Dwarf Fortress you sick temptress, you!

Trashie wrote:

Here's my question:

I've been building a road to far eastern part of the map. It's mostly done but a portion of it is blinking and I don't think it's complete. Can't seem to get anyone to work on it either. Advice?

Neat game and a fun time wasting at work.

Figured it out. Construction had been suspended for whatever reason. Just resumed it...

Oh man, it happened. I dug too deep. What a slaughter. I killed maybe 4 or 5 of the demons but the blood... the dwarven blood was everywhere. As the last child was killed the game crashed, so I dont even get to reclaim it at that state. I have to load my old game and abandon it if I want to try a reclaim.

'Too deep' turned out to be quite a bit closer than I would have thought. A little warning might have been nice, a feeling of dread coming from the miners or something. I was desperate for iron. I had dug out tons of exploratory shafts between the chasm and lava and finally found enough to make a steel bridge to the big pocket I could see mocking me from across the lava. The pocket turned out to be huge, and led straight to doom.

It turns out, by the way, the Bookkeeper is required for chasming objects, at least initially, because the screen that lets you do it is not enabled until the bookworm arrives. You can probably still do it if he dies though.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Danjo Olivaw wrote:

Do I need to be making clothes?

I've chasmed refuse but never stone, I'm not sure it is an option. And I don't think you need a bookkeeper to chasm normal refuse.

Yes, after a few years, your dwarves will become unhappy that their clothes are in tatters.

I don't believe there's an option to chasm stone, and you might be right about needing a noble to make chasming refuse available, but I think all you need is a Manager.

My dudes have never complained for a lack of clothing. I only started making clothes when the Mayor dictated that I make something out of leather. Now there's a dozen pairs of pants in the store unsold. Weird, it's like early on I accidentally hit Order -> Go Commando!

Anyone else ever have the huge human convoy unpack all it's goods only to immediately leave? One minute I'm trying to trade, but get the "still unpacking, come back later" message, and the next they're on the move?

Jolly Bill wrote:

Also, apparently I HAVE food in barrels, but it doesn't show up on the z screen, why?

This is the problem I'm having.

I have seeds in a seed barrel, and food in food barrels, but I can't get to them.

My farmer won't plant the seeds, he is near the river, the seed barrel is at the front entrance. I have a set of flood gates at the farm.

Is it that the farmer can't cross the flood gates to get to the seeds? He died of thirst even though I have a well in my fortress.

Yeah, floodgates are non-passable.

Trashie wrote:

Here's my question:

I've been building a road to far eastern part of the map. It's mostly done but a portion of it is blinking and I don't think it's complete. Can't seem to get anyone to work on it either. Advice?

Neat game and a fun time wasting at work.

Set your masons so that their only skill is Masonry.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

Anyone else ever have the huge human convoy unpack all it's goods only to immediately leave? One minute I'm trying to trade, but get the "still unpacking, come back later" message, and the next they're on the move?

Hrm, no. However, I've had Dwarven merchants show up with NOTHING to trade! That's annoying, let me tell you.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Danjo Olivaw wrote:

Anyone else ever have the huge human convoy unpack all it's goods only to immediately leave? One minute I'm trying to trade, but get the "still unpacking, come back later" message, and the next they're on the move?

Hrm, no. However, I've had Dwarven merchants show up with NOTHING to trade! That's annoying, let me tell you.

In my last fortress I had the Dwarven merchants show up with only leather clothes to trade. Needless to say, it was a long miserable winter. It didn't help that those worthless bastards were so impressed with my intricately detailed dining hall that 10 immigrants made the journey to my fledgling fortress based on the tales they wove.

My trapper just went ballistic. Destroyed 2 of my 3 main river bridges (I've learned not to put all my eggs in one basket). Unfortunately he managed to get the center one (3x9) and a side one (1x9), leaving only a 1x9 left. Then he threw himself in the river, or fell in because he was standing on the bridge. I'm not sure which.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

My trapper just went ballistic. Destroyed 2 of my 3 main river bridges (I've learned not to put all my eggs in one basket). Unfortunately he managed to get the center one (3x9) and a side one (1x9), leaving only a 1x9 left. Then he threw himself in the river, or fell in because he was standing on the bridge. I'm not sure which.

There's a high instance of mental instability among the dwarves.

I was building a large stock room for all of the various piles, and building supports along the way. Unfortunately, my Mason(s) all decided to sleep, eat and go on break for what must have been half of the season, so noone built a critical support. It was incredibly frustrating to watch them ignore what should have been a major priority for the architecture teams.
The subsequent cave-in destroyed a legendary mechanism, and set off the maker. So, 'Melbil Momuzcog, Mechanic is throwing a tantrum!' Whee. He's made the mistake of wandering down to the cave river where he's been locked out onto the rocks, where, presumably, he will starve to death.

Haakon7 wrote:

I was building a large stock room for all of the various piles, and building supports along the way.

Why this way rather than just leaving a pillar while mining?

LiquidMantis wrote:
Haakon7 wrote:

I was building a large stock room for all of the various piles, and building supports along the way.

Why this way rather than just leaving a pillar while mining?

Yeah, other than crating cave-in traps by connecting them to a lever I don't see a reason to take this more dangerous route.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:
Haakon7 wrote:

I was building a large stock room for all of the various piles, and building supports along the way.

