Legends Mode (Starting Location and Year to setup Fort)

[Rougebeatz]

This is for the veteran dwarf fortress players, what is a good place to setup a dwarf fortress for beginners and the year to setup the fort in terms time passed in game? Once familiar with the game, what is a more challenging, yet rewarding place to setup a fort?

[Dr. Jaska]

If you start very early in the worlds history you might not get as many caravans and migrants since there aren't as many settlements around yet I believe. Otherwise that has little relevance to difficulty. Personally I recommend a starting location in a temperate region with multiple biomes, preferrably with a forest and a river in it. You probably want at least one of your starting biomes to have no aquifier as they can be tricky to breach. Try to stay away from evil biomes for now. They can range anywhere from mildly annoying to very, VERY hard. I'm not sure if it will reduce the frequency of unwelcome visitors if you settle far away from any goblin settlements and necromancer towers, but it can't hurt.

[Voliol]

I normally play a small world on 125 years of worldgen to spare my computer (bigger worlds/longer worldgens eat more FPS) yet have some history for my dwarves to carve on the walls.
If you're a newcomer I recommend a forested area with no aquifer, and low to medium savagery (i.e. not "savage wilds"). Light aquifers and barren landscapes are okay to deal with, but still require some understanding of the basics so you don't want to try out the tutorials in a place like that. Heavy aquifers, glaciers and evil biomes exist for those who want a really challenging embark. See Roomcarnage for a story about the latter two combined.

[Rick]

First of all, Legends mode is just a mode for viewing the history of the world you've generated.

For the first couple of runs, I'd generate a "Large" map with a "Very Short" history, "Frequent" mineral occurence, and "medium" everything else. If you're worried about experiencing FUN with the wildlife, turn down savagery, but the chance of you getting splattered on embark are very low. "Frequent" minerals is better than "Everywhere" minerals because you can easily get tunnel vision (har har har) and overwhelm yourself with the amount of materials you'd be collecting.

Now for the two most important parts, History and World Size. The "Very Short" History gets you in the game quickly and prevents any possible zombie apocalypse or goblin world conquests. The "Large" map gives you more choices in spawn locations for your fort.

Do Not, Under Any Circumstance, Try To Learn The Game In Evil Land. You Will Be Annihilated

Find yourself a good aligned biome, don't bother any unicorns you might see, and don't cut down all the trees causing the elves to retaliate. You will be able to focus on learning the game, and when you're ready for trouble, you can make your own by sending raiders out to annoy a civilization. They will retaliate eventually.

After you've gotten more experience, decrease the minerals to "Sparse" and find yourself a nice "Savage" location to play in. If you place it near, but not actually in, evil territory, you'll increase your chance of FUN. Savage worlds have "Giant" versions of animals, as well as "Animal People." An adult male moose is nearly tent times the size of a dwarf. A Giant male moose is 71 times the size of a dwarf. Have fun hunting.

Climate is also really important. In the beginning, look for a temperate area with plenty of trees and vegetation, a river of some kind (the smaller the better, dwarves aren't good swimmers), and no aquifer. You'll want the area to have a "Flux Stone Layer," "Shallow Clay," "Deep" or "Very Deep Soil," "Shallow Metals," AND "Deep Metals."

Remember, when you lose, don't get frustrated. It will and does happen to everyone. Just go with the flow.

Have FUN!

[Rougebeatz]

Originally posted by Rick:

First of all, Legends mode is just a mode for viewing the history of the world you've generated.

For the first couple of runs, I'd generate a "Large" map with a "Very Short" history, "Frequent" mineral occurence, and "medium" everything else. If you're worried about experiencing FUN with the wildlife, turn down savagery, but the chance of you getting splattered on embark are very low. "Frequent" minerals is better than "Everywhere" minerals because you can easily get tunnel vision (har har har) and overwhelm yourself with the amount of materials you'd be collecting.

Now for the two most important parts, History and World Size. The "Very Short" History gets you in the game quickly and prevents any possible zombie apocalypse or goblin world conquests. The "Large" map gives you more choices in spawn locations for your fort.

Do Not, Under Any Circumstance, Try To Learn The Game In Evil Land. You Will Be Annihilated

Find yourself a good aligned biome, don't bother any unicorns you might see, and don't cut down all the trees causing the elves to retaliate. You will be able to focus on learning the game, and when you're ready for trouble, you can make your own by sending raiders out to annoy a civilization. They will retaliate eventually.

After you've gotten more experience, decrease the minerals to "Sparse" and find yourself a nice "Savage" location to play in. If you place it near, but not actually in, evil territory, you'll increase your chance of FUN. Savage worlds have "Giant" versions of animals, as well as "Animal People." An adult male moose is nearly tent times the size of a dwarf. A Giant male moose is 71 times the size of a dwarf. Have fun hunting.

Climate is also really important. In the beginning, look for a temperate area with plenty of trees and vegetation, a river of some kind (the smaller the better, dwarves aren't good swimmers), and no aquifer. You'll want the area to have a "Flux Stone Layer," "Shallow Clay," "Deep" or "Very Deep Soil," "Shallow Metals," AND "Deep Metals."

Remember, when you lose, don't get frustrated. It will and does happen to everyone. Just go with the flow.

Have FUN!

Thanks for the replies guys, yeah im playing on starting my fort at year 300 and setting up in a jungle temperate zone near a river, not a big one though. probably on a larger map size for convenience

[Rougebeatz]

Originally posted by Rick:

First of all, Legends mode is just a mode for viewing the history of the world you've generated.

For the first couple of runs, I'd generate a "Large" map with a "Very Short" history, "Frequent" mineral occurence, and "medium" everything else. If you're worried about experiencing FUN with the wildlife, turn down savagery, but the chance of you getting splattered on embark are very low. "Frequent" minerals is better than "Everywhere" minerals because you can easily get tunnel vision (har har har) and overwhelm yourself with the amount of materials you'd be collecting.

Now for the two most important parts, History and World Size. The "Very Short" History gets you in the game quickly and prevents any possible zombie apocalypse or goblin world conquests. The "Large" map gives you more choices in spawn locations for your fort.

Do Not, Under Any Circumstance, Try To Learn The Game In Evil Land. You Will Be Annihilated

Find yourself a good aligned biome, don't bother any unicorns you might see, and don't cut down all the trees causing the elves to retaliate. You will be able to focus on learning the game, and when you're ready for trouble, you can make your own by sending raiders out to annoy a civilization. They will retaliate eventually.

After you've gotten more experience, decrease the minerals to "Sparse" and find yourself a nice "Savage" location to play in. If you place it near, but not actually in, evil territory, you'll increase your chance of FUN. Savage worlds have "Giant" versions of animals, as well as "Animal People." An adult male moose is nearly tent times the size of a dwarf. A Giant male moose is 71 times the size of a dwarf. Have fun hunting.

Climate is also really important. In the beginning, look for a temperate area with plenty of trees and vegetation, a river of some kind (the smaller the better, dwarves aren't good swimmers), and no aquifer. You'll want the area to have a "Flux Stone Layer," "Shallow Clay," "Deep" or "Very Deep Soil," "Shallow Metals," AND "Deep Metals."

Remember, when you lose, don't get frustrated. It will and does happen to everyone. Just go with the flow.

Have FUN!

Wait there is actually unicorns in this game? thats awesome

[Rick]

Originally posted by Rougebeatz:

Originally posted by Rick:

Have FUN!

Wait there is actually unicorns in this game? thats awesome

Here's the link to the unicorn page[dwarffortresswiki.org]
They are one of the highest valued, non-suicidal to attempt to tame, pets. A dwarf with a pet Unicorn will be really happy about it.

[Rougebeatz]

Originally posted by Rick:

Originally posted by Rougebeatz:

Wait there is actually unicorns in this game? thats awesome

Here's the link to the unicorn page[dwarffortresswiki.org]
They are one of the highest valued, non-suicidal to attempt to tame, pets. A dwarf with a pet Unicorn will be really happy about it.

ok so even though this is the classic version, this newer graphical uplift will have all creatures and animals from previous or maybe even more ? so there is still the generic bears, foxes, wolves, rabbits and etc.

