Bay 12 Games Forum

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PROLOGUE:
For hundreds of years destructive wars engulfed the western lands, wreaking constant turmoil and ruin on the human and dwarven kingdoms. Once-proud dwarven fortresses crumbled under endless waves of undead invaders, the dwarves driven ever further underground with each successive attack—until only a handful survived, in the deepest mines. Centuries passed; the memory of wars and kingdoms faded, the things of the surface world forgotten in the unchanging gloom of the caverns, where sun did not shine and seasons never turned…

Thob Poweraxe was a miner in Lawmined, a dwarven hall deep beneath the Creative Spikes. He was an easy-going, phlegmatic, and unassuming dwarf of seventy-five. When he was a newbeard his parents had inducted him into the “Communion of Saints,” some sort of religion about medicine or something. It sounded nice, but Thob didn’t give it much mind: he wasn’t given to the abstract. If he couldn’t swing a pick at it, it wasn’t worth his time.

For his whole life Thob had dug and toiled in the slate-walled caverns among endless swaths of plump helmets, and he had never strayed far from home. That was about to change.

A couple weeks ago a strange message had arrived in Lawmined, announcing that one Urvad Whipgem had been made the new King of the Sandaled Key, and was calling all loyal dwarves to the ancient mountainhome of Dawngloves. Thob hadn’t known, until someone had told him, that the Sandaled Key had ever had a king, and as far as he was concerned they got along fine without one. Probably Thob would have forgotten about the whole thing, if not for a second strange and more terrible event.

The so-called “boss” of Lawmined was Nish, a thin, graying engineer. He was a good engineer, too, but as a leader he inspired less confidence. Apparently the fact that he called himself “boss” was enough to get the other dwarves to listen to him. Thob had heard somewhere that dwarves used to have “mayors,” and every year all the dwarves got to pick who they wanted to be mayor in what they called an “election.” But that hadn’t happened in a very long time, longer than Thob’s lifetime, if it had happened at all.
   One day Nish called Thob into his office. “We’ve got a bit of a situation, see, and you’re the only one I can spare.”


   Probably Bomrek had walled himself in again while building, and they needed a competent miner to break him out. Thob hefted his pickaxe.
   “Fact is,” Nish continued sheepishly, “the, er… well, the booze has run out.”
   The pickaxe clattered to the floor. “You’re joking, right?”
   “’Fraid not. Found out at breakfast—not a drop left in the barrels, any of them.”
   “How can the booze run out? We grow more plump helmets than we could eat in a year!”
   “See… we don’t have a still—we can’t make any more. All we have is forges.”


   This was true. There were many forges in Lawmined, and few smiths—and no stills.
   “What’ll we do?” asked Thob.
   “Ah,” said Nish, “not so much we as… you. Someone needs to run out and bring back some alcohol—er, and a brewer who knows how to put a still together.”
   “Run where?”
   “Well, here’s my plan. Remember that letter we got a few weeks back? Said there was a new king in Dawngloves? I figure anyone calls himself ‘king for the dwarves’ ought to know a good brewer or two, and probably has a stockpile full of extra beer.” He stroked the braid of his beard. “You’ll have to go through the caverns… but I figure being a miner you’re used to that.”
   “I don’t know where Dawngloves is, though.”
   “No fear,” said Nish. “Let me show you. I have a map, you see—a map of all the dwarf holds in the world.” He pointed to a ragged scrap of paper on the wall.


“We’re here, in the middle,” he said, then “Dawngloves is at the end of that valley to the west.”
   “Where’s the rest of it?” asked Thob.
   “Rest of what?”
   “The world. There’s got to be something more.”
   “That’s all that’s on the map, isn’t it?”
   “But,” said Thob, “how would I get to those volcanoes up there? There’s nothing in between.”
   “What does that matter? You’re not going up there, you’re going to Dawngloves. Stop changing the subject…”

And so it was that Thob Midorlibash, with only the clothes on his back and a pick in his hand, set out on the dark cavern road to Dawngloves in search of booze. Little did he know how far that search would take him…

I don't think invaders are subject to physical needs, i.e. hunger/thirst/sleep, whether they be goblins, elves, or humans.
So, no.

Burrow cancellation spam usually occurs for me when a dwarf is already hauling an item towards an out-of-burrow stockpile; since they don't just drop the item, they constantly re-take the job and re-cancel. Forbidding the hauled item, so that they drop it, has always solved the issue for me. Dwarves shouldn't take jobs outside the burrow, so once the in-progress hauling jobs are settled you shouldn't be seeing (too much) spam. But I've really only used burrows for civilian alerts.

Perhaps you can make you non-cave-adapted dwarves into a hauler/construction worker contingent: they'd have no burrow restrictions and do all the hauling/building/other tasks that required occasional trips outside. The rest of your (cave-adapted) dwarves would be restricted to burrows inside the fort, and do workshop jobs/anything not requiring outside work. The only problem I can think of there is if burrow-dwarves tried to claim items from outside... but I'm not sure they can do that, if the item is outside their burrow.

Needless to say, you'd need to make sure all of your relevant stockpiles were inside the fort, so burrow-dwarves could reach them. Perhaps you could also build outdoor housing for your construction crew to keep them non-cave-adapted.

When the outpost liaison comes around, ask them for iron ore (if they have any): hematite, magnetite, and limonite (they'll be listed under "Stone" in the trade-deal screen). Bump the demand slider all the way up - this will ensure that the next dwarven caravan to visit your fortress will bring four of each ore, i.e. 12 boulders of iron ore total. Since each one gives 4 bars of iron when smelted, that's potentially 48 iron bars per year, which is probably enough to outfit ~4 dwarves in full armor + weapon. It's slow going, sure, but it's better than nothing. You can supplement that iron supply with bronze as well (ask for cassiterite + some copper ore - malachite, tetrahedrite, native copper).

