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[wisnoskij]

Hello all,

I have been a huge DF armchair-fan for years, and want to reinvigorate my will to actually play the game with the release of all these delicious new updates.
Will the new incoming DF update, the the incredible looking Stonesense update (along with all the interim updates like wheelbarrows and combat), I think it is simply time.

But I have always found that the complete lack of in-game goals made it hard to get anywhere with my fortresses. Pretty much I would set up a few farms, mine down a few levels, train a few legendary wrestlers, and build bedrooms; And my dwarfs would eat mushrooms and drink mushroom ale and probably walk around in the nude since I never made a stitch of clothing (and then I would just give up).

So there are two areas I really need to work on.
My Mid-game, after the "getting started" tutorial videos end I really do not know what to do. There is just sooooooo much to do, I get overwhelmed, what are the important parts. Meat, egg, dairy farming? Cloths? Armour? Fancy kitchen prepared meals?
What is the point? I just find that DFes very open ended gameplay make me feel listless. What mini-goals do you set yourself to inspire you to play and keep playing?

[Caz]

The only real goal in the game is survival, everything else you have to decide on. Whether it's taming the caverns, mining into hell, making a temple fully out of adamantine blocks, building a limestone castle and paving the sky, etc etc.

For me it's about building a nice-looking yet efficient fortress that can handle around 150 dwarves and have every industry in the game. Dwarfbucks can also be a goal. How fast can you get to a million? A hundred million? Can you beat sieges without walling yourself in? How about surviving in an evil region where clamshells try to disembowel your dwarves and acidous goop rains from the sky?

 If you're still surviving all that, install Masterwork DF and enable more difficult races to attack you, or try playing as Kobolds or Warlocks or even Gnomes for a change of pace.

There's lots to do.

[hermes]

But I have always found that the complete lack of in-game goals made it hard to get anywhere with my fortresses.

I think most players have the same feeling at some point, for me there were two ways to get over that.  First, keeping track of the narrative of the fortress is really important - start a forum thread in the Community Games and Stories section and write up periodic accounts of what's going on.  Or just share a game privately with friends or something, but just sharing the stories will keep you motivated.  Secondly, impose limits yourself based on roleplay.  E.g. my dwarves are tree huggers and will never cut down trees nor kill elves.  Or embark in a desert and create pyramids.  Something that provides an in-game-physical goal and lends character to the types of dwarves in your fort.  If you have a background/context to play from, then making goals becomes much easier because you can say, well this is what my dwarves would do because of x and y.  This can feed off the game nicely because there are so many cues you can lead from, histories and personalities and whatnot, which then feeds back into the story that emerges and your gaming experience will be much better.

Hope this helps!

[Melting Sky]

Defeat the circus and then engrave the pillars of Hell with glorious masterwork images of your epic victory.

[locustgate]

Too build an gloriois momument two my intelignt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111133t

[KingBacon]

Defeat the circus and then engrave the pillars of Hell with glorious masterwork images of your epic victory Cheese and Thrips.

Fixed that for you.

I'd focus on a niche industry. Right now I am building a fort around fire clay pottery and had to build a bridge across a volcano, which was something of a challenge given the design I had. Now I am digging out multi level chambers in a Marble deposit.

[malvado]

For me it has been hard to actually decide on what to do since you have so many opportunities when you play DF , perhaps :

*You want to design an enormous uber dwarf fortress which spans into the air and deep into the depths?
*You want to make a secure fortress where legends can be brought to life?
*Chaotic evil players tends to make death trap dungeons where there's allways that continency lever which a dwarf "should not" pull but allways pulls and "smash".
*A site for legendary battles?

There's a lot to do, but it's important to use your own fantasy and creativity to manage something you find fun and playable!

[puke]

I generally have a specific goal for each fort.  It might be some entrance design that I want to implement.  Or some crazy fountain idea.

Sometimes, I want to optimize some specific industry and exploit it as horribly as possible.  In one 2D version, it was bulk elephant processing.  I think that failed horribly about five times before I got it right.

Maybe you want to build a crazy aquarium.   Or breed whales in captivity.  Or dam a major river.  Or launch minecarts so fast it creates cherenkov radiation.

In adventure mode, it helps to have specific goals also.  Find a legend of some specific thing, and keep making adventurers from the same civ until you can defeat it.  Or pick a mountain to climb (you get a little message when you reach the peak) or some thing like that.

I think the new adventure mode is going to turn everything on its head, so im sure people will have a huge crop of new goals and challenges being put up on the forums.

[kingubu]

Mog juice.

You should make lavish meals with mog juice.  That will keep you busy for a while.

I've never done it myself, but one hears stories told around the campfire late at night.

[puke]

I've never weaponized gnomeblight, but I've heard the stories.

This is a goal of mine.

[misko27]

I have to go with the "build the narrative". Personally, I just try to build the ideal fort (massive horde in vaults, ominous tower(s), arenas, etc); basically, along the lines of moving from the basics to improve form and/or function.

[HooliganintheFort]

To turn my fortress into the next Boatmurdered.