Most Dwarfy God?

[mrbobbyg]

I used to think Okawaru; what with the gifts of gear, but the more Dwarf Fortress I play, I think that maybe Makhleb is a good Armok substitute.

But really, if i was playing for dwarf !!SCIENCE!! I would play something like Fedhas, hoard fruit, and create a massive dwarven Okolb assault battery.

What do you think DF players? Most dorfy builds?

[Jeremiah]

Fire elementalists can use magma.

Maybe Xom is the most dwarfy god, as he has the greatest potential to make you lose in hilarious ways.

[Curio]

what? Dwarf thread and no Grimm around? I'm shocked
anyway, Wiglaf worships oka. One example is not statistically correct but meh

[Grimm]

Cheers Curio. I don't play DF (yet) so I don't know what those dwarves are like, but from a Tolkien perspective Oka is the best we can do for a dwarven god. A truer dwarven god would be a craftsman/smith type guy.

Ancient Germanic dwarves were evil, if I recall correctly, so Makhleb would do for them.

[Roderic]

Svartalfar ( Norse dwarves ) were mischievous and taciturn individuals rather than truly evil. In the Anglosaxon folklore there is the Dwergar, a quite lonely and bad-tempered race of dwarves.

[XuaXua]

Grimm, if you like micromanagement, Dwarf Fortress is for you.

Best thing to do is to just google "Boatmurdered" and read the story; what it is is a group of people played Dwarf Fortress together. They each ran the dwarf colony for one year or so, then passed the file to the next player to work. Each player narrated their year.

[Hydralisk]

Bronzemurder is also a great DF story. It's very short, but beautifully illustrated.

[XuaXua]

Forgot about Bronzemurder; yeah, it's an easier-to-digest example

Read it here.

[Grimm]

I did load DF once and I love it to bits but it's far too work-in-progress for me right now. Also, I can't abide ascii graphics. I cut my gaming teeth on MUDs and things back in the day but nowadays I need graphics. DF will one day be the greatest game in the world - Crawl will be a subgame of it - but that is far in the future.

[XuaXua]

I did load DF once and I love it to bits but it's far too work-in-progress for me right now. Also, I can't abide ascii graphics. I cut my gaming teeth on MUDs and things back in the day but nowadays I need graphics. DF will one day be the greatest game in the world - Crawl will be a subgame of it - but that is far in the future.

Have you tried DF with a custom tiles set?

[Grimm]

Tempt me not, foul one! Seriously though, the fact that there are dozens of tilesets to choose from is yet another reason not to delve into DF. Just researching all of them and choosing the best one would take a considerable chunk of time. And then there are the commands to learn.

Gorgeous and fun to play with, but requires serious commitment. DF is basically a Brazilian girl.

Anyway, I am all about Crawl at the moment, and especially the DCSS TIT as noted in my sig. Once that's all done there may be time for other games.

[Curio]

I'm not going to mention, then that May Green have compiled DF with nice tileset that only needs to be installed and can be played right away. Or am I?

Anyway, I'm with you there. It's all about all kinds of TITs! Because, you know, tits beat DF any day. Heck, tits beat most things for me...

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

I agree. These are really pretty birds: watching them is better than playing Dwarf Fortress.

[mrbobbyg]

Just to make it EVEN EASIER.

Behold the, awesomely titled lazy newb pack. http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.0 It as all the goodness you could possibly want.

Also, dwarf fortress was in a NYTimes feature, which is kind of crazy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magaz ... wanted=all

[Grimm]

That NYT piece is really interesting, thanks for posting it. I've often wondered what those guys' lives were like.

All DF stuff has been bookmarked for later inspection. Much later.

[Nexodas]

You know I've been a DF fan for a few years now. Toady seems to live exactly as I imagined him to.

I got into DF a bit before I got into Roguelikes. Funny enough I'm equally terrible at both games, though I do manage to carve out some overly-elaborate floor plans and designs when it comes to my forts.

But, much like in Stone Soup, when ever I think everything is coming along fantastically, some small mistake or some random event will occur that very rapidly and very brutally causes me to lose. Things seem to spiral out of control rather fast.

