Better Than Wolves Forum

Naa military has changed a lot and it no longer about just setting them as active. But you can create burrows and you civil alarms to force all none military dwarfs to stay in that area.

At least military sparring no longer requires training weapons, no more Sparring related deaths (Unless you put them in areas where it is possbile due to dodging into pits haha. !!SCIENCE!! FTW.) Also sieges work now and actually can cause trade embargoes until you chase them out or kill them all, meaning they actually work now. They also stop any migration waves from coming until you get rid of them.

I haven't played DF for a while now, even with utilities such as dwarf therapist it gets boring after a while. I actually kinda like the UI though, the fact that it doesn't try to hide the complexity of the game in any form appeals to me. But I do have to play it with a graphics pack as the original makes it a pain to tell what is what and where.

One of my favorite moments in DF was when I had a dwarf berserk and destroy a pump holding back a large magma chamber, needless to say I lost that settlement but it was fun to watch the chaos unfold.

Derzuel wrote:I haven't played DF for a while now, even with utilities such as dwarf therapist it gets boring after a while. I actually kinda like the UI though, the fact that it doesn't try to hide the complexity of the game in any form appeals to me. But I do have to play it with a graphics pack as the original makes it a pain to tell what is what and where.

One of my favorite moments in DF was when I had a dwarf berserk and destroy a pump holding back a large magma chamber, needless to say I lost that settlement but it was fun to watch the chaos unfold.

Well it's a lot less boring now. Vampires hide themselves within your fortress and can be a pain to deal with until you discover them. Evil regions now have a lot of new features and can actually be a Fun challenge. and all migrants now are actually historical figures (meaning they have a real history you can read) Trading now effects the world, you can create a grand fortress sell goods and then play an adventurer and find the goods spread across the world.

There are also a massive amount of new animals and evil creatures. All humanoids can be curse into a were-creatures. And during full moons they will change into them and attack the first thing they see. Necromancers will siege your fortress and raise anything dead within his general vicinity. there a lot more then just that and there are still things I am discovering, but there's a ton more Fun when it comes to stuff that can destroy your fort.

Ah dwarf fortress, i've got so much love for that game.
The new update sounds interesting, I might give it a go soon but I think its more likely i'll wait for another major update that focuses on Fortress mode.. I don't mind waiting another year =P.

I made a post on reddit showing my best efforts in the game:
http://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/c ... stonehold/

I've got a few memorable stories too. The mental images the game can create inside your head are just amazing. I remember the first goblin ambush my fort survived without being lame and locking myself in. My rag tag militia of 5 or so were all outside the fort fighting the ambushing goblins. A minute of game-time in and most of them were severely wounded and writhing on the floor while the goblins happily jabbed them with spears, looking for gaps in the armor. By this time I had no idea where my militia captain was, he was my most experienced soldier.

Just when I though I had better be closing the draw bridge and resign my dwarfs to their fate. Lo and behold my captain runs out of the fort with the only steel weapon I had, a *Steel Warhammer*. I watched him approach all the different areas where fighting was still happening and gleefully read the combat reports that popped up. The guy was a boss. Strolling upto goblins, parrying their initial strike and caving in their skull or chest plate and killing them in 1 or two blows and then making his way to another one. He had 8 kills by the end of that battle and he had automatically earned a nickname, the "Stone Guardian" or something. He also named his warhammer something.. which I cant remember now =(. Most of the rookies survived the battle though a couple had lost the use of their legs and had to lay in an infirmary bed for the rest of their lives.

True story.

TheYaMeZ wrote:I made a post on reddit showing my best efforts in the game:
http://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/c ... stonehold/

I tried playing this game, but even with texture packs I just couldn't.... I usually don't mind bad graphics (to this day I play Alone in The Dark sometimes :P ) but that was too much... A pity, because it seems this game have some very fun mechanics..

This isometric view in your screenshots, is this like a level viewer for DF, or you can actually play it like that? If so, I might try it again...

I take it that stone sense utility can't be used to actually play the game, just take stills of your fortress, correct?

If that were in-game, I suspect it would motivate me to give the game another go.

FlowerChild wrote:I take it that stone sense utility can't be used to actually play the game, just take stills of your fortress, correct?

If that were in-game, I suspect it would motivate me to give the game another go.

Not really, it shows a real-time view, but you can't play the game inside it.

Yep, it does output in realtime. But its only a viewer so sometimes I have it on another monitor or something just to watch whats going on outside.

The people who are struggling to enjoy the game, I dunno if you've tried this but I never would have played DF if it wasn't for the video tutorials.
Everybody usually recommends CaptDucks tutorials but I honestly find his accent too hard to understand. This guy on the other hand speaks clear and loud and has a great tutorial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXae1zfKR6I
After a few of his videos, I felt compelled to have another go and soon enough navigating the horrible UI felt like second nature and the lack of any real mouse support made controlling the fortress much faster than having to reach over to the mouse all the time.

I'm not sure if i'm sad that flower can't get into DF or be happy that there is more time for BTW development =P

Y'know, looking at your fortress in Stonesense (also, very nice), I want to ask a quick question to any DF players who actually use marksdorfs. Is there a way that one can build their fortifications (The detailing, not the general walls) so that their marksdorfs can fire out, but whatever happens to be attacking can't fire back from the ground? I've always wanted to build a castle with murderhole style defenses, but every time I try I end up with dead dorfs.

Also, my productivity is going to drop to all-time lows when I download this. I can only hope my tile set isn't updated.

