Dwarf Fortress

[Indirik]

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

Dwarf Fortress demands that you be a little psycho, and more than a little masochistic, to play on a regular basis. So, sure. Why not turn my id loose on a fortress? Maybe it will be Fun.

[Indirik]

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

HA HA HA HAH AH@! HAAAA!HAAAAAAAA!!!!!!~~~~~~~~~~

OMG, I can't stop laughing!!!!!!

A AH AH HAH HAH!!!!!!!!!

As if anything in Dwarf Fortress could be so easy as to simply tell a dorf to "stay inside".

Oh no. In current versions Dwarf Fortress you have have to define a burrow. Define military squads. Assign dorfs to squads. Set alerts. Set rally points. Set burrows for the alerts. Turn on the Alert. Pray that you got it right. Ooops, you missed a step somewhere. One of the invading goblins steppe on a trap and got diced into tiny pieces. Now all your dorfs are running out to clean the trap and pick up the xx giant earthworm loincloth xx (i.e. useless crap) and getting slaughtered by the other 27 goblin marksmen. There goes 19 dorfs. Oh, what's that ? A tantrum spiral? Weee! Fun!

(Oh, and you have to do all that without any documentation of what any of these features actually does, singly or in combination. Or how to set them up. Or that they even exist.)

Wel, time to start a new fortress.

The absolutely ridiculously complex military system in the current versions is so frustrating, I almost quit and deleted the entire game in exasperation. If Anaris hadn't been willing to essentially walk me through it step by step, I probably would have just quit and deleted everything. As it is, I think I have managed to learn how to tell my dorfs to stay inside. But I still don't understand the military system at all. The only way I manage to stay alive in DF is to Trap The World.

[Foundation]

That sounds quite complicated.

I hope someone else sets these up before it gets to me.

[songqu88@gmail.com]

There's nothing wrong with being the drunk crazy founder who sets up shop over a haunted graveyard and allows the creatures of the wild to wander in while the dwarves all get to roam around in their drunken stupors. It shall be a decadent fortress of hedonism! 

[^ban^]

Sounds good, we can have screenshots in a thread and discussion there, and put links to the DFFD to pass on saves.

A communal dropbox folder could also work. I can make one available if anyone is interested in trying that instead of DFFD, as I've got a fair bit of space.

[Foundation]

I'd love a dropbox solution, fast and simple, for me, that is.

[Telrunya]

I don't mind either way. Whatever everyone prefers

[Indirik]

So, someone with some experience in this bloodlines style start laying down the ground rules.

[Foundation]

So, someone with some experience in this bloodlines style start laying down the ground rules.

Let us unanimously voluntell Tim to do it by our inaction and lack of initiative.

[Anaris]

So, someone with some experience in this bloodlines style start laying down the ground rules.

I thought I already did...?

[Foundation]

I thought I already did...?

I think Rob meant more specific plans like the "general goals" you were talking about.  Like, let's dig down or dig into a mountain and up or make a wall on a plain and don't cut too many trees.

[^ban^]

I think Rob meant more specific plans like the "general goals" you were talking about.  Like, let's dig down or dig into a mountain and up or make a wall on a plain and don't cut too many trees.

Long term goals defeat the purpose of a bloodline game. The whole point is the hilarity that happens as each of the players adds their own bit to the fort... and the journals everyone should be writing.

[Anaris]

Long term goals defeat the purpose of a bloodline game. The whole point is the hilarity that happens as each of the players adds their own bit to the fort... and the journals everyone should be writing.

I disagree.

There can be a lot of hilarity and changed directions anyway.  Setting some common goals and forbidding deliberate fomenting of chaos just makes sure that there's something everyone can work toward that can be seen as progress.

Just because a later overseer can't abandon the officially-mandated construction of the giant obsidian colossus doesn't mean he can't fill in the carefully-dug noble apartments with magma (with or without the nobles still in them) or collapse the half-built 27 z-level high observation tower the previous overseer began on his own initiative.

[Telrunya]

Players can always leave comments on their longterm goals, allowing other players to follow them or do something of their own instead. While we can certainly discuss plans, I prefer players to have the final decision on what to do in their year. If the plans are good, I'm sure they will be followed, depending on the Dwarf in leadership.

[Indirik]

We need things like: a specific set of general rules, order of play, how long does each "turn" take, who starts, starting fortress location, etc.

I vote that the site must have magma available in some location other than the magma sea.

Oh, and no aquifers. I hate aquifers.