OT: Dwarf Fortress

[DominionsFan]

Hm, I just managed to do well finally...I had like 12 rooms, and lot of dwarves, and a small but strong army. Then I just got a sheriff, and I couldnt make him happy enough, he demanded some kind of jail or what, but I couldnt make all the required stuff. So he bacame angry and murderized like 20 dwarves, including my uber skilled miner.
Finally I managed to kill him, but my losses were still great.
Not so long after this, some monsters appeared and began to run after my weak little worker dwarves, they managed to kill 2, and wounded 3 others badly [1 lost his right arm ]. Thankfully I had nice traps, so 2 from the monsters died because they walked into them, and my army took care of the other monsters.
Damn this game is very hard and complex, but its extremely addictive.
I think that Shrapnel should take a look at this indie game, because in like 1-2 years this game might reach beta, and I must say that its so unique and awesome, that some publishers should contact the developer immediately then.
I bet that this game would sell very good.

[Agrajag]

Without graphics it probably wouldn't sell at all
As for keyboard layouts, check this out.
Obviously mine is the Hebrew layout (though I have a Start/Win between the left Ctrl and Alt, and what they call the Menu key between the right Ctrl and Alt), although atleast here in Israel we have several variations on the layout (bigger Return/Enter button but smaller Backspace and the | and \ button is moved upwards, different buttons between Ctrls and Alts as well as a bigger Left Shift instead of the second | \ button.)

Anyway, my active fortress just reached Automn, and apparently I wasn't doing as well as I thought, I need more dwarves (specifically an architect) and my food supplies are low, I doubt if I'll survive the winter.
I also made mistakes due to my noobness (for example I have a Metalsmith Workshop, but no Smelter, I have a FisherDwarf and for some reason can't build a fishery etc.)
Quite a shame too, because I had an excellent starting position.
Maybe I'll regenerate the world (because that was the only good position )

[RonD]

Agrajag said:
Without graphics it probably wouldn't sell at all

the developers web site says:
Bay 12 Games is dedicated to bringing original computer games to you, free of charge.

[Agrajag]

RonD said:

DominionsFAN said:
I must say that its so unique and awesome, that some publishers should contact the developer immediately then.
I bet that this game would sell very good.

[DominionsFan]

I know Agrajag. However, I was browsing the game forum, and Ive seen posts, where the people were talking about adding real gfx to the game, in fact someone was working on some basic tiles already. I might contact the developer about this, because if Im gonna have more freetime I could make some excellent tile graphics. The problem is, that I dont know how can we gonna use tiles, since all "squares" are 1 character big, because of the ASCII "graphics".

I guess the developer must code a gfx engine to allow to use tiles in 1x2, 2x1, 2x2 etc. sizes.

Seriously Im enjoying this game more, then for example Oblivion. This shows that graphics is nothing, gameplay is what matters.

[Agrajag]

My response was to him responding to me for mentioning money instead of responding to you (now that's a confusing sentence.)
Actually, I don't think the tiles will be that much of a problem, because currently the ASCII characters aren't "true" characters, there's a .bmp file with all of them (two files actually, one for 640*300 and one for 800*600), so making a .bmp file with tiles instead shouldn't be a real problem (coding the graphic engin however, could be a problem, so would coming up with so many tiles and sprites O

Anyway, I'm in the middle of a very interesting Fortress building right now, just thought people would like to learn from my huge mistakes which are probably going to cost me that game: (in order of noticing the mistakes)
1) When making a Farm Plot, use the u/h/k/m keys to change the size of the plot, it took me a while to notice which is a major blow to my food income this early. Luckily I fixed it soon enough to at least have hope of surviving winter.
2) You can't trade raw gems. I guess you have to process them somehow (I don't have a jeweler yet)
I was counting on trading away my many (many!) gems for some food from the caravan, and was quite surprised when I couldn't.
3) (O)ffer means give that item as an offering to some king >_< (and not offering something to be traded)
4) Caravans have limited space aboard (measured in weight), so make sure to trade light trade goods (especially since food is light, and you want to buy food)
5) Don't make the same extremely stupid mistake I did and gift the trader with a huge stone door that weighs 250 godamn (weight units) and thus make him unable to trade anything with you due to overweight >_<

Now, since I'm posting anyway I might as well add in a question:
1) How long does winter last? (Real Time and Game Time*)
2) How much food do you need to survive winter?
Winter will be upon me soon and I only have ~70 food units (according to the [z] menu, which doesn't make sense since I have ~20 plants and ~10 meats), am I going to make it?
*-Yes, I know in game time Winter lasts exactly one season. What I wanna know is how many days does it last (considering most Dwarves go to sleep roughly at the same time, which makes me think of that time as night)

[Archonsod]

Agrajag said:
1) When making a Farm Plot, use the u/h/k/m keys to change the size of the plot, it took me a while to notice which is a major blow to my food income this early. Luckily I fixed it soon enough to at least have hope of surviving winter.

