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[Chicken Launcher]

When I first started playing DF, trying to build a successful fort was the fun part. It still is, and once I get that done I move on to things like megaprojects and architecture.

[Moogie]

Oh I see I just have to but the pieces together, like if a leg go flying away I could assume he lopped it off with something. thanks

There used to be a utility which would enable the combat log in Fortress Mode. It's the same log you'd see in Adventure Mode, showing you everything that occurs, even for military dwarves sparring in the barracks.

Sadly this utility does not work in the 40d# versions, but it's likely the stories you've heard came about as a result of this utility.

[Rumrusher]

well if one is bored with the vanilla try mods!
nothing says fun than having a fort of dogs going berserk because you chop up a pup or 20, or try to make a dorfmon gym stadium with dorfmon and DfMn trainers and silly traps and levers for one to cross to reach the gym owner in adventure mode(bonus if you have a dorfmon with you) the only problem with this is one can never go back to the town after you "defeated" the gym owner unless one could make him and his men different civs so when you defeat them you don't end up being a enemy of the whole town.

[DarthRavanger]

DF's initial learning curve is more like a learning cliff, essentially the game shoves you off and expects you learn how to fly before you hit the ground.

This made me chuckle a little, it's so true. I also think that's why I'm not getting the full fun tastic experience that Df has to offer as I'm only at a point in which I can sustain the most basic fort. I'm assuming this is like ordering a plain pizza and wondering why it has no flavor. I've also taken some of the advice of making my own fun in Df by naming some of my dwarfs, makes it more interesting to know who that guy is if/when he gets killed. So what I guess I'm asking is, when you started playing dwarf fortress were you having as much fun with it as you are now?

I'm having more fun. My first fort starved to death because I didn't know how to manage labors and the goblins trapped me inside my fort. Second fort, well, enabling all labors didn't work too well. Third fort, I settled on a dwarven paradise. HFS, brook, underground river, chasm (Almost completely under a mountain by the way, so it posed no obstacle to my building efforts) volcano, all sorts of resources, gold veins that ended exposed to the surface, it was great. Too bad I released the HFS in my second year and the fortress fell. Then I sent a human army to reclaim it. That ended with a bunch of burning humans and a forest fire. Now, I'm still using buckets to bring water to my current fortress, and no decent underground farming system. I swear, this game gets more and more Fun every time. and trust me, dieing horribly is absolutely hilarious.

[warlordzephyr]

The main thing i found is that you have to stop caring about the dwarves somwhat.

[melkorp]

The main thing i found is that you have to stop caring about the dwarves somewhat.

Or maybe not take their !!deaths!! quite as hard. 

Captain Duck's video tutorials were the key for me, he touches almost everything about the game.  The only drawback was that my forts ran exactly like the Captain's for a month or so afterwards, but my own style has, happily, emerged.  Start with the video tutorials and apply the Wiki when curious. 

And yeah, I'm having MUCH more fun now than when I started playing.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Actually, caring for my dwarves has allowed me to stick with the game. Their personalities and the creativity when making art/engravings is a major motivator for me.

Getting a fortress that live through two years without major loss of life is actually already a small land mark on your road to success with the game. So, you are not that of a newbie anymore, I think. Back in the 2D version, I went through hell trying to get my dwarves to survive (3D's surface farming made those days seem like a distant nightmare).

As for where to go from now on, that is really up to you.

One thing for excitement are the history projects I like to do:
First, I generate a world with relatively large forests and a lot of civilizations going through at least the 1050 years of generation. I have history hidden in that world and no culling of historic persons (and the init options set that history is shown for fortress engravings).
Then, when I embark, I choose a site within a large named region containing preferably settlements of mutually hostile races (it helps if you saw the conquests during world gen).
Then, I create my standard fortress (surrounded by wall and traps) and start engraving the floors and walls. The trick here is: The dwarves will occasionally engrave scenes from the history of the region the fortress is located in. So, if you are in a forest that has seen humans fighting elves, you will get engravings showing single incidents from that - besides scenes from battles with bears and the like. It can get very interesting when you get a series of engravings featuring the same named monster (I think had something with a couple of bears and also a troll or some such) in one fortress. Since history is hidden, you don't know what exactly to expect - so each engraving has the potential for new discoveries.

