Dwarf Fortress

That's more than the average American, who gets about $35,000 a year. If he doesn't have family to take care of, he could live in an apartment just fine.

Wait, really? I thought the average income was much higher... Meh, I have a terrible grasp of economics.

... I'm screwed in the new version!

i will be waiting for Deon to update his mod because of how well I am doing in adventure mode. We need more to do in Adventure mode other then kill bandits and monsters. Like seizing forts helping a nation at war.

Yeah, plenty of single, childless people can live for a year off just the increase from last year.

@Funnyguts: I just saw your name at the top of the list. I'm there under the username "Knigel" (same avatar) and think I'll try donating $10 annually.

I believe the caravan arc will provide the option to become a trader yourself or to guard/destroy caravans (I'm not sure if it's for yourself or for pay).

edited 1st Jan '11 3:21:08 PM by thatother1dude

I could easily live off of that total I make it on about 14-15k a year and I have a wife and two dogs.

Cool. So is the new update out or just news about it? I am at work so I can't check the site.

edited 1st Jan '11 3:25:23 PM by TuefelHundenIV

No, it's just what's he talked about on the forums and blog posts, and not even necessarily coming with the very next update.

No date is planned for the next release, but they have gotten trade routes up.

edited 1st Jan '11 3:28:56 PM by thatother1dude

The average college grad in the tech/engineering field gets like 50k starting, if coming from a pretty good school, so toady is making bank.

Dayum. Toady's in the money, so to speak.

...I wonder what he spends it all on. Beside food and such, of course.

Fancy food.

(cats)

Computers, food, rent, and probably saving money.

I really want to see adventurer modes scope and options expanded. Don't get me wrong its still awesome and the mods out there add a lot. But its still all kill this guy or this beast K thnx bai oh and don't get et by bogey men. I have had fun hunting animals solo with a hand axe or by throwing crafted bolts (deons mod) and then tanning the hides, and carving totems and figurines which I then sell or trade for better equipment.

I look forward to the caravan arc if it adds to adventure mode like that.

edited 1st Jan '11 6:29:41 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I started playing Adventure mode. Is there any good way to determine who will have a quest for you beyond talking to everyone you see? I went to the capital of my area, but none of the people there want to give me quests. Do I need to talk to members of my race first?

Go to every town and ask one person. Someone will give you quest eventually. Making a world a bit more savage helps a bit too.

Or you could also get a mod. I have found most mods tend to make quests a lot more common. Be warned though a lot of the quests tend to involve tougher fighters for a beginner. It is best to start out hunting some animals, butchering them and trading their bits for metal armor.

@Tuefel Hunden IV: Just try looking at the dev page, there's plenty planned for Adventure Mode:

• Crafting clothes, ammo, and weapons from hides and wood (knapping and butchering were just the beginning)
• Making constructions from stone and wood
• Making your own sites (with it's own name)
• Tracking
• Farming crops and livestock
• Cooking
• Encountering raiding parties from enemy civilizations and attacking their hideouts
• Buying and raising mounts for use in travel and combat
• Giving orders to companions, including attacking, distracting, and staying some place, which they may refuse to do or kill you for demanding
• Making your group being considered an entity that you name
• Capturing people alive and interrogating them
• Relations of those you killed coming for you
• Implementing stance, reach, reactions, climbing, and wrestling position into combat
• Learning specific attacking styles, including making your own
• Being a thief who steals valuable goods from rich people in large civs, sells the stuff on the black market, hides their identity to keep from being tracked or identified, gains a bounty, may surrender if caught, and later escape
• Searching derelict sites for treasure
• Jumping, climbing, holding your breath as you go underwater
• Doing traps
• Lighting your way through dark places
• Researching places before going in, including from both recent and ancient tomes
• Fighting night creatures and their slaves, including proper body disposal and dealing with curses
• Exploring, mapping out, and naming new areas
• Cataloging strange creatures unique to your world
• Making first contact with new civs, including diplomacy
• What I said before about caravans

@Funnyguts: Generally regular people give you smaller missions that you can do immediately, then once your reputation is high enough you can get missions from lords and ladies in fortress keeps. Once your rep is that high, regular people won't give missions anymore, just recommend you to a lord in the capital (but you can get quests from any lord or lady).

Keep in mind though, you don't need to be requested to kill a bandit leader or monster for it to contribute to your reputation, that just tells you where it is on your map. If you see a lair or bandit camp, feel free to attack.

edited 1st Jan '11 8:38:33 PM by thatother1dude

I know the overall plan i meant in near future updates.

Reach would be great so that spears can be useful besides "lolstab"

Oh they are useful its Lol stab oops you needed that organ. You can readily cripple an enemy very quickly. Head shots with a spear are almost always fatal with an experienced spear wielder.

edited 1st Jan '11 10:11:41 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Head shots with any experienced weapon holder is a guaranteed fatality, haha.

The problem with spears is that anything they can do, a sword can do just as well, with the added bonus that swords don't get stuck as often as spears. Sure, spears are slightly better at stabbing out every organ at the same time, but is that necessary when bleeding out is faster than damaged-organ failure?

I have had my sword get stuck just as often as my spears. My swords do not penetrate as deeply as a spear. Even better stab them with a pike for a really deep wound. I also frequently severe tendons, open arteries, puncture lugs, and break bones with the spear more then with the sword. My favorite for mangling is the axe though.

Huzzah Throwing Discs are back.◊

Hmm, time to try this again =/ Hopefully they cut wood this time...

Cutting wood and surviving is overrated.

Yes, the primary advantage spears and pikes have right now is deeper penetration, but the difference is usually only noticeable when you're fighting something gigantic.

And when I said "reach" I didn't mean something like spears and pikes being able to hit from farther away than knives or swords, I meant how he plans to make it so you can't attack body parts that are out of reach (like a human attacking a dragon's head any time but when it's trying to bite) and I'm not sure if longer weapons will have the advantage there.

However, that sort of thing may be implemented with "stance", which could include using a pike or spear in a way that make it very hard to approach a unit without getting stabbed.

So, since Kicker and Striker (puncher) are different skills and I was hoping to take a whack at unarmed combat, I decided to try my hand with both version of an Extremity Extremist:

• Feet: Had shields, kicks, and ambushing. Male human hero with superhuman strength that killed several bandits, including kobolds, but was completely steam-rolled by a minotaur (sneaking in a labyrinth is a stupid idea since the minotaur will always be close enough to spot you if you can see him).
• Arms: Has punches, wrestling, and throwing. Female elven hero with superelven agility that grappled a winged horror into submission, left when she became exhausted when unable to deal lethal damage, came back and when she encountered the same problem she grabbed a copper pick from it's lair (the thing was too blind from eye-gouging to realize what was happening) and killed it in three hits. Currently a legendary fighter and wrestler.

In fact, I think I just came up with a good game: hit the "random" page button until you have a trope applicable to your play in whatever mode and try to fulfill it.

I'll start: Leotard of Power? I guess that means my next adventure will wear nothing that covers the head or limbs or is rigid, leaving only shirts, vests, capes, loincloths, thongs, and short skirts. Can decided whether said adventurer should be female or male.

Dwarf Fortress theater. 

• Ñ   U U u U

• [The Titan êtur Lilumskil has come! *Beware its poisonous sting!]

•      ÑU               U u

• [The human Hero's Father has been struck down!]

• Ñ                   @

• [êtur: I am êtur Lilumskil!] 
• [In the year 206, I killed your Father!] 
• [Prepare to die!] 

•   Ñ@

• [êtur Lilumskil stings the human Hero's upper body with its tail! Titan Venom is injected into the wound!]

• ²  Ñ@ 

• [The human Hero slashes at êtur Lilumskil's head! The severed part sails off in an arc!] 
• [The Titan êtur Lilumskil has been struck down!]

• Ñ         @

• [The human Hero has bled to death.]

• [You are deceased! Press escape to end your game!]

I like how the first scene spells out Nuuuu. But I'm weird like that.