Watch out if your farming the underground river. I got a nice farm all up and running, only to have my farmers killed by a frogman invasion. Probably an idea to manufacture a few weapons first, or at least give novice wrestling skills to your starting group

2) You can't trade raw gems. I guess you have to process them somehow (I don't have a jeweler yet)

You don't need a dwarf skilled in it. Just turn off all of their tasks and switch on jewel carving and they'll go do it (their skill will improve over time)

1) How long does winter last? (Real Time and Game Time*)

It's about the same time as any other season maybe 30 minutes? I think 2 'days' is the norm for a season.
Not sure if this is affected by the location you choose (i.e. shorter in hot climates, longer in cold climates). Winter doesn't necessarily mean no food either - if your in a hot climate and the river doesn't freeze, you can still fish. You can usually still hunt too, regardless of the climate.

2) How much food do you need to survive winter?

Depends on the number of dwarves you have and the type of meals your cooking. Switching your cook to prepare simple meals will save food (it only uses 2 ingredients per meal) and your peasants will probably be just as happy. You can slaughter the horses & mules, since they're completely useless. Another method if you have a large breeding population of dogs & cats is to cull a few of those for food. I made it through winter largely on cat meat, and still had a growing cat population at the end!

Winter will be upon me soon and I only have ~70 food units (according to the [z] menu, which doesn't make sense since I have ~20 plants and ~10 meats), am I going to make it?

I think food units only counts prepared meals, not raw ingredients. Hence you probably have 70 prepared meals stored in barrels somewhere.

[PhilD]

Watch out if your farming the underground river. I got a nice farm all up and running, only to have my farmers killed by a frogman invasion. Probably an idea to manufacture a few weapons first, or at least give novice wrestling skills to your starting group

I've not seem Frogmen, only Lizardmen (who come in rather large groups) and once a Cave Crocodile. Since I haven't tried looking into the combat thing, each attack results in some severe wounding, and worse (my wounded apparently never heal, and I had no burial grounds, so any dwarf corpses were left to rot in the fortress for more bad feelings). I've read that monsters sometimes crawl out of wells, but I have yet to see them (attacks all seem to come from the river).

I tried farming with floodgates and channels, as it should be safer, but I must be doing something wrong, because after the first cycle of flooding and farming, when I flood again I cannot build a new farm plot. And I didn't see this with farming naturally flooded areas - which are probably more prone to river creature invasion.

2) You can't trade raw gems. I guess you have to process them somehow (I don't have a jeweler yet)

Hey, when my first caravan arrived I had no trading post. Completely missed them; but then I survived to see a few more.

It's about the same time as any other season maybe 30 minutes? I think 2 'days' is the norm for a season.

Is there even a way to see what season it is? Sometimes I miss the messages that tells of the turning of the season, and then I'm lost...

You can slaughter the horses & mules, since they're completely useless. Another method if you have a large breeding population of dogs & cats is to cull a few of those for food. I made it through winter largely on cat meat, and still had a growing cat population at the end!

How do you slaughter animals? I mean, a butcher's shop doesn't seem to do it... I've got mules and horses wandering around in my fortress, because I don't know what to do with them.

Also, is there a way to train cats and dogs for some fighting? I leave them entirely alone, and they all seem to adopt some dwarf or other at some point, but I don't exactly use them too wisely... (I hope they at least help keep some vermin away)

Definitely an addictive game. I woke up last night when I couldn't sleep, looked up someting on the net, and ended up playing for 1-2 more hours...

[DominionsFan]

Argh... My fortress was doing very well, and of course something bad had to happen. Somehow a dragon appeared in my fortress, I have no idea that where its came from, probably it came in via the main entrance??..

Anyways, its killed most of my dwarves, including 11 from my dwarven axeman. I made a huge mistake as well..my patrol armies contained only 2-3 dwarves, I guess a 10 dwarf main patrol should guard the main entrance area.
The other mistake is that I never built gates and levers near the main gate. But hell knew that monsters can walk in like this.

I guess I will have to restart the game, since my fortress is now full with blood and dead dwarves.

[Agrajag]

Watch out if your farming the underground river. I got a nice farm all up and running, only to have my farmers killed by a frogman invasion. Probably an idea to manufacture a few weapons first, or at least give novice wrestling skills to your starting group

Well, I've got the two initial picks and axes, nothing more.
I've struck some copper though, so I could make some low quality weapons to last until I find something better.

I tried farming with floodgates and channels, as it should be safer

I hope it is, as soon as I found the river I floodgated it, so now the river can't reach me, and hopefuly no creatures will. (They can still climb through the well though)

Hey, when my first caravan arrived I had no trading post. Completely missed them; but then I survived to see a few more.

I missed them as well, the jeweling thing was a mistake after a restart.

It's about the same time as any other season maybe 30 minutes? I think 2 'days' is the norm for a season.

Thanks

Is there even a way to see what season it is? Sometimes I miss the messages that tells of the turning of the season, and then I'm lost...

Try the (a)nnoucements, they keep record of all the messages, including "Autmn has come"

You don't need a dwarf skilled in it. Just turn off all of their tasks and switch on jewel carving and they'll go do it (their skill will improve over time)

But the Workshop isn't built, it says it needs Jewel Making and thus construction is suspended.