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[RedWick]

Well, I stand pleasantly corrected!  Kudos everybody!

[Jack Dandy]

I only use the default ASCII graphics, did so since the beginning. Don't see why so many people dislike it...

However, I wouldn't be able to manage my fort without Dwarf Therapist!

[Jake]

I'm also much the same, though I feel a strong duty of care towards my dwarves and try very hard to keep them alive. I do mod quite extensively, however, with the Flora and Fauna mod and a load of tweaks to entity_default as well as what can be found in my sig.

[Mickey Blue]

I sometimes pick up a tileset to try it out but usually play on a modified ASCII to be squared.  I can get by without Therapist but I find it far easier to use it so don't see the reason to limit myself without it.  I used to play mod-free but recently have picked up some mods that I feel make the world more dangerous, specifically I always install whatever the latest Fortress Defense Mod.  I'd much rather my fort burn to the ground in its fifth year the it survive into its fiftieth without anything terribly exciting. 

I also have a set of rules I use for myself unless I'm setting up some scenario where its different, they are:

-No magma
-No cage traps save sometimes for hunting
-No danger rooms (they are an exploit and I try to avoid exploits, I also avoid the 'bag of sand' exploit)
-No walling/drawbridging myself off completely (I have to have at least one three square wide entrance that can be protected by floodgates but no more.  It allows me to keep out basic enemies but if powerful (building destroy) ones arrive I have to have other plans, I have the same rule for the caverns except only one tile wide.

I find this makes the game more exciting.  Truth be told I haven't played DF for a little while now, but I'm looking forward to the next update and will certainly play after that.  Been mostly playing Aurora and Mass Effect 2 recently.

[Urist Mcinternetuser]

-My dwarves lose any sense of personality after a while, as I don't have the time or patience to give them individual attention because of the demands of the masses. For some reason, any sense of sentimentality that I have towards them in the early game turns to staleness as the fort becomes flooded with migrants

I feel for you, I have the same problem, I wish migrants would slow down.

[Kaelem Gaen]

I mod occasionally but I go even farther, I actually turn off invasions, but over all sounds about the same as you play minus the "Vanilla" aspect,  I added in some fluff mods (Extended SPEECH.txt)  And I really only have my Marsh Dwarves added so my dwarven adventure can GET armor that fits them... if I can find the settlements anyways. Might add some Elves who build cities too at a later date so I can play a Hippie and get them armor.


Magma I've never got the grasp of really, I've dug down to the magma sea in one game and haven't done anything with it.   Actually this computer's copy of DF is pretty vanilla when I think about it.

[zehive]

I play with it in the background, no mods or tilesets. but one thing that genuinely weirds me out is the people who say that they have a hard time keeping their dwarves from starving to death. i've never had that problem.. i have SO many planters, and I have a system of underground farm plots, like I have the sheer cliff my fort is built into, then out underneath the trees I drain the ponds into the tunnels, then close the gap with a floodgate and build a big farm plot for mushrooms. I have many, many farm plots like this, and I utilize the caverns making moss so I can get places far from water to produce crops, and have large areas in the aforementioned area 1 z level underground completely mined out to grow trees. Ontop of this it produces bushes for my herbalists.


When I'm not tooling with that I usually am designating trees for cutting, bushes for picking, places for room mining/smoothing/engraving or tooling with a way to make one whole section of the fortressed able to be sealed while having another continue on, and messing with traps and bottlenecks and various defensive designs necessary for the sieges I bring upon myself (not to mention megabeasts and the lot).


as an aside, I've also stopped using danger rooms as they detract all of the tension of a siege, and instead use systems of traps, hallways, fortifications and well-placed ballistae to break sieges.

basically, food manages itself, i make sure I have booze production cranked up to 10 (hard time keeping up with all the needed barrels). I make most dorfs stone crafters or military, the rest doing their own professions, and only really need to micro-manage my steel industry..

Also, I do delve for the beautiful blue metal, but only in limited amounts as you can mine MUCH and not release the circus. But I don't do any artifact manipulation, only savescum particularly when doing !!Science!! with a well established (played many hours) fort, and keep a few worlds on the back burner for doing amusing things like putting [DRAGONFIREBREATH] on elves and badgers

so I'm not sure where that puts me.

[RAKninja]

i play much the same.  i do use magma (2 forges, 3 smelters, and a glass furnace)  i feel their "free" usage is balanced by the fact that they are located on top of the magma...  on a shaft on the opposite side of the map from the main area of my fort.  i do use the blue stuff (my way for making up for a mineral poor embark, that, and i'm planning on having some !!FUN!!).  i dont use DT, too much trouble to compile on my linux system that has no developmental libraries installed.  i play in default ascii/curses tileset.... i cant make heads or tails of the more graphical packs.  i've only made minor changes to my raw files (kobolds needed to survive worldgen).  i never, ever savescum for better items.... or ever, really. 

i make minor use of traps.  i have one trap hallway, and a couple of cages around security breaches in the fortress (especially the accesses to the powertrain of my moat filling setup and the one enterence to cavern level 3 i did not seal)  i also have two weapon traps set up on two windows in the wall around my moat.  usually, though, i meet my foes on the open field.

my military is mainly melee, with a mix of the available weapon types, now expanding into whips.  not a homogeneous force of axes or hammers because they are "the best" (my best solder happens to be a speardwarf more kills than any other dwarf.  granted she uses an artifact spear, but it is copper)

i have designed my fort with little regard for pathfinding or efficiency.  i have a wide range of labors on most dwarves, usually by industry (a common setup is dying, weaving, and clothier.... especially considering decorating goblin clothing is my main industry).  i rarely have more than 10 idlers.  everyone is hauling something somewhere.

[MasterMorality]

Pretty much how I roll, too.
I'd probably use Therapist but I run a Mac (DUCK AND COVER BOYS, WE HAVE FLAMES, INBOUND!).
I can read ASCII, but I prefer the tile sets. They are easier to sort through, even though ASCII isn't a problem.

[Falesh]

I use DT as I would rather spend time playing the game rather then traversing interfaces and I feel DT helps in that regard. I also use the Phoebus tileset as ASCII just doesn't do it for me.

I don't use what I feel is lame or an exploit like getting free barrels at embark or using stuff like a danger rooms and magma pistons. After reading this thread I think I'll try the Fortress Defense Mod, few traps and not having a dug out channel in front of my drawbridges so things have the chance of getting in. Since I am still very new to the game this will probably result in FUN but hey, that should be fun. 

[Strife26]

I'd say that vanilla players tend to be under-represented on the forums, just because there's a lot on here that's focused on all the alternate things to do. I'm a pure vanilla player myself, although I make occasional use of magma and might tweak the mods a bit myself.