[Grimm]

Bronzemurdered is moving.

[Confidence Interval]

On the strength of this, particularly Boatmurdered and the NYT piece, I'm very tempted to try DF. But... at least DCSS has a point, by which I mean an ending (let's leave aside the fact I never reach it). I've played Minecraft a bit and get frustrated after a while because there's no purpose beyond that which you create yourself (somewhat like life, from certain philosophical perspectives). Would you still play DCSS if there was no ending i.e. no Zot but just exploration?

[XuaXua]

Dwarf Fortress is the a game where you are constantly beset by outside and inside forces, and eventually deep interior forces.

It is not like Minecraft in that there is a balance you must constantly maintain.

I dislike sandbox games.

DF is a sandbox game that constantly throws sand in your eyes and dares you to keep building that sand castle.

And then, I do believe, yet I have never done so, when your sand castle eventually falls, and it will, you get to play a game of Crawl through the ruins of your sand castle.

I like DF.

[Shade]

Dwarf Fortress is the a game where you are constantly beset by outside and inside forces, and eventually deep interior forces.

It is not like Minecraft in that there is a balance you must constantly maintain.

I dislike sandbox games.

DF is a sandbox game that constantly throws sand in your eyes and dares you to keep building that sand castle.

And then, I do believe, yet I have never done so, when your sand castle eventually falls, and it will, you get to play a game of Crawl through the ruins of your sand castle.

I like DF.

I meant to hit quote and I hit thanks, but I can live with that.

To be fair, it's still quite possible to build fortresses in DF that are utterly secure. At least until more or the army arc goes in and siegers get smarter. The latest release of DF is pretty stable, though the next version is merging a lot of changes again. So if you're interested in less buggy DF play the current version. I have a friend that refers to DF as 'autism the game', and I'm inclined to a agree, but we mean it with love and admiration.

The biggest reason why I'm not playing more DF right now is that I'm spending most of my time at my girlfriend's place and my laptop can't handle DF, but it can handle crawl. DF has has a proper ASCII renderer for some time, as opposed to the ASCII via OpenGL and a bitmap (the default), so I really should be SSHing to my home PC to play some DF... Sometime after my next game of crawl.

edit: If you play DF, you often need a mechanism to get rid of pesky nobles who demand crazy things and then hammer the Armok out of the craftsman who fails to deliver-- My favourite noble disposal system is this: One cage linked to a lever that has a lion, or a polar bear, or whatever in it, beside, oh say, the king's bed. A second cage trap ouside of the Kings door. Lock the king in his room and wait for him to go to sleep. Get a dwarf to pull the lever to release the animal. Watch the king get woken up and devoured by the animal. Laugh and say "The King is dead! Long live the King!". Forbid your dwarves from cleaning up the dead king and his things. Unlock the kings' door and wait for the animal to walk into the cage trap. Allow the dwarves to clean up the king and his things. (While hoping that the King's spouse doesn't see the body and get all traumatized.)

[Grimm]

DF is like a game that you imagined when you were a kid.

[Nexodas]

Every year the invasions get harder and harder. Surviving outside forces, even the most powerful Megabeasts and Forgotten Beasts, are not the main threat here.

The main threat is your own dwarves. The smallest of things can set them into a tantrum spiral that results in your dorfs murdering each other. The simplest engineering problem on your part often leads to this if it doesn't make you lose out right.

For example, first time I ever tried working with electricity I did not realize that connecting a power source to a pump would make that pump continue pumping infinitely if said pump was hooked up to a river (which is an infinite source of water). I ended up flooding my fortress.

Another time a fisherdwarf was pulled into the river by deadly carp and killed. Turns out he was best friends with the Baroness, who used (from what I can tell anyway) her own baby to brutally beat her royal guard and most of the milita + Police to death. She then stripped naked an took a swim in a lava pool. Friends of the dead baroness, and friends of the dead guards/police/militia, proceeded to become consumed with rage and began destroying everything. Sometime in the middle of this a goblin horde arrived. I let them in. It was then things became too chaotic for me to follow reasonably. But I did lose.

