Dwarf Fortress

Awesome Just going to leave this here.

edited 15th Mar '15 6:44:40 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Size is important in that martial art. If you're not big enough to grapple, you're just going to get your ass kicked. I know, I tried it without checking my Hero's size and wound up just adjusting my grip over and over while trying moves.

Has anyone else used Advfort from DF Hack? I'm looking into it and want to hear what others think of it too.

I fixed my issues with the game. They were mod specific, so fixing them taught me a little bit about modding the game. [HUNTS_VERMIN] does not play nicely with [CIV_CONTROLLABLE]. It makes your people randomly stop doing anything at all while they hunt vermin, which they don't eat.

Well, at least ya found out the problem there!

Kinda modded Dwarf Fortress to a mod that was meant for an earlier version for Dwarf Fortress, and while it does work, no migrants after the first year. (In short, whatever citizens I got as well as how many kin they have is my fortress population, and I think a fort wouldn't exactly last long with that.)

I am trying to rebuild my Living Metal Being again. Especially now that reactions are a bit easier to work with.

It's called a natural growth fort, and yes, you can make those last. The trick is to look up dwarven romance on the Bay12 site and copy notes on how to make it more likely your single folks will get together. I'm mastering those because I want my modded folks to run things that way to start with. I set loose pop cap to 20 so I get my first two waves and maybe a third or fourth, and otherwise rely on babies to grow.

Here's a few tips: 1. Keep your dining hall sized to your population. People need to be right next to each other to socialize. Don't give them much room to get away from each other.

2. Don't make bedrooms. You can dig out the separate spaces and stick beds in there for sleeping, but don't set them as actual bedrooms. Tired people will still go to those rooms to sleep even without designating them as such. If you set them as bedrooms, the owners will retreat to their separate rooms to idle and you won't get socializing going on.

3. After you're secure and don't NEED constant jobs, don't run them. Break things up so people get time off to hang out together. Don't give them too much idle time, just regular breaks. The social tick that determines if people are talking resets when they stop idling, so if you regularly alternate work and breaks, you'll get more frequent ticks than you would if they just idled for a while.

It's not perfect, but married couples tend to produce offspring on a yearly or every other year basis according to the folks at Bay12. That should keep the ball rolling for you.

Anybody have any tips for starting a fort? I've generated a world, but I've mostly been screwing around in the arena watching Bronze Colossi fling random enemies to space. Oh, and in starting a fort, please don't lead me into some sort of trap. I've read the wiki. Don't even try. Any tips, suggestions, whatever will be welcome.

Your first fort? First step, figure out what you want to do with it. The early forts are better aimed at specific lessons you want to learn, because you're bound to make mistakes. After you figure out your goal, look for a plot with the natural resources you'd need. Soil for farming. Metal for smithing. That sort of thing, After that, figure out what supplies you'll need.

I'd suggest farming and brewing as your first goal. Without those, everything fails. Find a place with soil, otherwise you'll need to arrange a bucket brigade to get farmland, and I don't know how to do that.

Yeah, I think I might use my first go just to see how a fortress works, you know. As in production, management, downfall, !!FUN!!, etc.

Start with farming, then when you get a comfortable stock of food and thread-plants, move on to something else like metal smithing.

ETA: Also, not walking you into a trap or anything, but necessity is a great teacher. So if you really want to learn something well, and learn the controls in advance, try short changing ready supplies. Wanna learn farming quick? Embark with seeds but NOT already-grown plants. I learned the military system by doing a no-points embark and winging it.

edited 10th Apr '15 8:12:18 PM by Journeyman

The goal method works. Set your goals and when you hit one head to the next when you can maintain the results of the previous goal. This thread really isn't interested in tripping you up you will mess up in fun ways all on your own.

Getting your initial food production going is a must. If you can't get your farms going early get some hunting, fishing, and plant gathering going so you have something to feed your dwarves and designate some water to drink from. While not ideal it will hold you out for a little while.

You don't need soil to start a farm you can designate a space of floor as a pit or pond and tell the dwarves to fill it. Even if it is just a level floor they will dump water on the floor. If it is the right ground type it will provide mud for your underground crops.

An alternate method is to start in an area that has access to ponds and digging to them from under ground. You dig out the pond and flood a large room with its contents to generate a lot of mud and then seal off any holes.

My first fort was just me figuring out farming, brewing, and legendary dining halls. It also taught me that three entrances held by doors don't stop trolls. My second fort taught me about mechanisms. It took several more iterations to get good at the metal industry, armies, and trap design.

The point is, though, start with farming. In order to have surplus dwarves to do fancy things, you need to have food and booze production down pat.

My first fort was just dicking around with the controls. I didn't even farm that one. I quit after the first caravan because I got bored, and my people were near tantrum. THEN I learned farming.

My first fort ended when my wood cutters pet cat got killed by a gobo thief. He locked himself in his room and then lost his mind completely. He then proceeded to axe murder the entire fort before stripping naked and running around outside and dying of thirst. I had just figured out how to make farms too.

My favorite's still the hammerdwarf who slammed a wolverine in the face and spread his teeth on the ground, then lost his hammer arm to an alligator and swapped the hammer to his remaining arm to beat it to death without missing a beat.

That may have been two different hammerdwarves, but it's way too metal not to have them be the same guy both times.

Speaking of teeth. Remember that one succession fort? One of the forts the military dwarves frequently knocked the teeth out of the enemies heads. There were literally sprays of teeth flying everywhere.

Thanks for the help guys. I know the discussion sorta trailed off into random hilarious fort failures, but still: Thanks. The only reason I mentioned the whole trap/read the wiki thing is because I didn't want to become the next SpiralDimentia or anything.

edited 11th Apr '15 8:10:01 AM by The_Mattias

@Mattias: Hey, no sweat, lad! I had quite a few fort fails, and if I may make a recommendation on where not to embark, generally, ya want to avoid aquifers and at all costs avoid terrifying biomes! I learned the hard way skeletal yaks massacre dwarves by the truckload. (Didn't even survive a week in one terrifying biome.)

If ya need a couple pointers, I'm sure we can help out!

The worst thing I've always had to deal with are ambushers. With my luck, every ambush brought a few dozen lashers that tore through my ranks like a knife through butter before I could get the fort secured. Sieges are easier to deal with since I could usually anticipate them.

Actually, in general I usually haveproblems with the fort producing too much wealth too quickly. Even if I stopped the crafts and knicknacks, a moody dwarf usually produces something both insanely expensive and just insane in general.◊

edited 11th Apr '15 8:58:58 AM by carbon-mantis

Okaaay...I'm not even going to ask how dwarves can make thongs (I really hope it's not Orc Fortress), but whatever.

Well that depends on what you mean by thong. Not all thongs are the but floss kind. The original thongs had a fair bit of cloth that covered the important bits and formed some of the early undergarments.

Still, it's that "Okay, what the actual FUCK?" reaction you have to seeing that after seeing dodgy websites use that term and such.

(Although I think seeing ☼Adamantine Butt Floss☼ would make me laugh)

edited 11th Apr '15 9:23:47 AM by The_Mattias

Oh yeah for biomes, you want to avoid aquifers at first. Ideally to start off, you want a temperate to warm place with lots of trees, peaceful creatures, soil, and a water source. Bonus points for metals and flux, but unsure if you want to focus on a steel industry from the get go

Iron will get you through most threats in general. Lesser metals are good for trade or ammo for crossbows.

We should whip up a new succession game.

edited 11th Apr '15 1:57:01 PM by TuefelHundenIV