Let's Play Dwarf Fortress: Syndrome Conundrum

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StrangeAeon

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Sep 15, 2010
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Finally got caught up on reading! I can't wait for the inevitable attempts to catch and tame giant lions. After all, they're the divine mortal enemies of giant worms.

If you're still taking names, I'd also loved to be dwarfed.
 

Internet Kraken

Animalia Mollusca Cephalopada
Mar 18, 2009
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Chapter 120: From the journal of Stinthad Kekimtobul

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10th Opal, 1060, Mid-Winter



So Liaison Stillwinds finally got around to meeting with me. Not sure what was keeping her so long. Maybe she was having a discussion with the human Law-giver about something.



It was the standard fare. She said I was doing well, had a nice fort, should stop getting some many people killed, yadda yadda yadda. Then we got around to setting trade agreements. I decided to request a lot of metals again. Can't hurt to get more of it, right?



She told me that the capital is in desperate need of splints for some reason. Maybe the war isn't going very well. It's hard to figure out exactly what is going on back there.



So the meeting went very well. I don't think the capital is aware of how badly the goblins are screwing us over on a regular basis, and I see no reason to tell them. All that would do is make people stop coming to Reveredtour, and that would be terrible! We need more migrants. In fact, I've been working on a travel brochure to encourage people back in the capital to move here. Unfortunately I can't draw well, and neither can anyone else in this fort. Lost in the Void is the only one with good art skills, but he keeps insisting on drawing an "accurate representation of Reveredtour". This means every picture has at least one corpse in it.

13th Opal, 1060, Mid-Winter



I really don't get why the human Law-giver keeps showing up when all she does is complement the fort and then leave. I mean, it's nice that she says these things but it just doesn't seem worth the trip. She could send a letter or something. Then I wouldn't have to worry about her getting killed by goblins or monsters.

Anyways, I've been working on figuring out pumps some more and...uh...



...yeah I have no clue what I was supposed to be accomplishing here. I think I read the directions wrong.

17th Opal, 1060, Mid-Winter

Today is a proud day for Reveredtour. After a great amount of work, it is finally complete. Our beautiful tunnel tube road is officially finished!



I'm so happy; this is finally starting to feel like a proper fort. The road stretches all the way from the fort to the edge of our territory. Now the merchants have a proper road to follow rather than just randomly wander through the wasteland. And it isn't completely covered in blood and grime. I figured as soon as it was finished the military was going to kill an elephant on top of it or something.

Oh yes, I talked to Silent Thunder about the death of Archont. It wasn't really her fault. She assumed that Smiles had remembered to feed all the patients. I'm not going to harp on Smiles too much for this since I think she's learned her lesson. The official word I gave to the rest of the fort is that Archont passed away due to illness. No point in telling them what really happened, we have enough trouble getting people to get medical treatment as is.

21st Opal, 1060, Mid-Winter



Hooray! We finally got some more migrants! I was beginning to worry that people we're taking those silly rumor about Reveredtour being an inhospitable hell hole seriously. That's just ridiculous. Reveredtour is a duchy; it deserves more credit than that.



Average sized group, so we should be able to find a job for all them rather quickly. There are a lot of openings in the military. These migrants aren't Reveredtour's only new residents though.



Commander Root came back from the crypt carrying a new baby girl in her hands. Apparently she gave birth down there. While fighting zombie trogs.



Little Rhian is a perfectly healthy baby girl though, so I suppose it doesn't matter where she was born.

28th Opal, 1060, Mid-Winter

So pretty much all of the migrants had no useful skills whatsoever. That's okay, honestly I was expecting that. Luckily for them, everybody is useful when they're conscripted!



They're all going to be soldiers. We need to fill in the gaps of our military. Sure they have no combat skills whatsoever, but I'm sure Commanders Root and Gonzo20 can whip them into shape. The only exception to this is Lupus Amens.



He gets to be a healer, as he actually has some developed medical skills. He says he was a respected doctor back in the capital, but figured he could put his skills to better use here. He's certainly right about that. He's our new chief medical dwarf. Silent Thunder is perfectly willingly to step down from that position, as she knows his skills exceed hers.

__________________________________________________


Finally got some more migrants, which means the military finally got some new cannon fodder. Most of you are probably going to get killed but if even one of you becomes a decent soldier it will have been worth it. It's not like I need migrants for anything else right now.
 

Aidinthel

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Apr 3, 2010
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The Chief Medical Dwarf is "quite susceptible to disease". Yeah that sounds about right.
 

