Dwarf Fortress, Yes, I'm late to the party. Shut up. Options

[StealthSigma]

Building a huge mazelike fortress with insane death traps and treasure to be found sounds like fun. Who knows if the lever opens a treasure vault, or starts pumping the room full of magma. Maybe both. Plus the automatic traps (or door locking/unlocking) powered by water and pressure plates would make for an interesting environment.

Knowing my fortresses, pulling the lever would either...
A. Raise the drawbridge.
B. Open the trapdoor for the feeding chute for the prisoners.
C. Open the trapdoor to dispose of garbage in magma.
D. Flood some place with water and/or magma. The most common places I would flood are listed below.
D1. The basin surrounding the entrance to the fort. I would take pains to dig out a large basin except for a rise in the middle which would be the entrance to the fortress. A pump would be used to flood the basin with water or lava in case of pesky elephants, elves, or goblins. I would also have a trapdoor to drain the basin into it's retention pond....
D2. The lower levels of the fortress. I would construct the fortresses in such a manner that I would have airlock door between the upper and lower levels. I would keep a certain number of dwarfs down there for mining or constructing lower level necessities (such as pump systems). In case of an invasion, I would flood the lower levels with water/magma. The dwarfs were expendable.
D3. Nobles rooms. Self explanatory.

[almost normal]

I really wish the game was more accessible. I gave it a good effort once, but all i ended up doing was following a tutorial without really knowing the steps I was taking.

[Iduno]

The tutorials really need to be short videos for setting up different industries (butchering -> leather and food, weapons and armor, medical, training soldiers, etc.). Choosing a location isn't as important now that magma and metals are guaranteed. Maybe start yourself out somewhere with no hostiles so you can get used to what you need to set up without being bothered. I'd like to think I could do it, but I don't have video capture stuff, microphone, video posting account, or any idea how to record a video. Trial-and-error gets you there over the course of a weekend, and each failure is a learning opportunity. Start simple, keep adding on, , then do something horrible to the survivors when you get bored.

The start is easy enough: dig a tunnel wide enough for a wagon and an area for the trading post, dig stairs (down, then all up and down), every few levels build areas for doors on each side of the stairs, then wide hallways to add rooms later, get a farm established as soon as possible, have dwarves who aren't busy bring everything in to my food or workshop stockpiles, and build some beds. At first, all I care about is surviving, and having the miners make room for future expansion (lots of bedrooms and lots of workshops that can be sealed off from each other). I try to keep space around everything and between levels that I'm using because I will need to expand later, or probably forgot something important.

Then I make a still and food processing shop, with space for a few other workshops nearby, and a huge dining room on the other side of the stairs or a level down. Normal bedrooms are 3 spaces: a door, a bed, and a dresser. They also own the walls on either side of the "room," making it a 3x3 area. Walls are 2 squares wide so I don't have to worry about having 2 dwarves owning the same wall. Noble rooms are larger, and in an area that can be expanded/locked down in case of "accidents." Luckily, the difficulty is based on population so you can keep things simple while you set up by having immigrants stand on the trapdoor above the lava pit or explore horribly dangerous areas. If you don't know how to do something, don't worry - walls and dwarves can both be replaced easily.

I make sure the miners don't have secondary jobs I'll be needing for a while, maybe let them be soldiers or mechanism-makers. I don't really have any other preference for how jobs are organized. Maybe a farmer/brewer and farmer/chef so they can go get more ingredients when they run out.

If I was smart, I would probably make a tree of how to make each kind of workshop. I know there is one magma building I can never find, even though I kind of understand how the menus are organized.

[StealthSigma]

The start is easy enough: dig a tunnel wide enough for a wagon and an area for the trading post, dig stairs (down, then all up and down), every few levels build areas for doors on each side of the stairs, then wide hallways to add rooms later, get a farm established as soon as possible, have dwarves who aren't busy bring everything in to my food or workshop stockpiles, and build some beds. At first, all I care about is surviving, and having the miners make room for future expansion (lots of bedrooms and lots of workshops that can be sealed off from each other). I try to keep space around everything and between levels that I'm using because I will need to expand later, or probably forgot something important.

Is a 3 square wide entrance tunnel even required? I was under the impression that traders used transdimensional compression to slip through a 1 square wide tunnel to get to the trade depot.

Then I make a still and food processing shop, with space for a few other workshops nearby, and a huge dining room on the other side of the stairs or a level down. Normal bedrooms are 3 spaces: a door, a bed, and a dresser. They also own the walls on either side of the "room," making it a 3x3 area. Walls are 2 squares wide so I don't have to worry about having 2 dwarves owning the same wall. Noble rooms are larger, and in an area that can be expanded/locked down in case of "accidents." Luckily, the difficulty is based on population so you can keep things simple while you set up by having immigrants stand on the trapdoor above the lava pit or explore horribly dangerous areas. If you don't know how to do something, don't worry - walls and dwarves can both be replaced easily.

Aren't bedrooms supposed to be 4 spaces? Door + Bed + Cabinet + Chest? And the ownership of the same wall isn't so much an issue last I knew. I wonder if maybe the problem you were having with rooms was that you were making them 3x3 rather than 4x3.

I make sure the miners don't have secondary jobs I'll be needing for a while, maybe let them be soldiers or mechanism-makers. I don't really have any other preference for how jobs are organized. Maybe a farmer/brewer and farmer/chef so they can go get more ingredients when they run out.

