Dwarf Fortress

[LK]

The hard lessons are usually the most hilarious to watch for those of us who aren't learning it. 

[Jade Falcon]

The fort I had running when the change to lava went in had a similar effect to me.I patched up and went about my business when lava poured over the ledge above my entrance and trade depot.After the initial WTF!!!!! moment it turned out the "dormant" volcano I had thought was a cozy place to occupy had over flowed and carnage was had for all.On the bright side the elvish caravan was trading at the time so it wasn't a total loss.

[Kail]

n00b question:

I'm having trouble with thirst during the winter (killed two of my mans).  My dwarves will drink from the river most of the year, but they freeze during the winter.  I can't see any underground rivers or anything, and I can't find any way to thaw the surface river water or anything (it's literally just outside the back door, so I didn't think this would be a problem).  Wells, as far as I can tell, need to be built over some source of unlimited underground water or they'll dry up, and I haven't found any underground water at all (limited or otherwise).  Is there something I'm missing, or did I pick a bad starting place or something?

[squirrel]

Ah fuck now I'm back playing DF. I stopped because my dreams became ASCII/Matrixvision DF escapades. But they released an OS X version. I *had* to try it. 14 hrs later.

It is easier though, depending on your starting point. More complex, but less frantic. I suspect that's my starting plot though...

[cironian]

n00b question:

I'm having trouble with thirst during the winter (killed two of my mans).  My dwarves will drink from the river most of the year, but they freeze during the winter.  I can't see any underground rivers or anything, and I can't find any way to thaw the surface river water or anything (it's literally just outside the back door, so I didn't think this would be a problem).  Wells, as far as I can tell, need to be built over some source of unlimited underground water or they'll dry up, and I haven't found any underground water at all (limited or otherwise).  Is there something I'm missing, or did I pick a bad starting place or something?

Booze. It doesnt freeze, makes your dwarves much happier than plain water, and if you distill plump helmets you even get the seeds back. (Possibly other seeds as well)

Also you can build a long underground tunnel leading water away from the river to a reservoir. Of course there is a slight chance that the miner breaking through the riverbed will drown. He got out fine for me, but YMMV.

[Jade Falcon]

Letting dwarves survive on water alone is cruel and indwarven punishment,the only time you might need water is if someone gets bedridden but usually they're gonna die anyway so not too bad as mentioned just get a good booze stockpile up and running of pretty much any growable product and your good.

As for the mining aqua run o doom just mine until your one tile from breaking through then pop up one z axis and channel out the square from above,then you can just build a floor over the hole or a hatch cover and you safely have your fluid redirect.Works good on magma as well and keeps the beards from getting singed.

[bhodi]

Hard lesson learned. Magma rises to the level it's originally drained from. Tapping the surface of a volcano and trying to form a magma reservoir several levels below the tap? Bad idea.

Other hard lesson learned. Dwarves do not like the burning.

Also, while magma will not rise above the level it's originally drained from - you can tunnel into the side of a caldera and it won't rise above your tunnel entrance - water WILL. Water WILL rise and fill to the level of the highest part of the attached water. That means, if you tap the underside of a brook and pretend it's a cistern, everything below the top of that brook will end up flooded if precautions aren't taken.

As for your magma plan, just tap directly into the side of the caldera at one level below your forges/smelters. If you look on the previous page, you can see the tunnel I built (and then I made channels above it in the room) - that tunnel goes directly into the side of the caldera.

[Yoru]

Yeah, that's what I eventually figured out, but not before losing a fairly substantial amount of the base to The Burning. Also, the intended "outdoor reservoir + lava moat" is still overflowing and slowly covering the entire map with lava. Oops.

I've also tapped the caldera a few more times, directing a few "pipes" of magma into a cave filled with ratmen and giants. Soon the cave will be nice and warm.

[Aez]

OK, I'm trying it right now.  Anyone can tell me what's the point of the world map?  You see history being generated when you create it but doesn't look like it have any effect. 

[Raging Turtle]

Yeah, you can pretty much ignore it at this point.

Now prepare to be confused and cursing at the graphics for a few hours.   

[Aez]

I'm using the graphic edition, it's doing a good job. My problem right now is finding a decent spot.  I followed a walkthrough up to the point I realised I had no magma.  I'm too stubborn to use a easy spot seed.  I'm up to 5 generated world right now.  All the volcano are either on an aquifer or there's no tree.

[Raging Turtle]

I'd skip trying to find magma for the first few times you play... maybe aim to live through the first winter instead 

[Jade Falcon]

Instead of just looking for a volcano if you look over the mountains and watch for obsidian in the list of main rock types that will let you know theres a good chance of a hidden lava vent or caldera on the map.I've found that gives a bit more chances for having a good wooded spot.

[bhodi]

I'm using the graphic edition, it's doing a good job. My problem right now is finding a decent spot.  I followed a walkthrough up to the point I realised I had no magma.  I'm too stubborn to use a easy spot seed.  I'm up to 5 generated world right now.  All the volcano are either on an aquifer or there's no tree.

Just use a pregenerated seed already. This was on the previous page but I am posting it again, here.
If you want to just play around and don't want to waste time looking for the perfect spot with everything you'd need, use this world size, seed and place here. I've modified the picture for even easier enjoyment.

This has sand, magma, brook, flux, iron, adamantine, trees, doesn't freeze, temperate climate, wind @ 20, plenty of wildlife, and farmable soil. This allows for easy steel making (flux stone with with magma forges/smelters), glass making, engineering marvels with wind/water/magma, lots of food, and decently hilly without overdoing it, and it's small enough (4x4) that when you get to 200 dwarves your computer doesn't slow to a crawl.
                   BUILD HERE FOR EASYMODE

[Aez]

But I want to be a special snowflake!

Anyway, I'm slowly getting trough the interface. I just learned that you have to quit trough saving and not abandon the fortress (even if you saved before)...

[bhodi]

I also highly recommend editing the ini file to enable seasonal saves. It makes the game a lot more fun since you can just reload a game if you tend to screw up. Remember to revert to an old save, copy the data from that directory into the one you were playing, as if you just select it, you won't be able to go back to it a second time.

[tar]

All the volcano are either on an aquifer or there's no tree.

It's possible to get through an aquifer if you have enough wood for pumps. Some sort of power source (windmill, watermill) will make things go smoother. I suppose I wouldn't recommend it though if you're just getting started but it does make a challenging engineering project once you've played through a few fortresses :)

[Kail]

Okay, another n00b question:

I've been building a tower over my main entrance, using my excess stone, but there are some rather unsafe looking holes in the construction, I think because I mucked up some of the build orders (some stuff is blocking some other stuff, built some floors where I shouldn't have, etc.).  Is there some way to demolish or undo these things?  "Dig" doesn't seem to work, and I can't find any other way to get rid of constructed architecture once it's already built.

Also, how can I get my millitary to not suck?  Like, quickly?  Very quickly, if at all possible?  My dwarves all run off to fight and get slaughtered; I read you can get them to spar by taking them off duty, but they kept crippling each other, and then when the goblins attacked, my squad of one-armed bleeding axedwarves were cut down by crossbow fire before they could limp their way to the enemy.  I'm running out of dwarves, and the fucking goblins keep coming... it's getting kind of worrying (on the plus side, I have a massive surplus of not really used weapons and slightly more used armor).

[bhodi]

there is a 'remove construction' option in the (d)esignate window. I believe it is c but I'd have to check. when you select it, all your built items flash C and you can just select it.

As for how to not get your military to suck, you were doing the right thing, but you probably want to select them to be 'unarmed' or, if they have weapons equipped, you definitely want them to be wearing very good armor or they will be maiming each other on a regular basis.

To get your army to not suck, you probably want to pull people who have been detailing floors or digging for a while -- this increases their strength and endurance far faster than if they are just sitting around the barracks. Once they have a good baseline, set them to sparing.

Also, you shouldn't need to go to the enemy... let the enemy come to you! Cage traps and fortifications!

[Jade Falcon]

To remove built things press (d)esignations then (n) to remove constructions.

The military thing can get tricky to manage especially if you want the more deadly equipped squads like spears,axes,swords etc.As you've seen the trouble is they hack each other to bits because the higher trained dwarves spar with the newb ones and mangle each other.

What I do is first equip all military with shields asap then have them train only in wrestleing until they get a few levels in both.Both shield skill and wrestleing will help them dodge and or block weapon attacks later.Once I'm happy with there skill level I'll start switching them over to hammer or mace dwarves not as powerful as the edged weapons but they rarely do permanent damage to the other dwarves.This won't guarentee no friendly injuries you'll still get the odd crushed throat but for the most part they stay pretty healthy and a legendary hammer dwarf can do a lot of damage to goblin hordes.The main force I use for military is marksdwarves I tend to run about a 70/30 60/40 ratio depending what wildlife I have on the map.These also get the wrestle/shield training as they tend to run after things and smash them with there crossbow when they run out of ammo.Also get them into metal armour asap as that reduces sparring damage also.

Not really a fast solution but it does the job if you start early enough.

Edit:Just re read they're getting mowed down by crossbow goblins,even healthy they will get mowed down by bow wielding goblins.Archery is very over powered at the moment if you see bow wielding enemies don't try to engage them Go to (o)rders and order all dwarves stay indoors and let them run across your traps outside the entrance a few sets of serrated wheel traps will make mince meat of em and shower the entrance with goblin bits quite effectively >:).

[Yoru]

If you're industrious and have a magma source (and bauxite or adamantine), you could set up a magma reservoir system that can controllably flood the areas outside your base with deadly burning. Water also works in a pinch, for most enemies.

