Dwarf Fortress you sick temptress, you!

Arise, slumbering thread!

I have a massive pile of graphically gorgeous games with fully voiced actors, complete stories, and every bell and whistle I could ask for.

So naturally, the only thing my brain wants to play with right now is Dwarf Fortress.

I banged my head against it for the requisite couple of nights, remembering all of the menu options and the basic flow of the game opening. But I just did something stupid and I wanted to share it.

I started an *amazing* fortress. Everything was going well. Through pure, dumb luck I hit a huge pocket of marble from which I was able to begin what was going to be the greatest Hall since Tolkien put pen to paper. But then I got a weird message from my Carpenter, who had just been tasked with the initial order for beds for the dormitory that was even now being dug out.

"Job cancelled. Need logs."

Odd, I know that lopping down a few trees was one of the very first orders I gave. So I check around. Dwarf Therapist assures me there's someone assigned to the task. I double-check, and sure enough I've marked trees to get the chop. So what gives?

Turns out, when I was busily congratulating myself for selling a copper axe prior to embarking ("I won't need that right away; I can forge some defensive weapons pretty quickly once I get set up!") it didn't occur to me that Dwarf Fortress isn't Minecraft. Dorfs are extremely reluctant to karate-chop trees down.

So for want of an axe, the kingdom was lost.

I love this game.

You could have just drowned the first caravan that showed up and took their axes.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

You could have just drowned the first caravan that showed up and took their axes.

This was super confusing and troubling until I saw the thread I was in. Then it made perfect sense.

Taken out of context my Dwarf Fortress posts would probably get me on a list and then thrown out of the country.

"You could have just drowned the first caravan that showed up."
"Pushing immigrants into a hole to break their legs was getting laborious."
"I dammed the ocean to hunt whales with ballistae and accidentally shot a mermaid. Again."

"Accidentally shot a mermaid. Again." would make a good tag.

Just sayin'.

That was a terrible shame, but it's instructive how quickly the DF community jumped on farming mermaids.

True character comes out when no one is watching. Or when you're playing DF.

A dwarf can't punch a tree to make an axe handle. That is both an indictment and high praise for a game.

All of my personal philosophies and politics go out the window when I realize that my dreams of a wrestling ziggurat are within my grasps.

I found Kruggsmash's Dwarf Fortress videos this weekend and have been mainlining the series linked like its Game of Thrones. He condenses hours of gameplay into a tight 20-30 minute edit, narrates what happened well and even illustrates scenes with a charming art style. Lots of fun to watch, definitely making me want to play again. In the linked playlist he's playing on one of the more recent patches (I haven't kept up) which includes things I havent seen in the game like sending out raids, and opening up a public tavern for outsiders to visit. Here's the first video in the series

Nice.

Always up for some smart & creative tutorials for a game I'm interested in yet feel intellectually under-qualified to take on. :p

Thanks for the lead.

Strangely enough I also started watching his videos based off of a YouTube recommendation.

Same here. We either got similar algorithms or Google's next unethical monopoly push is Dwarf Fortress based.

Damn... I had a YouTube recommendation for that very same fella too just last week... A Dwarf Fortress Crash Course...

Thanks for these links. I was looking for an updated tutorial to play along with v44. Good stuff.

JustWhenIThoughtIWasOutTheyPullMeBackIn.gif

It's been almot 7-8 years since I last played DF, can't believe I'm dunking back

The time has come.

Guess I'm going to have to play this again...

I have donated to Bay12 in the past and definitely will support them by buying at full price. Tarn should be richer than Notch!

I'm on the patreon, but I haven't played in some years. This is a great excuse and I'm coming back once its on itch (more money to bay12).

And when will it be available? According to the Steam Store:

RELEASE DATE: time is subjective

Love it.

Ha! I hope they added good mod support. The game is nearly unplayable without them.

Well it’s gonna have full Steam Workshop support so that should make keeping up with mods snap.

Can’t freaking wait.

I’ve bounced off DF a few times but have since fell hard for RimWorld and Caves of Qud. So in a sense I’ve dabbled in DF w/ training wheels as it were.

Perhaps now I can step up to the big leagues.

Feels like the one-stop Steam Workshop solution to mods can go a long way towards on-ramping “interested but intimidated” folks like myself.

Stoked.

Definitely stoked. Looking forward to new tutorial series videos, too.

Never touched it, but had a friend who was way into it for years. I'm probably in once the proper interface is in, so I can finally see for myself.

For new people on the fence I think that Gnomoria is a better entry point to the genre. If you want to see the progenitor of the genre after that Dwarf Fortress will still be waiting for you.

Tried briefly, but struggled. I'll be giving it another go.

My steam timeline is going to be filled with pictures of quantum cat rooms, atom smashers and mermaid farms. Can't wait.

Also the "Guides" section of the Steam DF hub is going to be great.

I once got into Dwarf Fortress for a few, beautiful hours a couple of years ago and was having a great time. Then when I came back a week later and I couldn't remember how to play and haven't touched it since. I'd really like to get back into it. Any recommendations for mods, graphics packs, cheat sheets, and beginners guides?

DF is one of the subjects where the subreddit is actually not a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Their sidebar on the right has a "how to get started" section with links to stater packs that come with add ons and tilesets and various sources for how to get going.

I like to use the Lazy Newb Pack for Windows.

The sidebar also has a collection of links to learning resources, especially videos. If you're someone who likes to read tutorials rather than watch them, then I really like this book.