Octopus Overlords

Isgrimnur wrote:So how do you manage it?

Go to the Military screen, clear the assignments, and manually stack in order the appropriate items? Any chance we can get some screenies of the process?

Sir, assign the equipment. Assign the Breastplate first, and then the two mail shirts. The little beardlings will run off, acquire the equipment, putting the breastplate on first, and then the two mail shirts. If you are still confused, I can provide screenshots.

Oh, and Sepiche? Your dwarf was the only one to score two Adamantine Mail Shirts. Burton and Paingod are wearing Copper for some reason. Herring at least got two steel ones...

Okay, cool. I'll have to take a look at my stores and see if I've salvaged enough stuff to support this and give it a try this evening after I return from the gym.

The next attack was an overwhelming force of goblins and trolls, much better equipped than my poor dwarves. I went from a population in the 90s down to 20.

Boardtowns by the Razors of Rhyme of the Lens of Recreation - founded 129, abandoned autumn 135.

Weird. The layering started working and I didn't make any changes. I have the breast, three mails, and several cloaks. And yeah, I start with molded armor (breast, greaves, helm, gauntlet, etc...) and wear the other stuff over it. I thought it wasn't working because I have so much armor laying around that my dwarves don't wear but as it turns out they're just picky. If I keep making things like steel caps, they'll eventually find one they like and put it on.

So my armor is pretty much like the wiki recommendations.

Oh and the ignore mandate culling thing worked. Thanx for telling me it was there.

Should I update my game is the next question. I need to put that in my notes to figure out for the weekend. Any have a link to the changes? The last udpate I did was the one for that fixed crutchwalkers.

Decade 3 has so far been the Decade from Hell. We've had huge numbers of deaths, the main entrance from the Fortress has been saturated with invisible Hemorrhage dust, and the farms are failing.
My question is: How do I get the Dwarves to plant more Plump Helmets? I've conscripted something like another dozen farmers, but most of the fields still lie fallow. Any way around this?

How old are the fields? Did you try fertilizing them with Potash? I find that I have similar problems where some job orders just freak out from brewing to hunting to god knows what. Did you look at the job list to see if there is anything screwing with the orders. Hunting is the one that pisses me off. I'll have 6 hunters sitting around with "no job" while random wilderness critters decide they want to wander in my fort and freak out my dwarves.

I've made it to year nine. I was up to 223 dwarves due to babies growing to become children but I'm getting ambushed about three times a season right now plus the thieves are slitting the throats of the random dwarves who find them. Attrition is going to see me seeing imigrants again for the first time since year five.

Almost a decade and my outer walls are almost complete. Now I need to figure out how siege weapons work and to start placing them.

Also DF totally ruined my weekend. All weekend to play about three years. The game is really slowing down.

Kings come with a retinue of high quality soldiers, right? They did in earlier versions. Be nice to name people after semi-competent Dwarves...

The Bad Shepherd wrote:Kings come with a retinue of high quality soldiers, right? They did in earlier versions. Be nice to name people after semi-competent Dwarves...

Mine came with one recruit (yes recruit) who had 15+0 sword, one who had 15+0 axe, and one who had 15+0 crossbow (I think shooting that is not archery). He also came with two other guys and I don't remember what they were but they weren't military. I'm afraid to let them go fight and lose them before they get some sort of fights/dodge/armor/shield user skills. The king himself was supposed to be an axeman but his military skills were for shite.

I haven't picked up the game since I got my king and I should probably leave it that way. I have way too much to do.

When last I played I was getting sick of lag and debating ways to kill off "fun" and have had two full time butchers whacking all my animals figuring I'll eventually just rely on food import.

ToadyOne wrote: Added ability to do designations over Z levels (e.g. long up/down staircases).

Woot!

Hope the new version comes out soon. That plus undead invasions could make this my favorite update since the Z levels were added.

Sepiche wrote:

ToadyOne wrote: Added ability to do designations over Z levels (e.g. long up/down staircases).

Woot!

