Greetings everyone, just as I promised before the end of the month, I planned to attempt another run of Suika Fortress on a more stable version of the game.
As of right now I'm busy making the final preparations for the game before we begin.
As of recently Suika Fortress has undergone mages change since the last game we held and is now far more stable compared to before.
For those who haven't followed up Suika Fortress since the last game, many of the bugs have been worked out slowly and surely be the game's creator Toady One, and now as of this point we should have a more functionable military and have better control over it. (even if it's still complicated)
Of course, there is one I must bring up....
Over the course of the new release, I had been working on modding the new version include a whole bunch of new things. In fact, we now have tons of new yukkuri, new creatures, and a whole new system to fiddle with and I'm certain that many of you will find many shocking surprised as play through this new game...perhaps even....FUN!
I'm looking forward to seeing how you all respond to my new lovely mod project I put together. ^^
Now it's time to cover a bit of what makes up Suika Fortress.....
The World of Suika Fortress
Welcome all to the wonderful world that is Suika's Fortress which is a mod of Dwarf Fortress. Today, we will be covering all about the basics about what to expect to all those that do not know of the game. I shall to you all about this mod in the simplest way possible. Let us begin!
1. What is Dwarf Fortress?
Think of it as what would happen if you?re cross together Dungeon Crawler concepts, with the Sims, and even some RTS like concepts for extra measure! That's sort of what makes up the Dwarf Fortress. Basiclly your trying to help your dwarves make a living by building a fortress and help them be able to survive against just about anything. Wether it be Elephants, Unicorns, Goblins, you name it. And at the same time, make sure they can survive, get food and water and be comfortable and happy as possible. And while doing they will always dig deeper. And who knows what they'll find down in the deep..... perhaps it'll be.....FUN!
In Suika Fortress, we do pretty much the same thing, except it?s with Suikas, and most of our livestock and predators are yukkuri, though there are some animals out there too?
It?s also important to note that every Suika has their own personality and quarks too so be alert with how they behave too.
2. What does Suika Fortress look like?
Imagine a world full a Suikas mining caves, managing yukkuri, and all sort of other things just to making a living and survive. The game flows in real time and you will spend your time managing the activities and actions the Suikas do. You can pause it however if you need to plan things out. Before letting the game continue. It should look something like this,
(http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7733/picture1lz.th.png) (http://img413.imageshack.us/i/picture1lz.png/)
(http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6400/picture2wr.th.png) (http://img219.imageshack.us/i/picture2wr.png/)
All these nice graphics while they attempt to build a fortress. It should be fun to see how this develops? and yes I created the suika graphic tile sprites for this as well as the yukkuri sprites and some other tiles while some other are from other people like Mike Mayday.
The interface mainly consist of the following:
(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/3007/picture1iu.th.png) (http://img146.imageshack.us/i/picture1iu.png/)
On the left is the activity screen where you can watch the mini suikas as they run around doing what they do best. Get drunk and work.
The middle is the menu, you will be pressing the keys to that cordinate with what every option you want to select, this is vital for especially because you will need to tell the mini suikas what to do.
And on your right is the map or your region. Here you'll see that suikas are marked in red while other creatures are in read. While it may look simple it's important to know that the map consist of many levels and to alternate between the levels you'll have to press the < or > keys to work with them.
This mostly covered the basics on what to expect in the interface of Suika Fortress for more information check the wiki (http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Main_Page)
3.Where can I get the game? What version do I need?
Toady has just recently updated to 0.31.12. And thankfully the open GL works as well as a number of bugs have been fixed!
Here's the mod that you'll be needing to play. And remember, this will be updated with every release!
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=1601
Be sure to look over the init file and adjust the settings accordingly. As the settings our currently set more toward how I prefer them. So again please make sure you go to the init file and adjust the settings to your liking...
4.What has changed since the last Suika Fortress community game?
A whole lot of things... too many to count or go over. But if you go here (http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF_2010), you will find everything you'll need to know.
5. How do I adjust the screen size?
It is important to note that in order to change the window size you will need to go into the data folder of the dwarf fortress files and select the init folder and then open init.txt.
From there you will have to go down to [GRAPHICS_WINDOWX: ]and [GRAPHIC_WINDOWY: ] and change the number that the colon to change the window size like for example:
[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDX:1280]
[GRAPHICS_WINDOWEDY:800]
And for the full screen make sure you know what the full screen resolution of your computer is and then go to [GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENX:]and [GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENY:] and insert the number in the respected areas after the colon to make the file work on full screen for example my full screen resolution is 1280 x 1024 so:
[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENX:1280]
[GRAPHICS_FULLSCREENY:1024]
Want more tiles on your new screen size? You can adjust it on the [GRID:#:#] and [FULLGRID:#:#] you?ll have to tweak with this a little to make the size work for example:
[GRID:80:50]
[FULLGRID:80:64]
If for some reason you want to adjust other features, that?s up to you, but personally it should work for most here.
But since we are using the DSL version you should be able to automaticlly control the screensize by scrolling grabbing the corner of the screen or however you do it.
And with the mouse wheel you can adjust zooming too!
