Dwarf Fortress

[Serio]

I could have sworn I had seen a thread about this somewhere here? Anyway, anyone else playing it? If so, got any stories? My first fortress didn't exactly survive for long. Established in the Early Spring of 1051, it did somewhat adequately throughout the year until Late Winter 1051 when the water froze. Without a proper source of water, the dwarves huddled up in the workshops. Those that didn't die of thirst eventually died of the miasma from their friends. The stone engraver was the last person to die, as apparently engraving the dining hall walls was more important.

[Jason]

I thought I'd seen a thread about this too - in fact I could have sworn I made one. Perhaps I'm cracking up.

Anyway, I keep meaning to try this out - it's completely impossible to 'win', but it sure is fun losing. :D

[Serio]

Looks like we're both cracking up then ;)

I find the game to be more than a little bit easier using May Green's version (http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.php). You can actually see the difference between grass and trees that way, and your dwarves aren't just smiling faces running around in dark tunnels.

EDIT: I still gotta figure out how to supply my population with water, even during the winter. My last few attempts almost drowned the entire city, and my most recent one caused a "waterfall" down the side of the mountain.

EDIT2: Well now, here's another story. My second fortress, in the world of "Onra En", fared pretty well. My inhabitants neither starved nor thirsted and there was a constant flow of good building and crafting materials from the mines below. Berroldeth, as the settlement was named, thrived for a time. Two years, to be exact. With enough bedrooms and offices to please everyone, I decided it was time to dig further down. After some digging, I discovered a large cavern. "Hurray!" I thought, "Now I can get some even more valuable materials!". And my poor, unsuspecting mining dwarves continued to hack away at the solid rock. They constructed a stairwell that led down to some muddy soil, perfect for subterranean farming. My farmers went down, but when they didn't return I started to get suspicious. Then, the horrific message "[Miner's name] has been cut down by Troglodyte!". I mobilized my militia as quickly as humanly possible, but they were unable to stop the Troglodyte advance. I attempted to block off the mines with a rock wall, but the dwarves were far too busy prioritizing. Remember; Looting your dead friends is always a better idea than walling off a mine full of save cave men.

Long story short, my fortress came to an abrupt end when the Troglodyte overran it and slew every single dwarf. 20 migrants arrived in the meantime, but I told them to flee while they still breathed. I'm planning on reclaiming it, and the first thing I'll do is walling off the mine. I'm undoubtedly getting addicted to this game.

[Jason]

Somehow managed to not get round to this, so reading the wiki in preparation for a run at it over the next few days. Sounds like too much fun to not give a good crack. :D

[happysister]

this one sounds interesting. downloaded it. i'll give it a go tomorrow.

[Jason]

Just to emphasise how crazy awesome the game gets at times, here's an excerpt from the game's TVTropes page (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DwarfFortress).

# Somewhat replaced these days. Carp are still hardcore, but they have been replaced at times with elephants, and, more recently, unicorns. There have been entire wars fought with unicorns.
# With the introduction of aimed attacks, large fish have gone back to being deadly, sturgeon to an even greater degree than carp, as they can easily bite off limbs. Camels are now often reported caving in heads quite frequently.

[Konrad]

I've approached this game so many times and failed each one. Most recently with the May Green mod, at least I got as far as actually starting a settlement but when all the little dwarves were running around with some animals, and it started raining and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do next (i tried assigning jobs, but wasn't even sure if that didn't happen automatically) so I stared at it for a while, it started raining and I gave up again.

Need some sort of walkthrough. :p

[Jason]

Ah, there is a walkthrough of a kind available on the wiki. Have a look for something called 'bentgirder' - it even comes with a pre-made world. It doesn't cover everything, but it covers enough to get you going.

[Konrad]

Well then, that was a big help. I got further than ever before, though by the time I got to planting my first farm I had to quit on account mental degradation.

I don't see myself being fluent in this thing anytime soon, but time will tell. :p

[Jason]

I was going nicely until I accidentally tunnelled a little too close to a river and drowned everyone. Whoops.

[Konrad]

Well then... I seem to have failed my tutorial so badly that I killed one of my dwarves on accident. >_>

Somehow Vab the Miner got stuck underground when I was making my farm, and eventually turned into a bunch of items. I'm going to assume whoever made that tutorial didn't see that coming and start over.

/facepalm

[Jason]

For those interested in this, I found a fantastic tutorial for getting started with the game (complete with narration from a very Dutch gentleman), and I'm trying to get back into it again having read several stories about drunken dwarves accidentally lighting themselves on fire and heading to the alcohol stores to put it out.... with predictably hilarious results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn1iW1QN7_s

[Konrad]

If only I had a few more metric tons of patience within me... Then, maybe I could stand a chance against this game.

I've tried a number of tutorials, and all left me flabbergasted. Ill save this one for when inspiration to try DF strikes me again. :p

[Jason]

I'm in a similar position to you - I read lots of people's stories about all the awesome things that can and do happen with regularity in the game, and get really excited about playing it. Then I try to play it and am inevitably defeated by the massively confusing layout and give up.

Then I start reading about it again...

[Jason]

I'm finally starting to actually make some genuine progress.

Using the video as a kind of walkthrough and copying it more or less step by step, I'm actually starting to understand what's happening around me. I've still got about an hour to go in the video, but already the Fortress of Owlsyrups has lived longer and happier (ie none of my dwarves has gone ax-crazy and started chopping his bunkmates up) than any of my previous efforts.

[TechnoRaven]

Those stupid unicorns...

Protip: If you have a self destruction switch, make sure its guarded against gremlins

[Jason]

A self-destruction switch? That sounds very dwarven. It's not like the dwarves aren't already competent enough at destroying everything they come into contact with... :D