User:Mixtrak/Strategy

Welcome to mixtrak's strategy guide for Dwarf Fortress.

Another one?

Yes, there are many detailed, comprehensive resources for Dwarf Fortress on this wiki, and very illustrative video tutorials and playthrough guides elsewhere. I have relied on them extensively (thanks, Captain Duck!), and so will you - this strategy guide is not intended to be in any way definitive or a replacement for other resources. Rather, the intention of this guide is to be as linear and straightforward as a video walkthrough, while providing sufficiently detailed context and reasoning that players can grasp the underlying principles, and generalise them to other contexts. The intended audience is beginner to intermediate players. Beginner players usually wish to begin playing immediately, and this guide provides a structured approach which helps them learn the game. Intermediate players will understand the basics, but this guide may help to sort through competing priorities while promoting forward-thinking development of the fortress.

Philosophy and Contribution

This strategy is as much for myself as for anyone else, as a place to work out my thoughts and as a reminder when I start a new fortress. It's therefore unapologetically idiosyncratic and opinionated. That said, I welcome comments and edits - please feel free to say something on the "Discussion" pages or, if you think you can improve things, just be bold and go ahead and edit the content page. I can always edit further (or roll back). The strategy is currently undergoing playtesting, and will be continually updated. Once it's fairly battle-hardened I'm hoping to make a video series to complement it.

This strategy asserts that a fairly "nice" location - with good resources and moderate dangers - is the best way to learn how to manage a fort. This task is sufficiently complex that you should not want for additional challenges; the basic gameplay provides quite sufficient Fun for most beginners.

The main reason to start (relatively) easy is the complexity and interconnectedness of the different facets of fortress management. An Overseer must simultaneously manage the security, industry, happiness, military, economy, administration, diplomacy (and so on) of the fortress, and do so based on a solid understanding of the underlying game mechanics. Learning all these things and their interactions at once is extremely difficult, so do not scoff, overweening, at starting with a few advantages.

Another courtesy to new players and a side-product of focusing on fundamentals is that this strategy generally follows the KISS principle. While there are doubtless more efficient and effective strategies than covered in this guide, they may be obtuse, have many steps, or require a simultaneous familiarity with many different industries and gameplay elements. This guide attempts to gently lead players to that holistic understanding as the fortress develops, as linearly as possible. However, players should be constantly aware of spare capacity in the fortress, and be willing to begin new sections before completing the current one.

Finally, this guide is shaped by a strong aesthetic preference for original-flavour gameplay. There are many third-party tools which significantly ease the task of fort management, but for whatever reason I generally prefer the vanilla experience. For me, it's most rewarding to play Dwarf Fortress more or less "as intended", and in any case there are benefits to beginners in terms of getting started faster, focusing on fundamentals and reducing cognitive load. This also means I tend to avoid exploits or anything which feels a bit cheesy. For better or worse, you'll find no quantum stockpiles, free containers, or building-destroyer-pathing exploits here. I also assume that players wish to experience all aspects of economy and gameplay, including the potentially inconvenient or inessential elements such as mandates and using plaster casts.

Content

The focus of this guide is very specifically strategy, i.e. "a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty". Strategy is important because "the resources available to achieve these goals are usually limited" (ibid.). This describes the situation of a Dwarf Fortress player very well - a goal (developing the fortress), limited resources (at embark, seven dwarves, some supplies, and the landscape), and uncertainty (especially for beginners).

Crucially, this implies that the reasoning underlying this guide is more important than the concrete instructions themselves; accordingly, I show my "working-out" rather than simply providing answers. Conversely, the game interface is generally not covered, so players are not walked through every button-push but rather are directed to the appropriate resources or expected to look things up on the wiki. It's easy to find out how to catch a fish; rather, this guide instead answers the more complex question of if and when you should catch fish.

Of course, a subtle discussion of each industry is not very helpful to the beginner player. Beginners haven't developed an internalised model of the various and context-dependent costs, risks, needs and benefits. It's impractical to start by providing all the information and then expect an inexperienced player to put it into practice; there are too many unfamiliar moving parts to consider at once. It's best to learn the game elements in a structured manner.

I've therefore tried to derive a very specific strategy which is also as general and reliable (assuming a "nice" embark) as possible. Consider this a kind of "worked example", which should simultaneously get you playing and help you develop a more flexible understanding of the game fundamentals. Once familiar with those, you can begin to generalise and adapt them to more challenging embarks. Indeed, even as a player progresses through this guide, the rigid prioritisation relaxes and the servings of information become more like a buffet than a degustation. When you're ready to go from diner to chef, you've at least partially outgrown this guide.

On that note, a disclaimer about prescriptivism: as the old Overseer curse goes, "have fun". As I've stated, this is a personal guide; there are innumerable ways to play the game, so if you're not enjoying something, go ahead and do it differently. This guide assumes you want to produce a secure and durable fortress in which to fully explore the core game mechanics (military, economy, sociology, exploration etc.), but some players have more esoteric goals. Whatever powers your minecart, friend.

Recommended Pre-reading

This guide assumes you already have a general idea of what Dwarf Fortress is actually About, and that you've managed to get it running. In addition, I'd recommend reading, at minimum, the Quickstart guide, but really any time spent on the wiki is spent well. Don't worry too much about understanding or retaining things at this stage - this is more by way of general orientation. You could also consider reading parts of the Frequently Asked Questions (particularly the interface, since that won't be covered much in this guide), and a little more detail about Dwarf Fortress Mode, which is what we'll be playing. It also wouldn't hurt to watch some video tutorials - I highly recommend the aforementioned series by Captain Duck. Some of the information in the Tutorials may be outdated or contradict the recommendations in this guide, so don't be confused by the differences.

Strategy Guide Parts

Part 1 covers world generation, choosing a civilisation and site, provisioning your dwarves, and allocating skills

Part 2 covers the initial settling-in period at your new map; assessing threats and the mad scurry to put something between your dwarves and the wildlife

Part 3 covers your basic needs - victuals and security

Part 4 covers the basic fortress blueprint and setting up a stone and wood industry

Part 5 sets up a plant-based food industry, including farms and irrigation

The next part (in development) will prepare equipment for your military.

Mixtrak (talk) 09:18, 25 March 2017 (UTC)