 60-ish dwarves (current started at 100fps, and now at 53 dwarves plus some wildlife/pets runs around 50-60fps, so I should be good :P)

[Thane of Fife]

For my most recent fortress, I've decided to try to build up. So I'm making a castle, with the only underground construction being a stairway down to the river below, and the mines.

I'm having horrible visions of the day when the entire thing caves in on itself.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Sometimes, I wonder if the pixelised AI we create for our games has a soul. If they do, we have horrible peoples who will burn in hell for having fun with them the way we do.

What's the most intricated experiment you've ever made with DF?

[Inhuman Bot]

I want to play dwarf fortress, but I have no clue what to do...

can someone make or point me to a quick guide for dwarf fortress?

[Malek]

This (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Indecisive%27s_illustrated_fortress_mode_tutorial) will be a good start. It's probably tad outdated by now, but it still should help you get grasp on the basics.

[Khosan]

This (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Indecisive%27s_illustrated_fortress_mode_tutorial) will be a good start. It's probably tad outdated by now, but it still should help you get grasp on the basics.

Also this (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Your_first_fortress).

[BRC]

Iv'e got a decent fortress going. Lot's of Hematite ore,, a river, built into a mountain, all that good stuff, I'll post a screenshot later.

The one problem is that I can't attract any migrants. I'll probably get some more come spring, but it's frusterating.

Also, The river has Carp...stupid Carp.

[Khosan]

One of my older forts. (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-2527-glovedravens) What's awesome is I only had 11 Dwarves running the whole thing, and I planned to (eventually) open it up to outsiders. Lots of magnetite, flux, a magma pipe, and an underground river.

It is an older upload. Eventually I got all the weapon traps properly loaded up with 10 large, serrated, steel discs each. Dug a massive, circular moat around the entrance (which I was going to fill with water from the underground river). Dug and smoothed the other half of the catacombs. Aaaand...I had two Legendary Champions (Legendary in: Armor-Using, Shield-Using, Crossbows, Hammers, Maces, and Wrestling. I was hesitant to give them slashing weapons because odds were at the strength they were at one of them would end up decapitated).

I've since lost the save. Shame.

[BRC]

One of my older forts. (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-2527-glovedravens) What's awesome is I only had 11 Dwarves running the whole thing, and I planned to (eventually) open it up to outsiders. Lots of magnetite, flux, a magma pipe, and an underground river.

It is an older upload. Eventually I got all the weapon traps properly loaded up with 10 large, serrated, steel discs each. Dug a massive, circular moat around the entrance (which I was going to fill with water from the underground river). Dug and smoothed the other half of the catacombs. Aaaand...I had two Legendary Champions (Legendary in: Armor-Using, Shield-Using, Crossbows, Hammers, Maces, and Wrestling. I was hesitant to give them slashing weapons because odds were at the strength they were at one of them would end up decapitated).

I've since lost the save. Shame.
How did You get your fortress to look like that (With the different icons for your dwarves and barrels and stuff)

[Driderman]

Actually, I've learned from painful experience that waterfilled moats are a bad thing, come the winter sieges when the moat freezes and the invaders can walk right over it :smallconfused:

[Khosan]

How did You get your fortress to look like that (With the different icons for your dwarves and barrels and stuff)

This. (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Tilesets) Directions there. Links to tileset/graphicsets at the top of the page.


Actually, I've learned from painful experience that waterfilled moats are a bad thing, come the winter sieges when the moat freezes and the invaders can walk right over it :smallconfused:

Still had walls. The moat was more for badass effect. And I can't really remember whether or not the water froze in the Winter on that map.

[Sanzh]

Oh man I'm going to have an interesting fort-- and by interesting I mean dangerous. Hippos, carp, elephants, crocodiles, and giant tigers style dangerous.
I'm really, really, really, really excited about all that blood to be spilled.

[Maxymiuk]

My dwarves have an unseemly fixation on undergarments. The latest artifact created at my fortress was a gem-encrusted loincloth with a picture of a circle on it. In an earlier game, it was a thong. A red silk thong. With a picture of a dwarf sewn into it.

To make things better, it was created while my engravers were busy decorating the fortress. So of course the engraving of a BRIGHT RED thong ended up in my mayor's office. Right behind the chair. Just the thing to break the ice during liason meetings, I guess.

[Vonriel]

I don't play, but I have had the opportunity to read the epic saga that is Boatmurdered. It made me want to play, but I get the feeling that I'd never have a game that epic, soo..

Seriously, Boatmurdered must be its own meme among the dwarf fortress community by now.

[Malek]

A meme it is, but awesome as in "ZOMG tantrum spiral awesome" fortressess are still available, even if harder to get now. A good example is an community fortress on one other forum I post on, where slight miscalculation of food supplies on my turn lead to decimation of the fortress - by the time a migration that saved the game came, person after me was down to 6 dwarves, all of the champions (and thus unable to do anything besides sparring). Last I heard the bones of previous 50-60 dwarves were still littering the ground.

[Qanael]

I'm currently working on a fortress-scale fountain system, that creates waterfalls on each level and recirculates the water, adjusting for evaporation and drinking dwarves with pressure plates (or levers if the evil pressure plate stuck bug strikes). I also finally managed to channel magma to my forges without melting my dwarves. :smallbiggrin:

My next idea for this particular fortress is a system to flood the alternate entrance (read: winding, trap-filled halls of death) with magma. It's a WIP, but it's coming along.

[Zarah]

Ah, Dwarf Fortress. I haven't played in a while, but my last fortress was pretty decent. Most of it was dug into clay, so the walls and floors were nothing special, but considering I had upwards of 120 dwarves living there by the fourth year, I had to have been doing something right. Unfortunately, the dwarf I named after myself, who was acting leader, fell down a pit and drowned. At least he got a good burial... :smallfrown:

Either way, if a succession game were to pop up here on the forums, I'd be glad to throw my name into the fray, as long as we're using the graphics version of the game. It's not perfect (some of the characters don't work properly), but I haven't spent a lot of time with the pure ASCII version. Not to say I'm an experienced player as it stands, but hey. Varying skill-levels makes things interesting. :smalltongue:

[Malek]

Either way, if a succession game were to pop up here on the forums, I'd be glad to throw my name into the fray, as long as we're using the graphics version of the game. It's not perfect (some of the characters don't work properly), but I haven't spent a lot of time with the pure ASCII version.
Graphics vs ASCII tiles is a thing that you set up on your own - one player could play with ASCII tiles, next with graphic set; and the only place it would make diffrence would be screenshots.

[Emperor Tippy]

Anyone have any links to good graphics sets? I'm not wild about ASCII. I saw this image http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/images/e/e3/Safemagma.png but I can't find that graphics set.

[Kane]

I've been told it's like nethack; there is a tileset version, but it sucks.

[Emperor Tippy]

Phuey, I guess I'll just download it and use the default tileset.

[Khosan]

I did post a link (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Tilesets) to the graphics sets you can use earlier in the thread.

[Maxymiuk]

Anyone have any links to good graphics sets? I'm not wild about ASCII. I saw this image http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/images/e/e3/Safemagma.png but I can't find that graphics set.

I believe that's because this isn't part of a graphics set - it's a user-made side-view diagram from the Fortress wiki that demonstrates how to channel magma to avoid flooding your fortress.

[Zenos]

I am doing a fortress in sandy clay loam, with some easy-to reach stone supplies just below the living quarters and in the north of the map. I also have access to an underground river. I don't have any metal industry, though.

[Zeful]

I downloaded the game and tried playing but I can't get my dwarves to do anything. What's wrong?

[Sanzh]

I downloaded the game and tried playing but I can't get my dwarves to do anything. What's wrong?
What are you trying to do, exactly? There's a lot of ways inactivity (jobs turned off, lack of tools, lack of workshops, carp attacks) happens.

[Zeful]

What are you trying to do, exactly? There's a lot of ways inactivity (jobs turned off, lack of tools, lack of workshops, carp attacks) happens.

I was trying to build a mine and it wouldn't go. I then searched the wiki posted in the thread and misread what command did what, causing me to try and build stairs going up backwards (The Down stairs was on the ground level and the up stairs was on the first floor).

Now I'm trying to build a butchery and it won't work, which angers me.:smallfurious:

[Sanzh]

For the butchery, do you have a butcher? I know that seems painfully obvious, but workshops aren't constructed without the requisite labor.
If not, then you can just activate the butchering labor on some dwarf (view, prefences, labor, scroll down to butchering and hit enter).
Hopefully that should help.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Yhea. The learning cliff is as steep as a bottomless chasm. There are some basic tutorials on the internet you may find.

[Zeful]

I have a butcher, but he's also my hunter. Man do I feel stupid.

[Zenos]

Any tips on making a mining colony? I am trying to make one now, and so far it's nice for the dwarves, but are there any problems I should watch out for? My fortress consists of a long 3 wide corridor with all the workshops, bed rooms etc. lines up along it.

[BRC]

I was only able to learn to play by having the Wiki open and the window minimized.

[Khosan]

Your dwarves will complain about noise if the bedrooms are too close to the workshops. If the dwarf is within 4 squares of a workshop being used, they'll complain about the noise.

More about that here (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Noise).

[Illiterate Scribe]

Any tips on making a mining colony? I am trying to make one now, and so far it's nice for the dwarves, but are there any problems I should watch out for? My fortress consists of a long 3 wide corridor with all the workshops, bed rooms etc. lines up along it.

Remember the Z-dimension. plunging columns of up/down stairs, like this:

x , , x , , x

, , , , , , ,

, , , , , , ,

x , , x , , x

Where 'x' is the stairway and ',' is the undug tile. It's one of the most efficient ways of finding stuff. Also, if you hit adamantium, keep digging - there's normally tons and tons of precious metals and jewels just underneath it.

Also, I now have enough time (yay for no coursework) to get together for some serious let's play/succession games.

What sort of features would people want on one?

I'd go for


medium sized map (enough to fit any extras in - we can disable weather and temperature too, that will make it run much quicker once there's more dwarves.
HFS
Lava
Evil. Lots of evil. Terrifying if possible
Chasm
Elf + Human contact.


Any other requests? I'm going to start generating maps, so place your requests now.

[Sanzh]

medium sized map (enough to fit any extras in - we can disable weather and temperature too, that will make it run much quicker once there's more dwarves.
HFS
Lava
Evil. Lots of evil. Terrifying if possible
Chasm
Elf + Human contact.



Rather than evil, I'd go for savagery. It's still pretty damn scary, and you get Highwood trees (which, for some reason, I like).
Alternatively, go for both savage and evil. That would be... fun, to say the least.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Rather than evil, I'd go for savagery. It's still pretty damn scary, and you get Highwood trees (which, for some reason, I like).
Alternatively, go for both savage and evil. That would be... fun, to say the least.

Savage + evil = terrifying. Zombie trolls everywhere.

[NEO|Phyte]

Actually, I've learned from painful experience that waterfilled moats are a bad thing, come the winter sieges when the moat freezes and the invaders can walk right over it :smallconfused:

There's a solution for that.

Lava moat! (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3890-syrupdwellings)

:edit: fixed the hyperlink, something hid another http:// in there.

[Driderman]

There's a solution for that.

Lava moat! (http://http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3890-syrupdwellings)

I've only encountered lava once in a game and it made my game crash. Been a long while since I actually played DF though, I suppose I shall have to download a version soon and start a new fortress.
Any interesting developments?

