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Dwarf Fortress |OT| Losing is fun!

-KRS-

Member
I read something about the invaders always winning during world-gen, is that what you mean? According to the latest update he's gonna work on that next. Something seems to have happened with ambushes/sieges as well. Made a new save this weekend and my fortress is like 5 years old now. I still haven't been even ambushed. Not even a kobold thief has visited! A were-beast showed up in this save as well, but that's pretty much it. Though IIRC I did choose an embark location where "Goblins" weren't displayed as neighbors so perhaps that's why. But I would at least expect some kobolds anyway.

Also I kinda had to stop playing that save because the FPS counter eventually went below 20 and it became quite painful to play at that speed. It's a pretty old computer now but that never happened with 0.34 from what I can remember. I guess it has to do with the fact that in 0.40 the world around you is now simulated during play as well.
 

Raptomex

Member
I read something about the invaders always winning during world-gen, is that what you mean? According to the latest update he's gonna work on that next. Something seems to have happened with ambushes/sieges as well. Made a new save this weekend and my fortress is like 5 years old now. I still haven't been even ambushed. Not even a kobold thief has visited! A were-beast showed up in this save as well, but that's pretty much it. Though IIRC I did choose an embark location where "Goblins" weren't displayed as neighbors so perhaps that's why. But I would at least expect some kobolds anyway.

Also I kinda had to stop playing that save because the FPS counter eventually went below 20 and it became quite painful to play at that speed. It's a pretty old computer now but that never happened with 0.34 from what I can remember. I guess it has to do with the fact that in 0.40 the world around you is now simulated during play as well.
I think that's the issue. Something about being near other civs. You need to be right next to them or something specific.
 

Raptomex

Member
0.40.16 (November 12, 2014)
The purpose of this release is to make stress from long-term separation due to goblin snatching less severe and to stop attackers from always winning in post-world-generation non-player battles. The fix for the latter could not be done cleanly at this time, so the battle readouts in legends are a little off compared to the ones from world-gen, but defenders are very often successful now.

0.40.17 (November 19, 2014)
Major bug fixes
- Fixed collapsing shrines
- Fixed army crash/bad behavior near the right/lower edge of the map
- Fixed a conversation crash related to uncivilized people/creatures trying to sell something in the market
- Made people only jump into actual conflicts, rather than animal encounters and training events

Other bug fixes/tweaks
- Made stress levels drop faster the longer no stressors are applied
- Made gathering plants from the ground add to herbalist skill properly again
- Made plants that grow in winter-spring plantable at all proper times (Quietust)
- Optimized flag checks for non-windows OSs (ag)
- Fixed problem deleting stockpile links in the case that stockpile had multiple give/take settings
- Fixed blinking behavior for stockpiles/zones vs. ramps/stairs
- Fixed blinking behavior for designations vs. anything obscuring them
- Fixed double untranslated name in thoughts screen
- Fixed elf diplomacy typo

0.40.18 (November 20, 2014)
The flag changes brought forth a compiler issue on Windows (breaking smelting, for example). Hopefully it'll work better now.

0.40.19 (November 26, 2014)
Here is another release for November, mostly related to livestock.

New stuff
- Added gelding and associated profession/skill/etc.

Other bug fixes/tweaks
- Showed animal gender symbols in a few more places
- Got rid of mating-at-a-distance
- Added drink tab to kitchen screen
- Moved all remaining announcements to announcements.txt
- Added ability add/remove bp flags to set bp group
- Tweaked crowded pasture anger counter
- Stopped liaison from inserting own gender into position change news
- Added more work-arounds for compiler issue (fixing broken vault weapons and other problems)

0.40.20 (December 18, 2014)
Here is the job priorities release. It should work fine with old saves, though existing hauling jobs may need to work themselves out for a bit. Further job prioritization work can be done when we get through the framework for start scenarios, since we'll better understand how dwarves fit into the fortress at that time.

New stuff
- New job selection process where dwarves choose important tasks with more regularity
- Very important jobs can remove dwarves from less important jobs
- Ability to prioritize a job so that it gets done immediately
- Mining, engraving and other designation jobs can now be prioritized numerically
- Designation jobs can be placed in a "marker only" mode, marker can be removed later to start work
- Mining jobs can be set to automatically follow veins and clusters
- Mining designation can be set to only select visible gems or useful stone

Major bug fixes
- Fixed crash related to armies failing to take over villages

Other bug fixes/tweaks
- Hauling jobs that used to need a held container now allow the dwarf to carry many items without a container
- Building jobs can swipe items from hauling jobs if the item is not held
-Wall/floor construction and road construction use new skill-free labor settings

0.40.22 (December 21, 2014)
Some more quick fixes.