Hope the new version comes out soon. That plus undead invasions could make this my favorite update since the Z levels were added.

Couldn't have done that BEFORE the Magma Pump Stack?!

CURSE YOU TOADY!!!!

Neat.

That is great news. I routinely designate long test stairwells in attempts to locate caverns and magma pools. That will come in handy.

Holy cow! Suddenly, the New York Times gives Dwarf Fortress 4,500 words.

That article worries me. Toadyone should take better care of himself . No one wants to see the article: "Maker of Dwarf Fortress dies of massive cardiac arrest, age 39."

Also, he sounds like a high functioning autistic. I suppose you'd have to be if you want to focus on coding one game for your entire life. Glad he's around, I just hope he stays around.

That's a great article. Never thought the mainstream press would devote that kind of attention to Dwarf Fortress.

The Bad Shepherd wrote:That article worries me. Toadyone should take better care of himself . No one wants to see the article: "Maker of Dwarf Fortress dies of massive cardiac arrest, age 39."

Also, he sounds like a high functioning autistic. I suppose you'd have to be if you want to focus on coding one game for your entire life. Glad he's around, I just hope he stays around.

+

AWS260 wrote:That's a great article. Never thought the mainstream press would devote that kind of attention to Dwarf Fortress.

Was basically my exact reaction to the article too

The Bad Shepherd wrote:That article worries me. Toadyone should take better care of himself . No one wants to see the article: "Maker of Dwarf Fortress dies of massive cardiac arrest, age 39."

Also, he sounds like a high functioning autistic. I suppose you'd have to be if you want to focus on coding one game for your entire life. Glad he's around, I just hope he stays around.

Until relatively recent changes in the nation's economy, people didn't think twice about working for one company at one job for life(ie until retirement). People actually lament the loss of that kind of employment continuity now.

I don't see how this guy, working on one game for life, a game which is paying his bills, is any different than all those people. If anything, the only difference is most of those people didn't necessarily work jobs they loved, while his work is a labor of love. But that's makes him a mental case?

ToadyOne used to work as a math teacher (at a public school IIRC), for the record. He quit that job a couple years back when donations from DF got to be high enough that he could afford to.

High functioning autistic doesn't mean mental case.
I got that impression too, not from his focus on DF, but from hisw obvious mathematical prowess and lack of interest in socialising with others.

Working for the same employer your whole life also isn't like working on one game your whole life. I've been at my company 6 years now and don't forsee myself leaving any time soon, but at the same time, if I was still doing the same stuff I was when i started here I really would be a mental case.

Anyway, I have nothing but respect for the guy (tinged with slight, polite, concern for his wellbeing over his diet etc).

gameoverman wrote:

The Bad Shepherd wrote:That article worries me. Toadyone should take better care of himself . No one wants to see the article: "Maker of Dwarf Fortress dies of massive cardiac arrest, age 39."

Also, he sounds like a high functioning autistic. I suppose you'd have to be if you want to focus on coding one game for your entire life. Glad he's around, I just hope he stays around.

Until relatively recent changes in the nation's economy, people didn't think twice about working for one company at one job for life(ie until retirement). People actually lament the loss of that kind of employment continuity now.

I don't see how this guy, working on one game for life, a game which is paying his bills, is any different than all those people. If anything, the only difference is most of those people didn't necessarily work jobs they loved, while his work is a labor of love. But that's makes him a mental case?

Forgive me, but the way you finished your comment makes me a little angry. Speaking AS a high functioning autistic, it offends me when people hear "autism" or "Asperger's Syndrome" and jump to "mental case." You had no way of knowing that I was diagnosed, and I assume no offense was intended. To conclude, Malcolm Lock summed up my feelings. His prowess at mathematics, coupled with a lack of desire to socialize and ability to, for lack of a better term, fixate on a single project for an incredible period of time made me think, "Hmm, he might be a high functioning autistic." I have nothing but respect for Toadyone, I just wish he'd take up jogging so as to insure that Dwarf Fortress development continues for more than the next five or six years before inevitable health issues.

