f13.net

Episode One: Landfall
Episode Two: Elves are real bastards (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15823.msg576321#msg576321)
Episode Three: An Ambush! Curse them! (part 1) (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15823.msg578450#msg578450)
Episode Three: An Ambush! Curse them! (part 2) (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15823.msg578694#msg578694)
Episode Four: Progeny and Projects (part 1) (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15823.msg581267#msg581267)
Episode Four: Progeny and Projects (part 2) (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15823.msg581909#msg581909)
Episode Five: Operation Waterfail (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15823.msg587390#msg587390)

Welcome to my Dwarf Fortress Blog/Tutorial/Fortress/Mess! Let's get it started. Episodes are going to be by season-ish milestones/goals and I'll try and explain the features and thoughts and future planning as I build my fortress. This first episode doesn't have as many screenshots as I'd like, I need to get into the habit of spamming the screenshot key. I'll try and explain best I can and do better later.

Episode Goals:
Found the settlement
Carve a basic fort
Build basic workshops - Woodworker, Stonemason, Still, Kitchen
Build basic stockpiles - Stone, Wood, Food, Furniture, Crafted items
Build 2 5x5 farms
Build at least 7 bedrooms and a dining room
Build refuse pile

This looks like a good spot! I searched for flux stone, no aquifier, magma pipe, moderate weather, in a 4x4 area. I got dumped in the middle of the woods, as you see:
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/21231652642.png)
Supposedly there's a magma tube SOMEWHERE on premises. We'll have to find it later. For now...

This is my initial settlement:

Dwarves:
Carpenter/Leader (leader = appraiser/negotiator/novice judge of intent) He's also my records keeper which skills up fast so I don't give him it.
Farmer/Brewer (part 1 of my 2-man food team, these two are really all you need to survive until you get about 150 dwarves)
Farmer/Cook (part 2 of my 2-man food team)
Woodcutter/Gatherer (This is the only guy who ever goes outside. Outside is dangerous. That's why I don't hunt, and that's why agriculture was invented.)
Miner/Mechanic/Building Designer (5 pts into miner, 3 into mechanic 2 into building designer)
Mason/Stonecrafter (when he's not carving doors/tables/thrones, he's making rock instruments for sale on the first year)
Weaponsmith/Armorsmith (He's my metalbasher)

Items:
1 Iron Anvil
2 serpentine (stone, to make metalforge and wood furnace)
1 Iron bar (axe for woodcutter)
4 copper bars (4 copper picks for masons)
51 plump helmet spawn
50 rock nuts
50 cave wheat seeds
25 pig tail seeds
25 sweet pod seeds
11 dwarven ale
11 dwarven rum
11 dwarven wine
11 dwarven beer
6 horse leather
21 turtle
1 plump helmet
23 tower cap logs
1 of each of every meat that costs 2 each

And we're off! We get dumped in a watery forest, trees and planets everywhere. There is a slightly sloping hill to the east which looks like a good spot for the initial entry. First things first, though:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/31231652976.png)
Cut down those trees! Gather those plants! Build a wood furnace and a metalsmith's forge. Queue up some charcoal and crank out the 4 copper picks and 1 iron axe so that we can get to digging and chopping.

Make some temporary stockpiles nearby- you want a wood stockpile, a food stockpile, and a furniture stockpile. This is just to unload your wagon so people don't stand around idle. Break down your wagon (q, then x) for some more wood.

Now, you'll want to start carving out your fortress in earnest. The most critical things are stockpiles, workshops, and a place to sleep. You have only a little bit of time before your first sleep cycle, so first priority are the beds for your soon to be sleepy dwarves.

Notice that I'm carving in non-rock for the first few levels. This is good and bad. Good in that it carves very fast, bad in that it doesn't contribute wealth or happiness and can't be smoothed. Fortunately, neither farms, workshops, or stockpiles care what kind of walls you've got. Into the earth!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/51231658373.png)
I carved in that little hollow above going north into a 9x9 up/down stair (not shown). This is the next level down. It has the water pockets from the ponds so it's really not suitable for construction. This level will be perfect for farms, as farms can only be built on non-rock. This picture was taken a little bit after, so I've already got the farms built. They are two 5x5 plots. Notice they aren't connected directly to the entrance; you'll see what they're connected to as we progress, one more level down:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/41231653781.png)
The right 9x9 connects to the outside, the left continues downwards. The lower right 2x2 staircase connects upwards into the farm area and downwards into the food workshops. This is done for fortress defense; I only want one entrance to the outside and later that entire corridor will be trapped to prevent things from getting inside. This picture was also taken a bit after, so ignore the beds in the hallway - I'll get to that. Notice I've already got some stockpiles, I'll get to that as well. Ignore those for now. Continuing down...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/61231654757.png)
This is the workshop level. I've labeled the buildings to make things clearer for you. One thing you have to be aware of is what part of the workshops can be walked through and which are impassable. You can see the impassible squares of a workshop as marked by the dark green Xs during the placement stage. For example, you can see that the kitchen (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Kitchen) has 3 impassible squares in the upper right. If you've got an enclosed room with one entrance, and you place the workshop with an impassible square against the door, you will get an error when it comes time to build the room.

Notice the stairs going up and down. Now, take a look back up at the previous levels - The lower right quadrant is my food quadrant, and it's connected to the food stockpile. Upper right's stockpile is wood, upper left is stone, lower left are finished goods and furniture. Going up or down stairs counts as one movement, so you can see that the stockpiles are only about 5 squares away from their respective workshops. This closeness becomes paramount as your fortress grows and you'll want to abuse the z-axis as much as possible to accomplish this.

So, I built the 4 critical shops along with 2 5x5 farm plots. I started plump helmets in one and quarry bushes in the other. I cranked out 7 beds, a table and a chair, and, lacking a better place to put them, stuck them in the hallway. Just in time, too - you can see a few of the dwarves sleeping above.

You'll also need an indoor refuse pile to collect bones and skulls in. You'll eventually want an outdoor refuse pile as well which is connected to the indoor one as well, but I'll explain how to do this and why you want to in the next episode. For now, an indoor refuse pile where your dwarves will put bones after eating your delicious turtles is fine. It will have a door, because miasma will eminate from rotting garbage and will make dwarves unhappy. We don't want unhappy dwarves. I built mine here, and with these settings (excluding everything except specifically bones) (of all corpse types and all body part types)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/71231655779.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/81231658314.png)

With that complete, it's time to create individual bedrooms and a real dining room for our dwarves. Each dwarf requires their own bedroom (couples will share a room, however), and bigger rooms make dwarves happier, but frankly they'll be happy enough to get three square and eat it in a nice dining room. Only the nobles really *demand* better accommodations, so your average dwaves get your standard tiny room containing one bed (and later, one chest to store their stuff in). When smoothed and engraved, this room is plenty nice for your average dwarf.

Because of the large amount of space living quarters take, along with the dwarves penchant for hanging out in their rooms, it's important to design them properly for high traffic and high density. There are a lot of ways (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Bedroom_design) you can go about this, but I prefer living pods. These take advantage of the fact that dwaves, like a certain member of the church, can actually move diagonally. Living pods have an enormous density due to this and the fact that like all good DF constructions, they cheerfully abuse the z-level. I create two pods to start - one for 2x2 rooms (bedrooms) and one for 3x3 rooms (noble bedrooms, noble dining rooms/studies).

Another thing you have to be aware of is noise. Noise makes dwarves complain and sleep poorly. It goes through walls, doors, and z-levels, emanating from workshops and mining. Workshops are what we care about, and as such all rooms need to be at least 5 squares (including z-levels) from any workshop. Because I built my workshops around that central stair, we have to move a few levels down. I carved the stair down 4 additional levels before branching out to create the living pods:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/91231656529.png)
I moved all the beds into the rooms, put doors on the rooms, and then created a bedroom (q->r) for each. When the dwarves get tired, they will automatically claim an empty bedroom. I moved the table/chair from the hallway into a "real" dining room and added a few more. I also declared it a dining room by highlighting a table (q->r). I then also carved out one level below:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/101231656586.png)
As you see, the 4 up/down staircases connect to the 4 down staircases of the previous level. You can stack these 3 or 4 downwards before the traffic on the stairs begins to get too crowded. That's not for a while, yet.


