Let's Play Dwarf Fortress: Syndrome Conundrum

[Smiles]

The fortress is still incredibly unstable, but now that the goblins are gone I managed to get some control over it. A limited amount of work is now underway with the single goal of boosting the defenses of Reveredtour. However, after several days I still had not seen Stinthad, so I went looking for her. She was in her room, stuffing a few things into a bag with a gloomy look on her face.

Goden: "Stinthad, what are you doing? You need to get back to work."
Stinthad: "I don't think so..."
Goden: "And why is that?"
Stinthad: "I've decided that it would just be best for me to...leave."
Goden: "What?"
Stinthad: "I fucked everything up! I couldn't do anything right! Everyone who died here died because of me! Reveredtour would be better in your hands. I can't stay here knowing that I ruined so many lives..."
Goden: "You're serious?"
Stinthad: "After Momuz went insane...I just can't stand this anymore. Yes, I'm serious. I should have listened to everyone when they said I would fail in the first place. You were right; I'm not cut out for this."
Goden: "Look...I know things have been horrible here lately. But this is something you can overcome. At first you were a downright awful leader, but you've...improved."
Stinthad: "Improved? Everyone is dying! How is that an improvement?!?"
Goden: "Well if your management skills were the same as they were when we first came here everyone would already be dead. But you made decisions that have saved Reveredtour. And I'd be lying if I said every decision I made was perfect. So while I can't say you've done everything right, nobody has. Overall I'd say your still capable of saving Reveredtour, if you try."
Stinthad: "I didn't think you had any confidence in me..."
Goden: "I didn't, at least not until recently. But I came to a realization; if we work together, we can save this fort. You can be foolish at times, but so can I. If we both truly cooperate, we can accomplish things we wouldn't have been able to do alone."
Stinthad: "You really mean that?"
Goden: "Yes, I do."
Stinthad: "Well...how many dwarves are in the hospital?"
Goden: "A lot."
Stinthad: "I...I guess I better go help them."
Goden: "Good. You do that."
Stinthad: "Goden, thank you so much! You're a true friend!"

Read that while this plays:
Epic or what?

Most of the soldiers recognized my choices as being proper and logical, but a few wondered why Cowabunga was leading the Steamy Tours when he is missing an arm. While that is definitely an issue, it doesn't change the fact that he still has the most fighting experience out of all the Steamy Tours.

Aaaaawesooooome! Now make him pick up a 2-handed axe and he'll be just as awesome as Rom of the Bronzebeards. Without the heroic sacrifice, thank you very much. I prefer to stay alive.

oh man that was so inspirational.

hey I love your LP so far, it is awesome and perhaps one day I will try dwarf fortress because of it.

May I be dwarfified?

also thank you for the link to boatmurdered that was hilarious, and gave me an awesome idea for a character in pathfinder...

actually I like some of your characters too...

 

[chaosfact]

Has a reason ever been given why you can't just put water in a bucket, and then pour that on the ground?

 

[Internet Kraken]

Has a reason ever been given why you can't just put water in a bucket, and then pour that on the ground?

Because this is Dwarf Fortress and a lot of simple and logical things are not in the game. On the list of things Toady and Threetoe want to do, improving how liquids are handled is probably pretty low on it. I imagine a feature like that won't get in for a long time, probably not until water is not the only liquid in the game. Currently other liquids such as booze and blood can only manifest as splotches and splatters, which is why you can't make a moat of alcohol.

Really though, I wouldn't even bother with irrigation farming. Just use the caverns and never have to bother with it.

 

[boholikeu]

Somehow I... don't think that's the best reason not to optimize your game's UI... =)

Probably the same reason Notch isn't adding a tutorial to Minecraft either.

Minecraft's a bit different though. While it could use a tutorial, it's interface is much better and the game is playable once you understand a few basics.

The "basics" in DF are a lot less intuitive, and even if you know what you want to do you are hampered by the horrible organization of the menu system.

