Dwarf Fortress III: Instant Fun : Just Add Magma

[Shpadoinkle]

http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/...ss-part-1-wtf/

Go read that, download the game and save from that page, follow along with the guide. It's a very easy to understand, step-by-step set of instructions to get a fort up and running decently.

Also, visit the wiki a lot. Note that the pages default to the most recent version of the game- the pages you want if you follow the guide above are the v0.28.181.40d version (there's an option at the top of each page to switch).

If you can't find what you want to know in the guide or at the wiki, ask here or at the official forums.

[factotum]

ISTR that guide doesn't mention that underground farms now need to be irrigated before they'll work.

[Shpadoinkle]

ISTR that guide doesn't mention that underground farms now need to be irrigated before they'll work.

That's because it's for an older version when underground farms didn't need to be irrigated.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

The slider thingy is you requesting items from your broker. The more priority an item is given, the more of it they will bring. It also means how much extra they will charge you.

The final screen shows what they request of you and how much extra they will pay. I normally ignore it and just trade stone mugs and whatever my craftsdwarves have been training off. Sometimes I trade off my excess prepared meals.

[littlebottom]

im nearing 3 hours in now... and ive had a load of trouble with the farming. eventually i got it to work (the water didnt drain off enough and i ended up flooding some fort, fortunately, i closed it off before i let the water through so no major damage or deaths...) and a brewer, so ive now food and water, a meeting place with chairs and tables and a spare room with a few beds in them... ive not been attacked yet, this has helped... im working on personal bedrooms at the moment. but this sheer amount of rock lying everywhere is annoying me. any way to get rid of it easily?

damn. it crashed... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

i suppose ill load the auto save! but another time. another time.

[Shpadoinkle]

Dump the rock (d-b-d, then select the stuff you want to dump), but if it's just that you don't like looking at it, you can hide it instead (d-b-h.) Dwarves can still use it for stuff and they'll have to move it before building something though.

Also, yeah, save periodically. I save every 90 minutes.

[factotum]

That's because it's for an older version when underground farms didn't need to be irrigated.

I know that, but if he's playing the new version, HE won't know that...it was just a heads-up. (I speak from experience, because I tried following that guide and it took me ages to figure out why my farms weren't working!).

Oh, as for stone--you can also get rid of it by having a dwarf in a mason's shop making stone blocks out of it; blocks can be put in a bin in a Bar/Block stockpile, which keeps them out of the way, and I'm pretty sure they can be used for pretty much anything rough stone can be, plus a few more (e.g. building wells).

[Shpadoinkle]

I know that, but if he's playing the new version, HE won't know that...it was just a heads-up. (I speak from experience, because I tried following that guide and it took me ages to figure out why my farms weren't working!).

That's why I also reccommended downloading the prepackaged game, tileset, and save from that page.

Oh, as for stone--you can also get rid of it by having a dwarf in a mason's shop making stone blocks out of it; blocks can be put in a bin in a Bar/Block stockpile, which keeps them out of the way, and I'm pretty sure they can be used for pretty much anything rough stone can be, plus a few more (e.g. building wells).

Actually, not everything. Stone blocks can only be used to build. You can't use a stone block to make crafts or mechanisms, for example. You can't use raw stone for things like pumps or wells, though.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

You can use blocks for most buildings, but any workshop task requires raw stone and not blocks. In fact its a good idea to make workshops out of blocks so you can forbid an entire stone type without disabling your workshops. Very useful if you want a certain color mechanism or all magma safe ones.

[littlebottom]

well, after another hour session of DF, ive managed to make them fully self sufficiant, with a farm, a distillery, a large hall in which to eat and meet, and each individual rooms!

im still a far far way off anything good.

i need a military now though before i get attacked and slaughtered.

[factotum]

Don't worry too much about that, even WITH a military you'll probably be attacked and slaughtered.

[littlebottom]

i need a little help. i want to change the jobs of a couple dwarfs, but i dont seem to be able to change what they do. im playing the newer DF if that helps.

i need to make a butcher, since i have about seemingly a bajillion cats (not quite, but about 18 and i started with 2) and lots of corpses appearing all the time of rats and stuff.. i need to kill a few i think.

[Lord Herman]

To change the jobs a dorf does:

1. Press [v] and move the cursor over the dorf you want.
2. Press [p]references and then [l]abour.
3. There should now be a list of labour categories. The category is white if the dorf has all labours in that category active, light grey if he has some but not all, and dark grey if he has none. Go through the categories, turn off all active labours (except maybe the standard jobs of hauling, cleaning, carrying wounded dorfs, etc), and if you want the dorf to be a butcher, turn on butchery under farming.

If you want easier control over the jobs your dorfs do, you can also try a utility called Dwarf Therapist. It gives you a clear overview of what jobs your dorfs do, and let's you assign a combination of labours to multiple dorfs at the same time. Do note that the current version is for v0.31.10, but there is an update for v0.31.12 somewhere in the thread.