That's a good post Bad Shepherd.

Toady sounds like a dedicated coder. His code isn't meticulous, as many modders to DF can tall you, but it is extensive. In some ways I do worry about feature creep, and would like to see a point where Toady says - ok, we can be happy here.

I am happy there is such awareness for DF now. Despite its warts, the game is a masterpiece and has provided me with countless hours of enjoyment.

baelthazar wrote: Toady sounds like a dedicated coder. His code isn't meticulous, as many modders to DF can tall you, but it is extensive. In some ways I do worry about feature creep, and would like to see a point where Toady says - ok, we can be happy here.

Blasphemer!!

I suppose you want trained war elephants and adamantine slippers available at Embark, too? Are you some kind of... Noble??

(I kid.)

Holman wrote:some ways I do worry about feature creep,

I meant no offense, I used 'mental case' to emphasize the fact that I thought tagging him with ANY kind of terminology was unfair.

In other words, I thought labeling him high functioning whatever is a subtle way of taking a shot at him. After all, if you thought he was 'normal' you wouldn't say something like that about the guy. It's like saying "He's doing well for a guy with...", that's a left handed compliment(no offense to left handed people).

People can be gifted in various ways and not have it be due to a syndrome of some sort. Just because he's gifted in math I wouldn't take it as a given that's evidence of something else.

As to his social skills, in the article it mentions that his family moved around a lot during his formative years. So he and his brother learned to depend on each other, since that was the only stable relationship(in terms of friendships) they could have. So of course now that they're older that bond is stronger than ever.

You guys could be right of course, I'm just saying there are other just as viable reasons for him to be doing what he's doing.

Well unsurprisingly that article in the Times was good for Toady's bottom line... he made more than I did last month:
July: $6615.67
June: $2374.03
May: $3010.58
April: $3018.42
March: $4220.20

Sepiche wrote:Well unsurprisingly that article in the Times was good for Toady's bottom line... he made more than I did last month:
July: $6615.67
June: $2374.03
May: $3010.58
April: $3018.42
March: $4220.20

Heh. It was well known enough that even my Dad sent me a link asking me if I had read it. Glad to hear he's getting the recognition he deserves - I tell anyone that listens that the game shouldn't even exist because it's so insane. (Both in gameplay and business model)

The new release is starting to shape up. Just saw this little tidbit today:

ToadyOne wrote: The last thing I got to was getting the historical dwarven vampires from world gen to come as migrants on occasion. Next up will be getting them to feed. This will leave one of your own dwarves routinely doing troubling things to the rest of your population, without you knowing immediately who is responsible.

So not only will there be zombie attacks, but there's a chance a vampire dwarf will infiltrate you. Awesome.

Your idea of awesome and my idea of awesome are a bit different. But if the odds are low enough, I suppose a vampire dwarf could be funny.

I suppose that purchasing a couple of barrels of dwarf blood from the next caravan might not be a bad idea.

Little more info on vampire dwarves today:

Toady One wrote: I thought feeding was next up, but I've been working through making vampires in the fortress harder to spot... they are practically shiny as it stands. They walk faster than mortal dwarves, and they have unusual world-gen-only skills and visible kill lists from historical victims numbering in the dozens. I'm disguising that stuff and adding assumed identities for critters to use, as an extension of the physical form stuff I was talking about in September. Vampires that are hiding their identity in your fortress will intentionally walk at normal speeds and their historical kill lists will be hidden, although you might spot them running fast if they are in your military and fighting with an opponent.

Losing a few dwarves to bloodlust every now and again seems like a small price to pay for having a vampire in your army.

Sepiche wrote:Little more info on vampire dwarves today:

Toady One wrote: I thought feeding was next up, but I've been working through making vampires in the fortress harder to spot... they are practically shiny as it stands.

I laughed!

