Dwarf Fortress

Ironherald wrote:Might dl it later then

Can somebody link the download to the game? And I seem to be finding lots of different versions, is there any specific ones I need to get to play the one with the grapics linked earlier?

The basic game without any mods can be downloaded from
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/df_31_16_win.zip

For the game we kept reporting earlier we used the Lazy Newb Pack. There's a forum page here
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.0

And Genesis has a forum page here
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=52988.0

Thanks! Dling now

Oh wait, do I download all of them or just one of the three?

i Would recommend just going for the lazy newb pack first.
Then you can play the game and you get Stonesense aswell.

Nice one.

Apparently Genesis DF uses the Warcraft 2 soundtrack as its soundtrack. A welcome change from the default guitar thingie from vanilla DF.

*edit* And it seems to be prone to crash randomly. I suppose I'll have to use an older version.

With help from the "Let's Play" youtube series I've gotten pretty far into the game now.

It is... too fun..

I managed to play two months before the game crashed. During that time I was attacked by a pack of raptors. While I managed to drive them away, my axedwarf/woodcutter broke his left ankle and got bitten in his right testicle. I kid you not.

Who wouldnt want a tasty Dwarf testicle? I hear its good for the joints! D:

Ok after playing the game for three days one of my Dwarves became possessed and after a short while went insane, killing almost all 40 Dwarves in my fortress and all of my war dogs.

This game hurts my brain :<

So Lini how did the special version go?

Ezlbag wrote:So Lini how did the special version go?

Hmm...things have been a bit hectic. I'll post the write-up this week.

What.
WhatwhatWHAT?!

Haha where are those two guys? XD I love it!

Menethil

Would be funnier if one of them was named Urist

AWESOME!
Seriously that there just kinda made my day xD
I need to show this to a friend of mine!
*rushes out the door*

A "must read", I assure you:

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=95625ffc8907de7dd52484f77197d554&topic=55601.0

That was glorious xD
I really do hope he makes more.

Dwarf Fortress is important because it’s fucking insane. It’s important because it’s against every single rule the industry makes. It’s important because it shows that a designer/coder, if they choose to stay to their passions – even their most extreme passions – it’s just about possible you can find an audience. It proves that being sensible is a small master for small minds. I still have trouble believing that Dwarf Fortress even exists.

Oh, one other thing you should know about Dwarf Fortress. Nobody wins. Ever. The whole game basically amounts to a grand failure engine.

With that being said, here's a rather interesting journal of someone new to the game
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/09/23/dwarf-fortress-the-song-of-onionbog-pt-1/#more-39786

In other news, Dwarf Fortress has been updated to v0.31.19 which is the first update of the Caravan Arc that aims to improve the economy of the game among other things.
New things include:
-New domestic animals
-BEEEEEES!!!! (also beekeeping (and attempts to weaponize bees, if the DF forumites are to be believed))
-Pasture zones for animals
-Ceramics
-GRIMDARK
I quote:

Spoiler:

Sounds interesting. I'm still sorta burned out on DF until the interface improves though, and late-game fortress don't grind fps to a crawl.

Soooo...Inspired by the new GRIMDARK version of Dwarf Fortress, I started playing again. And not only did I start playing again, I decided to do it nightmare mode. Yes, that's right. I kept my earlier promise and started a game using the Genesis Mod I mentioned earlier in the thread.
Here's my first year. So far I haven't taken any screenshots but if there's a demand for them, I will start taking them.
Also, because I'm lazy and all that the formating of this chapter is a bit dull. I'm tired. Don't blame me.

From the journal of Ingrid Rathathel:

1st of Granite, Year 251
I, Ingrid Rathathel - a former advisor to the King, am a doomed dwarf. This journal only serves the purpose of helping me keep at least some grip
on reality and offer any possible reader a chance to relish the morbid humor of my predicament.
Everything began roughly four months ago with an unfortunate mistake I had little chance to avoid. At first I assumed that I
had managed to repair the damage I had caused and remain on the good side of our beloved King. Now, stranded here in the
middle of nowhere I realise that this clearly isn't the case.

What lead me here, you may ask?

