Shadowing Practice: 10 Things you Should Know Before Playing Dwarf Fortress - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Hello everybody and welcome to 10 things that you should know before you start playing Dwarf Fortress.
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Hello everybody and welcome to 10 things that you should know before you start playing Dwarf Fortress.
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Bit of a clickbaity title, not generally my kind of shtick, but people have been asking me to do something like this, so I figured, why not?
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Before I even start, I do want to say that Dwarf Fortress is available for $30 or your regional equivalent or for free on Bay12 Games' website.
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The difference between the paid version and the free version is the free version is in ASCII, whereas the paid version comes with fancy pixels to look at with your eyeballs.
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Number one, most of the bugs have been patched.
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Now, I don't mean literally.
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Dwarf Fortress has plenty of bugs.
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But when I talk about bugs, I mean the legendary ones you've probably heard.
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Rampaging elephants, evil carp, and cat-splosions are all things that haven't been in the game in a very long time.
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Also, bugs such as creatures getting stuck in trees don't happen as often anymore, and things wrecking your framerate at random are less likely.
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Things can still happen, and stuff can still happen in weird ways, but a lot of these legendary bugs you've probably read about are no longer in the game, and have probably been patched out half a decade ago.
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Number two, lock your doors.
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If you're under attack in Dwarf Fortress, your best possible defense is simply locking the front door.
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Once an enemy has passed through the door, they claim it as theirs, and you can no longer lock it.
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So it's a good idea, when you start up a new fort, to simply put a door on the front door, or a trapdoor, if it's a stairs.
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And the reason for this is, when a werecreature shows up, or an elven siege shows up, You can simply lock the door and leave the dwarves inside that are inside and the dwarves outside to suffer and they'll be fine.
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Number three.
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Why can't dwarves equip a pick, an axe, and hunting stuff?
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You might notice in the work orders screen that there are three jobs, hunting, mining, and woodcutting, that can only be assigned to one dwarf at a time.
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Why is this?
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Well, it's simply because these three jobs require a civilian uniform.
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A miner requires a pickaxe to fully function, to knock down blocks, and destroy walls.
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Woodcutters require an axe to top chop down trees.
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And hunters require a crossbow or a bow and a quiver and ammunition in order to fully complete their tasks.
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Thus, they cannot equip more than one of these things at a time, so they require civilian uniforms and cannot be cross-jobbed.
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Number four, eat the puppies.
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Is your frame rate going down?
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Do you have a lot of puppies running around?
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It's probably because you've let them overbreed.
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You can either geld them at a farmer's workshop, but with using the geld order and clicking the little knife next to the puppies, or just simply slaughter them.
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Eat the puppies.
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It'll increase your frame rate.
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Number five, diagonal water.
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So water, when you're trying to dig it into places to get water from place A to place B, might flow real quickly and drown your dwarves, and this is bad for your dwarves' health.
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In fact, it stops them from breathing, which is very bad.
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So the best thing to do is make the water go diagonally.
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Why would you do this?
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Well, it removes all water pressure.
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Doesn't matter how much water is trying to spew through that hole.
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As long as they're going through a diagonal block pattern, it's going to remove all pressure immediately.
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Number six.
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The next thing is seeds.
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When seeds are cooked, it destroys the seeds.
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When products are brewed, you keep the seeds.
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And there's certain types of materials that you don't want cooked.
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You can also cook the seeds separately to make even more meals if you're brewing the beverages anyway and you end up with too many seeds.
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Keep this in mind.
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If you want to expand further into this, jump into the kitchen menu and have a peek at what is being cooked and what isn't.
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If it's green, it's being used.
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If it's red, it's not.
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So for things you don't want cooked, you might want to turn it off, especially plump helmets.
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Those are your main source of brew, after all.
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Dwarves do need their alcohol and can't survive without it.
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Number seven.
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Are you running low in food?
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Doesn't really matter what time of year it is.
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If you're in a biome that has stuff growing on the surface, simply jump to the surface and use the gather tool.
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This will allow you to gather anything that is on the surface, and most of it is edible.
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Some of it is only used for cloth, but most of it is edible.
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So if you're running low on food stores and you're like, oh no, it's winter, we're all going to die.
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No, you're not.
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Just simply go up top and gather some stuff up, and your dwarves can brew half of it into alcohol, and you will survive.
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Also note, you can generally gather stuff from the caverns as well.
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So if you run out of plump helmets per se, you can gather from down there.
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Number eight.
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Rocks are good.
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Believe it or not, they're very good.
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The reason rocks are good is because rocks can be made into blocks.
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Now rocks themselves cannot go into bins, but blocks can.
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Blocks are also way lighter, and you get four blocks per boulder.
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So sometimes I see people building their walls out of boulders and to which I shake my head.
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Because boulders only make rough walls, which are way easier to climb.
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Something you won't notice unless you're playing Adventure Mode.
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But the enemies certainly do, and can absolutely climb them.
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Number 9.
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If you're clear-cutting trees and your fort is very close to the surface, i.e.
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one layer underground, keep in mind that trees remove their roots.
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And this also removes the ground tile where the tree was sitting.
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So if you clear-cut a group of trees that are all just above the ground layer, you might be putting a bunch of holes in your ceiling and things can climb down through them.
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Best fill those up.
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Or build your fort deeper underground.
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Number 10.
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Chores.
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So I see a lot of people yelling about their children turning into little psychopathic murderers.
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Now, this is pretty obvious as to what's happening.
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Children don't like being around dead things, and by default, the children's chores allow for hauling of bodies and refuse,
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so any dead hamster or goblin or human or elf that dies in the fort will probably be hauled by your children because they're not doing anything else.
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This also then causes them to play in the last location they completed a job in, which is why you have five dwarves in your corpse pile playing.
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Make-believe.
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This happens a lot, and I see a lot of people complaining about it.
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So best to disable refuse and corpse hauling from your children if you don't want this to be a problem.
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And then they will be much happier.
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Also make them a bunch of toys.
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They generally appreciate this.
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Thank you very much for watching this video about Dwarf Fortress.
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If you would like more Dwarf Fortress tutorials, I recommend you check out my tutorial series, my quick tutorials.
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There is quite a few of them, 50 plus in fact, and they're all very quick, concise, and hopefully helpful and expand on a lot of these topics further.
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Thank you very much for watching this video and I hope to see you in the next one.
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If you would like to support me further, you can do that via my Patreon, buying a piece of merch, or checking out my Twitch channel, twitch.tv slash B-L-I-N-D-I-R-L.
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Thank you very much for watching.
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Context & Background

