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[Avanak]

I have been playing dwarf fortress for a few years now since the 2012 update, and i think i have mastered most aspects of the game. I am making a ley's play on youtube and i would like some inspiration for what to do in my world. I have been playing for over one year now, and my fortress is mostly self sustainable with +- 100 Dwarfs being happy and working as i want them.

My question is, what do you guys do when you have your initial fortress setup. Build awesome structures on the surface? Try to conquer candyland? Focus on trading? I just want some inspiration to make the logical next step.
Tnx!

[than402]

here's what i do:

-start a war with the humans or the elves(or both)
-CANDY!!!!!
-become the mountainhome
-train a legendary military and every time the gobbos come,paint the map red
-make some of your dwarves legendary whatever and see how high you can raise the value of your fort
-build an arena and throw goblins inside when you are feeling bored
-breach the caverns.forgotten beasts and hordes of crundles are fun fights indeed
-give armor and weapons to everyone
-when you feel there's nothing more you can do,breach candyland and return to the ruins of your fort with an adventurer
-when the adventurer dies or you tire of him,embark again on a harder location,like a glacier or an evil biome.miasma rain and reanimated cow skin,hell yeah!!!or install a mod and start a new world with more difficult parametres

[Avanak]

Haha, this will sure keep me busy for the next years. Tnx

[than402]

no problem

[Arcvasti]

Better yet: Danger room or enlightenment spike the gobbos in your arena. Then automate the whole fort with minecart logic and machinery.

[than402]

+1.nothing better than turning your fort to a working computer and designing execution methods which would make Caligula look like a kitten.

[Avanak]

My god, let's first focus on not getting killed by goblins, ok?   

[FrankMcFuzz]

I always go crazy with architecture. Multi-level buildings and outside cities out of luxury metal and all sorts of luxurious decorations and MASONS DYING LEFT-RIGHT-AND-CENTER GLORY TO THE GOLDEN FORTRESS.

Or try to figure out pumping without drowning everyone or getting them locked inside their rooms by flooded hallways (I'll get there one day)

[pisskop]

In most of my forts I try to give each generalized industry a separate burrow, and a basic hospital, barracks, and food supply.

Then I broaden my automated defenses.  Then up go the cavern forges and down go the miners.

[Frostea]

Do you have surface constructions like a archery tower? Tear the whole thing down and rebuild it from soap bars.

Are your peasants churning out artifact weapons from moods? Training then to the minimal of adequate in weaponsmithing will help increase the chance of weapon moods. Mine some candy and turn them into waffles. Most weapon moods go for waffles due to their deliciousness.

Put your entire fortress into the militia and use the scheduling system to rotate training so you'd always have a minimal crew for the essentials, and the rest are training to be awesome companions for your adventurers.

Journey to your fortress to retrieve your artifact candy swords and spears, recruit axe lords for companions, and be ready to conquer the world.

[Nikow]

Try other industry. Observe your minions, give some better homes. You hospital needs upgrade. Meybe give them nice, clean water? Train wild animals and make them domesticated? Make cistern with water... or lava. Cannons! Did you tried siege engines? Minecarts? Cats in minecarts? Did you tried make masterwork statue room for lady? Or lord? Pack all these goblins and send them to hearth of mother earth.

Every ancestor have tomb? And slab? And 3 coffers and 2 cabinets? In nice smoothed room? Are you sure they will be resting in pace? Traps inside your fortress just in case? Meybe you need more panic rooms with even more booze and food?

What about emergency response squads? Did i writed squads? What about watter sealing floors in case of problems? You know, gobos defeated your soldiers, they are inside your fortress, plenty. You love you dwarves, protect them!

Are caves secured? Is there protecting squad? Emergency system?

Is there way for creature possesed by you to sneakly enter to fortress and get revange for your dead love lady? Can raiders escape? Can he burry fortress? Can he live in here?

...

[PintOfBass]

Make small mini games for your self.  Mine has been trying to keep the booze spread even among the types I can make.  My current fort has 800 drinks in stock currently with not more then 110 of any kind.  I do it by setting up my brewing area with specific linked stockpiles to different breweries.  I have a few things I do every fort now, like making waterfalls in my main dining hall.  Once you understand the game it gets to a point where you need to give your self objectives and goals from embark, not when you have a hole and a drawbridge.

One that took me a couple tries was have a stable fort, but be able to face the first siege on the field with out depending on cage traps.  I don't do this every time since having that focus changes the play style considerably.

[They Got Leader]

There is a whole wiki page dedicated to challenges for your post-sufficient fortress. Check out some of the crazy ideas.


Now is the time you start your megaproject and enter into the Hall of Fame.

[Nikow]

There is a whole wiki page dedicated to challenges for your post-sufficient fortress. Check out some of the crazy ideas.


Now is the time you start your megaproject and enter into the Hall of Fame.

Or to Hell of Flame

[Quietust]

If you want a real challenge, try playing an older version of Dwarf Fortress:

* 0.28.181.40d - no caverns (only around 15 Z-levels beneath you, and you have to select your embark carefully to get subterranean water and magma), no healthcare (dwarves just lie in bed until they heal, which can potentially take years), simple military (armor levels are just "clothing"/"leather"/"chain"/"plate" and "shield"/"buckler"/"none", and squad commands all have to be done manually), and more nobles (immigrant tax collector, dungeon master, and baron/count/duke), to name a few.
* 0.23.130.23a - only a single Z-level (which always has a cave river, chasm, and magma flow), more restrictions on various things (rooms larger than 7x7 cave-in, farming can only be done indoors on muddy stone, dumping/melting can only be done from the Stocks screen which itself requires the Bookkeeper), lots of nobles (around 50 total, all immigrants), and lacking some of the interface improvements from later versions (no notes, no hotkeys, fixed 80x25 grid size). The main downside is the large quantity of bugs, but I've written lots of binary patches to fix most of them, and a port of DFHack is available to make some things a bit more manageable.

If you want to stick with the current version, the Megaprojects page should give you plenty of ideas.