CTW - FAQ v1.3.004

[ehyder]

Author notes: This FAQ mainly covers game mechanics and is intended to help early/new players get started in the game, as well as help any player who gets stuck somewhere along the line. There are some strategy tips included below but strategy is not the focus of this FAQ. For more discussion about strategy you can go to the Tips/Tricks thread or the guides and walkthroughs. SeanPlays has been putting out a series of Youtube videos if you have not taken the plunge and would to see what gameplay is like.

Like the game this FAQ is a work in progress. If you have suggestions for additional content, or corrections to what has been included, please send me a comment through Steam, or you can comment on this post. If you contribute additional/new information I will make sure to credit you in the FAQ.

Does the game have multiplayer?

Yes.

CTW is not working, and/or strange things are happening, what do I do?

• General fixes
  
  • Make sure your software and hardware meet the game specs.
    
  • Close/restrart some or all: game, Steam, machine.
    
  • Take manual control of a dwarf.
    
  • Clear all actions in game.
    
  • Install/reinstall game and/or Steam.
    
• Mouse clicks are not registering: If in windowed mode switch to another window and then back.
  
• Game is crashing: Quit game, and Steam*, and restart. If it still crashes reboot computer. If the game still crashes after a reboot you may have a data error and need to delete that save file and start a fresh game.
  
• Game is not opening and/or crashing with an error message: Sometimes this means you just need to delete and reinstall the app, sometimes it means you need to delete all of the application data, including save files. If you are really upset about losing your game progress you can try backing up your saved files before deleting the app and all of its associated files, then copy the save files back in after you have wiped everything. This option only works if there is no problem with the save files.
  
• For File recovery if have a corrupted file (from Annieway): Go to "Options" in the game and press Send Feedback, after this all your files (and saves) will be saved in the saves backup.rar
  
  If you are on a PC you may run into conficts with other software. Make sure all of your drivers are up-to-date. Browse the web for known problems related to your anti-virus and firewall software. Also, from mlkeydsc:
  
  1. Verify the local game files
     
  2. Update video drivers (in some cases you may need to revert to older drivers)
     
  3. Update Audio drivers
     
  4. Uninstall/reinstall game
     
  5. Defrag the hard drive
     
  6. Run CCleaner to clean up your registry
     
  7. If these suggestions do not work post your OS and specs for more help
  
  
• Black screen, closing instantly (Windows from WaffelWelb): Try starting the game with "administration rights". Right click at the executable File in the games folder.
  Under the "compatibilty" Tab (translated by me ;o) just have "German" Windows; its the second after "general"), I first opened the dialog for "Settings for all users" and then I checked:
  
  1. Start with admin rights
     
  2. deactivate desktop designs
     
  3. deactivate scaling for high DPI settings
     *2 and 3 are the last checkboxes in this dialog.
• No text:
  
  1. Change language setting, and/or
     
  2. delete lang.txt at "%appdata%\dekovir\crafttheworld".
• *Steam has been pretty flaky with Macs, especially 10.9.5. If you are having trouble the devs give this advice: If you still have black screen - try to press Enter. We managed to reproduce black screen only when the game launched not through Steam, but pressing "Enter" helped in this case.

CTW files reside in the following directories:
Mac:

• /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/craftheword
  
• /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/CraftTheWorld
  
• /Users/[username]/Library/Saved Application State/com.dekovir.CraftWorld.savedState

To find the files on a Mac:

1. In the Finder, choose Go > Go To Folder.
   
2. In the Go To Folder dialog, type ~/Library
   
3. Click Go.

PC:
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\dekovir\crafttheworld {Would like some verification if this is the only file location, I do not have access to a Windows machine.}

What are some common issues players are having with the game?

• Pathfinding: Dwarves are not the most efficient workers. Known issues are dwarves picking up one (or more items) and then doing something else at the other end of the map. To help: Try to keep dwarves fed and only assign tasks in one part of the map. Reduce the number of tasks the dwarves are trying to perform.
  
• Suicidal dwarf, part 1: You are in battle. Things are going badly. You decide to recall all of your dwarves and hit the shelter button. They all stream through your strategically placed portal to get home...except for that dwarf just standing there getting waled on by the (fill in the blank) until it dies. To help: Take manual control of the dwarf before it dies and move it away from the action then release control. Spam with health potions, or let it die.
  
• Suicidal dwarf, part 2: You are in battle defending your home. Your melee fighters decimate their first oppenent and then fling themselves into the fray, way past your defenses, and usually straight into the hardest hitting enemy. And die. To help: make sure you have lots of health potions before a major battle and apply liberally. Hit shelter button frequently.
  
