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[MisterMoxxie]

So, Im all new and such, and I've got a few questions.

I've got the basic idea down I think. I can get a good sized fort built (biggest so far was 86 dwarves including children), but my main issue is what to actually do after a certain point.

Basically all of the forts I've built so far go like this; indoor/outdoor farms, carpentry and masons shop, and storage space. From there I basically just build a bunch of rooms, a dining hall, and more workshops. But I don't really know what I need to be doing from here on.

Also, hello!

[arzzult]

Dig deeper, find more valuable resources, pimp out your fortress, survive sieges and make a mega-project.

[Michaelsoftman]

Hi!

You should try embarking in a more savage area, and make sure Goblins are around to siege your fort.

The 'end game' is basically trying to survive, and military fun.

Also if you dig deep enough, you might find a challenge or two down there

[white_darkness]

explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate

[tahujdt]

Have !!FUN!! If you're lucky, you might get a message from Happy Fun Surprises, Inc.

[Lordraymond]

Spoiler: Warning! Endgame Spoilers! (click to show/hide)

Dig until you find a sea of magma, and look around. You should be able to receive a special message and find a teal metal in large spires all around. Mine it all. If you dig all (or a variable amount in many cases) of it up, you unlock the special endgame message and a secret new mode that you can access from your current save called "Hell mode". It's really !!FUN!! However, you have to mine it all, and if the message doesn't come up it means you missed too much of it.

[xar23]

I'm sure that other people may have different ideas about what's going on, but it seems to me that you've reached the point where you've done what you "need" to do to create a functioning and self-sustaining fort.  What you have to do next... is actually something you should have done before you started.  My forts get bogged down about where yours do when I don't have a grand design when I start.  A vision or goal for what this fort is "going to be."  There's really nothing else you "need" to do, other than grow your fort organically to keep up with population growth and increase defense of your hoard as it grows more appealing to covetous goblins and the like.  But for a large, complicated fort to be fun (for me), it needs to be building toward a goal.

One of my favorite forts had 2 main goals: 1) try to build as much of the fort as I can on a single level; 1a) use as few right angles as possible in the construction; 2) segregate work, sleeping, and meeting areas in such a way as to force dwarves to (inefficiently) traverse through an ultimate pleasure waterfall/statue garden/zoo.  Nothing amazing for the really talented people on here, but just having a goal before I started the fort placed restrictions on how my "beginning fort" could be laid out, and gave direction to the fort once all the needs were met.

[MisterMoxxie]

Wow, thanks for all the fast replies! 

I guess I forgot that DF is opened ended, and has no real way to 'win', other than by constantly not losing xD

Another question. What exactly does history length change as far as gameplay, if anything? I just spent about 20 minutes waiting for a large sized world with very long history and very many sites to load.. I escape'd out after 581 years O.o

[xar23]

World size and age (and thus number of historical figs etc) play a big role in how quickly your fort will begin to suffer FPS problems.  I'm sure there are other things too, but I tend to go with medium worlds with short histories just so I can play the forts longer without atom-smashing all the rocks to rescue the FPS.

[Girlinhat]

History doesn't change much practical gameplay in fortress mode.  There's a small chance it'll change your caravan resources - elves may have settled in different biomes and bring you different exotic animals, and dwarves may settle in areas with different ores, bringing more variety of items.  You also get different engravings, if you care about that.

On the gameplay side, you've apparently passed the fledgling phase.  DF seems to play out in three stages.  First is the panic "Oh god how does Dwarf?!" stage of noobhood.  Much Fun to be had.  Second is when you've got a handle on how to feed, protect, and grow a fortress.  You're stable, and you move to megaprojects to progress your mastery over construction and large-scale efforts.  Third is science, when you start over-analyzing the details and find order among the chaos, setting out specifically "I will not build a grand tower, but I will drop 30 migrants off a bridge and record their wounds in detail."

As per schedule, start building something massive.

[saltmummy626]

I guess I forgot that DF is opened ended, and has no real way to 'win', other than by constantly not losing xD

actually I have come to believe winning in this game is either losing extravagantly, doing something truly epic, or having fun. not !!FUN! just normal fun. as long as you are enjoying your self, you win. even if your losing, as long as you have fun doing it, you win.

[Psieye]

A vision or goal for what this fort is "going to be."  There's really nothing else you "need" to do, other than grow your fort organically to keep up with population growth and increase defense of your hoard as it grows more appealing to covetous goblins and the like.

DF seems to play out in three stages.  First is the panic "Oh god how does Dwarf?!" stage of noobhood.  Much Fun to be had.  Second is when you've got a handle on how to feed, protect, and grow a fortress.  You're stable, and you move to megaprojects to progress your mastery over construction and large-scale efforts.  Third is science, when you start over-analyzing the details and find order among the chaos, setting out specifically "I will not build a grand tower, but I will drop 30 migrants off a bridge and record their wounds in detail."

These two points sum it up pretty much: come up with a goal now that you know how to survive. Mind, not all goals have to be architectural. Creating a squad of lashers who all wear red capes and black shirts; commemorating the key events of your fort's history with individually selected statues; having all the doors in your fort be decorated with the 3 most common materials in your fort - these are all valid project ideas. Architectural (mega)projects just happen to be the most intuitive of goals to go for as it employs lots of would-be-idlers and you have a lot of control over how it turns out.

[Sting_Auer]

Spoiler: Warning! Endgame Spoilers! (click to show/hide)

Dig until you find a sea of magma, and look around. You should be able to receive a special message and find a teal metal in large spires all around. Mine it all. If you dig all (or a variable amount in many cases) of it up, you unlock the special endgame message and a secret new mode that you can access from your current save called "Hell mode". It's really !!FUN!! However, you have to mine it all, and if the message doesn't come up it means you missed too much of it.

Another thing you may want to do is embark in a terrifying biome and wait until clouds of (insert randomly generated name here) show up. Send a few dwarves or animals out there every now and then. It turns them into super-soldiers that will survive even if their skulls are smashed in. It's awesome! It's perfect for fighting the HFS

[slothen]

Water.  Play with water.
Drowning traps, indoor waterfalls, waterfall traps, freezing traps (the degrinchinator) dwarven showers, ponds, wells, aqueducts, dwarven swimming pools, dwarven water elevators. pump stacks, dwarven water reactors, indoor rivers.
Then automate all of the above with pressure plates.
Then do it with magma

Play with fun ways to destroy goblins (literally hundreds).

Play with fun ways to execute prisoners (execution tower, execution pit, death by wild animals, death by trained animals, crushing, burning, drowning, execution squad, beheading, beatings, beatings with sticks)

Become a mountainhome, build opulent rooms and furniture for your nobles, or murder their pets and watch them go insane.  Spread their anger at unfulfilled mandates to your fortress by employing a fortress guard with no jail so they hand out beatings every time someone steps out of line.

Build fun buildings and rooms like statue gardens with statues organized by subject, jails, fighting arenas, hospital with isolation ward, danger rooms, fortress self-destruct systems.

Try grand designs or themes

Implement challenges on yourself like no or restricted mining, above-ground constructions only, no traps OR no military. or vow to survive without farming, or try difficult embarks, areas with no trees, or aquifers, glacial embarks or evil embarks.

Or build a regular stable fort and once your bored, then decide on a megaproject.

[Lovecraft]

Try learning how the military works and embark in areas where all sorts of !FUN! lives. If you're feeling social, create or join a succession fort, plenty of !FUN! to be shared. Try out some mods to up the difficultly or make some of your own.

Good luck.