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[Cruxador]

Heard it talked about in a place I go to discuss games and other things, checked it out. Used the guide that was on the wiki at the time. This was back in the 40d days, as Baughn was just getting going on his modifications.

[Shinotsa]

I found the charming website one day a year and a half ago while looking for games like Dungeon Crawl SS. I downloaded it, started it up, and wisely listened when the helpful ? screen told me I should check out the wiki. An hour and a half later I started playing and churned out a fort that did damn well.

It was pure luck of course that the marsh had no alligators or other large predators. My military batted some capybara around and occasionally drowned in murky pools. Rhesus Macaques fell to my mighty warriors. Then the siege came and everyone died. At that point I realized that I needed to read 5 different wiki articles to actually understand how to properly get my squads to train. I never realized that you had to set them to active/training on the alert screen, assign them to a barracks, AND give them orders when the time came. I still don't make use of patrols. No use in having dwarves scanning the walls rather than train since they can't spot ambushes that they aren't right across from. Especially when 99% of my notes are ‼Levers‼

[OMGTANGERINES]

I want you all to think back to your first time playing dwarf fortress, now funny thing is it may not be the time you think it was.

i recently remembered that a LONG time ago, about when i was 6-7 i played an ASCII game about dwarfs, and gave up in what i now believe was worldgen (derp)
i just found it kind of interesting that my first time i played DF was earlier than i thought. jogged back into memory by someones post in the help section i believe.

so what do you remember about your first time playing DF? did you give up in 2 minutes? or did you struggle on for days before figuring it out? or did you even get it right away?

So you're 15 now? Since it didn't actually come out till '06?

[Prologue]

I remember my first time. We were both alone in the house, my room illuminated with a single source of light. It shone at her, making her more appealing. I looked at her with hunger in my eyes and I knew what I had to do then. I strode the room more quickly than I had known, had the room somehow become smaller, or am I just so focused at the task at hand? I sat across her with lust in my eyes, my mouth begins to water making me lick my lips to rehydrate them. We stayed across each other without doing anything for an hour, or a day, or several weeks, but it didn't matter, we're so close now and the delay is just a way to increase the pleasure that's sure to come.

I opened her up and looked at her, memorizing everything inside of her. Then I found out what I was looking for. I played with it and she responded with a sound, music in my ears. It was confusing at first, there was a lot of things I've never seen before, but I was eager to learn and I plunged in. I didn't know what I was doing and she knew that so she helped me. She told me what I need to do and how to do it. It was a learning experience I will never forget. The pleasure inside me swelled up and I knew I was hooked, we were destined for each other. It was the best night of my life.

Until some carp in the river killed me.

[Ferozstein]

My first time was some early version of 0.31.xx, so I'm quite new. I generated the world, embarked, tried to play. Got thoroughly confused by the interface. Googled for tutorials, got the Mayday tileset, and it all kind of took off from there.

[The Merchant Of Menace]

I had my girlfriend teaching me how to play, so I made a fairly stable fort then got bored and abandoned it, it was in 31.03 I think.

[cerapa]

I dont remember when I first played it, possibly back when it was still 2d. Later forgot about it again, only to rediscover later.

Anyway, all I remember, is that I had pretty much no idea what anything was, and was basically staring into the matrix code. Somehow I figured out enough to dig out a small room and to place a table there, but no more. And then, parties. Oh god, the endless parties. Not a single dwarf did anything, as they simply kept partying. I dont remember onwards from there, but I presume I got fed up with the parties and didnt touch the game again until I rediscovered it.

[Wirevix]

I don't recall where I first heard of the game.  I picked it up, no knowledge of anything, totally unfamiliar with roguelikes and ASCII games and all of that, tried it out... I couldn't figure out how to plant crops, or make stairs work, or anything.  I gave up after about an hour.

Then I read Boatmurdered, came back with a grim determination to have my own awesomeness, and discovered the wiki.  Sometime in the 40d series.  And then when I discovered modding, I spent more time doing that than actually playing...

[Kirbypowered]

I...hmm. I'm not sure what led me to it (Minecraft? I really can't remember...), but I think I learned of the game through reading Boatmurdered incessantly. My first time playing was years ago, I couldn't say when, but it was after 3D implementation. I don't remember much from it anymore, but I attempted at least three different forts at the time. Oh! Just remembered my very first time playing.

It's kind of hazy and I'm not sure how I got there, but I have clear memory of embarking in the middle of nowhere with "Play now" and just watching my Dwarfs sit around the wagon and do nothing. After that, I somehow learned to dig and failed many times to make forts in the mountains.

Gave up and the game sat in a folder on my desktop for years(maybe two) until I noticed it again. Got the newest version, learned about the wiki, and spent about 6 hours reading for every 10 minutes playing.

