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[Skyline]

Hey guys,

I already checked out some tutorials, but I'm totally overwhelmed by this game.
Before I spend hours and hours into this game, maybe you can tell me if DF is the right game for me...

Heres a list of my favorite game components:


- every game is totally random

- you start small and get bigger and bigger

- you have some functions to get things done automatically (e.g. chains for food, weapons... so that you dont have to micro every bit)

- you have very deep production chains (deeper than Anno 2070)

- you can play peacefully if you want

- you can explore dangerous dungeons where you might find gold or very strong items/materials

- like in RL, bad things can happen every time (diseases, war, attacks, lack of water/food etc.)

- there is no end where the game calls "Game over"



I'd be very thankfull if someone could check this list for me.


Greetings,
Skyline

[WanderingKid]

- every game is totally random

Check

- you start small and get bigger and bigger

Check... ish.  Your FPS will limit you eventually (takes a while though) unless you've got a Cray in your back pocket.

- you have some functions to get things done automatically (e.g. chains for food, weapons... so that you dont have to micro every bit)

Again, Check... ish.  For example, you'll have to go back and check on your plant maker who makes threads now and then to make sure he's still producing, but thread will get auto-loomed to cloth by the game if you let it.  As to weapons you want the inverse, actually, as you'll want to keep an eye on weapon quality and melt down non-masterwork.

- you have very deep production chains (deeper than Anno 2070)

Not really, you just have a LOT of them.  The deepest one I can think of is the clothing industry if you want to try to max it off, which goes: Farming -> Threadmaking -> Looming -> Dyeing -> Clothes.  However, I've never played Anno 2070 so I can't help you with your comparison to that game. 

- you can play peacefully if you want

The most boring game ever, but yes, there are techniques to seal yourself in a hole and never come out again, ignoring the world around you.  Just have to make a bunch of slabs in memorial to the migrants who keep dying on the surface to all the sieges/ambushes.

- you can explore dangerous dungeons where you might find gold or very strong items/materials

Only in adventure mode, which is different enough (to me at least) that it might as well be a completely different game than fortress mode.  Otherwise you make your own, or trade for base materials to do so.

- like in RL, bad things can happen every time (diseases, war, attacks, lack of water/food etc.)

Yup, definately.

- there is no end where the game calls "Game over"

See Fun!.  But a definately large check.

[silhouette]

-every game is totally random:
Pretty much, but the general idea is the same, however every game IS random, just the far out there things are kind of rare, but you can cause them. (e.g. war with other races, compared to just ambushes and seiges by goblins.)

-start out small and get bigger and bigger

Uhhhh... The MAP doesnt expand but your fortress can grow huge, it is VERY unlikely that you are gonna use the ENTIRE embark (maybe the entirety of two z-levels, but even then you would have to be extravagent.)

-You have some functions to get things done automatically
Ok, this one is a little difficult to explain.

At the start you have some micromanagement, having to order chairs and that to be built, but a little later on ( a little as in IMMEDIETLY) you can assign a dwarf to be a manager  (and build there required rooms) and get a much better menu where the micro decreases substantially (though still requires SOME observance, as it isnt fool-proof, e.g. craftdorf workshops that only use stone may get spammed with "make wooden nestbox"

Thats whats in NOW, however its planned (like #1 on the eternal suggestions) to have better command chains, e.g. If drinks go under 300, make more drinks.

- you have very deep production chain

Hmm, well, you have to melt your ore into bars, then you can make whatever. (pretty much the ONLY production chain in dorf fort.) It isnt very deep honestly, but its preferable like this, basically you just need a rescource, and then you can use that rescource with the workshop that you need to use. There are some exceptions, mainly the metal industry, for bigger production chains.

- you can play peacefully if you want

Yes, you can embark on an island and only have your dorf civ visit you, but you may get attacked by random hostile animals. However you can just turtle/wall yourself in and nothing will bother you. Theres also modding to outrightly remove races.

