Trading

Finally the traders get here, taking the rather dull route of just going down the ramp into my courtyard instead of my awesome front door. All I could afford to trade for my sacks of basalt crap was a few bags of seeds and some wood, which seemed worth purchasing as my dwarves don't even seem to have the time to cut it themselves, plus it was on special offer and the merchant was very persuasive.

Oh well, at least I can get started on my moat.

Looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself, I'll get one of my lackys to rig up a lever for a drawbridge system, I don't know where I'll put the lever yet, maybe in my soon-to-be-constructed-as-soon-as-some-migrants-show-up barracks. Come to think of it, the pond I've been trying to drain would fill that moat up nicely...

I've given one of my farmers the cooking skill and away he goes doing his best to turn Plump Helmets into "Fine Meals". Good luck. The trade caravan does one. I'll request some weapons, I'll hopefully have some kind of militia going on by the time they come round again.

It would have been great if I could have filled that moat with magma, but I've no idea where this magma pool is, deep underground I guess, I'll have to find some iron ore too if I want to get on and make some steel. I also need more basalt, underground we go.

After some exploratory mining, I can't find a damn stone of flux or ore, I swear I embarked on an area with flux, but I can't find a layer of it anywhere, I hope I didn't accidentally move the embark area or something. This is a problem, looks like my steel industry will be struggling, no migrants again at the end of Autumn, bound to get some in winter.

We built this city on rock and coal

Damnit, It was looking like that pool of water was evaporating, but it rained and put all the water back to 4/7. I'm never going to have my drill-yard.

I'm getting bored waiting for this trade caravan, its Autumn but I don't want to start my drawbridge-over-a-ditch project until they are gone. I am badly in need of migrants, work is slow within Devilhalls, everyone keeps taking breaks and sleeping, slackers.

Nothing 'fun' has happened to my fortress yet, although its only 2 seasons old, I think some defenses are in order, I've started work on some cage traps at my entrance, mechanisms and cages are in full production, I'll finally have some sort of defense on the way.

I'm going to start production on charcoal, just as soon as I get some wood, I'm really running low. In the meantime, I'm going to start producing stuff that nobles will appreciate, seeing as I have a lot of stone lying around and nothing much to do with it except create blocks.

I realized that the reason I was low on wood was because I unassigned woodcutting from both of my woodcutting dwarves... nice. Anyway, here is an update of what my main entrance looks like, pre-bridge:

Fuck knows what I'll do with those walls, probably widen them and put some fortifications on 'em, Marksdwarves seem to be the safest way to fight invaders. There is still much to be done before I'm ready for that though.

Summer

Since its summer, why not let my dwarves work outside? Plans have been made to create the grandest entrance a fortress has ever seen.

It took two months to build, but it was worth it, check out my new courtyard!

I'll use this area for farming and the like, once I get some migrants I'll get to work constructing a drawbridge to put in that gap in the wall, eventually maybe I'll set up a walled off area on the level above with some towers.

As for what's happening now, I've set my farmer dedicated to farming so he can get some serious growing done, decked out the main hall with a long table and built another 6 bedrooms to accommodate newcomers. The mason is still plugging away in the centre of the hall, for now he will have to just make an effort not to get bits of door and chairs on the other dwarves' food.

Since there's not much mining to be done right now, I set one of my miners to work on smoothing the walls of the hall, while the other carves out some corridors for future bedrooms. I also receive a most disappointing message.

Oh well, I guess theres still a lot more to be done. I think i'll get started on some metalcrafting, I'll probably have to dig down to find some flux material.

Who would buy a basalt crown?

Time to get to work on some storage, otherwise my dwarves will be up to their ears in basalt idols and barrels before they know it.

As mentioned previously, the Z level between my food production and great hall will be a warehouse, I'll probably put a load of workshops on that floor too, far enough away from the bedrooms so as to avoid noise. So far this is what it looks like:

1 - Finished goods - thats a craftdwarf's workshop under construction at the bottom right of this pile

2 - Bar/Block - I don't know where I will move my mason's too once the great hall is complete, this pile will do for now

3 - Gems - If I find many gems, I'll carve out some space to the left of this pile for a jewel-cutters workshop

4 - Wood - Nice and close to the carpenters which is under construction at the bottom left of this pile.

