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Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

bay12games.com

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Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#111

Post by hodwik »

moultano wrote: post #77
hodwik2 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the very beginning of Zork you are wandering through the forest. At one point, after branching around for a while you hear a bird singing above. If you say 'climb the tree' you read "You are about ten feet above the ground nestled among some large branches. The nearest branch above you is beyond your reach." If you 'climb higher' you see "On the branch is a small birds nest. " If you look in the nest, "In the bird…

Check out 80 days if you haven't already. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inkle.eigh... It has lots of wonderful text.

Thanks

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#112

Post by digikata »

ndarilek wrote: post #70

Does anyone know enough about how this game works internally to know if alternative interfaces and presentations are possible? I'm blind, and have wanted to play this game ever since I heard of it years ago. I used to play console-based roguelikes, and while they were a bit slow to interact with, RLs were a refreshing tactical change from text-based IF. Reading lots of DF stories would suggest that there's some sort…

The interface that most of the visualizers work with is DFHack [1]. DFHack is a third party, open source utility that can access the memory of the game. It also has access to the interface system as well as the map contents.

[1] http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Utilities#DFHa...

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#113

Post by crocal »

ndarilek wrote: post #86
gcb0 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how did you worked out the maze map of nethack?

An old 90s-era laptop with a monochrome display whose brightness I could turn down to 0, a screen reader that let me arrow around all the tiles, and a bunch of long boring high school classes where teachers thought I was such a diligent student, always taking such great notes. :P

You need to tell us more about this. It sounds like an extraordinary story!

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#114

Post by VLM »

ixtli wrote: post #103
dpeck wrote: post #20

I admire the forever project, and the dedication of the brothers. I've played the game way too much in the past, but I grew increasingly frustrated with the single threaded model combined with their disinterest in fixing it. Building an expansive fortress and number of dwarfs is a lot of fun (honestly, probably the most fun I've had with a game since Dungeon Keeper and Settlers way back) but then FPS starts dropping…

The real problem is the creator's stubbornness in not including others in his effort. Even if he doesn't want to release the source he should put some effort into making components pluggable so that others can do the boring work of, say, refactoring the UI.

Its a conceptual continuity issue. Like claiming the Mona Lisa would have been a better painting if the painter abstracted the girl out so Bob Ross could paint the trees in the background.

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#115

Post by chadzawistowski »

MasterScrat wrote: post #36
epaga wrote: post #8

For anyone who is thinking about giving it a spin for the first time, do yourself a favor and don't get this .01 version. Either wait for a few patches or download the far more stable and mature 0.40.24 ( http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/older_versions.html ) Dwarf Fortress is basically a perpetual beta with lots of major bugs as it is, but especially brand new major versions like this one usually have multiple game…

The game looks pretty light on graphics... can't I try it out somewhere online from my browser? edit: some quick googling led me to this: https://www.rollapp.com/app/dwarffortress Looks like you can't save but at least I can get a quick idea of how it feels like

Watch some lets-play videos perhaps?

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#116

Post by sdegutis »

epaga wrote: post #8

For anyone who is thinking about giving it a spin for the first time, do yourself a favor and don't get this .01 version. Either wait for a few patches or download the far more stable and mature 0.40.24 ( http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/older_versions.html ) Dwarf Fortress is basically a perpetual beta with lots of major bugs as it is, but especially brand new major versions like this one usually have multiple game…

This story is the most I've ever heard about DF. I'm suddenly incredibly curious about what this game is all about. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#117

Post by VLM »

robin_reala wrote: post #34
SixSigma wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure many people would gladly take a ~$5k per month job doing something they love with no boss.

Less would take a ~$2500 per month job (it’s two people).

That's roughly first year school teacher income level, or parish priest stipend level. I think Tarn was a grad student before he got his doctorate, and $2500 would not be a pay cut; assuming that grad students loved their field at least once upon a time.

Per capita median personal income in the USA is right around that level, so 50% of the population earns less, while being statistically unlikely to love their job. If half the country hates their lower paying job, they have little to complain about in a relative sense.

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#118

Post by coldpie »

Filligree wrote: post #38
coldpie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nitpick: It's not ASCII. It's simple 2D bitmaps. You can't play DF in a character console.

You can, actually. I'm pretty sure the text output mode should still work. I wouldn't recommend it, because it's noticeably slower than the SDL or OpenGL renderers, but you can .

Huh, I didn't know that, thanks. But still, the DF that most people recognize as DF is not an ASCII/text game, even though it looks kinda like it.

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#119

Post by zyxley »

smacktoward wrote: post #55
aymeric wrote: post #4

It is unfortunate that a game as famous as Dwarf Fortress only makes so little in money: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=152358.0

They could almost certainly make a lot more money if they were willing to compromise even a little in the direction of usability. They aren't, though, so they're making a conscious decision to forgo that money in order to keep their vision (as maddeningly abstruse as it is) intact. In that respect Dwarf Fortress is a lot more like an art project than a commercial game.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

For a comparison, Gnomoria (http://gnomoria.com), which is an unapologetic DF clone but with basic graphics and first-party modding support, sells for $8 a pop on Steam and has 2,000 reviews despite still being in "Early Access" status.

Re: Dwarf Fortress 0.42.01 released

#120

Post by ta0o0o0 »

lmm wrote: post #32
ta0o0o0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to recall a profile of the game and it's creators that said it's mostly by choice. Found it: they were offered 300K just to license the name. He has refused a programming job at a major developer (he asked that I keep its name off the record) and turned down a $300,000 offer from another company to license the Dwarf Fortress name, fearing that the proposed sum wouldn’t sufficiently offset the long-term donatio…

A one-off 300K isn't a lot for two people to live on if it would cut off their donation stream completely, and if you've been doing this for 10 years it may not be easy to find a job.

I think it's indicative of the value of the property that just the name alone is worth 300K. If they were interested in commercializing the game I suspect they would be able to make a lot more.
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