See this is one of the things that makes you realize how much the development of Dwarf Fortress differs from other games. It's not something being made by Toady to get him his own foothold in the industry, like Notch and Minecraft. This is his pet project, something he would be making regardless of if it gave him a profit. Which means he does whatever he wants with the game at the moment rather than what would attract more people to it, like improving the horrible interface.

Surely he wants to share this game with other people, or he would never have released it to the public.

Anyway, I realize it's his game, and he can do what he wants with it, but that's not going to stop me about complaining about the UI. It's like if someone wrote a brilliant book in their own (horrible) handwriting, and then refused to type it out until they were completely done (even though the story is already amazing).

 

[Internet Kraken]

Surely he wants to share this game with other people, or he would never have released it to the public.

Of course he does, but overall him and Threetoe focus more on implementing new ideas and improving old ones than making the game user friendly. Any company selling a video game would have to put user friendliness as a high priority, but because Toady does not seek a profit with Dwarf Fortress he tends to push it aside in favor of adding the things he really wants to the game. I'm not saying this is neccesairly a good thing, but rather an explanation for it.

Frankly if you want to complain about the UI I'm going to be right there with you since it's god awful and as a result applications like Dwarf Therapist are needed to make the game playable.It just won't do any good at the moment. It's one the things I hate about Dwarf Fortress, but the rest of the games brilliance is what makes it worth overcoming the bloated interface.

 

[max w. antilles]

I'd loved to be dwarfed
awesome Let's play!
I'm playing DF for a while now and it's nice to see i'm not the only one who get's frustrated sometimes

 

[Pukako]

Hi. Awesome thread, but you haven't killed enough dwarves yet...

It's BECAUSE it's complicated and non-intuitive that we love the game - there's always a new way to do something, a more complicated method, a more stupidly inane but dwarfy system that might or might not work. Remember, we do these things not because they are simple, but because they are hard...

I can't think of any other games, including expensive bought ones, that still occupy me 8 months after I got it and I'm still learning, and it lets me tell stories to guys at work who don't even play it.

Anyway, dworf me if you can - Pukako, slacker of any type, but please make him a male dwarf.

 

[Internet Kraken]

I'm playing DF for a while now and it's nice to see i'm not the only one who get's frustrated sometimes

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to play Dwarf Fortress without getting frustrated at one point, if not on a regular basis. It can be a very cruel and confusing game, but of course that makes your victories much more satisfying.

 

[Aidinthel]

Husband of the militia commander. And they said I'd never amount to anything.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Alright, I've compiled all the users who have asked to be dwarfed into a list. If your name isn't on here and you asked earlier, then I'm an idiot and just missed it. Dwarves will obviously enter in the order they appear on the list. Stuck out ones are dwarves that have already arrived and been named.

SamuelIT = SamuelIT
Woots7 = Woots
Chal = Chal
The Root of All Evil = Root of All Evil
SnippyWings = Rowan
Furioso = Furioso
Volstag9 = Volstag9
OhJohnNo = Johnno
Vallorn = Vallorn (Soldier/Mechanic)
TundraWolf = Wolfe
Aidinthehel = Aidinthehel
Rembrandtqeinstein = Rembrand (Full name doesn't fit)
MrShowerHead = MrShowerHead
Engarde = Engarde
Toasty Virus = Toasty Virus
Silent Thunder = Silent Thunder
Houi = Houi (Soldier)
RandomID = RandomID
Cowabunga = Cowabunga
Shimmyshake = Shimmyshake
Ynotgriff = Ynotgriff
TolyK = TolyK (mechanic)
MonkeyHead = MonkeyHead
Lord Shonus = Lord Shonus
Musashi = Musashi (Female)
Mr. Argent = Mr. Argent (Male)
Canalan = Canalan (Marksdwarf, mechanic)
Jacob/Lee = Jacob/Lee (Sworddwarf)
ElthMysterius = Elth (Male)
PurpleLemur = PurpleLemur
Zenkem = Zenkem (Soldier)
Lost in the Void = Lost in the Void
Jackknife402 = Jackknife
Blackadder51 = Blackadder
Double A = Double A
ChaoticKraus = ChaoticKraus
JouleZeath = Zeath
Rabid Toilet = Rabid
Scotth266 = Scotth266
Irridium = Irridium
Hazabaza1 = Haza
ColeusRattus = ColeusRattus
Sixcess = Sixcess
Da-MoA = Da-MoA
Max W. Antilles = Max W. (full name doesn't fit)
Smiles = Smiles
Pukako = Pukako (Male)

 

[Lost In The Void]

Husband of the militia commander. And they said I'd never amount to anything.

