Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[mscottveach]

So, I've dabbled with DF over the years, never really lasting longer than a single migration wave before getting distracted and moving on
from the game. But recently, I finally sat down and got a lot of things to click. And have my first fortress that is more or less self-sustatining
with 70 or so dwarves.

I have two questions: one simple/shallow and two deeper questions.

1. I am having trouble getting dwarves to make iron. I have a stockpile with charcoal that is giving to the smelter and I have a stockpile
full of hematite giving to the smelter but for some reason I'll intermittently get the message that a refined coal source isn't available. A lot
of times it will work but a lot of times it won't. The charcoal is usually in bins in case that matters. Any idea on what I'm doing wrong?

2. My deeper question is that I've hit a wall on what to do and I'm really torn about about how to proceed. I know there are a lot of things
that I don't know about... things to discover and that if I started readnig online, I would see all kinds of stuff that would make me go "Ohhh,
I can do that?" But I'm afraid of doing that when it's something that might be much more satisfying to discover on my own. But since I don't
know what kinds of things they might be, I have no idea if that's the case or not. But it's like right now I have a bunch of dwarves churning
out metal crafts and weaponsa nd armor. I have squads of highly trained soldiers that more less chew through any beasts I find below. And
I'm left wondering what the point is now... traders come, I sell goods, everyone had nice quarters and it's all feeling like, so, what's next?

In other words, I think I'm in the throes of a mid-dwarflife criss. Any thoughts on hwo to snap out of it?

3. My other deep question is that there are so many dwarves running around that I find it hard to really have a sense of what's happening
in real time. I tend to find out about the cool stuff a little late. A dwarf is found dead and when I go there, I see a giant spider has crawled
to the surface and webbed my wel and caught a dwarf and killed it. By the time I got there, some soldiers had already killed the spider. And
it's cool... but it felt like I was a late to the party.Is that just the nature of the beast (no pun intended) in this game? Or is there a way to
be miore on top of cool moments as they happen?

[99Hedgehog]

1. Sounds like a bug to me.

2. Dig down, nick shit from caravans, start wars, attract megabeasts

3. That's the nature of the game. You aren't some omnipresent guiding force, your a sort-of attentive force that your dwarves may or may not choose to be guided by once in a blue moon.

[bluephoenix]

1. Are you using an older version? There was a bug regarding stockpiles.

2. The stuff 99Hedgehog said, you can build elaborate traps, improve the architecture of your fortress and build large legendary hallways and dinning halls, capture cavern creatures and tame them/weaponise them, play around with liquids, dig down as far as you can and lots of other stuff you can think of.

3. In the top left corner a red "C" will appear if combat happens, if you press "r" you can view the combat reports. You should get Soundsense, it adds music, combat sounds, alerts and a whole variety of other sounds. I never play without it.

[Chief10]

Press u, go to others, often

[Naryar]

Linking stockpiles with workshops tends to create bugs. Just set up a few smelters and put next to it a stockpile that only accepts hematite and coal(charcoal/fuel/etc).
_________________

If your fortress continues to grow you will soon attract goblin sieges. They will try to kill your dwarves and take your fortress by force. The first ones tend to be rather weak, and THEN they bring trolls and war animals and you have goblin cavalry as well. Also, goblin lashers are very Fun.

Have Fun with your first siege.

Also, dig deeper. After the third cavern, when you reach a large, underground layer of magma, seek for pillars of raw adamantine (The game will announce it). It's the best metal in the game by far. Dig through these pillars, and use it. (You need a craftsdwarf's workshop and strand extraction jobs first, and then you melt the threads at a smelter, and then you use it like any other metal).

Also, experient with the game, make cunning traps, build fortifications like you're Vauban, experiment with elves and goblins...
_______________________

Giant cave spiders are fun. You should pause the game in general often, and if you feel unsafe about caverns you should look at the Other list and see what's in the caverns. Some creatures are harmless and you can leave them alone, some creatures are dangerous, and some creatures are exceedingly Fun. (Generally, predators tend to be dangerous).

