Update worldgen tutorial

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PeridexisErrant 2015-09-28 16:14:57 +10:00
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@ -7,90 +7,88 @@ Welcome to the tutorial on world building. If youve played along with the wal
Why World Build?
================
World building is a subtle and arcane art in Dwarf Fortress. You can do it the easy way (default world generation), the slightly complex way (custom parameter setting) or the really hard way (world gen file manipulation). Were going to be covering just the first way as the others make my brain hurt and Im not a damn masochist! If you are interested in doing things the hard way you can head over to the wiki and check out the guides to advanced world generation and pre-generated worlds. Me, I got confused reading those so when I wanted something tricky done chose to whine on the Bay12 forums until someone helped me! Thanks forum geeks!
World building is a subtle and arcane art in Dwarf Fortress. You can do it the easy way (default world generation), the slightly complex way (custom parameter setting) or the really hard way (world gen file manipulation). Were going to be covering just the first way as the others make my brain hurt and Im not a masochist! If you are interested in doing things the hard way you can head over to the wiki and check out the guides to advanced world generation and pre-generated worlds.
Er, where was I, perhaps I should answer the question in my title there! Why do we want to generate our own worlds? Well, generally it is because we want to create a specific type of environment (haunted glaciers with skeletal whales FTW!) or we want to make sure we have an interesting and exciting place to build (build a volcano inside a fortress inside a volcano!). Or perhaps you just want to start a new game in a new land.
Er, where was I, why do we want to generate our own worlds? Well, generally it is because we want to create a specific type of environment (haunted glaciers with skeletal whales FTW!) or we want to make sure we have an interesting and exciting place to build (build a volcano inside a fortress inside a volcano!). Or perhaps you just want to start a new game in a new land.
Making Worlds the Easy Way
==========================
Fire up Dwarf Fortress and from the start menu scroll down and chose “Create World Now”. At the next screen hit “F9” as instructed and the world will start to generate. Youll get a lot of stuff happening on the screen as the world is generated. Mountains will form and be eroded, forests will spread, rivers will spawn, civilisations will rise and fall. Its pretty cool actually!
Fire up Dwarf Fortress and from the start menu scroll down to :guilabel:`Create New World!` and hit :kbd:`Enter`. You'll see a screen with a variety of basic options which can be selected with the arrow keys. I suggest the following settings, but by now you can decide for yourself:
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_01.png
.. image:: images/worldgen-options.png
:align: center
Heres a shot of the world history being generated, which happens after the geography is formed. Did you know you can actually go and read all of this history in “Legends” mode? Yes, its all there! Tons of history and mythology to soak in. Well have a look at that later.
You you like the settings, hit :kbd:`y` and the world will start to generate. Youll get a lot of stuff happening on the screen as the world is generated. Mountains will form and be eroded, forests will spread, rivers will spawn, civilisations will rise and fall. Its pretty cool actually!
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_02.png
Heres a shot of the world history being generated, which happens after the geography is formed. Did you know you can actually go and read all of this history in :guilabel:`Legends` mode? Yes, its all there! Tons of history and mythology to soak in. Well have a look at that later.
.. image:: images/worldgen-generating.png
:align: center
Once the world is created youll end up with a menu as well as a little information, such as the name of your world. Mine, the “Enchanted Plane of Portents” looks mountainous and pretty frozen! Neato! Use the arrow keys to look around and get a rough idea for the kind of world created. Hit “Enter” to accept the world. The world is now being stored and you will be taken back to the main menu. You can now chose “start playing” and a new world will be there, probably the attractively named “Region 2”.
Once the world is created youll end up with a menu as well as a little information, such as the name of your world. Mine, :guilabel:`The Universe of Wonder` looks mountainous and pretty frozen up North! (I swear, I got that name the first time!) Use the arrow keys to look around and get a rough idea for the kind of world created. Hit :kbd:`Enter` to accept the world. The world is now being stored and you will be taken back to the main menu. You can now chose :guilabel:`Start Playing` and a new world will be there, probably the attractively named :guilabel:`(untranslated name), Folder: Region 2`.