Major bug fixes
- Multi-item jobs like artifact moods, forging breastplates and smelting pig iron should work now

Other bug fixes/tweaks
- Made toggle marker behave like toggle engraving mouse-wise

0.40.23 (December 24, 2014)
A third set of fixes for the job priority release, as well as a fix for the army "camp forever" problem from July.

Major bug fixes
- Fixed cancellation bug with farming jobs
- Fixed problem causing camping armies to lose sight of certain goals once play began

Other bug fixes/tweaks
- Stopped situation where channeling dwarf decides to stand on channel tile
- Fixed some raw typos (Gorobay)

OP updated

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
 
Ooo thanks for continually updating the changelog for this. I'm still running 34.11 but I figure I'll upgrade with the next release of the Lazy Newb Pack, looks like they've finally gotten to the point where Sieges actually work now and with native support for things like digging out a vein of minerals, multi Z-level trees, and not needing the masonry skill for constructions I'm really looking forward to it.

Right now my 1 year old fortress is closed off to the outside thanks to a little 60 man strong undead hoard sitting outside my city's steps. My 5 man militia will be having absolutely none of that. Still, it's the first time i've actually decked out my dudes in Steel, really I feel like the last hurdle for myself when it comes to "learning" the game is dealing with pumps as I've never been able to channel up a decent reservoir to create a well.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
Impressed with how on top of it toady has been since the first 0.40.00 release!

Not looking forward to our next one year plus drought, but hopefully he can keep the breaks between major versions shorter going forward.
 
Have you guys seen Roomcarnage by any chance? It's probably the only long running Dwarf Fortress diary that rivals Boatmurdered in terms of enjoyment for me (though admittedly I haven't read many)

Impressed with how on top of it toady has been since the first 0.40.00 release!

Not looking forward to our next one year plus drought, but hopefully he can keep the breaks between major versions shorter going forward.

Yeah no, I've been seriously impressed with how far he's iterated on 40.~ and the amount of just overall usability changes has been really really fantastic. I figure we'll get the first major break when he starts iterating on the Taverns hes been talking about lately. But yo, Taverns!
 

Raptomex

Member
A little late I know. I just don't check it every day. I'm still waiting for a stable release that will last a while.

0.40.24 (January 7, 2015)
Toady One Here is another release with fixes. Old saves are compatible, but there will be some error logs due to minor issues with the old raws. These logs can be ignored, but old saves will still experience problems like blank seed names.

Major bug fixes
- Fixed problem causing dwarves to sometimes fail to attack monsters/invaders
- Stopped active blocks/parries from rarely freezing adv mode
- Stopped certain situations where you could be stuck in the air above certain tiles
- Fixed a few problems with necromancers attacking (and generally being killed by) their zombies
- Stopped crash from moving/centering squad menu going out of bounds
- Fixed crash involving squads and minimap
- Fixed unretire crash that generally triggered when caravan arrived
- Stopped dwarf from stressing out over the same wound forever
- Stopped certain inaccessible jobs from blocking lower priority ones

Other bug fixes/tweaks
- Allowed embarks with x/y dim 1
- Made removal of trees check building/bridge/machine stability
- Stopped worker chaining to next construction job from choosing suspended one
- Tentatively fixed text mode error on OSX (lethosor)
- Tentatively fixed broken sound on some linuxes (Baughn)
- Fixed problem with water disappearing when it crosses the z=0 boundary
- Made certain old civilian weapon assignments clear over time
- Made t/q building selector respect stockpile shapes when looking for closest one
- Fixed error with underground pops in small forts not appearing
- Stopped mood jobs from going outside of burrows
- Capped various combat skill gains per action (Urist Da Vinci)
- Stopped "fighting" skill from increasing from trap/projectile attacks
- Stopped random creature proboscis from sometimes messing up poison attacks
- Fixed key display issue in bindings screen (lethosor)
- Fixed problem with display of kill order status
- Made geld indicator appear for pets on animal screen properly
- Fixed display problem with agreement conclusion dates
- Added error logs for missing materials set to defaults, fixed various raws
- Stopped announcement screen date from overrunning title depending on window size
- Differentiated two pain readouts on health screen
- Fixed a few empty announcement errors

OP updated.
 

Raptomex

Member
Ooo thanks for continually updating the changelog for this. I'm still running 34.11 but I figure I'll upgrade with the next release of the Lazy Newb Pack,looks like they've finally gotten to the point where Sieges actually work now and with native support for things like digging out a vein of minerals, multi Z-level trees, and not needing the masonry skill for constructions I'm really looking forward to it.

