Dwarf Fortress

[Lord J]

So a while back I mentioned that I have been playing a lot of Dwarf Fortress. That hasn't really changed.

Day before yesterday, I lost a fortress to HFS (spoiler, kinda) and, I have to say, it felt really, really good. It was the first time that I allowed a fortress to really mature before just getting fed up with framerate issues or seeming design flaws and restarting. I managed to keep going even though there was no iron on the map (so I made all of my weaponry from copper, at least, at first). Then I found adamantine, and... well....

Anyway, I started a new game yesterday and I'm getting into the second phase of the fortress. I'm thinking about writing about my progress and possibly helping you all see the light (or, technically, the dark, moist tunnel).

There's a Dune mod (Fremen Sietch) that I've thought about trying, but not anytime soon. Right now I'm pretty happy with my current dwarfing level.

[Lord J]

Managed to survive a tantrum spiral after the death of several dwarfs who were mining out a section containing a Forgotten Beastie. The Beastie in question had three tails and was made of black diamond.

Anyway, I went from 50+ dorfs to approximately 5 before people started feeling a little better and actually started to work. Shortly afterwards I had a migrant wave of nearly 20 dorfs, and I've since been letting them pick up all of the mess outside that traders have brought and lost (thanks to goblin ambushes). Hopefully we can clean up the remaining bodies, make a few memorial slabs to deal with ghosts, and work on getting society back into order.

[Lord J]

Got that fortress back up and running, but framerate was obnoxious, and the guys wanted to run out and pick up everything in the goblin-infested outdoors.

I decided to try again with fewer dorfs. I started a map with max population 0, but for some reason that means 10. Framerate stayed really nice, and I've managed to produce a lot of steel equipment. I haven't played in the last few days though.

Last night I wrote a few df haiku.

So is there any interest in this game other than me?

[Andrew]

I tried running it a couple months ago. Difficult to play and was a CPU hog. Like the idea but probably wait a while before trying again.

[Lord J]

It's probably the most difficult game I've ever tried to learn; in terms of rules and scope, it's comparable to dungeons and dragons, and the interface doesn't make it easier. That said, it's probably also one of the most rewarding games I've ever put forth the effort to learn. If you decide to give it another go, I would suggest checking out a few video tutorials and downloading the Lazy Newb Pack. Turninng down the population number, reducing the size of your embark, and reducing graphical fps are all helpful for increasing CPU access.