[Illiterate Scribe]

I've only encountered lava once in a game and it made my game crash. Been a long while since I actually played DF though, I suppose I shall have to download a version soon and start a new fortress.
Any interesting developments?

Well, this is in the pipeline:


I've written up my body outline and started in on that. Due to the compat break, I'm starting with support for basic di/polymorphism for creatures and moving on to creature/plant material lists (including all of the extracts and whatever else). I've set aside three more days for this right now (and obviously more later, since I won't finish in three), but the order after mats is roughly: tissue layering, body part relationships (encasement, relative position, etc.) and sizes (and some new parts like teeth, claws/nails, lips, ribs, hair, etc.), improve the attribute system a bit, do appearance phenotype-like stuffs, size information, and then with that backing, get into wounds properly without having a simple placeholder first, then healing/scars (and thus better pain handling), and then descriptive paragraphs (not just for wounds but the rest too, which will further individualize everybody, hopefully in a satisfying way).

1176. The process continues. There are some auxiliary structures that make it a bit easier to add tissue layers to creatures. The body parts are categorized and "tissue layer plans" (sort of like "motifs" from Armok 1) come in and create layers based on the categories. So the vertebrate layering plan will have skin and fat and muscle and bone, whereas the exoskeleton layering plan will not include bone layers (and the skin layer is marked as structural so damage to it affects the ability to stand, etc.). After specifying the bodies, the creatures say which plan they want to use and which tissue they'd like to fill each role (so you can send in a chitin tissue to fill the skin role in the exoskeleton plan), and it will lay out the layers for you with one command. You'll only need to worry about the steps along the way if you want to do something involved.

Next up are some larger-scale changes like refinements to size and some new body parts and relationships between body parts (skull around brain, etc.). Handling hair is also in the section, and I'm considering smoother changes to size as a creature ages and variations in size between individuals.

1166. Teeth, ribs, cheeks, lips, eyelids. Teeth and ribs aren't individualized, but there are some groups for them with a new numeric argument for the BP (e.g. 3 left false ribs). There isn't anything really wrong with individualizing them but I didn't want to do that especially with the teeth so much at this point. You'll still be able to lose a single tooth, it just doesn't have its own individual name (there are currently 6 groups). I haven't decided how exactly the skull is going to be handled, though I'll get at that tomorrowish probably, along with hair of various kinds (head, body, facial/brows/lashes) as well as nails and claws.

Relative body part sizes are also in the raws/data now (though the combat aspect of that will be handled with wounds, which is off a bit later in this release). When I do the appearance part of this release, it'll say a bit more about how that size number is related to its shape/dimensions.

1114. Back to bodies themselves for another day. Individual names for the teeth and ribs, without the extra baggage of full body parts for them. So there we are... all of the teeth. And ribs. Also, sizes have been upscaled many times so there's a lot more room to breathe, specifically for individual variations within one creature type. 80 more to wounds and some other combat revisions.

For goodness' sake, Toady.

[Zenos]

I would be just as fine with a community game instead of a succession game, simply because then only one ("responsible") person would play whilst the rest can devote their time to make up crazy lava aqueducts.

[Qanael]

For people who are having trouble getting started, go here (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Main_Page) and read the stuff in "New to Dwarf Fortress?". It'll get you on the right track. The wiki is very good in general, I use it all the time.

[BRC]

I got a 20 dwarf immigration wave. Anybody have advice for using seige weapons in fortress defense. I got hit by a goblin ambush, so I'm beefing up my millitary and defenses

[Zenos]

I am trying to funnel lava into a pit I made so as to have a magma forge right near my fortress, but it won't rise high enough that I can use it for my magma forge. How should I channel the magma?

[Khosan]

Choke points are your friends.

Ideally (by which I mean, I've never done this because I like symmetry) you should have one entrance into your fort, three tiles wide for caravans, but with single tile width bridges that you can raise to narrow it down to one tile. Like so:


▓▓▓▓▓
╞═══╡
+++++
╞═══╡
▓▓▓▓▓

They can be longer, but that's just an example. Fill the center tile with traps (I have a preference that the first few rows be cage traps, for Megabeast trapping) to your heart's content. Weapon traps are the most effective if you put specific trap weapons in them (large, serrated discs, enormous corkscrews, spiked balls, and giant axe blades), and they reset themselves (though they can jam).

After the trapped hall, you can have your kill zone. Typically, mine are designed so that the invaders have to run into a more open chamber, surrounded by fortifications where marksdwarves can fire at them as they run in one by one.

[BRC]

Choke points are your friends.

Ideally (by which I mean, I've never done this because I like symmetry) you should have one entrance into your fort, three tiles wide for caravans, but with single tile width bridges that you can raise to narrow it down to one tile. Like so:


▓▓▓▓▓
╞═══╡
+++++
╞═══╡
▓▓▓▓▓

They can be longer, but that's just an example. Fill the center tile with traps (I have a preference that the first few rows be cage traps, for Megabeast trapping) to your heart's content. Weapon traps are the most effective if you put specific trap weapons in them (large, serrated discs, enormous corkscrews, spiked balls, and giant axe blades), and they reset themselves (though they can jam).

After the trapped hall, you can have your kill zone. Typically, mine are designed so that the invaders have to run into a more open chamber, surrounded by fortifications where marksdwarves can fire at them as they run in one by one.

I should get some screenshots of my fortress up.

The fortress is built into the side of a mountain, currently I have two entrances, one of which can be cut off from the rest of the fortress with a bridge and has a variety of weapon traps guarding it. Unfortunetally I built stuff underneath the area of my first entrance that would be ideal for a moat (I have a river), but I have 2 legendary miners, so I can replace that stuff.

Here is my main entrance

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w27/bloddyredcommie/Untitled.jpg

[NEO|Phyte]

I got a 20 dwarf immigration wave. Anybody have advice for using seige weapons in fortress defense. I got hit by a goblin ambush, so I'm beefing up my millitary and defenses
Advice for using siege weapons?

Don't depend on them, unless they're made from high-quality parts, they are viciously inaccurate, and are also slow-firing. Plus, they're manned by civilians, so you can't have them too close to anywhere where enemies show up, or they'll run away.


I am trying to funnel lava into a pit I made so as to have a magma forge right near my fortress, but it won't rise high enough that I can use it for my magma forge. How should I channel the magma?

Won't rise high enough in what way? If it's physically in the tile you want it in, but there's not enough to power the forge, just wait, the stuff is slow-flowing, but it should reach the required depth eventually. If you have an empty zlevel in between, magma isn't pressurized like water is (unless you run it through a lava-proofed pump), so it won't flow up, in which case the easiest solution is probably to install your magma operations on a lower zlevel, since it sounds like your magma is already in the channels you've dug.

[Zenos]

Okay, that sounds good. My fortress is doing good but has little exports, except a big stockpile of rock mechanisms and my Avatar, the Engraver/Miner/bookkeeper.

[Player_Zero]

Wow. Trading is really useful now... I hadn't played it since before there was a z-axis, and I must say that I like some of the changes but I dislike others.

...I don't like this 'choose your location stuff... I mean, if you want the perfect location, with sand and dark stone and magma and a river, not too hot or too cold and with little invasion-ing then what're you stupposed to do? Search the map for about 2 hours loooking for the right place?

[NEO|Phyte]

Wow. Trading is really useful now... I hadn't played it since before there was a z-axis, and I must say that I like some of the changes but I dislike others.

...I don't like this 'choose your location stuff... I mean, if you want the perfect location, with sand and dark stone and magma and a river, not too hot or too cold and with little invasion-ing then what're you stupposed to do? Search the map for about 2 hours loooking for the right place?

There IS a site finder that can scour the map looking for a location that meets a given set of parameters. Magma and such is self-explanatory, if you want sand, include high drainage. Not sure if you can get low invasions, short of finding a location with NO goblin/kobold neighbors, but there's also an init.txt setting you can set to disable them (invasions) entirely.

[Zenos]

Yay! I first had a possessed dwarf, then my Avatar, the engraver, became a Legendary engraver, and I made him sheriff too. So now he is kinda on the way to becoming a good wrestler. I also recieved twenty-three friggin' dwarves in the same batch. Gah. Hate making bedrooms.

[Zenos]

Oh gods, so many chapions and heroes. Ah well, at least they're somewhat useful.

[Qanael]

The King finally arrived.

...he was an Elf.

Since he was an Elf, I couldn't assign a room to him, preventing me from fulfilling his demands with my ruby-encrusted masterwork platinum furniture and masterwork engravings.

I drowned him.

My original expedition leader/manager/super-miner owns that room now.

[NEO|Phyte]

The King finally arrived.

...he was an Elf.

Since he was an Elf, I couldn't assign a room to him, preventing me from fulfilling his demands with my ruby-encrusted masterwork platinum furniture and masterwork engravings.

I drowned him.

My original expedition leader/manager/super-miner owns that room now.

Did you get your king through building a suitably impressive fort, or finding adamantine? There was a bug for a while where an adamantine king didn't actually send the king, but the first unit on that civ's list. If your civ happened to adopt an elf at some point, it's possible that he somehow ended up as that first unit.
Unless your civ ACTUALLY had an elf for the ruler, which is both hilarious and sad.

[SolkaTruesilver]

I drowned him.


Now ya talking

Seriously, nobody is worried about the state of our souls?

[Rockphed]

Now ya talking

Seriously, nobody is worried about the state of our souls?

Some of us don't drown our nobles. We just don't give them rooms while giving everybody else Royal Rooms and let them kill themselves.

[NEO|Phyte]

Then there's those few mutants who actually take proper care of their nobles, and successfully carve out a fort impressive enough to attract their king. Like I have (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3940-syrupdwellings).

That's not to say I'm without my closet skeletons, of course.

[Zenos]

Oh, my god. 54 dwarves. How can I house them all? :smallsigh: Better build a second floor in the bedroom block.

[Zenos]

When I want to make a bed downstair, the message 'can't access with bed' or something similar comes up, is there any way to bring a bed down to a floor below?

[NEO|Phyte]

From the sound of the message, for some reason your dwarves can't find a path from where your beds are to where you want your beds. You might want to look into that.

[Zenos]

The only entrance to the floor I want the beds to be is a ramp, at current. Is there any way to get them to trace the paths to the bedrooms without going outside the fortress?

[NEO|Phyte]

It's possible you may have arsed up the ramp, they're sort of fiddly like that. Can you screencap the ramp in question? (both zlevels of it)

[Zenos]

I built stairs, now the beds are getting through just right. Or maybe it was just too tight a fit or something like that.

[Khosan]

If the error message is "Cannot find path" then the odds are you messed up the ramp's placement.

Ramps work like this:


Side View:
B☺
A▲▓▓
▓▓▓▓▓▓

They need a wall next to them in order to function, they're not stairs they need a start point and an end point. If the wall behind the ramp is removed, it won't work, if point B is walled off, it won't work. So if you have something like this:


Top view:
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
▓▓+++++▓▓
+++++++++
+++▲▲▲+++
++++?++++
▓▓++☺++▓▓
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓

Or, Level 0:
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
▓▓+++++▓▓
+++▲▲▲+++
+++▓▓▓+++
+++▲▲▲+++
▓▓+++++▓▓
▓▓▓+☺+▓▓▓
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
Level above:
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓
▓▓+++++▓▓
+++▼▼▼+++
+++▓▓▓+++
+++▼▼▼+++
▓▓+++++▓▓
▓▓▓+☺+▓▓▓
▓▓▓+++▓▓▓


It won't work.

