"Why must the cancer of multiplayer afflict everything?" -- /u/JesterHell
"...could be the end of all games." -- /u/r4nge
DFPlex is a plugin for DFHack which brings simultaneous, real-time co-op multiplayer Fortress mode to Dwarf Fortress. Each player has their own independent view, cursor, menus, etc. so nobody has to wrestle for control. It's a fork of Webfort, so players can join just by connecting from their web browser.
If you prefer the solo experience, DFPlex allows you to have multiple views into your own fortress, or simply to run the game without pausing every time you enter a menu (an optional feature that improves the pacing on multiplayer).
See the releases page for a pre-built option. Simply extract the zip file into your DFHack installation, paying attention to ensure that the files end up in the appropriate subdirectories.
To compile from source, you can use git:
git clone --recursive https://github.com/white-rabbit-dfplex/dfhack
Then just follow the build instructions for dfhack. Please take care to ensure that you install into the correct version of Dwarf Fortress. You can check which version DFHack is compatible with by looking at the CMakeLists.txt file in the DFHack repo.
After installing DFPlex (along with DFHack), simply put the line enable dfplex in your dfhack.init file. Consider removing all other lines from that file, because dfplex is currently incompatible with many other plugins. Then simply connect to http://localhost:8000/ in your web browser.
Edit the file data/init/dfplex.txt to configure dfplex. If that file is missing, it can be found here.
In addition, we suggest enabling seasonal autosave (in data/init/d_init.txt) and disabling pause/zoom for certain common announcements (data/init/announcements.txt) by replacing their respective lines with these: [BIRTH_CITIZEN:A_D:D_D], [MOOD_BUILDING_CLAIMED:A_D:D_D], [ARTIFACT_BEGUN:A_D:D_D]. (While playtesting, these particular announcements have been especially disruptive.)
To customize the graphics, edit hack/www/config.js. Players can set their own graphics by editing the URL in their web browser -- here is a guide from the authors of Webfort.
DFPlex requires two ports to be available. They are both displayed in the dfplex window upon launching, and can be configured in data/init/dfplex.txt. To play on LAN, players can simply connect to your LAN IP address at the correct port: for example, http://192.168.1.1:8000/. To play online (as opposed to on LAN), port forwarding must be enabled on your router. Enabling port forwarding and finding your LAN or WAN IP address are beyond the scope of this readme, so please look these up online if you are unfamiliar with the process.
DFPlex is not secure. If you wish to play with people you do not trust, please take your own security precautions, such as running Dwarf Fortress within an isolated container. No efforts were taken by the authors of DFPlex to prevent clients from accessing the host filesystem.
To learn how the code is structured and how the project works, please read the overview.