Dwarf Fortress - Adventure Mode

[Perkel]

So i mostly played DF fortress mode up until few days ago. DF fortress mode is pretty well known by many people.
For years i didn't want to try adventure mode, every time i started it, it always ended up badly because like in case of fortress mode controlling stuff is horrible. There are some awesome concepts behind it like combat and other stuff but this stuff was kind of "Boring".

So it was normal day and got bit bored. So once again i started to play adventure mode. I forced myself through keybinding idiocy and spend good while on wiki figuring out stuff.

And game finally clicked with me.

Started as peasant with almost no skills aside from better agility and some novice ambushing.
For first 10-15 days i mostly tried to hunt animals for skins and tusks hoping i will sell it and buy some armor.

In those 10-15 days i experienced DF combat. Holy fuck. I tried earlier adv mode but most of the time i got killed by almost anything but now with wiki knowledge i did good and effects were amazing.

I mean i can sneak up laying on ground to boar, split his belly so that hits guts will spill out and run the fuck away waiting for boar to bleed out quickly.
Combat is also completely fair which is something i didn't expect. Almost any fight can be won if you will try to do it right provided you are not trying to handle whole bandit group by yourself.

Next case scenario. There is dude and i check him. He has some armor and looks like he is quite skilled judging from equipment. I check again he doesn't have any armor on lower legs.
I sneak up to dude again on ground and i cut up his tendon in his lower leg then i run away take my bow and practice on dude who can't catch up with me my archery skills.

Few next days i was trying to get some bandit group but there were to many of enemies to handle it. I go back to city and i am ambushed. I quickly sprint the fuck out of there then i hit ground and start to sneak. Dude comes up i check him and he has crossbow. Not good. I can leave or try to kill that fucker. I sneak up on him. I will try to take this fucker out in one shot. I target his throat with my seax and...

... i got him ! I stuck my knife into his throat ! I cut his major artery and dude has like seconds to live..... he took his crossbow and in his last moment shoot it straight in my face smashing my face and piercing brain...

awesome.

Then it got me thinking... what if i had wrestler skill ? I could grab his right hand (with crossbow) and with my other hand strike him until he is dead.
Or i could just target his hand hoping it will remove it or cut tendon which would leave dude weaponless..

Now i am thinking about creating wrestler/striker kung fuhrer type where he will be smashing with fists and breaking bones.

 

[Perkel]

Now i am trying "human outsider" start.

IT gives 0 fame, you start but naked without backpack or waterskin with only spear and knife.


Also i installed Stals Armory pack which overhauls armors and weapons. Now scimitar and short sword will have different stats. Also different types of arrow like bodkin created especially to target mail users.

 

[Scroo]

This sounds pretty amazing honestly. I never played DF tho because the learning curve always scared me away. Is the adventure mode a bit easier to access for complete newcomers? Or would it take 3 years of guide reading too? Does it even make sense to try when I have zero experience in Dwarf Fortress?

 

[Don Peste]

I have this guide in my bookmarks. Will I ever read it?
https://web.archive.org/web/2014111...ss-the-detailed-roguelike-thats-easy-to-play/

 

[Zdzisiu]

This sounds pretty amazing honestly. I never played DF tho because the learning curve always scared me away. Is the adventure mode a bit easier to access for complete newcomers? Or would it take 3 years of guide reading too? Does it even make sense to try when I have zero experience in Dwarf Fortress?

Adventurer mode is way easier than fortress mode because you have to take care of just one character and you can control it directly. I would say that Adventurer mode is no more difficult than any decent roguelike. Maybe the melee combat is a bit more complex, but nothing that one would need to read a 100 guide to understand.

 

[Stargazer_]

Wait a minute people actually play Dorf Fort in adventure mode? why not play Nethack, ADOM, Dungeon Crawl stone soup, or the myriad of generic and shitty rpg rogue-likes coming out of the rectal crevices of greenlight?

Seriously though Adventurer is a great way to start out in DF, it teaches you basic game mechanics and helps you get into the flow of combat. Plus with a decent imagination and a Notepad you can create a silly plot for your adventures, Very fun. Also dorf with the Dragon Ball Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=60b4835aef5d4c3cf18ee3a0a48b3914&topic=100799 is a better DB game than Xenoverse.

