3381

3382

My fortress is on level 0.

Closest magma? Level 161.

Ug.

3383

Pumps. Alternately, drop a plug of rock into the pool and a layer of magma will fly upwards that you can trap.

3384

Yeah not a huge fan of how magma vents or volcanoes work now. I’ve started a new fort using the world gen parameters:

Worldgen paramaters:

Created in DF v0.34.02.

world gen

[WORLD_GEN]
[TITLE:CREATE WORLD NOW = 1355555]
[SEED:5Fcr77ZMcJUiXa41Qlmx]
[HISTORY_SEED:tNzTUMWptqlmWCzKQ6Td]
[NAME_SEED:j8vk0P65RQG8lB27k42Y]
[CREATURE_SEED:PBwLCJHyGq6AIDpidRQx]
[DIM:17:17]
[EMBARK_POINTS:1274]
[END_YEAR:250]
[BEAST_END_YEAR:250:-1]
[REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
[CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:0]
[ELEVATION:1:400:401:401]
[RAINFALL:0:100:26:26]
[TEMPERATURE:25:75:26:26]
[DRAINAGE:0:100:26:26]
[VOLCANISM:0:100:26:26]
[SAVAGERY:0:100:26:26]
[ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[RAIN_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:3:1:2:3:4:5]
[VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
[MINERAL_SCARCITY:100]
[MEGABEAST_CAP:2]
[SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:4]
[TITAN_NUMBER:2]
[TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:80:0:100000]
[DEMON_NUMBER:20]
[NIGHT_TROLL_NUMBER:10]
[BOGEYMAN_NUMBER:10]
[VAMPIRE_NUMBER:10]
[WEREBEAST_NUMBER:10]
[SECRET_NUMBER:20]
[REGIONAL_INTERACTION_NUMBER:20]
[DISTURBANCE_INTERACTION_NUMBER:20]
[EVIL_CLOUD_NUMBER:10]
[EVIL_RAIN_NUMBER:10]
[GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:1:0:0]
[EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:1:0:0]
[PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:1]
[PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
[COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:4]
[VOLCANO_MIN:1]
[REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:0:0:0]
[REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:0:0:0]
[EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:10]
[RIVER_MINS:1:1]
[PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:1]
[OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:1]
[SUBREGION_MAX:2750]
[CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
[CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:100]
[CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:100]
[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]
[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]
[HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:1]
[HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:15]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:5]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
[LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
[CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
[CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
[MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:2]
[NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:2]
[ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:0]
[SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
[TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:10]
[TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:15000]
[SITE_CAP:36]
[PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
[ELEVATION_RANGES:36:72:36]
[RAIN_RANGES:0:0:0]
[DRAINAGE_RANGES:0:0:0]
[SAVAGERY_RANGES:0:36:72]
[VOLCANISM_RANGES:0:0:0]

Snagged from reddit

You end up with a pretty awesome embark, mostly flat, surface volcano, huge pillar, surface ponds but no running water on surface.

3385

That embark is almost like cheating it’s so good. My only complaint was all of the unsmoothable mud/sand/etc in the spire. You can build your own walls but that’s such an irritation. Anyways, the undead ate this fort too.

So I started up a new one with a volcano as well and everything was going great, including steel production. Then the undead showed up again.

Gendal, build some defences, use burrows, lay traps, and for gods sake get that bridge raised I hear you say. I did! I even built an awesome lava moat. Unfortunately I failed to take into account an overhanging cliff that managed to cross both the moat and the wall. Stupid 3D.

My two full squads, axedwarves and markdwarves repelled the first assault but then everything just sprang back to life including the previous assault’s casualties apparently. Not really sure. Never saw a necromancer so apparently the undead just keep getting back up, stronger each time, until completely dismembered.

Also the moat filled with lava? That just produces burning zombies, which as we all know just makes them more dangerous.

Losing must be fun, because I can’t stop playing.

3386

So I’m writing a book on Dwarf Fortress
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=102853.0

3387

Congratulations! I think I might actually get that. :)

3388

Thanks! Got some more writing to do and two children. Difficult, but I will get there!

3389

MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND, CALISTAS

MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND THEIR OWN WEAKNESS

3390

I will try! I am intimately familiar with weakness!

3391

That’s really awesome Calistas. O’Reilly and DF in the same breath seems… odd. Which makes it more awesome. But the real question… what animal?

3392

If it’s not a carp, what’s the point?

3393

Even though I don’t play DF, that’s awesome, congrats!

3394

Thanks! I was actually thinking elephants. And they are planning a custom cover done in ASCII! Awesome!

And yes, O’Reilly and DF just sound really cute and funny together. If it ever goes to a physical book I would love to see it wedged between some of O’Reilly’s other books!

3395

Slick. Someone in the Bay12 thread said the same thing, but I’ll say it again-- thanks. Your tutorials pretty much taught me how to play. :P

3396

That’s awesome Calistas. I won’t buy a digital copy because uh… I have been playing the game for awhile now, but a hard copy? It can go right in between my O’Reilly LDAP and Regex books.

Also Elephants are no longer the terrifying force to be reckoned with that they were back in the days of Boatmurdered. Actually I don’t even think they can eat fodder fast enough to even survive these days. Which is why: Carp.

3397

Aren’t Sturgeon more deadly than Carp these days?

Although they don’t have the PR department carp do, which holds them back.

3398

Does anyone have an opinion about whether I should install one of the fancy tilesets if I’m just starting to learn the game, or just stick to ASCII? I’ve played enough roguelikes that I think I’d get by OK without tiles, but when I look at screenshots in Boatmurdered and the like it just looks like gibberish.

3399

YES. Get the lazy newb pack, find ye graphics tab in the LNP launcher, select Phoebus, install button, run game. It is much, much easier. Also, I prefer the square tiles in the packs to the rectangular ones in the default.

Yes, good point on carp. We will have to see what O’Reilly come up with as they are sorting the cover out. It will be cool to see an ASCII (or is the correct term ANSI?) cover though!

And yeah, the nice thing about a print version would be snuggling it between all your tech books. Lol. Now, I wonder if they would do a leather bound artifact edition, with spikes!?

3400

I can’t say whether you should use tiles or not. But if you can handle ASCII graphics in general, you’ll pick them up quickly here. A lot of the gibberish is just visual noise you’ll start to tune out automatically – storerooms filled with a variety of items, blood and guts, trees and shrubs, engraved walls, traps, and workshops with little ASCII characters for flavor.

It’s pretty basic when you start out: just bare rooms and hallways. You’ll absorb the extra stuff as it appears.