6. What can I do about the game's frame rate?
As you may experience with Suika Fortress as well as Dwarf Fortress, the game is known to slow down with time but I will provide you a few tips to help keep the frame rates from dropping too much.
Change the print mode!!
In the SDL the init file has a bunch of new features to go over, you will want to fiddle with all of them. There's normal, partial, Accum_buffer, Accum_frame, VBO, and various 2D settings. Fiddle with them and see which one works the best for you.
For example:
[PRINT_MODE:PARTIAL:0]
You can also adjust the texture prameters and prioirty too since they seem to have an effect.
Be advised, changing the priority will put the more energy into the game, be sure your are not putting your computer at risk doing this. While I never seen it, I've heard stories that it can melt your computer. So change at your own risk! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
Change the Frame refresh rate!
Under the current version the frame refresher is use to constanstly refresh the frames every so often by default it looks like this:
G_FPS_CAP:50
But by lowering it, it can make the game faster! But at the same time it can cause things to sometimes flicker, or things you want to display to not refresh quick enough. It all depends on the location and so forth and it also depends on your computer, so experiement and see if it works for you.
Here's an example:
G_FPS_CAP:20
Put animals in cages
Animals take up some memory, so you may want to make sure most of your animals are caged up. This'll save your frame rate somewhat.
Get rid of excess items and rocks!
It's been proven that with a large ton of rocks and items in your map the frame rate will slow down. And this can cause some serious problems to the FPS. But if you set up some things to get rid of items and rocks... like bridges and catapuls, then it'll all work out!
If I can think of others, I'l be sure to put the information down here.
7. This game seems hard, it there an easier way to understand it?
Well, it is somewhat hard at the start, even the tutorial only gives you enough info just to start and learn the simple basics. But if you feel you want to learn more things without as much struggle then to the Dwarf Fortress Wiki here.
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Main_Page
Here you?ll find pretty much all the ins and out about how everything works in the game. It?s rather useful so I highly recommend looking through it when you having trouble. Pretty much everything from this wiki will apply to Suika Fortress as well. Just remember though, while it's important to understand the game it's also important to now cheat either and spoil yourself from the real adventure of Dwarf Fortress cause after all one thing they always say is..."Losing is Fun!
8. So how?s the process going to work?
For right now I?m am going to give you some time to sign up while I finish the Suika Fortress mod transfer. Unlike before though I'm going to do something a tad different.... the who will go first, will be based on who is the expodition leader! Meaning whoever signs up to play will have a fair chance of getting to play first!
When the game starts I will have a land that is created and all who are interested can decide on which part of the land the Suikas will settle in to create their fortress.
Because I want the Suikas to be able to have an exciting adventure, I would like to settle if possible to go for a large grid but I will settle on a grid as low as 4x4 in term of our land space. Cause that should have more than enough animals to keep everyone busy.
I will explain more about game length later?
Once that is decided, we have to decide how the Suikas will plan for their trip. In terms of their occupations, and what supplies they will carry. This is very important in the beginning and we shall discuss this before we go on.
After we complete these steps we will begin the gamplay...
Depending on who is selected to be the leader, we will then pass the game over to that player, and if the leader the leader happens to be spectator, we will then have decide based on two factors:
1. Where the spectator posted in terms of which player he or she is closer two and....
2. Where the spectator is located in the list of Suikas once the game decided on the unit list assuming there is a tie in step 1.
If both fail the spectator will have to pick between the two.
9. Gameplay rules
We shall play Suika Fortress as a succession game. When the game begins, you will have one year to do whatever you got to do to help your Suikas develop their fortress. Get materials, build things, fight creatures, whatever. During the run you should take pictures of some of the events that unfold during your year. Try to update periodicly as I know a year takes a while go through. Because speed can vary based on one?s computer, I will give the player one week (7 days) to complete the task, and if an extension is needed, he or she must provide an update with pictures on where he or she is at so I know where they stand. And if progress that is made shows some promise of progress I will allow another 3 days of extension.
IMPORTANT!
Starting with this game onward, we are required to follow the rules that are part of MotK as in KEEP THE IMAGES IN THUMBNAILS! There are small exception, but that's only if the picture itself is small enough to meet MotK's size requirments. Please review MotK's rules on image posting (http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=17.msg263578#msg263578) before participating! This is a must in the entire board and it'll be required here too. Pesco will be monitoring this and insist you must follow this rule. The last thing I need right now is for this game to be exterminated after the time and work I put into it.
The players turn will come to an end when the Lily White comes along and announces the coming of spring!
Or rather ?Spring has arrived!? which will appear at the bottom of the game window.
From there you must pause and save your game. To do that press escape, and then go down the menu and select "Save game and press enter. And then take the save file which is located in data -> saves -> Reigon folder. Take the region folder that contains the Suika Fortress data and then zip it (or rar it) and upload it to Mediafire, Rapidshare or the like. Once it's saved you turn is done.
The next person will then take the Region folder and place it in save folder and start off the game and continue from there till the next spring.
