Dwarf Fortress: Very Ambitious Roguelike

Mr_Bismarck · 2012-02-28T11:42:00.000Z

Calistas:

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!

I believe DF uses ANSI Code Page something-or-other, but everyone says ASCII and everyone knows what they mean, so… close enough.

Thither: I would use the tiles until you’re up to speed with the game. You can always go back to just looking at the code later, but while learning the game I’d use a tileset.

Calistas · 2012-02-28T11:46:15.000Z

Yeah, with the LNP you can easily flip between tiles and default and see which you prefer. The default version does run faster too.

Hmm I think I should include a couple of pages on advanced world gen - perhaps just saying how to do something simple like adding a lot more volcanos and a lot more evil areas.

I have done this myself by changing the min_volcano setting and the variance of evil areas (lots:lots:lots:lots!). Any of you don’t similar and have any criticisms of my method?

Gendal · 2012-02-28T12:02:36.000Z

I am a big fan of the latest TrueType versions, I can barely read the standard font. I would probably use ASCII if it wasn’t for the whole square vs rectangle issue. I hate building and digging when the blocks aren’t square.

TimJames · 2012-02-28T12:07:35.000Z

Gendal:

I am a big fan of the latest TrueType versions, I can barely read the standard font.

How does the game scale in Windows 7 at high resolution? I’m just starting to play a few roguelikes again, some of which only support a small DOS window. It makes me want to set up my CRT monitor again.

Gendal · 2012-02-28T12:16:14.000Z

Tim James:

How does the game scale in Windows 7 at high resolution? I’m just starting to play a few roguelikes again, some of which only support a small DOS window. It makes me want to set up my CRT monitor again.

The main interface is great. You can zoom in and out and it scales perfectly with the mousewheel. Most of the text interface screens not so much. This is next on Toady’s todo list (yay!).

My standard setup is 3 24" monitors with DF on the main screen maxed out, StoneSense maxed on the left and Dwarf Therapist maxed on the right. Then I swap in DFHack for mining veins with an AutoHotkey and speaking of AutoHotkey I like QuickFort quite a bit as well.

That’s all pretty overwhelming, but to start I just recommend Dwarf Therapist. It just makes managing your dwarfs so much easier, and it’s super easy to get going with.

Note .34.03 was just released, and Dwarf Therapist, LazyNewbPack, etc are not updated yet. A couple of nice TrueType fixes and the dwarves failing to practice archery are the highlighted fixes.

Eric_Majkut · 2012-02-28T14:43:09.000Z

So I think the DF book is a cool idea, but how is that going to work? You’re going to run into the same issues that you did with your tutorials. Namely it’ll be an awesome resource at first but as the game continues to evolve it’s going to be less and less relevant. Imagine using a tutorial from two years ago on today’s version of DF. It would barely make sense, I’d think.

Calistas · 2012-02-28T15:10:44.000Z

Read what I wrote about “real time” again :)

Daagar · 2012-02-28T15:40:32.000Z

If you want to use ASCII over one of the tilesets, consider Vherid’s tileset http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=89856.0 - a very nice colorscheme.

Wolff · 2012-02-28T16:28:47.000Z

His tutorial is still excellent to learn the basics

MrCoffee · 2012-02-28T17:47:28.000Z

Just something i was wondering about evil areas, if you butcher an animal in there, does it comes back to life?

David_Erikson · 2012-02-28T19:02:22.000Z

MrCoffee:

Just something i was wondering about evil areas, if you butcher an animal in there, does it comes back to life?

Yes. Then it butchers you and then you come back to life and go after undead animal with vengeance, et cetera… :) Neverending and ever-increasing circle of violence… :)

HRose · 2012-02-28T19:04:53.000Z

Latest version constantly crashes on world generation for me.

MrCoffee · 2012-02-28T21:11:44.000Z

HRose:

Latest version constantly crashes on world generation for me.

There is a new version realeased that fixes that.

Gendal · 2012-02-28T21:25:18.000Z

Fucking necromancers! Gah.

This time I concentrated on getting a full proof defence up before year one was out. Last time I forgot about an overhanging ledge, this time I forgot about my godamn refuse pile. Yes, they raised the shit right up out of the garbage dump. A fierce… ewe popped up and was ripped apart by dogs but then just got raised again almost instantly. It finally managed to kill a dwarf who promptly got raised and then things went rapidly downhill. It didn’t take long for everything from crawling skin to undead yaks to dismember my fortress brick by brick.

My first winter wasn’t even over! In ‘Calm’ lands!

So the next fort? if it’s dead its either getting incinerated or locked behind forbidden doors.

Calistas · 2012-02-29T01:18:12.000Z

Got some book info updates!

It’s actually not eBook-only; it will be available in print, PDF, epub, mobi, and on Safari. You can buy both a print copy and an ebook copy at the same time for less than the price of both separately.
eBook - If you buy directly from oreily.com you are notified when new updates are available and can download the newest version for free (also DRM-free).
Turn around from me finishing an update to getting a new version out into the reader’s hands should be around four weeks - in publishing, this is super fast, I’m told!
Any errata that get reported to O’Reilly get listed somewhere for me to access and fix in due course.
The print book won’t include colour graphics inside. O’Reilly will be working to ensure art, etc, still look ok.

So, awesome news, YOU CAN BUY A COPY AND WEDGE IT BETWEEN YOUR CODE BOOKS!

Eric_Majkut · 2012-02-29T06:28:31.000Z

So did any of you guys read that huge epic about Gemclod? I’ve been hooked on it for the past week or so but the final chapters are getting obnoxious. There are some really great characters that they’ve spent chapters and chapters building up and some of the earlier overseers were great writers. Now the later overseers don’t seem to care at all. The writing is awful, they throw away great characters in stupid ways, etc. What the fuck? Why bother to go through all the effort of making all that story/art/music/etc if you’re just going to shit all over it when it’s your turn at overseer? Typical Something Awful people.

Destarius · 2012-02-29T06:31:08.000Z

The first few overseers in that series were great, then they turned it over to some immature crackheads.

Farscry · 2012-02-29T06:46:39.000Z

Calistas:

eBook - If you buy directly from oreily.com you are notified when new updates are available and can download the newest version for free (also DRM-free).

Dumb question, but, will this be available for me to buy for my Kindle? It’s not a color Kindle Fire, it’s just a regular old Kindle. :)

[edit]To clarify, I’m a lazy fuck and don’t want to jump through any PDF hoops. I just want to go to the Amazon store, click “buy for my Kindle”, and then it auto-downloads and I now have a nice pleasant Dwarf Fortress book to read and reference when needed. :D

Calistas · 2012-02-29T10:49:07.000Z

Yes, I believe so. I don’t know how you will see the pictures and art though - perhaps not unless you view it also on your PC or something?

Gendal · 2012-02-29T12:48:51.000Z

Eric Majkut:

So did any of you guys read that huge epic about Gemclod? I’ve been hooked on it for the past week or so but the final chapters are getting obnoxious. There are some really great characters that they’ve spent chapters and chapters building up and some of the earlier overseers were great writers. Now the later overseers don’t seem to care at all. The writing is awful, they throw away great characters in stupid ways, etc. What the fuck? Why bother to go through all the effort of making all that story/art/music/etc if you’re just going to shit all over it when it’s your turn at overseer? Typical Something Awful people.

Yes, I linked Gemclod earlier. The beginning was great but it all went downhill around the science team. Just screenshot after screenshot and nothing interesting to say.