Dwarf Fortress?

[Molokidan]

Before I download it, may I ask what new challenger has appeared in our affiliates?

[FF Fanatic 80]

http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Main_Page

Yay for Google =O

[Capntastic]

It's like Sim City + Lord of the Rings + drunk dwarves. A fun game if you can stomache ASCII.

More info: It's a fantasy world simulator type game. When you first open it, it generates a world full of civilizations of different races, and then progresses their history a few thousand years. And then you can play Fortress Mode, which is sort of a RTS game where you dig and build and make stuff, while fending off attacks; or Adventure mode which is your standard roguelike adventurin' fare.

The background behind the game is pretty cool; it's being developed by the Adams brothers Tarn (or Toady, the programmer), and Zach (or ThreeToe, the writer). The game's in alpha right now, and the dev plans outline a lot of the groovy features they're working on adding in. Currently they're hammering away at the army arc which'll have wars play out on the world map, and you'll be able to take part in them.

Overall, it's just cool that there's a game with ASCII graphics that requires a modern processor and a ton of RAM, simply because it's calculating temperatures and physics for all of the tiles.

[Christian]

I started playing it, and after finally realizing that what my dwarves needed not to die was stockpiles, it's going on smoothly.

I assume you've been reading the Rise and Fall of Boatmurdered? :D


EDIT: On a completely different note, H-H-H-HIVE MIND! I got it like... 2 days ago because of the above-linked thread I stumbled upon.

[Capntastic]

Basically Toady and I were talking about the idea of him doing a podcast and then he mentioned bandwidth and I said I might have some and I asked Idran and he said cool sure so long as he links to us and then I just now got around to bothering Toady about it to make it happen. Anyways, they link to us and we link to them and everyone's happy.

[Christian]

Losing is fun!

I'd just like to give some input on the game. The learning curve is STEEP unless you get in there and get some actual experience with the game. The guides that are available on the wiki are good, but unless you get the interface you'll still watch dumbfounded as your dwarfs, having settled in on the frozen salt-water lake/ocean in the mountains, with no fertile land to plant their seeds on, no water to drink and no wood to cut.

Needless to say, that colony didn't last long. But Losing is fun! :D

EDIT

Here's my world if anyone's interested. This is big, but let's just say that's NOTHING compared to how big the world actually is! This is more of a map-guideline, all the tiny lines are major rivers, smaller lakes don't even show up!

[Molokidan]

Wow...this thing really looks intense. I figured it was a game, I was just wondering why it was there under affiliates. You know the people who made this, Cap'n? What gave them the idea? It all seems really random, albeit awesome.

[Capntastic]

Basically the alpha went open for download two years ago or so and since I love roguelikes I was one of the first people to hop on it and get active on the forums. Since then we've seen the game progress quite a bit.

The full title of the game is actually Slaves to Armok: God of Blood II; as it's a sequel to the never finished Armok: God of Blood; which had many of the same goals as DF does, only handled with 3D graphics. This became hard to maintain, and DF (which originated as a totally seperate game) gradually replaced it. The creators have been programming fantasy games for decades, but DF really hit a chord and exploded in popularity. So much, in fact, that Toady's quit his job as a math professor to program full time and live off of donations.

As a game, right now, it's really cool. But seeing how much it's progressed these past two years, and seeing some of the stuff that is planned, I have no doubt this game will only grow more and more in immense awesomeness.

EDIT: Here's the thread I made a few years ago: viewtopic.php?t=3478

[Christian]

Gah, lost again!

Or gave up more like it. I never can seem to find the proper balance of water, wood and stone...

Then again, this loss might be attributed to me not realizing I actually had to build farms INSIDE for the seeds I got. Oh well, Crewbanner was doomed to fail anyway.

[Spleen]

But it's Dwarf Fortress! Losing is fun!

It's got a disgusting, demonic learning curve.

[Christian]

Haha! Indeed!

Well, I've learned a few things from playing, and assigning a cook to, from day one, make meals out of the meet you buy is one of the keys to long-lasting food.

Oh, and not to allow them to cook with the booze. NOT WITH THE BOOZE! D: