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[Nomen]

So, does anyone here actually play this?

If anyone does, maybe we could make one of those thingies where you play a game file for a year then pass it on to another person. I can't remember what they're called.

[LTK]

These people, maybe?

[pwhodges]

They've mostly gone to PJ, where there's a more recent thread, and mentions elsewhere.

[Nomen]

These people, maybe?

Yeah, every forum I've been to frowns upon necro-ing four year old threads. If you'd prefer I do that, a moderator can delete this and I'll go necro it.

[snalin]

We tried a continuation game, but it fell apart pretty fast. I think I tried to take over, but that didn't work out either.

I've got a fortress sitting around that's pretty successful - I've got an army fully equipped with adamantite stuff, food for some years, and a pretty nice living standard all around. Next big project is to dam my river, which will be done with some big holes and a lot of automated pumps. After that I'll have to see if I want to get magma up to the surface, or just move my entire operation to the lower caves. Both would be hard work, but in the end, moving 159 dwarves will probably be the biggest hassle.

(click to show/hide)

I've also managed to open a hole to hell. Got it floored up, so no demons got though, but they're down there, looking, waiting. There's a lot of them. Good thing is that I now can safely mine around the adamantite shaft.

[Nomen]

I have a tendency to get bored once I have stuff set up so that I'm not on the verge of dying every other month so I make a new fortress.

[pwhodges]

Yeah, every forum I've been to frowns upon necro-ing four year old threads.

We don't worry about that so much here, these days.  But why not just continue here?  There's already a link to the old thread.

[ackblom12]

Fuck it, I'll start posting things then.

So I've been playing the new release with the newest Mayday pack, and early on in my fort's life, suddenly... this happened!



What the hell is a human child doing wandering into my fortress? And where the hell are his parents? and why does he smell so bad?

Luckily for him, before my militia could decide to hack him to bits, he ran away, doing absolutely nothing. Everyone was confused.

Later, a Kobold Thief showed up and made the mistake of getting to close to my militia commander. Now, I know that the Dwarfs aren't kind fellows, but the militia commander seems to have a bit of a knack for terribleness.



D:

The other dwarves proceeded to punch the Thief to death while the MC continued to skull fuck the poor bastard.

[ackblom12]

[ackblom12]

A bug fix update was released today and it is now on 0.34.02. A tileset update for Pheobus was also released and Therapist updated as well. Both work with the current release now. However, any forts from the last updt can't be used. It had a bit of a bug where buildings began to deteriorate and they're unsalvageable. Mayday has not updated to this release as of yet. I know they were working on getting all of the year's update done, so it should be ready pretty soon if you are interested.

Pre-installed Pheobus - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57557.0

Dwarf Therapist - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=66525.msg3003833#msg3003833

[ackblom12]

The Lazy Newb Pack is up to date now as well.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.0

And if you are interested in lerning how to play the game, captnduck has started up a new tutorial series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHVZtRdtPdo

[smack that isaiah]

thanks very much for the tutorial thing.  I'll def watch it eventually.  I've always felt it'd be fun to get into this game, but the learning curve is so steep :/  Now I just need to find the time to actually play it...

[ackblom12]

No problem, the game is quite daunting to get into and I know that any little bit helps.

Part 2 and 3 of the tutorials are up by the way.

Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgqfU1j0rZc

Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVWRTVQNfnM

[DrPhibes]

I now am ashamed for the way he talks English with a thick Dutch accent.

[snalin]

Should I start a fresh game with the new version? Is there any big changes? I've kinda got a cool thing going, but at the same time, something fresh would probably be cool too.


How much time do you guys put into planning your fortress out? I've got the standardized, maximum efficiency bedroom layout, but I still feel that I'm not good enough at using the z-axis to build. I might try to make something where I really try to use many z-levels with small floors, to get stuff done faster. Right now I always make the underground farms on one level, the storages on one level, the dining room on one level, the workshops on one level, etc. I feel that there could be great improvement. Especially if I could spread things out - say put the forgery right over the bedrooms of the metal workers, and so on.

