OT: Dwarf Fortress

Endoperez · #1 August 23rd, 2006, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Kristoffer O said:
JO is currently occupying one of Illwinter's computers hacking away in the deeps of the earth

Ha! There, have a taste of your own medicine! The taste of addiction, the heat of a computer that has been on for too long - now you know what you've forced us to endure! (and enjoy, but that's beside the point)

Quote:

Agrajag said:
Dungeon Keeper with no evil minions?
Where's the fun in that?

And while I'm all for old (and old looking) games, when you go all the way to ASCII, you've gone too far for me.

The dwarves mightn't start as evil, but they sure go nuts fast... At least that's what I get from reading the forums. My first fort is still running for some reason, even with all the really strange decision I made.

ASCII can be hard, and it's especially confusing for this game. It has so much stuff that it'd need a huge tileset - the characters just make the game almost playable. Proper graphics might come in once the alpha has matured into a full-grown game, but that'll take years. At least.

Quote:

PhilD said:
I guess that's what you get for trying Alpha releases, but the absence of a tutorial or even a manual file that you can read to get you through the first few minutes of the game tends to put me off. Too bad - the game seems to have a lot of stuff included, but that much (apparent?) complexity and no help dealing with it...

It does have a simple manual that gets you started - but for some reason, it starts from * instead of ?. For me, at least. I think it uses the US keyboard layout or something, because < and > work from my ; and : .

Amos · #2 August 24th, 2006, 12:04 AM

Its too bad he canceled "Slaves to Armok: God of Blood". I was following that game from the beginning.

PhilD · #3 August 24th, 2006, 05:24 AM

Quote:

It does have a simple manual that gets you started - but for some reason, it starts from * instead of ?. For me, at least. I think it uses the US keyboard layout or something, because < and > work from my ; and : .

I'm using a US keyboard myself, so the ? key does work. But the ingame help has several problems for me - first, it's not exactly fun to read it on screen (I tend to print anything that I intend to really read), and second, it's not organized too well.

The Wiki, though, might provide some help. I'll try to see how it goes.

DominionsFan · #4 August 24th, 2006, 10:57 AM

This game looks very interesting. I will give it a try for sure. Thanks for letting us know about it.

tibbs · #5 August 24th, 2006, 11:47 AM

Nevermind. I figured it out. Thanks

Ok, im playing the game and trying to figure it out, but I can't get my dwarves to mine anything. I set up two dwarves at the beginning with the mining skill but they don't seem to do anything and I can't figure out how to select the area to mine.

Thanks for any help,
Chris

Endoperez · #6 August 24th, 2006, 12:10 PM

Quote:

tibbs said:
Nevermind. I figured it out. Thanks

Ok, im playing the game and trying to figure it out, but I can't get my dwarves to mine anything. I set up two dwarves at the beginning with the mining skill but they don't seem to do anything and I can't figure out how to select the area to mine.

Thanks for any help,
Chris

'd'esignate

mine stone or cut wood for raw materials with which to build buildings. Some buildings require processed goods. Stone blocks are made in the mason's workshop, and can be used instead of normal stone almost everywhere, but the difference is minimal. However, stone blocks and wooden buckets (made in the carpener's worshop) are needed for wells, which help quite a bit.

DominionsFan · #7 August 24th, 2006, 12:27 PM

I just generated a new world and started to play. This game is very confusing at first look, I think it will take some time to figure out what to do. This ASCII gfx is also "hardcore" at first.

Cainehill · #8 August 27th, 2006, 01:29 PM

Quote:

PhilD said:
I'm using a US keyboard myself, so the ? key does work. But the ingame help has several problems for me - first, it's not exactly fun to read it on screen (I tend to print anything that I intend to really read), and second, it's not organized too well.

The Wiki, though, might provide some help. I'll try to see how it goes.

Sheesh! I had found the "manual" myself, but the up/down cursors and numeric keypad didn't work. Turns out you have to use +/- to move the cursor, and then it's still a huge PITA to go through it. Why in Dog's name they didn't just put together a text (or PDF) FAQ as a new player's guide...?

PhilD · #9 August 27th, 2006, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Cainehill said:
Sheesh! I had found the "manual" myself, but the up/down cursors and numeric keypad didn't work. Turns out you have to use +/- to move the cursor, and then it's still a huge PITA to go through it. Why in Dog's name they didn't just put together a text (or PDF) FAQ as a new player's guide...?

The software's still officially early alpha. The whole thing could change a lot in the near future. And the wiki's growing at a fast speed, maybe something much better will be available soon.