[factotum]

You can also use "u" to get a list of units, select one, and use the "Zoom-Cre" option--that'll put the cursor immediately over the relevant unit and you can then select preferences as noted above.

[littlebottom]

ah, thanks for that.

in the mean time, ive had a flood of migrants, now ive nowhere to put them.

so im making more bedrooms and such, the farm i made wasnt even using much more than a quarter of it, so ill leave that as it is. but now ive alot of things i have to do aarrggh, im not good enough at this yet to keep up with what i need to do. ive got over 40 dwarfs now, where as before i had about 15... most of them are now just idling about, is there any good way to put them all to use? well, you know what i mean.

EDIT: yeah, im proberbly going to post alot for help during this game... its confuuusing

[factotum]

Note that just because you have 40 dwarfs doesn't mean you need 40 bedrooms, or even 40 beds. They don't generally all sleep at the same time, and a barracks or dormitory will do for most of them--I usually only give separate bedrooms to nobles, at least at the beginning.

[Urist McDwarf]

I came up with an idea for a fortress that was inspired by a certain dwarf in OOS. You embark in an extremely heavily forested area with the largest embark possible, and kill all the trees.
Bonus: the forest contains an elven retreat.
Super bonus: if you find away to keep the trees from regrowing.
Ultra Dwarf Bonus: You kill the trees with magma
Mega dwarf bonus: The forest is in a good biome. Damn unicorns...

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I thought trees were still magma proof.

[billtodamax]

You mean... when people embark onto an area with trees they don't set about instantly decimating the population?

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I tend to only make beds and machinary out of wood. Everything else is stone, gem, or metal. Some of my early cages and barrels are probably wood, but I try to phase those out for the more dwarfy metal.

[factotum]

Can you make beds out of anything BUT wood? I've certainly never figured out a way to make them out of stone...

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Sorry, I phrased that wrong. Shoulda said I only use wood for beds and machinery. After I have a surplus of beds, I tend to not even bother chopping wood again.

[IthilanorStPete]

I keep up chopping wood even after my metal industry is going - I have a nearly constant need for beds to make sure I can accomodate migrants, I like to have it as a backup fuel source, it's good for machinery, and I can still make barrels and bins out of it while the forges are busy cranking out weapons, armor, and trade goods.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

I suppose I could get a pearlash industry going and make clear glass instead of green.

[The Orange Zergling]

Can you make beds out of anything BUT wood? I've certainly never figured out a way to make them out of stone...

Nope, the only way is to have a dwarf with a strange mood make one (in which case it could be made of any stone, bone, gem or metal) but that is neither fast, reliable or the slightest bit predictable. Not to mention your nobles will get angry if the average dwarf has a bed that is worth more than their entire 3-room complex.

[Urist McDwarf]

You mean... when people embark onto an area with trees they don't set about instantly decimating the population?

But not with magma,they dont. I mean embarking in the most forested area on earth. ANd flooding it with magma. And paving over the entire map with floors to prevent new trees from growing.

[nooblade]

Tried the latest version today, and it's great. The caverns are a throwback to the days when DF was still in two dimensions, and I loved how everything (cave river, chasm, magma river, and Fun) was on those maps automatically if you only dig deep enough. My only real complaint with this version is that merpeople farming is now unprofitable (merperson bones were previously worth as much as a dragon's), although I could edit the raws to revert that a bit.

Also, I found out how to gen a map with more good/evil surroundings (and also smaller ones, so it's easier to start with both good and evil one one embark, although it doesn't work with oceans or mountains). This might be as good as the Volcano world or Tropical Forest world I had previously tried, but it has to be random, not as reliable as the painting tool. Sadly, undead unicorns are impossible, I think, unless raw-editing is involved.

[billtodamax]

My metalworking industry is very, very, slow. I have about five billion woodcrafters/cutters/carpenters, so I need to set them to work doing something. All of my barrels and bins are made of wood.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

That's why I embark on a volcano. Exposed magma pipe FTW! All I gotta do is dig some plumbing for my forges and then tap it.

[Blayze]

I've been eyeing up Dwarf Fortress for quite some time, but I've never gotten around to trying it properly. I read Boatmurdered and laughed my ass off from start to finish, and managed to work out how to mine last night.

Then I decided to see how many z-levels down I could go. The answer was... quite a lot, actually. At least there's more than enough room for my ultimate plan.

My plan? It involves five traps.

1) A system by which I can flood the HFS with magma.
2) A trap that cuts off all access to my fortress with magma and/or water whenever desired.
3) A way to completely ruin the surface, whether I reintroduce the content of the oceans to the surface-dwellers by pumping water into a gigantic aerial "water delivery system" that drowns them all, somehow drop said "water delivery system" on their heads or simply allow the HFS to be released before I cut it off from its home with Trap 1.
4) A self-destruct option that completely wrecks the fortress -- whether this is with magma, water, frenzied wild animals released from cages or somehow digging out all the space around the fortress to send it plunging into free-fall -- as long as it can happen on command.
5) Attached to the switch that controls the self-destruct option, some kind of crushing device to kill the dwarf who pulls the lever.