[DrPoo]

Hmm i think i found the thread on facepunch, tried to play it but got bored at prepare journey screen and "never" played the game again. Then i came back, and left forever, then came back, then left forever. Now i am back and i really wont leave forever since im in the community.

I think its overly complicated, the prepare journey screen, i would wish i could just have it calculate the point spendings fit to my requirements(I.E alot of miners, no dogs, etc.)

[proxn_punkd]

I'd heard of it in passing from various places, read Boatmurdered, the whole shebang.

I had a Game Design class which required students to, for the first project, "Play a game completely unlike what you normally play, for at least ten hours, then write an analysis paper on the following points. Include other sources, cite, MLA format, etc."

So I went, "Okay, I'll play Dwarf Fortress. I'll probably get my dwarves killed a lot, but that seems to be normal."

No mods, no tilesets, no plugins, just me and my ASCII and the Wiki tutorials. And it was pretty slow going, and actually I'm such a tedious player of simulation-type games that it was actually quite a while before I had any deaths or tantrums, though I got bored and deleted/restarted a lot. I wrote up my paper, presented, and the prof promptly banned all future students from writing analysis papers on Dwarf Fortress, but I kind of figured I'd keep playing because awful as the game was according to my paper's criteria, it was a lot of fun.

I use some mods now, mainly Sphalerite's Random Plants script for some variety and the NoExotics, and some plugins like DFHack and DwarfTherapist, but no tilesets. I still haven't gotten comfy enough to explore HFS or the pumping mechanics, but I'll get there when I get there.

[Loud Whispers]

The first time I encountered DF, was a video demonstrating the fluid mechanics of water and magma on youtube.

Man, that thing is like wikipedia, one minute you're watching a video about the object of morality, the next you're doing the carameldansen.

Anyways, I'm curious as to what the hell this is. The random waves of digits clashing are understandable enough, and I get more interested.

Suddenly, lotsa DF videos.

Download DF.

Fail.

Rage quit.

Play a month later.

Fail.

Rage quit.

Rinse and repeat.

Still, the unique element to the game, or the aspiring to achieve the potential of the game I could find, or who knows what kept dragging me back. Eventually, it was a question of keeping my Dwarves alive for long enough.
Then, everything started making sense. I could build everything, Hives didn't seem like alien objects, and the ASCII became a living book.

The major epiphany for me was when I realised, why should I care that my Dwarves are all dying horribly? I'm planning this wrong!
I've been trying to save them all, when in reality I should've been choosing the options that would've saved the most lives!
Sorry Urist McSacrificialDorf, your number's up!
Oh, lost 90% of my fort! Bah, who needs all that land anyways!
Ok, so 2 dwarves isn't so bad.
Ok, so 1 dwarf is borderline screwed, he can still dig though!
Ok, so now he's dead, still have migrants!
Ok, so now they're all dead, time for a reclaim!

Though I consider my first real DF game, to be the land of the eternal badgers.

So... Many... Badgers.

A soap maker released ALL the badgers.

They were the giant ones too.

After that, I had another epiphany.

Why am I protecting my Dwarves?

I only need one.

>Joined the forum.

[Chaos Armor]

I learned about Dwarf Fortress from my brother who had gotten it from his friend.

I started to play it, couldn't quite make out all of the ascii and failed miserably since I didn't know how to make food.
Started a new fort ,could read the ascii better, that one failed from lack of food as I didn't know how farms worked and didn't realize that you needed alchohol for your dwarves.
Started a new fort, found the wiki, dug in and that fort still survives.

And I've played Dwarf Fortress at least once a month ever since.

Yeah mine probably isn't the most interesting of stories but Dwarf Fortress introduced me to all kinds of new games, ie:Dungeon Crawl SS (CURSE YOU SIGMUND) and Minecraft.

[Gatleos]

Hmm i think i found the thread on facepunch, tried to play it but got bored at prepare journey screen and "never" played the game again. Then i came back, and left forever, then came back, then left forever. Now i am back and i really wont leave forever since im in the community.

I think its overly complicated, the prepare journey screen, i would wish i could just have it calculate the point spendings fit to my requirements(I.E alot of miners, no dogs, etc.)

Wait, did you ever get past the embark screen, or are you still stuck there?

[JimmyBobJr]

Read about DF in a PC Powerplay Magazine, Downloaded it, Gave up on title screen.
Read the PC Powerplay article on BronzeMurder (Or its sister fort, i forget) Downloaded again, this time i managed to hit random buttons until i somehow got past WorldGen and Embarked. Gave up.
At School one day, my mind wandered back the the topic of DF, so i googled "A complete idiots guide to Dwarf Fortress".

I then learnt the game and have never looked back.