Ah, nobles. Bunch of picky bastards. Right now, I've only got one, and that's the leader. Look at all those jobs:
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/111231658266.png)

Unfortunately, it's in red, which means that he's demanding appropriate accommodations before he'll do the assigned job. He basically wants a private dining room. Later, he'll also want a private study as he'll be the sheriff, too. I give him two of the 3x3 rooms (I put tables/chairs in there, declare the room, and then assign it to him).

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/121231658251.png)
Checking him out, he seems happy now. If he wasn't, "Needs" would be in red.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/131231658233.png)

You can see the error I mentioned earlier about walling in your workshops by accident. That's the error they spit out. You have to fix the problem then if you want to un-suspend construction, go to the shop and (q->x) to try building again.

No migrants?! What! This is a great place to live! You've got beds, food and long, endless hours of drudgery! What more can a dwarf ask for? I'll just need to churn out more rock instruments, I guess. Actually, although migrants CAN arrive every season, generally for the first few years they only arrive in the spring.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/141231658214.png)

Here's where I stand at the end of the first season. Every season, remember to take a look at your summary page to see if you're getting low on food/drink and also remember to re-allocate your farms during the first year. Planting is separated into the seasons (even though you're underground), and you can't always plant every type of seed every season. Next year, it will remember what you chose to plant during the summer but your field will be fallow unless you select it initially.

You also might want to, as I did, edit the init file to autosave and autoarchive per season. That way, if you screw up, you can go back to the previous season to redo. I also have it pause during season rollovers so I can remember to do a once-over, checking food/drink/materials.

Great stuff... Looking at this, I can see that my base is a clusterfuck of huge rooms with nothing in them all on the first level.

No animals?

Just the two dogs which I'll train next episode. There are random animals walking around, and somehow you do come with a tame horse and some other animals which makes up for the other 2

As you see I go pretty vegetarian - it's technically a challenge mode, but I like it better early. Farm plots are a lot more reliable and don't require a lot of infrastructure, whereas for animal food you need, in addition to the required still and kitchen, a butcher and tanner shop as well as a dedicated hunter. Then, you have to deal with stockpiles for the corpses and if that isn't enough there's a time limit on each step of the production as well: the corpse will decay, and once it's been through the butcher's shop the skins will decay unless taken to the tannery. This is just too much manpower required, and with only 7 dwarves, sometimes you're unable to meet the time limit even with one doing nothing but hunting/butcher/tanning - stuff will decay all over the place while the guy is running around after the kill that is all the way across the world. Plus, sometimes this guy will fail to make a kill and get injured or run into a monster and then where are you? Screwed.

While we're on the subject, fishing is the same way. Risky since you're outside, and you tend to fish for a long time before catching anything. Then, you have to go through and queue up "prepare fish" at the fishery which isn't a HUGE deal but again you take an entire dwarf out of commission to do nothing all day but fish.

I'll eventually add both for food variety, but not until my first wave of immigrants.

Such a shame the interface is so arcane to me, because I would actually play this.

If only there was another thread with handy video tutorials right next to this one :)

You misunderstood me: I can see what's going on, I just cannot deal with the ASCII and such.

Yeah, you'll just need to be able to see the matrix. You get used to it after a while.

With your bedrooms stacked like that do you run into issues later on when the forts get large?

It's probably not enough, but there are graphic packs which improve things a little.

Yes and no. As I said, you can really only stack them 4 deep or so before there are too many dwarves running up and down the single staircases. Dwarves that move to move through each other's squares slow down quite a bit so it's best to avoid.

The solution is simply to build more of them branching out from the central 3x3 staircase. There's plenty of room.

Between this thread and the vid tutorial one I'm back playing DF.  God DAMN this game rocks.  Thanks for all the starter tips F13!

Episode Two: Elves are real bastards.

Welcome back! In this episode, I complete my year into spring and the first migrant wave. We've got the basics down and our dwarves are going to survive through the winter, so now we can focus on making things a bit more efficient as well as complete our first trades.

Episode Goals:
Construct rudimentary fort defenses
Set up stone dumps and clear up all the stone in the fort
Set up stockpile linking, mini stockpiles and expand my current stockpiles
Trade with neighbors
Complete structures for "Advanced" Farming
Prepare for the first Migrant wave

When we last left our budding fortress, we had gathered enough stocks to survive through the winter, carved out places for our dwarves to sleep, and are ready for some expansion. Being somewhat OCD, I absolutely hate the little piles of stone that is left around during our excavation. Our stonecraft/mason is converting them slowly into doors, chests, and instruments, but it's simply not going fast enough. The easiest way of solving the stone clutter problem is a by creating a garbage dump.

Activity Zones are kind of like stockpiles in reverse. They are places that you designate that you pull resources from (and, in the special case of a garbage dump, a place where you dump stuff). Garbage dumps in particular are special because of their ability to infinitely stack items. Because of the odd way the game works currently, you can actually take all those piles of stone sitting around your fortress and collect them all into a single square. I placed this single 1x1 square garbage dump right next to my mason's shop. You designate them just like mining or stockpiles and when they're designated they show up as "=" like stockpiles but only when you're on the zones menu.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/11231730571.png)

Then, simply use 'k' highlight the boulder you want and hit 'd'. A D will show up next to the rocks on the right, and soon a dwarf will come and haul the ore into your designated dump. Once in the dump, the items within are 'forbidden'; this means they are completely ignored by dwarves and won't be picked up or moved around. However, you can unforbid the rocks so you can use them as raw material again. Simply use 'k', highlight the pile of rocks, scroll up and down with the - and + keys, and hit F to reclaim each rock for later use.

With our fortress clean(er), let's turn to the most rudimentary of base defenses: the cage trap. Cage traps use 1 'mechanism', the mysterious universal device that powers everything from waterwheel axles to triggers to levers and, in this case, to traps. Cage traps also require a cage to place in the trap. Unfortunately, cages cannot be made from stone. Our best material at the moment is wood. A cage trap will trigger when anything walks over the square that you place them on and have a chance to cage that creature.

Mechanisms come from a mechanic's workshop (duh!) so I created one right above my mason's shop, and churned out a bunch of traps. You place the traps through the build menu. They show up as ^ once built. I scattered them around my entrance:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/31231731230.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/21231731168.png)

With that done...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/41231731405.png)

My traps finish just in time! A kobold is spotted outside! Also, our first trade caravan! Oh no. We have no trade depot! I quickly build one right at the entrance to my base. Later, this will be inside my base, but for now an exposed one should be fine.

Caravans generally have guards with them. The guards are generally aggressive. This guard, for example, really didn't like the way the deer was looking at him:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/51231731664.png)

My trade depot is one level up, right on that hill (not shown).

I move all my barrels full of instruments to the trade depot:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/71231731975.png)

Then initiate trade:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/61231731772.png)

The trade window is kind of clunky (surprise!) but you can at least highlight the barrels to include everything within. The number on the left is the value, the number on the right is the weight. As you see, I have a problem - Stone instruments are heavy! Fortunately, they hauled those nearly worthless ley pewter bars all the way to our settlement! I assume the caravan driver lost a bet or something. I guess we'll take them... Let's see what I can work out.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/81231732058.png)

The easiest way to see what I traded for is to re-open the move items to depot menu. As you can see, I got some cheese, sugar, leather, and cloth. And 25 steel bolts. Sweet!

With trades out of the way, the trade master asks me what I want. I tell him meat, leather, and seeds, but none of it urgent. The more urgent you put something, the bigger markup it will have when it gets there. He tells me what HE'S looking for:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/91231732274.png)

Swell. I can make some hides and backpacks, and probably some shields as well once I get my metalbashing up and running. The traders leave me and promise to return next year. I turn my eye back to fortress expansion and, in particular, expanding my food supply.

