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Dwarf Fortress: Is that a legendary sock?

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    CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    Sipex wrote: »
    Hey guys, is there a tutorial video for this game? You know, someone going through an example campaign to let you know what exactly you're doing to get adequately started? Not necessarily "THIS IS HOW YOU SHOULD PLAY." but more of:

    "Here's your party screen, this is what each one does and I'm making these selections because of this. First important thing is to X by doing Y. Here's how we do it, I'll go over these other sections later. Here's a mob and let's go over the ways you can deal with it right now...etc"

    The wiki has 5, I think, pages of 'how to play' stuff. Here's the tutorials page, which includes links to the Captain Duck videos and to a (I think) 10 page step-by-step tutorial based on a game save so that you can follow along with the screenshots.

    http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Tutorials

    If you have some idea how to play and just want to prosper, the flowchart is pretty cool:
    http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/From_Caravan_to_Happy_Dwarves

    CptHamilton on
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    nealcmnealcm Alvarian AlvarianRegistered User regular
    edited September 2010
    i have to agree with arbitrary descriptor, captain duck is the man

    his tutorial videos helped me a shitton

    nealcm on
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    MonarchMonarch Registered User regular
    edited September 2010
    I believe it is spelled CaptnDuck. I could be wrong. He went through and did a series of videos over the 2010 version as well.

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    nealcmnealcm Alvarian AlvarianRegistered User regular
    edited September 2010
    yeah, i think his actual youtube channel is captnduck, though he has an entire thread on the bay12games forums under captain duck i think

    nealcm on
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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    is the magmawiki the new wiki? I was poking around this today and noticed that a lot of the links in the OP to the original dwarf fortress wiki don't work.

    LockeCole on
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    hailthefishhailthefish Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Magmawiki is the wiki.

    hailthefish on
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    RamiRami Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I'm digging an artificial river stemming from the whole 10 squares of river I have in the corner of my map. It goes all the way down my map, is pumped to the top of a mountain, and then flows down the other side of the map and off the edge, filling well reservoirs along the way.

    It is taking a shit ton of time and I've no idea if my pumpstack will work until I breach the river and turn them on.

    Rami on
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    ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Rami wrote: »
    I'm digging an artificial river stemming from the whole 10 squares of river I have in the corner of my map. It goes all the way down my map, is pumped to the top of a mountain, and then flows down the other side of the map and off the edge, filling well reservoirs along the way.

    It is taking a shit ton of time and I've no idea if my pumpstack will work until I breach the river and turn them on.

    I like to 'double down' in these situations. I'll set up some water wheels, directly linked to the pumps, in the dry section before I flood it. That way, my system will kick on all by itself and make for a more impressive ribbon cutting ceremony.

    If I miscalculated somehow, it also makes for a more spectacular catastrophe.

    ArbitraryDescriptor on
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    StokedUpStokedUp Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Since doing an above ground playthrough, Ive begun to wonder why floors take so much damn material to build when walls barely use any. Its only a floor, why do you need 60 blocks!!!

    Right now I have a ramshackle village with mostly 2 story houses with the first floor usually built from wood and the second floor and roof built from limestone. With no migrants having arrived this is quite the feat especially since I can't use any other dwarves to help with construction since Fish, wood and stone need to be harvested almost constantly to keep this place running.

    Oh and I somehow chose a spot with only one dwarven civilisation nearby... damn.

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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Are there any other rules for growing undergroup crops that I'm missing - I muddied a 4x4 and 3x3 block with a channel from above, but for some reason in the 4x4 only the following square get planted in: (C for crop, X for empty farm plot)
    CCXX
    CXXX
    CXXX
    CXXX
    

    and the 3x3 does the same thing - looking like this
    CCX
    CXX
    CXX
    

    LockeCole on
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    RamiRami Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Have you just started? Because by default you only have 5 seeds meaning you can't fully plant a plot until the crops are harvested and consumed.

    Rami on
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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Rami wrote: »
    Have you just started? Because by default you only have 5 seeds meaning you can't fully plant a plot until the crops are harvested and consumed.

    I did - but it never filled out the rest - I have like 50 seeds right now.

    LockeCole on
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    RamiRami Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    hmm, I'm not sure. If it allowed you to build that size plot there shouldn't be a problem planting in them. I've never heard of any bugs relating to crop planting besides the muddy thing.

    Rami on
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    hailthefishhailthefish Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Are you sure that you have 50 seeds of that type? Has a new planting season for that crop come up yet? Are your dorfs allowed too cook seeds?

    hailthefish on
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    gilraingilrain Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    The other thing is, unless your farmer dwarf is already highly skilled, a lot of times they just can't get to all the plot spaces. Especially if they still have hauling tasks and such turned on. I usually bring one highly-skilled farmer and turn off all tasks but farming as soon as I have a plot set up.

