Chapter 1: You thought you were ready to Dwarf?
PRE-EDIT: This post was too long to fit the 40,000 character limit. The init and worldgen were moved to pastebin to make room! This may be inconvenient as it means opening more links. At the bottom of this post is a link to a .zip that contains the modifications described here and a pre-made world.
So by this point you should have downloaded 3 .zip files (DF, Therapist, and Hack) and trying to shout at your monitor "Alright Girlinhat I'm ready to-" STOP RIGHT THERE! Let's go over basic installation first!
You should have a download list that looks like this:
What you want to do, is unzip all those, and just sorta stuff them all into the same folder. Don't worry, they play nice! The ONE thing that'll happen, is that DFHack will try to replace SDL.dll in the main DF folder - this is fine! DFHack also gives you SDLreal.dll - if you want to uninstal DFHack, you can delete SDL and rename SDLreal into SDL and everything is fine. Either way, DO replace that file!
Your folder probably won't have a "PICTURES" folder. It's simply where I'm storing the pictures on my local computer. It's fine if you want to add your own pictures folder though!
Now, open \Dwarf Fortress\.34.11 Chucklefuck\data\init\init.txt (that is, open the Data folder, then the Init folder, then open "init.txt" inside there). It should look like this:
http://pastebin.com/PLvJMrUaYou'll want to change it, or simply copy this and replace the entire thing:
http://pastebin.com/itDvjM1KWhat we've changed:
Turned off the music.
Turned off the intro.
Slightly tuned the size of tiles used.
Turned on Truetype.
Lowered FPS cap from 100 to 50.
You may leave the music and intro on or off, it simply gets old to me after a while. Truetype is optional, but the default font is a bit harsh on the eyes and not perfectly suited to many things. Using a different font is often VERY helpful, or simply required.
Many players will search for the best FPS they can achieve. I found when learning to play, the default FPS was too high for me to keep track of what was happening. Lowering the FPS limit gave me more time to think and observe what was happening. After a few weeks of play, I started unlimiting my FPS (set to 0, let it run as fast as your CPU allows).
Now, in the same folder, open d_init.txt - init is mostly configuration, d_init is game options and difficulty settings.
It should look like this:
http://pastebin.com/4sMfLCxZYou'll want to make it look like this:
http://pastebin.com/cChrsNdYWhat we've changed:
Turned on autosave.
Turned off invaders and artifacts - don't worry, they'll be turned back on later!
Made coffins deny burial of pets by default - normally any given coffin will get stuffed with one of the hundreds of cats that invariably eats your fortress from the inside out.
Turned autolabor off - new migrants will arrive with NO jobs enabled.
Changed the population cap from 200 to 50 - this is a good idea for now.
Changed the baby cap from 100 to 5 - damn their little pitter patter!
Made engravings start obscured - normal engravings look like something, but with them set as 'obscure' they simply look like nice floor tiles, which is much easier to see.
Show flow amounts - instead of just seeing ~ water, you'll see 3 water. This becomes vital in fluid architecture.
Changed nicknames from REPLACE_FIRST to REPLACE_ALL - when you enter the fortress, you are given a new job, a new life, and a new name!
For those playing with Truetype font enabled (which should be most of you) grab this:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=4460The default font given is a bit iffy. It doesn't have quality symbols or gender, such as ♂ or ☼ and these symbols will display as squares. I personally find the tuffy font linked above has a nice size, and sufficient quality display to work.
Open \Dwarf Fortress\.34.11 Chucklefuck\data\art and replace the font.ttf with the tuffy font, making sure it's actually named "font.ttf" - if you wish to keep the old font just in case, rename it "font2.ttf" or somesuch so you can swap them around later.
Next, you want to do is grab an advanced world generation parameter:
http://pastebin.com/kwjiViQNIn \Dwarf Fortress\.34.11 Chucklefuck\data\init you'll want to open the world_gen.txt and scroll to the very bottom, skip a few spaces, and insert the code above. This will allow you to generate a specific type of terrain that's easier for new players to adjust to.
Finally, you'll want to disable aquifers. Many players will argue about this, claiming that it's a natural challenge to the game, that it should be dealt with normally and is actually a valuable resource as free infinite water AND as free infinite water disposal (don't question it, they're magical things). However, proper use and misuse of an aquifer is HIGHLY ADVANCED dwarven protocol - let no one tell you otherwise. Much like an atomic powerplant, it can be both highly beneficial or highly destructive, and you can handle them later! The truth is, 99% of aquifers cut you off from stone access, which is vital, and you can handle an aquifer on another fortress once you've figured out how to actually mine or farm!
Aquifers are very well documented, in particular:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:AquiferIf you want to remove aquifers entirely:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Aquifer#Text_editor_.28All_operating_systems.29If you want to handle them yourself, this is the most widespread method:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Aquifer#The_cave-in_methodIn this particular instance, we'll simply be taking "the modding method" and removing aquifers entirely.
Now you're ready to actually open the game! Simply navigate to your DF folder, and open Dwarf Fortress.exe and you should get two windows. The first will be a standard Dwarf Fortress window (with truetype font, if you enabled that) and the second will look like this:
This is DFHack. For now, leave it alone. Maximize DF proper (if you want) and scroll down to Design New World with Advanced Parameters:
Choose DEEPFLAT and Generate the world:
It should generate very quickly - if it fails a few times and finally succeeds, that's perfectly normal!
In our case, we've generated The Future Planets as the name of the whole world, and it looks to be a decent world. These specific design parameters are designed to generate an extremely flat world, with mountains in the west and ocean in the east. This particular world is cold in the south and hot in the north, sometimes it's reversed but for now this is how it is.
Assuming you've done this right, you now have generated a decent world! Or, for cheaters, here's the exact world saved, as well as the font, init, and d_init with changes. init and d_init go inside data\init while the font goes inside data\art and the world folder goes inside data\save.
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=8180Now you are ready to dwarf. We will actually embark next time!
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