Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

40d:Combat

2008-06-18T18:53:26Z

Jinx: some ovservations from playing a master lasher...

This guide relates to soldier-level combat, whether applied to military units in Dwarf Fortress mode or the character in Adventurer mode. For organizing your troops, and managing the warfare aspect of Dwarf Fortress, see [[Military]].

==Combat Mechanics==
===Attacking===
As an Adventurer, you can attack your opponent by running into him, or by pressing ['''shift-a'''] and selecting your target. If you're standing in the same square as your opponent or fighting him across a stairway, you can attack him by pressing 5 on the numpad. In Dwarf Fortress mode, all combat is automatic, but see [[squads]] for controlling where your [[soldier]]s go.

The attacker rolls to hit, and the defender rolls to parry, block, and/or dodge. If the attack is parried or blocked, the defender attempts a single counter-strike on the attacker. If the counter-strike is blocked, the attacker does not get a counter-counter strike.

If the attacker hits, a random location is struck. It is unclear whether each individual part of a limb (say, upper arm, lower arm, and hand) each have the same chance of being struck as the head, but due to the greater number of limbs, it is more likely to hit a limb than the torso or head. In this light, [[weapon]]s with critical boost are less effective, because a leg does not have any internal organs to injure.

===Damage===
====Calculation====
The amount of damage done by a weapon is affected by nine factors: [[weapon damage|weapon]] type, weapon [[Weapon Damage#Material Damage Effects|material]], weapon [[quality]], weapon [[quality|wear]], attacker [[attributes|strength]] (presumably), the "degree of success" of the attack roll, the [[armor]] worn by the defender, and the [[attributes|toughness]] of the defender.

Weapon quality can increase your skill by up to double. Each level of quality grants a 20% bonus to skill, plus one skill level.

The exact effects of armor are vague. From the numbers (70 for plate, 40 for chain, vs. about 100 damage for most weapons), we can guess that armor simply subtracts from damage.

Linking damage to the degree of success of an attack roll means that higher skill will usually deal more damage. (It's also possible that damage is linked directly to skill.)

Damage to any particular body part is cumulative; if you attack with a badly worn, [[wood]]en [[mace]] with no skill for long enough (and your blows aren't simply "glancing off"), you will eventually break somebody's arm, even if the victim thinks it feels like being slowly whipped to death by scented shoelaces. (or, more likely, kills you first.)

====Body Part Damage====
Damage to a body part comes in six flavors:
{| border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1 style="background: black"
|-
| unhurt
|-
| lightly wounded
|-
| moderately wounded
|-
| broken
|-
| mangled
|-
| lopped off
|}
Each weapon causes the "lightly wounded" and "moderately wounded" levels using different messages. For example, a blunt weapon causes bruises and sprains, respectively, while a [[sword]] causes cuts and bad gashes. Although these indicators tell you the condition of the body parts, they don't tell you the exact amount of health they have. (ex: A body part can still stay "lightly wounded" sometimes if hit again, if the shot doesn't simply "glance away").

Broken or mangled limbs are useless. Breaking an arm or hand will cause a creature to drop his weapon/[[shield]], or make it unable to attack with that limb. Breaking a leg will cause a two-legged [[creature]] to fall, making his extinction much easier. (Oddly, cutting off both arms and both legs of a bipedal creature won't make them fully immobile. Maybe they crawl around with their jaws.) It also takes two broken limbs to make a 4 legged creature fall.

Lopped off limbs are gone forever. They do not grow back, even in Adventure Mode.

For further information, see [[Wound]].

====Falling Down====
In a word, don't. A creature's speed will drop to 1/3 of normal while on the ground. Use ['''s'''] to stand up again in Adventure Mode. If the creature has a broken or mangled leg(s), or a condition that disables the legs, it cannot stand back up.

====Bleeding and Pain====
In addition to body part damage, weapons also cause bleeding and pain.

Heavy bleeding has three effects: The first effect of constant heavy bleeding is that the creature will become faint; the second effect would be that the creature will become pale; lastly, if bleeding still continues, the creature will bleed to death.

Pain causes three effects, in increasing amounts: less combat effective (damage? odds of hitting? slower?) and nausea (even less effective?). If creature is under extreme pain they could also fall unconscious (give into pain). The more toughness the creature has, the more damage they can take before giving into pain.

