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[Wilm0chimp]

I am trying to find my fort in adventure mode, I've done it before in much older versions so I know very roughly what I am doing. I know its location on the world map etc. Here is where I am having problems:

1) Rivers. How on earth do I get past them during fast travel? I can cross them in zoomed in mode, but all of my companions drown or get stuck.

2) Starting position - I choose a dwarf civ near my fort, but the actual character seems to be placed in a totally random human town. I have no idea where I am, and the fast travel map is utterly useless. Its a large region, and combined with the millions of rivers I find moving anywhere utterly impossible. How can I tell where I am on the world map, so I at least know what direction to go?

3) Ambushes. The constant god damn ambushes. Ive just lost a fourth character after ~2 days in, from human overlords ambushing me and killing me. There is zero chance of winning these fights because they are so strong. What am I meant to do here?

I really appreciate any hints or advice anyone can give me.

[Pie Maker]

1.I am afraid that it is currently impossible to cross rivers in fast travel mode, even if you mod yourself to play as a flying creature. You can, however cross over bridges, which are commonly found in towns built near rivers. When crossing a river in the local map, I generally follow this procedure:
i.Enter river and cross quickly.
ii.Move swiftly away from the river, in a straight line, pressing 'T.'
iii.Eventually you will stop receiving the message about not being able to fast travel because of there being a river nearby and you will enter the fast travel screen.
iv.Fast travel as normal. When you exit the fast travel screen, your companions will somehow be next to you.
Warning:Your companions might occasionally drown or be lost if you fast travel whilst they are too far away.

2.In the current version, human sites are the only civilisation sites in game. Thus, all characters (except outsiders, iirc) start out in human towns. This will change in the next version, when all civilisations will have their own unique sites. Also, to get a general idea of where you are going, press 'm' twice whilst fast travelling to bring up the world map. Note that the world map is not initially complete; you will have to travel towards the unknown areas to fill them in.

3.A few suggestions:
i.Don't travel at night-you are much more likely to be ambushed if you do. Instead, sleep until dawn in a village/lair. This will also, of course, reduce drowsiness.
ii.At first, try not to travel through the wilderness excessively. Try sticking around towns instead, so as to be able to sleep safely.
iii.Visit a fortress or keep and recruiting as many soldiers as you can, and as soon as possible. You can also find soldiers in towns occasionally. These companions will help you greatly if you are attacked. (ie. meatshields).
iv.Try to take easy quests first, such as killing a dingo in a nearby cave. Leave quests such as killing bandit leaders, night creatures and megabeasts for later. Also, if you are unskilled, it might not be a good idea to travel halfway across the world to reach a lair/town/etc.

[Wilm0chimp]

Thanks for your reply, even with a squad of 5 human warriors I got ambushed by 8 goblins, and died to one bolt almost instantly.

I am trying to navigate my way across a large region, so im not sure if hopping from town to town is possible. I ended up giving up out of frustration, because of the near constant impossible ambushes. Im using masterwork DF and a newer version of DF, so I am hoping to start all over again.

Kind of sucks though, because I really wanted to get my hands on that artifact adamantine battle axe / chain mail :/

[Trif]

I am trying to navigate my way across a large region, so im not sure if hopping from town to town is possible. I ended up giving up out of frustration, because of the near constant impossible ambushes. Im using masterwork DF and a newer version of DF, so I am hoping to start all over again.

Here's your problem. Masterwork was designed around fortress mode, so it has a ton more creatures and other features to make the game more challenging. Adventurer mode is pretty hard for newbies in vanilla already, and learning how to play in an even more challenging way isn't much fun.

[Wilm0chimp]

I actually worded that badly, I mean't I gave up on my old vanilla fortress (and vanilla adventure mode), and I am now trying out masterwork. Still getting ambushed a lot, but it seems less than the near constant stream from before. It was seriously ridiculous, I've never seen any letsplays where people get ambushed that often.

[Deon]

Pick a civilization with towns which is closest to your fort.

By the way, if you play as a creature with AT_PEACE_WITH_WILDLIFE (like elves in vanilla), it's easy to travel through wild regions without any encounters.

[Wilm0chimp]

Pick a civilization with towns which is closest to your fort.

