Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

40d:Spirit of fire

2008-01-11T21:53:34Z

Q-Stone: Replaced it's with its

One or many of the possible creatures that will attack your dwarves when you discover demon pits in Fortress Mode.

This creature is very hot, can breath fire, can destroy buildings, and is constantly surrounded by fire. Up close, it has burning punches, and is a dangerous combatant. It also has the ability to fly.

This creature feels no pain and cannot bleed to death. Its weakness is that its limbs sever when broken.

User:Q-Stone

2007-11-24T22:56:11Z

Q-Stone: New page: Quintin Stone [http://rps.net/QS Rebel Programmers Society]

Quintin Stone

[http://rps.net/QS Rebel Programmers Society]

40d:Pregenerated worlds

2007-11-08T19:52:28Z

Q-Stone: /* Seed 4265985437: A little bit of everything */

In order to rapidly find working worlds and save on generating time, some users pregenerate and share worlds to others. With the new seed technology, it is possible to share an entire world in as little as a dozen digits. Share neat worlds, unique worlds using Seeds to save upload time, or share worlds using the save file to save on world creation time for others.

== Downloadable worlds ==

Downloadable worlds are worlds which have been generated and then compressed into a single archive file for sharing over the internet. Download the file then extract the folder inside the archive into your /data/save folder in order to use it.

=== Lathondur Minbaz ===

Direct download available here: [http://morlark.uwcs.co.uk/misc/region1.tar.gz Lathondur Minbaz]

== Seeds ==

Seeded worlds are special "codes" which tell the game's pseudo-random number generator (a sophisticated mathematical function which produces numbers that seem random) where to begin generating a world. Because the random number generator is actually just a mathematical function and thus always produces the same result when given a certain input, you can "seed" the generator to produce an entire series of random numbers on another computer that are exactly the same as they were originally produced on the first computer.

To use a seeded world, select ''Create a New World'' during the main menu, then hit {{key|s}} to specify a seed. Type in the seed and hit {{key|Enter}}, then hit {{key|Enter}} one more time to begin generation. It will still take the normal amount of time to generate the world, and you will still have rejects before the world is produced.

The random seed used also determines the world's name if a random name is selected. As a consequence, the choice of whether to use a random name or a given name can result in a completely different world even when the same seed is used. Seed publishers should specify whether a random name was selected when generating the world.

=== Seed 0: 0 Rejects and plenty of awesomeness ===

This world uses a random name and was generated in v0.27.169.33a.

[http://img140.imageshack.us/my.php?image=worldmapregion210500hk1.jpg You may see this for yourself here.] Notables are a fairly large ocean in the lower-left corner, about 6 volcanoes scattered around the map, and I firmly believe there is a final volcano in the lower-right tundra corner of the map (because I *saw* it while the world was generating and the year was 1048, dammit), though the picture doesn't show it. There also seems to be a nice variety of environments for your leisure. Enjoy!

And I have found it. Behold the beauty:

[[Image:Freezingvolcano.JPG|A volcano in an unusual area]]

=== Seed 2: A Quick One ===

This seed only rejects 3 regions, so it is one of the quickest to generate. This saves time if your computer is slow, and don't want to download the pregenerated one.

Here is a starting place for seed 2 that is relatively flat, has magma and water on the same Z level. Has flux, sand. Heavily forested and max herbs. Enjoy.

The aquifer is only in the top left corner of this map, and can easily be avoided if you don't wish to deal with one.

'''Neighbors:''' [[Dwarves]], [[Elves]], [[Goblins]], [[Humans]]

'''Features:''' [[Magma vent]], [[Aquifer]]

'''Dominant Stone Types:''' [[Granite]], [[Rhyolite]], [[Andesite]]

'''Sand Types:''' [[Loamy sand|Loamy]], [[Black sand|Black]]

'''Climate:''' [[Temperate]]

'''Biomes:''' [[Temperate Freshwater Swamp]]

'''Generation Features:''' Only 3 rejections

[[Image:Dwarfort_2007-11-03_02-06-26-53.jpg]]

=== Seed 2577317804: Volcano Amidst a Thick Forest ===

VeryInky of the #bay12games [[IRC]] channel has discovered that generator seed 2577317804 guarantees a decent sized magma vent, which apparently flows downward to the core of the planet itself. And luckily, it's surrounded by a scenic forest housing deadly creatures.

[[Image:Volcano.jpg]]

The square above this scenic forest with a magma vent, contains also a mamgma vent, a large amount of mountain, but also a forgotten ruin.

=== Seed 2268220040: 3 Volcanic Islands, With at Least 10 Other Random Land Based Volcanoes ===

This world contains over 10 volcanoes, most of them in reasonable positions, some in Forests, some in in mountains, some that are right next to mountains ''and'' forests, and others in less convenient places. However, the real gems are the 3 volcanic islands. Some screens of the volcanic islands even contain both ocean tiles volcanic vent on the same local map.

Ever wanted that volcanic AND secret island lair? This is the world for you.

[[Image:Island-Volcanic-Lair-(s)-cl.gif]]

=== Seed 3089130238: Isolated feature-rich mountain ===
'''Neighbours:''' dwarves.

'''Features:''' 2 chasms (snowflake formation and dryed magma tube), magma tube, cave river and deep pits.

'''Dominant stone type:''' obsidian, gabbro and granite.

'''Common stone types:''' microcline, olivine, orthoclase.

'''Sand type:''' yellow sand near magma-tube.

'''Minerals:''' mountain is rich in copper and silver ores as well as
clusters of gemstones; it lacks, however, steel-producing minerals.

'''Climate:''' untamed wilds mountain surrounded by joyfull tropical broadleaf forests, where both highwood and featherwood grow. Unicorns were seen roaming there.

'''FPS-saving:''' Downmost row on the map-rectangle contains only snowflake-chasm. Leftmost column contains the aforementioned chasm and a part of the forest.