Right now my 1 year old fortress is closed off to the outside thanks to a little 60 man strong undead hoard sitting outside my city's steps. My 5 man militia will be having absolutely none of that. Still, it's the first time i've actually decked out my dudes in Steel, really I feel like the last hurdle for myself when it comes to "learning" the game is dealing with pumps as I've never been able to channel up a decent reservoir to create a well.
Really? That was another reason I kind of stopped. I was hoping that would get fixed.
 
My necromancer got bored and went home allowing my military to clean up the rest of the undead on the surface. Unfortunately there's some route from my caverns to the rest of my fortress that I'm just not seeing at the moment. A forgotten beast somehow bypassed my main cavern entrance where my military was coming down to handle it and was able to access my main stairwell. It proceeded to slaughter 50 out of my 80 dwarves before my military was able to crawl on back and do enough damage to allow the thing to kill itself with its own deadly dust. If I survive the coming tantrum spirals then I'll basically have rebooted my fortress. My melee squads were completely decimated unfortunately but right now my main concern is putting away all the corpses before the miasma builds up. Still need to wall off the surface and move my refuse and corpse stockpiles within my walls, right now i'm just too vulnerable to another necromancer attack, I've already got ideas for how to better handle my next fortress though.

Really? That was another reason I kind of stopped. I was hoping that would get fixed.

I'm no longer sure!
 

Crispy75

Member
Have you guys seen Roomcarnage by any chance? It's probably the only long running Dwarf Fortress diary that rivals Boatmurdered in terms of enjoyment for me (though admittedly I haven't read many)

Roomcarnage is fantastic. Especilaly the last couple of entries, where he finally achieves two long-standing goals. That fortress has lasted far longer than it has any right to. The ultimate DF diary is of course Bravemule

I did a DF diary of my own a couple of years ago. It ended up being my most succesful fort ever, and it has a very satisfying ending. Thought it was going to be a succession game, but nobody else wanted a go :-D

The Histories Of Bouldergloves

Was a grand place towards the end

afhu9KL.png

(yes, tileset so shoot me :p)

6 months later my daughter arrived and that put an end to my ability to play Dwarf Fortress. But reading other peoples' diaries is entertainment enough :)
 

Raptomex

Member
Roomcarnage is fantastic. Especilaly the last couple of entries, where he finally achieves two long-standing goals. That fortress has lasted far longer than it has any right to. The ultimate DF diary is of course Bravemule

I did a DF diary of my own a couple of years ago. It ended up being my most succesful fort ever, and it has a very satisfying ending. Thought it was going to be a succession game, but nobody else wanted a go :-D

The Histories Of Bouldergloves

Was a grand place towards the end

afhu9KL.png

(yes, tileset so shoot me :p)

6 months later my daughter arrived and that put an end to my ability to play Dwarf Fortress. But reading other peoples' diaries is entertainment enough :)
That looks really awesome. Once I get a military going that's usually where my knowledge ends and I lose control. But I keep going at it. I use tilesets, too. The normal ASCII visuals hurt my eyes over time.
 
Once I get a military going that's usually where my knowledge ends and I lose control.

I'm a little ashamed but I must admit that too :p

I tend to bunker and trap all around to extend durability against invaders, but I haven't really learnt yet how to successfully manage the military :\


On the tileset Y/N topic, I like ASCII+ graphical packs most of all, e.g. Taffer's or Grim Fortress.
 

Raptomex

Member
I'm a little ashamed but I must admit that too :p

I tend to bunker and trap all around to extend durability against invaders, but I haven't really learnt yet how to successfully manage the military :\


On the tileset Y/N topic, I like ASCII+ graphical packs most of all, e.g. Taffer's or Grim Fortress.
I haven't mastered the military either. Then I have so many Dwarfs I don't know what to do with. I haven't mastered complex structures yet so I have them doing basic tasks I've already learned. But if it comes to making death pits, arena's, water pumps, magma pumps, and anything more complex I have no idea how to do it.
 

Crispy75

Member
Of all the maddening interfaces in DF, the military has to be the worst. So many screens and modes and shortcuts. I remember being able to do it, but sit me down in front of it today and I'd just derp derp derp at it.

I ended up with 4 squads, each specialising in different weapons (swords, hammers, axes, crossbows). They trained for 3 months then went off duty for 1, with the off-duty months rotating among squads. The training rooms were outdoors to keep them daylight adjusted. The leader of each squad was head-to-toe in adamantium armour :)
 
I really need a migrant wave to come through my current fort. Going from 80 dwarves to 20 in a single event has seriously screwed my labor force.

