Dwarf Fortress III: Instant Fun : Just Add Magma

[TheSummoner]

That... is entirely accurate...

Edit: I have made a siege race of undead.

It has three castes, Skeletons, Zombies and Ghouls.

Skeletons are of human strength, but have no organs. In my tests, one actually had everything hacked off other than the upper body, lower body, and head and still survived.

Zombies are slower than skeletons and have two diseases... Zombie plague, which causes nausea and dizziness and is emitted when they fight... and Zombie rot, caused by Zombie bites, which is essentially a copy pasted Helmet Snake bite... Paralysis, necrosis, bloating and bleading... fun stuff.

Ghouls are faster than Skeletons and especially Zombies. Their scratches make the afflicted fall unconsious. Ghouls are also rarer than Skeletons and Zombies.

As of now, all of my testing has either been through the Arena or by undermining their cities and causing caveins... they're fairly durable and have some nasty effects, but shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

[TheLogman]

Yet another fortress lost to the following formula:

1. Dig in deep.

2. Establish a wonderful economy, a stable food source, and perfect room and board for everyone.

3. Look for the iron ore that might be in a marble layer underneath everything else.

4. Find you know what instead of iron ore.

5. Second piece of you know what was holding back a swarm of wild FPS killers.

There goes that fortress. Woooooo.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Iron is pretty easy to find if you have a sedimentary layer near the top. Lots of iron near the top. Of course there is also goblinite if you are patient enough and have the traps to deal with them.

[TheSummoner]

Eh, traps are for wimps. Just get a couple of big guys with hammers backed up by some Dwarven machineguns.

[TheLogman]

Traps and an equipped military are both tough to get without any iron to make them in the first place.

[TheSummoner]

Eh, even though they aren't as potent as they used to be, you shouldn't doubt the potential of Dwarven Machineguns. And while metal ones are certainly better, you can do without, especially in the early years.

[IthilanorStPete]

Traps and an equipped military are both tough to get without any iron to make them in the first place.

Why not just use bronze, especially since it's better for weapons and armor anyways?

[TheSummoner]

Heres an idea I'd like to see in future versions...

The ability to transfer liquids into barrels.

Fill barrels with water to keep yourself frun running out in incredibly hot or cold biomes. Launch the same barrels from catapults at invaders in freezing biomes and laugh as it shatters and makes popsicles. Do the same but with magma or a particular venom harvested from a creature that causes horrible effects when inhaled. Dip weapons in the barrels of venom to let your military dwarves cause the same afflictions when they strike.

[factotum]

Do the same but with magma

Magma...in a wooden barrel? There's a slight flaw with that plan somewhere, having difficulty putting my finger on it, though...

[TheSummoner]

I didn't say wooden barrel.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Traps are easy to do without iron. If you got a good water source, you can build a drowning trap. You can build a bridge linked to pressure plates and drop the goblins to their deaths. You can do those with only stone.

[TheSummoner]

Jesus...

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=61507.0

1500 z-level tower of adamantine... Its... Dwarven heaven...

...and framerate hell...

[Lord Herman]

o.o

Holy carp.

...someone should train a team of legendary engravers and engrave the whole thing.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Holy carp that is a lot of pretty blue stuff. You could probably equip an entire army with masterworks made out of it.

[IthilanorStPete]

It's not as nice as the tower of adamantine, but my current fort has been very successful, and is kind of ridiculously opulent...I've got a well with a golden bucket and a golden, jewel-encrusted chain, for Armok's sake. I uploaded the map here on the DFMA...I'd be interested in hearing some comments.

[Artanis]

Jesus...

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=61507.0

2212 z-level tower of adamantine... Its... Dwarven heaven...

...and framerate hell...

Fixed for ya

[TheSummoner]

When I posted it, they hadn't gotten the exact number yet and had only gotten up to 1500 before giving up on counting.

[The_JJ]

Hey, so I'd like to get the in depth descriptions of items/carving/whathave you, but all I ever get is this is a (quality) (material) (object) encrusted with (gem type) or whatever. But never images of dwarfs striking down foes.

Are my crafters just unartistic?

[Lord Herman]

After having played Dwarf Fortress for over a year without ever having found the HFS, I finally came across it the other day.

Spoiler about clowns:

Spoiler

Show

I embarked in an unremarkable place, looking to test the llamas I modded in. When I pressed shift-R to look at the little-used Rooms and Buildings view, I noticed that apart from my wagon and my initial stockpiles, there was also an Upright ¤Adamantine Sword¤ in the list. Score!

I zoomed to the sword, which turned out to be 124 z-levels underground. I continued building my fort while at the same time having my miners dig a staircase straight down to the shiny blade. I also had my carpenters build a small wooden shack over the staircase, which could be sealed off in case of Fun.

Some time later, with my food and booze production in order and a few industries set up, my miners hit a constructed wall on their way down. It could not be tunneled through or deconstructed, so I dug a few exploratory tunnels to find a way around it. I soon found a way down into a cavern.

In the middle of the cavern stood a castle of some sort, crawling with undead creatures. I managed to keep my dorfs away from the undead as they explored the cavern. It was clear the sword had to be inside the castle, but I wanted to see what else was in the cavern.

Then I found the blue metal! I had my dorfs mine it all, and carry it back to the fort. Meanwhile, though, a careless dorf in search of socks had provoked the undead. I had no army, so I drafted a few soap makers and sent them into the castle, hoping to hold off the undead. And so they did. They suffered horrendous losses (if you consider a dead soap maker much of a loss), but they managed to kill all the undead.

And then they found the sword. It was in the lowest floor of the castle, with a glowing blue floor tile beside it. I didn't know what the floor tile was for, but I had my dorfs take the sword.