[[Image:3089130238.PNG]]

=== Seed 3706678589: The Domain of Dragons...? ===
'''Horrible Descriptions of Vagueness:''' Near the southern dwarven civilization, there are volcanos right near warm forests, and a little hunting can find you a minimum-size area containing a magma vent, a river, heavy forest, and sand. Which would be ideal if not for the fact that this is a Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forest we're talking about, which, if the forum is to be believed, contains some of the most [[Elephant|terrifying creatures]] ever to walk any of the worlds. --[[User:Alfador|Alfador]] 00:01, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

=== Seed 1149670256 ===
<blockquote>Pretty funny oddity while I was making new world map, there's two 'volcano mountains' next to each other And in the tile just south of the left most volacno there's both chams and volcano quite close to each other, just dig nice hole in between and you have one chasmfull of dead people, hehe Both of them seem pretty hostile though... To get to the location, just pick regular size zone so that you can reach the red ~ (volcano) icon and two or three rows below it and same amount to left. Then you have both

Didn't check the other volcano sites though, but the one I checked was ~21 levels deep of volcano and same for chasm... </blockquote>[http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=001246]

=== Seed 1621458352 ===
<blockquote>Most notable here: a free-standing good-aligned volcano in the woods with a magma vent, a magma lake, a chasm and a water lake all within a small area. For good measure there's a Kobold city on the other side of the mountain, as well as a cave river and chasm-pit somewhere... To top it off it also has adamantine, though it might be hard to get all the features in one fortress.

To find it, look in the top left corner for a lone volcano in a pine forest.

The same world has an evil-aligned volcano in a good-aligned shrubland... I didn't explore the features in that one, as it's so large z-wise it hurts my computer, but it has the brook and vent really close together.
(...)
The world also has at least one site where good and evil vegetated areas meet by a mountain, allowing you to have every type of shurb and every type of tree... except highwood...

It also has an absolutely huge named peak sticking out of a good-aligned forest, as well as a nice volcano sticking out of a good-aligned forest...</blockquote>[http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=001246]

=== Seed 941486140: Zero rejects ===
<blockquote>(N)ot only is it ZERO REJECTED, but its got several island volcanoes. (O)ne of them has a caldera by the coast with a cliff overhanging it, and an aquifer which (I) THINK has fresh water in it(...) (S)everal spots have magma and steep cliffs and trees and rivers. Lots of the goblin forts are in neat locations.</blockquote>[http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=001247]

=== Seed 4265985437: A little bit of everything ===

This map has just about anything you could ask for, all in a neat 4x5 area. The low cliffs and small area make for good fps. It was first mentioned on the forums by Paul. The only thing it is really lacking is sand, '''unless''' you grow your starting area eastward by 2 more spaces, in which case you'll get some spaces of red sand. Note that it was generated on windows XP, and may be different on another OS.

'''Features:'''

'''1.''' Small cave river with waterfall source falling into chasm tiles.

'''2.''' Underground magma chamber, unrevealed at first but close to surface.

'''3.''' A fair sized chasm in one corner.

'''4.''' Adamantine + pits deep below. Dwarves beware.

'''5.''' Excellent minerals, sedimentary limestone and various other base rocks are a source for abundant magnetite with large platinum veins and varied precious metals and gems.

'''6.''' Outdoor trees. Not overly abundant but enough for most purposes.

'''7.''' River running through the area that doesn't freeze (warm climate).

The region is home to thriving goat population, along with occasional visits from hoary marmots and rhesus macaques. A lone giant eagle can usually be seen soaring overhead, ready to devour your hapless dwarves and livestock.

Note that this seed does have 51 rejects, but these are all quickly rejected so the creation time isn't too bad.

[[Image:4265985437.PNG]]

=== Seed 957776166: 11 Volcanos ===
<blockquote>What's special? Well at least 11 volcanos are dotting the lower half, 2 of which are islands. Should be something for everybody maybe, haven't checked it all out. (Except all you glacier folk.)</blockquote> [http://www.bay12games.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=001247]

Edit: Ok, checked this world out a bit more and so far:
2 volcanic islands in the lower left,
at least 2 volcanic mountains to be played directly on,
at least 2, possibly 4 aquifer volcanoes on right,
2 sets of volcanic twins along lower right mountain range, top set is rich with obsidian starting areas.

On a sad note, still nothing special spotted in the north (cold), and I believe all these areas are alignment neutral. (Although there are good and evil ranges in the world.)

Well, enjoy.
-Funkadelic Jive Turkey

=== Seed 891230954: Resource heaven ===

Fairly quick seed (12 rejects). Quite by accident I stumbled across a sweet little gem of a starting location, although you have to use a fairly large play area to get the full benefit of it. Includes a magma vent with an excellent mineral selection, including magnetite, bituminous coal, and marble (usable as a flux). Can anyone say "steel production"? The upper left-hand corner has white sand for glass production, if you're willing to play with a 5x5 or 6x6 area to stretch from the sand to the magma vent. The sand area also has an aquifer if you want one, but the rest of the map is dry so you have ample stone at your disposal, and the entire map is heavily forested. Reasonably flat map, plenty of ponds. Nothing horribly exciting here, just tons and tons of resources.

[[Image:df_891230954.PNG]]

=== Seed 1010101010: 4 Volcano Cluster ===
This map contains a cluster of 4 volcanos, unfortunately, you can only access two of them in Dwarf Fortress mode and may be in dangerous territories. There's also a few other volcanoes and possibly a few lava vents as well.

[[Image:Volcanocluster.PNG]]

=== Seed 593046736: Grand Canyon + Giant Caldera + all of Paul's & More! ===

This was the very first world I generated, with my first fort being at the isolated mountain cluster on the west side, right by the goblin fortress there. However, when I started searching for a site with HIDDEN_FUN_STUFF, I stumbled on a location that has everything Paul's seed gives plus a whole lot more. In the far southwest of the world is a volcano near the dwarven civilization. This volcano is on the northeast side of the southwest mountains, and the tile with the good stuff is one region square northeast of there (non-descript on the surface). CAVEAT: to fit all the good stuff, you need a local area 9 squares wide and 10 squares tall, starting from the northeast corner. The outdoor river is the feature you lose by trimming the bottom (but you don't lose the second cave river), and if you trim from the right, you lose the giant caldera (but not the magma tube). You could probably get as small as 6x6 and still get everything but the caldera and outdoor river.

'''1.''' quick to generate -- only 4 rejects

'''2.''' a massive mountain peak, with 79 levels of vertical between the top and bottom levels!!!!

