> The brothers find most of their data online, but it is only because of Dwarf Fortress that you can find the density of saguaro cactus wood on the Internet. When Tarn and Zach couldn’t find the number, a fan ordered cactus wood from a dealer, empirically determined the density using liquid displacement tests, and relayed back the results, which ended up in the game.<p>I suspect this author reads HN :) If anyone was curious, the thread where Saguaro wood's solid density was determined can be found here:<p><a href="http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80022.0" rel="nofollow">http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80022.0</a><p>> NEW: The guesstimate of 300 kg/m^3 for Saguaro density in the V2 raws was probably wrong. I have a 6g piece of Saguaro wood with a volume of approximately 14 cm^3, which indicates that the density of Saguaro wood is approximately 430 kg/m^3. This number appears very reasonable when compared to all the other densities I have researched. I have more ~1 ft pieces of Saguaro rib wood than I know what to do with right now and I'm more than willing to ship them to people willing to do further research on the matter, or those who wish to duplicate my experiments.<p>In fact, there are two approximately 1" saguaro wood cubes sitting on my desk directly in front of me at this very moment.
Dwarf Fortress is a truly unique game and really worth putting in the effort to learn simply due to the stories it generates as you play - and it is amazing how the stories emerge from the ASCII symbols.<p>Here's an example of a story that happened to me. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/1mb0cw/the_sad_story_of_m%C3%B4som/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/dwarffortress/comments/1mb0cw/the_s...</a> Note: this story is in NO way embellished by me. Everything described there was actually fully simulated within the game.
I find the UI of Dwarf Fortress completely impenetrable, but am fascinated by the level of depth and granularity in the systems underlying the game.<p>If anyone is interested in the game, I recommend grabbing the Lazy Newb Pack[0] which comes with a few utilities that will make your experience slightly less infuriating.<p>[0] <a href="http://lazynewbpack.com/" rel="nofollow">http://lazynewbpack.com/</a>
I'm a dedicated gamer who has found countless hours of enjoyment from games like Minecraft and Crusader Kings 2. But in my attempts to play Dwarf Fortress, I felt like I was being trolled. Like the entire thing was some 'in' joke and by spending hours attempting to figure out the UI, I was the butt of said joke. I find time to play games like CK2 despite the poor UI and serious time commitments, but I'm a grown man with a job and I don't have time to play a game with what is quite possibly the worst UI in gaming history.
If this piques your interest and you have a few hours to kill, you might enjoy reading the Roomcarnage saga: <a href="http://imgur.com/a/xhQHE/layout/horizontal#0" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/xhQHE/layout/horizontal#0</a><p>Briefly, it's a very experienced DF player trying to conquer a frozen volcano who has written up his exploits in narrative form. Fun read and will give you a good idea of what DF is allabout.
I guess this is the article that makes me realize I'm out of touch. I was super excited to see what kind of small castle they built, how they did it with just two people, and I also had lots of legal questions about building castles. Oh well, this looks neat too!<p>Edit: was expecting something like this, for those of you now interested in home-castle-building-stories: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280764/Farmer-told-MUST-pull-castle-built-secretly-haystacks-loses-year-planning-row.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280764/Farmer-told-...</a>
So: Dwarf Fortress in a forest with an aquifer down in the soil.<p>It takes a year to build a wooden hall large enough for most of the workshops, on one side of the river, while on the other side digging out a collapse to drop soil into the acquifer. A lovely wooden bridge and wooden tile road is the meeting area to keep the dwarves happy while they have no stone.<p>The dwarf with the only pickaxe falls into the watery pit under the collapse and drowns. I have to wait half a year to trade for another while the dwarves live on fish and berries in their hall. They are haunted by the ghost of the miner, as there is no stone for for a engraved slab in the graveyard. Cherry blossoms litter the ground, and blow into the half-finished excavation.<p>A crafter is possessed and wants stone, the one thing we don't have. What little the drwarves traded for had to go to other uses. A great pile of wooden crafts is building up. Just as well there are no elven neighbors. The crafter becomes melancholy, and wanders about the fisherdwarves, watching them. Sometimes he stands in the middle of the river.<p>After trading a new pick, the next miner knocks out the remaining support, and the collapse happens. But, alas, the aquifer is two levels thick! Only one level is smushed dry with the collapsed soil. We trade for rock, build a new structure in the now open watery pit. Two dwarves fall in that season during the construction, adding more drowned victims and wailing ghosts.<p>The construction of stone walls in the pit is knocked down at the cost of yet another dwarf - yet it isn't enough to breach the aquifer. Woe. The pit is now littered with rock and bodies and materials.<p>There is only one other thing to do; build a stack of wooden pumps, stairs, landings down into the pit, and an aquaduct to the river. Pump it dry and send in dwarfs to build walls and lock away the water.<p>All of this and still not at the point of the exercise - to raise a great hollow tower of stone over the river and a deep pit of stairs beneath, and tear down the hall of wood for charcoal. So it continues.
