v0.34:Importing and exporting worlds

Found a great site that you want to share with others? Are people asking you for your "world gen parameters" or "seed"? Maybe you want to play a save or embark someone else posted? Maybe you just want to back up your world or your game and save it for later?

This page is for you.

There are two ways of moving worlds in and out of DF: The seed, or the save.

Seed

When people say "the seed", they usually mean "the world gen parameters", but seed it shorter to say. Using a person's world gen parameters, you can generate the same world in your game that they did in theirs (provided your versions of DF are similar enough). Of course you won't get their fort, or anything else they built in that world, just the world as it was when it was genned.

Export the seed if you haven't embarked:

Start the game in Legends mode, and press P. Your Dwarf Fortress folder should now contain several new files including a text file with phrase "world_gen_param" in its name. That's the one people want. Copy/Paste the text inside it into your forum post (use spoiler tags so people don't have to scroll as much). (You can delete the extra files too if you want)

Export the seed if you've already embarked:

Load up your fortress and press escape repeatedly until you reach the "Return, Save, key bindings, abandon fort, blah blah blah" options menu. Go to "export local image". Export local images of however much of you fortress you want (select only one level of it to save time exporting). Your Dwarf Fortress folder should now contain several new files including a text file with phrase "world_gen_param" in its name. Thats the one people want. Copy/Paste the text inside it into your forum post (use spoiler tags so people don't have to scroll as much). (You can delete the extra files too if you want)

Using a seed someone else posted

Open your Dwarf Fortress folder, go to Data, then Init. Open the text file called "world_gen.txt". Copy/Paste your parameters at the bottom of that file. Save and close it. Open Dwarf Fortress. Go to "Design new world with parameters". Worlds that you have parameters for are listed by title on the right. Choose your newly acquired world from the list and hit enter.

Save

The save folder contains all the information on your world, and all the things you have done to it since you started playing. Use this if you want to share your actual *fortress* rather than just the pristine un-played world. Moving save folders around is also a useful way to back up your games while keeping clutter to a minimum in the Continue Game menu.

Finding the save

Your saved game is located in your Dwarf Fortress folder inside the "Data" folder. The save folder will contain one or more sub-folders, each one holding one of your worlds, and a "current" folder whose workings I do not currently understand. Until someone more knowledgeable updates this entry, I suggest only having one world per save folder at a time if you plan on moving them around a lot.

Giving the save to someone

Upload the save folder (preferably zipped) to your favorite file host, or better yet to the Dwarf Fortress File Deopt (in the community saves section maybe? I honestly don't know, I've never done it before).

Getting the save from someone

Move your own save folder somewhere safe, then drop the other person's save folder in it's place. Now proceed to pray that the other person hasn't modified their raw files, because if they have then you are in for a considerable inconvenience that is beyond the scope of this tutorial. People using heavily modified games will usually opt to just upload their entire game folder.