Bay 12 Games Forum

Attempt of new thread about the excellent Cataclysm serie of games.

Cataclysm is a post-apocalyptic roguelike, set in the countryside of New England
after a devastating plague of monsters and zombies.

Cataclysm is very different from most roguelikes in many ways.  Rather than
being set in a vertical, linear dungeon, it is set in an unbounded, 3D world.
This means that exploration plays a much bigger role than in most roguelikes,
and the game is much less linear.
Because the map is so huge, it is actually completely persistant between games.
If you die, and start a new character, your new game will be set in the same
game world as your last.  Like in many roguelikes, you will be able to loot the
dead bodies of previous characters; unlike most roguelikes, you will also be
able to retrace their steps completely, and any dramatic changes made to the
world will persist into your next game.

Cataclysm's gameplay also includes many unique quirks, and the learning curve is
somewhat steep, even for those experienced with roguelikes.  Included with the
game is a tutorial which runs the player through most of the key features.

So far i am aware of 4 games in the Cataclysm serie :

Cataclysm (the original from Whales)
https://github.com/Whales/Cataclysm
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=87501.0

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (the first fork that appeared after Cataclysm development ended)
https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/
https://cataclysmdda.org/
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=174824.0

Cataclysm: Bright Night (the fork of CDDA following a different direction )
https://github.com/cataclysmbnteam/Cataclysm-BN
https://github.com/cataclysmbnteam/Cataclysm-BN/releases

Cataclysm Z (the continuation and bugfixing of the original Whales game)
https://github.com/zaimoni/Cataclysm
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=174897.0

At some points Whales wanted to come back and create Cataclysm 2 but development halted
https://github.com/Whales/Cataclysm2
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=137846

Edit : forgot about one
Cataclysm: Looming Darkness (a multiplayer rewrite of CDDA)
https://github.com/stolencatkarma/CataclysmLD

Edit : there also exist a game extremely inspired by Cataclysm, "what if Cataclysm was in real time instead of turn based"
Nearly Dead
https://monosw2000.itch.io/nearly-dead

Links to past Cataclysm threads on Bay12 (the 3 are locked) if you're interested in old Cata thread archeology :

Whales' Cataclysm thread :
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121194.8175

CDDA thread 1 :
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121194.0

CDDA thread 2 :
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=149157.0

NOTE :
I'm not involved in any ways with the development of any of them so hopefully this will allow the thread to not getting locked for heating too much as the previous thread unfortunately did.

I understand it can be hard to do this when you're attached to a game but please try to stay cordial and keep your cool.
Always ask yourself what the Fonz would do in a zombie apocalypse and it should be OK

It's been like that since several versions, but it is still happening in 44.xx
I don't mean the "jump through fortification" that happened everytime before, i mean the fact that sometime marksdwarves will stop staying at their shooting station and they just go climb anything to move near their target instead of staying at safe range.

In 44.03 i have built an archer tower, surrounded by fortification and with roof.
As i was experimenting i had made a copy of my save when a gob army came.

Half of the time i have my marskdwarves station in my archer tower and shoot, at least the one that are placing themselves correctly.

So far it's good enough, but half of the time, i observe marksdwarves leaving the location (despite they were shooting from there) climbing down the tower , walking the distance between the tower and the fortress wall, climbing the wall (amusing considering the gobs in all my df2014 and 44.x games have never ever been able to climb my fortress walls despite i never smooth them on purpose), then dropping on the ground and then shoot from this ridiculously open area.
Obviously being murdered horribly as they're then not protected and are then very close to the gobs.

Anyone found a setup to prevent this , as i'm starting to get out of idea with those morons ?

In prevision for winter in my current 42.01 fortress, i have been building a wall , and walls/roof around it in order to protect it from the external cold, so while the main river would freeze, the water under the protected well should not.

But unlike what i thought, it didn't worked.
Winter came, the river water froze, but the cistern under the well froze as well, making the well exploding from the ice :


The section on the south is my fortress that is under the hills , there's no opening at all.

Here's the roof protecting from the above temperature :


And a view of the what happened under the well :


As you see i had an underground canal to transfer the water from the river into my cistern reserve for the well, and as you can see that water isn't frozen at all.

Fortunately i still have the aquifer for my dwarves thirst, but i'm still puzzled as to why this happened to my protected well ?
Did i overlook something there ?

Imagine a world at peace, walking in front of demon worshipping goblins that are smiling happily while greeting you, imagine walking around animals that are ignoring you in their joyous wild life, imagine that you only have to fear the night in case you're alone, just imagine.

Now just imagine the opposite, everything and everyone hates your guts and will do all they can to annihilate your very existence with only your people providing some help, imagine you do not only have to fear the night, but you have to fear the day too.
Imagine a World of Fear !

