@Oreb@hexbear.net @Doubledee@hexbear.net @PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net I've been a bit busier than expected the last few days, I've poked around in the save file a bit but I haven't done anything really yet except expel every single entertainer who dared to be unhappy. Are you guys cool if I update a couple days late or would you rather skip?
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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It's Fortress Friday! Today we wait for me to finish my turn and for control of the game to pass on to @gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net (please confirm), with the following players waiting for a chance to leave their mark on Dwarven history.
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(Beginning Feb. 20) @gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net
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(Beginning Feb. 27) @booty@hexbear.net
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(Beginning Mar. 6) @Oreb@hexbear.net
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(Beginning Mar. 13) @PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net
New players are encouraged to apply in this thread. All players and spectators are welcome to load up the save and see what's going on first hand.
Lore
How to play
Importing the save
Dwarf Fortress saves are not stored in a single file. They are stored as named
directories containing over a thousand individual data files. In order to load
the game, you need to download a zipped archive of the save and place it in your
Dwarf Fortress save directory. This directory can be located in a number of
places depending on which OS you are using and what settings you have enabled.
If Portable mode is enabled (not default), the save directory will be
located in the same directory as dwarfort / dwarfort.exe. If you are using
Steam with the default locations, these are:
On Linux: ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Dwarf Fortress/save
On Windows: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Dwarf Fortress\save
This directory might exist, even if Portable mode is turned off (default), but in that case it will be ignored by the game. Instead, save files are stored somewhere in your user directory.
On Linux: ~/.local/share/Bay 12 Games/Dwarf Fortress/save
On Windows: %AppData%\Roaming\Bay 12 Games\Dwarf Fortress\save
Extract the FFSeason1 directory from the archive and place it inside of the
appropriate save directory, then you should see it after starting the game.
Stopping the clock
By using a combination of the "Autosave Frequency" (any setting as long as it is not "Off") and "Pause after every autosave" options, you can cause the game to pause at the exact moment the calendar ticks over to 1st Granite (the first day of the year).
After the game pauses, you still have the opportunity to do a couple minor things, like designating blueprint tiles to label hazards, noteworthy sources of material, or leaving graffiti. You can also rename stockpiles and rooms, etc. before writing the final save. You should avoid doing anything that will substantially change the behavior of the fort or generate labor tasks (like creating / removing stockpiles, changing which items are allowed to be stored in stockpiles, enabling / disabling standing orders, creating new work orders, or designating new rooms / meeting areas). Military schedules often change at the start of a season (e.g. the "staggered training" preset). This is fine.
Any blueprints left are merely suggestions. The next player is free to ignore them. If you wanted something built there, you should have microed your miners better :P
Exporting the save
When Dwarf Fortress creates auto-saves, or if you use the "save and continue
playing" feature, Dwarf Fortress will write these saves to an alternate
directory (e.g. autosave1 or pull the lever). When you finish your turn,
you need to use the "Save and return to title menu" option and choose "Save to
this timeline." You need to do this even though the game just created an
auto-save. This will write the save back to the FFSeason1 directory, which you can then
place in a zip archive and submit.
Making your submission.
Save files can be e-mailed to fortress-friday@matapacos.dog ahead of time. Some e-mail services (like Gmail) prohibit sending large enough attachments, but if it works on your end, it should work on mine. Otherwise, the file may need to be hosted using a third-party service. Dwarf Fortress File Depot is the canonical service for this (they have a category specifically for community games), but any service which doesn't require me to create an account or jump through flaming hoops is acceptable. Currently (as of Episode 3), the compressed save is about 58MB. It won't get any smaller with time.
Alternately, submissions can be made as a reply to the following week's Fortress Friday post, which will be posted in anticipation of a submission. This thread will be posted and used to coordinate the game and get the proper files into the hands of the next player regardless of if the anticipated turn was completed.
Whether or not the file was transferred in advance, The player who just completed their turn should make a top-level comment in this thread describing noteworthy events of their turn. You are encouraged (but not required) to roleplay and continue to spin a fantasy narrative out of it, but you don't need to write us a Tolkien novel - especially if you are pressed for time and have other shit to worry about. This shouldn't feel like a homework assignment.
My initial submission will be excessive because I am also covering the results of world-generation, the historical circumstances of the civilization we chose, and the embark. Subsequent posts will mostly be focused on chronicling events in Fortress Mode. You are absolutely not expected to export the world history and spend hours dicking around in Legends Viewer spinning up backstories for every minor goblin who gets turned into dog food.
What if a turn is not completed / running late?
If you anticipate not being able to complete your turn, just let us know (the sooner, the better) so we can make adjustments. Shit pops up. There are more important things in life than a stupid game. We won't be mad at you.
In case Fortress Friday rolls around and there is no submission, Tentatively, I think we give the player 24 hours to actually make their post before we start openly contemplating passing to the next player, followed by another 24 hours to find out which of the next players is actually available. So if there is no update by mid-Saturday, we find another candidate, and if there is no word by mid-Sunday, they are given the green light to play.