'''3.''' a giant volcano caldera to the northeast, plunging for dozens of levels

'''4.''' a crazy spidery chasm with literally dozens of side caves and all sorts of critters

'''5.''' a secret underground river with two waterfalls one that goes into a private chasm

'''6.''' a giant grand canyon to the south with a surface river that has a huge multi-level waterfall

'''7.''' an underground magma chamber that goes to the bottom

'''8.''' eerie glowing pits, complete with bizarre multi-level dungeon and torture room

'''9.''' a small selection of trees and shrubs

'''10.''' adamantine, iron, gold, platinum, copper, galore!

'''11.''' batmen, troglodytes, giant cave swallows, cave spiders, iron men, fire imps, kobolds, magma men, and more!

'''12.''' trade with all civs (human, dwarf, elf)

'''13.''' freezing cold 11 of 12 months of the year -- water only melts in early summer and freezes again by midsummer!!!

=== Seed 7185120: Snow-Encrusted ===

126 Rejections (and still under 15 minutes on my 1.6 GHz laptop).

This map has snow and ice, and lots of it. The world map looks almost completely frozen, only the bottom 3rd of the export map has significant quantities of non-snow area--which looks to be mostly desert and dry areas.

Haven't looked at the map in detail, might not be worth playing, but it was amusing.

=== Seed 71551: Another quickie ===

5 Rejects.

29 squares left and 11 squares up from the lower left corner is a mirthful glacier with a volcano and dolomite. Potential '''STEEL GLACIER'''!

-Ilmuri

=== Seed 3614285250: Steel, Glass, Obsidian, Platinum, and a cave river for good measure ===

Steel in the form of plentiful magnetite marble and coal, obsidian for rock crafts and swords, glass in the form of black sand, and a couple largish veins of platinum near the cliff face to the west.
The biggest downside is that it has about 131 rejections, and no pit either. Otherwise it would be just about the perfect fortress in 4x5. It's even got some nice cliff faces for the traditionalist. The cave river starts at the bottom of the map and it goes straight down (off the map), but it's a source of infinite water and cave plants nonetheless.

[[image:Steelglass fortress.png]]

40d:Your first fortress

2007-11-05T14:29:37Z

Q-Stone: Added note that cliffs make it harder for caravans to reach the fortress

This is a guide to help new players get started on their first fortress and teach them the basics of keeping their dwarves alive. Above all else, always remember the Dwarf Fortress motto: "Losing is fun!"

We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying skills and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in [[technical tricks]]. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. It is also deliberately terse: for more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the DF Wiki.

== Generating a world ==
You have the option of rolling up a random world to start in, downloading a pre-generated world, or trying out one of a variety of fast-generating or interesting [[Pregenerated worlds]] using a numerical seed.

To use a world seed, select Create a New World from the main menu, then hit 's' to specify a seed. Type in the seed and hit Enter, then hit Enter one more time to begin generation.

== Choosing a location ==
=== The Interface ===
If you have at least one world without an active fortress, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Chose "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll see a 4-section window looking something like:

[[Image:fortress_location_pic.gif]]

(Shown with the "curses" tileset. Other [[tilesets]] are available.)

You navigate around on the regional map (using direction and shift-direction) until the cursor is at a spot that looks promising. You then position your fortress on the local map so as to secure needed resources, resize the local area selection to control how much land you have access to, and 'e'mbark to risk your dwarves' lives and fortunes!

=== Learning more ===
In order to choose wisely you need more information. The interface has six modes which you cycle through by pressing TAB. In turn, they display:
* Temperature, amount of trees, amount of plants, and a hint at the sort of wildlife at the center of the selection rectangle. Look at the example picture again. Notice that you are told that you'll see no trees or plants here (mountains being too high for either to grow), but that's true only for the exact center of the local area: You'll notice that the local area includes some of both on the edges, which is often all you need.
* Civilizations capable of interacting with you. You need to be in contact with dwarves to get immigrants. You'll want to trade with the dwarves and preferably also humans and elves. Goblins mean trouble, but it's hard to avoid them without hiding on an island.
* Your dwarven civilization. Your choice of civilization may (or may not) have an effect on trade (how much of it and/or where caravans appear).
* Relative elevation and slope steepness. This lets you guess at the shape of the land. It also poses a major choice: The more levels the local area contains, the greater the room for ores and gems ... but also it might be harder for caravans to reach your site and the game will run slower.

=== What to look for ===
Here's where things get interesting. Among the features you'll be keeping a weather eye out for are:

==== Essential ====
* Coolness factor. The most important consideration of all! You want to play on the beach, raise towers to the sky, colonize a volcanic island, build a massive igloo, or brave haunted wilds? You can do all this!

==== Very helpful ====
* Running, unfrozen water. Many maps will have no underground water, so you'll be well-advised to seek out Temperate or warmer climes and include a river in the local area, at least for your first fortress. You can also get by for water on an [[aquifer]] but a new player will want to avoid them.
* Plants and trees. Plants ensure you won't starve, provide abundant alcohol once brewed, and guarantee that you can grow crops outdoors. Trees mean wood, building materials, fuel, and charcoal. Even a relatively small forest makes all the difference. Neither plants nor trees will grow in the mountains, so place your mountain fortresses at the edge of the cliffs (the game actually requires that you do this). If you choose a site without plants or trees, buy lots of extra food and logs.

==== Nice to have ====
* Sand is essential for glass-making.
* A magma vent (dark red double wavy line on the local map) means larger-scale metalbashing and glassworking, but also greater danger and slower game speed. Avoid them for your first fort.
* Many other considerations will come into play once you get some experience; they are beyond the scope of this guide.

==== Challenging (avoid all of these with your first fort) ====
* Shores - the fish are deadly in the current version ... no joke!
* Haunted (purple) areas - filled with highly dangerous undead monsters.
* Magma - also too dangerous
* [[Aquifer]]s - take some skill and experience to handle. Aquifers are indicated by one or more wavy blue lines to the right of the minerals listing.
* Cold or Freezing areas, especially if you've turned off temperature. Water near the surface stays frozen seasonally or even year-round here; this usually means your dwarves cannot find a place to drink (or, at best, requires that you work harder to get them one). Healthy dwarves will drink liquor if available but bedridden ones require water.