Some time after the incident the King announced that he had appointed me the leader of our glorius fortress of Mindbolted,
a bustling fortress on the borders of our glorious kingdom. Upon hearing this I was both saddened and overjoyed. I could
no longer serve my King as his advisor, but instead I had been given the chance to show my capabilities as the leader of a
fortress.

On the day of my departure to the fortress of Mindbolted I found a small rag-tag caravan waiting me at the gates of our
mighty Mountainhomes. I was given a sealed envelope and a map with the directions to our destination. In retrospect I
should've already realised by this point that something was amiss, but in my naive foolishness I saw nothing wrong with the
situation. I was to simply accompany the caravan of migrants to my new home. In fact, the thought of having some company during
my travel only made me happy.

My first suspicions started to arise by the time the well paved road we were traveling changed to a small dirt road.
Surely the connections to the fortress should be much better than this by now? By the time the road stopped altogether
I was starting to get worried. By the time the surroundings changed into untamed jungle I was starting to get terrified.
I know I should have turned back around that time, but the thought of betraying my King and the promise of a wealthy
fortress waiting for me kept me going. How foolish I was!

After what felt like weeks our caravan arrived to our promised destination. Despite being in a place where no sane dwarf
would go, my morale was starting to climb. We were finally there! Just over that hill we would find the welcome sight of
a grand dwarven fortress where I could carve my place in the legends! I told my weary (and now that I think about it, very
strange companions) to hurry so that we would be in the safety of the fortress by the nightfall.

And here I am...

As far as I can tell with my map reading skills, I'm standing exactly where the fortress should be. There's nothing but
untamed jungle here! Nothing! No, even that is an exaggeration. There isn't even a jungle here. Everywhere I look the wildlife
is dead. Or at least it should be. The river flowing some distance away from us is teeming with undead fish and I think I
saw a zombie alligator. What bothers me the most is that my companions don't even seem to notice this. There's something
wrong with them but I can't quite point out what it is.
In my state of rising panic I remembered the sealed envelope I received when I left the safety of the Mountainhopes.
Reading the letter confirmed the suspicions I had. The King and the gods hated me. As a punishment for my mistake all those
months ago I was to establish a new fortress in this desolate and clearly haunted jungle. Mindbolted it was to be called.
As the gravity of the situation slowly hit me I turned to inspect the contents of our caravan. Food, alcohol and some basic
tools. Enough supplies to start a new fortress, in other words. Oh, and my companions? Former patients of the Mountainhomes
Insane Asylum.

No matter, we'll all be dead by the end of the day...

16th of Granite, 251
Despite all odds we've managed to survive so far. We've managed to avoid the undead wildlife by digging a pathetic hole in
the ground and hiding ourselves and our supplies there. If we're to die we'll at least die underground like proper dwarves.
Noticing our lack of lumber I told our woodcutter to fell some trees. Despite the obvious danger involved he set out to the
task with worrying abandon.

10th of Felsite, 251
Zombie birds! Birds! That are zombies! What is wrong with this place? As if the rotting piranhas crawling out of the river
and trying to nibble the toes of our woodcutter while he hacks them to pieces weren't enough.
I was trying to build a nice little trade depot so that we have a place to trade in the unlikely event of a trade caravan
arrives in this place forsaken by the gods themselves. But yes, zombie birds out of nowhere. Upon hearing this commotion
the woodcutter ran out of our fortress, waving his axe angrily at the rotten birds that shouldn't even be able to fly. I
think I saw some foam around his mouth as I fled to the safety of our mudhole.

Otherwise things have been surprisingly painless, even though I'm surrounded by numbskulls. Our craftsdwarf has locked himself
in his workshop, spewing out rock crafts while giggling like a little girl. I told one of our miners to dig deeper in hopes
of finding something valuable. Apparently I should've been more specific with my command because I didn't see him in days.
When he finally cambe back he told he had found "soft and hot rock." The idiot had dug all the way to the great lava lakes
at the core of our world!
Our farmer seems like the most sensible of the bunch. She has been quietly planting plump helmet spawns without causing any
kind of commotion. Although...she does seem to take her job a wee bit too serious. She calls the plots her "garden" that
noone else is allowed to touch. That might cause some trouble later on.