[Zenos]

Yeah, I've fixed it ow. Now, what to do with the 20+ redundant dwarfs?

[Illiterate Scribe]

Megaproject!

Also, anyone want to get dwarfed in the coming let's play/succession? I'm writing it as I spe- er, type.

[BRC]

Megaproject!

Also, anyone want to get dwarfed in the coming let's play/succession? I'm writing it as I spe- er, type.
Ooh! Me Me!

[Illiterate Scribe]

How's the armory dwarf sound - maker of weapons and armour for dwarvenkind's glorious uprising against the Hammerer, Tax Collector, and Baron?

[BRC]

How's the armory dwarf sound - maker of weapons and armour for dwarvenkind's glorious uprising against the Hammerer, Tax Collector, and Baron?
Sounds Great.

[Player_Zero]

RARAGHGRAGRHG(*&%*&(*&(*&!(*& Fire imps!

Hate them. They just murdered a bunch of migrants and one of my main miners. Now I can't even build a forge without fear of my metalsmith going kaboom. And I don't have a military ye so I can't do crap about it.

[NEO|Phyte]

Megaproject!

Also, anyone want to get dwarfed in the coming let's play/succession? I'm writing it as I spe- er, type.
Sign me up as a manager/bookkeeper. I'll keep your books in order, or cook them, if you prefer.


RARAGHGRAGRHG(*&%*&(*&(*&!(*& Fire imps!

Hate them. They just murdered a bunch of migrants and one of my main miners. Now I can't even build a forge without fear of my metalsmith going kaboom. And I don't have a military ye so I can't do crap about it.

Make a few wooden/bone crossbows and a good few stacks of bolts to go with them. Assign them to some dwarves. Draft said dwarves and station them near fire imps. Problem solved.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Sign me up as a manager/bookkeeper. I'll keep your books in order, or cook them, if you prefer.

Done.


Make a few wooden/bone crossbows and a good few stacks of bolts to go with them. Assign them to some dwarves. Draft said dwarves and station them near fire imps. Problem solved.

This is the solution to most military problems. Unload several thousand rifled, gyroscopically balanced, heat seeking high explosive +bone bolts+ in the direction of anything that moves.

[Player_Zero]

Make a few wooden/bone crossbows and a good few stacks of bolts to go with them. Assign them to some dwarves. Draft said dwarves and station them near fire imps. Problem solved.

Only they have that fire lance crap that can insta-kill a dwarf. :smallmad:

[BRC]

GRRR, I have a well, and I mark out lots of nice, carp-free drinking areas, and I set my orders to "Only drink from designated areas", and yet my dwarves insist on going to the carp and longnose-gar infested river to drink.

[Zenos]

I can be the bookkeeper. Who recruits into the army as a hammerdwarf upon legendary recorder status...

Great, I jsut had a forest fire started by a fire imp who killed one of my hunters, then I got attacked by a pair of goblin brawlers, my Mayor went berserk and got jailed and a dwarf who had been possessed went berserk, wounded another dwarf in the head and had to be chopped to tiny pieces. All in all, just like a game of DF should be played.

Also, unfortunately my avatar in the game got a neck injury which stops her from sparring. I also have a pair of other champions with training-related nerve injuries who won't even get out of bed.

[Zeful]

Just a few quick question. How do you stop a hunter from hunting? And what are the best sizes for storerooms?

[Zenos]

Just a few quick question. How do you stop a hunter from hunting? And what are the best sizes for storerooms?

Turn of Hunting in the labour section. As for size, I just make it big according to how much of the goods I want to store. Gems I may not make big vaults for, but wine I have to make deep and roomy.

[NEO|Phyte]

Only they have that fire lance crap that can insta-kill a dwarf. :smallmad:

Crossbows have greater range. Plus, pretty much ANY attack can insta-kill a dwarf, if the RNG decrees it so, whether it's a wolf tearing out your throat or a crossbow bolt taking out both eyes, your nose, both ears, your throat, and your brain.

[Zenos]

I'll definetly be the mechanic/mason, I can also be bookkeeper for a while before joining the army as a hammerdwarf. Okay?

[Illiterate Scribe]

At this rate, we'll have a ton of book-keepers. That, however, is not a bad thing - with the obscenely good levelling speed that they have, we'll have multiple legendaries in no time.

[NEO|Phyte]

At this rate, we'll have a ton of book-keepers. That, however, is not a bad thing - with the obscenely good levelling speed that they have, we'll have multiple legendaries in no time.

Not really, only the first book-keeper goes super-saiyan, once he's gotten you up to max precision, he just needs to occasionally sit down for a bit. You only get three weeks of solid bookkeeping followed by crushing your writing utensil on your forehead once.

:edit: that said, I'd also be up for being the head of the fort's military.
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1956/myherova5.jpg
/flex

[Illiterate Scribe]

Not really, only the first book-keeper goes super-saiyan, once he's gotten you up to max precision, he just needs to occasionally sit down for a bit. You only get three weeks of solid bookkeeping followed by crushing your writing utensil on your forehead once.

:edit: that said, I'd also be up for being the head of the fort's military.
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1956/myherova5.jpg
/flex

Why no marksdorf?

Legendary marksdwarves, with their fully automatic crossbows, are one of the most terrifying soldiers ever known, and scythe their way through entire invasions.

[NEO|Phyte]

Why no marksdorf?

Legendary marksdwarves, with their fully automatic crossbows, are one of the most terrifying soldiers ever known, and scythe their way through entire invasions.

Because crossbows aren't suitably manlydwarven. Plus, you need someone to hold the line while your marksdwarves grab fresh stacks of bolts. As for my third point, that dwarf is nearly QUADRUPLE LEGENDARY. Point four is that marksdwarves don't get to beat upspar with fortress guards.

[Sanzh]

Megaproject!

Also, anyone want to get dwarfed in the coming let's play/succession? I'm writing it as I spe- er, type.
I'd be interested in being a marksdwarf. If at all possible.

[NEO|Phyte]

Man I love my fort (http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3944-syrupdwellings), 6 marksdwarves drove off 4 goblin squads. :D
Then I sent the greatest of my champions out to finish off the wounded.

[Player_Zero]

Crossbows have greater range. Plus, pretty much ANY attack can insta-kill a dwarf, if the RNG decrees it so, whether it's a wolf tearing out your throat or a crossbow bolt taking out both eyes, your nose, both ears, your throat, and your brain.

Boom. Headshot?

[NEO|Phyte]

Boom. Headshot?

Exactly.


Also, breaking news:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3953/kingmeer7.jpg

[Sanzh]

Exactly.


Also, breaking news:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3953/kingmeer7.jpg
...
Does that mean you get to throw him into the magma vent? Or are you planning on keeping him?
Either way, congratulations.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Well, I don't mind being Dwarved as the King.

If that doesn't fit, let me be the Trader.

[Zenos]

I think I'll be a marksdwarf instead of a hammerdwarf, starting out with wrestling training to become a legendary, then practicing at the archery range. Less chance of getting a spinal injury that is in the way of my career.

[Zenos]

Gah, my water channel building is foiled by those pesky goblin ambushes. And I've lost several okay dwarfs. And one of my favourite Champions died from thirst. I need more barrels... And the elves visited. I was angry. So I seized their stuff, like any proper dwarf should do. I am trying to make the fortress practically self-sustained so I can shut myself up in it and sob, so I am building a roof and fortifications for my aboveground entrance, and I am planning to make a bunch of windmills to power screw pumps to pump water up to a well I am making, if the bloody minerdwarfs would just do their job and dig out the necessary stuff, and the masons start building the walls needed to channel the water.

[Zeful]

I'm wondering if it would be possible for playgrounders to share one world? I've deleted a couple of mine already and was curious if it was possible to put ones in that you've downloaded/stolen from other PCs. It would be cool to have a large world to adventure in that didn't just have my stuff in it.

[Driderman]

Gah, my water channel building is foiled by those pesky goblin ambushes. And I've lost several okay dwarfs.

I know this isn't really on-topic, but an "okay-dwarf" is that the dwarven equivalent of "yes-men"?

[NEO|Phyte]

My mountainhome is progressing, by which I mean I've got enough goblin iron melted down that I can finish making the steel chests for the royal chambers, after which I need to get the rooms furnished with enough swag that they hit Royal status.


Gah, my water channel building is foiled by those pesky goblin ambushes. And I've lost several okay dwarfs. And one of my favourite Champions died from thirst. I need more barrels... And the elves visited. I was angry. So I seized their stuff, like any proper dwarf should do. I am trying to make the fortress practically self-sustained so I can shut myself up in it and sob, so I am building a roof and fortifications for my aboveground entrance, and I am planning to make a bunch of windmills to power screw pumps to pump water up to a well I am making, if the bloody minerdwarfs would just do their job and dig out the necessary stuff, and the masons start building the walls needed to channel the water.
Fortifications are god. Unless you're standing right next to them, you need to succeed on a skill check to be able to fire through them. I have yet to see ANY attackers (including a pair of elite bowmen) fire back at my marksdwarves. Set them up where they have a good firing arc, have some ammo stockpiles nearby, and watch the carnage.

[Zenos]

My mountainhome is progressing, by which I mean I've got enough goblin iron melted down that I can finish making the steel chests for the royal chambers, after which I need to get the rooms furnished with enough swag that they hit Royal status.


Fortifications are god. Unless you're standing right next to them, you need to succeed on a skill check to be able to fire through them. I have yet to see ANY attackers (including a pair of elite bowmen) fire back at my marksdwarves. Set them up where they have a good firing arc, have some ammo stockpiles nearby, and watch the carnage.

Yeah, but the problem is I can't even put up the walls necessary to pump the water to my doorstep, far less to make a defensive wall against goblins suddenly appearing right next to the brook I am trying to pump water from. I do have some nice fortifications near my moat-and-drawbridged roofed courtyard.

Oh god, another dwarf went berserk, luckily I had locked the workshop he was in and stationed my soldiers nearby. I am running low on burial space, especially since the stupid lazy miners won't work properly without alcohol. I need the human traders, with their barrels and alcohol and plate armour...

EDIT: And a dungeon master. I don't want pets! AGGHHH! :smallfurious:

[Zeful]

Yeah, but the problem is I can't even put up the walls necessary to pump the water to my doorstep, far less to make a defensive wall against goblins suddenly appearing right next to the brook I am trying to pump water from. I do have some nice fortifications near my moat-and-drawbridged roofed courtyard.

Oh god, another dwarf went berserk, luckily I had locked the workshop he was in and stationed my soldiers nearby. I am running low on burial space, especially since the stupid lazy miners won't work properly without alcohol. I need the human traders, with their barrels and alcohol and plate armour...

Have a Carpenter build barrels and beds forever.

[Zenos]

Have a Carpenter build barrels and beds forever.

Problem is, I try to make them do that but they can't keep up with demand. I should see if they have any other busy labours turned on.

And then I got a whole new stack of immigs together with the useless noble. :smallsigh:rant

[NEO|Phyte]

Problem is, I try to make them do that but they can't keep up with demand. I should see if they have any other busy labours turned on.

And then I got a whole new stack of immigs together with the useless noble. :smallsigh:rant

The DM isn't useless, why chain up war dogs outside your fort when you can chain up DRAGONS outside your fort?

[Zenos]

The DM isn't useless, why chain up war dogs outside your fort when you can chain up DRAGONS outside your fort?

Because I don't have any? I am just not the type who depends on pets. I might have some war dogs following my military, but not much more.