 

[Perkel]

Wait a minute people actually play Dorf Fort in adventure mode? why not play Nethack, ADOM, Dungeon Crawl stone soup, or the myriad of generic and shitty rpg rogue-likes coming out of the rectal crevices of greenlight?

Seriously though Adventurer is a great way to start out in DF, it teaches you basic game mechanics and helps you get into the flow of combat. Plus with a decent imagination and a Notepad you can create a silly plot for your adventures, Very fun. Also dorf with the Dragon Ball Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=60b4835aef5d4c3cf18ee3a0a48b3914&topic=100799 is a better DB game than Xenoverse.

Because none of them have such awesome combat model ?

I mean can you in any of them fight with a goblin, cut his belly so his guts will spill out then grab his guts and throw that goblin with his guts from ledge so he smashes on rocks. Then you can skin him, eat his brain and make shoes out of his skin.

Overall like many people said DF feels unfinished but what is there is interesting to play. Then there are mods which make really good changes.
Hell for adventure mode its loot system is actually good. You can find steel weapon but each weapon has quality level same with armor and other stuff so before you will have all masterwork it will take huge time.

This sounds pretty amazing honestly. I never played DF tho because the learning curve always scared me away. Is the adventure mode a bit easier to access for complete newcomers? Or would it take 3 years of guide reading too? Does it even make sense to try when I have zero experience in Dwarf Fortress?

Adventure mode is way easier and less obtuse than fortress mode because like someone said you only play as one dude.

This is short list of tips that will make you live through first few days:

FIRST kaymapping is crucial. This is why i didn't play earlier as i tried to go out and try it without wiki. you can always hit ? in game to see keymapping.

most important stuff:
, - one tick of time. crucial for fights.
T - travel on map
Z - sleep/wait. Don't sleep outside. Always go to some hamlet or town go into someone house/shop and ask to stay night. Once he agrees you can safely sleep. Sleeping without companions in woods is like walking on minefield.
Q - Map and various stuff.
e- eat/drink
h- climbing
g - pick up things from ground/ make campfire
arrows - movement, <> moving between z levels (stairs, climbing etc)
k - talking to people. After you talk once you hit enter and then again k. You basically talk k-enter-k-enter and so on.
l - looking at things, always check who are you will be attacking.
alt+arrow - careful movement. This is used for descending into water. Without it you will need to jump into water and without swimming skill you will drown 99%. So near water you hit alt+arrow near water and then a to descend.
I (big i) - special action for items in your inventory. If you have waterskin you will be able to fill it with water near river.
i - inventory
p - put item into bag/container
w - wear something
r - remove something you wear
A (shift +a) - attack something. If it is not hostile then later alt+y to confirm. Train it on wild animals. Bit annoying but later easy.
S - movement configuration. here you decide if you run or walk or stroll. Once menu is open you can hit s and sneak.
s - hit the ground. perfect for sneaking !
x - "crafting" menu. Without mods its almost empty but there is superuseful "butcher". Stand on tile with corpse hit x and butcher it for meat skins, bones etc. Skins usually net good price.

General tips:

::WATER::
You can drink it straight from river or if you have waterskin hit I then your waterskin and fill it with water. If water is frozen you can usually get snow from ground put in some container like backpack then make campfire (g) and hit I then select snow and melt it in fire.

::FOOD:
kill wild animals. Go into wilderness hit S then s. You will be sneaking with this you can move in woods and see enemy/animal cones of view easily. If you see one first check it with l what it is (you don't want to attack Giant Lion or Grizzly) if it is something sounding easy like fox then hit s to crawl and crawl to it. Before attack stand up Then hit A and try to kill it. If it will run away hit s and sneak looking for it. If it was in group there is good chance it will go back after a while.
As of attacking itself. With animals try to first remove mobility so target legs or if you feel like go straight for neck or throat with cutting weapons, with hammers for head and with piercing weapons for upper body.
Plants. If you see apple tree climb it and take apples from trees. IF it is autum there is good chance ton of fruits will be on ground

::ARMOR AND WEAPONS::

- get armor asap. Even better, companions. You can't heal broken bones or chopped leg so you need to survive encounters. It is good way to first sell stuff and buy some armor before going on a quest.
- generally for start cutting weapons. So invest in axes or sword skills. get dodge and shield skills as well

:: SWIMMING::

- always take novice swimming. With alt+a you will be able to cross river and train this skill. Without novice you will drown.


DF COMBAT TUTORIAL for 'dex !


