Dwarf Fortress

[Estrix]

Recently come back to DF now that version 0.40.24. This game has sucked up far more of my life than I am prepared to willingly admit to! But I also figure I can't be the only one here that plays this game for "fun". So I figured it might do with a topic to share hints and tips, as well as great dwarf stories and best "fun" moments.

 

For anyone that doesn't know what DF is, I'll try and give a little outline. It is, in essence, a management game. You have 6 dwarves and the plan is to build a thriving fortress in the wilderness. As time goes on migrants arrive to swell your numbers and children are born. You manage construction and resources, armies, happiness and trade. You will be attacked by armies, raided by kobolds and gored by werebuffalo. The learning curve is pretty much vertical but when you get it you can build almost anything you can imagine. Vast halls, elaborate traps, rooms gilded with treasure...did I mention elaborate traps?? There is no win scenario really, you just play on and remember that loosing is FUN In fact my attempt at elaborate traps often destroys my fortress (killed my farmers with catapult friendly fire for example...or the retracting floor idea...)

 

So I have two bits of fun to start with:

 

1) I recently discovered, if a megabeast has the right tags you can domesticate and breed them. So yes, domesticated hydras and Rocs have both been done. If you edit the raw file you can also domesticate an army of dragons! ... this is my current project so expect a report of a fiery death soon.

 

2) Most epic fortress death! I pumped lava up to the top of the mountain to rain it down upon the invaders. Or that was the plan. Except one pump had a wooden mechanism. So what actually happened was the mechanism burnt, and lava flooded my fortress. Lots and lots of it. I mean, technically it worked in that the enemy was dead. But so was everything else

 

...oh and I was starved everyone to death in winter by turning all the food into booze...don't do that lol!

 

Edit: Thought it was worth adding. If anyone wants to get into this game I'll try and explain what features I can and link up tutorials etc

[Fearkiller]

I haven't played it beside random dablling. Ought to try, though.

But the stories derived from the gameplay are something sweet.

(Even if frighteningly violent at times)

 

Of course, there's the let's play Boatmurdered

http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/Introduction/

 

Tvtropes page is full of gold

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/DwarfFortress

 

The game provides dozens of quotes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Quotes/DwarfFortress

 

http://dfstories.com/lists many of them.

(Even though some of the drawings are NSFW - graphical violence)

 

And the Cacame Awemedinade, The Immortal Onslaught, Elven King of the dwarves

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=39897.0

The thread gets up to speed a little slow, but...

His awesomeness has been proved impossible to recreate or even explain properly.