The Making Of Dwarf Fortress

woges

woges

SasqWatch
Original Sin Donor
Joined
October 26, 2006
Messages
2,080
Location
UK
I know there are some fans of this here so I thought I'd post that there is a rather large article on Dwarf Fortress over at Gamasutra.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
2,080
Location
UK
I think this is the same one Dhruin posted a few days ago. It's an interesting article and every time I read about it I always wish I could see well enough to play this game. ;)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,834
So it is, and being that "so it is" is too short a post for the watch you'll get this extended sentence also.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
2,080
Location
UK
No probs--even when his broadband's down and he's only around part-time its hard to beat Dhruin. ;) Posting it here may get a few more people's attention, also.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
7,834
Yep, good article, and it really is a great game. If you haven't already, do follow the link to SomethingAwful's Let's Play Dwarf Fortress diary -- I was laughing so hard I could barely see the screen.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
You have pushed me over the edge. I'm finally gonna give this thing a try.
Downloading as we speak.

Anything In particular I should know/do?
(don't mean to hijack this thread, it is about dwarf fortress, yes?)
 
@Zakhary: don't use that stuff, use this stuff -- it's essentially that stuff all nicely preconfigured and packaged so that you don't have to start out by messing with the config files.

What to know/do? Sure:

(1) Expect about 3-6 hours (play time) of utter confusion until you start to get the hang of it. IOW, the initial learning curve is s-t-e-e-p, but boy is it worth it. Patience is the order of the day.

(2) Start out with the tutorials in the DF wiki, in particular this one and this one.

(3) Don't worry about raising armies, fighting wars, or magma. That's for later. (At that point you can also ditch the starting outfit in the tutorial, which leaves out the anvil in order to have more basic survival stuff.)
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
Come to think of it, I really liked SomethingAwful's idea of taking turns managing a fortress. If we can find a few DF geeks here, I'm all set to repeat the experiment.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
I shall participate in anything and everything that is weird or geeky!
 
Then get cracking, man! Then drop a line when you feel comfortable about starting the project.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
Phuck. I'm hooked. Really Bad.

.... Can't....... Stop...... Playing...... Dwarf... fff... f... Fortress.....
 
Damn. This is an awesome game.
Damn!

This game shows very nicely how graphics, interface and ease of gameplay
have absolutely nothing to do with how much fun a game is or is not.

The guy who came up with the idea of creating something like this is a genius and insane at the same time. Absolutely fantastic!

There's so much to do... There's everything to do... There's nothing I can't do...
Dwarves! ?D=AS?DF=!#?!"# yaaaaaaaaah!!!

I propably need some sleep... but then again...
 
Zakhary said:
This game shows very nicely how graphics, interface and ease of gameplay have absolutely nothing to do with how much fun a game is or is not.
Click to expand...

Yes, in no way would a better interface increase how much fun you had...

I still might agree with you on graphics, but a better interface always translates into a better game. You are right, though, in the sense that good gameplay is more important than good graphics/interface even, but that's a far cry from "absolutely nothing".
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
585
Location
Serbia
VPeric, the thing about the DF interface is that it's unnecessarily, even atrociously bad from a learning point of view, but actually pretty fast and fluid once you do manage to learn it.

For example, the same keys mean different things in different contexts, and objects have different key bindings also depending on context. So, you scroll some menus up and down with arrow keys, and other menus with the +/- keys; the key for floodgate is "x" when you're building one, but it's "f" when you order one from the mason, and so on.

However, a few hours in your fingers start to remember the key sequences to do things, which means you're zipping around merrily going d-j-enter, u-enter, d-shift-right-shift-up-enter, q-d-r, q-t-r, q-c-r.

IOW, a better UI would make DF a lot easier to learn and somewhat easier and faster to play, but more fun...? I don't think so either.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
What happens if I start a new game in the same world? Will the previous outpost somehow remain in the history :D ?

Or should I generate a new world?
 
Zakhary said:
What happens if I start a new game in the same world? Will the previous outpost somehow remain in the history :D ?
Click to expand...

It'll still be there, abandoned and possibly taken over by new management (read: trolls, cave spiders and such). You can visit abandoned settlements in adventure mode. I hear it's even possible to send in a squad of axedwarves to reclaim them, but I haven't tried it.

Or should I generate a new world?
Click to expand...

Generating new worlds is always fun, but nobody says you have to or even ought to.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
8,540
Prime Junta said:
IOW, a better UI would make DF a lot easier to learn and somewhat easier and faster to play, but more fun...? I don't think so either.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I should've said a good interface makes a game less "not-fun". Then again, maybe it's just me - an easier/faster to play game directly translates into more fun for me.
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
585
Location
Serbia
VPeric said:
Perhaps I should've said a good interface makes a game less "not-fun". Then again, maybe it's just me - an easier/faster to play game directly translates into more fun for me.
Click to expand...

Nope. I agree. PJ can argue semantics if he'd like to (and boy does he LIKE to! :p ), but bottom line, a difficult UI reduces the fun factor, therefore, better UI means more fun.

Without having played it, but having read about it, DF should probably been seen as an exception to this rule, at least to some extent. Still, reading PJ's description of how a hotkey for a single object changes based on context sounds like it would drive me mad.

By the way, that article was fascinating. It was like reading about something being built by a USGS geek rather than a game. Will definitely add this to my "to play" list...
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
850
Location
CA, USA
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom