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[Kholt]

Greetings. I was shown Dwarf Fortress about a week ago by a friend who's since given up on the game as too complex but for myself... Well, this is the kind of game I like. Especially with dwarves. I've read the manual, the Your First Fortress, and the Illustrated Tutorial but I still have a few questions. Just now I generated my new world and set up my party according to the YFF article and embarked them to what seems to be a really good spot. Great. I'm still confused though.  

I thought you could use the mouse to move the X cursor around the screen and select dwarves and things? It's responding on the Designations menus and such so it is working. Is it only meant to be used on certain menus? The rest controlled by keyboard scroll to select things in the actual game screen?

What windowed resolutions do people generally run the game at? The screenshots in the Illustrated Tutorial are 1021x318 or some such so I've set mine to 1024x320.

How do you actually -quit- the game without saving? Whenever I try to click the  exit X it brings up the Escape menu... The only option I see there is Abandon Fortress which I'm wary to select in case it dumps my world.  

I'm sure I'll have other questions later on but my main issues right now are the mouse and quitting.  Thank you for any help. - Kholt

[TotalPigeon]

Hey, welcome to DF! Don't worry about having lots of questions, everyone has them to start, and even the long time players are just getting to grips with the latest version. There are always people happy to help on these forums. Though you should check the wiki if it's a simple question about gameplay, or some of the less friendly people on here will yell at you.

About your questions, I wouldn't rely on the mouse for playing DF. The interface hasn't really been optimised yet due to the alpha state... The developer has decided that the game is likely to change so much that time spent on it would probably be wasted in the long run. Nevertheless, it is still very functional. A major tip that might not be obvious - If you want to scroll faster, on screens like the mining designation screen you can hold down the shift key to jump ten spaces instead of one.

As for quitting without saving, it isn't really recommended but you can exit with ctrl-alt-del and end process. It might mess up your world, but it probably won't. Something else you should definitely do is go to the .init file hidden in the DF folder and turn on seasonal autosaves. If you don't want to risk messing up your game, you can quit and replace your region save with the autosave (the region is the save for the entire world you have generated). Delete the region saves folders contents and then copy and paste the whole contents of the autosave into it.

But definitely turn it on. When DF crashes/goblins slaughter everyone/you irreversibly flood your fortress/everyone starves/fortress caves in/everyone catches fire/(etc.) at 4 in the morning and you've been playing without saving since 10 at night, you want to kill something. Have fun!

[B.Barabanus]

I disable mouse since a bug I couldn't exit designation menu until I pressed TAB for several times. It's used in designation menu so far and I found that using keyboard vs. mouse wasn't a big deal to designate zones.

As for quitting without saving, you can use your task manager =)

[ November 25, 2007: Message edited by: B.Barabanus ]

[Gelmax]

DF is a keyboard-based game; the mouse can be used, but only when in menus where you select things - when you're not in a menu, the only thing you can do is scroll around and look at your fort, which is controlled by keyboard only.

I run it in the default resolution.

Quitting the game without saving isn't supported, probably partially in deference to DF's roguelike roots. Saving the game brings you back to the title screen (in effect, it's a "save and quit" kind of thing). You don't want to abandon fortress, which as the name implies ends the fort you're in.

[slMagnvox]

More specifically, Abandon Fortress literally abandons your fortress.  The state of your game world will be updated and the next time you play, your abandoned fort will be present on the world map (and can be interacted with in Reclaim mode, but I don't know exactly how that works in new version) or can be visited in adventure mode.

Don't worry too much about trying to quit w/o saving, or reverting to earlier saves.  Just plow through, dead dwarves, miasma, failed constructions and all.  If things get too unplayable, then consider rolling a new fort and applying what you learned ruining your last fort in keeping this next one functioning longer.  Your strategy will really evolve as you play your first dozen games so don't get hung up trying to make every fort perfect.

[Merlon]

When turning on autosave remember to also activate autobackup as otherwise it'll save to the same directory every time. (ie: Region1)

quote:Originally posted by Kholt:
What windowed resolutions do people generally run the game at? The screenshots in the Illustrated Tutorial are 1021x318 or some such so I've set mine to 1024x320.

It varies with personal preference. The first thing you need to decide on is whetever to go for a square or non-square tileset. In my opinion you'll probably run into less problems with a square tileset as rooms are more easily designated according to plan when tiles are equally wide as they are tall. This is also a matter of preference, so try taking a look at the wiki's list of character sets to find one you are comfortable with. What resolution you choose to play at is then often decided by your characterset. Good luck.

(PS: your above example sounds like a weird resolution)