Dwarf Fortress: Very Ambitious Roguelike

[zengonzo]

Well, for one of them anyways ..

[Sepiche]

My current fort is still going quite well, currently in the summer of it's 5th year. So far I've only seen goblin ambushers showing up with caravans and my defense forces are more than capable of taking care of them.

I've also found 2 adamantine veins that I'm carefully mining out. The first one only had a fairly small safe mineable area and is almost exhausted, but the second one is pretty big and should provide me with more adamantine than I know what to do with. So far I have adamantine axes of at least fine quality for all 10 of my soldiers, and 2 full suits of nearly masterwork adamantine plate one of which is on my guard captain (who also happens to be a legendary axedwarf with over 60 notable kills to his name :) ).

I've ran into a few problems with hospitals lately, namely a few dwarves who can't seem to be bandaged, but it looks like the next patch should fix a lot of the outstanding hospital issues. The military stuff is also clearly a bit buggy still, but I've managed to find work arounds for most of the problems I've encountered, and my 10 man defense force is coming along nicely in it's training and outfitting.

My main problem now is really that I need more dwarves to pour into my military now, but I've had a number of seasons go by without any new migrants. I think my population currently sits around 75 which is more than enough to do all the work that needs doing... now I just need more people so I can get more nobles to really start expanding.

[baelthazar]

Clothesmaking and Stonecrafting are both under Crafts on the labor preferences menu when viewing a dwarf.

I don't see a "Crafts" on my labor preference menu. Using MM Graphics Set with DF 31.03.

[Tankero]

Stoneworking is there, clothesmaking would presumably fall under "other jobs".

[rezaf]

No, Stoneworking is Masonry and Engraving, baelthazar is looking for Stonecrafting.
There's normally an additional category which includes all the craftring stuff, but oddly it's missing from the screenshot...

I have shelved DF again for the time being, lots of small issues need to be fixed before I'll start another fortress.
_____
rezaf

[Sepiche]

I've seen that happen from time to time in older versions, and it's usually from when I'm copying a new DF version over an older one and miss a few files. I'd try downloading a fresh version, importing your save, and seeing if that helps.

Also one thing with the latest version is that the raw data files that store information about all kinds of things are actually copied over to each save folder when that world is created and aren't automatically updated if you copy a new version of DF over an old one. To get those fixed all you need to do is locate the main raw data files and copy them into the save folder you want to run in a newer version.

I can't remember how to go about that off the top of my head (and I'm at work), but if you look through the DF forums you should be able to find mention of how to do that.

[baelthazar]

I just downloaded MM's own pre-packaged DF31.03 and will start again with that. I suspect what happened was exactly as you say Sepiche, I simply cut-pasted MM's graphics from my last DF31.02 install over to the new one and Toady had obviously changed some of the raws and such.

Oh well, that fort I had going was pretty good, but I wanted to try maybe a "rush to caves" and farm strategy - so this looks like my chance.

[Skorin]

Ugh, I lost about 6 hours of play-time to a crash. I found possibly the most perfect site ever, with thousands of units of magnetite, lots of platinum, gold, and silver, flux stone, and a magma pipe only 14 levels down. Not to mention the huge forest on the surface.

I had a metalforging area set up and running at full capacity, with 20 dwarves in full steel (and some iron) armor with steel battle axes. The front gate had a nice 3-tile wide corridor that stretched for about 80 tiles, packed with alternating cage and stonefall traps. The few goblin ambushes that had occured had all been utterly destroyed before they even make it 1/4 of the way to the real entrance to the fort. I even had a nice goblin cage courtyard, with something like 25 goblins in cages for my dwarves to poke at with sticks. Oh, and did I mention I had a war grizzly bear? Thanks, elves!

At some point, one of my dwarves got possessed and claimed a workshop, but wanted silk thread. Since I didn't have any at the time, and there were no beasts on the unit list, I decided to open up the underground caverns to get some spider silk. The silk was harvested, my dwarf made his artifact, and all was well.

At this point I started a large-scale pumping system to get magma up to the surface, for a moat. I had it set up as a series of 3/3 islands connected by bridges over a magma sea. It was gonna be cool! I got the magma up one z-level from the surface when something terrible happened.

A forgotten beast has arrived!

