Gaming Dwarf Fortress discussion

[KuatYards]

More farms and hope for merchants with food? (in which case you need something to sell)

Got a large crop come fall, elves just arrived, got a lot of stone crafts to trade, biggest problem is crowding...

 

[Tommy]

Any suggestions for easier tilesets? Also, are there any other GUIs available for playing DF in?

No GUI for the game itself, but Dwarf Therapist makes job assignments MUCH easier - hard to play without it.

Need advice, just started playing, I am on my second fortress, had 14 dwarves, was set to accommodate 25, had a food supply for about 30, 46 new dwarves, about 20 of which were children, arrive at my fortress, had to slaughter almost all my cats and dogs to survive, still WAY overcrowded, when one of my pheasants went Beserk and started attacking my dwarves, he almost killed himself. Advice on this situation, foods running low, dwarves go to river for water even though I have a underground lake in my fortress set as a drinking zone... And I cant make booze, out of diss disstilable plants... Help?

No plants on the map to gather? (designate an area - just like cutting trees, and have a few dorfs with "Plant Gathering" enabled).

The Dorfs are probably using the river instead of the lake because the river is "flowing" and the lake isn't - and not "flowing" means stagnant (dorfs can get sick from drinking it, or get infections if it's used to clean wounds).

If a dorf goes berserk it means they had a strange mood and couldn't satisfy it. A moody dorf will want a workshop of some kind - often a craft shop, but could be a clothier, leatherworker, etc. If a dorf has a "moodable" skill, they will choose that kind of shop, ie, a carpenter will choose a carpenters shop, etc.

If they have a shop available, they will claim it (no one else can use it, can be a pain if it's your only carpenter' shop and you need barrels). Then they will want ingredients. If you 'Q' the shop you will see them muttering, they provide clues as to what they want. Alternately, you can cheat and use dfhack's showmood command to see what type of shop and what exact ingredients they want.

If a dorf gets a shop and the stuff he wants, he will start a "mysterious construction". Eventually, they will produce an artifact quality something-or-other and be happy again. The benefit to this is that there is a good chance that they will gain a legendary status for that skill.

 

[Quick_Nick]

My militia commander killed a child with a silk robe, lodged firmly in the (head) wound.

 

[Arrowstar]

Truly that is one formidable dwarf.

 

[Quick_Nick]

A massive goblin siege with trolls as I was almost recovered from my last tantrum spiral. They killed everything. All I have left is a soldier who has been unconcious in the hospital for several months, and a very ecstatic child who has never existed outside of Dwarf Therapist... The invaders aren't really doing anything.
You should have seen the wave of arrows that shot into my fortress!
Oh, and a thief made off with my artifact sword.

The only animals left are four in cages. They even destroyed my bee hives!

 

[Quick_Nick]

Well, my fortress came to an end. I tried my hand at Adventure about four times and completely failed. I may try a couple more times, then go back to fortress mode. I don't think I can reclaim though, with goblins and trolls about. (and some period of time passing)

 

[Izack]

We're all gonna die.

 

[Urwumpe]

Thats nothing wooden cage traps can't fix.

 

[Izack]

Thats nothing wooden cage traps can't fix.

The problem lies with the migrant wave that just arrived. The fortress is well-defended with cage traps and soldiers, but 15 dwarves just arrived at the base of my volcano, and the hunter among them immediately proceeded to start pissing off the elephants. He killed two, but the rest of them are now busying themselves with killing all the puppies they can find.

 

[Tommy]

AWLAYS pause the game when you get a new batch of dorfs - and make sure that Hunting is disabled. I disable fishing as well so I don't deplete the fish only to have them rot before someone has a chance to clean them all.

 

[Izack]

I've just been reading the epic tale of Syrupleaf; thought I'd share it here:
http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Syrupleaf/
WARNING: Here be strong language, aye.

---------- Post added at 02:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 AM ----------

Incidentally, would anyone be interested in an Orbiter-Forum DF Succession Game?

 

[Rtyh-12]

I'd like to participate!

 

[Quick_Nick]

It sounds very interesting, and like something I could destroy and ruin for everybody by accident.

 

[Izack]

Emphasis on "accident," right?

I suppose clean DF is the way to go here; O-F events tend to go much more smoothly that way. So non-save-interfering modifications like tilesets and the use of Therapist would be alright.

