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Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

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Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#61

Post by dfischer »

TillE wrote: post #9

The truly exciting thing about Dwarf Fortress is that it proves that deep, detailed simulation is well within our reach. It suggests whole new genres of games that have yet to be created; imagine a typical fantasy RPG (or perhaps one that plays more like Mount&Blade) where the entire world is simulated as you play, so every choice you make has logical consequences. The possibilities are endless, and while Dwarf Fortr…

That's what EverQuest Next is supposedly doing with the Storybricks algorithm.

http://www.storybricks.com/games.html

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#62

Post by Holbein »

voronoff wrote: post #42
Holbein wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is, Dwarf Fortress is simulated in 3D. With the 3D viewer, you can even look at your terrain in 3D: http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r21/khyron2k/Dwarves/Dwar... If DF would look like that during gameplay, I'd immediately start playing.

You can play in Stonesense, though it's still early days yet and only works on the last patch. http://www.wired.com/2014/07/dwarf-fortress-3d/

Thanks for the link. While it does indeed looks nice, it's not what I had in mind. This is basically isometric 2D. You're looking at a plane. Things that rise up, like pillars, are not shown. You could not see that dam the way it really looks like in my linked picture.

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#63

Post by speeder »

FreezerburnV wrote: post #4
erichurkman wrote: post #3

I encourage everyone to check out the game. It's quite crazy, and beginners inevitably lose due to the game's depth and crazy events ("Losing is fun!"). If the ASCII tile sets make your eyes bleed, there are other tile sets of graphics to try out. [0] There's also a very vibrant modding community, including a lot of memory hacking through the dfhack project [1] – even fixing a lot of longstanding bugs in the game, li…

"beginners inevitably lose" You seem to imply that it's possible to win ;)

I dunno now... I used to play more when the fortress always started on a cliff face.

But back then people considered "winning" if you triggered the end-game demon... that despite that making you lose too, it was really hard to do... (and defeating said demon with a adventurer later even harder).

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#64

Post by EvenThisAcronym »

glittershark wrote: post #46
hibikir wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an entire subgenre of games trying to make less ambitious, prettier versions of Dwarf Fortress. Banished, for instance. You could argue that even Minecraft attempts to be a 3d dwarf fortress, where you control your one dwarf. The extra effort in the UI tends to leave far worse games than Dwarf Fortress though.

Minecraft was actually started as an explicit DF clone and then deviated from there

Minecraft was started as a clone of Infiniminer.

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#65

Post by voronoff »

Holbein wrote: post #62
voronoff wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can play in Stonesense, though it's still early days yet and only works on the last patch. http://www.wired.com/2014/07/dwarf-fortress-3d/

Thanks for the link. While it does indeed looks nice, it's not what I had in mind. This is basically isometric 2D. You're looking at a plane. Things that rise up, like pillars, are not shown. You could not see that dam the way it really looks like in my linked picture.

We're getting there. mifki's working on getting multilevel rendering for basic tilesets (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=138754.105) and then that will be exploring 3d. Stonesense itself is headed in that direction, see the most recent forum page: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=106497.1035

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#66

Post by zyxley »

myrmidon wrote: post #58
zyxley wrote: post #15

To quote myself from the last time I commented on an article about DF: I will continue to have no interest in Dwarf Fortress until it has an actual UI instead of whatever insane random combinations of controls the developer felt like adding on any particular day.

In that case, you might want to give http://gnomoria.com/ a try, which is similar to dwarf fortress, but significantly less complex, easier to control, and looks decent out-of-the-box. You might also be interested in https://www.factorio.com/ which is a game about building factories (free world, 2d isometric). Aside from being addictive, it is also performant, looks good, has a decent soundtrack and comes with all of…

I'm already a big fan of both, actually.

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#67

Post by im3w1l »

Lockyy wrote: post #24
na85 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a mod, is it not?

Yes. One bundled with every beginner's pack linked anywhere you'd learn how to play.

Because people are complaining, not everyone seems to be understanding that they ought to download the beginners pack.

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#68

Post by astrobe_ »

coder23 wrote: post #10

I think it a loss that a game with such original complexity has the most primitive graphics. Nobody wants 3D acceleration, but an upgrade to a simple 2D with sprites and effects with a better interface, would open it to a wider crowd.

I don't want to sound harsh at all, but if someone can't get over the quirks of the UI and the abstract ASCII art, I think it's not the kind of person that will love the complexity of the game either. The UI of DF is actually a pons asinorum.

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#69

Post by shard972 »

FreezerburnV wrote: post #29
mcdougle wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The third party graphics are helpful (but still make your eyes bleed) but the main issue is the controls -- I just couldn't get past how difficult it was to do anything. It's been a while since I've played, but if I remember, you couldn't use the mouse -- I bet adding that functionality would make it so much easier to get into the game.

It's interesting, I used to think the same way. (well, I still do to some extent) But after getting acclimated to using VIM bindings for coding, learning keyboard shortcuts for common things, etc., when trying out the new version the controls were surprisingly comfortable. Now granted, they still aren't really good controls by any stretch of the imagination. But I found it to be an interesting experience that as I've…

Dwarf fortress made me pickup emacs. After getting into dwarf fortress for a while, I found the idea of only using a keyboard liberating so I ended up seeking out a text editor that could give me that.

Re: Polygon sat down with one of the creators of Dwarf Fortress

#70

Post by shard972 »

dfischer wrote: post #61
TillE wrote: post #9

The truly exciting thing about Dwarf Fortress is that it proves that deep, detailed simulation is well within our reach. It suggests whole new genres of games that have yet to be created; imagine a typical fantasy RPG (or perhaps one that plays more like Mount&Blade) where the entire world is simulated as you play, so every choice you make has logical consequences. The possibilities are endless, and while Dwarf Fortr…

That's what EverQuest Next is supposedly doing with the Storybricks algorithm. http://www.storybricks.com/games.html

I have the alpha, didn't impress me that much in comparison to something like DF. The voxels engine is nice but asside from that, last time i checked there wasn't anything else that stood out.
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