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Author Topic: Surprise me  (Read 660 times)

Aspgren

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Surprise me
« on: July 07, 2009, 03:29:01 pm »

So I have a problem.

Whenever I play dwarf fortress there's two ways of getting started. Pick a spot at random or choose carefully exactly what you want there to be (underground rivers etc) and this is a problem for me.

See when I search for and find a site filled with magma and chasms and rivers I know what to expect. When I dig around and build I stumble upon some secret and hot damn I ... I knew that was there ...

So I'm usually prepared when finding this stuff. It's not really fun. In contrast I can spend hours upon HOURS digging and building in a site I have picked at random and finding - nothing. This is the case in my last 2 forts.

Dwarves settle down, get food production going, get alcohol production.. kobolds come, elves come, sieges come. The defences improve and then the game is pretty much over because the same scenario repeats again and again. When searching for (and ultimately using reveal) any hidden stuff I've found nothing.

I'm not really sure how to solve this problem. Any suggestions on things I could do?
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Peewee

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Re: Surprise me
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2009, 03:32:37 pm »

Played on that dwarf heaven map yet?

If not, don't look at where anything is, then start playing it.

Aspgren

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Re: Surprise me
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2009, 03:36:05 pm »

I have the dwarf heaven map but I only tried out the part they specified in the thread. Where almost every feature was available ... it's like that all over? I didn't check.
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The crossbow squad, 'The Bolts of Fleeing' wouldn't even show up.
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AlienChickenPie

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Re: Surprise me
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2009, 03:38:45 pm »

Fire up the finder with a large list of demands. Ignore or cover up the demand list while the finder looks for the site. Go to the chosen site.
The site is pretty much guaranteed to contain a fair amount of good stuff, but you don't know what to expect.
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Aspgren

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Re: Surprise me
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2009, 04:01:03 pm »

Fire up the finder with a large list of demands. Ignore or cover up the demand list while the finder looks for the site. Go to the chosen site.
The site is pretty much guaranteed to contain a fair amount of good stuff, but you don't know what to expect.

I feel stupid for not thinking about this myself.

I did this on the dwarf heaven map and I have ended up... in a freshwater swamp ON TOP of a mirthful mountain with a chasm and a bottomless pit. I noticed volcanic activity just around the corner so I'll be mining for magma. This might prove interesting.

Thanksss!
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The crossbow squad, 'The Bolts of Fleeing' wouldn't even show up.
I have an art blog now.

Elliott_Thinas

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Re: Surprise me
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2009, 05:03:53 pm »

Yeah if you have a friend or family member with some understanding of DF you could just ask them to look for an interesting site for you but not tell you anything about what makes it Fun.
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Aspgren

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Re: Surprise me
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2009, 12:03:24 am »

Little update:

The site seems to have an underground river somewhere unknown, since there are loads of dead lizardmen in the unit list now. I'm going to build a maze so I better be careful.

Also there was a giant cave swallow, I figured I'd shoot it down before it posed a danger to my dwarves ... but I suppose it's harmless because it has done nothing but flee from my bolts. It has a wounded spine and a broken wing, hopping around on the edges of the map with 4 bolts stuck in it. It was fun to follow the chase.

Since I gave up on the hunt though the dwarves dropped their gear and went back to base. Just now thieves stole the left behind bolts and a crossbow. Does this mean I will be besieged by kobolds? Cool.

I'm having fun again. I have no idea what to expect, thanks for the tips!
Logged
The crossbow squad, 'The Bolts of Fleeing' wouldn't even show up.
I have an art blog now.