Dwarf Fortress

My adeventurer was winning. I was quite merrily murdering any survivors. I go there kill anyone who comes up to me on my patrol looking for a fight then leave and come back a day or so later. If any one group is winning its the alligators and the fish. Yeah my seasoned Hero of Legend stays the fuck away from that river. Alligator swarms, schools of carp, pike fish, and long nosed gar. No way in hell am I going to swim in that river with so little skill.

I mean, in the mode where you keep trying to take back the fortress for your own use. How fortified was it when the hordes came?

Oh only about year 1.5. The fort had some cage traps. A nice solid wall and an Iron draw bridge that doubles as the main gate. But there is a way to get on top of the wall as I had not gotten around to fixing that issue yet. The gate was up when I ditched it. I can retake it easily once I drop the gate and shut off the water to stop the flooding.

I have been using my adventurer to clear off the remnants and cull any skulkers around the area and reduce hostile wild life. Basically I am using my adventurer to go and clean out the reason I could not reclaim in the first place ie the armies and animals.

edited 19th Dec '10 11:11:19 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Just how many corpses are littering the grounds?

Counting fresh, rotting, and partial skeletons. I stopped counting after 30.

Plenty of loot and bone to use, then?

Loot yes bone no. I have to come back and drive off anyone who was hiding or running after being wounded and then clear out the alligators, carp, and any other "surprises" in the river.

I am going to give up on retaking the fort. Every time I visit it starts to lag with the adventurer.

edited 20th Dec '10 2:11:51 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Should I get a tile set that makes the game clearer for me? =/ Its kinda hard to learn the game which interface confuses you...

I recommend Phoebus.

You also might want to try the Lazy Newb Pack, which has three graphic sets to chose from (default is Phoebus), Dwarf Therapist (a labor management utility), DF Init Utility (and easier way to change game-settings), and several other conveniences (such as the economy being disabled by default).

You know, since no one uses the default tilesets in their tutorial videos, its kinda harder for me to learn =/

...So how to install tilesets? I mean, without deleting my created worlds?(I created few random ones so I don't need to do that later)

I like to think of DF as the Matrix; eventually you just start seeing everything without having to decrypt it.

I'd get a tileset myself, but I kind of like the look now. =0

That said, the Lazy Newb Pack will autoinstall a tileset, I think.

=/ I just try to deal with normal one, until I figure out...

Anyway, should I erase the cargo? And I do do, do I lose the items inside?

^If you mean the caravan your dwarves started with, go ahead and break it down. You can use the wagon for wood, and everything inside will be fine.

Ok... So the "Remove building"...

...What should I build first? ^^;

...Crud, this first time will suck xD

Dig into a mountain, build a carpenter place and a masonry, build some beds and a dining room, and work on muddying some ground to set up a farm so that your dwarves don't starve to death.

Then from there crash the ceiling on top of everyone to kill them!

x-x; Well, dang it.*is not sure how to do that all since all tutorials suck(well, okay, they don't suck, but have different tilesets) xD*

edited 20th Dec '10 9:27:21 AM by SpookyMask

For a start on food, I tend to 'gather plants' and start aboveground 'farm plots', since it takes me a while to dig out what I want, and longer to irrigate underground. Might want to build a few aboveground workshops, like carpentry, masons, or even a still or kitchen, so your dorfs have something to do while the miner(s) is digging.

edited 20th Dec '10 9:38:41 AM by DrRockopolis

I really wish there was a 'muddy ground' option instead of having to futz about with z-levels or perfectly timing your commands so you don't accidentally flood your farm.

=/ I don't understand if dwarves are getting food or not x-x; Heck, I don't think they are gathering wood so I can create more buildings...

Oh right, don't forget to define some stockpiles. I'm guessing you've figured out how to designate trees for chopping and earth for digging? Also, make sure you brought the requisite items: axe for chopping wood and pick for digging. If you don't have those... restart.

The dwarves will eat food when they're hungry, automatically stopping whatever they're doing, so don't worry about that. They'll do whatever they need in order to keep themselves alive (eat, sleep, drink) unless you're out of a certain resource or they can't find a path. Even if you're out of booze, they'll drink shitty water from the rivers, and if you're out of food, they'll make a half-hearted attempt at hunting vermin like flies or something.

Muddying is a pretty advanced technique I guess, but what I usually do is just dig a 10x10 room next to a murky pool then break open the wall and let the water wash over everything.

@Spooky Mask: Personally I find it easier to just download the copy with the pre-installed graphic set then copy the old saved file into the new game.

=/ But I don't want to lose my maps and save x-x;

And for some reason, they aren't chopping trees D=

...Dang it, I need levers to use flood gates? x-x; This fortress will die out before it actually becomes a fortress XD

Seriously though, why aren't my stupid dwarves gathering wood or chopping trees? =/

edited 20th Dec '10 10:25:53 AM by SpookyMask

Are any of your dwarves woodcutters? You prepared carefully, right? If you didn't give any points to a dwarf for chopping wood, press v, highlight any dwarf with the cursor, press p, then l, then use + and - to select "Woodworking" then select "Wood cutting" and make sure it is bright.

And then designate trees with d, then t, then draw a rectangle around the area you want to chop down.

Yes, keep in mind your dwarves need to be ordered to perform general tasks. The only things any given dwarf will do on their own is haul things around, clean, and perform basic first aid/care. If I recall, they also try to do the most recently assigned task first. If you assign mining out your farm first followed by digging out stockpiles and resource mining, your farm might never be dug out.

The "U" key opens up the unit list, you can see the status of your dwarves, visitors, native animals, and invaders. You can use it to jump to any dwarf quickly and assign tasks. I recommend disabling most hauling jobs on any dwarf performing critical functions to the fortress, like miners or farmers, or craftdwarves if dependent on trade. I leave on refuse/burial in the hopes that SOMEBODY will pick up garbage and bury the dead before miasma/grief drives everyone insane.

The "J" key opens the job list. This is a bit daunting as it is EVERY possible task within the fortress. If you ordered doors made at the mason, it's here, channel dug, it's here, every single rock to be tossed in the pile is here. It can be handy to see which building is actually be built. Also, jobless dwarves should be on the bottom so you can assign them a task.

Also, assign nicknames. It's easier to remember who is who, does what, and has an awesome skill when you've got five Urists and four Kibs.

I'm pretty sure that one of them has woodcutting maxed...