=== Resizing the local area ===
Once you've found a promising spot, you need to decide how much of it you want to have access to. Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of rocks and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include greater CPU load (which can ruin a game completely - be careful), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your depot before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. Note that, because you can mine many levels, even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.

=== Embark ===
When done, hit 'e'mbark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site.

== Buying Skills and Items ==
You'll now have the choice of playing with the default setup or of preparing for the journey carefully. We're going to do the latter, because we'd like to stay alive.

The purchase interface has two modes; one for skills and the other for items; press TAB to cycle between them. You may also name your new fortress. When done, hit 'e'mbark.

There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The [[Starting Builds]] page offers several possibilities. The "Basic" plan there is a good general-purpose layout, but we're going to focus on basic survivability here.

=== Dwarves & skills ===
On most (but not all) sites, you'll want to get food, brew drink, mine, make wood and stone items, and trade. Whatever additional skills you purchase, be sure to cover these. Remove a battle axe to free up points for skills and get the following:
* 2 miners/soldiers: proficient Miner for digging; proficient Wrestler for defense
* 1 mason/mechanic: Proficient Mason, novice Building Designer, competent Mechanic, novice Appraiser.
* 1 leader/carpenter/woodcutter: Skilled Carpenter, (normal) Wood Cutter, novice Appraiser, novice Organizer, and spend remaining skills on stuff like Judge of Intent, Consoler, Pacifier, Liar, and the like.
* 1 grower/brewer/cook: Skilled Grower, competent Brewer, competent Cook.
* 1 herbalist/grower/stonecrafter: Skilled Herbalist, Skilled Grower, (normal) Stone Crafter.
* 1 bowyer/marksdwarf: competent Bowyer, (normal) Wood Crafter, proficient Marksdwarf.

=== Items ===
You want picks, food, and drink. Everything else is optional.

* 2 [[pick]]s - 1 per miner
* 1 [[battle axe]] - so you can chop wood
* 0 [[Anvil]] - we're going to wait for traders to bring one and spend the points on food and raw materials instead.
* 100 units of drink: [[dwarven ale]], [[dwarven beer]], and [[dwarven rum]] are all good. [[dwarven wine]] you'll get through brewing.
* 100 [[plump helmets]] - They're good to eat and produce 5 units of booze for each one brewed at a [[still]].
* 5 turtles - they get you bones and shells
* 20 [[plump helmet]] spawn - for planting.
* 2 dogs - to guard against thieves and help kill intruders.
* (optional) 1 of many different kinds of meats - for extra barrels
* (optional) some cheap (5 point) leather - to make quivers and bags and such
* at least 20 logs - to make certain you have at least some wood

You'll have a lot of points left over. Spend them on useful raw materials like logs and leather, extra seeds, extra food and drink, and fun stuff. Don't worry about buying weapons or bolts as your site should not be ''that'' dangerous.

== Beginning the fortress ==

When you reach the site of your new fortress, the first things you want to do are:

* Dig secure lodgings.
* Set up basic [[workshop]]s.
* Set up a [[dining room]] and a [[bedroom]].
* Set up a [[farm]].
* Set up [[stockpile]]s.

Sounds simple, right? It doesn't? Learning the basics of the game can take some time, but soon enough you'll be customizing stockpiles like a pro!

* First off, pause the game by pressing {{k|space}}. You can do this at any time to figure out what's going on at your leisure.

* To move the view around, use the arrow keys. To move the view around at a faster pace, hold down the {{k|shift}} key, but make sure {{k|numlock}} is off. To view different elevations, or "Z-levels," use the {{k|<}} and {{k|>}} keys ({{k|shift}} + {{k|,}} or {{k|.}}).

* To examine the contents of a square, press {{k|k}} and move the cursor over the square you want to examine. If you get lost and can't find your way back to your dwarves, press {{k|F1}} to center the camera back on the starting position. Check out more information on [[hotkeys]] such as this.

