As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

Dwarf Fortress: Be sure to "neuter" your cats at the butcher's shop

BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
edited December 2009 in Games and Technology
079.png
Welcome to Dwarf Fortress!!

(Histories of Flammability and Alcoholism)

Get it here: http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
There is a video tutorial is located here: Video Tutorial
An old-fashioned text tutorial is available here: Your First Fortress (I wrote that! Originally. It's been thoroughly edited and made awesomer since then.)
Then there's also this text-based tutorial with pictures: a very helpful Illustrated Fortress Mode Tutorial
Other useful links:
- The ever helpful Dwarf Fortress wiki
- And the Dwarf Fortress Map Archive

The First G&T DF thread - forever lost to the chaos of the intertubes
The Second G&T DF thread
The Third G&T DF thread
The Fourth G&T DF thread
The Fifth G&T DF thread
The Sixth G&T DF thread
The Seventh G&T DF thread
The Eighth G&T DF thread
The Ninth G&T DF thread
The Tenth G&T DF thread

And the SA DF thread, the Goons have plenty of DF chatter too. (But you have to be a member to see it I guess?)
And of course THE EPIC SAGA OF BOATMURDERED which is a must-read.

Welcome to the mountainhomes of the dwarves! Starting out with a hardy band of seven pioneers, you will be beset on all sides by the threat of starvation, exposure, rampant idiocy, inexperience, tantrums, monkey attacks, hostile goblins, kleptomaniacal kobolds, accidental drownings, those goddamn hippy elves, being set on fire, upper class nobles that will make lives hell for your peasantry, and the mortal enemies of the dwarves: [strike]elephants[/strike] carp.

So what's Dwarf Fortress?
It's a rather bizarre [strike]little[/strike] huge roguelike/ fantasy world generator / colony management sim hybrid. With lots of dead dwarves guaranteed.
You start out with a tiny band of 7 dwarves, a wagon, mules and a pair of cats that multiply without any restraint and flood your fortress with kittens.
With a little luck (and if those goddamn monkeys don't steal all your food off the wagon again), your fortress will make it past the first winter. Or more likely it will collapse and you'll start up a new fortress, avoiding the mistakes of the first.

...before it all ends in a tide of blood and dwarf parts!
And then you start AGAIN!

So what does it look like?

DFascii.jpg


AAAAA LETTERS EVERYWHERE OH GOD HOW DO I DO STUFF?!

A few keys will come up a lot. Pressing these keys will bring up a yellow X cursor which you control using the arrow keys. PROTIP: use the keypad to move the cursor around- it's more comfortable.

Q - Assigns orders at workshops and structures, or used to create rooms from a placed structure, like tables, beds, archery targets, etc, or to destroy them.
T - Mainly useful for examining the contents of a building or structure, to see how cluttered a workshop is or what it's built out of.
V - Examines an individual dwarf, where you can look at their stats, gear, thoughts and alter their job list.
K - If you'd like to see if that U is an attacking Unicorn or a friendly hUman trader, this is the key you want. It basically lets you examine the contents of a tile. Pressing enter examines objects in greater detail, if any is available.
D - Designates an area for tasks. Hit enter to start dragging out a rectangle, enter to stop. Or hold down the mouse button and draw it in. Everything in this area will now be designated for whatever task you had selected, from Digging out rock, cutting down trees, or picking plants, or whatever else it might have been. Use this to dig out your dwarf-hole.
Z - Brings up your fortress report and tells you how depressingly low you are on food.
U - displays a list of all units on the map, along with current job. Useful for finding idlers and wild animals
< and > - Change the levevel displayed by one (up and down, respectively). Since you'll be using these a lot, it might be wise to remap the keys (I use / and * on the keypad). To do this, press ESC and use the "Key Bindings" option ("move/view cursor up (Z)" and "down (Z)" )

I built a bridge, but it looked ugly so I demolished it. The new one never gets built because of pathing errors!
Common mistake. Never cut off the fortress. The dwarf builders are trying to get to material/worksites on the other side of the river/chasm, but cant because there's no bridge anymore. Avoid this by always having spare bridges. If this has already happened, press K and go to the tiles where the inaccessible materials are, then Forbid the materials so the dwarves don't try to use them and build a new bridge.

