Dwarf Fortress Strategies

[feather240]

So we're all familiar with Dwarf Fortress right? Fun little society building game with alcoholics. Here's an artists rendition.

I've already gone through the complete newbie tutorial, but I still suck at the game, and since the tutorial I used is outdated I still don't really understand how to create and order around a military, so any help would be well received. Building strategies would be nice too since I usually lose a few dwarfs too starvation, dehydration, or tantrums before I even have my crops growing, and it's starting to get to me. If you have any techniques you'd like to share then please post them.

If you're new to Dwarf Fortress or hate the graphics here's the tile set I use(This includes the full game, but you can move saves by following directions.)
http://mayday.w.staszic.waw.pl/df.php

and here's the newbie tutorial for basic help if you can't find it here.
http://afteractionreporter.com/dwarf-fortress-tutorials/

 

[Altorin]

it's hard to stay up to date with this game. I still play that newbie tutorial version, and it's COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the newest version.. plus once I get to about 60 dwarves, my game slows right down on this computer.

however, if you're following the tutorial and your dwarves are dying before you get food production, you're doing it wrong.

I've NEVER had a food problem in following that tutorial.

 

[Altorin]

If your dwarves are dying of starvation/dehydration when you have plenty of food and beer for them, then they've got themselves stuck in a wall somewhere.. Be careful when building walls that the dwarves don't build themselves into a corner.. If you're building a wall with a corner, make sure that you build the corner in last..

like...

if you can see that, o's are empty spaces, W's are walls.. build that last bottom corner last, because that way, the dwarf won't get stuck inside that pen... When done building a wall, a dwarf can't go diagonally, but he does go randomly in a direction he can, which can be right into the walled off area.

That's about all I learned.

edit: it was unreadable. I don't feel like making an image.. maybe I got through to you without the aide

 

[feather240]

it's hard to stay up to date with this game. I still play that newbie tutorial version, and it's COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the newest version.. plus once I get to about 60 dwarves, my game slows right down on this computer.

however, if you're following the tutorial and your dwarves are dying before you get food production, you're doing it wrong.

I've NEVER had a food problem in following that tutorial.

Weird, why didn't you ever upgrade too the new version?

 

[Altorin]

it's hard to stay up to date with this game. I still play that newbie tutorial version, and it's COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the newest version.. plus once I get to about 60 dwarves, my game slows right down on this computer.

however, if you're following the tutorial and your dwarves are dying before you get food production, you're doing it wrong.

I've NEVER had a food problem in following that tutorial.

Weird, why didn't you ever upgrade too the new version?

the controls are different, and even when I figured out how to change them, there were other things that were fundamentally different, such as squad and military controls, that I just said "fuck it, I'll do it live"

 

[feather240]

it's hard to stay up to date with this game. I still play that newbie tutorial version, and it's COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the newest version.. plus once I get to about 60 dwarves, my game slows right down on this computer.

however, if you're following the tutorial and your dwarves are dying before you get food production, you're doing it wrong.

I've NEVER had a food problem in following that tutorial.

More of a production problem then a logistics one, what should my ratio of dwarfs to crop squares be?

 

[Altorin]

*shrug*.. start with a 5x5 square, and stockpile, and when you get to 60 dwarves, increase it to 6x6, 70, 7x7, 80, 8x8...

I think your problem may be a lack of farmers.. or you may be cooking your plump helmets (or not growing plump helmets, although if you followed the tutorial you would be)..

Don't cook plump helmets, and make lots of beer out of them..

Really, Food has never been the issue with me

when you can trade, trade for plump helmets and plump helmet spawns.. If you don't cook the plump helmets (which destroys the plump's spawn), and you keep increasing your number of plump helmets and spawns in the fortress, and you have adequate farmers, then there's NO reason your dwarves should be starving.

If they are, then somehow they've gotten stuck somewhere.

 

[feather240]

*shrug*.. start with a 5x5 square, and stockpile, and when you get to 60 dwarves, increase it to 6x6, 70, 7x7, 80, 8x8...

I think your problem may be a lack of farmers.. or you may be cooking your plump helmets (or not growing plump helmets, although if you followed the tutorial you would be)..

Don't cook plump helmets, and make lots of beer out of them..

Really, Food has never been the issue with me

when you can trade, trade for plump helmets and plump helmet spawns.. If you don't cook the plump helmets (which destroys the plump's spawn), and you keep increasing your number of plump helmets and spawns in the fortress, and you have adequate farmers, then there's NO reason your dwarves should be starving.