====Getting Weapons Stuck====
A piercing or slashing weapon can become stuck in an opponent. There are two things you can do when this happens: twist the weapon in the wound, or try to retrieve your weapon. Walking away, or pressing ['''shift-i'''] and selecting your weapon (which is red) will attempt to pull the weapon from the wound. Presumably, your strength is compared to your opponent, and grasping the weapon with additional hands/limbs will improve your odds of success. If you fail to [[wrestling|wrestle]] the weapon from your opponent, you will lose hold of it. To try again, grab the weapon (via wrestling) with a hand, and you will again have the option to regain control on the ['''shift-i'''] menu.

If you attack a creature while your weapon is stuck in them, you twist the weapon: it causes additional bleeding and pain, but has no other effect (even if stuck in the head!). The advantage to twisting a weapon, on the other hand, is that you never miss. This is often the fastest way to take down a large living creature; they often have great armor, and ignore the majority of your attacks, but twisting a weapon five times will knock them unconscious with heavy bleeding. At this point, you can continue to twist your weapon to ensure death, or retrieve your weapon with no contest in order to attack other creatures. If your opponent has no [[Blood|blood]], and is immune to pain (e.g., [[undead]]), then twisting your weapon will have no effect.

====Knock Away====
Occasionally when fighting, a weapon strike will connect with enough force to propel the victim several tiles away. This is a fairly common occurrence on killing blows, but can happen during normal combat as well. That can prove to be an advantage, especially in adventure mode, since that creature will be out of commission for a short time while you deal with his friends.

Blunt weapons (maces and [[hammer]]s) are supreme at causing this effect. With enough strength and a good weapon it'll be common even during normal combat, and upon killing blow, the creature may fly up to 20 tiles away. Unless there is something in the way, of course.

Swords and [[axe]]s can also cause this if the weapon is of high enough quality, and the attacker is skilled enough. However, it never happens to the degree it does with blunt weaponry.

Once in the air, the victim is surrounded by a blue background to signify that is flying. It will fly at a very rapid pace until it hits an object, a creature, or the ground. If a creature is hit by the flying victim, he'll be stunned and knocked prone, but uninjured.

====Slamming Into Obstacles====
If a creature is hit hard and is slammed into an obstacle (like a [[wall]], tree, or any other stationary object), the creature may take additional bludgeoning damage as well. Falling off a cliff also counts as slamming into an obstacle.

If the victim hits an obstacle with enough force, he will blow apart and disassemble into a pile of body parts, some of which might fly a couple tiles away from the impact zone.

In adventure mode, sometimes creatures smashing into obstacles will produce the "instantly fatal" death message more than once on the same major body part. {{v|0.27.169.33g}}

====Paralysis====
Paralysis is a condition where a creature cannot move for a long time. It's about the same as being unconscious, but the creature is still awake, however can't feel anything (maybe). In adventure mode, time passes quickly when your adventurer is paralyzed.

Paralysis can be caused by being poisoned or by severe brain damage (which may lead to permanent paralysis).

===Skill Modifiers===
{{verify}}

The combat skills are modified by dynamic events. The following algorithm seems to be used (please note that some creatures are unaffected by some modifiers):
* get the appropriate combat skill level
* if the creature is nauseous, divide per two
* if the creature is drowning, divide per two
* if the creature is stunned, divide per two
* if unknown test, divide per four
* if pain > 100, divide per two
* if exhaustion >= 2000, lvl = lvl*3/4
* if exhaustion >= 4000, lvl = lvl*3/4
* if exhaustion >= 6000, lvl = lvl*3/4
* if thirst >= 25000, divide per two
* if hunger >= 50000, divide per two
* if drowsiness >= 57600, divide per two

A creature with high exhaustion, for example 6500, will have its skill modified that way:
new level = level * 3 / 4 * 3 / 4 * 3 / 4

==Weapon Analysis==
====Bows and Crossbows====
These weapons have a significant critical boost (single attacks have been seen to injure 3 different organs), but their main advantage is that they have range. Much as the common availability of rifles allowed every soldier to attack simultaneously (as opposed to merely the front rank of a unit actually attacking the enemy), a legion of bowmen will all strike at once. The poor performance of [[crossbow]]s, and especially [[bow]]s, in close combat suggests that ranged weapons are better with a "skirmish screen" of melee troops.

The effectiveness of ranged weapons is greatly affected by the geometry of the area: an Adventurer is walking around blind corners on a regular basis, but a fortress can easily set up a corridor where enemies must face a long, unobstructed march through withering fire. Ideally, this corridor should occur right after a blind corner the invading force must follow.

Crossbows are used by dwarves, [[human]]s, and [[goblin]]s; bows are used by [[elf|elves]], humans, and goblins.