By the way, if you play as a creature with AT_PEACE_WITH_WILDLIFE (like elves in vanilla), it's easy to travel through wild regions without any encounters.

But don't you spawn in a human settlement regardless of what race / civ you pick? I pick a dwarven civ that is quite close by, but I have no idea what human civ I end up in, and as far as I can tell there is no global map I can pull up to check where I am.

[Gaybarowner]

from I learned for over 11 months is more people you have in your rag-tag band of adventurer more ambushers are in the ambush same go for zombies as companions I had 30 pieces of gands heads ect and was surrounded by 30 goblin archers

[Wilm0chimp]

Is the ambush rate still considered bugged as of the current version?

Im wondering whether I was playing an older version, which had the utterly bonkers ambush frequency. Ive yet to try out the newest version modded with masterworkDF that much, but it doesn't seem as bad.

[Trif]

0.34.01 had loads of ambushes, but you shouldn't play that one, it corrupts your saves.

[Matoro]

1) Rivers. How on earth do I get past them during fast travel? I can cross them in zoomed in mode, but all of my companions drown or get stuck.

You can't. However, I can give tips for getting companions through rivers. If you move to same tile where your companion lies, your companion "teleports" to your original tile. So quickly cross the river and then go back to swimming (swimming skill shoulb be adequote or higher) and move to your companions tiles. Repeat that as long as your companions are safely at other side. I can't explain it better, I suggest you just go and trie that yourselves. Numpad keys (moving diagonally with numpad helps alot).

2) Starting position - I choose a dwarf civ near my fort, but the actual character seems to be placed in a totally random human town. I have no idea where I am, and the fast travel map is utterly useless. Its a large region, and combined with the millions of rivers I find moving anywhere utterly impossible. How can I tell where I am on the world map, so I at least know what direction to go?

Shift+q gives you little larger scale map. You could also use Legends Viewer or some other utility to get good map from whole world.

3) Ambushes. The constant god damn ambushes. Ive just lost a fourth character after ~2 days in, from human overlords ambushing me and killing me. There is zero chance of winning these fights because they are so strong. What am I meant to do here?

Vanilla DF (newest version) doesen't have this problem. Masterwork is your problem (btw awesome mod). For surviving ambushes I can give one tip. Sneaking. You should have spent little points in ambusher skill, so you can sneak more easily. Try run behind trees or into pond or something like that so you can turn sneaking on. After that, you are completely invisible and you can continue your journey.

[zimluura]

large regions are tough to navigate.  i usually stick to medium for cpu usage reasons.

but that's neither here nor there.

try building a few more forts, little 2x2 forts that are on the way from the fort you are looking for to the nearest road.  building them near rivers/streams/brooks, with wells.  shelter is good too.  embark with leather to make more waterskins and basic armor.  embark with iron ore and you can build your guy some plush gear.

[Bloax]

The most trouble you'll ever really experience with crossing rivers is when your companions decide to go hunting in a reviving evil biome, but otherwise - just swim over the river, and just as you get back to land, do the Z thing and wait an hour.

Voila - your companions will suddenly be around you.

[chevil]

You can teach your companions to swim. All it takes is a small murky pool and some patience.
1)Enter the pool and press period until your companion enters.
2)Exit the pool and press period until your companion exits.
3)Repeat until your companion stops floundering or drowns.
4)Go kill some carp with your swimming companions.

When I play adventure mode I usually try to create a band of bad ass adventures and spend a lot of time babysitting my companions, killing wildlife and use DFhack a lot to find the strongest soldiers and have them well equipped.

[gman8181]

Companions aren't really worth it imo with this version.  Having more companions will only result in you getting ambushed by more enemies.  No matter what they will outnumber you.  Just train up sneaking, dodge and wrestling.  Sneak everywhere and when you get ambushed by enemies, you can just run behind a tree, enter sneak mode and then strangle them all.  Oh and kill bogeymen by biting off their limbs and waiting for them to bleed out.

In my experience as much as it sucks, avoiding fast travel is much better for survival.  You won't get ambushed and you can sneak everywhere which means the enemy will almost never have the advantage over you.  Obviously this comes with the downside of having to spend a long time traveling though.