Dw4rf Fortess 4 goddamn D: Hyperdwarf

[Duckie]

For those of you who don't know what Dwarf Fortress is, I implore you to find a description on their Wiki or read the old thread or two. This post is mainly for all of you who may have played it before when I was doing my fortress and posting updates and
didn't know that a new version came out.

edit- This old thread is good to explain. Better than my sarcasm and enthusiastic incomprehensibility, anyhow

_______________

All right lads, enough bullshitting around and "oh I'll get to it some day but I gotta master the Z-Axis" or "I'm too busy with real life"

Fuck real life. THIS IS DWARF FORTRESS.

First off, my boy-os, let's get this out of the way: There's gonna be no skeletal elephants. There will be regular ones though, if I have to generate a million worlds just to find a location!

Second off, there's a new version of dwarf fortress. Version 0.27.169.33b is the latest release. Scroll past the changelist for the download link.

Let's run down the changelist on how it will affect us:

1- Z axis. The fort is not 2-dimensional. We can build 3d rooms. 3d traps. 3d EVERYTHING. That includes a ceiling grate which dumps magma on our foes and annoying denizens alike!

2- You can place the fort anywhere except the ocean. Dwarves are not aquatic. But. middle of the desert, underneath a human town, whatever you want. HOWEVER, Pal3labor III is going to be placed in a very specific spot. It is known as the PAUL spot. Because Paul found it. What is in the Paul spot?
Everything. Yep, everything. Even sand. Sand is needed to make glass. It has limestone. It has iron ore. That means steel. It has magma. It has wood. It has a lot of Z-levels for digging. It has [SECRET_FUN_STUFF]. I don't know if it has elephants. I might need to mod the game to put elephants in that area. It has giant eagles and man-eating carp though. WA-HA

3-Mechanics! We have power now! NOW YOU ARE COOKING WITH MOLTEN ROCK. There's gears, axles, screw pumps, water wheels, and so forth. Let's get those brains rolling- I want some cool trap ideas that we can build, like a hallway full of spikes that, once the first dude enters the end of the hall, it impales the army behind the point-man. Or a pressure plate that seals a room and floods it, and a room beneath it with a grate so that once the water falls down and weighs down a pressure plate it reopens it.

4- Non-guaranteed features! This is why Paul's Location is important. Not everybody is guaranteed to get lava rivers or cave rivers. You're not even guaranteed to find metal anymore. In the middle of the desert, limestone to make steel is a luxury you might need to get from traders. If we have no soil, it'll be hard to farm, unless we create an irrigation system- assuming there's a river at all!

5- Nobles don't suck anymore, they're more reasonable and more useful. Civilian Nobles such as the Mayor and the Bookkeeper can be appointed, and act less hoity-toity.

6- Like, a bajillion new stone and metal types. Bismuth Bronze? Is that different? Native Aluminium! Adamantine can be mined without breaking your game.... kind of. More on that when we get there.

7- 3d Graphics Engine using the Unreal engine! No wait I lied. Graphics Whores begone!

8- rewalling and reflooring! You can build houses and towers outside! You can make a room entirely out of platinum and aluminium for the King and his husband (BUG OR PROGRESSIVISM?)

9- many more improvements that I can't be arsed to remember.

10- You can name your fort- it doesn't have to be random anymore. SLUTSLITS THE FORGES OF ANUSES no more!

11- Z AXIS. I SHOULD NOT EVEN BE SAYING STUFF BESIDES THAT
Bottom Line- If you aren't playing Dwarf Fortress right now I can't guarantee that your life isn't worthless.

Warning: Game is Very Alpha (New Version Bug Spree!) and HARDTASTIC

Now, my little dorfs, who here remembers way so many months ago in the year 1050 when I created a thread or two wherein I posted reports on a fortress I was making, and named all the dorfs after all of thee?

Yes, ok, I get it. You can put your hand down. Anyhow, we're gonna do that again, and this time I have great plans instead of shitting about doing nothing. We're going to make an EPIC fortress.

The Z-Axis gives us as much potential as thinking with Portals does. If anyone else can think of ideas (it doesn't even have to be in-game, just think of something that could work and I'll see if it can be translated in-game) like this it'd make the game so much better.

A Way to make workshops more efficient.

