Dwarf Fortress you sick temptress, you!

Ouch, that's rough. I think if I saw a dragon, I'd immediately lock all my doors and declare the outdoors off limits forever.

Im into the start of the 3rd year on my fortress. I've stuck to my guns to keep population down (without drownings) and minting no coins, yet the Broker just arrived. It appears there's a time limit that will override the best efforts to keep capitalism away from your fortress. This probably puts me at a disadvantage. Now rooms will cost money to rent, yet I've minted no money. I suppose I'd better get cracking.

Edit: I was confused. Its the Bookkeeper that starts the economy. Not the Broker. Im still ok

polypusher wrote:

Im into the start of the 3rd year on my fortress. I've stuck to my guns to keep population down (without drownings) and minting no coins, yet the Broker just arrived. It appears there's a time limit that will override the best efforts to keep capitalism away from your fortress. This probably puts me at a disadvantage. Now rooms will cost money to rent, yet I've minted no money. I suppose I'd better get cracking.

Edit: I was confused. Its the Bookkeeper that starts the economy. Not the Broker. Im still ok :)

I hope you didn't already start minting money then :). I can't seem to figure out how to population down. I'm playing 2 games, in one I got 11 immigrants in the fall after I couldn't trade with the caravan because my dwarves refused to build the trade depot for 2 seasons. And then after just surviving the winter (only a child hunted small animals) I got 21 new dwarves at the start of spring. Needless to say I ended up slaughtering many more animals, and ended with 3 dead and 1 fell mood who made a dwarven bone quiver. In my other, I traded with the caravan, and got 0 immigrants in the fall, and 18 in the spring. Just doesn't make sense to me.

That dragon story is great. I mean, tragic...but great. The adventure mode seems to follow the same idea. It's not so much if you live or die (proved by the fact that you die a lot) but what kind of story emerges from your experiences.

Last night I faced off with an elite zombie axe user at some ruins, while an elite zombie bowman shot at me with bronze arrows. Until that point I had been throwing rocks at approaching zombies to good effect, and I figured that throwing arrows might work better. I went a couple melee rounds with the axe zombie, and then picked up a bronze arrow and stabbed him through the heart with it, a la Legolas in LotR. I then charged the bowman and maced him, causing his lower body to "fly off in an arc". Probably one of the more memorable fights I've enjoyed in a game, since so much of it is my imagination filling out the gory details rather than some artist's or animator's vision of what that same event "should" look like.

But of course, on my way back to town two lions ganked me and tore me to shreds. Needless to say, the adventure mode is still very much in development, but when it's finished and balanced, it should be glorious.

Edit: Zaque, it seems like Nobles arrive in the Spring along with some new dwarves, and occasionally random immigrants will arrive in the Fall before Winter. Since Spring marks the beginning of a new year, the computer calculates your achievements from the previous and decides if you deserve any nobles or extra immigrants for your achievements. Likewise, if you trade with the dwarven caravan (not the human or elven) and they send back a good report, then you'll get more dwarves in the Fall. But if you don't trade with them, then the computer just uses the old report, so you can still get more immigrants in the Fall. So there's two ways to get new immigrants. Based on your achievements, or just based on what the dwarven caravan (and maybe? the human and elven?) reports about you.

Maybe when you traded with the caravan but got 0 immigrants in the Fall, the caravan had sent out a bad report about your fort? Who knows.

Once you get nobles, they too begin to make reports and send out demands for new immigrants to arrive in the Spring. So if you make the Carpenter's Guild noble happy, for example, then in the Spring you're likely to get a few new carpenters. I think.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Ouch, that's rough. I think if I saw a dragon, I'd immediately lock all my doors and declare the outdoors off limits forever.

Wasn't the dragon destroying doors? I'm thinking if a dragon moves into my neighborhood I'm digging a big unstable area around my entrance and letting it cave in. Nothing walks through rock to my knowledge.

