Yeah, I come bearing the news of that obscure game Dwarf Fortress I'm sure nobody has heard of. By which I mean, it should be a well known thing.
Because I find this poster funny
So, what's my history with the game - I tried it out about five years ago. Erm, the controls were a lot and the manual was big, so I decided to leave it for later. So aside from the occasional "I should try playing DF again" thought, I actually finally picked it up last week once more. I decided to go with adventure mode, because, why not? Also, it was probably going to be easier than starting Fort mode.
And holy fuck, it the game awesome. I was lazy, so I just followed the quickstart guide from the wiki in order to go and start playing now. Notable, the guide mentions "Select Demigod as your status. Even as a demigod you will probably die anyway." and I have to say probably? Fuck that, I lost, like a dozen characters already. But it's all good. First character drowned when I tried to cross a river[footnote]sadly, there was nobody to save him. Though, there weren't dogs and other stuff in the water for the stranger to choose between[/footnote], second one was eaten by bogeymen when the only thing I knew of combat was A for attack (apparently, being surrounded is not good). Third one fell into a hole, then one got his brains bashed out by bandits. And so on.
Some of the ones I liked more: the first character I thought I was doing something useful with - instead of blindly going after the first quest available, I decided to go get some henchmen and to help me out - got the maximum (3) and then went hunting in the woods to get some meat to sell as well as train. And so I did - found some dingos and chopped them up good. But before I headed to the shops, I decided to check that thing on the map I had not yet seen - see, forts are white circles, but this was a black zero. Weird, what could it be. So there were some buildings - I successfully opened the door to one and entered. Jackpot! Some sweet items and armour lying around. Let's see what's there furthe-HOLY FUCKING SHIT A MUMMY. Yeah. And not a nice mummy. It resurrected the skins of all dingos I was carrying and they attacked me. Then the mummy carved up my companions, resurrected them, too, finally, turned it's attention to me - chopped off my two hands, resurrected them too (as if there wasn't enough things attacking me) and I finally bled to death trying to escape. So maybe raiding random tombs wasn't the smart decision. Huh, who knew.
With my last character I decided to finally try doing it proper proper - none of the others lived for more than an hour (IRL), so this one was going to, dammit. I went and started swimming in the river to level up swim, as well as Endurance. Did that until I got Swim to just below Legendary (easy if you're watching some videos in the mean time) but I ran out of food, so I went hunting in the forest. Found an elephant, which I mercilessly killed, then butchered and took his meat and bones etc for selling. Now, the problem was that due to my speed was quite low - 99 (from 1300) and night was approaching. No worries - there was a fort just midway to town - I just needed to sleep there and continue on in the morning. I reached the fort as night fell and as I was trying to locate the entrance FUCKING BOGEYMEN ATTACK. And with my low speed, they just murderised me quickly. Literally, like, two metres away from the fortress.
My current character lived for MORE THAN AN HOUR, WOOT! Finally. Well, he hasn't been exposing himself to danger as much but still.
So, that's the experience of a newb with Dwarf Fortress - just share any more stories from any mode you wish. Because - fun!
Because I find this poster funny
So, what's my history with the game - I tried it out about five years ago. Erm, the controls were a lot and the manual was big, so I decided to leave it for later. So aside from the occasional "I should try playing DF again" thought, I actually finally picked it up last week once more. I decided to go with adventure mode, because, why not? Also, it was probably going to be easier than starting Fort mode.
And holy fuck, it the game awesome. I was lazy, so I just followed the quickstart guide from the wiki in order to go and start playing now. Notable, the guide mentions "Select Demigod as your status. Even as a demigod you will probably die anyway." and I have to say probably? Fuck that, I lost, like a dozen characters already. But it's all good. First character drowned when I tried to cross a river[footnote]sadly, there was nobody to save him. Though, there weren't dogs and other stuff in the water for the stranger to choose between[/footnote], second one was eaten by bogeymen when the only thing I knew of combat was A for attack (apparently, being surrounded is not good). Third one fell into a hole, then one got his brains bashed out by bandits. And so on.
Some of the ones I liked more: the first character I thought I was doing something useful with - instead of blindly going after the first quest available, I decided to go get some henchmen and to help me out - got the maximum (3) and then went hunting in the woods to get some meat to sell as well as train. And so I did - found some dingos and chopped them up good. But before I headed to the shops, I decided to check that thing on the map I had not yet seen - see, forts are white circles, but this was a black zero. Weird, what could it be. So there were some buildings - I successfully opened the door to one and entered. Jackpot! Some sweet items and armour lying around. Let's see what's there furthe-HOLY FUCKING SHIT A MUMMY. Yeah. And not a nice mummy. It resurrected the skins of all dingos I was carrying and they attacked me. Then the mummy carved up my companions, resurrected them, too, finally, turned it's attention to me - chopped off my two hands, resurrected them too (as if there wasn't enough things attacking me) and I finally bled to death trying to escape. So maybe raiding random tombs wasn't the smart decision. Huh, who knew.
With my last character I decided to finally try doing it proper proper - none of the others lived for more than an hour (IRL), so this one was going to, dammit. I went and started swimming in the river to level up swim, as well as Endurance. Did that until I got Swim to just below Legendary (easy if you're watching some videos in the mean time) but I ran out of food, so I went hunting in the forest. Found an elephant, which I mercilessly killed, then butchered and took his meat and bones etc for selling. Now, the problem was that due to my speed was quite low - 99 (from 1300) and night was approaching. No worries - there was a fort just midway to town - I just needed to sleep there and continue on in the morning. I reached the fort as night fell and as I was trying to locate the entrance FUCKING BOGEYMEN ATTACK. And with my low speed, they just murderised me quickly. Literally, like, two metres away from the fortress.
My current character lived for MORE THAN AN HOUR, WOOT! Finally. Well, he hasn't been exposing himself to danger as much but still.
So, that's the experience of a newb with Dwarf Fortress - just share any more stories from any mode you wish. Because - fun!