*You need to know how to change what jobs your dwarves will do. Press {{k|v}} and then move the cursor over a dwarf. It will display information about him/her. Go to the dwarf's {{k|p}}references, then the {{k|l}}abor submenu, and scroll the list with {{k|+}} and {{k|-}}. The highlighted jobs are the ones this dwarf is allowed to do. Your starting dwarves should have the jobs that you gave them skills in enabled, but any dwarf can do any job, even if they have no skill in it yet. This is important to know so you can make the dwarves do the jobs you need done instead of just whatever their default jobs are.
*To start [[digging]] out your fortress, press {{k|d}} to open the designation menu. Here you can select the tiles for your miners to dig, or tell them to create [[stair]]s and [[ramp]]s, and various other things. Press {{k|d}} again to make sure you're creating digging designations, then press enter to start marking where to dig.
*Start digging out a room as the start of your fortress. Try to keep a 1 tile wide chokepoint or hallway leading into it which you can block with a door. If you are in an area covered with sand, loam, or clay, you should dig downward using [[stair]]s or [[ramp]]s until you find rock, and mine the room out of that. You'll need the rock for construction.
*To dig down with stairs, designate a "downwards stairway" on the surface, then move the view down one level ({{k|>}}) and designate either an "upwards stairway" or an "up/down stairway" on the tile directly beneath the downwards stairs. Stairs can go as deep as you want in a stack if you keep making up/down stairs on top of each other. You can continue stairs from both the top and the bottom of up/down stairs, but only from the bottom of downwards stairs, and only from the top of upwards stairs.
*Outdoors by the wagon, create a [[refuse stockpile]], a [[wood stockpile]], a [[furniture stockpile]], and a [[food stockpile]] to get your supplies out of the wagon and keep the food from rotting. To make a stockpile, press {{k|p}}, press the letter corresponding to the type of stockpile you want, then press enter and drag the selection box over the area you want, and press enter again to create it.
*Disassemble the wagon for [[wood]] by pressing {{k|q}}, moving the cursor over the wagon and pressing {{k|x}}. Your carpenter should then disassemble it into 3 logs.
*Create a [[Mason's Workshop]], a [[Carpenter's Workshop]], and a [[Mechanic's Workshop]] with the stones your miners should be producing as they dig tunnels through the rock. To build things, press {{k|b}}, then for workshops, press {{k|w}}. Scroll to the type you want with {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} and press enter. You should next see a screen with the list of all the available materials you can use to build the workshop. Select any type of stone and the dwarves will get started. '''NOTE:''' If the stone available to you has some [[economic stone|economic value]], such as [[limestone]] or [[marble]], you must press {{k|z}} to open the general status screen, go to the Stones submenu, then find the stone type in the list and press {{k|enter}} to allow your dwarves to use it for mundane tasks like constructing buildings and furniture.
*Your [[fisherdwarf]] has likely run off to a body of water to start fishing. Raw fish is inedible, and rots if left alone too long, so you need to build a [[fishery]] to process it. You build the fishery in the same way you built the other workshops. After it's built, select it with {{k|q}}, press {{k|a}}, select "Process Raw Fish" and press enter. Then press {{k|r}} to make that order repeat until it runs out of fish to process.
*At the [[Mason's Workshop]], order a [[door]] by selecting the workshop with {{k|q}}, pressing {{k|a}}, then scrolling to "door" on the list with the + and - keys and pressing enter. Stone is more common than wood, so you want to make everything you possibly can out of stone rather than wood. The only important items you can't make out of stone that you can make out of wood are [[bed]]s, [[bucket]]s, [[bin]]s, [[barrel]]s, and [[charcoal]] for fueling your [[forge]]s.
*Once the door is finished, place the door in the entrance of your fort by pressing {{k|b}}uild, then {{k|d}}oor, then selecting the space you want it to go in and pressing {{k|enter}}. If trouble shows up, you can lock the door by pressing {{k|q}}, highlighting it and pressing {{k|l}} once. Pressing it again unlocks it.
*At the [[Carpenter's Workshop]], first order a [[bed]] and a [[bucket]] to be made out of some of your wagon wood.
*Once the bed is complete, {{k|b}}uild it in the same manner you built the door, and place it in your entrance hall. Once it's placed, you should make it into a communal sleeping hall by selecting the bed with {{k|q}}, pressing {{k|r}} and using the {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} keys to cover the area of the hall, pressing enter, then pressing {{k|b}} to make it a [[barracks]]. Making it a barracks means that it is a public sleeping area, and dwarves without their own rooms will sleep there, even if there aren't enough beds.
*You should designate some trees to be cut down for more logs. Press {{k|d}}, then {{k|t}}. Find an area with trees, then press enter and highlight some trees by dragging the selection area over them and pressing enter again.
*To build some [[trap]]s to defend your front door, order some [[mechanism]]s to be built at the [[Mechanic's Workshop]]. After they are made, go to the {{k|b}}uild menu, and select the "Traps/Levers" category using {{k|+}} and {{k|-}}. Select the [[Trap#Stone-fall trap|stone-fall trap]], select the materials to use, then place it in a choke point leading into your fortress, like in front of or behind the front door.
*Mine a new room that will be used as a dining hall, and build four or five stone [[table]]s and stone [[throne]]s for it. Build some more doors to section off new rooms properly, as dwarves dislike rooms that aren't enclosed on all sides by walls or doors. Place the tables and thrones like you did the doors, and put one throne adjacent to each table. Once a table is placed in the room, select it with {{k|q}} and use it to define the area as a dining room, like you did with the bed for the sleeping hall. You only need to use one table to define the room, and the rest of the tables in it are automatically considered part of the dining room.
*Mine a few more rooms to be used as storage areas, remove the furniture and food stockpiles outside, and make new ones in these new storage rooms.
*You can also move your workshops indoors. They should not be built in the vicinity of the sleeping hall, as the noise will bother people. You can remove the workshops aboveground the same way you dismantled the wagon, press {{k|q}}, highlight the workshop, then press {{k|x}}.
*Next you'll set up [[farming]]. You first need to dig a farm room underground. Dwarven crops won't grow on the surface. If there are enough layers of [[soil]] covering the rock, you can carve out a farm room inside the soil and start farming without having to [[irrigate]] the ground. However, if you want to make a farm room with a rock floor, you will need to get the floor wet first. When water covers a rock cavern floor, it becomes muddy, which allows you to build farm plots on it. For more information about how to do that, read up on [[irrigation]].
*Once you have suitable ground for planting, go to the {{k|b}}uild menu, find "Farm Plot" or press {{k|p}}, then use the {{k|u}} {{k|m}} {{k|h}} {{k|k}} keys to resize it, and press enter to place it. A 5x5 field should be plenty to last you through winter. After it's placed, your growers will come clear the site and prepare it for planting.
*Now that the field is ready, select it with {{k|q}}, and set the crop you want to be grown on it. You have to set this manually for each season. Press {{k|a}} for spring, {{k|b}} for summer, {{k|c}} for fall, and {{k|d}} for winter. Not every crop can be grown in every season, although [[plump helmet]]s can be grown all year. You probably want to grow plump helmets exclusively at first, as they are the easiest crop to grow and use. Dwarves can eat them raw, cooked, or brew them into alcohol.

==What Next?==
At this point your little fort should be mostly self-sufficient, barring animal attacks, mining accidents, psychotic outbreaks, or invasion. You can now invest some time in luxuries, such as making private rooms for each dwarf, crafting valuable trade goods, crazy engineering projects, and brewing more beer.

Here's some ideas for what to do next:
*Make an underground water supply that won't freeze over in winter, by draining a surface pool or diverting a river.
*Build a [[craftdwarf's workshop]] and start making some trade goods.
*Build a [[trade depot]] so that merchants can come and trade with you.
*Set up a [[still]] to brew more drinks for your thirsty dwarves. They'll drink water if they have to, but they are much happier and work faster if they are full of beer.
*Make individual rooms for each dwarf, with a bed and maybe a rock coffer and rock cabinet in each one.
*Use [[zone]]s to set up a meeting hall, and designate which water sources you want your dwarves to use for fishing and drinking.
*Expand your farm, dining room, and living quarters in anticipation of the massive wave of 10-30 immigrants that will likely show up sometime in the next year.
*Start making [[bin]]s and [[barrel]]s to consolidate items and food taking up space in your stockpiles so things are more organized, and so you have more barrels to brew drinks with.
*Set up an indoor [[refuse stockpile]] so your dwarves don't have to carry their trash as far, and so you can start building up a useful supply of bones and shells.