I found that once the 2nd migration wave hits you generally have enough dwarfs to support that population and specialize out the skills rather than stack them. It's necessary with the initial 7 to stack roles. I did find that my 4th and later migration waves saw most of my dwarfs being assigned as transporters or drafted into the military unless they had a skill that was better than the one my current dwarf job doer had. I only ever had 1 dwarf worker per workshop and I only ever really expanded the number of workshops if I found my production didn't match the demand. I did usually do 2-3 diggers, 2-3 engravers, and I would make sure to keep enough growers on hand to keep my pantries well stocked with plump helmets since they were the basic brewing ingredient and were good to use for cooking.

[Iduno]

Is a 3 square wide entrance tunnel even required? I was under the impression that traders used transdimensional compression to slip through a 1 square wide tunnel to get to the trade depot.

Last I knew, you had to have 3 squares open the whole way to the trading post or they wouldn't even send wagons.

Aren't bedrooms supposed to be 4 spaces? Door + Bed + Cabinet + Chest? And the ownership of the same wall isn't so much an issue last I knew. I wonder if maybe the problem you were having with rooms was that you were making them 3x3 rather than 4x3.

Not sure on the cabinet and chest. I know the sharing space thing at least used to divide the value of the room by the number of dwarves sharing it. That probably only matters for nobles, but it's a small enough difference that I just do it for all dwarves.

I found that once the 2nd migration wave hits you generally have enough dwarfs to support that population and specialize out the skills rather than stack them. It's necessary with the initial 7 to stack roles. I did find that my 4th and later migration waves saw most of my dwarfs being assigned as transporters or drafted into the military unless they had a skill that was better than the one my current dwarf job doer had. I only ever had 1 dwarf worker per workshop and I only ever really expanded the number of workshops if I found my production didn't match the demand. I did usually do 2-3 diggers, 2-3 engravers, and I would make sure to keep enough growers on hand to keep my pantries well stocked with plump helmets since they were the basic brewing ingredient and were good to use for cooking.

Oh yeah. I meant that only for the starting miners. Nobody else doubles up in my fortresses, and I eventually make the starting seven only do one job. I let migrants with useful jobs be back-ups for other dwarves in case they are sleeping/eating/trying to get a sock during a goblin invasion. Unless they come with a pet. Pets owners get to go volcano-diving so I don't have to worry about pet overpopulation destroying my framerate. Although I do remember there being a way to hardcap the dwarf population, so maybe the same could be done with pets.

[ShadowDragon8685]

The pet problem, eh?


Wouldn't it be nice if you could just have the butchers geld the male animals?


As an aside, producing cojones as a cookable ingredient?



Hey, it beats mass kitten slaughter. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Halinn]

Hey, it beats mass kitten slaughter. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Them's good eating.

[StealthSigma]

Them's good eating.

Not only that, they're an extremely stable and renewable source of meat.

[almost normal]

Not only that, they're an extremely stable and renewable source of meat.

I think the whole point of gelding is so that it *doesn't* grow back.

[StealthSigma]

I think the whole point of gelding is so that it *doesn't* grow back.

No point! Why cut off such a stable and renewable meat source.

Sure, the source of the meat may be addictive and habit forming to the point that withdrawal symptoms include suicidal thoughts, but that's why you keep it caged!

[ShadowDragon8685]

At least it's not mermaid farming...

[StealthSigma]

At least it's not mermaid farming...

What's wrong with that? The only problem I see with it is that value of mermaid bones that made them so desirable to farm got adjusted. Now the cost in time of creating the mermaid farm really doesn't justify the effort.

No... the best type of farming? Elf farming. Elf merchants are pretty useless anyway and they always just want to bitch about what you sell them. The best solution is to just create a pit under a trapdoor under a path leading to the drawbridge so you plummet the elves to their doom. Then you loot the caravan of their mostly useless goods and later you get elf bones for bone carving.

[Adarael]

This is pleasing to the Ebon Dragon.

[Iduno]

What's wrong with that? The only problem I see with it is that value of mermaid bones that made them so desirable to farm got adjusted. Now the cost in time of creating the mermaid farm really doesn't justify the effort.

No... the best type of farming? Elf farming. Elf merchants are pretty useless anyway and they always just want to bitch about what you sell them. The best solution is to just create a pit under a trapdoor under a path leading to the drawbridge so you plummet the elves to their doom. Then you loot the caravan of their mostly useless goods and later you get elf bones for bone carving.

The problem with that plan is that my butchers are too picky. They only want meat that the hunters kill or they kill themselves. Now if there was a way to force attack with a unit (including hunters), we'd be good to go. Probably also useful when they run past perfectly good targets chasing something that can't catch, but it'd mostly be to get rid of elves.

Now the humans are reasonable people who understand that business is business. If you sell them totems made from the skulls from the last human traders to cut you a bad deal, they just take it in stride.

[StealthSigma]

The problem with that plan is that my butchers are too picky. They only want meat that the hunters kill or they kill themselves. Now if there was a way to force attack with a unit (including hunters), we'd be good to go. Probably also useful when they run past perfectly good targets chasing something that can't catch, but it'd mostly be to get rid of elves.

Now the humans are reasonable people who understand that business is business. If you sell them totems made from the skulls from the last human traders to cut you a bad deal, they just take it in stride.

Well, mermaids were farmed for their bones and not their meat because in an old version objects maid from mermaid bone were vastly overvalued compared to most other bone objects.

[ShadowDragon8685]

This is pleasing to the Ebon Dragon.

Things which are Pleasing to the Ebon Dragon are also justly enumerated as Things Which Should Not Be.

Good to see another Exalted player. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)