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If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

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Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#21

Post by Smithalicious »

Pimpus wrote: post #16
ndnxhs wrote: post #11

Dwarf fortress always seems like a brilliant idea wrapped up in a terrible ui and execution. I recently started playing rimworld and its a very similar game but much easier to get started on. The game progressively gives you tips and messages on how to get better and do stuff rather than requiring you to spend hours reading a wiki to get started.

Yeah, the idea of it is attractive, and learning the crazy UI is half the fun, but once you really get into it you realize that there is no there there. It's nowhere near as complex as it seems, and full of bugs, some decades old. Trade is so easily exploited that there is nothing exciting about the elves coming. You can kill them and start a war, but the combat is so unbalanced and exploitable that they pose no thre…

DF is a "create your own fun" kind of game. If you try to play in an "optimal" way by exploiting the ridiculous trade values of some items and giving your fortress just one entrance with a drawbridge you won't have as much fun indeed. The solution is to simply not do that and set your own rules and goals.

I'd even say that trade and combat being exploitable is a feature, not a bug, since sometimes I simply don't want to bother with those aspects of the game.

Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#22

Post by gilleain »

corodra wrote: post #20

Everyone is always above money until they’re looking at a stack of it in front of them. The only folks I know that have the willpower to turn down a pile of money is someone who has their eyes set on a mountain of money.

Some people have burned it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation#The_K_Foundation_...

Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#23

Post by scandox »

corodra wrote: post #20

Everyone is always above money until they’re looking at a stack of it in front of them. The only folks I know that have the willpower to turn down a pile of money is someone who has their eyes set on a mountain of money.

The way you tell it everybody has some moment in life where they're confronted by a pile of cash and then their true nature is revealed (conveniently letting greedy people everywhere say "hey you see you're just as base and materialistic as I am").

But in real life many people show their basic disinterest in money simply by choosing to do things and pursue activities that have no financial incentive. So in fact most people are above money.

Can they be tempted with a one-time solution to the many tribulations of their daily life? Yes. But I would argue they're still "above money" in the most important sense - they're interested in other things.

Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#24

Post by onion2k »

gilleain wrote: post #22
corodra wrote: post #20

Everyone is always above money until they’re looking at a stack of it in front of them. The only folks I know that have the willpower to turn down a pile of money is someone who has their eyes set on a mountain of money.

Some people have burned it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation#The_K_Foundation_...

Bill Drummond from the KLF has since said he regrets doing that stunt.

"Of course I regret it - who wouldn't!" Drummond now says. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3667901.stm

Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#25

Post by dunefox »

theknarf wrote: post #18
ndnxhs wrote: post #11

Dwarf fortress always seems like a brilliant idea wrapped up in a terrible ui and execution. I recently started playing rimworld and its a very similar game but much easier to get started on. The game progressively gives you tips and messages on how to get better and do stuff rather than requiring you to spend hours reading a wiki to get started.

The Steam release will have a new UI: https://store.steampowered.com/app/975370/Dwarf_Fortress/

New controls as well?

Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#28

Post by fbnlsr »

DF seems amazing but the learning curve is so steep it's discouraging.

I've yet to find a base building game that feels fair and does not put so much pressure on the player. Tried Prison Architect but my prison got burnt to the ground because guards were on strike (and they announced it 3 hours before while it takes 5 hours to be able to offer them a raise). Tried Oxygen Not Included but the water behaves SO erratically that my whole base got flooded because one of my minions stepped on the wrong tile (and it seems like the water keeps on expanding like a gaz, not like a fluid) and they were all frozen. Tried Don't Starve and Banished, and these felt so unfair (I hate dying because I didn't plan for something I couldn't guess 140 turns before).

Base Building Games are hard to program, I agree, but I don't feel they should be hard to play and enjoy.

Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#29

Post by Illniyar »

baud147258 wrote: post #27
nextstep wrote: post #12

A truly American story, basically the only developed country in the world where you can be bankrupted from getting sick.

Huh? I'm pretty sure you can get bankrupted by illness in any country

No, you can lose your job or means of making money in some countries, but you can't get bankrupted by paying for treatment in countries with universal healthcare (or even close to it).

Most developed countries also have some measures of social security in cases where you lose your job so that even that is rare.

Re: If Dwarf Fortress sells millions on Steam, its creators will give the money away

#30

Post by empath75 »

fbnlsr wrote: post #28

DF seems amazing but the learning curve is so steep it's discouraging. I've yet to find a base building game that feels fair and does not put so much pressure on the player. Tried Prison Architect but my prison got burnt to the ground because guards were on strike (and they announced it 3 hours before while it takes 5 hours to be able to offer them a raise). Tried Oxygen Not Included but the water behaves SO erratica…

You want factorio.
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