What if a turn is completed early?
You can tease us (it's reassuring to know progress is being made), but hold on to your spoilers until Fortress Friday. I think keeping this thing on a regular schedule will do a lot to keep everybody looking forward to updates and keeping things organized. If anticipation is eating away at you, try to fill in some lore and backstory.
Rules
There are not many hard rules, but generally
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You play for one year in-game time. Turns should begin and end on 1st Granite.
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Avoid using blatant exploits (the game is built of cheese, so this is sort of like the pornography rule, "you know it when you see it.") Things like perpetual motion machines or material duplication schemes should be shunned. Some things classified as exploits, like "atom smashers" should be fine as long as their applications aren't egregious.
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Try not to save-scum (Do save though. Crashes happen, and named "save and continue" saves won't clutter the main save).
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You are free to use DFHack, but do not use any of it's "Armok" (god-mode) features. Also, try to keep it modest. The fort shouldn't fail catastrophically if the next player doesn't have DFHack installed.
EDIT: Sorry for the ping @Moonworm@hexbear.net although you're still welcome to rejoin.
No worries! I’d say go for it and post when you can.
I don't see the harm in taking a couple days personally.
Separate from the fort summary, I had a few ideas I think we might want to incorporate into our collective decision making going forward, please chime in with your suggestions or feedback:
1- some sort of consistent trade request that we always ask for, so we can be sure we'll have access to certain important goods every turn. For example if we had a fort with no flux stone we would want to KNOW someone was always asking for more so we could make steel, or if we were dependent on imports for brewing or some other industry etc.
2- an agreed on fort policy for guest residency applications. Maybe this is me revealing that I play the game strangely but I must assume nobody intended for the fort to have 63 poets dancers and musicians permanently on retainer. Maybe it could be by occupation or a blanket -refuse all- that the leader could make individual exceptions for, but I think the visitor policy has fort-wide implications that we might all want to have some say in.
3- Some way to document big changes to layout or work orders that have happened between years? I'm not sure WHEN the clothing industry got shuttered, I don't see a note for it in previous years, but the work orders are gone and some of the workshops as well. I didn't catch the problem until too late. I'm not sure how we do this to everyone's satisfaction though.
4- Maybe a livestock policy? Culling this herd is going to be a monumental task, I'm hoping gelding them and letting them die out gradually works, but in the future we might want more proactive management before it gets to this point?
some sort of consistent trade request that we always ask for,
Not a bad idea, but I think we have all the staples in this instance (sand, clay, coal, steel). Coal is limited, but we've still got some, plus a million trees to fall back on
an agreed on fort policy for guest residency applications. Maybe this is me revealing that I play the game strangely but I must assume nobody intended for the fort to have 63 poets dancers and musicians permanently on retainer.
I agree. Two, maybe three troupes. I rejected ALL of these during my turn, but there are so god damn many already. I still took the soldiers and monster slayers though.
Some way to document big changes to layout or work orders that have happened between years? I'm not sure WHEN the clothing industry got shuttered
That was me, so it hasn't been out of commission for long (sorry). I had chronic problems through my turn of dwarves not taking up urgent labor assignments, so I culled a bunch of work orders. Clothing is the kind of thing where once you satiate it, it can ride for a couple years, so I cancelled many of the orders.
In general, the workshop layout is extremely inefficient. Everything takes ages. Very few of the inputs/outputs are close to the actual workshops where they are needed. I ended up tearing down the walls so at least there is some space around the workshops, but I did not attempt to wrangle the stockpile chains.
Maybe a livestock policy? Culling this herd is going to be a monumental task
I lowkey attempted this during my turn too (tried to sweep this non-vegan enterprise under the rug and decommissioned the butcheries like it never happened). I had two butcheries running around the clock and they each ultimately ended up with hundreds of rotting animal parts in them. There needs to be an ample supply of wood and barrels, as well as LARGE stockpiles to store them before attempting this again.
In general, I think everything located around the top cavern layer is a shit-show (no offence, I love you all, and I am not innocent), and it might not be a terrible idea to begin a clean slate lower down.
In general, I think everything located around the top cavern layer is a shit-show (no offence, I love you all, and I am not innocent), and it might not be a terrible idea to begin a clean slate lower down.
If we expel the troupe and get a few big waves we're basically starting fresh. With a big cemetery. But still.
Thanks for all the work you put in @Doubledee@hexbear.net!
To your points:
- Like this idea. Maybe we include a trade list in the weekly posts?
- Kick them all out. I think keeping a few around can be fun, but we have way too many right now.
- Alongside the trade list, maybe we keep a running list of our niche industries?
- Limiting ourselves to a few breeding pairs might work.
I am behind schedule and over budget. I'll try to get my year done by tomorrow, but it might get pushed back again. I haven't started yet, but I'll keep you updated.
Update: I don't think I'll have time for the next few days. I cede my turn to @booty@hexbear.net if you're willing to play this week.
I can take it over!
Whoop lets go booty!