[NEO|Phyte]

Because I don't have any? I am just not the type who depends on pets. I might have some war dogs following my military, but not much more.

Main reason to have anything chained at the entrance to your fort is to sniff out any ambushes or thieves trying to reach your fort. Making said animals dragons means they're VERY likely to solve the problem after they find it. Plus, aside from maybe getting leather and bones, I don't depend on my animals for much. Other than my four entrance-assigned dogs, I've got all the rest of them assigned to an invalid, so they'll stop clumping around the dwarf that trained them, causing unneeded traffic jamming. Plus, if the guy goes berserk, he's taken care of.

Heck, if nothing else, you can cage and sell your tamed critters.

[Zenos]

'Kay. I still don't like having a noble around, it means I've got to fulfill his demands. I am already overstrained in building projects.

[NEO|Phyte]

You don't HAVE to fulfill his demands, he'll just get a few sad thoughts.

Mandates, on the other hand, cause issues, but the DM doesn't set any.

[Zenos]

Okay, that relieves me. Although my stupid Mayor has gone on two tantrums and been jailed once. And he dares mandate me to make nickeld items. I shiver at the thought that I may get a Baron...

[BRC]

When your nobles are being obnoxious, build them a tomb, and then ensure they get to use it.

[NEO|Phyte]

When your nobles are being obnoxious, build them a tomb, and then ensure they get to use it.

Not advisable if you're low on dwarves, killed nobles have an amplified effect on dissuading migrants from arriving.
"No one even considered making the journey to such a cursed death-trap this season."

[Zenos]

Yay, I put some peasant up for mason work and it seems my aqueduct is actually getting some work done on it. Soon I will have a row of windmills up for automated inlaid water. Then I can get started on making a building for the outdoors farms. Hopefully I'll soon have them digging more niches for burying dwarfs.

[BRC]

A human guildmaster is hanging around my fortress way after the caravan left. He never met with my expidition leader, never tried to (I had said leader with no labors on), but he's just chilling there.

[Zenos]

A human guildmaster is hanging around my fortress way after the caravan left. He never met with my expidition leader, never tried to (I had said leader with no labors on), but he's just chilling there.


Happened to me too. Eventually he actually got into negotiations and left. Alone.

[NEO|Phyte]

A human guildmaster is hanging around my fortress way after the caravan left. He never met with my expidition leader, never tried to (I had said leader with no labors on), but he's just chilling there.

Human guildmaster meets with your broker.

[Khosan]

New fortress. New design idea I'm going to try and implement.



Surface:
≈≈≈≈╔═╗≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
╔═════╗≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈╔═════╗
║+++++O≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈O+++++║
≈║+++++++++++++╚═╝+++++++++++++║≈
≈≈║+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++║≈≈
≈≈║+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++║≈≈
≈≈≈║+++++O░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░O+++++║≈≈≈
≈≈≈╚O+++O╝░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╚O+++O╝≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░...▼++░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░....▼++░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░.....▼++░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░...O███O░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈++╔═══════╗█████╔═══════╗++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈++║+++++++║██O██║+++++++║++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈++╚═══════╝█████╚═══════╝++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░O███O...░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░++▼.....░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░++▼....░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░++▼...░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈+++░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░+++≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈╔O+++O╗░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╔O+++O╗≈≈≈
≈≈≈║+++++O░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░O+++++║≈≈≈
≈≈║+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++║≈≈
≈≈║+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++║≈≈
≈║+++++++++++++╔═╗+++++++++++++║≈
║+++++O≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈O+++++║
╚═════╝≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈╚═════╝
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈≈≈≈║+║≈≈≈≈≈≈≈
≈≈≈≈╚═╝≈≈≈≈

Design still in progress. Large, central, spiral staircase leads down to the community dining room. Marksdwarves get to take potshots at any descending invaders through fortifications on the Eastern and Western walls. Bedrooms (current set-up allows bedding for 152 dwarves) occupy the Northern/Southern walls, and will eventually get the special benefit of fancy gem windows.

[Zenos]

Btw, what should we call this succession/community game? I would like to apply "Operation Underlord", and let the actual fortress name be something random.

[Player_Zero]

Not advisable if you're low on dwarves, killed nobles have an amplified effect on dissuading migrants from arriving.
"No one even considered making the journey to such a cursed death-trap this season."

Funny, my fortress was just slaughtered by a couple of goblin raids and in the middle of it a load of migrants arrived to get murdered by goblins.

[Zenos]

Hunh. I am trying to get a few mienrs, but all those I designate for mining and un-designate for everything else won't do any work.

[NEO|Phyte]

Hunh. I am trying to get a few mienrs, but all those I designate for mining and un-designate for everything else won't do any work.

Do you have picks for them?

[BRC]

Hunh. I am trying to get a few mienrs, but all those I designate for mining and un-designate for everything else won't do any work.
Do you have enough pickaxes?

[Illiterate Scribe]

Btw, what should we call this succession/community game? I would like to apply "Operation Underlord", and let the actual fortress name be something random.

I ended up with 'Chainssword' ('something -dastot', which I thought was as apposite as anything. I might also be able to get part one up today.

[Zenos]

Do you have enough pickaxes?

I've got loads of copper pickaxes after having found a native copper vein.

[Zenos]

Gah, I found the problem, I had ordered the picks to be melted when I wasn't in a big digging project. Good the dwarfs didn't melt 'em.

EDIT: Btw, Chainssword? That's got to be the coolest DF name evar.

[NEO|Phyte]

Gah, I found the problem, I had ordered the picks to be melted when I wasn't in a big digging project. Good the dwarfs didn't melt 'em.

Simply tagging an item to be melted does nothing (aside from keeping dwarves from claiming it), you need to set the Melt a Metal Object job on your smelter to actually get them melted.
Also, make sure that ALL melting is done at the same smelter, as 'partial' bars from melting are tracked separately for each smelter.

[Zenos]

Okay.

Zenos Emastätesh of Datanmörul (Ironpages), Champion's diary, the 27th of Timber.
Dear diary.
Finally those lazy miners have completed the well, it was a quite ambitious project, I must admit, but really, if we want this fortress self-sufficient we need wate, if only for the injured and when the brewer is lazy. Those kobold thieves are getting annoying, trying to sneak up on us when we're being visited by our kinsmen. Ah well.
At first I didn't trust this new "noble" but he is not being a nuisance, and he doesn't really demand much. I have heard such horror stories about barons and counts and such, who imprison innocent dwarfs because they can't make some obscure metal item. Although our Mayor is making up for the lack of other nobles...
Zenos

[Qanael]

Did you get your king through building a suitably impressive fort, or finding adamantine? There was a bug for a while where an adamantine king didn't actually send the king, but the first unit on that civ's list. If your civ happened to adopt an elf at some point, it's possible that he somehow ended up as that first unit.
Unless your civ ACTUALLY had an elf for the ruler, which is both hilarious and sad.

My civ had an elf leader; I remember reading the list and being mightily confused. I got him by building up my fort, since I've never even seen adamantine.

My super-miner/general manager got his room instead, with all of its ruby-encrusted platinum furniture and masterwork engravings. Hurray, meritocracy!

[NEO|Phyte]

So, remember that one champion of mine I linked?

He got better.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7351/hammertimeck1.jpg

[BRC]

Question, is it wrong to give a mere Mayor rooms with artifact furniture and gem windows that look out on the river?
Edit: @ Neophite
That is a Awsome post. All postdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is encrusted with brilliance, and studded with awsome. It menaces with spikes of Win.

[Qanael]

So, remember that one champion of mine I linked?

He got better.
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/7351/hammertimeck1.jpg

Awesome. Make him train Marksdwarfship, using crossbows in melee uses the Hammerdwarf skill. *THWACK*

[NEO|Phyte]

Awesome. Make him train Marksdwarfship, using crossbows in melee uses the Hammerdwarf skill. *THWACK*

...So, you want me to have him NOT use the artifact war hammer I recently got?

[Guts]

I just downloaded the game. It's working fine but I want to change the graphics. Could you guys help me out?

[Qanael]

...So, you want me to have him NOT use the artifact war hammer I recently got?

Whoops. You're right. I blame posting at 2 AM. How undwarvenly of me.

[Zenos]

Hmmm, I've got inlaid water, a statue park, a sheltered aboveground farming area, some magma forges, I've started producing my own alcohol, I am at a loss of ideas for somethingg to build. I'd post some pictures, but I am not very good at that kind of stuff.

[NEO|Phyte]

Hmmm, I've got inlaid water, a statue park, a sheltered aboveground farming area, some magma forges, I've started producing my own alcohol, I am at a loss of ideas for somethingg to build. I'd post some pictures, but I am not very good at that kind of stuff.

Make a grand entrance hall? Vaulted ceiling, large support pillars, masterpiece engravings out the ass (construct over nonmasterpiece engravings to unengrave the tile, and try again until you get a masterpiece), alcoves along the wall occupied by masterpiece statues, etc.

[Zenos]

Nah, my entrance hall is far too shallow for having a high ceiling. It's made more for the purpose of bunching up attacking goblins. Although maybe I should make towers on either side of the main entrance. And train up some crossbowdwarfs.

[Zenos]

My towers are coming up, if just there wasn't so much stone detailing being done around the fortress I'd even have fortifications in them.

[Zenos]

My iron mine collapsed, without any warning. Wierd. Luckily, nobody were killed in the accident.

At least there's a LOT of hematite down there.

EDIT: The elves came, I saw them, I took their stuff.

[NEO|Phyte]

So, I'm not sure what sort of rigs you people are using to play DF, but mine's somewhat aged, so stuff can really chug at times.

My attention was recently brought to the DF Accelerator (http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=27262.0), and decided to give it a try. It works. :3

[Zenos]

Anyone know how to get rid of those fly swarms?

[NEO|Phyte]

Anyone know how to get rid of those fly swarms?

Employ creatures with the [VERMINHUNTER] tag. In an unmodified game, cats are the only such creature.

[Zenos]

My older brother showed me the Init file tonight, that is good.

[Driderman]

Now you've gone and done it, I've had to reinstall this game.

[BRC]

I kind of wish I had a Baron. I've got all this artifact furniture lying around.

[NEO|Phyte]

I kind of wish I had a Baron. I've got all this artifact furniture lying around.

Save your artifacts for the king, unless you have platinum out the bum and a legendary blacksmith, getting rooms up to Royal quality is tough.

[Zenos]

I am making a catapult tower to go with the other towers. I've not got anything better to do anyways. Maybe I'll just keep expanding the towers until they're all 115 floors high. I've not got anything better to do, really. Until the goblin sieges come, anyways. Although I am looking forward to see how they do.

EDIT: Oh, and one of my fish disectors made an artifact cat bone mace. It's called "Rose Rasp".

[BRC]

Save your artifacts for the king, unless you have platinum out the bum and a legendary blacksmith, getting rooms up to Royal quality is tough.

Oh yeah. When the King shows up I'll take my Baron's furniture and give them to him.

[Player_Zero]

Well, my dwarves were murdered horribly again. How'd'ya' build one o' them militaries which doesn't crumble to marksgoblins?

[Zenos]

Now I got this sudden urge to make a shrine to armok. What is the best way to make a dome in DF?

[Khosan]

Now I got this sudden urge to make a shrine to armok. What is the best way to make a dome in DF?

Ramps, if you can start out at the top level. A ramp will remove the tile you designate and the tile above it. Plus, there's very little risk of accidental cave ins or stranded Dwarves like there is with channels, as long as you designate one level at a time.


