Dwarf Fortress updated! -new update: July 14, 08-

[Neon_Chaos]

For those of you unfamiliar, DF is a roguelike fortress-building game, where you lead a small band of dwarves to build an outpost in some god forsaken mountain... and develop it into a bustling dwarven mecca!

It's finally here! The new alpha for DF has been released today, 9 months after the last alpha release.

Tons of new stuff has been added to the game. And... gasp... a z-axis!!!

Oh I have long awaited this day!

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

[Celeval]

Wooooohoooooooooo

[astrosfan64]

Anyone know the major features added or changed? I started to read his changelog, but it is hard to follow in terms of the change to the overall feature he worked on.

[Neon_Chaos]

9 months of development. it feels like a different game.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_now.html

[Neon_Chaos]

It doesn't encompass the amount of changes, but here's the basic gist:

Release notes for 0.27.169.32a:

Well, it has been a while. That means potential instability, so don't get too attached to your fortresses at this point. I'll be doing subsequent releases more often now as I solve problems. In any case, dwarf mode now has a z-axis and you can make fortresses that span several levels. Fluids behave much more reasonably, and you can walk across the world in adventure mode in the local view without having to step off of an artificial edge. And various other lots more stuff.

[Neon_Chaos]

JEEEEE-SUS.

The game has gone ever so deeper. Dwarves! Dwarves! Dwarves!

Over 40 fallen Dwarven Halls now litter my map...

I think I'll go write a dynasty.

[sachmo71]

Change log:

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/dev_now.html

[Eilim]

Yet another new release : Dwarf Fortress 0.27.173.38a

Was curious if any DF veterans mind sharing some starting advice. I've read the wiki and scoured the forums on starting dwarf builds, but I have to admit I'm still a bit intimidated by the Z axis and seemingly new dynamics in skill sets involved.

Anyways, off to get some of graphics mods installed and check out some of the worlds I created.

[Bonegavel]

I think I may finally give this a go.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Eilim

Yet another new release : Dwarf Fortress 0.27.173.38a

Was curious if any DF veterans mind sharing some starting advice. I've read the wiki and scoured the forums on starting dwarf builds, but I have to admit I'm still a bit intimidated by the Z axis and seemingly new dynamics in skill sets involved.

Anyways, off to get some of graphics mods installed and check out some of the worlds I created.

Food is easier to come by, so starting off is easier than before. You just find subterranian clay to plant plump helmets et.al., and you can also now farm outside (sun berries, whip vines, etc.) No need to water any of the farm plots.

I usually get a Masonry, Carpentry, and CraftShop up and running in the first months or so.

From there, the world is your oyster.

[Neon_Chaos]

2 Picks
1 Axe
lots of wine
plump helmets

a couple of dogs or so



2 Proficient Miner
1 Carpenter/Woodcutter
1 Mason/Engraver
1 Bonecrafter/Stonecrafter
1 Farmer
1 Fisher

I pick one of the dwarves to give the emotional skills to. Appraiser is a nice skill for a starting dwarf to have, as it is immediately helpful to trading.

My basic starting build.

[mrsimperless]

Love this game.

Guaranteed nobody on FOFC wants to know the mental picture I get from "plump helmets"

[Neon_Chaos]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[Eilim]

So my adventures in being a dwarf begin...




Actually only brought along the 6 dogs, the tame camel and muskox seemingly were attracted by the commotion. Whole lot of limestone around, with a river just northeast off the screen along with a good amount of trees. This is an old save from before I broke down and started using the prospector util, so who knows how this will turn out.

[Eilim]

...and for those who like a bit of adventure, here's a post with a seed/location that would probably make even the most stout hearted break a sweat.

Rough 38a seed

I'm not yet up to trying this one out, but have saved it for when I get a bit more dwarf wrangling under my belt.

[Zelig]

I thought about trying this game, but my simpleton mentality couldn't wrap around the fact that is looks hard.

[Eilim]

I was in the same boat for the longest time, it can be very intimidating at first. I think you just have to embrace the fact that unless your lucky, your first fortress (or as in my case first few) are going to end horribly. I just had to learn to not worry about it and just try to learn new things each play through that would make the next fortress a little easier.

Also, although it may be blasphemous to some, picking up a graphics based tileset really helped cut down on the information overload I was running into the first few times I played.

So, give it a shot and look for the humor in the absolutely certain and usually horrific demise of your fortress. Just hop in and play around, I was always fretting about the perfect builds and starting locations I never just got in and played. Once I said screw that and started learning by doing, the game became a whole lot easier. Now I only occasionally flood my fortress with water or magma..

[Thomkal]

I think we need a dynasty

[aran]

This game is so much fun! I just "discovered" it (again?) on friday afternoon and I've been hooked since. I just installed a graphics set that borked the game, though, and has left me in an annoying situation. I'll have to mess with things a bit to get them back to normal...

I'm eagerly anticipating a dynasty.

[Celeval]

No time to play lately, sadly.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by Eilim

Also, although it may be blasphemous to some, picking up a graphics based tileset really helped cut down on the information overload I was running into the first few times I played.

Any particular tileset you find to be good? I've been meaning to give this a try, but somewhere along the line I lost the ability to deal with old school roguelike graphics. That with the perceived difficulty kept me away from trying this.

[Eilim]

I'm currently using the Guybrush character set set found here : Custom Character sets

Along with the Dystopian Qantas graphic set here : Custom graphics sets

Adding in Sphr's edited graphic's for the set that you can grab here: Sphr's Page

You will get some wonkiness in the names of some dwarfs using the guybrush set, although I do believe he has a version that plays nice with the names posted also. I prefered using modified language files that removed all the accents, I just need to update it for the new version as it added a bunch of new words and the author of the original mod hasn't updated it yet.

[Neon_Chaos]

New update! After 5 months, the new version is finally out!

The first step of the War / Caravan Arcs have been completed.

Dwarf-mode has a couple of bugs right now, Tarn says another update will be upcoming, either tomorrow or the day after to fix it.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

[Celeval]

Crap. And this is a busy work week, too.

[Groundhog]

I'll have to give this another shot. I spent an awful lot of time with one fortress while learning the game sometime last year, but I fear I've forgotten almost everything now.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Noticed that Bill Harris posted a link to a new video tutorial section for Dwarf Fortress. Good reference material for those that want to learn how to play the game or were confused by its interface.

Dwarf Fortress Video Tutorial