Ouch. I just watched a hell of a scene. My legendary trainer just got released from shackles after killing a dog. I was checking on his status while he slept. I noticed that even though he had just been released, the punishment of "Beating" was still on his justice dossier. Huh. Then as I'm sitting there watching the guy sleep, the captain of the guard marches into his room, walks up to him, and then there's blood on the wall. He was beating a sleeping dwarf! The trainer's punishment is cleared and now his head, lower left arm, right lower leg, and brain are all bruised.

Danjo Olivaw wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Ouch, that's rough. I think if I saw a dragon, I'd immediately lock all my doors and declare the outdoors off limits forever.

Wasn't the dragon destroying doors? I'm thinking if a dragon moves into my neighborhood I'm digging a big unstable area around my entrance and letting it cave in. Nothing walks through rock to my knowledge.

True, but it only attacked his fortress because his dwarves were out trying to collect dead elf loot.

Trap or maybe even kill the dragon with a collapse. That would be really cool.

I'm so loving this game, especially the part where you can make up the backstory as you go.

I plan to set up a huge collapsing hall when I finally start digging past the magma. There will be many supports all connected to a single dead-man's switch. Can't wait to test it, though I know it'll take forever to set up all the mechanisms.

Might be a good way to deal with the demons, might also want to set up some strong (steel) doors to give your guys time to hit the switch. Nothing's worse than watching 20 dwarves go by a lever you want pulled... ok well plenty is worse but its annoying.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

[...]I know it'll take forever to set up all the mechanisms.

I had two dedicated mechanics and more than an year later they still hadn't connected the floodgate to the lever.

I abandoned my second fortress (after using the first as a tutorial) so I can build one of those between the river and the chasm. Up until now bedrooms and workshops were a priority, so I'm going to try to build indoor farms as quickly as I can and let them sleep on the floor.

Questions: I had a "friendly" elephant calf (born near the river alone). Did this mean that when it became an adult I could chain/train it? I'm thinking about "Rome: Total War" War Elephants...

This game rocks. One question, though: How do you know where you are in the calendar year?

I dont think I ever need to play this, I am just going to read your stories and be completely amused!

Poppinfresh wrote:

This game rocks. One question, though: How do you know where you are in the calendar year?

"z"

Grumpicus wrote:
Poppinfresh wrote:

This game rocks. One question, though: How do you know where you are in the calendar year?

"z"

Many thanks. The newbie fortress continues!

Adventure mode is so cool. I ended up making a 2nd copy of the game since it wont let you do DF mode at the same time as adventure mode.

The 'wrestling' system is pretty complex. You can grab a guy by the foot, lock the joint, then break it and throw them by the useless limb. You can put a chokehold on him and hold him while your buddies beat the tar out of him... and it can work against you. A giant grabbed me by the wrist, broke it and wouldnt let go so I couldnt get away. He beat me into ground-chuck.

gromit wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

[...]I know it'll take forever to set up all the mechanisms.

I had two dedicated mechanics and more than an year later they still hadn't connected the floodgate to the lever.

Were there other traps they were dealing with too? But yeah, levers to floodgates takes forever.
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I abandoned my second fortress (after using the first as a tutorial) so I can build one of those between the river and the chasm. Up until now bedrooms and workshops were a priority, so I'm going to try to build indoor farms as quickly as I can and let them sleep on the floor.

Don't worry about an irrigation system at the start. Just clear out an area along the river that you can farm after spring flood comes.
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Questions: I had a "friendly" elephant calf (born near the river alone). Did this mean that when it became an adult I could chain/train it? I'm thinking about "Rome: Total War" War Elephants...

Was it born to elephants you already tamed? I'm not sure what you mean by "friendly" or "born alone".

Quintin_Stone wrote:
I abandoned my second fortress (after using the first as a tutorial) so I can build one of those between the river and the chasm. Up until now bedrooms and workshops were a priority, so I'm going to try to build indoor farms as quickly as I can and let them sleep on the floor.

Don't worry about an irrigation system at the start. Just clear out an area along the river that you can farm after spring flood comes.
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Although it is possible to get a nice irrigated farm running before the first summer starts if you specialize your workforce. Let the plebians sleep in the fields.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Were there other traps they were dealing with too? But yeah, levers to floodgates takes forever.
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It just happened again. I managed to build a floodgated farm just as summer was starting, but the mechanic was in no job mode for a while before linking the damned things!