There really isn't a way to stop them from firing back at your dwarfs, but you can delay there ability to shoot back. Set your crossbow dwarfs in your tower with fortification on the walls, but place flood gates or wall grates in front of the fortification hooked up to a lever that can open and close them "so they can't be seen or shot at". Make a hallway with animals chained or pastured at the end. when they get close enough to be in range of the dwarfs, open the hatches and watch the mayhem. Even better if you use Elves as bait >:)

I once caged a Bronze colossus and made a pit trap with a 2 z level fall where there was a bronze colossus stuck down there waiting for Delicious blood. You can also use the colossus to train crossbow dwarfs using wooden bolts, they will happily shoot at it safely behind the fortification without worrying about harm to the colossus or themselves :) great way to train them quickly and cheaply.

I've also heard about creating a perpendicular walkway above your main entrance hallway that only opened towards the rest of your fortress. That meant that by the time line of sight was established, it was your dwarves on those defenses facing the backs of their army passing underneath them. Sounds like it was effective at getting initiative at least.

@TheYaMeZ Wow those are awesome tutorial videos, a lot better then CaptDucks. He will really help those who have a hard time understanding the UI, with the Wiki along side the videos will make learning the game a lot easier.... Well at least to get past starvation haha.



Hopefully those watching this topic and wanted to try and understand the UI will get a better chance playing along side this guy :)

Since we're sharing tutorials, I learned most of what I know about the game from the "Complete and Utter Newby Tutorials" - I even have a copy of the PDF version modified to have bookmarks for the major points (although any updates they put out won't be in it).

Katalliaan wrote:Since we're sharing tutorials, I learned most of what I know about the game from the "Complete and Utter Newby Tutorials" - I even have a copy of the PDF version modified to have bookmarks for the major points (although any updates they put out won't be in it).

I definitely support that tutorial, it's how I learnt to play too.

So you guys finally got me to try this out. I completely agree with FC that the UI is atrocious. Well, not just the UI, the entire interaction design. It's a cool game though, and with a few of the tutorial videos I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm afraid I'll loose interest quickly though, as I don't really feel in control because of the design choices.

We'll see, supposedly loosing in this game is fun, so I'll at least wipe one fortress before I give up on it. ;)

Elensaar wrote:So you guys finally got me to try this out.

This. It's looking like it'll be a really fun game if I ever work out how to actually play it. *watches tutorials*

Hey all I wanted to let you all know I am going to be commentating and helping one of our streamers on Qubetubers with Dwarf fortress. He has played before but is still rather noobish, but I am going to help him get past some of the early noob mistakes that plague most players lol.

You can watch it at http://qubetubers.com/twitch.php

We should be starting within the hour here soon so feel free to drop in and chat with us I'll answer any questions you may have :)

kregoth wrote:Hey all I wanted to let you all know I am going to be commentating and helping one of our streamers on Qubetubers with Dwarf fortress. He has played before but is still rather noobish, but I am going to help him get past some of the early noob mistakes that plague most players lol.

You can watch it at http://qubetubers.com/twitch.php

We should be starting within the hour here soon so feel free to drop in and chat with us I'll answer any questions you may have :)

I might drop in. I've kinda got the hang of it, but between the UI being fairly noob-unfriendly and the huge amount of variance in what you can encounter when you start an area, I'm sure I'm missing lots.

kregoth wrote:You can watch it at http://qubetubers.com/twitch.php

We should be starting within the hour here soon so feel free to drop in and chat with us I'll answer any questions you may have :)

I'll try to watch it. I don't know if I'll be able to, with my connection, but if I can I'll check it out...

Wow 7 hour stream, was fun although the delay of waiting for the stream to catch up when he was trying to show me stuff was damned annoying. He now has 104 dwarfs, and is at the first cavern layer.

I think I should do some live streaming tomorrow of it on my own channel with my current embark, where It's raining mucus and there are undead tapirs chasing my dwarfs.

Just wanted to say that I took this period of inability to do anything productive to give DF another shot. Decided to do it "right" this time and install a graphic set and Dwarf Therapist (actually just installed the noob pack), and I'm finding the experience much more enjoyable as a result.

I still think the interface sucks major donkey gonads (how many fucking different methods of designating an area or navigating a simple list can a person possible decide to put into a single game?), but I'm at least beginning to be able to get past that and actually enjoy the game lurking underneath all the issues :)

FlowerChild wrote:Just wanted to say that I took this period of inability to do anything productive to give DF another shot. Decided to do it "right" this time and install a graphic set and Dwarf Therapist (actually just installed the noob pack), and I'm finding the experience much more enjoyable as a result.

I still think the interface sucks major donkey gonads (how many fucking different methods of designating an area or navigating a simple list can a person possible decide to put into a single game?), but I'm at least beginning to be able to get past that and actually enjoy the game lurking underneath all the issues :)

You do realize, that the lonely cat-lover math-professor is quite bonkers, right?

Wait a second...

I have been somewhat insulated from knowledge of that game.
A couple comments here and there, but no real exposure.
After stumbling on this post, I have decided to give this a go. However I am not sure that 11:30pm on a Sunday night, before a big day at work and after attending a (back breaking) fun run whilst not being fit enough, is the right time to start...

Or is it?

Ethinolicbob wrote:I have been somewhat insulated from knowledge of that game.
A couple comments here and there, but no real exposure.
After stumbling on this post, I have decided to give this a go. However I am not sure that 11:30pm on a Sunday night, before a big day at work and after attending a (back breaking) fun run whilst not being fit enough, is the right time to start...

Or is it?

Go for it.

Ethinolicbob wrote:I have been somewhat insulated from knowledge of that game.
A couple comments here and there, but no real exposure.
After stumbling on this post, I have decided to give this a go. However I am not sure that 11:30pm on a Sunday night, before a big day at work and after attending a (back breaking) fun run whilst not being fit enough, is the right time to start...

Or is it?

No, it's not. I had to just force myself to close it down so I can get some sleep tonight :)