====Maces, Hammers, Flails, Mauls, and Morningstars====
Considering that you're going to be hitting limbs most of the time, blunt weapons do the most damage and are most likely to break or mangle a limb, reducing the creature's ability to carve you a second mouth. Blunt weapons don't hurt internal organs much, and are unlikely to remove limbs, so they're less ideal for getting a quick kill on large or heavily-armored enemies, but their high damage makes them perfect for killing weak or small enemies. 
Blunt weapons are also supreme at causing enemies to fly away when struck with enough force.

The [[maul]], despite being a heavy two handed blunt weapon for humans, is the highest damaging weapon in the game.

Dwarves cannot build [[flail]]s, [[morningstar]]s, or mauls. The maul is a human weapon, and dwarves cannot wield it, as it is two-handed even for a human. Morningstars and flails can be wielded by dwarves.

====Swords and Axes====
Slashing damage causes more bleeding (presumably), but does less damage than blunt weapons. Slashing weapons are more likely to cut off limbs, though the exact mechanics are unclear. Removing a limb means you can't hit it again, so if you are cutting off limbs, the odds of hitting the torso or head increase. [[Axe]]s do slightly more damage, while swords have a slight critical boost, causing more internal damage on the head and torso. Thus, swords are slightly geared more towards large creatures, while axes are slightly better for small creatures. Axes weigh more than swords, but it is unclear if this has any effect on the combat mechanics.

Only humans can wield [[two-handed sword]]s or [[halberd]]s, and dwarves cannot build [[scimitar]]s, even though they can wield them.

====Spears and Pikes====
Piercing damage appears to remove limbs only rarely; it is better for torso and head hits. Since torso and head hits are uncommon, due to the number of limbs that can be hit instead, a [[spear]] is somewhat of a luck-based weapon. It gets stuck on a fairly regular basis, (again, usually in a limb where it can't do as much), but when it hits a torso or head, the victim usually takes organ damage. In this light, a spear is best when fighting large creatures, who are best killed via organectomies rather than cumulative damage.

Dwarves cannot wield a [[pike]]; it is a two-handed weapon, even for a human.

====Whips====
Whips do "gore" type damage, which inflicts more bleeding and pain. Also, gore attacks have a higher chance of dealing damage to sub-bodyparts like fingers or eyes. This gives whips a strong tendecy to break the victims joints or poke out his throat or other vitals, thus rendering him unconscious quickly and eventually making him bleed to death. The downside of using whips is the low overall damage and chance to sever body parts, which makes it difficult to harm armored or undead enemys. So, whips are rarely used, but good against unarmored ,living [[creatures]], but pointless against the [[undead]] and other non-living creatures.

====Burn, Heat, and Cold Attacks====
BURN, HEAT, and COLD are possible damage tokens. There are no weapons that do these kind of attacks, but can be modded in. There are creatures that can do burning attacks. It's unknown whether any creatures have heat or cold attacks.

Burn attacks aren't really directly related to temperature or fire, and creatures with fire-immunity can get harmed by them. This kind of attack inflicts great pain.

Heat has attack messages almost similar to burn. This attack is more related to temperature than burn attacks. When a creature is struck down by heat attacks, its body ignites. It's unknown whether fire-immune creatures are affected by this attack.

Cold attacks are pretty much like burn attacks, but with different attack messages. This attack does freezing damage, but nothing else special. It's unknown whether cold-immune creatures are affected by this attack.

==Special Attacks==
====Web====
Some creatures particularly [[giant cave spider|giant cave spiders]] shoot webbing. Webs will be left behind in the tiles the webbing passes over. If you are in a tile with webbing you are completely immobilized until you can break free of the web. Currently in the time you take to escape the web you can be attacked a few times, and possibly webbed again. This makes giant cave spiders the most dangerous critters in adventure mode at this time.

===Poison===
Some creatures have special attacks that can inject poison into other creatures. There are two types of poison, one that stuns, and one that paralyzes (which is most common).

When a creature is inflicted by a paralyzing poison in adventure mode, there will be a message where it says that it "feels numb". As time passes, the creature slows down. Eventually it'll become completely paralyzed, unable to move for a long time (depending on toughness). If there are enemies still around, this is most likely the end of the creature. After a while, if the paralyzed creature is still alive, it would recover from paralysis.

There are no ways to cure poison {{v|0.27.169.33g}}. Also, it can be modded so that player characters can use poison attacks.

Lastly, creatures who are immune to paralysis are immune to that kind of poison.

===Blood Sucking===
There are VERY few creatures that have the ability to suck blood. Encountering them is rare. These creatures have special biting attacks that latch and can suck blood.