::WEAPON TYPES::
-- cutting (cutting)--
great for cutting flesh. Not so great for bone, shell or any kind of armor unless you have really good stuff in your hand. IF enemy is weaker than you (small animals, goblins etc) you can sometime cut whole hands, legs, heads and if you have good strength even in half. Great weapon for cutting tendons in legs and arms. Best way to kill with it is to target neck or throat. One good strike and you will hit major artery which will bleed out enemy in few short seconds.
-- piercing (stabbing) --
like name suggest you will be targeting insides of your enemies. Lungs, hearth, liver, muscles, tendons, brains etc. Best way to use it is to target uper body. If you will reach both lungs then this is the end for enemy as he will suffocate in seconds.
-- blunt --
armor destroyers but mostly mediacore fighting with not armored enemies. Targeting head and legs is very effective as strikes tend to brake bones which mean one big thing: pain. Broken bones generate enough pain so that enemies may simply faint from it.
-- wrestling --
wait what ? wrestling ? Yes and it is superb skill if you know what you are doing. Get few points in that and you will be able to brake legs, pluck eyes, catch weapons in your bare hands, throw people and smash them in walls. Combine it with Sneak skill and you have dude who will fuck shit up like no one else. wrestling damage is TEAR which is neighter blunt or cut or pierce. It fallows really nifty math and if you have lot of strenght you will be able to do a lot of fun stuff.

COMBAT tips:

- use shields.
- you can't heal beside simple scars or bruised muscles. You can use crutches but it isn't effective...
- you can autoattack just moving toward dude. (hint, don't use it until someone faints)
- with cutting or piercing weapons weapons often get stuck after hitting flesh/muscle/bones. hit , once to get them back. Once it is stuck both you and enemy is easy to hit so watch out for cheap shots.
- BLEEDING is probably single most effective way to kill people. Cut his artery and wait/run till its dead. IF you cut major artery then he will die in seconds (throat)
- cheap shots for the win. Depending on weapon. For example it is better to try hit neck 3 times with dagger and try to open artery than one heavy shot that will open artery but will get you counter attack.
- Observe skill gives you idea what enemy is doing. Counterattacks are best way to kill people (enemy is recovering)
- if you or enemy is immobilized (by cutting leg, tendon in leg, fainting etc) then it is guaranted win. So targeting legs is smart.
- df combat is unique. If you don't have tactic to one shoot you will need to watch out for many things in combat.
- it is better to target easy, easier, normal targets with just can't land good than use tricky strike with something that land good.
- don't attack enemies in groups. Strenght in numbers. hire dudes then attack groups.
- you can run away. Press S and use sprint and run away from battle. If you are far enough then sneak away.
- don't ignore away enemy wresting moves (purple). If he knows what he is doing you will soon have broken leg or arm if not neck.
- once you wrestle both you and enemy is super easy to hit. So don't wrestle if you attack two dudes.
- watch out for ranged character. Bolt or arrow is piercering stuff and remember you can't heal beside simple scars. Getting your insides filled with arrows is quick way to death. But you can use those arrows and throw them back (> )
- throwing is very usefull. You can throw you spear or even rock. Master at throwing can put out dudes like nothing.

 

[Perkel]

Also don't use vanilla DF. Use Starter Pack:

LATEST STARTER PACK

it gives you:

- graphics ! No ASCI (few different graphic styles. I personally use MAYDAY + from customization menu shizzle tileset font)
- multi level z view. You can see different layers without problems.
- there is sound sense utility that gives you sound !. One you start it there will be around 300mb download. once it complete restart it and play DF (turn off sound in starter pack options !)
- lot of QoL improvement like filtering items and so on.
- with mouse scroll you can zoomin/out both UI and main window graphics. (for ui zooming hit esc in game and then try scrolling)

 

[Scroo]

Wow, thanks, that's a great hint collection

I will let you know how it went when I tried it

 

[Perkel]

Wow, thanks, that's a great hint collection

I will let you know how it went when I tried it

honest tip start as demigod and put ton in your skills to get how game works. Then start as a peasant.

BTW if you start as peasant you won't be able to hire anyone (almost). You will need to do some quests and spread rumors that you did it. If you will do quest for locar land owner this will be done automatically.

Once rumors will spread out (yes this is a thing) people will start to notice you and some of them will accept to fallow you.
Remember that soldiers are good dudes to fallow you (you can find them in land owner keep in towns).