Code: Select all

Level [Z]
xxxxxx ooooooaaaaaa
xxxxxxxooooooaaaaaa
xxxxxx1oooooo2aaaaa
xxxxxxxooooooaaaaaa
xxxxxx ooooooaaaaaa
xxxxxx ooooooaaaaaa

Level [Z-1]
           wwwwww
          1wwwwww2
           wwwwww

X- Main hall
#- staircase
o- input region
a- output region
w- workshop

The workshop is located underneath the stores of raw material and finished good. For instance, a craftsdwarf shop has, above in, in the O region, stones of all types (assuming it is used primarily for stonecraft). In the A region are the finished goods. Basically, this means the dwarf doesn't have to go very far to get material or deposit his craftings. Haulers can all use the same hall as these standardized workplaces can be put here. Haulers can just walk down the hall and pick up a bin full of items from right there without getting in the way of the crafter or anything. This is much more efficient than just laying them out whereever.

Bigger shops that need more material, such as a forge, can be made of several of these rooms fixed together. Modularity is the king of room design, and connectivity its orb and staff.

It's far too complicated to sketch out in (code) (/code) blocks but I'm thinking about how to do that magma waterfall trick for a gate trap. Like boiling oil but better, because it's molten-fucking-lava.

Can anyone tell I'm excited about the prospects of the Z-axis?

EDIT- Hint for people so they when playing don't get stuck like me for half an hour.
Use > and < to go up and down levels with the camera
Digging a downward staircase isn't enough to reach a level down. You need to dig an upward staircase on the level right below the downward stair.

ex

Code: Select all

[LEVEL Z]
XXX
XXX
>>>

[LEVEL Z-1]
ooo
ooo
OOO

X is mined area.
> is mined as a "downward staircase". You could also mine it and then make it a downward staircase but why bother?
O and o are unmined rock that you want to reach below the level you're on.
The capital Os must be designated as < to access level Z-1 for your miners.
It will then look like

Code: Select all

[LEVEL Z]
XXX
XXX
>>>

[LEVEL Z-1]
ooo
ooo
<<<

You are now free to mine the o sections.

[Covenant]

Oh dear lord. It's finally come.

Back to the Mines, my fellows!

We gonna do a succession game again?

[Duckie]

Oh dear lord. It's finally come.

Back to the Mines, my fellows!

We gonna do a succession game again?

*first Dwarf drafted: COVENANT, EXPEDITION LEADER*

SUCCESSION GAME? What is this heresy! Off to the magma waterfall! (As seen in THE INCREDIBLES)

Feel free to make your own succession game, if you like. I'm going to take Palelabour where I will. And that place is flying at terminal velocity downwards in an orgy of fire and blood, hopefully.

First thing is first- I shall scout our map to see if there are elephants. If there are not, I will have to modify the biome information of the elephants. Then strategy musings can commence.

[Nephtys]

To the mines! Hopefully this time, we won't have to have knives to the necks of our bougeois 'noble' Masters, by having vents to flood their bedrooms with lava, should their evil decrees get out of hand...

[Academia Nut]

Sign me up! I was never very good myself, but watching these games unfold was always a joy. If I might be so bold, could I ask for an engineering or crafting related job?

[Duckie]

To the mines! Hopefully this time, we won't have to have knives to the necks of our bougeois 'noble' Masters, by having vents to flood their bedrooms with lava, should their evil decrees get out of hand...

I plan actually to eventually have an aqueduct devoted entirely to being able to flood any given bedroom with molten magma.

It's called the Immigration/Nobility Processing Machine.

Our preliminary 7 spots shall be:

2 Miners
1 Carpenter/Woodcutter
1 Farmer/Herbalist
1 Farmer/Brewer/Cook
1 Craftsdwarf/Engineer
1 Spare- soldier, smith, whatever?

someone has to be our Leader, who gets social skills instead of good manly work skills, and so has a shriveled up and burgoisie goatee instead of a manly working beard. I elect Covenant, because he was stupid enough to respond to my entusiasm first.

Fishing is too dangerous, man-eating fish abounds. Carp are especially hardcore because their damage is 3x a dwarven punch due to a typo. I could fix it, but that's too hardcore to correct. Man. Eating. Carp!

[Stark]

This new dimension intrigues me.

And what's this about 'sand'? Is that a kind of mushroom?

[Academia Nut]

No no no my friend. Sand is like the little rocks you get when you hit a stone with a pick or a hammer. Thus a desert is what you get when a whole fuckload of us dwarves start pounding on things and forget what we're doing until we look back and note the mountain range is gone.

[Covenant]

I'll do my best to become beardy as the time progresses, but I happily take up the goatprod of leadership to do my best at convincing people to work and/or starting wars with the Elves.

