Mr. K. on 14/5/2009 at 07:42

---

Oh, boy, I LOVE this game. Mind you, at first it *IS* very difficult, and the interface doesn't help a bit.

When I started playing, I inmediately installed Mayday's graphic set, which makes everything rather understandable, I really recommend it:

(http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.htm)

Also, anyone open to playing a shared TTLG fortress? Forum users apply, and each one plays the fortress for 1 whole year of game time, then passes the game to the next user and posts about what they did and what happened. And anyone can request to have a dwarf with a name / profession of their choice, whether they play the fortress or not.

Koki on 14/5/2009 at 09:11

---

It makes everything butt-ugly, that's what it does. If you want aesthetics, get (http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/images/7/7a/Snap.PNG) Dorten's character set, it's disgustingly pretty.

Personally I learned the game on default Curses 640x480, and never had any problems. Only recently I switched to Hanuman's 12x12 because it uses square tiles.

the_grip on 7/1/2010 at 02:43

---

as per Stitch's (good) request, here is some DF info from the "What are you playing?" thread:

(this is in response to me asking how new dwarves come along and how to manage the military)

the_grip:

You attract new dwarves in immigration waves. You should get one a year, depending on a few factors, including what the liaison perceives the value of your fort to be, and how dangerous it is (how many dwarves have died there recently). This Wiki page has a very in-depth and comprehensive description of how it works.

Assigning dwarves to the military can be done a couple of ways.
One is to "v"iew a particular dwarf, check his/her "p"references, and then "A"ctivate them for military duty. The letters in quotation marks dictate menu command keys, and are case sensitive.
Note that a dwarf activated for military service is immediately considered to be "On Duty". If you are not currently under attack, ideally your military shouldn't be on duty; they should be sparring in your barracks.
There's a few complicated concepts in that paragraph.
Hopefully I can help describe them here.

To gain more in-depth control over your military, hit "m".
This brings up the military management screen. Here you can assign dwarfs to squads, determine what armour and weapons each dwarf should be using, and change their behaviour while on or off duty.

To create a squad, choose a dwarf you want to be squad leader and hit return. You are now in "Promotion" mode. Moving through your list of dwarves using the up and down arrow keys, you can add other dwarves to your leader's squad by hitting return. When you're done assigning dwarves to your squad leader, hitting the space bar exits promotion mode. Any dwarves assigned to your squad leader, even if they're not active military dwarves, become active if the squad leader is.
If you want to remove a dwarf from a squad, hit return twice on that particular dwarf, thus promoting him to be the leader of his own squad. Remember to hit space after doing so to exit promotion mode again.

You can also directly "a"ctivate dwarves on the military management screen. Hitting "a" on an already active dwarf de-activates him and any of his squad members too.

Hitting "w" allows you to determine what weapons your military will fight with by using the arrow keys and the return key. The last two columns dictate armour and shield level respectively. There are 4 levels of armour and 3 of shield. To ensure maximum protection, assign them each layer one step at a time, as it's possible to "layer" armour. For example, first assign the dwarf to wear leather (lth). Once he's ran of and got himself a full suit of leather, then assign him the next level, chain (chn). Finally, assign him plate (plt). He'll wear each layer on top of the other, greatly improving survival chances.
I'm not sure that this trick works with shields and bucklers, as one of my champions is using both a buckler and shield in the same hand, although I think that this is because the buckler is an artifact, and once a dwarf picks up a piece of artifact armour or weaponry, the only way to get them to drop it is either by wrestling it off of them or killing them. No other dwarves are using both.
The three levels of shield are nothing (---), buckler (bck), and shield (shd).

