Dwarf fortress - new version released, now with z-axis!

[Jozrael]

How suitably epic xD

[Velensk]

I played the new release for a bit. The bugs were kind of getting to me but I couldn't figure out the military stuff and there wasn't any documentation yet. I look forward to wasting plenty of time with it when that's all cleared up.

Have your dwarves melted in the rain yet?

[Eleazar]

I tried it a while ago. I wanted to like it-- it has some cool ideas: a random world that keeps running without player input. And i've kept a casual eye on the development. But the development seems to be all about adding complexity more levels of detail simply for it's own sake. I expect it will grow more convoluted and incomprehensible with each release-- but maybe that's the kind of itch this game scratches. The main challenge is figuring out the game.

[dipseydoodle]

MMMM. The Mac OSX version is(or was) very slow on my computer. It took me 60 minute just to finish the loading progress. It's a shame to cause I love Rougelikes and such.

[Ken_Oh]

Velensk: Haha, no. I guess that's the kind of bug I narrowly avoided.

Re: The game's difficulty- I too tried to play a couple of times but didn't get enough momentum (to my credit, the game needs the keypad +,-, so I couldn't figure out why I couldn't do anything on my laptop), but as soon as I buckled down and actually gave it a fair shot, I realized it wasn't that hard to learn. The largest problem was getting to know the interface and knowing how to access the things you need to. Once you get past all that, it's mostly intuitive (-if- you have the wiki handy, that is).

[Eleazar]

Once you get past all that, it's mostly intuitive (-if- you have the wiki handy, that is).

Mostly possible you mean? or something like that. "Intuitive" means that you figure it out easily on your own, without checking the documentation.

[Ken_Oh]

Well, most of what one looks up are spoilers and things you can learn the hard way (*try to make a well* oh, it needs mechanisms and blocks, aluminum is worth as much as platinum? a pump made of borax will melt when it tries to move magma but one made of mica is fine? etc.).

[Velensk]

I find that it just takes perseverance to learn dwarf fortress once you have the interface figured out. The first time I tried I spent the better part of an hour just trying to figure out how to command my dwarves in basic tasks. By the time I was comfortable with it they had all died. The second time I had them dig tunnels but I didn't really know what I was doing and so they died. The third time I figured out buildings and skills to a certain extent but I quickly realized that I didn't want to start out with the basic skill set so I started over and customized my journey. That fortress starved and died of thirst so I actually had to look up farming on the wiki but after that I've never used it again.

Later on I figured out things like how to give your fortress an excess of barrels early (and you would not believe how useful that is at times), fight off goblins, and build traps. It is definitely a game that you want to play with your imagination on but it is very cool.

The reason I eventually stopped playing it was that I'm not really into sand-box games. Even ones so ingenious. So I've gotten the king of the dwarves (and like all other nobles he's a pain), can brush off goblin sieges with ease, have thoroughly offended the elves by not agreeing to limit my foresting operations, killed the marauding giant and hydra that showed up, stored enough food to last a dozen years, and have littered random portions of the map with traps to keep my dwarves busy. Now what and why?

[Gwynnedrion]

Didn't know 'till now that people on BfW played this. Been playing for about 2 years now and serious addict it is indeed as said before, pure win!

[Jozrael]

I find that it just takes perseverance to learn dwarf fortress once you have the interface figured out. The first time I tried I spent the better part of an hour just trying to figure out how to command my dwarves in basic tasks. By the time I was comfortable with it they had all died. The second time I had them dig tunnels but I didn't really know what I was doing and so they died. The third time I figured out buildings and skills to a certain extent but I quickly realized that I didn't want to start out with the basic skill set so I started over and customized my journey. That fortress starved and died of thirst so I actually had to look up farming on the wiki but after that I've never used it again.

Later on I figured out things like how to give your fortress an excess of barrels early (and you would not believe how useful that is at times), fight off goblins, and build traps. It is definitely a game that you want to play with your imagination on but it is very cool.

The reason I eventually stopped playing it was that I'm not really into sand-box games. Even ones so ingenious. So I've gotten the king of the dwarves (and like all other nobles he's a pain), can brush off goblin sieges with ease, have thoroughly offended the elves by not agreeing to limit my foresting operations, killed the marauding giant and hydra that showed up, stored enough food to last a dozen years, and have littered random portions of the map with traps to keep my dwarves busy. Now what and why?

I think the next portion is waging war against the forces of Hell itself.

[Gwynnedrion]

I find that it just takes perseverance to learn dwarf fortress once you have the interface figured out. The first time I tried I spent the better part of an hour just trying to figure out how to command my dwarves in basic tasks. By the time I was comfortable with it they had all died. The second time I had them dig tunnels but I didn't really know what I was doing and so they died. The third time I figured out buildings and skills to a certain extent but I quickly realized that I didn't want to start out with the basic skill set so I started over and customized my journey. That fortress starved and died of thirst so I actually had to look up farming on the wiki but after that I've never used it again.

Later on I figured out things like how to give your fortress an excess of barrels early (and you would not believe how useful that is at times), fight off goblins, and build traps. It is definitely a game that you want to play with your imagination on but it is very cool.

The reason I eventually stopped playing it was that I'm not really into sand-box games. Even ones so ingenious. So I've gotten the king of the dwarves (and like all other nobles he's a pain), can brush off goblin sieges with ease, have thoroughly offended the elves by not agreeing to limit my foresting operations, killed the marauding giant and hydra that showed up, stored enough food to last a dozen years, and have littered random portions of the map with traps to keep my dwarves busy. Now what and why?

I think the next portion is waging war against the forces of Hell itself.

Dig for the blue stuff (adamantine) and unleash HFS Then die, slowly or see how your dwarfs kill eachother.

Another thing, who ever read Boatmurdered?

[Velensk]

Another thing, who ever read Boatmurdered?

I'm not the sort that gets a kick out of tormenting virtual things for no reason. I have disdain for those who do.

[Issyl]

Oh god, Boatmurdered. Nightmare fuel.

the elephaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaants

[lmelior]

He's currently working on merging the SDL/improved OpenGL stuff that will make it cross-platform by default. I've been holding off trying the new version until that's ready, but I did have lots of fun with the Linux port of 40d16 (the latest version back when I played). I have yet to discover a great number of things about the game too, as I've avoided most of the spoilers (e.g. I don't know what HFS is!).

Also I haven't tried Adventure mode, because I believe it was broken in that version.

[Jozrael]

Another thing, who ever read Boatmurdered?

I'm not the sort that gets a kick out of tormenting virtual things for no reason. I have disdain for those who do.

I play DF for the entertainment. I try to get my dwarves to prosper, not die o_O.