They've sent a diplomat from the mountainhomes and he's killing all my dorfs! What kind of a diplomat is he?!
Aye, the outpost liaison who comes with the dwarven caravan is a delicate fellow. When he arrives, ensure that your outpost leader (use the N key to find him) has all jobs turned off, so that he has the time to meet the diplomat. Otherwise the poor guy will feel unaccepted and get miserable/insane/berserk. It takes a fairly long time for him to lose it though.

How do I change the game resolution/settings/colours/etc?
In the data/init directory is init.txt, a well documented file which contains all sorts of DF settings.
Wishpig wrote: »
Also, heres a real usefull tool, it's a window size calculator, type in the resolution you want *window or full screen* and it gives you all the info you need at the bottom. Keep in mind there are two WINDOWEDX's and WINDOWEDY's you have to edit.

http://pkf.olivepeak.com/dwarfcalc.html

I'd play this if only it had graphics
There's replacement tile and object graphics you can use along with install instructions on these pages:
http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Tilesets
http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/List_of_user_character_sets
http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/List_of_user_graphics_sets

Then there's also this: http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.htm
It makes the game look like this:
DFG13.png

This game is running slooooooooow! I thought ASCII graphics don't need a fast PC?
Make sure your starting area is suitably small for your PC. If you're already in the middle of a game, it may also help to turn off weather and/or temperature in the data\init\init.txt file. There is also a possibility you have set an FPS_CAP in the very same file. It is also worth mentioning that if you have too many tasks going at once, it will slow your performance down dramatically.

What happens if I do this?
Just try it first! It's no fun if we tell you that you would have doomed all your dwarves to a horrible agonizing death beforehand. No fun at all!
Besides, it just means you get to do it better next time.

How do I back up my save game?
A good idea, since the game is only in alpha, and does crash (rarely), but if it does, it can corrupt your entire world.
Make a copy of the data/save directory and keep it somewhere safe. To restore, delete your entire data/save directory and replace it with your copy. NOT DELETING IT FIRST WILL CAUSE ERRORS. For the backing up of save games, you can also go into the init.txt file (\data\init\init.txt) and set
[AUTOSAVE:NONE] to
[AUTOSAVE:SEASONAL]
and
[AUTOBACKUP:NO] to
[AUTOBACKUP:YES]
You can make the autosave yearly as well, and making autobackup set to yes will make each autosave a new save instead of overwriting your current one.

Also chronicled here is the stunning tale of a group of dwarves that chose the impossible, they chose Oceanside...


Now get out there and establish a new outpost for the glory of the Mountainhomes!
STRIKE THE EARTH!


Important Note: Dwarf currency is to be called [strike]dimdums[/strike] dwarfbucks, no exceptions.
(This introduction was edited by SynthOr, Bahamut0, J3p, Xtarath, and Mayday.)

BahamutZERO.gif
BahamutZERO on
«13456761

Posts

  • GPIA7RGPIA7R Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I wish I had time to get back into this =/

    Been any huge significant changes lately? Any new arcs introduced?

    GPIA7R on
  • MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    What's this?


    I DEMAND THE STRIKEOUT AT THE END OF THE OP BE REMOVED.

    DIMDUMS FOR LIFE.

    MechMantis on
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    What're those? Are you trying to say dwarfbucks? :P
    GPIA7R wrote: »
    I wish I had time to get back into this =/

    Been any huge significant changes lately? Any new arcs introduced?
    Not since the addition of history generation and stuff. He's working on the army arc right now, no idea when another release will be ready.

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
  • seabassseabass Doctor MassachusettsRegistered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I'm getting ready to start up a new fort tonight before my theory course, just to kill a couple of hours.

    I'm looking into setting up a bloodlines game to try and rekindle the love for dwarfs that we used to share back in the 2d era. Can anyone recommend a handy solution to hosting the save games / world files?

    Also, I hear tell of a fabled linux port. The game runs well enough under wine, but if anyone has any specifics, I'd love to know.

    seabass on
    Run you pigeons, it's Robert Frost!
  • AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Gentlemen, gentlemen, there's only one way to settle this:

    Randomly generated currency names!

    you know Toady will implement it eventually.



    Is it wrong that I want him to implement Dwarven excrement? I want to set up little dwarf latrines over a bottomless pit. Or magma. Nothing like the smell of burning dwarfcrap in the morning.

    Aioua on
    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
  • hmxmosshmxmoss Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    seabass wrote: »
    Also, I hear tell of a fabled linux port. The game runs well enough under wine, but if anyone has any specifics, I'd love to know.


    Check this thread: http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=28841.0

    Download the linux version.

    Kill some dwarfs.

