Dorf Fort, or Dwarf Fortress to those who need to google it, how many bit-tech members out there play it? I've only just started but once you overcome the intense leaning curve and learn to overcome the ascii graphics I've found it to be an incredibly addictive if a little frustrating at times.
It's an all right game. Don't like it personally. Would rather stick to '3D' graphics, aka CS:S It's a huge game on 4chans /v/. Well when I say huge, if you don't play it and go on /v/ for some reason everyone hates you.
I've never really understood why graphics are such a big deal, for shooters I can kinda see but for RTS and strategy games as long as you can grasp whats going on quickly sprites will suffice. That being said my first few plays through of DF were marred by the ascii art, but i found using the MayGreen tile set really helped over come this. EDIT: I thought I'd share a story of how my first fort died for those that want a laugh.
Been playing it lately, trying to get a pump stack going. found a big enough starting embark with a volcano and a brook flowing through it, hopefully i can get some magma forges on the go
been playing it for a while, I love the depth and the humour to it, my last fort came to and end when I accidentally opened the wrong cage, so instead of releasing an unarmed goblin for my soldiers to kill, I unleashed 7 wild bears.
I got hold of it earlier today.... intense learning curve doesnt even cover it! Although I have a feeling with a better designed (possibly mouse driven?) UI it would be awesome. Whoever coded and designed it clearly has some serious time on his hands!
A mouse UI would be awesome, but i'm not sure if Toady has any plans for it atm. And once he may have had some serious time bu now its his full time job, he makes about $2000-3000 a month from it in donations with large spikes around major revisions. And my best fort deaths normally occur within the first 18months of striking earth the number of times I've rushed some defences only to have them backfire or to accidentally mine out the wrong square and kill several key dwarves is unreal. Though I always find that small forts are more fun and after you've had your 2nd or 3rd wave of 20+ migrants the game starts to lose a bit of its charm.
have a look at lazynewb pack, there is basic mouse support included at least with this while designating. left click to designate, right click to move the cursor. and the Dwarf Therapist bundled with it is a real life saver, i never knew how to assign job roles to dwarfs till i ran this and would get stuck waiting for migrants before i could use half the workshops. i'm finding video tutorials helped me the most, have a look for DFVIDTUT, you want the 2010 editions. p.s. one thing that struck me while watching videos was "how is he moving the cursor so fast..." well hold down shift while moving the arrows and it will jump 10 places, now my fort is full of 11 by 11 rooms
goota say its slow going till i'm at 80+ dwarfs, i do have "abandonment" issues where i think "damn that isn't quite perfect..." the volcano one was lack of gems in the top most z layers next to the volcano, even though it was the simplest magma smelting and forging i've ever encountered! second was the defence walls not being quite right in a hill side with the most viens of gold i've ever seen. my current fort is built on a plain full of trees with a brook running through it, so far i've built a small wall & fortification platform with drawbridge access above my surface entrance and carved a moat round it. i'm currently channelling a perimeter moat round most of the top plain (halfway there), i've got a big underground farm just starting up, and i'm planning to sink a huge sinkhole down to the north side of my fort for a "secure" above ground farm (secure against all but flying creatures) soon as i've done that, i need to get a few squads trained up for defence. as soon as they're ready (or knowing me, before..), i'll start digging down for magma and to see if i can hit any caves
Same, though last night I lost the start of an awesome fort to a resident dragon and spent 1.5hrs and 2 embarks trying to reclaim it back. Yes I knew the dragon was there the second I embarked but I was hoping he'd leave me alone for a year or two so I could trade for an anvil then kick start my military with a danger room. Of course I had no such luck and he found my wood cutter in the autumn who promptly ran away and led him to my fisherman who was incinerated instantly. That attacked caused all my war dogs to stream out of the fort and get eaten whilst a hasty squad consisting of 4 miners and the cowardly woodcutter was formed. The Earth Ales (rng name Cheesecake) accepted their fate picked up their various work tools and charged the dragon only to get within 10yrds and throw their "weapons" on the ground and try and wrestle the dragon to death. Needless to say the fortress was quickly consumed in the dragons fiery embrace. The first reclamation party consisted of my standard load of non military dorfs who made it as far as the entrance of the control room to activate the flood gates to get the farms going again before they were ambushed. 