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I don't change anything. I play DF as-is from the download

8 (9.2%)

I make a couple edits to the init files, but nothing in the RAWS

21 (24.1%)

I make a couple edits to the RAWS, but nothing in the init files

8 (9.2%)

I make changes to both the RAWS and init files

21 (24.1%)

I use a pre-packaged version of DF, such as LNP

29 (33.3%)

I wait for my preferred tilesets to be updated

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 65

[Pancakes]

Hello all, I was just curious as to what other DF players do when a new version comes out. Do you guys play it as-is from the download, make a few edits to the raws, or use packages such as LNP or tilesets?

Personally, I make a few changes. These include removing aquifers from most ground types, disallowing pets as default for burial receptacles, and allowing cave crocodiles to be war/hunting trainable. In addition, I change the population cap to 80 and the strict cap to 125. What changes, if any, do you guys make?

[KittyTac]

I will just mod right away when it comes out.

[Shonai_Dweller]

I make a couple of copies for various uses. One completely vanilla (to check if screwy behavior really is 'vanilla' behavior).
One minimal version which I generally play with. Init options properly set up and a simple tileset (Taffer right now) and perhaps very light raw tweaks if I think something's not quite right (last year was adding [CANOPENDOORS] to gorlaks before they finally got fixed).
Then one more 'experimental' copy to work on my mod and generate hundreds of worlds with until I eventually get it right.

I'll also set up a copy with Dfhack, 'cos you never know when it might come in handy (generally using it to export more detailed info from Legends right now).

[escondida]

I use a tiny mod to make raw leather into a glob, so that the amount you get is based on the size of the butchered animal. I also give female dorfs beards.

As far as the config files, go, I change birth announcements so that they merely pause the game rather than moving the camera as well.

In d_init.txt, I turn on seasonal autosave and the initial embark save; forbid pets from coffins by default; lower the visitor cap to 25; and set all nicknames to be centralized (Urist "Beastslayer" Vanodcog) rather than replacing one of their names.

In init.txt, I turn off the sound and the intro video (both good, but not all the time); set the game to use a little set of text tiles I made with a better font; set "print_mode" to standard; turn on the fps counter, while lowering the fps cap to 60 and graphical fps cap to 30; make the process high priority; and turn off compressed saves (saving and loading is *much* faster, and zip hardly saves any space anyway).

I bind SECONDSCROLL_DOWN to =, because I'd rather hit a single inconvenient key to scroll through most menus than shift *and* an inconvenient key.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Oh yes, I swap the zoom in/zoom out mouse wheel bindings as it seems unnatural to me the way it's set up by default. Then change z-level up/down keys to suit my laptop.

[Starver]

Seasonal/embarkation autosaving, for backup purposes and useful "you've been playing too long, consider doing something else" hint when the save-pause happens. Numeric liquid depths, because it's useful. Doubled height and sesquibbled sesquiplated (<=edit=> I made up a word, forgetting that one existed) width of the default window so I can see more of a slice at once.  "Firstname 'Nickname' Surname" naming display. Showing FPS/Idles slightly differentIy (though I'm really only bothered by the Idlers). I may also mess about with Showing Tunnels On Embark, or whatever it is again, but I actually usually forget/don't bother with that.  Opening animation off (shame!) and mute the music (even more shame!).



This is all Init stuff. No Raw changes, no Mods, no graphics added (for normal play, when not looking specifically at a mod/graphics, as I have occasionally done).


What I could do, but don't, is copy some of my older macros into my newer games (for slightly automated fort-plan painting), but I don't use them enough to consider it worthwhile not recording them anew (and bespoke) each iteration.

[NW_Kohaku]

I change the default controls. (5 and 0 for up and down.  < and > are madness.  I do some other changes, as well.)
I change default colors (blue is too dark).
I change name display.
I have my own custom tileset.
I have my own modded races and jobs and workshops and various other things.
I also have my own custom world parameters, of course.
I also play with DFHack a lot, especially for all the third party information tools that let me better understand and manage my fortress.  I'll also use some of the isometric visualizers to get good views of monuments.

In a nutshell, if it's possible to customize, I customize it.

Basically, it takes me several hours of updating to make a new version run, so I don't usually upgrade right away, and will wait for a stable version.

[Capntastic]

I play it 100% untouched and pristine

[TKR101010]

When I first started playing late last year I could not make any progress with the native ASCII. Thankfully I learned of the LNP from a YouTube tutorial. (Thanks DasTactic!) Once I found that and could use a tile set I really started enjoying DF, and making adjustments to the color scheme, etc.