Some other interesting articles form the past:<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of...</a><p><a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131954/interview_the_making_of_dwarf_.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131954/interview_the_m...</a><p>I have played quite a bit of the game and it is amazing despite its insane and sometimes frustrating UI.
Dwarf Fortress is truly an inspiring project, not only because of how amazingly fun and engrossing the game is if you can get into it (granted, it's not for everyone), but also because of the sheer amount of dedication and love that is put into it by Tarn and Zach Adams.
I always play Dwarf Fortress when I am waiting in the airport and there's always someone near me who thinks I'm "computer hacking".
(inspired by the other Elite thread)<p>Is there something like a Dwarf Fortress in Space? I know about FTL, but there you have too much control over the crew.<p>Like FTL but with Dwarf Fortress like gameplay. "And then my ship got invaded by alien mind slugs and everybody want insane" or "The mourning captain shut himself up in the bridge and shortly afterwards we flew into a sun" or "We transported a herd of alien-cows which resulted in a stempede through the canteen".
I've had so many hours of entertainment playing Dwarf Fortress I usually donate $10-$20 every major release. Well worth it if you can get past the UI.
Tarn's dissertation "Flat Chains in Banach Spaces" is truly awesome, if you have enough domain knowledge to understand what it's talking about. I love those guys.
Given the game's huge following, they should pledge to open source the code before they die so the saga can continue. :) If they don't make money from direct sales, why not open source the game now?
Anyone read The O'Reilly book about this and can comment on it? I've been wanting to try this game but really don't want to spend the overhead time just digging through learning on my own.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Dwarf-Fortress-complex/dp/1449314945" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Dwarf-Fortress-complex...</a>
Truly awe-inspiring and inspirational work. Over a decade spent working on that one game. A bit over two years ago I started working on my own similar type of game (a Dwarf-Fortress-like or DF-like if you will) and it's given me so much appreciation for the insanity that is game development. The sheer amount of time it takes to build out a system with so much depth is incredible. I've probably been working an average of 8-10 hours a week for 2 years and I have but a fraction of the functionality. Dwarf Fortress stands as a bastion of inspiration I can look to any time I feel like quitting.
Just spent a bit of time working around some problems to get Dwarf Fortress and the Lazy Newb Pack installed on Ubuntu 16.04.<p>It's a bit more complicated than running it on Windows<i>, but still works just fine: <a href="https://tutorialinux.com/install-dwarf-fortress-ubuntu-16-04/" rel="nofollow">https://tutorialinux.com/install-dwarf-fortress-ubuntu-16-04...</a><p>Enjoy!<p></i>If I had a nickel for every time I've said that...
The article repeatedly stresses how "influential" DF was, and it bothers me a bit. Dwarf Fortress is one of the greatest achievements in video game history because of its unparalleled complexity, but it's pretty much a niche game. It wasn't, I think, very influential at all. There are many adjectives we can use to describe this work. Monumental springs to mind. But not influential.