Are there any good #Youtube creators with short - and medium-length content about #Dwarffortress?
I just love #Rimworld and probably have 500 hours in it, but only playing Dwarffortress since the #Steam release, I am really struggling to get into it, simply due to struggling with the mechanics
I think I just need to watch some good and entertaining gameplay where some things are just explained in more depth.
theyre fairly short and explain basically all the basics. i learnt the game using these, and the really specific topics he doesnt cover can usually be found on the wiki.
I found this now by #BlindIRL on #Youtube. It is a long playlist of many short videos explaining the simple things that you need to understand before you can start doing the more complex things:
One thing that is, however, frsutrating me, coming from #Rimworld to #Dwarffortress is the sheer amount of materials.
I just want to make 10 doors. With Rimworld, I can immediately just place 10 wooden doors. With Dwarffortress, I first need to make them in a workshop.
To ensure that the doors all look the same, I need to change the work order to use the same wood. But the UI doesn't show what I actually have available.
Also having coffers and chests. Besically the same thing, why do we have one thing with 2 different names? Like rock jug and wooden mug? Infeel some of the items are named differently simply due to the material that they are made of, which is very confusing to new players.
@Stark9837 it is super confusing. Thrones and chairs. Mugs, cups, and goblets. All the same, just different names depending on material. Though, jugs and barrels serve the same purpose, capacity and weight are different (stick with barrels by and large)
@Stark9837 that's something that for me gets easier and just becomes the matrix screen...you just see thru it.
For me the issue of dwarven vs English name swapping is insane. Sometimes it displays the English name in descriptions and sometimes the dwarven.
You can change names on the char screen (top field) but the game will use the English version and now you can't even match it up.
And lack of alphabetic listing in most cases makes funding someone to add to a squad tedious when you have 200 dwarves to scroll thru
And more generally that you can't click thru to a character screen from most other screens. Like if I've found a dwarf in a list of ppl for a labor, you can't go into that dwarf, have to back out to the citizen list and re find them.
I actually don't experience this because, for me in #Dwarffortress, my dwarves are basically an afterthought. I don't have a personal relationship and connection to everyone, like I would have in #Rimworld. But that is simply due to how the game works.
That's why I also struggle to get into the lore and story because I never click on individual characters.
@Stark9837 thats kinda surprising to me cause dwarf fortress puts significantly more care and attention into individual dwarves and their personalities than rimworld does
I think it is because you have so much more and they aren't easily selectable. With #Rimworld, you often select and control a single pawn where you don't do this at all in #Dwarffortress. So I think it is mostly due to me still transitioning between the two games.
I recently played way too much Rimworld, clocked like 200 hours in a few weeks, so I am taking a break noe and feel it it a perfect time to get into Dwarffortress.
@Stark9837 gotcha, for me it's purely functional, I want to name them based on attributes or labors for easier sorting, assignment etc. Names like Urist McSwisherCleaner don't help me lol
Ex. My livestock are PigM/F [B (for breed or not)] [birth year] +/-tgh str heal etc
@Stark9837 I generally use the lower of the 2 'name' boxes. For creatures with a dwarven name like a pet, the top box custom name overwrites their first name. The dwarven name can take up too much space in lists of livestock
another thing I've done is have a 'Military Labor' custom labor defined. Assign all squad members to it. Then when I need to surge some other custom labor (like a lot of wall building) I can assign all of my military en masse.
Doesn't have to be military of course, just a group you have hooked up to a labor you change based on an urgent need. Like 'Move goods to Trade Depot'.
@Stark9837 You can automate your production to always have doors ready on hand, that's kinda how the game is supposed to work.
I just make stockpiles of furniture I need and set work orders to keep them filled up. Then when I need to build something, I always have some ready on hand.
Yeah, but if you want to set up a work-order to make 10 doors at all times and you want the same material to be used, you must first leave the screen and go check out your stockpile to see what you have.
The UI should show what each door will look like night to its name in the work order screen and also show whether you actually have the material available.
I haven't tried #DFHack because I only started playing the #Steam version. So I only later learned about it. And would actually like it if such features are actually part of the game. I don't want to have another 3rd party app open for the game paid for.
@Stark9837 Well, that's just how DF works, it's a very old game and DFHack just kinda grew alongside it, this is just how things are.
Since the game went up on steam, they've got more programmers onboard and are working on fixing up things and streamlining them. It's gonna happen, but it will take a while.
This is so great. I just tried it. The installation is very easy and then it just works. I just booted up the game, and everything is working. Thanks a lot!
One fun feature I discovered running it for the last few hours is the ability to build furniture that hasn't been constructed yet. I just love this. It allows me to build all my bedrooms and then move on the next stuff and then it is slowly completed in the background. Such a nice quality of life feature.
You are also able to build engrave slabs and filter them when placing them, removing the struggle of placing the correct one.
I now see what you mean how it just adds to the game. But I can also see I've barely touched the surface of it.
It is really nice that the UI follows the style of the game and it feels as if it is actually part of the game and not a mod!
@Stark9837 Yup, and you can build "plans" for your bedroom and order the construction of multiple ones in just a few clicks, as opposed to having to painstakingly place the furniture individually each time.
@Stark9837 oh thats true. i kinda forgot that the bookkeeper does that. they need an office with a table/chair assigned to them before theyll do their job
@Stark9837 Kruggsmash makes amazing DF content IMO. He really captures the story-telling and puts flesh on the bones of the text-based view that I was used to playing almost a decade ago.
I don’t have time to play the game any more 😞 but I still watch these videos 😊
Yeah, getting into the actual role-playing aspect of it is very difficult. With #Rimwolrd and #Dwarffortress, I just started a game without much thought. Where other players make active choices that will change and impact their game both positively and negatively. I just can't get into that play style. Might try it again once I have a better understanding of the game.
@Stark9837 All this meant playing quite a few games - mainly without much thought to embark location.
So what I’m saying is - and I think this is still relevant with the newer versions and newer world generation algos - keep making new forts, trying new things and those embarkation strategies will develop.
And personally, I never developed much strategy apart from: avoid aquifer. And then regret everything later. 😬😬😬
Taming aquifers are actually something I learned from @BlindiRL quite early after I bought the game. So I enjoy playing with them, especially if I don't have a waterfall or another fun water source.
But I am going through a phase where all of my playthroughs have waterfalls because it feels as if I can test and learn more!
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