How a mad dwarf made me realize the most fun part of Dwarf Fortress, is the losing...

I finally got into dwarf fortress using This guide and this mod. My first fortress attempt was a bit of a bust because I made a bunch of mistakes, but my second attempt went fantastically, and I soon had a large working base filled with 2 dozen busy dwarves.

I was unprepared for the winter and lost two miners to thirst, a sad loss, but I quickly recovered, replacing the two dead miners with a extra woodcutter and a peasant who had nothing better to do. The wood cutter (Erbert Ghouslist- Henceforth referred to as Ebert) got along fine in his new role, and the fort continued to expand. We were rudely interruptted by the vengeful spirit of one of the dead miners but they were put to rest by properly burying them rather than leaving them outside in the dump.

Things were back to normal after that, but then, Ebert, the woodcutter, began acting rather strange. It would turn out that some sort of supernatural force had overcome him, he had been sleeping restlessly for days, and something got to him. He was possessed, but I though nothing of it at the time, I let him continue on with his work and ignored his occasional mental wanderings that slowed him down. He had alot on his mind after all.

But while he was digging out a reservoir to insure the next winter wouldn't end in death from thirst, the tunnel he was in collapsed, Ebert was knocked unconcious, and was dragged back to the dormitory. He woke up wandered down to the mess hall, and went berserk...

He began attacking everyone in the fortress, two stray dogs tried to fight him off, both were killed and subsequently, Ebert slayed the only mason I had and one of my carpenters. The messhall was covered in blood, Ebert, and his two victims were dragged off while coffins could be prepared for them. The dogs were left in the dump outside. I breathed a sigh of relief however that my losses had been so minimal.

Now I don't know if the fright of Ebert's break with reality had caused mass hysteria amongst the remaining 20 or so dwarves, or if something more mundane had occurred to make them lose their grip, but things got worse, the next day, everyone in the fortress began throwing tantrums, refusing to do work, to leave their dorms. They broke furniture and began drifting off at random, much like Ebert had before his outburst. Soon they followed Ebert's lead and one by one, all went berserk The bodies piled up in the dump, the fortress was at war with itself, and as such nothing could get done, the coffins for the first 3 men never came... A trade caravan that had come from a distant outpost to do business, was met with a group of rabid dwarves. the traders were slaughtered with the exception of two of their guards who fled to the hills.

I lost 15 men to the chaos, before things settled down. After 3 hours of Dwarf Fortress, my seemingly successful attempt at survival had failed miserabley. I could not recover from such a loss, with only 6 men left to operate a fortress of more than 20, and having had much of my base torn up, I decided to call it quits.

It was, however, a ton of fun...

In short, Dwarf Fortress is a crazy game, filled with alot of surprises and rewards. You should all try it. (It is free afterall.) With a good tileset (The game's ASCII graphics leave much to be desired) to make things a little clearer and a solid guide to show you whats up, its not so hard as it seems. Just Watch out for evil spirits and possessed dwarves.

How a mad dwarf made me realize the most fun part of Dwarf Fortress, is the losing...

I finally got into dwarf fortress using This guide and this mod. My first fortress attempt was a bit of a bust because I made a bunch of mistakes, but my second attempt went fantastically, and I soon had a large working base filled with 2 dozen busy dwarves.

I was unprepared for the winter and lost two miners to thirst, a sad loss, but I quickly recovered, replacing the two dead miners with a extra woodcutter and a peasant who had nothing better to do. The wood cutter (Erbert Ghouslist- Henceforth referred to as Ebert) got along fine in his new role, and the fort continued to expand. We were rudely interruptted by the vengeful spirit of one of the dead miners but they were put to rest by properly burying them rather than leaving them outside in the dump.

Things were back to normal after that, but then, Ebert, the woodcutter, began acting rather strange. It would turn out that some sort of supernatural force had overcome him, he had been sleeping restlessly for days, and something got to him. He was possessed, but I though nothing of it at the time, I let him continue on with his work and ignored his occasional mental wanderings that slowed him down. He had alot on his mind after all.

But while he was digging out a reservoir to insure the next winter wouldn't end in death from thirst, the tunnel he was in collapsed, Ebert was knocked unconcious, and was dragged back to the dormitory. He woke up wandered down to the mess hall, and went berserk...

He began attacking everyone in the fortress, two stray dogs tried to fight him off, both were killed and subsequently, Ebert slayed the only mason I had and one of my carpenters. The messhall was covered in blood, Ebert, and his two victims were dragged off while coffins could be prepared for them. The dogs were left in the dump outside. I breathed a sigh of relief however that my losses had been so minimal.

Now I don't know if the fright of Ebert's break with reality had caused mass hysteria amongst the remaining 20 or so dwarves, or if something more mundane had occurred to make them lose their grip, but things got worse, the next day, everyone in the fortress began throwing tantrums, refusing to do work, to leave their dorms. They broke furniture and began drifting off at random, much like Ebert had before his outburst. Soon they followed Ebert's lead and one by one, all went berserk The bodies piled up in the dump, the fortress was at war with itself, and as such nothing could get done, the coffins for the first 3 men never came... A trade caravan that had come from a distant outpost to do business, was met with a group of rabid dwarves. the traders were slaughtered with the exception of two of their guards who fled to the hills.

I lost 15 men to the chaos, before things settled down. After 3 hours of Dwarf Fortress, my seemingly successful attempt at survival had failed miserabley. I could not recover from such a loss, with only 6 men left to operate a fortress of more than 20, and having had much of my base torn up, I decided to call it quits.