7 brave dorfs were quickly consumed in one fiery breath. Recrimination party to managed to last 1 season and 1 load of immigrants before they too went on the last great adventure. However from they had 2 axedorfs and 1 hammer dorf (The Wet Fires, I love the rng generator at times.) who managed to inflict serious wounds on the dragon causing it to vomit and pass out. There is nothing scarier then seeing a dragon heal up before your eyes knowing that as soon as it can move 10yrds without passing out and vomiting it's gonna be coming straight for you. Unfortunately the tantrum spiral that set in after the courageous Wet Fires were obliterated prevented me from setting up cage traps in the entrance to trap the dragon. The new plan is for 2 hammer dorfs, 2 axe dorfs, 1 miner/leader, 1 mechanic/carpenter, 1 food bitch. The military dorfs will be kitted out in the finest bronze armour I can buy on embark and they can forage for their weapons when they arrive as there are plenty there from previous attempts. This time The Anger of Angers will be reclaimed. EDIT: Just pave over the skylight at the surface, it still counts as outside as its been exposed to the sky once and nothing can destroy constructions (atm) so it'll be perfectly secure, that's what I do. Secure indoor outdoor plots are the best. Though you can only grow outdoor plants on soil not muddied rock so you indoor outdoor farm will need to be in the top layers of your fort.
fair enough, i'm hoping that channeling down will yield that result, as i've seen vegitation start to re-grow on exposed parts. if not i can turn it into a huge arena pit with a drawbridge entrance where i can let weaponless goblins battle fully armed dwarfs p.s. - anyone wanting to get into the game, there is a wealth of information here : http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=28829.0 plus a ton of mods my advice would be try the lazynewb pack, run the batch file and change your tileset / graphics to one of the included pack, make a world of difference.
Been playing another round of DF recently, it does sort of feel like cheating, but sticking up the number of volcanos in the starting options (when you custom start a new game) does make finding a decent one so much easier. As i really hate the normal forges (uses too much damned wood)
What version are you playing as there's magma at the bottom of all maps since the April 2010 update. If you start with a sedimentary layer you can easily get coal which with a small amount of wood should last you until you reach the magma.
Pansy, real men enjoy the basic graphics and the intense learning curve and need no guides. Sensible men watch the videos on how to play and enjoy the game with a nice graphics pack, my flavour atm is the phobeous one as it lets me tell at a glance the difference between flux, iron, and burnable things. Just remember loosing is fun, which is why when I get home I'm gonna kill that bloody dragon.
hehe i'm definately with you on the sensible men route. definately made the game enjoyable, if it hadn't been for a graphic pack i would have given up on it early on.
Ugh, new version. Do I test it and find out what's changed, possibly screwing up my saves or do I ignore it for a few months until I lose all my saves and start again with a later version. Decisions, decisions. And for future information, if a dragon is squatting in entrance hall of you fort you're pretty much screwed for reclamations. Though flooding another fort is kinda relaxing if a little sadistic.
I just stuck with 40d because i used tinypirates guide and have gotten really, really lucky. I have avoided most of the fun. I only have one or two coblod snatchers at a time, and the only reason i have half a z level filled with lava is because of my own carelessness Anyway, lava is really really slow as heck. I literally had several people walk in and out with minerals in the time it got there. Alive
31.18 is out now, waiting on lazy newb being updated Having fun with an aquifier and a volcano, Perfect site apart from it being salt water (Easily solved with a pump and constructed basin) Think I can punch through next to the volcano.
I need to start being more adventurous but aquifers are just annoy especially when they seem to cover 75%+ of the world some times. My current site has everything I could want, elephants, iron, flux, coal and a river. The only problem is that it's starting to suffer from lag death. I think its time to find the clownite and breach it to create some Fun(tm). Maybe some clownite weapons and armour will help though my dorfs are already steel plated killing machines thanks to the danger room. 1 managed to kill a giantess and a hydra on their own without taking a scratch and small squad killed a forgotten spider beast the only injury being an axe lord who lost their left arm. Of course being a true dorf they didn't even get a doctor to look at it, just washed it themselves in the well at the hospital an went straight back to training.
