Bay 12 Games Forum
Dwarf Fortress => DF General Discussion => Topic started by: HectorX on July 15, 2014, 09:29:44 pm
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When I generate worlds, I like the idea of genning worlds with 'very short' history - the idea that my forts could be one of the first of a new world is very exciting!
But I've been playing around with new gens since 40.x came out, and - as stupid as this sounds - I hadn't noticed that in older worlds, the forts & cities all build roads and infrastructure, and the civs grow!
So in DF, are there noticeable pros & cons to the age of the world in terms of:
- Your enemies
- Trade goods in caravans
- Other stuff?
What sort of worlds age-wise do you guys and girls enjoy playing in?
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I can't answer your question, because I only play adventure mode, but I also love playing in worlds with very short history so I can be a very important person and greatly influence the future.
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You sorta can - in adventure mode, when the civilisations expand, do you come across better resources when you buy goods/loot the dead? Are the cities/sites more 'active'?
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I prefer fairly long histories, but not too long. That way, there are the maximum number of enemies in existence: necromancers have had time to discover the secrets of life and death, gods have had time to curse werecreatures and vampires, and civilizations have had time to go to war, but not enough time has passed to hunt the great beasts of the world to extinction.
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You sorta can - in adventure mode, when the civilisations expand, do you come across better resources when you buy goods/loot the dead? Are the cities/sites more 'active'?
Well, the civilization expanding features aren't currently completely done, so no. But I read in the future plans that the game will keep track of site's resources, and that the inhabitants will actually do their jobs instead of just sitting at home doing nothing so it will probably be like that in the future versions. The sites become more active over time though. There are more people and more taverns/shops/houses get built.
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I prefer fairly long histories, but not too long. That way, there are the maximum number of enemies in existence: necromancers have had time to discover the secrets of life and death, gods have had time to curse werecreatures and vampires, and civilizations have had time to go to war, but not enough time has passed to hunt the great beasts of the world to extinction.
Ahh good point! So the longer the history, the more interesting characters appear, BUT you will still have some beasts, titans etc to cause mayhem/hunt for glory?
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I find it's a tricky balance. Below a hundred years you see lots of tiny villages and no forts, which is weird and kind of upsetting.
I have Fortress Defense installed, so I can't run worldgen for too long or everyone is driven extinct by wars with giant fiend spiders.
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usually go around year 2-5 because of optimization in memory and performance, usualy with pocket-small worlds
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Currently playing fort mode in year 4300. I like the idea of there being an 'ancient-ness' to the world but it doesn't really effect me in fort mode (medium world, still the age of heros).
5-600 was what I shot for in 34.11.
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With the previous version of the game I liked to run long histories but with the mega fauna cranked up to many times their normal levels so the great beasts could survive into the current age. The advantage of an older world is that it will have far richer sites and civilizations. You will have tombs, necromancer towers, lycanthropes, vampire rulers, more mature dragons etc. The disadvantages include less mega fauna, and urban sprawl covers many of the good places to settle. In the current version of the game the biggest cost of a long history is to the game's performance. You really don't want to let the history run more than a few hundred years now.
In DF 2014 I generally aim for 250 years of history on a medium world with double or triple the number of titans and mega beasts where as I used to run worlds up to a 1000 years in DF 2012.
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usually go around year 2-5 because of optimization in memory and performance, usualy with pocket-small worlds
Ok, this is not why we play games. Live a little!
EDIT: I don't mean to sound harsh. I know that DF is popular among engineering types, but DF is a fantasy world simulator. Turn that dial up to eleven!
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My tendency is for eithe all options dow the middle enabled. That usually means 250 years in a medium world with not too many civs, mega beasts, or bad fauna. This usually means one can see the slow progress of baddies getting eliminated while still allowing for certain more persistant ones to stay. It makes it more fun when you meet an important historical figure either in fort mode or adventire mode.
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usually go around year 2-5 because of optimization in memory and performance, usualy with pocket-small worlds
Ok, this is not why we play games. Live a little!
EDIT: I don't mean to sound harsh. I know that DF is popular among engineering types, but DF is a fantasy world simulator. Turn that dial up to eleven!
Think xaritscin was referring to how .40 is unoptimized for larger and longer worlds, and he has to use pocket worlds with small history to get any decent game performance.
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In 0.34 I used to crank megabeasts up to max, then run the world for 500 years to let them breed.
These days, megabeasts to max is a bad idea, unless you want to play as The Last Civilization In Existence.
In 0.40.x I've settled on setting megabeasts and titans to ~5x default, doubled civilizations, and quintupled sites. Then I set worldgen to stop at year 200 or when 20% of megabeasts are dead. That gives the civs a chance to grow and get conflicty.
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I used to generate worlds with long histories, to get elaborate sites and full-grown beasts; but things develop a lot faster now plus a long-history world runs slow. My current though is that I want at least a couple of generations, so that most dwarves I deal with will have actual family ... veins? (Trees seem too elvish :) I've been setting things to 250 years max, but "stop generation if megabeasts drop below 50%", which usually ends up somewhere between 100 and 200 years and usually gives a world that's fleshed out but not overrun. I may dabble with speeding up how quickly dragons, etc. grow up until we get some more calendar optimization.
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I usually run short histories and embark in the nasty biomes through the frequent update period, then switch to long histories after the releases get a little more stable. I don't usually have to worry about getting too attached to a fort I may not be able to keep that way.
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I usually go for something like 125 years (and no more than 250), just to optimize the save/load time. It also usually ensures more megabeasts alive... and not too many persons who were born "in a time before time". Still provides for quite a good amount of interesting history stuff, I guess.
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Thanks for your responses everyone, really helpful!
I just upgraded to a new PC so I've been 'stress-testing' it by running 1050-year builds on Large worlds (just default building parameters, am too afraid to go near the advanced stuff!).
I do like a lot of mega beasts running around, as well as some civ conflict, but I've been starting a few fortresses in some Age of Goblins worlds. If the game wouldn't persist on crashing I would be interested in seeing how a world like that played out with the updates, but that can wait. :)
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Age of Batman
I'd like to try to keep it in the Age of Legends for 1000+ years, with just enough mega and semi-megabeast to keep the civ population in check but not exterminate them before the civs finally get the upper hand and it goes into Myths. Maybe I have those two backwards but I'm sure you know what I mean.
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depends on what I'm wanting to do.
like sometimes I'll want age of goblins so that I may kill all/almost all of them and then run a fortress and secure dwarven dominate of the world.
though if modding for adventure mode so I can make stuff I may set the savagery and number of beasts very high so I can survive as one of the only/only civilized being in existence.