Bokslozgo "The Absolute Universes" - Generating my DF World

     Hello all! As I explained in my last post, the first step to playing dwarf fortress is generating a world. In this post I will briefly go over the world I generated for my upcoming fortress mode game which I will detail on this blog.

    For this world I used the standard settings, only changing the size. The medium size is a bit big for my tastes and it takes substantially longer to generate. History, number of civilizations, number of beasts, maximum number of sites, number of beasts, natural savagery, and mineral occurrence were all set to medium. After the worlds history had been simulated for 250 years I exported it to legends viewer so that I could get to grips with it before starting my fortress.

    The image above is a complete map of the world, which is known as Bokslozgo "The Absolute Universes." It is comprised of a single large landmass with glaciers directly to the North and South. Only the western and north-eastern portions of the world are significantly populated by civilized people. The north-eastern lands are controlled by several densely populated human civilizations, and the western lands are controlled by a chaotic mix of humans, elves, goblins, and necromancers. The southern tips of both western peninsulas are almost solely inhabited by goblins, with several of their largest dark fortress having nearly ten thousand goblins each. The more northerly of the western peninsulas is heavily forested and the main base of power for the elven civilizations. The area between the goblins and elves is a mish-mash of all the races, including the single beleaguered dwarven civilization. 

    The worldwide population chart above demonstrates just how poorly the dwarves are faring in this world. Compared to the tens of thousands of humans and goblins there are only around 800 living dwarves in the world. Their civilization, the Tattooed Knives, has been the target of many wars of aggression perpetrated by its larger neighbors, and it is very likely that it could be extinguished altogether in the near future. As the Tattooed Knives is the only dwarven civilization my upcoming fortress will surely become a part of it. Currently the leader of the Tattooed Knives is the Queen Asmel Merchantclearings who has ruled since the year 238.

    Aside from a general overview I did learn a couple interesting tidbits about this world. For instance, the war of savagery, war between a group of human necromancers and their creations and a mighty goblin civilization, has been going on for nearly 200 years and has claimed upwards of ten thousand lives. As a patriotic dwarf I laud the extraordinary thoughtfulness of the necromantic creations and goblins in saving my kin and I the trouble of slaying them. The historical figure that had gathered the most kills was a bronze colossus with well over a hundred attributed kills, whose rampage was ended in a fight with a giant grizzly bear.

        

    This world is fertile ground for an entertaining dwarven fortress. In accordance with the game's motto of "losing is fun" I firmly believe that DF is at its finest when you are faced with insurmountable odds and a host of fearsome, overbearing enemies. In my next post I will embark and first "strike the earth" at the site of my new fortress. Any suggestions or criticisms are welcome.

Here is the world's generation parameters for those interested: Bokslozgo World Gen Param

What is Dwarf Fortress?

    Dwarf Fortress, the focus of this blog, is a videogame developed by Bay 12 Games and available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. From here on I will refer to Dwarf Fortress as its common abbreviation "DF." It heavily features procedurally generated content that allow for a huge amount of variety. DF takes place in a recognizable fantasy setting that nevertheless has many intriguing peculiarities and unique elements. DF is known as one of the most complex and mechanically deep games of all time, and its difficult to understand default appearance of pure ASCII text contributes to this reputation.

    The motto of DF is "losing is fun," a footnote originally added to the games instruction section by its creator Tarn Adams, also known as Toady One. This attitude has been wholeheartedly adopted by the community and is now an essential component of DF.

    The game is played in three different modes. These modes are adventure mode, legends mode, and fortress mode. All three of these game modes can be played using the same procedurally generated worlds, and each allows you to explore and interact with these worlds in unique way. They do share one similarity, in that there is no set story or hard-coded path that you must follow. DF is one of the purest examples of an open-world game available, and it is all about creating your own goals and finding the stories that arise naturally from its complex interlocking systems.

    Before I go into detail on DF's various playable modes I will first explain the worlds these games take place in. Prior to playing you must first generate a world. You can select various parameters that will guide the creation of your world such as the amount of minerals present, the size of the world, the amount of history that will be simulated for the world, and the worlds level of savagery. Once you have made these decisions DF takes over and generates the world, simulating it for hundreds of in game years and developing a rich, interconnected far reaching history. Each world will have its own uniquely fascinating characters, locations, and events. Once the world generation is complete you are ready to start playin whichever game mode you wish.

    Adventure mode is a turn-based rpg where you control one or more characters that you have designed or encountered in game. Adventure mode offers you a vast degree of freedom, allowing you to travel through your world and discover its every secret. A core component of adventure mode found in all rpg's is character progression. As you adventure you will improve your skills by practicing them. DF's detailed skill system includes everything from mace-wielding to swimming to cooking. Adventure mode has seen less development than the more popular Fortress mode, but I still feel it has a lot to offer. I would say that adventure mode offers the most intimate perspective to explore DF, and I would definitely suggest that every DF fan try it at least once.

    The least game-like of the three game modes is legends mode. Legends mode primarily serves as an interface to view the places, characters, artifacts, and events of your world.  Personally I rarely use legends mode as is, I find it to be too clunky to comfortably use, and so I prefer the third party utility "legends viewer." It offers a far more streamlined experience and accomplishes the same goals.

    The third game mode, fortress mode, is what DF is known for. In fortress mode you run an entire settlement of dwarves, starting with only seven brave colonizers and potentially growing to a population in the hundreds. You must construct a fortress to house your dwarves and provide for their needs by assigning them to various duties such as farming, mining, and crafting. You will also need to defend your fortress from invading armies, forgotten beasts, and other types of fun. This game mode, like adventure mode, offers a near-infinite range of options. You can construct wonderful underground palaces, create historic artifacts, muster powerful armies, or simply get to know your dwarves and their unique personalities. This is my favorite DF game mode and the one I will most likely focus on in this blog.

    Thank you for reading this post, I hope you found it informative. I welcome any suggestions or criticisms.

Dwarven Endeavour's Goal

    Hello all! Doubtless no one has yet stumbled upon this blog, but I think it is essential to lay out my plans here before continuing, even if it serves only to organize my thoughts.

    I intend to use this blog as a place to host various Dwarf Fortress related material that I plan to write. Primarily, I plan to play Dwarf Fortress and post regular reports of my games progress here along with relevant screenshots. On top of this I will likely post other Dwarf Fortress related content as I become inspired or think of ideas. Currently I've thought of writing tutorials related to Dwarf Fortress, reviews of Dwarf Fortress mods, and comments on things happening in the community such as the upcoming Steam release.

    My inspirations are similar projects that people have written on the Dwarf Fortress Bay 12 games forums, and the work of youtuber "Kruggsmash." Particularly I would like to produce something in the same vein as the well-known string of forum posts detailing the glorious history and eventual violent death of the fortress "BoatMurdered." 

    I think that I will shoot for posting something here at least 1-2 times each week, but we'll see how this develops. I don't have any experience blogging so I'll play it by ear as I get started. Before I start on a main series of game reports I plan on making a post detailing what exactly Dwarf Fortress is for the benefit of the uninitiated.

    All in all I am starting this because I believe that Dwarf Fortress is a bountiful resource with an endless amount of fascinating stories to explore. Any criticisms or suggestions are welcomed!

Kruggsmash Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaifrB5IrvGNPJmPeVOcqBA

BoatMurdered Archive: https://lparchive.org/Dwarf-Fortress-Boatmurdered/Introduction/

Bay 12 Games Forum: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php