Dwarf Fortress: Ten hours with the most inscrutable video game of all time

Post by geon » Tue, Feb 26, 2013, 11:38 AM UTC

gnarbarian wrote: post #67

starpilot wrote: post #9

Great explanation of DF's bodily combat damage modeling: http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/95316-complex-dama... > DF's damage system is just as complex and oftentimes difficult to keep track of as the rest of the game. Instead of simple health points or separate body parts DF simulates each individual by the sum of it's parts. This starts at the single parts of a body, then adds layers of tissue, muscle and…

The UI in Dwarf Fortress is completely indefensible. Even when you do understand how to play the game it's a kludge. Let alone the fact that AN ASCII GAME CAN BRING AN 8 CORE DESKTOP TO A CRAWL. (The ASCII is actually rendered in OPENGL for performance which is a joke in and of itself because 99% of the system resources are spent poorly simulating stagnant blocks of air rock and dirt with nothing happening to them).…

Post by intended » Tue, Feb 26, 2013, 1:21 PM UTC

Natsu wrote: post #170

intended wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I think I remember coming across the material properties thread a long time ago. Wow that was some data gathering. It's kinda strange to think that along with DF you can get a dataset with the properties of various real world materials.

Part of it was crowdsourced to my fellow forumites, but a lot of that thread was just me, Google & Wolfram Alpha. You could probably still find it buried somewhere on the suggestions forum with that giant table of materials, material properties & sources.

Post by chris_mahan » Tue, Feb 26, 2013, 5:15 PM UTC

intended wrote: post #167

chris_mahan wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This means, essentially, that the strategist can't build an Excel model of the game and win that way, the way many games are played and won. Excel would blow up...

Good God. At some point Toady will add an economy module. I... shudder at the thought of the processing required for that. Each site will have its own produce, production rates and ability to transmit goods, (the current build is already deciding on how much transport succeeds based on banditry and so on). Man. It just painful to consider how much processing is going to be required ><.

Post by intended » Tue, Feb 26, 2013, 7:25 PM UTC

chris_mahan wrote: post #175

intended wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good God. At some point Toady will add an economy module. I... shudder at the thought of the processing required for that. Each site will have its own produce, production rates and ability to transmit goods, (the current build is already deciding on how much transport succeeds based on banditry and so on). Man. It just painful to consider how much processing is going to be required ><.

Perhaps DF will be the first game that requires an actual mainframe to run on...

Post by gnarbarian » Tue, Feb 26, 2013, 7:47 PM UTC

Natsu wrote: post #158

gnarbarian wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, as I described in the first paragraph rendering it in openGL is a joke in terms of the performance gain. The real room for improvement lies in the simulations. Ignoring the crippling UI, there is vast room for algorithmic improvement in nearly every aspect of the game. We don't need a button for everything, we could have context sensitive menus that change.

Well yes, there are constant suggestions for UI improvements and menu redesign on the forums. Little known fact, there was a 3D predecessor to DF. This is what it looked like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ARLSii23w8 Yes, that person is dying to a bush. A named bush. And that animation... oh man.