• Suicidal dwarf, part 3: You are in battle and your dwarf is trying to flee due to low health and has to go up/down a ladder, then stops on the ladder. See Suicidal dwarf, part 1.
  
• Transportation: Dwarves often get stuck in elevators and do not use all of the railroad carts. To help: take out non working cart and put back in; wait to see if the problem clears up; restart game; take control of dwarf, select a placeable item from your quickbar, e.g., torch, and try place it somewhere it will not fit (from ReneMiner). Folks have tried each of these solutions with varying degrees of success.

How do I change the game from Fullscreen to Windowed mode?

• Mac: Option+Enter
  
• PC: Alt + Enter

These commands are not working well on my iMac. In addition, if you adjust the resolution in the Options menu to the highest settings the window may end up too large for your screen. I strongly recommend changing the resolution in the config.xml file. See the question above for file locations and the question below for more detail on how to change settings.

How do I adjust game settings?

Many players want to tweak some of the settings. Adjusting the settings is pretty straight forward once you find the file.

1. Open the file:
   
   • Mac: Open /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/crafttheworld/
     config.xml with Textedit.app or some other text editor [Garbriel388]
     
   • PC: Open C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\dekovir\crafttheworld [Utildayael]
     
2. Change the file. [Garbriel388]
   
   • Inventory: Change the max_resources_count_value from 999 to 9999, or whatever.
     
   • Screen mode: Change full screen mode to false. Change ‘width value’ and ‘height value’ to desired proportions. The values you want will be different based on the size of your screen. If you are not sure what values to use start by decreasing the values by the same %, e.g., reduce width and height values by 5% each. Then go back into the file and set different values until you get the size you want.
     
   • Pause option in windowed mode: Change ‘pause_on_focus_lost value’ to 'false'. This setting allows the game to continue while you are in another window.
     
   • Modify mana (by Mystcleaner [B€.Fr]): you can find the line in "world.xml" -> <param name="ManaRestoreTime" value="180"/>.
     

How many worlds are there and how are they different?

Currently there are four worlds that you can explore: Forest, Ice, Desert, Underground. Each of the current worlds is a different size (in campaign mode) and has slightly different creatures, materials, and crafting trees. Except for size and a few key materials and creatures the worlds are very similar, making gameplay pretty similar between worlds. Important exceptions are noted below:

• Forest: Small world, goblins that attack on sight, abundance of apples and pine cones (from trees), berries (from bushes), water, wood.
  
• Ice: Medium world, abundance of water (in the form of snow and ice), no apples, berries come from digging snow, yetis (produce tallow that you can feed to dwarves), frostlings, worms. Note: Frostlings only attack when they are attacked although they will kill off wildlife.
  Tip: Melt snow or ice below ground level to create water.
  
• Desert: Large world, abundance of sand (surprise!), despite the name water is not difficult to collect, no apples, wood is a bit more difficult to gather, sand storms (painful), mummies, worms, pyramid.
  Notes: Sand storms will wreak havoc with above ground structures, tossing water, wood, earth and sand blocks, decorative blocks, furniture, dwarves, animals, and monsters around the world. Dwarves will panic when a sandstorm comes along making it difficult to get them to do anything. Dirt blocks with roots do not get tossed around by sandstorms. Mummies do not disappear during the day and will attack day or night. Magic does not work in pyramids which means you cannot create portals or manually control a dwarf. Pyramids have traps and lots of monsters. Any dwarf entering a pyramid unprepared is going to die.
  Tips: Set up a farm for wood and berries with dirt and sand. Build underground to avoid sand storms. Hit the shelter button if dwarves are above ground during a sandstorm. Use stone and brick blocks for any structures you build above ground.
  
• Underground: Deeper world, get to deal with Takmak, more underground baddies, invaders fly or paradrop in to attack.
  Tips: Expand floating islands to expand wood growth. Build permanent structures, i.e., use those nice metal ladders, to get to islands to harvest wood and animal products. Explore the underground cautiously to prevent getting overrun by cave goblins

What is the difference between campaign mode and custom mode?

• In campaign mode you progress from forest (easy difficulty) to ice (normal) to desert (normal) worlds by progressing through each world's tech tree (which are mostly the same) and defeating the five portal guardians to build the portal to the next world. In this mode you cannot build a new item until you unlock its technology in the tech tree. In each world you start out with one dwarf, and on the lowest tech level; none of your skilled darves, equipment you crafted, or knowledge you discovered carry over to the new world. You can go back to any of your previous campaign worlds after you advance to a new world.
  Note: When you retry a world in campaign mode it creates a new seed.
  
