Inspired by this thread from 2007. Let’s play a succession game of DF!
If there is interest we can decide on what version of the game to use, etc.
ETA: Could a mod please fix my title? 
smack:
So in on this. As for version, I usually use whatever Mayday supports… I cannot stand the game in ASCII.
But ASCII is so good!!!
Plus by the time I actually figured out what the symbols mean, you want to change them?
We don’t all have to use the same model pack, right?
ETA: Actually, Mayday looks really nice. I may give it a spin later.
You just need to use the same version of the game. The saves are compatible between tilesets and ASCII.
OK, good.
I think a small number of players (3? 4?) might be best so we all get to play multiple rounds, but I’m willing to change my mind if anyone has opposing arguments. Also, we need to decide how much control the current player should have over the game: can he redesign the entire fort? Should he call for a vote before collapsing a cavern? Can he start mining Adamantine by himself?
I enjoy reading the sort of Let’s Plays where players work at cross purposes. Boatmurdered is my favorite Let’s Play of all time.
I dislike the ones where they write in character unless it’s insane.
I’d like to do this but haven’t really played DF since the introduction of the Y axis.
Oh man, I picked the right time to start posting here again. I’m so in. 
And so happy to learn that I’m not the only DF fan here. Does anyone know if saves from the Mac version are compatible with the Windows version? I vote we play a version since the 2010 update (so, hospitals, military management, underground caverns, etc), but not one so new that Dwarf Therapist doesn’t work on it yet (if such a version even exists at the moment).
Also… I hope I’m not the only one with significant gaps in my DF knowledge. I never learnt how to manage caged animals or operate water wheels. Assuming I’m not the only one with such gaps, I think this will be a very fun game.
ETA: ASCII is rad.
Nope, I have gaps too.
And I like posting in character!
As for macs, you have to download the pc version and then download dwarf fortress for mac, then copy DWarfFortress.app or whatever it is on the mac and put it where DF.exe is. Try it and tell us if it works.
Is there a good tutorial to get into DF? I was always put off by the ASCII nonsense and never actually downloaded it, but with a decent tileset and good into, I might pick it up at some point…
I can’t post a link right now as I’m on my phone, but if you go to afteractionreporter.com, the utter newbie’s guide is what I used to learn DF.
It’d be cool to have some newbies mixed in with the more experienced folks. That’s what made Boatmurdered so awesome.
It is hard to learn, but once you get past the initial confusion and just start learning the basics, you’ll be fine. I also used the Utter Newbie’s guide, but this was a little confusing, since it’s out of date:
The wiki is also good but sort of fragmented. I’d use the newbie guide but recognize that the military has completely changed. That was the hardest part to learn. However, I was able to pick up on things a lot faster using a tileset. If you can get down the basics (getting wood chopped, mining, creating basic workshops, getting food through fishing or herbs) then that’s enough to play a succession game, in my opinion.
I’d rank my own skill in the intermediate range; I’ve made a ton of fortresses, but I’ve never done some things, like used water or wind power, developed an adamantium industry (I usually get distracted and start a new fortress by then) or totally figured out captive management (I rely on the rather high-maintenance operations of a drowning chamber or letting my soldiers kill them).
Right now I’m on 31_18, which is the current Mayday tileset version.
Hi what is Dwarf fortress for those who don’t have the first clue?
I’ll take a stab at describing the elephant. It really has been a long while since I played. There’s been a lot of new versions since.
Dwarf Fortress is a freeware game, or actually 3 different games. Usually when people talk about DF they mean the fortress building mode. You, uh, build a fortress. Or, rather, you usually dig a fortress out of a mountainside, although I understand that you can now build above ground.
You start fortress mode with 7 dwarves, some animals, and supplies. Usually your starting dwarves have pioneer type skills like mining, farming, woodcutting. As years go by in the game migrants start showing up and they all need jobs and food and a place to sleep. Of course, if you don’t want them around you can give them dangerous jobs or assign them a deathtrap of a bedroom.
You control your sim dwarves indirectly by lining up work and flagging dwarves with the work you want them to do. Rather than selecting a dwarf and picking a tree to chop down for wood to make barrels, you flag some trees for harvest and any dwarf that has the necessary flags (and an axe) will get around to it eventually. After eating and drinking, for instance. Or fleeing a skeletal elephant. The cut wood gets hauled (by a dwarf with the hauling flag) to a stockpile (which you also have designated) and then a dwarf you flagged as a carpenter takes a break from his busy schedule of eating and drinking and looking at statues and makes a barrel. Which, no doubt, you have a plan for, such as filling with booze for the dwarves to drink. So you need a still, and a dwarf to work the still, and farmers to plant and harvest the crops, and a farm but you better do all those things because dwarf without booze no good so work.
