Synopses & Reviews
Dwarf Fortress may be the most complex video game ever made, but all that detail makes for fascinating game play, as various elements collide in interesting and challenging ways. The trick is getting started. In this guide, Fortress geek Peter Tyson takes you through the basics of this menacing realm, and helps you overcome the formidable learning curve.
The books focus is the games simulation mode, in which youre tasked with building a dwarf city. Once you learn how to establish and maintain your very first fortress, you can consult the more advanced chapters on resource management and training a dwarf military. Youll soon have stories to share from your interactions with the Dwarf Fortress universe.
- Create your own world, then locate a site for an underground fortress
- Equip your party of dwarves and have them build workshops and rooms
- Produce a healthy food supply so your dwarves wont starve (or go insane)
- Retain control over a fortress and dozens of dwarves, their children, and their pets
- Expand your fortress with fortifications, stairs, bridges, and subterranean halls
- Construct fantastic traps, machines, and weapons of mass destruction
Synopsis
Dwarf Fortress (DF) has a reputation as the most complex video game ever made. The game is a construction and management game, with a complex physical modeling engine that belies the crude ANSI graphics. All aspects of the world are modeled, tracked, and affect gameplay: everything from weather patterns, erosion, the flow of magma, the movement of small animals, and the accumulation of garbage. Sound like fun? Apparently it is, but theres a huge learning curve at the outset. This concise real time book will dampen the curve and serve as a gentle primer on DF gameplay. Its not really a game guide so much as a celebration of an improbable manifestation of geek culture.
In July 2011, the NY Times Magazine (and BoingBoing) featured the game in an article “The Brilliance of Dwarf Fortress.” Creator Tarn Adams sees DF as his lifes work; he predicts a version 1.0 release in twenty years or so.
About the Author
Peter Tyson created the AfterActionReporter blog in February 2009 for reporting on, listing and writing great after action reports (game reviews through storytelling). He created the online resource "The Complete and Utter Newbie Tutorial for Dwarf Fortress." Tim Denee is an illustrator from Wellington New Zealand.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Tarn Adams; Preface; About the Author; About the Artist; Conventions Used in This Book; Attribution; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Content Updates; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Introduction; 1.1 Two and a Half Game Modes; 1.2 Losing Is Fun!; 1.3 Installing Dwarf Fortress; 1.4 The Keyboard Is Your Friend; 1.5 Mods and Ends; Chapter 2: Playing God; 2.1 Building Worlds; 2.2 Your World; 2.3 Finding a Site; 2.4 Preparing Carefully; Chapter 3: First Steps; 3.1 What Does It All Mean?; 3.2 Exploring the Map; 3.3 Responding to Alerts; 3.4 Let's Get Digging!; 3.5 Building Basic Workshops; 3.6 Managing Your Workshops; 3.7 Piles (of Stuff)!; 3.8 Building Rooms; Chapter 4: Filling Dwarf Bellies; 4.1 Chickens and Eggs; 4.2 Growing Crops Above Ground; 4.3 Growing Crops Underground; 4.4 Fishing; 4.5 Hunting; 4.6 Butchering Livestock; 4.7 Cooking and the Kitchen; 4.8 Beekeeping; 4.9 Milking; Chapter 5: Merchants and Trading; 5.1 Merchants Have Arrived!; 5.2 Liaisons; Chapter 6: Dwarf Resource Management; 6.1 The Fundamentals of Labor and Jobs; 6.2 Skills; 6.3 Labor Management; 6.4 Labors and Attributes; 6.5 Migrants; 6.6 Strange Moods; 6.7 Nobles; 6.8 Relationships; 6.9 Inventory; Chapter 7: Digging Deeper; 7.1 Design Principles; 7.2 Digging and Construction Fundamentals; 7.3 Get Your Pick Dirty; 7.4 Get Building!; 7.5 Challenge Mode; Chapter 8: Industry; 8.1 Wood Industry; 8.2 Stone; 8.3 Food; 8.4 Meat; 8.5 Metal; 8.6 Cloth; 8.7 Gems, Glass, and Ceramics; 8.8 Improving Industry Efficiency; Chapter 9: Justice, Healthcare, and Vampires; 9.1 Justice; 9.2 Vampires; 9.3 Healthcare; 9.4 Babies and Children; 9.5 Death; Chapter 10: The Military; 10.1 Introduction; 10.2 First Steps; 10.3 Directing Your Troops; 10.4 Enemies; 10.5 Advanced Tips; 10.6 Siege Engineering; Chapter 11: Engineering; 11.1 Dwarf-Made Traps; 11.2 Dwarven Machinery; 11.3 Fluid Dynamics; 11.4 Minecarts; 11.5 Inspiring Engineering; Afterword: Farther; Appendix; Introduction; Playing God; First Steps; Filling Dwarf Bellies; Dwarf Resource Management; Digging Deeper; Industry; Dwarf Healthcare; Engineering; Plant Processing; Stones and Ores; Dwarf Labors; New Fort Checklist; Colophon;