    Unless your farmer is sitting around with no job a lot of the time, I bet that's it.

    gilrain on
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    UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    It's because the plants mature and get picked and a new seed is planted in that place. Planting/picking ends up rotating on the same 5 or 6 tiles over and over until you get a huge population with a lot of growers.

    If you want to see it get planted on in more places just make like 5 more growers (provided you have the seeds).

    UncleSporky on
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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Still doesn't make a lot of sense - I have two growers (very small colony) and if I make new farm plots they have enough time to to plant in those, but they won't fill out any of the plots.

    LockeCole on
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    mellestadmellestad Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Rami wrote: »
    Yeah. Minecraft looks fun and I'll get around to it when I go on break from DF. But it's a shame it's become so popular so quickly when DF has been doing the same thing, but better, for years.

    Maybe by the time I'm 40 DF will be fully 3D and have graphics.

    a non-arcane ritual requiring user interface can go quite a ways.


    Yea, it drives me nuts. Maybe toady is a 'pure artiste' or something, but come on...if I were him I'd be puking blood.

    Minecraft comes out and a few months later the creator is a *millionaire* starting his own games company. Toady got $2,700 in September.

    If he would have made graphics a priority, that could have been him. Oh well though.

    mellestad on
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    hatedinamericahatedinamerica Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    mellestad wrote: »
    Buttcleft wrote: »
    Rami wrote: »
    Yeah. Minecraft looks fun and I'll get around to it when I go on break from DF. But it's a shame it's become so popular so quickly when DF has been doing the same thing, but better, for years.

    Maybe by the time I'm 40 DF will be fully 3D and have graphics.

    a non-arcane ritual requiring user interface can go quite a ways.


    Yea, it drives me nuts. Maybe toady is a 'pure artiste' or something, but come on...if I were him I'd be puking blood.

    Minecraft comes out and a few months later the creator is a *millionaire* starting his own games company. Toady got $2,700 in September.

    If he would have made graphics a priority, that could have been him. Oh well though.

    Not even graphics....just a UI that doesn't throw sand in the user's eyes and kick him in the groin would be nice.

    hatedinamerica on
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    ButtcleftButtcleft Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Dwarf Fort would be a billion times better if you could just navigate the god damn menus with the mouse

    Buttcleft on
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    OrogogusOrogogus San DiegoRegistered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Really? Just thinking about clicking on each order and submenu seems kind of mind-numbing to me.

    And ultimately I don't think DF is the kind of game that was ever destined to make a million dollars, graphics or no. When you take out everything that's frustrating, unfriendly and difficult about DF, you get the Sims.

    Orogogus on
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    hailthefishhailthefish Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Also keep in mind that Minecraft costs money. DF does not. DF operates on donations only.

    hailthefish on
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    ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I'll grant you that a lot of the unfriendliness stems from giving you very precise control, and if those things were clumsily simplified, you would lose out. DF has a strong underlying systems for civil engineering, combat, and industry. Even dumbed down to the level of The Sims, it would still be pretty awesome.

    But: You could clean up the interface a lot without losing depth of control. You can use stock configurations of systems to make things easier for new players, but still allow full customization. Uniforms, Burrows, and Alert schedules are a good framework for this. Create a default Training/Defense/Off duty alert schedule that appends new squads to the rotation; then give the user the option to customize it or make their own. Don't have to get all up in the system, but you still can. You could do a lot of this in DF. Farming, for example, would be made easier with an Alert style menu with plots instead of squads.

    A revised orders menu could benefit a great deal from a less primitive UI. An order to build a pump could prompt the user to build the required components if they are not present. Rather than issue those orders separately, they are all taken care of at once. A UI with nice check boxes and expandable trees for the restrictions menu and the god damned stock pile menus. None of these would detract from the experience.

    Assigning 100 bedrooms would be hells of easier if I could drag and drop owners from a list of dwarves onto the zone I wish to make them the owner of.

    ArbitraryDescriptor on
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    JintorJintor Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Yeah, I hate to say it, but Minecraft's survival mode has drawn me away from DF probably for the next few months or so. It's just... it's just so easy to use the interface. Everything's a block, qed. Don't get me wrong, I love Toady's work and everything he does and the underlying complexity of the system, but even with graphics packs it's just... man. Simple graphical building blocks.

    Team up with Notch already! Dwarf Fortress critters and biomes in Minecraft...

    Jintor on
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    RamiRami Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    After five years my fortress was abandoned after an epic battle with a giant bronze colossus. My hammer dwarves fought it for about 15 minutes before finally falling. Just couldn't get a killing blow. It was constantly getting fractured and dented, all it's limbs were yellow and a couple red, but it just wouldn't fall. Meanwhile my fully steel armoured dwarves dodged 95% of attacks and shrugged off all others with no harm. Seriously, if the fight had gone on any longer they would have died of thirst.

