I've gotten 100+ population fortresses, only to abandon it due to lack of frame rates, annoying nobles, and a general consistant lack of useful metal ores (unless you count 10 nickel veins, woopdy). I've played on terrifying surroundings, but the only terrifying thing about it is the first year, getting underground with food and water... A couple pack of beak dogs came at my starting wagon but a full 7 man draft of unarmed dwarves had no problem fending them off. Nothing seems to be HARD about this game.
A titan? It walked into a cage trap and lost a 1on1 match against my legendary brawler/sworduser/shielduser/armoruser champion, not a threat. A Hydra? Died to stonefall traps. An onslaught of goblins? Massacred by my marksdwarves and stonefall traps.
I now set the pop limit to 74 (80 wasn't good enough, nobles still came and ended up evicting my population and setting mandates to build 'pig iron bar items', as well as reducing my frame rates by 25% or more.
I've gotten legendary weavers, clothiers, stonecrafters, miners, planters, engravers (which end up being fast haulers), but really what does it matter? The goods they create can only be traded for ... other goods I don't need. I can't get the trade caravan to trade me 400 iron/steel/gold/platinum/etc bars or gems, they bring 10 at most. I generally unload everything I can in trade for the one item the dwarves tend to bring every time.... Yep... that batch of 25 super steel bolts worth 75k+.
So in my latest game (Terrifying environment) I decided not to make goods, instead I'd carve out a gigantic preplanned fortress including a waterfall in the dining room, a crypt, a 'flood my fortress lever', and a labyrinth of doom for incoming invaders. The problem is the invaders aren't coming! I have 8 miners at all times. Legendary Miners whom earn Perfectly Agile status become Legendary Haulers. I have 5 farmers (1 brewer, 4 planters), 1 Mechanic, and the rest are engravers (until Perfectly Agile of course). This doesn't seem fair.
So I've come to the conclusion that in Dwarf Fortress mode, the one and only thing that truely matters is you have a farm. Farms can be setup almost instantly in fertile soil, allowing you an unlimited supply of food and drink through plump helmets alone. Everything else is just well, luxury? My fortress survived just fine with A) A plump helmet farm, B) A still, and C) one single big room to hang out.
I've contemplated trying the game without farms but It'd be literally impossible unless you have an endless source of freshwater or pick a really easy starting location with no enemies and plenty of plants to gather, which then becomes trivially easy.
So what to do now? Is there a "Hard mode" option anywhere? =]
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Gross:
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I've contemplated trying the game without farms but It'd be literally impossible unless you have an endless source of freshwater or pick a really easy starting location with no enemies and plenty of plants to gather, which then becomes trivially easy.
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Find a mountain with no vegetation, then have miners and metalcrafters and gemcutters descend upon it and crank out goods to trade for food and booze. That seems more dwarf-like than growing mushrooms, actually...
Or make a wooden above-ground fortress.
Basically, go crazy. Set out enormous goals for yourself.
I will be forced to rely on ambushes and clever tactics rather than passive traps, so it should be interesting.