OT: Dwarf Fortress

PhilD · #1 August 24th, 2006, 04:47 PM

OK, what I don't seem to get is this thing about stockpiles. When creating a stockpile, are you just designating a zone (supposedly inside your fortress) where dwarves are supposed to drop stuff? And do you need one square per item?

(I Managed to get a few dwarves to dig in the mountain, but I apparently cannot build a bed to create a bedroom; and I don't see a way to craft stuff)

quantum_mechani · #2 August 24th, 2006, 05:19 PM

Quote:

PhilD said:
OK, what I don't seem to get is this thing about stockpiles. When creating a stockpile, are you just designating a zone (supposedly inside your fortress) where dwarves are supposed to drop stuff? And do you need one square per item?

(I Managed to get a few dwarves to dig in the mountain, but I apparently cannot build a bed to create a bedroom; and I don't see a way to craft stuff)

I had this exact problem. Found out you have to first build a carpenter's shop (under workshops) then order it to create a bed then when it's done place the bed through the building menu.

Btw, has anyone managed farming or fishing yet? I got so frustrated with them, my last dwarf fort I just spent most my points on bringing food stockpiles so I didn't have to worry about it.

Endoperez · #3 August 24th, 2006, 05:24 PM

Quote:

PhilD said:
OK, what I don't seem to get is this thing about stockpiles. When creating a stockpile, are you just designating a zone (supposedly inside your fortress) where dwarves are supposed to drop stuff? And do you need one square per item?

(I Managed to get a few dwarves to dig in the mountain, but I apparently cannot build a bed to create a bedroom; and I don't see a way to craft stuff)

Stockpiles - that's correct. 'p' for those who haven't found the feature yet. You can build bins in the Carpenter's workshop, which store more things in them. Some things, like raw stone and wood, don't go into bins. You can't decide how the dwarves use bins, though, so you can just hope they go where you want them to go. Barrels are bins for food. They also keep food from spoiling.

Stockpiles can also be put outside. Wood stockpile might be easier to have outside. Carpenter's workshop can also be outside. You MUST build refuse stockpile outside. Refuse rots, and becomes - MIASMA! Luckily, it isn't quite as ominous as I first thought. I only makes dwarves unhappy, which is still pretty severe but not instant death sentence.

To "build" furniture you need one piece of furniture made in the Mason's or the Carpenter's workshop. Beds can only be made from wood, so you need a carpenter. Coffins/Caskets, Thrones/Chairs and various other items can be built in both. Buckets, needed for wells and for bringing water for wounded, can be made from wood or metal, but wood is much easier to get.

Archonsod · #4 August 24th, 2006, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Endoperez said:
Refuse rots, and becomes - MIASMA! Luckily, it isn't quite as ominous as I first thought. I only makes dwarves unhappy, which is still pretty severe but not instant death sentence.

It can cause problems if dwarves stay in it too long.I've seen a dwarf faint due to prolonged miasma, and I suspect it can eventually cause death.

I find the essentials for the starting colony are a carpenter's workshop, a mason's workshop and at least one food workshop, depending on what your using (fish cleaners for fishing, butcher for hunting). A mechanist is also essential to get your farming industry up. Try and build a well as soon as possible to make a meeting hall (just be careful of frogmen spawning from it), a barracks (a room with several beds) and head east till you hit the river.
Remember to designate the area for tree cutting - fairly common newbie mistake.
I also find it a good idea to take along a number of dogs. War dogs are much more powerful than armed dwarves until you can build decent weapons, and a hunting dog tends to die far less than training a dwarf as a hunter (btw if your taking the hunting route, remember to give the dwarf some combat skills).A cat can be useful to keep the number of rats and similar down.

DominionsFan · #5 August 24th, 2006, 07:34 PM

I just dont understand, that why is this execellent game uses ASCII as "gfx". Its very annoying imho. It would take 1-2 days to create basic tiles and add them to the game. Even if those tiles would be ugly, it would be much better then ASCII.
The game is a pearl, I must say. Its really addictive and complex. Also its got a great potential. [Hopefully we will see real gfx in the game sometime soon]

PhilD · #6 August 24th, 2006, 07:53 PM

DominionsFAN: they say it's currently an Alpha release, and everything is likely to change enough that creating graphics for now would be a waste.

No, for me... I can't figure how to build a well. I've made stone blocks, and a bucket, but I can't find the menu to build a well... (same goes for fishery: one of my guys is a fisherdwarf, but I haven't managed to build a fishery, so I guess all that he fishes just rots away...)

Got my first immigrant: a metalsmith. Well, I can build him a nice workshop, but since I haven't found any ore at the moment, I guess he'll be mostly useful for moving stuff around

Archonsod · #7 August 24th, 2006, 11:00 PM

Well & fisheries are on the building lists. Just scroll them down (you have figured out that you can do that, right?)

PhilD · #8 August 25th, 2006, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Archonsod said:
Well & fisheries are on the building lists. Just scroll them down (you have figured out that you can do that, right?)

Well, no... the interface is somewhat confusing, and I didn't find a way to scroll down these lists! How do you do that?

Endoperez · #9 August 25th, 2006, 03:11 AM

Quote:

DominionsFAN said:
I just dont understand, that why is this execellent game uses ASCII as "gfx". Its very annoying imho. It would take 1-2 days to create basic tiles and add them to the game. Even if those tiles would be ugly, it would be much better then ASCII.
The game is a pearl, I must say. Its really addictive and complex. Also its got a great potential. [Hopefully we will see real gfx in the game sometime soon]

The problem is that there's lots of stuff in the game that's going to go away. It's easier to add things when Toady One (the creator) doesn't have to worry about tiles. Making GOOD tiles is actually pretty hard. How to make a bed that looks like a bed? You can't go for details, and if it's more abstract, it might still be pretty close to an '8'.

Also...
You might've noticed that this is game number II. This game is built on "Slaves to Armok: God of Blood" (Amos mentioned in it the first page). That game had simple 3d-graphics. It seems graphics weren't the reason he stopped that project, but the fact that Toady One can do something like that gives me much hope for the game once its finished. It'll probably take years to get to that point, though... Have you seen his Req and Bloat lists? Those are things he will and things he would like to introduce into the game. Things like this:

Bloat144, DISEASE AND INFECTION, (Future): Disease and infection. Get some from swamp or blood drinking. Hearty creatures (like dwarves) shouldn't be affected so much. The absence of a spleen can increase the chance of septicemia. Infections of some wounds, especially if you are dirty, leprosy type stuff, plagues. Tumors, especially those caused by magic. The kidneys, spleen, liver, stomach and pancreas should have functions that are reduced by damage.

Agrajag · #10 August 25th, 2006, 04:11 AM

I take it back, this is a fun game, thanks for linking.
I started playing at ~22:00 last night only to realize its suddenly 00:30.
Also, surprisingly enough, after only a little roaming around the website I found the game to be quite easy to understand. Obviously I'm not at the stage of being a master dungeoneer (or even a good one) but I can enjoy the game without constant feelings of confusion