Saw
this at Metafilter. What I considered an interesting interview with the the brother designers of Dwarf Fortress. I actually tried DF for the first time this summer. It was complex, but not the rocket science I was afraid it would be. If you've played rogue-likes and RTSs I think that's a good background already.
You know, it doesn't make any sense to me that somebody could make a good effort to learn to play Dwarf Fortress and still not understand it.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, it's not rocket science, it just demands that you spend a little bit of brain power and a little bit of attention to get over the fact that there's a minimal interface. Apparently it's too much to ask, though, for some people.
Thanks for the tip, by the way. It's a pretty good article.
Also if you take the time to use Dwarf Therapist and a decent graphics mod, getting past 20 dwarves stops being so maddening.
ReplyDeleteI'm at the point with that game where I never play it because I believe their hype about the next release (I'm strictly adventure mode and they seem to have some amazing things in store).
ReplyDelete@N. Wright and Oddbit: Well, in fairness, it isn't often that to play a game you need to have the internet open-- I had to Google how to move up and down through the z-axis. Turns out the game hadn't even assigned keys to do that! I had to go set them myself in the options. I think it fair to say, a dude like Tarn that actively dislikes socializing might have a hard time understanding what a typical player needs in a UI.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, I think what the game offers is worth some effort to learn in order to get to it.
@Roger: I haven't tried the adventure mode yet. I dream about a game with Oblivion-like graphics with DF-like algorithms behind the world's generation.
a game with Oblivion-like graphics with DF-like algorithms behind the world's generation.
ReplyDeleteIt's not exactly that, but Minecraft is worth a look.