Dwarf Fortress: Very Ambitious Roguelike

[chequers]

And you have marked some trees to get chopped? Weird, might be a bug. Send the save game to Toady perhaps.

[Morberis]

Start using some of those plump helmets to make lavish meals

[JM]

If you've run out of things to do, you're not digging deep enough :D

[MrCoffee]

The ability to manually reject migrants usually involves a retractable bridge and a pool of lava.

It's a long way down to hell!

[chequers]

I for one have a 80 level pit of doom, terminating in lava. It's good for all those caged beasts I catch in the caves.

[Spam]

Dwarf Therapist update released

http://dwarftherapist.googlecode.com...pist-0.4.3.zip

[JM]

This is the best story so far (from the SA thread)

I made a new adventurer to go and visit my axe-lord in the dark fort where he lives, but my civ was at war with his, so when I got there everyone attacked. I ran down into the temple, where it turns out the civ has been taken over by a PEACH DEMON! The demon attacked me, spraying boiling peach demon extract over me and the crowd of people trying to kill me. All my assailants started collapsing and vomiting, and my character fell over with them. The concious ones grabbed me and started wrestling me while the peach demon sprayed me over and over with boiling peach demon extract. Unfortunately we were fighting on the frozen pool of the temple, which got heated up so much by the boiling peach demon extract it melted, and everyone including me fell in and drowned. The demon survived.

[rezaf]

Heh, just ran into another issue.
You know that bug where the elven caravan packs a metric ton of all sorts of stuff onto a mule or two? Well, I just ran into it.
But it didn't really matter that much to me, more stuff to trade for, huh?

Except something the elven trader didn't like somehow got mixed into a offering I made, and he immediately refused to trade any further.
Was a little furious about that.

But he compensated me for loss of trade...

... by leaving all his stuff behind, with me free to grab it all.

Yeah, the entire metric ton of stuff. Gotta open up a few more stockpiles...
_____
rezaf

[zengonzo]

If you've run out of things to do, you're not digging deep enough :D

Or embarking harsh enough, maybe?

[Eric Majkut]

I wasn't refering to building IN the caverns, just building more fancy stuff like luxury housing or a "factory" anywhere in the fortress.
I also have a more modest layout that's not all that different from yours, but the default size felt really, really cramped as I could only put a couple of "blocks" next to each other. (I usually use a network of 3x3 5x5 sized rooms surrounded by tunnels and/or "utility" - like channels.)
I tried doubling the default size, which resulted in a really nice, large map (I hope optimizations will make those playable one day), but it was horribly laggy. I found just increasing the default dimensions by 1 tile in each direction was more than sufficiant for my tastes.


Yeah, there's so many bugs now, even though so many things where changed, it's a tad disappointing that much was obviously never tested to any degree before release. Sure, better a buggy release than none, but it's still a bit disheartening.
I ran into a number of issues - rotting stuff no longer produces bones, turtles no longer produce shells, food production / consumption overall seems buggy (I have a gazillion dwarves in my new fortress and only three fields, but I'm drowning in food), manufacturing is buggy (gold flasks made from iron and stuff like that), construction is buggy - had workers getting stuck while trying or immediately after constucting something, also workers failing to begin a job they had the tasks for ... the list goes on and on.
Then there's other people stories of maps without fish and unkillable enemy types ... but you gotta admit bugfixes are usually delivered in a somewhat timely manner by Toady, so it's not all that bad.
_____
rezaf

It's not disheartening. This is how Dwarf Fortress works. The big releases are always buggy for a week or two until Toady nails everything down. I expect that, and I don't have a problem with it. It's just that waiting that week or two kinda sucks ;)

It's one guy making an insane game. Cut him some slack :)

[John Many Jars]

I would like to churn purring maggot milk into ice cream and then put hot peach demon extract on it.

[MrCoffee]

That reminds me that you can milk cows in this version!

[rezaf]

Yeah, I know that's how DF works. Was just saying...

I found out how to make my woodcutter cut wood. I unassigned / reassinged the job to him several times and eventually it clicked with him and he grabbed himself an axe. Finally.

Then I was trying to get a squad up and running.
Darn, the new military interface is one horrible, horrible mess.
Even by DF interface standards.

I have NO IDEA how to get the dwarves to pick up the weapons I want them to, and at one point I had them assigned as soldiers, but they switched back to their [CIV] mode by themselves and now I cannot get them back up. It's one big mess, really.
_____
rezaf

[zengonzo]

Then I was trying to get a squad up and running.
Darn, the new military interface is one horrible, horrible mess.
Even by DF interface standards.

