I haven't played Dwarf Fortress since DF2010 came out: the interface had changed so much that I would have to relearn the game (note that it hadn't improved in anyway, it had just changed) and it was so full of bugs and broken features that the release was basically unplayable.
So what got the highest priority after the release? Adding more backstory generation crap nobody cares about.

Why did you just rot13 his post? You really have some weird fetish with that.

Ok my new fortress failed pretty early on. I embarked in a cold area which would not necessarily have been a problem but then my proficient miner died in a landslide accident while cutting off a big chunk of mountain.

The noob who took over the pick and continued his work managed to finish the job but caused another landslide in which my rangerdwarf got injured severely. The only good thing the landslide caused was uncovering some grass.

Then I couldn't find any water (it was all frozen) to quench the injured rangerdwarf's thirst and the dwarves don't seem to feed booze (of which I took plenty) to the injured.

I tried to melt the ice but could not find anything to do that. The remaining five dwarves had to abandon this short expedition. The fisherdwarf would have been useless anyway with all the ice.

{"name":"605924","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/a\/bab5a4122ccc4c85e1dde621232b8536.png","w":699,"h":656,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/a\/bab5a4122ccc4c85e1dde621232b8536"}

IIRC I had not played any version prior to v0.28.181.40d so I think I never knew the old interface. The latest version still has a lot of bugs and I doubt it will ever be completely free of them but so far I had only one showstopper (the aforementioned crash where I lost 7 hours of progress) in three days and a couple of minor missing string bugs.

Despite bugs and clunky interface I still think it's one of the best games ever made. Never played the adventurer mode much though, just building fortresses and making silly mistakes or being surprised by the games' complexity. There always seems to be something new to discover and I'm neglecting other more important (RL stuff) things due to this game.

Psh, I sometimes do . The combat system is incredibly detailed and it's generally fun to play.

Anyway, here's a shot of my fortress:

{"name":"605925","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/d\/d\/ddc55f8b2277dfcd6d7329d5f5a94e8c.png","w":1122,"h":898,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/d\/d\/ddc55f8b2277dfcd6d7329d5f5a94e8c"}

In the upper-left corner you'll note a ballista... it'll be used to try to hit invaders that get past the trap bridges (activated by the purple touchplate in the bottom middle) and the weapon traps (line of red things on the middle left). The daughter of the ballista operator had the brilliant idea to stand in front of the ballista while the dad was using it... she survived with all her limbs broken and her lower spine severed: she'll never walk again. I really don't know a good workabout for this (aside from not using ballistae for training).

The status screen:

{"name":"605926","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/1\/6\/1660cd29a3764170cb0e5a7432890257.png","w":1369,"h":389,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/1\/6\/1660cd29a3764170cb0e5a7432890257"}

The enormous amount of imports probably come from the abandoned caravan wagon (dwarves haven't sent me another caravan for years now... I guess they're upset that they lost so many goods and lives last time they were around...).

I just updated my DF under Ubuntu, but as of right now I have no plans to play it. My experience playing games is 2D/3D graphic based and not really done any ASCII game so the learning curve is a lot more steep for me than most of the other players.

Maybe just make sure no one is standing in front of the ballista when firing it?
You could probably achieve that by sealing off the corridor with doors and hatches and then forbid passage prior to shooting.

Though that would require a lot of micromanagement so the better idea would probably be to have a separate ballista for training which shoots into a dead end corridor which has no pathable access to the remaining fortress:

(edit: monospaced text seems to be not working correctly in chrome, same problem when using code tagsnvm, had a wrong font set in the preferences)
side view:
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB z0 blocks
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF z0 floor
* / L :) ==->     practice corridor (unreachable by dwarves)   B z1 blocks
FF FFFFFFFFFF--------------------------------------------------F z1 floor
BB\          ammo retrieval corridor (z level below ballista)  B z2 blocks 
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF z2 floor
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB z3 blocks

B block, F block floor
* access to rest of the fortress
/ down stairs
L lever
:) siege engine operator
==-> ballista
----- retractable bridge(s) operated by lever
\ up stairs

Ammunition from training shots could be retrieved by retracting the bridge(s) upon which the ammo should fall down to the corridor below where the haulers can then pick it up safely.

There are no sound effects just background music which in-game consists of some approximataly four minute long loop of varying guitar play. The music is pretty nice though and oddly enough does not feel all that much repetitive.

So if you can't get the music to play just put the respective .ogg file from the /data/sound folder into a favorite music player near you while playing. ^^

That music track is only 4 minutes long? Neat. I like the music, it doesn't add much to the game though.

