Dwarf Fortress

[Monoriu]

You've never found any of these?

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Ore

Never found any of these.

[MadImmortalMan]

4. Any downside to leaving stones lying around everywhere?  There are too many of them and I don't want to dig a gigantic storage room just for stones.

Designate a garbage dump site with the "i" menu. It can be 1x1 tile. Then "g" for garbage. I like to put it next to my masonry workshops. Now, use d-b-d to mass select all the stones. Dorfs will dump all the stones on that one square. Then after they get them there, use d-b-c to reclaim them and the masons can use all that stone to craft or whatever.

I think there is also an option to simply hide them from view. I don't know what it is.

[Alexandru H.]

Further newbie questions -

1. What is the difference among wall, fortification and grate? 

2. I have yet to find *any* metal.  Is there anything in particular that I should do?

3. I have set up a dining hall and my dwarves seem to eat there.  But they still go to the food storage for drinks and there is a flashing arrow pointing downward on the dwarves, perhaps indicating that they are unhappy.  Is this normal?

4. Any downside to leaving stones lying around everywhere?  There are too many of them and I don't want to dig a gigantic storage room just for stones.

1. You place a wall then you can turn it into a fortification. Grates are like floor tiles. I like to use them in my "inside fishing" room...

2. Try different 1-tile wide routes until you locate a vein.

3. When you place a dinning room, make sure to create right next to it deposits for prepared food and booze. They won't go too far for it...

4. What he said. You can hide them, too but they still eat FPS. With useless rocks, you can use an atomic smasher (basically a drawbridge) to get rid of it for ever.

[Josquius]

Why oh why are the control and interface so needlessly complex. It seems to be a deliberate design feature even. It stretches to the extent where you have to caps lock on and off to get things done. 'tis madness.

The youtube how to is nice but damn does it drag, and videos are a pain generally. Any comprehensive and decent written guide?

[MadImmortalMan]

Why oh why are the control and interface so needlessly complex. It seems to be a deliberate design feature even. It stretches to the extent where you have to caps lock on and off to get things done. 'tis madness.

The youtube how to is nice but damn does it drag, and videos are a pain generally. Any comprehensive and decent written guide?

http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/

That helped me when I first started. It's old though--several versions back. But mostly good.

[sbr]

I can't think of a time I ever used Caps Lock in my hundreds of hours of playing.

He is saving the graphics and interface for as long as he can.  He doesn't want to have to redo them multiple times as he keeps addding and changing things.  In the past he has said he may have to break down and do the player friendly things earlier than he planned if the players started demanding them and donations started to dry up but considering he made $23,000 in the first 3 months of the year ($12,000 of that in February alone) I don't think that is a concern anymore.  The game will probably continue to have ASCII 'graphics' and the shittiest user interface ever right up until the mythical version 1.0.

[Josquius]

Crap graphics I don't really mind too much (though yes, it does take it a bit far...) but the completely unintuitive interface and bizzare control system....ja.

I'm getting tempted to try playing DF at work....

[Habbaku]

Why oh why are the control and interface so needlessly complex. It seems to be a deliberate design feature even. It stretches to the extent where you have to caps lock on and off to get things done. 'tis madness.

That's part of the point and definitely a design feature.  The game has so many options to it that it does require a lot of potential button presses to get the precise effect desired.  Some mouse support would be nice, though.

[sbr]

Why oh why are the control and interface so needlessly complex. It seems to be a deliberate design feature even. It stretches to the extent where you have to caps lock on and off to get things done. 'tis madness.

That's part of the point and definitely a design feature.  The game has so many options to it that it does require a lot of potential button presses to get the precise effect desired.  Some mouse support would be nice, though.

And some thought to which buttons you press.  I have played the game enough that it is pretty natural and I don't think about it anymore, but it really is horrible. 

For example on the custom stockpiles screen there are 3 columns.  For the first column you 'e'nable or 'd'isable groups of items.  In the next column you 'p'ermit or 'f'orbid a smaller group and then in the last column you toggle individual items on or off with the Enter key.  I wouldn't think it would be that hard to fix that up so you are using the same method in each column.

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm getting tempted to try playing DF at work....

You totally could since you don't actually have to "install" it. 

So even if you don't have admin rights or anything...yeah.

[garbon]

So I've been inspired to pick this up again. I've been doing well with 17 dwarves but just saved and quit as I need to get my head around the 24 bitches who just showed up!

[Crazy_Ivan80]

and that's why the game cold do with some decent automation. Way too much babysitting needed when surely half the economy should be allowed to run on automatic once you're past the initial settlement phase (true it's not needed to give each and every command to make beer/food/toys/clothes/etc).

[Jaron]

With proper management, most of the economy can be auto managed with repeat commands. It's important to plan ahead and have an idea of what exactly you want to do. It becomes a lot easier then. Good record keeping is essential.

[Solmyr]

Or you could just use the in-game job manager.

[garbon]

Or you could just use the in-game job manager.

But that isn't without its own downfalls.

On the interface, another problem is that they don't deprecate removed/unnecessary options as the game evolves.  From going through the wiki, it looks like there are plenty of items to build that currently/no longer serve a purpose and then you have things like kennels are only used for wild animals now that the animal activity training zone has been added for trainable, tame animals.  Same for the multiple military/squad screens.