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[Dumatoin]

I feel like a complete newb here..

Haven't played for a while downloaded the new game, chose a place with mountains, and the place is heavily forrested, thick vegetation, it's calm,

But when i start my camp, there are no trees, no shrubs, just grass and empty spaces.

What am i doing wrong?

[Torak]

Z axis of 150+ wont grow trees.

[GreyMario]

You chose a place that is above the treeline.

Pray you can get down to the treeline, or import all your wood.

[Dumatoin]

Oh... hmm....
thanks for the rapid replies.

[Torak]

quote:Originally posted by Dumatoin:
<STRONG>Oh... hmm....
thanks for the rapid replies.</STRONG>

I've really got nothing better to do between trying to  save my *new* magma nuked fortress and keeping my music playing in full screen mode.

[Dumatoin]

Wow, am i doing something wrong? Or is it ALOT harder to find a spot to start a fortress in this game now?

Before you were automatically placed next to a mountain with trees.

My first attempt, i didn't know i needed to find a mountain, and i heard there were different levels (ie digging down) so i thought maybe i could build my fortress underground, but couldn't figure out how to dig down.

So i gave up on that, and tried to find a mountain, so i did, and found one.

THen i realized there were three windows i was looking at, local regional and world. So even if one window said there were mountains nearby, it didn't mean there were going to be any on my camp site map.

Ok, start over.
Now i have mountains, but no trees.

Start over, look for heavily forrested.
OK done.
Still no trees..

I must have made a mistake.
Start again..

Still no trees WTF??

GO to forum.
"You're too high"

Ok start again.

... How the hell do i find out how high i am when selecting a location?
Heh, this game went from pressing "e" for embark to needing a degree in DFology to be able to play.

I guess "stop playing DF for 6 months and come back and see what changes Toad has made" is no longer a viable tactic. Well, without reading a whole lot.

Unfortunately, i'm one of those people who doesn't read the manual of a game until i've played it for 6 months, i feel like it's like a giant spoiler/cheat for me! *retard*

I don't suppose there is an "autofindgoodcampsite" feature?

[Aspartic]

When selecting a location, the F keys will display different biomes with in the selected area. Make sure you check them all to see what is actually there. The displayed stuff is just biome1. (Which might be like 1 square you cannot easily get to.

To dig up or down you need to designate ramps or stairs.
[d]esinate
[r]amp

or

[d]esinate
[j] downward stair
pward stair

There is also options for constucting stairs and ramps from
uild
[C]constuct
[r]amp or p / [d]own stairs

My advice would be to hit up the wiki and use one of the posted seeds there. You know what you are getting, and you can look at the embark screen and see how that info translates into the actual location.

[Lord Dullard]

Dum:

When you're selecting your fort location, use the 'tab' key to switch between window modes. One of them is an altitude/relative height map; this is what you're going to want to use to determine whether there are trees around or not. Generally, trees tend to grow in the darker shades of blue.

Your best bet is to go somewhere where a stream/river runs through a mountain range. This is often where I find my best starting locations, because the land the stream is on will typically be drastically lower than the mountains, and will usually be forested enough for me to have plenty of wood. If you want magma, spend some time skimming up and down the mountain tiles to either side of these rivers because they contain a lot of 'crossover' area with brooks running through mountain/forest, so you might be able to find one with a magma vent all in the same area.

Also, you can just try looking over your map to find True Volcanoes (the red ^ tiles). Often-times you can find these in forested areas, so you'll have Magma vent/forest/mountains all in the same spot.

As for switching between Z-levels - use the > and < keys to do so. Your dwarves will need to build stairs or ramps (either by digging them out from the 'D' menu or building them with the 'B' menu) in order to get between the Z-levels, and for stairs it is necessary to keep in mind that you have to build a down-stair above an up-stair for them to work. Up/down stairs are, obviously, both in one, so you can connect them to another up stair above them or a down stair below them, or to another up/down.. oi. My head hurts.

But yeah, you get the idea (hopefully).

[Dumatoin]

Ok... this game is officially too complicated for me.

