Dwarf Fortress (1): Prepare for the Journey
Okay, let’s get started.When the game begins, you’ll see an opening cinematic (in ASCII, believe it or not, and it’s quite clever), then you’ll go to the opening menu.
For a new game (what we’ll be playing), choose “Create New World.”
What happens next is just a small indication of how amazing this game will be. The program starts dynamically generating worlds—in some cases, hundreds of them—until it finds a world with enough suitable terrain and features to support the game requirements.
As these worlds are considered, you’ll see a region from each one, and it’s interesting to see areas appear and note their differences.
For our game, over two hundred worlds were rejected. When a potentially suitable candidate is found, though, you’ll see the following stages listed on the screen:
--preparing elevation
--setting temperatures
--Running rivers
--Forming lakes
--growing vegetation
--verifying terrain
--importing wildlife
--recounting legends
It’s typical of the tremendous attention to detail found in this game that all these characteristics exist in the world.
You might find a world that appears to be suitable and moves through a few of the steps, then gets rejected. In my case, world generation and processing took fifteen minutes.
Believe me, it’s worth the wait.
The “recounting of legends” generates one thousand years of history in the game (again, dynamically) and involves hundreds of backstories. That’s what you can explore and find. And you’ll see the name and regions of seem of these legends as they’re generated—for example, I saw “The Dark Fortress of Matostuz: The Point of Glaze” or something like that.
The final name for my world was “Opuorid, The Eternal Universes.”
How big is the world? Based on the size of the world map, I believe it would be equivalent to thousands of real-world square miles. It’s huge.
Once the world is complete, you’ll be taken back to the main game screen, where there is now an additional option: “start playing.
First, though, here’s the introduction to the world in the manual (which can be accessed at any time by pressing the “?” key—you’ll be using it frequently):
Welcome to Dwarf Fortress. Prepare to guide your stout charges to fortune in a world fraught with many perils. You’ll begin by creating your world and watching an animation of the region’s history. Once this process is completed, you can prepare a group of dwarves and send them out to seek wealth deep in the mountains. As you dig deeper and more dwarves take up residence in your outpost, your doings will attract attention, both wanted and unwanted. Deal with challenges as they arise, and you one day might find that your fortress has grown to become the capital of the kingdom.
Excellent writing. Attention to detail. You’ll see that everywhere.
Once you choose the “start playing” option, the game world will be imported. You’ll have two options:
--press Enter to play now!
--press Space to prepare for the journey carefully
Press Space. Trust me.
What you then see is a screen titled “Prepare for the Journey.” It’s a screen that can cycle among three different views (using the TAB key):
--a list of your dwarves and possible skills (with skill points available to give them expertise, although any dwarf can eventually learn any skill in the regular course of the game if you add it to their attributes)
--a list of your supplies. Removing some of these supplies increases your available skill points.
--a list of regions in the world that you can select from as your starting location.
For now, hit the TAB key and go from the dwarf/skills screen to the supply screen. You’ll that you’re taking two iron battle axes. Highlight that item (hey, forgot the mouse, man—cursor arrows are your lifeblood here), press the “-“ key to decrement, and while you’re only taking one battle axe now, you’ve got an extra 100 skill points to assign.
Okay, TAB two more times to go through the location selection screen and get back to the skill assignment screen.
On the left, you’ll see a list of your dwarves (seven in all). Here’s our party:
Erith Cerolrubal, peasant
Datan Tanmosus, peasant
Urist Bidokerith, peasant
Zuglar Stigilcog, peasant
Rigoth Mistemabir, peasant
Urib onulusan, peasant
Kil Datantntak, peasant
There are also plenty of diacritical marks in those names, by the way.
Everyone is a peasant, but when other dwarves emigrate to your fortress, they may already have useful skillsets (or not).
On the right of the screen is a list of all possible skills. 55 of them. What are they? So glad you asked: miner, woodcutter, carpenter, mason, engraver, building designer, weaponsmith, boywer, armorsmith, metalsmith, furnace operator, wood crafter, stone crafter, metal crafter, bone carver, gem cutter, jeweler, mechanic, fisherdwarf, miller, thresher, grower, herbalist, brewer, cook, weaver, clothes maker, trapper, ambusher, butcher, tanner leatherworker, fish dissector, animal dissector, fish cleaner, cheese maker, milker, animal trainer, animal caretaker, soaper, lye maker, potash maker, glass maker, wrestler, axedwarf, swordsdwarf, macedwarf, hammerdwarf, speardwarf, marksdwarf, shield user, armor user, engineer, and operator.
