/dfg/ - Dwarf Fortress General

I'd say armor breaking balanced that out better than the force transfer - since the latter makes armor almost completely useless in certain situations.

Even if you wear a breastplate, your arms get twisted anyway and the muscles torn, making them temporarily useless - why bother wearing it if it barely offers any protection?

Anybody know a handy lasher?

An honorable person would challenge a famous Axe Lord, feared and reknowned fighter, to a duel in order to see which of them was the true greatest warrior in a match decided by cunning and blade.

But I am not an honorable person, so this hero of goblin-kind is going to bleed out from their slit throat in a few seconds.

Just wear an adamantine cloak, nothing can kill you.
Except a direct blow to the head.

I had some fun with the stealth system in the beginning, and I really love how it's visualized (reminds me of everything I visually like about cogmind). But the more I noticed how broken it is, the more disappointed I became. Really hoping some issues will get fixed this coming bugfix period.

What sort of issues do you have with it? Maybe I'm just a pleb but I haven't noticed anything particularly glaring. I get caught enough that its still exciting, I guess.

So how much better is an artifact adamantine cloak vs a regular adamantine cloak?
Or is it just that it’s named?

not him, but I'd say the biggest problem is the fact that enemies don't react to sound. realistically, if someone attacks someone while other people are lloking away, the sounds of the combat should make them turn around. this is not the case at the moment. the level of your stealth skill currently has no effect at all at how well you sneak: only the environmental aspects matter. if toady made sound matter, then a higher stealth skill could at least make you more quiet.

incidentally, it's also because of this that guards sometimes don't react when you attack their lord who stands right next to them: they simply happen to be facing away from you, and despite the screams and the sounds of metal glancing against metal or tearing into flesh, they won't turn around.

Totally unbreakable vs simply better than most things at deflecting damage.

Ah I see. I'll definitely keep that in mind then.

Anyone can learn to play Dwarf Fortress, but it takes a damaged mind to truly enjoy it.

What he said:
Additionally, what he hasn't mentioned explicitly, they don't even react to the sound of being attacked themselves (at least I think that's what the issue is). You attack them once, they're still conscious (possibly even still standing) and you can continue attacking them again and again.
I've also had cases where I attacked one of several creatures standing in a group (say one of many trolls in a shearing pit), all awake. I'd hit him again and again, some even looking in my direction, all talking about it ("combat! how horrible!") without reacting. I'd kill one, go to the next guy, attack him; same thing.
After 5 or so, another two goblins, like waking up, suddenly start to attack of flee. Again, these were definitely awake.

>Use df hack to kill 80% of all my children
>mfw no tantrum spiral because everyone is happy about reading and shell encrusted tables

Toady please finish the update this year.
I just want to get started on my museum and tavern fort.

Oh lord I didn't know how badly I wanted guards and shit to go "hey... did you hear that just now?" til now.

>Start minting coins
>Build up a huge treasury
Now i just need a dragon and a catastrophy

Must have been the wind.

>dragon immediately gets caught in a cage trap

>See drake on list
>Shiiiieeeet.jpg
>Ready up for great battle
>Realize it's a male duck
>mfw

next version, dragons will finally rob treasures and hide it in their cave, so it's gonna be possible fairly quickly

Not that I know of. Do you really want to spend a shitload of time trying to grind your peasant attributes up like you're playing a Korean RPG?

>saving thumbnails

Indeed.

>>Use df hack to kill 80% of all my children
>>mfw no tantrum spiral because toadster broke that a while ago without coming up with a replacement
ftfy

Well, blows to the hands, lower legs and feet can still hurt you since they aren't covered.

Luckily, you can wear adamantine chausses, gloves and hoods to cover those remaining spots.

They and other megas already do that - its just they dont steal artifacts, only random trinkets or pieces of clothing.

