Bay 12 Games Forum

Yeah. It's hard to know sometimes if modern interfaces are actually better, or just that people have gotten used to things.
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For me, the new DF UI is so different that it makes it considerably more difficult to create new worlds with advanced worldgen.
And what I mean by that is.. I used to be able to use single keys in menus.  Very quick & efficient.  It was predictable, reliable, consistent and most of all? FAST.
Now?  Nope.  Not for me.  The amount of nonsense involved in just trying to create and world, check it for whatever feature, exit, delete it, and try again?  Cumbersome, tedious, annoying. SLOW.
It's bad enough, for me, that 47.x is probably my last version for iterative worldgens.  50.x is just too inefficient for me, but, as always, YMMV, and perhaps it will be improved in the future. 

As others have said, I have no interest in having a game made exclusively for me and my play style, but.. it is a real shame, in my opinion, that 10+ years of 'how it was' got thrown out.

What I'm looking for:
Procedural Multiplayer 3D first person/third person with online co-op player-hosted dedicated server(s).
Life-Sim plus Combat as far as features go, with things like building, crafting, farming, etc.
Portal Knights is perfect, but it doesn't permit more than 4 players, and our play group needs 8-10.
Essentially I'm looking for a first/third person 3D version of Stardew Valley, if such a thing exists.  We would play/mod the hell out of that.

What I've found so far: Garden Paws. While it technically matches, its target audience is a bit younger than us.
We are currently playing Portal Knights, as it also matches, but doesn't have the same depth of building/crafting/life-sim as SDV or Garden Paws, and the server limit of 4 is killing us.
Garden Paws will be our next if this community is unaware of something better.  But we are hoping for alternatives.
Dinkum was as very close match, but the multiplayer isn't quite right, in that the host is really the only true player, the rest are just temporary/transient guests.

I'm just asking here to ensure we haven't missed anything that might fit the requirements.
We've tried and/or played (in the past) SDV, Necesse, Wayward, Rust, Ark, Atlas, Pixark, Solace Crafting, Valheim, Frozen Flame, Raft, Wurm Unlimited, Veloren, Vintage Story, Dinkum, and more.
Generally most of them fall down either with technical bugs, crashing servers, not actual SDV-like-multiplayer, not 3D, or shallow crafting, building, life-sim and little/no story/plot.
We are not looking for a pure sandbox like unmodded Minecraft, but something more with an overarching story.  Ideally more than just "kill this next boss", although if that's all there is, ok.
PvP isn't part of this equation, we're looking for a PvE/Co-Op setting.
As far as content goes, we would prefer no zombies, horror, darkness-as-fun, vampires, or similar themes (been there, done that), but if that's the only option, ok.
I've heard good things about Deep Rock Galactic and Minecraft Legends, but.. haven't tried them, so if anyone has, and feel they should be recommended as a match, please provide that feedback.
Voxels are ok (obviously, portal knights) but are not required.

The ideal features are: 
Server-authoritative dedicated persistent reliable non-crashing server, ideally run/hosted under Linux or Wine.  Multiplayer of 8-10.
Procedural generation of everything like maps, islands, non-home areas.
Life sim features of farming, crafting, building, domestication, pets, taming, fishing, events, non-combat progression paths.
Combat/Exploration/Resource acquisition with procedural maps, dungeons, missions, content.
Quests, Tasks or Missions intended for teams to accomplish.  Tiers/Bosses are fine, too.
Quest related tasks anyone can do (Portal Knights) or tracked individually (SDV).
3D first/third person.

I tried Hero's Rest this week, and overall, it's pretty good.
The premise or setting of the game is you're running the town that adventurers go to, to obtain Quests, then buy what they need (gear, armor, weapons, potions, food) before and after the Quests.  You create the supply and demand for the whole adventure loop.
Layouts of the towns are limited to 4 settings/biomes at the moment.  Some are objectively better than others, just due to distance & pathing, but they all get the job done in terms of being able to create the 7 different shops.
You can have an Inn, Blacksmith, Woodworker, Tanner, Tailor, Apothecary, and Training Grounds.  Each has their own workshop for Adventurers, and then a separate 'civilian' feature, for visitors who aren't specifically Questing Adventurers.