You can also, by the same method, ask caravans for flux stone, though you'll only ever get four boulders, which is only enough for 4 bars of steel - which, again, is better than nothing.

Well, that's sort of a broad question.

Adventure Mode is basically the turn-based RPG to Fort Mode's colony sim. You control a single character (or, recently, a party of characters) and explore your DF worlds on foot, as you would in most RPGs. You have skills and attributes just like your fortress dwarves do. As with fort mode, Adventure Mode is very open-ended, and most of "what there is to do" is up to you to decide. Fighting monsters or megabeasts, infiltrating dark fortresses and rescuing snatched children, becoming a vampire or necromancer or werebeast, performing song and dance at taverns or castles, or simply exploring the neat worlds DF cooks up - these are all fine and (usually) interesting ways to enjoy adventure mode.

I'd warn you, though, that Adventure Mode is very much unpolished at the moment, even more so than fort mode. Expect bugs, weird nonsensical stuff, lag, and crashes. But if you can look past all that it's very enjoyable.

what features does have the adventurer mode  (for example :  like a legends viewer in fortress and oversight in Civilization/world map)
- there is fast travel i noticed

As I said, this is a pretty broad question: what sort of features are you wondering about? I don't understand what you mean by "legends viewer in fortress" or "oversight in Civilization/world map." Could you maybe re-phrase these?

Also, the Adv Mode "fast travel" is really just "faster travel" - you move around on an abstracted map, but you still have to physically (virtually?) move your character(s) from one place to another; it's not "click on the location and teleport there" Skyrim-style travel.

I've always given them a full set initially (minus mail shirt, though not for any particular reason) and never had any issues. I don't know what benefit "working them up" would do, except that untrained dwarves in full steel tend to move slowly... but, that's not a huge issue IMO. After a solid year of basic training they should be capable of easy movement in armor.

To un-cheesily reach legendary skill, you'll need to know what kinds of enemies you can take on at certain skill levels.

If you start off below Competent in your weapon/melee skills, your best bet is hunting dangerous animals or wandering the wilderness for random encounters. Animals don't have combat skills, and they tend to scare easily, making them good for low-level training - but (being predators) they are not totally helpless, unlike livestock.

Once you're at Competent/Skilled, you can tackle humanoid bandits (most of whom seem to start with Competent weapon skill + Novice fighter/dodger/etc.). Do so cautiously: avoid multiple engagements, and watch out for their weapons - even if you have superior armor, a solid hit can still (thru force-transfer) bend or break your joints, leaving you crippled (temporarily or for good). You can tilt the odds in your favor by shooting bandits from stealth first. Just beware of flashing bandits, ones with decorated gear, or those called "[weapon]master" or "[weapon]lord" - they have higher skills.
At this level you may also be able to take on some young semimegabeasts - giants, ettins, cyclopes (not minotaurs, who are born with high melee skills). You want to tackle young ones because they won't have trained their skills in worldgen duels: look for beasts that have only a single name (meaning they haven't killed anyone), or at least not a title. Semimegabeasts (I believe) actually give you more XP than other creatures, and since they're huge they take many, many hits to bring down. You can gain several levels off a single ettin. Again, do this cautiously: one hit from a giant and you're basically pulp.

Once you've reached Talented you can deal with night trolls: I strongly recommend avoiding these at lower levels, as they tend to be highly naturally skilled fighters. Towns usually have a few in the sewers (who, due to a bug, teleport to the surface and start slaughtering people), or you can hunt their lairs in the wilderness. They have the questionable advantage of feeling no pain or fear, so they won't pass out or run away - which is good for training but can also, obviously, be dangerous.
Talented skills should also allow you to fight some megabeasts: dragons and rocs. Rocs are the easiest - they get scared about as easily as normal animals; they can fly away, however, so you'll need to damage their wings to keep them in range. Dragons are hard to get close to because of their fire - bring a shield - but once in range a skilled fighter should be able to defeat them.
Bronze colossi and hydras present additional difficulties. BCs are simply hard to damage, but if you can dodge/block their attacks reliably you should be able to fight one. I've never actually fought a hydra myself, but they have seven heads that can bite simultaneously, so again you'll need good defensive options (and a fair bit of endurance - dodging is tiresome)
You should also be able to face Titans at this level, but some are more dangerous than others. Avoid webbers entirely - once webbed you're totally helpless until you break free, which takes time. Fire breathers are bad, but not as bad as dragons. Deadly dust can throw you around and potentially knock you unconscious. But spittle, poisonous bites, bloodsucking, etc. are usually harmless.

All that should give you plenty to fight in a not-too-exploity way. Additionally, use your weapon's lamest attacks - pommel strikes or flat slaps for swords/axes, shaft bashes for spears or pikes, etc. They'll do (usually) less damage but still raise your skill, allowing you to prolong a fight, but be warned: the longer you stay in combat, the greater your chances of getting seriously wounded or killed. Even "easy" opponents can get lucky shots if you aren't careful.

Maybe fight tower zombies or something?

In the last version (.44.xx) zombies, for some reason, gave no XP gains. You could cut through an entire tower and gain nothing. Don't know about the current version, but I'd steer clear of zombies for training purposes until I verified this.

Light gray tower is indeed one emptied of necromancers/zombies. I visited one: there was a goblin commander and his lieutenants, but no necros.

Non-goblin sites changing to (dark) magenta are, I think, sites conquered by necromancers. At least in my world they conquered a mountain hall and it turned purple.

White omega fortresses spreading evil are indeed from dwarves digging too deep. Happened quite often in my world (quite too often IMO).

Tombs spreading evil are probably from mummies being disturbed and then raising zombie armies to attack/conquer the living.