When blood is drained from a creature, it causes heavy bleeding (depending on the attacking creature's ability to suck blood). Blood suckers may feed or regain health while doing this. {{verify}}

Modding this ability to a playable creature of your choice won't do anything. Only NPCs can use this special attack. {{v|0.27.169.33g}}

===Fire Breath===
Some creatures have the ability to attack by breathing fire at their enemies. Fire breath does damage to creatures that are in the fire and may ignite any equipment they're wearing. Fire breathers normally have immunities to fire.

[[Dragon]]s breathe dragon fire, which is more powerful than regular fire breath. Creatures with normal fire immunities can be affected by it.

Modded player characters cannot breathe fire. Only NPCs can use this ability. {{v|0.27.169.33g}}

[[Category:Military]]

40d:Ice

2008-06-01T10:47:11Z

Jinx: Added a note about mining

'''Ice''' is [[water]] that has been frozen by cold temperatures, usually because of [[winter]]. Any water that is [[outside]] will freeze during winter, while it will stay the same if it is [[inside]].

A tile of water will freeze into an '''ice wall''', while creating an '''ice floor''' one [[Z-Axis]] above it. The ice wall will be the same no matter how deep the water is. The floor can be walked on freely, and there doesn't seem to be any kind of thin, breakable ice. The ice wall can be [[mine]]d through, which leaves the above ice floor intact. [[Channel]]ing the ice floor will destroy both the floor and the wall. The ice wall will apparently melt into water of depth 7 [http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Talk:Water] when warmer temperatures arrive. Presumably the ice floor will melt as well, but whether it turns into water or just disappears is unknown at the moment.

Ice can be mined through without causing a [[flood]], making Winter an ideal time to get rid of any [[lake]]s that are in the way.

== Ice as a Stone ==

Ice appears as a light blue stone which can be found by mining through an ice wall. Ice can be used to build [[construction]]s and [[workshops]]. Ice boulders and objects made of ice will melt when exposed to warmer temperatures (such as inside a fortress), giving it rather limited use. Nevertheless, workshops made of ice have a certain novelty to them, and it's even possible to make [[furnace]]s out of ice, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.

The games refers to Ice boulders as "water". It doesn't appear in any stockpile options or the manager, but it does appear under the "stones" section of the [[Stocks]] menu.

== Out of Water ==

As ice takes the place of water, entire water supplies can be completely frozen on colder areas. This can depopulate an entire fortress in just the first winter if they're unprepared. The only way to counter this is to make a water pit inside beforehand, or brew enough drinks. Oddly enough, drinks do not require water to make.
[[category:Map_tiles]]

== Mining Hazard ==

Watch out when digging through ice into (subterrean) unfrozen water resorts. The space cleared by the miner will freeze solid again instantly, encasing the advancing miner into a wall of ice. this means not only the loss of a valuable dwarf, but also of his now inacessible equipment.

== Smoothing Ice ==

Smoothed ice walls are called straight ice wall, smoothed ice floors all called level ice floor, engraved ice floors are called sculpted ice floors and engraved Ice walls are called sculpted ice walls.

== Melting Ice ==
It can be very important to be able to extract water from permanently-frozen ice (for instance on cold northern maps) in order to give water to the wounded. This can be done with magma. Dig out a tunnel one z-level below the ice sheet and fill it with magma. The ice on the above z-level will melt. You can see this happening here: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-153-meltingwateronglacier

It is also possible to melt ice by collapsing several z-levels of ice wall into a rock reservoir[http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=11&t=000855]:
http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-354-makingwaterfromice

{{Water FAQ}}

40d:Murky pool

2008-02-27T19:04:50Z

Jinx: Building a dirt road over the pool will work, too.

Murky pools are small pools of [[water]] one [[Z-axis|Z-Level]] deep on the surface of the map. Dwarves with the [[fishing]] job active will attempt to [[fish]] in them. Murky pool can (will?) completely drain in summer. In some [[climate]]s during [[winter]], they will refill themselves fully about the time that [[snow]] melts. This is because any ice that melts will always melt to 1 square of 7/7 water regardless of the amount of water that froze. Drinking from a murky pool will give dwarves an unhappy [[thought]].

==Removing==

A murky pool is difficult to remove. Once drained, murky pools cannot be [[digging|dug]] out or into. [[Channel]] designations cannot be placed on top of murky water tiles, and they cannot be dug up into from beneath.

There are two known ways to remove murky pools:
# Dig underneath the murky pool, then dig a channel around the edge so that the pool tiles are connected to [[open space|nothing]]. The tiles will collapse in a pile of rubble, job done. This method does not always work.
# Drain the pool and build a dirt [[road]] on the murky tiles. When removed, the murky pool tiles will be gone. (Leaving [[silty clay loam]] or some such).