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_03.png
.. image:: images/worldgen-regions.png
:align: center
Youre a bloody legend, mate
============================
With your new region selected, hit “Enter” and you can see the three game modes available. Dwarf Fortress, which you know well by now, Adventurer, which you may have dipped into and Legends. Select Legends with the arrow key and hit enter. After some loading youll get a screen showing a list of histories to read. Scroll around, hit enter to drill down and space to go back up a menu layer. The first history I read is about “Angot Torridbrand The Firey Wealths of Heat, a skeletal dragon”. Oh dear!
With your new region selected, hit “Enter” and you can see the three game modes available. :guilabel:`Dwarf Fortress`, which you know well by now, :guilabel:`Adventurer`, which you may have dipped into and :guilabel:`Legends`. Select :guilabel:`Legends` and hit :kbd:`Enter`. After some loading youll get a screen showing a list of histories to read. Scroll around, hit :kbd:`Enter` to drill down and :kbd:`Esc` to go back up a menu layer. The first history I read is about Sidya Athetipyi, hag spouse of evil - born an elf, abducted at age four, and transformed into a creature of the night by Momuz Shadeberry. She later escaped and wandered for years, before being struck down at age 41 in the Pure Prairies. There are happy stories too, I promise!
When youre bored, space back out to the main menu.
If the in-game interface for Legends mode isn't your cup of tea, don't despair! From the main legends screen, you can press :kbd:`x`, :kbd:`p`, :kbd:`d` to export most of the information - or use the DFHack command ``exportlegends all`` to do so automatically. These files are created in the ``Dwarf Fortress`` folder, and can be read with Legends Viewer - which incorporates the maps, and adds everything from hyperlinks to population statistics.
When youre bored, :kbd:`Esc` back out to the main menu.
Play the Damn Game Already!
===========================
Head back in to “Start playing” and select your region and then “Dwarf Fortress”. Youll then get a screen somewhat like this. It is the “settle” screen where you chose where youre going to found your fortress. Ive scribbled on the picture below so as to give you a better idea of what youre looking at. The image below explains the three map windows you can see:
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_04.png
.. image:: images/worldgen-sites.png
:align: center
On the right is more information and it relates entirely to whats in the embark box in the left window. Lets see what we can do about navigating around! Start off by hitting the arrow keys a while. What youll notice is that the arrow keys move the X on the region map. Holding down an arrow key results in the local map zipping past, the region map moving square by square and the world map X moving fairly slowly. As you move the cursor around you should see the info on the right change. Note, this info does NOT relate to the region window! Instead, it relates to the local window, but as youve noticed by now we dont seem to have much control over the placement of that local window box… or do we?
If you read the text on screen youll see you can move the local area box around using “u”, “m”, “k” and “h”. Try it now! Youll notice lots of information changing on the right. You can also resize the local space using “shift” + “u”, “m”, “k” or “h”. You probably want to leave the box at 4×4, but 5×5 will give you more space when youre playing. 6×6 should only be used by those who like the game going particularly slowly as those sort of sizes can become somewhat crippling for the CPU to keep up with. 1×1 micro-fortresses are also doable, but check the forums for seeds and ideas.
If you read the text on screen youll see you can move the local area box around using :kbd:`w`, :kbd:`a`, :kbd:`x`, and :kbd:`d`. Try it now! Youll notice lots of information changing on the right. You can also resize the local space using :kbd:`u`, :kbd:`h`, :kbd:`m`, :kbd:`k`. You probably want to leave the box at 3x3, but 4x4 will give you more space when youre playing. 5x5 should only be used by those who like the game going particularly slowly as those sort of sizes can become somewhat crippling for the CPU to keep up with. 1×1 micro-fortresses are also doable, if you want speed more than space.
Hit “shift”+”u” and make your space 4×5. Make it small again by “shift”+”m”. Easy huh? But rather than just selecting some random area and hitting “e” for “embark”, lets use the “Find” system to get us a nice site.