Because the game lasts for a long time we will end the game under two conditions:
1.We create an epic Suika fortress
2.The Suika Fortress dies in an epic death (ala boatmurdered or something along the line)
Say like maybe in 15-20 years in game time maybe. By then we will have done most of everything that we can do with it. But then again who knows? it'll depend on how many people decide to participate in this too. As well as how many bug changes take place.
If for some reason the Suika Fortress dies... We can decide if we shall embark to a new location or go back to the last save. Unless the 2 conditions are met.
Finally if the person is unable to complete the run in time, his run will be nulled as we will return to the last save?
Also it is important to know that you can resign yourself up for another round though you will be placed on the bottom of the waiting list and I will contact you when your turn is up.
10. Can I still participate in it even if I?m not playing?
OF course! As I said, I want the player to make some updates as they go through their adventure building the fortress you can give your own thoughts and suggestions at the time that?s posted. Also because we have so many Suikas to deal with maybe we can give them ?nicknames? to make them stand out. That always helps.
11. Can I run the fortress to the ground?
No! Don?t destroy to fortress on purpose, it ruins the fun of having ?fun? Rather try to do whatever you can to survive and if the death comes upon, we can understand. If the player intentionally tries to destroy the fortress on purpose too many time, they will be removed from the game.
12. Did you make these sprites?
Well I made all the Suikas and Yukkutri sprites, so yes I?m responsible for those. All the other creatures are Maydays?s work. He should earn the credit for making a tile of the Dwarf Fortress version possible for me to do Suika Fortress.
13. Some text appears odd / sprites have an odd color.
If that?s the case, send me a picture so I can look into the problem. It?s important for me to look into it. As I had to work on this alone with only advice and feedback from the IRC gang. And if I fix the problem, I?ll post an updated file to insert into the files and graphics.
14. I have suggestion for other things to add.
Don?t be afraid if you got an idea of what I could add into Suika Fortress let me know I can see about working it out possiblely. Just remember I?m also a busy man so be patient.
15. Can I have an adventure instead?
This time, I'm going this option open! Because the bugs have been fixed. But because we haven't decided yet on how we'll tackle it. Likely it'll be to go located the old fortress and explore it like before end of story... But we can decide on that later.
16. This game is buggy, is it going to be fixed?
Thankfully alot of the nasty bugs have been removed and fixed, which includes crashes, trade depot related bugs, military, combat, crafting ect. But there are still some bugs here and there, but thankfully on the most it is playable! So this should be alot like playing Beer Ax and like Drunken Graspings. hahahahaha.
17. What kind of bugs should I worry about?
Currently, I have listed a list of bugs that are likely to occur in our game depending on how we play. These all have a work around thankfully. I just to all be aware of them. As for now the list can be located here. (http://www.shrinemaiden.org/forum/index.php?topic=6679.msg388906#msg388906)
18. Can we use 40d# version with the new version?
No, the new version had such a tremendous makeover especially with the underground that we cannot use the older version at all. We can only work with 0.31.04 and onward. And if there's a compatablity complication in the later version we can discuss about starting a new game on that version.
19. The game is crashing, what are we going to with the file?
Were going to start with a compressed file for now, and see how that goes, if worse comes to worse we can to an uncompressed file and attempt to work from there.
20. My keyboard is designed different and I want to play this game. What can I do to fix the key board setting to make it work for me?
This has been a question that has been brought up for a while now. So I'm going to put up a hint for you all here who have different keyboards that aren't built the same way as most standard ones.
When you get the game started, the first thing you will have to do is to go press esc once your in the main menu. You will get a list of options to pick from. The one that you'll need you'll fix your key board is "Key binding". When enter there, you will have to go through each menu of options of see which keys you will need to change, and from there set up a key that you can use for it in place of the one that's there. It shouldn't be that hard. Just a little time consuming at most. But once you gone through and made the changes, you can go and save your settings and then they'll be permament. Or just save as a temporary setting. That's the best I can explain it to you here.
21. When I save my game, what should I do with the file?
As of this point, I recommend that you zip it or rar it. But known the size of files allowed in MotK, a DF file will be too big. So I'm going to recommend that you put the file up on an file hosting site, like Mediafire, and rapid share, ect. And be sure to post the link here. I will be needing to do this especially to test out crash errors that occur from saves.
And so this concludes my introduction to Suika Fortress! As of right now it is time to sign up. I will sign myself into the game. And I look forward into anyone else who wants to sign in to help build the Suika Fortress!
As like in the last game, the first six people who sign in to play will get the call dibs on naming their Suika and thier occupations ect. that'll come once we embark. Any people that sign in after the first 7 and spectator will call dibs on Suika migrants that come in.
If there are not 6 people in the list, then what ever spectators that come to provide feedback will become part of the embark team.
And if there are not 6 then we will just simply embark with a few suikas by their default names.
Anyways, it's now time to sign up! I'll explain more about the world process later on...
Waiting List:
Totaku (Butcher / Cook / Engraver )
Psieye
T34G3
Spectator List:
Anthony (woodcutter/ carpenter/ AxeSuika/ teacher)
Stuffman
headcrabs
NeoSerela
Zengar
Anathe
AsianWarriorS (Cook)
Sanaka
Roukanken
Charoe
Pseudolus
Pesco (wants to be named "tits")
Serpetarius