Dwarf Fortress - anyone plays this game?

Started 5 years ago by vinnyfav, currently has 28 posts - latest post is by vinnyfav

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- ascii
- games
- nerd
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vinnyfav

Anyone heard of this 2-D, runs-on-ascii-graphics, self-proclaimed nerdgame? (It's apparently like Rogue-like, which is even more old school, but I've personally never played that game before myself.)

I'm somewhat of a fan, been trying to play it on and off, and (honestly) just ain't that good at it. I looked around for a DF thread here, but couldn't find any, so I thought, might as well start one up and see if anyone here plays.

For those who don't know the game at all, the premise is that you take on the role of a god-like overseer of this group of ragtag dwarves trying to build a new colony. You start out with 7 dwarves and various stats/talents/items, and you choose a mountain to start out. You are plonked there in the middle of Spring and try to dig out an underground kingdom while staving off famine, attacks from wild creatures and kobold theives. If you're lucky, you survive your first year, start producing goods and trade for essentials your kingdom canot produce.

It's like a mish-mash of the Sims + lemmings.

Graphics are (really) ascii-based, so it's not very nice to look at, but you get used to it after a while. A long while. >.>

Posted 5 years ago #
Nin

I never tried many online games, no matter how nice they sound. Maybe I'll check it out when I get home. C: The Lemmings-based part of the game sounds fun. XD

Posted 5 years ago #
vinnyfav

It's created by Bay12games (or something like that, can't remember) and it's a 6mb download for the game itself (runs on ascii graphics afterall.), though the data files for the worlds that you'll generate can run to 20+ mb. It's also not an online game - no multiplayer capability.

They recently released a new version (2 years in the making) on 1st Apr (no, not april's fools) and their site went down within half a day due to the traffic. >.> That's what renewed my interest in it these couple of days. There're mirrors up, though, I think googling dwarf fortress will get you some of those.

Posted 5 years ago #
Blank

My friend does...

I for one, is not going to play a game, where the manual is so thick, that you can beat goats to death with it.

Posted 5 years ago #
rikarika

I used to play a bit back then, this guide was quite handy when starting, check it out if you already know how to do stuff and navigate the interface
http://magmawiki.com/index.php/23a:Surviving_your_first_winter
(it seems the wiki is down for the moment, you can use google cache)

Posted 5 years ago #
SaruDa

I'm always a tiny bit leery of self-proclaimed nerd games.

Posted 5 years ago #
Artefact

It's the best open-ended game ever made, in case anyone is wondering. The new version is particularly spectacular.

Posted 5 years ago #
SaruDa

Artefact said:
It's the best open-ended game ever made,, in case anyone is wondering. the new version is particularly spectacular.

Quite the high praise, from a mild game otaku such as yourself.

Posted 5 years ago #
nocturne

I've never been able to play ASCII games. I need some kind of treat for the eyes and ears or a game just doesn't feel enjoyable. Just reading about Dwarf Fortress shows just how complex the game can be, though.

Posted 5 years ago #
rikarika

nocturne said:
I've never been able to play ASCII games. I need some kind of treat for the eyes and ears or a game just doesn't feel enjoyable. Just reading about Dwarf Fortress shows just how complex the game can be, though.

There are tilesets avaiable that make it non-ASCII.

Posted 5 years ago #
sifian

Hmm... I'll have to take a look at it sometime. I've been a fan of rogue-like games for... ever really. One of the very first video games I was exposed to was LARN for the amiga. I haven't played much lately, but I have sunk a great deal of time into Nethack (and some deviants, such as SLASH'EM) and ADOM.

Posted 5 years ago #
Shi nai weaboo

Sounds interesting

Is it one of those games without an ending though?
I hate those
less they multi player

Posted 5 years ago #
Vespertine Aspergerian Nincompoop

I don't play it but I remember hearing my friends talk all the time about how they didn't give Bob enough mushroom alcohol or something and he went on a baby kicking rampage that coated the walls in blood wile the only guards their colony had were trying to fend off an invasion of evil carps that were trying to eat their fishermen.

Posted 5 years ago #
Vespertine Aspergerian Nincompoop

unellmay02 said:
Sounds interesting

Is it one of those games without an ending though?
I hate those
less they multi player

It is endless.

People have been known to play it for years.

Posted 5 years ago #
Icy-nee-san

Everytime I hear Dwarf Fortress I have flash backs to when Artefact would constantly recommend that I play the game...

And then he would ban me

Posted 5 years ago #
vinnyfav

unellmay02 said:
Sounds interesting

Is it one of those games without an ending though?
I hate those
less they multi player

IMHO, for a new player, the game ends very quickly. It's sorta the norm, especially when the motto for the game is "Losing is fun." ;)

Posted 5 years ago #
SaruDa

I picked this up, got a nice graphics set, and I've been messing around with it. I suppose I'll continue learning the ins and outs of it tomorrow, but it doesn't look like it's ending any time soon. Damn you people!

I do like how you have pretty much no option but losing though, since quitting the game and going back to your last save makes the game attempt to rape your computer. Or itself.

Posted 5 years ago #
vinnyfav

Which version are you playing? If you're playing the newest version, the new features include being able to dig hundreds of levels beneath the ground, so attempting to play on a colony-size of larger than 4x4 will tax all but the higher end processors.

If you're using the older version, the deepest you can go is less than 100 levels (I think), so you can safely play up to 6x6 colony-size games without crawling speeds if you're on a respectably good computer.

There might also be some settings you can tweak to lower the processor strain, the wiki would have instructions on that. (Note that the new version has very few articles, you'll need to use the archives for the old version to look for articles.)

Posted 5 years ago #
Artefact

I heard Toady stocked the underground with much more evenly distributed features - previously you really had to get a volcano or named peak to guarantee plenty of interesting things below. Hopefully this means smaller areas are easier to use.

Finding a site is still quite difficult if you are picky however - and the site finder crashes on my machine.

Posted 5 years ago #
vinnyfav

Yeah, it is definitely easier to use smaller areas in the new version. I haven't played much myself (been having trouble getting an irrgation system that looks aesthetically nice enough to convince me not to abandon fort) but my friend says that you can play on a 3x3 comfortably without running out of resources or space. You'll find huge caverns, magma oceans and also tribes of underground faring creatuers, apparently.

I think even rivers can be found underground, as long as you're good at maipulating water pressure and making sure you don't flood your fortress. (I suck at that, though.)

He put the concept in this way: that you could dig down from one spot until you popped out on the other side of the planet. I found that pretty cool.

Posted 5 years ago #

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