    THE END.

    hmxmoss on
    burning.jpg
  • hmxmosshmxmoss Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Had a child go into a fey mood, grabbed one each of wood, stone, jewel and metal bar. No idea what she was going to make; in the end, she became a legendary woodcrafter. Here is what she made:


    An alder crown, studded with iron, decorated with alder, adorned with hanging rings of alunite, and menaces with spikes of yellow spessartine. Worth $39,600... not a whole lot, but the most valuable artifact so far for this fortress (and the only fey mood).

    The description itself isn't so spectacular... it's what she named it that gets me: Ishlumziksis Laltur Duthnur, Nutsplit the Cover of Guards.

    Sounds like an athletic cup.

    hmxmoss on
    burning.jpg
  • XtarathXtarath Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    MechMantis wrote: »
    What's this?


    I DEMAND THE STRIKEOUT AT THE END OF THE OP BE REMOVED.

    DIMDUMS FOR LIFE.

    WE WANT DIMDUMS! WE WANT DIMDUMS!

    Xtarath on
  • JerickJerick Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Dimdums sounds so much better then dwarfbucks.

    Jerick on
  • Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Yeah, Dimdums 4 lyfe yo.

    Where did dimdums come from, anyway?

    Rhesus Positive on
    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
  • EndlessInfinityEndlessInfinity Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I... hate you all so much. Now I have to go start up a new fort. This is terrible. Lets see how many worlds I have to create in order to get a location with both a flux and lava...

    Sweet, got a good spot on the first try... and we're at war with the elves! I'll teach those pointy-eared pansies why the goblins shake with fear when they hear the name "Lancedpatterns"

    Any objections if I keep a little diary on here, for the shits and/or giggles of all?

    ..."Nutsplit"? That's terrifying... at least it wasn't a mace...

    EndlessInfinity on
    MH3 ID : Gernot 92TE9P
    SC2: Zwillinge
  • VistiVisti Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Holy shit, the linux version runs on my laptop at only 50% cpu usage! This is going to murder my exam time.

    Visti on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • wavecutterwavecutter Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I like dwarfbucks, and plump helmets. Teehee!

    wavecutter on
  • EndlessInfinityEndlessInfinity Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    So, still working through mid-spring. I think I'll post little updates every few seasons (or if something cool happens)
    lancedpatterns.jpg
    Here's the starting location. Look at all those trees! Man, thank goodness the elves already hate me, because they're certainly going to later after I clear-cut the entire map. You can't see it, but I started my fort in an area on a z-level lower to the bottom right.
    lancedpatterns1.jpg
    The mining plan for the first z-level. I'm on sand, so those rooms are going to be storage rooms, which will go down for as long as I have dirt layers (ie. wood will be within the same 7x7 square on multiple z-levels). I'll end up building the appropriate workshops when I hit a stone layer.

    I like the bend on the entrance passage - I'm going to stick a catapult and ballista in that 7x3 room just by that bend, so they can annihilate anything coming through. The large rooms at the bottom are going to be military rooms, with the southernmost room having stairs that will connect to a tower I'm going to build above ground. I don't know where the magma is - hopefully it's somewhere nearby, since I need to start getting funds for food. If I can't find it, I'll start farming and cooking things. Still pondering what the bedrooms are going to be like - I'm thinking of doing something using fractals, but I'll worry about that after I get to a stone layer.

    Any thoughts? I know I'm going to have to knock out sand walls to build fortifications, but that's going to be something to worry about much later.

    Oh, and I'm partial to dwarfbucks, purely because I haven't heard of dimdum's until I started lurking here ;)

    EndlessInfinity on
    MH3 ID : Gernot 92TE9P
    SC2: Zwillinge
  • xzzyxzzy Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Yeah, Dimdums 4 lyfe yo.

    Where did dimdums come from, anyway?

    3 or 4 threads back, I like to think jdarksun coined the term but I could be remembering wrong. I tried searching for it, but it looks like it got expired off the forum.

    Term was made because no one knew what to call the units the game uses to assign value. Stuck around these parts, but I've never seen it used anywhere else.

    xzzy on
  • BrianBrian Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    WHAT DO WE WANT? DIMDUMS!
    WHEN DO WE WANT THEM? DIMDUMS!

    Brian on
  • EndlessInfinityEndlessInfinity Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    xzzy wrote: »
    3 or 4 threads back, I like to think jdarksun coined the term but I could be remembering wrong.

    It's embarrassing... but I totally laughed at the unintentional pun... I think I need help...

