Print

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

[Jude]

When I was first getting to know about Dwarf Fortress, I somehow got the idea that surviving winter was supposed to be pretty hard. So far, in my experience, it has not been. OK, the water freezes, so if you don't have a cistern set up and dwarves get hurt they're screwed...but I always get a cistern pretty soon. Or is it that you can't grow plants outside? So far I've just been growing sweet pods and dimple cups inside and getting along alright. Dwarves don't seem to suffer any ill effects from running around outside even in cold weather (except the one poor schmuck who tried hunting camel without any weapons and got kicked to death).

So, what's so hard about winter?

[umiman]

It used to be hard. It's not hard anymore. 'nuff said.

Read up on the horrors of the 2D version with the flooding and the irrigation and the inability to farm and the ambushes and whatnot.

[Eita]

In the fortress I'm playing right now, winter has already claimed two and has injured a third. Don't have your dwarves go outside in winter.

[martinuzz]

It is also that the warnings (something like 'ere winter arrives and the fluffy wamblers grow hungry') at embark, and the announcement when the first trader arrives ('last chance to buy supplies' etc. ) tend to linger in the mind. And I think that most players remember their 'first winter'. Come on, we all failed miserably our first game now, didn't we?
Although I must say that the wiki has gotten better and better, and more and more new players seem to read it before playing.

[FlamingCow]

and more and more new players seem to read it before playing.

it's the way to do it, I admit. Embarking without a blind clue of what you need, where you're going or how to survive is... a challenge.

[Eita]

Right. Remember that fortress I told you about? Down to two dwarves, one of them starving and dehydrated.

[BurnedToast]

In the 2d version, you could not farm in the winter (inside or outside). Also, you could not sell the anvil at the embark screen to get more points, so you were MUCH more limited in how much food/drink you could bring. It was also alot harder to get farming started.

This led to most new players (myself included) not bringing enough food and staving to death in the first winter for your first fort or 2.

right now winter is not really deadly at all

[Doppel]

I guess many things will change though. I'm guessing things won't stay this easy when talking about winters and food and things related. I can imagine a much more complex farming part in the future, kinda like Harvest Moon, but then actually fun. (well, Harvest Moon is kinda fun though)

[MathijsBuster]

(except the one poor schmuck who tried hunting camel without any weapons and got kicked to death).

Hunting camels in winter?!
If you're in thát warm an environment I don't think winter is that bad no.

Try settling in colder climates and see how that treats you.

[sneakey pete]

Right. Remember that fortress I told you about? Down to two dwarves, one of them starving and dehydrated.

Maybe if you combine them together you'll have some kind of super non dying dwarf!

[Jude]

Hunting camels in winter?!
If you're in thát warm an environment I don't think winter is that bad no.

Try settling in colder climates and see how that treats you.

I'm in a Cold area....I was kind of surprised to see camels there when the river is frozen over 2/3 of the year, but there you have it...and all winter long my dwarves happily go out hunting and chopping wood, with, afaik, no ill effects.

[MathijsBuster]

I didn't even know wild camels appeared in cold climates. xD
You learn something new every day.

[DJ]

Gobi desert is pretty cold, and there's plenty of camels there.

[umiman]

Camels can live practically anywhere. They're like donkeys. They're considered pests in some countries such as Australia.

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

The two-humped ones can live ANYWHERE. From Canada to South Africa.
However the one humped ones only lives with the Arabs. There are no wild community of one-humped camels. Hmm, I wonder why?