[[Category:map tiles]]

40d:Hippo

2007-12-28T09:52:41Z

Jinx:

{{CreatureInfo|name=Hippo|symbol=H|color=rgb(192, 192, 192)|
bones=?|chunks=?|meat=?|fat=10|skulls=1|skin=Yes|
biome=
* Any tropical river or lake
}}

Hippos seem to be peaceful, friendly and not very intelligent [[river]] [[creatures]] with a strong tendency to make loud noises while... reproducing. But this is not quite correct. Every [[dwarf]] who was courageous enough to settle near the ever growing colonies of the hippos will soon describe them as the monstrous bestias they are: stealthy, bloodthirsty killers who will assasinate every innocent dwarf on sight!

== Bloody Rites of the Hippos ==

Hippos travel through their territory as a swarm, harmless to the most other animals. When they meet similar semi-intelligent groups like [[immigrants]] or [[Siege|invaders]], suddenly an idividual Hippos blood thirst awakens. After the heard massacred who ever they stumbled across, this warlord hippo (who was given a cool name) will fight any humanoid lifeform to death, actively supported by the brave rest of the herd.

== How to fight Hippos ==

In one word: Dont. Unless you have a strong army of Spear-and Marksdwarves, Hippos will beat the shit out of your dwarves. Just set up long lines of spiked Hippo [[traps]] or dig [[channel|channels]] around you entrance. The biggest problem is water. Dwarves will drink the pesky stuff if there is no alcohol, making themselves living targets with a "drown me" sign on them.

40d:Hippo

2007-12-28T09:49:08Z

Jinx:

{{CreatureInfo|name=Hippo|symbol=H|color=rgb(192, 192, 192)|
bones=?|chunks=?|meat=?|fat=10|skulls=1|skin=Yes|
biome=
* Any tropical river or lake
}}

Hippos seem to be peaceful, friendly and not very intelligent river creatures with a strong tendency to make loud noises while... reproducing. But this is not quite correct. Every dwarf who was courageous enough to settle near the ever growing colonies of the hippos will soon describe them as the monstrous bestias they are: stealthy, bloodthirsty killers who will assasinate every innocent dwarf on sight!

== Bloody Rites of the Hippos ==

Hippos travel through their territory as a swarm, harmless to the most other animals. When they meet similar semi-intelligent groups like immigrants or invaders, suddenly an idividual Hippos blood thirst awakens. After the heard massacred who ever they stumbled across, this warlord hippo (who was given a cool name) will fight any humanoid lifeform to death, actively supported by the brave rest of the herd.

== How to fight Hippos ==

In one word: Dont. Unless you have a strong army of Spear-and Marksdwarves, Hippos will beat the shit out of your dwarves. Just set up long lines of spiked Hippo traps or dig channels around you entrance. The biggest problem is water. Dwarves will drink the pesky stuff if there is no alcohol, making themselves living targets with a "drown me" sign on them.

40d:Hippo

2007-12-28T09:41:28Z

Jinx:

Hippos seem to be peaceful, friendly and not very intelligent river creatures with a strong tendency to make loud noises while... reproducing. But this is not quite correct. Every dwarf who was courageous enough to settle near the ever growing colonies of the hippos will soon describe them as the monstrous bestias they are: stealthy, bloodthirsty killers who will assasinate every innocent dwarf on sight!

== Bloody Rites of the Hippos ==

Hippos travel through their territory as a swarm, harmless to the most other animals. When they meet similar semi-intelligent groups like immigrants or invaders, suddenly an idividual Hippos blood thirst awakens. After the heard massacred who ever they stumbled across, this warlord hippo (who was given a cool name) will fight any humanoid lifeform to death, actively supported by the brave rest of the herd.

== How to fight Hippos ==

In one word: Dont. Unless you have a strong army of Spear-and Marksdwarves, Hippos will beat the shit out of your dwarves. Just set up long lines of spiked Hippo traps or dig channels around you entrance. The biggest problem is water. Dwarves will drink the pesky stuff if there is no alcohol, making themselves living targets with a "drown me" sign on them.

40d:Hippo

2007-12-28T09:41:12Z

Jinx:

40d:Hippo

2007-12-28T09:29:40Z

Jinx: New page: Hippos seem to be peaceful, friendly and not very intelligent river creatures with a strong tendency to make loud noises while... reproducing. But this is not quite correct. Every dwarf wh...