[TeDDD]

Keep with it.  I started playing a couple weeks ago, and I was only able to understand the game after I threw myself at it a couple times.  I kept at it because the stories other players were telling me were amazing, and thanks to my work I can enjoy this deep and rewarding game.

[MyBeardIsOnFire]

Dumatoin, i think you're falsely assuming that you have to start on a mountain. With the coming of the new version, where you can choose almost any spot, this is not true.

The easiest forts are now somewhere on even terrain. Look for anything that does not have an aquifer (some layers of rock marked with a water symbol, besides the game will warn you about it).

[Lord Dullard]

quote:Originally posted by Dumatoin:
<STRONG>Ok... this game is officially too complicated for me.</STRONG>

It's really not as complicated once you get involved with it.

When I started out this game, I had the benefit of a lot of rogue-like experience under my belt (rogue-like being a subgenre of games that is almost by definition incredibly complicated). Keep with it, and you'll love it. The beauty of Dwarf Fortress and similar games is that what they lack in visual representation, they make up for in open-ended possibility one-hundred-fold.

In short: it's worth it. Trust me.

[Dumatoin]

Hrm... no need for a mountain you say?

I think i tried that.

I hit (d) the tried a bunch of different options on the ground, such as mine, downward ramp, downward stairs, and well, i forget what else, but anything that sounded like it was going to dig downwards.

I made my guys miners, i even selected an oddly named pick that i thought might be for going down or up?

Well, i'll give it another few shots, at least now i know it is possible, thanks for the encouraging words!

[RedWick]

You can pretty much write off the first dozen or so fortresses you start up as losses due to the learning curve, so don't sweat trying to find the perfect location right from the get-go.  Find a place where you can play around with the features and figure out how the game fits together and don't worry about making the perfect fort.  And don't try to figure everything out in one go!  There's simply too much going on when you start playing.

Probably the order I'd go in to figure stuff out is:

- Mining and digging in the z-axis
- Farming
- Figuring out the different workshops and woodcutting
- Constructions and fortress layout
- Forges and military stuff
- Whatever else comes up

Other people undoubtedly have a different order.  It all comes down to playstyle, really.

[Sofaspud]

Hey Dumatoin, here's a blow-by-blow guide to getting underground.  (Once you've done it once, you'll never forget it!)

Pick a starting location -- ANY location.  Make sure it doesn't have an aquifer (the game will warn you if you try to embark with one).

Once you're there, hit [d], then [j] (for downward stairs), then put the cursor over a tile near your wagon and press [Enter] twice to mark that tile.  Press [Space] to exit the Designate menu and watch your miner(s) go to work.  It should be only a matter of a few seconds before the tile you highlighted is dug out.

Once they've finished, press the > key (Shift+'.').  This will take you down 1 z-level, where you should see lots of unmined rock AND a tile that looks like a wall section, all by itself.

Now, to complete access to your underground lair, your dwarves need to build a corresponding upwards staircase right under the downward one you just built -- otherwise, they can't reach the floor!  So, hit [d] for the designate menu, then press for up/down stair.  Put the cursor right on the tile that holds your staircase (it'll be the empty one, you can use <and> to move back and forth between the levels to make sure you've got your placement right), then press [Enter] twice to mark it.  Hit [Space] to exit the menu and a few seconds later your miner will come and build the other part of the stairway.

After it's built, you'll have full access to this z-level with all your dwarves and can dig out areas ([d]->[d]) for rooms, hallways, tunnels, etc..  You've played DF before, so I'll assume you're familiar with how to build workshops and such.  It's really the same game, just MUCH bigger and more varied.  Once you've got the z-axis down, you'll be humming along in no time!

EDIT: forgot to mention -- I suggested an up/down stair because it's habit for me, but honestly, a regular upwards staircase works just as well. The advantage to up/down stairs is you can build down as many z-levels as you want in the same tile; the disadvantage (so I hear) is that dwarves can lose their footing and tumble down the staircase.  I've never had this happen, but I've heard others say it's happened to them.  Your choice.  

[ December 13, 2007: Message edited by: Sofaspud ]