Print

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

[TinyPirate]

Great news! My book, "Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress" is available at O'Reilly.com! You can pick it up as an eBook or, at not much extra, an eBook and print book combo. The book is also be available on Amazon and other retailers but these eBook do not feature the "Real Time" updates that buying through O'Reilly does. Real Time is a feature whereby a book can be rapidly updated by the author and then owners alerted to download the latest version when it is released. I intend to update the book at all major Dwarf Fortress releases, keeping the book relevant to the reader at all time.

If the cost of shipping the print book from O'Reilly is too much for your location, check out bookdepository.co.uk and other retailers. Some of them offer great deals on shipping the print book.

Of course, the print book does not get real time upgrades!

For those interested, here's the chapter list:

    Foreword by Tarn Adams
    Preface
    Chapter 1: Introduction
    Chapter 2: Playing God
    Chapter 3: First Steps
    Chapter 4: Filling Dwarf Bellies
    Chapter 5: Merchants and Trading
    Chapter 6: Dwarf Resource Management
    Chapter 7: Digging Deeper
    Chapter 8: Industry
    Chapter 9: Justice, Healthcare and Vampires
    Chapter 10: The Military
    Chapter 11: Engineering
    Afterword: Farther
    Appendix

The book clocks in at 240 pages or so and 80,000 words. It features nine full-page illustrations and a half-dozen diagrams by Tim Denee. The illustrations are based on stories from Dwarf Fortress submitted by players on the forum. You can see one here. If you buy the book, I hope you enjoy it! And please, feel free to let me know if there are any problems with the book. I'll be updating it, after all!

Errata
- If you set mineral frequency to "Everywhere" the site finder breaks (known bug) and won't find flux. Turn it down one notch.

[Corai]

I mean no offense.



But shouldnt this be.... not existing until the game is done? In a few months this book will be so out of date it wont be funny. Or is this just how to run a fort, and not covering the features, aside from the basics? Either way, this is impressive. Someone did this without going insane.

[Vherid]

I mean no offense.



But shouldnt this be.... not existing until the game is done? In a few months this book will be so out of date it wont be funny. Or is this just how to run a fort, and not covering the features, aside from the basics? Either way, this is impressive. Someone did this without going insane.

It's made to be updated, that's why there's e-versions. When updated, you get the new pdf.

[isometrist]

And this is superior to the Wiki and forums, how?

[Felix False]

You can make money this way, that's how.

[Ross Vernal]

Well hey, congrats on that. I hope you make money.

Also, jealous that none of my stories made it in. xD

[Corai]

I mean no offense.



But shouldnt this be.... not existing until the game is done? In a few months this book will be so out of date it wont be funny. Or is this just how to run a fort, and not covering the features, aside from the basics? Either way, this is impressive. Someone did this without going insane.

It's made to be updated, that's why there's e-versions. When updated, you get the new pdf.

Oh, I thought it was physical.

[Vherid]

I mean no offense.



But shouldnt this be.... not existing until the game is done? In a few months this book will be so out of date it wont be funny. Or is this just how to run a fort, and not covering the features, aside from the basics? Either way, this is impressive. Someone did this without going insane.

It's made to be updated, that's why there's e-versions. When updated, you get the new pdf.

Oh, I thought it was physical.

You can get a physical, where you wont be updated like that, or the e-book which will be updated like that, or you can get both.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Oh, I thought it was physical.

Protip: "e-"prefix in any word usually means that we're not talking about anything physically tangible.

Seems interesting enough, especially the illustrations. Not something I'd buy myself though, but they've made official strategy guides for worse games.

[WaffleEggnog]

I really think this is cool, and i salute your work, however how does buying a 15 dollar book beat googling "Dwarf Fortress wiki"? No offence or anything, but it reallt seems unnecisary. If i were to buy it, and i might, it would just be for the novelty of having a book on Dwarf Fortress to say to people "Hey, im a massive nerd :3"

Nerd legion, Awayyyyyy

[L3TUC3]

If i were to buy it, and i might, it would just be for the novelty of having a book on Dwarf Fortress to say to people "Hey, im a massive nerd :3"

And that's exactly why I'm buying it.

[silhouette]

Some people like having the old manuals that came with games, you know, the gigantic ones. Its good to just have all that information in one spot which you can refer to at any time.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I would buy it just because it is a beautiful, somewhat archaic object that moves dwarf fortress from a virtual to a material dimension, and allowing it to be a conversation piece. Also Toady wrote the foreword, so it is obviously giving props to the creator rather than profiteering. Maybe I just like books.

[terko]

Some people like having the old manuals that came with games, you know, the gigantic ones. Its good to just have all that information in one spot which you can refer to at any time.

Like those books shipped with all those Dynamix games as for example: Red Baron, Aces over Europe, Aces of the Pacific, Aces of the Deep? Or the big one shipped with MS Flight Simulator 4.0? Or ... hmmm, some of the RPG's had big ones too, even the manual for 'The Settlers', the first one, was, compared to today, a VERY huge manual. Good old times, good old times.

[CodexDraco]

Hey, congratulations and good luck with the book. I might pick it up just for fun.

For people wondering how is this different from the Wiki, these are the differences:
A. It's a book,
B. It's not a wiki.

Seriously you don't need more justification than that. It's why books still exists even when Google and Wikipedia exists.