Well, my dwarves were murdered horribly again. How'd'ya' build one o' them militaries which doesn't crumble to marksgoblins?

Marksdwarves. Crossbows are a tad overpowered in comparison to other weapons right now. A rookie squad of marksgoblins stands a good chance of killing a squad of legendary Axedwarves because of that.

[BRC]

Question, I'm building a statue garden with an artificial waterfall, but the water keeps splashing everwhere, putting 1 level water covering over various squares instead of going down the drains I thoughtfully provided.

[NEO|Phyte]

Well, my dwarves were murdered horribly again. How'd'ya' build one o' them militaries which doesn't crumble to marksgoblins?

As khosan said, marksdwarves. Be sure to use fortifications as well, if a unit is not standing next to fortifications, they have to pass some unknown skill check to be able to fire through them. I have seen this happen once in the life of Syrupdwellings.

Secondly, for your melee-oriented arm of the military, train them up to legendary wrestling/shield use. Wrestling is used to dodge attacks, and shield use is used to block them. Combined, a dwarf is nigh-untouchable, even by stuff like dragon fire. A good set of armor probably helps a bit, but won't stop things from piercing organs.

[Zenos]

My fortress has been ambushed by a lot of goblins recently, must be the goblins trying to find a weak spot in my defences for their siege forces... :yuk:

[Qanael]

My new fortress is infested with alligators. That and goblin ambushes have kept me from having to build more than 60 or so bedrooms. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing...

The frustrating part is, I built a real nice setup for the defense of my entrance, but I haven't been able to get my marksdwarves trained before they get butchered. Also, the magma is taking forever to get to my forges so I can churn out some bolts.

[BRC]

Currently, with the pull of two levers, I can cut off two entrances. The third entrance is a trap-laden chokepoint that I'm going to point a ballista down, so any goblins trying to get in will have their hands full.

Question, can Marksdwarves shoot between Z-Axis's. Could I build a wall, put some marksdwarves on top of it, and have them shoot at goblins below?

[Zeful]

Currently, with the pull of two levers, I can cut off two entrances. The third entrance is a trap-laden chokepoint that I'm going to point a ballista down, so any goblins trying to get in will have their hands full.

Question, can Marksdwarves shoot between Z-Axis's. Could I build a wall, put some marksdwarves on top of it, and have them shoot at goblins below?

Or go up a floor, channel out the area above your main entrance and put Marksdwarves there.

[Zenos]

Okay, I am building the shrine to Armok half buried in the gruond, with only the roof and entrance above ground. I have decided to use the lots and lots of gypsum, jet and kaolinite I found whilst digging to good use. I've also stumbled upon a lot of native copper. Finally! I had started to think the place I was digging in had run out of ores.

[Qanael]

Currently, with the pull of two levers, I can cut off two entrances. The third entrance is a trap-laden chokepoint that I'm going to point a ballista down, so any goblins trying to get in will have their hands full.

Question, can Marksdwarves shoot between Z-Axis's. Could I build a wall, put some marksdwarves on top of it, and have them shoot at goblins below?

They sure can. As Zeful said, channel the area above (if we're talking underground) and put fortifications on the edge. Creatures on lower Z-levels can't shoot through fortifications on higher levels.

[shadow_archmagi]

I believe that, ironically, being higher up reduces your range (as moving down counts as a tile's worth of movement for the arrow). You CAN shoot through fortifications; it's a skill check VS a DC based on your distance from them; It's something like 0 for units directly adjacent and a much bigger number for enemies on the other side six tiles away.

That said, cage traps and a ridiculously large dining room with masterpiece engravings (just smoothing it out should get two or three dwarves darn near legendary) will solve a lot of your problems.

[BRC]

Another brave fisherdwarf has fallen to the Carp. Is there any way to battle this watery menace!

[Zenos]

Drain the river? Drown the daemons in fish form?

[Guts]

I tried using one of the graphical tilesets on the wiki and now when I play the game no image shows up:smallfrown:. Also, if i go over the limit the elves set on trees to cut down, what will be the retribution?

[Player_Zero]

I tried using one of the graphical tilesets on the wiki and now when I play the game no image shows up:smallfrown:. Also, if i go over the limit the elves set on trees to cut down, what will be the retribution?

I think they try to murder you.

Also, are you sure you changed the init file correctly?

[Guts]

I think they try to murder you.

Also, are you sure you changed the init file correctly?

Yay someone answered! I'm using the Mayday set and the only changes I made to the init file was to set "[GRAPHICS=YES]" AND '[GRAPHICS_FONT=mayday.bmp] and '[GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:mayday.bmp]'

'Bout the elves, well damn I cut 2 trees above the limit and I barely got enough military to drive away the local wildlife and goblin/kobold raid, not a full-fledged invasion. You think I can barter for peace from the jerkass, hippy, pointy-earred s.o.a.b's?

[shadow_archmagi]

Another brave fisherdwarf has fallen to the Carp. Is there any way to battle this watery menace!

Build a swimming pool; dwarves have much better odds when not drowning. A swimming pool means you pick a commonly used hallway, put in a tile or two of channel, add ramps or stairs, and then designate it as a pond until it gets to be about 5/7s full, so dwarves will gain swimming XP but not drown. Soon everyone will have a normal skill level in swimming and will be able to fight carp in melee without drowning. Then just send in the hammerdwarves.

[Zenos]

Yay someone answered! I'm using the Mayday set and the only changes I made to the init file was to set "[GRAPHICS=YES]" AND '[GRAPHICS_FONT=mayday.bmp] and '[GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:mayday.bmp]'

'Bout the elves, well damn I cut 2 trees above the limit and I barely got enough military to drive away the local wildlife and goblin/kobold raid, not a full-fledged invasion. You think I can barter for peace from the jerkass, hippy, pointy-earred s.o.a.b's?

They're pretty wimpy at combat, since they wear and wield wooden stuff, but they Ambush you, so that may be a problem.

[Player_Zero]

Yay someone answered! I'm using the Mayday set and the only changes I made to the init file was to set "[GRAPHICS=YES]" AND '[GRAPHICS_FONT=mayday.bmp] and '[GRAPHICS_FULLFONT:mayday.bmp]'

Don't you usually have to specify resolution? :smallconfused:

Bearing in mind I have no idea here, I just tinkered with things until they started working.

[Guts]

Don't you usually have to specify resolution? :smallconfused:

Bearing in mind I have no idea here, I just tinkered with things until they started working.

You mean something like:'[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDX:600[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDY:300]?
(I'm sorry if I sound stupid but I'm terrible with computers).

[Zeful]

Okay I'm stuck. I've gotten my barracks and most of my immeadiate workshop needs taken care of. I've got a farm up and stills operational (I didn't build a kitchen yet because I needed them to eat the stuff in the barrels). Got everybody their own room and the first immigrant wave passed me over. My trade depot is placed and waiting for my architect to finish smoothing the 50+ tile dinning room. I even managed to set up a ballista looking down the main hall that as soon as I get more dwarves will be covered by marksdwarves from above.

What should I do next?

[NEO|Phyte]

Okay I'm stuck. I've gotten my barracks and most of my immeadiate workshop needs taken care of. I've got a farm up and stills operational (I didn't build a kitchen yet because I needed them to eat the stuff in the barrels). Got everybody their own room and the first immigrant wave passed me over. My trade depot is placed and waiting for my architect to finish smoothing the 50+ tile dinning room. I even managed to set up a ballista looking down the main hall that as soon as I get more dwarves will be covered by marksdwarves from above.

What should I do next?

Improve your fort until it becomes stable to the point of boredom, then generate a new world and start a microfort for the sole purpose of creating a set of high-quality adamantine gear to commit genocide with? That's MY current project, anyway.
*has a literal hole in the wall with food production and adamantine processing*

[shadow_archmagi]

Okay I'm stuck. I've gotten my barracks and most of my immeadiate workshop needs taken care of. I've got a farm up and stills operational (I didn't build a kitchen yet because I needed them to eat the stuff in the barrels). Got everybody their own room and the first immigrant wave passed me over. My trade depot is placed and waiting for my architect to finish smoothing the 50+ tile dinning room. I even managed to set up a ballista looking down the main hall that as soon as I get more dwarves will be covered by marksdwarves from above.

What should I do next?

Well, one of two things.

Option number one: Wait. Make sure you have angry neighbors. Superbeasts, goblin siege, human siege, elf siege, kobold ambushes, maybe some HFS if you're lucky....

Option number two: Take your fort in a direction. Build a giant statue out of platinum; or a complex system of pumps allowing you to pour magma on any part of the map. Build a ceiling over your entire fort and then flood the map so you're a underwater fortress. (for bonus points, leave a way in for the caravans.)

[Zeful]

I only have the 7 starting dwarves. Most of them are busy 97% of the time (sleeping and eating included).

[Zenos]

My temple to the blood god is progressing nicely, however, I am now over 80 dwarfs and can be sieged. I think I might want to get the crossbowdwarfs on duty. And put up some more weapon traps.

[BRC]

Immigration wave!
I went from 49 dwarfs to 70, and got a Dungeon Master. Three of the dwarves that arrived were Weavers, which I have basically no use for...

[Lunix Vandal]

Well huh. I go to the trouble of finding a near-perfect site and it turns out I don't even have the newest version of DF. Fortunately saves from .40c are compatible with .40d! :smalltongue:

I actually stumbled upon this "by accident" using the first of the two main menu world-gen options:
[SEED:266129474]
[HISTORY_SEED:1996231817]
[NAME_SEED:2773299130]

If you use those seeds on a Medium map in .40c (via the second world-gen option, then 'e') ... well... how to put this...

I asked the site finder to find a 3x3 area with a magma pool, a cave river, flux, no aquifer, and Hidden Fun Stuff, and it gives me sand and True Neutral/Neutral-Savage surroundings besides, with the option of expanding north and/or east to get 1-3 Chasm tiles. And to top it all off, I'm only two "Region" tiles away from a goblin fortress! :smallamused:

Also, Re: Royal-level rooms: It's not that hard once you have a Legendary Engraver, which doesn't take very long once you have enough dorfs that having one (basically) mope around doodling on the walls doesn't hurt your productivity. Carve out a 5x5 room, then have the Legendary Engraver smooth and engrave the walls and floor. Do it in flux for guaranteed results. (Just make sure you don't engrave anything you plan on potentially turning into a doorway later, or the Engraver might tantrum from your miners defacing his masterwork depiction of a large cockroach.)

[Zeful]

I've got a new problem. My farmer isn't building a famer's workshop. He's planting and doing all his other jobs, just not building that freaking workshop. How do I fix that?

[Sanzh]

I've got a new problem. My farmer isn't building a famer's workshop. He's planting and doing all his other jobs, just not building that freaking workshop. How do I fix that?
Check and see if plant processing/milking/cheese making are turned on for his jobs?

[Player_Zero]

Ya' know how you assign brokers and whatnot now? How do you train from for such tasks?

I know that the broker should have appraising which is gotten by trading, but what about the warden? Doesn't he need judge of intent or something? How do you get those social skills up?

[Zenos]

They get it by socialising. Duh. Anyways, have a meeting hall or something. Public dining room.

[BRC]

I'm personally a fan of big, fancy public dining halls over personal dining rooms. For the proles at least, nobles are too snooty to eat with the masses.

I currently have two such areas, I put abunch of tables right next to each other so as to simulate one long table, abunch of tastefully arranged statues, and engravings everwhere.