27th of Hematite, 251
The birds gave up eventually. Or alternatively the woodcutter (I finally bothered taking a note of his name. It's Mebzuth.)
actually managed to scare them away. Somehow I doubt this.
Days have gone by painfully slow, with little to no progress being seen in anything. I told the miner duo to dig for valuables
closer to the surface. Eventually they reported that they had found a huge cavern full of mushrooms and such. Brilliant!
This could prove useful. Well, that was my initial reaction, anyway. Upon having a look at this wondrous cavern I found out
it's full of undead bats. Nonetheless, I will wall off a secluded piece of the cavern for our own use.

4th of Hematite, 251
Suddenly, bats! Undead bats everywhere! The tiny undead buggers are pouring in to our fortress. Luckily Mebzuth has been
able to deal with them in his usual style of trying to kill them with shouting and/or an axe.

27th of Malachite, 251
This cannot be! Migrants in the horizon! Who would be crazy enough to venture here of all places?

28th of Malachite, 251
I should've chosen my earlier words more carefully. Turns out the King felt the need to send me more patients from the asylum.
If there's a joke involved in this, I'm not seeing it. I now have six more idiots to deal with. One of them crazy enough
to try fishing in these waters. After some convincing I managed to get it into his thick skull that all we have is zombie
piranhas and they're not very tasty.
Also, I'm sure that skeletal orangutan that was tagging along with them is not a pet.

11th of Limestone, 251
The rain that has been going on for as long as we've been has finally stopped. Things are going surprisingly smoothly,
although I'm having troubles coming up with anything sensible to do for this dirty dozen of drooling dwarves.
At least the miners are busy expanding this mudhole of a fortress.

24th of Limestone, 251
These undead beasts will be the death of us all! Earlier today Mebzuth was injured badly while fighting a skeletal jaguar.
He managed to get it down but is out of picture for now...

25th of Limestone, 251
As the only dwarf in the fortress that knows something about healthcare I started treating Mebzuth. Turns out that under
all that beard he turned out to be a she! Who would have guessed. As I stepped out of the makeshift hospital I noticed that
there were a lot more idle idiots mucking about. I gave Mebzuth's axe to the most capable looking one. Hopefully he knows
which end does what.

5th of Sandstone, 251
Mebzuth walks again after I dressed her wounds. She's being paler than normal but at least she's up and about, weakly yelling at every tiny creature
that happens to pass by. Good old Mebzuth...

6th of Sandstone, 251
Seems "good old Mebzuth" is feeling a bit funny in the head seeing as I found her standing outside, yelling down into the
valley our fortress overlooks and then responding to her own echo. Yes, please do attract more undead to our location.
I promptly dragged her back indoors.

13th of Sandstone, 251
The blasted lunatics! One of the newcomers started sulking, demanding that he be able to make a weapon. A weapon out of what?!
There's no metal ore here! ANYWHERE!

22nd of Sandstone, 251
For once the lack of specific orders paid off. "Go find some mineral" resulted in the two buffoons digging around the magma
layer until they found some adamantine! Hopefully that will satisfy that crazy weaponsmith.

20th of Timber, 251
A merchant caravan, here of all places? Who are they and why are they here? Buuuut...since they're here I might as well
do some trade. We have some useless trinkets they might want. In the best case they have the materials that crazy weaponsmith
wants. And food. Preferably some food as well.

9th of Moonstone, 251
The traders left. Not really all that much to add to that.
And that weaponsmith? He made an adamantine spear that has to be worth a million §'s. For some reason I feel both pride
towards that loveable idiot and spite towards the Mountainhomes. Take that! See this spear? Didn't think we'd actually
manage to do something like this, huh? Well did you? Any of you come here and I'll stab you with that spear myself!
I bet you thought I'd be miserable here for the rest of my life but look who has a spear now!

27th of Opal, 251
It's never boring in the looniehouse. Just as things were starting to settle down, our mason locked himself to a workshop and
started demanding rocks and cut gems. It's like I'm charge of a nursery home...

5th of Obsidian, 251
Enough is enough. As if these drooling idiots aren't enough aren't to look at, I have to tolerate all sorts of cave beasts
that have decided to migrate to surface at their leisure. NO MORE!
I told the most capable looking dwarf to take Mebzuth's duties while she recovers. I am NOT tolerating any kind of wildlife
near MY fortress, be they living or unliving.
Also, that idiot of a mason finished his work work on a quern. Great job and all that...I DON'T CARE!

