Let's Learn: Dwarf Fortress - Beginner-friendly fort! - Ep 6

This KZbin Let's Play is going to focus on explaining our process in a beginner-friendly way!
My modified announcements file: gist.github.com/quill18/e49d9...
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New to the channel? I do Let's Play videos -- these are like walkthrough guides of gameplay with continuous English commentary trying to explain my decisions and what strategy I use. If you're looking for hacks or cheats, you're in the wrong place!

[@POolBacK]

Regarding the Hospital, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere (I imagine in the in-game help) that Doctors includes all other sub-classes, they will do all other jobs if the roles are left unfilled. Diagnostician, Surgeon, etc... are all specialization of Doctors. When I build my hospitals, I just assign my chief medical staff as a "Doctor" and I can confirm you that I've seen all my injured being treated properly.

[@ZuNk]

This is true.

[@DFS_Viper]

Extremely helpful information; thanks!

[@pramitpratimdas8198]

Seems like the real life equivalent of diagnostician is the medicine consultant (and the like) while doctor is the general physician or medical officer

[@djdorkyduck1242]

Description for everything is in the health tab then far right subtab

[@YellowSpringboc]

I love that reading the personality at 9:20 goes on and on about how polite the jabberer is after he's just spilled the guts of one of your dwarves 🤣

[@photinodecay]

The Bin of Mugs sounds like a great DF name for a tavern.

[@pHolt]

I am so happy for this series. Never got the hang of the classic, but the Steam edition has been so much easier to get into, especially with your guidance.

[@davidlecompte9467]

So true, I tried classic at least a dozen time in the last 10 year. Never lasted more than 1-2h each time. Now I have a save with more than 20 hour in.

[@deboog5779]

Yeah the classic version was super disorienting and clunky to figure out. It was workable with 3rd party applications like Dwarf Therapist, but I've always felt that the game needed more quality of life changes to make it more accessible.

[@garak55]

I dunno, I really want to like the steam version but the fact that you need to click on everything all the time gets really tiring after a while. I'd really love if they put some options to have the "both hands on keyboard" handling as an option and more shortcuts.

[@lilithtetterton5014]

@@garak55 sure we'll get more qol ui stuff soon, already been some nice changes. I think its the right direction for sure

[@TankHammer]

This is helping me a lot. For instance, I had no idea why by tomb only has one dwarf buried in it when I have so many coffins! Looks like they intended individual mausoleums instead of one mass one with altars like I have.

[@686Impulse686]

A few failed forts and browsing the reddit made me realize the caverns are no joke. Current fort is 3 years in and I still have not broken into the caverns. I now have 2 squads with a 1-2 weapon lords each and now I feel like I am ready to break in and see what FUN the game has in store. Still I feel like the Tavern is more of a worry than the Cavern imo :)

[@jeffjones7108]

All of my defences were underground. I think I may have had some sort of tower above ground which was accessible from my fort but completely sealed to the above ground. And I think I only had that to force certain dwarves to remain acclimatised to the surface. I think my militia may have trained there, for instance. But my fortresses were designed so trade goods and lootable bodies were as close to the central staircase of my fortress as possible. This made two activities which can take up a lot of dwarf-hours as efficient as possible -- looting bodies and moving trade goods. For trading I had a 3-wide path for traders leading underground via ramps and then through a long maze to a trade depot set up directly adjacent to my central staircase. Think of it as going around the back way. An extra long trader route wasn't a problem for the traders, but because it was so long it meant any 'short-cut' into the fort I built would be preferred by invaders. And I would always supply a short-cut. It was a 1-wide heavily-trapped path suspended over a deep chasm, winding around a tower stuffed full of marksdwarfs hiding behind fortifications, leading finally to a room which happened to be my barracks. From there it was a short trip to the rest of my fort, but enemies never seemed to make it that far. And the floor of the deep chasm had a draw-bridge which could be opened for convenient access to my central staircase, allowing easy looting of any invaders who fell off the upper gauntlet. On that level I also had my garbage disposal chute down into magma, and my tombs into everlasting glory. Which made the disposal of battlefield corpses as quick and untraumatic as possible. So my trading post was both easily defensible while still being accessible. But now that I try to describe it I realise you probably need to see the design for what I've just said to make sense.

