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Poll

How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?

Captain Duck's tutorials
- 31 (16.7%)
The tutorials on afteractionreporter.com
- 17 (9.1%)
From reading the DF wiki
- 94 (50.5%)
From reading the forum
- 7 (3.8%)
A friend taught Me
- 5 (2.7%)
Other (describe)
- 32 (17.2%)

Total Members Voted: 186


Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 6

Author Topic: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?  (Read 16629 times)

TinyPirate

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How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« on: February 18, 2012, 09:19:28 pm »

I am curious how people first learnt DF? Perhaps not the method that got you the furtherest along, but the method that first had you surviving a few months in DF. I have probably missed out some methods, but the poll above lists those I can think of at this time.

I am interested in how people got into this game!
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Loud Whispers

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2012, 09:21:21 pm »

'Other'

I played in the most hostile environments I could find. Seemed to work in the end.

Sting_Auer

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2012, 09:22:49 pm »

A combination of the wiki and fiddling with everything until I figured it out.
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Thank you everyone for the help! I've since flooded the fortress I was working on and now have a new one going up.

Necromunger

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2012, 09:33:22 pm »

I couldn't stand not understanding this game so i WIKI+Play non stop.
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Daveorock

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2012, 09:37:01 pm »

Wiki + figuring it out.

For me, tutorials were not very good because if I wanted specifics, I'd have to wait for the topic to go by on a vid, or I'd have to scan through the stuff I already figured out.

Still haven't figured out most military stuff, even though I've been playing for a while, somewhere around... idk, 8 months? (I try to get a squad to train and all they do is sit there... Archery range (assigned), check, bolts, check, crossbows, check, squad set to train, check, dwarfs training, NOPE).
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acetech09

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2012, 09:42:11 pm »

A combination of the wiki and fiddling with everything until I figured it out.

^^
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Broseph Stalin

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2012, 09:44:41 pm »

3 days of reading and watching, two weeks of dying.

Talvieno

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2012, 09:44:57 pm »

Huh... I'm in the minority. Being somewhat of a gamer, I'd heard of Dwarf Fortress before, and finally my curiosity got the better of me. So I installed it and started it up.

I was staring at letters. I was also dumbfounded. This is a game? No, surely I must be getting trolled. So I did some google searching. I found what I reluctantly accepted to be fact: this was a game. Sadly, I went back in. I figured out how to look around, found out how to dig, then I forgot how to look around and dug into a river (I thought it was precious gems or something). My dwarves died.

I looked around a bit more and found the LAZY NEWB PACK (insert angelic chorus here)

With fresh determination, I re-entered the game boldy. I was surprised that I was sitting on a flying island in the sky - there were huge areas labeled "empty space", and they were sky-colored. But, I accepted it and built my fortress deep into the mountainside. I was gathering wood, stone; I was building walls, a military... I got migrants, too. Then, suddenly, one year - a goblin attack. I closed my gates and locked my doors, confident that I would survive.

The goblins had climbed down the slopes of the mountain, bypassing my walls. At this point I figured out (after puzzling it over) (and after the goblins climbed down the edge of my "floating island" when they left) that the map was actually 3-D. I went into the controls menu and looked up how to move up and down z-levels.


Basically, I taught myself, for the most part... I didn't discover the wiki or the forums until later.


But, TinyPirate - you're only sampling a small portion of the DF community - that of the forums. =P I imagine there's a lot of people out there who enjoy playing but never visit here.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2012, 09:47:26 pm by Talvieno »
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Girlinhat

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2012, 09:52:12 pm »

Button mashing and a lot of shouting, "WHY LITTLE MANS STARVED?!"

No, really.  My first attempts were pointless meanderings of digging and trying to stockpile.  At some point it all kinda came together, and then I had a minotaur for a mayor.  My lessons in fortress management were built on the corpses of endless dwarves.

The Merchant Of Menace

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2012, 09:52:26 pm »

My girlfriend taught me most of it, and I used the ingame manual for the rest.
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tommy521

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2012, 09:53:11 pm »

'Other'

I started playing after hearing about it. Then a friend helped me but taught wouldn't be the right word, more like laughing at my demise.

Girlinhat

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2012, 09:57:00 pm »

Then a friend helped me but taught wouldn't be the right word, more like laughing at my demise.
Well then what's your definition of helping?

Crustypeanut

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2012, 10:00:53 pm »

Mostly the Wiki here, though the forums certainly helped too. 
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Talvieno

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2012, 10:04:51 pm »

Then a friend helped me but taught wouldn't be the right word, more like laughing at my demise.
Well then what's your definition of helping?
Lmao. Consider yourself honorarily sigged.
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Eddren

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Re: How did you learn Dwarf Fortress?
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2012, 10:06:16 pm »

Then a friend helped me but taught wouldn't be the right word, more like laughing at my demise.
Well then what's your definition of helping?
Lmao. Consider yourself honorarily sigged.
I'm a Second Gen DFer. Was taught by my Father.
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