<3
Hopefully it's not out of turn for me to post the weekly submission, I'm going to be away shortly and won't be able to make a submission if I don't do it now. That said I'll keep this one more informative and brief.
The state of the fort, for the next turn
-Our military has a core of competent fighters who can handle dangerous beasts and invaders mostly. I think we ought to use new migrants to expand, get a few extra squads up, and put them in iron gear for the near term. It's not technically optimum but steel is going to be a long haul, to say nothing of having expert armorers and weaponsmiths. Don't want perfect to be the enemy of good, and all.
-I realized doing my recap checks that the clothes industry has been entirely disabled. I should have caught that and fixed it (the looms are gone, as are the work orders) but didn't until the save was made. Clothes will continue to degrade but we have a ton of cloth. We should start making clothes again. Gives us export goods in addition to good thoughts.
-I didn't remember that fort rules aren't saved per fort, so no migrants came during my run. I would hope we will get a lot once the restrictions are removed with another player taking over. Just be prepared for that.
-I believe one of the poets or dancers is CURRENTLY going berserk as I hand the fort over. It looks like it might be quite bad. Sorry about that.
I strongly suggest we expel or emigrate the enormous cavalcade of pissed off dancers and poets who are eating all our food and drinking all of our drinks and doing nothing to help the situation. But I didn't want to make that decision without running it by everyone. If we like having a fort of angry beat poets and grunge musicians that's fun in its own way.
-Some of the confusion has been sorted as far as hospitals and other zones go. Security is reasonable although if we get building destroyers in an attack we have a bunch of tunnels near the surface where we might have to send the military directly to intervene. Thus my suggestion we expand the squads with iron gear.
Important highlights
Pit garbage disposal
The minecart settings should be tweaked so that it accepts everything, I think that's the reason forgotten beast pieces have accumulated in it. It's just a Quantum Stockpile set up to dump refuse from the top of the pit. I can talk to you if you're having a hard time fixing it, I thought I had it working fine when the year ticked over. Sorry.
The Burial Complex
We are officially unhaunted. And we have coffins to spare.
I requested ore and flux stone from the caravan so hopefully we can get to making more steel even if we have to close the caverns off. The pit has ready access to dolomite which could be mined out in quantity for the same purpose.
I initiated The Geldening because our animals are really out of control.
It is almost done I think as I hand the fort over.
We experienced a goblin ambush that I think also affected the elf caravan. We may pay a diplomatic price if they were harmed but it could not be helped. We also agreed not to cut down more than 25 trees, so abide by that if you feel so inclined.
An artifact was stolen, I was not able to catch the perp, so I pass that mystery along.
We were unfortunately attacked by a flying web spitter, who was able to get into the fort by flying in the caravan entrance. Our military was able to kill it but there were a lot of casualties. Fingers crossed that migrants still want to come. I was able to bury them all. 
I reiterate: We should talk about expelling these pissed off performers. As far as I'm concerned the next leader has my vote to go ahead with that, everyone else has been told, but it's a collective endeavor. They're more than a third of our population and disproportionately the ones starting deadly fights.
Hopefully it's not out of turn for me to post the weekly submission
No, this is COOL.
Our military has a core of competent fighters who can handle dangerous beasts and invaders mostly. I think we ought to use new migrants to expand, get a few extra squads up, and put them in iron gear for the near term. It's not technically optimum but steel is going to be a long haul, to say nothing of having expert armorers and weaponsmiths. Don't want perfect to be the enemy of good, and all.
Steel IS going to be a long haul, but it shouldn't be THIS long. The setup is incredibly inefficient. There are multiple bottlenecks which can be resolved.
As far as the military goes, I basically scrapped it and re-constituted it during my turn. We had multiple squads with a lot of vacancies, I consolidated melee into one squad, and might have created a crossbow squad later as an afterthought. The training routines, barracks assignments, and availability of resources can use a review.
An artifact was stolen, I was not able to catch the perp, so I pass that mystery along.
With the amount of ~~espionage fronts~~ performance troupes we've got, there's basically no point of even investigating this lmao. Artifacts are simply going to evaporate.
Our military was able to kill it but there were a lot of casualties. Fingers crossed that migrants still want to come.
I got a couple decent "despite the danger" migration waves last year. Dwarves live for this shit apparently.
We have no skilled metalsmiths and fuel limits at the moment. I think probably they all died in the carnage but it's a long road to train them all.
Looks like we missed another week, but things are otherwise outta hand, so understandable. <3
Just saw that player tags were only in the post body so not sure if others missed the post. I’m down to jump in/keep following schedule.
What do you all think?
@Doubledee@hexbear.net@PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net@booty@hexbear.net@gay_king_prince_charles@hexbear.net
Oh shit, I didn't get pinged. I'll try to start work on the fortress soon.
Sorry about that, must be clear I'm not a seasoned poster.
Oh shit, yeah I completely forgot about it this week lmao, yeah people don't actually get pinged by posts
Oh no! That would explain it I guess. I was gone this weekend so I figured it was being handled while I was gone. Sorry for dropping the ball.