Author Topic: Dwarf Fortress  (Read 41354 times)

Telrunya

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #15: March 13, 2011, 10:32:00 PM »
Certainly will join in, albeit I don't consider myself experienced in the game. As long as nobody intentionally screws anything up, it should be a lot of fun, as Dwarf Fortress provides so many ways to screw up unintentionally ;)

My current Fortress is going well, too well... The Goblins are at Peace with me and the wildlife is less then dangerous. The worst I had in my current Fortress is a monkey stealing some cloth from Merchants....My fault for picking Untamed Wilds I guess. Where are those Goblins? I want to check my Magma System already!

Anyway, due those experiences, I support embarking on an evil location for some good fun :) Let's not make it easy. Before we got everything set up with players, rules (If we wish to set any groundrules) etc. the next version will hopefully be released ;)
« Last Edit: March 13, 2011, 10:34:10 PM by Telrunya »

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #16: March 13, 2011, 11:41:03 PM »
So the consensus is wait till next release of DF, then we kick it off?

Will we be passing on our savefiles via email or directly on this forum? If I were to be in on this, I would prefer email attachments, but that I guess is also up to everyone else.

Anaris

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #17: March 14, 2011, 12:04:03 AM »
I would recommend DFFD: http://dffd.wimbli.com/

It's the more-or-less official Dwarf Fortress File Depot, and tends to be used for such things.

Passing files by email could be problematic, as DF saved games can grow to 100MB+.
Timothy Collett

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire...is your heart." "You are what you do.  Choose again, and change." "One of these days, someone's gonna plug you, and you're going to die saying, 'What did I say? What did I say?'"  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #18: March 14, 2011, 12:29:20 AM »
Ah, thanks. That would be difficult, huh. I've never shared my DF gaming before, so I had no clue about that site.  :o

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #19: March 14, 2011, 12:53:13 AM »
Sounds good, we can have screenshots in a thread and discussion there, and put links to the DFFD to pass on saves. :)
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Telrunya

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #20: March 14, 2011, 01:56:07 AM »
Alright, so to keep track of things, we have signing up for now (In no particular order, order to play to be figured out later):

Anaris
Artemesia
Foundation
Telrunya
Indirik

Still time to join in ;D
« Last Edit: March 14, 2011, 01:30:45 PM by Telrunya »

Indirik

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #21: March 14, 2011, 02:17:15 AM »
Id give it a shot.
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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #22: March 14, 2011, 02:21:48 AM »
Is there a preference for civilization managers who are competent and/or intend to keep it running safely and well? I ask this because I will probably fulfill neither of the two aforementioned.

Foundation

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #23: March 14, 2011, 02:29:09 AM »
Id give it a shot.

Id is a very demanding part of your psyche, expecting instant gratification.  Are you sure you want it running the fortress, Rob? ;)
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Telrunya

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #24: March 14, 2011, 01:46:20 PM »
Is there a preference for civilization managers who are competent and/or intend to keep it running safely and well? I ask this because I will probably fulfill neither of the two aforementioned.

My personal opinion:
As long as the Fortress remains playable for the rest of the group. :P Mistakes happen for sure, and I consider myself only a beginner as well (And I'll surely make lots of mistakes), but personally I think a lot of Fun in Dwarf Fortress lies in incompetently combatting what the game throws at you and praying you survive. Though I did read some games set some rules to make things more challenging (No Dwarven Atom Smasher, no huge hallways with traps etc.).

Anyway I say competence isn't important (So don't let that stop anyone), as long as you know how a Dwarf looks like in the game. And for keeping it running safely: Just try to keep the Fortress alive for the rest of us. Go wild beyond that. All I ask is that you take proper screenshots and write it all down for everyone to enjoy ;)
« Last Edit: March 14, 2011, 01:49:46 PM by Telrunya »

Anaris

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #25: March 14, 2011, 02:30:19 PM »
By the sounds of things, it's going to be around another week before .22 comes out—which, given the number of bugs Toady One has fixed already, is actually quite encouraging!

I would say that if you want to take a turn on this fort, and you have no experience, you should play through at least the first few steps of this tutorial: http://afteractionreporter.com/dwarf-fortress-tutorials/

Make sure to download the copy of the game that's actually included in there.  That's an old version of the game, but it has the same basic principles.  It's how I learned to play, and I've got a fort that's successfully repelled sieges and invasions without resorting to simply trapping the entire overworld (which, in my view, is a valid way to do it, but takes too damn long!).  Anyone who wants to play that, I'll be happy to help run through some of the differences between version 0.28.181.40d and 0.31.22 once you feel you have the gist of things.

I think the only real rules for this should be that everyone must play in good faith.  You can play a dwarven overseer who's a bit eccentric or quirky, but you cannot deliberately sabotage progress on the fort. 

I would suggest that, once we have decided on a suitable embark site, we take a look at it using the dfreveal utility and plan out the general structure of the fort collectively, among at least the initial players.  This will help avoid a problem I've seen with some succession games I've read through, where things go randomly off in all directions because no two consecutive managers share any common goals.

