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Author Topic: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress  (Read 1034 times)

Heliomance

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Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« on: December 06, 2010, 09:17:32 am »

So I had a megaproject going on the old version of DF, before medicine and such. It succumbed to Fun. I  had left one or two dwarves actually capable of carrying on construction. I didn't want to reclaim, because of the hassle of sorting it all out, finding all the stuff that gets strewn everywhere, and so forth, and also because I was really close to getting the King. However, for several years in a row, no new immigrants came to the deathtrap of a fortress, and I became disheartened. I kinda want to get the megaproject finished, I've put a lot of effort into it so far. But with only two dwarves working, it was going unbearably slowly, and put me off DF. I now haven't played for several months. What do?
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Fishbulb

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2010, 09:34:46 am »

Let me tell you, right now, the best thing about the new version. Ignore what anybody else tells you; this is the single best feature of the game now. Are you ready?

No more "checking chest" jobs.

Plop down *all* the containers you want! Your dorfs will no longer be obsessed with checking them just to see if anything cool has materialized inside them. It's heaven!

Seriously, though, go ahead and make the leap. The new military system is daunting; it's best to just dive into that one and see if you can make it work. I typically throw all my useless migrants — "High master pump operator?" Really? — into squads, assign them a customized "use anything" uniform and let them train forever. It keeps them out of the way, and generally prevents them from forming any close relationships with the civilians, so their inevitable deaths go unremarked-upon.

The hospital feature, I find, you can basically live without. If you get a sick or injured dwarf and have no hospital, that dwarf will either recover or not on his own, just like in 40d. Building a hospital gives you the chance to get dwarves with relatively minor injuries back to work, but really, is that such a big deal? Dwarves are expendable anyway.
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TheJackal

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2010, 10:11:02 am »

Dwarves are expendable anyway.

 :-\ Dwarves are the most precious of resources and should not be squandered! By Armok's Beard, all the magma and adamantine in the world is for naught if there be not a single dwarf to use it!

Also the new DF kicks butt. Join in the fun!
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Fishbulb

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2010, 10:14:34 am »

Meh. They breed.
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mal7690

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2010, 10:18:22 am »

Meh. They breed.

Not fast enough!

And occasionally too fast.  Depends on my wood stocks.
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Cat heads, cat heads, roly poly cat heads,
Biting at the dorf necks, now I have dorf heads.

Dwarf

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2010, 10:26:55 am »

By Armok, it is Armok's will that Dwarvinism be upheld!
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Quote from: Akura
Now, if we could only mod Giant War Eagles to carry crossbows, we could do strafing runs on the elves who sold the eagles to us in the first place.

pixl97

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2010, 11:19:28 am »

Meh. They breed.

Not fast enough!

And occasionally too fast.  Depends on my wood stocks.

My current fort has the way too damn fast problem. I forgot to set 200 pop limit down to something reasonable, so now I have 225 dwarves and god knows how many more babies on the way. I have a lot of meeting places so it can't be too much longer before everything gets taken down in an enormous tantrum spiral :D
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Funburns

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #7 on: December 06, 2010, 11:30:39 am »

I have a lot of meeting places so it can't be too much longer before everything gets taken down in an enormous tantrum spiral :D
Actually, I remember reading just this morning that someone suggested placing numerous tiny meeting zones in separate areas to prevent dwarves from chumming it up. They'd be sorted into smaller groups for chatting, perhaps down to one dwarf per zone if you have enough of them.

Fishbulb

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #8 on: December 06, 2010, 12:09:14 pm »

If I want breeders (or at least marriages, to cut down on the number of rooms required) I create one single-tile meeting area. If I want loner dorfs, I create no meeting area at all.

If I want to cull the herd a bit, I create one huge meeting area … along the banks of the carp-infested river.
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Heliomance

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2010, 07:52:53 pm »

Gah. Some migrants arrived - an extra duchess (I already have a duke and his consort) and a replacement hammerer. No civilians. I marked the hammerer's hammer for dumping, but before that could go through, he shot off and murdered one of my two remaining worker dwarves for his part in the tantrum spiral. I save scummed, but I'm not sure how best to deal with the hammerer. I don't want to kill him, because I'm trying to convince migrants that the place is safe again. Halp?
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Dwarf

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Re: Getting back into Dwarf Fortress
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2010, 07:55:44 pm »

Replace his hammer with an adamantine one, which is much lighter. Make victims wear plate armour.
Or trap him in a room, dropping food and booze then and now.
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Quote from: Akura
Now, if we could only mod Giant War Eagles to carry crossbows, we could do strafing runs on the elves who sold the eagles to us in the first place.