It was a warthog with green scales and three poisonous horns. Nothing really exciting. The caverns are sealed off anyways, right? Oh wait, I forgot to wall it back up. Time to put the military to work! I switched to the squad screen, and ordered both of my squads to attack it. They all got the kill order, grabbed their weapons and armor... and promptly stood there in their barracks. I could *not* get them to move. They're just standing there with their thumbs up their asses while the giant warthog murders almost every civilian in my fort. My barracks were up by the entrance, so when the warthog finally gets up there, my militia commander saunters out and cuts it in half in one hit. Gee, thanks, nice timing.

So I'm down from ~90 dwarves to ~15, all of my nobles except the arsenal dwarf are dead (and of course I can't reassign them), and a couple dwarves are tantruming. I set everyone to just haul bodies to the surface. They do, and finally start settling down. Then a migrant wave arrives with 10 more dwarves! Things are looking up as I reassign jobs around to cover all my bases. I have a huge stockpile of food now, so that's good, and the magma moat's almost ready!

And then the game crashes.

The sad thing is, even with all the bugs (ugh, fuck you military), I'm still looking forward to getting home and starting it up again. Dwarf Fortress has made me a masochist.

[docvego]

Clothesmaking and Stonecrafting are both under Crafts on the labor preferences menu when viewing a dwarf.

Why are you guys using the in game interface to manage jobs?

You need Dwarf Therapist.

Directions for how to get it to work with 31.03 are here

[baelthazar]

I dl'ed DT, but I'm reticent to use it because it ALSO has bugs, and adding it to a DF that has bugs seems like a bad idea.

[Sir Digby]

I have shelved DF again for the time being, lots of small issues need to be fixed before I'll start another fortress.

Same here; silly thing is, I was having a blast in my last fort in 40d. but some of the features of the 2010 release (specially HFS in all maps, caves, magma, etc...) made me stop playing and wait for the release... now i'm waiting for the merger to actually play because as it is I don't really derive he same pleasure out of it...

Also, how are you guys handling the new farming with the whole having to keep the ground moist (?) ?

[Sepiche]

Also, how are you guys handling the new farming with the whole having to keep the ground moist (?) ?

I've been having great luck digging down to the caverns and putting down plots on the mud there early. It's a tad risky if you happen to break into the tunnels at a bad spot, and you'll need to think about securing it (I basically treat it as a second lower entryway into my fort), but once you get it closed off and up and running you should have tons of room for farming, plus trees.

And do learn from Skorin and I and be prepared for the possible arrival of a forgotten beast. :P

[BobJustBob]

Why are you guys using the in game interface to manage jobs?

You need Dwarf Therapist.

Directions for how to get it to work with 31.03 are here

Just say no to tilesets and external apps.

[Demolira]

Also, how are you guys handling the new farming with the whole having to keep the ground moist (?) ?

My experience so far has found the underground to be a place of terror and wonder, so I try to avoid it starting out. I've been embarking in areas with a river, and then channeling the river to a 5x5 room with a channel in the middle and a floodgate at the entrance. On the level below that room, I have four 5x5 rooms for fields. Opening the hatch will flood the lower rooms to a level of 1-2, and dries out to 1 pretty quickly.

[wisefool]

Well, for one of them anyways ..

Yeah, the results on that workaround seem to vary, not sure what's going on. :(

My first forgotten beast was a thing of terror. It was a shroud of water that shot out ice shards to a few hapless beasts. I quickly mobilized my military, being careful to have them 'move' somewhere first and assemble en-masse before tackling the beast. I figured the axes and swords would just cleave through water and do very little damage.

I set up all my burrows, run my civilians away, and move my military over. The beast approached. Unfortunately, by the time I got there a single caravan swordman cut it in half and killed it. LAME. That was a loaded D20, man! :(

I don't like tilesets, but the dwarf therapist is useful for cross-training, and disabling hauling on the important guys (no fetching corpses during a goblin invasion for my master carpenter, no sirree!) Fortunately I have it too difficult to survive too long for that to be a problem in the current version.

[Arbit]

What's this about having to keep the ground moist? Does this mean you have to periodically re-muddy the floors?

Just say no to tilesets and external apps.

See, I can understand saying no to tilesets. It lets you form your own image of your dwarfs rather than relying on a cutesy little icon... But you'd have to be insane to not use dwarf therapist. Setting all those labors via the in game interface will give you carpal tunnel syndrome.

[Demolira]

I'm not sure if you have to re-muddy the floors, but just in case, I'm prepared. I don't think I've had a fort last long enough for the mud to dry out, if it's even possible.