Announcements tend to help. If you see a red or purple announcement, they tend to be the more interesting ones. (Well, it depends what is interrupting your dwarves). Immediately pause the game and go to it. (I think it's z when the announcement is selected ?)

Red announcements also tend to be before purple ones, so...

[Urist McHendrix]

What version are you playing into? It is a really important point to miss.

1. Learn how to properly queue tasks at the mánager (j)(m)(q)-> type in part of the name to narrow the search, that saves me a lot of headaches regarding stockpile bug/messups, ítem overproduction... It will keep on trying to do the designed tasks until it completes your request with no more input from you, except maybe getting some mats you don't have.

2. Do you have a hospital set up? Fiddled with zones? (i) Thriving textile industry? In my first "succesful" fort I did a skyscrapper for the prisoner killing. Just don't be afraid of trying anything, the more complex it seems at first, the more !!FUN!! it'll be, just don't expect to come up with all the ideas running around, there's some really crazy stuff going on. Digging deeper often nets you some new ores the surfacing layers might not have, be it economic as platinum or even more iron for your steel needs.

3. I dunno if you played any other sim game but it takes a lot of pausing just to check on a couple guys. Here you have 70 dorfs, their cattle and most of the wildlife, which comes into the map unannounced. You can't keep track on it all if you're not willing on playing at a really slow pace.REALLY slow. Of course you should pause the game no and then to check it all out.

[gunpowdertea]

1) bins... oh yes (and seed bags). Basically if a Dorf grabs one to use somthing inside it will block access to it for the others. Using the queues of the manager interface is a good idea for the smelting.

The two other questions: well... discovering stuff by yourself is neat. I play around a bit with the stuff, but also try to read some of the forum posts e.g. on minecarts (which I plan to use more, but my fort sort of sprawls and my way of playing has not yet adapted to them, I build too many stairs). I like the "OMG, they did WHAT?" when reading in the forums...
Get involved with a progression game.
Plan a mega project or a stupid dwarf trick. Build plumbing and "decontamination chambers" in case you get a forgotten beast with deadly dust. Create a way to flood parts of the surface with water / magma / elf tears. Dig deep, unleash what dwells below on the next siege and mop up the remains. Take prisoners using no cage traps (build a maze to guide them)...

But yes, this "oh, it is running very well, how boring" is common...

[Dwarf4Explosives]

1: Bins tend to be buggy. I've heard that this problem decreased with the more recent versions of the game, although I'm not sure.
2: Try to figure out how to do stuff with magma/lava or water. Automation is where the real fun lies in this game.
3: Pause regularly. Check stuff in and around your fort once you've done so. Also, your first few attempts to do what I've suggested for 2 will make sure that interesting deaths fun will happen proportionally little away from your project.

[Goblins]

Like you I'm pretty dang new at this whole game.  It's pretty overwhelming and at times even I am left saying to myself, what should I do now?  Usually I'll try to last longer than the time before or something of the sort.  Starting a war with some hipsters elves always does the trick!

[SirQuiamus]

1) bins... oh yes (and seed bags). Basically if a Dorf grabs one to use somthing inside it will block access to it for the others.

1: Bins tend to be buggy. I've heard that this problem decreased with the more recent versions of the game, although I'm not sure.

--Words of the Wise.

My advice is:

1) Burn the bins. Burn the Armok-damned bins!

2) Maybe burn something else? (preferably something living).

3) Don't sweat it. Let them burn and have fun.

EDIT: Not trying to sound too facetious: I honestly believe, judging by my own experience, that there's bound to be a bit of a slump in interest after you've mastered the basics ("IS THAT IT WHAT I DO NOW?"). But that's only because the possibilities are limitless (a daunting prospect for anyone accustomed to games with a limited number of features). For now, I suggest doing the most unaccountably idiotic things you can think of (coming up with those is entirely up to you). After you've had enough fun, you'll either go on a long and refreshing hiatus, or get swallowed up by a life-destroying megaproject. 

