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Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

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Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#181

Post by IsTom »

flohofwoe wrote: post #155
hamdingers wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's missing the point. There were official native MacOS builds and now there aren't. Can't be too mad about it though, it was free back then too.

> There were official native MacOS builds and now there aren't They probably stopped supporting macOS when Apple introduced the notarization bullshit. Can't blame the DF team tbh, macOS is a royal PITA to support (even without notarization), Apple doesn't mind breaking stuff from one OS release to another.

I still remember getting support mail every time Apple released an OS update. For a week or two there'd be reports of things crashing randomly with stacktraces that didn't seem to make much sense.

One of reasons why I stopped trying to make mac/ios apps.

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#182

Post by aqme28 »

olmo23 wrote: post #161
izacus wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tens of thousands dollars of donations over decades is a very small amount of money even outside US.

The premium version of Dwarf Fortress made over $7.2 million in its first month alone.

"first month" is really obscuring the decade or beforehand. That's 20 years of development before the premium version launched

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#183

Post by Sander_Marechal »

aqme28 wrote: post #182
olmo23 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The premium version of Dwarf Fortress made over $7.2 million in its first month alone.

"first month" is really obscuring the decade or beforehand. That's 20 years of development before the premium version launched

So that's 360K/year over 20 years?

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#184

Post by suslik »

AngryData wrote: post #141
Our_Benefactors wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it’s not a complete or compelling experience if the systems aren’t naturally exposed and taught over time in a progressive manner. This has been a cornerstone of good game design for over 30 years.

I wouldn't consider that a universal feature. It can certainly help, especially if you are aiming for a generalized audience, but not every game needs to be either intended for or accessible to every person. I would use Crusader Kings as an example, it doesn't even seem like a game at first, you have no idea what is going on, and large swaths of options and features may take dozens of hours to stumble across. But yet…

> it doesn't even seem like a game at first, you have no idea what is going on, and large swaths of options and features may take dozens of hours to stumble across

For me personally, figuring these things out was the most fun I got out of such games. I had an absolute blast loading CK2 without a tutorial and spending the next several hours trying to figure out what is all this nonsense about. Same with DF btw, once I figured out the idea, mechanics, control, and played for some hours to learn to build a somewhat sustainable fortress, it kinda stopped being fun.

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#185

Post by gambiting »

frollogaston wrote: post #4
Mobius01 wrote: post #3

I wish nothing but success to Tarn and Zach, it’s great that releasing on Steam and adding a friendlier UI helped the game reach new audiences. It’s the proverbial time black hole.

Weirdly the ASCII art was what drew me in the most. Once accustomed to it, feels like The Matrix where they're reading the world.

I have the same feeling playing Caves of Qud.

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#186

Post by olmo23 »

aqme28 wrote: post #182
olmo23 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The premium version of Dwarf Fortress made over $7.2 million in its first month alone.

"first month" is really obscuring the decade or beforehand. That's 20 years of development before the premium version launched

It made an additional $23 million after the first month.

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#187

Post by Bayart »

Waterluvian wrote: post #107
UltraSane wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a documentary about them putting Dwarf Fortress on Steam Tarn talked about how he had to split the $7 million first payment from Steam with his brother and it turned out the easiest way was to just use the bank app.

I’ve never received $7M but a few times I’ve handled large sums (when buying a house and previous startup exit) and it felt so weird to be how completely normal it was. Like just… oh yeah go ahead and write a cheque for six figures. Or do an e-transfer into your chequing account for six figures. It felt like… no there has to be a whole special world for large sums, no?

Banking regulation varies from country to country, where I'm from a regular personal account isn't usually allowed to directly transfer more than a few tens of thousands of dollars per month. Anything beyond that is handled by the bank itself. Business accounts work differently.

I'm certain receiving a lump six figure sum on my personal account would trigger a review, if only because the taxman wants to know about it.

Backend-wise, it's just different sets of flags. The infrastructure is the same.

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#188

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Waterluvian wrote: post #107
UltraSane wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a documentary about them putting Dwarf Fortress on Steam Tarn talked about how he had to split the $7 million first payment from Steam with his brother and it turned out the easiest way was to just use the bank app.

I’ve never received $7M but a few times I’ve handled large sums (when buying a house and previous startup exit) and it felt so weird to be how completely normal it was. Like just… oh yeah go ahead and write a cheque for six figures. Or do an e-transfer into your chequing account for six figures. It felt like… no there has to be a whole special world for large sums, no?

Reminds me of when a guy earned like a million off of cryptocurrency, but the cash was in a foreign account (the exchange, I presume). He couldn't just transfer it to his own account because the bank had issues with it. He opened a new account with another bank that had no issue accepting it, and transferred it from there to his main bank which suddenly also had no problem with it lol.

I think generally speaking, there's two systems; the one is a scam / self protection system that disallows large transfers but the user can disable it themselves, the other is something that works after the fact that looks for things like money laundering and tax evasion, but these processes run nightly, yearly, or maybe even once a year. I'm half expecting a tax bill for some unreported crypto assets abroad, half because it's only a few hundred worth.

Re: Dwarf Fortress is getting the mother of all magic updates

#189

Post by danielbarla »

S-E-P wrote: post #76
7bit wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot be serious! That comparison is a joke. There's worlds between the complexity of Minecraft and DF.

How would you suggest someone make a good tutorial for DF that doesn't leave the player exhausted by the time they start a new game? That's my core complaint w/ strategy games. By the time I'm done with the tutorial i have to do other things only to forget everything I learned the next time I get to sit down with it. At best "hints" or a glossary/help menu is the best way imo.

Several people have given the opinion in this thread that DF is basically immune to having a tutorial; I am trying to figure out why. I don't see a tutorial as an end-to-end blueprint of everything the game is capable of. It's just a series of info, hints, and follow-along instructions, possibly with railroaded / simplified UI. I mean, the first time I booted up DF with no context circa 2013, it took me a few minutes to figure out that we're seeing a top-down view. I certainly would have appreciated a hint or a tutorial (though I do not necessarily fault the game for not having one; it's _not_ a game that is aimed at onboarding heaps of fresh newbies by the truckload each week).
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