Next, you'll want to "v"iew squad to change their on and off duty behaviour.
The squad screen is fairly simple in comparison, offering your choices in easily defined lines.
Remember, to carry water and food rations, you need waterskins and backpacks respectively. The easiest and cheapest way to make these is through the leather industry, where you use a Tanner's Shop to cure hides produced at the Butcher's Shop. This is done automatically as long as you have the relevant shops and dwarves assigned to their respective jobs (Tanner & Butcher). Butchers automatically slaughter any animals you designate for slaughter. The easiest way to do that is by browsing the list of animals in your status screen (accessed by hitting "z"), and pressing "b" on those you wish to slaughter. I methodically butcher any and all new born animals every time there's an announcement now so as to avoid my fortress being overrun by CPU cycle consuming pets. If you leave an animal alive for too long, chances are they'll become someones pet, and you can't butcher pets. And then the fuckers breed. This is why veteran DF players have a pathological urge to butcher kittens.
Anyway, once you have hides, you then need to make the waterskins and backpacks at a Leatherworks. You can either do this by "q"uerying the leatherworks and assigning each manufacture order manually, or you can do it through the "j"ob "m"anagement screen. Hitting "q" on this screen allows you to enter what job you want done by typing its name (or a contraction thereof, such as lea bac for leather backpack). It'll then ask you for a uantity, the maximum of which is 30. As long as you've assigned a dwarf to be a Manager in the "n"obles screen and given said dwarf a chair to work from, he'll run off and authorise the job, which your dwarves will then endeavour to complete.
I use the job management screen for virtually everything now, as it's the most efficient way of getting dwarves to make things, as long as you have the materials.
Congratulations on your new +cat leather backpack+ and +dog leather waterskin+.

Try to make sure that the military carries water, otherwise they have a tendency to run off for booze while mid-battle.

Any dwarf that is "Standing down" (designated using "t" in the squad screen), will attempt to spar in the barracks. You designate a barracks by placing a bed, weapon rack or armour stand in a room and "q"uerying it. In the case of a bed, you'll need to hit "r" to make it a bedroom, use the + & - keys to size the room, hit enter when happy, and finally make it a "b"arracks.
In the case of a weapon rack or armour stand, make it a barracks / armoury using "r", resize it, then hit enter.

Of course, your marksdwarves can't spar without an archery range, so you need to "b"uild one. Choose a suitable room then hit "A" for Archery Target.
Choose a material, then some dwarf will come along and build it (either a mason or a carpenter depending on the material).
Once the target is built, "q"uery it, and use "r" to make an archery range in much the same way you sized a barracks or bedroom.
Finally, use "w", "a", "s" or "d" to define the direction your marksdwarves should fire in.

Sorry about the length of that, but I hoped to make it as comprehensive as possible.

Oh yeah, handy side effect of having a barracks: any dwarf that's not been assigned a bedroom will sleep in the barracks.

the_grip on 7/1/2010 at 03:21

---

one thing that is confusing the hell out of me though is sometimes my miners just stop mining and their status says no job... wtf? This is with mining designations still open.

The cats had a litter though. I've got a shit-ton of cats running around now.

Malf on 11/1/2010 at 23:17

---

Here's a couple of pretty pictures of Crestedwhipped, my fortress that has now been going for 15 years, long enough for two dwarves to be born and grow to adulthood.

(http://mungrul.shackspace.com/pics/Crestedwhipped.png) Stonesense

The dwarf "Fath" stood on top of the platform between the two towers is Parchedflames, my prize champion, who has 150 notable kills, amongst which is a dragon. I name all my champions after their most notable or first kill.

(http://mungrul.shackspace.com/pics/crestedwhipped.jpg) Visual Fortress 3D

This shows the 3D view. Here you can see my pitted outdoor farms in the foreground, flanking the green glass road that leads up to the front gate & drawbridge. You can just make out the avenue of masterwork statues lining the road in the fortress interior. And yes, the top of the curtain wall is all green glass, as is the platform at the top of the two towers.
Incidentally, those two towers were built as an effective and fun way to slaughter prisoners. They explode on impact :)

The maze-like structure to the right of the fortress is the obsidian farm.

I don't make the prettiest fortresses, but they tend to be highly practical & efficient. My population is currently 180, 46 of which are in the military, 29 of which are legendary champions. I have plentiful booze (4,186 units to be precise), and my fortress value is now 30,435,776.

Anyone else got some cool pictures of their current fortress?