Looks like we're on track for a new release in a few more weeks. Toady posted this today which made me laugh:

I visited a tomb today as the adventurer Cadem Renownletter to see how well the game retains the position of skeletons and treasures as I move them around. During the process, a mummy boxed me in the ribs, broke my finger, bit my hand and shook it around until the hand came off. The mummy then animated the hand and they both attacked me. The hand scored the killing scratch, earning the name "Drippedsieged, Cadem Renownletter's left hand" and earning the tomb an additional defender against further testing. Its middle finger is still broken.

This game has the best stories.

The new release is here!

DWARF FORTRESS 0.34.01 (Feb 14, 2012)


02/14/2012 Here's the release we've been working on for nearly eleven months. I've tried to collect the major changes below, but it won't be a complete list. I hope you enjoy the game!

New stuff

• cities in adventure mode that have various buildings, dungeons, items, livestock, etc.
• protect your community from secret vampire dwarves or hunt them as an adventurer
• defend your fort during the full moon or risk a werewolf infestion -- hunt/be hunted as an adventurer
• face armies of the dead in dwarf mode or visit their necromancers' towers and learn their secrets as an adventurer
• evil regions where the dead and pieces of the dead can come alive, with evil mists and rain
• tombs built in world gen which can be visited in adv mode, either beneath towns or out in the wilds -- beware the dead!
• revamped justice/witness/death notification system in dwarf mode
• immigrants to your fortress will now be historical figures whenever possible, which means more family relationships and history for each one
• dropped items/bodies tracked between plays in the wilderness anywhere in the world
• more battlefield information tracked/war dead raisable in world gen
• all sponsorship animals and their giant/man versions are in the game now
• various new abilities for creatures (see file_changes.txt for list and syntax)
• adventurers can use creature abilities/learned powers and they can be tested from the arena
• new site travel map to make navigating towns easier
• reading/swimming/observer (for traps) relevant in adv mode now
• established historical figures can lead bandits
• rivers block movement in adv mode travel
• eating/drinking required in adv mode
• ingested syndromes are now possible
• ability to make campfire (from 'g') and warm items at campfire/fire/magma (from 'I') in adv mode
• traps work in adv mode, once spotted they can be ignored
• gems now have different cuts
• necromancers can write books about various topics (all books are in their towers as it stands)
• moon phase indicator in fort
• alphanumeric world gen seeds and some more world gen params (see file_changes.txt)
• the legends xml has a lot of new info for historical figures

Major bug fixes

• buffer overload from aborted world gen fixed
• fixed cave-in-on-embark issue with hidden underground structure, and a few others

Other bug fixes/tweaks

• designations over z levels all at once now possible
• unit screen divided into four sections
• rivers/pools have ramps now
• able to trade portions of stacks in both modes
• messed with adv mode currency trading and made items teleport to you
• tweaked how fire damage works
• made vision work through floor grates and bars properly
• fixed some road/bridge problems
• crystal glass items possible again
• tweaked adventure mode swimming and alt-movement readout (use alt-movement to get into a river you want to cross)
• skeletons/zombies replaced by animation effect
• demons masquerading as gods will try a little harder
• restricted mandates so they'll be more reasonable
• stopped blank map from being exported when you back out of detailed map export

That's AWESOME NEWS about the new release!

demons masquerading as gods will try a little harder

This game is sublime.

I may need to try adventurer mode. Any one else play as an adventurer? Is it any fun?

The game looks to be totally different than last time I played and now I want to play again. I really need to donate some money to Toady.

What an asshole releasing it on Valentine's Day... that said... WOOT!

Can't wait to to give it a spin, but I don't know if I'll be able to play too much tonight.

LordMortis wrote:I may need to try adventurer mode. Any one else play as an adventurer? Is it any fun?

I played it a couple versions ago and it's fun. It plays like a really detailed Rogue game, and with all the new addition with towns and such I bet it's a lot more interesting and easier to find stuff to fight.

I notice the default age for generated worlds seems to be around 250 (I think) rather than the old 1050. (1050 is still default for making a world with "Advanced Parameters.")

I wonder if this is because world gen is much slower now. Starting with advanced parameters, I can't get a world to go much past 300 before it slows to a crawl and seems to hang indefinitely.