[Sepiche]

I'm not sure if you have to re-muddy the floors, but just in case, I'm prepared. I don't think I've had a fort last long enough for the mud to dry out, if it's even possible.

Nope, once muddied a floor stay muddied as far as I've seen.

[Calistas]

Having the pool ready for well use is handy tho. Farms on the same floor as a hospital makes sense.

Oh, had my first negative comment on part 6 of my tutorial! I am told that my tutorials aren't funny enough to be comedy and not tutorially enough to be good tutorials.

There go my plans for a Dwarf Fortress comedy routine: "elves are like ---, but dwarfs are always like ---!". :(

[Sir Digby]

So, if the spot only has to be muddied once, supposedly I could set my dwarves to fill it with water (as a pond designation) and then cancel once all spots are muddied.. right?

[Therlun]

So, if the spot only has to be muddied once, supposedly I could set my dwarves to fill it with water (as a pond designation) and then cancel once all spots are muddied.. right?

The fill pond order only works if there is no floor tile so you have to dump it from a level above.
I also think that 1/7 water is not enough to muddy a tile for farming, as there are certain sizes of mud piles and the smaller ones are not sufficient.

[Strato]

I'm tempted to just go off and try this, but I'm liking this fortress so far and don't want to make too much of a cock up, though it is inevitable.

So, my problem is that I have a pond (murky pool) located a z level above where I want to build. This is a pond which will fill when it rains. What I am thinking of doing is mining a passageway down two z levels to create a new pond, then, from that pond, build a well above it. Will that work?

I'm guessing there are two dangers. If the new pond is too large, the well won't work right (it has to be 4/7 or more right?) And, if it is too small, then I run the risk of flood I'd imagine? The latter shouldn't happen seeing as the pond I intend to drain (hopefully) isn't too big.

Also, provided the new pond is big enough to catch the water, will I be able to then build under the old pond seeing as it should theoretically be drained? Currently, I think my miner is refusing to mine the area because of the damp walls. Or, is there some other way of getting around that.

That all said, I am certainly loving this game. It gives me the same feeling as with the Civ series of games notably, where each game I seem to be learning something new. Tonights lesson? The beauty of dumps to move rocks away from my lovely farming area. And to think last night I wasted so much time with a stone storage pit, and having the dwarves needlessly carting random chunks of stone back and forth.

[chequers]

I'm tempted to just go off and try this, but I'm liking this fortress so far and don't want to make too much of a cock up, though it is inevitable.

Read the DF wiki page on resovoirs. They're quite fiddly. I'd recommend you just build around the lake, ignore it, and build a well over an underground lake. Remember that wells can be any number of z levels above the water as long as there's an empty channel between them.

Also, provided the new pond is big enough to catch the water, will I be able to then build under the old pond seeing as it should theoretically be drained? Currently, I think my miner is refusing to mine the area because of the damp walls. Or, is there some other way of getting around that.

Just redesignate the walls. Miners won't mine damp/warm stone unless you know the stone is damp/warm when you designate. Just a safety mechanism, you can still mine what you want.

[Sir Digby]

Oh, seems CaptnDuck (and his awesome accent) has made new 2010 tutorials for the newbies and experienced players alike:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBTNPbUvFM

[Lorini]

Calistas, better hurry up! The competition has passed you already :) :)

[docvego]

Bah, there have been plenty of DF tutorials before Calistas's. Can't do a solid tutorial until the release gets stable. Otherwise he will need to start from scratch every week.

[Lorini]

Bah, there have been plenty of DF tutorials before Calistas's. Can't do a solid tutorial until the release gets stable. Otherwise he will need to start from scratch every week.

But I know Calistas!! :) :) so I want his.

[baelthazar]

Read the DF wiki page on resovoirs. They're quite fiddly. I'd recommend you just build around the lake, ignore it, and build a well over an underground lake. Remember that wells can be any number of z levels above the water as long as there's an empty channel between them.

Or, better yet, dig out a square 6-times the size of the lake right next to the murky pool and then knock down the wall in between. Viola, instant muddied farm!

[Sir Digby]

What if the lake is... er... frozen?
Yeah, I know, but on embark I thought a "cold" region would have non-frozen water...
Oh and it's "voilá", Viola is a string instrument...

[Calistas]

Yup, need a stable release! Duck's tutorials are great but still too hard for lots of people, I have been told. Once you get to grips with the game a little they are very handy, but that initial hurdle for non-rogue-like players requires total hand holding to get over, I believe!