I was having the same problem, but in that I was too hung up thinking about it in old DF terms. A tutorial and fresh eyes would shows this to be a clear improvement over the original.

Focus more on creating and applying loadout profiles than on managing the squads - until you get familiar/bored enough that you want to explicitly create your purple-scarved, pantless Blowgunners of Victory.

[zengonzo]

Also, for anyone else feeling some drag with the new version - this made a considerable improvement:

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=51957.0

[Sneaky]

Will wooden bins cause the Elven Caravan to leave right away?

So far I've somehow managed to piss off every single one of them. The first time I asumed it was a wooden clutch that sneaked into a finished goods bin. But now .. is it the bins themselfs? I could have sworn the Elves offer bins of e.g. cloth as well tough.

[zengonzo]

You can still carry the bin to the depot, and give them everything in the bin, so long as you don't trade them anything made from wood - including the bin.

Their wood is OK because it was chopped with carbon offset credits.

[Marcin]

My main question is ... are the dwarves still only willing to drink from killer carp infested rivers? If so I'm out until a version where they aren't :P

[JM]

Will wooden bins cause the Elven Caravan to leave right away?

So far I've somehow managed to piss off every single one of them. The first time I asumed it was a wooden clutch that sneaked into a finished goods bin. But now .. is it the bins themselfs? I could have sworn the Elves offer bins of e.g. cloth as well tough.

Loads of people are reporting problems with the caravan.

The ones who AREN'T are revelling in the tame war elephants, giant war jaguars, and tigermen.

[rezaf]

I was having the same problem, but in that I was too hung up thinking about it in old DF terms. A tutorial and fresh eyes would shows this to be a clear improvement over the original.

Focus more on creating and applying loadout profiles than on managing the squads - until you get familiar/bored enough that you want to explicitly create your purple-scarved, pantless Blowgunners of Victory.

As with the woodcutter before, I wasn't trying to do anything out of the ordinary. I would have been content with the drafted soldiers being listed as such and actually bothering to go to the storage and grab themselves their assigned gear. Either this doesn't work at all or is way, way, WAY too complicated, even by DF standards. I'm guessing it's just a little buggy and a minor release or two will fix the most glaring issues. Well, maybe hoping would be the better word. :p

I think I'll quit until a first bugfix release is out at least.
_____
rezaf

[zengonzo]

It's more complex than the old way, but doesn't seem much more UI-weird than the average DF system. If anything, the old method was trailing considerably behind others.

The new system allows for part-time soldiers and being able to establish routines and standards without micromanagement. The interface could use some improvement - but that goes for everything here.

Once you leave behind the old hard-activation system, I think you'll find it to be a much-needed improvement.

[Sepiche]

Been having a blast with the new version so far. I started one fort to figure out some of the new features and started a second one once I figured out some of my mistakes. So far my second fort is going great.

As I was making my initial dig to setup my main hall I accidentally ran into the underworld, but fortunately I hit it in a good spot where I could wall it off for a bit and not be threatened. After I got my basic facilities setup I was able to dig an opening to the underworld and setup a drawbridge so I could cut myself off from it if needed. It's really, really handy to have that underground area there so far though. There's a ton of arable land, trees, berries, and one of my gatherers even stumbled across a magma pipe that I'm getting ready to turn into a magma source for my forges. It's basically like a wilderness area that you can access underground. It really makes it impossible for surface sieges to cause you any problems at all.

The new military screens are fantastic so far too. They are pretty daunting when you first see them, but once you start playing around and getting the basics figured out it becomes a really great tool for managing your fort in emergencies. So far I haven't needed it too much, but as I was getting ready to open the magma pipe to my forges a cave alligator saw one of my guys and it attacked my lower gate. Thankfully one of my immigrants was, in addition to being a master chef, a pretty good hammer dwarf. Just in case I had put him in charge of my militia and set him up with a small squad of the few dwarves in my fort that were tougher and had some combat skills. I was able to activate them and with the new management tools I could give the squad a specific target (the alligator) instead of just pointing them at a location and hoping for the best. It's all just a massive improvement on the often frustrating military aspects in the previous version.

Once my forges are online I'll start producing some equipment and really get my militia rolling.

