Tutorial:Powerplay Guide - Revision history

Silverwing235: /* Training */

2020-12-02T18:31:46Z

Training

Silverwing235: /* Generating the world */

2020-09-10T09:22:17Z

Generating the world

Silverwing235: /* Immediate actions */

2020-09-09T22:45:17Z

Immediate actions

Silverwing235: /* Immediate actions */

2020-09-09T22:43:00Z

Immediate actions

Silverwing235: /* Values and Personality */

2020-09-09T22:40:16Z

Values and Personality

Silverwing235: no need for "and", either

2020-09-09T20:09:59Z

no need for "and", either

Ziusudra: /* Race and Civilization */ added that dwarves can see in the dark

2020-09-09T19:53:52Z

Race and Civilization: added that dwarves can see in the dark

Silverwing235: /* Background and Gender */

2020-09-08T23:27:39Z

Background and Gender

107.1.216.150: /* Optional weapons */

2020-09-08T18:43:51Z

Optional weapons

Urist Sonuvagimli: /* Generating the world */

2020-01-17T03:35:02Z

Generating the world

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 At this stage, you are going to train your character's offensive and defensive skills. Even though they can be trained in any order, I suggest that you learn how to defend yourself first. However, it is completely up to you, and whatever training "facilities" you might have. When training, ask your companion to wait nearby - he/she will not interfere with your training. This way, you will have a backup handy. However, '''waiting companions will not defend you''' if training gets out of control or something hostile comes your way. You must ask the companion to follow you for him/her to help you in fights again.
-It is very important that you don't train while Tired. Otherwise, what seemed like a mock fight can take a wrong turn and lead to injury, missing teeth, or worse. If at any point of training your character becomes tired, drop whatever you were doing, retreat, rest. And only then continue.
+It is very important that you don't train while Tired. Otherwise, what seemed like a mock fight can take a wrong turn and lead to injury, missing teeth, or worse. If at any point of training your character becomes tired, drop whatever you were doing, retreat, rest, and only then continue.
 NOTE: Subsequent instructions include a lot of tedious button presses. To make your training experience more comfortable, it is advised that you install the amazing key shortcut tool "AutoHotkey", available free of charge. It is a wonderful utility that will make a lengthy combination into a matter of a single key press, which counts when typing Aa*gzua repeated 30 times, for example. Quickstart guide for AutoHotkey (along with an example script) can be found under "Tools" section. I personally do not consider this cheating in any way - it is a simple timesaver. By sticking to "hardcore style" button mashing you are not raising the challenge - you're introducing a handicap.

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 *A '''"Short"''' history setting will make the world 125 years old. This is done to ensure that goblin settlements (a.k.a [[dark pit]]s) are not too abundant. It also prevents a lot of takeover wars, so it is less likely to end up with dead civilization(s) or human towns populated by elves (or more likely, goblins).<br />
 *A '''"High"''' number of civilizations provides increased chances of Towers and [[dark fortress]]es appearing. Same applies to the "High" Number of Sites, only that it also influences the amount of creature lairs and encampments in the wild.
+*'''Number of Beasts''' determines how many megabeasts will roam the world. It is affected by the world size (e.g. Smaller), so it is left at default value. Same applies to Natural Savagery and Mineral occurrence.
 '''IMPORTANT:''' As of 0.43.05, after creating the desirable world, you have two options:

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 *Any 2 bags (chuck out anything that might have been inside)
-*Full set of armor (Helm, mail shirt, breastplate, gauntlets, greaves, high boots, shield/buckler. These can be of any material for the time being.
+*Full set of armor (Helm, mail shirt, breastplate, gauntlets, greaves, high boots, shield/buckler. These can be of any material for the time being).
 *An axe and a warhammer. These can be of any material or 2-handed for the time being. If there are training versions of axe or spear, take those as well.
 *A pike and a whip/scourge (optionally, if there are any available)
 *5-10 copper or silver bolts
-Some fortresses might be under-stocked and lack some items from this list. In this case, fast travel to another fort and search again.
+Some fortresses might be under-stocked and lack some items from the list. In this case, fast travel to another fort and search again.
 [[File:berrybag.png|thumb|right|200px|Berry bags are common in human villages]]
 After you got your gear together, equip the armor and a spear (without shield), then travel to the nearest river and fill (I) one of your empty bags with water, resulting in a container with 100 water units - more than enough for a long journey, even though you will be amazed how fast it will disappear.
-To follow up, go to the nearby village and search in the peasants' houses for fisher/prickle berry/strawberry bags. All human civs start with fisher berries, so a village is guaranteed to have some. Usually, these bags contain multiple stacks of 20 to 100 berries. As soon as you've found one, drop your starting [5]stack food and pick the largest stack of berries. [P]ut it inside of your second bag.
+To follow up, go to the nearby village and search in the peasants' houses for fisher/prickle berry/strawberry bags. All human civs start with fisher berries, so a village is guaranteed to have some. Usually, these bags contain multiple stacks of 20-100 berries. As soon as you've found one, drop your starting [5]stack food and pick the largest stack of berries. [P]ut it inside of your second bag.