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Was it born to elephants you already tamed? I'm not sure what you mean by "friendly" or "born alone".

Alone as in "when I looked there where no elephants near". The strange thing was that I had no tamed elephants. I did choose a calm region.

I also had time for two quick deaths in Adventure Mode. The first time Gromit, the puny speardwarf killed a bear; lost one hand to a lion (tried to grab a limb) and after falling unconscious intermittently for some regions was easily killed by a tiger (?).
The second time, a party of several soldiers was slaughtered by a giant scorpion in what seemed the desert. I only noticed that it killed instantly when my time came.

Coincidently (or not), one of my dwarves likes stuff made of scorpion.

gromit wrote:

Coincidently (or not), one of my dwarves likes stuff made of scorpion.

Who doesn't?

I had another disappointing siege today. Three groups of goblins and some trolls. Two good points: first, I got in a hit with a ballista: dead center of a goblin group, and second I won handily without needing to replay it. The problem is that my marksdwarves just don't want to go to their patrol points and they don't want to fire. I had 2 crossbow teams, each about 4 or 5 dwarves, assigned to the north and south fortifications. 1 dwarf showed up at the start and he would not fire. The trolls rushed in, took out my first two layers of doors, dying quickly in my traps. And still, the dwarf wouldn't shoot. After a while he was joined by a second dwarf who wouldn't shoot. There seems to be an issue with marksdwarves getting into positions they like when all the doors are locked.

After a while of watching nothing change (the trolls were dead, one group of goblins was standing outside the traps), I unlocked one of my doors. That got stuff moving. The goblins moved forward, one of my peasants rushed out and died. My archers started firing (still just 2 of them though). A few goblins rushed into the traps, several got killed by archers, and then they all turned and ran. Then I let loose my melee dwarves. Kol the Legendary Miner (Perfectly Agile) ran out with her battle axe and hacked up 4 or 5 goblins and beak dogs before they reached the edge of the map.

So I think that something in the pathfinding badly affects my archers. With my doors locked tight, they can't seem to recognize that they can shoot through the fortifications around my entrance.

We'll see how much of an issue this is when I finish my magma moat project.

In other news, I've been taking my hunters out in raiding parties (marksdwarves squads). They are great at killing elephants.

Anyone know how to equip a weapon in Adventure mode? I swear I've hit every single button. With bladed weapons they often get stuck inside an opponent, which means it can get ripped out of your hand. I have no problem regaining it but I can never get the sword back in hand for more killing. Beating zombies to death with my shield is getting un-fun.

polypusher wrote:

Anyone know how to equip a weapon in Adventure mode? I swear I've hit every single button. With bladed weapons they often get stuck inside an opponent, which means it can get ripped out of your hand. I have no problem regaining it but I can never get the sword back in hand for more killing. Beating zombies to death with my shield is getting un-fun.

Poly, it seems like for now, you have to go about it in a strange way. Drop whatever you're carrying in your hands if anything, plus the item you want to equip. Then pick up first the weapon you want to use. That should automatically put it in your weapon hand. Same goes for shields. "d" drops and "g" picks up.

The tutorial in the wiki suggested that for beginners, a mace and shield works well since you don't have to worry about your sword inevitably sticking into the enemies. So I'm a maceman with a shield for now, and it has worked fine.

Also, I just figured out, in some ruins or caves you have to descend stairs. To do that, use [shift + > or <] to ascend or descend.

You just became my hero I did just switch to a mace guy. Its fun watching the enemy fly away on a good hit, but the lack of limbs flying off is a little sad.

polypusher wrote:

You just became my hero I did just switch to a mace guy. Its fun watching the enemy fly away on a good hit, but the lack of limbs flying off is a little sad.

Aw, shucks.

Actually, I have even better news. Appendages and body parts do fly off when you use a mace. Maybe you just need to improve a bit before they do.