The video titled "10 Things You Should Know Before Playing Dwarf Fortress" provides essential insights for new players diving into the immersive world of Dwarf Fortress. The speaker addresses common misconceptions and shares valuable tips to enhance the gaming experience. With humor and straightforward advice, the dialogue breaks down complex gameplay mechanics into manageable tips that are easy to understand for both seasoned and novice players. This informative piece serves not only as a guide for gaming enthusiasts but also as a resource for English learners interested in expanding their vocabulary in a practical, contextual setting.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • "Lock your doors." – A crucial strategy mentioned for defense during attacks, emphasizing the importance of security.
  • "Eat the puppies." – Although controversial, this phrase refers to managing excess pets in the game for better performance.
  • "Diagonal water." – A helpful tip for avoiding drowning, showcasing strategic thinking in problem-solving situations.
  • "Most of the bugs have been patched." – This phrase relates to the game’s development and reflects how software is refined over time.
  • "Why can't dwarves equip a pick, an axe, and hunting stuff?" – A question that highlights game mechanics, promoting curiosity and understanding.

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

To effectively utilize the content from this video for language learning, especially for speaking practice, follow this comprehensive guide:

  1. Choose a Shadowing App: Find a shadowing app or a shadowspeaks platform that allows you to play the video alongside a visualization of the transcript. This will help you connect spoken words with their written form.
  2. Listen and Repeat: Start by listening to a short segment of the video. Pause after a few sentences and repeat them aloud. Focus on matching the speaker's tone and pace.
  3. Break Down Phrases: Pick one of the top phrases listed above and delve deeper. Understand its context in the video and practice it multiple times in different intonations or scenarios.
  4. Record Yourself: Use your own voice to mimic the speaker’s pronunciation. Recording your attempts not only aids in reflective learning but also helps track your progress over time.
  5. Engagement with Content: As you become comfortable with the phrases, explore integrating them into your daily conversations, whether through role play or casual dialogues with friends.

Utilizing a comprehensive shadowing site can deepen your learning experience. By shadow speak from engaging content, you not only improve pronunciation and fluency but also expand your vocabulary and contextual knowledge. Happy practicing!

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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