Every time a dwarf does a job, it gets a little better at that job and so eventually you end up with legendary meat cutters.
Oh, meanwhile you’re getting invaded by goblins, so you want some of those deathtraps in your entrance hall, not just in the bedrooms. Plus lizardmen or other denizens of the deep occasionally pop up and screw up your plans by killing off your miners. No worries, you can just pipe magma into their spawn point. That’ll fix em.
Plus you want money, right, so better have some craftdwarves cranking out trinkets to sell to the various caravans. You remembered to build a road, right? Good. How about a trade depot? Excellent. You flooded the world and now the depot is under water? Huh, I guess exports are going take a little dip, ha ha.
Oh and some of the migrants are “nobles” which is code for “jerks” and once in a while somebody goes insane and you wind up with artifact pants that menace with tin spikes. Better lay in some extra booze.
I’ve heard good things about this game before so tried downloading it there. The window is so tiny I can’t see a thing 
Google says I need to change the settings in my init.txt file but changing FULLSCREENX and FULLSCREENY and what-have-you seem to have no appreciable effect.
Anyone willing to help a newbie out and post the relevant part of their init.txt file? My screen resolution is 1920x1080 but frankly anything bigger than the teeny little window I have at the moment would do.
How to change Dwarf Fortress’s window size:
If [GRAPHICS:NO], change [WINDOWEDX:0][WINDOWEDY:0]
If [GRAPHICS:YES], change [GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDX:0][GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDY:0]
Replace the 0s with the resolution of the window you want. For example, [WINDOWEDX:1600][WINDOWEDY:800]
'sokay, I’m running Windows, I just thought it would be a crappy problem to get tripped up by once things are underway. Thanks, though.
One interesting point about DF is that if a more experienced player precedes a new player, some brilliant plan of the pro might undo the noob. For instance, it can be really handy to make a surface-water-fed underground cistern - you have a big underground cave with a floodgate in both entrances, and one goes to the river, and the other goes to a well. Open the one to the river to fill the cistern, then close it and open the other to fill the well. Awesome - dwarves can get water without going outside during a siege or whatever. But open both floodgates at the same time and your fortress will fill up with water. It’s stuff like this that make succession games so great.
Like in Boatsmurdered, when there were so many levers no one knew what they all did and they accidentally flooded the siege workshop!
Version 31_18 should be fine. It will let us run MayDay and whatever manager programs we want. I’ll create the world soon, and post it up here for you guys to look over.
I suppose we should decide on rules. I’ll go codify the constitution of… We need a name!
Meanwhile, please post I want to play so I know who is interested. Players should answer the following questions:
- Skill Level (Total newbs are fine, but we want to control the play order)
- Play early on or later?
- Suggestion for fort name!
I want to play!
- I’m pretty experienced - never been to hell, but other than that I can pretty much do anything by reading the appropriate wiki pages.
- Early-ish, I think.
- I say we just go with whatever stupid thing the random generator gives us first. That’s how BoatMurdered came about, after all.
OK, Rules! Mostly stolen from the other thread.
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Never give up. One lone starving dwarf can still make a comeback. As the game itself says, “Losing is fun!”
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You get from the First of Granite (First month in Spring) of one year to the First of Granite the next year. After that you save the game and pass the save on to the next guy.
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If you want to mine Adamantine, call a vote first. Do NOT mine Adamantine unless vote has been passed.
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Don’t destroy the world, either with water or lava. Flooding certain areas with lava or water is OK, but no perma-floods. I’m not sure if perma-floods work in this version? Oh well.
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Don’t crush with drawbridges. When a drawbridge comes down it instantly and completely destroys anything under it and leaves no remains. This is a easy way to destroy incoming armies or demons. I consider it cheating though. There are plenty of other ways of drowning/burning your enemies, and that way you can keep their stuff.
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First thing you do when you take over is name a dwarf after yourself. That is you. If your named dwarf dies before your turn is over, nothing really happens. Just name a sucessor.
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You have one week to play out your year. If you finish sooner, that is great, the next player will get to start sooner; but if you take over a week, then save what you have and put it online. The next player gets to finish your turn and his own. We want to keep this moving. When two players switch, we call for a Meeting of the Council. The leaving player can give the incoming player advice/instructions on current projects, votes can be called over major issues, etc.
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Keep us updated. I will create another thread soon and start recording what I have done. Make up a distinct personality for your dwarf to make the chronicle more interesting. You don’t have to be In Character, but it is preferred. Advice is welcome, but no backseat driving.
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If someone is unable to play, the next player in line gets extra time. Leaders will cycle.
Game thread is up. Save file coming soon.