Why this way rather than just leaving a pillar while mining?

Yeah, other than crating cave-in traps by connecting them to a lever I don't see a reason to take this more dangerous route.

You can use all your space that way (movement through and storge in the same square as supports). Plus, its more visually appealing to me. Aesthetics, I guess, is the short answer.

I didn't realize you could store in a support square. Regarding aesthetics, you can detail a pillar so it's not so much an eyesore.

Now I'd take advice from the guy with a 100+ possibly naked dwarves with a grain of salt, but I've had no cave-ins with the pillar method.

More free advice: Don't ever leave a stone inaccessable. It will still stay in the list of stone stores and will be allocated to certain tasks, making those tasks difficult or impossible to complete depending on how the stones have become blocked off. I've got some of the first rock I ever excavated underneath water I can no longer reign in. Whenever one of my dwarves gets in a mood and locks hisself in a building to construct an artifact, he always demands stone until he goes nuts and freaks out because he can't get to the one he wants.

LiquidMantis wrote:

I didn't realize you could store in a support square. Regarding aesthetics, you can detail a pillar so it's not so much an eyesore.

I didn't think you could either, but there's a floodgate being stored under one of mine at the moment!

I survived my first winter, thank the Maker.
It wasn't that terrible of one, honestly... No snow storms, even. I plan to be better prepared for next winter. Plenty of alcohol and food to lay in store before next winter!

Holy f*ck. I mean, just wow.

A horde of rampaging elephants just tore through my base and killed a carpenter, hammerdwarf, farmer, and craftsdwarf. I mean, no sh*t. There was absolutely no stopping them. These are the same bastards responsible for me losing 2 or 3 trappers and I think one killed my sheriff seconds after he showed up. My speardwarf chased after them and couldn't manage to catch up with them to attack them (though likely he would have been killed if had).

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I'VE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHERF*CKING ELEPHANTS IN MY MOTHERF*CKING FORTRESS!

Honest to God, I think they were chasing a war dog that pissed them off for some reason. After stomping him, they all left. Trampling the craftsdwarf on their way out.

Holy crap, they came back! Three of them stormed into my main gate and charged into my (empty) barracks. So I locked the door behind them!

...

...

Um, now what do I do with them? Set up traps outside the baracks for them?

YOU HAVE TO BUILD A BARRIER BETWEEN YOU AND THE ELEPHANTS!

I sure hope you have Samuel Dwarf Jackson in that fortress.

Dude, I want this game. For an ASCII game it sounds incredibly deep and awesome.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Um, now what do I do with them? Set up traps outside the baracks for them?

Build a room adjacent to the barracks with a floodgate/channel system ready to pump in water. Put a hole in the wall, hopefully allowing your miner time to get out, and flood the bastards.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:

Build a room adjacent to the barracks with a floodgate/channel system ready to pump in water. Put a hole in the wall, hopefully allowing your miner time to get out, and flood the bastards.

If these cage traps don't work, I'll do that.

Ok seriously, I've spent 2 hours here at work trying to figure out how the f*ck to play. I assigned the skills, but when I press "d" to mine or what not, and position my yellow X over something, nothing happens. No special character, no confirmation, and my little bastard dwarves keep running around like chickens. How the hell do you resource gather?

Swat wrote:

Ok seriously, I've spent 2 hours here at work trying to figure out how the f*ck to play. I assigned the skills, but when I press "d" to mine or what not, and position my yellow X over something, nothing happens. No special character, no confirmation, and my little bastard dwarves keep running around like chickens. How the hell do you resource gather?

Hit "d", then move the cursor over to one corner of the area you want to mine. Hit 'enter' and now a flashing green plus sign (+) will appear on that square. Move the cursor to the opposite diagonal corner of where you want to mine and hit enter again. Now you should have defined a rectangle of mining and it will be a brown color. If you want to mine just a single block, hit enter twice on the same square.

Mouse works for designation as well. Although I'm more used to the cursor and find it faster.

Swat wrote:

Ok seriously, I've spent 2 hours here at work trying to figure out how the f*ck to play. I assigned the skills, but when I press "d" to mine or what not, and position my yellow X over something, nothing happens. No special character, no confirmation, and my little bastard dwarves keep running around like chickens. How the hell do you resource gather?

The game will be almost impossible unless you follow this tutorial:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1073832390&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Thanks for the tip on the mining. I finally did something! But now I can't chop down trees! I have:

1 Miner
1 Carpenter
1 Mason
2 Trappers
1 Fisherman
1 Farmer
2 Attack Dogs
2 Cats

How do I tell those guys to chop the trees down, and how do I build stuff? It says a snow storm has hit and they have no where to go except the 6x6 cave I just made!

Yeah I read the Penny Arcade tutorial and it helped a little, but not much. Then again I'm at work and can't really settle down for a nice, long, solid read. I'm guessing I need to spend several more hours reading about it before I jump back in.. hehe

Oh yeah, I was wondering what mouse support did. I knew there's an option for mouse support, but random clicking on stuff didn't seem to do anything. Excellent.

Slackeyed wrote:

The game will be almost impossible unless you follow this tutorial:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1073832390&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Yeah, without a little pre-reading the learning curve on this game would be near insurmountable. I got a good start from the Dubious Quality posts. The wiki Bill links to is also great.