If they are, then somehow they've gotten stuck somewhere.

Maybe it's just because I start the growing process too late, but there always seams too be a shortage, even though I told them too grow Plump Helmets all year.

 

[Altorin]

I really think that it sounds like you just don't have enough people farming, or your haulers are too busy to move spawns into the proper place

but even that shouldn't matter too much because the farmers will find those spawns whereever they are.. It's just faster if they're collected from the dining room/still

 

[feather240]

I really think that it sounds like you just don't have enough people farming, or your haulers are too busy to move spawns into the proper place

but even that shouldn't matter too much because the farmers will find those spawns whereever they are.. It's just faster if they're collected from the dining room/still

I give my farmers the labor preference to farm, but it feels like they only hang out in the dining room.

 

[SilentKnightV]

Farming is the first thing you should do, but its more of a pain now because you have to flood rooms and the like, that should be your priority get a space to farm, and while your doing that with you miners your carpenters/masons should be making beds and barrels and other stuff, and your farmers and others should be hauling/chopping wood etc. once your miners are all set with the farm area and its plantable remove all other labors besides planting fields/brewing/cooking from your farmers they should pay attention, once the first harvest comes in start brewing right away, your food and alcohol needs should be taken care of so you can focus on other things like wells and bridges and looking for platinum!

 

[Internet Kraken]

First, tilesets do not improve Dwarf Fortress. This is a common misconception I find among new players. They think a tileset will make it easier to learn the game. I don't think this is true. Dwarf Fortress isn't hard to learn because it has primitive graphics. It's because it is a bloated, unoptimized, glitchy game. Tilesets don't change that, and I would argue that they make it worse since they add a lot of unnecessary detail to the game. Mayday's is one the worst, in my opinion.

But enough sperging about tilesets. My first piece of advice would be to join the DF forums [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php#c3] and ask questions there. Everyone there knows how frustrating it is to try and play DF, so they are very friendly towards lost and confused newbies. Even the most basic questions will get a helpful response (usually). Players can fill in gaps that tutorials inevitably fail to cover, so I'd say it's much easier to learn and enjoy the game when you post on those forums.

Other than that, I would recommend starting off slow. Try and learn about one thing at a time. You don't need to know about everything at once, and trying to do so will just confuse you (I still don't get how pumps work). Instead, just focus on learning one aspect of the game and then move onto the next. Your first few forts will inevitably collapse in the long term because of this, but that's going to happen anyways.

But it's so pretty.

I really don't think it is. Aside from the use of 3D visualizer addons, you can't make DF look visually appealing simply due to the type of game it is. You can, however, make it appealing from a game design standpoint. Most Tilesets, particularly Mayday's, don't do this. They just attempt to make the game look nicer, which is pretty futile. In the process they make it less appealing from a game design standpoint as every object suddenly has needless detial. The best example I can think of is one of the most common items; stones. In vanillla DF, stones are just little dots. They don't look cluttered and distracting, and are simply and easy to identify. In Mayday, every stone is this detailed boulder that is distracting due to the excessive amount of detail. In the end it doesn't make it any easier to identify the stone, and could make it harder.

But again, this is just my opinnion. It's not like I think they are ruining the game. Feel free to use them if you really want to. I just don't like it when new players get the false impression that they need to use tilesets to understand DF, or that it will be easier to learn it with tilesets.

 

[feather240]

Farming is the first thing you should do, but its more of a pain now because you have to flood rooms and the like, that should be your priority get a space to farm, and while your doing that with you miners your carpenters/masons should be making beds and barrels and other stuff, and your farmers and others should be hauling/chopping wood etc. once your miners are all set with the farm area and its plantable remove all other labors besides planting fields/brewing/cooking from your farmers they should pay attention, once the first harvest comes in start brewing right away, your food and alcohol needs should be taken care of so you can focus on other things like wells and bridges and looking for platinum!

Okay, I'm trying that now. I'm working on rushing the farm this time compared too the usual style.

First, tilesets do not improve Dwarf Fortress. This is a common misconception I find among new players. They think a tileset will make it easier to learn the game. I don't think this is true. Dwarf Fortress isn't hard to learn because it has primitive graphics. It's because it is a bloated, unoptimized, glitchy game. Tilesets don't change that, and I would argue that they make it worse since they add a lot of unnecessary detail to the game. Mayday's is one the worst, in my opinion.

But it's so pretty.