    EndlessInfinity on
    MH3 ID : Gernot 92TE9P
    SC2: Zwillinge
  • XtarathXtarath Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I think we need to have a pole, I don't want this to turn out ugly, with one DF thread for Dimdummers and another for Dwarfbuckaroons.

    I vote for Dimdums!

    Xtarath on
  • TheKoolEagleTheKoolEagle Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    dimdums are pretty awesome

    TheKoolEagle on
    uNMAGLm.png Mon-Fri 8:30 PM CST - 11:30 PM CST
  • CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Xtarath wrote: »
    I think we need to have a pole, I don't want this to turn out ugly, with one DF thread for Dimdummers and another for Dwarfbuckaroons.

    I vote for Dimdums!
    You mean poll.

    Couscous on
  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Aioua wrote: »
    Is it wrong that I want him to implement Dwarven excrement? I want to set up little dwarf latrines over a bottomless pit. Or magma. Nothing like the smell of burning dwarfcrap in the morning.

    Or over a prisoner's cell. :winky:

    Also, the comic in the OP is the cutest thing ever.

    Darmak on
    JtgVX0H.png
  • hmxmosshmxmoss Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Brian wrote: »
    WHAT DO WE WANT? DIMDUMS!
    WHEN DO WE WANT THEM? DIMDUMS!

    It says here that this part of Dwarf Fortress was a plea to Armok for a favor, usually a Trans-Am.

    hmxmoss on
    burning.jpg
  • hmxmosshmxmoss Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Sorry, I vote for dwarfbucks. I just can't say dimdums and not feel like I've lost a few IQ points.

    hmxmoss on
    burning.jpg
  • leafleaf Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Man, who doesn't have sa access, honestly

    And a small image from the epic saga of boatmurdered:
    757163647_0ea984dfbc.jpg

    leaf on
    newsig-notweed.jpg
  • ZombiemamboZombiemambo Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I think about getting back into DF, but relearning all that stuff...the learning curve is a C. That's right, it goes backwards.

    Zombiemambo on
    JKKaAGp.png
  • MifioMifio MrrlendRegistered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Just gotta say, after about a year at my fort. I got a nice little production going. A couple military folks, tons and tons of crafts. And lots of gold ore :)

    Mifio on
    steam_sig.png
  • BrianBrian Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Dwarfbucks just doesn't have any pizazz to it you know? Similar to my haircut.
    It just doesn't owe itself to the culture of DF. It doesn't fit.

    Brian on
  • WitchsightWitchsight Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Man. I need some help with imagination.
    I built this super cool trap door room, with a retractable bridge that drops down to the bottom Z level onto a bed of spikes... because it seemed like a good investment.

    And ive got all these captured Goblins in cages and i figured i could murder them all with it, but you cant put a cage on a bridge. There must be something i can do with them, involving it. Right?.... Right??

    Also, im in year 12 and cant understand why im not dead. Definatly my most hearty fort... funny considering its my first attempt since the whole Z axis thing.

    Witchsight on
    Witchsight.png
  • hmxmosshmxmoss Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    If I'm building a long span, are there reasons to choose building multiple bridges vs. constructing floors?

    hmxmoss on
    burning.jpg
  • hmxmosshmxmoss Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Goblins are stupid.

    I get the message, "Curse them! An ambush!" I worry because while I have a bit of a military, everything of mine is still out in the open. Fortunately for me, though, is that the gobs decided to appear inside the nearby (friendly) kobolds' caves. So the half dozen goblins started picking fights with the kobolds, killing a couple until they found the spearmaster. Though injured, he taught them a severe lesson.

    Then I start getting messages about my workers being interrupted by gobs, and I switch the view over to my fortress to see what sort of trouble has come upon me. Can't find gobs anywhere... So I find the troubled dwarf in the unit list and jump to him... running about in the kobold caves. WTF? THAT SHINY SH*T IS NOT FOR YOU!!!

    Dwarfs are stupid.

    hmxmoss on
    burning.jpg
  • ArkanArkan Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Floors will take more stone but you can build on top of them and wall in the bridge. Bridges take less stone and are easier to build and can be retracted with levers.

    Arkan on
    Big, honkin' pile of WoW characters
    I think it's hard for someone not to rage at mario kart, while shouting "Fuck you Donkey Kong. Whose dick did you suck to get all those red shells?"
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    I don't know where the magma is - hopefully it's somewhere nearby, since I need to start getting funds for food. If I can't find it, I'll start farming and cooking things. Still pondering what the bedrooms are going to be like - I'm thinking of doing something using fractals, but I'll worry about that after I get to a stone layer.