The clever bit is you have to collect all the raw materials to make the stuff that you need to create & provide the goods the visitors and adventurers will consume or want.
You create the Quests, food, and every category of gear, all from the raw materials.  Raw materials categories are metal, wood, cloth, leather, herbs, food,  Each one has four tiers, and you need the higher tier raw material before making the higher tier goods within each shop.  You can only have one shop per plot of land within the town, and how it's laid out doesn't really matter, as long as the objects are placed within each.
You can use Tier 2 items to advance to Tier 3, or even Tier 1 items to advance to Tier 3, in terms of XP granted to advance, within each shop.
You should only make gear your specific classes need.  You create each adventuring class, and recruit only those classes you want/create.  Each class has different bonuses in terms of what they bring to the town (when they're in town).
This means if you make classes that use two handed swords, don't make daggers.    Tanners have the most demand and appear to make the most (legitimate) money.

The tutorial is good, didn't run into any bugs.  All the hackable values are just 4 byte integers, so that's extremely handy if you don't want to grind through hours of gameplay to see how the story/plot advances.  This includes the storage of all raw materials and gold, as well as upgrade gems.
In terms of story, the outline is that you keep sending adventurers on quests to specific areas, and those areas open up until you have a complete knowledge of all locations, then you can create high CR (Challenge Rating) Quests that lead to the Boss fight.  Once the boss has been removed, you now control that territory, but that just advances to the next territory. Goblins, Kobolds, Animals, Bandits, Orcs & Trolls, Elementals, Undead, Giants, Demons, Dragons are the territories.
From time to time the King will send you requests for materials, which if you satisfy, you get rewarded.
There are 'Imminent Threats' which are things like, if you don't kill x of y Goblins or Kobolds, they attack your town, and your Constitution-class based heroes will try to fight them off.  If not, they steal money and resources.

Fair warning, if you get ahead of the CR curve, you can't go back unless you ditch your high level adventurers (remove their classes) and start again with a new class type.  that's just to get Adventurers who are low enough level/CR that they can do all that low-level exploration.  Ultimately it doesn't seem to matter too much, the Imminent threats aren't game-ending and you can create high CR 'slay' quests to keep your adventurers happy.  Some adventurers die.. especially those just starting out without a lot of good gear, money, or potions to help them along.  Some end up with Epic or Legendary gear that you happened to make and/or upgrade.

That's the part that's pretty fun, in my opinion, you outfitting then sending them off and seeing the results.  Some of them come back under 5% health and 100% morale, because they just LOVED that quest so much that they almost died.  It's pretty funny that way.  When they get particularly good items, they say things like "That Backpack of Slaying is going to make me a Legend!"
GPU load & performance of the game, with appropriate settings, is efficient from what I saw.  It won't turn your GPU into a space heater unless you max out everything.
Anyway, that's my opinion of Hero's Rest, worth trying if you've never played anything similar.  I've also tried Travellers Rest, and that one focuses more on being an Innkeeper, rather than all the different aspects of adventuring, at least so far.

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Overall, I think the mainline simulation caters to players who are already highly experienced with the game and thus need more challenges. It's a common fault with video games in general.

I do like it, however, because it generally has new stuff, even if it also takes stuff away. It's valuable.
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Have been playing it again recently, and am really enjoying it.  Less bugs, more content, seems like better game loops/progression systems in general, and ~everything customizable by the player via easy .json editing.
Looking forward to installing more CBM's and shotgunning those Mutagens. 
The only thing I had a hard time with was trying to build a second storey, but otherwise, very fun.  Can build up, can build down/underground, very DF in that respect.  The electrical 'grid' for structures is also very handy.

Can you provide a little more detail about that? I'm not sure I follow what you're describing. Both the way you phrased it, and the wiki language, I'm not really clear where the dwarf if standing, what they're mining, or how the bridge is protecting them.