But enough sperging about tilesets. My first piece of advice would be to join the DF forums [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php#c3] and ask questions there. Everyone there knows how frustrating it is to try and play DF, so they are very friendly towards lost and confused newbies. Even the most basic questions will get a helpful response (usually). Players can fill in gaps that tutorials inevitably fail to cover, so I'd say it's much easier to learn and enjoy the game when you post on those forums.

Other than that, I would recommend starting off slow. Try and learn about one thing at a time. You don't need to know about everything at once, and trying to do so will just confuse you (I still don't get how pumps work). Instead, just focus on learning one aspect of the game and then move onto the next. Your first few forts will inevitably collapse in the long term because of this, but that's going to happen anyways.

Join the official forums and start slow, got it.

 

[Tallim]

I am a long time DF player and learning the game is hard, especially if you try to do everything at once.

I agree with the above that a tileset isn't the way to go but equally the default font is horrid. I use herrbdogs square rounded font to make things a bit clearer without loosing the general look.

Make yourself a series of "learning" games. Start a fort and tell yourself that the only thing you are concerned with in that fort is the basic survival structure. So you will mainly be getting farms up and running, booze production, and living areas. Without these then your fortress will degrade quickly into an unhappy quagmire.

Then once you get the basic infrastructure working (which in itself takes experience and practice) Start running games where you concentrate on other things. You should then be able to quickly get food/booze going from your experience with the early forts.

Immigrants should be assigned jobs you need as the fort grows. You will require dedicated dwarves who only do one job. Especially Haulers as stuff mounts up fast.

Don't make a stone stockpile, it is pointless unless you are trying to force someone to make an item using specific stone.

And as mentioned, join the forum. It is a very friendly place full of people who have had to go through the same learning process and even the simplest question should get an answer, even if that answer involves magma (which it often does)

Stick with it! I have played DF for years and probably more than any other game.

 

[Wolvaroo]

Creating an irrigation system should be your top priority after dissisembling your wagon. I prefer tunneling in to a river or stream and setting up a measured floadgate system romotely operated with levers (be sure to set up and test the floodgates BEFORE tunneling the last square into the water). I always overdo my irrigation system and fields as to avoid trying to squeeze in larger crops when it's too late. Also you only need to grow Plump Helmets.

Above posters are correct to focus on learning a single thing per playthrough. I remeber a hilarious incident where I was trying to set up some water-wheel generators for hours and could not for the life of me get them to spin. Then I loaded up stonesense and noticed I built them above the water. DOH! I find stonesense really helps me get a feel for depth and always keep it open on my second monitor.

Just remember: When all else fails, flood the antechamber with magma.

EDIT: Also if I remeber correctly plain old stone mechinisms are easy as hell to make and they trade very nicely. Build lots extra to trade early on before you have access to better goods production. They are quite large and heavy so the trade caravans will only accept a handful though.

 

[Spacewolf]

if the game wants you dead you will die thats my advice and if youve got the most recent version be careful with your military i ordered my well trained soldiers to fight a small ambush of orcs they promptly dropped all their armour/weapons and ran outside then stood about for abit before getting shot to death

 

[Tallim]

If you are playing the newer versions a high skill Herbalist on embark can keep the fortress going for ages while you get other stuff done. Plus the variety in booze keeps dwarves much happier.

I just hope you aren't playing the legacy versions when Carp were the terror of the fisherdwarf, or any dwarf for that matter.

As Walvaroo says, always check floodgate systems before letting water anywhere near them. This is twice as important for magma.

The dwarf fortress wiki is incredibly useful too.

 

[Dana22]

This game needs proper graphics engine, control input method and UI to reach to the masses like Minecraft did.

 

[Mr Thin]

First, tilesets do not improve Dwarf Fortress. This is a common misconception I find among new players. They think a tileset will make it easier to learn the game. I don't think this is true. Dwarf Fortress isn't hard to learn because it has primitive graphics. It's because it is a bloated, unoptimized, glitchy game. Tilesets don't change that, and I would argue that they make it worse since they add a lot of unnecessary detail to the game. Mayday's is one the worst, in my opinion.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you there.

Dwarf Fortress is indeed a (wonderful) bloated glitch-fest, but tile-sets do make a difference. The game doesn't just look bad; it looks ****ing HORRIBLE. All ASCII graphics is an ambitious undertaking, but it wasn't one I was prepared to put my eyes through in order to enjoy the game.

Then I found out about tile-sets, started using Mayday's one, and the game became much more enjoyable.

 

[boholikeu]

I'm still of the mind that a game should be playable without having to "study up" on the menu system beforehand. When the developer (or a modder) finally releases a UI revision I'll check the game out again.