12th of Obsidian, 251
A...hahaha...Ahahaahaha...AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. The gods truly hate me. The gods and/or werewolves. There's an invading force of
at least a dozen werewolves in the horizon. More will probably follow. Unless our masons manage to seal off the entrance
soon enough, we'll all be dead.

15th of Obsidian, 251
The wall was built in time but I can still hear the howling of the wolf-beasts outside. I hope they are not patient creatures.

1st of Granite, 252
Despite the undead, the werewolves and the drooling idiots around me, I have managed to carve myself a place I can call
home (if only barely). After we sealed ourselves underground because of the werewolf invasion we found ourselves lacking
a source of fresh water. To remedy this we've begun a new mining operation. Hopefully it will be finished soon. Despite
what your average dwarf might think alcohol cannot be made without water.

Even after a year I, Ingrid Rathanel, am still alive despite all odds.

At least for now...

Lini wrote: There's an invading force of
at least a dozen werewolves in the horizon.

(damn you website! ill get you next time!!!)
Now i need to start playing again....
Can't wait to see what happens next

I think your attempt at hotlinking failed.

Anyhow, I figured I might as well describe the goings of my fortress a bit in OOC format before continuing to the next year. I'll also try and format my text into slightly more presentable format from now on. Maybe even add some screenshots. No Stonesense, though. It doesn't work all that well with Genesis. Not to mention that it slows down the game by quite a bit.

Buuuut...On with the show.
Accompanied by Warcraft 2 music since that's what Genesis plays in the game. You heard me. Gone is the regular and somewhat boring guitar music. Instead we have glorious Warcraft 2 music.


First of all, the werewolves. I'm being sieged by about a dozen feral werewolves on my first year. They're described by the maker of the mod as early attackers so their appearance isn't all that surprising. That artifact spear skyrocketing the total value of my fortress probably had something to do with it as well. Once I'm done with the siege I'm sure to have my fortress population double by a wave of migrants.

I'm not sure how good fighters werewolves are and I'd rather not find out yet since I have absolutely nothing that can oppose them and without a source of iron or other weapon grade metal I probably won't have a standing army any time soon. With this in mind I'll probably concentrate on devious (magma)traps, crossbows and a tiny squad of melee fighters clad in adamantine.

Spoiler:

So far my fortress building has been rather slow in this game. Most of my important stuff is still located on ground level in a cluttered mess.
What you can see in this picture:
1.My makeshift fortress. I usually build a tiny proto-fortress as soon as I start the game. The function of this place is to house the essential workshops, bedrooms, storage areas and farms so that the fortress can function while I dig deeper in search of a proper fortress site. It's a horrible mess that gets dismantled as soon as everything is in working order deeper underground.
Note the small cavern plants that are growing everywhere. Once you breach the underground caverns, the air is filled with spores and mushroom trees will slowly start growing on farmable soil everywhere, as long as it's undergound. A wise player takes advantage of this to clear out a huge area for tree farming. That way you don't have to rely on the trees growing outdoors. (My tree farm is one layer above this level but I cba to take a screenshot of it.)

2.My underground mushroom farm and a tiny rainwater reservoir that I will have to drain deeper underground now that I've sealed myself.

3.THE WALL. Hastily built to prevent having an invasion of furries in my fortress. Above it is my garbage dump. Nothing to see here.

4.A lone Draltha. They're large underground-dwelling grazers that aren't all that dangerous. This one panicked by the sight of my dwarves and ran outside. He won't be seeing his precious caverns anytime soon. Next to the Draltha is my trade depot that I had to leave outside. I'll move it to a better place once the werewolves are gone.

Spoiler:

Here's my rather unfinished bedroom level. Do note the several clusters of gems on the right. While my fortress site seems to lack metals, I've found several clusters of various gems.

Spoiler:

Usually I build one or two huge workshop halls, or at least have all my workshops nearby and on the same level. This time around I decided to go with a more vertical design for my fortress, with several smaller levels dedicated to one one or two tasks. This screenshot is actually split into two parts with photoshop magic. Both areas are actually on separate levels. Also, as you can see I prefer to make several workshops dedicated to the same job.
1.This level is dedicated to masonry and jewelcrafting
2.This level houses workshops for my craftsdwarves and mechanics. Some of the rooms are still empty and I haven't quite decided what to build in them.

