Dwarf Fortress: Very Ambitious Roguelike

lokiju · 2011-08-17T16:09:27.000Z

I really want to give this a whirl, but at this point it’s very overwhelming. I’d like to play the game with the best graphics possible, and the most user-friendly interface. Can anyone offer some suggestions for the best mods/graphic packs/utilities? Am I better off playing vanilla first, or does it really matter?

Calistas · 2011-08-17T16:30:43.000Z

go play my tutorials

After Action Reporter – 2 Mar 10

Dwarf Fortress Tutorials

I’ve written a book – Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress, available at all major online book sellers. It covers the current version and takes you from knowing nothing to being a confid…

lokiju · 2011-08-17T17:10:22.000Z

Heh, I’m actually in the middle of reading them right now!

John_Many_Jars · 2011-08-17T17:36:50.000Z

Just remember: Dwarf Fortress is not on trial. YOU are.

lokiju · 2011-08-17T18:37:02.000Z

John Many Jars:

Just remember: Dwarf Fortress is not on trial. YOU are.

The learning curve is so high that I do feel like my gaming potential is on trial here…

Anyways, I am going with the Lazy Newb Pack as it seems highly rated, and might actually make starting out easier. I like easier.

Hrnac · 2011-08-17T19:14:19.000Z

AWS260:

I’ll add my endorsement of the Nudejugglers AAR that Sepiche linked to. It’s very well-written and engaging, and this being DF, lots of crazy stuff happens.

My namesake is also in the picture above. While Sepiche is a bad-ass warrior in spiked armor, I appear to be a developmentally disabled version of Julia Roberts. On a horse.

I’m the guy in the middle of the picture. I suffered an unfortunate death. :(

-Hrnac

sharaleo · 2011-08-17T21:54:47.000Z

I’m the guy in the middle of the picture. I suffered an unfortunate death. :(

Dude! You know we have spoiler tags now, right?

:)

Calistas · 2011-08-17T22:27:32.000Z

It’s DF, everydwarf dies unfortunately sooner or later.

zengonzo · 2011-08-18T04:17:56.000Z

Clearly Calistas is not aware, either.

salwon · 2011-08-18T10:01:39.000Z

Almost Every Dwarf Fortress Game

Some kind of monster is going to get in your fort and kill all your dwarfs.

The Dwarf Fortress Games Where That Doesn’t Happen

You’re going to accidentally flood your fortress with magma, killing all your dwarfs.

zengonzo · 2011-08-18T10:06:05.000Z

And The Rest

You’re going to intentionally flood your fortress with magma, killing all your dwarfs.

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2011-08-18T10:18:40.000Z

I’ve never flooded a fortress with magma. Water, yes, but not magma.

RepoMan · 2011-08-18T10:24:04.000Z

Well get on it, then! Drowning in mere water is unworthy of a true dwarf.

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2011-08-18T10:40:18.000Z

This is one area where I’m just not sufficiently in touch with the DF playerbase.

It’s hard for me to understand how anyone accidentally floods a fortress with magma. There are mistakes to be made, but generally by the time you start playing with magma, you’ve made most of them with water, and you’ve gotten paranoid enough to put fail-safe systems into your fluid-movement systems.

Where I’m really out of touch is intentionally doing it. I know people do this. I just don’t get the point. DF is all about making stuff for me, not arranging for the horrible deaths of my dwarfs. Heck, I won’t even drown Nobles in magma, I’d rather either just meet their demands, or deal with consequences of failing to do so.

salwon · 2011-08-18T10:46:29.000Z

Usually intentional flooding comes in play to kill the monster after it’s already killed everyone.

Shit, I forgot the spoiler tags.

Gus_Smedstad1 · 2011-08-18T10:52:27.000Z

That’s another one. Why do people let monsters into their fortress? The surface ones can be trapped in cages, and there’s no good reason to expose yourself to the caverns. 90% of the time, when I breach the caverns, I wall them back up again. There’s nothing in there I really need. Minerals aren’t more plentiful in them, and you can grow the stuff from the caverns in any large open space. Maybe I might want water, but I can always shunt that into my own private subterranean reservoir, with a grate or something to keep out unwanted guests.

zengonzo · 2011-08-18T11:23:38.000Z

Hubris.

salwon · 2011-08-18T12:06:34.000Z

Yeah dude, I’ve got this huge military outfit in plate and there’s NO WAY this forgotten beast will be able to get through my traps any way and even if it does I can just let my legendary axemen take care of it.

Eric_Majkut · 2011-08-18T13:00:12.000Z

salwon:

Yeah dude, I’ve got this huge military outfit in plate and there’s NO WAY this forgotten beast will be able to get through my traps any way and even if it does I can just let my legendary axemen take care of it.

Famous last words :P

Marcin · 2011-08-18T13:09:55.000Z

Carp. Carp will do you in.