Sure, in addition to what Bumber said.. I'll expand on the wiki language:
" First, channel a hole next to the place you want to breach the volcano, creating a hole and a ramp.
Then, place a one tile magma-safe bridge over the ramp.
Third, forbid the area the bridge is in -- blocking the area off with a forbidden door, or a contraction, depending on how your fortress works.
Then mine the area out from the ramp below. "

So, there are four steps outlined in the wiki, but I'll elaborate a bit more.
Let's say the top of your volcano is at Z-Level 80, and that's your embark level.  Your caverns start at Z-level 60, but you want to make a magma moat at Z-Level 70.
-Dig down 10 levels from the embark level and then dig out a hallway towards the volcano side wall at Z-Level 70.  Dig right up to the obsidian wall of the volcano.  Put a magma safe door on the hallway you can lock, back near the staircase you dug down with.
-Channel one z-level down, in front of the obsidian wall of the volcano, so there is a ramp or ramps below, across the width of the hallway.  Might be one tile, might be 10, up to you.
-On Z-Level 69, that is, one Z-level beneath the Z-level you want the magma to be, where the ramp(s) you just dug is/are, dig another access hallway but this one just has to give your miner access to the up-ramps you just made on Z-Level 69.
-This is what your miner will use to remove the obsidian wall of the volcano on Z-level 70, FROM Z-Level 69, by using the ramp to stand on.
-Build a drawbridge over the channel you just dug on Z-level 70.  Attach it to a lever. flip the lever, so it's down/covering the channel(s). It can either be exactly the size of the channel(s), or bigger, it doesn't matter which.
-Now, lock/forbid the hallway door on Z-level 70.  This area is about to become very unsafe. 
-Finally, designate the obsidian wall of the volcano, on Z-level 70, to be dug.  A miner will walk down to Z-level 69, stand on the ramp on Z-level 69, and mine out the tiles on Z-level 70.  Voila, magma flows on Z-level 70.
Miner walks away and continues their un-vaporized existence.

Could simply be that its too hot. Since you previously said the dwarf died by magma. Dwarves refuse to path through too hot areas, such as after magma, dragonfire or sometimes in a fight with something that lobs loads of fire.

Likely a continuation of this bug: http://bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=1272 or https://dwarffortress.mantishub.io/view.php?id=1272
Which, if you like using magma flooding chambers, makes the game extremely .. unreliable.
However, it's worth noting that generally, a save and reload does appear to force the recalc of all temp on all pathable/walkable/reachable tiles, and often will clear the bug until you re-flood any/some pathing tiles with magma again.

For clarification, this problem occurred both before and after a magma forge was placed. There were no screw pumps involved.
The magma tube idea might be something. There was a magma tube about 10 tiles away diagonally, and while there was not a direct connection, the Magma Flow under that *was* at a higher z level than the rock shelf the forge was built inside of.

The magma came and went kind of like tides, and I eventually managed to make an anvil when the "tide" was low to build another forge elsewhere.

I've seen what you're describing before, in many other versions, even without a magma tube.  For me, it happens when the embark isn't completely, 100%, flat.
What happens is, if any magma anywhere on the embark is higher than or at the same level as your forge, you'll see this ebb-and-flow of magma trying to fluid-level itself out.
You've already found a solution, and that is to find a spot that is just above the highest point of magma across the entire embark.
Of course, other solutions like minecart-dumping a single tile of 7/7 magma up to the surface is always another option for almost any embark.  When you find what you've found, that ends up being pretty safe, because you can build the pickup-magma part of the minecart circuit pretty easily with constructed walls, adjacent magma and a magma safe floodgate/lever.

The root cause?  IIRC, It appears to be that the embark surface Z-level disparities/differences, if they are part of a biome edge/change, can cause both the SMR sea and the resulting magma above it to have different Z levels as well.  It's typically only 1 or 2 Z-levels off, from what I've seen.