First time I tried a fortress in a haunted map I discovered that skeletal elephants are uneffected by moats. I died.

Once I tried to build a steam lift, which was sound in theory at the time. First dorf to try it happened to be a mother. Both she and her child were scalded to death. Tantrum spiral = I lost.

I've lost more fortresses to my own people than to anything else. Especially after the nobles + hammerdwarf start their hijinks.

But I do love DF.

[Shade]

Every year the invasions get harder and harder. Surviving outside forces, even the most powerful Megabeasts and Forgotten Beasts, are not the main threat here.

The main threat is your own dwarves. The smallest of things can set them into a tantrum spiral that results in your dorfs murdering each other. The simplest engineering problem on your part often leads to this if it doesn't make you lose out right.

For example, first time I ever tried working with electricity I did not realize that connecting a power source to a pump would make that pump continue pumping infinitely if said pump was hooked up to a river (which is an infinite source of water). I ended up flooding my fortress.

Another time a fisherdwarf was pulled into the river by deadly carp and killed. Turns out he was best friends with the Baroness, who used (from what I can tell anyway) her own baby to brutally beat her royal guard and most of the milita + Police to death. She then stripped naked an took a swim in a lava pool. Friends of the dead baroness, and friends of the dead guards/police/militia, proceeded to become consumed with rage and began destroying everything. Sometime in the middle of this a goblin horde arrived. I let them in. It was then things became too chaotic for me to follow reasonably. But I did lose.

First time I tried a fortress in a haunted map I discovered that skeletal elephants are uneffected by moats. I died.

Once I tried to build a steam lift, which was sound in theory at the time. First dorf to try it happened to be a mother. Both she and her child were scalded to death. Tantrum spiral = I lost.

I've lost more fortresses to my own people than to anything else. Especially after the nobles + hammerdwarf start their hijinks.

But I do love DF.

The solution:



I actually once had a massive tantrum spiral, prior to DF 2010, when I unleashed the old Hidden Fun Stuff and my perfect system for dealing with it wasn't so perfect. In a fortress of 150, I lost 50+ to the HFS, and more than that to the rash of suicides and murders that followed. In the end there were literally 6 children and 4 adults left (1 burnt and brain damaged military type)... I survived... Never give up. (Though I've lost my share of fortresses.)

But enough DF, wrong forum...

[XuaXua]

But enough DF, wrong forum...

Anything goes in Crazy Yiuf's Corner.

[Confidence Interval]

The solution:

This reminded me of the Overlook Hotel and its caretaker.

"No sir, YOU are searching for the Orb. You've always been searching for the Orb..."

[XuaXua]

Is that either from The Shining or Deep Rising?

[Confidence Interval]

Is that either from The Shining or Deep Rising?

Ain't no Overlook Hotel in Deep Rising...

[XuaXua]

Is that either from The Shining or Deep Rising?

Ain't no Overlook Hotel in Deep Rising...

The central room with the drums at the start.

EDIT: Ah, I get it now.

I knew your quote was from The Shining; the image though, it looked like a cruise ship and that's what I was asking about.

[Shade]

Is that either from The Shining or Deep Rising?

Apparently it's RCI Navigator Dining Room from the cruise ship of that name.

To people that don't DF, one huge aspect of the game is physiologically manipulating your dwarves to be in a state of permanent bliss. This is achieved by things like: a permanent supply booze (dwarves get slow and sad if they don't have alcohol), but it also manifests itself in some odd ways. Your fortress can be a hellish dystopia, but since all dwarves have to eat, and all dwarves like to eat in dining rooms, and early goal should be to build the most fabulous dining room possible. "So, your child had a party at the well, but a carp was in the well and bit his face off, and nobody buried your child for a month while you were forced to walk through that room 3 times a day as your child began emitting miasma? (True story.) I have the solution: eat this legendary roast, in this legendary dining room, at this ornate table and chair, while staring the engraved walls and floor." If that doesn't work there is also a strong incentive to build luxury prisons, stocked with booze. If a dwarf is sent to jail, there's a good chance that they're starting miserable and likely to get more miserable because of their incarceration. The solution: Make sure the jail is stocked with booze, fabulously decorated, with the best furniture you can find. The last thing you want is for that dwarf to get out and go on a rampage. Oh, also build entrance waterfalls. Dwarves like mist , and it also cleans them. Bonus points if you can get the runoff deep enough to help them train swimming... and it goes on, and on, and on...