• In custom mode you can choose world size, frequency of weather events, world type (forest, ice, desert, or underground), tech mode (sandbox or tech tree), game mode (normal or permadeath), and difficulty (normal, hard, very hard, nightmare). The portal guardians exist in custom worlds but a portal does not do anything.
  Note: In sandbox mode you can make any recipe without having to work through the tech tree. Craft recipes in sandbox will drop when you mine/log but not all recipes seem to be included. Some of these are quite important, e.g., health potions and you may need to look up the recipe on the Wiki (see below).

I am ready to play but do not know where to start. Or, all of my dwarves are getting killed! Where can I get more information about the game?

• Go to the Guides tab of the CTW Steam page.
  
• Go to the CTW Wiki[crafttheworld.gamepedia.com].
  
• Browse the Tips and Tricks Thread. Yes there are a lot of posts now, but some of them are really useful.

How do I move around the map?

• Arrow keys and W A S D can be used to scroll the map or to move a dwarf when it is under your direct control. 
  
• You can place a sign (sign button is under the shelter button) anywhere on the map and go to that map position by selecting a sign from the menu.
  
• Press the ‘h’ key to return to your shelter.

Tip: Create signs for map places you want to remember (e.g., ant nests, gold deposits, guardians) and places you will go to frequently (e.g., areas for logging and hunting, warehouses).

How do I feed the dwarves?

There are several methods you can use to feed your dwarves.

• Automatic: Build and place tables within your shelter. Place food from your inventory bar onto the tables. Dwarves will eat when they get hungry enough.
  
• Manual:
  
  1. Select a food item from your inventory bar then find hungry dwarf and feed.
     
  2. Select a dwarf and hit 'Go Eat.' You may need to select the button several times to get the dwarf to eat.
     
  3. Press the all eat key combo - Ctrl+E
     

Notes: Dwarves will refuse to eat if they get tired of the food, e.g., pine cones. Dwarves will suck down any beer you put down - no need to force feed them that food source. If you are on a Mac you may need to remap your keys to get the all eat/sleep key combos to work. And several Mac users, including me, have not been able to get the commands to work at all.
Tip: Put out several tables with food so that you do not have to replenish the food so frequently.

How do I get the dwarves to sleep?

Sleeping is important, it is a cheap way to restore the dwarves' health. To get the dwarves to sleep you need to have one bed for each dwarf. If there are not enough beds a dwarf will complain that it has no bed. Once there are enough beds the dwarves will go to sleep if you have a valid shelter and their health is low,<1 heart. If you want the dwarves to go sleep there are two manual methods to get them to sleep.

1. Select a dwarf and hit 'Go Sleep.' You may need to select the button several times to get the dwarf to sleep.
   
2. Press the all sleep key combo - Ctrl+R - this will send any dwarfs under 70% to sleep.

What is a valid shelter?

A valid shelter has walls, roof, floor, background blocks for all open sections, and a Totem (and a door/hatch for entry if you want one). Stars will outline your shelter showing you what portion of the map the game considers a valid shelter. Bigger stars will flash where there is a break point in the shelter that you need to fix.
Note: Walls, roof, and floor can be out of any blocks, including dirt. You will get a higher comfort level with walls that are not dirt, but dirt is cheap.

How do I select multiple blocks?

• Shift+Click or Right Click: allows you to mine/chop multiple blocks at the same time. Right Click also works when you are controlling a dwarf.
  
• Shift+Click or Right Click and drag: allows you to select blocks in the dragged area. Note: Drag only works on all blocks in either the foreground or background.

The dwarves seem really slow is there any way to speed them up?

You can speed the dwarves up by feeding them tea and beer once you research Expert Cooking. You can also speed up the game: F1, F2, F3 changes the game speed to normal (F1), 1.5x (F2), 2x (F3). The game speed shows up on the day/night time icon.
Note: Be cautious with the game speed when monsters are around, it is easy to lose control, and a few dwarves, in the heat of battle.

That’s cool, are there any other key commands I can use?

• Number keys 1-8 trigger the related quick bar slots. You can also use these keys to select inventory items when a dwarf is under direct control.
  
• CNTRL key toggles the secondary quick bar.
  
• F9 switches between hardware and software cursor.
  
• ESC: contextual key that can be used to:
  
  • Open the pause menu
    
  • Close the current open menu, e.g., craft window
    
  • Cancel dwarf selection and exit direct control of dwarf
    
• E: Opens equipment window
  
• I: Opens crafting window
  
• T: Opens Tasks/Bestiary/Notes Book to Tasks
  
• P: Pauses game
  
• Mouse scroll: changes zoom level
  
• Double-Click: contextual key combination that can be used on:
  
  • Item in craft menu to show its details
    
  • Item in crafting window to spread the item to adjacent cells
    
  • Door or hatch to open/close it
    
• When a dwarf is selected you can use the following key commands:
  
  • F - go eat
    
  • R - go sleep
    
  • E - equip
    
  • O - direct control dwarf
    
  • SPACE - select next dwarf
    

How do I plant wheat?