While this can increase !!Fun!!, in my view, it is more fun in a traditional sense for most people—including those simply spectating—if the fort makes real progress toward at least a few specific goals.

Finally, for anyone who doesn't really know how a succession game works, I would propose as required reading the tragic saga of Boatmurdered: http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/Introduction/
Timothy Collett

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire...is your heart." "You are what you do.  Choose again, and change." "One of these days, someone's gonna plug you, and you're going to die saying, 'What did I say? What did I say?'"  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #26: March 14, 2011, 02:32:45 PM »
Anyone who wants to play that, I'll be happy to help run through some of the differences between version 0.28.181.40d and 0.31.22 once you feel you have the gist of things.

I played the old version, what's different? :)  I know a LOT is different, just never got a chance to try them all out yet. :(

Apparently you can actually... order your dwarves inside and they'd stay inside now, eh?
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Telrunya

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #27: March 14, 2011, 03:14:32 PM »
Yes, you can designate burrow zones where civilian Dwarves will stay when you put it on active (Or something in that sense). I haven't tried that out yet though, as while my Military is training nicely, it's too peaceful and I haven't come under any attack yet :(

Read up on it here: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Burrow

Apparently there's more uses to it then just to tell your civilians where to go. The magmawiki is a great place anyway, and I've basically looked up all my information as I go along there.
« Last Edit: March 14, 2011, 03:17:44 PM by Telrunya »

Anaris

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #28: March 14, 2011, 03:32:20 PM »
For a brief overview of the changes I can think of offhand:

- The military works very differently now. It is more complex, and a bit hard to get a handle on, but now that I understand how it works, I think I'm getting it to do well for me.
- There are, as Telrunya says, burrows you can designate to force dwarves to stick to certain areas (though they can travel between them). I use this to keep my smelters and the haulers dedicated to them on task.
- In .40d, you could order your dwarves to just go inside.  Now, you can't: you must designate a burrow that your civilians will remain within, and activate an alert that sets them there.  Mine includes everything inside my outer wall.
- There are now hospitals, which, with the fixes in .22, should be pretty much completely functional at last.  Any dwarf who gets injured will try to go to the hospital, and dwarves with the various (new) medical labours enabled will (eventually) diagnose and treat them.
- In the latest feature version, .20, Toady added a bunch of new creatures and labours, including bees, and the beekeeping industry to support them, and clay and a pottery and ceramics industry to support it. He also made (some of) your animals require grazing land, and gave you the ability to pasture them. The latest version I've played is .18, so I can't comment on the practical effects of these changes yet.
- Bauxite is no longer the only magma-safe stone; a whole host of different stone types are now magma-safe, thanks to some research and setting the actual melting points of most stones in the game to their RL equivalents.

Some new bugs in the 0.31.x line that, so far as I know, remain, and seem unlikely to be fixed in time for .22:
- Trader caravans don't bring wagons; everything is loaded onto horses and donkeys.  This doesn't change what they bring, it just means that it takes them absolutely bloody forever to load back up before they leave, and means you don't have to build 3-tile-wide access to your depot (though it's still a good idea, in case Toady fixes wagons!).
- Nobles appointed by the Baron or Mayor are broken. This means no Dungeon Master.  I'm unclear as to what the status is of nobles that belong with the King; stay tuned, though, because I've got a game running that's ready to become the Capital, and should get the King within another year...

And yes, the DF Wiki is an absolutely necessary resource.
Timothy Collett

"The only thing you can't trade for your heart's desire...is your heart." "You are what you do.  Choose again, and change." "One of these days, someone's gonna plug you, and you're going to die saying, 'What did I say? What did I say?'"  ~ Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

Telrunya

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Re: Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #29: March 14, 2011, 03:52:49 PM »
Quote
- There are now hospitals, which, with the fixes in .22, should be pretty much completely functional at last.  Any dwarf who gets injured will try to go to the hospital, and dwarves with the various (new) medical labours enabled will (eventually) diagnose and treat them.

Keep in mind the Chief Medical Dwarf (Appointed Noble) is the only that will Diagnose. If he's busy with other stuff, Dwarves might not get treated, so keep a good eye on that. I had one injured Dwarf (which may have been my fault *whistles*) and all that seemed to work well, albeit you really shouldn't use Dwarves without skills there or all the wounds will get infected and the Dwarf dies.

Quote
- Nobles appointed by the Baron or Mayor are broken. This means no Dungeon Master.  I'm unclear as to what the status is of nobles that belong with the King; stay tuned, though, because I've got a game running that's ready to become the Capital, and should get the King within another year...

There's another bug here in the more recent versions. Your Fortress will only receive an offer to become a Barony (and all the other following upgrades) if your Leader conducts a meeting with your Mayor after the Dwarven Caravan has left the map. You need to keep your Leader occupied till then so he doesn't Conduct Meeting (I generally just tell him to stay at the Trade Depot). If Toady doesn't fix that in .22, we'll have to keep this in mind.