My other area is bigger, has an indoor waterfall (so it's got alot of tiles with 1/7 water covering, but my dwarves don't seem to mind), has satues placed every 3 spaces along the wall (Which is engraved), with tables in the spaces between and a big skylight so as to prevent Cave adaptation.

[Zenos]

Yeah, I have this legendary dining room made by my "author" avatar and current general of my military, Zenos [dwarven name I am unable to read or recall].

[BRC]

Nerf Humans.

A Kobold theif was trying to sneak into my fortress through my "Warehouse Doors" (A pair of floodgates that open up onto my courtyard, to easily carry stuff from my Finished goods stockpile to my Trade Depot, they are only open when caravans are in town, and when that happens they are guarded). Well he was seen and rushed by humans, he was then slaughtered messily.

Nearbye the trade depot I have a tower that I was building for Lulz, it's currently 4 Z-Levels tall. I found the lower half of the kobold's corpse on top, apparently knocked there by the force of his demise.

[Zenos]

Nerf Humans.

A Kobold theif was trying to sneak into my fortress through my "Warehouse Doors" (A pair of floodgates that open up onto my courtyard, to easily carry stuff from my Finished goods stockpile to my Trade Depot, they are only open when caravans are in town, and when that happens they are guarded). Well he was seen and rushed by humans, he was then slaughtered messily.

Nearbye the trade depot I have a tower that I was building for Lulz, it's currently 4 Z-Levels tall. I found the lower half of the kobold's corpse on top, apparently knocked there by the force of his demise.

I lol'ed at that.

[Rockphed]

Vanilla Megabeast are pretty tame. Not so for some of the modded ones I am facing. I just had what amounted to a Spirit of Ice(though if I want it to be more evil, I should probably give it a lower body temperature, muwahahaha) kill my entire fortress of 70 adults. True, I only had 3 military, and one of those was wielding a silver sword, but the thing was throwing my dwarves around left, right and center. Dwarffort is out to get me. :smallbiggrin:

[BRC]

HELP! My engravers have gone recursive :smalltongue:
http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w27/bloddyredcommie/dwarf.jpg

On another note, I'm thinking of building a Pyramid. I can't decide between egyptian style smooth, or incan style step.

[Player_Zero]

Stupid dwarves...

A couple of seasons back a fire imp took out one of my marksmen, and injured the other one, who happened to be carrying around a dwarfling.

Suffice to say, her legs were broken so she didn't even move from the spot she was injured in, next to the dead body of her friend. Then It turns out her pet died. So, basically, she decided to murder her child and then go for the other recuperating dwarf nearby.

...Stupid dwarves... Next time I'm just gonna' stick to traps. -_-

Edit: She died from thirst before I could order er husband to finish the job.

[Rockphed]

Stupid dwarves...

A couple of seasons back a fire imp took out one of my marksmen, and injured the other one, who happened to be carrying around a dwarfling.

Suffice to say, her legs were broken so she didn't even move from the spot she was injured in, next to the dead body of her friend. Then It turns out her pet died. So, basically, she decided to murder her child and then go for the other recuperating dwarf nearby.

...Stupid dwarves... Next time I'm just gonna' stick to traps. -_-

Edit: She died from thirst before I could order er husband to finish the job.

If you had beds for her to be taken to, she would have been much happier.

[Player_Zero]

If you had beds for her to be taken to, she would have been much happier.

I have tons of bed. Tons of free beds. And two barracks.

[Rockphed]

I have tons of bed. Tons of free beds. And two barracks.

Hmmm, I read that if somebody isn't getting rescued, then you need to assign then a new bed for the "Recover Wounded" job to be generated.

[Player_Zero]

Wow...

Invasion...

Goblin axe lord appears directly after a human caravan... There's a human pikemaster...

Everyone ends up running away... A couple of dwarves died...

Marksdwarves still need training.

[BRC]

Silly Elves. They only brough bins of Cloth, I don't need Cloth.


For this, I wil commit tree genocide.
Also, I blitzed my clerk to legendary. Should I turn him into a Marksdwarf?

[Bitzeralisis]

My dwarves won't pick up and throw away stones marked for dumping on stairs. Does anyone know how to fix this? My dwarves will pick up and throw away other rocks, but not the ones dropped on stairs.

[Qanael]

HELP! My engravers have gone recursive :smalltongue:


Pfft. Haven't you seen the engravings of the engraver's previous masterful engraving? Now that's recursive.

[TFT]

Half a month isn't too long to make a post on this, is it...

If not, ARISE, somewhat-dead thread, I need to figure out how to play this game.

(Basically, the mode it is shown in is confusing, can someone explain that?)

[H. Zee]

Can someone please explain to me how you build down a level/up a level? I seriously need to know. Thanks.

[Zenos]

Can someone please explain to me how you build down a level/up a level? I seriously need to know. Thanks.

Just go to a tile below the level you are in, under where you want a down-ramp, then build an up-ramp. The dwarfs will mine out the ramps.

[H. Zee]

Just go to a tile below the level you are in, under where you want a down-ramp, then build an up-ramp. The dwarfs will mine out the ramps.

Okay, cheers!

[Zenos]

Okay, cheers!

My pleasure.

[Player_Zero]

My dwarves are complaining there is no well... But I can't build one easily and I have over a thousand assorted drinks. How annoying.

Also, it's taking me a freaking age to find this adamantine which is supposedly around here somewhere. I've gone through finding every single bloody ore there is so far apart from it.

[Zenos]

Do you have any kind of water source nearby? Is it for their wounded?

[Justyn]

I've recently started to play, so this may seem like a stupid question, so hear me out.

Because of my staring location, I have an abundance of talc (at least 150, if you were wondering) Is there anything I can do with the stuff? Well, aside from dumping it into the river, or getting one of the traders to take it off my hands.

Edit: Question stands, but my problem, and save are no more.

[Maxymiuk]

Talc is just your run-of-the-mill stone - nothing special about it. Use it either to construct tables/chairs/doors in the mason workshop, or if you're dead set on selling it, make stone crafts out of it at the craftsdwarf's workshop to get some actual value from it.

[TFT]

I started in a mountain, and struck gold!

Thing is, I have no craftsdwarves...

What do I do with this gold?

[Sanzh]

I started in a mountain, and struck gold!

Thing is, I have no craftsdwarves...

What do I do with this gold?

Use it for furniture. Especially for a dining room-- you'll get a good amount of happiness and so on.
Or, wait until you get a skilled-ish craftsdwarf (training one with excess stone of low quality).

[Lunix Vandal]

Note that to get a Stonecrafter or Mason to use native gold nuggets in crafts/furniture, you have to specifically allow their use on the [z]-stocks menu. (Press "z:, highlight "Stone", and flip native gold from red to green. Flip it back after you've made your desired objects, though, or it might get used for something you don't want it to be. Used for, that is.)

If you have a Furnace Operator convert the nuggets to bars, though, you need a Metalsmith or Metalcrafter to make your gold furniture or crafts, respectively. This doesn't require any work with the [z]-stocks screen, but you do need a smelter to refine the gold and a forge to smith it, not to mention that it takes three times as many metal bars as rocks to make equally-large piles of furniture. :smallyuk:

In other news, my newest fortress' entrance opens into a Terrifying forest. There's no undead, though -- the Glumprong trees are healthy, as are the hoary marmots and mountain goats (and the fire imps on the other end of the map). But I did get three Ogres halfway through the first year. Spoiler'd for length.

Fun fact: It turns out that newly-spawned Ogres are pretty much the exact same speed as an adult cat that's killed about a dozen rhino lizards.

So the cat decides the dire bluejay (or something) outside the fortress' entrance looks tasty, and decides to chase it down. The ogres (NW of the entrance) see the cat, and decide to chase it down. To the ogres' credit, they did manage to back it up against the northeast corner of the map -- but then the cat bolted west before they could start making wrestling checks against it. Silly thing lead the ogres back in front of the fortress' entrance, then kept running until it hits the west edge of the map (the map is a 4x4). Fortunately for the cat, the terrain here drops about eight z-levels in about 40 x-tiles, with ramps the whole way down. The frontmost of the ogres managed to stay within 2 tiles of the cat -- until the latter hit the ramps and dropped out of all three ogres' line of sight. The cat was able to swing south and then back east to my entrance, while the ogres return to where they were originally. Incidentally, this is what spurred me to set up my retractable drawbridge that can deny access to everything that can't either climb walls or fly. I'm considering flooding the moat underneath the bridge with magma. And then using glass and bauxite to redefine "the moat underneath the bridge" as "everything outside the fortress." :smallwink:

[Justyn]

Another question from a newbie: If I were to build my fortress in a freezing map, and I were to come under siege, and I trap the besiegers outside so that they can't get into my fortress or leave the map, will they eventually freeze to death?

[Rockphed]

Another question from a newbie: If I were to build my fortress in a freezing map, and I were to come under siege, and I trap the besiegers outside so that they can't get into my fortress or leave the map, will they eventually freeze to death?

If your map is cold enough, then it would work. Normal maps don't get quite that cold.

[Stormthorn]

I need help with something. I somehow zoomed in to the point where the game is unplayable and i cant seem to find an entry on the wiki that just tells me how to zoom back out. Its so zoomed in that i cant see the options in the menue when i press esc so i cant look at the key bindings or read the Help. How do i zoom out?


Its odd. I want to try and play this game but the game itself is actively fighting me. Its like user-friendlyness was the last thing on the designers list (just under mouse-use and graphics) and he hasnt gotten to it yet.

That said, i did eventualy learn how to dig. Next i think im going to try and figure out how to get the parts to get my dwarf to make a bed or table, whichever looks easier.

[Zenos]

I need help with something. I somehow zoomed in to the point where the game is unplayable and i cant seem to find an entry on the wiki that just tells me how to zoom back out. Its so zoomed in that i cant see the options in the menue when i press esc so i cant look at the key bindings or read the Help. How do i zoom out?


Its odd. I want to try and play this game but the game itself is actively fighting me. Its like user-friendlyness was the last thing on the designers list (just under mouse-use and graphics) and he hasnt gotten to it yet.

That said, i did eventualy learn how to dig. Next i think im going to try and figure out how to get the parts to get my dwarf to make a bed or table, whichever looks easier.

Search for Dwarf Fortress Wiki. Then search for first fortress. It will be VERY helpful.

[TheLogman]

Okay, I have tried to play this game about 10 times now, but every time I try, I somehow fail, and all the work I put into it goes to waste. >.>

So, one of the most important questions: How do I make dwarves farm underground? I've tried some sort of dig out a huge room, then build a ton of complex doors to flood and drain the room, but it never works, or I get bored because it's tedious, or my dwarves die before the job gets done.

My main problem is that I don't learn well from reading, especially a formal source like the wiki, so could someone who's experienced (The stuff you guys are doing is crazy advanced for me) explain some of the basics? I understand buying stuff and building a team, and a good choice for Fort starting/starting up a fort (The Stuff I do every time I start up the game before something goes wrong or I give up). But keeping dwarves fed and happy and quenched thrist and safe is difficult.

Biggest question is how to farm, but any advice is appreciated.

[Zenos]

Are you making sure you're building farming plots in silt? And that you have farmers?

[TheLogman]

I know I have farmers, but what do you mean by silt? Does the ground have to be wet, or can I find silt naturally?

Okay, creating another new file. This one has woodland, calm surroundings, is warm, moderate vegetation, and the dirt is Sand, Chalk, Diorite, and Granite.