I'll take a moment now to explain the common plants and what you can do with them:

Plump Helmet -> Brewable, Cookable, Eaten Raw
Cave Wheat -> Brewable, can be milled into Flour(1) which is then Cookable
Quarry Bush -> Brewable, can be processed into bush leaves(5) which is then Brewable
Sweet Pod -> Brewable, can be processed into syrup(5) or milled into sugar(1) which are both Cookable
Pig Tail -> processed into thread which can then be woven into bags.
Dimple Cup -> processed into dye, basically a trade good

The numbers in parenthesis are how many of each item you get after processing. Due to the way farming works, the plants that you need to process give more bang for your cooking or brewing buck. When you plant a seed, your grower's skill determines how many 'stacks' of plants, from 1-5 (and a very rare 6 stack) can be harvested once the plants mature. All food 'stacks' are processed or cooked at the same time and considered a single item. Thus, the larger the stack of items are, the more compact they become. a 4 stack of plump helmet would be cooked as a single item along with flour (a simple meal uses 2 ingredients) and give you 8 biscuits. However, a 5 stack of quarry bushes once processed becomes a 25 stack of quarry bush leaves which takes the exact same amount of time to cook as a 5 stack, plus gets multiplied when you use additional ingredients.

While we're on the food subject, when you cook, you'll want to try and create lavish meals. They require 4 different ingredients instead of just 2 for a basic meal. They are higher in point value, so they offer more happiness to dwarves who eat it and more value to your fortress in general. It's not usual late game to create a stack of 75 dwarven wine roasts due to the stacking effect above and combining large stacks of multiple ingredients.

So basically, what all that above is saying, is that we need to build additional buildings to handle the quarry bushes that have been planted and harvested for the past two seasons. Since it's a cooking building and pulls from the food stockpiles (where quarry bushes go), I put it next to my kitchen:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/101231733705.png).

And queued a bunch of "Process plants into bags" which is an obfuscated name for creating quarry bush leaves which can then be cooked into food. "Process plants into barrel" is making syrup from sweet pods, which is the other thing that you'll want to do. Note that all this work is for cooking only; the plants listed above can be brewed straight out of the ground.

Unfortunately, we have to make some bags. I throw together a leatherworker a bit south and queue up some more bags with the leather I bought and just traded for. I also make a butcher to try and salvage that poor deer that's sitting outside. I give it a door since generally butcher's shops will often have miasma and you really don't want that spreading all over the place making your dwarves unhappy.


With that complete, I decide to create and link a few stockpiles. Linking allows you to fill one stockpile with the stock of another. The rules of stockpile linking are simple and unfortunately limited at this time. Each stockpile take from an unlimited number of stockpiles, but stockpiles can only feed to a single stockpile. This means that you can't have multiple small stockpiles all drawing from a massive central one, though it will work the other way around. I'm going to use it in three places.

The first is to create a refuse pile outdoors and link it with my indoor one. This is so bodies and bones and such will be placed there and, because it's outdoors, the refuse will vanish every season. We will pull the bones and useful/usable non-rotting materials into our indoor stockpile for later use while the rest will just be left to rot and vanish. The actual doing of this is very simple. Select the stockpile with q, hit t for take, highlight the stockpile you have to take from, hit enter. In this case, we want the inner pile to take from the outer pile.

We create the outer pile and link the inner one:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/111231734594.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/121231734649.png)

And you can see they're now linked:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/131231734717.png)

Because I already limited the inner refuse pile to bones shells and skulls, that is all it will draw from the outer pile, leaving the rest to rot.

Next, I create a little stockpile down in the dining room so that the dwarves don't have to walk very far to eat:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/141231734934.png)

And give it the properties of only drink and prepared food since that's what dwarves will eat (notice prepared food is it's own little option down on the bottom - it's highlighted)

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/151231734978.png)

Finally, because stockpiles are filled back to front, I create a little mini-wood pile so that my carpenter doesn't have to walk to the back of my expanded, larger stockpile:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/161231735221.png)

Things are looking pretty good, although I noticed that now my woodcutter is stopping chopping every 10 seconds to haul his own lumber back. This will never do. Fortunately, easily fixed:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/171231735410.png)

While I'm thinking about it, I do the same to all my critical dwaves. I'd rather have my miner focusing on mining without hauling his own ore.

While my miner is working on my first long-term construction project (more on this in the next episode!), Suddenly it's springtime! We made it through the winter.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/181231735549.png)

Here's where we stand:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/191231736972.png)

Where are the migrants? Oh well, I'm sure they will be here soon. But what's this?

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/201231735735.png)

My bolts were stolen!? What happened? Oh, I didn't have any ammo stockpiles indoors so they were left exposed out at the trade depot! I quickly make a few very small stockpiles for each of the remaining types, in-between the left two staircases:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/211231735833.png)

Oh, and the elves. Lovely. The thing you have to remember/know about the elves is that if you offer them any item that's made of wood or covered in blood (like future weapons taken from attackers), they will just pack up and leave in a huff. They really are whiny bitches that way. As most materials are in wood bins or barrels at this point, you can't select the barrel you have to select each individual item. Not a problem, as long as you know about it. This particular caravan leader was just fucking with me, though. This is why I hate elves:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/221231736190.png)

Not enough profit? Even though the dwarves traded at under 10 profit, I guess I can do a little better...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/231231736203.png)

Oh, fuck you then. I hope you get mauled by bears on your way back to your forest glade or whatever shithole you climbed out of.

On a brighter note, just after the elves pack up in a huff and leave....

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/241231736355.png)

Oh deary me. Our rock instruments have gained legendary fame! Dwarves have come from miles around - penniless, empty handed, and hungry - to piggyback on our success.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/251231736650.PNG)

We have 22 new migrants to deal with. Good thing we created all those rooms! We also added a new noble to our ranks, "Sherrif", which "Carp/Leader" will do, as long as he's given a chest and a coffer in his bedroom. Not a problem.

First thing Next Episode: Assigning names and managing the incoming horde!

Since we've got a bunch of dwarves, and I'm going to move what they from their nickname ('brew/cook') over to their profession name (after the name), I'm in need of a few volunteers.

Who would like to toil away for no pay and little food, only being allowed to rest once a season, living a sort of horrible half-life in which the only thing that keeps you together is your next drink? You might possibly die gloriously in battle, or starve to death, or go mad from a strange mood, or maybe even drown as the corridor you were inhabiting is suddenly flooded by a mechanical marvel gone awry!

If this sounds like a life you'd be proud to live, just post here with what you'd like to do / your preferred profession or activity and you can be the newest migrant/sacrificial victim to my fair fortress.

Note: Preferred professions do not necessarily have to correspond with current migrant skills. Then again, I might just draft you into the army anyway or assign you to hauling endless rocks because we have no use for a potash maker! Who knows! It could be fun!

Can I be schild the Potash maker?

Edit: Did I even understand your post? What the hell is happening in here. Dwarf Fortress scares me.

Oooh!  Oooh!  Lantyssa the Hunter!  Make sure to assign me some hunting dogs!

Hell yeah.

Can I be the Blacksmith (armoursmith/weaponsmith whatever)?

I think if anyone has writing skillz, they should do a narrative critiquing their glorious leader and their fellow inhabitants?

Sign me up to be an Engraver.

Make the mods peasants.

Brewer!

My brother and a friend of mine are hooked on this game. A little too complicated for me, at the moment, as I'd rather just shoot people in COD. Very cool game though.

I'll be the carpenter! I used to rough frame houses, woot!

I want to be a good-for-nothing aristocrat who complains about everything but provides nothing of real worth. Make me an ivory tower, stat!

Also, if you want to play this game..... make sure you use this Wiki

http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Main_Page

Sign me up for the Miller slot.  Or if that is taken, anything highly dangerous, perhaps Trap Tester.

