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[Pathos]

If I was you, I'd make farming more realistic ( i.e. more difficult ) by quadrupling the time taken for them to grow and doubling / tripling the output. Although, this MAY make it too difficult for them and they'll have their people starve within an hour.

You also need to change the crops that you can grow to the human / elf ones, as the dwarf ones can only be grown underground.

[Rathen]

Hmm, I've embarked them with wild strawberry seeds whcih I thought would be ok to grow overground?

[Deon]

You have to build aboveground farms to grow aboveground crops.

[Rathen]

Yup that's what we're going to be using. Strawberries will grow fine there yeah?

[Lancensis]

Yup that's what we're going to be using. Strawberries will grow fine there yeah?

They will, yeah. As long as they're being grown in the right biome, ie. Not freezing. They're also considered a dry plant, so they won't grow wild next to water, but I think you can still farm them there.

[Supercharazad]

Remember to tell them to make some sort of shelter, it could save them when the wolves get hungry!

[Deon]

It's dangerous though. Your kids will be afraid of any river or lake from now on.

[Pathos]

Hmm, I've embarked them with wild strawberry seeds whcih I thought would be ok to grow overground?

That should work.

It's dangerous though. Your kids will be afraid of any river or lake from now on.

I remember, as a kid, watching an infomercial in school about the "dangers of rivers and lakes". I was terrified for years because apparently every lake and river in England is filled with man-eating pikes, metal girders sharpened into spears and quick sand around the edges.

[The Architect]

That is both terrible and funny.

[ThiefofTime]

Hmm, I've embarked them with wild strawberry seeds whcih I thought would be ok to grow overground?

Get a herbalist to go gather some crops, that will give you plenty of plants and seeds.
Another interesting idea is to make sure they cook or otherwise prepare their food first: in vanilla DF with underground crops that would involve using Cave wheat and Quarry bushes, where the plants themselves are not edible but require some sort of processing. (you can do this to regular plants by editing the matgloss_plant.txt and removing [EDIBLE_RAW] tags from the aboveground plants.
You could also alter the grow times of instantly edible foods.

[Rathen]

Day 1/3 Update!

Tasks: Build a shelter with a roof
           Stockpile the food and wood
           Begin the farm

Generally dull starting - each group had identical positions and people. Of 9 groups, we lost two hunters and a horse. One group was particularly enthralled by the hunter going genocidal on some groundhogs. Another wasn't so keen on a wounded horse drowning in the river, but thems the breaks.

Choice quotes:
"Our farming was successful but we have had horse problems".
"We are very pleased that our hunter has killed 13 groundhogs so far".


They're getting it very quickly - most can remember it's V to select a person, B to get into the build menu etc. Very impressive really. Moving between Z levels (i.e the roof building) is hard but they won't be using that function much I guess. Lots of fun, many of them asking where they can get the game from too which is also a good sign. Haven't referred them as would rather not deal with any possible parental backlash with the unmodified game!


Tomorrow's tasks:

Build a butcher's shop.
Build a second room, with roof.
Create carpenter workshop and furnish the original shelter with beds.

Tomorrow will mark the last little bits of "hand holding" them through it. From about half way through tomorrow's session, they'll be on their own. It's going to be awesome.

[The Architect]

Thanks for the update! It's always fun to hear about a project going well, especially if you may have personally made a contribution.

As far as getting the game goes: they don't have a blanked title with no identifiers on it (I mean, doesn't it say "Armok, God of Blood II: Dwarf Fortress" right on the title screen? They could just use google. Failing that, they could ask about a game using a description on many forums.

[Rathen]

Nah, no blanked title, so yes I imagine the more observant will have remembered the name of the game. I doubt they'd be able to sort out tilesets etc though so the default game itself will be nigh on unplayable for them. I did explain this to them though so it may have dissuaded them.

[The Architect]

I'm a member of the new generation, and I never had a problem with roguelikes or ASCII graphics.

You just need to be interested or bored enough to invest time in a good game and its quality will show through. Maybe they will become interested enough.

[nichaey]

I commend your efforts to spread the word of Armok to the newer generations.