World of Fear is a minor mod not meant to be taken seriously but that aims to give an actual challenge to your dwarves in fortress mode and your adventurers in adventure mode.

The concept is very simple , every creatures in the raws , excepted of the domestic animals (so your starting seven if you play fortress modes aren't annihilated at the start and you can still count on your dogs and cats) and the dwarves (as the fortress mode end immediately if they have those tokens) are subject to :
[NOFEAR]
[OPPOSED_TO_LIFE]
[CRAZED]
[VISION_ARC:360:0]
and have removed
[BENIGN]
[MEANDERER]
[VISION_ARC:50:310]
that could be passive-inducing problems considering the new tags

While the mod is aimed toward Adventure mode (in which you can play any race), it is playable in Fortress mod for the dwarves.
In term of Fortress Mode gameplay it means that basically the whole world is the enemy of your dwarves, everything and everyone hates your dwarves and everything will not stop until your dwarves are dead, and don't think they aren't noticing your dwarves when they hide, they all hate your dwarves so much they'll know.
You'll see elves and humans visiting you with wagon, maybe you'll think they're trader, but don't be fooled they are just sending dwarves-killing merchants !

Those tokens seems to do nothing in worldgen (in case they do and kill everyone during worldgen maybe increase the world size just a bit), so it will not prevent civs to be built even by your elf/human/gobs arch-enemies, so they can send their merchants to try to kill your dwarves , along sending armies too when triggers are reached.

To install , just download a default 47.02 version of Dwarf Fortress and then download the zip archive :
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14706

Open the zip archive, take the .txt files inside and and overwrite the files of the same names into your  :
...\yourDF47.02directory\raws\objects\

Of course back up your raws before in case you hate the guts of that minimod as much as it hates you and want to go back to more peacefull worlds.

archive version for 44.12 :
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=13969
archive version for 40.24 :
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=11065

In 34.11 i ran into unpleasant situations in which my marksdwarves had lots of bolts in my ammo stockpiles, but once they were running out of  their starting bolts from their quiver they never went to refill them despite hundred of new bolts were waiting for them in the stockpile :
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133302.0

I found out that the problem was that my bolts were inside of bins, it was apparently a know nasty bug, it then led me to not have made a single bin since 34.11 and through all my 40.0x

But then my question : is it still needed to NOT make any bins to avoid this bad bug, or is the problem fixed in 40.0x ?

Behold Fikod Olinduthnur, champion amongst the dwarves, let me regale you with tales of his exploits

To the east of Distanceglaze, a modest dwarven hillocks was lying the ruins of what was once a proud fortress named Inkpartner, Fikod Olinduthnur in his early heroic years heard the villagers telling about how good the treasures investigation of the place would help their cause.



And so Fikod generously walked on their behalf to that place of doom, he walked through the mountains , he walked around the animals, he walked until he reached the fortress



Climbing the walls would have been a great challenge noble Fikod thought, but in his early years Fikod wasn't yet known as the "Miraculous Climber", and decided it wasn't time to tempt the fate in frivolous exploits.



With his immense courage Fikod Olinduthnur decided to enter by the main gate , ready to face any fallen guardians and other ghosts of this dark past. But to his surprise there was only silence, the place was empty, excepted for a curiously still standing Trade Depot



Time to dive into the depth of the fortress, scaling the stairs Fikod found that the interior was gigantic, the dwarves had worked a lot to build such an enormous fort.

  -

Several depths, several floors , Fikod thought himself lost several times, as you must remember it was before the night Fikod would be known as the "Pathfinding Master" .

But Fikod Olinduthnur was rather puzzled by a detail, where were all the treasure evidences of the dwarven lost existences that built the once proud Inkpartner ?
This titanic place was not only devoid of life and ghost, but it was entirely empty, except for some remnant of the workshops, and a magma smelter.

Frustrated by being unable to find any treasure memento of the dwarven ingenious spirit, Fikod decided to explore it all to see if he missed anything.

Until he found in a dark corner of fortress a living nightmare .





The forgotten beast Vimara ! that is known in the common language as Vimara Crabshore the Ugly Clam. Fikod Olinduthnur was still unseen due to his prodigious abilities, the beast seemed to be distracted by the sight of the dwarven workshops.
Maybe thinking about the terrifying error it did by provoking the wrath of heroes like Fikod Olinduthnur.

Honor commanded that Fikod shouted his name, the name of his weapon and then battled the beast in singular combat, but it was a time in which Fikod was not yet know as the "Vanguard of Honor".
Using his ambushing ability instead of announcing his presence, Fikod decided to sneak behind the strong monster and used his axe to dispense justice over the creature.