    Any thoughts? I know I'm going to have to knock out sand walls to build fortifications, but that's going to be something to worry about much later.

    Oh, and I'm partial to dwarfbucks, purely because I haven't heard of dimdum's until I started lurking here ;)
    I would recommend starting farming BEFORE you start starving. Unless you're some sort of lucky freak you won't find the magma fast.

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
  • JintorJintor Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    STRIKE THE EARTH

    Jintor on
  • hmxmosshmxmoss Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Jintor wrote: »
    STRIKE THE EARTH

    Damn fire imp set the lawn on fire again.

    BURN THE EARTH


    EDIT: One of my best craftsdwarfs died at the hands of the imp, which is what started the blaze. My other talented craftsdwarf, in a moment of compassion and fraternity, leapt into the wildfire and immolated himself. Who can I ask, now, to turn kitten bones into crossbow bolts? Who???

    hmxmoss on
    burning.jpg
  • JintorJintor Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Just kill everybody and re-invade.

    Hell yeah fire imps!

    Speaking of fire, I wonder if Toady will ever implement some kind of fire-fighting job. Or maybe there is one, and I forgot about it because it was impossible to fight raging world-fires.

    Jintor on
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Does magma cut off from its source still cool into obsidian eventually, even without water? I don't trust the wiki on this.

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
  • TheKoolEagleTheKoolEagle Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    fuck my mayor, all he asks for is adamantine items, too bad i don't have adamantine.

    TheKoolEagle on
    uNMAGLm.png Mon-Fri 8:30 PM CST - 11:30 PM CST
  • freakish lightfreakish light butterdick jones and his heavenly asshole machineRegistered User regular
    edited May 2009
    fuck my mayor, all he asks for is adamantine items, too bad i don't have adamantine.

    Kill him with an elaborately designed trap that drops him 14 z-levels into a pit filled with previous nobles.

    freakish light on
  • cshadow42cshadow42 Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    My biggest problem always seems to be water. I love playing with water, and I make these big elaborate aqueducts. But inevitably I end up exhausting all known sources of water.

    On my last fortress, I was seven years into my fortress. It was rather nice; lots of metal, a magma pipe that went to the surface. But...my water sources were rapidly depleting. And every time it rained, it seemed like it would only rain at the higher elevations, with none of the water going down to the now empty lakes.

    I embarked on a rather ambitious project to make a large cistern over my dwarven fortress. It was rather nice at the end, I huge bowl (30 x 30) with floodgates and a staircase-style that allowed drinkable wells at varying degrees of fill.

    Of course, it all went for naught. A dwarven baby decided to go down the stairs into my currently existing dug-out well area, where my last few precious cubes of water were stored. Of course, the baby decided proceeded to drown. And where were its parents during this? They were upstairs partying. Oh sure, blame ME, not the negligent parents who couldn't be bothered to put their kid on a leash. I swear, they need to have the option to cage dwarven babies. Otherwise they just wander EVERYWHERE!

    My well was located right in the middle of my meeting hall, and the inevitable miasma hit. While apparently it was ok to drink from the water where the bloated baby corpse resided, it wasn't ok to smell it. I couldn't have them go elsewhere, because better to drink the rancid water than to be thirsty, right? Everyone started getting cranky at having to smell and watch the process of decomposition, yet none of them bothered to go retrieve the body. So EMO struck, and my fortress descended into madness.

    cshadow42 on
    MTGO Handle - ArtfulDodger
    Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
    Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited May 2009
    Ahahahaha, the humans are gonna hate me so hard. They have the worst luck at this fortress. First they get caught in a goblin seige and lose some guys, then just now a dragon came while they were all clumped together at the depot. Every last one and all their goods were consumed by dragonfire. My soldiers then promptly wrestled the dragon to death. Nice timing, boys.

    In other news, my obsidian spire plan is finally starting to move forward. I've dug out the giant pit to the aquifer that will be filled with magma, now I just need to get the magma there. The aquifer is being difficult because it exists in a thin band between the topmost layer of the magma pipe and the place I want it to go, so I'm trying to set up a steel screw pump to fling magma on top of the 3-wide aquifer part of the magma channel-to-be. Hopefully this will cause that section to fuse into obsidian, and I can channel a path through the middle.

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
This discussion has been closed.