Let's Play: Dwarf Fortress (Fun with Zuu)

[Zuu]

WHAT IS DWARF FORTRESS YOU ASK?!

Dorf Fortress is more about planning overelaborate mechanical contraptions for performing tasks that might be impossible in the best of circumstances while attempting to keep your workers drunk and fed, while cats attack from the inside, slowing your game to a standstill until butchered, while unspeakable horrors assault you from the outside, accompanied by elves who think you're a murderer because you cut down trees to make clear glass for your superprojects.

Essentially, the player's job is to manage a fortress full of dwarves that love industry and love booze even more. Sounds simple? Of course not. Now, Dwarf Fortress is infamous for having "hard to read" ASCII graphics. For this reason I have sought out a pleasant tileset that, while retaining the ASCII qualities (so I can still tell what's going on), is much easier on the eyes than the default graphics. But anyway, let's get this show on the road. [Warning: this post's screenshots feature the old tileset, so ... I'm sorry?]

Welcome to Eweecamo, "The Enchanted Universes"! What a nice name! How charming!

Seven dwarves are going to set out and try to carve for themselves wealth and industry in this harsh land … and this is where you come in. The Kind Merchants (the name of the civilization from which these brave dwarves hail) need to choose a “suitable” embarking point and have produced a small list of spots from which to select. The fair queen who is forcing this decision is named Rith “Gravelrains” Asenudar …

Queen Asenudar: Ah, such fine dwarves stand before me! Now, come, I shall debrief you. My advisors tell me that the locations they have chosen are quite promising.

THE BILE OF DIRT

Queen Asenudar: Okay, here’s the first one. Pretty, isn’t it?
Dwarf: Your Majesty, does this map say “The Bile of Dirt”?
Queen Asenudar: Odd, isn’t it? It’s quite forested. “The Bile of Trees” would be more fitting.
Dwarf: Not exactly where my concerns lay … It looks very sinister … haunted, probably … undead … skeletal deer, staring at us through the trees.
Queen Asenudar: I have no idea what you are on about.

THE FIELD OF HUNGER

Queen Asenudar: Oh, this one looks nice.
Dwarf: By the gods, this one is haunted, too. The Field of Hunger? You’ve got to be kidding me …
Queen Asenudar: Look, you’ve got a nice stream and everything.
Dwarf: Sparse trees … at least the elves won’t be clambering up our arses about offenses to nature …

THE HILLS OF EXITING

Dwarf: Hey! This one doesn’t look so bad! We could probably set up a half-decent fortress here! … Um, wait. Is that …
Queen Asenudar: And you’ll be next-door neighbors with that cozy Elven retreat, Arivaalala!
Dwarf: God damn it.
Queen Asenudar: I’ll be frank. I’ll expect you to piss them off as much as possible.
Dwarf: The elves are gigantic assholes, Your Majesty.
Queen Asenudar: Precisely, my dear. Precisely.

THE SIZZLING JUNGLES

Queen Asenudar: This is the last one. “The Sizzling Jungles”.
Dwarf: This is a taiga.
Queen Asenudar: Astute observation.
Dwarf: I would like to punch the cartographer that did this. What happens when the stream freezes over?
Queen Asenudar: ... You drink water?
Dwarf: Water isn't just for dri --
Queen Asenudar: Look, at least it’s not haunted like the other ones.
Dwarf: Aha! You admit it!

Dwarf: Well, men (and ladies). It looks like we've got to set out or end up in prison. The Kind Merchants' capital doesn't have a prison. It has a magma pit. We better decide.

… And this is where you come in, TCoD. Where will these poor souls end up? The choice is yours …

(How long I'll wait to begin is based upon how many people actually vote on an embarking point, so if you want any progress tell your friends :3)

 

[nastypass]

I say we go with the SIZZLING JUNGLES or the FIELD OF HUNGER.

 

[opaltiger]

I have no idea what any of this means, but Sizzling Jungles sound good to me.

 

[Pwnemon]

Field of Hunger please.

 

[Phoenixsong]

Ooh, Dwarf Fortress. I'll admit the ASCII kind of scared me away from trying it (I can't even play NetHack without the GUI, lol... though I don't think I remembered there being different tilesets for this), but I would still like to see more of it.

Sizzling Jungles, I think.

 

[Aisling]

Aw :c I was hoping people would shoot for the super haunted purple place. Sizzling Jungles should be fun though.