[Rick]

Originally posted by Rougebeatz:

Originally posted by Rick:

Here's the link to the unicorn page[dwarffortresswiki.org]
They are one of the highest valued, non-suicidal to attempt to tame, pets. A dwarf with a pet Unicorn will be really happy about it.

ok so even though this is the classic version, this newer graphical uplift will have all creatures and animals from previous or maybe even more ? so there is still the generic bears, foxes, wolves, rabbits and etc.

Yup, everything from Fortress mode is included, and they will continue working on getting adventure mode and the arena ready for release. As far as I remember, legends is also available on release. And those will be free updates to the core game.

[Rougebeatz]

Originally posted by Rick:

Originally posted by Rougebeatz:

ok so even though this is the classic version, this newer graphical uplift will have all creatures and animals from previous or maybe even more ? so there is still the generic bears, foxes, wolves, rabbits and etc.

Yup, everything from Fortress mode is included, and they will continue working on getting adventure mode and the arena ready for release. As far as I remember, legends is also available on release. And those will be free updates to the core game.

as i start to learn more about dwarf fortress it almost makes rimworld feel like a dlc or a demo, not to ♥♥♥♥ on rimworld or anything but yeah because really excited to actually play the OG that inspired these games

[Lain]

I really say its based on what you want to do and how long you intend to play a given save. for example if you want a very combat world its best to let it go past 125 on a small world so it generates faster but the downside would be that you would have less areas to embark and once you start to gain preferences or wish to do some specific task like build pyramids in the desert or find the perfect utopia to build upon. In the more creative stuff or even when you are willing to help start the world off and watch it grow i prefer medium worlds with like 50 years or so max. Medium worlds are the smallest size world in which major rivers can appear.

[Rick]

Originally posted by Rougebeatz:

Originally posted by Rick:

Yup, everything from Fortress mode is included, and they will continue working on getting adventure mode and the arena ready for release. As far as I remember, legends is also available on release. And those will be free updates to the core game.

as i start to learn more about dwarf fortress it almost makes rimworld feel like a dlc or a demo, not to ♥♥♥♥ on rimworld or anything but yeah because really excited to actually play the OG that inspired these games

Playing a lot of Dwarf Fortress makes it hard to go back to Rimworld. While it is initially easier, it feels really shallow in comparison.

[Archer the Bowless]

Aren't the early years more dangerous with all the (ancient) giant monster creatures that are alive? While going further into the future usually kills them off, and also providing cool stories about them in the process?

[Rick]

Originally posted by Tiffany DEATHADDER:

Aren't the early years more dangerous with all the (ancient) giant monster creatures that are alive? While going further into the future usually kills them off, and also providing cool stories about them in the process?

All Megabeasts have a minimum population or wealth amount before they can come stomp your fortress into dust.

"Megabeasts[dwarffortresswiki.org] will not attack the player until they have accumulated a minimum wealth of 100,000☼ or a minimum population of 80 dwarves."

And this includes all Forgotten Beasts, Titans, Bronze Colossuses, Dragons, Rocs, and Hydras.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know, this symbol ---> ☼ indicates money.

[Skinny Pete]

I usually let it go to 125 years then start checking for when 30% of the original megabeasts are dead and stop when that happens. This means on the cusp of the Age of Myth and the Age of Legends, so I might get to see those change or even set off the change myself by killing a megabeast.

This is actually meaningless other than the title, I just like it (and it also has enough violence for fun to result).

[Rougebeatz]

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

I usually let it go to 125 years then start checking for when 30% of the original megabeasts are dead and stop when that happens. This means on the cusp of the Age of Myth and the Age of Legends, so I might get to see those change or even set off the change myself by killing a megabeast.

This is actually meaningless other than the title, I just like it (and it also has enough violence for fun to result).

does the world ever end is there a max year you can go too?