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.

Finally, a strong personal aesthetic preference for original-flavour gameplay shapes this whole guide. 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 even tricks which feel 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 sometimes-inconvenient bits such as mandates and the non-essential industries such as wax-working.

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 beginners).

Crucially, this implies that the reasoning underlying this guide is more important than the concrete instructions themselves, and accordingly they are provided in great detail. Conversely, information on the game mechanics is not generally covered here, and players are not walked through every button-push, but are directed to the appropriate resources. It's easy to find out how to catch a fish; rather, this guide asks if and when you should catch fish.

That said, that kind of approach must integrate many moving parts - various and context-dependent costs, risks, needs and benefits - so it's best to initially learn them in a formulaic way. 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.

Finally, 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, that is, the mad scurry to get a door between your dwarves and the wildlife

Part 3 is (currently) very long indeed, and sets up early security and self-sufficiency.

The next part (in development) will probably cover basic amenities for your dwarves, trade, and allocation of labours.

Mixtrak (talk) 08:51, 9 March 2017 (UTC)