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.

• Install Lazy Newb Pack.

Some personalization:

• Edit keymap to use , instead of m for movement. TODO
• Add main song theme and title theme to SoundCense.
• Enable Workflow plugin
• Enable Dwarf Monitor.

To start playing:

• Start Dwarf Fortress
• Start Dwarf Therapist
• Start StoneCense #

How To Play

Keyboard

DFHack plugins:

• Ctrl-F1 list of available DFHack hotkeys in current context
• Alt-W in workshop to trigger DFHack Workflow plugin.

A must-have to reduce micro-management and keep stocks up.

• Shift-Ctrl-I quick stock stats.
• Ctrl-F dwarf stats and fort efficiency.

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.

• Show hole in floor. Use command multilevel 0 in DFHack, then floor hole will become easily noticeable. multilevel 5 to restore the default TWBT plugin setting.

Managing dwarfs

• Give each dwarf a nickname like Miner CMX where Miner is the profession, C means it is customized (all customized miner are doing Mining, Stone detailing, Stone crafting and architecture; C means that job allocation was done manually for all profession for this dwarf), M/F means male/female (for squad assignment), and X whether dwarf can be drafted if necessary (for squad making). [1].

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 [2]:

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.

Base modifiers are:

Item Name+

Finely-crafted

3x

70%

1.4x

Designation	Description	Valud modifier	Sharpness	Weapon/Armor modifier
Item Name	—	1x	50%	1x
*Item Name*	Superior quality	4x	80%	1.6x
≡Item Name≡ =Item Name=	Exceptional	5x	90%	1.8x
☼Item Name☼ **Item Name**	Masterful	12x	100%	2x
Unique name	Artifact	120x	100%	3x
«Item Name»	Decorated object	varies	varies	varies

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

Item	Weight	price	-price-	+price+	*price*	=price=	**price**	artifact
Modifier	---	1x	2x	3x	4x	5x	12x	120x
Bauxite statue Mudstone statue Microcline statue Orthoclase statue Schist statue	150 - 186	25	50	75		125	300
Marble statue	166	50				250	600
Iron crossbow	3	100			400
Emu bone crossbow	<1	10				50	120
Iron battle axe	6	340			1360
Iron short sword	2	140		420
Iron breastplate	16	150	300			750
Iron mail shirt	19	200			800
Iron low boot	2	90				450
Iron leggins	22	230		690
Iron left/right gauntlet	1	110			440
mudstone figurine mudstone amulet mudstone scepter mudstone ring mudstone crown mudstone earring mudstone bracelet	2	10
silver figurine ...	2	100
Large white jade	<1	20	40
Large sapphire	<1	400		1200
Large green tourmaline	<1	200				1000
Large gray chalcedony Large milk quartz	<1	20				100
Empty

Prices of some gem:

• Most are 10: tigereyes, sardonyxes, carnelians, jades, cabochon
• Point cut sapphires: 200
• Single cut indigo tourmalines: 125

Item	Price
radiant cut tigereyes	10
table cut sardonyxes	10
marquise cut carnelians	10
cushion cut ping jades	10
cushion sard cabochons	10
Point cut sapphires	10
Single cut indigo tourmalines	10

Template:

Item	Weight	price	-price-	+price+	*price*	=price=	**price**	artifact
Empty

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).

How - To

Uncage a creature from a cage stored in a stockpile

Several ways [3]. Among others:

• First build the cage (b-j and Template:X to be sure to get the right cage), then q to examine the cage and a and enter to toggle the animal. Beware of hostile creatures.
• Assign creature to a pasture zone via the pasture menu q-N.
• With traders around, select the cage for trade via the move good to trading depot menu. When cage is hauled, animal inside will be released.

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.

Fortress

Inspiration:

• charming-design-3-dwarf-fortress-bedroom.jpg — Nice-looking one-level fortress, with entrance

Trade

• Buy lot of tan / hide / whatever to make leather works (needed for quiver, leather armors, ...).

Military

Marksdwarf

• Follow DF2014:Advanced_marksdwarf_training_guide