It was a lot easier in 40d. The military needs serious preparation and training and good equipment now.
What I do is to set up ropes along various likely approaches and tether animals there. Then I have a drawbridge or a set of floodgates, connected to a lever. When an ambush bumps into one of the animals, everybody inside, pull the lever, and wait for them to go away. Usually I build things to be pretty self-sufficient from early on. A renewable water supply and some interior fields, and it’s fine. You only really need to open up for the caravan.
You can also have your animals scout to see if any hostiles are nearby, by setting meeting areas in various spots in the wilderness, while keeping your dwarves restricted to the “safe” burrow. Your animals will then wander from meeting area to meeting area and possibly bump into things as they go.
Another option is lots and lots of stonefall traps along a long approach corridor. Or, focus just on crossbows and bolts for military, and keep everyone behind fortifications and sealed entrances. A few ballistas and a constrained field of fire also can work wonders, but that’s really better for full-blown sieges.
New monthly report is out, it seems people really like him working on adventure mode and getting towns working.
November Donations: $4030.76
October Donations: $2937.47
September Donations: $2755.52
August Donations: $2212.95
July Donations: $3345.83
Heck, $4,000 is a pretty good month for him. Maybe adventure mode is where it’s at? Actually, I think it could just be a knock-on effect from Minecraft’s popularity - I think that’s what has caused a spike in my traffic during October and November.
Spam
2844
New version is out, bees yarn and ceramics, oh my!
I’ve got a couple successful forts from the previous 0.31.18 release, so i’m expecting this to be fully playable with buggy new features.
Calistas
2845
Bees! Someone tell Nellie!
chequers
2846
I don’t understand how he does it. Tarn adds a bunch of shit I never even considered (Glazing pots? Jesus.) but now have a desperate yearning to play and use.
Morberis
2847
I’m totally going to make a porcelain tea set for every dwarf in my fortress. The walls will also be of porcelain. I shall impale my elvin visitors on menacing spikes of bone china, and then I shall use their blood to glaze my house wears!
Calistas
2848
Stop it! You’re turning me on!
Reminder: the Lazy Newb pack takes most of the work out of getting a good DF install:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.msg1987878#msg1987878
It’s not updated yet, I’ll keep an eye on it for the next week or so.
I stopped playing (and contributing) since the patch that integrated “urban sprawl” thingie and the subsequent bugs that came with it… what’s the state of the game nowadays?
Sepiche
2852
I played the new version for a little while last night, and didn’t run into any obvious bugs.
A few things I noticed:
- Embarkation in general has been cleaned up a lot.
- As mentioned: bees and pottery
- The number of animals has been greatly expanded: geese, alpacas, water buffalo, etc.
- You can use the zone menu to specify pastures and assign animals to them
- World generation seems faster… I was able to generate a large region in 10 minutes or so
I haven’t played much in a couple of releases, but it looks like there’s enough interesting new stuff that I might be able to get going again.
Therlun
2853
I know the horse is long dead…
I tried to play DF again several times over the last two or three months. I decided on a tileset and a dwarf management utility. I created different worlds. I found interesting looking embark locations. Yet every time I actually embark I immediately lose all interest in the game. Seeing scores of issues ingame never being addressed just kills any motivation to play the game for me.
While I was a bit more one the nagging side of Toady criticisers DF stopped being a game for me with the “big release” half a year back and the releases from then on. So many changes that changed absolutely nothing. DF turned from a unique game and entertaining toy to an interesting to watch phenomenon with little incentive for actual participation. There is no development, direction or advancement. It just slowly spreads on the floor like a pile of goo with a new piece of utterly inconsequential, shiny new dirt sticking to it every now and then.
If I was going to play again I would just go back to the version I have on my PC now…not sure the actual number but it’s from about 18 months ago.
There’s no law that says you must play the most recent version.
I’ve got a sandy clay area, but haven’t been able to harvest. Laying a clay harvest zone reports 0 clay in the location. Ignoring that and setting up the labor on the kiln rebuffs me. I can’t locate any other sources on my current embark.
Have you managed to get it working?
Just to clarify, it sounds like you’re saying you don’t want to play because of bugs. It’s hard to see how you’d encounter bugs immediately after embark, so I’m guessing you’re saying you’re awareness that you will eventually encounter those bugs is what kills the game for you.
So what bugs, in particular, are game breaking for you? Because while it’s true that Toady introduced a lot of new bugs with 0.31, releases since then have addressed many of them.
That’s definitely Toady. Despite the very detailed plan of intended features on the web site, Toady tends to approach the list completely at random, often adding stuff that isn’t even on the list at present, even though he hasn’t started a host of more important things.
He’s always been like that. Despite being a work in progress, you really have to take Dwarf Fortress for what it is right now, because you cannot count on Toady addressing any particular issue. He might, like he addressed the way Titans made out of inorganic materials were impossible to kill, or he might go and implement flower arranging instead.
Dwarf Fortress has and always will be designed without any regard to what makes a good game. Toady’s only really interested in making it a more complex simulation, not how it plays as a game.
That a lot of us have had fun with it in the meantime, despite all of the above, is something of a minor miracle.
Been having fun with the new version. I haven’t found any major new bugs and there are a lot of usability improvements. The lazy newb pack is still not updated, but you can drop the new versions in by hand and everything works fine. If you were waiting for a verdict, mine is Do It!
Haven’t really tried the new features yet, think I might use.this fortress to assault hell.
Therlun
2858
It’s not so much bugs for me I played quite a lot of DF and could tolerate them before.
It’s that unfinished design you mentioned. I have little trouble with work in progress, but more and more DF is abandoned in half working state. Not unfinished mind you, but abandoned and never to be touched by Toady again. Even with all the admiration and envy for Toady’s dedication and endurance I doubt he will ever come around to work on even a fraction of those issue ever again.
For me the amount of half-assed stuff just hit a critical mass that outweighs the neatness of new features.
Could you give some examples so we know what type of thing you mean?
Zepo1a
2860
I can.
Instead of adding nerve endings and individual toe and finger joints and hearts and livers and spleens and brains and soap makers and whatever else nonsense he has added without FIXING THE GOD AWEFUL USER INTERFACE.
This is why Minecraft is pulling in *100K a month while he pulls in 4K a month.
Sometimes you have to stop listening to the “die hard fan” minority and listen to the masses.
FIX THE UI.
*NPOOMA, but probably close to accurate.
