Bay 12 Games Forum

DT is mainly useful for lategame when you have 100+ dwarves, or when you get very large migrant waves. Custom professions is very useful for assigning military dwarves, as you can give them a custom profession like 'recruit (melee)' and then easily find them in the military screen.

I would never say it is essential, but the rapist certainly takes a lot of the micromanagement out of labour assignments when dwarf numbers start to increase. I never used to use DT, but I gradually warmed up to it as I played longer and longer forts, and now I find it so useful I dread the thought of playing without it.

I can totally understand this, and used to agree, but recently I've done a bit of an about-face on DT.  Before I wanted to manage every dwarf because I was playing for efficiency, trying to get that idler number down to zero.  Also, I was continuing a habit learnt from Captnduck tutorials where he names every dwarf to more easily identify migrants.

But once I convinced and taught my brother to play and we started a fort with story-logs, I finally realized that the mass of dwarves doesn't matter, and it's much more fun to identify and name those that stand out for some reason or another.  Profession and idling management hasn't been nearly as difficult as I thought it would be one I "let go".  That's not to say that a slightly improved profession management system wouldn't be welcome, but DT isn't nearly as important as I thought it was - the job-chaos is a good kind of chaos.

So my advice for new players would be twofold:

• Don't overly worry about efficiency or micromanagement, keep up a fast pace of play
• Get in on a story game with friends or online, it makes the game worth playing

One cool thing about DF is how very differently people play. Anyway, here are my three:

Aye, there seems to be a large number of people who, and for the life of me I can't understand why, have voted for graphics, multithreading and numerous other technical and utterly boring things.  I dont recall playing any game in my life and thinking, "if the graphics were better, you know, I might continue playing.  But as they are, oh geesh just hit reset, please."

Gameplay votes all the way:
Auto mining
Lighting, heating and ventilation
Return of the guilds

Can anyone help me with this line from the devlog?

I piled up all the clay I had been collecting (clay stockpiling is now fixed) and laid an iron track down the mound.

Does this mean clay stockpiles into a mound several z-levels high, or that mound was constructed with designations?

I believe that we already have rubble to deal with, but in an abstracted form that fits so well into the game it's barely noticable.

Dwarf Fortress is not a mining simulator, the same way its not a farming simulator. You dig some holes to live in, and you dig other holes to obtain ores and gems.  I thought the digging stuff was fine. The problem was hauling all of the items around. That was fixed with making dwarfs carry bins to vaccuum up all the little things. I would have been happy with just that one change.

Agreed on both counts.  Especially Arkenstone's opening comment there; it is already effectively in the game.  We already have stones blocking other stones, and stones we have have to dump.  I haven't read any good argument for the addition of another type of general-stone-class that has the same drawbacks but a smaller selection of uses.   

And as GoldenShadow points out, this dev tangent is all about hauling, which has necessitated, what seems to be, a placeholder tweak on the way mining works.  Toady's language has suggested that he and Zack are still trying to balance it and probably will do again - Now I'm guessing here, but I anticipate mining getting a real overhaul when...

...when talking about the future of mining, it'd be a good idea to bear in mind Guilds and digging-invaders are on the way sometime.  These might support or lean against the rubble movement, but you have to be mindful of present and future game mechanics.  Goblins with wheelbarrows, anyone?

Wooo, so many improvements! Minecart brakes! Workshops with dedicated stockpiles! Stockpiles that can be used in feeder chains without worry about other clutter! I'm so very very excited about this.

Wow, me too!   I really love that Toady takes the time to implement features right; the hauling changes have been far more sweeping than I had imagined they would be.  Not only that but they sound immensely fun, used either seriously or for Fun.  I probably say this every release, but I cant think of another game in development with features that are so awesome.

There are so many great scores composed for games, but this one just kicks all their asses :

Lone Trooper from Tiberian Sun.

Think I was about half way through the GDI campaign when I discovered how much better this song was than all the others, from then on at the start of a game the very first thing I'd do was go into the menu and cue this track up.  Slow start and without a traditional climax, but it matches the ambience of the game perfectly.

Cool to hear about the post bugfixing plans, and Threetoes intro was great, made Bay12 sound like a household name in game development 
Toady touched upon fire and miasma AI, and recently mentioned dwarves dodging minecarts... would be interesting in a technical way, to hear more about how this is implemented and if this could be a generalized danger awareness system.  Was great to have another podcast, thanks!

Thanks for the answers from before, Toady.

What does a dwarf need to hitch a ride on a cart?  One grasp?  Two?  Legs?

The goblin struck back but the dwarf jumped on to the ledge, where they continued to fight as the cart fell down into the darkness. It'll be interesting to see the new contenders for "worst dodge decision" that come out of this,

So, er, if I'm reading this right, the dwarf was lucky in dodging onto the cliff?  Or did it cancel its own ride?  I wonder if a dwarf could dodge in front of the cart...