Dwarf Fortress: How to get started on the most inetesting game ever.

[Jabberwocky]

The first time I installed dwarf fortress I was met with ascii graphics and no clue what to do, read an interesting story on nytimes (google it) and tried it, seemed to arcane and archaic to me.

While I`m still learning the ropes, its one of those games where you never fully comprehend how deep it goes.

Basically you start off with 7 dwarves, in a procedurally generated world, and when I say procedurally generated, I mean with a complete history.. of all the beings that occupy the world generated down to what their personality is like, climate, politics, historical figures, the level of detail in this world is astounding.

With the 7 dwarves you carve out a fortress underground or into a mountain, farm, hunt, build a lair dungeon keeper style, dining room, breed animals, build and train a militia, build traps, trade, but most importantly, create a story of the eventual downfall(which will happen) of your own personal Erebor.

Anyway, the game is not as arcane as it might seem at first glance, if you start off in a calm zone they take it easy on you the first few (game) years

Step 1: install the lazy newb pack (most importantly, it replaces the ascii with graphics) http://dffd.wimbli.com/download.php?...nt+LNP+r44.zip

Step 2: this guy explains it better than I could: http://youtu.be/4g_SaPQpKbU

Step 3: have fun.

Post any questions.
If enough are interested i`m looking forward to a mygaming legacy fortress.

Its free btw, the life project of a mathematician and his brother.

[James]

Check out Gnomoria for a "lite" version of this - with graphics!

http://gnomoria.com/

Still needs some polish on the interface IMO, but it's entertaining.

[Clive Woofer]

Jabberwocky, how steep would you say is the learning curve? I've always been curious about playing DF, but it seems so daunting. I've played many DF clones, but apparently none of them even come close to DF.

[Jabberwocky]

Jabberwocky, how steep would you say is the learning curve? I've always been curious about playing DF, but it seems so daunting. I've played many DF clones, but apparently none of them even come close to DF.

Not as steep as the impression you might get on the internet, like I said, the game very forgiving at first if you start on in a dwarf friendly biome. Like the guy on the video says, its not steeper than learning the keyboard shortcuts in starcraft.

They say that eventually you lose, but its more in the sense of sim city, with no winning condition you will eventually lose. And when you start to get the hang of it you actually want things to start going wrong, that`s where "fun" starts.

The vanilla version with the ascii has quite a steep learning curve because you need to know what all those symbols represent, but with a tileset, like what you get with the lazy newb pack its much easier.

Like minecraft, half of the fun lies in learning little nuances.
Most of the gameplay elements logical sense, and there`s a pretty comprehensive wiki.

I don`t profess to be a pro, only been playing it for a few weeks, and I don`t regret taking a few hours to learn how to play it.

[Immorta]

Thanks for the guide. I've played a bit of DF, and it's really fun once you learn the basics.

Getting a graphical tileset really helps. The Lazy Newb Pack is a good way to get started with that.

I followed this tutorial: http://dftutorial.wordpress.com/
but the video tutorials are also pretty good.

And remember, dying is fun!

[Jabberwocky]

there doesn`t seem to be a lot of interest in this

[HavocXphere]

there doesn`t seem to be a lot of interest in this

Haven't looked into it, but from what I can tell this seems normal. Solid interest by converts (you) and not much interest by anyone else. Said converts puzzled...

[Clive Woofer]

I gave it a try a while back, but I simply don't have the time to invest in it right now. It looks bloody interesting, though.

[Crableg]

I played it years ago, it was really interesting and I enjoyed it i just sorta stopped playing it, and dont feel like trying to re-learn everything now. Im sure they have much better "texture packs" now too.