 

[Silver]

Sizzling Jungles! Yes...=3

 

[Zuu]

Sizzling Jungles it is. Expect an update soon.

 

[Zuu]

Before we move on, let’s introduce the first seven dwarves.

My name is Sarvesh Larimnomal, and I’m the leader of this sad bunch of gnomes. I haven’t much in the way of “physical ability” or “usefulness”, but I know how to trade and count things, so I’m the best that they’re going to get.

There’s Atir Odkishasob, a miner and our stoneworker; Kogan Kolnecik, our outdoorsdwarf, handy with an axe; Zefon Mengnitig, a miner and the heart of our future industry; Mosus Tomeminod, a farmer and our brewer; Cog Udistthob, another farmer and our cook; and finally, As Edemsolon, carpenter and crafter.

No need to worry with the names, though, as I’m the only one going to be doing anything significant. I am overseer, after all. Wait, we’re nearing our new home …

Year 251 - Spring

Okay, pretty much all I can see is snow and trees. Not a good sign. There’s a hill to the northeast … where is the river that was advertised on the map?!

Oh. We’re standing on it. I’m not sure how we’re going to farm without liquid water. We brought a good amount of meat, but … Well, there’s no point in complaining.

I tell Atir and Zefon to start digging us a hole in the ground to get us away from this cold (and whatever wildlife might be after us – I thought I saw black bears on the ride in). Meanwhile, Kogan starts to fell trees, keeping a watchful eye on our perimeter.

We start to haul food in while the miners continue to carve out some basic rooms – I think we’ll start with a few workshops and a dormitory, then I’ll tell them to go searching for stone. I’ll have them make me an office while they’re at it.

Oh, lovely. I have a feeling that we’ll be seeing these snow storms quite often. I tell the miners to dig out a room that will serve as a temporary meeting hall so they won’t freeze up by the wagon … I’m not sure why they’re still hanging out up there. I got a band of winners, I did. In other news, we found stone pretty close to the surface, so I’m pleased. Anyhow, Kogan is still felling trees; I really don’t think we’ll ever be in need of extra wood. That’s a good thing. I fear the elves’ misguided wrath, but we’ll just build a palisade out of their precious wood to keep them out! Good idea, glorious overseer!

Well, uh, good news and bad news. Good news is, we found a cavern so we don’t have to worry about liquid water. Bad news is, we found a cavern (accompanied by what appears to be a bottomless pit) and I think we’re being attacked by troglodytes. Hell. Forget the palisade up top, we need to make a wall down here fast. I’m going to send Kogan (our new militia commander) down to try to “give the axe” (heheh) to some of these twisted creatures.
[For future reference, troglodytes are lower-case, brown-colored "t"s.]

Upon closer inspection, the things can’t even reach us, and Kogan can’t get down to them. My dwarves are just freaking out at the sight of them. I’m going to seal up that stairway and come down from a different location, then try to wipe them out. If Kogan loses … well, we have plenty of wood already. I counted! My records show “70?”. Man, I’m good at this job.

The second path is still under construction, but … okay, these sad sacks just keep running into each other over this stairway. I told the mason to build a floor over it and she can’t get a hold of herself and finish the damn thing. Half of the time they’re just scrambling around on the floor. Christ.

OH MY GOD HERE THEY COME OH GOD.

[The writing is illegible.]

(The parchment is bloody and written in a shaky hand.)
My name is Zefon Mengnitig, and I just watched three good dwarves die, as well as that moron Sarvesh. Her last order, given with her dying breath, was to enlist us all into the militia and send us hurtling at the group of troglodytes. We had no military experience whatsoever. But the hall is moist with the sticky red evidence of our victory. I guess I should thank her for that.

I killed four troglodytes with my bare hands. As killed the same, while Atir killed three. The three of us are bloody and God damn miserable, and I fear that the others may be struck with madness. Hell, I’m probably not safe either.

I don’t know what we’ll do … we lost dwarves with valuable skills. I’m a miner. Atir struck the earth with a pick alongside me, and she’s our acting mason. Poor As is our crafter, for God’s sake.

First things first, I guess … we need to clean this up.

As we haul the damned troglodyte corpses outside, we see the snow’s gone and we practically built the trade depot over the river. I’m going to commission the end of the hallway in which we fought to become a memorial tomb for the poor bastards we lost. May their souls rest easily.