Scizophrenic Llama

Is in space!
Dec 5, 2007
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Aidinthel said:
The Chief Medical Dwarf is "quite susceptible to disease". Yeah that sounds about right.
Poor analytic skills is what stuck out to me. Seems like it'd be hard to determine what is wrong with somebody if you can't properly analyze.
 

scotth266

Wait when did I get a sub
Jan 10, 2009
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You know what, whenever I get around to seriously trying to play Dwarf Fortress, I'm going to draft only men into the military. Not that the female dwarfs can't fight: it's just that the whole "dragging children into deathmatches with local fauna" thing kind of weirds me out a bit.
 

repeating integers

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Mar 17, 2010
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scotth266 said:
You know what, whenever I get around to seriously trying to play Dwarf Fortress, I'm going to draft only men into the military. Not that the female dwarfs can't fight: it's just that the whole "dragging children into deathmatches with local fauna" thing kind of weirds me out a bit.
But don't you know that babies make the BEST shields?
 

AlexiVolkov

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Mar 30, 2011
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Root is kinda terrifying... I'm almost afraid of being dwarfed now, god only knows what she would do to poor volkov.
 

Internet Kraken

Animalia Mollusca Cephalopada
Mar 18, 2009
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EverythingIncredible said:
So, let me get this straight.

We make this really complex game. So complex that it defies modern conventions.

But we don't even lift a finger to help the player, you know, EXPLAIN how to play the game.

This is why we don't have complex games anymore. Because the people who make complex games don't even bother to teach the player how to play it.
There's actually a developed guide ingame teaching you what to do. The problem is that it's incredibly shallow compared to the depth of the game and the nature of Dwarf Fortress makes it kind of useless. Considering it's a free game made being mad by two dedicated guys, I don't expect them to be making it easier for people. It'd certainly give the game for more appeal but Toady and his brother wouldn't enjoy doing it, and I can't say I blame them. Dwarf Fortress is more of a pet project than a game. Toady is developing it primarily for his own satisfaction.
 
Feb 13, 2008
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EverythingIncredible said:
But we don't even lift a finger to help the player, you know, EXPLAIN how to play the game.
Like Minecraft, Amnesia, The Path, Machinarium, Terraria, Sam and Max, Sword of the Stars...

The reason we don't have complex games anymore is that people are unwilling to put the time in to learn them. They just want instant killstreaks.

Dwarf Fortress doesn't do that. It doesn't even let you win.

AlexiVolkov said:
Root is kinda terrifying... I'm almost afraid of being dwarfed now, god only knows what she would do to poor volkov.
Feel sorry for poor @Aidinthel: He married her. :)
 
Feb 13, 2008
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EverythingIncredible said:
Then maybe they could have even sold the game and made a living.
They don't particularly want to sell the game, and they make quite a good living off the many Dwarf Fortress fans that send in donations. Their living costs are reasonably low.

I know this is quite hard to believe, but they're just doing it because they like doing it, not to make any money off of it.

...that's not "wrong", is it?
 

Internet Kraken

Animalia Mollusca Cephalopada
Mar 18, 2009
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EverythingIncredible said:
So the solution is to make it even harder to learn?

The very least they could do was to at least help players get their foot in the door with an interactive tutorial.

Then maybe they could have even sold the game and made a living.
The problem is your thinking of Dwarf Fortress as a marketable game like Minecraft. It's not. It's a Toady's pet project before anything else, and therefore he does what he wants with it. He takes the communities opinion into account because they give him good ideas, but he is primarily doing this for his own satisfaction.

Toady actually could have sold the game and made a living off it. At least one major company has approached him with marketing deals, but he declined. He doesn't want to turn Dwarf Fortress into a mainstream project right now because it would kill the spirit of the game. The reason we have so many cool and interesting features is becuase Toady is allowed to do whatever he wants with it.

That's not say to game's brick wall of a learning curve and terrible interface aren't frustrating though. However, I don't think it is really fair to criticize him to much for it.
 

greatorder

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Apr 22, 2011
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
EverythingIncredible said:
Then maybe they could have even sold the game and made a living.
They don't particularly want to sell the game, and they make quite a good living off the many Dwarf Fortress fans that send in donations. They're living costs are reasonably low.

I know this is quite hard to believe, but they're just doing it because they like doing it, not to make any money off of it.

...that's not "wrong", is it?
nope. nothing wrong. in fact, it's somewhat awesome that they are doing what they want for their living, and living off of donations.

also, I reckon you just simply held off the trogs with one hand while giving birth.
gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Push!'
 

greatorder

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Apr 22, 2011
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
greatorder said:
gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Push!'
You don't want to know what "Over the top" means then ;)
*prepares brain bleach*
oh god no!
*applys brain bleach*
now, what was I screaming about? what's this post? OH GOD!
*applys brain bleach*