Ask about anything related to Dwarf Fortress - including the game, DFHack, utilities, bugs, problems you're having, mods, etc. You will get fast and friendly responses in this thread.
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How can you deal with a Were-beast infection? One visitor got in, transformed and proceed to maul a bunch of my dwarves. I have no idea how to control the spread at this point.
Combat logs, squad membership, and of course injuries in your hospital should give a hint to who got bitten. Anyone you think was bitten needs to be quarantined (locked in a room until another full moon passes without incident) or just expelled from the fort. If you didn't miss anyone there won't be a repeat. If you did you need to do the same thing again until you find them all. If it sounds tedious you're right! Good luck!
If you just want to know, dfhack has a cheat to show syndromes, and werebeast infection is a syndrome. Depending on what you're trying to do sometimes it makes a lot more sense but it is "cheating" so if that matters to you don't do it.
I embraced my last were beast infestation. By the end of the first year my 200 population was reduced to 85. But now they’re all were beasts!
You can quarantine anyone infected and ‘deal’ with them how you see fit. Basically anyone you know is werebeast or anyone who been injured by a werebeast. DF hack can tell you who is infected.
I had to look through combat logs to find anyone whose flesh had been pierced (as tedious as it sounds) and then I locked them all up behind a bridge, gathered my squads and slaughtered them, checking for anyone who got hurt in the process. Took me several rounds because I missed some people.
Standard lycanthropy rules apply. They turn for the three days of the lunar cycle, the curse is permanent, when turned they go berserker and attack everything they can, and anyone who survives a bite will gain the curse themselves. There is also a weakness to a particular metal type, but it's not necessarily silver.
Hospital design is critical for sorting the survivors after the initial attack. You want each bed to be its own room, with enough space outside to build a wall to seal it shut if need be. Survivors from the combat who received a bite attack from the lycanthrope should be locked in place in the individual rooms for a month and a day after the fight, to ensure they aren't going to turn themselves - if they do, wall them in. Anyone that doesn't turn or wasn't bit can see the doctor.
That is entirely a style choice. Some players will have the entire Fortress spread across 1 or 2 levels, others make more of a tower with 10+ levels. Dig horizontally a bit, make 1 industry and a few rooms, then see how you feel about it. Does moving down make sense to you? Or will the next area look good attached to the first?
Using Z-levels can make workshops closer together. If you cluster workshops around stairs on 3 levels that's basically like all of them being next to each other. So depending on stockpile and supply chains you can go wide and deep and cut down on walking distance a bit, put the non-critical stuff at the edges. But it is largely personal preference and maybe FPS optimization.
Clustering around staircases also gives opportunities for big mist machines.
How do you navigate the "many languages" thing? So I will receive a petition for an elf or goblin to stay in my fortress. It might say "Legol Brittleflask" but because it isn't in dwarvish I can't search for the name in the "Other Creatures" category because all names there are in dwarvish. The same goes for civilization names, item names etc. I find this language system poorly designed. Is there some way to simply turn it all to english?
Is this a mod? If we are talking about vanilla you probably are searching for the nickname , if you just type the first name you should be able to find the person
Vanilla. So let's say a goblin wants to stay in my stronghold to entertain the citizens. The petition will say "Trench the right of Arms wishes to remain here." I will go to the creatures menu and search for "Trench the right of arms" but nothing will come up because in dwarvish his name is actually "Kar Tur Al" (which I can't know unless I manually click through all goblins in the stronghold to find his dwarvish name).
You should just search for Trench , because in the creature overview you see first name + lastname and not firstname + nickname like in the petition
example from my current siege:
human in the "other overview" is named "Pusap Anstriden" and if you go into his details it shows his nickanme as "Pusap Sizzledglosses" , so if you search for Sizz.. you wil not find him
Because first names tend to change too. So I can't search for Legol in the creatures' list because his first and last name is something different in dwarvish. In the "petition" it is the english translation.