That's right bathe in the victories of your wife, that way you don't have to do anything ^^

 

[SamuelT]

Didn't my Dwarf got shot at with bolts? Is he/she (Am confused on gender now. Of the dorf, that is.) still alive?

 

[Internet Kraken]

Didn't my Dwarf got shot at with bolts? Is he/she (Am confused on gender now. Of the dorf, that is.) still alive?

Your dwarf is a she, and yes she is still alive. Like I said earlier I mention every single dwarf death. Your dwarf is still in the hospital, but her injuries aren't bad and she should be fine. The same can't be said about your siblings though. Though they're fine physically, mentally they're...well you saw what Avuz did last update. Let's just say it got even worse.

 

[Aidinthel]

That's right bathe in the victories of your wife, that way you don't have to do anything ^^

Well it isn't like I'd do anything anyway, but now I get to feel good about it.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Chapter 62: From the journal of Stinthad Kekimtobul

__________________________________________________

25th Limestone, 1055, Early Autumn

Alright, time to get this fort back on the right track! A lot of problems still exist, but most of them can be solved with what we already have here. Right now we need to focus on defense and efficiency. So it's time that I address one problem that has existed in Reveredtour for far to long.

Our crop industry simply doesn't have a large enough output, and as a result our booze supplies are always uncomfortably low. Up until now I'd been taking the quality over quantity approach to farming; have a handful of skilled dwarves tend the fields, as they can yield just as big a harvest as a bunch of novice farmers. What I didn't take into account was the impact a farmer dying has on production in this method. So I'm to reassign a bunch of dwarves to tend the fields to make up for the lack of skilled farmers.

1st Sandstone, 1055, Mid-Autumn

I've decided to the issue of Avuz murdering two dwarves isn't one we can simply ignore. Now under dwarven law we can't actually throw him in jail, which is actually good since I don't want to. See I honestly believe this was just a tragic mistake on Avuz's part, and that maybe if I talked to him about it we could prevent it from being an issue in the future. So I'm about to have a little chat with him in my office.

Stinthad: " Avuz...you do realize why we're talking right?"
Avuz: "No!"
Stinthad: "You killed two dwarves."
Avuz: "Oh, so what?"
Stinthad: "That's horrible! How can you not see the problem with this?!?"
Avuz: "Well they were mean to me! It's not fair! Why should they be alive when mom died? She didn't do anything, and now she's...gone."
Stinthad: "I understand that its horrible to have lost your mother to tragedy, but you can't just take your anger out on other dwarves. Especially when that involves killing them."
Avuz: "I didn't mean to kill them! I only hit them once!"
Stinthad: "Hitting patients even once tends to have really bad results."
Avuz: "I'm sorry...it's just that I get so angry sometimes. Then the voices in my head tell me that being angry is good, and that I should do bad things. Mom told me not to but-"
Stinthad: "Um...voices in your head?"
Avuz: "Yeah! Ever since that rock fell on me in Goden's office these voices are always trying to talk to me. I don't mind since they're really friendly, but sometimes they tell me to do things that seem wrong. I'll try and ignore those from now on though. Hold on, I think they want to talk to me right now. Bye Stinthad!"
Stinthad: "Wait! What are you talking about?!? What voices??!"

But he didn't listen and went off down into the deep roads. My medical training doesn't really cover this kind of insanity though so I'm not sure what I could have done anyways. Hopefully he really will stop being angry, but in light of his psychological issues that's probably not likely.

3rd Sandstone, 1055, Mid-Autumn

So I've been thinking about new ways we could defend Reveredtour beyond the military. Given what we have to work with its difficult to do so, but I think- wait, what's that noise?

