It's Fortress Friday! Today we wait for Me to finish my turn and for control of the game to pass on to @Moonworm@hexbear.net (please confirm), with the following players waiting for a chance to leave their mark on
Dwarven history.
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(Beginning Feb. 6) @Doubledee@hexbear.net
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(Beginning Feb. 13)
@gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net
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(Beginning Feb. 20) @booty@hexbear.net
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(Beginning Feb. 27) @Oreb@hexbear.net
New players are encouraged to apply in this thread. All players and spectators are
welcome to load up the save and see what's going on first hand.
Lore
How to play
Importing the save
Dwarf Fortress saves are not stored in a single file. They are stored as named
directories containing over a thousand individual data files. In order to load
the game, you need to download a zipped archive of the save and place it in your
Dwarf Fortress save directory. This directory can be located in a number of
places depending on which OS you are using and what settings you have enabled.
If Portable mode is enabled (not default), the save directory will be
located in the same directory as dwarfort / dwarfort.exe. If you are using
Steam with the default locations, these are:
On Linux: ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Dwarf Fortress/save
On Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dwarf Fortress\save
This directory might exist, even if Portable mode is turned off (default),
but in that case it will be ignored by the game. Instead, save files are stored
somewhere in your user directory.
On Linux: ~/.local/share/Bay 12 Games/Dwarf Fortress/save
On Windows: %AppData%\Roaming\Bay 12 Games\Dwarf Fortress\save
Extract the FFSeason1 directory from the archive and place it inside of the
appropriate save directory, then you should see it after starting the game.
Stopping the clock
By using a combination of the "Autosave Frequency" (any setting as long as it is
not "Off") and "Pause after every autosave" options, you can cause the game to
pause at the exact moment the calendar ticks over to 1st Granite (the first day
of the year).
After the game pauses, you still have the opportunity to do a couple minor
things, like designating blueprint tiles to label hazards, noteworthy sources of
material, or leaving graffiti. You can also rename stockpiles and rooms,
etc. before writing the final save. You should avoid doing anything that will
substantially change the behavior of the fort or generate labor tasks (like
creating / removing stockpiles, changing which items are allowed to be stored in
stockpiles, enabling / disabling standing orders, creating new work orders, or
designating new rooms / meeting areas). Military schedules often change at the
start of a season (e.g. the "staggered training" preset). This is fine.
Any blueprints left are merely suggestions. The next player is free to ignore
them. If you wanted something built there, you should have microed your miners
better :P
Exporting the save
When Dwarf Fortress creates auto-saves, or if you use the "save and continue
playing" feature, Dwarf Fortress will write these saves to an alternate
directory (e.g. autosave1 or pull the lever). When you finish your turn,
you need to use the "Save and return to title menu" option and choose "Save to
this timeline." You need to do this even though the game just created an
auto-save. This will write the save back to the FFSeason1 directory, which you can then
place in a zip archive and submit.
Making your submission.
Save files can be e-mailed to fortress-friday@matapacos.dog ahead of time. Some
e-mail services (like Gmail) prohibit sending large enough attachments, but if
it works on your end, it should work on mine. Otherwise, the file may need to
be hosted using a third-party service. Dwarf Fortress File
Depot is the canonical service
for this (they have a category specifically for community games), but any
service which doesn't require me to create an account or jump through flaming
hoops is acceptable. Currently (as of Episode 3), the compressed save is about 58MB. It won't get any smaller with time.
Alternately, submissions can be made as a reply to the following week's Fortress
Friday post, which will be posted in anticipation of a submission. This thread
will be posted and used to coordinate the game and get the proper files into the hands of
the next player regardless of if the anticipated turn was completed.
Whether or not the file was transferred in advance, The player who just
completed their turn should make a top-level comment in this thread describing
noteworthy events of their turn. You are encouraged (but not required) to
roleplay and continue to spin a fantasy narrative out of it, but you don't need
to write us a Tolkien novel - especially if you are pressed for time and have
other shit to worry about. This shouldn't feel like a homework assignment.
My initial submission will be excessive because I am also covering the results
of world-generation, the historical circumstances of the civilization we chose,
and the embark. Subsequent posts will mostly be focused on chronicling events
in Fortress Mode. You are absolutely not expected to export the world history
and spend hours dicking around in Legends Viewer spinning up backstories for
every minor goblin who gets turned into dog food.
What if a turn is not completed / running late?
If you anticipate not being able to complete your turn, just let us know (the
sooner, the better) so we can make adjustments. Shit pops up. There are more
important things in life than a stupid game. We won't be mad at you.
In case Fortress Friday rolls around and there is no submission, Tentatively, I
think we give the player 24 hours to actually make their post before we start
openly contemplating passing to the next player, followed by another 24 hours to
find out which of the next players is actually available. So if there is no update by
mid-Saturday, we find another candidate, and if there is no word by mid-Sunday,
they are given the green light to play.
What if a turn is completed early?
You can tease us (it's reassuring to know progress is being made), but hold on to your
spoilers until Fortress Friday. I think keeping this thing on a regular
schedule will do a lot to keep everybody looking forward to updates and keeping
things organized. If anticipation is eating away at you, try to fill in some
lore and backstory.
Rules
There are not many hard rules, but generally
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You play for one year in-game time. Turns should begin and end on 1st Granite.
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Avoid using blatant exploits (the game is built of cheese, so this is sort of
like the pornography rule, "you know it when you see it.") Things like
perpetual motion
machines
or material duplication
schemes
should be shunned. Some things classified as exploits, like "atom smashers"
should be fine as long as their applications aren't egregious.
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Try not to save-scum (Do save though. Crashes happen, and named "save and continue" saves won't
clutter the main save).
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You are free to use DFHack, but do not use any of it's "Armok" (god-mode)
features. Also, try to keep it modest. The fort shouldn't fail
catastrophically if the next player doesn't have DFHack installed.