Basalt

Not a thumbnail, you fuckface

How much of adventure mode's combat (against humanoids) demands situationally appropriate tactics? I know it has the most and most specific options of any game of its kind, but are the majority of them relevant depending on the specifics of the foe and situation, or does it normally come down to applying the same treatment to every enemy? For example, is there typically a "most optimal" grapple that's always the smartest thing to employ as a wrestling character, or a winning dodge+cut combination that's always the best move to make as a sword wielder (and what a player who was simply out to win would use every time)? Basically, is combat reducible to a short list of truly viable moves and then a bunch of flavor moves for the player to use to fuck around when their opponent is severely outmatched? Adventure mode's combat sounds conceptually amazing, but I like to be challenged, and I'd hate to get into it just to realize that it's "solvable" either through repetitious tactics or an early period vulnerability that's overcome by deliberate, controlled skill grinding and followed by the ability to dispatch opponents without risk.

Attack weapon-holding arm/hand in an attempt to make enemy drop weapon.

Attack feet / legs to make enemy fall over and move slowly.

Attack stomach / guts to make enemy sick and possibly give in to pain.

Attack head/neck in an attempt to deliver a killing blow.

That's normally how I break my combat choices down. My decisions are mainly made depending on what body parts I can easily hit first, and then what effect I want second if there's a choice between two or more easily hittable body parts.

Thanks for the explanation. Would it be fair to conclude that your choices in combat are primarily determined by hit chance, then? Can you deliberately influence which of those hit chances is most likely through maneuvering, or is it mostly a reactive process of going for whatever's most likely to land, dodging when necessary, and repeating the process?

Is it normal for a scholar to pump out books like no tommorow?
I have a great Astronomer who has written about 10 codices in 1 year

As a new guy interested in this, what are the best ways to change the graphics. It isn't even a case of "oh go, so ugly", it is a case of "oh god, I have no idea what any of these ascii characters represent", and if possible I would rather not have to learn ANOTHER game system from the ground up.

Just install a tileset - the starter packs make it a lot easier.

Trust me that after you use a tileset for a while you can usually switch back to ASCII later on (i.e when an update hits and tilesets have to be updated) and not have too many issues readjusting.

Just press K nerd

As a newish player myself, I'll be quite frank and you won't believe me, but ASCII is the best way to play the game. Doesn't look like it, but it is.

If you get Lazy Newbie Pack, try out spacefox. It is okayish, try one or two forts so you can get used to it then switch back to ASCII. You also don't have to use the default eye-bleeding set, too. I'm using Taffer (comes in LNP) and I'm loving it so far.

There are several graphical tilesets if you don't really want to deal with ASCII, you can search for them in the modding sub-forum.

>after you use a tileset for a while you can usually switch back to ASCII later on (i.e when an update hits and tilesets have to be updated) and not have too many issues readjusting
lol

>learning how to df
>fort is coming along nicely
>Plump helmet farm and fishery are keeping my dudes well fed
>Miners hit damp stone
>Have to stop expading
>Migrants come in
>Dunno what to do
>Greenlight all petitions
>Carpenter goes mad
>Fort is now blocked at the bottom from an aquifer and at the sides by a river and canal
I have fucked myself haven't i?
Also no anvil or stone layer

That's also the reason why bandits rarely attack you as a group if you wander into their camp and start slaughtering one of them.

For the most part, yeah - you can sorta influence which body parts are easier to hit depending on where you stand - obviously the left arm/leg will be easier to hit if you stand to the left of the opponent - but its not usually that practical.

Im serious - I didn't have issues switching from Ironhand to default ASCII for 42. Never went back.

That's been my experience with the combat system at least. I'm by no means an expert on Adventure mode, I've spent most of my time playing Fortress mode, but I've played enough adventurers to know how most things work, more or less.

As far as deliberately influencing what body parts you're able to target, if you're standing to the right or left of an enemy then you'll have an easier time hitting body parts on that side of the body from what I've seen. Also, the slower / more wounded an enemy is then the easier it'll be to hit them in general. If you can get a good hack in on an enemy's leg or spine and they fall over then your chances of hitting them anywhere on the body increases by quite a bit.