Hit :kbd:`u` and make your space 3×5. Make it small again by :kbd:`m`. Easy huh? But rather than just selecting some random area and hitting :kbd:`e` for :guilabel:`Embark!`, lets use the :guilabel:`Find` system to get us a nice site.
Finding somewhere to live
=========================
Follow along:
* Hit “f” for “Find”. A new window will pop up with settings to fiddle with.
* Use the arrow keys to scroll down to temperature and use the left and right arrows to set the temperature to “Medium”. Skip this step if youre feeling brave!
* Set “Flux Stone” to “Yes”. Flux stone is one of the ingredients you need to make steel so we really do want it.
* Set “Aquifer” to “No” unless you want to play with pumps and like a challenge.
* Set “River” to “Yes”.
* Set “Magma Pipe” to “Yes”.
* You can try setting any of the three options below to “Yes” as well, but there might not be a site that matches, so for now, leave them and hit “Enter” for “do search”.
* DF will now look for a location matching your preferences.
* Hit “f” for :guilabel:`Find`. A new menu will pop up with settings to fiddle with.
* Set :guilabel:`Savagery` and :guilabel:`Evil` to :guilabel:`Low`.
* Set :guilabel:`Flux Stone Layer` to :guilabel:`Yes`. Flux stone is one of the ingredients you need to make steel so we really do want it.
* Leave :guilabel:`Aquifer` as :guilabel:`N/A` - while they're a pain, you'll get a better site if you're willing to use the DFHack command ``drain-aquifer`` after you embark
* Set :guilabel:`River` to :guilabel:`Yes`.
* Set :guilabel:`Shallow Metal` and :guilabel:`Deep Metal` to :guilabel:`Multiple`.
* Set :guilabel:`Soil` to :guilabel:`< Deep`.
* Set :guilabel:`Clay` to :guilabel:`Yes`.
* Hit :kbd:`Enter` for :guilabel:`Do Search`.
Now, Ive chosen the particular settings above to set up a fairly straight forward fortress location. You can have a lot of fun by not going for some of these settings, so dont be afraid to experiment. Check the big comment at the bottom of the tutorial for more ideas on this by commenter Benkyo.
DF will now look for a location matching your preferences. Now, Ive chosen the particular settings above to set up a fairly straight forward fortress location. You can have a lot of fun by not going for some of these settings, so dont be afraid to experiment.
Once the search is run a suitable site will be found (hopefully) and the local map will be centered on it. Hit “space” to back out of the find menu. Heres what Ive found.
Once the search is run a suitable site will be found (hopefully) and the local map will be centered on it. Hit :kbd:`Space` to back out of the find menu. Heres what Ive found.
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_05.png
.. image:: images/worldgen-search.png
:align: center
You can see the climate looks quite good. The temperature is warm, its got lots of wood. Its wilderness, which will be somewhat challenging and fun and theres some sand too always nice if you want to make glass. However, one thing I dont see is any flux stone…. or do I? Flux stone shows up white on the side info box normally, and youll recall I set the preferences to include it. Perhaps its in another biome? biomes are how land is divided up in DF. Plains will be one biome, a mountain range another, a forest yet another. Clearly theres a forested biome here, and there are two options next to “View Biome”; “F1” and “F2”. By default were viewing the biome that dominates this space inside the local embark box and this is the “F1” biome. if I hit “F2” I will switch to seeing whats on the other biome as well as what land it covers. The flashing Xs show the boundary and I can hit “F1” to see how it compares to the other biome. Heres what I see when I check the second biome. Note, its possible to have three or even four biomes all intersecting on the area youre looking at embarking to!
You can see the climate looks quite good. The temperature is warm, its sparse trees (which is plenty). Its wilderness, which will be somewhat challenging and fun and theres some sand too always nice if you want to make glass. However, one thing I dont see is an aquifer... or do I? Perhaps its in another biome? Biomes are how land is divided up in DF. Plains will be one biome, a mountain range another, a forest yet another. Clearly theres a grassland biome here, and there are three options next to :guilabel:`View Biome`; :kbd:`F1`, :kbd:`F2`, and :kbd:`F3`. By default were viewing the biome that dominates this space inside the local embark box and this is the :kbd:`F1` biome. if I hit :kbd:`F2` I will switch to seeing whats on the other biome as well as what land it covers. The flashing Xs show the boundary and I can hit :kbd:`F1` to see how it compares to the other biome. Heres what I see when I check the second biome. Note, its possible to have one, two, four or even more biomes all intersecting on the area youre looking at!