Also Hamlets and Towns. There is a difference. Towns trade stuff hamlets usually don't. You can see on map (Q) where is nearest town.

 

[Perkel]

Forgot most important thing.

In left up corner you have compass. You can choose on map (Q) something and it will show on your compass. When you accept quest it will also automatically show you the way.

 

[Perkel]

Oh other important thing. Once you will be cut, after a fight jump into water (swim) it will clean your wounds so they won't get infected.

Other fun stuff:

Don't try to cut or pierce undead. Either you need to have strength to hack them to pieces (you don't) or you need to pulp them. Pulping is basically smashing body parts into grinded meat so it won't able to do anything usually with hammers.

Also don't try generally to attack unded things. Even undead barn owl is hard enemy.
Still sea monsters are most fun things. Undead Sperm Whale is also a lot of fun and i honestly don't have any idea how to kill it (to big)

Don't get bitten by warecreatures or vampires unless you want to play as one. Just try to pick fun one.
Playing wareorangutan seems !fun!

This also goes for you companions. If someone is bitten then leave him or kill him because on full moon he will 100% change and will try to kill you.
Don't drink from murky pools you don't want to catch any disease.

You can smell things ! hit W. Usefull in dungeons as by smell you can tell if there are undead near you so you can gtfo.
Once your tracking get high enough you will be able to tell precisely what you smell. Yep it is a horse !

 

[Perkel]

This is how you fight with spear and knife:

and artistic impression of that moment:

 

[Merlkir]

I've played a bit, mostly wrestled with hyenas, beat them up with a mace and chased the wounded one until it died from ruptured spleen or something. While that's fun, I'm having trouble with orientation - at some points the tiles on the screen switch to what I assume is another height level, but it's just highly disorienting and I have no idea what my surroundings look like.

Also, I heard about some bandits and beasts, but haven't managed to find them.
Also, I'm thirsty, probably don't have a waterskin and can't find a river. -___-

 

[Perkel]

I've played a bit, mostly wrestled with hyenas, beat them up with a mace and chased the wounded one until it died from ruptured spleen or something. While that's fun, I'm having trouble with orientation - at some points the tiles on the screen switch to what I assume is another height level, but it's just highly disorienting and I have no idea what my surroundings look like.

Also, I heard about some bandits and beasts, but haven't managed to find them.
Also, I'm thirsty, probably don't have a waterskin and can't find a river. -___-

Did you install Starter pack or vanilla ?

Yes game has multiple Z levels. It is bit annoying but it is something you can get used to after a short while. That right corner double windows displays 2 Z levels above you. So if you have for example enemy which is above you look for that window.

As of River. Hit T (shift+t) then you see map and simply move toward blue rivers. Once near river hit d to deploy and go in direction of river (which you saw on map)

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In other news i am playing with bits of interesting mods. Currently i am compiling them into one pack so that you would be able just copy files into raw folder and get them working without problems.

I am currently using:

Stalls armory pack. 70 new weapons and armors, completely rebalanced weapons and armor (dude spent like 2 years doing that in arena mode)
More leather - killing bigger animals = more skin to tan
All races playable - modified it only to play dwarves and humans.

Also i am doing my own crafting system for Outsider type of start (which starts naked with spear and knife). So tanning skins, basic cloth/leatherworks, some common tools and weapons (like sling).

Should be ready in about hour.

 

[Perkel]

Here is my mod pack:

MEGA

Just move all those files in folder to Dwarf Fortress 0.40.24/raw/objects in starterpack it should work with default graphic pack (phoebious)

IMPORTANT:

- you need to generate new word. Your old saves won't be compatible. You can still play them but you won't see any changes.
- Everytime you change graphics pack you need to copy those files into raws again. IF you change graphic pack and you want to update saves (there is promt when you change it if there are saves present) do it and then copy those files into DATA/saves/raws/objects and raws/objects.

Current crafting menu:

TIPS for crafting:

Press x to get into crafting menu.
b butcher is done while standing on corpse and you need sharp object (like a weapon or sharp rock)
You need tools to be in hands !. Rest of stuff can lay on ground.
So if you are creating backpack then you need knife and needle in both hands and supply of tanned leather (most of the time on ground after skinning.

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I will be later fucking around with "hides" stuff and leather working will have some tanning rack and some other stuff (boiling in oil for example).