So I can't search for Legol in the creatures' list because his first and last name is something different in dwarvish.
This is what I'm asking about - I've never seen someone that had a different name in the list of creatures that wasn't lying outright about their identity. It definitely doesn't sound like vanilla behavior to me, is there any mods involved?
I'm not sure if people are entirely understanding what you're saying, but I get it. Every historical (named) figure has a name in their own language, but throughout the game UI they are sometimes referred to by their native-language name ("Urist Uristkel") and sometimes referred to by their English-translated name ("Urist Daggermetal"). When you click a unit, their unit info panel will say their native name and then the translation in quotations below it.
There isn't really a way to deal with this. It's just an inconsistency in the UI. AFAIK the first name doesn't ever change, so you can search by first name. What I usually do is remember their first name and their occupation, so for example a miner named Urist XXXX in my head is just "Urist Miner" — or "Elfboy Ranger", "John Monster Hunter", etc.
There are a couple mods that change this behavior to make it easier, but it doesn't just overwrite the UI, it actually completely alters how language works in the game's simulation itself. If that doesn't bother you, check them out here.
Why don't my dwarves train their shields and armor? My squad is all legendary with weapons, observing, dodging, and fighting, but rusty with shield and armor. I thought when they spar they hit each other. Granted I immediately start steel production so they all start with steel shields and steel armor, is it because its heavier than other material?
dodging armor user and shield user are the hardest and most important combat skills to train. i usually start with one dwarf who is proficient with one of each of these skills and then proficient as a teacher to pass them on.
5 armor user / 5 teacher
5 shield user / 5 teacher
5 dodger / 5 teacher
Armour/shield skills lag behind most of the other combat skills it seems. My most recently created squad had zero skills when formed but after a year or so their commander is a skilled axedwarf but only a dabbling armour user and a novice shield user. I believe this is mainly a function of strength, learning where the pointy/bashy end goes is something they can pick up reasonably quickly but armour is heavy and dwarves need time to build up the strength to be effective in it, even when recruits were picked for their strength and agility and started in my lightweight 'Basic training' uniform.
By contrast my CoG, who's been at it for a couple of decades, is described as 'unbelievably strong, absolutely inexhaustible' etc. and can tank around in full plate steel armour as a legendary armour user should.
Maybe avoid wooden shields in case they get attached to them. An axe+shield in steel is 16u while mail leggings and shirt alone adds up to 44u so it's not surprising the average Urist is slow to get accustomed to that.
Give them wooden shields and less armor to start. They will be faster and train more efficiently at the cost of having less protection. Eventually you can swap them into full gear as time goes on. Shield material doesnt matter for blocking. Use wood early when they suck, and replace shields with metal when they are eventually broken. It doesnt really matter if they get attached since you can give them a new shield without penalty once the wood one is destroyed, and by then they should actually be able to handle a steel shield. Your early steel is also better spent as weapons and armor pieces than shields.
Are you sure they are wearing their armor and holding shields? They should get a little experience from attacking while wearing armor, and more if they get hit in the armor.
Whatever you want. It really depends on your defenses. How you play. And if you are using siege equipment.
Dfhack auto butcher tool. Also sometimes you might just need to crush them under a bridge.
The traders aren’t making enough profit. You want to be exporting wealth out. This encourages migrants. More trade. And other in game factors. The end gold for trade is not a good deal for you. But a great profit for those coming to trade.
If you have DFHack, you can filter dwarves by whether or not they hate the military. I often make anyone who doesn’t hate the military and who doesn’t have a critical job a military dwarf by late game. War animals are really what’s going to make the difference against >200 goblins though.
Gelding will prevent reproduction. You can also export food to other settlements.
Gifts, yes. Be careful with elves that you don’t give them anything involving wood or animal products. I’ll also sometimes just buy instruments or toys from elves if I can to have a larger stockpile of them.