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_06.png
.. image:: images/worldgen-biomes.png
:align: center
The sharp eyed among you may note that it looks like no green X is covering my start area. I think whats happening is that the red magma bit isnt flashing, although it should be as its part of the “F2” biome. Perhaps it was me fiddling with the ini file recently that made this so. Oh, also, when you go through the world generation process you may not actually see any indication on the map that theres magma in your starting location. But if youve set Magma Pipe to “Yes” and “Find” has worked then you know it will be down there somewhere. There are ini edits which change how visible certain features are in the world creation screen, to go into more detail might offer spoilers so you can go research it yourself if you fancy!
Of interest is the Limestone found in this second biome. Great stuff! Just what we need. But if only one corner of the map Im going to play on has Limestone I might end up not having much. To solve this problem Im going to live life on the edge and increase the size my embark area to pick up more of that area outlined by green Xs. I hit “Shift”+”u” twice and now have a 4×6 sized start area, then using “m” I lower the start area a couple of spaces, and one over to the right, and heres how my selected start zone looks now:
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_07.png
:align: center
Im pretty pleased with that! A good sized area, a water source in the corner (you need water), magma, sand, flux stone, lots of wood, perfect! Of interest is that I have a stream instead of a full river (DF tells me that in the info box to the right of the maps) which somewhat reduces the difficulty of dealing with the challenges of water pressure and carp!
Im pretty pleased with that! A good sized area, a water source in the corner, magma (deep down), sand, flux stone, lots of wood, perfect! Of interest is that I have a brook instead of a full river (DF tells me that in the info box to the right of the maps) which somewhat reduces the difficulty of dealing with the challenges of plumbing!
I am now ready to embark!
Your Basic Embarking
====================
When youre comfortable with your start zone hit “e” for “Embark”. You will get a confirmation dialog, hit “Enter”. You now have options that probably look something like this:
When youre comfortable with your start zone hit :kbd:`e` for “Embark”. You will get a confirmation dialog, hit :kbd:`Enter`. You now have options that probably look something like this:
.. image:: images/13_dwarf_fortress_world_creation_08.png
.. image:: images/worldgen-embark-presets.png
:align: center
The best option, if you want to play straight away, is to select “Mayday Universal” and hit enter, you will now be taken to another menu which you want to hit “e” from. Voila! Youre in and playing! Alternately, you can “Prepare for the journey carefully” and individually skill and equip each dwarf. Well cover that some other time.
The best option, if you want to play straight away, is to select :guilabel:`Use DFVIDTUTS2015` (the preset the walkthrough is based on) and hit enter, you will now be taken to another menu which you want to hit :kbd:`e` from. Voila! Youre in and playing! Alternately, you can :guilabel:`Prepare for the journey carefully` and individually skill and equip each dwarf - but that's another tutorial.
Righto, thats all for now. You should be able to do basic world construction to your hearts content now. World generation is as complex as you want it to be and you can see some of those options under “Design world with new parameters” from the main menu. Dont worry about those unless you get super keen on custom building worlds to ensure certain features, in which case, head off to the Bay12 forums already! There are lots of useful threads there and links to map databases (and info on how to use them). Its a hobby in itself and people seem to enjoy competing to create the most perfect starting location or the most perfect micro-fortress.
Righto, you should be able to do basic world construction to your hearts content now. World generation is as complex as you want it to be and you can see some of those options under :guilabel:`Design New World with Advanced Parameters` from the main menu. Dont worry about those unless you get super keen on custom building worlds to ensure certain features, in which case, head off to the Bay12 forums already! There are lots of useful threads there and links to map databases (and info on how to use them). Its a hobby in itself and people seem to enjoy competing to create the most perfect starting location or the most perfect micro-fortress.

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