I'm worried the soil won't provide enough rock, is this a good area for playing? Can I farm here? There is a river.

[Zenos]

I think you can farm on sand. I am pretty sure. You need either soil (silty loam, sand and the like) or mud (comes from pumping and channeling water onto where you want to farm) to start farming, then you just build farm plots, use the building control key to set what plants you want to farm, and you're set (if you have seeds).

[TheLogman]

My other problem has always been that even if I have cave seeds and have a farm plot underground, the game will only let me plant aboveground seeds. Why?

Also, my kitchen is now shooting out waves of Miasma that eventually subside, until a second one appears.

[Moonshadow]

You need a refuse pile, above ground is best. Hit p for stockpiles, and go from there.


My current project is a 15 story tall green glass tower that I'm going to pump water up every level, and then have it cascade down the outside, and certain points inside the tower.

I just hope I can get it to work right with all the pumps :smallwink:

[TheLogman]

Okay, encountered the problem again. I am at Z-level -1, I have made some farm plot, it is prepped, it is on soil, but the only plant the game will let me plant is some wild strawberries that I gathered earlier. Yes, I did buy some seeds at the start. Did my guys eat them or something?

[Moonshadow]

Well, if there is any sunlight hitting it, then you can only plant above ground plants, I think.

Try going a z level deeper?

[Stormthorn]

Search for Dwarf Fortress Wiki. Then search for first fortress. It will be VERY helpful.

It is, but it doesnt solve my immediate problem of only being able to see an area of perhaps 5x5 characters at once rather than ten times that.

[Artanis]

Okay, encountered the problem again. I am at Z-level -1, I have made some farm plot, it is prepped, it is on soil, but the only plant the game will let me plant is some wild strawberries that I gathered earlier. Yes, I did buy some seeds at the start. Did my guys eat them or something?
It sounds like you're just digging down, and not putting the farms actually below ground. Use the 'k' key to check the tiles in question, and see if any of them say they're aboveground.


Basically, it sounds like you're doing this:


______ _____
\FARM/


When you need to have this:


____________
\______FARM___

(for a couple crude side-view illustrations).

[Zeful]

I need help with something. I somehow zoomed in to the point where the game is unplayable and i cant seem to find an entry on the wiki that just tells me how to zoom back out. Its so zoomed in that i cant see the options in the menue when i press esc so i cant look at the key bindings or read the Help. How do i zoom out?


Its odd. I want to try and play this game but the game itself is actively fighting me. Its like user-friendlyness was the last thing on the designers list (just under mouse-use and graphics) and he hasnt gotten to it yet.

That said, i did eventualy learn how to dig. Next i think im going to try and figure out how to get the parts to get my dwarf to make a bed or table, whichever looks easier.

Define Zoom. Did the characters get bigger? Did parts of the screen vanish?

[Stormthorn]

Yes. The characters grew to terrify proportions and almost all of the screen got eated up.

I have control of this sorta stuff in, for instance, the interweb, and i can move it simply by holding down control and pushing up on the little slidy thing at the edge of the touchpad.

But i wasnt using either the slider or the Ctrl button. It was like that when i tabbed back to it after moving to another window (the wiki for Dawrf Fortress, ironicly enough).

[Justyn]

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with aquifers -aside from avoiding them- beyond what what the wiki (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Aquifer) has to say on the matter?

[Rockphed]

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with aquifers -aside from avoiding them- beyond what what the wiki (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Aquifer) has to say on the matter?

If you have an aquifer under your fort and manage to get beneath it, for the love of all that is holy, do not dig up.

[Justyn]

Right now I have about a few dead horses outside of my fortress that were killed by a caravan's military, and my dwarves have apparently taken it upon themselves to let them rot to nothing. I have tried everything I can think of to get them to at least move them to the fort: making a refuse stockpile,, making a stockpile marked to hold everything, making a butcher's shop and putting the "Butcher an Animal" job and a dwarf with the "butcher" labor active, making a dumping site and marking them all for dumping, activating a dwarf and moving him next to the corpse and deactivating him; but I have six dwarves saying that they have no jobs, and some horse corpses that will likely start to rot soon. Anything I can do to get my pants-on-head wards to do something?

Edit: And they rotted. I would still like to know how to avoid this next time, however.

[Moonshadow]

Well, if your dorfs kill something, the Butcher a Dead Animal job comes up automatically at a butchers shop, so maybe you should kill them next time?

[Artanis]

Right now I have about a few dead horses outside of my fortress that were killed by a caravan's military, and my dwarves have apparently taken it upon themselves to let them rot to nothing. I have tried everything I can think of to get them to at least move them to the fort: making a refuse stockpile,, making a stockpile marked to hold everything, making a butcher's shop and putting the "Butcher an Animal" job and a dwarf with the "butcher" labor active, making a dumping site and marking them all for dumping, activating a dwarf and moving him next to the corpse and deactivating him; but I have six dwarves saying that they have no jobs, and some horse corpses that will likely start to rot soon. Anything I can do to get my pants-on-head wards to do something?

Edit: And they rotted. I would still like to know how to avoid this next time, however.
Check the (o)ptions menu -> refuse orders, and make sure it's set to "Dwarves gather refuse from outside".

Also, just as a side note, IME dwarves will only butcher an already-dead animal if it's fairly close to the butcher's shop. So it's a good idea to have a small refuse pile set only to accept corpses near it.

[Justyn]

Check the (o)ptions menu -> refuse orders, and make sure it's set to "Dwarves gather refuse from outside".

Also, just as a side note, IME dwarves will only butcher an already-dead animal if it's fairly close to the butcher's shop. So it's a good idea to have a small refuse pile set only to accept corpses near it.

Thanks.

Anyway, not another question, but something interesting. One of my dwarves, an engraver, just had a mood; and after he made the artifact, he engraved a masterpiece. Of himself. Making the artifact.

http://fc32.deviantart.com/fs37/f/2008/268/9/7/Dwarf_Fortress__Cheese_Artisan_by_augest.jpg

I also came upon a massive magnetite deposit, with at least 30 native platinum. My fortress is also pretty close to a magma pipe, a river, and is dug right into chalk underneath some peat, and it's only a short walk to two bauxite deposits, and a good deal of sand. In other words, I found a great map. The only problem I can think of is that I have yet to come across a single gem.

[Artanis]

Just keep on digging. The wiki has a good page on exploratory mining.

Just remember to make sure to keep a LOT of those raw gems in stock. Raw glass can be used to train jewelers and to encrust stuff, and cut gems can be bought from caravans. But the only way to fulfill a moody dwarf's demand for raw gems is by digging 'em out.

[H. Zee]

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m224/HazJT/lolmylittleponies.jpg

My hairy dwarven Engraver is, apparently, a nine-year-old girl at heart.

[TFT]

I think this is a fairly basic question...
How do I drain an underground room of water?

[NEO|Phyte]

I think this is a fairly basic question...
How do I drain an underground room of water?

Pumps, maybe a bucket brigade if you can convince them to take water from the room in question. Or if the depth is only 1, it'll evaporate eventually.

[JeminiZero]

So I decided to try this game over the past few days. After a few restarts, I am now endeavouring to build an impenetratable fortress that can hold out 80 orc sieges.

To this end, My dwarves have spent their first few years digging like mad, to the extent I *nearly* forgot food production. I have not even built a trade depot (in fact I have not figured out how to trade at all :smalltongue:). Just dug and tunnelled like mad.

While digging, I *eventually* figured out military after losing a handful of dwarves to a mere fire imp. Lacking any sort of proper equipment, my first 4 recruits were armed with wooden bucklers and some bone armor. I am hoping to eventually figure trade and purchase steel to equip them properly.

Anyway, after much save scumming, 3 in game years of digging and a bit of farming on the side to keep everyone fed and drunk, I now have a 5 tile wide, 6z deep chasm lava moat that should keep out anything land bound that is not fire proof, and can't climb walls (its 6z deep because the fort is both high and far from the volcano in case of eruption. The magma surface is 3z below the fort entrance, and pressure drop off over distance means that the chasm has to be another 3z lower than magma surface in order to fill. And its not completely full either, its mostly just 1/7).

Unfortunately, a few dumb dwarves somehow fell into the chasm and died instantly.

I am now aiming to channel water from a river into the fort to ensure adequate water supply during a siege. To stop things from sneaking in underwater, I'll be placing a few wall and floor grates along the water route.

So my questions now:
1. Am I forgetting anything in operation impenetratable fortress?
2. Is there anyway to reduce dwarven death from clumsiness near deadly chasm moats. I was thinking of walling it off from the outside, but I'm afraid it would also provide cover to enemies from archer fire (when I get around to training archers anyway).

[Artanis]

So I decided to try this game over the past few days. After a few restarts, I am now endeavouring to build an impenetratable fortress that can hold out 80 orc sieges.

To this end, My dwarves have spent their first few years digging like mad, to the extent I *nearly* forgot food production. I have not even built a trade depot (in fact I have not figured out how to trade at all :smalltongue:). Just dug and tunnelled like mad.
To trade:

Step 1 - Build a depot

Step 2 - Go to the {n}obles screen and make sure you have a broker assigned (this step is not technically necessary, but it helps in the long run)

Step 3 - Get some stuff worth trading. Stone goblets from the Craftsdwarf Workshop and (narrow giant cave spider silk stuff) from dead goblins work well.

Step 4 - When the caravan arrives, select your trade depot with the {q} button's function, and set it to "trader requested at depot", then hit {g} to bring up a menu of stuff for your dwarves to haul to the depot.

Step 5 - When all the merchants get to the depot, select the depot and hit {t}rade. Note that "offer" means you give the stuff you've selected to the merchants for free.

Step 6 - Repeat 3 continuously and repeat 4 and 5 every spring, summer, and fall.

There's some other stuff revolving around trade, but that's how you do the exchange of goods.



While digging, I *eventually* figured out military after losing a handful of dwarves to a mere fire imp. Lacking any sort of proper equipment, my first 4 recruits were armed with wooden bucklers and some bone armor. I am hoping to eventually figure trade and purchase steel to equip them properly.
Purchased steel works alright at the start, but you have magma, so making magma forges and smelters lets you train up weaponsmiths and armorsmiths (and metalcrafters and blacksmiths) pretty easily. After a while, you'll be able to make plenty of armor and weapons that are far better than any caravan will bring.



Anyway, after much save scumming, 3 in game years of digging and a bit of farming on the side to keep everyone fed and drunk, I now have a 5 tile wide, 6z deep chasm lava moat that should keep out anything land bound that is not fire proof, and can't climb walls (its 6z deep because the fort is both high and far from the volcano in case of eruption. The magma surface is 3z below the fort entrance, and pressure drop off over distance means that the chasm has to be another 3z lower than magma surface in order to fill. And its not completely full either, its mostly just 1/7).

Unfortunately, a few dumb dwarves somehow fell into the chasm and died instantly.

I am now aiming to channel water from a river into the fort to ensure adequate water supply during a siege. To stop things from sneaking in underwater, I'll be placing a few wall and floor grates along the water route.
For dwarves, the more elaborate something is, the better, and your defense is very dwarfy :smallcool:



So my questions now:
1. Am I forgetting anything in operation impenetratable fortress?
"Anything" in terms of making it a bitch to get into? Maybe traps. Having only one entrance and then guarding it with a ridiculous number of traps is even more effective than save scumming.

