PTW/S - Posting to Watch/Suggest
Tiruin was dumb enough to say she would handhold me through a game of non-adventure DF. What a chump.
Fixed.
Alright newbie, listen up.
Most people venture into the world of DF thinking they'll learn the ropes on hand. This is technically impossible without viewing what the mechanics generally do, and what to actually do both in Fortress mode and Adventure mode (the latter is easier on those roguelike-savvy players. . .which is just me saying 'I found Adventure Mode easy!' on my first play). Fortress Mode is a hectic pile of options and menus and orders for a newbie, and which in first glance will be overwhelmed by the amount of
things to do and
what to do with it.In reality, is quite simple. But we'll get to that
after we've created that planet of yours.
The world size generally affects what kinds of terrain may form on the map. Usually, this affects Adventure mode more as it generally means 'longer distance between significant locations' to travel. As a whole, anything
beyond Smaller (Small+) takes up a lot of space-which means having to record a lot more entities than usual.
Which, depending on your PC, would affect the FPS of the game to say bluntly.
Recommending a Smaller world, for starters.The History dictates, to say bluntly, whether megabeasts are still found in-world, and how developed civilizations are. The younger, the more 'savage' the world and the lesser towns or cities (civilization areas where you can buy/sell items in Adventure mode) appear. Vice versa for an older world.
Recommending a Short History, for those who want to get to know the game, yet also want bits and pieces of towns and cities. This usually affects the Eras seen in-world (Age of Myth, Golden Age. . .Check the wiki for more if you don't mind spoilers
)
The Number of Civilizations are exactly what it says on the tin. In a vanilla game, this pertains to the four great races (excluding kobolds): Elf, Dwarf, Human and Goblin. The 'Number' specifically pertains to the varying number of factions in a civilization that exist, meaning how many entity-civilizations exist within one civilization. The higher it is, the more 'spread out' the civilizations are.
Dwarven civs inhabit mountainous regions.
Elven civs inhabit Forested terrain
Human civs inhabit quite a lot of places which aren't mountains or forests, and generally stay near rivers or brooks.
Goblins. . .I'm unsure on this point, but they seem to stay near
evil areas, of non-mountainous or forested region. And even then, neutral areas. Never in
good areas unlike the other 3.
Suggestion varies, but I usually play with the advanced settings. - Hit Normal.Maximum number of Sites = the maximum number of significant areas in-game, like caves, towers, lairs or many other things which don't pertain to civilization settlements.
Suggesting a High setting.Number of Beasts mean the number of semimegabeasts/Megabeasts that exist in-world. These are the great myths and legends which haunt people's dreams, and which may on occasion, visit a developed fortress of (x) population! They are significant for reasons related to skill, prowess, lethality and in general, being scary scary beasts which can kill you off like easy - speed, strength, accuracy - they generally have higher attributes than any mundane creature or civilization peasant. Or made of unconventional materials (like an Owl of Fire.).
Suggests Normal.
Natural Savagery makes the world more or less, 'hospitable' to any settler. I always set this to Very Low because I'm quite picky about sites to create my Fortress in, and really don't like contending with terrain when Dwarves actually create their own terrain. In general, this also pertains to how fast a civilization can grow in their natural area over time (see above).
My suggestion is Very Low.
Mineral Occurrence. This dictates how common minerals (ie gemstones or many other deposits of such kind including flux--the lifestone of steel and many 'metals' [copper/iron. . .]) appear in the layers under the earth. Currently, this has no value in Adventure mode!
But in Fortress mode, it means life and limb for Dwarves.
Suggested: Everywhere.I'm up for editing this later on if information doesn't match.
For Advanced settings, take more screenshots