Trap tester generally falls to my hunters who think taking a nap in my trapped hallway is a good idea.

Sheriff, plz.

Sign me up, whatever job needs doing. 

I managed to find a spot with every type of metal except the kinds that can be used to make weapons/armor, and the damn hippies don't sell metal.

I'm not a big fan of the garbage dump method of stone removal.  I don't like the fact that they're still there slowing my engine down, even if they're not in the way anymore.  Also, digging in there to de-designate something you want back is a nightmare.  I've taken a shine to the catapult method of removal.  Basically, there's a bug/feature where if you fire a stone from a catapult and it lands somewhere on a lower z-level than where it was fired from, it just disappears.  So I start the game with someone with a little Siege Engineer and usually within the first year I have a catapult setup firing rocks all day.  Side benefit of this is that I have ridiculously skillful Siege Operators whenver the base gets attacked.

The other option, if you have magma, is to designate a dump over the magma.

I personally like making huge storerooms of rocks, so it's not a problem for me.

I actually tend to use a lot of rocks in construction; my garbage dumps don't get ginormous. I've never tried the catapult method, though I did know about it. Maybe I'll try it this time. Sounds like fun.

I took a day off DF but I'll make everyone dwarves tomorrow.

Ooo, can I be a warrior or thief or spy or something like that?

Ah, this game is really cool. I just donated $50 to the author. Don't let Slayerik fool you; he's been watching over our shoulders as we rock it out in various setups. He claims he won't be playing it; I hope he will, eventually.

I have a special goblin drowning chamber, and a caged dragon; my friend a zoo with crazy undead monsters and even a crippled dwarf ... welcome to the freak show!
I make totems from the skulls of my enemies. I rob elven caravans with impunity and kill their hired human mercenaries.

There is so much to recommend this game. In fact, I'm not sure what I really DON'T like about this game, except perhaps the interface. ASCII doesn't bother me, but a nice graphics mod adds quite a bit in my opinion. And yeah, it's alpha so expect a bug or three.


http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net       .... pretty much everything you need to know, check out "My first fortress".

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Graphics    - graphic sets

Ugh... All I have are a bunch of wooden crossbow using dwarves wearing leather armour... I feel like a damn elf.

Make your crossbows out of bones. Those are way, way cooler. Last call for dwarf names for this round, I'll be starting the next episode in a few hours.

I set up DF to use the Guybrush and those suggested graphics but it seemed blurry.  Rather than work on that, I'm going to do other things that are not DF.  In the meantime, I have decided on my dwarf persona: Lushy McPissdrunk, village boozer and general layabout.

Toss my name in as a dwarf.  No rquests on the job, I'll haul your stone - you damn slave driver - if that's what needs be done.

How do you get it to use so much vertical space?  I can make the window larger, but most of it is black space.  I know I've adjusted this before, but it's been too long since I did it.

You probably need to change [GRAPHICS_BLACKS_SPACE=NO]. I tried to be as clear as I could, here (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15804.msg576002#msg576002) in terms of configuration.

Finally got everything to work as it should and, as expected, it's sucking the productivity at work right out of me.

All credit to Toady, he's really, really brought it along since last I saw it.  Much, much more fun.

Oh, that GRID is new.  I didn't want to muck with a new version as I like my custom graphics, but guess I will now.

Go ahead and put me down, please.  Guess as an Engraver.

Also a huge fan of this game, may have to restart again.

Oh man... Don't make your cave entrance right next to a volcano... Unless you like fire imps.

I am partial to settling in the middle of a human town.  I dig straight down and begin dismantling their town for my own use.  I wonder if he fixed that?

This gives me an idea,Trapped fire imps in cages surrounded with booze stockpiles,when siege comes all dwarves inside release imps into booze stockpiles,booze explodes,goblins run around burning haha.I'll have to try this not sure if you can trap imps tho.

If you build near an open pool of magma, I heartily recommend walling it off, or channeling water to seal the top level.

Found a motherlode of Kaolinite... Guess my dwarves are good to go if they get a bad batch of turtles.

Quick question :  I'm seeing a huge bunch of BIG rooms.  Did they remove cave-ins ?

Yes cave in have been gone since the z-axis was added.I believe you can still force a cave in tho if you attach a lever to a support built in the center of a room.

That's a bit of a shame.

Episode's done, just need to type it up. Poor Lantyssa; You knew what would happen if you went outside, didn't you?

The cave-in still exists, but you can turn it off if you want with the init.txt.


Just watched a gobbo ambush party of 10 slaughter the elven trading party... Thanks for all this wooden crap, hippies!


And a quick question... There were no large hills where I embarked, so I just tunneled into the ground. I built a wall around the hole, but I also want to put fortifications and a barracks and maybe even a second level. How do I build a roof to an outside structure, and how do I go about making a second floor? Up stairs on the ground floor on the dirt, up a level and down stairs, then just build a floor up there?

I don't know off the top of my head but it was in one of those demo videos from the other thread.  The narrator built an outside fortification with a roof on it for archers to stand on.

All your questions and more are answered here (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Tower). Basically, create the walls and a stair leading up to it, then create 'floors' on the level above - that's your roof. You're correct.

Episode 3: An Ambush! Curse them!

Episode Goals:
Put the new recruits to work
Continue pawning our rock instruments to anyone who wanders by
Defend the base against Ambushes

When we last left our intrepid band of slaves dwarves, some new recruits had arrived! Some brought useful skills. Others...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/11232038256.png)

A barracks was hastily carved and a kennel constructed to give our new hunter some dogs.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/31232038309.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/41232038326.png)

Now, for the rest of you purring maggots.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/51232038399.png)

You dare to show up on my doorstep - hungry, tired and with nothing to contribute? Well, we'll see about that.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/61232038443.png)

You're going to LEARN to be useful. I hope you like lower back pain, because you two are going to become real good friends. You'll work under the instruction of the two who came with USEFUL SKILLS.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/71232038467.png)

Start with the Sheriff's new bedroom. He's been complaining that rough hewn walls are just not good enough for his majesty.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/21232038812.png)

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/81232038857.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/91232038882.png)

You've done an adequate job on this room, peasants. The Sheriff agrees.

"... Can ... we ... rest ... now?"

Rest? REST?! You want to eat, don't you? Get back to work! You don't get to rest you've finished ALL the rooms.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/101232039039.png)

We've made it to Summer! It's that time of year again. More traders. I give them rock instruments and take their entire stock of leather, cloth, wood and other miscellaneous and sundry items.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/111232039357.png)

There's a poor cat who's keeping me up half the night with it's racket. I really can't tell what's the matter with it; it seems to have gotten injured. It just cries and cries...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/121232039520.png)

Suddenly Jade Falcon stops what he's doing, rushes to the mason's workshop, and comes out with this ... thing:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/131232039684.png)

Great, that's just great. What am I supposed to do with this? I had planned on using TECHNOLOGY to solve our problems. You know, a millstone?

Throw it in the storeroom.

Oh, the traders are leaving. What's that you say? You LIKE our rock insturments? You're amazed at how we can make both drums and harps out of nothing but solid rock? Yeah, I think it's pretty amazing too.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/141232039934.png)

Oh, you're done. Already?

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/151232040142.png)

Well, OK. Now what? Let's see, you've gotten pretty strong under long hours of grueling labor. I have an idea. I'll tell you want - I'm feeling merciful today. You can put down the chisels. You know the barracks up there? That's going to be your new home. You're to be our new guards! Go ahead and lift weights or spar or whatever it is you do for a while. I'll give you weapons when you're strong enough not to kill each other with them.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/161232040421.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/171232040511.png)

Finally - all quiet. Except for that damn cat. I think I hear something outside. What's that?

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/181232040702.png)

Oh, not a prob...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/191232040718.png)

(part 2 to follow)

My soul is free and that is all that matters.