[ackblom12]

There are some pretty big differences, mostly in adventure mode, but there are still some big changes in fort mode. Historical figures, Vampires, werewolves, necromancers and evil areas are so much more terrifying to deal with. There is a fresh update coming in a few days that fixes a few smaller problems, like improving world generation and making vampires harder to detect, so if you have a fort going currently, you can safely put it off until that's done I think.

[ackblom12]

Alright, so I just wiped out a necromancer invasion. On the body of the necromancer Kel Kingshocked, I found this.



The man was carrying a 23 page, self titled, leather bound essay about how awesome he was. I killed the Barney Stinson of necromancers.

[Jace]

My favorite book was titled "Why did it have to be cat leather" and it was a dog leather bound book about a book that was bound in cat leather.
The other book was about the guy who wrote the dog leather book.

His response to someone writing a book about him: shitting on the choice of binding for the book.

[ackblom12]

Amazing.

In the most recent news, I found the vampire that's been plaguing this fort. You can actually infect your own citizens with Vampirism if you taint a water source with Vampiric blood.

Operation Vampire Fortress is going to get started today.

[snalin]

What downsides does it have if all your dwarves are vampires? I mean, your new immigrants will probably immediately die, but you can just drop food and booze production altogether. That'll be a really effective fort.

[ackblom12]

They're super strong and fast, they don't give in to pain, no food and drink requirements as you mentioned, and as long as the immigrants make it to the well before they get nommed, which vamps tend to eat out of the way of public, then you're good. You can put a fresh migrant vamp with no family into a sealed room with levers as an eternal AI and a full vamp militia should be an absolute horror to behold. I mean, you're still gonna be fucked if you breach hell, tantrum spirals can still fuck things up, but if you can successfully pull it off then it should be wondrous.

I'm also wondering if the undead leave your vamps alone in Fortress mode like they do in Adventure mode. If so, it would also make the necromancers on this map hilariously ineffective.

[ackblom12]

So, I'm not sure if anyone else is still doing anything with this game oor not, but I got this today and I'm more than a little horrified.



Edit: Also, 34.06 was just released. Dorfs will now put on clothing and armor all proper like!

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=a67b4cabe303775cf195e24604a7b121&topic=105369.msg3121397#new

Here is the next one!  The main features are the animal training and clothing changes.  You can get at the animal training options from the 'z' animal tab.

New stuff
   (*) Each civilization has animal training familiarity based on locale/journeys/domestication
   (*) Your site picks up training knowledge as you go
   (*) Your civilization picks it up from you if merchants survive
   (*) Animals have training status which can deteriorate
   (*) Added tools to the arena
   (*) Added text site color key for town map export

Major bug fixes
   (*) Fixed a save corruption from saving at the moment of trade meetings
   (*) Animals that have killed/attacked civ members no longer attack when trained
   (*) Allowed people to pick up their own owned clothes
   (*) Stopped sever victims from obsessing over lost clothes
   (*) Stopped failed pickup job from keeping item in uniform plan
   (*) Pickup equipment spam handled
   (*) Workshop clutter changed

Other bug fixes/tweaks
   (*) Evil/good trees/shrubs are back
   (*) Made ownership lapse for things that have been thrown away -- can take about 10-20 days
   (*) Clothing deterioration in refuse pile
   (*) Training jobs for large animals decoupled from kennels -- assign trainers in animal screen
   (*) Animals being trained wander around less
   (*) Allowed selection of war/hunting animals
   (*) Stopped young animals from lashing out
   (*) Decreased vampire frequency for fort migration
   (*) Fixed metal/bone helm artifacts (Quietust)
   (*) Fixed problems with socks going on the same foot
   (*) Champion can be appointed, fixed various circumstances causing failed position activations
   (*) Tool weights fixed (at least to align with raws)
   (*) Material size respected in standard tool construction jobs
   (*) Reintroduced negative thoughts from clothing, nakedness thoughts take a few weeks
   (*) Stopped zillions of chat thoughts from being stacked up
   (*) Stopped critters from breaking away from being led in an inconsistent way
   (*) Various string changes for TrueType (will also affect other modes in hopefully minor ways)

[IrrationalPie]

I enjoy DF posts, as I'm not skilled enough to learn to play the game.

[snalin]

   (*) Pickup equipment spam handled

YESYESYESYESYES! This has been so damned annoying.

And I'd also be horrified if I was surrounded by purring maggots.