[[Category:Guides]]

40d:Your first fortress

2007-11-05T14:25:24Z

Q-Stone:

This is a guide to help new players get started on their first fortress and teach them the basics of keeping their dwarves alive. Above all else, always remember the Dwarf Fortress motto: "Losing is fun!"

We discuss generating a world, choosing a fortress location, buying skills and items, and playing the first month or so. Setting game initialization options is covered in [[technical tricks]]. The advice here is biased for safety; with a little experience you'll do better with strategies customized for your play style and preferred start locations. It is also deliberately terse: for more extended treatment of particular subjects, consult the linked pages or the rest of the DF Wiki.

== Generating a world ==
You have the option of rolling up a random world to start in, downloading a pre-generated world, or trying out one of a variety of fast-generating or interesting [[Pregenerated worlds]] using a numerical seed.

To use a world seed, select Create a New World from the main menu, then hit 's' to specify a seed. Type in the seed and hit Enter, then hit Enter one more time to begin generation.

== Choosing a location ==
=== The Interface ===
If you have at least one world without an active fortress, you will be able to choose "Start Playing" from the main menu. Chose "Dwarf Fortress" and you'll see a 4-section window looking something like:

[[Image:fortress_location_pic.gif]]

(Shown with the "curses" tileset. Other [[tilesets]] are available.)

You navigate around on the regional map (using direction and shift-direction) until the cursor is at a spot that looks promising. You then position your fortress on the local map so as to secure needed resources, resize the local area selection to control how much land you have access to, and 'e'mbark to risk your dwarves' lives and fortunes!

=== Learning more ===
In order to choose wisely you need more information. The interface has six modes which you cycle through by pressing TAB. In turn, they display:
* Temperature, amount of trees, amount of plants, and a hint at the sort of wildlife at the center of the selection rectangle. Look at the example picture again. Notice that you are told that you'll see no trees or plants here (mountains being too high for either to grow), but that's true only for the exact center of the local area: You'll notice that the local area includes some of both on the edges, which is often all you need.
* Civilizations capable of interacting with you. You need to be in contact with dwarves to get immigrants. You'll want to trade with the dwarves and preferably also humans and elves. Goblins mean trouble, but it's hard to avoid them without hiding on an island.
* Your dwarven civilization. Your choice of civilization may (or may not) have an effect on trade (how much of it and/or where caravans appear).
* Relative elevation and slope steepness. This lets you guess at the shape of the land. It also poses a major choice: The more levels the local area contains, the greater the room for ores and gems ... but also the slower the game will run.

=== What to look for ===
Here's where things get interesting. Among the features you'll be keeping a weather eye out for are:

==== Essential ====
* Coolness factor. The most important consideration of all! You want to play on the beach, raise towers to the sky, colonize a volcanic island, build a massive igloo, or brave haunted wilds? You can do all this!

==== Very helpful ====
* Running, unfrozen water. Many maps will have no underground water, so you'll be well-advised to seek out Temperate or warmer climes and include a river in the local area, at least for your first fortress. You can also get by for water on an [[aquifer]] but a new player will want to avoid them.
* Plants and trees. Plants ensure you won't starve, provide abundant alcohol once brewed, and guarantee that you can grow crops outdoors. Trees mean wood, building materials, fuel, and charcoal. Even a relatively small forest makes all the difference. Neither plants nor trees will grow in the mountains, so place your mountain fortresses at the edge of the cliffs (the game actually requires that you do this). If you choose a site without plants or trees, buy lots of extra food and logs.

==== Nice to have ====
* Sand is essential for glass-making.
* A magma vent (dark red double wavy line on the local map) means larger-scale metalbashing and glassworking, but also greater danger and slower game speed. Avoid them for your first fort.
* Many other considerations will come into play once you get some experience; they are beyond the scope of this guide.

==== Challenging (avoid all of these with your first fort) ====
* Shores - the fish are deadly in the current version ... no joke!
* Haunted (purple) areas - filled with highly dangerous undead monsters.
* Magma - also too dangerous
* [[Aquifer]]s - take some skill and experience to handle. Aquifers are indicated by one or more wavy blue lines to the right of the minerals listing.
* Cold or Freezing areas, especially if you've turned off temperature. Water near the surface stays frozen seasonally or even year-round here; this usually means your dwarves cannot find a place to drink (or, at best, requires that you work harder to get them one). Healthy dwarves will drink liquor if available but bedridden ones require water.

=== Resizing the local area ===
Once you've found a promising spot, you need to decide how much of it you want to have access to. Advantages of requesting a large local area include more raw materials, greater diversity of rocks and special underground features, and the ability to include desired terrain (such as a river, a forest, or a magma vent). Disadvantages include greater CPU load (which can ruin a game completely - be careful), higher likelihood of merchants failing to reach your depot before they run out of time, and more risk of losing immigrants as they struggle to your front gate. Note that, because you can mine many levels, even a 3x3 area generally contains more raw materials than you're ever likely to need.

=== Embark ===
When done, hit 'e'mbark. A warning may appear if you've chosen a challenging site.

== Buying Skills and Items ==
You'll now have the choice of playing with the default setup or of preparing for the journey carefully. We're going to do the latter, because we'd like to stay alive.

The purchase interface has two modes; one for skills and the other for items; press TAB to cycle between them. You may also name your new fortress. When done, hit 'e'mbark.

There are as many possible ways to approach setting up as there are fortress locations. The [[Starting Builds]] page offers several possibilities. The "Basic" plan there is a good general-purpose layout, but we're going to focus on basic survivability here.

=== Dwarves & skills ===
On most (but not all) sites, you'll want to get food, brew drink, mine, make wood and stone items, and trade. Whatever additional skills you purchase, be sure to cover these. Remove a battle axe to free up points for skills and get the following:
* 2 miners/soldiers: proficient Miner for digging; proficient Wrestler for defense
* 1 mason/mechanic: Proficient Mason, novice Building Designer, competent Mechanic, novice Appraiser.
* 1 leader/carpenter/woodcutter: Skilled Carpenter, (normal) Wood Cutter, novice Appraiser, novice Organizer, and spend remaining skills on stuff like Judge of Intent, Consoler, Pacifier, Liar, and the like.
* 1 grower/brewer/cook: Skilled Grower, competent Brewer, competent Cook.
* 1 herbalist/grower/stonecrafter: Skilled Herbalist, Skilled Grower, (normal) Stone Crafter.
* 1 bowyer/marksdwarf: competent Bowyer, (normal) Wood Crafter, proficient Marksdwarf.