The Skeleton strikes at You but the shot is blocked!
You counterstrike!
You bash The Skeleton in the head with your iron mace!
The head flies off in an arc!
The Skeleton has been struck down.
(...)
You bash The Skeleton in the right hand with your iron mace!
The right hand flies off in an arc!
The Skeleton strikes at You but the shot is blocked!
The Skeleton strikes at You but the shot is blocked!
You counterstrike!
You bash The Skeleton in the right upper leg with your iron mace!
The right upper leg flies off in an arc!
The Skeleton falls over.
You bash The Skeleton in the upper body with your iron mace!
It is shattered!
The Skeleton is propelled away by the force of the blow!
The Skeleton slams into an obstacle!
The Skeleton has been struck down.
You pick up the *bronze great axe* and put it in your chimpanzee leather backpack.

A few more adventuring tips:

--Use "s" to stand up or sit down. Watch the bottom right corner of the screen under speed carefully. Sometimes you'll be knocked down and you have to stand back up to fight effectively.

--Trading with merchants is supremely complicated. Once you buy an item, it isn't actually put into your inventory. You have to physically go over to the counter in the store and pick it up. But be careful to pick up the right thing you just bought, or you'll be ganked by all the townspeople for robbery. Also, don't be temped to pick up the stuff you just traded off the floor. Again, you'll be flagged as a robber and beaten to a pulp.

--Pick up rocks (they're free) and throw them at any oncoming enemies. This will boost your throwing skill and often cripple or even kill an opponent before they can get to you. This works particularly well in interior corridors as your chance to hit your opponent increases the closer you are to them.

If anyone figures out how to re-fill a water bottle please let me know.

My maceguy had a flail and was breaking limbs (of skeletons) off left and right, Its probably a feature of skeletons because fighting lions and such I was getting a lot of 'x is battered/broken'

After he died (boy the life of an adventurer is really a death sentence) I created an axeman with focus on just axe and shield. He did great (starting at Expert Axe) killed a skeletal axe lord in 2 hits by lopping off his head and claimed the iron axe he had, the iron armor he had.. I cleared out the ruin, had a satchel full of goodies to sell, went to save and... crash! argh, that was the best I've ever done in Adventure mode and its gone.

Either this build is less stable than the last one or my moving the game to and from my USB drive has corrupted it. Ill do a fresh install, fresh world and see if it gets better.

I'll second the rock throwing suggestion. You'll be suprised how many times you can damage a spleen or blacken an eye with a lucky rock throw. I practiced in town by throwing rocks at kittens... Im a bastard.

I just had a fight that was like something out of greek mythology. I made a new world and a new axeman. Seems that worlds created in newer builds make it tougher to find companions so I went out alone.

I found a minotaur's cave and wandered in, went deeper and deeper, killing frogmen and such until I found the horned bastard. Within the first few strikes of the fight, my axe is stuck inside the minotaur and he breaks my grip on it, which means there's no recovering it until the battle is over (I think), so its hand to hand time.

I try grappling with him in several places, I manage to sprain his wrist before he breaks the grip. He knocks me down and I break his knee, forcing him down. I pounced, went for the throat. I had a chokehold on him and strangled him till he passed out and finally died. Amazing.

Adventure mode will rule all once they add more features.

Edit: You can regain your weapon or steal their weapon if you grip it in 'wrestling' mode with your HAND (rather than your upper arm or something goofy like that) You get a successful grip, then press shift+I to attempt to gain posession.

Poly: Awesome

On mechanics:

Based on some forum posts and experience (I've replayed the first two years like 20 times now) -- I always take a maxed out mechanic in my starting build, and as soon as I can, I keep him busy NONSTOP. I never give him anythign to do but make mechanisms or install them. While it seems like a waste, by the time I get to doing my floodgates, he gets them done nearly instantly, and by the time I've got him doing traps, even the stone traps load pretty quickly. It's like having a miner - keeping one active and getting him legendary ASAP seems to make a big difference.

polypusher wrote:

Wow. Bill Harris has some user stories. The 2nd part of the second one is amazing... and I have to say it would really suck to get to your 5th year only to have this happen to you... What a way to go, but man, thats game over.... man.

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