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 Some fortresses might be under-stocked and lack some items from this list. In this case, fast travel to another fort and search again.
 [[File:berrybag.png|thumb|right|200px|Berry bags are common in human villages]]
-After you got your gear together, equip the armor and a spear (without shield). Travel to the nearest river and fill (I) one of your empty bags with water. This will result in a container with 100 water units - more than enough for a long journey, even though you will be amazed how fast it will disappear.
+After you got your gear together, equip the armor and a spear (without shield), then travel to the nearest river and fill (I) one of your empty bags with water, resulting in a container with 100 water units - more than enough for a long journey, even though you will be amazed how fast it will disappear.
 To follow up, go to the nearby village and search in the peasants' houses for fisher/prickle berry/strawberry bags. All human civs start with fisher berries, so a village is guaranteed to have some. Usually, these bags contain multiple stacks of 20 to 100 berries. As soon as you've found one, drop your starting [5]stack food and pick the largest stack of berries. [P]ut it inside of your second bag.
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-Now you are armored and armed, alongside a companion with plenty of food and drink. While still quite far from being combat-worthy, your character is now ready for training.
+Now you are armored and armed, alongside a companion, with plenty of food and drink. While still quite far from being combat-worthy, your character is now ready for training.
 ==Training==

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 [[File:Mindset4402.PNG|thumb|center|600px|]]
-As seen in the above image, your warmongering adventurer will have a strong desire for crafting, training, practicing, learning, and staying busy. This is where the advantage of picking the values and emotions according to the instructions above start to show up: fighting anything will simultaneously satisfy four major needs (training, learning, battling, practicing) while crafting can be easily fulfilled by knapping (making sharp rock). This mindset is also optimized to eliminate almost-impossible or hard-to-satisfy needs, like "Eat good meal" and "Help somebody", allowing you to reach the "Focused!" state easily. More on satisfying the needs will be explained in the "Needs and Focus" section.
+As seen in the above image, your warmongering adventurer will have a strong desire for crafting, training, practicing, learning, and staying busy. This is where the advantage of picking values and emotions according to the instructions above start to show up: fighting anything will simultaneously satisfy four major needs (training, learning, battling, practicing) while crafting can be easily fulfilled by knapping (make sharp rock). This mindset is also optimized to eliminate almost-impossible or hard-to-satisfy needs, like "Eat good meal" and "Help somebody", allowing you to reach the "Focused!" state easily. More on satisfying character needs will be explained in the "Needs and Focus" section.
 Take into account that you will not be able to EVER see this description (except list of needs) again during regular gameplay. It is only available during the character creation stage, so it is in your interests to make a screenshot and save it.

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 Human or Dwarf - besides armour and clothing size, the only considerable gameplay difference is that dwarves can see in the dark. Some may argue that dwarves have an advantage due to being able to wear better armour, made in a player fortress. However, as of 0.43.05 it is possible to set the size of armor to be crafted to "Large", giving humans (and many other larger/smaller races) access to any armor a dwarf can wear. Moreover, later on you will realize that masterwork armour is just as useful as standard quality. More on this will be explained in "Armour" section. As for the dwarven "[[DF2014:Martial trance|Battle Trance]]" - it will not activate against megabeasts, generally doesn't benefit much to a legendarily skilled adventurer, moreover, this guide emphasizes on NOT finding yourself alone and surrounded most of the time. Hence, battle influence on race choice is negligible.
-As of 0.43.05, it is now possible to play as one of the many [[Animal people]] and insect-people. They have their own ups and downs that are numerous, and best discussed elsewhere.
+As of 0.43.05, it is now possible to play as one of the many [[animal people]], who have their own ups and downs that are numerous, and best discussed elsewhere.
 Human will be used for this guide as the most accessible and reasonably challenging option.
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 ===Background and Gender===
-It is advised to start as a hearthperson, since your character will begin inside of a human fortress, close to weapons and armor stockpiles. Gender and deity worshiped are insignificant beyond aesthetics and roleplay. Of course, when building a killing machine of a character you'd most likely want him to worship a deity of war (or similar). But if you play as an antman, gender is important.
+It is advised to start as a hearthperson, since your character will begin inside of a human fortress, close to weapons and armor stockpiles. Gender and deity worshiped are insignificant beyond aesthetics and roleplay. Of course, when building a killing machine of a character you'd most likely want them to worship a deity of war (or similar). But if you play as an antman, gender is important.
 ===Appearance===
-Visual facial features (e.g. long hair, lobed ears, etc.) bear little significance, and are there just for show. The constitution is what really matters - your character might be described as "tall", "having a broad body" or "corpulent/fat/having great sacks of lard" (common when starting as a peasant). Fat does not slow down, and will be burnt away as your character does anything that involves sweating (sprinting or fighting to name a few). Broad body allows wielding of 2-handed weapons in one hand.
+Visual facial features (e.g. long hair, lobed ears, etc.) bear little significance, and are there just for show. The physical constitution is what really matters - your character might be described as "tall", "having a broad body" or "corpulent/fat/having great sacks of lard" (common when starting as a peasant). Fat does not slow down, and will be burnt away as your character does anything that involves sweating (sprinting or fighting to name a few). Broad body allows wielding of 2-handed weapons in one hand.
 However, avoid "tall" or "having a broad body" traits. In my experience, adventurers with these tend to get hit more often than ones with an average build, and two-handed weapons are slow to ever use anyway. Press "r" or "f" to re-roll your character's appearance until it becomes to your liking.