Place seeds in inventory and select an open dirt block (no block above the dirt) and click on the dirt block with the seeds.

Where can I find wheat?

You can find wheat growing above ground when you start a new Forest world. Wheat seeds will drop as you mine dirt. This happens with a fair bit of frequency (lots of dirt) on the Forest and Ice worlds. Place dirt blocks and mine the dirt blocks on the Desert world to drop wheat seed (thank you ReneMiner).

Will plants grow underground?

Yes. In addition to hungry plants and crystals (OK, not a plant), wheat can also be farmed underground on any open dirt block.

Why can I not plant wheat?

• Make sure the block you are trying to plant is dirt, not sand.
  
• If you are planting underground make sure the dirt block does not have any growths on the bottom of the block. If you see small blue crystals on the bottom of the dirt block then mine that block and place another dirt block in its place.
  
• When planting seeds make sure to select the dirt block, not the surface of the dirt block.

How do I farm animals?

You may want to farm animals to get a steady supply of meat, wool, eggs, and feathers. You will need to research and build three technologies to take advantage of all the features of an animal farm.

• Traps - You will need to trap an animal (Advanced Construction technology) in order to capture it and place it in a farm. Traps will work on wool producers and birds. Once an animal is in a trap you can release it, kill it, or catch it. In campaign you will get traps well before the other farm technologies you need for farming and will not have the option to catch an animal until you build a farm.
  
• Farm fence - Once you unlock the Farming branch of the tech tree you can build your farm and a farming shed/barn will miraculously appear within your fences. A farm needs a minimum of five consective lengths of farm fence to create this building. For each length of fence your farm can hold one animal. Examples: 5 linked farm fences = 5 animals, 10 linked farm fences = 10 animals. I do not know if there is a maximum size of farm; I do know that up to twelve fences work.
  
• Scissors - You must craft scissors to shear wool. The dwarves will equip the scissors automatically. Like diving helmets, buckets, and fishing rods it is a good idea to craft multiples to provide greater efficiency.
  
• Breeding* - Once a captured animal is placed in a farm it will produce more animals of the same type until the farm reaches capacity. This took around 4 minutes on 2x game speed for each additional animal.
  
• Collecting* - Dwarves will collect eggs (until the birds breed to the capacity of the farm - they stop producing eggs at full capacity) and feathers. To collect wool click on an animal and select 'cut' from the options. It takes around 10 minutes for an animal to grow back its wool.
  *Note: Totally unscientific time keeping.
  Tips: Once your farm reaches capacity cull some of the animals for their drops. Make sure to leave at least one animal in the farm or you will have to trap more animals. You can build animal farms underground.

How do I give my dwarves health potions?

• Manually give potions to one or more dwarves
  
  • Go to the equip screen, find the dwarf who needs the potion, select potion, and then select ‘Use.’ Scroll through dwarves and give potions as necessary.
    
  • Put potions in inventory. Select the potion and then select the unhealthy dwarf who will then drink the potion.
    
• Automatic - Have a mage and potions; mages will distribute potions. This method is not completely reliable. If there are dwarves you really do not want to lose you will need to keep an eye on their health and use a manual method.

Can I recycle items that I have crafted?

Many of the items you craft can be recycled getting you back around 75% or less of the item's ingredients. To recycle:

1. Open the craft window.
   
2. Drag the item you want to recycle from the inventory (to the left of the craft window) to the box on the left of the anvil.
   
3. Click on the anvil. Repeat as needed.

Note: Non recyclable items include clothing (e.g., shoes, hats), grass roof, wood walls, wooden chairs.

How can I change the look of my shelter’s decorations or orientation of doors and walls?

Many of the decorations have several designs. To change how the decoration looks place the decoration in your inventory bar, select it, and then click on the decoration block until you get the look you want. The same process works for walls and doors to change the orientation.
Note: Works on stained glass, paintings, pennants, stone relief, and venetian stucco.

I am in custom mode and cannot find a recipe, what do I do?

If there are any items you are dying to craft have not found the recipe you can still craft the item. You can use a recipe from a campaign game if you remember it, or you can find the recipe online. A good source for recipes is the CTW wiki[crafttheworld.gamepedia.com].

What do I need to do to get water and how do I get it?

