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[TapeNoot]

Well! Long time lurker, first time poster.

Got into DF a few months ago, read most of the epic sagas resulting from succession games, tried my hand at a few forts.

So, got a few questions.

Being away from home most of the day, I tend to play DF on my netbook. Frame rates are pretty decent, but the game itself runs horrendously slow, especially compared to my six-core behemoth at home. Netbook is running Ubuntu 10.04, has 2Gb of ram, and has a dual-core Atom N450 (1.66GHz) processor. Any advice on making DF run quicker? I've tried tiny embarks, and it hasn't really had any effect. Plus, after playing one of said tiny-embark games on my desktop, I suddenly had 200+ dorfs running around. Not netbook friendly in the slightest.
Worst case, I was thinking of running DF remotely through the terminal, find a use for a rackmount server I've got lying about.

Also, I was wondering how to generate a relatively flat world, with wide open caverns. Something that's easy to wall up to stop 4+ forgotten beasties from tromping about. Last few games I avoided the caverns entirely :/


So, yeah! Any advice would be appreciated.

[Acperience]

For Frame Rates.

In the init file, turn off:
Temperature
Weather

From experience, having the game not perform temperature calculation was a big performance booster.
Immersion in lava/fire will still kill. Touching lava will not, however if you decide to switch temperature back on at some point, anything that touched lava within the past season or so will burst into flame/melt.(from personal experience)


For plains/caves:
In advanced world-gen parameters:
Turn Cave Passage Openess Minimum to a higher value, turn Cave Passage Density Maximum to a lower value.

For plains:
There no easy way for me to explain how to do this with the advanced worldgen, so use this instead
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57428.0

[Reelyanoob]

There's also Nano Fortress, the app which let's you play even tinier (1x1) fortresses, they're actually quite challenging (and a little claustrophobic). That's 1 quarter the normal tiny map size.

For the rest you need advanced worldgen settings:

- Max and Min elevations can make the world flatter overall (note this can stop certain biomes appearing)
- Reducing the variation on elevation makes the world smoother/i.e. flatter in local sense
- reduce "z-level above layer X" for all X in the settings
- reduce number of caverns to 1 or 2 from the default 3
- turn off "magma layer" - get's rid of magma sea
- leave on "bottom layer" - this leaves HFS in existence (and some magma above), but can be removed
- add extra above-ground levels (max 100) so you can build up later

hell will only be about 20-25 levels down with these settings, tweak to your liking

[moki]

Adding to what has been said before:
1 cave layer is good enough, but I'd recommend setting the cave water minimum (don't remember the exact name, but you'll know what I mean) to 20 at least and maximum to 80. That'll almost guarantee you some water in the cave and makes completely flooded caves unlikely.Having a cave full of water between you and hell and no way to get through (because you raised openness) is about as bad as a multi-layer aquifer.
Having many above-ground levels is a good idea, but don't overdo it. Even the empty air can kill your framerate, especially when there are flying animals that path all through you airspace. When you don't plan on building 100z towers, don't include too many levels. 20-25 should be good enough for any megaproject your computer could handle.
Using the smallest possible world size also helps a little. There is a little FPS difference between playing on "large" and "tiny" maps. It doesn't do very much in the game, but makes for a really fast world gen.

[AdeleneDawner]

Having a cave full of water between you and hell and no way to get through (because you raised openness) is about as bad as a multi-layer aquifer.

Eh? You just dig a 5 by 5 by however-many-z-levels block out of the stone above the water, use a support attached to a lever to control when it falls, drop it into the water, build down to it, and dig away. Not hard at all, if you're reasonably experienced.

[TapeNoot]

Bit of a late reply, but thanks for the advice. Started a new fortress on my netbook, and, woah. Turning temp and weather off -really- makes a difference. Even managed to find a completely flat embark.

Haven't hit the caverns yet, but I'm looking forward to building there.

Coincidently. are there any good tilesets recommended for netbook play? I've been using http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/File:Terminus.png , but it is starting to get a little... dull. Any suggestions? Square is preferable.

[Agent_86]

That's 1 quarter the normal tiny map size.

I don't want to be a stickler, but this irked me.

a 1x1 embark is 1/16 the size of a 4x4 embark, not 1/4.   

[Reelyanoob]

That's 1 quarter the normal tiny map size.

I don't want to be a stickler, but this irked me.

a 1x1 embark is 1/16 the size of a 4x4 embark, not 1/4.   

"Tiny" is 2x2 not 4x4. Maybe you have a very fast machine, but my use of tiny is in line with the OP:

"I've tried tiny embarks, and it hasn't really had any effect. Plus, after playing one of said tiny-embark games on my desktop, I suddenly had 200+ dorfs running around."

He clearly is referring to 2x2 embarks here with the term tiny.

BTW: to the OP, try starting with a lower POP_CAP (maybe 80 or 100) for saves you want to transfer to the netbook. Sorry, I don't use tilesets so can't advise you there.