5 - Furniture - Near the entrance to the main staircase, easier access for furniture hauling

6 - Armor

7 - Weapons

8 - Ammo

9 - Animals

I set my carpenter to work on some bins as once this storage area is complete, making some tat for the tourists who come in Autumn is top priority. Construction of the useless crap begins:

As for an update on the swimming pool, expanding it has lowered the water level considerably, its all at 3/7 and 4/7, but I can't remember if it will evaporate, DF wiki suggests that in hot climates water will evaporate at those levels, but I think I embarked onto a temperate region. This is... problematic, I will have to find a way to remove this water.

I could just flood my main hallway, there is nothing interesting there for now, maybe it will all eventually evaporate, maybe I'll wait till I have some more migrants.

I should probably mention that there is a brook at the very bottom right of the area which I can probably use for some purpose or another, drinking is not necessary as my dwarves are currently sitting on over 200 barrels of Devilhall's finest ales and wines.

Food and booze production is going well, but pretty soon my dwarves will be getting sick of Plump helmets, I should probably look into a butchers and a kitchen, hopefully I'll get some migrants soon who will bring some delicious meaty goodness. Summer is almost upon Devilhalls.

Let sleeping dwarves lie

After much deliberation and grand-master style analysis of future moves, I've decided to place my main staircase opposite my farm as shown:

That pond is going to have to be dealt with soon, I think I'll carve out some channels and make it an OCD-friendly square shape to remind myself to use it in future.

My mason was looking bored so I had him construct a temporary workshop in the soon-to-be great hall and got him cracking on doors, tables and chairs.

Once the miners finish the outdoor water feature upstairs they get to work on some bedrooms, the dwarves of this mighty fortress will unfortunately have to put up with some SERIOUSLY meager quarters for a few seasons.

For reasons beyond my comprehension, one of my miners decides to take a nap on a freshly-built staircase, I guess he loves the feel of basalt on his skin so much he'd rather sleep on stairs made of it than in one the two beds nearby. Who am I to question the habits of my hardworking dwarves?

Once thats been complete, I reassign jobs to everyone else, the farmers a-farmin', woodcutter a-cuttin' and the carpenter a-carpenterin', and the mason... building a trade depot, I won't need it for several months, but since I was planning for it anyway, I thought I may as well build it.

You can see below the new swimming pool and trade depot setup, I'll probably expand that staircase another square down and use it as the primary way of moving stored items from the warehouse floor below.

The grand plan is to have the top floor dedicated to food production and military business, the floor below workshops and general storage, and the bottom floor (and first stone layer) into living quarters and great hall. As my fortress expands, I shall adapt, for now though, this seems foolproof.

Hi ho, hi ho

It should be mentioned that I'm using the Mayday Tileset, I hope die-hard Dwarf Fortress players can forgive me, but it has definitely flattened the learning curve significantly for me. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This area is fairly flat (and unfortunately, quite swampy), with a lower level at the very north, it seems I have no choice to start my fortress there if I want a wide entrance devoid of stairs.

After a bit of tidying up and some early excavation into the hill, I set up an indoor farm, some wood production and a nice open area for food storage. With my fortresses I quite like to build my food area directly above my main hall, with a staircase for easy access.

As you may have noticed, these ponds may cause some problems later, I've made a mental note to excavate that one to the right of my entrance and construct some sort of outdoor training area for my military. I guess we'll see how that turns out. I also added some brewery production.

The next priority is getting some sleeping arrangements sorted out, I dig down two levels to carve out a meeting hall into a basalt layer, I'll probably stick a load of bedrooms alongside it at some point too, I like building bedrooms in the first stone layer since I can engrave the walls as an easy way to keep the pleb dwarves happy.

More updates to come!

Embark!

So, I learned what little I know of DF from a couple of tutorials accompanied with a few failures of my own, but this fortress WILL succeed.

This would be the world generated for me, full to the brim with goblins, animal-men, and various other interesting things that I'm sure my dwarves will eventually excavate.

I've got the usual search functions on, controversially I went for a magma pool, this is because I've never actually came across magma before on Dwarf Fortress and want to give it a go, many dwarves may die due to my inexperience, but it will be worth it, I'm sure.

As for the embarking, my previous failed attempts have taught me to have a fair balance between mining/woodcutting/carpentry/masonry/farming for the starting 7 dwarves. Along with these supplies:

It has been decreed, this Fortress shall be named:

Fun begins!

Hi, This will be (hopefully) a fairly regularly updated blog on my adventures in learning to play Dwarf Fortress. I am a fairly novice player, having only played around 10 in-game years on various startup attempts. Perhaps my ineptitude will provide substantial entertainment. Please enjoy.