Big mistake.

As I should have expected, the floor tile disappeared, revealing a deeper cave. A cave full of clowns. While my dorfs were still roaming the castle looking for socks, the horde of clowns poured out of the cave, slaying all in their path. Some breathed fire, others spat corrosive acids, and all were capable of tearing a dorf in two with their bare claws.

I immediately ordered the construction of the final wall that would seal off the wooden shack over the staircase, trapping the demons (and a few unlucky dorfs) inside. I realised too late that my carpenters were all down there, fleeing from the clowns and trying to pick up more socks. The clowns quickly made their way to the staircase, and came pouring out onto the surface, spreading death, misery and Fun wherever they went.

I never did manage to do anything with the adamantine I mined. I'd been so busy getting to that sword that the adamantine just sat there where I mined it, not even having been taken to the stockpile which I'd accidentally configured for refined adamantine instead of the raw ore.

Edit: JJ, only certain items have images on them. Statues depict things, as do idols (a type of craft) and engravings. Decorations on items (set gems, metal studs, cloth images etc.) also have a small chance of depicting something.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

At higher skill levels you get more images of events rather than images. However you need a couple of years worth of ambushes and sieges to get images of your foes getting struck down. Even then, you often get images of specific goblins. However a quick legends search will reveal that you often killed those goblins. Until then you get image after image of the foundation of your fort and various nobles getting appointed.

[Tankadin]

Or, if your engraver is both uninspired and narcissistic, engravings of the engraver making an engraving. And engravings of that engraving. Urist McEscher cancels engrave: Infinite Loop.

[IthilanorStPete]

I love recursion...since my fortress is nearly completely engraved, at least the living parts of it, I have more then a few engravings of engravings. Also, my latest artifact has a picture of itself on it.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Or pictures of the engraver surrounded by things he loves. I had an engraver that seemed like he was sucking up to other people. I had lots of engravings of dwarves surrounded by the things they loved.

[Octopus Jack]

Thank you people, I downloaded Dwarf Fortress last night and now I am completely addicted

[Bayar]

Ok, I have a few questions for the local Dwarf Fortress masters. This is my newest fortress: http://rapidshare.com/files/411541488/Newest_DF.rar

Can anyone look through the raw's of the save or something and tell me if I have a magma pipe closer to the surface ? Although I'm swimming in bituminos coal, having a magma glass smelter will help my industry more...

Can anyone tell me if my 2 military dwarves are actually training with what I assigned them with?

Can anyone tell me if the sheer volume of native gold that exists on this map is kinda...too much ?

[Shpadoinkle]

Ok, I have a few questions for the local Dwarf Fortress masters. This is my newest fortress: http://rapidshare.com/files/411541488/Newest_DF.rar

Can anyone look through the raw's of the save or something and tell me if I have a magma pipe closer to the surface ? Although I'm swimming in bituminos coal, having a magma glass smelter will help my industry more...

Dig down. Waaay down. Really far down there. You're all but guaranteed to have magma on your map at the bottom. Magma pipes still exist though, but they're not everywhere.

Can anyone tell me if my 2 military dwarves are actually training with what I assigned them with?

Hiit v, move the cursor over them, then hit i, and use the + and - keys on the numpad to scroll up and downt he list. You can see everything they're wearing or carrying.

Can anyone tell me if the sheer volume of native gold that exists on this map is kinda...too much ?

No. Metals are stupidly abundant ever since the big update in April.

[Rockphed]

Yeah, the insane amount of metal is kinda insane. On the other hand, getting 5 metal veins a level, 12 gem clusters, and 8 sets of microcline on a 4 by 4 embark was really stinky.

[TheLogman]

Wow, my current fortress is doing really well.

I mean, I've got like a legendary dwarf for almost every job, I've got a working military that's fully armed in near perfect quality steel, a thriving metal economy, heck, I've even got cheese. Cheese on demand!

I think goblins might be extinct, but just in case I've got a complex setup of bridges to cut off my fortress and a massive line of perfect steel mechanism traps, complete with artifact components. I'm working on giving every dwarf a room with bed, table, chair, and statue now.

Also, am I the only one that just smooths and engraves all of my dug out marble, iron ore, and coal quarries, and then puts furniture in there and calls it a royal noble bedroom?

[dromer]

I've had dwarf fortress running for a while now, but I still don't understand how crafting raw metal into useful items works. I'm using 40d.

[TheLogman]

1. Acquire ore. For this example, I will be using iron. There are three ores that make iron, my favorite is magnetite.

2. Build a Smelter, from the build menu, under the Furnace submenu (e).

3. You will need some fuel to power your smelter. If you have magma nearby, just build the smelter a square above the magma (at the top of the magma vent or on top of a channel above the magma vent). If you do not, you will need to use fuel (coke or charcoal). Coke is made by putting coal in a smelter, charcoal is made by putting a wood log in a Wood Furnace.

4. Use the smelter to make your metal bar.

5. Some bars need other bars or more coke for their reaction, iron does not.

6. Build a Metalsmith's Forge, from the workshops menu under the build menu.

7. A metalsmith's Forge requires an anvil, which can be brought on embark or traded for with Dwarves.

8. A Metalsmith's Forge also needs fuel to work.

9. Select the kind of item you want, then the type of metal you want it from, and then the item you want exactly at the Metalsmith's Forge.

At each step, you need a Dwarf with the Labor Activated to DO that thing. For burning wood, that's Wood Burner. For using the Smelter to make fuel or bars, that's Furnace Operator. For the item itself, it depends on he kind of item you are making, either Armorer, Weaponsmith, Blacksmith, or Metalcrafter.