Here’s another reason why this game is great: those skills all mean something. They matter.
Now, instead of trying to game the skill system or figure out how you’d do it in another game—think. You’re leading seven dwarves at the foot of a mountain, and to survive you need, at a minimum, food and shelter. So food gatherers and miners are critically important.
By the way, there’s a ton of discussion concerning the ideal skill loadout for your initial group of dwarves. Check the wiki I linked to earlier today to see some sample parties.
I know what I want, though. I want to have raw supplies gathered quickly, and I want food, and I want builders.
Logically, I would mention security, but if you build your fortress cleverly enough, you can control any intruders with a minimum of armed personnel. More on that later.
Skills have five levels: none, novice, tradesman (for instance, if the skill is carpentry you’re just called “carpenter”), competent, skilled, and proficient.
The miner skill is incredibly important, and I want an excellent miner right off the bat, so I pile mining skill points on Erith and take him from “not a miner” to skilled miner. It costs me 26 skill points, so I have 274 left to go. I make Datan a woodcutter and competent carpenter. That costs me 31 points.
I’ve got raw materials taken care of at this point. And I’ve got a carpenter. What I still need, though, is a mason, so I take care of that now with Urist. He becomes a competent mason and I now have 227 points left.
I’m going to need food. A fisherdwarf is versatile in that area, so Zuglar becomes a competent fisherdwarf. He also becomes a fish cleaner, because those fish have to be turned into food.
Rigoth becomes a competent animal trainer and novice animal caretaker. That’s why I didn’t mention security—a good animal trainer can train war dogs which can still be kept as pets by your dwarves. And they’re effective in protecting you against most enemies, at least early in the game. You can also create elaborate and dangerous traps inside your fortress.
Heh.
Unib becomes a novice building designer and engineer (somebody has to able to design buildings, obviously). Oh, and while we’re here, hit the “V” key and let’s take a look at him personally. Here’s what it says:
Urib onulusan has been quite content lately. Urib onulusan likes chalk, bronze, Sapphire, amber, statues, dogs for their loyalty and lizards for their terrifying features. When possible, she prefers to consume grizzly bear.
She needs alcohol to get through the working day. She likes working outdoors and grumbles only mildly at inclement weather.
Dwarves like to drink. Remember that.
If you assign a skill to a dwarf, they won’t use that skill if it they have some kind of abhorrence to that activity. These dwarves aren’t puppets.
As the game progresses, you’ll see this personal page updated for every single dwarf in your civilization. You’ll be able to tell when they’re happy and when they’re not (and why). Happy dwarves work harder. Unhappy dwarves cause discontent. And angry dwarves—well, let’s just say you don’t want to make them angry. You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry.
Our last peasant, Kol, becomes a skilled miner as well, because that’s a damned big mountain and there’s going to lots and lots of digging. I add a few crafting skills for him as well—stone, wood, and bone.
There are 118 skill points left. Press TAB and let’s go to the supplies screen. Add two dogs and two cats, which will cost you 54 points, leaving you with 64. Those dogs and cats will breed, though, and the cats will control vermin while the dogs can be used for security.
Now we need to add some food. If you don’t gather enough food before winter comes, these supplies might be the difference in surviving and starving to death. We have four food options: plump helmet spawn, pig tail seeds, fox meat, and plump helmets. We add a bit of everything until skill points reach zero.
Now press TAB one more time and look for a starting region. Regions have four characteristics: temperature, trees, other vegetation, and surroundings.
You have so many regions to choose from that you can get whatever you want—if you want a freezing-ass cold region with no vegetation in “haunted” or “terrifying” surroundings, you can find them.
Personally, though, I don’t know enough yet to try that. So let’s go for temperate in a woodland area with calm surroundings. Ahhh. It’s called “The Point of Wheels.”
If you want to cycle through the regions to see what’s available, use the “+” and “-“. You’ll use them frequently in the game menus.
Once you’ve selected your region, press “e” to embark on your journey.
All right, we’re only thirty minutes in and I’m worn out from documenting everything, so that’s it for today. Remember, the “?” key accesses the in-game manual.
Tomorrow, we begin our settlement.
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