Spoiler:

And here's the final level of my fortress that's worth showing. The caverns. I've sealed a large area of it for my own use. Unfortunately it doesn't work against flying creatures just yet so if I'm going to be visited by, say, a flying forgotten beast I can wave my fortress goodbye.
1.Cave moss and similar things growing on the cavern floor. This area is suitable for farming so I'll move my underground farms here.
2.My agricultural workshops. Stills, kitchens, butcher's, etc. Later on I will also make a small storage area for seeds so that my farmers don't have to run across all of the fortress to fetch the seeds for the farm.

Finally, here's the wealth of my fortress. As you can see, that single artifact spear constitutes for over 90% of my fortress' wealth. I have a legendary armorsmith and a legendary weaponsmith so when I can start working on those adamantine weapons and armors, I have the people up to the task. Also, currently my fortress is lacking alcohols which is a serious issue. That should be the first thing to be remedied during year 2.

Spoiler:

Year 2

5th of Granite, 252

Our mudhole is starting to look like a zoo with all these animals. Cats and dogs I can understand, but a reindeer? The animal mocks me with its gaze...We need a butcher in this place. I'm not going to wade in manure any longer than necessary!

11th of Slate, 252
Seeing as we're going to be prisoners of our fortress for Armok knows how long, I've decided to take it upon myself to educate these drooling idiots. I think I'll also pick the most capable looking doofus as my Champion of War and train him to be an unstoppable juggernaut. Yes! I can already see it...A single dwarf in a martial trance, dancing through hordes of mangy werewolves, wielding the spear Bobrur Othos with indiscriminate justice! YES!
Also...I think I'll start studying dwarven anatomy. Just in case...
(One of the additions in Genesis mod are workshops that allow you to train dwarves in certain professions such as medical skills, weapons, armor, dodging without the need for other dwarves.)

18th of Slate, 252
That "sensible" farmer has been glaring at me ever since I told her to move her little garden downstairs to the caverns. I told her that she had more space and a greater variety of plants to grow there but she still insisted that she be allowed to keep her farms. Gah! Why must they all be so difficult to deal with? I gave her an assistant, just to spite her defiance.

5th of Felsite, 252
And yet another dwarf started acting up. She ran downstairs and claimed a craftsdwarf's workshop for herself. Wants blocks and logs from what I hear. We have neither. Brilliant.

14th of Felsite, 252
I'll be...The werewolves gave up and left. Instead we received a traveling caravan of Sylvan elf traders. Maybe we're not so unlucky afterall...But do we have anything to trade?

15th of Felsite, 252
The elves must love us. Just now I received word of a dusk elf trading caravan approaching us.
(Another change in the mod is the addition of several new races. In addition the elves have been split into several sub-species. Dusk elves are the "dwarfy" elves, happily using stone, leather and metals for their crafting and building needs. Sylvan elves are shamanistic cannibal elves that live in the woods (that is, they're the standard-issue DF elves). Ezrakim elves are desert dwelling slaver elves. In other words, bad guys.)

23rd of Felsite, 252
Vermin! Thieves! Our wealth has started to attract kobold thieves. The security of our fortress needs to be improved if we are to avoid the theft of our valuables. Which we don't have.

26th of Felsite, 252
Another huge cavern! Those two odd miners found another cavern while expanding our stairwell towards the source of magma I've been planning to utilize. Hopefully this didn't turn out to be a huge mistake...

18th of Hematite, 252
Will someone do SOMETHING about that Draltha-beast that has been wandering the hallways of our fortress?! Am I really the only one who is even noticing it?

15th of Malachite, 252
It would seem that this sanitarium of a fortress has attracted more patients. Eight in total, in fact. Turns out one of them is a rather competetent woodcutter and another a skilled potter. The rest of them...I'm not quite sure of what to do with them. The worst case seems to be the one who introduced herself as a ranger. I told Miss Power Ranger to forget any ideas about hunting if she was to live here. All we have is zombies.