The ultimate DF diary is of course Bravemule

I did a DF diary of my own a couple of years ago. It ended up being my most succesful fort ever, and it has a very satisfying ending. Thought it was going to be a succession game, but nobody else wanted a go :-D

The Histories Of Bouldergloves

Was a grand place towards the end

afhu9KL.png

(yes, tileset so shoot me :p)

6 months later my daughter arrived and that put an end to my ability to play Dwarf Fortress. But reading other peoples' diaries is entertainment enough :)

Oh man, reading through Bouldergloves was time well spent. Crazy how well the beginning sequence meshed with how things wrapped themselves up. Damn good show! Gonna go through Bravemule now.

(I use Phoebus too, no complaints here)

I haven't mastered the military either. Then I have so many Dwarfs I don't know what to do with. I haven't mastered complex structures yet so I have them doing basic tasks I've already learned. But if it comes to making death pits, arena's, water pumps, magma pumps, and anything more complex I have no idea how to do it.

I can't tell you how accomplished I felt with my current fort when I used a screw pump for the first time to create a reservoir of water that I could use for the well in my hospital. Absolute first time I've done anything with water. Was working fine up until the point where a forgotten beast backdoored me through the caverns, destroyed my screw pump, and climbed up to my hospital. Next time I'll use 2 separate floodgates so that if my screwpump gets wrecked all the water doesn't come rushing back out again.

Of all the maddening interfaces in DF, the military has to be the worst. So many screens and modes and shortcuts. I remember being able to do it, but sit me down in front of it today and I'd just derp derp derp at it.

Oh man, the only thing that gets me about the military interface is the archers. Half the time I make an archer squad the only time I can get them to train on the archery targets is when they're off duty and the moment I need them in a real fight they won't have picked up any bolts and will go into battle by mashing their crossbows over the faces of their enemies. Zzz.

And that's not even mentioning how lame it is that Toady hasn't gone in and fixed the Training Ammo v. Combat Ammo glitch, either they'll burn through their metal bolts in training or they'll go into battle with wooden.
 
Looks like Dwarf Fortress 2015 is out :
http://bay12games.com/dwarves/
Toady One Here is the new version we've been working on all year! The flow of fortress life is quite a bit different now -- specific breaks and parties have been replaced by taverns and performances and needs and inebriation. You can designate a tavern, temple or library from a meeting area zone, bedroom or dining room using the new Assign Location option. The location list ('l') will let you know what sort of furniture and items you need, and you can set tavern keepers, scribes and other occupations there as well. You'll need to set up a drink stockpile and a chest for goblets in taverns for drink service to work properly, but dwarves can still drink without a tavern as before. You can assign multiple rooms/zones to a single location. There's a lot more -- see the feature list below.

The bug fix list below is partial. Large chunks of the game were changed, which has a way of making old bugs go away while bringing in new ones to take their place. We'll be focusing on bugs old and new in subsequent releases, starting with crashing saves and moving down the list. The next set of bug-fix releases will be measured on a scale of days and weeks rather than months, as usual.

New stuff
Ability to designate taverns, temples and libraries in the fortress
Taverns and libraries also exist in adventure mode and world generation
Tavern keepers can serve drinks in both modes, goblets can be used by dwarves to drink (in taverns or otherwise)
Performances include stories, poetry, music and dance (you can view activity descriptions from the unit/job list)
Art forms are randomly generated for each civilization
Instruments are now all generated, instruments can be used in both modes
Most instruments are constructed from multiple pieces using different materials
Personalities and values lead to needs which can be met by various actions in both modes
The fort has visitors, residency petitions and eventual citizenship, including non-dwarves
Tavern visitors include mercenaries, monster slayers, bandits, diplomats and performers
Can set details for clothing/armor jobs to make them for other races that can equip items
Monster slayers can petition your fortress to go down and fight monsters once you discover the underground
Performance troupes are active in world generation and into play, visiting the fort, can be formed in adventure mode
New knowledge system divided into nine branches (though it has very few practical effects so far)
Fortress scholars can advance knowledge, form master-apprentice relationships and write down their findings
Fortress scribes can copy works in your library
Scholars can visit your fortress libraries, bringing knowledge from around the world
Devoted historical figures can visit your fortress temples
Three forms of writing material: papyrus sheets, paper sheets and parchment sheets
Papyrus sheets are made directly from the plant at the farmer's workshop
Paper is made from pressed slurries (start at the quern/mill, then go to a screw press)
Parchment is made from hide and milk of lime at the tanner's (bake quicklime at a kiln, then make milk of lime at an ashery)
Sheets are used to make quires or with rollers to make scrolls -- these are then used for writing
Quires can be bound into codices with bindings after they contain writing
Dwarves read books in the library (they don't need to be scholars)
Values can be passed in writing (both modes) and through adventure mode arguments (uses some conversation skills)
Animal people are playable as adventurers, arrive as fort visitors and sometimes live in towns in (playable) populations
Children play with toys now, and they can also play make believe, in both modes
Personality can be customized/randomized in adventure mode, appearance can be randomized as well
Temples can be defiled in both modes, dwarf temples can be assigned to particular gods
Adventurer can rent rooms in inns
Adventurers can compose new poems, music and dances
Adventurers can write material down on empty quires or scrolls
Alcohol causes inebriation, erratic behavior, unconsciousness, death
Festivals occur in world generation, though we haven't gotten them out of there yet
Dwarves will wear trinkets again