[@rmvdhaak]

16:55 that happens when you have a let's play and a live stream series going on at the same time 🙂

[@Dueross]

From what I understand, the farm plots in the cavern is 50% better fertility. Also, Did Quill18 just sell ALL his finished goods just to buy some back because he didn't check which finished goods he brought to the trader?

[@raskov75]

If I may be so bold - should not the slayer of a Jabberer be known as The Silencer?

[@lumas7544]

I agree we need the wiki updated! Like what is the difference of poor vs normal vs best soil.

[@sunnyjim1355]

best>normal>poor

[@Boredom_Incarnate]

Hey Quill, if you lock a door it makes it impassable for anyone, or the option next to it is like "keep tightly closed" which doesn't let animals through but does allow dwarves through. I "think" it works for wild animals and not just pets, but it's worth a try.

[@imperiallarch7610]

The option next to it is actually "passable," he clicked it several times in the video. I don't think "tightly closed" is possible in the Steam version.

[@Boredom_Incarnate]

@@imperiallarch7610 Fair enough and I commented too quickly lol. Personally I'll stick with Classic DF but it's wonderful to see the boost in funding they'll get for this.

[@schnitzelfritzel6287]

@@Boredom_Incarnate I am not much of a fan ofclassic DF, nothing wrong with it per se but as much as I like older and more complicated games, I am not a fan of controls that are outright bad. That said I do hope they improve the steam version until it becomes a copy of the classic when it comes to mechanics, seeing how a handful of original mechanics seem to be missing

[@BlackSmokeDMax]

@@Boredom_Incarnate classic will soon have the same interface, so you may be staying back on an older version or needing to do some modding in the not so distant future

[@Boredom_Incarnate]

@@BlackSmokeDMax I'll definitely have two versions going forward when it happens. I like the keyboard menu way more but if the UI gets done well enough then it could be equivalent. I know it's likely way too much to ask but having an option would be nice.

[@SisjeOssetong]

Can't wait for planning mode for furniture

[@BalancedEarth]

I'm 26 hours in to playing and I'm still learning. There's so many details, managing and story I love it.

[@MrVovansim]

Quill is like a decade into playing this game, and he still gets confused. I'd say still learning at 26 hours is unsurprising. :)

[@DFS_Viper]

26 hours is just scratching the surface! haha Just wait until you start installing underground mist generators and all the headaches/confusion that comes with that!

[@davinhunt7558]

My first play through on the steam version I had the same problem with missing traders. I changed the gameplay calculation fps down to 45; newbies may prefer even lower at 30. I find that I can let the game run those smaller tasks, I'm able to keep up with things as the happen, not miss trades times, and allowing myself to be more premeditated with directing my dwarves.

[@keithstathem872]

4:05 I analyzed the numbers a bit for kicks, and figured out the dimensions of a rectangular farm plot should be (2n-1) X (2n+4m-3); all of these combinations result in an area of some 4n-1

[@winterzee]

What's m?

[@DeathBean89]

I would assume that it is just some other integer that is not necessarily the same value as n, but I'm not sure

[@keithstathem872]

@@winterzee m and n are any integers. I forgot I'm talking to gamers rather than mathematicians

[@ShneekeyTheLost]

If you're wanting to try and build farms as square as possible, you can set m=1 to come up with (2n-1) X (2n+1). Setting m=0 results in (2n-1) X (2n-3) as an alternate.

[@haydenkuhn4019]

I'm new to the series with the steam release, and it's already in the running for my all-time favorite game! Thanks for the series, I have no idea how I'd figure out how this works otherwise haha

[@vid101.]

Missed opurtunity to call the dwarf at 12:50 jabber stabber

[@Spraypainsos]

@@vincentcircharo8259 Agreed. It was the superior choice.

[@snafu2350]

Commentary volume now much better; TVM!

[@Tom-lf7zw]

I made a hospital with no beds and dwarves just slept on the floor when they were injured. Didn't even complain.

[@Ayay01]

A Bard that Disdains merriment ? The Lewis Black of Bards ?

[@Self-replicating_whatnot]

I remember my fortress had nothing but tetrahedrite for ores, so i ended up using copper for everything - mugs, bins, barrels, statues...