Besides, that was obviously some hack camping my name.  I made sure they got what was coming to them.

Can I be an elite wrestler?

Whatcha gonna do, when it's just me and you, and the red white and blue, BROTHERRRR!?

Where's all my lil Skyamaniacs?

Reading about Dwarf Fortress seems far more interesting to me than playing it.

Shit, it's the EVE Syndrome!

I can't find any metal.

At All.

Time for a new map.

:(


Edited to add :  I've just noted that you've used my name for one of your dwarves.  And he's a fucking metalsmith.  High high high Irony.  (PUN !)

Episode 3: An Ambush! Curse them! (part 2)

I zoom and there they are - 5 goblins chasing a poor mule across the grass.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/201232058808.png)

... they caught it.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/211232058926.png).

After that, they head straight for the next living people.. which happens to be the caravan, unloading their trade goods at the depot.

Remember a few episodes ago where I told you about caravan guards? Things didn't turn out so well for the goblins.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/221232059068.png)

Only one got away safely, he fled right and off the map. Unfortunately, there was a battle wound sustained:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/231232059187.png)

She is dragged back and remains unconscious in her bedroom. It is likely she'll be bedridden for a season while the broken leg heals but will eventually make a full recovery (as it's a yellow wound). Unfortunately, I didn't see how this happened; by time I found Lantyssa, she was safely snuggled in her bed (with her dog, who also survived)


And, just like that, things abruptly return to normal. Well, as normal as things CAN be around here. Our wrestlers make progress on their bodybuilding...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/271232059976.png)

Wait, what's that next to Strazos?

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/281232060013.png)

... You know what, I don't even want to know.

Trying to burn the last image out of my head, we have another crazy!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/241232059536.png)

Schild freaks out and minutes later has decided on a change of profession:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/251232060893.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/261232060681.png)

Oh, it's a commemorative idol!


And finally, someone distinguished themselves on the wrestling mat:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/291232060442.png)

He's made the head of the guards and they will all follow him from now on, including the newest recruit, Sky. I'll get into that more next episode.

I. fucking. Rule.

What kinda of dumbass (me) chooses to be a fuckin' carpenter!

Jesus.

I wanted to be an Aristocrat; I got to be a Champion Wrestler. Guess it means I can still wear the robes and wigs but will have to spend more time getting waxed and tanned.

Why you gotta be talking trash about me and my cow? Maybe it's a bull, and I'm practicing my bull leaping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull-leaping) like the ancient Greeks, because I'm hardcore as hell.

I'd rather just read about the game than try to play it myself at this point. :grin:

Damnit... My legendary axe user just broke his leg while sparring with a recruit... Wtf.

Too bad I can't grief title you. "...is taken by a fey mood!"

Heh.  Win.

The recruit made a bad move so the legendary axe user had to pull his blow or turn him into hamburger.  Unfortunately with his skills it meant the axe pulverized his leg.  Make the recruit do a thousand push-ups.

You named your idol "Chainbleed".  Nice.

There so should be a death pool on this.

About 5 minutes after that, the swordsdwarf and 2 xbow users both broke legs as well... I moved the stairs farther away.

Clearly the dwarves have never heard of guardrails and stair landing clearances.

They need some building codes.  :awesome_for_real:

I just hope they don't do what my hunter did... Broke a foot, waited forever for it to heal them promptly drowned in the brook that is only in 1 square on my map.

Do wells need running water?

This game is very intent on pissing me off as much as possible.  It's not just that my dwarves don't do anything that I want them to do, but that other people's dwarves are busy as fucking beavers.  The lazy fucks refuse to make charcoal and I am going to just watch them die from starvation or nips from bats and lizards.  Assholes.

Try that dwarf manager link I posted earlier... It really helps.



The dwarven gods have spoken! Even they hate Trammel.
(http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/99701/oh%20snap.png)

My wee colony is going very well.  Finally found metal (and lots of it) and we even managed to pump out a couple of really nice Artifacts.

The dwart manager is very good and helps a lot.

Just had my leader go insane, needed some specific type of metal bar (probably adamantine) she had previously made an artifact (I think that barrel in fact), then her son (who was a child at the time) did the exact same thing... WTF? I thought it was supposed to be 1 artifact per person.

I also just got my well up and running, and my magma smelter/forge as well. I can finally make steel crap without 100 charcoal. I cant remember if I have sand or not, if I do, everyone is getting green glass furniture! Still working on the above-ground fortifications. My attempt today backfired... I put fortifications on the bottom floor, and goblins shot the shit out of 2 of my dwarves. I gotta remove them, put walls up instead and then finish the second floor.

Anyone have suggestions on trade caravans? Just build a separate building for the depot, and link it up underground? Can enemies bypass floodgates when they are up?

Hahahaaa nice

So can you shoot through floor grates? I'm trying to make murderholes.

Nope. Use fortifications on the same level.

Another not-often known thing about fortifications, while we're on the subject, is that you can shoot in and out if you're standing next to them. This means that if you line a corridor, you'd better put a moat between the fortifications and the hostile ground, otherwise the creatures will run right up and shoot you through your own murder holes.

Sweet first artifact :) and for a change it somewhat fits into my profession,sort of ,in a round about way.Will I be only brewing below grounds booze? or is there an above ground farm in my future? preferably one with walls,and towers,and archers.

What I'll probably do is when I get to making glass, I'll create your farms next to the others and create a glass roof above it so it can get sunlight. Much safer that way.

Depending upon the terrain, I either make a walled-in garden whose only access is from underground and inside the walls, or a find a lovely bit of canyon surrounded by cliffs and wall it off.  One time I channeled into an underground room two below the surface, then walled off the edges of the pit.  I was proud of that design because it ended up with a nice aesthetic.

Holy crap, I never thought of that.  So you can grow farms of 'outside' plants underground as long as it has a glass cealing?

Unless Toady fixed it, it doesn't even have to be glass, just channeled open and then refloored over.  If it ever saw natural light it stays forever flagged as that for some reason.

It's fall.  Charcoal is being made.  The dwarves seem OK, but then I haven't really queried their mental state lately.  I went to check on my miner with the intent of giving him something to do besides stomp lizards and sleep all day, and it seems I was just in time.  He had gotten a copper pick, before I even knew my metalsmith had made one, and was covered in blood splatter.  Can dwarves go mad from being outside too much?  Hopefully I can figure out how to get them to dig a hole before winter sets in.

If they don't go outside enough they get sun sickness and when they do venture out will start puking all over the place.

Oh man. The death and birthrate is too high at my fortress. I have 11 children, 3 babies and 13 adults. NOTHING IS GETTING DONE!

I think you'll find that something is getting done, just not birth control.

I wish there was a [FUCKING:OFF] in the init.txt.

My structural engineer and my leader are fucking all the time... well as far as I can tell but the leader seems to be asleep a lot.  When not in the leader's bed with him (she is the only on with an assigned bed but she doesn't use it), the structural engineer hangs out in adjoining rooms next to a wall.  Listening?  Scratching REDRUM in the wall?  Time will tell.  I need to give that woman a job.

Mor updatezzz plis.

Addictive, isn't it? Every time someone posts in this thread I just have to check in case there is a new chapter.

I'll try and play some tonight! I haven't forgotten, just have been busy. (Takes about 3-4 hrs for game, 1hr to transcribe)

Same here.  It's harder for me perhaps because my dwarves don't really seem to be doing anything.  Unmotivated, except when digging for some reason.  Recently acquired picks allowed me to carve out a few rooms in the yellow sand and so that's where I set up a nice huge farm plot, but no one is planting anything.  Well, one of the farmers planted one square, and quite some time later one of them planted one more square.  I try to cut them some slack since they have to frequently take breaks and hunt vermin in order to survive, but they don't seem to get the whole idea of planting crops and how it will help them not eat macaques and bats anymore.

I should probably check my stocks and see if the seeds went bad.  That might throw a(nother) wrench into the works.