Well, that is my suggestion for the day.

Deathworks

[LordSlowpoke]

Hi!

Actually, caring for my dwarves has allowed me to stick with the game. Their personalities and the creativity when making art/engravings is a major motivator for me.

Getting a fortress that live through two years without major loss of life is actually already a small land mark on your road to success with the game. So, you are not that of a newbie anymore, I think. Back in the 2D version, I went through hell trying to get my dwarves to survive (3D's surface farming made those days seem like a distant nightmare).

As for where to go from now on, that is really up to you.

One thing for excitement are the history projects I like to do:
First, I generate a world with relatively large forests and a lot of civilizations going through at least the 1050 years of generation. I have history hidden in that world and no culling of historic persons (and the init options set that history is shown for fortress engravings).
Then, when I embark, I choose a site within a large named region containing preferably settlements of mutually hostile races (it helps if you saw the conquests during world gen).
Then, I create my standard fortress (surrounded by wall and traps) and start engraving the floors and walls. The trick here is: The dwarves will occasionally engrave scenes from the history of the region the fortress is located in. So, if you are in a forest that has seen humans fighting elves, you will get engravings showing single incidents from that - besides scenes from battles with bears and the like. It can get very interesting when you get a series of engravings featuring the same named monster (I think had something with a couple of bears and also a troll or some such) in one fortress. Since history is hidden, you don't know what exactly to expect - so each engraving has the potential for new discoveries.

Well, that is my suggestion for the day.

Deathworks

You care...for your dwarves...?
Whatever kind of sanity I ever had was just made into a zombie, killed again, and now I'm left with a !!rotten sanity corpse!!
Did I mention that somebody set it on fire?

[backflip]

It's mostly about your imagination.  DF is a great enabler and outlet for creative forces, so you just have to let your imagination take over as to what you want to see and accomplish and then try to replicate that.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Well, you see, I usually play with no immigrants or minimal immigrants (pop limit around 8 or some such), so dwarves are a rare resource. I usually hope for marriages and families to fill my ranks.

Thus far, I have been lucky to usually have dwarves that get along, but it could be interesting to have two dwarves in such a low population that hate each other's guts.

Anyhow, there is so much fun to watch the dwarves in their normal daily lives that I can have a lot of fun without seeing them killed (and yes, I like playing SimCity :) :) :) :) ).

Deathworks

[Cruxador]

Hi!

Well, you see, I usually play with no immigrants or minimal immigrants (pop limit around 8 or some such), so dwarves are a rare resource. I usually hope for marriages and families to fill my ranks.

Thus far, I have been lucky to usually have dwarves that get along, but it could be interesting to have two dwarves in such a low population that hate each other's guts.

Anyhow, there is so much fun to watch the dwarves in their normal daily lives that I can have a lot of fun without seeing them killed (and yes, I like playing SimCity ).

Deathworks

Ah, I see. Yeah, it's a much more intimate game with fewer dwarves.

[backflip]

No immigration would make an awesome reclaim challenge for flavor, like Moria.

"--we cannot get out. The end comes soon. We hear drums, drums in the deep."

[Blackburn]

It's actually hard for me to stay entertained. Most of my time is spent providing for every three dozen migrants that pop up every year. Build new bedrooms, build beds, build doors, add more chairs to the dining hall, blah blah blah blah.

Eventually I get tired of it and stop.

...Also, I can never do anything cool like put a waterfall in my meeting hall because:

A: My embark sites suck and I can never find an interesting one.

B: I am REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY bad at planning.

Take that "waterfall in dining room" example. By the time I find a source of water to do that, it would require cutting holes through about two-thirds of my fortress stockpiles and workshops because my dining hall is ALL THE WAY OVER on the other side of the fort.

...Either I suck at architecture or I'm just unlucky. Actually, both.


(Sorry if this came off as obnoxious whining. I'm not being very serious with my issues.)

[Blargityblarg]

Try starting a new fort, and before you do anything, plan the whole thing out. You can take anywhere from five minutes to an hour to three. Take int account all the visible interesting things, including stone layers. Then dig it out, one section at a time.

[!!Zombie Carp!!]

For example:
Glass tower with offices.

!!Zombie Carp!! cancels Browse: Megaproject.