[Civil War Man]

Let us build our fortress and crush all others under our heels! The orcs shall fall! The goblins shall be destroyed! The elves shall regret the day they crossed us! We shall drive the men forth from their villages and hear the lamentation of their women!

[Covenant]

Let us build our fortress and crush all others under our heels! The orcs shall fall! The goblins shall be destroyed! The elves shall regret the day they crossed us! We shall drive the men forth from their villages and hear the lamentation of their women!

Lamentations that we didn't invade sooner!

"Is that a mattock in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

[Duckie]

The first step in creating a fortress is to ensure elephants will be there. To do this, I have modified the game so that temperate grasslands and mountains will both contain elephants, the arch-rival of dwarfkind.

Elephants now dwell on temperate grasslands, savannas, any tropical forest, and temperate or tropical shrublands. I will now test to see if our map contains elephants. They now are not benign but savage creatures. Hopefully this will make them more agressive.

If it does not, I shall make elephants a dweller upon mountainsides, so as to up the danger factor. After all, dwarf fortress without maneating elephants is by far lamer than dwarf fortress with them.

EDIT- there appears to be no sand upon our location. A pity. Nor elephants. I shall now modify the games to make elephants appear upon the slopes of our mountainhome.

[Ar-Adunakhor]

Truly, this sounds epic. I volunteer for the fortress and am so all over the new version myself. Oh yes....

[Alan Bolte]

It's true: tall, beardless women have a certain exotic appeal.

[Duckie]

All right, I have done all I can to make it so that elephants will show up on our map. Elephants now live on mountains, and in any tropical or temperate land.
I will now generate a world using the seed 4265985437, aka Paul's Seed.

My random name generator has decided to call it "Licevælecamade", which appears to be Elven. Perhaps this world is dominated by dirty tree-hungers? Regardless, it means "The Legendary Ever-Realm". If by ever you mean "16^3 by 16^3 tiles." And by legendary you mean "didn't exist until just now when it spontaneously gained 1050 years of history".

Here is a small map of Licevælecamade, our inexplicably flat and rectangular world. It is january, so you'll have to excuse the snow.


colours altered for your convenience. The north is white right now because it is snowy.

purple areas are evil, blue areas are good (except the ocean. red and brown are also evil, but less so. More "mordor" than "necropolis" though. Except the bright red which is actually a red sand desert. And the blue in the north is mostly ice, not good. It's confusing, I know. Just look at the pretty picture, ok?

The red circle marks us. In it there is a blue river. 2 characters south of the river, there is a mountain tile. We are located near the middle of that tile.

Here is a map of all the dwarven civilizations. Nobody cares about any of the others. As you can see, there are 3 kingdoms. Their names are, from the large northwest one to the small northeast to the southern middle one:
Äkim Ingish, Kivish Âbir, and Dumat Alen

Suffice to say it does not translate well, ok?

We are a part of the Brilliant Bodices, because such a name is hilarious. Thank you, random generator. We are quite a long way from home, though.

That was the last ginormous picture.


This is our embark screen. This river is "Shriekbud the Hero of Skunks". What a terrible hero. Nonetheless, his river brook shall be useful to us, silly name or not.

[Darth Mordius]

Hooray it's back! Finally, the world will again know the truly masterful crafting of Darth "ROACHES ARE OUR GAWDDAMN EMBLEM" Mordius!

[Covenant]

I started a game just now out of excitement, and decided to do something wacky, and burrowed into a glacier. Or I tried, as my landing party was mauled to death by polar bears. Ouch.

[Duckie]

I started a game just now out of excitement, and decided to do something wacky, and burrowed into a glacier. Or I tried, as my landing party was mauled to death by polar bears. Ouch.

Excellent! This is the dwarf fortress experience!. Next update to this post contains our personages. Everyone who posted beyond Ar-Adunakhor has been shunted into Immigration. ASSUMING THEY SURVIVE THE ELEPHANTS AND GIANT EAGLES. MWAHAHA.

The brave citizens of Abalèrith, PALELABO(U)R have set off from the northernmost and kingdom of the dwarves, the greatest kingdom- Äkim Ingish [The Brilliant Bodices].

In the south- far more south than even the Lancers of Romancing, they have found a suitable site. Although it is dangerous, the 7 dwarves press on. Rumour has it there is a great load of iron and steelmaking material in these mountains.