I'm already thinking how much fun it will be for the next expedition to stumble over this site.

That happened to me once, but it was because I'd put in wheat grass and, on checking my stores, found all the seeds gone.

Once I changed it to plump helmets (giggle) 4 dwarves sprang into action.

It also helps to give specific dwarves specific jobs.  That way you KNOW when summats up with the silly bastards.

I dunno why it's so addictive.  I have a couple of games running myself, but I like hearing about Bhodi's wee colony.

Remove any hauling tasks by your farmers except maybe food to see if that gets them moving.  Also make sure to toggle cooking off for seeds in the kitchen menu.  (z -> kitchen)

Maybe for drinks, too.  I hate when they cook all my ale.

Episode Four: Progeny and Projects (part 1)

Episode Goals:
Start a wonder of the Dwarven world
Experience the miracle of childbirth
Develop alternate revenue sources

Things are moving along nicely; we are able to sell our goods, we make enough to live, and we can now concentrate fully on larger projects. As with most engineering marvels, it will take a long time, is fraught with peril, and requires long hours of back-breaking labor. Oh, and of course, mechanical power.

There are two ways of getting power - water and air. Moving water gives you 100 power units and is harnessed through waterwheels. Air gives you ether 20 or 40 power units and is captured by windmills, fixed at the creation of your settlement. I built a sample windmill early on, and discovered that we get 40 units in this location. Since we have a perfectly good brook, however, there's no real reason why we shouldn't use that instead.

Any water tiles connected to moving water counts; most people build them next to the stream but you don't have to. I'm not going to since it limits our expansion options. We start by digging a channel in the lower left corner of the map and building some mechanisms...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/11232503700.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/21232503776.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/31232503827.png)

Waterwheels cannot be built unless you attach them to something - In this case, I've elected to attach them to a mechanism. Build the mechanism on the bank, then you can build the waterwheel beside it, in the water. While we're at it, might as well widen the water tiles and build a second. This gives us 200 power - it should be plenty to work with, for now. If we need more, we can simply chain more waterwheels on alongside the first two. There is no such thing as torque; you can send an infinite amount of power through one mechanism.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/41232503987.png)

And, of course, we'll need to do a little de-forestation...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/51232504074.png)

While this has been going on, our pro wrestlers have been passing around the championship belt:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/61232504407.png)

And just in time, too.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/191232040718.png)

Our force is dispatched and races across the ground after the Goblins, UnSub in the lead. Rasix catches up to one:
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/71232504765.png)(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/81232504810.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/91232504824.png)

Unsub, while battling a goblin, bull rushes him into one of the ponds and holds the golbin under water until he drowns...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/101232505123.png)(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/111232505141.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/121232505164.png)

Unfortunately, being a dwarf, he's then unable to get back out of the water.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/131232505153.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/141232505307.png)

Deep within the earth, a true hero is laid to rest:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/151232505473.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/161232505499.png)

... And then life goes on, for he will surely be the first of many. Construction of tunnels as deep as dwarves can safely dig continues...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/171232505698.png)

While on the surface, a large stockpile of stone is created and the first part of the construction is laid out.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/181232505772.png)

Some underground rooms are created near the waterwheels, stacked on top of each other, one on each level.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/191232505892.png)

As there is death, there is also life:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/201232505991.png)

:ye_gods:

Um, congratulations.. Err, miss... uh.. that is, I didn't notice you were... I can't tell dwarves apart, and you seemed to be .. uhm ... anyway....

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/211232506160.png)

It's a good thing you're taking good care of your newborn!


Back on the surface... What is that?!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/221232506272.png)

Oh no. No, no no. I said it was to be ALL GRANITE! How can you mess something like this up? Tear it down. Tear it all down and try again.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/231232506419.png)

With spring, comes another aggression. The usual suspects are roused from their beds and rushed off to meet the attack...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/241232506536.png)

Wait, Yoru! What... what are you doing?!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/251232506632.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/281232506827.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/261232506944.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/271232506765.png)


(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/291232507207.png)
(part 2 to follow)

Yoru :ye_gods: :awesome_for_real:

I knew I wanted to be a do nothing aristocrat!  :grin:

Also: Yoru, you shouldn't have used the baby as a club.

Let that be a lesson.  You don't bring an infant to a macefight.

I win!  :awesome_for_real:

Looks like I'm back on my feet.  I wonder what I'm more experienced at.

Poor Yoru.  He was so surprised at popping a sprog he didn't know what to do.  UnSub, I'll be sure to ... drown ... my sorrows at your loss with a cool glass of dwarven rum.  We can use the goblin's dagger as a swizzle stick.  Then name it a Wharggaarble Blaster.

I should have been a brewer instead of a hunter.

Get the hell out of my way Ive got shafts to dig.  Damn sweaty dwarves always huggin' each other and calling it 'combat training.'  GET A DAMN ROOM!

There isn't anything to haul since no one is doing anything, but I'll turn that off anyway.  I don't have a kitchen, so they would not have cooked the seeds.  Specifically I am talking about plump helmet seeds.

I am truly impressed that no one has died so far, what with the lack of shelter until mid-fall, lack of kitchen, lack of booze... lack of anything.  I told those assholes NO ONE GETS ANYTHING UNTIL YOU MAKE SOME CHARCOAL and I meant it.

OH FOR FUCKS SAKE.

Engraving still sucks total fucking ass.

I had a lovely set of bedrooms, but I needed to engrave to improve the quality.

Fuck.  It's like a collision in an ASCII factory.

Fuck that.

Ah, Sorry, you can toggle it off.  Works really well.

I am a dumbass.

This is the best thing ever.  I enjoy reading it, so thanks for taking the time.  This is an ideal game for me, except I am painfully aware that it would be beyond my ken.  If only they would make usability, interface, and basic graphical representations a priority, then I would immediately jump in.  I look forward to the day when/if they do.  Until then, your saga is all I have!

You have to turn on Wood Burning (it's off by default).

You can also edit the ini file, there's an option to turn it off by default.

Lant: You've become a ranger (from animal dissector). Better at hunting. You're bringing in quite the stocks of meat!

Episode Four: Progeny and Projects (part 2)

Oh, the elves arrive again to trade! It's the same caravan leader. I'd know his snooty attitude and pointed ears anywhere. Well, maybe they'll sing a different tune...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/301232598178.png)

When they have to walk through fresh goblin vomit and entrails! The guards easily dispatch the hostiles, losing only a dog who was caught in the melee, and in celebration they leave the bodies right in the corridor to be run or walked over. Dwarves don't believe in cleanliness, so expect to see those bodies there come NEXT spring.

I trade the elves the last 6 bins of my rock instruments (minus the bins, of course). After demanding 5000 profit, I manage to convince the bastard to take them. In exchange, I get more wood, leather, and cloth. We'll see if they come back next year.

Right after they leave, our yearly batch of young wastrels arrive!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/311232598699.png)

And with it, of course, comes more room for nobles at the top. Before he can even get inside, one of the new dwarves starts blubbering about shiny glass and baubles and then stands in the field looking confused. Good luck there, guy.

One of these recruits looks familiar... Maybe a brother of somebody?

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/321232598846.png)

The worthless pesants are rounded up, shoved crossbows, and told to go practice until they can hit something other than themselves or their fellow dwarves.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/331232598926.png)

For some reason, they absolutely refuse to practice. I'm not sure why, as they have crossbows and bolts and targets in the barracks; I'll have to cut their rations until they listen to reason. Merusk is accidentally shoved a crossbow and herded in with the rest, but after smashing several by trying to use them as improvised picks, he is dishonorably discharged from the military.

Oh, look who's getting uppity again. With a whole 50 dwarves in the settlement, Mr. Fancybritches not only demands better rooms, but, like all good despots, makes an unreasonable mandate:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/341232599266.png)

I can only assume this is so that he can jail the undesirables with impunity, as we have no lay pewter at all.


