Dwarf Fortress is going to be released on December 6 on Steam, with sprite graphics and a more modernized UI (which, in Dwarf Fortress terms, just means “an actual UI”). It will not have Adventure Mode implemented by release, but it will have Legends Mode in addition to the standard Fortress Mode. I never actually play Adventure Mode, so that doesn’t bother me at all.
I foresee it being a buggy mess on release, but I will buy it as soon as it is available for purchase; I love the game, even with its quirky interface and “graphics” on the normal (free) version.
Last time I touched dwarf fortress was probably over a decade ago. The amount of time it took to train my eyes on the ASCII interface was also the amount of time it took me to realize that DF is the abyss Nietzsche warned us about.
But yeah… day one purchase for sure. I don’t even know if I’ll play it any time soon, but Bay 12 has definitely earned respect dollars and now that they have an actual product, I will buy it.
I’m not sure if anyone else is still around from the DF succession games we played here back in the day, but it has always been a game I loved. It has been updated, in the official version, from the Largely ASCII character presentation to an interface of simple pixel art tile-set for release.( I guess it has technically be early access for 20 years now).
For those who aren’t familiar it is sort of a Minecraft/Terraria game in ( that existed long before those) where you manage a Kingdom of pain-in the-ass Dwarfs, but don’t directly control them, In a 2D overhead perspective, with several layers to give access to a 3D world.
@Johnny_Bravo you probably already know this but there are starter packs you can download that include the game, utilities like DFHack and Dwarf Therapist, and tilesets to replace the ASCII character set, all of which make the game so much easier to play.
I get into a cycle where I will play a lot for a month or two, then stop, then about a year or so later I’ll go download the latest version of the starter pack and start again.
Will definitely be interested in seeing what it looks like on Steam, and may have to throw some money at it as well.
Love me some Rimworld, too; but often while playing the lack of depth (both figuratively and literally… z-levels!) ends up pulling me back to DF. Have you checked out Stardeus?
It has been ages since I played Dwarf Fortress. I got into Rimworld instead.
But I am very much looking forward to its release and, as @Johnny_Bravo said above, I think they deserve some respect dollars.
It should be noted for people who have never played it that Dwarf Fortress is not like anything you have played before (excepting, maybe, Rimworld). It’s great but it is not for everyone.
One of the things they said they are changing for the release is that the asshole nobles forcing you to either kill them, or drag your fortress into the ground appeasing them, is going to change.
I haven’t heard exactly how it is going to change, or if they are going to offer a “classic” mode vs new mode kind of thing.
I tried to play DF once. It was absolutely impenetrable. I don’t want to watch a YouTube guide to understand what I should be doing - that should be the game’s job. I guess before when they weren’t trying to sell it, that’s not as big of a problem. Unless it has a decent tutorial or has otherwise become more newbie-friendly, I expect there will be a lot of negative reviews.
It seems there will be a tutorial. I expect the game will still be difficult to learn but it should be more approachable (also has graphics that are improved…which is not saying much). How much, I cannot say. Wait for reviews.
Honestly, Dwarf Fortress isn’t THAT bad. You get resources, those resources get used to make things, those things get used by your dwarfs.
The only thing that made it difficult was the incredibly obtuse UI and control scheme. Everything was locked beyond a dozen menus that are can only be accessed by hotkeys, which are inconsistent from menu to menu (Move with WASD! Move with UMKH! Move with arrow keys!).
Standardize the menus, present information more clearly, and let us click things - and suddenly the game is no harder to understand than any other builder sim. Or Rimworld.
I think my favorite “WTF” in Dwarf Fortress is building walls; can’t just do “start point and end point”, it’s “use U/M to extend your proposed wall length on the Y axis, or K/H to extend it on the X axis”, when every command you would use prior to doing wall building required you to just do a start-end position. This is one of the things they have said is changing; supposedly, you can even choose end points on a different Z-level and it will handle everything appropriately! At least, I’m pretty sure I remember Tarn saying that in an interview…