This wasn't yet the era in which Fikod would be known as the "Breaker of Mountains" , his arms power weren't yet at the level of the day he would be called the "Strength without Equal" .
So the treacherous beast scales were entirely impervious to the fantastic strikes of Fikod trusted axe.

At some point Fikod understood that he would just be wasting his life for nothing, better live to fight another day for more glory than die in a forsaken location far from everything. Honor commanded that Fikod would run away from the creature.

You need to remember it was a summer of strange reality, in which monsters and warriors weren't really caring about being hurt or even killed, it was known as "One of the Bugs of the New Release" , so the forgotten beast just never even tried to retaliate, it didn't even turned around to look at the hero.

Fikod Olinduthnur was a modest warrior in his heart, one that does not brag about his heroic actions, but he knew that the villager needed to hear about his legend to understand the peril of Inkspartner.

And the reaction of the villagers was of an incredible enthousiasm, happyness and joy filled the air, Fikod was their champion !

Hello

It's been very frustrating in nearly every fortress i ran at some point the same thing happens.
As most people do, in my military i always get a marksdwarf squad.

For a time it seems to go well, they pick ammo before going to where i station them .

But after some time it is -very- rare they pick ammo, either in siege or in my life shooting training against the various trolls and elk birds i pitted.
I simply can't understand why :

- i have a stockpile full of self manufactured bins containing a very lot of iron/copper/silver/bronze bolts stacks (real stacks, not those individual bolts you may pick up, i never bother with those) that i had created from my metalsmith workshops or got from trade or dead enemy crossbowmen that didn't had the time to use their quiver.

- none of those stacks is forbidden, their quality is good and some are even masterwork

- every of the marksdwarves have a crossbow and a quiver constantly with them (at least they pick that up everytime)

- in the military panel, for that marksdwarves i made sure they require 300 bolts for Combat/Training (and i have much more than that in stock)

As said, rarely one of those dwarves will pick ammo, but even when it happens, the other ones in the squads will go with their empty quiver and crossbow, being then utterly useless despite their high marksdwarf skill

All i can think is that i'm running DFHack and the files from Modest mods (for the important bugfixes) , nothing else edited that i think could lead the dwarves into caring less and less about picking up ammo from the dedicaced stockpile after a few game years

Yes, remember the tale of Deduk Ringtomes , the Lantern of Shames !

A brave heroic dwarf that died too young at only 56 years old


Deduk decided early in his youth that the world needed all its wrongs to be set right , and his silver axe would be the most appropriate tool for that.

To achieve his goal, he had to fight terrible night creatures, former humans that became monstrous under the influence of their evil ways, enemies that were terrorising hamlets and cities.
And everytime he put an end to their horrible threat.


In the course of his life , Deduk befriended a human, Mudi Spatteredeagle, that accepted to join him in his crusade to free the world from its evil.
Together their fame reached the ears of everyone, making them heroes in their eyes, hope of a better tomorrow was starting to spread and would never be stopped.


But in the year 106 , the most powerfull order of evil named the "Homely Hammers" decided to do everything that was still possible to destroy those heroes before it was too late.

The Homely Hammers tasked their strongest members led by the order mistress herself, Laspar Fillcuddled, to ambush and kill the heroes while they were heading to destroy another nest of night creatures.

Under the surprise, Deduk and Mudi were hit by volley of arrows while the enemy troops rushed at them from every side, but the heroes' resolve was so great that even badly wounded, they struck down the Homely Hammers elites one after another.
.. Until Laspar herself faced Deduk in a battle that was so epic that the land went silent as if nature itself was holding its breath while blows after blows the rocks were shattering around the scene.

Mudi was mortally wounded at some distance but managed to kill his enemy, and helping himself with a tree, he was still standing to observe the fight that was the conclusion of his and Deduk's war over evil.

Deduk despite the intense pain of the arrows that were hurting him was still fighting, the heroic dwarf managed to deal such a powerfull strike of his beloved silver axe that Laspar, with an expression of intense surprise on her face, was cut in half and her upper body sailed away in a rain of blood as if Armok had a few tears in front of Deduk's last heroic battle.

Two of the remaining elites of the Homely Hammers were still standing , shocked by the death of their powerfull high mistress they thought to be immortal.
But their numbers wasn't giving them a real advantage in front of the dying Deduk Ringtome that showed them that his last breath was still enough to rid the world of their presence.

And walking away from his last stand, having put an end to the Homely Hammers elites and so their reign of terror, the last few arrows that pierced him to death weren't able to remove his smile directed to Mudi, both knowing that the work of their life mattered, that evil wouldn't reign anymore unchallenged.





Dudek died first, as being first at everything was still a Dwarf's duty when in presence of humans, but Mudi knew his time was soon to be following his friend to a better world.