Summer’s here. Spring was bloody. Caravan doesn’t come till early Autumn. But we’ll make it. We’ll carve out a name for ourselves and immortalize the names of our fallen comrades.

For Kogan, who fell first for us. For Mosus and Cog, who would feed us. For Sarvesh, our bitter overseer. We’ll carve out their names in the coming days.

For Bekomustuth. For “Springfenced”! STRIKE THE EARTH!

 

[Aisling]

Wow. The guys that didn't get killed must be beasts.

 

[Zuu]

Year 251 – Summer
Unlike the narcissistic Sarvesh, I don’t feel the need to incessantly scribble about every little thing, so I’ll just write about the important things. Should make it easier on whoever finds these diaries.

I ...

I don’t know what came over me … I …

FUCKING CAMEL! I can't take this anymore!

I’m no mason, but I carved her a coffin. It’s the … absolute least I could’ve done. God ... I buried her in bits and pieces. I’m going to make statues … smooth and engrave the walls. It’ll be the best damn part of this fortress when they come and find me, alone, snarling over the corpse of poor As. Haha. What a poor, poor sight that will be. Hahaha!

Um … hi. My name is As. I guess I am pretty much doing everything for the fortress now. Zefon went insane and then consequently horribly depressed. Poor guy. He’s just slowly wandering back and forth in the entrance hall. I’ll keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t try anything funny, but I’m going to finish up this memorial.

Migrants? Boy, are these fellas in for a surprise … but I could really use the help. Maybe it was fate …

Of course, they arrive on the other side of the river, so I drop all that I am doing in order to build a precarious bridge over the rushing water. Since we found the cavern, I’m suddenly wishing that the snow would return. Oh, and yeah, the trade depot was washed away by the river. Damn it.

Speaking of the cavern, I managed to throw up a tiny palisade. It’ll probably have to be expanded in the future, because this cavern is a hell of a lot bigger than we are …

I cleared out some stone and began plans for the construction of a larger palisade that is to surround a subterranean farm; a farm that’s long overdue.

The memorial is pretty much done. Three statues, and some engravings … it’ll have to do. One engraving in particular I am somewhat ashamed of – it is particularly morbid …
[The Weak Sack is the name of the dwarves here.]

One last coffin to be made for the memorial. I’m sorry, Zefon, for what you had to go through. I don’t forgive you for the murder of Atir, but … may your soul rest in peace. You gave a future to this fortress. Let’s hope that I can make it happen.

Summer has ended. Here’s a brief status report.

Yeah, we look pretty sad on the outside. Still felling trees. So much wood. We’re going to construct a large palisade around the depot and the entrance. I can practically smell the Autumn caravan coming.

Carving out a large dormitory, making beds to suit. Based on past events, next project might be a crypt.

Site of our future farm seems secure enough. Got the bigger palisade up, along with doors. I might call for more expansion down here, but not until I know for sure what’s going on down there. And seeing as how I’m the most fit for fighting … it’ll probably be up to me.

Let’s hope Autumn has more light in it than Summer did. Strike the earth, brothers and sisters.

 

[Phoenixsong]

...well! A lot seems to have happened in just these few posts! About how long is each session of play taking you, out of curiosity? Because if dwarves are going berserk and killing one another that quickly in addition to all of the other planning, I might have to give this game another look!

Also, about how many dwarves are in the settlement around now? Did you set out with a larger contingent than just the seven you introduced us to first, or are more making their way in as you play?

 

[Zuu]

...well! A lot seems to have happened in just these few posts! About how long is each session of play taking you, out of curiosity? Because if dwarves are going berserk and killing one another that quickly in addition to all of the other planning, I might have to give this game another look!

Also, about how many dwarves are in the settlement around now? Did you set out with a larger contingent than just the seven you introduced us to first, or are more making their way in as you play?

each season takes maybe around an hour? i can't really give an accurate estimate because i'm paused and doing stuff often, so time won't be passing in-game. and yes, things go downhill fast. c:

i have nine dwarves at Springfenced now. yeah, you embark with only seven dwarves, and every so often, depending on how wealthy/sucessful is, you'll get migrants. if it's a complete shithole, you'll get none or just a couple, and one time in a game before i got around twenty at once.

apologize for the lack of an update, i went back to school and stuff. i'll try to knock one out.