Perhaps even- dare we say it- Adamantine, the metal of the gods. While Steel is known as Dwarf-Iron across the world, for no race but the dwarves know its secrets, even the eldest of tombs only hint at the properties of Adamant, the secret holy metal of the dwarves.
The seven intrepid protagonists-

NEPTHYS the Miner-at-Arms
and
MKSHEPPARD the Miner-at-Arms
Nepthys is a Skilled Miner and a Soldier (Wrestler, Armour User, Shield User). While he is not skilled with weapons, he has had some basic training and will become strong and tough from the manly dwarven work of mining. Shep is the same, but female. They will form the bulwark of our defense force.

Nepthys finds mushrooms a soothing colour. He has been in the mines too long?

SHEP DOES NOT PITY

AR-ADUNAKHOR the Herbalist
Ar-Adunakhor is a Proficient Farmer but also a Proficient Herbalist. She will be in charge of, when not planting or harvesting, gathering what plants she can from outside. Beyond Covenant, she is probably one of the most likely to die because of this. We salute you, brave volunteer*.

Ar-Adunakhor likes siliceous oozes. Whatever those are.

CIVIL WAR MAN the Chef
Civil War Man is a Proficient Farmer, but he also is a Cook and above all a Competent Brewer. It is his job to make the liquor, and to also do that stuff with the lesser things like growing food and cooking it.

Civil War Man samples his own brew

ACADEMIA NUT the Mason-Engineer
Academia Nut was bold enough to ask and was so made Mason-Engineer of the fortress. She is a Proficient Mason, a Competent Mechanic, and a Building Designer. She oversees all architecture, masonry, and mechanical operations. She will be a busy one, but a very important one. Mining and Stonecrafting are two of the three pillars of dwarven society. (The third is alcohol)

Academia Nut is rewarded for bravery. This time.

STARK the Smith
Stark is a talented man. He is a skilled metalsmith, but also is an armoursmith, a weaponsmith, and a furnace operator.

Stark is slow to anger and enjoys other people...

and finally

COVENANT the Leader
Covenant is a Competent enough Carpenter and Wood Cutter, but his primary role in the fortress is described by his lesser but more numerous skills of Novice Persuader, Novice Negotiator, Novice Judge of Intent, and Novice Appraiser. He is our leader, when he isn't off cutting down trees and/or getting mauled by giant elephants and giant mountain eagles. He is notably the only dwarf who actually likes other people, explaining why he isn't as manly or beardy as the rest and was forced to lead them. This is the equvialent of herding surly kittens with pickaxes.

His friends call him Covvie- his imaginary ones, anyhow.

[rhoenix]

Oh, excellent. I can't run this game on my aging Powerbook (PPC, no emulator for windows, etc.), so I shall live vicariously through you, MRDOD. May your Rubber Duckiness be blessed.

I'd like to volunteer to have a namesake, though I've no idea what I'd want my specialty to be. I'm leaning toward "miner," if only due to (boring) familiarity.

[Duckie]

The loadout:


Each miner has their own copper pick. Covenant, as our tree-chopper, has the steel axe.
We pulled a big one over on supply division in the kingdom. Each meat is required by dwarven law for cleanliness to be stored in its own barrel, so by getting things like 1 serving of raccoon meat instead of a bunch of deer as is standard, we gained over half a dozen free barrels. Which are useful for brewing alcohol once we eat the meat out of them.
We are carrying a lot of plump helmets to make wine out of and to eat, and seeds of many types (including a lot of plump helmets, the staple mushroom crop of underground civilization) to plant.

Additionally, we have procured a breeding pair of dogs for defense and companionship. Cats were not dispatched to our location, as they are a luxury. We will have to live with vermin and with no Mr. Fluffycuddles until traders or immigrants bring some.

We have an anvil. We could drop the anvil for 1000 points and buy a shitload of supplies to bring with us, including more dogs for defense and more food. However, this means we will be completely unable to smelt metal until the traders arrive with an anvil in a few years. Assuming they are able to get to us at all, because of the wildlife.

Thoughts? The anvil is a big decision. It could get us quite a bit of supplies if we leave it behind, but is it worth the risk and delay?

[Academia Nut]

Bring the anvil. While there is some short term gain to not taking it with us, the long term cost is high. We need metal to make the tools that shape the fortress, and the weapons that shall defend it. In such dangerous lands, can we afford to be without steel?

[Duckie]

Just a calculation here

Without the anvil, we could have:
[%tot]Item
[15%] 50 wooden logs, meaning that Covenant doesn't have to risk his life for almost a decade if ever. We can safely downgrade his skills and make him a better negotiator to purchase the anvil marginally cheaper, or make him a stonecrafter to pay for it.
[05%] as much leather and cloth as we need to make bags and quivers and sacks, 2-4 more dogs for defense, 2 cats for a breeding pair, and incidentals
[20%] quadruple our current amount of alcohol
[10%] quadruple food
[05%] extra seeds for every crop, doubling to tripling their size
[35%] 15 metal bars for crafting once we get the anvil, just in case we lack a certain metal at our site and really need a piece for a Strange Mood or a Noble Demand or something.

However, we would need to within the first and second year make a lot of crafts to pay for an anvil. We could alternatively steal the anvil from the traders and not pay for it and give them a lot of gifts to make up for it? (at least, we could in last game).

A lot of crafts. Our crafters would be busy, and we don't have a crafter so instead we would train stark (slowly) in stone craftsmanship.

Note that when I press "Start" we may immediately be mobbed by elephants or giant eagles or whatever. half a dozen war dogs might let some of us survive and escape, although it's likely we're all doomed and I'll have to pick a new site

[bilateralrope]

I say bring the anvil, if only because dwarves without one don't seem right.

Sign me up for something when you can please. Preferably a job with a high chance of going mad.

[Duckie]

SKILLS TREE- Use this to select your desired job if you so desire one:

Related Professions are grouped together
Mining
Mining Related: Miner
Wood
Wood Related: Wood Cutter, Carpenter
Masonry
Masonry Related: Mason, Engraver, Building Designer
Smithing
Specialty Smithing: Weaponsmith, Bowyer, Armoursmith
Blacksmithing: Metalsmith
Smith-Support Skills: Furnace Operator, Wood Burner
Crafting
Crafter: Metalcrafter, Stonecrafter, Woodcrafter, Bone Carver)
Glass/Gem-Related: Gem Cutter, Gem Setter, Potash Maker, Glassmaker
Engineering/Machinery
Engineering: Mechanic, Pump Operator
Food, Animal, or Plant Related
Animal/Plant Related, Food: Fisher, Miller, Farmer, Brewer, Cook, Herbalist, Butcher, Fish Dissector, Fish Cleaner, Animal Dissector, Cheese Maker, Milker
Animal/Plant Related, Living: Trapper, Ambusher, Animal Caretaker, Animal Trainer
Animal/Plant Related, Craft: Weaver, Thresher, Clothier, Dyer, Tanner, Leatherworker
Useless People
Alchemical Skills: Lye Maker, Soaper
Soldiers
Combat: Wrestler/Unarmed, Hammer, Mace, Axe, Sword, Spear, Marksman, Shield User, Armour User,
Siege Weapons
Large Weaponry Warfare: Siege Engineer, Siege Engine Operator
Nobles
Nobility/Interpersonal, Trader: Judge of Intent, Appraiser, Negotiator, Liar, Persuader
Nobility/Interpersonal, Admin: Organizer, Recordkeeper
Nobility/Interpersonal, Charisma: Conversationalist, Consoler, Pacifier, Flatterer, Comedian
Peasants: Item Haulers, Manual Labourers

Note that almost all dwarves have many skills, but usually they stay within 1, maybe 2 bolded professions I listed here.
skill explanations:
Engraver- also smooths stones to get rid of rough walls/floor and make stuff prettier.
Furnace Operator- Turns ore into metal bars, and does anything deconstructive such as melting things into bars. Basically, anything that make a bar.
Blacksmith- Handles using bars to make things, but not weaponry or armour
Potash Maker- Turns ash or lye into potash, which is a fetilizer. However, its main use (soil quality is not implemented yet) is to be baked into pearlash, which is used in the production of glass
Wrestling/Unarmed- Also controls dodging, as such is useful skill for all.

[Civil War Man]

First point: Did you pick and choose who was what Dwarf? Because mine bears some remarkable similarities to me. Liking swords, liking cats because of their aloofness (though apparently I also like the aloofness of boxes), drinking rum, striving for excellence in procrastination, isn't really bothered by bad weather. It's almost scary.

Second point: I am probably the least expendable person in this expedition. I make all the booze. If I die, no one gets booze. If you piss me off, I won't give you booze.

Third point: Are there any Dwarves that don't need booze to get through the working day? Because I noticed that it is specifically pointed out in all of our bios.

Fourth point: When called up to fight, can I attack things with meat cleavers?