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 Halberds are essentially hybrid version of the axe with much greater slashing potential (in fact greatest of all weapons), as well as an additional stab attack. This makes halberds fare better against enemies axe is weak against, as well as making bisecting easy. However, it is still ill-advised to use it versus extremely large creatures.
-The downsides come in a form of halberds being 2-handed, as well as being foreign weapons, meaning dwarves cannot manufacture them. As any 2handed weapon it is slower tan its 1h equivalent, meaning your enemy might sneak in an attack before you do. Inability to equip a shield can be a serious downside, though not as serious as lack of high-quality halberds. Thus, your selection is limited to whatever you can find in human fortresses. Bandit ringleaders sometimes wield masterwork weapons, which can turn out to be a halberd.
+The downsides come in a form of halberds being 2-handed, as well as being foreign weapons, meaning dwarves cannot manufacture them. As any 2handed weapon it is slower than its 1h equivalent, meaning your enemy might sneak in an attack before you do. Inability to equip a shield can be a serious downside, though not as serious as lack of high-quality halberds. Thus, your selection is limited to whatever you can find in human fortresses. Bandit ringleaders sometimes wield masterwork weapons, which can turn out to be a halberd.
 If you happen to be born under a particularly lucky star, a moody dwarf can sometimes produce an artifact-quality halberd from whatever metals you might have in the fort, including adamantine. But if that is the case, what are you doing here? Get to the scratching cards pronto!

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 '''IMPORTANT:''' As of 0.43.05, after creating the desirable world, you have two options:
-'''Option 1''' - start a fortress mode game immediately (preferably, at the 2-tiles-away island mentioned above) and play until you create the following masterwork or artifact weapons: Axe(steel/adam), Spear(steel,adam), War Hammer (silver/platinum). Optionally, capture a Forgotten Beast and have the weapons coated with its flesh-eating seizure-inducing paralyzing dust. Optionally, produce a masterwork [[nether cap]] shield, a couple of masterwork stacks of steel bolts and a suit of adamantine armor. Retire the fort afterwards. You will return to your fort later on in the adventure mode game to reclaim the weapons for your character's use. Starting on an isle will guarantee safety from being besieged. It also provides an exciting challenge for your adventurer, who has to swim across the long strait (possibly filled with sea lampreys, bull sharks, giant orcas and other wondrous creatures).
+'''Option 1''' - start a fortress mode game immediately (preferably, at the 2-tiles-away island mentioned above) and play until you create the following masterwork or artifact weapons: Axe(steel/adam), Spear(steel,adam), War Hammer (silver/platinum). Optionally, capture a Forgotten Beast and have the weapons coated with its flesh-eating seizure-inducing paralyzing dust. Optionally, produce a masterwork [[nether cap]] shield, a couple of masterwork stacks of steel bolts and a suit of adamantine armor. Retire the fort afterwards. You will return to your fort later on in the adventure mode game to reclaim the weapons for your character's use. Starting on an isle will guarantee safety from being besieged. It also provides an exciting challenge for your adventurer, who has to swim across the long strait (possibly filled with sea lampreys, bull sharks, giant orcas and other [[DF2014:Sea_monster|wondrous]] creatures).
 '''Option 2''' - proceed with adventurer mode and play until you have earned some fame. Then retire the adventurer, enter fort mode, create a starting party, embark, carve basic rooms for dwarves, appoint a [[militia commander]] and one soldier. Then retire the fort. Next, go back to adventurer mode, unretire, travel to the location of your newly created fort and speak to the militia commander. Bring up your heroic deeds of valor (through "Bring up specific incident" menu). Then, ask the commander to be made a militiaman. Since you've already impressed him, the militia commander will make you a squad member, effectively granting you fort [[citizenship]] on the spot. Retire at the fort location, but ensure you do not have any lordships, or the adventurer will just travel back to their holding in the two weeks before fortress generation.