[Button]

If I may suggest, try your hand at minecarts. This challenge was possibly the most fun I've had in Dwarf Fortress, and it wasn't even Fun!

[Skullsploder]

Build somethimg large out of something valuable. I haven't yet pierced the aquifer on my embark and I plan on making copper, gold, silver, and platinum towers, one of each, and I've already wasted all my copper on the first 3 levels. What I'm saying is, challenge yourself to something your dwarves aren't prepared for and don't have the resources for, and you'll have Fun. Guaranteed.

Ideas: super size statues, digging deep, magma projects (require digging deep), water projects, an arena complete with observation deck, all dwarves in the military, conquering the caverns through constant military patrols, elaborate and unnecessarily large traps and defenses (bridge of Khazad Dum, anyone?), a full on goblinite/zombinite based metalworking industry, collecting all the possible industries (use the wiki for this), capturing forgotten beasts alive (hint: cave in and cage traps), starting an exotic animal breeding program, building a temple, offering sacrifices at your temple. There is really so much more than what I've listed here, but it may be enough to inspire you.  Literally anything is doable in this game with a little role playing. It's all up to your imagination.

[puke]

1) bins... oh yes (and seed bags). Basically if a Dorf grabs one to use somthing inside it will block access to it for the others. Using the queues of the manager interface is a good idea for the smelting.

This.  You're not necessarily out of material or experiencing a bug.  You have a bunch of charcoal in a bin, and a dwarf goes and picks up the bin so he can take it and load it with more charcoal.  While he is doing so, the contents of that bin are unavailable.

I think all of these have been suggested, but let me restate for clarity.  Either:

- Have enough bins full of refined coal that this is not an issue
- Limit the number of bins in your stockpile so that there is maybe one or two, and most of the pile is used for lose coal
- Have dwarfs store coal in one pile, and use that pile to feed a second stockpile with no bins allowed.  This second no-bin-pile will in turn feed your furnace.  Bonus points if you use a minecart to do the cross-stockpile feeding and make the second one a quantum-stockpile.
- It is just iron, man!  Why are you not smelting with magma?  You don't really need coal unless you are making steel.

Note that locating magma when there is no caldera nearby often helps alleviate boredom or "what do I do now" sorts of issues.  I'm usually kept interested by zany architecture / deathtrap ideas, or plotting layouts to optimize efficiency for some aspect of a fort.  What hooks your interest may vary.

As for #3, I think the guy that mentioned Soundsense has the right of it.  I've never tried it, as I think it requires DFHack and I'm not a big fan of that.  You may be able to run it without DFHack, I know you could at one time but the current version may be dependent on it.  Not sure.  Also, you may not have the same aversion to DFHack, making it a total non-issue.

[gunpowdertea]

... and you can also run dfhack without actually using it (just for some bugfixes, like the creatures that would not grow to full size in an earlier version & stuff). (just sayin', not trying to convince you to use it)

I usually plan some exciting mega projects that then grind to a halt because of... stuff. Like FPS, or boredom, or caverns in the wrong location and needing to dig around them while being invaded by hordes of zombies from above and several FBs from below 'cause hey the caverns seem quiet at the moment, no need to wall off some sections, and blood, blood everywhere...
Next things I will try: reduce fortress sprawl by getting everything as close to the Magma as possible, conquer all caverns and have a military stron enough to hold them, change fortress design so minecarts are useful. As a casual DF player those are all difficult enough for me. Oh, and try to build an autmaton doing something useful, like opening doors when trade season should be upon me (can be XfunX, 'cause I now get undead sieges...)

[puke]

... and you can also run dfhack without actually using it

Its not that I don't want to use it or that I am against cheating or whatever.   Its that I don't totally trust someone elses home made memory hacking utility not to make the game less stable than normal.