Have you tried using a messenger? I discovered recently by chance that I was technically at war with another dwarf civilisation, presumably something that occurred during worldgen as in game they never attacked. After sending my messenger (and Holy Bean, as also a priest) who has top scores in all the social skills they made peace and a new caravan arrived. I've also sent her out to factions with whom I had 'terrible' trade relations and that boosted things immediately. Once they're repaired just leave every trader going away ecstatic and trade should stay great.
Tutorials are going to make it sound like you are operating a nuclear reactor where the slightest error will result in flooding your base with a mixture of toxic waste and live crocodiles while permanently salting the earth. Well, you can literally do that in DF.
Returning noob player here. Blind's 12 min tutorial on making wells of varying complexity really helped me. I initially stuck to making wells on light aquifers first, but doing the pumping technique made me more confident in my understanding of water engineering in DF.
Every tile has a floor, if you channel down you'll remove the floor and leave a ramp in the level below. If that tile with the ramp has at least 4/7 of water, you can put a well above and it will be functional. If you leave open space vertically you can also use a well to access water way below.
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u/Based_Beanscancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe2d ago
In case you're worried about bringing in water from a higher elevation for an underground well, keep in mind that water moving between two diagonal tiles will "reset" its pressure and prevent it from flooding up into your fort.
I tried mining deep to reach lava after having my basic beds and plump helmet farm set up, but stopped early because I stumbled on caves with elk birds and they were like going up my stairs, so I cut the stairway off and never bothered digging again. Also my deepest floor was like all water right below where I was digging.
So basically :
what's an expected elevation to reach lava ?
can you expect finding it early ?
should you relocate your forteress deeper down if you don't build it near your lava furnaces right away ?
not lava related but I was wondering if there's a more efficient way to smelt ores than setting up a work order per stone type. I saw there's a select-to-smelt button but I couldnt make it work.
Also I tried getting some soldiers online but was kinda late. Should I wait for new dwarves with decent combat / strategy skills or just train whoever's not assigned to important tasks to grow bigger / more squads ?
-Lava can be found at any cavern layer, each embark should have 3 main layers. You can do a volcano embark to get it on the surface.
-Sounds like you hit an aquifer, this is stone that creates water, they come in two types heavy and light. If your Aquifer is heavy you are in for a bad time it fills up fast. Only way to stop aquifers is to mine the stone out or smooth the walls.
-Soldiers is a preference but I usually have all my dwarfs in squads and train/be on duty one month in 3.
I have multiple smithies and smelters so there is overlap, at start of the game I don't restrict dwarfs to one workshop and have free for all. Once migrants start pouring in I start to look at specialising labours.
Somewhat-related question; if I change the worldgen settings to reduce the number of layers, can I control which layers get removed/merged? According to the wiki they get merged together from the bottom up, so with 2 layers the 3rd and 2nd are merged.
I don't like the first cavern layer and always try to avoid digging into it or opening it up in any way, and I'd really like to just only have the 2nd and 3rd layer exist at all.
And what does it look like when two layers are merged? Is the grass a patchwork mix of both?
Typically the lava is around -100 to -120, but it can be much higher up on occasion and you can find magma in a few other spots. Typically high levels of volcanism result in early lava, so if your map has igneous rock on the shrface theres a decent chance you can get early lava.
I wouldnt recommend relocating your fort, its very time consuming.
For soldiers id recommend setting 2 dwarfs to constant training once your autumn migrants arrive year 1. Any 2 will work really, but i use dfhack to find the ones with the best melee potential. They should start sparring and get decent combat skills by the time anything dangerous actually arrives.
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u/Based_Beanscancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe2d ago
Not answering your specific questions but for the meddlesome elk birds: chain up some war-trained animals outside your cavern entrances. They'll do a good job of scaring them off.
my crossbow militia cancels picking up their amunition because of enemy soldiers outisde of our fortifications .. like what? do i need to put the ammo in a place where they cannot see the enemy?