- you can explore dangerous dungeons where you might find gold or very strong items/materials

-Adventure Mode. though its more like a roguelike, and its kind of realistic... In the way that there isnt much loot just hanging around in caves and that (no real dungeons yet, and civ sites (other than humans) arent implemented in yet, but next version they will be in. There are tombs, and sewers, and catacombs, and caves... and GIANT CAVERNS THAT SPAN THE UNDERWORLD.)


- like in RL, bad things can happen every time (diseases, war, attacks, lack of water/food etc.)

Theres a reason dorf forts motto is "losing is FUN"

Diseases are basically syndromes at the moment, and they can screw your fortress over VERY fast, they come to your fort in two flavours, evil-region clouds, and forgotten beasts.

War - well, in most cases your fort will be ambushed by goblins and seiged by them. And you can do things to make the elves and humans attack yhou.

Lack of food - Only if you are a newbie, experienced players are pretty good at not running out of food, as long as their dorfs dont die in the first month.

Lack of water - This can be a problem, but once again, experienced players can easily find it, and dorfs pretty much only use water for the injured, they instead use booze, which requires food.


- no end.

there is no winning in dorf fort, only many many many ways of losing.

[silhouette]

- you can play peacefully if you want

The most boring game ever, but yes, there are techniques to seal yourself in a hole and never come out again, ignoring the world around you.  Just have to make a bunch of slabs in memorial to the migrants who keep dying on the surface to all the sieges/ambushes.

- you can explore dangerous dungeons where you might find gold or very strong items/materials

Only in adventure mode, which is different enough (to me at least) that it might as well be a completely different game than fortress mode.  Otherwise you make your own, or trade for base materials to do so.

Well, there ARE ways to make it so that you dont have to do that (1. lowering the pop limit.) (2. designing an airlock with a table-meeting zone.)(3. some really really special modding that im not sure actually works.)

Also, you reminded me. The cavern layers themselves are pretty much dungeons, but then there is also the SPECIAL things if you dig too deep.

[Skyline]

Thanks for your quicks replies!

DF now sounds pretty interesting to me. I'll spend some days and get through the tutorials....


Greetings,
Skyline

[KingBacon]

My advice, just experiment. Embark next to a volcano for your first game.

[Sergarr]

Also if you want to play peacefully you can just turn off invaders (d_init.txt in the data\init folder)

[Dwarf Kitty]

DF Hack has several tweaks, bugfixes, and cheats that can help you manage things more effectively.
 
Also, check out the many mods.  The Lazy Newb Pack has a GUI front-end that helps you make some of the more common edits to the raws.
 
Masterwork DF has many more options, plus hundreds of additional workshops you can toggle to include or not include in a game.  The additional stuff adds both ever-deepening production chains, and workshops that improve efficiency over vanilla DF buildings.  Smelt metal ore in batches, make a room's set of furniture in one go.
 
(DF Hack is included in both mod packages.)
 
Through Masterwork's options, I like to play with invaders on, but only the kobolds and a similarly easy cavern race enabled.  Peaceable, but still interesting, and still allows fun with megabeasts and forgotten beasts.

[Skyline]

Hey,

in the last days I went through some tutorials, but I already have new questions. :/



1) Is it possible to build a real fortress? That means walls that can't be walked through, a main entrance (which can be closed when you're under siege) and towers?.
If you can, is there a tutorial for that? Or may you give me some tipps how to do that ingame?

2) Is there a way to build a second fortress that is independent on the first one? If yes, how do I do this?

3) Is there a way to command all my dwarfes to retreat to a specific point? I want to buil some kind of bunker for emergency situations...

4) Why can you generate such huge worlds when you only play at you're embarking position?

5) When you have a self-sustainable economy with military, what do you do after that? I heard of DF having so many opportunities.. Maybe you can give me some examples.

6) Do different kinds of ores have different quality? If yes, is there a list?

7) What are dogs and cats good for? They reproduce like hell and are kind of anoying. I can't butcher them for food, too. :/

May you explain how a manager works?

9) Is there a way to generate new trees when everything is chopped down?


Thank you very much again.

Greetings.