There are still quite a few bugs in there from the look of it, but to be honest I've only ran across a few of them. The only major one is that I can't get the hunter I brought in my initial team to hunt. I figured out that in the new version I needed to assign him bolts from the military screen, but even doing that and turning him off and on hunting hasn't seemed to have any effect. I've still been able to get the fat I need for soap from slaughtering extra animals of mine, but it's still a little frustrating.

Combat seems a lot more interesting too. I just got raided by some troglodytes and had a few desperate fights. I had one citizen have to wrestle with a troglodyte for a few minutes while the militia grabbed its gear and came to help. He survived with only a bit of bruising thanks to my militia commander showing up and smashing the trogs skull. After that I killed a few in the halls, and then sent my squad of 5 out to kill 3 trogs I saw standing in the caverns. Turns out there was 6 of them and they are a lot tougher in packs. My dwarves attacked, but my commander was knocked down and injured early in the fight along with another of my dwarves who got a few joints broken. The rest of the dwarves managed to win after a bit of a crazy melee, but during the fight one of the trogs stayed on my commander and kept strangling her. I managed to finish them off and everyone lived, but I'm pretty sure the commander will die... she's being rushed to my hospital where hopefully my doctor will be able to help, but he's a rookie and my commanders description said her throat was torn open so I'm not optimistic.

I really love that you can view the detailed battle reports now by hitting 'r'.

[baruk]

Then I was trying to get a squad up and running.
Darn, the new military interface is one horrible, horrible mess.
Even by DF interface standards.

I have NO IDEA how to get the dwarves to pick up the weapons I want them to, and at one point I had them assigned as soldiers, but they switched back to their [CIV] mode by themselves and now I cannot get them back up. It's one big mess, really.

It's somewhat unintuitive, check out the recently updated wiki:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Military

[John Many Jars]

An Arsenal Dwarf! Uniforms! Ah, the game of games is new again.

[baelthazar]

There are still quite a few bugs in there from the look of it, but to be honest I've only ran across a few of them. The only major one is that I can't get the hunter I brought in my initial team to hunt. I figured out that in the new version I needed to assign him bolts from the military screen, but even doing that and turning him off and on hunting hasn't seemed to have any effect. I've still been able to get the fat I need for soap from slaughtering extra animals of mine, but it's still a little frustrating.

The one bug I've been having is the "no animals or fish at all" bug - so I would be happy just to SEE animals. I'm probably going to restart my current fort (4th try now) - which is so upsetting because I just now got my flooded farm. My next try will bring along several cows and I'll make my fisher/hunter dwarf into a milker/cheese/herbalist/butcher dwarf to provide early food. I've also learned to create my flooding antechamber and farm chamber before my living quarters, and right at the same time I make carpenter, mason, and mechanic workshops (no more making one of my 3 miner dwarves a part-time mechanic). If I do this, then I will probably be able to plant by late spring and early summer.

I'm still having great fun, though!

Otherwise I'm only a little thrown by having to press ESC a little more to unpause. Also, I am using a laptop and I need to figure out which keys to re-map to go up and down in menus, since I don't have a keypad + and - key. Anyone know what that is called?

[nixon66]

[SECONDSCROLL_UP:KEYDB]
[SECONDSCROLL_DOWN:KEYDD]
[SECONDSCROLL_PAGEUP:MINUS]
[SECONDSCROLL_PAGEDOWN:PLUS]

Those are the changes I use for the scrolling. I too am a bit annoyed with all the extra ESC pressing. I was so used to just hitting Space to exit out of everything.

[Eric Majkut]

Yeah, I've noticed the new need for pressing ESC myself. Having learned the UI so long ago, I'm finding it gets in the way more than I thought it would!

[ThornFalconeye]

Rebound my exit back to space- and we are back in buisness.

Thanks for the link on the new military- my dwarves were outfitting themselves with whatever weapons were closest- usually training weapons.

Only problem ive had so far aside from the irrigation needs is the no animals or fish syndrome. It was really annoying the first two times, but since ive resigned myself to a cold mountainous climate it hasnt hurt me much.

[rezaf]

It's somewhat unintuitive, check out the recently updated wiki:
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Military

Thanks a bunch. I had visited the wiki recently, but the military wasn't then updated. I was indeed missing the Arsenal Dwarf.
Easy once you know it, but as usual, DF is very stingy with giving feedback/hints in the actual game.
_____
rezaf

[Phydeaux]

Does anyone else feel like this version's got way too much 'candy' in it? Too many minerals, too many gems, migrants race into your fort within a single season and they're usually uber-skilled, too. I'm worried these might not all be bugs.