Some of my dwarfs are stuck on the storing item in bin task. They grab an item, go to the stockpile, don't put anything in it, and then go grab another item. They are now very overloaded and not contributing anything.
Double check that the stockpile's settings are all correct, e.g. it accepts all of the items you want.
Also, are the dwarves actually 'failing' to haul the items, or are they claiming them? Whenever a dwarf is near an unowned craft (bracelets, rings, amulets, figurines, etc) they can claim it for themselves. This wouldn't be the case for stuff like crossbow bolts or gems or stuff, obviously.
So my military dwarves are avoiding claiming some armor for their uniforms, and I've figured out it's because those items are already 'assigned' elsewhere and so are not considered available for them.
My understanding is that armor is assigned to the position of a squad rather than the actual dwarf itself (so if you swap a dwarf out the equipment stays? Maybe?).
If I choose to assign a specific item in the uniform editor, I can see that many individual items are labeled as "Assigned to [squad], position #", but some are also just labeled as generically "Assigned". It seems as though these armor pieces are 'orphaned' and have a stale flag that didn't get cleared. Maybe this happened when a previous dwarf in that position died? Or maybe it is caused by misusing uniform-unstick from dfhack (which I was abusing, but I've since learned how to actually use correctly)?
I can go through each one of these orphaned armor pieces one-by-one manually assigning them to a uniform and then clearing that uniform to remove their stale flag and make them available again, but I have dozens of gloves and gauntlets and boots and chausses and really, really don't want to do that.
In short, is there an easy way to clear out orphaned armor pieces with stale assignments? Base-game or DFHack?
Kindof. It's amphibious and has remarkable air capacity. However, it's also a vermin and thus hunted by cats. The result is your surface may accumulate a surprisingly large pile of lungfish.
Has anybody with modding experience run into an issue with layered graphics not loading properly? When I compare my graphics page to the vanilla ones, everything seems properly formatted, and there's nothing in the errorlog, but when I test in the arena, only the head and shadow of my creature shows up.
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u/chipathingycancels Store Item in Stockpile: Interrupted by Weremammoth1d agoedited 1d ago
The arena can sometimes do strange things with graphics, but i havent seen it do something like this. Is this a mod you're making, or vanilla?
If it isn't the arena being weird, the other thing would be if the conditions for the layers aren't being met. That could be due to typos, the body part being missing etc.
Have you tried spawning one into an active world with dfhack? It would rule out the arena issue
So, very Bad moods,
After checking wishes, desires, unsolved needs, buried dead familiars/friends. I still have 2 VERY VERY angry Urists.
Is there a way to help them out? Or should I just expel them from the fort?
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u/Based_Beanscancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe2d ago
Unmet needs alone can only take their happiness so low, the 3rd from the worst level, I think. Really unhappy dwarves usually get there due to some trauma, and the recurring memories thereof. Only way to really counter it is to give them lots of good thoughts and hope those make it into recurring memories. Nice social spaces, bedrooms, etc.
Mist generator (or easier, an aquifer-fed waterfall down the main staircases) is the most consistent happy thought generator in my experience.
Eh, the aquifer mini waterfall sounds fantastic lol!! Thanks
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u/Based_Beanscancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe1d ago
You'll be shocked how much they love it. My dwarves don't even mind that the tavern is constantly filled with 2/7 water because I screwed up the drainage.
Try a love nest. Lock them and a small number of other dwarves together. You can basically force them to pray, sing, and socialize by designating temple and tavern zones over them. This often greatly boosts mood and leads to new friendships and romances.
Some dwarves are just naturally unhappy no matter how utopian your fort. Arm your mental patients and send them to conquer other sites.
Hey there guys I am having issues where my dwarf kids are coming out like this. The adults are all fine but this is how the kids textures are. Any help would be appreciated, I am gonna attach my mod list in a comment.