[XuaXua]

Is that either from The Shining or Deep Rising?

Apparently it's RCI Navigator Dining Room from the cruise ship of that name.

I knew it looked like a cruise ship dining room. Deep Rising; my instincts were spot-on!

[Nexodas]

Is that either from The Shining or Deep Rising?

"So, your child had a party at the well, but a carp was in the well and bit his face off, and nobody buried your child for a month while you were forced to walk through that room 3 times a day as your child began emitting miasma? (True story.) I have the solution: eat this legendary roast, in this legendary dining room, at this ornate table and chair, while staring the engraved walls and floor."

I also like to have masterwork statues and such if I can get away with it. Sometimes I mine out a little of a wall just so I can put a statue there. The entrance to my fortress is through a waterfall, but the entrance tunnel itself is also made of clear glass and is submerged totally underwater, Statues of famous dwarves of the past line the hallway in marble. The floor details most of the history of the civilazation, with the exception of several engravings of cheese. My engraver really loves cheese. Like to engrave himself eating it everywhere.

It's rather lovely if I do say so myself. Pointless? Sure. But it sure looks nice.

Another fun dorfy fact: that prison that rivals the homes of the best nobles? You really, really need that. Otherwise the Nobles have the Hammerdwarf beat the crap out of dwarves for any and all "crimes". Once had a Noble get mad because there was no platinum and he wanted platinum. He had the hammerdwarf beat a legendary metal worker (I think he was a metal worker anyway). The Hammer Dwarf beat him to death.

Needless to say that Noble finally got to see what those floodgates in his room were for.

[Shade]

Once had a Noble get mad because there was no platinum and he wanted platinum. He had the hammerdwarf beat a legendary metal worker (I think he was a metal worker anyway). The Hammer Dwarf beat him to death.

Needless to say that Noble finally got to see what those floodgates in his room were for.

One trick there is to order all hammers thrown into a magma dump (or was it smelted?), and never letting another hammer into your fort. I'm not sure if it still works though. As lame as it is its turned most hammerings into savage beatings instead. Yeah, always hope for nobles with common tastes, and guard them when you get them because the next guy will be a jerk with obscure tastes.

[Nexodas]

Well I try not to do things like that. A Hammerdwarf aint a Hammerdwarf without his hammer. Using that trick seems a bit...hollow...if you know what I mean?

I don't normally have TOO many problems with nobles. They have two whole Z levels (one for rooms, one for offices) to themselves, so the only time they have to see the rabble is when they want to eat. Been toying with the idea of giving them their own dining hall...but I don't quite know yet.

Also each Noble has his room connected to the river, held off by floodgates. So I can always flood their room and then drain it so the dwarves can haul his carcass to the noble wing of my catacombs and loot all his stuff. Switches controlling each room's floodgates are located 6 Z levels up, in a room off of the barracks in the entrance hall of my fortress.

So normally nobles are not a problem. Most of the time the problem is some dwarf going mad because I did not have turtle shells or some equally stupid little trinket. Sometimes they lock themselves in their rooms and die of complete sadness. Sometimes they kill 12 dwarves in rage. Them dorfs man. Them dorfs...

[Shade]

Well I try not to do things like that. A Hammerdwarf aint a Hammerdwarf without his hammer. Using that trick seems a bit...hollow...if you know what I mean?

Oh, it's as lame as it can be. I usually don't do that, and I try to meet mandates, but sometimes you just get an awful bunch or nobles that get replaced by even worse. That can lead to a lot of high level turnover...