There's a separate utility called Soundsense that adds more sounds (such as battle sounds) to the game. I've heard that it works by monitoring the log for events that it has sounds associated with. I've never used it myself, I heard it's pretty fiddly to get working. I find my imagination does a good enough job anyways

I started a new fort (unintentionally) last night. When I fired up MacNewb to start playing it told me there was an update (to MacNewb) and asked if I would like to update. Apparently the update wiped out my previous save... bummer. Oh well, at least with the new fort I won't make the same mistakes.

Oh and it turns out the reason my broker still didn't show up at the trade depot (even after making him a noble) was that he was too busy hauling rocks to my dump. After removing him from all hauling labours with Dwarf Therapist he showed up at the depot well after the Elven caravan departed. For some reason the dialog was still triggered even though the elves were gone though.

My farm animals did not need raiders to kill them, they constantly fought each other for dominance over the pen until I separated them into several individual pens testing different animal types for friendly compatibility. ^^
Good to know about those archers though... I shall build a stone roof/floor over my pen.

Pssshht, Elves! Who wants to trade with those beardless pesky pinehugging pointed ears anyway? (Trade negotiations with them fail frequently if you offer them anything made of wood, including the bins containing your stone/other crafts.)

Before anything else, edit the d_init.txt and enable autosaving (to prevent loss of hours of gameplay to the rare crash. Also edit the init.txt (read the comments in there) to correctly set up the resolution. The game won't use more than the default number of lines for most menues but it does utilize the additional space inside the actual game window later (where you see the local area, your dwarves, trees and stuff).

Work your way through the quick start guide on the wiki and keep the wiki open at all times on the side so you can read up on stuff when you're stuck or you're wondering about production chains and item requirements, dwarf status icons, messages, etc.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Quickstart_guide

If you want to have some real fun (*) though you just jump right in and try to figure everything out on your own. Fail early, fail often, learn, next time make it better and bigger!

(*)

---

I'll post stories and screens of my current fortress later.

Just work towards implementing this very simple flowchart and you'll be fine!
{"name":"FlowchartDF.png","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/1\/e14584f0d70ee90a01d6787345c59b5f.png","w":1201,"h":1445,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/1\/e14584f0d70ee90a01d6787345c59b5f"}

Can't you just play in a terminal window in x?

Stories will have to wait (hurrying to catch some sleep) but here are all of the annotated z-levels of my current fortress.

Some areas are still heavy work in progress and I plan to eventually move fully underground so all the garbage on the surface will be cleaned at some point.

level 0:
{"name":"605928","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/f\/5\/f545eb6db59ded3bfcfbfea7ce56dc76.png","w":1275,"h":894,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/f\/5\/f545eb6db59ded3bfcfbfea7ce56dc76"}

level 1:
{"name":"605929","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/e\/ee20cb00068d6108dc1d86baadf51467.png","w":1275,"h":894,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/e\/ee20cb00068d6108dc1d86baadf51467"}

level 2:
{"name":"605930","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/1\/5\/1553011308d12fbe7b32ec5833fc8d19.png","w":1275,"h":894,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/1\/5\/1553011308d12fbe7b32ec5833fc8d19"}

level 3:
{"name":"605931","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/6\/c\/6ce57d4d0236ebe3277676eddb6df218.png","w":1275,"h":894,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/6\/c\/6ce57d4d0236ebe3277676eddb6df218"}

level 4:
{"name":"605932","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/8\/c\/8cff4471d3d0fa22d3fc2e4ed1e4bffe.png","w":1275,"h":894,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/8\/c\/8cff4471d3d0fa22d3fc2e4ed1e4bffe"}

level 5:
{"name":"605933","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/7\/3\/73cc0373a48439c22feff6e23115a6ca.png","w":1275,"h":894,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/7\/3\/73cc0373a48439c22feff6e23115a6ca"}

level 6:
{"name":"605934","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/f\/c\/fc6d649c09caa51c55455a94a0bf8802.png","w":1275,"h":894,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/f\/c\/fc6d649c09caa51c55455a94a0bf8802"}

status:
{"name":"605935","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/6\/c62f88ed8c2ff92daa6988f76d312482.png","w":1275,"h":265,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/c\/6\/c62f88ed8c2ff92daa6988f76d312482"}

Todo next is to finish the hospital, assign and dig out noble quarters, build additional production chains, finish the grand hall and move cluttered items from one big into smaller well sorted stockpiles then start digging for valuable stuff.

Haven't found any magma yet.

It does, works wonderfully! With Lazy Newb Pack it's very easy to set up, just point to the log file and it's set. I also tried a linux version a while ago and there was almoat no difference.

There's also StoneSense, which gives an isometric 3D view of the fort, in real time. It even uses Allegro as well.

In that case, you can't be Siege Lord anymore!

Well so much for playing DF under Ubuntu. Told it to upgrade from 11.10 to 12.04, but the boot fails now.