Dwarf Fortress!

[Fanatical Meat]

I really, really want to love this game however I find it far too frustrating to do anything in. Yes the graphics stink but I could get over that its the controls they are impossible. I'd love to see even proper mouse support.
Anyways I saw this article and does anyone else agree that is is far from easy to play?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/16/dwarf-fortress-the-detailed-roguelike-thats-easy-to-play/

 

[QuantumPion]

I've been waiting for years for DF to overhaul itself. What we need is for DF, a game with incredible depth and interactivity but horrendous UI and graphics, to be merged with Banished, a game with great graphics and interface but very shallow and limited gameplay.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I'm with you. I don't understand why the two guys working on it don't bring in a few people to help with the controls/menu's and clean the look up a bit. Then green light it for some money to pay the extra helpers.
I don't know anything about game design but is it really that hard to add decent menu's and real mouse support?

 

[futurefields]

Have you guys ever played Craft The World?

http://store.steampowered.com/app/248390/

 

[Dumac]

I really, really want to love this game however I find it far too frustrating to do anything in. Yes the graphics stink but I could get over that its the controls they are impossible. I'd love to see even proper mouse support.
Anyways I saw this article and does anyone else agree that is is far from easy to play?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/04/16/dwarf-fortress-the-detailed-roguelike-thats-easy-to-play/

As far as 'easy to play', it sounds like he's playing adventure mode rather than actual Dwarf Fortress. Adventure mode is a lot simpler.

 

[DigDog]

well, angband got overhauled, so, fingers crossed ..

 

[veri745]

ToadyOne just announced the other day that the new version of DF should come out in July. http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

I don't think there's actually supposed to be much different about the interface, but it sounds like there's a bunch of cool new features.

 

[Kalmah]

Dwarf Fortress is probably one of my all time favorite games. The first time I played it, I must have spent 6 months just figuring it out. Then I stopped playing for a while and now I don't feel like re-learning how to play even though I really would like to play it again.

I'm in the same boat as the others who are waiting for an interface overhaul. Unfortunately it just seems like the dev is only focused on continuously adding new features.

As a side note, do a Google search for "lazy newb pack". It's the only way I was able to play. Turns ASCII into graphics as well as like a thousand other useful features.

... Still waiting on an announcement for a new GUI

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah, I agree about the UI. There is an indy remake in the works called Gnomoria or something like that. I don't know how far they are. I believe their map sizes were much smaller, but it is in 3D (isometric view) and has much better interface (at least has mouse/menu access which alone is a HUGE improvement over memorizing keys and key-combos).

Also, I second the Lazy Newb Pack. Makes the game a lot easier to get into and fixes a lot of things that just didn't make sense. It also shows you some important stats on your dwarves so you know what their inclinations are in terms of jobs and can move them into more appropriate jobs based on their attributes that are otherwise hidden from you (but shouldn't be, such as strength, stamina, etc).

 

[Dumac]

IIRC the dev wants to get to feature complete before working on any sort of UI. Who knows if that will ever happen....

But the game is free so I can't complain much. I still think it is one of the greatest games out there, despite the really high barrier of entry.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I'd be happy with mouse driven menus and be able to use a mouse to select areas to dig.
Why is it so difficult to add this?

 

[Dumac]

I'd be happy with mouse driven menus and be able to use a mouse to select areas to dig.
Why is it so difficult to add this?

The developer is used to the UI and doesn't feel an immediately need to add something that wouldn't benefit him.

 

[veri745]

The developer is used to the UI and doesn't feel an immediately need to add something that wouldn't benefit him.

Yeah, what I would like to see is a more customizable UI, so someone other than the dev can put in the work to lay it out properly. That way he wouldn't have to put a bunch of time into actually changing the current interface. It may be wishful thinking

 

[CurseTheSky]

It's a great game, but like everyone else, I agree that the UI is what holds it back.

It's not that they need to overhaul the entire UI; they mainly need to make it consistent. Why do I need to use arrow keys for some things, but J and K (or whatever) for others?

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I don't understand why they don't allow some modders to work on it even if its just for the UI

 

[Fanatical Meat]

WHAT! this could be huge! Too bad I started a new career and don't have much time. what are everyone's thoughts?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...ith-isometric-graphics-and-mouse/#more-216183

 

[QuantumPion]

Nice, I'll probably give that a shot at some point. But to me the main problem wasn't the graphics, I thought the game looked fine with the Phoebus icon set. The problem was the obtuse interface. We need a branching menu system with a search function like the Windows 7 start menu or something.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Yeah, I will take a look this weekend at this myself. I had lots of fun with the original (even unmodded).

 

[InfiniteLurker]

Whoa - I'll have to check this out. I had some brief fun with DF a while back, but then I took a longish break, and couldn't muster the strength to go through the learning curve again.

 

[Mopetar]

There are tile sets for the game if you don't like the ASCII character graphics, but it doesn't fix the convoluted ways that the game works. Once you get used to the quirks it's easier to manage, but getting to that point can be frustrating. That the community has developed so many different utilities just to make the game more playable is a little sad.

 

[Chiropteran]

I love me some dwarf fortress.

I haven't played recently, but I'll have to check out the new release when it is out.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Kell please give us an update with your opinions.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Sorry, didn't have a chance this weekend for it. Was too busy to get to this.

 

[veri745]

I've been playing DF a bit for the last month or so. The problem is definitely the interface and not the graphics. I actually think that the Stonesense overlay makes it more difficult to play the game (differentiating which cell is highlighted, identifying equipment that is laying around the fortress)

It definitely is a nice way to look and the structure and layout of your fortress, but not much beyond that.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I played the 2014 version without DFhack/stonesense, and ehh, I like dfhack too much to give it up. So back to playing 2012 release of DF....

Going from pure ANSI to simple low res tile sets was enough of a graphical fix to make me happy/content .. (base game with simple graphics pack)

I dislike the stonesense overlay replacing my main display, but I do like how stonesense looks, so what I do is I run stonesense in another window. My pc has 3 monitors for eyefinity, so I wind up with stonesense on one monitor, the main game in the center monitor, and dwarf therapist on my 3rd monitor ... it seems to work well enough

The UI is convoluted/difficult to learn and I know everyone agrees could use a serious overhaul, but ive for the most part gotten used to it...



I have tried many of the games that were influenced by dwarf fortress (or even blatent clones), and really none are all that great...

Towns, ehh, looks niceish, but gameplay is shallow
Gnomoria, better than towns, but still, pretty shallow
rimwould ... this is the best ive seen, though its alpha and nowhere close to done.. and its only set on one z level ...

The only DF influenced game I would call a must play, is Minecraft