It was, however, a ton of fun...

In short, Dwarf Fortress is a crazy game, filled with alot of surprises and rewards. You should all try it. (It is free afterall.) With a good tileset (The game's ASCII graphics leave much to be desired) to make things a little clearer and a solid guide to show you whats up, its not so hard as it seems. Just Watch out for evil spirits and possessed dwarves.

Haha yeah, the games nuts with how crazy the shit that can go down becomes. Funny how its always the ones who have easy access to weapons are the crazies...
 
The stories the game brings are easily the best part. Heres a bit about a fort I'm playing now.
 
 [small spoiler about a type of invasion in it, nothing major but it is intended to surprise you]
 
I've had these badgers living above my entrance on the hilltop I've dug into. They never really did to much, sometimes getting angry at the odd woodcutter or fisher that walked by, but never bothering me so I left them be. Mid summer of my second year a group of human traders show up. They get near my door/trade depot before  showing themselves as an invasion! My drawbridge was down, people all over, military chilling at the barracks, it looked like a bloodbath was going down for me, until I see the badgers come down from the hilltop and start battling with the invasion force. By the time my troops show up and I get all my civilians inside and lock up, the badgers had routed the invaders. Needless to say I'll be giving them the royal treatment from here on.

Dwarf Fortress is one of two games (the other being EVE) that I enjoy reading about more than actually playing.

Yep, Dwarf fortress is effin crazy, if it wasn't for the almost impenetrable interface it would be pretty much a perfect game, also the adventurer mode is one of the best roguelikes around imo.

Wow, what with the graphics mod that looks playable. When I see screenshots with ASCII I generally let out a resounding "nope". I might just try this out now. 

Fuck. This is the exact kind of thing that got me into minecraft. Some jerk like yourself comes on here and tells this awesome story and gets me super pumped for the game. I end up buying/downloading it, and playing it way more then i should. I hope you are happy.

Wow, what with the graphics mod that looks playable. When I see screenshots with ASCII I generally let out a resounding "nope". I might just try this out now. 

@TobbRobb said:

http://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/ Obligatory link. I've always wanted to get in to this game, but never had the patience. It's a lot of fun to read about at least. Wink wink, If you started a regular update about a fortress, I would read it. Wink wink.

I resettled the abandoned fortress from this post, so Im sure I'll have another story to tell, right now im cleaning up everything, I have to bury all the dead and clean up the blood that was left over from my first game in that fortress. I might post something about it later. I'm glad you liked it!

@SSully said:

Fuck. This is the exact kind of thing that got me into minecraft. Some jerk like yourself comes on here and tells this awesome story and gets me super pumped for the game. I end up buying/downloading it, and playing it way more then i should. I hope you are happy.

I'm very happy =) and if you play, find a tile set (That mod I posted above has a few built in.) and look at some guides (The One I posted is the best i've seen.)

@onarum said:

@Fripplebubby said:

Wow, what with the graphics mod that looks playable. When I see screenshots with ASCII I generally let out a resounding "nope". I might just try this out now.

Ah yes, without a tileset this game is really unplayable for me as well, it literally changes everything, also the lazynewb pack comes with the absolutely awesome soundsense tool that adds seasonal music and a boat load of sounds that makes the entire experience 200% better.

also here's a video explaining the basics of the game for newcomers by the great captnduck, it's 2+ hours though... but that's because the depth in this game is pretty much unparalleled.

The Lazy Newb Pack is fantastic, it adds alot of helpful tweaks and installs easily.

@Fripplebubby said:

Wow, what with the graphics mod that looks playable. When I see screenshots with ASCII I generally let out a resounding "nope". I might just try this out now.

yea seriously, the game's ASCII graphics are very discouraging, but the various tilesets make it infinitely more playable.

@PeasantAbuse said:

Dwarf Fortress is one of two games (the other being EVE) that I enjoy reading about more than actually playing.

I would argue that Dwarf Fortress is more playable than Eve alot of the time. You can play Dwarf Fortress for an hour and feel like you've done something, whereas in Eve, you spend alot of time idleing, there is always something to do in Dwarf Fortress.

You sound like you're talking about a popular game.. most of us don't know it, introduce us to it before cutting to the chase :P

Dwarf Fortress is one of two games (the other being EVE) that I enjoy reading about more than actually playing.

I would argue that Dwarf Fortress is more playable than Eve alot of the time. You can play Dwarf Fortress for an hour and feel like you've done something, whereas in Eve, you spend alot of time idleing, there is always something to do in Dwarf Fortress.

@Ahmad_Metallic said:

You sound like you're talking about a popular game.. most of us don't know it, introduce us to it before cutting to the chase :P

Theres a wiki attached to every forum post broski.

I love Dwarf Fortress, especially the stories that come out of it, but I'm incapable of playing it myself.

@Mikemcn: I downloaded the set you posted and the guide. Everything went well, but when i hit embark the game just closed. I am sure it is an easy fix, but everything before that was interesting.

Yep, sounds awesome, but the interface is horrible. Too bad, cause it looks like my kind of game...

@Mikemcn: Oh fuck yes! Thank you!! I played this once a year or so ago and it went to shit! (Not in any type of exciting manner like yours did) Currently downloading this and trying to relearn this stuff. Maybe I'll play this for the 24 hours charity marathon?

@Mikemcn: I downloaded the set you posted and the guide. Everything went well, but when i hit embark the game just closed. I am sure it is an easy fix, but everything before that was interesting.