Sure enough, that poor deranged guy outside finally snaps, hauls off and hits the nearest moving thing  - Lantyssa.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/351232599631.png)

She sustains a minor injury to her forearm and runs inside to get help. Before "help" could arrive to "subdue" the insane dwarf, yet another goblin raiding party takes care of that little problem themselves:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/361232599780.png)

Fare thee well, noble dwarf. We barely knew thee. No, really, you never even made it inside. If it's any consolation, the goblins were quickly dispatched by our now seasoned veteran wrestlers.

Things are quiet for a time. Work continues on the great construction project:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/371232599877.png)

The humans arrive to trade. We shift from our previous source of income, rock instruments, to our new source of income:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/381232600360.png)

Absolutely everything that was carried, worn, or wielded by the goblin raiders or any other hostiles unlucky enough to wander near. As you can see, we've accumulated quite a lot in a very short time. Enough to buy out almost everything they have brought with them. This will be our income for the next few years and will supplement it for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the elves require clean weapons and clothes - the humans and dwarves will take pretty much anything.

If I've missed you, speak up so you too can grow fat, lazy, and die of old age under the hedonistic rule of a benevolent and wise leader.

I'm very pleased that I'm ensconced away at my desk working on my letterforms while the rest of you have to deal with "the real world" :awesome_for_real:

May I live longer than I lived last time.

Feel free to add me as a Stonecrafter or Metalsmith guy. Or any crafting profession really.

If there is some sort of lurker profession I would be honored to become one of your easy disposable dwarven slaves.

Strangely addictive this game is when read. When played it feels like some sort of Ascii inferno on my screen.
 

I DEMAND WE FIND ADAMANTINE! (just predicting my strange mood)

That wee thing looked like a pick.  I thought it was some damned elven creation with as flimsy and weak as it was.  How was I to know what to do with it?  I hit things all day! Give me a good axe, then I'll show you some proper hitting... on some rocks!

Why do I attract all the crazies?!

Karma?  Maybe you were a crazy in another life and now you get to experience the other side.

This is hilarious. Oh dwarf fortress. :why_so_serious:

Want you to know I love and hate you all.  The damn thread has pushed me over that edge of going "How the fuck can someone understand the damn interface!" to "Holy shit this is cool!"

Wow. I'm digging this game hardcore right now...except I got to the point in the wiki tutorial where it says "Assign some crops to your farms!" And I have no idea how to do that. What is the succession of keys that I press on my keyboard to make them Plump Helmets? EDIT: Oh crap, nevermind, it's the + and - keys. YAY DWARVES!

The + and - keys navigate most menus.

Don't forget to assign crops for each season. (a,b,c,d)

Dammit, now I know what flashing water means.

Seal the doors.  Those 7 in there are dead already.

 :oh_i_see:

Did you tunnel into water?

You built a submarine?

It's great how you say that but don't tell me how.  Good thing I got Dwarf Manager for such emergencies.

Did I ever.  I think they've tweaked the pressure rules also;  it filled up this massive room faster than Honda.

Alas, 4 of the men didn't make it out.

Just an additional note, if you run into flashing red, REALLY make sure you stop  :why_so_serious:.

I was the one who mentioned DM in the first place!

Further learning :  When you make an engraved and awesome circular tomb area to house your honored dead kings, be careful;  those fuckers put cows and sheep in there.

 :uhrr:

Yeah, make sure you turn off pets.  I think there's a setting you can make in the ini that turns pet burial off by default, because my latest game where I started with a fresh ini is the only one where I had to actively do it.  I did make a pet cemetary for my game though.  I figure if I bury them where I know then there's less chance of muffy getting the good tomb.

Edit:

[COFFIN_NO_PETS_DEFAULT:YES]

That should fix it in the init.ini.  I went to look it up since I don't want it either.

Yeah, I know now.  I can't seem to disinter them tho.

Here Lies Thrain, King Under The Mountain. Bharak Khazad, Khazad Ai-Menu

Here Lies Florence.  She Was A Good Cow.

*Sigh*

Dwarves will only practice with wooden or bone bolts - they won't waste metal ammunition.

Also, the cats being injured thing is a bug, caused by cats trying to pick up things they've killed. Cats don't have hands, however, thus the injured message: http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Cat_cancels_Store_Item_in_Stockpile:_Too_injured (http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Cat_cancels_Store_Item_in_Stockpile:_Too_injured).

Put me down as anything, too. Damn, I didn't realize what they meant by "Losing is fun" until one of my dwarves died and I had to have a little burial for him. That, plus putting a butcher near the dining room got kind of stinky.

Did these two things have anything to do with one another?  :grin:

Soylent Green is Dwarves!

Hah, no, the butcher spilled blood and guts out the door before the other guy died. But I thought about butchering him. Mmm dwarfjerky!

Where the fuck is the update? I'm bored at work!!!!

Soon, Soon! I've been busy! I'll try and play some tonight.

Yaay. My dwarves were invaded by goblins, and someone's wife was killed, so the widower flew into a rage and killed someone else's husband. The widow to him started breaking furniture, then the sherrif came and beat them both up, and...madness ensued! I enjoyed the carnage for a while then restarted.

Your dwarves are more well-mannered, Bhodi.

slacker.

In the early spring of the first year of my latest game, my carpenter crafted a masterpiece. She was so excited she ran into the still-being-excavated living quarters to tell her spouse. Right after she left the carpenter's shop, a wily raccoon stole the masterpiece! She went crazy, killed her pet and beat up her spouse, and then went to the expedition leader for grief counseling. Apparently the leader did a bad job, because she went crazy again and punched him, giving him permanent brain damage and plunging him into a coma.

Three years later, the fortress had grown to the point where it could have a mayor, and the wise dwarves elected someone other than the vegetable who hadn't left his room in many years.  Now, the visiting caravan merchants don't have to hope for a rare moment of consciousness to work out trade agreements!

So yeah, pretty typical to have your dwarves freak out like that. Bhodi may be lucky, so far...

This is too awesome. I'd like to enlist!

Finished. Have to write it up. Man this game is frustrating sometimes.

My dwarves are pretty well mannered, yeah.

Episode Five: Operation Waterfail


Here's where we look after 4 episodes:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/11233674926.png)

As you can see, we've got a respectable community going here. 50 dwarves of various skills, lots of food and drink, and some decent amount of wealth.

Our mayor must have been doing something right, people liked those unreasonable mandates.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/21233675043.png)

Goblins continue to come at regular intervals and are dealt with swiftly and efficiently:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/31233675113.png)

And, sometimes, they get good hits in.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/101233676327.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/341233679689.png)

Artifacts continue to be produced:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/41233675198.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/351233679765.png)

And the dwarves continue their unsanitary tradition of dropping their food whenever they are standing when they are placed on duty.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/51233675262.png)

It's good to see the elves finally get what's coming to them, right before they make it to the trade depot:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/141233676801.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/131233676672.png)

I can't trade them blood covered ex-goblin goods anyway, so it's probably for the best.


There's a new type of goblin in town!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/151233676887.png)

Unfortunately for him, he fares no better than his mates. There's simply no way to sneak past the high traffic entrance covered with traps.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/161233676987.png)

Spring dawns, and with it our yearly dose of slave labor, which brings our number of dwarves to 61.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/171233677095.png)

They are immediately put to work, hauling all loose rock into a gigantic pile outside.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/281233678183.png)

And a new (unnamed, as of yet) noble, who thinks just as highly of himself as does the mayor. What's he do? I dunno. Bondage games, probably.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/181233677152.png)

Here's something you don't see everyday:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/291233678259.png)

Fortunately, he was able to get away without injury.


It's time to focus on the construction project: Operation waterfall.