Mainly, I'd just like to have lots of participants. Even if not for overseer positions, please at least offer your handle for Dwarfication. We could easily approach 150 dwarves, each ideally with a unique moniker from the forum.

If enough are interested, it may be prudent to run two fortresses simultaneously or in quick succession, as we could easily encounter Fun early on and deprive applicants a chance at a good time.

But then again, someone like Urwumpe may set us up with a god-tier defense, and the place could drag on past the point of even incompetent rulers or uncontrollable Dwarven Stupidity™ being able to fell us for many years (unlikely.) :hmm:

 

[Quick_Nick]

I'm marginally more competent than mayors who demand fine dragon bone coffins every other week.

 

[Rtyh-12]

I disapprove of running two fortresses simultaneously, it doesn't really fit the game's theme. Losing is fun, after all! But maybe we could start a new fortress if we lose the first, perhaps starting with the player that was about to play when we lost and continue from that point.

Similarly, I think having extreme protection is boring. I mean, you can simply put a wall in front of your door and live off plump helmets the rest of your life, right?

I also highly doubt that there will be 150 forum members here who'll offer dwarves (or is that what you meant? That was what I understood, anyway). But who knows? I think the biggest problem here is not that people aren't interested, but that they aren't going to see the discussion about it. I don't think there are many members of O-F that visit this thread. I'd like to be proved wrong, however

 

[Urwumpe]

But then again, someone like Urwumpe may set us up with a god-tier defense, and the place could drag on past the point of even incompetent rulers or uncontrollable Dwarven Stupidity™ being able to fell us for many years (unlikely.) :hmm:

While my defense works are really a piece of art and as far as I can tell in my current fortress, extremely devastating even when all goes wrong, I recommend my latest insight: A properly set up training program and a carefully balanced army is much more important than all walls, traps and guard dogs.

On Tuesday, the realization "Oh my Vraccas, I have no time for closing the gates" turned quickly into a "Oh, only two dead dwarfs and not even the single human maceman made it home."

33 dwarfs with good steel equipment are really great, despite only ten of them actually being competent. But need a lot of time to be trained and training injuries can still happen. Luckily nobody dies of infection now, that I have lots of soap and good medical dwarfs.

The changes in stone management make my current fortress design pretty suboptimal, I currently need to find out a better strategy to build good defenses quickly, because I am always running low on stone blocks. I am still unhappy there, the current fortress needed much too long before it can really harm invaders.

When I have my new PC, I can sure also find some time for such a fortress project. We should still try using a smaller map, I need to run small maps because big maps are too much for my memory. I am pretty sure, others also can't run the bigger maps easily.

---------- Post added at 09:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:00 AM ----------

Similarly, I think having extreme protection is boring. I mean, you can simply put a wall in front of your door and live off plump helmets the rest of your life, right?

If you have no interest in wood or fish (or a cave) or no interest in trade. Also it is pretty hard to have animal pens underground.

A good defense forms the base for the offense, but then, no single defense is worth its money, if you don't have at least Marksdwarfs to give the enemies something to eat.

 

[Izack]

I disapprove of running two fortresses simultaneously, it doesn't really fit the game's theme. Losing is fun, after all! But maybe we could start a new fortress if we lose the first, perhaps starting with the player that was about to play when we lost and continue from that point.

Yeah, that's a better idea.

I also highly doubt that there will be 150 forum members here who'll offer dwarves (or is that what you meant? That was what I understood, anyway).

That's probably true. At least we can name some important dwarves (captain of the guard, head engraver, etc.) Can't wait to see "'Izack' Coppersqueals cancels [Task]: Interrupted by Cave Crocodile" followed shortly with "The severed part sails off in an arc!"

When I have my new PC, I can sure also find some time for such a fortress project. We should still try using a smaller map, I need to run small maps because big maps are too much for my memory. I am pretty sure, others also can't run the bigger maps easily.

Prudent. How small would you say? 3x3, 2x2?

Anyone have requests for the embarkment? Soil? Volcano, perhaps?

 

[jedidia]

I won't participate as an overseer (way too little expierience), but you can name a dwarf after me and then feed it to the fishes, if you like. Some sort of craftsdwarf would be nice.

 

[Urwumpe]

I use 3x3 currently, but would prefer bigger maps if possible... otherwise the distance between fortress and map edge is pretty small.