So in general it will be something like this:

Hide armors/stuff ---> leather armor stuff -- > metal armor weapon and stuff.

 

[General Maxson]

Has anyone here tried Dark Ages: Mythos of Rammok? I am very interested in playing a horror/survival dark gothic/cthulhu mythos fantasy atmospheric ( ) game, so I am wondering if this mod is any good? Seems very cool to me. Supposedly R7 is to be released very soon, conforming to the latest Starter Pack.

http://www.dfdarkage.com/index.html

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=d154561272d993444000c4c1c81dd618&topic=143540.0

How atmospheric is the "vanilla" adventure mod? Can Stalls armory mod be used with this (and should it be used)?

 

[Perkel]

Has anyone here tried Dark Ages: Mythos of Rammok? I am very interested in playing a horror/survival dark gothic/cthulhu mythos fantasy atmospheric ( ) game, so I am wondering if this mod is any good? Seems very cool to me. Supposedly R7 is to be released very soon, conforming to the latest Starter Pack.

http://www.dfdarkage.com/index.html

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=d154561272d993444000c4c1c81dd618&topic=143540.0

How atmospheric is the "vanilla" adventure mod? Can Stalls armory mod be used with this (and should it be used)?

I plan to play it sometime later it looks way better than vanilla. Problem is that i am not even done with vanilla adventure mode and i want to to play it for a while.
Also it should be way better when they release it with Starter Pack tools.

Currently it doesn't even have DFhack as i know which has shitton of QoL improvements.

As for Stalls armory pack.. with bit of work it would be compatible. If they will upgrade to starter pack tools then probably i will move to Dark Ages because it looks way more fun than vanilla so i will port Stalls and other minimods.

 

[General Maxson]

Is vanilla adventure interesting/atmospheric or just random and generic/soulless like most roguelikes? Should I wait for Dark Ages then?

 

[Perkel]

Is vanilla adventure interesting/atmospheric or just random and generic/soulless like most roguelikes? Should I wait for Dark Ages then?

I think game has definetely interesting stuff but mostly it is because underlying systems rather than presentation.
Imo if you look for atmosphere Dark Ages should be better.

Still it is kind of fun to explore stuff and you can for example see armies fighting each other and taking control of villages. You can spread rumors about your doings and if you sneak a lot then you will have to do it since most of the time no one saw you doing anything.

 

[Fowyr]

That story reminds me of Unreal World. Spent shitton of time with 2.80.

 

[Perkel]

For people who don't know how gameplay and combat looks like:

 

[Merlkir]

:D

I really wish the Stonesense overlay did more gameplay-wise, it's far easier for me to see wtf is going on in that.

btw, while the combat system is obviously great, its conversation system is fantastic as well! You can either use options like in most RPGs, with submenus and whatnot, or keywords and it'll guess what you're asking about quite well.

 

[Jarakka]

Played the adventure mode some time ago, don't know how it's changed in 6 months or so, but I do remember the combat being tight as shit. Honestly, I love it how if you get hit by practically anything it's almost guaranteed that bodypart sails off in an arc. You seriously have to pick your battles and be careful with every single battle there is.

On the other hand, killing feels so good in AM because it's so risky and unpredictable. You might connect a blow with your sword, but the weapon gets logded and the other guy might knock you down and literally punch your teeth in and kill you on the spot even when you thought you had everything wrapped up. So when you get those first bandits killed it actually feels like an achievement. It's fast and dirty, just how combat should be.

Overshadowed by DF obviously, but still rate it.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I used to play DF Adventurer mode all the damn time. It was basic as hell - probably still is - but so much fun. I threw character after character at an ogre who lived in a cave near my chosen starting fortress, and he went from a relatively generic beast I just got unlucky against to an unstoppable tyrant with a list of names as long as my arm who, faced with a new challenger, boasted about the 30 ancestors he'd murdered before beating the shit out of me with a loincloth, or my own backpack, or something similarly humiliating. The hero who finally killed him did so by levelling up his throwing skill by throwing stones at wolves for an hour, then running into the cave, throwing ten arrows with pinpoint accuracy at vital organs, and waiting for the villain to bleed to death.

Said hero went on to lead a merry band across the land, slaying dragons and hydra alike, before one fateful day he decided to choke an entire elf village to death barehanded and a plucky elf child bit him in the eyeball, tearing it out and crippling him for life. Probably the chosen one or some shit. Little fucker.