12th of Galena, 252
My, my...We are honored by the presence of a human trade caravan. I didn't expect the Keepers to be bothered by a place like this. I hope they brought something of value because the elves and their merchandise were of little use to us.
(Like the elves, humans have been split into two sub-races. Or cultures. Whatever. Keepers are your usual medieval themed fantasy humans while Nords are, well...vikings.)

15th of Galena, 252
First the Keepers and now the Ezrakim elves? The humans I can understand, but why have the slave drivers come here? We're a good way distance away from their desert.

16th of Galena, 252
I know I've said this before, but I feel the urge to repeat it once again. The gods truly hate me. There must be some divine sign in the skys above us, telling everyone where we are. The reason why the Ezrakim came here because they were being chased by a centaur raiding party. Seems they foolishly thought we'd be able to defend them.

I told the masons to start building the wall that would isolate us from the outside world while trying to convince the elf and human traders that everything is under control and that the raiding party would prove to be a nuisance at best. Of course, I never told them of our plans or the fact that the wall would leave them outside with the centaurs. I hope for their sake that the caravan guards are up to their task. If not...well, we have just earned two caravans worth of merchandises.

That is, if we're still alive after this.


22nd of Galena, 252
The wall was erected in time and we are safe. The same can not be said of the merchants. I could hear some screams and shouts outside for a while and then...silence. From what I can tell, the centaurs quickly tore through the caravan guards and chased down the fleeing merchants. Now they're all waiting outside the wall. I can hear them talking...

2nd of Limestone, 252
That new woodcutter I praised earlier? Yes, her. She caught the crazy and locked herself into a workshop. Who knows what she wants...

8th of Limestone, 252
She wanted to make a marble toy axe. Come to think of it...there are no children here to give it to. Should I take this as an omen? I hope not. The last thing I want is these loonies breeding.

26th of Limestone, 252
I have been continuing my studies of dwarven medicine.

Also, I have chosen Fath the Miller as my Champion.
He will be my finest warrior. This man who will give himself to me. I shall mould him like clay, and forge him in the furnace of war. He will be of iron will and steel muscle. I shall glad him in great armour and he will wield the mightiest spear. He will be untouched by plague or disease and no sickness will blight him. He will have tactics, strategies and machinations so that no foe can best him
in battle. He is my bulwark against the Terror. He is the Defender of this Fortress. He is my Avatar of War. And he shall
know no fear.

16th of Timber, 252
It would seem the centaurs have finally given up. We took the wall down and were greeted by the ghastly sight of mangled bodies of the merchants and their guards. May they find peace in death and may their goods find their way to our stockpiles.

17th of Timber, 252
I err...what? As we tore down the wall we were greeted by the sight of orcs. Not just any orcs but orc merchants. I will tolerate their presence if their goods are worth something. I hope they brought some metal with them. This area is notoriously void of anything useful.
(You heard me. Orcs. Genesis orcs are actually somewhat different compared to the usual barbaric orcs found in other settings. Genesis orcs live by a warrior code, and value honor and combat valor above everything else. In other words, they're samurais. Their gear reflects this as well. They're not a warmongering people but get angered somewhat easily.)

27th of Timber, 252
The orcs drove a hard bargain, but I bought some items of value, including a finely crafted black steel katana. That weapon will eventually drive fear into our enemies.
Well...it would if most of our enemies weren't fearless undead.

26th of Opal, 252
Ugh...The stupidity has spread once again. One of our miners got the bright idea to make himself a bed out of stone. Sure, it's pretty but I can't imagine it being very comfortable. I think I'll have it placed in his bedroom...

3rd of Obsidian, 252
Another batch of newcomers...Seven this time. Apart from one who claims to be a skilled brewer they seem to be of little use to the fortress.
As expected.

20th of Obsidian, 252
The year is almost over and we're still alive for some reason. In fact, things no longer look as grim as they did before. In these two years we've weathered two assaults on our fortress, fought off the undead, crafted several artifacts and had lucrative trade with passing merchants. If I didn't know better, I'd say that things are starting to look good.

That's it for now. Year 3 will probably follow fairly soon, seeing as my WoW account is currently out of game time.

Personally I think if he improved the graphics and interface he could get away with selling the game as it is now. Never mind 20 years ^^