You've gotta visualize it like an actual swordfight -- you won't always be able to hit an enemy anywhere you want because their positioning at that moment would make it easier for them to block/dodge/parry certain attacks moreso than others. Also, depending on what kind of attack they make (light, normal, heavy) some attacks will leave them more open afterwards to counterattacks than others. The body parts that have a higher chance of being hit are the ones that are easily in reach of you and can't be defended as easily due to the enemy's current body position. You've just gotta take the easy shots when they present themselves and try to progressively injure your opponent to the point that he/she loses the ability to defend themselves so you can go in for the shots that might produce a mortal wound.

Trade for anvil.
You could cause a cave in for the aquifier.
dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Aquifer

Thanks for the feedback.

Ye, I've made agreements for my first trade for anvils and seeds
Also
>Wee, that's a lot of shit in the meeting areas
>Check animal
>Shitton of pups, cubs and kittens
>Send butcher on murder spree
Should I keep some doggos to make a wardog legion?

I WAS A FOOL

when is rimworld going on sale

Wardogs really aren't very strong so don't expect them to be able to do much against even a single armed/armored goblin unless you have a shitload of them. They make great disposable sentries at your gates to detect sneaking kobolds, werecreatures, necromancers, etc. They're also good when used in conjunction with a melee squad (assign a couple of wardogs to each member in the squad) because the wardogs will hold/distract enemies while the melee dwarf hacks on them.

How could we know?

Just catch it in a wooden cage and make him the centerpiece of your zoo. Or try to tame him and make a goblin/zombie-vaporizing pit. Be careful though, dragonfire can melt raised drawbridges.

I appreciate the in-depth response.
>You've gotta visualize it like an actual swordfight -- you won't always be able to hit an enemy anywhere you want because their positioning at that moment would make it easier for them to block/dodge/parry certain attacks moreso than others.
Oh I definitely get it. Like I hinted toward in my original post, being able to reliably strike/dismember any part of one's choosing isn't at all challenging and is at most only entertaining from a flavor and power fantasy perspective (which is fine for those that enjoy it). On the other hand, I can appreciate that, much like an actual life-or-death fight, the move to make will always be the one that's most likely to land. I was just curious if this was a primarily reactive process or whether there was a proactive element to the choices the player could make. It kinda sounds like the former rather than the latter, which is a bit of a letdown, but thank you for humoring me and answering my questions.

Well, the thing is that you dodge/parry automatically so you don't really have a choice of where you end up after a dodge. You could jump to the left or right of the enemy or even a square back away from them. In that sense there's nothing proactive you can do and it's all mostly reactive. You CAN choose to try and target arms or legs to disarm or hobble an enemy and you can also try to charge them and knock them over so you can perform an opportunistic attack while they're on the ground. Things like that are your proactive combat choices.

How viable are above ground forts?

If you want to hit them easier, stab them or grab them! Carry an off hand dagger to wedge in them and let go of it, and smack away.

They are, but take super long, and building is a pain.
It's almost fucking easier sculpting buildings by digging down

Extremely. I almost prefer them these days.
nb4 elf lover

You can set defenses to stand ground so you only dodge/parry when desired, and you can and should do aim > multi > dodge to square of your choice with tougher targets.

What do you mean? It's not hard to have a perfectly functioning and defensible above ground fortress.

Are you talking about not digging into the ground at all or are you talking about just building everything aboveground and still digging into the ground for stone/ore/gems?

They can look great, but are also rather annoying to set up, due to how long they take.

>Well, the thing is that you dodge/parry automatically so you don't really have a choice of where you end up after a dodge

That's pretty important, and a downside of dodging - I once fought some angels in a vault, and my adventurer dodged automatically and fell one z-level down - cracked his head open on the slade floor.

Don't forget the jump-slam attack after getting a successful stuck-in - its incredibly useful against similarly sized or smaller creatures.

oh, that's neat, I've never used that mechanic before, so you basically attack & then immediately take a jump in whatever direction you choose?

I think if you got a fast weapon yeah, but usually you move with their arrow to keep them in range after they move so you attack in the same turn.
Don't quote me on it.

