Mouse support is one of those features that most new players to Dwarf Fortress quickly wish they had. So long gone are the days no keyboard only controls that for most of us Dwarf Fortress just feels clunky without our handy mouse.
Well firstly I believe the mouse Isn't really required for this game. I used to wish for it but over time I have come to the conclusion that the keyboard is a lot quicker.
However... mouse support is improving thanks to Falconne who has been modding up a storm for the Dwarf Fortress community!
The first thing you need to do is ensure the mod is turned on.
With your Dwarf Fortress game running open up the DFHack Console Menu and type the following:
mousequery edge enable <press enter>
mousequery live enable <press enter>
mousequery track enable <press enter>
Now get back into the game and lets check out the improvements.
Screen Scrolling - You can now use your mouse to scroll around the map. Simply move the mouse cursor to one of the screen edges and watch the screen move. ad
Mouse Over Information - You can now mouse over any tile in the game to see what is currently on that tile! In the screen shot below you can see I'm holding my mouse over a cabinet in one of my Noble's bedrooms. That tile is a smooth stone floor tile. On that tile is an Ashen Cabinet and in that cabinet is a number of clothes!
You can use this to mouse over all kinds of cool things which will make learning the game a whole lot easier!
Click Support - A mouse without the ability to click on things is not mouse at all! And therefore you can now click on various objects within the game!
Try clicking on the following:
A Workshop - clicking on any workshop brings up the workshop profile menu. This is where you can add or remove job orders. You still need to use the keyboard to make orders.
A Dwarf - clicking on any Dwarf open up a window showing their current activity and all of their skills.
An Animal - clicking on an animal brings up the info on that animal. This is great for quickly selecting animals to be slaughtered by clicking on them and pressing 's'.
Digging / Designating - Yes you can now designate an area to dig out a lot more efficiently with this mouse support. This feature already existed in the original game but it was clunky and most people preferred to use the keyboard.
To designate an area to dig simply press 'd' to access the Designations menu. From here you should be an option menu at the bottom. Make sure it says 'Enabled'. You can press 'm' to change between Enabled and Disabled.
Your now ready to start designating!
Press 'd' again to ensure the 'Mine' option is highlighted. Click in one corner of the area you would like to dig out.
Now click in the opposing corner making a square or rectangle. Note that the area highlighted in orange is now designated for digging.
You can do this with any of the designation options. In order to activate any of the options below you simply need to press the associated key before using your mouse to designate the required area.
Mine (d) - dig out an area
Channel (h) - dig out a channel area for water / lava to flow (digs out the tile one Z level down also)
Remove Up Stairs / Ramps (z) - as it says.
Upward Stairway (u) - create stairs that only go up 1 Z level.
Downward Stairway (j) - create stairs that only go down 1 Z level.
Up / Down Stairway (i) - create stairs that bot both up and down a Z level (use these to connect to the top of an upward stair way and below a downward stairway).
Chop Down Trees (t) - highlight a square, all trees within the square will get ordered to be chopped down.
Gather Plants (p) - highlight a square, all shrubs within the square will be picked for fruit and seeds.
Smooth Stone (s) - highlight a square, all stone within the square will be smoothened. This is how you start getting your fortress to look awesome.
Engrave Stone (e) - highlight a square, all stone within the square will be engraved with pictures of the events of your fortress. I love this feature, the drawings (represented by text) can be quite hilarious.
Carve Fortifications (a) - Highlight a length of stone to carve out fortifications allowing projectiles to be fired through!
Carve Track (T) - Select a length of floor to carve out mine-cart tracks!
Remove Designation (x) - This ones important. If you make a mistake while designating press 'x' then highlight the area you want to click. Double clicking on incorrect tiles also works.
Remove Construction (n) - Similar to above except used to remove construction like walls.
There you go, mouse support has come a long way! Hopefully a few people will find the learning curve less daunting now!
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