=== Items ===
You want picks, food, and drink. Everything else is optional.

* 2 [[pick]]s - 1 per miner
* 1 [[battle axe]] - so you can chop wood
* 0 [[Anvil]] - we're going to wait for traders to bring one and spend the points on food and raw materials instead.
* 100 units of drink: [[dwarven ale]], [[dwarven beer]], and [[dwarven rum]] are all good. [[dwarven wine]] you'll get through brewing.
* 100 [[plump helmets]] - They're good to eat and produce 5 units of booze for each one brewed at a [[still]].
* 5 turtles - they get you bones and shells
* 20 [[plump helmet]] spawn - for planting.
* 2 dogs - to guard against thieves and help kill intruders.
* (optional) 1 of many different kinds of meats - for extra barrels
* (optional) some cheap (5 point) leather - to make quivers and bags and such
* at least 20 logs - to make certain you have at least some wood

You'll have a lot of points left over. Spend them on useful raw materials like logs and leather, extra seeds, extra food and drink, and fun stuff. Don't worry about buying weapons or bolts as your site should not be ''that'' dangerous.

== Beginning the fortress ==

When you reach the site of your new fortress, the first things you want to do are:

* Dig secure lodgings.
* Set up basic [[workshop]]s.
* Set up a [[dining room]] and a [[bedroom]].
* Set up a [[farm]].
* Set up [[stockpile]]s.

Sounds simple, right? It doesn't? Learning the basics of the game can take some time, but soon enough you'll be customizing stockpiles like a pro!

* First off, pause the game by pressing {{k|space}}. You can do this at any time to figure out what's going on at your leisure.

* To move the view around, use the arrow keys. To move the view around at a faster pace, hold down the {{k|shift}} key, but make sure {{k|numlock}} is off. To view different elevations, or "Z-levels," use the {{k|<}} and {{k|>}} keys ({{k|shift}} + {{k|,}} or {{k|.}}).

* To examine the contents of a square, press {{k|k}} and move the cursor over the square you want to examine. If you get lost and can't find your way back to your dwarves, press {{k|F1}} to center the camera back on the starting position. Check out more information on [[hotkeys]] such as this.

*You need to know how to change what jobs your dwarves will do. Press {{k|v}} and then move the cursor over a dwarf. It will display information about him/her. Go to the dwarf's {{k|p}}references, then the {{k|l}}abor submenu, and scroll the list with {{k|+}} and {{k|-}}. The highlighted jobs are the ones this dwarf is allowed to do. Your starting dwarves should have the jobs that you gave them skills in enabled, but any dwarf can do any job, even if they have no skill in it yet. This is important to know so you can make the dwarves do the jobs you need done instead of just whatever their default jobs are.
*To start [[digging]] out your fortress, press {{k|d}} to open the designation menu. Here you can select the tiles for your miners to dig, or tell them to create [[stair]]s and [[ramp]]s, and various other things. Press {{k|d}} again to make sure you're creating digging designations, then press enter to start marking where to dig.
*Start digging out a room as the start of your fortress. Try to keep a 1 tile wide chokepoint or hallway leading into it which you can block with a door. If you are in an area covered with sand, loam, or clay, you should dig downward using [[stair]]s or [[ramp]]s until you find rock, and mine the room out of that. You'll need the rock for construction.
*To dig down with stairs, designate a "downwards stairway" on the surface, then move the view down one level ({{k|>}}) and designate either an "upwards stairway" or an "up/down stairway" on the tile directly beneath the downwards stairs. Stairs can go as deep as you want in a stack if you keep making up/down stairs on top of each other. You can continue stairs from both the top and the bottom of up/down stairs, but only from the bottom of downwards stairs, and only from the top of upwards stairs.
*Outdoors by the wagon, create a [[refuse stockpile]], a [[wood stockpile]], a [[furniture stockpile]], and a [[food stockpile]] to get your supplies out of the wagon and keep the food from rotting. To make a stockpile, press {{k|p}}, press the letter corresponding to the type of stockpile you want, then press enter and drag the selection box over the area you want, and press enter again to create it.
*Disassemble the wagon for [[wood]] by pressing {{k|q}}, moving the cursor over the wagon and pressing {{k|x}}. Your carpenter should then disassemble it into 3 logs.
*Create a [[Mason's Workshop]], a [[Carpenter's Workshop]], and a [[Mechanic's Workshop]] with the stones your miners should be producing as they dig tunnels through the rock. To build things, press {{k|b}}, then for workshops, press {{k|w}}. Scroll to the type you want with {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} and press enter. You should next see a screen with the list of all the available materials you can use to build the workshop. Select any type of stone and the dwarves will get started. '''NOTE:''' If the stone available to you has some [[economic stone|economic value]], such as [[limestone]] or [[marble]], you must press {{k|z}} to open the general status screen, go to the Stones submenu, then find the stone type in the list and press {{k|enter}} to allow your dwarves to use it for mundane tasks like constructing buildings and furniture.
*Your [[fisherdwarf]] has likely run off to a body of water to start fishing. Raw fish is inedible, and rots if left alone too long, so you need to build a [[fishery]] to process it. You build the fishery in the same way you built the other workshops. After it's built, select it with {{k|q}}, press {{k|a}}, select "Process Raw Fish" and press enter. Then press {{k|r}} to make that order repeat until it runs out of fish to process.
*At the [[Mason's Workshop]], order a [[door]] by selecting the workshop with {{k|q}}, pressing {{k|a}}, then scrolling to "door" on the list with the + and - keys and pressing enter. Stone is more common than wood, so you want to make everything you possibly can out of stone rather than wood. The only important items you can't make out of stone that you can make out of wood are [[bed]]s, [[bucket]]s, [[bin]]s, [[barrel]]s, and [[charcoal]] for fueling your [[forge]]s.
*Once the door is finished, place the door in the entrance of your fort by pressing {{k|b}}uild, then {{k|d}}oor, then selecting the space you want it to go in and pressing {{k|enter}}. If trouble shows up, you can lock the door by pressing {{k|q}}, highlighting it and pressing {{k|l}} once. Pressing it again unlocks it.
*At the [[Carpenter's Workshop]], first order a [[bed]] and a [[bucket]] to be made out of some of your wagon wood.
*Once the bed is complete, {{k|b}}uild it in the same manner you built the door, and place it in your entrance hall. Once it's placed, you should make it into a communal sleeping hall by selecting the bed with {{k|q}}, pressing {{k|r}} and using the {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} keys to cover the area of the hall, pressing enter, then pressing {{k|b}} to make it a [[barracks]]. Making it a barracks means that it is a public sleeping area, and dwarves without their own rooms will sleep there, even if there aren't enough beds.
*You should designate some trees to be cut down for more logs. Press {{k|d}}, then {{k|t}}. Find an area with trees, then press enter and highlight some trees by dragging the selection area over them and pressing enter again.
*To build some [[trap]]s to defend your front door, order some [[mechanism]]s to be built at the [[Mechanic's Workshop]]. After they are made, go to the {{k|b}}uild menu, and select the "Traps/Levers" category using {{k|+}} and {{k|-}}. Select the [[Trap#Stone-fall trap|stone-fall trap]], select the materials to use, then place it in a choke point leading into your fortress, like in front of or behind the front door.
*Mine a new room that will be used as a dining hall, and build four or five stone [[table]]s and stone [[throne]]s for it. Build some more doors to section off new rooms properly, as dwarves dislike rooms that aren't enclosed on all sides by walls or doors. Place the tables and thrones like you did the doors, and put one throne adjacent to each table. Once a table is placed in the room, select it with {{k|q}} and use it to define the area as a dining room, like you did with the bed for the sleeping hall. You only need to use one table to define the room, and the rest of the tables in it are automatically considered part of the dining room.
*Mine a few more rooms to be used as storage areas, remove the furniture and food stockpiles outside, and make new ones in these new storage rooms.
*You can also move your workshops indoors. They should not be built in the vicinity of the sleeping hall, as the noise will bother people. You can remove the workshops aboveground the same way you dismantled the wagon, press {{k|q}}, highlight the workshop, then press {{k|x}}.
*Next you'll set up [[farming]]. You first need to dig a farm room underground. Dwarven crops won't grow on the surface. If there are enough layers of [[soil]] covering the rock, you can carve out a farm room inside the soil and start farming without having to [[irrigate]] the ground. However, if you want to make a farm room with a rock floor, you will need to get the floor wet first. When water covers a rock cavern floor, it becomes muddy, which allows you to build farm plots on it. For more information about how to do that, read up on [[irrigation]].
*Once you have suitable ground for planting, go to the {{k|b}}uild menu, find "Farm Plot" or press {{k|p}}, then use the {{k|u}} {{k|m}} {{k|h}} {{k|k}} keys to resize it, and press enter to place it. A 5x5 field should be plenty to last you through winter. After it's placed, your growers will come clear the site and prepare it for planting.
*Now that the field is ready, select it with {{k|q}}, and set the crop you want to be grown on it. You have to set this manually for each season. Press {{k|a}} for spring, {{k|b}} for summer, {{k|c}} for fall, and {{k|d}} for winter. Not every crop can be grown in every season, although [[plump helmet]]s can be grown all year. You probably want to grow plump helmets exclusively at first, as they are the easiest crop to grow and use. Dwarves can eat them raw, cooked, or brew them into alcohol.

==What Next?==
At this point your little fort should be mostly self-sufficient, barring animal attacks, mining accidents, psychotic outbreaks, or invasion. You can now invest some time in luxuries, such as making private rooms for each dwarf, crafting valuable trade goods, crazy engineering projects, and brewing more beer.

Here's some ideas for what to do next:
*Make an underground water supply that won't freeze over in winter, by draining a surface pool or diverting a river.
*Build a [[craftdwarf's workshop]] and start making some trade goods.
*Build a [[trade depot]] so that merchants can come and trade with you.
*Set up a [[still]] to brew more drinks for your thirsty dwarves. They'll drink water if they have to, but they are much happier and work faster if they are full of beer.
*Make individual rooms for each dwarf, with a bed and maybe a rock coffer and rock cabinet in each one.
*Use [[zone]]s to set up a meeting hall, and designate which water sources you want your dwarves to use for fishing and drinking.
*Expand your farm, dining room, and living quarters in anticipation of the massive wave of 10-30 immigrants that will likely show up sometime in the next year.
*Start making [[bin]]s and [[barrel]]s to consolidate items and food taking up space in your stockpiles so things are more organized, and so you have more barrels to brew drinks with.
*Set up an indoor [[refuse stockpile]] so your dwarves don't have to carry their trash as far, and so you can start building up a useful supply of bones and shells.

[[Category:Guides]]

40d:Dragon

2007-11-05T04:58:22Z

Q-Stone:

'''Dragons''' are ferocious predators. They are extremely hostile and difficult to kill. When a dragon enters your area, the game will announce its presence and its name.

== Butchered Yield ==

* dragon [[chunks]] [20]
* dragon [[food|meat]] [20]
* dragon [[fat]] [10]
* dragon [[bone]]s [20]
* dragon [[skin]]
* dragon [[skull]]

{{Creatures}}
[[Category:Megabeasts]]

40d:Dragon

2007-11-05T04:57:13Z

Q-Stone: New page: '''Dragons''' are ferocious predators. They are extremely hostile and difficult to kill. == Butchered Yield == * dragon chunks [20] * dragon meat [20] * dragon fat [10]...

'''Dragons''' are ferocious predators. They are extremely hostile and difficult to kill.

== Butchered Yield ==

* dragon [[chunks]] [20]
* dragon [[food|meat]] [20]
* dragon [[fat]] [10]
* dragon [[bone]]s [20]
* dragon [[skin]]
* dragon [[skull]]

{{Creatures}}
[[Category:Megabeasts]]