    Rami on
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    ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Rami wrote: »
    After five years my fortress was abandoned after an epic battle with a giant bronze colossus. My hammer dwarves fought it for about 15 minutes before finally falling. Just couldn't get a killing blow. It was constantly getting fractured and dented, all it's limbs were yellow and a couple red, but it just wouldn't fall. Meanwhile my fully steel armoured dwarves dodged 95% of attacks and shrugged off all others with no harm. Seriously, if the fight had gone on any longer they would have died of thirst.

    Dwarven combat techniques depend on a minimum blood alcohol level; the Colossus just had to wait until they sobered up. Poor bastards, no dwarf should die thirsty.

    Can you visit your site in Adventure mode and exact vengeance? I've heard people suggest it, but never tried myself to see if the titan would still be there.

    ArbitraryDescriptor on
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    RamiRami Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    You can, according to the wiki, however adventure mode is confusing and I've never really learnt it. I can move around and interact with stuff but the world is huge and the 'mini map' isn't exactly clear.

    Rami on
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    FerrusFerrus Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I really don't get the complaints about missing menus. Sure, it does look ugly and complicated but once you've got the basics down you can do things on the fly which you probably couldn't do with just the mouse. It's like learning the hotkeys in an RTS. You need them sooner or later.

    Edit: Ahahah there is a thread on the DF Forums about a "dwarf washing machine" since contaminants are still an issue in this version.

    Ferrus on
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    UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I hate everyone's description of the gameplay as being "just like hotkeys." The thing about hotkeys is that they are optional. They are the secondary input method you learn slowly after learning how to play the game with the mouse. Even in the most hotkey-centric game I don't often use them for literally everything.

    And besides, they're not even "just hotkeys." Hotkey systems are faster than mouse input. I'm really tired of pressing q and then slowly arrowing over on top of a workshop when I could just be clicking directly on it and then on what I want it to make. You don't even need a q menu!

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    hailthefishhailthefish Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Protip: shift+arrow. And center your screen near it first.

    hailthefish on
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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Is there any way to see what injured your dwarfs? One of my weapon smiths bleed to death in the hospital (not terribly suprising considering the skill level of the doctors...) but never saw how/where he got injured.

    LockeCole on
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    IncaInca Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    The combat reports (r key) should list recent combat, so you might find it the combat logs in there. I don't know if it lists sparring though.

    Inca on
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    PsychoLarry1PsychoLarry1 Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    So I have 3 smelters, and only one has the option to make all of the combination metals (brass, trifle pewter, billion etc.). Obviously I have the ore I need, is there something I'm missing that stops the other 2 smelters from making them?

    PsychoLarry1 on
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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Well, not sure about the other ones, but it looks like if you leave your barracks in a open place that dwarfs can wander into during sparring, sometimes soldiers get stabby. D:

    LockeCole on
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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    I'm on my 5th restart now that I think I'm starting to get an idea what the hell I'm doing - having a bit of a problem though - the dwarfs are refusing to use the dining hall - I defined one like usual (and also made it a meeting hall) and the idle dwarfs will go stand in it, but as soon as its time to eat, they all go stand in the stockpile room and eat there. Any ideas?

    LockeCole on
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    RamiRami Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    If you have tables and chairs they will almost always go to one of those to eat, unless it is really far away or they're bleeding to death or something. And they should prioritise chair/tables in a designated dining room.

    Also, one table only supports one chair, make sure there is only one chair next to each table (up, down, left or right, diagonals don't count).

    Rami on
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    LockeColeLockeCole Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    The dining hall has 8 table/chair pairs - and the room is defined as a dining room - but they won't eat there.

    LockeCole on
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    BloodsheedBloodsheed Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    LockeCole wrote: »
    The dining hall has 8 table/chair pairs - and the room is defined as a dining room - but they won't eat there.

    Are you sure they're eating and not just drinking? When they drink they just stand in the stockpile to do so. Eating they'll use the tables/chairs.

    Bloodsheed on
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    BonepartBonepart Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Oddly enough, I came to Dwarf Fortress a bit backwards, having found Minecraft first. Having a lot of fun with DF!

    However I've having a bit of a problem. So far I can make it into Winter ok, but at that point my water supplies freeze up and all my dwarves die of thirst. What's the best way to secure a water supply?

    Bonepart on
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    MechMantisMechMantis Registered User regular
    edited October 2010
    Bonepart wrote: »
    Oddly enough, I came to Dwarf Fortress a bit backwards, having found Minecraft first. Having a lot of fun with DF!

    However I've having a bit of a problem. So far I can make it into Winter ok, but at that point my water supplies freeze up and all my dwarves die of thirst. What's the best way to secure a water supply?

    Your dwarves... drink water?

    You sadistic bastard.

    Water underground does not freeze, make a cistern.

    MechMantis on
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