[ackblom12]

I enjoy DF posts, as I'm not skilled enough to learn to play the game.

Honestly, it doesn't take as much skill as many people are concerned about. It's very intimidating and has a hell of a steep learning curve, but it's well worth trying out. Just accept your first few fortresses will fail miserably, likely very quickly.

A good start is this series of tutorials here... http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06686270DA5FF439&feature=plcp

Then you can download the Lazy Newb Pack for the newest release (It isn't out yet, but should be done in the next day or two). It is much much easier to learn with the video tutorials.

[ackblom12]

So it got leaked earlier this month that TinyPirate, a player who wrote some ridiculously popular tutorials at one point, is releasing a Dwarf Fortress book in late April under the publisher O'Reilly. It's intended as a beginner's guide to the game, so it covers more of the basics than any advanced play, but it sounds great.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=102853.msg3043047#msg3043047

Hi guys! Looks like the cat is out of the bag! I wasn't sure when O'Reilly was going to announce this but I guess now is the time? I was hoping to announce it myself! Awww. 

Yes, I'm writing a book on Dwarf Fortress. It's not done yet but I expect it will clear 150 pages. Easily. The horror

And yes, it is a legit project by O'Reilly who have an editor or two who are as passionate about DF as the rest of us. I love the idea of this book sitting alongside books on C+, Lnux, MySQL and server maintenance. Dwarf Fortress is far more important than any of that stuff!

Why a book? Well, yes, the wiki exists, and yes, it is a superb and unparalleled resource, but many, many gamers want manuals or huge chunky strategy guides that will step them through everything they need to know. My old 2009 Dwarf Fortress tutorials still net 2,500 views a day (double that figure whenever Toady releases a new version of DF) and the first tutorial has had 750,000 page views. I would like to think that they have been great introductions to Dwarf Fortress.

The goal of the GSWDF book is to provide a one-stop-shop for brand new players who want to try and tackle this game but find themselves lost and confused (for most people this sets in about 30 seconds after running dwarffortress.exe in my experience). The book covers how to create your first world, embarking, first steps (getting food production up and running, digging, etc) and then branches into chunky chapters on managing your dwarfs, industry, military, mods and tools, etc etc. It's written in the same style as my tutorials (irreverent and, I hope, funny) and I'm excited that O'Reilly has let me take this thing where I want it to go.

Would I recommend you buying it? Well, if you're reading this you're probably already reasonably familiar with Dwarf Fortress and won't find much in it that you don't already know, so no, you probably don't need this book, give your $15 to Toady instead.

That being said, I think the book is going to end up pretty cool and unique in the O'Reilly stable. The book will almost certainly include some art by Tim Denee inspired by stories people have submitted, and it will have a cool, custom cover (I'm hoping something involving elephants!), and it has a forward by Toady, but I'm not going to sit here and tell you all you can't live without this book.

Your friends who don't yet play DF though? Yeah, those guys can't live without this book! When it comes out, buy them a few copies (I jest, I jest)! I also hope the book will pull in a ton more new players to DF (I really expect it will) and I encourage the reader to donate to Toady to support this project. I have high hopes that the book will be a great way of promoting DF, supporting Bay12 and introducing a whole new audience to the game.

Answers to some questions:
- It will be current to the DF2012 version.

- It does include information that you will also find in the wiki. It is impossible for anything on DF to not include material that is in the wiki as the wiki covers just about every DF topic you could imagine.

- This book represents an experiment by O'Reilly in "real time" publishing. This means the book is likely to get frequent updates - I believe that people who buy the book will actually get updates pushed to them as the book is maintained on an ongoing basis by me (and possibly others). I love being part of an experiment, makes me feel dwarfy.

- Toady's involvement is limited to, very kindly, writing a forward for the book. If I make any money off the book I'll be making donations to Toady off my own bat. And I really hope we'll see a lot of new players who will do the same. You can't play DF and not appreciate the time and effort the Bay12 guys have put into the game.

Thanks, hope that explains things.

There will be a physical and e-book version. In the long term, the physical book is more for collection reason since DF updates tend to change so much, but the e-book version is going to be an experimental release which they will update regularly. Also, the current cover he's showing off is incredibly classy.