Dwarf fortress

This page is dedicated to Dwarf Fortress, an incredible simulation game where you have to build your own fortress. The learning curve is very steep but the universe is very rich and detailed.

Reference

• Dwarf Fortress on Bay 12 Games
• Dwarf Fortress Wiki, a must-visit place
  • Ascii Tilesets reference
  • Ascii Status Icon reference
• The complete and utter newbie tutorial for DF

Tilesets:

• Mayday's graphic tileset, a fan's tileset that greatly eases the gameplay
• Phoebius' tileset

3D visualizers:

• Stonesense
• Overseer

Utilities:

• Dwarf Therapist, a mandatory utility that simplify considerably the management of dwarf's profession (Linux version)

Packs

• Utility:Lazy Newb Pack on the Wiki.

• Linux: Enay's LinuxLNP on the forum (latest information).

Guides

• DF Wiki - Quick start guide — Fortress
• Bedroom / Housing

• DF Wiki - Bedroom design
• Dwarven housing

• Trading

• DF Wiki - Trading.
• Trading for fun and profit, a blog post about trading in DF.

SoundCense

See SoundCense on forum.

Install

• DF Wiki - Installation
  • Newbie / full package Utility:Lazy_Newb_Pack:
  • Linux: Enay's LinuxLNP

Recommended solution is to install complete software package like the Lazy Newb Pack.

Tips and tricks

• Unconscious wounded dwarf ignored by hospital and doctors
  I had a wounded dwarf in his bedroom that required healthcare, but was ignored by the doctors. To solve this, I assigned an hospital zone on his room, de-assigned the bedroom and removed (claim back) his bed. At that time, the doctors came and brought him to the hospital.
  See also bug tracker entry for more information and tricks.

• Animals starving to death.
  Grazing animals must be assigned to a pasture zone, otherwise they won't eat and starve to death.

• Dump materials easily. In Look mode (k or left-click), move cursor to an object on the map. Press d to dump the object. When done, a letter D appears next to the object in the list. If the square contains multiple object, make sure you select the correct one with -+.

• Hide object. In look mode, select an object, then press h. There will be a letter H next to the hidden object, and object will disappear from the map.

DFHack

• DFHack documentation
• DFHack on GitHub

TWBT

• Set multilevel

multilevel 5         # The default
multilevel less      # Reduce number of levels
multilevel more      # Increase number of levels

Commands

Show detailed Strange Mood information

Note that this might be a bit of cheating since part of the game fun is to diagnose yourself what the dwarfs want and bear the in-game consequence if you can't.

showmood             # Show detailed 'Strange Mood' information.

Hacks

AZERTY keyboard bindings

Edit file data/init/interface.txt [1]:

diff --git a/df_linux/data/init/interface.txt b/df_linux/data/init/interface.txt
index efe4622..9246a35 100644
--- a/df_linux/data/init/interface.txt
+++ b/df_linux/data/init/interface.txt
@@ -961,7 +961,7 @@
 [BIND:SETUP_LOCAL_Y_MUP:REPEAT_SLOW]
 [KEY:u]
 [BIND:SETUP_LOCAL_Y_MDOWN:REPEAT_SLOW]
-[KEY:m]
+[KEY:,]
 [BIND:SETUP_LOCAL_X_MUP:REPEAT_SLOW]
 [KEY:k]
 [BIND:SETUP_LOCAL_X_MDOWN:REPEAT_SLOW]
@@ -1412,7 +1412,7 @@
 [BIND:BUILDING_DIM_Y_UP:REPEAT_NOT]
 [KEY:u]
 [BIND:BUILDING_DIM_Y_DOWN:REPEAT_NOT]
-[KEY:m]
+[KEY:,]
 [BIND:BUILDING_DIM_X_UP:REPEAT_NOT]
 [KEY:k]
 [BIND:BUILDING_DIM_X_DOWN:REPEAT_NOT]

First game (after long time)

Vocabulary

DFHack / Dwarf Therapist have different terminology. I take here DFHack as reference:

Digram	Profession	Labor
En	Engraver	Stone Detailing
He	Herbalist	Plant Gathering

Trading

Some prices I got for items (- well-crafted, + means finely-crafted, * superior, = exceptional)

bayberry wood toy boat+

30

<1

schist door+

30

87

large bayberry wood pot+

30

3

Item	Price	Weight
sphalerite	6	405
marble	6	278
schist	3	290
limonite	24	379
bayberry wood nest box	10	<1
*peach wood chair*	40	23
*plum wood chest*	40	15
*schist cabinet*	40	87
*large pecan wood pot*	40	3
*plum wood nest box*	40	<1
=peach wood nest box=	50	<1
=sand pear wood chair=	50	20

Design

Ideas, things to know when designing a fortress.

• Stockpile desing — stockpile design is essential for an efficient fortress.

• Create feeding stockpile around workshop.
• Create stock stockpile under workshop (to ease extension).

Troubleshooting

Plant mood in Dwarf Therapist

There is a bug in DT where the Mood Type is replaced by a Material Type, and hence Strange Mood becomes Plant Mood.

Use the in-game information to know what mood the dwarf is in (Strange Mood in the wiki), or use DFHack command showmood to get an accurate description (cheating a bit).

To Do

Things to try...

• Rename units to better organize them (like prefix letters for profession...). See DFHack command rename unit "nick". There is also a DFHack script names. There is also an in-game gui/rename plugin.
• Organize better stockpiles (with give and take).
• Use DFHack StoneSense to view the fortress in 3D.