"Anything" in terms how things work? Nothing some experience won't cure :smallwink:



2. Is there anyway to reduce dwarven death from clumsiness near deadly chasm moats. I was thinking of walling it off from the outside, but I'm afraid it would also provide cover to enemies from archer fire (when I get around to training archers anyway).
About the only way to keep dwarves from kiling themselves is to keep them away from the thing. That isn't always possible, but your dwarves are less likely to fall in a chasm if they aren't hanging around it :smalltongue:

Walls can't be shot through, so they provide cover for both sides. Fortifications, which are either made by detailing smoothed walls or by building them from the {b} -> {c}onstructions menu, can be shot through, but the farther away somebody is, the harder it is to do so. So a squad of marksdwarves stationed by the fortifications is going to kick the crap out of enemy archers.


It sounds like you've got a good fortress going. You've got plenty to learn, but you've got enough figured out to live long enough to learn it. But just remember: the game's motto is "Losing Is Fun!" :smallbiggrin:

[Destro_Yersul]

Well, I started playing this, mostly due to this thread. I haven't found any magma, but I've got a well and I'm working on outfitting a couple recruits with weapons. Should I feel really lucky that the second artifact my dwarves decided to make was a suit of platinum plate mail?

[Artanis]

That's definitely a good artifact. It's about as good as it gets, and is (probably*) better than anything you'll be able to make short of another artifact. And that goes triple if you got a Legendary armorsmith out of it.

On top of that, plate mail is frigging expensive. I'd be willing to bet that that piece of plate mail is worth over 1,000,000☼, and fortress wealth contributes to tons of stuff, such as immigration.

Plus, it'll look even better if you get a few underwhelming artifacts, like some brat making you a wooden earring worth 3,400☼ :smalltongue:




*Item quality affects how effective weapons and armor are, with higher quality being deadlier and more protective (respectively). Nobody knows exactly how big the boost from being artifact quality is, but it's known to be really damned big. So your artifact is almost certainly better than even ☼steel plate mail☼, but platinum's poor weapon/armor modifier means that there's a small chance it won't be. Either way, it's a seriously badass item.

[Destro_Yersul]

Yay issues! Got a few problems here. First of all, I can't seem to get my lazy-Arse dwarves to dump out the chunks of dead bat it the dining room. One flew in there, offed a couple dwarves, and died. and while the bodies are, I believe, gone, all the chunks are still there and none of the dwarves are going to move them. And yes, I did tell them to dump the things.

Second of all, my two recruits, with axes, are completely useless. They didn't even try to fight the bat, How do I get them to actually fight things?

[Maxymiuk]

Make sure you have a designated garbage dump. It's treated as a zone, so "i", "enter", make a selection box, "enter" again, and "g".

Otherwise, body chunks and the like are treated as refuse. Simply designate a refuse stockpile - "p-r" - and the dwarves should move the offending bits there automatically.


As for your axedwarves, I'm guessing they were either off-duty if you set them to train, or too far away to notice what was happening. You need to make sure your military is on-duty (and preferably grouped in the same squad), and then tell them to go to the problem are with the "x" key.

[Justyn]

Two questions:

First, if I were to completely cover an outside area in glass, would that area be considered inside or outside?

Second, I'm thinking about making an obsidian factory soon, and I already have a plan on how to go about this. My question here is: should I put the magma or water into the central chamber first, or does it matter at all?

[JeminiZero]

Two questions:
First, if I were to completely cover an outside area in glass, would that area be considered inside or outside?


I think I know this one, whether an area is inside or outside, is based on whether it has access to the sky. If there is anything overhead, it is considered inside, regardless of the ground its on.



As for your axedwarves, I'm guessing they were either off-duty if you set them to train, or too far away to notice what was happening. You need to make sure your military is on-duty (and preferably grouped in the same squad), and then tell them to go to the problem are with the "x" key.

More specific advice, to get your axemen to be on duty, go to the military screen (m), find recruits, hit (v) to view squad. There will be a bit on whether the squad is active or standing down. Toggle this using (t).

To get them to go to the problem, hit (x) to bring up a list of squads, and then move the pointer somewhere near the problem, then hit (s) to drop a station marker, which summon the squad to the scene.

[Zeful]

Two questions:

First, if I were to completely cover an outside area in glass, would that area be considered inside or outside?

Second, I'm thinking about making an obsidian factory soon, and I already have a plan on how to go about this. My question here is: should I put the magma or water into the central chamber first, or does it matter at all?

It would be Inside, Light and Above Ground.

I think it would be better to put the magma in first, so as you create more Obsidian per operation. But I don't think it should matter.

[Cubey]

I'd say water, for safety reasons.

Obsidian factories are tricky, because if even a 1/7 layer of magma touches a 1/7 layer of water, they solidify into a whole WALL of obsidian. And that wall will block the further flow of water or lava.

[Zeful]

I'd say water, for safety reasons.

Obsidian factories are tricky, because if even a 1/7 layer of magma touches a 1/7 layer of water, they solidify into a whole WALL of obsidian. And that wall will block the further flow of water or lava.

Which is why you make a bauxite room two or three z levels deep like this

z-level 1
╔═══╗.
║...╚═
║..../
║...╔═
╚═══╝.
Z-level 2
.╔═══╗
═╝...║
/....║
═╗...║
.╚═══╝
Z level 3
╔═══╗
║+++╚═
║++++/
║+++╔═
╚═══╝
The first floor opens to the water resivour. The second to the magma resivour. And the third is your service entrice for your dwarves to mine the obsidian. You forbid the third floor bauxite door, open the bauxite floodgate(or levered door) on the second until the first floor is covered with magma. Then you close the second floor, and poor the water in from the first.

[Cubey]

Excellent. My obsidian production plant is different in design, and more... one-dimensional, and while requiring more hassle (playing with levers), yields more obsidian per water or lava. However, since rainfall is very rare on my location and there is no running water, production is put on indefinite hold...

It's so sad. The greatest failure of Bellmassive so far. Not counting the magma execution pit that accidentally consumed the lives of 3 dwarves. Including a Legendary one.

[Zeful]

You'd need some kind of water source that you can drain, like an aquifer or a river. You could even pull the water from whatever source you use for irrigation (if you use it) so that everything is centralised. Heck you could build a water tower, connect your gym to it to pump water upwards into it, then have it "rain" down on you obsidian plant.

[Justyn]

I think it would be better to put the magma in first, so as you create more Obsidian per operation. But I don't think it should matter.


I'd say water, for safety reasons.

Obsidian factories are tricky, because if even a 1/7 layer of magma touches a 1/7 layer of water, they solidify into a whole WALL of obsidian. And that wall will block the further flow of water or lava.

So, fill the trench with magma from the side, and then pour the water in from above?

Well, if it doesn't work, I'm not above save scumming.

I hate goblins. Why do they have to attack me every freakin' season!?

Edit: Apparently, I got ninja'd.

[Zeful]

So, fill the trench with magma from the side, and then pour the water in from above?

Well, if it doesn't work, I'm not above save scumming.

I hate goblins. Why do they have to attack me every freakin' season!?

Above I have a small 3x3+1 room layout that's three floors tall magma comes into a bauxite (or raw adamantine) room from the second floor, covers the bottom floor and water comes in from the highest floor. You can make it any size as long as you make all the floors the same size, it makes planning it so much easier. It can even double as a garbage dump as the magma will destroy pretty much everything.

[Cubey]

You'd need some kind of water source that you can drain, like an aquifer or a river. You could even pull the water from whatever source you use for irrigation (if you use it) so that everything is centralised. Heck you could build a water tower, connect your gym to it to pump water upwards into it, then have it "rain" down on you obsidian plant.

There's no renewable water sources on the map, and that's the only problem. The plant works just fine despite it, but unless it rains I can't waste precious water on obsidian. Not that it's a major issue, I can dig up enough of it that I don't need to make any artificially.

[Zeful]

There's no renewable water sources on the map, and that's the only problem. The plant works just fine despite it, but unless it rains I can't waste precious water on obsidian. Not that it's a major issue, I can dig up enough of it that I don't need to make any artificially.

I was pointing out possible adaptations of my design if you wanted to use it later, or plan it into a different fortress.

[TFT]

So, fill the trench with magma from the side, and then pour the water in from above?

Well, if it doesn't work, I'm not above save scumming.

I hate goblins. Why do they have to attack me every freakin' season!?

Edit: Apparently, I got ninja'd.

I have the opposite problem. I have a good 20-25 person(At least, may be at least 5-10 more in there) military, and the goblins attack once every two years.

[Justyn]

Just a quick question: is it giving tributes to the the lords of the caravans what makes them larger, or making sure they get very good profits?


I have the opposite problem. I have a good 20-25 person(At least, may be at least 5-10 more in there) military, and the goblins attack once every two years.

The thing might be that there are goblin ambushers attacking a lot, but your fortress is just too well defended for your dwarves to ever encounter them. Or, you are just not producing enough wealth to attract them; this is especially true if you are not smoothing or engraving walls and floors, and you have a fortress that is built in normal stone. Smooth and engrave walls made of flux stones or obsidian, and let's see how long that "problem" lasts.

If anyones is interested, the below spoiler contains information on how my fort is growing.

First of all, I now have an outdoor farm, which I have growing wild strawberries, although I'll start switching to sun berries if the elves ever bring the blasted things.

Doing exploratory mining directly down from my fortress has yielded the following: Five levels below my fort are chalk, followed by six levels of marble, and then four levels of granite. I have discovered three new bauxite deposits, and two jet deposits, and a new magnetite deposit in the chalk layers, bringing my total to five bauxite and four magnetite. I have also found a mica deposit in the marble, and an orthoclase deposit in the penultimate granite layer. However, the only the four layers directly below my fortress have had anything but the stairway carved into them, and the mica and orthoclase deposits were discovered purely by accident: I built the stairways right into them. The layer directly below my fortress will be dug out, primarily for housing purposes; although hitting a gem deposit will hardly be unwelcome. Furthermore, three of the four magnetite deposits have been dug out completely or nearly so, while one of them held none, two of them together have borne 109 native platinum, which I have left in the walls for the time being.

I have yet to begin construction on the obsidian factory, partly due to other projects, and also due to the inherent danger of the boiling hot magma. I have also largely capped off the magma tube, due to the danger of one of my dwarves falling into the boiling hot magma. I do however, have four magma smelters, two magma forges, and two magma glass furnaces constructed and in heavy use. I have converted almost seven hundred magnetite ore into bars, but I have more than sixty score to go, and I am running low on places to put all the bars, which, even in bins, take up a phenomenal amount of space: I am considering constructing a tower for storage space, although I can place ballistae and marksdwarves in it if I need to hit enemies from a different area.

Edit: Just hit another jet deposit.

Also: I. HATE. FIRE. IMPS! Little pyromaniac abominations! Anyone have any tips on how to hack the game fies and completely remove them?

[Artanis]

I have the opposite problem. I have a good 20-25 person(At least, may be at least 5-10 more in there) military, and the goblins attack once every two years.
Check the (c)ivilizations screen, and look to see if the goblins have any local leaders left. Running out of local leaders tends to make them quit trying.



Just a quick question: is it giving tributes to the the lords of the caravans what makes them larger, or making sure they get very good profits?
Yes.

Seriously, that's the answer :smalltongue:. From what I understand, when the merchants leave, they compare what they came with to what they left with, regardless of how they got it. That amount is what's factored in to the caravan size.



Also: I. HATE. FIRE. IMPS! Little pyromaniac abominations! Anyone have any tips on how to hack the game fies and completely remove them?
I'm no expert, but I don't think you can do that without a new worldgen.