Major bug fixes
Fixed some army pathing issues
Goblins have mounts again
Fixed long-standing flow bug with unit occupancy
Stopped some issues with brawls escalating to non-lethal

Other bug fixes/tweaks
Looking at reaction screen for redded-out reactions in workshop will indicate missing reagents now
Fixed inversion problem with half of the child/parent conversation thoughts
Lots of historical figures that weren't around from the beginning didn't have deities when they were supposed to
Allowed site finder to look for 1x1 sites
Human civilizations now have randomized values
Added ability to set invasion wave cap size

Looking forward to playing this ... as soon as the LazyNewbPack and DwarfTherapist work with the new version! :D
 

Raptomex

Member
Updated the OT. Made some changes. I found a great tutorial for the series and added it to the OT. This Youtuber knows what he''s doing and he's playing a newer version of DF. The game has been updated a lot in the past year.

Das24680's Dwarf Fortress Tutorials for New Players

He encounters a fire breathing dragon at one point and it's just very cool stuff and informative.
 
I tried a few times to sit down and get into it but lord the struggles....

so thanks for the updates/tutorial links, I'll give them a go :)
 

Crispy75

Member
I tried a few times to sit down and get into it but lord the struggles....

so thanks for the updates/tutorial links, I'll give them a go :)

The learning curve has many cliffs (dear god the military interface) but once you're over them, the only limit is your imagination. There's nothing remotely like dwarf fortress. Plenty of pretenders, but nothing comes close to its complexity and flexibility.
 

Crispy75

Member
It's so worthwhile getting some soldiers. You get the best stories out of them. I had this husband and wife team of axelords. They each led a separate squad, but because they were so much more eager and fast-paced, they'd always be first to the fight, and start dismembering fools left and right. Long lists of kills including forgotten beasts and cave dragons. I had his'n'hers coffins prepared (made of their favourite stone types) and a lavish mausoleum.

Then there was a calamitous siege, which came at just the right time for the wife to get caught alone in a mob of goblins. They overwhelmed her and by the time her husband got to the fight, she was dead. He fought bravely in the subsequent victory and lost a leg, but survived. Now he's an expert crutch-user, but is slower to get to the fight than his squad mates. He's still an excellent fighter though, so the battle logs go "bruised the fat, scratched the skin, glanced off, bruised the fat, THE PART GOES SAILING OFF IN AN ARC"
 
It's so worthwhile getting some soldiers. You get the best stories out of them. I had this husband and wife team of axelords. They each led a separate squad, but because they were so much more eager and fast-paced, they'd always be first to the fight, and start dismembering fools left and right. Long lists of kills including forgotten beasts and cave dragons. I had his'n'hers coffins prepared (made of their favourite stone types) and a lavish mausoleum.

Then there was a calamitous siege, which came at just the right time for the wife to get caught alone in a mob of goblins. They overwhelmed her and by the time her husband got to the fight, she was dead. He fought bravely in the subsequent victory and lost a leg, but survived. Now he's an expert crutch-user, but is slower to get to the fight than his squad mates. He's still an excellent fighter though, so the battle logs go "bruised the fat, scratched the skin, glanced off, bruised the fat, THE PART GOES SAILING OFF IN AN ARC"

And of course there's almost always the typical Axe Lord, having his arm being eaten off by some random forgotten beast, retiring from active military service to become your full time trainer for the fisher dwarves brave new recruits that come to your fortress in migrant waves. Going through the sparring session logs and seeing my 1 armed dude thoroughly destroying recruits and dodging every attack they throw at him just brings a tear to my eye
 
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