At that time the LNP (at least DFHack) didn't support the newest version though. I felt like I was missing out on stuff and that I should learn to play with the ascii. So I would every couple weeks try to play with the ASCII again and see if I could do any better at it. Progress was slow.

A couple months ago when I got wind that there was gonna be a new update soon it gave me the kick I needed to really dive into playing with the ascii. It's gonna take a while for any mods to catch up, and I know I'm gonna want to play the latest version of the game with all the newest stuff again.

So these days I play with the basic unmodified game, but I occasionally copy my saves into the LNP save folder to use things like the Legends viewer, and StoneSense so I can research the world history easier and make screenshots.

< and > are madness.

Praise Armok, someone understands! You'd think that if I can quickly type three keys to build a workshop without thinking much more than which workshop I want, then surely simply navigating the map would be no problem. I get < and > confused almost every frelling time I go to use them! I have no idea why. It's not as if they were the opposite way when I started learning the game and then got switched in some update. I would change them, but I keep hoping that one day my subconscious mind and muscle memory will make the connection that which direction I want to move matches the symbol on the stairs that also move in that direction. <facepalm>

[AceSV]

I kick the dwarves out and play with furries. 

I'm not sorry. 

[Pancakes]

< and > are madness.

Praise Armok, someone understands! You'd think that if I can quickly type three keys to build a workshop without thinking much more than which workshop I want, then surely simply navigating the map would be no problem. I get < and > confused almost every frelling time I go to use them! I have no idea why. It's not as if they were the opposite way when I started learning the game and then got switched in some update. I would change them, but I keep hoping that one day my subconscious mind and muscle memory will make the connection that which direction I want to move matches the symbol on the stairs that also move in that direction. <facepalm>

See, I always just envisioned it as the < key is further away from my hand, and the sky is farther away from me, therefore, < is up and > is down 

[NW_Kohaku]

See, I always just envisioned it as the < key is further away from my hand, and the sky is farther away from me, therefore, < is up and > is down 

It's not that I can't memorize them, it's that I have my hand on the numpad for navigation nearly all the time, but I have to go back to the right homekeys to find < and >.  If I'm moving around my fortress using the numpad to navigate along the X and Y axis, why should I reposition my hand (taking a good second every time I do so) to find the up and down? 

This is, IMHO, exactly what causes so many people to have the terrible habit of making a "flat" and central staircase fortress, because they don't visualize outside of what they can see on a single floor, because they find it too much of a pain to look up and down floors.  It directly detracts from the experience of Dwarf Fortress to make an interface that fights against the better playstyles. 

[Pancakes]

There was a period where I used Therapist, but I've since grown accustomed to not using it. I simply nickname dwarves with whether they are suitable for the militia and the year they arrived/were born. Also, I have a macro set up for just about any type of labor combo I want and apply it after I quickly clear the labor list.

It also helps having a google docs spreadsheet to keep track of how many dwarves have what labor enabled, etc. Plus, I tend to keep track of what uninvited guests arrive at my fort as well as making neat-o charts.

[FantasticDorf]

I play the release initially for a while then compare it to my existing previous versions once im familiar with the changes in-game & applied onto the raws and diversify from there with generally divided up into

• "improved vanilla DF" where i simply make some tweaks i feel that are more efficient for the world, my player race or other races, sometimes its not nessecary to change the raws but make some config changes like raising grazer efficiency

• obviously raw modded - where most of my playtime goes, usually all the races are set to be selectable and i try to fill them out as much as possible and diversify some things without disturbing game balance too much. Requires understanding the modding limits of the build because its done entirely by RAWS.

• Conceptual or experimentation build usually where i have the freedom to rip out and replace a lot of the game content with no attention to balance to monitor what works, usually a good place to insert custom creatures from the forums modding page

[Chaia]

I usually mod my RAWs a bit:

• my dwarves grow from toddlers right to beer drinking, beard wearing lazy bastards hard workers
• dwarves can eat sentinent beings. This makes those tree huggers useful to some degree. Also you can butcher and eat goblins, who get mutilated by *serrated glass disk*. Goblin roast anyone?
• kobolds are no longer trap avoid. Helps alot with random kobolds snagging some masterwork stuff out of my treasure chamber.

Beside that I remove aqufiers in some games, but mostly I leave them in for easy access to unlimited water