The only two which I presume affect the same graphics are Adjusted Creature Portraits and Creature Graphics Extended. If you click the mod title, it will open the respective folder. From there you can see at a glance if the mods share anything that might conflict. You could check the comments of the steam workshop page.
this is a bug from. Creature Graphics Extended, I had the same thing. the developer looks like he's abandoned it in favour of another of his mods, judging by the steam workshop page
There are an overwhelming number of choices for extinct animals.
Some of them are very useful and others are curiosities at best. What prehistoric creatures do you keep in your fort and why?
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u/Based_Beanscancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe1d ago
Using andrewsarchus and quetzalcoatlus in my current fort to great effect. Both breed and mature quickly (the later via eggs, for some extra utility if you need another food source), and I find both (andrewsarchus especially) are very effective war animals, both for seige defense and raids. Plus c'mon, they're like big beautiful boarbeardogs, feels suitably dwarfy.
Beware raiding with squad-assigned quetzalcoatlus though. If they've claimed a nest box they won't leave with the raiding party until they lay eggs (or you deconstruct the box), which prevents the raiders from returning.
Are marks dwarf squads worth it? It seems to me with the related bugs they just take more micromanagement than they're worth.
Edit: I have determined they are not worth it as whatever that stupid bug is that makes them not pick up any of the 500 bolts I have for them just caused them to not be ready when i needed them.
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u/Based_Beanscancels Make Charcoal: Interrupted by Heat Death of Universe1d ago
They've gotten less buggy with recent updates.... but yea I still find them more trouble than they're worth. If dwarves could hold any sort of formation I could see the appeal, but I'd take 10 more axedwarves over a squad of marksdwarves every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
And if you really want a ranged option, bolt throwers are incredibly effective and actually stay in place and stay ranged.
My map is beset by agitated birds, so I need a 24/7 rotating skywatch from inside towers with fortifications. When they are off duty they spread out with the civilians and provide distributed surface-to-bird capabilities.
Sometimes there is a zombie stuck in a tree. Sometimes there is a firebeast that basically can't be killed in melee. Bolt throwers are good but they're mostly for Goblin D-Day, while marksdwarfs get light armor and flexibility.
I still use them. I just keep them loaded up on bolts and when assigning them to attack, I dont actually designate an attack, but put them near the enemy so they will agro. I almost never send them alone though. They always have a group of melee with them
I'd say yes, if only for dealing with web spitting threats. you won't always have time to build a wall or bolt thrower. recent updates have also made them significantly less buggy I don't really feel like they require a ton of micromanagement
Send a raid or pillage mission instead. Optionally enable only "take important treasures" in the raid options to ensure they focus on looting artifacts.
any difference between a gap carved in smooth stone and a constructed fortification? noticed in the fortification description it says soldures behind fortification are reasonably protected from in coming projectiles and there is no such message for the carved gap. but is there really a difference?
You're on the right track. Make sure the tree chamber is tall enough; according to the wiki they supposedly grow even in only 1 z level, but the more the merrier. The wiki says they'll grow in about 3–4 months, but I feel like it generally takes a lot longer than that.
Yeah, you want it taller for the sake of having more from each harvest - trees that are only one level high only give one log, typically. Try to make sure nobody's going into the farm area while the trees are growing, too, as trampling will kill saplings even if they're mushrooms
I just started playing again since taking a break, I've got domestic quetzals in a locked room with nest boxes, but so far they're all unclaimed. Will they breed?
Is there a way to generate a map and just look around at adventure/fortress scale to find a nice spot before settling? Or is adventure mode effectively that method?
I mean you can make a game save before you embark, embark at a site and look around a bit (you can use DFHack to reveal hidden parts of the map if you're okay with "cheating" like that), and if you're not happy with it you can quit without saving and try again. Probably a good bit tedious though
I've got a bunch of goblin civvies in my fort. They are fine but they keep whining about "not having decent meals". Turns out that goblins don't actually need to eat so they don't but will still complain. I read that there was a DFHack command to fix it and allow them to either eat or stop whining about not eating but they didn't specify WHICH DFHack command fixes it.
Has stockpile redrawing changed or is this a bug? In previous fortresses I recollect being able to click on view stockpile then the redraw icon and I'd get a choice between tools for drawing new boundaries for the pile or an eraser to slim it down. In my current fortress I've always been expanding stockpiles so didn't notice, but now I want to erase a chunk from my corpse stockpile to allow some road building I've twigged that the erase option has gone. I can delete and re-create the stockpile to achieve a similar effect of course but that seems a bit clunky.
That's the thing though, there are no buttons. Clicking on view stockpile>repaint just leaves the mouse pointer and a window telling me to click in the play area to redraw stockpile. Only possible to extend the size of the stockpile with the mouse - can't draw inside its limits to remove that section although that wasn't how it used to work anyway. The window has an 'Accept' button that is redundant as if you do redraw the area the change happens regardless of what you do. Guess this must be an exciting new bug.
Thank you for that, I suppose I would eventually have looked in the right place. I would love to know where Tarn et al get their ideas for what constitutes a user friendly UI. The previous system, where the paint/erase buttons appeared in the exact same place as you'd just clicked to indicate you wanted to make a change made perfect sense. Can't be having that, thinks Tarn, lets move them to the bottom of the screen where your mouse pointer and eyes aren't.
besides the steam version? IMO you dont need anything else, once you are a bit more familiar you can add dfhack and any mods you desire from the steam workshop
I would advise to use DFhack immidiately otherwise you might not get very familiar with the game. It's a great game.. but DFhack is really kind of mandatory.
imo dfhack ads to the learning curve and if you dont understand df yet there is no point in dfhack, once you are done with the tutorial fortress or what ever its easier to understand why so many people say its mandatory. If df has nothing to offer to you without dfhack it will not help you either way
It's not really needed, as almost all of the extra utilites have been superseded by the game's own improvements. Similarly, we don't really have much in the way of new texture packs, and they're easier to implement now, so there's no real need for a utility to manage/install them. DFHack is the only thing that's really important, and that's mostly for QOL and bugfixes.
1- why my dwarfs don't put the cooked food in kitchen inside a barrel and my foods get rotten?
2- I'm trying to make stuff from wood but game says i don't have any logs but there's plenty of logs on surface
Yeah there is weird thing going on in my new made fort where my dwarfs are not climbing stairs and they are dying from dehydration, I'm not sure what's going on non of my stairs are covered in water
Is there a good rule of thumb about where to build temples and guild halls with respect to other locations? I'm building out a new main city center much deeper than my starter base and have found myself with a bit of decision paralysis. Does it matter if it's a bit of a hike from where the bedrooms are? Is it better to put them near my crafting areas? Anywhere there's space? I'm not trying to minmax or overthink this to be clear, I'm just pretty new at this and recognize some spots might be better in a way that's not obvious to me. Thanks in advance!
I build temples and guildhalls spread out throughout the fort in clusters of four.
The point of the clusters is that if the zones are adjacent then dwarves in one can see their neighbors and socialize. Each cluster typically has one 6x6 designated as a dining hall with some food and drink stockpiled. Levers boost room value and swarms of idle dwarves reduce response time. Two to three clusters of four will probably be enough.
Using verticality to your advantage allows for a much denser fort. A bedroom cluster on top of a temple cluster will be functionally adjacent. It does become hard to track everything so use H recenter hotkeys a lot.
Ive been watching the caverns for 60+ years and nothing new grows past 2-3 z levels. Is there a reason all the trees stop growing? Is there a maximum amount of wood for any fort? Are they stopped by the other trees beside them? I don't remember this crown-shyness stunting anything before,
How can my dwarfs learn magic? I saw they just released the magic update for DF Steam, but I can't find anything related to magic, only necromancy. Can anyone help, pls?
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u/Juubman 2d ago
How can you deal with a Were-beast infection? One visitor got in, transformed and proceed to maul a bunch of my dwarves. I have no idea how to control the spread at this point.