Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Xenigmata]

Hey, Think anyone can help me? I've created a couple worlds now, and played them. But if i close dwarf fortress for whatever reason it does not seem to retain the world or fortress i created in it. Additionally, I selected "save" from the in-game menu and it still behaved this way. Any help guys?

[Garath]

you end with esc - save game? And the game doesnt close unexpectedly?

strange.

[Xenigmata]

yes, i press escape and save. and then later when i come back to try and play dwarf fortress again there is no world and i would have to create another one.

[NecroRebel]

This is usually caused by someone neglecting to actually extract the archive to an actual folder. When downloaded, the game is in a compressed form, which makes it smaller and thus easier and faster to download, but it is impossible to save worlds in that state. You'll need to extract it, using winRAR or a similar program, to a folder on your hard drive in order to save games.

The other possibility is that you've got your dwarf fortress folder set to read only, but that's probably pretty unlikely.

[Flying Dice]

This is usually caused by someone neglecting to actually extract the archive to an actual folder. When downloaded, the game is in a compressed form, which makes it smaller and thus easier and faster to download, but it is impossible to save worlds in that state. You'll need to extract it,

Uh, just... wow. That's almost certainly right. Wow. I honestly would never have thought of that.

[Garath]

I didn't even know that was possible.

[Xenigmata]

O.K. It is not in archive form anymore, I used Winrar, but i still had the same problem, so then i tried extracting just the Dwarf Fortress.exe, but when i ran that file everything went weird. I was bombarded by a number of error messages, and archiving windows. Then something about an internet e-mail address. I. am. so. confused.

[Flying Dice]

O.K. It is not in archive form anymore, I used Winrar, but i still had the same problem, so then i tried extracting just the Dwarf Fortress.exe, but when i ran that file everything went weird. I was bombarded by a number of error messages, and archiving windows. Then something about an internet e-mail address. I. am. so. confused.

You need to extract everything, and put it in a folder.

I didn't even know that was possible.

I knew it was possible, I just didn't think there was a single person in the world who would be playing a roguelike and not know to extract the game files... 

[NecroRebel]

You have to extract the entire archive, not just the executable. If you extracted just the executable, there's no question that it wouldn't work; none of the files that it references in order to function would be where it could get to them.

Um. Once you extracted the archive, you didn't try to play out of the archive again, did you? You have to play out of the copy that you extracted to. Assuming you got the whole archive (sometimes WinRAR only extracts one file if you have one selected accidentally), I have no idea why it wouldn't work at that point.

[Flying Dice]

Okay, step by step here:

1. Make a folder. Name it "Dwarf Fortress", or whatever else you want.
2. Copy and paste the archive (the file you downloaded) into the folder you just created.
3. Right click, and click "Extract here".
4. Wait for all the files to extract.
5. Run the executable file (not the one in the archive).

[knutor]

Or try a launcher, like Lazy Newb Pack.  I found LucasUPs app to be a godsend, when I started. 

[Xenigmata]

Thanks so much guys! It works  and yes, I'm kind of new to these kind of things. So bear with me, I might post a lot of help seeking articles lol.

[Garath]

1: Try the search button first, likely most questions will have been asked before.
2: the df little questions thread is to stop the forum drowning in little questions, please use it.
3: Worship the wiki! Seriously, use the wiki.
4: Keep in mind that the game is much more complicated than it looks. It includes weather patters and temperatures, water pressure and flow strength, social interactions between dwarfs and finally, booze.

[demonator775]

If you are using the Lazy Newb Pack you may have to say no to compress save. There is a rare bug and it wont save you fortresses if you have it set to compress them. Coincidentally I have that weird bug o.O

[Xenigmata]

Thanks Garath, I'll keep that in mind.