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[Man of Paper]

I stumbled upon DF by extreme chance. Long story short, one search later and a quick download, and I had what I expected would be a grueling, fun game. Little did I know that fun has a totally different meaning in this part of the tubes.
I decided to read up on some of the more outstanding DF stories (Boatmurdered, Headshoots, Syrupleaf, and the legend of Asax being among them) before playing. All this did was further my want to start a fortress, and so I did. I had no idea what I was getting into. By the gods was it addicting. I've been playing for about two days now and I have finally had a fortress last into the second year. I am still taking baby steps (I just figured out how to create my first military squad), and I know I am hella far from being able to construct my own fun.
But holy crap this is the first time I have wanted to stick with something that has a learning curve so steep that it feels like I'm walking upside down. I have yet to build across multiple levels, and my stockpile organization is complete crap. I expect to be dead when the first siege arrives.

And the mountain I'm digging into is made out of damn granite. I've taken a few shots that I figure I'd show. Looking for advice, sagely wisdom, criticisms, and ways I could improve upon my current fortress.



1) Barracks, in the process of being dug out. Damn granite, takes forever.
2) Wood Furnace
3) Bowyer's Workshop
4) Smelter
5) Metalsmith's Forge
6) Clothier's Shop
7) Two more workshop rooms, as of yet not dug out
Eight) Mechanic's Workshop
9) Tanner's Shop
10) Kitchen
11) Kennels
12) Butcher's Shop
13) Carpenter's Workshop
14) Mason's Workshop
15) Food Stockpile
16) Temporary Weapon and Armor Storage (plan on moving it closer to the barracks once completed)
17) Craftsdwarf's Workshop
18) Wood Stockpile
19) Gem Stockpile
20) Stone Stockpile
21) Refuse Pit (created it before I did much underground, realized that it was positioned in the area I was designating for living quarters. Oh well)
22) Meeting Area with 5 statues, because I have no idea what I'm doing
23) Dining Room in need of expansion
24) Graveyard big enough for everyone and then some, because I have little hope for these dwarfs
25) Unfinished Hallway for Noble living areas.

The unmarked rooms are 2x2 bedrooms.




1) An area I made so that migrants coming from that pocket in the west would arrive sooner. The pocket was already there, I just dug to it.
2) Walls. Because why not.
3) A massive stone stockpile. Because I don't know any other way to clear rocks off the floor without taking up more underground space. I dislike clutter.
4) Trading Post
5) Slopes down to the underground.
6) Fishery
7) Bridge over a brook. Because I'll be damned if I'm not going to build a bridge over the first source of flowing water I can find.
Eight) Refuse Pit from ground level.




I'm currently enlisting my abundance of farmers and a couple peasants to train as soldiers.

Side Note: My miners are also assigned the task of removing any slopes within the walls, so that attacking forces won't bypass them. I may be a newbie, but I'm not a total loss. I also figured out how to trade no more than two minutes ago, so the exported wealth should go up with the next caravan.

[Toastergargletop]

 nice work.  keep us up to date.

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

Welcome to Dwarf Fortress.   Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha.  There is no escape.  You must now being the ritual process of mega-structure completion.

1. pyramid
2. castle
3. tower (like 30+ stories tower)
4. 50+ long bridge to span 2 mountains
5. Venice
6. strip mine a 50z level mountain to nothing ( called living in virginia! )
7.  breach hell!


but really, welcome, have fun, stock up on drinks and snacks, get a comfy chair, play DF until you have Cave_Adaptation and shun the sun.

[Man of Paper]

Alas, my laptop deemed me not worthy of continuing my game. It had unplugged itself from it's charger without telling me. Nor did it warn me of the impending shut down. Game was reverted to before I had made anything past the food stockpile, and my tiny dining area doesn't even have chairs yet.

[morgoththegreat]

Mass dump! For Armok's sake, mass dump! Create a dump zone in the zones menu (hotkey "i") (don't confuse with refuse stockpile from the "p"iles menu, they are different). Use "d-b-d" to designate areas of stone for dumping. Your little mans will carry all the stuff you designate (like all that stone) for dumping away to the dump zone you created earlier, stacking it all in as few tiles as you designated, and then forbidding it so nobody will use it anymore. If you need to use it at some point, do a mass reclaim with d-b-c.

[Duelmaster409]

I would play DF until I pass out from exhaustion if it weren't for the fact that I just CANNOT watch the time in the lower-right hand of Windows tick for more than two hours when playing anything. I also haven't played long enough to adapt my eyes to reading the ASCII (I like ASCII better than graphics/tile sets) for hours and hours and not give myself a huge headache.

But welcome! Hope your fortresses live strong and your magma burn hot.

[Urist Mcinternetuser]

I seriously sucked at first, this person makes me feel inadequate. Anyway, welcome to the inescapable world of Dwarf Fortress.

[Ampersand]

Advice? Learn to make use of multiple levels as soon as possible. Learn that Fractals are good for maximally efficient storage of Dwarf Bedrooms.

[Urist McDepravity]

Alas, my laptop deemed me not worthy of continuing my game. It had unplugged itself from it's charger without telling me. Nor did it warn me of the impending shut down. Game was reverted to before I had made anything past the food stockpile, and my tiny dining area doesn't even have chairs yet.

Having seasonal autosave with autobackups is pretty mush a must with DF.

[Quatch]

I'm sure it'll go much smoother the second time. Although in your case, i'd just take the opportunity to start fresh somewhere else.

My advice:
  *take a look at the zoom to location keys, very helpful in organizing, esp. over multiple layers.
  *Build a set of doors at your gate. You can lock doors (examine them, and set them to tightly closed), and invaders (most) can't open them. That'll buy you time to figure enough out.
  *WIKI: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Main_Page
  *Also check out the DF gameplay questions subforum if you have a question. Sometimes the answer is very very fast.

[Daetrin]

For fortress design, there are a bunch of threads floating around. However DFMA (Dwarf Fortress Map Archive) has a lot of forts on it so you can browse architecture.  And Quickfort 2 is amazing, especially for non-square designations.

[mnjiman]

It looks as if a great deal of locations are on your first floor, you should move them to other floors.

[lordnincompoop]

You're working mostly on one z-level, or only a few. I'd suggest using several, as it's usually more efficient. I spread mine out over some 15-20 floors, usually. Of course, you don't need to make such a big fort right away, but it's good to utilize the third axis too.

[Kennel]

Advice? It would be kind to use informative thread titles.

[Phydaux]

Your dwarves have nothing to drink!

Let them carve-out your fortress with nothing but their nails, only allow them to eat the slime off the rocks they're hauling, send them to fight dragons with wooden swords, but don't let them go sober! That is just cruel.