Water is used in many recipes, and to create ponds for decoration or fishing. To collect, and place water your dwarves will need buckets.

1. Get the bucket technology - before collecting water you will need to find the craft recipe or research how to make a bucket (Advanced Timber Works).
   
2. Build buckets - Once you craft buckets your dwarves will automatically equip a bucket when tasked to collect or deposit water.
   
3. Collect/Create water - You can collect water from lakes/ponds, from the ground after rainstorms (click on the water above the ground block before it seeps into the surface block), and from placing snow/ice underground to melt.

I am trying to create a pond but it is not filling up/spawning fish, why not?

The pond/well/cistern should be lined with stone, otherwise the water might seep out before it has a chance to accumulate. If you want fish and they are not spawning try increasing the width and/or depth of your pond.
Tip: If you create a shaft from the surface connecting to a stone-lined hole a few blocks underground rain or snow will turn your hole into a pond.

Can I sell things in the store?

No.

I purchased items at the shop, where are they?

When you buy something from the shop the item will be dropped in front of the shop. The item will not show up in your inventory until it gets delivered to your warehouse. This may take a while. From my experience it may take a really long while. Or it could show up very fast. It all depends on what the dwarves are doing, how easily they can get to the shop, and whether you are using magic to pick up items.

I cannot find a Portal Guardian/portal recipe, what do I do?

Some players have reported a glitch where they have not been able to find one of the guardians, or that the last piece is missing or destroyed. But usually this happens because a player has just not found the guardian yet. Keep looking, some of the hidden rooms are really, really small. If you have killed all five guardians look carefully in the 2nd tab of your Workshop window to make sure the recipe is not lurking in there somewhere.

If you have exhausted all of these options and you are really, really sure you have killed all of the guardians and are still missing a portal recipe there is nothing you can do except start a new game.

I really like the game but I want the play to be a bit different. Are there mods available for CTW?

Changes happen frequently enough that CTW is not particularly mod friendly at this time. However, there are two mods out there whose author (Zombie Crusher) is gamely trying to keep up with the updates and add user requested features.

• Pete's Improvement Mod
  
• Pete's Peaceful Mod

I have read the FAQ, searched the CTW discussions, and cannot resolve my problem (or figure out what I am doing wrong), what do I do?

There is the CTW forum on Dekovir's website[crafttheworld.com] and Steam's CTW forum. The players on Steam are a pretty helpful group and someone somewhere has probably dealt with the same issue. And the devs do respond in Steam. If you cannot resolve the problem on the forum and/or you think the problem is a bug that no one has dealt with before send e-mail with your game save to Dekovir technical support ([e-mail]). When posting a problem be sure to always include details, including machine specs and OS and specifics on the problem you are having.
Note: if you find a solution for a game problem and it is not in the FAQ please post a summary of the problem and its solution to this thread.

[The Eye]

+1 new players and old should find this helpful

[ehyder]

Added a short question on known issues, including pathfinding, mages and the transformation spell, and transportation (railroads and elevators).

[pikawu70]

I had no idea about the flags. Thanks!

[The Eye]

Originally posted by pikawu70:

I had no idea about the flags. Thanks!

Flags? did I skip a part about flags?

[pikawu70]

Sorry meant signs: You can place a sign (sign button is under the shelter button) anywhere on the map and go to that map position by selecting a sign from the menu.

[The Eye]

ok thought I may have missed some thing :)

[✿⊱oLadyGamer⊰✿]

Oh those are what those signs are for! Ha I'm a dork (playing this for 150 hours)

[✿⊱oLadyGamer⊰✿]

ehyder, thanks for making this FAQ

[ehyder]

Thanks guys. Let me know if there is anything else you think I should add. Will try to keep it current with new updates.

[The Eye]

Ehyder... I understand comfort.. but guessing 90% of those that have played less then 100 hours ubderstand fully how to increase the comfort *wink OLGamer*

P.S. this whould be pinned

[ehyder]

Thank you for the suggestion, I was just thinking I should add somthing in about comfort. I will make a stab at it tomorrow.

[✿⊱oLadyGamer⊰✿]

I hope they add trading cards

[ehyder]

Working on documenting changes. Big question - are your dwarves less suicidal? Mine seem to be but I have not gotten very far. Have not had a chance to test the mages yet.

[✿⊱oLadyGamer⊰✿]

Well I'm in the Desert world now and it seems I don't lose as many dwarves as before. Maybe I learned some things from the previous worlds, as far as being prepared. Or maybe they are just a little stronger.

[✿⊱oLadyGamer⊰✿]

I've been doing Ctrl e for food. Can it be both?