[Cirion]

1) Is it possible to build a real fortress? That means walls that can't be walked through, a main entrance (which can be closed when you're under siege) and towers?.
If you can, is there a tutorial for that? Or may you give me some tipps how to do that ingame?

Of course it is possible use a drawbridge for the gate, maybe some wall grates too and you have a closeable entrance.
I dont know a tutorial for that but only try it out.

2) Is there a way to build a second fortress that is independent on the first one? If yes, how do I do this?

It isnt possible to run 2 fortreeses at the same time in the same world. If you want to run 2 fortresses at the same time you need 2 worlds. But if you retire a fortress you can create another one (in the same world)

3) Is there a way to command all my dwarfes to retreat to a specific point? I want to buil some kind of bunker for emergency situations...

There is a burrow command
If you press... I dont remember exactly ... I think w you can designate a burrow
If you now look at your military alerts (m - a) you will see your burrow listed there. You can activate it and everyone will move to that burrow

4) Why can you generate such huge worlds when you only play at you're embarking position?

Dwarf fortress is still in alpha stadium and is still in development. I think a planned feature is the possibility to interact with the world outside a bit more
And it doesnt make fun to play in a world that is too small

5) When you have a self-sustainable economy with military, what do you do after that? I heard of DF having so many opportunities.. Maybe you can give me some examples.

There is a lot off stuff you can do, but i dont really know much cause i never get that far that it was boring
You can build forts without traps and drawbridges
You can build a fort with no military and only war animals
You can kill all migrants and only keep your 7 dwarves you started with and their children
You can create a world where no dwarves are alive anymore and bring the dwarves back
You can make some !SCIENCE!

6) Do different kinds of ores have different quality? If yes, is there a list?

Only check out the dwarffortresswiki.org

7) What are dogs and cats good for? They reproduce like hell and are kind of anoying. I can't butcher them for food, too. :/

You can train the dogs into war animals
Of course you can bitcher them go under z to pets/lifestock, select the animal and press b to butcher
WHY THE FUCK DID YOU BRING CATS KILL THEM AS LONG AS YOU CAN
They are used to get rid of rats and stuff but ...
Dwarves can adopt them as pets and then you cannot kill them so easy anymore cause it will make the dwarf unhappy and eventually create !FUN!

May you explain how a manager works?

A first you need a table with a chair
Then you need to appoint a manager with n - select manager - r - select dwarf
Then you select the chair with... q i think and assign it to your manager
After that. Ou can go j - m and the. Give a new task

9) Is there a way to generate new trees when everything is chopped down?

Only wait the trees will grow again

[Laurin]

5)
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Mega_project
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Megaprojects
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=39541.0 (lots of images of projects)

6)
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Metal_ore
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Metal

9)
You can also make tree farms - once you have breached carverns with trees in them, plants will grow on soil ground or muddied ground inside your fortress. Dig out a huge area of soil and watch trees sprouting and growing.

[Skyline]

Thank you!

[weenog]

If animals are assigned to dwarfs (or if a cat has adopted a dwarf), they can no longer be butchered.

Bring cats, just make sure they're all or mostly male, and cage any females that turn up as migrants' pets (alternatively, cage any kittens they make).  Catsplosion can happen if you're not careful, but the menace is overrated.  Having all your goddamn food devoured by vermin is an underrated and extremely annoying threat.  If you can acquire a breeding pair of peregrine falcons, and produce some fully domesticated ones, then you can put them on vermin patrol and safely have a cat-free fortress.

What you can do with the game in fortress mode depends mainly on what you want to do, and how much planning and micromanagement you're willing to put into it.  I tend to like large, simple projects.  Digging out, irrigating, and growing a multi-level, wall-to-wall underground forest.  Carefully linking murky pools into a lake that refills faster than it evaporates.  Pouring a giant ice castle with extreme cold weather, cavern water and a bucket brigade.  I've been meaning to cast an obsidian tower and carve it into a skyscraper full of apartments for my dwarfs to live in, but I haven't gotten around to that yet, and my current embark location won't be good for that until I can conquer 100+ zombies and re-do the lake project (I have no cavern water nor aquifer here ).