[@SIZModig]

Kel, the bard that Disdains merriment lmao

[@matteocdt5214]

I swear this game is a few QoL updates away to become the perfect game!

[@jgw1986]

@9:00 Health>Description

[@Nazrega]

Should have been JabberWhacky

[@matthewbiros5652]

I recommend setting a timer quill

[@Gr0nal]

I was so satisfied when you realised you were already roofing over the butcher/fishery xD I was thinking it for like 10 minutes before that point at least.

[@snafu2350]

WRT hospitals & initial staffing: 'doctor' is a catch-all role encompassing all specialisations, so until you've someone who can specialise better you don't need to explicitly set up any particular medical role for them WRT general furniture construction/crafting orders, it's best to keep a standing order of 1 for (eg) tables, beds, doors etc. This will use less stockpile space than your current haphazard 'keep 10 around' orders while still ensuring you can at least get started with placement of said items. This becomes especially important later when you want a bunch of coffins/slabs made, as they take quite a bit of building time.. during which the ghost(s) may become angry :( (as the engraving dedication job is tailored to the individual to be memorialised you can't easily pre-empt this job, sadly :( )

[@tomasz9060]

Hello Quill, can you please show how hunting works?

[@DeadHawk23]

I followed this and so far I'm at 47 pop and things are expanding like crazy! Meanwhile Quill is over here at 17 dwarves taking it easy. EDIT - GOD HELP ME IT'S OVER 70 NOW! I wrote the original post like 3 minutes ago and more migrants arrived! Why are there so many people????

[@spshc]

I believe if you use doors where there are beasts some beasts, like trolls, can break down doors and get into your fortress.

[@jacthing1]

Unless the door is a artifact, which are indestructible

[@snafu2350]

'Building destroyers' (of any level) aren't likely to be a problem just yet, fortunately

[@Arby631]

Hmm, my depot is only accessible through a 2x5 stairs and through a 1x3 hallway but the depot always had more than 3open space next to it so I guess that’s all it checks?

[@Symbolizer21]

In classic you can have it show all acceptable tiles on the map, it starts at the edge of the map and checks for valid 3 tile wide paths, otherwise traders come on foot only, no wagons

[@jsbrads1]

I know I’m a month late, but it occurred to me gathering plants in the cavern layer would get the plants and new seeds too 😅

[@thesecondislander]

I got into this game because of you Quill, your tutorial has been so helpful. Re: instruments, i have set up a cottage industry of making Porcelaine drums that sell for 1000 DorfBucks each, crazy value. I am having a bit of hard time keeping my Dorfs happy though, especially after a quester came along and started stirring up trouble, i had to have a few dwarfs kill him and now they are all suuper sad and angry, they even refused to work or do anything but sleep for a long time. They are all complaining about wanting to spend time with family, how do i make that happen??

[@aleksk.7452]

Could assigning a couple orderlies in the labour menu fix the dwarves getting stuck in the doorway of the hospital? I'm by no means an expert, just sayin.

[@EddBleach]

Could it be that if you set no roles (surgeon, etc.) in the hospital, the chief medical dwarf does everything?

[@snafu2350]

I think for the Steam (or possibly 0.5x in general) version, a role is mandatory; it certainly used to work the way you suggest, however

[@Colin_Fasoli]

Amazed you didnt call him "Jabberwocker"

[@codybarton6332]

Should have named the dwarf the Jabberwoky

[@greggmacdonald9644]

Totally unrelated, but Quill18? The remaster (Steam version) of Master of Magic release version just dropped today, and I hope you'll play it and bring us along for the ride, is all :)

[@davidlecompte9467]

Dude! I didn't even watched episode 4,5 and now 6 ?!

[@vineheart01]

definitely feel like im doing a wise move not playing this quite yet due to burnout on these kinds of games. This seems to have a lot of teething issues to iron out. That medical doctor assignment thing would drive me bonkers.

[@aurielklasovsky1435]

Appearantly a doctor would just go ahead and do all of the jobs. But I get you and am also holding out for now

[@tomt5745]

Quill, the Teacher. :)

[@68Fourty72]

"At 12:45 nickname of Jabbarwhacker? More like Gom Jabbar."

[@Shirolicious]

Why is the Inn just a empty space? Would be fun if you could see a little bar etc. Same with hospital. It looks weird just seeing a empty space.

