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[Russell]

Hey everyone...

I'm at the stage with Dwarf Fortress where I can do pretty much all the basics... make metals (steel, etc) and build a working hospital. Haven't really messed around with magma or anything yet but I'm hoping to soon.

I am finding though that every time I embark I get to the same point every time... I'll play for a couple of years (in game), get bored and start again.

Just wondering what you all did when you were at the stage I am? What did you do to keep yourself interested and playing? Don't get me wrong, I still love playing but I want to do an embark that's a little different and challenging...

I know it sounds weird asking for 'challenges' especially for DF! But I'd seriously be interested in some ideas for interesting or hard embarks, preferably without many mods or none at all...

[JacenHanLovesLegos]

Haunted beach. Watch your fortress get destroyed by zombie whales.

[Dae]

Dig deeper.

[Rubies]

If you savescum, stop. It should make things a lot more interesting when you accidentally deconstruct that support wall.

(to sacescum is to load game in case something you didn't want to happen happens)

Open your front gates, defend with military and not traps.

[Greiger]

When I got to that point I started modding...

But things to try are not walling off the fortress and depending more and more on your military instead of traps as previously stated.  Depending on your military to hold guard stations in various positions is tricky and is a nice way to add some challenge.

For example, instead of using a dog on a rope at your front gate try having a guard stationed there at all times.  Instead of walling off the caverns build a stylish gate (but keep it open) and place enough guards to defend the entrance.  It's really difficult when they start fighting something and you don't realize it until you get the guard's dying message.    ....Soundsense helps with that.  It plays the combat sounds even if you don't notice the fighting.

[SalmonGod]

I learned on 3.14 when invaders were broken.  As soon as I had figured out how to get a fort self-sufficient, I wondered when there would be some action.  Looked it up, figured out how to work around it, and jumped straight into Fortress Defense mod.  Lots of fun   I highly recommend it if you want a challenge.

[nbonaparte]

If you savescum, stop. It should make things a lot more interesting when you accidentally deconstruct that support wall.

(to sacescum is to load game in case something you didn't want to happen happens)

I've been playing for over a year and I still do that. I don't think it's a bad thing. When I'm working on something, catastrophic failure is just annoying.

[RayesKotrora]

I've been playing for over a year and I still do that. I don't think it's a bad thing. When I'm working on something, catastrophic failure is just annoying.

Roguelikes are known for being against savescumming. Half of the fun (in the real life sense, not DF sense) is in not being able to just reload the game when you die. Realism is the main reason for that, but also presenting a challenge. To me, savescumming a roguelike would ruin it.

[Russell]

Thanks for the replies guys. Some awesome suggestions. I'm also thinking about taking on a mega project!

[Nihilist]

Figuring out how to accept and learn from failure is a good life lesson too, makes everything much more enjoyable when you don't have the fear of failure.

Plus tantrum spirals are entertaining

[shadow_archmagi]

just annoying.

It's not just annoying, though. Often, really impressive things can come out of setbacks.

Remember that one story about that fort where the player screwed up and ended up dragging a forgotten beast into their fort, and then watching it slaughter everyone except for a handful who walled themselves in, slowly starving and going insane until by the time the caravan arrived and killed the beast, only two dwarves were alive, but ready to rebuild in a glorious dwarfy rebirth?

Furthermore, it really changes the whole mindset into one less prone to impressive storytelling. There's a world of difference between

"oh, a dragon. This might take two or three reloads before I can kill it" and "OH GOD! SEND EVERYTHING! THIS COULD BE THE END! SO MANY HOURS OF WORK AT STAKE! FIGHT ON TINY BEARDMEN!"

[Nihilist]

Also, engraving start to get awesome aftter you accidently flood your living quarters with magma.

[nbonaparte]

Well, epic stories and  such are fine, I get that. It's things like when I built an underwater fort, and couldn't get dump zones to work right. I had my dwarves build an ice floor on the surface of the water to get rid of ice. When the one month above freezing came, I removed the part of the floor holding it up. It smashed through my fort and the ceilings of the tunnels below.

[Vigilant]

I'm leaning against savescumming after doing it for a while, since it's led to awesome. Connecting the resevoir to the water source, which was a multi z-level pool from the bottom, led to water FOOSH! And then hilarity as I suddenly drafted everyone to start digging holes in the floor (there was a cavern beneath us.). So much fun. Except then i had to deal with the dwarves that got sucked into the holes and either died, or were trapped.

[clc02]

Now this might just be me but after I get a military up and defenses (Walls, I don't use cage traps or weapon traps, supports + pressure plates if I'm not lazy, but not all blocking my entrance) I pick one of my military and appoint him to Militia Commander and turn him into armok (Read: My) avatar, I go in runesmith and change his personality to the most crazy off his rocker dwarf I can think of.  I give him double his stats (For the most part, I give creativity, empathy, and the likes 0) and wait for him to die, after that I breach the hell pits.