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[sarus92]

Hello everyone! I am considering playing Dwarf fortress, due to the fact of so many people telling me how great and in-depth this game is, I am not one to judge a game from graphics (Terraria/Minecraft) and I'm just curious how this game is? What are the main awesome parts? And also what are some aspects that hinder the fuN?


Thanks!

[Rowanas]

We cannot tell you. This is something that you must discover for yourself. Play, learn, fail, grow, enjoy. Tutorials are unnecessary, but the wiki is not.

[Capntastic]

I'd suggest playing around blind for a few hours, wreck a few forts, before going to the wiki.

[Untelligent]

1) The < and > keys move up and down levels.

2) You can mine underground by digging a down stair on the surface and digging an up stair directly below that.


Now you're good to go.

[Greiger]

The game's depth and complexity.  Get a couple favorite dwarves  and you can get a story about them, just from happenings within the game.  Every dwarf (and indeed every creature but the game only shows you all the details for creatures you control) have different personalities, and different appearances.  Every. single. one.  And much of the game's systems come about more or less organically. 

A dwarf's family all get killed in a mining accident.  You don't know how they will respond to it because there are dozens of variables.  They could get angry and start punching people and throwing furniture, they could go insane with sadness possibly attempting suicide, they could go berserk killing everyone in their path until killed, or they could remain calm.  All dependent on how happy overall they are in the fortress, and what their personality is.

It is one of those games that really shine if you have the imagination to see the story that emerges.

And as a modder I'm also obligated to tell you about the modding aspect of the game.  The game has a relatively simple(compared to other systems I've seen) tag based system for modding where a tag in a text file gives fairly good amounts of control of various behaviors.  A simple group of letters like [CARNIVORE] for example gives the game all kinds of information on what a creature can and cannot eat.  Most of the core gameplay is hardcoded, but you can create custom creatures, civilisations, many custom objects, custom workshops, the custom 'reactions' to preform custom jobs in those workshops, metals, stones, plants, trees, grasses, languages, worlds, engravings...the list goes on.

It's a truely awesome game... once you overcome the learning cliff.  Remember that losing is fun, and many players lost many a fortress before finally learning the game well enough to make something that can last more than an ingame year.

[BloodBeard]

Here is your guide to Dwarf Fortress. The mechanics are outdated but everything is pretty much there.

Good luck, and god help.

[danielout]

Here is your guide to Dwarf Fortress. The mechanics are outdated but everything is pretty much there.

Good luck, and god help.

This is the way. Read it (no seriously, all of it) and you will be mentally prepared to play Dwarf Fortress. Unleash the fun!

(I used that very same link to 'explain' DF to someone today as well; it is the only suitable introduction)

[sarus92]

Thanks alot guys for the info!! This game sounds freakin great from what you all describe, I thank you all for putting in the time to describe this game to me, good community! Thanks again! Good day.

[MonkeyHead]

Remember: Losing is fun. You will have a lot of fun.

[Caldfir]

Welcome!

Also, the fun of dwarf fortress is broken into 3 stages:

• Figuring Things Out: The first bit of fun is just messing around and discovering how deep the game is.  Consult the wiki frequently, but don't be afraid to try new things.  Set simple goals like "forge an iron boot" or "give each dwarf a bedroom" and try to get from wat you know to what you need to know to do that. 
• Playing The Game: Stage two DF is all about losing.  Can I embark on a glacier?  Can I survive the attacks?  Will my guard captain kill all my dwarves?  These are the questions you must ask yourself.  While this varies from person to person, the objective is to find a challenge and try to overcome it.  Many players talk about how brutal DF can be.  This is true, but much of that brutality is self-inflicted.  See how much you can do, and test the limits. 
• Watching For Updates: Once you've played DF for a while, (for me this was about a year) you won't really be afraid to try anything anymore.  You will know which things are possible, and which will lead to an untimely end, and always be able to avoid your doom without failure.  Now is when you will probably start installing or writing mods, and really visiting the forums like an addict.  When a new version is released, prepare yourself, because you're headed back up to a shorter version of step 1 again. 

This is how it was for me anyway. 

[EddyP]

My advice would be to find a small island out in the ocean (no goblins) and embark there, and just get used to playing. Someone above gave very good advice - set small goals like forging a set of iron boots. After you've got used to the controls, set up a fort with access to other races and learn about trading and the military.

Bear in mind that the current version of DF is a bit unfriendly, as Toady recently redid how minerals and ore are placed in the game world, and you may find that you don't have iron on your embark. Hopefully there'll be copper.

And remember, the wiki is your friend.

[Flying Carcass]

Welcome, hope you have a blast! The wiki is a great source of info; use it if you need to find out how to do something in particular, such as establishing a steel industry. Also, some of the most fun forts are the ones that go horribly wrong.

[Sutremaine]

When you start a game, one of the Create New World options is Mineral Occurance. Set this to Everywhere and your site will be fairly likely to have iron, and your civ will almost certainly have iron. Steel is always available, even if it is extremely expensive for a fledgeling fortress.

Things that I think hinder fun are aquifers (nice water sources, but a pain to get through unless you're on a freezing cold map), and the numerous ways there are of examining things.

Loo(k) tells you what's on a particular tile, and only living beings or things written in tan can be examined further with the Enter key.
I(t)ems tells you what's inside a building. In the case of buildings, this tells you the exact items used to make it. In the case of workshops, this also tells you what's inside the workshop. This will come in handy when you get a dwarf in a strange mood waiting for the next item on their list.
(q) is for Building Tasks, and tells you what jobs are queued in a workshop. It's also used for altering settings on created stockpiles.

[Lancezh]

Tutorials are unnecessary

Yeah right. Back to your cave.

Click the link in my sig, they are pretty recent video tutorials...

[zehive]

On the chat is an image of zehive and friends in text.
the zehive is laughing. the friends are making a plaintive gesture.
this relates to the teaching of the dwarf fortress to friends in the midsummer of 2011.



and that really says it all.