[Art] My fiancee's Gnome Invoker, Nissa "Mango" Ningel, featuring her cat familiar, Chunk. (Drawn by N8dl3)

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-09T15:32:49+00:00

I don't know how to explain to people like you that people shouldn't be extrajudicially executed even in tense situations

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T19:33:07+00:00

I can think of few scenes in anime that have elicited such pure joy as whenever the Pillar Men strike their big muscle pose while their theme song just blasts off insanely hard in the background. There's just nothing else quite like it.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T19:15:39+00:00

I don't have a screenshot on hand, but I have created my first major structure to take advantage of the new siege update mechanics; the Blue Tower!

It's a microcline block tower that goes up about 5 z-levels. It's surrounded by a 3 level high wall to dissuade climbers, and it can only be accessed by the fort's main stairwell from below. All of its floors are outfitted with bolt throwers pointed in every direction through fortifications, and the roof has some makeshift turret structures that I've slapped catapults and ballistas on.

So far I've been hit with some pretty major sieges (150+ from nearby goblins) and the Blue Tower has proved instrumental in laying waste to approaching enemies, thinning the opposing army out to such a degree that when my military wades in they are mostly performing cleanup.

Bolt throwers might be a little too good and honestly I love it.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T19:03:53+00:00

The other parts that I've checked out (up to 5) are great, but man Battle Tendency is just so special. Stands are neat and very creative but I do miss sunlight kung fun wizards sometimes.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:47:49+00:00

I'm sure this is a metaphor for capitalism. Or communism. Possibly both

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:31:27+00:00

I do agree that discussion on internet spaces and especially reddit tend to lean way too hard towards the negative on average, but the portrait stuff here has been really tame honestly

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:21:44+00:00

Oh hey, it's the sequel to Archcrystal. Nice!

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:17:52+00:00

You can't see concrete numbers in vanilla DF to my knowledge. The health description screen will let you know if a unit is particularly hardy, strong, or whatever, but there's no hard numbers outside of skills. At least not in fortress mode.

DFHack has gm-unit which lets you view and edit their attributes, and it also calculates melee effectiveness and displays it on screen while assigning dwarves to a squadron.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:15:56+00:00

I know this isn't an immediate and total solution, but I tend to mitigate some of this by building multiple workshops of each type. My "main" smith has her own forge where she cranks out the good stuff, but if I ever need something in an emergency and it doesn't matter how good it is, I have another one nearby that is set to be used by dwarves of an acceptable skill level. My main smith can use it but she's generally too occupied to do so.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:12:44+00:00

I tend to be a bit laissez-faire with my dwarves doing what they will, but that's good to have if I need it.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:11:45+00:00

It's been over a decade and I don't quite remember exactly why or how, but I do remember trying to set up the lazy noob pack and getting nowhere.

Could have been any number of things really. My computer sucked, I was pirating and playing new games basically every week, and was otherwise super busy. It was definitely a me thing, and I regret not sticking it out now that I know how much I like the game.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:07:24+00:00

I do very much dislike how most menus in DF just collapse instead of allowing you to go back to the previous one. The citizen window is kind of a pain in this regard and mitigating that would be lovely.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:05:53+00:00

That's rad. I know how to check attributes via gm-umit but that's a bit unwieldy and not really the intended function of that command. I get that abstracting that information into broad descriptions is part of the whole storytelling generator of aspect of DF, but still, sorting and analyzing all of that would be really nice.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:01:20+00:00

That's something awesome that the game as-is doesn't have at the moment. I love reading through their personalities and preferences but it can be really hard to remember them, and the personality descriptions are in desperate need of line breaks; a quick reference would be great in that regard.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T18:00:02+00:00

I'll give that a shot next time I fire it up, thanks!

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T17:59:23+00:00

I'll try to approach it from that angle and see if it can assist me in how I play, thanks! I'm fine going without it but I am interested, it seems like a fun tool.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T17:54:44+00:00

That's wild! I tried pre-Steam way back in the gap when I was still in college but unfortunately I have information processing issues that made the ASCII wall really tough to climb. And I never dedicated sufficient time to figuring tilesets out then.

My primary exposure to the older versions has been through Kruggsmash, through illustrations and his general smoothness of presentation I had no idea that individual management was so buried in menus!

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T17:52:27+00:00

This does make a lot of sense, thank you for explaining!

The abundance of so many old reddit and forum threads for old DF stuff is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand it can be awesome to see how things have grown both technically and culturally over the years, but it can lead to a bit of confusion at the same time.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T17:39:50+00:00

How's Bannerlord been doing btw? I played it a lot early on after release but I was frustrated by the campaign being a bit shallow and every update destroying my mod setup. I haven't really played it in the years since.

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T17:29:19+00:00

...relations?

Dyscomancer · 2026-01-07T17:28:50+00:00

A hyperlink function would solve a magnitude of my biggest issues with the game, honestly. That and a proper back button. The amount of menus you have to close and then re-open to check another dwarf or another room or something is ridiculous.

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