Ahoy hoy,
Let me preface this post by saying that I just got out of surgery a few hours ago, so I'm a little loopy. As such, sorry if my sentences make either no sense or are too verbose as I try to explain myself.
I am overjoyed to see people so addicted to Dwarf Fortress that even after surgery they jump towards this site, lovely
I love DF. I love everything about DF.
Thats very good Rob.
However, I have not actually played since I think 39c. That means I've never played with a grid larger than 80x25, and I don't even begin to know how to handle the updated OpenGL versions.
This is something I wont be able to help you with a lot, since I still play standard-sized windowed games, it's the way I know DF and the way I personally love it.
As far as I can recall I thought I read it somewhere that all these grid sizes were changeable in the init file.
Maybe
www.dwarffortresswiki.net can help you with that (and nearly every other issue you have with DF, including immigrants ^^).
As I mentioned earlier, I just had surgery. As such, I have a fair amount of free time on my hands - perfect for, say, getting reacquainted with the splendor of DF. That's where your advice comes in. I'm confident that I can figure out how to set the grid size, character set and graphic tiles without too much bother, but that's pretty much it. I haven't run a successful fortress since 3D was introduced. My knowledge begins and ends with making stonecrafts, farming and brewing.
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.netClick it, bookmark it, hold it very dear, there is a reason this is called the DF-bible in the forums.
I don't know how to find magma (and thus, I don't know how to set up a good glass/armor/weapon making area), I don't know how to set up a good weaving operation... basically, unless it comes down to basic subsistence stuff I don't know what I'm doing. If I get invaded by anything more than a thief, i'm hosed. OH! and stonefall traps. i know how to make those. Valid combat dwarves, not so much.
For all of this, since you have plenty of time on hands, I would redirect you to Dwarffortresswiki.net, or posting individual problems on the forums here.
As for sieges, putting up some weapon traps is a great way to get the siegers running (and some gore in the process too, bones for the Marksdwarves!
), as a second row of traps you should build cagetraps, as these will make one-hit-catches on your enemy's, no matter how strong (with some exeptions, like snatchers and such, which have trap-avoid).
Both of these traps can be placed in the same manner as stone-traps and likewise need one mechanism to install.
Weapon traps will give you the possibility to dump up to ten weapons into the trap, which will then be hauled to the trap by your mechanic.
Cage traps require you to let your carpenter build cages, so that these can be placed in the trap.
Profit in having these traps:
Weapon traps: Does damage for as much as you trow in and may attack several times (untill body parts clug up the mechanisms, which will render it useless untill a mechanic uncluggs them for you.) doing up to idiotic amounts of damage.
Cage traps: Cages are easy to make and are a nearly guaranteed instant capture of your enemy, these can then be used or disposed of in several other ways (Look around on the forums, it will give you plenty of idea's
).
Magma is rather weird to find, I would recommend you to search for magma on DFW (Dwarf fortress wiki, since typing it out fully again will absorb way too much space
) and read that article, it will help you big time into find spots where magma is likely to be.
I know this is a tall order and that i can probably get the gist of most of this from sorting through the wiki, but honestly it's taken me almost an hour to write this post. Vicodin isn't really helping me focus.
Never heard of Vicodin, is it some sort of painkiller?
I hope you are clear enough to barge right trough my long post, seems to be my longest on this forum ^^
oh, and in case you would like an overall theme of my fortresses so you know what I'm aiming for, it's total self-sufficiency. Except for the entrance to the trade depot and perhaps some siege defenses, no outside access should be necessary to sustain the fortress after the first year or two - you still need wood for beds, after all. though I guess fishing is useful too for bones and shells - can you fish inside?
Simple, get plump helmet spawns along at the embark, find a nice underground patch of sand and place a farm plot.
For hunting and fishing I would recommend you to wait for immigrants, and then get a ranger to hunt for you, I never saw anything into fishing (with all those carp around
), drop all corpses on a gigantic refuse pile (do not forget to set dwarves to haul refuse from the outside (Orders menu -> Refuse options -> Dwarves ignore refuse from outside (change this to 'Dwarves gather refuse from outside'), make sure you have some dwarves to burn for this, as it will take time and effort to get all those corpses your ranger makes)
Sieges will easily fall to a nicely build trap corridor (in the beginning about 5 weapon traps and a load of cagetraps to catch pushers will be enough), just make sure that to get to your dwarves they will have to cross trough the traps!
Fishing inside was possible as far as I recall, but there would have to be a direct contact with outside water, and this brings along a weak spot in your defenses, I would personally prefer to build walls around a bunch of lakes (or a brook, you'll find a way
and let your dwarves get there trough a tunnel from the main fort (this way you will keep a single entrance, heavily defended by traps off course ^^).
anyway, I'm going to stop asking questions before I confuse myself further. I know i've asked for a lot, but really any info would be much obliged.
A lot? bullcarp, you could have asked much more and I'm letting you search most things out for yourself anyway
Just remember forever, the wiki is your friend and ... well just your friend I guess
Thanks,
Rob
No problem,
Nicolas.
Author
Topic: A long-lost DF player needs advice (Read 816 times)