Print

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

[KaiZ]

I've gotten into DF recently, I'm following this guide: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Quickstart_guide.

I'm nearly finished with it, but I've been thinking, what is there to do after I finish the guide... It doesn't seem like I can use my military to attack other civilizations around the world, hell I can't even zoom out to see the whole world apparently...

I've been loving DF, it's a really great game, but I'm failing to see a point to continue playing it in the long run...

[Fluoman]

Expand your fortress. The challenges will come from doing that (and creating value).

[ZNAG1066]

Try This:

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Mega_construction

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Challenges

one thing I also like to do is raise the population cap. See if you can keep all you dwarves happy...

[MagmaMcFry]

Try doing stuff listed here, here or here.

[Vndetta]

It's been my experience that there are two "difficult periods" (read: fun) in the game: that first setup where you get everything running smoothly, and the second era of all sorts of crap going horribly, comically wrong.

The longer you play, the more wealth you'll accumulate, attracting all sorts of random and deadly things. ("special visitors" come from miles around to check out your =pig tail fiber sock= collection). You'll be attacked, and ambushed, and wild (and occasionally fantastical) creatures will wander in to terrorize your population. You can trade every year and start wars in that fashion if you're so inclined. There's quite a variety of industry in this game, and it takes a good while to get every possible one of them up and running, given map resource limits and such, but it could theoretically be done with any embark location.

Also, your population will grow (or shrink, if you're doing it wrong right). It's not always easy to keep everyone happy/fed/clothed perpetually. There's the threat of moods over time, nobles and mandates. Since I haven't been into the mega-construction field yet, it's the random events that keep me playing long-term... along with the neat continuity of my dwarves having kids having kids having kids and so forth (I nickname my dwarves based on something they like, and then name+number their children after them - their father's name II if male, mother's name II if female, so it's fairly obvious in my forts).

Oh, and technically there's a third era as well, but that one is a secret made more fun by being unspoiled.

[Wimopy]

Once you get rolling, just try and keep rolling, the game WILL challenge you, and your first real fault will crash all your work. You can try challenges posted earlier if you REALLY want to, but the game WILL bring you down, one way or another.

Your demise will come from the outside, the inside or from elsewhere, but it will come.

[i2amroy]

Dig deeper. All sorts of fun comes from the lower caverns and whatnot below your fortress, and many a fort has crumbled in an attempt to civilize what is below them. And if that isn't a challenge enough for you you can always pick up one of the many mods that makes the cavern system even more challenging.

[moki]

With this game, you always lose sooner or later, sometimes winning epically in the process... just raise the pop cap to 200, dig as deep as you want, start experimenting with magma and/or try building elaborate megaprojects.

My current fort is in year 8 with 130 dwarves, a (basically immortal) military and enough food and booze for years. I could literally leave it alone for a day and there'd be no problems. To make it more interesting, I'm building a magma-based defense system and a tower that will eventually house the whole population. It's not strictly necessary for the survival of the fort, but it's one of many fun projects that can potentially result in Fun. If these get finished without everybody dying a horrible death, I'll try my luck with colonizing the caverns. Another intermediate goal is to attract the king and have him live in a grand palace with his whole entourage.

Since DF has no goals (except survival) and will probably never have any, you'll have to make your own. Some like to make everybody happy and some just try to build giant constructions out of cave dragon tallow soap while others try to cage every invading goblin and fight them in an arena. There are so many possibilities, you just have to think of ones that best fit your style.

[Wimopy]

a (basically immortal) military

Bit off topic, but unless you have a modded race, your military will eventually get killed by something... Be it a random arrow, a lucky stab, special powers or natural causes (cave-in, bad mood, someone else having a bad mood - I call those natural in DF), unless of course they never see action, then they'll only face natural dead.

[moki]

Well, of course they can die, but when I know that 1 soldier can take on at least 10 goblins in close combat and I have 50 of those, that's as close to immortal as you can get in DF. Of course, a random arrow to the eye or a forgotten beast with insta-rot dust is as deadly to these as to anybody else. So far, I've lost only one and that was to some hill titan who shot webs all over the place.

Back to topic: Losing a single dwarf can sometimes be the start of much Fun. Trying to keep everybody from killing eachother during tantrum spirals is one of my main occupations in almost every fort after a while.

[Aerie]

What is there to do in DF after setting up a working basic fortress?

Anything you want to do.

[Particleman]

Have 'Fun.' Megaprojects are a good source of it.

[Aaarrgh!]

Have 'Fun.' Megaprojects are a good source of it.

This. For example, right now I'm working on a system that allows me to flood and drain any area of my fortress I choose. Why? I say it's for security, but really it's because I love designing stuff. That, and pulling the 'Master flood lever' will be so much fun...

[Azated]

Have 'Fun.' Megaprojects are a good source of it.

This. For example, right now I'm working on a system that allows me to flood and drain any area of my fortress I choose. Why? I say it's for security, but really it's because I love designing stuff. That, and pulling the 'Master flood lever' will be so much fun...

I like to do things like this. If anyone survives, I call them the master race. Any new migrants are slaves to these heroes and must build them a massive pyramid. Failure to perform extremely well means they get sent to the gauntlet, a set of trials and tests. If they survive that, they become a semi-master race.

It's lots of fun.

[Sutremaine]

I'm nearly finished with it, but I've been thinking, what is there to do after I finish the guide... It doesn't seem like I can use my military to attack other civilizations around the world, hell I can't even zoom out to see the whole world apparently...

You've picked a pretty good time to get into the game. The next release (some time this year) will allow you to interact with the world more. At the moment the world is more for Adventure Mode, whereas Dwarf Mode is about settling down in one spot and entertaining various visitors to that spot while doing whatever you want. Right now my original plan was to completely seal off the farming area and have items be moved by cart so there'd be no more seed spam (turns out I don't really need to do this), but the zombie horde and my attempts to make it go away have chipped away at my population to the point where I have one pair of married dwarves. The fortress isn't taking in any migrants and won't be for the forseeable future, and all the other adults are either widowed, related, the same sex, or too far apart in age. Losing the wrong few dwarves will stop a generational fort from happening entirely, and that's turned into a self-imposed lose condition.