[Lantyssa]

Equip hunters with crossbows and assign some hunting dogs to them.  They make a good force against enemies early in the game when they're not out looking for dinner.

[Raging Turtle]

Nerf cage traps!

I had a nice fortress of 100 or so happy dwarves, chugging along in an area accesible only to goblins and dwarves.  I started getting regular goblin ambushes in my second year (the first ambush was crossbows, but thankfully they wasted most of their bolts on the dwarven caravans... so much for trading that year).  After a few more years I'm getting multiple ambushes every single season - thankfully my military of markdwarves and speardwarves is fairly well trained and mostly equipped with iron weapons and platemail (built from the melted 'narrow' goblin gear), so I typically only lose the odd fishing dwarf that I don't really care about. 

...then a Bronze Colossus shows up. 

I figure, what the hell, my military is fairly mighty, why not give it a go?  So I order my 30-odd dwarves out to meet the Colossus on the way to my fort.  All my speardwarves and markdwarves charge out (barring the small number who are sleeping) along with a few of the non-lazy guards (macedwarves, most with spinal injuries or brain injuries... my crippled military guys usually become guards unless I want some arena fodder) and before long the battle is on. 

It's not pretty.  The Colossus has both his eyes taken out early on, but that doesn't even slow him down.  Dwarves are getting tossed a third of the way across the screen, splattering into trees or each other. The marksdwarves run out of bolts in short order (probably should have kept an ammo depo near the surface) and charge to uselessly whack the Colossus with their crossbows before being swatted.  The speardwarves... well, they mean well, but spears are PIERCING weapons, meant to take out internal organs, and while this works fantastic against goblins and other living things, Colossi don't have any internal organs.  Problematic. 

The Cripple Brigade (fortress guards), even though they're relatively small in number, do ok with their maces, but they only get lucky hits every so often, and the Colossus heals too fast and none of the hits are mangling or breaking limbs.  Eventually they get chased down and crushed just like everyone else.

The battle rages on long enough that all the military dwarves who were sleeping were able to run out and have their turn, but since they're trying to take on the (by now fully named and titled) colossus in ones and twos, they don't really have a chance. 

My military has been wiped out, and the colossus is making is way through the doors of my surface enclosure.  He walks through my first row of serrated-blade weapon traps without a scratch.  Bah.  I'm mentally preparing to activate every last dwarf in my fortress into a wreslter and send them all at him.  The he hits my second row of traps... and bam.  A birch(!) cage trap, designed to catch Goblin snatchers for my arena (which really deserves it's own post) catches the colossus as soon as he steps on it. 

Laaaaame.  I wanted to see my fortress go down in flames, either by the hand of the colossus or through the tantrums thrown by the survivors. (Amazingly, three members of my military did survive, a single marksdwarf, a speardwarf, and a guard that, as far I can tell never even went outside to fight.  The first two were lucky enough to get dragged inside while the Colossus was chasing a guard on the other side of the screen.  None of them seemed too upset with the fact that every single friend they had just got killed.  Oh well.)

So yeah.  Nerf cage traps.   

[Lantyssa]

If you really want to see the havoc it can cause, you can always release it...

[Jade Falcon]

Make an airlock system for the arena and feed the colossus goblins you catch :)

[bhodi]

Be careful about the airlock idea. The only "safe" way to do something like that is to drop them in from above. A colossus will break down doors.

[Murgos]

Necro:

Check out this tileset: http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/~mayday/files/dwarf_show.png

[sidereal]

Love the isometric

[schild]

I'll play it if that ever comes out and works.

[Teleku]

Sadly, as far as I can tell, that was just a graphical mock up to show what it could possibly look like with graphics, and there isn't any actual work underway to make that picture a reality.

I'm also sad to see the last update released for DF was last september :(

[Rasix]

Necro:

Check out this tileset: http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/~mayday/files/dwarf_show.png

Catsplosion would destroy my computer running that.

[Ard]

I'm also sad to see the last update released for DF was last september :(

If it makes you feel any better, the game isn't dead.  He's been solidly working on it since last fall.  Check his dev logs if you're really curious.  I checked on it a few weeks ago, and the next version was originally supposed to launch this month, but got pushed back for some reason or another.  The next version is a pretty large overhaul of the backend and military, far as I remember.

[Teleku]

Ah, good to hear.  As long as he's still working on it, I actually don't mind the long breaks.  I actually prefer it, because usually the next release after a huge break is a game completely different from what came out before (see the update where he just suddenly made the world 3D  ).

[Yegolev]

Totally irrelevant unless there is an overhaul of the interface.  I don't mean the graphics.

[Aez]

The game is almost complete, just missing a decent interface.  I wonder why no publisher picked it up.  All the game need is 6 moth a decent team and it would turn into a blockbuster.