[@nuummaann]

🔥

[@richardm.4227]

Keep it up!

[@davidballantyne4492]

I'm confused - did Quill forget he found a cavern earlier too? He had some adventures show up then walled them in after fighting a troll. He forgot his crime!

[@JM-qo7bk]

I think that was a different series. Watched all of this one and that didn't happen here.

[@maneroification]

Music’s still a bit too loud IMO

[@123mrmicky1]

How do you get the live combat log?

[@VinnyRaceca]

What parts do you have in your PC?

[@dartbull24]

You need to tear down your extra butcher so you have room for the trader!

[@richardm.4227]

Where do you set the options for notifications? I can't find it anywhere...?

[@TheGamingSyndrom]

hello, noob here: can someone tell me what level i should start on? is 10 below surface always a good rule of thumb? i started in an elevated area with 10 more levels, so my base is at 36 (46 is surface) and irs just full of chalk. or is there a certain resource i should look for thanks everyone!

[@POolBacK]

We cannot give you a rule of thumb, this varies greatly. Just build wherever you like once you hit rock. Or build directly in a cavern if you feel like it. Or build tree houses.

[@TheGamingSyndrom]

@@POolBacK specify 'rock' das chalk count as rock?

[@POolBacK]

@@TheGamingSyndrom It does, it's also considered flux stone which is necessary to make steel. You might want to build somewhere else though and keep that layer of flux stone for steel industry later on

[@EbonieWilliams]

Quill18 have you played with mine carts yet? Any neat routes?

[@gunner4113]

so im having the same problem you had with the injured and not injured getting stuck at the door of the hospital, i just had a big raid now there are a 8 people stuck in the door for the hospital, i had some of them die from dehydration(i did just make more buckets so hopefully no more die this way. but if you find a fix for people getting stuck in the door let me know.

[@FranckOA42]

Maybe not let the door be in the hospital zone ?

[@draeath]

6:01 still got a near-dead dwarf stuck in the stockpile :(

[@bcnightingale3610]

And minetar is still not buried for some reason. Very frustrating that he never finished the cemetery

[@bcnightingale3610]

And minetar is still not buried for some reason. Very frustrating that he never finished the cemetery

[@twentyfor8351]

hey Quill can you share your notifications config file by chance?

[@Lowkeh]

The config is in the description

[@DaDog]

The Doctor the everything the others do only one job. In a small fortress you only need a doctor

[@dartbull24]

Also you never placed your coffins and finished the tomb area fyi.

[@Hawkerra]

So... I'm pretty sure dwarves just outright stop migrating to your fort if you get the bug where the merchants just kind of wander around when they should have left. I think you mentioned that the merchants were hanging around in an earlier video, so that might be what happened to your migrant waves. Who knows though! Maybe this fixed itself in a later video and this message is totally useless to you~

[@MarcusFrost88]

Leaving a comment for the algorithm.

[@adamleblanc5294]

Vanilla ASCII Classic Playthrough when?

[@weekendxtotchos5513]

21:25

[@Slowkingg]

Doctor role in hospital doing all kind of things

[@MayhemPenguin]

Descriptions are found under Health...

[@ulrar]

Looks like you likely used your artifact door in a random cave place there, which is a bit unfortunate

[@master_ace]

What are you talking about? He installed the artifact door in the dining hall several episodes ago (to make sure he doesnt use it by accident) and its still there at the end of this video

[@stevennicholas5472]

You don't have a doctor in your hospital.

[@ionicafardefrica]

in my honest opinion, you should stick to one series at a time. You can stream at the same time, it if you wish, it doesn't matter. But having multiple, as you are right now, leads to the "streamer hamster memory syndrome". Most of us are watching the the episode as a series, and seeing you forget stuff (that you literally did two minutes ago, in the last episode watched) and repeating yourself all the time can be quite frustrating

[@cmpoliver3499]

Holy Shit... Turn down that music!

[@DonPedroTheDude]

What do you mean it's going okay? You lost 3 dwarfs and missed migrants!

[@seanhunter111]

Thanks for this series. Although I love DF, the music is so awful for this game and has been forever. I find it immensely distracting. I really hoped the steam edition would improve matters but if anything it seems to have made things worse.