The main elements:

A Flootgate to the river tunnel and Pressure sensitive switch (linked to the floodgate)

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/61233675547.png)

The pressure switch set to trigger the floodgate if it's under less than 5 units of water

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/71233675571.png)

The pumps to draw water up from the underground cistern:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/91233675713.png)

A room with two switches, one linked to the floodgate and one linked to the pumps. We pull the one linked to the floodgate once so that "trigger the floodgate if it's under less than 5 units of water" means trigger it OPEN to let more water in. The other switch is connected to the mechanism that feeds the pumps and is an emergency power off if something goes disastrously wrong with the waterfall and we need to turn off the flow. (or if we have to do maintenance)

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/81233675624.png)

Making sure no one EVER opens the doors to the pumps while they are in operation:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/111233676467.png)

And no project would be incomplete without stupid dwarves digging themselves into a corner and becoming stuck:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/121233676592.png).

But eventually, the task is complete. One dwarf is chosen to make the final hole into the bottom of the lake. He'll then have to outpace the water and into the cistern and up the stairs before the pressure switch slams shut the floodgate.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/191233677591.png)

It's Merusk, of course. He's the only one with a pick.

A shot one level above where the hole is to be made in the bottom of the brook:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/211233677654.png)

He slices into the wall!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/201233677628.png)

And easily outpaces the water.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/221233677760.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/231233677820.png)

The water sprays into the cistern!

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/241233677869.png)

Fills it, and starts moving down the tunnel towards the pumps...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/251233677937.png)
(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/261233678024.png)

The pressure plate works! It reaches it's pressure point and slams shut the floodgate! That worked at least; now the entire fortress won't flood.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/271233678075.png)

But there's a small problem... It's taking a LONG time for that water to creep down the tunnel. A very long time. And it's only water level 1.

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/301233679064.png)

It FINALLY is taken up by the pumps and begins to dribble to the top...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/311233679251.png)

Let's pull the lever to let more water into the system...

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/321233679237.png)

It does no good - the trigger just closes the floodgate immediately. Curse this failproof design!

What's that?! Oh, you have got to be kidding me:

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/331233679421.png)

It's taking so long that a TREE grew in our aqueduct! And now it's partially blocking the flow.


What a disaster!

Who is going to go in there and chop down that tree? :awesome_for_real:

Wow, that is just insane. And I thought I was clever the first time I drained a lake into an underground pool. As simple as the graphics are, I'm continually amazed at the physics in this game. I can't wait until someone goes into there and chops down that tree....

So how do you designate special rooms when the furniture is off-center? I'm thinking like putting all the beds in a Barracks against a wall, but it always wants to center the room around one of my beds. So then I have to move a bed into the middle of the room.

The room designation is stopped by walls and doors. Just have a door in the barracks and hit + to expand to encompass the entire room.

Aha thanx /facepalm

Clearly my dwarf was on track instead of swimming in dwarf High School.  Good thing.

Wow, this is a pain to get started. I had finally selected a starting location and picked out my skills and items from among the undocumented horde. I was basically copying your starting picks.

I can't find "serpentine" anywhere on the list for stones to buy though. I forged ahead.

When I had actually placed some buildings so that my dwarves would aimlessly wander, I tried to build additional picks.

Zulban Kelimik, Metalsmith cancels Forge Copper pick: Needs refined coal

Time to start over!  :why_so_serious:

This update started slow, but what a cliffhanger at the end.  I CAN FEEL THE TENSION BUILDING. 

2 things :

1 - Pressure plates ?  Since when ?  Arg, I must design something using them, though it's great to finally see your construction taking shape.

2 - Start over due to coal ?  Why ?  Just make some.

I don't even worry about coal.  I always make sure there is magma on my maps.

Fire Imp bone crossbows also sell for a lot, though I keep them for the prestige. :drillf:

Moving this to Radicalthon.

I'm doing somewhat better this time around. Can anyone tell me how I can get these guys to move beds into the bedrooms I've created for them? Is it done by setting a custom stockpile of beds in the place where I want it? I'm afraid that they've decided not to move the hallway beds they've already slept in. Burn you- get to hauling!

First you have to get the beds built.  You can either make them out of wood at a carpenter's shop or out of stone at a mason's.  (whoops.  I just reread the question and you have beds built, so.....)

Then you hit b) for building and b) for bed and 'build' the bed (kind of confusing since the bed is already built, but what you're really doing is installing it) in your bedroom.  Someone should move a free one there shortly.  If none of the current beds are moving, it might be because they're already designated in bedrooms or barracks, in which case they're not available.  Build more or de-designate them (through the q menu).

If you build a bed but don't turn it into a bedroom then any dwarf will sleep in it if tired and not occupied.

You can designate the area around a bed as a bedroom and a bedless dwarf will claim it.  Or you can designate it for a specific dwarf, which you'll want to do for nobles.

If a bed is built, but you want to move it, you need to removed it (q -> highlight -> x) and designate one be built in the new place once it's back in storage.

Beds can only be made from wood.

Oh, right right.  Beds and buckets.  I was confusing them with chairs.

oh holy crap, my first caravan is on the way! :ye_gods:

 Can anyone tell me how to put things into barrels?

It should happen automagically if you have empty barrels, a correctly designated storeroom, and stuff to put in them.

Keep in mind that most stuff goes into bins, not barrels.  Barrels are for food and drink mostly, IIRC.

So.. can someone confirm that if I look at civilizations in my current game and the Goblins have a big fat P next to them that they are peaceful with my fortress?  I am guessing yes since I have not had any attack.

You can hit a key on the civilization screen (tab?) to get more details.  That should tell you for sure.

My first wave of migrants! After 2 seasons of nothing, 21 members of the unwashed masses have finally come to join me at Hamlet Ingisshalis "The Bodicekiss"

Whenever I mention this game to a friend, he always replies with nothing but this picture

I don't think I even understand that comic.  But I still laughed my ass off and sent it to everyone I know.  Weird.

I would assume the cats mate and fuck Everything Up.

Creep avatar.

Yeah, nothing kills them, so if left alone, they eat the planet. (http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Catsplosion)

(http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comics/079.png)

(http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comics/081.png) (http://www.threepanelsoul.com/)

Please...

My neckbeard is much longer than that.

The other joke that that anything fits in a cage, and you can fit any number of the same creature type in a single cage.

And there's nothing cuter than a crate full of kittens!!!

I beg to differ! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTxW3GWZ5hI)

I am however quite tempted by this shirt. (http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=3PS-DORF&Category_Code=3PS-SHIRTS)

Oh damn that shirt is awesome.

bump

If Ian McConniville's art was the foundation for a graphical representation of Dwarf Fortress, it would dominate LIFE.

I wants to find more dwarf fortress comics but his search engine laughs at me. Any more links?

There are just two:

http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2008-05-12
http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2008-04-21

edit to add bonus: http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2007-10-20

It's a TF2 comic, but whatever. I <3 his art style.

I think this is why Raph should be worried about Whirled, even though Whirled has a much less sophisticated toolset. Ian's art is fricking everywhere, and it is awesome.

Those comics are my favorite on their website. The real life humor can be quaint but the writing and art they do for gaming parodies is where their talents really shine, and those two are the epitome of their talent.

Not exactly the same thing, but he did to a tileset for it. (http://www.threepanelsoul.com/temp_host/ian_16x16.bmp)

Going to play some more this weekend. I'll have the episode out shortly thereafter.

Yikes, next time I dig a well, I'm including flood gates. I miscalculated and flooded my nice well garden, so I dug the well deeper, and struck iron, so all my dwarves were ore-diving in my gigantic resevoir. "There be some nice fine metal down here AUGH glubglubglub" At that point it became too much of a struggle so I abandoned the fort to start over.

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/82533/way-insane-and-sad.JPG)

Sadly, he died later of thirst and rotted away in a graveyard until I hauled his carcass to a coffin.

Good thing Batman decided to take his job before that. 

ORLY? :grin:

If you're desperate, I can give you an episode of Dwarf Fortress: the Noobening.  :awesome_for_real:

Oh please do!

Ok, I'll have to show off my failure at engineering.  Nothing like draining an entire lake and just ending up with a muddy cistern.

 :oh_i_see: