Dwarf Fortress- Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the rum.

[dibs]

We should try another succession fortress (or whatever it is called). i downloaded this on to my new computer a few weeks back but i have yet to start a new game.

[Salacious Snake]

I purchased the O'Reilly book on this game. I did it mostly out of novelty, but now I'm determined to actually figure this fucking game out.

I'm a little disappointed in the cover art. It's O'Reilly; it should have a woodcut animal on it! Or at least an ascii character representing an animal, since there are plenty in DF.

[Murdoc]

We should try another succession fortress (or whatever it is called). i downloaded this on to my new computer a few weeks back but i have yet to start a new game.

I'd be in for that..... damnit, look what your doing?!

When's Sim City 5 out? I need something to distract me.

[subbes]

Oh, man. Succession fortress? I'd be down for it also, but I only play 40d.

[dibs]

I just looked up the last succession, it was over a year an a half ago, yegads.

Is 40d around that vintage subbes? I haven't played in ages so i'm cool with whatever version as long as it is stable (or as stable as they get).

[subbes]

40d was the one before they introduced caverns. 2010-ish at least.

[Henroid]

That's awesome.

Also, stop talking about this, I love this game, but my visual side really wants graphics and a better interface that I'll never get, so I have to make a stand and not get sucked back in!

The interface is the thing that hurts this game for me. Visuals I don't care; the tilesets people have made are charming enough. Another issue with the game is that it doesn't support multi-cores. Toady supposedly brought someone on board to help make the game support that, and after a month they gave up.

[Adynod]

I've just had a peek at the previous succession fort after Dibs mentioned it (here). Memories of a previous life! That was fun, we should definitely do it again and take it further this time. I remember being quite pleased with the one-upmanship of my feline tomb.

I think that may have been the last time I played DF though apart from a cursory look at a new build some months ago.

[BenLuke]

So a new release is out after what, two years of development? Haven't had the chance to dive into it yet, but apparently a lot of old code has been reworked along with some pretty crazy new features being implemented.

 

Link for the current download pack with the current version and various useful plugins to make it more playable.

[Security_Tubbs]

Starting a game just now. Currently my world generator says:

Saving coin information...

If it was any other game, I'd think it's just a quirky joke load screen status, but with DF I can actually believe that.

 

Update: So I got maybe a few hours into a fort. Now it crashes on load. Unstability was to be expected, so I'm not at all surprised or upset.

 

The only meaningful change I encountered during my very brief experience was that trees are different now. Instead of being just one tile entities that give a single log of wood, they can now be wider and full grown trees can be several z-levels tall. Cutting them down gives way more logs, so wood is not quite as scarce as it used to be.

[DocRandal]

Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released today. Strike the earth!

 

Changelog:

 

Here is the new version we've been working on all year! The flow of fortress life is quite a bit different now -- specific breaks and parties have been replaced by taverns and performances and needs and inebriation. You can designate a tavern, temple or library from a meeting area zone, bedroom or dining room using the new Assign Location option. The location list ('l') will let you know what sort of furniture and items you need, and you can set tavern keepers, scribes and other occupations there as well. You'll need to set up a drink stockpile and a chest for goblets in taverns for drink service to work properly, but dwarves can still drink without a tavern as before. You can assign multiple rooms/zones to a single location. There's a lot more -- see the feature list below.

The bug fix list below is partial. Large chunks of the game were changed, which has a way of making old bugs go away while bringing in new ones to take their place. We'll be focusing on bugs old and new in subsequent releases, starting with crashing saves and moving down the list. The next set of bug-fix releases will be measured on a scale of days and weeks rather than months, as usual.

New stuff

• Ability to designate taverns, temples and libraries in the fortress
• Taverns and libraries also exist in adventure mode and world generation
• Tavern keepers can serve drinks in both modes, goblets can be used by dwarves to drink (in taverns or otherwise)
• Performances include stories, poetry, music and dance (you can view activity descriptions from the unit/job list)
• Art forms are randomly generated for each civilization
• Instruments are now all generated, instruments can be used in both modes
• Most instruments are constructed from multiple pieces using different materials
• Personalities and values lead to needs which can be met by various actions in both modes
• The fort has visitors, residency petitions and eventual citizenship, including non-dwarves
• Tavern visitors include mercenaries, monster slayers, bandits, diplomats and performers
• Can set details for clothing/armor jobs to make them for other races that can equip items
• Monster slayers can petition your fortress to go down and fight monsters once you discover the underground
• Performance troupes are active in world generation and into play, visiting the fort, can be formed in adventure mode
• New knowledge system divided into nine branches (though it has very few practical effects so far)
• Fortress scholars can advance knowledge, form master-apprentice relationships and write down their findings
• Fortress scribes can copy works in your library
• Scholars can visit your fortress libraries, bringing knowledge from around the world
• Devoted historical figures can visit your fortress temples
• Three forms of writing material: papyrus sheets, paper sheets and parchment sheets
• Papyrus sheets are made directly from the plant at the farmer's workshop
• Paper is made from pressed slurries (start at the quern/mill, then go to a screw press)
• Parchment is made from hide and milk of lime at the tanner's (bake quicklime at a kiln, then make milk of lime at an ashery)
• Sheets are used to make quires or with rollers to make scrolls -- these are then used for writing
• Quires can be bound into codices with bindings after they contain writing
• Dwarves read books in the library (they don't need to be scholars)
• Values can be passed in writing (both modes) and through adventure mode arguments (uses some conversation skills)
• Animal people are playable as adventurers, arrive as fort visitors and sometimes live in towns in (playable) populations
• Children play with toys now, and they can also play make believe, in both modes
• Personality can be customized/randomized in adventure mode, appearance can be randomized as well
• Temples can be defiled in both modes, dwarf temples can be assigned to particular gods
• Adventurer can rent rooms in inns
• Adventurers can compose new poems, music and dances
• Adventurers can write material down on empty quires or scrolls
• Alcohol causes inebriation, erratic behavior, unconsciousness, death
• Festivals occur in world generation, though we haven't gotten them out of there yet
• Dwarves will wear trinkets again

Major bug fixes

• Fixed some army pathing issues
• Goblins have mounts again
• Fixed long-standing flow bug with unit occupancy
• Stopped some issues with brawls escalating to non-lethal

Other bug fixes/tweaks

• Looking at reaction screen for redded-out reactions in workshop will indicate missing reagents now
• Fixed inversion problem with half of the child/parent conversation thoughts
• Lots of historical figures that weren't around from the beginning didn't have deities when they were supposed to
• Allowed site finder to look for 1x1 sites
• Human civilizations now have randomized values
• Added ability to set invasion wave cap size

[Dewar]

Wow, that's impressive. Might be time to dip in again.

[Mawd]

Aw man no! I don't need this, not now!

I was just getting over my sun sickness *whimper*

Also it must be a language quirk but I love how brawls escalate to 'non-lethal'

[eot]

It's been ages since I played and I was never any good at it.

Do you guys use a tileset or stick with ASCII?

[Mawd]

Usually a tileset like Phoebus, or Spacefox, But sometimes I'll do an ascii fort. I usually try to keep each fort with what I started but its hard to remember sometimes.

 

Btw I'm still finding it really hard to pierce aquifers even when causing cave ins, in frozen wastes. Last time I tried it was with an above ground wooden fort. Eventually I realised I needed some stone after all once a wave of dehydration left all but five dead and the tree count started getting low. I had some initial success over four different pits, getting 3 layers into the aquifer but eventually I lost all of my experienced miners and most of my supply of pickaxes to snap freezes as I got to the few layers that were still liquefied.

[Henroid]

That's more or less the update I've been waiting for. I know it isn't complete in going where it needs to, gameplay wise, but goddamn finally toys being used and taverns and yes.

[Dewar]

i mentioned this in the Rimworld thread, but I browsed over to the Dwarf Fortress website and saw this:

 

07/05/2016

Here are the first official 64-bit releases! This would not be possible without help from our community -- you can view the exciting and sometimes late-night discussion over in the 0.43.04 release thread if you want to see how the cake was baked. This release should also make worlds generated with the same seed more consistent, and it has a few other minor fixes we managed to sneak in.

 

New stuff
64-bit support, pulling the game from the distant past into the previous decade

 

Major bug fixes
Fixed problem with artistic skill assignment causing world histories to diverge
Fixed problem with worldgen trade causing world histories to diverge

 

Other bug fixes/tweaks
Stopped babies/children from competing in w.g. events
Made gorlaks able to open doors, stopped desizing of their heads
Fixed some mem leaks

 

Edit:

I also found out that Toady lives only about an hour from me, and there was a big ten year anniversary party at a gamer bar less than 10 miles away, but I missed hearing about it by a few weeks