Hawkwrath I think is what that would be, while Dragonfall is the tackle jump after a running start.

Yup, lets you get breathing room with big groups too, slash > hop northeast away from being surrounded, short wait til they get close, slash > hop north, wait, slash > hop northeast, get them to slow down and zigzag in towards you so you can control the fight.

>filename from that picture was because I got frozen up first time I ran into these guys and they all tried to hit me at once > game shits itself when too many attacks get lined up

>Close the gates
>Asshole dragon burns down my forest and destroys above ground grave yard
Just you wait...you will soon be my egg laying pet

you carved that gobbo up like a turkey

That Cog Adventure Mode LP was a fun read. Shame it seems dead.

I built a fortress on top of a hydra's lair and I want to move my adventurer there. When I get there, I can only "give in to starvation" unless I move to a part of the fort that's far away from the lair and then I can "retire or rest here for a while". The problem is, when I do retire successfully, my adventurer isn't there when I unretire the fortress. I'm guessing it's a problem to do with the lair and fort spaces overlapping? Or could it be because the adventurer is the lord of several hamlets that I cleared the bandits out of? This is the guy who advanced the age from "The age of savanna titan and hydra" by killing the titan, so I really want him to live here.

Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think you can actually retire in a Fort like that.
I think you have to retire somewhere else and hope the adventurer shows up while in Fort mode.

Ah I see. Thanks, I'll try that and build a tavern/library in the hopes that it attracts him.

You can retire an adventurer in a fort - thing is they'll be considered "hostile" (they wont actually attack any of your dwarves) unless you have them join a militia squad (the commander needs to have an empty squad for the option to even be available though).

Once they're in the militia though, you can order them like any of your citizens, even if they're of a different race.

That sounds like it might be a bug.
But whatever works, I suppose.

I think its just how entities work, rather than a bug - by joining the forts militia they also join the forts group. Since you still control the same group in fort mode the game lets you control the adventurer as well.

Post your best Dwarf Fortress memes

This one never fails to get me.

...

On the christmas sale I guess

Drew drew it

Is it actually worth buying?
It looks like a stripped verion of DF that you have to pay for

>It looks like a stripped verion of DF that you have to pay for
Because that's what it is. It does have some unique features, and clearly tries to be its own thing, but last time I checked, the emergent gameplay possibilities were mostly unexplored. Ironically, it fails spectacularly at the UI department. I may just be autistic, but not even DF gave me as much pain. The keyboard shortcuts are super obtuse and using mouse for everything takes fucking ages.
Overall, I'd say it's worth a pirate, but nothing more. Don't buy it if you haven't donated ten times as much to Toady yet.

>It looks like a stripped verion of DF that you have to pay for
It is. But with good UI and good mods. Pirate it and decide for yourself.

>It looks like a stripped verion of DF that you have to pay for

That's exactly what it is - most of the DF-esque games trade a lot of the awesome details and flavor for a supposedly better UI - myself I'm at the point where I'm so used to the DF UI that I don't care anymore.

Can you get that without fortress mode or do you have to cheese it?

>dragonfire can melt raised drawbridges.
HOLY SHIT! IS TOADY GOING TO BALANCE BRIDGES?

these aren't very funny because it's not hard to understand what they meant

That's literally the only thing in the game that can destroy a raised drawbridge as far as I know. It makes containing a dragon in a "cell" for megabeast / titan / forgotten beast arena battles more difficult than any other creature. Before I knew what was going on my dragon had already vaporized an ettin and 2 forgotten beasts I had in other cells.

Is it possible to make a gate yet? I want to make giant gate that opens only when you pull the lever.

Use a 1-tile retracting drawbridge on solid ground.

*1 tile wide, my mistake.

build two doors next to each other and connect both to a lever.

So is this sleeping army shit fixed yet?

Raising bridges are the easy way, but you can also use floodgates. Or grates, if you want a portcullis.
You can't make it more than one level tall, though. Whatever you're building your gate out of, it'll need to be supported on floor.