I know I will regret asking it… but what’s the modern way of starting playing DF?
How Dwarf Fortress is built
61–70 of 407 posts
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#62To me what was most surprising about Dwarf Fortress, given the complexity, is that Tad didn’t use git or any other code repository until more recently.
Why would that be surprising? For a single programmer working alone Git is an incredibly complicated tool. P.S.: A lot of you are confusing "complicated" with "difficult".
No it isn't! It's so easy and effective for keeping track of your work and backups.
If you want the absolute simplest way to use git, just setup an alias to do:
alias gcmp="git add -A && git commit && git push"
git only becomes more complex as your needs become more complex. At which point I'd recommend using something like https://magit.vc/ which makes complex git operations far easier. The CLI can only take you so far effectively unfortunately.
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would that be surprising? For a single programmer working alone Git is an incredibly complicated tool. P.S.: A lot of you are confusing "complicated" with "difficult".
Actually extremely easy. Git add -a, git commit, git push. It only gets complicated if you try to do complicated things.
I believe it's:
git add -A
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#64Making the item system polymorphic was ultimately a mistake, but that was a big one. Q: Why was this was a mistake? A: When you declare a class that’s a kind of item, it locks you into that structure much more tightly than if you just have member elements. It’s nice to be able to use virtual functions and that kind of thing, but the tradeoffs are just too much. I started using a “tool” item in the hierarchy, which st…
composition over inheritance...
Its the fragility of large inheritance hierarchies. They work well for very rigidly defined real world structures but not so well in most real-world usages.
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#65> What’s your favorite bug and what caused it? > A: It’s probably boring for me to say, but I just can’t beat the drunken cat bug... That was the one where the cats were showing up dead all over the tavern floor, and it turned out they were ingesting spilled alcohol when they cleaned their paws. I think that bug explains very well just how deeply complex Dwarf Fortress really is. Drinks can be spilled. Some drinks ha…
The beginning of this video https://youtu.be/VAhHkJQ3KgY has Tarn Adams speaking about this bug.
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#66This is a little bit of a hijack but if I wanted to start coding games as a side project, where would I start? Which platform? Mobile, PC, console? Any good introductions on the subject of solo game development? I know I can google this, but I trust HN users more than the Google algo.
I second Godot. You can make cross platform/mobile games with it. The IDE itself is built with the engine which is rather cool.
Fair warning, the syntax is python inspired but not compatible, which most of the time that will trip you up.
My second suggestion, is for your first project to develop a top down 2D (instead of a classical side scroller), using itch.io assets. To get a nice jump feeling for a side scroller 2D game, you straight ahead have to start using a state machine and fiddle a bunch, no hand holding with that.
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#67> What’s your favorite bug and what caused it? > A: It’s probably boring for me to say, but I just can’t beat the drunken cat bug... That was the one where the cats were showing up dead all over the tavern floor, and it turned out they were ingesting spilled alcohol when they cleaned their paws. I think that bug explains very well just how deeply complex Dwarf Fortress really is. Drinks can be spilled. Some drinks ha…
The beginning of this video https://youtu.be/VAhHkJQ3KgY has Tarn Adams speaking about this bug.
This is my favourite bug story I have ever heard. And told so well.
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#68IMO that's one of the best ways a single programmer can spend his career. No weird requirements, no deadlines, no nothing, nada. Just one's passion and a product. Whether it is successful is irrelevant. Kudos Mr. Adams for making the achievement and moves gaming history. Going back to the interview, I found this line (and the logic attached) interesting: >Making the item system polymorphic was ultimately a mistake, b…
I have a passion for programming but I need something to drive me. I'm useless when I try and make stuff on my own. But if I've got someone telling me "I need a system that does X", I just get highly motivated in delivering it. Like I need requirements.
Damn you sound exactly like me...when I work for my own projects they usually die off quickly once I figure out how to do it (without actually implementing it but I'm pretty sure it can be implemented in this or that way).
But if it comes from a friend, or a colleague then I'm super focused on it until it's done.
It's almost as if I do projects to show off to other people or I like to serve other people.
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#69Dwarf Fortress consumed hundreds of hours of my life in high school, I have so many fond memories of it. Every year or so I come back to it and I'm always surprised that they've managed to add another mechanic or feature that just makes the game feel even more like its own little universe. After enough time in the game there really is a moment like that scene in the Matrix - "I don't even see the ASCII anymore. All I…
Passion project? It is the sole source of his income.
Lichess is Thibault's source of income, passion project, AND it is open-source.
Re: How Dwarf Fortress is built
#70Making the item system polymorphic was ultimately a mistake, but that was a big one. Q: Why was this was a mistake? A: When you declare a class that’s a kind of item, it locks you into that structure much more tightly than if you just have member elements. It’s nice to be able to use virtual functions and that kind of thing, but the tradeoffs are just too much. I started using a “tool” item in the hierarchy, which st…
Hickey nails this one in his talks. When you make something a class, that's NOT an abstraction, that's a concretion. You make a Tool class, you haven't abstracted what a tool is, you've made a fixed decision about what it is. For games that want this level of complex interaction between components, entity component systems are the way to go.