Avuz: "STOP INSULTING MY MOM!!!"
Stukos: "What? Kid, I didn't say anything about your mom. Now go away, you're? OH GOD GET HIM OFF ME!!!"

Stinthad: "AVUZ WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!"
Avuz: "Oh...did I kill this one too?"
Stinthad: "YES!"
Avuz: "...I'm sorry."

I just...I mean...what the heck am I supposed to do about him?!?! He's killed 3 dwarves and doesn't show any sign of stopping! I can't just let him run around punching people! I need to come up with an idea to deal with him that wouldn't be illegal, before he "accidentally" kills another dwarf.

8th Sandstone, 1055, Mid-Autumn

So fortune would have it that our problem with Avuz solved itself. See, Avuz was sitting in one of the empty breeding chambers brooding. He just so happened to be doing this when I initiated a new policy regarding empty breeding chambers. All breeding chambers that are not in use must be locked to prevent...um...dust from getting in. And since Avuz just so happened to be in one at the moment this policy came into effect, he's now trapped inside.

Some might unfairly compare this to prison, however this is a completely legal action and his confinement in there is just a fortunate coincidence.

It's a good thing to. Who knows how Avuz would have reacted if he found out that his sister Ral is...not well. In fact she seems to have gone insane with grief.

Poor little girl. At least she didn't take her frustration out on my patients though.

To make matters worse, we seem to have a krueler problem down in the deep roads.

A deadly one. The military has been dispatched to clean them out.

10th Sandstone, 1055, Mid-Autumn

I had a horrifying dream last night. I'm not sure what the heck caused it but it was the worst one I've had in a long time. I was in some strange room alone. All the walls were glowing blue, and you could hear weird sounds coming from below. It was really creepy, but then it got worse. The ground split open, purple mist spewed forth, and then this horrible creature stepped out! It was the worst thing I'd ever seen! I didn't know what to do, so I just started punching it! I kept punching it but it didn't even seem to care. It just let out this really creepy laugh, and I knew I was about to die!

But then I woke up.

I...I don't know what it was about. I really don't want to. I'm just going to assume it was some random dream induced by drinking too much wine. Though it wasn't completely a dream. It seems I was sleepwalking to, and I actually started beating something up in my sleep thinking it was that horrible monster. Rather, it was poor Lorbam!

I feel so bad about beating him up. He was so confused about the whole thing, and had he not spent so much time protecting me he probably would've just crushed my head. I wish I knew how to preform medical treatment on an earth golem. Though he's tough, so I suppose he should be fine without it.

14th Sandstone, 1055, Mid-Autumn

So...I just found out something horrible. Apparently Thob was looking for new areas to fish down in the caverns when she ran into a...voracious cave crawler. And the results of this encounter were...tragic.

Thob is dead...all of my old friends are dying. First Dishmab, then Zuntir, then Momuz, and now Thob. The only founders left are me, Goden, and Ushrir. I...I can't let this stop me though. Not now. I have to work to save this fortress in their memory. I can't get consumed with grief. Then I'll have failed everyone for sure.

Okay, focus Stinthad. I should probably see how the soldiers are doing against the Kruelers.

...dammit, why is everything failing again!?! Stop dying!

__________________________________________________

God damn this update was a trainwreck. It's hard to write a proper narrative when you have to manage a crumbling fortress.

 

[Smiles]

I liked Thob the fisher dwarf.... :'(

 

[Double A]

God damn this update was a trainwreck. It's hard to write a proper narrative when you have to manage a crumbling fortress.

You could always ask Starkravingmad for help.

 

[Rabid Toilet]

If Avuz ever manages to reach adulthood, you need to put him in the military.

Kid's a beast.

 

[Silent_Thunder]

Now did you ever get a soap industry working? Or are we about to lose a whole mess of dwarves to infections in the next few updates?

 

[Blackadder51]

If Avuz ever manages to reach adulthood, you need to put him in the military.

Kid's a beast.

heh, I agree. No remorse ether