Does DF often have combat & battles?

[Pimpin Pippin]

I was watching a streamer play the steam DF for about 15 hours in total now.
However there are no attackers (hostiles) and almost no monsters, but even the few monsters (like trolls) just run away peacefully.
The streamer is even joking about the "monster hunter" dwarves that keep asking to join his fortress, yet there are pretty much no monsters to fight despite digging very deep into the earth.

Is DF a mostly pacifist game or does it actually have common battles (like it was in rimworld & similar)?

[dataangel]

Bump, 6 hours in, no conflict at all

[ExoticTrash]

just depends on if conflict finds its way to your fortress, or if you cause it through raiding or killing people on your site

[Pimpin Pippin]

I was hoping it would have some regular attacks to promote the whole Fortress aspect of the Dwarf Fortress.
Feels very unexpected for it to be this devoid of combat.

[RoyalFox]

Originally posted by Pimpin Pippin:

I was watching a streamer play the steam DF for about 15 hours in total now.
However there are no attackers (hostiles) and almost no monsters, but even the few monsters (like trolls) just run away peacefully.
The streamer is even joking about the "monster hunter" dwarves that keep asking to join his fortress, yet there are pretty much no monsters to fight despite digging very deep into the earth.

Is DF a mostly pacifist game or does it actually have common battles (like it was in rimworld & similar)?

If your civilization isn't at war with anyone or you built on an island it's gonna be a lot harder to get raided and sieged. Also I'm pretty sure I know exactly what streamer you're talking about and if you mean the troll that walked all the way up the stairs through the fort and out the hatches to the surface and just left the map I have literally never seen that once until the steam version.

[The Former]

Depends on where you're positioned and if you're at war, far as I can tell. Raids from things like goblins won't happen until a population of 50, I'm told. Meanwhile undead will raid you immediately. If you want some action, embark on a haunted tile and you'll get plenty. (I speak from experience...)

[RoyalFox]

Originally posted by Urist, the Bay 12 Speardwarf:

Depends on where you're positioned and if you're at war, far as I can tell. Raids from things like goblins won't happen until a population of 50, I'm told. Meanwhile undead will raid you immediately. If you want some action, embark on a haunted tile and you'll get plenty. (I speak from experience...)

Necromancer towers have a 10 tile range for the undead to siege you. Also other civilizations are a 30 tile distance from their sites. https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Siege
Necromancers ignore population, other sieges have requirements.

[klaxas77]

here is the thing people need to understand about dwarf fortress.

the game does not generate events (like 99% of all other games) most games roll a die, event happens, roll for what event.

dwarf fortress doesnt do that. dwarf fortress creates a world. you are in that world. if you pick a relatively peaceful location, with few hostile neighbors, chances are combat will be rare especially for the first 5-10 years of your fort until you become more wealthy (when the goblins take notice)

however. if you choose a start location between a necromancer tower and the civilization he is trying to destroy, you will get in the crossfire just by accident. you may have zombie attacks within months. if you choose an untamed wilds start, you will frequently get attacks by savage creatures. if you choose a haunted biome..... good luck.

you get the idea. also, there are a ton of sliders to change the world (at worldgen). if you want more combat, make it so. just remember, losing is fun

[Deadweight]

yeah it depends on where your fort is, who your neighbors are, what kind of area it is

stuff will show up even in safe regions eventually, if you're building a bigger and richer fort, esp if you open up to the underground

[⎛⎝Tiùwilo⎠⎞]

You can ALWAYS make your own conflict by digging deeply and greedily enough.

[Bourbon]

My embark has Giant Keas. GIANT. KEAS.

Battles with goblins are a semi-annual occurrence on about 90% of all embarks. It is possible to set yourself someplace where the overland armies cannot reach you, but then... uh.

Dig down, my dude.

[Owl]

If you settle in a peaceful place with no neighbors, you won't receive a lot of conflict if you don't look for it.

[cc]

You'll need to intentionally seek conflict by rerolling your world and picking a spicy embark

[H. Guderian]

My first 2 years I had visitors become fascinated by a bismuth bronze ax that I gave a name to. They would run into the base to claim it. I haven't had external threats, but I assigned someone to do medical work and they lost their mind and started breaking things and picking fights - until he picked a fight in the barracks and got butchered.

[Sneep Snorp]

Depends on your fortress value, if you dont have anything really worthwhile you wont get bandit or raider attention, monsters too the bigger things get angry when you make money

[McFuzz]

A fort can last a while before combat starts to come more often. It depends on your exported wealth.