[Nov 24, 2012] Dwarf Fortress Brawl / Tutorial (IRC + Streaming)

[Cervator]

So the recent Birthday Event celebrated our inspiration from Minecraft, now it is time to pay tribute to another major influence - Dwarf Fortress!

DF is a substantially harder game to get into, in particular since the base version comes in plain ASCII, without even basic tilesets. It has next to no mouse support, either. This has kept a lot of people from giving it a chance - this event aims to change that!

I know we have several individuals just in our little community here who have been interested. To help get started and have some fun plus maybe even do some brainstorming for Terasology, I'm declaring the Saturday after next a DF day where I/we (existing DF geeks show yourselves and help out!) will start a single-player game from scratch, in the same world if possible, then guide newbies through the basics of getting a fortress established / be available for questions throughout the day

I'm rusty myself, thus the desire to get some DF experts (and streaming media experts) to help out setting up. I haven't played the newer versions yet so I'm not sure what's new & noteworthy. And my attempt to use Google Hangouts last time didn't exactly work out

While DF is single-player only I figure it would be something to have a group of people all start out in the same spot in the same world with the same exact dwarves, then beyond the basics see how the different worlds evolve, maybe even document them AAR style over time (read that, it is great). To begin with it is mainly to help introduce new people to the game since it doesn't have the friendliest learning curve.

We'll figure out the right downloadables and work out a stream setup here, then I'll open something up around 10 am EST Saturday morning November 24th. Will probably leave and rejoin now and then, so I'm hoping to have at least a couple other experts throughout the day so there are people available for support whenever.

Areas to highlight about DF: The highly complex dwarves (inter-dwarf relationships, even marriages and kids, "tantrum spirals", history), advanced anatomy-based health system including diseases and other factors, stockpile management, defense using traps, advanced military setup, and of course the delicious geological layering of the world you play in with veins, pockets, underground caves, lava, and so on. The latter one maybe we can has soon!

Closer to / after the event I'll be unveiling a new "Game Club" forum to encourage the continuing of this unusual little take on a "blood line" DF game as well as other games people can enjoy playing while keeping notes for Terasology

 

[ReleeSquirrel]

I'm an old hand at Dwarf Fortress. I stopped playing because I felt I understood it completely, which I'm sort of proud of given how many people can't fathom it. It is very complicated but a lot of stuff doesn't show through the ascii; you can only see how deep the rabbit hole goes when you start reading your Dwarves personas and histories. And then it has very little impact on gameplay unless you manage to get a tantrum spiral. I've never actually had one since my forts are really nice places to live and my dwarves are generally pretty happy. Even if the shit hits the fan during an invasion, nobody goes nuts from the death of everyone they love.

I haven't played DF since Toady added minecarts so I suppose I'm due for another round. If there's more than just the two of us, Cerv, I think I could see myself joining your shared Embark. Just, please, make sure it's someplace with a stream, no aquifer, plenty of trees, flux stone and iron ores. Otherwise the game gets really hard really fast, and that's not good for newbies.

 

[Cervator]

Yes, goal would be to pick a great map ahead of time, which is something I'd love for somebody else to find

I've had fun with maps containing partial aquifers so I have a safe place to mine down without needing crazy dirt drills, yet can go play with water later. The more biomes the merrier!

 

[A'nW]

Cool, I like the sound of this! Hope I'll be here...
I definitely fall into that category interested individuals that have never really gotten into it.

 

[A'nW]

Well, found out I am going to be gone for Thanksgiving. Hope it goes well and everyone has fun though.

 

[Cervator]

Going to have to postpone this anyway for much the same reason - RL is too hectic, in part as wifey wants to do a Thanksgiving event Sunday rather than Thursday and I've got all sorts of chores and prep to do, along with fixing a drywall ceiling here and putting ethernet cable in a wall there, etc - fun!

I made a poll to check on availability for those that may be interested and able to attend at an alternative time